42 Ks in 42 Days
So my brain and my body can’t decide what time I should shoot for in the marathon. My main goal is to finish, but I also need to pick a pace before setting off. It needs to be somewhere between manageable and challenging, and I want to have fun doing it. Of course, I have…
Everyone Loves Tiny, Shaky, Out of Sync Video, Right?
It’s awesome that youtube exists. If you weren’t at the church last night, you can experience the show in all its glory right from your computer. Except that it will be tiny, shaky, out of sync and about 1/1000000000000000th as awesome. Enjoy. Julie Doironhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpE_6ljTWZU and Great Lake Swimmershttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWn7DUw5-3I
The crossing we bear
To the editor, Your recent editorial respecting proposed harbour crossings, Northwest Arm bridges, general traffic woes and questionable decisions of past authorities brings back memories. I do not specifically recall the 1974 resolution of Halifax city council of which you wrote, but I was a 20-something alderman on that Halifax city council. In 1974, the…
The crossing we bear
Dear Kyle Shaw, I read with interest your editorial (“Crossing guard”) last week. Of course, to anyone who lives or commutes to the Halifax peninsula a third bridge seems ludicrous! The peninsula roads are already saturated, so what would be the point of funnelling in even more traffic? A few months ago, I wrote to…
H-2-Woe
To the editor, Regarding Tim Bousquet’s article “Message in a bottle” (October 12), it’s sad that a vibrant city like Halifax has practically no outdoor/ public drinking fountains. What’s worse is that even if they were all over the place I still wouldn’t use them, because HRM’s water tastes like bleach. It’s fucking gross. Not…
Street patrol
To the editor, I’ve noticed over the past year that a significant number of the problems featured in “On Patrol: Municipal Malfunction Ticket” are on (and around) Agricola, Buddy Daye, Maynard, Cornwallis, North and Cunard streets. It’s nice to see where the priorities of our municipality maintenance crews are. Hint: not the north end. By…
Some Shotguns. Or Jaybirds, Possibly.
How do you tell which one is a Shotgun and which one is a Jaybird when there are five or six people on stage and two of them are drummers?
This is also FANTASTIC…
Matt. Super. Fantastic.
That’s FANTASTIC. Super Fantastic, Even.
Steph, a superfantastic.
This Ain’t No “Sister Act 2”
Jon Rae + The Choir, the HPX 2006 edition
Great Lake Swimmers
*crack* The sound of a church full of hearts breaking, care of Tony Dekker.
Julie Doiron: Funny Girl
She really is quite hilarious.
Visuals, Night 1
HPX’s registration coordinator Matt Elliot (left) and talent director (Ben Pearlman) at the ready with festival passes.
Fall is the Perfect Time for Fuzzy Sweaters
I have to admit, I was a little leery of this five-days-of-festivaling when first presented with the option. First, I hate late bar shows anyway. Second, five nights of cab fare to Dartmouth? Suck. It. Third, maybe I’m getting too old for this because, you know, I have to work the next day and the…
42 Ks in 42 Days
Thus far, my blog hasn’t been very educational, unless you consider learning about my daily life a lesson in futility. That is going to change today. I obviously done a little reaseach on running marathons, or I would be in even worse shape than I am already. So, instead of hiding my tricks from the…
Letters to the Editor
Sunday Mourning In know the Sunday shopping issue has been beaten to death, literally – but I do think it is important that we take the time to acknowledge the changes in Nova Scotia, besides the doors of Walmart swinging back and forth seven days a week, instead of six. Last Sunday, the first real…
It’s Like Five Days of Birthday, But Louder
Just one more sleep until the 2006 edition of the beloved (in my books) Halifax Pop Explosion gets underway. I’m all a-frantic trying to get everything ready for this annual rockstravaganza (and also filmstravaganza, zinestravaganza, craftstravaganza, etc. ad nauseum). Best to make a check list to calm myself before bed: Earplugs? Check! Notepad? Check! Camera?…
42 Ks in 42 Days
I just got home from a long day at work and a short jaunt to the gym, and in the few minutes I’ve been in the apartment I have managed to polish off a monster tuna wrap and about 150 grams of chocolate covered peanuts. I guess that’s what happens when your entire caloric intake…
Adventures in preclearance
On Thanksgiving weekend I took a trip to Boston to see Regina Spektor. It was sweet. As a result, I got to utilize the newest feature at the Halifax International Airport — US Preclearance! Which means if you’ve got a direct flight to the US, you clear customs in Halifax and then it’s like you’re…
Retro cartoon RAVE!!!
Hey look at how in the background all the little characters dance. How did spongebob get there? I love that He-Man is a jock.
Letters to the Editor
To the editor, Here it is – another Sunday shopping opinion piece. If everybody else can do it, so can I. I recently read through a story in The Daily News on the aforementioned topic entitled “Because we could”. Now this publication is by no means the gold standard for journalism, but the point it…
42 Ks in 42 Days
I kind of fell off the health bandwagon the last couple of days. Chris and I polished off a lot of scotch Friday night, and moved on to wine (and scotch) last night. I’m well acquainted with Mr. Scotch, but we haven’t hung out in a while and I must say I enjoyed his company.…
42 Ks In 42 Days
It’s 9PM on Friday night and I am back in Hampton, New Brunswick, drinking Scotch with my good pal Chris. And, if you want to know, I have already consumed two hamburgers and two giant cookies since I left work. It’s probably not a good idea for many reasons, the main one being that I…
Letters to the Editor
am i the only one in the entire universe who finds the title “the halifax pop explosion” to be offensive?i support the local music scene 100%.but that name has gotta go.maybe we should also have one in new york.we could call it,”the 911 ‘pop’ terrorist attack.” By jason wile
Where tower meets power
There was one, brief moment of levity at this morning’s Utility and Review Board hearing about the “twisted towers” development. The lights inexplicably went out for 20 seconds or so, then came back on. Cracking wise about a recent URB case, board chair Peter Gurnham goes, “Nova Scotia Power really doesn’t like us.” The hearing…
42 Ks in 42 Days
So I think I figured out why I was so cranky last blog – I am coming down with a cold. Not a terrible cold that’s gonna knock me out for a week, but the annoying, lingering type that provides just enough discomfort to make life a little more annoying. I’ve been drinking lots of…
The feminist current
It’s good to be a woman in Halifax this weekend with the kickoff of the inaugural Atlantic Waves conference, two days of talks, workshops, panels and networking about issues and concerns facing Atlantic Canadian women. “This conference is timely and significant,” says organizer Kristel vom Scheidt. “The Conservatives are trying to shut the door on…
Ahead to the Beginning
Feeling more confident, The Self Conscious ditched its name this summer, after only a pair of shows, in favour of The Beginners. But Mike O’Neill says there were other reasons too. “There were many bands out there called The Self Conscious and few, if any, called The Beginners,” he says. “There might be The Beginners…
Route cause
Now that Sunday shopping has arrived in Nova Scotia, people are turning their attention to another closely related matter: Sunday bus routes. Metro Transit currently provides limited service on Sundays, although the organization has added 210 hours of Sunday service since 2004. Still, with loads of shoppers now likely to fill both stores and buses…
Priority watch
We teased you last week about providing an update (report card?) on council’s list of 12-ish most urgent priorities, which were established at council last October and then brought up again at council in the past couple of weeks. Actually, we were going to write about this last week, but then that whole Sunday shopping…
Mark Foley & Me
You know how after each Bush-administration scandal—male prostitutes running amok in the White House, Bin Laden Determined to Attack in US, domestic spying—you sit there thinking, Shit, if Clinton had done that he’d be impeached! I felt something similar this week listening to Republicans attempt to excuse or minimize the Mark Foley scandal. When White…
Message in a bottle
On any given day several hundred people use Point Pleasant Park, and most of them are carrying a plastic bottle of water. That’s because there isn’t a working drinking fountain in the park. An ancient fountain sits near Black Rock Beach, but it’s been capped off so long it’s more rust than metal. Nowadays, it’s…
Dinner and a show
It’s an involuntary reaction that occurs when you’re walking by a restaurant with big open windows: Try fighting the compulsion to check out what everyone is eating. It’s hard to avoid when you’re walking past fishbowl-fronts like jane’s on the common or Athens Restaurant. Look long enough and you’ll catch a diner’s eye, and feel…
Hitting home
Debra Mann’s house is tidy. Not only tidy, either, but clean. She says she thought, “Oh my god,” just before I arrived at her Halifax condo, “there’s dust on the coffee table. I forgot to dust the coffee table.” But if there is dust there, it’s invisible to the naked eye, just like the human…
Chemical Harbour
Standing on a gravel beach just south of the Chinatown Restaurant on the Bedford Basin on a warm day in October, Camille Coray bends down to look between the rocks. She’s surrounded by snails, but the one species she’s looking for in particular is missing. Coray is studying the whole harbour ecosystem for her Masters…
The way of the Dodo
There’s a new kid on the Quinpool block, in the former Addis Ababa digs. Dodo’s Cafe and BBQ has brought Mediterranean food, from Greece and the Middle East, to the former home of African cuisine. The interior has been redone in vibrant blues and warm yellows, evoking the sunny skies and deep blue sea of…
Life and times
It’s appropriate that Bruce Cockburn recorded his 29th album, Life Short Call Now, at National Treasures’ Studio, at Puck’s Farm, about a half-hour north of Toronto since he enlisted the vocal help of treasures-in-waiting Ron Sexsmith, Damhnait Doyle and Hawksley Workman (who has said Cockburn is the reason he began singing), and uncompromising US political…
Vive le Pop
Pop Montreal is one of Canada’s best music festivals for discovering and appreciating what is going on with this “independent music” stuff everyone’s talking about. This year’s festival had more than 200 acts spread over the five days of October 4 to 8 at 35 venues, most close together and many of the shows were…
The Departed
The Departed is a gripping adult thriller. Remaking the acclaimed Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, Scorsese returns to his tough guy films, delivering his straightest genre work since Cape Fear. The conventions could be a letdown, were The Departed not such an expert entertainment. The feel of a world spiralling apart is the palpable doom…
SAVAGE LOVE
Dan Savage gets on the bus. The Shortbus, that is.
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Make your addiction work for you, Pisces, says Rob Brezsny.
Crossing guard
A couple weeks ago I wrote a piece called “Seeing green” about Karl-Henrik Robèrt, the Swedish environmentalist who invented The Natural Step planning method. During a visit to Halifax, Dr. Robèrt spoke at city hall on ways to plan today for the most sustainable future. As a local example of how The Natural Step works,…
Tick tick boom
Tara Lee Wittchen gets her running shoes on for five days of the Halifax Pop Explosion
Truman show redux
In her thoroughly engrossing new book A Killer Life, indie über-producer Christine Vachon (Go Fish, Kids, I Shot Andy Warhol, Far From Heaven) writes in the chapter “A Tale of Two Trumans” of being the producer of “the other Truman Capote movie.” The first, of course, is last year’s bleak Winnipeg-shot drama Capote, for which…
