Hypnotic caterpillar
Hey this is really crazy and weird. Erm, I actually do other things besides look on youtube for bug and animal clips. Seriously. But I’d like to know who the genius was that came up the back crying back spots!Who, WHO? This advertising person clearly needs an award! I’d way rather watch foreign ads on…
Wi-fi fix
To the editor, Thanks for the cover story on Chebucto’s wireless initiative (“Something in the air,” August 3). I wanted to write to correct a couple points. First, Johnathan’s last name is spelled Thibodeau and he is the person responsible for virtually all things technical at Chebucto, and can be said to be the heart…
Right of entry
To the editor, I get the distinct smell of contradiction now when I read of a restaurant in The Coast. I have often appreciated trying a restaurant that I learned about from your paper. But as a wheelchair-user, I have found that my access is denied from some of these places, and The Coast gives…
Child support
To the editor, I was interested to read “Have you checked the children?” (August 17). The writer had noticed an ad for “exotic kittens” in the business personals section of another local paper and was concerned about child prostitution. They might be comforted to know there is a breed of cat called the Exotic Shorthair,…
Damage control
To the editor, I don’t know how the cops managed to not see the widespread crystal meth use in the Halifax gay community over the past three years that I’ve seen friends become addicts. Of course, they also seem to overlook the sale and use of ecstasy at two local bars. I don’t know the…
Damage control
To the editor, While I was back in Nova Scotia for a visit , I read the article “Methology” (August 17). I’d like to congratulate you on the presentation and content of the article. I was pleased to see the media taking an active role in the fight against drug abuse and addiction. I urge…
Go to hell, Canada
Steffi D got eliminated, gracefully and with class. Yet Nickelback and Newfoundland fauxhawk are safe week after week? I call fix on Canadian Idol. And I HATE IT for making me care. And myself for not having cable. Team Avila!
Mining Silverstone
Actor Alicia Silverstone has been in town most of the summer filming MOW Candles on Bay Street, and she’s been spotted in practically every corner of the city. We’ve gotten sightings from Citadel Hill, the Waterfront, the Wooden Monkey, Barrington Street and the Lord Nelson. Last weekend Silverstone dropped by a house party, Mary Hamblin’s…
Power to the people
Today, the Herald is reporting on Stora Enso’s efforts to blackmail the province: Give us a break of $200 million off our power bill, or we close the Point Tupper mill and 610 people lose their jobs. Hopefully the province will tell the paper company to fuck itself. Why? As reported in yesterday’s Globe and…
We are the New York Times
It won’t be long before they’re syndicating Dope Show, at the rate Coasties are getting published in the New York Times. Mike Tompkins is the latest contributor doing us proud.
CBC loses its senses
The Mother Corp is killing Street Cents. Idiots. And notice that story went up after 5 on Friday, suggesting the powers that be have picked up the devious politician’s trick of leaking bad news after the weekend’s begun and nobody’s paying attention. Fuckers. Watch the Thursday Coast for more on this stupidity.
Letters to the Editor
I was interested to read “Have you checked the children?” in the Letters Section of the August 17th Coast. The correspondent, “Sick Of Solicitors,” had noticed an ad for “Exotic kittens” in the Business Personals section of another local paper and was very concerned about child prostitution. I was unable to locate that ad in…
Methology
Having read your article entitled “Methodology,” it appears to be a well researched and written article. I am surprised however, that you did not seek the input of Dr. Russell Westhaver, at St. Mary’s Crimininology and Sociology department, who is doing research in the field of Meth and gay mens health issues, as well as…
Methology
Having read your article entitled “Methodology,” it appears to be a well researched and written article. I am surprised however, that you did not seek the input of Dr. Russell Westhaver, at St. Mary’s Crimininology and Sociology department, who is doing research in the field of Meth and gay mens health issues, as well as…
Methology
Having read your article entitled “Methodology,” it appears to be a well researched and written article. I am surprised however, that you did not seek the input of Dr. Russell Westhaver, at St. Mary’s Crimininology and Sociology department, who is doing research in the field of Meth and gay mens health issues, as well as…
Fox news
Local filmmaker Michael Fox—of The Living Impaired and pointing-a-fake-gun fame—is back with the Halifax premiere of his new feature Entherance Online, Thursday, August 17, at Park Lane. Starring Charles T. Conrad, Charlotte Acadia Jewer and Allison Leadley, Entherance Online follows university student John (Conrad), who begins to lose track of his real life when he…
Up and Adam
When folk/roots troubadour Adam Puddington was last in Halifax during Juno weekend, it was for a pair of shows in support of his friends Matt Mays & El Torpedo. Months have passed and the Almonte, Ontario, native has returned to headline shows on his own, equipped with his sophomore album’s updated artwork. “We have distribution…
Harbour crafts
The Nova Scotia Centre for Craft and Design and the Mary E. Black Gallery are moving from their 15-year home at Barrington and Prince to shed 21 at 1061 Marginal. The move, which begins this week, was prompted by Transportation and Public Works (who own the building) wanting to expand their office space. The Centre…
Into the Outgames
Catherine Meade, a local track and field athlete and lawyer, was featured in our Pride Guide (July 20) as she prepared to attend Montreal’s Outgames, a multi-sport competition with a particular focus on gay and lesbian athletes. Meade, along with a strong local contingent of Halifax athletes, has now returned home. “Almost everyone came home…
Have you checked the children?
To the editor, I was skimming the classified ads in another local paper and I noticed an ad in the business personals section. It said simply “exotic kittens” and listed a phone number. If I were law enforcement, I would be suspicious and check it out. People in the community are allowed to advertise their…
Dental damn
To the editor, I was listening to the radio on my way to the dentist in order to have a broken filling taken care of when I heard a piece on our health care problems. There was to be a special two-day symposium on what could be done to save a system that is collapsing…
Rest stop
Dear Lezlie Lowe, Thanks for reminding us that we are overworked (Lowedown, August 10). I would suggest that you, too, are overworked, given that you don’t seem to have time to consider the content of your past articles. If I’m not mistaken, you have supported the elimination of the Sunday shopping ban. But this is…
Critical drinking
Of all the things you learn at school, it’s the life lessons that stick with you the longest. Unfortunately, you’re usually left to learn them on your own. None of Halifax’s universities offer courses like Ditching Your Hometown Boyfriend or Contemporary Issues in Tattoo Design and Placement. Consider what follows here to be Nightclub 101;…
Gaining a hold
It’s a classic wrestling ending. Two wrestlers climb the ropes at a slow, dramatic pace. Once they’re balanced at the top, the stronger of the two hooks his opponent over the shoulder and proceeds to deliver the Spanish Fly, a high-risk maneuver where both wrestlers perform aerial flips simultaneously before crashing hard on the matt.…
Drunk’d
You’d think your first time in jail would be memorable. But for many young people it’s all a blur—punctuated by a pounding headache—in the Halifax drunk tank. Halifax is known for its universities and its nightlife. It can be a messy combination. Every weekend in September, downtown fills with students looking to blow off steam…
Making the band
Breaking into any music scene, to the uninitiated, is like inventing the wheel. Meeting people, finding gigs, booking studios and getting press takes a lot of time and energy, especially if a person is not familiar with the region. Luckily, Halifax is the hub of the Maritime scene, with a great music community and plenty…
Supper club
Dear Jennifer, Dad and I really enjoyed visiting with Stewart in Halifax this weekend; his new apartment is full of character. I didn’t know you could buy street signs (surely he wouldn’t have taken them, would he?) and I’ve never seen such a large collection of shot glasses—bigger than even Aunt Mabel’s spoon collection! His…
An A to Z
Originally published August 2, 2004.
Poorer for the loss
“We continue to view poverty as the fault of the individual and ignore the social and economic systems and mechanisms that are so often responsible for it.” Those are the words of Fred MacKinnon, a passionate advocate for social justice who worked as a senior civil servant for more than half a century. MacKinnon, who…
The big easy
There sometimes comes a point on the road of higher learning when, because your brain needs a break—or you’re just a slack ass—you may want to throw all pretense of actually furthering your education to the wind for a while, and sign up for something, shall we say, easy. In my case, I carefully weighed…
Building block
Andy Fillmore knows a lot about the Spring Garden and Queen development. Arguably, he know more than anyone else in the city—as the municipality’s urban design project manager, Fillmore’s job involves keeping a close eye on the site, which has been unoccupied ever since the former Halifax infirmary was torn down and the lot became…
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…
Think again
It’s not just those who cannot learn from history who are doomed to repeat it. We’re all destined to the fate, and not only when it comes to history. Everything is reverberation—culture, news, gossip, newspaper columns… I was going to write a satirical piece for my column this week about the latest near-terror air travel…
The origin of the species
Nova Scotia’s green fields, deciduous climate and historical brewing operations have long made this Canadian province a thriving habitat for one of nature’s most beloved and befuddled creatures, the university student (genus Studentus). Nowhere is there to be found a denser population than in the provincial capital and environs. Drawn by the city’s abundant watering…
Methology
Let’s begin with the simplest fact there is about crystal methamphetamine in Halifax: it’s not here. The Halifax Regional Police Service has never arrested anybody for possession of the drug, a powerful stimulant that’s sold in rock form like crack and can be smoked in a pipe or, when it’s in powder form, eaten, snorted…
School shuffle
Changes are afoot in the world of high and higher education in the SuperCity. At the end of May, the Nova Scotia Community College will close down its Bell Road campus for good, and send the wrecking ball in to flatten the 55-year-old school. The NSCC is spending the next two years and about $50…
Star bright
Caribbean cuisine is a melting pot, straight from the hearts and kitchens of the islands (not just Jamaica, but the West Indies, Cuba and Puerto Rico, to name a few); no-frills comfort food that nourishes the soul as much as the belly. But no-frills doesn’t mean bland or boring—oh no. The Caribbean is home to…
Taking you to school
Atlantic School of Theology Primarily a grad school, AST— which is “committed to excellence in graduate level theological education and research and in formation for Christian ministries, lay and ordained, in church and society, primarily in Atlantic Canada”—also has degree programs for people without a full undergrad degree (though you need five credits or at…
On the road again
It’s inevitable that a singer-songwriter from Winnipeg will have to get used to being on the road in order to further his or her career. Of course, travelling to new places is bound to turn up some strange situations, especially when a journalist is trying to track you down for a last minute interview. “I’m…
Halifax 101
1. Halifax gets its share of feature films shooting around town, but we’re really a magnet for televised biopics and made-for-TV Christmas movies. Town Without Christmas (starring Everybody Loves Raymond’s Patricia Heaton) and last year’s rating bonanza The Christmas Shoes (yup, this is what Rob Lowe quit The West Wing for) shot here, as have…
World Trade Center
There’s an expectancy that any reasonable movie about 9/11 must represent political complexities. But Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center sidesteps global conflict and the director’s own reputation for a return to September 11’s initial helplessness. The day isn’t approached as a dramatic end in itself by Stone, it becomes a basis for his treatise on…
Neighbourhood Watch
1. Clayton park Miles and miles of houses. And a few plazas.by Matt Charlton The area known by many of the downtown folk as “Clayton Park” is actually a name for a larger group of subdivisions that also includes Rockingham, Wedgewood, Cresthaven and Fairview. Clayton Park is, for the most part, houses. Like a giant…
Trip the day fantastic
Stanley Airfield Magic carpet time travelling. The field was used by the Royal Air Force, and operated during WWII when it was known as Elementary Flying Training School #17. Pilots trained in Fleet Finches and DeHaviland Tiger Moths. If you go off-season, Stanley is a quiet time-out-place experience. The huge green aerodrome remains, now in…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Words have astonishing power, Aries, says Rob Brezsny.
Pull my dinger
Whoever thought up the adage “Boys/girls are like buses—another one comes along in 10 minutes” sure as hell didn’t spend any phrase-coining time in Halifax. The truth is the oft, and deservedly, maligned Metro Transit is the best it’s ever been (and to use it costs the most it’s ever cost). There are 46 bus…
SAVAGE LOVE
Dan Savage owns up to being Mr. Bitter (and sipping tequila).
Baby don’t forget my number
Ice safety recording: 490-3577ALC winning lotto numbers: 468-1072Bargain Hunter voice personals: 422-3337Happy Harry’s used building materials: 468-2319Environment Canada Weather: 426-9090Marine forecast line: 426-9600 Animal control: 468-9219Pest control: 468-9430 Seized vehicle inquiries: 490-5109Non-emergency police line: 490-5020HRM Emergency Measures: 490-5400Marriage licences: 490-4000 Crime Stoppers: 422-8477Lost and found: 490-5152School crossing guard unit: 490-5168Misleading advertising: 1-800-348-5358Copyrights/patents: 1-800-668-1010Canadian Security Intelligence…
Tenants’ Commandments
Long, long ago, back when people used to stay home on weekends to watch Saturday Night Live, Eddie Murphy donned a striped jumpsuit to play Tyrone Green, a poet-inmate whose jailbird recital, “Kill my landlord. Kill my landlord. C-I-L-L my landlord,” spoke to traumatized victims of dirty hallways and broken toilets everywhere. Of course, killing…
