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Maybe the ‘Connective Corridor’ should host May Fest
Posted by rtarby | 04/28/09
The day after April Fool’s Day, Gov. David Paterson announced that he’s going to send $1.55 million from the federal Transportation Enhancement Program to pay for a “Civic Strip” in downtown Syracuse.
The “strip” – more like a labyrinth – is an element of Syracuse University’s Connective Corridor, whatever that is.
The planned Civic Strip (hey, maybe someone will open a Civic Strip Club, shades of the old Civic Follies!) runs roughly from the Erie Canal Museum on Water Street to the Everson Art Museum at Harrison and South State streets. It includes parts of Jefferson Street, Harrison Street, State Street, Montgomery Street, Madison Street and Bernthal Way (which we can only hope is named after the late lovely Rose Bernthal and not her perennially cranky show bizzy husband)...
CATEGORY: Commentary & Debate
TAGS: Riposa,salt city jazz,connective corridor,higgins,Syracuse University,SU,Castor,Civic Strip
Opera aspirants at Opus Friday
Posted by rtarby | 04/21/09
Opera isn’t just for classical music snobs. It’s also for rock’n’rollin’ club crawlers.
Despite its champagne image, opera inspires beer drinkers as well. Opera’s not just for high-toned sopranos. It’s also for the coloratura cocktail crowd including Karaoke kooks.
In an effort to transport opera from the stage to the nightclub scene, Syracuse Opera presents an innovative evening of Opera Karaoke, at 9 p.m. Friday, April 24, at Opus Restaurant & Lounge, 218 Walton St., in Armory Square, downtown. Admission is free. For info, dial 475-5915.
Douglas Kinney Frost, Syracuse Opera’s director of music, will host and play piano...
CATEGORY: General Entertainment
TAGS: opera,arias,opus,armory square,louis Armstrong,Louisa Maye Alcott,Little Women,Tenor Marc Schreiner,syracuse opera,Le Moyne
Sounds of Motown ring out at Opus on Hump Day
Posted by rtarby | 04/17/09
So you think you can harmonize like The Temptations? Croon and swoon like The Supremes?
Prove it when Lisa Gentile highlights the music of Motown at her weekly “Music Mavericks” Open Mic at 8 p.m. Wednesday April 22.
Every Hump Day night, Gentile welcomes performers of all backgrounds and abilities to the Opus Lounge & Restaurant, 218 Walton St., in Armory Square. Sign-ups start at 7:30 p.m., and the music rings out until 11:30 p.m. Appetizers are available, and there is no cover charge.
“Opus Lounge has an actual stage, a built-in sound system and best of all a grand piano,” Gentile said. “It’s a gorgeous, classy venue and, by having a piano, it attracts a more diverse group of performers each week...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Motown,Opus armory square,Hump Day,Eagles tunes,Music Mavericks,Lisa Gentile,Gaye, Lambert,Toubab Krewe,Robin Gentile,Joe Donohue,new times theater,Frank Vignola,Cat Russell,entertainment syracuse,Mickey Gentile
The Voice of Syracuse silenced by cancer
Posted by rtarby | 04/08/09
Last June, Syracuse bluesman Roosevelt Dean was inducted into the Syracuse Area Music Awards Hall of Fame. On April 4, Rosey died at his home on Midland Avenue after an eight-year battle with cancer. He was 65.
Roosevelt Dean’s Hall of Fame Sammy was his eighth and in his acceptance speech he reminded everyone why he was called “The Voice of Syracuse” by singing the heck out of the blues. But he also kept it real by talking about the cancer with which he’d been afflicted for so many years. The illness was so serious, Dean said, that all he could do is leave it up to the Lord. He closed his short set with a heartfelt gospel number, Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand)...
CATEGORY: General Entertainment
TAGS: roosevelt dean,Hall of Fame Sammy,mansfield,syracuse chiefs,tarby,downtown after dark,ZipWire,Le Moyne College,hockey,Andy Musto,coach of the year
Two ‘Bittersweethearts’ beat as one Saturday at Redhouse
Posted by rtarby | 04/03/09
Scott Allyn and Laura Austin at RedHouse - how bittersweet it is!
Laura Austin and Scott Allyn enjoy an especially harmonious marriage.
The Central New York husband-and-wife duo will perform “An Evening of Songs and the Stories Behind Them” live at 8 p.m. Saturday April 4, at Redhouse. The concert will feature songs from Austin’s most recent release, “BitterSweetHeart” as well as the couple’s debut album, “I Could Be Anyone.” Both discs were produced by studio wizard Mark Doyle and feature Allyn’s finely crafted folk/pop tunes such as “Brand New Lonely” and “Fire Up the Ole Mesabi.”
Besides producing the new disc and its accompanying DVD, Doyle also contributed bass and guitar tracks, keyboard work, backing vocals and co-wrote “Were It Any Other Day...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Bittersweethearts,Redhouse,Laura Austin,Mark Doyle,Howard Mandel,Peppino’s,fried oreos,Great Bear Trio,New York City-based writer
Dulcimer dynamo Dan Duggan battles cancer
Posted by rtarby | 03/26/09
One of Dan Duggan’s best solo discs is “Seasons of Change.”
Now the one-time National Hammered Dulcimer Champion is experiencing his own personal season of change as he undergoes intensive treatments for head and neck cancer.
Duggan, who was raised in Syracuse and now lives in Red Creek with his singing partner, Peggy Eyres, is widely recognized as a master of the hammered dulcimer. That instrument, the ancient predecessor to the piano, is shaped like a trapezoid and strung with 40 to 100 strings. It’s played by striking the strings with wooden mallets known as hammers.
On “Seasons of Change” Duggan deftly demonstrates his dulcimer skills using several different techniques including muting, harmonics and plucking...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Bix and Spiegle,Kevin Dorsey,Bronzetti,G.D. Bower, Amy Christian,Greg McCrea,Loren Barrigar, Joe Davoli,Dave Duggan,dulcimer,cancer,Michael Philip Mossmann,CNY Jazz Orchestra,Bill Pomares
Restaurants versus the recession
Posted by rtarby | 03/18/09
The deepening recession has begun to take its toll on the local restaurant industry, but hope springs eternal. While some fall by the wayside, a few new ones join the fray.
Traditions will let go of its prime downtown location at South Salina and Washington streets in order to concentrate on its suburban eateries. Back when it was Nikki’s, the classy corner bistro often hosted Mayor Lee Alexander, his lady friends and his cronies.
A West End landmark, Doc’s Little Gem Diner, will reportedly be next to shut its doors. The affable Doc Good says he’s never recovered from the state’s 2003 ban on indoor smoking...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Mayor Lee Alexander,Traditions,Doc’s Little Gem Diner,Greek cuisine,Syracuse,Koumanidis,Casey’s Deli,Nick Frenay,Frank Malfitano,Syracuse Jazz Fest,Dino barbecue,Hanna Richardson,Phil Flanigan,armory Square,Hymie Witthoft,Gonstermachers,Albanian cuisine
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Downtown After DarkDowntown 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 [email protected].
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