Seen and Heard in Edmonton

The Edmonton Fringe Theatre Festival is nearly upon us, and so the roundup begins with the fun that can be had and has been had close to home. And then who knows what we’ll get up to.

• Do not miss Jenna Marynowski’s yeoman effort to preview as many Fringe plays as possible with a handy Q&A.
• Kristen Finlay is looking forward to being in the audience this year, and is gathering up her Fringe desires on her blog.
• Performer and soon-to-be-dad-of-two Trent Wilkie has two Fringe plays and a Fringetime fundraiser for Christian Zyp on the go.
• Donna McKinnon writes a lovely paean to the Edmonton Folk Music Festival after taking in all four days for the first time in a long time.
• Spirited thrifter Nicole Rowan and kitchen magpie Karlynn Johnston have a grand old time at RGE RD’s Farm to Table dinner.
• As is always the case, the Northern Sessions finds an interesting place in which to film an Edmonton band, in this case, Lusitania Lights.

Further adventures

• Stephen Robinson learns how to solve a Rubik’s Cube while skydiving. Just wow.
• Megan McCormick lists her road-trip essentials (including car yoga!).
• Adina J’s family vacation included thrifting and dinosaurs.
• August is all about adventure: It says so on Paper Leaf’s desktop wallpaper for this month.

Quandaries

• Faces of Edmonton catches up with Bashir Mohamed, the cyclist whose encounter with a motorist afflicted by road rage and racism caught the city’s attention. Here’s Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
• Mike Ross explores the clash of perspectives between defenders of the soon-to-be-demolished Cloverdale footbridge and the organizers of the Folk Fest.
• On Almost Infinite, Graham MacFarlane applies the nine character alignments of Dungeons and Dragons to the video game Undertale, which leads to quite the exploration of morality in games and in life.

Babies and children

• Kristina Lynne is having a baby!
• Kira Paran is styling a baby bump, too.
• Dajana Fabjanovich’s twin boys are six months old. It has not been an easy journey, but boy is she happy.
• We get to see Ana Vicioso’s wee boy, along with a new put-the-baby-down-somewhere-safe innovation.
• Kassey Koumarelas is having fun watching the Olympics with her little girls.
• The fifth birthday of Hannah Hamilton’s son leads to an emotional examination of how things change with the first-born when the second-born arrives, and how to revive the joy.
• Lori Godin shares what went through her mind as she dropped her eldest off at sleepaway camp for the first time.
• Paula Kirman highlights a couple of picture books that capture the experience of Filipino-Canadian children.
• Dani Hub reverts to childhood on a glorious afternoon at her grandparents’ place.

Eating in

• Phil Wilson kicks off his Community Table Project with CBC radio host Mark Connolly’s Sunday pizza. Here’s the FAQ for the project.
• Lindsay, aka the Edible Woman, has a recipe for grilled cornbread with blueberries and coconut cream that sounds too good for this world.
• Macaron maven Lillian Tse tries her hand at madeleines.
• Oh my goodness, this dessert buffet in Valerie Lugonja’s post from a baby shower is sooooo sweet.
• Sally Neal tries out the potato salad recipe from Good and Cheap, and declares it a winner.

Eating out

• Cathy Walsh loves Chutney’s Indian Grill, which offers lighter-than-usual but no less delicious Indian food.
• Rachel Jones identifies eight baby-friendly pubs in Edmonton.
• Abisaac Saraga is impressed by the gluten-free offerings at Love Pizza.
• Sharon Yeo and family dine at Chartier, the successfully Kickstarter-ed restaurant in Beaumont.
• YEG Date Night has news of the Eats on 118 food tour in September.

Media

• Trent Portigal finds the childhood home of the founders of Le courier de l’ouest, a somewhat forgotten part of Edmonton’s media history.
• David Climenhaga remember nationalist, publisher and proud Edmontonian Mel Hurtig.
• Rev Recluse unearths a CFRN-TV newscast from July 1992, featuring anchor Daryl McIntyre, who still pilots CTV’s evening news.
• Mack Male’s Media Monday is a must-read for me every week, and not just because he often mentions Seen and Heard (though that is nice).

Gretzkys

• Matt Henderson reflects on what it means to move the Gretzky statue from the arena at Northlands to the new Rogers Place.
• Riva Symko, writer-in-residence at Latitude 53, looks at the Gretzky statue and reflects on who is memorialized, how and why.
• The Oilers’ decision to bring Keith Gretzky on board got the hockey bloggers going. Here’s Ryan Batty, Jonathan Willis and Jason Gregor.

Advice

• Ashley Janssen concludes her three-part series on mentorship with specific and perceptive advice for mentors.
• If you want something, ask for it, says Nadine Riopel, who has a networking event on that very topic next week. (There’s some Gretzky in this post, too.)
• Kendyl Lauzon reaches back to restore her creative confidence.

Miscellaneous

• How rainy was July anyway? Chris crunches the numbers on Edmonton Weather Nerdery.
• Katryna Rae makes a sway dress for the summer heat.
• There’s a new hockey stat in town. Sunil Agnihotri introduces us to WoodMoney.
• The Quad lists when to watch University of Alberta athletes competing in the Rio Olympics.

OK, that’s bigger than normal, but it’s going to have to hold you for awhile, as I’m taking the rest of August off from the roundups. We shall return in September. In the meantime, you can always find more at ShareEdmonton. You can also find these picks and previous ones on my Flipboard magazine and in past roundups.

Sign up for the Seen and Heard in Edmonton newsletter, and then you won’t miss the next roundup when it’s ready. Enjoy the rest of your summer!

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This week’s Seen and Heard in Edmonton is brought to you by Taproot Edmonton, a new member-supported home for local stories created with the community and not just for it. Hear my conversation with Mack Male about the project.

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