As we move into June, our Oneonta event calendar is filling up; we hope you are checking it weekly because there are new happenings as well as some traditional June events listed below:

• Meredith Dairy Fest, June 12 & 13, in Meredith, NY.  We’ll see you there!
• Jonathan Wood Raptor Project show with Birds of Prey you can see and photograph close up:  June 12 at the Joseph L. Popp, Jr. Butterfly Conservatory, www.OneontaButterflies.com
• Oneonta Outlaws baseball season has opened. Check their web page so you won’t miss any home games.
• There is a free concert with The Bowmans (Sponsored by Five Star Subaru of Oneonta) on June 12 celebrating the opening of the Foothills Performing Arts Center theatre. Check the website to find locations where you can pick up the free tickets.

There are so many events in June that you may want to check our calendar www.OneontaOnTheMap.com for Oneonta Farmers’ Market Events, auction listings, Cooperstown Blues Express Train and more live music venues. We’re looking forward to the July grand opening and scheduled concerts at The Oneonta Theatre.

Having fun at Oneonta area events,

Mary Robinson

www.OneontaOnTheMap.com
with a calendar of Oneonta happenings

Oneonta, New York has the privilege of welcoming Canadian Fiddle Champion Ivonne Hernandez (www.ivonnehernandez.com) and internationally acclaimed British jazz violinist Ben Powell (www.ben-powell.com). The workshop and concerts are free and open to the public. Free and open to the public; sounds so amazing that I had to restate it.

On Tuesday, March 30, at 10:00 a.m., the duo will perform a public concert in the Hunt Union Ballroom on the campus of SUNY Oneonta.    Following the performance, at 12:30 p.m., the duo will teach an improvisation workshop to any interested musicians from the community.  Be sure to bring your instruments to the afternoon session.

A second concert will be performed at 7:30 p.m. in IRC 3 (Instructional Resource Center) on the SUNY campus. The evening concert is part of the Hewitt Pantaleoni Memorial Concert Series and is partially funded by the Catskill Conservatory.

Julie Signitzer, music director of LDYE, invited Hernandez back to Oneonta after hearing her play last year with the Folk Arts Quartet who accompanied Eugene Friesen in the annual workshop.   “Ivonne is a young, hard hitting fiddler who has five times been declared the Grand North American Fiddle Champion.   She is also an amazing step dancer. (I was there last year and she was awesome!)

In addition, LDYE invited her friend, 23 year old Ben Powell, to join her.  He is a stellar jazz violinist who has already performed throughout much of the world.  The contrasting styles should inspire the students to explore their instruments in many different ways.  I am sure it will be an exciting event for all who participate”.  The two young fiddlers are recent graduates of the Berklee College of Music in Boston and have successfully launched extensive performance careers.

This residency is sponsored in part by the Foothills performing Arts Center, The SUNY Oneonta Music Department, the A. Lindsay and Olive B. O’Connor Foundation, the Future of Oneonta Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts Decentralization Program administered in Otsego County by the Upper Catskill Community Council of the Arts and the Catskill Conservatory.

Thank you to these wonderful organizations (and Julie Signitzer) for making these concerts/classes possible to enrich our children and our community.  My daughter is a former member of LDYE so this thanks is heartfelt, and why I especially call attention to Little Delaware Youth Ensemble events.

I do have to warn you, however, if my daughter can’t attend, I may borrow her violin this year, and I’m a little rusty …

Hope to see you there.

Mary Robinson
www.OneontaOnTheMap.com

Welcome back SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College students.  Are you looking for ways to chill out in Oneonta this semester?

If you like the cold,

• Check out Plattekill Mountain Ski & Tubing Resort‘s website for special events such as $15 lift tickets (Jan. 27-29).
• Hanford Mills Museum’s Annual Ice Harvest claims to be the region’s “coolest tradition.” It’s happening Feb. 6 from 10:00 am-4:00 pm.
• Ice Skating on Hodges Pond in Neahwa Park is an Oneonta tradition, call 432-7997 for daily updates regarding hours and conditions (website: www.Oneonta.ny.us/government/)
• Brrr, it’s time to register for the 15th Annual Goodyear Lake Polar Bear Jump (Feb. 20) benefit.  A Chinese Auction will be held Jan. 31 at Milford Central School to benefit this event. Check the website for Polar Bear Jump pre-registration info: www.PBJump.com; you must pre-register in order to participate.

If you’re the warm-blooded type, looking to hunker down under covers or stay in more temperate indoors, these Oneonta area activities may be just what to do until spring break comes:

• Eat, Sleep, PLAY Oneonta — check out Neverdaunt N8, a MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) video game created by Oneonta local Calvin Goble. I’m trying to arrange a coffee shop gathering with Calvin; if you’re enthralled by his game and would like to tell him in person, e-mail me mr@OneontaOnTheMap.com.
• Feb. 3 – 21st, Hartwick College’s Department of English and Theatre Arts is presenting DEARLY DEPARTED, Bottrell & Jones’ rip-roarin’ redneck farce about the Turpin family, proving that living and dying in the South is seldom tidy and always hilarious. Check www.OneontaOnTheMap.com‘s event calendar for the dates and times and reserve your tickets online at www.hartwick.edu/x1197.xml
• B. Sharp Gallery is having an Art Exhibition Opening Reception Feb. 6 from 4-8 pm (The exhibition runs through Feb. 21). Plan to attend the reception to schmooze with local Oneonta and NYC artists.
• Feb. 7 is the Sixth Annual UCCCA Chili Bowl Competition; watch for upcoming details.
• Feb. 12 is SUNY College at Oneonta’s Tenth Annual Faculty Research Show.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this smattering of events and things to do when Oneonta cabin fever has got you down. Keep checking our website calendar or follow us on Twitter for continuous updates.  And feel free to add your college events to our calendar by clicking “add event”; we’re a website built by the Oneonta community!

Finally, OneontaOnTheMap.com’s  ”Coupons to your cell phone” business promotion is up and running. Tell your favorite local stores/merchants to add their specials or coupons to our website so we can blog & Tweet about them and you can save $.  How great would it be to have all the Super Bowl Party Pack Specials listed on www.OneontaOnTheMap.com?  Spread the word; let’s have fun with this!

Thanks for listening,

Mary Robinson
www.OneontaOnTheMap.com
SUNY Oneonta ’06

Neverdaunt (N8) is getting rave reviews and Calvin was recently interviewed by a U.K. gaming magazine  (I’ll add the link when the interview is published). This is impressive for a self-taught programmer/artist attempting a formidable task: creating a MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) game as his first project.  He’s had the game idea for many years: designing a game around players making up their own games to play, so participants can create and teach each other something new. After three years of full time designing and coding,  Neverdaunt is a reality.

I had hoped to enter the world of Neverdaunt before writing this post, but due to our new location and slow satellite Internet, I am not able to play MMO games from home.  OneontaOnTheMap followers, I am counting on you to check it out and spread the word about Neverdaunt (N8);  I hope to see you in that world shortly. This news is so important, we’ve put the Neverdaunt link on our www.OneontaOnTheMap.com front page, making a new right hand section with news from our blog. Neverdaunt is for ages 13+.

P.S. – If you’re interested in meeting up with Calvin at a local coffee shop to talk more about Neverdaunt N8 or game design programming, let me know (leave a comment or e-mail info@OneontaOnTheMap.com ) and we’ll try to arrange it.

Holler Oneonta,

Mary Robinson
OOTM your Un-official Guide

Woman walking her pet pot bellied pig at the Oneonta City of the Hills Art Festival

This past Saturday (July 18, 2009) was a fun day — Holistic Health Day at the Oneonta Farmers’ Market, then the Leatherstocking Buzzards Remote Control Aircraft Mini-Fest Hospice Fundraiser (they do some crazy flying!) and in the evening the new B. Sharp Gallery Art Exhibit Opening where we met some interesting artists in a close personal setting.  I usually have to coax Rick to attend art openings, but after this experience his interest in art is piqued.

It’s been a year since we launched* www.OneontaOnTheMap.com; each week as I reflect on developments: businesses adding listings and events, local Tweets from Twitter, photograph entries for July’s contest, and stats and feedback from people who’ve found our database of Oneonta happenings helpful … of course I see so much more that could be done. One of my favorite proverbs, “All beginnings are hard” aptly applies and most computer people will second that notion. I feel overwhelmed by the lofty goals of creating an online community in concert with the Oneonta NY business community, and trying to provide the elusive interactive Internet experience that will keep visitors returning. When I’m in an overwhelmed state, just reading about the numerous exciting events taking place in Oneonta stresses me out.

But Rick, being the pragmatic programmer, brings me back to reality and our original goals: to help people find business and event information and directions quickly, and support the  Oneonta business community by enhancing their web presence (free listings, exposure, social media marketing). I think we’re on the right path, so I’ll relax and enjoy — have fun with our website and around Oneonta.

Rick enjoyed mingling with artists at the B. Sharp Gallery Exhibition Opening.

So yes, we are having fun with this, and hope you’ll hang in with us as we tend our database and watch it grow.  If you’ve found our website and information helpful, let businesses or event organizers know you found them here. Now it’s back to work as we have some new features we’ll be announcing soon.

Thanks for listening,

Mary Robinson

www.OneontaOnTheMap.com — Telling you what you want to know & where to go!

*OneontaOnTheMap.com has been up and running for over a year; however, we officially launched it in Dec. 2008.

Hope everyone had a happy Mother’s Day weekend.

On Sat., thanks to a Twitter Tweet from Harmony Hill Retreat Center, I was reminded that May 9 was the Annual East Meredith Fire Dept. Frank Briggs Pancake Day. Off we drove to our old neighborhood hamlet (we lived in E. Meredith for ten years), and had the most delicious pancake lunch. E. Meredith Fire Dept. is known for their home made sausage, which did not disappoint us.

As we were driving down Main Street Oneonta, we noticed a car wash sponsored by the Oneonta Stallions, a semi-professional football team. Who are these Oneonta Stallions? I gave them a donation and a card and said I’d like to know more; hope they check in and add their listing and also future events. Talk to me! Here’s a pic.

Although we missed the opening night (May 9) reception for the B. Sharp Gallery art exhibition, we stopped by Sunday to view the artwork and talk with gallery owner Bobby Sharp. This exhibition of local artists will be at the B. Sharp Gallery until the end of this month. Check OneontaOnTheMap event calendar for days and times.  Here’s a few pics.

Bobby Sharp and Joe LaBruzzo talking about the art and future show plans.

Taking in the artwork

Photography: a Catskills sunset took my breath away.

And it wasn’t all food and play this weekend (although we did stop in at the Latte Lounge for a gelato treat) — I finished painting our sign and Rick put it up!

Rick hangs our website sign!

Thanks for listening,
Mary Robinson
www.OneontaOnTheMap.com
The business directory with the personal note

“Also I found out about the website from you. I work at ______ and one day you returned something and asked my coworker if she twittered and I said that I did. You gave me your card and told me about your site. I’m really glad that you did!”

Word of mouth advertising does produce results:) However, Craig B., winner of the $50 gift certificate to Green Toad Bookstore, found out about our site when we placed a couple of ads in the Pennysaver. Craig is a programmer/web developer for the Pennysaver and started following us on Twitter.

At the OH Fest this past Saturday, we raffled off a $30 gift certificate to Kid’s Stuff toy store (on Main Street Oneonta), a $30 gift certificate to the Undercover Eggplant (Oneonta’s West End), and 2 tickets to the Joseph L. Popp, Jr., Butterfly Conservatory. Congratulations to the winners, and special thanks to the Joseph L. Popp, Jr. Butterfly Conservatory for the donation of the two tickets. And of course a HUGE Thank You to SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College for creating OH Fest IV for our community. We hope you will continue to work together on many OH Fests in the future!

Thanks for listening,
Mary Robinson
www.OneontaOnTheMap.com
Your Hometown Home Page … supporting the Oneonta business community … and having fun doing it!

Last year, my husband’s coworker from NYC said his daughter was considering attending the State University College at Oneonta (SUNY Oneonta), and asked what we could tell him about it. Probably a bit more than he expected; you see, I graduated from SUNY Oneonta in 2006. Although I was an older (my daughter graduated from college in 2004), non-traditional student, I felt eminently qualified to talk about SUCO, especially if someone were planning to major in Human Ecology, Education, or Computer Art. My three years of full time college at SUNY Oneonta were a great experience; I would honestly forget that I was everyone’s mom’s age. Ahhh, those were the days.

So our friend’s daughter did choose to attend SUCO and when he was picking her up for winter break he took us out to lunch. Turns out she loves being a student here, has chosen communications as her field; she’s even become involved with the student newspaper.

I realize now is the time that new students and parents are adjusting to the idea of coming to SUNY Oneonta this fall. I’ve designated myself as the unofficial Oneonta blogosphere welcoming committee, and I’d like to direct both new SUNY Oneonta students and their parents to our hometown online directory www.OneontaOnTheMap.com . Please check it out and follow us on Twitter to get the most out of your years in Oneonta.

O town has many treasures to discover, places to go and things to do. Many people I talk to don’t even realize that Oneonta is home of the National Soccer Hall of Fame! We’ll change this. The next time we visited my husband’s coworker we gave him tickets to visit the National Soccer Hall of Fame & Museum (we had discovered during our lunch that his 12 year old son loves soccer). We really are an unofficial Oneonta NY PR committee (and we’re having fun doing it).

One last bit of advice to parents & new SUNY Oneonta students: check out our website soon for details of our Gift Certificate Give Aways ending April 15. $50 to spend at Elena’s or Green Toad Bookstore would make your next trip here even sweeter!

Thanks for listening,
Mary Robinson
SUNY Oneonta Class of 2006

www.OneontaOnTheMap.com

For those of you thinking about entering the General Clinton Canoe Regatta this Memorial Day Weekend, May 22-25, 2009— entry forms will be available soon. As for me, I have enjoyed this annual event from the sidelines, sitting at a picnic table near a grill in Wells Bridge or driving past the Southside Dam. Still, I’ll jump start a little General Clinton Canoe Regatta virtual excitement by seeing what’s up at www.canoeregatta.org .

Perhaps you are new to the Oneonta area, or planning to visit here on Memorial Weekend and would like to know what to expect? I usually notice the canoes on cars arriving in Oneonta a few weeks before the regatta. The 70 mile race on the Susquehanna River is from Cooperstown, NY to Bainbridge NY. Jeff Shultis has provided a detailed “walk through” of the course .

If you are a first timer considering the race, under the tips for canoeists and spectators section, there are some recommendations about where and how to safely “take the plunge.” Don’t skip this important section.

At the General Clinton Canoe Regatta website you will find the history of the regatta; the first race was July 4, 1963 and had 45 entries. A good 5 hours has been shaved off the finishing race time since then, and the first place prize has increased from $200 in 1963 to a first place prize of $3,000! I truly enjoyed some of the vintage black & white photos of the early races and the amusement rides too.

I hope in future years that we at www.OneontaOnTheMap.com may be able to participate in the General Clinton Canoe Regatta, but it will probably be as sponsors rather than paddlers. However, I would like to welcome participants and spectators planning to attend the 2009 General Clinton Canoe Regatta, and encourage you to check our site frequently for information about places, events and developments in Oneonta, NY—which you won’t want to miss.

Happy paddling,
Mary Robinson
www.OneontaOnTheMap.com