Serpentine Studio’s new beginning
“We really did like our space, and being on Barrington, but there was a lot of uncertainty with our lease, and the block,” says Sepentine Studios’ co-founder Laura Selenzi. After three years of gracing the big windows on Barrington Street, bringing bellydance, hula hoop, burlesque, Middle Eastern drumming and more to Halifax, the studio announced…
Yeah get on the gear!
Well the whole city including you is a big cokehead (yeah it’s not even coke, it’s pig dewormer and other shit). But hell your kid goes to the a private school, your joke of a ho wife puts up with it ,never had a job! But hey you play cool family guy when you ain’t…
Dear Cleaning Company,
If you are going to put up ads for part time jobs all over kijiji and the Job Bank at least be honest about what they actually are!! They are SUB-CONTRACTS, which means: • The cleaner is responsible to pay their OWN taxes • The hours worked DO NOT COUNT towards Insurable hours for EI…
Good riddance, Ms. Attitude
If your attitude wasn’t shit, we may have given you a raise. We’re not cheap, your co-worker got a raise cause, unlike you, he takes pride in his work. We’re glad you’re leaving. Have fun out in Edmonton, and continue to make low/mediocre pay, because the employers out there will also know what a lazy…
Don’t give me “but it’s originally a Sanskrit symbol!”
I’m a regular at a racially diverse north end watering hole. In fact, it’s probably the most integrated bar in this otherwise seriously segregated town. Which is why, when I find the gentleman responsible for repeatedly drawing swastikas on the mens’ room walls, I’ll be drawing one on his forehead Manson-style, duct-taping him to a…
Convention centre video report
This first video in a collaboration between The Coast and PLANifax takes a look at the recent changes to the Nova Centre’s design that were approved by city council. There will be more on the convention centre and more videos in future, although not necessarily together. Related Stories
My Broken Heart
Seems unable to heal. This really sucks. -It Gets Better, Right?
Sushi Sunday
When someone asks if they can tell you a joke and you agree to it, you really should allow them to get to the punchline before you brand them a misogynist. -Not Misogynistic At All
Thank You Haligonia
I have grown up in this city, lived here almost all my life, my son was born here and both of us will probably die and have our ashes scattered in Herring Cove or Sambro. But more importantly, you have made a life-changing impression on my Winnipeg girlfriend, who loves it here and is planning…
Passerby Gives up Her Hoodie on Bluenose Sunday
Thank you Erica for loaning me your warm hoodie on Bluenose Sunday. As I got colder and colder in the midst of the half-marathon on Hollis, you took pity on me and loaned me your lovely warm pink hoodie. It did the trick; I could finish the 21K. The hoodie will be at the Y…
Spring Garden losers
I love the way the Spring Garden groupies stand between Tim Hortons and Subway everyday and think they’re so fucking cool, acting like Gang-Stars. If you all knew how much you ruin everyone’s day with your loud face that never shuts up, from all the bumming and stupid comments you make about everyone but yourselves,…
Hey friend,
I wish I could read your mind so I could know how you really feel. I guess that takes the fun out of it, though, doesn’t it? -Waiting It Out
SOB
To the SOB who feels the need to impersonate someone and attempt to ruin my life and my livelihood: You have won I know who you are but I will suck it up and deal with it because I always try to be the better person. What you have done is not cool, not in…
Don’t Yell At People
I am going to be working in customer service for probably my whole career. I have a job for now and I am in school currently but when I get out I am still going to be working with people in customer service, just in a different field. Regardless of where I have worked I…
Paralegal Singer
I saw you on Barrington Street. The sun shone on your Carmel-coloured curls, your eyes set serious, you looked so gorgeous in a suit. I’ve been in love with you for a long time. I wish you could be mine. -Nevertell
Get It Together Girl
Yes, you are hot and drunk and the party queen of Halifax—we get it already. I’ll let you in on a secret…a bag of Doritos is not a fashion accessory and fishnets are fucking gross. You say you dress like a teenager? Well, you look like a shitty prostitute and you’re almost 30. Following around…
Swing Batta-Battttaaa
Thank you, thank you, thank you to the human who put up the swing on the hill! You are so kind and it was such a lovely idea. Just one more reason why the people in this city rule! -Walking to Yoga
Tree’s company
Alissa Kloet is the designer behind Keephouse Studio, a line of modern housewares handmade at her Seaforth studio. Kloet’s textiles and accessories are all about patterns that pop, and her latest project is no different. Paying homage to Halifax’s forgotten moniker— The City of Trees—Keephouse has created a line of tea towels and coasters that’s…
Spring Awakening
MJ Photographics A passionate performance by Neptune Theatre School’s Pre-Professional Training Program cast Spring Awakening is an old play (written in 1891) given a new twist by a pop rock score that allows the troubled teen characters to unleash their tortured inner monologues. It’s a work that’s both provocative and disturbing, not because of its…
Patch Halifax—sew good
You’re going to want to thank Christina Pasquet, her idea is a bright one. This summer she’ll open Patch Halifax, a modern fabric shop/work room hybrid where the fabrics will the hard-to-find kind (like Liberty, Birch and Cloud 9) and there’ll be hands on deck to help you use ’em. Packing five sewing machines, a…
Locked doors means you are CLOSED
Dear drugstore across the street, You suck. Every time I run over there at like 8;45 with a late-night craving for chocolate or snacks….your doors are locked! Yet the sign on the door says you are open until 9. That ain’t right. I see your lazy store clerks hiding inside pretending they don’t see me…
Tip for Tats
I don’t give a shit about ~celebrity~ tattooers, tattoo show hosts or mud wrestling (which seems like a poor entertainment idea for an area where people are gathering with fresh wounds, btw). Maybe next year we could try promoting, celebrating and inviting talented, exceptional, international artists? -Fuck your festival
I Need A Replacement
I hate that I still think about you non-stop. Yeah we were fucked up on alcohol and drugs—you know we don’t deserve that future, together or apart. I want to self-medicate together but we know it’s the end. I will always hope you are doing better and I hope you can be happier than your…
What a girl
To the sick girl working at Cheers Saturday night with no voice: Just an absolute beaut. Thanks for putting up with us. Still wish I went to Tim’s and got you that tea. -The Creepy Tea Guy
I’m not a total loser
Stop fucking speaking for me…I said what I had to say to your face….I’m sick and tired of the games.You win, OK. – I’m Finished
Your time is not worth more than our safety
To the woman in the maroon shitbox: I realize that flipping you the bird was a bit hasty. I should have found a more pleasant way to indicate to you that coming inches from ramming into my car with yours, as you cut off traffic and merged onto the on ramp to the Windsor Street…
Coming soon: Krave Burger
Where Onyx (1580 Argyle Street) once was, Krave Burger will be. The new addition to Burgertown—coming soon to 5680 Spring Garden Road — is still tight-lipped on the finer details of its menu and plans for the resto, but its GM Matt MacIsaac says “it’ll leave you wanting more.” Do go on, we say. MacIsaac,…
Heartbreak
My heart is crushed into tiny pieces. Like bits of glass refined into sands of an hourglass How many times have I cried. Like doves cry. How could you do this to me, sweep me under the rug I am not a bug I am an angel and you have broken my wings and pulled…
Glass Houses
What is that old saying? Oh yeah, “People who live in glass houses, shouldn’t throw stones!” I have taken the high road until now! I do not lie, I do not play games and I most certainly do not choose to engage with high school behaviour. Unfortunately, there are a few of you who chose…
Subway handjob
Be me Hungry and tired Go into Subway at dinner time “Oh good, only one lady a head of me” The woman then orders seven subs… …doesn’t know what to order… Hums and haws for 20 mins “I find it hard to believe six other people sent you to Subway and none of them told…
It’s my life
It never ends. -Don’t You Forget
Local Recipes Live: a staged reading by Greg Proops
The “Smartest Man in the World” AKA Greg Proops was at The Company House a couple of weeks ago for the Halifax Comedy Fest, running his mouth, making people laugh and recording his Proopcast. Perhaps you weren’t there? It turns out he’s not only the Smartest Man he’s also a Coast fan. Fancy that! It…
Cussing Bus Driver
Next time you tell someone to fuck off, have the balls to do it in front of witnesses. I hope you lose your job someday. Bus driver is too good for you. -Insulted
Dating is Complicated
What happened? We dated for three weeks and had a fantastic time. Our times together consisted of a pile of laughs and opening up about what we wanted in life. We had sex twice during that period. You were exactly what I was looking for all these years—I’m 36—in a potential long-term girlfriend, beautiful inside…
Have a Hart Republic
“I’m living a little bit of a double life,” says Kaylyn Monk, owner of Hart Republic, the Halifax-based online shop that launched May 1. Working as an engineer by day means her browsing time is limited and her shopping experience lacking. She’s busy, and then some. “I shop online out of pure convenience and I’m…
You must listen to Surveillance
Tri Le is hitting two firsts this season–graduating from college and playing OBEY. The two go hand-in-hand: as a recording arts student at NSCC, the former bedroom recorder had new techniques to put to work on pop-punk trio. Surveillance’s month-old EP Stressed and Depressed. “I learned there’s a proper way to do things, there’s no…
White Poppy has robotics, will travel
Like fellow OBEY act Julianna Barwick, Crystal Dorval (AKA White Poppy) trades in ethereal layers, guitars and vocals piled atop one another, emotional and cathartic, best heard in headphones or churches. The difference is Dorval records everything by herself–she’s her own writer-editor. “I remember someone telling me something about painting once–a painting can technically continue…
Each Other: Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey
First there was York Redoubt. Then there was Long Long Long. And now there is Each Other. When Brad Loughead and Mike Wright moved to Montreal in 2011, they teamed up with ex-Burdock Christian Simmons, another Haligonian, and formed the dream-space trio. After a string of EPs, and discarded digital versions, Each Other is two…
TV Freaks: Short and sweet
The Hamilton punk quartet TV Freaks is named after a song by Australian band The Victims, but “I do like TV,” says bassist Kevin Bell. “Me and my girlfriend have been watching Kitchen Nightmares. It’s a staged-reality kinda thing to to watch. You don’t have to think about much to watch it. Kinda like our…
Halifax Rumi Ensemble’s universality
OBEY Convention’s mission statement says that the event’s “only consistent theme is a spirit of adventure and innovation.” Fitting then, that the convention will be capped off by a performance by the Halifax Rumi Ensemble, a local collective of artists who are taking part in an ongoing, international musical collaboration that celebrates the life and…
Happy Garden medium
There is something sort of dingy about the dining room of Happy Garden. Perhaps it’s the bones of the Fog City Diner that cast an air of slackness to the restaurant, but it definitely still reads like a bit of a dive. Tables are jammed in sloppy rows, the worn edges of chairs almost bumping…
Being bold, choosing bold
While Halifax’s new “branding promise” may cause some to snicker, in truth, I would love to see the city live up to it. Decisive choices will be needed to make this city the thriving node it could one day be. (And to be clear, being bold does not mean allowing the same old tired 1960s-style…
Low shows what two decades can do
OBEY festival focuses on artists who embrace innovation and experimentation, and though Minnesota-based band Low is known more for its downbeat music and minimalist arrangements, they’re also pretty progressive when they want to be. Note the furor stirred up by their set at last year’s Rock the Garden in Minneapolis, in which they played one…
Free Will Astrology
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Taurus! (March 21-April 19) I see you as having more in common with a marathon runner than a speed racer. Your best qualities tend to emerge when you’re committed to a process that takes awhile to unfold. Learning to pace yourself is a crucial life lesson. That’s how you get attuned to your…
Mary Fay Coady speaks from the heart
”I want the audience to experience a piece of theatre that feels like an intimate conversation,” says actor Mary Fay Coady, who will perform a monologue from her play Tender Beast at Agricola’s Lost and Found as part of this year’s OBEY. “I like talking about matters of the heart, and we all have one…
Opening NSCAD up
“Im very committed to small art and design institutions. They’re becoming rare,” says Dianne Taylor-Gearing, the incoming president of NSCAD University. She will succeed Dr. David O’Brien in August, bringing decades of experience in arts administration to the school. From the UK and currently in administration at the Alberta College of Art and Design, Taylor-Gearing…
Coco Barracuda
“Every song is about this internal good versus evil. I’m really into religious allegories as a metaphor for dealing with depression and anxiety. I’m working on one where the lyrics are ‘I hate myself’ and just saying that out loud–I was crying when I was writing it, it’s incredibly cathartic. I’m finally making the music…
St. Pat’s gets a reprieve
St. Patrick’s-Alexandra’s rollercoaster ride isn’t done yet. In a surprise move Tuesday evening, council awarded the North Central Community Council another shot at the former school site. After voting down staff’s recommendation against selling the property to the NCCC, Jennifer Watts put and passed a motion directing staff to write a report considering the sale…
Drunk and (Miss) disorderly
Q I’m a 21-year-old straight male, and I’m mildly autistic. This means that I have difficulty picking up on social cues. I’ve learned to manage my disability in most areas of my life, but I’ve recently become concerned about how it pertains to hooking up. My approach to hooking up is how I imagine most…
It pays to OBEY
In the grand tradition of outsider music and art festivals in Canada, OBEY stands at the top. Like its contemporaries (your Wyrd Fests, your Somewhere There Festivals, your Toronto Thaws, your Festival International de Musique Actuelles), for seven years running, OBEY pushes boundaries, defies genres and stokes creative fires. Art In Fest, OBEY’s standalone contemporary…
Singular Electric Voice
“I love minimalism. Not only in music but also in art, decor, film, literature and fashion,” says Matthew Samways, electronic musician and head of Electric Voice Records. “I believe there is something powerful in conveying a multitude of emotion or intent that is framed by restrictions and limitations.” On Friday at Plan B, Electric Voice…
Tropic Of Cancer is not so sad
“I’m wearing all white right now” Camella Lobo says with a laugh. “I don’t know what that means!” While a pale wardrobe might not seem particularly puzzling to some, for Lobo, the brains beind Tropic Of Cancer, it does seem to pose a bit of a quandary. Tropic Of Cancer’s haunting, synth-laden output over the…
Neighbors
Despite a prolific career, Rose Byrne—who’s done turns in comedies (Bridesmaids) and alleged comedies (The Internship) before—is mostly known for the law drama Damages and as The Underwritten Pretty One in films far and wide. In Neighbors, she gets no help from Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O’Brien’s script, but at least director Nicholas Stoller…
Lisa Lipton’s ticket to paradise
Lisa Lipton works with many moving parts. There’s her drumming practice, developing since 2011 and showcased as the marquee exhibit BLAST BEATS at Nocturne 2012. There’s the film she’s making, The Impossible Blue Rose, which she’s been writing, filming and assembling on the road from California to Windsor, Ontario. Unlike most features, which are unveiled…
Jef Barbara’s midas touch
“I’m influenced by things that are glam and weird, one of my friends said Little Richard was a direct impact–even though I’ve never actively listened to Little Richard, maybe I’ve been influenced without really knowing. First fixation I had while I was trying to find the ‘Jef Barbara look’ was Dynasty and Dallas–sequins and padded…
Julianna Barwick quiets all pain
Julianna Barwick says the weather is beautiful in Brooklyn. She just rode her bike for the first time in a long time. But she misses Iceland. Two years ago, she was recording her album Nepenthe there. Sigur Ros producer Alex Somers invited her to record with him and the result is a precious thing. A wandering…
Best In Fest
“We just want things that are interesting, things that we haven’t seen here in a while,” says Robyn Mitchell, artistic director of Art in Fest, her yet-to-be- born event. Art in Fest is the visual arts offspring of the OBEY Convention. For its inaugural year it will be hosting select artists in venues throughout the…
Looking for Layla?
Elie Sarkis and his brother Kamil Sarkis learned everything they know about food from their grandmother, the namesake for their new Clayton Park restaurant Layla Seafood and Mediterranean Cuisine (480 Parkland Drive, the same strip as Tako Sushi & Ramen). After over 10 years of working in the food industry in Lebanon, the brothers bring…
