Good Mourning Week
In light of the changing landscape of Halifax’s art space scene (see Jade Nauss’ feature, Halifax’s Art Problem for more on this topic), artist Laura Baker-Roberts and the artists behind Mourning Week, decided to address the recent closures/reconfigurations/relocations of our city’s art hubs with a week of events. Mourning Week isn’t curated, and it’s open…
Lynn for the win
Lynn Coady, the 2013 Giller Scotiabank Prize Winner for the sublime Hellgoing, comes back east on an icy cool western wind, to speak at Dalhousie on Friday, March 14 (8pm Scotiabank Auditorium, Marion McCain Arts & Social Sciences Building, free). Presented by the 33rd Atlantic Annual Undergraduate English Conference & the Department of English Distinguished…
Police blotter release mired in delay, fear of open government future
The release of the police blotter is mired in delay. Technical issues are partly to blame, but the underlying problem seems to be a fear in the Halifax Regional Police Department of a full release of data. The police blotter is a daily log of all police calls, where officers were dispatched to, what sort…
If the Internet Cat Video Festival doesn’t come here, I swear
The very same day I was reminded that the Oh Don Piano video is eight years old and the probability is high that Don is dead now (thanks, Sue Carter Flinn), I discover that the Internet Cat Video Festival is a thing, and Canadian Art reports that it’s touring across Canada. But Halifax is not…
eep
I think I just realized I’ve fallen in love. I didn’t think it was possible to happen that fast. So instead of scaring you off I’m sending out a love because I’m WAY too scared to tell you, even though you sort of might have attempted to already? How did you do this to me?…
Get your shit together Kijiji idiots
If you put something on the site to SELL and someone shows interest in said item wouldn’t the best plan of action be to, I don’t know, be available when you say you’re going to be? I understand that people work/have lives etc but if you say you’re available for pick up at such and…
Bye-bye Brussels Restaurant and Brasserie
Due to declining business downtown Brussels has closed its doors for good. We thank all our customers for a great 5 years. Cheers! — Brussels (@BrusselsRest) March 11, 2014 After five years of serving up an almost incomparable beer selection, tapas and more on Granville Square, Brussels Restaurant & Brasserie (1873 Granville Street) has closed…
Rogues Roost’s sweet 15
One of the first things Doug Johnson did when he first decided he wanted to get into brewing beer back in 1998 was put an ad in the Globe & Mail. He was looking for the perfect brewmaster. With a stainless steel set up (built by PEI’s own brewery builders DME International) and new recruit…
The gym may be swanky, but the people still suck
To whomever stole my incredibly plain boots from downtown’s fanciest new workout hub, you are actively a horrible person. I’m angry out of principle, but also because I have big feet and it’s really hard to find footwear that fits. You suck. Enjoy the persistent athlete’s foot. —Please Just Return the Boots!
to my secrefalcon
YOURS was the best horn solo–ever. —princess Leia
False Advertising?
Last evening was the first, and hopefully, last time, I’ll have to watch the NS Tourism video. f you believe half the dross that’s in it, you’d believe we lived in Shangri-La and not North Korea Central with a Greek economy. They should show run down filthy Halifax, and then flash the headline “Come to…
dreamy jiang
Come see me soon. —miss u <3
Gone
It was neither the time nor the place to remind you of yours. You found me, pushed once, spread gratitude’s thighs. Verse softened fingers pulled words from my womb stretching umbilicals, yanked at the end. I laboured, for it’s pain (and you smiled) cuts the fat from the bone. No bloody gushes, I’d battened insides…
NS is so boring
Nothing to do here but drink. —Fuck this, I’m outta here
I don’t need a pharmacist
So I get off work the other day at midnight or 1AM and since I have a case of the sniffles I decide to go to the grocery store for some cold medicine. It’s locked up. This is because it is apparently against the law in Nova Scotia to buy over the counter cold medicine…
Sweet hereafter
This is a second hand “love” passed on to me by my friend. She was preparing for a visit to a friend in palliative care and headed to our local bakery so she could take along something tempting. Unable to decide, she explained the situation and asked for recommendations. Other customers in the bakery offered…
Dragons
Real dragons are not gentlemen. Real dragons are predators that eat people —Vegetarian
“Your lights on on – that’s a killer!”
To the man who stopped his car on herring cove road, rang my doorbell, and told me my lights were on – thank you. I had to go pick a friend up from a music lesson about a half hour later and my battery would have been dead for sure! He has a stand up…
what can i do
How do I make her see…or is it me that is blind…never felt quite like this before…can no longer intellectualize this…body and mind out of sync…humbled beyond my own comprehension…too many have let such things fade away… —one man needing a little help.
Miss BullyFace Know-It-All
Sharing a classroom with you is becoming increasingly difficult…your pseudo-artsy-organic wannabe persona, and idiotic questions are ruining the whole learning experience for many of us. Sure, your whiny private-members club trio endorse your criticism of teachers, curriculum and fellow students, but to the others you are way out of line. Thank God this two year…
This Week’s Bug Bitch
Seriously? I am surprised the Coast would even print such a completely moronic “bitch”. “Creepy and need squashing.” I am pretty sure that’s what needs to happen to the creepy parasitic human race. I don’t think it’s ladybugs and cockroaches destroying the planet, killing other species/themselves for no reason, or oozing polluted over populated sludge…
a big giant fuck you
FUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK YOU. —fuck you?
Hey Asshole Driver On the Circ
You and your wife- driving to the end of the Circ. Hwy; slowing down, speeding up, slowing down, speeding up. I pass you in a civilized manner, to which you abruptly pull out from behind me, gun it, and get in front of me. I laughed, though, because I had seen the cops at the…
greed is creepy
why are most people with alot of money and/or power so creepy? i don’t know, it is usually nothing super obvious or even blatant. it is usually something in their face. a smirk, a stare. i am a renovation carpenter and have worked on a lot of expensive homes and have the ‘fortune’ to speak…
Still waiting for change
I go to a certain local restaurant on a weekly bases. I usually order the same thing time after time which comes to $12.85. I give $20.00 and expect to get my full change back and then give a tip. But my waitress never seems to give me to correct change. I know that it…
Why not International Gender Equality Day???
I’m not celebrating International Women’s Day, simply because in an equitable society, we should not need a day to call our own. By talking about women as less than equal, we are in some ways, treating ourselves as less than equal and therefore reinforcing the societal view that women are less than equal through the…
Mr. Pretty-Eyed Officer
I’ve only spoken to you once. It was when I handed you that envelope. You were such a gentleman (albeit, fake, because I know that you and your ‘crew’ can’t stand my ass). But I had never seen you before. I was expecting somebody else to roll down that window. Can I just say, daayuuuummm,…
A different kind of Bus Bitch
Dear Bus bitchers, I am growing weary of your ‘why aren’t you on time’ bitches. In my opinion, most of you are the kind of people that are consistantly late for work even when you have a vehicle. Try leaving for work early enough that the ussual delays don’t make you late more than a…
You have your own boyfriend!!!
I know people will make fun of this bitch… But I don’t care. I’ve been in a long-distance relationship for a year and a half now. My boyfriend lives 5 hours away, so it’s not the worst. He called me, (really) drunk last night to say hi and we spoke on the phone for a…
economics of history
You could have very easily fucked that up for me today, but you chose to help me, instead. Thank you. —chicken in white wine sauce
idiots
Will the person who keeps writing all of those obnoxious “Love the Way We Love” elementary school secret admirer love notes to that bald headed fruit-arranger that works at that yuppie grocery store downtown please just lay the fuck off? You sound like a fucking airhead – you think the way he shovels ice is…
Who cares about a flat tire when the worlds a wonderful place with wonderful peeps
I returned to my car post lunch to the following note folded with 5$ in it: “I noticed you have a flat tire. There’s nothing about that that doesn’t suck; Have a coffee and stay warm, spring is coming ( : ” You have no idea how broke I’ve been and that I probably would…
I’m So Much Cooler Online
Why is it that men tell me how great looking I am online and ask me out, but in person? Nada. Zero. Rien. Do men not do this anymore? Or am I just absolutely fucking hideous in person? —jigglybuttockslady
not to be rude, but nova scotia is still i bit backwards
my first comment about moving here from another province is what the hell is up with buying a car and having to go all the fucking way out to bayers lake to get some god damned licence plates. really, that’s the only place for anyone in this whole city to have to go. and now…
Waiting.. still waiting..
I understand that Metro Transit buses need schedules. I also understand that the drivers have to abide by these schedules – so no fault to them, but these schedules are ridiculous. I travel past the Portland Hills Terminal everyday, and all three buses that follow that route have a common problem. The departure times on…
Don’t want to fight it
Seeing you makes my heart all a flutter,palms sweaty,feeling of butterflies in my stomach and I want to run to you and hold you.It’s having those feelings and emotions that frighten me, also make me more sure of who,what i want more than anything and I’m willing to face all my fears for him. —I…
Its your loss
So you think I lost your friendship but think again your the biggest loser . Your the one that accused me doing wrong when its your covering up of your wrong doing so your spouse would not know what you were doing with someone else and disguise it . Thanks for humiliating me for something…
you are going to get hurt
Jackassery, mental illness, extreme poverty- regardless you cannot continue to weave in and out of traffic at north and gottingen begging for change from parked vehicles, or flagging traffic to a stop so you can safely get out of the way- there are big lights behind you that do that for us. Three calls to…
Thirteen things for you to do this weekend
Guys! This is a really busy weekend! You will definitely need a HUVr board to get around. They aren’t fake at all, no need to look it up. FRIDAY, MARCH 7 From 10-4 on Friday, March 7 the Dalhousie Student Union Equity & Accessibility office will help you make a banner, either for goofy or…
Stop politicizing Loretta Saunders’ murder
We all know she was NOT murdered because she was Aboriginal. Nobody would know she was Aboriginal if the media didn’t keep stressing that. It was a tragic murder but not a hate crime. It was a roommate issue forgodsake! Now all these politicians and political activists are circling her like hungry wolves, eager for…
Thanks for the warm head!
A big shout out to the awesome person who found my toque at the Dartmouth Home Depot on Thursday and turned it in to the customer service desk. My cozy head thanks you! —Snug as a Bug
Before you ask, I’m 4’9
Shitty customers, could you all stop asking me how tall I am and making comments about my height? If you said these things to me outside of work I’d have no trouble telling you off. You gain nothing from making unnecessary comments about my appearance, I am just here to bag your groceries and be…
The Mother Club
Juanita Peters’ The Mother Club is a play rich with historical detail and mystery. It is a testament to the enduring strength of women. The story is specific in its setting (a rural community in Nova Scotia in the 1930’s), but it’s also very relevant, since it deals with violence against women and the toll…
intermittant clouds
Dear weatherman…….WTF!?!?!? Are you suggesting that the clouds may give me a sun burn or a tornado might come out of nowhere…….because they are “intermittant”? If they are intermittant, then they aren’t always clouds, correct? Then, wtf are they? —i think you are an intermittant weatherman
Sicko cheapos
I am so sick and tired of all the lazy useless yobs that live off dead people. Sicko 1) To strip your dead friends house of everything before the bank take it over. Sicko 2- Live off your dead ex husbands money by living in a swanky condo paid by him as you don’t work…
it’s just me bein’ me
I will never have the ability to express my overwhelming gratitude to those who are in my life, loving and accepting me as I gain the confidence to love and accept myself. It’s been a tough few years, but I’m so thankful that I have these amazing people in my life as I move forward.…
pajama’s
I live close to an elementary school, so I am used to seeing kids wearing them. It seems lately I am seeing adults everywhere doing the same thing. Have we become that lazy that we can’t even change when going out? —just stay in bed then
Laundry room S.O.B
To the inbred fuckwit who continuously loads two machines at the same time (despite clear notices NOT to do that) and then proceeds to leave a giant ass puddle of water all over the laundry room and hallway – you are a fucking moron. Other people live in this building and have laundry to do…
I owe you an apology
The first time I met you, I thought you were a heavy drinking, party goer, kind of a douche and nothing else; I was wrong and I am sorry for that. My predisposition towards you, made it so that I would not notice you are in fact a gentleman, pretty funny, and highly intelligent. You’re…
Halifax Drivers
To the dipshit that almost ran me over on the east side of the commons, fuck you buddy. Next time you see someone in a crosswalk, how about you use those things on your car called BREAKS. If I hadn’t stopped and stepped back at the last second I woulda been your new hood ornament.…
Fuck You
Fuck you, you fucking ass hole. you made me fall in love with you. WE moved in together you made me so happy. And just today you left. You just picked up and left me. Now I’m stuck in this empty fucking apartment, wishing you would come back. But you aren’t coming back. I hate…
To My Punk Princess
Its been one year since you came into my life, with your amazing dreads and turquoise hair. In that year I’ve fallen more and more in love with you every single day. You’re my partner, my perfect match, of this I’m sure. I look forward to our next year together, and many more to follow.…
Dumb ass, lazy pedestrian mother!
So I was driving up Thistle St and some woman walks out from between parked cars right in front of us, dragging three little kids with her. I had to slam on the brakes to avoid running them down. I gave her a what are you doing gesture and she stalked around the front of…
Rudi’s Authentic Hot Sauce is fired up
The need for heat runs in Rudi Brooks’ family. An admitted addict to spicy foods learned to keep his fridge stocked with hot sauces from his father, Greg “the peppermaster” Brooks, a chef and hot sauce aficionado in his own right. The pair teamed up to create their own line of homemade sauces, using unique…
Never got to say thanks
We met outside a Quinpool watering hole, and you later sent me a drink. You left before I got to say thanks, and that I think you’re super cute! Hoping to bump into you again! —West End Girl
I thought you might actually like me
But all signs point to He’s Just Not That Into You- Painfully long reply time to texts (w short responses)? Check. Shortest hangout possible? Check. 1 armed hug goodbye? Check. Guess I’ll not initiate any conversations and see if you take the time to do so. —Damn boy
Kind-Hearted Snowplow Driver
It was another snowy day and I was out shovelling the driveway. Just as I was finished you pulled around the corner to cut back the snowbanks, filling up the driveway again. You noticed the large chunks of icy snow, backed up the plow and took away the snow that would have been too heavy…
Do they seriously want to to reduce the cost of health care in Nova Scotia!
Escalating costs of health care in Nova Scotia are increasingly in the news. This is a serious problem and I agree there is not easy solution… but…listen to this story! We recently spent a 10 day vacation in the USA. After a few days, I needed to get some medical attention for a minor issue.…
Friendship as a Form of Life
You left a stack of ‘zines in the office, reflecting a politic we’ve only rarely seen in this city. We’d love to proliferate the commune and create zones of opacity with you, if you’re free. —Some Anarchists
Coffee Conspiracy
I wonder how stoopid you’d have to be to think that Jim Morton would add something addictive to his coffee. I also know Jim is no longer associated with Jim’s, but that doesn’t change the coffee and what IS NOT in it. Caffeine is a stimulant and your body can crave it like an addiction…
The Coast runs an unfair contest
The Burger Week Ambassador contest is a farce. We voted and voted and voted for a friend. Burnt Friday night voting for the Feb 28th deadline. Yayy…the Ambassadors with the most votes are selected right? NOT! The Coast decided to extend the contest AFTER the voting was closed (now March 14th)…perhaps a friend of the…
Girl
I don’t miss your farts, they smelled bad. —everyone you don’t hang out with anymore
Magnolia’s in bloom
“We would wake up at like 11 and have breakfast,” says Scott MacLean, one half of Magnolia, of making the duo’s first EP, “and smoke some cigarettes, then go record until 10 or 11 at night.” “Drinking would commence at some point in there,” adds Leanne Hoffman, the other half. “It was really relaxing. I…
Happy Herbivore: Light & Lean
Eating healthy is damn hard. Preparation, shopping, the effort required to do more than call for pizza every night—harder still if you’re vegetarian or vegan and not quite sure where to start. This is where popular blogger and recipe conjurer Lindsay S. Nixon comes in. Her new cookbook, hot on the heels of three other similarly…
The Girl with a Clock for a Heart
The Girl with a Clock for a Heart is an intense debut thriller from Peter Swanson, in which George’s comfortable, ordinary life is upheaved by the return of Liana, his college girlfriend and first love, 20 years later. Liana needs George’s help and in spite of all the reasons he has not to trust her,…
Major Jillionaire
“It’s easy to get lazy as a DJ, especially when you play three nights a week in the same environment to a drunk crowd,” says Halifax’s DJ Tom Fleming, 2013’s Red Bull Thre3style winner and house DJ for The Dome. On Thursday, with Mixre and DJ Savoury, Fleming will open for one of Diplo’s dance-hall…
Sherman Downey’s Sun rises
When Sherman Downey began recording his debut album, Honey for the Bees, four years ago, he went into the studio with a grant from MusicNL, a full set of songs…and no band. Rather than seeking out some session musicians and hoping for the best, Downey turned to the folks he was working with on a…
Free Will Astrology
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Pisces (February 19-March 20) In the 1997 film Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery, the lead character announces that “’Danger’ is my middle name.” Ever since, real people in the UK have been legally making “Danger” their middle name with surprising regularity. I think it would be smart fun for you Pisceans to…
Halifax’s XANADU
The Nova Centre now under construction downtown is by far the largest development project in Halifax history. Revised plans for the project submitted by developer Joe Ramia’s company, Rank, Inc., show two towers for the site–a 17-storey hotel facing Market and Prince Streets, and an office tower along Argyle Street, consisting of two connected bulbs,…
Anchor Archive Zine library zines in
Nestled between a Pac-Man machine and Cafe Bream, Anchor Archive Zine Library and The People’s Photocopier have found a new residence in Plan B Merchants’ Co-op. The heady air smells of coffee and taxidermy; the space looks like your great aunt’s living room ate a grassroots atheneum—it’s alien and it feels like home. The archive,…
A tale from the toilet
Q Straight female with a question. It’s about something that sometimes happens to me that I’ve never really told anyone about. It involves my bowel movements, so it’s not very sexy. (No offense to scat lovers, but I have zero interest in “poop play.”) After I have a normal bowel movement, I pull up my…
Dinah Thorpe
Not averse to cadging a lyric here or going on a rant there, Dinah Thorpe keeps it fresh and flowing on her third album. Anyone who remembers Meryn Cadell, another Toronto singer-talker a generation ago, will be familiar with such an issue-driven approach. Rob Ford, Stephen Harper and pushy motorists get Thorpe’s attention, the opposite…
Letters to the editor, March 6,2014
Job fares Max Haiven asks us to “Cut the crap about ‘young professionals’ and start getting real ” (Voice of the City, February 27). I would suggest that anyone who shares his views is in dire need of a reality check themselves. I have seldom read such a whining article full of self-pity and excuses…
Sierra Leone’s Refugee All-Stars
Three albums in a dozen years are sufficient to mark the Refugee All-Stars as distinct among African groups for their varied attack. The North American ear generates a physical response to hearty brass-guitar throwdown, even while wishing for more distortion in the latter. We like to rock. Reggae rhythm is reserved for sad songs about…
Letters to the editor, March 6,2014
Job fares Max Haiven asks us to “Cut the crap about ‘young professionals’ and start getting real ” (Voice of the City, February 27). I would suggest that anyone who shares his views is in dire need of a reality check themselves. I have seldom read such a whining article full of self-pity and excuses…
Agricola Street’s alright
If nothing else, the Agricola Street Brasserie is ambitious. But, luckily, there is some else. The restaurant is really beautiful. The huge main dining room is a scattering of tables within a perimeter set by high, comfortable banquette seating. A long bar runs the margin, a corridor of sorts, that leads to the back room,…
Sherman Downey and the Ambiguous Case
Fresh off winning the CBC Searchlight competition for new acts, Newfoundlander Downey justifies the kudos on his second album. He sings like your buddy. The Ambiguous Case is a spirited, mostly acoustic band that may remind you of sunny 1970s folk-rock hits like “Sweet City Woman.” Banjo and trumpet get along beautifully on “Outta Your…
James Vincent McMorrow
The follow-up to 2011’s Early in the Morning was perched atop my year’s most-anticipated albums list and for good reason. James Vincent McMorrow takes the kind of Bon Iver-inspired harmonies and what I like to call mellow-moaning to an emotional peak–it’s the kind of music that soundtracks everything from fucking to weeping with equal aplomb.…
Rookie Yearbook Two
If you’re ever feeling nostalgic for your teenage days of yore then this curated collection of the Rookie Mag website content will push all the right buttons. Editor Tavi Gevinson, 17-year-old bitch-facing girl wonder, has created the kind of advice, confessional, celebrity interview, opinion, weird fashion with a DIY spirit that I wish existed when…
Before we build a stadium, we should address all the more important problems in Halifax
I heard the news while driving down Trollope Street by Citadel High. I had to pay especially careful attention, because crater-like potholes were everywhere. I had just driven from Barrington Street and the downtown zone was somewhat reminiscent of war-torn Beirut. There were more empty storefronts than I can recall in a lifetime. Meanwhile the…
Mr. Peabody and Sherman
If we’re living in a world where a movie about Lego is one of the best things of this young year, then why shouldn’t a 3D adventure based on Rocky & Bullwinkle characters also be a goddamn delight? If Frasier Crane were a dog he’d be Mr. Peabody, voiced by Modern Family’s Ty Burrell, an…
Night Film
At first Marisha Pessl’s horror-mystery Night Film tries a little too hard to draw you in. The book is quick to showcase whatever documents the characters are looking at: police reports, websites, newspaper clippings. This could be fun texture if done right but these extras don’t show us anything that isn’t covered in the narrative…
bars think they can do what ever we want.
So I love how someone can make an event and get it hosted at a bar and then the bar owner turns around and steal the idea! After someone took the time an effort to organize the event they now have nothing to show. The events had been going since January all hosted by the…
Dear Bernini’s David Look-A-Like
You’re the first guy I’ve fallen for who I would actually call a man. You make me feel grown-up, but not in stuffy way. In a mature way. You’re sweet, serious, thoughtful, artistic, funny, and very likely a heartbreaker, but I won’t let our whirlwind meeting break mine. If I never see you again, know…
Better shopping HABITS FOLKS ! STOP DUMPING ! SO BE IT
So I think we know where lots of people go for groceries. I walk the aisles and every where you look on the shelves people have dumped the items they suddenly decided they don’t want . Doesn’t matter if it’s a frozen or refrigerated item either WTF people ! You want lower prices you want…
Grocery Store Cash Register Belt Real Estate Grabbers.
You line up at the register and the person in front grabs the little divider and puts it down between orders even though there is a distinct foot or so of open belt between your groceries and theirs. I know the divider is there so the groceries don’t get mixed up and so the cashier…
My Roomies are Wonderful People
Our apartment is sweet too. —EKC
Desperado
You sang my whole order to the tune of Desperado, it was both true lyrical genius and customer service magic. Sorry I was so impressed that I just screamed how awesome you are to my roommates like a lunatic instead of interacting with you like a normal person. I hope you sing to everyone you…
What a girl
Hints of an emotional intelligence that I didn’t expect…my failure to see beyond the immediate; The pain and the fear can be all-consuming……You deserve better, and so do I.. —driving this man crazy
Props to SMU Football
With the recent bad press for SMU Football and the uni in general, it was nice to meet and work with a handful of players as they put on skill drills for my women’s tackle football team recently. They were sweethearts and I’m sure they loved it too. Thanks guys 🙂 —Yes there is women’s…
Cover band blues
Why do so many musicians in cover bands around here think they are rock Gods when nobody from the general public knows who the fuck they are, act like your best friend one second and then turn on you when they can’t control you, and make a habit of cheating on their partners with women…
Fuck me!
I am 37 years old and I haven’t had sex in nearly 10 years. I think I might of done it maybe 12 times my entire life. I know this is partly cause I’m ugly. But why do you women gotta be so shallow? I might not be good looking but your missing out on…
Fuck Off Creeps
You losers need to lay off people who have nothing do do with you. Dicking me around is one thing, but creeping my mom’s page with threatening sites is really ugly and unacceptable. You know who you are. You have been blocked. Stay the fuck away from my mom. —Come say those ugly things to…
Cafe
So.. i’m having breakfast with my friend and then i realize my old roommate is sitting there. The ex roommate is a great artist and a good person, but she had to kick me out cause i lost my job and didnt have any money. She wouldnt even look me in the eye, i had…
Pillow talk with Girliture
Tanya Owen really cares about where you lay your head after a long day. She’s the artist behind Girliture, her furniture painting business that started focussing in on pillows this fall. “I’m not even sure what made me decide to try it, but I had been stenciling some furniture and thought I’d try one of…
