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.

Hypocrisy on the Right: And It Was Always Thus

Politics

VIC TOEWS


Would you sleep with this man?

The federal Conservative party’s “family values” guy, Vic Toews, who currently serves in Stephen Harper’s cabinet as President of the Treasury Board, and was a former Minister of Justice in Progressive Conservative Premier Gary Filmon’s government in the 1990s — as well as, Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, in the early part of Harper’s lingering, undeserved mandate — seems to be in a spot of personal trouble.
Now, Mr. Harper and Mr. Toews (the latter, a socially conservative right-winger, and even prior to the emergence of the current scandal was something of an embarrassment to the Prime Minister) up until a month, or so, ago was slated for a federal appointment to Manitoba’s Court of Queen’s Bench. Hey, it all could have worked out so well. Harper gets rid of an old fogey (he’s 55, but he looks much older, don’tcha think?), putting him out to pasture in the sinecure of the Courts, and Toews gets to make blue collar criminals miserable while offering white collars thieves an opportunity to carry on with their dirty deeds.
But no, it is not to be. No Court appointment for Mr. Toews will be in the offing, it would seem. And why not offer the old fascist homophobe a cushy retirement within the luxuriant confines of the august Manitoba Court system? Yes, folks, there is a story to be told, a juicy scandale du jour.
Mr. Toews is “embroiled in a messy divorce” after fathering a child last fall with a much younger woman. So, it’ll be no $232,000 a year job for the federal MP often dubbed the “minister of family values”. In Mr. Toews’ crowd you just don’t go around knocking up a much younger woman who is not your wife. Particularly when you’ve fashioned yourself as an ethically pure saint, a man who knows the “true” way, a family man with family values.
Tch, tch, Mr. Toews. But it could be worse. Just ask poor ol’ Larry Craig.

The 2008 Vancouver Folk Music Festival

Folk Festival 2008, Music

2008 VANCOUVER FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL

Well, the 31st annual Vancouver Folk Music Festival oughta be interesting.
With longtime Festival programmer and 12-year artistic director, Dugg Simpson, out, and Salmon Arms Roots and Blues Festival creator, Linda Tanaka, in (particularly given Ms. Tanaka’s recent messy leave-taking from the Shuswap festival), Vancouver lovers of the folk music scene are in for what looks to be a “provocative” folk music fest in its 31st iteration.
For all the shenanigans surrounding Fest management, the line-up of the 31st annual Vancouver Folk Music Festival still appears mighty fine.
On the bill this year: headliners Aimee Mann, Eliza Gilkyson, Ferron (returning to Vancouver after a too-long absence), Jason Collett, John Reischman and the Jaybirds, and Ozomatli, among a raft of others.
In the days to come, we’ll highlight the various artists who’ll be appearing on the main and artist / musician stage(s) on the Festival site, and seek to provide, as well, an historical perspective on the events and perambulations which have lead up to the 31st annual Folk Music Festival.
In the interim, once again this year the Little Folks Village and stage may be found due north of the 4th Avenue entrance, with arts market vendors galore situated nearby (due south of the area where the food vendors may be found). We’ll see you there (here’s the ticket info you’ll need to know)

Day Twelve: 2007 Vancouver International Film Festival

VIFF 2007

VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Although not as strong as the first week, the second week of the 2007 Vancouver International Film Festival has possessed enough credibly realistic cinematic endeavour (in other words, fucking good cinema) as to gladden the heart of any true Festival-goer. Honestly, the 2007 VIFF has emerged as the strongest Festival in years, not just for the films VanRamblings has attended and swooned over, but also for the dozens of others films for which the buzz is near euphoric.
In addition to the films VanRamblings has written about previously, there are ever more films that are must-sees, films without conventional distribution which we can only hope (if there is a God in the heavens) that Mark Peranson and the programming crew at the VanCity Theatre will bring back during the next year …


BATTLE IN SEATTLE

Battle in Seattle (Grade: A): One of the two punch-in-the gut films to screen at this year’s Festival (the other, London To Brighton), offering a fictive treatment of the World Trade Organization’s 1999 meetings in Seattle, Battle in Seattle is the single most gut-wrenching film we’ve seen this year. The scene with Charlize Theron in the alley way is simply the most devastating two-and-a-half minutes of filmmaking you’ll see this year. Who’da thunk that a fictional rendering of the 1999 World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in Seattle would prove both so moving and movement-oriented? A tour-de-force work by first-time helmer Stuart Townsend — with outstanding, Oscar worthy performances from Charlize Theron, Sam Riley, Michelle Rodriguez, Woody Harrelson, Andre 3000 and Ray Liotta — Battle in Seattle is an absolute must-see when it returns for its regular run later this year. One of the best films of 2007.


THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Grade: A+): Easily the best film at the 2007 VIFF, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is also the best film of the year (quite simply, you won’t see more accomplished cinema this year). From the wrenching central performances of Marie-Josee Croze and Mathieu Amalric to the work of the film’s outstanding supporting cast (Max von Sydow and Emmanuelle Seigner, among others), from Janusz Kaminski‘s cooly luminous cinematography to Ronald Harwood‘s erudite script, and mostly for its humanity and hopeful reflection on the human condition — man, woman and child — The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is must-see cinema. Slated to open in Vancouver on Christmas day.


THE EDGE OF HEAVEN

The Edge of Heaven (Grade: A): German cinema is particularly strong at this year’s Fest, but the best trend overall in world cinema in 2007 is the taut, spare nature of filmmaking from across the globe. Not ponderous American hoo-haw, but honest-to-goodness storytelling about real people, in films that don’t dawdle and lead you on, but get in, rip your heart out with the story that is being told, and get out, leaving you devastated, changed, a better person for the experience. How wonderful to see Hanna Schygulla after all these years, and how wonderful, too, to witness the birth of a cinematic auteur in writer-director Fatih Akın. How fortunate for you that The Edge of Heaven screens twice this week — Tuesday, Oct. 9th at 1 p.m. at the Granville 7, and Wednesday, Oct. 10th at 10 a.m., again at the Granville 7. You’ll want to skip work to see The Edge of Heaven.