Mayworks Festival starts today
The Mayworks Festival is back and organizer Sébastien Labelle says this will be the most diverse festival in the five years the festival’s been running. “We really are building a festival frame around the events, we want to recognize first where the festival is happening, on Mi’gmaq territory, but also recognize that when we are…
Wine and words, the perfect pair
Word on the Street and Bishop’s Cellar have been pairing up wines with books by local authors and having them on display for the whole month of April. But this has only been a sampling of what’s in store for us. The pairings are to whet everyone’s literary appetites for the big event that will…
Dad, It’s Time To Go…
You “…are reaching the end of [your] expected lifespan.” The expected lifespan of a Nova Scotian man is about 78 years old and you are now 87. Daily interactions with you indicate significant changes in behaviour related to your health, such as eating habits and the ability to move normally—you use a walker FFS! We…
Will is a bitch
Report him k thanks bye -his mom
I’m OK I’m alright
Shit happens. People change, move on. But when you get back, I’ll be here if you need me, cause that’s what friends are for. So in a word don’t shed a tear. -I’ll be here when it all gets weird
Stabbed In The Back
Fuck you. Fuck you for hurting me in so many ways and not even realizing it, let alone apologizing. You could never see the problems in our relationship, and I realize now, long after it’s over, you never will. I’m done trying to be a friend to someone who puts in no effort. You don’t…
Srsly
I am wearing a blue string around my finger, tug on it (like my heartstrings) because I’m feeling cheesy. We’re in our salad days and I’m feeling green. -Tangerine
Monkey Bar Hookup
There is a nice playground on Chebucto across from some sketchy housing. There were two old condoms in the gravel in the middle of the playground this evening. They looked like they’d been there a very long time. We were just there for a few minutes and I had my hands full with a two-year-old…
Despite All the Rage
Dear brother, I haven’t spoken to you in years but I heard from reliable sources AKA mutual friends and family members that you take the time to publicly bash me whenever possible. Sorry I was a douche to you when I was 15…we’re both in our late 20s now, get over it.. All that brewed…
The Dog Park is A Place For NICE People
To the person who left a note on my car at the dog park reading “sorry I hit your car, shouldn’t have parked so close”: No you sir should learn how to drive. I was not parked close to anyone, and we fully extended all four doors of the car to get me, my sister…
You Need To Know
If you ever wanted to see my vulnerabilities, now is the time. I have never had someone who cherished me, who valued me for my mind, who made me feel important and cherished as well. I have always been someone who has been seen for their outer body, not who they are on the inside.…
I Hope I’m Your Secret Friend Love
Because you’re certainly mine. So come on friend, let’s make some love. -Feeling Optimistic
Alice In Chains in Halifax August 27
The dream of the ’90s is alive in Halifax. Alice In Chains performs August 27 at the Metro Centre with The Pack A.D. (interesting!) in support of The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, which is not a childrens’ album. Tickets for the Halifax show go on sale this Friday, April 25 at 10am. Tickets are $49.25-$74.25,…
Gender Failure
The dynamic duo of Rae Spoon and Ivan Coyote There’s something powerful and seductive about being told a story, especially if the storytellers are as generous, personable and talented as Rae Spoon and Ivan Coyote. The dynamic duo wowed a packed-to-the-rafters crowd at the Bus Stop Theatre with their multi-media live show Gender Failure. Spoon…
NSCAD budget cuts cause campus cuts
NSCAD’s proposal to sell its Academy Building to balance the university’s incessant deficit has students feeling disoriented. Marilyn Smulders, director of communications for NSCAD says the proposal, presented by president Daniel O’Brien on Monday, was not an official report, but “a musing out loud by the president.” She says, “he wanted to take the opportunity…
I Want to Breathe Through My Nose in Public
To the nasty, horrible, ghastly, dyed-red creature who regularly shops in Spryfield: You smell like 1,000 sewers. You obviously know this, as you’ve claimed to be offended by the Halls that service people pop in self-defense while suffering your presence. Often in the company of an older woman, your mother (a jackal?) or a social…
Deep Down You’ll Know This Is You
Enjoy spending the rest of your life trying to forge a personality out of all your miserable lies. -IALWAYSKNEWABOUTMYGLASSES
You Do Not Know What Parenting Is
We just met really. I moved into your building. As a neighbour or “shoulder”(tbd), I’ve listened to you complain about how you have to wake your “asshole” kid up for 5am so you can get ready to go oversee kids for a job at 730am. What? Then today you told me when his dad picks…
Skip the V8, hit up BaBa Ghanouj Café
Cheap, healthy and homemade eats are on their way to your must-try restaurant list—and maybe even your list of staple stops. BaBa Ghanouj Café (1335 Barrington Street, the former Mugs Etc.) is hoping to open the first week of May, across the street from Dalhousie’s engineering campus. The Syrian buffet-style restaurant with an open concept…
Secret Friend Love
Thoughts of you on my mind. Those sparkling blue eyes, the smile on your face and a sincere caring look that lights up my spirit and my soul. The world around me disappears and all that remains are you and I. Loss of all conscious thoughts. Time stands still…and I am happy. -Looking Forward to…
Beautiful People of Halifax
I challenge you all this lovely spring to approach someone who is cute or seems interesting. Less online hopes and more exciting in-the-moment interactions! -More Bird Than Bee
Waiting
And haven’t stopped. My door is always open for you. -Just Believe
The Stench On The Bench
Does anyone else think it’s gross that restaurants flip their chairs on the tables at the end of the day? I understand it makes it easier to mop the floor but are those tables being wiped down the next morning when they set the chairs down? Some particular restaurants have quite the group of grotesque…
I’m Still Having a Good Friday
To my wonderful first customer of the day! If you think the chocolate bar is too expensive, you can opt to not buy it without making sure your cashier knows that you think it’s too much and you’re not happy that the thing you’re not even buying is priced at what is actually an average…
You’re All The Same
You are a generation of rats. You all look like snitches and all of you smell terrible. Everything that you believe to be a virtue in yourselves is actually a fault and you cannot seem to see it. You talk loudly in public and believe your every vapid thought has value. You have never done…
To the Nurses of 8.3
You girls are the absolute best! Thanks for making my stay so wonderful! You all deserve much more credit than you’re given. Some members of the public haven’t a clue to exactly how much you ladies stretch yourselves for patient comfort. I listened one night as one of the patients verbally abused one of these…
Air conditioner art scraps the norm
“Do you know how many thousands of times I’ve been asked that question?” Hunter Lake laughs when asked where he first came up with the idea to make art out of old air-conditioner coils. He first spotted the scraps at a recycling depot in Dartmouth, but that’s not really the first time he’d thought of…
Eight things to do this weekend
FRIDAY, APRIL 18 In the afternoon, why not pop by the NSCAD’s Anna Leonowens Gallery (1891 Granville)? It’s your last chance to see work by Annie Onyi Cheung, Cate Francis and Conor Fagan. Be sure to check out Cate Francis’ work which uses drawing and printmaking to explore the relationship between the body and science.…
You Really Are Who They Say You Are
I’ve heard them say you’re the nicest guy but didn’t believe it until we were at Lion & Bright, you were there with your friends and I with mine. I was so sad on the inside, I walked away from my friends and went towards the door, you were there, with that ever-present smile, I…
Ballet Jörgen`s Romeo and Juliet
Hiroto Saito and Saniya Abilmajineva as Shakespeare`s star-crossed lovers With Romeo and Juliet, Ballet Jörgen and Symphony Nova Scotia bring the story of Shakespeare’s immortal, star-crossed lovers marvellously to life through dance and music. Joy, sorrow and passion are expressed in movement, subtle as the disdainful pointing of a finger and grand as a joyful…
Hard won logo
Although the newly unveiled city logo hasn’t inspired unanimous acclaim from citizens, nobody can fault the Halifax re-branding effort with being predictable. Even if the new design isn’t remarkably bold, this redesign does depart boldly from its predecessor. Behind the transformation is Phil Otto, CEO and strategist for Bedford-based branding company Revolve. After the initial…
Queen Street’s having a mega yard sale
What better way to celebrate spring than having a yard sale with friends, especially when those friends all own stores along Queen Street’s vintage row. Amanda Bulman, owner of The Attic: Vintage and Vinyl (1526 Queen Street) credits Sherry Lynn Jollymore and Amy Honey, owners of Fancy (1526 Queen Street), with the idea, saying they…
Where my girls at?
Hip, vibrant and eclectic work with a hint of party girl attitude describes the local lady art you’ll see at the premiere, GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS—An All Female Art Show. The event will be held on Thursday, April 17 at the second-hand shop, Big Pony (1453 Brenton Street) at 7pm. The owners and babes behind the…
The art of fashion
The NSCAD Wearable Art Show and Senior Fashion Show are getting a divorce—and it was a short-lived marriage, since they only merged last year. This year they are happening at different venues on different nights. The 23rd annual Wearable Art Show, happening this Thursday (April 17, 8pm, $10), is being held at the Marquee Ballroom…
Get into the groove for Record Store Day
Vinyl collectors, music aficionados, audiophiles and musicians will be uniting at record stores across the world on Saturday, April 19 for Record Store Day, devoted to celebrating independent record stores and the mighty vinyl record. Here in Halifax, Taz Records (1521 Grafton Street), Obsolete Records (2454 Agricola Street) and Black Buffalo Records (5687 West Street)…
Ka-blam! It’s the Cuppow
The Mason jar has made a comeback. Once a vessel for your grannie’s jams, it’s become a staple for the thrifty hipster. This trendy drink accessory is cheap, durable and made of heat-resistant glass. There’s only one real flaw, the jars aren’t great for spill-free drinking on the go. Enter the Cuppow—a lid adaptor that…
Secret Friend Love
I’ve been waiting for you to tell me you feel the same. -I Love You
Voices in Longitude and Latitude works through narratives of girlhood
“I mean, anytime your sister offers to collaborate with you on a project you should say yes.” This is sage advice coming from filmmaker Noam Gonick. His sister Marnina is the Canada Research Chair in Gender at Mount Saint Vincent University and their collaboration is a project called Voices in Longitude and Latitude, currently on…
Tako belle
Until last week, the only reason I ever had to go to Parkland Drive was 9+Nine, one of the city’s most delicious hidden gems. Now it’s starting to look like that area is actually a bit of a diamond mine: Tako Sushi and Ramen is another treasure, buried in that same inconvenient geography. We stop…
Get your claws into local lobster
At the end of March, over 200 people met at the Lord Nelson hotel in the midst of a late winter storm to talk about lobster. For two days, harvesters, processors, shippers, buyers and policy makers discussed recommendations from the Maritime Lobster Panel, intent on transforming the industry at what was called the Lobster Value…
A plastic goal in a plastic life
I’m not much of a do-gooder. It’s not that I’m a no-gooder, just that I don’t make a big deal of living ethically and convincing others to do the same. I try my best, but beyond composting and riding a bike, I’m not much of an environmentalist. This is why it was a really bizarre…
The making of Atlantic salmon
Canada quietly made history last November when officials at Environment Canada gave the go-ahead on production of the world’s first genetically modified food fish: the AquAdvantage® salmon. Created by micro-injecting genetic materials from a chinook salmon and an ocean pout into the egg of an Atlantic salmon, the new GM fish grows about twice as…
Stoli on the racks
One part vodka, two parts water. It’s not a drink–it’s a quick, easy way to defy those infuriating “dry-clean only” labels on your clothes. Combine the alcohol and water in a spray bottle, then spritz any less-than-fresh areas–like the underarms or collar–with this mixture colloquially known as French cleaner. “There are times when we use straight vodka,”…
Turned on all night
When the lights go out in computer labs all over Halifax, and the last high-strung essay writer logs off and heads home for a few nightmares, the computers keep working. “Most of the other computers that are left on in the computer centre run 24/7,” says Dwight Fischer, assistant vice-president of Information Technology Services at…
Green Guide 2014
Earth Day is April 22, if we make it that long. Veronica Simmonds tries to live for a week without plastic. The Ecology Action Centre is taking on the federal government’s sneaky attitude toward genetically modified salmon. Wonder why all our local universities leave their computers running? So do we. Plus: Clean your threads with…
Free Will Astrology
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Tauras! (March 21-April 19) “Our brains are no longer conditioned for reverence and awe,” said novelist John Updike. That’s a sad possibility. Could you please do something to dispute or override it, Taurus? Would it be too much to ask if I encouraged you to go out in quest of lyrical miracles that…
Goodbye to Mr. Jealousy
Q I’m a 26-year-old girl, and my boyfriend is bi. I assumed he would be less jealous than the average man. After all, a lot of bi men have faced irrational jealousy from women. But my BF is more jealous than average. He accuses me of having slept with my male friends in the past.…
Transcendence
Evelyn Caster (Rebecca Hall) and husband Will (Johnny Depp) are high-end, famous scientists in the field of artificial intelligence. When a radical anti-technology group murders Will, Evelyn puts his consciousness “online,” after which he directs her a boarded-up desert blot of a Hollywood crud town which she upcycles into a secret science lair. Will wants…
Tim’s Vermeer
Inventor Tim Jenison, a designer of post-production equipment for film and TV (he did Video Toaster), is not an artist. But he wants to know how Johannes Vermeer, back in the 1600s, created his photo-realistic paintings. He produces his best guess: a mirror on an arm, reflecting the source material in tiny chunks, so the…
Kim Harris’ Mighty tones
Of all the things to come out of Pugwash, Nova Scotia—salt, pewter, politicians named Eaton—the most immediately relevant to Haligonian music fans might be the sounds of Kim Harris, who honed her singer-songwriter abilities in Pugwash’s Chatterbox Cafe. Chatterbox’s every-Friday “kitchen party jam thing” was Harris’ first foray into live performance, initially as part of…
There’s Boh To Love
With 50,000 Soundcloud hits, a new EP on the way and a production credit on The Coast Best of Music readers’ poll song of 2013, Matty Boh is solidifying his position as one of Halifax’s most talented beatmakers. Matty Boh’s (AKA Matthew Bohemier) synth-filled productions drift between hip-hop and EDM, so it makes sense that…
