Touring Green – Blog 50: Grand Falls to Woodstock (August 3)
So today starts off awesome; hot… not too hot like yesterday, hilly… not too hilly like the day before that, waterslidey… any amount of waterslidely is good. Funny that I knocked on wood for the hill situation and not for the impending doom situation. If you listen closely to that voice in the background over…
Touring Green – Blog 49: Cabano to Grand Falls (August 2)
Today I got to bike with Tim Harriman who is the real-deal biking for same charity that I chose to raise money for, The Childhood Cancer Foundation. He’s a young guy and cancer survivor and is out there biking for other cancer survivors who have been affected by cancer at such a young age. A…
Touring Green – Blog 48: Quebec City to Cabano (July 30 – August 1)
Leaving Quebec City started with a really steep descend down to Old Quebec and over to the ferry which takes a plethora of cyclists to the other side of the river every day to bike along their great bike trails. I biked up the river for a while before stopping to realize that this side…
Cool hang
Though they’ve only been open a couple of weeks, the new location for couture in town, Off The Hanger, is already seeing repeat customers. “It’s a trendy, chic store,” confirms co-owner Shira Rubin-Handley, who started the business with her sisters Aviva Rubin-Schneider and Carmi Rubin- Gitalis. Their family has roots in the Nova Scotia fashion…
Bus, stop?
With summer fading faster than the backside of a disappearing bus (Wait! I need to get to work!), both the city and the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 508 are taking a break from their ongoing labour negotiations. The latest round of talks broke off on Sunday. Key negotiators on both sides are taking a wee…
Touring Green – Blog 47: Montreal to Quebec City (July 28-30)
Quebec is very bike friendly and, in fact, it has alternate routes in many places where (if your tires are good enough you can bike into cities without having to do any street biking as there are so many bike trails running along major streets like Nortre Dame). After getting a little lost in Laval…
Touring Green – Blog 46: Toronto to Montreal (July 19-28)
Starting out in Peterborough with The Fire Flower Revue: Then onto Arden where a nice “as close to camping as it got” stop was made: I made my way to Ottawa while it was constantly; too hot for the hot tub: (oh and what an accurate prediction I made in Arden as to when my…
Touring Green – Blog 45: Barrie to Toronto (July 12-19)
I biked into Toronto via that long street they have called Yonge St. I decided to make an all-Toronto playlist for the bike too and so I listened to Broken Social Scene, The Golden Dogs, The Diableros, Cuke The Duke, FemBots, Final Fantasy, Major Grange, Laura Barrett and, of course, The Hylozoists; I give my…
Touring Green – Blog 44: Parry Sound to Barrie (July 12)
So today I learned a valuable lesson; you can’t bike on Highways with over 100km/hr speed limit. I learned this while being escourted off Hwy 400 into Barrie by the Ontario Provincial Police (who were very kind). Sure, I wasn’t stupid enough to think I could go in on the 400 all the way to…
Sweet!
House of Sugar author and Coast alum Rebecca Kraatz picked up the Emerging Talent award this week at The Doug Wright Awards, “named for a cartoonist who created a wordless syndicated strip called Doug Wright’s Family, AKA Nipper,” says Kraatz. “He lived from 1917 to 1983.” The award was created in 2005 and designed by…
Seven-inches of rock
Anyone who thinks vinyl has gone the way of the 8-track needs to take a look at the local LPs and EPs that have recently been released by Joel Plaskett, Wintersleep, Be Bad and The Hold, for example. The Establishment joins the vinyl revolution August 23 when its releases its split seven-inch at Gus’ Pub.…
Naming the rape victim
A woman working alone at an all-night Ultramar gas station in Dartmouth was assaulted early Tuesday morning. The event rightly made the news, as the attack was particularly ugly — the woman was reportedly raped, had her throat slit “from ear to ear” and was left for dead — and raised important issues of protection…
SAVAGE LOVE
Q Hear me out. You’ve pushed the idea that everyone must be GGG, or “good, giving and game,” and that people in relationships must be sluts for each other and that women must perform oral sex. I agree that sexual satisfaction for both parties in a relationship is important. I think that is what you…
The new garde
When Christopher Spencer-Lowe noticed that Halifax’s experimental and avant garde filmmakers were escaping to bigger opportunities in larger cultural centres in Canada, he did something about it. Everyone leaving “generated the idea to have a celebration of the form in the hope it would generate some new interest in experimental filmmaking,” he says from his…
Partners in grief
Their story begins when Angus came home from work and found his partner collapsed on the bathroom floor. Paul was delirious and didn’t recognize him. This was the start of Paul’s terminal illness, a long journey that presented the couple with several unique challenges—including Angus’ grief. “Sometimes I wonder if we actually need a special…
Shaken to decor
You love Ikea. You totally do, because if you don’t, you have no taste and you know it. You’re tacky. You lack all sense of design, and probably, you own a beige floral print sofa with a pleated dust ruffle along the bottom. You do, don’t you? I knew it. If you love Ikea—and most…
Ya down with SPP?
Anyone strolling near the main gate of the Public Gardens at noon on Monday would have witnessed a strange scene. There, in the bright sunshine, stood George W. Bush and his buddy, Steve Harper. “We need a secure supply of oil and gas, and we’d like your water,” Bush bellowed. “Well, I think it’s a…
Planning for the worst
On a chilly March morning outside the Hester Street Food Bank, two men load mismatched plastic bags of groceries into the back of a police cruiser. They climb into the back seat. There’s no cage in this car, they joke. The officer driving laughs, says, “No, we’re the touchy-feely guys.” Every Wednesday morning constable Randy…
The young and the restless
Teens call it the “Darkside.” The name may call to mind visions of Star Wars, but no imperial storm troopers patrol this area of Dartmouth North, bounded by Halifax Harbour, the Albro Lakes, the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge and Highfield Park. In their place, groups of young people wander the streets wearing hoodies and blue…
RECENTLY REVIEWED
Lobster Shack Although lacking the tourist cachet of the South Shore, the Eastern Shore has a charm all its own. A trip along the picturesque Marine Drive leads past Upper Chezzetcook, past Musquodoboit and just past Head of Jeddore, to the Salmon River, and there is the hungry traveller’s destination, the Lobster Shack Restaurant. The…
Starting to happen
Allison Lickley wants to move to Halifax. Currently living in Montreal, the singer-songwriter is using her current month-and-a-half long pseudo-tour of Atlantic Canada as an opportunity to quiz anyone and everyone about our fair city. The thumbs-ups she’s received are encouraging. “Not everybody feels that way about their hometown,” she says. Lickley’s desire to move…
Superbad
Superbad includes one detail I’ve never seen in a teen movie before: The sight of kids drinking, and gagging after every swig. It’s one of the small touches to display a smart attention to young life. If you believe the hype, this comedy by director Greg Mottola and writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg is…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
All together now, Taurus, says Rob Brezsny.
