It’s bowling season, and I throw in the towel for CiCi’s Pizza

When last I reported about my Thursday night bowling league, I was considering how a summer video session could work wonders for my average come this season. This was a special bowling week, one of two in this 2014-15 campaign that we’ll roll on Sundays, too, to make up for the dark league nights for…

‘Gone Girl’ will make you think twice about trust issues

“Gone Girl” is a great mystery. Thank you, Gillian Flynn. From her novel of 2012, Flynn also was the screenwriter for this 149-minute thriller of twists and turns of trust that chronicled what went so horribly wrong in the fictional life of Ben and Amy Dunne. I am not going to spoil it for those…

An Orange mood in Syracuse, before and after the fall

Officials from Syracuse University deemed Friday the as a perfect time for an Orange Out. That is one of the striking colors in Central New York’s autumn once the leaves change. That is the team name and color the the school’s sports teams. So that was the color they asked fans to wear during their…

Mary Fahl sounds great with Syracuse’s backing

Mary Fahl sounds great playing with musicians from Syracuse. Mark Doyle told me so this spring, when we were talking about his “Guitar Noir” performances coming up at the Auburn Public Theater and the M&T Syracuse Jazz Fest. One of the important musical elements in the veteran Syracuse musician, band leader, arranger and producer’s life…

A trip home from Nashville feels right for Jason Teska

Back in the day, Jason Teska was one of the hardest working guys in the Central New York music scene. The guitarist and singer for country-rockers The Back Alley Boys was always putting in the effort to be the best he could be. I admired, respected and liked him a lot in those years when…

Are you game for movies based on ‘Tetris,’ ‘Angry Birds’ big screeners?

First off, I’ve never played Tetris. Not in the 1980s, not in a retro moment since. Nevertheless, my eyebrow arched at the sight of a Rolling Stone story that the Game Boy console game favorite from 30 years ago is being turned into a movie. An epic sci-fi movie. I’d heard enough talk about Tetris…

Thanks to an imaginative fundraiser, more bowls will be filled

Kudos to the folks who first came up with the idea for the Empty Bowls fundraiser in Michigan in 1994. More cheers to the wise ones around the country who picked up the ball and ran with it, galloped, really, to states east and west and south, because hungry people are everywhere. My dear wife…

Civil War Enigma: A Comfortable Story

Originally posted on Silver in the Barn:
One Sunday paper – two Civil War articles. Welcome to Richmond. It’s not unusual to see mention of the Civil War in my local newspaper; after all, I do live in Richmond, Virginia, the former capital of the Confederacy. When I moved here twenty-odd years ago, I had no idea that the…

Fall isn’t coming as quickly as I thought it would

Taking a walk with Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle around our Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood in my shorts and T-shirt, I noticed the dog panting and myself working up a good sweat. So I stopped to snap a snot of the tree above with my iPhone 4, foremost to give the dog a breather…

If you need to settle a score, call Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington runs around in “The Equalizer” vanquishing evil as if he should be wearing tights and appearing in a title put out by the Marvel Universe. Robert McCall starts out as a guy who wants to mind his own business in this action thriller, he really, really does. In fact, he’s trying to dodge…