My granddaughter Kate's first birthday provided an opportunity to sample the newest addition to Nova Scotia's craft beer landscape. Big Spruce Beer, brewed on the Yankee Line in Nyanza, is perishable, and must be refrigerated. It is sold only at the brewery, and only in these 1.89 l. (2 US quart) jugs (which ensures its status as a sociable drink). It has a mild, hoppy edge, and compares favourably with the best offerings from Propeller or the Granite Brewery. Well done! UPDATE: Big Spruce will have launch parties at Governors Pub in Sydney on April 12th, and The Wooden Monkey in Dartmouth on...

07 April, 2013

From Halifax artist Shawna Mac:   [Click here for the full-sized image.] "I'm not very good with 'art talk,' " Shawna replied when I asked her what she was going for in this picture. "It just seems there is a lack of contemporary historical Canadian art. Most of the pictures being made these days are either derogatory, abstract, or pretty flowers and landscapes.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but someone should fill in the blanks.  I'm just glad I live in a country where I don't go to jail for it." To my undiscerning eye, the image imparts a schoolboy geekiness to...

05 April, 2013

A Contrarian reader recently added Pope Benedict XVI's new Twitter account to his Twitter feed. Whenever a user follows someone new, Twitter responds by suggesting a similar person they might also like to follow. Who is similar to His Holiness? Why Charlie Sheen, of course.   Ah the wonders of social technology. Twitter doesn't say exactly which qualities the pontiff and the thespian share. Surely not substance abuse or cohabitation with porn stars. Problems with anger management could be a possibility, but our money is on having children removed from your care for their own protection. H/T: SBD...

25 January, 2013

If you happen to be in Cape Breton Friday, the Cape Breton University Art Gallery will be hosting a public reception from 6 to 8 p.m. to kick off what promises to be intriguing art exhibit. In place of the gallery's traditional annual student-faculty show, ProlitariART is open to submissions from all comers. Here are two preview samples. First, a detail from a work by peripatetic Coxheath photographer Ashley Harding, called Doors of Rome: Second, a pen-and-ink drawing by l'Arche Cape Breton resident Gordon Mills, whose infectiously quirky art work has attracted a legion of fans in Inverness County: ...

23 January, 2013

The following death notice appeared in Cape Breton yesterday. Joseph Peter MacLean Hello, if you are reading this I am gone from the earth. I am here with my parents Charlie and Katie (Campbell) MacLean, also my baby sister Mary Margaret is here too. I never had a chance to know her on earth as she died when she was one and a half years old. I lived for 67 years, it was a good life. I enjoyed playing music and speaking my beloved Gaelic — my native tongue. I played with the Boisdale Trio, the Cape Breton Fiddlers Association, made a CD,...

14 January, 2013

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
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