Vrai democracy
To the editor, Last week’s feature “Faux democracy” by Chris Benjamin shows the danger of setting up “consultations” people perceive to be unresponsive or cynically motivated—it breeds more cynicism and squanders the intelligence that concerned citizens can add to the development and implementation of a plan, no matter how brilliant it initially is. Powerful methods…
Bitches to blandishment
To the editor, I read The Coast every week. It’s an important part of this city’s media landscape. Along with a significant contribution to the arts, the paper is one of the few sources for deeper analysis of urban affairs, politics and environmental issues. In other words, I like The Coast. “Love the Way We…
Bad Drivers, Bruised knees.
Too all Metro Transit drivers with lead feet; Please remember that a passanger needs to get past the yellow line, before you hit the gas to venture to your next stop. Otherwise they are unable to hold onto anything, or sit down and consiquently thrown into seats/people/the floor and are left with bruises and a…
Matt Mays You Suck
Being woke up at 3:50 am on a Monday morning by the blaring music of Matt Mays and El Torpedo isn’t a very nice way to start the week. To the crew filming the Matt Mays video in the south end . . . have some respect for people that work during the week!!! The…
Stupid People on the bus
Whenever I am on the bus especially the lower floor buses, I can’t stand it when a bunch of people are standing and there is plenty of vacant seats in the back of the bus. Also another thing is stupid people just standing in lower floor area; and when the driver tells you stupid people…
Historical Eyesore On Ochterloney St.
Okay, WHY in the name of God, is Greenvale School STILL standing?! For Cryin’ out loud, the place is in such total disrepair, plus the fact that it’s taking up valuable space where other more FUNCTIONAL buildings could be…such as new condos! God Almighty, if my bank wasn’t on that street, or one of the…
Dear HRM
Thanks for tearing up the road in front of both my driveways AND cutting off my hot water! It’s not like I had to go to work today or anything. Next time have the courtesy to give me a wrap around before you fuck my day up. Pissed on Windsor
Dear Crazy Guy
Please stay the hell out of my store from now on. Your insane ramblings are no longer welcome, it is time to move on. Don’t Come Back
Get folked (with The Canadian Folk Music Awards)
The Canadian Folk Music Awards are going to be happening this year in St. John’s, and the submission deadline for artists to get their CDs for consideration is July 4th. Canadian artists who have released recordings between June 15th, 2007 and June 14th, 2008 are eligible for consideration, and I can imagine an award on…
ANGO go go!
There’s something you may not have known about Andrew Gordon from Medium Mood/A History Of… he’s, like, a DJ and shit. Under the name ANGO he’s been making beats for rappers in Halifax for nearly 10 years, including a nomination for Urban Recording of the Year by MIANS for Second Fronts’ The Sound of Progress.…
Beatles vs. Kiss
Past event notice! Did anyone else notice that the Maritime Beatle Event and the Kiss Expo were on the same day? I hope there was some Sharks/Jets style action.
NXNE-stylin’
I’m an experienced traveller but I always have a mild clothing panic attack before I leave for anywhere (Iceland this summer should be fun). I know it’s going to be bloody heinous hot (having lived in Toronto for 12 years and attended many steamy festivals, I know I’ll leave there crusty and cranky), but really,…
The Stan Rogers Folk Festival. Fun!
Celebrating the events 12th year this July 4th to 6th, the gang at Stan Rogers HQ (beards and plaid shirts for all of them) have announced this year’s line up. Go and get a cup of tea now, because it’s a monster list. Buffy Saint Marie, Gordie Sampson, April Wine, Martin Sexton, Irish troubadour Andy…
Anchor Archive’s away
Earlier this week, Anchor Archive Zine Library announced that they officially changed their name to Anchor Social Centre. Popular in Europe, social centres are more like community spaces, used for a wide variety of activities, and are often run in a flat, non-hierarchical way. Sounds about right—that cute red house and shed on Roberts Street…
EAC Sea world
Lately I’ve been obsessed with the BBC nature series, Planet Earth and all of the acid-trippy, wacked-out creatures found in remote pockets of the world. In an interview few years back, the Planet Earth’s milky-voiced narrator David Attenborough said that the series intentionally avoids any mention of environmental politics because it’s “more a celebration of…
Rules of the Road are for EVERYBODY
Dear Cyclists, I know you’re all super-special because you get your special pants and your special headgear and your special smug “I’m-not-polluting-and-getting-a-workout” attitude, and that’s okay. But remember, YOU share the road just the same as the motorists. And your arms are for more than just raising your chai-venta-mocha-latte with half-skim half-soy fair-trade family-friendly organic…
your breakfast is crap
Went to one of my old favs, a little ol dependable restaurant on Quinpool the other day. You know the old mom and pop type place. Used to love it cause I could go in alone, feel comfortable.. good food and always good service. What in the heck is happening to you? Crappy service, shittier…
Walkmans
Just got the paper copy of the Coast and saw the bitch about Walkmans. Maybe the original poster shouldn’t have referred to all music players as “Walkmans” but I can’t believe the idiotic replies. Even worse, the stupid replies were printed. My MP3 player is, wait for it, A SONY WALKMAN, you fools. Yes, besides…
Active Transportation Plan?
According to this week’s “Sustainable City” in the coast, HRM’s new Active Transportation Plan includes bike lanes in any new road upgrades. QUESTION: What about the large section of Robie Street they have just torn up? It is one of the main arteries into the centre of the city and one would think with all…
BAD BAD Bus Drivers
It’s called a shoulder check. Drivers are meant to do it BEFORE pulling into traffic. It’s the most basic of driving skills, yet, our bus drivers, professional drivers, don’t seem to have this concept down. Hell they have great big buses other vehicles cannot compete with so why should they bother, huh? This bitch is…
Ride On!
Every city leaves some sort of impression on a person. For Leah Girardo it was Wenches With Wrenches, a Toronto-based collective that offered bike maintenance and repair courses for women/identified folks. She’s brought her experience to Halifax and started the Women/Identified Bike Maintenance and Repair. The local version meets every Tuesday evening between 6:00 and…
yawn city
ugh, why is halifax such a terminally boring, stagnant shithole of a place?? leaving town
Chebucto Road widening– not happening?
The Chebucto Road widening project was supposed to be a done deal. Regional council debated it, approved it, funded it. On Monday, our reporter Chris Benjamin submitted his copy for this week’s paper, an article about how the residents along Chebucto Road were dealing with the loss of their properties (either the strip along the…
Breaking news– Chebucto tender rejected
Regional council this morning has rejected the $2 million tender for widening Chebucto Road. I’ll have more on this, and what it means, later today.
****
I think garbage day smells like ****. Anon
Rodney MacDonald’s biggest failure
Gas price regulation. Check out the reader comments to see how MacDonald owns that policy failure.
MuchMusic doles out the awards
Pick your favourite from the following: Classified, Wintersleep, Buck 65 and The Trews. These are the east coast nominees for the 2008 MuchMusic Video Awards (airing Sunday, June 15 at 10pm). If you consider these slim pickings, you might want to take it up with FACTOR.
Jennifer Watts
We get press releases: Jennifer Watts announces candidacy for District 14 council seat “District 14 needs transportation policies that are environmentally sound and respect neighbourhood integrity,” said Jennifer Watts in announcing her candidacy for the Connaught-Quinpool seat on HRM council. “Concerns about traffic in and through District 14 consistently top the list of issues people…
Sorry
Whoever you are, you parked close to my car at the mall in Halifax… or so I thought. (One aisle across was my car.) I thought my car was the one you parked beside. (And inches from mind you) So I look and there it is.. a fucking scratch on my nice new black car.…
Check-out
To the guy that rang me through at a store on Young that will go unnamed I would love to know why you were so rude to me when I came up to pay for the stack of crap I didn’t need to buy from your store. I was really excited to finally make it…
Hammonds Plain Graffiti
Dear little boys, Destroying somebody else’s work is not cool. Hopefully when you grow up, you will realize this. Until then, stop defacing public property!!!!! Enoughalready
Coast Ads
Car ads? American Apparel? Cigarettes? Cellphones? The Coast is starting to hurt my eyes (and heart.) Come on, step away from the awful corporate propaganda… Fly
Surprise
Surprise! I gave you bacon on your Geek Salad, your welcome! Hope you enjoy the flavor of murder! (I Don’t actually think that, its just for dramatic effect) How the fuck does Bacon get on a geek salad? ok the flavor was good, but it fuckin grossed me out. And it wasn’t until I was…
Smelly Bus
I think its time that Metro Transit goes scent free! This morning I got on the bus and almost gagged to death on the smell of scented products coming off of someone. Which was a surprise to me, as most workplaces have a scent free policy. Another time myself and my roomie were coming home…
Slow the Fuck Down!
I’m driving to work, not much of a morning person, and even tho’ I”m doing 10 over the posted speed limit, I invariably have some dick tailgatin’ me and roaring past me as soon as he gets the chance. I say he because it’s always a guy, usually in some tricked out Civic or a…
Seriously… get with the times!
To the city of Halifax and the majority of the people in it! Get with the fucking times! We are so behind in everything it is ridiculous! Stop trying to live in the past and start updating the god for saken city! All the fucking old geezers out there!? Suck it up and fucking let…
Flower pickers response
Sorry I had to respond to comments on the flower pickers here but for some reason cannot get in to comments section. Those two comments were great to receive! To bobbi we would love you to help refurbish the flowers this will teach so much to the children! The daycare is the Cunard St. Children’s…
It’s “share the road” time again…
Dear Motorist: OK. You don’t like me, and I don’t like you. I don’t mean ALL motorists. Just certain ones. You know who you are. You refuse to acknowledge my right to be on the road, and it eats your guts that the law is on my side. I ride as far to the right…
Common Courtesy
So when did we stop showing our appreciation to other drivers when they let us into a line of waiting traffic? I cannot count the amount of times I have stopped to let some car go in front of me – when I do not have to – and they do not wave acknowledgement. This…
Price of oil
All hell is breaking loose on the commodities markets today.
More roads
The provincial PCs have dropped to third place in recent polling. So here’s Rodney MacDonald’s stretegy for winning back the hearts and minds of Nova Scotians: will now focus on giving the “average Joe” what he wants—better roads, tax cuts and jobs. “This time of year, they want to see more pavement in their constituenices,”…
Sexy Girl and the City
Still on the quest for Mr. Big? Look no further, as Sexy Girl home parties (1590 Argyle) recently unleashed their high-end adult sex toys and products named after characters from the hit HBO series (now a big screen success) Sex and the City. Literarily get Carried away by calling Veronica MacIsaac at 443-8234.
Delish Dish
Casa Carlos (5160 Duke) is home to some of the finest Spanish-Filipino dishes, in fact they are the only restaurant in Halifax that serves this type of cuisine. With a menu of delectable Spanish style soups, it’s their tender, low-carb, low-calorie pressure-fried Broaster Chicken that makes my mouth water.
Happy Belated Birthday Nauss
This past April benchmarked 40 years in the bike biz for the Jack Nauss Bicycle Shop (2533 Agricola). In order to celebrate Al Barbour threw a vintage bike show on June 1. The show featured low riders, high-wheelers, older cruiser bikes from the 1920s and penny farthings (turn-of-the-century bike with a huge front wheel and…
Close Parker
hey, you with the little shitty red golf. You park in the parking lot on seymour street at my building but you don’t live here. If you fucking park that close to my car again I am going to do damage! not only did you come within inches of my car but you did another.…
RESEARCH
If you’re going to take the bus, figure out what bus you’re taking BEFOREHAND. I am so sick of people stopping the bus just to ask “do you go this way…” There are so many ways you could find this out without inconviencing, not only a bus load of people, but also all the cars…
Get Out Of My Way!
Why must groups of people stand in front of the doors on the bus even when there are a million seats available and space to stand in the middle of the bus. I don’t really want to have to fight my way through all of you sweaty people to get off the bus. bussing it
No names in Bitches
That includes names of small businesses. Doesn’t matter how many times you try to post it, we’re not going to allow it. Web site Nazi
Fuck off with the walkmans on the bus already
Metro Transit really should start enforcing some of the rules that they have printed in their riders guide. I find that lately the volume of other people playing their walkman’s is becoming intolerable and the drivers are either oblivious to it or are afraid to say anything or just don’t care. Please start enforcing the…
Gnocci at Fid, No Comparison
At DaMaurizio’s we Have an elite Chef let’s call him A, who has mastered not only pasta perfection and the art of kitchen service but he has THE BEST GNOCCI in town BAR NONE. That shit about the paddle is shit! My Mom who is a good cook recently ate at “Da’s” and has Idolized…
Wine Wins
If wine is bottled poetry than Nova Scotians are damn fine wordsmiths. At this year’s All Canadian Wine Championships the province received 19 awards at the annual fermented grape ceremony in Windsor, Ontario. “We have won in the past, we have won again,” says Janice Ruddock, managing director of the Winery Association of Nova Scotia.…
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Bitching or Whining
It time to start bitching about the whiners OR is that whining about there bitching. It takes approx 2 seconds to go from Bitch Mode to Whine Mode and another 1/8 of a second to catch your breath to go from Whine Mode to Bitch Mode. Save your breath and complain instead ! lol
you are gross
you are a fat bitch. can you stop plowing food into your face for 5 mins? go figure you cant get a date with a guy. you constantly sweat and you smell like cheese. here’s a cpl tips for you… 1/ salt doesnt go on top of pizza, 2/ if you’re going to sit down…
The Artist Life are free as birds
Someone should tell The Artist Life that nothing comes for free. Featuring ex-members of Jersey, Jude the Obscure, The Fullblast and At The Mercy of Inspiration, The Artist Life (Chuck Leach, Ian Blackwood, Dean Richards and Jake Parsonson) independently released their debut EP “Living” as a free download on their website in the summer of…
Books v booze
AllNovaScotia (paid subscription required) is reporting that the Nova Scotia Liquor Corp is looking to combine the small Clyde Street liquor store with the Port of Wine outlet on Doyle Street into a new 15,000 sq. ft. “flagship store” somewhere along the Spring Garden corridor. The prime locale for the new store? The old infirmary…
Lame-o-rama
To the woman who swiped a blouse out of my cart while I was in the dressing room trying things on at a local thrift store: That was just lame. You saw me put that red blouse into my cart, then you followed me to the change room. When I went in to try some…
Flower Pickers
On behalf of the children who attend the daycare on Cunard Street. Thank you so much to the person or persons for picking all of our flowers we planted out of our garden planters in the front of our daycare. It certainly doesn’t teach children to respect other people’s property or to invest in their…
Homos in Hell (The Ukeladies)
Homos in Hell (The Ukeladies)Saturday, May 30, 9:27pm, The SeahorsePaul Hammond
Escalate already!
Alright here’s the deal. Why is it that when your going up an escalator you always run into people who stop on it. They’re still stairs! Can you not walk? You’ll use a stairmaster but then won’t even use an actual set of stairs. Do the mechanical specifications of this Individual levitating mechanism prevent mobility?…
Library overdue
Bigfoot is at the Spring Garden Road library (in the Don Hunter book Sasquatch, for example). Ditto the Loch Ness monster, the fountain of youth, Oak Island’s treasure and the Bermuda Triangle (this last is available on DVD in an episode of Scooby-Doo, where are you!). The library’s holdings on the mythical and mysterious are…
Faux democracy
Why do I get nervous whenever government talks about “engaging the public in a conversation about the future?” You hear that talk a lot in HRM. Do they ever get it right? If they did, communities wouldn’t need public demonstrations to be heard. When councillor Sheila Fougere proposed a one-year moratorium on the Chebucto Road…
Sex and the City
The hate some critics hold for Sex and the City: The Movie has been interesting. The mainstream press didn’t catch on to what made the HBO series a fraud until near the end of its run. It’s the franchise’s huge popularity that’s now a threat: Viewers hate on movies representing lifestyles alien to their own.…
Urban grilling
CUT Urban Grill is hip, urbane and the newest addition to the neo-liberal city. But it’s a mixed bag.
For the record
“I like to record,” says David Myles. “I have a feeling—I hope—that I will be someone who makes a lot of records. I don’t want to limit my production too much in terms of my output. I really like making records, I’m just getting things going now.” The lanky, affable Fredericton native shot an arrow…
Minding the store
Halifax photographer Suzi Cameron presents work that recasts familiar locations around this city. In her exhibition, 36 Halifax Corner Grocery Stores 36 Years Later, on now through Saturday at the Anna Leonowens Gallery, she reacquaints her viewers with sites they likely take for granted. “They’re part of my sense of what a neighbourhood is,” says…
Grace is Gone
[image-4]Published June 05, 2008.Grace is Gone Directed by: James C. Strouse (Weinstein Company) Directed by When Stanley (John Cusack) loses his wife Grace in the Iraq War, he’s left with more to deal with than his own sadness. Unable to break the news to his daughters (Shélan O’Keefe, Gracie Bednarczyk), Stanley instead proposes the world’s…
Savage Love
Q: I’m a 23-year-old guy and I have been dating my 21-year-old girlfriend for about two years. We did the long-distance thing for a year, and after she graduated, she moved from the east coast to the midwest to be with me while I finish my degree. Everything was great until she moved in with…
The Onion Movie
[image-4]Published June 12, 2008.The Onion MovieDirected by: Directed by Tom Kuntz and Mike Maguire(20th Century Fox) One sketch in The Onion Movie features faux film critics reviewing The Onion Movie itself. In it, a turtleneck-clad talking head describes the film as “vulgar, lowbrow potty humour thinly disguised as satire.” It’s canny of the film’s writers…
High expectations
When the lunch bell rings at Citadel High, there’s more traffic bustling through the halls than at some universities. The congestion of bodies filtering down the stairs, between doorways and through halls is normal for these students—after a year at Halifax’s super-high school they’re starting to get used to it. This past fall, Citadel High…
Liking biking
Liking biking It’s a slow ride. If it was a race, I couldeasily win. Most of us could. But I’m middle of the pack, surrounded by 300 Haligonian cyclists who have taken over the streets. A chant goes up behind me, “One, two, three, four, we don’t want no oil wars.” It’s Critical Mass, the…
Bette & Wallet w/Leapfrog
Four years after moving to Quebec City, Mary Beth Carty is returning to Halifax to release a CD with her (romantic and musical) partner Gabriel F. Ouellette. Carty brings the Bette and Ouellette brings the Wallet to Bette & Wallet, a bilingual duo driven by accordion, violin and Ouellette’s stomping feet. Carty (The Johnson Sisters)…
Summer schooling
Sure, summer’s all about flip-flops and festival-going, and wearing sunglasses that potentially make you look like a douche-bag. But it’s also a season jam-packed with downtime—and thus, potential movie-watching time. There’s an undeniable pleasure in skipping the beach every once and a while, and chilling out with some quality entertainment and Häagen-Dazs. (Deny it! I…
