Holidays and Crime

This post comes from the fertile mind of my friend Paul Curran. Alexander Rossi – Afternoon Tea http://framingpainting.com/painting/afternoon_tea-20714.html Your Barista – Paul If We Were Having Coffee Welcome to Willow’s weekly coffee and tea garden. My name is Paul, I’ll be your barista today and I’m happy to be here once again. This week Willow…

What are you doing here?

An unexpected guest showed up at our home in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood, and just five days from the New Year yet. I noticed the visitor loitering in the corner of our backyard when I let Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle out for her morning Saturday romp. OK, I have to admit that…

Clark’s beef on ‘wick was worth the wait

I pressed my face to the window waiting for Clark’s Ale House to open with this August post telling of its history in another location in downtown Syracuse and licking my lips to reacquaint myself with owner Ray Clark’s famous roast beef sandwiches. My dear wife Karen and I went back a month ago for…

I ‘present’ my top 10 films list for 2014

As you savor the mood of a post-holiday Friday, I offer you this gift. Over on the Syracuse New Times site is my Top 10 list of my favorite films from 2014. OK, I’ll give you No. 10. That would be “The 100-Foot Journey,” the pretty delightful Disney offering featuring Helen Mirren as the French…

A wet, green Christmas was OK here

So much sentimentality is hung upon the concept of a White Christmas. Sorry, Bing, not this year in Syracuse, N.Y. I did not mind at all that in the front of our house in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood, the lawn once again had returned to green. OK, I will admit that at the…

Yes, Santa did

My dear wife Karen outdid herself this year. From the grandest gift to the simplest gift, she knows how to make everybody in the house happy. I think so. Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle thinks so. Daughter Elisabeth and boyfriend George thought so as we enjoyed family time for Christmas Eve last night. Son Daryl…

Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers gets there with folk strings style

Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, “Almost There” Label: Words and Music Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers starts this dozen-song collection off with “Eight Days in January,” an interesting story in which the Syracuse singer, songwriter and acoustic strings player enlists the help of Rani Arbo on fiddle and harmony vocals. I thought I was off on a trip to…

Advent Reblog & Mariah Carey & O Holy Night

Originally posted on What Do You Do for an Encore?:
Recorded in LA (2000) I think. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEJmP8T07JU This is the best rendition of O Holy Night that I know. The studio version on Mariah’s classic Christmas album (1994) is also great, but this one has some additional touches (i.e. the organ, and a bigger role…

The corner is long … and dark

We passed the Winter Solstice mark Sunday here in the Northern Hemisphere, officially moving into the fourth season, the coldest season. The darkest season. We are gaining light. That corner is always turned on the solstice, designating the day when the tilt of the earth begins to move us more prominently toward the sun for…

Gliding to success on a much smaller stage

When last I left you with photos and my impressions of the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League, they’d skated to a 2-1 victory over the Utica Comets in a one-time event called the Frozen Dome Classic. Almost 31,000 fans had crammed into the Carrier Dome for the Saturday night in November, and oh,…