Kearney Lake construction AND lights!
Here is a big fuck you to the city and construction fuckers on Kearney Lake: Why is it necessary to close down 2 lanes, for most of the road to only be working in two little sections? I live on Kearney Lake Road and I work 5 minutes away, but yet because you have such…
Please watch Canada’s Worst Driver
I walk most of the time, and I am amazed at the number of (well-intentioned) drivers who stop in the middle of an intersection to let me cross. This usually happens at our city’s very annoying 4-way stops (I won’t even get into the subject of drivers who don’t know how they work). I know…
Five Questions for the Great Sabatini
take a picture cuz i won’t remember The Great Sabatini (featuring Joey, Sean, Rob and Steve Sabatini) is a bitchin’ heavy rock outfit from Montreal. Currently they are headed on a giant tour across North America, stopping in Halifax this Saturday to play Gus’ Pub with the wonderful Nymphets, Cicada and Fistfight. We asked guitarist…
Picking and Eating Snot
To the girl on the Mumford bus who picks her nose then looks at the booger on the end of her finger, analyzes it, then eats it… I know you try to be coy and hide what you are doing… but you are real bad at it. I can’t be the only person who notices…
Dog stays. You go.
I guess this means the dog is staying. He is friendlier and doesn’t mouth off as much as you anyways. Good riddance. —Newfoundland Dog Lover
Get a new hippie chick scent!
I am going to start carrying a bottle of Febreeze with me and spray it on the next fucking person who smells like patchouli. That shit is nasty. It’s nauseating and the smell lingers forever. —I can’t breath when you’re around
Working Blues…
I wish I could figure out how to work from home! I feel like I’ll be stuck behind a desk for the rest of my life. Why are all the work from home jobs scams? —Tired of the grind
Why post jobs when you can’t get an interview?
One of our biggest HRM institutions constantly advertises positions, but they seem to be the same ones time after time, term positions. I have the experience and skills, but perhaps ageism is alive and well since I never get a call, nor the courtesy of any kind of human interaction. What is their HR office…
Rooms for rent
Certain Kijiji folks: Stop advertising the rent as $xxx per WEEK. Stop it, it’s misleading, irritating, fucks up the searching system, and nobody else does it. It’s akin to grocery stores advertising prices for vegetables in non-metric measurements in order to have it appear cheaper. Quit it! Also, I’m not clicking on ads that don’t…
Why Can’t You See?
She’s lying to you. She’s lying to you. She’s lying to you. She’s lying to you. She’s lying to you. She’s lying to you. She’s lying to you. She’s lying to you. The other man told you the truth. —Someone who knows
Rick Salutin out as Friday Globe columnist
Globe replaces freelance columnist Rick Salutin with Irshad Manji as part of its “radical redesign”.
Howard Epstein ponders his future with the NDP
[image-1] While the NDP caucus considers what to do with Howard Epstein, Epstein is in turn rethinking his position with the NDP. In an interview with The Coast last Friday, Epstein openly mulled over his future with the party. He says he is considering leaving the party and sitting as independent in the legislature. The…
Moda brings new tastes to the table
The still-new global fusion eatery Moda Urban Dining (1518 Dresden Row, 405-3480) has launched their fall menus. Expect new daily soups, including butternut squash with maple cream and candied pecans, warm spinach and basil salad with a honey balsamic dressing and quark cheese on a baguette round and rib eye with a sauce of crushed…
Pretty Things Boutique grand reopening
Starting on Saturday, October 2 at 5240 Blowers Street, Pretty Things Boutique will be open in its new home. Stop by on Saturday or join them for their Grand Reopening & Third Birthday Party on Saturday October 9. There’s gonna be free food and drink, free goodie bags for the first 50 customers, and a…
Giving up my day job…
I love the forest. I love cliffs, mountains, rivers, brooks, streams, lakes to camp on, white capped oceans to stare into and sky’s so big you feel like your the center. I love old growth, fields, swamps, marshes, plateaus with 360 views and air that can fill your lungs full. I love the sun and…
The Only Honest Politician Is Timberlea-Prospect’s MLA
This man is a terrific human being, honest as the days are long and genuinely a great guy, even if he does support the Bruins. I am a pretty cynical person so when I see this MLA, who has suffered personal tragedies in the last few years, it makes my jaded heart leap for joy…
Crow X
You’re the greatest man that’s ever walked into my life… Hopefully our friendship will pick up again, but until we meet again… I’ll forever be thankful to have met you… Thank you for everything!—Rockstar
Gross
To the people on Brenton Street who think it’s necessary to put your garbage out on the street, and leave it there for TWO WEEKS until the next garbage day: can you not see how fucking disgusting this is?? The bags break open and the wind carries your shit everywhere, and people walking by think…
Garbage goes in the garbage
Hey Sarah Street, garbage goes in the garbage cans. Who really cares if it’s my garbage or yours or someone else’s, just leave it in the can. You took the the time to take it out of your “can” and some birds tore it open so we had to clean it up again. Maybe you…
Death to Canadian toilets!
You know how you sometimes need to go and do #2 and #1 at the same time? You pull down your pants and get comfortable, with your bottom slightly lowered, for that perfect shit position. But here comes the problem… Canadian toilets are so low in height compared to European toilets, that my pecker always…
An Open Appology…
…to the drivers of Halifax. I’m sorry for making you stop at crosswalks. I’m sorry for walking in front of your car. I’m sorry for being so slow. I’m sorry for holding you up, and making you honk your horn and rev your engine. I’m really sorry for walking on the sidewalk when you’re trying…
Another broken heart bitch…
Sorry fellow bitchers for posting another broken heart, bitch. I don’t mean to fill the site up with this shit but its eating me alive. Recently breaking up with my long term girlfriend, I was completely blindsided. Didn’t see it coming and it was a complete slap in the face. The worst thing is, I…
This Goddamn Excuse for a City
There is garbage everywhere. Gangs of teenagers and wasps are swarming the citizens of Halifax. People are getting stabbed, shot, harrassed, and raped. We have the most awful, ghetto, frustrating metro system of ANY city I have ever lived in or visited. Rent is sky high, rivaling Vancouver. THERE ARE BUMS EVERYWHERE. Am I the…
Song Lyrics For Your Facebook Status is About as Lame and Pathetic as it Gets!!
The title says it all. Better to describe your most recent fart then to update your facebook status with fucking song lyrics. How do these ignorant twats not see how lame it is. FUUUUUUUCK!… Movie quotes are OK … if its a good one. But that’s it! No song lyrics. I don’t care how good…
Move in a little!
For the people on the bus who like to sit on the outside row of seats while the bus is crowded… for god sakes just move in a little bit, is the window really that bad? I just feel bad for the people that are standing up when there’s a seat on the other side…
Mondays aren’t fun especially when…
So, why the fuck did it take me 2 hours to get home on Monday after school? I live in Sackville, its really not that far. Both bridges were fucked and they decided to keep construction going on the Bedford Highway at rush hour? At least send more buses or figure something out so people…
Off The Hook CSF is back on the hook
Starting September 30th, Off the Hook CSF—Atlantic Canada’s first Community Supported Fishery—will deliver a weekly catch of fresh, sustainably caught haddock, hake and pollock to subscribing customers in and around the HRM, following up on last year’s successful inaugural season. The central concept for Off the Hook is subscribers knowing where and how their seafood…
Good Riddance Evil Psycho Bitch Roommate
Moving out never felt so good. Godspeed asshole. —Dino
First look at convention centre costs: City will be asked to pay $57 million
[image-1] The proposed convention centre for downtown Halifax will cost taxpayers $160 million, with the province and city each contributing $57 million, and the federal government providing the balance, $46 million. These budget figures were included in a detailed proposal given to the provincial NDP caucus last Wednesday, and were provided to The Coast by…
See Homo Duplex’s first show TONIGHT
SO EXCITED MY ALPACAS Remember this post last week where I talked about Homo Duplex’s free music? Well you can see them tonight – Monday night! – also for free. They play the Dalhousie Art Gallery as part of an event called Sound and Vision, along with Long Long Long, Quaker Parents and Hunter Gatherer.…
Fraudulant Activity
I get a call from my bank: Hello Mr. X, this is so and so from your bank. I am calling because your bank account has been compromised and we have limited your access. Are you able to get to a bank machine to change your pin within the next two hours… First off, what…
What the frack?
Listen you dirty, little rat of a thief: I can understand that in finding/stealing my sweet-ass comic book wallet all you wanted was the cash inside, and hey, times are tough. But have the common courtesy to return it! It’s such a fucking bother to get all new IDs and whatnot. Also I was uber-delighted…
NS Supreme Court hears testimony in marathon insurance battle
May Ocean testifies at the opening of her lawsuit against Economical Insurance that she does not feel safe. Supreme Court Judge Deborah Smith warns Ocean she could face severe financial penalties if she is found to have prolonged the trial.
Hey You NDP Pricks!
I hope you scumbags are watching the election in New Brunswick closely because when the next election comes along, you will be swept away like the beach whistles in Halifax Harbour. I hope this province NEVER sees another NDP government. You didn’t keep one damn promise, you closed ERS, you jacked up taxes when you…
Smiling Through Tears
Every day I read the paper and I`m a little saddened by the terrible things that happen in the world around us. This morning I cried my eyes out at the most touching story I read in a long time… A little boy from Kingston Ontario held a yard sale this weekend selling off all…
A Common Angel
To the kind stranger who picked up my phone and ID off the Halifax commons 2 weeks ago and went out of your way to make sure I got them back: Thank you! You are an angel. I hope karma is good to you, I know she will be. Now to whoever found my gold…
Uteck bowl moving to Moncton
What a horse load. If you are upset that the Uteck bowl is moving to crappy old Moncton give me a shout at clinkityclank@gmail.com —bitch bitch bitch
Pizza Place in CP
So you offer debit on delivery, and we called you three weeks ago and you said it was down…so again we call last night, and no, it’s still down… as it’s a little hand-held, could you perhaps OH, I don’t know, get that fixed??? 😛 A month is a long time to be losing business…
Tired of your shit
Maybe you’re jerks with a terrible sense of humour. Maybe you’re high on the freedom of living away from home for the first time. Maybe you’re just drunk 24/7. But you know what, Dalhousie freshmen? None of those are good excuses for not flushing the fucking toilet. It’s bad enough that I’m stuck using a…
Sushi Shige reborn
Popular sushi restaurant moves from Spring Garden to Granville Shoptalk mistakenly indicated last week in the story about the Turkish Delight expansion that Sushi Shige was gone and not to return. It turns out we missed the facts of the case, and we’re not too big to admit when we were wrong. Sushi Shige, owned…
“I’m not sure I work here”
Thank you to the couple who left me, their waitress, such a thoughtful and beautiful note after I did a questionable job of serving them. It made my day!! Come back again, I know what’s in the baked eggplant now! —Dawe
Wolfy
Here. Wouldn’t mean anything. Without you. I am glad we ended up on the same bus that early morning of the snow storm. Life is good with you. —Ta Petite Croustouille
To my most favourite Mango
I Love you more than 10 bushels and 14 pecks and 22 hugs around the neck. I miss you more than that combined. In the meantime, I sing you to me with my uke skills, hopefully loud enough for you to hear. —xoAbie
Not my Chosen Person
When we first met, you were eating pork on a stick and telling me all about how you did not believe in God. So how was I to know, that your Orthodox Jewish background meant so very much to you, and would eventually lead to our breakup? No, I will not take three years out…
Spare a Square!
To the black booted bar star in the stall next to me at the seahorse bathroom last night who couldn’t be bothered to spare a square as I yelped for your assistance. Luckily, a far less self absorbed girl in better looking boots came to my aid and announced that you had PLENTY SQUARES TO…
Where’s the outrage!
People of Halisux, I was unfortunate enough once again, to have to go to your city to work today. I drove by the Halisux Commons. You know the one where so many of you freak the fuck out because there’s a concert there one week end & your ability to access the ENTIRE space has…
I’m Lovin’ It?
Got on the 52 in Bayers Lake last night. Sat down and zoned out. It took me about five minutes to realize the bus hadn’t moved. Then I noticed that the driver had left the bus. That seemed odd since the bus was already a few minutes late. Another five minutes passed. People on the…
Bastard Car Thieves
Thanks a lot for breaking into my roommates truck repeatedly and trying to steal it last night. He is now leaving this building and I’m more than fucking likely going to have to sign another year lease somewhere else (probably somewhere further than a 2 or 3 minute walk from my scotia square workplace for…
Another classic mess from Metro Transit
I will give the transit authority it`s due, the addition of environmentally friendly buses is a nice gesture, but how about one thing, the next time one of your brainiacs are designing one of these buses, how about keeping the passengers comfort level in mind. Those fucking seats are more uncomfortable than any I have…
Who are you calling bitch?
Seriously! Dear drunk and disorderly students: Be careful who you scream at and harass while wandering the city in your angry, entitled, ego-inflating, drunken haze. I might just be your professor. —The midterm just got harder
To All Losers
Dear Douchebags, You all suck. I’ve known this for a while but in the past month I’ve been victim of some of the ultimate douche-ness I’ve ever encountered. Specifically the theft of my wallet today. Fine, take that 90 dollars, it’s not like I was going to use that to make good on an IOU.…
Frosh is weak
To all you assholes who spend your student loans and parents’ money on getting wasted everyday and making peoples’ days miserable: I can hear you outside my window at night yelling obscene things at girls walking by and pushing over the lotto 649 sign on the sidewalk. I hope you know that theft and destruction…
To the cranky woman at a downtown specialty grocery store…
I was behind you in line and I wish I’d told you off the other day. What you said made the cashier cry and leave her post. She was doing her job quite well until you had a problem with her. The things you said were highly inappropriate and quite rude. I bet it made…
PICK A LANE
What is it with these car-driving line-straddlers southbound on Robie between Cunard and Quinpool, straddling the right-hand middle lane line all the way to Quinpool? As a cyclist, I have to come to a complete stop behind the parked cars near Cunard if one of you is coming along behind me taking up all the…
Swarming Youth in our Fair City
Wish I had a magic wand… I would transport myself and all these bored disenfranchised swarming youth to various places on earth where there is starvation, disease, natural disasters and wars. Democratic Republic of Congo or Pakistan or Haiti would be good. We would volunteer our time and energies to digging latrines, passing out basic…
Turning Right
Nova Scotia drivers – it should not take 20 minutes to turn right on a green light when no one is crossing the street. Grow some balls bluenosers and drive!! You slow and frightened little rabbits make the streets MORE dangerous. —ME
Yeah, you pay for this
To the students who complain about school: you know what? It’s not a right, it IS a privilege. Learning is a joy, and if you don’t like it in the classroom, you are absolutely entitled to find it elsewhere. Your teachers are doing the best they can, working a whole lot harder than you know…
Freeloaders, parasites & fucking bums
Hey, kids, if you want to get drunk every night and not have a job, eat food and not have a job, get what you need by dancing around asking for it and instead sighing out loud and wishing you had whatever it is and not have a job, you’re a freeloader, a parasite and…
Bottle Blond Doing Her Mascara Yesterday on the 118
Driving a black M35, about 7:25 AM you blew by me and almost ran into the car ahead, then almost went off the road, then passed a guy passing someone else, then the last I saw you were running up the ass of a truck… You stunned c…, get up 5 minutes earlier and do…
Dog can go anywhere he likes in the house!
When I came home the other night and was cornered by you about “when we get the new house… the dog has to stay chained outdoors or in the basement”… Fuck YOU! Listen bitch… I have spent my whole life with dogs since I was a little kid. I grew up on a farm for…
Clean it up!
Hey waifish blond girl with large bulldog… dog shit does not evaporate. You and fellow dog walker were on South Park St by Indochine restaurant, your dog shit, and you walked away. Pick up the shit. It’s not complicated. Just PICK UP THE SHIT. The city, and your dog, deserve a better dog owner. —Lover…
Sub Club
A big Fuck You goes out to the daft assholes who posted signage on the student union building this past Friday stating the building would be closed at 6PM. I’m paying good money to use this school’s services; the least you can do is put a sign with important information like that in clear view.…
AFF gives out major prizes
Hey guys, Here’s the list of prizes handed out yesterday at the little awards shindig. Best Atlantic Short ($3,000 in film stock)Sponsored by Kodak Canada Inc. and open to all Atlantic work under 60 minutes.Like Father – Jesse Harley Michael Weir Award for Best Original Screenplay ($1,500)Sponsored by Michael Weir Foundation of ArtsWhirligig – Michael…
AFF Day 10: Wrap-up
Well, another festival in the books. I saw many solid features and a great slab of short films too. Kudos to the organizers, sponsors and volunteers. Aside from someone sleeping in and not making it to the Park Lane to let us in for the media screening of Barney’s Version on Thursday morning (it started…
I love you, but HA!
I finally beat you. It was tough to see you so defeated given that I love you to pieces, but I finally did it! I know that at least part of you was proud. You, 78. Me, 1. —Your Sack Demon
I love you know matter what
I miss my best friend… I wish he wasn’t an addicted jerk. I never pushed you away, you just couldn’t see that I cared. All you could see was the addiction and you wanted to be alone with your own thoughts. I cant do that, I cant just stand by and watch you hurt yourself,…
Aussie=Awesome
Dear man I always see at the bus stop: Your accent is stunningly attractive. I’d give you a hug but you might find that odd. I’ll settle for my silent admiration. Thanks 🙂 —A very stealthy creeping ninja
Waiting Room Love
I hadn’t eaten lunch, I checked in for my appointment, and asked if there was any where on the floor to buy a snack. No such luck. It didn’t help that I was nervous beyond belief over the fact that I was at this clinic in the first place, but doing something so nerve-wracking on…
To the douchebags swarming people around Halifax…
…get a life. I hope you all get arrested and thrown in jail… then let’s see how you like the ‘swarming’ in the communal showers…. —Sick and tired of punk ass kids
Stop Fucking with my car!
I have a small message for the guy who broke in my car. This is the second time and I’m tired of it. I NO LONGER leave loose change or valuables in it. Don’t you get it? Stop Fucking with my car and get a job! Asshole! —Pissed-off Lady
WTF Metro Transit?!
Fuck you to the driver of the #15 Purcell’s Cove: I was sitting down on the side of the curb, waiting for my bus after a long day at school. Needless to say I was zoning out. Bus stops a couple feet before me, and you come out of your bus and bitch at me…
Car-free
To the rage ridden antsy mother fucker in the big-ass blue pickup trying to run down cyclists on car free day: We have to battle assholes like you all day, every day. I guarantee you wouldn’t be so bold without the protection of your over-priced wheelchair! Oh, by the by, I have your picture and…
Gun Registry
According to this document Peter Stoffer’s sudden about face now sees him backing a cash cow for the federal government that has cost the tax payers $1,390,000,000 (one billion, 390 million dollars) to date and is running now at a cost of $76,500,000 (seventy five milion five hundred thousand dollars) a year. The full report…
Selfish and Immature
I need to tell you how selfish and immature you were. I stopped talking to you because you showed no respect for my ideas, and opinions. You have some sort of superiority complex, and you can’t respect others. Fuck you. You’re a stuck up bitch and deserve all the unhappiness that you give yourself. —Getting…
Rewarding Incendies
IncendiesThursday September 23rd, 7pm, Oxford Earlier on the day this film screened at the Oxford, it was named as Canada’s submission for the Oscars’ Foreign Language Film category. It already received Best Canadian Feature at TIFF this year. Following that announcement, which caused excited exclamations and applause to ripple from the floor seats to the…
The Modern Covers
hi handsome! Another weekend, another cover show? I’m not complaining, especially when the show in question features a Modern Lovers tribute band. Remember the Modern Lovers? Remember sitting with your stupid friends laughing at the line “Pablo Picasso never got called an asshole,” and wondering why no one else thought it was funny? Well, you…
AFF Day 9: Two movie suggestions for tonight: Myth of the American Sleepover/Light is the Day
[image-1] Sean Flinn wrote about The Myth of the American Sleepover here, the new film by writer/director David Robert Mitchell. To his deft assessment I’ll just add that the picture has a bit of Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused and Sofia Coppola’s Virgin Suicides in its DNA, which should give you even more motivation to…
Brown Coats
To the people with the wireless network called “Can’t Stop the Signal” which I pass while getting on to the bridge in Halifax. You are shiny. — I swallowed a bug
Sandwich Maker
Dear sandwich maker at a certain new sandwich place… You seem nice, you make my lunch time. —Noms
A good laugh…
Just wanted to give a shout out to the boys at Background Noise for their 1 year anniversary! Good laughs all year… you just need to get some fine ladies on the show. —LeVon
Open Letter to Old Age
Dear Old Age: Why do you have to rob my grandmother of her mind? She is a God Fearing Woman, a good and hardworking woman. She has always said, “When it’s my time I’ll let the Good Lord take me”. So, old age, why are you torturing her and her entire family with her dementia?…
STILL on the loose?!
So the sleep stalker is STILL roaming the streets of Halifax? Even after all of the descriptions of this guy have reportedly been the same for the past few years? And it’s obvious his behaviour is escalating. Why the hell hasn’t he been caught yet?! One of my girlfriend’s best friends was a victim, my…
You stink!!
I hate waking up to your smell every morning and then you stink up my apt every afternoon. Even with my windows closed, you get in anyway! Apparently you’re fantastic, but you stink up the whole neighbourhood! —You make me want to move
Fleas, Lice and Bedbugs, Oh My!
So many dogs and cats are running around bare-assed and bleeding, the school is climbing toward DEFCON 1 for lice and I need to replace mattresses but am too afraid to bring the ones I can afford into the house. I’m not one for pesticides/insecticides, but holy crap! these post-chemically treated species have come back…
Another Day
So I’m an hour home from the latest Mike Leigh film, Another Year. Leigh’s films always leave me in a place in my head that is both sober and buzzy. This film, like the others I’ve seen, has given me a lot to think about: the nature of happiness; the nature of anxiety and disquiet;…
Halifax dodged a Delhi-like Commonwealth Games bullet
After I was on CBC’s Information Morning yesterday, I had a couple of people take me to task for saying that Halifax would have had Delhi-like problems, had we actually won the Commonwealth Games hosting rights. So let me explain a bit. It’s been widely reported that the Delhi Games are in utter chaos. Now,…
AFF Day 8: Barney’s Version/Do It Again
I’ve seen a few movies I’ve really enjoyed at this, the 30th edition of the AFF, but with a couple of days left I don’t think I’m going to find anything to compare to Barney’s Version. The adaptation of the Mordecai Richler novel, directed by Richard J. Lewis is a delight. In Barney Panofsky, Paul…
Rainy Day, Lovely!!!!
When we first met, I had realized you were a very special person, our likes and dislikes that we shared were phenomenal, the nights we spent together still play over and over in my head. The things we talked about, the places we went too, the drive to Peggy’s Cove. Everything. I just wish things…
Shaved Headed Prada Wearing Handsome Face
To the beautiful man on the Sackville link: thank you for providing some much needed eye candy on the trek to work almost everyday! Your smile and style deserves a nod. I could barely concentrate on my tweets, fb and txts because of my incessant staring. Sadly, I won’t be traveling on the link any…
This is so fucking infuriating…
After hearing that Crimestoppers is paying 79% of its fund-raising to its 3rd party fundraiser, do you think I want to give a red cent of my hard earned dough to support this travesty? The question to ask any charity is this: how much of my money is going towards administration, etc? Why should I…
Cold hearted!
I closed my self off to you years ago, I did it because I refused to be hurt by you again. You are a manipulative, argumentative, soul crushing, mean-hearted, man hating, ice cold, disgusting, physically unattractive, emotionally abusive, psychologically disturbed girl. When you don’t get your way, you act out in the most inappropriate ways,…
“Do you have a spare smoke?”
Cigarettes come in packs of twenty and twenty five. Not twenty one and twenty six! So no, I don’t have a “spare smoke”. Also Get a fucking job! It took me three days to find a job and start working. Surely you can do it as well. Stop bumming total strangers for a fucking cigarette.…
Forget it, I will give myself a raise!
So two months ago I go and ask my boss for a raise. He brushes me off and pats me on the head, says he will take care of it. There have been other people in the company that have gotten raises we’re but here two months later and not one word about it. So,…
Pizza hole
Thanks to the asshole who jammed a slice of pizza up my exhaust pipe last Friday night while my car was parked next to Bearly’s. It took me an hour to fish it out. I saw you as you were running away from my car and your shitty yellow hoodie is unmistakable. If I ever…
Crosswalks are not for show…
Quinpool, tuesday evening (rush hr)… I was driving along when out of nowhere you walk out between cars, and yell out at me “IM F’ING WALKING HERE!!” God, jerks like you piss me off. Why would I slow down myself and a number of cars behind me just to let your lazy ass strut through…
Breaking news: Bridge Terminal bids nearly $4 million over budgeted amount
The HRM procurement office today opened the bids for the Bridge Terminal project in Dartmouth, a lynch pin in Metro Transit’s expansion plans. But while about a dozen firms expressed interest in the project, only two submitted bids, as follows: Dexter 13,406.700.00 Pomerleau 13,386,650.00 These bids are 40 percent, and nearly $4 million, over the…
Let’s Get Trashed at Thrashfest
Oh hi metalheads. One of your biggest parties of the year is upon us again this weekend as Thrashfest returns for its third round. The two-day festival began humbly, as a house party in co-organizer Matt Francis’ house, and has now unfolded to an tipsy and exuberant annual affair at Gus’. This year’s lineup features…
Driving in to American Graffiti
“Where were you in ’62?” Alderney Landing, of course—as long as you head there this Saturday, when the waterfront space transforms into the 1962 incarnation of American Graffiti’s cruising strip. “We really wanted to have a drive-in movie here, and we’ve been wanting to do that for a number of years—we’ll probably continue to do…
Superchunk
I’ve always seen Superchunk as akin to an alternative universe version of Sloan: same pop sensibilities, but with one primary vocalist, a punker edge and the record label they started becoming kind of a big deal. Though Superchunk has worked together in spits and spurts since Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance began spending most of…
Welcome back, friend
Your friend sends you a text message asking you to come to a show”—a BA Johnston show in particular. You are not acquainted (Christian Johnston, hailing from Hamilton, ON, unashamedly residing in his mother’s basement), so you Google him. Pictures of Johnston’s beer gut spilling out over beer-soaked denim, and YouTube clips of him shooting…
Black Mountain
The Vancouver heavyweight is back with its third album. And, like a boxer in that class, it tends to plod along, landing thundering punches. There’s “Rollercoaster” but wait for the eighth and title track, with a lead vocal sung by Amber Webber, for the real proof of the band’s size and strength. Occasional speed (“Let…
AFF Day 7: Let Me In
[image-1] If there’s a consistent pattern in American remakes of international genre pictures its how the remake makes the implicit explicit. The relationship with the audience is a different beast on this side of whichever pond, there’s less trust. I say that with Let Me In in mind, which I enjoyed but I didn’t like…
Weezer
Hurley is Weezer’s third record in as many years; it’s as if the band’s trying to turn the teasing and torturing of its comeback-hopeful fanbase into an annual tradition. As per the routine, Hurley serves up fleeting moments of redemption—the acoustic-driven “Run Away,” the Desmond Child-assisted “Trainwrecks”—in between fine-but-forgettable riff rock and a couple of…
Jal’s mission
At the age of 16, Saa Andrew spent three days hiding in the woods from the rebel soldiers who’d raided his village in Sierra Leone. “The rebels were going from house to house to destroy,” says Andrew. recalling scenes from Sierra Leone’s brutal 11-year civil war. “They were raping. They were killing young women. They…
REM
The third full-length from Berry, Buck, Mills and Stipe came out 25 years ago. Since 1985, the inversions of image and phrase (beginning with the album title’s alternate reading as Reconstruction of the Fables), the deceivingly simple melodies and beautiful pop-vocal harmonies have been ringing like bells in the dark. There’s a sense that REM…
Neptune’s Romeo and Juliet: a gorgeous production
The Neptune season-opener Romeo and Juliet is a gorgeous production bedecked with acres of fine fabrics and cleverly constructed sets. However, this show is not just a treat for the eyes, but for the ears as well. Shakespeare’s familiar words spring to life in the mouths of this remarkable cast. Local actress Sarah English is…
Luke Doucet and the White Falcon
Following up the sumptuous “Blood’s Too Rich,” Doucet opts for a shorter, punchier route to rock. Sloan’s Andrew Scott is all over this one: co-writing four songs, producing and drumming. The city of Hamilton is muse, especially for the comics liner by David Collier. Doucet wears influences on his sleeve. Thankfully, they are many and…
Boardwalk Empire
Entourage’s seventh season finale should have concluded with the death of Sasha Gray’s acting career, but sadly her one-tone run on the overextended comedy means she’ll probably get offered Megan Fox’s leftovers. At least HBO is atoning for its sins by running the Prohibition-era drama Boardwalk Empire in Entourage’s old timeslot. Here’s another set of…
Beauty & Sadness
In “Part One: Echoes,” the Toronto-based Trinidadian-Canadian reconsiders how authors such as Guy de Maupassant, Jean Cocteau and Yasunari Kawabata have shaped him as reader and writer. Alexis traces these connections through a series of short stories, creating fictional worlds that combine his and his heroes’ spirits and sensibilities. “Mylène Saint-Brieuc (Henry James/Carlos Fuentes),” an…
Painting a Declared Surplus
Steven Rhude’s painting of a candy-striped lighthouse, tipped to the right by the weight of a rope pulling at its top from the hands of an unnamed stranger is unsettling; lighthouses are a thread in the landscape fabric of the east coast, or any coast of Canada. But Steven Rhude’s new exhibition, Declared Surplus, speaks…
Mustaine
This book is inaccurately subtitled A Heavy Metal Memoir. More appropriate would be A History of My Substance Abuse (and other stories). Mustaine is incredibly long on sex and drugs, and short on rock ’n’ roll —Megadeth albums sadly provide a backdrop and timeline for depravity and failed rehab attempts. The narrative suffers from some…
Fit to be Thaied
Bedford’s Thai Ivory Cuisine doesn’t overly challenge its suburban clientele, and that’s probably a good thing, says Melissa Buote. “It tastes like when you were a kid and you would put ketchup on your Kraft Dinner,” Rachelle says as we poke sadly at our little piles of pad thai. Matt, a stir-fry apologist, shrugs and…
The Book of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks
Be they glaringly misspelled words, foreign language translations gone wrong or the glaringly obvious punctuation errors, we as an English culture seem to enjoy poking fun at what is usually the consequence of being educationally or linguistically disadvantaged. In the sphere of books (or blogs) devoted to pointing these out—quotation marks gone awry are perhaps…
Halifax is Bowling
Spit-polish your bowling shoes and grab a ball—Halifax is Burning’s Trevor Murphy is taking you to Fairlanes this Sunday in the name of CKDU fundraising. “I’m a fan of having shows in unorthodox places and I friggen’ love bowling,” writes the man behind the year-old CKDU radio show. When station co-ordinator Erica Butler suggested a…
Free Will Astrology
LIBRA(September 23-October 22) Albert Einstein was extremely famous during his lifetime. Although he had no publicity machine promoting him, his face became an iconic symbol for genius. “Einstein,” was, in effect, a brand name that made people think of creativity, wisdom and imagination. There were times that bothered him. “I am no Einstein,” he said,…
Brindi and the True Believers
When I heard last week that Brindi, the Jimmy Melvin, Jr. of the canine world, has been accused of attacking yet another dog, the first thing that popped into my head was: “This is exactly like the convention centre.” The Brindi saga isn’t so much about the dog as it is about the dog’s owner,…
Partying with The Jimmy Swift Band
After some low-key time spent on their own projects, The Jimmy Swift Band members Craig Mercer, Aaron Collier, Mike MacDougall and Doug Cameron land at the Paragon Saturday to make you sweat, dance and remember why you came back for more. “We have been taking a bit of time to work on other projects as…
The Corridor screens again
Just in from the kind folks at the AFF: An additional screening of The Corridor has been scheduled for this evening at 7:10pm at the Empire Park Lane Theatres. Tickets are available now and can be purchased at the Park Lane Box Office.
Threesome tale should be told
Q I’m a gay male and have been seeing a terrific guy for a couple of months. Two years ago, during an uncharacteristically wild few months, I had a threesome with a couple and, as it turns out, my boyfriend is very good friends with them. We see them socially and have even all had…
Feeling the beat of The Town
Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner are two of a tight-knit Boston bank-robbing crew. On a job they impulsively kidnap Claire (Rebecca Hall) and let her go with a warning about people who talk to the FBI. Under the pretext of keeping an eye on her, Affleck and Hall begin to date. There are a few…
Penny’s dropped
It’s back to school season, and thousands of young people in Nova Scotia are commencing degrees in the subjects their parents want them to study, or the ones they imagine will get them a good job—or just heading directionlessly to university because it’s the default option. Academic Laura Penny thinks it’s high time we looked…
Alpha and Omega get it on
Pack law prevents alphas and omegas from getting their howl on in this movie’s wolf world, so huntress Kate (Hayden Panettiere) and jokester Humphrey (Justin Long) seem destined to keep it platonic. Things change, though, when they’re sedated and moved from Jasper National Park to an Idaho wilderness reserve. On the way back to Jasper—where…
The refugees next door
There’s one phrase you need to know to understand this story. “No mushkila.” The “no” you’ve already got. It’s English. “Mushkila” ? That’s Arabic for “problem.” No mushkila = no problem. And Yihya Naief says it all the time, because it’s part English and part Arabic and quite funny. Just like Yihya, a 29-year-old Palestinian…
The Devil‘s in the details
Trust M. Night Shyamalan to suck the blood out of a good idea. Shyamalan didn’t direct Devil—that would be John Erick Dowdle (Quarantine)—but as the first film in his Night Chronicles series, it bears his unmistakeable imprint. Five strangers stuck in an elevator start dying one by one, and no one can figure out who…
Less discouragement, more small business
I have read the story from the latest Coast regarding bylaw J-101 and an attempt by a local businesswoman to open a secondhand store in Downtown Dartmouth (“Bylaw busting,” Arts by Sean Flinn, September 16). I find it absolutely ridiculous that the bylaws differ within the various boroughs of the HRM. Wasn’t the amalgamation of…
Common corrections
I write in regards to Tim Bousquet’s articles of June 28 (“Darrell Dexter approved moving Bridge Terminal onto Dartmouth Common land in 1995,” Reality Bites blog) and July 30 (“Province, city come to agreement on Bridge Terminal,” Reality Bites blog) on the Dartmouth Common. I believe these articles commit the twin sins of being both…
Kids lose again
The urban wilderness park slated to become a bus terminal in Dartmouth was doomed from the get- go. Do you imagine city council would have reclaimed the park if it had a fountain, flower beds and was graced with a stony statue of Joseph Howe? Without those accoutrements, an urban wilderness park is just code…
TIFF Day 01: Woody Allen needs to take a break
Reece Thompson, Kat Dennings, Josh Lucas at the Ryerson Theatre on Friday (TT) Who’s got two thumbs and hates change? [crickets] But seriously you guys, with the opening of the new TIFF Lightbox on King Street, the festival’s entire nucleus has shifted down from Yorkville to the Entertainment District. While I am enjoying hanging out…
