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 […]
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.
Posted inArts + Music
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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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 […]
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Extra Credit
In a vast white room lit by hundreds of metres of bright white fluorescent lights, Alvena Poole waits. She sits at one of ten folding tables set in the middle sixth of the room, closest to the door. Empty white walls, a towering white ceiling and floors tiled in dirty white linoleum surround her. The […]
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Rob in broad daylight
Everybody should have at least one hobby. Some people enjoy bird watching—filling their fanny packs with binoculars and guide books in hopes of spotting that rare triple-horned, green-bellied finch. For those who prefer People magazine to tiny pecking beaks and hay fever, there’s another, more urban, pastime sweeping our city: celebrity watching. The relatively low […]
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Funny girl
Nico the cat judders before springing atop a cafe-style table as comedian/teacher/writer Sherry Lee Hunter, set to swear off the lung rocket habit, fires one up. She inhales, then beats a beeline for an open side window above the sink counter in her compact kitchen. Trim, she moves around the room with the easy grace […]
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Death from above the 49th Parallel
Make no mistake—Death From Above 1979 is huge. But if you’re an average Canadian, you probably don’t know that. What many people don’t know is Jesse Keeler and Sebastien Grainger are rock stars in a lot of countries. Their first single “Blood On Our Hands” hit the Top 40 on the UK charts and the […]
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Lemme at ’em
When you think about Lemmy from Motorhead—and what true rocker doesn’t?— what do you think of first? Maybe his bullet belt. The Rickenbacker bass guitar and shower-stall-style microphone. His Marlboro Reds washed down with a Jack Daniels and Coca-Cola meal plan. Killer tracks like “Killed By Death” or (for you young ones out there) “Shake […]
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Alternative CKDUniverse
This year CKDU turns 20. Two decades of FM broadcasting after a start on closed-circuit radio hooked up to Dalhousie University residences. Like most campus/community stations across Canada, CKDU lasts because of volunteers. Each September, with the flood of new students on campus, people keep making the climb to the fourth floor of Dalhousie University’s […]
