Dr. Dog sounds cool and has one guy who looks familiar

I’m digging the CBS weekend morning news’ Saturday version more and more. It takes me a while to get comfortable with personalities and style, I readily admit, and weekdays I am an avowed “Today” follower over on NBC. CBS, though, is wise enough to schedule the weekend morning shows to start and last a couple…

Another trip to Trader Joe’s might lead to a third …

When I wrote about my dear wife Karen and I’s first trip to Syracuse’s new Trader Joe’s in November, it moved many people to pitch in with helpful suggestions. I so surely agree that three-buck wine that people I trust swear is drinkable is an idea whose time has come. And then we discovered that…

So you wanted to know more about the Diner and that mural

I know a good question when I see it. So when commenter Nancy C. let loose with, “Mark, who’s the artist” during the strong string of thoughts at the tail end of my Tuesday post about the colorful mural that adorns one whole wall of a diner we’re blessed with here in Syracuse, N.Y., I…

Before there was your Gravatar, there was ‘Avatar’

Are you happy with your Gravatar? I like mine so much I’ve given it a name. And The Head has taken on a life of his own, thanks to my friends here on WordPress and their artistic abilities. But I digress. It’s fun. Did you know that Gravatar comes from Globally Recognized Avatar, which really…

Travelin’ man Kohlton Pascal lights up my ‘American Idol’ season

The guy walking the railroad tracks as I watched “American Idol” tonight looked familiar. The long hair, the acoustic guitar, the face. It hit me before I heard the distinctive singing voice or saw the name flash on the screen. This season of the singing competition on FOX has just gotten way more interesting. To…

A good and Crunchy season

We had fun watching them from high above in the Carrier Dome in November. We had more fun from behind the goal in the Onondaga County War Memorial in December. On this Wednesday in January, I write about the successes of Syracuse Crunch for my weekly community blog for Syracuse Public Media site waer.com. You…

Revealing the work of a Dilettante

Am I willing to reveal the inner workings of the mind of a dilettante here on markbialczak.com? When said noodle comes on the shoulders of one Helena Hann-Basquiat, fellow blogger who visits my place with smart comments that always advance the issues of music and movies and life, my answer when she put the call…

Feeling negative from the start

I heard the furnace running before I opened my eyes. I did not hear the furnance stop. I heard my dear wife Karen open the door to the back porch to step out and open the back porch door so Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle could do her Tuesday morning thing and felt the dog…

Come back to the Market Diner, Jimmy Dean

So who’d you like to have breakfast with given a free hand? Pancakes with Pavlov and ask him to bring his dogs? Oatmeal with Oliver Stone so you can explain why everybody’s against you? Eggs over easy with Ella Fitzgerald so you tell her how much you admired how she always made hitting the hard…

That’s not the movie I saw on the trailer

I really liked the trailer for “Inherent Vice.” It was fast, funny and loose. I saw the movie adapted from the 2009 novel by Thomas Pynchon for today’s installment of my weekly Film Review blog on the Syracuse New Times site. You can read my review of the movie directed and written by Paul Thomas…