No irony-ing needed

The T-shirt caught my eye with a corner of olive peeking from the bottom of the shelf pile this warm and sunny Friday morning in Syracuse after a winter of neglect. My dear wife Karen had purchased it for my before my layoff from the big daily. Why, yes, I wore it to go view…

If you want to sing in public badly enough, you can

I enjoyed judging the karaoke contest Saturday night at Village Lanes in East Syracuse. The nine singers who signed up ranged in talents, certainly, from very good to very brave. That’s one of wonderful things about karaoke. Anybody who wants to sing can. It’s really the great equalizer. You don’t have to be great. Maybe…

Kimberly Rossi nourishes her many loves

When Kimberly Rossi is on the other side of the message, I know the story likely is going to be interesting. She’s the one who urged me to review the hot new CD by the Fabulous Ripcords and write about the dentist who provided free work to those who served on Veterans Day and write…

When favorite actors turn in stinkers, I ___

Fill in the blank in the headline above, please and thank you. Oh, Kevin James. Why in the world would you do this to yourself? My Long Island guy, fellow Mets fan, dude who grew up down the same block from me in Suffolk County, funny fellow all those years on TV show “The King…

All the world’s a (Syracuse) Stage

Sometimes I get so caught up in my world of movie and music writing and love of live sports that I forget all about how thrilling a trip to see live drama is. Big mistake, that. And in Syracuse we have much. In October, I reviewed ‘Book of Mormon’ when Famous Artists brought that traveling…

Pacino packs a subtle punch in ‘Danny Collins’

Sometimes our great actors can seem to be merely playing themselves. My, that can become tiring. Jack Nicholson as Jack Nicholson, anyone? Arch that eyebrow. Unleash that expression of disgust. Sorry, Jack. Al Pacino has done that to me at times. Not in “Danny Collins.” He’s not a cop or a crime figure or anywhere…

Keeping the music alive in Syracuse

Talk about a tough job. Larry Luttinger is executive director of Central New York Jazz. That’s an arts foundation in Syracuse that’s tied to public and private money. Government spending on the arts has dropped because of the economy. Corporate spending on the arts had dropped because of the economy. Luttinger is convinced that the…

A community comes together to help a kind man

Friends come from many places in life, if you’re fortunate. My dear wife Karen and I met Dave and Pauline Togni when they joined the group of folks we take cruises with on the big ships. They know people who know people who we know. For several of these happy vacations, Dave and Pauline were…