King’s journalism students nominated for Global Data Journalism Award
King’s College investigative journalism workshop’s project for last year—902911—is a finalist in the Data Journalism Awards, a global competition sponsored by Google and organized by the Global Editors Network and the European Journalism Centre. Readers will recall that King’s project’s written component appeared in The Coast as “HRM’s worst neighbourhood.” Congratulations to the students!
Weighty Ghosts
When Atlantic Ballet’s artistic director and choreographer Igor Dobrovolskiy created a short dance performance on the subject of domestic abuse and homicide for 2007’s New Brunswick Silent Witness Project, he didn’t anticipate the response that eventually led him to choreograph a full-length piece, Ghosts of Violence. “It’s such a powerful message and the people that…
…why so grumpy?
To the coolest dude ever who was on my bus today, quietly sitting there observing our asshole bus driver be a jerk to me, my wife, and everyone who entered that bus as if we were trespassing on his territory and wasting his time. When you went to get off the bus, you turned and…
Love exists!
Everyday I open my eyes and am reminded instantly by your beautiful face, amazing smile, gorgeous eyes, sexy body, awesome sense of humour and personality that I am the luckiest man in the world. I now have seven amazing children and the “PERFECT” woman in the world to share the rest of my life with.…
Chivalrous stranger
To the tall, handsome stranger who made my day at the Mooseheads game on Sunday… Thank you for seeing the discomfort of several rows of people & stepping in to do something about it. Most people would have looked the other way, but you took charge of the situation & handled it with ease. I…
SappyFest 7 lineup announced
SappyFest has announced its 2012 line-up, and this year will be a rager. Headliners include Polaris Prize-winning hardcore act Fucked Up, legendary American folk artist Michael Hurley, ghoul-pop act Timber Timbre, Julian Koster’s (Neutral Milk Hotel) The Music Tapes, and Etobicoke-born UK sensation Cold Specks. Start lining up your rides to Sackville, NB for August…
Sunday you went home alone…
…I’d love to get you on a slow boat to China! —Twenty
Smiling on Spring Garden
To the girl with the cute hat and septum piercing who walked past me yesterday, grinning from ear to ear for what seemed like no reason… thanks. Everybody always looks so cranky and dour, it was nice to see an earnestly smiling face for once. —Some Girl
Back up, I’m serious
To the people who slowly inch, inch, and inch forward in a line-up behind you, back up I’m serious. I can feel you breathing down my neck and it’s gross as hell. Realize that the line isn’t moving a substantial amount, so just stay where you are (a good god-damn 3 feet back) and don’t…
Dear “ladies” at the gym…
The gym is a place to go to work out so hard you’re dripping buckets of sweat! Please don’t waltz around at the gym with your many bras on pushing up your boobs so much they’re popping out for everyone ( guys mostly) to notice, please don’t wear small little tank tops so that half…
Dirty gym goers
I’m getting really fucking sick of smelling stinking dirty women and men that go to the gyms. Take a fucking shower before you come in for God sakes. I’m so fucking sick of moving from one treadmill to the other because I can’t stand the smell of you. It really is breath taking. If you…
Idiots who don’t pull over
Ok, I’ve lived in Halifax for 5yrs and overall people here are super nice, one woman back in first year even helped me with my luggage when I needed to get to the Airporter. But the drivers here SUCK ASS!!! When there is an emergency vehicle coming up behind you PULL OVER! I don’t care…
Dumb restaurants
To the asshole restaurant that hired me from out of province, this is a big gigantic FUCK YOU just for you. I quit my good job, moved provinces, and signed a year lease for a fucking ridiculously expensive apartment that is still cheap compared to most in halifax, just to come work for you. And…
Missing concert money not accounted for in city budget
Halifax council has passed two annual budgets since the concert loan scandal became public, but the missing money still hasn’t been accounted for. In March, 2011, then-city finance director Cathie O’Toole told Halifax council that city officials had improperly advanced a series of loans to concert promoter Harold MacKay, that those loans violated the city…
Learn to drive
To the bus driver who decided to change lanes in the intersection of Bayers Rd and Connaught Ave, FUCK YOU! I was right beside you when you started veering towards my passenger door. Just because you were in the wrong lane don’t mean you can push everyone out of your way. I reported your ass…
Roberts Street Social Centre’s sentimental journey
Take a scan through Brendan Anckaert’s photo collection from the Roberts Street Social Centre’s Sentimental Detachment Celebration last Saturday, and you’ll feel like you were there. The RSSC are looking to move into their new digs June 1, we look forward to the housewarming!
Is it me?
Or is it weird to take someone out for their birthday…then split the bill. A married couple did that with me, I paid 1/3. I was being cheap in my ordering thinking I was being treated – them, not so much so. So, I paid more than 1/3. Not the money, rarely is, it was…
Jerk bus driver
On the way to work this morning I noticed this guy running down the sidewalk towards the bus stop. He was older and clearly trying to get to work, lunch can in hand. He was also clearly running to catch the bus. Instead of waiting for the man, who was clearly running to catch the…
Full Court Press is back
Oh hey! Carsten abandoned us all here for $greener$ pastures so I’ll be taking care of all your film and on screen needs from now on. I hate wasting time, so here we go with some stuff. Full Court Press is back! Filling the void left from Flag on the Play’s seasonal absence, Hugh Stewart…
Raven-haired ferry queen
Alas! You are so beautiful! It hurts me just to look at you. Every morning (and most afternoons) I see you headed to and from parts unknown and can hardly suppress my desire to know more about you than your gorgeous face, your alluring walk and your keen fashion sense. Sadly, you barely notice me,…
Q&A with A Sight For Sewn Eyes
Halifax metal band A Sight For Sewn Eyes talk about getting signed to Distort and touring, and reminisce about home. Q: What’s the story of getting signed to Distort? Andrew Benoit, guitar/vocals: The Cancer Bats handpicked us to tour with them around the east coast to test our chops and see if we were capable…
Not common enough
Make more scones. Who cares if there are leftovers, donate them and write them off. Stop running out an hour after you open! —Jonesing for Sconesing
Please visit me again
To the beautiful girl with the green labret piercing and glasses who came into my store the other morning, please come back and see me again! We only had a short time to talk but it was pure gold… We even talked about the fact we both have our labrets pierced. If you come in…
I must be FN nuts
I have a crush on you even though I would never have a chance with you. —Ozzy
It’s the most disrespectful word
I’m still pissed and surprised that you called me a bitch (more than once, on two separate occasions) and I let it slide. I accepted your apology but really I didn’t because now all I can see are giant red flags waving in front of my face. Any man who texts “hey bitch” to a…
Marcel Ayoub takes over Hairs To Ya
Barber Marcel Ayoub has sold his old shop at 2830 Gottingen and bought Hairs To Ya (6261 Quinpool Road, 423-3300). Ayoub started cutting hair when he was just 12 years old at a barbershop in Lebanon, where he had to reach customers’ hair by standing on a stool. He’s been cutting hair for 37 years…
John W. Doull Bookseller move almost complete
A reader sends a picture of the interior of John W. Doull Bookseller (1684 Barrington Street, 429-1652): They’re not answering the phone, but word is the new store at 122 Main Street in Dartmouth should be open in the next few days.
Here’s what I’ve decided…
I’ve been on and off dating sites for years and despite a few dates, and making some GREAT friends with the complementary sex, it’s been a wasteland of unrewarded breath holding. So why is it that love escapes many of us? Is it the test of one’s faith? Is is character building? Is it punishment…
Looking longingly from behind the desk
I love coming to the library. You are all so polite and helpful especially the one who makes my day every time I see her. You radiate warmth, the sound of your voice as we talk as if the only ones in the library. We talk and laugh, I want to ask you out for…
Taxes in Nova Scotia are too high
Want people to move to Nova Scotia? Lower property tax, sales tax, land transfer tax, income tax (Provincial Portion) and all the other taxes. This province, and Halifax, is taxing people to death. Stop asking why so many of your sons and daughters are moving to Alberta, the high rate of tax makes it impossible…
I Heart Bikes announces new guided tour
I Heart Bikes (boardwalk, (406-7774) has announced a new tour for the upcoming season. “Old Halifax, new Halifax” will “touch on key historical aspects of the City while also highlighting the more forward thinking part,” says the company’s website. “Starting at the Halifax Harbour we will make our way up into the historical and charming…
I wish I was into girls sometimes!
Why are there no good single guys in this city? I’ve lived in Toronto, Edmonton, Vancouver and many other cities, even places smaller than here, and was always able to find a great guy to go out with. What the fuck is wrong with Halifax? Every decent male catch around here has a girlfriend/wife/fiance. I’ve…
I fink u freeky…
I look forward to singing karaoke with you and being the father of our half-human/half-dinosaur children. —RAWR
Volunteer from hell
I get that you’d like to get paid and are only volunteering for us so you can further your skills and move ahead in a career, but you took this administrative job knowing it wasn’t going to be paid. You have the worst attitude. Every time I send something back to you and ask you…
Real nice…
To the bus driver who pulled over all crooked at that inlet on Victoria Road just past Albro Lake Road. I took a double take when I saw your piss poor pull over job when you were stopping at that stop in front of the grocery store on Primrose. It’s set up to make it…
Oh look, we match
I have been sooo happy this last week, but I hope I’m not coming on too strong. The way you tease me makes me want you more. You’re so handsome, and I love your freckles. —Bubblegum Princess
Did the blood not give you a clue??
To the woman who is so darn concerned with sidewalk safety: Thank you for stopping next to me and my bike. Seriously, thank you sooooo much for glaring at me as you spit out, “You know, you’re not supposed to have your bikes on the sidewalk.” If you stopped for a minute and actually looked,…
Competition, eh?
So, you said you liked me. The very next day, you act as if you’re the most wanted man on this face of the planet, and told me I had “competition,” because this old bitch of a “lover” was coming back into town. You then proceeded to mess with my head saying that this Miss…
![[title of show]](https://i0.wp.com/www.thecoast.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/1335698945-title_of.webp?fit=180%2C246&ssl=1)
[title of show]
Music makes me happy and happy, bubbly, harmony-filled music makes me really happy. I’m pleased to report that I left the North Street Church last night feeling—-yes—-very happy. The occasion was [title of show], put on by a new theatre company called TheatreSpeak who’s mandate is to produce musical theatre with local artists. [title of…
Ch-ch-ch-changes at Haliwood Insider
I am leaving The Coast this week. I’ve had a great time keeping tabs on the local film and media business on this blog. Though I’m moving on to a new editorial position elsewhere in Halifax, you may see my name show up again at The Coast in the future, likely writing about film as…
Dear Halifax
I’m tired of your shitty, hipster-filled coffee shops that serve shitty coffee. I’m also tired of all you hipsters polluting any decent place there is left to hang out in this city. There are no decent jobs left here. Everyone is a stoner. People are INCAPABLE of having educated conversations and what the fuck is…
I hope someone knows who this is for… let them know!!
MB – I reach out to you every so often just to have a little piece of home again. I miss Halifax and everything it has to offer. As time goes on I remember why I left, but the feelings of coming back are so strong. I know things didn’t end the best with us…
It’s barely been a week since Raymond was murdered
To the asshole that walked into my store raving about “faggots,” claimed I “tried to hump your leg” when I walked passed you and yelled “he’s one of ’em” when we kicked you out. Guess what pal, I AM one of “them,” and if I ever see you again… I don’t care if you are…
It’s an accident scene people!
I have just witnessed an accident. Two large vehicles involved. My “BITCH” is this, why would anyone who had a brain cell expect to get through the accident scene? You purposely pulled out of your driveway and came toward the accident, then expected to get through… SERIOUSLY!!! You could see the situation from your driveway.…
Cafe Brea opens in Dartmouth
Melita Scott writes to say she has opened a coffee shop in Dartmouth on Earth Day. Cafe Brea (530 Portland Street, 789-1354) is in the new commercial strip that sits across from what used to be Penhorn Mall.
Nasty
Yeah, yeah, I know you hate high school and you’d rather be out getting wasted with your friends or whatever. What I don’t understand is why you feel the need to express that by spitting loogies in the hallways. Are you 5? That’s fucking disgusting. —You Have No Respect
You make me want to do the electric slide
To the guy who checks our electricity panels once a month, who are you? I have the most gigantic crush on you and I can’t even figure out what on earth you are doing when you drop by the office and take off to the electric room. I also never know when you’re going to…
Blood for Oreos? Fair trade.
The people at the blood bank are great! They’re so appreciative that you’ve come to donate blood. Even though they see tonnes of people come in every day, they’re still patient and happy. The volunteer who gave me chocolate milk and Oreos was perfectly suited to be taking care of us afterwards and I left…
Nice postman
Thank you for being nice to that weirdo who stalked you just to belittle you and act like he knows your job better then you. Best customer service ever. —Anonymous
Hard work is great, but you gotta have some intelligence!
There seems to be a lot of smart people out there who could go far if they weren’t so damn lazy! However it seems like it’s the opposite for you and you don’t realize it. Do you honestly think you’re gonna be a head honcho making 6 figures by the time you’re 45-50? You’re already…
Wit’s End, back again
Annnnnd we’re back! Yes, we know, you missed us. In case you’re wondering, we did get the flowers, and the chocolate, and that fish wrapped in a bulletproof vest and butcher’s paper that we think/hope belongs to our neighbours… WAIT, what?! You don’t remember who we are because our last blog post happened over seven…
Share the sidewalks
Maybe people don’t think or realize… maybe it’s that they have no respect for their fellow human being, but if you’re walking as 2 or 3… please move so that those coming in the opposing direction down the sidewalk aren’t forced into the ditch or mud so that you don’t get your feet dirty. Single…
Lunch that NEVER disappoints
To a certain restaurant/catering joint located between Bedford Row and Hollis: Thank you for your delicious chili and lunch specials! The food is always amazing/well priced, and the customer service is even better. Never have I been called “Honey” and “Sweetie” so much in my life. 🙂 Many days I purposely don’t bring a lunch…
Cheap bastards and non tippers
Okay I get it money’s tight these days but if you can afford to eat out expect to leave a fucking tip after you pay for your food! Us servers and food attendants that slave over hot grills prepare your food and give you courteous service. Think twice when someone gives you your change back…
Acura “Integras”
This bitch goes out to all you losers that still drive your junky old Acura Integras thinking your cars are the fastest cars on the road. Nobody cares that you have an air intake in it, nobody cares that you have headers in it, nobody cares you have an exhaust that sounds stupid when you’re…
Dear HRM, why do you hate my dogs?
Can I just say, that I love Halifax and its surrounding areas. It’s so beautiful here, and there are so many green spaces and little pockets of nature within the city. So, being a dog owner, and coming from a city in NB where my poor canines have rarely had the opportunity to run full…
Cash mob for Phat
For the last year or so, it seems like someone has been out to get Phat Luong. This Friday, many more people will be coming out to help. Luong, the owner of Phat’s Barber Shop (2170 Windsor Street, 423-6596) has been the victim of repeated vandalism. The most recent case resulted in an oil spill…
In the bedroom ok, not on the street please
Walking up a street this weekend towards one of the usual gathering spots after the pubs close, I noticed at the end of the street a young man pushing and slapping a young lady directly in front of me maybe fifty feet ahead, so I said to him “what are you doing to that young…
My body has nothing to do with your intelligence
To the bald, fat hypocrite driving the station wagon that thought it was okay to yell “Crosswalk’s on the other side, Chubby!” when my boyfriend and I were crossing at the unmarked intersection at Jubliee and Preston. ALL intersections (marked or unmarked) are crosswalks and pedestrians ALWAYS have the right of way at intersections without…
Hello jobs?
Just wondering where all the jobs are in this city? I’m an educated individual who’s been told by many agencies that my resume and cover letter are great, yet I cannot find a job. I have walked the streets for weeks on end handing out resumes because “active job hunting” is the best way to…
Tip Top tussle
Besides the ferry issue, Halifax council had an unusually mundane meeting Tuesday. But council did discuss the potential demolition of the former Tip Top Tailor building at 1592 Barrington Street—the cubist-inspired structure sandwiched between the Tramway building (hosting Venus Envy and Obladee Wine Bar) and the Khyber. The building is in horrible condition, but is…
Fast Times at Grizzly Lake High
I’m filling in as Cinderhella I’m wearing the costume of an arch-slasher-movie villain come to life—one of several of my Where’s Waldo cameos in the film I co-wrote, Detention. But the botched surgery mask is hot enough to toast marshmallows, it’s incredibly difficult to see through. We’re shooting the movie’s prologue, where Cinderhella slaughters teen-tantrum…
Reverb nation
It’s the flow of traffic. It’s the city lights. It’s the cyclists weaving among pedestrians who are crossing the Halifax Common. It’s everyday life. That’s how Sara Coffin describes dance. As the interim artistic director of Halifax’s Mocean Dance, Coffin lives and breathes the art form. Now she’s hoping to show Halifax how dance can…
Sleeping Beauty
“Jane Campion Presents” gives writer/director Leigh’s first feature an instant whiff of artistic credibility, as does the deliberate, Kubrick-esque chilliness in the tale of a student, Lucy (Emily Browning), who moonlights as a prostitute and gets mixed up with a organization providing unconscious, drugged women to an exclusive clientele. It’s hard to tell what Leigh…
Derrick R. Dixon’s Planned Obsolescence
On October 5, 2011 Derrick R. Dixon bid farewell to his seven-day-old shiny new iPhone 4 after he accidentally dropped it into the toilet. Hours later the world bid farewell to the man behind his ill-fated device, Steve Jobs. And so began Dixon’s Planned Obsolescence, with a bronze cast of the departed phone, repackaged and…
The Space Age
Crunchy and propulsive, The Space Age squeezes a lot of rock into the available space. Guitar man/singer Andy Patil backed Matt Mays in El Torpedo and Greg Fry is best known as the Heavy Blinkers’ drummer. There may be riffs you’ve heard before but never in this order, making the songs freshly familiar. There is…
The Reluctant Resurrection of Sherlock Holmes comes to life
A pair of ghosts (one of whom is Sherlock Holmes himself), a retired thespian (who serves the ham thickly sliced), his romantic daughter (who has her own dramatic streak), a long-suffering wife, some cagey servants and the renowned Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are the unlikely cast of characters who are embroiled in a murder on…
Jon Epworth
Inexplicably my iTunes went from “Afraid,” the last track on Jon Epworth’s Soul Mange, into GBH’s “Diplomatic Immunity.” For a second I was convinced that this might be the most eclectic Jon Epworth release ever. Alas, there’s no street punk to be found and while that may disappoint the spiky-haired fan contingent, there’s enough on…
Six years of Pink Velvet
When the Halifax Burlesque Society disbanded, Cadence Macmichael feared it was the end of the line for the local burlesque scene. But she wasn’t quite ready to throw in the towel—or the corset. Macmichael gathered a keen crew of performers (many former members of the HBS) who shared her fiery spirit and six years after…
Special Costello
There is something incredibly direct and moving about Special Costello’s music. It has a grandiosity not dissimilar to Grizzly Bear’s louder moments. It can bowl you over with bravado and mange to charm the pants off of you at the very same time. Singer Jeremy Costello’s soaring vocals figure heavily into the duo’s cinematic certitude…
Rose Cousins
Light and darkness have always guided the best records—think Jimmy Page’s light fretwork and heavy riffing. We Have Made a Spark, the new LP from singer-songwriter Rose Cousins, sounds nothing like Zep’s metal sludge, yet similarly uses multiple sonic shades and refracted imagery to create an extremely polished album. With piano playing that recalls the…
Mass Effect 3
Mass Effect 3 brings the greatest science fiction series in recent memory to close with emotion and incredible depth, its controversial ending a brilliant finale to BioWare’s three-part opus. The final chapter of the Mass Effect series (although BioWare and EA are promising more to come) has the player creating or continuing their own protagonist,…
Revenge of the Electric Car
As the old proverb goes, success is the best revenge. In the follow up to his critically acclaimed 2006 documentary Who Killed the Electric Car?, Chris Paine’s Revenge of the Electric Car details the insurgence of electric vehicles on the commercial car world, following Nissan and GM as they attempt to make the world’s first…
The Truth About Marie
That The Truth About Marie is beautifully written is no surprise. Toussaint is known as a writer with a gift for drawn-out, visceral scene-setting. This offering has three of them: one in which eroticism is shattered into panic and whitewashed by clinicians; a middle act in which a frightened horse transforms Japanese airport efficiency into…
Fun in pages, Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope
Perhaps documentarian Morgan Spurlock’s greatest gift to his new film is that he resists appearing in it. And in getting out of the way of his subject matter, he produces the best work of his career. It’s a story that will be familiar to any artist trying to make a living doing what they love:…
Sam’s Seafood Express puts a ring on it
This summer marks five years since whatever dark magicks at work in Dartmouth led to an architectural behemoth to spring forth unbidden from the mud by Highway 111. A sprawling, clumsy golem with the word “buy” scrawled across its forehead, this colossus shows no mercy to tiny shopping districts of yore, its strongman grip tightening…
Things to make you go “Arr”: The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Forgive The Pirates! Band of Misfits for coming along after our culture has already reached pirate saturation. The stop-motion adventure film, based on the comedy books by Gideon Defoe, roars along with considerable charm. In order to win the “Pirate of the Year” award, the deluded pirate captain, Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant), attempts to wow…
Buck wild
Buck 65’s been around for awhile. In fact, just last year he released his album 20 Odd Years—an eclectic mix of hip-hop, rock and folk—commemorating his 20th anniversary as a musician. But after more than two decades of performing, Richard Terfry still can’t shake that uneasy feeling he gets when he jumps up on stage—especially…
Safe easily cracked
No one really pauses to talk things out in the latest Jason Statham beat-em-up flick, Safe. Statham plays an ex-cop/ex-cage fighter/ex-special forces operative who vows to keep a Chinese girl safe (get it?) so she can use the combination in her head to open a safe (get it?). The Chinese mob used the girl’s photographic…
Mono sound
When Halifax’s resident garage rockers The Gideons decided to call it quits, guitarist/singer Josh Salter decided the band should go out with a bang. “When I was in The Gideons we put out a double LP and it was just a stupid, dumb idea,” he says. The record didn’t sell, staying on the shelves at…
The Five-Year Engagement nearly feels that long
A shambling rom-com from writers Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and that movie’s star Jason Segel, finds Segel as a San Francisco sous chef who nervously proposes to grad student girlfriend Emily Blunt as the movie opens. As one expects from the title, plans go awry. The couple moves to Michigan when Blunt receives a…
Free Will Astrology
Happy Birthday! TAURUS (April 20-May 20) (April 20-May 20) “What people really need and demand from life is not wealth, comfort or esteem, but games worth playing,” said psychiatrist Thomas Szasz. I love that thought, and am excited to offer it up to you right now. You have been invited or will soon be invited…
Defining the relationship
Q Is it possible for a hookup to turn into a relationship? –Hoping One Person Enters A A hookup is a relationship, HOPE. It may be a short-term relationship, but it’s a relationship regardless. And, yes, a short-term hookup can turn into a long-term relationship, HOPE, but not if you’re treating your hookups like shit…
Oh what a Knight
The cat came back the very next day. Actually, this time the cat came back two years later. Jaguar Knight—formerly known as A/V—is back in Halifax after spending two years in Jeju, Korea teaching English and working as a DJ. But now Philip Clark’s back to rock your socks. Performing under the new stage name…
Twilight zoning
You’ve heard how Halifax mayor Peter Kelly betrayed the trust of of a family friend. What you haven’t heard is how city hall doubly abused the same woman, forcing her to live out her final days in poverty. On February 16, The Coast published my expose of Halifax mayor Peter Kelly’s failure, as executor, to…
Luu Breeze ready for lift off
Luu Breeze is making a sort of homecoming as he performs on a Halifax stage for the first time this Friday. The young rapper may have grown up in the Toronto hip-hop scene, and rap like he’s from south of the border, but Luu has Nova Scotian roots to keep his feet firmly planted on…
The working’s on the wall
Agitate Educate Organise. This is the call to action that Emily Davidson has been spreading throughout the city. Posted on poles and boards, her stunning prints call on “Workingwomen, workingmen and artists” to gather at The Khyber on April 27. Though breathtakingly artful, it is as much a show of work as it is a…
