The art of musical language
Language Arts, Wednesday July 18, 8pmArgyle Fine Art Sound Gallery Series Vancouver-based Language Arts will hopefully return to Halifax soon, perhaps on a bill in a club, because they’re ready for it. They certainly attract a crowd, judging from the enthusiastic folks on the stairway and some seat-dancers down the middle. All got smiles from…
Safe tree
To the editor, As a past resident of the Arklow Drive area, I was terribly disappointed to see in the recent media the issues about the tree removal along portions of the walking paths in behind Arklow and Almora Court in Forest Hills-Cole Harbour. For the residents of this community, these pathways are a wonderful…
Patrolling the patrol
To the editor, Does The Coast have someone with real-life business experience who could put a stop to certain On Patrol articles (July 5) written by people who don’t bother doing any research before sending it to press? If you bothered to research “brownfields,” the industry term for contaminated sites, then you’d find out that…
Smokin’ mad
To the editor, I was wondering who I might contact re: enforcement of the no-smoking rules in and around the transit terminals? I have never actually seen these rules enforced but I’m pretty certain they exist. I seem to be the only one though, as the bus drivers, security guards and random transit riders light…
The See Through Trio at the Argyle Gallery
The Argyle Gallery acquitted itself well as the ideal venue in which to present the three year old Toronto-based See Through Trio’s delightful set of jazz miniatures. The ten pieces, performed with crisp eloquence, a lightness of being, and extraordinary technical facility on double-bass, soprano sax and electric piano, ranged from a couple of hymn-based…
Slavic Soul Party carries the evening
To best appreciate The Hylozoists, the eight-member Toronto-based ensemble led by Halifax native Paul Aucoin, you need to see the band in a smaller, enclosed space. That way the ample sound can surround you and the rest of the audience, hitting each body with some sonic force. (Anyone who saw the band’s show with Brent…
The truth just won’t die
The second X-Files movie is a go. I will be there in the summer of ’08, but I’m pretty sure the audience for this one has depleted significantly over THE LAST DECADE.
Sound Sights on Paul Cram’s Guerrilla Vacation
“Before I start”, Paul Cram, at the bar in the Holiday Inn’s Commons Room, said between sips from a cold beverage with lime slices, “it’s like an an ax blow to the head. Once up there playing, I’m fine.” This was to be no Jane Goodall lecture as the emcee quipped for the benefit of…
Ellen McIlwaine and Cassius Khan at The Commons Room
A couple of ways to size up last night’s performance by renowned “blues” guitarist and singer, partnered up with tabla player, Cassius Khan. Black (she wore black) and white and sped all over. A blisteringly hot night of Delta blues – Nile Delta to be more specific. As the emcee observed in his halting but…
Bliss on a sunny Saturday
Feral Bliss as part of free shows at the Main Stage Festival Tent – 2pm, Saturday July 14th, 2007 The city has just suffered through one of its long and dreary spells of fog, rain and grey. In the second straight clear day (!), the rays feel that much warmer, the breeze that much gentler…
Burning Ears isn’t happening today
Sorry true believers, but those Ears will be back tomorrow with plenty of news to catch up on from the last couple days. Including UFOs and a semi-celebrity birthday. Yes, according to the World Almanac, Jeff Corwin was born in Halifax 40 years ago yesterday. Here’s that reference. And if you’re wondering who Jeff Corwin…
Just another reason for fall to come quicker
Announcements are starting to come down from the Atlantic Film Festival, beginning with this year’s crop of Inspired Script participants. The program has gone through a change from previous years: It “goes forward by moving back—to the feature film outline,” says AFF programming manager Andrew Murphy. “Six talented Atlantic Canadian writers have been chosen to…
Hot fun in the summer Pride
Pride gets off to a rousing start this weekend with a couple of old favourites and some all-new events. For example, the Dykes vs. Divas baseball game gets underway on the Common at 1pm on Sunday (classic), followed shortly thereafter by the Homo Hopper Tour at 3pm, hosted by Halifax’s own April Showers (new). It’s…
Jam space jam
Area 52 Productions, the popular local band practice space, is in the process of moving. Co-owner Kirk Symonds explains, as delicately as possible, that they weren’t given much choice about leaving their long-standing location at 2182 Gottingen. “The lease ended at the end of June, and there was no renewal offered from the landlord.” As…
You get what you settle for
You know, I get tired of this War of the Sexes shit. It’s an endless cycle of, literally, she-said he-said that will never possibly be settled. So I find such discussions pretty much moot, yet I can’t stop reading the discourse! Today I tripped across something Gloria Steinem of fucking course wrote over on the…
A higher scrawling
The principle of competition is a worthy one, any level-headed business owner will tell you. Now, mercifully, the concept is being thrust in at least one right direction in our city—graffiti. I’m not talking about tagger wars (Does such a thing exist in Halifax? All I ever see are little carpet bombs of the wretched…
Transformers
Michael Bay has haunted me since 1998. I was working at Sears, and a male colleague informed me I had no heart for not crying at the end of Armageddon. Though Bay’s the one whose heart should be in question, his often infuriating body of work displays unquestionable skill. His sun-drenched compositions, silhouetted men in…
Bay trippin’
Since Mimi pulled up stakes and sold her Ocean Grill, dining out in Mahone Bay just hasn’t been the same. I do enjoy the Mug and Anchor pub, but sometimes a stomach needs something a little more upscale. Several years ago I ate at the Innlet Cafe, but it was uninspired to say the least.…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
It’s all about your lust for life, Pisces, says Rob Brezsny.
SAVAGE LOVE
Dan Savage answers questions, and readers, big and small.
Big band
Jazz festivals are the summering grounds of the large ensemble. The big, beautiful beasts come from far and wide to frolic in the sun, their distinctive calls heard across the city. Among the pack, The Hylozoists migrate from Toronto, while Slavic Soul Party! come up from Brooklyn. To watch and listen to these two graceful…
Parking, validated?
The devil, it’s often said, is in the details. And while few details are known about the ongoing land-swap negotiations between HRM and the province (the municipality wants the provincially owned Infirmary site on Queen for a new library, while the province wants to expand the QEII Health Sciences Centre onto land formally occupied by…
The mayor’s concert diary
In response to a timeline being circulated by Events Halifax, Peter Kelly is releasing excerpts from his 2007 personal diary. January 19I’m busy performing a Stationery Supply Inventory when Fred MacGillivray bursts into my office. He says Events Halifax has a chance to book Soul 2 Soul for a September 1 concert on the Common.…
Chillin’
In conversation with Ben Jacobs, AKA Max Tundra, a number of paradoxes arise. He draws from pop music today and calls himself a pop musician, but what he makes doesn’t sound like pop. He doesn’t consider himself an electronic musician, but he uses electronics to make and perform his music. He believes radio in his…
Hip bop
Bill Frisell The big-name opener of this year’s edition of the Atlantic Jazz Festival is singular jazz-guitar musical collagist Bill Frisell and his stellar trio members, the irrepressible impster/drummer Joey Baron, and longtime Frisell collaborator the fine bassist Tony Scherr. It takes exceptional musicians to play with Frisell: The ability, as pointed out, “to turn…
Tracking laughs
What’s in a name? Ask the people behind CBC’s latest reality show, Second City’s Next Comedy Legend, which airs on the network Tuesdays at 9pm. By adding the word “legend” to the title of the show—as opposed to a less laudatory word like “great”—one assumes the winner of the contest will immediately rise to stardom…
