42Ks in 42 Days
If you look to the right, you’ll see a lovely photo of me when I was in the best running shape of my life. I always thought I looked pretty good in this action shot (thin, defined), but when I show it to anyone other than runners, they get kind of grossed out. “Too thin,”…
People who live in glass houses…
To the editor, I cannot understand the disrespect and intolerance of people towards the recent concert. Reading last week’s Coast completely blew my mind. To me it was soaked with negativity and a complete lack of respect. I’m not a fan of The Stones, but I attended the concert, watching from the entrance area for…
People who live in glass houses…
To the editor, I take exception to Paul Hannon’s reasons behind boycotting The Rolling Stones (Letterhead, September 21). Since when does music have an expiration date? Who says, “I can’t listen to a song because it was written in 1975”? Who says, “I can’t like that band, their last hit album came out in 1979”?…
People who live in glass houses…
To the editor, I would like to thank Tim Bousquet for his article “Bang for your buck” in The Coast last week. He presents a piece of the untold story that many HRM staff and elected officials rolled over in their desire to bring The Rolling Stones to Halifax. I hope that Tim’s initiative will inspire…
Letters to the Editor
I was originally going to write to complain about the violent reactions to a “Love The Way We Bitch” online post (Top 5 Reasons why it sucks ass to be a waitress in the airport bar) and to say, what others have said, that it’s a “bitch” column dunderheads, not a love-in. If you must…
42 Ks in 42 Days
So the gods are giving me mixed signals about running the marathon. This morning a pair of tight fitting pants finally gave way at work, popping the top button off and freeing my ever growing mid-section (I’m not a large guy, but three extra inches on the waist is still three extra inches on the…
Potty humour
Is it totally juvenile to laugh at a truck sucking up shit, parked right beside a HRM car? Maybe.
Roll on roads over fresh green grass
In the infamous words of Cat Stevens (before all his records were burned), “Tell me, where do the children play?”
Pissing rain
Technically this is not a photo of the Commons–it is a photo of the asshole who took a piss on my neighbour’s house before I could yell to stop (see red line). Dude, I might not be able to see your face, but my CSI Halifax technology has spotted your idiot friend’s Rolling Stones jacket.…
42 Ks in 42 Days
Before I start, I should point out that I used to be an avid runner. I competed regularly between 1999 and 2001, averaging 10-20 races a year, and have dozens of trophies and medals for my efforts. I wasn’t Olympic material or anything, but I was in decent shape, relatively drug and alcohol free, and…
Welcome to the jungle
GUNS N’ ROSES: Monday, November 20, 2006 at 8pm at Halifax Metro Centre TICKETS ON SALE SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30TH AT 9 am ! Tickets available through: www.ticketatlantic.com Ticket Atlantic Box Office at Halifax Metro Centre and at participating Atlantic Superstore outlets Charge by phone : (902) 451-1221 TICKET: $54.50 – $69.50 + service charges
Letters to the Editor
As I was sitting in my living room last week reading the newest edition of The Coast, I came across Lisa Diana’s letter to the Editor. As I finished the first paragraph I exclaimed out loud “Oh! A rodeo! I’ve never been to one before, I’d love to go and see what these are all…
Listen all of y’all it’s a sabotage
I have this theory. Season 6 of Gilmore Girls came very close to meeting the fate of Season 7, beginning Tuesday, September 26 at 8pm on Global. Show creator Amy Sherman-Palladino — I refuse to give her husband Daniel equal credit; it was enough that Amy had to battle insulting rumours she was Aaron Sorkin…
Letters to the Editor
I’ve heard too many complaints about the Rolling Stones this past weekend in the Commons. Critics (including this very newspaper) say that the commons is public land not to be used for corporate events, they say the Stones aren’t globally conscious, that taxpayers money should go to more important events, it’s too noisy, etc etc.…
not so fast, director-boy
1:27 AM, yawning, rubbing my eyes. Yes, that is the world’s smallest violin, playing just for me. The festival portion of my day began a little over 12 hours back, with After The Wedding, a Danish/Swedish co-production that will be the festival closing gala film tomorrow night. It’s well worth seeing, for those who haven’t…
The Frenchy’s connection
It’s a big week for firsts around these parts, what with Sidney Crosby coming home for Tuesday’s NHL exhibition game (his local debut in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ uniform) and Kanye West’s first-ever Halifax performance slated for Saturday. But the icing on the cake—at least for the journalistically inclined—is to be found in the current issue…
An On Patrol update
Hey, sometimes, the system works, and snarky little paragraphs get results. Couple of weeks ago, On Patrol focused on a new sidewalk on Maitland St. that was obstructed by some poorly placed telephone poles. Mere days after we issued the ticket, the sidewalk had been widened by freshly-poured asphalt at every offending pole. This email,…
Get down girl, go ‘head get down
Claire Gallant of local duo Nate and Marcel will be playing seven songs with Kanye motherfucking West tomorrow. We have no words except: fucking A!
Window watching
Don’t forget to download our Common Sense posters before the big show. They’ve got great art by Mike Holmes, and add a certain je ne sais quo to any window. Click here to find your favourite. (Mine’s Cooper. Or maybe the Kanye bear.)
A Rolling Stone gathers lots of gear
Just in case you’ve managed somehow to miss these links, here are a couple of The Rolling Stones’ riders. Comparing the current version, for the Bigger Bang tour that’s coming to Halifax, with the one for the ’97-’98 Bridges to Babylon tour, you get a picture of an struggling band that is finally making something…
Change your lunch plans
I just got back from a morning meeting at city hall with Swedish enviro guru Karl-Henrik Robèrt. He started a movement called “The Natural Step” which is a way for organizations like businesses and cities to do something about the environmental crisis which we as individuals sense all around us. And he’s fucking awesome. This…
Accidental tourists
Well, Mister Lobster.ca, I am officially ticked off this morning. We’re all creatures of habit (including the stupid drivers who caused an accident on my street this morning), and we don’t deal well with change. I want my walk to work back please.
Crustaceans, all of us
The guy who drives this truck kept asking me if I was pissed off because I couldn’t figure out how the hell I was going to navigate my way home through the fences. He wants to feed Mick lobsters.
The Spice (and All That)
Viewfinders is the film festival for youth. It’s put on by the Atlantic Film Festival organization in the spring, as well as being one of the programs during the main festival. The big screening is happening Saturday, something called The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang, but I decided to go and see We Shall Overcome, a Danish…
Spring board
Patience is a virtue—just ask any Halifax skater, biker or blader who’s been waiting for the new skatepark being constructed on the Halifax Common. After what must have been a tantalizing summer of watching the park gradually take shape, the $500,000 project is finally near completion. “I’d say by the middle of October, people will…
Susie walks
I took this photo to mark the moment when I actually contemplated purchasing a ticket for this damn thing. it’s amazing what the sight of a few cranes and aluminum poles will do to you.
Fantastic 50
This week, it’s all about the rolling…film. Still. Cool shit abounds as the Atlantic Film Festival comes to a close, the coolest being Attack of the 50 Foot Reels. This annual workshop—taught by Flicker founder Norwood Cheek, husband of Andrea Richards, AFCOOP’s visiting artist—throws 16 novice filmmakers into the process with nary a moment to…
Thursday am
What you can’t see is the line-up of middle-aged men taking photos beside me. I feel like I have a community.
Sign of the times
Wednesday 6:45pm
Hello Halifax!
Some say no band has been more important to, or synonymous with, Halifax music than Sloan. And with their eighth full-length studio album hitting shelves September 19, they now have an equivalent number of releases between their formative home and their adopted home of Toronto. Bassist Chris Murphy says the town they grew up is…
Chip off the old block
Bill True realized this year how much of a gamble running a seasonal chip stand can be. The owner of Bill’s Family Chip Stand, which occupied a spot by the Halifax Public Library on Spring Garden Road for more than 15 years, moved to a new location this summer as a result of a blind-tendering…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Prepare to break the sound barrier, Leo, says Rob Brezsny.
AFF-luent
It happens overnight. Halifax goes from being a town where Canadian and foreign language films are an endangered cinematic species to a place where a comedy set in a Newfoundland outport called Young Triffie’s Been Made Away With, and Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar’s Volver, both shown at the Atlantic Film Festival, sell out their screenings.…
SAVAGE LOVE
Dan Savage tells Fortuny.
Common sense
Print these posters and put them up today. Illustration Mike Holmes
Bang for your buck
This week, for the first time in its 257-year history, the North Halifax Common is being handed over for the exclusive use of a private corporation—Montreal’s Donald K. Donald Productions, the firm producing and profiting from Saturday’s Rolling Stones concert. So unless they can pony up the $116 entrance fee to the concert, the usual…
Marathon man
42km in 42 days: Chuck Teed attempts to conquer a marathon
Grand plans
Andy Fillmore was excited about last Tuesday. He and his two working partners from the Toronto-based design firm Office for Urbanism were scheduled to meet with the entire city council to discuss HRM by Design, a $200,000 planning project focused on downtown Halifax and Dartmouth—a chance to directly explain and promote the project, and hopefully,…
The silent killer
Will we ever know Kimveer Gill? Not a chance. He’s now a character, not a man. A caricature—the Dawson College shooter—pasted together collage-style and stuck in a scrapbook of the Canadian psyche. His transformation began September 13, not at the moment he began shooting, but as the first reports of what he was wearing at…
A clear vision
Whether or not you go to Saturday’s Sloanye Westoner show, you’re probably paying for it. City hall offered $100,000 towards a “Proposed Major Concert” back in early July, before The Rolling Stones rumours were confirmed. The province is also putting your tax dollars to work for The Stones, at least 140,000 of them, according to…
Going home
In 1988 a teenaged boy from Dartmouth named George Stamos won the MT&T award for choreography. It’s all been uphill from there. Not necessarily for the Maritime Telegraph and Telephone company (which merged to form Aliant in 1999), but for Stamos, who has since performed throughout Europe, US and Canada, working as both a dancer…
The couple next door
Now I’m getting more than a little anxious. Worried that this warm bath of a sunny September afternoon might be all shot to hell. I am knocking on the front door of a colourful house on a central Halifax street, lined on both sides with late-Victorian style domiciles. So far, nobody inside has been roused…
Fall arts preview: September 2006
Written by Sue Carter Flinn, Johnston Farrow, Sean Flinn, Carsten Knox, Lis van Berkel. FUN 100 at Gus’ Pub There’s a good chance Vancouver indie-punk band FUN 100 will partake in just that when they hit Gus’ Pub stage on September 29 with The Maynards and Windom Earle. The quintet arrives in Halifax after being…
Fall arts preview: October 2006
Written by Sue Carter Flinn, Johnston Farrow, Sean Flinn, Carsten Knox, Lis van Berkel. Halifax Pop Explosion The fall in Halifax is synonymous with busting out scarves, wearing long sleeves and experiencing exciting concerts. The biggest annual alternative music festival in Halifax returns with another amazing line-up of rock, hip-hop, folk and experimental acts, set…
Fall arts preview: November 2006
Written by Sue Carter Flinn, Johnston Farrow, Sean Flinn, Carsten Knox, Lis van Berkel. The Hidden Cameras at Stage Nine The one thing that you can expect from a Hidden Cameras concert is to expect anything. There might be 30 musicians dancing with glockenspiels and Mexican wrestling masks, or there might be five souls, harmonizing…
Mountain range
“It’s going to be very acoustic,” says Sarah Harmer, calling from her home just outside Kingston, Ontario. “I’m playing with my band, it will be more like a kitchen-party tour, not much electric, with a clarinet, accordion, mandolin and stand-up bass. We’ll be playing a lot of songs from my latest record.” Harmer hits the…
Home plates
Ah, the produce section of a market—bins upon bins of attractively merchandised, blemish-free, colourful foodstuff; inviting, enticing, alluring and coated in god-knows-what to ensure a safe journey from some exotic land to our tables. As debate rages and concerns spread about pesticides, fungicides and other “–cides,” more consumers are looking towards organic, local food as…
The Black Dahlia
The glib consensus is that The Black Dahlia is a bad movie when it’s really just an easy one to dislike. It brings complexity to genre (not just in the thick plot details—the film’s true weakness). True 1940s noir style is met by director Brian De Palma’s obsessions with guilt surrounding violence and sex. The…
