Well, here we are, Edmonton. Time to shut off the lights and close down the joint.

Two or so years ago, if you had told either of us that we’d reach this point – 1500+ posts, a 6 part TV series, a variety of live webcasts, a fancy pants best blog award and the funniest, smartest, best-looking audience in the city – we’d have called you crazy. And not just because we lacked a basic understanding of the INTERNETS (the files are IN the computer?).

the edmontonian has come farther than we ever thought it could, and honest to God, no one is more surprised by that than we are. So we’d like to take this last minute to thank you guys, truly, and from the bottom of our hearts, for welcoming us into your lives for the last 2+ years. Whether you were writing or reading, talking or listening, commenting or contributing – every time you guys took a chance and got involved, trusting us with your stories, your submissions or your attention, we marveled. We marveled that for some reason, in this metal box full of lol cats and juggalos, you chose to talk to us.  There is no greater compliment, and we have been humbled by it every single day.

As you may know (we talked about this with our friends at the Unknown Studio), we didn’t start out as Edmonton enthusiasts. In fact, neither of us were particularly thrilled to find ourselves living in the City of Champions, but we decided to make the best of it and kill some time by starting a website. And two years later, here we are.

That is likely the biggest thing we’ve learned from the edmontonian: that when you stop trying desperately to get somewhere else, and you show up to what’s really happening right here, right now – magic happens. Every time, without fail.

You get one life, guys. Let’s make a joint agreement that we won’t spend it waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect bank balance, the perfect job opportunity, the perfect weight, the perfect education, the perfect someone. Figure out what matters to you and go get it – not as a means to get somewhere else, but for its own sake; because you love it so much it keeps you awake at night. That’s all we ever did, nothing more – and it turned out pretty well for us.

So let us dedicate the last two years to all of you guys – for your ideas, your kindness, your generosity, and more than anything, for giving us a reason to show up right here, every day. There are no words to ever sufficiently express our appreciation, our respect, our love. If the edmontonian was ever anything special, it was only because of you.

Until we meet again!

Your friends,

Jeff and Sally

Dearest Edmonton,

Sally and I have had an amazing time here at the edmontonian. The last two-and-a-half-years have been full of good people, good ideas, fun, and Edmonton. So much Edmonton.

But, we are fulfilling that prophecy that all good things must end. Friday, September 9 will be the last day for the edmontonian.

Don’t worry – this is not a sad decision for us – so don’t you dare be sad! :D We have had a great time editing the edmontonian, and getting to know you guys, meeting interesting and energetic business owners and artists, sharing your stories, contributions, and conversation. We’ve met so many people, a lot of them in real life too, and worked with some inspiring Edmontonians. That never would have happened without the edmontonian.

Our heads are bursting with ideas and schemes (seriously, call the head hospital!) and this will let us make space for new things to come our way. We’re confident many of our contributors, collaborators, and commenters are also just beginning to make their mark, and we can’t wait to see new projects, hijinks and plans Edmonton is home to.

We’ll be looking back over the next couple of weeks, and invite you to do the same in any posts, photos, videos, Microsoft Paint work, and spoken-word poetry, you see fit.

Your contributions, as always, are most welcome.

Jeff and Sally

Where does the Internet come out?

Yup, we’re done our series on ShawTV. the edmontonian presents has been an immense amount of work, especially for Sally who did ALL of the post-production, but it was also great fun to have new conversations with, and about, Edmonton.

We appreciate the help in the last few months from people who produced videos, came up with ideas, starred in cold opens, sponsored the program, talked with us on-camera, fact-checked, shared music, performed their music live for our closing segments, provided us with photos, videos, or other materials, offered up spaces to work and record, and gave us support in any and every other way.

While we’re clearly on the Internet, we know there’s still a lot of power in traditional mediums like television but they just need to be shaken loose of the murders and Jersey Shore formula. This also proved to us that it truly is, and always has been, about the content. (This all seems very timely with the Marshall McLuhan celebrations happening in Edmonton this year.)

We hope you enjoyed something in one of the six episodes; whether a story, information you didn’t know about, a song or band you hadn’t heard before, people doing things here that get you excited, a business you’d like to shop at, restaurants you’d like to try, or just the general idea that local television can go way beyond the 6 o’clock news.

Now here’s something we can all do!

We can all write to the heads of television networks and TV programming and let them know we think there’s still plenty television has to offer in the Internet age, and that we’d like to see them cool it with the Hollywood purchases and spend as much as they can on Canadian, local, and original programming.

Here are some people to start with:

Mr. Keith Pelley, President of Rogers Media (CityTV) – keith.pelley@rci.rogers.com

Ms. Barbara Williams, Senior Content Director at Global Television (Global TV) – barbara.williams@shawmedia.ca

Mr. Phil King, Programming President of CTV (CTV, ACCESS) – phil.king@ctv.ca

Ms. Judy Piercey, Managing Director at CBC Edmonton – judy.piercey@cbc.ca

Oh, and if you want to be on TV right away, you can contact the folks at ShawTV about volunteering on one of their programs or having your own show (just like we did).

This past weekend, we were invited to be on a panel of Speed Mentors (FYI, also the name of my new deep house project) at Edmonton Next Gen’s super cool DIYalogue.

As part of our “mentoring,” we figured we’d better make a list of the upwards of four things we’ve learned from working on the edmontonian. That evolved into a handout, which we brought to share with anyone interested – and just in case you happen to be a blogger, content generator, or other interested party, we figured we’d post it here too.

Click below to download.

Click to download our "Tips for Content Generators" handout

You know what?

But, then, we remembered there was a reason we spent an hour on YouTube looking at confetti cannon videos.

(READY THE CONFETTI CANNONS!)

Two-years-old. Now we get to be all cranky and agitated and you just have to deal with it. Ha!

Yup, two years ago, on this very day, Sally wrote the post that launched a blog. I quickly followed that with a post of my own (Stop upstaging me, Poulsen!) and we kicked off an Edmonton conversation that’s still going. It’s neat to look back at those first two posts and see that most of the goals and aspirations we had for the edmontonian actually happened, and are still being worked on today.

It’s also crazy to think about actually being around for two years. I’ve had couches that didn’t last that long.

This isn’t mine and Sally’s website though, it’s only here because people want it to be here. Without contributors, commentors, and an Edmonton conversation I don’t think we stick around this long.

The list of everyone that’s helped us, including writers, photographers, sponsors and advertisers, designers, video producers, and those involved in the edmontonian celebrates democracy (our election show), Saturday Night with Samsonow (basically a vehicle for Pepe) and the edmontonian presents (our new show on ShawTV), are way, way too numerous to thank. (You can also poke around the Guest Blogger, Feature, and opinion categories for a quick snapshot.) I’d totally leave people out and feel awful. I hope some of them pop into the comments so you can thank them personally. (And lots of them are on Twitter too.)

Edmonton is a great city. It’s not the world’s best, the largest, or the most nougat-filled, but it’s a great place to live. There are amazing people, fantastic businesses, fun activities, plenty of sports, tremendous music and art scenes, gorgeous geography, and passion. Sure, there are bad things, but every city has those too.

We are proud to have discovered Edmonton’s best and creative sides, and we are prouder to be able to share that with Edmontonians, Albertans, Canadians, and moon people.

(FIRE THE CONFETTI CANNONS!)