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About
Alan...
Alan
Zisman, that is...
Alan
is a Vancouver (BC, Canada) teacher, musician, and computer
journalist, writing a weekly column for Business in Vancouver, and appearing
regularly on LowEndMac,
and elsewhere in print and online. Alan lives in Vancouver's historic
Strathcona neighbourhood.
Alan
plays accordion, piano and other keyboards. In the late 1970s and
early 1980s, he was active in Ad Hoc,
a Vancouver 'benefit band', and later in the 1980s-90s in The Tools. Currently, he is
currently playing
piano
with the Deep
Cove Big Band
and accordion with the Gram Partisans
(who have a new CD out) and is active
with Vancouver's Squeezebox
Circle. Alan
is on the boards of directors of the Deep Cove Big
Band, the BC Western
Swing Music Society, Spartacus Books,
and the Accordion Noir Society.
Alan
lives in Vancouver, BC, and has visited Central Europe in
2002,
Cuba in 2004, London and Paris in 2005, the eastern Mediterranean in
2007, the Rhone valley and Barcelona in 2008, Rome in 2009, and
northern Italy in 2011. (Photos
online).
From
1968-77, Alan lived in Montreal: mementos of that era are at Plastic
Roseland.
At
the end of June 2010, he retired after three decades teaching - most
recently
helping
students in grades 1-7 learn to use computers and the Internet at
Vancouver's Chief
Maquinna Elementary School. Most recently, he
became a grandfather!
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Technology journalism
While letting computers take far too much time and energy in his life,
he has managed to turn this addiction into a writing career, with over
1500 articles published since 1991 including weekly High Tech Office
columns for Business in
Vancouver newspaper and articles appearing in other print and
online business, technology, and education publications.
Computer tutorials and links
Alan has developed and posted a series of workshops and
tutorials. These include tutorials on Internet Security, web page
creation and other topics. The Poledit tutorial comes up first on
Google for this admitedly obscure topic! There is also a growing list
of free software
and links of interest to teachers, students, and computer-users in
general.
More online life
You can probably tell a lot about someone by what they do online. Alan
has a bunch of domains registered and manage a number of others. Along
with zisman.ca, Alan also maintains: adamraskin.com, squeezeboxcircle.org,
grampartisans.com,
brucefreedmanjazz.com, lindareadjewelry.ca,
westernswingmusic.ca,
katezisman.ca,
plastic-roseland.ca,
proto-barbarism.ca,
teachingforpeace.org,
gourmet-provence-et-vous.com, and columbiajournal.ca.
The SqueezeboxCircle.org site is Google #1 for searches for Vancouver
Accordion.
He has a YouTube
channel with playlists with including: Christmas Band, Deep Cove
Big Band, Gram Partisans, Information at Your
Fingertips, Louis Jordan, Rodgers Brothers, Squeezebox
Circle, The Black Band, and more. Check 'em out!
You can follow him on Twitter and receive updates of new articles
published, music gigs, and random thoughts.
Alan
Zisman
is a Vancouver educator, writer, musician, and computer specialist. He
can be
contacted by e-mailing
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