Two years ago, Hicks on Biz decried a recommendation from the city’s Renewable Energy Task Force, urging city council to allocate $83 million over five years to subsidize homeowners installing alternative energy sources – mostly solar panels.
I am all for alternative energy – providing, to use Edmonton Economic Development boss Brad Ferguson’s now-famous dictum – it’s “cleaner, greener, safer, faster and cheaper” than what we have now.
The greenies, I argued, should chill, sit back and let market forces do their work.
Here’s the great news.
All by itself, without using tax dollars, solar panel systems (with conventional electricity backup) have reached “grid parity” in terms of cost.
Over the life of your mortgage, using a good solar power system, you should end up paying less than what you now pay for “grid” power - the current coal-generated electricity flowing down EPCOR’s transmission lines from Wabamun into the city, into your neighbourhood and into your house.
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Reflecting immigration to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Asian ethnic cuisine has rolled over the Rockies in chronological waves to Edmonton.
First was Chinese, then East Indian and Vietnamese. Today, Indian and Vietnamese restaurants are in every neighbourhood, but Thai is where the action is … and now Korean is coming on strong.
Korean food has reached a popularity tipping point. In our family, it’s on the list for weekend Asian take-out.
Saturday early evening called for a quick take-out feast in the backyard before the gang took off in different directions. For my Filipina wife, two Eurasian daughters, Vietnamese almost-daughter, this white guy and various Caucasian boyfriends, Korean was the cooking of choice.
And, as it happens, Mama Lee’s Kitchen take-out had opened up nearby just a few months ago, on 51 Avenue east of Southgate Mall.
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A cluster of high-tech “ag-bio” (agricultural bio-technology) companies are emerging in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, global leaders in the science of pulling specialized natural compounds out of raw natural materials, then selling the highly-valued extracts, often to global giants, as vital ingredients for cosmetics, food or pharmaceutical products.
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The Weekly Dish talks about some of the basics in providing a satisfying dining experience ... and how many small restaurants are lacking in many departments!
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Neil Herbst is a tad bemused by the love that craft beers have received of late.
Not that the co-owner, with his wife Lavonne, of Edmonton’s Alley Kat Brewery is complaining.
For the last few years, Alley Kat sales have been jumping by 30% per year.
Fruit beers are now all the rage – thanks to the big breweries wooing female consumers with new tastes.
Alley Kat just happens to have 19 years’ experience brewing one of Canada’s finest fruit beers – the apricot flavoured Aprikat.
Aprikat sales, of late, have gone through the roof.
Alley Kat’s second fruit beer, the grapefruit-flavoured Main Squeeze, is not far behind.
Thanks to the interest in craft beers, Alley Kat’s other core brews – Full Moon, Amber and its recently revived Scona Gold – are showing up in just about every beer store in town, and are on tap in most of the city’s new mega-brew pubs.
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Since 2007, through the reigns of executive chefs the wise Yoshi Chubachi and then boy wonder Nathin Bye, The Wildflower Grill has earned a sterling dining-out reputation.
The Wildflower is not flamboyant, not over-the-top, not out-smoking or sous-viding anybody else.
It simply offers “new Canadian cuisine” at reasonable prices in a contemporary setting ... where diners can actually hear each other speak without shouting.
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It’s a question with an alarmingly simple answer.
How can Edmonton – without the natural beauty of mountains, seaside, lakes or badlands – attract significant numbers of out-of-province and international tourists?
We’re talking genuine tourists, not those visiting relatives or friends.
West Edmonton Mall attracts “rubber-tire” tourism – visitors driving to Edmonton. But the mighty mall doesn’t attract much in the way of international shoppers.
The answer lies in a four-acre chunk of undeveloped land at the west end of the 158-acre Fort Edmonton Park, nestled next to the Quesnell Bridge in the river valley.
The answer is “Phonan” (pronounced pa-ho-nahn) – the Cree word for a waiting or gathering place.
Close your eyes. Let your imagination wander.
Imagine a year-round First Nations exhibit/experience/living museum/theatre/themed trails, honouring our region’s past-and-present aboriginal community with cultural integrit ...
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Odysseo by Cavalia
Under the big top erected east of Fort Road, north of Yellowhead Trail, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Through August 10, 2014
Tickets $25 to $200, at
www.cavalia.net
Review/Reflection by Graham Hicks
It’s very interesting, because the world-famous Cirque du Soleil made its original artistic reputation as the first animal-free circus of any stature.
Odysseo by Cavalia, with its 64 horses, is as culturally, spiritually and technically as connected to Cirque du Soleil as any show could possibly be. In fact, I would bet dollars to donuts that behind the scenes there is an immense amount of interaction between the two organizations, given Cavalia founder and on-going artistic director Normand Letourelle was a partner with Cirque de Soleil founder Guy Laliberte in its earlier years.
And obviously somebody had to finance what was obviously an enormous undertaking when Cavalia was founded in 2003.
Odysseo by Cavalia is not only a spiritual sister to Cirque ...
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Review by GRAHAM HICKS
Normally on Broadway, a “triple threat” refers to musical theatre actors who act, sing and dance.
Wicked is a triple threat of a different sort, so unique as to be almost on its own in the pantheon of active, touring Broadway shows.
Wicked has an extraordinarily creative story line, wonderful songs, and offers philosophical/ethical choices for its audiences to ponder after its shows.
For Wicked is very much, within all its action and finery, a contemplation on the nature of what creates wickedness, of the perception of wickedness. Is it born of circumstance, misunderstanding or simply innate?
This version, currently at Edmonton’s Jubilee Auditorium until Sunday July 20, 2014, actualizes every ounce of the potential within its script, score and lyrics.
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