Sweet times in Hershey

My dear wife Karen and a few of her friends really missed their buddy Carolyn. So they jumped in the Mazda and drove south from Syracuse, N.Y. Carolyn headed north from the Washington, D.C., area. Hershey, Pa., was a great destination for a weekend getaway, my wife reports. She texted from the restaurant of a…

A little holiday light on the Little Bitty

I came home from work one night and the lights caught my eye right away. Good Neighbor Tim and his Wonderful Wife Lorraine had chosen to decorate a nice bush toward our side of their house for his holiday season. A multi-colored string of lights provided the festive touch. I liked it. Very much. And…

Sinatra’s still special 100 years later, but his CBS show was a tad lacking

I tuned in to the CBS tribute Sinatra 100 Sunday night with great anticipation. A fan of Frank Sinatra my whole life — or at since my father Frank introduced me to the music of the man known as both Ol’ Blue Eyes and The Chairman of the Board before I even went to kindergarten…

Jason Bean goes deep, Eddie Z digs it stripped down

Jason Bean, Mudfish Records Black Then Blue Then Gray Syracuse singer-songwriter Jason Bean thought he’d had emptied that musical well after he’d written, recorded and released his fourth album, Twenty Seven, in 2012. “My songwriting had become so personal, and in some cases, personal, that I walked away,” Bean says. A people person, he got…

A hit to the noggin’ on The Blog of Funny Names

A movie about concussions is coming to a theater near you on Christmas Day. Will Smith figures that the subject is important enough that he hung his star on it. I’ve seen the trailers for Concussion on the big screen. I’m a football fan, have been my whole life. Yet I’ve become increasingly concerned about…

In Syracuse, college football fans are talking about Dino Babers

While in the rest of the United States of America, college football fans are most likely discussing which team they like to win the national championship this time around, talk is of a new coach here in Syracuse, N.Y. Exciting championship games this past weekend and the last meeting of the BCS committee came up…

Oh, those precocious princesses may make you appreciate the Royals

The Royals fascinate America. No news flash here, what with the morning shows rushing over to televise the tight waves high from the balcony of Buckingham Palace every time Queen Elizabeth and her son Charles and his sons with divorced but still beloved but gone Princess Diana marry, make babies … The human drama these…

A gray day on the Syracuse University hill

It’s not winter yet here in the top half of the world. And yet when it’s gray, and I’m walking on the Syracuse University campus, there’s that familiar feel in the air. It’s coming. Soon. I don’t need to red-circle Dec. 21 on any calendar … Hover over any gallery photo for a description. Click…

Think it over, Abe

There’s a lot to think about on a college campus, right? At Syracuse University, students, faculty and the stray guy with an iPhone 6 can wonder about what Abe Lincoln might have had on his mind at this point in American history. There’s a nice collection of Syracuse student art around the campus as I’ve…

Sing it cool, Eli

It’s always comforting to see Eli Harris out in the Syracuse elements playing his music. The singer and guitarists knows the Syracuse University athletic schedule. Carrier Dome patrons are serenaded, sweetly, regularly, through cold and sometimes really cold. Elijah Harris and I go way back, to my decades as the music writer for the big…