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The Coast | News, events, restaurants, concerts and Burger Week for Halifax, Nova Scotia
Home of the Best of Halifax Reader's Choice Awards, the award-winning independent newspaper covers the Halifax news, politics, events, concerts, movies, restaurants, and nightlife scene.
Hey great news everyone, over half the prisoners in the province are on remand and the guards watching them are improperly trained. This comes from auditor general Michael Pickup’s latest report, which lays out a stark portrayal of Nova Scotia’s correctional facilities and their deficiencies in safety, security and training. Policies for the use of solitary…
Rachels McAdams and Weisz star in Sebastián Lelio’s Disobedience, which follows Ronit (Weisz) home to bury her father, a prominent rabbi in a Orthodox Jewish community. A new rabbi, Dovid (Alessandro Nivola), has been named in his stead; unfortunately for Ronit he’s married to Esti (McAdams), the woman she was exiled from the community for…
“I’m talkin’ about what it’s like to alive now. I’m talkin’ about what you talk about around your kitchen table with people who are closest to you. I’m talking about what keeps you awake at night,” says Dylan Moran. “I’m talking about things that happened half an hour ago and things that happened 50,000 years ago. It’s…
The British theatre director Dominic Cooke makes his film debut with On Chesil Beach, a 60s-set drama adapted by Ian McEwan from his own novel. Florence (Saoirse Ronan) is rich and Edward (Billy Howle) is poor, but when they lock eyes at a activist meeting, it’s all over. The movie ping-pongs between their respective youths…
It sounds like the most natural thing in the world. “You’re harvesting grapes, pressing them in whole clusters, letting the juice sit, and the ferment starts,” explains Bruce Ewert. “When the sugar gets to a level that I know would produce bubbles, it’s bottled.” And that’s it? “And that’s it.” Ewert, winemaker at l’Acadie Vineyards,…
I smile and make small talk-that does not mean I want to go out with you, you big-headed ass. News flash, guys. I’m just being polite, maybe even friendly. That doesn’t mean I’m into you. Get over yourself. —Anti-arrogance
Having a bad day? Just a little uplifting note from me to you, from an unfamiliar face in a crowd, but locally in HRM with you. A bad day happens every once in a while, maybe you spilled a coffee you just bought with your last bit of change before payday, maybe you got a…
To the drivers who enjoy speeding past me to only sit in front of me at the red light…I hope you enjoy risking others on the road just to sit at the same light as me, that I didn’t risk anyone’s life to get to. —The Car Behind You
“I always feel bad that it takes a crisis to bring that all into balance,” says Ken Paul about the struggle between Indigenous fishers and the federal government. “But sometimes that’s what necessary.” The director of Fisheries and Integrated Resources for the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nation Chiefs was one of the Indigenous leaders…
By 2002, drivers in London, England, were spending as much as half their commuting time stalled in traffic, contributing to much of the city centre’s dangerous particulate pollution. To deal with a growing population, increasing gridlock and air quality concerns, the city implemented a congestion charge, using a photo-based licence-recognition system. Between 7 am and…
I really dislike egg shells in my breakfast sandwich. I complain and you offer me a replacement sandwich. Do I dare try again? No thanks, just my money, please. —Hungry For More? Nah
A supervisor at the Burnside bus garage has been terminated after a board of inquiry found him responsible for multiple instances of racial discrimination and harassment over the past 18 years. The Coast has learned that Halifax Transit employee Arthur Maddox was fired last week, just days before the scathing board decision by barrister Lynn…
Sarah Rotella’s second feature is a biting satire that hangs out with five actors who have left the grind of audition and rejection in Los Angeles for a weekend getaway at a lakeside cabin. They’re all the worst: Grace (Winny Clarke) will only speak in a British accent; Stefano (Justin Gerhard) is obsessed with his…
Twelve years after the initial complaint was filed, an independent board of inquiry from Nova Scotia’s Human Rights Commission has determined Halifax Transit’s work environment to be abusive and discriminatory. Lynn Connors, chair of the HRC’s board, states in a recently released decision that there is “ample evidence” that “discrimination was ongoing in the workplace.”…
My Honda Civic died at the gas station on Pleasant Street, and you two kind human beings took time out of your no doubt full and happy lives to help me. Even though it didn’t work and we couldn’t get the car to start, we fist-bumped and parted ways. N and B (and B’s very…
To the young brown haired, glasses wearing typical “dorky” looking cashier, you are great at your job. You’ve always been very pleasant to deal with, you are upbeat and friendly. It might only be a “grocery store” job, but you’re good at it. Maybe one day you’ll work in personal relations, or move up to…
Good writing is like giving sight to the blind. I’m sure an exercise in many creative writing programs is giving the age-old thousand words to a photograph of the writer’s choosing. I started listening to William Least Heat-Moon’s cross-American odyssey Blue Highways and it feels as if he’s describing a series of photographs he’s taken…
Please, PLEASE, do not advertise that you are a fully accessible restaurant or store if your idea of accessibility is seating someone who uses a wheelchair in the dark corner of the restaurant where it is everyone else’s last choice and where cutlery is rolled to sit or having a second floor of the store…
Hey dudes, Winter’s over. Time to shave off those gross dirty beards. I’m sick of seeing all these curly pube faced men walkin’ around town lookin’ like a bunch of hobos. Buck up! Get a haircut and get a real job. Unless you’re a Samurai Warrior, you need to snip off that nasty man-bun too…
I hate the movie theatre rocker seats! I’m tall and I like my kneecaps, so when you sit your fat ass down in front of me, don’t throw yourself in the seat. Gently sit down and do NOT rock on! It’s not a frickin’ metal concert! —G. Rant
Congratulations, Nova Scotia brewers. Nine beers from five local brewing companies took home Canadian Brewing Awards this year. For the full list of the 2018 Canadian Brewing Award-winners, go here. For our homegrown champions, look no further. Gold winners Category: 53 — Wood and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer Beer: Bonanza! Foedre Aged Wheat Wine Brewery: 2…
After the outbreak of a contagious bacterial infection at Halifax’s only equestrian school, horses are quarantined and the barn is closed until further notice. Staff are now turning to the public for help. On Sunday, Halifax Junior Bengal Lancers—which has been a local fixture for more than 80 years—launched a GoFundMe with the goal of…
It has been roughly a year since our renewed contact. What a year it has been! Highs and lows…wouldn’t have missed it! I wish we could be together. I hope it’s mutual. You’ve been the one, you are the one and always will be. Thank you. —Dancing The Skies On Laughter Silvered Wings
I’m so tired of this city, it nickel and dimes you at every turn, I swear they budget themselves on parking tickets. Anyway, that aside, I just wanted to say how unrealistic and pathetic people in the business community are in Halifax. Halifax is no Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton or Victoria…so stop thinking you can…
Almost two months have passed since Agave americana became a part of the Haligonian vernacular after a decades-old agave plant in the Halifax Public Gardens sprouted its once-in-a-lifetime bloom. The massive succulent surprised gardeners and caught national media attention, sparking a ‘will it or won’t it’ debate on whether or not it would flower since…
Bradley Thomas Clattenburg, 24, was killed Saturday morning by police in Dartmouth. According to CBC, the Truro man was shot and killed after police responded to a call involving someone threatening a Westphal resident with a firearm. Clattenburg fled the house he was located within and was shot dead by police in a nearby wooded…
Bullhorn in hand, members of the National Citizens Alliance had a message for the Apple Blossom Festival. “Wake up!” they said. “We don’t want to become a globalist village.” The far-right nationalist group was a surprising presence amongst the community groups, children and colourful mascots making up the Apple Blossom Festival’s Grand Street Parade on…
A new professional soccer league starts playing in Canada next year, and Halifax just became the third city to sign on. At this afternoon’s announcement, the Canadian Premier League introduced HFX Wanderers as the third member of the nascent men’s pro league, joining Calgary’s Cavalry FC and Toronto-area York 9 FC as founding CPL clubs.…
I don’t ever do things like this, but here it goes: dear cute guy with long hair, we made eye contact in a north end coffee shop when I walked in this morning, and again when you were buying a date square. I was going to approach you and ask you to have coffee with…
SLUT: The Play Monday, May 28, 2pm & 7:30pmNeptune Theatre Scotiabank Stage $20 (Stages passes $20-$43) neptunetheatre.com Shit goes down in SLUT: The Play: First at a house, then in a cab, then at a party, then all over school. Sixteen-year-old Joey Del Marco is sexually assaulted—or is she?—by three boys, her old friends, well-liked.…
I miss you. Been years now, and you were right about everything. I didn’t listen and here I stand. Hardened by life’s woes, and found out who I really am. I wish you could see me now, instead of hate who I was. I’m happy you’ve made it so far, and that you are one…
Boxing Rock tasting bar The downtown tea emporium is changing lanes during the Canadian Brewing Awards, offering four taps of Boxing Rock Brewing as well as tasting flights in four ounce glasses. May 24-26, World Tea House, 1592 Argyle Street, 6pm-12am Boxing Rock tap takeover Celebrate the kickoff of the Canadian Brewing Awards with…
The annual fest that’s all about highlighting diverse voices, Prismatic always shines bright. For year 10, though, the multi-venue event is setting the bar even higher. Here’s some acts we’re stoked to see: Santee Smith is set to debut a new work, The Mush Hole, which the dancer bills as “a performance acknowledging the lives…
OBEY Convention takes your eardrums on a trip, STAGES Fest shares tons of quirky-cool theatre, Stillwell taps the best craft beers coast to coast and Hillsburn comes home with its epic new record this weekend. Dartmouth Makers Spring Market Friday, Saturday Get your mitts on gadgets, goodies and gifts of all sorts at this market…
Want to win a trip to the Caribbean? Well, hopefully, a contest comes along soon. Until then, you can get a taste of the islands in the breezy brews being crafted by up-and-coming small-batch beer producers Limestone Group. Founded in Halifax by Bahamian students Giovanni Johnson, O’Neil Miller and Damian McCartney, Limestone Group began as…
A few weeks ago, Colin Duggan was at his day job when his wife called him saying the power was cut off. She was home alone with their six-month-old baby and was getting ready to pump milk. Duggan thought there was an automatic payment coming out of their account to Nova Scotia Power and was…
Yohvn Blvck w/DIáSPORA Saturday, May 27, 2pm Seven Bays Bouldering, 2019 Gottingen Street free, all ages “Growing up in Antigua, there was never a place for anyone to express themselves in that shared manner. If anything, the closest thing to that was church—and that was a no,” says Edwin Hull with a laugh. “So I…
June Body EP release w/Shuteye, Eyeball Kid, Ursa Bright Thursday, May 24, 10pm Gus’ Pub, 2605 Agricola Street $10 Halifax’s June Body may be an alternative rock band loaded with energy, but underneath there’s an openness and vulnerability that permeates the core of every song. The songs on the new EP Life from Underneath share a…
Science Project Thursday, May 24, 10pm Garrison Brewery, 1149 Marginal Road $10 Cody Googoo has been prolific in the Halifax punk and noise scene for the past number of years, playing in countless bands including Unreal Thought and young legends Booji Boys. The music he’s recently made as Science Project, however, carries a more insular…
Lake City Cider 35 Portland Street Opens in June Poet Comeau had a realization just over a year ago, when the company she worked for dissolved. “I was lucky. The company that took on our company gave me a job,” she explains. Comeau worked in alcohol retail, education and sales—mostly imports—for 12 years. “But I…
Sarah Hennies w/Melody McKiver Friday, May 25, 7:30pm Bus Stop Theatre, 2203 Gottingen Street $20, all ages Contralto screening Friday, May 25, 6pm Halifax North Memorial Public Library, 2285 Gottingen Street free Somewhere between starting drum lessons at age nine and studying modern classical music at grad school, avant percussionist and composer Sarah Hennies began…
Q I like water sports, and I heard about a guy in a rural area who holds piss parties in his backyard. I found a mailing list for those interested in piss play, and it wasn’t long before he posted about one of these parties. People on the list talk a big game, but no…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEMINI (May 21-Jun 20) On February 17, 1869, Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleyev had an appointment with a local cheese-making company to provide his expert consultation. But he never made it. A blast of inspiration overtook him soon after he awoke, and he stayed home to tend to the blessed intrusion. He spent that…
Oval fixation I am writing this letter out of concern we are losing a major area of green space, the Halifax Common, to businesses with vested interests at taxpayers’ expense. It appears that people think we must have Olympic-class recreational facilities in order to meet their recreational sporting activities. However, the Common is not the…
