Wilco at the Forum, March 3
That’s all we know right now. Ticket info’s coming… Update: All-ages show with a licensed area. Advance tickets are $39.50. On sale at ticketpro, October 23. Presale starts October 21 through www.wilcoworld.net.
Knocked up
So Booty wants to get banged , then gets knocked up. Let me set the record straight here , professionals both of us , over 40 , both wanted no kids , then she goes off pill without me knowing , gets knocked up and causes major fuck up ! 2 year booty call gone…
Freezing my nips off
Why does my office building have to feel like a meat locker? I swear they still have the air conditioning on as it’s about 5 degrees colder than it is outside. Everyone walks around with little fleece blankets draped around their shoulders like capes and there are a few with space-heaters on in their cubes.…
Not everyone needs babies…
I understand that you love your children, and believe they are the “greatest gift anyone can receive”. Good for you. I hope you have a healthy and easy pregnancy, and a healthy child to add to your growing family. But can you PLEASE stop suggesting I get pregnant too? You have been my friend for…
I don’t need to know EVERYTHING…
Ok, I get that bad things happen to people. I get that sometimes the law doesn’t work immediately, and that frustrates people. And I get that in our instant-gratification-based society, some people feel the need for a solution immediately, but WTF is up with posting inflammatory crime-related remarks on your Facebook wall? Over the last…
Peter Kelly wants to run a municipal court with his own municipal judges?
Why does Boss Hogg come to mind? Something about this makes me nervous. Especially since I don’t think it so much about enforcing the law as it is about the money, as he says: “early payment of fines in return, for example, for a reduced driving suspension”. What does that mean? Give us the money…
All parks?? Really?
It’s pretty awesome that under the guise of protecting the youth more fascist legislature is being passed every few weeks in this crummy province. We can now be harassed for sitting at the commons or the beach well away from any kids for smoking. I’m sure people who use the skatepark in the evening will…
To the cutie pie at the office
Thank you for being so adorable.It’s nice to have eye candy at work.Too bad you’re management or i would be doing more than just staring longingly as you walk past.—Hopelessly infatuated call center girl
Dear Mr Stalker
Please,for the love of god,stop following me…stop staring at me,and here’s the most important part….STOP BEING SUCH A CREEP! I have had about all i can take of your leering,and it speaks volumes about your personality that you don’t even have the balls to approach me.Next time you start with the creepy shit,I’m gonna knock…
Roads
Just out of curiosity does anyone know of a street in HRM I can drive down and not hitconstruction. preferably by a restaurant good for lunch.—Paradoc
Twitteriffic
Dear Coast, I am new to twitter, and was playing with it on my new IPhone when I began receiving your tweets on the Halifax city council meeting. They were so funny, it actually compelled me to turn it on and laugh at how funny/childish some of the proposals were. Thank you to The Coast…
Sometimes Y
To the guy driving the “race” car with the blue plastic wipers like an idiot in Burnside traffic/construction. I must have been really rotton in a previous life because not only did I narrowly miss being plowed into by you, I had the pleasure of running into you at the Purolator office where you were…
Go local on Spring Garden Road
Strolling down the most popular shopping district in Atlantic Canada, from Robie down to Brunswick—including side-streets bristling with boutiques—the sheer number of vital businesses provides an embarrassment of riches for Shoptalk. More than anywhere else in our fine city, we slam up against the limitation of space on this page. A street that provides a…
Call Centre Assholes!!!
This is to the bitch that I talked to on the phone at a certain cable company.. FUCK you!! I waited on the phone 15 mins to be hung up on, and then call back and wait another 15 mins to have some cranky old bitch answer the phone and talk to me like I’m…
It’s him again…I don’t know where blonde bunt hair is.
Sunburn face has his picture in the yahoo news section…again.What the fuck is it with these people?Do people actually give a fuck about them and their 8 kids.Please go away.Far away!!—on the verge of being put in a padded cell
Show some respect!!!
Okay, maybe it’s because I’m not from the city, but it really pisses me off when people let doors slam in my face. You do not need to get anywhere so fast that you do not have time to look behind you and see if there is anyone coming along after you.–Buck up SMU!!!
Don’t be a bitcher-hater!
If you are mad, sad, annoyed, or frustrated, submit your bitch. You are obviously having one or a combination of these feelings, and the last thing you want is to hear a comment from someone telling you that you’re dumb or pathetic for feeling that way. Right? Right. If you don’t want to hear me…
The Coast returns from Toronto’s Nuit Blanche
Jeff Koons’ Rabbit Balloon, in the Eaton Centre When I go to Toronto, I binge on cheap noodles, beer, burritos and art, so for me, Nuit Blanche, the city’s all-night contemporary art festival, is an art mess dream come true. Vanity Fair, 1991 Wisely, I decided to visit the galleries during the day, guessing that…
Vote for Bell Aliant Entertainer of the Year
Will you vote for Christina Martin? Only time will tell Music Nova Scotia has announced that the polls are open for members and the public to vote for the Bell Aliant Entertainer of the Year. The award will be handed out at the Music Nova Scotia Gala Awards Show during Molson Canadian Nova Scotia Music…
Half decent under-where?
Why, oh why can’t I find a half decent pair of mens underwear in this city? I do not like Fruit of the Loom or Hanes. I am tired of CK and Joe Boxer. I want something different. And, I am not talking thongs, or jockstraps. I just want different brands. I take pride in…
Thinking creatively: TEDx Halifax and 4 Days Thinking Forward
Multidisciplinary design firm Breakhouse Inc., the innovators who brought the popular Pecha Kucha nights to Halifax, together with Envision Halifax, is hosting 4 Days Thinking Forward Halifax, from October 21-24, “an open ‘unconference’ of community conversations on the power of design to reshape economies, improve public services and enhance our quality of life.” All activities…
Jerk A**hole Ticket Scammers!
To the people who buy up concert tickets and show tickets the day they come on sale anticipating them to sell out and then double the price and put them on Kijiji. Halifax is not a big city but it is starting to attract some great acts. Amazing bands and concerts happen sometimes in the…
The English Beat goes on
First it was old-old-school hip-hop. Then it was grey-hair metal. And now, nostalgic new wave (Blondie at the Casino) and ska fans are reclaiming their past. The English Beat is skanking its way to The Paragon Theatre on November 26 at 9pm, with openers The Idlers. Still fronted by Dave Wakelin (but tragically no Ranking…
Oh, you leader-onner, you!
This rant is for all the girls out there who have been led on by a guy downtown. I was out on Saturday night, and I met a guy who seemed interested in me. He even stayed to talk to me while his friends left the bar. We were at the bar til they closed,…
Flu Season and more…
Dear walk-in clinic doctor, I realize you are super busy and that everyone in the city has a cold or the flu right now. However, last week when I was in the same clinic because I could barely stand up straight, you guys told me I had the flu. That was grand, I went home…
education in a abused privallege
i live in the north end of dartmouth, and every weekend while walking my dog through the park beside the john martin jr. high i see several windows of the school broken out, wtf???? i understand many children (i was one of them) who dont understand the fact that while we go to school (basicly…
Government disclosure irony (testing for honesty?)
I find it ironic that the same governmental body that often will not provide even basic information is demanding polygraph tests be done as part of their hiring process (on top of criminal checks, psychological testing, drug testing, credit checks, etc..) What’s next? DNA swabs for ‘health’ testing? —What’s the point?
I didn’t need a good day anyway.
Unless my driving instructor was very wrong, you’re supposed to stop before turning right on a red. So I do it, because driving rules are important- I like to think that if I follow them I won’t die. The next time I do this, can the 10+ cars behind me not start honking and hurling…
Hoserfest: Back and Plaider than ever
A fundraiser for CKDU has never been so full of national pride as Hoserfest (Saturday, October 10, $6/$5 if you dress like a hoser). Hosted by Mat and Dave from Let’s Get Baked and featuring local bands performing their favourite CanRock hits such as York Redoubt (Tom Cochrane), Mike O’Neill (Burton Cummings), The Prospector’s Union…
Pop Montreal: Saturday and Sunday
The Happiness Project brings joy to a festival of otherwise miserable music fans, Faust and Black Feelings rock out, Thee Oh Sees get caught up in the crowd
Definition of “Live Music”
SO, I’m scanning the Coast to see where I can go this week to enjoy some live music. I do a search, and lo and behold, I get a pretty hefty list. I start drilling down, hoping to see some band names or get some sort of idea of the TYPE of live music I…
Suck it Princess
This one is for all the bus princesses (males and female) who drop down in the aisle seat on the bus, put their bag on the window seat and then give me the ‘what’s your problem’ look. My problem is, asshole, that you paid for one seat and you get one seat. Don’t fucking give…
Bitch
To the gentleman who has taken it upon himself to teach our fast food outlet a “lesson” by smashing our front windows out with rocks every night I would just like to say: you are wasting your time. I don’t know what has you so worked up that you feel like breaking our windows is…
He’s Got Talent
When I heard that the Prime Minister was on television playing and singing “With A Little Help From My Friends”, I had a laugh. Then I checked it out and he was actually very good and showed us the human side. Who’d a thunk. —Amazed
Burger Rager!
Yeah, so I had the misfortune of being at the BLIP for a bit today. I was approaching the lights from the parking lot, cruising by the A&W when I see this guy walk out carrying his burger and fries and walk right out off of the sidewalk portion of the A&W almost getting smoked…
Notte Bianca: The Coast goes to Malta
The royal-like tapestries still hang over the ancient streets, though it’s hard to believe just last night thousands of people crowded the streets of Valetta for the annual Notte Bianca. As the full moon hung high in the sky, the city was a spectacle of art, music, performance and culture. From the retro-inspired dancers jiving…
Invisible Publishing takes Toronto
This past week local publishers Invisible Publishing took their act on the road, with a mini book tour of Anna Quon’s Migration Songs and our very own Mike Holmes’ This American Drive. I caught up with the crew at Quon’s launch at the Toronto Women’s Bookstore. Sadly I missed Holmes’ party, which sounded like a…
Take The Bus?
A short time ago a certain fiddler told people if they didn’t like the price of gas, they could take a bus. That fiddler was chastised by the populous and spat upon. A few days ago a certain Orangeman told the populous if they don’t like what’s happening on the Fairview overpass, they can take…
Mom’s coming
Just got off the phone with my Mom. She’s coming for a week…in 3 fucking days! Holy shit! How the hell am I supposed to clean to suit her in 3 fucking days! Last visit it took me over a week, and she still found something to criticize! Piss on it. I’m not cleaning anything.…
Pop Montreal, Friday night: Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Sam Shalabi and the Egyptian Light Orchestra
No-wave, noise, and indie rock drone orchestras at Pop Montreal
Look at the Bigger Picture(s)
Like most Canadians I was saddened to hear of the Roman Catholic bishop that is allegedly guilty of possessing, and apparently “importing” pornographic pictures of minors. However, I feel that there is another issue at stake here besides how the sexuality of those under a ridiculous vow of celibacy manifests itself. What is the deal…
Sadly pathetic
4 year relationship ended because you can’t stand up to your parents. Father.. alcoholic.. drug addict, mental problems mom.. too dumb to spell uncles.. mental problems. cousins.. as fucked up as you are because of the above. you’re broke, trying to hook up with loser friends to feel better about yourself, and on a career…
Why A Provincial Election
So the NDP defeated the PC government because the PCs wanted to change the law so their budget could be passed (use money slated to pay the debt to pay for programs) and the NDP (with the Liberals) got up in arms and defeated the government. We then have an election and the NDP form…
Complicity in the face of Climate Change
Today I read in the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star a new tar sands development is on the horizon, to the production tune of 40 000 barrels a day. Astonishing. Here we sit in this nation as owners of the single largest point contributer of climate change emissions in the world, i.e. the…
Decent Money Does Not A Good Job Make…
Let me start off by saying that, Yes, I am lucky to have a 9 to 5, weekend-off job that pays well and has good benefits, especially in the current economy. That being said, I hate my job. It’s tedious and un-important. There are so many rules and regulations governing what I can and cannot…
Personal space people!
Where do you cretins come from?!? For the second tme this week I find myself standing a long lineup at Tim’s to get my morning Joe – with the gut of some hog jammed in the small of my back. WTF!!! Do you think you will get to the front faster by standing so close…
Long Lake Heroes
To the one who found my brown, left, leather glove and put it on the path by the creek where I found it; to the lady who spent part of her Sunday afternoon walking the trails and picking up other people’s dog shit – thank you very much. Simplicity that fosters hope that nourishes faith.…
Pop Montreal: Slim Twig, The Butthole Surfers and Sister Suvi
Slim Twig, The Butthole Surfers and Sister Suvi at Pop Montreal, Thursday October 1
Ticket Ripoff!!!!!
I hate every effing asswipe on kijiji selling tickets at inflated prices for any event they can think of! This is absurd!!!! If you didnt want tickets then you should have kept your damn money. Ripping people off is fucking stupid! There is some idiot on there selling overpriced tickets for STP and the concert…
Review: Lisa Phinney’s Analogy for Solid Bones
Conservationists take note: If you want people to pay attention, partner with an artist. Lisa Phinney’s Analogy for Solid Bones, inspired by the behaviours and plight of the loon, whose ecosystem is being destroyed by mercury poisoning, is a provocative and ultimately heartbreaking dance piece, subtle and yet strong in its message. Seven dancers dressed…
sunburn face +blonde bunt-hair bitch and your fucking too many kids.
Please make it stop.At the store check out on the cover of the magazines you are there.I turn the television on and flip through some stations nad they are talking about you.I turned on the internet and for the fourth time in a week I see their faces on my homepage’s nes section and for…
Prune Back the Petty Police
I am a student. And I am from British Columbia. I came to Halifax 13 months ago with the promise of community, education and safety. My qualm today is with the Halifax Police. The function of the police is to be a body which provides security and justice for the good of the whole- but…
Pop Montreal
Laura Kenins’ to-do list for the Pop Montreal festival.
Bicycle Rescue Team
To the man, woman and other concerned individuals that helped me gather myself together after my bicycle not-so-gently made love to the side of a vehicle this afternoon, your assistance was greatly appreciated. I didn’t get to thank you appropriately at the time. Your compassion, or perhaps my inflammatory response, makes me feel all warm…
Drivers in Halifax
Really…. 30 km/h on the highway because its raining??? If you are too stupid to operate a motor vehicle during a little rain, maybe its time to cut your license up and take a cab or bus. —Ready to run someone off the road!
Crying in my Tuna
To a certain coffee chain… please label your sandwiches accurately. I made the mistake of popping in over my lunch to grab a coffee and one of your premade, wrapped sandwiches to go… the label said “tuna”. Fine by me, I love tuna. I get to my office, open the wrapper and I find enough…
Tanya Davis and Andrea Dorfman collaboration on Bravo this weekend
Tanya Davis is all Alone If you missed Andrea Dorfman and Tanya Davis’ videopoem How to Be Alone at Atlantic Film Fest last week, it’s going to be on Bravo!FACT Presents this weekend, Friday and Saturday at 10pm, and at 8:30pm on Sunday. It’s the filmmaker and singer/songwriter’s second collaboration, after Art, and Davis describes…
terminate those awful manners
to the anti-abortion protesters at south park and university-morris: the least you could do is make eye contact as i glare at you each time i pass —pro-abortion
The Catholic Church and Its Fucked Up Agenda
This fucking cocksucking religion ruined my youth with its bullshit and hocus-pocus. Celibacy is not a natural state and there is nowhere in the Bible that says priests should not marry. So by enforcing this rule, these holy arseholes have attracted every kind of pervert you can imagine. Who wouldn’t want a free house, car…
Bishop Settles $15m Lawsuit for sexual abuse of children.
Now charged with possession and importation of child porn. By virtue of this post, y’all know my opinion. Discuss? —Holier than my Ass…
Bike Knights!
my friends are heroes. like real ones. i’ve never had a real hero before. they chased down a unnassailible foe of a serpent, they tore him off his saddle and returned my stolen bicycle to me practically on my birthday. honor these heroic men. pay them suitable homage. they protect your bikes at night. they…
Secret party: AGNS keeps ArtRising location under wraps
Pastoralia in the studio, Go North! 2009 Remember that episode of 90210 where the gang had to take an egg to a convenience store, in exchange for the party location? Well, keep the produce at home, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia is going to release the location of its fundraising party, ArtRising, on its…
Fire investigators confirm Coast analysis of Spryfield fire
Today, from the Chronicle-Herald: The investigation into a forest fire that destroyed eight homes in the Spryfield area this spring is over and no charges will be laid. The Department of Natural Resources investigated the fire with help from Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency Service and Halifax Regional Police. They found that an unextinguished campfire…
cover of the coast.
is the coast taking cues from the metro now? are pictures of keith’s so-called “ales” bigger news than the troubles in afganistan? i don’t like keith’s. i don’t like their beer pretending to be something it’s not. and i really don’t like the cover being annexed by ads. that all being said, i enjoyed the…
The Halifax Film Explosion features rad movies on my favourite subjects
Presented by The Halifax Pop Explosion, The Halifax Film Explosion announces its 2009 schedule (click for full schedule and trailers). This is the Halifax Film Explosion’s first year and coincides with the final two days of the Halifax Pop Explosion, taking place on Friday, October 23 and Saturday, October 24 at Empire 8 Park Lane.…
oh my…… canada
to the bitch at service Canada who asked if i was “mobile” your oblivious dig at my weight did not escape me , or my husband i know i have weight issues – I’m working on it – thats all i can do at least i can loose the weight – your attached to that…
Paying for Your MEAL
To you irgnorant people out there who have never been servers. I understand if we don’t give you great service and you leave a cheap tip. BUT we still have to tip( PAY) out the kitchen. This means you assholes who leave no tip- I effectively pay for you be an asshole to me. This…
baby strollerrrrrrrrrrs
seriously folks, why, why why, do you insist on getting the largest stroller possible and then haul it on the bus at 5pm with your cranky kids then complain because the bus is crowded…and you are not coming home from work(as you so loudly told anyone who would listen)…most people coming from daycare do not…
Allegedly, yogurt causes volatile mood swings.
Hey ”FRIEND”! You scream at me in public, then ask me to tutor your little brother?! Talk to my grandmother’s two bare hands. http://tinyurl.com/yclxqgk Oh PS, You have no friends in Central Korea. —Dino
City chicks rawk
Any way you look at it, urban chicken bylaws are stupid. Oil is getting scarcer and harder to access, we’re wasting it shipping food from New Zealand that we could grow at home and city councils have gone to the trouble of writing bylaws preventing good citizens from raising egg-laying hens. In 2008 food prices…
Should Canadian forces stay in Afghanistan?
Is this war worth fighting? I don’t know too many people who—after spending real time outside the wire in Afghanistan—come back with more certainty in their answer to that question. Still, it’s what you get asked. Earlier this summer, I made a couple of trips to Kandahar, and at the end of the last one,…
You need to know your place
Q About a month ago, I got drunk and slept with my friend’s girlfriend. (He’s more of a second-tier friend.) We both swore never to tell anyone and left it at that. Only problem is, we’ve been hanging out a lot lately and sending private messages to each other, but nothing physical. It’s progressed to…
Ride the Moose
Known for their delightfully dark posters decorating local power poles for almost a decade, The Fantods have delivered a steady diet of eccentric spook rock to a devoted following. But Ride the Moose finally makes their unique sound accessible to a wider audience. Perhaps it was the effort put into recording it live, but it’s…
Ellipse
England is the birthplace of progressive rock, where classical training and being well-read need not be a handicap when clanging out some chords. Imogen Heap turns obsessions into satin layers of her own voice. She’s a control freak. More people helped with the liner art than with the music. The similarity to Kate Bush is…
11th Dimension
You may know Casablancas as the indifferent singer of The Strokes. Where most solo projects disappoint by misstepping fans’ expectations, Casablancas expands on his band’s potential. The structure still (thankfully) screams Strokes, but he’s noticeably more careful with the writing of this emotionally and politically (gasp!) charged pop song.
Decline of fine dining
Although Halifax has been dubbed “recession-proof,” many downtown restaurateurs admit their fine dining establishments have felt the pinch of the current climate. The recession, which came into public consciousness in October of 2008, only began hitting the high-end restaurant market after the turn of the year. “Winters are always quiet, but usually it starts to…
Grassmarket’s family way
While most Halifax musicians are heading out at 9:30pm on Saturday, Penelope Jackson and Dan MacCormack are getting ready for bed. They know their two-year-old son Clem has a 4am wake-up call in store for them. With that schedule, it’s no wonder it’s taken a year-and-a-half working with bandmate David Bradshaw for Grassmarket to release…
Foraging is great, but be careful of the sorrel!
I was pleased to read the article “City diner” by Lezlie Lowe (The Lowe Files, September 24), as foraging for edible plants has always been a part of my life since I was very young. I agree completely with everything that Jen Stotland had to say. I think more people should embrace this practice and…
Hockey night in Halifax
Bubba Ray’s Sports Bar You have to raise your beer to this place: There’s a high-def TV in the men’s washroom. Thirty-one other TVs adorn the bar proper, with 20 digital boxes to go around. The kitchen’s open until 1am, so you can order up those wings well into overtime play. 5650 Spring Garden Road,…
Acres and Acres are miles away
Acres and Acres do simple in the most complicated way. Its debut album, All Nations, balances studio acoustic and lap steel guitars with the rich sounds of about a dozen musicians performing at Robie Street’s All Nations Christian Reformed Church. “It’s funny because we wanted to make it simple and easy,” says Dave Scholten. “We…
Police don’t support bike rally
I was at the Critical Mass bicycle rally last Friday when a police van interceded and picked two people to assign fines in the $100 range. The whole incident reeked of arbitrary and unneccesary use of power. One officer asked me if I would be angry if I were driving home and found 60 bicycles…
The Girlfriend Experience
Chelsea (porn star Sasha Grey) is a $2,000-an-hour escort who offers customers “the girlfriend experience” (sex, companionship, compassion). She, her high-rolling clients and her personal-trainer boyfriend are all feeling the pressures of the global recession (just like us low-rollers!). Stylishly directed by Steven Soderbergh, The Girlfriend Experience is one of the first narratives to address…
Wright on the Mark
She calls herself a terrible hostess, but you know wherever Carolyn Mark goes, the party follows, especially when she brings along a few friends, including the man of your dreams, Luther Wright. Several years ago, Mark, who just released Let’s Just Stay Here, a collection of duets with NQ Arbuckle, was hosting her Victoria-based open…
Friday Night Lights: The Third Season
Television’s best drama returned in fighting shape for its third, most affecting year. Like all high school shows, it weathered some cast changes, both exits—Street (Scott Porter) and Smash (Gaius Charles)—and entrances—wunderkind JD McCoy (Jeremy Sumpter) and stage father Joe (DW Moffett). But none of the traffic upset its heart, Tami and Eric Taylor (Connie…
Zero sum game
“People don’t have any idea about the scale of this problem,” says Andrew Weaver. “You can’t just go and do a little conservation here, and do a bit of recycling there and deal with it—that ain’t gonna cut it. We have to find a path toward zero emissions. The only way to stabilize the atmosphere…
Drew and the wheel girls
“I wanted to make a film for so many people,” says Drew Barrymore. “For young girls—growing up, when I felt filmmakers weren’t patronizing me, I felt like I wasn’t alone. I love action, I love comedy, the dynamics of relationships. It’s also a mother-daughter love story, it’s about family. I made it from my heart,…
Unembedded in Afghanistan
[Editor’s note: On May 29, 2010 this story won the Canadian Association of Journalists award as the country’s best Print Feature, the second CAJ prize Matthieu Aikins has won in two years. This piece is also one of five Coast articles selected as finalists for the 2010 Atlantic Journalism Awards. All five stories are collected…
Stretch out to Cannes
Last Wednesday before the Atlantic Film Festival’s screening of Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, a short film by Andrew Stretch had its fest premiere. Last February the Halifax filmmaker entered a competition sponsored by AFF, Alliance Française and the French Consulate. The prize: Sending young directors to the Cannes Film Festival. Winner Stretch, along with…
Graham’s crackers
Graham Steele, our new NDP finance minister is one fuck of a fine, funny fellow. I discovered that during the hours I spent last week at Province House poring over advance copies of his budget. Slipped in among the endless columns of tedious numbers, irksome charts and graphs and turgid bureaucratic prose, Steele’s subtle humour…
The Moore you know
For every action in Michael Moore’s career as a left-wing polemicist, provocateur and rabble-rouser, there’s been an inevitable and equal reaction. Moore’s films—Capitalism: A Love Story, out Friday (see page 21 for review), is his latest—inflame passions and debate on both sides of left and right divide. One could credit Moore for the explosion of…
Beautiful Bright Star
Achingly beautiful, romantic and wonderfully observed, Jane Campion’s Bright Star is the tremendously tragic love story of John Keats and Fanny Brawne. Young, starving poet Keats meets equally young fashion seamstress Brawne, and begins probably the most openly romantic chaste relationship put to film. Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish go a long way in making…
The jokes may be recycled, but The Simpsons: still worth repeat visits
Repetition remains an important component of popular culture. And so it is with specific pop-culture vehicles, such as The Simpsons, now in its 21st season. Last week’s premiere, penned by Seth Rogen (him again?!), tells the story of Comic Book Guy and his superhero creation, Everyman, who absorbs the powers of every established hero he…
We don’t buy into Capitalism: A Love Story
The last thing I wanted to see was Michael Moore make a comedic song and dance out of the death of the world. Capitalism: A Love Story is the most he’s managed to keep his ego at bay (ie: the least he appears in one of his movies) since Fahrenheit 9/11. But Moore squanders his…
Ted Danson’s comedica genuis ensure you won’t be Bored to Death
Sunday has quietly become a gold-star TV night, with cable nerds replacing their taste for True Blood with the one-two hitter, Curb Your Enthusiasm and the new Jason Schwartzman noir-farce comedy, Bored to Death. Schwartzman has found the perfect (30-minute) vehicle for his neurotic, self-absorbed persona, as white-wine-sipping writer Jonathan Ames who, inspired by a…
Tell the truth about The Invention of Lying
Writer-director-star Ricky Gervais cleverly disguises a philosophical debate on religion by wrapping it in a breezy romcom with amazing star cameos. Mark Bellison (Gervais) is the first person to discover lying in a world where everyone tells the truth. The “little fat man” with the shit-eating grin is still a second-class citizen, competing for the…
137
Now going by the moniker Rick White Album, the former Eric’s Trip/Elevator frontman’s latest, 137, is another collection of psych-folk-rock that will astound in so many ways. Since Elevator disbanded, White’s acoustic-guitar playing has become more technically virtuosic, with songs like “Eerieacquaintance” and “Back Home” being perfect examples of how he can play complex fingering…
Whip It is fizzy fun
Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut is fizzy fun, so much so that new ads are playing up the “Teenagers, yeah!” angle while tossing in a single obligatory shot of a be-helmeted Ellen Page. Whip It follows Bliss (Page) as she secretly comes of age on the roller derby track while running the Texas pageant circuit to…
Parker: The Hunter, Darwyn Cooke (IDW)
Adapted from crime novelist Richard Stark’s (AKA Donald Westlake) novel about a cold-blooded killer, The Hunter is local cartoonist Darwyn Cooke’s first foray into literary adaptation, after working on Marvel and DC titles. Set in a New York full of 1960s smooth-talking, cocktail-swilling white-collar criminals, Cooke’s graphic retelling draws you in. Illustrated with beautiful brush…
Tinariwen
These guys speak fluently the language of riff, a basic and universal unit of the guitar. Though riffs are, by their nature, repeated phrases, this album is anything but repetitive. Each of these 13 songs has its own distinct identity thanks in large part to what most call rhythm guitar. It's the secondary players—whether guitarists…
Adult Entertainment isn’t nice, but it’s good theatre
The only reason that I can come up with for why there were only a handful of people at Adult Entertainment last night was that Monday is traditionally a dark day in the theatre. However, there’s no excuse for why this show shouldn’t be playing to packed houses for the rest of its run. The…
When nature calls
Interviewing a dancer makes you wish you could pick up a video camera. Lisa Phinney’s new piece, Analogy for Solid Bones, premieres this week, and her hands move through the air as the Halifax dancer and choreographer wrestles gracefully with her words. “Loons fly, but they’re divers. It’s why their bones are solid—usually birds’ bones…
How to respond to criticism
Thecoast.ca’s restaurant and bar listings provide a wealth of useful information about everywhere to go out to eat and drink in greater Halifax. As a business owner, your restaurant or bar location page on our site is a valuable tool to promote your business on the internet. If managed well, it will bring Coast readers…
Time for my monthly bitch…
I work customer service in a cafe and one thing I can’t stand is when people come up to the counter and start squinting at our extensive menu, perhaps muttering to themselves, hemming, hawing, changing their mind several times, and generally just ignoring the fact that there is a lineup of people behind them, many…
Still giggling
The twelve year old inside me cannot help but giggle everytime I walk by the Dal residence called “Studley House.” —Still just a kid.
Miss small biz
You know what? I’m really fucking sick of idiotic snobs. This bitch is on behalf of the BITCH that went on a service trip with me less than a year ago, becomes my friend, advocates for such wonderful bonding in the group and all that glitzy lovey-dovey KRAP, and then treats me like a STRANGER…
Someone WAS watching
To the girl with the up-do and her dumpy friend who stole a stand full of earrings when they thought no one was watching last saturday….There are now 21 empoyees plus security plus police who have watched our video of you (from 2 angles) over and over. Hope it was “fun” for you. Oh, someone…
Deadly nightshades in Spryfield?—Updated
What’s wrong? Deadly nightshades in Spryfield? Who’s responsible? Urban forester John Simmons, 490-6186. REMARKS Reader Virginia Heym insists that this plant, which is spreading from an original bush in front of the fire station on Herring Cove Road, is poisonous and a hazard to children, who might eat them. Simmons has taken this on as…
Dumped cats supported
Feline lover and photographer Jody Hushard-Vannorden is tackling the province’s feral-cat-colony problem by asking photographers to post images of homeless cats to her Facebook group, “Dumped cats of Nova Scotia.” The Shelburne resident is trying to raise $2,000 for her local animal-welfare organization, PET Projects. Haligonians concerned about this city’s feral-cat problem could take a…
Discovery Centre mulls move
The Discovery Centre is exploring options for a move from its downtown location, but it’s still too early to say if and when that will happen, says CEO Dov Bercovici. Shop owners at Dartmouth’s Alderney Landing fear they’ll soon be displaced by the Discovery Centre, but there’s no imminent plan to move to the Dartmouth…
Big bus buy
Halifax council Tuesday agreed to buy 45 new buses. The $33 million contract will have Nova Bus, a division of the Volvo Bus Corporation, supply 15 buses over three years, with the first buses arriving in time for next school year. Each year, 10 of the new buses will serve to expand Metro Transit’s fleet,…
