The world was shocked when Michael Jackson died suddenly in Los Angeles last week at age 50.

One of the studio wizards who helped make Jackson the “King of Pop” was a sound engineer named Matt Forger, a Solvay native who – in the mid-1970s – often worked mixing bands such as AlecStar and Kane at local nightspots such as The Shoreline club on Old Liverpool Road.

Forger made his “front of house” knob work the foundation of a super successful engineering career in Hollywood. He moved to L.A. and took a job at Westlake Studios working with producers such as Giorgio Moroder and Quincy Jones.

In 1982, Forger became part of one of the recording industry’s biggest events of the century by working on Thriller with Michael Jackson...

CATEGORY: Commentary & Debate

TAGS: Matt Forger,Michael Jackson,Solvay,Syracuse jackson connection,Neverland Ranch,Bear cats,Five to Life,The Hulk,jackson in London

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“There’s always something rising on that old downtown scene,” sing the wild and woolly Horseshoe Lounge Playboys on their song “Downtown.”
In fact, that’s where the Oneonta-based “Bluebilly” quintet will be playing, in downtown’s Clinton Square, at 9:15 p.m. Friday, July 10, at the seventh annual Empire State Brewing and Music Festival.
The Playboys promise foot-stomping backwoods Americana, a style they call “Bluebilly: the mixing of bluegrass with good ol’ old-time country and a bit of Appalachian hair of the dog.”

Bluebilly!
The band boasts a repertoire of originals complementing obscure material exhumed from musical tombs stretching from Tennessee to Texas...

CATEGORY: General Society

TAGS: brew fest syracuse,blues and brew,Los Blancos, the Bagpipe Dudes, Merit, The Buddhahood,Josh Dion Band,Blue Sky Mission Club,The Horseshoe Lounge Playboys,syracuse downtown festival,Savoy Brown, John Hammond, John Mooney,opa Chubby,lexis Suter,NYS Blues Fest,ave Katleski.

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Bob Dylan is a member of the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame. While Bobby Z. deserves that honor as much as anyone, those of us in Syracuse also believe the Cleveland HOF should similarly honor CNY’s Godfather of Rock’n’Roll, Jimmy Cavallo.
And Dylan, who headlines an all-star triple bill here Sunday, would probably agree.
On June 21, 2006, Dylan played one of Cavallo’s earliest recordings on The Bob Dylan Radio Show (Number 8) on XM radio, the big satellite airwaver. That show’s theme was “weddings,” and so Dylan queued up Cavallo’s quintessential 1951 single, “Leave Married Women Alone.”
Here’s how the Bard of Hibbing introduced the tune:
“A poison pen of a song by Jimmy Cavallo. Jimmy was born in Syracuse, N.Y. in 1927. He recorded this song in 1951...

CATEGORY: General Society

TAGS: Rock n Roll,Jimmy Cavallo,Willie Nelson,Alliance Bank Stadium,Syracuse Chiefs International League baseball,Syracuse,Wynton and Branford Marsalis,Nicholas Payton,Earlville Opera House,Johnny Russo’s jazz trio,clarinetist Brian Earle,Pat Carroll,John Mellencamp

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Yes, Walter Cronkite was the most trusted man in television news, but the CBS anchorman enjoyed close ties to the Central Intelligence Agency, a fact that could have eroded that warm sense of sincerity extended to millions of viewers from coast to coast.

In fact, conservative commentator Richard Poe, a regular contributor to the Syracuse New Times in the early-1980s, suggests that Cronkite’s spy ties led him to intentionally mislead his audiences about the futility of the Vietnam War in 1972.

And Poe’s not alone. Other investigative reporters such as Carl Bernstein, Deborah Davis, Sam Jaffe and Daniel Schorr have also exposed CBS’ links to the CIA.

Cronkite died at his Manhattan home on July 17 at age 92...

CATEGORY: General Society

TAGS: Former CBS anchorman,Walter Cronkite,Nixon,Central Intelligence Agency,Normandy,flew B-17 bombing raids over Germany and landed in a glider behind German lines in Holland. After the war, Cronkite,Nuremberg Trials,Moscow bureau chief ,Vietnam War,CIA,World War II,The Shadow Party, Richard Poe,Carl Bernstein, Deborah Davis, Sam Jaffe,Syracuse New Times,Daniel Schorr

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Central New York bluegrass broadcaster Bill Knowlton thought he could spot an e-mail scam a mile away.
But when he received an earnest e-mail plea from an old friend who claimed to have been robbed overseas, he fell for it hook, line and sinker.

Here’s what happened, according to the report Knowlton filed with the Internet Crime Complaint Center on the advice of the FBI:

On June 30, Knowlton – a retired U.A. Air Force colonel – received a plea for help from an old Air Force friend. Let’s call her Ms. X.

Ms. X stated in her e-mail that she was in England for a seminar where someone stole her wallet...

CATEGORY: General Society

TAGS: Van Halen, singer David Lee Roth,Central New York ,bluegrass broadcaste,Joe Colombo leads the 16-piece Salt City Jazz Collective,Syracuse Suds Factory,Sam Butera, accompanist for Louis Prima,Bill Knowlton

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