http://cnylink.com/blogs Downtown After Dark is award winning journalist Russ Tarby's weekly take on the best and brightest of happenings inside and outside of Downtown Syracuse. Each week he adds best bets too. Bio: Central New York journalist Russ Tarby has been writing about entertainment, crime, sports and politics since the 1970s. His reviews and feature stories have appeared in newspapers such as the Village Voice, the Dallas Observer, the Auburn Citizen and the Syracuse Post-Standard. For 12 years, he worked as music and books editor for the Syracuse New Times and while there he won several Syracuse Press Club awards including a Best Feature Story award for 'The Sweet Man,' his 1998 profile of 95-year-old jazz trombonist Spiegle Willcox. In 2000, he was named music writer of the year for weeklies with a circulation of less than 55,000 by the international Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. Tarby was a member of the steering committees which founded the Syracuse Area Music Awards(Sammys) and the Syracuse Walk of Fame. He has been a member of the Jazz Appreciation Society of Syracuse's Board of Directors since 1993. In 2007, Tarby edited "Into The Deep," a book by Dr. Andrew G. Hodges about the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway on the island of Aruba. Tarby now works as a free-lance writer and editor. He compiles two weekly columns, Downtown After Dark for the Syracuse City Eagle and Livin’ in Liverpool for The Review, both published by Eagle Newspapers. He can be reached at 457-1517, or via e-mail at russtarby@netscape.net. en-us 60 Wed, 28 Jul 2010 07:39:34 -0700 Downtown After Dark Ron Joseph is one of New York stateÂ’s hottest New Orleans-style jazz clarinetists. He hails from nearby Rome, New York, so weÂ’re lucky to hear him every once in a while right http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1280327974 http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1280327974 Wed, 21 Jul 2010 07:16:13 -0700 Downtown After Dark Opening for Lou Gramm at the Inner Harbor next Wednesday should be cake for the Original Todd Hobin Band. After all, during its heyday 35 years ago, the Syracuse-based rock http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1279721773 http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1279721773 Sun, 18 Jul 2010 08:22:44 -0700 Downtown After Dark “WeÂ’re as busy as weÂ’ve ever been, unfortunately,” exclaimed Carolyn, who works in the office at the Rescue Mission on Gifford Street on the western edge of downtown Syracuse. http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1279509764 http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1279509764 Sun, 18 Jul 2010 08:15:56 -0700 Downtown After Dark When Karl Cole first set his fingers upon the Wurlitzer Opus 1143 pipe organ, it was still installed at RKO KeithÂ’s Orchestra on South Salina Street, downtown. That was 44 years http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1279509356 http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1279509356 Thu, 24 Jun 2010 09:13:46 -0700 Downtown After Dark Talk about serendipity! Syracuse Peace Council organizer Andy Mager and Syracuse Jazz Fest Artistic Director Frank Malfitano met this spring to arrange for SPC to staff an http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1277396026 http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1277396026 Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:43:24 -0700 Downtown After Dark Like New York state itself, the New York State Blues Festival is in the red. For this summer, festival organizers have called it quits. Last month, harmonica wizard http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1276533804 http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1276533804 Wed, 02 Jun 2010 08:57:15 -0700 Downtown After Dark DowntownÂ’s festival season starts this weekend with Taste of Syracuse, the brainchild of Jim Horsman, who got the meatball rolling back in the mid-90s, and now helmed by Pam http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1275494235 http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1275494235 Wed, 26 May 2010 12:17:11 -0700 Downtown After Dark Karen Oberlin is a singer, but entertaining is only one part of her raison dÂ’etre. She feels an important connection to the creators of the Great American Songbook, composers http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1274901431 http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1274901431 Wed, 19 May 2010 07:49:05 -0700 Downtown After Dark An offbeat Web site called Oddee.com has listed local murderess Stacey Castor among the “10 Most Cruel Wives” in history. (Never mind that the superlative of cruel is cruelest. http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1274280545 http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1274280545 Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:09:33 -0700 Downtown After Dark Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation (NOON), a grass-roots organization of Central New Yorkers who support the sovereignty of the traditional government of the Onondaga Nation, is a http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1272481773 http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1272481773 Thu, 22 Apr 2010 10:44:22 -0700 Downtown After Dark April is Jazz Appreciation Month, and this weekend offers several chances to enjoy AmericaÂ’s indigenous musical art form right here in Syracuse. In fact there are two great http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1271958262 http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1271958262 Wed, 14 Apr 2010 09:05:49 -0700 Downtown After Dark When vocalist Tish Oney throws herself into Peggy LeeÂ’s swinginÂ’ song “ItÂ’s a Good Day,” thereÂ’s no way a listener could disagree. ItÂ’s a good day for curinÂ’ your ills, http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1271261149 http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1271261149 Wed, 07 Apr 2010 03:14:04 -0700 Downtown After Dark Unlike any other sport, baseball rekindles memories. When the Syracuse Chiefs open their International League season against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs at 2 p.m. Thursday, http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1270678444 http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1270678444 Fri, 02 Apr 2010 08:50:07 -0700 Downtown After Dark The granddaddy of Central New York music festivals, the Syracuse Jazz Fest, announced its 2010 schedule last Friday at a 10 a.m. press conference Upstairs at the Dinosaur http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1270223407 http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1270223407 Wed, 24 Mar 2010 09:51:11 -0700 Downtown After Dark James “Puddin” Jackson surveyed the empty floor of the Southwest Community Center (SWCC) gym Sunday, waiting for the bleachers to fill for the semi-finals of the Baby Boomers http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1269449471 http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1269449471 Wed, 24 Mar 2010 09:43:49 -0700 Downtown After Dark Lou Reed would be proud. The former WAER DJ who went on to found the Velvet Underground would certainly applaud WAER-FMÂ’s recent decision to recognize rock innovation. A new http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1269449029 http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1269449029 Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:03:36 -0700 Downtown After Dark On St. PatrickÂ’s Parade Day last Saturday, I eyeballed a woman with carrot-colored hair among the throngs on South Salina Street. She wore a green jacket with the word http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1268949816 http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1268949816 Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:09:58 -0800 Downtown After Dark Years before SyracuseÂ’s St. PatrickÂ’s Day Parade first marched down South Salina Street in 1982, the FlyinÂ’ Column had been celebrating the Irish saintÂ’s day by playing an http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1268334598 http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1268334598 Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:59:02 -0800 Downtown After Dark For 17 years, the Salt City Five (later known as the Salt City Six) reigned as one of the nationÂ’s premier traditional jazz bands. The Syracuse-based combos appeared at nearly http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1267642742 http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1267642742 Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:08:00 -0800 Downtown After Dark If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, all who behold had better keep an open mind. That seems to be one of the themes of Fat Pig, a black comedy by Neil LaBute, which debuted http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1267038480 http://cnylink.com/blogs/rtarby/view_blog.php?blog_id=1267038480