Letters to the Editor
To the editor, I get the distinct smell of contradiction now when I read of a restaurant in the Coast. I have often appreciated trying the food from a restaurant that I learned about from your paper. But as a wheelchair-user, I have found that my access is denied from some of these places, and…
Letters to the Editor
I have recently had a run in with a disgusting individual(s)…or it could be the disgust of someone thinking they have enough power and right to destroy my father’s pride in his country, and the country he served in order to keep all the “hippies” and “protestors” of this city safe for another day of…
Letters to the Editor
To the Editor: Some time ago I posted a classified in your paper. It appears my e-mail address was saved, without my consent, for your mailing list; and in the last few days I’ve started receiving unsolicited e-mails asking me to sign up for more classifieds. I never would have believed it: spammed by The…
Letters to the Editor
To the editor, I moved to Halifax from Montreal just under two years ago on that fateful weekend when Nova Scotians we’re given the chance to vote for or against Sunday shopping. Starting my new life here I remember how let down I felt with the outcome. In Montreal I was extremely used to having…
Letters to the Editor
I’m writing this in response to Resident Weevil who thought bikes should be kept off the sidewalks. Now I ride a skateboard, not a bike. Although, I experience the same grief as many bikers, pedestrians who think they own the sidewalk. You can just walk in the middle of the sidewalk, pick a side! Besides…
Divisionary tactics
too bad he had to use profanity…for no good reason at all. By BoB.
In the Fringes
The 16th annual Atlantic Fringe Festival drops on August 31 of this year. (No word on what the celebratory delicacy will be.) If you’re thinking that you can’t endure the craziness of this broad event, look to Tony-winner The Drowsy Chaperone for inspiration—it started in the Toronto Fringe. Urinetown? New York Fringe. Start small and…
Live from Toronto
The major grievance attending any event encompassing over 30 venues within a three-day period is the same: Too much to do, not enough time. You’re lucky if you catch even half of what you attempt to see—and this certainly applied in Toronto at last weekend’s North by Northeast, featuring Halifax scene representatives Adam Puddington &…
Historic events
The Harbourside Market in Historic Properties near the waterfront welcomes two new additions this week: The Mad Greek will take over the space formerly occupied by Brisket, and Harbourside Pub (a tentative name) will take over from John Shippey’s. The two are located on either side of Pizza Del Forno, and all three are owned…
Me-owch
We promise not to go on at length about the provincial election. Honest. Everybody knows the results by now anyway; the Conservatives won another minority, R-Mac still presides. Yeah, yeah, fine. But still, we feel the need to mention: of all the stories to emerge on election night, you gotta feel for former Waverley-Fall River-Beaver…
Rules of the road
To the editor, As a bicyclist in Halifax, I have noticed a number of dangerous dysfunctions in the streets of this city. Roads riddled with potholes make it hazardous for bicyclists. For example, there is an abysmal pothole situation on the corner of Rainnie Drive and Ahern Road; the street is in a shameful state…
Public nuisance
To the editor, Have you noticed the large, full-colour advertisements pasted to the construction fences at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia on George Street, outside the Lieutenant Governor’s residence or on closed gas stations and other construction fences around town? These would be ads for Coke products, Axe boy’s perfume, the Junos and other…
Vote for me—or else
To the editor, At a recent all-candidates debate in a local riding, the Tory candidate kept stressing that the local inhabitants should vote for him if they wanted to be heard at the cabinet table and have favourable decisions. This is an immoral and pathetic example of the old style patronage politics practiced by the…
Convenient truths
Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth opens in Halifax June 16, and the accompanying Climate Crisis website: www.climatecrisis.net is a treasure trove of information, from glowing reviews of the film to 10 easy ways you can cut down carbon dioxide emissions. You’d expect nothing less from the guy who invented the internet, but it turns…
“Radiohead for president”
I don’t remember the first time I knew I was in love with someone. I don’t remember the first time I drove a car, the first time I drank (or at least anything past the first half hour) and I have done all I can to forget the first time I had sex. I can,…
Fall arts preview: June 2007
ARTS Margaret Atwood and Graeme Gibson Really, what is there to say about Mags? The grand dame of CanLit comes to town with partner Graeme Gibson, an accomplished author in his own right—hobbyist ornithologists will recognize his gorgeous The Bedside Book of Birds. At the Literacy Nova Scotia fundraiser with a $50 premium ticket, you…
Fall arts preview: July 2007
ARTS Atlantic Theatre Festival It can cost a lot of money to stage good theatre and the Atlantic Theatre Festival needs to know you’re willing to spend some to see some. The critically acclaimed but constantly cash-strapped summer festival is returning this year after shoring up the finances and securing an agreement with Acadia University…
Divisionary tactics
Andrew Hines and Alex van Helvoort live and breathe film, but they find time for other interests. They met at the water fountain at Armbrae Academy on Oxford Street when Hines was in Grade 11 and van Helvoort in Grade 8, and bonded over a shared enthusiasm for dirt biking, leading them to document it.…
Fall arts preview: August 2007
ARTS Al Fresco film festo The popular outdoor film festival returns through the month of August, with films projected against a handy wall down at Tall Ships Quay on the Halifax waterfront. Expected are crowd-pleasers such as Grease, The Party, the first outdoor screening in Canada of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Muppets Take Manhattan,…
Seven-day tripping
Stuck in the house, sick of the bus, hot under the collar? Solution: Beg, borrow, steal or rent a car and follow this guide to mainland Nova Scotia hotspots for a week’s worth of kitsch-heavy day trips that allow you to head back to Halifax and sleep in your own bed every night. Other indications:…
Grave matters
Death is a fact. In the Old Burying Ground, running along Barrington Street and Spring Garden Road, it is a fact made humbly beautiful. The Old Burying Ground is Halifax’s oldest cemetery. It opened in 1749, and it is the final resting place for close to 1,300 grave markers and approximately 12,000 bodies. (Some were…
Self starter
For some, the term “do-it-yourself” (or “DIY”) evokes images of a Bob Vila-type handyman installing their own light switches or toilets. For others, it means a lifestyle comprised of responsible choices—a slower pace of life in a supportive community. For the most part, Iris Porter identifies with the latter definition. While her DIY theory also…
All decked out
44 North Seafood Co.1919 Upper Water Street, 428-7852 Watch the ships come in (you’ll be close enough to blow kisses!) and enjoy an amazing waterside view of the harbour while noshing on fresh seafood. Mon-Fri 6:30am-10pm, Sat-Sun 7am-10pm, 60 seats, licensed, blender drinksAlexandra’s Pizza1263 Queen Street, 425-1900www.alexandraspizza.com Enjoy late-night pizza under the stars, or any…
Slug it out
Dear slugs, You have won, you great stomach-turning bastards, with your slimy, decelerated ways. I concede a grave, shoulder-hunched defeat. Take my garden. You can have it. And go fuck yourself while you’re at it. I believe that is the only time I’ve been able to say that literally. I read in the paper last…
Beyond the Basilica
Halifax offers many opportunities to the urban wanderer: plenty of great streetscapes, changing landscape, people and buildings. While some follow the prescribed paths leading to favourite and famous places—the gazebo in the Public Gardens, Citadel Hill or Saint Mary’s Basilica—others may meander off in search of the modern. Modern buildings are the old new buildings…
The wheel world
It’s been four years now since Halifax passed its Blueprint for a Bicycle-Friendly HRM and progress has been, well, like riding a one-speed straight up Duke Street. That is to say, slow and painful. There’s a handful of bike lanes, curiously placed around the region with little-to-no continuity for practical, day-to-day cycling. There’s a bike…
Harbouring secrets
To be fair, right off the bat, your Harbour Hopper guide will tell you a tremendous amount about Halifax, and most of it will be fascinating, and mainly accurate. The tour, however, is just a little under an hour long. Which means there will, by necessity, be certain gaps in the information your guide will…
Cars
The imaginative disappointment of this summer’s blockbusters finds movies less interested in awakening viewers than in rewarding their laziness. In times like this, a movie’s stylistic flair can go a long way against its inert narrative. Unlike The Break Up, X-Men 3 and The Da Vinci Code, Pixar’s Cars lights the screen with images worth…
Theodore’s struggles
Andrew Cochran and I are sitting in a Halifax coffee shop. He’s moving my Olympus mini-recorder and his bottle of Dasani water around the table top—sort of like play ships sailing on a play harbour—to explain some otherwise inexplicable concept of intellectual property law. He’s already told me a recent study by the Law Commission…
Meet Ms. McInnis
After years of playing behind charismatic front men, Pamela McInnis decided it was her turn to take the lead. A talented songwriter in her own right, she raised the money to record an album and left her regular gigs in two established local bands behind. The shadowy bass player in well-known Halifax acts the Museum…
Stone face
Mason in the corner The Old Burying Ground closed for good in 1844, but for a polished monument of granite plinths (the only granite in the graveyard) located in the far left corner of the Ground on Barrington St. near Dalhousie’s Sexton campus. This particular monument and the cleared space surrounding it occupy roughly one…
Call to Arm
In 1951, the Spring Garden Public Library went into operation; Brothers began smoking meat and prime minister Louis St. Laurent’s government had just increased the “old-age pension.” There was no Tim Hortons, no Macdonald Bridge. But seniors near the Northwest Arm could spend their increase at a modest little eatery called the Armview. For most…
Conservative progress
My heart bled for that hapless gal on the radio the morning after Tuesday’s provincial election. When a reporter informed her Nova Scotians had elected another minority government, the poor thing cried out, “What a bloody waste of money!” She was dead wrong, of course. In my own riding of Waverley—Fall River—Beaver Bank, the NDP’s…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Get ready for an inspiring kick in the butt, Sagittarius, says Rob Brezsny.
SAVAGE LOVE
Dan Savage hands out a reality check or two.
