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

We’re gone after this week, but Edmonton’s still hopping.

In Festivals…the Kaleido Family Arts Festival runs this weekend on 118 Avenue (part of Arts on the Ave)…down in Hawrelak Park there’s a peace concert this weekend, on September 11…Latitude 53′sVisualeyez is back next week…Community League Day is on Saturday, September 17…The Edmonton International Film Festival is back on September 23, and runs through October 1. That last day is Alberta Day, with plenty of homegrown films playing…For a little French flair, check out the Edmonton Chante music festival, September 23-October 1…Also beginning September 23 is the Edmonton Accordion Festival…the Edmonton Comedy Festival gives it a go, October 19-22…the same dates as Lit Fest…

The ESO, Alberta Ballet, Edmonton Opera, Citadel Theatre, and Roxy Theatre headline the arts season that runs through the spring of 2012.

In sports…The Capitals are hosting the North American Baseball League’s championship series right now…The Eskimos will wrap their season…FC Edmonton will conclude its inaugural season (and made the playoffs)….there’s Prairie Football at Clarke Park…and lots of roller derby, including a clash between Edmonton’s E-Ville and Oil City Derby Girls leagues on September 17…oh, and the Oilers begin their quest for a new winning team in October…

Share Edmonton and the EEDC’s Festival calendar are good places to keep updated on what’s up.

There’s gonna be a lot of great music around Edmonton. (Be sure to keep on top of that at YEGLive.ca.)

Friday, Lyra Brown and Brian McLeod join Rapid Fire Theatre in a night of Edmonton entertainment…The Consonance, Tiff Hall, and Kusch are at Haven Social Club…Wool on Wolves play two shows (!) at the Pawn Shop this weekend, on Friday with The Wheat Pool and Saturday with Scenic Route to Alaska…

The Provincial Archive play with Library Voices September 17…At Avenue Theatre on September 23 you’ve got Christian Hansen and the Autistics, with Doug Hoyer…100 Mile House and The AwesomeHots are playing with Jesse D and Jacquie B, September 25…September 30, at The ARTery, Weird Canada’s got a show with Jennifer Castle, Kris Ellestad, Mark Templeton, and Field+Stream…at the end of the month (and every month) the Sonic Band of the Month plays the Pawn Shop (it’s The Frolics in September)…October 1, The Deep Dark Woods are at the Royal Alberta Museum…On October 21 F&M play Yellowhead Brewery with Tyler Butler…and October 28, Ariane Mahryke Lemire plays the Haven Social Club…

We’ll let Landon A.R. Coleman play us out of this events post. (Landon is playing at Wunderbar on September 28th and the CD will be available at Blackbyrd as of September 17th.)

Edmonton is a busy place. So get out there and enjoy your city!

Good morning, Edmonton.

It’s almost always funny, in a sad kind of way, that when governments announce they are going to tackle a problem or get tough on something, it’s a problem that’s had previous attempts to do just that. Edmonton’s recent worries over violent crime is just one of those issues. So, hopefully this is the time everyone follows through on plans and recommendations.

Meanwhile…Edmonton Police are teaming up with other agencies for a new kind of patrol…an action team!

On the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, an Edmonton firefighter who went to New York with the Red Cross is trying to remember the triumph of the human spirit he saw in the days after the Word Trade Centre towers fell.

The City of Edmonton is trying to entice filmmakers to shoot here. Though, not with a grant or tax break, or deals if they are locals or use local crews. I don’t think it’s a great idea to move $5-million from the financial stabilization fund when you’re running a deficit.

“Are people supposed to park on the next block? It’s insanity.” Really? Parking one block away is the end of the world?

It’s interesting that talk about snow removal shows what a lot of people think about our transportation network. And that the car must be the central vehicle to get people around Edmonton. Too bad people feel that way.

Let’s contrast that with capital region leaders who want to spend $10-billion on LRT and transit connections.

*****

I joked yesterday about using a Hotmail address to communicate official Alberta government business, but I guess that kind of stuff just won’t fly with the Information and Privacy Commissioner.

Now, the Premier and others say they also have two email addresses for their government work. I’d be interested to know what those ones are. If it’s Premier.Stelmach@… I think Ted Morton’s run for PC leader/Premier just took a big hit. If it’s Steve Johnson@…I guess Morton’s OK.

The provincial government announced more money for affordable housing, with about $11-million coming Edmonton’s way.

There is an Amber Alert for a B.C. boy, though not issued in Alberta. Even though the disappearance happened very close to the Alberta border. Actually, when I saw the coverage of this on Twitter and in Edmonton news, I thought an Amber Alert HAD been issued in Alberta.

*****

Want to learn an old skill?

If you’ve got a poem, a sketch, a couple of artistic thoughts, you can add them to the “poem catcher” at City Hall. It’s an idea of our new Poet Laureate.

We never got to link to a story from MacEwan’s newly re-named The Griff. Good luck this year!

Thanks for all of your thoughtful takes on the news of the day the last couple of years. Let’s keep the discussion going on Twitter with hashtags like #yeg (Edmonton) #yegcc (City Council) #ableg (Alberta Legislature) #abgov (Alberta government) #yegtransit and #yegtraffic (Edmonton transit and traffic) and #yegarena (the downtown arena). I’m @journalistjeff on there.

Where would the edmontonian be without our many contributors, collaborators, and commenters?

Sally and I never set out to make the edmontonian our blog. Sure, we had our names all over it editing submissions and authoring a majority of items, but the edmontonian was always supposed to be a community blog. Jeff and Sally could always go get their own damn vlog.

Whether it was a conversation about A Taste of Edmonton and deep-fried foods that spawned its own video, photos that made up many of our quirky looks at the city, writers that posted items here when they certainly had plenty of other good stuff going on, or collaborating with Edmonton’s online content generatOne year of thanksors, it was joining forces and cross-posting that took the edmontonian from a blog belonging to two people to a true community news source.

Some contributors wrote one post, others became synonymous with the site. Some of our same website contributors made appearances on our ShawTV show, but new friends helped on that too. And we always had a steady crew of commenters (and we consider them part of the overall Edmonton conversation).

Together, that group of people is what made the edmontonian such a good time.

(Photos are deep frying and democracy. Two things we take very seriously.)