It was a slip that started it all. A moment of carelessness that, had the planets been aligned differently, may have had few consequences beyond bruises and a couple days of walking around with a limp. But it was not Wayne Lalonde’s lucky day, and when he fell down a flight of stairs while moving […]
longreads
Posted inLifestyle
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 […]
Posted inArts + Music
Going home
In 1988 a teenaged boy from Dartmouth named George Stamos won the MT&T award for choreography. It’s all been uphill from there. Not necessarily for the Maritime Telegraph and Telephone company (which merged to form Aliant in 1999), but for Stamos, who has since performed throughout Europe, US and Canada, working as both a dancer […]
Posted inArts + Music
Follow me home
Although it’s 7:30am, not a trace of morning grogginess is detectable in Camelia Frieberg’s voice on the phone. In Toronto for the opening of the Toronto International Film Festival, it’s the only time she has free for an interview. Lively and talkative, Frieberg speaks enthusiastically about her recent venture as a first-time feature-film director. “Recreating […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Faking it
It’s a busy Saturday night at a downtown club. The evening is cool and there’s a whiff of fall in the air. A gaggle of young women in night-club-requisite tight jeans and high heels approaches the club. One of the women is decked out in a tiara and veil. Working the door, Geoff Thompson is […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Cooking with fire
Moving out on your own sounds great…usually right up until it’s time for your first supper in your new home. Turns out that living on your own means cooking for yourself too, and it doesn’t take long for a grumbly tummy or a hungry housemate to pose that immortal question: “Hey good lookin’, what’cha got […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Rule the school
Kathryn LaurinMount Saint Vincent University Leading a university draws on the same skills as conducting a classical orchestra, according to the recently installed president of Mount Saint Vincent University. “Conductors are great communicators, verbally and non-verbally,” explains Kathryn Laurin, when asked to identify the top quality a conductor at the podium and a president in […]
Posted inArts + Music
Majestic mystery tour
Brian O’Reilly is showing off what he calls his “apartment.” Standing in the kitchen of Just Friends collective co-founders Dave Ewenson and Brent Randall, Their Majesties’ frontman points out a sleeping bag rolled up at one end of the kitchen pantry. “That’s my bedroom,” he says. “That’s the computer room, that’s the living room”—an unplugged […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The last best hope
Tom Martin wasn’t “full.” Not yet. He could still remember what Frank Hoskins, Sr., the legendary Halifax cop, used to tell the younger guys: No matter how much you love this job, he’d say, one day you’re gonna wake up and know you’re full. The first time Frank had said that, Martin was just a […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Methology
Let’s begin with the simplest fact there is about crystal methamphetamine in Halifax: it’s not here. The Halifax Regional Police Service has never arrested anybody for possession of the drug, a powerful stimulant that’s sold in rock form like crack and can be smoked in a pipe or, when it’s in powder form, eaten, snorted […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Something in the air
Andrew Wright is a brave man. On a sultry June day, the manager of Chebucto Community Net is scaling ladders to the highest part of the roof of Fenwick Tower, Halifax’s tallest building, sussing out the best spot for an antenna. He’s rolled his blue shirt sleeves high up his thick arms. A white Chebucto […]
Posted inArts + Music
The destruction, rebuilding, vindication and progression of Lindsay Willow
Lindsay Willow is not who you think she is. For one thing, she’s not a jock; she’s a gym teacher, in part because she couldn’t imagine being stuck in a classroom all day. She’s a lesbian too. And she didn’t molest 17-year old Nadia Ibrahim, although that was the misguided allegation of John Orlando in […]