Letters to the Editor
To the Editor, I fully agree with Susanna Fuller’s comments in the Oct 26th edition of the Coast. With the introduction of Sunday Shopping, we have indeed lost something special in this province and we should take a moment to mourn. Not only have we lost the many quiet luxuries once enjoyed on Sundays, it…
42 Ks in 42 Days
So I bought Children of the Corn with the hopes of a frightful Halloween, but instead I am splayed out on the couch, watching House. Megan’s apparently hooked on it – I’ve never watched it – which means that my movie will have to wait. Maybe it’ll be scarier after midnight. The last two days…
Make your own Treehouse of Horror
Could there be a better way to spend a Halloween evening than by splicing together your own Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror episode? No. No there could not.
42 Ks in 42 Days
So it’s the week of the marathon and I am trying to stay out of trouble and avoid madness. Tapering makes me feel like I am not doing enough to prepare for the race, and I have to hold back from running extra miles. A busy workout week will do nothing for my time this…
Passing impressions re: Bat Out of Hell III
1. Meat Loaf can’t sing like he used to.2. Jim Steinman = genius.3. Desmond Child = hack. (Why god why?)4. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!5. When’s the Broadway musical? Seriously.6. A Bonnie Tyler comeback would be sweet and weclome.
42 Ks in 42 Days
It’s midnight on Saturday night, and instead of partying I am home watching television and typing this blog. I’m not a big Halloween fan, and the rain has officially given me an excuse to stay home. This will allow me to catch up on my writing, and also gives me a much-needed rest. I’ll save…
Taking the long way to intelligence
Both NBC and The CW have refused to air ads for Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck’s dope new documentary Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing, which opened on the coasts this week and hits Halifax on November 10. NBC, according to the Drudge Report, passed because the spots “are disparaging to President Bush.” And The…
Letters to the Editor
I wish people would really stop going on and on about “democracy”, loss of “lifestyle” or “time with family and friends” all because we can now buy lettuce and lumber on Sunday. Please just give it a rest people. Cut through all of the above verbal smoke and everyone can see that the entire issue…
42 Ks in 42 Days
So I have descended into the depth’s of urban hipster hell by lugging my laptop into a coffee shop. No, it’s not Starbucks – I didn’t fall that far – but it’s still in public, and if anyone I know sees me in here typing away, I’ll feel a little embarrassed. Maybe I would be…
Dance dance
Halifax dance force Kinetic Studio celebrates an astonishing 25 years in existence this weekend with a pair of performances launching its new season. “Kinetic Studio was born in 1982 when a group of choreographers meeting under the auspices of Dance Nova Scotia was looking for a way in which the professional community could work together…
Sad boy Bajada gets hope
The title of folk pop troubadour Jason Bajada’s sophomore album, Up Go the Arms, holds a variety of emotive interpretations on the surface. It could be conveying celebration, exasperation or anger. Bajada explains his effort as positive. “Mostly celebratory…I think I wanted people to notice the hopeful side in a Jason Bajada song,” he says…
Height restrictions
The Midtown Tower hotel proposal for the corner of Market and Grafton has seen its share of ups and downs—appropriate, given that the argument over the proposed building has been primarily about height. On Tuesday, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeals upheld a decision that the 17-storey tower was indeed too tall for its proposed…
Ben Gibbard on music videos, the internet
As a companion to my story this week: “Making a rock video is the biggest promotional gamble you can take as a label or a band. You spend $100,000 on something that most likely will not get played in any capacity to sell records for you. Billy Bragg, who’s one of my favourite people of…
Comic timing
For collectors of Spider-Man comic books, the Holy Grail has arrived in Halifax. Calum Johnston, owner of Strange Adventures Comic Book Shop at 5262 Sackville, recently purchased every Spider-Man fan’s dream at an estate auction: the first comic book to feature the web-slinging crime fighter. In 1962, a new copy of Amazing Fantasy #15—chronicling teenager…
The fair minimum
Summer break is almost over for the province’s elected officials, who start their fall session Monday, October 30. The MLAs who are returning to their seats are not exactly the politicians who left when the legislature closed July 14. For one thing, they should be well rested. For another, they are definitely better paid. This…
Bus to New York
If you stick the words “New York” into the Internet Movie Database’s search engine, you get 6,025 results (the first one it spits out at you, disappointingly, is Friends). If you modify New York with “City” you’ll get 8,495 results. More than 8,000 films, television shows and video games either set, shot in or featuring…
Rareplay
It’s the middle of Labour Day weekend and dawn has yet to crack. In a van crammed with gear and costume changes, the members of In-Flight Safety—bassist Brad Goodsell in the driver’s seat, keyboardist Daniel Ledwell in the passenger side, drummer Glen Nicholson in the middle and singer-guitarist John Mullane in the back—are headed from…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Reclaim abandoned riches, Aries, says Rob Brezsny.
SAVAGE LOVE
Dan Savage says dope yes, donkey punch no.
Savage Love wextra
I’ve never felt the urge to write before, but the letter from GREEN struck a nerve with me. I was in a very similar situation when I was at the end of high school—slightly older guy, very sweet most of the time, but when he decided that something (me talking on the phone with a…
Crossing time
We live in dangerous times. Canadian troops are dying with alarming frequency. Atomic weapons tests are rearing their ugly mushroom-shaped heads. War is a game played by countless young people in the flickering light of computers. Armed conflict is all around us, yet we are, for the most part, happily removed from it. Flash back…
Blown opportunity
When it comes to addressing greenhouse gas production, the city of Halifax is starting to get it right. It’s the province that’s still getting it wrong. In August the city announced it wanted 20 percent of the electricity it uses—21 gigawatt hours annually, enough to power the city’s streetlights—to come from renewable sources, and asked…
Monster house
Robin Stewart thinks his house is ugly—and on its west wall, a billboard-sized sign has been declaring it so since September. Vandals didn’t tack it there. Neither did HRM’s Dangerous and Unsightly Bylaw- enforcement officer. No, this sign, emblazoned with corporate logos, was strung by the Nova Scotia Home Builders’ Association. The NSHBA represents professional…
Fish switch
There’s a first for everything, and this is certainly a first for me. I’ve braved the Saturday traffic to go deep into the BLIP, behind Jungle Jim’s and the Eastside pool hall, to sample the offerings of Greg and the Mermaids. As we enter, the smiling young man at the counter greets us with, “Is…
Flags of our Fathers/The Prestige
What might be described as Showbiz Syndrome is the core of the year’s most intricate screenplay. Christopher Nolan finally meets his hype with The Prestige’s genre fantasy about the agony of success. Nolan (co-writing with his brother Jonathan, and based upon a Christopher Priest novel) knows this doesn’t entail the usual portrait of fame as…
Cubaism
Acclaimed guitarist Juan De Marcos Gonzalez brings his Cuban music renaissance to the Maritimes this week. In 1996, he helped introduce himself and some of his fellow Cubans musicians to the world. His collective, the Buena Vista Social Club, sold 12 million copies worldwide, featuring the best and most well known Cuban artists, playing traditional…
Tiernany
Being funny isn’t always easy. In fact, for Irish stand-up Tommy Tiernan and many of his fellow touring comedians, it’s often downright difficult to keep tickling the humerus night after night. “It has its challenges to be sure,” says the comic from County Meath, speaking from his hotel room in Corner Brook. “I mean, here…
