Reader strikes back
To the editor, It was refreshing to read Matthew Campbell’s letter on the CBC lockout (“Rock out with your lockout,” September 22). His writing skills should qualify him for a part-time position at the CBC once the lockout is settled. But the Canadian Media Guild would probably begrudge him that. The CBC workers seem to…
Still Jamming
To the editor, I’ve enjoyed reading your articles since I discovered The Coast existed and have always felt very satisfied with everything you write. I’ve enjoyed most bands and musical tastes The Coast has shared, but today I felt heart-dropping disappointment with the comment made against Pearl Jam in the TOC. I’m a fan of…
Pump up the Jam
Dear editor, I’d like to thank whoever writes the table of contents for the sensational statements about Pearl Jam last week. If you’re going to sling such tripe, shouldn’t you back it up? There wasn’t a single syllable to buttress those ridiculous assertions. Thanks for the journalistic hit-and-run. Pearl Jam is neither desperate nor “in…
Green as Moss
The craziest thing about CocaineGate 2005 is not that Kate Moss does cocaine. (Girl, please! Even if she weren’t a model, her boyfriend, Pete Doherty, is an honest-to-goodness crackhead!) It’s not even that she was photographed doing so (which was awesome). It’s that the waste-of-life fashion industry is pretending that this is an isolated case,…
Bragg brings the rock
A steady succession of Halifax ex-pats have been playing in clubs around the city for the past month, and October is starting off no different. Mt. Pearl, Newfoundland’s Mark Bragg will return to promote his sophomore album, Bear Music, on October 2 at Gus’ Pub. “I moved to Toronto after Halifax, but didn’t enjoy it…
New Growth
Bob and Lori’s Food Emporium at 2179 Gottingen will remain open, and it’s going back to regular hours of Monday to Friday from 8am to 4pm after Thanksgiving. “People have been incredibly understanding, and we’re very, very thankful,” says co-owner Bob Trenaman. “Nobody pushed us too hard.” Bob and Lori’s was closing early a few…
Dial tones
With the CBC lockout entering its sixth week, woeful fans have had plenty of time to assess what they miss the most from their public broadcaster. Because regional branches of CBC Radio are shut down across the country, original local programming has all but disappeared from the airwaves while day-to-day operations are handled out of…
Shelter storm
At 9am on a recent Friday morning, a motley band of 50 social activists and low income people-many of no-fixed-address pushed shopping carts down Spring Garden Road and shouted out their need for more affordable housing now. “Are shopping carts our national housing strategy?” asked a hand-lettered sign sticking up from one of the carts.…
Tried and Trews
The last time The Coast spoke with Antigonish natives The Trews, it was December of 2004. They were heading home to Canada for the holidays following 10 days of demo sessions in Austin, Texas with their friend and collaborator Gordie Johnson (Grady, ex-Big Sugar), who also produced the band’s gold-selling smash, House of Ill Fame.…
Shacked up
Tom Wilson and Bob Lanois will forever be distinguished as founding fathers of their hometown’s rich and influential musical history. Citing the differences in their reputations, however, one could accurately describe the Hamilton, Ontario, natives’ recent collaboration as surprising. Wilson is known as the notorious party animal behind several critically acclaimed roots-rock projects including Junkhouse…
Feeding frenzy
We watch our southern neighbours get pummeled by the likes of Rita and Katrina with new empathy, new understanding and a new respect for the force of these storms that we once thought could not happen here. Juan did not come ashore two years ago with the same fury as these girls did, but essential…
Death and the king
The reign of Yazdgerd III, king of Persia from 632 to 637 AD, is not an enviable one by any standard. In his first year, Yazdgerd’s kingdom was invaded by Arab armies. Then, they occupied his capital city of Ctesiphon, forcing Yazdgerd to go into exile in 637 AD. Fourteen years later, he was tracked…
On a roll
“Um, this may sound strange, but have you seen a…” The painter cuts off the question in mid-sentence, as he leans over his scaffolding and opens a pack of Players. Using a fresh cigarette as a pointer, he nods, “The giant ball? It rolled that way, towards the Commons.” By the time the ball—which isn’t…
Locked in
“We’ve just put an offer on the table.” So begins the full page ad in the Globe and Mail (my colleague Tod Maffin reports that such ads cost about $63,000) on Day 45 of the CBC lockout. It’s going to create a lot of talk, this ad. People are going to think it means a…
Part 1: Getting out
“Some people got lost in the flood, some people got away alright.”—Randy Newman, “Louisiana 1927” New Orleans is gone. I left it behind me on Saturday, with my two kids in the backseat, the soundtrack to Shrek on the CD player. My wife, a pediatrician, was on call for the weekend and stayed behind. She…
Weekend warriors
Seeing a genuinely Canadian film was one of the real pleasures of the Atlantic Film Festival. The CBC keeps telling us we want to see our own stories told, but there is precious little evidence of that at the multiplex. Aside from the booming homegrown film industry in Quebec, Canadians just don’t seem to be…
Part 2: City of the dead
“I can’t go back there,” says my wife, Tami, talking on the cell phone. We’re driving from Carencro into Lafayette to find an insurance office and check out the food stamp line. She listens to the caller, a friend of mine from high school. “That would be great,” Tami says. They’re talking about Minneapolis. Every…
Crash of the titan
“My ego is too huge to not do something that has some impact on our culture,” said Jodie Foster in a 1997 interview, in which she also said, “I keep being in the same movie over and over again. Nobody realizes it but me.” Eight years later, one notion has fed the other to profoundly…
Part 3: Just a little while to stay here
Lafayette, Louisiana She just stares at me, the Iowan volunteer. Silver and green Mardi Gras beads drape around her neck. She pushes a blank form across the table. “It’s been a long day,” she says. Sitting next to her, another volunteer quickly smiles. “Welcome,” she says. “You came to the right place.” I tell them…
Post production
The festival is finished. For a little while, Halifax felt like a city unconditionally in love with the movies, whether a potential blockbuster starring Jennifer Lopez or an obscure international co-production no one on these shores is liable to ever see again. The Park Lane cinemas were clogged with line-ups as cinema-goers waited for the…
Part 4: The new New Orleans
“Why is this our problem?” I say this to Cindy. My family and I have been in her home in Carencro, Louisiana, about 150 miles west of New Orleans, for a month now. I say this to her when she brings up the matter of the various children in our evacuee household, trying to plan…
Y
“When the RCMP took me away that day, they said ‘Don’t come back here, Mrs. King. If you come back here, next time we see you, you’ll be in a body bag.’” And Donna King didn’t go back to her abusive husband that day, or any other. Instead, she went first to emergency shelter Bryony…
An ounce of prevention
It’s been 25 years since the Terry Fox Marathon of Hope and still the hype continues. The dogged one-legged athlete hobbled halfway across Canada in 1980 before he had to abandon his marathon after cancer spread to his lungs. Fox died 10 months later, only 22. Since then, millions of runners have collected hundreds of…
Back to the land
They found the remains of Alicia Ross last week. Twenty-five and missing for a month from her home in Markham, Alicia’s remains were scattered around picturesque cottage country on a lake near Coboconk, Ontario. Three days before, it was Jennifer Teague. Eighteen and missing 11 days since she left the night shift at Wendy’s and…
Roll Bounce
It’s easy to lose hope when theatres get overrun by heavily promoted flight plans and wedding crashers, exorcised epileptics, guys wasting their lives gardening and something advertised as being like heaven that’s closer to two hours in purgatory. But we should keep watch of the movies being thrown on screens without fanfare. Arriving without much…
