Downtown After Dark is award winning journalist Russ Tarby's weekly take on the best and brightest of happenings inside and outside of Downtown Syracuse. Each week he adds best bets too.
Bio:
Central New York journalist Russ Tarby has been writing about entertainment, crime, sports and politics since the 1970s. His reviews and feature stories have appeared in newspapers such as the Village Voice, the Dallas Observer, the Auburn Citizen and the Syracuse Post-Standard.
For 12 years, he worked as music and books editor for the Syracuse New Times and while there he won several Syracuse Press Club awards including a Best Feature Story award for 'The Sweet Man,' his 1998 profile of 95-year-old jazz trombonist Spiegle Willcox.
In 2000, he was named music writer of the year for weeklies with a circulation of less than 55,000 by the international Association of Alternative Newsweeklies.
Tarby was a member of the steering committees which founded the Syracuse Area Music Awards(Sammys) and the Syracuse Walk of Fame.
He has been a member of the Jazz Appreciation Society of Syracuse's Board of Directors since 1993.
In 2007, Tarby edited "Into The Deep," a book by Dr. Andrew G. Hodges about the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway on the island of Aruba.
Tarby now works as a free-lance writer and editor. He compiles two weekly columns, Downtown After Dark for the Syracuse City Eagle and Livin’ in Liverpool for The Review, both published by Eagle Newspapers.
He can be reached at 457-1517, or via e-mail at russtarby@netscape.net.
Amerikan Primitive debuts loudly Friday at Lost Horizon
rtarby, Fri, September 4th, 2009
We last heard guitarists Matt Pedzick and Sue Karlik rockin’ the walls off a hangar-sized East Syracuse nightclub two decades ago when their band, Slang Girl, opened for the legendary Masters of Reality at MOR’s SRO album-release bash.
Matt fronted the band, played an unrelenting rhythm guitar and growled out the vocals. Sue played lightning leads on a Les Paul guitar, electrifying the audience with her agile and intelligent improvisations.
A former student of master axeman Joe Jewell, Sue Karlik is arguably the best female rock guitarist ever to emerge from Syracuse.
Now, after nearly 20 years in New Jersey, the husband-and-wife six-stringers have returned to Central New York and will debut their new band, Amerikan Primitive, at 10:45 p.m., Friday, Sept. 11, at the Lost Horizon, 5863 Thompson Road, just south of Erie Boulevard East; 446-1934.
Three other rock bands will also play at the Lost that night: Undergang, J.A.T.S.K., and 4:thirtyseven.
‘Cold Woman Blues’
Besides Pedzick and Karlik, Amerikan Primitive features two other veterans of the Syracuse scene – bassist Tommy Bushnell, who used to perform under the name Cliff Diver, and drummer Jeff Moleski, who’s also one of the area’s top sound engineers and owner of Moletraxx studios in Eastwood.
When Matt and Sue moved to Jersey in 1990, they formed a band called Superthrive which played the NYC tri-state area and toured the U.S. Superthrive recorded for the Italian indie label Beard of Stars Records and landed a publishing deal with Cherry Lane Publishing. Meanwhile, Jeff relocated to Chicago where he opened Soundworks Studio and recorded artists such as The Smashing Pumpkins, Berlin and The Stains.
After returning to Syracuse four years ago, Matt, Sue and Jeff formed Amerikan Primitive and started writing songs and jamming. They asked Tommy to join the project during the summer of 2008.
The band recorded a three-song demo produced, mixed and mastered by Jeff at Moletraxx. The three songs, “VooDoo,” “Cold Woman Blues” and “Unbelievable,” can be uploaded for free on myspace.com/amerikanprimitive, and can be heard on imradio.com.
Amerikan Primitive is now booking shows for the fall including a gig at The Trash Bar in Brooklyn, and they hope to play a Thanksgiving show here in Syracuse at a venue yet to be determined.
Contact the band via e-mail at amerikanprimitive@yahoo.com.
Film probes corporate values
A dynamic Danish film decrying corporate greed, The Inheritance, will be screened at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 11, at the Palace Theater, in Eastwood when the Greater Syracuse Labor Council, AFL-CIO, co-sponsors a Celebration of Labor History. The public is invited.
The award-winning film directed by Per Fly will be introduced by Paul Cole, executive director of the American Labor Studies Center. The screening will be followed by a question-and-answer session with Irwin Yellowitz, president of the NY State Labor History Association.
The Inheritance is the story of a man transformed by power. Christoffer, heir to a vast industrial fortune, has abandoned the family business for an idyllic life with wife Maria, a gorgeous stage actress. When his father commits suicide, Christoffer returns to Denmark to face the life he left behind. What he finds is a business on the brink of bankruptcy, a brother-in-law scheming for control and a domineering mother who insists Christoffer take control of the family business.
Newsday’s film critic, John Anderson, called The Inheritance “Expertly acted, sophisticated and simply heartbreaking! A corporate Godfather set in the jungle of Danish steelmaking.”
Irish Fest in Clinton Square
“Bring yer mates, grab some pints and enjoy some great music,” advises Merlyn Fuller, one-half of the versatile acoustic duo Merry Mischief which hosts the Syracuse Irish Festival’s traditional stage, Friday and Saturday, Sept. 11 and 12, in Clinton Square.
The Flyin’ Column kicks things off at 5 p.m. Friday, and Titanic jammers Gaelic Storm headline that night at 9:30 p.m.
On Saturday main-stage performers include the ever-awesome Syracuse Irish Session at 1:30 p.m., The Prodigals at 8 p.m., and the Young Dubliners at 9:45 p.m.
Meanwhile, over at the traditional stage (“It’s really the beer tent,” Fuller says, noting that Guinness sponsors the entire festival), Merry Mischief holds forth at 5 p.m. Friday and 7 p.m. Saturday. Fuller’s husband, Harry, completes the winsome twosome who will play tunes from its disc Songs to Drink By!
Other acoustic acts playing Saturday will be Joe Davoli & Harvey Nusbaum (4 p.m.), Eamon O’Connor (6 p.m.), The Kreelers (8 p.m.) and Bill Delaney (9 p.m.); syracuseirishfestival.com.
Fleet-footed drummer
On Sunday, CNY jazz drummer Karl Sterling takes on a personal challenge when he runs his first marathon for the Upstate NY Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation.
He’ll run the 26.2-mile marathon in Rochester on Sept 13. “I’ve been training like a madman,” he said Sept. 3. “I did 18 miles yesterday. Yikes!”
To donate to the cause on Karl’s behalf, visit karlsterling.net or e-mail him at karlvsterling@yahoo.com.
Let’s hope Karl has enough energy left over to hit the skins for E.S.P. at 4 p.m. that same Sunday, Sept. 13, at the Westcott Street Cultural Fair.
Sitting Pretty
The Syracuse Cinephile Society opens its fall film series at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 14, with the 1948 comedy, Sitting Pretty. The autumnal screenings continue through Dec. 7, at the Spaghetti Warehouse, 689 N. Clinton St., near the Inner Harbor.
Sitting Pretty tells the tale of a suburban couple (Robert Young and Maureen O’Hara) who need a full-time babysitter for their young sons. For better or worse, they hire Mr. Belvedere (Clifton Webb), an acid-tongued, no-nonsense genius.
The Sept. 21 Cinephile film is 1929’s Bulldog Drummond.
Admission to each screening costs $3, or $2.50 for Cinephile members. For info, call the Spaghetti Warehouse at 475-1807.
JASS Jam Tuesday
Pack up your horn and join the Jazz Appreciation Society of Syracuse jam session from 7 to 10 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 15, at McNamara’s Pub in Camillus. Admission is free and the public is welcome.
JASS was founded 38 years ago to promote New Orleans-style jazz in CNY. The JASS jam sessions traditionally conclude with “When the Saints Go Marchin’ In.”
An electric piano will be provided, and jazz vocalists are encouraged to participate.
McNamara’s Pub is at 5600 Newport Road between Route 5 and Route 695.
For JASS info, call President Bobby Morris at 652-0547. To contact McNamara’s, call 672-8872.
Reprieve for aged gamblers?
In mid-summer Baldwinsville Mayor Joe Saraceni waged war against vice, but he recently capitulated to those who defend small-stakes gamesmanship.
In July, hizzoner personally busted the blue-haired bettors at the village’s Canton Senior Center, where he’d received reports of widespread wagering.
The center’s superannuated cardsharps were placing bets as high as 50 cents on games such as bridge, bingo and pitch.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, some of the Canton crowd also played poker, Texas Hold’em to be exact, the game that made Benny Binion famous.
Busted in B’ville!
Thanks to Saraceni’s letter-of-the-law approach, for a few days there it was reassuring to note that – while millions of Americans gambled online and took juicy junkets to Vegas, Jersey and ubiquitous Indian casinos – Baldwinsville remained a bastion of morality and righteousness
After enough enraged citizens expressed their disdain for the mayor’s heavy-handed anti-gambling edict, however, Saraceni suddenly changed his tune and contacted Assemblyman Bill Magnarelli (you remember the Dracula look-alike Democrat who got shot out of the water by the Joanie Mahoney juggernaut last November).
Bill and Joe hope to adjust the state law that forbids wagering at public facilities such as the Canton center. Saraceni thinks the law should apply only to high-stakes games and games in which the house takes a cut.
Hizzoner is also seeking support from senior centers across Onondaga County.
Leg Show banned
The B’ville gambling scandal reminds me of a similar situation a half-dozen years ago in the village of Liverpool. A local cigar shop was cited by a local codes-enforcement officer for selling magazines with pictures of under-dressed women.
You’d think that local government might have enough to do, necessary tasks like taking out the trash, enforcing zoning laws, landscaping the parks and replacing broken old sewers. But after they grab power some people simply can’t resist the urge to stick their big noses in our personal lives as well.
Unfortunately, that sad tendency is bi-partisan.
Card-game-crusader Saraceni is a Democrat. Liverpool’s porn-pursuing village government is solidly Republican and has been for more than a decade.
Taser payoff predicted
Speaking of government officials over-reacting, how about that Onondaga County Sheriff’s deputy, Sean Andrews, who Tasered a Salina housewife, Audra Harmon, on Hopkins Road back in January?
Anybody want to bet how much the county will have to pay to settle her lawsuit?
Personally, I don’t think I can count that high.
CATEGORY: General Entertainment
TAGS: Joe Jewell,Sue Karlik,Lost Horizon,Amerikan Primitive,Superthrive,syracuse,Cold Woman Blues,The Inheritance,the palace eastwood,Irish Fest in Clinton Square,Onondaga County Sheriff’s deputy, Sean Andrews,
