New digs for Black Buffalo Records
The new year has brought a new home for Kevin Beal’s Black Buffalo Records. After getting the business up and running out of Gottingen Street’s Plan B merchants’ co-op, Beal’s found a space not too far around the corner where Black Buffalo can stand on its own two feet. “My long term goals were always…
Kannon Beach brightens up Blowers
The surfing community, and the downtown Halifax shopping district, were hit with a one-two punch in December when both DaCane Surf Shop and If Only Surf Shop broke the news that they’d both be closing. But thankfully it seems that when two doors close, another one opens. Veteran on the surf scene, the Lawrencetown-based Kannon…
If Only’s swan song
After five years on the corner of Morris and Queen streets, If Only Surf Shop (1300 Queen Street) is saying goodbye. The windows of the shop, which usually allure shoppers with a glimpse at uber-stylish mens fashions and surf boards aplenty, were papered over last week announcing the specialty shop’s closing sale. If Only regulars…
Vote now in the Best of Music readers’ choice awards
Click here to have your say on the best in the scene. Survey closes February 5, two minutes to midnight.
Most provincial SAP workers turn down job offers from IBM
Part of the agreement between the provincial government and IBM for outsourcing the province’s SAP program included the stipulation that government workers be offered offered jobs at IBM, at their current rate of pay. Some 72 provincial SAP workers were offered such jobs, but only 28 have accepted employment at the company. That leaves 44…
The year in review
Its was the best of times, it was the worst of times. But mostly the worst of times. Still, these were interesting times, and we had a lot of fun reporting on 2012. Here are the highlights: January The year started with the province announcing that it is cutting university budgets by three percent. “Universities…
Toast with the most
You went. You saw. You’re still picking confetti out of your hair. Upon waking up for the first time in 2013, you’ll likely have nothing on the brain except breakfast. Except, it’ll be too late for breakfast—so brunch it is! The Prince George Hotel— practically famous for its monstrous weekend brunch—has somehow stepped it up…
Go big or go Estate
It’s not the easiest thing in the world to rewrite a classic but from the sounds of it, that’s exactly what Hannah Rittner does with Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard”—a story about a family that returns to its ancestoral home just before it’s auctioned off—to great success. “What Hannah’s done is she’s just taken his themes…
So long, Robie Food
For as long as I’ve lived in Halifax, I’ve eaten at Robie Food Chop Suey House at least once a month. The July closure of the longtime Chinese food staple (that coincidentally also sold staples) was—for me and many—one of the saddest moments in Halifax food history to date. Could there have been a more…
2012’s artpocalypse
Halifax is a city buzzing with cultural energy and 2012 was a year of quirky, political and seductive art, all while powering through a serious arts funding discrepancy compared to the rest of Canada. In a word, 2012 was plucky. Here’s a short list of what stood out in the arts world this year. Emily…
Get ‘LO
At the end of last year, Drake released The Motto, which made YOLO (You Only Live Once) the most abused phrase of 2012, so much so that his mixtape with the bawse Rick Ross, originally titled YOLO, was later renamed. But YOLO dominated pop-culture and, by extension, our vibrant Halifax music scene. This year, everybody…
December 27, 2012
Ships stay here I rarely write letters to the editor, however the blog post “Will Halifax lose shipbuilding work” (Reality Bites by Tim Bousquet, December 20) got my attention this morning. I’ve written to you for two reasons: The politics behind it don’t seem realistic and Bousuqet has demonstrated a remarkable lack of understanding of…
Led Zeppelin
When Led Zeppelin announced they were reuniting in honour of the late Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, my friend Spencer said he would kill a man to get his hands on a ticket. Five years later, Celebration Day captures the once in a lifetime performance in pristine audio quality for those who missed out. Robert…
Les Miserables
The labyrinthian novel turned Broadway spectacle remade into Hollywood award-bait lives up to the greatest of expectations in Les Miserables. Hugh Jackman gives it his all as upwardly mobile French convict Jean Valjean, who avoids the law and tries to make peace with god while raising an orphan child in dangerous French times. Director Tom…
Solange Knowles
For years Solange Knowles struggled to escape the shadow cast by her older sister, unable to achieve the same mainstream success. Now that R&B has been heralded by tastemakers as the most hip of all genres, Solange has reinvented herself as one of the movement’s indie figureheads. Her new EP, True, has the fingerprints of…
Sustainable news
This isn’t a column I chose to write. That’s unusual. The only interference The Coast has ever run with my topic selection has been on Earth Day (“ya gotta cover Earth Day, even if you hate the concept”) and Halloween (“we want the whole issue scary!”). Those instances led to some of my favourite columns:…
Hooked on Power
When you think of hooked rugs you might think of little old ladies hunched over pre-made patterns or folk-art scenes—not exactly the stuff of artistic rebellion. That’s because you haven’t seen Craig Fancis Power’s emerging artist exhibit at the AGNS yet. Get ready to never look at hooked rugs the same way again. The featured…
The Soupcans
The Soupcans serve up garbage man realness, with punk so trashy the drums may be made of cardboard boxes. Relentless rhythms, tortured vocals, beyond-fuzzy guitars and my favourite bass tone—where it sounds like the amp is broken—come together to create perfect, painful punk. My favourite tracks, “Outlander” and “Altered States” have secret melodic hooks buried…
You go, Earle
With half its members heading for the hills—one keyboardist in Canterbury, England and the other in Alberta—fans of Windom Earle were hard-pressed for awhile there to see anything at all, let alone something new. “There’s only two of us really left in Halifax,” says band leader Stephen MacLeod. “For this show we’re doing, it’s more…
Calvin Harris
This Scottish DJ has written and produced a succession of UK dance hits. Five of them are on 18 Months. Only “We Found Love” with Rihanna has been a chart-topper on this side of the ocean, so far. Harris employs a rhythmic keyboard attack on the heels of repetitive chorus. You know it’s coming but…
Gold medal mixes
Largely a staple of turntablism (can I get a wicka-wicka-wha?), the long running DJ Olympics returns after a postponement earlier in the year. Citing venue and funding issues organizers vowed to not “half-ass our way through this event.” Pitting DJs, beatboxers and MCs against each other, competitors have 15 minutes to wow the crowd and…
The politics of monogamish
Q I just started an intense relationship with a guy who has a boyfriend. This guy and I love each other. However, he is uncomfortable with me meeting his boyfriend. I’ve asked if it’s OK that we’re fucking, and he said they’re in an open relationship so it’s OK. I asked if it’s OK that…
Django Unchained
The story of two bounty hunters, an ex-slave named Django (Jamie Foxx) and the German Dr. Schultz (Christoph Waltz), Django Unchained is not for those with weak stomachs. In classic Quentin Tarantino fashion, Django marries heavy gore with his encyclopedic cinematic knowledge—in this case, of Spaghetti Westerns. A search for Django’s wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington),…
Free Will Astrology
Happy Birthday! CAPRICORN (DECEMBER 22-JANURARY 19) In 2013, I pledge to help you bring only the highest-quality influences and self-responsible people into your life. Together we will work to dispel any unconscious attraction you might have to demoralizing chaos or pathological melodrama. We will furthermore strive to ensure that as you deepen and fine-tune your…
Feed your conscience
So you already bought the dress or the perfect silver bowtie when all of a sudden you pull a full Grinch and your heart grows three sizes bigger. Now what? Your social conscience is weighing on you like that gold tiara you swore you’d find a reason to wear and the clock is ticking down.…
Jack Reacher
Tom Cruise is the best at everything except acting as Jack Reacher, in the new crime thriller Jack Reacher. Casting megastar Cruise as a brilliant ex-army super cop with skills rivalling Batman isn’t the worst idea. But the inflexible Cruise plays his titular role with a shoulder shrugging boredom that sucks the energy from his…
I’ll be home for dinner
If you want to spend your New Year’s Eve eating then just stop reading right now, you’ve found your special dinner soulmate. “It’s a huge food fest,” says Cyndi Locke, Grafton Street Dinner Theatre’s manager. “We have them for a long time, seven hours, all day, so we kinda give ’em dinner and a lunch—the…
The Guilt Trip
Entirely disposable, The Guilt Trip takes a couple of fine actors down the road of least success. Floundering salesman Seth Rogen just found out he’s named after his doting, single mother’s long lost love. So he invites mom along on his cross-country sales trip in hopes of getting her a date. Both leads are punching…
Lake it to the limit
An event that sells out year after year pretty much comes with a guarantee of greatness. Back for the fifth year of lakeside good times is the Banook Canoe Club’s New Year’s Eve party, the popular Dartmouth celebration that also raises dollars for restoring the club. So, you can feel really awesome about your end…
This is 40
Judd Apatow strays too far into sentimentality in This is 40, a comedy about entering your forties married with two kids. Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann, Apatow’s wife—characters from Apatow’s last feature, Knocked Up—are hitting a midlife crisis, questioning their relationship, stressing over their kids, Sadie and Charlotte (Maude and Iris Apatow) and…
Getting home on New Year’s Eve
It’s that time of year again: amateur drinking time. That means the roads are clogged with a bunch of drunk drivers. Don’t be one of them, OK? Jeesh, this is 20-fricken-12—there’s really no excuse for it. Unfortunately, Operation Red Nose, where you entrusted your car to complete strangers, has gone kaput because it couldn’t secure…
Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away
Cirque du Soleil is a spectacle that doesn’t quite translate to the big screen. Worlds Away, directed by Andrew Adamson and produced by James Cameron, tells the story of a girl who falls for an aerialist—before they can be together, they venture through an odyssey of circus worlds. Cirque du Soleil is impressive, stretching the…
