I am filing this roundup from New York City, which still sounds crazy to me. Wherever I go, though, I’m still thinking about Edmonton, so here are some things I noticed that you might want to notice, too:
John Richardson recounts the life, death and resurrection of Kristin Ashmore’s Jerome the Gnome. It’s epic. (Photos by Kristin, used with permission)
Let’s begin with music:
- The wonderful Rev Recluse has launched the Vintage Edmonton Music Podcast, a monthly listen to treasures in his music collection.
- Emil Tiedemann posted the winners of the 2015 Edmonton Music Awards, and the Sonic 102.9 blog has the video tribute to Kirby.
- Jaron Williams looks back to when Louis Armstrong played Edmonton in the 1950s.
- Gillian Thomson’s chat with Daelan Wood alerted me to The Northern Sessions, a delightful showcase of Edmonton music that I’ll be visiting a lot.
On to books and reading:
- Laura Frey argues it’s great to love reading, but there’s no need to get all snobby about it.
- Kristin Finlay announces a double-barrelled #yegbook club, on books by Thomas Wharton and Jennifer Quist.
- Alexis Marie Chute offers tips for writing a book proposal.
- Donna McKinnon previews 40 Below Volume 2: Alberta’s Winter Anthology, which now has a UAlberta-made book trailer.
And miscellaneously:
- A couple of 124th Street gems: Vivian Binnema features The Tea Girl, and Cindy Nguyen visits the new Barking Buffalo Cafe at the Salgado Fenwick store.
- Oilogosphere news: Sunil Agnihotri of The SuperFan is joining The Copper and Blue.
- Todd Babiak poeticizes a truck-bro-vs-bike-bard encounter.
- Food revolutionary and Creative Mornings speaker Carley-Jane Stanton inspires Jody Bailey to take some beautiful photos.
- Dustin Bajer wonders whether Edmonton could get its own bat bridge.
And one more thing.
- Zoe Todd reflects on the reaction to her manifesto for the Edmonton arts scene, and says goodbye. I am sad to see her go. Her manifesto, prompted by the marginalization of indigenous artists, made me think harder than anything I’ve read for a long time. The ensuing debate has been raw and painful and sometimes ill-considered, but ultimately, it forced some of us to think about something that would have been easier to ignore. That’s important work.
You can find many more blog posts on ShareEdmonton. I collect my picks in a Flipboard magazine (when technology co-operates — I can’t get it to take Zoe’s blog).
As mentioned, I’m in New York this week learning how to be an entrepreneurial journalist, so if you want to follow my adventures, find me on Twitter or Instagram.
When I get back, I’ll be a guest on The Unknown Studio’s live show on June 29 at the Citadel. It would be great to see you in real life, so come if you can.
Seen and Heard in Edmonton 