Usually the news roundup functions as a look at the week past, but I couldn’t be more excited for the weekend coming up. It’s the sixth annual Deep Freeze festival on Alberta Avenue, where Edmontonians say “forget you” to the winter and pretend it’s the summer festival season. Here are a few reasons you should go:

• Ice carving
• Outdoor games and skating
• Wagon rides
• A race where people get pushed around in old freezers
• Fireworks
• Pulled pork
• And lots, lots more

The Unknown Studio interviewed one of the festival organizers, Cadence Konopaki, to get some info on the festival and its history.

Mayor Mandel spent the week in China pushing a facet of Edmonton that is truly world class—our waste disposal.

Watch out for parking bans, the city is starting to clear out all the snow that’s piled up.

The Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues is putting on a workshop on the proposed changes to bylaws that would allow developments such as suburban style homes with the garage in the front to be built in mature neighbourhoods. The workshop is Monday the 14th, RSVP required.

Calgary’s new city planning chief thinks that impromptu hitchhiking might be a good fix for traffic congestion.

Bubbles is closing its original Whyte Avenue location. To me it always seemed weirdly out of place in such a busy, pedestrian-oriented area, but Whyte wasn’t always that way.

Residents on the south side are fighting a proposed new cell phone tower.

Everyone loves food trucks, but will people like a truck that serves up municipal services? Boston is going to find out.

A gentleman in New York made a bicycle-powered composter, which is basically a miniature version of what Edmonton uses.

Tweet of the Week

The hog has arrived! THE HOG HAS ARRIVED! @artsontheave @deepfreezeyeg @northernsmokeq #DeepfreezeFestival #YEG 92ST&118AVE 1/13 Pulled Pork

— Prince Varty (@PrinceVarty) January 10, 2013

In the same way that Jackson Pollock threw paint onto canvas and created what some call a masterpiece, this fine gentleman has combined a seemingly nonsensical mashup of usernames, hashtags, and other information into something beautiful. The ending is truly sublime and contains all you need to know: The Place. The Date. Pulled Pork. Be There.

Deep Freeze sculpture photo by Mike Otto