SCrewed - John A. Martins

Transcription

A VERY HOBOKEN HANUKKAH: SEE P. 11 FOR DETAILS
hudson weekly
THE WATERFRONT’S ALTERNATIVE VOICE
VOL. 1, NO. 1 >> DEC. 3—17, 2004
we’Re
SCrewed
Local activists weigh in
on what they expect
from another four years
of George W. Bush. p.4
PLUS:
The New Jersey National
Guard sends a possibly
threatening letter to an inactive serviceman. p.3
INSIDE:
ALSO:
Live! on the Left Bank: Your guide to
nightlife in Downtown JC and HOB. p.6
Devout grandma consorts with the devil!
The Grid: Everything you need to know
about bars. Honestly. p.7
Italian Village working girl bemoans hectic life of
an urban princess!
and....
Weekly Digest: News that makes a difference to your neighborhood
See Abuela’s Catholic Heresy, p.5
See Urban Alles, p.5
Film explores life at best prison camp ever!
See Theater & Dance, p. 10
hudson
weekly
DEC. 3 — DEC. 17, 2004
contents
Since 2004. A locally produced, independent
newsweekly.
cover story
GOD, GUNS, GAYS & GRIZZLIES . . 4
After last month’s presidential election, many Democrats and
other progressively-minded individuals are left wondering what
they can expect... It doesn’t look good.
By Mary Barr, Walt Boraczek, Edithe Fulton, Greg Remaud
and Kathleen Wood
DIVINE INSPIRATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Is your band playing? Tell us! Get listed!
Hoboken-based artist Ken Jan Woo partnered with an art school
buddy to create a profoundly personal icon for the apse of a Manhattan church. The result: beautiful works of devotional art that engage
both the mind and the spirit.
The cover: Illustration Bushaganda by Scott Sjobakken ®
departments
LETTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
You know you want to write one.
OPINIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
We have them. Really.
NEWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
A&E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
CLASSIFIEDS . . . . . . . . . . . 12
news
Weekly Digest . . . . . . . . . 11
We were going to tell you all about
how the Hudson County freeholders
are mulling the granting of a bond request that would allow the purchase of
NY Waterway, the region’s largest ferry
provider. We’re skimpy on actual news
in our debut, which we understand
kinda sucks, but once your friends &
neighbors start advertising, look at all
the goodies we plan to bring you each
and every week!
City Budgets. . . . . . . . . . . . X
Various tidbits on city life.
Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
Gossip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
Rotten fruit from a fetid vine.
Bull Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
An NYC institution invades JC.
By HW Staff.
Alerts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
Things you should know.
By HW Staff.
diversions
Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Urban Alles . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Another craigslist adventure.
By Bevin Bermingham.
History Lesson . . . . . . . . . . . 5
calendar
Live! on the Left Bank . . . . 6
Yo La Tengo does Hanukah!
Music. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Things to hear.
Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
What’s going on.
Gallery Listings . . . . . . . . . . 9
Wallflowers.
Curtain Calls . . . . . . . . . . 10
Auditions and other minutiae.
Bit Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XX
Short, sometimes painful movie
reviews.
•Movie Clock (p.X)
Bachelor taxes and executions!
Catholic Heresy. . . . . . . . . 5
HUDSON WEEKLY is published bi-weekly
Putting the devil to good use.
every other Friday by Brownboy Media LLC,
By Albertina Cruz.
PMB 325, Jersey City, NJ 07302. Subscriptions
available at $36 a year. Second-class postage
a&e
rates to be paid at Jersey City, NJ. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to HUDSON WEEK-
Film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
LY, PMB 325, Jersey City, NJ 07302. Copyright
Deep, um, celluloid analyses.
©2004 by Brownboy Media LLC. All rights re-
By HW Staff.
served. Reproduction or use without permission
Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
is prohibited. HUDSON WEEKLY strives to serve
Whaddaya call a nun w/ a spear
through her hed?
as a newspaper of general circulation in Hudson
County. Not responsible for unsolicited manu-
By HW Staff.
scripts or art.
When citizens go nuts!
Theater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
year domestic $36, six months domestic $20.
Open Governments . . . . . 3
Talking with the dead.
CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Four weeks’ advance
Reigning in raging impropriety
— or at least trying to.
Dance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
and your new address.
News from those hallowed halls.
Around City Hall . . . . . . . . X
Who’s pissing off who.
Public Power . . . . . . . . . . . X
Trenton Takes . . . . . . . . . . . X
News from that grand metropolis.
Letter from X . . . . . . . . . . . X
A series of short dispatches.
Development Watch . . . . X
You think potholes are bad?
Have something to say?
Write a letter and
get your voice heard!
By HW Staff.
• Deee-luxe accommodations.
• Cats and Dogs.
Music. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
M-m-m-my Menorah!
•Cuts (p. 87)
SUBSCRIPTION RATES: one
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BACK ISSUES: Complete file of back issues
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one copy per reader. No person may, without
Food . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
permission of Hudson Weekly, take more than
Yummy treats.
one copy of each Hudson Weekly issue.
2 • DEC. 3 — DEC. 17, 2004 • Hudson Weekly • www.hudsonweekly.com
I sure wish some Jersey grandma
would tell me my future...
See Abuela’s Catholic Heresy!
news
weekly
digest
XX
City Budgets
XX
Education
XX
Around City Hall
XX
Public Power
3
Open
Governments
XX
Letter from
Union City
XX
BY HW STAFF
(Play)ground rules
Hoboken’s People for Open Government work to refine checks on pay-to-play
A government reform organization
in Hoboken was victorious last month
in passing a referendum introducing
pay-to-play legislation to the Mile
Square City, and now that the law
has gone into effect, People for Open
Government is gearing up its efforts at
making sure the law is followed.
“As it was, it was a stupendous
margin of victory,” said Ann Graham,
a Grand Street resident who heads
the POG coalition. “We believe we
have a tremendous mandate to move
forward with this and change the climate of government in Hoboken.”
The ordinance, formally called
the Public Contracting Reform
Ordinance, was passed by a vote
margin of nine to one. The law makes
it illegal for the city to award any contracts to a business that has donated
to a candidate, political party or political action committee within two
years of the contract. The PCRO also
places caps on political donations,
topping out at $500 from individuals
or $2,500 for businesses.
The intent of the law, Graham
said, was to stop the practice of political patronage in Hoboken. Arguing
that the awarding of no-bid contracts
to campaign contributors undermines a municipality’s fiscal responsibility, Graham said the law will enhance competitive bidding and lower
the cost of services for which the city
contracts.
A phone call to the city’s public affairs office was not returned by
press time.
Vocabulary for the uncool
Now that the law has been enacted, POG is setting up a watchdog
committee that will monitor the city’s
adherence to the new law.
“When contracts come up, we
will be there to insist that our ordinance is adhered to,” Graham said.
The group will have a general
meeting in January to discuss the formation of the committee.
“We’re developing a structure,”
she said. “(POG) has been a very
loose coalition of people. We are
now working on structure. We’ll establish legal committees, voter registration committees and just try to
reach out to get some new ideas.”
The process in getting the question on the ballot, Graham said, was
initially pretty easy. Hoboken residents were eager to sign the petition,
and while POG only needed 650 signatures, they were able to get more
We believe we have a
tremendous mandate
to move forward with
this and change the
climate of government in
Hoboken.
than 1,000.
The petition and its signatures then
had to be certified by the City Clerk.
Upon certification, POG presented
the ordinance to the City Council to
give it an opportunity to pass it on its
own. The City Council voted not to
pass POG’s version of the PCRO and
instead introduced one that mirrored
the far weaker version that the state
Legislature produced.
When the question went to a vote,
9,573 citizens voted in favor of it
while 1,099 voted to defeat it.
Veiled threat
A peek into a former soldier’s mailbox
BY ANONYMOUS GOVT. EMPLOYEE
The following letter was
sent two weeks ago to a former Army medic who, after
serving a full eight years of
duty, contractually separated from the Army in Nov.
2000.
Alerts
X
Development
Watch
XX
Gossip
X
Bull Market
XX
Miscellany
hudson
weekly
DEC. 3–DEC. 17, 2004
GOT A TIP?
Call our tip line at
(201) 892-3553
or email:
[email protected]
Dear Former Servicemember:
Our records indicate that you have been discharged within the last three years. Your experience and knowledge gained will prove to be
beneficial to your future.
We hope your tour with the New Jersey Army National Guard has been productive. Sometimes
members find it necessary to leave due to circumstances such as job conflicts, personality conflicts,
or even family conflicts.
Your membership is still valuable to this organization. You can retain your former MOS or retrain. If
location was a problem for you we can find an
opening closer to your residence.
If you are still under your military obligation, and in
the Inactive Reserves, you may want to consider
coming back to the Guard, as the IRR has begun
its activation process.
For more information call (732) 349-6090.
www. hudsonweekly.com • Hudson Weekly • DEC. 3 — DEC. 17, 2004 • 3
Gay Rights
W
hen I contemplate four more
years of George W. Bush, I see
ahead what I’ve seen before: Bush-league
politics. Bush has defined his first presidency
with the characteristics of division, deception
and deflection, and he promises only more of
the same in the next four years.
The small-minded philosophy that extols the virtues of making one feel superior to another because the other is indeed
“other” is an abhorrent brand of playground
politics. Great leaders have been defined
by their ability to unite all people in a singularity of purpose. Bush-league politics
caters to the simplest of base human instinct
and leaves elevated thinking to those on the
fringe.
When you look at leaders like Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and Abraham Lincoln, their message was centered around
what we all share in common, not aimed
at dividing Americans by focusing on our
differences. When leaders consciously aim
to unify rather than divide, it is then that this
nation will live up to the greatness promised
to us by our founders.
f Bush continues on his current path of
creating a society of “cool kids” and
“losers” — where only those who think like
him are allowed “in” — this nation and her
citizens will surely suffer. Let us instead answer the higher call to celebrate the unique
gifts in each of us. Let us work toward helping one another, linking our arms and hearts
I
Education
A
pursuing, together, our individual dreams.
My dream is that someday I will find a
special someone and build a family. And as
an American, I deserve the promise of that
dream. I should be no less entitled to live
my dream because my special someone is
also a man.
eorge W. Bush would have you
believe that gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered and intersexed people are less entitled to our American dream
because our version of the dream is different
from his. I find that sad. I find it sad that in
a time of such turmoil around the globe, our
president has focused America on a battle to
rob me of my dream.
Try as he might to take it from me, my
dream will live on. If not for me, then for
someone who comes after me, but my
dream will live on. And in the lives of the
first legally wed same-sex couple in the
United States, my dream will be fulfilled.
It is time to raise the bar on our leaders
and expect them to expect more from the
American people. I pray that the leaders
of tomorrow will hold to a loftier truth, the
truth that we truly are “one nation [under
God, if you like] indivisible, with
liberty and justice for ALL.”
G
P
resident George W. Bush’s new Medicare prescription drug benefit program may be wonderful
for many people. There is some concern, however, as to
how it will impact low-income citizens with disabilities.
Currently, the state of New Jersey has an excellent
program called Pharmaceutical Assistance for the Aged
and Disabled, or PAAD, which is funded through casino
revenue. Under this program, low-income seniors and
people who become unable to work because they sustain
a disability receive their medications at a cost of $5 per
prescription. There is some worry that the new Medicare
benefit might supplant this outstanding program, which
should most certainly not be eliminated.
In addition, some extremely low-income people with
disabilities are currently dually-eligible for both Medicare
and Medicaid benefits. These individuals currently receive their medications from their local pharmacy, at no
cost, under Medicaid. When the Medicare drug benefit
Jeer #1: Vouchers
n his first term, George W. Bush proved
a staunch supporter of using public
funds to pay for private school tuition. He
tried to insert a voucher program into his
so-called No Child Left Behind law, and
successfully forced a voucher program on
Washington, D.C. residents who clearly preferred that the money be used instead to help
their public schools. In a second Bush term,
look for redoubled efforts to take needed resources away from public education and give
it to private and for-profit schools that lack
accountability and do not produce the promised results.
I
Jeer #2: No Child Left Behind
In a show of bipartisanship, the House
and Senate passed Bush’s signature education program, the so-called No Child Left
Behind law, in 2002. Progressives lined up
behind the proposal because it promised an
unprecedented infusion of federal resources
to help schools meet high performance standards.
n every budget he has submitted so far,
however, Bush has failed to fund the
program as he promised. The result: a $17
billion (and growing) shortfall in funding and
a vast new array of unfunded mandates for
I
I
Kathleen Wood is the director of the Hudson branch of
Heightened Independence and Progress (hip), an disabled rights
advocacy organization. She can be reached at 533-4407.
W
schools. In a
second term,
look for even
less
funding.
After all, inadequate funding
guarantees more
so-called failing
schools, allowing
Bush to push even
harder for his favored
solution: private school
vouchers.
Jeer #4: Health Insurance
n a second Bush term, look for more
generous giveaways to the pharmaceutical and insurance industries with no meaningful attempt to reign in other health care
costs. All working class Americans, including school employees, are paying the price
for his failure to address the health care cost
crisis in our country.
Edithe Fulton is president of the 188,000member New Jersey Education Association,
which represents teachers, education support professionals, retirees and student members throughout New Jersey.
T
Environment
Walt Boraczek is the executive director of JCLGO, Jersey City’s lesbian and gay
outreach organization.
He can be reached at
[email protected].
Jeer #3: Worker’s rights
n his first term, Bush advocated a massive rollback in worker’s overtime
rights. Millions of the country’s lowest-paid
workers, including some school employees,
found themselves without the right to collect
overtime pay, even if they are forced to work
overtime hours.
In a second Bush term, look for Bush’s
anti-unionism to grow even more blatant,
with continued attacks on workers’ right to
organize, to demand fair compensation and
to enjoy safe working conditions.
BY KATHLEEN WOOD
becomes fully effective, dually-eligible individuals will
be shifted from the Medicaid drug benefit to the Medicare plan. This will make it necessary for each person to
choose a pharmacy based on a formulary that carries her
medication under the Medicare plan.
his creates two potential disasters for a vulnerable
population. Firstly, some seniors and people with
disabilities may be simply overwhelmed by having to sort
through complicated plan formularies, preventing them
from getting all the medication they need. Secondly, the
plan’s formularies will force these people to use a predetermined pharmacy instead of a pharmacy they can
actually get to.
Most low-income people with disabilities don’t drive
and cannot walk to stores outside their immediate neighborhood. Proximity may become a life and death issue.
hat environmental policies should
we expect during the second term
of President George W. Bush? In short,
it will be an even more vigorous
dissolution of the environmental legislation that
protects our air, land,
water, wildlife and
public health.
This administration believes
in privatizing
what
most
Americans
strongly
hold to be
our
common natural
heritage and
shared natural resources.
During President
Bush’s
first three years
in office, resource
extraction corporations received huge
taxpayer subsidies and
more than 300 major U.S.
environmental laws were
rolled back. Even our most basic
safeguards like the Clean Water Act,
Clean Air Act, and Endangered Species Act
have been weakened.
The Bush administration’s dismantling of
America’s important environmental regulations is well documented. So, let’s sample
what this means for our state.
ew Jersey has the largest number
of Superfund sites in the nation. In
BY EDITHE FULTON
s educators, we have serious
concerns about President Bush’s
education and labor policies. His
first four years brought an unprecedented
assault on public schools in the form of the
massive unfunded mandates of No Child
Left Behind and a push for taxpayer funded
private school vouchers. His second term
seems likely to continue that pattern. We
fear that “four more years” will turn into “four
more jeers.”
I
Rights of the disabled
BY WALT BORACZEK
N
BY GREG REMAUD
2003, Bush and his EPA Director, former N.J.
governor Christie Whitman, would not support renewal of the tax on oil and chemical
companies that funded this vital program. Superfund now has no money. “So, the burden
of cleaning hundreds of toxic waste sites falls
to the state and municipalities that cannot afford the costs,” says Bob Spiegel, a noted Superfund expert.
Water quality throughout the Hudson-Raritan Estuary has improved dramatically with
the reduction of raw sewage flows that come
from combined sewer systems after heavy
rains. The Bush administration scuttled rules
that would end these vile outflows into our
rivers and bays.
Important environmental restoration
projects — most notably at Liberty State
Park, Hudson County’s Lincoln Park and
the Meadowlands — have not been funded
as promised through the United States Army
Corps of Engineers.
ound environmental policy always
leads to strong long-term economic
gains. But, when a good corporate citizen
like PSEG took the initiative to reduce its emissions below mandated levels, it was financially disadvantaged by the Bush administration’s
subsidies to old, heavily polluting Midwestern
coal plants. These out-of-state industries account for a significant portion of New Jersey’s
air pollution.
According to environmental attorney and
Waterkeeper Alliance president Bobby Kennedy Jr., “You simply can’t talk honestly about
the environment today without criticizing this
president. George W. Bush will go down as
the worst environmental president in our nation’s history.”
S
Greg Remaud is Preservation Director for NY/NJ
Baykeeper.
Prisoners and addiction-related issues
I
attended a conference where the director of the
White House’s Office of Faith Based Initiatives reminded us of Bush’s $100 million proposal to help exoffenders re-enter society. Everyone applauded politely.
But afterwards there were big questions.
Many of the clergy wondered, ‘If he says everyone
should get a second chance, why is the average sentence
for a first time, non-violent drug offender longer than the
average sentence for rape, child molestation, bank robbery or manslaughter?’
Residential treatment providers asked why they
couldn’t get funding for centers where women can bring
their children. Many social workers wondered why the
funds didn’t get put into job skills and education, the two
major deterrents to crime.
Eighty-five percent of prisoners are imprisoned for
BY MARY BARR
drug-related crimes. And 85 out of 100 prisoners released will be back in prison because they still can’t get
a job, or a break. Sixty-five percent of prisoners read below the sixth-grade level, but every year funding is cut for
education. And the corrections budget continues to rise.
t costs $32-42,000 a year to house someone in
prison. Let’s take the lower number and pretend
that the 650,000 prisoners being released this year only
did a year. That cost us $208 billion dollars! Makes
$100 million seem skimpy. While alternatives are 15
times more effective and one-third the cost of prison, real
change will come when we treat substance abuse as a
health concern, not a moral failing.
I
Mary Barr heads Conextions, a Secaucus-based advocacy organization focusing on prisoners and addiction-related issues. She
can be reached at 863-2771 or at [email protected].
diversions
Urban Alles
hudson
weekly
Hudson Weekly accepts short satirical essays, humorous musings and/or angry screeds for its Diversions page.
To submit an entry, email: [email protected]
crossword
BY BEVIN BERMIINGHAM
When ol’ fashioned muscle ain’t enough
W
hen I purchased a bed
from a craigslist posting
six months ago, I was required
to disassemble and pick up said
bed myself. I enlisted the help
of one of the handiest people I
know—who very conveniently
owns an SUV. Karen’s help was
key in two regards: I needed a
vehicle that could accommodate a
full-size mattress
and frame. More
crucially, I have
very little aptitude
when it comes to
anything involving a power tool.
t the last minute, personal
issues required Karen to
cancel, but I managed to get a
pinch-hitter by way of Kirsten,
another SUV-owning friend. She
picked me up at my apartment and
I joined her, carrying as many bungee cords as I could gather (about
six) and my girlfriend’s cordless
drill. I thought that by coming with
such an all-encompassing tool,
this task wouldn’t be a challenge.
I’d seen the GF do amazing things
A
with this orange Black & Decker
masterpiece and had long ago
apologized for giving her a hard
time when she bought it.
irsten and I arrived and
met the woman who I had
only scant email correspondence
with. Like most people who post to
www.craigslist.org, she was undeniably wacky. She confessed to us
that she was a private investigator
who had recently moved out of the
shared house the bed was in while
leading us up not one but three
flights of stairs (not mentioned in
the advertisement). She showed us
the piece of furniture, collected my
$200 in cash and told me it was
a “really lucky bed” for her. Trying not to be sketched out by her
description or the extremely odd
smell in the nearly empty room, I
surveyed the task and asked where
we should start. The “lucky” seller
didn’t answer, she promptly went
back downstairs, admonishing us
not to disturb any of the art lining
all of the hallways between Kirsten’s Rav-4 and the bed.
K
abuela’s
catholic heresy* FOR THE WEEKS OF DEC. 3–DEC. 17
See URBAN — p. 10
ARIES
history lesson
This week’s ostensibly memorable events
DECEMBER 3
1931
Acid indigestion sufferers across the globe
are given reprieve when Alka Seltzer
debuts on the market, simultaneously
creating opportunities for pre-teen sadists
and sheer terror for the world’s sea gulls.
1980
making him the first chief executive to
travel outside the country while in office.
1977
Jean-Bedel Bokassa, alleged cannibal and
husband of 17 wives who ruled the Central
African Empire, crowns himself emperor
in a ceremony believed to have cost more
than $100 million.
1991
Democratic N.J. Congressman Frank
Thompson Jr. of Trenton was convicted on
charges of public corruption after being
one of five federal officials caught by the
FBI accepting money from agents posing as
representatives of a fictitious Arab sheik.
Pan American World Airways, the company
that ushered in the era of intercontinental
air travel and former employer of Star
Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, ceases
operations after declaring bankruptcy.
1984
DECEMBER 5
More than 2,000 people are killed and
almost 60,000 injured when a poisonous
gas cloud leaks from a Union Carbideaffiliated pesticide plant in Bhopal, India.
Victims and their families are still trying
to hold Union Carbide and its parent, Dow
Chemical, accountable for the incident.
1992
The double-bottom Greek tanker “Aegean
Sea” runs aground at the port of La Coruña,
Spain, spilling 21.5 million gallons of
crude oil into the sea. This spill is the
second to have occurred in La Coruña;
28.1 million gallons of crude were spilled
in 1976.
DECEMBER 4
1875
William Marcy Tweed, the “Boss” of New
York City’s infamous Tammany Hall
political organization, escapes from
debtor’s jail in New York and flees to Cuba
and then Spain, where he worked as a
sailor. He was discovered a year later and
extradited to New York.
1918
U.S. President and former N.J. governor
Woodrow Wilson sets sail for France to
attend the Versailles Peace Conference,
1492
Christopher
Columbus
—father
of
globalization, disgraced governor, geriatric
eschatologist and apparently bastard son
of at least four European countries —
discovers the island Hispaniola.
1848
U.S. President James Polk, perhaps starting
the American presidential tradition of
witlessly ignoring the obvious, declares
the existence of the California Gold Rush
a good 10 months after it began. The
Gold Rush, in addition to sparking a wave
of Chinese immigration, also led to the
emergence of poorly governed cities and
vigilantism.
1908
Numerals are first used on college football
uniforms at the University of Pittsburgh.
1934
At the urging of premier Josef Stalin,
the U.S.S.R. executes 66 people for
treason after Stalin’s Leningrad-based
protégé, Sergei Kirov, is assassinated. This
begins the Great Purge, which persecuted,
imprisoned, exiled or executed an estimated
seven million people.
See HISTORY — p. 9
LEO
The earth god travels through your house of
identity from Sat 4 to Thu 16, prompting you
to question the basic principles by which you
live your life. You will be tempted to make
extreme lifestyle changes, all while convincing
yourself that you could manage being more
impulsive and daring. The war god and the
love goddess stroll through your house of
self-expression the week of Dec 5, giving you
boundless energy to socialize and experiment.
While this will please you, a strong female
figure will disapprove.
TAURUS
An uncomfortable tone of intensity will affect
all your social interactions from Sat 4 through
Thu 16, making you seem either brusque with
co-workers or manipulative to friends and
lovers. The winged-footed god is traveling
backwards, which will impede everyday
tasks from Sat 11 through Tue 14. You might
misplace your keys or lose an important phone
number, and your patience for dealing with
this will be markedly diminished. The sky god
will lure you into taking shortcuts or bending
the rules at this time, but you must avoid the
temptation.
GEMINI
Ego-related tensions at your home crystallize
the weekend of Dec. 3-5, and it’s best to go
along and not overtly resist. It’s important to
keep your humor throughout this period, as
the planet of the earth god conjoins the planet
of the love goddess from Sat Dec 4 through
Thu 16. The sky god will oppose himself
from Mon 13 to Fri 17, making money a bit
tight around the holidays this year. This will
cause you to naturally feel shitty about your
income level and professional goals. You will
be irritable and no fun to be around, especially
at work. Lighten up.
CANCER
The sea god traveling through your fifth
house of self-expression from Sat 4 through
Thu 16 distorts your perception of children,
lovers and your creative potential in an
irrational light. There is a great potential for
miscommunication in your chart this month,
as the planet of the winged-footed god is
moving backwards until Mon 20. He will create
a variety of situations on the way, however,
some of which may work to your favor. From
Mon 6 through Thu 9, ideas and intellectual
endeavors you may have had in the past gain
new momentum, at least for the time being.
*TRANSLATED FROM THE COLLOQUIAL SPANISH
CAPRICORN
The planet of the love goddess takes a stroll
through your second house of material
possessions from Wed 15 through Fri 17,
tempting you to buy a luxury item or spend
lavishly on other things. If you are married or
share your finances with another, it is strongly
suggested that you reign in your compulsion to
throw money away. The war god opposes your
moon from Tue 14 through Fri 17, making any
possible confrontation potentially explosive.
VIRGO
The winged-footed travels through your second
house of material possessions from Fri 3 to
Sun 5, creating an environment of meetings,
paperwork and everything else having to
do with finances. The war god making his
approach into your first house of identity gives
you a boost of physical energy, which will
probably make you want to do a million things
at once. Take it slowly, though, because your
sun is opposed to the war god this weekend
and any exceptional multi-tasking will end in
frustration. If unattached, go out and circulate
socially from Mon 13 through Fri 17.
SCORPIO
The planet of the god of the underworld makes
an appearance in your first house of identity
from Fri 3 through Tue 14, bringing all your
dissatisfactions with yourself to the surface. A
nice visit from the sky god in your tenth house
of ambition on Fri 3, however, primes the
experience to be more positive than negative.
The changes you crave will seem possible,
and you will look seriously into making them
happen. Getting another degree, starting a
weight-loss plan, etc — all these things have
never seemed as important as they do right
now. The earth god traveling through your
eighth house of transformation from Sat 4
through Thu 16 will make you cast out the old
to make place for the new.
SAGITTARIUS
BY ALBERTINA CRUZ
The sky god travels through your eighth
house from Fri 3 to Fri 17, finely tuning your
enjoyment of all earthly things. Signs show
that this enjoyment will be rooted in sex,
and you will have a greater appreciation and
understanding of it. If you are partnered and
in a good relationship, have at it! The war god
through your ninth house of philosophy from
Sun 5 to Sat 11 gives all things cultural a more
appealing facade, and you will find the energy
to enjoy it all.
A quick visit from the god of the underworld this
weekend, Dec. 3-5, in your ninth house will have
you desperately wanting other people to share
your ideas and beliefs. Beware the temptation
to use your intelligence to manipulate others.
The love goddess trines your sky god at the
same time, giving you an incredible amount of
good luck but also punishing you if you take
things too far. Uranus traveling through your
twelfth house from Sat 4 through Thu 16 brings
a long-hidden secret to light, which may include
subconscious resentments, secret fears, past
failures and childhood conditioning. Don’t let
this harm your valued relationships with either
lovers or friends; the trick to overcoming this is
to talk it out with trusted friends or family.
AQUARIUS
You will be bogged down at work at the end
of next week (Dec. 17), but be careful not to
take too many things for granted. On a more
personal note, the planet of the sea god conjoins
your sun from Sat 4 through Thu 16, causing
you— or others, even — to question yourself
at your most fundamental level. Yes, this is an
identity crisis. Do not try to grandstand and
avoid alcohol and other sedatives whose use
is meant to dull the discomfort of it all. Uranus
conjoins your planet of the love goddess at the
same time, signaling the abrupt ending — or
beginning — of a relationship or partnership.
This period can help you regain your focus;
take the lesson for what it’s worth and proceed
accordingly.
PISCES
You’ve been a bit heavy-handed recently in
your approach at communicating ideas, but
there is a benefit to it. These conflicts open
a path for greater intellectual stimulation and
provocation, which can sometimes be a good
thing. The sky god is fluttering across your
chart, which means a strong influx of ideas
and communications. The love goddess travels
through your sixth house of work from Thu 9 to
Mon 13, putting a premium on harmony in the
workplace. Hone your innate leadership skills
at this time, and the experience will positively
reverberate throughout your personal life.
You can do no wrong at this point. You seem
charmed by the gods themselves! a
Live!
On Tap This Month:
MARSHALL CRENSHAW (12/4, Maxwell’s)
TRASHCAN SINATRAS (12/6, Maxwell’s)
THE FINALS (12/9, Shannon Lounge)
on the Left Bank
AN ALBATROSS (12/10, Uncle Joe’s)
UNWRITTEN LAW (12/15, Maxwell’s)
hudson
weekly
DEC. 3 — DEC. 17, 2004
THE SNAKE THE CROSS THE CROWN (12/19, Maxwell’s)
O! Canada!
From the bitter
Saskatchewan pra
iries
comes the foot-ta
pping,
retro grooves of
Despistado.
DEC 19
sunday
Dazed & confused
DEC. 3
friday
WANNA SNOOPY DANCE?
EGGNOG FOR DUMMIES
HOLIDAY FUN FOR KIDS
Grace Church Van Vorst, corner of Second and
Erie streets, JC. Suggested donations: $2 for kids, $3
for adults. Call 659-2211 for more information.
FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS
YO LA TENGO
Hoboken’s own royal triumvirate of
indie rock team up with some special guests for eight days of shows
celebrating Hanukkah. Friday, Saturday and Sunday shows sold out.
See Music Preview, PAGE 11.
Maxwell’s, 1039 Washington St., HOB.
8:30 p.m., $20. Call 653-1703 for more
information.
The Jersey City Museum incorporates into
a day of holiday programming a fun hourlong tutorial on how to whip up some festive
libations. Cocktails from around the world will
be featured, as well as how to make special
garnishes for those oh-so-exotic drinks.
Jersey City Museum, 350 Montgomery St, JC. 21+. 6
p.m. Call 413-0303 for more information.
DEC. 7-14 saturday
DEC. 11
IN EXCELSIS DEO
RED RIBBON HOLIDAY
CONCERT
The New Jersey Gay Men’s
Chorus teams up with the
Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps
for a benefit concert to support local
AIDS charities.
DeBaun Auditorium, Fifth and Hudson streets, HOB. Call 2168937 or go to www.debauntickets.org for more information. 8
p.m., $15 for adults and $10 students and seniors.
sunday
DEC. 5
‘WRITING FOR THE REAL WORLD’
THE ART OF MIXOLOGY
Grace Church Van Vorst’s “Film At Grace”
series presents a night of holiday fun for kids
of all ages. Guitarist Dave Lambert will play
kids’ standards at 6:30 p.m. before screenings
of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and A
Charlie Brown Christmas. Food will be served
and selected toys will be raffled off.
tue. - tue.
DEC. 4
saturday
Maxwell’s, 1039 W
ashington
St., HOB. 653-1703
. 8 p.m. $7.
JACK WILER
Wiler, a New Jersey-based poet and longtime editor of
Hoboken’s Long Shot Magazine, will read from his collected works at Symposia Bookstore in the next installment of the Debaun Center for the Performing Arts’
Spoken Word Series. An open mic will follow the reading.
Symposia Community Bookstore, 510 Washington St., HOB. 3
p.m. Call 216-8937 for more information. Free with $3 suggested
donation. 3 p.m.
sunday
BIRTHMARK
THE SNAKE, THE
CROSS, THE CROWN
From Hunstville, AL — by
way of Santa Barbara, CA
— this quintet lays down
tracks “canvased in lyrics of disillusionment, addiction and beauty.”
8 p.m., $7. Call 653-1703 for more information.
DEC. 19
Have a hankering for cheap buffalo wings? Want to find a local pub that’s showing
the game? The Grid strives to be your ultimate go-to guide for what’s happening in
the bars and clubs in your neighborhood.
the
grid
FRIDAY
To get a free listing:
Please send all new events, corrections and addenda to [email protected].
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
Burger & Beer Night. Specials
on Skyy, UV & Brooklyn Lager.
Thirsty Thursdays. $2 Yuengling,
$3 Bass & Smirnoff drinks.
HOBOKEN
BAHAMA MAMA’S
215 Wshngtn St., 217-1642.
Call for more information.
BAJA
104 14th St., 653-0610.
Happy Hour from 4-6. $2.75 imports, $2 domestics, $5 Cuervo margaritas.
BAR AT 10TH & WILLOW
935 Willow Ave., 653-2358.
BAR NONE
84 Wshngtn St., 420-1112.
BLACK BEAR BAR & GRILL
205 Wshngtn St., 656-5511.
DJ Jeff spins hip-hop.
DJ Johnny spins hip-hop.
Mexican Monday. NFL with
specials on Mexican beers.
Pitcher of Rolling Rock & bucket
of wings, $12.95
$2.50 domestic pints
1/2- price martinis all night.
Karaoke with Big Blanche, 10
p.m. No cover.
$1 domestic draft. DJ Special
K spins 80s, classic & freestyle.
Free pizza after 10.
Rockette. Rock, pop &
glammed out disco beats with
DJ Jeff.
Comedy Hour w/ Duplex’s own
Poppi Kramer at 10. No cover.
$1 off domestic bottles.
1/2-price wings, $1 off any
draft, 8-10.
Ladies Night. $3 well drinks &
$2 shots, 9-11.
Martini Night. Specialty
martinis $4. Guitarist Will
O’Connor from 8-11.
$1 drafts from 7-8, $2 drafts
from 8-9, $3 drafts from 9-10.
Sunday Brunch, 11-3, $15. NFL,
$6 pitchers of Miller Lite.
Industry Night; 50% off food
& drinks w/ bar card.
Ladies & 80s Night. Ladies
w/ other fems get free entrees.
Guys get $2 Miller Lites.
Wine Lover Wednesdays, 5-2.
Entire wine list 1/2-price w/ dinner. Martinis 1/2-price at bar.
Live Music. Margarita Mania,
$5 pitchers from 5-2.
Retro Tuesday. $2 Bud, $4
drinks.
Why Not? Wednesday. $2
Yuengling, $4 drinks.
$2 Michelob Light, 1/2- price
martinis.
Happy Hour 5-8.
Happy Hour 5-8. Live band at
9, no cover.
Happy Hour 5-8; DJ spins 80s,
pop & hip-hop.
Sports trivia.
BUSKER’S BAR & GRILL
94 Bloomfield St., 604-1380.
THE CAGE
3 Newark St., 216-1766.
Groove. Int’l DJ Hector
Fonseca spins house. $5 cover.
Pulse. DJ Johnny Feelgood
spins house. Drink specials with
a very special show. $5 cover.
COURT ST. RESTAURANT
61 Sixth St., 795-4515.
Liquid Brunch from 3-9. $3
mimosas & marys. DJ Mike
Cruz spins house, tribal,
underground, Latin house.
Brunch from 11 - 3.
DUFFY’S
DIPPER’S
616 Wshngtn St., 386-9464.
$2 shots, 11-midnite.
FARSIDE BAR & GRILL
531 Wshngtn St., 963-7677.
Dinner til 11 & music til 3.
College football noon-6. 25¢
wings, $6 pitchers of Miller Lite.
GASLIGHT BAR & GRILL
400 Adams St., 217-1400.
GOLDHAWK LOUNGE
936 Park Avenue., 420-7989.
Fiesta Fridays. Free chips n’
salsa & 1/2-price margaritas &
Coronas, 5-10.
GREEN ROCK TAP & GRILL
70 Hudson St., 386-5600.
Happy Hour 5-8.
$1 mugs of Coors, Miller &
Yuengling. DJ.
$10 pitchers during the day &
25¢ wings at night. DJ.
HOBSON’S CHOICE
77 Hudson Pl., 420-0070.
Happy Hour 4-7, M-F. DJ Mike
spins.
DJ Frank spins.
LIBERTY BAR & GRILL
61-63 14th St., 222-6322.
1/2-price appetizers from 5-7
at bar.
Morning brunch from 11 -2.
Happy Hour 5-8. 25¢ wings. $10
pitchers of Coors & Yeungling.
$10 party platters.
25¢ wings.
DJ Frank spins.
Brunch from 11-2, football &
basketball.
LOUISE & JERRY’S
329 Washington St., 656-9698.
MADISON BAR & GRILL
1316 Wshngtn St., 386-0300.
Martini Madness. Premium
martinis $4.
Tuesday Trivia. 1st, 2nd & 3rd
prizes awarded.
Ladies get $2.50 drinks at bar.
$4 imports, $3.50 domestics every day.
Happy Hour 5-7. $3.50 glass
house wine, $5.50 well, $3
drafts, domestics & selected
imports. DJ at 8:30. No cover.
DJ at 8:30. No cover.
Sunday Jazz Brunch from 10-3;
$20 for adults, $10 for kids 12
& under.
Early Bird Menu from 5 to 10.
Martini Madness. 1/2- price
drinks. Early Bird Menu from 57, $13.16 per person.
MAXWELL’S
1039 Wshngtn St., 798-0406.
$3 domestics; $4 imports; $4
mixed drinks. Ladies get $3
drinks all night.
MCMAHON’S BROWNSTONE
1034 Willow Ave., 798-5650.
MCSWIGGAN’S
110 First St., 798-6700.
NFL Ticket. $14 pitchers of
Coors & 24 wings.
MILE SQUARE BAR & GRILL
221 Wshngtn St., 420-0222.
Happy Hour 3:30 -7.$2 off all
drafts, $3 house wine.
ODDFELLOWS REST
80 River St., 656-9009.
Happy Hour 4-8, Tu-F. $4 hurricanes & $2.50 Miller, Yuengling
& Amstel drafts.
Brunch 11-3, $13.95.
Football. Pitcher specials.
$15 Mojito pitchers.
$10 Sangria pitchers.
2-for-1 martinis.
$7 pitchers & $5 wings.
Happy Hour 5-8.
$1 off everything.
Comedy Night. No cover. $7
pitchers & $5 wings.
$10 Coronita buckets.
Stella Night. Earn a free Stella
glass w/ purchase.
Happy Hour all night.
O’DONOGHUE’S
205 First St., 798-5595.
O’NIEAL’S
343 Park Ave., 653-1492.
Brunch. $14.95.
$2 Bud & Coors, $3 everything
else.
Open Mic Night w/ Rock n’ Roll
Refugee Camp.
K-Rock DJ Covino. 1/2- price
martinis.
Acoustic guitarist Tom Shea
performs. No cover.
Brunch from 11-3. $11.95
PLANET HOBOKEN
16-18 Hudson Pl., 653-6888.
Call for event listings.
QUIET WOMAN
557 First St., 963-9122.
ROGO’S
734 Willow Ave., 217-1512.
What the Buck? 8-11, $1
drinks, DJ.
$25 all-you-can-drink domestic
drafts & wings.
SHANNON LOUNGE
106 First St., 656-9820.
Live band at 10. $5 cover.
SKYBAR LOUNGE
96 River St., 656-7731.
DJs spinning lounge, Euro dance, progressive. No cover.
Doors at 8, music at 10.
SULLIVAN’S
600 Wshngtn St., 420-9849.
Happy Hour 5-7, M-F. 1/2- price
everything.
SUSHI LOUNGE
200 Hudson St., 386-1117.
DJ EZ Rock spins house.
Happy Hour 4-6:30, M-F, 1/2price martinis & $3 drafts.
TONIC
1300 Park Ave., 653-2583.
Wing Night. 15¢ wings.
Welcome Words. A poetry
open mic at 8. (pending)
ArtKore open mic. Sign-up
at 8 p.m. $3 drafts all night.
(pending)
Metamorphic. Original music
series. $3 martini of the month.
(pending)
Bitch. No cover. Drink specials.
DJ Tim spins house for a queer
crowd. Doors at 8, music at 10.
Ladies Night. 1/2- price
drinks, all night.
DJ Ralph.
DJ Chris spins house.
1/2-price martinis & $2 domestic bottles from 9-12.
Open bar from 9-11, $20. DJ.
Football w/ $2 pints & 24¢ wings.
DJ Hans Solo spins deep
lounge house.
DJ.
Sake Bomb Sunday w/ live
jazz, funk & afribbean bands.
Mojito Monday. 1/2--price
mojitos 6-midnite.
Football at 1. $8 domestic
pitchers & $3 drafts.
Football at 6. $8 domestic pitchers & $3 drafts.
Martini Tuesday. 1/2--priced
martinis all night. DJ EZ Rock
spins house.
See BACK PAGE
arts
& entertainment
a r t s @ h u d s o n w e e k l y. c o m
A spiritual journey in art
BY HW STAFF
Hoboken-based artist finds self in large commissioned work for Manhattan parish
K
en Jan Woo sounds a bit like a socialist when he
talks about his mural work.
Woo, a painter who works out of a studio at Hoboken’s
Monroe Center for the Arts, has an impressive résumé that
includes current representation at a prominent Los Angeles
gallery, years of study in Florence, Italy, and an eight-month
apprenticeship to a Chinese art professor. He has taught at
art schools, assisted other fine artists in their studios and
even worked as an animator at Warner Brothers.
But when talking about mural painting, his most recent
type of work, Woo is disarmingly self-effacing.
“Public works are not about the artist,” Woo said. “It’s not
just about you being in your studio. It’s now time to bring
back the work to the public and let go of the ego a little bit.”
In a strictly technical sense, Woo would be right. In largescale mural projects, you have to work with a motley team
of professionals. Sometimes you have to deal with other
artists. Depending on how large the work is, contractors and
engineers, too.
is most recent piece, a series of devotional icons for
Manhattan’s Church of Our Savior at Park Avenue
and 38th Street, is no exception. Collaborating with Donal
Murray, an artist he met while at the New York Academy
of Art, Woo created a series of seven paintings so large and
broad that they had to use scaffolding, electrical lifts and
other high-tech equipment.
The centerpiece of the work, an icon of Jesus Christ
in the form of the Pantocrator, or Greek for ‘ruler of all’,
measures 24 feet high and is installed 10 feet from ground
level. It’s made up of 15 separate panels of treated pine on
which paint and gold leaf was applied. Six smaller paintings
representing various saints are also included, with three on
each side of the altar.
It took four to six months from concept to finish, Woo
said, with a great deal of input from a number of people
along the way. In that kind of hectic environment, it’s hard
to imagine any kind of deep, personal process taking place.
WHY THE LONG FACE? — Hoboken artist Ken Jan Woo researched the symbolism of Byzantine art to complete his latest work, a series of
But for Woo, the creation of the Pantocrator allowed him devotioˈ
to reaffirm his belief in a religion he had just converted to a
The Silk Road was at its height during the Byzantine period, a time
year before.
beginning
after the 6th century. Woo’s exploration of the Silk Road led
“Before I was baptized, I started working with (Murray) on murals
him
to
revisit
the Byzantine era and its art production methods.
for the Church,” Woo said. “I was a Christian before, but I started
In creating the Pantocrator for the Church of Our Savior, Woo took
studying the doctrines and they made sense to me.”
on the role of a Byzantine icon painter.
“You don’t paint icons, you write the icons,” Woo said. “You’re not
painting a person, you’re painting a symbol of the spiritual realm.”
In that process, the icon writer focuses on the various symbols
orn in San Francisco to non-religious parents, Woo was a included in the icons, Woo said. In his version of the Pantocrator,
Methodist before being baptized in 2003 at the Church of Our there was some necessary adaptation. Woo cited how some symbolic
references that may have been powerful in Byzantine times — such as
Savior. He was approached shortly thereafter by the parish pastor,
the Rev. George W. Rutler. After seeing an image of a sixth-century elongated features, grotesquely convex heads, etc. — are now seen as
arcane references to contemporary eyes.
Pantocrator in a New York museum exhibition on Byzantine art, Rutler
Some features, however, were kept. One piece of symbolism is the
wanted an enlargement of the image for his own church.
different
angles of the edges of the Pantocrator’s mouth. One end of the
It was perfect for Woo in more ways than one.
mouth is turned up in a smile, Woo said, to express the benevolence
The original of the image that Rutler wanted an enlargement of is
of Christ. The opposite end is turned downward in a frown, to express
currently housed at the St. Catherine Monastery on Mount Sinai in Egypt.
the stern majesty of the ‘ruler of all.’
That area also served as an embarkation point for the Silk Road, which
“It’s an act of prayer when you write icons,” Woo said. “The point
connected the empires of Western antiquity to those of the Far East.
of icons is that they serve as gateways to their beliefs. It’s a ritualistic
“It made total sense,” Woo said. “A perfect concept of my own… the
process.”
painting and the history of that intercommunication of West and East.”
Working on the Pantocrator has enabled Woo to extract an
Woo’s connection with the Silk Road also goes beyond cultural
experience
that caters to both of his artistic philosophies. In following
it. Including, perhaps most importantly, himself.
ancestry. His great-grandfather was a Buddhist monk from Western
the specifications set forth by Father Rutler, Woo was able to create a
“In painting, you have to have an inner concept while you’re doing
China who traveled the route, converting to Christianity upon arriving
work accessible enough so that it resonates powerfully for all who see
it,” he added. “Without that, it’s just wallpaper.”
in Shanghai.
H
In painting, you have to have an inner
concept. Without that, it’s just wallpaper.
B
6
Live!
9
Art
10
Theater
10
Dance
11
Music
XX
Cuts
XX
Film
arts&entertainment
gallery
listings
OPENINGS & EVENTS
TRAVEL JOURNALS
John W. Meagher Rotunda Gallery,
City Hall, 280 Grove St., JC. 5474333. Free.
Lech, a Hudson-based photographer,
shows a series of photographs taken on
his journeys through the tri-state area and
Europe in this exhibit, which will be on
display through Dec. 30. Opening reception
will be held on Thurs., Dec. 9 from 6 to 8
p.m. Visit www.andrzejlech.com for more
information. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 8
pm., Mondays through Fridays and 9 a.m.
to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
URBAN IMAGE
Jersey City Museum, 350
Montgomery St., JC. 413-0303. Free.
On Thurs., Dec. 9, selected shorts in
film and video created by students at
New Jersey City University’s Media Arts
Department will be shown. 5:30 p.m. to
7:30 p.m.
Dates and hours are subject to
changes. Call gallery for more
information.
To have an exhibit/event listed,
email: [email protected]
SLIDE NIGHT: MONKEY GALLERY
hw
pick
Jersey City Museum, 350
Montgomery St., JC. 4130303. Free.
John Jodzio hosts artists whose
work has recently been on
display at the Monkey Gallery, located in
the Iron Monkey Restaurant at 97 Greene
St. 6 to 8 p.m.
ONGOING
CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE PRINTS
Harold B. Lemmerman Gallery,
NJCU, Hepburn Hall, 2039 Kennedy
Blvd., JC. 200-2197. Free.
Works by a group of 14 Japanese
printmakers living and working in the New
York area comprise this exhibit, which
will be on display through Dec. 3. Artists
include Naoto Akaike, Kentaro Awazu,
Rica Bando, Naomi Campbell, Takamune
Ishiguro, Eiko Kamiyama, Natsuko
Sakaguchi, Hiromi Shimizu, Motoshi
Wakabayashi, and Michiko Yoshida.
See GALLERY — below
history lesson
CONTINUED FROM P. 5
DECEMBER 6
1865
Magtoto, Richard Nettleton and Mikyung
Kim are murdered.
DECEMBER 8
1854
The extant 13th Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution is ratified, thereby
abolishing the practice of slavery.
This does not refer to the missing 13th
Amendment, which was lost during the
chaos of the Civil War and aimed to
restrict attorneys (!) from working in
government.
In his Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX
— hater of secularism and all things
rational — proclaims the dogma of the
Immaculate Conception, cementing
the belief that the Virgin Mary was free
of original sin from the moment her
mama got knocked up.
1926
The Palestinian “intifada” (Arabic for
“shaking off”) begins in the Israelioccupied territories after rumors and
stories of Zionist atrocities — some
of which are true, like the case of the
Israeli settler who shot a Palestinian
schoolgirl in the back — create havoc
through the community.
Italian
Dictator
Benito
Mussolini
introduces a tax on bachelors to fill an
ever-widening budget gap and promote
massive population growth. By 1936,
bachelors were paying double their
normal income tax plus an additional
155 lire per year.
1989
After
corralling
female
students
into a classroom at Montreal’s Ecole
Polytechnique, Marc Lépine, 25 — son
to an alcoholic Algerian wife-beater —
repeatedly shouts “I hate feminists!”
as he proceeds to murder 14 women
before eating his own rifle in Canada’s
biggest mass murder.
1994
Orange County, CA files for bankruptcy
protection due to investment losses
of about $2 billion. County treasurer
Robert L. Citron followed the advice of
his Merrill Lynch brokers and committed
the county’s $7.4 billion investment
pool to high-risk securities that were
ridiculously dependent on low interest
rates.
DECEMBER 7
1941
Pearl Harbor is attacked by nearly 200
Japanese warplanes, thereby justifying
U.S. entry into World War II. The
evening before, as 34 dinner guests
sat waiting, President F. Roosevelt read
intelligence reports about the imminent
attacks and failed to notify Navy officers
in Hawaii. He returned to the White
House dinner table and casually stated
“the war starts tomorrow.”
1972
Failed presidential candidate Imelda
Marcos, former beauty queen, notorious
shoe collector and wife of Philippine
dictator Ferdinand Marcos, is stabbed
and seriously wounded by an assailant.
1993
On the 5:33 p.m. train out of Penn
Station in New York, Long Island
Rail Road passenger Colin Ferguson
succumbs to what his lawyers called
“black rage” and unleashes his 9mm
Ruger pistol at the Merillon Avenue
station in Garden City. Denis McCarthy,
James Gorycki, Amy LoCicero, Theresa
1987
1998
The U.S. Supreme Court rules 9-0 that
police officers cannot conduct nonconsensual vehicle searches after
routine traffic violations, upholding the
Fourth Amendment and its protections
against illegal searches and seizures.
1998
The FBI opens to the public its files on
Hoboken native Frank Sinatra, famous
mid-century crooner and current demigod to countless bourgeois starfuckers.
The FBI’s 2,403-page file included such
anecdotes as a Hackensack arrest on
charges of “seduction and adultery.”
DECEMBER 9
1992
Former CIA spy chief Clair E. George is
convicted of lying to Congress about the
Iran-Contra affair, in which President
Ronald Reagan’s administration overtly
defied congressional orders and sold
weapons to Iran. Proceeds of the sale
were then diverted toward funding an
anti-communist guerrilla insurgency in
Nicaragua.
1993
Major inroads into fusion energy
production were made at Princeton
University, where scientists used the
Tokamak fusion reactor to output 5.6
million watts of power. Unfortunately,
the
Tokamak
machine
consumed
more energy in the reaction than was
produced.
1994
The
enmity
between
Republicans
and Joycelyn Elders suffers its tragic
dénouement when President Clinton
asks for Elders’ resignation before
an embarrassing magazine article
hit the newsstands. Elders, the socalled Condom Queen, had infuriated
conservatives by admitting during a
U.N. conference that masturbation is a
part of human sexuality.
ART
Noir... with a twist
BY HW STAFF
hw In its second annual auction, Victory Hall brings
pick
fine art at affordable prices to Hudson
D
ixie cups seem like such insignificant objects.
They’re small. Made of waxed paper.
Sometimes they’re just plain white. Other times they have
innocuous floral patterns that brighten up sterile, beigecolored water-coolers. They’re usually used and discarded,
never to be thought of again.
But as a child, Paulus Hook resident Andrew Hubsch
came across a black, white and red paper cup. Even though
it was a starkly utilitarian object, the cup’s image stayed
with him, occupying a space in his brain until it could be
re-invoked at a later date. And
now, after many years, Hubsch’s
cup has found its reincarnation.
BLACK, WHITE &
It has inspired “Black, White
RED ALL OVER
& Red All Over,” Victory Hall’s
INCLUDING: Leon
second annual art auction and
Yost, Andrzej
fund-raiser to be held at 6 p.m.
Lech, Roy Wright,
Saturday, Dec. 4. The auction,
Elizabeth Onorawhich will benefit both Victory
to, Ibou Ndoye,
Tomomi One,
Hall and the area’s emerging and
Minako Yoshino
established artists, begins at 6 p.m.
and John Shedd
with silent bidding and culminates
AT: Victory Hall,
with a live auction at 8. All pieces
186 Grand St.,
included in the auction — which
JC.
range from photography and
painting to prints and sculpture
WHEN: Sat, Dec.
4. 6 p.m., $20.
— will have either black, white or
red in its primary color palette.
Organized and chaired by Hubsch, who serves as a
trustee for Victory Hall, the auction aims to mainly benefit
the contributing artists, who will keep 60 percent of the
HANG THIS — The above photograph, by artist Roy Wright,
proceeds from the sales. The remainder will go to Victory
Hall in its efforts at enlarging its role as a primary supporter will be on sale at the auction.
of the local arts community.
each piece especially accessible to local collectors and art lovers,
Hubsch, who previously ran the Cathedral Arts Festival at
Hubsch said, noting that pieces on display Saturday would usually
Grace Church Van Vorst in Downtown Jersey City, said that while
sell for more than $1,000 at Manhattan galleries.
the Dixie cup memory did play a major role in his criteria for the
Hubsch expects a great turnout for this year’s event, due
auction, a more practical motive was at work.
to both the popularity of last year’s event and the nature of the
“The more substantive answer is that we were trying to come
community.
up with a workable idea that stands out in a crowded calendar of
“The appetite (for art) is very strong here,” Hubsch said.
social events,” he said.
“Not only are there artists who work in Hudson County but
And stand out it does. Led by auctioneer Warren Adler, the
there are people who are interested in being supportive of those
show will consist of 200 individual pieces, with contributions
from more than 50 artists who live or work in Hudson County and endeavors.”
Remembering last year’s event, which took place on the same
the surrounding area. Participating artists include photographers
day the area was inundated by three feet of snow, he said 200
Andrzej Lech and Roy Wright, painters Elizabeth Onorato and
Ibou Ndoye, lithographer Tomomi One, sculptor Minako Yoshino people came and purchased a great deal of art.
In addition to the artwork, the festivities will include
and acclaimed New Jersey ceramist John Shedd. Planning board
complimentary beer, wine, and fine food from Baja restaurant,
commissioner and York Street resident Leon Yost also included
door prizes and live entertainment.
his photography for the auction.
Admission to the event is $20. Tickets may also be purchased
Aside from a few selected works, all pieces will start at a
at the event.
minimum bid of $50. The low minimum bidding price makes
LOUIS MENDEZ: THEMES AND VARIATIONS IN CLAY
hw
1X1
Visual Arts Gallery, NJCU, Hepburn Hall, 2039 Kennedy Blvd.,
JC. (201) 200-2197.
pick
The exhibition, through Dec. 17, traces 50-year career of ceramic
artist Louis Mendez. Drawing a wide mix of inspirations from PreColombian art and recent events such as 9/11, Mendez sculpt clay
into imaginative figurative forms. The exhibition will be on view from
Thursday, November 18 through Friday, December 17 at New Jersey
City University in the Gallery at the Visual Arts Building, 100 Culver
Avenue in Jersey City. Gallery hours for the free exhibit are 11:00
a.m. - 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and by appointment. The
community is welcome.
In the museum’s ongoing 1X1 series, one work by one artist is
featured in an unexpected place to expand the role of the museum
as a contemporary arts institution. This installment’s pieces are
“Trappings” by Tiffany Ludwig and Renee Piechocki (Through Dec.
23), “Splintered Self” by Andrew Demirjian (Through Dec. 12),
“G-Pots and Gems” by Nicole Cherubini (Through Dec. 12) and
“Conversations III” by Raphael Zollinger (Through Dec. 23).
JERSEY(NEW)
Jersey City Museum, 350 Montgomery St., JC. 413-0303. $10
general admission.
This exhibit features 20 works by 18 New Jersey-based artists from
various racial and ethnic backgrounds. Emphasizing issues of identity that
permeate through the state’s communities, jersey(new) addresses both the
personal and universal in literal and conceptual methods. Through Jan. 9.
Jersey City Museum, 350 Montgomery St., JC. 4130303. $10 general admission.
INNER EQUATIONS: LORENZO CLAYTON & GEORGE SIDEBOTHAM
Jersey City Museum, 350 Montgomery St., JC. 413-0303. $10
general admission.
This exhibit, organized by the Center for Latino Studies at Rutgers
University, aims at displaying the work of artists of color who live or work
in New Jersey. Clayton, a Native American artist living in Edgewater, collaborates with Cooper-Hewitt engineering professor Sidebotham for an
installation piece that features two mural-sized chalkboards with equations that refer to particular experiences. Through Dec. 23.
arts&entertainment
curtain
calls
_gaia
HOBOKEN
66 Willow Ave., 386-0486.
gaiastudio.org.
Hudson Exploited Theater Co.
www.hextc.org.
To add a listing, email:
[email protected]
JERSEY CITY
Attic Ensemble
Club Federazione
BY HW STAFF
hw Political intrigue, swing dancin’ & one kickin’ army prison
pick
83 Wayne St., 413-9200. atticensemble.org.
Hudson Repertory Dance
Theater
140 MLK Drive, 432-5534.
Hudson Shakespeare Co.
865-1436, hudsonshakespeare.org.
Kennedy Dancers
Hudson Theater Ensemble
377-7014, hudsontheatreensemble.com.
Margaret Williams Theater
NJCU, 200-3151.
79 Central Ave., 659-2190.
Rascals on the Hudson
Kismet Theatre Co.
1 Marineview Plaza, 7921082.
360 Marin Blvd., 217-8900.
Mile Square Theater
Box 6190, 07030. (646) 2716557.
(973) 698-6927.
Monroe St. Movement Space
720 Monroe St., 795-3767.
THEATER & DANCE
All performance times subject to
changes. Call for more information.
Schola Cantorum on the
Hudson
Tempest Productions
Box 3366, Bayonne 07002.
(800) 475-5633.
SOUTH SIDE STORY — Members of the Kennedy Dancers play Italian prisoners of war and their American interpreters in the lastest project from Kennedy Dancers artistic director Diane Dragone, a docu-dance entitled Caven Point.
CONTINUED FROM P.5
After removing the mattress we
went about taking things apart—
working it like a puzzle in reverse.
I successfully selected the correct bit on the cordless drill and
discovered I have somewhat of a
knack for pressing a trigger and
making screws come undone.
he glee lasted only so
long, when we had all
of the guts out of the bed but
the frame was mysteriously still
intact. Since “Lucky” originally
got it from Ikea, Kirsten and I
surmised that there must be a
hidden secret to keeping this
pressboard masterpiece together.
We contemplated tugging at it
when Kir noticed that there were
some hidden heavy-duty plastic screws keeping the running
boards attached to the head and
foot boards. On the tops of each
of these screws was the signature
Ikea octagonal screw head. Having been so focused on bringing
the right power tool, I hadn’t
thought to bring an Ikea key.
Kirsten, being just as femme
as I am in terms of handiwork,
set about wielding the tool she
uses best, her cell phone. As
she called everyone we could
think of with a tool box at hand,
I started investigating each of the
100 bits in the GF’s power tool
accessory kit, with no luck.
Eventually Karen managed to
come to our rescue and “Lucky”
T
appeared with the long-lost Ikea
key. We schlepped all of the
very heavy pieces down to the
cars (careful not to mar the postmodern crap lining the walls) and
were suddenly grateful for Karen’s presence. I had grossly overestimated how much space was
in the back of a Rav-4—definitely
not the Ford Explorer my college roommate had that hauled
several beds across Davis, CA. I
just assumed that all SUVs had as
much space as Jill’s did.
Karen also, thankfully, had
twine with her in order to strap
the mattress to the roof of her
Subaru Forrester. I felt somewhat validated since my bungee
cords were also being used in
this massive undertaking, but
was politely shoved off to the
side while suddenly handy
Kirsten helped Karen secure the
mattress. The girl scout inside of
me tried not to feel left out while
knots were tied.
hen I moved into my
new Jersey City digs,
it was with great pleasure that I
abdicated the task of putting together the lucky bed to Christie,
a friend who is a handyman by
trade and owns a truck and many
power tools. I’ll happily help her
with legal problems anytime.
W
Bevin Bermingham may be a lawyer
in New Jersey but she isn’t crazy about
the mall. Stay tuned right here for her
adventures West of the Hudson.
W
hen the words “prison
camp” are mentioned
today, the image most likely to come
to mind is one of Guantánamo Bay,
Cuba, where the U.S. government is
holding hundreds of detainees in its
war on terror.
Allegations of abuse and torture
at the Cuban facility abound, and
ghastly pictures from the Abu Ghraib
prison in Iraq just serve to deteriorate
an already ailing public perception.
But in a new film by Jersey City
Heights-based Kennedy Dancers,
Army prison camps are shown in an
entirely different light. Instead of being
a place where enemy combatants are
held in uncomfortable conditions,
Jersey City’s Caven Point Army Base
was a place where thousands of Italian
soldiers — captured in North Africa
as prisoners of war in World War II
— fled willingly to escape the tortures
of Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime.
“It was a very congenial prison
camp,” said Diane Dragone, the artistic
director for the Kennedy Dancers.
“There wasn’t one bullet fired.”
he camp serves as the
background for Dragone’s
newest project, a filmed docu-dance
entitled Caven Point. Shot on location
at the Caven Point U.S. Army Reserve
Base and at St. Michael’s Church in
Downtown Jersey City’s Hamilton
Park area, the film tells the story of
the 4,000 Italian prisoners of war
that came to United States as enemy
combatants and left as free men
intoxicated by the American Dream.
Dragone heard about the Caven
Point Army prison camp from her
mother Anne, who worked as an
T
interpreter at
the camp when
she was 17.
Those stories
Dir. Tom Horan
STARRING: Diane
took root in
Dragone, Manny
Diane’s artistic
Cristobal, Cara
imagination,
Robino, Emily
she said, mainly
McKinnon, Yurie
Yoshida, Melody
because
not
Farfan, Collin
many
people
Roberts
have heard of
PLAYING: Jersey City
Museum, Caroline
the camp.
L. Guarini Theater,
The long350 Montgomery
running
joke
St., JC; Sunday,
among military
Dec. 5, 3 p.m., $5.
personnel
about WWII-era Italian soldiers is that
their guns were being sold at high
prices with the sales pitch of “Never
fired and only dropped once.”
While that joke is meant to take
a jab at the perceived cowardice of
Italian soldiers, Dragone says the real
reason Italians surrendered in droves
is because they were forced to fight
in a war they had no desire to be
in. Maltreatment from their German
allies, Dragone added, didn’t make
them more willing, either.
CAVEN
POINT
It was a very congenial
camp.There wasn’t one
bullet fired.
The prisoners were brought to
Jersey City and lived quite well under
the auspices of the U.S. government.
Former inmates tell of excursions
to Radio City Music Hall and other
Manhattan landmarks, where only
two uniformed Americans would
supervise a group of more than 100
Italians. The camp was also a social
hot spot on weekends, especially
Saturday nights when the camp
would host dances.
Using her mother’s oral history as
a starting point, Dragone began to
research the prison camp, contacting
first the curators at the U.S. Army
Museum in Philadelphia. She collected
archival photographs from the camp,
weaving those images with filmed
scenes of prisoners and American
interpreters. Also included are video
interviews with Caven Point veterans.
The choregraphy is set to the
music of A. Louis Scarmolin, a
Hudson County-based classical
composer who was born in Schio,
Italy in 1890. Active in Hudson’s
cultural life, Scarmolin founded the
Jersey City Philharmonic and worked
as a music teacher in Union City.
Set as a narrative in which the
American narrator recalls the letterwriting campaigns that the U.S.
State Department instituted as a way
to get Italian citizens to overthrow
Mussolini, the play highlights the love
stories between the young American
interpreters and their Italian charges.
The dances are a mixture of
Italian folk dances intermingled with
American dances like the Jersey
Bounce, a popular swing dance of
the era, Dragone said. The film aims
to capturing all the complicated
emotions felt by both the soldiers
and their young American scribes.
Dragone describes one in
particular: “The American girls felt
like they were being unfaithful to
their country by consorting with the
enemy.”
arts&entertainment
set
list
Friday, December 3
THE DATSUNS • BAD WIZARD •
THE CHELSEA SMILE
Maxwell’s, 1039 Washington St., HOB,
653-1703.
New Zealand’s The Datsuns bring their
raucous garage punk to Hoboken’s main
indie stage with help from Bad Wizard’s
high-energy, AC/DC-esque hard rock.
Show begins at 9:30 PM. $15. 18+.
NOLAN GATE • THE OUTSIDE •
BLOOD CITY
Uncle Joe’s, 154 First St., JC, 659-6999.
Nolan Gate, featuring ex-members of
Mothman and Dahlia Seed, shred guitars
for Jersey City’s enjoyment.
Show begins at 10 PM. $5 cover. 21+.
TERENCE MARTIN • GENE D.
PLUMBER
Brennan Courthouse, 583 Newark Ave.,
JC, 459-2070.
Folk singer Martin performs at this
installment of the county-sponsored
music series. Plumber is also featured in
this Provident Bank-sponsored event.
Show begins at 7:30 PM. $10 general
admission, $5 for seniors.
Saturday, December 4
MARSHALL CRENSHAW • ERIC
HUTCHINSON
653-1703.
Singer-songwriter Crenshaw — trivia: he
also played Buddy Holly in the Ritchie
Valens bio-pic La Bamba — brings his
talents to the Mile Square City.
VALERIE CAPERS ENSEMBLE
Jersey City Museum, 350 Montgomery
St., JC, 413-0303.
Composer and educator Capers
performs a jazzy holiday concert with
her ensemble in this component of the
museum’s holiday programming.
Show begins at 7 PM. Free for museum
members, $10 general admission. All
ages.
Sunday, December 5
TRIBUTE TO RICHARD MASON
653-1703.
Performances by Michael Carlucci, Lisa
Cortez, Stanley Demeski, Ira Kaplan,
Glenn Mercer, Rob Norris and Kris
Yeingst round out this tribute.
Show begins at 8 PM. $10.18+.
Monday, December 6
TRASHCAN SINATRAS • GUEST
653-1703.
Straight outta Scotland, the Trashcan
Sinatras will enchant the audience with
their smart, reflective music.
Show begins at 9 PM. $10. 18+.
Tuesday, December 7
A YO LA TENGO HANUKKAH •
LAURA CANTRELL
653-1703.
See music preview opposite. Tennessee
native Cantrell, a high-powered finance
professional by trade, enraptures with
her playful, intimate guitar work. Trivia:
Late British DJ John Peel said Cantrell’s
record was possibly his most favorite of
all time.
MUSIC
All times subject to changes. Call
venue for more information.
[email protected]
Wed., December 8
A YLT HANUKKAH • CELCIAXO
Eight crazy nights
hw
pick
BY HW STAFF
Yo La Tengo gives Jews and gentiles a reason to celebrate!
Special guests include someone
soooo secret that we have to resort to
anagrams. (And bad anagrams, at that.)
Show begins at 8:30 PM. $20.18+.
A CHRISTMAS BANDING
Willie McBride’s, 616 Grand St., HOB.
798-0406.
A host of New Jersey-based performers
play Christmas carols to get you in the
holiday mood.
Show begins at 8 PM. $10 admission
benefits Hoboken Sept. 11th Fund.21+.
Thursday, December 9
A YLT HANUKKAH • THE SHAMS
653-1703.
The Shams add a splash of blues and a
dash of 60s psychedelia to their brand of
garage rock.
THE FINALS • CREWMAN #6 •
CHEAPER FASTER
Shannon Lounge, 106 First St., HOB.
656-9820
Formed in 2003, the Finals includes Lou
Bottone on guitar, Christian Kisala on
keyboards, Jason Sazer on guitar and
vocals, Joshua Sazer on drums and Matt
Reilly on bass and vocals.
Show begins at 9 PM. $5.21+.
Friday, December 10
AN ALBATROSS • READ YELLOW •
GIVE ME DANGER
Uncle Joe’s, 154 First St., JC, 659-6999.
Philadelphia’s An Albatross, described by
their record label as a band perfectly suited
for an ADD-diagnosed society, rock with
“short, complex, infectious bursts.”
Friday, December 10
THE RULES • THE PARAGRAPH
Uncle Joe’s Bar, 154 First St., JC, 6596999.
Monday, December 13
A YLT HANUKKAH • FRED ARMISEN
653-1703.
Armisen, former drummer for Chicago’s
now-disbanded Trenchmouth and current
comic performance artist, stops by.
Tuesday, December 14
A YLT HANUKKAH • CALVIN JOHNSON
653-1703.
Johnson, founding father of Washington
state’s colossal indie scene and former
member of Beat Happening, helps YLT
out on their last night of Hanukkah
festivities.
Wednesday, December 15
UNWRITTEN LAW • DENVER HARBOR
• DROPPING DAYLIGHT • OSLO
653-1703.
SoCal power-popsters Unwritten Law
team up with San Diego’s Denver Harbor
and 2004 SXSW darlings Sui Generis, who
now go by Dropping Daylight.
Show begins at 8 PM. $10. 18+.
DREIDLE DREIDLE — Yo La Tengo (pictured above, from left, James McNew, Georgia Hubley and Ira Kaplan) take on the
Festival of Lights at Maxwell’s in Hoboken. Photo by Matthew Salacuse.
Editor’s note: We’ll be honest. We
dropped the ball on preparing a
preview for this epic show. Instead,
we will reprint the band’s wrap-up
of its 2002 lineup, hopefully to give
you an idea of what to expect.
Fri. Nov. 29
Benefiting Social Tees Animal
Rescue and the Dolphin Project
Janeane Garofalo, David Grubbs.
David joined us for four songs during
our set. Ronnie Spector sang “Here
Today Gone Tomorrow” and “Baby I
Love You” with us during the encore.
Sat. Nov. 30
Benefiting Arts for Art
Todd Barry, Other Dimensions in
Music. (Daniel Carter was replaced
for this night by Sabir Mateen). Sabir
Mateen, Roy Campbell Jr., and William
Parker sat in for most of our set. During
the encore, Todd Barry played drums
on “Like a Rolling Stone” and John
Cameron Mitchell sang “Head Held
High” and “Holly Holy.”
Sun. Dec. 1
Benefiting the Hoboken Shelter
Fred Armisen, the Fleshtones.
Peter Zaremba sang two songs with
us during our set. Fred Armisen (as
Ferecito) joined us during “Nuclear
A YO LA TENGO
HANUKKAH
FEATURING: Laura Cantrell, The Shams,
The A Bones, Eleventh Dream Day,
The Coctails, Calvin Johnson, Fred
Armisen, and special guests.
PLAYING: Maxwell’s, 1039 Washington St., HOB. Dec. 7 — Dec. 14. All
shows at 8:30, $20 each night.
War.” Ray Davies sang “Animal
Farm,” “This Is Where I Belong” and
“Till the End of the Day” with us for
the encore.
Mon. Dec 2
Benefiting the Civil Rights
Project at Harvard University
Girl’s Guitar Club of Greater Los
Angeles, Sun Ra Arkestra under the
direction of Marshall Allen. Some
of the Arkestra sang on “Nuclear
War.” The Girl’s Guitar Club sang
“This Ain’t the Summer of Love” and
“Walk Like an Egyptian” with us during the encore.
Tues. Dec. 3
Benefiting Global Kids
David Cross, Ladybug Transistor.
David Byrne joined us for an encore of “Ready for This World” (a
new song of his), “Tears Are in Your
Eyes,” Lambchop’s “The Man Who
Loved Beer,” Richard Hell’s “Love
Comes in Spurts” and “Pulled Up.”
Wed. Dec 4
Benefiting Sanctuary for Families
Sarah Silverman, Virginia Dare.
Mary and Brad from Virginia Dare
played “I Threw It All Away” with
us.
Thurs. Dec. 5
Benefiting WFMU, Anthology
Film Archives, and Film Forum
Karen Kilgariff, Sue Garner.
Dave Schramm sat in with us during our set. We all played with Sue
on Yoko Ono’s “We’re All Water.”
Sue and Ted Reichman joined
us during the encore for Randy
Newman’s “Political Science,” then
Rick Brown came up too and sang
the Art Attacks’ “Neutron Bomb.”
Then WFMU’s Gaylord Fields and
Brian Turner, and Peter Criss (or
was it Todd Barry) helped us play
“Calling Dr. Love” and “Strutter.”
Fri. Dec. 6
Benefiting the Highlands
Coalition
Sountrackapella,
Portastatic.
Georgia and Ira played on some
Portastatic numbers. Mac played
the whole show with us. Matthew
McCaughan added bongos during
the encore.
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Services
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FRIDAY
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SATURDAY
WHISKEY BAR
125 Wshngtn St., 963-3400.
Midnight Madness.
Cosmo Night.
WILLIE MCBRIDE’S
616 Gr& St., 610-1522.
Happy hour M-F, 4-8. Live band,
11 p.m. Call for cover. Free limo
available.
If limo is taken, cover waived.
College football. $2.50 domestic
drafts.
Auto
SUNDAY
Rentals
MONDAY
NFL. $2.50 domestic drafts & $5 basket of wings.
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
Real Estate
THURSDAY
Music & Bar Night.
Pint Night.
Buckets.
$3 Coronas. Hoboken Ski Club
meeting.
Trivia Night w/ Mike at 8:30.
No cover. $3 Amstel Light
drafts.
$3 Yuengling, Live music at 9.
No cover. $2 Miller Lite drafts.
ZACK’S OAK BAR
232 Willow Ave., 653-7770.
JERSEY CITY
4FIFTY5
455 Wshngtn Blvd., 798-1114.
Rotating drink specials all week.
BAJA
117 Montgomery St., 915-0062.
Happy Hour 6-12. $2.75 imports, $2 domestic, $5 Cuervo
margaritas.
DORRIAN’S
555 Wshngtn Blvd., 626-6660.
$3 pints of Miller Lite &
Dorrian’s Red Ale. $4 Cosmos &
Apple martinis.
Monday Night Football.
NFL & English Premiereship Soccer.
EDWARD’S STEAKHOUSE
239 Marin Blvd., 761-0000.
HAMILTON PARK ALE HOUSE
708 Jersey Ave., 659-9111.
Brunch from 11 to 4.
IRON MONKEY
97 Greene St., 435-5756.
Happy Hour 5-7. $1 off drafts,
well drinks.
Happy Hour 5-7. $11 buckets of
domestic bottles.
LAMP POST BAR & GRILL
382 Second St., 222-1331.
Power Hour. $2 shots, $2
beers. After 9.
Karaoke w/ DJ Homie, 10 p.m.,
$2 bottles. No cover.
Happy Hour 5-7. $1 off drafts, well drinks.
NFL Ticket.
$2 domestic pints.
$3 call shots.
LIBERTY HOUSE RESTAURANT
82 Audrey Zapp Dr., 395-0300.
Martini drink list.
LIGHT HORSE TAVERN
199 Wshngtn Blvd., 946-2028.
Specialty beers. Large imported beer & wine list.
$2 bottles.
Karaoke with DJ Homie at 10.
No cover.
Martini Night. Special on
select martinis.
Pint Night. Specials on
featured pints.
LITM
140 Newark Ave., 536-5557.
MARCO & PEPE
289 Grove St., 860-9688.
MERCER & BARROW
292 Barrow St., 946-1411.
Happy Hour 4-7, M-F. Various
drink specials.
THE MERCHANT
279 Grove St., 200-0202.
Happy Hour 4-7. $3.50
imported drafts, $2.50 domestic
drafts & $3 well drinks.
ODDFELLOWS REST
Late Night Hurricane, $4. Happy
Hour 10-midnite.
Brunch from 11-3
Monday Night Football. Draft
& shot specials.
Happy Hour specials all night.
Louisiana Brunch 11:30-4. Late
Night Hurricane, $4. Happy Hour
10-midnite.
Louisiana Brunch 11:30-4.
Bar Industry Night. $1 off
select drafts, liquors & wine.
Happy Hour 4-7. South of
the Border Night. $3 Corona,
margaritas & Cuervo shots.
Happy Hour 4-7.
Happy Hour all night. Service
Industry Nite, $1 off all booze.
Karaoke at 9, Grab the Mic Beer
Special.
Hump Day Martini, $5 all night.
Stella Artois Belgium glass
freebie.
$5 food menu.
$12 beer pitchers, $4 wings.
P.J. RYAN’S
172 First St., 239-9911.
SAND BAR
11 Marin Blvd., 714-5000.
SIDE BY SIDE
281 Newark Ave., 963-9339.
UNCLE JOE’S BAR
154 First St., 659-6999.
Happy Hour 3-9. M-F. $2
domestics, $3-$6 drinks.
WHITE STAR
230 Brunswick St., 653-9234.
Happy Hour 11-6. $3 drafts, $4
well drinks.
$12 import pitchers, $9 domestic pitchers every night.
Brunch from 11-4.
Brunch 11-4, w/ Bingo every
hour. No cover.
$10 beer buckets.
2-for-1 martinis.
JC ART COMMUNITY GOES ON EBAY! MAYBE. P. 5.
hudson
G
E
H
weekly
VOL. 1, NO. 2 >> DEC. 17—30, 2004
D
S
U
O
H
N C OU
T
A
E
R
NT
T
Y
CREATIVE CLASS
SQUEEZE
INSIDE:
Live!
Former Mile Square
City girl comes back
to town.
Art
Intensely personal.
Refreshingly honest.
Borderline pornographic.
Music
Pushing the
boundaries of
folk music.
After creative professionals
transformed Hoboken in the
1980s, they were pushed out
by sky-rocketing rents and an
increasingly robust housing
market.
Downtown Jersey City is
now suffering the same fate.
What can be done to
stop it? p. 4
hudson
weekly
DEC. 17 — DEC. 30, 2004
contents
newsweekly.
cover story
ARTIST? MUSICIAN? GET OUT! . . . . 4
The emergence of the creative class — a group of young, creative, high-earning professionals — has re-enfranchised communities across the nation and transformed economically depressed
cities back into thriving population centers. Why does Hudson
have such a problem with that?
By HW Staff
MORE THAN A SALON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
What happens when you combine a hair salon with an art gallery,
a yoga space, a performance venue, a banquet hall and a common,
everyday hangout for locals?
The cover: Illustration by HW Staff
departments
LETTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
OPINIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
NEWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
A&E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
CLASSIFIEDS . . . . . . . . . . . 16
news
Weekly Digest . . . . . . . . . . 3
We were going to tell you all about
how the Hudson County freeholders
are mulling the granting of a bond request that would allow the purchase of
NY Waterway, the region’s largest ferry
provider. We’re skimpy on actual news
again in our second issue, which we
understand kinda sucks, but once your
friends & neighbors start advertising,
look at all the goodies we plan to bring
you each and every week!
City Budgets. . . . . . . . . . . . X
Gossip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
Bull Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
An NYC institution invades JC.
By HW Staff.
Alerts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
Things you should know.
By HW Staff.
diversions
Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Urban Alles . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
An exercise in fingering.
Sex Talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Public Power . . . . . . . . . . . X
When citizens go nuts!
Open Governments . . . . . X
Trenton Takes . . . . . . . . . . . X
News from that grand metropolis.
Letter from X . . . . . . . . . . . X
You think potholes are bad?
Pretty girls with gee-tars!
Music. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Things to hear.
Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
What’s going on.
Gallery Listings . . . . . . . . . 13
Wallflowers.
Curtain Calls . . . . . . . . . . 14
Bit Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XX
reviews.
•Movie Clock (p.X)
Write a letter and
What’s a size queen?
By Miss Kitty.
History Lesson . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Serial killers. American presidents.
rates to be paid at Jersey City, NJ. POSTMAS-
ReOdorant . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
By Albertina Cruz.
Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
calendar
TER: Send address changes to HUDSON WEEK©2004 by Brownboy Media LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use without permission
a&e
Film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
Deep, um, celluloid analyses.
By HW Staff.
Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
A cultured, academic pretense to
ogle at nude bodies.
By HW Staff.
Theater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Pounding them back. Hard.
By HW Staff.
Music. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
County. Not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or art.
Ain’t talkin’ bout no revolution.
Food . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
An oasis at Grand and Grove.
news
weekly
digest
XX
City Budgets
XX
Education
XX
Around City Hall
XX
Public Power
3
Open
Governments
XX
Letter from
Union City
3
Alerts
X
Development
Watch
XX
Gossip
X
Bull Market
XX
Miscellany
hudson
weekly
DEC. 17–DEC. 30, 2004
GOT A TIP?
(201) 892-3553
or email:
[email protected]
A liberal’s final wish
BY DEAN OPPERMAN
PULP SYNDICATE
Hoping all who made Bush’s victory possible will someday share in his conviction
Give me a break — or a big glass of vodka. We’ve
gone from shock and awe to shuck and jive, and Captain
Quagmire ran the table anyway. Now he’s got the White
House, the Congress, the Supreme Court, the military
and a chip on his shoulder he’s calling a mandate. I don’t
know about you, but I’m getting a Republican haircut
just to blend in.
For four years it’s been one big all-you-can-eat buffet
for the corporations, and now they’re coming back for
more. Go ahead, you marvelous bastards! Rip out all the
trees, pave the beaches, build 12-lane freeways, plunder
the treasury, destroy our future. Cook the books, rig elections, pack the courts, hand the regulatory agencies over
to fascist maniacs. Invade more countries, declare code
red, invoke martial law, and keep going until your oilsucking exploits kick off a nuclear exchange.
By God (or Diebold), you’ve earned it. You’ve hoodwinked the evangelicals. You’ve threatened the journalists. You’ve built a propaganda machine and disguised
it as a legitimate cable news network. You’ve used it to
force-feed every right wing loon from Ashcroft to Zell
down our throats until they began to sound normal.
You’ve used phony government alerts to manipulate the
trailer park patriots, and you’ve dismantled the separation of church and state to the point where the Stars and
Stripes represents the anti-choice, fuel-guzzling, homophobic God of the blow-dried televangelists.
Yes, Mr. President, it’s your great and lasting legacy.
You’ve brought brazen deceit into the political mainstream. In fact, it wouldn’t be too much to say you are
the single most credible Republican since Dan Quayle
sprayed that grey stuff on his sideburns. And now you say
you want my support. To assume you are being sincere is
in itself a faith-based initiative, but in the spirit of fleeting
bipartisanship, I’ll play along.
I pledge allegiance to the united corporations of
America. For the next four years I will continue wearing
my Nike shirt, my Adidas shoes, and my Old Navy logo
pullover. While eating my corn flakes, if I find that I’m
chewing on a coupon, I’ll suppress the thought that the
corporations aren’t content to have turned me into a human billboard, they want me eating their advertising, too.
In fact, it wouldn’t be too much
to say you are the single most
credible Republican since Dan
Quayle sprayed that grey stuff on
his sideburns.
I’ll do my best to suppress my inner environmentalist.
When my conscience says things like, “Hey! Isn’t that
bioengineered food you are eating?” I will assure myself
that the radioactive waste in my dental work will kill off
any cooties.
I will overlook the fact that you’ve done more damage to feminism than 20 years of gangster rap, and I will
ignore the fear that we will soon need Sherpa guides to
reach the ruins of anything resembling such relics as an
eight-hour work day. I will do my best to ignore the feeling that I’ve fallen into a Fellini movie by ignoring the
eyes of the old TV news anchors who, caught up in TV’s
sudden shift to the right, seem to be trying to tell us something they aren’t allowed to say on the air. I will suppress
my suspicion that you are part of the same gang of psychopaths who brought us Enron, Vietnam and Dallas ’63,
and I will shelve my theory that the best way to make a
dent in terrorism is to invade the state of Texas. And I
promise not to move to Mexico, which seems pointless
anyway since it appears to be moving to me.
Moving on
BY JUDITH STOCK
PULP SYNDICATE
Putting a positive spin on job hopping
Fed up with your job? Sitting in your cubicle
with a layoff notice in your hand? Trying to recover
from downsizing? Pick one, you’ve probably been
there — done that at least once in your career life.
For whatever reason, you’ve been put on notice
and told to move on.
Had a number of
jobs in your career?
If you think prospective employers could
interpret your checkerboard career on the
road to your ultimate
goal negatively, then your number one priority is
to tackle that perception head on.
The well-known saying “attitude is everything”
is truest when tracking down your next employment. Before you can convince anyone else, you
must be convinced on the valuable attributes of
job-hopping. Cast your numerous experiences in
a positive light and focus on what you’ve learned
from varied job experiences.
“Being one-dimensional is a liability,” says
Gary Grappo, author of ‘Career ReExplosion,’
Boca Raton, Florida. “Years ago it was okay to
stay in one job. That was then, this is now. Moving
from job to job is an asset. Job-hoppers become
multidimensional.”
Those are my concessions, Mr. President. Now I
need a few from you. I’ve found it hard to feel proud of
America since you first took office. I was among the millions who were appalled when you morphed the home of
democracy into a rogue nation endorsing the kind of preemptive war that characterized the Nazis. I don’t want
a Cowboy-in-Chief roaming the world in search of convenient villains on which to impose gunslinger justice.
There’s a place for that in an episode of “Gunsmoke,”
but in today’s world we have the United Nations to resolve international disputes. It took World War II and the
deaths of 53 million people to create that institution; it
seems a waste to disregard that so you can play Judge
Roy Bean.
Your West of the Pecos diplomacy has created a trickle-down paranoia that is ruining the neighborhood. We
are becoming a dog-eat-dog, everyman-for-himself nation of fair-weather friends. That’s what happens when
the PATRIOT Act makes enemies of librarians and when
the Pentagon begins probing our emails. There are other
ways to track Al Qaeda without having to know everything about me going back to those X-ray specs I ordered
from the back of Boys’ Life.
I know we don’t agree. After all, I am a liberal — by
your definition, a godless feminist heathen running an
abortion clinic in my kitchen and a gay wedding chapel
in my garage. Hey, in today’s economy, a guy’s gotta
make a buck. But rest assured that I am no atheist. I know
there must be a God. With you in the White House, if
there wasn’t, we’d surely be dead by now.
So, on behalf of liberals everywhere, and with all the
Viagra of progressive thought I can muster, I extend this
salute. I offer it with my best wishes and the sincere hope
that all who made your victory possible will someday
share your deep convictions, both federal and state.
The facts about your employment history in
your resume and cover letter allow you to transform your job-hopping into a desirable asset. “The
place to talk about yourself in a positive way is the
cover letter,” says Grappo. “Without a cover letter, a prospective employer could perceive facts in
your resume as negative.”
Grappo suggests using phrases like “varied
background” and “increased asset to the organization due to diverse experience.” Along with your
varied experience, some other attributes to highlight are the ability to work with different management styles and the skill to learn new information
quickly.Unless you are able to objectively examine
your resume before sending it out, the only place
your it will end up is in the recycle bin.
Jeannine A. Harrold, director of the Career Center
at Ball State University, says, “Use functional categories to show the total length of time spent doing
certain kinds of activities, rather than emphasizing
how much time you spent in each position.”
You’ve made it through resume limbo and successfully derailed any misconceptions about diverse backgrounds being negative. Good, now
that’s only half the job; the other half is the dreaded in-person interview.
If you don’t have a support group, get one.
Make a list of five people or organizations you can
Before you can convince anyone
else, you must be convinced on the
valuable attributes of job-hopping.
turn to for advice, encouragement and brainstorming, and use them.
Get your friends together to help role-play your
lines before that all-important interview. “We make
huge assumptions when we go into this meeting
about the interviewer,” says Grappo. “Our job is
to make the interview idiot-proof. Typically hiring
managers interview many people and they don’t always have the best memory. Highlight three things
that you believe the hiring manager, the company,
and the job need from you and repeat them during
the interview. The interviewer will remember the
job seeker who hammered three main things.”
At the end of the interview, be assertive and ask
the interviewer, “Based on what I have just told
you, what would prevent you from hiring me today?” Says Grappo, “If they can’t offer an objection, I have a job. If they do, then I have a chance
to counter that objection.”
The tools you will need to land that dream job
include an outstanding cover letter, a professional resume, and a self-assured, positive attitude.
Facing and overcoming all hurdles during the job
seeking process puts you directly in charge of your
career.
Leaders and other municipal
stakeholders across the nation
are trying to lure the creative
class into their cities.
Market forces, however, work to keep
them at bay.
The city of Hoboken first struggled with the influx.
Jersey City is now going through the same process.
Have any lessons been learned?
BY HW STAFF
W
hen Rishi Gogate, 27, moved to Jersey City from Bombay two years ago, he felt he couldn’t
have found a better place to live.
Working in the hectic day-to-day of New York, Gogate, a dentist by profession, was relieved to come
home to his quiet Paulus Hook neighborhood. In Jersey City, he said, there’s plenty of parking, great restaurants at which to eat and fascinating, like-minded people with whom to socialize.
A year prior, he had lived in Elmhurst, Queens. The transition between the eastern outer borough of
New York and its western neighbor was almost like a slap in the face.
“It was a stark difference between the quality of life I had here and the quality of life there,” Gogate
said. “I had the conveniences that I could park my car, the waterfront was a short walk away and the PATH
train was a few blocks away. I had the best of both worlds: work in New York and live in a more relaxed
atmosphere.”
One could arguably presume that almost everyone who chooses to hang their hat in Jersey City cites
similar reasons for why they live here. Aside from the tangibles that Gogate mentioned, Downtown Jersey
City also attracts young, educated people with its vibrant cosmopolitan community.
“I just can relate to the people who live in Jersey City more than I can relate to the people who live in
New York,” Gogate added. “In New York, you just have Wall Street junkies or rich, tight-upper-lip people.
In Jersey City, it’s all the really nice, down-to-earth people.”
The people Gogate is referring to — young, smart, high-earning individuals like himself — are those
that comprise the “creative class,” a term coined in 2002 by economic development professor Richard
Florida in his book The Rise of the Creative Class. Ever since Florida — a New Jersey native who attended
Rutgers University — published his seminal work, the buzz that’s been generated in development circles
across the United States has gone unabated.
Universities offer courses relating to the economics of Florida’s ideas. The real estate industry has specifically targeted the creative class as a consumer base, and states and other government entities have also
hopped onto the bandwagon.
In 2003 in Michigan, Gov. Jennifer Granholm asked 200 of her mayors to come up with ideas on how
to foster a more hip environment. Cities like Columbus, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, Penn., have expressed interest in luring those people. Even task forces in small towns have been built to address the issue.
In Hudson County, however, the ‘rise of the creative class’ has not had the same experience.
PERSONAE NON GRATA
I
t happened first in Hoboken, in the late 1980s, when creative types and other professionals,
known collectively and derogatorily as ‘yuppies,’ discovered the cheaper rents and easy access to
Manhattan.
These people created an environment that transformed Hoboken from an undesirable, disenfranchised
industrial backwater into a thriving, desirable place. Rents skyrocketed. The market squeezed out the new
breed of creatives. Until prices dropped after the dot-com bust of April 2001, Hoboken was off limits to
those who couldn’t afford it.
The next alternative was Jersey City, a place that in the mid-1990s closely resembled Hoboken 15 years
earlier. Newcomers to the creative class found similar refuge in Jersey City’s affordable rents and easy access to New York.
As in Hoboken, a new kind of community emerged. Within the past 10 years, Downtown Jersey City
has seen a growing number of people one would usually associate with neighborhoods like Williamsburg,
Brooklyn, or the Lower East Side. For the most part, this community orbited around artists.
As this new community formed and began to grow in size and visibility, other creatives flocked to
Downtown Jersey City. The primary lure of Jersey City, of course, was the proximity to Manhattan and the
more affordable rents. But for those like Gogate, something intangible was undeniably at work— when
one had to decide on an outer borough in which to live, Jersey City didn’t look all that bad.
The effect of those decisions can be seen on a short walk around the Grove Street PATH station.
Clothing boutiques and trendy restaurants line the street. Lounges like L.I.T.M. and exhibition spaces like
Gallery 58 cater to an ever-increasing number of young creatives. Bands clamor to play at Uncle Joe’s
Bar.
And rents in Downtown Jersey City are inching towards those of Hoboken.
The gentrification process Jersey City is currently experiencing, however, differs from that of Hoboken in
one crucial way: the creatives are fighting back. The fight is being crystallized within the brick walls of 111
First Street, a 19th century industrial building that has served as an ad hoc arts center for the past 15 years.
CREATIVES FIGHT BACK
T
he building first came to be used by creatives in the late 1980s when its owner, the Manhattanbased New Gold Equities Corp., began subdividing the space and renting it out as artists’ studios.
Word caught on quickly. At its height, more than 150 artists from at least 15 countries worked there.
The community at 111 First Street served as the center of the universe for the creatives living downtown. The Jersey City Artists’ Studio Tour, an annual festival that ranks as one of the city’s most well attended events, was given life through 111 First Street.
Three-and-a-half years ago, however, things started to change. In December 2001, citing terrorism
and security concerns, New Gold Equities instituted a 10 p.m. curfew at the building. In September 2003,
New Gold Equities sent letters to tenants advising them of rent increases ranging from 50 to 150 percent.
In August, the company received permission to remove about 50 feet from the building’s historic smokestack. The company was also given the right to entirely demolish the vacant building it owned across the
street from 111 First St.
New Gold Equities has never publicly stated that it was trying to drive the artists from their studios.
Citing fire code violations and unsafe conditions, the company has said it was trying to reduce its liability
in the case of an emergency.
The number of artists who work at 111 First Street has dwindled from around 160 to about 70. Those
70, however, have banded together to maintain the building’s status as an arts center. Forming an organization named 111 ArtsFirst, the remaining artists have taken it upon themselves to create a non-profit arts
center on the site. Funding to purchase the building from New Gold needs to be secured, and the organization estimates that between $27 million and $40 million will be needed to accomplish the task.
“What we’ve been trying to do is put together a project to put together an arts district,” said Kevin
Mayer, an oil painter who has lived in Jersey City for four years. “A rather large, new non-profit arts center
with a lot of new different services for the community.”
Although the artists affiliated with 111 ArtsFirst continue to work toward their goal, some observers
CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
in city government don’t see much hope in the situation.
In an effort to aid the artists’ plight, the City
Council approved unanimously in late October the
designation of the area surrounding the 111 First
Street as the Powerhouse Arts District, a redevelopment area that is given special protection because
of its historic character. The designation would prevent the owner of the structure from demolishing it,
and any changes would have to be approved by the
city’s Historic Preservation Commission.
Although the City Council’s move — which an
attorney for New Gold Equities said in published
reports the company seeks to legally challenge —
suggests a sympathetic attitude toward the artists,
the city has emphatically made clear that its support will not extend to taking the building from New
Gold Equities through eminent domain.
A SOBERING PERSPECTIVE
M
any see it as a deadlock — a bitter stalemate between the interests of the community at large and the property rights of a private landowner. Experts in the real estate industry have said
that what’s transpiring now should have happened
five years ago, when real estate prices were lower
and waterfront landowners might have been more
willing to part with their assets.
But where most people see 111 First Street as an
inevitable battle between competing fundamental
interests, one Hudson real estate developer doesn’t
see a problem.
Dil Hoda, who along with business partner Jerry
Saddel purchased Hoboken’s Levelor Blinds Factory
in December 1990, transformed an outdated industrial building into a thriving arts center in the Mile
Square City’s western interior.
The building, which contains artists’ studios as
well as space for a variety of other cultural pursuits,
has virtually no vacancies. It is part of a larger, more
ambitious plan to create an arts center that includes
retail and market-rate residences as well as affordable lofts for artists and gallery space.
The motivation for buying the Levelor factory,
Hoda said, was because he and Saddel were looking for a real estate opportunity. Their investment of
time and money in creating an arts center, he said,
was not out of sheer concern for the cultural character of Hoboken. It was because they saw that there
was money to be made in doing it.
“It made economic sense to us,” Hoda said.
“That’s the fundamental issue that most folks miss.
There’s a problem and solution that people don’t
recognize. They don’t recognize the benefits of having the creative class.”
The modus operandi among developers in
Hudson’s waterfront communities, Hoda said, is
to build residential. Gleaming residential towers
in both Jersey City and Hoboken have been hugely
profitable in recent decades, and the common wisdom formed through that success persists in current
construction.
But if one were to look at real estate development
in the long-term, Hoda added, adopting a multi-faceted approach can yield even higher receipts.
“In the long-run, the creative class generates
wealth, not just for themselves, but also for the community,” he said. “There’s tremendous value to the
arts. City leaders should make an effort to preserve
that.
“If a place gets a reputation, everything surrounding an arts area grows,” he added. “Why do
you think a W Hotel comes to Hoboken and other hotels come to Jersey City? Why do you think
Hoboken gets corporate headquarters while Jersey
City gets back office operations? (Hoboken) is more
artsy, it’s more cultured. A lot of that has hollowed
out, but the perception is still there.”
Hoda’s way of thinking resembles closely what
Florida argues in his ‘creative class’ argument.
Thriving communities are built holistically through
the application of various models, and the underlying tenet is that these communities meet high standards of economic growth.
“Policy-makers need to be educated that you’re
not doing this out of the goodness of your heart,”
Hoda said, “There’s an economic reason. You have
to harness the natural forces to make something
work. The point is that greed is a powerful force.
You need to harness it.”
THE MEMPHIS MANIFESTO
The following principles were formed and adopted at the Memphis Manifesto Summit, a meeting of
creative professionals from 48 cities in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico in late April 2003. Hosted by
Richard Florida, the summit strived to create a set of guidelines by which communities can foster the
emergence of the creative class.
1.
Cultivate and reward creativity. Everyone is part of the value chain
of creativity. Creativity can happen at anytime, anywhere, and it’s
happening in your community right now. Pay attention.
2.
Invest in the creative ecosystem. The creative ecosystem can include arts
and culture, nightlife, the music scene, restaurants, artists and designers,
innovators, entrepreneurs, affordable spaces, lively neighborhoods,
spirituality, education, density, public spaces and third places.
3.
Embrace diversity. It gives birth to creativity, innovation and positive
economic impact. People of different backgrounds and experiences
contribute a diversity of ideas, expressions, talents and perspectives that
enrich communities. This is how ideas flourish and build vital communities.
4.
Nurture the creatives. Support the connectors. Collaborate to compete in
a new way and get everyone in the game.
5.
Value risk-taking. Convert a “no” climate into a “yes” climate. Invest in
opportunity-making, not just problem-solving. Tap into the creative talent,
technology and energy for your community. Challenge conventional
wisdom.
6.
Be authentic. Identify the value you add and focus on those assets where
you can be unique. Dare to be different, not simply the look-alike of another
community. Resist monoculture and homogeneity. Every community can
be the right community.
7.
Invest in and build on quality of place. While inherited features such as
climate, natural resources and population are important, other critical
features such as arts and culture, open and green spaces, vibrant
downtowns, and centers of learning can be built and strengthened. This
will make communities more competitive than ever because it will create
more opportunities than ever for ideas to have an impact.
8.
Remove barriers to creativity, such as mediocrity, intolerance,
disconnectedness, sprawl, poverty, bad schools, exclusivity, and social
and environmental degradation.
9.
Take responsibility for change in your community. Improvise. Make things
happen. Development is a “do it yourself” enterprise.
A BATTLE OF ‘GOOD VS. EVIL’
B
ut greed is precisely what many of the artists with 111 ArtsFirst say is the root of their
dilemma. When New Gold Equities raised the rent
on the studios, many artists complained that Lloyd
Goldman, principal of New Gold Equities and part
owner of the World Trade Center, didn’t need it to
offset costs or make improvements to the building.
In the popular consciousness of the Downtown
creative community, Goldman has acquired a reputation as a ruthless land speculator, someone who
will behave recklessly in order to turn a profit. An act
of arson at the building in November, currently under investigation by the Jersey City Fire Department,
has prompted some inhabitants to say they fear for
their lives.
Other unproved allegations, such as the presence of organized crime, have been whispered
across Downtown Jersey City.
The heightened enmity between the artists and
their landlord betrays a paradigm that, among other
things, defines profitable real estate development as
antithetical to the creation of a creative community.
Hoda, however, says the opposite is true.
“They are absolutely, 100 percent not mutually
exclusive,” he said. “That has to be recognized by
all the players in this triangle. If they work in unison,
it can be a win-win-win situation.”
One illustration of this is current real estate
prices in the area surrounding the Powerhouse Arts
District. Even while the nation is recovering from
economic recession, residential development continues. In one residential project under construction
near Exchange Place, located about five blocks from
111 First Street, two condo units were sold for $750
per square foot.
That price, according to a local real estate professional, is the highest yet ever paid for residential space
in the state of New Jersey. And the buyers weren’t investors looking to rent the space out for a premium,
either. They were a pair of couples from western New
Jersey who want to enjoy the amenities of New York
but not necessarily live in the city itself.
Florida’s theory states that the products of a
growing creative class — galleries, restaurants, bars,
theater, shopping, etc. — are what lures people to
those creative centers. A population will invest its
wealth in itself if given the opportunity to do so, and
all that needs to be done is clear the way for that to
happen.
“You’ve got to harness greed,” Hoda added.
“You have these natural forces and flows, and the
question is how do you streamline it to align with
everyone’s interests? Not only is it possible, but it
would be foolish not to do it.
“People who make money want to live amongst
creative people,” he added.
10. Ensure that every person, especially children, has the right to creativity. The
highest quality lifelong education is critical to developing and retaining
creative individuals as a resource for communities.
JC art community to be sold on
W
hen the city’s building department issued an emergency demolition permit to New Gold Equities,
the owner of 111 First Street, earlier this
month, the artists of 111 ArtsFirst spent
the day fighting it as best they could.
They first appeared in court to argue their
case and later trekked to City Hall to air their
concerns at a City Council meeting. After a
long day of running around, some artists understandably felt dispossesed and powerless.
At a late dinner at Wild Fusion on Grove
Street, an idea flourished: if neither New
Gold Equities nor the city wished to keep the
arts community in Downtown Jersey City,
why not sell it off to the highest bidder?
“We have something valuable here that
we built,” said oil painter and 111 ArtsFirst
member Kevin Mayer. “And that’s the people.
Why not just auction off that community?”
?
When asked about what the group has
planned if the worst-case scenario presents
itself, Mayer didn’t reveal any contingency
plan. Instead, a fighting attitude persisted.
t’s never too late until it’s over,” he said.
“I hope we don’t get dispersed, but
that will remain to be seen. The most important thing for us to maintain is the community
we built and realize this vision somewhere.
And we’ll go wherever it takes to do that.”
Some artists who have already left 111 First
Street have taken up studio space in various
neighborhoods across the city, and some insiders
look to the Lafayette section as the next up-andcoming arts district. Spacious studio lofts have
recently been made available at the TenMarc
Building, located at 430 Communipaw Avenue.
Cultural entrepreneurs across Hudson should
take note: you can be the proud owner of Jersey
City’s latest hot commodity to hit the market.
“I
diversions
Urban Alles
BY BEVIN BERMIINGHAM
hudson
weekly
crossword
Activism through stern, offensive gestures
In the early 1990s, my Girl Scout
troupe leader owned a Suburban.
This was the first of its kind I’d
ever noticed, and since it sat seven
people comfortably, it was the perfect
vehicle for someone who goes on a lot
of camping trips with a large pack of
screaming girls. Shortly after this, the
popularity of the SUV-turned-minivan
began and car companies started
building them bigger and bigger —
until they were practically short busses.
When an Expedition driving as
though it’s a Ferrari just narrowly edges
between my sports coupe and another
normal-size
vehicle, I wonder
what motivates
people to make
such purchases.
A family of four
does not need a
car that big, even
on the longest
of road trips. No smoothly paved
suburban landscape requires such
dexterity. Unless you’re navigating
the treacherous potholes of Jersey
City, you do not need the ability to
climb up the side of a mountain.
I’m not alone in my mistrust of
giant passenger vehicles. I recently
discovered a website dedicated to
putting Hummers in their place: www.
FUH2.com. For those disgruntled
by the polluting of the environment
from needless status-mobiles, FUH2.
com allows a place through which
to express disgust through photos.
Each post shows a gleeful nonHummer owner flipping off an
H2, the non-military version of the
Hummer that’s tricked out with
outrageous comforts such as $15,000
cushioned seats. Sometimes the
photos are simply a solitary finger
shadowing the gas guzzler in the
background. No matter what the
photo, the message is clear: we wish
to disrespect you as much as you
disrespect the world around you.
In a satirical, jovial way, of course.
Alongside the photos is text
reporting who took the picture,
where the offending H2 was found
and a pithy comment as to the
photographer’s H2 rage. A man
in Philadelphia enticed a group
of teens to help flip off a yellow
Hummer. Many shots are from gas
stations, which, as a traveler put it,
is the best place to spot a Hummer.
Another submission shows a toy
version of an H2, for status mongers
in training. The middle-finger in that
photo suggests that abortion may have
been a better choice. (I’m not sure
what exactly that’s supposed to mean,
but you can sense his rage, can’t you?)
My own submission is a photo
I took of my cousin, Soozie. I had
just told her about the website
and that afternoon we found an
H2 being raffled at the mall. She
climbed on top of the unattended
vehicle and we got a great shot.
My girlfriend was appalled when
I joined the campaign and began to
flip off every H2 that crossed my path.
“You’re just inviting road rage,” she
gravely warned. This coming from the
same woman who retaliates against
tailgaters by driving the same speed as
a tractor-trailer in the adjoining lane.
“But, essentially, he’s flipping us
off.” I explained about the ten to 13
miles per gallon they are rumored to
get. (Since Hummers weigh in at 8,500
pounds, their bulk exempts them from
federal fuel efficiency requirements).
There were other arguments including
one I’d lifted from FUH2, which is
that hundreds of thousands of our
loved ones are fighting to maintain
the “American” right to use gas
with such reckless abandon.
So I have adopted this crusade
of obscene hand gesture as
environmentalism. No, it’s not living
in a tree for three years to make a
point or even as altruistic as picking
up litter, but hey, it’s something.
And it makes a lot more sense
than commuting in a short bus.
Bevin Bermingham promises
that if she sees an H2 with a wreath
on the front she’ll put a sprig of
holly on her middle finger.
HUAH!
– Susan Edie,
an aspiring
actress from
Camarillo,
Calif., gives
an H2 the
good heaveho at the
Ventura Mall
in Ventura,
Calif. Photo
by Bevin Bermingham.
history lesson
DEC. 17
1791
In a stroke of engineering genius, the City of New York establishes
a traffic regulation that creates the first one-way street.
1969
Conspiracy theorists across the world are disappointed when the
U.S. Air Force closes its Project “Blue Book,” concluding that there
is no evidence of extraterrestrial spacecraft behind thousands
of UFO sightings.
1975
Charles Manson acolyte, college dropout and apparent guerilla
environmentalist Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme is sentenced to
life in prison for pointing an empty .45 Colt automatic pistol at
President Gerald Ford in Sacramento, Calif.
1998
Congressman Bob Livingston, R-Louisiana, admits that he
committed several “indiscretions” outside his marriage and
resigns his office. Livingston — one of the many loud Republican
voices that demanded President Clinton’s impeachment for his
affair with intern Monica Lewinsky — was about to be outed in
Hustler.
2002
Ubiquitous globalization icon and international fast-food chain
McDonald’s warns that it would report a $344 million loss in
the fourth quarter. The loss, the first in the company’s 47-year
history, followed a 2001 net income of $1.64 billion.
DEC. 18
1787
The beautiful and grotesquely underrated Garden State
becomes the third state to ratify the newly minted U.S.
Constitution.
1987
Ivan F. Boesky, a Detroit native whose ‘Greed is all right’ speech
prompted a monologue in the 1987 movie Wall Street, is
sentenced to three and a half years in prison for plotting Wall
Street’s biggest insider-trading scandal. Boesky, who turned
into a government informant after he was caught, made about
$200 million by betting on corporate takeovers.
1997
Saturday Night Live alumnus Chris Farley, 33, is found dead in
his Chicago apartment. Cause of death is listed as a cocaine
and heroine overdose, which was exacerbated by coronary
arteriosclerosis.
1999
After living atop a redwood tree in the marijuana heaven of
Humboldt County, Calif., for two years, Julia “Butterfly” Hill,
an environmental activist protesting the logging industry, comes
down.
DEC. 19
1776
Pinko liberal Thomas Paine publishes his first “American Crisis”
essay, which was intended to inspire colonists to keep up the
good fight against the British. Beginning with the line ‘These are
the times that try men’s souls,’ the Crisis essays were read aloud
to troops by George Washington himself.
1887
In a fight to end all fights, boxers Jake Kilrain and Jim Smith fight
bare-knuckled for 106 rounds, which came out to about 2
hours and 30 minutes. Ruled a draw, the fight was ended because
it was too dark to see what was going on.
1996
In what ended up being a highly controversial move, the Oakland,
Calif., school board votes to recognize Ebonics, or Black English.
The vote is later overturned.
1998
The House of Representatives impeach President Bill Clinton on
two charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Ho-hum.
DEC. 20
1994
White House security officers shoot and kill Marcelino Corniel, a
homeless man who had happened to brandish a knife near 1600
Pennsylvania Ave.
1999
Vermont’s Supreme Court rules that homosexual couples are
entitled to the same benefits and protections as wedded couples of
the opposite sex.
DEC. 21
1620
The strait-laced and entirely too-religious English pilgrims
aboard the “Mayflower” land at Plymouth Rock, Mass.
1948
Apparently as a result of some offensive behavior at a Canadian
hudson
weekly
Sex Talk
BY MISS KITTY
Frank advice from someone who’s seen it all.
Hello, all you sexy people and welcome to “Sex
Talk with Miss Kitty.” Every week, Miss Kitty will
answer any questions you may have about sex. Just
send your question to misskitty@hudsonweekly.
com and she will address your question — no
matter how dirty — with an open mind.
Dear Miss Kitty:
I was hanging with friends in a local bar
the other night and one guy was spitting
nails about his female boss and how she’s
breaking his balls. He said she needed some
“deep dicking.” Does this really work?
Curious in the Dead Presidents
Dear Curious,
There seems to be a male perception that
women who are bossy, strong-willed or tough
are that way because a manly, swaggering dude
hasn’t put them in their place with a pillowclenching snatch bang. Guys like your friend
think the only way to change this type of woman’s
treatment of men is to hump them until their
heads are banging against the headboard.
This misconception dates back to Shakespeare’s
“Taming of the Shrew,” where independent Kate
is finally tamed by macho bohunk Petruchio
when he breaks down her strong will. She allows
this to happen because she finally meets her
match, the man who allows her to be feminine
as long as she allows him his masculinity.
Shakespeare didn’t write that Petruchio gives
Kate a “deep-dicking.” Women don’t need a hard
bang to change their moods. Just be nice, give us a
fantastic orgasm and we’ll be purring in your arms.
I would go so far as to say that guys who bang hard
get fake orgasms from women who just want them
to stop the drilling. If we wanted pile drivers, we’d
buy vibrators that run on turbo and not C batteries.
Dear Miss Kitty: When I’m about to have
sex with a man, if he’s not well hung, I lose my
desire. Is there something wrong with me? Am
ReOdorant
I what my gay friends call a “size queen?”
Hung up in Paulus Hook
Dear Hung Up,
I’m always surprised when a woman describes
herself as a “size queen.” Gay guys do it, but that’s
because the dick is such a huge part of the gay
relationship (besides love and all that.) For women,
though, it’s a different story. Women’s boxes come
in all shapes and sizes. But for the most part, a
dick that’s more than five or six inches can feel like
someone’s shoving a living room couch in there.
The average six-incher is just about right for oral
sex, too. I mean, when they’re really, really big,
you can almost feel your jaw unhinge. That’s just
not sexy. Maybe you should try to concentrate
on the man and not his equipment. All dicks
are swell when they’re attached to swell guys.
Dear Miss Kitty: I had a date the other night
with a woman who had the most beautiful
breasts I have ever seen. Her nipples were
incredible, like two pink pencil erasers. But
no matter how much I licked them, I couldn’t
get a response out of her. It was as if they had
no sensitivity at all? What should I do?
Confused in Newport
Dear Confused,
I have always thought of the nipple-clitoris
connection as something as basic as “the hip
bone’s connected to the thigh bone…”, but it’s
just not the case. Not all women have responsive
nipples that get their juices flowing. Some women’s
nipples are so sensitive, one lick and they’re
moaning the guy’s name like he’s the last dude
on earth. But for others, you can suck, bite and
chew ‘em like a wad of Bazooka and all they do is
yawn in your face. All I can say is all women are
different. But if she’s not nipple-oriented, maybe
there’s another part of her body you can lick to
send her into orbit, like her neck or the back of
her ears. Just be like Columbus and explore!
diversions
abuela’s
catholic heresy*
BY ALBERTINA CRUZ
FOR THE WEEKS OF DEC. 17–DEC. 30
ARIES
LEO
Social events around the holidays will present
you with a chance to exaggerate details about either your social status, income, professional position or accomplishments. This influence strikes
hardest on Christmas Eve, and it would be wise
to avoid doing so. The urge to tell little white lies
depends entirely on how well you’ve been dealing with Saturn’s sobering transit through your
first house this month, but don’t falter. It will be
worth your while to remain honest, as the planet
of the love goddess trines your sun on Christmas
Day. Venus in this position puts integrity at a
premium, and people are bound to take notice
and respond positively. And don’t forget to take
as many pictures with friends and relatives as
you can; the love goddess conjoins the planet of
the sea god from Fri 24 to Mon 27, making those
pictures especially flattering.
From Fri 17 to Wed 29, the planet of the earth
god moves back to where he was at the time of
your birth, forcing you to come to terms with
a major life trend. As can be guessed from the
name, the earth god governs all things earthly— he is a taskmaster, making you painfully
aware of your mortal needs and desires. How
you pay your bills, how you live your life, etc.
This has been a breaking point, a decisive time
where it’s normal to start thinking about things
coming to an end. Youthful dreams, perhaps,
are finally cast off. But as this happens, your
future and the purpose that guides it come into
clearer focus. Trust your instinct and do what
you must. Although it seems chaotic, the universe conspires daily to teach you something.
Don’t ignore it.
TAURUS
The planet of the love goddess makes a quick
visit through your fifth house of friends and lovers from Wed 29 to Thurs 30, so don’t hesitate
to go out and enjoy the holiday season. You are
likely to sense competitive attitudes from the
people you meet at this time, but don’t write
them off. Stress from the holidays — and possibly old frictions with family members or other
close associates — that may have been stirred
will give you less patience to deal with new people, but the love goddess’ trine with your planet
of the air god in the third week of the month
adds the right amount of luck to any new endeavor. Pray, meditate, or do whatever you usually do to banish negativity that lingers around
you. It will pay off in more ways than one.
GEMINI
Delays and difficulties in business transactions, most likely dealing with real estate or
other property, have loomed at the forefront of
your mind this month. The winged-footed god
through your fourth house of possessions, at
odds with the love goddess squared with your
moon, keeps the universe from cooperating
with your goals. The effect of this influence is
that you feel deflated, as if you’re trying to roll
a heavy rock uphill. Do not, however, hibernate or cut off yourself off. The love goddess,
in trine with your planet of the war god, warns
you that this is not the time to be alone, and
exceptionally warm feelings from friends and
family will help ease your bruised ego. From
Sat 25 through Wed 29, you will be faced with a
situation in which you will be tempted to reveal
a secret. Don’t.
CANCER
You have recently been the recipient of many
compliments and good wishes, most notably on
Fri 17 when the sun trines with the planet of
the love goddess. Others find you attractive and
wish to express their affection, and you have
been more than willing to oblige. The stars make
this a perfect time to join organizations and attend meetings, and any new business that you
engage in will pay off handsomely in the future.
The smooth ride you are given in the first half of
the month, however, gets a little turbulence as
the month wears on. The love goddess opposes
the winged-footed god from Wed 29 through
Thu 30, causing miscommunications and disagreements with spouses, business partners or
travel companions. Don’t press any issues; just
ride the wave until it’s over.
VIRGO
This month has been very tense for you, and
your patience is spent. Imposing authority figures or ridiculous rules test your stamina from
Fri 17 to Wed 29, and there is some indication that you might have to return something
that was given to you. You will reach the point
where you are fed up, and as if that wasn’t
enough, you will find yourself embroiled in
a heated argument in another sphere of life.
If you had problems at work, you can expect
them at home, particularly with your spouse or
lover. The argument will be rooted in a clash
of principles or values, and your frayed nerves
will translate the discord into personal insult.
Aggression will develop, and the possibility for
injury from overexertion is strong. Don’t go
jogging to burn off the anger. You’ll probably
twist your ankle or have a fall. Don’t get cosmetic surgery, either.
SCORPIO
You’ve been blessed with extraordinary luck
this month, and it doesn’t seem to be going
anywhere. In work, in social circles, and even
in romantic liaisons, you have been given the
Midas touch. The planets of both the love goddess and the air god have been very active
from Fri 17 through Wed 29, making any and
all positive movement for you quite effortless.
The sun goes through your twelfth house of the
inner self from Fri 17 through Mon 20, making
it high time for you to analyze the roots of your
behavior. Delve deep into your subconscious
and explore what motivates you to act the way
you do. The time is right for you to either fix a
deep-seated problem or efficiently hone a skill
that proves to be beneficial. The sun sextiles
its own position at the time of your birth on
Thu 30, giving you a chance to feel even better about yourself. Some people really do have
all the luck.
SAGITTARIUS
You will find yourself at the center of attention
during the second half of this month, and there
has no better time to shake what your mama
gave ya. The sun sextiles the position of the
planet of the love goddess at the time of your
birth on Fri 17, giving you an exceptionally favorable appeal to superiors. That appeal, however, comes from what is most attractive about
you. The love goddess walks through your tenth
house of high ambition from Fri 24 through Tue
28, highlighting your beauty, a particular artistic talent you possess or your winning personal-
See HERESY— p. 15
Live!
On Tap Next Month:
THE OUTSIDE (1/8, Uncle Joe’s)
REBECCA HART (1/11, The Goldhawk)
SWISS AUTO CLUB (1/13, Maxwell’s)
on the Left Bank
ON THE PROWL (1/14, Uncle Joe’s)
hudson
weekly
DEC. 17 — DEC. 30, 2004
SURREY LANE (1/14, The Goldhawk)
ALL RATTLE AND DUST (1/15, Uncle Joe’s)
Amy Speace
The former Hoboke
nite
plays a trio show w
ith Rich
Feridun on guitars
and
Jagoda on drums.
The Goldhawk, 93
6 Park Ave.,
HOB. 420-7989. 8:30
p.m. Free.
JAN 5
wednesday
Sweet folk
friday
DEC. 17
YULE LOVE THIS
AT GRACE
Join the parish at Grace Church Van
Vorst at 6:30 p.m. for an evening of
tree trimming, old-fashioned caroling, and Christmas cheer.
Guests are encouraged to bring a
homemade ornament to hang on
our tree, as well as baked goods
or drinks if possible.
Families with children are welcome. For more information, call
222-6998.
DECONSTRUCTING CLICHÉ
‘HE & SHE’
AT PARK PLAYHOUSE
The Hudson Exploited Theater Company presents a night of theatre, food
and drink for their annual fund-raiser.
32nd Street Playhouse, 560 32nd St.,
Union City. 8 p.m. Call 617-9130 for more
information. $25 includes admission and
open beer and wine bar.
DEC. 18
NORTH POLE PHOTO-OP
TREE TRIMMING
saturday
saturday
DEC. 18
saturday
LAST MINUTE SHOPPING
PICTURES WITH SANTA
FURNITURE SALE
Families in JC & HOB will have a chance to get a photograph with old St. Nick in two events, both happening from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
In Jersey City, Santa will be available for free photos
at North Fork Bank, located on the corner of Jersey
and Newark avenues.
In Hoboken, he and his elves will be at DeBaun
Auditorium,located at the corner of Fifth and Hudson
streets. Parents can take their own photos at no cost
or get one taken by Santa’s Elves for $5. Proceeds
will benefit the Hoboken Shelter. All visitors also get a
special gift.
Victory Hall, 186 Grand St., Sale at 3
p.m., free. Party, $5 suggested donation.
See www.111first.org for more information.
saturday
DEC. 18
‘FUNNY’ IN SPANISH
ANTHONY KENNEDY
Half-Colombian and Half-British, Kennedy grew up around the world and is
fully bilingual. His “uncanny ability to
imitate people, create characters and
interpret life makes for a performer
who, combined with his high energy, is
both talented and exciting.”
Rascals on the Hudson, 360 Marin Blvd., JC. 9
p.m., $15. Call 217-8900 for more information.
DEC. 18
ProArts and the artists of 111
First Street will stage an art &
furniture sale to benefit the legal
defense fund of 111 ArtsFirst,
a non-profit organization that
strives to create an arts center
in Downtown Jersey City. A
party will follow after.
thursday
DEC. 23
HIPSTER CENTRAL
WORDS&MUSIC
Hosted by Middlepoet, Jersey City’s unofficial poet laureate, words&music is a weekly
event that features the lyrical stylings of local
favorites, traveling guests and brave attendants. “It’s all about poetry, music and mingling.” Hospitality by The Cannon and music
by DJs Lady J, Aqualung and Funkiejunkie.
The Waterbug Hotel Annex, 7 Erie St., JC. 10 p.m.1:30 a.m. See www.thewaterbughotel.com for more
information.
the
grid
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
Half-price martini night. 4-close.
Happy Hour. See left for specials.
HOBOKEN
3 FORTY GRILL
340 Sinatra Dr., 217-3406.
Happy Hour. See right for specials.
Happy Hour from 4-7; specials include $3 Miller Lite, Amstel Lite and
Yuengling drafts. $2 off martinis.
Brunch from 11:30 to 4.
BAHAMA MAMA’S
215 Wshngtn St., 217-1642.
BAJA
104 14th St., 653-0610.
935 Willow Ave., 653-2358.
BAR NONE
84 Wshngtn St., 420-1112.
Hip-hop, house and reggae every night, with DJ Brian Coxx spinning Thurs. – Sun. Ladies pay $2 for drinks and no cover until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays; reduced cover after 11. Validated parking available.
205 Wshngtn St., 656-5511.
of wings, $12.95
p.m. No cover.
Sports trivia.
THE CAGE
3 Newark St., 216-1766.
61 Sixth St., 795-4515.
DJ Jeff.
draft, 8-10.
$2 shots, 9-11.
drinks.
martinis.
Happy Hour 5-8.
9, no cover.
pop & hip-hop.
Brunch from 11 - 3.
DUFFY’S
DIPPER’S
616 Wshngtn St., 386-9464.
FARSIDE BAR & GRILL
531 Wshngtn St., 963-7677.
Rotating drink specials. Call for
more information.
400 Adams St., 217-1400.
GOLDHAWK LOUNGE
936 Park Avenue., 420-7989.
Coronas, 5-10.
70 Hudson St., 386-5600.
Happy Hour 5-8.
Yuengling. DJ.
HOBSON’S CHOICE
77 Hudson Pl., 420-0070.
spins.
DJ Frank spins.
LIBERTY BAR & GRILL
61-63 14th St., 222-6322.
at bar.
$10 party platters.
25¢ wings.
DJ Frank spins.
basketball.
LOUISE & JERRY’S
prizes awarded.
MADISON BAR & GRILL
1316 Wshngtn St., 386-0300.
MAXWELL’S
1039 Wshngtn St., 798-0406.
Samuel Smith lager or stout
for $3.75. Cuervo Gold for $4,
Cuervo 1800 for $5.
Boddington’s pub can for $3.50.
All flavors of Bacardi rum, $4.
& under.
Dixie beer, $3. Jack Daniels, $4.
Bud, Bud Light and Rolling Rock
for $2.50. Southern Comfort, $4.
Corona and Presidente, $3.
Margaritas, $5.
Guiness, $3.50. Jameson, $4.
Yuengling, $2.50. Absolut
vodka, all flavors, $4.
drinks all night.
1034 Willow Ave., 798-5650.
MCSWIGGAN’S
110 First St., 798-6700.
Coors & 24 wings.
221 Wshngtn St., 420-0222.
ODDFELLOWS REST
80 River St., 656-9009.
& Amstel drafts.
O’DONOGHUE’S
205 First St., 798-5595.
Fridays’s and Saturday’s- Live Entertainment- Check
out www.odonoghues.com for schedule
O’NIEAL’S
343 Park Ave., 653-1492.
Happy Hour 5-8.
$1 off everything.
Brunch 11-3, $13.95.
Brunch. $14.95.
else.
2-for-1 martinis.
Pitcher and Wing Specials,
“Pong Night”
Pitcher and Wing Specials, Pool,
Ping Pong
glass w/ purchase.
Dart League, $2.00 Bud Lt. and
Michelob Lt.
Drafts
Pool League, $3.00 Bud, Bud
Lt., Micelob
Ultra Bottles
1/2 Price Martini’s, “Industry
Night”-bring
your bar card for draft and shot
specials
drinks, all night.
performs. No cover.
PLANET HOBOKEN
16-18 Hudson Pl., 653-6888.
ROGO’S
734 Willow Ave., 217-1512.
martinis $4.
drinks, DJ.
drafts & wings.
RUE DE JARDIN
734 Willow Ave., 217-1512.
SHANNON LOUNGE
106 First St., 656-9820.
SKYBAR LOUNGE
96 River St., 656-7731.
SULLIVAN’S
600 Wshngtn St., 420-9849.
everything.
See BACK PAGE
arts
& entertainment
a r t s @ h u d s o n w e e k l y. c o m
In the pursuit of ‘fabulous’
BY HW STAFF
Downtown Jersey City cultural entrepreneur creates community at Erie Street hair salon
E
rie Street resident Carla Anderson, 44, remembers the exact moment when she was
turned on to hairdressing.
About 20 years ago, she had been working as a
bartender and felt like she needed a serious career
change. On an exploratory visit with her aunt to
Kean College in Union, Anderson spotted a cosmetology school across the street. She went in, took a
deep breath and knew it was for her.
“The reason I did it was because beauty school
smelled just like art class,” Anderson said last
week at Balance, her Downtown Jersey City salon.
“What I liked about art class was that I was able to
make things with my hands. Doing hair was just
like that.”
Since then, Anderson has been through numerous jobs in the world of hair. She first worked at
an African-American salon in Plainfield, and then
moved on to doing hair replacement in Teaneck.
She finally ended up as a stylist in Hoboken, where
she worked for 10 years.
ot since that day at beauty school in Union
has Anderson’s craft been so closely tied
to art. That is, of course, until Anderson met the
artists of 111 First Street.
At the suggestion of Lex Leonard, a Jersey City
resident who runs an art collective in Downtown
Jersey City called The Waterbug Hotel, Anderson
participated in an event a few years ago at Uncle
Joe’s Bar on First Street. Billed as a performance
artist, Anderson began cutting attendants’ hair at a
salon-style booth installed in the bar’s courtyard.
The experience energized her. “It gave me a
new life with the hairdressing,” she said.
That new life was incubated through Balance,
the salon Anderson runs with her landlord on the
ground floor of the building she lives in, practically
five steps from Jersey City Police headquarters.
Open since October 2003, the salon offers haircuts, treatments and styling for both women and
men.
he space, however, serves more as a neighborhood hangout than it does a usual salon.
Anderson has packed what would be considered
a full week of cultural programming at Balance,
ranging from an open mic on Saturdays to yoga
classes on Monday nights.
Her calendar sometimes features opening receptions for the art that hangs on her walls, and
Karina, a neighborhood psychic, gives readings
on Saturdays. She even played host last Sunday
to neighborhood resident Theresa Rivezzo, a selfdescribed “bohemian-Christian hippie” who gave
animal massages in the salon’s back courtyard.
When asked about how she came to staging
these events at Balance, Anderson just shrugged
and chalked it up to nature.
“It’s my personality,” she said. “It couldn’t have
been any other way.”
The friends that Anderson made in Downtown
Jersey City’s art scene have fueled Balance’s reputation as a meeting-ground for like-minded individuals. She recalled a time when, before the salon
even finished construction, neighborhood friends
N
A WELCOME SPACE — Jersey City resident Theresa Rivezzo (above) greets Baby Girl on Saturday, Dec. 11, for an animal massage in the salon’s back courtyard. Below, the interior of Balance creates
a warm, inviting space that features art and craftwork by local artists. Some of Balance’s staff, at bottom,
from left-right: Chayyah Brooks, Gladys Ramos, Carla Anderson and Jun Sanders.
T
BALANCE
WHERE: 18 ERIE STREET, JC,
369-0700.
WEB: www.balancehair.com
PRICES: Haircuts for women
are $60 and up; men are
$40 and up. Color services
are $70 and up. Waxing and
make-up services available.
40% off with junior sylist on
Saturday or by appointment
after 6:30 p.m.
8
Live!
13
Art
14
Theater
12
Food
15
Music
would hang outside for something to do.
Now that the salon is open, it’s abuzz with artists, friends and just everyday neighbors. Anderson
recalled an instance when a local artist came in
and sat down behind a stylist and sketched the
haircut that was in progress.
The space itself reflects how well connected
Anderson is in the Downtown community. Bjorn
Riise, a local painter, painted the sky on the salon’s
ceiling and designed the entire interior of the space.
Another friend, light sculptor Norm Francoeur, has
one of his pieces on permanent display. Designer
Elen Sviland made the lamps that are positioned
near the stations.
It’s my personality. It couldn’t
have been any other way.
While the activity has been enough to keep Anderson very occupied with her business, she admits
that Balance’s high stature in the community hasn’t
yet translated into sales.
“We’re not that busy, but we’re very popular,”
she said. “I haven’t had this many friends since I
was 10.”
The warmth Anderson exudes shows itself during a typical day at Balance, where the door is always opening and closing with people dropping
by. Some are there for haircuts and some aren’t.
And even though Anderson is first and foremost a
businesswoman, she doesn’t mind that her salon
isn’t drowning in appointments.
e’re sitting here patiently,” she said.
“We do fabulous hair here. It’s a very
friendly atmosphere. We’re not even trying. We’re
just doing our own thing.”
The staff Anderson has gathered reflects that
laissez-faire sensibility. The salon’s receptionist,
Jun Sanders, 33, is part of the band Astrojet. One
of the stylists working at Balance is a woman Anderson refers to as Kati “Fabulous,” a shortening of
an unwieldy Hungarian surname. Trained at Tony
& Guy in London, Kati is described by Anderson as
“rock star edgy.”
Also on staff is Gladys Ramos, a Jersey City
Heights resident who previously ran a shop in
Hoboken called The Cutting Lounge for eight
years. Alison Nelson, 21, was trained at Vidal Sassoon while Lorimar Hernandez, 25, serves as a junior stylist. The newest addition to Anderson’s staff
is Chayyah Brooks, 26, a Park Slope native who
specializes in African-American hair.
nderson’s criteria in selecting her staff, she
said, was so that it is as diverse as the community it serves. Like her cultural programming,
Anderson wants there to be something for everyone at Balance. And although neighborhood types
in need of a haircut haven’t yet discovered Balance, Anderson said she and her friends will keep
doing what they do.
“Look at us,” she added. “We’re all on commission here. We should be miserable. But we’re all
doing our own thing.”
“W
A
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AMERICAN
HOBOKEN
AMANDA’S, 908 Washington St., 798-0101.
BRASS RAIL, 135 Washington St., 659-7074.
COMPANY, 86 Garden St., 798-7600.
CITY BISTRO, 56 14th St., 963-8200.
FRANKIE & JOHNNIE’S, 163 14th St., 659-6202.
LIBERTY GRILL, 61 14th St., 222-6322.
LEO’S GRANDEZVOUS, 200 Grand St., 659-9467.
MADISON GRILL, 1316 Wash. St., 386-0300.
ODDFELLOWS REST, 80 River St., 656-9009.
SPA RESTAURANT, 74 Hudson St., 653-6617.
TEXAS ARIZONA, 76 River St., 420-0304.
THREE-A’S, 500 Grand St., 217-1650.
THREE FORTY GRILL, 340 Sinatra Dr., 217-3406.
JERSEY CITY
COMFORT BISTRO, 295 Grove St., 200-1320.
DORRIAN’S, 555 Washington Blvd., 626-6660.
FATBURGER, 286 Washington Blvd., 332-2244.
4 FIFTY 5, 455 Washington Blvd., 798-1114.
KITCHEN CAFÉ, 60 Sussex St., 332-1010.
LIBERTY HOUSE, 82 Audrey Zapp Dr., 395-0300.
LIGHT HORSE, 199 Wash. Blvd., 946-2028.
MARCO & PEPE, 289 Grove St., 860-9688.
ODDEFLLOWS, 111 Montgomery St., 433-6999.
SOUTH CITY GRILL, 70 Pavonia Ave., 610-9225.
UNO CHICAGO, 286 Washington Blvd., 395-9500.
VU, 2 Exchange Place, JC, 469-4650.
CAFÉ
HOBOKEN
CAFE ELYSIAN, 1001 Washington St., 659-9110.
FAVIA LITE CAFÉ, 208 Washington St., 217-1999.
FROZEN MONKEY, 526 Washington St., 222-1311.
PITA GRILL, 324 Washington St., 217-9777.
SINATRA PARK CAFE, 525 Sinatra Dr., 420-9900.
WATERWAY CAFÉ, 1 Hudson Place, 216-9788.
WOLFGANG PUCK, 100 Sinatra Dr., 876-8600.
JERSEY CITY
BAKER BOYS, 270 Newark Ave., 876-0100.
BASIC, 231 Eighth St., 656-5900.
COSI, 545 Washington Blvd., 963-0533.
GROUND, 530 Jersey Ave., 985-0400.
MAHOGANY, 467 Communipaw Ave., 332-2474.
NEW HAM. PARK PIZZA, 357 7th St., 798-9539.
RIA’S, 24 Mercer St., 915-0045.
CARIBBEAN/LATIN
HOBOKEN
CUCHARAMAM, 233 Clinton St., 420-1700.
LA ISLA, 104 Washington St., 659-8197.
ZAFRA KITCHEN, 301 Willow Ave., 610-9801.
JERSEY CITY
HARD GROVE CAFE, 319 Grove St., 451-1853.
MR. GUSTO, 175 Newark Ave., 860-9540.
NICOLE’S, 521 Jersey Ave., 433-8443.
CHINESE
[email protected]
JERSEY CITY
COLONETTE, 405 Rt. 440, 432-8222.
FLAMINGO, 31 Montgomery St., 434-6769.
MISS AMERICA, 322 West Side Ave., 333-5468.
VIP DINER, 175 Sip Ave., 792-1400.
DELIS
HOBOKEN
LUCA BRASI’S, 100 Park Ave., 217-6879.
JERSEY CITY
LOMBARDI’S, 269 Newark Ave., 239-9222.
MILANO’S, 41 Montgomery St., 434-0126.
DINERS
HOBOKEN
JOHNNY ROCKETS, 134 Wash. St., 659-2620.
MIDTOWN DINER, 538 Wash. St., 656-2257.
MALIBU DINER, 259 14th St., 656-1595.
BY HW STAFF
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NORTH BERGEN
Bergen, 864-8600.
FRENCH
HOBOKEN
RUE DE JARDIN, 343 Garden St., 222-2177.
JERSEY CITY
CASABLANCA, [Moroccan] 354 Grove St., 420-4072.
MADAME CLAUDE , 364½ Fourth St., 876-8800.
GERMAN
HELMER’S, 1036 Washington St., 963-3333.
ITALIAN
HOBOKEN
ANIELLO’S, 1319 Washington St., 217-6800.
DAVINCI, 411 Washington St., 659-2141.
DENO’S, 732 Jefferson St., 222-2660.
GERRINO’S, 96 River St., 656-7731.
IL CANTUCCIO, 518 Washington St., 420-4447.
LA SCALA, 159 14th St., 963-0884.
LA TARTUSERIA, 1405 Grand St., 792-2300.
NICCO’S, 247 Washington St., 332-8433.
PICCOLO ROMA, 120 Washington St., 876-9088.
PORTOFINO, 700 Clinton Ave., 659-2002.
TUTTA PASTA, 200 Washington St., 792-9102.
JERSEY CITY
BERTUCCI’S, 560 Washington Blvd., 222-8088.
CASA DANTE, 737 Newark Ave., 795-2750.
PRESTO’S, 199 Warren St., 433-6639.
PRONTO CENA, 87 Sussex St., 435-0004.
NICCO’S, 247 Washington Blvd., JC, 332-8433.
PUCCINI’S, 1064 West Side Ave., 432-4111.
RITA & JOE’S, 142 Broadway, 451-3606.
SCENT OF ITALY, 345 Grove St., 413-9775.
INDIAN
HOBOKEN
INDIA ON THE HUDSON, 1210 Wash. St., 222-0101.
KARMA CAFÉ, 505 Washington St., 610-0900.
SAFFRON, 338 Bloomfield Ave., 222-3373.
JERSEY CITY
CAFÉ SPICE, 537 Washington Blvd., 533-0111.
JAPANESE
HOBOKEN
ASIA SUSHI, 926 Washington St., 792-9660.
ISTANA SUSHI, 936 Washington St., 656-9877.
ROBONGI JAPAN, 520 Washington St., 222-8388.
SUSHI HOUSE, 155 First St., 656-7788.
SUSHI LOUNGE, 200 Hudson St., 386-1117.
YAMA SUSHI, 205 Hudson St., 222-2800.
WARM SMILES — Doris Martin, a friend of Tina Marie’s owner Anna Perna, is one of the hostesses at the inexpensive
Downtown restaurant at the corner of Grove and Grand streets.
F
or almost 20 years, the space at the
corner of Grand and Grove streets
served as a quick Spanish food stand for people in a hurry.
It was a no-frills deal, catering mainly to
the local Hispanic population that lived or
worked in the area.
But when Scotch Plains resident Anna
Perna saw a ‘for rent’ sign in the window a
little over two years ago, she saw the potential for something far greater. A funds manager
for a financial printing firm, Perna had always
dreamed of opening a restaurant. She had her
big chance.
The result is Tina Marie’s, a small, comfortable restaurant serving a cuisine that can
at best be called Jersey City fusion, incorporating Spanish, Caribbean, Mediterranean and
American influences into one menu. There are
empanadas and potato balls, beef and chicken
stews, tapas like chorizo with onion and roasted pepper and entrees like grilled salmon.
JERSEY CITY
HOBOKEN
SATAY, 99 Washington St., 386-8688.
MEXICAN
HOBOKEN
BAJA, 104 14th St., 653-0610.
CHARRITO’S, 121 Washington St., 418-8600.
EAST L.A., 508 Washington St., 798-0052.
EL BARRIO BURRITOS, 89 Washington St., 963-8686.
MISION BURRITOS, 209 Fourth St., 795-0619.
QDOBA, 400 Washington St., 386-8974.
JERSEY CITY
BAJA, 117 Montgomery St., 915-0062.
OLÉ, 564 Washington Blvd., 626-6646.
MIDDLE EASTERN
HOBOKEN
ALI BABA, 912 Washington St., 653-5319.
TINA MARIE’S
WHERE: 236 GROVE STREET, JC, 4353800.
PRICES: Lunch ranges from $1 to
$7.50. Dinner entrees range from
$7.95 to $14.95. Free delivery from
11 a.m. to 5 pm. with $10 minimum.
All the dishes, according to hostess Doris
Martin, are done in a signature style, each reflecting the tastes and sensibilities of the cooking staff.
side from Perna, the other cooks
in the kitchen include an Irishman
named Liam and Bebe, the cook who worked
at the restaurant when it was the old Spanish
food stand. Bebe has had more than 17 years
to perfect her culinary skills, and she produces
attractive dishes packed high with an aromatic
and enticing helping of rice and beans.
Perna, Martin said, likes adding personal
touches to various dishes, including dicing the
A
PICCOLO’S , 92 Clinton St., 653-0564.
IBBY’S FALAFEL, 303 Grove St., 432-2400.
SHADMAN [Pakistani], 293 Grove St., 200-0333.
PIZZA
JERSEY CITY
GRAND BANKS, 75 Montgomery St., 521-1800.
FRONT PAGE CHINESE, 1120 Wash. St., 653-5676. KOMEGASHI, 103 Montgomery St., 433-4567.
HOBOKEN COTTAGE, 516 Wash. St., 798-6788. KOMEGASHI TOO, 99 Pavonia Ave, 533-8888.
OFF THE WALL, 512 Washington St., 798-6078. SUSHI TANGO, 516 Jersey Ave., 332-8300.
RICE SHOP, 304 Washington St., 798-8382.
MALAYSIAN
BIG CHEF, 515 Jersey Ave., 309-0259.
CHINA EMPIRE, 99 Greene St., 451-3888.
CONFUCIUS, 538 Washington Blvd., 386-8898.
D&J GARDEN, 342 Grove St., 451-1960.
GREAT WALL, 281 Monmouth St., 433-1388.
Hudson-style fusion
COACH HOUSE, 921 Kennedy Blvd., North
HOBOKEN
JERSEY CITY
FOOD
Call restaurant for hours or for
more information.
HOBOKEN
AUGUSTINO’S, 1104 Washington St., 420-0104.
BENNY TUDINO’S, 622 Washington St., 792-4132.
FILIPPO’S, 406 Washington St., 798-8210.
GRANDE PIZZA, 400 Newark St., 459-6070.
GRIMALDI’S, 133 Clinton St., 792-0800.
MARGHERITA’S, 740 Washington St., 222-2400.
MARIO’S, 742 Garden St., 659-0808.
MEDITERRANEAN GRILLE, 38 Hudson Pl., 222-2848.
MELINA’S, 534 Adams St., 963-3111.
SEVENTH STAR, 342 Garden St., 653-7204.
JERSEY CITY
CARMINE’S, 102 Brunswick St., 386-8777.
HELEN’S, 183 Newark Ave., 435-1507.
STELLA’S, 315 Grove St., 435-4650.
TELLY’S, 101 Greene St., 432-0012.
3 BOYS FROM ITALY, 415 Monmouth St., 795-5427.
PORTUGUESE
JERSEY CITY
LISBON, 256 Warren St., 432-9222.
SEAFOOD
BIGGIE’S, 318 Madison St., 656-2161.
LES BISOUS, 333 Washington St., 795-1104.
SPANISH
HOBOKEN
PUERTO SPAIN, 116 14th St., 420-7008.
VALÉ, 832 Washington St., 653-2000.
JERSEY CITY
YULY’S PLACE, 45 Coles St., 222-9544.
TAVERNS
chorizo instead of presenting it as just your
standard slice.
What really sets Tina Marie’s apart, however, is the quality of the food at the prices it
is offered. Lunch tapas sell for as low as $1. A
lunch dish of rice and beans with a chicken
leg and thigh is $5.50. For dinner, large potato
balls with sautéed spinach are under $7.
The main dining area is a converted grocery store where work by local artists hang on
the walls, and the warm, dimly-lit rose-colored walls create a soothing environment for
anyone wishing to come in from the cold and
have something warm to eat.
During warmer seasons, outside table service is available both on the sidewalk and in a
back courtyard. Tina Marie’s also does corporate catering and private parties, and the dining room is available for rental. The restaurant
doesn’t yet have a liquor license, but Martin
said that guests are invited to bring their own
bottles of wine to dinner.
WILLIE McBRIDE’S, 616 Grand St., 610-1522.
ZACK’S, 232 Willow Ave., 653-7770.
JERSEY CITY
COLES ST. PUB, 174 Coles St., 656-9240.
GOLDEN CICADA, 195 Grand St., 432-0048.
HAM. PARK ALE HOUSE, 708 Jersey Ave., 659-9111.
LAMP POST GRILL, 382 Second St., 222-1331.
THE MERCHANT, 279 Grove St., 200-0202.
P.J. RYAN’S, 172 First St., 239-9911.
ROSIE RADIGAN’S, 10 Exchange Pl., 451-5566.
WHITE STAR, 230 Brunswick St., 653-9234.
POLISH
HOBOKEN
BAR AT 10TH AND WILLOW, 935 Willow Ave.,
653-2358.
BLACK BEAR GRILL, 205 Washington St., 656-5511.
BUSKER’S GRILL, 94 Bloomfield St., 604-1380.
COURT ST. REST., 61 Sixth St., 795-4515.
DUFFY’S, 239 Bloomfield St., 963-5512.
FARSIDE GRILL, 531 Washington St., 963-7677.
GASLIGHT, 400 Adams St., 217-1400.
GREEN ROCK GRILL, 70 Hudson St., 386-5600.
HOBSON’S, 77 Hudson Pl., 420-0070.
MADISON GRILL, 1316 Washington St., 386-0300.
MAXWELL’S, 1039 Washington St., 798-0406.
MILE SQUARE, 221 Washington St., 420-0222.
ONIEAL’S, 343 Park Ave., 653-1492.
ROGO’S, 734 Willow Ave., 217-1512.
SULLIVAN’S, 600 Washington St., 420-9849.
TED AND JO’S, 219 11th St., 222-6670.
JERSEY CITY
TANIA’S, 348 Grove St., 451-6189.
THAI
HOBOKEN
BANGKOK CITY, 335 Washington St., 792-6613.
CASUAL THAI, 1006 Washington St., 656-6108.
SRI THAI, 234 Bloomfield St., 798-4822.
T THAI, 102 Hudson St., 386-1522.
JERSEY CITY
SIAM, 62 Morris St., 433-7034.
VIETNAMESE
JERSEY CITY
SAIGON CAFÉ, 188 Newark Ave., 332-8711.
NHA TRANG PLACE, 249 Newark Ave., 239-1988.
arts&entertainment
gallery
listings
information.
ART
Elektra complex
BY HW STAFF
hw The female form takes center stage in group show
pick
A
OPENINGS & EVENTS
BALLET & BREAD FRUIT (PICTURED ABOVE)
Ria’s Café, 24 Mercer St., JC. 915-0045. Free.
Caribbean life is the subject of a series of photographs by Christopher Lane and
John Cadenhead , on display through Jan. 31 at Ria’s Café in Downtown Jersey City.
Cadenhead’s close-ups of food used in Caribbean cooking focus on the “beauty of nature
we take for granted” while Lane’s photographs of life in Havana offer a rare glimpse at
Cuban culture, which seems as if it is
frozen in time. An opening reception
will be held on Fri., Dec. 17 from 6
to 9 p.m. The restaurant is open 7
days a week.
MARK FINNE (RIGHT)
Balance, 18 Erie St., JC. 3697000. Free.
You’ll need to use a pair of 3-D
glasses, provided at the gallery, to
fully view this series of paintings by
the New York-based Finne’s travels
through the Americas. Finne, a painter
as well as a photographer, uses both
color and form — and wordplay on
the paintings’ titles — to challenge
viewers’ perceptions of what they see
in the world around them.
ONGOING
TRAVEL JOURNALS BY ANDRZEJ
LECH
John W. Meagher Rotunda Gallery, City Hall, 280 Grove St., JC. 547-4333.
Free.
Lech, a Hudson-based photographer , shows a series of photographs taken on his journeys
through the tri-state area and Europe in this exhibit, which will be on display through
Dec. 30. Opening reception will be held on Thurs., Dec. 9 from 6 to 8 p.m. Visit www.
andrzejlech.com for more information. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 8 pm., Mondays through
Fridays and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
INNER EQUATIONS: LORENZO CLAYTON & GEORGE SIDEBOTHAM
Jersey City Museum, 350 Montgomery St., JC. 413-0303. $10 general
admission.
This exhibit, organized by the Center for Latino Studies at Rutgers University, aims at
displaying the work of artists of color who live or work in New Jersey. Clayton, a Native
American artist living in Edgewater, collaborates with Cooper-Hewitt engineering professor
Sidebotham for an installation piece that features two mural-sized chalkboards with equations that refer to particular experiences. Through Dec. 23.
JERSEY(NEW)
admission.
This exhibit features 20 works by 18 New Jersey-based artists from various racial and ethnic
backgrounds. Emphasizing issues of identity that permeate through the state’s communities,
jersey(new) addresses both the personal and universal in literal and conceptual methods.
Through Jan. 9.
1X1
admission.
In the museum’s ongoing 1X1 series, one work by one artist is featured in an unexpected
place to expand the role of the museum as a contemporary arts institution. This
installment’s pieces are “Trappings” by Tiffany Ludwig and Renee Piechocki (Through Dec.
23) and “Conversations III” by Raphael Zollinger (Through Dec. 23).
rtists have been painting the nude female form for almost as long
as civilization itself.
Prehistoric peoples carved women from stone. Ancient Greek sculptors shaped them in marble. European painters from all eras have consistently used them as models.
Yet, despite all the exposure, graphic depictions of female humans
still manage to rile people up.
“A picture of a naked woman always gets people’s attention,” said
Richard Bednarczyk, a former Hudson resident and painter.
The word ‘attention’ would be an understatement in describing the
reaction to some of Bednarczyk’s work, which is hanging as part of
the ‘Elektra Complex’ exhibit at L.I.T.M., a Downtown Jersey City bar.
Curated by bar proprietor Jelynne Jardiniano, ‘Elektra Complex’ features
paintings from four local artists that focus primarily on the female body.
Bednarczyk, 27, contributed six paintings to the show, five of which
were done this year. All of them show women
in various poses and stages of dress. Some are
ELEKTRA
more physically explicit than others, but each is
COMPLEX
loaded with an undeniable sense of eroticism.
INCLUDING: Valery
ne painting shows two nude women,
Sorokin, Richard
one straddling the other from behind.
Bednarczyk, Janyne
The foremost woman’s labia are pulled apart Golia and Kate
as if in presentation to the viewer. From a
Hester-Lent.
distance, the painting’s composition lures
AT: L.I.T.M., 140
viewers’ eyes to explore what’s at work, only Newark Ave., JC.
to be shocked at the unabashed exhibition- WHEN: Through Dec. 30
ism on display.
Bednarczyk confessed this week that his
subjects were anonymous models lifted from pornographic Internet
sites and then inserted into arbitrary environments. His reason for
choosing such prurient source material, however, wasn’t for gratuitous reasons.
O
I’m trying to communicate something to
people about who I am.
“I’ll pick a subject matter that’s a little risqué but engages the viewer,”
he said. “The intent is to make viewers aware of what they’re looking
at. It’s not (for) shock, but self-awareness.”
And Bednarczyk does so through both content and form. Working in
oil, he colors the flesh and places highlight and shadow so that the image
reads smoothly from a distance. But on closer inspection, his brusque,
textured strokes betray a more frenetic, critical energy at work.
The other paintings on display, however, are not so objective in nature. A series of paintings by Cliffside Park resident Janyne Golia, 24,
show a level of introspection unsurpassed by the other works.
Made with acrylic on Masonite board, a series of four paintings show
non-descript women with distorted bodies in washes of gray and blue.
A melancholy tone persists throughout.
olia, a Cuban-American artist, said she doesn’t begin painting
with a specific idea in mind. After she completes her images,
though, a clear message is identifiable.
“Looking at them afterwards, I saw that it was me being very self-conscious about my own body,” she said, “and it’s something that I’ve always had. Even as a little child, I’ve always drawn and painted women.
It was me trying to get an understanding of what’s acceptable to me.”
Golia said her paintings are begun and executed in a short time. Her
process, she said, is one of catharsis, and it serves to help her express
what she otherwise couldn’t.
“I’m trying to communicate something to people about who I am,”
she said. “The things I don’t usually show. It’s the things I don’t like to
shout out about myself.”
Paintings by Hamilton Park resident Valery Sorokin eschew the personal and are more cerebral in intent. Sorokin, a Russian-born artist
who was schooled in Montréal, Canada, said his work is about expressing the sense of bondage or inertia that women are so often confronted
by.
“Everyone’s bound,” he said. “They’re stuck…There’s always some
unseen submission or domination.”
FORMAL DIFFERENCES — Janyne Golia’s “Blush”
(above) takes a markedly different approach at representing the female form than Richard Bednarczyk’s “I was looking back to see if you were looking back at me to see me
looking back at you” (below).
G
arts&entertainment
curtain
calls
HOBOKEN
_gaia
66 Willow Ave., 386-0486.
gaiastudio.org.
www.hextc.org.
865-1436.
hudsonshakespeare.org.
[email protected]
JERSEY CITY
Attic Ensemble
83 Wayne St., 413-9200.
atticensemble.org.
360 Marin Blvd., 217-8900.
CONTINUED FROM P.5
dinner-party, the state of Eire declares
its independence from its king and forms a
new Republic.
1988
Libyan terrorists blow up Pan Am Flight
103, en route from Heathrow Airport in
London to JFK Airport in New York, over
Lockerbie, Scotland. 270 people, including
189 Americans, are killed in the U.S.’s
second-worst terror attack.
DEC. 22
1864
President Abraham Lincoln receives the
largest Christmas gift in history from
Union Gen. William T. Sherman. With the
Civil War in full swing, Sherman sends
Lincoln a note from Georgia that read: ‘I
beg to present you as a Christmas gift the
city of Savannah.’
1961
Tennessee resident James Thomas Davis is
killed in action in Vietnam, the first U.S.
soldier to die in the armed conflict. U.S.
involvement in the war at the time was still
limited to the provision of military advisers.
1984
New York City resident and subway
vigilante Bernhard Goetz shoots four black
youths on an express train into Manhattan
from the Bronx. Goetz, who said at a civic
meeting that the only way to clean up his
neighborhood was to get rid of the “niggers
and spics” that live there, claimed they
were about to rob him.
DEC. 23
1888
Following a little sissy fight with the
shameless Orientalist Paul Gauguin, Dutch
painter Vincent Van Gogh — patron saint
to tortured art history majors everywhere
— cuts off part of his own earlobe.
1997
A Denver, Colo., jury convicts Terry
Nichols on charges of conspiracy and
involuntary manslaughter in the 1995
bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal
building in Oklahoma City, Okla.
DEC. 24
1814
The War of 1812 between the U.S. and
Britain — which was caused by the British
blockading America’s ports and inciting
the Native Americans to rise against
the colonists — ends with the signing of
the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium.
1865
In Pulaski, Tenn., several Confederate Army
veterans found a private, little social club
called the Ku Klux Klan. They sure don’t
sit around playing canasta.
hw One-act explores emptiness, tragedy of American Dream
pick
www.jerseycitydanceacademy.com
Kismet Theatre Co.
1 Marineview Plaza, 7921082.
720 Monroe St., 795-3767.
BY HW STAFF
J.C. Dance Academy
107 West Side Ave., 435-8943.
Kennedy Dancers
79 Central Ave., 659-2190.
Mile Square Theater
Box 6190, 07030. (646) 2716557.
City life redux
Hudson Rep. Dance Theater
140 MLK Drive, 432-5534.
377-7014.
hudsontheatreensemble.com.
THEATER & DANCE
Schola Cantorum on the
Hudson
(973) 698-6927.
Tempest Productions
(800) 475-5633.
FEAR & LOATHING IN HOBOKEN — John Sudol and Nicole Morin perform in He and She, a one-act play by
Adrian Rodriguez staged earlier this year at the DeBaun Center for the Performing Arts.
1997
“Carlos the Jackal,” the international
terrorist known to his mommy as Ilich
Ramirez Sanchez, is sentenced by a French
court to life in prison for the 1975
murders of two French investigators and a
Lebanese national.
DEC. 25
800
In a Rome ceremony officiated by Pope
Leo III that was neither grand nor royal,
Charlemagne is crowned the leader of
an entity that was neither Holy, nor Roman,
nor an Empire.
1223
Sparking a centuries-long tradition of bad
civic displays and saccharine school
productions, St. Francis of Assisi puts
together one of the first Nativity scenes in
Greccio, Italy.
1776
Hessian forces helping the British get a
surprise visit in Trenton, N.J., from
American Gen. George Washington and his
troops, who crossed the Delaware River
under cloak of night.
1979
Afghanistan is invaded by the U.S.S.R. to
halt civil war and protect Soviet interests.
The U.S. gives Saudi trust fund baby
and terrorist Osama Bin Laden guns
and money to help drive away the
Russians.
1989
Fleeing from an anti-communist
revolution, ousted Romanian president
Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena,
are tried in a kangaroo military tribunal.
As they faced their sentence of death
by firing squad, they began singing
“L’Internationale,” a famous Socialist song.
They are shot after uttering the fourth
word.
DEC. 26
1776
Looks like Washington’s surprise attack a
day earlier worked. The British suffer a
major defeat in the Battle of Trenton.
1947
The Northeast United States is inundated
with heavy snow. New York gets less
than 25.8 inches of snow in 16 hours,
and about 80 deaths are attributed to the
white, fluffy stuff.
1959
On Icknield Way, one of the oldest roads
in Britain that dates back to pre-Roman
times, the first charity walk takes place.
The recipient of the charity walk is the
World Refugee Fund.
T
he life led by many young and
single professional people on the
waterfront has often been the subject of
scorn and fear.
We’ve all heard it before: you live
alone in a high-rise, wake up early,
commute to New York, work long hours,
commute home, work out, eat dinner, go
to bed, get up and do it all over again.
It’s a model of living everyone on
the waterfront knows all too well, either
through experience or direct contact.
While some scoff at the impersonality of
it, others accept it as a necessary travail
on the way to a high-paying job, a family
and a nice home in the suburbs.
It’s part of the American Dream, we
think, so somehow it must be all good.
B
ut in He and She, a new play to
be staged this weekend at the
32nd Street Playhouse in Union City for an
event benefitting the Hudson Exploited
Theater Company, that kind of life is most
emphatically not “all good.”
Written this year by Hudson native
Adrian Rodriguez, He and She is a
short, 25-minute play that focuses on a
romantic encounter at a bar between a
nameless man and woman. The meeting
is innocuous – even promising – at first,
but soon degenerates into a meditation
on misplaced priorities and urban ennui.
“As the play proceeds, it turns into
HE AND SHE
DIREECTED BY: Arian Blanco
STARRING: Mikaela Kafka and
Osborn Focht
WHERE: 32nd Street Playhouse at
the Park Theater, 560 32nd Street,
Union City
WHEN; Saturday, Dec. 18, 8 p.m.
PRICE: $25 (includes open bar,
tapas, and dessert).
“It was written in their voice,” Blanco
said. “Knowing these two people,
(Rodriguez) wrote it in their voice.”
A
lthough the event at which the play
will be staged is a holiday party
doubling as an annual fund-raiser for the
non-profit theater troupe, He and She is filled
throughout by a disturbingly dark tone.
a courtship that goes awry,” said Arian
Blanco, the play’s director and founding
president of HExTC. “It’s a courtship that
ends before it even really began.”
“It’s very tragic,” Blanco said. “It’s
dark. It’s a critique on anonymity and
cliché. It’s ‘he’ and ‘she,’ meeting in the
most cliché way.”
He and She was first staged at
Hoboken’s DeBaun Auditorium for the
Performing Arts in April of this year for
its Evening of One Acts series. Starring
John Sudol and Nicole Morin (pictured
above), the play is set on a bare stage
with only a table, an ever-increasing
number of beer bottles and two surprise
props at the end of the tale.
“(Rodriguez) really packed in some
interesting insights and some disturbing
behavior,” Blanco
added, “and he
wraps it up in a great deal of humor.”
It’s a critique on
anonymity and cliché.
For its production at the 32nd Street
Playhouse, located within the historic
Park Playhouse at 32nd Street and
Central Avenue in Union City, He and
She will feature the two actors that
Rodriguez originally had in mind when
he wrote the piece: Hoboken-based
husband-and-wife Mikaela Kafka and
Osborn Focht.
Blanco is particularly excited about
producing the play at the 32nd Street
Playhouse, which is a small, black-box
theater located on the upper floors of the Park
Playhouse Complex. The intimacy afforded
by such a performance space should magnify
the effect of the play, he said.
Tickets for the event are $25, which
includes an open beer and wine bar,
tapas and three hours of music. The bar
will be open prior to the performance
from 7 to 8 p.m., and then afterward
from 9 to midnight.
Portions of the ticket are taxdeductible. See www.hextc.org for
more information.
arts&entertainment
set
list
Friday, December 17
SPIRALING • FAIRMONT • THE
FINALS • THE MINUS SCALE
653-1703.
Show begins at 9 p.m. $7. 18+.
Saturday, December 18
BALANCE OPEN MIC
Balance Hair Salon, 18 Erie St., JC, 3697000.
Show begins at 2 p.m. Free.
KAREN DAVIS
See music preview opposite.
Subia’s Organic Food Market, 506 Jersey
Ave., JC, 432-7639.
Show begins at 2:30 p.m. Free.
BILL MCGARVEY & THE GOOD
THIEVES
The Goldhawk, 936 Park Ave., HOB, 4207989.
Sunday, December 19
TANG • THE MISERY LOVES •
FLY ME COURAGEOUS • BERN
653-1703.
To celebrate both the holidays and the
birthday of ArtKore arts coordinator Ivy,
Bern, Fly Me Courageous, The Misery
Loves and TANG rile up the crowd.
Show begins at 7 p.m. $5.18+.
Tuesday, December 21
LANKY • NOBA
MUSIC
[email protected]
The Goldhawk, 936 Park Ave., HOB, 4207989.
Show begins with Lanky at 9 p.m. Free.
Telling bloody tales
hw
pick
BY HW STAFF
Paulus Hook musician reflects on her musical journey
CLUELESS • JINNY KO
Rue de Jardin, 343 Garden St., HOB, 2222177.
The Cliffside Park-based trio continues
their Wednesday night residency with
a performance of “melodic, acoustic
(music) with a Celtic/Middle Easternbent.”
WORDS&MUSIC
Rolon’s Keyhole Bar, 7 Erie St., JC, 6531703.
Show begins at 8:30 p.m. $6.18+.
COSMIC A • SPECIAL GUESTS
653-1703.
Show begins at 9 p.m. $6.18+.
CLUELESS • SABINA
Rue de Jardin, 343 Garden St., HOB,
222-2177.
EVELYN HOPE • SUITOF
LIGHTS • JOHN CONNOR
653-1703.
HERESY — continued from p. 7
ity. The planet of the winged-footed god also travels through your tenth house From Fri
17 through Mon 27, indicating either a presentation or public speech.
CAPRICORN
Energies are swirling around you this month, and there is a strong possibility that you
will make some long-term changes to your life. The planet of the war god goes through
your eighth house of transformation from Fri 17 through Wed 22, giving you a heightened level of intensity with which to approach your life. Highlighted areas include sex
and money. The tint, however, is slightly negative. If you’re dissatisfied with your sex
life or financial situation, you may be tempted to make a change. From Fri 17 through
Wed 29, the planet of the earth god opposes the position of the planet of the love goddess at the time of your birth, creating an extremely difficult time for marriages and
financial partnerships. In the same two-week period, the planet of the air god squares
the position of the earth god at the time of your birth. This will tempt you to forego
your own mature judgment, and the circumstances can connote adultery or some kind
of betrayal. Do yourself a favor and don’t go down that primrose path.
AQUARIUS
The main sentiment that’s been running through your head in previous months is that
you just want to be left alone. You have things to do and you’d rather just get them
done yourself. You have no patience for the stupidity of others and the needless obstacles they create. But the planets of both the war god and the love goddess run
through your seventh house of partnerships from Fri 17 through Thu 30, teaching you
that interacting with others can work considerably in your favor. Disagreements will
be resolved and much progress will be made to meet your goals. At the same time,
however, the war god toys with you by squaring the position of the planet of the love
goddess at the time of your birth. This makes cooperative efforts seem successful and
desirable, but the war god will make them run roughly. It will pass. Don’t be lax in making new friends and alliances.
PISCES
Three major transits are highlighted in your chart for the second half of this month, all
involving different planets through different houses. The planet of the war god makes a
brief stop through your sixth house of work and community From Fri 17 to Sat 18, highlighting a surge of energy that can either help you out or slow you down. Your health is
also highlighted at this point, and you should take care of a medical issue as soon as it’s
raised. The planet of the sea god stays in your ninth house of beliefs and philosophies
from Fri 17 through Wed 29, suggesting a sense of confusion or disillusionment with
long-held beliefs that contribute to your perception of an orderly universe. Travel on or
over water may take on dangerous aspects. Finally, the sun travels through your seventh house of domestic partnerships from Tue 21 through Sat 25, indicating that you
will be made aware of your own role in the relationships at home. Note the discrepancy
between the person you’ve behaved like and the person you want to be. If your ego has
been out of control, check it.
MORE AGGRO THAN THOU — Karen Davis enhcants audiences with energetic playing of acoustic rock, both original
material and selected covers..
It’s been a rough few years for singersongwriter Karen Davis.
Life, taking her for a ride on its proverbial roller coaster, has thrown sweet success
and bitter disappointment at her, often simultaneously. Her former band Boomslang
made two records in the last three years,
one completed smoothly and the other —
well, not so much.
She found a particularly gratifying
groove with her Boomslang bandmates,
brothers John and Kevin Hummel. They
were astounding musicians whose presence
made her want to be better at her own art,
she said, and the flawlessness of their playing reminded her of why she loved being a
musician. Davis went as far as getting romantically involved with bassist Kevin.
Despite all the positive energy that existed when the three played together, personal and business differences tore the band
apart. Davis is now playing solo again and
getting back to her previous routine.
But the experience, she said, wasn’t a
total loss. It challenged her as an artist and
as a human being, and she has grown from
it in both respects.
“It was all very interesting and all very
tiring,” Davis said, “but I’m a lot saner now
that I’m working on my own.”
Davis, who is scheduled to play three
shows in Downtown Jersey City in January,
is working on making a record of cover
songs. Her reason for the cover album is
simple and to the point, and she has no
qualms about the fact that she’s doing it as a
means to an end.
“You make money playing covers,”
Davis said. “One of my goals is to make
more money gigging, and covers is the best
way of getting them.”
One favorite she is considering working on is Roberta Flack’s “The First Time
KAREN DAVIS
WHERE: Subia’s Food Market, 506
Jersey Ave., JC. 432-7639.
WHEN: Saturday, Dec. 18 at 2:30
p.m. Free.
Ever I Saw Your Face.” Another that she is
particularly excited about is her version of
Led Zeppelin’s “The Rain Song.” And she’s
not forgetting to include standards like Otis
Redding’s “The Dock of the Bay.”
Some people don’t
expect to hear songs
about murder and
alienation in a cute
little joint on a Sunday
afternoon.
While her live shows undoubtedly include some of her own material, she said
that there are many songs that she doesn’t
play very often. Her reason for that, she
said, is that audiences don’t often appreciate material that’s too dark, and it’s hard to
find songs in her oeuvre that don’t touch
upon darkness in one way or another.
“The songs seem to faze people in not
so great a way,” she said. “I mean they like
it, but you know, I think that some people
don’t expect to hear songs about murder and alienation in a cute little joint on
a Sunday afternoon. It doesn’t bother me,
but it messes some of your fainter-hearted
folks up.”
For instance, on Bloody Tales from
the Suburbs, Davis’ 2002 release with
Boomslang, “Won’t Shed A Tear” is described by Davis as a pro-death penalty
rant. “Butterfly Kiss” is a song about bad in-
terracial dating. “Alone,” a song about children who are born unwanted, is particularly
dark by Davis’ own standards and is not one
she plays much.
Her songwriting, however, comes from
experience and her own deep personal
convictions, and there’s always an amusing story behind what would otherwise be
perceived as depressing stuff. And what is
perhaps most important about her work is
that the songs’ dark tones are tempered by
Davis’ very energetic musicianship.
Throughout her career, Davis has evaded
classification. Seeing a black woman with a
guitar, which most people perceive as a rarity in the music world, prompts most people to associate Davis with Tracy Chapman.
Davis cringes at the comparison.
She’s been called the ‘Queen of AntiFolk.’ Then there was ‘Aggro-Acoustic
Rock.’ Although Davis says she doesn’t find
the terms offensive, they are somewhat limiting to her as an artist.
“I know it’s necessary to come up with a
‘label’ as you’re trying to promote your music,” Davis said. “The way I think about it is
‘don’t worry about it.’
And instead of focusing on a way to
market herself, Davis is committed to growing as a musician and songwriter. Aside
from her cover record, Davis is writing
songs for a project she has tentatively titled
“Bandwhore.”
“There’s no bitterness there,” Davis said
with a smile. “Certainly not.”
On Fri., Jan. 7, Davis will play at a film
screening at Grace Church Van Vorst, located at the corner of Second and Erie streets.
The show begins at 8 p.m.
On Sat. Jan. 15, Davis will play do a repeat show at Subia’s Organic Food Market,
located at 506 Jersey Ave. That show is
scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m.
Services
Employment
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Auto
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classifieds
Deadlines:
PHONE: (201) 892–3553
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FRIDAY
SUSHI LOUNGE
200 Hudson St., 386-1117.
TONIC
1300 Park Ave., 653-2583.
SATURDAY
lounge house.
DJ.
WHISKEY BAR
125 Wshngtn St., 963-3400.
Midnight Madness.
Cosmo Night.
WILLIE MCBRIDE’S
616 Gr& St., 610-1522.
available.
drafts.
Auto
SUNDAY
Rentals
MONDAY
mojitos 6-midnite.
TUESDAY
spins house.
WEDNESDAY
Real Estate
THURSDAY
DJ Ralph.
Music & Bar Night.
Pint Night.
Buckets.
meeting.
drafts.
JERSEY CITY
4FIFTY5
455 Wshngtn Blvd., 798-1114.
BAJA
margaritas.
DORRIAN’S
555 Wshngtn Blvd., 626-6660.
Apple martinis.
239 Marin Blvd., 761-0000.
708 Jersey Ave., 659-9111.
IRON MONKEY
97 Greene St., 435-5756.
382 Second St., 222-1331.
well drinks.
domestic bottles.
Power Hour. $2 house shots, $2 well drinks from 11-midnite.
Karaoke on Saturdays with DJ Homie at 10, no cover.
NFL Ticket. Basket of wings or nachos with a beer pitcher;
domestic $10 and import $12.
$1 off all 12 oz. bottled beer.
Martini drink list.
LIGHT HORSE TAVERN
199 Wshngtn Blvd., 946-2028.
LITM
140 Newark Ave., 536-5557.
$2 domestic drafts and $3
imported drafts.
Karaoke with DJ Homie at
10, no cover. Rotating drink
specials.
Happy Hour every day from 4-7; $3 domestic and imported beer, $4 red & white wine and $5 house martinis. Rainy Day Special: When the rain is falling, a domestic beer + a house shot is $5, house martinis are also $5. A tapas menu is also
available every day but Sunday.
MARCO & PEPE
289 Grove St., 860-9688.
Astrological readings by Joe.
$20.
MERCER & BARROW
292 Barrow St., 946-1411.
drink specials.
THE MERCHANT
279 Grove St., 200-0202.
ODDFELLOWS REST
Hour 10-midnite.
Brunch from 11-3
& shot specials.
10-midnite.
select martinis.
Happy Hour 4-7.
Special.
featured pints.
freebie.
$5 food menu.
P.J. RYAN’S
172 First St., 239-9911.
SAND BAR
11 Marin Blvd., 714-5000.
UNCLE JOE’S BAR
154 First St., 659-6999.
WHITE STAR
230 Brunswick St., 653-9234.
Stuck in the 80s Night. Happy
Hour 11-6. $3 drafts, $4 well.
Brunch from 11-4.
hour. No cover.
$10 beer buckets.
2-for-1 martinis.
PROTEST THE INAUGURATION. GET DRUNK. P. 4.
hudson weekly
VOL. 1, NO. 3 >> JAN. 14—27, 2005
INSIDE:
Live!
When funk punks
have nothing better
to do with their time.
p. 8.
Art:
And you thought
this lady was crazy,
Pshaw! p. 12.
R
A W
E
E
Y R
E
I
V
IN
Music:
Some people are just
too much for words.
Set List, p.10.
News
Tenants at 111 First
Street throw in the
towel. p. 3.
It sure as
hell was
a crazy
year.
p. 5
hudson
weekly
JAN. 14 — JAN. 27, 2004
contents
newsweekly.
cover story
YEAR IN REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
From corrupt politicians and heinous sculptures to Bayonne
haters and seemingly ubiquitous homosexuals. 2004 was a
landmark year for Hudson County, and its events betray a trend
that, some might say, is headed straight downward. But hey! We
don’t buy a word of it.
By HW Staff
HOW DO I LOOK? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
What Hoboken artist Laura Alexander said first attracted her to homeless city resident Olivia was her energy, flaming red hair and ostentatious wardrobe. And for our pleasure, Alexander has captured Olivia
in all her glory.... on a 3’x5’ stretch of canvas.
The cover: Illustration by HW Staff
departments
LETTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
OPINIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
NEWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
A&E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
CLASSIFIEDS . . . . . . . . . . . 16
news
Weekly Digest . . . . . . . . . . 3
It was a long, hard fight, but the artists
of 111 First Street, recently re-incarnated as the members of 111 ArtsFirst,
have reluctantly decided — by a vote
of about 50-20 — to give up their fight
against their landlord. What very well
could have been a triumph for public
involvement in urban policy has gone
up in smoke. What happened and
what will they do now?
City Budgets. . . . . . . . . . . . X
Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
Public Power . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Various citizen groups from HOB,
JC and UC are out for green.
Open Governments . . . . . X
Trenton Takes . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Endorse Dean? Not yet.
Letter from X . . . . . . . . . . . X
You mean that empty lot isn’t going to be made into condos?
Gossip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
Bull Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Power outage? Not really.
By HW Staff.
Alerts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Get off your lazy ass already!
By HW Staff.
diversions
Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Urban Alles . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Genital mutilation saves the world.
Sex Talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
calendar
Boys doing very suggestive things.
Music. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Things to hear.
Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
What’s going on.
Gallery Listings . . . . . . . . . 12
Wallflowers.
Curtain Calls . . . . . . . . . . 13
Bit Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
reviews.
•Movie Clock (p.14)
My guy’s a nose-sucker. Help!
By Miss Kitty.
History Lesson . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Serial killers. American presidents.
rates to be paid at Jersey City, NJ. POSTMAS-
ReOdorant . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
By Albertina Cruz.
ERRATA
Vol. 1, No. 1 — Dec. 03, 2004
1. The word for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah appears nine times and with
three different spellings in the issue’s 12 pages. While there are three generally
accepted spellings of the word in the English language (Hanukkah, Chanukkah
and Hanuka), the Associated Press dictates that ‘Hanukkah’ is the correct
spelling for American journalism. Hudson Weekly regrets the one instance of
“Hanukah” and the six instances of “Hannukah.”
2. On the Table of Contents, located on page two, a cover story headline
neglected to mention that the term “God, Guns, Gays & Grizzlies” was
a term coined by New York Times Op-Ed columnist Nicholas D. Kristof in early
November 2004. We are almost sure that neither Kristof nor the Times gives
a rat’s ass about our usage of the phrase, but we just thought it would be the
right thing to do.
3. On page three, a byline for an anonymous government employee
incorrectly used the abbreviation “govt.” This was in direct contravention to
the AP’s rule that “government is always lower-case and never abbreviate(d).”
Hudson Weekly regrets the error, or at least tries to make it seem so.
4. In our History Lesson on page five, we neglected to center the “1934” on
that entry for Dec. 5.
5. In Live! On the Left Bank on page six, a short tag line for the Red Ribbon
Holiday Concert was incorrectly spelled. The proper spelling is “excelsis,” not
“exelcis.”
6. In our Gallery Listings on page nine, the date of a Slide Night featuring John
Jodzio was omitted.
7. A page nine caption for a photograph illustrating a preview of Victory Hall’s
Second Annual Art Auction sported two periods. This is in direct violation of a
grammar rule — in various languages across the globe — that one period is
sufficient to end a sentence.
8. A page ten caption for a photograph illustrating the “Caven Point” film
incorrectly spelled the name of the artistic director for the Jersey City-based
Kennedy Dancers. Her name is Diane Dragone, not “Diane Dragon.”
9. A page 11 headline for Yo La Tengo’s Hanukkah shows incorrectly capitalized
the word “Gentiles.” Defined as “generally, any person not a Jew; often,
specifically a Christian. But to Mormons it is anyone not a Mormon,” the word
is always in lower-case.
Vol. 1, No. 2 — Dec. 17, 2004
1. Due to an overabundance of caipirinha and a poorly planned trans–Atlantic
flight, distribution of Hudson Weekly was delayed until Dec. 31, a full day
after the two-week time period the issue covered.
2. On the front page, the headline for “The Great Hudson County Creative
Class Squeeze” teased readers to page five for the beginning of the story. The
text, which discerning readers quickly figured out, began on page four.
3. On page four, the cover story mentions New Gold Equities principal Lloyd
Goldman before he is fully introduced later in the story. For those
left scratching their heads, Hudson Weekly lies prostrate for the temporary
confusion.
4. “aAnd rents in Downtown Jersey City are inching towards those in
Hoboken.” Ahem.
5. In the headline for Urban Alles on page six, a comma between the words
“stern” and “offensive” was omitted.
6. A teaser for the ProArts furniture sale on page eight was missing a
period. See the No. 7 Errata item above for more information.
7. In a Gallery Listing for “Ballet & Bread Fruit” on page 13, the word “of” in the
third line appears as a solitary “f.”
8. An Errata for the 1st issue was found nowhere in the 2nd issue’s 16 pages.
TER: Send address changes to HUDSON WEEK©2004 by Brownboy Media LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use without permission
a&e
Film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Turn on, tune in and drop acid.
By HW Staff.
Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
A transsexual catches a painter’s
eye — and camera.
By HW Staff.
Theater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
The reality-show craze hits theatre.
By HW Staff.
Music. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
County. Not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or art.
Hero Pattern rescue rock in HOB.
Food . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
N.J. gets its first Restaurant Week!
2 • JAN. 14 — JAN. 27, 2005 • Hudson Weekly • www.hudsonweekly.com
news
weekly
digest
5
City Budgets
3
Public Power
4
Alerts
5
Development
Watch
5
Gossip
4
Bull Market
XX
Education
XX
Around City Hall
XX
Open
Governments
XX
Letter from
Union City
XX
Miscellany
hudson
weekly
JAN. 14 – JAN. 27, 2005
GOT A TIP?
(201) 892-3553
or email:
[email protected]
In JC, David falls to Goliath
BY HW STAFF
Lack of financial resources causes 111 First Street tenants to give up fight
T
he halls of 111 First Street
are eerily quiet these days.
Studios lie vacant with open
doors, makeshift shelves holding nothing and dividers separating empty spaces. The postings
and flyers that once adorned the
sprawling hallways of the 19th
century tobacco factory are nowhere to be found. In one artist’s
studio on the second floor, packed
boxes are piled up near the door.
The building, which was not
too long ago one of the most vibrant
arts center in the state, is practically
a ghost town. And on March 1, it
will be completely empty.
The 70 tenants that had arduously fought for the past several
months to keep the building as
an arts center have failed in their
quest. On Jan. 3, before Superior
Court Judge Frederick Theemling,
they agreed to vacate the building in exchange if their landlord, the New York-based New
Gold Equities, forgive accumulated rent charges and pay about
$35,000 in legal bills.
The reason for the capitulation, according to Bill Rodwell,
president of the 111 First Street
Tenants Association, was because the artists had exhausted
their resources.
“We came to the agreement
because, according to our lawyers, we had another two court
dates after the one on Jan. 3, and
each one of them would have
entailed heavy costs,” Rodwell
said. ”We were already spending
ten to twelve thousand dollars a
week on lawyers. We just didn’t
have it.”
“It’s the destruction
of culture via the
economic chess
board.
The artists, however, put up
a considerable fight to keep their
studios. They banded together
and formed a defense and advocacy coalition. They formulated
a plan to transform the building
into a premiere non-profit arts
center with gallery space and educational components. Titled 111
ArtsFirst, the project was fleshed
out and packaged to city leaders
and community members.
They reached out to the community for help and advice. They
spoke with Simeon Bruner, an
architect who was instrumental
in transforming an abandoned
industrial complex in North
Adams, Mass., into the acclaimed
Massachusetts
Museum
of
Contemporary
Art. They were
establishing a relationship
with
Bank of America,
whose representatives, the artists
said, were receptive to the idea
of financing part
of the group’s vision. A Hobokenbased real estate
developer even
offered to donate some cash
to serve as seed
THE WRITING’S ON THE… DOOR — The words “Until March 1st!” were added
money for the to the studio door of artist Rebecca Goyette (left) after Jan. 3. A sign on the studio door of
Tyrone Thomas betrays popular sentiment among the tenants.
project.
But the effort,
as Herculean as it was, fell short.
ministration has said in previous
between the artists and the city. If
Financial and emotional exhausmedia reports that it would not be
they were more successfully able
tion took its toll, and the artists
able to commit the city’s dollars to convey the project’s viability —
took a vote. Fifty of the remaintoward acquiring the building, and the many expert opinions that
ing 70 tenants voted to give up
even under the city’s power of supported the claim — to the city
the fight.
eminent domain.
government, he said, municipal
“It just got to be overwhelmAn artist close to the process,
powerbrokers may have helped
ing until we had no choice but to however, was less accusatory in them in their crusade.
give up,” Rodwell said. “We ran
his assessment of what happened.
“We laid this golden egg, this
out of steam.”
Artist
Shandor
Lafcadio
artists’ community, and a breakMost artists point to Mayor
Hassan, a tenant at the building down in communication just
Jerramiah Healy’s laissez-faire
for six years, attributed the deteri- stepped on it,” Hassan said. “It’s
attitude toward the situation as
oration of the 111 ArtsFirst project the destruction of culture via the
a final death knell. Healy’s adto a severe lack of communication economic chess board.”
Keeping green in the urban jungle
BY HW STAFF
Citizen groups convene en masse to preserve open space in HOB
O
pen space — or, rather, the extreme lack
thereof — was the main issue in Hoboken’s City Council
chambers Wednesday night as
angry protesters and other local residents packed the small
room to watch the zoning board
hear arguments for an application to build a residential
tower in Hoboken’s Northwest
Redevelopment Zone.
Holding signs that proclaimed
“Master Plan, Master Sham,”
protesters from various interest
groups arrived to testify how the
proposed real estate development at 900 Monroe St., undertaken by the URSA Development
Group, would negatively impact
their communities.
The developers wish to
construct a 12-story residential tower on the site, which is
currently zoned as industrial
with a structure height limit of
four stories. The city’s master
plan indicates the site, nestled
at the foot of the Palisades and
adjacent to the Hudson-Bergen
Light Rail Line, should be preserved as open space. The developers are applying for a variance to build higher than the
current 80-foot restriction.
Citing, among other things,
the city’s dearth of parks and
open space, Hoboken residents
opposed to the project say the
land should be made into a
park. Residents of buildings situated on the cliff in both Jersey
City and Union City say the
building will lower their property values by obscuring their
panoramic views of Manhattan
and the Hudson River.
The developers, through
testimony to the zoning board
from expert planners, have said
that the site’s location near the
light rail station make it a prime
space for residential units.
According to an advocacy
group called HobokenParks.
org, Hoboken’s rate of park
acreage per 1,000 residents,
which they estimate to be at
.78, is considerably lower
than the national average of
6.25 to 10.5. The Mile Square
City’s rate is even lower than
its neighbor across the Hudson,
which has 2.5 acres of parkland
for every thousand residents.
Instead of a residential tower, the group has proposed an
active park that includes jungle
gyms, an indoor recreation center, tennis courts and a regulation-sized soccer field.
The group has also proposed
two other parks on currently
vacant land: a 10-acre one located near the city’s northern
extremity at 1600 Park Ave.
and the other near the intersection of Paterson Plank Road and
Observer Highway.
According to the organization’s web site, the land’s zoning
designation is critical to its proposed future transformation. As is,
the buildings are zoned industrial.
If that were to change, the consequences would be disastrous.
“Once the master plan’s
(proposed) new zoning is put
into place, these parcels will be
zoned I-T, which permits highrise residential,” the site says. “If
these parcels are rezoned, their
acquisition will be impossibly
expensive and perhaps out of
reach forever.”
Open space, however, isn’t
the only concern. Other issues raised by objectors to 900
Monroe St. include traffic congestion, sewerage and other
utility overloads, market saturation and a decrease in the
Illustration of proposed Midtown West
general quality of life.
park courtesy of HobokenParks.org.
www. hudsonweekly.com • Hudson Weekly • JAN. 14 — JAN. 27, 2005 • 3
weekly
digest
n e w s @ h u d s o n w e e k l y. c o m
No vacancy?
Goldman Sachs: We mean to
keep those floors empty… Honest!
S
cenario: Let’s say you’re
driving on the Turnpike
heading back into town.
You’re bumper-to-bumper on
the Casciano Memorial Bridge,
waiting for the moment when
you can pass the long line of cars
that are backing up traffic as they
wait to get into Bayonne.
You gleefully pass them and
bear left, up the ramp that will
take you northwards to Exit 14C.
You are faced with the magnificent skyline of the Lower Hudson
megalopolis. One thing, however, seems wrong.
The Goldman Sachs tower,
the tallest building in the state
and the crown jewel of the Jersey
City waterfront, is less than halflit. And it’s been consistently so
since the company moved into
the structure in April.
What’s the story?
According to Goldman Sachs
spokesman Peter Rose, it’s entirely intentional.
class-A office space, a single-occupancy building.
Understandable, considering
the fact that speculation of corporate intent tends to fly out of control
when it comes to good, ol’ GS.
Corporate real estate needs
vary from time to time, but when
you’re dealing with a company
the size (about 20,000 employees, twelve thousand of which
are located in New York and
New Jersey) and prominence (net
revenues in 2003 of more than
$31.5 billion) of Goldman Sachs,
the stakes are high.
What hasn’t helped the questions that have swirled around
30 Hudson is the company’s
current large-scale construction project: a new headquarters building, comparable in size
Mum’s the word on Howard Dean
State Dem Committee withholds endorsement until field is settled,
interviews with candidates are conducted
H
oward Dean’s Jan. 11 announcement that he’s running for the
chairmanship of the Democratic National
Committee has excited many progressively minded Democrats who are enthusiastic about the former Vermont governor’s
enthusiasm in party reform.
But when it comes to New Jersey’s
nine state democratic committee members, they’re less interested in his reform agenda than they are in his commitment to helping them in 2005’s
off-year elections.
Seats in the Legislature will be up for
grabs this year, as will the keys to the governor’s mansion in Princeton. But because
New Jersey is a successful blue state, the
DNC doesn’t provide much financial assistance to New Jersey in either presiden-
tial election years or state and congressional election years.
“We look obviously for a chair who
recognizes our needs,” said a source at
the state’s democratic committee headquarters. “People are just looking to see
who’s going to put forth the best plan for
the state parties.”
So far, there are seven official candidates for the seat. The post will be
awarded by vote on Feb. 12, the last
day of a three-day DNC convention in
Washington, D.C.
Before the vote however, all of the
candidates for the chairmanship will be
interviewed at four separate forums, each
corresponding to a geographic region of
the country. For the Northeast, the forum
will be held on Jan. 29 in New York.
This gives each committee member an
opportunity to meet the candidates, and
all of New Jersey nine committee members are excited for the event.
New Jersey’s nine national committee members are state chairwoman
and
Assemblywoman
Bonnie
Watson Coleman, state vice-chair and
Assemblyman Joseph Cryan, June Fischer,
Joseph DeCotiis, Roz Samuels, Tonio
Burgos, Mario Baeza, Mayor Doug Palmer
and Donald Norcross.
Group hosts anti-inaugural event in HOB
I
f you can’t make it to Washington, D.C., next week to protest President Bush’s inauguration, you can always drown
your sorrows in liquor. But you might as well contribute to a
good cause while you’re at it.
To celebrate November’s Democratic electoral victories
across New Jersey, the state’s leading younger-generationDemocrat group will be hosting a “Not Our Inauguration”
Happy Hour event on Thurs., Jan. 20, at Oddfellow’s Rest in
Hoboken.
Co-hosted by the New Jersey Democratic State Committee,
the event also honors the 13 state candidates under the age of
40 who won their races. Young Hudson County politicians to be
honored at the event include:
• State Assemblyman and Union City Mayor Brian Stack;
• County Clerk Javier Inclán;
• Kearny Mayor Al Santos and council members Alexa Arce,
José Torres and Michael Landy;
• Hoboken councilmen Chris Campos and Ruben Ramos;
• Guttenberg councilwoman Jenn Credidio; and
• Jersey City councilwoman Kathleen Curran.
“Democrats in New Jersey have a lot to be proud of as a
result of the 2004 elections,” said Steve Lenox, president of
Democrats 2000, in a release. “If only we could have translated
our energy, enthusiasm and understanding of the issues across
the entire country, we’d also be celebrating the inauguration of
President John Kerry.”
Oddfellow’s Rest is located at 80 River Street in Downtown
Hoboken, across the street from the PATH and NJ Transit rail
stations. Tickets to the event are $25. To RSVP for the event,
email [email protected].
Help a neighbor build their house!
A
NIGHT VISION — Only 14 floors can be seen illuminated in this
barely legible nighttime photograph of 30 Hudson St.
“We intend to occupy the entire building,” he said in a phone
interview. “We’ve never contemplated subleasing space in
30 Hudson.”
Rose was terse about the company’s intentions. And although
he only spoke two sentences,
he managed to be very emphatic about the company’s intent
to keep the tower, which boasts
about 1.5 million square feet of
to 30 Hudson, in the north end
of Battery Park City in Lower
Manhattan. Completion of the
structure is scheduled for 2008.
Currently, there are approximately 3,000 employees at 30
Hudson. That makes the building, which features a day care
center, a gym and a certificate
of being compliant with green
energy standards — about onethird occupied.
lthough the Jersey City
chapter of Habitat for
Humanity has only been around
for a little more than three months,
it is already seeking volunteers for
a pair of projects that it hopes to
soon begin constructing.
Last year, the city ceded two
parcels of land it owned in the
city’s Greenville area to HFH’s
Jersey City chapter for the construction of affordable-housing. The group expects to break
ground on the project in April.
According to HFH-JC vice president and Hamilton Park resident
Frank Barone, the need for affordable housing in Jersey City is dire.
“There are many forces that
are not very complementary right
now (in the local housing market),” Barone said. “The Northeast
is one of the most expensive
places to live in the country, and
Jersey City has one of the lowest
income rates.
“There’s been a lot of development, and you have an evertightening affordable housing
market,” he added. “And Habitat
for Humanity is in some ways in
competition with other developers in the housing market. Clearly,
we are focused on a portion of
the residents of Hudson County
that are underserved by decent,
safe and affordable housing.”
HFH-JC is the newest New
Jersey affiliate of the Americus,
Ga.-based non-profit, and it is
the 25th chapter to be created
nationwide. The largest chapters
in New Jersey are the ones based
in Newark and Paterson, Barone
said, and the Paterson unit builds
approximately 15 houses a year.
The group is right now in the
process of raising money for the
project, and they are also soliciting volunteers to help out in
a variety of the organization’s
business. In addition to the physical work involved in building
the houses, other tasks that need
to be delegated include working
on the newsletter, coordinating
special events and selecting the
families that will live in the newly made homes.
The two families that are selected to be partner-homeown-
ers with HFH must meet certain
criteria in order to purchase the
house, Barone said. Families
must be in need, must be within the income requirements required by the federal department
of housing and urban development and must be able to afford
the mortgage on the home.
In exchange for putting 400
hours’ worth of sweat equity,
they are given a mortgage with
no down payment or interest.
And since the labor and land are
provided at no cost, the mortgage
the families must pay is calculated solely by the cost of materials.
HFH-JC is currently in the
process of screening applications
for family-partners. If interested
in either volunteering or applying
to be a family partner, call 2228030.
2004…
W
ithin the physical and psychological confines of Hudson County,
the world of politics serves as
both showbusiness and bloodsport.
And there was definitely no shortage of
news in the land of politicians and their cohorts.
Headlines ranged from the tragic to the prurient, and each story carried within itself untold
amounts of gossip, intrigue and subterfuge.
The general consensus is that the death of
Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham, 60, Jersey City’s
first African-American mayor, topped out the political news of 2004.
Born in the city’s Greenville section on Sept.
13, 1943, Cunningham died at Greenville Hospital
May 25 after suffering a massive heart attack.
Elected to office in 2001, Cunningham’s career
began as a Marine and then as a patrolman and
inspector in the Jersey City Police Department.
His entry into politics began with a term as county
freeholder in 1975. Before he was elected mayor
in 2001, he served as Ward F Councilman and
City Council President, as director of public safety for
Hudson County and as
a U.S. Marshal.
Widely seen as one
of the city’s most downto-earth and accessible
mayors,
Cunningham
was also a state senator for
the 31st Legislative District at the
time
of his death.
Cunningham, however, was at the center
of all things political both long before and after his death. Prior to his passing, his ongoing
feud with Congressman Robert Menendez, DHoboken, had stoked many a fire — and headline
— in the political realm. Claims and accusations
were thrown from both camps, and the city was
swarmed with sundry tales of administrative neglect that ranged from sheer stupidity to outright
criminal activity. The stories were the same as always: legal concerns like extortion and embezzlement were interspersed tales of infidelity and
substance abuse.
nd just as sex and drugs are timeless themes in American culture, they
persisted in Hudson County long
after Cunningham was laid to rest in Bayview
Cemetery.
When Cunningham’s seat became vacant,
the opportunists didn’t miss a beat. The slate
of candidates for the special election to fill out
Cunningham’s unexpired term crested at 14 candidates. After the initial commotion settled, a field
of 11 emerged.
This election was classic Jersey City shtick,
with characters like the excessively God-fearing Dwayne Baskerville — whose slogan was
“Yes Lord!” — to Alfred Marc Pine, the biggest
Bayonne-hater that ever existed on God’s green
earth. A Jersey City Parking Authority employee
whose last name was identical to that of a “serious” candidate entered and dropped out of
the race. People waited with baited breath to
see if Cunningham’s widow, Sandra BoldenCunningham, would throw her hat into the ring.
A
Among the serious candidates — City Council
President L. Harvey Smith, Councilman-at-large
Jerramiah Healy, Ward C Councilman Steve
Lipski and Assemblyman Louis Manzo — the race
was fraught with tension. The rumor mill was hard
at work, and like clockwork, the stories of sex and
drugs started making their way past people’s lips.
In an especially embarrassing turn of events, a
photograph of Healy surfaced that showed the former municipal judge nude and apparently drunk
on the steps of his Jersey City Heights home. It
wasn’t an Avedon portrait, that’s for sure, but it
did its job: the New York Times and all local media outlets caught the story and ran with it.
Healy was remarkably gracious and non-confrontational about it. Hey, shit happens. We’ve all
been through it, right?
ealy’s short stint as a porn model met
both criteria, being as he was both
a little tipsy and very much naked.
And in the sex category, his nudity came nowhere
near all the flagrant gayness — or allegations of it,
anyway — that swarmed Hudson County political cultures.
Man, if anything was fashionable this year, it
was homosexuality. Separate and unrelated to
the Gov. Jim McGreevey fiasco. And poor Lou
Manzo was the unfortunate guy that had to take
the brunt of it. Apparently, the fact that Manzo’s
brother Ronald Manzo pleaded guilty in an insider trading scandal didn’t too much to sully Lou’s
status in the polls.
Lou Manzo was forced to address the issue
with The Jersey Journal, telling the newspaper that
he was, indeed, a heterosexual. Not that there’s
anything wrong with that, he effectively said as
an afterthought, and that, some politicos feel, was
tantamount to an admission.
Jesus! Everyone was worrying about Lou
Manzo’s alleged homosexuality while Hudson
County Freeholder Ray Velazquez was practically
screaming it from the hilltops in August. I guess
no one cared about who he is sleeping with, although we’d wager thousands of screaming, diehard American Idol fans would.
Anyway, back to that election. After two weeks
of waiting for some mysteriously disappeared voting cartridges to show up, the final tally was: the
“drunk naked guy” got 17, 401 votes while the
“straight but not narrow guy” got 15, 159.
Go figure.
Oh, and let’s not forget all that political corruption. Let’s see:
1. Nidia Davila-Colon, former Jersey City freeholder, was convicted for passing a bribe from
her boyfriend to former County Executive Robert
Janiszewski. She began serving her 37-month sentence in March.
2. Bill Braker, also a Jersey City freeholder,
pleaded guilty — and then later unsuccessfully
tried to take it back — to taking cash from Nidia’s
boyfriend after he was accused of asking for “cash
and Viagra” for his vote on county contracts. He
was sentenced to 39 months in prison.
3. Former Hoboken Mayor Anthony Russo
— and father to current City Councilman Michael
Russo — pleaded guilty to taking cash money
from a former city vendor. •
H
An epic year for
sex, money & drugs.
A
lthough no drug use was ever confirmed (or even alleged, honestly)
on the part of the Jersey City City
Council, some kind of mind-altering substance had to be in the mix when the city’s
legislators even entertained for a second the
proposal by Russian artist Zurab Tsereteli to
build his hulking, abstract bronze vagina on
J. Owen Grundy Pier.
The artist, who has crafted monumental sculpture for the United Nations in
New York and other civic spaces, offered
to gift to Jersey City a 100-foot high monument he titled “To
the Struggle Against
World
Terrorism.”
Locals refer to the
proposed monument
as either the “Tear of
Grief” or other, more
euphemistic names.
(See right.)
When the project
was unveiled at the
memorial service observing the anniversary of the Sept. 11,
2001 attacks, those in
attendance regarded
the model and architectural renderings in
stunned silence. After
the service ended,
however, the snickering began.
The late Mayor
Glenn D. Cunningham
was very enthusiastic about the work, and
he urged the City Council to approve it. He
stressed that it was completely gratis, and
that it was a gift from the artist, the mayor of Moscow, the president of Russia and
her many sympathetic residents. He passed
away, however, before the resolution to accept it came to a vote in June.
The issue is still unresolved.
A
lso involving big money is the debacle at 111 First Street, the arts
center that played a very, very
pivotal role (notice the attempt at avoiding hyperbole) in creating an arts scene for
Jersey City.
After suffering, over the last several years,
“terrorism prevention” curfews, exorbitant
rent increases and utility shut-offs, the artists finally threw in the towel in the fight
against their landlord, the New York-based
New Gold Equities and its principal, Lloyd
Goldman.
Goldman, a part owner of the World
Trade Center site in New York, was trying
to redevelop the run-down 19th century industrial building into high-rise condos. The
artists protested, citing the city’s desire to
create an arts district. Goldman scoffed. The
city included 111 First Street as part of the
newly minted Powerhouse Arts District, an
Urban Land Institute-sanctioned redevelopment area that would give buildings protection from demolition. Goldman laughed.
He’s currently in the process of trying to get
that annoying historic landmark designation off his property
through litigation.
Hey! Which should
also cost a load of
dough.
Anyway.
After
forming 111 Arts
First, a non-profit organization whose aim
was to acquire the
property and transform it into a prominent cultural institution, the artists set out
to buy the building.
111 ArtsFirst member Sandy DeSando
said at a meeting in a
New York gallery that
the artists would need
about $26 million to
purchase the building.
Things were going
relatively well — never mind that arson in
November — until Jan. 3 of this year, when
the artists agreed to vacate by March 1. It
seems their legal bills ($10–$12K a week, by
artist Bill Rodwell’s reckoning) got to be too
much of a burden. See page 3 for more details about how the fight dissolved.
O
n a more trivial but far sexier
note, Hoboken was the scene
of some crazy Puritanical rage
when the city decided to close the Romantic
Depot, a novelty chain store whose edible
lingerie, naughty board games and porn
films offended their deepest-held moral values. Citing a litany of zoning violations, the
city said it was against the law to have dildoes, condoms and other urban necessities
in plain view of minors.
After about a month of being shuttered,
the store’s management agreed to place the
lewd items in a back room and away from
public view. The store is now open.
diversions
Urban Alles
BY BEVIN BERMINGHAM
hudson
weekly
crossword
Grab ‘em, cut off their nuts, put ‘em back
Even though I am a lapsed vegetarian, I absolutely love animals. Not
that I would ever consent to any type
of kitten or puppy artwork on my
walls. I just really find many animals endearing, especially pets.
I often make an excuse to cruise
pet stores, not only to look at the puppies and rabbits, but to contemplate
accessories for my new flock of pets.
It was with great joy that I discovered the stray cats hanging out in
my neighborhood when I moved to
Jersey City. They climb under cars and
scoot in and out of trashcans. Since
moving here, I have never seen a rat,
mouse or roach outside of the PATH
station. And — let’s face it — cats are
way cuter than any of those things.
In the last six months a couple of
cats have become regulars. I almost
always see Orange Cat sitting in the
side yard, as I think he has adopted
my landlord as his sugar daddy. One
time when I was walking my dog
Leroy, Orange Cat followed me home
and let me pet him. He tried to come
inside, perhaps to greet our indoor
cats he only knows through windowpaned rendezvous. The girlfriend
even managed to pick him up, to see
whether he had been neutered, which
he definitely had not. He has all of
the indications of a once-domesticated yet abandoned cat. Which is
sort of a sad background, but at least
he is well-loved by my neighbors.
Another stray I often see hanging
out with Orange Cat is Calico Cat. Ever
since I learned that John Ashcroft believes calico cats to be familiars of the
devil, I am even more drawn to them.
Orange Cat and Calico Cat often greet
visitors to our block, and I’ve even
had friends come over who mentioned
seeing a good looking stray that didn’t
run away when they walked past.
Just this week I noticed that Calico
Cat was really fat. I thought that maybe
my landlord was going overboard
with putting out food, but it dawned
on me that she was pregnant. Which
makes me very sad because now
there will be kittens that are homeless, not by choice but by birth. In
addition, it is disheartening because
while I agree that I prefer stray cats
to other pests, I don’t think we need
any more than we already have.
It is specifically because of my
friends Orange Cat, Calico Cat and
their progeny that I think that Jersey
City should adopt a policy of Take,
Neuter, Return. There is a website (aptly named www.alleycat.
org) which proposes this method. It
involves humanely gathering a colony
of stray cats, evaluating, vaccinating
and neutering or spaying them. Those
that can be domesticated are adopted
into homes and those who are not are
returned to their old neighborhood.
The benefits are clear. The stray cat
population is controlled, and returning cats to their own territory prevents
other cats from moving in (as they inevitably will if the feral cats are removed
permanently). Mating behaviors that
make stray cats not ideal neighbors
— howling, spraying and fighting
— are eliminated. Leaving simply
rodent and bird controlling friends
to greet you on your walk home.
Bevin Bermingham is a real estate attorney who absolutely loves
her boss for letting her dog Macy
come to the office. You can reach
her at [email protected].
history lesson
JANUARY 14
1784
The United States ratified a peace treaty with England ending the
Revolutionary War.
1882
The Myopia Hunt Club, in Winchester, MA, became the first country
club in the United States.
1907
An earthquake killed over 1,000 people in Kingston, Jamaica.
1943
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. President
to fly in an airplane while in office. He flew from Miami, FL, to French
Morocco where he met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
to discuss World War II.
1953
Josip Broz Tito was elected president of Yugoslavia by the country s
Parliament.
1998
In Dallas, researchers report an enzyme that slows the aging
process and cell death.
1999
The U.S. proposed the lifting of the U.N. ceilings on the sale of oil in
Iraq. The restriction being that the money be used to buy medicine
and food for the Iraqi people.
JANUARY 15
1559
England s Queen Elizabeth I (Elizabeth Tudor) was crowned in
Westminster Abbey.
1870
A cartoon by Thomas Nast titled A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion
appeared in Harper s Weekly. The cartoon used the donkey to
symbolize the Democratic Party for the first time.
Write a letter and
1892
Triangle magazine in Springfield, MA, published the rules for a
brand new game. The original rules involved attaching a peach
baskets to a suspended board. It is now known as basketball.
1908
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority became America s first Greek-letter
organization established by African-American college women.
1973
U.S. President Nixon announced the suspension of all U.S. offensive
action in North Vietnam. He cited progress in peace negotiations as
the reason.
1976
Sara Jane Moore was sentenced to life in prison for her attempt on
the life of U.S. President Ford in San Francisco.
1978
Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman, two students at Florida State
University in Tallahassee, were murdered in their sorority house.
Ted Bundy was later convicted of the crime and was executed.
JANUARY 16
1547
Ivan the Terrible was crowned Czar of Russia.
1919
The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibited the
sale or transportation of alcoholic beverages, was ratified. It was
later repealed by the 21st Amendment.
1961
Mickey Mantle signed a contract that made him the highest paid
baseball player in the American League at $75,000 for the 1961
season.
1998
Researchers announce that an altered gene helped to defend against
HIV.
1991
The White House announced the start of Operation Desert Storm.
The operation was designed to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.
1998
Three federal judges secretly granted Kenneth Starr authority to
probe whether U.S. President Clinton or Vernon Jordan urged Monica
Lewinsky to lie about her relationship with Clinton.
2002
The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted sanctions against
Osama bin Laden, his terror network and the remnants of the
Taliban. The sanctions required that all nations impose arms
embargoes and freeze their finances.
hudson
weekly
Sex Talk
BY MISS KITTY
Frank advice from someone who’s seen it all.
Hello everyone! I hope my first
column enlightened and aroused
and that some of you are now
enjoying super-cala-dick-alicious,
steamy-sweat-gland, monkey sex.
This week’s letters all have one
common theme – fetishes – those
secret things we do that get us
wet and wild and happy to be
alive! Let’s get started, shall we?
Dear Miss Kitty:
I had a headache and came
home early from my kid’s soccer
practice only to find my husband
in our bedroom reading Cosmo
and wearing my pink Victoria’s Secret push-up
bra with matching G-string I bought at Newport.
Should I be concerned?
Bewildered in
Downtown JC
came girlfriends, crying together
at Beaches, shopping together in
Filene’s plus-size department and
having their tarot cards read. The
point I’m trying to make is that if
your husband’s need to look like
Drew Barrymore bothers you, then
— by all means — put him on
the next train to Shrinksville. But
if he restricts his dress-up to the
bedroom and can still give you the
Big Bang, then what does it matter
if he likes to wear your cha-cha
heels? Just as long as he never
matches your purple short-shorts
with your green halter-top and the
pearls your grandma gave you. That would be tacky.
“Sometimes a love tap on the
mud-flap can add a little sizz
to the hump. I’ve had several
lovers who came like Old
Faithful whenever I played
‘Bobba-Loo’ on their bubble
butts and it never went any
further than that.
Dear Bewildered,
Honey, I totally understand your dilemma.
When my Uncle Walter,
who was a gravedigger
for 50 years, was home
alone, he dressed like
Marilyn Monroe from
The Seven Year Itch
and listened to Peggy
Lee records while sipping Manhattans. After she
got over the initial shock, my Aunt Barbara didn’t
seem to mind his cross-dressing. In fact, she told me
that Uncle Walter’s feminine side was a lot more
interesting than his masculine side and the two be-
ReOdorant
Dear Miss Kitty,
Whenever I make love
to my wife, she always
asks me to spank her
behind. I don’t mind, but
it’s really not my thing.
My question is: will she
start to want more than
just a spanking? Could
her fetish lead to S&M?
Worried in Newport
Dear Worried,
Some people like a
little slap and tickle with their bouncy-bouncy. That
doesn’t mean they want to be whacked with a riding
crop or pulled by a leash in the living room wearing nothing but a dog collar. It’s that same mentalSee SEX TALK — p. 15
diversions
abuela’s
catholic heresy*
BY ALBERTINA CRUZ
FOR THE WEEKS OF JAN. 14–JAN. 27
ARIES
LIBRA
It’s best if you lay low for the next two weeks, as you
won’t be very well-prepared to deal with the great deal
of confusion that will be inserted into your life by the
planet of the sea god making negative aspects to the
planets of the war god and love goddess. On Fri Jan 14,
the planet of the war god conjoins with that of the sea,
making it very wise to refrain from various courses of
action you somehow managed to think were beneficial
for you. Because of this planetary aspect, you’re way
of envisioning others’ perception of you is flawed. The
sea god concurrently squares the love goddess, which
implies that the previous negativity will involve either a
lover or sibling. If you have to make decision on legal
arrangements or ventures, please— wait.
Mars travels through your first house of identity from Thu
20 through Wed 26, making it an especially physically
active time for you. You seem to have bottomless
reserves of energy, and you feel as if there’s nothing you
can’t do. And, judging from the help you’re getting from
the planet of the winged-footed god and the planet of
the sky god, you’re right. You’re particularly lucky in that
the planet of the war god trines your moon from Wed 19
through Tue 25, making things run magnificently smooth
for you. Schedules breeze by uninterrupted, no computer
crashes at work, and the lack of interruption allows your
instinct and intuitive sense to lead the way in all you do.
You may find yourself so good at multi-tasking that you
might risk taking on too much.
TAURUS
SCORPIO
The emotional and psychological wounds you’ve received
in the past from unhealthy love relationships come to
the fore on Mon 17, thanks mainly to the retrograde
transit of the earth god through your twelfth house
of subconscious memories. What makes this visit
particularly painful, however, is that various planets
conspire to bring love and pleasure in your midst. The
planet of the love goddess, the planet of the war god
and the planet of the air god get a bit too cozy with
each other from Thu 20 through Thu 27, simultaneously
encouraging and thwarting any romantic possibilities.
You will feel a strong attraction to someone you know
or will meet through your work, and it will disrupt what
harmony you currently enjoy at your workplace.
Both the planet of the winged-footed god and that of
the love goddess collect in your first house of identity
from Sat 22 through Wed 26, creating an interesting
mix in regards to your identity. The winged-footed
god implies that you’ll be thinking and speaking about
yourself more often, but the influence doesn’t connote
an unflattering self-centeredness to it. The presence of
the love goddess also implies that your energies will be
focused in analyzing what kind of influence you exert
over others, making me believe that it has something to
do with a review or written evaluation of some sort. If
that is the case, watch out for some work-related tension
the week prior, for there are several planets working to
create stress.
GEMINI
SAGITTARIUS
An oddly numerous number of planets are indicating
that you are currently involved in a contest of wills
with another, but it’s a kind of competition that will
surely destroy any amicability you may have had with
one another. You seem to be enjoying the emotional
bullfight, as I’d like to call it, as the planet of the love
goddess squares the war god from Fri 14 through Tue
18. There’s a certain playfulness to it for you, but it
seems likely to go downhill quite fast. A former lover or
love interest is implied. The sun is opposing the position
of the love goddess at the time of your birth from Fri
14 through Mon 17, however, indicating that it’s more
about satisfying your own ego than it as a means to a
constructive end.
CANCER
The next two weeks will be extraordinarily lucky for you,
as — like with your Gemini brothers and sisters — an
extraordinarily large number of planets are sending
you positive energies. The planet of the god of the
underworld trines the position of the planet of the air
god at the time of your birth from Fri 14 through Thu 27,
indicating that any professional developments you make
will pay off considerably in the long-term. This same
energy, courtesy of the previously mentioned planets in
different angles with others, spills over into other realms
of your life. It seems as if you are reaching a maturation
point, a place past which you become a new, better
person in your eyes as well as others’. The planet of the
god of the underworld trines the love goddess while the
air god trines the planet of the winged-footed god.
LEO
That lingering feeling of dissatisfaction you’ve been
feeling in regards to your professional life or career
is not bound to go away any time soon. The planet of
the earth god is conjoining the position he was in at
the time of your birth, making it a particularly painful
period in which deep analysis and retrospection rule
your innermost thoughts. You feel inclined to measure
yourself against the standards you yourself have placed,
and the judgment you pass on yourself seems to be
harsh. Forego the self-inflicted whipping and focus
instead on the direction your own heart is leading you.
Whether through a subtle nudge or with an iron fist,
the planets are drawing you closer to your own family,
particularly older family members. Whether or not you
distanced yourself from them intentionally, there is some
part of your connection that’s lacking. The point of this,
however, is that re-building the connection will lead to
realizations and character transformations that relate
directly to the problems that the transit of the earth god
is creating for you.
VIRGO
You may be drowning in work, but you’re not
complaining about it. And that’s pretty remarkable.
You’re on a path of intellectual growth and expansion,
and tasks that previously came across as tedious chores
are now exciting opportunities to learn more. Even
though the planet of the earth god places obstacles in
your path throughout this period, you are unrelenting.
You’re apt to develop a very serious attitude at this time;
make sure you don’t alienate people you like and/or
need by reacting curtly to their shortcomings. This is
illustrated by the planet of the love goddess squaring
the position of the planet of the underworld god from Fri
14 through Mon 17. The sun travels through your third
house of higher mental faculties from Thu 20 through
Mon 24, giving you boundless energy to plan, organize,
prepare and strategize.
There’s a very interesting Wall Street-esque, corporate
rat race trend happening in your chart these next two
weeks. The planet of the war god goes through your
tenth house on Fri 14 through Sat 15, indicating that
you’ll be engaging in a lot of ruthless self-promotion.
The winged-footed god simultaneously sextiles the
position of the old father god at the time of your birth,
marking that you’ll be showing off a certain talent that
you possess above any other. You’re tense and focused
on the goal at hand, but you’ll be thrown for a loop the
week of the 24th. Information will be made available to
you that engages you emotionally, and the wallop will be
significant.
CAPRICORN
You’ve been hard at work for the past few weeks, and
you’re beginning to get run down. You feel sluggish from
overwork, you have no energy to do the things you’d
like and you feel disheveled, unkempt and spent. Rest
assured, you look it, too. You’ve been so consumed
with the tasks at hand that you’ve neglected to take
care of yourself, and the sun conjoins the planet of the
love goddess from Fri 14 through Sun 16 to try to get
you to take a breather. You’ve retreated into a shell,
eschewing social activities because you’re either “too
tired” or “too busy.” Depending on how long this has
been going on, you can be in various states of distress
without even knowing how bad it is or how urgently you
need to change your behavior. You mustn’t forget that
interactions with other people are a source of particular
benefit for you. The planet of the air god strolls through
your seventh house from Fri 14 through Thu 27, which
makes human contact all the more favorable.
First of all, take a nap. Then, when you wake up, realize
your human limits and restrict yourself to them. Give
yourself time to pamper yourself and then go out and
circulate, either with personal friends or professional
ones. You’ll find an exciting world out there that you
forgot existed, and while there is a slight hint of a
headache coming your way from Mon 17 to Wed 18, you
should take it in stride.
AQUARIUS
The planet of the father god conjoins the position of
the planet of the love goddess at the time of your birth,
making it equally likely that a romance, relationship or
business adventure will either abruptly begin or end. The
likelihood, however, is the latter. Many aspects through
your chart show a pointed restlessness as a result of
present difficulties, and you will be urged to take action
in relation to that restlessness. The planet of the love
goddess conjoins the planet of the war god from Fri 14
through Mon 17, making you impulsive in going after
what you desire. This is a good time to do this, as many
social opportunities await you in the week of the 23rd.
Do not, however, expect to instantly fix what made you
miserably before. Everything takes time. Especially that.
PISCES
Things are rather low key for you at this point, with no
major planetary aspects separate from what everyone
else is feeling. However, two aspects — the planet of the
winged-footed god through your eighth house from Sun
23 through Wed 26 and the sun sextile the position of
the planet of the love goddess at the time of your birth
— indicate that you may be headed for a promotion. The
first transit implies a deeper analysis of your own talents
and abilities, while the second shows that supervisors
and other authority figures are favorably disposed. Other
aspects, which show increased communications with
others and a more authoritative attitude on your own
behalf, support the supposition. Good luck!
Live!
On Tap Next Month:
hudson
weekly
KATE JACOBS (1/27, The Goldhawk)
BILLY FILO STARSHIP(1/28, Uncle Joe’s)
RYE COALITION (2/4, Maxwell’s)
on the Left Bank
LAWNDARTS (2/10, Maxwell’s)
JAN. 14 — JAN. 27, 2005
THE EVERYOTHERS (2/11, Maxwell’s)
GUITAR WOLF (2/27, Maxwell’s)
Butterspy…
play with Eugene,
Karyn
Kuhl, High Speed
Chase,
Crewman #6, Mote
l
Creeps & Marc G
ianotti.
Maxwell’s, 1039 W
ashington
St., HOB. 653-1703
. 8 p.m. $8.
JAN 21
friday
Crazy mutha‐hubbas
friday
JAN. 14
saturday
JAN. 15
EVERYTHING MUST GO
SANDY MARKS
111 FIRST STREET FLEA MARKET
Rascals on the Hudson, 360 Marin Blvd., JC. 9 p.m.
$15. Also on Sat., Jan. 15. Call 217-8900 or go to www.
rascalscomedyclub.com for more information.
thursday
JAN. 20
Come join the artists of 111 First Street in their farewell
extravaganza. Featuring the sale of personal artifacts
as well as everyday bric-a-brac. Bring your wallets and
your cash because they don’t accept Visa.
Grace Church Van Vorst, 39 Erie St. (at Second Street). From
10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Also on Sunday, Jan. 16, from 1 to 5
p.m. See www.111first.org for more information.
sunday
JAN. 15
CURBING HATE
MR. APPLAUSE
According to Rascals on the Hudson, Marks has
appeared on CBS, “The King of Queens,” and HBO’s
“Comedy in the Park.” Marks is really funny, they say,
and he has done comedy for quite a while in exotic
locales like Canada, the U.S. and Holland.
saturday
JAN. 23
HIDING & SEEKING: FAITH AND
TOLERANCE AFTER THE HOLOCAUST
The Hoboken Synagogue sponsors a screening of
this film by Oren Ruvdavsky and Menachem Daum,
which was shot on location in Jerusalem, Poland and
Brooklyn. Daum will be available for a Q&A after the
screening.
Burchard Auditorium, Stevens Institue of Technology, Castle
Point, HOB. 8 p.m. $10. See www.hobokensynagogue.org for
more information.
thursday
JAN. 27
LENDING A HAND
HIPSTER CENTRAL
ORIGINAL PLAYS ARE NIFTY
WORDS&MUSIC
NEW PLAYWRIGHTS SERIES
TSUNAMI RELIEF AID CONCERT
Three new plays — one dealing with a 20-something
gay hustler who learns a little something from an older
dude, another play dealing with a guy who tries to
get a secret out of his evasive dad, and the last about
a formerly homeless guy looking for his chica. Good
stuff.
Performances by Bill McGarvey, The Cucumbers, The
Demolition String Band, AJ Azzarto & the New Hoboken Four, Boxcar Nancy, The Nissen Brothers, Sputnik,
Icewagon Flu, The Stray Dogs, Carla Murray, Jim Testa,
The Gordys and High Speed Chase. All proceeds to be
donated to the American Red Cross.
DeBaun Auditorium, Stevens Institute of Technology, Fifth and
Hudson Street, HOB. 3 p.m. Free with $3 suggested donation.
Call 216-8937 for more information.
Willie McBride’s, 616 Grand St., HOB. 8 p.m. Admission
to the event is $10. For an addition $10, a buffet dinner is
available.
Hosted by Middlepoet, Jersey City’s unofficial poet laureate, words&music is a weekly event that features the
lyrical stylings of local favorites, traveling guests and
brave attendants. “It’s all about poetry, music and mingling.” Hospitality by The Cannon and music by DJs
Lady J, Aqualung and Funkiejunkie.
The Waterbug Hotel Annex, 7 Erie St., JC. 10 p.m.- 1:30 a.m.
See www.thewaterbughotel.com for more information.
the
grid
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
Half-price martini night. 4-close.
Happy Hour. See left for specials.
HOBOKEN
3 FORTY GRILL
340 Sinatra Dr., 217-3406.
Happy Hour. See right for specials.
Happy Hour from 4-7; specials include $3 Miller Lite, Amstel Lite and
Yuengling drafts. $2 off martinis.
Brunch from 11:30 to 4.
BAHAMA MAMA’S
215 Wshngtn St., 217-1642.
BAJA
104 14th St., 653-0610.
935 Willow Ave., 653-2358.
BAR NONE
84 Wshngtn St., 420-1112.
Hip-hop, house and reggae every night, with DJ Brian Coxx spinning Thurs. – Sun. Ladies pay $2 for drinks and no cover until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays; reduced cover after 11. Validated parking available.
205 Wshngtn St., 656-5511.
of wings, $12.95
p.m. No cover.
Sports trivia.
THE CAGE
3 Newark St., 216-1766.
61 Sixth St., 795-4515.
DJ Jeff.
draft, 8-10.
$2 shots, 9-11.
drinks.
martinis.
Happy Hour 5-8.
9, no cover.
pop & hip-hop.
Brunch from 11 - 3.
DUFFY’S
DIPPER’S
616 Wshngtn St., 386-9464.
FARSIDE BAR & GRILL
531 Wshngtn St., 963-7677.
Rotating drink specials. Call for
more information.
400 Adams St., 217-1400.
GOLDHAWK LOUNGE
936 Park Avenue., 420-7989.
Coronas, 5-10.
70 Hudson St., 386-5600.
Happy Hour 5-8.
Yuengling. DJ.
HOBSON’S CHOICE
77 Hudson Pl., 420-0070.
spins.
DJ Frank spins.
LIBERTY BAR & GRILL
61-63 14th St., 222-6322.
at bar.
$10 party platters.
25¢ wings.
DJ Frank spins.
basketball.
LOUISE & JERRY’S
prizes awarded.
MADISON BAR & GRILL
1316 Wshngtn St., 386-0300.
MAXWELL’S
1039 Wshngtn St., 798-0406.
Samuel Smith lager or stout
for $3.75. Cuervo Gold for $4,
Cuervo 1800 for $5.
Boddington’s pub can for $3.50.
All flavors of Bacardi rum, $4.
& under.
Dixie beer, $3. Jack Daniels, $4.
Bud, Bud Light and Rolling Rock
for $2.50. Southern Comfort, $4.
Corona and Presidente, $3.
Margaritas, $5.
Guiness, $3.50. Jameson, $4.
Yuengling, $2.50. Absolut
vodka, all flavors, $4.
drinks all night.
1034 Willow Ave., 798-5650.
MCSWIGGAN’S
110 First St., 798-6700.
Coors & 24 wings.
221 Wshngtn St., 420-0222.
ODDFELLOWS REST
80 River St., 656-9009.
& Amstel drafts.
O’DONOGHUE’S
205 First St., 798-5595.
Fridays’s and Saturday’s- Live Entertainment- Check
out www.odonoghues.com for schedule
O’NIEAL’S
343 Park Ave., 653-1492.
Happy Hour 5-8.
$1 off everything.
Brunch 11-3, $13.95.
Brunch. $14.95.
else.
2-for-1 martinis.
Pitcher and Wing Specials,
“Pong Night”
Pitcher and Wing Specials, Pool,
Ping Pong
glass w/ purchase.
Dart League, $2.00 Bud Lt. and
Michelob Lt.
Drafts
Pool League, $3.00 Bud, Bud
Lt., Micelob
Ultra Bottles
1/2 Price Martini’s, “Industry
Night”-bring
your bar card for draft and shot
specials
drinks, all night.
performs. No cover.
PLANET HOBOKEN
16-18 Hudson Pl., 653-6888.
ROGO’S
734 Willow Ave., 217-1512.
martinis $4.
drinks, DJ.
drafts & wings.
RUE DE JARDIN
734 Willow Ave., 217-1512.
SHANNON LOUNGE
106 First St., 656-9820.
SKYBAR LOUNGE
96 River St., 656-7731.
SULLIVAN’S
600 Wshngtn St., 420-9849.
everything.
See BACK PAGE
arts&entertainment
set
list
Friday, January 14
THE MILWAUKEES • HERO PATTERN
• THE CALL-UP
MUSIC
[email protected]
Monday, January 17
SWINGADELIC
Maxwell’s, 1039 Washington St., HOB, 6531703.
Show begins at 9 p.m. Free. 18+.
Monsters of rock
hw
pick
BY BROOKE BEHRENS
Power pop ‘heroes’ come to HOB in Rock n’ Roll Rescue Tour
Tuesday, January 18
THIRD TUESDAY JAZZ BAND
The Goldhawk, 936 Park Ave., HOB, 420-7989.
The Rock N’ Roll Rescue Tour comes
to Hoboken in an effort to help indie
bands reach “their mutual goal of world
domination.”
See music preview on page 18.
ON THE PROWL • SPIDER ROCKETS
Uncle Joe’s Bar, 154 First St., JC, 659-6999.
The music of Evanescence, the Deftones
and Audioslave may come to mind when
you hear Spider Rockets, a band from
Central Jersey made up of three guys
and a female vocalist.
SURREY LANE
LOUIS LOGIC • GYM CLASS HEROES
• THE SUPERSPECS
Wednesday, January 19
TROY JOHNSON • ZACH BROOKE
Show begins with Johnson at 9 p.m. Brooke
follows at 10. Free. 18+.
SKYLINE RODEO • NOVA SOCIAL •
RISK RELAY
The band’s 2004 Long Way Home Acoustic
Tour began at The Goldhawk in May, and
the boys — Enda Keegan and Kevin Jahoda
— come back to their figurative Jersey
home to please the crowd with their
layered, sweetly harmonizing pop music.
Saturday, January 15
LONESOME PRAIRIE DOGS
Balance Hair Salon, 18 Erie St., JC, 369-7000.
Hosted by Bjorn.
KAREN DAVIS
Subia’s Organic Food Market, 506 Jersey Ave.,
JC, 432-7639.
Jersey City’s own Queen of AggroAcoustic Rock reprises last month’s gig
at Subia’s, playing original pieces from
earlier albums and covering old favorites
like Led Zeppelin’s “The Rain Song.”
Show begins at 2:30 p.m. Free.
AN ALBATROSS • MITSUKO • THE
CINEMA EYE • AQUI
I
Show begins at 8:30 p.m. $6. 18+.
Thursday, January 20
WORDS&MUSIC
Waterbug Hotel Annex, 7 Erie St., JC.
Featured poet is Nyugen Smith.
Sign up begins at 10:30 p.m., show starts at 11.
Free.18+.
TOM VINCENT & THE ROMANCE
COMMANDOS
Call for show time. Free. 18+.
THE DETROIT COBRAS • THE SIGHTS
• LUCY
Lucy features ex-members of the
Northern State.
Friday, January 21
LOST PATROL
EUGENE • HIGH SPEED CHASE •
KARYN KUHL • MOTEL CREEPS •
BUTTERSPY • CREWMAN #6 • MARC
GIANOTTI
ALL RATTLE & DUST • THE
ALPHAMALES
Uncle Joe’s Bar, 154 First St., JC, 659-6999.
Sunday, January 16
AN AMERICANA FAMILY JAMBOREE
Elena Skye and the Demolition String
Band.
Show begins at 3 p.m. Call ahead for cover.
18+.
GOT A PROBLEM? — The members of Hero Pattern, (from left) Jason Kundrath, Rob Fitzgerald, Pete Marceau and Mike
Kundrath, have found their groove in Cut You Out, their latest record from Boston-based Lonesome Recordings.
See SET LIST — p. 15
n “Monster,” a track off the new record by the Sparta, N.J.-based Hero
Pattern, lead singer Jason Kundrath
wails “I am a monster… I scare myself
sometimes.”
What makes this particular line so
beautiful is that it hits home. All of us —
from Hitler to Nessie to Aileen Wuornos
— have had this revelation at least once in
our lives. After a string of one-night stands,
for example, or maybe after going hog wild
at the all-you-can-eat buffet
This universality, coupled with a catchy
chorus and sing-songy angst, could make
“Monster” a monstrous hit. The video is
currently being featured on MTV.com.
Recently released by Boston label
Lonesome Recordings, Cut You Out is the
group’s sophomore effort. It follows 2002’s
The Reception EP, a split release with fellow N.J. up-and-comer Val Emmich.
Made up of lead singer Kundrath,
brother Mike Kundrath on drums, Pierre
“Pete” Marceau on guitar and bassist Rob
Fitzgerald, Hero Pattern has come a long
way since the days of The Reception.
In 1996, the classically-trained
Fitzgerald and lead singer Kundrath were
just young heroes without a pattern. After
losing their original drummer in 2001,
Kundrath — a self-taught musician who
plays both guitar and drums — recruited
younger brother Mike for an upcoming
gig and the foundation of the band was
formed. Once Marceau got on board, the
pattern was complete.
Now a more cohesive group, Hero
Pattern feels that Cut You Out is a true representation of who they are as artists.
“Though we remain proud of (The
Reception), we all grew very quickly as a
songwriting unit,” the band said on its web
site. “And it was clear that it was no longer
an accurate portrayal of our band.”
T
heir latest offering, however, is
entirely Hero Pattern-produced.
The band is so proud of Cut You
Out that it plans to continue its vigorous
touring schedule in support of the record.
So being on the road in 2005 will just be
more of the same for Hero Pattern, which
has already toured from here to Boston and
throughout the Midwest.
“Any band that becomes successful
works on this 365 days a year,” bassist
Fitzgerald said. “If anything, the new year
just gives you a kick in the butt, reminding
you to keep at it.”
The band’s determination to persevere,
said Jeff DeVito, lead singer of N.J.-based
rock outfit Particle Zoo and longtime Hero
Pattern compatriot, continues to inspire
him and his own band.
Only a handful of bands really define
and lead the scene where rock quartets are
a dime a dozen, DeVito said. And as far
as he’s concerned, Hero Pattern is one of
those bands.
“If anything, the New
Year just gives you a kick
in the butt, reminding
you to keep at it.
“Their live show is among the tightest displays of musicianship you’ll see
anywhere,” DeVito said. “(Guitarist) Pete
Marceau is quite simply one of the best
guitarists around.”
Marceau’s string skills are particularly showcased in “What Do You Have to
Say?,” another radio-worthy track off Cut
You Out. This isn’t an opportunity for audience members to grab the mic; rather,
it’s time to throw fists in the air and sing
along.
Kundrath, a self-taught musician who
plays both guitar and drums, urges you to
find your words in this outspoken anthem
when he demands: “It’s all your fault! What
do you have to say for yourself?”
If “What Do You Have to Say?” de-
mands answers, then the title track draws
conclusions. In keeping with the unabashed honesty of the record, the upbeat
chorus of “Cut You Out” echoes a dating
discovery we’ve all made: “You ’re just a
big mistake that I keep repeatin’, you’re just
another game that I’m bound to lose.”
H
ero Pattern clearly feels a sense
of urgency to stand out from
the crowd. They’ve played
with Superdrag and Dismemberment
Plan, and they have appeared on an Artist
Amplification CD.
“We’re hungry,” the band proclaimed
on its web site. “We’re setting our sights
high, and we’re ready for lift-off.”
The band played Maxwell’s, Hoboken’s
premiere live music venue, on Fri., Jan. 14
with The Milwaukees. The Boston-based
The Call-Up opened after Pilot to Gunner
canceled. Hero Pattern’s nine-song set was
mostly new music from their upcoming album set to be released in March. The asyet-untitled record was recently recorded
in Alabama with Hot Rod Circuit’s Andy
Jackson co-producing.
The show was a part of The Rock ‘n
Roll Rescue Tour, which Kundrath described as an “ego-free” line-up devoted to
the music.
And it was all about the music on
Friday night. The packed house sang along
to “Monster,” by now a familiar tune to local indie rock aficionados. Kundrath’s energy and charisma make him the group’s
obvious frontman.
Fitzgerald said the band enjoys playing in Hudson County because of the local
audience’s enthusiastic attitude.
“J.C. and Hoboken people come (to the
show) in a good mood, and everyone kicks
back and has fun,” he said. “It’s pretty impossible to have a bad show if you’re having such a good time.”
Emmich plays Maxwell’s on Feb. 18.
For upcoming Particle Zoo show dates, see
www.pzoo.com.
arts&entertainment
table
scraps
AMERICAN
HOBOKEN
AMANDA’S, 908 Washington St., 798-0101.
BRASS RAIL, 135 Washington St., 659-7074.
COMPANY, 86 Garden St., 798-7600.
CITY BISTRO, 56 14th St., 963-8200.
FRANKIE & JOHNNIE’S, 163 14th St., 659-6202.
LEO’S GRANDEZVOUS, 200 Grand St., 659-9467.
MADISON GRILL, 1316 Wash. St., 386-0300.
ODDFELLOWS REST, 80 River St., 656-9009.
SPA RESTAURANT, 74 Hudson St., 653-6617.
TEXAS ARIZONA, 76 River St., 420-0304.
THREE-A’S, 500 Grand St., 217-1650.
THREE FORTY GRILL, 340 Sinatra Dr., 217-3406.
JERSEY CITY
COMFORT BISTRO, 295 Grove St., 200-1320.
DORRIAN’S, 555 Washington Blvd., 626-6660.
FATBURGER, 286 Washington Blvd., 332-2244.
4 FIFTY 5, 455 Washington Blvd., 798-1114.
LIBERTY HOUSE, 82 Audrey Zapp Dr., 395-0300.
LIGHT HORSE, 199 Wash. Blvd., 946-2028.
MARCO & PEPE, 289 Grove St., 860-9688.
ODDEFLLOWS, 111 Montgomery St., 433-6999.
SOUTH CITY GRILL, 70 Pavonia Ave., 610-9225.
UNO CHICAGO, 286 Washington Blvd., 395-9500.
VU, 2 Exchange Place, JC, 469-4650.
CAFÉ
HOBOKEN
CAFE ELYSIAN, 1001 Washington St., 659-9110.
FAVIA LITE CAFÉ, 208 Washington St., 217-1999.
FROZEN MONKEY, 526 Washington St., 222-1311.
PITA GRILL, 324 Washington St., 217-9777.
SINATRA PARK CAFE, 525 Sinatra Dr., 420-9900.
WATERWAY CAFÉ, 1 Hudson Place, 216-9788.
WOLFGANG PUCK, 100 Sinatra Dr., 876-8600.
JERSEY CITY
BAKER BOYS, 270 Newark Ave., 876-0100.
BASIC, 231 Eighth St., 656-5900.
COSI, 545 Washington Blvd., 963-0533.
GROUND, 530 Jersey Ave., 985-0400.
MAHOGANY, 467 Communipaw Ave., 332-2474.
NEW HAM. PARK PIZZA, 357 7th St., 798-9539.
RIA’S, 24 Mercer St., 915-0045.
CARIBBEAN/LATIN
HOBOKEN
CUCHARAMAM, 233 Clinton St., 420-1700.
LA ISLA, 104 Washington St., 659-8197.
ZAFRA KITCHEN, 301 Willow Ave., 610-9801.
JERSEY CITY
HARD GROVE CAFE, 319 Grove St., 451-1853.
MR. GUSTO, 175 Newark Ave., 860-9540.
NICOLE’S, 521 Jersey Ave., 433-8443.
CHINESE
[email protected]
JERSEY CITY
COLONETTE, 405 Rt. 440, 432-8222.
FLAMINGO, 31 Montgomery St., 434-6769.
MISS AMERICA, 322 West Side Ave., 333-5468.
VIP DINER, 175 Sip Ave., 792-1400.
DELIS
HOBOKEN
LUCA BRASI’S, 100 Park Ave., 217-6879.
JERSEY CITY
LOMBARDI’S, 269 Newark Ave., 239-9222.
MILANO’S, 41 Montgomery St., 434-0126.
DINERS
HOBOKEN
JOHNNY ROCKETS, 134 Wash. St., 659-2620.
MIDTOWN DINER, 538 Wash. St., 656-2257.
MALIBU DINER, 259 14th St., 656-1595.
BY HW STAFF
hw State’s first Restaurant Week starts next week in Hudson
pick
NORTH BERGEN
Bergen, 864-8600.
FRENCH
HOBOKEN
RUE DE JARDIN, 343 Garden St., 222-2177.
JERSEY CITY
CASABLANCA, [Moroccan] 354 Grove St., 420-4072.
MADAME CLAUDE , 364½ Fourth St., 876-8800.
GERMAN
HELMER’S, 1036 Washington St., 963-3333.
ITALIAN
HOBOKEN
ANIELLO’S, 1319 Washington St., 217-6800.
DAVINCI, 411 Washington St., 659-2141.
DENO’S, 732 Jefferson St., 222-2660.
GERRINO’S, 96 River St., 656-7731.
IL CANTUCCIO, 518 Washington St., 420-4447.
LA SCALA, 159 14th St., 963-0884.
LA TARTUSERIA, 1405 Grand St., 792-2300.
NICCO’S, 247 Washington St., 332-8433.
PICCOLO ROMA, 120 Washington St., 876-9088.
PORTOFINO, 700 Clinton Ave., 659-2002.
TUTTA PASTA, 200 Washington St., 792-9102.
JERSEY CITY
BERTUCCI’S, 560 Washington Blvd., 222-8088.
CASA DANTE, 737 Newark Ave., 795-2750.
PRESTO’S, 199 Warren St., 433-6639.
PRONTO CENA, 87 Sussex St., 435-0004.
NICCO’S, 247 Washington Blvd., JC, 332-8433.
PUCCINI’S, 1064 West Side Ave., 432-4111.
RITA & JOE’S, 142 Broadway, 451-3606.
SCENT OF ITALY, 345 Grove St., 413-9775.
INDIAN
HOBOKEN
INDIA ON THE HUDSON, 1210 Wash. St., 222-0101.
KARMA CAFÉ, 505 Washington St., 610-0900.
SAFFRON, 338 Bloomfield Ave., 222-3373.
JERSEY CITY
CAFÉ SPICE, 537 Washington Blvd., 533-0111.
JAPANESE
HOBOKEN
ASIA SUSHI, 926 Washington St., 792-9660.
ISTANA SUSHI, 936 Washington St., 656-9877.
ROBONGI JAPAN, 520 Washington St., 222-8388.
SUSHI HOUSE, 155 First St., 656-7788.
SUSHI LOUNGE, 200 Hudson St., 386-1117.
YAMA SUSHI, 205 Hudson St., 222-2800.
JERSEY CITY
GRAND BANKS, 75 Montgomery St., 521-1800.
FRONT PAGE CHINESE, 1120 Wash. St., 653-5676. KOMEGASHI, 103 Montgomery St., 433-4567.
HOBOKEN COTTAGE, 516 Wash. St., 798-6788. KOMEGASHI TOO, 99 Pavonia Ave, 533-8888.
OFF THE WALL, 512 Washington St., 798-6078. SUSHI TANGO, 516 Jersey Ave., 332-8300.
RICE SHOP, 304 Washington St., 798-8382.
MALAYSIAN
BIG CHEF, 515 Jersey Ave., 309-0259.
CHINA EMPIRE, 99 Greene St., 451-3888.
CONFUCIUS, 538 Washington Blvd., 386-8898.
D&J GARDEN, 342 Grove St., 451-1960.
GREAT WALL, 281 Monmouth St., 433-1388.
Eat-stravaganza!
COACH HOUSE, 921 Kennedy Blvd., North
HOBOKEN
JERSEY CITY
FOOD
Call restaurant for hours or for
more information.
HOBOKEN
SATAY, 99 Washington St., 386-8688.
MEXICAN
HOBOKEN
BAJA, 104 14th St., 653-0610.
CHARRITO’S, 121 Washington St., 418-8600.
EAST L.A., 508 Washington St., 798-0052.
EL BARRIO BURRITOS, 89 Washington St., 963-8686.
MISION BURRITOS, 209 Fourth St., 795-0619.
QDOBA, 400 Washington St., 386-8974.
JERSEY CITY
BAJA, 117 Montgomery St., 915-0062.
OLÉ, 564 Washington Blvd., 626-6646.
MIDDLE EASTERN
HOBOKEN
ALI BABA, 912 Washington St., 653-5319.
YUM! — Leona Beldini and Karen Gutch (above) enjoy
some of the tasty treats at Hudson Restaurant Week’s kickoff
on Jan. 11. Spirito Grill chef and general manager Joseph Mastrella, right, serves a guest.
I
t’s hard to believe that in all of New Jersey’s 567 municipalities, not one of them has ever had a culinary
event that incorporates a variety of restaurants under
one banner.
But through the efforts of Tamara Remedios and Xplore
Communications, her Matawan-based group of business and
information directories, the state got its first Restaurant Week
in our own backyard.
Sponsored by “Get Out Hudson!” an Xplore publication
geared specifically toward Hoboken, Jersey City and Secaucus,
Hudson Restaurant Week offers a full week of prix-fixe lunches and dinners at 21 participating restaurants. From Jan. 24
through Feb. 4, the following restaurants will offer three-course
lunches for $15.05 and three-course dinners for $30.05:
• 3Forty Grill, Hoboken
• 4Fifty5, Jersey City
• Baja, Hoboken and Jersey City
• Café Newport, Jersey City
• Casa Dante, Jersey City
• Comfort, Jersey City
• Confucius, Jersey City
• Edwards Steakhouse, Jersey City
• Illuzion, Hoboken
• The Jefferson, Hoboken
• Komegashi and Komegashi too, Jersey City
• Liberty House, Jersey City
• The Madison, Hoboken
• The Merchant, Jersey City
• The Quays, Hoboken
• Sabor, North Bergen
• South City Grill, Jersey City
• Spirito Grill, Weehawken
• Trinity, Hoboken
Baja, Confucius, Komegashi and The Merchant offer even
lower prix-fixes. South City Grill is only participating for
lunch while Café Newport, Confucius, Komegashi and The
Quays are only honoring the promotion for dinner. And in
case you’re wondering, the five cents at the end of the prixfixe is in honor of the New Year.
The idea for the event, Remedios said, came about after
talking with some restaurateurs who said they were looking for
an event that would entice local resident to eat out in the communities they live in rather than go to New York to dine.
“Why talk the PATH train, why take the tunnels when
you have it in your own backyard?,” she added. “We want to
build Hudson County to be a dining destination.”
The event, which is sponsored by the Jersey City Office of
Travel and Tourism, also received an advertising grant from
the state of New Jersey.
“We’ve received so much support from the cities and the
county and financial support from the state,” Remedios said.
“It was nice that a first time event received such a warm,
fuzzy feeling.”
For more information, go to www.hudsonrestaurantweek.com
See TABLE SCRAPS — p. 15
arts&entertainment
gallery
listings
information.
Openings & Events
HOBOKEN PORTRAITS
Hoboken Historical Museum, 1301 Hudson St., HOB. 656-2240. www.hobokenmuseum.org.
See feature story opposite.
INTIMACIES: RAÏSSA VENABLES
Jersey City Museum, 350 Montgomery St., JC. 413-0303. www.jerseycitymuseum.org.
The museum’s Project Gallery features large-scale photography by Jersey City-based artist
Venables that “asks us to reconsider how we understand the formation of space and the
meaning of reality.” For the first time ever in the gallery’s history, both the floor and the
ceiling are used in the installation.Through July 31.
THE SUPERFLY EFFECT
Jersey City Museum, 350 Montgomery St., JC. 413-0303. www.jerseycitymuseum.org.
Taking its name from a cinematic trick used in Gordon Parks Jr.’s 1972 film Superfly, this
exhibit — featuring the work of Sandra Bermúdez, Libby Black, Willie Cole, Alejandro
Díaz, Luís Gispert, Hiroshi Kumagai, Hisayo Kushida, Marilyn Minter, Mariko Mori,
Domingo Nuño, Clifford Owens, Laura Shults, Helen M. Stummer and Arturs Virtmanis
— attempts to show how urban environments impact the work of contemporary artists.
Through July 31.
FOUND IN JERSEY CITY:
SHANDOR LAFCADIO HASSAN
Jersey City Museum, 350 Montgomery St., JC. 4130303. www.jerseycitymuseum.org.
Hassan, a local artist who has worked out of 111
First Street for the past six years, has relied on the
local landscape for this exhibit of photographs that
serves as “part of (his) long-term personal essay
about Jersey City.” Dually titled The Manhattan
Project.Through April 24. Pictured right.
1X1: VARIOUS ARTISTS
Jersey City Museum, 350 Montgomery St., JC. 4130303. www.jerseycitymuseum.org.
Chitra Ganesh’s “Evidence of Past Lives” is on
display from Jan. 21 through April 24. Jim Jeffers’
“Short Trips” is on display from Jan. 2o through
May 10. DJ Language and Joshua Taylor’s “ Presque Rien/Almost Nothing (Brick City
Rework)” goes up Jan. 21 and comes down May 10. Lynn Mullins “flying/falling” is from
Jan. 12 through April 24.
ARTIST SLIDE NIGHT: GALLERY AFERRO
Jersey City Museum, 350 Montgomery St., JC. 413-0303. www.jerseycitymuseum.org. Free.
At 6 p.m. on Jan. 27, Emma Wilcox and Evonne Davis of Newark’s new gallery Aferro
give a talk on new local artists with whom they collaborate.
Ongoing
BODIES AND MINDS:
JULIETTE FIORITO SHIMKIN
LITM, 140 Newark Ave., JC. 536-5557. Free.
Pictured left. Through Jan. 30.
BETH ACHENBACH
Subia’s Café, 506 Jersey Ave., JC. 432-7639. Free.
Through Jan. 31.
MOMENTS AND MOVEMENT:
WORKS ON PAPER BY MEREDETH TURSHEN
Symposia Community Bookstore, 510 Washington St.,
HOB. 963-0909. Free.
JENN DATA • DENNIS DEL CRESPO
Ground, 530 Jersey Ave., JC. 985-0400. Free.
Religious imagery reigns in this exhibit on the
coffee shop’s walls. Incorporating Marian
imagery and various fabric textures, Data’s four
mixed media paintings shed light on how we each
personalize the spiritual. Del Crespo, pictured
right, exquisitely frames his carefully composed
photographs taken both locally and in Puerto Rico
of Crucifixion statuary and other icons.
BALLET & BREAD FRUIT
Ria’s Café, 24 Mercer St., JC. 915-0045. Free.
Caribbean life is the subject of a series of photographs by Christopher Lane and John Cadenhead , on
display through Jan. 31 at Ria’s Café in Downtown
Jersey City. Cadenhead’s close-ups of food used in
Caribbean cooking focus on the “beauty of nature we take for granted” while Lane’s photographs of life in Havana offer a rare glimpse at Cuban culture, which seems as if it is
frozen in time.
ART
Forcing a stare
BY HW STAFF
hw Artist unveils large-scale portraits of local residents
pick
G
oing through life
amid the frenzied
sights and sounds
of the city and all its bustling
activity has the tendency to desensitize urban dwellers from the
things around them.
A person could regularly
take the same route from their
home to their job for months,
even years, and really never see
what they’re walking past. In the
densely-packed city, people who
live in the same apartment building could go their entire lives
without knowing each other’s
names, where they come from or
what they do for a living.
So when it comes to complete strangers, those people are
often invisible. Thousand-yard
stares pervade. We may notice,
but we rarely look.
In a new exhibit at the
Hoboken Historical Museum,
however, a series of large-scale
oil paintings by Hoboken-based
artist Laura Alexander confronts
viewers with people who are
otherwise passively overlooked
or actively ignored.
Of the nine paintings included in the show, simply titled
Hoboken Portraits, two portray a
homeless woman named Olivia
who sleeps at the Hoboken
Shelter and spends her time at
the Barnes & Noble bookstore.
One depicts the transsexual Taxi,
a persona who has developed
into a quasi-celebrity in town.
The other portraits are of
other, somewhat less-sensational
local residents. Alexander, however, doesn’t make a distinction
between the subjects.
“I’m just painting who they
are,” Alexander said. “I’m painting you. I’m painting myself.
Every one of the things that these
people are showing is universal.
It’s humanity.”
lexander,
45,
a
Hawthorne
native
who has lived in
Hoboken for seven years, made
her 3’X5’ portraits from photographs she took of her subjects
in her studio. For her portraits
of Olivia, Alexander took a little
more than 100 photographs and
selected the ones she felt most
captured the woman’s energy.
After being drawn to Olivia’s
bright red hair and dressy clothing, Alexander approached her
at Barnes & Noble last year.
Other people had told Alexander
that Olivia was deranged, but
A
HOBOKEN PORTRAITS
INCLUDING: Oil Paintings by
Laura Alexander
AT: Hoboken Historical
Museum, 1301 Hudson St.,
656-2240.
WHEN: Through March 13.
Alexander came to know a different person once Olivia agreed
to be photographed.
“She’s completely sane,”
Alexander said. “It’s a hard-luck
story. A lot of people think she’s
insane and that’s why they don’t
talk to her. But she’s actually really smart and very interesting.
“She grew up in England,”
Alexander added. “Her father
was a diplomat. She went to
Oxford. She’s very intelligent,
and she’s good company.”
Alexander’s experience in
getting Taxi to pose for her was
a bit more difficult, she said, but
once Taxi agreed, she proved
to be one of the easiest subjects
with which to work.
“I’ve always seen Taxi on the
street and always wanted to paint
her,” Alexander said. “She has a
lot of energy. She blew me off at
first but then came around.
he’s an amazing
artist,” Alexander
added. “She does
glamour better than any woman
I ever met. She really gave it up
for the camera.”
Other subjects include musicians Roland and Wolfgang,
who, like Alexander, have studios
at the Monroe Center for the Arts.
One is of Rebecca, a pregnant
woman Alexander met during the
Hoboken Artists’ Studio Tour.
What ties all the subjects together, she said, is that they each
have a performer’s personality
that inspires her as an artist.
“I get energy from them that
helps me paint the paintings,”
she said. “They make me want to
paint the paintings.
“Take Olivia,” Alexander
added. “She wakes up in a homeless shelter and gets dressed up,
paints her nails and walks around
like that. She doesn’t care. I admire them. They have guts.”
A reception will be held from
2 to 5 p.m. on Jan 23, and the exhibit will be open through March
13. Alexander and Olivia have
also agreed to hold a live portraiture session at the museum on a
date to be announced.
Contact the museum at 6562240 for more information.
“S
CAPTURING OLIVIA — Laura Alexander’s portraits of Hoboken resident Olivia were each painted in
about two weeks from photographs taken in the artist’s
studio at the Monroe Center for the Arts.
arts&entertainment
curtain
calls
THEATRE & DANCE
[email protected]
HOBOKEN
JERSEY CITY
_gaia
66 Willow Ave., 386-0486. gaiastudio.org.
Attic Ensemble
83 Wayne St., 413-9200.
atticensemble.org.
www.hextc.org.
Hudson Rep. Dance Theater
140 MLK Drive, 432-5534.
865-1436.
hudsonshakespeare.org.
J.C. Dance Academy
107 West Side Ave., 435-8943.
377-7014.
hudsontheatreensemble.com.
Kennedy Dancers
79 Central Ave., 659-2190.
Naked theatre
BY HW STAFF
hw Staged readings offer a glimpse into the soul of plays
pick
www.jerseycitydanceacademy.com
Kismet Theatre Co.
1 Marineview Plaza, 792-1082.
Mile Square Theater
Box 6190, 07030. (646) 2716557.
360 Marin Blvd., 217-8900.
Schola Cantorum on the Hudson
(973) 698-6927.
Tempest Productions
(800) 475-5633.
720 Monroe St., 795-3767.
Tuesday, January 18
A NIGHT OF PLAY READINGS & MONOLOGUES
Symposia Community Bookstore, 510 Washington St., HOB. 963-0909. 8 p.m. Free.
New Jersey Dramatists, a local development workshop, joins with the Waterfront Ensemble
to present a night of monologues at one-act plays.
ORIGINAL PLAY READING SERIES
Barrow Mansion, 83 Wayne St., JC. 413-9200.
subscribers.
7:30 p.m. $5 general admission, free to
The Attic Ensemble presents an installment of their reading series. Call for more information
about which plays will be read.
TAMING OF THE SHREW
DeBaun Auditorium, Stevens Institute of Technology, Fifth and Hudson streets, HOB. 413-9200. 8
p.m. $15 for adults, $10 for students and seniors.
Shakespeare: The Box Set Tour storms into Hoboken yet again for a performance of
TheTaming of the Shrew, that timeless tale of how Katherine, a proto-feminist in every sense
of the word, gets wooed by the macho, swaggering Petruchio. The story is so timeless, in fact,
that it has spawned two recent incarnations: the Broadway revival of “Kiss Me, Kate” and
that epic masterpiece of cinema, 10 Things I Hate About You. Tonight’s show is directed by
Aaron Bogad, DeBaun’s Shakespeare Artist-in-Residence.
Wednesday, Jan 26
OVER THE RIVER & THROUGH THE WOODS
Jersey City Museum, 350 Montgomery St., JC. 413-0303. $20 general admission, $18 for museum
members.
The Italian-American Repertory Company brings Joe DiPietro’s Over the River & Through
The Woods to the museum’s Caroline Guarini Theater for three performances this week. The
play follows Nick, a single, Italian-American guy from New Jersey whose parents relocated
to Florida, leaving him to visit his grandparents every Sunday for dinner. All is routine until
he has to tell them that he’s been offered a dream job in Seattle that would take him away
from his beloved, but annoying, grandparents. The news doesn’t sit well. Thus begins a series
of schemes to keep Nick around, which includes inviting bringing the lovely — and single
— Caitlin O’Hare to dinner.
Performances at 1 p.m. on Wed., Jan. 26, and at 7 p.m. on Fri., Jan. 28 and Sat., Jan 29. Cal
945-0072 for reservations.
NEWS
T
R
he Kennedy Dancers will be holding auditions Thurs., Jan. 20 , at 4 p.m. for its Inner
City Youth Dance Training Scholarship.
The program, which gives teens an opportunity to study dance, is aimed at young
people aged 12 to 17 who have the desire to study dance but not the financial means with
which to do so.
ecipients of the $3,500 scholarship will rehearse with a professional repertory
company and perform in New Jersey and New York. The Kennedy Dancers
stresses that applicants must be available two nights a week and able to attend all
performances.
No dance experience is necessary. Those who audition must be accompanied by a parent or
guardian and must bring: birth certificate, proof of parental income and proof of residency.
For more information, call Pat Kuca at 659-2190.
BUT THEY DON’T LOOK LIKE THESPIANS — Matt Urban and Jessie Gallogly bring theatre in its barest form
to the DeBaun stage at Stevens Institute of Technology.
E
ven though New York is considered by many to be the
world capital of theatre, there
are relatively few companies that are in
the business of producing new plays.
On this side of the Hudson, however,
the theatrical landscape is decidely different. Of the handful of theatre troupes
in Hudson, almost all make it a point to
produce new work.
At the Debaun Center for the
Performing Arts in Hoboken, a “New
Playwright’s Series” was reinstated this
year after a five-year-long hiatus. The
Center’s motives for reviving the dormant series, DeBaun artist-in-residence
Jessie Gallogly said, was for both creative and starkly practical reasons.
“Except for a few key places in New
York, you really don’t see new work,”
said Gallogly, who both solicited the
plays and selected the submissions.
“It’s really important to have a place
where new plays can be produced so
people can keep writing them.”
On Sun., Jan. 23, DeBaun will stage
the second installment of its series
with a reading of three short one-acts:
Dennis Shinners’ Area X, Joe Ganem’s
Put It Back and Gilad Segal’s Urban
Meadow. The plays — which will be
directed by Matt Urban, a co-founder of the New York-based Imperfect
People Theatre Company — will consist of four actors each playing more
than one role.
According to Gallogly and Urban,
Area X focuses on a 20-something hus-
NEW PLAYWRIGHTS SERIES
DIRECTED BY: Matt Urban
STARRING: Erin Joy Schmidt, Ricardo
Muldonado, et al.
WHERE: DeBaun Center for the Performing Arts, corner of Fifth and Hudson
streets, Hoboken
WHEN; Sunday, Jan. 23, 3 p.m.
PRICE: Free, $3 suggested donation
tler, played by Ricardo Muldonado,
on the run from both his home and his
sexuality. In the course of the play, he
meets a somewhat older hustler who
introduces him into the dark and dangerous world of hustling.
“ This is the play in its
rawest form. It’s theatre,
unplugged.
In Put It Back, a character named
John corners his handy-man, fix-it-all
father in the garage to see why he has
been distant throughout his week-long
visit. What John discovers was the furthest thing from his mind.
In Urban Meadow, main character Warren — a cleaned-up, formerly
homeless guy — kidnaps still homeless
ex-girlfriend Alexis, played by Erin Joy
Schmidt, after a year-long search and
tries to save her from the life she leads.
he audience appeal of these
pieces, director Urban said,
is that they present the viewer
with very real worlds and relationships
that don’t often get portrayed in other
types of story-telling.
“I think Urban Meadow has a very
T
interesting relationship between the
two main characters that develops as
the play goes on,” he said. “That’s a
story that’s not often told. The Area X
piece is again a story that isn’t told as
often, where we can sort of go into this
neighborhood and get a sense of what
these people’s lives are like.”
Aside from the above-mentioned
values of staging new plays, the readings serve yet another pragmatic, more
development-oriented purpose.
The pieces are minimalist productions with no musical accompaniment,
little costume detail and virtually no
set design. Since these elements aren’t
necessary in staged readings, it gives
directors, playwrights and actors more
freedom to focus on what makes theatre so powerful: its dialogue and the
emotional material contained therein.
ou definitely get a peek
at an earlier part of the
process than when you
go to a fully-realized show,” Urban
said. “This is much more about the process, kind of like when you’re watching
a reality show.
“When you go to a play, there are
a lot of different elements going on,”
Urban added. “But this is the play in
its rawest form. Unplugged. It’s theatre,
unplugged.
”Readings in the New Playwrights’
Series are free, although a $3 donation
to the arts is suggested.
For more information, call the
DeBaun Center at 216-8937.
“Y
arts&entertainment
bit
parts
Screenings & Special Events
FILM
All show times subject to changes.
Call theater for more information.
To have a movie listed, email:
[email protected]
Friday, Jan. 21
Rising water
BY HW STAFF
Biblical flood imagery, nature takes abstract form
CHARLIE CHAPLIN DOUBLE FEATURE
Grace Church Van Vorst, 39 Erie St., JC. 6592211. $3 adults, $2 children and $2 for pizza
and dessert.
The church’s Family Film Night continues
with screenings of two favorite Chaplin
films, 1918’s A Dog’s Life and 1921’s The Kid.
Running at 68 minutes, A Dog’s Life follows
Charlie as he strikes out at the employment
line, steals some sausage and gets 86’d from
a dance hall because of his lack of cash. At
40 minutes, The Kid is a comic yet heartbreaking tale of how a desperate woman tries
to find the baby she gave up for adoption
before she made it big as an opera singer.
Sunday, Jan. 23
WHITE ZOMBIE
hw
pick
Victory Hall, 186 Grand St., JC. 2090510. $3. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.
www.victoryhall.org. Doors open at
7:30pm. $3 admission.
In the second installment of its Winter Horror Film
Series, Victory Hall presents Victor Halperin’s White
Zombie, starring Bela Lugosi. This 1932 classic ,
which “drips with atmosphere from the opening,”
was the first zombie movie ever made and features Lugosi’s archly sinister performance. The
screening will also feature a selection of independent horror shorts from emerging filmmakers.
MUCH ADO
Saturday, Jan. 29
Symposia Community Bookstore, 510 Washington St, HOB. 963-0909. 8 p.m.
In its inaugural event, the Hoboken Digital Film Society screens Kipley Wentz’s Much
Ado, winner of the Best Feature Award at the 2003 Kalamazoo Independent Film Festival .
Chronicling “the hilarious hardships faced by a crew of filmmakers striving to complete an
‘indie’ version of Shakespeare’s classic ‘Much Ado About Nothing,’ the cast and crew struggle
valiantly through the bizarre production as their hopes, dreams, loves, and losses become
entangled in a mischievous plot concocted by a jealous actor.”
The HDFS, a weekly screening series of independent films featuring recent works by the next
generation of digital filmmakers, makes Wentz available to answer questions about the process of
making the movie and the challenges they faced shooting on a shoestring budget.
BAMBI ON ACID — In Naturetrane, a 45-minute experimental film by Jersey City resident Garth Kobal, natural
images are tweaked into psychedelic shapes and colors.
W
hen Jersey City resident Garth Kobal was
putting some final touches on his experimental 45-minute digital film Naturetrane
late last month, he found it particularly difficult.
It wasn’t because there was some nagging image that
he couldn’t tone, nor were there any glitches on his S-VHS
machine he couldn’t fix. What bothered him were the news
reports coming in from South Asia, where a tsunami devastated thousands of miles of coastline and destroyed hundreds of thousands of lives.
Rife with rising water and other flood imagery, the film
— a montage of digitally processed images set to music
— uses footage Kobal shot in 1999 and 2000 at various
locations across the tri-state area. Some of the video was
taken on Fire Island, N.Y., as well as from a train en route
to Philadelphia from Atlantic City. Other footage was shot
in the city of Philadelphia itself, along with other images of
urban scenery from New York.
The driving force behind the film, Kobal said, is the contrast between natural spaces and built, urban environments.
That contrast, which he said is rooted in his subconscious,
also has a spiritual tone.
“I have a very pessimistic outlook towards where culture and mankind are going,” Kobal said. “Therefore, the
bookends of Biblical flood-type imagery were lying right
there in front of me. People are very detached from the natural world around them, and while I believe that the natural
environment for people to live in is the city, they take for
granted what’s going on in nature, how it affects them, and
the fragility of it.”
O
ne illustration of the contrast Naturetrane
presents is through the image of a deer in a
forest. Viewers first see images of the deer at
a standard resolution and free of color manipulation, but as
the film wears on, the deer slowly and fluidly becomes distorted to the point where it ceases looking like an animal.
“When I first looked at the raw video (of the deer) without doing anything with it, I realized it looked like an alien
creature,” Kobal said. “We’re so alien to nature, we can
almost say we’re not sure what a deer is in relation to us.
When (the footage of the deer) was taken through the extra
processes, it just made it that more obvious.”
Kobal’s process in making the film, he said, was more
about experimentation than it was trying to craft a cohesive
narrative. Broken into three segments, the film uses psyche-
delic color filters that cause the hues to explode, blend into
each other and smear across the screen. Some people have
described the film, Kobal said, as a visual tab of acid.
A high level of abstraction was also a goal, and Kobal
said he would magnify the images — by playing the footage on a television screen and zooming in with another
video camera — to such low resolutions as to be unrecognizable.
“I like abstraction,” Kobal said. “I like the painterly effects that the filters bring out. And a lot of them are random,
actually, which relieves me of the authorship and puts it
more to chance, which is an element I like a lot.”
“It was very spontaneous. She
wasn’t wearing any underwear.
She was extremely brave .
T
hat sense of chance and randomness is a pervasive element in the film. Although Kobal and his
partner Ray filmed the video themselves, the narrative fragmentation of its content almost makes the images
found footage, as if it was picked randomly from a bunch of
unlabeled videotapes in someone’s attic.
One series of scenes in the film’s last segment show
friend Kim O’Grady wearing a tabard, a medieval article
of clothing made from two pieces of leather that cover the
back and front. O’Grady positioned the tabard so that her
butt was exposed, and she went out into the cold Manhattan
air — with Kobal in tow behind her — to interact with other
city dwellers in her provocative get-up.
“It was very spontaneous,” Kobal said. “She wasn’t
wearing underwear. She was extremely brave. When she
walks into the Korean grocery, the guy that was standing
there got quite a treat.”
Despite the fact that the video in Naturetrane was shot
randomly, Kobal said he perceived a spiritual and political
message coming through.
“When it comes specifically to Naturetrane, there seems
to be a lot of inherent meaning in what’s been put together,
but in the sense of what I didn’t have control over,” he said.
“There are warnings out there and changes in the world. If
people would just let it out and be the good people they can
be, then there’s hope that what’s going on in this world and
in this country can be reversed.”
SET LIST — continued from p. 10
LUI COLLINS
Brennan County Courthouse, 583 Newark Ave., JC, 459-2070.
Show begins at 7:30 PM. $10 general admission, $5 for seniors.
Maxwell’s, 1039 Washington St., HOB, 653-1703.
Wednesday, January 26
ANDY ZIPF • CASEY HOLFORD
BILLIONAIRE BOYS CLUB • GOD OR JULIE •
COPPERPOT
HISTORY LESSON — continued from p. 6
JANUARY 17
1806
James Madison Randolph, grandson of U.S. President
Thomas Jefferson, was the first child born in the White
House.
1900
Mormon Brigham Roberts was denied a seat in the U.S.
House of Representatives for his practicing of polygamy.
1961
In his farewell address, U.S. President Eisenhower warned
against the rise of the military-industrial complex.
1977
Double murderer Gary Gilmore became the first to be
executed in the U.S. in a decade. The firing squad took
place at Utah State Prison.
Show begins with Zipf at 9 p.m. Holford follows at 10. Free. 18+.
THE SIDEWAYS • HUMA • CELESTE & SVEN •
MARK MARTUCCI
1997
A court in Ireland granted the first divorce in the Roman
Catholic country s history.
BALANCE OPEN MIC
Balance Hair Salon, 18 Erie St., JC, 369-7000.
2001
The director of Palestinian TV, Hisham Miki, was killed at a
restaurant when three masked gunmen walked up to his
table and shot him more than 10 times.
Hosted by Bjorn.
Sunday, January 23
JANUARY 18
STEEL TRAIN • SPECIAL GUESTS
Tuesday, January 25
AJ AZZARTO & THE HOBOKEN 4
KATE JACOBS
Call ahead for show time. Free. 18+.
THE AUDIBLES • BON BOMB • ADAM
RICHMAN
WORDS&MUSIC
DENNIS ZIMMER • SPECIAL GUESTS
Waterbug Hotel Annex, 7 Erie St., JC.
Sign up begins at 10:30 p.m., show starts at 11. Free.18+.
JERSEY CITY
PIZZA
HOBOKEN
AUGUSTINO’S, 1104 Washington St., 420-0104.
BENNY TUDINO’S, 622 Washington St., 792-4132.
FILIPPO’S, 406 Washington St., 798-8210.
GRANDE PIZZA, 400 Newark St., 459-6070.
GRIMALDI’S, 133 Clinton St., 792-0800.
MARGHERITA’S, 740 Washington St., 222-2400.
MARIO’S, 742 Garden St., 659-0808.
MEDITERRANEAN GRILLE, 38 Hudson Pl., 222-2848.
MELINA’S, 534 Adams St., 963-3111.
SEVENTH STAR, 342 Garden St., 653-7204.
JERSEY CITY
PORTUGUESE
JERSEY CITY
BUSKER’S GRILL, 94 Bloomfield St., 604-1380.
COURT ST. REST., 61 Sixth St., 795-4515.
DUFFY’S, 239 Bloomfield St., 963-5512.
FARSIDE GRILL, 531 Washington St., 963-7677.
GASLIGHT, 400 Adams St., 217-1400.
GREEN ROCK GRILL, 70 Hudson St., 386-5600.
HOBSON’S, 77 Hudson Pl., 420-0070.
MADISON GRILL, 1316 Washington St., 386-0300.
MAXWELL’S, 1039 Washington St., 798-0406.
MILE SQUARE, 221 Washington St., 420-0222.
ONIEAL’S, 343 Park Ave., 653-1492.
ROGO’S, 734 Willow Ave., 217-1512.
SULLIVAN’S, 600 Washington St., 420-9849.
TED AND JO’S, 219 11th St., 222-6670.
WILLIE McBRIDE’S, 616 Grand St., 610-1522.
ZACK’S, 232 Willow Ave., 653-7770.
COLES ST. PUB, 174 Coles St., 656-9240.
GOLDEN CICADA, 195 Grand St., 432-0048.
HAM. PARK ALE HOUSE, 708 Jersey Ave., 659-9111.
LAMP POST GRILL, 382 Second St., 222-1331.
THE MERCHANT, 279 Grove St., 200-0202.
P.J. RYAN’S, 172 First St., 239-9911.
ROSIE RADIGAN’S, 10 Exchange Pl., 451-5566.
WHITE STAR, 230 Brunswick St., 653-9234.
POLISH
LISBON, 256 Warren St., 432-9222.
SEAFOOD
BIGGIE’S, 318 Madison St., 656-2161.
LES BISOUS, 333 Washington St., 795-1104.
PICCOLO’S , 92 Clinton St., 653-0564.
SPANISH
HOBOKEN
PUERTO SPAIN, 116 14th St., 420-7008.
VALÉ, 832 Washington St., 653-2000.
JERSEY CITY
YULY’S PLACE, 45 Coles St., 222-9544.
TAVERNS
HOBOKEN
BAR AT 10TH AND WILLOW, 935 Willow Ave., 653-2358.
BLACK BEAR GRILL, 205 Washington St., 656-5511.
1896
The x-ray machine was exhibited for the first time.
1943
U.S. commercial bakers stopped selling sliced bread. Only
whole loaves were sold during the ban until the end of
World War II.
1990
In an FBI sting, Washington, DC, Mayor Marion Barry was
arrested for drug possession. He was later convicted of a
misdemeanor.
1993
The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was observed in all 50
U.S. states for the first time.
2002
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced
the approval of a saliva-based ovulation test.
1861
Georgia seceded from the Union.
JERSEY CITY
CARMINE’S, 102 Brunswick St., 386-8777.
HELEN’S, 183 Newark Ave., 435-1507.
STELLA’S, 315 Grove St., 435-4650.
TELLY’S, 101 Greene St., 432-0012.
3 BOYS FROM ITALY, 415 Monmouth St., 795-5427.
1788
The first English settlers arrived in Australia s Botany Bay
to establish a penal colony. The group moved north eight
days later and settled at Port Jackson.
JANUARY 19
TABLE SCRAPS — continued from p. 15
IBBY’S FALAFEL, 303 Grove St., 432-2400.
SHADMAN [Pakistani], 293 Grove St., 200-0333.
1994
The Northridge earthquake rocked Los Angeles, CA,
registering a 6.7 on the Richter Scale. At least 61 people
were killed and about $20 billion in damage was caused.
JERSEY CITY
TANIA’S, 348 Grove St., 451-6189.
THAI
HOBOKEN
BANGKOK CITY, 335 Washington St., 792-6613.
CASUAL THAI, 1006 Washington St., 656-6108.
SRI THAI, 234 Bloomfield St., 798-4822.
T THAI, 102 Hudson St., 386-1522.
1883
Thomas Edison s first village electric lighting system using
overhead wires began operation in Roselle, NJ.
1937
Howard Hughes set a transcontinental air record. He flew
from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes
and 25 seconds.
1949
The salary of the President of the United States was
increased from $75,000 to $100,000 with an additional
$50,000 expense allowance for each year in office.
1969
In protest against the Russian invasion of 1968, Czech
student Jan Palach set himself on fire in Prague s
Wenceslas Square.
1971
At the Charles Manson murder trial, the Beatles Helter
Skelter was played. At the scene of one of his gruesome
murders, the words helter skelter were written on a
mirror.
VIETNAMESE
JERSEY CITY
SAIGON CAFÉ, 188 Newark Ave., 332-8711.
NHA TRANG PLACE, 249 Newark Ave., 239-1988.
1885
The roller coaster was patented by L.A. Thompson.
1942
Nazi officials held the Wannsee conference, during
which they arrived at their final solution that called for
exterminating Europe s Jews.
1981
Iran released 52 Americans that had been held hostage
for 444 days. The hostages were flown to Algeria and then
to a U.S. base in Wiesbaden, West Germany. The release
occurred minutes after the U.S. presidency had passed
from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.
1985
The most-watched Super Bowl game in history was seen
by an estimated 115.9 million people. The San Francisco
49ers downed the Miami Dolphins, 38-16. Super Bowl XIX
marked the first time that TV commericals sold for a million
dollars a minute.
1998
American researchers announced that they had cloned
calves that may produce medicinal milk.
1999
The China News Service announced that the Chinese
government was tightening restrictions on internet use.
The rules were aimed at 15Internet Bars.
JANUARY 21
1861
The future president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis
of Mississippi, resigned from the U.S. Senate. Four other
Southerners also resigned.
1908
The Sullivan Ordinance was passed in New York City
making smoking by women became illegal. The measure
was vetoed by Mayor George B. McClellan Jr.
1977
U.S. President Carter pardoned almost all Vietnam War
draft evaders.
1998
A former White House intern said on tape that she had an
affair with U.S. President Clinton.
1999
The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted a ship headed for
Houston, TX, that had over 9,500 pounds of cocaine
aboard. It was one of the largest drug busts in U.S. history.
2003
It was announced by the U.S. Census Bureau that
estimates showed that the Hispanic population had passed
the black population for the first time.
JANUARY 22
1789
The Power of Sympathy, by Philenia (Mrs. Sarah W.)
Morton, was published in Boston, MA.
1905
Insurgent workers were fired on in St Petersburg, Russia,
resulting in Bloody Sunday. 500 people were killed.
1950
Alger Hiss, a former adviser to U.S. President Franklin
Roosevelt, was convicted of perjury for denying contacts
with a Soviet agent. He was sentenced to five years in
prison.
1951
Fidel Castro was ejected from a Winter League baseball
game after hitting a batter. He later gave up baseball for
politics.
1984
Apple introduced the Macintosh. It was the first computer
to use point-and-click technology.
1997
The U.S. Senate confirmed Madeleine Albright as the first
female secretary of state.
SEX TALK — continued from p. 7
ity that makes people think smoking doobies leads
to shooting smack. It just doesn’t jive. Sometimes
a love tap on the mud-flap can add a little zizz to
the hump. I’ve had several lovers who came like
Old Faithful whenever I played “Bobba-Loo,” on
their bubble butts and it never went further than
that. Trust me. Your wife’s penchant for having
her gluteus maximus tenderized like a veal chop
is perfectly normal. Just remember to always use a
safe word when engaging in spanking. This way,
if it gets too intense, all she has to say is Cheez
Doodle or something and it goes no further.
JERSEY CITY
SIAM, 62 Morris St., 433-7034.
JANUARY 20
Dear Miss Kitty,
I’m in love with a wonderful man and I think he’s
going to propose. There’s just one thing that’s making
me kind of nervous. Every time he’s about to shoot
his love juice, he sucks the end of my nose. And
every time I try to bring up the subject, he laughs it
off and tells me its no big deal. Am I over-reacting?
Curious in Hoboken
Dear Curious,
Well, this is a new one, even for Miss Kitty. I’ve
had men who liked to suck my finger when they were
about to spurt. But that always enhanced my orgaz,
so I didn’t mind. But, honestly, in all Miss Kitty’s years
of bouncy-bouncy, I’ve never heard of a nose job.
My guess is that he’s substituting your honker for a
guy’s boner. After consulting with Dr. X, my trusty
yet highly sexed advisor, he told me that your future
fiancé is definitely exhibiting homo behavior. “Men
who fixate on phallic objects during heterosexual
intercourse have homosexual longings which they
only exhibit in the bedroom and only to understanding females they believe they can trust,” he told me.
Services
Employment
Rentals
Real Estate
Personals
Auto
Auto
classifieds
Deadlines:
PHONE: (201) 892–3553
FAX: (201) 432-9931
Services
Personals
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FRIDAY
SUSHI LOUNGE
200 Hudson St., 386-1117.
TONIC
1300 Park Ave., 653-2583.
SATURDAY
lounge house.
DJ.
WHISKEY BAR
125 Wshngtn St., 963-3400.
Live music. $3 Smirnoff drinks
and pints of Bass Ale.
Live music. $3 Miller Light &
Amstel Lite.
WILLIE MCBRIDE’S
616 Gr& St., 610-1522.
available.
drafts.
Auto
SUNDAY
Rentals
MONDAY
mojitos 6-midnite.
TUESDAY
spins house.
WEDNESDAY
Real Estate
THURSDAY
DJ Ralph.
Original music. $3 Aspen Edge
bottles & Ketel One drinks.
Original music. $3 pints of Bud
& Bud Light.
Original music. $10 buckets of
Rolling Rock bottles.
meeting.
drafts.
JERSEY CITY
4FIFTY5
455 Wshngtn Blvd., 798-1114.
BAJA
margaritas.
DORRIAN’S
555 Wshngtn Blvd., 626-6660.
Apple martinis.
239 Marin Blvd., 761-0000.
708 Jersey Ave., 659-9111.
IRON MONKEY
97 Greene St., 435-5756.
382 Second St., 222-1331.
well drinks.
domestic bottles.
Power Hour. $2 house shots, $2 well drinks from 11-midnite.
Karaoke on Saturdays with DJ Homie at 10, no cover.
NFL Ticket. Basket of wings or nachos with a beer pitcher;
domestic $10 and import $12.
$1 off all 12 oz. bottled beer.
Martini drink list.
LIGHT HORSE TAVERN
199 Wshngtn Blvd., 946-2028.
LITM
140 Newark Ave., 536-5557.
$2 domestic drafts and $3
imported drafts.
Karaoke with DJ Homie at
10, no cover. Rotating drink
specials.
Happy Hour every day from 4-7; $3 domestic and imported beer, $4 red & white wine and $5 house martinis. Rainy Day Special: When the rain is falling, a domestic beer + a house shot is $5, house martinis are also $5. A tapas menu is also
available every day but Sunday.
MARCO & PEPE
289 Grove St., 860-9688.
Astrological readings by Joe.
$20.
MERCER & BARROW
292 Barrow St., 946-1411.
drink specials.
THE MERCHANT
279 Grove St., 200-0202.
ODDFELLOWS REST
Hour 10-midnite.
Brunch from 11-3
& shot specials.
10-midnite.
select martinis.
Happy Hour 4-7.
Special.
featured pints.
freebie.
$5 food menu.
P.J. RYAN’S
172 First St., 239-9911.
SAND BAR
11 Marin Blvd., 714-5000.
UNCLE JOE’S BAR
154 First St., 659-6999.
WHITE STAR
230 Brunswick St., 653-9234.
Stuck in the 80s Night. Happy
Hour 11-6. $3 drafts, $4 well.
Brunch from 11-4.
hour. No cover.
$10 beer buckets.
2-for-1 martinis.

SCrewed - John A. Martins

Transcription

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