Let your fingers do the walking

Posted on July 19, 2018 by bvanrysdam

Traveling to New York state generally leads a person to two destinations, the Big Apple with its museums, theatres and night life, or the other side of the state which offers a world famous Niagara Falls and revitalized Buffalo waterfront, but there is a third option that is worth checking out.

Nestled in the middle of the state is a region called the Finger Lakes. The Finger Lakes consist of 11 parallel lakes looking like the fingers of a pair of outstretched hands. Formed during the ice age, two of the lakes (Seneca and Cayuga) are among the deepest in North America and have bottoms below sea level.

There a lot’s of things to do and see. Everything from world-class museums, spectacular parks, wine tours and even auto racing.

No visit would be complete without seeing the Corning Museum of Glass. The museum was a gift from the Corning Glass Works to the nation to celebrate the company’s 100^th anniversary. There you’ll find an extensive collection of more than 45,000 pieces of classic and contemporary glass from all over the world. There’s demonstrations of live glass blowing, interactive stations for young and old alike and even a chance to create your own piece art using different glass making techniques.

Just up the road you’ll find the tiny hamlet of Watkins Glenn. Known for its Grand Prix racing, Watkins Glenn International is the birthplace of American Road Racing. The track hosts the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, and the U.S. Vintage Grand Prix. For those really wanting the full experience, take advantage of Drive The Glenn. You’ll get a real sense of what it’s like to drive the 3.4 mile circuit.

If racing isn’t your thing (or even if it is), no visit to Watkins Glenn would be complete without stopping by the Watkins Glenn State Park. Visitors can stroll up a meandering gorge path that climbs 400 feet and passes by 19 waterfalls along the way. You might feel like you are in a Lord of the Rings movie as the trails winds over and under waterfalls with breath taking views at every corner. There is no price for admission and parking is nominal, which makes this stop a real value. The visit can be done in a couple of hours, and the park offers camping for those interested in exploring more of what the park has to offer.

All of this walking and exploring might make you thirsty which is why we’ve saved the best for last, the wine tours. The Finger Lakes are home to three unique wine trails, each offering their own different experiences. Founded in 1986, the Seneca Lake Wine Trail is one of the largest in the eastern U.S. and features 30 wineries all waiting to be explored. Seneca Lake’s natural combination of deep water (at 632 feet it is the deepest of the Finger Lakes) and sloping hillsides provides the ideal micro-climate for grape growing.

There is really no wrong way to start. If you need a couple of suggestions, Atwater Estate Vineyards, Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards and Wagner Vineyards all offer excellent varieties of local wines including Riesling, Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc and Pinot Noir. Most vineyards make available flights of wine for $5. Pick 5 different labels off the menu for a quick taste of the best wines this region has to offer.

There is also a café next to the Wagner Vineyards called the Ginny Lee that offers a variety of comfort foods including a local Cheese Board that features a mix of locally sourced cheeses & assorted crackers. You can also add Charcuterie & dried meats that will be sure pair well with a bottle from next door all while enjoying the panoramic views overlooking Lake Seneca from the deck.

Living in Houston, you might be worried about how to get to the area, but driving to Corning from the Buffalo airport takes a little over two hours which is almost the time it takes to get from The Woodlands to Galveston. Once you arrive, you’ll find plenty of hotels, bed & breakfasts, vacation rentals and camp grounds to help you spend some quality time in a region of the world that still knows how to have a good time.

We’re on the road to nowhere

Posted on June 28, 2018 by bvanrysdam

How did we get here? That’s a question that’s being asked more and more. Where has civility gone? Have we come to the point where people are so tired of feeling bad that they feel the need to lash out at others?

I attended a recent conference that featured Evan Smith from the Texas Tribune. He spoke about how, as a society, we are choosing to get our information from sources that think like we do. Consider yourself a conservative? You’re probably watching Fox News. Lean more liberal? You are probably turning to CNN for your news.

The problem is that you are only getting one side to story that may have several (meaning even more than two!). Americans are not looking to get information to learn something, but rather looking for someone to validate their own beliefs and that’s where the trouble starts.

Doing this leads us to thinking we don’t need to compromise because there are plenty of people who think like we do right? Why should we give in, let the other guy deal with it. This leaves us running in place for the most part because nothing gets done (which actually could be a good thing).

Here’s something else to remember. While the right is getting their information from Fox and the left from CNN, there is a common denominator between both media giants, they are driven by profits which means, just like politicians, they play to their base (or audience).

I am not suggesting it’s #FakeNews, but than again, it’s not very good coverage of the news either.

Can you run that by me again?

Posted on March 2, 2018 by bvanrysdam

Its primary election season in Texas and that means we get to hear/see lots of political messaging.

While most end up in the recycling bin, one direct mail piece caught my attention. It was from the Freedom & Liberty Conservatives PAC. The headline across the top said “Let’s Make Montgomery County Great Again” following the successful mantra President Trump used during his campaign.

As anyone familiar with Montgomery County knows, republicans control just about every political position available, which begs the question; why isn’t Montgomery County great now?

The flyer introduces us to “the magnificent nine reformers who will make Montgomery County great again!” (I counted and the phrase ‘Make Montgomery County great again’ appears six times on the mailer) Leading the charge is Mark Keough who is running for county judge.

Their website promotes their values saying “conservatives support less government spending and lower taxes. If some take the foregoing beliefs as divisive, that is no concern to us. We agree with Thomas Jefferson that ‘the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

The mailer asks voters ‘don’t you long for mornings when’…

Property taxes didn’t threaten to force you out of your home?
You didn’t have to fight traffic gridlock, potholes and tolls?
Sexual harassment by people in power is no longer tolerated?

So why isn’t Montgomery County great? The city of Conroe (the county seat) is the fastest growing city in the U.S., so there must be something being done right, or why would so many people want to move there?

The only conclusion I can come up with is that we have the wrong kind of conservative republicans in office. Maybe we could come up with uniforms that indicate the rank of how conservative someone is so that we can make an informed decision March 6.

2017…The year of live concerts

Posted on November 27, 2017 by bvanrysdam

The Heights Theater (March 24)

Shawn Mullins
Matt the Electrician
Rick Brantley

House of Blues (April 13)

The Revivalists
The Greyhounds

The New Orleans Jazz Festival (April 29)

Can you spot us?

Lost Bayou Ramblers
Zena Moses & Rue Fiya
Marc Broussard
Kenny Neal and the Baton Rouge Blues Revue
Jon Batiste and Stay Human
Maroon 5

House of Blues (May 13 )

Better Than Ezra

Cynthia Mitchell Woods Pavilion (July 14)

Third Eye Blind
Silversun Pickups

The Heights Theater (July 23)

Matthew Sweet
Tommy Keene

Sugarland Smart Financial Center (Aug. 18 )

Avett Brothers

Who is minding the store?

Posted on September 19, 2017 by bvanrysdam

Computers and big data are getting smarter and smarter, but are we relying on them too much?

Bogus ads and fake news on Facebook are getting people’s attention. Being able to super-target a consumer down to age, gender, location and web browsing history is a marketers wet dream, but a question of who is minding the store is starting to be raised.

There is currently an investigation underway to determine if the Russian government tried to influence the recent presidential election, but there is even a darker element to targeting certain groups of people that defies common sense.

ProPublica, an investigative news organized reported on how Facebook’s automated ad software allowed them to target people interested in ‘Jew hater’, ‘History of why Jews ruin the world’ and ‘How to burn Jews’. The Houston Chronicle’s Chris Tomlinson tested those targeted groups with his own ads which Facebook approved within 15 minutes.

Facebook eventually removed those options after it was brought to their attention, but the question remains, how could that have been an acceptable target demo to begin with?

Buying ads on social media that are automated allows companies to keep profits high and costs down, but at what cost? Free speech is protected by the First Amendment, but do these companies really want to be known for promoting and profiting from these messages?

Disinformation is nothing new, Tokyo Rose was a fabricated name given by Allied troops in the South Pacific during World War II to all female English-speaking radio broadcasters of Japanese propaganda. The soldiers knew it was fake, but in today’s social media world, it’s getting harder and harder to spot them.

What responsibility does Facebook have? In the end, not much unless you are fan of credibility. Letting the consumer figure out what’s real and what isn’t does not sound like a solid business approach. Your friends might not stop posting, but companies might have second thoughts of having their ads next to a Jew hater ad.

There is another dark side to this automation without human oversite. During Hurricane Irma, people were scrambling to evacuate Miami. Travel websites starting jacking up fares that were $547 to over $3,200. Price gouging? No, just a computer doing its job of seeing high demand for an item and pricing it accordingly. Again, removing the human element from the equation.

How did consumers respond? They turned to social media to publicly shame companies for their practices (and to their credit, most responded). Until we learn to better humanize computers, we should be even more wary of what is being served to us in our feed.

The most watched music video of all time

Posted on July 11, 2017 by bvanrysdam

Gangnam Style is finally no longer the most watched YouTube video. The mega-hit by South Korean Psy was the most played video on YouTube for the last five years.

How popular was Gangnam Style? It broke the play counter and forced YouTube to rewrite the code, but now there’s a new No. 1; “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa and featuring Charlie Puth.

“See You Again” has whizzed by Psy with an astonishing 2,896,978,257 views (at the time of writing). The song, released in 2015 on the Furious 7 Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, was commissioned as a tribute to the late actor Paul Walker.

A lot has happened since Gangnam Style was released. Obama was re-elected to a second term, Whitney Houston passed away, the Boston Marathon was rocked by a bomber, Pope Benedict XVI resigned, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing, the Winter Olympics were held in Sochi, Microsoft introduced Windows 10 and Donald Trump was elected president.

It is astonishing when you think about the number of times these two videos have been seen when you consider that 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute with almost 5 billion videos being watched every day.

Video may have killed the radio star, but today it looks like YouTube killed MTV.

What’s the frequency Kenneth?

Posted on July 6, 2017 by bvanrysdam

The Federal Communications Commission is considering whether or not to keep the main studio rule which requires stations to maintain “main studios” in their primary coverage area.

Organizations like the National Association of Broadcasters claim this rule is inconsistent” with listener and viewer expectations, and suggested that eliminating the rule would result in cost savings, better deployment of resources, efficiency and better service.

The broadcast industry, like many other industries, has seen massive challenges and change over the last few decades. Years of consolidation, debt and emerging technologies like the internet have forced to it to come up with new ways to remain viable and profitable.

Long gone are the days where powerful radio stations were owned by families like the Jones (who owned KTRH & KLOL). Those families were part of the fabric of the community, and while making a profit was important, so was service.

LPTV operator Venture Technology Group said “the purpose of the rules has been bypassed by technology,” but has it? I thought the purpose was to serve the community that the station was licensed to.

There is fear that broadcasting emergency information can be impacted. Can you imagine someone in Los Angles providing coverage of a hurricane that is headed toward Houston? There is also concern if you eliminate the main studio rule, you run the risk of losing places for talent to pay their dues and gnaw their teeth. It is very rare for someone to be an overnight sensation and make it to the major markets.

So where do new and aspiring broadcasters start? Internet radio? Pod-casting? YouTube? All are possible, but that begs the question, who needs a broadcast station to begin with.

Many feel the industry shot themselves in the foot when they opened the door to consolidation and allowed companies to own multiple stations in a single market. They might be shooting themselves in the other foot if the main studio rule goes away which will make it very hard for them to remain standing.

Why are we meeting again?

Posted on June 13, 2017 by bvanrysdam

In the wake of Donald Trump’s decision to abandon the Paris climate agreement, there’s been increased controversy over CEO participation in the president’s business council.

Several key members have decided not to participate in the council because of the decision to back out of the agreement, but what exactly does the council do to begin with?

John Kenneth Galbraith, who wrote about Herbert Hoover’s meetings with top business leaders in the wake of the stock market crash in his book “The Great Crash of 1929” made an interesting point about meetings that are called without a real purpose …

“Yet to suppose that President Hoover was engaged only in organizing further reassurance is to do him a serious injustice. He was also conducting one of the oldest, most important — and, unhappily, one of the least understood — rites in American life. This is the rite of the meeting which is called not to do business but to do no business. It is a rite which is still much practiced in our time. It is worth examining for a moment.

Men meet together for many reasons in the course of business. They need to instruct or persuade each other. They must agree on a course of action. They find thinking in public more productive or less painful than thinking in private. But there are at least as many reasons for meetings to transact no business.

Meetings are held because men seek companionship or, at a minimum, wish to escape the tedium of solitary duties. They yearn for the prestige which accrues to the man who presides over meetings, and this leads them to convoke assemblages over which they can preside. Finally, there is the meeting which is called not because there is business to be done, but because it is necessary to create the impression that business is being done.

Such meetings are more than a substitute for action. They are widely regarded as action.”

In other words, doing nothing can be considered an action plan. Now don’t we all feel better?