Best Restaurant
To understand the popularity of this place, it’s best to share with you a few items from the new Fid Resto menu (though dishes are subject to change with the seasons): Broiled steelhead trout with tomato, puff pastry and arugula. A large salad of Teddy’s spinach, caramelized pears, walnuts, wasabi peas and goose confit. Marinated…
Best New Restaurant
Ray Bear has worked in upscale kitchens in Canada and the US, in foodie destinations such as New Orleans, Miami and Chicago. Coming back to Halifax, he made his mark at Gio at the Prince George, and now has a thriving fine dining eatery in his own name on Barrington. Ask anyone who’s tried it…
Best Chef
In the past year, Craig Flinn of Chives has gone from being a regional star—given the years of high-quality food offered at his Barrington Street bistro—to a national celebrity chef, thanks to the national release of his cookbook Fresh & Local: Straight from Canadian Farms To Your Table. Pick up the book or stop in…
Best Dartmouth Restaurant
Ray Kraushar, owner of Nectar Social House, is sanguine about surviving her first year in the restaurant business. “Where did that year go?” she asks chef David Clark, who shrugs along wistfully in remembrance of lost time. She’s chuffed about winning Best Restaurant in Dartmouth in her first year, too. Was it ever touch and…
Best Bedford Restaurant
If you go on Wikipedia and look up diner you’ll see a photo of The Chickenburger. That’s how iconic the Bedford landmark has become. Opened in 1940, the claim of retro style is authentic: the Chick was a walk-up and drive-up eatery until 1986 when it expanded to include a sit-down area inside. What keeps…
Best Clayton Park Area Restaurant
Though open for only since February 2009, the second location of Sushi Nami—the first is downtown—has been embraced by the Clayton Park locals. Usually sudden success can be accounted for by a number of factors in concert: the stylish, white, black and terracotta dining room with a capacity of 70, the service, price and quality…
Best Sackville Restaurant
The popular family restaurant scoops this award for a second year running, though open for less than three years. Sometimes the right restaurant at the right time can really make a difference to a community, as Tom’s clearly has. With 180 seats, the family-run operation always has room for the biggest families at pretty much…
Best Cole Harbour Restaurant
Casual yet upscale are the two dichotomies that work together gracefully at Jamieson’s. After over nine years in business, owner Chris Smith knows the secret to make it work, offering a comfortable atmosphere for lunch or a more formal occasion, great service and always excellent food: authentic Irish daily food specials include corned beef and…
Best Server
“Gio is known equally for the service and the food,” says Lewis, who has been working at Centennial Hotels for more than 20 years and has worked at Gio since it opened over three years ago. He’s a manager, which is unusual considering the category. “I love serving and I have no intention of getting…
Best Beer Selection
“My eyes have seen the glory of the pouring of the beer, Maxwell’s Plum has 60 types that’s why we love it here.” So goes the song, often booming out from speakers over Grafton and Sackville streets, in case you missed it. And the 60 are just the ones on tap, not counting the many…
Best Diner
They call the Armview a retro-style diner, but we see it a little differently than we would, say, a ’50s-style diner with just burgers and shakes. No offense to other stellar retro eateries, but one look at the Armview menu and you’ll twig to the differences—avacado wraps, garlic mayo, horiatiki, scallop noodle salad and blue…
Best Nachos
Winner Economy Shoe Shop 1st Runner-up Wooden Monkey 2nd Runner-up Your Father’s Moustache Editor’s note: With its latest Best Nachos win in 2009, the Economy Shoe Shop was elevated to the Best of Halifax Hall of Fame. Somewhere along the way the restaurant became the default place to bring someone who just arrived in town,…
Best Fish & Chips
Phil Perrin’s special fish and chips have been packing them in for six years at this Quinpool Road location, opened after the original Phil’s Fish & Chips on Purcells Cove Road. In Green Halifax we noted that Phil offers haddock in season from local, low-impact fishing sources, which adds to the restaurant’s comforting appeal. 1st…
Best Caesar
It takes a sterner constitution than ours to look at the list of cocktails and martinis at Bitter End and not salivate at the prospect of their delicious combinations of fruit flavours and exotic liquers. How about the lychee martini with vodka, lychee liquer and cran? Or the Crystal Slipper, which contains gin, Blue Curacao…
Best Fine Dining
To understand the popularity of this place, it’s best to share with you a few items from the new Fid Resto menu (though dishes are subject to change with the seasons): Broiled steelhead trout with tomato, puff pastry and arugula. A large salad of Teddy’s spinach, caramelized pears, walnuts, wasabi peas and goose confit. Marinated…
Best Bargain
The Ardmore is no stranger to the Best of Food poll, but this time it scooped two new categories. And why are the fish cakes special? “We make them with a lot of love,” says Gilbert, a manager at the eatery. He goes on to say that the best bargain in the place is probably…
Best Fish Cakes
The Ardmore is no stranger to the Best of Food poll, but this time it scooped two new categories. And why are the fish cakes special? “We make them with a lot of love,” says Gilbert, a manager at the eatery. He goes on to say that the best bargain in the place is probably…
Best Cocktails
It takes a sterner constitution than ours to look at the list of cocktails and martinis at Bitter End and not salivate at the prospect of their delicious combinations of fruit flavours and exotic liquers. How about the lychee martini with vodka, lychee liquer and cran? Or the Crystal Slipper, which contains gin, Blue Curacao…
Best Interior Design
Somewhere along the way the restaurant became the default place to bring someone who just arrived in town, the hub from which the city spreads out in all directions, like spokes. Having won the Best Nachos so often the category was retired to the Hall of Fame this year, the Shoe also regularly gets props…
Best Burger
Explain to someone who hasn’t tried one that the peanut butter burger is an absolute delight. Watch them scrunch up their face trying to imagine how that can be. Then take them to Darrell’s. If they hesitate, order a burger of your own and offer them a taste. Watch how their expression changes with the…
Best Fries
Reports of the retirement of the beloved chip truck owners Bud and Nancy True appear to have been exaggerated, as the truck is now operational again (though on Grafton Street, not at the familiar spot outside the library on Spring Garden). It seems the Trues had trouble selling the business so decided to give it…
Best Poutine (Original)
Widely known for its excellent pizza delivery, Alexandras also grabs the brass ring with Coast readers in this new category. The victory might have something to do with the variety of poutine on hand. There’s regular poutine, Greek poutine (with feta cheese), Italian poutine (with meat sauce), steak poutine, donair poutine, chicken poutine and hamburger…
Best Kid-friendly Spot
The neighbourhood to find Local Jo is where Oxford runs through the north end, a great place for kids of all ages to hang out. (That means you, too.) The play area upstairs is a favourite, with a padded floor—for the more acrobatic rugrat—and lots of toys, and if the kids build up an appetite…
Best Chicken Wings
“We said if we didn’t win this year we would retire,” says Jason Bourgoin, manager of Bubba Ray’s, a sports bar with an amazing focus on the chicken wing. There’s something about the wing that just goes hand-in-hand with beer and the big games on multiple high definition screens. “No one should be able to…
Best Ice Cream / Gelato / Frozen Yogurt
Dio Mio is practically a Halifax institution now, having started in Walter Forsyth’s kitchen in 1990 and moved into its current location on Brenton just off Spring Garden in 1996, now managed by Jay Roche. With a new location in Dartmouth Crossing open a year, more people are getting to try the insane variety of…
Best Sandwich
In some ways, Pete’s is all things to all people. It’s a gourmet grocery store, offering the best in fresh produce and imported delicacies. It’s also Pete’s To Go Go, a deli counter extraordinaire with the best sandwiches in town, Coast readers assure us. If that wasn’t enough it’s also Pete’s Power Juice Bar, with…
Best Breakfast
For the more discerning diner who appreciates effort, thought, and time put into what they are eating…the Coastal welcomes you, announces the website. The more discerning diner will also appreciate The Elvis: a buttermilk waffle sandwich, filled with peanut butter, bananas and bacon, covered in maple syrup. 1st Runner-up Ardmore Tea Room 2nd Runner-up Cora’s
Best Late-night Food
Travelling out of downtown late on Thursday, Friday or Saturday night, heading west, the veterans of the dancefloor are drawn to this open-late eatery on Quinpool Road for its private, comfortable booths, easy-going atmosphere, multiple monitors and a menu stuffed with a smorgasbord of fried appetizers and finger foods, pizza, soups, salads and burgers. And…
Best Chowder
Perennial winner of this category is Esquire, located up on the Bedford Highway, one of those sterling roadside restos you can’t miss. The chowder continues to appeal due to the old-fashioned way it’s made—with cream, not milk—and the variety of ways you can have it: with corn, haddock or lobster. On Fridays, ask for the…
Best Lunch Specials
What are we talking about? This is what we’re talking about: Bento box specials of chicken, beef, salmon or shrimp teriyaki, tonkatsu (pork), unagi (eel), gindara (black cod) and cutlets, all with salad, rice, miso soup and one of the following four options: maki sushi, Japanese dumplings, sorted tempura or spring rolls. Or how about…
Best Salad
In some ways, Pete’s is all things to all people. It’s a gourmet grocery store, offering the best in fresh produce and imported delicacies. It’s also Pete’s To Go Go, a deli counter extraordinaire with the best sandwiches in town, Coast readers assure us. If that wasn’t enough it’s also Pete’s Power Juice Bar, with…
Best Brunch
Owner Jane Wright has remarked that jane’s doesn’t need any more readers’ poll kudos, that they’re almost too busy. Can Coast readers help it if they love you, Jane? Can they help it if they find your your weekend brunches irresistable, irreplaceable and incomparable? We know we can’t. 1st Runner-up Coastal Cafe 2nd Runner-up Brooklyn…
Best Patio
In mid-summer, the rooftop patio at YFM is unbeatable, an oasis of sun and warm breezes right on Spring Garden. But if it rains, don’t despair. The spacious dining room has comfy booths, multiple flatscreen monitors displaying multiple sporting events, great service and a host of solid menu items to fill your belly on any…
Best Club Sandwich
In mid-summer, the rooftop patio at YFM is unbeatable, an oasis of sun and warm breezes right on Spring Garden. But if it rains, don’t despair. The spacious dining room has comfy booths, multiple flatscreen monitors displaying multiple sporting events, great service and a host of solid menu items to fill your belly on any…
Best Pasta
Il Mercato, 5650 Spring Garden Road, 422-2866 Winning in three separate categories means they’re doing something right. Scratch that, they’re doing a lot of things right and doing it all the time. That they scooped the same three from last year, shows a welcome consistency. As we have remarked upon, there is magic in that…
Best Shawarma
Venus Pizza has been included amongst the crowd up at Pizza Corner by virtue of geography, which is cool for the late night downtown party scene, but it’s also a stalwart part of what goes on down on Barrington Street. A Saturday afternoon ritual for some is to hit Strange Adventures, CD Plus, Random Play…
Best Cheap Drinks
This is a new category with all you folks in mind hard done by in the economic downturn. Or, you know, students, who don’t want to spend that entire loan on Thursday night down at the pub. Keep this in mind before you sell off your DNA, tattoo a soft drink company logo to your…
Best Pub Food
Pub food comes in various shapes, sizes, and quality. Have no worries about quality at this legendary Irish public house with a menu filled with delicious seafood dishes such as smoked salmon, scallops, crab and chowder, shrimp salad along with Greek salad, a whack of pastas, pizza, burgers and sandwiches to make things interesting. We’re…
Best Desserts
Winning in three separate categories means they’re doing something right. Scratch that, they’re doing a lot of things right and doing it all the time. That they scooped the same three from last year, shows a welcome consistency. As we have remarked upon, there is magic in that linguini, the tomato and the fromaggi, in…
Best Pizza Pie
According to readers of The Coast, the north end pizza joint is the best place to get a pizza in the city, and has been for seven years, which is saying something in this competitive pizza market, both among the typical Canadian thick-crust pizza varieties and what Salvatore’s offers: the gourmet, thin-crust types, with a…
Best Steak
There are times when devouring an enormous slab of meat with all the fixings is the only way you’re going to get through the rest of your week. We have weeks like that all the time, and we suspect it’s the consistency of the service, the classy, strategically lit vibe and, of course, the marbled…
Best Coffee (Espresso-based)
You have to start with the hot beverages, really. Note Steve-O-Reno’s is a winner in the Espresso category, but also a runner-up in the Best Coffee (Regular) as well as in the Best Hot Chocolate. (Incidentally, Steve-O-Reno’s is also a runner-up for Best Smoothie, too.) Then you gotta look at the other things that make…
Best Crew Of Regular Customers
It doesn’t take long to become a regular at Tom’s. You stop in for a sandwich or maybe their excellent Pad Thai on a Monday, then you meet a friend downtown on a Wednesday and it’s the obvious choice. On a rainy Sunday afternoon you don’t feel like staying in, so you wander by and…
Best Donair
It’ss right there in the name, and multiple locations around town tend to make it a lock in this category. That isn’t to suggest their product is anything less than regal, but their prime Pizza Corner site gives them an insurmountable edge in the minds of those who know the only thing that will soak…
Best Pizza Slice
A star in the pizza corner constellation of eateries that appeal to the late-night denizens of downtown, Sicilian, with locations on Blowers, Quinpool and up at Titus in the north end, brings a unique art to the slice. Is it the crust, the sauce, the cheese, the pepperoni? The jury remains out and all is…
Best Atmosphere
Somewhere along the way the restaurant became the default place to bring someone who just arrived in town, the hub from which the city spreads out in all directions, like spokes. Having won the Best Nachos so often the category was retired to the Hall of Fame this year, the Shoe also regularly gets props…
Best Coffee (Regular)
Believe it or not, Java Blend has been bringing us locally roasted, top-quality coffee for more than 70 years. Their commitment to fair trade and the environment is key to their philosophy, which they talk about on their website: “We participate in programs that encourage practices such as shade growing, biodiversification and organic farming.” Individual…
Best Wine (glass)
The one restaurant in town to employ a wine director, you can see that Seven takes its wines very seriously and it continues to own any category that includes merlot, chardonnay, riesling, cabernet sauvignon, pinos gris, sangiovese and so on. New wines keep on coming into the bar and the staff can make recommendations, so…
Best Food Truck
Reports of the retirement of the beloved chip truck owners Bud and Nancy True appear to have been exaggerated, as the truck is now operational again (though on Grafton Street, not at the familiar spot outside the library on Spring Garden). It seems the Trues had trouble selling the business so decided to give it…
Best Dim Sum
Honey ginger chicken. That’s right, it’s the stuff, but only one of the reasons Great Wall has this category sewn up, year after year. Amongst the others are the ginger fried beef, hunan chicken, general tao chicken and many more delectible dishes, made from scratch in their experienced kitchen. Great if you eat in and…
Best Hot Chocolate
We’ve heard that the chocolate in Just Us! hot chocolate is made from the same cocoa beans as their popular fair trade chocolate, which comes in bars with 100 percent organic ingredients, including organic cocoa and organic evaporated sugar cane. It comes in regular hot chocolate and in dark hot chocolate mix as well, though…
Best Wine List
The one restaurant in town to employ a wine director, you can see that Seven takes its wines very seriously and it continues to own any category that includes merlot, chardonnay, riesling, cabernet sauvignon, pinos gris, sangiovese and so on. New wines keep on coming into the bar and the staff can make recommendations, so…
Best Seafood
Now the proud owner of a retired category in The Coast’s Best of Food poll (Best Mussels in 2008), Five Fisherman continues to own the Best Seafood category. Thirty-six years in the business of bringing the highest quality fresh and locally sourced fish to their table means the rep is solid. And in case you…
Best Greek Restaurant
There are those who will stop in just to enjoy the mezethes, or the appetizers, both hot and cold, including the popular spanakopita, house-made sausage loukaniko (pork and beef marinated in wine and flavoured with exotic Mediterranean spices). But the starters are only part of the story, as co-owner and restaurateur Costa Elles takes pride…
Best Martini
It takes a sterner constitution than ours to look at the list of cocktails and martinis at Bitter End and not salivate at the prospect of their delicious combinations of fruit flavours and exotic liquers. How about the lychee martini with vodka, lychee liquer and cran? Or the Crystal Slipper, which contains gin, Blue Curacao…
Best Asian Grocer
Just a little ways past MSVU you’ll find this fully stocked collection of Asian delicacies and hard-to-find products. After 10 years in business, the store has become a hub for the local Chinese, Vietnamese and Filipino community looking for important ingredients with a taste of home, and that includes spices and dried goods from Japan…
Best Use Of Local Ingredients
Chef Craig Flinn said as much when he accepted this award on behalf of his popular Barrington Street restaurant: we all need to be thinking about sourcing our food locally, even when we go out to eat. A subscriber to the slow food movement, a regular at the Farmers’ Market and a frequenter of Annapolis…
Best Thai Restaurant
An award-winning restaurant on the national food scene and a multiple winner for Best International restaurant in the Coast’s Best of Food poll, Talay Thai has scored the inaugural Best Thai award in a field of very strong contenders. The market for Thai food has exploded in Halifax in recent years, and so Talay Thai,…
Best Microbrewery
The microbrewery revolution is upon us and Propeller is at the forefront in this town, with exports of the wonderful stuff heading across the land from its headquarters in Gottingen Street. They offer the pop, with the cream and orange soda, the root and ginger beer, and of course a growing list of ales and…
Best Bakery
Have you tried The Diplomat? As stylish as the name suggests, its a bread-puddling/chocolate croissant cake, one of the thick and delightful products born out of the Chester-based bakery with its Hydrostone location, Farmers’ Market presence and treats found in a few choice eateries in town. They rock the sweet things (carrot cakes, croissants, tarts,…
Best Vegetarian-friendly Restaurant
Owner Lil MacPherson likes the moniker friendly rather than full-on vegetarian. “Dad can have his pizza and beer and the vegetarian kids can have what they like,” she says. It’s family-friendly. The menu is not just friendly to vegetarians, vegetables are creatively involved in this well-considered menu. Vegan tofu pie (chocolate and maple syrup swallow…
Best Italian Restaurant
Winning in three separate categories means they’re doing something right. Scratch that, they’re doing a lot of things right and doing it all the time. That they scooped the same three from last year, shows a welcome consistency. As we have remarked upon, there is magic in that linguini, the tomato and the fromaggi, in…
Best Milkshake
Explain to someone who hasn’t tried one that the peanut butter burger is an absolute delight. Watch them scrunch up their face trying to imagine how that can be. Then take them to Darrell’s. If they hesitate, order a burger of your own and offer them a taste. Watch how their expression changes with the…
Best Health Food Store
What makes Planet Organic the go-to spot for those who pay special attention to their diet is an approachable, informed staff and a wide selection of everything from supplements to fresh produce to organic meats to envirnonmentally friendly cleaning products. And if you’re making the change to foods that will be kinder to your system,…
Best Chinese Restaurant
Honey ginger chicken. That’s right, it’s the stuff, but only one of the reasons Great Wall has this category sewn up, year after year. Amongst the others are the ginger fried beef, hunan chicken, general tao chicken and many more delectible dishes, made from scratch in their experienced kitchen. Great if you eat in and…
Best Middle Eastern / Persian Restaurant
In the three years since Mezza opened on Quinpool near Oxford Street, the restaurant has been featured three times in this poll, first as Best New Restaurant and followed twice by Best Middle Eastern restaurant. While authentic Lebanese ingredients are shipped in, owner Tony Nahas makes every effort to buy locally to ensure freshness. It’s…
Best Smoothie
In some ways, Pete’s is all things to all people. It’s a gourmet grocery store, offering the best in fresh produce and imported delicacies. It’s also Pete’s To Go Go, a deli counter extraordinaire with the best sandwiches in town, Coast readers assure us. If that wasn’t enough it’s also Pete’s Power Juice Bar, with…
Best Place To Satisfy A Sweet Tooth
If you’ve never been, Freak Lunchbox is a little difficult to describe. Try to imagine Willy Wonka’s industrial space in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory condensed into a single store. If there was any chance of finding cavity-filling caramels, edible marshmallow pillows or exploding candy for your enemies, this is where you should…
Best Bartender
If Halifax has a star bartender, Tardivel is it. Besides being a Coast cover subject—which always makes you a star, even if only for a week—Tardivel has 13 years experience tending bar and has won international awards for his creative cocktails. He even helps teach a Mosaic Bar 101 program on cocktail history, culture, methods…
Best Sushi Restaurant
Though the Hamachi empire stretches its hand across the city’s face with a variety of tastes and eateries, including Brussels and the Little Europe deli in the Hydrostone, they’re best known for their talent in the Japanese delicacies. The menus are regularly updated to keep things fresh, including recent happy hour prices and dishes. The…
Best Tea
“To provide our customers with a stimulating drink that helps support their healthy lifestyle,” is the manifesto of the Alberta-founded company. The local franchisee Becca Babcock has certainly fulfilled that agenda, and the locals have noticed, annointing the tea house with a Best of Food win less than two years since it opened. Inside you’ll…
Best Stall At The Halifax Farmers’ Market (Prepared Foods)
It’s an excellent arrangement: Cheelin Restaurant’s location at the Farmers’ Market building means that it can take advantage of the local produce and ingredients that come in with the region’s farmers every Saturday morning. Then, while the restaurant is closed Saturday morning the stall in the main room brings the Szechuan and Beijing specialties served…
Best Barista
“I have a humongous genuine smile,” says Young, letting us in on the secret of his popularity. Even though he’s only worked at the Barrington Street location of Just Us! for less than a year, his customers have taken to him very quickly and with stalwart support. “That’s what I thought,” he says. His favourite…
Best Brew Pub
Rogues peers out over Spring Garden, offering a great vantage point next to those big windows to sip award-winning ale and see both the hub and the bub of what’s going on down on the street. The beer in question might be a Weisen or a Pilsner, the Raspberry Wheat, the Rogue’s Red, the IPA…
Best Cafe
You have to start with the hot beverages, really. Note Steve-O-Reno’s is a winner in the Espresso category, but also a runner-up in the Best Coffee (Regular) as well as in the Best Hot Chocolate. (Incidentally, Steve-O-Reno’s is also a runner-up for Best Smoothie, too.) Then you gotta look at the other things that make…
Best Stall At The Halifax Farmers’ Market (Produce)
A longtime denizen of the Farmers’ Market, Ted Hutten specializes in mixed vegetables and herbs—spinach, beets, onions, squash, kale, snap peas, fennel, broccoli, nappa cabbage, zucchini, kohlrabi, carrots, spinach, leaf and boston salad mixes, cilantro and dill—and grows specialty vegetables for the local Asian restaurants. Depending on the time of year, you might also find…
Obey Convention starts thursday
Divorce Records convenes over obedience, Grand Trine frees your psychic centres and interview with Tobias Rochman.
Craig Leonard’s Blasted History of Noise gets loud this weekend
Photo credit from endofplinths.blogspot.com: From Leonard’s HAND CUTS @ 161 Gallon Gallery, Halifax, Mar 27-Apr 9. Exhibition of handmade records produced by etching into copper plate, linoleum, paper, plastic and other Hand Wave methods. The Obey Convention arts fest continues through this weekend with Hard Light, with work by 12 young videographers at the Khyber…
Went to farThe
Yesterday morning on my way to work on the #7 2 boys were using the F word on the bus so when the tall one got off the driver barred him from all buses and told him if he is at the bus stop the next day the police would be called. So today he…
Cosmic Bubblegum gets popped, Thursday night at Lost & Found
SHEARING PINX “HAURSPEX” 7″ ART (STANDARD VERSION) This weekend’s Obey Convention isn’t just about pleasing the ears. On Thursday night, 7-9pm at Lost & Found (2383 Agricola) there’s an art opening from Cosmic Bubblegum, musically accompanied by ECT and The Friendly Dimension. Sadly, just as we’ve grown to love Cosmic Bubblegum, the bubble’s been burst:…
Confirmed: Paul McCartney on the Common, July 11.
July 11? Now that we all know about it, how about sending that press release? Editor note: love me do—the show is confirmed for July 11. Ticket info. to come. Related Stories
Japanese Food Paradise Opens
[image-1] Opened less than a year ago is Japanese Food Paradise (1020 Barrington, 446-8268), a grocery store that carries exclusively Japanese products. Crazy fun snacks include Meiji and Pocky chocolate, Hello Kitty fruit candy, tea cakes and other, less immediately identifiable, but no less tasty, foodstuff.
RuPaul in Halifax, making Sackville Street way more beautiful
Start your engines! Photo: Mathu Andersen You know RuPaul from To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar!, M.A.C. Cosmetics and Madame Tussaud’s Museum. But now you will also know him from that time you hung out at Reflections Cabaret, this June 20. Dance club drag queen RuPaul will make you laugh, make you cry,…
Bachelor chow and why can’t I get a decent can opener?
Okay here’s the deal- I’m a guy….I live mostly on canned food….my question is….why does *hunky soup taste about the same a s mid-grade dog chow? Also, why the fuck is it impossible to get a decent can-opener for those cans that don’t have the pop-tops? They are either $1.99 and shit or $19.99 and…
Clean Nova Scotia offers litter aid
It’s called The Great Nova Scotia Pick Me Up program, made possible through Clean Nova Scotia (clean.ns.ca/pmu). It supplies the public with materials used to pick up litter in public areas. Shoptalk was notified by industrious reader Therese Bombardier, who in early May, with the help of a group of friends, cleaned up a big…
Please keep them trimmed
I don’t know about anyone else, but I can’t stand looking at peoples extremely long nose hairs. I was on the bus and this person sitting across from me had the longest most disgusting nose hairs with snot stuck in them. It made me want to gag…ewww. For gods sake people! keep them trimmed! —makes…
Cyclists!
What is it with Haligonians and cycling on the sidewalk!? You guys drive me nuts, and it’s not all of you, but pretty soon cyclists will be joining drivers on my shitlist if they both don’t learn how to share the road. Your bike doesn’t belong on the sidewalk when you’re riding it! Stand up…
Canada Day Concert
Whatever happened to the good ol’days when there was a concert on Citedal hill almost every Canada day. I am not complaining about the amount of concerts the Maritimes are getting, this is the best year ever, but just the timing, the concert on the hill this year is 3-4 days before the Big Concert…
What the fuck?!!!!
So i’m watching TV and here comes on good ol steve murphy with the news update commercial and he says “Police are going to take another STAB at finding Sergei Costins killer” ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??!! what kind of crass inconsiderate bastard writes the teleprompter script over there. wow that was so punny steve!…
Tim horton’s
Thank you, tim hoho’s, for being a stable symbol in my upbringing, for always remaining inexpensive, and for being delightfully unpretentious. I always smile at the conversations I hear in colourful local dialect, when i go through your doors. Awesomely boring conversations about tractors, daughter-in-laws, blizzards, construction work… Long story short, tim hortons doesn’t give…
Randy Bachman…
You don’t deserve to scrub soap scum off my tub. Drop names somewhere else. I miss Finkleman. —Vinyl tap? more like vinyl CRAP.
Gobs of Goob
I’m out walking my dog and ever so mindful of the buckled sidewalks thanks to this winter past. To my dismay, and horror, every few meters I am faced with a glistening gob of gooby phlegm. This is disgusting! I cant even swallow when I see it, something takes over and I lose the ability…
to my customers
There is nothing better then after having the worst day ever to set up a kid with their first skateboard. The excitement in your eyes was well worth all the mean customers I had previous to you and your very sweet father. —mmmm mall boards
4 BITCHES IN ONE.
First thank you metro transit driver on the #9 for not driving the speed limit so I miss my connecting bus, second thank you to the metro transit driver of the next connecting bus for getting me to work 20 minutes late instead of the 10 minutes that I knew I would be late because…
smelly cologne
Why, dear god, why do young men insist in dousing themselves with that cheap smelly drugstore body wash!? I cannot be sure what it is, but it reeks. Human are not meant to smell like this. Take a cue from nature, rub lemons on yer arse, or sprinkle cinnamon in your socks! Even vanilla or…
Runner Wins Marathon
Apparently, a “runner” won the Halifax marathon. Says so right on the cover of todays Daily News. Sweet fuck, is this the industry that kids are spending thousands of dollars at King’s to be a part of? —Good ol Cranky
Ad Space
I know I’m not the only one bothered by that flash movie at the top of the page. You know, the one that fills the screen and blocks the menu and everything else the user came to look at? Did you hear that, Coast? BLOCKS-THE-MENU!!! Advertise all you want but when the advertisement renders your…
MIR SuperShow 2009 kicks off the Multicultural Festival
Sarah! Those shoes! MIR’s SuperShow 2009 kicks off the 25th Multicultural Festival at Alderney Landing the weekend of June 26 and the concert brings Paula Cole and Sarah Slean along for the ride. Advance tickets for Friday’s SuperShow 2009 are available for $32 (plus applicable taxes & fees) from www.ticketatlantic.com and local Atlantic Superstores or…
Papa Mario’s Gets Alcohol (Maybe)
Papa Mario’s (1283 Barrington at Morris, 457-7272) is there for all your late night donair/pizza/wrap needs, but look out for the eatery to get a liquor licence this summer and add a patio to its stretch of sidewalk.
More bands announced for Halifax Rocks 2009
Those boots were made for walking… on the grass of the Common The force behind Halifax Rocks 2009 (July 18 on the Common) has announced who is going to round out the ol’ KISS bill. The artists are Thornley, The Trews, Econoline Crush and The Novaks. The chance for your band to join that crop…
To my pretty boy
[Editor’s note: this is more of a PSSt.. under classifieds. Please place it there.]
Sunday is my favourite day of the week
To my church: Thank you for taking me with such welcoming arms and extending your help, counsel and understanding. I hope that everybody can feel the unconditional love that I feel everytime I walk in at least once in their lives. —A new believer
Bubble Tea Shop opens on Inglis Street
Bubble Tea Shop (5385 Inglis) has opened. It may be hard to imagine that a tapioca-filled fruit beverage is a tasty refreshment, but trust us, it is. It really, really is.
House Eating Dogs; Fear of All Landlords
Dear Homeowners/Landlords, I am sure that at some point, once, somewhere along the line, you have rented to someone who wasn’t exactly the awesome tenant that you would have liked. That said, WHY are landlords so fearful of renting to people with pets? There virtually NO Pet Friendly homes/apartments? Do you seriously think that doggies…
Secret agent at Eyelevel Gallery
The Confidante traces heavy black circles around her eyes with Halloween makeup, using the camcorder screen as a mirror. In six minutes the 22-year-old NSCAD student transitions from secret collector to secret keeper. When the transformation is complete, two thick, black lines obscure her eyes and mouth. Annik Gaudet’s first film, called Confidante, a feminine…
To tag or not to tag?
Okay I think I’m confused, or I missed the signs. While shopping at a local food mart with the lovely plastic bins and scoops (and bags and tags). I was having a grand time, exploring a new large location. From bin to bin I proceeded, some trail mix here, some spices there, little bags of…
Supporting Local Television
We get it CTV. You’re broke. Bell Globe Media had a terrible fiscal year (more appropriately the paper biz had a terrible year), and everything’s tight. However, those beg-a-thon ads need to stop. You don’t hear CanWest/Global crying like a child. You don’t produce local content, unless you consider two fundraisers a year and the…
Cab-driving creative-writer
Hey you, the young guy who drove me home from the other side of the peninsula a few weeks ago under drizzly skies. Yeah you! You told me all about your new daughter and your two other kids, and how you’re supporting them by driving around all night and doing an electronics work term during…
Ever hear of a coincidence?
We bump into each other at a music store, only to see each other again an hour later at the drug store. We just happen to take the same bus home that day. So your response is to tell all your friends and your girlfriend that I’m obsessed with you and stalking you? She came…
Edmonton’s Famines want you to feast on their punk rock
Edmonton, Alberta’s Famines (ex-Vertical Struts and the Wolfnote) play exciting post-punk. Expect some great albums for sale on various forms of media, and a Tuesday night at Gus’ Pub full of jumping and dancing, with York Redoubt and the Pushers. You can catch them tonight at Reflections too, cheer heartily as they spin the wheel…
Klarka Weinwurm CD release this Wednesday
My vote for Halifax’s own Piaf-style little sparrow is Toronto transplant Klarka Weinwurm. Six of Weinwurm’s quiet and revealing songs are being set free to soar on your stereo via her self-titled EP release show on May 20 at the Paragon Theatre with Ruth Minnikin and Jon Mckiel. “I recorded the album in my home…
Paderno Closes Temporarily
Paderno Factory Store (201 Chain Lake, 450-1885) is closed from now until the second week of June for a renovation and expansion.
Three inches?
You’re a nice guy and everything, but stop standing so close to me! You do it to everyone; guys, girls, and even people you don’t know very well! Whenever I move away you just move closer again, are you trying to intimidate people? Or are you just socially awkward? We all think it’s fucking creepy,…
Shame on you
To the assholes with the golden dog that barks incessantly day and night – if you can’t treat an animal right, don’t have one! It’s breaking my heart right now listening to the pitiful whining and howling as the miserable creature is left out in the pouring rain (tonight, Sunday, and last Friday night too).…
Fed UpI
Okay so monday is some calendar holiday, and every tv and radio station is calling this a “long weekend.” But really what the hell is it? Every retail business in town is open. The only people kicking back tomorrow are gov’t agencies and a few small shops here and there! So who gets the holiday?…
lovely les
I use to run a few miles nightly. One night,tired beyond belief and ready to call it quits, this beautiful older man ran towards me and high fived me, saying “Happy road work”.I saw him a few times afterwards and he is my inspiration. Kindness shocks me. You rock mister. —halifax dweeb
get a life
to those two morons who followed me in shoppers drugmart and banning me for 6 months because i made them look REAL stupid when they stopped me out side of the store, thinking i stole shit when im innocent. even by proving to you fucks by showing you inside my purse. you need to find…
craigslist
why don’t people in halifax use craigslist for anything? people choose kijiji instead. this is maybe the only city in canada that is this way. — tom
Wood Chuckers Chuck New Wood
Craig and Dawn Humphreys, owners of Wood Chuckers Limited, have expanded their operations to become retailers for Eastern White Cedar lumber, a non-pressure-treated wood milled in the Maritimes, thus limiting the environmental impact by minimizing transportation distances. Wood Chuckers Limited, located at 961 Lucasville Road in Hammonds Plains, offers a variety of home and property…
To a certain Blue marathon
It’s great and all you are doing this marathon all the power to you!! BUT I hate how it backs up Halifax, yes it is only one day but I still have to work along with a bunch of people. I am tired of being derailed to the new bridge, having the bus I need…
Tonight at Tribeca! Haligonian superstar Speakerbruiser Rob!
Raise a few cups with Speakerbruiser Rob This Sunday May 17 marks a very special edition of Lifted. A commemoration of Mr. Ash Tactic’s birthday, and a performance by Speakerbruiser Rob (Megasoid, ex-Sixtoo) with an opening set by DJ Tex beginning at 10pm at Tribeca ($6). It’s a long weekend, get out there.
Beards – Just say no.
Beards are gross. Short and trimmed. Scruffy. Long and wild. Stubbled. Flavour-savers. Partial. 5 o’clock shadows too. Mutton chops. Chin straps. Chin curtains. Balbo… JUST SAY NO! Doesn’t matter what style or colour. They are DISGUSTING! Shave it all off! Stand alone goatees and moustaches are particularly nasty. The worst offenders are those of the…
Firework bullshit
Effin great, summer is getting closer so the effin fireworks being shot off from the field behind my effin house can effin start going off at all effin hours of the night again. Effin great. —ef’s sakes
Top DJ?……Lol……what a joke!
Top DJ of the world?Top DJ of halifax?WTF?…is loading a cd that complicated?What a joke….How about…Top Joke of downtown halifax….can’t believe the hype over some one playing records.You put it on and play it.Big deal,gheeech,how moronic.Listen to this one everybody,i love this song,lol. —djsarejokes
art doesn’t really look that shitty does it?
I’m getting really sick of seeing only the cover and full page advertisements in colour while reading the coast, while the skimpy three by five inch art section submissions don’t get a drop of dye. show some respect to the artists. I’m sure when they submitted “high resolution” photos of their talent they didn’t want…
Jeans and Gents Reopens
In March Shoptalk reported that due to changes going on at the corner of Windsor and Almon, new and mildly vintage clothing retailer Jeans and Gents Clothing Company was having to pack up and find a new location after two decades in business. The good news is that the new location now has its doors…
Shooter Back On The Streets
So the guy who shot someone in Preston was released on bail. He didn’t steal a mop from Wal-Mart; he didn’t sell stuff at a flea market and not declare the earnings, HE. SHOT. SOMEONE. Politicians and the courts only have themselves to blame when they let a scumbag like this back on the streets…
Even clubs don
To all of the DJs who faded away around 2002. There’s a reason. Your crappy trance doesn’t excite people anymore. Least of all your neighbours who get to listen at all hours. Sell your turntables and move on. —Sick of the boom boom boom
Theatre Review: The Gravesavers
I try really hard not pre-judge shows, but I had read Sheree Fitch’s YA novel The Gravesavers, and it seemed to me that the new theatre company, Halifax Theatre for Young People, was being overly ambitious in mounting it. It just didn’t seem possible that a play could convey the time shifts between 1873 and…
Geek To Sheek
To the buff man with the big shoulders who prowls about a certain dating site playing games with everyone you need to stop. I know your type geek in high school works out a little and then gets cute, but you turn into an ass hole. You meet all these people online and you are…
goodbye the coast
well this will be the last time i EVER take the coast seriously I have just finished reading the movie review for Star Trek where the reviewer basically decided to be against everything other reviewers say about it which leads me to believe that the coast only cares about being rebels and “stickin it to…
Get inked: Maritime Tattoo Festival this weekend
Marissa Gough There’s plenty happening all weekend at the Maritime Tattoo Festival—even if you’re not getting a tattoo this time around—you just have to use your BRAINS! Laugh with Candy Palmater, or get lit with Rob Hill and Marissa Gough. Full schedule at maritimetattoofestival.com.
José Gonzalez comes back to town, just for you
The great José José Gonzalez returns to Halifax after his sell out show last year, this time with his backing band in tow (Thursday, June 25, all ages, 7:30pm, $20/$25, at St. Matthew’s Church). Intriguingly, The Got to Get Got open with an acoustic set. Tickets are on sale now and available through the Ticketpro…
Obey Convention blog = infotainment
Cosmetics: Blonde on blonde You’ve probably been seeing the lovely purple, green and blue posters around town, but have you been keeping up on the news via the Obey Convention blog? Check it out at obeyconvention.blogspot.com and learn a little bit about many of the performers for the the third annual “festival of free ideas…
Farmers’ Market News
[image-1] Stephanie Janssen is back at the Halifax Farmers’ Market (1496 Lower Water Street) in the main courtyard beside Walter and Leona Penner from 7am to 1pm on Saturdays. The Rug Lady, as she is known—and was at the market for 12 years but spent three away working with US clients—offers cleaning and restoration to…
Shoptalk Correction
Jay Wells Salon’s new location is, in fact, at 1673 Barrington Street, third floor, above The Hub, and not the address that was reported in Thursday’s print edition of Shoptalk. The phone number is 422-3532 and the salon’s website is jaywellssalon.com, where you can find more information about their services. The Coast regrets the error…
Shoptalk, May 14
Joanne David gets busy In Joanne David Accessories (1276 Barrington, 404-1276), things are heating up for the summer. “We close at seven but sometimes we’re here until nine,” says David. The store is full of shoes, but there’s plenty of bling, too, in the form of handbags and fashion accessories. Really hot right now is…
Mommy please don’t walk in front of oncoming traffic when I’m on your back!!
Mommy when you and daddy and Rover take me for a walk to the Commons and I’m on your back and you push a cross walk button… PLEASE WAIT… WAIT… STOP… LOOK .. and make sure there’s no on coming traffic… WAIT till the light changes Mommy… PLEASE… DON’T charge out in front of the…
Lazy Parents!
I am SO sick of seeing lazy parents pushing their godamn 3-5 year old kids around in strollers. MAKE THEM WALK! That’s what their feet are for, or are you too selfish to bother walking at their pace instead of your own. Are you too much of a bad parent that you can’t let your…
Theatre Review: One-Man Star Wars Trilogy
If you’ve never seen any of the Star Wars movies you probably won’t enj…ah, who am I kidding? Everyone has seen the Star Wars movies and everyone will enjoy Charles Ross’s one-man show. Ross, a jedi master of gestural comedy, has condensed the trilogy into a one-hour-long laugh-fest . He conjures up numerous characters including…
The summer of fuel gouging is bck
Why does no one freak out about gas gouging? It sems everytime the jack the prices..waaaay up no one blinks. status quo..”oh well, nothing we can do about it” oh yes there is! Bombard the oil companies, government and retailers with emails. FYI, the price of gas here is not regulated by local refining costs,…
Not fair!
To the person who stole my brand new black jacket tonight from the Pogue – YOU SUCK!! What a cruel thing to do!! And my keys were in the pocket… thanks a lot a$$hole. P.S. Karma is a bitch. —Would never steal YOUR jacket.
Store Pisses Me Off
O.K., I’m all for using cloth but could you cheap fucks have two people on cash, on to ring thru the grub, one to pack said grub??? Those fucking bags are no picnic to pack, especially the ones the size of a Mack truck. I pack like shit but I try to. I just hate…
Cellphone Hags
What I can’t stand more than anything else is that I cannot even ride the bus in realitive peace anymore. Every sista and wannabe sista with a cellphone, blackberry and the like downloading the shittiest fucking tunes and letting them ring for the entire length of the song. Answer the bloody phone already. No one…
Surprize!
Girls, I realize plucking your eyebrows is the norm and part of looking feminine. But must you pluck them so thin and/or small that they nearly disappear? You don’t need to pluck them so thin! Your looks are not improved by having unnaturally thin eyebrows. You look great the way you are, leave your poor…
Now you see her, now you….see her? POF=Pffft!
well, cheers to you, my well rehearsed “widow” Oscar winner of 2009!! For 9 months now I have been dating the most hysterically funny and charming man that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Good looks, great charm, everything you can imagine. The bees knees gals! Hot baths, baroque music, candles, fine chocolates,…
Get Speed at final Live Art dance this weekend
Live Art Dance Productions closes out their season with Speed (sped-up), a work by Montreal’s Suzanne Miller and Allan Paivio. For 25 years, the couple, who originally met in Halifax in the mid-1980s, has collaborated on conceptually rooted works. At the core of this project is a repeated pas de deux, or a duet where…
Why Are You in School?
Short women in skin-tight pants & faux tans.. in Math class? Stripper-high heels & thick, tacky eyeliner… at an 8:30 am class? Just curious, but what are you ladies thinking? My (female) buddy at Dal tells me it’s the same over there, not just at NSCC. The sad part is your focus on “getting a…
Pay your employees for their time
This bitch is directed at the retail store I visited last night: Pay your employees for their time spent at work after the store actually closes to customers. They shouldn’t be so pressured to get everything done before the store closes that they ignore customers. Maybe the store would make some sales in that last…
Nova Scotia Music Week tickets on sale Friday
Ah, the fun of an awards show! Tickets for the Nova Scotia Music Week Gala Awards Show and Festival (in Yarmouth Nov 5-8) are available for sale starting Friday May 15, and they are limited, so, you know, keep that in mind. For $29.99 (plus convenience charge) the public can purchase a limited amount of…
Theatre Review: Out of Frame
Charles Mancini, as war photographer Warren Zinn, talks about the distance that the camera puts between the photographer and his subject. He explains that while the camera is a barrier in some ways, things like smell and sound obviously get through. The play Out of Frame, has a similar barrier—because it is verbatim theatre, Mancini…
Theatre Review: Jake’s Gift
If you only see one play at this year’s SuperNova Festival, make it Jake’s Gift. This beautifully polished little gem will leave you fumbling for tissues as it brings to life the story of bright and spunky 10-year-old French girl named Isabelle and her relationship with Jake, a crusty Canadian octogenarian who has returned to…
“Seacows” are extinct
hey bitch, ya, you, the one thats only caused my life problems since the day I extended friendly conversation to you. Stop thinking it’s OK to use facebook as a way of vomitting your life in the faces of others. Stop the 2348 pictures of you two, stop the abstract poetry and then tell your…
Late Night Drama
To the intellectual insomniac currently watching a suspense/drama at 2:30 am : at that volume, and with your speakers practically on your balcony, i’m at least a floor up in our building, and on the opposite end of my apartment, but all i hear are the constant, muffled bass tones of the manly dialogue and…
Hot buzz: summer movie preview
Loud, proud trailers say new Terminator, Transformers and Harry Potter installments are heading our way soon. But don’t let sequel-fatigue get you down—chase down those explosions with our summer picks. MAY The Limits of Control (directed by Jim Jarmusch) A mysterious, sexy criminal (Isaach De Bankolé) journeys across Spain, and through his own consciousness, meeting…
Steve Streatch, MLA Wannabe
Cell: 497-2995 Grade this year: F Grade last year: F Streatch’s politics aren’t The Coast’s politics: He’s far to the right of anyone else on council, a fact he gleefully reminds us of from time to time. Streatch, I wrote last year, “seems to take pleasure in being on the wrong side of eco-friendly initiatives…
Debbie Hum, MLA Wannabe
Cell: 476-7212 Grade this year: D+ Grade last year: C+ “Debbie Hum,” I wrote last year, “is a likeable councillor, and has a sort of 1970s-style good-government sensibility to her, which is not a bad thing at all, but I wish she’d be more of a presence on council. Mostly, she seems to get into…
It’s Timber Timbre time in Halifax, this Saturday
The sound of Timber Timbre travels at its own pace, arriving unhurried. In the musical company of Taylor Kirk, the man behind the moniker, time slows down. The effect largely arises from his low, resonant voice—an aged sound. “I’m almost 28 now, and I’m a painfully shy person, so singing has come really slowly for…
Linda Mosher
Cell: 476-4117 Grade this year: C- Grade last year: C- Linda Mosher is a piece of work. She’s forever personalizing what should be simple differences of political opinion. Mosher inappropriately chastised Jennifer Watts when Watts tried to use proper council procedures to amend several clauses in HRM By Design. Mosher is also largely the instigator…
Sure Thing: k-os gives free show
As many Haligonian concert-goers mentally divvy up their funds in anticipation of this summer’s Big Outdoor Concert offerings, it may be comforting to know that there’s at least one big show happening this week that won’t cost a thing. Rapper k-os is promoting his latest album, Yes!, with a cross-Canada string of shows that are,…
David Hendsbee
Cell: 483-0705 Grade this year: C Grade last year: D+ Last year, I gave David Hendsbee a D+, then, a few weeks later, the Mineville community in his district burned up in a forest fire. “Not a D councillor anymore,” Hendsbee joked afterwards, referring to all the work he had to do connecting residents to…
Stephen Adams, BIG improvement
Cell: 497-8818 Grade this year: B- Grade last year: C- The forest fire that started in Linda Mosher’s district did most of its damage in Stephen Adams’ district—it ripped through Fergusons Cove, causing widespread evacuation and panic and destroying eight homes. Unfortunately, Adams was out of town when it hit. Whether his absence was associated…
All Dolled up for local fashion
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Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Ten tracks of cranked and cranky soul, blues, R&B and rock come together in little more than 30 minutes. The Austin, Texas, singer/guitarist, backed by brilliant players on horn, organ, bass and drums, takes listeners to the point where all those forms intersect. “Sugarfoot,” “Big Booty Woman,” “Get Yo Shit” and “Bobby Booshay” demonstrate best…
Lorelei Nicoll, Council newbie
Cell: 478-2705 Grade this year: C- Grade last year: N/A Lorelei Nicoll replaces the absolutely horrendous Harry McInroy, the repeat “F” councillor who retired last year, and for that alone Nicoll should gain the eternal gratitude of the people of Cole Harbour. For her part, Nicoll is gracious, perhaps to a fault. As a council…
Brad Johns, BIG improvement
Cell: 476-1234 Grade this year: C Grade last year: D Brad Johns hasn’t fared well in these report cards, having received two Ds in a row. At his insistence, I spent a day in Sackville, as Johns showed me around the district and introduced me to people. We visited a remarkable old school that has…
DD/MM/YYYY
“Vote for your favourite DD/MM/YYYY boy!” the band screamed at their Toronto record release. It’s kind of tongue-in-cheek, but you’re never quite sure. Bouncing from multiple drum sets and tossing instruments across the stage at each other to switch off, DD/MM/YYYY always ensure an active live show, and Black Square captures that frenetic energy well.…
Gloria McCluskey
Cell: 476-1667 Grade this year: B- Grade last year: B She lives just outside of the district, but Gloria McCluskey is the definitive councillor for Dartmouth Centre—the seat is hers for as long as she wants it, which is why no one opposed her in the October elections. McCluskey serves her constituency well—the former mayor…
Bob Harvey
Cell: 488-4820 Grade this year: B- Grade last year: B+ Everyone likes Bob Harvey. How could you not? A gentleman, kind even in defeat, an old-style statesman if there ever was one. But Harvey could use the respect and status he’s earned over the years to better advantage. For example, he personally understands the value…
Ben Lee
The forgotten side of the Mary-Louise Parker-Billy Crudup-Claire Danes square of yore, Ben Lee’s music has gotten steadily saccharine since the breakup that should’ve provided his best material. It drifted on Awake is the New Sleep (his last batch of uniformly strong songs), dipped on Ripe, and has disappeared beneath syrup with The Rebirth of…
Andrew Younger, MLA!
Cell: 476-1727 Grade this year: C- Grade last year: B- Ah, Andrew Younger. Always with an opinion, whether one’s required or not. That’s not a fault, necessarily—we could only wish other councillors were half as engaged. And as Younger was unopposed in the October elections, he seems to resonate with his constituency; alternatively, his in-your-face…
Tim Outhit
Phone: 490-5679 Grade this year: C Grade last year: Incomplete At the time of last year’s report card, Tim Outhit had been sitting on council just two weeks. “Outhit hasn’t had enough time to find his council legs, much less define himself politically or demonstrate how he will represent his constituency,” I wrote at the…
Klarka Weinwurm
Klarka Weinwurm’s ep may be inspired by the cold loneliness of hitchhiking across the country, but her lovely voice is quietly warm, especially when simply accompanied by a strumming ukelele, an instrument well suited for travel. An album best enjoyed in a silent room so as to not to lose its nuances and thoughtful songwriting,…
Bill Karsten
Cell: 476-1855 Grade this year: C+ Grade last year: C I complained last year that Karsten plays “process cop” at council meetings, an irksome habit that continues unabated. But the same personality trait led him to closely examine the whys and wherefores behind a proposal to change the way the city figures transit taxes, with…
Reg Rankin
Cell: 499-3744 Grade this year: D+ Grade last year: D Reg Rankin has a lot of experience. He was around for the landfill crisis in the ’90s, which led to the creation of Halifax’s recycling program. He understands the issues related to amalgamation and has been involved in the tax reform effort. But saying he…
Star Trek leaves reviewer both unfazed and transported
Humble, ordinary Jane Q. Movienerd has reservations about J.J Abrams’ Star Trek. She can’t fathom the considerable expense poured into such a chintzy relic, and she never paid much mind to the original series, for which this movie is a prequel. However, she regularly goes to summer blockbusters in the hopes that the film will…
Katrina Tuttle is sew young
On a foggy April evening, surrounded by Drew Klassen’s lush rainforest-inspired paintings, a small group of guests sits in rows inside Gallery Page and Strange, intimately lining both sides of a floor-height runway. It’s the perfect way to take in all the delightful details and surprises from Katrina Tuttle’s ambitious 2009 fall collection. Shying away…
Peter Lund, Council newbie
Cell: 497-7508 Grade this year: C- Grade last year: N/A District 23 is free of Gary Meade! They should hold a parade and launch fireworks each October to mark the anniversary of Meade’s retirement. And I’m hoping that his replacement, Peter Lund, poured salt on Meade’s former chair before occupying it, killing whatever pestilence may…
Pony Up
Like the band’s name, Stay Gold has a multi-level function: It’s a title. It’s advice. And for Montreal indie-pop quartet Pony Up—whose stellar 2006 debut, Make Love to the Judges With Your Eyes, had the full label treatment—it’s gotta be a mantra for a record that arrives as a CD-R in a DIY package. The…
Jackie Barkhouse
Cell: 476-5601 Grade this year: C+ Grade last year: C+ I still have very high hopes for Jackie Barkhouse. She’s intelligent, and comes from a union background that should serve her Eastern Passage and Woodside constituents well. But does she? Well, since she won a byelection to her seat in December 2007, Barkhouse has mostly…
Peter Kelly, Mayor
Phone: 490-4010 Grade this year: C- Grade last year: D Peter Kelly has a knack for getting his indecisive personality caught up in events, you gotta hand him that. Last summer, for example, he told the Chamber of Commerce that thanks to the new sewer plant, the harbour was clean enough to swim in. “Really?”…
The Sheikh’s Batmobile
In his latest, The Sheikh’s Batmobile, Richard Poplak documents his bizarre two-year pilgrimage through the Middle East, where he investigates the fate of Western pop culture when it winds up in the Muslim world. The result is a humorous, astute and vivid account of Poplak’s misadventures. Poplak discovers the spirit of punk through an Indonesian…
Not your grandma’s NDP
This ain’t your grandma’s NDP. If there were any last lingering doubts on that score, Darrell Dexter erased them Monday with one simple response to a question about whether an NDP government would repeal 1979 legislation that has made it virtually impossible for unions to organize workers at any of Michelin Tire’s three Nova Scotia…
Jim Smith, MLA Wannabe
Cell: 229-8887 Grade this year: C- Grade last year: C- Smith surprised me this past year. During discussion of the Clairmont Report on violence, he pointed out that everyone was ignoring Clairmont’s suggestion that brothels and prostitution stroll areas be legalized. And, through the transit tax debates, he solidly protected his low-income constituency. He remains…
On My Sleeve gets to the heart of tattoo art
Cher Hann has long, lean arms, with veins visible. She rests the limbs on the cafe table, elbows pointing toward, and almost reaching, the outer edges. Her hands lie one on top of the other, beneath her heart, as she often leans forward and over the tabletop during conversation. Another heart, a tattoo she received…
Yes, open relationships can work
Q: Over the past few years, my husband and I have realized that he has needs that I cannot meet. I do not begrudge him these needs, and I would fill them if I could. We discussed opening our relationship, but our therapist recoiled at the idea. If I can’t help him and we can’t…
Mary Wile
Cell: 476-2048 Grade this year: D Grade last year: D Since last year, Mary Wile has shown some sparks of awareness: As a member of the Urban Design Task Force, she piped up with a few observations related to HRM By Design, and she importantly raises issues related to handicap access from time to time.…
Keji plans first managed burn in park history
Parks Canada staff at Kejimkujik National Park plan to set 2.3 hectares of it on fire. “People think because it’s a National Park you should just put a fence around it and leave it,” explains Dave Algar, a resource conservation manager at Keji. “We’re under pressure because there is so much change and so many…
Jerry Blumenthal, Council newbie
Cell: 237-0720 Grade this year: C Grade last year: N/A Jerry Blumenthal retired after a long career as councillor in both the old city of Halifax and in the HRM, and then came back in 2008 to challenge his replacement, Patrick Murphy. Blumenthal seems to have won the October election thanks in large part to…
Man up for local fashion
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Dawn Sloane
Cell: 488-4812 Grade this year: B Grade last year: B Dawn Sloane can be unpredictably temperamental, and has a habit of speaking around an issue, sometimes just to hear herself talk, I think. But here’s the thing: She’s a damn good representative to the people in her district. I didn’t learn about this until recently,…
Sue Uteck
Cell: 221-7651 Grade this year: C+ Grade last year: B- Sue Uteck forthrightly and unapologetically fights for what she thinks is right. And, she knows the city—she knows where the bodies are buried, who holds the keys to which doors and what makes everything run. That knowledge serves her well, and she uses it effectively.…
Recipe Exchange Project makes recipe cards an artform
A small group of people, mostly NSCAD students, sit elbow to elbow around a small table, sharing the remains of a dinner in an otherwise empty hall attached to St. Matthew’s Church on Barrington. They are celebrating the success of the first Recipe Exchange Project event, an art experiment designed to teach cooking to the…
Jennifer Watts, Council newbie
Cell: 497-4748 Grade this year: B Grade last year: N/A Jennifer Watts hit the ground running, leading the resistance to the Bayers Road widening and putting forward a proposed ban on plastic bottles in city buildings and a range of suggested changes to the HRM By Design planning initiative, all within her first six months…
Donkey Punch
A brutally violent, well-made exploitation drama, Donkey Punch showed up at the Atlantic Film Festival last year but never got a theatrical release, which is too bad. Given the increasingly inane and repetitious torture porn pictures getting wide releases and spawning sequels, there’s no reason this picture couldn’t drum up some attention from cinema audiences.…
Russell Walker, BIG improvement
Cell: 497-7215 Grade this year: B- Grade last year: C- Russell Walker’s been around forever, and knows what’s what. He’s generally right-of-centre on the issues that The Coast finds important—he’s for a third harbour crossing, he voted for the Chebucto Road widening, he unthinkingly supports huge budget increases for cops, whether warranted or not. But—and…
City Council Report Card 2009
It’s the end of the school year, so once again, it’s time for The Coast’s annual city council report card. This is a thankless chore—city councillors hate me for it, readers troll up the comments section on thecoast.ca with words like “douchebag” and “idiot,” my few remaining friends shake their heads in dismay. But hey,…
From Munich
Dear Halifax, I miss you. I love Munich, it’s people, it’s public transportation system, it’s climate, the beer festivals every 6 weeks, it’s public transportation system, the proximity to the Alps, the near-complete lack of violence… But when everything’s going wrong, and I’m awake at 3am fretting about poverty, unemployment, unpaid wages, imminent homelessness, and…
you fucking little slimy worm of an asshole that stole my 63 year old mothers coat and wallet
My mother was enjoying an outting viewing the ocean with us while we took pictures, you stole her jacket and her wallet then tried to “pretend” to deposit $1500 into her bank account , fortunately my mom doesn’t have that high of a limit for you fuckheads to take, and secondly she only had four…
