The iconic guitarist, songwriter, vocalist and three-time Grammy-Award winner Brian Setzer and his 19-piece orchestra whip up a huge dose of retro holiday cheer with their Christmas Rocks! Tour presented by SiriusXM at Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank on Tuesday, November 21 at 7:30 p.m. more
By Doug Wallack
On Friday, October 27, recording artist and off-Broadway debuting star Doreen Taylor launches her “docu-musical” show An Enchanted Evening with Oscar Hammerstein II at Highland Farm in Doylestown, Pa. The show, the proceeds from which will go to the Hammerstein Center, is part of a larger effort to save the former home of Oscar Hammerstein II at Highland Farm, and to repurpose it as a museum and theater education center.
This unforgettable concert will feature the full-length film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets™, projected in high-definition on a giant screen, with composer John Williams’ thrilling score performed live by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Performances will take place at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 28 at NJPAC in Newark. more
By Doug Wallack
Quoted in the December 1963 Life article in which she famously coined the “Camelot” epithet for her late husband’s presidency, Jacqueline Kennedy says, “Once, the more I read of history, the more bitter I got. For a while I thought history was something that bitter old men wrote. But then I realized history made Jack what he was.” She goes on to outline a vision of a young John F. Kennedy for whom history was a great repository of heroes and role models—a catalyst for his own idealism. more
By Stuart Mitchner
If you don’t count nursery rhymes, songs, and “The Night Before Christmas,” the first time poetry happened to me was at the end of the Classic Comic of Moby Dick. Each issue closed with “Highlights in the Life” of the author. Herman Melville’s ended with four couplets from a poem “published during the Civil War” that “best expresses our bewilderment of today.” I had no idea what was meant by “bewilderment.” I was 6. The Second World War was still going on. A red, white, and blue banner at the bottom of the page contained a Buy United States War Savings Bonds stamp. The lines that struck and stayed with me were these: “Can no final good be wrought?/ Over and over, again and again,/Must the fight for the Right be fought?” I had only a vague sense of the meaning beyond its being patriotic; what resonated, and still does, was the infectious play of rhyme and rhythm, especially the way it rocks the last line. more
By Stuart Mitchner
Sorting out his first impressions of Walt Whitman in a letter from November 1856, Henry David Thoreau admits feeling “much interested and provoked“: “Though peculiar and rough in his exterior,...he is essentially a gentleman. I am still somewhat in a quandary about him...He told us that he loved to ride up and down Broadway all day on an omnibus, sitting beside the driver, listening to the roar of the carts, and sometimes gesticulating and declaiming Homer at the top of his voice.” more
By Sarah Emily Gilbert
In the early 1800s, the southern banks of the Navesink River bustled with steamboats, sailboats, and commercial fishermen transporting shellfish and local crops to New York City. In 1908, the area was incorporated into the town of Red Bank, whose name is attributed to the clay found along its coast. Come 2017, you’ll still find sailors and fisherman along these red banks, but you’ll also find young professionals on their way to stand-up paddle yoga. Indeed, some of Red Bank’s 12,200 residents start their day floating on the Navesink River with Flow Paddle Yoga. Others grab a Rook Coffee before walking their dogs past the shops on Broad Street. more
Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced the appointment today. Ms. Smith will take up her duties in the fall, opening the Library of Congress’s annual literary season with a reading of her work at the Coolidge Auditorium. more
By Sarah Emily Gilbert
Furs and leathers are surrounded by controversy for their use of animal skins. They represent the exotic, the risqué, and the fierce. Yarn, on the other hand, comes from goat farms and often suggests homespun domesticity and grandmothers. However, the typically unsexy material is undergoing a revival. Thanks to women who are using the medium in unconventional ways, yarn is becoming a means of personal expression. more
By Donald H. Sanborn III
For most Broadway musicals, the “composer” creates only the songs, usually providing vocal lines with piano accompaniment. Other musicians, including an orchestrator, prepare the score for performance. The orchestrator adjusts a composition “to fit…whatever orchestral combination has been selected,” Broadway orchestrator Don Walker writes in his autobiography. In the 1940s, Webster’s Dictionary came out with a second meaning for orchestrate: “to arrange or combine so as to achieve a maximum effect.” more
By Doug Wallack
In October of 1845—though historians will disagree on precisely when—the first game of baseball under the modern rules took place on the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey. The New York Base Ball Club (later known as the Knickerbockers) faced off against the Brooklyn Club, and beat them handily. It was there that the 90-foot distance between bases was established—a rule that was to be practically as fundamental to the sport as gravity itself. Today, those particular bases are long gone, as are the Elysian Fields themselves—swallowed up by the urban landscape, with only a bronze plaque to mark where they once were. more
10:30 to 11 a.m.: Wee Ones Laptime at Westwood Library in Westwood, NJ. Perfect for babies – age 2. Free to attend.
11 a.m.: Yoga class at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, NJ.
7 p.m.: Book signing with Andrew McCarthy at Books & Greetings in Northvale, NJ. McCarthy is an actor, director, and travel writer. more
By Sarah Emily Gilbert
Meet us at the bar – The Kendra Scott Color Bar™, that is. We’ve all spent hours looking for that piece of jewelry we “had in mind,” but with Color Bar, we can get it out of our heads and into our hands. At Kendra Scott, you can build your own necklaces, earrings, rings, or bracelets either online or in store. Play jewelry designer as you select the style, stone, and metal from an array of options. Among the 18 colorful stones are of-the-moment gems like rose quartz and gold and platinum drusy. more
By Doug Wallack
In his most recent work, noted photographer Ricardo Barros tackles the inexpressible — the abstraction that is space itself. Barros will be giving a lecture on his portfolio “Figuring Space” on Monday, April 3 for the Princeton Photography Club at the D&R Greenway. more
By Erica Cardenas
Every year there are hundred’s of different art fairs taking place around the world.
The NYC Armory Show is a space where gallery’s get the chance to showcase 20th and 21st contemporary art, sell to current art collectors and invite the art public into their space to share what they are about. With all the competition within the changing art market, art fairs are constantly thinking ahead. They create an environment that has the potential to thrill today's audience. more
By Sarah Emily Gilbert
Spring is in the air and so is design inspiration. From March 16-19, the 16th annual Architectural Digest Design Show will takeover Piers 92 & 94 in New York City. The four-day fair, which is produced by The Mart, a Vornado Property, and hosted by Architectural Digest, will include design displays from over 400 luxury brands, along with talks, seminars, demonstrations, and signings. From state-of-the-art kitchen appliances to artisan-made objets d’art, the show has something for all tastes and interests. The event is divided into various themes including Furniture, Made, and Refresh. Furnish is comprised of textiles, art, rugs, furnishings, and wall coverings; Made features original art, furniture, sculpture, and lighting that are available for purchase; and Refresh showcases new innovations in appliances and building products. more
The Armory Show took place on March 2-5, 2017 on Piers 92 & 94 in Manhattan, New York welcoming over 65,000 visitors annually. The International Art Fair showcases galleries with a wide variety of 20th and 21st century artwork catering towards art collector's and art enthusiasts. more
By Sarah Emily Gilbert
As its name suggests, the Vampire Facelift involves blood extraction, but don’t worry, it also includes blood infusions. Let us explain. more
Interview by Kam Williams
Filmmaker Damien Chazelle met recently with film reviewer Kam Williams to talk about his latest movie, La La Land, which swept the Golden Globes, winning a record seven awards, and has received 14 Oscar nominations. A native of Princeton, New Jersey, Chazelle wrote and directed the Academy Award-winning Whiplash which landed five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay for Chazelle. The movie won a trio of Oscars in the Film Editing, Sound Mixing and Supporting Actor (J.K. Simmons) categories. more
By Taylor Smith
Thanks to Audible’s Donald Katz, the general population now has more time than ever to consume and enjoy books by creating a digital library on their mobile devices. A membership allows users access to more than 325,000 downloadable audiobooks, audio editions of periodicals and other programs. New members are also given complimentary subscriptions to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, making the inevitable commute or time spent at the gym, not only easier, but that much more enlightening. Below, Mr. Katz discusses his pre-Audible career as a journalist, love for Newark, and the company’s growing a-list collection of inspiring celebrity performances. more
By Donald H. Sanborn III
"Welcome to the world famous Apollo Theater. This is the real deal!” exclaims Steve Harvey, host of Showtime at the Apollo. “If you say you can sing, we’ll let you know. If you think you’re funny, we’ll let you know. If you’re not…?” “We’ll let you know!” chants the audience. “This is the only show in the world where the audience truly decides who has talent, and who doesn’t,” Harvey declares. “There are no judges, celebrity judges. It’s people. People decide. This is where stars are born. This is where legends are made!” more
By Wendy Plump
Art courtesy of Louise Ingalls Sturges
So, you can add agility to Louise Ingalls Sturges’s list of avowed qualities. On her website, a photograph features the artist precarious on an apartment roof in the city, flanked by window frames painted all the colors of the rainbow. Sturges painted those window frames, climbed up and slathered them with lush color because she wanted to, and because, after all, who wants to live in a monochromatic building? more
By Stuart Mitchner
In the “Amazing Grace” chapter of The Black Presidency (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt $27), Michael Eric Dyson calls the last week of June 2015 Barack Obama’s greatest as president. Setting the scene at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church where Obama delivered a eulogy for the nine people slain by Dylann Roof, Dyson describes how the president “wrapped his vulnerability around the church” after the last words of the speech and “on the high wire of live television, before an audience of millions around the world,” began to sing “Amazing Grace.” more
Bergen Performing Arts Center located at 30 North Van Brunt Street in Englewood, New Jersey presents Disney’s Frozen Sing Along Costume Party on Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 1PM. Purchase tickets at www.ticketmaster.com or by calling bergenPAC’s Box Office at (201) 227-1030. more
By Sarah Emily Gilbert
New Year’s resolutions might be cliché, but after three months of nonstop cookies, booze, and candies galore, we’re ready to jump onto the bandwagon. Stat.
Luckily, area gyms and studios are easing us into our “new year, new you” status with promotional offers and events for the start of 2017. Armed with these deals, you’ll be achieving all your fitness and financial goals in no time. Take that 2016! more
