Getting my mental game ready for fore months

Golfing nomads wandered around the floor of SRC Arena in Syracuse. They were in search of a better golf game. There were plenty of exhibitors ready to lend a hand with new equipment available for purchase. Clubs, balls, shoes, carts, clothes … In other words, go home and think spring. Which I did without buying…

Don’t give me no lies and …

Keep your hands to yourself! So sang the Georgia Satellites in a gritty little ditty that made the Billboard top five when Dan Baird and his mates in the Atlanta band gave it to the world in 1986. You know, younger folks, it’s the catchy song that’s made the playlist of the smarmy date who’s…

A closer look at the world of ‘Hardcore Homeless’ James

Originally posted on Jim McKeever:
James, a homeless man in Syracuse, N.Y., writes a letter from inside a post office on a snowy morning. Outside the window is the shopping cart that holds all his possessions. I’m still getting to know James, one of the “hardcore homeless” in Syracuse, N.Y. Every few days I stop…

I welcome Sammy into my life

Originally posted on Mark Bialczak:
I proudly display my Founders Award Sammy, on its way to its place of distinction in my living room. Through two decades, I’ve been on the giving side of the Sammy. Up to the stage the smiling winners would march. I’d hand over the shiny, black Syracuse Area Music Awards…

This award come in sevens, an amazing bundle

The woman behind the site simplyilka bestowed upon me the most complicated WordPress Award I’ve ever seen. Ilka is a scientist, environmentalist and medical writer who likes to share her thoughts with the world through blogging. It would be a smart idea for you to click over and check out her blog. Ilka informed me…

As exciting as ‘Non-Stop’ is, you’ll never see it aboard a jet

You bet I believe something close to the plot of ‘Non-Stop’ could really happen. And that makes the action mystery featuring Liam Neeson as a U.S. Air Marshal supposedly making a TransAtlantic jet trip safe for all a really good watch. Everybody who saw it this past opening weekend who had positively identified the villain…

Oscar winners keep me fascinated on the small screen, too

I can’t quibble with the picks. “12 Years a Slave” was a big winner. With the local connection to upstate New York, bravo to the inspiring tale of a free man wrongly kept against his will, from the words of Solomon Northup. The pure joy and celebration of the cast on stage and the show-closing…

Snow Mountain, closed to skiers

This is getting old, this snowy winter. I promised Ellie B, aka Dogamous Pyle, a walk this Sunday morning. The theme came to me quickly as we got to the business end of our Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. Where are they going to put it next? The four-day mini-melt of last week is long…

What I would look like if I hosted a Food Network show

I met up with two of my best buddies to enjoy the annual Syracuse Golf Show yesterday. We wandered the aisles and dreamed of green fairways, green rough, green greens, white golf balls, no snow. I’ll write more about the show Wednesday for my weekly community blog post for the Syracuse Public Media site. And,…

The Bayou was a great music club, and Dave Lilling made the documentary to prove it

I know a guy whose company produced a documentary about what might be the coolest music club I ever experienced. A million years ago, Dave Lilling and I used to cover the same events. OK, it was only 36 years ago when we both were students at the University of Maryland, covering Terrapins sports event.…