From the slightly Wayback Machine, my video of the Heath Brothers

On Halloween, I was lucky enough to catch the Heath Brothers performing as part of the Legends of Jazz series at Onondaga Community College. Great show by 89-year-old saxophonist Jimmy Heath, his 80-year-old drummer brother Tootie and their younger mates Michael Karn on upright bass and Jeb Patton on piano. I wrote about it here.…

So about this Syracuse snow

I know the snow that’s fallen in the last three or four days cannot compare to the way in which my blogging friends Ann Koplow and Austin Hodgens in Boston and Bangor have been blasted this winter. And besides, our winter-of-2014-15 fate had been relatively tame except for some early December storms until now. But…

Eli Cook will drive from Virginia to spread his vision of the modern blues

Eli Cook will point his vehicle north come two weekends from now and be excited about meeting new people. The solo trip from Virginia to Syracuse won’t be so bad when there’s a guitar in the back, songs in your heart and the tradition of a style of music to modernize and keep alive. And…

I first interviewed SpongeBob in 2006, and I can prove it

As I sat watching the silliness of “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water” Saturday at Destiny USA in Syracuse, I kept puffing up my chest like I took in too much water, thinking, I know SpongeBob. Well, sort of but not really. It is a cartoon character, you know, even when the animation stops…

Grammys leave me feeling half empty

Most every year I can’t get to sleep after the Grammys telecast has signed off because the annual celebration of what makes music move us has reminded me of great things past and present and stirred hopes for the future, too. Last night I watched the local news, thought about how I’d have to get…

Ellie B and I are the only ones who give a hoot

Walking with Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle through a winter snow in our Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood’s nearby Norwood Park, we noticed something sitting on a backyard post just past a fence separating us and it. I pulled Ellie B through the snow to the fence to better see the bird. Ellie B pulled…

Beatlecuse proves to be an excellent match of city, music

Why would dozens of Central New York’s finest musicians get together on a cold February night in the Landmark Theatre in Syracuse to play Beatles music? Because they can. I mean, they really, really can. Beatlecuse 2015 on Friday night proved for the second year running that when you set these all stars of several…

Sad, miffed and still slightly confused about Syracuse Orange and college sports in general

I’ve let this news of my hometown Syracuse University’s self-imposed penalty of no post-season play for the Orange men’s basketball squad swim around in my head and gut a couple of days before attempting to make sense of how this makes me feel about college sports, life in general in this college city and how…

Althea’s a team player (and New Fuji’s more tasty than Yummy)

At the latest installment of my Vanity Appointment, my good friend Theresa Constantine pinned me down to the specific night. “You and your dear wife Karen meet me, David and Althea at New Fuji Buffet on Erie Boulevard at 6:30,” my hair and beard stylist implored. “I’ve got coupons.” Indeed we did. It had been…

Oh, ‘Boyhood,’ now I’ve been spoiled

How am I ever going to watch a movie that took just a year to film again? Richard Linklater, you’ve spoiled me with “Boyhood.” The director took his time filming the story he wrote about a brother and sister coming of age in Houston. The Texas native, in fact, shot the film over a dozen…