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The Coast | News, events, restaurants, concerts and Burger Week for Halifax, Nova Scotia
Home of the Best of Halifax Reader's Choice Awards, the award-winning independent newspaper covers the Halifax news, politics, events, concerts, movies, restaurants, and nightlife scene.
It’s the end of the Planet as you know it, Planet Organic that is. The Quinpool Road organic grocery chain has changed hands and become Organic Earth Market (6485 Quinpool Road). Its new owners, husband and wife team Richard Michalowski and Victoria Cottier, moved to Halifax from BC after retiring last winter and took the…
Yelling “Get the the fuck off the sidewalk” to a biker, early in the morning, is like saying, “I am a miserable simpleton who wanted to be a cop, but couldn’t pass the test”. Quinpool rd is not safe for bikes. cars routinely go 70-80 kms/hr on a squeezed four lane road. I have been…
This is to the self centered bitch with the shiney Red Rain Slicker at a certian book store/trendy yuppy coffee shop… If you wear a jacket that is tight and allows your gargantuan tits to hang out with nipples peaking..don’t get mad at the guy because he takes a look…. they’re up there and out…
Today Just Us! Coffeehouse, Barrington (1715 Barrington Street) posted a sign in its window alerting java drinkers and passerby that the location would be closed permanently as of October 30. It made the move to its current location, from 1678 Barrington, back in April. Later today, Just Us! Coffee’s Facebook page posted the following: Dear…
Oh my god! You! It had to be love. But see, it wasn’t you that attracted me to you. It was your sunflower, or sunflower that was no more. I was standing waiting patiently on coffee when I saw it; so brutal, so devastating. Someone had lopped the head off a majestic giant sidewalk sunflower.…
Oh, the things I wish I could say to you. We “worked” together over the summer – I wouldn’t really call it working, it was more fun than anything I’ve done for a long time. You’re such a dynamic person, you have so much talent, you have so much going on. I know my attraction…
Who put tacks and nails in the new Windsor Street bike lanes … fuck you. You could cause an incident involving a CAR and a person! H-E-L-L-O man slaughter! Is saving 1-10 seconds really worth it? Think just for 2 seconds…. Assholes… —concerned cyclist
A big Fuck You to a certain Geriatric Assessment Unit here in Halifax, My Grandfather has been given 2 weeks to 2 months to live, up until about a week ago He was at home receiving care during the day and at night it was up to my grandmother, with help from family when possible,…
Last night, my fav search engine refused to work for me unless I entered a Captcha code to verify the I was human and not a bot. It used some sort of lame excuse that it was getting suspicious activity from my network. At first, I was going to enter the code, then I thought…
I let you stay at my house for two weeks while I was away. You needed a place to stay and I needed someone to look over the house while i was gone. Seems like a fairly mutually beneficial arrangement, yes? I get back after two weeks and find the following little gems in my…
Ingenious – the chiropractor who’s using his demo skeleton in a Hallowe’en display. Thanks for the laugh, doc! —Neighbourhood runner
WTF happened to the blueberry filling in blueberry fritters? Used to be all blueberry goodness in every bite,,, now its all crappy dough and ONE dime sized splooge and thats it!!?!?! WTF,,, Can I order extra on the side now??? —Blue! Except my tongue!
Joel Plaskett + Mo Kenny + Dave Christiansen + Bill Plaskett + Erin Costello + Symphony Nova Scotia = There’s a reason that I love this town —Seat N16
Thank you for still putting your guitar down just long enough to scoop me up in your arms, after all this time. You crack me up, and yet you also bring the major lady pant action. You’re toight like a toiger, with your big brown eyes, and those soft, kissable lips. You make me feel…
Attempting to murder and ultimately paralyzing someone because they’re gay and now burning a homeless person alive?!!! What the hell is wrong with people? There is no punishment sufficiently severe in Canadian law to deal with these inbred, shit for brain LOSERs. They and every member of their extended families should be sterilized and placed…
Your profile said you were looking for something short term and a good time. This gave me the impression that you were up for a fuck on the first meeting. I later found out you didn’t give it up right away! You wasted my fucking time. —Loves getting laid
It’s that time of year, you know, the wake-up-with-a-cold-tip-of-the-nose, resist-turning-on-the-heat-at-all-costs time of year. (Damnit, I turned my heat on yesterday and it pained me.) Local knitter Fiona Blanchard, a NSCAD grad and brilliant crafter (who’ll have her first pattern published by slick UK mag PomPom Quarterly this winter) will make grinning and bearing the forthcoming…
Sad truth: most of us will never get the chance to experience the Italian fall-time tradition of Sagra Della Zucca e Vini (Pumpkin and Wine Festival) in Italy. (Wait, what?) Sorry to burst that bubble, but thanks to the tastemakers at La Frasca Cibi & Vini (5650 Spring Garden Road)—who dish out Friulano tradition weekly—…
If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, what about an entire day dedicated to apples? Health benefits aside, here’s a sweet event going down Saturday, October 26 at the Historic Farmers’ Market (1496 Lower Water Street). Vendors (like Gold Island Bakery, Fox Hill Cheese House, The Spice Man, Food Wolf, Cocoa & Honey,…
(Before everyone gets on my ass about this bitch, please note, I’ve already spoken to the conglomerate in question and am waiting on their resolution, so thanks in advance for refraining from the “why are you not talking to the company about it instead of anonymously bitching” comments). Due to a bank error (YES, an…
Brittany Dawn Connors has been making unique clothing in Halifax for 10 years, from alternative styles with her former line Defective Stitching to her current vintage and pin-up inspired Vivacious Vixen. With a dream of opening her own shop, she mostly sold her styles online and to friends until last summer she went for it,…
DAY ARCHITECT’S OFFICE INTERIOR A MAN in a dark suit stands at the head of a boardroom table. Other SUITS fill the seats. SUIT Gentlemen, this is a golden opportunity. Three landmark buildings. Right downtown. Highly visible. The potential to create an iconic hotel is at our fingertips. But… (BEAT) ….we need ideas. Not just…
Matthew Sudds was a loyal friend and “a big jokester,” his half-brother and close friend Jesse Boddy says. Everyone called Sudds by his last name. “There are lots of Matthews but there’s only one Sudds,” Boddy says over the phone from Alberta. Sudds’ 24-year-old body was found along Africville Road on October 14. A woman…
Efficiency Nova Scotia could be in trouble, say critics of a new plan proposed by the incoming government. Ratepayers currently support the non-profit organization, which aims to reduce the amount of energy Nova Scotians use. However, the Liberals want to table legislation that would make Nova Scotia Power shareholders responsible for the organization’s funding. During…
There’s good news for potential commuter rail service in Halifax, but the city’s going to have to pay for it. Last week saw the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia side with CN Rail over the HRM in a dispute that’s been dragging on for years regarding the maintenance and repair costs for railway bridges. CN…
I got a raging girl boner for a few really hot (in my opinion) guys in halifax. keep being my fuck-fantasties, gents. —tent pants
And I wouldn’t have had it any other way! Our recent heartwarming messages to each other have made me so proud of how grown up we’ve both become. An elephant never forgets, and I’ll never forget how much I love and admire you. You’re beautiful inside and out. —Nostalgic Nut
This is to the woman who every day at 4:30pm on the 185 to Sackville. Yes it’s a busy run, yes all the seats are usually taken when you get there at 4:29 don’t complain the whole way to Sackville that you had to stand, how about arriving at 4:20 and starting the line for…
Q My girlfriend always responds positively when I initiate sex with her, but she hardly ever initiates sex with me. I’m a no-beat-around-the-bush kind of guy, but I realize that this can be a sensitive topic, and I don’t want to scare her by saying, “Please initiate sex more often!” So I do small things…
If you like poetic lyrics and Pat LePoidevin-style vocals—the kind of soaring heart-skipping swells that match and marry orchestral instrumentals, well then it’s going to be the easiest thing in the world for you to get caught up in the indie-rock band Typhoon from Portland, OR. Its live shows boast upwards of 12 band members…
One of my favourite ways to get around town is also the most old-fashioned ways to get around town. Some days I wonder why I put up with all the distracted drivers, missing crosswalks, annoying push buttons and being the lowest class citizen at intersections, but then I remember the joy of moving slowly, allowing…
Some things you’re just born with. Born damn lucky to have, in fact. Vancouver’s Weed have been advantageously endowed with the great gift of rock ‘n’ roll instinct and shares it in spades on its full-length debut. The production is perfectly muddied, the melodies are simple and inspired and the playing is downright ferocious. If you’re looking…
Do your rock research! Click here for the 2013 Halifax Pop Explosion issue. TIPS FOR YOU 1. Do you have your tickets? Wristbands and priority passes (skip the lines like a boss) are still available $85 and $199, respectively. You can buy them online or at the HPX box office at the Atlantica Hotel (1980…
“What do you see?” asks abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko (Geordie Johnson) as he and his brand new assistant Ken (Noah Reid) stare into the audience which stands in, momentarily, for one of Rothko’s Seagram paintings. Rothko is digging for—no, demanding—a very specific answer, and Ken tries valiantly to please. But even in this early…
Building blocks Tim Bousquet is a great reporter, and I understand the importance of outing the ways in which council is letting developer Joe Ramia off the hook in small but numerous ways (“Design review farce continues,” Reality Bites, October 17). But it’s getting a bit over-the-top—every little thing is exploited as an opportunity to…
Very few Canadian bands are as epic as Fucked Up. With dozens of releases, including the 2012 Polaris-nominated David Comes to Life and 2009 Polaris winner The Chemistry of Common Life, Fucked Up has been kicking ass since 2001. Between collaborations and tours with rock legends, killer Christmas singles, suing Rolling Stone and eccentric frontman/The…
The vessel floated through the soupy fog and choppy waves of our city’s harbour. It was a hulking ship, and its name suggested that it had ventured all the way from Scandinavia. But rather than docking at one of the piers, it instead continued floating on—past the port and into the heart of our downtown,…
Blending Métis styles of musical folk and Midwestern blues, and basically every genre that fits including experimental psychedelics, Ghostkeeper is a haunting experience in memory and creativity. This cross-country five-piece, named after lead guitarist-vocalist Shane Ghostkeeper, with drummer-vocalist Sarah Houle, wunder-guitarist Jay Crocker, bassist Scott Munro and multi-playing Ian Jarvis, released Horse Chief! War Thief!…
As Montreal band No Joy plays its set at the Marquee on October 26, Jace Lasek, singer-guitarist for headliners The Besnard Lakes, will likely be using that time to get a feel for the room. Or to stuff his face. “I have this weird thing where I don’t really like to stray too far from…
Not quite a year ago, Montreal jazz musician Peggy Hogan had some downtime after releasing a solo album. Idle hands are the devil’s tools and Hua Li was born. Using her Chinese name, Hua Li became Hogan’s alter ego, the ultimate bad bitch/femcee who runs the party and has the best makeup. “Hua Li was…
Indie rocker Brian Borcherdt feels haunted whenever he returns to his home province. “There was that time the ghost of an old sea captain sang backups and then stole all the beer from backstage. That was neat,” Borcherdt says cheekily of coming back to play shows in Halifax, like his upcoming slots at this year’s…
“I don’t believe it’s the last record, but if it is, I think I will be satisfied with the body of work left behind. Ski Mask would be a graceful exit,” says Islands’ Nicholas Thorburn. “Stylistically, the music represents the entire catalogue and even the songwriting spans the last seven years, so it is an…
Everyone’s talking at him, but Michael Fassbender don’t hear a word they’re saying as the tragic title character in The Counselor. The first original screenplay by Cormac McCarthy, The Counselor’s chief joke is the great lengths everyone goes to warn Fassbender’s unnamed lawyer not to get involved in drug trafficking (then, to accept his fate…
Toronto grunge/noise punk trio METZ has one of those career stories that most bands only ever dream about. Formed in 2008, METZ jammed it out for awhile, cultivating a sick live show and releasing a couple EPs before getting signed by Seattle’s Sub Pop Records, the home of grunge. It’s a tale that doesn’t get…
Jackass didn’t dare to presume a half-cocked story would enrich the balls-deep collection of self-harming stunts its maniac cast performed, which is one of several factors working against Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa. The hidden camera comedy finds Johnny Knoxville under heavy makeup as the titular grandfather, tasked with ferrying his foul-mouthed descendant (Jackson Nicoll) across…
“We do not wear earplugs and as a result are deaf which leads us to turn up our amps even louder,” says No Joy’s Jasamine White-Gluz. Fair enough, considering the intense wall of sound No Joy produces every night. With Laura Lloyd, White-Gluz’s reverb-heavy guitar fill every empty space of the Montreal band’s latest, Wait…
Sad truth: most of us will never get the chance to experience the Italian fall-time tradition of Sagra Della Zucca e Vini (Pumpkin and Wine Festival) in Italy. (Wait, what?) Sorry to burst that bubble, but thanks to the tastemakers at La Frasca Cibi & Vini (5650 Spring Garden Road)—who dish out Friulano tradition weekly—…
The machine guns and machetes were half a world away, but Shad still flinched at the sound of their wounding jabs. His parents hailed from Rwanda, but they raised him in London, Ontario. That meant the would-be MC first heard his homeland’s piercing violence from the stereo speakers of his family’s television. He describes that…
In the same breath, Iris Smyles describes herself as “possessed by literature to the point of total incompetence” and one who “pinks out” when she drinks too much, because she’s a girl, and that sounds more appropriate. Smyles is the author of this book, but she’s also a fictionalized character. A 20-something living in New…
“I’ve never been to Halifax and up until a few months ago, I thought it was in western Canada,” says comedian Todd Barry. As a comic, actor and voice actor, the Manhattan-based funny guy has appeared on all of your/my favourite things: Wonder Showzen, Chapelle’s Show, Bored to Death, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, The Sarah…
This is a novel about truth-telling, fiction and the ever-blurring line in between. The story follows an unnamed protagonist as he tries to best his university writing mate and best friend, Julian, who reaches the pinnacle of success with his modern “masterpiece.” This is literary fiction in the most literal sense. An actively voyeuristic reading…
“Trap music is the space where southern hip-hop & electronic dance music collide,” say Halifax’s new trap duo Trillionaires (Michael Molloy and Nick Hood). “In the past couple of years, producers combined the sounds of both genres, mixing the drums of the southern hip-hop with the synths and builds of dance music to create something…
“You won’t find her human moments on any roll of film or on a postcard….” In In Calamity’s Wake, author Natalee Caple tells her version of the story of infamous eighteenth-century Midwestern soldier Calamity Jane, in a manner equally fascinating, creative, and meticulously historically accurate. Written as Caple’s PhD thesis, the story is rife with…
Woodpigeon’s Mark Hamilton, a recent transplant to Vancouver from Calgary by way of Vienna, will wind down his current cross-country tour with a set at the Company House. “Intimate venues are great,” he says. “Grand halls are great. I’ll play in a bedroom or a field and be eternally grateful for the opportunity to do…
In the 1990s, the art of Scott Tappen was Halifax’s visual representation to the prying eyes trying to take a peek at the “new Seattle.” Perhaps expecting to see a quaint fishing town that somehow tripped over grunge, Tappen’s posters were a point of pride—skillfully done, fun and inspiring. In short, he made us look…
Richard Leonard Kuklinski was a real life contract killer in New York in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, with a wife and two daughters in suburban New Jersey who knew nothing about his being a hit man. The movie version gives Michael Shannon a chance to do his best simmering slab, killing bad men for…
Every Saturday morning, you can count on spotting Ted Hutten somewhere near his table in the well-worn corridor of the Historic Farmers’ Market. Tall and wiry, you’ll see him setting out the soft green pints full of wrinkly yellow zucchini blossoms or baskets piled with blushing apples that line his table. Or maybe he’ll be…
So you’re in the mood to feel like shit? Then Mourning Trance is the album for you. Which is testament to guitarist and vocalists Brendon Saarinen and Eric Young, whose melodic droning in album opener “Burial Suit” is the perfect soundtrack to staying in bed when you can’t think of a reason not to. “Cause…
Halifax Pop Explosion started on Tuesday, but if you haven’t made your musical schedule yet, I’m here. Of course you should fit in everyone we wrote about too, but that’s on you. Thursday Today we’re making a rap-punk-garage rock sandwich, but don’t forget to eat real food on today’s journey. Bring some trail mix, your…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Scorpio! (october 23-november 21) Scorpios are obsessive, brooding, suspicious, demanding and secretive, right? That’s what traditional astrologers say, isn’t it? Well, no, actually. I think that’s a misleading assessment. It’s true that some Scorpios are dominated by the qualities I named. But my research shows that those types of Scorpios are generally not…
After 20 years and countless collaborations, The Sadies merit their reputation as a superb supporting band and live act. The question arises: Why do their own songs generally fail to lodge in the memory? A troubled response might be—rock and country are in conflict. Following Dallas and Travis Good’s recent fine album with extended family,…
