Seven months after Halifax’s Commonwealth Games bid collapsed, there still hasn’t been full disclosure of the records of the Halifax 2014 Bid Society, the non-governmental organization put together to pursue the Commonwealth Games. Neither has there been public discussion of the decision-making process that led to the demise of Halifax’s bid. So how are we […]
longreads
Posted inArts + Music
Flying circus
In a day and age when a lot of marriages don’t last 10 years, it is pretty remarkable that an ensemble theatre company, the kind of collective that’s likely to be a hot-bed of creative passions and potential clashes, is entering its 10th anniversary season. But Zuppa Circus Theatre, one of Halifax’s most cutting-edge theatre […]
Posted inFood + Drink
The farming industrial complex
Why food trucked in from all over the continent gets priced lower than Nova Scotia’s organic strawberries
Posted inArts + Music
General excellence
It’s August 2006, and Toronto producer Laszlo Barna is sitting on a couch in the stately foyer of Shirreff Hall at Dalhousie University, leaning forward as sunlight dapples through the windows behind him. He’s keeping his voice down in consideration of his film crew shooting a scene one room over, the spaghetti strands of electrical […]
Posted inArts + Music
The sensation
“I’ve been in this business 17 years. It’s not like I was an accountant and two years ago I thought, “Oh I’m going to make a film now.’” Sitting in a south end coffee shop on a warm August day, Chaz Thorne is rolling his eyes at the prospect of his “overnight” success. If you […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The prophet in Clayton Park
On the morning of September 11, 2001, a family doctor named Bill Deagle was driving his two older sons—Matthew, 16, and Stephen, 14—to Chatfield, their charter high school in Littleton, Colorado, a couple of miles from their home, when he heard the first confused, confusing, stuttering reports on the radio. A plane has crashed into […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Planning for the worst
On a chilly March morning outside the Hester Street Food Bank, two men load mismatched plastic bags of groceries into the back of a police cruiser. They climb into the back seat. There’s no cage in this car, they joke. The officer driving laughs, says, “No, we’re the touchy-feely guys.” Every Wednesday morning constable Randy […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The young and the restless
Teens call it the “Darkside.” The name may call to mind visions of Star Wars, but no imperial storm troopers patrol this area of Dartmouth North, bounded by Halifax Harbour, the Albro Lakes, the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge and Highfield Park. In their place, groups of young people wander the streets wearing hoodies and blue […]
Posted inArts + Music
The Hollywood shuffle
Music fell because it was destined to. And until the digital age, the format wasn’t the point. Records were released on vinyl first, which morphed to a clunky version of the cassette, the 8-track, which was eliminated completely upon the popularization of tapes, which are now novelty items in a sea of CDs. (Before Sam’s […]
Posted inArts + Music
The two Joels
The Joel Plaskett Emergency is set to go on stage in five minutes. Outside, at Alderney Landing in Dartmouth, roughly 3,000 fans wait patiently in the unseasonable chilly July fog. This is the band’s first hometown gig in support of its latest record, Ashtray Rock, a semi-autobiographical album of teenage love and music set in […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Fish tanking
One of the great joys of living in Nova Scotia is sampling the endless supply of fresh seafood, fresh from the wharf to the table. Right? Well, maybe not. It turns out a lot of what’s sold at local supermarkets and restaurants is caught or farmed far away and shipped here frozen. Some of it […]