Kids and coins at the library

Walking out to grab lunch last week at the Liverpool Public Library I came upon cute kids in the lobby. They were interested in our spiral wishing well. Folks of all ages regularly drop coins into its yaw and watch them spin down. It’s a great way to make a donation. One of them really,…

Which way does your tree face?

Walking on the block perpendicular to A Bitty Better in the Liverpool neighborhood of Galeville last week, Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle and I stumbled upon a tree most interesting. I stopped. My cherished rescue mutt stopped. It was almost as if somebody were calling our name. I’d not seen this scene before on any…

My first scrape makes me official

The white vehicle was perilously close to the yellow line when I returned with my Chinese takeout Friday, so I swung the Chevy Cruze more to the right than usual. Too far. The sound of the scrape sickened me. For the first time in the nine months I’d been parking in the library’s underground parking…

Ellie B rises with the sun

Some days I just let Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle out the back door of A Bitty Better in our Liverpool neighborhood of Galeville and hardly open my eyes. Last week I saw that the sun already was saying its howdy-do for the day. I grabbed my iPad Pro from the nightstand to capture the…

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…