Fresh Goods is turning three
Aaron Clarke was sick of online shopping let downs when he decided to open Fresh Goods Sneakers and Apparel (1491 South Park Street), which turns three next week. “I can’t really claim to have been into fashion, and to be honest I’m still not that into it, high fashion anyway,” he says of his interest…
KEW oughta know
“It was just kind of happenstance,” says Ray Frizzell of how he and David McQuaid teamed up to create downtown Halifax’s newest furniture store KEW, which opens this Saturday (December 7) at 1861 Granville Street. “We happened to bump into each other and started talking about furniture and products we loved and it just went…
Rainmen hire former NBA star Craig Hodges as coach
The Halifax Rainmen have hired former NBA star Craig Hodges as coach. Hodges replaces Chris Terrell, who was unceremoniously fired last week, after the Rainmen opened the season with six straight losses. Terrell was the seventh Rainmen coach in as many seasons. Hodges played in the NBA from 1983 through 1992, most notably alongside Michael…
So long, herohill
Monday marked the beginning of the end for Halifax-based Canadian music blog herohill. Bryan “Ack” Acker’s morning post detailed with thoughtful retrospection why the prolific blog would be shutting down after 10 years of reviewing and reflecting on music. Acker, who along with Shane “Naedoo” Nadeau ran the site for a decade, announced the swan…
Laboratory Love
I’m not sure what sets me off most. It may be your ivory legs, or your bashful smile. Maybe the way you play with your hair makes me wish I was behind that sincere smile. While I wrestle with files of shortcomings I think of you cumming As I kiss your insides. We might split…
Aquarium supplies rip off
Buying an aquarium?… Don’t go buying the fancy colored gravel they try to sell you for 20 bucks a bag. It looks dumb. Go to a nice clean beach and get some nice and naturally rounded granite beach rocks of different sizes and colors. I got a bag full and placed them strategically on the…
Doored
It’s been two weeks since you doored me while I was riding my bike. I’ve got a fractured wrist and can’t turn my neck. No insurance. No treatment. No money. Just got laid off. I was late for a meeting, so in my adrenaline cloud I took off after speaking with the driver briefly. I…
Final words
A year ago almost to this day, you last took me into your bed. I knew it was an act of charity on your part, and it felt so loveless – that’s why I couldn’t stop the tears afterwards. Though you told me you didn’t want a relationship, you traded on a lot of its…
dead beats?
You have no right to do and say what you are doing and saying. He pays you nearly 800 monthly while you work part time ( and still make more than him)as a result of having a wealthy family lawyer. He has grade 9, better writing, listening and speaking skills and you have a degree.…
Joachim Stroink’s Zwarte Piet problem
The photo above was tweeted approvingly last night by Halifax Chebucto MLA Joachim Stroink. “Giving some love to Zwarte Piet and Sinterklass thank you to the Dutch Community for putting this event on,” wrote Stroink. Within minutes, Allison Sparling, who was voted “Best Twitterer” in The Coast’s Best of Halifax poll, tweeted her objections, and…
Bruised but not broken
The other night my little guy fell asleep in the car on the drive home and upon carrying him into the house I must have forgot to lock my car doors. The next morning I came to find my car ransacked and my iPod missing. That iPod had over 700 pictures and video of the…
Lovely Lady on the 9
I saw you on the nine going downtown December 1st, looking natty in a tailored pea jacket. I stared, and I am sorry, but you received it well and smiled back. I felt as if I’d been given a gift; to be acknowledged by beauty —Big Boss ‘phones
Double Whammy
This time a month ago, I had a girlfriend and a job. Now I have neither. Fuck my life. Here is what happened: my girlfriend of 2 years dumped me a month ago. I didn’t take it very well in the least bit, after all it was 2 years that we were together. I took…
You make my knees weak
This isn’t what I was expecting, you were hiding in plain sight. This is the best thing I’ve ever stumbled into. You are so silly, smart, and compassionate. I can’t wait to see whats in store for us next. —Wild about you
Eat my shithole
I just wanna tell you to eat me where I shit. I washed it… it is clean… still you won’t do it. You know who you are. I just can’t understand men!!! —Rim Job Lover
Heartless, Greedy, Swindling A**holes
I don’t normally do this type of thing. But, quite frankly, just bitching about it to my boyfriend or friends wasn’t cutting it. With Christmas just around the corner, you’d think that people would be in a giving and charitable mood. But, what I’m about to bitch about is quite the opposite. What seems to…
Strangers in the Wintry Night
We half-froze waiting for the 14/10 on Southpark, and I invited you to walk with me in the chattering dark to find another hungry motor carriage. You noted my guitar case was oddly-shaped instrument case and told me your abstract memories of riding a Vepsa in Panama in more humid climes, while I lamented the…
our “Black Friday ” is a joke
Dear Halifax: 20% off is not an event – and it certainly isn’t a Black Friday event. Don’t be so proud of your pathetic attempt to participate in Black Friday sales because it’s laughable —give the east coasters a deal already
Lengthy Saudi Warning Label
Before you start dreaming of the future with your Saudi love interest, whether you’ve been together for 2 years, 3,4,5 it’s likely he hasn’t filled you in on some important little details. To each their own when it comes to culture, love ya all. But I have little love for dudes who fail to tell…
“Bully”
Back then aka high school you were the worst of the worst, pretty sure that people have gone to shrinks because of you. Fast forward a couple years: we’re all going to be thirty in a couple of years and all the times I have seen you…you still act the way you did back in…
Seeing read with Orphan Books
A firm believer that hard copy books and ebooks can coexist happily ever after, Morgan Dambergs opened her used fiction store, Orphan Books (2394 Agricola Street) about a year-and-a-half ago on what’s become a busy business strip for the north end. “Ebooks are great for travelling, since they don’t weigh you down, but there’s a…
No, I don’t want to hang out
I figure since I can’t spend ten minutes talking to you without being insulted in some way that we aren’t really the friends we used to be. That’s life. But why pretend? —No need to compare notes
Red turning Black
Black Friday, aptly named for when companies go from being in the red to black for their year end, can lick my taint! The commercialized slap in the face marketing ploy of Black Friday this and Black Friday that, is a measure of corporate greed only equaled by the consumers want to fulfil their meager…
Black Friday bullshit
Why the fuck does Black Friday exist in Canada? It is a American greed-driven shitshow and makes huge dollars for American big box stores… it’s got nothing to do with us. We shouldn’t be associated with it. Breaking the fucking doors down and trampling Walmart employees in order to get a deal on a fucking…
I EARN my money – EARN yours!
Please tell me I am not the only person getting pissed off with the “fleecing of the shoppers” at local grocery stores. I am sick of snot nose kids and teens standing at the end of the checkout with their money receptacles expecting the haggard shopper to just drop their money in to said receptacle.…
I miss you Halifax
I really do. —Bluenose boy away from home
Dear “John”
You saved us and all we gave you was our parking spot. I feel we owe you – hence, this: a very public proclamation of affection and gratitude! It’s the least I could do. It was the night of the parade of lights… mere two hours earlier I had navigated the sea of cars and…
Helmets a Plenty
The reason people cycle less here – the reason cycling dropped 65% after the passage of our helmet law – is that people now view cycling as a “dangerous activity” like skydiving or race car driving – and stay away from it in droves. I’m not making a value judgement on this, but this IS…
weird and gross fad
Animal tails…really? You want to preach peace and love and potlucks and equality how about to make it equal you go live in a cage and then get your arm chopped off and I’ll clip it to my belt. —Go hop a train or whatever
Shoppers
What is it with people that feel that if you are on your break with a sign clearly saying so, that you should just stop eating or whatever and run right back to serve them I DON’T THINK SO some one who has no clue about time but there own get a life or leave…
Duelling videos: Jay Mayne’s “My Addiction” and Like A Motorcycle’s “Hitting The Bottle”
Like any red-blooded human, you’ve probably been craving a Jay Mayne and Like A Motorcycle mashup. I live to serve. Multi-task and watch two new videos from the local artists in one go. Think of the time saved! YouTube Doubler Here they are separately, if you’re some kind of purist. Like A Motorcycle’s video for…
Police chief Jean-Michel Blais wants earlier cabaret closing times
At last week’s council meeting, as council was setting its “priority” items for next year, police chief Jean-Michel Blais told council he had initiated discussions with the province in hopes of changing bar closing time. “Ideally,” Blais told The Coast in an interview, “I’d like to see everyone close at the same time, at two…
Rooming houses are disappearing in HRM
Last week, the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia published its annual report card on homeless, timed to come out during the now annual Housing and Homelessness Conference. The report notes that in HRM in 2012, there were 1,880 people who stayed in a shelter, and staying a total of 66,154 shelter nights. About 10…
“X-rated hypnotist” Tony Lee performs at frosh week events across Canada
A video shows a group of students slumped in their chairs on a stage as if in a deep sleep. The video cuts to hypnotist Tony Lee prompting them, both women and men, to imagine simulating oral sex to a man. The students abide as they gesture, half unconscious, and move in ways miming actions…
Grinch
To the asshole who stole my 7 year old son’s Christmas presents from the trunk of my car last week. Thanks so much! For your convenience, I have placed the receipts to said items in my mailbox (you know where I live) in case you want to return or exchange them! —Cindy Lou Who
Raw and roll with Fruition
Fruition is what you get when you combine two health-conscious, enthusiastic entrepreneurs with Halifax’s increasing demand for tasty organic, local food. Like many successful small business owners, co-founders Jessie Doyle (chef), a registered nutritional consultant, and Seth Graham (CCO) turned a hobby and lifestyle—preparing and enjoying raw food—into a career. Doyle defines raw food as…
Philomena
This isn’t the easiest film to sell. A British drama based on a non-fiction book, Philomena follows elderly Philomena Lee’s moving search for the son taken from her 50 years ago. You can go look up her results online and spoil the whole spiritual pilgrimage, if you’d like. But then you’ll miss Judi Dench’s face;…
Deltron 3030
The long-awaited sequel to Deltron 3030 arrives 13 years later, about seven years after Dan the Automator and Kid Koala prepared tracks for Del the Funky Homosapien’s raps. How do you follow up the end of Earth civilization, when even alien invaders took a pass? Why, with better dance beats, alternate reality and defiance of…
The Book Thief
In novel-turned-award season movie, The Book Thief, a Communist orphan, young Liesel (Sophie Nélisse) is sent to live with foster parents in Commonplace, Germantown. There she gets to experience all sorts of war-torn film clichés, from watching loved ones join Hitler’s army, to stealing contraband books, all the way to nursing the handsome Jewish refugee…
Halifax Water should stop poisoning us
Halifax has tried to convince residents that tap, not bottled, water is best for everyday drinking and cooking, for some time now. Tap the Tap, a new campaign by Nova Scotia pediatricians, is urging parents to get their kids consuming tap water. While water is always a healthier choice than sugary drinks, and Halifax Water…
Letters to the editor, November 28, 2013
Avalon ad-dendum</font I wanted to take this opportunity to clarify a concern with our Start by Believing awareness campaign. In the opinion piece “Avalon Sexual Assault Centre’s ads get the numbers wrong” (Voice of the City, November 21) writer Jane Kansas addresses a gender discrepancy in one of Avalon’s posters on Metro Transit buses. The…
Duane Andrews & Craig Young
The title song is a composition by Smiley Bates, who was as country as you could get 40 years ago, a simplicity you wouldn’t expect to inspire these two consummate Newfoundland musicians. Duane Andrews has a flair for flourish and is best known for carrying forward the legacy of Django Reinhardt. Craig Young came back…
Grump
A follow up to February’s addictive demo, Grump’s Love Punk Hate Punks—a five song assault—keeps the intensity at the same searing high. From the first moments, an almost uncomfortable length of ear-splitting feedback on opener “Paroxysm”, to the epic (at 2:31, this is basically the band’s “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”) and driving “Culture In…
Greg MacPherson Band
A native Cape Bretoner now based in Winnipeg, MacPherson makes genre-defying rock that continues to gain emotional force. Lead track “1995” muses about youthful idealism, squandered affections and redirected energy with a slashing guitar jamming in extra notes to emphasize the vision quest. A blindfold quiz on MacPherson would be tough. Fireball roars like Creedence…
Omens
Canadian urban fantasy author Kelley Armstrong starts a new series with Omens, featuring Olivia, a wealthy young woman with a perfect life until it all predictably falls apart. In this case it’s because she, and the world, learn she was adopted from serial killers serving life sentences. She escapes to Cainsville, Illinois, a small town…
Writing the Common: Poetry Commemorating the 250th Anniversary of the Halifax Common 1763-2013
This spring the Friends of the Halifax Common released a collection of all-new poetry inspired by and in tribute to the 250th anniversary of Halifax’s iconic green space(s). With a detailed introduction of “the common” as a concept born in 11th-century Britain through to the modern, local iteration, the collection speaks to its enclosed poets’…
Rage of Poseidon
The marriage of form and content has never been healthier than in this darkly humourous rewriting of biblical and mythological parables. Rage of Poseidon brings a 21st-century perspective to iconic stories, from a first-person account of Athena’s drunken escapades to a three-frame retelling of Leda and the Swan to a single-frame that begins “So Jesus…
Review: Obsolescence and Inscription
Amidst the printed images, sculptures and flashing screens that fill the Saint Mary’s University Gallery, an inkjet print of Marshall McLuhan’s “A Note of Obsolescence” offers up a hint of what Robert Bean and Ilan Sandler’s Obsolescence and Inscription expresses: “Obsolescence is a very large and mysterious subject which has had very little attention in…
The Book of Jezebel: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Lady Things
The only book in which you’ll find composite images of Betty Crocker next to a definition of “crotch.” Jezebel, a self-identified “ladyblog” is easily the most popular and accessible (young) women’s general interest website online. While web content is driven mainly by pop culture, news and hilarious and/or thought-provoking personal essays through a feminist lens,…
Haligonians
Draw a tattoo on the client above º Tweet @drawthepublic º Best design wins a print
Blue is the Warmest Colour
Sort of a French Brown Bunny, director Abdellatif Kechiche tests the audience’s love of banality with the lesbian love story Blue is the Warmest Colour. Teenage Adele (Adele Exarchopoulos) is a high schooler with a hot boyfriend she doesn’t like to have sex with, and she figures out why when she crosses paths with art…
Free Will Astrology
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Sagittarius! (November 22-December 21) Touted as a prime source of “kick-ass spirituality,” author Danielle LaPorte has advice that’s good for you to hear. “You will always be too much of something for someone,” she says, “too big, too loud, too soft, too edgy.” But that’s exactly as it should be, she adds. It…
Frozen
Though the marketing would have you believe this is a love story between a snowman, a reindeer and the carrot that brought them together, Frozen is actually a kickass girl power tale about the greatest love of all (yourself, duh). When princess Elsa (Idina Menzel) accidentally hurts her sister Anna (Kristen Bell) with her unexplained…
Love for Scott Jones
Gottingen Street for Scott Jones is a multi-venue fundraiser taking place Thursday, bringing the community together with compassion and love. by Adria Young “Scott’s got such a natural smile. You can tell he wears it a lot,” says David MacDonald, drummer of PEI’s Paper Lions. The rock band is just one of over 30 performers…
Halifax’s garbage wars
Heather Johnston lives within smelling distance of the Otter Lake landfill. In 1993 she bought property on the edge of a wilderness area to build a house. Two years later, the city announced it was putting the new landfill three kilometres away from Johnston’s land, a few minutes down the highway from Bayers Lake. The…
Depressing reset
Q I recently ended a relationship that lasted a year and five months. While I loved this woman, for much of the relationship she was, to varying degrees, depressed. I tried to be as helpful and patient as possible with the hope and expectation that she would get better. I got her into counselling. We…
Puss in Boots
“Fun for the whole family” may sound like a boring cliché, but the beauty of TAG’s seasonal pantomime is that it genuinely entertains on a lot of levels. This year’s play Puss in Boots delivers broad comedy for the kids (and fun-loving adults) with some clever up-to-the-minute references (plus a touch of innuendo) woven in.…
Good jeans
“I was thinking about this band for a long time before it actually existed,” says Eleanor King, when asked about how Wet Denim formed. “I knew I wanted to play with other women and was trying to come up with my own dream team.” King and fellow dream team members Leigh Dotey, Victoria Parker and…
A Christmas Carol
I revisited my “reviews of Christmas past” and was surprised to see that the 2009 Neptune production of A Christmas Carol left me so cold. Surprised because this year I left the theatre quite buoyed up by the Christmas spirit and tickled and touched by the show itself. Although the pace of the script still…
Small town boy
Halifax-based friends and fans of local singer/songwriter/man-about-the-arts Don Brownrigg may feel a little nervous when they hear the seventh track of his newest record, It Takes All Kinds (to make it in this world, I find). Entitled “I Think I’m Leaving Halifax,” the song plays out a goodbye letter that’s all-too familiar: “This will happen…
Oldboy
Is everything okay, Spike Lee? It’s concerning that you’ve shuffled forth such miserable efforts in the American-remake of Oldboy. Virtually identical in story, US Oldboy finds a brutish lout (Josh Brolin) held captive in a sinister hotel room for 20 years before mysteriously being set free. Except this time Spike Lee is directing, so Katrina…
