Mark it Up brings Doyle to WAER for my podcast debut

There’s a new wrinkle to my work for Syracuse Public Media site waer.org. Add a Mark It Up in Syracuse podcast to my weekly community blog column. For the debut edition, I interviewed veteran Syracuse guitarist, arranger, band leader and more Mark Doyle in the WAER-FM 88.3 studios. He’s bringing his quite cool Guitar Noir…

I tip my hat to the new Mets pitcher

I have beefed before in these parts for my relative distaste for the new flat-brimmed baseball hat. Give me the curved crown and tradition, please and thank you. I realize that the bigger, flatter brim is the thing around the world, and is worn, well, everywhere you look. I see it taking up more and…

Offensive can have other messages

There are things happening up on the screen in “Get Hard” that, taken at face value, are offensive. Yet I wasn’t ruffled nearly enough to stand up, do an about face and march out of there as I sat through the Friday matinee at the Regal Cinemas theater in Syracuse mega shopping, dining and entertainment…

The Crunch goes to the dogs for a night

I saw two drop-the-gloves fights by men on the ice but no pull-the-leash fights by dogs in the stands. Even though the Syracuse Crunch lost 2-0 to the Rochester Americans Saturday night in an American Hockey League game at the Onondaga County War Memorial, Dog Night was a smashing success. Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle…

At last, I spot my first bulb sprout of spring

The words I have waited so long this March to type: I have spotted the first green sprouting from a bulb in the gardens of the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. It’s in the very corner of the front garden, where a good-sized pile of snow still lurks a half-dozen feet…

How do you prep for a Sweet Sixteen?

There are many ways, I suppose, for a bunch of college-aged men to spend a few hours in a strange city before a very important evening. Add in the fact that they’re joined by the collective purpose of their university’s sports team, and it’s surely no surprise to discover them in a pack, dressed rather…

Photo 101: We depart in triumph

The Final Lesson. I expected something dramatic as we say farewell to Photo 101, and the words sent by Krista for lesson 20 did not disappoint. Triumph and contrast. Life serves some of the first to the fortunate and plenty of the second, always. I looked through the photographs I’ve taken these four weeks on…