For the past three weeks The Lost Horizon’s doors have been closed, but the venue has been far from quiet. Crews have been working around the clock to revamp The Lost and restore its look and feel to what it was in the late 1960s when Greg Italiano first opened the place. Italiano died in May, and his nephew, John Hanus, 35, began managing the family-owned operation. His first order of business has been to make some much-needed improvements in the hopes of taking the venue back to its glory days.

Enjoy the clean look while it lasts: Inside the renovated Lost Horizon, which features two big shows on Friday and Saturday. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTO

The Syracuse University football team is currently 1-1 with its first two road games, but the road back home for Coach Doug Marrone’s squad for the season opener inside the Carrier Dome should find a more hospitable environment, with thousands of Orange-clad fans on hand. SU matches up against the University of Maine (1-1) on Saturday, Sept. 18, 7:15 p.m., with gridiron great Floyd Little receiving honors during a halftime ceremony. Single tickets range from $25 to $115. Call (888) DOME-TIX for Dome ducats. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTO

The longtime Southern-rock outfit, formed back in 1974 by mainstays Donnie Van Zant and Don Barnes, has enough of a hit-making catalog that the aural likes of “Hold On Loosely” and “Wild-Eyed Southern Boys” should make for quite a boogie night. Yet the band has turned up in seemingly unlikely spots, too, such as last June’s appearance at the Rochester International Jazz Festival. The boys will take over the Showroom at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino, off Thruway Exit 33 in Verona, on Friday, Sept. 17, 8 p.m. Tickets are $40, $45 and $55. For details, call 361-SHOW.

Figure out who done it before the on-screen sleuths do during the annual double bill of vintage thrillers, presented in 35mm prints, at Rome’s Capitol Theatre, 220 W. Dominick St., on Saturday, Sept. 18, 7 p.m. First up is 20th Century Fox’s 1939 programmer Charlie Chan at Treasure Island, with Sidney Toler (far left) as the Honolulu detective, followed by Chester Morris headlining Columbia’s 1945 entry After Midnight with Boston Blackie. Between the movies will be a short theatrical production performed by local actors that introduces a crime, clues and red herrings, with the solution announced after the second movie. Admission is $5.50 for adults, $1.50 for children. For information, dial 337-6453.

Its initial grant gone, Gifford Family Theater and artistic director Steve Braddock face an uncertain future

Curses, Foiled Again

A woman in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., reported hearing a man outside her bedroom window telling someone on a cell phone, “I’m about to commit a crime.” She awoke her boyfriend, who said he observed the intruder sit down on a nearby deck and continue his call. Later, he heard a glass door breaking. An Okaloosa County sheriff’s deputy who responded followed a trail of blood from the glass door to a nearby intersection, where he found Kevin Wayne Weathersby, 30, sitting on a curb bleeding. (Northwest Florida Daily News)

A worker counting the night’s take at a Burger King in Pine Bluff, Ark., told police a man approached with a gun, threatened to kill her and demanded the cash. When he set the gun down so he could put the money in a bag, the worker grabbed it, shot the robber during a struggle, then put him in a headlock and called police, who arrested Jason Robinson, 22. (Pine Bluff Commercial Appeal)

Although there were many great moments for the just under a million people at New York State Fair 2010, it may be the unbearable heat that wilted visitors and tortured employees that is the most lasting memory. The television weather folks tried to tell us that 90 degrees and sunny is great Fair weather, but for half of the expo’s 12 days it was just too damn hot on the steamy blacktop and downright scorching on the metal benches of Chevy Court, making the 999,845 final attendance number all the more impressive. 

Mark Horvath left Binghamton in 1979 with his girlfriend and a one way ticket to Los Angeles. A drummer and a dreamer, his vision of fame and fortune in sunny California came crashing down to earth 15 years later when he found himself homeless and unemployed and out on the streets of Tinseltown.

Changes, currently on display at the Edgewood Gallery, showcases non-representational works created by Debe and Kevin Abbott over the past 25 years. By drawing from an extensive body of work, the exhibition not only presents a survey but also pinpoints key themes in the artists’ work.

Wing and a prayer: “Angels and Such” provides a colorful respite during the Edgewood Gallery’s show that closes Friday.