HPX 2011: Tuesday
yeah The desire for familiarity and comfort can sometimes derail the most ambitious of plans. That’s more or less what happened last night at the Seahorse. After the Deadly Hearts wrapped up their set with the usual dry aplomb, there was a unanimous consensus of “fuck it, let’s go to Gus’.” Sometimes you just wanna…
HPX 2011: Tuesday Highlights
Oh my God, everyone. Halifax Pop Explosion starts tomorrow. Batten down the hatches, friends and enemies. I’ll post a “survival guide” tomorrow so you can see how one asshole recovers from a week of loud music and self-abuse. In the meantime, I thought I’d post some personal daily highlights and see how far off the…
War is not the answer
In last week’s Coast, freelancer Mairin Prentiss has an article examining the “Ships Start Here” PR campaign. This gives me the excuse to express my reservations about not just the PR campaign, but the ship building contract itself. First, some background. There are actually two ship building contracts at play, as detailed on the federal…
Footloose cuts loose
Was there even a need to remake Footloose? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean Craig Brewer’s adaptation of the Kevin Bacon classic should be dismissed by fans of the original. Footloose follows the 1984 version closely, keeping the majority of the original plot and script intact, but slight changes update it for modern audiences. The…
Sentimentality ruins The Big Year
Pick a hobby—from watching Star Trek to knitting—take it to the extreme, and it’s ripe with comedic potential (think of Christopher Guest’s dog show “mockumentary” Best in Show). But director David Frankel (Marley and Me) gets lost in sentimentality en route to comedy land. Funny guys Owen Wilson, Steve Martin and Jack Black are birders…
The Maiden Danced to Death is clumsy
With a heavy-handed (and heavy-footed) touch, director-writer-actor Endre Hules parades his Hungarian folk dance drama onto the screen. Hules, who fled communist Hungary, returns to the homeland, his brother (Zsolt Làzslò), his brother’s wife (Bea Melkvi) and the dance company he abandoned. Montages punctuate choppy camera work—including Hules, Làzslò and Melkvi prancing like buffoons through…
Not The Thing of beauty
The Thing is a prequel to the 1982 horror movie by John Carpenter, yet retains the title and much of the narrative structure of Carpenter’s classic. The film tells the story of a Norwegian research group in Antarctica who uncover a frozen alien with shape shifting abilities, filling in the backstory leading up to the…
Rent
The young artists who perform in Jonathan Larson’s update of Puccini’s La Boheme are truly remarkable. They sing dance, and in the case of the rockin’ pit band, play their way through 47 songs with energy, passion and above all, talent. It’s hard to single anyone out, because truly, they are a mega-talented cast, but…
Staff recommends District Boundary Scenario 1, with revisions
City staff is recommending that council adopt new electoral districts, modelled on those presented as “Scenario #1” to the public, but with revisions that have never been discussed publicly. See the full staff report here (very large PDF). Readers will recall that the Utility and Review Board ordered council to reduce the number of council…
District boundary recommendation to be made public at 5pm
City staff has made a recommendation for council district boundaries for next year’s election. The recommendation will be made public at 5pm today. Five o’clock Friday afternoon is of course the media black hole time when governments attempt to bury bad news and bad ideas, and that certainly looks to be what’s going on here:…
The 2011 Sobey Award winners are…
Last night, the Sobey Award prize of $50,000 was presented to Ontario’s Daniel Young and Christian Giroux by last year’s Sobey winner Daniel Barrow and author, New Yorker contributor and art critic Adam Gopnik, in town for tonight’s Massey Lecture. Young and Giroux got a little frisky on stage at the awards presentation after beating…
Fu Manchu
Sorry I didn’t get to hear ya play, seriously Fu Manchu is some show, totally worth the audience of one. —Lu Machu
Not Necessary
Ok we get it, you’re not heterosexual. We also get that there has been discrimination against the LGBT community since the dawn of time. Would you agree that in the last 20 years there has been a massive movement of acceptance? I was raised in a very open-minded and tolerant family who never said an…
No Take Out?
Really pissed off that I called a restaurant for delivery, placed my order and then they call me back and won’t deliver to my street. Really? What the fuck? Seriously, it’s a 3 minute drive. If the buses ran more frequently I wouldn’t mind getting take out and busing home, but chances are by the…
The Joys of Living in Apartments
So not having to pay for heat and hot water is great and heck the laundry machines being in here is also great. But omf sometimes I want to yell at the people who live above us. I swear they have a surround system in their living room cause the music is crazy loud. They…
Haircut Intimacy
Dear Halifax Hairdresser, when you were washing my hair and my head was back in the sink and you were leaning over me I could see right up into your armpit and there were three big white crumbs of deodorant hanging in it and I was mortified that they were going to fall onto my…
HRM Planner raised concerns about Ingramport connector road
A “connector road” between Highway 103 and old route 3, halfway between the Tantallon and Hubbards exits—so-called Exit 51/2—would increase pressure for development in the rural area, says Sean Kirby, a local resident who leads opposition to the roadway. And that’s a sentiment that seems to have been shared by a planner for HRM. One…
Ships Start Here campaign spawn parody web sites
StarShipsStartHere.ca Highlighting a series of possibly Photoshopped images of the alien invasion of HRM, with starships above our city skyline, and unlikely characters in various local tourist meccas. Melon Design Melon’s facebook page has a series of pictures parodying the official campaign, including “Lips Start Here,” a collagen injection promotion; “Whips Start Here,” celebrating the…
Premier Darrell Dexter’s PR ship has arrived
Hold onto your sailor caps. Rumour is the Harper government will announce which lucky shipyard will be awarded the much-coveted $25 billion warship contract next week. Three companies are vying for the contract to build the 20-navy-ship armada: Irving-owned Halifax shipyard, BC’s Seaspan Marine Corp. and Quebec’s Davie Yards. The runner-up will land an $8…
Halloween Costume Manufacturers and Retailers
Why the &$^# are you not only manufacturing but AGGRESSIVELY MARKETING whore costumes for little girls? As if it’s not bad enough that you MAKE them, shops put LEWD photos of scantily-clad CHILDREN in your flyers. 8-10 year old BABIES should not be depicted in midriff-baring tight shirts, booty shorts and fishnet stockings wearing teased…
Love for a Granola Girl
I miss driving out somewhere along the water and kissing you, in your car, for hours at a time. Remember the last time in PPPark? It felt so loving, so much caring in our closeness. You said you would come back that evening, but never even called. It’s been a couple months now. I know…
A New Kinda Bus Bitch, Kinda
Leaving work this A.M. from Hali to Darkness, followed a bus across the old bridge, and it was proceeding at 36 kph, with no one in front of said bus. WTF is up with that. Has the driver somehow forgotten the schedule timeline or is he/she making up their own timeline? It was so frustrating…
Fid rocks Nocturne
If you’re out enjoying the multitude of art and performance as part of Saturdays Nocturne and start to feel the lug of hunger in your belly, check Fid Resto (1569 Dresden Row, 422-9162), which will be serving small plates only from 9:30pm until midnight.
Express Lane Etiquette
Grocery stores, quit using signs promoting express lanes IF: you allow your cashiers to ring through more than 8-10 items OR you allow your cashiers to leave their till promoting insurance packages. Express lane IMPLIES that your items will be processed quickly and efficiently. Grocery store clients: If you have more than the stated number…
Tailgaters and Left Turns
What I’d like to know is why people tailgate. Do you get better gas milage? Do you get a free high off of my exhaust. Are you afraid of being alone? If you want to go faster go around. And what’s up with the signal lights? They are usually located on the left side of…
Lights Out
To all the bike light thieves: STOP IT. Stealing bike lights is a shitty, spineless move. A bike light is worth virtually no money, but could mean the difference between a person safely biking home, or getting seriously injured, or killed. Cyclists already have way too much to worry about in this ridiculously bike-unfriendly city,…
South Park Hit & Run
To the fucking coward who ran over my friend with your truck – you’re pathetic. Not only did you slam into a cyclist that was in a bike lane, but you did not check on her afterwards. You left her face down in the middle of the road. Yes, FACE DOWN IN THE MIDDLE OF…
People Cannot Read
There is a sign written in probably font size 20, which is pretty big for people to see clearly. People never read the “Fine Print” on coupons and promotions I know for a fact as I work in retail. But when a door is known to slam and disrupt the people living closely to it,…
No sex pictures without consent
Q I’m a college freshman. I thought that college would be the place to come out, but the sad fact is that college hasn’t changed anything. I’m still unable to admit my sexuality to my friends, teammates, classmates and hallmates. I have thought about joining the LGBT organizations, but those guys are too “out” for…
Nocturne Quick Picks
DOUBLE FANTASY Curated by Danielle St-Amour, Francesca Tallone The Khyber, 1588 Barrington Street Zone 1: Downtown Halifax It’s a TV party at the Khyber featuring videos from Bridget Moser, Patrick Vezina, Vinh Truong, Brendan Reed, Ray Fenwick, Jessie Rainville, Jacqueline Lachance, Willie Brisco, Steve Wiseman, Jason Harvey, Leah Cameron and Kate O’Connor. Curated by Palimpsest…
Elementary schools
We head into Elements Restaurant in the Westin at 7pm on Wednesday. It’s not full, but there are enough tables to create a pleasant hum of chatter. The resto is newly renovated—gone are the dated tables and chairs, carpets and fixtures in favour of a more modern decor. It’s a fresh appearance for a restaurant…
Ohbijou
For its third album, Toronto-based Ohbijou enlisted producer Jace Lasek (Besnard Lakes), ensuring a denser, more orchestral impact. Throughout, Casey Mecija’s pixie-like vocals play off a cascade of throbbing strings and keys. Melody and lyric can be overwhelmed. Metallic metaphors keep turning up, especially on “Iron and Ore,” where feelings are “wrought iron,” a heart…
Video game tournaments in Halifax
The Last Game Store, located in Clayton Park, is part-video game retailer, part-electronic museum. Along the ceiling is a history of consoles, from a ColecoVision to the Xbox 360’s ill-fated HD-DVD drive, and on the floor an assortment of arcade machines. It’s obvious a lot of love and care was put into the vibe of…
Girls
On its sophomore effort, Girls comes on all hot and bothered. Opening with the saccharine send-up “Honey Bunny” and working their way through to the fully-charged “Die,” Chris Owens and company are reticent, at first, to show their softer sides. However, the second half of the record tells another tale, gushing forth with sentimentality and…
Vibe alive
There are some bands that wear their influences on their sleeve. To some extent, this is true about Bad Vibrations. Over the past two years, KC Spidle, Evan Cardwell and Meg Yoshida have developed a sound shaped by a variety of influences, culminating in their monstrous debut LP Black Train. The stewing pieces of Bad…
Tinie Tempah
Disc-overy (Capitol/EMI)
One Hundred Dollars’ story time
One Hundred Dollars believes in storytelling. For the past five years, the Toronto band has relayed the tales of troubled souls, urban decay and social inequity with a rich and heartfelt alt-country sensibility. The mind behind these stories is lead singer-lyricist Simone Schmidt, who first began composing songs for the band with musician Ian Russell…
Laura Marling
Too often, people hyperbolize, misusing the phrase “mature beyond their years”. But Laura Marling is what that idiom, distilled, sounds like: at 18, she released Alas I Cannot Swim, 12 pitch-perfect songs of true love lost. Now, wizened (relatively speaking) at 21, her third album A Creature I Don’t Know finds a more assertive voice…
That’s Rich
The release show of Rich Aucoin’s long-awaited We’re All Dying To Live is almost upon us, but there’s something else he’s been waiting nearly as long for. “I’ve had this bottle of pop in my fridge for like two years that I’ve been saving as a champagne sort of thing,” says Halifax’s effervescent king of…
Jetpack Joyride (Halfbrick)
From the creators of the popular Fruit Ninja comes something completely different, Jetpack Joyride. Remember the helicopter game, or other runner games where you just have to take off to your right at progressively faster speeds, while avoiding obstacles and collecting points? Jetpack Joyride is like that but with far deeper implications. The entire game…
Born again
I like the way electro-dance pop outfit Born Gold does things. Learning that the flamboyant electronica act (formerly named Gobble Gobble) is heading to Halifax for this year’s Pop Explosion, I discover that the group is unwilling to do interviews and generally works with journalists by providing them poems and horoscopes. Kind of an unorthodox…
Roadsworth (Goose Lane)
In Roadsworth’s work, crosswalks become candles. Sewer drains with dangling rubber stoppers. Concrete cracks become roots and branches with budding foliage. Or a whole parking lot that miraculously becomes a field of dandelions. Compared with fellow stencil masters Banksy or Blek le Rat’s political bent, Wordsworth’s oeuvre is rife with whimsy and playfulness. Like the…
House party
Bloodhouse is a band that makes you feel good about humanity. Alex Mitchell, Brendan Neima and Gabe Wallot-Beale are three buddies more interested in hanging out together than getting uptight about the business of being a band like a bunch of nerds. They started playing together as a two-piece in a hall 20 minutes outside…
Manana Forever?: Mexico and the Mexicans
The intent behind Jorge G. Castaneda’s Manana Forever? mirrors John Ralston Saul’s Reflections of a Siamese Twin—it’s an intellectual excursion into national identity so as to set contemporary national priorities. Like former Canadian vicar general and native Ottawan Saul, Castaneda (both Jorge and his father served on different Mexican presidents’ cabinets) boasts Mexico City federal…
The King’s College Orchestra goes indie
Bringing the King’s College Orchestra to a house show might have been a bit of a challenge, but bringing the house show to them is bound to result in a little magic. The idea came up when the KCO’s executive director and conductor, Faye Bontje and John Bordagus, were brainstorming for the 2011/2012 season, and…
Dumbstruck
Puppets are creepy—except for The Muppets, which are the exceptions to the rule—especially when they involve a ventriloquist. Dumbstruck is a documentary about people who feel differently, about five would-be puppeteers as they try to make it in a world that doesn’t always understand their art form. Goffman does a good job portraying a range of ventriloquists, from…
BRAIDS get tighter
Imagine if buddies, and BRAIDS members, Raphaelle Standell-Preston, Austin Tufts, Katie Lee and Taylor Smith never decided to move their butts to from Calgary to Montreal. Their Polaris shortlisted experimental pop record Native Speaker wouldn’t have been Native Speaker and, maybe, it wouldn’t have even been on that list. “When we realized that we had…
Bloomfield sees green
After two years of planning and waiting, this north end community greenhouse is finally beginning to blossom. Saturday afternoon marks the launch of the joint project between Imagine Bloomfield and its friendly neighbours the Ecology Action Centre that’ll open up the floodgates for urban gardening aplenty in a very active neck of the woods. Thanks…
Star struck
Methyl ethyl ketone, methylene chloride, methyl acetate, methyl methacrylate monomer and acrylic resin. Those are the ingredients in the solvent cement holding together Ilan Sandler’s 30-foot-long constellation of Ursa Major. The artist wears a gas mask to protect his lungs from the acrid fumes of the glue. He leans over a chest-height table to measure…
Call Me Fitz Season One
This Jason Priestley comedy about an inveterate douchebag used-car dealer Dick Fitz feels like the natural conclusion of the American sitcom. With all the language and morality rules lifted on this New Minas, Nova Scotia-shot series, it takes characters spouting the most outrageous language and offers up their bad behavior and family animus as entertainment.…
Get in the van
Halifax has a rich history of alternative art spaces, most of which are adorably wee. Gallery Deluxe Gallery, The Wallet Gallery (a white wallet, obvs), 161 Gallon Gallery, The Bathroom Gallery and The Microgallery all kept our fascination with diminutive art spaces alive. Noah Derek Logan puts the idea of a little white cube gallery…
Epic in a Box knows how to party
Chris Little and Theo Pitsiavas are two men who elevate child’s play to a fun and funny art form. The creators of the Merritt Award-winning Grandma Noda’s Tigers are back with another found-object play called Epic in a Box. This second play is interactive, inviting the audience into a pub in the imaginary Broach Islands…
Language art
Bong, Chim-si Bong. Sound familiar? This is just one of the classic film quotes artist Gerard Choy has transcribed from Cantonese to Cantonese-sounding English words for his media installation The Phrase Book of Migrant Sounds Vol. 1, on at NSCAD’s Port Loggia Gallery during Nocturne. Choy will be offering a unique linguistic experience, and participants…
Analog Stereograms from Synthetic Space takes Alderney Theatre
Slide on a pair of 3D glasses and prepare to slip into an interactive, mind-bending transformation of the Alderney Landing theatre. Taking hints from the Atari video music Robert Drisdelle and Heather Rappard will use projectors and cameras, with a mood set by live musicians, to create a space that can be changed and manipulated…
Free Will Astrology
Happy Birthday! LIBRA(September 23-October 22) Chris Richards wrote a story in the Washington Post in which he complained about the surplus of unimaginative band names. At this year’s SXSW music festival in Austin, he counted six different bands that used “Bear” and two with “Panda.” Seven bands had “Gold,” including Golden Bear. Marshmallow Ghosts was…
