Seen and Heard in Edmonton

We begin this week with relationships, first with each other, then with our city, then with food and drink, then with art and with words. It’s all about how we get along with the people and things around us, no?

• Becky Schellenberg has been having interesting suppers with strangers. The latest is with a biology student from China who is studying Spanish in his spare time.
• Brandon Schatz thanks his friends and his wife, with whom he makes a funny but serious point about the kind of thing that gets him down.
• Natasha Chiam describes what trauma actually does to you, through the lens of her reaction to her son’s critical illness.
• Jessica Holt, now the mother of twins, apologizes to the friends who had kids before she did for not understanding the effects on one’s social life.
• Golden Bears hockey player Brett Ferguson describes his friendship with a boy in Grade 4 through the BGCBigs in-sch00l mentorship program.
• Katie Burnett shares five creative ideas for stagettes that go way beyond a night at the bar.
• Lori Godin has five more fun ways to spend a girls’ night in.

Where we live

• Chris of Edmonton Weather Nerdery runs the numbers to see if winter really was harder in the olden days.
• Randall Talbot shot signs of spring at the Highlands Golf Course. And then the snow came back, and he found some beauty in that, too.
• Alyssa Lau puts together a 24-hour #LoveMyHood guide to Edmonton.
• Bruce Cinnamon traces the origins of Edmonton’s numbered streets, and how they were almost replaced by something more poetic.
• Tara of Tech Geek Gamers details the deplorable history of daylight saving time.
• Carpet in schools was apparently a controversial topic in 1965, Vintage Edmonton reveals.
• Linda Hoang is crowdfunding a Cats of Edmonton photo book.

Food and drink

• Michelle Peters-Jones reminisces about India, food and trains, among other things, with chef Vikram Vij.
• Cathy Walsh shares her adventures in hotel kitchenette cooking.
• Pineapple upside down bread pudding? You are speaking my language, Karlynn Johnston.
• Lillian Tse celebrates Macaron Day with a play-by-play recipe for peanut butter macarons. Yum!
• Julie maintains her daily mini-brownie habit with a recipe she swears by.
• Jason Foster acquires a rare bottle of Jim’s Team Lager, a special edition beer brewed to raise money for the now-departed Premier Jim Prentice.
• Amanda Sutherland chats with Bruce Sample, brewmaster of the Yellowhead Brewing Company.
• Ever wondered how to tie a butcher knot? Elyse Chatterton demonstrates on a bottle of gin.

On stage

• Rohan Kulkarni previews The Kaufman Kabaret, a play about birth control in Canada debuting at Studio Theatre.
• Jenna Marynowski has even more theatre news in her “Edmonton downstage” feature.
• Sable Chan continues her choral series with an interview with the director of the Grande Prairie Boys Choir.
• Mike Ross reviews the new documentary about the influential and maybe-only-in-Edmonton-could-this-happen group, The Smalls.

Words about words

• Todd Babiak will write you a poem if you buy his books.
• Chris Chang-Yen Phillips discusses his first foray into branded podcasting.
• David Climenhaga isn’t sure the Alberta Legislative Press Gallery is up to the job of deciding who should have access to media events.
• Nadine Riopel declares war on soul-suckingly bad meetings, while reminding us that meetings can be good.

I am taking a break from the blog roundup for a couple of weeks to catch my breath, work on my business and speak at a conference. It will be back on April 12.

You can always find more blog posts on ShareEdmonton, and you can find previous picks on  my Flipboard magazine if you like that interface. I’ll also signal things that catch my eye on Facebook and on Twitter.

Let’s get together in real life! The next Edmonton Podcasting Meetup happens on April 9 at 1 pm at Variant Edition Comics & Culture.

My guest will be Justin Jackson, creator of the MegaMaker podcast, among many other things. We’ll be talking about serving an audience, making things and marketing things, and ways to monetize your podcast you might not have thought of. It’s free, and there will be door prizes from NeWest Press. RSVP here.