A whole lot of mentoring will be goin’ on

The members of the Syracuse Sunshine Rotary Club are getting fired up. It’s not the biggest organization going, this 20-or-so-member philanthropic club. But, oh, they have big dreams for a festival they’ve cooked up for Aug. 15 at Kellish Hill Farms in Manlius, just a bit to the southeast of the city. It’s a music…

I didn’t quite believe what I was hearing

For most of the minutes he appeared in front of the crowd of the big and important festival he put together so well for the community of Syracuse this past weekend, founder and executive director Frank Malfitano was a happy guy. As well he should be, I thought from my spot in the roped-off VIP…

It’s the weekend to welcome Wynton and Aretha

It’s a huge weekend for music where I live. Wynton Marsalis leads the Lincoln Center Orchestra onto the stage of the M&T Syracuse Jazz Fest as the headliner Friday night. If you’ve never had the opportunity to sit in the same place as, oh, a couple dozen of the best jazz players on the planet…

Getting better with age on stage

I was on the phone last night interviewing two guys in the Syracuse music scene I’ve been fortunate enough to have seen play many times. Guitarist Terry Mulhauser and harp-blower and singer Pete McMahon are veterans who’ve played with different bands and a wide array of other musicians. But the cream always rises to the…

If you light them up, please be careful

With three days to set things off, somebody somewhere is going to hurt themself. Or, worse yet, send a bottle rocket or another home firework off into the good night and have it land and turn somebody else’s holiday weekend into a nightmare. For my July Fourth Weekend edition of my Mark It Up community…

Now fans will see what direction the program is going

There are a lot of old sayings that make the point. Smelly stuff flows downhill. Cut off the head to defeat the enemy. Wow. Those are pretty harsh as I’m thinking about Syracuse University bringing in the new athletic director chosen to direct a program pretty important to the community in which I live. Mark…