Explore Edmonton
Today’s event selection is not really one you could accomplish (in its entirety) in one evening, or even one full day.
You may remember me talking about the Edmonton Community Challenge (put on by the Next Gen committee and Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues) back in June.
Our scrappy little team from Strathcona Centre placed a respectable fifth, notable due to our handful of active members. While we were darn proud to have collected the most food for the Edmonton Food Bank in the sculpture challenge (King Edward School gets a lot of the credit) I think it’s safe to say the core of our team had the most fun in the city-wide photo scavenger hunt.
By checking Flickr, I would say the other top teams also had a blast with this.
We had to run all over Edmonton, taking photos of ourselves in front of historically significant buildings, on bridges, shopping in all of the Business Revitalization Zones (BRZ), spending time in our favourite parks and local haunts, high-fiving councillors, and hitting up each branch of the Edmonton Public Library.
I learned that Edmonton has WAY more bridges than one could get to in a day, or even a week. Especially if you start counting footbridges. The libraries are spread out, and it took many hours to get to all of them (the EPL Go at the University of Alberta is also the cutest little library).
Somehow we completed every task on the photo scavenger hunt, even getting to the whale at West Edmonton Mall before it was removed for the opening of Victoria’s Secret. (There may be an item or two you can’t do right now.)
Living in one of the city’s oldest, most vibrant, neighbourhoods sure helped too. Strathcona has plenty of historically recognized buildings, it’s a BRZ right now, has any type of business needed for the photo challenge, a library branch, giant trees, and plenty of people to start a parade.
Prior to this challenge, I had never been to a bottle depot. I feel more like an Edmontonian now.
So today I offer you a chance to explore Edmonton like you probably haven’t before. Take a scan through the scavenger hunt from the Edmonton Community Challenge and choose a few items to track down, or try, before the summer is out.
I bet, just like I discovered how historically significant my work neighbourhood is, you find out a few things about Edmonton you didn’t know.
(It’s a lot of fun to see how many U of A bunnies you can get into one picture. Those suckers are fast.)
Let me know if you do any of these, or have photos of them already. You can always toss them into our Flickr pool too.
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Keep in mind you should play safe and not break any laws. Also “team” is you.
Here’s what you could do: (more…)
I hope you like to party
Edmonton, get your party pants on because you’re going to need them this weekend.
We’ve got the Pride Parade Saturday, which helps kicks off Pride Week, and that is followed by an all-day party. Saturday also just so happens to be the second Al Fresco Block Party on 104 Street, with a used book sale too. That’s two parties on the same day!
And, I see, the Pride fun start tonight with a dance-a-thon.
There’s lots of good stuff for Bike Month. The Bikeology team is joining the Edmonton Bicycle Commuters for a 24-hour bike repair-a-thon. Bring in your bike, donate your old bikes, but make sure you run it through me so I can get Strathcona Centre points in the big Edmonton Community Challenge. Let me know if you have a bike in need of a tune-up or a new home. That runs Saturday and Sunday.
On Sunday there’s the Critical Lass ride around the southside of Edmonton. It ends with cupcakes. As all good bike rides should.
There’s still Nextfest to be had. As noted, this is your chance to see Edmonton’s next generation of artistic talent. For the kids, Sprouts is over at the Stanley A. Milner library this weekend.
Music? You want music? You got a great weekend of music ahead.
The Born Ruffians are playing tonight, ZZ Top and Wide Mouth Mason play the Jubilee, The Misfits rock the Starlite, An Horse and Hot Panda will blow apart Brixx tonight, The City Streets return home to Edmonton for a show Saturday, there’s a big 30th anniversary gala over at the University of Alberta’s Timms Centre and The Joe is having a crazy, big rap-fest Saturday night, with lots of artists, at The ARTery.
Saturday sees track and field athletes competing for cash money (and world rankings) at the 2010 Edmonton International Track Classic, over at Foote Field. Which is at the South Campus LRT stop.
And the National Portrait Gallery begins its run at Latitude 53. It’s not the “real” national gallery, since the federal government didn’t end up putting that anywhere.
The Edmonton Capitals play. Baseball. At Telus Field. You should go sometime.
Oh, and there’s this little soccer tournament going on. I think it’s called the World Cup?
You could also see a movie. I think this is the 80s weekend, with The Karate Kid and A-Team reborn!
And thanks for ShareEdmonton for reminding me about the Creative Age Festival (as Angela talked about earlier this week) and the ESO’s Landmarks Masters series, with Marc-Andre Hamelin playing Shostakovich.
Now get out there and party!
Sounds like a challenge
We found a perfectly good hacky sack while out cleaning. I'm not good at hacky sacking.
I’ve been mentioning something called the Edmonton Community Challenge, so I figure I should explain that in a little more detail.
How about right now, does that work for you? Good.
The Edmonton Community Challenge is a collaboration of the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues (EFCL) and the city’s Next Gen Committee. The EFCL is the group that looks over all of the city’s 150 community leagues, leading them, guiding them, helping them out. Next Gen is a committee made up of 18-40-year olds, with the aim of attracting and retaining young, creative people in Edmonton.
They’ve teamed up, and secured $15,000 from Boardwalk Rental Communities and Telus, to get the city’s community leagues competing. Also part of the team are The Works Art and Design Festival, Capital City Cleanup, Bikeology Festival, Edmonton Bicycle Commuters, and Youth Emergency Shelter Society
The $15,000 prize, to be awarded July 1, will be for a capital project. Looking at some of the bio information from the leagues you can see where that would go. Some are talking parks, others playgrounds, and some (like my own team from Strathcona Centre) would use the money at their community hall.
There were also prizes handed out at the kick-off breakfast, and somebody is going to win an iPad, also July 1. AN iPAD!
It’s a great idea from the NextGen/EFCL braintrust. They had another good idea last year, teaming up to connect younger people (18-40) with their community league. It was a great mixer and probably helped people even realize we had community leagues. If you don’t know which league is yours, check here.
A morning event is only as good as its pancakes.
The challenge is the best part though. There are plenty of ways to get community leagues to compete for money. You could have them submit applications, write pitches, etc… but this is all about community spirit.
The events include the pancake breakfast (Points just for eating pancakes!), a neighbourhood cleanup, collecting food for the Edmonton Food Bank, collecting recyclable bottles and cans to be turned into cash for the Youth Emergency Shelter Society, tuning up and donating bikes, attending the Bikeology Festival, building a canned good sculpture, and, the best of all, a photo scavenger hunt.
Our teammate, Gord, is high-fiving Councillor Don Iveson because high-fiving every councillor is part of the scavenger hunt.
More than 400 people, from 21 neighbourhoods, will be competing in some or all of those events. We’ll be the ones snapping photos of ourselves outside of libraries and pleading with you to let us take your bike in for a tune-up.
If you want to see what people cleaned up, or what kinds of scavenger hunt items we’re seeking, you can search “yegchallenge” on Flickr.
Already, I’ve been having a great time. I’ve met neighbours, and community-minded people, and I’m experiencing aspects of Edmonton I may not have. I mentioned that I kicked around the Norwood and Sprucewood neighbourhoods, during Heart of the City on the weekend, and it was because of this contest.
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I went back in time to clean up Whyte Avenue. Actually, that's just Eric, our team's leading cleaner.
I also got up early Saturday, which doesn’t always happen. And I helped clean up a couple blocks of Whyte Avenue. I like things tidy but I’m not normally the guy out cleaning up, not even during Capital City Clean Up events.
So I think it means the plan is working.
Also, I’ll take your canned goods, old bikes, and bottles and cans.
June’s first kick at the can
The first June weekend of the year is here and let’s see what’s in store for us.
You could see a movie. There are four new ones in theatre this weekend.
Nextfest has begun. It’s the annual celebration of young, youthful artists in Edmonton. There will be plays, dance, films, visual art, music and lots more. And it’s all from young, and up-and-coming Edmonton artists.
Pay attention, some of these names will be in arts and culture coverage for years to come. Plus, you can check things out right now and be able to say you saw so-and-so’s first show back in 2010.
This weekend also marks the beginning of the month-long Edmonton Community Challenge. 20 21 of Edmonton’s community leagues will be eating pancakes, cleaning neighbourhoods, fixing bikes, collecting food for the Food Bank and recyclables for YESS, and scavenging for photos, all to try and win $15,000 for a capital project in their community. I’ll be reporting more on this, from the front lines, as captain of the Strathcona Centre team.
Dreamspeakers Film Festival is still going on. So is the International Children’s Festival.
Tonight, at the Avenue Theatre, Christian Hansen & The Autistics will impress you with their musical talent. You’ll be there at 8pm.
Is that all I’ve got? Yes.
But that’s not all ShareEdmonton’s got:
The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (ESO) is going to the Oscars this weekend.
It’s Movies on the Square time again! Tonight you can watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs on a giant screen in Churchill Square. Tomorrow it’s Alvin and the Chipmunks 2.
If you head to Naked on Jasper, Saturday night, you can support aspiring musicians, including one of our favourites, Lyra Brown. Lyra is also going to be playing Nextfest on Tuesday. See what I said about the best and brightest young stars?
Eddie Vaan Shaw Jr. will be at the Yardbird. (This is one of those newfangled yeglive.ca tie-in events I mentioned last week.)
If you’re in the centre of the city this weekend you might want to check out the Heart of the City festival. It’s two days of music, music and music. All at Giovanni Cabot Park, and all free.
Edmonton Twitter music notables Erica Viegas and Lisa Nicole Grace play Saturday night.
May 28 Edmonton Headlines
Good morning, Edmonton.
Dave Clarke interviews "Tommy Wiseau" (Jeff Page) before The Room stars blowing minds.
I’m sure my brain will return to normal function soon. It just has to solidify after the mind-melting experience of seeing The Room at Metro Cinema last night.
I know, we talk about this movie all of the time. And this was the second time the Turkey Shoot team showed it in Edmonton. But the movie is so bad/good that it deserves all of this coverage.
I was happy to have brought along friend Brittney, who, despite meeting the movie’s director/writer/producer/lead actor and securing us a signed copy of the movie’s DVD, had yet to experience The Room. There’s something special about subjecting someone you know to this cinematic freakshow.
Turkey Shooters Dave and Jeff play some tuxedo football with Brittney, wearing her The Room t-shirt from ComicCon.
It makes all the awful, hilarious, terrible parts of the movie that much funnier when the first-time watcher reacts with laughter, shock and horror.
The Turkey Shoot boys think they’ll make The Room a regular screening in our city. Which actually does make Edmonton world-class, since that happens in places like Los Angeles and New York.
I’m sure I’ll write about The Room whenever it’s shown again. And I’m sure I will implore you to make the time to see our generation’s greatest B-movie.
I’ll even bring my football for a little short-catch.
from the Edmonton Journal:
Group calls on you, me, everyone to keep city safe
Edmonton’s Valleyview Manor protected as a historic site (Our first high-rise, and the home of the Winspears.)
Quesnell Bridge construction to cause major delays
Alberta Cabinet roadshow stops in Edmonton (These jet-setting rock stars hit the capital city, leaving screaming teen girls in their wake. I bet all of their events were sold-out phenomenons.)
Energy industry cheers royalties rollback
Edmonton retailers prepare for iPad frenzy (Do you think, as I write this, that they are already sold out?)
from the Edmonton Sun:
ETS security faces up to challenges of youth crime
Landlord slapped with multiple fines (If it’s so hard to make your utility payments when tenants aren’t paying rent, evict them. That’s kind of, uh, your job.)
Indigenous Health Initiatives Program produces new grads
from Metro Edmonton:
A quick look at Edmonton’s city election candidates (Alex did a more thorough look at the councillor possibilities.)
Changing of the guard at Edmonton Garrison
from the Edmonton Examiner:
West-end neighbourhoods need a plan: Leibovici (She doesn’t like how west LRT has been planned to this point.)
Family housing a must on airport lands
Community leagues vie for $15,000 prize (If you want to help me help Strathcona Centre win, let me know.)
from 630CHED/iNews880:
Important Oilers announcement at 11:30 (Will Rod Phillips be calling the games next season? Will it be his last?)
from CBC Edmonton:
Final York Hotel tenant checks out
Thomas Svekla declared a dangerous offender (The killer goes to prison without a release date.)
from CTV Edmonton:
Katz group hopes province will chip in for downtown arena project (Alright, so we’ve got $100-million from Daryl Katz, he wants $400-500-million from the city for the arena. That only leaves another $400-500-million to pick up.)
New cardiac procedure comes to Alberta
from Vue Weekly:
(It appears Vue’s website is still down.)
And I’ll give you a heads up, for June 1. The City’s parking meters are going to cost you an extra 50-cents an hour. You’ve been warned, now stock up on quarters. Rates go up next Tuesday.
