(vincenzo ravina's words and pictures)

The words ‘animation industry’ have been at the top of my ‘article ideas’ list for several years (possibly since my first year of J-School), and just recently, I finally got the opportunity to write about it. My article is a short history of the Halifax animation industry, through the thick and the thin, right up to the present.

CHECK OUT THE ARTICLE!

Some things that didn’t make it into the article:

- Ron Doucet has a puppet that looks like him and it’s awesome. He designs the puppets on paper, then pays puppet-making people to make them in real-life puppet form. One of these puppet-making people worked on Sesame Street, so… you know, those are some legit puppets there.

- Weird Al, in an About.com interview, said about Copernicus: “If I was surprised at anything, it was at how good the actual animation is. We sent the animatic and the original cels to Copernicus Studios in Halifax, and they did the video in flash animation. I’m not a huge fan of flash animation in general, but this was by far the best flash that John or I had ever seen - they really blew us away.”

- I interviewed Faith Erin Hicks a couple of years ago, and she talked to me a bit about the slow demise of the animation industry in Halifax. She used to work at Collideascope and watched the contracts trickle away to nothing, and has since become a successful graphic novelist. I didn’t know anything about it at the time, so my article ideas file listed the animation idea as something like ‘the animation industry in Halifax and how great it’s doing.’ I’m glad the industry came back around so I could write that kind of story. Because the animation industry’s doing great again!

Environment Canada’s secret quiet little budget cuts

My first story for OpenFile Halifax is about Environment Canada’s much-criticized budget cuts. EC is trying to keep things quiet, so they’re not letting their scientists talk, and they’re hardly talking, themselves.

I can’t tell you how many times I heard “The environment remains a priority for the Government of Canada, even in times of fiscal restraint.” That quote could be attributed to Mark Johnson, Environment Canada spokesperson, or Peter Kent, Environment Minister, or even Michelle Rempel, parliamentary secretary to the environment minster. Although Kent says the environment remains a KEY priority, while Rempel says the environment is a STRONG priority, and to Johnson it’s just a priority. Dissent in the ranks.

Anyway, check out the story HERE and check out the other stories (which are great!) HERE.

Also: OpenFile is community-powered news. So if you have a question about something in your neighbourhood, or think there’s an issue that’s underrepresented in the news, open a file.

Also also: If you have a question about a story, post a comment. Part of the job, after the story is posted, is answering comments.

CURIO CABINET - ADVENTURES IN PAPER-ROUTING

When I was a kid, I read a local indie mini-comic called Adventures in Paper-Routing. I had all the issues (all five of them) and I even met the authors at the Word On The Street literary festival.

There was supposed to be a sixth issue, and I checked in to Strange Adventures, a comic book shop, every few months. The sixth issue never came.

I always wondered what happened to that sixth issue and what happened to the authors. For my last Curio Cabinet column, I tracked down Sean Jordan and Alex Kennedy and asked them.

Here’s the article:

vinceweb

While still in junior high and high school, paperboys Sean Jordan and Alex Kennedy wrote and drew one of the more successful mini-comics to come out of Halifax. The last issue came out more than ten years ago, but it’s never fully gone away.

It was called Adventures in Paper-Routing, and Jordan says newspaper delivery was adventurous. From “shaking down adults for money” to getting yelled at for being two minutes late, they had plenty to draw from for their comic.

THE CURIO CABINET - 911 OPERATORS

I’ve had to call 911 exactly twice in my life. The first time, it was because I witnessed my father’s car being stolen. The second time, I was calling about a fight across the street.

What struck me about my second time calling 911 was not that the operator sounded so calm when he said, “911, what is your emergency?” but that he sounded so bored. He sounded the way I sounded when I picked up the phone at the video store where I used to work.

So I started wondering what it was like to be a 911 operator. And I wondered for a few years.

Then this Curio Cabinet column gave me an excuse to find out. After a few weeks of wrangling, I managed to work my way into the 911 call centre in Dartmouth.

THE CURIO CABINET - DENTAL HYGIENE

For my third Curio Cabinet column, I decided to talk to a dental hygienist about her job, common dental hygiene mistakes and what exactly that damned Pulsar toothbrush does.

Here it is:

Dana Macarone says the first patient she ever saw had a condition called “white hairy tongue.”

What’s that?

“Exactly like it sounds. It’s a white, furry coating on the tongue.”

Oh.

Macarone is a dental hygienist, and she says after dealing with white hairy tongue, she felt she could deal with anything.

“When people come in with their mouth full of disgusting plaque and food debris, it’s more (than) just annoying. Like, ‘Brush your teeth, dude.’ I’m not really grossed out by it, it’s just annoying. I can handle a mouth full of blood, no problem.”

Mom gets to bottom of diaper debate

By VINCENZO RAVINA
Mon. Jan 4, 2010 - The Chronicle Herald

When her four kids are sleeping, she’s a one-woman assembly line. She’s tracing patterns, applying snaps and sewing. She’s making diapers.

Kristen Bassett runs her cloth diaper business, Banana Bottoms, out of her home in Clayton Park. She uses organic bamboo fabrics and designs the diapers herself. One diaper takes her about an hour from start to finish.

Her cloth diapers aren’t ones you have to fold and pin. These have snaps and elastic waists.

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 Department.

“We’re planning hundreds of years and generations out into the future.”

CHICKENBURGER RESTAURANT HALTS PLANS FOR YOUTH CENTRE

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, owner of the Chickenburger restaurant in Bedford, donated a Queen Street building over two years ago for the Spot.

That same location is where Mr. MacDonald announced Wednesday he is building a new Chickenburger restaurant.

Mike McGuire, who helped plan for the Spot for over a year, said the Chickenburger announcement Wednesday came as a shock to him and to Connections Halifax, the organization developing the centre.

“I called this morning a few friends (at Connections Halifax) to see if they knew anything and they hadn’t heard anything,” Mr. McGuire said Wednesday.

RICK HILLIER SILENT ON ALLEGATIONS OF AFGHAN PRISONER MISTREATMENT

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 it,” Mr. Hillier said Friday in Halifax.

“I’m really not even in the mood or the ability to comment upon it, at this point, because I have not followed it in detail.”

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

dawson

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 housed in more than a thousand of these drawers. Each holds various type—-little metal or wood letters that have to be arranged on a press, ink rolled over them and pressed onto paper. This is how printing was done before the digital era. Dawson’s unique collection of type is one of the largest in Canada, and perhaps North America.

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

Beaton

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 America” and his right-hand man.

BEDBUGS PUT BITE ON TENANTS

Bedbug infestations in several Halifax apartment complexes leaves tenants itchy all over.

by Vincenzo Ravina

bedbugs

“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 covered in scars.” The tiny blood-sucking insects were in Figueroa’s Ocean Towers apartment and they’re popping up all over HRM.

TATTOO YOU?

Barbers and interior designers must meet exacting professional standards, but no regulations govern tattoo artists

by Vincenzo Ravina

dawe

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 is more real, she says.

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

bandwidth

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 of it in place.