So I decided to go to Halifax for two days this week because I was told a return flight for $256 was a steal so, like a thief, I took it. It was nice feeling like a tourist again I must admit.
For those who don't know about Halifax it's the second largest sea port (largest is Sydney, Australia) dans Le Monde! It was an important stronghold for when Great Britain held power over it in the 1800s, so important that they built garrisons on THIS ISLAND (and also held Arcadians on there for being Arcadians in 1755) and other points in the harbour to protect it from attack.
AND to stop land attacks they built a giant fort on top of a hill! This guy tells us about it.
I also manage to find LITTLE HOUSES in the hill with a chimney? Perhaps they had SECRET gnome warriors in those houses...
Or perhaps they stored their ammunition in them... as I find out later to my disappointment.
So Halifax has a big and important history in Militia, trade, and the founding of Nova Scotia (which is Latin means New Scotland. When the French had control of it it was named Arcadie, hence the depositing all Arcadians for a while on that island above when the Brits had control. They had issues back then, Great Brit and France). BUT, they also have a very neat underground music scene, and luckily I got to catch a night of the Halifax Pop Explosion (H.P.E) while I was there! The H.P.E is pretty much 125 bands from Canada and abroad, I think mostly US, packed into 5 nights and 15 different places. Unfortunately I was tired most of those two days trying to fit heaps of things in and not getting enough sleep the night before leaving Weds morning. But it was still fun! The first night I was there I went to have dinner at the Economy Shoe Shop which is actually not what it sounds! It was a pretty nice restaurant, I had Salmon with a Pinot Gris and dessert, $35?! From what I've been used to so far that's a lot for one, it's a lot for one anyway. Most of the food there I found to be more pricy than TO, so that's where most of my cash went! So I was going to go to the Coconut Grove for a 10pm show as part of the H.P.E. but it was still early so I decided to catch a show at the harbour for $3 which I was a little skeptical about, but it was nice. The girl was called Kate Quinn and she had a really soulful voice,very pretty. Her and her band played mostly variations of soul/blues covers and a few of their original stuff, by the end of it I was almost dozing off though so I had to get out of there! Crashed by about 11 so I missed seeing any explosions that first night.
The second night I caught a film called 6015 Willow about a house at that address, notorious in Halifax for being a creative house full of musicians and artists etc. Once they hosted the smallest B&B in their attic, and the smallest art gallery up there too. So basically, these two dudes who had lived in that house for about 6 years were moving out, and they deicided to leave with a bang SO they make this film with 20 Halifax bands playing in each room of the house including the bathroom and the tiny attic! It was pretty neat. About 11 members of the 20 bands had lived in that house at one point too, granted a few of the members were in multiple bands.
Afterwards I catch a few bands from the pop explosion playing who were pretty good. Boxer the Horse, The Rural Alberta Advantage, Rich Aucoin, Ghost Bees and Laura Barrett. I would go more into these guys, but I don't feel like it at the moment!
And that was pretty much my time in Halifax. It was a nice change from TO, had a nice small town feel to it. I couldn't notice very much of an accent that these guys are supposed to have, but then I didn't talk to that many people =p
So not much news aside from that this week, unless you want to hear about work dramas which aren't really so much dramas more than me bitching about Sam who's pretty much incompetent and annoying and unfortunately not fired. Ummmmm, aside from that I saw the Notwist play a couple weeks ago which was fun, check them out (www.deezer.com, your new favourite site!) and that's where I learnt about touques and how I should have one for winter (touques I thought were spelt touks and they're pretty much those hats with the earflaps on them as I found out earlier this week!) and I also went to:
ImagineNATIVE which is an aboriginal film festival from many places around the world including NZ! So I saw a few films last week which were pretty awesome, and went to the music one too where they played Tiki Taane! Yay. He totally got an honourable mention at the awards for it. They also had 3 artists with natives in them playing live and they were pretty fun too. But OMG I was dancing to Derek Miller and this dude comes up behind me and starts punching me in the back! I was so confused. I turned around and I stare at him like wtf dude but he keeps going NOT COOL! So I move and he follows and I'm like srsly, if you don't stop that I'm going to hurt you fortunately he did, weirdest moment ever.
Most of last week I went out every night which probably wasn't the best idea but it was great! I went to a number of films as part of ImagineNative, learnt a few things about aboriginal history here in Canada (like how 10 years ago the Mayor of Oka in Quebec wanted to take Mohawk land and turn it into a golf course! I saw this amazing doco on the protest) and about this place in Russia that nobody knows much about. I met a couple of Elysse's friends, had authentic Israli hummus and I don't remember the last time I cooked dinner. I still have a pineapple to cut up from when I bought it a week ago. So I think I've pretty much caught up on everything so far, I skipped work stuff because it's probably boring, and yeah. This weekend I get to see Llamas play at the free cafe and I need to also work on a Halloween costume since now I have plans for that (thanks Helen for inviting me to these things! I have no idea what to wear!).
Groups that I have discovered recently/today that I might go see live:
Clap your hands say yeah
Broken social scene
Of Montreal
I also saw Okkervil River play a little while ago and they were amazing. I think I might have to go on a cd splurge sooooon... which also reminds me that APPARENTLY REAL GROOVY IS CLOSING DOWN and that makes me cry =(
Ok time for food! Should be more later. I'm getting better at this thing, 2 posts this month? wtf. It's almost November though! How silly is that?
xo.
