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…

At Festa Italiana, folks eat it up

Even the name sounds delicious. Festa Italiana. Rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it? Well, sure, downtown Syracuse has its share of festivals that declare their devotion to the culinary. The Crawfish Festival is named after the bright red mud bug dug so much down New Orleans way, and in May, Clinton Square welcomed folks…

A patio party with a firepit warms our weekend

We’ve heard word of this big patio, my dear wife Karen and I, from the planning stages to the digging and pouring to the inevitable haggling about finishing touches with contractors. I was not pleased when damage was done to the steps that DJ had put in previously. Make it right, dude … When somebody…

Another weekend where everybody feels Irish

Dancers with a high step. Singers of Celtic rock. Singers with traditional strings. Spirits and spirit. The Syracuse Irish Festival was again sponsored by Guinness last Friday and Saturday, and it was pretty evident that the people it drew to downtown’s Clinton Square felt pretty darn Irish about the whole thing. In March, St. Patrick’s…

I can smell the September flowers

It’s a good day to step out and appreciate what I’ve got here with my dear wife Karen in our home in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Syracuse. In the hourglass front-yard garden, the roses are celebrating September with another cycle of blossoms. Pink and white, side by side. The violet peeking out belongs to…

Why we like our neighborhood walks

As Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle were completing a big loop around our street in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood the other day, we encountered a project obviously completed just moments prior. In fact, the gentleman who’d done the grunt work was still putting away his spade, his wheelbarrow, the tools of his good…

Ellie B got the skunk shot right between the eyes

I relaxed for a moment too long after dusk fell last night, typing on the recliner my weekly film news blog that will be posted a bit later this morning on syracusenewtimes.com as my dear wife Karen relaxed with a bit of TV. Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle came inside from out back at a…

There was a whole new world waiting out there

When my dear wife Karen came back to her seat in the Carrier Dome after halftime Friday night, she reported an extraordinary planet sighting when she’d gone outside for a breath of cool air. After the Orange’s 27-26 double-overtime victory over Villanova, I discovered how right she’d been. I didn’t have to look skwyard. A…