Searching for sunshine
365 Days of Sunshine, by Angela Ostafichuk
Hello Edmontonians, and welcome to summer.
In between teaching, hosting, hula-hooping and watching football it seems like the summer is melting quicker then the popsicle I forgot in the sun. As we all know, summer is truly the best time to be in Edmonton. The weather is good, the days are long and we have a million things to do in July and August.
Here is what’s cheap (or free) in this city this week.
Until July 18, the Edmonton International Street Performers Festival is running in Churchill square. Come on down and see some wonderful entertainment from around the world. Although the cost is free, donations are more then accepted as nobody *really* wants to be a starving artist.
Tuesday night check out “Much Ado About Nothing” in Hawrelak park, part of the Freewill Shakespeare Festival. As it is pay-what-you-will night, it makes for an entertaining, low cost evening. The festival runs until the end of the month and tickets usually are priced from $15 to $22.50.
For those women who are interested in spicing it up a bit (and I always say, an educated woman is not only smart, she’s happy) there is the “Orgasams 101″ workshop running out of the Traveling Tickle Trunk. Although people may complain that $25 is a bit much for a few hours, I say it is not. This workshop is priceless. It’s for women only, and you can check out their website for more education opportunities. (July 25 offers a Penis Pleasing workshop….These classes fill up fast though so make sure you register ahead of time.)
Thursday, July 15 gives a few opportunities to work on your inner artist. The AGA is back with their summer adult art classes. This week focuses on the Group of Seven and how to do acrylic landscape painting. At $12 a class these aren’t free, however, they are a wonderful way to try something new. A few blocks away, at Latitude 53, the rooftop patio series is still running, with the 15th featuring JCI.
Friday, the Fava summer party is at the Ortona armory and, being a potluck, means plenty of food and fun. Kick it back here, or enjoy one of Edmonton’s many patios with a walk, after, through the valley, while the sun sets.
And as for Saturday and Sunday… I’ll leave that up to you. For me it means farmers market, hooping at the Leg grounds and coffee at Credo! But who am I to tell you what to do?
Any ideas for what other Edmontonians do? Please leave a comment, or Twitter me at artstylelove.
Take this, it’s free
Mornin’ Edmonton. 
If you want a free hat. (That free hat, over there, to the right.) Then you should toss us a photo from the Edmonton International Jazz Festival.
I’ll accept any of your jazzy photos though, since this is all about jazz appreciation.
Slide it into our Flickr group (which sounds just a little dirty) and that hat is yours.
Then we just have to figure out how to get the hat onto your head.
Jazz hat (or More free Edmonton stuff)
Hey gang, remember when we went on and on about our first year and I mentioned how we had neglected our Flickr pool?
Well it’s time to make that right.
We’d like to start filling our pool with pictures. I’ll do my best to upload photos on my end, and if you’ve got photos of Edmonton stuff you’d like to add please do. I’d love to feature your photos of the city, events and people in our daily Headlines.
So…to encourage some photos, how about I offer you a prize?
How about, for the low, low price of a photo you can have a fantastic Edmonton International Jazz Festival hat? Sounds like a deal to me.
Upload a photo of you at the jazz festival or from any of the jazz fest events or shows to our Flickr pool and I’ll throw your name into the hat (literally) for a chance at the hat.
Thanks to Eri for the hat.
Speaking of bikes…
You know, since we’ve been talking about bikes today, how about one more note.
Tonight is another one of those “bike-to-the-movies” movies over at the Citadel. (In the Rice Theatre actually.)
So bike on over for Man with One Red Shoe, at 7pm.
Oh…did I mention it was free? It’s free.
Go, bike month, go!
Cheap Thrills
Continuing our new love of talking about Edmonton events beyond the weekend, we offer you Angela’s look at how you can have fun without spending a lot of money.
365 Days of Sunshine, by Angela Ostafichuk
Summer’s almost here and it’s time to celebrate.
Turn off your TV and get going!
After reading “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin, I’ve decided to follow the golden path of having a more fulfilling life. In my quest for happiness this year I want to do as much as I can to see what makes me tick.
So turn off your TV, and feel free to join my 365 days towards a
better life.
Little or no money you say? No worries. Edmonton is one of the best places to be in the summertime with multiple outdoor festivals, events and concerts. There are literally hundreds of things to do here, some better then others.
From sex workshops to looking at the stars to eating popsicles while dancing in the street, the key is to think outside the box this summer. So whether you have 10 cents, 10 dollars or a 50 (call me!) in your pocket there’s something for everyone.
Last week saw Nextfest start around the city. The Enterprise Square Gallery features works from new artists and is worth a stroll through, at no cost. The rest of the festival is still amazingly priced with $5 for the nightclubs and $10 for a show.
Think outside the box for summer 2010.
Tuesday June 8, the Creative Age Festival kicks off. Although deemed as a festival for the 65+ crowds, there is lots to do even if you’re not loud, proud and retired. Grab gramps and head down.
Both Wednesday and Thursday (June 9 and 10) feature free movies at
the EPL. Wednesday is The Girlfriend Experience and Thursday features It
Might Get Loud. Both FREE, they start at 6:30 in the Milner Library.
Thursday also kicks off Pride week with a show at The ARTery titled “Peculiar Peckers: Drag Kings & Other Phallic Things” which will be worth checking out. Tickets are $5 and the entertainment is priceless.
Friday is a day to work out, so come join my friend Elly and I on what we like to call “walk and watch” on the stairs by Victoria Trail. If you have no clue what I’m referencing to, join us and you’ll see.
Friday is also a great time to just chill on one of Edmonton’s lovely patios, enjoy a walk through the river valley or read a book.
Saturday is jam-packed with events.
Of course everyone knows it’s the Pride Parade, that kicks off on Jasper at 1pm.
Before that, though, there are many events downtown including a pancake breakfast before, and a block party after on 104th, which goes until 10 pm. Add the Nextfest wrap-ups to Pride and downtown is the place to be.
Stay tuned for more cheap thrills as I figure out how to go big without going broke.
Where is the best place for cupcakes? Bubble tea? People watching? This summer I plan on solving these mysteries so keep reading Edmonton and keep it fresh.
More from Angela at her blog, or on Twitter.
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.
Hot Tub Time Machine
By Paul Poulsen
Hot Tub Time Machine has a title that you it tells you EXACTLY what to expect in the film. Much like Snakes on a Plane, you know what you’re getting into with Hot Tub Time Machine.
There’s a hot tub and it serves as a time machine. No further explanation necessary.
The question then becomes, “Is the best thing about this film its title?” Surprisingly (to me, anyway) there’s actually a pretty entertaining movie to go along with the snappy name.
The plot isn’t anything horribly original. Three middle-aged friends are stuck in shitty jobs and shitty relationships and decide to relive their glory days by visiting a ski resort where they spent some of the best days of their youth. The main character’s nephew gets dragged along for the ride and acts as the voice of reason throughout their fantastic voyage.
The resort is not what they remember but they decide to make the most of it by getting drunk in the hot tub. When the haze clears the next morning, they slowly come to the realization that they’ve somehow traveled back in time to 1986. The group quickly decides that they must try to perfectly recreate their original experience so that they don’t trigger a butterfly effect that would cause harm to the future. However they’re quickly overcome by the temptation to right past wrongs.
Hilarity ensues.
There are a lot of elements that are reminiscent of Back to the Future. However, the presence of Crispin Glover permits me to think these things were lovingly referenced instead of blatantly ripped off.
There were definitely things I didn’t like. The love interest seemed paper thin and anytime there’s a time travel movie, there are a hundred little plot points that you could nitpick, but at the end of the day there were quite a few laughs and a good little story that focuses on the importance of friendship.
650,000,000 edmontonians out of 1,000,000,000
Hot Tub Time Machine doesn’t open until March 26th but you can get free passes by visiting http://eventful.com/campaigns/hottub/edmonton. I signed up and had my tickets emailed to me within 30 minutes but I’ve heard of other people taking up to 12 hours to get theirs. I went to the City Centre screening and the theatre was only about 70% full.
Some stuff going on in some places
I really thought my photo was going to make the poster.
And a good day to you, fair Edmonton.
All excited for the weekend, are we? Well, other than sleeping in, perhaps you’d like to try one of these out…
Again, I’m peering into the goody bag of ShareEdmonton this week. They’ve got one of the biggies of winter; The Silver Skate Festival goes this weekend in Hawrelak Park. And it’s not even freezing cold.
Speaking of skating, the revamped Bill Hunter arena opens this weekend and the city is offering some free (free!) skating.
Carey Hart is signing autographs at the West49 in WEM. That’s pretty cool.
Also cool is the Royal Winnipeg Ballet doing “Moulin Rouge,” at the Jube.
Seeing that The Hat has a brunch on Saturdays. Anyone been? Is it just breakfast burgers?
The Fray could show you how to save a life (*groan*) at the Winspear Centre on Sunday.
I’m out.
Free kids, or something
(Photo: CoE)
Just like Law and Order this is ripped from the headlines. The headlines being the City of Edmonton’s news feed.
Hey, it’s Christmas time and that means the kids will be asking you for all the latest doo-dads and whats-its. It also means they are home for the holiday break.
Thankfully, the City of Edmonton is letting kids enjoy their facilities for free. Though I’m sure that does not mean dropping them off to have city staff take care of them. That would be taking advantage of their kindness.
Anyway, the details are like this: from December 21 (today!) to January 3, 2010, children 12 and under pay nothing for admission to ANY City of Edmonton leisure, sports and fitness facility. Sounds like a pretty good deal to this guy.
You probably want some options don’t you? Head to this website for just such a thing.
Time to (ironically?) subvert capitalism
I know that Michael Moore’s new movie, Capitalism: A Love Story, isn’t actually about how great capitalism is. But it still feels like we’re doing something tricky to be giving away tickets.
A movie about capitalism and we’re going to make sure you DON’ T pay? Clearly we’re commies.
Google's #1 image for "capitalism."
We don’t have a lot of time, the movie is tonight, so let’s make this quick and easy, comrades.
If you’re on Twitter, I’ll ask you to RT a message about the movie tickets, if you’re here at the website just slap something in the comments of this post, and if you’re at our Facebook page, just “like” or comment on our link.
Everybody who does one of the preceding will be entered into a draw for 11am (again, time is tight) and we’ll hook you up with sweet, free, tickets.
Remember, the movie is TONIGHT, at 7pm (get there early) at the Westmount Shopping Centre Cinemas.
Free stuff!
From left: Alvin Lowrey (image: U of A) Joachim Segger, Marnie Giesbrecht (photo: Majoya.com)
If you like music, free stuff or the Winspear Centre, Wednesday is your kind of day.
If you like all of the above, you probably already know where this is going.
The Winspear Centre is inviting you to a free (free!) lunchtime concert Wednesday, noon-1pm.
Below are the musical details:
You get acclaimed organ and piano team “Duo Majoya” (Marnie Giesbrecht and Joachim Segger) with revered Edmonton trumpeter Alvin Lowrey performing Mussorgky’s Pictures at an Exhibition arranged by Lowrey. The program begins with Bédard’s Capriccio for Organ and Piano, and Duo Majoya’s arrangement of Elgar’s Salut d’amour.
Have fun!
