Hey, our fore fathers didn’t fight for our right to party so we could sit at home watching people who think they can dance.

Heck, no.

They’d have wanted you to head down to Whyte Avenue’s Wunderbar for 7pm this evening to enjoy some local entertainment, local cake, and beer from all over.

A blog (and podcast) only get to turn 1 once.

We’d love to you see you tonight, so come say “Hi.”

You don’t even have to bring presents. (Though they are accepted.)

As for our headline…when the alliteration shoe fits…

This weekend sees the end of another year of fringing. But, fret not, the 29th Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival lives on in our hearts.

Oh, and in these holdover plays.

Hope this smoke clears out because there are a few outdoor movies this weekend. Finding Nemo (another F!) is playing tonight at the Valley Zoo. (Oops! It was last night. Thanks for the heads up, Mike.)

Movies on the Square is back too, with Diary of a Wimpy Kid tonight, and Fantastic Mr. Fox Saturday night. Stony Plain has an outdoor movie too.

It’s Free Cookie Friday at Luzarra. Get over to Whyte Avenue and buy a coffee so you can get a cookie. That caffeine and sugar will only help you start the weekend better.

The tune-ups are done and the Prairie Football Conference is into the real stuff this weekend. The second-best team in the country, the Edmonton Wildcats, begin their season home to the Regina Thunder. Sunday at Clarke Park (beside Commonwealth Stadium).

The winless Edmonton Huskies also begin the regular season this weekend. They’ll take anything they can get after going 0-8 last season. They host the Calgary Colts Saturday night at Clarke.

This is actually quite a decent level of football if you can’t bear to watch the Eskimos embarrass themselves anymore. Tickets are also reasonably priced.

Another non-Eskimos option is the Edmonton Capitals. Tonight’s game is also chock full of diabetes info, courtesy of the Canadian Diabetes Association. (The Capitals are ALSO showing a movie outside, after their Saturday game. It’s The Rookie.)

DEDfest is back to scare the crap out of you, and generally make you squirm.

DEDfest may get you thinking about Hallowe’en, which may get you thinking about fall, which may get you thinking about farmers harvesting their crops, which leads me to mention the Corn Maze is open.

Let’s dip into the ShareEdmonton calendar for some fun.

Clearer air would also help the participants in the Edmonton Dragon Boat Festival, happening at Louise McKinney Park.

As mentioned earlier this week, Saturday is the Canadian Derby at Northlands. It’ll be all fancy hats, fast horses and…bikini girls…

Hawrelak Park’s got the blues. Dun, dun, dun da, dun…The Edmonton’s Labatt Blues Festival…Dun, dun, dun da, dun…

Don’t forget you can always seek shelter from the smoke in a nice, cool movie theatre. Gregg can tell you what’s likely worth your money.

And on Monday, we’ll be celebrating our first year alongside another one-year-old, The Unknown Studio. Come on out to Wunderbar, throw us a toonie, enjoy some fine beer, and hear life-affirming passages from celebrity autobiographies. Party pants not required.

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While messing up the Finding Nemo showtime I also forgot to mention The ARTery’s kick-ass weekend. The Get Down is playing Friday night (there’s still time, it’s still good) and Saturday is an artists’ garage sale/pancake breakfast/bbq/block party. Told you it was kick-ass.

Over the next four days (counting Friday night) there’s a lot to do in Edmonton.

Capital Ex continues at Northlands. A Taste of Edmonton is still at Churchill Square. (Both run until Sunday.)

And, of course, Heritage Day means Hawrelak Park becomes the Heritage Festival. It’s the 35th go-round for Heritage Fest, with more than 60 countries and ethnicities represented. There will be culture and food, all three days of the weekend, in the park. Plan your adventures with the map.

The winless Eskimos play tonight. Meh.

Friday night is a really good music night. Juliette Lewis is playing the Starlite Room, Metric (and Hot Hot Heat) are at Capital Ex, Fred Eaglesmith is in Stony Plain at the Blueberry Bluegrass and Country Music Festival, and there’s that little thing called the Big Valley Jamboree over in Camrose.

On Sunday, The Old Wives are playing at Lyve on Whyte and Audio/Rocketry is at the PawnShop.

And Capital Ex has more music at the Telus Stage Saturday and Sunday. Plus, The Be Arthurs can be found at Centre Stage.

There are dinosaurs!!

ShareEdmonton had an event that really caught my eye. (What can I say, I have a soft spot for chess.) This weekend is the Edmonton Chess Festival. Checkmate.

I also keep forgetting to mention Saturday as a great farmers’ market day. You’ve got the year-round Old Strathcona version, or summer’s City Market Downtown.

It’s the end of the month, so you can check Gregg’s July movie preview and his new look at the August releases, if you’re hitting the movie theatre.

Don’t tire yourself out this weekend, since Folk Fest starts Wednesday night, and the Fringe is on the horizon.

And, because I’m going to mention it all of the time, the edmontonian and Unknown Studio will be celebrating their first birthday(s) Monday, August 23.

Nope. We’ve just added a handy “click here for e-mails when there’s a new comment,” kind of thing to our posts. Now you can comment, click to be notified of any other comments, and really be part of a conversation.

Plus, it’s really nice to be notified by e-mail of comments on something you’ve commented on because you can be lazy and not have to check back.

But I know you check back here. Like 10 times a day. Right?

RIGHT?!

Ahem. Thanks for being part of the Edmonton conversation.

I believe this image shows what I'm talking about.

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Hey, while I’ve got you here, let me be the first to officially invite you to the 1st birthday of the edmontonian and The Unknown Studio. It’s going to be Monday, August 23.

So don’t go balls-out crazy the last weekend of the Fringe. You’ll nee energy to party with us. And eat cake.

Don’t forget to help us pay for the greatest birthday gift of all. And if you come to the party you’ll get to see the gift as it happens.

We don’t know if you know this, but our pals, Scott and Adam, over at The Unknown Studio, are HUGE Star Trek fans.

HUGE.

Like, they will have important and interesting guests on their show and spend precious podcast seconds, minutes even, talking about Star Trek. They love it that much.

So, they’re celebrating one year of podcasting in our fair city and we here at the edmontonian wanted to buy them something for their birthday. But what could we get them? What could say that we’re good friends and we pay attention when they talk?

Something Star Trek, of course.

But not just anything. No. Something awesome. Something great.

A live phone call from Marina Sirtis, the actress who starred as Counselor Deanna Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation (Adam’s favourite of the Treks) for seven years.

But it’s $300.

That’s why we’re asking you to help us out, Edmonton. Chip in a few bucks by clicking that PayPal button below and help us buy a fantastic present for two of the city’s biggest Star Trek fans. We’ll get Ms. Sirtis to call Scott and Adam at a big birthday party, later this summer.

Donate to the Unknown Studio Star Trek phone call fund now, donate often! (We’ll be sure to write your name in the birthday card.)

If we don’t make it to $300 we’ll just get them a Happy Birthday greeting from Mr. Belding.