I’ve never been into the alcohol. As you can see in many videos of mine (take “Roni takes a shot“, for one), it just isn’t my thing. But I’ve always been interested in how alcoholic drinks are made, both on the backend and mixology fronts. And strangely enough, while I’ve always thought that even the smell of beer was repugnant, I actually am curious to try Newport Storm’s blueberry beer again. Crisp and light. Nothing like the piss smell that I normally associate with beer.

Going to Newport Storm allowed me to see some of the process behind making rum. After tasting each of the different steps along the way (and trying some of the beers), I went back to see the aging rum barrels. I gleefully exclaimed that I felt like I was on a pirate ship.

The whole experience was exactly what I pictured. A knowledgeable, friendly tour guide (in the form of Lindsay), tasting of different products and a thorough explanation of how it all went down.

You can see a video of my experience below.

Some things I learned:

• The rum comes out of the still at 180 proof (90% alcohol).
• It’s proofed to 108, added to oak barrels and aged 2 years. The flavor and color come the from barrel, which are used bourbon barrels.
• The oaky smoke of the rum comes from the barrel, which is charred on the interior. Vanilla is a natural chemical in oak wood, which can be tasted in the rum.
• After 2 years, it’s taken out of the barrel, filtered and labelled from the individual barrel number. Each rum is only from one barrel.

“What cheer?”

- Motto of Providence, RI

At some point in my Rhode Island trip planning, it became possible that I’d visit Providence. I was somewhat upset that it took as long as it did for me to realize/remember that Providence is home to Brown and RISD. Was Brown to check off another Ivy League visit? Was RISD to appease Sharon Burian, who makes my headers and avatars? Nothing of the sort. I’m a huge fan of The OC and I wanted to see where Summer Roberts and Seth Cohen were to attend college. But Providence is much more than a city referenced in a long-cancelled show. It’s a strange sort of place that mixes a small town feel, a West Coast wannabe vibe and an up-and-coming city bravado.

John McCauley of Deer Tick

I was there during the 375th birthday of the Rhode Island capital. At the celebration at PPAC (pronounced ‘PEE-pack’, standing for Providence Performing Arts Center), the crowd celebrated through performance displays (apropos), including a set by Deer Tick (a band I’d that never heard of, but the crowd clearly had).

On the walk up to College Hill, I noticed that there was an Occupy Providence movement in the local park. I asked them what the biggest difference between them and Occupy Wall Street was. “We weren’t shut down and our police are nicer.”

Brown University

The Museum of Art at RISD is a must-see. If I were to pick one museum for someone to go to as a CliffsNotes experience, this would be it. The variety of eras and styles is curated so well. Not only are the pieces of interest, but the way they are housed is comparable to how I’ve seen them in much larger museums, just in a scaled-down sort of way.

RISD Museum of Art

I also had a chance to stop and eat at a hard-to-pin-down restaurant. I’m not even entirely sure what its name was. The Fez? The Red Fez? Either way, they’re on Peck St. Here’s their Yelp page. I’m not the only one singing their praises. A varied menu with spins on traditional items. Chicken wings and mac & cheese sound humdrum? Not how you get them there. And how many restaurants serve the aforementioned items as well as banh mi sandwiches? Providence in all of its quirkiness.

More pictures of my Providence trip available in my Providence Flickr set.

Tomorrow: My visit the the Newport Storm Brewery.

I’m going to play a little game. I hope you indulge me.

I’ll go onto my Twitter feed, see tweets that annoy me and explain to you why they do.

Let’s play.

Ah. Also, just because I don’t like one of your tweets doesn’t mean I don’t like you. I’m just finding things that annoy me, not taking note of who is saying what.

1) Quotation marks

We live & we learn “@adventurousness: @waegook_tom @sillyamerica @whereswaldner Good lesson for y posting nude photos on FB is a bad idea”

January 24, 2012 10:08 am via Twitter for MacReplyRetweetFavorite

@BAbackpacker

Breakaway Backpacker

I blame TweetDeck and other programs for making this a default, but I hate the quotation mark thing. Whenever I put a tweet up, I go and remove them and put up ‘RT’.

#awww RT @ACarlton A life of adventure that I can share with someone special. Our story could be a book! #nuts

January 24, 2012 10:47 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@roniweiss

Roni Weiss

2) Useless quotes that I don’t care about

A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage."--Sydney Smith,

January 24, 2012 10:51 am via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@gwnunnadventure

Greg Nunn

I like humorous quotes, to be sure, but there are so many that try to be profound that mean little-to-nothing if you parse them. The above one also has bits of…

3) Spelling and grammar errors

Wind really howling in #SAntaFe

January 24, 2012 10:48 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@santafetraveler

TheSantaFeTraveler

Hi my #nuts people! Im here better late than never!

January 24, 2012 10:58 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@TOR0706

Victoria Elizabeth

What can I say, I’m a stickler. There’s a line between txtspk and just not making an effort. If I ever have any mistakes anywhere, please please please tell me.

This is actually harder than I thought… It would seem that I’ve stopped following the people who do the more annoying stuff. I’m going to have to go hunting now…

4) Links that aren’t clear what they are

I'm not the only one! http://t.co/UPmWqoPZ

January 24, 2012 11:08 am via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@Kelsye

Kelsye

What is this? It’s gimmicky making someone have to click to see what it is. And how often is it disappointing? (This one is a WTF sort of picture. Not sure why it’s a link and not an image.)

5) Overhashtagging

Hungry for #humor? Check out my *new* post: The Dominican #Papaya Milkshake Scam! #travel #lechosa #food http://t.co/dHa17BP7

January 24, 2012 11:10 am via PluggioReplyRetweetFavorite

@chickybus

Lisa E

That’s five hashtags. And are there that many people who are on the lookout for the #papaya? I would think if you were that papaya obsessed, you’d probably be fine just searching for the word itself. (I wrote a post about Overhashtagging over on the RW Social site.)

Am I being too sensitive? Do any of these drive you crazy, too? What else makes you consider unfollowing someone?

Mont Saint-Michel, France

I’ve been blogging for a couple of years now. Along with that, my various outside endeavors have grown. It’s to the point now where I share different content categories in assorted places. Now that I’m finally starting to take the bubble wrap off of New York Travel Festival, I thought I’d explain to you what goes where and why. Also, I want to let you know that while this blog isn’t the right venue for guest posts, there are other places that you can contribute.

The Official Roni Weiss Blog (AKA roniweiss.com): This is where you currently are. I don’t think it makes sense to see other authors on a so-audaciously named site. This is where I’ll continue to write my experiential stuff. Press trips to varied locales, movie reviews and strong opinion pieces that I wouldn’t necessarily want elsewhere. (@roniweiss)

Don’t Worry About The Government: This is the audio political podcast that I’ve been involved in for over 3 years. Relatively recently, I transferred the site over from Drupal to WordPress. Along with that transfer, we’ve had an opening up of content. If you have any interest in writing something politically-related, the floor is open for you over at DWATG. We also are always looking for podcast/vodcast guests. (Check out Ethan Gelber’s recent guest post: Can You Tell the Difference Between Food and Feces?) (@dwatg)

Been to Africa: It’s tough running an advocacy campaign by yourself. I’ve had different people come and go (as well as a lot of general interest in the idea behind BTA), but the project hasn’t hit its stride. BTA’s mission statement: To bridge the gap between the perception and reality of life and travel in Africa. This is done through stories and pictures of people who have been or would like to go to Africa (as well as the locals who spend every day of their life there). Know anyone who fits this? I’d love to highlight their experiences. (Most recently, Toni White of Reclaiming My Future did a guest post on her trip.) (@BeenToAfrica)

NY Travel Festival: I’m gunning to have a travel festival in 2013. There’s a lot that goes into such a thing, but part of what I’m hoping for is to share more interesting travel content. I’ll be increasingly using NYTravFest’s Twitter account, blog and Facebook page to share content. If you’re interested in writing something up that’s beyond the usual “Top 10 Places To Visit in _____”, I’d love to have you help out by writing something. If you don’t want to guest post, you can also feel free to tweet your links to deeper-level travel content and share them on the Facebook page. (@NYtravfest)

RW Social: My new social media consulting company. In general, this is where I’ve been writing social media related posts. I’ll still write the more strong opinion pieces here, though. If you’re interested in tech/business/social media news, I’d be interested in you doing guest posts or potentially a feature column. (@rwsocial)

Curious about any of the above? Ideas on how to improve it? E-mail me: roni@roniweiss.com

The Breakers

We live in a very different world than that of the Vanderbilts. The Gilded Age was a time in the U.S. before income taxes. Say what you want about the under-taxing of the Romneys of the world, but there was no income tax whatsoever for the turn-of-the-20th century Astors. The Newport Mansions are a time capsule from this era.

When I visited St. Petersburg, Russia, I had two visceral reactions: the first was pity, thinking the city deserved better than its inhabitants. My second reaction was loathing, realizing that it was the excesses of empire that had caused the problems that Russia still deals with today.

In Newport, though, I didn’t have the same reaction that I did to The Hermitage. These were families who worked hard and didn’t have a government that reined them in. They used their power and wealth not only to create massive, museum-like estates, such as The Elms, Marble House and The Breakers (the three mansions that were open during the time of year that I visited), but also to enact some social change. Alva Vanderbilt-Belmont used Marble House as a staging ground for the suffragette movement that eventually brought women the vote.

Marble House

If you go to Newport in low season and only have the three above-mentioned mansions open, I would recommend visiting them in the order listed, as it will go from impressive to most impressive.

The Elms was a property of the Berwinds, who made their money through PA coal. The latter two are Vanderbilt properties, with The Breakers being the grandest of the three ‘cottages’ that I visited. When you visit, don’t be shocked if you find them ostentatious. After all, they are mansions. Such displays of wealth are not for everyone, but if you keep it in context and appreciate the properties and artwork for what they are, you should be able to be as impressed as I was.

My room - Hotel Viking - Newport, RI

A few weeks back, I discovered that I was eligible for a Klout Perk for three free, midweek days with a Chevy Sonic.

Knowing my time limitations, I wanted to go on a road trip to somewhere within the 3-4 hour driving range. My father suggested Newport, Rhode Island. Asking around, no one had less than glowing things to say about it. That, along with the quick, helpful assistance from Newport Tourism made that my destination.

While there, I discovered that Providence was celebrating its 375th birthday, which inhibited my already limited time even further. I’d love to get back to Newport sometime, as I don’t feel like I even scratched the surface.

Here’s what I got to do:

• Spend time at Hotel Viking, eating at the restaurant, swimming in the 1920′s pool and getting a hot stone massage. I love this hotel. The people were incredibly good to me, from every level of management to staff. Just a well-run establishment. You can see my review of the hotel over on Jetsetter Lifestyle.
• Tour of Newport Storm Brewery (Coastal Extreme Brewing Co.), wherein I exclaimed “I feel like I’m on a pirate ship!”, when I saw the barrels of rum. Here’s the post. Here’s just the video.
• Visit the Newport Mansions. This time of year, there are only three open: The Elms, Marble House and The Breakers. I visited all three (in that order, which is also the order I’d recommend). Here’s the post on that.
• The International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum. A good museum, esp. for the tennis-inclined, that I didn’t have enough time to really do much in because I had to run off to Providence.

We’ll call this an overview post. I’ll go into more detail on the brewery and the mansions in upcoming posts.

While Klout Perks don’t require you to say anything about what you get, I do feel like I should do a quick review of the Sonic:

1) While it’s clearly a compact car, I never felt squished in it. Or even cramped. Or anything that would suggest that the car was too small for me.

2) I very much enjoyed having Sirius XM radio in the car.

3) The car seemed like it needed to put more effort in once it was passing about 60 MPH.

4) Gas mileage was around 27 MPG, according to the display (which I thought was pretty cool to have).

Sidenote: It’s pretty cool driving a car with a Manufacturer plate.

Through the magic of Facebook Timeline, Flickr, Gmail and scouring through old posts, let’s look back…

January 2011 – Home

1/3/11

I went to a Jet City Improv Dojo, my first time on stage in a long while and first time doing improv (in a non-camp skit way) since back in college… In 2012, I hope to find a way to get into some more improv here in NYC.

1/22/11

Facebook status:

Roni Weiss just had his first and last shot. Fuck you, Kim and Sam.

1/25/11

While it feels like Travel Talk on Twitter has been around for a while, it hasn’t even been a year… On January 25, 2011, we did our first #TTOT: “Your First Journey”. Since then, we’ve grown into the biggest Twitter travel chat. Not bad for a community-driven project.

Trivia: Did you know that it was someone from Twitter that gave us the name for TTOT? Early on, “Twitter Travel Talk” was thrown around, but I thought that Twitter would not be cool with us using their name within ours. They said no to “Twitter Travel Talk” and suggested that we use “Travel Talk on Twitter”.

1/27/11

Facebook status:

With Sam Brown

In March 2011, I went to the Los Angeles Times Travel & Adventure Show. My first time as ‘Press’ at an event. Through my time there, I made connections that led to the goings-on of the rest of the year. Without meeting Sue Facter, I wouldn’t have gone to LA Comedy Shorts (or met Peter Shankman, which got me subscribed to HARO, which got me on Who’s Still Standing). Without meeting the Mrackys, I would never have gotten connected to ATA or went off to Senegal. Without meeting Kayte Deioma, I would have never gotten into luxury travel reviews.

My entire year (and the foreseeable future) has been shaped by the connections I made there.

3/30/11

I started the audition process for Who’s Still Standing.

April 2011 – Wherein I Stop Labeling Months

LA Comedy Shorts, wherein I met Jar Jar.

May 2011

While on my trip to the East Coast for Alexa and Jeremy’s wedding, I got asked by ATA if I could go to Senegal. I bought some extra dress shirts and headed off. During the Congress, I was repeatedly cited as the living embodiment of ATA’s dedication to new media. I made friends with Tourism Ministers and was exposed to an entirely different world. Before heading to Senegal, I was thrown a tweetup in DC and another in NYC, where I got to meet various previously online-only friends.

Seeing the perception problem that Africa deals with on a daily basis, when I get back from Senegal, I launch Been to Africa.

June 2011

I was in my first film festival, with Sharon Burian’s animated version of Roni On Location being featured at STIFF in Seattle.

July 2011

Worked at USPA at UCLA. A great chance to work with some really smart, talented teens and work with some fun colleagues.

August 2011

I start my Lebanon posts (which I haven’t finished), my series of one picture from every country in Europe (ongoing) and document one of my favorite cities.

September 2011

I went on my first dedicated press trip (there was a press trip in Senegal, as well, but that was under the umbrella of the Congress).

Riviera Maya, Mexico, followed by a separate trip to Belize, wherein I got dive certification.

October 2011

I went to Cuba… Another thing I haven’t really sat down and told you much about.

Checked out Occupy Wall Street, hit up New York Comic Con, as well.

November 2011

11/1/11

The papers for RW Social LLC went through.

11/20/11

Despite an ankle sprain, I went to Meet the Breeds to check out the dogs and cats.

11/21/11

Coastal Extreme Brewing Company - Newport, RI

I visited Newport and Providence, Rhode Island, care of a Klout Perk. Still working on posts for that.

December 2011

12/21/11

My episode of Who’s Still Standing aired, my first time on network primetime.

—————————

So that’s a bit of my year for you… Based on everything that has started in 2011, I see nothing but more and more happening in 2012, so stay abreast. One way to do so is by signing up for the newsletter (just look to the sidebar). Another is to make sure you’ve Liked my Facebook page and follow me on Twitter. (If you’re not on Twitter, shame on you. Read this post.)

As always, I love a good critique/suggestion, so if there’s more or less you want to see on here in 2012, please let me know, either via comment below or e-mail.

Welcome to a post where I do things for the post as I write it.

I have so little to say about Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. The movie has a whole plot line about Tom Cruise’s wife dying. I have no idea if that was referenced in prior films, because I can barely remember anything from the first three movies.

I remember some details from the first one: The iconic wire scene, lots of masks and Jon Voight being the bad guy.

From MI:II: I think there was a big scene at the beginning with Tom Cruise on a rock face. There probably were more masks. I remember a car scene annoying me. That’s it. I reviewed it on my old site… Lemme dig up what I said.

Here’s a quote:

Mission: Impossible 2: Quick review: Sucked. Flat out predictable crappy action flick.

Wow. OK then.

I literally cannot remember anything from MI:III. I’m almost inclined to think I didn’t even see it, but I’m fairly sure that I did. I’m going to go check the Wikipedia page. BRB.

Woah. Simon Pegg is in MI: III? Ha. I just assumed he was added in this one. I vaguely, vaguely recall some of the cast (and boy, there really are some stars, at least for the time). Actually, now that I see Philip Seymour Hoffmann was the villain in it, I recall there being a really good trailer for MI: III. BRB again.

K. Found it.

Hmmm… It seems that the whole ‘wife’ thing was pretty much exactly what MI: III was all about. Oops.

Anyway, MI: IV. It’s a standard action flick. There are a few good touches here and there, but really, it’s just another unmemorable movie. I’d go so far as to call it a “predictable action flick”, minus the ‘crappy’ that I threw at MI:II. Watching it, I thought, “Boy, I hope that the next Bond movie is good.”

My advice: instead of watching MI: IV, just watch Casino Royale again. Better use of time.

Want to play James Bond at home in your PJs? Poker it up.

As I struggle to catch up to years and years of content, along with balancing doing various things in NYC, there are topical things that just won’t have the resonance once I get to them. This video might be an example of that. I also question whether I should bother with a review of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, as what I really have to say is that it’s yet another action flick. Passable, to be sure, but nothing really new.

Either way, curious about what happened when OWS met Times Square on October 15, 2011?

Watch:

In case you missed it, here’s my original post on Occupy Times Square. And here’s the corresponding Flickr set.

And here’s Occupy Times Square: After Dark:

The same could said for the – sorry, controversial comment here – bizarre and often tedious Twitter chats such as #TNI and #TTOT. Certainly they are perhaps interesting initiatives for the community, but do they truly serve anything else other than allowing bloggers to show off their knowledge?

- Travel bloggers – time to stop navel gazing and get on with the job. Please by Kevin May – tnooz.com

The travel blogger world is just as annoying and cliquey as any other group of people. Everyone has different opinions which put them in varied camps that then come to verbal blows via the internet or behind one another’s back at places like TBEX or a run-of-the-mill tweetup. I’m sure you can identify with this form of human interaction, no matter what you do.

Kevin May’s aforementioned article is mostly about how travel bloggers who write about themselves cheapen the whole sector and make it harder for the monied travel industry to be willing to team up with them. The post starts off with some self-aggrandizing droning on about the music industry in the UK in the 1990′s as some sort of a backdrop for travel blogging now. After the belly button picture, he starts somewhat getting to his points.

1) The travel blogging world needs to improve its image.

2) Metrics are important.

And that’s pretty much it. Could have said that a lot quicker than you did, Kevin.

1) Travel blogger world? What does that entail? How many people are out there writing about travel that have never heard of TBEX? I would venture to guess that there have to be more than a few. Why is it a blogger’s job to appeal to anyone outside of themselves or their immediate circle of family/friends? It isn’t. The pedigree of the modern blog has branched off from two distinct worlds:

a) Print (and TV, etc.) journalism coming online

b) People making previously private journalling public

Most travel bloggers don’t have a journalistic background. Some of them might want to be achieving some greater level of success but there are plenty of “travel bloggers” who are folks that have gone on one trip and have thrown together a WordPress or Blogger blog just to keep their friends/family abreast of what they’ve been discovering around the world. Are we to begrudge them for not being at a higher standard? Who the hell cares? Bloggers are entitled to be in their own world and write for just themselves. They have no responsibility to write for a broader market.

2) Metrics. If a company is throwing stuff at a blogger, perhaps it’s their job to parse out what metrics matter? If we’re really to believe that every travel blogger needs to be a pro, then it makes sense that they would want to use whatever numbers make them look best. Do companies do any differently? At the Ignition conference, an exec from Twitter cited a lot of stats that seemed dubious to me, as they sounded like case studies deliberately meant to skew numbers. Our own government plays this game all the time with unemployment stats.

But really, what I’m most upset about is May lumping Travel Talk On Twitter (#TTOT) into this whole conversation. As I’ve mentioned in a prior post, #TTOT came from the desire for people to have something like #TNI, but more community-driven and away from all of the stickiness that comes from sponsorship and monetization. #TTOT has absolutely nothing to do with business, driving traffic, etc. It’s a place for people to talk to one another about travel-related topics. It’s an internet forum, pure and simple. The goal has never been to monetize. If we ever monetize and get really tight industry ties that change how the chat is run, we’ve lost our way and deserve whatever comes next to supplant us.

Bringing #TTOT into this article (and lumping it together with #TNI, a blatantly commercial enterprise) shows a total lack of understanding for what #TTOT is supposed to be. Perhaps May should have done his research, but that (along with proofreading) would demonstrate journalistic skills, which is apparently endemically lacking in the travel blogger world.