June 2010

From the mountains to the metropolis, hotelier

Karyn Decore has a style to suit every terrain

From the mountains to the metropolis, hotelier

Karyn Decore has a style to suit every terrain

Family Jewel

Cradle of CuisineTake your palate on an African safari

Sow Your StyleBring some panache to your garden

Rustic RhythmColleen Brown is tuned up for success on her Canadian tour

Cradle of CuisineTake your palate on an African safari

Sow Your StyleBring some panache to your garden

Rustic RhythmColleen Brown is tuned up for success on her Canadian tour 172172reasons to

love summer

avenue JUNE 2010 | $4.95 AvenueEdmonton.comCITY LIFE STYLE EDMONTON

8 avenue JUNE.10

contents | JUNE.10 |

ON THE COVERKaryn Decore was photographed by Craig Hobbs at the former Red Strap Market.

* COMING IN JULYYour guide to dining alfresco. Thrilling adventures nearby. Off the field with an Edmonton Eskimos star player.

features

31 Summer Served Your Way

Whether you’re into sports, food, arts and culture or the great outdoors, Avenue’s summer guide is the go-to source for all the festivals, parties and games that suit you best.BY AVENUE STAFF

regulars

12 Editor’s Note

14 Contributors

64 Party Crasher

city

16 DetoursDiscover noteworthy locals and the ins and outs of the city.

20 Find DiningDiverse new flavours at African restaurants offer an authentic taste from across the continent.

22 The PourNew Zealand’s Central Otago is the new frontier of pinot noir.

24 ArtsceneArtist-run and inclusive, modern art galleries are going beyond exhibitions to showcase talent.

26 Arts ProfileSoulful, honest and folksy, Colleen Brown is capturing Canadians’ hearts.

style

40 Style Q&AKaryn Decore, president of Decore Hotels in Jasper and Banff, has a sophisticated style that makes her queen of the Rockies.

46 Cool HunterPlants don’t have to be the only thing to love about your garden.

48 Urban LivingA sprawling Sherwood Park home blends the indoors and outdoors into a party host’s dream.

life

56 Vital SignsWhat makes a city happy? Economist Mark Anielski explores Edmonton’s wealth in new terms.

60 GetawaysBritish Columbia’s Fairmont Hot Springs proves that small towns can be big on adventure.

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46

www.AvenueEdmonton.com

Publisher Orville Chubb

Editor Colin McGarrigle

Art Director Paige Weir

Executive Editor Jennifer Hamilton

Associate Editor Omar Mouallem

Assistant Editors Lynsey Franks, Lynda Sea

Contributors David Berry, Celena Bjorklund, Amy

Fung, Aaron Pederson, Anthony Gismondi, Gail Hall,

Craig Hobbs, Darren Jacknisky, Linda Keller, Mairi

MacLean, Fawnda Mithrush, Keith Norbury, Bonnie

Paxton, Mike Ross, Kelly Sutherland, Klyment Tan,

Constantine Tanasiuk

Editorial Intern Christina Weichel

Art Intern Michael Labant

Copy Editor Karen Sherlock

Staff Photographer Peter Markiw

Director of Marketing Trudy Callaghan

Sales Manager Karen Hounjet

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regulars editor’s note

After winter has kept us trapped homes for months with little to no sun-shine, summer has finally arrived in Ed-monton in all its splendour. And while our city does celebrate winter in many forms, like most of Earth’s creatures we only fully blossom from our hibernation when the sun releases us from winter’s cold, hard grip.

With its sun-drenched days and starlit nights, summer in Edmonton is a majestic time, when people of all ages can find myriad activities to embrace every moment of every long day. But with so many events available, how do you man-age to find the perfect adventure to suit your tastes? Not to worry — this month we feature two extensive guides that will take the guesswork out of enjoying the summer to its fullest.

Rather than being dragged along to an event

you couldn’t care less about, with people who don’t share the same interests, you can organize your summer schedule based on your personal-ity with the help of our feature, “Summer, Your Way,” on page 31. Whether you’re a food lover, sports fan, culture vulture, philanthropist or a nature nut, we’ve got you covered.

Another bonus this month is our pull-out summer calendar, which lists events for almost each day throughout June, July and August. Pull the guide out and keep it in your car, on your fridge or in your handbag for the summer, and

we guarantee you will never be short of choice for some of the best events our city has to offer.

And seeing as we are Festival City, this issue features one of the city’s rising folk stars, Col-leen Brown, who will be one of the highlights at this year’s Edmonton Folk Music Festival. Read about her passion for song on page 26 before you hear her refreshing harmonies in person this August.

With the changing of the season, we also feature Edmonton economist and professor Mark Anielski, who is asking citizens and gov-ernments to change their way of thinking when it comes to how we view quality of life in our city.

Author of The Economics of Happiness, Anielski has actively pursued a simpler life — free of debt, without a mortgage and with a shorter work schedule — which he says has im-proved his life. Rather than focusing on GDP as a measure of progress, Anielski says a true mea-sure of growth and development should include other factors, such as household debt and in-creasing leisure time. Several local governments have taken notice of his ideas and are using his index of well-being to form future polices. Read all about Anielski’s work on page 60.

Finally, what better way is there to really enjoy the summer but with a fine bottle of wine on a sunny backyard patio? On page 22, we delve into the world of New Zealand pinot noir and list some of the best bottles available in Edmonton.

So, whichever way you care to enjoy your summer, this month’s issue will keep you happy until the days grow shorter and, once again, we hibernate and dream of another few glorious months of sun-drenched days and starlit nights.

Colin McGarrigle

Editor

[email protected]

Optimize Your Summer

regulars contributors

Keith Norbury has been a writer and editor for

more than 25 years. His work has appeared recently

in the Toronto Star, Calgary’s Avenue magazine and

YES Mag on subjects ranging from the state of the

housing market and pirate radio to space-bound

paper airplanes. He first encountered Mark Anielski,

author of The Economics of Happiness, while on as-

signment as a business writer for the Times Colonist

newspaper in Victoria, B.C., where Norbury’s family

has roots going back to the 19th century.

David Berry is a freelance writer and editor whose

work has appeared in Vue Weekly, AlbertaViews and

BeatRoute. His rosy complexion can also be seen

every Friday morning on Global Edmonton, much

to the delight of the over-40 crowd. He has sampled

singer Colleen Brown’s baking and knows she has a

solid backup if her music career doesn’t work out.

His graphic novel, We Hate This Place Here; It’s Our

Home, features anthropomorphic bison dealing

with Christmas in Edmonton and will be published

next year.

46

56

Michael Labant is a recent graduate of the design

and photography program at Grant MacEwan

University. He is captivated by creative design and

by incorporating photography to produce a strong

work of art. He loves collaborative work and never

turns down a chance to attend a social event to cap-

ture memorable moments. Labant’s upbeat person-

ality was a welcome addition to the Avenue office,

where he interned in the spring and photographed

this month’s Cool Hunter.

Jennifer Hamilton got her start in TV news at CBC in

Regina, but a job at a city magazine and the promise

of a better climate and delicious sushi lured her to

Vancouver, where she began her 14-year career

in publishing. As the executive editor of Avenue

Calgary and Wine Access magazines, Hamilton is

pleased to add Avenue Edmonton to her plate and

welcomes the opportunity to help celebrate life

in the city she grew up in. An avid food and wine

enthusiast, she balances these calorie-rich interests

with a love of outdoor sports.

26

16 avenue june.10

detourscity

32 annual festivals in Edmonton (festivalcity.ca) 4348 participating artists

2 to 3 million festival attendees every year

$123.7 million amount the city’s arts and culture sector contributes to Greater Edmonton (2005)

100 full-time seasonal staff employed by festival organizations (2009)

154,000 volunteer hours logged (2009)

$10 average festival price of admission

1,568 free events offered by festivals per year (2009)

$1.11 million total increase in direct arts and festivals investment by the Edmonton Arts Council (1999 to 2005)

Festival City With nearly 205 days of the calendar year jam-packed with cultural events, festivals and arts celebrations, Edmon-ton has earned its moniker as “Festival City.” Or at least it has earned the right to self-appoint itself as such. It even has the web domain, festivalcity.ca, to prove it. Though it isn’t clear whether the name comes from the plethora of festivals or vice versa, what is clear is that festivals affect the city in a big way. — Lynsey Franks

Nothing beats getting a deal. Especially when you can splurge and save at the same time. Unlike other discount cards, MyBlackCard is geared toward elite shoppers, those who want to live luxuriously and are proud of it. For $300 a year, members of MyBlackCard, an Edmonton creation, can enjoy perks at more than 50 local business-es, as well as others in Vancouver, Calgary and the Rockies. Here’s a taste of what it’s like to live the high life at a, well, lower cost. myblackcard.ca — Christina Weichel

A Day in the

Good Life

Finish the day with a premium

dinner at Lux Steakhouse + Bar

and save 50 per cent off any of its

35 wines from around the world.

10:00 a.m.

11:00 a.m.

1:00 p.m.

6:00 p.m.

9:00 a.m.

Ditch the SUV and rent an

oversized Lincoln Navigator for

the day. Eternity Limousines

offers deals like up to 10 per

cent off travelling like a rock

star — and they might throw in

a bottle of champagne, too.

Flash MyBlackCard at European Spa and get a free microderma-

brasion treatment with your

appointment ($100 value). Leave

looking even better than a rock

star, and for considerably less, too.

You’ll get a lot of VIP invitations

with your new card, so make sure

you’re always dressed to impress.

Stop by Identity Clothing, where

owner Kelly Noland will revamp

your wardrobe and give you 10

per cent off your purchases. He’d

better — he invented the card.

On your way to the North-

ern Bear Golf Club, use your

iPhone to book a last-minute

tee time at golfpatio.com and

save half off the price.

NUMBERS

18 avenue june.10

OP

EN

ING

S

BENCH

Don’t let the simple black logo with Hel-

vetica typeface fool you — this U.K. cloth-

ing store has nothing to do with American

Apparel. It offers men’s and women’s

streetwear, sportswear and yoga wear. And

if you’ve decided to jump on the returning

trend of track jackets, consider this your

one-stop shop. (Southgate Mall, 50 Avenue

and 111 Street, 780-435-3721, bench.co.uk)

GOOD EARTH COFFEEHOUSE AND BAKERY

The Calgary café chain continues to expand

across the country and recently added

two more Edmonton locations for a total

of four. The new bakery and café spots, in

Edmonton City Centre and south Edmon-

ton, offer a selection of premium coffees,

organic pastries and healthy bistro-style

meals. (Edmonton City Centre East, 102 Av-

enue and 103 Street, 780-756-1610, and 936

91 St., 780-466-6196, goodearthcafes.com)

MISS BOSS This accessories boutique around the posh

corner of Jasper Avenue and 124th Street

stocks jewellery from Harriet Grey and TU

Design, beauty products from Cake and

Tokyo Milk, handbags from Matt & Nat

and Kenneth Cole, and canvas prints from

Papaya Art. Coming in July: shoes! (10120

124 St., 780-757-0317, missboss.ca)

SALVATORE’S MEDITERRANEAN GRILL & MARTINI BAR This family-run grill used to be Sorrentino’s

until it was renovated, renamed and re-

opened. The Mediterranean menu goes

beyond traditional Italian pastas and

features dishes such as Moroccan lamb

and slow-braised brown duck. (160, 1020

Sherwood Dr., 780-449-1384, salvatores

mediterraneangrill.webs.com)

WHIMSICAL CAKE STUDIO

Whimsical recently packed its ovens and

moved south to the newly renovated

Garneau Theatre block. The bakery has

designer cakes, specialty desserts and,

of course, cupcakes, making it the third

competitor (together with Flirt and Fuss)

to join the cutthroat cupcake wars in Old

Strathcona. (8716 109 St., 780-988-2253,

whimsicalcupcakes.ca) — Omar Mouallem

Have a new business, restaurant or store

you’d like us to know about?

E-mail [email protected]

Multimillion-dollar Fun and Games

ThE QUIET RIOT

At six years old, John Palamarchuk was already enthralled by the idea of exploring different worlds. Instead of outgrowing his phase of fighting off bad guys in video games, he turned it into a career. Now 26, his most recent project was as lead cinematic artist of God of War 3, overseeing the visual aspects of one of this year’s most anticipated games.

When he left Sherwood Park at the age of 18, there was only one stipulation from Mr. and Mrs. Palamarchuk: “I could do whatever I wanted, but I had to get a degree,” he says. While seeking that degree at the Art Institute of California, Palamarchuk was hired by Sony even before he had finished.

Now he lives in Santa Monica, Calif., where he worked on God of War 3, Sony PlayStation’s $45-million-dollar adventure game based on ancient Greek mythology. “Game budgets are just as big as movie budgets now,” he says. “They also take much longer to make.”

God of War 3 employed more than 120 sound editors, graphic animators, writers and more. Metacritic.com, the gold-standard site for games, movies and music reviews, shows that the average critic rated it 9.3 out 10. But for Palamarchuk, the real sign of success was the long queues at electron-ic stores across America to buy the game at the stroke of midnight. “We crashed one of the lineups and surprised the fans. Then I guess they went home and played all night.” godofwar.com — L.F.

Eighteen-year-old Connor Yuzwenko-Martin is a

cast member of Rapid Fire Theatre, Edmonton’s

longest-running local improv comedy company.

He is also deaf, and every Friday night at Rapid Fire’s

TheatreSports he gets big laughs with his physical

and signed comedy. “Because I’m deaf, expressions

are very important and I tend to focus on physical

humour,” he says. “But every now and then, I say

something funny.”

Central to Yuzwenko-Martin’s acting process is

an interpreter sitting in the front row, translating

from him to the cast members and audience, and

signing their responses back. He describes his work

with the interpreter as a “quick connection,”

and says they are almost thinking in one mind.

He is inspired and influenced enormously by the

original “little tramp” of silent film, Charlie Chaplin.

“My dad rented his silent movies for me when I

was about six-years-old,” he says. “You didn’t need

to understand English, because it was visual and

physical.”

“I love that my language is a visual one,” he says

about his approach to improv. “Often, you focus on

the spoken language for humour, but I bring a new

element and discipline to the stage.”

rapidfiretheatre.com — L.F.

city detours

20 avenue june.10

city find dining

As diverse as African cuisine can be, these three restaurants share some things in common: a passion for authenticity, lots of vegetarian options and the use of fresh ingredients and fragrant spices

Moroccan Cuisine 6201 50 St., Leduc, 780-980-0068Not yet a year old, Moroccan Cuisine in Leduc is a serene spot decorated with oriental rugs and national artifacts such as brass tea kettles and gold-trimmed teacups. Self-taught chef Aicha Chaabi heads the kitchen, and her con-genial husband, Seid, assists with the front-of-house duties.

“People think that Moroccan food is spicy. It’s not, but it does have complex flavours,” says Seid, as he serves me a cold lemon-ginger beverage that’s part of the meal experience to cleanse your palate from bite to bite.

He starts me off with a bowl of harira soup ($3), a fragrant broth with lentils, chickpeas, lamb, cilantro, cumin and ginger united in flavour by squeezes of lemon. If you want a sharable starter, I recommend Aicha’s chicken bastilla ($8). The geometric phyllo is stuffed with chicken, egg, lemony onion sauce and crushed almonds. It’s then pan-fried and coated with

Across the LandWhile spices such as cinnamon, cumin, turmeric

and saffron are used throughout the African

continent, the cuisine of northern Africa is

very influenced by the Mediterranean, with

dried fruits, citrus, meat protein and couscous.

South African cuisine is a fusion of European,

Indian and Asian, with lots of meat protein,

fruits and vegetables. West Africa’s cuisine is

based on forest-grown ingredients (palm oil and

coconut), fish and seafood; meat is considered a

luxury. Eastern African cuisine uses a lot of corn

and other grains, milk and rice, with almost a

complete absence of meat.

The Dawn of

Delicious

AvenueEdmonton.com june.10 21

by Gail Hall photography by Peter Markiw

cinnamon and sugar. The sweet dusting pairs perfectly with the savoury filling.

For a traditional meal, the couscous with chicken ($9.95) is an artfully layered dish of chickpeas, onions, raisins and almonds, covered with braised chicken and arranged with seasonal vegetables. I also recommend the lamb tagine stew ($12), a sweeter dish served with saffron rice and surprisingly juicy dried apricots that are glazed in honey and sprinkled with crushed almonds and cinnamon.

All meals at the restaurant end with a plate of Moroccan cookies and a cup of green tea or Arabic coffee. They make for a great finish, but they’re no reason to pass up the kanefa ($4), a phyllo crème anglaise with hints of rosewater, topped with fresh fruit. This delicate dish is a testament to the French influence in Moroccan culture.

African Safari Restaurant 10610 105 St., 780-423-6614This casual diner in the heart of so-called Little Africa is a hub for the Somali community. Pro-prietor Adan Elmi, who also owns Maca Halal Meats and Wholesale next door, and his wife, Shukri, opened African Safari in 2003.

“The food is always fresh and the price is reasonable,” says Adan. How reasonable? Where else can you find a $2 bowl of soup like their citrusy vegetable soup?

Start your meal with the Somalian naan-like bread called chabati ($2), which is served flat, fried and folded in half. It’s also intended as cutlery. Of course, western cutlery is available, but the regulars do without.

All main dishes come with mango or grape juice, a salad, daily vegetables such as carrots and potatoes seasoned with lime and cinnamon, and a large portion of rice pilaf with raisins, turmeric and cinnamon.

Traditional Somali mains are stewed dishes served with a banana that is meant to be squeezed into your rice. Although the goat and chicken stews ($9) are excellent choices, it’s hard

to pass up the camel stew ($9). The meat, like goat, has a lighter texture but less cholesterol — and it’s bone-picking good!

Langano Skies 9920 82 Ave., 780-432-3334In Ethiopian homes, woven baskets are more than just serving trays and storage for grain — they are artful possessions. At Langano Skies, named after Lake Langano in Africa’s Great Rift Valley, the Sumamo family shares its beautifully woven mosebs as table art. The traditionalism at this popular six-year-old restaurant on Whyte Avenue is so rich that the menu actually starts with a glossary of sorts, explaining things like what injera are and how to use the sourdough crepes. (Injera is to Ethiopian food what pita bread is to Arabic food. You’re supposed to un-ravel the sourdough crepe, tear off pieces and use them to scoop up your food.)

Langano’s food can be very spicy, especially the kategna ($6), a toasted injera folded over a spiced butter made with jalapenos, garlic and ginger. Ease the heat with a cold drink, like a bottle of Tusker beer ($7.50), a Kenyan lager with kick, or a mango shake ($5.50) blended with hints of honey.

Another important thing to know about Ethiopian cuisine is that no matter how many entrées a party orders, every dish comes on the same enormous platter. So unless you draw borders immediately, everyone at the table shares everything within reach. Since you’ll likely share, consider diversifying your dishes. For protein, try the kitfo ($14), a finely diced, extra lean beef served raw like steak tartare — or cooked, if you like — and seasoned with a rich blend of spices. If you’re partial to poultry, order the doro wot stew ($13.75). It’s a saucy mix of sautéed chicken breast, a homemade seasoned butter and berberé, a spice common to Ethiopian cuisine. Mix in some greens with the gomen wot ($10), a cooked spinach and onion stew served with a side of cot-tage cheese, and you’ve got a perfectly balanced and tasty meal.

Left: Chickpeas and almonds are staples of Moroccan food, evident both in Moroccan Cuisine’s harira soup and the couscous with chicken entrée. Below Left: Meals at Moroccan Cuisine end with a plate of tradi-tional cookies and a cup of coffee or green tea.

Above and below: At Langano Skies, woven baskets adorn the tables, and meals come on a sharable platter, both Ethiopian traditions.

22 avenue JUNE.10

city the pour

Passion for PinotCentral Otago puts New Zealand on the map as a top producer of pinot noir

The heartbreak grape is grown in several areas of New Zealand, including Canterbury and its sub-region, Waipara, on the border between Otago and Canterbury; Martinborough at the southern end of the North Island; Marlborough at the northern end of the South Island; and, finally, perhaps the most famous of all, Central Otago, near the southern reaches of South Island.

“Central,” as the locals refer to it (not that you hear anything about an Upper or Lower Otago), is home to some of the most amazingly delicious and decadent pinot noir on the planet. It’s grown on or about the 45th latitude, mak-ing it the southernmost grape-growing region in the world. The same latitude in the North-ern Hemisphere puts one in Piedmont, Italy, France’s southern Rhône and Haut-Medoc wine

At the inaugural New Zealand pinot conference in 2001, it was sug-gested by the Kiwis that 50 per cent of what passes for pinot noir in the world likely wasn’t worth drinking. Based on that premise, the goal of Kiwi produc-ers was to replace that segment of the market with something eminently more drinkable — and from New Zealand.

After attending Pinot Noir 2010 earlier this year, it was clear to me the original objective established less than a decade ago has been accomplished, if not surpassed. However, you wouldn’t know it shopping in Canadian wine shops, where expensive, dreary pinot dies hard. But a change is coming and it is thanks to New Zealand pinot growers.

regions, and Oregon’s Willamette Valley.Like most New World wine regions, the first

Central grapes were planted long ago — 1864, to be specific — but nothing much happened for the next century. In fact, the first commer-cial vintage didn’t leave Gibbston Valley winery until 1987, but it’s been nothing but nose to the grindstone for the region’s growing number of producers ever since. And the results are, well, simply amazing.

Geographically, Central Otago hits all the right pinot buttons. There is significant varia-tion between day and night temperatures, often falling from 28 to 33°C down to 5 to 10°C, which retains pinot acidity and builds flavour com-plexity. Central Otago is somewhat continental in climate, but not being too far from the ocean

by Anthony Gismondi illustration by Anders Knudsen

reduces the threat of frosts. Of course, there is the long hang time, where ripe pinot can hang in a dry environment (disease-free), furthering com-plexity and developing flavour.

Low rainfall keeps the leaching effect low, leading to a good level of mineral compounds, and it keeps organic growth low, too. The result is a soil low in vigour, yet high in mineral richness. The Kiwis are quick to point out that what makes Central Otago special is strikingly similar to what is so special about Burgundy and Oregon pinot noir. When it comes to geology, Central Otago is equally blessed with sites that go from schist rocks to a fine rock flour and layers of loess sedi-ment mixed with river gravels. The combinations are mind-boggling, as are the opportunities to create complexity.

The Central Otago moniker is growing world-wide, though the area is made up of a series of sub-regions, each developing its own idiosyn-crasies of flavours. But it is the rich, showy, plush-fruited, spicy pinots with elegance that are attracting worldwide attention from pinot noir lovers. In the years to come, the sub-regions of Wanaka, Lowburn, Bendigo, Alexandra, Gibb-ston and Bannockburn will be as well known as Burgundy’s Beaune, Volnay or Nuits-St.-Georges appellations.

A quick survey of local wine shops suggests you can get to know “Central” pinot right here in Edmonton, although you may have to replace that steak with a piece of duck or salmon. Here is a short list of some promising producers and wines to look for, if pinot noir is your passion.

Anthony Gismondi is a globetrotting wine writer who is editor-in-chief of Calgary-based Wine Access magazine.

Felton Road Pinot Noir

Considered among the top two Kiwi pinot producers

with Ata Rangi, the regular Felton is a fabulous mix

of earthy, floral raspberry fruit, with glossy tannins

and textures. ($63 at Bin 104 Fine Wines & Spirits, 5454 Calgary Tr., 780-436-8850)

Wild Rock Cupids Arrow Pinot Noir This was one of the stars of the conference in a blind

pinot tasting, but try it for yourself. Incredible value. ($26.50 at Crestwood Fine Wines & Spirits, 9658 142 St., 780-488-7800)

Rippon Pinot Noir Lake Wanaka

Made by employing bio-dynamic standards, it offers

up the power of Central with the finesse and styling

of Burgundy. Big mineral, dry red fruits, earthy finish.

($55 at deVine Wines & Spirits, 10111 104 St., 780-421-9463)

Carrick Pinot Noir

Rich, round, silky, mouth-filling, supple, spicy, deli-

cious pinot noir. Try finding that in Burgundy at this

price. ($70 at Murrieta’s Bar & Grill, 10612 82 Ave., 780-438-4100)

Ata Rangi Pinot Noir

Ata Rangi joins Felton Road among New Zealand’s

first families of pinot noir. Okay, it is from Martin-

borough, not from Central Otago, but it is a must-

buy for pinotphiles. ($65 at Kensington Wine Market in Calgary, kensingtonwinemarket.com)

Rockburn Devil’s Staircase Pinot Noir

When pinot is just plain pretty, it is hard to resist, and

this easy-sipping, spicy cinnamon fruity red could

make you forget all about cabernet sauvignon. ($25 at Glenora Liquor, 10210 140 St., 780-447-2909)

It is the rich, showy, plush-fruited, spicy pinots with elegance that are attracting worldwide attention from pinot noir lovers.

Squib from “Vivarium” by Briana Palmer.

Mountain by Susanna Chung.

24 avenue june.10

by Amy Fung and Mike Rosscity artscene

Show and TellLocal groups are redefining the modern art gallery beyond simple exhibition spaces

Big Printin’ After an intensive re-envisioning period last year, which brought about

a new location and new mandate, the Society of Northern Alberta

Print-Artists (SNAP) decided to return to its roots as a studio-based,

artist-run centre. In its new downtown location, SNAP fosters a com-

munity minded environment with nine studios available for rent, similar

to the days when it occupied the Great West Saddlery building several

years ago. Anna Szul, executive director of SNAP, says active studios and

residencies build stronger bonds within the print community. “For art-

ists working on long-term projects, studio space is invaluable,” says Szul,

an active printmaker herself. “In printmaking, setup alone takes about

an hour. Now, we are able to give our members in the community a

chance to work on longer-term projects.” The new storefront gallery

and studio hosts an exhibition of prints by Briana Palmer, entitled

“Vivarium,” until July 4. Starting in August, Palmer will complete an

artist residency at SNAP. snapartists.com —Amy Fung

A superimposed portrait of two NHL hockey players by Jon Kaiser.

History, their Way Some people fear that a central and permanent

home for the Portrait Gallery of Canada is never

going to happen — with its 100-year-old paintings

of or by great Canadians now warehoused or scat-

tered to museums across the country. But a number

of local art lovers are taking matters into their own

hands and mounting a do-it-yourself, multimedia

“National Portrait Gallery” show at Latitude 53. “It’s

picking up a dropped ball — simple as that,” says

curator Fish Griwkowsky. “Each artist creates a por-

trait meaningful to them, with the subject caveat of

‘Canadian,’” says Griwkowsky. Works include Genera-

tion X author Douglas Coupland’s commissioned

“photograph” of his brain at age 10, Edmonton artist

Nickelas Jonson’s painting of the Mad Trapper of

Rat River and local funk band Bebop Cortez’s new

musical portrait, “David Suzuki and His Twin Sister

Marcia.” The show runs at Latitude 53 from June 11

to July 10. latitude53.org —Mike Ross

New PerceptionsSince opening its doors in 2003, The Nina Haggerty Centre for the Arts

and its adjoining Stollery Gallery have enriched Edmonton’s artistic

community by fostering an open and creative environment for adults

with developmental disabilities. Although the centre has partnered with

the Alberta Artists with Brain Injuries Society for seven years, this is the

first year the society’s artists have met regularly at the centre’s studio

to practise painting, drawing and printmaking. “They are looking at

making art some sort of explorative, life-affirming activity,” says David Janzen, a painter and the centre’s exhibitions co-ordinator. He says

the works “open up different frontiers for seeing, for perception. As an

artist, it makes me think twice or three times about what I’m doing and

why.” The annual “Celebration of Abilities” runs until June 18.

ninahaggertyart.ca —A.F.

26 avenue JUNE.10

city arts profile

Folksy Brown

AvenueEdmonton.com JUNE.10 27

by David Berry photography by 3Ten Photo

With her heart on her sleeve and her foot in her heart, musician

Colleen Brown says her recent national success is just another step

Halfway through a thought, Colleen Brown is interrupted by the waitress. “The guys at the front want to know how much your CDs

are,” she asks, oblivious to our conversation. Brown sheepishly explains the prices, and the waitress leaves. Brown looks up, her lips puck-ered in a kind of mischievous meekness. “This wasn’t staged for your benefit, by the way,” she

points out, before letting out a throaty giggle.

28 avenue JUNE.10

city arts profile

It would have been the perfect crime. We’re talking, after all, at the Atlantic Trap & Gill, where the rising singer-songwriter still pulls the odd shift, and where regulars and staff greet her like an old friend. But then, Brown hardly seems like the type to pull something so cunning. For starters, her look has all the deviousness of a stuffed animal. Her light brown hair is cut into a bob, that frames her brown, anime eyes and is usually clipped by a bright, plastic barrette. She talks in a kind of baritone lilt, and is prone to smirks and childlike funny faces, though when you touch on a subject close to her heart — like what her music means to her or what she owes to family and friends — she looks almost on the verge of tears, her appreciation still in full bloom.

music program, Brown found her footing at open mics and as a singer in the Kit Kat Club, a high-energy show band that performed pop standards. Her 2004 self-released solo debut, A Peculiar Thing, made her a name on the local scene (and started up the Joni Mitchell com-parisons that follow her to this day). Her rep-utation has been bolstered by her turn in The Secretaries, a collaboration with long-time friend Amy van Keeken that sees Brown indulging her more rock-ish and raucous tendencies.

But it’s her second solo release, Foot in Heart, that has started perking up the nation’s ears, especially those of Dead Daisy Records head Emm Gryner, an accomplished singer-songwriter. Gryner heard Brown’s voice for the first time on CBC Radio. This past March, Gryner’s label re-released the album through Outside Music, a far-reaching Canadian distribution company, pushing Brown further into the spotlight.

“I love her voice and the complexity of the songwriting. It appeals to your heart,” Gryner ex-plains from her home in Toronto. “I think indie artists are sort of too cool to go for it sometimes, and I love that Colleen, her music, is really bold. It’s not small, it’s not quaint.”

You can sense an undeniable satisfaction from Brown, but she seems more humbled by her recent success than anything. She is appreciative but aware that it’s only one more step down the road. Which seems rather apropos, very true to her nature.

“It’s success I can tell my parents about so that they know I’m actually not going to live in pov-erty for the rest of my life, so that’s rad,” Brown jokes, before turning more pensive. “When it did come up, it was great. But it was kind of like the next step. I wasn’t ecstatic. I wasn’t jumping on the couch or anything. I wasn’t acting like I won the lottery, because I didn’t — I’ve been working at this for a decade.”

She stops, thinking for a minute, her face once again pulling into a kind of childlike, puzzled look. “No, what am I saying? I’ve been working at this my whole life.”

“If I was a guarded person, I probably could have saved myself a lot of hurt feelings, but then, it’s not who I am.” — Colleen Brown

Even on stage, where she projects a rustic glamour in personally hand-sewn dresses and dangling earrings, she’s refreshingly forthright. She al-most babbles with excitement, and is quick with jokes and mocking self-effacement. All of that fits perfectly with her music, which is not so much confessional as it is emotion-ally raw, powered by her soulful voice and backed by folk- and rock-tinged hooks big enough to fill concert halls. In the smaller clubs she still haunts, her music can be overpowering.

“I’m an open-hearted per-son, and I wear my heart on my sleeve,” explains Brown, whose 2008 self-released album, Foot in Heart, shadows that sentiment in its title. “If I was a guarded person, I probably could have saved myself a lot of hurt feelings, but then, it’s not who I am. I wouldn’t be true to myself if I was like that.”

If there is a common thread through Brown’s ascent from a demure teen steeped in piano and voice lessons to a musician about to embark on a national concert tour, it is remaining true to herself. Performing is innate for her, evident in the times she would entertain family friends vis-iting the Lloydminster home she grew up in by putting on her best clothes and twirling around the living room.

Her creative streak is equally deep. In her childhood, she relieved boredom by baking or sewing (hobbies she continues to this day because they “help her feel like a whole human being”), and she wrote her first song at 11, just to see if she could.

After graduating from Grant MacEwan’s


Summer,Summer,Customize your summer schedule with our personality-based event guideby Avenue Staff Illustrations by Kelly Sutherland

Nobody likes being dragged along to an event they couldn’t care less about, with people who don’t share the same interests. With just a few short months of premium weather, your summer is too precious to waste cheering for a team you never knew existed or clapping for a band that you wish would just break up already.

That’s why we’ve done the research for you and planned June, July and August according to who you are and what you’re interested in. So whether you’re a food lover, good Samaritan, family person or lover of various cultures — we’ve got you covered.

Find out about all these events and more by going to AvenueEdmonton.com. Don’t forget to sign up for our Weekender and get a list of the weekend’s best events delivered to your inbox weekly.O

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We

b

YOur WaY

32 avenue june.10

TheCulture Vulture

although most theatre companies are resting for the summer, the chance to experience outstanding plays never sleeps.

No one needs a reminder that the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival (August 12 to 22, fringetheatre.ca) is the biggest on the continent — although there it is again, just in case. But you might not know that the Freewill Shakespeare Festival, starting on June 29 (rivercityshakespeare.com), is considered one of the top five Shakespeare festivals in Canada in terms of attendance and production quality. And this year’s productions are two of old William’s best, Macbeth and Much Ado About Nothing.

For performance art that offers more chaos, you never know what you’ll get at the Edmonton International Street Performers Festival, from July 9 to 18 (edmontonstreetfest.com). Just re-member: if a grey-haired man in American-flag short-shorts asks you and a bunch of friends to lie on the ground in a neat row, it’s OK — he just wants to show you how far he can leap.

If buskers freak you out, cross Churchill Square to the Art Gallery of Alberta (youraga.ca), which rolls out its much-anticipated sum-mer exhibitions starting in June. Of course, it’s prohibited to enjoy a Fudgsicle and the 18th-century etchings of Piranesi at the same time.

The closest you can get to that experience is at the Whyte Avenue Art Walk (July 16 to 18, art-walk.ca), where you can buy $500 paint-ings in between brain freezes caused by 89-cent Slurpees. You can start savouring art and frozen treats earlier when The Works Art & Design Festival (theworks.ab.ca) brings various styles of visual art to outdoor and indoor venues throughout downtown, starting on June 25.

Also offering a mix of outside and inside venues is Edmonton International Jazz Festival (June 25 to July 4, edmontonjazz.com), which

Art lovers and socialites take note: sunburn might give you even more time to take in the local festivities

earns the “International” part of its name, but not exactly the “Jazz” part. (Though alt-hip hop DJ Kid Koala is bound to sample a jazzy riff at some point in his 70-minute set.)

If you want an excuse to get sunburned, the Blueberry Bluegrass & Country Music Festival (July 30 to August 1, blueberrybluegrass.com) can — weather permitting — leave you with such severe skin damage that it may garner you some days off work … just in time for the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, four days later (efmf.ab.ca). — Omar Mouallem

Summer, Your WaY


If you take pride in your city and prize its friendly faces, do something noble with your summer days — and have a great time doing it.

Lots of charity events make fundraising fun, such as The Ride to Conquer Cancer, a two-day bike ride through the Rockies starting June 26 (conquercancer.ca). The local chapter raised $6.9 million for 17 Alberta cancer centres last year, its inaugural year.

Other enjoyable fundraisers for cancer research and treatment include the Jump with Hope for Kids With Cancer Horse Show at Amberlea Meadows (August 4 to 8, amber-leameadows.com) and the Weekend to End Breast Cancer, a 60-kilometre walk held August 7 and 8 (endcancer.ca). Don’t forget to get dressed up on August 13 for Northland’s first-ever Horses, Hats and Hope Fundraiser Gala (thehorses.com), a reception, dinner, silent auction, fashion show and, of course, horse race in support of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

If you don’t like horses, straddle a Harley instead for the Edmonton Motorcycle Ride for Dad on June 12 to help fight prostate cancer (motorcycleridefordad.org).

For those who love to run, The Running Room offers a good-will incentive to get off the couch with charity runs such as Loops for Troops on June 6. Every dollar raised by the run goes to the Edmonton Garrison Military Family Resource Centre. For more information about other marathons like it, go to runningroom.com.

Of course, not all causes involve just raising money. You can be active in your community by turning your attention to a human rights cause. The Edmonton Pride Week Festival launches June 12 with the famous pride parade

in Churchill Square (edmontonpride.ca), and on June 13, paraplegic athlete Rick Hansen comes to town to host Wheels in Motion at the Expo Centre (wheelsinmotion.org). You can put on your game face for wheelchair races and obstacle courses, while raising awareness toward creating more wheelchair accessible neighbourhoods that will improve the quality of life for others.

So get out there and see what the city has to offer by offering yourself first. — Lynsey Franks

Good NeighbourGet to know your community better by actively becoming a part of it

The

34 avenue june.10

Outdoor enthusiasm may vary from person to person, but the bottom line is that most people love spend-ing time outside on a summer day. The question is, do you prefer to be a land or water mammal?

If it’s the latter, join Edmonton Canoe on one of its day or weekend trips (edmontoncanoe.com). Paddle down the North Saskatchewan River, drift along the Athabasca River or float across Elk Island National Park’s waters. If, on the other hand, you only come near water for food, take advantage of Reel Angling Adven-tures this summer (reelangling.com). These fishing packages include accommodation, trans-portation and guided fishing tours, but remem-ber: trophy-sized fish are “catch and release,” so pack a camera.

For a smaller body of water, the Parade of Ponds Tour, July 3 and 4, offers self-guided tours of beautiful water gardens throughout Greater Edmonton (waterworksponds.ca.) The larg-est pond tour in Canada is organized by Water Works Ponds, which donates proceeds to the Dogs with Wings Assistance Dog Society.

If you prefer to keep your feet dry, the Devonian Botanic Garden invites you on June 6 to the Kurimoto Japanese Garden Spring

Ride up a mountain, paddle down a river, walk through a beautiful garden or lie under the stars. There’s no reason not to get outside.

Festival, a celebration of Japanese tradition with art displays, dance and cultural ceremonies (ales.ualberta.ca/devonian). The Botanic Garden hosts a variety of events to suit the outdoorsy type. One of them even gives you a reason to slip into flannel pyjamas in public — the Perseids Pyjama Party brings hundreds of people out under the stars to witness an awesome meteor shower on August 13. (No pillow fights allowed.)

A perfect way to spend time in the outdoors is

TheNature Nut

to cycle wherever you’re going. You can educate yourself on “everything bike” at the Bikeology Festival this month (bikeology.ca). After learn-ing everything you can about tune-ups, tools and travel, challenge yourself by riding from Banff to Jasper in the Rocky Mountain High Tour (July 9 to 12, bikeclub.ca). And if completing the four-day ride doesn’t give you the satisfaction you deserve, conquering the mountains on two wheels should. — L.F.

Summer, Your WaY

36 avenue june.10

Can’t wait for hockey season? There are plenty of teams and athletes to root for, and not all of them risk causing crushing disappointment.

So what if the Oilers didn’t make the playoffs and gained the type of no-toriety usually reserved for the Calgary Flames? That’s no reason to wait until next hockey season to paint your face with team colours — there are many different colour palettes to tide you over.

Starting with green and gold, put on the paint for our men in lycra when they take on the Calgary Stampeders on June 13. The Eskimos’

Score Keeper

The

home opener will be played on Commonwealth Stadium’s new grass and, one hopes, will be the team’s first kick toward winning the Grey Cup on home turf (esks.com). Or you can find another use for some of that blue and orange face paint from winter when you cheer for the Edmonton Capitals — who at least had more wins than losses last year (capsbaseball.ca).

If you really want to scream intensely in a socially acceptable environment, the city is becoming Canada’s new epicentre for car racing, with three — count ’em, three! — major events this summer: the Rocky Mountain Nationals, June 25 to 27, the World of Outlaws Oil City Cup race on August 27 and 28 (castrolraceway.com) and, of course, the Edmonton Indy from July 23 to 25 (edmontonindy.com).

For a sports outing that doesn’t require boo-ing (just clapping), wind up for golf tournaments such as Edmonton Opera’s 15th Annual Golf Classic on June 10 (edmontonopera.com) and The Luxus Group’s first annual charity golf tournament on July 15 (luxusgroup.com).

If you’re the kind of sportsperson who isn’t content on the sidelines, you can ignite your competitive spirit in the Edmonton Canada Cup, the second installment of the first Canada Cup mountain-biking race ever held in an urban setting, which starts in Kinsmen Park on July 11 (edmontoncanadacup.com).

Or you can, quite literally, join the masses on July 25 during the 2010 Tour de l’Alberta and pedal through French communities in central Alberta (tourdalberta.ca). “We were anticipating 700 people last year and got 895 — a record number,” says Karen Evenden, execu-tive of marketing. “This year, we have capped it at 1,200.” With miniature tours for kids and four adult rides between 20 and 185 kilometres long, Evenden points out that “it’s a ride, not a race.” (That means leave the face paint at home, buddy!) — O.M.

Summer, Your WaY


When you mix growing season with festival season, foodies’ antennae shoot up for flavourful fare and fresh ideas

TheFlavour Seeker

Edmontonians take food very seriously, and the popularity of food collectives and various farmers’ markets makes that obsession clear. The Capital Region has 11 farmers’ markets with a smorgasbord of vendors.

If your cupboards are bare and the fridge is scarcely populated, hunt down a farmers’ market near you, or explore one in a Greater Edmonton suburb. You can start your adventure by looking on sunnygirl.ca, your compass and directory for regional ingredients.

Once you’ve stocked the fridge, you’ll need new recipes. Spend a Saturday at a Seasoned Solutions Market Fresh cooking class with food activist Gail Hall (seasonedsolutions.ca). If you’re really serious about cooking, try one of the City of Edmonton’s classes this June and train with executive chefs to decorate cakes, master Thai cuisine or bake food the gluten-free way (ereg.edmonton.ca).

Now test your palate by trying the spectrum of international cuisines at some of the city’s popular food fairs. For 10 days starting July 23, A Taste of Edmonton (festivalcity.ca) eats up Churchill Square and offers tastes from more than 40 local restaurants, without the hefty bill or 15 per cent gratuity. From July 31 to August 1, the Servus Heritage Festival (heritage-festival.com) serves up sample-sized tasters from more than 85 ethnic cuisines, including Canada’s exotic maple syrup snow cone.

For the conscious eater, Slow Food Edmon-ton — with its philosophy of “good, clean and fair food” — hosts various events, including Wood-Fired Solstice on June 19 and the Greens Eggs and Ham picnic on August 22 (slowfood-edmonton.ca). Country Cuisine (edmonton-scountryside.com) also celebrates the important culinary cause of regional farming. Indulge in homegrown goodness at two Country Cuisine events, Taste! of Summer on July 11 and To-mato Fare! on August 15. Another celebration of local produce is the Rhubarb Festival, which

returns June 20 for its second year at the Devoni-an Botanic Garden (ales.ualberta.ca/devonian).

If you miss the festivals because you’re on holiday, there is a monthly dining experience you’ll want to try at least once: Maritime Night on the Edmonton Queen Riverboat (edmon-tonqueen.com) offers a full seafood buffet while cruising the North Saskatchewan River on June 11, July 16 and August 20.

You won’t have to go very far to fulfill your cravings this summer — just remember to chew your food. — L.F.

38 avenue june.10

Get your ticket to sanity by taking your kids to local events with arts and crafts and puppet-brandishing entertainers

Those final weeks leading up to the end of school can make for some anxious, amped-up little youngsters, with plenty of bottled-up energy to splatter the house with.

Instead of risking the kids decorating your walls with original artwork, take them to the Interna-tional Children’s Festival in St. Albert from June 1 to 5 for entertaining shows of every variety, as well as craft-making, dancing and much more (child-fest.com). Then on Father’s Day, they can channel their creativity by constructing a birdhouse with dad at the Devonian Botanic Garden (ales.ual-berta.ca/devonian). If dad putts better than he puts stuff together, play miniature golf instead at Jazz it Up! Father’s Day, hosted by the Muttart Conserva-tory (muttartconservatory.ca).

All right, six days planned — 86 more to go. Now pack the diaper bag and head to Stanley Milner Library on June 12 and 13 for local family theatre at Sprouts New Play Festival for Kids (concretetheatre.ca).

Before you know it, it’s already the end of June and schools out! Now how are you supposed to keep them busy and maintain your own sanity? Thankfully, the staff at Stanley Milner are way ahead of you. You can start with the library’s Summer Reading Club, which includes several jungle-themed shows, such as the Rumble in the Jungle Black Light Show on July 27 (epl.ca/events). On July 2, the library hosts the Smudge Fundaes, an award-winning musical variety show that has entertained crowds across the continent.

Other renowned family entertainers are coming to town later in the summer, including

TheBabysitter

Fred Penner and the Doodlebops on the same bill on August 7 at the Valley Zoo (valleyzoo.ca).

Aside from Heritage Days, two summer events give families a chance to taste different cultures: Giovanni Caboto Day on June 27 in Little Italy (albertasource.ca/abitalian) and Ukrainian Day on August 8 at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village (culture.alberta.ca). Or you can say to heck with culture and eat deep-fried Mars bars for 10 days at Capital Ex, which starts July 23 (capitalex.ca).

With school around the corner and the den-tist’s bill arriving, you’ll probably be seeking petty revenge. There are several corn mazes to lose the kids in, including Edmonton Corn Maze — open all summer long (edmontoncornmaze.ca). There is also one at the Arts ‘n Hay Fest, open every weekend from August 7 to 29 at Prairie Gardens & Greenhouses (prairiegardens.org).

If you can’t wait until then, Water Fight Day in Fort Saskatchewan on July 16 lets you air out some steam (fortsask.ca). — Christina Weichel

Summer, Your WaY

THE LOOK

This Page:

Feather clip and dress by local designer Natasha Lazarowich from Temna Fialka.

Gold sandals by Christian Louboutin.

Purple bracelet and gold bangles from “Little India.”

Gold bracelet by Neiman Marcus.

Cover:

Top by Armani.

Bracelet and jeans by Rock & Republic.

Sandals by Michael Kors.

Earrings from “Little India.”

Q & Astyle


by Fawnda Mithrush

photography by Craig Hobbs and Klyment Tan

Hair by Linda Keller (Affinity Fair)

Makeup by Bonnie Paxton

Karyn Decore manages her family’s hotel chain with pragmatism and creativity — skills

she inherited from her parents

Traits that run in a family are usu-ally things like eye shape or hairlines, sometimes even quirky temperaments. What runs most predominantly in Alberta’s storied Decore family seems to be politics, law and hotels.

In her 20s, Karyn Decore left the family law firm, where she worked with her father John and uncle Laurence — yes, Laurence Decore, the for-mer mayor of Edmonton and leader of the Alberta Liberal party — to help with the other family business, her parents’ chain of hotels in Jasper and Banff. She eventually became president of Decore Hotels in 1991 after her father passed away.

Now 47, Decore runs the family business with the caring ethics instilled in her by her parents. She has worked the industry inside and out, including cleaning rooms for many summers, so she fully understands the pressures and chal-lenges for the hotels’ staff. At the company’s

Family Jewel

headquarters in west Edmonton, Decore gathers with her office staff of nine and leads a group meditation session once a week. (Perhaps that’s the secret to getting voted one of the Best Bosses in Canada by Monster.ca — become an office yogi.) “Meditation allows you to access your right brain,” says Decore. “The right brain allows you to think outside the box.”

Decore sits on a swath of boards and commit-tees, including Little Warriors, Alberta Enter-prise Group, the Edmonton Chamber of Com-merce and she also supports countless children’s charities. But her duties in the family business and her community involvement don’t mean Decore is always in a serious mode, especially when it comes to her look. “It’s not just about being serious and sophisticated. I think you need to have a little bit of fun with it, too.” She’ll even swap contact lenses to change the brown of her eyes for grey in the winter.

style Q & A

THE LOOK

Left:

Halter dress by I.N.C.

Open-toed pumps

by Calvin Klein


How about the other family business — do you plan to pursue politics?I have been involved in the federal Liberal party since my university days, and I grew up with it in the family. It’s in my blood. Will I go into politics? I don’t know. I have two sons, they’re 13 and 15, so right now my priority is my boys. I love politics. I have a lot of respect for politi-cians and as much as people like to give them a bad rap, Conservative or Liberal or NDP, they’re all working for the public. It’s a huge sacrifice for someone to leave their work or their private business and go into politics, not only in terms of financial sacrifice, but also in terms of their personal time.

You give a lot of your own personal time, too. How did you get involved in so many boards and committees?My mother [Maureen Decore, former chair of the Citadel’s board of directors] was a very social person. She was very involved in the city, so after she passed away three years ago, I made a conscious decision to try and get to know people in Edmonton a bit more. I just felt that I was spending all my time in the office and I wasn’t really meeting people. The thing about Edmon-ton is that once you get out there, you find there are so many amazing people in this city.

You work very closely with your younger sister, Nicole. How do the two of you get along?Nicole is the creative one. She loves to dress in lots of colours — she’s full of life. So in our company, she handles the creative side of things, and I’m more of the business person. We just recognize our differences, so our energies actu-ally create a really nice balance.

Jumping from law to the hotel indus-try is quite a change. Did your style change, too? I used to dress for my career, so I used to dress like how I thought a lawyer should dress. Over the years, I realized that you should dress for who you are, and also that your career should be an extension of who you are.

In terms of style, who is Karyn Decore?I think my style comes from my father, who was a brilliant lawyer, but also from my mother, who was an artist, a wonderful hostess and a great

cook. I have a little bit of both of them in me, and I prefer to dress in a way that balances infor-mal sophistication with sexiness, with a little bit of fun and intrigue, too.

Do you enjoy dressing up for galas and formal events? Galas give me the opportunity to show off my style from head to toe. For this spring’s events, I might wear an elegant silk jacket paired with a short skirt, or a tighter-fitting dress enhanced with beads or glitter. Having long hair allows for more versatility, too. At formal events, I like an embellished updo with a braid or ribbon, or long flowing curls — those are strong, bold looks. And I always wear stilettos for a more sexy style.

Do you think women should embrace sexy styles?I don’t think there’s anything wrong with women trying to be sexy when we dress, because that’s

“I prefer to dress in a way that balances informal sophistication with sexiness, with a little bit of fun and intrigue, too.”

“In Edmonton, you rarely catch me wearing flat shoes, and in Jasper and Banff, you’ll rarely catch me in heels.”

44 avenue june.10

style Q & A

who we are. We’ve been doing this for thousands of years, why stop now? Sexiness is about who you are in a fun, creative way.

Is your Jasper wardrobe different from your city attire?Totally. In Edmonton, you rarely catch me wear-ing flat shoes, and in Jasper and Banff you’ll rarely catch me in heels. I love being in Jasper and Banff because you can be so casual.

Where do you shop in Edmonton?I love the stores on 124th Street: Thread Hill, TK and Ginger. I’ve bought some really cool dresses made with Indian fabrics from Maggie Walt on Jasper. And, as corny as it sounds, I love H&M. It’s inexpensive and it’s a great store for finding an extra scarf or skirt — they carry very cool tights.

Are there any trends that you gravitate toward?I’m really into jewel colours, like bright turquoise and violet. For me, I think makeup also person-ally enhances what you wear, so I have a lot of it. I love Dior Forever makeup, Urban Decay, and I recently discovered Napoleon Perdis (out of Australia). He makes amazing colours.

How do you feel about accessorizing?My favourite accessory is a bracelet; I’ll wear either one huge one or lots of smaller bracelets. I also have a lot of jewellery pieces by Jocelyn Kennedy, and I like to wear jewellery made by Britta, too — they’re both designers from Edmonton.

FavourITEs

Book Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

Movie Singin’ in the Rain

First Thing in the Morning Getting kids ready for school

Leisure Running with my standard poodle in the river valley

Personality Lester B. Pearson

Restaurant Tonquin Prime Rib Village (Jasper)

Getaways Phoenix, Ariz., Costa Rica and Kiev, Ukraine

Above:

Dress by Trina Turk.

Silver bracelet by Tiffany & Co.

Right:

Dress by David Meister.

Mary Jane pumps by

Betsey Johnson.

These shoes by Abbott look great

in the mud. $41 at C C on Whyte

(5040 104A St., 780-432-1785).

style cool hunter

46 avenue JUNE.10

Your avian visitors will have the

coolest digs on the block with

this camper-inspired bird-house. $50 at EarthTones (14020

Stony Plain Rd., 780-488-1198).

Protect your epidermis in style

with a sun hat by the Canadian

Hat Manufacturing Company.

$15 at the Tin Box (10508 82

Ave., 780-436-2006).

Mercury garden stakes by Grasslands Road add

sparkle to your garden in the summer sun. $16 at

Lyndale Accents (9676 142 St., 780-439-4302).

Round up one of these

endearing farm animal

watering cans at

EarthTones (14020 Stony

Plain Rd., 780-488-1198)

for $20 to $25 each.

Sow Your

StyleDespite the dirt on your knees and thorns in your fingertips, these crafty finds can make you and your garden fabulous

Soothe your working hands with

gardeners’ therapy lotion by

Crabtree and Evelyn, $26 at

Wellington Garden Centre

(13648 142 St., 780-455-2281).


by Lynsey Franks photography by Michael Labant

These ornamental herb stakes

by HomArt are a dill-icious (or

basil-icious …) addition to any

garden. $19 each at Jilly’s Inc.

(14227 23 Ave., 780-413-4079).

Illuminate your patio table

with a contemporary table torch by Rainbow Moments.

$27 at the Tin Box (10508 82

Ave., 780-436-2006).

Substitute the status quo shear

and shovel for these Pretty

Woman garden tools by Wild

and Wolf. A set is $43 at Jilly’s

(14227 23 Ave., 780-413-4079).

Keep track of your

gardening progress with

A Gardener’s Calendar & Journal by Linnea Design.

$30 at Jilly’s Inc. (14227

23 Ave., 780-413-4079).

Be your own meteorologist

and measure the rainfall with

this Jeffersonian rain gauge by

Conant Custom Brass. $250 at

Hole’s Greenhouses & Gardens

(101 Bellerose Dr., St. Albert,

780-419-6800).

Myriad windows and skylights help focus the two-storey central fireplace in the Welters’ home.

48 avenue JUNE.10

urban livingstyle

by Mairi MacLean photography by Constantine Tanasiuk

A Grand Scale

Indoors or outdoors, the Welters’ vast acreage home is a party host’s dream

You know when you’re not really looking for new digs, but you come upon something that’s so fabulous it demands a closer look? When Dan Welter experienced that, he went the extra mile. After acciden-tally finding a magnificent abode online, he immediately checked it out in person, then called his wife, Fran, to sell her on the idea of moving, pronto.

Windows and skylights make the hefty home feel lighter and a pair of fire-places act as dramatic focal points.

50 avenue JUNE.10

style urban living

Dan didn’t mean to find his dream home while casually surfing ComFree’s listings, but there it was, beckoning — a formidable, brick-clad beauty with five bedrooms, five baths, a huge indoor pool and an equally large games and entertainment area. It was the whole pack-age on six dream acres fronted by a small lake stocked with rainbow trout.

It was an easy sell to Fran. The sprawling home, which manages to be grandiose and welcoming at once, was perfectly in sync with the couple’s gregarious lifestyle of entertaining friends and family, inside and out, all year round.

“It’s like having your own little lake lot — and acreage — and it’s five minutes from all the necessities,” says Fran, who, like her husband, was charmed by the property in southeast Sherwood Park.

“It was a little bit of everything,” Dan says about the dreamy aspects that prompted their move from Fort Saskatchewan. “The trout pond is awesome, and in the summer, when the grass is green, there are so many different fruit trees — pear, cherry, apple.”

Indeed, spending time outdoors ranks high for the nature-loving couple. The acreage offers plenty of room for Dan, a frequent-flying en-trepreneur, who owns a natural health supple-ments manufacturing company, to enjoy his toys, including quads, motorbikes, snow mobiles and a motor home. There’s also a paddleboat for the lake, where they fish in summer and hold

Left: The mix of hardwood and stone in the family room is a recurring theme throughout the home.

Right: The second level lofts give an overall view of the two living rooms below, while offering a serene place for work and play.

ice-fishing derbies in winter. Since moving in, they’ve added a horseshoe pit and they often host horseshoe tournaments.

Fran, who owns and operates a health food store in Fort Saskatchewan, also enjoys their outdoor fountain, their fire pit and the visiting wildlife, particularly the moose that drop by for a salt lick.

If the yard offers myriad opportunities for leisure, the same can be said of the interior of the home, which is 5,000 square feet on the main level, not including the pool and hot tub room. Three key design elements are at work: windows and skylights that make the hefty home feel lighter, curving hallways and walls accented with rounded, made-to-measure furniture, and four fireplaces that act as dramatic focal points.

One of these fireplaces stretches from the main floor to the basement and is walled with stacked slate stones. It dominates the front en-tranceway, living room and overhead loft area. It’s practical too, pocketed with rough niches for the Welters’ collection of Inuit soapstone sculptures acquired some years ago. “There was a homeless fellow from the Arctic staying in Fort Saskatchewan who was really good at sculpting,” Dan explains. “He was looking for some money. We said we’d put him up in a hotel and give him food, and in exchange he did some sculpting for us.”

One wing of the home is devoted to a series of bedrooms, each with enviable walk-in closets and secluded views of well-manicured lawns, which give way to wilderness and bush where Crown lands adjoin the property. The couple brought the rooms “up to date, and to our style” by expelling all the carpets and the wallpapers and replacing them with wood flooring and neutral paint colours. “We went through show homes and that’s how we chose the colours,” Fran explains.

The other wing of the home houses the formal and casual dining areas, family room and kitchen, which they renovated to include teak cabinetry. And not-to-be missed — though,

The lower level has chang-ing rooms, a bathroom and a sauna for the pool, an underground six-car garage and an impressive recreation room.

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one doesn’t have a choice — there’s the pool area, a favourite hangout for friends and relatives.

The lower level has changing rooms, a bath-room and a sauna for the pool, an underground six-car garage and, most impressive, a large and funky recreation room with pool table, ping pong table and shuffleboard, bar and a one-of-a-kind conversation pit that seats 15.

Here, the Welters display their collection of sports and music memorabilia. There’s a guitar signed by Nickleback front man Chad Kroeger, a family friend who has visited the acreage, band

and entourage in tow. “Two years ago when [the band] came to Edmonton they had a little extra time, so we had the warm-up bands, Nickleback and the road crew all over for a barbeque,” says Dan. “There were probably 250 people coming in and out.”

Aside from the odd rock ’n’ roll exhibit, hockey dominates the room, with signed hockey sweaters from Gordie Howe, Guy LaFleur, Bobby Hull, Darryl Sutter and Dan’s all-time favourite — Bobby Orr.

Amid all the sweaters and hockey photos, a

Above: The “African” room acts as a calm seating area to relax under sunlight before taking a dip.

Right: The swim room includes a large pool, hot tub, sauna and change rooms and is a favourite of the homeowners and guests alike.

life-size cutout of legendary curmudgeon Don Cherry holds court, wearing the same plaid sports jacket that the Welters now own and have framed under glass. Even as a piece of cardboard, Grapes made a strong impression on Fran, who would sometimes forget he was there. “I’d come downstairs and he’d scare me,” she laughs.

Dan’s hosting dream is to have the real Cherry and Orr over to do a post-game show from the rec room. “We were thinking of sending them some pictures of all our memorabilia and see if they’d like to do something when they’re in town.”

This page: The entire lower level is dedicated to leisure with its 15-seater conversation pit, shuffleboard, pool table, six-car garage and various music and sporting memorabilia, including a Don Cherry suit and various signed NHL sweaters.

The Source

Pool room

original tiles repainted with indoor tile paint from

Home Depot (various locations).

Pool from Master Pools (9319 35 Ave., 780-462-2441).

Maintained by Total Pool & Spa Care (14573 118 Ave.,

780-453-5708).

Games room

Don Cherry’s suit jacket and framed and signed

jerseys from Ducks Unlimited Canada auctions

(ducks.ca).

Photograph prints by Dale McMillan’s collection.

Bobby orr’s signed hockey stick from an Edmon-

ton Oilers auction.

livinG room

Couches from Finesse Furnishings

(4210 Gateway Blvd., 780-444-7100).

Coffee table from United Furniture Warehouse

(3503 99 St., 780-463-6555, and 13304 St. Albert Tr.,

780-454-0555).

Throw rug from Home Depot.

Wood floors from Alberta Hardwood Flooring

(9303 51 Ave., 780- 468-9999).

Baby grand piano purchased at Giovanni Yamaha

Music (West Edmonton Mall, 780-944-9090).

soapstone inuit sculptures by Randy Aleekuk.

enTryWay

Chandelier original to home.

Tile floor by Tierra Sol Ceramic Tile

(12410 184 St., 780-483-6779).

Antique mirrored umbrella stand from an antique

store in Penticton, B.C.

siTTinG room

Leather couches from Finesse Furnishings.

Glass coffee table from United Furniture

Warehouse.

elephant statue from the Alberta Gift Show

(albertagiftshow.com).

BaThroom

Tiling by Tierra Sol Ceramic Tile.

Throw rug from HomeSense (3411 Calgary Tr.,

780-485-8843; 300 Mayfield Common, 780-487-9042;

and 13630 137 Ave., 780-476-4041).

Wall art from Pier 1 Imports (13530 137 Ave.,

780-456-6930; 17515 Stony Plain Rd., 780-443-6644;

and 1910 99 St., 780-432-8177).

DininG room

Dining room chairs and table from Costco

(2616 91 St., 780-577-1201; 13650 50 St.,

780-478-0066; and 12450 149 St., 780-455-7575).

White leather couch set from The Brick

(various locations).

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life feature


?by Keith Norbury photography by Bluefish Studios

Why Is ThIs Manso happy

Some say money makes the world go round, but Mark Anielski says its a flawed measure of well-being

Mark anielski comes across as a regular guy of average height and medium build, with slightly thinning sandy-brown hair, blue eyes and a genuine smile.

He lives with his family in a two-storey, century-old house in Old Strathcona that is a comfortable 1,800 square feet and still retains its original cedar shiplap siding and maple and Douglas fir floors. Aside from improved insula-tion, a fireplace insert and an on-demand water

heater, the house hasn’t undergone any extensive upgrading. With only one family car, Anielski gets around the city largely by bicycle, both in summer and winter.

Anielski has actively pursued a life of simplic-ity that is free of debt, without a mortgage, with-out interest and has a shorter work schedule than most, which he says has made him happier. It’s not an overly remarkable way of life except that Anielski, an ecological economist and adjunct professor at the University of Alberta, has

Ecological economist and professor Mark Anielski lives the happiest of average lives.

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parlayed his experiences and observations into a “genuine wealth model” that challenges tradi-tional ways of measuring economic progress to include more human qualities like knowledge and health.

His theory has attracted several governments, including the City of Edmonton, which com-missioned Anielski to generate a report last year based on ideas put forward in his 2007 book, The Economics of Happiness, that would help inform the city’s growth and development. Anielski had already done similar reports for the province in 2001 and the City in 2008.

His central thesis is that economic prog-ress as measured by a country’s GDP doesn’t equate with quality-of-life values like reduc-ing household debt and increasing leisure time. On a national scale, Anielski cites the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 as an example. The cost for cleaning up that environmental disaster registers as income on the GDP bal-ance sheet, whereas he says the event should be subtracted as a cost to society. To address such shortcomings, he developed his own set of indicators that can be weighted according to how, in his opinion, citizens would define their well-being.

Anielski doesn’t just deal in ideology; he lives by those values as well. He and his wife have pursued well-being over wealth in their own lives, by paying down their mortgage as quickly as they could while scaling back their hours of work. He quit his job as an analyst with the Alberta government to start his own consulting firm, and his wife now works part-time. They make less money than they did in 1997, but are happier today because they aren’t paying interest on debt. It’s this measurement of the conditions of well-being that Anielski says is missing when governments focus on GDP.

The 2009 City of Edmonton report, which Anielski co-authored with Heather Johannesen based on 2008 data, charted 49 indicators, such as water quality, commuting times, savings rates, electricity usage, problem gambling and suicide rates, and synthesized them into a “Genuine Progress Indicator” (GPI) index that was then compared to GDP.

By those calculations, some of the GPI indica-tors correlating highly with GDP aren’t good. These include increased commuting times, greenhouse-gas emissions, obesity, hazardous waste, household debt and family disputes. “On

the other hand, water quality and air quality and reduced household waste to landfills all im-proved with increasing GDP,” the report states.

“Overall, the results of the well-being assess-ment show that Edmonton’s overall state of well-being is in a healthy and improving condition, though there are some economic, social and environmental conditions that need attention, [such as] rising income inequality, rising levels of family disputes, loss of urban agricultural land, rising numbers of auto crashes and a growing ecological footprint,” says Anielski in his 2009 report to the City.

Anielski says the City could use his methods to dig deeper into its budgeting and planning processes and to look at such things as the cost per capita of putting in another subdivision. “Say we’ve put another lane on the bridge, then my argument is what is the expected commut-ing-time benefit of that?” he explains. “Is it three seconds on the average commute? If the return on investment isn’t improved through quality of life and maybe reduced commuting times, what is it? So we should be able to make better decisions that way.”

In his book, Anielski goes even further, proposing an entire revamping of the global financial system. Among his more radical ideas is a call to end interest charges, which he refers to as exploitative, and abolish fractional reserve banking, whereby banks only keep a fraction of their deposits in reserve.

Edmonton city councillor Linda Sloan has been a fan of Anielski’s work since she was a Liberal MLA for Edmonton Riverview earlier this decade.

“I think to say Mark is a visionary is an un-derstatement. His work is on the leading edge of transforming our civic identity and influencing what we value,” says Sloan, who is serving her second term on council.

“Traditionally, most civic municipalities are defined by their tax rate and their infrastructure investment,” she explains. “We still have a degree of the population who measure our performance on that basis: how the snow is being cleared; is the garbage being picked up?”

The City plans to use the City report as a tool in strategic planning, says David Faber, Edmon-ton’s branch manager for strategic management. For example, Anielski’s GPI is referenced in the City’s The Way Ahead strategic plan for 2009–2018, which establishes six 10-year strategic

The Economics of Happiness won a Nautilus Book Award in 2008 for promoting social change. Currently, it’s one of Amazon’s top 100 policy and current event books.

“I think to say Mark is a visionary is an under- statement. His work is on the leading edge of transforming our civic identity and influencing what we value.” — Linda Sloan, city councillor


goals, including improving the city’s livability, transforming its urban form and diversifying the economy.

Faber says Anielski recognizes that social and environmental well-being are just as important to the city residents as financial well-being. “And it’s really those three components that all come together so that you as a citizen feel that your kids are safe, you’ve got good access to park space, you’ve got a number of transportation modes that are available … Those kinds of things are being highlighted through the work that he has done.”

While Anielski’s arguments may have a certain appeal for civic leaders, there are critics of his method. Alice Nakamura, an economics professor at the U of A, says the

entire argument is based on a false dichotomy.“The fundamental purposes of the GDP never

were to measure happiness. It was to help us run our economies,” she says.

Nakamura also says the report contains in-formation the City could have obtained for free from other sources.

Economist James Pesando of the University of Toronto says happiness is outside the purview of mainstream economic study and he is skeptical that anyone can come up with a single measure of well-being. The exercise is too subjective and prone to disagreement over how to weigh the variables, he says.

“Look, it’s a worthwhile exercise,” says Pesando, “but at the end of the day, subjectivity is really the Achilles heel.”

Pesando and Nakamura also point out that mainstream economists agree that GDP is an imperfect measure. “There are certain issues where I think mainstream economics can be legitimately criticized for errors of omission,” Pesando adds.

Despite some naysayers, Faber is a big supporter of Anielski’s indicators. When hiring a new chief economist for Edmonton this year, he looked for a like-minded individual, who can measure true wealth beyond the finan-cial side and consider the social and environ-mental factors.

Anielski says he is used to criticism from mainstream economists, but will continue to challenge mainstream assumptions by living a happy life.

Staying in B.C.’s Fairmont Hot Springs is like getting a guest role on a feel- good show about a small resort town

The Great

Escape

Photos courtesy Tourism BC60 avenue JUNE.10

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On a crisp morning in the Columbia Valley, surrounded by the Purcell and Rocky mountains, I leave my townhouse in a bathrobe to go for an afternoon dip in the natural hot springs just a five-minute walk away.

OK, it isn’t actually my house, although I wish that it were. I am only staying here for the night, hiding from traffic jams, meter maids and cubicle anxiety. But everything else — the hot springs, the enormous mountains skirting the horizon, the two vast lakes (one north, one south) perfect for fishing, boating and waterskiing — is all a pleasant reality in the four-season resort town

Left: No matter where you stand in Fairmont, you’re looking up at either the Purcell or Rocky mountains.Below: Most visitors take a dip in the recreational hot springs, like this one at Fair-mont Hot Springs Resort, instead of the natural waters.

of Fairmont Hot Springs, B.C., a six-hour drive from Edmonton.

As for the house, that is real, too. It’s in a new block of luxury townhouses called The Residences at Fairmont Ridge, an eight-phase fractional-ownership project and the first multi-family property built in the sleepy town since 1995. (Fractional property ownership is like a time-share, but with actual equity and fewer owners.) Each home has high-end furnishings and fixtures, but I didn’t even no-tice the décor until the next day, as I was too entranced by the 360-degree window views of this tiny but mighty town.


by Omar Mouallem

It’s like having a walk-on role in Corner Gas — if Dog River were a hot spot for hiking, biking and paragliding.

Not Just Calgary’s Backyard

Between 30 and 40 per cent of visitors to

Fairmont Hot Springs are from Edmonton,

according to Jay Hardy, who teaches resort

real estate development at the University

of Calgary and is a partner with Chatterson

Drive, a consulting firm working with The

Residences’ developers.

“Edmontonians come to the Columbia

Valley and treat it like a real vacation, but

Calgarians treat it like a quick escape,” he

explains. “Edmontonians spend a minimum

of four or five days here, but Calgarians just

stay for the weekend.” Given that Edmonto-

nians spend more money in Fairmont, the

company is focusing a lot of its marketing

on the Edmonton consumer.

Hardy sees fractional ownership as a

major catalyst behind bringing more people

to Fairmont. Time-shares have a bad reputa-

tion, he says, and Fairmont is currently the

biggest time-share market in Canada.

Fairmont Hot Springs in the Columbia Valley has been seen as Calgary’s playground for years, but now more Edmontonians than ever are com-ing to play.

“There’s so many Edmontonians here,” says Lara McCormack, who moved here from the Capital Region three years ago with her hus-band and two small children. She often runs into Edmonton friends. “The one thing I love hearing is: ‘Wow, what are you doing here?’” she says. “It definitely happens at least once a month.”

Valley hamlets like Fairmont have always had stiff competition from Banff for Albertans’ dollars because it’s necessary to pass through the national park to get there. But people are beginning to discover the attractions of the Columbia Valley. The summers are longer and warmer, for one thing. Another is that in Banff, you feel like a tourist; in Fairmont, you feel like a resident of a quaint town.

Fairmont has one main road, Highway 93, and a couple of left and right turns that merge into a couple more crescents and bends. Going from your breakfast at Misty Waters Café to your afternoon spa treatment at the lodge and then to the Hoodoo Lounge & Grill for dinner, you can encounter the same familiar faces and names. It’s like having a walk-on role in Corner Gas — if Dog River were a hot spot for hiking, biking and paragliding. It’s proof that just because a town is small, its amenities don’t have to be (so long as it’s endowed like a visual nirvana).

Fairmont offers activities to keep you enter-tained around every bend and up every moun-tain: scenic air tours, horseback riding, ATV tours and beaches in the summer; downhill and cross-country skiing, snowmobiling and curl-ing in the winter. And most of all, there’s golf all year round — even snow golf.

Golf is a way of life in Fairmont, where Phot

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entire neighbourhoods exist between links. “It’s a golf mecca,” says Rose-Marie Regitnig, a resident of nearby Invermere, the valley’s hub. “There are a dozen golf courses within an hour’s drive, and many of them have won awards.” There are several beginner and inter-mediate courses, making the sport accessible to golfers of all skill levels. You can take your pick of picturesque courses with names like Mountainside, Riverside or Creekside — none of which is just a name.

It’s enough to turn any fugitive of “urba-nia” into a “Fairmont Loyalist,” the actual marketing term for individuals and families who return year after year, generation after generation.

McCormack says her Edmonton parents and in-laws are becoming Fairmont Loyal-ists, often making extended stays at Hotel McCormack.

“To wake up to mountain air every morn-ing is amazing,” she says. “And we’ve got the most amazing mountain view overlooking that beautiful range, no matter where you are in Fairmont.”

Soak in the hot springs, drop in at a spa and swing on the links, all without set-ting foot in your car.

by Lynsey Franks photography by Codie McLachlanregulars party crasher

64 avenue JUNE.10

Youth at LargeMore than 350 people came out to support Edmonton’s creative, active and vulnerable youth at the Urban Youth in Action party. The May 2 celebration at city hall raised about $70,000 for three local organizations: iHuman, the Youth Restorative Action Project and Just-Us Girls, all of which work with at-risk youth through personal mentorship, support groups or artistic training. A breakdance show opened the evening, which also attracted an impromptu skateboarding show outside on the city hall steps. The performances gave a taste of the talent that youth workers and activists are hoping to harness for the Urban Games, a competitive arts and skills festival unique to Edmonton that will reunite many of the party’s guests in September.

1. The party opened with a performance by local breakdancers.

2. Sandra Bromley and Robert McGarvey.

3. (Left to right) Melanie Nakatsui, Sandra Bromley, Lynn Mandel, Mark Cherrington and Giselle Rosario.

4. Sylvia Phun, Joe Chalk, Ammanuel Asress and Roland Pemberton.

5. Jacob Amon.

6. Mark Cherrington and Jasmina Sumanac.

7. Max Dawson and Laura Davis.

8. Leigh-Anne Palter, Adrienne Stewart and Jay Palter.

9. Maja Kamceva and Dana Sumanac.

10. Patricia Werbiski, Christine Stevens, Sue Buda and Marilyn Doyle.

11. Kristy Nanise, Esther Campbell, Carolina Rivera and Jillian Kaliel.

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by Christina Weichel photography by Codie McLachlanregulars party crasher

66 avenue JUNE.10

Eat Your WordsMore than 250 guests received star treatment at the Edmonton Public Library’s fifth annual Books2Eat party. Inspired by the International Edible Book Festival, the gala and cake-making contest was held at Lois Hole Library on May 8. Greeted by volunteer “paparazzi,” guests walked the red carpet with glamour — the ladies dressed in black boas and the gentlemen in crisp suits. Local pastry chefs presented eye-popping cakes inspired by books-to-film adaptations, including A History of Violence and Fast Food Nation. Horton Hears a Who!, designed by The Art of Cake, was voted best cake by the celebrity judges, while Whimsical Cake Studio’s adaptation of Julie & Julia garnered the people’s choice award. The event raised about $30,000 toward a new library set to open in Clareview in 2012.

1. Winning Cake Horton Hears a Who!,

by Art of Cake.

2. (Left to right) Kris Koval, Lisa Smith,

René Tardif and Lynette Tardif.

3. Linda Kowand and Colleen Andriats.

4. Jeffrey E.R.C. Kincaellan with his cake,

Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

5. Myra Skaronski, Anna Kelly

and Rachelle Jacob.

6. Tamara Chivers and Clifton Lofthaug.

7. Deborah Anzinger, Eric Anzinger, Lorraine

Mansbridge and Kay Mansbridge.

8. Ratka Janjic and John Janjic.

9. Mick Graham, Margot Ross-Graham,

Jay Harding and Laura Harding.

10. Frank Olson and Andrea Olson.

11. Brian Bengert, Lynn Bengert, Bill Bartelds

and Joan Bartelds.

12. Stephanie Foremsky, Laura Morin

and Eddie Bruce, Jr.

13. Desiree Hughes, Tracy Lucas, Ron Lucas

and O’Ryan Hughes.

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Documents

Transcript of June 2010