Tabestoon Festival, the first contemporary Iranian arts and culture festival in Calgary, is making its debut this weekend. Tabestoon, which is Farsi for summer, aims to promote contemporary Iranian arts and culture in Calgary.

When Josh Mandrake moved back to Calgary from Vancouver two years ago, he noticed a gap in the city’s club scene – particularly a lack of hip hop events. After attending Vancouver’s Hip Hop Karaoke (HHK) at Fortune Sound Club, he decided to bring the idea back to Calgary.

For the past 14 months Mandrak has hosted a successful monthly Monday night Hip Hop Karaoke at Commonwealth.

Mandrake says the night’s success comes from the loyalty of regulars who have attended the rap sing along since it started in April, 2013.

This weekend thousands of folk music fans will descend on Prince’s Island Park, running with their tarps to nab the best spots to sit and listen to some of the finest folk music the world has to offer.

There’s a lot going on at Folk Fest, so to help you decide what to see, the Gauntlet has picked five performances you shouldn’t miss.

Basia Bulat — Thursday, July 24 - Stage 4 - 7:00 p.m.

The University of Calgary has released an early version of their new mobile application for the new learning management system, Desire2Learn. The app, released on July 12, is compatible with Blackberry, Windows 8, Android and iOS devices.

While the app is still in beta stage, technology integration group manager at the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, D’Arcy Norman, said it works as it should.
“It’s there and it’s fully functional, but we’re still treating it as a beta,” Norman said.

Research from University of Calgary assistant professor and psychologist Thomas O’Neill suggests that while more businesses have employees working from home, some of them have more trouble adjusting to the new workplace than others.

O’Neill — who calls the trend remote working — identified personality traits that predict job satisfaction, perceptions of performance and the tendency to “cyberslack” by wasting time on the Internet.

Incoming students may start paying tuition early when they accept admission to the University of Calgary.

Administration is considering a new $400 deposit for students who accept admission to the U of C in 2016.

Associate registrar admissions and recruitment Scott Robinson said the deposit will help administration get a better idea of how many students will attend the university. He added that the U of C is one of the only universities in Canada that does not charge a tuition deposit.

A new co-operative education program for visual arts students may come to the University of Calgary this Fall.

Students’ Union vice-president academic Hana Kadri said the proposal for a visual arts co-op program has already gone through the Academic Priorities Subcommittee (APS) and is awaiting approval from the Academic Planning and Priorities Committee (APPc).

The University of Calgary has partnered with Microsoft to change the university’s email system this August. And Microsoft’s throwing in some licensed software with the new service.

With Office 365 — the email service that Microsoft developed for university and business clients — all students will get free access to the Microsoft Office Suite. The Suite includes Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint, free of charge.

Students will have license to download and access Office on five devices.

Over 1,000 protesters angered by Israeli strikes and ground invasion of Gaza gathered outside city hall on Friday, July 18, doubling the turnout of a similar protest one week earlier.

Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) — a University of Calgary club — and Justice for Palestinians organized the protest, which began at 6:00 p.m. Organizers sent out the invitation on Wednesday, the day before Israel began its ground invasion of Gaza.

Did you know that the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Scotland began on July 23? I didn’t until my eighty-year-old grandpa asked me to tape the opening ceremonies. Hey, the Americans aren’t competing in it, so none of the major US corporations advertise.

The Commonwealth Games is an 11-day multi-sport event that features athletes from the Commonwealth. The games resemble the Olympics in terms of their billion dollar showmanship. The only major difference is that they are a stark reminder of the remnants of colonialism.