Folk Festival

The first weekend of August is the date for Edmonton's folk festival. I have joked several times in the past that it is the only reason to live in Edmonton for. It is definitely one of the reasons to live here though as it is fantastic!
If you ever are coming to tour this city and get a chance to go, do not hesitate, it is the best time on the planet. The organizers however are talking about making it so the only way you can buy tickets is to go to their office when tix become available (June 1st) and put your name into a lottery? Their office is in a residential area with only three parking stalls. To give a little reference as to why this is bad - three years ago, it sold out in three hours, the year before last, it was just under 2 hours - this year it sold out in less then 13 minutes!!! The line up to get tickets is going to wreak havoc with traffic as to get into the area you come off a very major road / bridge. I really hope they just stick with online sales. 

Cheers,
Carolyn

Boonstock

Another thing Mr Hunter and I did this summer was check out Boonstock over the Canada Day long weekend. This was our second year and I believe it will be our last - just not our scene. We love going to concerts and checking out like music - but this is not the venue for us. 
Boonstock takes place in a ranchers pasture that is located just outside of Gibbons, Alberta. The parking is in an old grazing field, it is very ruff, uneven and has so many gopher holes - it makes getting to the stages a "fun game" of Do Not Twist Your Ankle. The stages are  set up in a nice flat area, it is just super dusty or muddy when it rains. All of this however is not what makes it not our scene - it is the thousands of teens to young adults blitzed out of their mind on alcohol and drugs that kills it. The site allows / promotes camping at the site so they are all smelly and gross by the end of it. This year to top it off, the sound kept going off from the main stage. We did get to see Billy Talent, Buckcherry, Gob, Korn, Volbeat, Crystal Method and some other bands that were playing. 

Cheers,
Carolyn

Mary Poppins

It is funny how something can be so part of your routine and then just not be anymore. I cannot believe I have not posted since July 26th! Mr Hunter and I have been busy - not so much on the house, but with summer. We were able to see Mary Poppins when it came into town. 

Mr Hunter was showing off his fancy pants pink socks. He confessed the other day that they are his lucky golf socks.  

I'm not sure if this is still touring, but you should check it out if you get a chance. It is not the same as the movie, but very enjoyable.
If you saw this too, let me know what you thought of it.
Cheers,
Carolyn

Truckstop Bloodsuckers!

I am a sucker for Vampire movies, TV shows and books. The cheesier - the better! In fact, right now I am in the process of re-reading all of Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire books to "refresh" my memory for the newest one. If you an not familiar with this series it is what the TV show, True Blood is loosely based on. I say loosely as it seems to have taken another direction - an awesome direction - now I have two great stories to follow. Happiness is mine.

So, when I saw this silly article about a new TV show that premiers this July 28 and is going to be a movie about vampires in a small town truck stop, which is also - but also filmed right here in Edmonton and using mainly local talent?

My eyes opened wide and I immediately thought- I AM IN!

You can watch it online on Bite. 

To check out the hilarious preview, please click here.

Enjoy!

Carolyn

| Truckstop Bloodsuckers

More Art in Edmonton

The missing panel has been returned! Yeah!! I am happy to report all of the story panels were up and looking marvelous on my way home from work on Friday.

Here are pictures of the other two installations. While I was looking at them, I saw these large square podiums for each were set up - so not spontaneous art - but planned. None the less, super cool! 

As you can see on this write up - someone has "added" to the installation. 

By adding I mean ruined. I wish I had stopped in the morning on Friday as I am pretty sure the extra chair, branches and garbage were not there. 

You can see someone shoved the branches right through the tent. Very heart breaking! It does make it look more authentic. Trust me - on the other side of that fabulous graffiti wall I ride past every day is two full on tarp homes. Every single morning the city has come out and pick up all of their garbage - I see them every morning with their little garbage grabbers, they have not torn down the tarp houses though. The tenters never bother anyone that I can tell. But they litter a lot and well - they do their business there - there "business", like one and two. GROSS. But if you gotta go, you gotta go! 

There are more installations all over downtown. Hopefully the weather is nice on Sunday and I can try to find them.

Here is the map they provided on the podium. Not too sure what the orange stars are for. Wish me luck in finding them all.

Cheers,

Carolyn

Update on the fabric art installation

One of the panels was missing this morning!! I do not know if it came off in the rain - although I find that pretty unlikely as the others are all perfect condition. The panels were made of some hardy looking fabric as well - but the second one into the story was gone when I biked past. 
The tags and the hearts were all looking pretty good despite all the rain we have received - it is a real disappointment that the panel is missing. I hope it did not come to any foul play.


One happy thing to note however is I saw two new spontaneous art installations on my way to work! These ones are side by side - It may actually be just one big one, but there is enough space between them to make them look as two as I whizzed past this morning. Hopefully the rain holds off after work and I will snag some crappy iPhone pics to share.


Cheers,
Carolyn 

Art Installation in downtown Edmonton

Yesterday morning when I biked to work - this installation was not up, but a wonderful surprise to the people whom pass this corner of Edmonton was to find this:

The large panels and all the hearts are fabric, the larger panels have heart cut outs that were hand stitched on the edges. Each of the fabric hearts were cotton fabric - I did not see any duplicates and the front and back fabric were all different. 
People were invited write their own advise on the provided tags. Extra tags and pencils were in a pouch in the centre of the fence that had the hearts and as you can see from the pic - there were many already attached and ready. 
I am unsure if the creator of the piece was hoping that the participints would take a heart - but I think that may have been the case as each one is on a large safety pin with beads.
It rained last night and I was worried the installation would be ruined, but it looked unharmed this morning when I rode past. It rained again tonight - right after work - by the time I got home, I looked like a drowned rat! 

OK, you cannot tell from these pics, but my clothing is WET and my hair was poker straight when I left this morning and has gone all curly from the rain. Boo. 
I hope the installation still looks OK, perhaps I will write up another tag and pick out a heart for my backpack tomorrow.


Have any of you even set up an installation? I love this one on the corner of downtown Edmonton - it is not a good area of town and to see this lovely work of art - well, it made my heart swell. I could not believe how many people all stopped even in the short time frame that I was there, to take pictures and check it out. I talked to every person that came up. Everyone loved it and seemed as in awe as myself to see something so fabulous on what is usually such a sad corner.


For those of you that know Edmonton, this corner is by the downtown police station, on the corner that used to have the York Hotel that was torn down. This building for those of you that do not know Edmonton, this was a scary place. They even had multiple signs that boasted that you had to leave your knives outside. Eek! 


If any of you have done something like this, or seem something similar - please leave me a comment, I would love to hear all about it.
Cheers,
Carolyn


**Note - this was added the day after this post when live.
I was showing this post to Mr Hunter and I saw the picture where it clearly states to take a heart if you leave a tag. Funny - I took all the pics and without out reading the sign, knew to leave a note, guessed I should take a heart - all I had to do was read the sign! Silly me!
I got a heart this morning on my way to work. 
Cheers,
Carolyn