A lake shore alive with holiday lights, you can count on it

I counted 117 million light bulbs ablaze with holiday fever along the shore of Onondaga Lake in the Syracuse suburb of Liverpool on Wednesday night. Now that would be a frustrating chore, wouldn’t it? Seven million eight hundred thousand eight six … dang, lost count, I have to go back to the start! In Syracuse,…

Two weeks down, Nano Poblano, time to hop in and volunteer

The fun continues as week two of Nano Poblano concludes, Team Pepper. Interesting posts abound. My click finger may never be the same. Our three Little Pepper Blog Hops are still jumping between squad members. As you recall, Fish of Gold started our ball rolling with a short story opportunity. I came in thereafter with…

New rooms, familiar players, cool release … and I still dig the Syracuse sound

Back when I covered the Central New York music scene for the big daily, I always had it in the back of my mind somewhere that these voices, these talents, these people I was hearing, seeing, watching, following, talking with, tracking, well, they were as good as the folks other people doing this job in…

Can an actor make you laugh with just one word?

A few times now, the funny-looking man at the front desk of a big city hotel has recited his name and a word that you don’t hear much these days. It’s a trailer for a movie that’s opening on Jan. 23. The make-up job is good, because the actor is Johnny Depp. He’s the title…

On Nov. 11, in Syracuse, N.Y., we played sunny golf

I’ve had a new saying lately. Syracuse is the new South Carolina. What I mean is … The periodic bursts of warm weather we’ve been getting this fall has been knocking me out. On Tuesday, Nov. 11, Veterans Day 2014, it reached 65 degrees in Syracuse, N.Y. That, my friends, is not the usual sort…

Keaton’s ‘Birdman’ alights on a lofty perch at Manlius Art Cinema

It felt right to see “Birdman” in an art cinema. The Manlius Art Cinema, to be exact, a tiny movie house about a dozen miles to the southeast of Syracuse, N.Y., where art movies come to run on a screen way smaller than those employed by the big chains nearby and watched by … well,…

The balls were rolling

To complete the thought on Oh, balls … I like bowling on Sunday mornings in my Thursday night league. See my previous post if that statement leaves you scratching your head. Cici’s Pizza took two of three games and total wood from the second-place team. I was happy with my first and third games, most…

The Nano Poblano Oddly Specific Gratitude Blog Hop!

Mental Mama has nominated me to be the next in the oddly specific gratitude blog hop, which is oddly awesome to me. Some days I still wonder who all is actually reading this drivel. Here’s what to do: 1. Add to the list with your own oddly specific bits of gratitude. Add as few or…

A walk with Ellie B takes flight

A long loop walk with Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle this week took us behind the apartment complex more than a few blocks away from our home in the Syracuse city neighborhood home of Eastwood. I noticed a Fed Ex truck stopped on the extreme right side of the lot, hugging the bit of unkempt…

One week down, Nano Poblano, many great posts written: A blog roll

Are you hanging in there after our first seven days of November, Nano Poblano teammates? We’ve accomplished plenty. Fish of Gold started the wildly entertaining Blog Hop story. Who, what and why? We are in the middle of something fun, funny and very entertaining. I began Blog Hop II: The Name Game. Do you think…