The Pulse: Dec. 17, 2020

Taproot Edmonton has been tracking the events of COVID-19 in Edmonton, and our updated timeline reflects the effect of the pandemic on both the city and province.

From the first presumptive case in March, to Alberta's vaccine rollout in December, we've been noting those and the events in between so you can look back at what's happened over the past 10 months.

Check out the full timeline here.

Local publisher Roddy Campbell said it's been a "remarkable adventure" to get the magazine out the door each quarter, noting that his team worked to highlight unsung musicians over two decades of coverage of Canada's folk and roots music scene. 

"We tried extremely hard, every issue, to publish unique content that highlighted distinctly creative artists at a certain stage of their careers," Campbell said. "Looking back, if there was one article that tickled me more than any other, just for the sheer absurdity of it all, I’d have to confess that Holger Petersen’s interview with Bill Wyman did the trick. An original and critical member of The Rolling Stones’ glory years in tiny Penguin Eggs! That’s a tale worth a round or two."

On this day in 1951, the Varscona advertised the first Edmonton showing of A Christmas Carol, in which Alastair Sim portrays the bah-humbugging but ultimately redeemed Ebenezer Scrooge.

The Varscona in question was a 1940s art deco movie house at the intersection of Whyte Avenue and 109th Street, says Wikipedia. It was torn down in 1987; a Shoppers Drug Mart stands there now. Its name survives in the Varscona Theatre, a live performance venue at 10329 83rd Ave.

The old movie is undoubtedly available on TV this holiday season, but for something a little more local, The Citadel has filmed a version of its stage adaptation of A Christmas Carol, for which you can buy streaming passes until Dec. 31. And the Varscona is putting on a Virtual Holiday Gala on Dec. 20.

This clipping was found on Vintage Edmonton, a daily look at Edmonton's history from armchair archivist @revRecluse.

• Varscona Theatre's resident companies will present a Virtual Holiday Gala via Youtube on Dec. 20.
• Alberta Ballet's A Sugar Plum Dream, a short film with favourite moments from The Nutcracker, is available online.
• The Edmonton Food Bank is presenting A Musical Holiday on CTV on Dec. 19. Funds raised will support the Food Bank.
• New Music Edmonton is presenting its Now Hear This Festival in a winter solstice theme Dec. 17-20, with a new episode of The No Normal Podcast, newly recorded work on Vimeo, and local poet and musician collaborations.
• You can walk or ride through the various holiday light exhibitions happening all over the city — from Zoominescence to Candy Cane Lane — most displays remain up through the early days of the new year.

• The provincial government is offering self-isolation space to those who can't quarantine at home. It has organized "more than 1,300 (hotel beds) in Edmonton," according to CTV.
• The Edmonton Journal reported that "a young woman was attacked at the Southgate LRT station on Tuesday, the third Black Muslim woman to be attacked during the daytime in that area within a week."
• Global News shared a look inside the ICU at Grey Nuns Hospital, which is full of COVID-19 patients.
• Philip Mitchell has been building Edmonton on Minecraft. “The map consists of the downtown core, the quarters, the southern part of the river valley, and north ending just before the Royal Alexandra hospital," he told CTV.