I Heart Edmonton

The Writers By Emil Tiedemann So many talented storytellers with so many enticing stories to tell! We love our homegrown wordsmiths and can’t help bragging about them! In fact, if you've got some time on your hands and are looking for some good reads, then check out any of these Edmonton-born-and/or-raised writers:  Nasra Adem, Bert Almon, Wayne Arthurson, Todd Babiak, Jalal Barzanji, David Belke, Eileen (E.C.) Bell, Ted Bishop, E.D. Blodgett, Tim Bowling, Andrew Brook, Marty Chan, Daisy Chang, Myrl Coulter, Charlotte Cranston, Diana Davidson, Laurel Deedrick-Mayne, Candas Jane Dorsey, Caterina Edwards, Marina Endicott, Minister Faust, Rita Feuti, Helen Forrester, Brad Fraser, Gary Garrison, Pauline Gedge, Martyn Godfrey, Katherine Govier, Darrin Hagen, Greg Hollingshead, Carl Honoré, D.C. Hooke, Mel Hurtig, Phillip Jagger, Zillur Rahman John, W.P. Kinsella, Jessica Kluthe, Myrna Kostash, Robert Kroetsch, Stewart Lemoine, Janice MacDonald, Laurie MacFayden, Alice Major, Co...

Edmonton International Airport By Emil Tiedemann On March 7, 2012, I left Canada for the first time in my life. My best friend Lonnie and I took a taxi to the Edmonton International Airport early that morning, boarded a Continental Airlines plane, made a brief layover in Houston, and then arrived in Lima, Peru by nightfall.  I remember walking into the night skies of Lima for the first time and being awestruck. It felt like a whole new world to me, and essentially was, as we traveled down along the Pacific coast towards our small hotel in the upscale Miraflores region of the city.  The next morning, Lonnie and I headed out to explore Lima, walking the beach, eating on patios, drinking in alleyway pubs, befriending mostly fellow travelers who stayed in the same Loki Hostel as we did. That’s where I was bitten by the so-called travel bug, quite literally!  That’s right, a Peruvian spider actually bit me in my sleep a few nights into our trip, and the next mo...

124th Street By Emil Tiedemann Filming of MGM’s iconic The Wizard of Oz began on a lot 2,800 kms away in Culver City, California on October 13, 1938. On that very same Thursday, Edmonton began it’s own cinematic legacy, as the doors of The Roxy Theatre opened up for the first time on the corner of 124 Street & 107 Avenue.  At the time, the Roxy was considered one of the most luxurious movie theatres around, built by I.F. Shacker of Hanna with spring seating, air conditioning, and plenty of legroom! Designed by Edmonton architect William G. Blakey , the Roxy would eventually screen The Wizard of Oz (1939), but the very first feature lit up on the theatre’s marquee was Deanna Durbin ’s Mad About Music , which started at 6:00 that evening.  Eventually, in 1988, the Roxy became a live performance venue, and by 1989 was the home of the Theatre Network and their Nextfest . It remained one of Edmonton’s most beloved venues for local artists up until January 13, 20...

Heritage Festival (The Melting Pot) By Emil Tiedemann Standing in the line-up outside of On the Rocks in downtown Edmonton one winter night, my buddy and I started up a conversation with the guy in front of us. He seemed to be shivering slightly more than the rest of us in line, and as it turns out, it was because he was new to Edmonton from the tiny African island nation of Mauritius, which does not get to see winters quite like ours.  I had never met anyone from Mauritius before, or at least that I knew of. Later that night, my buddy and I cabbed it home, as the driver told us about his old life in his home country of India, far different from the life he leads now, he said. When we got back to my buddy’s place, he told me about this girl Kristy, from Slovenia, who was coming to stay with him as a “couch surfer.”  All night, we were exposed to the glaring diversity that our hometown has embraced with open arms. At our workplaces, inside our classrooms, and on th...

Old Strathcona Farmers' Market By Emil Tiedemann “We make it! We bake it! We grow it! We sell it!” That’s a philosophy that the Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market has been committed to since it first began selling local foods and crafts out of a parking lot on the corner of 103 Street and 83 Avenue.  There were only about a dozen vendors that first year, in ‘83, offering up locally-grown produce and baked goods, and hand-made crafts from local artisans. Three years in, the market remained just a block off Whyte Avenue, but took the show indoors, moving across the street into the “Old Bus Barns” along Gateway Boulevard.  More than three decades later, there are about 300 rotating vendors - chosen through a strict jury process - that fill up nearly 190 stalls every Saturday from 7AM to 2:30 in the afternoon, and 10,000 weekly visitors make it the largest farmers’ market in the city.  Although the market is year round, it is at its peak during the summer month...

Staying connected has never been easier: Shaw WideOpen Internet 150 and Shaw Go WiFi gives Edmontonians access to fast Internet nearly anywhere  By Emil Tiedemann A few years ago, I was a student who spent a lot of time studying and doing homework in various locations around the city. A solid Internet connection was something I was privileged with at home, but the kind of connection I’d have with the free WiFi in cafes, libraries, or other places where I would try and get work done was always a mystery. I needed a strong, reliable network to connect to across Edmonton—I wish I had known about Shaw Go WiFi back then. If you’re living the student life or spending a lot of time working away from the office or home, then you're going to want to pay attention. Shaw WideOpen Internet 150 gives its subscribers the ability to connect to the Internet and access their favourite content while on the go, in addition to top-tier, traffic-free download speeds at home on S...