Joan MacDonald (in red pajamas at left) starred as an increasingly cranky Bethlehem innkeeper deprived of sleep by the continuous nocturnal arrival of pregnant guests, angels, shepherds, kings, and ultimately a baby in l'Arche Cape Breton's annual Christmas pageant, this year titled, "One Night at the Inn." The musical troop played to an appreciative crowd at the Strait Area Education and Recreation Centre in Port Hawkesbury Sunday afternoon. Coralee MacDougall (seated, centre) played Mary....

09 December, 2012

Meet Juan Manuel "Bebi" Chavez, 19-year-old cellist with the Lanfillharmonic Orchestra, Cateura, Paraguay: This cello was made from an oil can, and wood that was thrown away in the garbage. The pegs are made out of an old tool used to tenderize beef. This was used to make gnocchi. Like the Facebook group here. A longer version is here. H/T: Jenn Power....

09 December, 2012

Architect Oscar Niemeyer, who gave the planned city of Brasília its flair, died yesterday at 104. In tribute to him, filmmaker Gary Hustwit (Helvetica) just posted this excerpt from his 2011 film on urban design, Urbanized:  ...

06 December, 2012

[Video link] The presidential limo is a 1987 VW Bug. The presidential pooch has only three functioning legs. The presidential laundry hangs on the line, washed in water hauled from a well in the yard. The president himself, Jose Mujica, who won a landslide victory in Uraguay's 2009 election, carries six bullet wounds in his body, a legacy of his time with the Tupamaros guerrillas in the '60s and '70s. He also spent 14 years in a military prison, including two confined to the bottom of a well. Mujica donates 90 percent of his $144,000 annual salary to charity, bringing his effective income...

23 November, 2012

When this year's Nobel prizes were awarded last month, a Columbia University scientist offered a startling suggestion for how a country might win more of them. Eat more chocolate. Writing in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, cardiologist Franz Messerli reported his discovery that a nation's chocolate consumption is closely linked to the number of Nobel laureates it produces. Switzerland, with the highest chocolate consumption in the world, also has the most Nobels per capita. Canadian chocolate consumption turns out to be tragically modest, as is our production of nobel winners. The US easily edged us out on both counts, and still managed to fall well...

20 November, 2012

A couple of deft touches in Monday night's swearing-in ceremony for CBRM's new mayor and council hint at Cecil Clarke's potential to be a transformative mayor for the island's predominant municipality. [See update below.] [caption id="attachment_11065" align="alignleft" width="150"] Clarke[/caption] The first is a small thing: the musicians Clarke has chosen for the event are (1) young and (2) non-Celtic. This marks a departure from the cliched tartanism that usually dominates such affairs. Check out headliner Kyle Mischiek's rap-remix of "We are an Island" on YouTube and iTunes. The freshening up of a slightly dowdy Cape Breton chestnut will bring welcome symbolic value...

04 November, 2012

The lineup at an early-voting polling station in Columbus, Ohio, one of two democratic strongholds in what is thought to be the most critical swing state in Tuesday's US Presidential election. (Vis L.A. Times reporter Michael Finnegan.)...

04 November, 2012

The Nova Scotia Department of Community Services, which was unceremoniously stripped of responsibility for addiction recovery centres earlier this month, has quietly removed from its website its much criticized review of Cape Breton's Talbot House Recovery Centre. An electronic search failed to turn up a copy of the "report" — hatchet job would be a more accurate descriptor — anywhere on the gov.ns.ca website. Removal of the error-riddled document, and publication of the Talbot Board's point-by-point refutation, had been persistently sought by the beleaguered recovery center. As recently as July, Minister Denise Peterson-Rafuse insisted she stood by the review, saying it  it...

30 October, 2012

Before: After: Lisa Sutt captured this act of civic vandalism this morning on her way to Halifax's Seaport Market. "Brilliant," writes Lisa on her Facebook feed. "So much for history. A bright white stripe is so much better." See this tribute to a dying artform....

27 October, 2012
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