It’s 60 already in Syracuse

It’s not even 7 a.m., and the temperature crawl on my wide-screen tells me the warmth that greeted me when I let Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle out into the backyard of the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood is the real deal. Make it 60º F. And climbing to 74, says…

When you’re on the other side of the stage

Every year still, the good folks who put on the Syracuse Area Music Awards ask me to join the ranks of their celebrity presenters. It’s an honor in my neck of the woods that started at the first one back in 1993, when I covered music for the big daily. It continued past the layoff…

Half-and-Half at the Little Bitty

Yes, it’s only March. Not yet spring here in Syracuse, N.Y., as our calendar will remind me for two more weeks. Winter has been holding on hard, too, with several snow spurts and temperatures in the 20s (F). That strength of the sun is stronger, stronger, stronger as the days get longer, longer, longer. Of…

Back in the Saddle

It’s a happy Sunday here at the Little Bitty. My great Bloggyville friend from Canada is back. And the good word is: Not only has Paul Curran returned from his WiFi-less hiatus, but he’s moved his weekly guest post to this very space because our cohort in the U.K., Willow, has decided to concentrate on…

The Sammys honor the dedication and music of many

The good people of Syracuse have been doing it right as far as it comes to music since a few heads came together in 1992 and Frank Malfitano opened up the grand Landmark Theatre for the first Syracuse Area Music Awards in 1993. Friday night in The Palace Theatre on James Street, the community came…

I’m ready to open a new can of duties

Soon I’ll get a chance to deep-think the inner meaning of one of comic Steven Wright’s go-to jokes. It’s a small world, but I wouldn’t want to have to paint it. Find the gold in the everyday, coaxed the dry voice of the curly-haired dead-pan guy who made the late-night TV talk-show rounds so regularly…

The big wind or a bad driver?

Spotted on the stroll from the parking lot to Destiny USA with my dear wife Karen recently was a flattened road sign. My mind started wondering about the Do Not Enter post and how it got this way immediately. Was it the big wind we’d experienced that sent this message prone? Was it a driver…

Robert Crais brings Elvis Cole into an explosive promise

Elvis Cole keeps his cool in The Promise while Los Angeles police chase nefarious characters and keep their eyes on him, too. Yes, novelist Robert Crais has put his free-wheeling private eye in a dangerous predicament again. And of course Cole has quiet agency partner Joe Pike and other connected folks who operate way off…