As I pulled onto the highway on my Harley Davidson in the early morning fog of June 13, I had a particular David Mann painting in mind. It’s called “Ghost Rider.” It shows a lone biker rolling down a highway, his hair whipped by the wind. Running beside him is the ghost of a cowboy […]
longreads
Posted inNews + Opinion
Mean Streets
THE ATTACK Wednesday, October 27, 2004 It was nearly two o’clock in the morning, and Devlin Kerry was out of cigarettes. A non-smoker likely would have ignored a late-night attack of the munchies and gone to bed, or decided he could live without breakfast cereal or milk in his coffee the next day. But for […]
Posted inArts + Music
The stills
It’s easy to pick out photographer David Cieplinski as he turns the corner from the parking lot behind St. Antonio’s Hall on Hunter Street. A camera bag, adorned with a colour wash of rock pins, straddles one shoulder. A palm-sized silver digital camera is hitched onto his belt, clipped alongside a mini-flashlight and a vintage […]
Posted inArts + Music
Out and about
The side yard of the Parker home is a pleasant escape from the bustle of the city. Despite being located on one of Halifax’s busiest streets, the vine-wrapped gate at the side of the house leads into a lush green garden surrounded by high fences that manages to create the illusion of tranquility. But the […]
Posted inArts + Music
The Karen package
New York’s architecture is laid on an invisible foundation of stories. From Breakfast at Tiffany’s to Jonathan Lethem’s requiem for a Motherless Brooklyn, there are few cities in the world that have inspired as many tales of hope, love, loneliness and utter despair. Although it’s early in the morning, you can already hear evidence of […]
Posted inArts + Music
Goodspeed you! Jazz emperor
The afternoon’s as hot as Beelzebub’s hip pocket when musician Jeff Goodspeed shows up for a chat about what’s got him so stoked about Cuban jazz. His trio is playing a wedding reception in an hour. Which explains why, on a scorching day better suited for baggy shorts and flip-flops, he’s turned out in black […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Happy meter
It is not everyday that one hears a former prime minister declare that “the conventional development or economic growth paradigm is seriously flawed and delusional.” But that is exactly how Lyonpo Jigmi Thinley, Bhutan’s current home minister and former prime minister, opened his keynote speech at the Second International Conference on Gross National Happiness held […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Grounds zero
It used to be that coffee was just coffee. It came in a round tin with a plastic lid at the grocery store—regular, decaf or instant. It was a simple drink, sweetened up, mixed with creams or taken black. Sometimes it even gave you bad breath. But as more and more people are learning about […]
Posted inArts + Music
Going, going, Tong
Redemption is massive. It’s part and parcel of screenwriting 101. You put a guy in a tree, you throw sticks and rocks at him and then you get him down. You want to see him survive and get out of it.” Michael Dowse is talking up his movie, It’s All Gone Pete Tong, a new […]
Posted inArts + Music
Buck and change
Movie director Vincent Gallo saved Richard Terfry’s music career. Living in near-squalor in a run-down apartment above the Black Market on Grafton Street, Terfry found himself in a deep hole musically and emotionally. His latest release at the time, Man Overboard, seemed headed toward the same relative obscurity as his previous work and his mother […]
Posted inLifestyle
Ramping up
The history of the Halifax skateboard scene is not available at your local library. It cannot be found on some authoritative website, and there is no dark, musty vault somewhere collecting all of the names and dates that have shaped the local skate community for the past 20 years. But there is Tyler Knowlton’s scrapbox. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
About a boy
The Mother climbed into her red Dakota pickup truck and placed the key in the ignition. She was about to pull out of a parking lot at Bayer’s Lake Industrial Park in Halifax—she’d just spent the afternoon shopping with her mom—when her cell phone rang. She looked at the clock. 2:50 pm. She thought it […]