How we here at OptimusHalifax lament the days when we had a television. Actually, digital cable to be more precise. Ah, the days when, after coming home, we would sit on the couch and watch Dr. Phil, Oprah, 7th Heaven, reruns of CSI that we'd seen about one million times before and then the prime time hits depending on which day of the week it was. Now we've been reduced to going to a friend's house every Monday evening to watch Prison Break and 24, and living in eerie, non-televised silence the rest of the week. Today, for example, there will be no Super Bowl XLI for us. Instead, we are stealing internet and hanging out on the superbowl.com website for live play-by-play updates. You must not have thought this about your humble editor, but alas, she has a soft spot for the Super Bowl. Mostly just because she likes making appetizers and drinking lots of beer. And missing the halftime show! YEGADS! It's PRINCE, people, PRINCE!!

This is what it feels like when doves cry..what a sad, sad day.

Man oh man, what a week...Gemma Ray Ritual on Monday, A/V and Gary Flanagan on Thursday, Holy Fuck with Instruments and Land of Talk at the Marquee, then Fucked Up at Stage Nine and some other bands at the Attic last night, and tonight...back to the Marquee for Jon Rae and the River, We Are Wolves, Duchess Says, Candence Weapon and then god knows where.  It's a good thing this only happens once a year! Our body and our pocketbook can't take much more!

This weekend, we here at OptimusHalifax made our first sojurn out of the city. I know, shocking isn't it. Two years and not even a picture of Peggy's Cove to show for it! Thanks to Mr. Mark Black, we got to experience the wonder that is Cape Breton! The excitement included driving through unpredictable crazy downpours (hooray for maritime weather!), listening to late-night call in shows on "the station for MEN" (where men would discuss their sexual conquests and borderline pedophilia), shopping at Value Village in Sydney (where a cool red crushed velvet blazer was purchased for $5!), and of course...the highlight of our LIFE...eating at this fine establishment:

It was the best...thing...ever...So good in fact, that vegetarians will break down and order chicken burgers at this joint. Maybe that's just a rumour though. Cape Breton was fun. It could have been the company of Mark and Steph (former Optimus Paul's better half), it could have been the onion rings, I guess we'll never know.

We here in Halifax have begun to lament the loss of native sons, Sharp Like Knives. The band, led by our predecessor Paul Hammond, took their second-last bow (the last will take place at the Pavillion on Thursday) at the Speakeasy on Saturday. We were able to make it for their last 19+ set, and were not disappointed. The highlight was when the Knives were engulfed by dancing fans onstage (we believe it was at Paul's request....how egocentric...). Unable to climb over the bars to reach the stage as she was wearing heels, your humble editor remained on the dancefloor, with a clear (however drunken) view of the band and the bacchanalian orgy taking place.* We will miss you, Sharp Like Knives. Halifax feels a little less full of dance punk than it did only a few short days ago.

*a slight exaggeration may or may not have been made

As new editor of Optimuscrime Halifax, we have been thinking hard about how to gracefully fill the shoes of our predecessor Paul, him being a super cool Halifax renaissance man of sorts. We thought long and hard, and then it came to us! Deliquency! Infrequent posting! What genius! No really, there is a valid excuse: no reliable internet in our humble (and I do stress HUMBLE) abode (OptimusOriginal and OptimusKingston will be able to attest to this fact in a couple short weeks). So this post is being written from our place of employment, with it's free wireless. Huzzah! So enough excuses...

As was aforementioned, OptimusOriginal and OptimusKingston will be visiting Halifax very soon! Paul, Alison, and all of us others here in the city are all VERY excited. OCK has been planning all the touristy things she would like to do while frolicking about the peninsula (other than eat lobster, which she plans on doing alot of, but c'mon...who DOESN'T want to eat lobster?)...and even I am looking forward to doing those touristy things I have been too ashamed to do while I've been here, but I'm NOT going on the Habour Hopper! For real...not doing it...OCK would have to beat me to a bloody pulp (which she could) and drag me on that thing unconscious. I'm scared she might just do that...eeek!