Letters to the Editor
LETTER TO THE EDITOR My wife and I just returned from a one week vacation with my son and his family in Halifax. We have been back and forth to Halifax since 1998 when my son first attended St. Mary’s University, completed his degree and now works in the banking industry. In all of our…
Love the way we bitch
This week’s bitch: Retail repect
LETTERHEAD
Comments on all aspects of the paper’s performance.
Anablog
Damage deposit The movie press kit has evolved from business-sized folder with picture CD and press notes into an even more boring, DVD-cased electronic press kit (EPK) featuring pictures, press notes, the trailer and whatnot. So we appreciate it when studios make an effort to jazz up their pressers. For the ridiculously enjoyable 13 Going…
P-Gods flush with newness
This time last year The Porcelain Gods were among the fastest-rising bands in Halifax. A year later, battered and beleaguered, the pop-rock quintet hopes the sum of its misfortunes will be returned in an equivalent amount of positive karma. First came the replacement of drummer Jeremy Stewart with Niall Skinner. “I always made the conscious…
Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, It seems that with every issue of the Coast more and more ads creep in. In the Nov. 17 issue, there were only four pages without any ads; yet, there were twenty-three pages of ONLY ads. This is in addition to all the pages that were mainly ads, with a tiny strip of…
High impact housewares
Statement furniture gallery at 2698 Agricola marks two years in business on November 26. To celebrate, the store is holding an invitation-only fashion show at Fred, 2606 Agricola, in conjunction with Heroine Clothing on Granville. Statement is also launching a new line of furniture called Diva, by Quebec company Dinec. The new line is “multipurpose,…
This is quite the saga
To the editor, The Canadian Federation of Students, a national student lobby group, may be guilty of cyber squatting. The Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, the other big national student lobby group on the block, which had been discussing changing its site name from casa.ca to the bilingual equivalent casa-acae.ca, was surprised to discover that…
Open arms
Hello friends at The Coast, The infilling of and development along the Northwest Arm over the last year have intrigued me quite a bit. Now, to make matters more interesting, I learned about the proposal to completely fill the upper portion of the Arm, as a way to deposit all the excavated rock and soil…
Dump-to-own?
Dear Coast editors: While I’m sure many readers revel in Bruce Wark’s harsh assessment of this city’s press, he’s not being entirely honest. Many Coast readers would be surprised to know Wark once worked for the Daily News, which is often the target of his rants. It’s telling that someone who preaches—and teaches—ethics in journalism…
We ask a lot from a toilet
To the editor, Boiling down the entire “No place to go” article into a few requirements, it seems we want: Male, female and unisex (family) facilities at each location; more stalls in male washrooms to accommodate “shy bladder” users; female facilities at least twice as numerous/large as male facilities; all stalls larger to accommodate barrier-free…
Cougar party
To the editor, Just a quick note to let whoever titled the picture of Walter Schreifels on page 30 of last week’s Coast know that the attacking “fan” appears to be a lion…not a cougar. DEFINITELY not a cougar. Nice try though! By Darby
No good, Gus
To the editor, I am an avid and devoted Coast reader. Every Thursday I wait for The Coast to get dropped off at my place of work and I peruse it front to back and back to front, page by page. It’s unique, accurate and deals with issues some find hard to print with any…
Thong = wrong
To the editor, While it’s true that Q104 seems bent towards a “Maxim” attitude these days, I find it somewhat hypocritical of The Coast to shame the rock station for posting bikini-clad (but not naked) women on its website (“Thong of the Day”). Twelve flips further into The Coast will bring you to the bar scene…
Thong = wrong
Hi there, Just read your Municipal Malfunction Ticket (Nov 17) with regard to the Q104 website having the “Thong of the day.” As a 28-year-old woman, I can honestly say that is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard of. It’s a radio station website, not a porno site! I’m glad to say…
Lucky of the draw
Born in 2003 out of the depths of the imaginations of former NSCAD students, the critically acclaimed Lucky Comics keeps on truckin’. Fronted by Chris Lockerbie, Peter Diamond and Jesse Jacobs, with contributions from Owen Diamond, Eggnog, Dan Gallant and Rob Jabbaz, the collective has released a mighty triumvirate of issues over the past two…
Come what Mays
Since his days with Dartmouth alt-country quintet The Guthries, Matt Mays has been among the most widely familiar and embraced musicians in Halifax. Due to geographic reasons, however, making the next step in his career and avoiding artistic purgatory meant the 26-year-old was faced with considerable time away from family and his oldest fan base.…
Gabe on
To the average person, Gabe Minnikin hasn’t changed much. He’s still the same friendly, deep-voiced, long-haired musician he always was. But over the course of a conversation, it’s apparent there’s something different about the ex-Guthries singer-songwriter, who recently returned from a year-and-a-half sojourn in Manchester, England. Although his eyes retain the look of someone who…
Divine times
The SuperCity’s wine palate is finally starting to catch up with its exploding culinary scene. No longer confined to “house red” and “house white,” wine menus are expanding, wine bars are opening and local wineries are beginning to get the respect they deserve. Education has been the key to unlocking our new grape love. A…
Stir it up
Get out your pudding basins and your double boilers; find your parchment paper and your string; soak your dried fruit in Guinness and your loonies in Coca-Cola; it’s Christmas pudding time. Less like a creamy mousse and more like a fruitcake, Christmas pudding has long been a staple of English holiday tables, and it’s a…
That’s super
Originally built in the 1960s to satisfy a subur-ban occupation with capturing little Johnny’s birthday and the family trip to Disneyland, Super-8 cameras are now enjoying a second life as an alternative filmmaking tool. On Sunday night at One World Cafe, a screening of local and international short films will show off the potential of…
Shades of gay
Seeing that lower-income earning gays were not being well-represented by the media, Michael Best decided to take matters into his own hands. Five years ago he began to compile a series of unusual experiences from his personal life, and eventually his confessional anecdotes became a full-length play. It’s been a long time in the making,…
Reviews
Water Water is the third of Deepa Mehta’s elemental trilogy, following Fire from 1996 and Earth from ’98. Each film takes place further back in Indian history, exploring the places where tradition and culture crack under human desire. Water is set in the 1930s against the turmoil of India circa Gandhi, and the social changes…
Home fires
This past Monday’s Opinions page in The Chronicle-Herald featured a letter from a disgruntled Kelly Smyth of Lower Sackville. Her beef? “There is nothing I despise more than to drive by Robie Street and Quinpool Road and have to look at the delinquent faces of people young and old standing there holding their signs of…
It’s not easy being Green
With a federal election looming, voters who care about environmental issues should heed the roars of battle coming from within the Green Party of Canada. The internal fighting erupted publicly last week in Halifax when my good friend Michael Oddy, leader of the Nova Scotia Greens, confronted federal leader Jim Harris. Their clash came during…
Best of Music readers’ poll
Vote or die
Spend shift
One year ago this week, Matt Watkins was almost halfway through his Buy Nothing Year—a yearlong commitment to abstain from using cash. Three months later—and five months short of his goal—Watkins bought a bag of groceries. This Saturday, November 25, is Buy Nothing Day, a day most people can’t get through without buying a coffee,…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Part ways with dull habits, Sagitarius, says Rob Brezsney.
Gutter talk
Sometimes these columns brew and brew. Like niggling little errands left undone or that call I ought to have placed to my grandmother for the birthday gift she mailed two months ago. With to-dos, you need time and opportunity. With columns, you need a hook. And now that local comedian and first-time playwright Michael Best…
SAVAGE LOVE
Dan Savage and the men from U.N.C.L.E.
Wait for it
It took a while, but the future of the Grand Parade has been decided. The proposals are in , their relative merits have been weighed by the city, and the winning bid has been selected—well, almost. HRM’s urban design project manager Andy Fillmore says that the bid selection team has made a final decision about…
McGuire’s move
Anne McGuire wears red well. Dressed in an ochre suit overlaid with an autumn pattern, she offers a handshake. McGuire’s presence stands in direct contrast to the cold, wet inclemency outside. Like her suit on this grey November day, McGuire, the chief executive officer of the IWK Health Centre, recently stood out from the crowd,…
Gasping for air
If CKDU-FM doesn’t reach its fundraising goals for this year, it will be forced to make cutbacks to staff and programming, says Michael Catano, station coordinator of the Dalhousie radio station. He says the goal of the October 21 to 29 fundraising drive was to raise $50,000 and the station received only $32,000 in pledges.…
Street smarts
Fred Connors says prior to opening his hair salon on the corner of North and Agricola Streets, he was focused only on his shop preparations, not the community in which he had chosen to operate. Within 24 hours of opening his self-titled salon Fred, Connors saw an abundance of pedestrian and automobile traffic, the diversity…
Comic boom
Thursday, July 21 was a scorcher. Hope Larson and Bryan Lee O’Malley had been living in Halifax for four months. They didn’t know many people and didn’t think anyone would show up. They’d put out the flyers and the leaflets and the posters, they’d mentioned their idea to people they’d met through the local comic…
Hello Bombgurl
“I’m a poster girl for inappropriate art,” says Melissa Ryan. The petite 31-year-old Halifax artist is sitting in her north end apartment/studio, with her brown wavy hair in pigtails, surrounded by the odds and bobs of different projects she’s working on. Here are small canvases with splashy pop-art paintings piled up on a shelf above…
