The side yard of the Parker home is a pleasant escape from the bustle of the city. Despite being located on one of Halifax’s busiest streets, the vine-wrapped gate at the side of the house leads into a lush green garden surrounded by high fences that manages to create the illusion of tranquility. But the […]
Arts + Music
Live theatre, art exhibits, comedy, literary, spoken word – The Coast guide to Halifax and Dartmouth, NS . The downtown, local arts scene – plays, writers, actors, artists and performers. Painting, sculpture, photography, stand-up, stage.
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Cruising 101
In almost every town and city in the western world there are cruising areas. They can be well-known public landmarks or parks, or unobtrusive locations such as public toilets (AKA t-rooms). Cruising and cruising grounds came about as a way for queer men to meet other men in public settings—for predominately sexual purposes—without arousing too […]
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Sex and the Pope
Long before the Material Girl claimed she had a dick in her brain, years before any of the grrls started rioting or Peaches donned a beard, there was Carole Pope. The former singer of Canadian band Rough Trade, self-described as “crude, lewd, rude and socially unacceptable,” has made a career from pushing, yanking and twisting […]
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Till divorce do us part
It’s the classic story of love gone wrong. Ontario, the early ’90s. Girl meets girl, girls fall in love. For 10 years, the girls maintain a common law relationship, until that glorious day in June 2003 when the Ontario Court of Appeal finally recognizes the validity of same-sex marriages in that province, a decision the […]
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The Karen package
New York’s architecture is laid on an invisible foundation of stories. From Breakfast at Tiffany’s to Jonathan Lethem’s requiem for a Motherless Brooklyn, there are few cities in the world that have inspired as many tales of hope, love, loneliness and utter despair. Although it’s early in the morning, you can already hear evidence of […]
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Goodspeed you! Jazz emperor
The afternoon’s as hot as Beelzebub’s hip pocket when musician Jeff Goodspeed shows up for a chat about what’s got him so stoked about Cuban jazz. His trio is playing a wedding reception in an hour. Which explains why, on a scorching day better suited for baggy shorts and flip-flops, he’s turned out in black […]
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Going, going, Tong
Redemption is massive. It’s part and parcel of screenwriting 101. You put a guy in a tree, you throw sticks and rocks at him and then you get him down. You want to see him survive and get out of it.” Michael Dowse is talking up his movie, It’s All Gone Pete Tong, a new […]
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Buck and change
Movie director Vincent Gallo saved Richard Terfry’s music career. Living in near-squalor in a run-down apartment above the Black Market on Grafton Street, Terfry found himself in a deep hole musically and emotionally. His latest release at the time, Man Overboard, seemed headed toward the same relative obscurity as his previous work and his mother […]
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Live to tell
In the early ’80s, the done thing for any self-respecting Clash fan was to squat in the riotous, terminally unemployed south London neighbourhood of Brixton. That’s where I landed fresh out of university in fall 1984, sharing a busted row house with a messy pile of ex-pat Haligonians. It was all roses and tequila until […]
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Plum deal
Success is in the eye of the beholder, but most of those who are in search of fame and fortune usually end up in bigger cities. The opposite is at least semi-true with graphic and recording artist Bryan Lee O’Malley. The 26-year-old grew up in London, Ontario and eventually relocated to Toronto. However, with a […]
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Air supply
Dictionary.com defines the word “contrived” as an adjective: 1: showing effects of planning or manipulation; “a novel with a contrived ending” 2: artificially formal; “contrived coyness”; “a stilted letter of acknowledgment”; “when people try to correct their speech they develop a stilted pronunciation.” This is an apt assessment of the music made by the Halifax […]
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Teenage fan club
Sitting in a quiet corner of the teen genre — away from crude comedies, gory slashers and believe-in-yourself tweeners—is the coming-of-age film. Sometimes it stars a single protagonist, but more often it’s a group at the apex of its adolescence. The end result is always earnest, heartfelt sentiment, and the best ones manage to sell […]