Home Blog Page 255

Steam Train Music Fest honors Toledo’s Americana roots

By
Toledo Free Press
-
0
Old State Line, from left, former member Tom Barden with current lineup Larry Meyer, Cindy Lipman, Ramsey Abu-Absi and Rayna Zacharias. Photo courtesy Larry Meyer.

Six of Northwest Ohio’s most prominent Americana, folk and blues bands are poised to take the stage in honor of Toledo’s old-time music roots later this month.

The Steam Train Roots Music Festival will take place Aug. 25 at The Village Idiot in Maumee. The multiband festival begins at 4:30 p.m. and lasts well into the midnight hour, with each act paying tribute to Toledo’s music history.

“The concept is like the roots of a tree,” said Larry Meyer, co-founder of the event. “It’s what other music stems from. Whether it’s traditional blues, delta blues, folk or string bands, they were the forerunners of modern music.”

Meyer said the goal of the festival is not only to pay tribute to the Americana forefathers like Gram Parsons, Jerry Garcia and Bob Dylan, but also to honor the local musicians who keep the historical sounds alive in Northwest Ohio.

“People are a part of this history. It’s not an antiquated music style,” Meyer said. “It’s a niche deal, but people who are already fans of Americana will love it. And anyone who just wants to listen to a collection of good Americana music, boom. Here it is under one roof.”

Meyer’s band, Old State Line, will kick off the concert, followed by Dooley Wilson, Meaghan Roberts, Andrew Ellis and Lucky Lemont, The Blowing Grains and local rock-a-billy favorite, Kentucky Chrome as the closing act at 10 p.m.

Meyer is the drummer and percussionist for Old State Line, an acoustic Americana band that also features  Rayna Zacharias (bass), Cindy Lipman (fiddle, vocals) and Ramsey Abu-Absi (guitar, mandolin and vocals). Heavily inspired by Steve Earle, Old Crow Medicine Show and Townes Van Zandt, Old State Line grew out of a pick-up jam session in Toledo’s historic Old West End.

“We’re too country to be rock and too rock to be country,” Meyer said.

Before the group opens the Steam Train Music Fest, Old State Line with kick off the first set at the Blissfield Bluegrass on the River, just hours before taking the stage in Maumee.

Meyer co-founded the festival with fellow musician and bassist for local bluegrass favorite Blowing Grains, Ben Langlois. Over months of planning, Meyer and Langlois scanned the area looking for the best, most versatile collection of Americana bands in Toledo.

Despite being familiar with numerous folk, blues and bluegrass-influenced groups in the area, Meyer said he and Langlois chose the other groups based on their extensive musical repertoires and past experiences seeing the bands live.

“We realized we know these cats,” Meyer said. “We knew that, with these guys, we’d get great music. We wanted it to be like, if we weren’t playing in the event, we’d want to attend; we’d want to show up and listen.”

Langlois will join Meyer in the festival, plucking the strings on his bass with his band, Blowing Grains. Touring the area with the current lineup for nearly three years, The Blowing Grains is a five to six-person group with a heavy focus on acoustic guitars, banjo, fiddle and an electric bass.

“We’ve always got some guitar, mandolin, fiddle … it’s pretty straight-ahead stuff, traditional bluegrass,” Langlois said. “We’ve got a bunch of talented musicians with a solid repertoire of work. Great players, great instruments, great music, all together.”

The title of the event is a subtle nod to the late Steam Train Maury (Maurice W. Graham), a legendary, five-time “King of the Hobos” who rode the rails during the Great Depression before returning to the Glass City and starting a successful career as a cement mason in the late 1930s.

While gracing the festival with Graham’s name was Meyer’s initial idea, it was Langlois who gave the decision a deeper meaning. As a child, Langlois had the opportunity to meet the legendary “hobo king” during a sobering trip with his father to the bearded old man’s house after his own grandfather’s death.

“He and my grandfather were close. They both belonged to the Seventh Day Adventist Church and Maury had a small plot of land he farmed on my grandfather’s land,” Langlois said. “I was super intimidated and super fascinated by him because he was blind and, like, 90 years older than me, and he was old, crouched over and he had that beard. I remember hearing that he was the ‘King of the Hobos’ and I imagined it as ‘King of the Hobbits’ because my older sisters were reading the Tolkien books at the time.”

Graham died in 2006 at the age of 89. The Steam Train Music Festival serves as a small tribute to “Steam Train Maury” and the life he led as a fabled vagabond.

The Village Idiot is located at 309 Conant St. in Uptown Maumee. Tickets to the event are $5 at the door and each ticket is good for all six sets.

Miller: Friday at The Farr

By
Michael Miller
-
0

As an annual fundraising event evolves into a tradition, it comes to resemble a great white shark — always hungry, predatory by nature and doomed to die if it loses momentum and stops moving forward.

There are a number of regional fundraisers that people still patronize, through belief in the charity and out of social habit; it would be boorish to name one, but I have no doubt that the local people in charge of corporate philanthropy will have at least three examples in their thoughts before they finish reading this sentence.

I do not know what inspired Judd Silverman, executive director of the Jamie Farr Toledo Classic, to broach the idea of Friday at The Farr, but he will look back in five or 10 years and recognize the idea as one that added dimension and excitement to the tournament he has operated since 1984.

At the PGA’s Phoenix Open, the 16th hole serves as a break from the dry decorum that simultaneously makes golf attractive to enthusiasts and as boring to everyone else. At the 16th hole, bleachers form an amphitheater filled with beer-drinking fans who cheer, boo, try to endear themselves to players and generally act like Larry, Curly and Moe at a high-society dinner. It is, in other words, loose and fun, words that rarely apply to golf spectatorship.

 

Silverman pitched the Phoenix concept to a group of young men that included entrepreneurs Stephen Vasquez and Franz Gilis. Vasquez and Gilis recognized the idea’s potential in Toledo, and stepped up to turn the concept into a reality. When they approached Toledo Free Press about being a media sponsor, Publisher Tom Pounds and I were immediately interested and enthusiastic. Firstly, we recognized the long-term possibilities the event offered to the growth of the tournament and our region. Secondly, we love injecting new, irreverent ideas into long-standing, old-school Toledo traditions and institutions, with an attitude mixing James Dean rebellion and Rodney Dangerfield maladroitness.

After some initial conversations, miscommunications and reinterpretations of purpose, the informal partnership was forged and we were off and running. I met with Vasquez and Gilis to pledge ad and editorial support and contribute the idea of a “Miss Klinger’s Club,” a public face for the event to appear in the ads and make TV and radio appearances. We needed someone eloquent, media savvy and cover-girl attractive, and since Vasquez, Gilis and I can collectively only offer two of those three features, we enlisted Toledo Free Press Star fashion columnist Lauren O’Neill, one of those rare women who could inspire a Prince song and a Dennis Miller monologue.

On Aug. 10, I accompanied a scholarly, stately group of friends to the par 3 14th hole at Highland Meadows. We all wore our Klinger’s Club T-shirts (high-quality gear produced by Image Group), crossed the course (the 14th hole was chosen because it was as far from my parked car as it could be and still technically be in North America — on many of the hills my companions could hear me huffing and puffing, “I think I can, I think I can”) and climbed to our seats in the bleachers. After 179 consecutive days of sizzling 200-degree weather, Friday at The Farr was launched on an overcast, drizzly day more suited for Rocket football than golf.

We greeted Vasquez, Gilis and O’Neill and settled in. The event could probably use an official presence to coach the cheering and keep the energy flowing, but the lack of such a presence created an atmosphere of spontaneity and edginess that veered from stretches of silence to wild group laughter. Farr officials later said 400 people filled the bleachers, with scores more hanging around the nearby beer tent — no other hole we observed Aug. 10 attracted as many spectators.

The Klinger’s Club crowd cheered great shots and good-naturedly booed poor shots (until an official admonished Vasquez to make the crowd substitute “ahhhhs” for “boos” — this caused a momentary panic when Vasquez  announced “No more boos!” and some in the stands thought he said “booze”).

Jamie Farr made an appearance, looking up at bleachers dotted with T-shirts bearing his face and leading some cheers. A highlight was when the crowd started chanting “Caddy race! Caddy race!” and some caddies raced down the fairway; not every caddy took the bait, but the ones who did earned great applause. Most of the LPGA golfers smiled at crowd references to their college alma maters, laughed at the pledges of love and lust (“Call me, maybe!” was a popular one) and played along with the spirit of the 14th hole, tossing autographed hats, gloves, club covers and balls to the crowd. One golfer tossed signed boxes of cookies. My favorite moment was when the crowd, watching a golfer searching for a ball that had landed in the rough, began calling out, “warmer … warmer … warmer.”

Michelle Wie threw a ball into the stands, which I, a lineman with fingers like buttered sausages, deftly caught and pocketed. Wie later said she really liked the energy of the 14th hole, and while I doubt every golfer shared her enthusiasm, I hope the majority did.

Friday at The Farr is a smart, fun idea. Toledo Free Press is committed to helping the event grow and congratulates Silverman, Vasquez and Gilis for their vision and the effort they contributed to make it a success.

 

Michael S. Miller is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Email him at [email protected].

Birmingham Ethnic Festival expands to two days

By
Jeff
-
0
Little Heart Dancers at the Birmingham Festival.

The Birmingham Ethnic Festival, held annually on Consaul Street in East Toledo’s Birmingham neighborhood, will expand to two days for the first time.

The 38th annual festival will be open noon to 10 p.m. Aug. 18 and noon to 9 p.m. Aug. 19. Admission is free. Proceeds from food and vendor booths will benefit neighborhood organizations, including churches, the VFW and the Hungarian Club.

Organizers decided to expand the event to two days after noticing more and more people showing up Saturday night to watch the Waiters Race, a popular annual event held the night before the festival’s official Sunday opening, said Festival Chairman Imre Bertalan.

“Last year we decided, ‘OK, we’ll open a couple vendors on Saturday and see how attendance is,’” Bertalan said. “We had crowds and that told us, ‘Let’s go for a two-day festival.’ We’re excited about it.”

The festival will kick off with a parade at 12:30 p.m. Aug. 18 led by the Cakewalkin’ Jass Band in honor of the 80th anniversary of Tony Packo’s.

The Waiters Race will follow at 1 p.m. Based on a traditional event in Europe, participants run a relay involving pitchers of beer with the winner based on a combination of speed and spillage.

“There is a fierce rivalry. It is a hotly contested event each year,” Bertalan said.

The second day of the festival will start with a recognition ceremony at noon on the steps of St. Stephen’s Church. Organizers will announce the recipient of the annual Friend of the Birmingham Neighborhood Award, recognize international guests and present the Beer Keg Trophy to the winner of the Waiters Race.

Live entertainment, including musicians and ethnic dance groups, will perform both days on three stages. Vendors will be selling crafts and other items, including honey from the neighborhood’s community garden. There will also be a children’s area.

Of course there will also be food, including chicken paprikas, “Hunkey Turkey” (roasted bacon sandwich), stuffed cabbage, kolbasz (sausage sandwiches), gulyás, palacsinta (crepes), cabbage and noodles, pastries and more.

There will also be a tent displaying historic items and commemorating the Playdium and other historic Birmingham buildings. The Playdium, a 110-year-old neighborhood landmark, was razed in January after sitting vacant for years.

“Not much could be saved, but we are encouraging people to provide us with remembrances. Some folks in our community save everything,” said Lucas County Administrator Peter Ujvagi, a longtime Birmingham resident and member of the festival committee. “The Playdium was the gateway to our neighborhood and the center of culture for 100 years. I died a little that day.”

Thousands attend the festival each year, including people from across the country with ties to the neighborhood.

“It’s like a homecoming,” Ujvagi said. “The spirit of the neighborhood is much broader and bigger than the physical neighborhood. We’ve always found that’s the strength of the community.”

The inaugural festival was held to celebrate the neighborhood’s victory in stopping the construction of a four-lane overpass and widening of Consaul Street, Ujvagi said.

“That would have split the neighborhood and wiped out Packo’s and many other neighborhood businesses,” Ujvagi said. “It was a hard-fought battle for neighborhood preservation. We realized then that many people did not understand what a unique, diverse, multi-ethnic community the Birmingham neighborhood was so a festival that opened the door to the rest of Northwest Ohio was initiated.”

Bertalan, also a longtime Birmingham resident, said his favorite part of the festival is the meaning behind it.

“I love the neighborhood and I just see this event showcasing not only the history of neighborhood, but its present diversity and demonstrating hope and confidence in the future,” Bertalan said.

Ujvagi said he hopes visitors come away with a better understanding of the neighborhood’s culture — but also just have fun.

“We want them to enjoy our food and our cultural dance and music — and to have such a great time that they absolutely have to come back for the 39th Birmingham Ethnic Festival,” Ujvagi said.

Toledo Free Press is a media sponsor of the event. For more information, visit birminghamethnicfestival.wordpress.com.

Baumhower: Let Katie be

By
Jeremy Baumhower
-
0

Attention fellow citizens of Northwest Ohio:

As some of you may have heard, one of Toledo’s most famous alumna just went through a divorce. Not only is she going through one of the more public break-ups in recent memory, she is going through it with her 6-year-old little girl. Katie Holmes and her daughter, Suri, have been spending some time in Toledo, away from the paparazzi, trying to catch a breath and get their feet back underneath her.

I am writing this “Open Letter” to ask my fellow residents to allow Katie and Suri some normalcy while back in Toledo … meaning please just let them be.

Katie, Suri and their family tried to enjoy some shopping at Westfield Franklin Park on Aug. 12. How do I know this gossipy tidbit of information? Because I witnessed Katie and her sister flip though the close-out rack at a clothing store while Suri hung out with her cousins, playing. I mention the close-out rack because while Katie may have been married to one of the most famous men on the planet, there she was, holding Suri’s stuffed animals in her arms, while shuffling through the various clearance items. Katie looked like a woman who’d recently been through a divorce. She looked skinnier than the last time I saw her, and it almost appeared she had forgot how to smile. The gawkers started almost instantly, trying to sneak their phones out to snap a picture. I saw one woman hide in a rack of clothes trying to capture a digital image. I really felt bad for Katie.

.

Anybody who has been through a divorce knows you need your support system; you need comfort and usually you need your family. Katie Holmes is no different from any of us in that aspect. Any Christ the King parishioner knows how strong, close and genuine the Holmes family is. Although very private, especially since Katie’s success, their warmth and compassion has never changed, showing why Katie is still so grounded.

Her family and this town are the perfect ingredients needed for a broken heart.

There is a reason most of us choose to live in Toledo; it’s comfortable. Toledo has little traffic, we have plenty of great food, a close distance to Detroit, Cleveland and Chicago and most of our families are here. Toledoans are mostly kind, warm and neighborly human beings. Katie and her daughter can live a laid-back life here, if we would simply allow them.

Some radio stations sent out Facebook updates asking for Katie “sightings,” encouraging listeners to snap pictures, almost giving it the feel of a manhunt. I am going to ask you to do the opposite. Please, if you see Katie Holmes in public, with or without her daughter Suri, leave her be. She has put the city of Toledo back on the map, and did so in a positive way. She has earned her privacy, especially shopping on a Sunday at the mall. If she chose to move back home or at least spend more time here, it could mean good things for our city.

Katie Holmes is, now more than ever, closer to you or me. She’s a recently divorced single mom, with a bright-eyed 6 year old girl at her side trying to figure out what’s next. She shops with her sisters at Westfield Franklin Park, she enjoys close-out racks, all while carrying her daughter’s stuffed animals, if that’s not Toledo, then I must not be from here.

If you see Katie Holmes out and about, Instead of asking her for a picture, or an autograph, how about you wish her a simple “welcome home.” Let’s treat her as a sister and mom and let’s remind her why her family still chooses to call Toledo home.

If you would like to see more Jeremy Baumhower’s words you can follow him on Twitter @Jeremytheproduc.

Kuron: Building Fort Amherstburg

By
Frank Kuron
-
0

Remember that old song from the musical, Annie Get Your Gun? It reminds me of a friendly competition I had with one of the neighborhood kids of my youth. It started when he got a new bike for his birthday. My next birthday produced a bike too, but a three-speed! You could be sure that if I got a new basketball, he would soon have a new football. It got really ugly when my Detroit Tigers won the World Series in ’68 and his Cleveland Indians, well, didn’t. Even our fathers got in on that rivalry! This one-ups-man-ship attitude is what prompted the building of the British Fort Amherstburg at the mouth of the Detroit River in Canada.  

In 1796, Jay’s Treaty stipulated that the British finally surrender possession of Fort Detroit to the Americans – something they were supposed to have done at the end of the Revolution, thirteen years earlier. The concession stung the British because Detroit was a very lucrative trading center with the Native Americans. Solution – construct a comparable fortress right across the Detroit River, right across from the now American Fort Detroit. It would be named after Jeffery Amherst, a British hero of the French and Indian War. Besides being the first British Governor General in the Canadian territories, Amherst is also notorious for being the first to employ biological warfare.  Are you ready? He actually ordered the distribution of blankets, to unknowing Native Americans, which were infected with the smallpox virus.   

The post became known as Fort Amherstburg, and being just a military stronghold, or just a trading center, simply wouldn’t do. Yes, it was both of those things, but alongside of it a ship-building facility was constructed – the King’s Navy Yard. Here, four of the six ships to do battle with Oliver Perry in 1813 would be built.  

Physically the fort took on the general design of many other British forts. Palisades enclosed the 900- yard rectangular perimeter at a height of ten feet. The four corners had diamond shaped earthworks which hid four cannons each. Inside, buildings housed the supplies and occupants.  

At the onset of war, in August of 1812, it was this fort that US General Hull came within a few miles of attacking before having a change of heart and retreating to Fort Detroit. Here also, Alexander McKee spent many years as a frontier trader with other infamous characters like Simon Girty. Earlier, McKee ran a trading post on the lowlands of the Maumee River just below the current 577 Foundation property in Perrysburg, Ohio.  

It was at Fort Amherstburg that such famous leaders as Tecumseh and General Brock would meet to plan military maneuvers throughout the Northwest Territory. These two giants of military prowess made their first War of 1812 move when they successfully attacked Hull and regained possession of Fort Detroit. Just two months later General Henry Proctor was awarded command of the fort after Brock was killed at Queenston Heights. From this base, Proctor and Tecumseh directed the attack at the Raisin River, and later unsuccessfully led their forces against Fort Stephenson and Fort Meigs.  

The victory of Oliver Perry over the British fleet on September 10, 1813 triggered heated arguments between Tecumseh, who wanted to fight the approaching American force at the fort, and Proctor who wanted to retreat. Proctor won the debate and the withdrawal began, but not before Fort Amherstburg, which had stood for seventeen years, was torched.  

The Americans would catch and defeat their opponent at what is known as the Battle of the Thames and so the smoldering ruins of Fort Amherstburg would temporarily come into their possession, but only until the end of the war in 1815.  

From this time on it was referred to more often as Fort Malden, in the city of Amherstburg. It was only sparsely manned for years and was even used as an insane asylum for a time, until the property was eventually sold off for urban development. Since 1939 the original grounds have been regained and opened to the public. Next time you take a trip to Canada, set aside a day to visit this historic location. You’ll have one up on your friends. 

Frank Kuron is author of the War of 1812 book, “Thus Fell Tecumseh.” Email him at [email protected] 

Bugle Call: Upcoming Events 

Some key websites to learn of upcoming 1812 Bicentennial events: 

www.1812amherstburg.com/event/roots-to-boots  — August 3-5, 2012 — Roots to Boots Weekend Festival in Amherstburg, Ontario. 

www.pc.gc.ca/eng/lhn-nhs/on/malden/index.aspx  — Fort Malden National Historic Site of Canada. 

www.warof1812.ohio.gov — Most Ohio events are listed. 

www.opsail.org – Details of the US Navy’s OpSail tour of the eastern seaboard and Great Lakes. The Niagara and ships of today’s military will be in Toledo from August 22-27, 2012. 

www.battleoflakeerie-bicentennial.com – Details of a full re-enactment of the Battle of Lake Erie planned for September of 2013 in which you can participate.  

www.fortmeigs.org – Numerous activities year-round. 

www.riverraisinbattlefield.org – Numerous activities year-round. 

Treece: State of the economy

By
Ben Treece
-
0

Before getting into this week’s financial report, I wanted to take a moment and comment on my article from last week, Corn is King. In that article, I quoted the price of corn as being $800/bushel. Corn is quoted in cents, not dollars. The current price of corn is just over 800 cents/bushel, or $8/bushel. I can only attribute my misrepresentation to habit; when we constantly quote stock prices and bond prices in dollars, it flowed a little too easily. I should have caught this error in my proof reading but I did not, and for that I am sorry. I would like to thank my readers for pointing out my mistake in a courteous and professional manner, and I will do better in the future. 

While presenting to a 401(k) plan that we advise up in Auburn Hills we were revisiting our economic forecasts from back in the 1st quarter of 2012 and found that many of our predictions came to fruition. We predicted that we would begin to see signs of a strengthening economy, but that policy would hold back the private sector more than anything. Sure enough, failed policies from the federal, state and local levels have resulted in a temporary freeze in the economy.  

Manufacturing, retail sales and housing prices and activity are all up in the reporting period, however hiring has leveled off and jobless claims have ticked up slightly. Unemployment has continued to be an issue for this recovery for 2 main reasons; we lack skilled labor and future employee costs are unknown. 

Some readers have questioned our economic analysis as being politically biased and driven. We do our best to let the investing public know that the markets and public policy have a very close relationship; one tends to mold the other. My father, Dock D. Treece, has been in the financial services industry since 1979 and has made money under every president since Jimmy Carter; case in point, we do not allow our own political perspectives to influence our investment goals, objectives or choices. The fact of the matter is that the Affordable Care Act has many employers terrified to take on new staff. This is not a comment on socialized medicine, the current administration or the healthcare industry, this is simply commenting on documented responses of business owners to the law as it is written. If the Affordable Care Act carries on as is, expect unemployment to remain high for an extended period of time. 

Private sector business owners have also noticed a frightening trend when hiring; finding skilled workers has proven to be very difficult. Between a lack of interest in younger generations to focus on engineering studies and many apprenticeship training programs closing their doors, finding the right people for the manufacturing jobs that have been moving back from overseas has not been an easy task. 

“Onshoring” of manufacturing jobs has been another trend that we predicted well over a year ago. Between rising labor costs abroad and the inability to protect product patents, many manufacturers have decided to shift their factories to the US and North America (Bose and Honda are 2 big ones to name a few).  

Adding to the solid economic numbers, Industrial Production was up .6% year over year and Home Builder Confidence turned in at the highest level since February of 2007. This shows us that the bottom of the real estate market has likely come and gone, and buyers are now looking for new construction homes instead of older model homes from the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s.  

One cause for concern that we have has been an increase in food, energy and housing costs, or what is known in economics as inelastic goods. These are items that even when the price increases, their demand stays relatively constant. When prices increase for inelastic goods, consumers have fewer dollars to allocate towards discretionary spending, i.e. entertainment. Historically, when these prices increase and the economy fails to grow, we have what is called stagflation, which was a term tightly associated with the Misery Index under President Carter. 

On the whole, the economy is improving, slowly but surely. In our opinion there are many policy choices that could be made to speed up the recovery, but all things considered the US economy is getting stronger, even if the numbers do not always reflect it.  

Ben Treece is a 2009 Graduate from the University of Miami (FL), BBA International Finance and Marketing. He is a partner with Treece Investment Advisory Corp (www.TreeceInvestments.com) and a stockbroker licensed with FINRA, working for Treece Financial Services Corp. The above information is the express opinion of Ben Treece and should not be construed as investment advice or used without outside verification. 

 

Rathbun: Actions for the fiscal cliff

By
Gary Rathbun
-
0

It increasingly looks like Congress is going to do nothing about the fiscal cliff that we are headed for at the beginning of next year.  For those of you that are not familiar with the term “fiscal cliff” or the implications of it, let me briefly explain. 

At the end of this year the overall tax rates are going to increase, the payroll tax will increase and over 1 trillion of automatic spending cuts will go into effect.  Additionally, there are several new taxes that will take affect in 2013 from the Obamacare legislation among others. 

All told, there is about 600 billion dollars of effect on the economy next year and that will, according to some experts, plunge us into a deep recession that will last a while.  I am not going to discuss this aspect today but rather what actions you should consider, regardless of what happens. 

The first things we are looking at are the tax rates.  The tax rates are going to go up next year regardless of the fiscal cliff being dealt with or not.  Whether President Obama gets re-elected or Mitt Romney gets elected, Congress will raise tax rates to provide the illusion that they are being fiscally responsible. 

With that in mind, between now and the end of the year, one should look at what we call “tax harvesting”.   

Under normal circumstances, tax harvesting, involves taking some loses at the end of the year to offset gains taken throughout the year or vice versa.  Profits always have to be recognized in the year they are realized but losses are carried forward if they are not used in the year they are realized. 

We recently had a case come into our office where the advisor took a 48,000 dollar loss for a client without any offsetting gains in the same year.  The losses were then carried forward at the rate of 3,000 dollars against ordinary income per year.  (You can use the losses faster if you have gains in the future that are realized.)  The problem was that this investor is 96 years old and does not have the possibility of realizing 48,000 dollars of gains in her lifetime. 

The advisor clearly wasn’t thinking and openly admitted his mistake.   

This year, however, is slightly different in that we will want to take gains where we can so that the taxes are at a lower rate than they will be after the first of the year.  Capital gain rates are scheduled to increase and the rate on dividend income will probably increase tremendously for most taxpayers. 

We are starting early this year in our tax harvesting since it is likely that there will be a large number of people doing the same thing later this year, plus the overall market is up right now and we believe that could change dramatically by the end of the year. 

As we get closer to the end of the year we will get a better picture of what next year will be like so we will make adjustments accordingly, but for now it would be good if you started to look at your portfolio from a tax standpoint and talk to your advisor and tax professional sooner rather than later. 

Gary L. Rathbun is the president and CEO of Private Wealth Consultants, LTD.  

Owens implements virtual welding technology

By
Morgan Delp
-
0
David Siravo, director of skilled trades and apprenticeship training at Owens Community College, operates the VRTEX 360. Toledo Free Press photo by JOSEPH HERR

It may look solid, but there is more to a good weld than what meets the eye. 

“People can make a beautiful weld, but it can be broken with a hammer,” said Jim Gilmore, chairman of diesel and welding technologies at Owens Community College. “You want something that looks good and is functional as well, so you couldn’t break it with a hammer or even a semi truck. Everything – our buildings, our bridges – depends on that.” 

Area welders now have the opportunity to test the appearance and durability of their products as well as practice and hone their welding skills using Owens Community College’s new VRTEX 360 systems. 

The VRTEX 360 is a Virtual Reality Arc Welding trainer, a computer-based educational tool that allows users to practice welding technique in a simulated environment, logging practice hours while reducing the material waste, scrap and energy consumption associated with traditional welding training, according to manufacturer Lincoln Electric’s website. 

In January 2011, Owens unveiled its newly renovated $1.1 million, 14,512-square-foot Welding Design Center on its Toledo-area campus in Perrysburg Township. Using grant funds, the school purchased a VRTEX 360 training system from Lincoln Electric six months ago and a second system about a month ago. 

David Siravo talks with students about the VRTEX 360 at Owens Community College. Toledo Free Press photo by JOSEPH HERR

When using the system, welders use tools to perform the movements of welding while wearing a mask that displays an image of what they are virtually “welding” in front of them, said David Siravo, director of Skilled Trades and Apprenticeship Training at Owens. A large screen displays the same image for instructors to view the process. 

As the student welds, the machine makes sounds similar to those in a real welding situation, Siravo said. A quiet sound is good, while a loud sound means a good weld is not being formed. After the weld is completed, the VRTEX 360 inspects the weld with two tests. 

The first test is a “nondestructive test,” where the system checks to make sure the weld is visually sound and has been formed correctly. For the “destructive test,” the virtual weld is placed on a press that pushes down, trying to break it. 

“[The two tests] are the criteria used to determine if you are going to pass that particular welding certification test,” Siravo said. 

The sound of a crowd cheers if the weld holds up and boos if the weld does not. 

“It shows you how it broke and where it broke so we can look at it and rotate it from all directions and also zoom in on it, so we can get a better picture of what happened,” Siravo said. “This tells us a lot about if I am prepared to go to the real welder or not.” 

While virtual training does not replace traditional welding training, 77 percent of welding training can be accomplished on the machine, as welders gain the muscle memory required to perform real welding, Siravo said. 

“We had a gentleman who had welded for Chrysler and was retired, so he said he hadn’t welded in several years,” Bankey said. “It was kind of neat because he got on there and after a couple of tries it came back to him really quickly.” 

Siravo said all types of welding can be practiced on the VRTEX 360, and instructors can use a flash drive to convert students’ performance data from the system to a pdf file on their own computer. 

Because the units are portable, Owens also now has the capability to transport the technology to area companies for employee welding evaluation and training. 

“[Before] if a company said, ‘We would like you to assess our employees,’ they might have to make arrangements to bring their employees down to our lab,” said Michael Bankey, associate vice president of Owens’ Workforce and Community Services. “What’s unique here is we can take it to the company, where before we couldn’t.” 

The mobility saves companies time and money, Bankey said. 

“Before we could send an instructor if [the company] had welding equipment at the facility already. But it might be the case where if they do have welding capabilities at their company, they’re using it for production, so the last thing they want to do is shut that down to have someone else in training,” Bankey said. 

The VRTEX 360’s initial assessment feature is will be used as a pre-qualification for Owens welding students and also allows students who may not know if welding is what they want to pursue to try out the field by practicing on the virtual systems, Bankey said. The welding program at Owens is an associate of applied science degree, consisting of 66 credits. 

“If they think they want to weld but maybe have never welded before and wonder if it’s really for them, we’re going to create some really short couple of nights where they’re going to be able to do some welding on the machines,” Bankey said. “This way it will provide a very safe environment where they can’t hurt themselves, so it takes out that fear. If they like the feel and decide this is for them then we want to get them over to the (Perrysburg Township) campus and get them working on the pathway towards getting certified.” 

Another plus of the VRTEX 360 is the controlled environment in which welders of all levels can practice, Bankey said. 

“Some of [the company’s] folks may have never welded before, so then you have the whole safety issue,” Bankey said. “We just want to make sure no one is going to get hurt or burn themselves.” 

Nick Nijakowski, a welder and welding trainer at Swanton Welding & Machining, tested the VRTEX 360 at a recent Owens open house and found the machine felt similar to a real-life welding situation minus the heat and other dangerous elements. 

Nijakowski said he had looked at similar equipment numerous times before, but that it’s hard to practice and get a hands-on feel at crowded shows. 

“Here I can mess with it,” Nijakowski said of Owens’ VRTEX 360. 

Bankey said Owens has also taken the VRTEX 360 to Maumee Valley Fabricators, who declined to comment. 

 

Bicycling healthy, relaxing way to explore city

By
Marie Eye
-
0
Photo courtesy JAY CATLOW

“I’ve lived in Toledo my whole life, but never knew that was there.”
“I’ve driven past this, but never took the time to stop and check it out.”
“I will want to revisit this.”
Those were among the comments overheard by Bill Tucholski during a recent “Explore Toledo” bicycle ride he organized.
The second annual 30-mile ride drew 23 riders and included stops at historical and cultural landmarks and several points of interest in Toledo’s older neighborhoods and Downtown.
“What motivated us to ride together on city streets, sidewalks and trail links for several hours on a hot summer day could best be described as a desire to experience a sense of adventure in an urban setting,” Tucholski said. “Many of us also wished to reconnect with our and Toledo’s past and to learn about what the city has to offer besides the usual fare.”
Among sights and stops during the ride were a walking tour of the community garden near the Sofia Quintero Art & Cultural Center, a view of the brightly colored murals along Broadway Street, a stroll through the San Marcos Taqueria, the Emerald Street Railroad Bridge trestle, the historic Casey-Pomeroy House, a memorial park for union workers on Champlain Street, the future site of Middlegrounds Metropark, a glassblowing demonstration at Toledo Museum of Art’s Glass Pavilion and Ottawa Park’s Toledo Police Museum.
The riders also stopped at Manhattan’s for lunch and Netty’s on South Detroit Avenue for ice cream.
“By riding at a nice leisurely pace, we had a chance to observe urban dwellers and visitors going about their daily routines and business in a manner that we are usually blind to,” Tucholski said. “Many drivers in vehicles and pedestrians expressed words or gestures of encouragement, like a thumbs-up, along the entire route, even though they were clueless about who we were or what we were all about!”
The riders were mainly in their 50s and 60s or older and, although tired, were sorry to see the day end, Tucholski said.
“We all felt somehow younger than our years with a renewed sense of connectedness to our immediate surroundings, heritage and each other,” Tucholski said. “That was the direct result of touring Toledo in this manner.”
Americans have been in love with automobiles for more than a century.
Because of the great distances many of us have to travel, most have abandoned the use of bicycles as a primary mode of transportation. But with the economy and a growing interest in health and the environment, this option is slowly coming back.
According to the League of American Bicyclists’ annual community survey, 0.4 percent of the Toledo population used a bicycle to commute to work in 2010.
Jay Catlow, who is a member of the volunteer bike patrol for Metroparks of Toledo Area and who participated in the “Explore Toledo” bike ride, said bicycling helps him maintain his
weight and manage stress.
“My aerobic levels are very good for a 69-year-old,” Catlow said.
“Riding with friends is also a very good health benefit. I would say I do 20 miles at least three to five days a week and also do 10 miles of mountain biking a week.
Those with health issues or handicaps can often ride with the use of adaptive equipment or can ride recumbent bikes or tricycles, Tucholski said. As with any physical activity, be sure to hydrate before, during and after a ride, he added.
Useful equipment and accessories to consider include a rearview mirror, a carrier on the rear of the bike, a bike bag for valuables, a spare tire, a tool kit, a snack, a camera, a bike lock and keys and padded riding gloves, Tucholski said.
For more information about the next bike ride, contact Bill Tucholski at [email protected]. ✯

Szyperski: Is turnabout fair play?

By
Shannon Szyperski
-
0

Inspired by the rousing appearances of the U.S. women’s soccer team in last summer’s World Cup and this summer’s Olympic Games, my 9-year-old son informed me that he would really like a women’s soccer video game. He already has a few games showcasing the premier men’s soccer players in the world, so he was hoping to also add the premier women’s players to his collection. We reserve such purchases for birthdays and holidays, but I decided to take a peek at what was out there for future reference.

Nada.

Somewhat surprised, I decided to dig a little deeper into the gender equality of the sports gaming world. After some searching, I found that the reality-based video games do tend to computer generate many more male athletes than female athletes. EA Sports, the maker of the Madden franchise, offers computer-generated versions of the NFL, NHL, NBA and FIFA, along with NCAA football and basketball. However, I could not find any games featuring female WNBA, FIFA or NCAA players.

I did find video game representation of real-life female athletes included in EA Sports’ “Grand Slam Tennis” and “Tiger Woods PGA Tour” series. From other manufacturers I found a “Shawn Johnson Gymnastics” game and two female athletes depicted in “Supremacy MMA,” a mixed martial arts game. I eventually tracked down a Mia Hamm Soccer game … released in November of 2000 … for Nintendo 64. I see.

As a woman, I feel I should be outraged that my gender is underrepresented in sports-based video games. After all, I was very athletic as a child, playing everything from soccer to softball to varsity tennis. I even quarterbacked my otherwise all-boy flag football team. I spent my Sundays glued to NFL games and asked for sports memorabilia for my birthday. I was a female athlete before cleats and mitts came in pink to please the athletic female masses. Yet, somehow, I’m just not overly appalled that female athletics sometimes take a back seat to male athletics.

Despite my own affinity for sports, I have a daughter who couldn’t care less about them. However, I’ve still encouraged my mechanically-inclined, fashion-minded, no-interest-whatsoever-in-sports middle child to play anyway, because society now says that girls should be involved in sports. I personally just want to see her do whatever it is she enjoys, but growing up in the Title IX era I can’t help but think that it’s somehow my responsibility to ensure that she picks at least one sporty side dish for her life’s main course.

On the flip side, I have a son who has an affinity for sports that far surpasses even my own as a child. With very minimal nudging, he has realized an inherent love for soccer and for the sporting world at large. There is something about it that strikes a chord in him and gives him not only an understanding of athletics but of life in general.

So, I just happen to have a boy who lives for sports and a girl who could easily live without them. They are easily only two cases in a sea of millions, and their personal preferences could no doubt be vice versa. Yet, I can’t help but hold some concern about them both having the freedom to pursue their individual interests as time goes on.

Due to Title IX requirements and the higher cost and gender-partiality of certain sports (namely football), some universities now offer more women’s varsity sports than men’s varsity sports. In fact, our largest local university only offers six men’s varsity sports as opposed to nine women’s varsity sports. One of the sports that got the Title IX boot locally was men’s varsity soccer.

My daughter, who couldn’t care less, will have the opportunity to play collegiate soccer just down the road from us, but my son, who may actually want to do such a thing, will likely not be afforded that same chance because of his gender. In fact, life often becomes unfair in the name of fairness, because equality is ultimately in the eye of the beholder and not in the lines of well-meaning laws. Equality comes more in the form of respect and opportunity for those who take an interest than in the form of evenly split monetary, gender and other ratios.

With that in mind, I’m honestly OK with things like an unbalanced supply of male to female athletes in the world of video games if it reflects the demands of those who do take an interest. However, when my fair-minded, sports-loving, video-game-collecting son points out that he would like to see a league of determined and talented athletic women get a fair electronic shake, it’s time to send an email to EA Sports.

 

Shannon and her husband, Michael, are raising three children in Sylvania. Email her at [email protected].

1...254255256...297Page 255 of 297