Project Censored is the ongoing mission of journalists Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth to expose the most important news stories that have gone underreported or effectively censored. But with the 2017 edition of Project Censored (published in the Nov. 29 issue of the Syracuse New Times), Huff and Roth reached a milestone: the year in which an episode of The Simpsons was played out in real life.

Foreshadowed in a TV cartoon, the black comedy of events that obscured and propelled Donald Trump’s rise to president of the United States is chronicled in the annual Project Censored chapter devoted to Junk Food News: the so-called “fake news” that squeezed into the places that should have been filled with legitimate information.

In 2016, Project Censored’s legions of student interns, writers and editors spent a considerable amount of ink on the emerging youth movement. In addition to producing formidable activists in their own right, it undergirded the passion that spurred Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign during the presidential primaries and made the movement to abolish the use of super delegates in the days after the election about more than just sour grapes.

The occasion of the 40th anniversary and its emphasis on youth seemed to infuse Huff and Roth with hopefulness in Project Censored and the good hands doing its work. But the 2016 election cycle did something else.

The Junk Food News chapter is co-written by Huff and Nolan Higdon, a professor of English, communications and history in the San Francisco Bay Area. Examples of Junk Food News that have distracted Americans range from Trump’s refusal to attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner to the breathless reporting on Trump’s every tweet.

Huff and Higdon characterize this coverage as a backlash in response to Trump not allowing corporate media to hobnob with the power elites. Besides, Project Censored described the White House dinner as a means for the media to ingratiate themselves to power rather than speak truth to power.

This unhealthy diet of junk news displaced news about the widespread famine in Yemen, a region raked by a 2-year-old war led by Saudi Arabia and backed by the United States, which left more than 10,000 dead and 40,000 wounded in the region. A United Nations report estimated that more than 90 percent of Yemen’s citizens are experiencing famine and malnutrition.

Huff and Higdon described the Olympic Summer Games of 2016 as a media spectacle, particularly after the corporate media latched onto the story of the four U.S. Olympic swimmers who lied about being robbed at gunpoint after vandalizing a gas station bathroom and being stopped by an armed security guard. Project Censored contrasted the slap on the wrist these swimmers received with the treatment of gold medalist Gabby Douglas when it appeared that she didn’t put her hand over her heart during the medal ceremony.

This news displaced coverage of “flooding on a historic scale” in Louisiana. Project Censored noted that “while the damage caused was less than that of Hurricane Katrina, 20,000 residents had to be rescued, 10,000 were placed in shelters, and several people lost their lives.”

Huff and Higdon also highlighted the Academy Awards’ un-scandalous scandal in which La La Land was mistakenly announced as Best Picture. It took only two minutes until the film Moonlight was announced as the real winner, but Huff and Higdon noted that this non-scandal scandal obscured major news in that almost 550 community leaders, elected officials, business moguls, health officials and politicians called for doubling the strength of the Regional Greenhouse Gas initiative, a clean air and healthy climate program.

Huff and Higdon noted that “a gathering of this size to enact policies to prevent further climate change is certainly worthy of major attention. But instead, the American public was treated to endless punditry on who was responsible for the year’s Best Picture blunder.”

Alternative Reality and Reportage

Huff and Higdon recounts how Huff and former Project Censored director Peter Phillips argued in 2010 that the United States was facing a truth emergency. They assert that “in the United States today, the rift between reality and reporting has reached its end. There is no longer a mere credibility gap, but rather a literal truth emergency. This is a culmination of the failures of the Fourth Estate to act as a truly free press.”

Huff and Higdon conclude that little has changed. In the recent edition of Project Censored, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons on his own people is a primary example. This attack was used to justify Trump’s order to fire 59 Tomahawk missiles on a country torn by civil war.

Project Censored pushes back against the notion that critiquing the corporate press pushing the Bashar al-Assad chemical weapon attack as tantamount to being pro-al-Assad. Indeed, Project Censored adds nuance that should be applied to the Trump administration and the role of the Russians in the 2016 presidential elections.

Huff and Higdon wrote: “This is a complicated matter, to be sure, one that even sparks vivid disagreements among the anti-imperialist and the pacifist left in the United States. To question official narratives should not mean people are automatically pro-Assad — or pro-Putin, for that matter. More importantly, what does it mean to be pro-truth in a post-truth world, when the truth can be elusive, especially in an environment addled by propaganda coming from many sides?”

Huff and Higdon note that the corporate press’ engagement in news abuse regarding Syria is an attempt to build public support for U.S. invasion, much like the second war in Iraq a decade earlier. Project Censored wrote, “This makes accurate reporting and publishing of diverse perspectives all the more crucial.”

Huff and Higdon argue that the countermeasure to news abuse and propaganda is an informed citizenry with strong critical thinking skills. Project Censored actually goes a little further than that by saying that the level of critical thinking required now goes beyond simply evaluating information based on conformity with existing knowledge. Huff and Higdon argue that Americans’ thought process must embrace perspectives at odds with “prevailing wisdom or personal views” based on the evaluation of reality.

Huff and Higdon identified a few different and daunting cases where this form of education is applicable. One of those examples was the aim of right-wing personality Glenn Beck and pseudo-historian David Barton to offer training camps to teach graduating high school students their revisionist history. They used the words of regular Salon writer Amanda Marcotte to describe their historical narrative, saying that it is “one that valorizes straight white men as humanity’s natural leaders and grants Christian fundamentalism a centrality to American history that it does not, in reality, have.”

Marcotte also noted, “In Barton’s history, the founding father idea of government was rooted in fundamentalist Christianity, instead of enlightenment philosophy, and the contributions of people of color are minimized in service of centering Christian white men as the righteous shepherds guiding everyone else.”

Huff and Higdon also argue that schools should teach media literacy as core curriculum to help fight against news abuse and fake news. Project Censored noted that the U.S. education system has drifted to the same for-profit model of information dissemination as the mass media, yielding many of the same results.

Huff and Higdon cite critical theory scholar Henry Giroux, who notes that an effective “democracy cannot exist without informed citizens and public spheres and educational apparatuses that uphold standards of truth, honesty, evidence, facts and justice. Under Trump, disinformation masquerading as news has become a weapon for legitimating ignorance and civic illiteracy.

“Artists, educators, young people, journalists and others need to make the virtue of truth-telling visible again. We need to connect democracy with a notion of truth-telling and consciousness that is on the side of economic and political justice, and democracy itself. If we are going to fight for, and with, the most marginalized people, there must be a broader understanding of their needs. We need to create narratives and platforms in which those who have been deemed disposable can identify themselves and the conditions through which power and oppression bear down on their lives.”

More Inconvenient Truths

Huff and Higdon recounted the brief history of the term “fake news” since Trump was elected president. The authors noted that during one week in January 2017, the trend of people researching the term “fake news” on Google jumped 100-fold above pre-election levels. Trump and his supporters denounced any critiques of the new administration, such as CNN for questioning the validity of his statements as fake news.

But Project Censored noted that Trump and his underlings were not alone in labeling inconvenient truths as fake news. The Democratic National Committee was also guilty, as it sought to explain how Hillary Clinton lost to Trump. Project Censored noted that the partisan practice of labeling inconvenient truths as fake news undermined credible journalism while distracting the public from the barrage of actual fake news flooding our global society.

This was reminiscent of a Ron Suskind story in the New York Times Magazine more than a decade ago in which the phrase “reality-based community” was used by an aide in the George W. Bush administration. The term was a phrase used to denigrate critics of the administration’s policies who were basing their judgments on facts.

Suskind wrote: “The aide said that guys like me were ‘in what we call the reality-based community,’ which he defined as ‘people who believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.’ ‘That’s not the way the world really works anymore,’ he continued. ‘We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors. . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.’”

The source was later revealed to be political operative and Bush administration adviser Karl Rove, but he has denied it.

Huff and Higdon noted that the internet’s promise of delivering endless information to circumvent a post-truth world has not succeeded in producing a well-informed populace. Instead, the inflation of spurious information coupled with an education system that does not teach critical media literacy to students and does not show them how to navigate and participate in the digital world has resulted in a dystopia of falsehoods that are now referred to as “alternative facts.”

This post-truth environment, they argue, gave rise to a term defined as an outright lie that is introduced and then used as evidence to support a desired conclusion. Among the examples Project Censored used include:

Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s claiming three times that a terror attack occurred in Atlanta, Ga.

U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson claiming that African American slaves were immigrants who worked hard and found success in America, without socio-economic relevancy or historical context.

The Trump administration claiming that the resistance to their repeal and replace Obamacare were paid protesters.

Huff and Higdon argue that the ability to embrace dissonant facts is a skill set needed now more than ever, when inconvenient truths are labeled fake news. They argue that this state of affairs has resulted in a post-truth world.

After laying this groundwork, Project Censored shifts to the Democratic National Convention and alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. From the start, Project Censored makes the argument that the Russian hacking narrative, propagated by the corporate media invested in Clinton’s bid for the White House, is an example of an alternative fact designed to deflect attention away from Clinton’s deficiencies as a candidate.

Huff and Higdon cite the Washington Post and the website PropOrNot that were purported to have uncovered the media outlets that served as dupes of Russian hackers with a series of algorithms designed to analyze the web content of media outlets. The Post reprinted a list created by PropOrNot. Project Censored noted that under threat of lawsuits, they published a partial retraction. Project Censored, using a quote by Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibibi, argues that the Russian story was a distraction from the pre-existing problems within the Democratic Party. Taibibi, and by extension, Project Censored is correct.

For Huff and Higdon, the question was whether Russian interference had a direct, demonstrable impact on Clinton losing the election. The answer has been a resounding “no,” regardless of the steady drip of leaks regarding the alleged collusion of Trump’s campaign with the Russian government. The fact remains that Clinton, with help from the Democratic National Committee, lost to a candidate who should not have had any chance of winning.

Huff and Higdon note that fact-checking would not be enough to counter fake news. But fake news is not the only threat. Blacklists like the one used by sites like PropOrNot that include legitimate journalistic outlets as fake news, or the passage of legislation that literally bans the media from lying. Huff and Higdon note that the corporate press has assisted in creating some of these new threats such as the weaponizing of fake news. The pair acknowledges the daunting task of making these times and nation more hospitable to a more free and democratic place, they write:

“The failures of the corporate media and education system have already contributed to the current post-truth environment by creating nothing short of an epistemological crisis. This has proven to be detrimental to our democratic process and an affront to the First Amendment rights of the American people.

“Creating the better world we envision will not depend on rewriting recent history to suit our purposes or flatter our illusions, but rather will depend on creating an ever more democratic, diverse and critical free press. Without progress on building critical media literacy, if there’s a hell below, like Curtis Mayfield said, ‘We all going to go.’” 

Terelle Jerricks is managing editor of Random Lengths News.

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Stacey Waterman has worked with some of the very biggest names in the business, including Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, The Dead, The Allman Brothers, Dave Matthews, Phish and Bonnie Raitt. In addition to world-famous acts, Waterman has also been a champion for the local music scene, both in working with the DMR Booking Agency and through her own productions. 

On Thursday, March 1, 7 to 10 p.m., at Upstairs at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, 246 W. Willow St., Waterman will be recognized during the Syracuse Area Music Awards (Sammys) Hall of Fame dinner and induction ceremony. Tickets are $25, available at syracuseareamusic.com. Also, the Sammys awards presentation takes place Friday, March 2, 7 p.m., at Eastwood’s Palace Theatre, 2384 James St. Tickets are $20, available at Armory Square’s Sound Garden and at syracuseareamusic.com.

“I don’t think she’s gotten enough credit for the ways she’s enhanced the local music scene,” noted DMR founder David Rezak. “It’s much more about creating situations where local music is in a positive light. That’s right at the core of what Stacey has brought to the Syracuse music scene.

“Stacey has proven, for example, that the Palace Theatre is viable. By doing a show like Salt City Waltz (in which area musicians recreated The Band’s last performance, as captured in director Martin Scorsese’s 1978 concert film The Last Waltz), she showed us all what was possible.”

Waterman worked for Rezak at DMR for 10 years before buying the company from him in 2003. “I was looking for somebody to help with the company (in 1993) and I think I put an ad in the New Times,” Rezak recalls. “She (Waterman) came in to tell me I was crazy to talk to anyone else and that I needed to hire her. She also told me what was wrong with my booking agency: very constructive criticisms that were spot-on correct, and I knew it. We worked together really well. Stacey is a problem-solver and she knows what she’s doing. She figures out angles that aren’t apparent to others.”

Waterman currently coordinates the annual Taste of Syracuse food and music festival, and is continually called upon to help other major music events run smoothly in a variety of behind-the-scenes capacities. But she maintains a strong local connection, as well as lending her powerful presence. “I will never leave here, work somewhere else, get big-headed and be down on Syracuse,” Waterman affirms. “I like it here.”

Music was important to you early. How so?

I’m not from a musical family, but my dad was a big music fan, so I got to go to a lot of concerts. We would go see every single show that came through the area no matter what. The whole process of going to a show was long. You’d sit by the radio and wait for Dave Frisina to do the big concert announcement. You’d get excited. Then you’d wait in line on a sidewalk, overnight, for tickets! It was this big buildup. I’m so bummed that kids don’t get to experience that anymore.

Was there a moment at a show where you realized you wanted to make that your career?

I remember seeing Aerosmith in the early 1980s. I remember always looking at the guys in front of the stage or the front of the house yelling at somebody with a headset on. I thought, I don’t want to be Joe Perry, I don’t want to be the broad who gives roadies blow jobs, I wanna be THAT guy. HE looks like he knows something that I want to know. It always seemed like the cool thing and I like being in the background.

As someone who’s usually in the background, how does it feel to be recognized?

It’s nice to be recognized, I’m just not ever used to it since I’m not a musician. And I’m really not. I can carry a tune maybe when I’m drunk.

Did you ever think to leave Syracuse?

I made a choice a long time ago. I was a teen mom. I had a family. We always all worked really hard. I made the choice to stay when I decided to be a parent. I could have moved and there were offers, lots of them, but I like it here. And the (Onondaga) Nation is where I grew up. I don’t want to be too far from that ever.

Tell me about when you started working for Dave Rezak at DMR.

By the time I started working for him, my dad had passed away. My dad was a great dad, but a different kind of dad, more of a friend. But David was a family guy with two girls and a wife. They had a summer cottage, and the stuff that seemed very normal; it was nothing I’d ever thought about. David pushed me to want more and be better, achieve my goals. He was the pain-in-the-ass parent that gave me that push. Personally, it was an enlightening experience and professionally, I can’t say enough. He’s got decades of knowledge that he unselfishly shares with everybody. I’ve been so lucky. 

Why did you decide to take over DMR?

He made me do it! But if I hadn’t, I probably would have been a lot more reckless. I wanted to hold up his name. It meant a whole lot to me and the music community here and I needed to uphold the standard. I did my best, but I did change a lot. I wanted to think of a better way (to run it). In the early years, I spent a lot of time making a plan and refocusing the business.

How did DMR help you in bigger ways?

From my work there, I got in with local concert promoters. I remember the first time the Dave Matthews Band came to Central New York and they came with a tractor trailer of merch. So I started with that, doing inventory control. They realized I was more detail-oriented and moved me into production, then production management. A promoter books the show and does ticketing, marketing, etc. For production, it’s my job to execute the performance end of that with the artist.

So you’re responsible for actually making shows happen physically.

Yes. I’ve always thought that when there are hurricanes, the people to deal with it best would be production managers who have built cities in fields. They’re resourceful people.

Have you ever had any major disasters?

Not in a really long time! I’d have a good laugh now knowing it’s not my fault. You’ve got to have a thick skin. I learned a long time ago that sometimes shit just doesn’t happen right. There’s nothing you can do to make some people happy: They just want to be miserable. So they can stomp, cry and pitch a fit and I’ll still say, ‘OK. So, now what?’ The show has to go on. What will we do to move forward?

In 2012 you started Salt City Waltz at the Palace Theatre. (The event will return this year.) Tell me about what it means to you.

Out of everything I’ve done, I feel that is the feather in my cap. That is my Sammy. That is everything. That show is so special. Everyone who goes to it knows that. We’ve created this thing that 700 to 800 people just feel so good when they leave there. It’s amazing. I don’t think there’s a more feel-good time than that.

How do you feel about winning a Hall of Fame Award?

When I was first asked, I thought, ‘No, not me. I’m not ready for that.’ Jon Fishman is in the Hall of Fame because he’s a famous rock star who brought recognition to the area. The local musicians in there are the veterans who built the path to success for the Syracuse music community. But what about us who walk that path that they laid every day? We’re here working every day. It’s a weird feeling and there’s still a lot of people I want to see in there. 

Stacey Waterman and Dino from the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que (Michael Davis photos

Stacey Waterman and music promoter Chuck Chao. Michael Davis photos

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Every day for more than 50 years the snoozing destination of Bridgeport has been blasted by the noontime greeting of the town’s fire station whistle. But now that whistle has some competition, and it’s right across the street from the station’s Route 31 address.

That’s where the sounds of video slot machines and rolling dice can now be heard. Point Place Casino is the new 24/7 gaming emporium that premiered March 1 from the Oneida Indian Nation, which also controls Verona’s Turning Stone and Chittenango’s Yellow Brick Road casinos.

It’s certainly the most seismic event to occur in this community since WSYR-AM morning-drive radio host Deacon Doubleday left his “wired woodshed” in November 1964 to sign autographs during the grand opening of a Victory Market in a nearby shopping strip plaza.

Oneida Indian Nation Enterprises CEO Ray Halbritter noted the area’s historical legacy in his remarks just prior to the opening of Point Place, so named because of the land points that stretch into nearby Oneida Lake. Other invited dignitaries likewise lauded the casino newbie, while state Sen. David Valesky of the 53rd District cut to the chase by proclaiming, “Enjoy it, and good luck!”

Then the hundreds who stood in line for several hours came swarming into the 65,000-square-foot establishment, as costumed lumberjacks and lumberjills doled out free T-shirts and patrons posed for photo ops behind a ceremonial tree log. The casino, which boasts a reported $40 million price tag, has a rustic, woodsy ambiance: Imagine an Adirondack Great Camp, albeit with a roulette wheel smack in the middle.

Aside from the 498 slot machines (some featuring odes to pinup queen Bettie Page and TV’s Batgirl) and the 20 table games, Point Place also has the fast-casual restaurants Wicked Good Pizza, which seats 80, and the wryly named Burgers of Madison County, a 130-seat venue that also offers soups, salads, fish, fries and Hofmann franks. Both eateries, which have separate entrances for those not in the mood to play blackjack, are open Sundays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

It’s a no-brainer to explain Point Place’s main reason for setting up shop in this unexpected locale. Bridgeport straddles from the town of Cicero in Onondaga County, where casinos are forbidden, and across the bridge and into the town of Sullivan in Madison County, with Chittenango Creek running under the bridge. Point Place is on the Sullivan side, perhaps a few hundred feet from the Cicero border.

The Cicero side experienced a population surge in the early 1960s, when farmland was transformed into the Oneida and Val Park housing tracts that sold cement-slab ranches for $10,000. Yet the Sullivan portion hasn’t really changed much, as only locals with long memories can pick out the former locations of Ferstler’s Silver Star, the Giant Midstate grocery, the Esso gas station and Western Auto.

“A truly unique hamlet” is the description found in author Judy Barrett’s 2014 history book Bridgeport, from Arcadia Publishing’s ongoing Images of America series. Settlers came to the area as early as 1802, according to the book, with a post office opening in the mid-1800s and the Bridgeport United Methodist Church welcoming parishioners in 1869.

“In the days before written history,” Barrett writes, “Native Americans used Oneida Lake and Chittenango Creek as food sources, and very often camped out on the shores of both in the winter months. Many remnants of their being here have been found, especially by farmers plowing their fields. There have been historical references to the Oneida and the Tuscarora tribes, both part of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy.”

The casino’s physical footprint really just extends to the corner of Route 31 and Bridgeport-Kirkville Road, as the former Botting’s Hotel and Grill was knocked down to make room for a “Welcome to Bridgeport” sign. Otherwise, the complex is tucked in the back, while several other businesses such as the Sami’s Pizza shop are still in operation on Route 31. During construction, nearby Blanding Hardware was often called upon to supply whatever the builders needed. And as a point of contrast, the old-school OTB betting parlor is just four-tenths of a mile up the road.

With a maximum occupancy of 2,241, however, the casino is gearing up for heavy traffic. One lucky lady won a $300 jackpot on a penny slot machine within minutes of the 10 a.m. March 1 grand opening. Shortly before Bridgeport’s noontime fire station whistle blew, however, a disenchanted patron exited the casino and grumpily barked within earshot to incoming customers, “Save your money!” With Point Place as the hamlet’s ultimate game-changer, Bridgeport will likely never be the same again. 

See the photo gallery here

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There’s a new Syracuse name and location to learn: City Center, in the 400 block of South Salina Street.

That’s what we have been calling just the Redhouse at City Center: 40,000 square feet in a multimillion-dollar design by Schopfer Architects LLP, with two theaters, one up to 350 seats and the other with 125 seats, plus a studio/rehearsal room that seats up to 65. All around is lots of razzle-dazzle space, including a catering kitchen, suitable for upmarket parties and wedding receptions. And there is enough parking to accommodate every visitor. 

Revamping the entire Sibley’s department store shell will run to $30 million. The Redhouse will be the prime tenant at City Center, which will eventually host many more venues, very likely a restaurant among them. Just as few could have predicted the emergence of Armory Square 30 years ago, there is no telling how the Redhouse at City Center will alter the urban landscape, or at least shift the center of gravity.

The spacious lobby of the City Center. Michael Davis photos

At a press tour of the site on the last day of January, the floors were covered with dust and everyone had to wear hard hats. Redhouse executive director Samara J. Hannah said that despite appearances, everything was on schedule for the March 8 opening with Ernest Thompson’s family comedy-drama On Golden Pond.

Imported for the show is actor Fred Grandy of the ABC-TV series The Love Boat (1977-1986). Although Grandy was boyish as Gopher more than three decades ago, he has since served four terms in Congress and will turn 70 in June, making him well-seasoned for the role of crusty retired professor Norman Thayer, who dreads aging. Appearing with him for the first time is Fred’s daughter Marya Grandy, a rising Broadway and TV star.

All of this takes place in the former Sibley’s store, which opened to great fanfare in 1969 but failed to last two decades. As the current planners may not have intended, bringing show business glamour to the west side of Salina Street south of Jefferson builds on hearty precedents.

For more than 50 years, until 1967, two vaudeville-era houses graced the block, the Paramount and RKO Keith’s. Together with Loew’s State, now the Landmark, they comprised the city’s own Shubert Alley, when Salina Street also meant retail shopping. Now the question is whether the Redhouse at City Center in the same block can tap into the Armory Square buzz two blocks away.

The Redhouse takes its name from the three-story Erie Canal-era edifice at West and Fayette streets it occupied from 2004 to 2017. The company morphed from a former community theater outfit known as Contemporary Theatre of Syracuse that had scouted different locales downtown, including a former coffee house on Clinton Street. The facility initially looked unpromising. No beauty, it was a former flophouse that barely escaped the wreckers’ ball. The cost was $1.4 million. Its prime advantage was the proximity to Armory Square.

As the building was transformed, it did indeed become a draw for artistic young people, and became more than a theater, offering afterschool classes and community outreach programs. SubCat Recording Studios is right next door at 214 S. West St. With successive reconfigurations of the building, the former lobby of the theater became a coffee shop and snack bar where schmoozers like to linger.

Artistic director Laura Austin was interested in music and comedy, but she was a professional actress before she became linked to Contemporary Theatre of Syracuse and was part of the troika (including Patrick O’Connor and Gerard Moses) that transmogrified that company into the Redhouse in 2004. She is also the only one of the three to stay with the company over the 14 years, playing dozens of roles and winning multiple Syracuse New Times Syracuse Area Live Theater (SALT) Awards. Thus, no matter what the Redhouse at City Center does, we tend to think of it as a theater first.

In January 2011, Austin brought in director and playwright Stephen Svoboda, a man of extraordinary energy, who was happy to have one large production up and running as he was simultaneously rehearsing for the next. An example of his ambition was to have two productions at the same time, as with Moisés Kaufman’s Gross Indecency and Terrence McNally’s A Man of No Importance (January-February 2015), both dealing with the subject of author Oscar Wilde. Svoboda’s standards were high, and he enjoyed continuing artistic success, such as Stephen Sondheim’s edgy Assassins (October 2012) and the outrageous Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson (October 2013).

Bit by bit the productions were also growing bigger, as Svoboda seemed determined to defy the limits of his small stage with 83 seats. Two of the most massive came toward the end of his tenure: Ragtime (May 2016), perhaps his greatest triumph, with 48 players, and the Walt Disney musical The Little Mermaid (June 2016), with 71 performers. At the box office they were the local equivalents of Hamilton: You couldn’t get tickets.

Simultaneous with the Redhouse’s artistic and popular growth, it was securing a strong financial base and attracting responsible and dedicated people to its board of trustees. Soft-spoken William “Bill” Hider, board president, had taken the lead corralling the cash, starting out with a $1.3 million grant from the Central New York Regional Economic Development Council (REDC) for renovation of the theater space, and another $1.6 million to get the Sibley’s parking garage back in shape. A consortium of local banks, including Pathfinder, M&T and NBT, were part of the action. At the press tour, Hider, although speaking in little more than a whisper, was the man who knew all the details.

According to word of mouth, the notion for the move began as early as 2013 with Svoboda lobbying for more room, but he abruptly left the company in mid-summer 2016. Meanwhile artistic director Laura Austin is not currently a resident in Central New York for personal reasons. The Redhouse professional staff and the board make the calls.

The selection of Ernest Thompson’s 1979 play On Golden Pond appears to be an opening to wider audiences. Norman and Ethel Thayer are an upper-class couple who have summered in New England for nearly a half-century, but they see changes coming because his turning 80 is on the horizon. It is also time to reconcile with an estranged daughter.

Fred Grandy might have appeared to be a social everyman on The Love Boat, but evidence suggests he knows how the better sort talk and walk. He attended high school at the citadel of privilege, Phillips Andover Academy. A further preparation is that he was a Republican congressman from Iowa. When the Fondas, Henry and Jane, filmed On Golden Pond in 1981, they made Norman a liberal. In the original play he is conservative.

On Golden Pond was a modest hit on stage and has fared well in revivals, often with name casts, like Christopher Plummer and Julie Andrews. An all-black cast featured James Earl Jones in 2005. Another sure bet for the Redhouse at City Center will be a revival of the Harvey Fierstein-Jerry Herman smash La Cage aux Folles, slated for a May 31 opening. The cagelles have been packing them in for decades. 

All photos by staff photographer Michael Davis:

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The last one in is one of the last 16 standing. The Syracuse University men’s basketball team, literally the last team selected for the 68-team NCAA Tournament, is now in the tournament’s Sweet 16 for the 19th time in program history. And while there were some improbable runs in SU’s previous 18 Sweet 16 appearances, this one might top them all. 

To reach this weekend’s Sweet 16 to face Duke, the 11th-seeded Orange had to defeat No. 3 seed (and No. 5 in the nation) Michigan State University in what amounted to a Spartans’ home game in Detroit; in SU’s third game in five days; with seven scholarship players; with big men Paschal Chukwu and Bourama Sidibe in serious foul trouble; with starting point guard Frank Howard fouling out with 6:39 remaining and the Orange trailing by 5; with walk-on Braedon Bayer filling in for Howard; with MSU outrebounding SU by 21 (51-30); with the Spartans outscoring the Orange 21-5 on second-chance points; and with Syracuse making one field goal in the last four minutes. 

Syracuse 55, Michigan State 53. 

Three days later, and it’s still hard to believe. 

“This team perseveres through no matter what happens,” Orange coach Jim Boeheim said. “These guys just keep going, keep battling.” 

In that way, the NCAA Tournament has been no different than the regular season, when the Orange clawed its way to 20 wins despite losing several players from an already-thin roster. With Taurean Thompson transferring to Seton Hall in September, Geno Thorpe leaving the team in early December and Howard Washington suffering a season-ending knee injury in January, Syracuse was left with seven scholarship players plus Bayer, a former walk-on who was awarded a scholarship over the Christmas break because, what the heck, nobody else was using it. 

Most “bracketologists” had SU on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble, and the Selection Committee took a lot of heat by picking the Orange as the 36th and final at-large team. Syracuse surprised most analysts by rallying late to defeat Arizona State in a “First Four” game March 14 in Dayton, Ohio, and then upsetting No. 6 seed Texas Christian University — coached by old Pittsburgh nemesis Jamie Dixon — in the NCAA Tournament’s first round two days later in Detroit. 

That’s where it was supposed to end, as the Orange had to face the bigger, deeper and more experienced Spartans, coached by Hall of Famer Tom Izzo. But Boeheim is a Hall of Famer, too, and his 2-3 zone defense has become a great equalizer in NCAA Tournament play. 

Consider this: Syracuse held Arizona’s Sun Devils (83 points per game), TCU’s Horned Frogs (82 points per game) and MSU’s Spartans (81 points per game) to 56, 52 and 53 points — a combined 85 points below their averages. Some of Syracuse’s Atlantic Coast Conference opponents may have figured out the zone, but it remains a mystery to the rest of the nation. 

“For us, it’s the defense every night,” guard Tyus Battle said. “We know we’re a defensive-minded team and we’re only going to win games as long as our defense is moving. We’re moving, we’re talking, and just making it tough on the opposing team to get up (3-point shots) and stuff like that.” 

Unable to penetrate the zone, the Spartans chucked up 37 3-pointers and made just eight, including two “bank” shots that were more lucky than good. In its three tournament games, the Orange is holding its opponents to 34.3 percent shooting overall (57 for 166) and 25.6 percent from beyond the arc (22 for 86). 

“I think our activity level and our length up top is tough for people,” said the 6-foot-5 Howard, who’s at the top of the zone with the 6-6 Battle. “If we can be big and clog those passing lanes, we can be successful.” 

SU’s superlative defense has masked what Boeheim has called one of the worst offensive teams in his 42 years as the Orange coach. Syracuse entered the Michigan State game ranked 315th in scoring, 318th in field goal percentage and 321st in 3-point field goal percentage among 351 Division I teams. 

Syracuse has won all three of its tournament games without scoring 60 points and no other team has won once while scoring less than 60. That puts an enormous amount of pressure on the defense, but the Orange wears it like a badge. 

“We don’t care who’s on the floor with us, we’re expecting to win the game,” Battle said. “I have supreme confidence in my teammates, everyone steps up. Braedon came in, hasn’t played much the entire year, stepped up and played some great defense. It’s just the heart of this team: It’s amazing.” 

Ah, yes, Braedon Bayer. If there’s one image we’re going to remember from this season, it’s Bayer replacing Howard against Michigan State and giving the Orange defense a block (against Spartans’ star Miles Bridges, no less) and a steal in six gritty minutes. Bayer, from Lagrangeville in Dutchess County, played two years at Division III Grinnell College in Iowa before transferring to Syracuse. He played only 11 minutes in eight games this season before the Michigan State game.

No. 14, Junior guard Braedon Bayer. (Photo by Michael Davis)

“We’ve got a lot of fighters and a lot of talent,” Howard said, “and with that combination I think we can come up with some wins.” 

In the Midwest Region semifinals, the Orange (22-13) will face a familiar foe in No. 2 seed Duke (28-7), which advanced to the Sweet 16 with convincing wins over Iona and Rhode Island. The game is scheduled to start on Friday, March 23, 9:37 p.m., at Omaha’s CenturyLink Center. 

Duke and coach Mike Krzyzewski are certainly familiar with the 2-3 zone — Coach K started using it regularly this season — and the Blue Devils did defeat the Orange 60-44 Feb. 24 at Cameron Indoor Stadium. But Syracuse will enter the game with a week’s rest and no pressure as this season has already surpassed everyone’s expectations. 

Le Moyne Dances to South Dakota 

March has been a glorious time to be a Beilein. John Beilein is the men’s basketball coach at Michigan, by upending Houston 64-63 March 17 on freshman Jordan Poole’s 3-point buzzer-beater. Earlier that day, John’s son Patrick landed in Sioux Falls, S.D., where he was about to lead the Le Moyne College men’s team to the first NCAA Division II Tournament Elite Eight appearance in school history. 

And one more thing: John, who coached at Le Moyne from 1983 to 1992 and coached Patrick at West Virginia, is going to be a grandpa. Patrick’s wife, Kristen, was due this Tuesday with their first child, a boy. 

The Dolphins (27-6) won the East Region March 13 with a 75-59 win over Bloomfield at Le Moyne’s Ted Grant Court. Le Moyne, ranked No. 24 in the country, entered the Elite Eight as the No. 5 seed and played No. 4 West Texas A&M at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls. If the Dolphins won that game, they’ll face the winner of No. 1 Ferris State and No. 8 Barry on Thursday, March 22 (visit lemoynedolphins.com for updates and game times). 

Before defeating Bloomfield, the Dolphins had lost in their two previous regional championship games in 1959 and 1964. Beilein, in his third year at Le Moyne, said the moment he most enjoyed was the post-game celebration in the locker room. 

“They’ve worked hard from the beginning of fall workouts to this point. They’re a pleasure to coach, they’re easy to coach because they all want to win,” Beilein said. “These guys deserve all the credit and I will always remember this group for winning this region.” 

Fifth-year senior guard Tyquan Rolon, a Syracuse native and Nottingham High School product, led the Dolphins with 8 second-half points against Bloomfield and hit a key 3-pointer with about 5 minutes remaining after the Bears had sliced Le Moyne’s lead to 1, 54-53. Rolon’s trey keyed a 21-6 Dolphins’ surge to end the game. 

“To do this in front of my friends and family, that means a lot,” Rolon said. “Some guys on the team, their families have to fly just to get here. I’ve got people who come five minutes away to see me play, so it’s a great feeling to win a championship in front of them.” 

Syracuse Women Run Into ‘Buzzsaw’ 

As it turned out, the Syracuse women’s basketball team’s loss to Virginia Tech in the second round of the ACC Tournament March 1 was more of an indicator than an outlier. 

The Orange lost that game 85-70 after getting outscored 29-5 in the fourth quarter. In the first round of the NCAA Tournament March 17, the No. 9 seed Oklahoma State Cowgirls went on a 38-9 run at the end of the first half and cruised to an 85-57 rout of the No. 8 Orange in Starkville, Miss. 

Oklahoma State guard Jaden Hobbs sank 8 of 9 three-pointers for a gamehigh 27 points and the Cowgirls (21-10) made 13 of 23 treys — the most against Syracuse this season. Miranda Drummond shot 7-for-12 from 3-point range and led the Orange with 24 points, but the rest of the team shot just 27.6 percent overall (13-for-47) and 21.7 percent from long range (5-for-23). 

“We ran into a buzzsaw tonight,” SU coach Quentin Hillsman admitted. 

The Orange finished 22-9 with its sixth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and seventh overall in Hillsman’s 12 seasons. Next season, Syracuse is expected to return its top seven players, including Tiana Mangakahia, who set the SU and ACC single-season record with 304 assists. The Orange has also received a commitment from five-star recruit Emily Engstler from New York City. 

The post How Sweet It Is: Coach Jim Boeheim leads SU to surprising Sweet 16 hoops contest appeared first on Syracuse New Times.

Liverpool High School sophomore Jackie Neal says she’s sometimes nervous to go to school. “People think it’s funny to make school shooter jokes,” she said. “Now you don’t know if it’s real.”

Neal was among at least 1,000 people at the March For Our Lives Syracuse rally on Saturday, March 24. Up to twice as many people marched from the Everson Museum of Art to the James M. Hanley Federal Building Plaza beginning at noon. The local march was among more than 450 marches across the country, organized by teens too young to buy beer or vote, but outraged by gun violence that has hit nearly 100 U.S. schools since the Columbine massacre in 1999.

Students hold signs with the cryptic question, “Am I next?” at the March for Our Lives rally on March 24, 2018. (Photo by Michael Davis).

“I’m hoping things do get fixed before I vote,” Neal said. “I don’t want to be scared for two-plus years. I shouldn’t be nervous to go to school.” Her sign promoted a warning that many marchers and speakers shared: “Today my voice. Tomorrow my vote.”

Read: “Are our schools safe? Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler on school shootings, March for Our Lives”

Christian Brothers Academy seniors Virginia Nash and Jessica Fellows also described shooting threats and “shooter jokes” at school. “Any kid that is considered weird, people say, ‘Don’t piss him off. He’s gonna be a shooter,’” Fellows said. The pair said mental health and bullying play a role, but they’re frustrated with mixed messages about how to talk about students who exhibit troubling behavior.

Arming teachers, they say, is a bad idea. “All you have to do is take the gun from them,” Fellows said.

They scoffed at the solution of one Pennsylvania school: buckets of rocks in all classrooms. CNN reported that Blue Mountain School District in Schuylkill County, Pa., encourages students to throw pencils, staplers and rocks at potential shooters “rather than wait passively” for them “to attack.”

“Kids are dying left and right,” Nash said. “It shouldn’t be a risk to go to school.”

When Fellows heard about the Valentine’s Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., “I cried at first,” she recalled. “And then I was just mad. It doesn’t make sense that all these kids are dying, and the government is doing nothing.”

The crowd — one of the largest in recent memory at a Syracuse protest — echoed her outrage. It took about 25 minutes for marchers to travel from the State Street museum to the Washington Street federal building plaza. Along the way, they chanted “Hey, hey, ho ho, the NRA has got to go” and “Hey, hey, NRA, how many kids did you kill today?”

A sign directing people to a prayer ahead of the noon March for Our Lives rally in downtown Syracuse. (Photo by Michael Davis)

A group from the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York, which held a premarch vigil at St. Paul’s Church, sang, “We Are Marching in the Light of God.” The South African folk song is associated with the anti-apartheid movement.

“This is a moral imperative,” said Bishop DeDe Duncan-Probe. “The church needs us to be at the forefront of the issues. We’re standing for the youth. This is where Jesus would be.”

Several other clergy also participated, as did Democratic state Assembly members Al Stirpe and Bill Magnarelli. Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh and City Hall staff waved and applauded as the crowd passed. Walsh shook hands with teens and thanked them for participating.

See: March for Our Lives photo gallery

“They’re leading where others have not,” he said. “I’ve got their back.”

Asked what specifically the city can do to change gun laws, Walsh emphasized a commitment to school safety. Walsh, County Executive Joanie Mahoney and Sheriff Gene Conway are co-chairing a new School Safety Task Force.

Some marchers carried signs criticizing President Donald Trump and Republican Rep. John Katko. One sign called for Israel’s departure from Palestine. Others — held by children, adults and people in wheelchairs — targeted the issue of the day: reforming gun laws to keep schools safe for students. “Protect Kids, Not Guns,” read one. Other signs included “Down with Guns, Up with Grades,” “Books Not Bullets” and, chillingly, “Is My Child Next?”

It was the first march for Jamesville-DeWitt High School sophomore Riya Sharma. “I believe all kids deserve to have a future,” she said. “It’s our time to change it.”

Kate Eichelberger of Solvay brought her children, Maggie, 3, and Gus, 5. “I was in eighth grade when the Columbine shooting happened,” the former teacher said. “He’s in Pre-K now. Why am I still worrying about this? Nothing has changed.”

She rubbed her eyes, full of tears. As a teacher, “I used to tell my students, ‘I would stand between you and a gunman, don’t worry.’ Why should I have to?”

Lauren Hibbard, a Fayetteville-Manlius High School senior, favors stricter gun regulations and disapproves of arming teachers. She carried a sign that read, “Trump sits at a disco party he threw after meeting with Parkland victims for 14 minutes.”

“I’m here to make sure this doesn’t happen in our local schools,” Hibbard said. “When I first heard about Parkland, it was so regular: another shooting. That’s just sick.”

Amanda Gardner held a sign listing the names of the 17 people killed in the Parkland massacre. “I came for the kids that were taken last month,” she said. “It breaks my heart. I’m tired of sitting on the couch feeling helpless.”

A man holds a sign with photos of his young grandchildren. The March for Our Lives rally struck a cord with parents and teachers. (Photo by Michael Davis).

She and her husband, Christian Gardner, grew up in Syracuse and recently returned from living in the South. “We want to settle here and have kids,” Christian Gardner said. “We want to make sure this doesn’t happen to our future children.”

Obni Afriyie, a Syracuse University senior studying education policy, called the youth-organized rally “just beautiful.” Afriyie, who is black, sees as valid the critique that shootings in urban and minority communities tend not to draw as much attention as those that take place in wealthier areas, like Parkland and Newtown.

“There are other issues in city schools where so many are living in poverty,” he said. “Shootings happen in inner-city schools all the time. They have metal detectors. There’s violence. It’s a way of life.”

Those complex racial and economic issues require discussion, Afriyie said. The bottom line, he said: “No child, black or white, should be afraid in school.”

Renée K. Gadoua is a freelance writer and editor who lives in Manlius. Follow her on Twitter: @ReneeKGadoua.

The post Youth Takes Its Stand: Perspectives from the March For Our Lives rally in downtown Syracuse appeared first on Syracuse New Times.

Frank Fowler has served as police chief for the city of Syracuse since 2010. He has announced his retirement at the end of this year to pursue a five-year second career, hopefully in the field of social action. Mayor Ben Walsh’s administration has proposed a nationwide search for his replacement. Fowler has declared his support for current Deputy Chief John Falge.

How safe are our schools?

I think our schools are safe. In my line of business, it’s the unforeseen that causes the challenges. It’s really difficult for law enforcement to figure out that someone someplace within our society is sitting and contemplating carrying out a heinous act that’s going to put a wide number of people in harm’s way. That’s the challenge that we face. Certainly, with technology and data, we can track things and follow things and prevent things. There are some things that we cannot prevent. When we talk about the safety of our schools, the things that we can anticipate that may happen through our examination of our current cultures, we’ve made those safety precautions to prevent those things from happening in our schools.

What is the major factor in school safety?

The major factor is adequate staffing. I think the school district has gone a long way to adequately staff their buildings. We had challenges in the past and they moved to expand the security level, adding another level of security. They utilized the metal detectors in a very appropriate way, to conduct weapons searches, to utilize technology to monitor their buildings.

Should we be arming our teachers?

I don’t know if that’s something we should do. There’s a lot that goes into it before you entrust someone to carry a weapon, with the understanding that they may have to engage someone with that weapon during an abnormal course of their duties. That person first has to be properly trained, and through that training you have to try to anticipate all of the dynamics that person is going to face. Then that person has to be assessed during the course of that training to see if they have what it takes to do what they need to do with that weapon safely. That they’re not going to panic. Just because you have a weapon and just because you’re an expert shot at the (target) range, when the bullets start flying and there’s a human being with a weapon that’s your target, it’s a whole ’nother ball game. Your body starts to go through all these chemical changes that you’ve never ever experienced before and you have to be able to override that, and not put those young people in harm’s way. So that’s why I say I don’t know. I don’t know if we have the time to spend, the resources to spend. I don’t know if those teachers have the capability of learning.

What is the best use of the March 24 event?

Speaking as a citizen, I think the best use is to identify with that collective voice. You’re going to have various people, various groups coming out and if you’re in a leadership position, a policy-making position and through your listening try to understand what the collective voice is saying, then you do whatever is within your power to address it. In schools there are various things our young folks learn about, but I think one of the most crucial things they learn about is the United States Constitution, and your right to express yourself in ways you see fit. This is a healthy way for our young folks to express themselves. We’re constantly criticizing our young folks for sitting on a couch with those remote controls in their hands, and their phones, and sending out those text messages. This is going to get them out and engaged, and they’ll see the result of their activities and that may compel them to do other stuff. And then there’s this thing called history. These young folks are about to make history.

Is the March for Our Lives action, as one parent called it, a modern civil rights movement?

It’s too early to tell. But everything has a starting point. The journey of a thousand miles begins with that one step. And this could very well be that first step of a modern-day civil rights movement.

What are the factors contributing to so many school shootings?

I think there are multiple factors. Certainly if you examine them you will find some commonalities. But it’s hard to tell. If we could figure this thing out, then we could probably take the steps toward stopping it. It’s hard to tell what the motivating factors are. I said this before and here it comes again: When something happens that we categorize as an illogical act, what we do as normal human beings is to engage in a normal thought process to try to arrive at a conclusion as to why it happened. You can’t do it with an abnormal act. It’s the same thing with these school shootings. You start to ask yourself why, and you’ll probably never know why. You can identify factors that lead up to the incident happening, but the why you won’t get to because it’s an abnormal and illogical act.

The post Are our schools safe? Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler on school shootings, March for Our Lives appeared first on Syracuse New Times.

The March For Our Lives rally on March 24 was part of a worldwide observance in honor of the victims of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting. The Syracuse event began at noon with a march from the Everson Museum of Art to the James M. Hanley Federal Building on South Clinton Street.

Read: “Are our schools safe? Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler on school shootings, March for Our Lives”

The crowd seemed jovial for such a serious issue, while the police presence was far from overbearing. “I’m not good at counting people,” one officer said, “but I think there’s 800 here.” By the time the crowd reached the federal building, media types estimated it at more than 1,000.

Observing the pre-march scene at the Everson, Sam Roberts, a veteran of several local civil rights movement encounters, said it would be hard to tell if the nascent movement was for civil rights. “But it’s for human rights, for sure,” he asserted. “It’s been growing for a long time, and this is the most recent. We’ve got to keep fighting the fight, but we’ve got to fight together.”

Questions of how integrated the group might be were raised by several observers asking why it contained so few people of color. Urban CNY publisher Ken Jackson noted that while real efforts at inclusion have been the case nationally, the number of factions contending in the new movement locally have gotten in the way of a united effort. “They preach to us,” he adds. “But this is not happening in urban schools.”

Whatever the factionalism, the March for Our Lives drew a significant range of local social activists. For Kitty Burns, who had begun her involvement with opposition to the Vietnam War in the 1960s, it was déjà vu all over again. She noticed a homemade sign held by a preteen that read “Give up for Lent guns, bullets and the NRA,” which indicated for her the depth of the youth activism. “When I was growing up,” she said, “we gave up candy for Lent.”

Burns had been among the three dozen protesters at Congressman John Katko’s office on Feb. 21; they had delivered an oversized check for “thoughts and prayers” on the issue of gun control and his taking campaign contributions from the National Rifle Association. On two days Katko staffers allowed two of the protesters into the congressional office to make their case and present the check.

Read: “Youth Takes Its Stand: Perspectives from the March For Our Lives rally in downtown Syracuse”

According to Burns, one element of that youth attitude could be observed by simply watching the crowd at the Federal Building. The number of older people was far outnumbered by the number of youth, and as the event approached its 2 p.m. conclusion, a steady stream of elders left the crowd. Then again, it was unseasonably chilly for a late-March afternoon.

That youth attitude was best personified by two of the march’s organizers, Christian Brothers Academy students Aishwarya Varakantam and Sydney Schulman. At the Everson they circulated the crowd, quietly cheerleading and reinforcing the spirit. They didn’t realize how big this thing would be, they admitted, while maintaining that they would soon be old enough to vote, in anticipation of which they were planning to set up a series of voter-registration stations.

The post Syracuse marchers demand ‘enough is enough’ at March for Our Lives rally appeared first on Syracuse New Times.

The Oswego Music Hall has been bringing local and national acts in the folk and acoustic veins to Central New York music fans since 1977. Although the operation has moved among buildings and changed names, the commitment to the cause has remained the same. The organization is currently celebrating its 40th anniversary season through May with a roster of musical talent taking the stage.

“It’s taken the commitment of the volunteers and the community,” says artistic director Ellen Jeanne Wahl about the venue’s successful history. “It’s the volunteers, but also the people who came to the shows, too.”

Wahl began attending shows at the hall 38 years ago when her daughter Loren was 4 months old. The hall then inhabited the Lowlife Café, next to where the Old City Hall restaurant currently resides on Water Street in Oswego. It offered a place to bring her children and enjoy events as a family. Her husband, Mark, also enjoyed the artistic community, but as a musician and songwriter who also makes and repairs guitars.

Loren Barrigar. Michael Davis photo

“We’d attend, we’d enjoy the shows, be part of the community,” recalls Oswego Music Hall president Mark Wahl. “A lot of our friends would go. When that kind of thing happens, then you wind up helping set up. Then you wind up helping search for talent. Once you get started, then you’re a board member. Once you’re on the board, you get invested in what you think is best. Before you know it, you own the damn thing!”

The Wahls have grown increasingly attached to the organization, with both holding several additional office positions including vice president, secretary and treasurer. Yet the pair are also proud of the growth of the hall, which they call “growing young.”

“We needed to renew ourselves and bring in new blood,” he says. “Kids are stomping around shows again. Not a bad thing.”

The venue has more than doubled the number of shows each season, from 17 per year to 40. The Wahls have also initiated an open mike night on alternate Fridays and a songwriter series called “The Hook” designed to showcase singer-songwriters from local and national talent pools.

“In trying to get new faces, new 20-somethings, open mike sessions have helped bring that community back,” he says. “There are musicians and songwriters out there and they’re compelled to come when you offer them something. That’s part of our new energy.”

Volunteers keep thinking of new ways to attract young blood, which is part of the reason Ellen Wahl will soon step down as artistic director. “We need to speak to the next generation,” she says.

The Oswego Music Hall is also more than a building. The formal name is the Ontario Center for Performing Arts, a 501(c)3 organization with a 17-member board of directors. The hall is currently housed at the McCrobie Civic Center, 41 Lake St., overlooking Lake Ontario.

The venue is known for its superb sound, thanks to engineers from SubCat Studios (T.J. James and Jeremy Johnston) and donations of equipment from the Richard Shineman Foundation and the New York State Council for the Arts.

“The sound is terrific and the lighting is dramatic,” Mark Wahl says.

“And we offer a listening room environment,” adds Ellen Wahl. “To be a musician or performing artist and to play your music or tell your stories to people who actually listen, it’s got to be great. It’s unique and it’s been an education for me. I’ve learned more about our performers; my heart goes out to them. It’s inspired my own energy to keep it that way and feed the creative talent in our midst. There’s so much talent right around us.”

But that only happens as a result of the 19,000 volunteer hours that go into keeping the doors open each season. “It takes a lot of work,” Mark Wahl says. “That’s kept us going, but it’s also something different. Music is a very, very powerful element. It cuts across all cultures and interests. There’s always going to be a common note. I think the better job we do putting on shows, the better technically, better sound, better diversity among us on stage. It’s a powerful force and that compels people to get up and perform.” 

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The post Still Folkin’ Around at 40 appeared first on Syracuse New Times.

It was a boxing match that Syracuse native Nick Barone could not turn down.

In 1950, Ezz Charles had only a few months earlier won the belt of the heavyweight champion of the world. It was time for Charles to defend that title, and Barone was picked as a likely opponent who might give him a good run in the ring, although not enough of a challenge to dethrone him.

Barone, who had fought as a light heavyweight before that, knew he wasn’t expected to win. But he couldn’t say no: It was the heavyweight championship at stake, and there was always the chance that he could best Charles.

A 1950 promotional poster for the heavyweight matchup of defending champion Ezz Charles and challenger Nick “Bull” Barone of Syracuse. The day of the fight was later moved to Dec. 5 because of the weather. (Provided photo)

He agreed to battle the champ in the Cincinnati Garden — before 10,000-plus spectators in Charles’ hometown. The Dec. 5, 1950, bout lasted into the 11th round before Barone was knocked to the canvas — for the first time in a career that boasted no amateur fights ever, said son Raymond Barone of Las Vegas — to stand back up and try to take on Charles some more.

The referee, however, saw Barone was definitely getting the worst of that fight, and ended it. Barone later admitted to family friend and neighbor Sterling Oddo that he was relieved to be done with that fight.

But he was far from a loser in that match. Barone had bet on himself — at some long odds — to last 10 rounds against the champ, and ended up pocketing $3,000. That money was used to buy a home in Eastwood, where he and his wife Marge raised their family near Oddo.

Today, Oddo looks back on that lifelong friendship as his inspiration in his campaign to earn Barone the recognition Oddo feels the boxer is lacking in today’s sports world, including induction into the Greater Syracuse Area Sports Hall of Fame. Oddo has set up a Facebook page to promote Barone, where there is a petition to get the attention of the powers-that-be at the Hall of Fame.

“He was the first and only heavyweight boxer from Syracuse ever to fight for the title,” Oddo said. “He belongs in the Hall of Fame.”

To make the odds against him even greater, throughout that fight Barone was concealing an eye injury sustained in another recent match, Oddo said. He couldn’t see many of those punches coming at him but kept at the champ anyway.

Oddly enough, that wasn’t all the contender was hiding. “Nick Barone” was in reality his older brother: The boxer, who was named Carmen Barone at birth, had taken his identity to join the Marine Corps when he was only 16. The real Nick Barone died at a young age, Raymond Barone said.

Fresh from the Marine Corps serving in the Pacific Theater of World War II, where he saw action in Iwo Jima, Barone became a pro boxer at age 19. He was known as “The Fighting Marine,” or simply “The Bull.”

“The way he fought was to come out fighting when the bell rang,” Raymond Barone said, “and keep fighting until the bell rang again.”

Shorter than many of the other boxers, he had to fight inside to make any headway, and was famed for not moving backward during a match, added Raymond’s brother John Barone of Minoa.

Six months after the fight for the title, Barone retired at age 25 with a 47-11-1 record. It might have happened even sooner: Barone had said if he won the heavyweight championship, he would have retired then and there, announcing it in the ring after the fight.

Many lives would likely have changed if he had won. Both of his sons look back and wonder if they would have ever been born if Dad had won the title.

Oddo once told Barone he was glad Barone never won that title, because if he had the two men might never have met. Maybe it was all meant to happen the way it did, the men agreed.

A modest man who was well known as a gentleman, Barone never sought attention for his boxing in later years.

“He would say, ‘They put on a fight, and I showed up,’” John Barone said about hearing his dad talk about that heavyweight championship match.

Barone died March 12, 2006, at age 79, seven years after losing Marge. John Barone said she was always a big part of his boxing career, but at the same time she didn’t like watching him fight because she was afraid to see him get hurt. Raymond said their household growing up was “run by Mom with Dad’s rules.“ It wasn’t overly strict, although he knew not to be too lippy with his father.

“He told me if we had a fight it would take 11 seconds,” Raymond said. “One to knock me down, and 10 to count me out.”

Raymond Barone said it took until he was in his 30s before his dad started to really open up about his boxing career, especially that big fight. Maybe it was that modesty, maybe it was his un-boxer-like gentle demeanor, or maybe it’s because neighborhoods like that old place in Eastwood where lifelong friends are made just don’t really exist anymore.

For whatever reason, Barone’s impact on the world of boxing — and Syracuse-area sports — has sadly been overlooked. And that’s something this trio of fans wants changed.

“Why isn’t this man in the Hall of Fame?” John Barone mused.

For more information, and to watch video highlights from Barone’s career, head to the “Nick Barone Boxer” Facebook page.

The post Glove Story: Campaign wants Nick Barone inducted into Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame appeared first on Syracuse New Times.

There has never been a season like this before for the Syracuse Chiefs, and it’s safe to say there will never be one like it again. 

For the first time since Syracuse was a Double-A club in 1957, the team is owned by someone other than shareholders. In November, the Chiefs’ shareholders voted overwhelmingly to approve an agreement between the Community Baseball Club of Central New York and the New York Mets that allowed the Mets to purchase the franchise for $18 million. 

Photos: Fans break out ponchos, umbrellas for Syracuse Chiefs 2018 opener

While that’s the headline, the sidebar is that the Player Development Contract between the Triple-A Chiefs and Washington Nationals doesn’t expire until after this season. So while the Mets — the Nationals’ chief rival in the National League’s East Division — own the Chiefs, the Nationals will supply the players to Syracuse. The Mets’ Triple-A team, incidentally, is in its final year in Las Vegas. 

The Mets say they’re going to take this year to evaluate the franchise, and Chiefs general manager Jason Smorol and manager Randy Knorr say everything is business as usual in the front office and on the field. 

“When they first announced it, I thought it was going to be kind of weird,” Chiefs manager Randy Knorr said. “They (the Mets) don’t do anything much different than we do. They are very professional over there and I think they’ll treat it just like anything else, like they would treat their own guys. That’s all we can ask them to do. They haven’t really done anything that made us wonder what’s going to happen next.” 

Coming off one of the worst seasons in franchise history, the Chiefs were 6-3 and only a half game behind first-place Scranton/ Wilkes-Barre in the International League’s North Division through April 15. 

To get you ready for this historic season, here are 10 more things you should know about the 2018 Syracuse Chiefs:

1.) Prospecting

Like the Toronto Blue Jays before them, the Nationals have not produced winning teams in Syracuse; in nine years with Washington, the Chiefs have had seven losing seasons and just one playoff team that got swept in the fi rst round. But also like the Jays, the Nationals have sent to Syracuse outstanding prospects like Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper and Trea Turner. 

Washington’s parting gift to Syracuse is outfi elder Victor Robles, who doesn’t turn 21 until May 19. Robles entered this season ranked by Baseball America magazine as the Nationals’ No. 1 prospect and the fi fth-best prospect in baseball. Robles, who had four hits and scored the game-winning run in the Chiefs’ fi rst win of the season April 7, was batting .385 (5-for-13) when he suffered a hyperextended elbow diving to make a catch April 9 and was placed on the disabled list. 

The Chiefs’ current roster also includes pitcher Erick Fedde, the Nationals’ No. 3 prospect who was 0-0 with a 2.70 ERA S w in g S h if t The Syracuse Chiefs ball club bids farewell to Washington Nationals players during a pivotal season of change in his first two starts. Syracuse also features two other top-30 prospects in the Nationals’ farm system: outfielder Andrew Stevenson and first baseman Jose Marmolejos.

2.) Experience is Necessary 

As Washington chases that elusive first World Series title in star outfielder Harper’s last season before free agency, the Nationals filled Syracuse with several veteran players who could provide experience when injuries hit the big-league club. That’s happened already as the Nats have recalled catchers Pedro Severino and Jhonatan Solano, third baseman Matt Reynolds and outfielder Moises Sierra from the Chiefs. 

Of the players on the Chiefs’ current roster, outfielder Alejandro De Aza (838 games) and pitchers Edwin Jackson (377) and Carlos Torres (348) have the most major-league experience. Washington recently signed veteran first baseman Mark Reynolds to a minor-league contract and he could end up in Syracuse. Reynolds, who slugged 30 home runs for the Colorado Rockies last season, was one of the many major-league free agents who failed to sign this offseason and he is working himself back into shape. 

Solano, who is on the Nationals’ disabled list, was called up before appearing in a game for Syracuse this season. If he returns, he will appear in a Chiefs’ game for an eighth season, tying the franchise record for seasons with the team set by Dutch Mele from 1942 to 1947 and 1949 to 1950. Last year, Solano became the first active player inducted into the Syracuse Baseball Wall of Fame.

3.) Born to Manage 

This reporter was covering the Syracuse Chiefs for the Syracuse Post-Standard in 1996, when Knorr was in his second year as the Chiefs’ catcher. Back then, the team was still playing at old MacArthur Stadium, where even the slightest rain turned the outfield into a swamp. 

Chiefs manager Randy Knorr watches the game between sunflower seeds. (Michael Davis/Syracuse New Times)

One rainy day while slogging around the outfield, Knorr saw Blue Jays’ No. 1 prospect Shannon Stewart coming out to warm up and he told him to turn around and get back in the clubhouse. Knorr didn’t want the fleet Stewart to get injured while running around on the wet field. 

So even then, Knorr was looking out for younger players. And now he’s doing it again as the Chiefs’ manager for the second time. Knorr, who played for the Chiefs in 1991 to 1992 and again in 1995 to 1996 and managed the club in 2011, joins Frank Verdi as the only Syracuse skipper in the modern era (since 1934) to return after managing the club in a previous season. 

“I’ve always wanted to manage in the big leagues. It was one of those things where if I did it one year and I didn’t do it very well, then I knew I wouldn’t be good at it. But I’d like to have that opportunity,” said Knorr, who went 66-74 for the Chiefs in 2011 and then spent four years as a bench coach under Nationals managers Davey Johnson and Matt Williams. “I used to say that this is the best way to get there. But with the way they hire managers now, there’s so many different ways of getting there. I think this is the best way for me.” 

Knorr replaced Billy Gardner, whose four-year stint included the team’s first playoff appearance since 1998 in 2014, and one of the worst seasons in franchise history in 2017 (54-87). Knorr’s coaching staff includes first-year pitching coach Brad Holman and third-year hitting coach Brian Daubach.

4.) Timing is Everything 

Major League Baseball is obsessed with introducing rules that increase the pace of play and therefore reduce the time of games. In the majors, players have resisted those rules, so MLB has tiptoed around them to keep the peace. 

But MLB can do whatever it wants in the minors, and this year they’ve added a new rule that changes the way the game has been played professionally since the 1860s. Throughout the minors this season, all extra innings will start with a runner on second base. The thinking, of course, is that the game-winning run will score a lot sooner that way. 

On April 12, the Chiefs played their first game with the new rule. Syracuse tied Norfolk in the bottom of the ninth inning and then scored the game-winner in the 10th when Rafael Bautista started the inning at second, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on Adrian Sanchez’s single. 

Other Pace of Play rule changes in Triple-A this season: A 15-second pitch clock instead of 20 when there are no runners on base (the timer will remain at 20 seconds with runners on base); and, like in the major leagues, new limits on mound visits without pitching changes (six per game by managers, coaches or players).

5.) The Yankees Are Coming 

For all the New York Yankees’ fans out there, the Yanks’ Triple-A team — the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders — will visit NBT Bank Stadium twice this season, May 7-9 and again June 14-17. For now, at least, the RailRiders’ roster includes the Yankees’ top prospect, infielder Gleyber Torres, and one of New York’s top pitching prospects, Chance Adams. 

Other top prospects (outfielder Clint Frazier, infielder Thairo Estrada) are on the disabled list, while some (third baseman Miguel Andujar, pitcher Domingo German) were called up to New York because of injuries. 

And don’t worry, Red Sox fans, we didn’t forget you. Boston’s top farm club, the Pawtucket Red Sox, visits Syracuse three times: May 10-13, June 11-13 and July 30-Aug. 2.

6.) Season of Central New York 

That’s the theme of the Chiefs’ 2018 promotional schedule, which focuses on people (Chittenango native L. Frank Baum, author of Wonderful Wizard of Oz), food (salt potatoes), and innovations (the Brannock Device invented by Syracuse University alum Charles F. Brannock) that originated in Central New York. 

“I think this year’s promotional schedule is our best one yet because it honors our community and all the different things that have made it great,” Chiefs general manager Smorol said. “The Chiefs are proud to be located in Central New York and it’s going to be a fun season as we pay tribute to our community all summer long.” 

Other promotional highlights include 21 post-game fireworks shows, 24 giveaway nights (including bobbleheads and jerseys), Bark in the Park, Armed Forces Day, Star Wars Night and, of course, everyone’s favorite $1 Thursdays.

7.) Potatoes vs. Plates 

In a promotion that’s sure to gain national attention, the Chiefs and Rochester Red Wings will play two “Duel of the Dishes” games June 21 at Frontier Field and Aug. 25 at NBT Bank Stadium. The teams will play as the Syracuse Salt Potatoes and Rochester Plates (it’s technically Garbage Plates, but they’re keeping the garbage out of it for obvious reasons), and they’ll compete for the coveted Golden Fork Trophy. 

“Last year the Syracuse Salt Potatoes took the field for the first time, and it was such a fun promotion, we knew we had to bring it back in 2018,” Smorol said. “We wanted to add a new, interesting twist to the Salt Potatoes, and we are so excited to partner with Rochester to bring the fans a Salt Potatoes vs. Plates series. This is going to be fun and silly, and we hope fans from both Syracuse and Rochester enjoy it!” 

Last year’s Salt Potatoes merchandise was a big hit and is still available at syracusechiefs.com or at the team’s Whistlestop Souvenir Store at the ballpark.

8.) Safety First 

Following the lead of Major League Baseball, the Chiefs and all minor-league teams have installed or will soon install additional protective netting at their stadiums for this season. What was a trickle of teams installing the netting became a flood after last Sept. 20, when a young girl was seriously injured by a line drive off the bat of Todd Frazier at Yankee Stadium. 

The Onondaga County Legislature approved the installation of the new netting in early February (the county owns NBT Bank Stadium). The new net at NBT runs from the outside end of the home dugout to the outside end of the visitor’s dugout and is 30 feet high. It’s a welded-seam netting with no tied knots to achieve 97 percent visibility, according to the manufacturer. 

A wide shot of the diamond during the Chiefs’ home opener. The top of the netting can be seen. (Michael Davis/Syracuse New Times)

9.) New Voice 

Chiefs radio announcer Eric Gallanty will be joined this season by Michael Tricarico, the team’s new broadcasting and media relations assistant. A Cicero-North Syracuse High School and Syracuse University graduate, Tricarico worked games with Kevin Brown while serving as a broadcast intern in 2014 and spent the past two seasons as the radio voice of the Single-A Auburn Doubledays in 2016 and the Single-A Fort Wayne TinCaps in 2017. 

“I am excited to work for my hometown team and continue the tradition of high-quality work that the long lineage of Chiefs broadcasters have created,” Tricarico said. “This organization is a fun, hard-working group, and I am looking forward to joining Eric and the rest of the team this season.” 

Gallanty is in his fourth year with Syracuse and his first full season as the Chiefs’ director of broadcasting and media relations. He took over the lead role last August, when Brown was hired by ESPN. Gallanty and Tricarico will broadcast every Chiefs game on WSKO- AM (The Score 1260) and online at SyracuseChiefs.com.

10.) Coming Attraction 

So far, Tim Tebow’s below-average performance on the field hasn’t prevented the former Heisman Trophy winner from advancing in the Mets’ farm system. Since Tebow is playing with the Double- A Binghamton Rumble Ponies this season, there’s a chance we could see him in Syracuse in 2019, when the Mets start supplying players to the Chiefs. 

Tebow slugged a home run in his first Triple-A at bat, but he had just five hits in his first 25 at-bats with no other homers and three RBIs. Steve Spurrier, the coach of the Orlando, Fla., franchise of the upstart Alliance of American Football that starts play next February, called Tebow and asked if the two-time national champion at the University of Florida wanted to return to football as his quarterback. 

“Right now his message is: ‘Coach, I’m going to keep swinging the bat.’ And I said, ‘I don’t blame you. I’d swing the bat all this summer and see where that leads,’’’ Spurrier said. “But if it doesn’t materialize, I think he has some football left in him. We’re just going to have to wait and see on that.” 

Of course, you don’t have to wait until next season to see Tebow or any of the Mets’ Double-A players who will be in Syracuse next year. Just drive down Route 81 South for about 90 minutes to Binghamton for a sneak preview. 

Tickets 

Tickets for all Chiefs home games this season are available and can be purchased at syracusechiefs.com, by calling (315) 474-7833, or in person at the NBT Bank Stadium ticket office. 

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Whenever the topic of drones is discussed, one might concentrate on their impact on the shipping industry, such as Amazon Prime Air, or their use in modern-day electronic warfare, known as unmanned combat aerial vehicles. According to Amazon’s website, “One day, seeing Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road,” which might sound like a futuristic view straight out of The Jetsons.

While both practices may have polarizing viewpoints on whether these are positive uses for drones, the New York State Fair’s Drone Film Festival will showcase how they are used for myriad purposes, including video and photography.

Festival creator and managing director Mike Massurin said he was inspired to start a drone film competition in Central New York when the Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance (NUAIR) and Griffiss International Airport in Rome (one of seven FAA-approved drone test sites in the United States) were awarded a $4 million state grant in late 2014. The grant was awarded to install instrumentation to track unmanned aircraft in order to see and avoid other aircraft.

Upon digging deeper into the topic, Massurin discovered there was much more drone innovation taking place in the area. For instance, the first five miles of the CNY Drone Test Corridor opened in September 2017 around Griffiss. The corridor will eventually extend to some 50 miles of air space where drones can safely fly beyond the line of sight for testing and development.

Chase Guttman’s drone is ready for its close-up. (Michael Davis/Syracuse New Times)

“I realized there was a much bigger picture in place and that some of this stuff that was taking place right here in Central New York was really groundbreaking,” Massurin said. “It was really exciting, and it was something that could have global impact.”

Massurin then pitched the idea to several local organizations about a potential film festival dedicated to drone activity around the world. When representatives at the New York State Fair heard about the idea, the festival received resounding support.

The inaugural event took place last August at the fair’s Art and Home Center, where 140-plus attendees took in the show on a Saturday night. From the crop of films submitted, the festival judges selected 24 from students, individuals and organizations in a range of categories that included narrative, landscape-architecture, showreel, sports, student and corporate-industrial-business. Winners were given a bronze, silver or gold medal as prizes, with several filmmakers available for question-answer sessions to discuss their respective projects.

Massurin believes viewing each film on a large screen adds to the drone fest’s allure, as opposed to simply watching online. “When you put something up on a big screen, you get that ‘Wow’ effect,” he noted. “That’s sort of what we were hoping for and what we got last year.”

A “Best of Show” prize was also awarded to WeRobotics, an environmental robotics solutions company in Wilmington, Del. The company showed how it is using drones to transport medical supplies into the Amazon rainforest. It also took home $250 for placing first overall.

“The medical supplies come down, they unload them, they throw it back whenever they want, and back it goes,” Massurin said. “So I think it showed the people there, and I’m hoping the world, that drones have a lot of positive uses.”

Each category from last year’s event is set to return for 2018, as well as two new additions: news and still photography. Massurin noted that it was important to include these topics due to the ever-increasing use of drones in video news packages and in capturing photos of subjects that are only reachable from the air.

The categories vary regarding length and the use of actual footage captured using a drone camera. All categories except narrative and corporate-industrial-business are to be five minutes long at most, with at least half of the film containing drone footage. The narrative group requires only 30 seconds of drone footage with an extended running time of 10 minutes maximum. Corporate-industrial-business takes it one step further with a maximum 20-minute frame with no drone footage required.

“While it’s nice to see some drone footage, and all of them did have that last year, it’s not a prerequisite,” Massurin said. “The drone is the story, the company is the story.”

The competition’s judges include several drone auteurs from around New York state. New to this year’s panel is current Newhouse student Chase Guttman, who began his artistic conquests as a travel photographer, and has since added drone photography to his resume.

“I’ve always thought with travel photography, everything has been shot to death when you think of something like the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty,” Guttman said. “The way to get an image that stands out has always been perspective for me, and drones are just that. They’re the democratization of perspective and the ability to tinker with height and see things from so many different angles.”

Guttman has already garnered an impressive list of accolades even before graduating from college. He received the 2015 Young Travel Photographer of the Year Award, an international award for amateur, professional and young photographers. He also released a book titled The Handbook of Drone Photography: A Complete Guide to the New Art of Do-It-Yourself Aerial Photography. The book covers topics such as choosing the correct drone for your needs and how to create awe-inspiring content.

“It was one of the first-ever books written on the topic,” Guttman said. “Thankfully, it has received amazing reviews from Travel and Leisure to The Telegraph and The New York Post.”

Massurin expressed his excitement about this year’s fest. “We are providing a legitimate platform for global filmmakers to enter into this,” he said. “That’s always a good thing: one more festival. For filmmakers, this is an opportunity to get out there and talk to an audience about their film, to showcase it, to see it up there on the big screen.”

A list of rules, category explanations and a submission portal are available at filmfreeway.com/NYSFairDroneFilmFestival. Submission cost is $5 for students, $25 for filmmakers and photographers, and $50 for corporate, industrial and business companies. June 30 is the deadline for applicants, and winners will be announced Aug. 10.

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When John McEuen visits Eastwood’s Palace Theater, 2384 James St., on Sunday, May 20, the event will be about more than music: It’ll be about community.

The Grammy winner will headline the Syracuse Sunrise Rotary Youth Music Festival, also sharing the stage with various youth groups and local music giants Todd Hobin and Loren Barrigar. The youth festival runs from 2 to 5 p.m. with McEuen and his String Wizards band taking the stage at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $25 and are available online at brownpapertickets.com, by calling (800) 838-3006, or visiting the Sound Garden in Armory Square.

McEuen got his start with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band out of Long Beach, Calif., in 1966, and he has been writing and touring since. He recently released a memoir, The Life I’ve Picked, of his 50-plus year career. And he’s currently making music with The String Wizards. “But they’re great singers,” he says. “I should call them the Singing Wizards.”

McEuen plays guitar, banjo, mandolin and fiddle, and other players, including Nitty Gritty members John Cable and Les Thompson, bring along mandola, mandolin, guitar and bass. Multi-instrumentalist Matt Carsonis also plays with the Wizards and has been performing with McEuen for 25 years. “We always got along and still do,” McEuen says.

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was the first American group to tour the Soviet Union in 1977 and is still widely acclaimed for the 1973 album Will the Circle Be Unbroken, which featured Earl Scruggs, Merle Travis and Maybelle Carter among others.

“That album was 34 songs recorded in five days,” McEuen says. “It’s a landmark album of acoustic music. It helped start the whole Americana trend. It’s like The Wall (Pink Floyd) of country music. Dark side of the banjo.”

McEuen spoke with the Syracuse New Times about knowing Steve Martin as a teenager, starting out in magic and reuniting with his Nitty Gritty bandmates.

How did you and members of Nitty Gritty get back together?

I called them. I missed playing with them. It’s a wonderful thing.

How is it going with The String Wizards?

It’s working better than I’d hoped. We play more music offstage than onstage. Everybody’s always playing: in the dressing room, the car, sitting around. That’s an exciting thing. That didn’t happen with the Dirt Band. It’s something that’s back in my life. It’s a good thing. We can’t wait for the show to start. It’s like the old days. Every show is a little bit different.

That must be stimulating for you creatively.

It’s really good to jam on things you don’t know. It helps your other songs, too. It really helps you come up with ideas.

How were you first drawn to music?

I liked guitar because my brother was playing it. I was 17. But I couldn’t do anything he couldn’t do because he taught me everything. Then I heard The Dillards. Their world of bluegrass took me away and I started playing the banjo with no idea that it would take me where it has. I just wanted to be on stage, to be a performer.

How did you get to meet Steve Martin?

My first real job was working in Disneyland doing magic tricks. That’s when I realized I liked to perform. Then when music came along, I carried that to the stage.

I met Steve Martin at the magic shop in Disneyland. He has always been an inspiration, even back in those days. He’s one of those movie stars that if he did a movie that flopped, it wouldn’t stop him. He’d turn the next one into a hit. And by the time he was finished, he’d be writing a book, writing a play.

What was it like to hit it big as a kid?

When you’re 20 years old, you think you want to be in a band. You say, “Let’s get on the radio,” and you have no idea how to do that. So you learn songs and play. By the time I was 21, the first song was on the radio and we were like, “Oh, what took so long!” It was seven months after we started and we thought it was a long time. Then a couple years went by, the group broke up, six months later we were back together and made our fifth album with “Mr. Bojangles” on it and it put us back on the charts. And now, here I am.

Why acoustic music?

Acoustic is much more personal. It’s a more direct connection for me. There’s lots of fine electric music out there, but I like to be the guy that brings the acoustic into the electric.

What’s it like to have songs that have lived on for five decades?

It’s a privilege to have invaded people’s boat or car or life with music that you’ve done. It’s a very interesting connection because you can almost feel like these people are your friends.

What keeps you going?

Because I feel like I can. I play for a living. And I write. I don’t feel like it’s work. It’s a real responsibility to make things that people react to and like. The challenge. . .  it’s like a magic trick. Let’s say you learn a card trick. You work on it for a few months. You have to go do it for somebody. It’s the interaction that counts.

Why keep doing it? I keep getting that question lately. Because I’m not done. One way to stay vibrant and alive is to keep creating something new that drives you to do more.

What advice do you have for people who want to do what you do?

I studied philosophy, the writings of many people and I found one guy that in 11 words pretty much said what you need to know at age 18: “I am what I am and that’s all that I am,” from the song “Popeye the Sailor Man.”

When you turn 18, it’s up to you totally. The fighter pilots and bombers in World War II, most were under 22. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein at 15. Mozart was conducting at 8. It’s your turn. You’ve got one ticket.

Do something you love and you will never work. People will hold themselves back. “When I was 12 I had this happen to me.” So? Go read some history books. Go read Anne Frank’s diary. Go find out what’s happened in the world and realize it’s your turn. SNT

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Back in 2003, SubCat Music Studios was located in Skaneateles, where it also housed a record label in addition to the studio. Several bands initially signed on, including the local group Simplelife, but the focus of SubCat soon turned more to the recording side of business.

Now located near Armory Square at 219 S. West St., SubCat is getting back into the record label world in a big way: It has already signed on famous bluesman Tas Cru. 

Studio owner Ron Keck and manager TJ James plan to offer a mix of services for the budding label. “We want to reinforce the one-stop shop with SubCat,” James says. “We can mix, master, do graphic design, music videos, flyer printing, social media. Everything you need is here.” 

Cru, who had been signed to VizzTone Records, created his 2016 album Simmered & Stewed at SubCat. “We were here in Syracuse and had that under our belt,” Keck recalls. “It seemed like an appropriate time to start it (the label) back up, but the catalyst was Tas Cru. He approached me about taking him on last September.” 

The combination works for both Cru and SubCat. While many artists clamored for a spot once they heard the label was restarting, Keck knew an artist like Cru would make for a better first step. 

“It’s important to us that the artist have some skin in the game,” Keck says. “They need to want to get in the van, travel and do their part. The issues I see are that the dynamics of a band have a direct relationship to their success. If there are four different dynamics working and the bass player says, ‘This isn’t for me,’ that’s not good for the label. It’s not healthy to have a band with dynamics that are not conducive to success.” 

With Tas Cru, the partnership involves both give and take. Cru tours often and he paid for the recording of his last album. But SubCat funded the production of the album and helped create promotional materials including a music video, an interview video, social media materials, flyers and more. In turn, they’ll take a percentage of Cru’s sales to pay back the label for their investment. 

Keck hopes their careful start and slow growth will help them better focus their attention on each of their artists, unlike other labels that become overcrowded with talent.

“A lot of labels have huge catalogs, so artists might get lost,” Keck says. “If there are so many artists on a label, do they really have the resources to get behind all of those artists? We want to see what we can do with one artist, then add more to the catalog.” 

When word got out that the SubCat label was returning, James and Keck got buried with requests for information from bands looking for support. Although the label isn’t currently taking on more clients, Keck states, “We would love to hear from people who want to be in the SubCat family. Our ultimate goal is to have relationships with artists, to see who they are and what they’re all about.” 

Keck also wants to bring a variety of genres to the label. “Most labels are small companies that have artists they really like to listen to in certain styles,” Keck says. 

“We won’t be a specific style-oriented label. We won’t just be blues or just rock.” 

The short-term goal of SubCat Records is to work with Cru throughout the year and take note of the developments. After that, Keck and James hope they’ll have a better understanding of what to do with artists and how they can best help them grow. Beyond that, Keck hopes that SubCat Records, as well as other local labels like L.R.S. and Aux, will serve as examples of what the Syracuse music scene is all about. 

“There’s a ton of talent here and very cool people who want to help other people out,” he says. “It’s healthy. I think they’ll (the other labels) bring their two cents to the artists. Obviously, I want to take a look at what they’re doing for artists, too, and learn from them.

“It’s the same with recording,” Keck continues. “We look at what other studios do so we’re not in our own world. We listen to the stuff they put out. It’s healthy to have other people around and support the local music scene as much as possible.” For more information, visit Subcat.net. 

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People love to show respect and pride for their hometowns, and Syracuse natives are no different. From salt potatoes to Otto the Orange, there are a slew of iconic symbols that scream “‘Cuse.” But some people want to take these images with them wherever they go, in a more permanent madder than a T-shirt or baseball hat. Here’s a look at a collection of Syracuse-themed tattoos, showing true love and dedication to the Mighty Salt.

Bobcat Goldthwait

• Los Angeles, Calif.
• Artist: Kat Von D

“I can’t really think of anything more Syracuse than a salt potato. Well, maybe humidity and Heid’s hot dogs, but I went with a sacred salt potato and 315 por vida. It’s to show where I’m from and to piss off racists.”

Elise Dodge

• Syracuse
• Artist: Carlos Macias, Cryptic Tattoo, Azusa, Calif.

“I got my Syracuse/Otto tattoo because I was born and raised in Syracuse and I love where I’m from. I’m a diehard Syracuse University Orange sports fan of both the women’s and men’s teams, and I got the idea from an SU hat. Go Orange!”

Adam Barnello

• Syracuse
• Artist: Jemola Addley, Resurrected Tattoos

“I’ve worked at National Grid for 14 years. Even before I worked there, the Niagara Mohawk building always stood out to me as a representation of Syracuse, and seeing it always reminds me of home. Between the snow globe representing our unique winters, the beauty of the Art Deco architecture, and the orange flower, the tattoo feels like it highlights all the parts of Syracuse that make it the only
place I’ll ever truly feel is home.”

Dave Carlson

• North Syracuse
• Artist: Tyler Pawelzik

“I got this when I was living in Scranton and was homesick. Although I’m originally from Hanover, Pa., I moved to Syracuse in 1998. I moved a couple times after college and now I live in North Syracuse. I’ve lived in Hanover, Philadelphia, Barnstead, N.H., Tucson, Ariz. Even though I’m not originally from Syracuse I call it home.”

David Haas

• Syracuse
• Artist: Autumn Burns

“The tattoo is a replica of Helen Durney’s original sketch of what would later become Walt Disney’s Dumbo. Drawn in Syracuse on Parkside Avenue in 1938, the piece represents our city’s rich history and an ode to Helen’s contribution to local art.”

Bailey Walts

• Syracuse
• Artist: Working Class Tattoo

“I got the Salt City tattoo shortly before I moved away to Utah for school. I simply wanted to represent and carry my home with me. Regardless of our unforgiving winters and terribly nasally accents, I will always hold this tiny city near and dear to my heart.”

Do you have a Syracuse tattoo? Leave a photo of it in the comment section and we may share it on social media!

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Fifth District Common Councilor Joe Driscoll remembers growing up hyperactive, with the only chillout provided by his mother playing Beatles records.

“After I got out of high school,” he recalls, “I went to New York City for a few years trying as a singer-songwriter. I moved to England in 2004. I lived in Europe for about 11 years, the last five or six working with the West African performer Sekou Kouyate. We did this kind of New York-Africa fusion project.” 

The hip-hop/activist released a handful of CDs and did extensive touring in Europe during the 2000s. Yet Driscoll’s involvement in the 2016 presidential campaign for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders led him to consider running for an open seat on the Common Council in 2017. 

He also fondly remembers his father, Neil Driscoll, who covered the Lee Alexander mayoral administration as a columnist for the Syracuse Herald-Journal and served under Mayor Tom Young as director of intergovernmental affairs. 

“People would stop him all the time to get his ear,” recalls Driscoll, 39. “I loved it. He was a public servant and to this day — he passed away last year — I still get people coming up to me all the time telling me, ‘Your dad gave me some great advice at a crucial point in my life,’ or ‘He provided me with some resources.’ The last few years of his life I got to appreciate that more and more, and my decision to get involved in politics as well.” 

What got you into music? 

On the East Side I was too small to play ball. In high school, I was 5-foot-5. I wasn’t a real athlete and ever since I was a small child I’ve been drawn to music. I learned it was a way to transcend barriers with people, so I fell in love with it. 

What was your first instrument and your first performance? 

Actually, the first guitar I had was because my grandfather had collected some kind of offer from the back of a Campbell’s Soup can. My mom bought me my first Washburn guitar for my birthday. My seventh-grade teacher at Levy Junior High, Joyce Suslovic, she was awesome. She pushed me up on stage a lot. First was “No Woman, No Cry” at a Levy talent show. 

Where did you get your sense of community? 

Again, I think through music. I really loved it at Nottingham (High School). It was great because I was into all kinds of music. I could sit with the kids who loved Wu-Tang Clan and I could sit with the kids who loved Rage Against the Machine and Nirvana. Those were the groups I could go from the rock kids to the heavy rock kids all around. That was a real tour for me to build a sense of community at Nottingham High School. Throughout my career path, that was what really fostered it. I always prided myself on not just sitting at one lunch table at school. I’ve been that way throughout my life, kind of finding different ways to relate to different people. 

Why did you run for the Common Council? Is it that kind of lifestyle? 

I’m sure none of my friends expected me to wear suits most days. That’s a big change of pace. It was really the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign that drew me in. Obviously, my father had been in office. When I was on tour as a musician I used to read a lot of books about politics in America. I read a lot of Noam Chomsky and Jane Meyer. I never expected to run for office, but when I got back here and I got really engaged with the Bernie Sanders campaign I kind of saw how the sausage was made and I thought, “Yeah, why not me?” 

Are you going to run for mayor when Ben Walsh is done? 

I don’t know. At the moment I feel like Ben’s doing a great job thus far. So I have no plans to run for mayor at the moment. But Nader Maroun (Driscoll’s predecessor on the Common Council) was termed out. He’d done his eight years. So if there’s a higher position that comes available that I would be a fit for, yeah. If I prove to be a good public servant and people like me and I can do it at a higher level and direct more resources to more problems in the region, then I’d be open to that. But I’m definitely trying to focus on the here and now. 

Part of the here and now is 35 percent, the total turnout of city voters for the last mayor’s race. Does that mean we’re giving up on the system? 

Giving up on voting and the process? Pretty close. Thirty-five percent is not a good number. Everywhere we look we see signs of massive dysfunction in government. That’s a big reason I got involved. Things are obviously broken, and I wanted to try to take care of this little piece of garden and see if I’m any good at that. 

What should the city’s relationship be with the state and what is the carryover from former Mayor Stephanie Miner’s conflict with Gov. Andrew Cuomo? 

There’s definitely still some residual in the breakdown in communications. I wouldn’t really care to comment on whose fault it is or place blame, but there’s definitely still a lot of dysfunction here locally as well. We’re in the honeymoon period with the new Common Council, with Walsh. So it’s hard to comment on what the new culture is going to be. We’ll know that probably a year or two down the road. But it seems like Walsh is much less likely to rush into confrontation — try to avoid confrontation as much as possible. Myself as well. I wouldn’t run from it, but I wouldn’t run toward it, as far as confrontation goes. 

Mayor Walsh was quoted in these pages, saying, “Development and opportunity are about relationships. That means having really difficult discussions that people aren’t comfortable with, including discussions about race and discrimination, discussions that we, as a community, have not been willing to have often enough.” Can we have these discussions? 

Absolutely. I commend the Walsh administration for trying. But I think your point earlier — we have 35 percent voter turnout. We also have at community meetings, which I go to probably three nights a week, very low turnout. Most of them are older folks. No people 30 and under attending. The Walsh administration has been trying to initiate conversations around the new police chief and what that culture should be like. They’re trying to have that conversation. I commend the administration for trying to do the public outreach. But something’s got to change. We need more engagement from the community and people trying to reach out. But the myth that American government is broken is a challenge for all of us. 

Syracuse ranks among the poorest cities in the country for communities of color. Is there any way we can raise our status? 

We didn’t get here overnight. We’re not going to reverse it overnight. One big thing for me is not only the community grid option, taking down Route 81, but how do we redevelop that when we take it down. I’ve seen how it goes back to redlining, back to the 1950s, when you look at the money that was lent out, home ownership was made inaccessible to people of color throughout this country, but particularly in this region. There were conscious decisions made by people in power, so now we have to have some decisions by people in power to reverse those trends. I hope there are things that can be done by his administration, by this Common Council to reverse the concentrated economic segregation, the racial segregation. I think the mayor has committed to an economy that works for everyone. 

There was a time when there was an element of prosperity coming from local manufacturing. Human service folk say that is a large segment of the urban population, unemployed or underemployed, who could respond to training for that kind of work. Could it happen here? 

Unless some things change at the federal level, I don’t think those kind of jobs are going to come back. But I do think there are some exciting programs going on now with the Syracuse City School District for careers from technical education. But we also have jobs in this area which go unfilled because we don’t have the training. We’re currently in a bit of a negative spiral, but I do think we can revitalize the economic base, the job base here, but it’s going to take some creativity. It’s not looking to the models of the past, but identifying what are the models for the future.

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Pete Daniels and Andrew Wiley were Syracuse University students between 1994 and 1998 when they started jamming together throughout the Salt City music scene. They formed fast friendships with local blues players such as Tom Townsley, Phil Petroff, Roosevelt Dean and members of Los Blancos. 

On Saturday, June 30, 2 p.m., the duo and their band, The Roustabouts, will take the main stage at the New York State Blues Festival in downtown’s Clinton Square. 

“We’ve gotta jampack as much music as we can into the whole thing,” Wiley says. “It’s great that we’ll get to do what we do on the main stage and tell our story, talk about our influences. These are guys who should all be household names to blues aficionados in Syracuse. And Tom Townsley will sit in with us. We’re really looking forward to that.” 

Daniels says, “And I love the fact that the next band up after our performance is Los Blancos. They were integral to us and our development.” 

The pair has kept in touch with the local scene, returning every year to attend Blues Fest and make a weekend out of jamming with friends. But this is the first year they’ll actually be a component of their beloved festival. 

“It’s been a longtime dream to put our band up on the Blues Fest’s main stage,” Wiley says. 

The main stage at the New York State Blues Festival on Clinton Square. (Michael Davis/Syracuse New Times)

Read: Don’t miss out: Lineup for the 2018 NYS Blues Festival

Daniels and Wiley got tugged into the scene when they made friends with local show-goers Mary Lou and Harold Green. “They were kind of stalwarts of the scene,” Daniels says, as the quartet started hanging out at bars such as Rooter’s and Cougar’s, where they struck up friendships with the area’s blues musicians. 

“Over the course of a month, I’d go to 10 different shows and every single band would blow me away,” Daniels remembers. “For me, coming from Washington, D.C., I thought, ‘What the heck is going on in this small town?’” 

But blues guitarist Dean was a standout when it came to Daniels and Wiley making the jump from fans to players. “Rosie was definitely the catalyst,” Daniels recalls. 

Daniels even became Dean’s roadie for a while. And since he was majoring in TV, radio and film production at SU, Daniels used his roadie time to shoot footage of the bluesman while on tour through the South. Daniels has since made a documentary about Dean. 

“I learned a lot about the blues and the music business,” he says. “Coming out of that, it was like, ‘This is in my blood now.’” 

Although Daniels was classically trained on violin, he had played guitar most often with his singing buddy Wiley, who studied musical theater at SU. But Daniels realized that since violin was his most comfortable instrument, why not put it front and center? The two studied blues music and eventually Daniels started bringing his fiddle to the gigs. 

“My eureka moment was when I was playing an open mike at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que,” he says. “Someone threw me a solo and it was the first time I tried going way up high on the neck hitting this high note and I heard someone out in the crowd go, ‘Yeah!’ And I got goosebumps. I thought it was so cool that I could make someone have that reaction to something I’m doing. It’s been a fun ride ever since.” 

Wiley and Daniels moved to the D.C. area separately after college. Daniels was returning home, while Wiley and his girlfriend (now his wife) Melissa were looking for a warmer locale to call home. When they were searching for a music venue, they stumbled upon a Thursday- night open jam at the Zoo Bar, right across from the National Zoo. 

“It turned out to be an amazing little scene,” recalls Daniels. The duo went every week, as they soon found other players they clicked with and started The Roustabouts in the early 2000s. They even landed a monthly gig every third Saturday at the Zoo Bar that lasted for seven years. 

The Roustabouts. (Provided photo)

Within the last year the band has released Plenty of Blues, an album of mostly original material that mixes rock, funk and rhythm ’n’ blues. Aside from band members Wiley, Daniels, bassist Jeff Muller, guitarist Dan Shine and drummer Phil Bucci, the disc also features Mark Wenner of The Nighthawks on harmonica and Tommy Lepson on keyboards. 

Although the band is solid, Wiley and Daniels claim that the fiddle is the main attraction. “Everyone is just blown away by it,” Wiley says. “It’s truly unique to the blues and nobody can really do it like Pete can do it. People just respond to it. Fifteen years later, we’re still kickin’ it with this music we learned in Syracuse.” 

This year, Wiley and Daniels have firm plans to cram as much as possible into their Blues Fest weekend and eat several times at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. Wiley is also excited about playing a song devoted to the local ribs joint. 

“It’s a tribute to the Dino and what it meant to Syracuse in the development of the blues scene,” Wiley says. “I’m really excited to be able to sing it for Syracuse music fans. Usually when I’m in D.C. I say it’s a great spot up north in Syracuse, but the story changes when I’m onstage in Syracuse.” 

“And it’s one of several originals written almost completely on a ride home from a previous Blues Fest,” Daniels says. “Our heads were just buzzing with all the great vibes and music. Inspiration came pretty easily.”

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Summertime is prime time for a visit to Howe Caverns, the hot-weather destination in Schoharie County that has lured thousands to partake in atmospheric spelunking 15 stories underground. From impressive rock formations to other geological wonders, Howe Caverns rates as a must-see. 

On Saturday, July 14, however, there will be much more to see than stalactites and stalagmites. In celebration of International Nude Day, Howe Caverns will host “Naked in a Cave,” extending an offer to nudists to spend an evening engaged in au naturel activities. Even Sarah Danser, a survivalist star of the Discovery Channel’s cultish reality series Naked and Afraid, heard about Howe’s special occasion and will travel from Honolulu to the Cobleskill area to get in on the action. 

Michael Davis/Syracuse New Times

It wasn’t hard to rouse attention for this unique event. Howe general manager April Islip simply posted the news on the venue’s Facebook page at the end of April, and she’s been fielding inquiries ever since. Islip said “Naked in a Cave” is a response to requests from nudist groups for years about holding such an event amid Howe’s natural surroundings. 

So how far away are people traveling for this night? “We have a couple flying in from Chicago and a couple from the Washington, D.C., area,” Islip said, “and we have a big party coming from Virginia.” 

Regarding the nudist enclaves that are closer to home, Islip noted, “We have a lot from the Massachusetts-Berkshires area, there are quite a few from Troy, and a lot from Rochester are coming.” The event is “close to a sellout,” Islip said at press time, with a maximum head count of 350. 

And Danser lends star power to the occasion, given the popularity of her Naked and Afraid series, which resembles a cross between the long-running CBS series Survivor and the 1965 Cornel Wilde adventure movie The Naked Prey. “We are so thrilled that Sarah is making the long journey from Hawaii to be with us for this very special historic event,” Islip stated. “Sarah strongly supports body positivity and hopes she can use some of her own experiences to help carry that message.” 

Danser will participate in meet-and-greet, autograph and photo sessions during the event, which runs from 7:30 to 11 p.m. Also on hand will be classical guitarist Harry G. Pellegrin, who will perform music in the venue’s lodge; harpist Lydia Zotto, who provides aural accompaniment in the cavern; and balloon artist Daryl Baldwin offers fun with rubbery toys. 

A cash bar will be available, and the venue’s café will stay open, as the kitchen staff is working on special dishes for the menu. Perhaps the chefs will take a cue from an old joke recited by a wedding deejay regarding a “honeymoon salad,” which consists of “lettuce alone, no dressing required.” 

The Land Down Under 

Aside from the “Naked in a Cave” event, Howe Caverns keeps plenty busy every day during the summer months, followed by seasonal hours the rest of the year. 

Following an elevator ride 156 feet down to the cave, the 90-minute traditional tour features a chatty guide who leads groups of 30 to 35 people past a half-mile of rocky formations that are enhanced by multicolored lighting effects, plus a brief boat ride that stretches an eighth of a mile. Howe highlights include the Bridal Altar and the tight squeezes of the Winding Way. 

Michael Davis/Syracuse New Times

As the second-most visited natural attraction in the Empire State (Niagara Falls takes first place), Howe Caverns has a global reputation. “We get a lot of international visitors,” Islip noted. “Next to Canada, the most amount of our visitors come from Israel. We also get a lot from China, we get quite a bit from Australia, and we’ve had some recently from Denmark.” 

The cave also maintains a balmy temperature of 52 degrees year-round. Jackets are a good idea to tote along for the subterranean journey, even during a July heat wave. 

The “Naked in a Cave” event will differ from the usual Howe Caverns experience, however. For starters, there’s that aforementioned elevator ride: Saturday evening’s visitors will be wearing souvenir robes as they enter the elevator, then disrobe as they venture into the cave. 

“We’re also not orchestrating it as a structured tour,” Islip said. “It’s more like a leisurely stroll at their own pace. We will have staffed stations throughout the cave for security and to point people in the right direction. We will also have numbered stops on the tour. And each person will receive a pamphlet with information that they can read while on their stroll.” 

Howe employees recently tested the “Naked in a Cave” concept firsthand, as Islip took the plunge with her staffers in their birthday suits. And unlike George Costanza’s bout with “shrinkage” in a 1994 Seinfeld episode, the 52-degree temperature was not a deal-breaker. 

“It wasn’t as cold as we thought it was going to be,” Islip recalled. “It felt cool but not uncomfortable, and we were down there for an hour. We walked the whole tour and went on the boat ride, and we had a lot of fun. 

Michael Davis/Syracuse New Times

“The best way we’ve been explaining it to people is that when you normally do the tour, what’s usually cold is the things that are not covered, such as your hands and your face. So when nothing’s covered, it kind of evens things out.” Islip added that the fan system that pushes the air through the cavern will be shut down Saturday night so it won’t stay at the usual cool temperature. 

Peg Lane, owner of the clothing-optional Juniper Woods Campground in Catskill, said that she and her husband will be part of a participating foursome at Howe Caverns. “I’m glad that Howe has arranged such an event,” Lane said, although she was somewhat surprised that Howe didn’t use the auspices of the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR) to help promote the occasion. 

Lane is now a club trustee on the AANR board, so she will file a report on the Howe event at the August AANR convention held in San Diego. “It’s great that Howe is accepting of the idea,” Lane added, “There’s not a lot of acceptance in the area (regarding naturism).” 

Lane also found some amusement regarding Howe’s 52-degree temperature. When told that her husband could keep her warm, she said with a laugh, “He’s always the cold one!” 

The post Bare Market: More than 300 naturalists to go nude to Howe Caverns appeared first on Syracuse New Times.

Colorful chalk artwork will again adorn the sidewalks of Montgomery Street in downtown Syracuse (at least until some rain will inevitably wash it all away) during the 28th annual Street Painting Festival, presented by the Syracuse New Times and Famly Times. The event runs Saturday, July 28, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The rain date will be Sunday, July 29.

Street Painting has become a popular tradition during Arts Week, which celebrates the local and national culture of the arts with festivals, performances and gatherings at Hanover Square, Columbus Circle and Clinton Square.

Artists of all age groups can participate, with categories for adults, teens and youth ages 12 and under. Teens and youths both pay $10 for preregistering, and adults pay $20. The price is upped by $5 on Saturday. To preregister, visit CNYTix. Chalk will be provided, although bringing extra is always encouraged.

T-shirts designed by the award-winning Syracuse New Times creative team will be available for $15. For each shirt sold, $5 will be donated to Wanderers’ Rest Humane Association, Inc., a Canastota nonprofit where pets can be adopted. There will also be a 50/50 charity raffle.

Prizes will be given out to the first- and second-place winners for each age group. Adults receive $150 and $75; teens come home with $75 and $50; and youths win $50 and $25. An honorable mention for each group and people’s choice will also win gift cards and other prizes to area businesses.

Entertainment for the day includes Coco the Clown and her face-painting skills. Local artist and designer Tommy Lincoln, whose work can be seen throughout Central New York, including designs for Mayor Ben Walsh’s election campaign and Glazed and Confused, also said he plans to come down with his family.

“(Street Painting) gives a chance for a lot of people to explore downtown with their kids,” Lincoln said last year. “It adds pops of color to the city. Everybody is smiling and having a good time, and that’s what it should be like.”

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Time flies when you’re having some swingin’ fun, so it’s hard to believe that the Northeast Jazz & Wine Festival will notch its 10th year this weekend. The musical anchor to the annual downtown Arts Week will take place Friday, July 27, and Saturday, July 28, at Clinton Square.

Performers will include saxophonist and vocalist Marcus Anderson, who notched nine years with Prince and the New Power Generation; Toronto vocalist Barbra Lica; smooth sax (and hometown fave) Jackiem Joyner; and talented locals such as Root Shock and Madame Zz & Her Gentlemen.

Sen. John A. DeFrancisco noted during the press announcement, “As a jazz enthusiast, I am always extremely happy to support the Northeast Jazz & Wine Festival. This collaborative event helps to highlight great national and local talent and draw thousands of residents and visitors alike to our vibrant downtown Syracuse. I look forward to this year’s outstanding lineup.” Maybe when he leaves office at year’s end, the senator will polish his saxophone and snag a slot for next year’s fest.

Schedule

Friday July 27

Main Stage

• 6:30 p.m.: Brownskin
• 8:15 p.m.: Peter & Will Anderson Quintet
• 10 p.m.: Jackiem Joyner

WAER Mardi Gras Pavilion

• 5, 7:30, 9:15 p.m.: Joe Vanable Quintet

WAER World Beat Pavilion

• 5, 7:30, 9:15 p.m.: Ultravibe

Jazz Central

• 11 p.m.: Jam with the Andersons Band

Saturday July 28

Main Stage

• Noon: Stan Colella Parks & Recreation All-Stars
• 1 p.m.: Katz Pajamaz Big Band
• 2 p.m.: Jazz Kats
• 3 p.m.: Brig Juice Mini-Corps
• 4 p.m.: Easy Money Big Band
• 6:30 p.m.: Root Shock
• 8:15 p.m.: Barbra Lica
• 10 p.m.: Marcus Anderson

WAER Mardi Gras Pavilion

• 5, 7:30, 9:15 p.m.: Djangoners

WAER World Beat Pavilion

• 5, 7:30, 9:15 p.m.: Madame Zz & Her Gentlemen

Jazz Central

• 11 p.m.: Jam with Barbra Lica Band

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