I’m drawn in again by the pull of the Sammys

They announced a lot of cool news about the Syracuse Area Music Awards at a news conference Tuesday morning at the Palace Theatre in Eastwood. I was lucky enough to have a good reason to take the time from my job at the library to get there. The news included that jam band moe. was…

The boy from Mars and a girl from Earth make their own space

Director Peter Chelsom has delivered to this world with The Space Between Us two movies in one. The first is a space story, a tale of a frantically motivated businessman driven to bring humankind to a colony on Mars. Gary Oldman plays organization patriarch Nathaniel Shepherd as a complex dude who won’t take no for…

February finery at the library

The call of outdoor duty was strong Wednesday before my lunch break at the Liverpool Public Library. It looked fine from the second-floor windows. So I grabbed a lens and headed down the stairs. Could we not use some sun-drenched, sun-sparkled photos of the library for our files? You know, just in case. I think…

Bridge Under Fire lets it all out with Gluttons Before Grace

Syracuse punk-rock band Bridge Under Fire doesn’t hold anything back with the album Gluttons Before Grace. The 11-cut album released this month by L.R.S. Records is an interesting collection of contrasts. Mark Turley, Jeff Walker, Chris Whitmore and Steve Lowe collaborate for a musical stew that can be rock with a tender sweetness. Guitars ring…

A crushing discovery, but I still get a pass

I lost my work ID last week, complete with the lanyard that goes around my neck and my library card that also hangs upon it. Seeing that I work at the Liverpool Public Library, that presented a problem. No, I did not want anybody checking out books, DVDs or CDs under my name. Or getting…

This time Steve goes big

Two weeks in a row, Limp Lizard swept all seven points in the Thursday Night Men’s League at Bowling Green in North Syracuse. Two weeks in a row, one of my teammates rolled an amazing series. This time around, Steve threw a 246-221-247-714, following Tiny’s fantastic 742 of the prior week. And the three-game total…

Gusty dusk in Galeville

I’ve talked here before about the big wind that visits around A Bitty Better in the Galeville neighborhood of Liverpool. When I got home from work at the library on Friday, it was acting up again. How best to show the gale of Galeville, I wondered. I saw and heard the flags outside the Salina…