Farmers’ markets galore
Just a quick note to let fresh and local food lovers know: Every Wednesday from now until October, you’ll find a farmers’ market at Alderney Landing, 12pm to 6pm.
More Yoga Opportunities
This may be of special interest to those mourning the passing of the Yoga Loft at the end of July. All skill levels can enjoy Kundalini Yoga at the following times and locations: Mon/Thurs 6-7:30pm at EFT Atlantic, 5663 Cornwallis, Suite 104, Wednesday 5:30-7pm at DANSpace, 1531 Grafton, 3rd floor and Saturday 9:30-11am at GPI…
Moda launched
The new place downtown, Moda Urban Dining (1518 Dresden Row, 405-3480) had its grand opening a few weeks ago and is now serving customers with a craving for local food in a global fusion menu. Also available are prix fixe pairings of food and wine. “Because Moda is a relaxed fine dining restaurant, we attempt…
Metro Dog Wash adds Tailwagrrrs
It was always a great place to take your dog to be groomed though it was sometimes too busy to get your dog in quickly. But now, under the new ownership of Kathleen Duffey of Tailwagrrrs: The K9 Wellness Centre (746 Bedford Highway, 444-3649) there’s now a whole staff of six groomers working seven days…
Twisted Muse opens
A reminder: Shoptalk reported back in May that local fashionista Johanna Galipeau intended on opening a second store in addition to her Sweet Pea (1542 Queen Street, 423-0975). The day has now arrived, with Twisted Muse (5486 Spring Garden Road), Sweet Peas darker, rock ‘n’ roll sister, now happening in the new retail space on…
Coast Publishing acquires Duly Noted wedding magazine
I just received the following press release from the other end of my office, from Coast publisher Christine Oreskovich: Halifax, NS July 20, 2010 -Coast Publishing Limited is pleased to announce the purchase of Duly Noted Wedding Guide. The glossy periodical comes out twice a year, and over its seven-year history has become an invaluable…
Queer Acts, good theatre
It was so hot at the Bus Stop last night that I propose that next year be a clothing-optional Queer Acts Festival and that rainbow coloured Japanese fans be sold in the lobby. However, the heat didn’t stop crowds of enthusiastic theatre-goers from enjoying three great performances. Logan and I Michael McPhee’s 80’s-set coming-of-age story…
Prepare for thy Roomdoom
found at good food emporium last year So I nearly walked into this poster on a pole the other day. You’ve seen them, the yellow ones that read WE DIDN’T START THE FIRE, WE BUILT THIS CITY ON ROCK AND ROLL. Yes friends, these bright pages emblazoned with the wisdom of Billy Joel and Starship…
Strongbow
Thanks for being so amazing the first time I tried you… —New Love
YaYs for the Gays
I love pride week, its always the best week of summer. —Cant wait for the parade
Mexican Food booth at the Halifax Farmers’ Market celebrates seven years
The Mexican Food booth at the Halifax Farmers’ Market is marking its seventh anniversary this month. “It started as a fluke,” says Carolina Quintana. “I started the booth because I myself missed Mexican food, and a lot of my friends were asking me to cook for them.” Working alongside her mother, Ivonne Rios, Quintana has…
L
would just like to throw out a shout of LOVE to the coast for having this section! With the crummy news we see everyday and negativity; this site brings smiles to my face every day! …I wish more people knew about it! —On the RollerCOASTer ride of Love!
FRAUDULENT use of CPP
So you and husband are receiving Canada Pension Plan Disability Benefits + your three kids receive some kind benefit from CPP. You say you can not ever work again – but you are training to run in a 5K, go to the gym everyday, go para-sailing in Mexico + sit at home on your new…
Not fair
Why the fuck am I born in the wrong time?! I hate growing up listening to this shit we call music. Bob Marley is dead, John Lennon is dead, Jimi is dead. Like, what the hell? Why am I a teenager now? And everyone thinks me and my friends are fucked cause we don’t like…
I love haters!!!
I love this site and I love haters, maybe that’s just the realist in me, but its certain that this world isn’t about rainbows and puppies, there’s a lot of selfish douche bags that live with their heads up their ass’s that seem to not give a shit about any other human beings on this…
Vampire Weekend
To the vampire with the cheap dye-job and faded top and jeans: I did not appreciate you stalking me that Saturday at the grocery store on Quinpool. You then followed me to Wendy’s – peeping in the window of the door… Buzz-off you creep! Here’s a project for you: do something worthwhile for your community…
November Christmas brings celebrity Christmas
Be cool when approaching John and co. I love Hallmark movies. Not because there are about five predictable heartwarming plotlines, but because they always manage to score interesting actors, who come with sightings, spottings, rumours and stories. Like Alicia Silverstone’s tearjerking Candles on Bay Street, and her appearance on CKDU’s Let Get Baked, and various…
Bloodhouse, Quivers, Grown-ups
This Tuesday night will be a difficult one for you. You will have some choices to make. Continuing on the endless train of gushery for Bloodhouse, I’d just like to politely remind you, once, unassumingly, but fervently, that the band is playing at Gus’ tonight with Calgary’s The Grown-Ups and new/old sweethearts Quivers. 10pm, cheap…
Love, the real deal
I’ve met the most wonderful girl. She has the most beautiful brown eyes, the biggest tattas, the funniest personality… she takes all of the bullshit I went through with you, you soul-less, fat, fake, immature, hairy tatta’d loser, and helps me forget the mistake I made. She is feminine, she’s smarter than you, she makes…
Saving me from roofies!
To the nice door girl at the argyle bar on Saturday night: Thank you so much for keeping an eye on my drink when I went out for a smoke. You didn’t have to do it but it was really appreciated. THANKS —The smoker
Big hugs to whoever found my transit pass!
Just want to send out some big hugs to whoever found my transit pass that I lost on the 52 on Friday. I’d searched everywhere else for it and was quite depressed about its loss. It’s more than just a “bus pass” it allows me to travel around to my heart’s content. Let us also…
Dykes vs. Divas
Thank you so much for the great Dykes vs. Divas game on Sunday.We all had an amazing time and it was totally hilarious. The divas outfits were great too! Next year, when it’s on, you should all go… Just go. You’ll love it. —Happy
Tommy Can You Hear Me?
For the 2 little peeping toms who caught me wandering around my apartment naked: It’s my apartment, it’s fucking hot outside and I’ll walk around naked if I want. And why, on earth did you tell your mother? Why didn’t you do what other 10 and 11 year old boys do and look, giggle and…
Yet another reason to license parents
So you’re a proud parent who has a sweet ass tat of your kids’ names visible. Since you have a boy and a girl, when you left your 3 year old son alone at a table in the busy food court while taking your stroller-strapped daughter to order your meal, it wasn’t hard to figure…
Rules DO apply to you.
Please, please, please do not open the airplane door as we are landing. It is bad enough we are on a cargo flight full of onions. What would those onions have to say? It was the onions that made me cry. I swear. —L’il ‘effer keeps me company.
“Just sayin”
What is up with people who make a lame comment (type it out on a Facebook/Twitter for example) and then end it with “just sayin’” You’re NOT actually “ just sayin’” anything because you just typed it, and even if you DID just say it, I would know you just said it because the words…
Halifax Haters
Lots of people doing lots of bitching about this city… If you don’t like it, then get the fuck out! Stop spreading your discontent from in front of your computer, its depressing. OR Do something about it. Anonymous bitching is cowardly. —John
You fill me with murderous rage!
Dear neighbour: You’re an inconsiderate dick. You know full well that the walls separating us are paper thin and yet you insist on digging out your mic, amp and guitar every Sunday morning at 6 a.m. and torturing me with the karaoke music from hell. I guess you believe that if you’re awake, everyone else…
Kitten ditchers!
To the person or people who ditched those cute young vulnerable kittens in a bush at the commons on July 16th: You are lucky I found them and not some sicko, I can’t believe someone could have the coldness to do that, they are so cute and needy. What if they starved to death or…
Stressed Environment
Do you think I like being mean all the time? I hate you, do I have to show you that everyday? We sit here like fish in a fishbowl waiting for your next verbal attack. We should not have to be threatened at our workplace by you, looking over our shoulders, locking doors behind us…
Building Blunder
Respect where you live. Don’t litter, take responsibility, be a good neighbour. Am I asking too much for you to not leave your cigarette package cellophane and paper plates in the elevator? People other than you live here! I don’t care what kind of mess is inside your apartment. Learn some manners, stop dropping shit…
Do not feed!
Quit feeding the ducks on Maynard’s lake. —Jeremy
What the hell is your problem?
To the inbred piece of human dick-fungus who threw their pop at me when I was biking home from work down Lacewood drive: Thanks for making my first day back after my best friend’s funeral so great. I hope that you live a long life filled with despair and STDs. Choke on that burger and…
The Under Eight Set Discuss Cereal Fibre
I can’t fucking believe there’s an ad on TV where these little kids are discussing fiber in their cereal. Isn’t that something you discuss when you’re eighty? —How Fucked Up Can You Get?
Dumb B*tch
I no longer care what you’re secretly doing with your ex boyfriend and the guy friend he’s living with. Stop telling me, I can’t offer any more advice. Love you & I don’t (at least try not to) judge you but my ears can hear no more. One at 1:30 am and another at 8:00…
Driving Skills
Attention all drivers…”USE YOUR SIGNAL LIGHT”… and “KEEP RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS” pretty simple… or so you would “think”. —Ben
To the barrington complimenters:
Walking down Barrington the other day with my friend, I saw you waving frantically from your window in the building above Venus Envy, you told me to look down and there was a paper airplane that said “you are beautiful”. I like to think that you meant it just for me, but I’m sure it…
Common people celebration
Thank you to all the amazing people who came out to the Commons yesterday and night!! and to the Police who were EXTREMELY awesome in respecting our rights as common people, and treating us like people, not just some alternative kids trying to start a ruckus. even late at night with fire and drum circles……
Popcorn on a platter :)
Thanks to the awesome guy at the gas station for giving my daughter some popcorn… 🙂 We appreciated it a bunch… Specially her as she began to munch 🙂 —Me & My girl
Awesome Customers!
I would like to say thank-you to the family I served for being so understanding when I *accidentally* spilled a glass of pop on their table and some landed on them when I was balancing a tray of drinks. (It was my first time ever spilling a drink during my 2 years of serving). Accident…
Umbrella Girl
To the girl who was kind enough to share her umbrella with me at the bus stop. Sorry I didn’t say thank you. I really appreciated your act of kindness. —Swept away in the rain
I heart bus drivers
I had an amazing bus experince tonight. Thank you to the driver who went above and beyond by taking me beyond the end of the route. You made my night. —Jamie
Peace Out
You are a total sweetheart and I was happy to help you the other evening. It was last minute but really nice to spend some time. I never realized how much we had in common, seeing all your things as we packed them up… and our quick break was the best! I’m really gonna miss…
Friday July 16th. Exciting night at the Pharmacy
You were carrying an armload of ass-wipe and I was just leaving after a failed attempt to get a birthday card. It was 11:30pm and you seem to be having the same exciting Friday night I was having. I think you smirked in my direction and when I drove by you in my Echo I…
For the morning driver of the 80 Halifax
I am a nursing student. As such, I have clinicals which require me to be awake at ungodly hours. I also happen to be car-less, and rely entirely on Metro Transit to get me to the hospitals for 6:45am. Luckily for me, the 80 goes by my place at roughly 6:27am. Over the course of…
J’aime la pluie!
Just wanted to comment on how much I loved the weather Wednesday… Pouring rain all day. I’m one of the few people that actually would be happy if it rained every day. No one seems to get that, but it’s okay. It doesn’t mean I’m depressed. I just always feel happiest when it’s raining. —Who…
Always with the positive waves Moriarty
You’ve heard the term “meaner than a junkyard dog”… well all of you I encountered at the recycling centres as I clean out 10 years of accumulated stuff were great: -Keeping the shop open for an extra 10 minutes so I can drop off some broken electronic stuff. -Greeting me with a smile and good…
Gary Dourdan, Lil Romeo and Angela Bassett jump the broom in Lunenburg
Don’t bug me because I’m beautiful. The best part of the De La Soul show last Friday night was watching the ladies lose their shit as Gary “Warrick” Dourdan sauntered through the crowd, stealthly dodging drunk in-his-face dudes who kept yelling, “hey maaaaaaaaan, I lurved you in CSI.” Dourdan is in town, well, Lunenburg actually,…
NATO
It pissess me off that NATO (and with all its citizens support) does not impose its military might more liberally. My spelling is probably wrong, had a few drinks—A western supporter/proud to be part of the West
Men are decent poeple, it’s the women they’re with that are the problem
Lines from actual break up conversations: “He has his ex on his facebook so I told him it’s over if he still talks to her.” Wtf are you doing searching his friends on his facebook? And what business is it of yours if he still talks to her? Could there be a reason? Not all…
Another Perv Released Into Society
HRP warn that another fuckface perv is back on the streets after multiple convictions, then have the nerve to say that vigilante justice will not be tolerated. Great fuckin country that lets these animals back on the streets to hurt again… THEY SHOULD BE ENCOURAGING US TO MAKE SURE HE NEVER HURTS A CHILD AGAIN!!!…
Disrespectful Deli
I walk up to the counter to be served. A big smile on my face because it’s been such a lovely day. You look at me for a moment, then completely disregard me for about 3 minutes or so while you talk to your co-worker about your plans to go to the Palace… I patiently…
Jazz Fest: The Kids Were All Right
The 2010 edition of the Halifax Jazz Festival melted away – almost literally – yesterday, ending more than a week of diverse and mostly enjoyable downtown sound. International and local artists alike stretched, and in some cases ignored entirely, the boundaries of the jazz genre, busting out everything from hip hop beats to tuba-powered Middle…
Tropical tornado
To the lovely lady, with awesome ink on her arms who works downtown: Thank you for breaking the rules and giving me a small smoothie! Also sorry for being so damn clumsy and spilling it on the stairs… hope you didn’t think I didn’t appreciate it… cos I did!<3 —East Coast kid on the run
Peeps
I LOVE PEOPLE!!!!!!! and I love to talk! —Talker
Sorry, but I love you
Okay, so I know lots of weirdness went on between us this year and everything changed, and I’m sorry to her cause I didn’t really know you guys were dating at the time. Thank you for being so nice to me all the time though, no matter what, and thank you for being so hot.…
Next Time…
I miss you so much now and regret that I didn’t talk to you more than I did. And if I ever see you again, guaranteed I’ll be talking to you more. Maybe even finding out your name for god’s sake. For now though, I’m just left to guess and hope… —Zizi
Summer!
I love you summer! You are so amazing, the way you instantly cheer me up. You are the best! —The queen
J’aime The Coast
You were standing outside the RBC machine on Queen and Spring Garden and as I walked out the door you asked: “Do you want two VIP passes to the Jazz Fest?” You blew me away. My friend and I were just talking about how much we wanted to see Alex Cuba but couldn’t pay the…
The Coast Classics…..”THE PUPPET BITCH”
(Ed. note OL beat me to it…) For those who missed it the first time around or those who want to reminisce… voila… the infamous puppet bitch: “HaliFUCK Culture Scene” Posted on Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 1:34 PM “What the fuck is up with the culture scene in HaliFUCKS??! Shit! I moved half way…
So I can’t serve ice cream
If I screw something up, and make myself look a little dumb, laugh if off with me. Don’t talk to me like I’m stupid, then talk down about me to a co-worker WHERE I CAN HEAR YOU. Makes you look like a total bitch. —Sufferer of Blonde moments.
Filthy Lucre
I have been very impressed with many of the small “neighbourhood” style cafes and restaurants in this city. I’m even more impressed with how friendly and enthusiastic the staff are. BUT PLEASE… I BEG OF YOU… Don’t handle the money at the till and then go make my food! Wash your hands or wear those…
Grease in the Jar
Love the way roomies just use up all the good jars on their bacon grease. That stuff is not easy get clean. Let the hippies sprout and stop using our jars. —Patchouli & sleeze
Kudos to Halifax Finest
Thanks to the police officer on College Street Thursday afternoon who, when I fell on the street in front of his police car couldn’t even bother to roll down the window and ask if I was OK. Common decency, let alone the fact that you are a police officer meant to “serve and protect” would…
Anti-Aging Cosmetics Are Such A Ripoff…
…yet stupid vain women still buy this overpriced, over-hyped shit. $50 for fucking eye cream????? If I told some of these women you could look 10 years younger by smearing monkey feces on their face for only $200 a pop, there’d be a lineup into the horizon. Why do you middle-aged women continue to fool…
Stop throwing your money at me!
Okay, I understand that people in the customer service industry are supposed to just… take it and be polite no matter what. And I do that, but if you come in one more time and treat me like the dirt underneath your shoe again, I’m going to refuse service to you. Every single time you…
How to be an ass at a public beach
I prefer to rave than bitch, but the speed boats at Crystal Crescent on Thursday night were cause for an exception. Stage one: fly close to the beach repeatedly at high speed driving the families ashore. Stage two: chain yourselves together and blare music at top volume drowning out the ocean. Stage three: break apart…
A “Thank you” never hurts
To the girl who I invited under my umbrella while we waited for the bus during the awful downpour a few days ago: we talked, we laughed, half of me got wet so you could stay dry and you got on the bus without a word of thanks… Well, you’re welcome anyway. —Umbrella sharer
Jazz Fest: Running On Not Quite Empty
It was 8 p.m, the scheduled time for Montreal’s H’Sao to hit the Festival Tent stage, yet there was a curious lack of urgency in the air. Most likely, Fest officials were waiting until a few more empty seats were filled, not wanting the band to have to play to a small crowd. A few…
Jazz Fest: Poetry gets sweaty
Cadence Weapon brings dirt city to Halifax. The evening flowed steadily, despite the heat. Four poets laureate from across Canada took to the small stage in front of a crowded Company House. (Seats at the bar and tables taken, several people stood and leaned against the walls.) Two ceiling fans and another on the floor…
No Flyers Please Release an EP
The insanely likable trio No Flyers Please are releasing a 6-song EP called The NFP EP and having a little bash at Gus’ tonight to celebrate. They will be joined by The Bad Arts and Something Delicious. The CD is $5 and will be available at shows, around Halifax or through the band (email noflyersplease@gmail.com.)…
Big changes in Metro Transit routes
Big changes are in store for Halifax bus riders. Metro Transit has released its annual service plan, which matches routing and scheduling to the funding and service standards adopted by city council. Service standards for core routes are 40 passengers/hour for weekdays and 20p/hr for evenings and weekends. Those numbers for local routes are 25/15,…
GHG failure
Nova Scotia has failed to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets for 2010. The province has made pretty good progress on setting policies to meet the 2020 targets, but those policies must actually be implemented and extended if they are to become a reality. That is the take-away message from a series of “report cards” issued…
Gas catastrophe
ExxonMobil announced last week that it was abandoning plans to expand its operations in the Sable Island natural gas field off Nova Scotia’s coast. The announcement effectively spells the near-demise of the offshore industry, and the hundreds of millions of dollars in annual government royalty payments that come with it. It is, in other words,…
Jazz Fest: Tel Aviv Rock City
Jazz Fest 2010 has featured numerous acts whose connection to the genre is, to be generous, a loose one. Hip-hop, R&B and funk are more like cousins of jazz than siblings. But at least there is a familial bond, some shared musical DNA that links, say, De La Soul and Alex Cuba to Charlie Parker…
Valley Motel
This is my room at the Valley Motel. Today I walk east from Manistique, Michigan under a dark sky. The weather forecast says no more rain but this is obviously a lie. I resign myself to plodding along under some kind of pissage but then in the middle of nowhere is the Valley Motel. The…
Logan and I: sexual dealings at Queer Acts
Think back to your first introduction to the theoretical mechanics of sex. Whether the revelations came from your uncomfortable parents, your gleefully “well-informed” friend, or from some dog-eared magazine or well-placed pop-up, chances are you reacted with a mixture of pure disgust and nascent excitement. Logan and I, a one-act play written by actor Michael…
Me, myself and eye
July 13, 2001 East of Cooks, Michigan, in the tent, in the woods, hot, tired, sticky and just after having a little cry.
Exploitation is exploitation despite the spin
Here we go again. Companies claim ‘fair trade’ & ‘socially responsible entrepreneurship’ for exploiting poor women in a poor country to make overpriced, over-hyped goods AND they want a pat on the back. Throwing in words like ‘tradition’ and photos of your happy smiling workers (they aren’t gonna tell you – their western buyer -…
Lucky
If someone completely indulges themselves into you, & loves you with everything they have & you tell her you love her back, never treat her like shit. How could you? Out of the billions of people on this earth she chose you, you’re lucky. Why would you ever talk down to her? She loves you.…
Spring Garden Good Samaritans
We were standing across from Park Lane when we saw a nice security guard help a little old lady into a cab, while the beat police stopped to assist with putting her walker and items into the trunk for her. This is a rare thing to see these days and we though the both of…
Not Enough
I love you so, you’re gone from me, and I know, my failings three, have brought us here, what can I do? All I want, to be with you. No amount of apologizing will cause you to be realizing… If I was good at hypnotizing, take you back when I was love providing. I’ll keep…
Red belted dude at the Y
To the guy in the red belt at the YMCA (South Park St.) helping his friend learn to use the weight room machines on Thursday AM. You being patient and joking around with him made his eyes light up every time. You’re the most adorable boy I’ve ever seen.—The rest of the gym crew
A Little Bit of Grattitude
To the residents by my house who posted the “Be Grateful” sign on their garage, Thank You! I am grateful, grateful for all of the wonderful things I have in my life and grateful to you for reminding me of them everyday!—Grateful Haligonian
Smelly G…
Will someone throw this sorry excuse for a human being into the Pacific with all the other California sewage? —Who Does This Idiot Think He Is?
Thift Store Bitch
I am overweight by forty pounds with tits only a huge giant ape would love. So when I visit good ole Sal’s, the only offerings are XL shirts the width of a facecloth or these fucking gaudy wouldn’t-even-wear-it-when-I’m-90-&-blind polyester pieces of crap that are so short, most women like me would look like a bar…
It’s not okay
You know who you are and you know what you’ve done. Trust that you won’t be getting away with it. —Enraged with a reason
Do your job right!
This is to the little blonde waitress that served my friend and I: We had 2 separate bills (2 separate meals to ourselves). My friend got her meal and you informed me that my meal will be out shortly… My question for you is why did my meal come 5-6 minutes later than my friend’s?…
New Free Music-a-Rama
Breaking news, ya maroons: People in the city are doing interesting things and giving you their music for free. Let’s run it down, shall we? First we have the city’s great white garage hopes The Baketones and the release of the first of five cover albums. Each band member gets to pick three cover songs…
Fox County Park, Michigan
July 9 Day 70Fox County Park16.17 miles (26.02 kms) After leaving the BP Station I drop in to an art gallery and the woman there, Carolyn, sells me on the idea of staying at the Fox County Park Campground, six miles up the road. I am four miles along when Carolyn pulls up beside me.…
Jazz Fest: Word Power
As a very wise fellow listener pointed out during Monday night’s Alpha Yaya Diallo show, there’s something freeing about listening to lyrics sung in a language other than your own. Without having to focus on the words and their meaning, you’re left to appreciate the voice as an instrument and the idiosyncratic rhythms of an…
Free Will Astrology
CANCER(June 21-July 22) “Give us this day our daily hunger,” prayed French philosopher Gaston Bachelard. It was his personal variation on the “Give us this day our daily bread” line from the Lord’s Prayer. I suggest you use his formulation as your own in the coming week, Cancerian. It’s the high season for your holy…
Seoul food
Just across from the cobblestone shopping area of Granville Mall, a sandwich board with the daily specials at Seoul Restaurant is plopped in front of its simple storefront. The restaurant itself is equally simple, down a few stairs in a basement space. Though it lacks windows, it’s still bright, and the servers are exceptionally friendly.…
Returned to sender
Q My boss lives and works in a different city, but most of her mail arrives at my office because it is the company’s official address. I routinely open mail and packages addressed to her. Usually they contain documents for me to handle or software for me to install, but today I opened a package…
What’s wrong: Fenced off bus stop, Bell Road.
[image-1] Who’s responsible? Somebody without a name or telephone. Remarks: This fence appeared on the wrong side of the bus stop as crews prepare for demolition of the former Queen Elizabeth High School. The bus stop belongs to Metro Transit, but the land under the school will be in Capital Health. In the meanwhile, though,…
Debuting Doucette
Here’s the story: Stella and Dot, two seniors who’ve been in a relationship for 31 years, drive from a nursing home in Maine to Nova Scotia in order to be legally married. Dot is blind, and Stella begins to wonder about their future, whether she’ll be able to continue to care for Dot as they…
Suburban monsters
It’s only July and already summer seems a little hotter, a little muggier, a little longer than usual. There’s a sense of impending doom hanging in the air, as if just around the next corner is a catalogue of cataclysm: disastrous changes in climate, resource depletion and wars, a breakdown in the social order. Americans…
Biafra’s Audacity
Jello Biafra is ever the activist: that much is evident on reaching his voicemail, a two-minute-long dissertation on things the American government is doing wrong, from 9/11 cover-ups to the terrorist watch list to sending aid to Israel. The former Dead Kennedys frontman has mainly focused on spoken word since that band’s breakup in the…
The Creaking Tree String Quartet’s dance sounds
Toronto’s The Creaking Tree String Quartet is going to haul you out of St. Paul’s church pews and get your feet dancing at its Jazz Fest show this Friday. With threads of roots, jazz, bluegrass and flash inspiration weaving through their music, the quartet—with members Andrew Collins, Brad Keller, Brian Kobayakawa and John Showman—is bringing…
Word up, Jazz Fest
Call it the P9 Summit. Now there’s a media-friendly moniker for the national gathering of nine poets laureate from across Canada taking place in Halifax. “It’ll be a chance to compare notes and see how the poet laureate’s post is treated in each region,” says Shauntay Grant over the phone. As HRM’s current poet laureate…
Laura Peek and her winning heart
The lady that wins our hearts with each piano key and sweet note is performing at the Khyber this Saturday, as half of a duo with Mike O’Neill. “It will be piano and bass, and lots of singing,” writes Peek. “Also, two of my favourite local ladies will be doing sets: Cactus Flower (Jess Lewis)…
Happy Tears
Jayne (Parker Posey) and Laura (Demi Moore) deal with the onset of their father’s dementia. Rip Torn, whose own demented door-knocking made so-called celebrity news, raucously plays Dad. Posey returns to form, portraying a stressed-out socialite and big spender. She was in danger of becoming a caricature of herself, a status Moore suffered. But she…
Inception’s storytelling is still in dreamworld
Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are Warriors of the Subconscious in Christopher Nolan’s Inception. Secret agent Cobb (DiCaprio) enters peoples’ dreams to steal knowledge and ideas. He’s then hired to try something considered impossible—implanting an idea (and one that can change the world). Regarded even before its release as the saving grace of…
How to build a local food system
Food. It’s one of the first things we think of when we wake up. It’s a basic need that trumps love, career, even sex. Two, three times a day, the belly must be filled. Yet, too often, we shove any old hunk of calories down our throats. We eat cheap. “Only nine percent of our…
Got No Secrets
Danila Botha’s debut collection of short stories makes the personal political. With clear diction, Botha’s prose packs a punch. There’s no skirting the issues, masquerading behind metaphor or dancing between the lines. The Johannesburg-born, Halifax-based author sets many of her stories in Toronto and South Africa; she writes fearlessly about rape (“My So-Called Date”), drugs…
This Cake is for the Party
Embedded in each of these stories, though not bluntly stated or clumsily constructed, is an everyday moral dilemma to be considered. In the opening story, “Throwing Cotton,” questions on the role of rivalry in friendship (is there any such thing as friendly rivalry?), especially among men, arise. Later, in “Prognosis,” the author queries when and…
Predators lacks originality
Predators is perfectly serviceable, but not engaging enough to prevent the mind from wandering away from the plot and onto a moviegoer’s ongoing, large and vexing questions like, “Is originality now just a matter of making old properties fresh and feeling like new?” The director of this picture, Nimrod Antal, has a keen eye (a…
Saturn Apartments, Volume 1
Saturn Apartments is a strange mix of hard sci-fi, childlike art and sentimentality. Mitsu is a window washer on a space station orbiting an abandoned earth. Life on the station is highly stratified: the rich get windows and natural sunlight while the poor live within the station’s core. This volume sets up some interesting dichotomies…
The Girl Who Played With Fire gets burned
The second film based on the late Stieg Larsson’s internationally successful thriller series makes the first film’s sensational, expansive unwieldy plot seem positively concise. Here, Lisbeth Salander’s (Noomi Rapace) vicious family history come to the fore and gets intertwined with the murder of a young journalist ready to break the story of sex-trafficking in Sweden.…
The Roots
On their last release, Rising Down, The Roots angrily vented. With that behind them, the band reflects on How I Got Over. Midlife and end of life come into view. Black Thought has always closely considered emotions and states of mind rather than narrating action and creating characters. Instead of hiding behind a persona, he…
Naming nggrfg
Odds are no one on earth has ever said “nigger fag” as candidly as Berend McKenzie. “I’m not one to sugarcoat things,” he says. “If we ban those words, does that mean they don’t exist? And if they don’t exist, what happens to my stories of being called a nigger?” The answer to that question…
Royal Wood
With The Waiting, Toronto-based songwriter Royal Wood stakes his claim to a broader audience than his first two full-length releases and two EPs have earned. And that’s no slight against his earlier work—“A Mirror Without” from A Good Enough Day remains his finest four minutes, 39 seconds —but there’s a wider reach to this collection…
Lee-Anne Poole’s Splinters
Families. Sigh. We all have them, whether we like it or not, and quite often we do not like them. Playwright Lee-Anne Poole has done a wonderful job of capturing that love/hate relationship in her new work Splinters. It’s the story of Belle, a strong young woman who shattered her mother’s dreams when she came…
Stars
While Amy Millan’s voice is always an unmistakable focal point of the Montreal band Stars, on The Five Ghosts she doesn’t just shine—she takes over. Radiant as ever, Millan offers perfectly balanced and articulated bite and nuance. When she sings, “After I am caught/Touch turns into fisticuffs” on the lead single “Fixed,” the echoing “you,…
Taddle Creek Travelling Series of Happenings
Taddle Creek magazine is hitting the road, and Halifax is its first stop. An arts magazine normally focused on Toronto, Taddle Creek just published its first Out-of-Towner issue and is marking the occasion with its first tour. “We run one Out-of-Towner piece in each issue by or about someone outside of Toronto,” says Conan Tobias…
Little Miss Higgins
Little Miss Higgins comes from another era; one can only surmise that the roaring ’20s are still raging on in the Saskatchewan village she hails from. Higgins wraps her deep, rich blues voice on tales from the traditional to the ridiculous, like “Bargain! Shop Panties” (“So lovely, so divine, I buy ’em all the time,…
Eyelevel Gallery’s Members’ Weekly 2010
Summer time normally means a slower, vacation-like pace, but this Gottingen Street gallery is going ahead full steam with five one-week shows featuring work from its members. Monday sees the opening of In Here & Out There, with work from artists Ella Tetrault and Carey Jernigan, Vince Vining, Robert Scott, Emma Fitzgerald, Keltie MacNeill, Howard…
Wolf Parade
Do we need Wolf Parade anymore? After all, Dan Boeckner’s and Spencer Krug’s other projects (Handsome Furs and Sunset Rubdown, respectively) are riding on creative highs. More importantly, the last Wolf Parade album (At Mount Zoomer) was a crippling disappointment; it was like each frontman was writing in their own world, robbing fans of the…
Catch your share of sustainable fish
Finding fresh seafood is no easy feat in our province, despite being almost entirely surrounded by water. We export over 75 percent of our seafood, and seafood in grocery stores locally has switched hands so many times that it might have been dead for a week by the time it lands on your plate. But…
