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…

A show for the ’80s in 2014

Organizers said the gates to the Benny’s Lost 80s Bash would open at 4 p.m. last Saturday at Onondaga Community College. It was held inside instead of outside. It did rain that night, so that was a great move. But they made us stand in line until 5 before opening the doors. I’m at the…

Arts, crafts and the people who make them

People from more than 30 states and Canada descended upon downtown Syracuse last weekend for the annual Arts and Crafts Festival. The least my dear wife Karen and I could do was walk the streets around Columbus Circle when we got out of work last Friday night. I wanted to stock up on photos and…

A good time on the rolling hills

My posts Saturday and Sunday about the M&T Syracuse Jazz Fest concentrated on the music. Big time, big fun for the 32nd edition of the free-admission event. For my weekly community blog for Syracuse public media site waer.org, I commented about how the return this summer to the rolling hills of Onondaga Community College brought…

Two days of music, capped by Mr. B.B. King

I recall being pretty excited placing the call to a certain Riley King. Goes by the initials B.B. Stands for Blues Boy. And B.B. King comes on the phone, starts talking, and I knew why I liked that job writing about music for the big daily so damn much. In fact, the American blues legend…

Syracuse Chiefs win on the field, now the fans should follow

The season of baseball promise fulfillment continues on the north side of Syracuse. On Saturday night, my dear wife Karen and I went out to NBT Bank Stadium with a whole bunch of her co-workers at the Syracuse Media Group. The company that publishes The Post-Standard, syracuse.com and the glossy magazine bought section 118, reserved…