War torn
Dear Editor,As I write, there have been one more death and three more serious Canadian casualties in our undeclared war in Afghanistan and the experts are warning us to expect more to come. And for what reason this suffering except to support Bush’s so called ‘war on terrorism’. In effect our troops serve to free…
JT LieRoy
Back in October we alerted you to an excellent piece by Stephen Beachy in New York magazine, which wondered, “Who is the Real JT LeRoy?” The story implied that the cult author of Sarah and The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things — whose much-touted backstory as a Southern ex-hooker rescued from the parking lot…
From Gods to kings
Discouraged by bands with similar — or identical — names and anxious to put a year of hardship behind them, The Porcelain Gods aspire to freshness in 2006 with the same songs and a new brand. Halifax’s reigning kings of power-pop will henceforth be known as Their Majesties. “It conjures images of grandeur, pomp and…
Downward dog, upward future
The Yoga Loft at 5663 Cornwallis celebrates its first year in business on January 15 with a week of free yoga for everyone, from January 16 to 22. “It’s our way of saying a big ‘thank you’ to the people of Halifax for their support and goodwill during our first year,” says owner and director…
Bribezillas
In an interview with Chronicle-Herald reporter Michael Lightstone last month, HRM councillor Dawn Sloane revealed that, four years ago, a local developer offered her a roll of bills in a private meeting. After the story ran, further coverage revealed that two other HRM councillors had been offered bribes during their tenure, all by local, as…
The proof is in the training
To the editor, Upon reading Liz Feltham’s article “The eat beat” (December 29), I was of the opinion it seemed a bit incomplete. She mentions restaurant owners are having a hard time finding good servers due to a labour shortage. Logically, wouldn’t the solution to this be to actually raise a server’s wages above minimum…
Be nice, north end
To the editor, I’m writing about my disappointment in some members of Halifax’s activist community. Fred, in the north end, was recently vandalized. On the building corner on North and Agricola “Go away Fred,” and “Fred is gentrification” was spray painted on the windows and facade. Having been a part of organized activism in the…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Acknowledge beautiful truths, Capricorn, says Rob Brezsny.
Savage Love
I’m a bisexual male in the US Army Reserves who was deployed to Iraq about a year ago. I never came out or told anyone that I’m a sometimes cocksucker. I did, however, talk quite freely about my experiences at swingers’ parties with my ex-girlfriend. Over the course of the deployment, two other male soldiers…
Stars and strife
“Every civilization finds it necessary to negotiate compromises with its own values.” So says Golda Meir, the former prime minister of Israel, in Munich, Steven Spielberg’s new film about men who hunt down those responsible for the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The quote, and the movie, have upset some…
Fighting words
Pa used to recite an old Puritanical rhyme: “I slept and dreamed that life was Beauty/But woke to find that life was Duty.” No wonder he loathed Irving Layton, the Canadian poet who died last week at 93. “Whatever else poetry is freedom,” Layton wrote, adding years later: “A poem is an Alka-Seltzer tablet: orthodoxies…
Hot hot heat
Peter Blackie is uniquely positioned in three ways: He’s project architect for the new Creighton Street house he’s planning to move into later this year. Secondly, the site couldn’t be any closer to work; it’s a stone’s throw from the window of his office at MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects. And his might be the first geothermal-heated…
Feist Club
Admit it: you wish Leslie Feist was your girlfriend. One of the big stories in Canadian music in 2005, Feist did not just succeed in her native country, she conquered the world, with her face plastered on and music reviewed in any and every trendy magazine from France to Japan, the United States to Australia.…
Get your Fuck on
Brian Borcherdt doesn’t have a lot of downtime. Whether he’s out on tour or just driving between his home base in Yarmouth and his creative centre in Toronto, penning a tune for his solo project, The Remains of Brian Borcherdt or developing a new concept for his red-hot electronica improv combo, Holy Fuck, he always…
Munich
A hotel bomb has detonated, killing its intended target, but the impact also blew out the wall of the young couple in the room next door. Amid body parts and debris, the girl is frantically complaining to her boyfriend that she’s been blinded. Immediately we’re back into the planning stages of the Mossad operatives, who…
Saege’s wisdom
There are not a lot of female role models in Metro’s culinary scene, but even if there were, Unni Simensen would rank among the top. The talent behind Scanway Catering, Simensen is proof that success is possible in the fickle restaurant world—provided you have passion for your craft, an innate ability to give your guests…
Rice (pudding) dream
Winter is already on the wane, but you’d never know by the way it’s dark at 7am and 5pm and grey in between. It’s damp and it’s cold and though we’ve been spared a big snowfall—so far—the threat of a blizzard is hanging over all of our heads. Put that together with the after-Christmas no-money…
Jacob’s letters
The text covering the walls of the Khyber Ballroom looks familiar. Each letter, each word, each sentence, all written in black or hot-pink shiny plastic tape, spreads across an L-shaped portion of the gallery in manic urgency; only after a second or so do the messages become clear. Someone has written direct responses to some…
SAVAGE LOVE
You want to have sex? Ask Dan Savage.
