The Big Short comes up long on smarts and entertainment

Remember that teacher you had for the subject that was more than tad past your grasp but somehow, day after day, came up with a way to punctuate the classroom with enough street oomph to not only keep your head in the game but make you go home with a stake in the overall picture?…

A low noon January sun casts a gray tone in Syracuse

A noontime errand to the main drag of James Street in my Syracuse city neighborhood of James Street coaxed me to pull the iPhone 6 from my pocket. The low-riding almost-mid-January sun mixed with herringbone clouds carried an almost monochromatic tone to the day. A traffic light allowed a small signal of red as a…

The B-Sides sound A-1 at Shifty’s

When my good friend Dave Kaspar gives me the heads-up that a trip to Shifty’s is needed to see a new band on the Syracuse scene, I believe him. After all, over the last quarter century, I’ve stood next to the guy hundreds of nights, appreciating the best our city has to offer. And then…

Joey Alexander has the world at his fingers

Joey Alexander is great, period, the music critic from New York City told the 60 Minutes reporter Anderson Cooper. Not just for a 12-year-old. Indeed, I thought, as my dear wife Karen and I watched this stunning piece Sunday night on CBS, this is a jazz artist that can flat-out play. Cooper did a nice…

My worst movies of 2015, from 10 to 1

Hold your nose! At least when you get to the bottom of my list of my 10 worst films of the 52 first-run films I saw in the theater during 2015, one each week for my Monday online reviews. That’s where the real stinkers reside. I must admit, a couple that you’ll see a paragraph…

My top movies of 2015, from 10 to 1

When we flipped our calendars to 2016 and I made my way to a darkened theater, it marked my fourth year of once a week letting the wwwdot world know what I think of a first-run movie. Somebody’s got to do it. And every year I compile my Top 10 lists of bests and worsts.…

A young Terp who shines for the Blog of Funny Names

My University of Maryland basketball team has a tough freshman in the middle this season. The young man making noise for my alma mater is Diamond Stone. Yes, that’s his real name. Precious, I think. Says the university media guide: “Father named him Diamond because a Diamond is the hardest rock on the planet ……

As Sisters, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler pass the big screen test

Anybody who’s ventured into the theater to see Sisters likely carries with them a torch for the TV work of stars Tina Fey and Amy Poehler from their days on late night comedy mothership Saturday Night Live. At least a glance around the crowded smallish-theater for a New Year’s Day matinée at the Regal Cinemas’…

A comfortable fit

I’m into month three with the retail job, 25 hours or so a week of helping customers make the most of their experience in our store the best way I can. It was time, I decided as the new year began, to buy some new work pants. Jeans are the attire of choice for most…

A snowy start to the new year

We’ve had it so easy so far weather-wise in our Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. So I dare not complain about the snow falling the first morning of 2016. In fact, with less than a quarter-foot having graced the grounds of the Little Bitty so far when normally some 30 inches have accumulated in Syracuse…