Quinpool now open, and late
Steamy’s Restaurant (6300 Quinpool Road, 405-8855) is now open until 5am on Saturday and Sunday mornings. (That’s late Friday and Saturday night for you partiers, dancers and swingers.) Also, we’ve noticed that the stylish Bermudan food eatery Rock Island Café (6193 Quinpool Road, 406-4385) is up for lease. And Pamela Kennedy is opening a hair…
Barrington Street blues, continued
Things are somewhat gloomy down Barrington way. With the closure in the past two months of Peepshow (1717 Barrington) and Tim Hortons (The corner of Barrington and Sackville) and with CD Plus and Carsand-Mosher planning to close their stores—the Baron of Barrington, Starfish Properties’ Louis Reznick is in the process of purchasing it—the image of…
Power elite strike back with bogus statistics
HRM council debated the “tax reform” proposal for nearly three hours January 26 before defeating it on a 13-10 vote. But, in a widely circulated email sent out after the vote (on the web, here), Malcolm Fraser, chair of the political group Citizens for Halifax, says it’s a “fact” that “40 percent of the recorded…
Know shelter
The Out of the Cold emergency winter shelter began organizing in the fall of 2008 as a response to a reduction in the number of shelter beds in Halifax. Together, service providers of all kinds created a safe space where those who could not access other beds in the city could come for the night.…
Information is key
I want to thank Lezlie Lowe for “Is she safe?” (January 14). It is important that the media provides informative articles on the issue of violence against women and uncover the stories of women who have been harmed. I want to clarify a point raised in the article about the number of women on the…
Getting schooled
Dear student who keeps sending vitriolic, grammatically flawed, typographically suspect and unsigned letters regarding his/her student loans (Letters, January 14): Evidently, your school is not requiring an acceptable level of writing skills of its students, or you are not making use of the education for which you are receiving said student loans. As an individual…
Barrington Street moves farther from heaven
It seems that even the celestial beings are now abandoning sad old Barrington Street. About six months ago, a large, raw plywood door appeared on the stone wall outside of Grand Parade, in front of the bus stop. Open the latch and there was a wooden triptych of a saint, custom-sized for the space. On…
Dine out now
Ongoing until February 11 is the Dine Out program in local restaurants, launched through the Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia and in conjunction with Savour Food and Wine Show, taking place at the Halifax Marriot on February 25. What does this mean to you, oh Halifax restaurant frequenter? It means that a passel of local…
1,580 Canadian soldiers injured and killed in Afghanistan
The table above lists the annual number of soldiers injured, wounded and killed from the beginning of the Canadian military deployment to Afghanistan in April 2002 to December 31, 2009. Sharp increase in injuries The figures, released to the Coast by the Department of National Defence, show that a total of 1,580 Canadian soldiers had…
This is Sidney Crosby’s basement….sort of
By now, you’ve probably seen Sidney Crosby’s new Reebok commercial and know all about the legend of the pockmarked dryer. If not: This is my town. This is my house. This is my mom and dad. This is my basement…. Whoa. Wait a second… This commercial has me all riled up like a bad case…
Damned Cash Grabs!
WTF?? $14.44 for a pair of cheap speakers for my computer and there’s a freakin $3.50 (that’s 24.2%) fee tacked on *before* the HST? And you just know that I’ll never see that $3.50 when I “do the right thing” and drop the speakers off at one of those centers the stupid commercials mentioned, where…
Why is clothing made for FAT PEOPLE?
I am sick and tired of guys clothing that is way too wide! I’m just over 6 feet, and this doesn’t imply that I’m FAT! Every time I get a sweater or jacket that “fits” me then there’s way too much excess material around the chest and belly. I could fit another (normal sized) person…
Douche calls police on toddlers
To the douchebag who called the police over noisy toddlers playing outside at a daycare in a family suburban neighbourhood: Don’t you think our police resources would be better used actually solving crime rather than quieting down some jubilant kiddies while you nurse your hangover?—Mom who loves her loud 15-month old.
:) Now there’s a beautiful smile!
To the homeless or not so homeless guy thats in front of tim hortons on spring garden road. You are my favorite “beggar” around. I don’t think I have ever heard you ask for money – you like to see people smile :). As people walk by I hear you say “have a wonderful day…
Cover of The Coast
Carmen Townsend may have a unique voice but she can’t have “Cape Breton’s Most unique voice…” Like pregnancy, there are no degrees of “unique.” You’re one of a kind or not.—Dana Phillip Doiron, Mahone Bay
The Good Food
We both go out to eat at Good Food Emporium, frequently at lunch time, on the same days, we always look each other, with shy beautiful eyes. You’re so pretty I am satisfied eating our lunches 30 feet away from each other, I hope soon we can eat them side by side. Thanks for the…
Grrr, Landlords!
I came in to the apartment early morning Feb 1st to mop after the move, as with messy winter shoes, the floors were a mess. A kind considerate tenant. You, on the other hand, you thoughtless horrid bully, came in and screamed and swore at me to get the EFF out. Most landlords would have…
patient zero
OKAY Okay Seriously You are a full grown man: cover your mouth when you cough. Also: cover your face when you sneeze. It’s disgusting! It’s not like you did it one time and it surprised you… It’s every single time, it’s like you are trying to spread your germs to everyone else so they are…
How to skip the tip at a restaurant
Not sure if this is true or not, but when you pay with your credit card at a restaurant and leave the “customer” copy with a tip amount on it and take the “restaurant” copy, the restaurant cannot legally charge you the tip. Woohoo…I hope this is true. I will begin trying it out. Skip…
DalTech dimwits
A big ol DROP DEAD to the grown brat who made a mess of the library bathroom today. Is it intentional or what?!?! The stench and the, erm, “floatables” in the toilet were bad enough, but I haven’t a clue why or how you left that big puddle of piss in front of the toilet.…
Whatever
F@#% you for telling me that you love me. I’m not a COMPLETE moron. Clearly your ‘mini-confessions’ were no more than a tool to play with my emotions. Thanks a lot. Jerk.—Say that to my face why don’t cha
Oh Winter why do you have to be so Awesome!
I just love winter, nothing is better than clearing the pond, getting your freshly sharpened skates on and playing some pick-up. Winter is just a great time of year!—Lover of the white fluffy stuff 🙂
shut the hell up
to the students who feel it is necesary to have a full-blown conversation at a ridiculously loud volume in the hallways of smu…shut the hell up. as a professor who is trying to get some work done so they can (hopefully) present their classes with some interesting subject material, your conversations right outside my office…
Offensive T-shirt
I went out for dinner the other night for a treat, and came back with hepatitis. ok, no I didn’t. But that’s what the t-shirt implied on my servers back. “I use protection….SPF 20!” haha I get it..you have unprotected sex..ha…oh wait, gross. This here’s a family place, joking about that is tasteless and uncalled…
Cast your Academy vote and you could win
Why should the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have all the fun when it comes to the international sport of Oscar speculation? Cast your ballot as a member of The Coast’s academy, and you might be one of five lucky winners of a prize from Empire Theatres: a pair of tickets that you…
Make sure you are single on April 3: Wolf Parade are coming to town
Channelling Carnac the Magnificent: “Taking an inordinately long time to assure your t-shirt falls just so over your shoulder before hitting the town.” (tears open envelope) “What you will be doing on Friday, April 3 before the Wolf Parade show at The Paragon Theatre (10pm, $25 at www.ticketpro.ca).” HI-YOOOOOO!
Ice wines among us
Starting February 4 and going through until Valentine’s Day is the Nova Scotia Winter Icewine Festival. Though many of the events are taking place out at Nova Scotia vineyards such as Benjamin Bridge, Gaspereau and Jost, a number of local joints are getting in on the action. Inquire at Five Fishermen and Little Fish (1740…
Now Megadeth and Slayer are coming on July 26th. Or whatever.
Mustaine! Megadeth, Slayer and Testament have rescheduled again their Canadian Carnage Tour for Monday, July 26th (6:40pm, $64.50 online at www.ticketatlantic.com) at the Halifax Metro Centre. Tickets already purchased for the postponed Canadian Carnage shows will be honoured for these rescheduled dates. SIIIIIIIIGH. Bright side: All this wishing and hoping and praying (to Satan) has…
CKDU 88.1FM celebrates 25 years of community broadcasting
Someone buy them a silver microphone! From Press Release HQ: “This February 1st through February 7th, radio listeners in HRM will take a trip back in time as CKDU 88.1FM celebrates 25 years of community broadcasting with archival clips and visits from former radio hosts. Celebrations will start on February 1st with a special collaborative…
…that name again is Mister Plough…
Can someone PLEASE tell me why there are still miain roads in Dartmouth that have not been ploughed after a snowfall on FRIDAY? My street in the ‘burbs got done that night, but three of the main streets in Burnside where I work have not been ploughed at all…—do huge business tax breaks = shitty…
Internets freedom of speech ability should have limitations…
Sick of reading all this fear mongering, propaganda bullshit on the internet (Youtube and blogs)… N W O, FemaTrains, Chemtrails, orgone sky-cleaning devices…. The orgone sky-cleaning Youtube sites are by far the most entertaining. This is what happens when freaks and gullible people gain access to the internet and are allowed to unleash their “Freedom…
A little cold for a outdoor event!
To the kids… I mean the promoters of last Saturday nights shit show @ York Redoubt, wtf were you thinking taking 200+ kids in the back of a u-haul to a closed for the season national park to rave over night in -15 weather? Are you guys insane? That shit is wack and I really…
HRM BUS DRIVERS IN TWISTED METAL!!!!!!
I hate the HRM bus’s so much I would like to entertain you all with a scenario of bogus nature meets the traits of a typical HRM bus driver. Imagine if you will if the HRM bus drivers were a part of the classic video game saga Twisted Metal(where the objective of the game is…
burbs
What the hell is wrong with you people? The downtown is drying up & blowing away, and the BLIP is so full on a Saturday night at 6:30 that you have to line up for an hour to eat crap food at a chain restaurant. Like we needed Dartmouth Crossing! Get your priorities straight.—city gal
You’re a bunch of lovely people
Everyone always ends up generalizing women, men, good, bad.. and often-times we end up ‘seeing’ bad experiences before they happen. I think everyone could be a littler happier by treating and being treated on a person to person basis. There are a lot of happy and amazing people in the world. There are a lot…
To the girl who always complains in class
You dont know me, and I dont know you. But I hope you know that the world doesn’t revolve around you sometimes! Picking random arguments with the teachers, saying stupid shit like “Why are you looking at me like that for?” or “Why does he get to go to the washroom and I dont? Are…
You live in Halifax…Halifax is not the ‘ghetto’
I am tired of being harassed by these kids who think they are “hard as fuck” or “ghetto”. It’s bad enough when these kids are in their teens, but now you see fucking eight year olds going around, trying to make comments to me, and I am twice their age. No respect at all. When…
Stefani
Lady GaGa listening to your music is as boring and depressing as reading the signs and symptoms of any known malady.—your crotch also fails to impress
PETA Douchebags
Who else is getting as fucking sick and tired of these idiots. Using pies as a weapons (and could have been a gun) against poiticians or whoever don’t agree with them. And then fucking stage one of their own people being “pied”. Do you think we’re actually that fucking stupid? Or do you think that…
Bitching about how people bitch
I always hear people talk about how postal workers are all serial killers, and as a employee of Canada post, I can see why because people are always bitching about the price of stamps and parcels. Seriously people fuck off, sorry that you waited until the last day to send your fucking fridge to abu…
My Bum Hurts
I just wanted to say thank you to the nice gentlemen who watched me slip in the snow and fall on Duke street early yesterday morning. I really appreciate that instead of helping me back up, or even asking if I was alright, you decided to step directly over me and keep going. Thank you…
People Still Care
On my way to work around 6 am this morning in the freezing cold and wind, I had lost my bus ticket, and with no change I resigned myself to a frigid walk. Passing by PG’s the bus stopped, when I told the driver I had no change, he told me it was to cold…
But could I name you
I hope the blood rots in your veins from pure shame you back door creeping home wrecker. If you had honour you would meet me face to face but I know you have none and will not. My once beloved wife is now my mortal harbinger of an existence to wake each day, day after…
PSSTs, not loves
Hi – There were submitted as loves but they are really PSSTs. Our PSSTs have move (again) to a lovely new home on Halifax Match. Please repost them there. Thanks! Last night (January 28) at about midnightish, me and my friend were entering MacDonalds and a guy in a black touque an jacket biked past…
Be. Massage Therapy celebrates a birthday
Drop by Be. Massage Therapy (at the YMCA, 1565 South Park Street, 422-4512) for coffee and muffins and information about massage therapy on Tuesday, February 9 to celebrate the business’s fifth anniversary. All proceeds from massage bookings that day will be donated to Gary Jones: Thyroid Cancer Awareness and Cancer Research Cycling Across Canada.
Festival Express IDOW Round Up
All good things must come to an end. The closing evening of In the Dead of Winter is always a touch bittersweet. After many late nights spent listening on minimal sleep, socializing, eating sporadic meals and perhaps drinking a little too much to drink for a Wednesday, everyone seems burnt out from festival exhaustion. With…
Barenaked Ladies at the Halifax Metro Centre April 24
Is it weird to say these guys look like they are aging well? It’s not like I want to make out with them or anything. That’s right, the BNLs are coming to the Halifax Metro Centre Theatre for Saturday, April 24 (8pm, with guest Joel Plaskett. Tickets are $57.50 and are available now at www.ticketatlantic.com,…
Owen Pallett second show added
Polaris Prize winner Owen Pallett (the artist formerly known as Final Fantasy) has added a second show Thursday, February 11 at St. Matthew’s Church (all ages, doors at 7pm, show at 8pm, $20/$25. Tickets are available online at www.ticketpro.ca ). Pallett and tour-mate Basia Bulat are touring to promote their respective new albums, Heartland and…
Hell Freezes Over afterparty tonight at Gus’ Pub!
Metal fonts: Possibly the most innovative fonts of all. (That says Fistfight) Because of my computer troubles, this is posted too late, but as any loyal Scene and Heard reader will know, it was published Thursday in the newspaper. Remember papers? Those dry, fluttery things that make your fingers dirty? What you really need to…
In the Dead of Winter’s Musical Feast
Tanya Davis, Don Brownrigg, Amelia Curran, Justin Rutledge, Dinah Thorpe, Catherin MacLellan, Jim Bryson, Gianna Lauren
Melissa McClelland enchants IDOW festival
Melissa McClelland “I’ve never played in a church,” says Carmen Townsend, with her bright red shaggy bangs falling in her face. The Cape Bretoner is all charm. Her vocal play is reminiscent of Rebekah Higgs meets Jenn Grant, but her sound is entirely her own. Townsend takes listeners on a journey through the tumbling acrobats…
Kansas ascends to the Getty Center
The Getty Centre is like Valhalla over Century City To go to The Getty Centre is to feel somehow ascended. It is huge—five main buildings. It is high—in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains. It looks down on Los Angeles. And yet, for all its grandness, it is made for people; built on a…
Mama Gratti’s Sandwich Maker!
Thanks for making my day. You made my awesome veggie-filled wrap perfectly, then you cracked a joke about it being a sub-compact car. When you rolled it you made a car accident joke, and immediately appologized. Never appologize for being geuinely nice and funny. I was having a crappy day and you totally changed that.…
OMFG – More Bus Driver Love
I won’t name your route or locale just in the off chance that you were violating some asinine Metro Transit regulation. But, for the driver who spent his layover feeding bits of his sandwich to a flock of corbies today, may your path be free of obstacles and your coach free of douchebags. The guys…
Office life at its finest…
Ok lady, it’s totally disgusting that you go into the bathroom stall,use it, then come out fix your self and then leave- WITHOUT WASHING YOUR HANDS! I’ve seen you do this plenty of times. Oh and to the other lady that fakes washing her hands (turns the water on for a milisecond then pull out…
Late Late Afternoon with Craig Ferguson
The old intro to The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson had a montage of disturbingly ugly characters – men with nightmarish dental work and comb-overs. When I was up late and David Letterman was over I switched stations right away to avoid the British/Scottish comedy thing of really mean caricature and whoever Craig Whatshisname…
To my former IDIOT neighbor
Thanks for causing a fire that burned down my fucking apartment. My life will never be the same. I managed to get out with my life, for which I am thankful, but you fucked up the rest of my life, majorly, and then didn’t have the balls to show your face after the fire. Asshole.…
To the Rotten Bastards who looted my apartment after the fire
It was hard enough to find myself running out of a burning apartment building New Year’s Eve because of a fire that started in the apartment of my idiot neighbor, and consequently burned all of our apartments. But then when I went back to sift through the rubble, many things had been looted through, like…
I pity you.
I just wanted to say a big FUCK YOU! to all the oblivious, apathetic, lazy, inconsiderate people out there. News flash: OTHER PEOPLE EXIST! Could pry you face off your Mac book and your cell phone from your ear and wake the fuck up! There is a real living world around you, and you are…
federal environment minister and the natural resource minister SUCK
We need to start a letter writting campaign, and let these ministers know, we don’t want them exploiting sable island for anything. The very fact that no one is allowed there is why its still preserved. The argument of turning it into a park to protect it is absolutely absurd, its already protected by the…
Toyota Gas Pedals
Why is this a huge story, claiming it is the downfall of Toyota as a car manufacturer? The problem is only that the floor mat catches the gas pedal and holds the pedals down. Here is your solution: Step #1: Remove the goddamned mat. Step #2: Cut a piece of the mat off. Step #3:…
My mom drives me up and back down the fucking wall!!!
My dear mother is so weary of everything I say or do. I’m 26, I’ve got a career, put myself through school, and I have never relied on them for money. I’m completely independent! But boy oh boy, if the topic of money or credit come into the picture she just has to have her…
Lucky
Hey Coast, Thanks again for picking me to win tickets to the Tegan & Sara concert on Wednesday. I had a wonderful time and it’s all thanks to you! —Free tickets are the best tickets
my dog has better aim than you do!
the fact that there are no women in the men’s public washroom doesn’t entitle those with lousy aim to splatter the seats. not all business is done standing up. go pick up a toilet seat at a yard sale and attach it to a wall in your apartment. practice with that and splatter all you…
The young HRM cop banging on my door today….
Fuck, you just made this homo very happy. You had the wrong apartment but wanted ID to make sure I was who I claimed to be. Did my BDSM stuff catch your eye after you walked in? Glad to see we both use handcuffs on a daily basis. Now, gotta ask – can I invite…
Hockey players get off my lake!
I am getting really pissed off at all the hockey players, well wanna-bes mostly, who dominate every smooth patch of ice on our lovely frozen lakes. I can’t skate for fear of getting body-checked by some boob with a hockey stick who can’t see where he is going. Or some guy by himself who wants…
Kitty Lovers who helped Cara
This is a whole pile of love for my friends, who saw a cat crossing the road and then getting hit by a car. They went door to door with the injured cat and nobody owned her, so they took her to an animal hospital. This is another pile of love to the folks at…
Bitchin about Bitches
I am having a particularly rough day at work. Everyone come to me with their bitches and gripes and not being willing to do anything about it! Except bitch and complain. Sure the management right now sucks. Sure they pick and choose who to promote and throw out the idea of rewarding someone with seniority…
boyz
fuck stupid boys who only want to get laid… why lead someone on only to later tell them “oh by the way, I don’t want a girlfriend… we can still have sex though, right?”. I mean REALLY! why would you spend so much time acting like you cared about me and getting to know me…
Shut up or break up
To the people who live in my building. I don’t know you, but I know your names because you scream at each other almost everyday. Sometimes in the afternoon, sometimes even at 3 in the fucking morning. If you fight that much should you really be together?!? You sound like you hate each other every…
Calling – But You Aren’t Really There!
About twice a week I get a call from the friendly Student Loans people – and not the NS ones. They have been outsourced to a lovely call center, which is great for their employees.. however, EVERY time I answer the phone I get a recorded voice asking me to hold the line. They never…
~~*rEpPin` ColByyy LoooP*~~
What’s with people typing like they have some sort of speech problem? I have been around you many times, and you certainly never say “fuck da hatas dey jus jellouss a ma boddd~~~*!~*~*”. Do you actually think it’s ‘cool’ to type like that? You think it makes you look “hArRd-aS-FcUKK”? Well listen ‘hUnNeEee*’, you live…
Good Lovelies and Rose Cousins warm hearts at IDOW
Natasha Peach In the Dead of Winter may be in its fifth year, but it hasn’t strayed far from the original vision once held in the legendary Khyber Club. As a Halifax-based festival, IDOW’s mission is to showcase up and coming local artists. Natasha Peach is merely one of the many songwriters featured this year.…
Sleepless Nights give you another EP, head out on a tour
Sleepless Nights kick off their winter tour this weekend and want to give you something to remember them by. The band is releasing a free downloadable EP this week, The Phone Booth Outside The Video Store, the second in a series of three (online at www.thesleeplessnights.com).
Best Coast is making my morning!
A friend recommended Best Coast to me, and couldn’t have been more on the money.
Review: Man of La Mancha
Beware the ear worms! Can you think of another show that has as many insidious tunes as Man of La Mancha? (I ended up humming “Dream the Impossible Dulcinea in a Cinnamon Tree.”) However, the inventive staging of this play-within-a-play makes it worth enduring the tunefully torturous car ride home. The creative team on this…
Richard Florida’s Creative Class to help select library design
Richard Florida, who’s like the Bono of urban philosophies, has become synonymous with his Creative Class theory: that cities of the future will only be successful if they attract and retain knowledge-based workers. When he moved to Toronto a couple of years ago, the creative-city-in-training was thrilled by his arrival—our national newspaper even gave him…
Fifty Dead Men Walking
This film has kind of a tough sell and almost pulls it off. It’s about a Northern Irish man (Jim Sturgess) working for the English as their snitch in the IRA. He tells them when bombs are going to go off, assassinations are going to happen, who’s who and what’s what. The story is a…
John K. Samson loves his Winnipeg
A< relationship to a city is complicated, a matter of love and hate. This, John K. Samson knows well. Examining his own city, Winnipeg—and with that lens, the archetypal Canadian city—has been a career-spanning project of The Weakerthans founder and singer and now solo artist, releasing late last year his first in a suite of…
Crazy Heart pulls the strings
Crazy Heart fits The Wrestler mold of a morose look at an ex-star falling apart. Only it’s more slight, in both impact and design. Music vet Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) is now an alcoholic reduced to playing bowling alleys, cherishing any moment of fan recognition. Director Scott Cooper forms the movie equivalent to country music—Crazy…
The Carter
Director Adam Bhala Lough lets Lil Wayne’s music speak in this one. It should always be that way in music docs, but Lough does it because he has to (Wayne refused to answer Lough’s questions and eventually dropped his support for the film and tried to sue the producers). The Carter is an affirmation of…
Live like Common people
“The consultation process is a joke,” says Katie, a 24-year-old student, lips quivering, eyes on the brink of tears. She announces that she is going to leave Halifax because the city doesn’t care about the desires of its populace. Halifax Regional Municipality makes her feel agentless. Peter Bigelow, manager of real property planning for HRM…
Dear John: Please stop trying so hard
What makes a movie land with a feather’s touch is a quality that is hard to pin down, but what makes lesser movies land with a thud is always glaringly apparent. Dear John—where star-crossed lovers John Tyree (Channing Tatum), a soldier in the US Army circa September 11 and its aftermath, and Savannah Curtis (Amanda…
In the Loop
See a junior minister, Simon Foster (Tom Hollander), in Britain’s government put his foot in it, talking out of turn about a “foreseeable” war. Now, you don’t see the British PM busily rationalizing an incursion, alongside America, into some unlucky country (in fudged Blair-Bush fashion). See Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), the begrudging Scottish director of…
Jenny Omnichord on tour with her toddler
The 2008 In the Dead of Winter was a memorable one for Jenny Mitchell, AKA Jenny Omnichord. “I thought I’d broken my foot, and people kept giving me whiskey for it.” So Mitchell went to the hospital where she got a pregnancy test prior to x-rays, and “I found out I was pregnant.” Two years…
The Lovely Bones too fantastical for loveliness
Fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) is murdered by the serial killer next door (Stanley Tucci), and watches from her fantastical heaven as her family (Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz) falls to pieces and police bungle the investigation. Director Peter Jackson obsesses over the awe of Susie’s afterlife but never considers how it could better illustrate…
DOCULA documents a bloody business
Peter Wintonick is troubled by the vampire trend in cinema, and he’s not talking about the Twilight series. Wintonick, the Montreal-based filmmaker behind such acclaimed documentaries as Manufacturing Consent, believes bureaucrats in the private and government sectors are guilty of “sucking the lifeblood” out of documentary filmmaking in Canada. Which is why he happily accepted…
“Tax Reform” proposal is dead
It started innocently enough. Concerned that rapidly increasing and uneven property assessments were resulting in big tax increases for homeowners, three years ago HRM councillors established the Tax Reform Committee and charged it with finding a better way to fund government. Along the way, however, the committee went off track. It embraced the concept of…
Leap Year fails in leaps and bounds
Even with the marriage-plot inversion of a woman (Amy Adams) proposing to her boyfriend (Adam Scott) on Leap Day (February 29, the only day women are allowed to do this), Leap Year’s plot wheels still need a remarkable base level of stupidity to keep them turning. Leap Year portrays Ireland as being in a state…
The Pinecones
Akin to Dylan plugging in way back when, Brent Randall leaves behind the keyboard to shoulder the guitar. Now, before you get your knickers in a knot, the scale of these two events obviously differs, but the spirit’s the same. Randall’s known for leading a pop-orchestra (previously, His Pinecones) from the piano/organ, so playing more…
Trusting Women
Last February, a group called Saint Mary’s Students for Life invited Jose Ruba, co-founder of the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform, to bring his anti-abortion message to SMU. Ruba juxtaposed images of aborted fetuses and Holocaust victims to illustrate his group’s motto, “When personhood is denied, the unthinkable becomes reality.” His presentation was met with…
No magical kiss for The Princess and the Frog
Returning to hand-drawn animation, The Princess and the Frog is traditional to a fault. The cultural pinnings and influences of 1920s New Orleans are whitewashed into a retread of the same-old. Aspiring restaurant-entrepreneur Tiana, Disney’s too-late first African-American cartoon heroine (then they turn her into a frog), fills the role of the working class dreamer-girl.…
Basia Bulat, Heart of My Own (Secret City)
The follow-up to her Polaris-nominated 2007 debut, Bulat’s sunshiny voice is again the crowning jewel of the record. This is a louder, more orchestrated record, with strings, brass and percussion appended to her own guitar and autoharp, rollicking numbers like “Gold Rush” and “If Only You” punctuated by more raucous drumbeats (provided by Bulat’s brother…
The Spy Next Door leaves its stealth at home
Jackie Chan is probably too old to once again break every bone in his body, so you can’t blame him for dialing down the scope gravitas of his action exploits. In The Spy Next Door, Chan, who is put in charge of Amber Valetta’s brood of moody, shrill brats when plot contrivances spirit her away,…
The Abramson Singers
Though it may sound like The Abramson Singers could pack a room like the Von Trapp kids, really it’s only Leah Abramson and her angelic voice singing most of the parts, accompanied by her Vancouver jazz musician friends. Abramson recorded her a cappella vocal pieces in organza-like layers—the harmonies build and then dance away in…
Tooth Fairy brings nothing but toothache
Without this film actually being worthy of a recommendation, Tooth Fairy’s key theme coalesced with another, more seismic pop cultural event last weekend: the end of Conan O’Brien’s Tonight Show. Unusual for a family film, Dwayne Johnson’s Tooth Fairy adds significant depth to its “believe in your dreams” platitude, with the implication that to do so requires…
Field Assembly
Those of you who appreciate the melodic tranquility of Great Lake Swimmers or Sun Kil Moon, hopefully didn’t miss Field Assembly when the band played the In the Dead Of Winter festival earlier this week. The nine songs on the band’s debut do not stray too far from the mid- to down-tempo and hushed vocals…
Youth in Revolt not rebellious enough
Nick Twisp (Michael Cera) is the world’s most talkative introvert. Socially inexperienced, constructing elaborate sentences and fascinated by foreign films and French songwriters, he falls hard for Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday)—an equally highbrow teen, who’s hot enough that her cool factor is miles above his own. Youth in Revolt’s indie intellect is cliche, and that…
Lee Fields
There is always room in the world for the likes of Lee Fields and albums like this. Released last year in Canada as an import, My World got a domestic date right up against the holiday rush (and all the attendant hyped-up releases). This is some real R&B/sweet soul right here. After all, Fields has…
Zangels are born in Legion
When god turns his/her (oh, it’s not worth getting into) back on humankind and sends a swarm of zombie-angels (Zangels?) to wipe it out, one man-angel-warrior (M-ang-orrior? played by Paul Bettany) takes matters into his own hands and bands with a renegade group of humans holed up in an isolated diner, fighting for their lives…
Aquarians: move toward greater freedom
AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18) In the coming week, I predict that you will NOT experience disgusting fascinations, smiling-faced failures, sensationalized accounts of useless developments or bizarre fantasies in the middle of the night. You may, on the other hand, have encounters with uplifting disappointments, incendiary offers of assistance, mysterious declarations of interdependence and uproars that…
Pedal to the mellow
Gus’ Pub & Grill “Whenever we have big metal shows, we order extra Olands,” says Jake Cuming, a bartender at Gus’. He stresses Olands, Olands, and more Olands. Plus cheap draughts. And whiskey shots—“The hard stuff.” 2605 Agricola Street, 423-7786 The Company House CoHo owner Mary Ann Daye suggests a bit of the hard stuff…
Bite Me, Julie Albert and Lisa Gnat (Pinky Swear Press)
Mixing humour into cookbooks is a tricky thing, unless it’s The Star Wars Cookbook and you’re making Wookie Cookies (they’re actually not bad). Too many puns can make your stomach turn, but here it’s easy to ignore the clever intros and occasionally raunchy jokes, and focus on the recipes and full-page glossy photos. Written by…
Book of Eli all slaughter, no heart
Decked out like Blade, with shades on and a sword on his back, Eli (Denzel Washington) ventures through decimated civilizations preaching the good book. He’s taken it all to heart, except the Thou Shalt Not Kill part. The Book of Eli directors The Hughes Brothers get off on silly over-the-top slaughter, while still expecting their…
Tyler Munford gives the big picture
One wall of Tyler Munford’s small apartment bedroom looks like an evidence board from a Law & Order episode. Photos of street scenes, colourful charts, online article printouts. Although it’s been almost two months since the NSCAD student was involved in an altercation with a Halifax Alehouse bouncer after Munford took his photo for a…
City’s Citizen’s Survey says…not much
One of my favourite American blogs is Nate Silver’s fivethirtyeight.com. Silver is a Chicago writer and owner of sports media company Baseball Prospectus and uses his blog to examine political polling. “Both baseball and politics are data-driven industries,” explains Silver. “But a lot of the time, that data might be used badly. In baseball, that…
Branding the environment
The environmental movement is good at bugging governments until they ban things like uranium mining or cosmetic pesticides. But it has sometimes failed at the more difficult task of bringing mainstream hearts and minds around to its way of thinking. What’s the point of laws most people don’t yet believe in? In the fight for…
Three times the alarm
Q I’m a single (mostly) gay guy who is curious about women. A hot bisexual mate is interested in a friends-with-benefits arrangement. I’m not looking for an LTR just now, so regular, no-strings sex sounds great. However, his girlfriend doesn’t know he’s bisexual, and I’d feel uncomfortable having sex with him behind her back. I’ve…
Moxie’s provides classic chain reaction
If I were prone to exaggeration, I would say that going to a big-box chain restaurant is the culinary equivalent of being at the bottom of Jame Gumb’s well. If someone surreptitiously brought me to a Jack Montana’s East Side Pizza-type restaurant, the parking lot would have a trail of claw marks and broken fingernails…
Four winter stars
Gianna Lauren Gianna Lauren is made for winter, or so she says. “Months’ worth of armchair time, reading and drinking tea,” she says. “The winter season forces you to relax and get creative with yourself.” On her album Fist Through a Heart, Lauren is a bit of a mystery. She’s part wallflower, part rocker, all…
Edge of Darkness down in the hole
Mel Gibson’s publicized blowup and now grizzled appearance inform his perception as Thomas Craven in Edge of Darkness. Both loving father and gruff duty-bound cop, his daughter’s murder pushes him to the brink of madness. Gibson embodies Thomas, physically and spiritually, as someone who has been to hell and back. The rest of Edge of…
Gamer
Built around the concept of a reality show that gives death-row inmates the opportunity to kill their way to freedom, Gamer is an update of the Schwarzenegger schlockfest The Running Man for the age of first-person shooter games. The twist here is that each con—including Gerard Butler’s wrongfully imprisoned John Tillman—is controlled remotely by an…
Talk of the Townsend
There are worse places to chase away mid-winter malaise than The Paragon Theatre on a Wednesday. The tables are laid with tea lights flickering like fireflies, the apricot beer is on special, and people lean their heads in to hear each other over the music thumping through the speakers. It’s Carmen Townsend’s third time playing…
When in Rome, skip this movie
High-concept romantic comedies are in vogue right now: Films like When in Rome and Leap Year hinge on contrived, asinine notions rather than the simple satisfaction of two interesting, likable people falling in love. Kristen Bell plucks coins from an ornate Roman fountain and soon has the coins’ owners employing Terminator-like tactics to win her…
In the Dead of Winter Celebrates Fifth Anniversary
Musical matrimony Luke and Melissa As I wandered down the balmy streets of Halifax this afternoon to I bumped into Tim Crabtree, mastermind behind Paper Beat Scissors, who was heading home for a bite to eat before his show later at the Bus Stop Theatre. We stopped and chatted, noting the unusually warm winter’s day…
