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Thanks also go to Richard T. Ranucci, CPA, CVA, at Port & Company, Certified Public Accountants, 5730 Commons Park Drive, East Syracuse, which compiled the Best of Syracuse results over a four-week span. It’s not an easy task, and each year he performs it with the grace of a balance beam gymnast.
The New Times thanks all the readers who voted as well as the staff who made the 13th annual Best of Syracuse a success.
Best of Syracuse committee: Meaghan Arbital, Jon Dufort, Molly English-Bowers, Matt Mumau and Deana Vigliotti. Best of Syracuse writers: Bill DeLapp, Molly English-Bowers, Tom Kahley and Karli Petrovic. Photographer: Michael Davis.
Best Excuse to Eat Dome Dogs Again
For his inaugural season as Syracuse University’s gridiron coach, Doug Marrone had something to prove—namely dig out from the lowly stats logged during the Greg Robinson regime. So he had nothing to lose by enlisting the aid of Greg Paulus, hometown boy and former Christian Brothers Academy football icon, who still had a year of collegiate eligibility after four years as a Duke hoops player. Turns out that Paulus’ playmaking skills are just what SU needed to spark the transformation of a moribund program into a team that could emerge as a spoiler for other squads who aren’t prepared to tangle with the new Orange.
The games thus far have induced their share of agita, especially the coulda-shoulda-won season opener against Minnesota. Yet with the current 2-2 season as a hopeful sign, Paulus could do for Marrone what Carmelo Anthony did for Jim Boeheim’s basketball dreams, with a half-dozen or so games (five at the Carrier Dome for that hometown advantage—Oct. 3’s match with South Florida; Oct. 10 against West Virginia; Akron comes in Oct. 24; Cincinnati tackles the Orange Oct. 31; and Nov. 21 against Rutgers) left to determine if a bowl contest is in the cards. In the meantime, Syracuse fans—who can be a bunch of fair-weather friends whenever the games turn foul—are giving the Orange the benefit of the doubt. A reported 40,000 fannies sat in the Dome’s unforgiving bleacher seats for the Sept. 19 victory over Northwestern, with another 35,000 applauding the Orange’s Sept. 26 win against a no-quit Maine team, and there’s no doubt that Paulus’ QB gifts had plenty to do with keeping those turnstiles clicking.
Hometown hero: In 2004, Greg Paulus led the Christian Brothers Academy football team to a 13-0 record, its first Class AA state title and a No. 13 national ranking by USA Today. He also completed 66 percent of his passes, threw for 43 touchdowns and surpassed his own state single-season passing record with 3,677 yards, which led to his being named Gatorade National Football Player of the Year. Clearly, the SU Orangemen hope for similar magic from the former Duke basketball guard.
Best Visual Recreation of a Federal Penitentiary by a Mall Developer
Best Viral Infection
The scene: Outside WSYR-Channel 9’s broadcast studios in DeWitt on a bright, sunny afternoon. The plot: Veteran news anchor Rod Wood narrates a promotional spot for an upcoming newscast. The conflict: The video take gets ruined when a bee spontaneously enters the scene and zaps Wood’s neck with a stinging rebuke. The resolution: The wounded Wood, perhaps working from a script penned by Glengarry Glen Ross’ David Mamet, launches into an understandably bleep-filled rage and storms off the set, along the way sidelining the intruding bee (with a well-placed stomp) from committing further interruptions.
At one time these “bloopers,” to coin an industry parlance, would have been safely sequestered at TV stations, only to be hauled out for in-house Christmas parties or retirement bashes, never to be seen by the general public. Yet with the advent of network TV programs devoted to funny home videos, and now YouTube co-opting the idea for the Internet, it’s no surprise that the Rod Wood bee sting clip inevitably surfaced in late August, just before the New York State Fair began its run. It became a mini-viral sensation (at one point it was conspicuously blurbed on AOL’s daily news menu) until WSYR owner Newport Television, citing copyright issues, got the video yanked from most sites.
Oh well, it was fun while it lasted, not only for a nationwide audience of Internet surfers looking for laughs but also for local TV watchers who have enjoyed the Channel 9 anchor for nearly four decades. Now Central New York’s dean of broadcasters, that bee sting somehow humanized Wood. Beneath that solid, just-the-facts-ma’am delivery, down deep there is a regular guy who, like everyone else, would have been profanely pissed off by that buzzer’s calling card.
Although Newport prematurely silenced Wood’s Joe Pesci-style rant without considering the financial upside (we’re talkin’ ringtones!), at least the Wood video is in good company in the broadcasting hall of fame. It’s right up there alongside the classic televised horse-race finish when the track announcer declared Hoof Hearted (say it fast) as the winner.
Best Misuse of Digital Bandwidth
If local viewers don’t know what Channel 9.2 is all about, it’s safe to say that its programmers at WSYR still aren’t clear on the concept, either. The digital channel (which can be glimpsed on Time Warner Cable’s channel 890) quietly premiered two years ago with programming culled from the now-dead Variety TV network once operated by WSYR owner Newport Television, which mostly consisted of old TV shows (such as Dragnet and One Step Beyond) and Jurassic-era movies found in the public domain. WSYR eventually substituted some of VTV’s hodgepodge with repeats of Channel 9’s morning and evening news blocks and the Bridge Street gabfest.
When VTV dropped dead, 9.2 resorted to a never-ending Doppler-sweep weather map to fill the programming gap, which amounts to between 12 and 18 hours a day. Now that map has been miniaturized to a square that fills two-thirds of the screen, augmented by more weather information at the screen’s left and bottom. Of course, 9.2 has copycatted the same visual style presented on WSTM’s channel 3.3, its WeatherPlus digital feed, located on Time Warner’s channel 133. Also getting squeezed into that square, alas, are the repeats of the news programs and Bridge Street, which is still rudderless without its original co-hosts Rick Gary and Julie Abbott (and hey, what the hell happened to radio’s Ted Long and Amy Robbins as co-hosts on the Friday shows?). It’s like watching the Internet without that pesky online problem!
Maybe when Chris Brandolino returns to the Central New York airwaves in 2010 as a Channel 9 meteorologist, 9.2 can run his two years’ worth of home movies shot when he lived in Australia.
Best Unexpected Local Comedian
If you happened to meet freshman Rep. Dan Maffei on the campaign trail in 2008 when he was shaking hands and lobbying votes for the seat he now occupies in Washington, you might have thought to yourself, “Wow, this guy has the personality of a dead golfer reanimated as a zombie giving a lecture on macroeconomics.” But in a good way.
Which is why it came as a shock to all Central New Yorkers who tuned their TV dial into Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report last April and saw the human wax figure melting and providing some serious laughs.
Maffei, a self described “nerd,” displayed a depraved wild side unseen on last fall’s campaign trail—and that doppelganger was featured on the 55th installment of the show’s 434-part series, “Better Know a District.” That day was New York’s 25th District and the congressman was Maffei. (There are actually 435 districts in the United States, but Colbert refuses to include California’s 50th District because Randy Cunningham, the district’s representative, plead guilty in 2005 to receiving more than $2 million in bribes and resigned his seat.)
Colbert, a mock-conservative with a knack for “grilling” guests, found out Maffei was an admitted Star Trek geek and asked him if he ever wished that, like Spock in the 1967 episode “Mirror Mirror,” he had an evil twin that could do all the bad stuff that the “good” Maffei couldn’t.
As the host pondered this scenario, a dissolve edit transitioned the pair’s transformation into appearing identical to “Evil Spock,” complete with Van Dyke goatees, to which Colbert, arguably the funniest man on television, had Maffei mad-lib open-ended sentences the “good Maffei” could never say: Evil Maffei loves cocaine because... it makes him feel good! And he enjoys the company of prostitutes because... it represses women and it’s generally illegal!
What came next was a different story. While the congressman proved he can rank with the best of them when displaying his “evil” side, his beer-shotgun skills may have shaved a point or two off of his newly earned street cred. Maffei seemed dumbfounded at Colbert’s suggestion of chugging a beer in his Washington office and after he claimed he didn’t know how to do it, the host explained the procedure to him. So two cold Budwesiers were tossed to them both, and even after Colbert stabbed the bottom of the can with a pen, cracked it open and guzzled it within seconds, Maffei was still fumbling.
“I think I had the pop-top in the wrong position,” Maffei explained to Colbert about his shortcoming. But regardless of his noob-like tendencies, the host gave Maffei his wings and deemed that, “we are both cool now.” Live long and prosper.
Taking their cue for breakneck physicality from Tura Satana in Shakespearean sexploitation director Russ Meyer’s 1965 flick Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and their provocative accouterment from the Suicide Girl pinup calendars, it’d be unwise to think that the gals of the Assault City Roller Derby are just lacing up the skates for a soft-body tickle-fest on wheels.
Don’t believe us? See what happens when you whistle at one of them and yell, “Hey, baby, do you want to see something swell?” at one of their next bouts. Or when you see them out and about dressed in their colors to self-promote as they often do. Then report back to us on who ended up wearing the skirt in that fatal attraction.
Still going strong after nearly two years of whipping ass, each member of this team contributes out-of-pocket expenses to keep the show on the track, and have recently begun traveling out of state to compete against teams in Vermont and Ohio. They follow the strict guidelines of the nationally recognized Women’s Flat Track Derby Association during competition and adhere to an even stricter training and practice diet to keep their hip-checking asses, well, in check.
Team president Johanna Bolos recently mentioned that Assault City is stoked for several bouts this fall season and are always fielding inquiries for prospective members ages 21 and older thinking “derby” thoughts. For the lowdown, call 214-5224 or visit www.assaultcityrollerderby.com.
Hell on wheels: The ladies of the Assault City Roller Derby always put on a good show. Check their Web site for full schedule.
Best New Downtown Greenspace
Joni Mitchell once opined in song, “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.” But the Syracuse godfathers flipped the script regarding that lyric when they employed the wrecker’s ball to the closed two-story building at 301 S. Warren St. earlier this year, then reshaped the space into a pocket park with some grass and a few benches.
As Central New Yorkers know, the sentiments of Mitchell’s song have become downtown realities many times over. Just down the corner block from 301 S. Warren, which was the former home to a Rite-Aid and City Opticians among other tenants, the much-remembered vaudeville-era Eckel Theatre at 214 E. Fayette St. was bulldozed in the mid-1970s for—you guessed it—a parking lot.
To be sure, Warren Street hasn’t had much love in many years, with most of the Blue Cross Blue Shield downtown employees getting shipped off to Shoppingtown’s suburbia, the shuttered M&T Bank office still taking up empty retail space and even seasoned downtown watchers recalling the long-ago departure of The Bunkhouse’s passel of rough riders. Rehabbing Warren Street requires some major commitment by city politicians, but for now there’s a teensy oasis of hope amid that urban canyon of economic despair.
Park place: Out of the vacancy of several downtown buildings came a welcome greenspace at the corner of East Fayette and Warren streets. Let’s hope this doesn’t become a pattern for center city development, however.
Best Funny Business
Some people say the third times the charm, but like in baseball, if it doesn’t connect at that point, they usually face the fact that they’ve struck out. But for Wise Guys, the comedy club that’s been providing standup laughs off and on since the 1980s, they’ll soon be ringing in 2010 with their 10th attempt at making Syracuse laugh.
Wise Guys’ latest reinvention debuted in August at 201 S. Salina St., in the spot that used to house Traditions restaurant, after spending their ninth incarnation from October 2007 to November 2008 in Franklin Square. And while some of the best standup comedians from around the country will still provide sidesplitting laughs on a regular basis, co-owner Dave Wheeler says there are many different aspects to the newest Wise Guys that will distinguish it from all previous ventures.
“One key thing is that one of the partners has changed,” he says, referring to Bruno Schirippa, who over the years had become the face of the funny business. Wheeler adds that Schirippa decided to part ways with Wise Guys because he was “burned out from the schedule” and is now an automobile salesman, which was more of a “quality-of-life thing for him.”
While there was a restaurant at the Franklin Square location, it featured mainly Italian fare, but Wheeler says he hired a new restaurateur for the new location: Dave Pizio, former owner of Captain Ahab’s on Erie Boulevard. Now there’s more of a modish variety on the menu. “{Pizio} brings to us 25 to 30 years in the restaurant business,” says Wheeler, “and it’s definitely more upscale than we are used to.” Prices for entrees average $15, while pub menu fare will generally set you back $8.
They’ve also brought back Dan “The Magic Man” Uzunoff and tarot card reader “The Amazing Lynn” from Wise Guys No. 9. “It kind of freaked me out when I had her read my fortune recently,” Wheeler says, but he wouldn’t provide any details. One original aspect to the new location is “Walk-up Radio,” taking place Wednesdays from 8 to 9 p.m. and hosted by a trio of local radio deejays: WNTQ-FM 93.1 (93Q)’s Josh Grosvent, who was also hired this season as a contributing writer for NBC’s Saturday Night Live; Hunter, from WAQX-FM 95.7 (95X)’s morning show; and Paulie, who handles weekend duties on 95X.
“{Walk-up Radio} is like a {Howard} Stern show, but without the gross stuff,” explains Wheeler. “What we do is transform the stage into a radio show and there is really no set format and the subject matter discussed could be anything from President Obama, teen pregnancy or the mystery of women’s orgasms. Anyone can throw a topic out there and all three {hosts} will run with it and have fun with it. All three are truly gifted comedians and so far it has been really wild and fun.”
Wise Guys on Wednesdays will also feature team trivia from 9 to 11 p.m. If you come in last place, you’ll be indoctrinated into the trivia “Wall of Shame,” in which a picture with your mug protruding from a specially designed toilet seat will find posterity on the comedy club’s wall.
Wheeler adds that the introduction of rotating emcees will help reinvigorate the company on its latest venture. “We had the same emcee for every show before,” he says, “and if you were a regular, your first 15 minutes was consumed by the same material you heard the week before. But now we have a rotation of emcees—a combo of headliners and deejays including Josh from our “Walk-up Radio” show—and we’ve got a great talent pool locally that we can draw from and they’ll get to work on new material through the weeks and if you do come every week, you’ll see something new every time.”
But ultimately, Wheeler, a financial controller at the Doubletree Hotel on Carrier Circle by day, is just happy to provide the opportunity for people to be able to find the chance to find humor, especially in not-so-funny times economically, by night—even if he takes a hit in the process. “At the end of the day, there are no millionaires in the comedy business and we’ve yet to take a profitable check out of this place,” he says. “Our comedians will always make you laugh, but the larger thing we’re focused on is that our guests receive the service and hospitality not found in many places around Syracuse. And that is what I think will keep people coming back.”
To check it out for yourself, Wise Guys is open Mondays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to midnight, give or take, according to Wheeler; the comedy shows take place every Thursday at 7:30 p.m., and Friday and Saturday beginning at 8 p.m. For more information or to make reservations, call 477-9898.
Best Syracuse Sports News
Many natives are aware of, and revel in, the natural beauty of Central New York that can be found within a 10-minute drive of downtown. Well, finally that flora and fauna are impressing promoters on a national scale, and they’re bringing their athletic events to town in part because of it.
Syracuse has scored several times lately, especially in its ability to attract endurance events to the region. Witness a triathlon at Oneida Shores in 2008, the inaugural Iron Girl Syracuse triathlon there last July with at least three more committed to return, and the biggie, the Ironman 70.3 Syracuse, which is likely to attract 1,500 athletes who will swim, bike and run through some of the county’s prettiest scenery.
“When they come in and see the area face to face, and see the level of interest and hospitality here, they’re often sold on the area,” says David Holder, president of the Syracuse Convention and Visitors Bureau, of event planners. “When the Iron Girl went off with such great exposure and enthusiasm from the community, we connected with the promoter of the half ironman, who was looking for a Northeast location. The minute we got him in a car and we started driving a potential bike path, he looked at our sports development director, Jeff Mickle, and he said, ‘We’re bringing this event to Syracuse.’”
Athletes will swim 1.2 miles in Jamesville Reservoir, bike 56 miles in the hilly terrain south and west of Jamesville and then run 13.1 miles downhill from Jamesville to the Inner Harbor, for a big finish. With triathlon being the fastest-growing segment of endurance competition, the Syracuse event—Sept. 19, 2010—will allow locals to compete, well, locally. That’s something they haven’t been able to do, at least in triathlons. Syracuse boasts plenty of road races, chief among them the Mountain Goat, but three-sport events are fairly new to this area.
Demographically, as well, triathletes earn more money than most and have more discretionary income, which they spend in the cities where they compete. “We expect about $2.2 million in estimated travel spending from the Ironman 70.3,” notes Holder, “for hotel rooms, transportation, meals and any additional attractions they may want to visit—museums and the like. In fact, the biggest attraction for these folks is shopping; it is the No. 1 activity for people coming to Syracuse.”
When they choose an event, the athletes also consider the venue. In the case of Onondaga County, our outstanding parks can seal the deal. Triathlons need water for the first leg of the competition, so it’s natural that planners look to Oneida Lake and Jamesville Beach. Since those are already parts of the parks system, cooperation from Onondaga County Parks makes the difference.
“County Parks does such a fabulous job with the events that come in here. They take care of our guests and the community comes out in droves as spectators,” Holder adds. “The support for Iron Girl, for the Bassmasters—it’s a phenomenal showing of what Central New York hospitality is all about.”
As a result, more than endurance events are finding their way to Central New York. “Sporting events are one of the fastest growing sectors of the tourism industry,” Holder says, “and it’s one of the most competitive. It takes an upfront investment to bring events like this to town. In many cases, we have to put out a bid fee for the right to host these; it’s nothing like the Olympics, but the economic impact is so extensive, it’s worth doing.”
So in addition to another Iron Girl in 2010 and the Ironman 70.3 Syracuse (that 70.3, by the way, is the total amount of mileage racers cover during the race), Syracuse will be hosting the Special Olympics State Winter Games, the U.S. National Showshoe Championship Race, the 2010 New York State Women’s Bowling Association Convention and Tournament, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Regional Finals and the International Sport Horse Invitational.
“The word is out there that Syracuse does these types of events very well,” says Holder. “The Convention and Visitors Bureau has a very nice reputation in the sporting community. We try to make it as easy as possible on the event planner.”
Taking the plunge: The first wave of swimmers prepares to enter Oneida Lake through the starting line of the Aflac Iron Girl triathlon, which took place July 26 at Oneida Shores Park.
