Arts & Culture

By Andrew Macdonald

Halifax-raised Musician Andrew Machum Part II: Life In Toronto & Branching Out Into Alternative Acapella Genre

This is Part II of a chat with emerging 23-year old musician Andrew Machum, Halifax raised, and now living in Toronto, after a year’s stint in Los Angeles.

Part II ran the other weekend, and a link to that article is contained below this story.

Machum has just released two new singles on streaming sites, one called Winter, which he self-produced and engineered in his studio set up in his TO apartment, where he lives with his younger brother, Matthew, a Ryerson student.

By Carol Dobson

If you spent your childhood Saturday afternoons in the darkened movie theatre waiting to be scared out of your skin by the mummy in the movie, then the “Egyptian Mummies and Eternal Life’ exhibit at the Museum of Natural History shows the moviemakers were pretty accurate in their depictions.

The exhibit has its roots in Florence Italy’s Museo Egizio and has been traveling throughout Europe and China before setting down in Halifax to make its North American debut from February 22 to June 21.

“It’s divided into three rooms,” The Museum of Natural History’s curator Jeff Gray says. “The first room explains the mummification process. Then, in the second room, you see various elements of the sarcophagi and in the third room, you see items from the funerary trousseau chest that accompanied the person on their journey into the next life. Where we today treat death more solemnly, in the Egyptian culture moving on to the next life was more celebratory and people were excited about what would happen in the next life.”

Politics are an art form in the United States, and so are political parodies. Love him or loathe him, Donald Trump is cause for lots of such political fodder and parodies. On YouTube, a political parody says some of the Framers of the U.S. Constitution did more than...

By Andrew Macdonald

Update: Dentist Roger Porter Called Eight Antigonish friends To Buy Syrian Refugee Tailor Maker A $1,000 Sewing Machine

I recently carried a news article that folk in Antigonish conducted a day-long fundraiser to by a Syrian Refugee a commercial sewing machine so this new immigrant to Nova Scotia could open a tailor shop.

I am updating that story with the successful round of fundraising, which was conducted by Antigonish dentist, Roger Porter, himself an immigrant to the town in 1970 – he hails from Newfoundland’s outports.

For a 2017 Notebook archived story on the Tarek Haddad Peace By Chocolates maker, click here for this archived story. For my 2017 Notebook archived story entitled a Syrian Guide To Nova Scotia's History, click here.

By Andrew Macdonald

Why Halifax-raised Andrew Machum, 23 Marches Into The Same Big Leagues As Anne Murray and Denny Doherty

With multi-million YouTube views, 23-year old Haligonian raised musician Andrew Machum is on the cusp of international stardom.

Now living in Toronto, and having spent a year at a record production studio in Hollywood, Machum has just released two new songs: Aptly named  Winter & Far Away Places – he self-produced and engineered the two singles from his music studio in his Toronto apartment.

It is a new music genre for Machum as he branches out into alternative acapella.

Further to the mention of crooner Anne Murray in the Andrew Machum piece, to give you an idea of the news scoops & exclusive news articles we like to tell, here is a story not reported in other media – which ran in The Notebook last June.

By Andrew Macdonald

Anne Murray, who turned 74 on June 20, is going to be around Halifax more often, The Macdonald Notebook understands.

No, the former singer isn’t giving a concert at Scotiabank Centre/Metro Centre, having retired a decade ago from performing. Instead, the Springhill native has set her sights on buying a home in the fair City of Halifax.