I Heart Edmonton

My 500t h blog post ... looking back on how we (& Edmonton) got here! by emil tiedemann W HEN I started this blog more than seven years ago, Edmonton was a different city. So many things have happened since then, transitioning our humble hometown into a world-class metro virtually overnight. It's staggering to see how far we've come in such a short amount of time. The 'I Heart Edmonton' blog began on July 3, 2009, 500 posts ago! Chronicling the city's vast progression wasn't the reason why I started th is blog, bu t rather something that fueled its continuous . I t began as my personal way to discourage the ongoing negative commentary spreading across social media about Edmonton , including the erroneous "D EADmonton" moniker. I set out to showcase Edmonton and to show Edmontonians that there is so much more to our city than what they might think. It was a learning process for me as well, as I discovered ju st how much I didn...

I Heart Edmonton rings in 2015 with a brand new, all-in-one website BY EMIL TIEDEMANN H ELLO, Edmonton! How have you been? Me? Oh, just great...busy, but great! Anyways, we have some big and exciting news about I Heart Edmonton ! We are launching our very own, full-fledged, all-encompassing, user-friendly website! That means MORE information, MORE event listings, MORE access to what there is to see and do in this amazing city we call home.  Now, that doesn't mean that this blog is going anywhere, nope! It is staying put and will in fact be the website's companion blog. And, in addition to that, we have also partnered up with Gay Edmonton - the all-in-one online resource for Edmonton's LGBTQ community - and are ready to take over the town! Sounds like I'm getting a bit excited, so let me take it down a notch or two. The new I Heart Edmonton website includes upcoming events and festivals on the homepage, as well as the latest blog entries. Are you looking ...

As I Heart Edmonton turns five, we've hit a crossroads. Where do we go from here? BY EMIL TIEDEMANN F IVE years! That's crazy when I think about it. It was July 5, 2009 when I posted my first "hearticle" (yes, I just said " hearticle ") for the I  ♥ Edmonton blog, titled " A Love Affair with Edmonton ."  "I don't know about you," I wrote, "but I'm getting pretty tired of people having nothing good to say about the city I've come to love." That's how this whole thing got started, me being fed up with the lack of love for my hometown, and the abundance of unwarranted criticism. I knew that Edmonton had ALL kinds of things to see and do, but apparently there were plenty of folks who were unaware of our town's bustling arts and culture community, and the fact that we are one of the most sociable metros on the continent. So I made it my mission to discredit their taunts and attacks, and to prove tha...

Imagine an Edmonton where tramways take you across the North Saskatchewan, a giant Ferris wheel defines a new Whyte Avenue, and where homelessness is a thing of the past. With the right visionaries behind the helm, these things and much more could be a reality someday! By Emil Tiedemann I T'S been more than four years since the last time I saw my cousin, Amy. She had just turned 30 then, so we and about a half dozen of her friends spent the whole weekend drinking far too many hazy shots of tequila and Jagermeister at an endless thread of Vancouver nightclubs. But now she was on my turf, and those nights of overindulging in overpriced Cuevo and Bacardi were behind us. Well, sort of. It wasn't even noon yet when I picked Amy up from the Edmonton International Airport . She had barely changed at all from when I shared a carpet with her during one of our drunken swoons back in B.C. "Neither have you," she lied. Amy was "starving," and even though o...

It's been one hell of a year discovering what our city has up her sleeves, so let's reminisce, shall we? BY EMIL TIEDEMANN W HEN I first started I Heart Edmonton 365 days ago, I had to admit that I was not a very good Edmontonian. I know...crazy, right?! But it's true. I never attended any of our 2 million (& counting) festivals, I certainly couldn't recommend any local venues or restaurants based on personal experiences, and I'd be hard-pressed to name any of our local bands, aside from Corb Lund or the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra . Does that even count? I Heart has given me a 360 shift, in terms of my knowledge, awareness, and even appreciation for our city and what she has to offer. I had no idea how outta the loop I really was. Skip ahead one year later and I've gotten to know my hometown on a much more personal level, taking in homegrown bands, comics and theatre performers, shoving past crowds in clubs, galleries and cafes I'd never been to befo...