A suite night at the stadium

It was not a run-of-the-mill visit to the old ballpark the last time out to see the Syracuse Chiefs. My dear wife Karen had some big news for me with her text. Her co-worker and our friend Marlene invited her to the SMG suite for a Friday night International League game against the Indianapolis Indians.…

Riding across this great big land for a worldly cause

Brian D’Apice stayed at my good friend Jim McKeever’s house through the Memorial Day Weekend. Anybody who’s read Jim’s passionate Irish Investigations blog know how he’s one to advance the good cause any way possible. And the work of D’Apice, this project he’s calling Bicycle Around America is a great cause. D’Apice’s pedal pushing began…

There’s always room for good writing

Victoria Coit sent me a Facebook message of introduction, saying that she was a friend of Tina Hills and would like to speak to me about a project. Tina and her husband Ken were the owners of a restaurant in downtown Syracuse, I remembered, Sophistications, hosted jazz, very nice people. Victoria said she’s meet me…

The end of an era for the little program that could

Brian McDowell took the podium at his final year-end Journalism Convocation at the State University of New York at Morrisville last week. The professor looked somewhat happy to be able to pack away his books and belongings and go back home to spend more time with his wife. And he looked somewhat sad in the…

If you want to sing in public badly enough, you can

I enjoyed judging the karaoke contest Saturday night at Village Lanes in East Syracuse. The nine singers who signed up ranged in talents, certainly, from very good to very brave. That’s one of wonderful things about karaoke. Anybody who wants to sing can. It’s really the great equalizer. You don’t have to be great. Maybe…

Kimberly Rossi nourishes her many loves

When Kimberly Rossi is on the other side of the message, I know the story likely is going to be interesting. She’s the one who urged me to review the hot new CD by the Fabulous Ripcords and write about the dentist who provided free work to those who served on Veterans Day and write…

All the world’s a (Syracuse) Stage

Sometimes I get so caught up in my world of movie and music writing and love of live sports that I forget all about how thrilling a trip to see live drama is. Big mistake, that. And in Syracuse we have much. In October, I reviewed ‘Book of Mormon’ when Famous Artists brought that traveling…