All posts by Raymond Tomlin

About Raymond Tomlin

Raymond Tomlin is a veteran journalist and educator who has written frequently on the political realm — municipal, provincial and federal — as well as on cinema, mainstream popular culture, the arts, and technology. View all posts by Raymond Tomlin →

Vancouver Municipal Election Candidates Coming Into Focus

July 12, 2008VancouverRaymond Tomlin

Catherine Evans David Eby Kerry Jang

Well, it looks as if the list of candidates for the fall municipal election is firming up somewhat. And, further, it looks as if any deal between COPE and Vision Vancouver may be out the window. What this would appear to mean for Vancouverites is that COPE and Vision will likely field full slates.
Of course, no deal between COPE and Vision means war between the two centre-left parties, and the likelihood of the NPA’s Peter Ladner running up the middle in his bid to gain the Mayor’s chair, as well as better prospects for incumbent NPA Councilors Suzanne Anton, Kim Capri and Elizabeth Ball.
In recent days, three, new high profile Vision Vancouver candidates — including Pivot Legal Society’s David Eby; president of the B.C. Society for Public Education, Catherine Evans; and UBC medical-school professor and eastside resident, Kerry Jang, have announced their bid for a Council seat.
Longtime politico Geoff Meggs announced for Vision some time ago.
The centrist Vision Vancouver civic party, then, would appear to be looking forward to running a full Council slate for the fall — made up of the four incumbents and, to date, four members who’ve announced (Andrea Reimer has yet to announce, and recently defeated Vision mayoral candidate, Allan De Genova, continues to be hotly pursued by Vision to run for Council, an entreaty to Mr. De Genova et famille destined for failure it would seem …).
A full Vision slate for Council leaves no room for any deal at all with COPE.
With significant contributions already in the kitty from some of the more progressive developers in our city, as well as monies from the gambling industry — with even more funds coming in from the better than 13,000 members of the nascent political party — Vision Vancouver will head into the fall municipal election with the most funding and the best chance to gain a majority on Vancouver City Council, come Saturday November 15th.
To date, in respect of COPE, former City Councilor Ellen Woodsworth has announced her intention to run for a COPE Council seat, this November. At the recent COPE AGM, former Board of Variance chair, Terry Martin, and former City Councilor, Tim Louis, announced intention to seek COPE Council nominations. COPE‘s 2008 Nominating Conference will be held at 2:30 p.m., on Sunday Sept 28, 2008, at the Ukrainian Auditorium, at 154 East 10 Ave, in Vancouver. Martin has not formally announced, thus there is no website available promoting his candidacy, while Tim Louis — who has announced — tells VanRamblings he will kick off his bid for Council in mid-to-late August
The big issue to be decided at COPE‘s nominating conference is whether the party runs a mayoral candidate against Vision’s Gregor Robertson. Should COPE decide to run a mayoral candidate — hardly a foregone conclusion — Vancouverites could very well see a majority Vision Council, and the slimy (yet photogenic) Peter Ladner in the Mayor’s chair. Not a happy prospect.

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Blazing The Trail For New, Young British Female Vocalists

July 8, 2008MusicRaymond Tomlin

Adele Kate Nash Duffy

In North America, the radio market is so balkanized that listeners are forced to listen — if they listen at all — to “narrow cast” radio stations, ranging from mainstream top 40 (Crave), rhythmic top 40 (The Beat) and classic rock (CFMI), to adult album alternative — generally referred to as Triple A — (the format of the three new Vancouver radio stations the CRTC recently awarded licenses to), modern rock (CFOX), country (JR FM), easy listening oldies and contemporary (QM and Clear FM), and mainstream rock (JACK FM), the latter a combination of ‘heritage’ and relatively modern ‘rock’.
Within these various strict radio formats, there’s not much room for eclecticism. Either a song fits the format or it doesn’t get played. Not so in England. Radio in Great Britain plays whatever is best, ranging from pop to blues, and jazz through hip-hop, from Busta Rhymes to Coldplay, from Ironik to Martha Wainwright, Goldfrapp, Elbow, Kid Rock and The Verve.
Ain’t no oversimplified compartmentalizing going on in British radio.
This summer young female British blues singer-songwriters are all the rage, including: Adele, Kate Nash, Duffy, Amy MacDonald, and Laura Marling. The relatively recent emergence, and popularity, of Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen and KT Tunstall has created an opening for a new generation of British female vocalists, reflecting a new kind of “girl power” in Britain. The new young artists have gained recognition through their own MySpace sites, posting a whack of thrilling homemade music videos to YouTube, as well.

Of this new crop, Adele is VanRamblings’ favourite. Dubbed the “next Amy Winehouse” in late 2007, Adele has the most mature and expressive voice, and the greatest vocal range, of this new group of British female singers. Confessional, powerful, inspirational and just a bit melancholy, VanRamblings first caught Adele on late night David Letterman, and we were absolutely blown away.
Here’s Adele with Hometown Glory, a tribute to her home town, London, recorded months before she was signed to a label, and the début of 19. And here’s the official video of Chasing Pavements, the song she knocked out of the park on Letterman, gaining a whack of new fans in the process.
You may want to check out the remaining songs on 19: the exceedingly beautiful Daydreamer; the brutally honest, rocking Cold Shoulder; and, the lullaby-like First Love. We’ll leave you with Adele’s Make You Feel My Love.
After the jump, allow VanRamblings to introduce you to Kate Nash, and …

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July 2008 Web-Tech News on VanRamblings

July 6, 2008Web & TechRaymond Tomlin

Have you ever tried to visit a web page only to get the 404 error or another message, even though the site was working just fine an hour ago?
Down for everyone or just me does one thing. Type an URL into the site, and you’ll find out if the whole world is seeing what you’re seeing. Yep, it’s easy to determine if if that web site you’re trying to reach is actually down, or if your busted-up computer or network filters is the problem.

So much for the benign reputation of Google. A report in the New York Times Saturday, July 5th, suggests that not all is well with the search engine behemoth. Google co-founder, Sergey Brin, recently told Google staff that he had no sympathy for the parents who were upset by a 75% increase in Google day care fees — to a whopping $57,000 a year! — and, further, that he was “tired of ‘Googlers’ who felt entitled to perks like ‘bottled water and M&Ms’.”
That’s what we love in our billionaire corporate entrepreneurs — a kind heart, an ability to relate to the concerns of line staff, and the milk of human kindness. Whoa, Mr. Brin, just what’s up at Google? Fifty-seven thousand dollars in annual daycare fees? Way to value your staff, Google.

A few weeks back, corporate anti-virus company, AVG, notified subscribers that their free AVG 7.5 workhorse would become defunct June 1st (the company later changed that date to June 25), although even as of this writing AVG 7.5 (the free version) seems to be performing well, as the company continues to provide virus definition updates to the supposedly defunct software.
Soon after AVG made the new version announcement word began to filter across the Internet that the free version of AVG 8.0 would work to full capacity for only 30 days, after which the e-mail scanning facility would become defunct, requiring subscribers to update to AVG 8 PRO.
AVG recently published an announcement that …

Contrary to rumours circulating on the Internet, AVG Free 8.0 does not include any “trial” or “time-out” functionality. Every option provided in the program is fully functional for the life of the product.

So, for those who loves them some free AVG, you can safely download the fully functional, and absolutely free, 8.0.1 version of AVG anti-virus here.

Microsoft has released Windows XP Service Pack 3 currently rolling out to customers across the globe. Online tech company, CNET, warns users to hold off on downloading the massive Windows XP hotfix update until the ‘bugs’ have been worked out.
To prevent Windows XP from automatically installing, you can surf to this site, following the directions to block the installation of the service pack.
VanRamblings brings you this announcement in the hopes of preventing potential havoc on your PC. We advise you to wait until 2009 to download Windows XP SP3, when Microsoft will make the update mandatory.

Cheap Eats: Lan’s Restaurant in Vancouver (Vietnamese)

July 4, 2008Cheap EatsRaymond Tomlin

Lan’s Restaurant, 1481 West Broadway, Vancouver

Today, VanRamblings débuts a new category on our site, “Cheap Eats,” a guide to those restaurants in town which offer fine cuisine at an affordable price (which is to say, under $10 per person, for a quite extraordinary meal). In this first post, we’ll highlight Lan’s Restaurant.
In Vancouver, we are fortunate to be gifted with a kaleidoscopic smorgasbord of restaurants, with cuisines ranging from Ethiopian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Indonesian, and south Asian fare of every description, to middle Eastern and every other category of ethnic cuisine, to the tried-and-true heart attacks specials offered by the greasy diners of our youth (something we have difficulty resisting from time to time).

Although Lan’s offers traditional Vietnamese cuisine — ranging from Lemon Grass Boneless Chicken Steak to King Crab in Curry Sauce, and Quail in Lemon Grass Sauce, not to mention a panoply of appetizer, hot pot, noodle and rice dishes — for those on a budget, the real savings at Lan’s occurs when the diner sets aside the main menu for the Special Combinations sheet that comes tucked inside the menu booklet that is delivered to the table.
For $7.50, diners are offered a 5-course meal of succulent Vietnamese fare.
Those $7.50 special combination dinners include …

Combination A: corn chowder or sweet and sour soup, a Vietnamese salad, pork brochette, Vietnamese roll dip, and Vietnamese steam rolls
Combination C: the soup of the day, Vietnamese salad, curry vegetable, lemon grass chicken steak, and steamed rice or Vietnamese chow mein
Combination H, a veggie combo: soup of the day, Vietnamese salad, vegetable with oyster, vegetarian roll dip, and vegetarian chow mein

Lan’s Restaurant simply cannot be beat. The restaurant’s atmosphere is homey, nicely appointed and welcoming, the tea is warming, the service is friendly and the food always first rate. For $7.50 (plus tax and tip), Lan’s Restaurant is one Cheap Eats restaurant you should check out the next time your pocketbook is lean, and hunger strikes. You’ll be glad you did.
Lan’s Restaurant, 1481 West Broadway, just east of Granville Street.
Open 11 a.m. – 10 p.m., Tuesday thru Saturday. Phone: 604-738-2338.