“No! Don’t fucking move me, bitch!” Those are the first and almost the only words Jane will say at the Valley Hospice. It makes the nurse laugh, as she and three paramedics lift her into the air above the gurney and over to the hospital bed. That the nurse goes in for a hug next […]
Obituary
Posted inNews + Opinion
Journalist Robert Devet remembered as champion of the people
Simon de Vet remembers his dad considering retirement about a decade ago. “He was a little worried that he’d be sitting around the house all day,” says Simon, a first-year physics professor at Dalhousie University. “He was a little hesitant to retire early.” His father, Robert Devet—who styled their Dutch surname slightly differently—had been working […]
Posted inArts + Music
Garry Neill Kennedy, the artist who put NSCAD on the map, dies at 86
Garry Neill Kennedy, the conceptual artist and educator who revolutionized the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, passed away Sunday morning in Vancouver at the age of 86. Kennedy spent the last seven years of his life in British Columbia, where he moved to teach at UBC with his partner, artist Cathy Busby, after […]
Posted inArts + Music
Jerry Granelli, iconic drummer and teacher, dies in Halifax
Jerry Granelli, the luminary jazz drummer and improvisational musician, passed away today at his home in Halifax. He was 80. Although Granelli spent two months in hospital earlier this year, he had recovered and was able to give an “Art in Everyday Life” workshop at Halifax Jazz Festival on Sunday, with another workshop booked for […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Remembering Liz Feltham
Liz Feltham was my Snuffleupagus. Though unlike Big Bird, I was the person who didn’t get to see her. I was sad to learn that she died, succumbing to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis on Monday, October 15. She was living in Victoria with her husband, Mike, and had been blogging about the disease as it progressed. […]
Posted inArts + Music
Gerald Ferguson’s legacy
New York-based conceptual painter and sculptor Rachel Beach manages to get one sentence in before choking up. “In terms of being influential on students that then go out into the world and have a certain idea about how art gets made,” she says, “there’s no other influence that’s had any single larger effect than the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Muriel Duckworth at peace
Muriel Helena Ball Duckworth died on August 22. The legendary peace activist was visiting her beloved cottage in Magog, Quebec, built when she was four years old. She had a gentle fall and was taken to hospital. She said she was ready to go, and did, surrounded by friends and family. “She lived a wonderful, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Muriel Duckworth dies
Longtime Halifax peace activist Muriel Duckworth has died. Her family sends the following short obituary: Muriel Helena Duckworth, 1908-2009. Surrounded by her family, she died with dignity and grace on August 22, 2009. With love and respect we bid farewell to our mother, grandmother, great grandmother, friend and champion of peace and justice. We will […]
Posted inArts + Music
In Memory: John Hughes
John Hughes’ movies end with freeze frames. These are moments (Bender thrusting his fist in the air in The Breakfast Club; Samantha kissing her dream boy in Sixteen Candles; Ferris Bueller knowing he’s opened his best friend’s eyes; John Candy’s warm grin in Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Uncle Buck) where characters found the satisfaction […]
Posted inArts + Music
Best of John Hughes: film clips
Before he became the teen-screen king, Hughes wrote a little screenplay called Vacation, based on his short story, Vacation ’58. Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) became the oft-mimicked dad: well-intentioned, but screw-loosey. In every Hughes movie, there is always hope: Maybe, just maybe, fresh-breathed Farmer Ted will get with Samantha (who is gaga for Jaaaaaaaake) in […]