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The Coast | News, events, restaurants, concerts and Burger Week for Halifax, Nova Scotia
Home of the Best of Halifax Reader's Choice Awards, the award-winning independent newspaper covers the Halifax news, politics, events, concerts, movies, restaurants, and nightlife scene.
On December 23 The Mellotones will celebrate their 20th anniversary. The eight-piece unit fuses soul, funk and R&B with an always-changing setlist. “The 20th-anniversary show stems from when Tony Smith was the leader of the band,” says lead singer and saxophonist Jeffery Mosher. “In the early days, we used to do a Christmas show at…
Black Sheep bartender and Made With Love champ Marika Bouchard is normally the one causing next-day headaches, not fixing them. But she wants to help you poor souls who’ve over-indulged ring in 2018 feeling like a million bucks. “Keep hydrated. Drink a lot of water while drinking and pound the water the next day,” says…
Sophie Lee moved to Halifax from Vancouver about a year ago and the city immediately made an impression on her. “There was something quite different from larger cities,” she says. “People are really interested in local businesses and want to help each other succeed.” It was that feeling, in combination with her experience in the…
Thank you hospital staff, for dealing with my multiple stupid visits in the last couple months for random stupid injuries. Your sense of humour and friendly dispositions make my visit a lot more relaxed than what I am used to at hospitals full of stoic, cranky old medical professionals with cold hands. —Dumb Idiot Always…
Some of us don’t have a lot of time—especially to enjoy a walk. I treasure the time I get to do so with my dog on a popular trail. what do I find at my fave spot to just chill out and look at…a mattress in the water and other random garbage!? Way to ruin…
I’m sorry but how is the Ecology Action Centre membership magazine a responsible contribution to our environment? Eight-plus colour printing with photos? Trucking and labour to get these things in the mailbox? Really? Love the “NO FLYERS” mailbox stickers you guys give out though. —Trees R US
Dear Mayor Savage et al., If you truly investigated how all the other ‘world class’ cities operate, you would quickly notice that they ALL HAVE AFFORDABLE AND EFFICIENT PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION. Figure it out. PS: Tourists love good public transportation too. —World Class Citizen
I saw you working the circulation desk (Sunday 4ish) at the KG Library…blue-eyed with long reddish hair. You left me breathless. Absolutely stunning. Our eyes locked and I blushed, looking away…didn’t want to make you uncomfortable. —Helly Hansen
So you take donations for the SPCA—that’s great. Good for you. But when you then use sticky traps for your rodent problem, isn’t that kind of two-faced? Sticky traps are outlawed in most of the US because they’re widely recognized as being insanely inhumane. Especially when there are much better options. Kinda gross that you…
WE really should be thanking YOU. You know us (users of the scenic fifth floor reading room at the public library) and our repressed sexual proclivities (foot fetishes) even better than we know ourselves. You know that we are all just sitting there pretending to read, but deep down we are DYING to see your…
The Carleton Music Bar & Grill (1685 Argyle Street) is temporarily closing its doors for renovations. According to a press release, the Carleton will shut down on December 22. It will briefly re-open for its In The Dead of Winter Festival shows from January 18-20, but the official re-opening won’t take place until February 8.…
Dear LGBTQ, You are the most inclusive community I know. It is an honour to hang with you. I think it is time to step up your game and add one more letter. S as in straight. —SLGBTQ Supporter
A still-unfinished Halifax Convention Centre hosted a grand opening for media and dignitaries Friday—nearly two years after it was supposed to be completed. As documented on social media, the convention centre’s interior is still lacking drywall in some areas. Several escalators are non-functioning and wires are sticking out from the walls. But despite the work in…
Hailing from Ottawa, A Tribe Called Red fuses hip hop, reggae, and dance music with elements of Indigenous music. Hitting mainstream recognition when it became the first Indigenous group to win the Breakthrough Group of the Year award at the Junos, the DJ collective has gone on to play at a slew of big festivals—think…
On December 27, Rock Candy Boutique’s (5189 Prince Street) 15 year run will come to an end—but owner Tim Crow holds no bitterness. “I’m grateful, for the city and the people,” he says. In a Facebook post that reads “We just fucking want to sleep in from now on!” Crow goes on to thank his…
Geezus are you serious ? You fucking candida yeast hippies blame everything on the fucking candida. Candida is a natural occurring yeast in the body and there is not a single scientific explanation that it causes any of the symptoms if claims. It’s just something to blame for all the problems like any hypochondriac. —Shove…
The year’s almost over, but there’s still time for some fun: it’s The Oval’s opening weekend, Roxy & The Underground Soul Sound honour Otis Redding and The Khyber celebrates a new doc, Black In Halifax. 10 Anchor City Rollers learn-to-skate session Sunday If you’ve been dying to try roller derby since seeing Ellen Paige in…
MO KENNEY Mo Kenney is reserved and unassuming, a quietly quick wit. She saves it for the stage, as the saying goes—her demeanour is not one of meekness or deference to any of the men in her band, but of a measured confidence that borders on laconic until she leans into her guitar, a 1965…
For singer-songwriter Meaghan Smith, the glamour of being signed to a major label and life on the road faded. Stepping away from music to start a family and focus on health, Smith missed the connection with her music and fans. Today she is back doing the music industry her own way with her Our Song…
The major news stories of 2017 highlight how much labour has come off the backs of activists, but they also emphasize how much further we still need to go. From Cornwallis and street checks to white fragility and Pride’s pinkwashing, Halifax has a lot of work to do. Fortunately, the resilient spirit of resistance in this…
Lorne Grabher, Jacques Dubé, Jamie Baillie walks away Street check data, Jimmy Melvin, rockets in Canso Robert Bjerke, Lady Drive Her, Sea Bridge floating on the water Cheryl Blossom, Donkin mine, Whitman says “negro” Saltwire buys out Transcon, women march on Washington Moonlight beats out La La Land, Matthew, Bill and Jad are canned David…
Most of the news in 2017 has been spent documenting and/or trying to hide from all the horrible garbage fires happening around us. Here, at the end of the year, we instead wanted to raise a glass of kindness to those who are making this city better—the local points of lights in an otherwise abysmally…
The first time Sue Goyette read The Odyssey was in high school. She liked the logic of the myth and how things could be solved creatively in unexpected ways. Then, after experiencing her own personal epic, she returned to the poem, curious about its scope and things had shifted. “I was hungry for another narrative,”…
In a year commemorating many anniversaries, 2017 is a landmark, for better or for worse. And with so much political upheaval it often felt like a landmark to come, history in the making. So with a historical lens pointed in all directions, it is no surprise that some of the most interesting exhibitions reflected this…
Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals at Halifax Jazz Festival Watching Anderson .Paak, one of the hottest current R&B artists, alternate between jumping around the stage to hyping the crowd from behind a drum kit seemed too good to actually be happening in Halifax. The crowd ate it up, singing along with every word and…
When it comes to rape, the idea of consent is necessary but fundamentally flawed. It is primarily a legal term that has failed women in Canadian criminal law and its popular use in dialogue around sexual assault misses the point. The idea of consent unwittingly reinforces the premise of rape culture. I once worked in…
The Boat, Theatre New Brunswick Presented by TNB at Neptune’s Studio Theatre, Ryan Griffiths’ The Boat is an adaptation of Alistair MacLeod’s beloved short story of the same name. It is a deeply affecting memory play about the lives of Cape Breton fisherman, beautifully written and impeccably acted here. Bone Cage, Matchstick Theatre A great…
The Federal Task Force on Cannabis Legalization and Regulation recommends cannabis be sold separately from booze, in stand-alone stores. That’s the way PEI and New Brunswick are gonna deal with legal weed. It’s an approach endorsed by multiple studies explaining how THC and alcohol exacerbate each other’s effects and intensify injury and fatalities when mixed,…
The Zuppa Theatre Co. has made plays set locally before—Penny Dreadful takes place in a Nova Scotia mansion circa 1863; How Small, How Far Away happens in the north end in 2010—but At This Hour: The Deposition of Harbour Pilot Francis Mackey takes a different approach: It’s a piece of verbatim theatre that will be performed in the room…
Q As a 36-year-old straight woman with autism, I am often misidentified as lesbian because my social signaling must read as masculine. I am not bothered by this. However, it is annoying when someone who should know better thinks I would hide it if I were LGBTQ+. I’m very direct and honest—sometimes to my detriment—and…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Sagittarius (Nov 22-Dec 21) At one point in his career, the mythical Greek hero Hercules was compelled to carry out a series of 12 strenuous labours. Many of them were glamourous adventures: Engaging in hand-to-hand combat with a monstrous lion; liberating the god Prometheus, who’d been so kind to humans, from being tortured…
DARTMOUTH We all know the moment Dartmouth started flirting with becoming cool: It was when Two if By Sea opened its doors in November 2009. But, frankly, it turned colder and there’s where it ended. For awhile, anyway. (Let’s be honest: One great cafe does not a cool downtown make.) The last couple have years…
