Sunday shopping is dead
Beleagured premier Rodney MacDonald is giving up the fight on Sunday shopping. Instead of appealing today’s court decision that lets SuperStore and Sobeys open Sundays, the premier says now all stores everywhere in the province can be open all the time, no exceptions, except Remembrance Day. “Government has gone to a considerable effort to maintain…
42Ks in 42 Days
Since today was a rest day, I figured it would be a good chance to give you a few stats compiled from my first nine days of training: Running days – 7Cross-training days – 1Rest days – 1Fun runs – 4Not-so-fun runs – 3Total kilometers run – 64Total time running – 4 hours and 32…
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42Ks in 42 Days
Long runs and wedding receptions don’t mix. I arrived at yesterday’s party parched and starving, and the first thing I saw was a tray of appetizers and wine. Next thing you know I’ve downed two glasses of white and handfuls of bacon wrapped scallops. I didn’t get boozed or stuffed (I wanted to, believe me),…
Letters to the Editor
Why hosting the Stones doesn’t add up I think it was fantastic to have the Rolling Stones play in Halifax. But HRM funding and hosting the concert on the Common doesn’t add up. Besides breaking the 257 year principle of the Common being a free and open space to all citizens, one is still left…
42Ks in 42 Days
Now I know that some of you are thinking, “If you took a day off, then how come you’re updating your blog?” Let me explain. My first day of training was also the day I wrote my introduction to the page, and ever since then I have written my recap the day after it happened…
Letters to the Editor
Anyone passing by the Robie/Quinpool intersection Sunday afternoon was not likely to have missed the the large group of Pro-Life advocates lining the sidewalk with signs reading, “Abortion kills babies” and, “Abortion is murder”. As a Christian, I would consider myself to be Pro-Life, yet I was deeply offended by the approach taken by this…
42Ks in 42 Days
Okay, so I lied. Last time I ran on the treadmill I said it would be the last time, but here I am again, writing about another trip to the gym. I apologize for this grievous lapse in judgment, and I assure you it won’t happen again. How did this happen? Well, after my superb…
42Ks in 42 Days
My gym bag smells terrible. Actually, let’s clarify: My backpack smells terrible. It’s an old, blue piece of ECMA swag I picked up in 2002, and ever since then it’s been carrying a wide array of dirty gym clothes – wet shoes, damp socks, sweaty shorts and ratty old tops. It’s gotten to the point…
Letters to the Editor
In a Province that was the birthplace of Reasonable Government, I am surprised that we are talking about turning a portion of Argyle Street into a parking lot for our venerable City Councillors. Actually that’s a lie; this doesn’t surprise me at all. About 8 years ago I had the chance to meet a fine…
42Ks in 42 Days
Let’s get one thing straight: I hate treadmills. Don’t get me wrong, I find them handy – in fact, I run on a treadmill more than I run outside – but there’s something about working hard and going nowhere that hits way too close to home. If there’s something good on TV while I am…
Last Film Fest item of the year
Ten days of movies, panels, Bob Weinstein sightings and buzz culminated in a round of back-patting on September 22 when the Atlantic Film Festival handed out its annual awards. The gala short Punch-Up at a Wedding, a remarkably dense narrative touching on the bride, groom and trouble-causer at the event, cleaned up with three nods.…
Rolling report
The Common was the best place to feel like you weren’t in Halifax last weekend, with a massive stage, bleachers and numerous concession tents materializing on previously familiar territory. About the only reminder you lived nearby were the sheets of rain. Halifax-bred group Sloan represented the east with a short set before a longer (and…
Rolling for dollars
The Rolling Stones have come and gone, but a few local business owners are still buzzing over their surprise rendezvous with several Stones band members. Lil MacPherson, co-founder of the Wooden Monkey, received a frenzied phone call Friday afternoon from her business partner telling her Stones guitarist Ron Wood and his wife would be dining…
Mud bowl
When throwing a house party, there is usually a direct correlation between how many guests you invite, and how shitty your house looks the next day. If you invite 10 people, someone might break a beer bottle or two. If you invite 30 people, your older, flimsier furniture may be at risk. If you invite…
Gone to the dogs
No one on the street cares about organized crime, former Halifax Regional Police chief David McKinnon told me in 2000. People care about dangerous dogs. It was a moment of hyperbole easily understood—most people care more about the little things that affect their lives every day than the big issues. I was interviewing McKinnon (who…
I was an internet addict
///1.///////////////////// The supercomputer is as big as a room, eats punch cards, spits out tickertape and is bent on world domination. It knows all there is to know. Thankfully, paradox makes it explode. Ka-blooey. Or this: The astronaut’s broken body, stitched with circuitry, patched with polymer and steel. Man-machine. Better. Stronger. Faster. And when his…
Shir thing
Nestled on the end of Hollis, just around the corner from South Street, sits the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it home of Persian take-out, Shiraz. Miss it if you’re colour blind , that is, for the formerly stark white home of a car rental agency is now a striking royal purple that makes the little “Lego block” building a…
Jill Barber’s legacy
In the history of popular music, only a small percentage of performers have left behind a memorable body of work. While there are a few artists, albums and singles considered classic, most recorded music is inevitably lost in time, relegated to dusty attics, mouldy basements, or, if lucky, the occasional spin on the oldies station.…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Unpucker your heart, Cancer, says Rob Brezsny.
SAVAGE LOVE
Dan Savage takes on feminists, dater-haters and thought police.
Royal relevance
The formidable cast of this year’s first major Oscar grab, All the King’s Men, stretches across a platform on the fourth floor of Toronto’s Sutton Place Hotel. The line begins with Patricia Clarkson and ends with legendary producer Mike Medavoy. In between are Mark Ruffalo, Kate Winslet, writer-director Steven Zaillian, James Gandolfini and Sean Penn,…
Reviews
The Journals of Knud Rasmussen For starters, the title is a bit of a misnomer. One could be forgiven for thinking of it as some kind of biopic of the storied Danish explorer and his Greenland and Northwest Passage adventures. In fact, the film drops the audience into the Inuit culture of the early 20th…
Accident prone
The death of a bricklayer at a construction site in Lower Sackville this week followed a familiar and disturbing pattern. The worker fell four metres from a scaffold, hit his head and died. The provincial labour department then ordered his employer, Darim Masonry of Bedford, to ensure that the scaffolding and guardrails were installed properly.…
Book mobile
On September 28, as weary rush-hour travellers inch towards Pearson Airport along the congested Highway 401 in Toronto, their choice of scenery will no longer be limited to flashing rearview lights and gaudy electronic billboards , thanks in part to Halifax artist Ilan Sandler and Velocity, a Burnside machining and welding company. Sandler, also director…
Seeing green
The planet is heating up. Oil is running out. Fish stocks are in decline. And human population is still on the rise. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that—ready or not—something has to change. In fact, says Karl-Henrik Robèrt, every individual can understand “we’re running out of resources at a global level.” But…
