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 →

Clear, Confident, Connected: Microsoft Brings Clarity To Our World
And If You’ve Got $10, VanRamblings Has a Bridge …

July 24, 2005Web & TechRaymond Tomlin

The next Windows operating system, previously known by the code name Longhorn, will be called Windows Vista.
With a developers test release of the new operating system scheduled for August 3rd, and a broader consumer beta release expected later this year, Microsoft allegedly took eight months researching potential names for the upcoming version of Windows. The new name débuted this past Thursday before roughly 10,000 attendees of a Microsoft sales conference in Atlanta (here’s a short video presentation of the event).
Among the key features of Vista are a new searching mechanism, lots of new laptop features, parental controls and better home networking. There will be visual changes, ranging from shiny translucent windows to icons that are tiny representations of a document itself, as well as the ability to launch applications 15% faster (and boot up 50% faster) than Windows XP does, and resuming from standby in only 2 seconds. According to Microsoft, Vista’s three design goals also include enhanced security, new ways to organize information, and seamless connectivity to external devices.
Given that 90 percent of the world’s personal computers run Windows, and given that Windows XP will become obsolete late next year, chances are that you’ll be switching to Windows Vista over the next 18 months.

Vancouver Folk Festival 2005: Glorious and Transporting

July 18, 2005MusicRaymond Tomlin

One of the formative events on the Vancouver cultural calendar each year, the Vancouver Folk Music Festival closed late on Sunday evening with a rousing chorus of the Woody Guthrie chestnut, It’s Been Good To Know Ya (lead by noted Wobbly Utah Phillips), followed by as stirring and soulful a rendition of Ben E. King’s Stand By Me as one could ever wish to hear.
In the hours and days that comprised the 2005 musical narrative that became the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, from the gates opening at 5:30 p.m. Friday afternoon (under leaden skies) through til 11:30 p.m. for the cloudless sky Sunday evening finale, music was carried by the breezes that wafted across the Jericho Beach site — as a panoply of globe spanning, anthemic folk music encompassing folk genres ranging from Celtic, Cajun, hillbilly and progressive country (think the ever-so-fragile and lovely Iris DeMent) to the radical repertoire of The Grande Mothers (Frank Zappa’s band), hip hop, ambient, chill-out, the blues and more … transformed the Jericho Beach / waterfront Point Grey site into safe haven, where once again a world of peace and harmony and love and understanding prevailed for all.

The First Full Day of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival

July 16, 2005MusicRaymond Tomlin

Featuring more than 70 hours of non-stop music on eight outdoor stages — three evenings of mainstage concerts and two full days of performances and workshops throughout and across the always splendid Jericho Beach Park site, the 28th annual Vancouver Folk Music Festival is now underway.
Saturday Afternoon Update: Skies have cleared, and the sun has arrived.
While VanRamblings wanders the site, enjoys the music, greets old friends and recovers some semblance of our always tenuous sanity, we offer you 27 pictures taken by Sarah Pullman, posted at Shutterfly, as well as a few pictures focusing on the market area just outside the west gate.
For the sake of nostalgia, and because the weather thus far in the summer of 2005 has been inclement (just check out the webcam), VanRamblings offers a few photos taken by Susan McKeown at the particularly rainy, but ultimately satisfying, 2001 Vancouver Folk Music Festival.
And, oh yeah, there’s this Tony Montague article in Friday’s Globe and Mail on the Juno award-winning band, Le Vent du Nord, in concert at Stage 1 at 4:15 p.m. today, and set to take the Main Stage at 6 p.m., as well.

Toddlers In Tow, Pudgy Babyboomers and Tie-Dyed Hippies

July 14, 2005MusicRaymond Tomlin

With only hours to go until the kickoff of the 28th annual Vancouver Folk Music Festival, diehard folkies are practicing the 300-yard run from the gate to the big stage (cuz it’s important to get your blanket as close to the main stage as possible), while others are stuffing their backpacks with all of the required items for a comfortable Folk Festival — tarpaulin for the ground, large colourful blanket, change of clothes, lots of sunscreen, hat, water bottle, and fresh fruit, among myriad other necessary items.
Media coverage of the Folk Festival is also underway. Vancouver Courier Arts Editor Fiona Hughes suggests in her piece on the Folk Fest that “the programmers are determined to broaden their audience base,” while Courier staff writer Cheryl Rossi covers the volunteer perspective.
Meanwhile, the Georgia Straight’s eminence grise and longtime Folk Fest aficionado, Alexander Varty, chimes in with the Straight’s feature, front-cover article on the Fest, a 1500-word piece titled Spoken Folk, as well as a piece on Bill Bourne and Eivør Pálsdóttir. Kevin Howes writes about Buck 65, who will play on the main stage Friday night.
The Straight’s Tony Montague interviews Scottish singer Julie Fowlis (a member of Dòchas, five young women and one male percussionist who will perform music from the western isles of Scotland at this year’s folk fest, with a Stage 1 concert this Saturday, July 16), as well as politically-minded Texas troubadour Eliza Gilkyson and Karan Casey, one of the great Irish women singers of our time. And, what self-respecting Folk Festival can truly call itself a roots festival without the inclusion of a little Dobro music?