Through the ribbon of glass running along one wall in Halifax Regional Police chief Frank Beazley’s office, a rainbow flag is visible, draped on an apartment balcony. The icon sits perfectly off the shoulder of deputy chief Chris McNeil, who’s borrowing his boss’s office while he’s away. Dressed casually, a blue HRP pin on the […]
longreads
Posted inArts + Music
The march of progress
Ian McKinnon has been going to gay pride parades on and off for the past 26 years. For the last three years, it’s been “off.” Lacking substance. Middle-class conservative. Normal. These are the words he and others use to describe the parade—not just the Halifax Pride parade, but gay pride parades in general. Pride parades […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The silent killers
It’s closing time at a Halifax bar and in the parking lot a fight breaks out. It’s over in seconds and the combatants scatter, except for the one they leave behind, the one they say started it all. The last they know, he’s on the ground, but they don’t think they’ve killed the guy. But […]
Posted inArts + Music
Falling slowly
I love the idea of when somebody describes something to me, and I’m like OK, will I go because my girlfriend wants to go or because a group is going?” says John Carney, the Irish writer-director. “And then I go and I’m really happily surprised. It’s word of mouth. If people go and they don’t […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Land of the flee
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Spring 2005 Finally, the gates to the Old Burial Ground on Barrington Street are open. Just inside, there’s a map showing who’s buried where, so it takes just two minutes to find him. He’s got a box grave—one of those above-ground concrete boxes about the size of a coffin. It’s a […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The 17-Tonne Challenge
By now everyone has heard about global warming, and all but a few deluded denialists and oil company shills accept the overwhelming scientific consensus that it is a real threat to the future of the planet. The rest of us seem to dodge around the problem. We think somebody will invent a miracle technology that […]
Posted inArts + Music
Coney island
The roller coaster creaks under our weight while it pulls us slowly up into the sky. There’s a chain underneath our seats. I can hear it clicking. Click click click. I would feel better if this structure was metal, but it isn’t. And the wood is creaking all around us. People are seriously injured on […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
A matter of principle
This is a story about a man and an idea, an idea that became a story, a story that became a media circus and the important issue that got lost in all of that. We’ll start with the man. Physically, Wade Smith towers an inch taller than the six feet St. Francis Xavier University’s online […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Chasing Amy
Amy Lee Collins had to go to the hospital. But she didn’t want to. She hated hospitals. So she said to the two friends she’d been spending the day with at her North Park Street basement apartment, “I’m fine. I’m fine.” She had already had one seizure. Then there was another. Then, in time, another. […]
Posted inArts + Music
7-up
While you read, listen to a few tracks by Gypsophilia off their new album Minor Hope. The name is a tip-off. Then take a single good look at the seven-piece called Gypsophilia and you’ll get a sense of what you’re in for. It’s a gang of players, dressed in the best vintage clothing local thrift […]
Posted inLifestyle
Game on
Tuesday night in Dartmouth, lacrosse is booming. Literally. In the hollow, echoey guts of Bowles Arena, a barn-like hockey rink hidden deep in the outskirts of Dartmouth, lacrosse sounds like a series of small explosions. Twelve players, along with coach Norman Hum, have gathered to practice on the arena’s ice surface—with the ice temporarily removed. […]
Posted inArts + Music
Drop the needle
Quilts. Please don’t turn the page. I know quilts are not an easy sell. While they’re comfortable to snuggle in, or remind you of your grammy, no one could have predicted that an exhibition of quilts would break museum attendance records across the United States, or be declared by Michael Kimmelman, chief critic for the […]