Where to get your knicks and knacks for the chimney stocking. by Carsten Knox The Nova Scotia Designer Craft Council Christmas Craft Market The NSDCC Christmas Craft Market is a juried craft market that takes place at towards the end of November, featuring artisans working in pottery, decorative art, glass, jewellery, textiles, leather, organics, wood and metalwork. November 20-22, Cunard Centre ...

Pro Skates has kept people rolling and well dressed for 23 years. by Carsten Knox Pro Skates has been keeping people moving for 23 years. Zach Tovey and Jon Swinamer, the current owners, have been working at the store almost since the beginning, and in the past decade they've taken over the operation—and expanded it, with Pro Girl just up Blowers Street and another Pro Skates on Quinpool Road ...

Here's a list of organizations doing good things to help promote and encourage local economies. by Carsten Knox Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, Nova Scotia Chapter See story on page 58. 1888 Brunswick Street, Suite 806, 877-999-5907, ballens.ca GPI Atlantic See story on page TK.535 Indian Point Road, Glen Haven, 902-823-1944, gpiatlantic.org Clean Nova Scotia The environmental non ...

Halifax is a hub for videogame design, an exploding world of local manufacturing happening right under our noses. by Carsten Knox Years ago, Willie Stevenson worked in the film and TV business for Salter Street Productions. He was a producer on the popular fantasy series Lexx. Eventually, the compromises of that world started to get to him. "I always wanted to get into this sector," he says, but ...

We asked Barry Ring, owner/manager of MacEast to give us a sense of how buying a MacBook at his local business benefits him and the community. by Carsten Knox MacBook Pro $1,399 purchased at MacEast 6 percent profit (approx. $100) $10 Pure Profit Mortgage on the space Condo fees Utilities Staff x3: sales, technician and sales/management MacBook Pro $1,300 purchased at apple.com $100 Leaves the ...

Kapahi and his wife opened their first store in 1972. Now there are 19 Wicker Emporium outlets in Atlantic Canada, employing 150 people. by Carsten Knox In a province that has a documented lukewarm relationship with immigrants, Madan Kapahi is a spectacular success story. Born in India, he came to Canada to study law. He met his wife and opened the first Wicker Emporium in 1972 in Scotia Square ...

Kingston's boutique fills a niche offering handmade, small-run products created by local and Canadian designers and artisans. by Carsten Knox Having studied to be a contemporary art curator, Chara Kingston decided she didn't belong in that world: "It didn't feel real." Kingston moved from Ontario, worked at the Nova Scotia Cultural Network then decided she wanted to make her own stuff, so she ...

Stroink keeps leaving Halifax, but as he's realized, it's a city that keeps bringing you back in. by Carsten Knox Joachim Stroink has left Halifax six times. The last time, he was on top of a mountain when he had an epiphany that Halifax was where he needed to be. "The Trail Shop has been in business for 43 years," he says. "I bought it, going on year five." The Trail Shop has just opened a new ...

Sure, they're laughing now... The lengths that Fredericton's We, The Undersigned are going to go to to play with Protest the Hero in Halifax for Megafest (Thursday, November 26 at The Cunard Center. Featuring Protest the Hero with special guests Iron Giant , Children of Eve , Black Moor and, of course, We, The Undersigned) are sort of nuts. [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

The Genuine Progress Index is a search for better measures of our success by looking more thoughtfully at the world around us. by Carsten Knox It's called the Genuine Progress Index, offering a more accurate picture of our progress as a society than any Gross Domestic Product calculation could do. It takes into account things that we haven't considered in our measures of success, like ...

When people think of buying locally, most will start with what they eat. Sean Gallagher was way ahead of the wave with his Local Source Market and Terroir. by Carsten Knox Like many people from Ontario who visit Halifax for school, Sean Gallagher got hooked into Halifax pretty quickly, and decided to stay. "I was in university doing commerce co-op and a lot of entrepreneurial work terms," says ...

As the buy local movement gains popularity, be ready for corporations using the language of the movement to market their products. by Carsten Knox What does "local" really mean? It's a bit of an ill-defined term, so it would certainly help to try and offer some guidelines for what we're getting at when we urge you to spend a healthy portion of your dollar at local businesses. We believe calling ...

Finding a decent picture of Glen Matlock is no picnic Billed as: "An intimate performance from the man who penned such classic songs as, 'Pretty Vacant,' 'God Save The Queen,' and 'Anarchy In The UK,'" Glen Matlock ( The Sex Pistols, The Rich Kids, Vicious White Kids, The Philistines, The Flying Padovanis, Slinky Vagabond ) comes to The Paragon Theatre [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Is the new Halifax library going to be an interesting and compelling addition to the city fabric, or will it be a designed-by-committee dud? And how, exactly, to you get a good public building? Those questions came front and centre when architect Brian MacKay-Lyons went on CBCs Information Morning to blast the citys selection process for an architect for the library. He was followed on ...

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Basia made a mean apple cake in Halifax last time Basia Bulat brings the snowshoes and plays St. Matthews United Church on February 10 as part of her 2010 Canadian winter tour in support of her new album, Heart of My Own (to be released January 26). [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Melissa Auf der Maur leaves behind her legacy as a 90s rocker to become a New Age artmaker. by Alison Lang "I've been living in the shadow of larger figures my entire life," Melissa Auf der Maur says. Even during an interview to promote her most recent project, the former bassist for Hole and the Smashing Pumpkins speaks warmly of the larger-than-life people that spurred her interests in music ...

For a story I'm working on concerning tax reform, I'm looking for a handful of moderate-income people who own their own home, with the house valued at less than $180,000, and who would agree to an analysis of how the tax reform proposal would affect their property taxes. The ideal candidates would be professionals or working-class people, with a household income of more than $40,000. Think ...

One of the keenest musical minds ever to come from this province has released two digital pockets of home recordings available for download here . Get them today and learn the songs in time for Borcherdt 's Paragon show with Julie Fader tomorrow night. [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

[image-2] "These shots were taken in front of the citadel. The crowd was going nuts, and you could tell that as big of an international star Sidney is, he was feeling the moment and was wearing his pride on his face with a smile ear to ear," Coast freelance photographer Riley Smith says. [image-1] "I ran along side hammering out shots with my motordrive," Smith told The Coast, "elbowing through ...