Scott and I rarely get out, owing to the fact that Edmonton’s top scientists insist on conducting endless studies into just what it is that makes us so fantastic.

It’s fuckin’ Wheaties, all right? ARE YOU HAPPY?!

No, you’re not happy. And do you know why? Because you rarely get the opportunity to actually spend time with us. UNTIL NOW.

This weekend (like, the one that starts tomorrow) is jam-packed with Scottadam goodness (that’s Scott and Adam goodness, for those among you with the furrowed brows). Well, Sunday is, anyhow.

You might recall an interview we did last season with the Edmonton Public Library’s Writer-in-Residence Marty Chan. Marty was a great guest, and over the past year, he’s been meeting with creative people in Edmonton to help them hone their craft and write, write, write. A part of Marty’s role at WiR is to encourage and nurture writers. As such, he’s been hosting a series called the “Writers’ Corner”:

[...] [A] friendly and supportive gathering with a different guest author each month. The guest author will give an author talk and reading and will then answer your questions and offer advice. Come and talk about your writing in a friendly and supportive atmosphere and listen to the suggestions of professional writers in our community. All writers and readers are welcome. No experience is necessary.

While Scott and I won’t be “reading” anything we’ve written, per se (at least I don’t think we will. I tend to throw out all my napkins), we are going to be speaking at the last Writers’ Corner hosted by Marty, so come down to the Stanley Milner Library on Sunday at 1:30pm if you want to learn all there is to know about podcasting.

But wait, there’s more!

Immediately after we finish up at EPL, we’re going to high-tail it to the southside of the river to host Microphones and Moustaches: The Movember Open Mic Challenge, brought to you by two of the most wonderful hipsters we know, the Inglorious Hipsters (who were also guests on our show).

The Challenge takes place on Sunday starting at 5pm, and goes until about 9pm. People are invited to challenge others to perform on stage for money. This money will be donated to Prostate Cancer Research as part of Movember. Easy, right?

OR IS IT?!

No, it is. You should come down to that to see people do silly things on stage, all for a great cause!

See you this weekend, EVERYONE IN EDMONTON.

Many of our regular listeners and readers will recall (you WILL recall, I demand it!) that we launched a contest at the end of August designed to bring new blood into the careening mass of weirdness we call The Podcast. We asked listeners to become contributors by pitching us segment ideas. Part of the reasoning was to provide a different persepctive and also to take some of the production pressure off of Scott and me. We love what we’re doing, of course, but it’s a lot of work. So if there were people out there who were interested, we thought we’d exploit them.

And, like a bunch of fame-seeking lemmings, many of you responded.

Oh sure, some of you called us crazy. Others were happy to simply watch from the sidelines and say nothing — or so we assume, since we never actually heard from any of those people, BUT WE CAN FEEL YOU LOOKING AT US, DAMMIT!

Six groups did take the time to respond and try and sell their vision for an Unknown Studio segment. We read proposals, we listened to demo reels, we slept under fleece blankets and ate marshmallows while talking about our latest crushes… and we arrived at a decision.

We’re pleased to welcome Jonn, Matt and Simon to the Unknown Studio family as our newest show contributors. Starting with our next episode (which will feature an interview with self-published poet Kasia Gawlak who many of you know as @confessionality), the Trio of Terror will… Well, I’ll let them explain it — this is text taken directly from the pitch that sold Scott and I:

If you ask an Edmontonian about their relationship with their city, you’re likely to get a mixed response.

“It’s nice during the summer time,” one might respond.

“The River Valley looks pleasant today, but just look at the traffic on the High Level,” says another. “And why won’t anybody do anything about these potholes?”

And finally, “I hate this goddamn place, and I hope it and its inhabitants burn in the foul vestiges of hell,” says a man who will spend the rest of his life here.

But regardless of whether people love it, hate it, or are slightly irked by ETS not showing up on time causing them to be 5 minutes late for hot yoga, it would be hard for anyone to argue: this is a city. Such logic can’t be denied.

This segment will be in the vein of This American Life and will talk about the frustration, blandness, awkward situations, ennui (because let’s be honest, we have a significant hipster demographic) and occasional awesomeness that comes with living in Alberta’s capital city. It’s not that bad of a place. At least sometimes. There are interesting stories that occur in this city.

A mix of the irreverent and the serious, three former Gateway editors will go after the curious stories and quaint Edmontonia that is all around us, yet goes unacknowledged except for a brief muttering to yourself. In doing so, we will try to create an informative and captivating take on what makes our city both average and aspiring.

So there you have it, our very own version of The Edmontican Life (we won’t call it that). We’re expecting great things from these self-proclaimed carbon-based life forms. AND GREAT THINGS WE SHALL HAVE. Because it’s, like, totally in their contract.

Just kidding. Do Scott and I look like the kinds of people who know the first thing about contracts?

A huge thanks to everyone who pitched us a segment. We’ve invited all of these people to contribute at some point and really hope they take us up on the offer!

This past weekend, Scott and I had the opportunity to record an interview with Kathleen Smith, known to most as @kikkiplanet on Twitter. Kikki started out on Twitter a ways back just playing around, and it wasn’t until the constant and effective chiding of Jerry Aulenbach that she became more involved with the community.

Her notion of creating a personal website for her random musings soon faded and gave way to KikkiPlanet.com, which will be launching this Friday, September 30 at an exclusive party at the Daffodil Gallery (10412 124 St). And wouldn’t you know it, but Kikki gave the Unknown Studio two pairs of passes to giveaway to this sure-to-be bumpin’ shindig. And these passes? Hell, they get you food AND booze. Nice, right?

So here’s the deal. The first two people to email adam@theunknownstudio.ca and tell us Kikki’s favourite kind of booze will win the tickets. Sorry kids, we already have our winners. Have fun at the party, and if you feel like paying your own way, you can buy tickets on EventBrite!

Trust me, this isn’t a party you want to miss.

And stay tuned later on this week, when we post our show, which features a full-length interview with Kikki herself!

Enjoy her post, and read more about Kathleen at the end of the story.

—————————————

I’m not sure that many people attended Mercury Opera’s production of Madame Opera the weekend of August 27th, but, for those of us who made it out to this unique outdoor event, it was totally worth it.

I have to admit sometimes to being a “hater” when it comes to my hometown — mostly when it comes to the events that happen in parks. They always seem to have the look of empty festivals that leave you with the feeling of, “gee if we were just in a bigger city, this event wouldn’t feel so dead or empty.”

That being said, being a producer of events I understand how much work and money it takes to put on a well-conceived event, never mind all the work it takes to produce a successful show with high artistic talent.

This intimate, alternatively staged, “reader’s digest” version of production of Madame Butterfly was a version that even on this bit chilly of an evening, was engaging and emotionally moving. What really stuck out with this unique production of Madame Butterfly however was the alternative space in which to hold an opera and how the whole evening was packaged. It was a special night I’m sure to everyone who attended.

The gala began at 6pm and you were invited to three places along 95 St. in the Little Italy district. You got to travel between each place Spinelli’s Café, Zocali, and the new Delish Bakery just off 95St, and 107 ave. sampling small snacks, and various wines, as each place hosted casual reception fair with a neighbourly welcoming vibe.

You then made your way through the big elm trees and past the playground to the large tent in the middle of Giovanni Caboto Park. Feeling a bit like you’re walking into a circus tent, inside you were instantly struck by the mini theatre set up inside, not a bad seat in the house, little trees designing the space and an actual live orchestra awaiting you.

The audience unfortunately did not fill all the seats, probably, not even half, but somehow you didn’t get the feeling like you were at some unpopular party that no one bothered to go to. Instead you had the feeling, especially as the show progressed that you were lucky enough to have stumbled on the best kept secret in town, an intimate and relatively small performance space with romantic tenors and sopranos singing just for you and your friends.

Mercury Opera’s founder and artistic director, Darcia Parada although working back and forth from New York City and Edmonton for the past years has thankfully chosen to stay in Edmonton, and bringing with her the inspiration she had participating in performance culture in NYC back to Edmonton. Her biography tells us she “began dreaming of staging opera in unusual spaces” after performing La Boheme in a loft in Tribeca.

If you’ve ever lived, worked or traveled in NYC it’s not hard to be inspired by the seemingly endless array of alternative ways to see performances. If you have any experience producing shows, site-specific shows in alternative spaces in particular, you can’t help to notice when that alternative space works or doesn’t. You become extra sensitive to when there is no real attention to the space itself and how an event can seem just “plunked” down somewhere without any consideration for how the space is being used in relation to what’s happening. It is a challenge to create an event in inspired space — have it functional and yet designed so it doesn’t look empty, to envision how the audience is going to engage and see the performance space, and to consider the overall flow of the evening, what people in general will want to be doing in between the entertainment, how they will flow, where the bathrooms are, etc.

Mercury Opera seemed to have considered it all, from the first step into the mini magical world inside the tent, to the size and design of the performance and audience space, to intermission where you exited the tent only to find fireworks just steps away, giving a small but not chintzy display of fireworks, (even more interesting if you had read in the program that the fireworks themselves had been colored and choreographed by the theme of the characters of the opera), to the porta-potties a little distance away, if you were like me and perhaps got a little carried away by the free prossecco offered earlier.

It’s such a nice surprise when the vision fits to the size of the “fishtank” so to speak, having the right sized cast, a well-rehearsed, professional cast and orchestra, simple yet professional lighting, simple yet well designed set and stage direction, a well-thought out audience seating arrangement. The show itself can then really come alive and the strength of performance be highlighted in the space rather than having all the elements detract from it, again leaving you with a feeling, “well, that was a good idea at least…”

No, the Mercury’s opera staging of Madame Butterfly was an incredibly well done experiment, showcasing some real up and coming musical talent, all flown in from New York to perform in a beautiful welcoming event full of appreciative, well- cared for guests.

This is a shout out to Mercury Opera for having the guts, and skills in contributing an inspired vision to Edmonton’s own burgeoning performance culture.

Kathleen Ochoa is an Edmonton-based dance artist, teacher, producer, writer and researcher in the burgeoning field of embodiment studies. She has lived, studied and worked as dancer and yoga instructor in NYC, Montreal, Marseille, Paris, and Rome.

So long, you delightful scamps!

On Sunday morning last week, I received an email from Jeff Samsonow and Sally Poulsen, the creators of theEdmontonian.com, one of the city’s most beloved blogs. They said that two weeks hence, they’d be closing up shop. I paused. I yelled. I swore. I called my girlfriend over to the computer screen and we both read the message in disbelief.

“Other projects,” they said paraphrasically in their email, “are jumping around in our heads, and we can’t pursue them without moving on from the Edmontonian.”

“OUTRAGE!” I responded, frightening my girlfriend, and our cat, who both read on in dismay.

I jest, somewhat, of course. The loss of the Edmontonian is a loss indeed, but I’m excited to see what Jeff and Sally will do next.

I count the pair as good friends. They’ve helped this very podcast grow — leading by example, and pushing us to be more than just two idiots opining about Star Trek. They helped our show earn revenue by connecting us with some great people and businesses, who we now also count as our friends.

I’m sad to see the Edmontonian leave the city’s blogscape. For one, Jeff and Sally were pioneers in a lot of ways. Oh sure, the Dave Cournoyers and Mack Males of the world — or rather, just those two guys — were working on blogs long before June 2009… but Jeff and Sally brought together a community of people who not only came to read, but to contribute. They helped to build and expand the online conversation about our city.

Heck, Jeff and Sally’s move to involve more Edmontonians in creating content inspired our promotion to get our listeners more involved in the show.

Mack Male did a great interview with them over at his blog, which you should read. And you should also make absolutely sure that you watch and see what Jeff and Sally are going to do next. I have no doubt it will be equal parts funny and informative — and it will reflect the passion they have for their work and this great community we live in.

And so the Edmontonian leaves us this week on a high note, like the George Costanza of Edmonton’s online community.

So long, TheEdmontonian.com. We hardly knew ye.

We love great content — content that focuses on the interesting stories in Edmonton that should be told to the masses. So we want you — our listeners — to help us create this content. We want YOU to produce a segment for the Unknown Studio.

As such, we’re holding a contest starting today, and ending on September 30. We want you to pitch us your segment idea. It can be hard news, comedy, skit-based, a radio play, a series of interviews — whatever you want.

Give your segment a name, a theme, a gimmick — whatever you think it will take to create something viable, entertaining and/or informative. If you can send us a quick 2-minute demo, that would be fantastic too!

The winning segment will air once per month. It should be between 5 and 10 minutes.

It must have the shelf-life of AT LEAST one season — or about 18-20 episodes. If our listeners really like it, and if we really like it, we might even keep running it, and you become a regular contributor to the Edmonton’s best talk show podcast!

You must be able to produce the segment yourself, and deliver it to us each month. Hell, we’ll even show you the tricks of the trade, if you need a little bit of training.

Send us your ideas! Show us how clever, funny and awesome you can be. And above all, show us your perspective on the City of Edmonton, its incredible citizens and its untold stories!

Email theshow@theunknownstudio.ca and pitch us your segment! And of course, if you have any questions — any at all — email us! You could be a part of the podcasting magic of the Unknown Studio’s 3rd season!

Sylvancroft, former residence to Mayor Harry Evans | Photo by Raffaella Loro

Both of my parents moved to Canada from Europe when they were young. They settled in Alberta and eventually started a family in Edmonton. My dad was an entrepreneur, and my mother was studying at the U of A and working in the old courthouse downtown… Eventually, they started having kids and my mom dedicated her life to raising us boys, but she looks fondly back on her days working among judges and lawyers.

We spoke a little bit a few weeks back about the history of Edmonton and some of the characters that she grew up around. My mom, a citizen of Calgary for about 6 or 7 years now, still misses the city.

“It seems like you and dad knew all these strange people who used to populate Edmonton and were all connected,” I told her. She laughed, as I asked her to tell me the story about “Sweaty Betty,” apparently a slum landlord on 124th Street years ago.

Eventually, we started talking about the physical changes in Edmonton. That’s when she said, “I couldn’t believe when they tore down the old courthouse. What a shame.”

I thought, “Old courthouse? I don’t remember an old courthouse.”

That’s because it was torn down in 1972, eight years before I was born. It was demolished to make way for a mall. The City Centre Mall.

Built in 1911, demolished 1972 - from EPL's "Lost Buildings"

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to walk the grounds of Sylvancroft, an old estate home built by one of Edmonton’s first mayors, Harry Marshall Erskine Evans — you can read some great info on the history of the home at EdmontonHeritage.ca.

When I’d first heard of Sylvancroft, its history and its potential demolition (though now uncertain), I was angry. This is the symptom of a much larger problem in Edmonton: a complete and utter disconnect to the physical beauty and history of our city, particularly among young people — myself included.

Paula Simons wrote a great story on Sylvancroft yesterday in the Edmonton Journal:

The Evans family lost its Sylvancroft legacy. We, as Edmontonians, mustn’t make the same mistake. The property seems to have come to an idealistic developer with strong local roots, someone who cares about creating a vibrant city core. Surely it’s not too much to hope that city planners and politicians, perhaps with provincial support, could find some way to co-operate with [Ivan] Beljan to preserve the house.

Front of Sylvancroft | Photo by Raffaella Loro

In our conscious or unconscious desire to position ourselves as a “world-class city,” we seem to be forgetting what makes actual “world-class cities” world class. It isn’t centres of commerce, or sports teams, or freeways — though those can be contributors to such status.

A huge part of being a world-class city is its history.

Our willingness to tear down our history comes at the expense of our future. Sometimes old, decrepit buildings need to be demolished. Not every structure ever built has deep history or architectural relevance to it, certainly not the founding our building of a city — as Freud said, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. But we carry on with this demolition with seemingly little thought or notice.

Edmonton’s story — its founding, how it was built, and how it continues to grow — is its identity. When we tear down historic houses and buildings, we lose that identity. Those buildings link us to the people who’ve lived here and made the city what it is today. With every residence, school or building we tear down, we erase the tangible connection to the people that built this city into what it is.

I don’t want to live in a city that does that to itself.

I’m not sure what happens next for Sylvancroft, but I hope something can be done to save it, to integrate it into a new development, and to preserve the history of a once-grand home that bore witness to the beginnings of Edmonton.

As I slipped gracelessly into a stupor, looking at Jay square in the eye — for one of mine had permanently closed — I told him, in no uncertain terms, that he wasn’t to start his own podcast. The last thing the Unknown Studio needs, I told him, is competition.

Jay reassured me he wasn’t trying to compete with the Unknown Studio… Unless we planned to talk about movies ever again. Which we probably do. That’s when he told me about Jay n’ J[ordan] — Edmonton’s Entertainment Podcast. I decided, after sobriety gave me a stern lecture to find out more about this new project.

Unknown Studio: How did you guys get to the point where you were, like, “We should do a podcast about movies”?

Jay: Michael Bay came to me in a dream with robots and told me “Jay, upon the internets, you must release you podcast”.

Jordan: Jay called me as if he was in a feverish dream and yelled over the phone “We need sustenance!”

And thus we had a meeting over burgers and Jay n’ J. was born.

US: How long between that decision and actually launching? (We’re just hoping you procrastinate like us)

Jay: 20 seconds to record… 10 seconds to edit. Another 10 seconds to upload

Jordan: Are first episode wasn’t that great But then we decided to have Gregg Beever on the episode.

Jay: It took at least two weeks to do his makeup.

From a meeting over burgers to first episode was just under two weeks.

US: What plans do you have for the show?

Jay & Jordan: Ummm…

US: Who would you rather be pitted against: the stupid ghost-faced murderer from Scream, or the creep from the Saw series? WHY?

Jordan: I’m going with the dude from Scream. Jigsaw from Saw is way to smart for me and I assume I’d have absolutely no chance of survival.

Jay: Me too… plus I could probably just shoot the dude from Scream and end that horrible franchise.

US: What’s the one film each of you watches and can’t help but shed some tears… I MEANT GET DUST IN YOUR EYES?

Jordan: Dead Poets Society.

Jay: I still haven’t seen that movie.

Jordan: What the hell Jay!

Jay: Well mine is J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek.

Jordan: Is it because of the lens flares?

US: Is it OK if Scott and I still occasionally talk about movies on our podcast?

Jay: I want to be nice about this but.. no.

Jordan: You guys could come on our podcast and talk about movies though.

Jay: Ya… we basically have a copyright on “Talking about Movies in Edmonton” now. Sorry. (Patent Pending)

You can catch Jay n’ J every month via their Tumblr. iTunes link should be coming soon, if Jay takes my drunken advice.

But this involved moving from a place I called home for just over four years. A place that saw me through a panoply of different crises, successes and changes. A place I would call one of the most beautiful in the City of Edmonton, a gem for its natural beauty, and the large, warm hearts of its residents.

A place called Riverdale.

Some readers among you might remember the series of posts I did while the Dawson Bridge was closed. At least one of you will recall the made-up history I provided of the bridge, which also featured some fraudulent tidbits about the RD. But I was just trying to get a few cheap laughs.

The neighbourhood’s been home to many things, including a lumberyard and a brickyard. According to its Wikipedia entry, about 25% of the homes down in the RD were built pre-1946. A quick drive or walk through the neighbourhood shows significant dwelling disparities: a row of McMansions bordering the north shore of the river along Cameron avenue, a newer condo complex (the new brickyard) north of that, and brand new townhomes and smaller dwellings even more north of that.

The rest of the place is a mish-mash of fourplexes, co-ops, and single-family homes.

But structures are less relevant than the people who make up the community: passionate, wonderful and caring Edmontonians who work to maintain the character of the RD and make it a neighbourhood that accepts people from all walks of life. That’s the Riverdale I know, even though I wasn’t involved with the community league or different events that took place in the neighbourhood.

No, I knew all this from walking or biking around the community. People always waved, said hi, and smiled at you. We all were Riverdalians and sharing that sense of community brought us all closer together. I’ll miss the people of Riverdale; I’ll miss the stillness of the air on warm summer and cold winter mornings. I’ll miss the quiet coupled with the sense of energy that the community has from being so close to downtown.

I’ll miss you, Riverdale.

Now I should say I know very little about improv, except that I thoroughly enjoy watching it. But the one thing I do know about a good improv performer is that they never say “no” to another performer’s suggestion in the middle of a scene. So I naturally said “yes” to the Mack/Amy request.

And that means that tonight, along with Mastermaq himself as well as the Baconator Realtor Jerry Aulenbach, the theatre revolution that is Rapid Fire’s annual Improvaganza will indeed be live-tweeted.

The plan is for the live-tweeters to not only tell the #yeg Twitter community what’s going on at Improvaganza this evening (starting at 7:30pm, by the way), but to also solicit scene suggestions from our online audience. And in-theatre audience members will be encouraged to tweet about their experience using the #yegimprov hashtag.

Mack posted about the event last week which you can read on his blog.

As for me… I’m looking forward to it. It’ll be cool to connect with some great new people. And also, perhaps the best part: we get to hang out at one of my favourite Edmonton pubs after the show. So I’ll see many of you at the Next Act!

#yegimprov – A Live Social Media Experiment
Tonight at 7:30pm
Varscona Theatre
Tickets $10 at the door or available in advance from Tix on the Square

We LOVE Edmonton Story Slam. And there’s another Story Slam taking place TOMORROW NIGHT you won’t want to miss.

If you’ve never been to Story Slam before, here’s what you can expect — in list form, because PEOPLE LOVE LISTS, AMIRIGHT?:

• Fine service from a patient wait staff
• A room with the ambience of a smaller, cozier Sidetrack Cafe (anyone remember that place?)
• Funny stories
• Awful stories
• Sad stories
• Pharoas Pizza
• New friends
• Getting to schmooze with Edmonton’s up and coming writers and orators
• Getting hooked on a great Edmonton event

I’ve been hooked on the Story Slam format since Adam Patterson told me to start listening to the Moth Podcast. Story Slam is kinda like Edmonton’s Moth. And you should be there like a [SOMETHING] to a [SOMETHING] (I really didn’t want to make a moth joke. Don’t want to be THAT guy).

Join the Edmonton Story Slam Group on Facebook, and mark your calendars for the third Wednesday of every month. That’s when things be slammin’.

But tomorrow… that’s when things get downright SCARY. In a good way.

The Unknown Studio is hosting Edmonton ZomBeers 7 at Original Joe’s Varsity tomorrow evening. There will be door prizes, and there will be a bunch of wonderful zombie geeks watching Zombieland together. You can get your free ticket at our eventbrite page.

If you lack the click-y wherewithal to visit the link, here are some details:

Do you like beer? Are you afraid of the no-doubt-pending zombie apocalypse? Do you think Edmontonians need a plan to defend the city against the walking undead? Do you loooove zombie movies?

Then join us for Edmonton ZomBeers, a gathering of people who love the zombie subculture. What do we do at ZomBeers? We talk about zombies and watch zombie movies, of course.

This time around, we’ll be watching last year’s instant-classic movie Zombieland.

It’s going to be fun. Door prizes include swag from the Walking Dead, and copies of ’68, a new zombie comic created by Nat Jones (who teaches at Guru Digital Arts College).

Hope you’ll join us tomorrow evening!

This guy: big deal. For real.

I don’t know how many of you know this, but my Unknown Studio co-host Scott C. Bourgeois is a pretty big deal. A lover of animals, a connoiseur of fine scotches, an experienced roller-of-many-sided-dice, Scott is what you might call a renaissance man. I’ve never seen the man paint, mind you, but I know he’s a sharp wit with a keen mind who knows a lot about the renaissance.

And now he’s being recognized for it.

Scott, along with his co-writer Morgan Smith, earned a Sterling award nomination for Outstanding Fringe New Work. The pair wrote a play called Game Face, which played at last summer’s Edmonton Fringe Festival to sold-out crowds and astonished onlookers*. You can read a tidbit about their nomination at iNews880.com. See the whole list of Sterling Award nominees over here.

Congrats to the Unknown Studio’s Golden Voice. Well earned, dear friend!

*I assume this is true, but like any good blogger, I don’t believe in research.**

**That’s not actually true.***

***What is true, however, is that I do most of my writing in my basement wearing underwear.****

****Naked.

We spoke with conference co-chair Peter Roccia and marketing committee member Catherine Kuehne Harder over email to get the down-low on this terrific event. Read on, gentlepeople!

The Unknown Studio: You’ve called the conference “At the Edge of Print.” Is that because you believe, as Egon Spengler said in the first Ghostbusters movie, print is dead?

Peter and Catherine: No, print will never be dead. Any particular medium survives even after a new one appears on the scene. We still have radio, even after television, and we will still have television in the internet age. Think of how long printed books have been around. They will always be there in the media mix. It’s only the mix that changes.

Instead, we chose “At the Edge of Print” as our theme because we wanted to address new media but not be limited to it. We wanted to give participants the opportunity to explore all the edges: what gives them their “edge” in the market, what counts as “edgy” in terms of genre or content, what lies beyond the edge of any literary medium today?

TUS: Has it become easier for authors to get themselves published and achieve success, or is it just as difficult as ever?

P&C: It really depends on who you talk to. For those writers who truly see themselves as partners with their publisher and editor, there are more opportunities. Publishers are looking for writers who are creating a reader-base following through Facebook, Twitter, blogs and their website. Writers carry more of the responsibilities for book sales and have to promote their book themselves.

More than ever, authors are more responsible for their own success. That’s why for some writers, self-publishing in a paper or electronic edition is the better choice. Why even Virginia Wolfe was self-published!

TUS: What kinds of sessions can attendees expect to see?

P&C: Our Friday-night keynote, Andrew Steeves, from Gaspereau Press, publisher of this year’s Giller Prize winner The Sentimentalists, really epitomizes that combination of the high tech with the hand crafted. He’ll be giving us a virtual tour via internet of the hand-cranked presses that produced that book. We also have sessions on blogging, travel writing, young adult fantasy fiction, e-publishing, comic books, fiction and poetry anthologies, and computer games. At the Saturday-morning keynote, Malcolm Azania, aka Minister Faust, will be talking about his recent decision to leap over the edge and go independent.

TUS: What kind of audience are you expecting? Traditional authors? New writers? All kinds?

P&C: Each conference attracts writers ready to be published. This conference will also attract people who understand that there is a need for good writing and original ideas but the final product may not be a book per se. A wonderful children’s picture book manuscript could actually become the script for a children’s animation. Or a sci-fi manuscript could become a graphic novel. Traditional authors are coming around to the e-book phenomenon too!

TUS: Do you expect the Edge of Print will convert a few new published authors? Will Pitch Camp make that happen?

P&C: Absolutely! The beauty of the Get Publishing conferences is that they were created to help writers meet their publishing goals wherever they are in their career. We have agents, editors and publishers presenting and catching. The information and connections will open doors for new writers and will open new doors for established writers… and we always hear that some of our registrants get printed directly through Pitch Camp.

TUS: How large is the publishing community in Edmonton and Alberta?

P&C: That’s a hard question to answer. Most people look at the number of publishing houses in a city and concentrate on in-house writers, editors, and publishers. But there are a whole lot of self-publishers, freelancers, and contract editors and writers in this city as well. When you look at the individuals involved, the industry is much larger than when you look only at the companies. Get Publishing is dedicated to providing a forum for looking at that whole picture.

It’s like asking how many registered forests there are in England, when it’s all the trees that make up the ecosystem.

TUS: Can we expect to see more of this kind of event from Get Publishing? What other events do you have planned?

P&C: We hold a conference every second year and collaborate with writing organizations such as the WGA or CAA for focused workshops in the off years. In the past, topics have included how to create your own website, how to pitch a magazine and how to market yourself. All are with the intention of getting writers published and paid. Our next workshop will be in fall – watch for it!

Want to wander over to the Edge of Print? Register for the conference online! Note: There are about a dozen spots available for the Friday night keynote and a few for the Saturday workshops. However, the Saturday banquet is sold out! The whole event takes place this weekend May 6 & 7 at Grant MacEwan University.

The Calgary Tower and it's 802 stairs

The annual Alberta Wilderness Association’s Climb and Run for Wilderness is back for another year. What this is is an opportunity for you to climb each and every stair of the Calgary Tower as well as raise funds and awareness for the Alberta Wilderness Association.

You have the opportunity to climb as a team and compete against other teams for best team spirit or most climbs, as an individual and again compete for the most climbs or you can even sign up for the race. With the race you run 1km then up the 802 stairs.

No matter what you do, if you select the multiple climb registration, you get to climb the stairs as many times as you would like over the course of the day, 8:30am until 1:30pm. Once you get to the top of the stairs you get the opportunity to see the view from the top of the tower, then take the elevator down. The elevator can really help with your knees.

Participants range from young children to senior citizens, and there are a number of quite elderly participants every year. They take their time up the stairwell, then take a break before going again. Yes, they climb up all of those stairs, multiple times, and voluntarily.

Yes, people willingly sign up to do this, and it can be a lot of fun. There are bands that will perform at the base of the tower for those who are cheering, taking time out to catch their breath or are making their way back up. Often you will find rescue animals so you may be able to see exactly why the funds are being raised.

If you are up for a challenge, and in the Calgary area on April 16th, why not give this challenge a try. If nothing else, it’s great bragging rights.

Happy sweating!

Most people seem to have very strong feelings about Michael Flatley. Either they love him, and revere him as a sex god, or they hate him and would probably use his likeness for target practice, given the chance. But no matter what category you fit into, Riverdance-wise, there will definitely be something for you at Edmonton’s Twestival on March 24th.

“YEG Twestival” is part of a global network of tweet-ups. They’re designed to raise money and awareness for local charities. The League of Extraordinary Media — which includes members from TheCharrette.ca, TrueBritl.com, UserCreatedContent.ca, TheEdmontonian.com, and The Unknown Studio — organized this year’s festival. This year, YEG Twestival will support the Edmonton Public School Foundation.

The EPSF aims to get kids ready for school, through kindergarten and pre-school programs. Here’s some info from the foundation’s website:

The Foundation was launched February 10, 2010, for two main purposes: to spread the word about the great things happening in the public education system and to support Edmonton Public Schools across Edmonton. We do this by offering opportunities for improved learning through financial, in-kind and human resource contributions.

So what we really do here is raise friends and funds to support early learning intervention and student success. Research shows children develop the foundation for strong communication skills, literacy, social competence, numeracy, adaptability and physical health as early as age three.

As far as the Twestival event itself, we’re getting the Twitterati together to socialize, share stories, share drinks, and bid on silent auction items. And man, do we have some excellent ones, including:

• $600 Cheer for a Year Prize pack from Hudsons Canadian Taphouse
• A pair of weekend passes to the Pure Speculation Festival
• Edmonton Rush four pack flex pack
• Two tickets to Salif Keita on March 31 at the Winspear,
• Two tickets to Riverdance Courtesy the Edmonton Journal

NOW you get why I opened with Flatley, amiright?

Support our local public school foundation and join us for Twestival on march 24th, starting at 6pm at Red Star. Details are on the YEG Twestival website. Scott and I look forward to seeing everyone there!

That’s the thought that occurred to me when Sean Healy and I decided we would give a presentation at Edmonton’s Pecha Kucha 9 at the Royal Alberta Museum on March 4th.

Pecha Kucha is a presentation format based on concision. Presenters are allowed to present 20 slides for 20 seconds each. The result is a very brief six minute and 40 second presentation based on any topic you can imagine.

The process for giving the presentation we gave at PKN9 (which you can see embedded at the bottom of this post) started in my office when I was talking with a colleague about Edmonton’s inferiority complex. Edmonton’s embarked on some pretty ambitious projects aimed at not only making it a better city for its residents, but that will also attract new business verticals, new leaders, and new opportunities for everyone. And yet some people insist on shitting on this new direction, for a variety of reasons I don’t believe merit sticking to our traditional sprawling ways.

Originally, I’d planned to present something myself at PKN8, but I completely chickened out at first. I decided I was “too busy” — which many of our readers and anyone who’s seen me speak publicly will know is something I believe to be a weak excuse; everyone’s busy.

So I bought myself time by chickening out, I guess. And thank the gods I did.

I gave me the opportunity to speak with Sean, and develop an even more fleshed out concepts.

Over beers one night, Sean and I decided it would be fun to take the piss out of the people who don’t seem concerned about, or are in favour of, urban sprawl and some of the issues related to same. And of course, since Sean and I are both huge zombie fans, we knew that we needed to produce a satire that evoked the horror culture monsters.

When the call for presenters came out for PKN9 in January, Sean and I pulled the trigger: on a presentation praising new city initiatives by making fun of them and lording the threat of a zombie apocalypse over our audience.

And then, like all creative types, we did nothing about it for about a month.

When February rolled around, it occurred to both of us we needed to get started on our presentation. The fire was lit beneath both our asses when we were emailed and told we needed to submit our 20 slides for the presentation. We spent a few hours working on an outline and sourcing creative commons-licensed images — and huge thanks to Mack Male, Joel Jackson and Chris Neuman for allowing us to cherry pick from their flickr photostreams.

With photos picked, we had to write a script. This took the better part of an evening. And even when we were done, there were still a lot of revisions to be made. We asked colleagues of ours to help out — as long as they promised never to speak about the premise of our talk. Huge thanks to Joel, Catrin, Justin and Chris for their great feedback on our script.

We spent about half a week after script revisions just reading out loud, trying to assess the timing of our slides. We finally got it down… we thought. But it seemed like every time we practiced with our slides running in the background, the timing changed dramatically. This is when I realized how tricky these kinds of presentations can be. Forgetting a few words, saying something differently, forgetting a piece of the script are all major contributors to throwing off a presentation’s timing. A few seconds off for a few slides, and it can really mess with things.

Sean and I had a pretty ambitious script that relied on the precise timing of some slides to the words we were saying. If you watch the livestream embedded below, keep an eye out for the Butterdome slide and test pattern slide. Those both required precise timing that we never consistently got in rehearsal. So actually seeing it work when we presented on Friday was pretty incredible. And scripting and timing things the way we did resulted in a lot of laughs, something I was worried we weren’t going to get.

Sean and I rehearsed with slides, scripts and blocking for two weeks almost straight, except for a break from everything over a weekend. The night before the presentation, Chris and Catrin watched us practice again, and their feedback resulted in even more script adjustments… which I mostly forgot about the night we performed. I was too nervous to remember new information!

By the night of Pecha Kucha, we were very comfortable with the material (aside from those few new lines) and we were able to ad lib on the fly. This lead to some great interactions and reactions in our live presentation, particularly when it came to slagging city councillor Don Iveson.

Don’s a long-time friend of mine and I really do appreciate what a good sport he was. We took some pretty nasty shots at him — none of them were true, of course, which only made it funnier, but I still felt like I was being harsh. And we also took a shot at Mayor Stephen Mandel — but it was all it good fun.

The result is what you see embedded below, the culmination of a month of dedicated work and daily practice. And I’m really happy with it (continued after the embedded livestream).

(Note: to see the beginning of our presentation, start at about 2:20.)

Giving a solid, satirical, and above all funny PKN was a huge personal challenge for me. It’s been a really long time since I’ve done something that required the memorization of a script and giving a really energetic performance like that. We do things like this at work in client pitches sometimes, and they’re exhausting. But they don’t happen every week, thank the gods.

Oh, and that Japanese word I asked about? I think it’s Kamikaze. I felt like that was what I’d done by the end of that night.

Thanks for the PKN volunteers, hosts, and the entire Edmonton Next Gen committee for staging such a spectacular event. To my the other presenters, you were fantastic and inspirational. You all contributed to one of the best Pecha Kucha’s Edmonton’s ever seen.

And huge thanks to Sean for being hilarious and so much fun to work with.

And yet, most of us are having trouble remembering the Warm Times™. Most of us are in a dark pit of cold despair, marred by chapped lips, frozen tears and rising gas prices.

So to take your mind off things, we’ve got a listing of events you can’t miss this month — you can’t miss them because we won’t miss them.

Here are some Edmonton Events in March, according to the Unknown Studio:

Podcast Episode 44 – March 9, afternoon — the Internet

Next episode, Scott and I will be speaking with Ryan Ro, about his band the Accident Will and his experiences in the west-coast pro-wrestling circuit.

We’ll also have segments with Transcend Coffee, and our ever-popular Sex Talk with Lauren from the Traveling Tickle Trunk.

Hope you all tune in!

Alberta Party Big Listen with Raj Sherman — March 14 @ 7pm — Taylor College Auditorium (11525 23 Avenue)

Independent MLA Raj Sherman hasn’t been a shining star of late. In my opinion, he seems erratic, and his behaviour is puzzling, to understate it.

But this will be your opportunity to hear the man out, and maybe even find out a bit more about the fledgling Alberta Party (full disclosure: I’m a member).

If nothing else, you can enjoy a chat with some politically like-minded and thoughtful folk from around Edmonton.

Story Slam — March 16 @ 7:30pm — Haven Social Club

A new season of Edmonton’s Story Slam begins this month. Check out original stories told by Edmonton writers from all walks of life. Enjoy a beer, or some of the fine food that Haven has to offer.

Who knows? If you’re really lucky, you might even be asked to be one of the audience judges.

Remember to bring some cash so you can contribute to the pot, which is distributed among the top three slammers.

Twestival Local – March 24 @ 6pm – Red Star

Edmonton plays host to a lot of tweet-ups. Some of them are designed to get people out to meet the media, others are just huge piss-ups that involve chicken wings. Twestival Local, however, is slightly different.

Hosted by the League of Extraordinary Media, Twestival Local is an opportunity for local tweeters to not only get together and enjoy each others’ company, but also raise funds for a local charity. This year, that charity is the Edmonton Public School Foundation. There will be door prizes, silent auction items and entertainment.

We’ll be posting more about this event in the next few weeks.

Oil City Derby Girls Roller Derby — March 26 @ 6pm — Metro Sportsplex

Later on this month, the Oil City Derby Girls All-stars will be taking on the Saskatoon All-stars in a no-holds-barred match at the Metro Sportsplex.

A colleague of mine — Banshee Barbrawler — is one of the Oil City Derby Girls. She’s been knocked on her ass more than a few times, and she says she still loves the sport, despite the cracked head and ribs she’s had to mend.

If you’ve never seen derby before, now’s your chance to see the best of the best from Edmonton and Saskatoon duke it out on old-timey rollerskates. Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. Check out their Facebook event for more info.

YEGZomBeers 6 — March 27 — Original Joe’s Varsity Row

Our last YEGZomBeers was a huge success — we watched Dead Snow, and at least one of our viewers wasn’t prepared for just how gory the film was… She ordered a medium-rare steak that arrived just as the film started. Oops.

This time around, we’re taking your suggestions on what we should watch. I’ve added Dawn of the Dead (2004) and Zombieland (2009) to this list, but you’re able to make your own suggestions.

We’ve also created a YegZomBeers Facebook page. Like us!

See you on the 27th, and enjoy all the great events Edmonton has to offer this month!

In the meantime, the thing that should be on your mind is that sweet, subtle sound of feet dragging across littered concrete as the shambling undead make their way across the urban landscape directly into our hearts.

What the hell am I talking about, you ask?

You guessed it, friends: it’s time for another YegZomBeer event!

We already have other 20 people signed up to attend. Here are the details from the Eventbrite invitation:

Do you like beer? Are you afraid of the no-doubt-pending zombie apocalypse? Do you think Edmontonians need a plan to defend the city against the walking undead? Do you loooove zombie movies?

Then you need to come to the first official YegZomBeers event of 2011!

This month, we’ll be honoring the dead of winter with a viewing of the Norwegian film Død Snø (Dead Snow). In the film: “A ski vacation turns horrific for a group of medical students, as they find themselves confronted by an unimaginable menace: Nazi zombies.”

Read more about the movie at IMDb.com.

This month’s YegZomBeers also features door prizes generously donated by Happy Harbor Comics – Edmonton’s Award-Winning Comic Shop, and Rue Morgue – Horror in Culture & Entertainment.

Join us on the second level of Original Joe’s Varsity Row, with host Adam Rozenhart of the Unknown Studio, who has a zombie-kill-count of about 73 (all with double-taps).

See you there, but be prepared to leave your weapons at the door.

Prizes! Zombies! Beer! You should be there.

But I also know how much you hard-workers love arts and culture. Hell, Edmonton’s a bastion of theatre, music and visual art. If you never experience an arts-based event in Edmonton, you probably don’t live here. Or else you’re a reclusive hermit. And hey, that’s cool too.

But that hard-work and love for the arts isn’t always compatible. You work late, you eat late, and it’s hard to get out to an event at all without sacrificing something. Thank the gods for the people at the Winspear, then.

This Friday, they’re putting on a late-night percussion concert featuring percussionist Colin Currie. The show starts at 9:30, so schlubs like you and I can make it there.

Percussionist Colin Currie. Photo by Chris Dawes

“We recognize that many people (especially the under-40 crowd) are not simply looking for a cultural and/or artistic experience when attending an arts event – the social aspect is also very important,” explains Phil Paschke, new media specialist with the Winspear Centre and Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

“After a long week at work, rather than rushing through dinner to get to a concert, you want a bit of time to relax and socialize… after-work drinks, or whatever. A 9:30 start allows you to have lots of time to do this, and then the atmosphere is set for a more relaxed, less formal concert experience. So really, we’re giving you a chance to “warm up” or “wind down” (whichever it is) to what we’re offering, and hopefully you’ve forgotten the looming deadlines at work and can enjoy yourself more at the concert.”

The event also includes live jazz in the lobby following the concert, something Paschke says is done to keep the relaxed atmosphere going and encourage patrons to hang around afterwards and socialize over drinks.

This event had me wondering about how many young people really attend Winspear events that aren’t more mainstream concerts.

“Our ‘core’ patrons skew older, as with pretty much any arts organization, and we’re going to nurture that audience as best we can. We wouldn’t be here without that audience, frankly,” Paschke says.

“But with that in mind, we are very conscious that we must remain relevant to a wide audience to ensure our long term viability. If you’re not coming to the symphony when you’re 25, you’re far less likely to attend when you’re 55.”

With this in mind, Paschke says the Winspear and ESO are always looking for ways to connect with and be relevant in the minds of young Edmontonians.

“We’re focusing on our social media presence, both directly through our own Facebook pages and Twitter accounts, but also indirectly, by developing relationships with other influencers,” he says.

“We recognize that our next generation of “core” patrons will not find out about us in the newspaper, but will probably hear about us when their friends post about us on Facebook, or tweet about us, for example.”

Regardless of the long view for the Winspear and getting younger patrons, I’m just glad they’ve created a concert event I can actually attend.

Friday, January 21, 2011, 9:30 pm
Enmax Hall, Winspear Centre
Late Night Percussion
2010-11 Late Night with Bill Eddins

William Eddins, conductor
Colin Currie, percussion
Ed Mann, guest percussionist

Tickets can be purchased online or at the Winspear box office ($20-$40)

There’s been something of a debate buzzing as to whether or not city councillors in Edmonton should tweet during council meetings. In a recent article on CBC.ca, Councillor Kerry Diotte was quoted as saying:

“This is a good way to keep the public informed directly and I’ve had a really good response to it.”

I think the councillor is correct — there’s a definitely value to receiving key council information directly from the city, and in real time. However, in the context of one of the last council meetings, Diotte wasn’t occasionally firing out a tweet about interesting discussion items. It was more like he was live-tweeting the council meeting. Live-tweeting a public meeting is not — and should not be — the province of an elected official.

While Diotte tweeted his thoughts and shared information about that meeting, I was following at least two other people — non-councillors — who were doing the same, and they were doing it just as well as Diotte, if not better. These citizen reporters, such as they are, were providing updates over Twitter to those who could not listen to or watch the city’s council live feed (which you can check out by visiting Council on the Web). There’s certainly some value in this.

However, real-time updating of events in council is a role that should be filled by viewers of, not participants in, a city council meeting. If Edmonton city council truly believes in the value of live-tweeting council meetings, they should tag a communications official in city administration with the responsibility, rather than have a councillor, whose role is to listen and contribute to the meeting, do the updating.

I don’t mean to harp on Mr. Diotte, but I suspect his previous work as a journalist compelled him to report on such matters. But Mr. Diotte isn’t a reporter anymore. He’s on the other side, now, and his role has changed. If he and his fellow councillors want to be (and be seen as) effective, they need to take their council-meeting duties seriously. That means, even if they can effectively split their attention between the meeting and Twitter, understanding the optics of doing both at the same time (hint: optics of such aren’t great).

It’s a question of what people want in their city councillors: representatives who listen and speak their views and ask the right questions in council; or representatives who tweet the views of others who are speaking in council.

I’d love to hear everyone’s opinion on this, as I know a lot of you are going to disagree with me. Let’s discuss in the comments!

In theory, the most efficient method to get to work and school.

Well boys and girls, let me tell you a story. The City of Calgary, a place full of cowboy hats, wranglers and on clear days a beautiful view of the mountains also had a fairly successful public transit system. Thousands of people would take both the LRT and busses to get them to their shopping, jobs or schools. The system was not fool proof or weather proof, but it wasn’t horrible.

You know what happened next boys and girls? The Calgary City Council decided that it would be a good idea to charge LRT passengers a $3 daily fee to park their cars in the LRT parking lots. This fee was to be in effect 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Why would they do this? The council decided that this was the only way to ensure the safety of the vehicles and passengers, the only way to pay for the increased security that was needed.

The city of Edmonton is a similar city. There are still wranglers and some cowboy hats, but definitely more liberal and artsy fartsy people and no mountain view whether the sky is cloudy or not. A park and ride fee was suggested to the Edmonton City council, but for some reason, this council saw the extra fee as unnecessary or just a bad idea overall.

So, the city of Calgary decided to charge LRT riders, who tend to be lower income than people who drive to work or school everyday, another fee.

Picture if you will a couple. They each take the train to and from work, but because they work slightly different hours due to children or other commitments, they each drive to the LRT. Each person buys a monthly transit pass for $85 (2010 monthly transit fee) for a total of $170 per month. The couple feels that this a still a good bargain as parking downtown starts at approximately $200 for a parking pass and of course parking gets much more expensive from there.

Now the park and ride fee has been instituted. If the couple each continue to park at the lots, the cost is approximately $60 a month per car. If they both drive that’s $120 plus the $170, for a total of $290. For that cost jump, the couple is likely to consider changing their working hours so that they can both drive downtown. If they drive, they don’t have to squeeze in with people who have questionable hygiene standards, they are not being coughed on, they get to sit and listen to music and have conversations together.  Even if the couple looked at taking one car to the LRT station, they are still looking at $230 a month, which will still likely lead the couple to make the choice to drive downtown.

Let’s take a moment to consider why a city might place funding into its public transit systems. The first one is likely to ease traffic congestion on the roads due to single occupancy commuters, a second might be the environmental impact of taking vehicles off of the road, and a third reason might be to help people get to their work or school in the most economical way possible. Why many people may not even have a vehicle and the train may be their main transportation means.

OK, like I said, the city of Calgary instituted the $3/day park and ride fee. The machines were unreliable, their cell phone call system didn’t always work and people would get tickets despite having paid their $3 fee yet the city said these were growing pains and that things would work out eventually. Councillors would bring this subject up time and time again, but it was decided that the fee would stand. After all, it cost a lot of money to bring in the machines the collect payment and the cars that would drive around the city taking pictures of license plates and digitally handing out tickets.

The people of Calgary changed their transit behaviours. Many people stopped taking public transit because it was no longer the most economical means for getting around. The City of Calgary denied that there was a significant drop, but people who take the LRT every day knew and saw that there was indeed a change happening. Some continued to drive to LRT stations, but started parking blocks away in residential neighborhoods, in mall parking lots and anywhere else that they could park for free. This just inconvenienced people who were trying to park near their homes, or customers trying to get into shops.

All the while, the city of Edmonton continued on, forgetting about the park and ride fee suggestions as if nothing had changed. A white knight rode into the City of Calgary one fateful Monday night in November. A new mayor and many new city aldermen were voted in, many promising to do away with the park and ride fees. So now, the people of Calgary wait and see if the promises made will be kept. Will people take advantage of shared ride programs and public transit again, or have they become too accustomed and comfortable with driving downtown? No one knows right now, and can only hope that people have not completely soured on the city’s public transit system.

Why have I shared with you this story? Well you see boys and girls, I think that people should applaud the City of Edmonton for recognizing that adding more fees to taking public transit was not the best option. Edmonton has likely saved money when you look at the costs that the City of Calgary has incurred, only to see them go to waste.

Also, public transit may not be the most glamorous way to get around your city, but I hope that you will consider it, even from time to time. It’s good for your car, it’s good for the environment, and it’s good for your pocketbook.

Ah promises. You know I love em. But I’m always skeptical of construction completion dates when it comes to infrastructure projects. I don’t care which order of government is the lead on the project, it almost never comes in on time or on budget. And as a note, I should say my experience in private sector capital work is the same. On-time and on-budget sounds nice, but the phrase is the exclusive province of marketers and communications types.

But, like in this video where Samwise Gamgee nearly dies trying to prove some stupid point about keeping promises to wizards — ’cause they’ll fuck you up — another promise is being kept, albeit somewhat late, by the City of Edmonton.

I received notice from some key contacts — who shall not be named, lest I lose their confidence (actually it was Dave, Jeff and Mack) — that the Dawson Bridge will re-open in a scant two days, on Monday, December 20 at 5:00am.

I think that actually deserves its own line, don’t you?

The Dawson Bridge will re-open in a scant two days, on Monday, December 20 at 5:00am

See what I did there? Emphasis.

Now, our more dedicated readers will know that we’ve been covering the Dawson Bridge closure since the beginning of 2010. And things sort of dropped off more recently. That was totally deliberate, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. We stopped covering it because that section of road became unnoticeable to the residents of my neighbourhood. That bridge has been closed SO LONG, we stopped noticing.

But that all changes on Monday. Monday, Rowland Road will resemble something approaching a clusterfuck, as thousands of Edmontonians forget that hills are slippery.

AND WE WELCOME IT.

So thanks! To the City, its engineers, construction crews and everyone else who worked on this project. We know you planned to have it open at the beginning of the month, but the fact that Old Dawsy’s re-opening at all — and not, say, falling into the river — is a testament to your considered attention to detail and craftsmanship.

Cheers! To another 50 years of never renovating the Dawson Bridge!

— with love from the Unknown Studio

This Sunday — that’s tomorrow — marks the finale of the very short first season of the Walking Dead on AMC. The show, based on Stephen Robert Kirkman’s long-running graphic novel series, has apparently been a success for AMC and producer Frank Darabont. So successful, in fact, that AMC renewed the Walking Dead for a second season.

But not everyone agrees that the Walking Dead’s first season has been flawless.

To wit:

[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/humantorch/status/10366649207095296"]

Scott Kosman, Canadian expat in Sweden added to his initial point:

[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/humantorch/status/10366649207095296"]

Most of the other online chatter about the Walking Dead has been positive. People seem to like the idea that the show isn’t 100% married to the narrative of the graphic novels. Others feel as though the deviations are too extreme. Regardless of where you land, it’s worth noting that Frank Darabont, as evidenced by Scott K’s initial tweet up there, has ditched much of the writing staff for the Walking Dead… But he didn’t “fire” them:

Hurd says that since writing on the first, six-episode season wrapped months ago (with no guarantee of a renewal at the time), the staff have simply moved on to other projects. Says Hurd, “[In] the writers’ room, there are people that have set up other projects that will be their first priority if their own series is picked up as a pilot or if it’s a series.”

If you love palliative care latinos, you hate the character Merle, or you just want to see who’s going to crack next, you should join the Edmonton crew of stalwart zombie hunters this Sunday at Original Joe’s Varsity for our third YegZombeers event. Since the second episode of the season, a bunch of us have been spending some of our Sunday evenings with food, beer, great company and the Walking Dead. And we want you to be there.

Sign-up at Eventbrite, or just show up at OJ’s on Sunday evening at 7:30. We can laugh, cry, and make undead puns together.

Hope to see you tomorrow at 7:30pm!

In a great article on the Edmonton Journal.com, writer Richard Warnica tells Bonar’s story, as Bonar himself works to decide where his political life will go next:

With no name recognition and almost no money, Bonar looked typecast as the classic no-hope candidate when he entered the mayoral campaign. But along the way, things changed. Bonar’s name kept cropping up. He arrived at city hall on nomination day ahead of a sign-waving crowd. He pitched his platform at dance clubs, spent a night on the streets and touted himself online.

The article goes on to explain that Bonar isn’t sure what the next stage for him will be. He doesn’t sound thrilled at the prospect of entering provincial or federal politics — and who can blame the guy for not wanting to become part of that endless clusterfuck. But I’m troubled that he might be considering NOT running in 2013.

I have to admit, I grossly underestimated Bonar. I was impressed at what a great speaker he was, and what a solid grasp of the issues he appeared to have. After I watched Daryl Bonar at the second Mayoral Forum at Eastglen School, all I could say to the pals who were with me was, “I really wish Bonar was running as a councillor.”

I don’t believe Bonar can reasonably expect to run for mayor again in 2013 and win — mostly because 2013 is going to be insane, with what I assume will be a wide open field of candidates. I think he needs some solid experience as a city councillor. And I hope that Bonar — after his tour in Afghanistan — comes back to represent one of Edmonton’s wards.

Regardless of what he does decide to do, my hat goes of to him. He ran a hell of a campaign, and he had some outstanding grassroots support.

Stand tall, Bonar. You’ve achieved a lot.

But I’m not going to talk about that. I write this brief blog post to call to your attention some of the outstanding creativity that has come out of Election 2010. We can allow the weirdos to continue to conduct themselves strangely in some obscure corner of Twitter.

First, a couple of great YouTube videos made by Sally over at TheEdmontonian.com describing Edmonton’s recent change from 6 wards to 12:

And that’s not all the Unknown Studio’s own Scott C. Bourgeois, along with co-creator Jeff Samsonow, also of TheEdmontonian.com fame, recorded several “Ghost Mayors” podcasts in which the deceased mayors from Edmonton’s history rise again and debate the issues of the day, all under the watchful eye of moderator Brittney Le Blanc.

Definitely give the first two a list:

• Ghost Mayors 1: Planning
• Ghost Mayors 2: Taxes, spending and fighting

Also, don’t forget to vote on October 18!

On the eve of the destruction of the Twelve Colonies by the Cylons, you could have looked down at those twelve colonies and seen worlds of diversity, people not just separated by distance, but by culture and tradition. The farmers of Aerilon experienced a far different life than those on the settled capital of Caprica City. Binding them all the belief they all descend from a single origin from the planet Kobol and their shared government in the Quorum of Twelve.

Kind of like Edmonton.

Sort of.

Our city is a rich tapestry of humanity, full of diversity, challenges and fantastic wonder. From the best of our divination, it does not seem we stand on the precipice of armageddon and destruction at the hands of a cybernetic civilization (although you can never be too sure), but the analogy is a fun one and while the continued existence of our species may not be at risk in this election, the stakes of the issues facing our community are high – whether it be the City Centre Airport, a new hockey arena, improving our transportation system or encouraging a greater sense of community and belonging – this election is an vital chapter in our city’s political history.

As you might have guessed, we are huge fans of Ronald Moore’s re-imagined series of Battlestar Galactica. If you have never seen it do yourself a favour and check out this great television series that shows humanity on the edge of a knife, facing extinction. People who originally hailed from one of twelve planets, but now live together collectively on the run from their enemies and looking for a new planet to call home.

Scott and Adam have asked us to look at the political structure of this fictional world and see if there is enough to link our wards in this municipal election with their counterpart among the Twelve Colonies of Kobol.

Let’s see what we can find on the Dradis.

First up is Ward 1, in northwestern Edmonton. Home to West Edmonton Mall, Ward One is also the only ward with a navy, the presently out-of-service subs floating alongside the replica Santa Maria inside the mall. It sounds like a perfect stand in for Aquarion, a planet covered in seas. We couldn’t find a oceanic related policy amongst the politicians vying for a seat here, so if Andrew Knack, Jamie Post or incumbent Linda Sloan drop by your home seeking your vote, you may want to ask them if the virtually mothballed navy in West Edmonton Mall is prepared for an impending Cylon attack.

Beware the be-dazzled Cylon

Ward 2 is home the controversial Edmonton City Centre Airport, a perfect stand-in for the harbours of Picon. Kim Krushell is seeking her re-election in this ward but is facing competition from Don Koziak, Roxie Malone-Richards, Shelley Tupper and Michael Waddy. We are in no position to take the metaphor far enough to divine a position on the airport, but we do wonder if any of the candidates have a position on seeking a thirteenth ward, a ward rumoured to have been separated at the city’s founding 100 years ago.

Ward 3 in northern Edmonton has no incumbent running, but a hotly contested seat with crime topping many residents’ list of concerns. And there was no greater criminal prior to the Cylon invasion than Tom Zerek, originally from the colony of Sagittaron. Tom went on to a glorious career (sort of) in politics, becoming Vice-President of the colonies, a campaign manager and even leader of an unsuccessful coup. Not that we see that kind of naked ambition from the candidates in Ward 3, but a heavily contested election is certainly causing the candidates – Cassady, Demers, Fairbridge, Loken, Naboulsi, Oplanich, Silver, Sobolewski and Suess – to pound the pavement.

Ward 4 is the ward we find nearest to nature and closest to our agriculture industry. In the northeast corner of Edmonton, en route to Fort Saskatchewan (as well as our monthly trips to Elk Island), what better place within our urban city to stand in for the breadbasket of the colonies, Aerilon. Present councillor Ed Gibbons is seeking re-election but is facing former MLA Dan Backs, Ken Atkinson, Hafsa Goma and Scott Robb. Fun trivia – Aerilon is where Dr. Gaius Baltar was born – but we could not determine if any of the five candidates could meet the standard of being the main antagonist of this election.

Ward 5 is our ward – we live in the community of Thorncliffe – and in celebration of that we gave ourselves the honour of carrying the banner of Scorpia, the colony with… looser morals. This is the colony college kids head to for “Vernal Break.” If that does not describe our home, what does? Besides, we are just to the east of the new River Cree Casino, just as good a stand-in for loose morals. The flexibility of our moral structure should not necessarily be indicative of our politicians mind you, as we are choosing from Steve Begeron, Mark Grandish, Brian Kendrick and current councillor Karen Leibovici.

Ward 6 was perhaps the easiest to assign as the centre of government in Caprica. Home to both City Hall and the Provincial Legislature, Ward 6 is where all the political action is happening. Where the politicians fervently debate local issues – blind to the Cylon threat that could be in orbit right now. Eight people are running to represent this ward to council – Basualdo, Batty, Frost, Johnson, Kapitza, Permann, Pirbhai and Roberts.

Ward 6, aka Caprica

Ward 7 is home to Rexall Place. As avid hockey fans, we believe that sport is the ultimate judge of ability and skill. With courthouses, judges and lawyers, the colony of Libran is the centre of judgment within the twelve colonies and we’ve selected hockey to represent this cycle of justice. Besides, as a site of nuclear armageddon, Libran has something else in common with the previous season of the Edmonton Oilers. But from adversity springs hopeful opportunity and a bright future for our Oilers. As for who is competing to represent the Oilers (current) home you get to choose from sitting councillor Tony Caterina, former Journal scribe Scott McKeen, Grant Pullishy, Terry Rolls and Brendan Van Alstine. None of whom play Pyramid, but if they did that would guarantee we would move there just to vote for a genuine pyramid superstar.

Ward 8 has the main campus of the University of Alberta within its boundaries – the centre of technology and research , not just of our city but one of the leading institutions in Canada. Virgon has a similar position among the twelve colonies as a centre of wealth and technological advancement. Here Ben Henderson, who is looking for a second term, is facing Duane Good Striker, Lori Jeffery-Heaney, Sheila Mckay and Hana Razga. Be sure to ask any of these candidates their feelings on technology and whether we might go too far in linking computers. Ask if we might one day face nuclear annihilation from linking these computers together. We believe it is good to keep candidates on their toes, plus you are guaranteed not to get a practiced sound byte in response to that question.

Ward 9 is in the southwest corner of the city, graced on one side by the North Saskatchewan River. The two of us spend many hours on the riverbank walking our dog and enjoying the river valley. It sounds like the people of Canceron do something similar along their famous beaches. It does not seem Canceron has experienced the explosive growth Ward 9 has though – although other explosions have happened there. Bryan Anderson is seeking his fourth term in this ward, facing off against Rami Bader, Calvin Lim, and Jennifer Watts.

Ward 10 has a giant farm right in the middle of it – the University of Alberta farm on South Campus. This might be home to much of Expo 2017 but for now it is a rolling, peaceful plain, much like the open plains of Leonis. You can also find much of the newly expanded south LRT system in this ward, along with past Unknown Studio guest Don Iveson, who is running for re-election against Al Slemko.

Ward 11 is one of the wards without an incumbent running, as well it has some of Edmonton’s oldest neighbourhoods. Alongside older neighbourhoods comes older knowledge, traditions, wisdom. Gemenon has a similar role being a deeply religious colony, one where the traditions and teachings brought Chief Galen Tyrol the wisdom to help guide the Battlestar Galactica back on track when it looked like it was lost. Given the absence of an incumbent and the importance of the issues facing this ward, there is no lack of contenders – Shane Bergdahl, Kerry Diotte, Vishal Luthra, Roberto Maglalang, Chinwe Okelu and Brent Schaffrick are competing for votes on October 18.

Ward 12, our last ward, is one with a rich cultural history that can be seen reflected in Tauron, home to the Adama family before they moved to Caprica. Proud of its cultural heritage, the people of Tauron were once known to tattoo their faces to display their identity and the adversity the individual had experienced. No word on whether Vikram Bagga, Gerry Horn, Chuck McKenna or sitting councillor Amarjeet Sohi would be willing to go that far for your vote, but that is no reason not to ask what they will do for you.

Protecting Edmonton from the forces of evil

The issues facing our own Quorum of Twelve, alongside the Mayor of Edmonton come October 18th are important so – as a couple who are almost as politically engaged as we are fans of the Battlestar Galactica universe – we urge you to find out about the candidates in your ward and cast an educated ballot on election day. The politicians in the twelve colonies had no idea that they would be looked to be leaders of their people following nuclear catastrophe but leaders like Laura Roslin did their best to take their people from the edge of annihilation and into the future – we humbly expect nothing less from our City Council should the Cylons strike.

So say we all.

And I should state, in the interests of full disclosure, that two of my favourite places to eat in Edmonton also happen to be owned by my cousin. Cyrilles Koppert owns and runs the Manor Bistro and the Urban Diner. And he’s about to try to duplicate his short-order successes on the southside, in the spot that used to be Fiore.

At some point near the end of October, a second Urban Diner location will open. I had the good fortune of popping by there the other day. Renovations are still well under way (being supervised by Koppert’s eldest brother Co). I thought I’d share of pictures with you so you can get an idea of how the 100-seat diner is shaping up. Enjoy the slideshow!

Last weekend, as I drove down Rowland Road, past the “bridge closed” signs and into Riverdale, as I drove to within sight of the almost completely revitalized Dawson Bridge, I saw two kids totally breaking the rules, and driving over the recently paved deck of the bridge.

Now before you blow a head gasket over the safety of these children, who were clearly in defiance of the “road closed” signage at the west side of the bridge, let me talk to your about the significance of the phrase “recently paved.”

According to my roommate, who owns part of a paving company, the paving of a bridge represents one of the last steps in the construction process. And given that the deadline for the Dawson Bridge to re-open is currently — as far as I know — the beginning of December, it could be that the bridge rehabilitation is ahead of schedule.

I wanted to know if that was indeed the case, so I asked the city — this time, I made sure to exclude any inquiries about robot construction. Communications Officer Laura McNabb (who also loves the Dawson bridge) responded:

” [...] [W]ork is progressing well and the bridge deck was paved with asphalt on Saturday [September 25]. We still have quite a bit of residual work before the bridge is ready for vehicle/pedestrian traffic, but there is no doubt that we are being helped by the warmer temperatures. Although the progress of construction on the Dawson Bridge remains weather-dependent, we are currently on track to re-open for the end of November.”

Now for something equally exciting: I think we should plan an event — a bridge-crossing, if you will. When the Dawson Bridge re-opens, I’ll send out a general invite asking people to meet at the west side of the bridge, cross over to the west east side, hike up the hill and make our way to the Hilltop Pub to celebrate access to east Edmonton again.

Just another worthwhile excuse to drink while celebrating civic infrastructure. I think that’s something we can all get behind.

I don’t remember some of the specifics of his campaign, except that, according to his Wikipedia profile, he claims to have worked over 85 different jobs. And he can speak Esperanto. Like it matters.

Edmonton’s 2010 election is proving to be just as fruitful in its weirdness, though not in such an overt way as the Buffalo Terminator’s standard election shenanigans. Still, we’re just over one week in and there are some candidates who are already starting to create buzz. In a bad way.

When you have to issue a press release stating that you would like the media to stop asking about a certain thing, you know the rest of the election is going to be a tough slog. Enter: Scott Robb, council candidate for Ward 4 (running against incumbent Ed Gibbons).

Aside from his mostly-standard and boring platform points — where he twice he mentions the risk of death Edmontonians face due to the roll out of city-wide LRT and the closure of the City Centre Airport — Scott Robb has one remarkable trait that no other candidates in this election can boast. He’s high-priest in the Church of Satan.

So now you’ve either reacted by raising your eyebrows slightly with bemusement, or covering your mouth with shock. The media’s caught on to this unusual characteristic as well, with this story across many Postmedia newspapers. Robb’s received enough comments about the whole Church of Satan thing that he released the following statement:

“As reported in a September 23, 2010 article in the Edmonton Journal (and subsequently picked up by the wire services), I indicated that I had a non-conventional religious belief system.

“I understood that making these beliefs public would be extremely controversial. However, this was done in the hopes of stimulating discussions of this election as a whole.

“Specifically, my interests are for the constituents of Ward 4 this was an attempt to combat voter apathy in municipal elections.

“I am a firm believer in democracy and wish to engage more voters than the 23.47% of eligible voters who voted in this ward (formally known as ward 3), in the 2007 election.

“I strongly believe that one’s religious beliefs should never be used as an indicator as to their ability to do their job. As I have stated numerous times, I am a firm believer in the separation of church and state.

“I applaud the media for their background research, but I would like to return to my campaign and will no longer field any interviews or questions related to any religious beliefs.”

Cue the “Really” skit from Saturday Night Live, right?

Robb clearly understood that his religious beliefs would be “of interest” for the electorate — and I use quotes because of the absurd understatement — but as I stated on Twitter over the weekend, I think he’s totally out of touch with just how much this would be an issue with his potential constituents.

In contemporary culture, Satan is still something most people association with evil. He’s the de facto devil, even if that characterization doesn’t jive with Robb’s beliefs. And it’s certainly going to be on the minds of voters in his ward. I wish him all the best, but he’s got an uphill battle to fight. And he’s out of his fucking mind if he thought it wouldn’t be a big deal.

For outstanding coverage of Edmonton’s 2010 Municipal Election, check out EdmontonPolitics.com, Daveberta.ca, Alex Abboud’s blog, and Edmonton Commons.

You see I’ve been a Riverdalian for about four years now. Fours years I’ve lived in this little place, a neighbourhood close to everything, and yet also far from everything in its isolation. And I can say it no other way: it sucks not having the Dawson Bridge open. Believe it or not, Edmonton, there are things to DO on the east side of the city. Amazing, interesting things.

But we won’t get into that right now. You need to discover it for yourself.

In spite of the fact that the bridge has been closed for nearly a year, people so rely on the Dawson Bridge that still, in spite of the length of the project and the fact that there are detour and road closure signs up everywhere, I STILL see people flipping U-turns at the bottom of Rowland Road. The fools!

But old Dawsy, she’s starting to look like her old self again. That vibrant, sand-blasted blue tint makes it look like a brand new bridge. I can’t wait to drive across it. I may rent a supercar just to do it.

Who wants to pitch on a Ferrari?

Let the countdown, uh, continue.

More awesome than we could have expected.

On the next episode of the Unknown Studio, we’ll have a few highlights from the evening. Meanwhile, League of Extraordinary Media co-founder Brittney Le Blanc was kind enough to take a bunch of photos of the event and post them. Here’s a slideshow for you:

Huge thanks to all of the local celebrities who read for us, including Josh Classen, Ryan Jespersen, Samantha Power, Colin MacIntyre, Craig Schram and Trent Wilkie. You were all amazingly hilarious. We’ll definitely have to do it again sometime.

Fans of ours will recall that we made a big deal out of turning one back in June. But I feel like we didn’t go far enough, like we didn’t really KICK IT UP to the NOTCH that this momentous occasion merited. So, after some discussion with our League of Extraordinary Media friends, we decided a party — with delicious cake and delicious entertainment a delicious amount of time after our deliciously authentic birthday — was in order.

And so, along with Jeff and Sally, the aforementioned cherubs, we conceived of this:

It’s all happening on August 23rd, and you can get all the details on Facebook. The Unknown Studio’s own Scott C. Bourgeois will be emceeing a night of riveting and silly entertainment. We hope you’ll join us, because I was totally serious about the cake.

*Unicorns are old, right? RIGHT?!

You can check the rerun of the show on theEdmontonian.com’s LiveStream page. And on the next episode of the Unknown Studio, we chat with the show’s creators Jeff and Sally about just what this whole thing was really about.

In the meantime, here’s a slideshow of images from the big event (all images taken by @Raquelgal):

If you want to know what’s happening in Edmonton, go see what Jeff has to say about it!

Take it away, Tom Brokaw!

(As an aside, I’m hopeful they hit their target so I have a local watering hole I can hop and skip to. It’s called the Hilltop Pub.)

Given that I live three blocks away from the bridge myself, I have to note my own surprise at how late into the night these guys are working. I wouldn’t say it’s been disruptive to me, since I’ve learned to be able to sleep through everything — including those magpie jerks that insist on making a whole pile of noise first thing in the morning — but the noise is definitely noticeable, perhaps even more so because the River Valley is usually an exceedingly quiet place. This is, of course, with the exception of emergency vehicle sirens, but there’s a reason those things are really loud. Someone ought to point that out to Councillor Jane Batty.

Anyway, here’s what at least one Riverdale resident thinks about the noise waiver granted to the Dawson Bridge project:

Brenda Bolton, who lives on 87th Street, three houses down from the bridge, said she bought a noisy, second-hand fan to run at night in an attempt to drown out the construction noise.

“It doesn’t, but it was a good plan though,” she said, laughing. Bolton said she wouldn’t mind so much if she could sleep in on weekends to make up for the shut-eye she loses during the week.

“You would think they would have a little decency because you don’t sleep all week, but at 6 o’clock in the morning, they are out there pounding and blasting. I don’t know what the hell they are doing,” she said.

— From “All-night racket on Edmonton’s Dawson Bridge outrages Riverdale neighbour” in the Edmonton Journal, June 11, 2010, by Florence Loyie.

I’m not convinced this is an issue of common decency. It’s a tough balance between not disrupting those residence with noise, and not disrupting residence with the inconvenience of a very busy bridge being out of a commission for a whole year. Having said that, though, this comment at the end of the Journal story really caught my attention:

What has not been recognized is that the City of Edmonton held a presentation to the community of Riverdale one year ago promising that they can do the work on the bridge without being issued a NOISE WAIVER from the City! They (the City) indicated that the work can be done without having to work through the night! If nothing happens from this article, then everyone should get ear plugs including City Council and all of the people who complain about motorcycles and any other type of noise, traffic, buses, kids, schools, parties. Here is a suggestion get rid of the noise bylaw all together. I strongly support Barb and anyone else who holds the City of Edmonton accountable. She is not complaining that the bridge work – everyone wants the bridge work completed- she is complaining about how City Council are hypocrites. Pay attention to the story!

— Comment by “Greenthumbs” at 12:00PM on June 11, 2010.

If what this commenter says is true, then the city said they wouldn’t need to be working nearly around the clock to get the work done. I cannot say whether or not this is accurate, since I didn’t attend the presentation at the Riverdale community hall, but if this claim is true, it means two things:

1. The City apparently didn’t keep its word
2. If #1 is true, then the City probably needed to break its word in order to ensure the project would be completed on time.

This is one of those damned if you do, damned if you don’t situations. If the project wasn’t issued a noise waiver, it might not be completed on time and then citizens — from many different neighbourhoods, not just Riverdale — would be complaining about the fact that the city didn’t open the bridge on time.

Look, I get it. It’s disruptive and annoying. But I think this Journal commenter sums it up rather nicely:

Wow, its construction work, it noisy, theres no way around it. Sure they could have them work on it during the day only but how happy will everyone be when they tell you the bridge will be closed for 2+ years instead of one. Sometimes we have to put up with a little so a change can get through that helps alot more people. I lived near 137 ave and the lrt tracks when they built the bridges there, every morning 6 am they started pounding beams into the ground, i worked till midnight, so very little sleep but i knew it had to be done. Deal with it instead of being outraged.

— Comment by “Happypop” at 12:47PM on June 11, 2010 (emphasis mine).

It sucks that there’s noise into the wee hours of the morning. But it also sucks that no one can currently use the Dawson bridge.

Only 5.5 months to go!

I stopped in because I wanted delicious morning coffee… and I wanted to be their first customer. Sadly, I wasn’t early enough. I was merely customer #2, as the owner of the building grabbed a cup of joe on his way into work. Still, I was greeted with true warmth. Besides, I prefer to think of myself as #1 all the same — not unlike Commander Riker, who was second only to Captain Picard.

I spoke briefly with Nate and Claire (his wife) about their new project in between sips of what I would call, without hyperbole, one of the best lattés I’ve ever tasted.

Claire grabs a muffins from Duchess for me... They're heavenly

Right now, elm café is carrying Duchess Bakeshop muffins as well as panini which is pressed and heated for you once you order it. Otherwise, the keystone of the café is its namesake (no, you fool not elms! cafés!). While the food will change periodically, coffee is the shining star. Nate picked 49th Parallel coffee beans, sourced in British Columbia, as his ingredient of choice.

Coffee beans from a parallel dimension... or, you know, BC

The café itself is pristine and minimalist. Light grey concrete countertops, white cabinetry and a lovely, simple menu board make the café feel larger than it is. The whole east wall is a series of windows, which definitely helps to open up the space as well.

This month at the café, images from photog Jessica Fern Facette

elm café will feature artwork and photography from local talent, which will change every month. This month (and for the next 6 weeks, according to Nate, due to the delayed opening) photographs of Mexican wrestlers taken by Jessica Fern Facette adorn the walls.

Owner Nate Box's smiling visage reflected in the café huge espresso machine

I can safely say I’ll be making elm one of my regular morning stops, if only to see the smiling faces of some of Edmonton’s talented restaurantrepreneurs… There aren’t enough of them in this town.

Edit: Check out Kelly’s review of elm café… much more in-depth than mine!

As our food becomes more and more over processed and preserved with countless ingredients you can’t pronounce let alone guess at what they are, it’s little wonder that some people would like to remove some of the steps between their food and their plate.

The latest trend right now is the fight for urban chickens. People in various cities all over North America are fighting for the right to keep up to six hens, roosters excluded, in their backyards.

No, no, seriously, people want to do this, in the city, maybe even next door to you. Maybe people just miss being able to sing Old McDonald as they’ve aged and don’t realize they can sing it again without actually starting a farm in their backyard. Then again, we do live in the purse-dog era and in a society where it’s more acceptable to bring your dog on a plane than your baby.

Let’s see a show of hands for those of you who have lived on a farm with chickens. Ok, as you can clearly see, my hand is up. How about another show of hands for those of you who have lived in an urban setting, down the street from penned up birds? What’s that? Oh ya, that would be my hand still in the air.

Old McRitchie had a farm…

In a very sad and dark chapter of my life, I had the opportunity to live down the street from a man who kept carrier pigeons (rats with wings) in a very ugly shed. One of my problems with these birds was that they attracted wild pigeons; it was always more than just his birds. Then there was the matter of the odors, and the fecal matter, and then of course my lack of sleep… You know how we’re not allowed to mow our lawns before 8am, and not after 11pm due to the noise bylaws? Birds really really don’t respect those bylaws; they’ll wake you up every morning just because they have nothing better to do with their time.

Yes, I agree that pigeons are not the same as chickens, but they’re similar. They both like to chirp and coo, and they both like to do it at the crack of dawn. Where is their kind consideration for those of us who went out and enjoyed our Friday night and want to sleep in on Saturday? I nearly bought a gun, or a hawk. A really, really big Hawk.

For a number of years I lived on a farm outside of Cold Lake, Alberta. We had a several different kinds of animals, my least favorites being our chickens.

These birds are not calm and pleasant. They fight. A lot. No, it’s not just roosters that fight; hens also fight to establish dominance. During these fights, a lot of fecal covered feathers can and do go flying. Also, this may not come as a surprise, but sometimes the hens don’t like you coming along and taking their eggs. HUGE shocker, right? Even dogs and dolphins get possessive and protective, but they don’t have pointy beaks and zero remorse.

Chicken shit

Let’s also consider the mess these birds make. You know how sometimes you go out for a walk, or even are out mowing your lawn and you see a mess from a dog or a cat, just left there, sitting in the sun, no one picked it up? Not everyone is a responsible pet owner with pets that are comparatively low maintenance. Chickens? Not so easy to clean up or scoop up after.

The fecal matter from chickens is more likely to seep into our ground, or collect in runoff water and further tax our water treatment plants than to get cleaned up and disposed of. Are people really going to be ok with more money going to clean up after city residents that aren’t ok with a dog, or a cat, or even fish and need chickens?

Now, what of salmonella and infections that can be contracted from birds? Yup, still an issue. There’s an argument out there that people aren’t supposed to live in cities, and we should go back to all living on farms and raising our own food like we used to. I would like to ask when exactly in human civilization history this was? There have been cities and surrounding farms for centuries!

Also, when farmers used to live in their homes when the weather turned, life expectancy was extremely short by today’s standards, and people believed that bathing killed you. We’ve come a long ways since then in terms of our understanding of germs and hygiene. At this point we should be able to recognize that living closely with animals poses health risks and concerns — and not to be an alarmist, but in this situation let’s remember the term “bird flu.”

It’s not just a myth; you can catch a variety of infections from hand to mouth contact with birds. The danger is not just present to adults; there are serious healthy concerns around children, who will see something fluffy and want to play with it or touch it. What of the fecal covered feathers that during fights or day to day activities by the birds will fly with the wind into neighbouring yards and green spaces? Children will put things in their mouths — always have, and always will.

Urban jungle

What of predators that are being forced out of their homes due to ever expanding urban sprawl? Have you ever heard a news story concerning coyotes being seen in parks, or roaming residential areas? Of course you have. You know what coyotes would love to eat? Chickens. Keeping chickens in backyards will attract other curious or hungry wild animals.

There are definite pluses to having chickens in your backyard, like farm-fresh (or yard-fresh) eggs. I see the appeal and I understand it. But given the cost to maintain a small number of birds, and the potential negative impact on neighbours, a farmer’s market or visiting a poultry farm is a far better option.

There are organic and free-range chickens farms out there. You can buy directly from them in some cases. You may still support the idea of urban chickens, but I urge you to research infections transferred from birds to humans, consider the makeup of your neighbourhood, and do a little reading on the middle ages or even early Egyptian civilizations — farms and cities.

Cities such as Calgary (which was recently shot down), Vancouver, Halifax and even New York City are allowing small groups of people to test the urban chicken market and it looks to be a wait and see position now. Should you feel strongly one way or the other on this position I urge you to contact your city council representative.

Unfortunately, the attendance cap prevented a whole pile of people from going to check out the talks (which were phenomenal, by the way. Read my very brief comments about it here). As a result, local political blogger Dave Cournoyer created a Facebook event which he called ALEx, invite people to come out and drink in lieu of attending the exclusive (and admittedly costly) TEDx event.

Turns out the demand for an ALEx was pretty overwhelming. That’s why we’re doing another one tomorrow evening at Original Joe’s Varsity Row.

This edition of ALEx may (or may not) feature actual speakers… In truth, it’s just an excuse to drink and discuss the issues of the day with people who are interested. It’s part networking, part education, part leisure and part alcohol — hence the fact that ALE stands for “Alcohol, Leisure and Edutainment.”

Come join us for a delightful summer gathering. You’ll learn something new, and you’ll meet some great new people as well!

The last DemoCamp I attended, there was some discussion between the likes of Cindy Fulton, Hilary Darrah, and Roma Sobieski about creating a sort of branch of the local tech community that was more inclusive of women. After the event that night, seemingly hot on the heels of that discussion (though I believe unrelatedly), local social media mavens Shauna McConechy and Brittney Le Blanc launched YEG Girl Geek Dinners.

Girl Geek Dinners were founded by TweetMeme Community Manager Sarah Blow. Here’s what international Girl Geek Dinners are all about:

The Girl Geek Dinners were founded on the 16th August 2005 as a result of one girl geek who got annoyed and frustrated about being one of the only females attending technical events. She was tired of being assumed to be marketing, tired of constantly having to prove herself and decided that she just wanted a change and to be treated just the same as any other geek out there, gender and age aside. After all to be geeky is to be intelligent, have passion for a subject and to know that subject in depth. It’s not at all about being better than others, or about gender, race, religion or anything else. Those things just detract from the real fun stuff, the technology, the innovation and the spread of new ideas.

That’s how the movement began. But I really wanted to understand why Shauna and Brittney brought these events to Edmonton. Here’s the email exchange I had with Shauna…

Unknown Studio: What is your ultimate goal with Girl Geek Dinners?

Shauna: When I started thinking about bringing Girl Geek Dinners to Edmonton it was to bring a group of strong, witty, sassy, smart, unique women together. Social Media has opened to door to conversations about pretty much anything, including geeky topics… sometimes especially geeky topics. It has been very interesting to witness how many chicks out there have such passion for technology. It was apparent that we have a solid online conversation going on in Edmonton, we want to take it offline. So the ultimate goal is to create a solid, open and tolerant community of gals and guys who have a common interest: geekiness.

TUS: Many of the tech events in YEG have seen an uptick in female attendance over the last two years. Why bring this initiative forth now?

S: Sure there’s been increased female “attendance” numbers at Edmonton tech events, but there haven’t been any organized girl-centric tech events (to my knowledge). Why not bring another tech event to Edmonton, especially one with international recognition? I’ve been working on bringing Girl Geek Dinners to YEG for a while now and about 8 months ago I approached Brittney to see if she wanted to co-chair organizing the events. She was fully on board.

The way we see it is there’s room for everyone. Having said that and knowing there are other events happening in the City, we’re the only one dedicated to the betterment, development and camaraderie of girl geeks.

TUS: How would you respond to guys who feel like they’re being excluded?

S: Well the feminist in me would have to bite her tongue… And then I would say men are certainly not excluded from Girl Geek Dinners. It is the mandate of GGD to allow men to attend events but only by invitation from one of the attending women. Each woman attendee is allowed to invite one man each if they chose. This club is not exclusive by any means — at the most we’re “niche.” Personally, I am keen to hear what the attending fellas have to say about the event.

TUS: Do you have any plans to build robots? If so, will they be evil or friendly?

S: I have always been partial to the Buffy-bot, but she would have to come with the Buffy wardrobe, that way we could share clothes. Do I have plans to build one? Not at the moment — I’m too busy with my preparedness manual for the inevitable zombie apocalypse.

TUS: You touched on what the definition of a geek is when we spoke once before. Could you expand beyond “someone who likes gadgets, programming and everything in between”?

S: Dictionary.com says a geek is: 1) a computer expert or enthusiast (a term of pride as self-reference, but often considered offensive when used by outsiders. 2) a peculiar or otherwise dislikeable person, esp. one who is perceived to be overly intellectual. 3) a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken.

Although definition #3 sounds highly entertaining I’m sure we won’t be seeing those kind of geeks — or at least not many — at our events. My personal definition is somewhere in between definitions one and two.

To me a geek is someone who has a passion for technology (all aspects), science fiction, social media, witticisms, intelligent conversation, being challenged, the future, and unknown possibilities. A geek is someone who doesn’t settle for the mundane of the norm, but someone who believes there is more than meets the eye. (see what I did there?)

TUS: How long has this initiative been in the works?

S: I have been chatting up other like-minded gals around YEG at networking events and via Twitter about this initiative for over a year now. As a matter of fact my first email to Sarah Blow, Girl Geek Dinner Founder, was May 6, 2009. As I mentioned earlier it wasn’t very long after that I approached Brittney to see if she wanted to be partners in founding the Edmonton Chapter.

TUS: If I dress up as a convincing enough woman and call myself Rosey, do you think I’ll be able to pass as a girl geek, or just the bearded lady?

S: I’m going to say yes just because I want to see you dress in drag. BTW snaps for using the name Rosey and asking about robots all in the same interview. (ed. – see what I did there?)

From personal experience I believe you will be able to pass as a geek anytime, girl or other wise. However, you do have very nice shoulders so if you were to dress in drag I’d like to see you in something strapless.

TUS: Are there any open spots for the event?

S: We’re actually “sold” out. I guess the term would be we’re full, not “sold out” since tix are free this time around.

It’s worth noting that we started with 20 tix, they went in 4 hours. We then added another 10, and now those are gone too. Weeeeeee!

Edmonton’s first Girl Geek Dinner takes place Thursday, June 10 at Ceili’s Irish Pub. For more information, check out the YEG Girl Geeks website.

EdmontonPolitics.com was originally a domain name purchased by local entrepreneur and blogger Chris LaBossiere. But Chris is a busy guy, and when he realized he didn’t have the time to turn it into something, he offered it (and the sister site CalgaryPolitics.com) to any social media type who wanted to use it. The only requirement was that Chris would entrust the URL to that individual and he would contribute to whatever form the sites took. So, two websites about politics were born.

Jeff Samsonow and Dave Cournoyer took ownership of Edmonton’s URL. And the site just launched today. Here’s what Jeff has to say about the new media site in its inaugural post:

EdmontonPolitics.com is a collaboration of Edmonton bloggers, podcasters, writers, developers, and anyone else who wants in. We want to cover the 2010 municipal and school board elections like it’s never been done.

We’ll be online with words, photos, and videos. There will be straightforward reporting on wards, candidates and issues. But we also want to have fun and offer satirical and sarcastic takes on the same. There will likely be plenty of opinion thrown around, but lots of facts too.

The vision is to make it your best source for factual, opinionated and interesting (if irreverent) Edmonton election news. AND EdmontonPolitics.com wants YOU to contribute. So get yourself over there and find out what they’re all about!

#YegHelp is the brainchild of Edmonton’s Jerry Aulenbach, bacon-enthusiast and man-about-town, and is aiming to raise $10,000 for the women and children of the La Salle Shelter.

Everything is going down at the LUX Steakhouse and Bar downtown, and the evening includes hors d’oeuvres and live music. The musical lineup includes James Leigh, Erin Faught, Erin Craig and DJ David Stone. There will also be a silent auction filled with some wonderful and desirable goodies.

And if you can’t make it out in person, be sure to keep an eye on your twitter feed because you could very well contribute through a twitter auction that will also be taking place.

It’s a fun night of entertainment and good company, and it’s all for a really good cause. And tickets are still available.

Don’t forget to say hello to the two handsome MCs.

I struck a nerve*.

And what happens less than a month following that post? They cover the bridge in a giant white tarp so we can’t see what’s happening inside. Kind of like cocoon, but much, much larger, sans old people, and without the witticisms of the now-washed-up Steve Guttenberg.

Not pictured: Steve Guttenberg

Well I had a theory involving robots… that has since been CONFIRMED by my own investigation.** You see, when I went to take these photos, there were all kinds of ungodly noises coming from the bridge. And while the City claims something else entirely is taking place…

Still not pictured: Sir Guttenberg

But I’ve seen RoboCop. I’ve seen Terminator. I’ve seen Battlestar Galactica. And I know a robot when I hear one. And I heard several.

I’d like to think this is all part of the city’s new snow removal policy. I mean, you can’t really expect a bunch of trucks to handle the volume of work, can you? No, you need a team of highly-armed, highly-intelligent robots to make sure that there’s less than 5cms of coverage on residential roadways. And really, when you consider all the robots that’ll be required, $800,000 isn’t all that much money.

The question now is, why hide this from citizens? Why build them on the Dawson Bridge? Perhaps so they can work side-by-side with humans, and learn all about construction and such. Or maybe it’s so they can stage a river-valley assault on the good people of Edmonton. For what reason? We may never know…

Not pictured: Robocop

*If it hasn’t at this point become glaringly apparent that this is a joke, I cannot help you.

**Not really, but it’s fun to pretend.

I received the following release in my inbox this morning:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 5, 2010

COMMUNITY ADVOCATE MICHAEL JANZ RUNNING FOR SCHOOL BOARD

EDMONTON – This morning, Michael Janz confirmed his intention to run for Edmonton Public School Board trustee in Ward F.

“I am running for trustee because I believe this election matters to every Edmontonian,” explained Michael. “The decisions we make about our schools profoundly impact the communities we live in today and our collective efforts to build a better Edmonton tomorrow.”

The community will have the opportunity to meet Michael at his Kickoff BBQ on May 30th, 2010, from 2:00 pm to 5:00pm, at the McKernan Community Hall (11341 – 78 Avenue), with a media address at 3:30 pm. Michael will also be knocking on doors in Ward F during the summer and throughout September and October.

Michael Janz is the current Marketing Director for the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues, and has previously worked as a researcher for the Public School Boards’ Association of Alberta. He was previously elected President of the University of Alberta Students’ Union in 2007.

To learn more about Michael’s campaign, his values, and his vision for Edmonton Public Schools, visit www.michaeljanz.ca.

-30-

I consider Michael to be a good friend, and wish him all the best in his pursuit of public office. I look forward to hearing his ideas. And maybe I’ll even see some of you at the kick-off BBQ!

Now, in order to assess the progress of construction crews on this project, I decided to contact the city directly. And sure, I was asking some tough questions. But they were important ones. Unfortunately, city officials were rather, uh, selective in their responses. Here’s what I asked them:

• So, how close was the Dawson Bridge to falling into the North Saskatchewan before the city started the rehab project?
• Are you currently on schedule to complete the project so the bridge can re-open in January 2011?
• What are you guys working on on the bridge right now for the month of the April?
• Can we expect the bridge to look very similar to its original form, or or has the city added lasers and other random, but extremely cool, technology?
• To your knowledge, has anyone tried to cross the North Saskatchewan river beside the bridge in protest of its closure? If so, did the construction guys take some video I can upload to YouTube?
• Do you one day hope that robots will be able to do this kind of work, while you boss them around and sip lemonade? Or would you be worried about some kind of robot revolt?
• Is anyone planning a huge bridge opening party? Other than me?

Scaffolding on the Dawson Bridge. Not pictured: robotic construction workers and possible lasers.

See? This is why I’m one of 52% of bloggers who lies to others and instead tells everyone he’s a journalist. BECAUSE I ASK THE HARD QUESTIONS.

Unfortunately, the city wasn’t forthcoming in its answers, which is why yet another Potential Bridge Conspiracy® is apparently upon us. Here were the responses I received:

• Bridge construction continues on schedule; at this point, we anticipate completion and re-opening by end the of 2010.
• We will likely hold a media event to showcase the bridge once it is finished so that Edmontonians can see the work that has been done.
• In April, crews will begin removing the old bridge deck in preparation for the replacement of this portion of the structure.
• When the bridge is complete, it will have been repainted the same colour and the only change in appearance will be the wider sidewalks (they will still be made of wood in order to preserve the look and character of the bridge).

See? They just sidestepped the robot/laser questions. Clearly, these individuals have had media training.

And OBVIOUSLY the city is covering up its desire to use robots to build bridges. Clearly someone at the city has seen Battlestar Galactica. The whole premise of that show is based on the notion that robot workers — some of whom may have been enlisted to build fictional bridges — revolted against their masters. It turned into an all-out war. And it really is a terrific series, you should watch it…

The city doesn’t want us to know this. Because they don’t want the resident of the quiet community of Riverdale to know the robot apocalypse is going to be fought on its doorstep — on top of a newly renovated bridge, I might add.

Just further evidence that the city’s squandering our tax dollars. I hope there’s an election soon.

I know what you’re thinking — no seriously, I took psychology in university, so obviously I know these things; you’re thinking this is a long sentence, and you’d be right; it’s impossibly long and you’re really dying for something that’s, well, EXCITING: like an exclamation point!

Phew, I’m glad that’s over.

You’re also thinking you don’t just want to trade junk, or you don’t have any junk to trade. So what?! Come anyway, because for $2 you get to hear some of the best up-and-coming bands in Edmonton, including Lyra Brown, the Mystery Ponies, and The Joe. We’ll have bands, a swap meet, drinks, and some of Edmonton’s most fantastic and exciting people! You should be there.

Here’s how it works:

Oh, that little bit at the bottom about the League of Extraordinary Media? You can read about that in a post I wrote describing the Genesis of the League earlier this week.

And don’t worry if you can’t make this one… League members and our good friends TheEdmontonian.com are going to try to setup a stream so you can watch the event live from their website.

See you tonight!

Not so for local software development manager Sean Ouimet, however. Sean’s lived in Riverdale for about six and a half months and during the summertime, he uses the Dawson Bridge often. The Unknown Studio spoke with Sean over email to sort out how the bridge closure has negatively impacted his life… if at all.

Actual photo of the Dawson bridge. We swear. Just ignore the mountains in the background

The Unknown Studio: First of all, do you typically use public transit, or do you drive?

Sean Ouimet: Public transit primarily.

TUS: In a typical week, how often did you use the Dawson Bridge?

SO: I mostly used to cross the Dawson Bridge for the odd lunch run. Some of my guests preferred to come and visit me via that route though they’ve since adjusted to using the Highlevel Bridge. In the season(s?) of non-winter I’ve often enjoyed biking or walking across the bridge quite often in the last few years, even before living in the area myself.

TUS: How has the Dawson Bridge closure affected your routine?

SO: Having the #1 bus not running through Riverdale every 15 minutes has changed how I plan my outings a little bit. The updated frequency of the 308 does help, but quite often it seems just that little bit out of sync with a connecting bus/LRT downtown resulting in a 20-25 minute wait for the next round. Instead I’ll often take the #2 (to or from Riverdale) as a backup, which is just a quick 5-7 minute walk from my home to the top of the stairs that are just east of Alex Taylor Road.

TUS: Have you witnessed a lot of drivers coming down Rowland Road, then U-turning because they didn’t see the signs?

SO: I did notice quite a few U-turners for quite a while after the bridge closed… though I’m usually not in a position to actually see the end-of-the-bridge all that much day-to-day. Perhaps we should organize a regular neighbourhood social event that consists of lawn chairs setup near the end of the bridge? I bet we could have a lot of fun waving a friendly smile to people as they begin to turn their cars around.

TUS: On a scale of 1 to 10, how excited are you to have the Dawson re-open? (you can decide which part of the scale denotes most excitement)

SO: I’ll go with a 7 out of 10 and not just because this is question number 7. While I’d love to have the the bridge open once the snow melts (to help ensure I burn off some extra winter weight,) it doesn’t overly impact my life on a day-to-day basis. Sure there are some minor inconveniences to my routine with the bridge being shut down, but life is far to short to fret about such things for long.

Next time…

Next month, we’ll have more photos of the bridge renovation progress, and we might even talk to the city about their vision for a new bridge. I’m hoping this vision involves lasers and octopi.

Yes, I’ll wait while you make several Riverdale/Archie & Jughead jokes… Finished? Good.

One of the unique things about Riverdale is that there are basically only two roads in or out of the neighbourhood — and the second such road isn’t even worthy of the name. It’s less a road and more a highly-confusing intersection. The other somewhat major road (Rowland Road) leads to the eastern part of the city via a bridge. An old bridge. A bridge that was open until January 4th of this year.

That bridge is called “Dawson.” And this post is the first in a series of monthly updates on the progress of the rehabilitation of the bridge, and the various ways its closure has inconvenienced me, and no doubt tens of other people.

But first, Dawson’s story

I don’t wanna wait / for your struts to be rusted / I don’t wanna know / right now what it will be

The Dawson Bridge is 97 years old. Originally built out of popsicles sticks in 1913 by a kindergartener named Dawson, the bridge’s storied history is long. And storied. Just, not anywhere on the internet.

However, given that Riverdale used to be home to a brick-making company, I can only assume that the bridge was used primarily to haul bricks across the river, so they could be used to build east Edmonton and, ostensibly, a Wal-Mart on 50th street.

The $22-million rehabilitation of the Dawson should add 40 years to its life. And if sandblasting worked on people, I’d live FOREVER.

U-turns

Despite the fact that the city publicized the ever-loving crap out of the bridge closure, thousands of Edmontonians have been caught making U-turns — or “whipping shitties,” as Saskatechewanites are so fond of saying — at the bottom of Rowland Road.

On both sides of the closed bridge — in spite of a minimum of 500 metres of signage on either side describing the fact that there’s no bloody way you’re crossing this river. Like, not even on a zipline or with rocket boots.

I have witnessed no less than four such ocassions, and it would appear that the best way to whip a shitty is to accelerate, slam on the brakes and come to a complete stop, stare in consternation at the massive roadblocks, slowly turn around and drive away hoping none of the residents noticed.

Oh, we noticed. And we’re blogging about it.

Back from whence you came…

In next month’s installment of Dawson Bridge Watch™, we’ll talk to some of the residents of Riverdale to see how the bridge closure has inconvenienced them OR somehow enhanced their lives (it’s actually nice and quiet down here in the valley).

I know, the suspense is killing you.