Oct 30 – Nov 5, 2008

Oct 30 - Nov 5, 2008 / Vol. 16 / No. 23

“It’s a wonderful day in the neighbourhood”

I gave you assholes a weeks notice and some others 2 weeks notice that I was going to have a party for my birthday, and even invited you just to be polite. And to top it off I was going to buy the ones downstairs flowers and wine as a thank you for being understanding,…

Transit Terror

Last week a bus driver took note of a woman crossing the street while we waited at a red light. He made a comment about her character and then told us to watch as he startled her by taking his foot off the break. That is called violence towards women and it is not appropriate.…

Hardcore Pizza

To the man who works at the pizza place…. Your carefree discussion can be heard by every customer in the place if you weren’t aware…Were not interested in how many drugs you sell or all the “bitches you’re banging”…Have some respect and manners for your customers for petes sake! buying elsewhere

cheap ass ratty haired bitch

in regards to your previous “pretentious hairstylist” bitch. maybe if you weren’t such a cheap ass, you would listen to your hairstylist and realize that the products you are using on your hair is shit composed of 90% water and cheap silicone. It IS ruining your hair, and YES, we do notice the filthy residue…

You Suck List: URB, NSP, Leaders of parties, and MLAs

Where to begin? A big fuck you to the URB for giving NSP the rate hike they asked for earlier this year. Why a big fuck you you may ask? Their fuel costs were predicted when oil at 120+ dollars, it is now at 68 bucks (a 55% drop from its high point). If anything,…

Sonic Concerts Ruin Potentially Brilliant Show

Great idea by Sonic Concerts: Let’s not tell anyone that we’ll let people get up and crowd the stage before the Stars appear at the concert at St. Matthews Church. That way, all of those who stood in line in the cold to be able to sit in the pews in order to get a…

Yes We McCain!

Hooray McCain! I’m voting for you! I’m not really, because I’m Canadian, but I’m lending my words to people who would. Beware, Gobama-ers, we thought Bush would lose last time. The media likes Obama more becuase he is a better story, that is all. Nobody really knows how the vote will go, because it’s ‘Uncool’…

Irwin Barker’s back

A year ago last June, stand-up comedian and writer Irwin Barker received the nightmarish news that he had leiomyosarcoma, a terminal form of cancer. And that he was expected to only survive another 12 months. Barker, a former writer for This Hour Has 22 Minutes, currently with The Rick Mercer Report, coped the best he…

You wonder why you’re always short staffed

Maybe your employee turnover rate would be lower if you treated your staff a little better. Requiring a medical certificate for calling in sick ONE FUCKING TIME is ridiculous. Do you really think I’m going to go pay 5 bucks to get a medical certificate that says I had a migraine and couldn’t come into…

Obama!

We’re one step closer to our queer-positive Islamo-Christian pacifist-terrorist worker’s paradise! Sorry, that’s the best I can do; I’m a little hungover today… Our web editor, Andy Murdoch, sent me the following email at some ungodly hour this morning (10 or so): Remember after the last election there were Americans saying they’d move to Canada?…

Letters to the Editor

I am really sick and tired of being forced off the sidewalk on University Avenue each morning as I make my way to class to avoid the smokers outside the IWK and Victoria General Hospitals. These inconsiderate individuals continue to take up half the sidewalk and create discomfort for passer bys as they succumb to…

Why oh why, diddly-de-dye?

Hellish-ley-hell, I’ve had the major hots for you forever. Now I find out that you have been with someone forever and a day. Jeepers cripes, can you tone down your 100 watt smile, or gain some weight on your perfectly formed butt? I know I can’t have you, but I did masturbate to you 3…

The Death of the Dream

Saw you years ago, wanted you, played it coy and cool. Paths cross again, dream reignited. Heart pounding, found out it was not to be as you are deeply enmeshed with someone else. Shit, how do I get over the feeling that there was something electric between us? You rocked my world but now I…

Your mother put a lot of effort into your name!

Please stop signing off on your emails using only the first letter of your name. Like you are too busy to type “Tom” but you can squeeze in the “T”?? Ugh, to me it’s this wierd paradox of inappropriate familiarity and downright rudeness. What if I have more than one friend whose first name starts…

Dearest Coworker..

Do not talk to me when i am in the middle of a phone conversation. I don’t give a fuck about whatever it is you’re yapping about. I know that you’re impolite, and just can’t keep your effing trap shut, but I’m not listening. So don’t even bother. -Please stop plodding the fuck around here…

Crosswalks are there for a reason

You dumb blond!! Friday October 24, 3:54 pm…crosswalk just past Sobeys on Windsor street…you (dumb blond!!!) comes barrelling down Windsor Street towards North Street. There was an elderly gentleman already in the crosswalk, you were speeding so fast, you swerved towards the curb to avoid hitting him IN THE CROSS WALK!!!!! I blew my horn…

Lying Lil B

You have the nerve to drop my daughter into a theft charge on Saturday Nov 1st at Mic Mac Mall when it was actually you that did it. You already have a conviction that is why you lied to save your sorry ass . Just remember it will come back to haunt you I will…

*rolls eyes*

why does halloween always bring out the whore in everyone? why do women who are usually respectable take Oct 31 as an opportunity to look like a piece of trash and think that it’s O.K? seriously people keep your clothes on you look like idiots. i hate halloween so much.

Letters to the Editor

Every year on November 11th I remember a man who took my place in Northern Ireland and died while doing so. I place a poppy while others watch in disapproval of my actions. Some of these people, unlike myself, never served in the forces, police force and often not even a volunteer fireman or public…

Obie Trice cancelled

The year in hip-hop has hit a snag—the Obie Trice/D12 show scheduled for the Marquee on November 7 has been cancelled “due to borders.” Caught with too many purple pills, apparently. But all is not lost: you can still groove out with house music battles between Chris Morrison and Dobba and Cam and Sonny D…

All drug dealers who boast about their money

What i hate is when you are on the bus or walking outside and you hear people bragging about how much crack they sell and how much money they make, and then they complain about people “ratting” on them. If you don’t want your business exposed to the police then don’t brag about how much…

Dishonesty on Waterside Centre

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but dishonesty is another thing entirely. From this morning’s Chronicle-Herald: Premier Rodney MacDonald said he’s disappointed that an old wooden building on Upper Water Street was levelled over the weekend.”Whenever you see a piece of our heritage going by the wayside, that’s not a good thing,” the premier told…

Follow up to Bitch about racist remarks from employer

Hi Coast. I would just like to say that I posted a bitch regarding a former employee at a coffee shop who was the worst boss I ever had who constantly called me nigger and embarrassed me infront of all of scotia square with his remarks for months. I would just like to say thanks…

Motorcycle Madness

I doubt that the person, to whom this bitch is for, is even literate enough to be able to read such a fine paper but here goes. You and, probably a bunch of your juvenile friends, decided it would be cool to knock over my motorcycle on Halloween night. I haven’t had the chance to…

Grrr…

I could put it more eloquently, but… Fuck-you Ben McCrea and double fuck-you Armour Group Rodney M should stop fiddling around with OUR heritage

GET OUTTA THE WAY

stick to one side of the sidewalk. don’t walk right down the fucking middle!! this goes out especially to the morons who walk an inch a minute. also: to the rude and obnoxious university students on the #1 yesterday heading towards mumford – keep your mouths shut. you’re the ones that give us a bad…

The year of hip-hop rolls on

Hey, no big deal: The Beatnuts are coming to town on November 28. (We are refraining from making a “Jenny from the Block” reference, sort of, but really. You should go.) Tickets ici.

Wonder if he’ll see this…

To the funny, caring, adventurous, handsome and mysterious guy I got to know over the last month: you wanted it as much as I did. Go get your head checked, because the best thing that could have ever happened to you just walked right out of your life! S

rude restaurants

I am not the only one who is fed up with my once favorite diner because of what must be a change in management. Generally speaking, it’s not good to keep your customers waiting 40 minutes for a milkshake or their food, especially when it’s not crowded; it’s probably best to turn down the bar…

New councillors

I’m continually amazed that new councillors often don’t have the slightest clue what’s going on. You saw it during the campaign– many candidates weren’t aware of the controversial issues that were splashed across the newspapers every day, or even had passing knowledge of fundamental council governing documents, like the regional plan or the transit capital…

Bite Me

This Bitch is for the guy in the dark jacket and beige pants who was creeping around like a predator at Bite Me on Halloween night. Do you realize how completely UNCOMFORTABLE and VIOLATED you made my partner and I feel that night? Following us around and trying to dance with us when you were…

knowledgeable hairstylist.

To this week’s bitch targeting pretentious stylists: It is NOT our responsibility to know what the hell Shopper’s sells. Their products are NOT suitable for your hair no matter how spectacular their commercials are. Your split ends will remain split ends if you buy a tacky knock-off product from shopper’s of the same brand we…

Antenna

To the worthless piece of shit who broke my antenna off my 20 year old car FUCK YOU you are a worthless piece of shit and I hope you get hit by a bus. I have no idea what is so alluring about a 20 year old sedan but whatever I need to move away…

Crown Diner

Searching for an alternative to the fancy high-ending dining found in the downtown core? Well look no further, as Crown Diner (5171 Salter) has the solution. Feast on fine homemade goods at reasonable prices. “It’s your typical diner food, nothing funky or weird on the menu,” says manager Michele Thompson. “The difference is everything is…

The Rent Here!!!

Hei Halifax . . . what the F@#K is up with the prices of your rent!? I just moved here from Edmonton, where I was paying $869 for a one bedroom in a low-rise, 5 minutes from West Edmonton Mall. I’m now here looking for a nice one and the prices are about the same!…

Smoking Bus Driver

Today after work my wife and I took the 52 (#937) home from work on Chebucto road. When we got to the Mumford terminal the bus driver stepped out of the bus and lit himself a cigarette. It was raining so he stepped back into the bus to smoke his cigarette. He stood on the…

Destructive Construction

To the construction worker who’s task at 1:30 today was to clean the driveway leading out onto University st, next to the clinical research centre: Do you really think using a hose to wash a minute amount of gravel, dirt and a few leaves is an effective or constructive means of doing your job, or…

i hope a car runs you over…

to the assholes who couldnt wait 24 fucking hours and smashed all 5 of our pumpkins which we carved yesterday…a big FUCK YOU. COMMON!!! 24 hours and id even give them to you!! going outside this morning with my children to finnish decorating and there is a sea of orange in front of our house…

Fellow Drivers…

Holding your cell phone away from your ear with the volume turned up while driving still counts Get an earpiece

my side mirror

FUCK YOU who ever smashed the side mirror on my car which was parked on bland street. Thanks, now i have yet ANOTHER expense to pay. If you didn’t want to wait around you could have at least left a note. Please grow the fuck up and own up to your accidents, have fun surviving…

Who do you think you are? Rocky?

Note to the rude CP Cabbie, do NOT argue or lecture with your customers and then have the guff to expect a big tip. Tips are reserved for GOOD service. You may have mistaken my tiredness for drunkenness (I’ve been up since 5am), but do not argue with me about where the side entrance to…

bottle breaking bastards

to the asshole who broke the huge wine bottle on the middle of the sidewalk on south bland st. My dog doesn’t wear shoes asshole, that goes out for all you bottle breaking bastards as well, douche bags. – cain

Cryin’ over what?

Ok, I am not sure this is a bitch exactly, but a query. I was in Value Village today and there was a woman in her 20s with a newborn, who was crying his head off. You could hear him around the store. The mom just rocked him in the stroller while checking out the…

MacIvor’s money bag

Even though the press release refers to him as a Toronto playwright, I’m claiming Daniel MacIvor’s $100,000 Siminovitch Prize in Theatre a local (and well-deserved) victory. There’s one more reason to make a trip to see the premiere of his new play Confession, which moves from Guysborough’s Mulgrave Theatre to Truro, Wolfville, Antigonish and Chester…

Breaking news: Sweet Basil building being razed

The oldest all-wooden building in Halifax is being taken down. I just took these photos of the Sweet Basil building downtown:While I was there, Phil Pacey from the Heritage Society arrived, and handed out a flyer explaining the history of the building. He believes that the building was constructed in the 1840s. City directories weren’t…

Please stop

To you and all your homophobic friends. If I hear one more homophobic remark I will explode. Hate doesn’t cancel out hate, no.. but when love is ridiculed I just want to scream. And who takes the toll? It certainly isn’t you OR your dumb posse. I hope that one day you can look in…

You don’t run my life!

To my younger sibling: Hey, if I want to have a few beer by myself when I relax from having a busy day/week, it does not make me a fucking alcoholic! Yes, I have a few drinks alone, BUT on other occasions I drink socially as well! I don’t get shitfaced (when I’m by myself)…

It’s too early !!

Why the hell does it snow in ontario in OCTOBER! I miss the good ol’ Nova-Scotian-no-snow-on-Christmas deal I had going back there. Wish me luck ~

The Fantods burn wizards, not bank accounts

“The last couple records were done out at Soundmarket with Dennis Field, and they’re really good-sounding records, but they didn’t capture the immediacy of The Fantods,” says Jay Methot, who plays guitar in the Halifax spook-rock quintet. He’s also a graduate of the recording arts program at NSCC, with access to a top-shelf studio, and…

#17 Metro Transit Driver

This is to the jerk who embarrassed me in front of the entire bus today on the #17 at 11:30 from Spring Garden. You asshole! You know me. I’m on your bus on the days when I’m lucky enough to catch it. Usually I get to the intersection and you pull away. Anywho, that’s not…

Thanks Metro Transit!

Special thanks goes out to the bus driver on the #18 for putting my life and hundreds of other lives in danger tonight when he decided to pick up passengers just after smoking a joint in the bus. I really appreciate his thoughtfulness. I wonder if he rolled the joint with a transfer…. Magic Bus…

Thanks you for not calling.

What is up with all these busted ass mother fuckers who ASK for your number and then don’t bother to call? It’s not like I ran up, gave it to you, and begged you to call me! YOU asked, I obliged. Normally that would mean a person is interested. Look, I’m a big girl, I…

Use Your Indicator Fuckwit!!

Does nobody in this town know how to use their indicator? It is the ONLY way in which other drivers know what you are doing next! Some days I wish I were a cop, just so I could pull you over, snap the indicator arm off and shove it fair up your arse.! Indicator Nazi

Shame on you!!

To the young PREGNANT lady who stands outside on South Park St. to smoke. Shame on you! In this day and age we all know what smoking does to unborn babies. Yet you shamelessly stand outside puffing away like it’s perfectly acceptable. How dare you. And shame on you to the woman who smokes with…

Anti-Abortion Protesters

Keep your views to yourselves and find a new place to protest. How would you feel if I came outside your church with a group of people saying god doesn’t exist. That isn’t even as near as disrespectful as what you guys are doing. How do you think women feel when they see all you…

Unneeded median on Chebucto.

Remarks: A half-dozen different readers called with the same complaint: On the Chebucto widening east of Mumford, had they not put in the median, they wouldn’t have needed to cut down the trees to find the extra space on the side of the road. McCusker says the median was needed so the lanes line up…

Daily News comes through

I just interviewed Ron Colman, director of GPI Atlantic, publisher of the Nova Scotia GPI accounts. You’ll be hearing a lot about this on the TV news tonight and in the Chronicle-Herald tomorrow morning (and I’ll be writing about it in next week’s Coast); a short description comes from GPI’s press release: For 12 years,…

Garter State: fashion and burlesque

In keeping with the Halloween fashion thing we’ve got going on this week, I spoke to Cadence Macmichael, owner of Pretty Things Boutique and founder of Pink Velvet Burlesque, about whether the city’s popular burlesque scene has had an impact on Halifax fashion. “I find that people take the opportunity to get dressed up for…

Bogus municipal election

We should be skeptical of the results of the 2008 HRM municipal election. With no direct paper trail to back up the more than 29,000 votes that were cast online, there is no way we can know for sure that they weren’t tampered with either deliberately or accidentally. Just a few lines of erroneous or…

Letters to the Editor

I just read about Premier MacDonald’s comments about the Armour Group’s proposed waterside development, which was rejected by the Halifax city council. He says that he is going to do whatever it takes to see the project go ahead, even if it includes passing new legislation. I am so angry, so disgusted and so upset…

HRM School Closures

As a single parent of a five year old son, who is currently on a non-portable daycare subsidy for before, lunch and after school care at the YWCA I feel the need to publicly address this ‘politically motivated’ attempt by the school board to close St.Mary’s Elementary School. Going against 7 of the 11 recommendations…

Lidless in Halifax

Why doesn’t anyone sell replacement lids for travel mugs? Is there anyone who doesn’t have at least one lidless Tims/Perks/Robins mug in their cupboard? They’re all the same size, so you’d think some manufacturer somewhere would step up and fill this niche. If I lose the lid, I might as well throw the mug away…

Canteen Knockout

[image-4]Published November 06, 2008.Canteen KnockoutNavajo Steel(weewerk)An unpretentious country band out of Toronto, Canteen Knockout’s irony ends there. Navajo Steel is a record of road-trip country songs. They’re adept musicians, but where many of their weewerk labelmates (United Steelworkers of Montreal and Barmitzvah Brothers) push the folk and country envelopes, Canteen Knockout is straight-up old-school country.…

City cycles in circles

Last week, HRM council decided to spend $1.4 million on security cameras on Metro Transit buses. This is our leadership’s response to a recent spat of dirty (like the groping of a bus driver) and sometimes violent deeds committed on city buses, usually late at night. There’s a debate to be had about whether this…

Valery Gore

[image-4]Published November 06, 2008.Valery GoreAvalanche To Wandering Bear(Do Right!)Fans of Jenn Grant and The Heavy Blinkers will fall for pop-pianist Valery Gore. Like Grant, there’s that sweet voice, and both write big songs that journey along with unexpected turns. Catchy “Shoes of Glass” should satisfy anyone missing the Blinkers’ summery pop. During her experiment with…

War spin

Muriel Duckworth, the veteran Halifax activist, turns 100 this week, still full of hope that the cause of peace will eventually triumph in a world wracked by war (see also “Muriel’s century,” page 8). Ten years ago, during a peace vigil in Halifax, Duckworth told filmmaker Pat Kipping, “I don’t know how you reach people…

Stacy Lloyd Brown

[image-4]Published November 06, 2008.Stacy Lloyd BrownAutomatic(Musical Chair Music/Youth Club)This is how a lot of great artists sound when making their start: by turns bizarre and untidy, earnest and direct, down home and downtown and somehow seamless in sewing it all up into a single sound. Think of Beck on K Records (One Foot in the…

Atlantic Fashion Week guide

October 30-November 2atlanticfashionweek.comTickets at ticketpro.ca or through any Ticketpro retail outlet. THURSDAYEmerging Designer ShowcaseMercedes-Benz (3585 Kempt), 8pm, $20Emerging designers and students, couture designers, tailors and jewellery designers. FRIDAYBlack & White Masquerade BallCunard Centre (961 Marginal), 9pm, $30 High-end retailer show with a focus on Canadian lines from Mills Brothers, Winchester’s and Debut. SATURDAYDesigner ShowcaseOlympic Hall…

AC/DC

[image-4]Published November 06, 2008.AC/DCBlack Ice(columbia)AC/DC is the exception to the rules for critical thought around music. Generally, we want to hear our beloved artists push themselves while somehow staying true to the thing that we loved about them from the beginning. From AC/DC, we just want another Highway To Hell or Back In Black. We…

Stars w/Hey Rosetta!

Bedrooms are often a place of reflection—the location that bookends the day. Stars’ Polaris Prize-nominated album, In Our Bedroom After the War, has kept the band on tour for the past year and a half, sleeping whenever and wherever they can. Since their show on Citadel Hill this past summer they’ve released Sad Robots EP…

Tricks and treehouses

With the launch of its season in September, The Simpsons reached a remarkable milestone: it turned 20, tying Gunsmoke’s record for the longest-running primetime television show of all time. Though it’s safe to say the series will grab that crown in ’09—its current contract with Fox runs through 2011—it’s also worth pointing out another accomplishment:…

Trans AM w/The Jimmy Swift Band, Grand Theft Bus

The last time Trans AM played Halifax, as a part of the Halifax Pop Explosion in 1997, they placed duct tape over the names of their keyboards and synths to the chagrin of local gear heads. Making nerds sweat once again, they released the poorly received T.A. in 2001. The album, which featured vocals on…

Extra toppings

Xtreme Pizza moved into the old Saluzzo pizza joint on Birmingham Street four years ago. Shane MacLeod is one of the four owners of this small, eccentric pie shop. “Our whole niche is based on a different idea of what pizza can be. We’ve all worked in the pizza business from 15 to 25 years,…

Xtreme’s tricky treats

My love affair with takeout food is no secret. My office cooler ramblings about the places I order from, the foodstuffs I’ve subjected my digestive system to, landed me with this task in honour of Halloween: find the scariest food experience in Halifax. My first thought was to finally eat the Irish Giant burger from…

Masked brothers

The room is cold and brutal. The buckets, the knives, the wooden block, the floor-to-ceiling tile all suggest we’re in a butcher’s shop, but this feels somehow more sinister, dangerous. It feels like the sort of room where very bad things happen. It is just the effect Anthony Black was hoping for. Black is director…

Muriel’s century

God willing and the creek don’t rise, Muriel Helena Ball Duckworth will spend this year’s Halloween marking her 100th birthday, which begins a weekend of celebration, culminating Sunday afternoon with a party for 1,000 people. On a recent Saturday morning, Duckworth is at home, ensconced in her favourite armchair, by the window. She can see…

Barber romances an old-fashioned sound

Life, love and art are all comprised of chance encounters. Some may call it a stroke of luck, a brush with fate or the charting of time, but Jill Barber knows better. It’s all fated by chances. It was this sort of conviction that originally led the burgeoning romantic to Halifax over four years ago.…

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie BrownDirected by: Bill Melendez/Charles Schultz(Warner Home Video) “Let’s face it…Santa Claus has had more publicity,” writes steadfast Linus to his Halloween hero, the Great Pumpkin, in pop-cultural institution It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. “But,” he continues, “being number two, perhaps you try harder.” The line’s apparently a reference to…

High School Musical 3

The bright, young cast of High School Musical 3: Senior Year earns the hugely popular kid franchise whatever sunny vapidity Frankie and Annette brought to the Beach Party movies. Like the first two Disney Channel productions, the theatrical part three could use some melodrama to liven things. Sure, High School Musical 3 is better than…

Savage Love

Q: My boyfriend recently moved in with me—the first straight guy I’ve ever shared an apartment with. I’m very clean and take great pride in my apartment. However, since he moved in, I’ve tried to be mindful of the fact that there will be certain things I’ll need to adjust to. Still, I think it’s…

Under cover

Ian Gosbee explains how his band, 1 Lady Driver, morphed into a Kiss tribute band last Halloween. “We did one classic-rock set,” he says, “and for the second set we came out as Kiss.” The response to the Kiss set was great: “People were freaking out.” The band has continued to get a great response…

What to scare

Rebekah HiggsMusician, Coast reader poll winner for Best Dressed Local ArtistOne year I was poison ivy. I sewed together an onesie out of a green velvet tracksuit, wrap my hair into two cones, and glued fall leaves to my eyebrows. But my funniest costume would have to be the Mary Kay sales woman. I wore…

Standard Operating Procedure

Standard Operating ProcedureDirected by: Directed by Errol Morris(Columbia/Tristar)By now, we’ve all seen the now-infamous Abu Ghraib photos—the female soldier pointing jaunty finger guns at the hooded, masturbating prisoner, the detainee on a leash, the pyramid of naked men. Most of us responded with appropriate moral disgust, and moved on. But Errol Morris isn’t most of…

Zack and Miri Make a Porno

The problem with Kevin Smith’s movie Zack and Miri Make a Porno is that it only aspires to be a Kevin Smith movie. It’s funny and sweet-natured. But this is a comedy about a group of regular friends who start making porn. There’s so much promise there, and Smith’s creative stagnation (no new card tricks…

Lucinda Williams

[image-4]Published November 06, 2008.Lucinda WilliamsLittle Honey(lost highway)After several albums that were more produced (specifically her vocals, which were filtered through some pretty distracting reverb), it’s good to see Lucinda Williams lay it bare again. She writes with such a lyrical honesty, her voice deserves an equally intimate treatment. There’s no better example than “Plan To…

Fashioning a scene

Remember when you could heat up a pot of mac ‘n’ cheese and wieners for dinner and you didn’t have to worry about whether the milk was organic, the cheese local or whether the pigs roamed freely? These days we spend a lot of time making appropriate food choices, buying from farmers’ markets and checking…


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