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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 shouldn’t be taking this long. This week at council, staff presented a progress update on efforts to address widespread racism within city hall’s workforce, as documented in the 2016 Employment Systems Review. The update on that external consultant’s report comes more than two years since its completion and nine months after Peninsula North councillor Lindell…
It’s been seven—maybe 10—years since Neptune Theatre has had a Props and Costumes Sale but this weekend its ready to part ways with some treasures. “It’s a dusty old job but we have to make room. We have a new artistic director with different ideas and different tastes and we have to make him some…
“There’s just this biological thing, you feel a little crispness overnight and it’s like, ‘I need something a little soothing, a warm hug. It’s like our version of hygge or something,” says Laura Draeger of the tendency to usher in autumn (sometimes prematurely) with a little bit of nutmeg. Or, you know, pumpkin spice season.…
When Waffle Love turned off its iron last October, it wasn’t because it wanted to. The sale of its Hydrostone building left the business owners locationless—until now. “I think we saw every retail space in Halifax,” says co-owner Ania Benko. This Friday Saturday (there were some technical issues) she and Matt Webb will re-open their…
My parents married during the Great Depression. After the 1929 market collapse, people had to learn to make do, help each other out and live on meagre incomes. Those times were seared into my parents’ attitudes and values. Although we were all born and raised in Canada, my family was seen as the enemy during…
Mayor Mike Savage isn’t sure what sort of impact Jacob Ritchie’s departure from city hall will have on the long-delayed Centre Plan. The urban planner has been shepherding the new planning bible through a slow, often delayed approval process for the past few years. But this week he’ll be leaving city hall behind to head…
That’s what I wish I said. you were so sweet, you chatted with me, took my photo at Dal O Week and I froze. You made me laugh. You were so kind and cute, but I froze. I don’t even remember your name, just that your hand tattoo said Love. I wish I didn’t freeze…
To the progressive and eager father in Lawrencetown: Yeah, I know, it’s the third day of school and you have something to prove. But don’t stand on the edge of your driveway on the blind crest and jump out at me, flailing your arms with panic written all over your face, just because I’m doing…
Why must you sing at the top of your lungs at 3:30am? I know the acoustics are great on an empty downtown street, but your signing is not. It’s a school night. Go to bed.—Old man shaking fist at the clouds
1. Show-offs of shitty cars with loud mufflers at all times of day. 2. Dudes with motorcycles speeding downtown with loud mufflers. Why, tho. 3. Dudes idling and revving engines near apartment buildings in the middle of the night. 4. Dudes shouting, roughhousing and trying to one-up each other outside of apartment buildings late at…
Every summer, I have to endure you fucking cultural morons and your endless commenting about how I ‘have such a nice tan!’ It’s my natural fucking colour. I am biracial. I get yellowish in winter and when I get the tiniest bit of sun in the summer, I get brown because I AM BIRACIAL AND…
To Captain America: Thanks for the fun night of dancing to Hip songs, you were awesome!—The girl who didn’t believe it was you
Did you know that no one makes a pickup truck in Canada? Sure, you small-car or take-the-bus-types might be happy, but think about it for moment. The pickup truck is almost iconic for the working class in Canada. We use it at work. We use it at home. We make fences, haul gravel, move grandma’s…
[IMAGE-1] It’s time to say goodbye to summer and hello to autumn. But before we do that, we all need one more W.T.F. or “Where’s The Fun” shenanigan in New Brunswick. Could you find festivities closer to Halifax? Probably. But no one does eccentric and fun like New Brunswick. Get out of your funk, leave…
The 2018 Halifax Fringe is over for another year and countless hardworking artists, volunteers and audience members can finally get a good night’s sleep. The 28th year of the festival saw over $45,000 in box office sales with 6,000+ tickets purchased. Get your final fix with a few last reviews and a complete list of…
The (almost) original cast of CBC’s groundbreaking television hit, Street Cents, have reunited for the first time in 25 years. Jonathan Torrens, Jamie Bradley, Benita Ha and Brian Heighton (AKA Ken Pompadour) are this week’s guests on 25 for 25. The three original cast members and Torrens (who replaced host Chris Lydon after three episodes)…
I have a family member in the Burnside prison. I’ve watched the peaceful protest out of Burnside unfold with a touch of hope and optimism. But the statement given by Justice minister Mark Furey makes me angry, frustrated and tired. Our provincial government has shown that it does not want to be held accountable: not…
Congratulations to Rick Mehta on what will surely be a windfall for his personal brand. The associate psychology professor has been fired by Acadia University after an investigation into multiple complaints about his sexist, racist and transphobic comments. Scott Roberts, spokesperson for Acadia, confirms to The Coast that the professor has been let go. “We…
A new staff report recommends Halifax continue its prohibition for all types of smoking on public property—that is if the city ever wants to be successful in prosecuting cannabis users. City council passed new bylaw amendments back in July outright banning smoking and vaping on municipal property outside of specially designated smoking areas. The motion…
Matt Whitman doesn’t want you to get the wrong impression about his support for Toronto’s most prominent white-nationalist mayoral candidate. “Retweeting for a friend. Stay calm,” writes Whitman in a retweet from earlier this week of Lindsay Shepherd’s March 22 Macleans story, “Why I invited Faith Goldy to Laurier.” The Hammonds Plains–St. Margarets councillor has since…
After weeks without comment, Nova Scotia’s justice minister has issued a response to the ongoing prisoner protest at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility. In an op-ed sent out Thursday afternoon, Mark Furey says that correctional facilities “can be challenging places to live and work,” but that the province is respecting and protecting the rights…
The Extinction of Hong Kongers By Theatre du Poulet As we reach the end of a remarkable Fringe season, Theatre du Poulet comes at you late in the game with a mega-award contender. The Extinction of Hong Kongers is an interactive, historical tour-de-force about a place and people most Westerners don’t much about. I, your…
Can’t catch a flight this weekend? Get the next best thing as global offerings like the eats at Italian Weekend, the A-grade performers at the Experience China Gala and the English football vibes at the HFX Derby fill the coming days. Experience China Gala Sunday The Halifax Chinese Festival kicks off with a luxe bang…
Senior Shambhala leaders are now speaking out against Buddhist Project Sunshine and the multiple reports of sexual abuse that have been published over the past several months. The third report in that series of grassroots investigations, which documents several allegations of sexual assault over a period of decades, arrived on August 23 in a blaze…
Opposition parties in Nova Scotia plan to put an end to conversion therapy. Nova Scotia’s New Democratic Party is putting forward a bill as early as this week to end the payment of medical professionals who bill the province for the discredited and harmful practice. The bill, which will also cover gender identity protections, essentially…
Joseph Howe said that “if you take any Nova Scotian away…where he cannot view the Atlantic, smell salt water or see the sail of a ship, the man will pine and die.” Howe connected Nova Scotia by print and rail, secured responsible government and acted as an eloquent spokesperson for the province. He was also…
As anyone who’s ever pounded the pavement (or keyboard) in search of employment knows, job hunting can be a profoundly dispiriting exercise. For the nearly four million Canadians who’ve served sentences meted out to them by the criminal justice system, there’s an additional barrier. Canadians with criminal records have little protection from discrimination by potential…
Q I’m a cis woman in my mid-40s, and my significant other has a cuckolding fetish. My first response was “Oh, hell no!” But if I’m willing to have a threesome, how much further of a stretch is it, really? He does have some experience with this varsity-level kink, so he knows what to expect.…
Thu Sep 6-Fri Sep 7, 8pm The Pit, University of King’s College 6350 Coburg Road, pwyc “I heard this podcast and they have an episode all about how doors are really forgettable—a good door should be entirely forgettable,” says Zach Greenham. “Anytime there’s a door and you have to figure out how it works—that’s a bad…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Virgo (Aug 23-Sep 22) By volume, the Amazon is the largest river in the world. But where does it originate? Scientists have squabbled about that issue for over 300 years. Everyone agrees the source is in southwestern Peru. But is it the Apurímac River? The Marañón? The Mantaro? There are good arguments in…
Thu Sep 6, 11:30pm; Sat Sep 8, 3:30 & 10:45pm; Sun Sep 9, 2:45pm The Old Company Theatre 2202 Gottingen Street, $8 On a sunny Saturday afternoon, Brandon Lorimer sits waiting in the Bus Stop Theatre lobby wearing an eye patch. Maybe he’s in character: Somewhere between Brandon Lorimer and Brandon Voyeur, his performative alter ego…
Thu Sep 6, 10pm; Fri Sep 7, 9:30pm; Sun Sep 9, 7:30pm The Old Pool Hall Theatre 6050-6070 Almon Street, pwyc Chun Shing Roland Au and Carmen Lee met in their performing arts school in Hong Kong and immediately felt a collaborative chemistry. Together they moved to Ireland, then to Montreal and then to Halifax, where…
Live Comedy Album Recording Sat Sep 8, 9:30pm; Sun Sep 9, 1pm The Bus Stop Theatre, 2203 Gottingen Street, $10/$7 She Wolf Thu Sep 6, 5:30pm; Fri Sep 7, 10:30pm; Sat Sep 8, 2:30pm; Sun Sep 9, 11:30am The Bus Stop Theatre, $15/$12 Gillian English has a lot to say and she talks fast. Having…
Fri Sep 7, 9pm; Sat Sep 8, 4pm; Sun Sep 9, 2:30pm The Bus Stop Theatre 2203 Gottingen Street, $10/$7 “This show talks about things you don’t talk about in public,” says Natasha Adiyana Morris. In addition to writing and directing The Negroes Are Congregating, she is the founder and director of Piece of Mine Arts,…
Landlords & weed I read your article on apartments’ strict policies on pot smoking (“Cannabis patient worried about finding a place to rent in Halifax,” The City story by Sandra C. Hannebohm, August 9). Do not expect any sympathy from me. I know people who suffer from sciatic nerve problems or fibromyalgia, but I do…
[IMAGE-1] Thu Sep 6, 9:10pm; Sat Sep 8, 8pm The Old Company Theatre, 2202 Gottingen Street, $10/$7 When Tyler (Tsholo Khalema) meets Bob (Mihaly Szabados), the attraction is instant. Bob has lost someone and Tyler’s art speaks to the pain. Meanwhile Tyler’s friend Jill (Karla Rae James), who has transitioned quite late in life, is…
Thu Sep 6, 7pm; Fri Sep 7, 6pm; Sat Sep 8, 11am & 10pm; Sun Sep 9, 12:30pm The Waiting Room, 6040 Almon Street $10/$7 Veronica Steele and Charlotte Weeks have spent the summer driving from London, Ontario with their show Wicked Fountain of Youth, a portrait of a teenager (Weeks) with fetal alcohol syndrome.…
Oh Crap, My Scarf! Thu Sep 6, 7pm; Sun Sep 8, 5:30pm The Bus Stop Theatre 2203 Gottingen Street, $7 Herbie Dragons Thu Sep 6, 8pm; Fri Sep 7, 7:30pm; Sat Sep 8, 1 & 8pm; Sun Sep 9, 5:30 & 8:30pm The Bus Stop Theatre, $10 Kevin Hartford is having a busy Fringe: Oh Crap,…
Fri Sep 7-Sun Sep 9, 7:30 & 8:30pm St. Matthew’s Church 1479 Barrington Street, $10/$7 After the show, the performers from Liminal Flight are buzzing with energy. Maybe from the energy of the crowd, from having done incredible things with their bodies, or from a sense of accomplishment that comes with mounting a new performance. “We…
