You can expect a pretty Wild West from Tarantino in 2015

Word was, Quentin Tarantino was pretty steamed when his script for “Hateful Eight” was leaked online. He threatened to scrap it. Pick something else for his eighth movie. Now word is that the movie is on, shooting will begin in January, and the release will come before 2015 becomes 2016. That could make lovers of…

Arts, crafts and the people who make them

People from more than 30 states and Canada descended upon downtown Syracuse last weekend for the annual Arts and Crafts Festival. The least my dear wife Karen and I could do was walk the streets around Columbus Circle when we got out of work last Friday night. I wanted to stock up on photos and…

One-hit wonders? No, they have more to deliver

Oh, the world of the one-hit wonder. How many bands would have killed for that single hit, that taste of fame, the bucks that may have come along with it. How many bands wave their hands at that notion, saying, we don’t measure our worth in mass popularity, maybe even making a bit of fun…

‘Lucy’ makes me use my brain, as limited as it may be

In “Lucy,” a big deal is made about how we all use 10 percent of our brain, maximum. And then some very evil folks figure a way to steal a drug that increases brain power. Accidents happen and Lucy, played brilliantly by Scarlett Johansson, becomes the one person on the planet becoming smarter and smarter…

You smell it before you see it

I woke up at 5 a.m. with a smell in my nose. Something burnt. Without opening my eyes, my groggy mind sorted the scent. Not a skunk, not wood, not food, not quite electrical, we’re safe … I felt Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle press close to my lower leg just as the final tumbler…

Old big daily friends, new blogs to talk about

Earthriderdotcom is up from Florida this week. We’re part of this WordPress world that always comments on each other’s posts, so we’ve had a dinner planned for monnths. Just 90 minutes prior, as happens, comes a wrinkle. My cell rings at work, but I can’t pick it up. As I walk down the stairs one…

The Turtles are set for a noisy return, 23 years later

In 1991, a whole bunch of young Americans went ape for a bunch on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Word is that they’d like to go see the remake set for release come next month. But, of course, they might not like the changes that Michael Bay, he of the big and bad “Transformers,” is bringing…

A beautiful building, coming and going

The reaction to my lunchtime walk iPhone 4 photo tour through downtown Syracuse last week convinced me that you folks like a taste of what these blocks hold. This is the University Building, as in, built back in the early 1900s by Syracuse University. Now its 10 floors are used by numerous companies. Including the…