I Heart Edmonton

Royal Alberta Museum by emil tiedemann O N Thursday, December 7, 1967, Edmonton officially opened the doors to the Provincial Museum of Alberta, a project 17 years in the making. The public who attended that opening day took in galleries featuring the fur trade, pioneer life, agriculture & industry, and early photographs of Aboriginals that were taken by Ernest Brown and Harry Pollard .    A rendering of the new Royal Alberta Museum, opening in 2 018 in downtown Edmonton! As the years went by, the museum expanded and added more galleries and new exhibits, everything from Australian Aboriginal art to Japanese kites. In order to maintain its growing collection, the museum began to charge admission in 1990. Later exhibits at the museum focused on Native Culture, natural history, wildlife, entomology, and of course, dinosaurs. That’s in addition to rotating exhibits from around the globe.  Queen Elizabeth II visited the museum in the summer of 2005, bestowi...

Starlite Room by emil tiedemann I T ALMOST looked like a medieval church, depending on where you were standing. Brick walls, an arched entrance, and a flock of bohemians, beatniks, and beirdos waiting for the large castle-like doors to swing open and grant them asylum from the cold.  It was the middle of February in Edmonton and so the sooner the better. I had been invited by some publicist because of my blog about “everything Edmonton,” and in fact had never even heard of headliner Michael Bernard Fitzgerald prior to this invite, nor had I ever been to a show at the Starlite Room .    Calgary's Michael Bernard Fitzgerald (left) performing at the Starlite Room, with Andrew Ball on drums. I had at least heard of the Starlite though, and was excited to finally check it out, sort of a hidden gem, unless you’re a fan of any music that Pitchfork or Spin magazine might praise. I hope I didn’t paint a picture of pretentious and arrogant hipsters staring you down ...

#YEG Online Community by emil tiedemann S OCIAL media has forever changed our World Wide Web. It’s changed why we go online, when and where we go online, and even who goes online, and there’s no going back now! Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, blogs, podcasts, and the many other virtual social hubs have become a part of most people’s daily - and in some cases, hourly - lives.  How often have you seen someone glued to their smartphone or tablet on a bus or at your dinner table, or even walking down a busy street?! Some would argue that social media has turned civilization into that zombie apocalypse the movies and TV shows kept warning us about. The lack of manners and conversation is a common modern day pet peeve that is only getting worse as the generation born connected grows up.    Some of the most respected and well-known influencers in Edmonton's social media. Zombies aside, social media isn’t all that bad. Folks use it to reach out and engage, to...

The High Level Bridge by emil tiedemann T HE City of Strathcona - located on the southside of the North Saskatchewan - amalgamated with the City of Edmonton - located on the northside of the river - on February 1, 1912. It was 16 months later, on June 2, 1913, that the High Level Bridge - linking the south with the north - was open to traffic for the first time.  Not just automobile traffic either! The 755-metre long, 49-metre high steel and concrete structure was designed by Phillips B. Motley to accommodate vehicles, rail, streetcars, and pedestrians, and all but rail continue to use Edmonton’s most iconic and oldest bridge spanning the river.    The stunning High Level Bridge at night (photo by Dylan Nicholson). The streetcars were noticeably absent from the High Level from 1951 to 1979, but they are once again a charming destination for tourists and locals alike in the spring and summer seasons, especially during the Edmonton Fringe Festival in August. T...

Street Performers Festival by emil tiedemann I N a town known as “Festival City,” it can be difficult for festivals to stand out from the rest, so you’d better bring it if you’ve got something new up your sleeve to introduce to the locals. Here in Edmonton, festivals come and go, never to be heard from again, while others - such as the Fringe and K-Days - have become staples of our summer splendor.  The free and family-friendly Edmonton International Street Performers Festival - the oldest of its kind in North America - happens to be one of those summer staples for a quarter of a million people every year.    Churchill Square in downtown Edmonton fills up every summer for the Street Performers Festival! Traditional street artists, roving character actors, dancers, puppeteers, comedians, acrobats, clowns, tightrope walkers, and even mimes congregate downtown on Churchill Square for ten days in July, swallowing swords, juggling chainsaws, or trying to escape f...

Talus Dome by emil tiedemann T HE nearly 1,000 shiny silver balls of the bizarre Talus Dome (by Los Angeles-based Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues ) have sort of become Edmonton’s own version of Alberta natives Nickelback . Locals love to hate them, although they don’t entirely know why...it’s just the thing to do.    The Talus Dome art installation near Fort Edmonton Park. They were installed as a Public Art Collection in 2011 just off the Quesnell Bridge along the Whitemud freeway at Fox Drive, a partnership between the City and the Edmonton Arts Council . Although most Edmontonians seemed to consider the polished spheres an eyesore, it was the price tag that ignited an uproar of sorts. The Dome cost taxpayers a “staggering” $600,000, as the City’s most expensive art installation up until that point.  It’s been long enough, however, that the haters have simply gotten used to the Dome. But to be completely honest, I’ve never been one of those haters. I alwa...

The Royal Foundry's "Dreamers" (2017) Directed & Edited by Brandon William Fletcher (Faked Potatoes)  

The LRT by emil tiedemann I WAS just a small kid when I started taking the LRT (Light Rail Transit) to school every morning with my two older brothers. We would board at the Clareview Station and get off at the very next stop, Belvedere, before catching a quick bus to North Edmonton Elementary School.  In high school, I would take the LRT downtown, or use it to get to and from work, or to an Oilers game or concert at Rexall Place, or even when I was skipping school to meet up with a friend at the University.    Edmonton's LRT crossing the North Saskatchewan. Actually, more than 100,000 people use the LRT every week, and those numbers will continue to climb as Edmonton’s population grows, and as the LRT itself expands across every corner of town. It’s an epic undertaking for the City, but not so different from when the City first came up with the concept of Western Canada’s first rapid transit system back in the early ‘60s.  After 12 years of planning...

Here are the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ending February 10, 2017 by Audreys Books, provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta Edmonton Fiction Bestsellers The Break - Katherena Vermette A Still and Bitter Grave - Ann Marston * Everybody's Fool - Richard Russo The Naturalist - Alissa York Arcadia - Iain Pears The Woman in Cabin 10 - Ruth Ware The Slow Waltz of Turtles - Katherine Pancol , William Rodarmar I'll Take You There - Wally Lamb Son of a Trickster - Eden Robinson Memoirs of a Polar Bear - Yoko Tawada , Susan Bernofsky Edmonton Non-Fiction Bestsellers Facing the Shards - Joy Ruth Mickelson * Your House, Your Choice: Whoever Told You That What You Don't Know Won't Hurt You, Surely Wasn't Talking About Your Older House - Re Peters The Right to Be Cold: One Woman's Story of Protecting her Culture, the Arctic and the Whole Planet - Sheila Watt-Cloutier The Case A...