Jen Chapin has seen the world go by as she’s performed

Jen Chapin doesn’t mind a quick run up to Syracuse for an Oct. 24 show in the Steeple Coffee House series, she says during a phone conversation. To make it work best, the singer and songwriter explains, she quickly worked her contacts to book a sister show in nearby Rochester. “It’s nice to have two,…

A lake in October catches the eye and iPhone 6

That lake sure looks pretty, I thought. You must park and pull out the iPhone 6 to share this October sight with the world. My trip some 35 miles southwest from Syracuse for my weekly WAER community blog column last week took me through Skaneateles, a quaint, pretty village of note. The folks that live…

You can’t help but get pumped when he’s up on the wire for The Walk

When Philippe Petit is up there on his wire, I couldn’t help but love The Walk cowriter and director Robert Zemeckis made sure of that. The master of cool special effects made the most of the true tale of the French tightrope-walker, who had the audacity and nerve to pull what he calls The Coup.…

A ‘shroom with a view

It’s been an odd and off growing season around our Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. The roses that bloomed were too few, and far later than usual. The hydrangea refused to flower. Even the lawn gave me two weeks off between cuttings. Now, this. Wild mushrooms are sprouting out of nowhere,…

Still not much pop to the leaves, but there’s orange to be found

I’m still lamenting the lack of color in the changing-of-the-leaves in my Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. Hover over any gallery photo for a description. Click on the bottom right photo in any gallery for an enlarged slide show. Too much green still, and way too much brown in what has decided to give up…

The Martian takes Matt Damon to lofty places

Left behind on Mars as dead, astronaut Mark Watney isn’t. And so, faced with scant food rations, among his many woes, the American astronaut goes botanist bonzai, using his wits and intelligence to come up with a way to grow a crop in, well, his own crap. That leads him to the second-best line of…

The sounds of fall at Norwood Park

Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle and I came across the Eastwood Bears as we circled the blocks surrounding the Little Bitty in our Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood last Sunday morning. The day was bright. Both sidelines were filled with parents and friends rooting on the home team and visitors from Central Square. I rather…

An October feel in my neck of the woods

Yes, I thought on the last day of September as the temperature dropped while I was typing in my work chair/recliner in the living room of the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. Now this feels like October. I didn’t flip the furnace switch to on. But I did shut the windows…

Purple and gold invade Orange from Louisiana

They play big-time football at Louisiana State University. And so when there were plenty of tickets to buy for last Saturday’s game for their Tigers to face the Orange of Syracuse up north in the Carrier Dome, the fans of Baton Rouge and the Bayou beyond did not hesitate in buying them up and traveling…

From green to yellow to brown

A warm walk with Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle around the blocks surrounding the Little Bitty this first week of autumn did not reveal any bright reds or oranges. No, this year the trees of our Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood appear to be going straight from green to yellow to brown. I don’t know…