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.
Miner’s support is rooted in anti-Destiny politics
rtarby, Fri, September 25th, 2009
Nibsy’s Pub, which sits pretty at the foot of Tipperary Hill, is as Irish as Jameson’s. On Primary Night, however, all creeds and colors filled its upstairs banquet room as mayoral candidate Stephanie Miner celebrated her victory over three Democratic challengers, Joe Nicoletti, Carmen Harlow and Alfonso Davis.
At a Sept. 8 forum at Hotel Syracuse, the controversial Common Councilor noted that the city “faces tremendous peril” but also shows “tremendous promise.” As mayor, Miner will support tearing down I-81 through downtown, embrace the arts and employ 21st century technological innovations.
But those are only ancillary incentives to vote for Miner, and they’re not the issues that will help her beat Republican nominee Steve Kimatian in November.
Miner rarely mentions it, but the real reason people voted for her is because they remember that in 2006 she had the courage to stand up to Bob Congel, the developer of the pie-in-the-sky Destiny USA project at Carousel Center.
While Congel’s empty mall expansion sits stalled on Hiawatha Boulevard West, Miner stands as an alert guardian of city coffers. She’s one tough cookie who stared down the thief and chased him away before he got his hands on more of our tax dollars.
That’s why so many voters support Stephanie Miner!
GOP at loggerheads
Despite the alarmingly low voter turn-out, last Tuesday’s primary election still bore import.
The results – both in the city’s mayoral races and in Clay’s legislative run-off – garishly illustrated the great divide in the county GOP.
And what a bitter division it is!
Bitter enough to doom Kimatian’s chances of taking over City Hall.
Mahoney vs. DeSpirito
On one side stands the area’s most popular politician, County Executive Joanie Mahoney, a Republican. On the other lurks County Republican Committee Chairman John DeSpirito and his benefactor, state Sen. John DeFrancisco.
Mahoney prevailed in the GOP mayoral primary as her boy, former channel 9 executive Steve Kimatian, easily overcame the DeSpirito-DeFrancisco entry, former city Parks Commissioner Otis Jennings.
For DeSpirito, Kimatian’s victory represents the Republican machine’s second sputtering failure following 2008’s ill-fated decision to back Dale Sweetland over Mahoney.
Mahoney vs. Dougherty
Though the city favored Mahoney’s mayoral candidate, things didn’t go so well for her in Clay where her county legislature choice, Dave Stewart, was soundly thrashed by the Clay GOP Caucus candidate, John Dougherty, in the 2nd Legislative District.
Though Joanie’s horse remains technically in the race on the Independence and Conservative lines, Stewart’s now nothing but a long-shot.
Doughtery, a member of the Clay Planning Board, faces off in November against Democrat Donna Marsh-O’Connor. As a member of the Liverpool school board, O’Connor was a prime mover in the recent administrative clean-up of that troubled school district.
Sign of the times
A hand-scrawled sign outside Dotterer’s Liquor Store on North Salina St., in the city:
“No Cellular Phones!”
A little on the side
The Siders debuted Wednesday, Sept. 16, at Al’s (Awful no longer) Wine & Whiskey Lounge, 321 S. Clinton St., downtown.
Four of the best musicians in town have joined forces in this ambitious side project: keyboardist Mark Nanni, guitarist Tim Herron, bassist Steve Winston and drummer Josh Dekaney.
Nanni and Winston are members of Los Blancos. Herron has his own group, Tim Herron Corporation, and Dekaney deftly syncopates the sound of Grupo Pagan. Check ’em out at thesiders.com.
The Siders play original compositions by Nanni, Herron and Winston, spanning styles from rock to jazz to blues. And get this: the foursome boasts a suggestive slogan that’s certainly hard to resist: “Come and get a little on the side!”
Internet ‘insidious’
The heat was on Channel 9 anchorman Rod Wood during the first week of September. On Aug. 31 and Sept. 2, “What’s hot on AOL.” posted a video outtake of Wood getting stung by a bee during a lead-in to a Webcast regarding a serious traffic accident in Oswego County in mid-August.
“We feel a bit guilty for laughing at this veteran reporter’s unfortunate bee-sting incident,” the AOL Webmasters wrote. “Honestly though, is there anything quite as funny as seeing an old guy reel off a string of f-bombs?”
I bumped into Rod Sept. 4, while he was signing autographs at WSYR-TV 9’s booth at the State Fair. “The Internet is so insidious,” he said when I asked him about the bee-sting vid. “My boss was kind of upset about it when he heard a radio report on it last week while he was in Kansas City.”
Rod’s Channel 9 colleagues surmise that the outtake, technically property of the TV station, was lifted by a former staffer who now works out West. They suspect he posted the video online where it was picked up by AOL, which has more than 20 million members.
Rod worried that his on-air image could be damaged by the video’s wide release.
“I have a certain image I try to project,” he told me. An image normally not shaped by four-letter words.
Despite the bad publicity, Rod remains in good humor. He signed his picture for me, “Bee Man.”
Who needs humility?
Syracuse’s long-running independent radio show, This is Rock’n’Roll Radio noted its tenth anniversary last December. This month, on Sept. 27 disc jockeys Carl Cafarelli and Dana Bond will broadcast their 500th episode.
The celebratory three-hour blow-out will consist of power pop tunes from its first 499 shows, music by artists such as The Beatles, The Ramones, Liz Phair, The Kinks, The Velvet Underground, The Who and Big Star.
“We bill the show without humility – and only a little exaggeration – as ‘The Best Three Hours of Radio on the Whole Friggin’ Planet,’” Cafarelli recently wrote.
Carl and Dana also program plenty of local artists, including The Flashcubes (of course!), The Kennedys, Tim Anthony and Beauty Scene Outlaws.
This is Rock’n’Roll Radio streams live from 9 p.m. to midnight on Sunday, Sept. 27, exclusively over westcottradio.org/.
Salina Street scrub-board
Last week, driving south on Salina Street in front of The Post-Standard Building, I found the road shockingly lumpy, way worse than a washboard.
Can’t help but ponder how it’ll only deteriorate further after the snow starts falling, creating the inevitable potholes.
Cavallo rocks Festa
Jimmy Cavallo earned standing ovations last weekend at Festa Italiana, downtown, and well-deserved ovations at that.
He was joined by trumpeter Jeff Stockham on Friday and keyboardist Andy Rudy on Sunday. Saxophonist Joe Carello played the whole weekend with CNY’s much-beloved Godfather of Rock’n’Roll, who turned 82 last March. But 82 is just another number. Jimmy performs like he’s still 22, horsing around with longtime Houserockers Tony Licameli on drums, Chuck Sgroi on bass and John LaTocha on guitar.
“If I can’t have fun on a gig, I should stay home in a rocking chair,” he told the Fest folks on Friday. “But that ain’t gonna happen anytime soon,” he promised.
Last week, City Eagle started a campaign to get Cavallo inducted into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. /To join the effort simply send an e-mail with Jimmy’s name in the subject heading to: staff@rockhall.org.
Scoreboard celebration
The Syracuse Crunch hosted its first-ever season ticket holder barbeque Sept. 1, at the War Memorial, downtown. The summer feast turned into a real celebration after fans learned that the Onondaga County Legislature had voted 16-3 earlier that day to pay for a new War Memorial scoreboard.
More than 600 season ticket holders and corporate partners attended the barbecue, which also featured floor hockey for kids. Crunch Assistant Coach Trent Cull and Oncenter President Terri Toennies were among the guests, as Crunch President Howard Dolgon addressed the crowd.
The Crunch opens its 16th American Hockey League season Oct. 3, in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Syracuse opens at home the following weekend facing off against Adirondack at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 10. For info, call 473- 4444, or visit syracusecrunch.com.
Ice Girls wanted
The Syracuse Crunch will conduct open auditions for the Quickway Ice Girls, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 27, at the Syracuse Renaissance Hotel Convention Center, 701 E. Genesee St.
Applicants must be at least 18 years old. Interested candidates will be interviewed and taught a short dance routine.
All applicants should wear tasteful, form-fitting clothing and sneakers or dance shoes. No jewelry except engagement/wedding rings are to be worn. Make-up and hair must be performance-ready.
Auditioners can contact Karen Simabari in the Crunch office at 473-4444, ext. 20, or via e-mail at ksimbari@syracusecrunch.com.
Ahead of the curve
It’s sure to be next week’s hippest show in town...so I’m alerting you now!
Songwriter Leo Crandall debuts his new band, Ambassadors of Love, at about 10 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, at Al’s (no longer awful) Wine & Whiskey Lounge, downtown.
The new quartet follows in the footsteps of the Gonstermachers and includes former G-men Crandall on cello and guitars and Richard Curry on washtub bass. They’re joined now by accordionist Bob Alexander and drummer Vinnie Ludovico.
The amorous Ambassadors perform Crandall’s dream-like original songs, some blues plus klezmer and Middle-Eastern music.
Admission is always free at Al’s; 703-4773.
Reach Russ at russtarby@netscape.net.
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Miner for Mayor,Stephanie Miner,Russ tarby,Hotel Syracuse,Syracuse,run for mayor syracuse,Nibsy’s Pub,Tipperary Hill,Bob Congel,John DeSpirito and his benefactor,John DeFrancisco,Al’s Wine & Whiskey Lounge,Nanni, Herron and Winston,Syracuse Crunch,Quickway Ice Girls,Songwriter Leo Crandall,Ambassadors of Love,War Memorial scoreboard,Common Councilor anti-Destiny politics
