December 2009
22 posts
2 tags
2009 IN REVIEW
If you were to ask me to name my least favourite year, I would tell you 2008. Though a lot of good things happened that year, it was a year of high drama. I’m not a fan of drama. I didn’t want to bring any of it with me to 2009. At our New Year’s Eve 2008 supper, I toasted my close personal friends and said good riddance to 2008 with a poem from Moby Dick. I thought that...
Dec 31st
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PROTECTING NOVA SCOTIA LAND FOREVER
To preserve and protect Land conservation plan takes province ‘hundreds of years’ into the future By VINCENZO RAVINA Thu. Dec 31, 2009 - The Chronicle Herald Protected lands are forever. “Land protection is about as permanent as anything gets in government these days,” said Peter Labor, the acting manager in the protected areas branch of the provincial Environment...
Dec 31st
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CHICKENBURGER RESTAURANT HALTS PLANS FOR YOUTH...
Drop-in centre loses its spot Chickenburger owner had donated Queen Street building, but now plans restaurant for site By VINCENZO RAVINA Thu. Dec 17, 2009  - The Chronicle Herald Plans for the Spot, a Halifax drop-in centre for young people, have been halted by the announcement of a new Chickenburger restaurant on Queen Street. The Spot was supposed to be on that spot. Mickey MacDonald,...
Dec 30th
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RICK HILLIER SILENT ON ALLEGATIONS OF AFGHAN...
Hillier mum on abuse Former top soldier in Halifax for book signing, won’t comment on allegations of Afghan prisoner mistreatment By VINCENZO RAVINA Sat. Dec 12, 2009 - The Chronicle Herald Rick Hillier, formerly Canada’s top soldier, isn’t commenting about the recent revelations that Canadian-captured prisoners transferred to Afghan authorities were later tortured. “I haven’t followed...
Dec 30th
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QUESTIONS FROM THE PEOPLE
Are there any traditions that you would like to carry on (or start) with your hypothetical future children? Yes. I would like to raise a child in an environment entirely devoid of a certain colour, like green. Make it so the child never sees the colour. Then, on his or her sixteenth birthday, make everything green. The cake, the banners, the table cloth, the clothing. Everything. Then observe the...
Dec 29th
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DAILY JOURNALISM BY VINCENZO RAVINA, FOR THE...
- Search and Rescue workers agonize they didn’t get to James Delorey in time - Melting gold teeth for profit - SOCAN pressures children’s gymnastics clubs to pay fees for music - $1.3-million L’Arche house empty for six months amid staffing debate - Taxi zones in Halifax - Woman rescues American dogs from death - Climate change protest - Owner of local organic restaurant going...
Dec 27th
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UP DAWSON'S CREEK
Only 10 months after opening, NSCAD closed the fledging Dawson Printshop as a cost-saving measure. Vincenzo Ravina puts on his best typeface. by Vincenzo Ravina Under flickering fluorescent lights are cabinets with many thin drawers. The labels on them read “Helvetica” and “Garamond.” Here, in the dank bowels of a building on Granville Street, the Dawson collection is...
Dec 27th
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KATE BEATON'S DRAWING LESSONS
Comic artist Kate Beaton turns the past on its head, with wonderful inside jokes that will make history and literary buffs chuckle. by Vincenzo Ravina Sitting in Uncommon Grounds on Argyle, she is hunkered over a new comic about Simón Bolívar and Antonio José de Sucre. Her brown eyes are hidden behind her brown hair as she inks in her pencil drawings of the “celebrated liberator of South...
Dec 24th
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BEDBUGS PUT BITE ON TENANTS
Bedbug infestations in several Halifax apartment complexes leaves tenants itchy all over. by Vincenzo Ravina “It’s like getting bit by a mosquito, only it lasts for over a week and is 10 times itchier,” Kris Figueroa says, talking about bedbug bites. “I did my best not to scratch them, but it was almost impossible, really. My roommate scratched all over hers and now is...
Dec 17th
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TATTOO YOU?
Barbers and interior designers must meet exacting professional standards, but no regulations govern tattoo artists by Vincenzo Ravina Photo: Aaron Fraser Laura Dawe is a stick-and-poke artist. She tattoos out of her apartment with a sewing needle and thread. Dawe says she prefers the sewing needle to the professional tattoo gun, which “changes the experience.” The stick-and-poke...
Dec 16th
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ABOUT VINCENZO RAVINA
Contact: VRAVINA[at]GMAIL[dot]COM Twitter: @SavourTheSea Vincenzo Ravina is a writer, a journalist and a giraffe enthusiast. He has written for McGraw-Hill Ryerson textbooks, The Coast, The Chronicle Herald, OpenFile, Tidings Magazine, Emirates Today, The Halifax Commoner and the King’s Journalism Review. Some of his fiction has appeared in Her Royal Majesty. He has written for and...
Dec 16th
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BANDWIDTH BATTLES
In the age of torrents, internet service providers are quietly protecting their networks—-and your connection could be getting pwned. by Vincenzo Ravina Illustration: Moon Hee Nam Even the information superhighway has speed limits—limits that are enforced without you even knowing about it. It’s called “traffic shaping” and most internet service providers have some form...
Dec 16th
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WatchWatch
Behind the scenes at the’fax. What does it take to put the show together? For the Nov. 26, 2009 episode of the’fax.
Dec 16th
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WatchWatch
A death in the Halifax Public Gardens. For the Nov. 19, 2009 episode of the’fax.
Dec 16th
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WatchWatch
the’fax newsteam tests out Halifax cabs. For the Nov. 19, 2009 episode of the’fax.
Dec 16th
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WatchWatch
November is National Novel Writing Month. For the Nov. 12, 2009 episode of the’fax.
Dec 16th
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WatchWatch
There’s a concrete-filled tree on the King’s campus. What’s up with that tree? For the Nov. 5, 2009 episode of the’fax.
Dec 16th
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WatchWatch
I made this trailer for the October 29, 2009 episode of the’fax.
Dec 16th
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WatchWatch
Nova Scotia Archives is converting fragile, historically important film to digital for posterity. For the Oct. 23, 2009 episode of the’fax.
Dec 16th
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PROFILE OF A FUNERAL DIRECTOR
Trevor Wamboldt owns four suits. I thought he’d have to own more. He says he’s more of a t-shirt and sweatpants kind of guy, anyway. Right now he’s wearing jeans and a sweater, though. His socks are linty, his face is stubbly and his hair is graying. He wears glasses and he’s sitting with his arm over the back of the white sofa in his living room. The cat, named Bobo, comes by. Trevor tickles Bobo...
Dec 16th
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INVENTOR OF EMOTICONS
Colon, minus sign, parenthesis. :-) You know what it is. You’ve either typed it at someone or someone has typed it at you. Smilies. Emoticons. For better or worse, they’re part of the way this generation communicates. With something so widespread and so simple, you forget that someone, somewhere had to do it first. The New York Times referred to him as “User Zero of the Internet emoticon.” He...
Dec 16th
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GERM PARANOIA
It happened that Mallory MacLeod’s hands burst into flames. She was eager to avoid a virus going around her high school and had disinfected her hands “like five times” with alcohol-based Purell hand sanitizer before going to a chemistry class. It was her turn to light the Bunsen burner for the group. PHOOM. “It just burned away the hand sanitizer and stopped, but my teacher was very concerned.” ...
Dec 16th