Arts & Entertainment Archives | New Jersey Monthly: Recent Episodes
Arts & Entertainment Archives | New Jersey Monthly
Adam Sandler, who has stayed in the Garden State on and off over the last couple of years while shooting various film projects, is living in Jersey yet again while working on his latest movie, Grown Ups 3, sources exclusively tell New Jersey Monthly.
We’re told that Sandler, 59, is living in Short Hills with his family while working on the Netflix film, co-starring Sandler pals like Chris Rock, David Spade, Kevin James and Rob Schneider.
Also living in North Jersey during filming are Salma Hayek Pinault and Maya Rudolph, who’s here with her husband, the director Paul Thomas Anderson, and their kids.
Trending Story
The 50 Best Restaurants in New JerseyWe hear that director Kyle Newacheck—who also directed Sandler in last year’s Happy Gilmore 2—is living in Montclair during the shoot. He is a creator of the Comedy Central show Workaholics, which he also co-starred in, and is a producer and director of the comedy horror series What We Do in the Shadows.
Sandler has been seen filming around downtown Madison, showing his signature nice-guy charm by taking pictures with fans and signing autographs. The production also shot scenes at the Madison Hotel in Morristown, and cast members were seen dining at popular pizzeria Coniglio’s Old Fashioned in downtown Morristown.
The movie has been filming in New Jersey this month and will continue through September.
The premise of the third Grown Ups flick centers on the friends’ kids, who are now fully grown adults. With their children grown up, the group of lifelong friends finally has the freedom to go on one major, unbothered road trip and adventure together.
Netflix has not yet announced an official premiere date.
Related Stories * 1 New Jersey’s Booming Film Industry Is Boosting Local Businesses * 2 New Jersey Is Ushering in a Golden Age of Movies * 3 How My Ridgewood Home Almost Starred in an Adam Sandler Movie
Last year, Sandler stayed in Montclair while in Jersey to film the Netflix comedy Don’t Say Good Luck, starring his daughter Sunny Sandler. He was also in North Jersey in 2024 while shooting the Happy Gilmore sequel, which filmed at various Jersey golf courses and facilities, including Montclair Golf Club, Closter Golf Center, Fiddler’s Elbow country club in Bedminster, Essex Golf Center in Roseland, Rockleigh Golf Course, and Farmview Golf Center in Hackettstown. During his off time, Sandler checked out local spots like Goldberg’s World Famous Deli & Bagels in Millburn, the French restaurant Faubourg in Montclair and the coffee shop Lokl Café in Morristown.
“We were very excited about it. It was a nice surprise,” Lokl owner Panos Stogioglou told us at the time. “He was super friendly and was there for a long time, taking pictures with all the staff.”
The post Adam Sandler Is Living in Short Hills While Filming Grown Ups 3 appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
His name conjures fragrant street markets, transcendent hole-in-the-wall joints and enchanting dispatches from savory food travelogues. Each scene narrated, as always, with an unmistakable zest for devouring life’s pleasures.
But Anthony Bourdain didn’t spring into the world a fully formed gourmand. At 19, he was an aspiring writer from New Jersey who hadn’t yet worked in a kitchen. And if you asked him, he had a lot of living to do. “I was —to be frank—a spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless young lout, and badly in need of a good ass-kicking,” Bourdain would write 25 years later. He didn’t become a household name until his late 40s.
At 19, Dominic Sessa—who plays Bourdain in the new biopic Tony—was already on the brink of stardom. By 21, he was winning awards for his breakout role opposite Paul Giamatti and Oscar winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph in Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers (2023). Sessa’s charming performance as a student forced to spend Christmas break with his ornery teacher became his ticket to a flourishing career as an actor. But five movies later, he feels more like a young Bourdain than a polished celebrity.
Shutterstock/Kathy Hutchins“I’m also in that stage of my life where I’m trying to become a better version of myself,” says Sessa, 23. “It’s challenging and it’s painful.”
The New Jersey actor is the star of Tony, a portrait of Anthony Bourdain—artist of food and language—as a young man.
The A24 film from director Matt Johnson opens August 7 in New York and August 21 nationwide. It’s a coming-of-age story set over the course of summer 1975 in Provincetown, Massachusetts, the seaside destination at the top of Cape Cod. Sessa’s performance as a stubborn, pretentious and dejected young Bourdain illustrates how his destructive flailing served as an important period of self-discovery.
“I think Matt really recognized that in me and recognized that in himself when he was my age,” Sessa tells New Jersey Monthly. “And it was something that he wanted for me, not only to perform in the movie, but also walk out of the experience learning about myself and being a better person.”
Like everyone else, Johnson first took notice of Sessa’s potent screen presence in The Holdovers, another 1970s story. Of course, it helps that the rangy actor has most of Bourdain’s height, while his curly hair easily plays the kind of mane Tony was working with in the ’70s.
Dominic Sessa and chef Eric Ripert behind the scenes of TonyA24/Bob GruenThe movie pulls from Bourdain’s own recollections of his youth, as told in Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. Published in 2000, the bestselling book propelled his writing and eventual TV career after he wrote the 1999 warts-and-all restaurant kitchen essay Don’t Eat Before Reading This for The New Yorker. Bourdain, former executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles in New York, would go on to host shows on Food Network, the Travel Channel and CNN, including Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations and Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. These travel series made him a face, voice and ambassador for global food exploration and cultural appreciation before his death by suicide in 2018.
Reading Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential quote about his “miserable, narcissistic” youth hit home for Sessa, who was born in Cherry Hill and grew up in Egg Harbor Township and Ocean City.
“All of those aspects are so alive in all of young people, especially young men, I think, and amplifying that part of yourself is really difficult, and it’s like a voluntary hardship that I chose,” he says of his experience filming the movie. “But then, coming out of it, I feel like I have a better sense of self. I’m more self-aware.”
Trending Story
The 50 Best Restaurants in New JerseyTony starts with Bourdain living a suburban New Jersey life with his parents and brother in Leonia (look for Montclair’s own Dagmara Domińczyk as his mother, Gladys, a future New York Times copy editor who had a hand in getting Bourdain’s essay to The New Yorker). The Dwight-Englewood School graduate and Vassar College student is frustrated by a setback in his young writing life. So he leaves to follow his crush Nancy Putkoski—his high school sweetheart and future wife, played by Emilia Jones—to sunny Cape Cod. Tony, rejected from a writing fellowship program, lies to Nancy, telling her he just happens to be there for the fellowship. The lies spiral from there.
Decades later, people appreciate the world traveler precisely because of his forthrightness. If you wanted someone to mince words, it wasn’t Anthony Bourdain.
“His writing style generally was just very honest, and you felt like this person was always telling the truth and is allergic to bullshit,” Sessa says. “It’s also very self-deprecating. And I think people gravitate towards people like that who are able to reflect very honestly on the negative aspects of their life and reveal those sides of themselves.”
Jersey’s World ExplorerBourdain’s signature voiceovers — lovingly rendered, intimate reflections on places, food and people—drew fans from here to Madagascar. The main attraction wasn’t just the food. It was spending an hour seeing the world through a Bourdain filter—curious, wry and somewhat skeptical, but always incisive and open to learning something new.
“The story of his life is inspiring for anyone,” Sessa says. “It gives people a sense of hope. You can feel like your life is predetermined, and things are kind of set out for you, and time feels really short, but he’s a story of a man who, in the middle of his life, became one of the most iconic figures to exist, like a prophet almost.”
The years since Bourdain’s death, in 2018 at age 61, have seen the release of a documentary about him and the publication of two Bourdain biographies. His passing brought his lifelong tangles with depression into focus. Sessa and Johnson, 40, approached Tony with a reverence for Bourdain, but also a willingness to plug their own experiences into his story. Johnson wrote the script while living in Provincetown.
Part of this meld involved Sessa bringing his own Jerseyness to young Tony. When we meet Bourdain, he’s gone on vacation to France with his family (his dad’s side is French), but his extensive travels wouldn’t come until later.
Sessa (right) with director Matt Johnson on the set of TonyA24/Seacia Pavao“I think people in New Jersey are, like, always trying to get out of New Jersey,” Sessa says. “There’s this level of ambition. The people around me and people I grew up with, it’s like they want to see the world. They want to adventure and do something worthwhile. And then ultimately, you get to a stage where you wanna go back,” he says with a slight chuckle. “I think that’s consistent for a lot of people from New Jersey … Being able to go to Philadelphia at a young age and go to New York City at a young age really encouraged me to explore and be exposed to things that were exciting.”
Bourdain’s sense of wonder for every corner of the globe extended to an appraisal of his own Jersey food memories. After his death, the state remembered him with an Anthony Bourdain Food Trail. The route traced his TV steps in the Garden State, from hot dogs at Hiram’s Roadstand in Fort Lee to the seafood tower at Dock’s Oyster House in Atlantic City.
“We have some of the best food, like, low key,” Sessa says. “I remember growing up, I would go to Tony’s Baltimore Grill in Atlantic City, which is a place that Bourdain would often go, and his name was always on the sign, you know, like he was there. It’s interesting, I’ve never met him, I’ve never really cared to learn about him until years after he passed away, and yet there’s like this weird connection that’s been there my whole life that I never really thought about, even just in a restaurant that I really liked going to growing up.”
The Fork in the RoadIn Tony, a young Bourdain only finds his way when he’s physically thrown out of a bar.
The chef-owner of a no-frills local seafood place, played by Antonio Banderas, scoops the reedy teen up and deposits him on his hammock. Bourdain, awakened by a bucket of cold water, goes from working off his bar tab by washing dishes to learning the discipline of food prep. What he absorbs in the kitchen from Chef (the character is otherwise unnamed) and the kitchen staff refocuses his passions.
Young Tony’s dreams of writing a bildungsroman and finding success as an author make way for his own real-life coming-of-age story. He leaves Vassar and pursues studies at the Culinary Institute of America. The redirection would lead Bourdain to the kind of fame that would someday land him at a table in Vietnam, eating noodles and drinking beer with then-sitting President Barack Obama.
Jersey nurtured Bourdain, but Provincetown became his crossroads, the place where he found a new path through the people he met and worked with, making food and living within the rhythms of the Cape.
“Being exposed to something like that definitely planted the seed for him to want to connect with people for the rest of his life,” Sessa says. “The movie takes place over one summer, but he worked there for several summers. All the people that remember him still talk about him to this day because he was there working a job in the kitchen. At a young age, that was how he connected with people, was through food, so I think whether or not he was conscious of that, it was probably a part of why he felt compelled to continue doing it.”
I think people in New Jersey are, like, always trying to get out of New Jersey….And then ultimately, you get to a stage where you wanna go back.
Dominic Sessa
Sessa’s own rise to stardom also involved a fair bit of redirection. As with Bourdain, it happened in New England. Sessa, a former hockey player, applied to Deerfield Academy, a boarding school in Massachusetts, in part for its competitive hockey program. An injury set the stage for Sessa’s detour to acting and theater after he broke his femur in a skateboarding accident. Needing a new extracurricular activity, he auditioned for the school’s fall play (Antigone). Sessa was in his senior year at Deerfield when Alexander Payne chose him to play boarding school student Angus Tully in The Holdovers, which filmed at his school and held auditions there. When the young actor attended the Oscars with his co-stars in 2024, he was on leave from his sophomore year at Carnegie Mellon’s School of Drama in Pittsburgh.
“I guess I would’ve graduated by now. Yeah, all of my friends are graduating, so it’s too late,” Sessa says with a laugh.
He may not have a degree, but he’s become one of the most sought-after young actors in Hollywood. Instead of returning to college, he stayed booked and busy. Last year, Sessa starred in the box office success Now You See Me: Now You Don’t as one of several young magicians to join the Lionsgate franchise. He also played Michelle Pfeiffer’s son in the Amazon holiday movie Oh. What. Fun. and shared the screen with Rose Byrne as an underdog lawyer in the indie film Tow before having his Bourdain moment.
The actor first met with Johnson more than two years ago.
“I’ve never had a movie be a part of my life as long as this one has,” Sessa says. “Everything else I’ve done, it’s like I auditioned for it, and then in a month or so, went out, did the movie, but this was really kind of building something with a partner.”
Part of that process meant filming in Bourdain and Putkoski’s Provincetown haunts and working with Tony’s real-life friend, the French chef Eric Ripert, who appears in the movie. Sessa started by getting a taste of the work Bourdain left behind.
It wasn’t until after Bourdain’s death that Sessa noticed peers diving into his many travels.
“That’s when you started seeing a lot of young people talking about him on social media and talking about his writing and really getting into his shows and stuff,” he says. “It’s kind of the tragic irony of something like that, where something really tragic happened and then as a result of that, he ended up influencing an entirely new generation.”
The post NJ’s Dominic Sessa Talks Becoming Anthony Bourdain For New Biopic appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
South Orange author Ashton Lattimore’s new novel, Runner, captures the fictional world of a female-led team of African American rum runners in 1920s Martha’s Vineyard. After a potentially fishy boating accident leaves main character Lena Jameson’s father presumed dead, she steps up to fill her father’s shoes—and finance an escape from her small-town life. What unfolds reveals the exciting and sometimes dangerous underworld of liquor smuggling, which toggles Lena and her crew between Martha’s Vineyard, Harlem and Boston.
Ballantine BooksAs in her first novel, All We Were Promised (2024), Lattimore leans on historical facts to illuminate a little-known facets of African American life during significant historic times. Set in 1837, All We Were Promised followed the lives of three African American women from vastly different backgrounds who came together to advance their social and political beliefs during an era that questioned their rights. In Runner, Lattimore similarly captures historically accurate roles African Americans played during the 1920s Prohibition era.
By grounding historical details in a rich, believable narrative, Lattimore sets readers on an immersive journey into the past. In advance of her reading at Watchung Booksellers in Montclair on Wednesday, August 5, at 7 pm, we spoke with the author about her research, why she chose to delve into rum running, and what readers can expect from the story.
What first sparked the idea for Runner, and why did it appeal to you?
An exhibit at the Martha’s Vineyard Museum about a Prohibition-era shipwreck told of a 1923 steam fishing trawler that sank in Vineyard Sound. The Coast Guard arrived to find the crew floating dead in their life vests among barrels that were labeled “FLOUR” but actually turned out to contain ale. While the crew all had unusual injuries that suggested some kind of struggle, the captains of the ship had vanished entirely, along with the lifeboats. Theories abounded about what might’ve happened—a hijacking gone wrong, some kind of betrayal by the captains, or maybe just a grisly accident—and the story was mysterious enough to make it into the New York Times. I found the incident captivating, and it led me to learn more about that era and how the Vineyard was a significant launch point for rum runners during Prohibition. By that point, I already had some background knowledge about the Black history of the island as well, and so I thought it’d be fun to imagine a Black family at the center of a mystery loosely inspired by that shipwreck.
What misconceptions about rum running does Runner challenge?
It challenges the misconception that the liquor business was glamorous and lucrative. In fact, it was incredibly dangerous, and often the more small-time runners weren’t making that much money at all—not everyone was a kingpin the way we see in the movies. Runner features characters breaking into the business basically at the bottom, while also navigating all the challenges that come with being women and being Black in a world that didn’t grant a lot of power to either of those groups. The story really takes readers on the journey with them, and while there is definitely some glitz and sparkle, there’s also a lot of grittiness as they work their way through the criminal underworld both on land and sea.
The story moves between Martha’s Vineyard, Boston and Harlem during the Renaissance. How did these different places and communities influence the story?
Through my research, I learned how Boston and New York in particular were the early “feeder” communities where many Black visitors to the Vineyard came from. Many familiar names from the era popped up in both places, including artists, politicians, writers and musicians who were well known in those mainland cities and also could regularly be found in Oak Bluffs [on Martha’s Vineyard] during the summer. Especially for the Harlem Renaissance figures, they brought much of the culture with them, so I wanted to highlight that sense of cross-pollination and exchange between the island and the cities that helped make the Vineyard Black community what it became.
What was the most challenging part of bringing overlooked or lesser-known stories to a wider audience?
Just narrowing down the subject matter can be a challenge! There are so many lesser-known stories and overlooked communities that deserve to be uplifted, it can be tough deciding what to focus on. It’s also inspiring, though, to know there’s always another story out there to be told.
How has your own background shaped the way you approach storytelling and historical research?
Since I’m both a journalist and a former lawyer, getting the facts right is incredibly important to me. That means I take my research incredibly seriously, and always comb through the stories to make sure the details are airtight. It’s interesting balancing that instinct with the freedom that fiction brings, but I really enjoy it.
What did you discover during your research that has surprised or stayed with you?
I found it fascinating to learn that even though Martha’s Vineyard wasn’t officially segregated since it was in the north, that even during the 1920s there were still limitations on where Black residents and travelers could go. I think there’s an idea that it was always a haven from prejudice, and it turns out that’s not the case. But in the face of that prejudice, Black travelers and boarding-house owners and entrepreneurs created spaces of their own that have endured.
Do you see yourself primarily as a historian, journalist, author, or some combo of the three?
I’d say a combination of the three—at my core I’m a storyteller, and I think the different hats I’ve worn over the course of my career are really just different expressions of that same identity.
How was writing this, your second book, different from your experience writing your first novel?
Since this is set in a much nearer historical time period than my first book—the 1920s vs. the 1830s—I had a lot more accessible sources to lean on to really get into the story. I was able to look at photos and listen to music and even read novels from the Prohibition era to immerse myself in it, and it was a lot of fun.
What do you think readers will take away from this story that is most relevant today?
At its heart, Runner is a story about ambitious women and the lengths they’ll go to take care of their families while also chasing their own dreams. Striking that balance is still something that’s such a perennial struggle in many ways, and I think readers will enjoy going on this journey and rooting for the women in the story who are claiming their freedom in really unorthodox ways.
The post South Orange Author Explores Exciting, Dangerous Underworld of Black Rum Runners in New Prohibition-Era Novel appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
There’s smooth. And then there’s 54 Ultra. New Jersey’s JohnAnthony Rodriguez has been blazing a path of retro cool across stages large and small. He may be 26, but this Gen Z crooner’s look is all vintage 1970s and ’80s style—aviator shades, mustache and full mop of hair. His falsetto almost floats across his songs, creating the chillest of vibes, even when he’s lost in a dreamlike whirl of yearning.
Rodriguez, who recently signed to Interscope Records, has taken his stirring meld of R&B, soul, Latin soul, indie rock and garage pop to debut performances this year at Coachella and Lollapalooza. On September 19, he’s playing the Sea.Hear.Now festival in Asbury Park on a bill with Chaka Khan.
The homecoming will be a victory lap. “I’ve played at the Stone Pony and I’ve played at the Meatlocker in Montclair,” the singer/songwriter and producer says. “I’ve played in countless basements in New Brunswick and house shows around in Linden and Teaneck and Morristown and Boonton, and so I’ve been everywhere.… To be able to come back to Asbury Park and play on that stage is just a testament that it’s possible.”
Trending Story
A Look Inside New Jersey’s Tiny Forest MovementRodriguez broke out in 2023 with the song “Where Are You.” Like other 54 Ultra offerings, it revels in love and devotion. His mellow production conjures a balmy tropical scene, but a music video features snowy streets at Brooklyn’s Sunset Diner.
After he posted a TikTok video for the song, Spotify streams surged. “Little by little, people became believers, and I met different producers that would help me,” Rodriguez says. From there, he made the 2024 song “Heaven Knows,” solidifying his fresh retro sound while working at a car dealership in Parsippany. “They fired me because I was taking too many meetings on the phone,” he says. “It was meant with love, like, ‘you’re too busy for us right now.’”
With no job, Rodriguez pursued music full-time, releasing his debut 54 Ultra EP, First Works, in 2025. “I’ve always felt like I was going to be somebody, or felt like I was going to do the right thing,” he says. “So I’ve had this confidence, this kind of blind faith.”
Rodriguez, who goes by Johnny, was born in Hackensack and spent his formative years in Sparta, Paterson and Passaic. His mother hails from the Dominican Republic. “We grew up with that culture, speaking Spanish and listening to Spanish music—bachata or merengue or salsa music—and that was a huge influence,” he says. His songs seamlessly shift from English to Spanish.
His father is from Paterson. “He’s Puerto Rican, so he had that kind of…swag to him,” Rodriguez says. “He used to show me a lot of ’80s stuff, like freestyle music and ’80s pop music, the B-boy culture.… My older brother, who’s got, like, 10 years on me, he showed me a lot of rap music that was coming out of Paterson, and I spent a lot of time there when I was in high school, being a producer and working with a lot of rappers.”
Rodriguez would remake hip-hop beats from popular songs. The Sparta High alum studied audio engineering and music at the County College of Morris, relishing soul and disco deep cuts. The name 54 Ultra is a nod to Studio 54 and the Frank Ocean mixtape Nostalgia, Ultra (2011).
When Rodriguez was 19, he sang on demos, writing and producing for various artists.
“I found solace in people like Prince or Michael Jackson or James Brown or Steve Lacy and Blood Orange,” he says. “That inspired me to be an artist.”
Covid gave him another push. “The pandemic hit, and nobody was seeing each other anymore, so I had all these songs, and I wanted to express myself and make that jump of, OK, I’m gonna sing now for the first time,” Rodriguez says.
He continues, “I ended up making a good blend of old ideas with a new direction. I never wanted to compete with records from the past.”
Rodriguez channels old-school soul in songs like “Upside Down” and soars in “Talk to You,” a breezy, rousing collaboration with Dutch house-music duo ANOTR. He currently lives in Greenwich Village and records at the late Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios.
“It’s just an honor to be worthy, because I came from recording at my house,” says Rodriguez, who also produced for his Grammy-winning labelmate Kali Uchis.
Coming soon: the debut full-length 54 Ultra album.
“I’m definitely working on it,” Rodriguez says. “Probably early next year, I think, is when it’ll happen, but there’s going to be a lot more surprises on the way.”
The post 54 Ultra’s Retro-Cool Music Stems From His NJ Roots appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
In the iconic Sopranos episode “Pine Barrens,” Paulie Walnuts and Christopher Moltisanti wander the vast south Jersey woodlands frozen and frightened.
Imagine if they’d stumbled upon dozens of dead reptile carcasses.
And yet, just such a discovery is at the heart of a new HBO documentary series from the creators of Tiger King and Chimp Crazy.
Monsters of God—which debuts Thursday, August 6—is a five-episode deep dive into the strange, lucrative and sometimes violent world of exotic reptile smuggling.
It is based, in part, on New Jersey author Bryan Christy’s 2008 book The Lizard King.
Trending Story
Frank Sinatra’s Parents’ Hoboken Brownstone on Sale for $3.95M“When I was a boy growing up in southern New Jersey, we traded reptiles the way other children trade baseball cards,” Christy has written.
“I hunted for them after school and on weekends. I asked for books about them for my birthday and for Christmas.… In many ways, true crime stories for adults are what reptiles were for me as a boy. They hold a promise of violence, of mystery, and a strange, almost embarrassing fascination.”
In the very first Monsters of God episode, a Philadelphia-area reptile dealer named Hank Molt goes to war with a Florida-based competitor.
Both go on to illegally transport snakes, turtles, iguanas and other creatures from foreign countries to the United States, where the reptiles were then sold to zoos, pet shops and private owners.
By the late-1970s, federal authorities were investigating Molt, as well as his partner, an ex-NFL player also from the Philly area named Eddie Allen.
At one point, U.S. Customs agents came knocking on Molt’s door. The two men came up with a plan to hide the evidence.
“Eddie Allen agreed to load up his car with a bunch of the reptiles,” Molt recalls in the docuseries. “He said, ‘I’ll take (the reptiles) to my house.’… I didn’t know what he’d done with the reptiles at the time.”
In fact, Allen had driven deep into the Pine Barrens and buried all of the creatures alive, as he confessed when investigators confronted him.
“He rolled over immediately,” Molt recalls in the series.
Reptile dealer Hank Molt A24/Goode Films/HBO)One Customs investigator adds: “He told us where the reptiles were…. He directed us down dirt roads with no signs, no names. He was good at that, he was a big-game hunter. He understood the [Pine Barrens].… And we commenced to dig.”
When all was said and done, the line of dead reptiles stretched for 50 yards, by one estimate, with another putting the number of dead animals exhumed at 74.
“It’s one of the cruelest things I’ve ever seen,” another Customs agent says in Monsters of God. “I can’t imagine how those animals suffered.”
An Associated Press report in August of 1977 began: “Zoo officials ‘were just looking the other way’ as an international smuggling ring brought more than 600 rare contraband reptiles into the United States, a federal prosecutor says.”
Director Eric Goode with a Southwestern pond turtle.A24/Goode Films/HBOThe same report says eight “of the nation’s most prestigious zoos…received the contraband animals,” including facilities in Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and Rochester, New York.
And yet, things only got stranger after a series of arrests were made and charges filed, against Allen and Molt, as well as an amateur herpetologist from Trenton, another Jersey-based reptile dealer, and alleged associates in Europe, Asia and Africa.
The Pine Barrens discovery turned out to be just an early, bizarre chapter in a decades-spanning saga that many online critics have already said is better—or at least weirder—than Tiger King.
Some of the smugglers operating out of the South Jersey-Philadelphia area received what critics slammed as light prison sentences. Monsters of God suggests that influential people with links to popular zoos may have swayed law enforcement higher-ups.
Some of these same reptile smugglers then teamed up with other colorful associates, including CIA-trained veterans of the Cold War “Bay of Pigs” invasion, and went on to continue illegally selling live creatures. Then they moved on to selling guns and drugs as well.
As Monsters of God continues into the 1980s and 1990s, law enforcement informants infiltrate these million-dollar operations, only to end up dead.
Which only goes to show you that Paulie Walnuts and Christopher Moltisanti weren’t the only bad guys wandering around the Pine Barrens back in the day.
The post Gruesome Pine Barrens Story Told in New Docuseries on Reptile Smuggling appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Kenan Salazar isn’t originally from New Jersey, but he’s certainly getting to know every corner of the state—and in an unconventional way at that. He’s writing yacht-rock songs for all 21 counties.
“Cape May County, it’s the southernmost of all,” he sings. “Upper, Lower, Middle, that’s just what they’re called. Wildwood’s like the ’50s, quench your taffy thirst. Parkway traffic is the worst.”
Salazar, who hails from Northeast Philadelphia and performs as Earth Kenan, moved to the Garden State during the Covid pandemic, making his home in Deptford, Gloucester County. He launched his Jersey yacht-rock project in 2025.
The 25-year-old immersed himself in the genre of soft rock after a friend kept playing the 1978 Toto song “Hold the Line.” Later, he started performing yacht-rock covers of pop songs from artists like Chappell Roan. He’s also enjoyed viral moments singing Steely Dan songs with new lyrics composed of memes and Gen Z and Alpha lingo.
New Jersey and yacht rock—perfect together? “I wanted to try something that had a little bit of grandiosity,” says Salazar, an alum of Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music. So he decided to merge his appreciation of geography and civics with his passion for music “in some weird, novel way” that would allow him to learn something about his new home and “try to advocate for it amidst a pop culture that tends to treat the state like a bit of a joke.”
He makes a music video for each song. Each tune combines factoids with mentions of local sites and famous residents.
Yacht rock is just one dimension of his diverse musical output. The singer/songwriter, guitarist and producer has written metal and hard-edged rock infused with jazz. Growing up, he wanted to be a guitar virtuoso.
He’s about halfway through the counties and is most proud of his Cumberland effort, dense with references like, “They used to be the top of oyster producin’ down in Port Norris.” It’s one of two videos that benefited from financial contributions from local authorities like the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Cumberland County Cultural and Heritage Commission and Tourism Advisory Council.
The post This Singer Is Writing Yacht-Rock Tunes About All 21 NJ Counties appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
New Jersey music fans and Todd Rundgren sure have seen a lot of each other over the decades.
“I don’t know that I’ve done a tour in any recent era that didn’t include at least some Jersey stops,” Rundgren, 78, says over Zoom from his home on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.
The tradition continues this summer as Rundgren—a classic rock icon and Grammy nominee who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021—brings his Damned If I Do tour to North, Central and South Jersey, a trifecta he referred to as “the whole shebang,” this August. He’ll be at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood on August 8, followed by the Ocean City Music Pier on August 11, and the Count Basie Center for the Arts’ Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre in Red Bank on August 12.
Trending Story
The Ultimate Jersey Shore Beach Guide: Best Beaches by Category & CountyRundgren, who was raised in the Philadelphia suburb of Upper Darby, has had a musical relationship with New Jersey for 60 years, leaving home on his 18th birthday and heading directly to Ocean City to connect with the eventual drummer of his early psychedelic blues rock band Woody’s Truck Stop. Rundgren settled into living in a South Jersey suburb somewhere east of Camden, and found his footing as the singer and guitarist of shaggy garage rock outfit The Nazz.
“The Nazz wrote a song called ‘Wildwood Blues,’ which was essentially just about one weekend we spent in Wildwood,” Rundgren says. “When I was growing up in southeast Pennsylvania just outside of Philadelphia, the Wildwood thing was somewhat mythological but it was for the older kids and I had not really been to Wildwood; I had taken several bus trips alone to Atlantic City, because that’s a direct trip, just going to walk the boardwalk and consume anything that was free.”
Despite immortalizing their time in Wildwood on their 1968 self-titled debut LP, The Nazz’s tenure as a Jersey Shore bar band was, in Rundgren’s recounting decades later, inglorious.
“Early on we didn’t have a lot of original material but the material that we did cop was not the typical stuff that a Jersey Shore band would learn,” Rundgren says. “You’d have to know Top 40 and dance songs and things like that, and we just knew a few Beatles and Rolling Stones songs and that sort of thing, so our gig there did not particularly bode well that it was going to be a regular thing for us and we weren’t looking to be a Jersey Shore band anyway, we had higher aspirations. I do remember we didn’t have a hotel room, we were sleeping on the tables inside the club after it closed—so our memories are not really significant musically and hardship physically.”
Something from those Nazz days has stuck with Rundgren six decades later: “Hello It’s Me,” the swooning pop-rock gem Rundgren is said to have written in high school and recorded with The Nazz for that band’s first album. He later re-captured the song in a new light on the 1972 solo double LP Something/Anything? and the number has stayed in his live repertoire since.
“I have to vicariously get into the way that the audience reacts (to the song),” Rundgren says of his relationship with “Hello It’s Me” these days. “Frank Sinatra hated ‘My Way,’ but he had to sing it every night of his career. It’s one of those things—when it becomes obligatory, you don’t have the same feeling about it. You don’t have a choice whether to do it or not, you have to freaking do it.”
While prior tours, such as the Me/We dates that brought him through New Jersey in 2024, focused on deep cuts and relative rarities, the poster for the Damned If I Do tour promises “Back By Popular Demand–The Fan-Favorite Classics Return.” For Rundgren, it’s a continuation of a career-long balancing act between then and now.
“A lot of artists from the ’70s, that was their era and then they’re not so serious about the record making after that,” Rundgren says. “If you had some hits, your career is essentially going out and playing your hits for the rest of your life, and nobody much cares if you write anything new. But me, I just keep writing, I keep coming up with different concepts for records, and they vary a lot, stylistically, so you never know from tour to tour what’s going to happen. So Damned If I Do is, essentially, I’m going to please, hopefully, as many people as I can, but you can’t please everybody.”
The post Todd Rundgren’s Early Shore Band Days Still Stick With Him appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Project Runway is back—and this season, New Jersey is in the workroom.
The fashion competition hosted by Heidi Klum returned Thursday, July 9, with a two-episode premiere streaming on Hulu and Disney+, while also airing on Freeform. The 22nd season features 22 designers—the largest cast in Project Runway history—competing for career-changing prizes. Klum is joined once again by judges Law Roach and Nina Garcia, with Christian Siriano returning as a mentor.
Among the contestants are Elizabeth Shevelev and Bryan Barrientos, two Garden State natives.
Shevelev credits her Princeton upbringing and education at the Hun School of Princeton with laying the foundation for her artistic career. “My high school art teacher fostered my abilities,” Shevelev tells New Jersey Monthly. “He embraced imperfection, and I still carry that philosophy with me today.”
Ahead of the premiere, she was receiving enthusiastic messages from people she attended middle school with. “It’s so sweet,” she says of the excitement.
Shevelev built her RISD thesis around upcycling bargain-bin fabrics into sculptural garments—and that sustainability, she says, remains central to her work. “[As a society, w]e make so much stuff. Why do we make this stuff?” Shevelev says. “It’s really important to understand the ‘why’ before you make something.”
Her sustainable designs have been worn by celebrities including Kylie Jenner, Megan Fox and Rosalía, and have even been showcased at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in America: A Lexicon of Fashion. “My practice is really about world-building, femininity and embracing emotion,” she says.
Her sustainable design process has been put to the test on Project Runway. “You definitely have to get creative,” she says. “It’s a pressure cooker.”
Bryan Barrientos, meanwhile, is a Peruvian-American designer from Paterson whose couture fashion label, Atelier Barrientos, blends personal memory, cultural ritual and sculptural craftsmanship into special-occasion wear.
“I had always worked in retail,” says Barrientos, recalling stints at Abercrombie & Fitch and Banana Republic in Garden State Plaza in Paramus and Willowbrook Mall in Wayne. He initially envisioned climbing the corporate ladder in retail but ultimately decided to build a brand of his own.
During his research phase, he realized he first needed to teach himself the fundamentals of fashion design. “I had never sewn in my life, even though I come from a line of seamstresses, and I didn’t know how to draw,” he says. “Then I picked up this book at Barnes & Noble—I think it was called Technical Fashion Sketches for Beginners—and that’s when it clicked for me.”
His determination to launch his own label led him to New York City’s Fashion Institute of Technology, where he earned his BFA and MFA. His designs have since appeared at New York Fashion Week and the Met Gala and have been featured in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle and Women’s Wear Daily.
His work ethic was formed early on. “From a very, very young age, I was exposed to a lot of hardships,” Barrientos tells NJM. “Family entrepreneurship and hustling at such an early age were a big push to who I am today.”
For Barrientos, participating in Project Runway offered more than just intense competition. “I was there to prove myself,” he says. “But most importantly, network. At the end of the day, you want [the judges, mentors and fellow competitors] at your next show, your next exhibition. You want to start building those relationships.”
The post Meet the Two New Jersey Designers Competing on ‘Project Runway’ Season 22 appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
From the outside, the Court Tavern looks like a Monopoly house set on Church Street in the midst of New Brunswick’s growing skyline. But the Court once seemed like the biggest place around. Back then, it was the epicenter of the city’s local music scene, the second home of the bands that played there in the 1980s and ’90s.
“We considered it our Cavern Club,” says Jim Babjak, guitarist for the Smithereens, a band that cut its teeth at the Court, as did the Bouncing Souls.
Drive 50 minutes from the Court Tavern, up the Turnpike to Hoboken, and you’ll find the shell of another legendary venue: Maxwell’s, at the corner of 11th and Washington. Back in the day, the very air around the site seemed caffeinated, whether from the nearby Maxwell House coffee factory that gave the place its name, or from the frisson of excitement surrounding the headliners.
Beginning in 1978, Maxwell’s hosted emerging local bands—the Bongos, Yo La Tengo, the Feelies—but was also known for presenting shows by touring bands on the precipice of superstardom, including New Order, R.E.M., Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nirvana.
Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, Jason Everman, Chad Channing and Krist Novoselic in Hoboken in 1989. Photo: Camera Press/Ian Tilton“It was always the testing grounds, a good place to debut something and see how the audience reacted,” says James Mastro, guitarist for the Bongos. “You could judge how well you were doing by the crowd. It allowed me to be a little more creative and try stuff.”
These two clubs epitomized the original music scene that thrived in New Jersey from the late ’70s through the early 2000s, propped up and pushed forward by an ecosystem of college students, local artists, college radio stations, fanzines and music publications such as The Aquarian and Jersey Beat.
“There was this whole DIY thing of ‘Let’s put a band together,’” says Tom Crowe, who worked at the Court Tavern and was also a DJ at WFMU, the influential independent radio station in Jersey City. “I think there was a lot more of that back then. It was interesting how quickly that bloomed to sustain three nights of music a week with three or four bands on the bill.”
The Court shut its doors in 2012. The building, most recently a vegan pizzeria called Veganica, has been closed since the summer of 2025, its future unknown. Maxwell’s heyday ended in 2013, though it didn’t permanently close until 2018. It currently houses Sirenetta, a seafood restaurant and bar. The Court and Maxwell’s are among the best known and most lamented lost music clubs of New Jersey.
The Bongos members (from left) Richard Barone, Frank Giannini and Rob Norris pose on the rooftop of 1118 Hudson Street in Hoboken in 1981; behind them is the old Maxwell House coffee factory, for which Maxwell’s was named. Photo: Phil MarinoLike many other clubs, the Court and Maxwell’s followed a strange arc. Their success carried the seed of their own destruction.
Many clubs fell victim to gentrification or increasing real estate values. “It kind of builds up the neighborhood, and people start hearing about it and want to go there, and they end up getting priced out of what they helped create,” Mastro says. “The artists help bring it together, but they’re often neglected by the city after everyone’s cashed in.”
As neighborhoods became more desirable to visit, they became more difficult as well. Regulars speak ruefully about how parking became harder to find as Maxwell’s, like Hoboken in general, became a hotspot for nightlife. “The only problem with going to Maxwell’s was parking,” says Dennis Diken, drummer for the Smithereens.
A flyer for a show at New Brunswick’s Court Tavern in 1983. Image: Courtesy of the Smithereens/Tom ScarilloThe changes also affected individuals. Running a rock club can be expensive and stressful. For those who did it, including original owners Steve Fallon and Todd Abramson at Maxwell’s and the late Bobby Albert at the Court, it was a labor of love. “I think for any club that people have fond memories of,” Mastro says, “you can usually attribute that to the owners.” Doug Vizthum, who worked at the Court and whose band, Bad Karma, regularly played there, says most business owners are “not willing to take the hits that Bobby did. Bobby was there for the long haul, no matter what happened.”
When these clubs inhabited the earth, the cities and towns were bound together by a sense of community.
“You just felt welcome,” says Judy Sarlo Ray, a regular at the Court. “You’d start drinking at the bar upstairs, and then you couldn’t wait to go downstairs and see the band.”
Diken is one of many who says the Court Tavern “was home,” and that it nurtured a music scene that helped the Smithereens build its following. “It was comfortable; the people who ran it were great, we knew everybody,” Diken says. “It was like getting together with your friends every time we played there. It was wonderful.”
The Smithereens at Loop Lounge in Passaic in 1986. Photo: Courtesy of the Smithereens archiveCommunities were not only bonded by the music but became magnetic—they attracted acts from outside Jersey. Kirk Miller, who handled the sound system at the Court, was blown away by an infamous 1986 show by the Butthole Surfers, calling it “the show that changed my life.” The intensity of the performance transformed him from a laid-back Grateful Dead fan. “That show was a huge eye-opener for me,” Miller says, “and a week later, I’m buying punk rock records.”
Miller also worked at Maxwell’s, beginning in 1998. “I believed in Todd’s bookings and what went on there and wanted to be part of it,” Miller says, recalling shows by Neutral Milk Hotel and Fugazi. Abramson’s favorite shows at Maxwell’s include those by the Cowsills, the Donnas, and a gravity-defying gig by the Japanese surf band Jackie & the Cedrics, at which, he says, “the guitarist started running up the side wall, and I swear he was perpendicular to the stage, like Fred Astaire.”
Small clubs like Maxwell’s, which had a capacity of 200, and the Court, which legally held even fewer, provided what Abramson calls “the learning curve” for touring bands. “They didn’t have a video on TikTok one day and all of a sudden they’re huge,” Abramson says. “You’d see bands play clubs like Maxwell’s and then make it up to 800-1,000 capacity rooms, then theaters and, occasionally, arenas.”
Says Mastro, “There’s a reason that a band like R.E.M. or Nirvana kept coming back to Maxwell’s. You were respected and fed and always had a great time.” Fallon says he felt it important to be a good host. “My father was a musician from Ireland—he played accordion—so I knew somewhat of the grind that some of the musicians go through,” Fallon says. “And hunger makes you not perform well.”
These venues also shared talent; as different as the two clubs were, performers, patrons and staff often overlapped. In the 1990s, the guitarist Heidi Lieb performed at both the Court Tavern and Maxwell’s with her band Sit N’ Spin. “The Court was like our living room, our home, super fun. You could just be conversational on stage, chat with your friends who were in the audience. The scene was great,” Lieb says. “Maxwell’s I didn’t really consider a scene; it was a place where you went to see bands. It was a venue and a restaurant. Maxwell’s felt a little more impressive, to get a gig there.”
Fallon says he “also tried to be there when the band arrived because a lot of places, there sometimes was not a face to the club, and there’s this coldness when you walk into these clubs, and it takes you a while to warm up.”
Claudia Sullivan spent most weekends in the ’90s at Maxwell’s “because it was the kind of place where you didn’t care who was playing, you knew it was going to be good.” Sullivan, of Nutley, is producing the documentary No Backstage at Maxwell’s with New York-based director Paul Rachman, who previously chronicled the hardcore punk scene in the 2006 documentary American Hardcore. The film is expected to be released to festivals in 2027.
“Maxwell’s was curated,” Rachman says, noting that Fallon would stock the jukebox with new singles by bands scheduled to play the club. “Steve and Todd were part local tastemakers, very much ear-to-the ground.” He calls them “pillars of trust.”
Rachman adds, “It was a place that sonically and culturally connected to all the college-rock towns—Athens, Georgia; Raleigh, North Carolina; Minneapolis; Boston—and really gave an early platform to all the indie rock bands. So there’s that culture, that evolutionary process, the importance of gathering places for like-minded people. It became a launching pad for indie rock.”
“You walked in and it was like a family restaurant,” Sullivan recalls. “There were people dining there, because the music was in the back room. And because there was no backstage, the bands were eating their dinner there before the show. Like, there was no separation. Bands would have to walk through the audience to get to the stage, and the stage was very low.”
There was no backstage at the Court Tavern, either. The stage in the basement was so low that people perched on bar stools and on the staircase for a better vantage point. And, whereas Sullivan praises Maxwell’s as “not that seedy,” the Court was a place where, as Vizthum recalls, “some jerk-off would push the cigarette machine in front of the men’s room door and shoot bottle rockets under the door. This happened all the time. It was part of the Court ethos: No mercy.”
Babjak concurs, saying of the Court, “When you’re setting up your equipment, you’d smell the beer and cigarettes from the night before. It was kind of a warm feeling, though it was kind of a gross smell; it was somehow endearing. People didn’t just stand and watch you play, they’d dance and move around. It taught us not to be afraid to try spontaneous things.”
That sense of spontaneity, not to mention that smell, is now a thing of the past.
So, without all this, how do young musicians today find their way? Many, like the singer/songwriter Francesca Fuentes, begin by streaming performances on YouTube. Under the tutelage of Andy Gesner at Hip Video Promo in South River, however, she has dipped her toe into the live-music circuit, playing the Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, a coffeehouse in Toms River, and gigs in Brooklyn and Pennsylvania.
“Prior to Andy mentoring me, it was strictly social media—YouTube channel and Threads—where you can tell a story and connect with other creatives,” Fuentes says.
Gesner, whose band Spiral Jetty was a big draw at the Court Tavern, cherishes his time in the scene. “It was magical,” he says, “and I have empathy for the Francescas of the world, because playing at a place like the Court was a way to make a human connection that was undeniable.”
Says Abramson, “The place where I usually get breakfast, there was this young girl working there wearing a Nirvana T-shirt, and I said, ‘You know, they played a block away from here,’ and she just looked at me like I was from Mars, that it was unfathomable.” It was unclear, he says, whether she had even heard of Maxwell’s, let alone knew that Nirvana had graced its stage.
Cobain performs during Nirvana’s historic Maxwell’s show on July 13, 1989. Photo: Camera Press/Ian TiltonOther bands focus on basement shows in private homes, known as show houses. “The music scene going underground shows you the interest is still there,” says Bennett Kelly, who, as music reporter for New Brunswick Today, has chronicled the history of the scene with a scholarly approach. “There are still tons of bands in New Brunswick, they just don’t have as many above-ground places to play. Now it’s at a house; it’s mostly a college-aged scene, so bands also age out of it.”
The New Brunswick-based pop-punk band Nothing Left to Lose has been playing show houses since 2021. “This is my first band,” says bassist Nate Devine. “I found them through social media, a Rutgers basement-scene group meet.”
In the absence of a traditional music scene, vocalist Brandon Ryan says a strong social media presence is key to getting gigs. “Without it, it would be hard to get any sort of following,” Ryan says. The band creates Instagram reels that are like mini music videos. Nothing Left to Lose has played the Chubby Pickle in Highlands, which books live music but doesn’t have a scene. There is a difference, and Devine and Ryan recognize that. “We’ll take any show we can get,” Ryan says, “but our favorite is the Rutgers basement scene and those more intimate shows where we can be closer to everybody.”
As vinyl records enjoy a resurgence in popularity thanks to Gen Z music fans, independent record stores have become alcohol-free, all-ages venues for live music. Among them are Revilla Records in Milltown, Randy Now’s Man Cave in Hightstown, and Sweet Vinyl, a dessert café and record shop in Denville owned by Adam Budofsky, drummer for the Barleycorns in the ’90s and former editorial director at Modern Drummer magazine.
Budofsky says he tends to book younger bands. “There are very few places for indie bands with original music to play,” he says. “I’ve not had to really look for them; they reach out to me. They’ll walk in or email me. Somehow, despite the lack of rock ’n’ roll on the charts or in kids’ minds, I’m constantly impressed by the number of kids who want to play music and who go through the trouble and expense to do it.”
These people are all survivors who are still working on behalf of music, but in different ways. Fallon, who moved to Delaware and later opened a record store, and Abramson, who now books White Eagle Hall in Jersey City, are esteemed by musicians and regulars.
This makes sense to Vizthum, who thinks the need for community and the thrill of making and discovering new music will transcend all obstacles. The thirst for a scene, he says, will prevail. “As long as there’s kids who wanna play music, it’s gonna happen,” Vizthum says.
Did we miss any? Email us.
Kelly-Jane Cotter is a longtime music reporter and was an enthusiastic participant in the local music scene of the ’80s and ’90s.
The post Where Did New Jersey’s Rock Clubs Go? appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Whoopi Goldberg has many titles.
Grammy-winning stand-up comedian. Oscar-winning actor. Emmy-winning talk show host. Tony-winning Broadway producer.
And that’s just her EGOT haul.
To Danielle Pinnock, Goldberg has always been a beacon, an absolute North Star.
When she first saw the TV special adapted from Goldberg’s 1984 one-woman Broadway show, she was transfixed. Growing up in New Jersey, she would travel by bus to the Port Authority in Manhattan just so she could watch the hit performance on repeat at the Lincoln Center library.
Now Pinnock is front and center in an all-star cast that revives several of Goldberg’s characters from that landmark show and beyond. The Whoopi Monologues opened July 13 at Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater inside Lincoln Center, where Pinnock started her Whoopi journey all those years ago.
“It feels like divine timing,” she says.
Pinnock is best known for her breakout TV role as Alberta Haynes, the ghost of a lounge singer from the Prohibition era in the hit comedy Ghosts, which has run for five seasons on CBS. In 2025, her performance won the NAACP Image Award for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series.
These days, Pinnock says she’s living inside her own dream.
“Whoopi Goldberg changed my life as an artist with this project,” she says, reflecting on her beginnings as a performer. “I was living in Teaneck, New Jersey, and deciding on whether I wanted to become an actor or not, doing school plays, and I just didn’t see anyone in the media that looked like me. I was a chubby girl. I used to wear these three-piece suits and bifocals. And I remember watching The Color Purple for the first time and seeing Whoopi Goldberg and I was hooked. She was so transcendent in the role of Celie. I remember watching the credits and I was like, ‘Mom, who’s Whoopi Goldberg?’”
She was 14 years old when she visited the Lincoln Center library and asked to watch everything that Goldberg had done. The 1985 HBO special Whoopi Goldberg: Direct From Broadway preserved the special magic of the comedian’s Grammy-winning show, which, along with Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple, significantly propelled Goldberg’s career as she turned 30.
“I was like, ‘How can one woman do all of these different characters?’” says Pinnock, now 38. In the new production, she inhabits Jamaican Lady, a role Goldberg created decades ago.
Pinnock stars in director Whitney White’s The Whoopi Monologues with Emmy-winning Scandal star Kerry Washington, two-time Tony winner Kara Young (Purlie Victorious, Purpose), Tony winner Kecia Lewis (Hell’s Kitchen) and Emmy nominee Dominique Fishback (Swarm, Judas and the Black Messiah).
“It really does feel like a sisterhood,” Pinnock says. “To have a seat at this table is truly an honor, and it is one of the biggest moments of my career thus far.”
“The Whoopi Monologues” cast members Kecia Lewis, at center, with, from left: Dominique Fishback, Kerry Washington, Danielle Pinnock and Kara Young. Photo: Angela Marie OrellanaThe Jamaican Lady and the Old RaisinSeeing Goldberg deliver character after character in her Broadway show changed something in Pinnock.
“A lightbulb went off, and I said, ‘Oh my gosh, I can do this. This is what I can do in theater,’” she says.
The alum of Saddle River Day School studied theater at Temple University, making her off-Broadway debut at 19 at the Barrow Street Theatre. She continued her acting studies at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in England and found a mentor in actor and playwright Anna Deavere Smith, diving into documentary plays as well as training in improv at The Second City in Chicago. In 2016, she joined the Colman Domingo-directed play Barbecue at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, making her TV debut that year in an episode of NBC’s This Is Us. Later, she played Ms. Ingram, a teacher in the CBS sitcom Young Sheldon.
Before she became a regular on Ghosts, Pinnock conducted hundreds of interviews to create her own one-woman theater show, Body/Courage, which took on body image and diet culture.
“Whoopi is the reason those things happened,” Pinnock says. “I give her so much credit, because she was the impetus for me to start my career.”
From left: Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines, Kerry Washington, Whitney White, Kara Young, Danielle Pinnock and Sunny Hostin on “The View” on June 25. Photo: ABC/ Lou RoccoIn 2023, the Jersey-raised actor made her film debut in the Amazon holiday movie Candy Cane Lane, starring Eddie Murphy and Tracee Ellis Ross. The Whoopi Monologues marks her return to theater.
Pinnock has also shared hilarious character skits with her hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok and Instagram. She’s played a chic Parisian bed bug during an outbreak, holiday boss Mrs. Claus, and Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, opposite her own red-headed husband Jack Wallace (a British dialect coach) as Prince Harry.
In The Whoopi Monologues, Pinnock brings her Caribbean heritage to Jamaican Lady, one of the characters from Goldberg’s original Broadway show. She knows a little something about Jamaican ladies and Jamaican accents, having grown up in a Jamaican American family.
For this adaptation of the character, Pinnock enters the stage with blue pixie-cut hair dancing to the 1992 reggae song “Murder She Wrote” by Chaka Demus & Pliers. Air horns follow.
“We are having a blast,” she says.
As written by Goldberg in the ’80s, Jamaican Lady finds herself in scandalous circumstances thanks to the Old Raisin, which is her nickname for a wrinkled elderly man she meets in her native Jamaica. He tells her that he needs someone to cook, clean and give him “a little nookie” at his home in the United States.
Jamaican Lady has no idea what “nookie” means, but figures she’ll work that out when she gets there. “I’ll improvise,” she says. Many hijinks ensue, and Jamaican Lady finds herself living in the Old Raisin’s manse—which looks like Tara, the plantation from Gone With the Wind—newly addicted to watching soap operas and eating Wise potato chips. “You can eat the potato chips and use the excess as makeup,” she sagely observes.
“I think the thing that is so exciting for me to play this character is, I’m first-generation Jamaican American,” Pinnock says. “This story really is a misadventure. This woman is in Jamaica in Kingston, selling trinkets, and this man comes and says ‘I want you to move to the States with me.’ I mean, it’s not only just a massive opportunity, but she’s also fearful as to what that means.”
A Dream RealizedPinnock first met Goldberg two years ago as a guest on The View.
“It’s rare for me to get starstruck. I was, like, shaking,” she says. “I was just so taken by how kind she was, and gracious and supportive. And she really poured into me the first day that I met her. She was like ‘Keep going,’ and ‘I’m going to check out Ghosts,’ and she called my entire family to come on stage with her and take photos with her.”
When the Jamaican Lady part came up, Pinnock inquired about the role and learned it had already been cast. But when that casting fell through, the part became hers.
She recalls what Tony winner Cynthia Erivo once told her: Be grateful for the opportunity, but remember that you deserve it, too. “I’ve worked so hard in my career that this just feels right,” Pinnock says.
Her Ghosts filming schedule partially conflicts with the Lincoln Center engagement, which runs through August 30. But showrunners gave her the green light to do both. Later this month, she’ll be flying to Montreal to film four episodes of the CBS series, then flying back to play Jamaican Lady on the weekend.
Goldberg, 70, who lives in Essex County, planned to see The Whoopi Monologues on opening night. Pinnock lets out a little scream of excitement just thinking about seeing her in the audience. At the first preview of the show on July 7, the actor snuck in a cheeky “Knicks in five!” during her performance. She inserted the topical reference when Jamaican Lady was demonstrating how she bounced the Old Raisin around like a basketball to spurn his sexual advances. Pinnock was duly rewarded with raucous cheers from the New York audience.
“I can’t wait for more family members to come see it,” she says. “I just know that to feel that energy in the room, it’s gonna be unreal.”
As for her co-stars, Pinnock marvels at being billed alongside Washington, having once had a small part in her series Scandal. “I was, like, Hairdresser No. 1 in the crossover episode with her and Viola Davis” [then starring in How to Get Away With Murder].
In The Whoopi Monologues, Washington plays Surfer Girl, another of Goldberg’s characters from 1984. She masters California surfer drawl in a performance that veers from lighthearted comedy to tragedy. The audience learns the startlingly young age of a teen facing pregnancy and an increasingly dangerous situation complicated by misogyny and shame from those she trusts.
It’s yet another instance of how Goldberg’s writing holds up more than 40 years later. There’s a reason why the setting for the show, as stated in the program, is 1985 and 2005, but also “now” and “forever.”
The Whoopi Monologues is never just about the laughs, though they are plentiful, to be sure. There are moments of heaviness and crushing despair that draw gasps and cries from the audience. Subjects like abortion and suicide play out in the characters’ stories, making them seem all the more real.
Dominique Fishback plays Blonde Girl, a wide-eyed, precious 6-year-old. She pretends a shirt on her head is “long, luxurious” blond hair. Blonde Girl has told her mother that she doesn’t want to be Black anymore because nobody who looks like her is on TV.
“We have to acknowledge Whoopi Goldberg as a playwright,” Pinnock says. “There’s a reason that this woman is an EGOT. She is everything and more.”
The Whoopi Monologues runs through August 30 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center; click here for tickets. Follow Danielle Pinnock at @bodycourage on Instagram and TikTok.
The post For Danielle Pinnock, Starring in ‘The Whoopi Monologues’ Is a Full-Circle Moment appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Timothy White, photographer to some of the biggest celebrities and rock stars in the world, broke into photography using what he calls “New Jersey chutzpah.”
It was 1980, and the kid from Fort Lee had just moved to New York City after graduating with a degree in photography from the highly regarded Rhode Island School of Design. “I was doing anything, whatever it took, to try and find myself and make it as a photographer,” he says, including assisting a fashion and music photographer and shooting musicians. He soon met a group of painters and sculptors from South America and ended up traveling to places like Colombia and Venezuela to photograph them and their art projects over the next few years.
He came back with a portfolio of portraits he’d taken that was good enough to convince Rolling Stone magazine to hire him as a photographer. His first shoot? Photographing Yoko Ono and her son, Sean Lennon.
“I realized that was my thing—taking portraits,” he says. It was his connection to people that helped him get the shoots that ended up gracing the cover of Rolling Stone. “I like to make people comfortable, and my banter is sort of my stock-in-trade.”
Jon Bon Jovi Photo: Timothy WhiteHis cover portraits included rock stars like Jon Bon Jovi, Paul McCartney, Guns N’ Roses, REM and Van Halen.
Now 70, White has received many awards and accolades, including being named one of the most influential people in photography by American Photo magazine.
White’s memoir, Life Through My Lens, is out July 21.To celebrate his work, White has two new books. Life Through My Lens (Storyteller Media), out July 21, is a memoir of his life as a renowned celebrity photographer, featuring his iconic portraits of stars such as Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Julian Lennon and Whoopi Goldberg, along with personal stories from his career. In the fall, he’s also publishing a companion book of some of his best-known photographs.
While he was shooting for Rolling Stone, the magazine shifted to covering pop culture, including Hollywood celebrities—so White also began to photograph these elite actors. “The magazine had such importance, and so it was a great promotional PR tool for Hollywood and movies. And I saw that I really wanted to be a part of that,” he says.
When he finally found his niche in Hollywood through Rolling Stone and other magazines that he worked for, he began to immerse himself in that world. He shot for hundreds of movie posters, as well as advertising for television and movies. That led to photographing some of the biggest stars in the world, including Al Pacino, Sophia Loren and Harrison Ford.
Meryl Streep Photo: Timothy WhiteDanny Devito Photo: Timothy White“I developed relationships with these actors and musicians and so was able to get them to trust me to collaborate, and we were able to develop some great imagery together,” he says.
That included convincing Brad Pitt to take a five-day motorcycle trip with him, stopping along the way to set up shoots, that yielded iconic images of the star, and talking Julia Roberts into dressing up and being shot in a rather dirty tire store on the West Side of Manhattan.
Those bonding experiences led White to form friendships with many of the famous people he photographed.
“And so out of that comes this wonderful experience of working together, and then all of a sudden, the magic happens. And it’s really a great experience for both myself and the subject,” he says. “To be directing Al Pacino, and he’s sitting there listening to me, when I see myself as this punk kid from New Jersey—it’s amazing.”
Jack Nicholson Photo: Timothy WhiteWhoopi Goldberg Photo: Timothy WhiteAfter decades of shooting rock stars and celebrities, White had become a legend himself and was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2018. Now living in Los Angeles full time, he came back for the ceremony.
“There’s something about the people from New Jersey. There’s an attitude, if you will—and it’s not a bad one, it’s a positive attitude—but it’s definitely something that’s unique to people from New Jersey. And that really shows in the kinds of people that come out of this state,” he says.
Queen Latifah Photo: Timothy WhiteIce T & Spartacus Photo: Timothy WhiteThe night of the Hall of Fame induction ceremony, he appeared alongside some of the famous New Jerseyans he’d shot, including Jack Nicholson and Susan Sarandon. “I went backstage afterward, and they were all still hanging out. Everybody was talking together for hours afterward. And I was like, there’s really something about all these well-known people from New Jersey.”
After the ceremony, he realized he’d photographed some of the most famous New Jerseyans, including Nicholson and Sarandon, Queen Latifah, John Travolta and James Gandolfini. He decided to turn those photographs into an exhibit, “What Exit? The New Jersey Spirit,” first shown at the Newark Museum of Art and now on view at Terminal A in Newark Airport, where it’s expected to stay up for five years. (The photos seen here are from the exhibit.)
He says the exhibit made him realize that New Jerseyans stand apart: “I think there’s a confidence that comes with being from this state. There’s something about it—maybe it’s being in the shadow of New York City, like New Jerseyans wouldn’t accept that—we’re not going to be in the shadow. We’re our own family. We’ve got the best tomatoes and we’ve got Jersey pizza. We’re sort of a different breed than the rest of the country. And for someone who’s really traveled a lot, that Jersey attitude really does stand out.”
The post Celebrity Photographer Timothy White’s ‘New Jersey Chutzpah’ Took Him From Fort Lee to Hollywood appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
He is the king of the exclamation.
Cowbell in hand, he tells tale of the “motion in the ocean” that gave birth to “Rock Lobster!” and its “giant clam!”
Swaggering at the mic, he transports us to our own “Private Idaho,” complete with “bottomless blue, blue, blue pool.”
Driving a car “as big as a whale,” he informs us that we are 15 miles from the “Love Shack, baby!”
For 50 years now, Fred Schneider’s perpetually animated voice has been an invitation to party—on the dance floor, in the car, at the cookout or in the living room. The B-52s frontman’s “sprechgesang,” or spoken song delivery, always heralds something exciting, out-there or foreboding, but never boring—like the ultimate dream-casting for a school principal you wish made the morning announcements.
Schneider and fellow lead vocalists Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson carved out their own deliciously kooky lane in late-’70s post-punk. The B-52s became known in the emerging New Wave scene for a sound and style that was both retro and futuristic. The band played with music and moods of yesteryear—like the 1960s beehive, or “B-52” hair Pierson and Wilson wore like vintage crowns piled on their heads—but their creations were entirely new.
This summer, years after their “retirement” from touring, the party never really stops for the B-52s.
“People don’t want us to leave,” Schneider tells New Jersey Monthly ahead of the band’s latest Garden State return.
While they got their start in Athens, Schneider is one half of the group’s New Jersey contingent.
“I still have family and friends there,” he says, newly 75 and “just groovy.”
“I still have friends from grammar school there. And every once in a while, I’ll go to, like, the ShopRite and all of a sudden, there would be somebody I sat next to in seventh grade, eighth grade.”
Oceanport, Athens and galaxies beyondFor the B-52s, past, present and future exist in something of a cosmic swirl.
The band marked its 50th anniversary by playing the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands before a storm and tornado caused a show cancellation at June’s Retro C Trop Music Festival in France. (Schneider called the circumstances a “total disaster” on Facebook.)
On July 11, the undeterred B-52s take the party to Freehold with fellow Jersey-connected act Dramarama opening. Before the show, Schneider, his fellow New Jersey bandmate Kate Pierson and Dramarama (which formed in Wayne in 1982) are being inducted into the Count Basie Center for the Arts Walk of Fame in Red Bank.
The B-52s show is part of the ParkStage summer concert series at the East Freehold Showgrounds in Freehold. It’s just one way the B-52s have defied their own 2022 announcement about retiring from touring. An extended slate of farewell shows was only the beginning. In April, the band wrapped a residency at the Venetian Las Vegas that started with dates in 2023. Last year, they had their Cosmic De-Evolution tour with Devo, which was just revived for more dates this fall.
“Touring’s gotten a lot easier than it was and we just cut back totally,” Schneider says. “We do a series of shows, we don’t really tour.”
Playing in Monmouth County means returning to his childhood stomping grounds. The B-52s singer-songwriter was born in Newark and spent his youngest years in Belleville before moving to Oceanport with his family in 1957. Schneider grew up watching Soupy Sales “religiously” and Officer Joe Bolton, both formative to his choice sense of humor. He was a big fan of elementary school in Oceanport, but he found Shore Regional High School in West Long Branch less fun.
“I didn’t like going to Shore Regional because it was very cliquish, but I wound up liking everybody OK, even in high school. But I decided that ‘you know, I’ve got to get out of here,’” Schneider says. “I went to Georgia because I wanted to study conservation, but let’s just say I didn’t.”
He intended to major in forestry at the University of Georgia in Athens, picturing a career in wildlife conservation. “Thank God I went there because I stayed and got into the band,” he says.
Cindy Wilson, Fred Schneider and Kate Pierson. Photo: Shutterstock/Ron AdarLiving down South, Schneider linked up with his bandmates: Georgia locals Cindy Wilson, her brother Ricky Wilson and Keith Strickland, plus fellow New Jerseyan Kate Pierson. Pierson, 78, grew up in Weehawken and Rutherford, near Schneider’s grandparents in the adjacent town of Lyndhurst. “When I was a little kid, they would take me to Rutherford,” he says, but he only crossed paths with Pierson in Georgia.
Schneider would make it back to Jersey over the years, but the Peach State had him hooked. “After I went to college in Georgia, I stayed there ’cause I really liked it. And then I would visit my family on the Shore,” he says. When he was still in school, he’d return home for summer work at Chicken Delight. (“I don’t miss that,” he says. “People were rude.”)
The B-52s took shape in 1976 as a kind of side project between friends. “We just happened to one night get together,” says Schneider, who had little music experience at that time. “I never sang in high school and I never really sang in grammar school except ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat.'”
But he could work with words. “I like writing and we jammed,” Schneider says. He was living in Atlanta and ready for a change, so he moved back to Athens with music on his mind. “I said ‘let’s do this as a hobby or something’ … There wasn’t a definite plan or anything. But then all of a sudden things took off once we played Max’s Kansas City (in New York).”
By 1977, they were taking over the parties of the world, armed with Schneider’s exclamations and the alternately electrifying and haunting voices of Wilson and Pierson, who is also an anchor on keys and synth. Ricky Wilson was the band’s original guitarist until his death in 1985, after which Strickland moved from drums to guitar (he retired from touring in 2012).
“We started out as a party band, and we know how to write music and write songs that people can really dance to, up-tempo,” Schneider says. “We’re not slow dance-and-smooch. We’re dance fast-and-smooch.”
These days, when he’s off the road and at home, he spends most of his time on a different shore. “Once the band took off, we all moved (to) upstate New York together, and I wound up in New York for a while, and now I’m out on Long Island.”
Today, when Schneider says “Shore,” it sounds more like “shoooawhr” — drawn out like a Southerner. But as a new arrival to Georgia, he was an outlier in that regard.
“I had a thick New Jersey accent, so they wanted to hear me talk,” he says, barely getting the words out through a gut-busting laugh.
The never-ending partyThe B-52s stopped touring for a few years in the mid-’80s after guitarist Ricky Wilson, 32, died of complications of AIDS.
“We stayed in touch,” Schneider recalls. “We all lived in New York but I never thought about quitting. I had to give Cindy and Keith their time to mourn because it was a tremendous blow to the band.”
The band returned in a big way in 1989 with Cosmic Thing, their highest-charting album at No. 4, and home to two of their most popular songs, the ubiquitous “Love Shack” and “Roam.”
Now, 50 years on, Schneider says mutual respect keeps the music going.
“We’ve always shared everything equally—credit, money—which, you know, a lot of bands don’t, and that usually leads to some problems,” he says. “Everyone shared equally in writing royalties, everything from the beginning. We had our bad moments, but like every band, somehow we always manage to pull together. And now it’s been really great.”
B-52s concerts dance through the band’s ’70s, ’80s and ’90s eras, drawing a spectrum of generations.
“Everybody’s always been invited to our party,” Schneider says. “I mean, my mother used to come to all the shows in New Jersey, and she said, ‘they want me to sign autographs.’ I said, ‘go ahead, Mom’ … It’s fun. I don’t get tired of doing ‘Rock Lobster’ or ‘Love Shack.’ And it’s a lot better than wedding bands.”
Of course, those same songs have become staples of weddings and other life events.
“People want to escape,” he says of the band’s concert-parties. “This is a great time to try to escape because it’s just crazy.”
Like other members of the group, Schneider has released solo albums as well as two albums with his other band, the Superions, which he calls “really satisfying.”
While The B-52s have been eligible for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame since the early aughts, the band has not been nominated. But after releasing seven albums since 1979, receiving three Grammy nominations and retiring without retiring, there’s still more to come.
Fans can look forward to a B-52s documentary that has been in the works for several years from director Craig Johnson. Yes, it’s still on the way, Schneider confirms.
“A book of lyrics is coming out, I believe a photo book … things are in the works,” he says. The film’s executive producer is B-52s fan and former “Saturday Night Live” star Fred Armisen, a drummer who played with the band at “SNL50: The Homecoming Concert” in 2025. “He’s a great guy,” Schneider says. “We share really bad videos we find on Instagram and Facebook.”
Armisen also joined Schneider and Pierson in May for a performance at a celebration for the 40th anniversary of “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” as part of the Netflix is a Joke Festival at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. “We’ve met Pee-Wee and had lunch with him and stuff like that, and we were such fans,” Schneider says of Paul Reubens, who died in 2023 after being diagnosed with leukemia and lung cancer.
Schneider always likes to play gigs back home in Jersey for the creature comforts of it all. “I still know my way around,” he says, remembering Sundays spent junking and antiquing in Englishtown. “I would tell my brothers and sister ‘OK, who wants to go to church, and who wants to go to the flea market?’” (The flea market won.)
Some of his fondest Jersey concert memories include the Sea.Hear.Now festival in 2019, when Schneider was crowned king in front of thousands on the beach in Asbury Park. “One of my nephews was the rock lobster who dances onstage,” he says. “I mean, we were going, like ‘Oh my God, look at all these people’ … You want to party in New Jersey, call us.”
The B-52s returned to the Shore town for Stone Pony Summer Stage in 2023.
“What I really miss is Asbury Park as it was back in the day, because it was just amazing,” Schneider says. “We would go there from 1957 on. Of course, it went downhill totally. But luckily, it’s coming back. But it can’t be what it was—nothing can be what it was.”
He turned 75 on July 1 and sees the age as less of a milestone than “maybe a stone I’ll drag around.”
“I’m not as spry as I used to be, but I think my voice has gotten a lot better, which is a good thing,” he says. “And rather than pony across the stage, I just try to really take command of what I do. And I feel like I do because the band is doing really well this late stage in our career. But you know what? What happens happens. And we’re gonna keep going until someone decides ‘you know, I want to retire.'”
The post B-52s’ Fred Schneider Reflects on Going from NJ to Stardom appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
When Charity Herndon sets up her mobile bookshop for the day, there’s often a line around the block. Once patrons step inside the 98-square-foot trailer that Herndon drives around the state, they’re met with a dose of cozy charm, with its floral wallpaper, fireplace mantel, and cardboard cutout of Mr. Darcy from the 2005 film Pride and Prejudice—plus a variety of novels available to purchase.
Herndon’s year-old mobile bookshop—called Austen’s Shelf, after the author Jane Austen—features curated shelves with a little bit of everything, from nonfiction to classic fiction and Regency romance, from thrillers to fantasy.
“I always want people to find their whimsy,” says Herndon, a resident of Woolwich in Gloucester County. “I want them to feel at home….I just want them to feel like they can linger and stay in as long as they want.”
Beyond selling books, Herndon facilitates book-themed outings near her home base, including audiobook walking clubs, bookmark craft pop-ups, and even a watch party for the latest adaptation of Wuthering Heights.
In June, as Herndon prepared to celebrate the first anniversary of Austen’s Shelf, she opened up a brick-and-mortar shop in Bordentown, giving people the chance to linger a bit longer around the shelves and find more variety.
The name Austen’s Shelf is a tribute to the author Jane Austen. Photo: Matt StanleyHerndon, an author herself—her book Other Side of the Tracks is a modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet—was inspired to start her business during a difficult period in her life. At 29, newly married and facing a potential breast cancer diagnosis, Herndon remembers telling her husband, “I don’t know what treatment’s gonna look like. I know that this is something I’ve always wanted to do, and I wanna open up this bookstore.”
The name, Austen’s Shelf, comes from the kinship Herndon found with Austen, who lived with chronic illness throughout her life.
Amid painful rounds of doctor’s appointments, tests and biopsies, Herndon found comfort in renovating Austen’s Shelf. “Maybe by day, I’m at the doctor’s and I’m getting poked and prodded, and by night, I’m able to watch the sunset and paint the ceiling,” she says. “It was just kind of like my escape, and it helped me not to think too much about what was going on in my body.”
Herndon’s dream became a reality, and she decided to name the shop after Austen as a reminder to herself that she can live with illness and still accomplish her dreams.
The mobile shop officially opened in September 2025, with its first stop at the Cherry Hill Mall.
Herndon sees her shop as a community builder. Readers have told Herndon they’ve met friends in line and had the chance to get to know like-minded people at the shop and at events.
For Herndon, literacy, justice and community facilitation are key. She can take her bookshop to cities or neighborhoods where access to bookstores is sparse. “It’s just my desire for everyone to know that they have a right. It is their right to be able to read,” she says. “It’s what pushes me to want to give people books. It just feels like giving out gold, almost.”
Follow @austens_shelf on Instagram for the mobile bookshop’s locations and for information on the brick-and-mortar shop.
The post A Tiny Mobile Bookshop Fosters a Novel Community in South Jersey appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Dogs in a Pile, the Jersey Shore-based jam band that is quickly climbing the ranks of the national music scene, may be playing venues like the Stone Pony nowadays, but the group doesn’t forget its musical roots.
“One of the things we’ve always been about, from when the band first started, is that all of our fans were just our friends, and they were just enjoying having their buddies’ band playing backyards and stuff,” says bassist Sam Lucid, a Sea Girt native. “And it’s always been a super-close family vibe, and that’s what we try to portray to new people.”
Dogs in a Pile is currently touring in support of Distroid, which came out last year.The quintet of accomplished and ambitious 20-somethings is performing at the storied spot in Asbury Park for the third consecutive year, with its 2026 show slated for Saturday, August 8. The group is currently on the road in support of their third LP, Distroid, released in November 2025.
“We had the freedom to make it sound exactly how we wanted to,” singer and guitarist Jimmy Law, a Point Pleasant native, says of the album.
Distroid—produced by the band’s keyboard player, Jeremy Kaplan—sounds true to the Dogs experience, coming close to capturing the band’s buzzworthy live show. There are tricky stylistic shifts, such as the driving-country-to-chill-reggae transition of “Shenanigans,” as well as sprawling epics like the grandiose “Thomas Duncan, Pt. 3,” and plenty of Jersey swagger in the Ocean Avenue Stompers horns-assisted “My Disguise.”
“Every single one of those dudes are like the best at what they do—so when you put them all together like that, that’s a serious force,” says Jersey Shore tastemaker Tim Donnelly, a journalist and event producer who cofounded the annual Sea Hear Now festival in Asbury Park, which featured Dogs in a Pile in 2022.
The band’s current lineup—Law, Lucid, and Forked River-native drummer Joe Babick, alongside Kaplan and guitarist/singer Brian Murray, both from Long Island—have been together since 2019. But, as Donnelly notes, Law had been making waves on Asbury Park stages since his preteen years.
“Everybody knew about Jimmy, and then all of a sudden this band gets put together and Jimmy’s a part of something, he’s not the [only] thing,” Donnelly says. “That was really amazing to me, just to see the talent level of all of these guys and how they’re able to push each other, but more importantly, in how they do it in that whole Grateful Dead kind of improvisational situation. You can’t teach that stuff—it’s got to be there inherently, and they have that, and that is rare. Bands work their whole lives to do that.”
Photographer Jay Blakesberg, a Clark native best known for his images of the Grateful Dead, first saw Dogs in a Pile at the Peach festival in Pennsylvania in 2022 and has been a fan ever since.
Noting how the band borrowed its name from a Grateful Dead lyric, in the song “He’s Gone,” Blakesberg says, “I think that everybody expects them to be a Grateful Dead tribute band, and they’ve got that music deep in their veins as young kids, but they are not…. They’re just rock-solid, really good, improvisational, groovy jam-band music that’s got their own twist.”
Blakesberg, whose musical history with Asbury Park dates back to seeing the Jerry Garcia Band at Convention Hall in 1977, says Dogs in a Pile has found their place in the city’s musical landscape. “Asbury Park’s just got the vibe, and now they’ve got the band,” he says.
The demand is evidenced by the band’s touring schedule across the country and their growing Dog Pound Facebook fan group.
“Thinking about the fans and how supportive they are can really help you,” says Lucid. “As a touring musician, it’s easy to get discouraged, but when you think about, We can write these songs, and people are singing them back to us and loving them and posting on Facebook, that that song really brightened their day or changed their life in a small way—that’s really what it’s all about.”
The post Jersey Shore Jam Band Dogs in a Pile Will Never Forget Their Roots appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
As a child, Jules Duffy painted. Later, even with a thriving interior design business, Duffy painted. “When my kids were migrating out of the house, I knew I had more time. I wanted something to fill that void,” she explains.
With her watercolor talent well honed, she decided to explore oil painting. She had a lot to learn and began taking classes and attending workshops. “I wanted to learn the proper way, the proper strokes, the proper methods,” she says. “I created a personal passion, not just a career passion.”
Duffy’s glossy notecards feature florals, marine scenes and Harbor Island, Bahamas—a favorite spot for inspiration. A set of five is $35. Photo: Laura MossDuffy’s work, now displayed in galleries and private collections, is inspired by color. As a sought-after interior designer, she’s known for splashes of saturated hues. “My love for color paved the way for my interior design career,” she says. And that career paved the way for her to explore painting with the same keen eye.
Duffy splits her time between Chatham and Bay Head. “I’m drawn to the water,” she explains. “Living at the Shore, I’m constantly inspired by the changing water and sky.” One of her favorite subjects: sailboats. Her husband, Lawrence, is a skilled sailor, and she often captures his likeness on the water. “Since I started painting, I look at the world through a completely different lens. It’s added so many meaningful layers to my life,” she says.
Duffy partnered with a high-end puzzle company to create these hand-cut wooden works: “They’re truly bespoke, heirloom pieces.” Photo: Laura MossDuffy’s original oil paintings can cost thousands of dollars. She also creates more affordable giclées—canvas prints of her work—that she enhances by hand. “I paint over the print so you can see the brush strokes. I make it an original. I’m constantly striving to take my art to the next level. It’s a lifetime of education,” she says.
“Painting is a journey, an adventure,” Duffy says. “You need to be willing to dive in and make mistakes. Trust me, there are a lot of paintings I’ve done that no one will ever see.”
For more on Duffy’s work, visit julesduffyfineart.com.
The post NJ Painter Jules Duffy Is ‘Constantly Inspired’ by Jersey Shore Scenery appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
If you close your eyes while you listen to Marel Hidalgo play his guitar, his music will usher you to a place of energy, layered rhythms and improvisation that has a satisfying depth. Open your eyes, and you will find a 17-year-old musical phenom, likely spiffily dressed in a full suit, who draws soul from his instrument as though he has been mastering it for a lifetime.
Hidalgo, a Neptune native, picked up his first guitar at age four, and the connection quickly grew from play to commitment. “The passion grows as you learn and are challenged more and more. You start thinking that there’s nothing in the world you would rather do all day long than play music,” he says, adding, “That’s when everyone around you gets worried.”
Hidalgo calls his father, Mahonrry Hidalgo, his “unintentionally first musical mentor.” Mahonrry, who, with his wife, Eslin Morris, owns Luna Verde, a vegan Mexican restaurant in Bradley Beach, enjoyed playing music for his toddler son. “One of my earliest memories is listening to Charlie Parker and [Russian composer Igor] Stravinsky,” Hidalgo says. “My dad thought that playing those two completely different artists for me was a way to open my mind to complexity.”
By six, Hidalgo had earned the respect of other musicians and was leading a band, directing it as he saw fit. “I was very strict; since I was a little kid and they were adults, I was given a pass,” he says. “I wanted the band to sound like the original recordings of Jeff Beck, Santana and Joe Satriani’s albums to the note.”
Hidalgo received his first guitar instruction from Jerry Franklin, a teacher at Big Beat Music Studio in Neptune. Fine-tuning his natural talent, he learned how to “recognize patterns, rhythms, sounds, pitch, melodies, chords and harmony, all by ear.” He experimented with different genres before settling on jazz, for the moment, while still recognizing the gifts of other genres. “Blues is the root of everything, reggae gave me a sense of groove, progressive rock developed my ear and guitar technique, Latin and jazz fusion [gave me] a more sophisticated understanding of rhythm and the feeling of syncopation.”
That musical fluency has allowed him to share stages with contemporary greats like Billy Hart, Monty Alexander, Roger Humphries and John Lee. Hidalgo says carrying the tradition of jazz into the next generation is not just an honor, but a responsibility. “If we understand this art form as one that is passed from generation to generation, musician to musician, when you are in the presence of someone, let’s say, like Mr. Alexander, you are also in the presence of Oscar Peterson,” he says, naming a succession of artists whose influences spring from jazz’s musical lineage. “A little secret: If you listen carefully, you can always hear the voices of the ones you came from cutting through the noise.”
Leading ensembles and playing solo jazz guitar are both edifying as Hidalago continues to explore music. “Solo jazz guitar is by nature freer,” he says, “and gives more room to explore the song from top to bottom. I don’t have to be tied down to the original form, and I can come up with arrangements/sections on the fly. Within the more traditional jazz group, the interaction between all the members is what makes the song sound best. As Wynton Marsalis put it, ‘Jazz is democracy in action.’”
Self-assured beyond his years, Hidalgo recognizes the scope of opportunities his talent has garnered. At the age of six, he played at Cleveland’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; at nine, he made his first appearance on the Exit Zero Jazz Festival Mainstage; last year, he brought his Jamaican Jazz Group to the New York Guitar Festival in Bryant Park; and in April, he acted as arranger, orchestrator and soloist, leading his jazz quartet in front of a large wind orchestra at the Teatro Nacional in Costa Rica. “The scenery doesn’t change the essence of the music,” he says. “It reaffirms that music is a universal language.”
Hidalgo keeps a tight schedule, performing, writing arrangements for large ensembles, orchestrating and practicing. While this is not the life of a typical Jersey teen, he sees little sacrifice in his busy schedule. “A few hours of lost sleep or long flights….Doing what you love is a privilege that most people unfortunately don’t have,” he notes. That sense of purpose has remained a constant. After one of his earliest performances, Hidalgo told an interviewer, “I like to play music because it makes me happy, and it makes people happy.” He says today, “Nothing has changed ever since.”
To learn more, visit @marelhidalgo on Instagram or marelhildagomusic.com.
The post Jersey Shore Guitar Prodigy Marel Hidalgo Led His First Band at Age 6 appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Wall Street banker-turned-TV anchor Stephanie Ruhle’s Jersey hustle delivers ratings. After four years hosting The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle, she’s moving from weeknights at 11 pm to a new two-hour morning show on MS NOW, Money, Power, Politics with Stephanie Ruhle, debuting today at 9 am.
“In many ways, I’m sad to leave The 11th Hour,” Ruhle told New Jersey Monthly in an interview a few days before her final episode. “I love our show, I love our audience, I love late night,” she said. “I love the irreverent vibe of it all. The good news is we’re not going to lose that sort of irreverence. I think we need that on morning TV. Right now, there are lots of folks out there who feel disconnected from the media, or they want to tune out because they’re overwhelmed by news.”
Money, Power, Politics aims tohelp viewers learn about the most important issues of the day. It has carried over elements of The 11th Hour—the show’s Nightcap roundtable, marquee guests and thoughtful analysis—and will introduce audience involvement, including a call-in segment.
“When I see people on the street, they say, ‘You’re asking the questions on your show that I’m screaming at my TV about!’ I don’t want people to scream at their TVs. I want them to be part of the show,” Ruhle says.
Ruhle, who recently turned 50, grew up in Bergen County’s Park Ridge. She and her husband, Andy Hubbard, have three children and split their time between Manhattan and Long Beach Island, where they’ll soon decamp to their vacation home for the summer. Ruhle will continue to anchor her show while she’s in New Jersey, including for a number of live broadcasts.
Ruhle with her family in Long Beach Island. Photo: Eric Hance PhotographyAfter graduating from Lehigh University in 1997, Ruhle initially pursued a career in banking. But even as she rose through the ranks—she was previously a managing director for Deutsche Bank—she always dreamed of working in television. In 2011, while speaking at a White House event, she was asked what she wanted to do next. Taking a leap, she revealed her interest in broadcasting.
A panelist at the event offered to introduce Ruhle to Andy Lack, then head of Bloomberg Television. When they met, she asked Lack to take a chance on her, offering to work for the lowest salary in the organization if he gave her a chance to anchor a show and taught her how to be on TV. He agreed, and the rest is history.
After five years at Bloomberg TV, Ruhle followed Lack over to MSNBC, where she first co-anchored a business-focused show with her friend and colleague Ali Velshi. In 2022, she moved into the anchor position at The 11th Hour—a role that Velshi will now be taking over.
Photo: Courtesy of MS NOWRuhle believes that her background in business helps viewers make sense of what’s happening today.
“Even if you don’t care about politics and never vote, you care about the world around you,” she says. “We want to make a show for people that want to be informed and engaged.”
Does she believe that the country is deeply politically divided? Not so much.
“I think for the most part, people are Jersey-style. We’re practical, right?” she says with a laugh. “We want to live in a safe town. We want to be financially secure, and socially free, and we want our kids to go to a good school. We want to have jobs and we want to be able to afford healthcare. That doesn’t mean one side is good or one side is bad. It means: Let’s understand what’s happening in the world.”
Money, Power, Politics with Stephanie Ruhle airs on MS NOW weekdays from 9 am to 11 am ET.
The post TV Anchor Stephanie Ruhle Thinks Most Americans Are ‘Jersey-Style’ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
March 14, 2025, is a day that Woodbine Mayor William Pikolycky will never forget. It’s when filming wrapped in the tiny Cape May County borough (population 3,000) on the new Steven Spielberg blockbuster, Disclosure Day.
As the legendary director, who spent part of his childhood in Camden County, was about to helicopter out of there for his New York City home, the mayor realized it would be his last chance to present Spielberg with a parting gift he’d prepared. Approaching him, Pikolycky offered him an oversized brass key to the town. Spielberg appeared both grateful and surprised, the mayor recalls.
“He seemed really moved. He jumped up in the air and said, ‘No one’s ever presented me with a key.’”
Disclosure Day, Spielberg’s fourth sci-fi film about the possibility of life beyond our planet, is set for release on June 12.
The bulk of it was filmed in New Jersey, although the fictitious setting for the flick, starring Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor, is Kansas City. In addition to Woodbine, scenes were filmed in places including Buena Vista Township, Jersey City, Middlesex County, Milmay, Montville, Morris Township and Tuckahoe.
Though fans are familiar with Spielberg’s takes on other-worldly beings, New Jersey itself isn’t alien to the 79-year-old, who spent five of his very early years, from 1952 to 1957, in Haddon Township, when his father worked as an engineer at RCA in Camden. After watching his first-ever movie, The Greatest Show on Earth, in 1952 at the Westmont Theatre, young Spielberg went home and commandeered his dad’s new movie camera to film his own version of the colossal train wreck he had just viewed on-screen.
Woodbine Mayor William Pikolycky presents Spielberg with a key to the town. Photo: Laurie E. BoydHis semi-autobiographical 2002 film, The Fabelmans, includes memories of his years in Jersey. And on March 7, 2023, the Camden County Board of Commissioners installed a historical marker down the street from the Westmont Theatre (now a fitness center) commemorating the site where Spielberg was inspired to become a filmmaker.
Since his childhood in Jersey, Spielberg has been back at least four times to film. In Disclosure Day, a particularly thrilling car-chase scene filmed in Wildwood. The Exxon station on Route 202 in Montville appears on-screen, and spectacular train-crash scenes explode along historic tracks in Woodbine and Tuckahoe.
“They really liked the Woodbine area,” Pikolycky says. “For one thing, we have trains, tracks and a train yard that could be used for the train-crash scene. We also have a vacant factory that was big enough to put a train and all the necessary paraphernalia for the movie inside.”
Tony Macrie, president, CEO and general manager of Cape May Seashore Lines, which owns the train complex, says he was grateful to be part of the shoot. “It’s good for the community and the state of New Jersey. We stayed in the background, trying not to be obnoxious, but helped with whatever was needed,” he says.
In Woodbine, Pikolycky gave Spielberg and the crew office space in municipal buildings “and arranged with a realtor for the 150 crew members to rent houses and condos in Ocean City, Sea Isle, Avalon, Strathmere and Stone Harbor.”
Filming also boosted the local economy, a trend that many towns have experienced with the recent influx of film projects.
“The crew’s presence here brought in lots of money,” the mayor says. “Our restaurants, caterers and coffee shops had a rush of business.”
During his time in town, Spielberg was “really down-to-earth,” says the mayor—even though he arrived daily to set by helicopter. “He wore blue jeans like anyone else,” Pikolycky adds.
“Getting Steven Spielberg here wasn’t a shock. My reaction was, Well, if you’re going to get anybody, you might as well get the best.”
The post Steven Spielberg Gets a Warm NJ Homecoming appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Two years ago, while studying a map of African countries, Montclair resident Liza Cohn had an epiphany: she noticed that the country of Chad resembled a human head.
“There was this guy literally sitting in the middle of the continent of Africa,” recalls Cohn, a former lawyer and self-proclaimed “lifelong learner” who has taken multiple classes at the Montclair Public Library’s Adult School.
Cohn contacted her close friend Stephanie Troeller—a fellow Montclarion and a cartoonist who has worked with DC Comics, Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros.—to ask if she wanted to collaborate. Eventually they brought to life Dad in Chad, a board game that follows the cartoon character Dad on his journey home to Chad, spanning Africa’s 54 countries. Along the way, players learn all about African geography, wildlife, culture and sports.
“We understood together that we could make a game about learning…that was easy, fun and memorable,” says Cohn.
Photo: Courtesy of Stephanie TroellerDad in Chad went through a testing phase in New York and New Jersey schools, where Troeller and Cohn observed students playing an earlier version of the game, later incorporating their feedback. The game is currently stocked in 268 schools across 35 U.S. states, thanks to a grant from Seasholes Sheridan Family Foundation, which Troeller says shares her and Cohn’s vision of “immersive educational experiences that bring people together.” (The game is also newly available on Amazon.)
“I know this sounds crazy,” adds Troeller, “but I believe that this little goofy cartoon character [of Dad]…taps into the inner humanity of all of us.”
Photo: Courtesy of Stephanie TroellerThe post Two New Jersey Moms Create Educational Board Game Now Used in Schools Nationwide appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The stylish and playful production of Noël Coward’s Private Lives is fast-moving and delightful, proving the staying power of this edgy 1930s romp.
When divorced couple Amanda Prynne and Elyot Chase find themselves honeymooning at the same French Rivera hotel with their new mates, the initial awkwardness soon turns into a rekindled attraction. From there, their combustible chemistry fuels the ensuing antics.
At the heart of the production is Ashley Blanchet, an elegant and convincing Amanda, paired with dapper Britt Michael Gordon as Elyot. The two capture the intoxicating push-and pull that makes Coward’s central couple so simultaneously captivating and infuriating.
Photo: Courtesy of Shakespeare Theatre/Avery BrunkusAs the story unfolds, Clark Carmichael embodies Victor, Amanda’s underrated second husband, while Fiona Robberson plays comically weepy Sibyl, the younger new wife of Elyot. Nicole Lawrie plays the part of Louise, the unlucky housekeeper and flappable witness to the shenanigans.
These complicated relationships are expressed with laughable physical action and snappy dialogue, while still delving into the emotional contradictions of love.
Photo: Courtesy of Shakespeare Theatre/Avery BrunkusThe elegant costuming and sophisticated set design place the production squarely in a period defined by social class, glamour and lavish lifestyles.
More than 90 years after its debut, Private Lives remains a refreshing production that still captivates audiences.
Private Lives is showing daily at Madison’s Shakespeare Theatre through Sunday, June 7.
The post Charm and Wit Sparkle in ‘Private Lives’ at Madison’s Shakespeare Theatre appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Across the decades, the Broadway Theatre of Pitman has featured entertainers ranging from comedy legends (Abbott and Costello) to country-music superstars (Tammy Wynette, Johnny Cash) to Oscar winners (Bing Crosby, Shirley Jones).
The classic-style theater, which seats just over 1,000 and features a balcony and elevated boxes, plays a leading role in the Gloucester County community. To mark its centennial, Richard L. Eldredge recounts the venue’s history in a new book called Pitman’s Broadway Theatre at 100: The Story of a Beloved Landmark and the New Jersey Town That Saved It (Ardmore Avenue Publishing).
“I thought I was going to tell the story of a building, but I’m really telling the story of a town through the lens of a building,” says Eldredge, a Pitman native now living in Atlanta.
The Broadway opened in May 1926, showing silent films with accompaniment by a Kimball organ, which is still played before shows. The theater pivoted to screening talkies and serving as a stop on the vaudeville circuit. In the 1970s and ’80s, then owner Clayton Platt staged country and rock concerts.
“The theater has been able to reinvent itself,” a key to its longevity, Eldredge says.
Under the ownership of Peter Slack since 2006, the Broadway focuses on live theater with its Mainstage season of musicals, along with children’s plays, tribute concerts and comedy shows. “We get about 125,000 visitors a year,” says Nick Blood, the Broadway’s marketing manager.
The Broadway celebrates its 100th anniversary June 5-7 with A Century on Stage: A Legacy of Theatre, 100 Years in the Making. The show pays tribute to Broadway musicals from the 1920s to today, with an orchestra.
One role of the theater remains unchanged, Eldredge says. “It’s an economic engine for Pitman.”
Learn more about the theater and event at thebroadwaytheatre.org.
The post How Pitman’s Broadway Theatre Became a Beloved, 100-Year-Old South Jersey Landmark appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Stand-up comedian and cabaret performer Adam Sank has built a career out of turning his queer life and dating experiences into sharp, self-aware storytelling.
The Summit native will perform his award-winning show Bad Dates: A One-Man Show About Many Men at Cape May’s Clemans Theater for the Arts hosted by East Lynne Theater Company on Saturday, June 6. He’ll then head to Asbury Park to emcee New Jersey’s 34th annual Pride festival on Sunday, June 7.
The comedian’s performing credits include NBC’s Last Comic Standing and The Today Show. In addition to touring Bad Dates nationally, Sank also hosts The Adam Sank Show, a podcast available on all major audio platforms.
While Sank, 55, has lived in Manhattan for the last 30 years, he frequents Summit, where his family still lives. “In some ways, it was an easy, nice childhood,” he says, though he recalls feeling like an outsider growing up in one of the only Jewish families in town at that time. “Being a closeted gay kid only made that feeling of otherness worse,” he adds. Humor has always been a balm for him amid tough times.
Sank wrote Bad Dates after stepping away from standup for a brief period. “I had all this material from over the years—bad dates, bad relationships—it was a lot of that kind of stuff. And then one day, I thought: What if I put something in a show that isn’t just there for the joke? Something unfunny and serious.”
That tonal shift became the backbone of Bad Dates, which centers on coming to terms with being single. “We’re programmed to believe that couplehood equals happiness and singlehood equals misery,” Sank says. “And that’s ridiculous.” He adds that Bad Dates is a misleading title. “It could really be called Good Singlehood.”
Sank says he hopes the show makes his audience “feel less alone in the world in some way.” The best art, he says, is “the kind that makes you feel seen.” And that sense of connection, he explains, is central to queer comedy. “LGBTQ people have our own language,” he says. “It’s all humor, shade and sarcasm.” Still, performing remains a challenge, and a journey through the unexpected. “There’s no tougher audience than a queer one,” he declares. “You never know what’s going to happen up there. It’s a bit like herding cats.”
In addition to Sank’s set, the Pride festival in Asbury Park will include performances by country artist (and former baseball player) Bryan Ruby and the New Jersey Gay Men’s Chorus.
“Asbury Park is a special place,” Sank says. “Growing up, it was not a gay destination; it was a place my father spent his teenage years waiting tables.” But now, he says, the seaside city exemplifies queer community-building: “Not only [does the gay community] survive oppression, discrimination and hatred from all sides, but we move into undesirable places and turn them into a beautiful, livable, welcoming communities, with massive events celebrating Pride like these.”
The post NJ-Bred Comedian Adam Sank Bringing One-Man Show ‘Bad Dates’ to Cape May appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
In the past, theatergoers attending a play or musical at the esteemed Paper Mill Playhouse in Milburn and wanted to dine before the show had only two options: visit a nearby restaurant or try to snag a spot at the venue’s small on-site Carriage House restaurant.
But after an $8.5 million makeover, the F.M. Kirby Carriage House has been expanded and renovated and is now open not just to ticketholders, but to the general public as well.
The historic restaurant has transformed from an intimate 124-seat dining room into a 228-seat, multi-level culinary and cultural destination.
The opening comes just in time for the theater’s newest musical, West Side Story, which opens today and runs through June 28.
“The reopening and expansion of the Carriage House will transform the Paper Mill experience, elevating dining for our theatergoers while creating a vibrant, contemporary gathering space,” says Paper Mill Playhouse executive director Mike Stotts. “The expanded space will also accommodate board meetings, private rentals and community events, establishing the Carriage House as a dynamic hub for entertainment and engagement.”
The restaurant will continue its tradition of offering multi-course prix-fixe dinners themed to match the play or musical onstage that day. For instance, the dinner menu during the West Side Story run features Jets vs. Sharks Salad, Anita’s Arroz con Pollo and Somewhere by the Sea grouper. For dessert, treat yourself to A New York Rumble Chocolate Cake.
The dinners are scheduled to conclude in time for all performances next door, and theatergoers are even encouraged to bring their cocktails with them.
Chef Jacques Marra, who has led the Carriage House kitchen since 2021, will remain in his position. A veteran of the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center and a fixture of the New York dining scene, Marra brings both large-scale operational expertise and ingredient-driven creativity. He has experience overseeing everything from 220-seat fine dining rooms to gala events for 1,000 guests, uniquely positioning him for a restaurant that must pivot seamlessly between pre-show dinners, à la carte dining and performance-driven programming.
“Our goal is to make the entire experience as immersive as possible,” says Marra. “While you will always find a perfectly crafted cheeseburger on our à la carte menu, our pre-theater dining is a passport. Depending on the show on our main stage, we may transport you to the rustic kitchens of Little Italy, the refined bistros of France or the vibrant spice markets of Latin America.”
The restaurant will be open weekly Wednesday through Sunday for lunch and dinner.
The renovation project is part of Paper Mill’s larger $48.7 million Next Act Campaign to renovate and upgrade the facilities and grounds across its five-acre campus. This campaign is backed by individual donors and funders, with additional support from the State of New Jersey and Millburn Township.
The expansion is ambitious but respectful of the building’s past. The Carriage House sits on land once occupied by The Thistle Paper Mill, established in 1795. When Paper Mill Playhouse began renovations in the 1930s, the Carriage House was the first structure completed. That layered history remains intact, though the footprint is dramatically expanding by 4,000 square feet.
The new first-floor Carrington Dining Room will seat 70 guests, including 16 at the bar, with a mix of banquettes and high tops designed for both pre-theater efficiency and relaxed dining.
Upstairs, the newly constructed Club Room introduces something entirely new to the campus: a flexible event space for up to 100 standing guests, complete with built-in technology for performances, business gatherings and private rentals, further expanding opportunities for programming.
Following West Side Story, Paper Mill Playhouse will close after in late June for renovations of the theater, which is expected to reopen in November with Mary Poppins. The Carriage House restaurant will remain open during that time, and Carriage House Presents shows will be performed there. “We’re excited to relaunch and grow the…series: bringing back audience favorites like murder mystery, improv and trivia nights while introducing live music, stand-up, poetry and other live performances in a dynamic and contemporary setting,” adds Mark S. Hoebee.
For more information, visit papermill.org.
The post Paper Mill Playhouse Unveils $8.5M Renovation of Carriage House Restaurant appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
“It’s a whole process,” Michaela Jaé Rodriguez says by phone from her Newark home about her morning routine. It’s the same house she lived in as a child and then bought from her mom.
Rodriguez, best known for her role as Blanca Rodriguez-Evangelista in the FX series Pose, starts with meditation and music, whether its Lo-fi or ambient sound like rain falling. Then, there are twenty minutes of stretching and daily affirmations in the mirror, where she’ll give herself “some boost,” followed by a lengthy skin-care process.
All of this takes place before heading out the door for performances across the river in The Rocky Horror Show, her Broadway debut.
The revival, which is playing a limited run at Studio 54 through November 29, is based on the wacky cult-classic 1975 film. Rodriguez plays the memorable role of Columbia.
“I’m happy for people to see me play a character that is different from other characters that I played before,” Rodriguez says of Columbia, whom she infused with nods to the movie and inspiration from her own life. “I was so excited to just jump right into her, because even though she has this high, cute, squeaky voice, there is a person and a human behind that.”
Rodriguez, 35, started her acting career off-Broadway in a production of Rent, playing Angel, followed by one-episode stints on TV shows like Nurse Jackie, The Carrie Diaries and Luke Cage.
Her breakout role came in 2017 on Ryan Murphy’s groundbreaking show Pose; she won the 2022 Golden Globe for best actress in a TV drama, the first transgender actress to earn the accolade.
For Rodriguez, the art of acting began as a child. Born in Newark, Rodriguez moved to Jackson for five years before returning to Newark for high school.
“Had a pretty good upbringing. Had a really gorgeous home, which I pride myself in saying my mother and father did their thing on that,” Rodriguez recalls.
By her preteen years, Rodriguez was back in Newark at Queen of Angels, a now shuttered Catholic school. Rodriguez also joined a summer youth workshop at NJPAC.
At the age of 13, Rodriguez auditioned for Newark’s well-known Arts High School with the Fugees’ version of “Killing Me Softly With His Song.” Rodriguez was inspired by New Jersey’s own Whitney Houston, who was raised in East Orange.
“A lot of people in Newark shared the same kind of mentality of being very classy, but also a little edgy and urban. Whitney was that,” Rodriguez says. “Growing up in north New Jersey was actually quite liberating. It was good to be around individuals like myself, who are POC.”
Arts High School was the first public school in the United States to specialize in visual and performing arts. Notable alumni include singers Sarah Vaughan and Connie Francis, tap icon Savion Glover, and newly minted Oscar winner Michael B. Jordan, who took home the best actor award at this year’s ceremony for his role in Sinners. Jordan, 39, was graduating when Rodriguez was entering the school as a vocal major.
“I got to share a small bit of space with him,” she says, adding that his mother was her guidance counselor.
“There’s something in the waters over here in Newark, where there’s just a good threshold and a pool of talent,” Rodriquez says.
“It’s inspirational to see someone from your home school. If [Jordan] can do it, then I know I can do it,” she says proudly.
The post ‘Rocky Horror’ Star Michaela Jaé Rodriguez Calls Growing Up in Newark ‘Liberating’ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
These new novels and nonfiction books by New Jersey authors—or about Jersey subjects—are perfect beach reads. So when you hit the beach, pool or lake this summer—or just kick back in your own yard—grab one of these reads as a sunny-day companion.
Judy Blume: A Life by Mark Oppenheimer (Putnam)How did the woman who helped generations of readers navigate childhood and adolescence become so wise, so funny, so bold? In the first major biography of the iconic author, Mark Oppenheimer starts at the beginning: when the Sussman family of Elizabeth greeted their new daughter, Judy. Her parents were loving, if conventional and worried about appearances. Judy was a people pleaser, aware early on that her role was to distract her parents from their worries. She would never forget how it felt to be a child caught between her own desires and the confusing world of adults. —Kate Tuttle
The Snakes That Ate Florida by Ian Frazier (Macmillan)In this collection of nonfiction pieces, Montclair’s Ian Frazier, a renowned humor writer for The New Yorker, showcases his flair for writing about topics from invasive pythons in the Everglades to urban culture, history and politics, with his signature wit and keen observation.
—Jacqueline Mroz
The Foursome by Christina Baker Kline (HarperCollins)Christina Baker Kline bases her historical novel on the story of real-life conjoined twins who married two sisters in 19th-century North Carolina, exploring themes of identity, love and societal constraints. The story is especially poignant because the author, who lived in Montclair, is a distant relative of the sisters. —JM
Clutch by Emily Nemens (Tin House/Zando)Five college friends, deep in the messiness of midlife, reunite under the sun-soaked skies of Palm Springs—bringing all their ambition, baggage and chaos. In this sharp and intimate second novel by Nemens, who lives in Princeton, the story unfolds through a group text thread, where bonds are tested and secrets surface. —Natalie Civadelic
Ghost Town by Tom Perrotta (Scribner)In this novel, Tom Perrotta, the author of The Leftovers who grew up in New Jersey, tells the story of a writer who looks back on his youth in 1970s suburban Jersey, during a tumultuous summer that changed his life. The story reveals how our history can haunt our present-day lives, even when we think the events are behind us. —JM
Pot Shot by Laura Piper Lee (Union Square)Nomi loves weed, both for its health benefits and as a potential business opportunity. But her plans to open a hip and welcoming dispensary in her Jersey hometown are thwarted when her old high school frenemy returns to town. Julian is a hot and brilliant doctor, but when it comes to marijuana, he’s a major killjoy. —KT
Purple State by Dana Perino (HarperCollins)From Dana Perino, bestselling author and Fox News host who lives in Bay Head, comes this fiction debut. When Dorothy Clark, a Manhattan PR powerhouse, relocates to small-town Wisconsin for a campaign, she finds herself falling for Danny Dawson, a big-hearted local on the other side of the political aisle. It’s a buzzy summer read. —NC
Yours Always by Corinne Sullivan (Thomas and Mercer)In this thriller full of unexpected twists, Talia Danvers is a dating-app engineer who reconnects with the one who got away. While navigating their past and new relationship, Talia finds that he’s also the main suspect in his ex-girlfriend’s disappearance. Sullivan, who works at Cosmopolitan, lives in Jersey City. —Jessica Hammer
The post Summer 2026 Beach Reads That Show Some New Jersey Pride appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The novelist Christina Baker Kline always knew that she was distantly related to the two sisters who married the world-famous conjoined twins Eng and Chang Bunker. But when she first sat down to write a novel about them, she was initially intimidated by the challenge of writing about these men, who had been sold by their mother in Siam and later became slave owners themselves.
The Foursome, which is being released today by Mariner Books, is Kline’s eighth novel. She’s also written a thriller and five nonfiction books. A longtime Montclair resident who recently moved back to New York City, Kline is a New York Times bestselling author best known for her novel Orphan Train.
This new book reimagines the true story of two sisters in nineteenth century North Carolina who married the conjoined twins, and between them had 21 children. Spanning five decades and unfolding against the backdrop of the Civil War, The Foursome brings to life a forgotten chapter of American history and the complex, boundary-defying marriages at its center.
“I realize there are stories in our history that are neglected,” Kline said at a talk about her new book at the Montclair Literary Festival/Montclair Public Library’s Open Book Open Mind event this week. “Stories that exist in the margins of better-known events, or in the shadows of famous men. Sarah and Adelaide (the wives in the novel) weren’t featured in newspaper accounts; they didn’t sit for portraits and leave behind boxes of letters. Fiction allows me to ask: what did their lives feel like from the inside? What was the private cost of this public story?”
It took Kline three years to write this novel. Along the way, she dealt with questions about who gets to tell someone’s story and worries that she might be writing a revisionist history of the couples’ lives. Finally, her cousin said to her, “If you don’t tell their story, who will?”
When she stumbled on the Bunker family graveyard in North Carolina—where own her family was from—she realized that one of the sisters, Sara, wasn’t buried with the twins and her sister, but rather with her four daughters, and with the formerly enslaved people who once worked for her. That helped Kline realize that there had to be some tension between the two sisters, and in their marriages.
“I wanted to make their extraordinary lives seem real,” says Kline. “They had so many tragedies—they lost children. The question was, could I go deep enough?”
The novel, set in 1839, centers on Sarah and Adelaide Yates, daughters of a once-prominent local family brought low by scandal, who are drawn into the twins’ world. Bold, beautiful Adelaide sees a chance to reclaim her future, while her Sarah, who quiet and observant, isn’t so sure. When the twins’ lives become entangled with theirs, they must navigate loyalty, longing, and identity in a world where everything—including race, class, and gender—is rigidly defined.
The post ‘The Foursome’ Is the Story of Real-life Conjoined Twins and Their Complex Marriages appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Atlantic City traded its usual casino-floor buzz for high-fashion glamour as Ocean Casino Resort transformed into a scene worthy of the silver screen during the East Coast’s only advance screening of The Devil Wears Prada 2 at the resort’s Ovation Hall on Wednesday night.
From the moment guests arrived, the evening leaned fully into its couture-inspired theme. Starting with an intimate VIP pre-party, held in one of the resort’s oceanfront suites, guests sipped cocktails and sampled caviar and other savories.
Guests posed for their own Runway cover shoots. Photo: Courtesy of Ocean Casino ResortCamera-ready setups allowed guests to sit at a recreation of Miranda’s infamous desk, pop into a photo booth and get a Runway portrait created by an artist. There was even a lipstick engraving station that added a personalized touch—a souvenir as stylish as the evening itself. Lots of movie-branded swag was on hand, from a print edition of the fictitious Runway magazine to T-shirts and caps inscribed with Miranda’s iconic lines.
Photo: Courtesy of Ocean Casino ResortThe entrance to the screening filtered attendees through a pre-party space with a TRESemmé beauty studio for glam touch-ups ahead of the red carpet. Flashbulbs popped as moviegoers posed in custom-designed photo booths, capturing their own magazine-cover moments before the screening.
By the time the lights dimmed in Ovation Hall, anticipation had reached a peak. The screening was the final act in an evening carefully curated to celebrate fashion, film and a bit of escapism—proving that, for one night at least, Atlantic City could rival any big-city premiere.
The much-anticipated sequel to the 2006 blockbuster opened in theaters May 1, again bringing Jersey heavy hitters to the big screen. The new film stars Meryl Streep as the ever-tough Miranda Priestly, still at the helm of trendsetting fashion magazine Runway. Anne Hathaway reprises her role as Andy Sachs, but this time is tasked with reviving editorial features to save the print edition from digital competition and control by advertisers. Newcomer Helen J Shen, a Basking Ridge native, takes on the role of Andy’s assistant, adding to the Jersey-powered cast.
The post Miranda Priestly Would Approve: ‘Devil Wears Prada 2’ Screens at AC’s Ocean Casino Resort appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
These days, my life looks a lot different than when I joined the cast of Jersey Shore 15 years ago. And honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Many of you watched me grow up on TV (the final season of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation premieres on May 7). But if you’d told the younger version of me that one day I’d be writing about gratitude and purpose, he probably would’ve asked if you were feeling okay.
Life has a funny way of humbling you. A lot of that perspective came from going through my own battles with substance abuse and finding sobriety in 2015, something that completely changed the direction of my life. And for me, New Jersey has been the backdrop for the highs, the lows and everything in between. I’ve had my share of difficult circumstances (I bet you thought I was going to say situations), but what matters most is what you do after them.
These days, when I walk along the same streets in Seaside Heights that I did over 15 years ago, it feels different. It’s not about who’s watching anymore. It’s about who’s walking beside me. My wife, Lauren, my three kids and my family mean the world to me. There’s nothing better than experiencing the place that once represented chaos and seeing it now through a lens of peace and purpose—and maybe still a good meal, because let’s be honest, that part hasn’t changed.
And the Jersey Shore cast? That’s family, too. We’ve been through it all together—things people saw on TV and a lot they didn’t. Through every chapter, they’ve stuck by me. That kind of loyalty, you can’t fake.
You can’t script it, either. It’s real, and it’s rare. I’ll always be grateful for that. Even though Jersey Shore: Family Vacation’s time is coming to a close on MTV, this isn’t the end for us—it’s just a shift into what comes next. The cameras may change, the platform may evolve, but what we’ve built together isn’t going anywhere.
And then there’s giving back. Creating the Archangel Centers has been one of the greatest blessings of my life. Being able to help people who are going through tough times—addiction, mental health challenges, who feel lost or stuck—I see a lot of myself in them. If my story, my mistakes and my comeback can help even one person find their way, then every step of the journey was worth it.
Mike and Lauren Sorrentino with their kids Romeo, Mia and Luna. Photo: Magic MomentsThe Jersey Shore will always be iconic. It’ll always have that energy, that magic. But for me, it’s evolved throughout the years, just like I have. It’s no longer just a place where I partied. It’s a place where I found myself, lost myself, and found myself again. It’s where I learned that real strength isn’t about being the loudest in the room, it’s about being the most grounded.
So, yes, the style and the tan might be a little less intense these days, and the priorities have definitely changed. But the love for New Jersey? That’s forever. This place made me who I am. And now, I get to show up for it in a whole new way.
The comeback is always greater than the setback. And trust me—we’re just getting started.
Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino rose to global fame through Jersey Shore and Jersey Shore: Family Vacation, and is now a bestselling author, recovery advocate, and founder of Archangel Centers, a thriving recovery and wellness organization.
The post Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino Reflects on Finding Purpose After Chaos appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Jamie Ding, 33, of Lawrenceville, has become a sensation as much for his quirky, calm and humble presence on the Jeopardy! set as for his 31 consecutive wins on the trivia game show.
That’s the fifth highest ever, the most ever for a New Jerseyan, and his winnings are the highest ever in regular-season play. He’s been written up in the New York Times, twice, The Wall Street Journal, twice, the Los Angeles Times, People and Variety. Last Friday, he was featured on Good Morning America, where he watched his final April 27 win with seven friends and the GMA hosts.
Governor Mikie Sherrill has met with Ding at the State House twice. In March, she gave him, his parents and sister a tour, and this week, Ding was on hand as Sherrill signed an executive order to stimulate the construction of more affordable housing in the state. Ding, who described himself on Jeopardy! as a “faceless bureaucrat,” works as a program administrator for the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency in Trenton, and is passionate about affordable housing.
During the episode that aired March 23, Ding gave New Jersey props for building more affordable housing. “We’re ahead of New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania. If you’re from one of those states, then shame on you,” he said. “Build more housing.”
Ding, who grew up in the Detroit area, the son of a neurosurgeon and high school math teacher who emigrated from China, has also spoken out for immigrants.
On the show, host Ken Jennings clearly had a rapport with Ding. His humble demeanor, where he seemed surprised if he got the correct answer and impressed when others did, and his humdrum banter about his favorite color (orange); number (6) and letter (f), seemed to tickle the former Jeopardy! champ, who holds the record for consecutive wins with 74.
We caught up with Ding for a post-Jeopardy! chat.
New Jersey Monthly: Have you been surprised by all the attention?Jamie Ding: It’s been an amazing amount of attention. The Detroit Lions even did an Instagram post about me. Who would’ve thought that? It was also nice to be written up in the campus papers for Seton Hall [Ding attends weekend law school there], and Princeton [Ding was a molecular biology major there and a copyeditor for the Daily Princetonian]. Being interviewed for a publication you used to work for is pretty cool.
You had to tape 5 shows a day, for weeks, when you were on set in L.A. Yet you are described as “drama-free” and “humble.” How did you manage to stay so chill?I think the nerves were always greater before the game started. The game itself is very fun. Once it actually got going, you’re just up there answering trivia, and I like that.
I’m pretty good at staying relaxed in most situations. The last time I felt like I was losing control of my emotions was the playoff game between the Rams and the Bucaneers in 2022. I was rooting for the Rams and they did come back to win. Maybe it’s Barack Obama. He was always very calm, you know; the phrase “grace under pressure.” I did admire that.
You wore at least a bit of orange on every show. Is that because you went to Princeton?Orange has always been my favorite color, but going to Princeton accelerated and, well, enabled my habit. When I auditioned for the show on Zoom, I wore my orange Hoagie Haven hat. [Hoagie Haven is a popular Princeton sandwich shop.] The producer recognized it; he had worked in television in New Jersey. Central Jersey people love, love Hoagie Haven, and I think it was a point in my favor. I have a lot of orange things and I did wonder, maybe being the orange guy might make me a little more memorable? Now it’s certainly part of my brand. Some of my friends have suggested making merch.
Ding with host Ken Jennings. Photo: Sony Pictures TelevisionHow did you prepare for the show?I didn’t make flashcards like some people do. That seemed like more work than fun. And the studying that I did, I don’t think it added very much new knowledge. I can only think of one question where prepping helped, that was about the TV show Industry. My sister [Jessie, a lawyer] had helped me with pop culture; I didn’t know much about it. Cramming might be more effective if you are going from complete ignorance to a little knowledge. But I had a base. I was on Quiz Bowl teams in high school and college, which was a lot of fun. After college I did a lot of bar trivia, then that got stopped by Covid. Now I do a lot of online trivia; I’m in two leagues right now. And I’m always reading a lot, mostly articles in the news, and trying to learn new things.
I might want to prepare for the Tournament of Champions, though. [Once a year, contestants who have won more than five games come back on the show and compete against each other.] I’m excited and a little bit nervous ’cause I do want to do well in that. I have a reputation to uphold.
What was your most exciting moment on the show?The game on April 23 was phenomenal, just so exciting. There were two five-figure daily doubles, not sure how often that happens. I was behind after the other contestant got a Daily Double correct. I don’t always like to bet very high but when my Daily Double came up, I knew I had to do it. I wagered all of my $32,000. The clue was about the Glass Museum in Seattle, and I answered correctly with the name of the artist, Chihuly. It put me back in the lead.
You employed a strategy called “knight moves,” where you answer a question in one category and then jump to the next category, following the pattern of a knight in chess. Did you invent that?That was just something random I decided to do. I’m not the first person to bounce around the board; that’s been happening since Chuck Forest pioneered it in the ’80s. I might be the first to do knight moves specifically. I thought it would be fun. And it was fun. And I guess, in retrospect, it may have helped keep my opponents off balance. It also simplified things for me because I didn’t have to put as much thought into picking the next clue.
Any other strategies you can reveal?I’m happy to reveal anything. The internet has a lot of advice on Jeopardy! strategy, and I think most of it’s correct. The strategy on wagering is pretty well established. The thing that I did do is buzz based off the sound of Ken’s voice, rather than by the lights on the board. You can get in faster if you time your buzz to when Ken finishes speaking. I also practiced buzzing in quickly using a retractable highlighter.
Are you back at work? How have you managed to juggle your job with your trips to Los Angeles to tape Jeopardy!?I’m back at work. They’ve been great and have given me the time that I need. But I like my job, and there are some tasks and projects that need to get done and I want to see completed. And yeah, I enjoy working.
What will you do with your winnings?I would like to donate some and put the rest in a high-yield savings account. On my list of charities is the New Jersey Leadership Collective. I did that program back in 2020. Training young progressives, supporting trans people, supporting immigrants. There’s a lot of need out there.
When do you graduate law school, and what do you plan to do as a lawyer?I graduate next May. I’d like to share my legal knowledge by doing policy and government work, rather than as a practicing lawyer. At least that’s the current plan.
Well, Mikie might have a job for you when you’re done.Yeah, who knows?
The post Jersey ‘Jeopardy!’ Champ Jamie Ding Talks Strategy, Princeton Pride and Keeping His Cool appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The Montclair Literary Festival celebrates its 10th year next month with a jam-packed lineup of more than 60 authors and 30 events.
Bestselling authors include New Jersey’s Tom Perrotta, who wrote Election and The Leftovers, speaking about his new novel, Ghost Town, and Princeton’s Joyce Carol Oates, who will talk about her latest book, Double Trouble. Also featured is Colm Tóibín, who wrote Brooklyn, which was made into the 2015 film starring Saoirse Ronan.
Adriana Trigiani, a bestselling author from New Jersey, will appear on May 6 for the paperback release of her book The View from Lake Como, as will Christina Baker Kline, who lived in Montclair for many years, speaking about her new book, The Foursome.
The festival will take place from May 2-11; most of the events will be free. It kicks off in downtown Montclair on Saturday, May 2, beginning with the popular Poetry Café. Featured authors on opening day include Eugene Robinson, John Fugelsang and Tóibín.
Events include conversations about getting published, debut fiction, biographies of music icons with Jim Windolf, Daniel Okrent and Warren Zanes; and contemporary and historical fiction with Amy Jo Burns, Emily Nemens and Valerie Wilson Wesley. Past and present female journalists will also speak.
“We’re thrilled to launch our 10th anniversary festival with such a spectacular lineup,” says festival chair Marcia Marley. “I am particularly looking forward to hearing Eugene Robinson and John Fugelsang discuss how their family histories reflect and are relevant to the present political landscape. It’s also a pleasure to welcome back Tom Perrotta and Colm Tóibín as they share their latest works of fiction […].”
Festival programming continues through the week with standout events including Kathryn Stockett, author of the global bestseller-turned-film The Help, celebrating the launch of her new novel The Calamity Club on May 5; and Pitchapalooza on May 7, offering aspiring writers the chance to present their work for possible introduction to a literary agent or publisher.
On Saturday, May 9, all events will take place at Montclair State University, with free parking available at the Red Hawk parking deck for all attendees. Ticketed highlights are Maria Semple, bestselling author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette, returning with her new novel, Go Gentle; and Pulitzer Prize finalist Xochitl Gonzalez discussing her highly anticipated Last Night in Brooklyn.
Additional festival highlights include Francine Prose’s new novel exploring the relationship between Charles Dickens and Hans Christian Andersen; Luke Barr and Sylvie Bigar talking French cooking and chef anecdotes; and memoirists Siri Hustvedt and Rachel Eliza Griffiths in conversation on love and grief. Not to be missed is New Yorker writer Anand Gopal’s powerful account of six Syrians who fought tyranny, which The New York Times Book Review called a “masterpiece.”
The program also features discussions on AI, thrillers, poetry and more.
Also on May 9, Montclair State University will host Express Yourself!—a series of hands-on workshops in writing, visual art, music, dance, photography and theater. All workshops are free and open to the public.
The festival concludes on Monday, May 11, with a special early-release event for The Foursome by Christina Baker Kline in conversation with fellow local author Alice Elliott Dark.
The festival is supported by Montclair State University, Watchung Booksellers and the Montclair Public Library, alongside a generous network of community supporters whose contributions help keep most events free and accessible.
The Montclair Literary Festival is a special project of Succeed2gether, a Montclair-based nonprofit that provides free tutoring to underserved children in Montclair and Essex County. Proceeds from the festival directly support this critical initiative, especially vital as students and their families face educational funding challenges throughout New Jersey.
Tickets, the full event schedule and additional festival details are available here. Printed festival guides are available at Watchung Booksellers and other local venues.
The post Tom Perrotta and Christina Baker Kline Among Bestselling Authors to Speak at Montclair Literary Festival This May appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
When Jeremy Jordan isn’t headlining Broadway—which he has done in back-to-back shows over the last three years—he prefers the peacefulness of the Loantaka Brook Reservation trails.
“It’s quiet, so don’t tell everybody about it,” the actor, 41, jokes over the phone while concentrating on driving into New York City from Morris County, where he lives with his wife, fellow Broadway actor Ashley Spencer, and their 7-year-old daughter, Clara.
At the time of the phone call, Jordan was in the home stretch of all-day rehearsals for Just in Time. On April 21, he took over the role of famed crooner Bobby Darin, preceded by fellow Broadway mainstays Jonathan Groff and Matthew Morrison. There was even a two-week period where Jordan was pulling double duty with performances at night as the titular Jay Gatsby in Broadway’s The Great Gatsby.
While Jordan has been a fixture on Broadway since marking his debut in the ensemble of 2009’s Rock of Ages, his name has been lighting up marquees on his own since starring in 2011’s Bonnie & Clyde, followed by shows including Newsies (which premiered at Millburn’s Paper Mill Playhouse), Waitress and American Son. His numerous TV credits span Supergirl to Smash and even Hallmark’s Hannukah on Rye holiday movie.
Jordan, who played sports as a kid in Corpus Christi, Texas, fell in love with performing following a car crash when he was in the seventh grade. Unable to participate in athletics, he turned to choir and never looked back—continuing his education in musical theater at New York’s Ithaca College.
As for his most recent role in Gatsby, he originated the role when it premiered at the Paper Mill in 2023, then led the cast to Broadway in 2024. Ever since, Jordan’s been on a roll. In 2025, he starred in the musical revival of Floyd Collins, earning his second Tony nomination, this time for his portrayal of the 1925 Kentucky cave explorer. Then, he stepped back into Gatsby before taking on the legendary singer Bobby Darin in his new project Just in Time.
Jordan had planned on a break, but when the opportunity came to star in one of the highest-grossing and well-attended musicals in recent years, he couldn’t pass it up. “It was one of those offers that I was just like, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to get to do something like this ever again,’ ” he says.
Jordan with wife Ashley Spencer at the 2025 Tonys. Photo: Shutterstock/Levin RadinJust in Time follows Darin’s short life (he died at age 37) and his two love interests: New Jersey’s own Connie Francis and Sandra Dee. One of the biggest wow factors of the show is the staging, set in the round, and its interactive audience participation.
“It’s a different kind of music and performance than I’ve ever really done on Broadway,” he explains, noting that his cabaret acts and solo concerts have prepared him for the challenge.
With eight performances a week, “it’s a little bit trickier” to get in those hikes with Ashley, especially the ones they like to do farther north in the mountains. The open Jersey air originally wasn’t on his radar until Ashley insisted that they looked to move outside of the city and into the suburbs.
“As soon as I crossed over, I was won over,” Jordan admits about moving in 2010. In 2019, the couple continued west, saying “we hadn’t really planned on looking quite as far as Morris County, but got a little bit more bang for our buck,” because there was a direct train line into Manhattan.
“Out where I am, it feels kind of like quintessential Main Street USA, which has its own allure,” he says.
Some of their favorite local spots are Lucco Cucina & Bar in Florham Park and Roots, Summit House or the Committed Pig in Summit. “If you’re going to get greasy, that’s the place to go,” he says. When he’s performing at the Paper Mill, the Millburn Deli and Millburn Standards are favorites.
The family are members of a community pool, and he loves taking Clara to the Funplex in East Hanover and the Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange.
Jordan performs in “Just in Time.” Photo: Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade“What really sucks about being on Broadway and having a small kid is that you have opposite schedules,” he says. Clara’s in school while he’s home during the day. Then, when she comes home, Jordan’s heading into work. “We miss each other a lot.”
But during the rehearsal period, he’s almost always home for bedtime, which he loves. He also recently took Clara to see him “at the office” for one of his last performances in Gatsby. He and Ashley prepped her for what to expect, especially some of the darker scenes that perhaps aren’t so child-friendly. “It was kind of an amazing thing,” he says. “She kept waving at me.”
They are still debating how much of Just In Time she can see. There’s no graphic content, but a decent amount of cursing.
He likes to bring Clara backstage to hang out during Sunday matinees “to be part of that environment. Any chance, I can bring her into the world and see what Daddy does is really special.”
The post Jeremy Jordan Talks Broadway and Living That Jersey Dad Life appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
For Broadway actor Helen J Shen, landing her first feature-film role in The Devil Wears Prada 2 alongside movie royalty Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep represented something uniquely Jersey: a trifecta of Garden State luminaries shining on the silver screen together.
Shen, 26, grew up in Basking Ridge, while Hathaway, 43, spent her formative years in Millburn. Streep, 76, was raised in both Bernardsville and, like Shen, Basking Ridge. On set, Shen and Hathaway bonded over their experiences at the prestigious youth theater program at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, where they both trained as teens (though at different times). Between takes, they would sing the Paper Mill Playhouse song as they gabbed about their experiences and spoke fondly of their former teacher Mickey McNany, who passed away several years ago.
“Knowing that Anne felt so heard and special because of Mickey, and I felt the same, was such a testament to Mickey’s impact, how she made people feel, and on a larger scale, to Paper Mill in general,” Shen says.
Shen landed her breakout role of Claire in Broadway’s Maybe Happy Ending in 2024, and starred in the show until this February. She discovered a love for theater at Annie’s Playhouse in Far Hills and continued her training at the Paper Mill. The child of Chinese immigrants, Shen attended Mount Prospect Elementary—important to note, because it’s the neighboring school to Oak Street Elementary, where Streep went.
“She’s a huge point of pride for the residents of Basking Ridge,” Shen says. “Oak Street claims her.”
Photo: Noah FecksThe Devil Wears Prada 2 opens in theaters on May 1, 20 years after the original came out, when Shen was six years old. In the sequel, Shen plays Jin, who works as the assistant to Andy Sachs (Hathaway) at Runway magazine. Streep reprises her role as icy editor in chief Miranda Priestley, and fan favorites Stanley Tucci, as Nigel, and Emily Blunt, as Emily Charlton, are also back.
“You’ll see in the movie there are a lot of reflections of how the world has changed and how this institution, Runway, has to navigate that. Different characters have different journeys around how they fit into this magazine that’s been around for so long,” Shen says of the plot—without giving any spoilers.
Shen’s character gets her own arc, where she “steps into her own power, and she gets to flaunt that and use it to help.”
To book the movie, Shen did a self-tape, followed by a virtual callback with director David Frankel. The next day, Frankel came to see Shen in Maybe Happy Ending. Backstage, after the performance, he not-so-subtly hinted that she’d landed the part.
Once Shen was on the set of The Devil Wears Prada 2, she soaked up everything she could from her legendary costars. “[Hathaway] led the room, and the piece, with such grace, strength and kindness,” Shen says. “There was efficiency and respect for everyone’s time.”
The opportunity to be cemented into the pop culture fandom of The Devil Wears Prada comes as Shen closes the chapter on her Broadway debut. Her complex portrayal of Claire, an abandoned robot who finds love, earned her a coveted spot on the most recent Time 100 list of the world’s most influential rising stars.
Shen as Jin in The Devil Wears Prada 2. Photo: Macall Polay/20th Century Studios“When I look back at the year I’ve had, I couldn’t possibly have asked for more things on my bucket list to be checked off. I owe this new experience of being in this movie to being in this show,” she reflects. When Paper Mill artistic director of Mark Hoebee came to see his former student on the Broadway stage, it felt like a “wonderful full-circle moment,” says Shen.
Originating a top-billing role in an original-concept musical was no easy feat. Signing on, she had no idea of the enormity of that responsibility. “I couldn’t have prepared for the reach it had,” Shen says. Quick and intense on-the-job training, like appearances on morning and late-night shows, helped prepare Shen for the next chapter.
“My parents came to New Jersey as immigrants and built a life in America. They sacrificed so much to give me the opportunities I’m now experiencing,” she says. Shen makes sure to thank them. When her demanding eight-show-a-week schedule permits her to visit, the family often goes for comforting hot and sour soup at Szechuan Delight in New Providence.
When longtime fans of The Devil Wears Prada watch the movie at local theaters, like the independent Bernardsville Cinema near Shen’s hometown, Shen wants to remind them that, “I’m a product of the place that I’m from and the people that I’ve met along the way.”
Hair by Angela Di Carlo; makeup by Andrew Chen; assistant: Diego Gomez
The post Helen J Shen Wants You to See ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ at Bernardsville Cinema appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The hottest ticket in town on Saturday night? The campus of Monmouth University.
Packed into the 700-seat Pollak Theater in West Long Branch for the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music’s fourth annual sold-out American Music Honors, guests were treated to an intimate, often impromptu evening that saw Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band celebrating and jamming with Public Enemy, Patti Smith, Dr. Dre, the Doors, Darlene Love, Steve Earle and others. A few highlights: Dionne Warwick made a pass at Springsteen, who later fist-pumped with Flavor Flav and played a song from his teenage years with the Doors.
The Springsteen Center, which began on Monmouth’s campus via a fan-based collection more than a decade ago and evolved in 2017 to include the Boss’s official personal archive, is expanding into a $50 million museum-like institution, slated to open June 13.
After opening remarks by host Brian Williams and the Springsteen Center’s founding executive director Bob Santelli, Springsteen—who recently spoke exclusively with New Jersey Monthly about the new center for our May cover story—took the podium.
Buy our May 2026 issue here. Cover photo: Danny Clinch“The whole thing really got much more out of hand than I ever imagined,” Springsteen said to audience laughter. “It started with my stuff in a little shack over in the corner of the university. Now it’s in this [nearby] building, and the building is nicer than my house. And I have a really nice house!”
Springsteen then presented the first award of the evening to East Orange native Dionne Warwick—“one of my all-time favorite vocalists,” he declared. “I’ve listened to her music consistently my entire life…She simply has the most elegant voice in the history of popular music. It is so sophisticatedly sexy…deeply emotional while remaining deceptively casual…Never a wasted note.”
Springsteen spoke about his new Center for American Music at Monmouth University and inducted Dionne Warwick into the American Music Honors. Photo: Courtesy of the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music/John CavanaughHe went on to praise Warwick’s precise phrasing, warm tone, and intelligent delivery and interpretation. “She just seems to inhabit the lyrics,” he said, describing her performances as “so pure” and “filled with a very natural and special type of spiritual grace.” He ticked off a laundry list of Warwick’s hits and shouted out “my personal favorite, ‘Are You There (With Another Girl).’”
Dionne Warwick performed “Walk on By” solo before her “That’s What Friends Are For” duet with Darlene Love. Photo: Courtesy of the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music/John CavanaughWarwick, 85, sparkling in head-to-toe sequins, walked onstage beaming. “You really know my stuff, huh?” she mused incredulously to Springsteen. “It is an absolute privilege, I feel, to have been thought of in this manner,” she added. “It’s my pleasure to have taken the 45-minute ride—yeah, I live in South Orange,” she quipped, pumping both fists and flailing her drapey sleeves. Springsteen feigned dismay from the wings. “If he wasn’t married,” Warwick flirted, “he’d be married.” Springsteen and the audience erupted into laughter. (“To recap: Dionne Warwick just fully hit on Bruce,” Williams said when he returned to the podium.)
Warwick performed her 1964 hit “Walk on By” with the evening’s house band, Steve Van Zandt’s Disciples of Soul, followed by a duet of “That’s What Friends Are For” with surprise guest and 2023 inductee Darlene Love, the pair harmonizing and, for the final few seconds, joining hands. In the audience, Public Enemy’s Flavor Flav was audibly enthused.
Next, Williams introduced E Street Band guitarist Steve Van Zandt, first acknowledging their shared Middletown roots. “We try to be modest about it,” he said. “You’ll never hear us overtly brag that we have both [exits] 114 and 117 on the Parkway. That’s not our style; we know it to be true.” Of Van Zandt, he continued, “No one from Middletown has ever been all of these things: musician, arranger, music director, producer, activist, actor and author.”
Van Zandt took the stage to induct the next nominee, the Doors. “I didn’t get the Doors at first,” he recalled. “Growing up, we had a pretty serious prejudice against everything from the West Coast….But the real truth was that their music was just too sophisticated for me to understand.” At the end of his speech, he deemed them “one of the most amazing bands in history.”
Drummer John Densmore, 81, accepted the award, noting that the Doors played Asbury Park (Convention Hall in 1968), and recalling that both Springsteen and his future wife Patti Scialfa had both been in attendance and would later reminisce about the show. “If our music helped Bruce chat up his bride…and it apparently worked! They’ve been together quite a while,” he said. Bruce clapped and waved from the front row.
“This is a really healing night,” Densmore continued. “This is a love fest in a time of hate and division.” Soon Springsteen and Van Zandt rose from the audience to join Densmore, along with the Disciples of Soul, for a performance of the Doors’ “Light My Fire”—though not before Springsteen warned the audience. “I would hold your applause,” he joked. “I haven’t sung this since the CYO dance in 1967…There is no one in the room in danger of filling Jim Morrison’s leather pants…We’ll do what we can.”
Springsteen performing “Light My Fire” with Doors drummer John Densmore. Photos: Courtesy of the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music/John CavanaughAfterward, Springsteen returned to the mic. “I’m lucky enough of a guy that has two of the most fabulous Pattis in my life,” he said, referring to his wife, Patti Scialfa, and Patti Smith, both inductees of the night (though Scialfa was not present). Smith, a South Jersey native, then sang a sultry cover of the Doors’ “The Crystal Ship.”
Next, E Street drummer Max Weinberg presented the event’s first posthumous honor to the Canadian-American rock band the Band. Weinberg, who possesses an encyclopedic memory and deep knowledge of music history, gave a lengthy speech that ended with fond remembrances of the Band drummer and vocalist Levon Helm. Helm’s daughter, singer-songwriter Amy Helm, accepted the award, then joined Springsteen, Love, Earle and the Disciples of Soul for a chills-inducing cover of “The Weight.” Helm rounded out the set with “Up On Cripple Creek.”
Music mogul Jimmy Iovine introduced the next inductee, Dr. Dre, who was chosen by Springsteen to be the award’s first hip-hop recipient, he said. “When I first heard [Dr. Dre’s The Chronic], I didn’t know a lot about hip-hop,” Iovine recalled. “But what struck me was the sound…And when I listened closer to the album,…I felt comfortable. It reminded me of the power of an album I worked on as a kid with Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run. They were both street operas. And like Born to Run, it froze time.”
Dr. Dre accepting the ceremony’s first-ever hip-hop award. Photo: Courtesy of the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music/John CavanaughDr. Dre expressed his gratitude for being the first award recipient in this genre. “So many of us early pioneers grew up on hip-hop and watched an impact of drugs, violence, police brutality and an unfair justice system wreak havoc on our communities—and opportunities were scarce for creative young men like myself that didn’t excel in school, athletics or sports…but had gifts just the same,” he said in his speech. “Hip-hop allowed us to be seen and heard beyond the concrete walls of our neighborhoods. And for the first time, we were able to use our creativity to express our collective pain, raise social consciousness and, in my case, add elements of dark humor to the realities of life in the hood…I can’t imagine what my life would be without hip-hop right now.”
After the Disciples of Soul performed “California Love,” Public Enemy’s Flavor Flav and Chuck D delivered a roof-raising performance of “Fight the Power.” Springsteen bopped and fist-pumped along with the rest of the audience. “I love you, Bruce!” Flavor Flav shouted at the end.
Springsteen and Steve Van Zandt rocking out to Public Enemy’s set. Photo: Courtesy of the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music/John CavanaughNext came the induction of the E Street Band by Springsteen’s longtime manager, Jon Landau.
“Having worked with the band for the last 52 years, I can tell you a few key things,” he said. “No modern computer or algorithm would have ever chosen this group of people to work together.” (E Street pianist Roy Bittan, seated next to this reporter, chuckled.)
“[They have] such different backgrounds, styles, tastes and approaches to music,” Landau explained. “And yet…when they plug in and play, they create a sound like no other, a sound you’ve never heard before; a sound more monumental than any rock band has ever created now and, in my opinion, forever. How that happens is a bit of a mystery.”
Springsteen’s longtime maganger, Jon Landau, inducted members of E Street Band. Photo: Courtesy of the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music/John CavanaughLandau honored each member: guitarist Steve Van Zandt (“He’s been an architect, helping to shape the band’s sound and spirit”); pianist Roy Bittan (“He doesn’t just play notes; he paints landscapes”); drummer Max Weinberg (“with power and purpose…he brings a sense of urgency to every performance); Garry Tallent (“He doesn’t demand attention, but without him, everything would feel different: less anchored, less whole, less unique”); Patti Scialfa (“the voice of warmth and fire…her presence adds another layer of connection”); and Nils Lofgren (“as hardworking a musician as you’ll find, versatile and…indispensable”).
Landau also honored, in absentia, the late organist Danny Federici (“There was a sense of nostalgia, boardwalks, backstreets woven into every note he played”) and saxophonist Clarence Clemons (“His solos…were emotional climaxes, conversations between instruments and hearts. When Clarence stepped forward, time stood still”).
E Street Band saxophonist Jake Clemons accepting a posthumous award for his uncle Clarence. Photo: Courtesy of the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music/John CavanaughFederici’s son Jason took the mic to accept his late father’s award. He recounted the Flemington native’s musical journey: seeing an accordion player on TV at age five, starting lessons and then playing county fairs under his mother’s management, and being awestruck the first time he saw Springsteen perform as a teen. He “weaved his heart and soul into the music of this beautiful band.”
Current E Street Band saxophonist Jake Clemons stood in for his late uncle. “Clarence and I had the same size feet, so in a quite literal sense, filling his shoes was never a big issue for me,” Clemons said. “However, his footprint is an entirely different story. That imprint that has indelibly left its mark on me and this band…is monumental.” He invoked Springsteen: “To quote one of our greatest poets: ‘Clarence doesn’t leave E Street when he dies. [He] leaves when we die.’” Springsteen, visibly moved, pounded his chest and blew a kiss to Clemons.
Each of the band’s honorees then gave brief remarks.
Springsteen hugged Clemons, Van Zandt and Lofgren before speaking on behalf of his wife, Patti Scialfa, who has previously explained that she is immunocompromised due to multiple myeloma. “She wants to give you all her love and wants to let you know that she’s doing well,” he said to audience applause. He recalled Scialfa breaking up the “lost” and “wanderin’” boys’ club when she joined the band in 1984. Her voice gave the band’s sound “greater meaning and grounding,” he said, describing it as ”a blend of strength and tenderness and grit and grace….She made the music fuller, richer, more human.”
He also spoke of Scialfa’s own “fearless” songwriting: works that “reveal an artist who’s been unafraid to explore the intimate corners of life: love and longing, family and identity….The truth in her writing whispers instead of shouts.” Onstage, he said, she is both a “fellow performer” and “kindred spirit,” adding, “As a band we’ve been lucky to have her musicianship; I’ve been lucky to have her companionship. So no one’s been luckier than me.” He bowed toward his bandmates onstage, then leaned back into the mic to add, “Love you, Patti.”
Springsteen and the E Street Band then launched into a performance of “Thunder Road,” a fan favorite that was recently scrapped from the band’s nightly setlists on the current American leg of their Land of Hope and Dreams tour.
Springsteen and the E Street Band performing “Thunder Road.” Photo: Courtesy of the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music/John CavanaughKicking off the final portion of the night, Springsteen returned to the mic to induct his “great friend and love,” Patti Smith. “Before all the revolutionary records, before the legend, there was a young poet, a girl from South Jersey,” Springsteen said, “[She] arrived in New York, nothing but imagination, talent, soul, spirit, love, anger, fearlessness, attitude, resolve. And in the crucible of downtown Manhattan…she really redefined what a rock ‘n’ roll voice could be.” He recalled that her “powerful” debut album in 1975, Horses, “didn’t politely enter the culture; it kicked the door in.”
He spoke of their late ‘70s collaboration on his half-started song “Because the Night,” which Smith finished and released as a “transcendent” hit single. “It needed her voice,” Springsteen said. “There was just something in her voice…the longing…that I had not written into that song. When I sing it every night, it remains one of the high points of our show.” In closing, he addressed Smith directly: “Your work has lit fires in countless souls, including mine.”
Smith took the mic and joked that she had not prepared remarks (“I don’t think I read the email”). She confessed her initial ambivalence about accepting the award—“I know my worth: it’s 70 percent arrogance and 30 percent poetry”—but said she’d decided she couldn’t “go against the wishes of the other Patti [Scialfa],” nor miss an opportunity to thank some of her collaborators, briefly tearing up in the process.
Smith recalled that she’d been “instantly beguiled” by “Because the Night” in its unfinished form, describing it as “relentlessly sensual…anthemic—it just needed a few lyrics.” She ended her speech by thanking Springsteen. “I never even knew you liked my stuff so much….I’ll cherish every word that you said for the rest of my life, and it will give me the courage and some more strength to keep on going,” she said, concluding with, “I got the Boss on my side.” She then sang “Because the Night” with Springsteen on lead guitar and back-up vocals.
The evening ended with a soaring jam session to “People Have the Power.” Photo: Courtesy of the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music/John CavanaughClosing out the ceremony, Smith led the crowd into the evening’s finale, “People Have the Power,” as most of the inductees and guest performers returned to the stage to dance and sing along. “Come on up!” Smith coaxed a hesitant Dr. Dre onstage, then urged the audience to their feet: “Come on, people! Get up!” The song grew more raucous with every passing second: Steve Van Zandt grabbing a cowbell; Flavor Flav riffing into a mic and hugging everyone. To paraphrase Brian Williams from earlier that night, there was practically smoke rising from the stage.
The post Recapping the Bruce Springsteen Center’s Intimate, Raucous 2026 American Music Honors appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Dense fog creeps through the dark, sleepy island of Widow’s Bay. A distinct sense of foreboding sets in—this is no mere weather event.
“It’s a haunt!”
At least according to Wyck, a grizzled island local. He believes the place is cursed, and he’s not the only one. A missing man is presumed to be “taken” by the fog, and Wyck fears the curse will soon take everyone. But Mayor Tom Loftis has no patience for folklore and superstition. Desperate for summer tourism, he’s pushing Widow’s Bay as “the next Bar Harbor” even though an earthquake just knocked out power lines.
This fictional island sits off the coast of New England, though its creator says the “cursed” land was born from Jersey shores.
Widow’s Bay, a new Apple TV series that chases comedy with the macabre, is the first show from screenwriter Katie Dippold, who developed a taste for frights growing up in New Jersey. She’s known for writing movies like The Heat, Haunted Mansion and the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot.
The showrunner, who hails from Freehold, got her scares at the Shore in the ’80s.
Katie Dippold during a 2018 visit to Freehold Township High School to speak to the students. Photo: Courtesy of Katie Dippold“There used to be a haunted house on the boardwalk in Long Branch,” Dippold tells New Jersey Monthly. “It was terrifying, and I was way too young for it … I would be so scared, but I would be so excited and giddy. And that’s actually a huge inspiration for this show I’m doing, because I want to capture that feeling again, where something is tense and terrifying, but then you still laugh at the end.”
Widow’s Bay, premiering with two episodes April 29, stars Matthew Rhys as Tom, mayor of an island that’s more Tales from the Crypt than Ted Lasso.
Series creator Dippold, 46, and Rhys, Emmy-winning star of The Americans, are executive producers alongside Hiro Murai (Atlanta and Barry), who directs half the episodes. Screen veteran Stephen Root (also Barry) plays the rattled Wyck. At first, Tom refuses to entertain his stories about ghouls and curses. He dismisses them as “tall tales” invented by bored men at sea … until a whole bunch of seemingly supernatural things start happening to him. Tales of ghost ships, killer clowns, local zombies and detestable sea hags build to jump scares with plenty of laughs around every corner.
“I’m a horror fan, first and foremost, even though I’m a comedy writer,” Dippold says from Los Angeles, where she’s lived for 20 years (she misses Jersey diners, bagels, pizza, trees, humid nights and lightning bugs).
Tom claims that Widow’s Bay is home to the second oldest lighthouse in the United States. Source: dubious.
New Jersey’s Sandy Hook is, in fact, the oldest still in operation. Dippold grew up a short drive from the Shore, where her friends favored Manasquan.
“I sunburn easily so I did not go as much as them,” she says, calling her face “translucent.” But she appreciates the boardwalks. “I think we went to Wildwood after prom. My boyfriend of 15 years, he’s from outside of Philly, and his family would go to South Jersey every summer and they still have a condo there. So every summer, I go to Margate and we’ll go to the Ocean City boardwalk where they’ll have dark rides (she also likes the oversized pizza slices). That dark ride in a summer on a boardwalk is everything that makes me happy. But also New Jersey itself—I love it so much. Even though this show is about New England, it is a lot about growing up in New Jersey in the ’80s and ’90s.”
The mystery at the heart of Widow’s Bay is gradually revealed through stories from the island’s past. Dippold prefers the 10-episode arc to horror that “resets” each week. “I didn’t want it to feel like a parody,” she says, though the show does celebrate horror tropes. That meant casting a lead who could carry mood shifts.
“Matthew Rhys is such an incredible actor,” Dippold says. “He has this pitch-perfect comedic timing.”
Everyone on set in Massachusetts was “downright giddy” about Rhys, Dippold says. The cast also includes English actor Kate O’Flynn (My Lady Jane), Emmy winner Jeff Hiller (Somebody Somewhere) and Dale Dickey (The Lowdown) as Widow’s Bay town employees. Kevin Carroll (The Leftovers) is the exasperated police chief and Kingston Rumi Southwick (Presumed Innocent) is Tom’s restless son, who wants off the island.
As for Dippold, she left Jersey with her family in second grade, moving to upstate New York then the San Francisco Bay Area. They returned her sophomore year at Freehold Township High—just in time for Mischief Night was her pal Johnny.
“Before smartphones, you had to look for a way to keep yourself busy, and we would do that in the form of terrorizing our friends,” she says. “We kept driving to his parents’ house where his mom was sitting in the living room, and we would hit the high beams. She would look nervous and come to the window, and we would just drive away … We came back a third time and his dad’s car was no longer in the driveway. It was very chilling. We’re like ‘oh no, he’s out there somewhere.’ We just quietly tried to drive away and get out of there, and then his dad just sped out from the trees and caught up to us and cut us off. And we just start screaming, like, ‘we’re sorry! We’re sorry!’”
Dippold at the 1984 Freehold Township Memorial Day parade. Photo: Courtesy of Katie Dippold***
Dippold brought her affinity for shadowy scenes to Rutgers, where she met comedian Chris Gethard. He worked for Weird N.J. before breaking out as a stand-up.
“There’s something about exploring scary places,” she says. “We would go to Clinton Road (in West Milford). But also there’s an abandoned mental institution we went inside. I don’t recommend doing this, but just that feeling of thinking you can explore all these different weird, strange things, that’s something I wanted to put in the show … There’s just something lurking beneath the surface.”
As a child, the future journalism major made her own newspaper—emphasis on the opinion section. “I would write articles, most of them disparaging, just very rude to my sister,” Dippold says. “Then I would start writing stories. I remember I would take plastic wrap around the front page and the back page to make it look more like a real book. In high school, the idea of being a screenwriter just sounded very exciting to me.”
She found a passion for sketch comedy at Rutgers’ Cabaret Improv Theatre and College Avenue Players. She also interned at Late Night with Conan O’Brien. She performed at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York, and in 2006, moved to LA and wrote for Mad TV.
Dippold made her feature screenwriting debut with action movie The Heat (2013), directed by Paul Feig. The buddy comedy, starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy, grossed $229 million worldwide. (Ghostbusters—also directed by Feig—Snatched and Haunted Mansion followed.)
“There’s a sequel for the movie written,” she says, though Bullock didn’t want to pursue another film. (Dippold doesn’t think she read the script.) “I was writing it and I saw a headline in Huffington Post saying she doesn’t like doing sequels. Who knows, maybe one day it’ll change her mind. That would be a lot of fun. She was great.”
A certain strain of municipal humor feels familiar in Widow’s Bay.
“This script was my spec script to get a writing job on Parks and Recreation,” Dippold says.
The NBC comedy series is prized from New Jersey to California for its hilarious, lovable characters, memorable lines and skewering of town government (plus coining Galentine’s Day and Treat Yo’ Self Day). Dippold, who wrote for the show starting in 2009, adores its penchant for “following the fun,” or building whole episodes referencing earlier “throwaway” gags.
Curious paintings in Widow’s Bay recall the horrific town murals of Pawnee, Indiana. “Parks and Rec is in my DNA,” Dippold says.
In the new show, characters point out misogynistic details from island legends. (The ghost of Hortense Fitzgerald is an “ugly woman” who fell to her death fleeing her wedding: “If you say ‘ugly Hortense’ three times you’ll see her ungrateful reflection.”) Dippold’s first version of Widow’s Bay 18 years ago “was much jokier, and I don’t know that I would’ve watched,” she says. Series writers developed the local lore, from artifacts to sea shanty tunes. (The show’s title comes from wives waiting for husbands to return from sea — most didn’t.) Mayor Tom hypes up the island as a vacation spot, lack of Wi-Fi and crummy cell service be damned. A travel writer asks him if locals ever engaged in cannibalism.
“No,” Tom says, standing next to a framed article about cannibalism in Widow’s Bay. “I mean, look, was there a deadly storm in 1786? Yes. Did a group of people get trapped inside a church? Apparently so. Did they immediately turn to cannibalism? No, that took four days.”
Comedy! But have you seen Dippold’s hall-of-fame tweet?
“Tbt to Halloween when I dressed as the babadook but my friend’s house had more of a grown ups drinking wine vibe,” she posted in 2016. An accompanying photo, retweeted 123,000 times, showed her face painted ghastly white, her glowing eyes ringed with black makeup to match a top hat (like the 2014 horror film The Babadook). A decade later, Dippold elaborates on the viral moment.
“I didn’t walk in the door at first,” she says. “I stared through the window for a long time until they noticed me and would be scared. And that was successful. And then when I went inside, it really sunk in that no one was dressed up (a lone Sopranos-inspired tracksuit didn’t really count) … I was also drinking red wine, so I had red wine teeth, and that against the pale white makeup was very upsetting to everyone. And then we just kind of sat down and watched an entire movie. That’s one thing the tweet doesn’t show.”
The post ‘Widow’s Bay’ Was Inspired By a Haunted Jersey Shore House appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
If you’re driving along the Turnpike and your nose detects some bus exhaust that smells strongly of french fries, you’re likely cruising behind the tour vehicle of April Mae & the June Bugs.
The genre-bending, vintage-inspired musical group doesn’t just play tunes. They hope to aim bright headlights on the issues of recycling and compassion toward the environment when they travel in style in their funky 1998 Ford E350 eco-tour bus.
That’s because it’s fueled by carbon-neutral-recycled cooking oil.
“We’re making mileage out of waste,” says member Tony Mascara Jr., of Millville, noting that, in addition to the environmental benefits, there are economic ones because, unfortunately, “the pump will eat your tour money.”
The group, founded in 2010, consists of Mascara and Moorestown residents April Mae Iorio and her husband, “Catfish” Dave Fecca; a fourth musician, Topher Horner, of Ambler, Pennsylvania, frequently joins the trio in local performances. All are dedicated environmentalists.
The Iorio-Fecca home, for example, which is adjacent to Moorestown’s wetlands, is heated by a wood-burning stove stacked with logs that Fecca forages, collecting fallen trees rather than cutting any down.
A bonus of this painstaking activity is his creation of a song, “I Chop Wood.”
The band has had the bus since 2011, and Iorio custom designed it herself. Its Powerstroke Turbo 7.3-liter diesel engine was converted shortly after the purchase, using a Vegistroke kit that Iorio says “was designed specifically for that engine.” Connecticut mechanic Pieter Efthimiatos completed the kit installation, including a secondary fuel tank for the veggie oil. Mechanic Russell Steele of Milford maintains the bus’s veggie-fueled system.
The cooking oil used to fuel the bus is donated by an eatery in Philadelphia. Photo: Reno IorioIorio points out that “the waste vegetable oil (WVO) that we use has the additional benefits of cleaner emissions, including fewer asthma-causing particulates, and recycling WVO for fuel keeps potential waste out of landfills and the environment.”
The magic bus, as Fecca describes it, does require diesel fuel to start and finish each road trip, “but only 5 or 10 minutes using diesel are necessary,” he notes. “When the oil gets heated enough from hot rods, the system automatically switches from diesel to oil.”
He says they get 15 miles per gallon, as opposed to 10 with diesel. “And cooking oil is biodegradable, so it’s not toxic to the environment,” he says.
Sulimay’s, a diner-style restaurant in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia, donates the used cooking oil. Iorio and Fecca pick up 60–70 gallons every month, and Fecca filters all of it.
Iorio points out that creation of the special bus was inspired by the legacy of one of the group’s heroes, iconic singer/songwriter/activist/environmentalist Pete Seeger, who drove a 1988 Ford Ranger solar-powered electric pickup truck for short trips.
April Mae & the June Bugs’ mantra is “It’s all about the boogie,” so naturally, their means of transportation is known as the Boogie Bus.
The Boogie Bus can be spotted traveling here and there in the Garden State and well beyond, including music festivals and other venues in destinations like New Orleans, Alabama, Tennessee and New England. One of Iorio’s compositions, “Memphis Bound,” honors the group’s performances there.
During their upbeat and quirky shows, Iorio, in vintage garb, accompanies herself on a washboard, her hands encased in steel-tipped, elbow-length black gloves. She also throws in a few kazoo and toy-horn performances, plus a little tap dance here and there.
Among Fecca’s unusual stringed instruments are a quirky cigar-box guitar, handmade by his Moorestown neighbor Gerry Thompson; an electric guitar; an electric banjo; and a family heirloom, his uncle Louie Fecca’s mandolin, dating from the 1930s or ’40s.
Mascara’s vintage-style instruments are a standing cocktail drum kit and an upright bass, which he spins like a top from time to time during performances.
When upright bass player Horner performs with the combo, Mascara switches to percussion.
The three describe their sound as “deep vintage vibes,” or “roots, baby, roots,” as Fecca puts it. Their performances include standards, vintage obscurities, and songs composed by Iorio and Fecca.
When they’re not performing, Fecca operates a home business, Dave Feccas Guitar Repair, and Iorio handles all administrative, preproduction and booking tasks.
Mascara serves as recording engineer and coproducer when the group records at his Millville studio, the Audio Lab. Mascara and his wife, Andrea (whose musical talents “stop in the shower,” according to her husband), have two daughters, Madison and Macy, and a one-year-old grandson, Mason. Horner and his wife, Marge, are the parents of Lily and Sam.
A discography of the trio’s full-length albums and singles, all available for purchase, can be found online at aprilmaeandthejunebugs.com.
The post Grease Lightning: South Jersey Band Powers Tour Bus With Recycled Cooking Oil appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Spring theater season is in full bloom! The Garden State’s got a great roster of creatively reimagined classics, thought-provoking new works and world premieres.
Here are a few to put on your can’t-miss list.
Photo: Trevor CallahanThe NicetiesThrough April 19Centenary Stage Company, HackettstownPart of Centenary’s professional theater series, Niceties unfolds the story of an Ivy League professor who is challenged by a grad student unhappy with the teacher’s perspective on her work. A routine office visit becomes threateningly passionate conversation about privilege, politics and how personal history shapes our worldview. As each defends their stance, this resonant story lingers well after the curtain falls.
Photo: Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade1776Through May 2Paper Mill Playhouse, MillburnHistory is set to a lively score for this musical that took home three Tony Awards when it opened on Broadway in the late ’60s. The dramatic turns that lead to the signing of the Declaration of Independence unfold with John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and other forefathers hashing out our country’s future.
The MountaintopApril 16-May 3Mile Square Theatre, HobokenThis Pulitzer Prize winner by Katori Hall tells the moving, fictional story of Martin Luther King Jr.’s last night on Earth, as an encounter with a hotel employee expands into a spiritual epiphany. In the sometimes funny, sometimes intense and infinitely inspiring story, Hall paints a poignant picture of King’s private self, expounding on his hopes, his fears and the faith and courage that propelled him throughout his life.
Sins of the MotherThrough May 3New Jersey Repertory Company, Long BranchIn a tight-knit fishing town in Massachusetts, a young man returns home searching for answers about his past. A web of secrets unravels throughout this story that contemplates identity, loyalty and the desire to belong. —Jessica Hammer
& SonsApril 16-May 10Luna Stage, West OrangeWork and brotherhood are the emotional background of this world premiere work by Jack Angelo Cummings, winner of the 2025 Kirk Prize for Best New Play. Filled with sharply funny dialogue, this production looks at the sometimes awkward ways in which men find their way to respect and friendship.
My Lord, What A NightApril 28-May 17George Street Playhouse, New BrunswickIn 1937 America, segregation was in full effect, prohibiting African Americans from many rights, including the opportunity to secure lodging when they traveled. This, of course, included many performers whose livelihoods required them to travel. Such was the case when world-famous contralto Marian Anderson was turned away from hotels in Princeton—and the town’s most famous citizen, Albert Einstein, opened his home to her. This dramatic production is based on these true events and the unique friendship that developed as a result of them.
Mrs. ChristieMay 6-May 31McCarter Theatre, PrincetonA fictional Agatha Christie superfan unfolds her own mystery in this whodunit that blends historical events with modern fictional accounts. When the famed sleuth disappeared in 1926 without explanation, then reappeared nearly two weeks later, the public was hungry for answers. Explanations never came. But in this comedic play a century later, Lucy ventures to Christie’s estate to uncover the truth. It toggles between the past and present, paralleling the journey of self-discovery in both women’s lives.
The post Top Theater Performances to Catch in New Jersey This Spring appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The new Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music opens June 13 at Monmouth University. Rendering: Courtesy of the BSCAM/COOKFOX ArchitectsAt first glance, the striking new $50 million, 30,000-square-foot Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, its immense glass windows glinting on a corner of Monmouth University’s West Long Branch campus, might not immediately conjure its namesake New Jerseyan.
Is it a match for the onstage presence of a world-class rocker-slash-preacher who can casually hold any roaring stadium of 50,000 fans in the palm of his hand? Sure. Yet to a passing motorist, it might less readily evoke the other Springsteens: the shy singer-songwriter from Freehold, who wrote in his memoir of feeling “barely visible” most of his young life; who, just a few years ago, politely declined an offer for a Parkway rest stop in his name; and who, back in 1975, living mere minutes down the road and on the cusp of finishing Born to Run, mailed a handwritten apology to his “landlordess” for the late rent on his blink-and-you’ll-miss-it bungalow.
But on a late-winter hard-hat tour of the active construction site, about 100 days out from the center’s historic opening on June 13, Melissa Kozlowski, director of curatorial affairs, brings the sprawling exterior down to earth and its carefully chosen details into sharp focus.
The building’s main entranceway is, fittingly, a boardwalk. Rendering: Courtesy of the BSCAM/COOKFOX ArchitectsThe building’s main entranceway, partially hidden from street traffic, is—what else?—a boardwalk, modeled after the Boss-haunted landmark in Asbury Park, roughly five miles south. The architects “wanted to use every square inch of the property to do some type of thoughtful storytelling,” Kozlowski says, motioning to the area where a meadow of indigenous grasses will, come spring, replace the snow-dotted dirt. The facade of the building, she explains, is a nod to industrial New Jersey. It’s made of steel, site project manager Timothy Blake later adds, that’s been rusted and weathered “to a point where it builds this permanent patina.”
Buy our May 2026 issue here. Cover photo: Danny Clinch[EXCLUSIVE: Bruce Springsteen opens up about his new Center for American Music. Click here to read.]
Bruce wrote much of his 1975 Born to Run album in West Long Branch, minutes away from the new center. Photo: Courtesy of the BSCAM/Eric MeolaLike its eponymous artist, the Springsteen Center carries a long and storied past. It began in 2001 as a fan-based collection of donated memorabilia and grew to thousands of pieces, eventually coming to Monmouth in 2011, where it was housed in a tiny Cape Cod cottage on campus and nurtured by director Eileen Chapman, whose tenure as caretaker was the longest in its history. Named Springsteen’s official archive in 2017, the house had a distinctly informal spirit. Guests often dropped by unannounced to take a tour and peruse ephemera (albeit under Chapman’s watchful eye, and not without gloves). When out-of-towners on Springsteen pilgrimages inquired about other local landmarks—say, the Stone Pony, or rock photographer Danny Clinch’s gallery—she’d sometimes drive them there herself in her silver Ford Explorer. Due to a never-ending stream of donations, space became so scarce that even the bathroom was utilized for storage, with a mountain of boxes piled high in the tub.
Director Eileen Chapman at the Springsteen Center’s previous home, an overflowing cottage on Monmouth’s campus. Photo: Courtesy of the BSCAMWhatever the center may lose in scrappy charm as it evolves into a major institution, it will gain many times over in scope and scale across its exhibitions, public programming, education initiatives and research archives. “We made it very accessible for people—and we’ll continue to do that, but in a much different way,” says Chapman, who, along with founding executive director Bob Santelli, accompanied Springsteen on his very first hard-hat tour of the building. His reaction: “My mind is officially blown.”
From left: director Eileen Chapman, Springsteen, executive director Bob Santelli, Monmouth president Patrick Leahy and curatorial affairs director Melissa Kozlowski at the Springsteen Center’s building site. Photo: Courtesy of the BSCAMThe Springsteen Center in this newly expanded form, which officially broke ground in fall 2024, is helmed by Santelli, a music historian, journalist, educator and veteran music-museum curator whose long résumé includes the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, and music education programs at the White House.
“I always dreamt that there should be a major Smithsonian museum on American music,” Santelli says. “We have them on art; we have them on history and science. Music is our most important cultural resource, and…we have nothing?! I said that until, in essence, Washington gets its act together, we’ll house the story of American music, and we’ll do it in a very 21st-century way, with programs, traveling exhibitions, and the collection of American music stories to use for educational purposes.”
The 2019 “Springsteen: His Hometown” exhibit in Freehold began as a class project at Monmouth University. Photos: Courtesy of the BSCAMThose traveling exhibitions began in 2019 with “Springsteen: His Hometown,” a collaboration with the Monmouth County Historical Association in Springsteen’s hometown of Freehold; curator Kozlowski, also the university’s director of public history, had started it as a project in her museums and archives management class. Currently, a Born to Run exhibit is on view in Passaic County, and a national traveling exhibit, “Music America: Iconic Objects From America’s Music History” (which launched in 2024, ahead of America’s semiquincentennial this year) recently relocated to Boston, where it will remain until August.
The center’s traveling exhibit, “Music America: Iconic Objects from America’s Music History,” is currently in Boston. Photo: Courtesy of the BSCAM“We have been very active with public programs, and we will only accelerate once we open,” Santelli says. “So this is the staging ground—but America is our proving ground.”
*
More than a decade ago, while serving as founding executive director of the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, Santelli received a call from Chapman about the fan-based collection, which had outgrown its home at the Asbury Park library and was “not in good shape,” he remembers. “I worked for a museum. I knew what a collection is and how it should be handled, and that wasn’t happening. Fans had done an amazing job assembling this. It felt sinful to let this thing grow mold.” Monmouth’s library, however, declined to take it.
“So I pulled rank and went to the president,” recalls Santelli, a distinguished alum and former faculty member who, by that time, had extensively covered the E Street Band as a journalist and edited Springsteen’s 1998 book, Songs. “I said, ‘I have to tell you: Library of Congress, Smithsonian, they’re calling me….They want me to introduce them to Bruce Springsteen…and I’ll be damned if I’m the guy who—New Jersey’s favorite son, his legacy is gonna move to Washington, D.C.? It needs to stay here!’”
A scrapbook kept by Marion Vinyard, a lifelong friend of Bruce’s whose husband, Tex, managed Bruce’s first real band, the Castiles. Photo: Courtesy of the collection of the BSCAM/Mark KrajnakAfter the collection had been saved and moved into the small archive house on campus, Santelli began dreaming even bigger, envisioning a more consequential institution in Springsteen’s name taking shape at Monmouth.
He eventually pitched the idea to Springsteen’s longtime manager, Jon Landau, who he wasn’t sure would be on board. Landau’s reaction, to his surprise: “You’ve gotta tell Bruce.”
Santelli flew to Jersey and drove out to Springsteen’s home in Colts Neck. “I just remember Jon saying, ‘Okay, Bob, tell him!’” he says. So he started talking.
“He didn’t say anything,” Santelli recalls fondly. “And Bruce is relatively a quiet guy. I couldn’t tell whether he was thinking about what he was going to have for lunch, or [his] next song, or this,” he muses. “I just kept going, explaining, because I had this vision. And at the end, he said, in so many words, ‘Bob, I’m honored; I appreciate that—but I don’t want it to be [all] about me.’ He said something to the effect of, ‘I’m a chapter in this ongoing story of American music. If you could broaden it so that I’m part of it, but we tell a bigger story, I’d be more comfortable with that.’”
How about, Santelli suggested on the fly, the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music? Bruce was quiet again, listening.
“And then he says, ‘Well, let’s go see where you want to put it,’” Santelli recalls. He mimics Landau’s jaw dropping. “I couldn’t believe it.”
He and Landau got in their respective cars, Springsteen hopped on his motorcycle, “and we have this little procession” to Monmouth, Santelli says. “I’m going, Holy crap—he’s serious!”
When they arrived on the campus, Santelli pointed out the spot where he’d imagined the building.
“That’ll do,” Springsteen said, and got back on his motorcycle. “Well, Bob,” Landau said, turning to Santelli, “get started!”
*
Back at the construction site, our trio donning hard hats, safety glasses and neon-yellow vests, Kozlowski points out the 240-seat, Dolby Atmos-certified theater where visitors will see a 20-minute documentary by Springsteen’s longtime filmmaker, Thom Zimny. The film will explore New Jersey as a musical “microcosm of America,” Springsteen’s vast American music influences; and how he has become the “poster boy” for American music, particularly in Europe, where “so many fans see him as the representation of this country, or what they want this country to be,” Santelli explains. The theater will also function as a performance space for events like the center’s annual American Music Honors. Springsteen’s longtime former sound team helped to make the space “absolutely perfect for live music,” Chapman says.
A 240-seat, Dolby Atmos-certified theater will double as a performance and event space. Rendering: Courtesy of the BSCAM/COOKFOX ArchitectsOn the first floor, the American Music Gallery will examine our country’s music history from the Colonial period to the present, beginning with indigenous music that existed prior to European contact in what is now North America, Kozlowski explains.
“Bruce himself said, ‘Look, I don’t want you to build a shrine to me. You can use my name, my story, my legacy as a springboard to tell broader stories about American life, history and culture,’” Kozlowski says. “There’s something for everybody. We grab them with the music and use that as a prism through which to explore broader themes in American life: technology, activism, gender, race, class.” There are artifacts (costumes, instruments) and interactive elements (a song bar, a touchable U.S. map). Artists span from Bob Dylan to Beyoncé, Frank Sinatra to Sabrina Carpenter, and Woody Guthrie to Whitney Houston.
The Springsteen Center celebrates not just Bruce and the E Street Band but music across American history. Renderings: Courtesy of the BSCAM/C&GUpstairs, the focus is on Bruce and the E Street Band. One room traces his life and career by the decade. Another, wallpapered with handwritten lyrics, spotlights his songwriting process. (“It’s like you stepped inside his notebook,” Kozlowski says. Originals are on display behind glass, “so you can see the cross-outs, and how the lyrics morph with time.”)
Handwritten Springsteen lyrics will be on view at the center, like these from “Last Man Standing,” an emotional centerpiece of his 2023-24 concerts. Photo: Courtesy of the collection of the BSCAM/Mark KrajnakIconic artifacts include his distressed jeans and crumpled red hat from the Born in the U.S.A. cover, his leather jacket from the Born to Run cover, and the recorder he used to make Nebraska. In one space, guests can plop onto bleacher seating and take in curated footage of Springsteen’s live performances. In another, interactive instruments are accompanied by audio from band members: Steve Van Zandt when you pick up a guitar, Max Weinberg when you sit down at the drums.
Bruce with his sisters Pam (center) and Virginia. Photo: Courtesy of the collection of the BSCAM/Mark KrajnakWhile there will be a modest admission fee for the exhibits, an archival suite will be open to the public by appointment. There, visitors can explore menus of curated, digitized archival content such as handwritten lyrics, oral histories and pages from Springsteen’s mother Adele’s lovingly kept scrapbooks. Larger groups and families can book listening booths; serious researchers will reserve time in a private room.
*
Leading up to its grand opening on June 13, the center is producing four celebratory concerts. Two at Monmouth’s Pollak Theater will highlight local music (late May) and indigenous music (June 3). A set of shows on June 4 and 5, “Music America: The Songs That Shaped Us,” at the university’s OceanFirst Bank Center, will feature nearly two dozen artists, including Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Kenny Chesney and Rosanne Cash.
Racing toward the finish line, Santelli’s team is “the little engine that could,” he says. He’s assured them: “There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, and it’s not a train.” Early one recent morning, Kozlowski was sitting on the floor of Santelli’s office in sweats, trying to write a blurb “on the history of the intersection between race and music in America for 250 years in 150 words.” This is not, she laughs, a nine-to-five job. “It’s kind of all-consuming.” In Santelli’s temporary off-campus home, which doubles as a staging area, he wakes to a sea of priceless artifacts, including Springsteen’s old surfboard and a drum set from one of his early bands, Earth.
“It’s all very emotional,” Chapman says, her voice catching. “And I know [Bruce] is very pleased.”
The post Inside the New Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music Coming to the Jersey Shore appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Buy our May 2026 issue here. Photo: Danny ClinchDays before embarking on the E Street Band’s Land of Hope and Dreams tour, Bruce Springsteen sat down with New Jersey Monthly—for the first time in our magazine’s 50-year history—to discuss his newly expanded Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, set to open June 13.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
New Jersey Monthly: Thank you for taking the time to talk so close to embarking on the American leg of your Land of Hope and Dreams tour! Why was it important to you that the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music take this broad approach, rather than just focusing on you and your work?Bruce Springsteen: Well, I was a little ambivalent at first, you know? I mean…the way the whole thing happened in the beginning, if I’m correct, was: the Asbury Park library had been collecting magazine articles and different things, and they began to build up an archive, and…they needed someplace else, and Monmouth University generously said that they would provide a place. So it ended up over in a small office over at Monmouth University. I don’t know if you’ve ever been over there, but it was kind of a tiny little shack…
Yes! It was so charming.…where they had a ton of my stuff tucked into it. And I think Bob [Santelli] suggested the idea of trying to build a [new] building that would house my material. I was a little hesitant at first. I’m going, like, “Gee, I don’t know, a building, my own stuff, my name on it—what if I do somethin’ really stupid and embarrass the building? I’m still alive; who knows what I might do?”
[Laughs.] You would never!
[Laughs.] So I was just a little hesitant. And then I think we began to mention that it might be something that was dedicated more to the overall story of American music, and that appealed to me a little bit more. And I said, “Well, that might be nice”—having someplace that was an educational center, where the students could go to, and children from outside of the university. And it could be a place where people could come and begin to learn how the history of American music influences and affects the history of America itself. And then they’d have a spot for my stuff, if anybody was interested and wanted to go and see what made my own work and the influences that were very important to me when I was putting my own work together.
[If you look at] what was going on in…America from the ’70s through the second half of the 20th century to now, that was sort of the world that I was interested in documenting: the effects of postindustrialization on a large part of the American populace, and how it affected their lives…and continues to do so today.
I said, “Well, it might be a place where you could go and see how my music was very deeply connected to the times.” And also, just someplace that was fun, [where] people could see some of the inspirations: how I came out of the Jersey Shore, and the effects the Jersey Shore had on my creative experience. And so…I said, “Well, okay, let’s give it a try. Let’s do it.”
Springsteen with Mavis Staples (center), Jackson Browne (left) and John Mellencamp at the American Music Honors in 2024. Photo: Danny ClinchCan you talk a bit more about those sounds and scenes on the Jersey Shore at that time that really shaped you musically?Well, Asbury was pretty lively…a blue-collar resort area, basically, in the ’50s when I was a child, and it was a big thing if my mother and father took me for a day to Asbury Park, you know? All of the amusements were there; the Easter Parade was a huge event. It was like going to the city…It was an eventful day if I went when I was a young child in the ’50s.
And then of course in the ’60s, Moe Septee brought in every great pop act that was influential and playing in those days: the Four Tops, the Temptations, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Doors. Countless, countless—I mean, everybody came through Asbury Park. Now, at the time, I was kinda young, and I didn’t have the money to go see the shows, but I was on the boardwalk. I moved to Asbury, I think…around 1968…Now, by that time, Asbury was starting on its downward trend…There were the riots of…1970. And then there was me and a small group of musicians who lived in this little seaside town and created a little local music community—the center of which was a place called the Student Prince, originally. The Student Prince was pre the [Stone] Pony, and that was really where I got my start…Woodstock weekend, instead of being among the half a million folks that went to Woodstock, I was among the 150 people at the Student Prince, [laughs] watching my band play, making a few bucks.
But the town became central to my identity, and it became central to the identity of my music….The town was filled with a bunch of characters, and I sort of took them and embroidered upon them on my first record, Greetings From Asbury Park, and [my second,] The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. Those are all about my days in Asbury and on the East Coast and in this little blue-collar, sort of run-down amusement town.
So it deeply affected the music that I was writing about….When I finally got a record deal…I knew they were trying to say that I was a New York artist, because of the connection to Bob Dylan. My first photo shoot was a shoot in New York City, and if you go to the back of the Greetings From Asbury Park album, you’ll see there’s a picture of me that looks like I’m standing by the ocean. Actually, I was in New York City [laughs], and they put the ocean in later. It was after I [had been] walking down the boardwalk and pulled [a] postcard out of a little rack and said, “No, I’m not from New York City; I’m from Asbury Park, New Jersey, and this is what I want as my album cover.”
So I particularly decided that I wanted my identity to be connected to where I actually was coming from, and…the stories I was telling. And luckily enough, I had an art director, John Berg, at the time who saw the postcard and said, ‘Yeah, this is a good idea, let’s use it.’ So it gave me my own personality and character and identity, and it gave my music its grounding in where it really came from. And that was what I was interested in. The whole Asbury Park, the boardwalk was very central to the character I was trying to create, the world I was trying to bring to life on my first several records.
Springsteen performs at last year’s 50th-anniversary celebration of Born to Run at Monmouth University’s Pollak Theater. Photo: Courtesy of the collection of the BSCAM/Mark Krajnak*Right; they’re very evocative.* You’ve written and spoken about how you were always drawn to music in which the singers sounded “simultaneously happy and sad, hopeful and resigned”—songs like the Drifters’ “Under the Boardwalk,” “Up on the Roof;” music that was marked by, in your words, “a deep longing” and “a casually transcendent spirit” that made you feel like the “whole world opened up” to you. I love that, and I see it as one of your great strengths and “magic tricks”: your melding of sorrow and joy, kind of sitting with them as two sides of the same coin. And I’m curious if you think there’s something distinctly American, or even distinctly New Jerseyan, about that specific combination in music?Well, that was the life I was living. The life I was living was the Drifters’ “Under the Boardwalk” and “Up on the Roof.” I had a little apartment above the shoe store…where I lived on the third floor, and I would climb out my window and sunbathe on the tarred roof [laughs] on Cookman Avenue in Asbury Park when I was 20 years old. And so those songs were very important to the beginning of my emotional life and my emotional connection to music.
But then also…in my teens, I grew up through some of the most influential years of my life in the ’60s, so that brought a certain social consciousness into my music. And so those things together were very, very influential, in the beginning, of the structuring and building of the kind of music and the parameters of what I wanted my music to contain. Both of those things were very, very central.
And if you look at the E Street Band, the E Street Band does two things very well. One is, it’s one of the few bands that really communicates joy, you know? Playing “Rosalita” or “Out in the Street” or “Hungry Heart.” And there’s a lot of bands that communicate cool, there’s a lot of bands that communicate anger, but there [were] not a lot of modern rock bands at the time who communicated joy, which was an enormous part of the music of the ’50s and ’60s. And so I’ve always been proud of that side of my band that can speak to that part of people’s lives. It’s a very essential part of music.
And then at the same time, we can take on tough subjects and delve into them pretty seriously….As far as the boundaries of the music that the band can draw on and create, I’m very proud that the band has such a wide emotional bandwidth that we can bring to our audience.
It’s funny—we were in rehearsal the other day, and I said, “Okay, we’re gonna go out, it’s gonna be kind of a political tour, very serious,”…I sequenced all these serious songs. I said, “Wait a minute. Where’s the fun?” ’Cause no matter how serious we’re gonna be…fun, joy, exhilaration are an essential part of people’s lives. And I always want us to be able to address those things.
That’s lovely. Speaking of social consciousness, the first rotating exhibit at the new center is “Chimes of Freedom,” which will explore protest songs across American history, including your most recent one, “Streets of Minneapolis,” and go all the way back to what is the archive’s oldest handwritten lyrics of yours, an anti-war song called “All Man the Guns” that you wrote during the Vietnam War when you were 18 or 19. Do you have any recollection now of writing that song?Yeah, I do. Yeah, I remember that song really well. We had the [band] Steel Mill at the time, and Steel Mill was operating during the early ’70s, which was really still the ’60s, you know? The ’60s really rolled over into the early ’70s. So I was writing in Asbury Park, which had recently had the racial uprising, and Vietnam was still raging on. It was…coming into people’s living rooms on television every night, and it was an enormous, enormous issue. One of our first benefits we did was at a small theater in Red Bank…to send folks down to the anti-Vietnam War benefit in Washington. We were probably 19 years old. So that was a very ongoing and central issue in my own life and in every young man’s life, because the draft was still in [effect], and I wrote that song—probably my earliest song addressing the Vietnam War. But I remember that song very well, and us playing it, right like it was yesterday.
That’s incredible. And there will be oral histories accessible in the center that focus on people like Bart Haynes, your first drummer in the Castiles, and Walter Cichon, from Freehold, [both of whom died in the Vietnam War]. The center’s curator, [Melissa Kozlowski], noted how it’s very gratifying to be able to tell their stories, too, and ensure that people like that are more than just footnotes in history, which is wonderful.Yeah, that’s really satisfying. The thing that I love about the center now is like, yeah, they have my stuff there, and that’s great, and if people are interested, they can go and see it. But it takes on and will take on the entirety of American music, its influences, and will be a wonderful educational center for people who are interested in the broader connection between American music and American history. That really sort of convinced me to do it….The building itself is gorgeous; the architect did a wonderful job. It’s really an amazing place. It’ll be a wonderful place to go. They’ll have all these interactive services. I think…[for] young kids who walk in, not knowing much about me or much about the history of American music, it’ll really be a wonderful, eye-opening and valuable afternoon. And so I’m excited to just be a part of it, that’s all.
The post Exclusive: Bruce Springsteen Opens Up About His New Center for American Music appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
It takes research to create authentic television and movies, and the props team for Hulu’s The Bear did its homework. The minimalist, handmade ceramics of North Jersey’s own Jono Pandolfi feature prominently in the fine-dining restaurant where the later seasons take place, and for good reason. The Jersey City resident’s tableware is used in some 800 restaurants around the globe, including some of the most elevated fine-dining establishments in New York City, from Jean Georges’s Nougatine to Lilia to Gramercy Tavern.
“They knew that we were a cult brand, and it felt accurate [to use our products],” Pandolfi explains. “It felt like a huge accomplishment.”
Pandolfi’s plates, bowls and serving dishes have a rustic yet refined aesthetic thanks to the natural clay exterior and smooth-glazed interior, with colors ranging from pale pink to green-and-yellow ombre. They are also solidly built, yet still elegant, making them perfect for everyday use. Known to foodies for years, the work became instantly recognizable when it took the center of the table—literally—on the hit show.
Plates, bowls and serving dishes from Jono Pandolfi Designs are used at restaurants around the globe. Photo: Courtesy of Mosaic/Gab BonghiInterest in the brand increased, retail sales bumped up “a whole lot,” and media inquiries came pouring in. But, while he was happy to be involved in a big television production—his team actually worked with the props department to pick the right pieces—the biggest satisfaction came from existing fans and friends.
“The coolest thing was that, on social media, so many people would say, ‘Oh my God, we knew it was your stuff when we saw it!’” he says, adding that trained eyes will also spot his pieces on tables in shows such as Billions and Succession.
The Bear follows the character Carmine “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) as he prepares to open a fine-dining restaurant after returning home to Chicago to work at his family’s Italian beef-sandwich spot following the death of his brother. Culinary-world icons, including Pandolfi’s longtime friend Will Guidara, consulted on the show, so it was only fitting that the creators worked with Pandolfi. His ceramics graced the tables of Eleven Madison Park, after all, where Guidara was once the general manager.
Pandolfi has run his ceramics business out of the Yardley Building in Union City, with views of the towering West Side of Manhattan, since 2008. He started with 400 square feet and now operates out of 30,000 square feet. His team of about 40 employees “form, fire and ship” 1,200 pieces a day.
“I stumbled onto something special when I decided to sell to restaurants,” says Pandolfi. “It’s a good market to be in…I love making pottery that people use.”
During the pandemic, the company pivoted to retail sales, which makes up about 40 percent of the business.
You could say business is going well. You could say Jono Pandolfi feels creatively fulfilled. And you could say New Jersey has been good for Jono Pandolfi Designs.
On a recent day at Pandolfi’s huge, sun-dappled pottery studio, employees were having a communal lunch. The makers who mold, glaze and ship earthenware plates and platters sat together at long tables near the kitchen, some talking, some on their phones. The space buzzed with the kind of energy only found in places where people make things with their hands and are generally happy to be there.
“What brought me to Jersey was the quality of life that was offered and promised,” says Pandolfi, who moved to the Hamilton Park neighborhood in Jersey City in 2008 and is raising two daughters there with his wife. “It has come through on that promise.”
He says he loves how “community oriented” Jersey City is and counts the restaurants Corto and Razza (which both use his work) and Liberty State Park as some of his favorite places.
Those who order his ceramics for their restaurants consider them to be much more than just vessels to contain food (though they are built for extended use and are dishwasher and microwave safe). At the newly revamped Princeton University Art Museum, director James Steward chose Pandolfi’s work to decorate the tables at the museum’s restaurant, Mosaic.
“The intended look and feel of the restaurant was to privilege texture, finish and color,” Steward explained in an email, adding that the appearance of everything in the restaurant should “reinforce the same creativity” in the galleries. “Once I saw the color options and felt how good the cups and mugs felt in the hand, that was it.”
The post Meet the NJ Potter Who Makes the Tableware Featured on ‘The Bear’ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Singer-songwriter Sydney Millevoi of Secaucus wowed the judges on NBC’s The Voice with her cover of Demi Lovato’s “Tell Me You Love Me” in last week’s knockout round, putting her in the Top 9.
“I’ve been a very big Demi fan for a long time,”Millevoi, 23, tells New Jersey Monthly, noting Lovato’s powerful vocals and her desire to showcase her own. “For the knockouts, I really wanted to put it all out there on the stage.”
She adds that it “feels crazy” to have made it to the Top 9, a spot she secured after beating teammate Natasha Blaine. Tonight’s episode at 9 pm ET will reveal who will join her in the semifinals.
At the start of the season, Millevoi performed Jessie J’s “Mamma Knows Best,” earning her a spot on John Legend’s team.
While she was preparing for the knockout round, Millevoi says that Legend reminded her not to lose sight of why she is competing: her love of singing. His advice, she says, helped her push past her performance nerves.
Millevoi’s musical journey started at a young age when her mother, opera singer Gina Millevoi, put her in singing lessons. She later started writing her own music, which she describes as “just a really good listen for ear-candy purposes, and if you want to have a good story.” She’s heavily influenced by pop and R&B fusion, and draws inspiration from Kehlani, Kelly Clarkson, Ariana Grande, John Legend and fellow Jersey native Whitney Houston.
Millevoi is currently getting her masters at New Jersey City University, where she’s studying vocal performance. She also sings in a wedding band.
What can viewers and fans consistently expect from her performances? “I’m always going to give you a big vocal moment,” she promises.
“Music is so healing, at the end of the day,” she adds. “That’s the whole point of why I did it in the first place—to just share community and help people out. Having people turn on my music when they’re having a little bit of a hard day, needing an escape—that fills my purpose.”
The post Secaucus Native Syd Millevoi Competing in Top 9 on NBC’s ‘The Voice’ Tonight appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Frankie Muniz became a household name as the tremendously gifted and perpetually dismayed Malcolm Wilkerson. In real life, he was a child of the ridges and woods of New Jersey.
The Malcolm in the Middle star, who rose to fame when he was 14, was born at Valley Hospital in Ridgewood and grew up in Wood-Ridge. Those biographical details have often been transposed or mixed up, causing some confusion over the years.
“People don’t understand what I’m saying,” Muniz says. “But my mom still lives in Bergen County. My grandparents, unfortunately, just passed away after living in the same house for 70 years in Wood-Ridge. But yeah, that’s my childhood, for sure.”
The actor, now 40, reprises his breakout role as Malcolm in the series revival Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair, which premieres April 10 on Hulu.
When he was a young child, Muniz and his family moved to North Carolina for his father’s job (his parents later divorced). That’s where he started acting, but he landed the role of Malcolm, a middle schooler with an IQ of 165, when he was back in Jersey.
“I was taking the NJ Transit bus into the city every day to go do auditions and all that,” he says. “So that’s like the good old days to me.”
An 11-year-old Muniz had returned to Jersey for the summer to audition. He had four to six tryouts per day, and his bookings were plentiful.
Muniz in Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair. Photo: Disney/David Bukach“I ended up getting kicked out of the school I was supposed to start in the fall,” he says. “It kind of snowballed to where we just never left until I got Malcolm, and that took us out to L.A.”
But Jersey followed him out to the West Coast, in a way.
“I think it’s funny; if you watch the first season or two of Malcolm, I have a pretty—not a super strong—New Jersey accent, but, like, I definitely didn’t fit with the rest of the cast, accent-wise,” Muniz says with a chuckle. “I unfortunately lost it a little bit just because I’ve been gone for so long.”
One thing Malcolm hasn’t lost, 26 years on: its delightful cringe factor. The first part of the four-episode revival starts just like its Emmy-winning Fox series premiere back in 2000. In a direct callback, Malcolm’s dad, Hal Wilkerson, played by Bryan Cranston (who took on the role before his career-changing run on Breaking Bad), appears almost completely naked in a scene where his wife, Lois Wilkerson, played by Jane Kaczmarek, shaves his back hair. Only this time, the back hair is white.
As for the adult Malcolm, life is “fantastic.” He says so in one of his typical direct-to-camera moments. “You wanna know how I did it? All I had to do is stay completely away from my family.” Malcolm has his own life—a daughter, Leah (Keeley Karsten), and a job running a charity.
Muniz, on the other hand, relished being with the Wilkersons again. “I remember being so excited when we were talking about the possibility of the show coming back,” he says of the revival from series creator Linwood Boomer. “Like all the fans, I wanted to know what Malcolm and his family were up to.”
Photo: Disney/David BukachMuniz filmed the new episodes in Vancouver with his old costars, including Cranston and Kaczmarek as well as Christopher Masterson and Justin Berfield, who play Malcolm’s brothers Francis and Reese. (Caleb Ellsworth-Clark takes over as Dewey from Erik Per Sullivan, who has since left acting.Vaughan Murrae plays Kelly, Malcolm’s youngest sibling, who is nonbinary.)
“I cannot explain to you how amazing it was that first day of filming, because it was instant. All of us fell right back into our characters as if no time went on,” Muniz says. “Normally, when you make a movie or a TV show or whatever it is, you hope people are going to watch it, you hope people will like it. I think…people are really looking forward to it. So I hope they love it. I think they will.”
The travails and adventures of Malcolm and his lovingly unhinged family were an immediate success.
Malcolm in the Middle’s 2000 premiere episode, which aired after The Simpsons, claimed 23 million viewers (ratings climbed higher the next episode). Muniz received an Emmy nomination for lead actor in a comedy series in 2001, when the show was nominated for outstanding comedy series.
“As a kid, I just showed up excited to be there, and said what was on the paper, and it worked,” he says. “Where now, even though I fell right back into playing Malcolm again, the way I prepared every day, or, like, learning my lines, or thinking about how I want to do certain scenes, I never did that as a kid. I just care more now. I want to do the best job I could possibly do.”
In the 2000s, Muniz’s acting career accelerated with lead roles in films like the Agent Cody Banks movies. He’s since enjoyed another career in stock car racing, most recently driving a Ford F-150 pickup truck on Team Reaume in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. He also became a family man, marrying actor and model Paige Price in 2019 and welcoming son Mauz Mosley Muniz, now 5.
Today Muniz lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, but retains his Jersey identity.
“I’m proud to be from New Jersey,” he says. “What I find really funny is how New Jersey’s just such a small state, but so many people I meet are from New Jersey. You’ve got, like, an instant bond with so many people.”
Wherever he is in the world these days—he was just holding court with Malcolm fans in Mexico City—he’ll always remember the time he spent with his grandfather in Jersey.
“He was a construction worker,” Muniz says. “He’d be like, ‘I built that freeway.’ Everywhere I go I see my grandpa, because he helped build the roads and stuff in New Jersey. He started working at the Meadowlands, at the racetrack, and so I would go there with him. I started golfing with him at the driving range right in the Meadowlands. I have memories of that kind of stuff, or riding my bike. There was a bike shop in Hasbrouck Heights, and when I first started acting, I made a little chart of how much money I needed to get this lime green GT Performer. It was, like, the coolest bike in the world. I would go there and look at that bike every day.”
And yes, he finally bought the bike.
“I just remember roller skating and riding bikes and being out and on the Boulevard and getting pizza at Emilia’s. That was one of my favorite spots in Wood-Ridge. I have just so many memories of being a kid there.”
The post Frankie Muniz Looks Back Fondly on His New Jersey Childhood appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Ilana Kaplan was watching a movie marathon on TV as a child when she caught her first Nora Ephron rom-com, the 1998 classic You’ve Got Mail.Too young to side-eye an enemies-to-lovers plotline in which big-box executive Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) forces indie children’s-bookstore owner Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) to shutter her beloved shop, Kaplan simply swooned. “I was like, Oh, so romantic!” she muses. “Meanwhile, I’m totally oblivious to the fact that he’s putting her out of business.”And yet, decades later, their chemistry still captivates her. Sure, the storyline is “such a commentary on capitalism,” she says, but “you can’t deny—Nora knew how to pair actors together in a rom-com.”[caption id="attachment_833996" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail (1998). Warner Bros. Pictures/Courtesy of Everett Collection[/caption] Kaplan, 36, is now a certified expert on both Nora Ephron, the revered writer/filmmaker who died in 2012 at age 71, and the romantic comedy. Last fall, the Union County native published her debut book, Nora Ephron at the Movies: A Visual Celebration of the Writer and Director Behind When Harry Met Sally, You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, and More (Abrams).It’s a critical survey not only of Ephron’s celebrated trio of timeless rom-coms from the 1980s and ’90s, but also of her entire oeuvre: her novel-turned-film Heartburn (a fictionalized account of her second marriage, to Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein), her lesser-known and more eccentric films, misfires, groundbreaking journalism and searingly honest essays.Ephron’s mammoth legacy and legions of fans, ever hungry for Ephron lore, warranted a weighty tome. Nora Ephron at the Movies is built like a coffee-table book worthy of a cameo on a well-stocked bookshelf in an Ephron heroine’s impeccably shabby-chic brownstone. It’s the first illustrated monograph on Ephron, so a photographic feast surrounds Kaplan’s deeply researched analysis. (Though Ephron’s family declined to grant interviews, her third husband and widower, the Oscar-nominated Goodfellas writer Nicholas Pileggi, mailed Kaplan a handwritten note thanking her for “a blissful book about Nora.” It hangs on her fridge.)[caption id="attachment_833997" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Nora Ephron Paramount Pictures/Courtesy of Everett Collection[/caption]Kaplan dubs Ephron, the daughter of screenwriters who worked during Hollywood’s Golden Age, “the fairy godmother” of modern romantic comedies. “After years of a genre lying in wait,” she writes, “she waved her magic wand and penned dazzling scripts…for women who wouldn’t take any shit.”Ephron “moved the needle on rom-coms,” Kaplan tells New Jersey Monthly, “in terms of showcasing these flawed heroines who were…very tightly wound, but then could explode….and then that shiny veneer could be gone….She really made rom-coms with the female gaze in mind.”These leading ladies, she writes, are “having fake orgasms in restaurants, letting men see them when their nose is red and they ‘have a terrible cold,’ and letting their frizzy hair fall where it may during an emotional breakdown.”[caption id="attachment_834001" align="alignnone" width="1024"] The iconic Katz's Deli scene in When Harry Met Sally (1989). Columbia Pictures/Courtesy of Everett Collection[/caption]“Nora’s work transformed the way I saw myself,” Kaplan declares in the intro. “I could be frustrating and flawed and resist tradition; I could be seen.” (At her own wedding, Kaplan tearily shouted out Ephron in her vows, “a weird, full-circle moment,” she explains, since she had helped “turn me into a hopeless romantic.”)Born in Elizabeth, Kaplan grew up in Roselle Park before moving to Westfield in fourth grade. Her teenage haunts included concert venue Crossroads in Garwood and the now defunct Sound Station record store in Westfield. She often took the train into Manhattan to check out bands at the Knitting Factory or wander Washington Square Park. “I always envisioned my life in New York,” she recalls. “I thought it was glamorous.”As an aspiring music writer—a dream cemented by Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield’s memoir, Love Is a Mix Tape—Kaplan double-majored in English and journalism/media studies at Rutgers, where she DJed at campus radio station 90.3 The Core, cohosting The Greenhouse Effect—“Like, polluting your airwaves with great music,” she laughs.When she landed a post-grad job in social media, Kaplan commuted to Manhattan from Westfield. Weeknights, she attended concerts and penned freelance pieces; weekends, she waitressed at Old Man Rafferty’s in New Brunswick. She moved to New York City around 2013 and currently works as a music editor at People.[caption id="attachment_834003" align="alignnone" width="778"] Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail Warner Bros. Pictures/Courtesy of Everett Collection[/caption]Sometime this fall—if she hasn’t already—Kaplan will sit down for her seasonal rewatch of You’ve Got Mail, the Nora Ephron film that started it all. “It feels like home; it’s nostalgic; it reminds me of my childhood,” she says. “It’s a rite of passage.” And she still gets goosebumps.The post Ilana Kaplan’s ‘Nora Ephron at the Movies’ Is a Love Letter to Rom-Com Royalty appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Start spreadin' the news!On Wednesday, October 22, the first-ever New Jersey Night on Broadway comes to New York City, featuring discounts on select Broadway shows and other perks.There are 21 participating Broadway shows, including Aladdin, Chicago, Harry Potter & the Cursed Child, Moulin Rogue!, Hell's Kitchen and & Juliet. Newark native Taye Diggs is currently starring in Moulin Rouge! as the Duke of Monroth. Hamilton native Gianna Harris is playing Juliet in & Juliet; previously, she served as the understudy in Hell's Kitchen for Tony-winning actress Maleah Joi Moon, who grew up in Franklin Township.After purchasing one show ticket, customers can get a second one for just $17.87—a nod to the year New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Customers should use the code NJNIGHT25 if prompted.Additional deals include discounts on NJ Transit transportation and select restaurants in Manhattan and Secaucus. For NJ Transit rides, customers can use the code NJNIGHT for four one-way tickets for the price of two. The code is valid through Thursday, October 23, and the tickets will be valid for travel between 1 pm on Wednesday, October 22, and 2 am on Friday, October 24. This offer can only be accessed through NJ Transit's mobile app.Several Broadway productions not included in this New Jersey promotion feature stars with Jersey roots. Union City native Bobby Cannavale is currently starring in Art alongside Neil Patrick Harris and James Corden; Livingston's Brandon Uranowitz is starring in Ragtime. Former Montclair resident Alex Winter is co-leading Waiting for Godot on Broadway with his Bill & Ted co-star Keanu Reeves. And Tenafly's Lea Michele will lead an upcoming production of Chess.The post Broadway Launches Inaugural New Jersey Night With Deals on Shows, Dining and Transit appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Editor's note: As of October 9, Thinkable has canceled its Montclair speaker series, according to posts on its Facebook and Instagram pages, citing "security considerations."Communicating with our peers is a bit of a lost art form—at least according to Desh Amila, filmmaker, entrepreneur and creator of the Thinkable speaker series, which launches its inaugural season this October at Montclair’s Lackawanna Station. The lineup features Ta-Nehisi Coates, Cornel West, Richard Dawkins and other distinguished thought leaders.Amila says he has designed a modern town hall to fill the gaps of human interaction in the age of social media—one where attendees can exchange ideas, expose themselves to conflicting viewpoints, and think critically. “It’s not a lecture being presented to you; rather, it’s a conversation,” he says.Thinkable is one of the forthcoming attractions at the newly renovated Lackawanna Station, which sat empty for nearly a decade before its grand reopening earlier this year.Amila describes Montclair as “intellectually curious” and cites the convenience for locals as a factor in choosing the location for Thinkable’s home.The son of two Sri Lankan schoolteachers, Amila grew up understanding the importance of education. While living in Australia, the entrepreneur says, he recognized that many speaking events were corporatized or buried in the weeds of academia.Now a resident of Bloomfield, Amila says his goal is to make dialogue social and accessible. “My idea was, let’s take some of these intellectuals and put them in places where the community is engaging in and familiar with, rather than some five-star hotel.”The series is packaged as a subscription. A bold but conscious choice by Amila, it is designed to usher attendees out of their comfort zones and lead them to hear speakers they might otherwise pass on.“We want you to experience both sides of the arguments so you get a rounded view. I just don’t want people to come to hear their favorite speaker say the thing they already agree with and then move on.”Fostering a productive discussion is one of Amila’s many objectives, perhaps chief of which is countering the effect of social media on human interaction.“I think the element of social connection on social media has come and gone,” he says. “Now it’s merely a distribution mechanism to get short-form written content. I really want people to reconnect with others in their own communities.”The series, centered around science, politics and culture, will be unscripted, with a Q&A following each talk. Gold and Platinum subscription passes grant access to all six speaker events, the latter offering VIP seating and meet-and-greet experiences. The general admission pass includes attendance for three speakers of choice. Tickets are available at thinkable.events.For Amila, Thinkable is ultimately a way of bridging the gap between scholars and new, untapped audiences.“I’m not a teacher, but I know great teachers,” he says. “I want to provide a platform for them to speak to an audience that maybe wouldn’t consider these types of events.”The post Stop Scrolling! Montclair’s New Speaker Series Wants to Bring Back Lively Civil Discourse appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Bobbi Brown is a beauty industry icon, bestselling author and entrepreneur—and now, she's telling her whole story in a new memoir, Still Bobbi (Simon & Schuster), out now. Three decades after founding Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, which she later sold to Estée Lauder, Brown launched Jones Road, her clean beauty brand known for its moisturizing, easy-to-use products and her signature "no-makeup makeup" look. The company, which surpassed $100 million in revenue last year, is headquartered in Montclair, where Brown has lived for nearly 40 years.Below, Brown reflects on the moments that shaped her, the power of authenticity and why she decided to write her most personal book yet.[caption id="attachment_832578" align="alignright" width="350"] Bobbi Brown's memoir, Still Bobbi, is out now.[/caption]You’ve written nine bestselling books. Why was it important for you to tell your own story now?I wasn’t planning to write a memoir. But one day, my now-agent literally showed up at my office in New Jersey and convinced me that I needed to tell my story. And because I liked her, I said yes. I thought it would be more about how to build a business while being a devoted wife, mother and friend. I kept saying it wasn’t a memoir but rather the stories of building a life. But it evolved into something more: It’s been a cathartic experience, helping me understand who I am, why I’ve been able to do the things I’ve done, and how I got here.What does the title, Still Bobbi, mean to you?The word "reinvention" is used a lot these days to describe women, their careers and their life stages. It's often used to describe me, too—and seeing as how I've embarked on everything from beauty to wellness to hospitality, I get it; it's accurate. But despite these reinventions, I'm the same Bobbi I've always been; there's just been a lot of personal and professional evolution."I am me" is a phrase I often say, and I even created a campaign around it, because I believe women are enough with who they are already. Still Bobbi is just another way to say that.Where did you get your love of makeup and beauty from?My mom was glamorous—the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. My earliest memory I have of her is watching her put on makeup, standing in front of the mirror getting ready to go out with my dad. She wore high heels and applied bronzer to the apples of her cheeks, her neck and her forehead. Then she would take a black Ebony writing pencil and fill in her brows, and put false eyelashes on with a pin or a toothpick. She’d use very pale lipstick. I just looked at her like she was the most glamorous woman in the world. She reminded me of Jackie O. She was stunning. I could never compete with how glamorous my mom was, so what I took away from it was that I needed to figure out who I was.Then, I saw Ali McGraw in Love Story and realized that she had dark straight hair like me, freckles, and wore very little makeup—just like me. It was the first time I saw myself and my aesthetic, which would become the "no-makeup makeup" look.How have your definitions of beauty and wellness evolved over the course of your life?Women today have a new definition of what beauty is. In the '50s and '60s, the standard of beauty was the tall, thin, blonde All-American girl. That’s what magazines covered and what movie stars looked like then. Today we see the rise in the inclusiveness, and expansion of beauty, of all types.I believe in teaching women how to achieve the look that is best for them, versus trying to attain some external standard of beauty. For over 30 years, my message has consistently been about being authentic and being yourself. What’s most beautiful to me is a person who is happy and confident and who embraces who they are, flaws and all. That’s the new standard of beauty.What inspired you to popularize the "no-makeup makeup" look?I’ve been a makeup artist for 40 years, but what I say now is what I’ve been preaching my whole career. I don’t follow trends, and most women do not want trends. They want beauty products that are clean, easy to apply, and that just work.I’m very consistent and have always preferred a natural, effortless look. Even though many media outlets are calling the 'no-makeup makeup' look a trend, I’ve been doing it for over four decades. To me, whatever makes you feel the most confident is the best trend to follow. It transcends generations.You write in the book that you sacrificed “fabulosity” for normalcy when you moved from NYC to NJ. What does that mean to you?I expand upon it in the book so easily because it was so true then and is still true now: As much as I loved New York, I also loved leaving the city. Montclair is a vibrant town with grass, backyards and a community of really interesting people. We also didn't want to raise our kids in the city, so after our honeymoon, Steven [Plofker] and I moved to Montclair, and we never looked back.How did you break into the cosmetic production industry?Working as a makeup artist in the '80s, my first thought wasn’t launching a makeup brand—it was creating a line of lipsticks that were the actual color of people’s lips. They didn’t exist, so I started making them myself. On a photo shoot, I met a chemist who said he could make the lipsticks for me. I then started using them on the models I was making up on shoots and sharing them with some of my beauty friends. They loved them, and those became the 10 original lipsticks that launched Bobbi Brown Cosmetics.Some of your best ideas were born of necessity. What is your favorite “surprise!” product?Miracle Balm is a must-try, multi-purpose product that instantly makes you look better. When I first got the sample from the lab and put it on my cheeks, I looked in the mirror and said, "OMG. This is a miracle." That’s where the name came from—it was such a surprise to even me!Many writers and beauty experts have called Miracle Balm a category-creator because there was nothing like it on the market when we launched it. I'm very proud of that.Where do you find inspiration?I’m endlessly curious. I have a very busy brain. I’m always thinking of new ideas. I don’t have any hobbies–I create things, and that keeps me very engaged. Oh, and my three-year-old granddaughter keeps me constantly inspired. I’m obsessed.Why did you ultimately decide to break from Bobbi Brown Cosmetics/Estée Lauder?Ultimately, it was time. I stayed at Estée Lauder for 22 years as an employee. Most of those years were joyous, creative and invigorating. The ones near the end were tough, and the last year was miserable. When you have a streak, like I did, it’s hard to admit when it’s over. I loved our mission and brand so much, but as I changed, so did the people, and so the decision I made felt right. There's more detail in the book, of course!How did you come up with the name “Jones Road” for your comeback beauty brand?It’s actually very simple. It came from Waze. I didn't have a name for the brand, and I needed one quickly. Two days later, my husband and I were driving in the Hamptons, and I was navigating. I looked down at my Waze map and saw Jones Road, and I thought it sounded like a bespoke English brand. I couldn't use Brown because of the noncompete I’d signed, so I thought I'd use Jones.Why did you decide to headquarter your business in New Jersey?Montclair has been my home for 37 years. I raised my family here, and it's where I've launched all of my latest business ventures: the HQ and flagship Jones Road Beauty store that carries the full collection of the line, and the George, a 31-room boutique hotel on North Mountain Avenue that my husband, Steven Plofker, and I designed together. This vibrant town has it all–culture, art, great food, shopping and, above all, an eclectic mix of amazing people. It’s the most incredible place to live and work.Both your mother and your father gave you life-changing pieces of advice when you were just starting out. What were they?My mother was the one who asked me, “If it were your birthday and you could do anything you wanted, what would you do?” I told her I wanted to go to Marshall Field's and play with makeup. That's when my mom said, "Become a makeup artist." My dad has given me a lot of great advice. When I first moved to New York, I was struggling to make ends meet, and I asked him to teach me how I could cut costs and save money. My dad told me, "Don't learn to cut costs–go out and find ways to make more money." I'm still doing that!The post Why Bobbi Brown Sacrificed ‘Fabulosity’ for Normalcy When Moving to Montclair 40 Years Ago appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Every day in Westfield, whispers can be heard about the town’s creepiest, kookiest, most mysterious and spookiest former resident: Addams Family creator Charles Addams. There’s the mansion on Elm Street, which bears a striking resemblance to the famed Addams Family house that Addams created; the Presbyterian Church Burial Grounds, a source of inspiration for him; and remnants of Addams’ early scrawls that are on display. But every October, the town fully transforms into a celebration of the iconic cartoonist’s legacy by hosting AddamsFest.The annual festival, started in 2018, blends art, history and Halloween throughout the month of October. Suburban homes turn into haunted houses through a town-wide decorating contest, local artists are given a spotlight in an Addams-inspired mural gallery on Central Avenue, and special events highlight the year’s unique theme. This year's festivities will run October 8-29.“The point of AddamsFest is to build bridges across our community and give people something to be proud of that’s uniquely their own,” says Adrian Pastore, producer of the festival. “It’s a day of joy for people to come together and celebrate everything that’s great about our town.”This year, the festival has a “Femme Fatale” theme, focusing on the mystique of the female characters in Addams’s work. This will culminate in an art exhibition called Femme Fatale: Morticia Addams and More, running weekends from October 10-26. Original works by Addams, on loan from the Tee & Charles Addams Foundation, and pieces by local artists are being featured in the gallery show.A town-favorite event, Charlie’s Ale Garden, sees residents pack into the Westfield Armory for live music played by local bands, paired with beer, wine, games and food trucks. Another popular event, Addams Family Fun Day, turns Quimby Street into a spectacle of giant bubbles, live music, crafts, and booths from local businesses.One recurring attraction, Maniac Pumpkin Carvers, has been a mainstay at Addams Family Fun Day since the beginning. Founded by friends Chris Soria and Marc Evan, the company uses pumpkins as canvases, carving all sorts of designs to fit AddamsFest’s yearly theme. “A lot of people really appreciate the artwork,” Soria says. “It’s a great opportunity for us to share our craft with people.”A Morticia-and-Gomez-themed masquerade ball, where guests get decked out as Addams Family characters, takes place on October 10 at the James Ward Mansion.[caption id="attachment_833263" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Michael Paras[/caption]The festival’s inception came about seven years ago, when creator and chairperson Dawn Mackey, then in her first days as a Westfield councilwoman, took inspiration from BlobFest, an annual festival in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, where the 1958 movie The Blob was filmed. Westfield’s adaptation, a tribute to its most famous former resident, was a no-brainer, and plans for a month-long Addams celebration soon commenced.Baked into the festival is an appreciation for the cartoonist’s upbringing in Westfield and his lasting impact on pop culture. In 1938, he created the Addams Family characters as a cartoonist for The New Yorker, which famously spawned several movies and TV shows over the years, including the current hit Wednesday.An interesting piece of Addams’s early art can still be seen in town. As a teenager in the 1920s, Addams graffitied a skeleton in pencil and chalk on the wall of a barn near his house. Dudley the skeleton stayed hidden for nearly a century before seeing the light, when the relic was removed from the barn in 2018 and put on display by the town.Westfield is also home to what many have dubbed the Addams Family House, a 19th-century home on Elm Street that Addams regularly passed while walking to high school. The house’s Gothic Revival architecture helped inspire the cartoon family’s home.[caption id="attachment_832545" align="alignnone" width="778"] The Elm Street home that inspired the Addams Family house. Photo: Michael Paras[/caption]Beyond the Addams Family, the cartoonist was an accomplished artist. The festival attempts to ensure that Addams’s vast body of work is not forgotten and to capture his essence. “He’s a fascinating man,” Mackey says. He was indeed "dark and broody," as one might imagine, but he also had "a fantastic sense of humor. He was the life of the party. He just was sort of like a source of light and joy.”Not just a grand tribute to Addams and a celebration of art, Mackey says the festival’s most important trait is that it’s uniquely Westfield and something no other place in the world can claim.“I like to say that AddamsFest is by the community and for the community,” Mackey says of the event. “This is cultivated. It’s curated. It’s homegrown. That’s what makes it really special.”The post Inside AddamsFest: Westfield’s Creepy, Kooky Celebration of Charles Addams appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_832978" align="alignnone" width="778"] Gabriella is a ceramic sculpture at the Laurelwood Arboretum in Wayne. Photo: Sean Holzli[/caption]These sculpture gardens integrate artwork made of stainless steel, stone, bronze and more into lush Garden State landscapes, offering outdoor galleries to stroll at your own pace.Laurelwood Arboretum’s Sculpture TrailWayneThis 30-acre botanical jewel’s walking trail showcases 15 sculptures. Behind this visionary trail are Laurelwood volunteers and Pines Lake residents Stuart and Leslie Reiser, whose dedication fueled the project. Curated by Scott A. Broadfoot, the sculptures are available for purchase, with a portion of the proceeds donated to the arboretum. Guided tours are available.Daily, 8 am until dusk. Golf carts are available. Entrance is free; donations are accepted.725 Pines Lake Drive West.Clifton Arts Center and Sculpture ParkCliftonThe narrative of the Clifton Art Center and Sculpture Park began in 1994 with the vision and dedication of former mayor and councilwoman Gloria Kolodziej. Following the passing of her husband, Kolodziej embarked on civic leadership that championed the arts. Kolodziej, along with a team of supporters, transformed a 26-acre municipal parcel into an outdoor-gallery park. Clifton’s Sculpture Park, one of the few municipal art parks in the nation, has laid the groundwork for an indoor arts center as well. The 26-acre municipal complex has more than 30 sculptures.1 to 4 pm Wednesday–Saturday. Suggested admission, $3; donations are welcome.Clifton City Hall Complex on Well Road, at 900 Clifton Avenue.Sculpture for LeoniaLeoniaSculpture for Leonia is an all-volunteer nonprofit dedicated to adorning the town’s streets with art. Established in 2006, this initiative has placed more than 50 sculptures, lent by the artists. The artwork, scattered across town, finds its focal point in the Erika and David Boyd Sculpture Garden, which honors the namesake artists, at the intersection of Broad Avenue and Beechwood Place. Once celebrated as an art colony, Leonia was home to renowned American painters such as Charles Chapman, Harvey Dunn and William Merritt Chase. Click here for a map of installations.Entrance is free. Daily, 6 am-9 pm.Erika and David Boyd Sculpture Garden, 305 Beechwood Place.Haddonfield Outdoor Sculpture Trust (HOST)HaddonfieldIn 2012, resident Stuart Harting founded HOST, a union of public and private collaborations with the borough that furnishes the downtown area with figurative and abstract outdoor sculptures. The art is a mix of permanent installations and transient pieces, some on loan, some available for direct purchase from the artists. The evocative collection includes a graceful ballerina, a stoic postman, a poignant refugee, a monumental red heart, and a whimsical menagerie housed at the Haddonfield Children’s Sculpture Zoo. Click here for a map of a self-guided tour.Entrance is free.Haddonfield Children’s Sculpture Zoo, 338 Kings Highway East.Ron Shipmon is an art collector, curator, advisor, and USPAP-certified art appraiser, with over three decades of experience.The post Where Art Meets Nature: Stroll These Scenic NJ Sculpture Gardens appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_832491" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration: Nadia Radic[/caption]In 1958, 20-year-old Connie Francis appeared on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand and sang “Who’s Sorry Now?” With her wide-set eyes, pert nose, and black, shoulder-length hair, she looked like the Italian girl next door—the kind you’d want to bring home to your family. Her voice was smooth, clear, and broke at times, as if she were about to cry. The song immediately jumped to number 4 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and set the pace for a string of hits for the next several years.In fact, Francis became the most popular female singer in America at the time, releasing hits such as “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool,” “Lipstick on Your Collar,” and “Where the Boys Are,” for which Dick Clark characterized her as “the girl with the million-dollar cry.”“The fact that a girl could sing rock and roll then was outrageous,” Francis once told me. I had become enamored of the music of my parents’ generation and I was interviewing Francis for a book I was writing in 2010 on the great Italian American singers. Speaking with her, her voice was as soft and gentle as when she sang, yet she was also sharp and direct. She was not at all the innocent-seeming girl we heard in her songs; she possessed a keen understanding of her role in the music world, which changed in the mid-1950s, seemingly overnight. “Girls tossed off their bobby socks for Capri pants,” she explained.Francis was born Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero in the Ironbound section of Newark in 1937. Her grandparents, who had emigrated from Reggio Calabria, Italy, “lived on a farm where Newark Airport is now,” she said. Her family moved to Brooklyn for a few years, but they returned to Jersey, and she graduated from Belleville High School in 1955. She immediately started her music career, managed in part by her father, who had first put an accordion in her hands.“Sometimes I think my father wanted me to be an accordion player so much because it was second only to the bassoon as the most asexual instrument ever known to man,” she said, laughing. Her protective father selected many of her songs and accompanied her on tour. (At one point, he chased her then-boyfriend, singer Bobby Darin, out of a concert hall with a gun, when he learned that the two were planning to get married.)It was also her father who encouraged her to record one of the songs she would become best known for, “Mama,” about longing for one’s mother. The song introduced her to older audiences, who would become lifelong fans.Connie Francis died in July at age 87. However, just two months earlier, an obscure song of hers had resurfaced—one that she said in interviews she didn’t even remember recording. “Pretty Little Baby” went viral on TikTok, and Gen Z started singing along. I adored her, and I was heartened to know that she had reached a new generation.Mark Rotella, director of the Coccia Institute at Montclair State University, is the author of Amore: The Story of Italian American Song.The post Remembering Connie Francis, the Jersey Girl With the ‘Million-Dollar Cry’ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Some major star power is coming to this October's Montclair Film Festival.The 14th annual event—and New Jersey's most prestigious film festival—is set to kick off on Friday, October 17, with Noah Baumbach’s Netflix dramedy Jay Kelly, starring George Clooney and Adam Sandler. Based on a screenplay by Baumbach (Frances Ha; Marriage Story) and actress Emily Mortimer, the movie follows Clooney's Jay Kelly as he and his longtime manager (Sandler) journey through Europe.Jay Kelly marks Baumbach’s latest collaboration with Sandler after The Meyerowitz Stories (2017).It's only fitting that a Sandler flick gets a warm welcome at the Montclair Film Festival. The actor has been filming all over the state in recent months—and living up to his nice-guy persona while interacting with fans. He exclusively shot his most recent release, Happy Gilmore 2, in New Jersey. This fall, he became a temporary Montclair resident while producing two upcoming Netflix movies.Unfortunately, Clooney and Sandler are not expected to attend the screening.Other films on the Montclair Film Festival lineup this year include the Brendan Fraser dramedy Rental Family, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Bugonia, Hamnet and the documentary Come See Me in the Good Light. The upcoming Bruce Springsteen biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, based on the book by Montclair-based author Warren Zanes, will screen on October 23, followed by a Q&A with Zanes. The boxing drama Christy, starring Sydney Sweeney, will play on the festival's final night, Sunday, October 26.Montclair Film members can order tickets online starting Monday, September 29, at 10 am. Non-members can order online beginning Friday, October 3, at 10 am.This year’s festival will also mark the reopening of the historic Bellevue Theatre.“The experience of attending films at the Bellevue has shaped the lives of so many people. We want to be good stewards of those experiences and build upon them, creating a home for new memories, new experiences, new films,” says Evelyn McGee Colbert, president of the board of directors of Montclair Film. [caption id="attachment_832811" align="alignnone" width="778"] The Bellevue Theatre, as seen in 2017. Photo: Courtesy of Montclair Film[/caption]The Upper Montclair theater opened in 1922 and closed in 2017. Operations have now been taken over by the nonprofit Montclair Film, which has a multi-year lease. The organization also runs the Clairidge movie theater in Montclair.Originally built as a one-screen cinema, the Bellevue grew to include four screens over more than nine decades. A restoration project began in 2023, reducing the number of screens to three, but including updates to the concessions area, seating and interior box office. The annual festival typically offers shorts and features from the Hollywood, indie and international scenes—plus high-profile interviews conducted by the likes of Montclair’s own Stephen Colbert, who is married to McGee Colbert. But she credits the audience for the fest’s Jersey charm, saying: “We have a lot of industry and press who attend our festival, but the vast majority of our audience are movie lovers who buy a ticket and want to see thoughtful, moving films and to have the opportunity to discuss them collectively.”The post New George Clooney, Adam Sandler Movie to Kick Off Montclair Film Festival appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
When the calendar flips from August to September, people who live along the Jersey Shore delight in what they call local summer. The large crowds have dispersed, tables are available at favorite restaurants, the days are warm, the nights cool and crisp, and the ocean temperatures still in the 70s. While not every day is warm enough for leisurely relaxing in a beach chair, there is no better time to enjoy a walk along an uncrowded beach.Here are ten more great ways to enjoy fall at the Shore.Flock to Cape May to Go BirdingEach October, for the fall migration, birds and birders fly in from all over North America to the town that National Geographic calls one of the world’s top 10 bird-watching destinations. There can be thousands of hawks, falcons, eagles, swallows and warblers in the sky. Join the faithful at the Cape May Hawkwatch near the Cape May Lighthouse, particularly during New Jersey Audubon’s Cape May Fall Festival, which runs October 16-19 and features talks, excursions and more events.Watch Whales Migrate Off the CoastAs the water cools, humpback whales breach and flap their tails off the Jersey Shore as they head south to the Caribbean. Through November, regular whale-watch cruises are offered by Jersey Shore Whale Watch out of Belmar and by Cape May Whale Watcher andCape May Whale Watch & Research CenterBring the Kids to Storybook LandEgg Harbor TownshipPerhaps because it’s a throwback to an earlier era or just that Storybook Land knows how to throw a party, but families converge on this amusement park near Atlantic City for the Fall Into Fun Festival, featuring hayrides, a pumpkin patch and a maze. The one-price admission includes unlimited rides for younger children, along with storybook attractions.Walk LBI's Southernmost BeachHolgate, Long Beach TownshipOnce the endangered birds have nested and their offspring are born, Long Beach Island’s most pristine beach opens September 1 to beachgoers, surfers and fishermen. The Holgate section of the Edwin Forsythe Wilderness Area offers views of Atlantic City to the south and the Rutgers University Marine Field Station across the dunes beyond Little Egg Inlet.Rock the Doo Wop SceneWildwoodRelive the Doo Wop era in Wildwood with dance parties and concerts at the Wildwood Convention Center the weekend of October 17-18. Be sure to head across the street to visit the Doo Wop Museum or explore the space age architecture of the nearby hotels built in the ’50s and ‘60s in Wildwood and Wildwood Crest.Climb a Lighthouse[caption id="attachment_832267" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Abescon Lighthouse is open Thursdays-Sundays this fall. Photo: Donna Connor[/caption]With the restored Barnegat Lighthouse reopened, plus regular visitor hours at the Sandy Hook Lighthouse, Abescon Lighthouse and Sea Girt Lighthouse, there’s no better time than fall to visit lighthouses, particularly October 18-19 for the Lighthouse Challenge, which encourages people to visit 11 lighthouses, four lifesaving stations, and one museum in two days.Join the Zombie WalkAsbury ParkOn October 4, the zombies converge on the Asbury Park Boardwalk for one of the country’s largest zombie events, the Asbury Park Zombie Walk. Zombie makeovers and a costume contest are featured as thousands gather to walk and moan from the Asbury Park Convention Hall to downtown Asbury Park.Spend a Weekend with WitchesHistoric Smithville, GallowayIf more than 50 quaint shops and restaurants aren’t ample enough reasons to head to Historic Smithville, the Galloway spot livens up the fall with popular themed weekends such as Monster Bash, Oktoberfest, Witch’s Day Out and more festivals.Celebrate Oktoberfest at Bahrs LandingHighlandsAt Bahrs Landing, where the Lobster Boss reigns supreme, diners expect fresh fish along with oysters, soft-shell crabs and clams. Yet Bahrs has long featured a stout Oktoberfest menu with potato pancakes, kielbasa and schnitzel through mid-November that can be enjoyed while watching the boats sail in Sandy Hook Bay.Pick an Apple from a Viewpoint of the BattlefieldBattlefield Orchards, FreeholdBefore taking a stroll to see the fall foliage amidst the hills of the 1,800-acre Monmouth Battlefield State Park, stop at the nearby Battleview Orchards and pick your own apples. From late August until late October, more than a dozen varieties of apples can be plucked off the trees or purchased from the orchard’s country store along with freshly pressed apple cider.R.C. Staab is a travel writer, book author, playwright, and wildlife and Jersey Shore enthusiast.The post 10 Things to Do at the Jersey Shore This Fall appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Think you can beat the buzzer? Give it a try at the American Dream mall’s Great Big Game Show, which opened earlier this year. Groups of up to 14 can spend a frenzied couple of hours playing a mashup of the greatest TV game shows. An entertaining host guides the game as guests earn bragging rights.Two teams of up to six players each are positioned in front of buzzers on opposite sides. Players compete in short, modified versions of more than 18 games, many inspired by game-show classics like Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. There are also a Nerf-gun battle game and a Jenga-like challenge. As they compete, each team racks up points, which are displayed on a large screen.“The last few years have shown that people are really looking for immersive in-person experiences,” says Scott Sauers, senior manager of marketing for the concept. “This checks all those boxes; it’s fun and bright and actually feels like you’re on a game show.”Sessions cost approximately $45. Small groups can join other patrons, or you can opt for a private game. You can even bring a date and play one-on-one.The American Dream location is the company’s 11th; Great Big Game Show locations include San Francisco, Honolulu, Las Vegas, St. Louis and, soon, New York City.The concept was dreamed up by the people who created the Escape Game in 2014, a puzzle-based adventure where players work together to solve themed challenges in a set time.The post Can You Beat the Buzzer at American Dream’s Game-Show Experience? appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_831936" align="alignnone" width="778"] "It’s about family, it’s about community, it’s about church," says Sara Haines of life in northern New Jersey. Photo: ABC/Jeff Lipsky[/caption]It took one visit to the New Jersey suburbs for Sara Haines to fall in love. The View cohost and her husband, Max Shifrin, had been looking for years to buy a home in Westchester for their family of five. But one day, very early in the pandemic, they trekked from their home in New York City to look at properties in North Jersey. The third house did the trick—the basketball hoop in the driveway, surprisingly enough, was a big selling point. “This is it,” Haines, who originally hails from Newton, Iowa, recalls telling her husband, a lawyer who grew up in Ramsey.Life in northern New Jersey, she says, isn’t all that different from the Midwest. “Iowans would approve of this comparison,” says Haines, 47. “People in Jersey may not love the comparison back.” But, she says, “some things in the suburbs are all the same.”Haines, who shares three children with Shifrin, explains: “To me, what I love about where we live now is, it takes it back to the basics I grew up with. It’s about family, it’s about community, it’s about church. The people I gravitate towards in my community have kind of filled that hole that I hadn’t [filled] since I had grown up at a much slower pace.”A slower pace is far from the hustle and bustle of New York City—a positive change, as Haines says that she’s never been a city person. But she moved to the Big Apple after graduating from Smith College to pursue her dreams of sketch comedy. When Saturday Night Live never called, she pivoted to news and was accepted into NBC’s prestigious Page Program.By 2008, she was working behind the scenes of what was then the new ten o’clock hour of the Today show with Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford, doing celebrity interviews for Today’s website. She wanted to compile those interviews into a demo reel to get an on-camera reporting job somewhere else. “In doing those interviews, Kathie Lee and Hoda had said, ‘Why don’t you ever come on our hour?’” Haines recalls. So she went on air to help promote the new Facebook page for Today’s 10 am hour—something Haines created years before the social-media and smartphone-app boom.“That moment was my breakthrough,” she says. “The day I went on the show to tell them about that and talk with the fans was the day I started to be on television every day.”Haines became the fourth hour’s contributing correspondent until 2013, when she left for a high-profile reporting role at ABC News. It offered her opportunities on Good Morning America, as well as the holy grail of a guest-cohost spot on The View, the network’s flagship talk show launched by Barbara Walters in 1997.“That was like a pipe dream for me. So I kind of felt like I had achieved everything by just visiting once,” she says.The View didn’t call again for at least six more months; she became a permanent cohost for the talk show’s 20th season in 2016. In 2018, she returned to Good Morning America for a hosting gig on the short-lived show GMA3: Strahan, Sara and Keke (costarring Michael Strahan and Keke Palmer). But when the show halted due to the pandemic, Haines got an offer to rejoin The View. “This feels like lightning striking twice,” she remembers of the opportunity.When the constraints of a small apartment and three young kids at home hindered her ability to go live on-air in the midst of the Covid-19 lockdown, she and Shifrin set off for their forever home.Haines describes life with her family in the suburbs as filled with wholesome days, many of them spent outside. “It is so simple. It’s biking, scootering. We spend a lot of time outdoors. That’s the main thing that I wanted being out here,” she says of her free time when the cameras stop rolling.That’s when makeup comes off and she’s in sweats. One of the first places Haines discovered in North Jersey were the walking trails and playground at the South Mountain Reservation, when her youngest son was still a baby. Not far from there is the Able Baker in Maplewood, another favorite. “This belongs in catalogs,” she says of the charming way the bakery’s bread is packaged. “Everything’s so sustainable, and it’s so quaint and beautiful. I am obsessed with that for myself.”Liv Breads in Millburn is another guilty pleasure that scratches a different itch. “We also probably consume more pizzas from Liv than any family. We religiously order pizza for everything,” she admits.With such a big television presence on a show that has made a brand of discussing the hot topics of the day, it’s a surprise that people typically don’t often approach her to debate.“It kind of feels like it’s an extension of New York City, because in New York City, people don’t do that a lot. New Jersey kind of feels the same way,” she says, adding that, near her, most people know her first as a mom. At least one friend didn’t even realize she was on TV for years, she says.The most heated discussions happen at her monthly neighborhood book-club gatherings. They are so engaging, Haines once didn’t head home until after midnight on a Tuesday. “Those have honestly been my core group of women friends,” she says.Some of Haines’s best childhood memories are driving from Iowa to Pennsylvania to visit her grandparents every summer. She wanted to create her own Haines-Shifrin tradition, and recently, for the fourth year in a row, they vacationed in Cape May.“As my husband would say, ‘It’s the least Jersey Shore town in the whole state.’ It has that time-hop feeling that’s all about family, beach, food,” Haines says. “It’s so simple and amazing at the same time.” Favorite family spots include the Washington Inn and the Rusty Nail; the latter caters to kids with sandboxes as the adults listen to live music.When this year’s trip was in the rearview mirror on the Garden State Parkway, it was back to preparation for season 29 of The View, which premieres on September 8.“It’s like every girlfriend you’ve ever sat down and had a glass of wine with,” Haines says of the vibes and tone of the show with current cohosts Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, Alyssa Farah Griffin and Ana Navarro. “You don’t just talk about being a mom. You talk about your job. You talk about what’s in the news. You talk about the newest face trend in plastic surgery. It encapsulates the layers of women.”Every day, before she walks onto the set to gab about current events in front of a live studio audience, Haines still pinches herself. “It’s how I channel gratitude. It’s the way I remember to never let anything feel dull or robotic or autumn,” she says. “It’s a gift. It really was a dream. And I feel lucky, really lucky, to be here.”And lucky to call herself a Jersey girl now, too.Leigh Scheps, who grew up in Holmdel, is a New Jersey-based freelance entertainment reporter and Broadway expert with bylines in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Marie Claire and Town & Country.The post ‘The View’ Cohost Sara Haines Feels Right at Home in the Jersey Suburbs appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
September may be a bit early to start celebrating Christmas.But what if you could celebrate Christmas past, present, and future in the company of a direct descendant of Charles Dickens, the iconic author of A Christmas Carol?The opportunity presents itself right here in New Jersey, with actor/author Gerald Roderick Charles Dickens performing spirited renditions of his great-great-grandfather's much-loved 1843 novella.Gerald Dickens, 61, whose distinguished ancestor helped define Christmas for the secular world, will be in the Garden State in September, and again in December, as part of an annual American tour sponsored by Byers' Choice Ltd. This year's tour will include 22 venues in 11 states.Dickens's shows, which he has whittled down to about 75 minutes each from his ancestor's originals, vary from year to year—except for A Christmas Carol, arguably Charles Dickens' most popular work. Gerald Dickens single-handedly portrays 26 characters, including Ebenezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim—and even Belle, Scrooge's lost love.New Jersey performances will start in Burlington City on Monday, September 15, at the Broad Street United Methodist Church, where Dickens has been a regular since 2011. "Our congregation has long considered Gerald not just a celebrity but a dear friend," says Laura Jaskot, 62, who initiated Dickens's annual visits. She describes them as "a little corner of New Jersey getting a little taste of England."Dickens's first show at the church, starting at 1 pm, will be an adaptation of his ancestor's novel Nicholas Nickleby. At 7 pm the same day he'll perform A Christmas Carol. He'll attend receptions following each performance.Toms River resident Pat Meravi, 87, is the first person each year to purchase tickets for A Christmas Carol at the church. "I consider Gerald's performance of this classic an absolute must-see event," she says.On Tuesday, September 16, Dickens will find himself at The Historic Village at Allaire in Farmingdale where, at 3 and 7 pm, he'll present Mr. Dickens is Coming, snapshots of the greatest works of Charles Dickens.The actor will return to New Jersey on Tuesday, December 9, to present A Christmas Carol at 3 and 7 pm at Red Bank's Two River Theater.The post Charles Dickens’s Great‑Great‑Grandson Will Bring Beloved Stories to Life in NJ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_831574" align="alignnone" width="778"] David Krumholtz Photo: Dave Moser[/caption]Years ago, I walked into a coffee shop near my house in Bergen County and saw one guy talking to another guy. The second guy looked familiar. When the second guy left, I went up to the first guy. “Who was that?” I said. “Oh,” he said. “David Krumholtz. You know him.”He was sort of right. I didn’t know Krumholtz, but I knew him. For the last 30 years, Krumholtz has been one of the most prolific and versatile actors in America, appearing on screens both big (as a younger man he was in everything from The Santa Clause to Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, and later, a little movie called Oppenheimer) and small (he starred in the procedural Numb3rs and has recently popped up in Poker Face and The Studio). He’s done comedy. He’s done drama. He’s done Broadway. And soon, he’s doing Springsteen—he plays a key role in this fall’s Deliver Me From Nowhere, starring Jeremy Allen White as Bruce. Krumholtz, 47, and his wife, Vanessa, live with their two kids in Wyckoff. We met at that same coffee shop where I first saw him talking to the other guy.This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.New Jersey Monthly: You are in New Jersey now, but you weren’t born here. You’re a native New Yorker.David Krumholtz: I probably didn’t step foot into New Jersey until I was an adult. This is not a joke. No, wait. My day camp took me to Action Park, the amusement park in Vernon. I must have been around 11.Famously nicknamed Class Action Park, of course, because so many kids got hurt. There’s a documentary about it. Did you get injured?Yes.Really?I mean, scraped up. The documentary doesn’t quite really encompass it because it doesn’t talk so much about the Alpine Slide, which was wildly dangerous. I went to Great Adventure. I was here for the amusement parks. But other than that, the truth is that the day I met my wife, I scored brownie points with her based on how much I made fun of New Jersey.And she’s a native.Yes. It was a little running joke. When I first met her parents in Rockaway Township, I said to myself, My God, this is like… You know, look at these bumpkins. I was a New York snob. Which is funny, because I’m from Queens. I grew up with the same unattainable skyline, just from the other side.When you were a kid, were you all caught up in the cultural institutions of the big city?I was very much immersed in subway culture. I appreciated Queens. I loved Forest Hills. But I was a get-on-the-train, go-into-the-city-every-weekend kid. At first, obviously, with my parents, and then with my friends, and I ended up going to high school in Manhattan. Manhattan was just…well, there didn’t need to be anywhere else. I was fully subscribed.At 13, you auditioned for a Broadway play.I was a funny kid. I liked being funny. It saved my ass. My elementary school was a little bit milquetoast, but when I got to junior high school, it was a confluence of neighborhoods coming together, a little more ethnically varied, and as a result, it was intimidating. I needed to be funny, because I was watching my friends get beat up.So did that lead to acting?Well, I made a teacher laugh. His name was Lon Blais. He was an actor himself, and he also happened to be an English teacher in a junior high school in Queens, at Halsey Junior High. He got wind of this open-call audition for this play and came to me and said, “You look like Judd Hirsch, and they’re looking for someone to play Judd Hirsch’s son.” I knew who Judd Hirsch was. I was a Taxi fan, and I watched Dear John every week. And I agreed—yes, I do look like him. And yes, I am a funny kid. But I had no hopes of really getting the job. It was something to do on a Saturday, a change from the norm.So you didn’t even think forward to a moment when you’d be an actor?I guess I knew that I was a talented person. I knew I was funny and could do accents. My grandmother was extremely talented and very extroverted. I loved watching her, and I tried to emulate her. My dad was also very, very funny. But I showed up without expectation. There were a thousand kids in a gym at a Universalist Church in Manhattan. I remember a good portion of them were Asian, Black and Hispanic—to play Judd Hirsch’s son. Mostly, it was people just trying to get in front of a casting director.But you got the role. Was it transformative right away? Were you sold on the idea of being in front of a crowd?I’ve only realized this recently, but it was a stroke of divine intervention, because I was headed in a bad direction. If you were to look at my stat sheet as a child, it would likely add up to major difficulty in my late teens. My family had no money—and I mean no money—so college wasn’t going to be an option, or else I’d be in debt for a very, very long time. I was already quite apathetic at 13, and I do have an addictive personality. There was a lot of self-loathing. So it was transformative, yes, in the way that suddenly, this kid who hated himself was suddenly everyone’s favorite kid.Everyone including you?I remember walking around and telling everyone, “I’m going to win a Tony for this” for months and believing it. And then when I didn’t get nominated for a Tony, feeling very angry and bitter. It was just an ego explosion, because there was nothing there before. Even my family was nicer to me. My step-grandfather thought I was an idiot until suddenly I was on Broadway and I became fascinating.You went from that to movies: Addams Family Values, where you’re the kid at camp with Wednesday, played by Christina Ricci; The Santa Clause, as Bernard the Elf. That must have been even more intoxicating than Broadway.Correct. I thought, Oh, this is how it’s always going to be, and I’m never going to stop. Everyone loves me, and I thought, What’s not to love? I went from What’s not to hate? to What’s not to love? too quickly.I remember first really taking notice of you in Slums of Beverly Hills in 1998 and then in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle in 2004. This is the first of the Jersey-themed or Jersey-adjacent movies in your discography, by the way. Harold and Kumar are looking for a White Castle in Cherry Hill. You don’t have a ton of screen time in those movies, but you really pop.Let’s use a tired baseball analogy. I think great character actors are sort of cleanup hitters. You have your leadoff man, who gets the game started. And then another lead actress who keeps the inning going, and then maybe even a third, and then there’s the guy who is put in the position to knock it out of the park. The great ones do that. Willem Dafoe, say. The beguiling characters. Just the faces are fascinating. As a character actor, you have to have something behind the eyes.You were a colead, though, on TV, on Numb3rs, which ran on CBS from 2005 to 2010. Someone who had done both film and TV told me once that she loved series life. Film was unpredictable in terms of the finances and the psychology. You bond intensely with people, and a few months later, the shoot—and your employment—ends. A show is a regular job. You drive to the studio from home and drive back.That was exactly my experience. I was very grateful to be getting paid way more to do television than I would be in films. Plus I had a place to go, a routine. It was ten months of work a year, and then two months off where I could do nothing or do a small, tiny independent film that I suddenly had the luxury of doing. Do I fiend for that experience again? Very much so.Temperamentally, do you always like that something-behind-the-eyes energy, or would you like more lead roles?I like both. I’ve made eight movies with myself as the lead character, and they have been drastically underseen. We’re talking barely distributed, barely watched. I just hope that one day, when I die, someone does a marathon of those films over the course of two days at the Nuart in L.A. The David Krumholtz as Lead Festival.Long careers have ups and downs. Was there a point where you thought that you were in a down?I got married in Los Angeles in 2010. I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2011. Vanessa and I had our first kid in 2014. In the midst of that, we moved here, largely because my dad was dying of this very cruel and rare neurological disorder. He had to go to a care facility in New Jersey, and I was his sole caretaker. Right after we moved here, a show I created and wrote and starred in, Gigi Does It, got picked up. So I was suddenly back in L.A. doing something I’d never done, which was showrunning. When I came back, I was 230 pounds, still having thyroid issues. I would just look at food and gain weight. I had fatigue. The show came out and nobody cared about it. The work was unrequited, and I was wiping my dad’s ass and raising two children. When things started to recover a bit in 2018 or 2019, the pandemic hit and I was out of work for a year and a half, which was really shocking and hard. I was barely getting by, hanging on by a thread.[caption id="attachment_831659" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Dave Moser[/caption]So how did that turn around?Well, Chris Nolan very much saved my ass. I don’t know if he knew he was doing that, even though I did tell him afterwards.This brings us to Oppenheimer, our second New Jersey movie, since much of it takes place in Princeton. You play Isador Rabi, a physicist and friend of Oppenheimer’s.The cool thing was that I knew that my role really meant something more than one scene or a line here and there. I knew that it was my little secret that I could release when we stopped promoting it. The problem then was that the moment it came out and became a billion-dollar movie, the strike hit and I couldn’t capitalize.Around the same time you went back to Broadway to star in Leopoldstadt.I filmed Oppenheimer before the play, then I did the play, then the movie came out. I certainly didn’t expect to be saved twice. I’m happy with having been in Oppenheimer, and then suddenly, Tom Stoppard is calling. Another rebirth.This time as a Jersey guy.Right. I love New Jersey deeply. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. My wife is working. My kids are going to school. I play with my Grateful Dead cover band, Her Angels in Flame. One huge factor is the friends I’ve met, in particular three very smart people who were born and raised here. Two of them are beer brewers who own a brewery called Two Villains, which now operates out of a place called Alias Brew Works in Vernon, where Action Park was. I just thought, Wow, these guys are so funny and so brilliant, my friends Jon and Sean. Oh, see that, dumb New York snob? And then the third guy is a local-legend musician, older, a guy named Ray Longchamp. I wasn’t sure I could find people like that here, so it was extra special when I did.We’ve gone through your quasi-Jersey movies. Now you’re in one that’s absolute bullseye: the Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere, starring Jeremy Allen White as Springsteen. Before we get to the film, I want to ask your opinion about music biopics in general.They are hard to get right. The problem with music biopics is you’re counting on the popularity of the artists to carry the crowd, and so you’re dealing with a very discerning fan base. It’s a very sensitive thing if you go way outside the box and tell the story in a less formulaic or less familiar way. There are great ones, though. I saw a David Bowie stage musical, Lazarus, with Michael C. Hall and Cristin Milioti, and I was blown away. I’ve been trying to write one myself for a couple of years.About the Dead?Yes. My thing is that it has to be an event film with an intermission, an experience that feels like a concert. I keep thinking about not only what I would want, but what my dearest Deadhead friends would want, which is to experience something that talks about the ethereal quality of the music more than it talks about who the people were. Jerry Garcia wouldn’t want to make a movie about his drug addiction. Plus it’s repetitive, because the music’s already told me those things.This movie looks at a particular era in Springsteen’s artistic development, the period around the Nebraska album. In the early eighties, he recorded a batch of demos in this stark acoustic mode, and when those were rerecorded by the band, he found that he liked the feel of the demos better.Yes. I read this script and loved the approach of it. It is about fame and coping with the pressures of success. Be careful what you wish for, because it may happen, and you may just want to crawl back into a hole. I related to that.I worked on a book with Little Steven, and he told the story of the moment when that album was presented to the label.That’s the scene I’m in. I play Al Teller, the head of CBS Records. Jon Landau, Springsteen’s manager, invites me to his office and plays the album, and I think it’s a joke. I can’t believe that this is what we’re going with, and I can’t fathom why anyone would not grab the brass ring after The River. Jon Landau, who is played by Jeremy Strong, faced a real dilemma. When do you tell someone they might be making a mistake versus supporting them regardless?Were you a Springsteen fan as a kid?Yes. When I was 16, in high school, I had a crush on a girl named Sarah, and I pretended to write a poem that she thought was amazing, but it was “The River.” I didn’t tell her it was Bruce Springsteen.Did it work?It totally worked. She was very moved.Did your relationship to him and his work change as you got older, and he got even more famous?I’ll tell you a funny story. When I was 18, I filmed a pilot for a show called Suddenly Susan, which ended up becoming a series, but with some of the actors, including me, replaced. That original pilot was written by a writing team of Jane Milmore and Billy Van Zandt—who happens to be the younger brother of Little Steven. Billy and Jane and I got along famously. One day, they were going to a party down the Shore. “You should come with us,” they said. It was a somewhat lively party, and someone brought up Bruce Springsteen. “I’m not the biggest fan,” I said. All I meant was that I wasn’t an obsessive fan. Not the biggest doesn’t mean not at all! But I swear, it was that record-scratch moment where the place goes dead silent and everyone looks at you like they are about to throw you in the river.Did Springsteen come to set?He did, and he was the nicest person ever. I got a picture with him. Jon Landau was there, too. They were in great moods. When I went up to Bruce, I made a joke. I said, “And what is your involvement with this film?” He thought that was funny. I made him laugh.[caption id="attachment_831571" align="alignnone" width="778"] Krumholtz meets Springsteen while filming Deliver Me From Nowhere. Photo: Courtesy of David Krumholtz[/caption]I want to end with a lightning round of other New Jersey icons.Okay.Redman, from Newark.The King of New Jersey. Underrated. A monstrous lyricist.Abbott and Costello. Abbott’s from Asbury Park and Costello is from Paterson.Wow. I had a dream last night that I was related to Bud Abbott. I am not. Lou Costello was born funny, which is the highest compliment I can give to any comedian. And Bud Abbott recognized that, also very important.Dave Thomas of Wendy’s, who is from Atlantic City.Better than White Castle.Oh, wow. That’s betraying the franchise.You’re goddamn right.Before you said, “Wait till they get a load of me,” so let’s end with Jack Nicholson. He’s from Neptune City.Top-three actor all time. It’s him and DeNiro and…Cate Blanchett? Klaus Kinski? Kinski is the most committed, but also batshit, so maybe I shouldn’t give him so much credit? Cate Blanchett.Ben Greenman is the author and coauthor of more than two dozen books and edited Unrequited Infatuations, the bestselling memoir by New Jersey icon Stevie Van Zandt.Digital tech: Justin Chiu. Assistants: Jason Blake & Ruby Moser. Location provided by Corey Sturmfels, Realtor, Christie's International Real Estate.The post David Krumholtz Swapped Hollywood for Wyckoff, NJ: ‘I Wouldn’t Want to Live Anywhere Else’ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_831018" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration: Blair Kelly[/caption]I think I know words and their power. I think I know the Garden State. But my college-essay students give me an education in both. Most of them are high-achieving high school juniors in Camden and Newark applying to the most prestigious colleges in the country. When I found out that one of them got a full ride, I jumped for joy—as high as I used to when I was a cheerleader in South Jersey.I grew up not far from Camden, surrounded by piney woods and a lake too polluted for swimming. I never noticed all the material things we didn’t have until we moved to a North Jersey town full of fancy foreign cars and a neighborhood with its own park, swimming pool, and a clean pond full of ducks. Whether in impoverished Browns Mills or affluent Morristown, I roamed freely—to the polluted lake to catch minnows in Browns Mills and to the movie theater and record store on the Morristown Green.Prior to college, I never really considered my early wanderings as a form of freedom until one Camden student wrote about why she wants to be an engineer. Her parents worry about her safety in Camden, where she has lived since kindergarten. So she never goes anywhere alone. Independence is her goal. She comes from a long line of working artists, an inherited passion and ability. She is also excellent at math. Engineering is her way of combining both skills and making this family trade her own.Another student wants to go into health care to prevent any more deaths like that of her mother, who went into the hospital with chest pains but was sent home without a diagnosis and died soon after. Her essay was about navigating this great loss and the depression that followed. When I asked how she came out of the depression, she said she started meditating and journaling. Those are also my go-tos, but we practice them differently. I like to sit quietly or walk. My student likes to follow guided meditations on YouTube. I write down my thoughts and feelings in a journal. She uses hers to organize her time and keep track of assignments. Routine and clarity keep her depression at bay.It took me years of therapy and self-help to realize what my student came to intuitively. The answer is not out there, it’s in me. But lately, even as I use my go-tos, I’m full of doubt. Two years ago, my first book was published and my marriage ended. Some days, I struggle to move forward between the opposite poles of joy and grief. My student who lost her mother now has a new stepmom and siblings. Her takeaway? Embrace both the heartbreak of losing her mother and the happiness of a new family every day.There are two words I have come to value: resilience, the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; and inspire, from the Latin inspirare, “to breathe into.” The courage that my students show on the page and in their lives is humbling. Their stories breathe life into me.Dionne Ford is the author of the memoir Go Back and Get It.The post I Help NJ Teens Write College Essays. Their Stories Humble and Heal Me. appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
When Vera Farmiga sings, you can hear New Jersey. Farmiga, who grew up in Irvington and Flemington, is an Oscar-, Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated actress, best known for her work for more than a decade as paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren in the Conjuring blockbuster horror-film franchise.But Farmiga is captivating audiences in a new role, as the frontwoman of the richly atmospheric alternative rock band the Yagas. The band is based in upstate New York, where she lives, but to hear Farmiga tell it, her Jersey roots are front and center.“I’m a bona fide Jersey girl, Garden State kinda gal,” says Farmiga, 51. “Exits 54 and 24 off I-78. You can always sniff out Jersey swagger in actors and musicians, can’t you? It’s a no-nonsense attitude and humor that has learned to cut through traffic on the Parkway.”Farmiga, who was born in Clifton, calls herself a “total Jersey mashup,” explaining, “I was raised in the Ukrainian diaspora, on my pogo stick, bouncing around on the gritty streets of urban-suburban multicultural Irvington, and then moved out to the cornfield calm of Hunterdon County in my teens.”“I definitely pull from the diversity of my experience, and I think my upbringing influences our sound, probably most reflected in the way the Yagas are genre-blending,” she says. “I gravitate towards genre-blending films, too. The weirder, the better. I’d like to think I got that Jersey edge, that Jersey intensity that’s bold, slightly sarcastic, raw emotion, gritty yet melodic.”With the Yagas, Farmiga boldly enters the proud lineage of bewitching rock ’n’ roll sirens from the Garden State, in the tradition of Patti Smith and Screaming Females’ Marissa Paternoster. The band released its debut album, Midnight Minuet, in April, and it’s a beautifully beastly piece of work, with Farmiga’s lush, distinct voice at its center.[caption id="attachment_830832" align="alignnone" width="778"] "I don’t think of myself as a singer; I’m a feelings factory," Farmiga says. Photo: Franco Vogt[/caption]The Yagas—who get their name from a figure from Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga—combine Gothic vibes with sharp guitar work, a propulsive rhythm section, and a captivating sense for musical storytelling. It’s a deeply cathartic album, each song capturing a complete narrative of sorts as Farmiga crafts subtle sagas for herself to dive into.“I think of every song we play as a short film with notes and reverb. The plots can be slightly more vague. Whether it’s a 120-page script or lyrics on a single page, it’s a story in which I play the protagonist and express that character’s emotional arc. I don’t think of myself as a singer; I’m a feelings factory,” she says.“The songs most always start with emotional riffs that the boys come up with. Riffs turn into structured songs. I smell their brew, diagnose the aroma of feelings coming at me, and then I assign a value and meaning. Presto, a song emerges. Oftentimes, before words get written, I sing gibberish into the mic as the boys play. Bibble-babble-gobbledegook pours out of my mouth, and when we listen back, you can start hearing words forming subconsciously. The whole process is an elusive sport, not an exact science. We’re go-with-the-weird-flow kinda musicians.”Farmiga’s foray into the realm of hard rock solidifies her status as an arguably peerless 21st-century scream queen. She’s starred in many of the films in the Conjuring cinematic universe since the series’ original entry in 2013, with the franchise’s next ominously titled installment, The Conjuring: Last Rites, set for release on September 5.Beyond The Conjuring, she was nominated for a 2013 Emmy for her work as Norman Bates’s dear mother in the Psycho prequel series, Bates Motel; scored an Oscar nom for the 2009 hit Up in the Air; and even costarred with everyone’s favorite giant reptile in 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters.But for Midnight Minuet, the stories are not of ghosts and monsters, but rather tales richly drawn from Farmiga’s own mind and heart.As she explained in an April post to the band’s Instagram page, the subject matter ranges from “I Am” being inspired by “helping my Granny, Baba Nadia, glide through the great cosmic conga line of in-home hospice,” to “Pendulum,” described in the post as “a story about perimenopausal mood swings and whiplash”—a perspective that, to put it lightly, is not often conveyed in the largely masculine world of hard rock.[caption id="attachment_830834" align="alignnone" width="778"] The Yagas, from left: Mark Visconti; Farmiga's husband, Renn Hawkey; Farmiga; Jason Bowman; Mike Davis. Photo: Franco Vogt[/caption]As she fronts her own powerhouse quintet—which includes her husband of nearly 20 years, Renn Hawkey, on keyboards—what does Farmiga hope listeners take away from the stories and experiences shared on the album?“One writes what one knows. Hard rock certainly is a male-dominated space oozing testosterone and power chords,” Farmiga says. “Yeah, the average frontman is not usually wailing about menopause. Missed opportunity, really. It makes perfect sense to me. Most rock songs are about love, sex, drugs and rebellion. Menopause is a kind of rebellion. It’s a hormonal uprising. Seriously, what’s heavier than menopause? Heat, mood swings, attitude….It’s super metal.”Farmiga cites some of her favorite female rockers as Amy Lee, Emily Armstrong, Lzzy Hale, Joan Jett and Shirley Manson.“We have more female perspectives in heavy music these days,” Farmiga says. “Honestly? The guys are all screaming about their man-opause too. All these elder tomcats in rock bands that are having a second life doing reunions and tours and new releases—Korn, Anthrax, System of a Down, Deftones, these older dudes—they’re singing about personal struggle, healing, their inner demons, seeking recovery. That’s why they call it hard rock, I guess.”She adds, “Life is hard, full of pain, loss, personal anguish and hormone imbalance. We send off our songs like arrows of feeling; we can only hope they fly straight to a heart or two.”Giving back, looking forwardThe Yagas have joined forces with the punk ensemble Gogol Bordello and its frontman, Eugene Hutz, to raise funds for the work of Support Action Ukraine in providing rehabilitation for Ukrainian orphans and children who have been affected by the war that followed Russia’s 2022 invasion.Support Action Ukraine, Farmiga says, “has a charge to help these children regain their psychological well-being.” The band is releasing a cover of the Ukrainian pop-folk song “Chervona Ruta,” which Farmiga says will bring “attention to Ukrainian language and culture.” “Chervona Ruta” shirts are set to be available to buy on TheYagas.com, with proceeds supporting the organization.“Any little way we can continue to raise awareness to stand in solidarity with our extended families in Ukraine on the front lines resisting oppression and fighting for their freedom, justice and identity,” Farmiga says.The Yagas have made plenty of headway since forming in 2023 after meeting at the Woodstock, New York-based Rock Academy music school, then making their live debut in March of this year before releasing their debut album the following month, accompanied by a handful of music videos—including one for “She’s Walking Down,” which marked Farmiga’s first directorial effort in 15 years.“Next, we will skip right back into our sonic laboratory and brew up album number 2,” Farmiga reveals. “It will unfurl in fits and spurts and starts and stops. In between raising kids and filming and teaching careers and building sustainably minded commercial real estate projects, by hook or by crook, somehow the five of us will carve out time to develop the countless voice notes we constantly send each other.”Alex Biese, senior editor of CURE magazine, has been honored by NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists and has been published in USA Today, Chicago Sun-Times, Press of Atlantic City and more.The post Vera Farmiga Channels Jersey Grit Into Gothic Rock Glory appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
What if you could have one last meal with someone you lost?The question is posed in Aftertaste, New Jersey author Daria Lavelle’s thrilling debut novel that blends food, love and the mysteries of the afterlife. The protagonist is Konstantin Duhovny, who is 11 when he first learns he has a gift: He can taste things he isn’t eating, ghostly dishes once beloved by those who have passed away.That first haunting comes courtesy of his father, whose death has left within him “a great cavity of longing.” While watching other boys cavort at a swimming pool in Brighton Beach, Kostya suddenly senses—really tastes—his late father’s favorite meal, a Ukrainian dish called pechonka.The otherworldly experience sets him on a path that leads to the intense, sometimes dazzling, often terrifying world of high-end New York restaurant kitchens. Lavelle perfectly captures the energy and creativity of this world, a place dominated by sexy head chefs who swear like sailors but craft dishes that could feed angels—think Anthony Bourdain.Before long, Kostya is helping create these “edible raptures,” but he’s got a side project: cooking food that will reunite diners, however fleetingly, with those whom they’ve lost to death. It’s not long before the boundaries of life and death themselves are on the menu, along with a love story that dances along the territory first mapped by Dante.Lavelle lives in Ridgewood and was born in Kyiv, Ukraine. The food in Aftertaste is a smorgasbord, as Kostya serves up whatever the bereaved need to connect with their beloveds: “The unabashed joy of spaghetti carbonara.... The particular sadness of lemon cake.”This book is, simply speaking, delicious.The post NJ Author’s New Novel ‘Aftertaste’ Is a Feast of Love and Longing appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_830085" align="alignnone" width="778"] Melissa Walker, founder of the Montclair Jazz Festival, at the Montclair headquarters of Jazz House Kids, the music-education nonprofit she founded. Photo: Natalie Chitwood[/caption]The Montclair Jazz Festival has come a long way from its humble beginnings, when a handful of Melissa Walker’s jazz-camp students held an impromptu concert in Nishuane Park in 2010. On September 13, more than 25,000 people are expected for the 16th annual festival, the largest free jazz festival in the New York/New Jersey area and one of the largest free festivals in the country. Big names in the genre, such as saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin, vocalist Jazzmeia Horn, and Christian McBride and Ursa Major, will play on two main stages along Bloomfield Avenue in downtown Montclair, which will be closed to cars all day. Hundreds of food and craft vendors will line the streets. In the evening, McBride will spin records, and thousands of festival-goers will dance on Bloomfield Avenue.The outsize success of the Montclair Jazz Festival reflects Walker’s single-minded passion for her music-education nonprofit, Jazz House Kids, and its goal of putting an instrument into every child’s hands. The longtime Montclair resident, a jazz vocalist, founded and runs the festival as a fundraiser for the nonprofit and as a showcase and inspiration for its students.She is married to McBride, a nine-time Grammy Award-winning bassist, who is the artistic director of Jazz House Kids and curator of the Montclair and Newport jazz festivals.Based in a 4,500-square-foot space downtown that will soon undergo an expansion to more than double its size, Jazz House Kids teaches students from more than 40 school districts in New Jersey and even some from New York and Pennsylvania. “Every day of the week you will find the Jazz House hopping,” Walker says with her trademark throaty laugh.Jazz House students earn their performing chops in Manhattan at Dizzy’s Club at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the MetJazz Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, regional and international festivals, and during a series of free outdoor concerts in Montclair every summer. The series is sponsored by the Wellmont Arts Plaza and the New Jersey Hall of Fame.Many alumni of the program have gone on to Juilliard and other conservatories and have become well-known jazz musicians, including Matthew Whitaker, Emmet Cohen, Isaiah J. Thompson, Immanuel Wilkins, Zoe Obadia and Wallace Roney Jr.The program’s goal is not to help kids reach the highest echelons of jazz, but to make music and instruments accessible, especially to kids who couldn’t otherwise afford it. Close to half of Jazz House students get financial aid, and auditions are held only to place aspiring musicians. “We never turn anyone away,” Walker says.The program does more than teach kids how to play, she says; it builds confidence and provides a sense of belonging. “There is so much angst among kids today, but with Jazz House, they have a community that will rally around them and support them even after they graduate,” she says.Jazz House Kids’ reach goes far beyond Montclair, bringing teachers and instruments to underserved school districts in Essex, Union and Passaic counties. A new collaboration with Trinity Church in downtown Manhattan has Jazz House instructors giving free music lessons to city kids enrolled in an after-school program.The nonprofit does not have a one-size-fits-all approach. “We’ll embed teachers into school programs; we’ll help a district with a concert band that wants to explore jazz or one that really wants to work on their brass; we might bring in Spanish-speaking instructors. We’re here to make sure that young people can gain all the benefits and joy of having access to music,” says Walker.“We’ve invested in bringing back this ecosystem that has been lost as arts have been so dramatically impacted by cuts in budgets.”Supporting young female musicians in a genre traditionally dominated by men is another goal. They are nurtured through the nonprofit’s CHiCA Power initiative, which began when young saxophonist Zoe Obadia lamented the lack of female compatriots in the program. It has boosted the number of girls at the Jazz House from 7 percent to an average of 35 percent.The September 13 festival follows a summer of free jazz performances at the Wellmont Arts Plaza that include ten big bands and student showcases. On that evening, along with thousands of festival-goers of all ages and walks of life, Walker will be on Bloomfield Avenue swaying to the music as her husband, under the moniker DJ Brother Mister, spins records.“It has always been my personal dream to see people dancing in the streets,” Walker says.The post Montclair’s Queen of Jazz: How Melissa Walker Built a Musical Movement appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_830363" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration: Steve Wacksman[/caption]My parents would occasionally wax nostalgic about catching Frank Sinatra perform at the 500 Club during Atlantic City’s glory days. My mother beamed when reminiscing about the Chairman of the Board performing on Missouri Avenue in 1959. “If you only saw Frank Sinatra up close,” my mother would say. I’d roll my prepubescent eyes, since, at the time, my world was all about the Rolling Stones and the Who.When my parents hit the slots at Resorts Casino during the late 1970s and early ’80s, they would often leave me to my own devices on the Boardwalk. During Memorial Day weekend of 1981, I checked out a commotion outside Resorts and was transfixed as I witnessed my parents’ hero getting the ultimate tribute while they were feeding one-armed bandits.I happened upon New Jersey’s favorite son, the lionized Sinatra, sinking his hands into cement. The charismatic singer/actor smiled while flanked by his coterie of approving pals. At one point, Ol’ Blue Eyes stared straight at me, a 15-year-old kid sporting a T-shirt that read, “And on the seventh day God created Van Halen,” since I was the only youngster enjoying the festivities.Wow, this is kinda cool, I thought. The Kinks classic “Celluloid Heroes,” a clever song about legendary celebrities immortalized in cement on Hollywood Boulevard, played in my head. Hollywood Boulevard was impossibly distant to a Jersey kid who had yet to visit California, but Resorts added some glamour to a fading Atlantic City that lacked the electricity of the halcyon days of the 500 Club.I never attended another handprint ceremony, but I checked out the plaques at Resorts during the 1980s—everyone from Steve Martin to Stevie Wonder. Prints continued to be collected until 1988, when Merv Griffin bought the property. A hiatus continued throughout Griffin’s run, which ended in 1997. After the talk-show host sold Resorts, the prints came back. Martin Short was the final inductee in 2010.The concrete autographs resided in the recesses of my mind throughout the ’90s and aughts. I didn’t think about the prints again until I noticed they were no longer in front of Resorts in 2013 due to the construction of Margaritaville. They were placed in the casino’s basement for the next dozen years.I once asked Don Rickles where his prints were, and the insult comic laughed. “Who knows?” Rickles said. “I don’t go out to the Boardwalk when I go to Atlantic City. I’m afraid I’ll get rolled.”Now, the prints are back where the public can enjoy them: outside the casino’s Superstar Theater. Some prints didn’t survive the extraction, but many live on, including Sinatra’s. Whenever I see that tribute, I flash back to the look of disbelief on my parents’ faces when I told them what I’d witnessed while they were tossing my college fund into the slot machines.Ed Condran is a veteran journalist who contributes to AARP and has a cross-generational travel vlog, “The Kids and Travel are Alright,” with his two sons.The post Chairman of the Boardwalk: My Chance Teenage Encounter with Frank Sinatra appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Happy Gilmore 2 is a hole-in-one for Adam Sandler and New Jersey.The long-awaited sequel to the beloved 1996 comedy debuted on Netflix with an opening weekend of 46.7 million views—the biggest U.S. opening weekend in the platform's history—and the scores of fans who watched it not only saw Sandler and his funny pals, but viewed several locations in the Garden State, too.A total of 45 New Jersey locations were used in filming, according to Netflix. Because Sandler plays a hockey player-turned-golf champion, many of the filming locations were Jersey's golf courses and facilities, including Montclair Golf Club, Closter Golf Center, Fiddler's Elbow country club in Bedminster, Essex Golf Center in Roseland, Rockleigh Golf Course, and Farmview Golf Center in Hackettstown.Other filming locations included Life Time health club in Florham Park, Pleasantdale Chateau in West Orange, Dick's Sporting Goods in Wayne, Verona Town Hall, Hackensack Performing Arts Center, Ideal Beach in North Middletown and Matson's Tavern in Kearny.[caption id="attachment_830220" align="alignnone" width="778"] Sandler poses with Jon Lovitz on the set of Happy Gilmore 2. Photo: Scott Yamano/Netflix[/caption]"We had location scouts drive around Jersey to find locations that fit the creative needs of the script and...creative vision," a Netflix rep says.According to Netflix, the company employed hundreds of people in New Jersey to bring the sequel to life, recruiting more than 400 crew members and 3,000 background actors to appear alongside Sander and returning faces like Julie Bowen, Ben Stiller and Christopher McDonald. Casting calls for extras took place last year at Morristown's Hyatt Regency; more than 12,000 hopefuls showed up.More than 400 local vendors worked on the production, including Freehold-based Action AC and Prop Rentals, whose managing rentals director, Elena Gonzalez, was excited to be involved. "We are all huge Adam Sandler fans, and were thrilled to find out he and Netflix had partnered up to produce the sequel to his iconic Happy Gilmore completely in the state of New Jersey," Gonzalez said in a statement. "Knowing we provided services for a small part of that project gives us all a real sense of hometown pride."[caption id="attachment_830219" align="alignnone" width="778"] NFL star Travis Kelce has a role in Happy Gilmore 2. Photo: Scott Yamano/Netflix[/caption]Sandler took up residence in New Jersey last fall while filming Happy Gilmore 2, and was spotted enjoying our state at places like Goldberg’s World Famous Deli & Bagels in Millburn, the swanky French restaurant Faubourg in Montclair, and Lokl Café in Morristown.The 58-year-old is back in Jersey now, currently living in Montclair while working on the Netflix film Don't Say Good Luck, starring his 16-year-old daughter, Sunny Sandler. The movie recently shot for several days in Livingston at Nana’s Deli and the restaurant Ilpoom, at Montclair High School, and at various locations in Ridgewood and Cranford.Montclair locals have seen Sandler shooting hoops at Rand Park, dining out at restaurants like Mercado and Paper Moon, and even shopping at CVS.[caption id="attachment_830290" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Ben Stiller is seen on the set at Roosevelt School in Kearny. Photo: Scott Yamano/Netflix[/caption]Happy Gilmore 2 is one of a handful of recent Netflix movies shot across New Jersey, where film and TV productions have increased in recent years thanks to Governor Murphy's 2018 reinstatement of generous tax incentives. Netflix is currently in the process of transforming the former Fort Monmouth Army base into a massive production studio, slated to open in 2028; a groundbreaking ceremony was held this May.Sandler's previous streaming-exclusive releases with Netflix include The Meyerowitz Stories, Murder Mystery and Hustle.The post All the NJ Locations You Can See in ‘Happy Gilmore 2’ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_828923" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration: Taylor Callery[/caption]It’s Sunday, October 27, 1985, in Berkeley Heights. The usual suburban sounds of birds chirping and neighbors chatting are drowned out by a chorus of some 200 protestors at Little Flower Church. The demonstrators’ grievance: Their township and parish are being infiltrated by what they view as a cult.The organization in question, People of Hope, thrived in North Jersey from the late 1970s to the early ’90s. What started as a charismatic prayer group became the subject of abuse allegations and national news headlines.Karen Ann Coburn was a Cranford teenager whose mother was briefly involved with the organization in its early days. In her recent podcast, Shadow of Hope, the writer attempts to bring this cryptic piece of Jersey history to light. “I had been a journalist, and in the back of my head all those years, I thought, There’s a story there,” Coburn says.People of Hope was founded as a prayer group by a Newark priest and eventually opened chapters across New Jersey with members as far away as Long Island. At its height, the community had unofficial estimates of 3,000 members, who were encouraged to sell their homes and relocate to Berkeley Heights, and later Warren Township, to be closer to community leaders.But as People of Hope grew, so did evidence of a disturbing culture of control, Coburn alleges in her podcast. Accounts from former members and documents from the Seton Hall University archives reveal that People of Hope instructed parents to use physical discipline on infants and suggested withholding food as punishment. Strict gender roles were upheld, requiring girls to wear skirts and discouraging fathers from attending the births of their children. Sexual abuse allegations were leveled against leaders. Author Margaret Atwood has cited the group, whose community coordinators’ wives were called handmaids, as part of her inspiration for the 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale and the Hulu series based on the book.As the 1980s came to a close, People of Hope’s membership dwindled. The organization still exists, and was recognized by the Archdiocese of Newark in 2006. Though the group looks much different than its 20th-century version, many of its original members still feel the effects of its history. People of Hope declined to comment for this article.Coburn has little memory of her short time with the organization beyond a prayer meeting she attended at 14 where members spoke in tongues and girls played flutes.Still, the seed was planted in her mind. Inspired by investigative nonfiction podcasts like S-Town and This American Life, Coburn wanted to apply a similar format to a story from the Garden State. In her interviews on Shadow of Hope, she tries to humanize the New Jerseyans who were affected by the group. “I’m on a lifelong quest to redeem New Jersey and take it back from all the jokes,” says Coburn. “I want people to hear a Jersey accent and then hear that these are intelligent, compassionate and interesting people.”Ultimately, Coburn’s goal was to shine a light on high-control groups and create empathy for those who find themselves in their grasp. “We all have to remain vigilant to protect our freedom of thought, because there are real consequences to that,” she says.The post Podcast Goes Inside the Troubling World of an Accused NJ Cult appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_829381" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Allstar Picture Library Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo[/caption]Pop singer Connie Francis, a Newark native who became the first solo female artist to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart, died Wednesday. She was 87.Francis rose to fame in the late 1950s with her recording of the 1920s song “Who’s Sorry Now?”, which catapulted her to No. 4 on the charts. She reached No. 1 in 1960 with “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool,” becoming the first woman vocalist to do so. Two more No. 1 hits followed: “My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own” the same year and “Don’t Break the Heart That Loves You” in 1962. She also snagged more than a dozen top-10 hits, including “Stupid Cupid” (1958) and “Where the Boys Are” (1961), the latter becoming one of her most enduring ballads.Just this spring, Francis’s 1960s B-side track "Pretty Little Baby" saw a massive resurgence, going viral on TikTok six decades after its release. In May, Francis reacted to the news on Facebook: “My thanks to TikTok and its members for the wonderful, and oh so unexpected, reception given to my 1961 recording ‘Pretty Little Baby,’” she wrote. Her publicist and record-label president, Rob Roberts, had informed her of her “viral hit”—a term she didn’t understand. “Clearly out of touch with present day music statistics terminology, my initial response was to ask: ‘What's that?’” she continued. “Thank you everyone!”Born Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero in 1937, Francis spent her early years in Brooklyn before her family moved back to New Jersey, where they lived in Newark’s Ironbound section and later Belleville. Francis attended Newark Arts High School for a few years before transferring to Belleville High School, where she graduated in 1955.Following in the footsteps of solo female vocalists of the 1950s, like Rosemary Clooney, Francis also helped pave the way for the girl groups of the 1960s, like the Shirelles and Supremes. Fellow Belleville native Peggy Santiglia Ricker, of the Delicates and Angels, posted a tribute on Facebook Thursday morning. Francis’s death “fills me with a mix of sadness and gratitude,”she wrote. “…[S]he was a shining star in my formative years growing up in Belleville NJ. To think that an Italian-American girl who graduated from my high school attained worldwide fame fueled my young dreams of becoming a recording artist and showed me that anything is possible.”She added that Francis’s father—who had been deeply involved in both his daughter’s musical career and personal life—often picked up Ricker and brought her to his New York City office so she could work on her own songs and demos, “giving me invaluable experiences.” And she recalled the “thrill” of riding on a Columbus Day float with her fellow Delicates members and Francis: “[S]he was the Queen, and we were the princesses, feeling like we were on top of the world.”Francis is currently portrayed by Gracie Lawrence in the Broadway musical Just in Time, which stars Jonathan Groff as crooner Bobby Darin, with whom Francis was romantically involved early in her career.Despite Francis’s far-reaching success—she is estimated to have sold more than 200 million records worldwide—she was not inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame during her lifetime. She was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame’s Class of 2016 at a 2017 ceremony held at Asbury Park's Convention Hall.The post Connie Francis, New Jersey’s First Lady of Pop, Dies at 87 appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_829421" align="alignnone" width="778"] John Seabrook’s new book, The Spinach King, documents his family’s onetime empire. Photo: Erin Patrice O'Brien[/caption]Who knew that a vegetable farm in South Jersey was once the setting of intrigue, gangsters, celebrities and the Ku Klux Klan?In The Spinach King: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty, author John Seabrook describes growing up in the leafy shadow of Seabrook Farms in Cumberland County and assesses his family’s influence on New Jersey and on his own life. “I was so little and didn’t know what was happening at the time when all this stuff was happening,” Seabrook tells New Jersey Monthly. “It’s a huge shock when you realize that maybe your parents aren’t really telling you the truth.”Among the hidden stories he unearthed about the farm, Seabrook found Klan meetings, tales of Hollywood starlet Eva Gabor, who skinny-dipped in the family’s pool, and rivers of alcohol.The Spinach King is Seabrook’s fifth book, but it’s by far his most personal. “It was a lifelong project, and it’s about my life,” he says. “It’s a unique experience, you know—not like handing people just a book, but my life.” In the process of writing and researching the book, Seabrook discovered more ugliness than he had expected.There was the 1934 strike by farm workers, to which his grandfather and uncles had responded with violence. There were financial dealings that skirted the edge of the law. There were lawsuit-related pre-trial interviews in which John Seabrook’s father described his grandfather as “an addict, a predator, and a paterfamilias who seemed to hate his own flesh and blood.”HOW IT BEGANIt all started when farming in New Jersey was a simple operation, with most crops driven to market in New York and Philadelphia the day they were picked. John Seabrook’s great-great-grandfather purchased 13 acres of farmland in South Jersey about a decade before the bucolic nickname “Garden State” was bestowed in 1876.The first Seabrook was a failure as a farmer; when he died, no gravestone was erected. But succeeding generations built a farming and food empire that, at its height, provided about one-third of the nation’s frozen vegetables. Along the way, a series of Seabrook fathers and sons battled and betrayed one another, even as their family business depended on and profited from the image of a happy, healthy household at the heart of it all.Seabrook Farms wasn’t simply an agricultural powerhouse. When Life magazine covered the enterprise in January 1955, the article described it as “the biggest vegetable factory on Earth.” At the peak of its success, Seabrook Farms sprawled over 50,000 acres and employed around 5,000 workers. The company’s frozen creamed spinach was the quintessential labor-saver for mid-century American housewives. As the farm became a brand, Seabrook writes, its reputation rested on “family, freshness and domestic modernity.”[caption id="attachment_828412" align="alignnone" width="778"] C.F. Seabrook Photo: Arthur Rothstein, Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division[/caption]The farm began to flourish when C.F. Seabrook, the author’s grandfather, bought out his own father (likely in a predatory deal) and then invested in and took advantage of advances in irrigation, quick-drying, and other technologies that allowed for vast improvements in production. C.F. studied how Henry Ford and other industrialists used both mechanical and social engineering to squeeze the highest possible profits out of a notoriously fickle business. It didn’t hurt, John Seabrook points out, that Americans in the 1910s were newly aware of the health benefits of eating vegetables, and those who had flocked to cities wanted to be able to eat lettuce and tomatoes, even though they no longer grew them at home.A COMPANY TOWNBy 1920, C. F. had expanded his realm, forming a road-building company to create the transportation infrastructure needed for his crops to reach their expanding markets; in 1920, he was appointed as a New Jersey highway commissioner (and promptly awarded a top contract to himself).Over the next several decades, Seabrook became more than just a major local employer; it was a company town, housing hundreds of workers and schooling their children (most of whom also worked in the fields). People who came to work on the farm included African Americans heading north for a chance to live outside the strictures of Jim Crow, Estonians fleeing a chaotic Europe under the Displaced Persons Act, and a large number of Japanese Americans who had been sent to internment camps during World War II.[caption id="attachment_828420" align="alignnone" width="778"] Jack Seabrook inspecting plants on the farm. Photo: Arthur Rothstein, Library of Congress[/caption]The author’s own father, Jack, had benefited from growing up a Seabrook, he writes. “He dressed in the finest British tailoring, served only the best French wines, and drove a stagecoach and four vanilla-colored horses along the country roads that ran through his Jersey estate, like an English duke.” He rubbed elbows with high society in Philadelphia and New York and dated actresses, including Eva Gabor. Jack Seabrook met his second wife (John’s mother) aboard the ship carrying Grace Kelly and her family to Monaco for her wedding to Prince Rainier in 1956. Dashing, wealthy Jack was a guest of the Kellys; his future wife, Elizabeth, was a newspaper columnist covering the event.[caption id="attachment_828413" align="alignnone" width="778"] The actress Eva Gabor, who dated Jack Seabrook, with Seabrook Farms products. Photo: Courtesy of the Seabrook family[/caption]Then, in 1959, the year John Seabrook was born, his grandfather C.F. (who still owned a majority stake) sold the company to outsiders. “The major family cataclysm happened literally the year I was born, and then I kind of grew up in it,” Seabrook says. It inspired his writing. “It got me doing what I do, which is asking questions and figuring out insights.”[caption id="attachment_828416" align="alignnone" width="762"] John Seabrook, left, with his younger brother, Bruce, and their parents in front of the family farmhouse in 1967. Photo: Courtesy of the Seabrook family[/caption]Growing up, he adds, everyone knew who he was because of his family name: “Everybody knew who the Seabrooks were around South Jersey, and a lot of people had worked for the Seabrooks at some point.” Over the years, starting at Princeton, where he studied creative writing with Joyce Carol Oates (the novella he wrote for her class convinced him he didn’t have the fiction gene), Seabrook knew that his family story was one he would have to write. But it took decades. “I basically came to it as a professional writer, and this story preceded me as a professional writer. It sort of shaped me.” Seabrook landed in magazine journalism at a time when it was flush with money and fun assignments. “It was incredible,” he says. “I went to South Africa. I went to Australia for Vanity Fair. You could fly business [class] if it was more than nine hours, no problem. I had an office. All that stuff is gone now. I was lucky.” He wrote his first big piece on his family’s story in 1995 for The New Yorker, where he is now on staff.After helping his father deliver a speech at a reunion of Japanese American Seabrookers in 1994, John offered to research more family history for Jack’s planned memoir. What he found shocked him. First, there was the strike. In 1934, Black farmworkers protested their low wages and inferior treatment at Seabrook Farms. “Black and white workers lived in separate ‘villages,’” Seabrook writes, “an arrangement that was both ideological and political, because it allowed C. F. to play the different ethnic groups off against each other to keep control.” Not only that—workers considered “American” were housed in better facilities than those labeled white, but not “American,” such as Italians and other European immigrants. Black workers complained that they were laid off during seasonal slow times, while white workers were kept on.GANGSTERS AND THE KKK[caption id="attachment_828419" align="alignnone" width="778"] A Seabrook Farms union meeting in 1935. Gangsters and the KKK were brought in to break up a strike by the farm workers. Photo: Library of Congress[/caption]It all came to a head that summer. C. F. Seabrook sought to protect his business and family by bringing in a colorful gangster named Red Saunders as a watchman, and he armed his three sons, teenagers at the time. Also on their side: the local chapter of the White Legion, known for leafleting and burning crosses, and the local KKK, known for doing much worse. Fists and bombs were thrown. On a microfilm in the Bridgeton Public Library, Seabrook saw that his own uncle Courtney had been the driver of a truck that rammed people on the picket line, injuring four. A few days later, strikers and Seabrook came to an agreement, which C. F. broke immediately, firing 250 workers, most of them Black.Writing about the strike ruffled family feathers. “I was supposed to be doing public relations for the family,” Seabrook writes, “not investigating it.” The more stories he pursued, the more he found, many of them embarrassing to his fellow Seabrooks, like C. F.’s bullying of his sons, his abuse of alcohol and pills, and his sexual indiscretions.Farming is a seasonal business, and so is life. After publishing the 1995 New Yorker piece that caused family drama, John Seabrook mostly turned to other topics—his books’ subjects range from invention to business to the creation of hit songs—until taking on this one, the story of his family. Like many memoirists, he waited until both of his parents had died before finishing the book.[caption id="attachment_828415" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Erin Patrice O'Brien[/caption]“I think there were just certain things that I wouldn’t have wanted to really make public while they were alive,” he says. “Also, I just think when your parents die, if you’re a writer and you’re sort of something of a memoir writer, it’s a hugely freeing thing.” From his mother, a former journalist and tough critic of his writing, Seabrook got a strong warning not to write about family. “I think she knew that there was this stuff that happened that I didn’t know, that I was probably going to find out. I think it’s also partly that she was brought up as a journalist not to write about herself,” he says. Asked if she had been proud of his work at one of the country’s most prestigious magazines, he says, “Yeah, she was proud, but she was critical too.” (I asked if he thought his parents would have liked the book, or at least not hated it. “My father always liked publicity, so he would’ve liked quite a bit of it,” he says. “I don’t think my mother would’ve probably cared for it.”)The women in the Seabrook family—the wives of C.F., Jack and John—played no official role in the family business. But in a scrum of ambitious and energetic fathers, sons and brothers who battled over control, they served as the dynasty’s “chief emotional officers,” Seabrook writes. As for himself, he married a woman he met in his early magazine days who’d never heard of Seabrook Farms and with whom, he writes, he “could raise children differently from the cold, best-foot-forward, stiff-upper-lip way that I was raised.”Today, some of John Seabrook’s cousins own and operate a new version of the family business, now named Seabrook Brothers & Sons. Along with more than 100 offerings, they still grow, package and sell one of the legendary Seabrook products: frozen creamed spinach.So how did five generations of farmers shape the writer John Seabrook? He didn’t inherit any of his ancestors’ business acumen, he says. “But I do love growing things, and if I had my druthers, I would probably live somewhere where I could spend more time growing stuff in a garden. Growing vegetables is something that I’ve always loved to do.”Seabrook will discuss The Spinach King with Ian Frazier at Montclair's Watchung Booksellers on Thursday, July 17.Kate Tuttle is a writer and editor. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe.The post Scandal and Spinach: The Dark Secrets of South Jersey’s Seabrook Farms appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_828855" align="alignnone" width="778"] Adam Sandler is seen filming outside of Nana’s Deli in Livingston. Photo: TDNick Photography[/caption]He could be an honorary New Jerseyan at this point!Adam Sandler, who stayed in the Garden State last fall while shooting the newly released Happy Gilmore 2, is living in Jersey yet again while filming his latest flick, this time in the Montclair area, sources exclusively tell New Jersey Monthly.Sandler took up residence in Montclair while working on the Netflix movie Don't Say Good Luck, which stars his younger daughter, Sunny Sandler, alongside Steve Buscemi, Melanie Lynskey, Bebe Neuwirth and Max Greenfield. Sandler, 58, isn't listed as a cast member, but his Happy Madison Productions is involved with the film.Locals in Montclair saw him in his backyard, shooting hoops at Rand Park, dining out at restaurants like Mercado and Paper Moon, and even shopping at CVS.The movie filmed for several days in Livingston at Nana's Deli, which was repainted with "Birenbaum's, EST 1985" in the window, advertising Jewish deli favorites like matzo ball soup, chopped liver, Reubens, pastrami and knishes.[caption id="attachment_828790" align="alignnone" width="778"] Sandler has some fun with his fans. Photo: TDNick Photography[/caption]The movie stars Sunny, 16, as Sophie Birenbaum, who, as Netflix describes it, “is ready for the spotlight as the lead in her high school musical—until suddenly she’s living with even more drama at home than on the stage.” Sunny previously had a role in 2023’s You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah with her dad.Livingston locals say that Sandler, famously one of the nicest people in Hollywood, was friendly to residents, taking selfies with fans who showed up to set.Local photographer Nick Zaster of TDNick Photography says that Sandler interacted with the crowd several times when he was outside of Nana's taking pictures."It’s always heartwarming when celebrities take the time to truly connect with people—not just in passing, but in meaningful moments like that," Zaster says. "It’s not every day we have famous people come down to town."Another resident who drove by the set added: "It's exciting to have a little slice of Hollywood in L-town."The flick also shot at Ilpoom restaurant in Livingston, Montclair High School, and locations in Cranford and Ridgewood.Filming was slated to go through mid-August.Last year, Sandler, wife Jackie and daughter Sunny stayed in New Jersey while Happy Gilmore 2 filmed here; older daughter Sadie had recently started her freshman year at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts—where Sandler went to school.[caption id="attachment_828786" align="alignnone" width="778"] Sandler leaves after a day of shooting in Livingston. Photo: TDNick Photography[/caption]Sandler really got to know the area and was spotted at places like Goldberg’s World Famous Deli & Bagels in Millburn, the swanky French restaurant Faubourg in Montclair, the Montclair Golf Club, and the coffee shop Lokl Café in Morristown.“We were very excited about it. It was a nice surprise,” Lokl owner Panos Stogioglou told us at the time. “He was super friendly and was there for a long time, taking pictures with all the staff.”A release date for Don't Say Good Luck has not yet been announced.The post Adam Sandler Is Living in Montclair While Filming New Movie appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_828393" align="alignnone" width="778"] Artist Johanna Younghans makes broken-edge ceramic vases from her Bay Head studio. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]Artist Johanna Younghans has spent her life surrounded by water. With her parents, Jon and Sally, and her younger brother, Jack, she lived full-time in Mountainside, but migrated to the Jersey Shore every summer, spending July and August in Bay Head. From ages 4 to 18 (Younghans is now 25), those months meant living aboard Dauntless, the family’s classic 45-foot cabin cruiser docked on Barnegat Bay. Sharing a tight V-berth with her brother and falling asleep each night to the lapping water made for carefree days and an inspired existence. She was influenced by the ocean and estuaries, pirates and mermaids, seashells and sailboats, ships and shipwrecks—equal parts reality and fantasy.“I was in a bathing suit 24-7,” she says now. “My summer uniform was a life jacket.” Life was idyllic, she admits, sailing, swimming, and immersing herself in maritime lore.Younghans showed an affinity for drawing early on; marrying her love of art and the sea came naturally.“I’ve always been artistically inclined,” Younghans says. “In high school, I sketched all over my homework.” Fortunately, her parents embraced her talent and encouraged her. “They never said, ‘You’re crazy to do this,’” she says. “In fact, they told me I was crazy if I didn’t do this.” At 18, with her parents’ support, she left one coastal town for another, attending the College of Charleston in South Carolina to study art history and fine art.[caption id="attachment_828394" align="alignnone" width="749"] Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]She returned to the Jersey Shore four years later with her degree. Her parents had purchased a mixed-use building in Bay Head. The historic structure had formerly housed Applegate’s Hardware, a beloved five-and-dime store that sold everything from screws to flip-flops, postcards to beach chairs.The building’s owners planned to sell it and retire, but then Superstorm Sandy hit, and the structure was largely decimated. Despite the destruction, Younghans’s parents had continued with their plan. Working closely with the town planning board, they rescued the building, turning a portion of it into a spacious, three-story home, while developing retail space on the ground floor.The massive attic space was a storage warehouse until Younghans swooped in and claimed it as her studio. The top-floor windows look out over Scow Ditch, a serene, brackish waterway that feeds into Barnegat Bay. It was in that studio that Younghans honed her skill of sketching exact, picture-perfect renderings of historic ships, birds, as well as whimsical images of mermaids and sea creatures. Her earliest sketches—line drawings on paper of fantastic figures inspired by the human body (imagine a female with a clamshell head)—sold as quickly as she could draw them. She added egrets, herons and swans—all birds she saw frequently from her studio window—and those, too, were snapped up. Younghans began to realize she might make a living doing this. She quit her part-time retail job and launched into art full-time.[caption id="attachment_828457" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]Younghans began exploring various mediums and discovered a love of clay, eventually learning slab building, a form of pottery that begins with a 25-pound block of clay that she rolls flat, like a pie crust. Naturally, she had to invest in a slab roller and a kiln.“The kiln was my first big-girl purchase,” she says. Placing a kiln, which reaches 2,200 degrees, in a historic wooden and masonry structure was dicey. Fortunately, her dad was unfazed. Early in his career he had taken over his family’s ceramic refractory company (think high-temperature gadgets like crucibles) and was well versed in safety protocols. He quickly set about fireproofing a space for his daughter.Now, Younghans works in her studio each day with various types of clay, creating cream-colored stoneware or bright-white porcelain, depending on what she’s making. Her signature piece, a cylindrical vase in various sizes with natural cracks along the rim, uses stoneware, fired three to four times. “It looks grey when it’s wet, but it turns into a creamy ivory color after firing and glazing,” she explains.[caption id="attachment_828458" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photos: Laura Moss[/caption]She works with a needle tool, sketching mostly in cobalt blue because “the color pops on ivory,” and she loves to add a gold accent. The gold formula is toxic, so she wears a respirator and works in a well-ventilated area when applying it. “I’m obsessed with the gold,” Younghans says. “It’s like pirate’s treasure.”With no storefront, the artist’s business depends on word of mouth, art markets and social media.Each piece she creates is custom-built and drawn, requiring an inordinate amount of detail which, in turn, requires an exorbitant amount of time. She has also produced custom items such as a ceramic tile backsplash with exact images of the owner’s sailboat; dinnerware designed with treasure maps and family landmarks; and a series of bridesmaid gifts with renderings of mermaids that feature the personality traits of each individual recipient.[caption id="attachment_828460" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photos: Laura Moss[/caption]Ever expanding her repertoire, Younghans is considering making lamp bases and has collaborated with local interior designers. “This whole community has been so supportive,” says the versatile maker. “I don’t want to put myself in a box. Right now, it’s all about ceramics. Clay is my current canvas, but it could lead into something else.”Younghans’s current goal is to have enough inventory on hand to sell in retail outlets, but she rarely has adequate stock. It’s a nice problem to have.Each summer, Younghans relocates her studio to Dauntless, her childhood summer home. Being on the water still provides the most inspiration. “The creative process often goes in a direction that I don’t control, but water is always a big thing,” she says. “If I lived somewhere else, I don’t know what it’d be, but right now, I really like the nautical thing.”For more info, follow @dauntlessbyjohanna on Instagram.Lauren Payne is the former Home & Garden editor at New Jersey Monthly and is a frequent contributor.The post Jersey Shore Artist Crafts One-of-a-Kind Nautical Ceramics appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Arthur Miller is undoubtedly one of the most lauded playwrights of the 20th century, and The Price is a showcase of the Pulitzer Prize winner's mastery. It's currently on view at Two River Theater in Red Bank through Sunday, June 29.While the play has been overshadowed by some of Miller’s other works (Death of A Salesman; The Crucible), it packs a thought-provoking punch all its own. The setup is classic: two brothers and a family home on the brink of demolition. Set in the attic of a Manhattan brownstone in the late 1960s, it explores timelessly familiar and engrossing themes of financial security, familial responsibility and regrets.Sorting through the furnishings and mementos of their parents' things and their childhood home, the brothers, whose lives have taken divergent paths—one became a police officer and parental caretaker; the other pursued his dream in medicine—inevitably reveals friction about equity, dreams and family.[caption id="attachment_827215" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: T. Charles Erickson[/caption]Comic relief comes in the form of an appraiser, called in to erase memories by tagging them with monetary value. As events unfold, an expanded perspective of each character deepens the play at every turn.The show stars Two River Theater regulars Kevin Isola, Andrea Syglowski, Peter Van Wagner and Karl Kenzler. It is directed by veteran actor Brandon Dirden, who made his directorial debut at the theater in 2015 with August Wilson’s Seven Guitars.Find more information here.The post See Arthur Miller’s ‘The Price’ at Red Bank’s Two River Theater appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The New Jersey Hall of Fame's new class of inductees includes big Garden State names the Jonas Brothers, Devils legend Martin Brodeur and Olympic champ Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.Nick, 32, Joe, 35, and Kevin, 37, Jonas—who grew up in Wyckoff—Brodeur, former goaltender and current team executive for New Jersey's pro hockey team, and McLaughlin-Levrone, who grew up in Dunellen, are on this year's list of 17 inductees, who will receive their honor in a ceremony on November 21. The 2025 class was announced on Tuesday, June 24 after public voting brought the inductees from 60 nominees to 17 final names.“This year’s class of inductees remind us of what it means to be Jersey strong and resilient,” Steve Edwards, president of the New Jersey Hall of Fame, said in a statement. “They showcase the incredible range of talent that has come out of New Jersey, from global icons in entertainment to pioneers in sports, public service, and enterprise. We’re proud to honor these heroes who inspire generations to be the best versions of themselves.”The Jonas Brothers, who got their start as kids back in 2005 and skyrocketed to fame before breaking up in 2013 and then reuniting in 2019 . In August, they kick off their 20th anniversary tour with a big show at MetLife Stadium. Kevin, the oldest of the brothers, still lives in the Garden State with his wife, Danielle, and their two daughters.“We are true Jersey, through and through," Kevin told New Jersey Monthly in a 2022 interview.Also on the list are celebrity chef David Burke, a Hazlet native, and Grammy winners the Isley Brothers. Being honored posthumously is lieutenant governor Sheila Y. Oliver, who died in 2023.Danny DeVito is tentatively scheduled to host the November induction ceremony at The Rink @ The Arena at American Dream.The full list of inductees is below:Arts & Letters Dana Bash, CNN chief political correspondent, anchor of Inside Politics with Dana Bash and co-anchor of State of the Union with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash Mary Alice Williams, Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist, a founding anchor of CNN, and former anchor for NJTV NewsEnterprise Frank Bisignano, CEO and chairman of the board of Fiserv and the current commissioner of the Social Security Administration Chef David Burke, renowned restaurateur and culinary innovator Lawrence R. Inserra, Jr., chairman and CEO of Inserra Supermarkets, Inc. Zygmunt “Zygi” Wilf, businessman, real estate developer, chairman and co-owner of the Minnesota VikingsPerforming Arts & Entertainment David Bryan, keyboardist for rock band Bon Jovi and Tony Award-winning lyricist and composer The Isley Brothers, Grammy Award-winning music group Jonas Brothers, award-winning pop band Michael Uslan, lawyer and executive producer of the Batman movie franchisePublic Service John Keegan, chairman and CEO of the Charles Edison Fund and Edison Innovation Foundation Sheila Y. Oliver, New Jersey’s second lieutenant governor and the first woman of color elected to statewide office in the state’s history William E. Simon, businessman, philanthropist and former United States Secretary of the Treasury David T. Wilentz, former attorney general of New Jersey and founder of law firm Wilentz, Goldman and SpitzerSports Martin Brodeur, former goaltender and current team executive for the New Jersey Devils Hubie Brown, former basketball player, analyst and two-time NBA Coach of the Year Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Olympic gold medalist and world record holder in the 400-meter hurdlesLast year's class of inductees included some of the biggest names in Hollywood: Meryl Streep, Paul Rudd and Kevin Smith.In addition to inducting a new class each year, the New Jersey Hall of Fame operates an Entertainment and Learning Center at American Dream in East Rutherford, which opened in 2024. The 10,000-square-foot center features interactive exhibits that celebrate our state’s icons. Since 2008, the Hall of Fame has inducted more than 230 New Jerseyans, including Buzz Aldrin, Frank Sinatra, Ray Liotta, Bobbi Brown, Dionne Warwick, Charles Addams, David Chase and Kelly Ripa.The Hall of Fame is also behind the Garden State Parkway rest stop program that renamed service areas for famous residents of the Garden State like Jon Bon Jovi, Whitney Houston, James Gandolfini and Judy Blume.The post Jonas Brothers, Devils Legend Martin Brodeur Being Inducted Into NJ Hall of Fame appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Having spent his twenties in the Oval Office writing speeches for President Barack Obama, David Litt is now spending his thirties getting wiped out by the Jersey Shore’s best waves.In his third book, Its Only Drowning, the speechwriter and comedian documents his journey trying to find common ground with his brother-in-law—a heavy-metal-loving, hardcore Joe Rogan fan—through surfing.Reaching far beyond the subjects of high tides, surfboards and wetsuits, the book delves into themes of personal growth, facing fears, and what it means to try and foster a seemingly oppositional relationship in an age of heated politics. “I would love it if this book gets people taking surf lessons,” Litt says. “But I would also love it if this book sparks a wave of unlikely friendships.”The genesis of the book—which Litt calls the most personal he’s ever written—can be traced back to 2019, when he and his wife purchased their home in Asbury Park. “I definitely grew up, to put it mildly, a Jersey skeptic,” says Litt, who was born and raised in Manhattan. “I’m now a hardcore Jersey convert.”Since the move, he's immersed himself in Jersey Shore culture; Federico's in Belmar and Cookman Creamery in Asbury Park are a few favorite spots. He says there's a sense of pride that comes from learning to surf in the Garden State. "It means that when you go anywhere else, you have this sort of quiet swagger of, Nah, I got this. I'm coming from Jersey," Litt adds.Also a Jersey Shore resident is Litt’s brother-in-law, Matt, an electrician, an avid surfer and part-time adrenaline junkie. Most importantly, he’s someone whose lifestyle Litt saw as completely incompatible with his own, made worse by hot topics like mask-wearing and vaccines.Fueled by quarantine-induced mental health struggles, the former presidential speechwriter entered a surf shop on a fateful day in 2022, having never touched a surfboard in his life. Whether it was to prove he had the guts to surf or to try to form a bond with Matt—or both—remains up to interpretation. Nevertheless, the book documents the unlikely pair turning into a surfing duo.“I've always been interested in odd-couple comedies,” says Litt. “As Matt and I started surfing together more, I realized that I found myself in the middle of a nonfiction book.”Over the course of a year and half, Litt attempts to go from wiping out at Asbury Park’s dog beach to conquering Hawaii’s North Shore—one of the world’s most coveted surfing spots. In each chapter, he gives the reader unrestrained insight into his innermost thoughts, fears and vulnerabilities. Though Litt says many of the book’s details, such as his depression, took some courage to write, he affirms that it’s a necessary fear.“It's more frightening, but it's also more liberating for the same reason. In some ways, it's a little bit like surfing bigger waves, where it's the sense that the same thing that is so scary is also what makes it so transcendent,” he says.Through humor and self-deprecation, Litt tells an engaging story of attempting to form a partnership despite stark differences in lifestyles and politics. He now hopes the book can perhaps serve as a blueprint for others also trying to find neutral ground and shared interests.“It’s given me hope that maybe what Matt and I did is something that millions of people can do,” he says. “Which is transcend the idea that we have to be fighting this culture war all the time and just start to relate to each other as people.”The post Former Obama Speechwriter Says Surfing at the Jersey Shore Changed His Life appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Alison Stewart loves her job, which is not surprising. As host of the live afternoon radio show All of It With Alison Stewart on WNYC, she interviews actors, musicians, authors, artists, chefs, comedians and other creatives and changemakers every weekday from noon to 2 pm. She includes thousands of tristate radio listeners in the conversation during the call-in portion of the show. Once a month, she hosts Get Lit With All of It at the New York Public Library in front of a live audience of as many as 400 people, and many more listening online. They hear Stewart interview an author about a recent book. At the end, a musician plays a song (recent guests have included Suzanne Vega, Rosanne Cash and Laurie Anderson).Stewart is well suited to the roles of radio host and culture maven. She grew up in Glen Ridge and attended Brown University, where she spent “every hour at the radio station when I wasn’t studying.” A job as a producer/reporter at MTV followed, where she won a Peabody Award for her coverage of the 1992 presidential campaign. Over the next several decades, she anchored news programs on NPR, PBS, ABC and MSNBC. She’s a contributor to AtlanticLIVE and PBS News-Hour and the author of two books, most recently Junk: Digging Through America’s Love Affair With Stuff.But her path hasn’t been without its bumps. In February 2024, she was in the WNYC studios in SoHo rehearsing her show introduction when her speech suddenly became garbled. She called her doctor, who told her to go straight to the emergency room. There, a CT scan showed a mass on her brain. Frighteningly, for a woman who makes her living with her voice, it was in the left hemisphere, in what’s known as Broca’s area, the speech center.Stewart underwent brain surgery. In a novel procedure, she remained awake so the neurosurgeon, Dr. Randy D’Amico, could test her speech while probing her brain. For three hours, Stewart answered his questions while he carefully removed some whitish-yellow material, which fortunately turned out to be an infection, not cancer.“I was really lucky to find this surgeon,” she says. “He used this really amazing technology, and knew my speech was really important and that the infections were right on my speech center. And he figured a way to go in and disrupt as little as possible.”Immediately following the surgery, Stewart couldn’t talk at all, which terrified her, even though that was expected while her brain healed. She spent weeks in rehab before she could speak in sentences. She started wondering about alternative careers.“It was a long time to be without speech,” she says.It wasn’t until seven months later that Stewart felt she could consistently put full sentences together and was ready to return to All of It full-time.Returning to the show was exhausting. “It was: work, go home and sleep; work, go home and sleep,” she says. “It was really hard.”More than a year later, it’s still challenging. “I have to focus really, really intensely when I’m on the air,” she says. “There are certain things I still can’t do and some things that take a long time for me to do. On air, I’m learning to keep going when I make a mistake.”Growing up in Glen Ridge, on a street partly in Montclair, gave her a strong foundation. “A lot of Black families lived on our street; they were all trying to make it. There were about six kids; we all looked like each other. We played together in the street and went from house to house. I didn’t realize until high school that you could make friends in school and bring them home,” she says with a laugh.One of her pals was Jim Johnson, who became an assistant U.S. Attorney for New York’s Southern District and held high-level positions in the Treasury Department.Stewart’s mother taught biology at Columbia High School in Maplewood; her father was an executive at Squibb, the pharmaceutical company. “My dad, who was from Harlem, used to bring me into the city to see the Harlem Globetrotters, Broadway, the Museum of Natural History,” she says. “I had the culture and stimulation of New York and the sweet, suburban Mayberry R.F.D. It was the best of both worlds.”The post WYNC’s Alison Stewart Is Bouncing Back After Brain Surgery appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
In late March, a shiny trophy studded with a purple gem was placed in the middle of Watchung Reservation in Union County. A trail cam that live streamed the trophy 24-7 was activated. And the first Veil hunt was on.Veil is an interactive treasure hunt founded by brothers Jeff and Paul DuVilla, New Jersey natives raised in Hammonton.“We’re trying to reframe what a treasure hunt can be,” says Jeff. “Traditional hunts might span the entire country and drag on for years. Ours are short, punchy and accessible.”Participants try to glean where the treasure is before 22 days are up, when the location is broadcast to everyone. If they do, they can head out to the spot and claim the glitzy trophy—and a cash prize, the amount of which is determined by how many people play.Paul, who still lives in Hammonton, has a background in advertising and videography; Jeff, who lives outside Philadelphia, is creative director of an entertainment company.“Getting to build something together has been really fun,” says Paul.The winner of the first Veil hunt, who found the prize in 16 days, won just shy of $4,000. Anyone can hunt for free and watch on the website as the search shrinks more each day to a smaller area. Or participants can pay a fee to receive daily clues in the form of cyphers, riddles and “glitches.”Glitches are glimpses of the past edited into photos of the forest. One glitch showed dinosaurs. Others included old mining equipment, Revolutionary War soldiers, a solar eclipse and more.“Each visual cue led players down rabbit holes of historical detective work, sparking tons of discussion online,” Jeff adds.More than 1,000 people participated in the first treasure hunt. A chat group on Discord gave members a chance to theorize and collaborate, fostering a vibrant community of searchers all hunting for the same prize.“Some players were able to narrow down locations way earlier than we expected,” says Paul. “Seeing them solving clues and sharing their reasoning was fascinating.”The hunt inspired people to explore new locations as they searched, creating a fulfilling experience even for those who didn’t win. Veil hunts launch every few weeks, and many participants, the DuVillas say, are already strategizing for the next.“Our dream?” says Jeff. “Multiple Veil hunts running simultaneously across the country at all times.”The post Jersey Bros Cook Up Treasure Hunts With Big Cash Prizes appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Thaddeus Cooper still remembers his first time playing Skee-Ball in the early 1970s on the Point Pleasant Beach boardwalk. “I was hooked from the start,” says Cooper, who grew up in Union Township. “It was different than any game I’d ever played.”His fascination with the game, invented in Vineland by Joseph Fourestier Simpson and patented in 1908, led Cooper, now 63, and his wife, Kevin Kreitman, to direct And the Balls Roll On…: The Real Story of the Beautiful Game of Skee-Ball.Available on Amazon, Apple TV and Google Play, the documentary blends archival with contemporary footage shot in Atlantic City, Lavallette, Seaside Heights, Wildwood and Vineland.Simpson incorporated elements of bowling and skiing into the game, in which players roll a grapefruit-size wooden ball. Kreitman, who wrote the screenplay, says that the keys to its success are “the game’s simplicity, the ball hop, the elevated target.”Simpson, who sold his rights to Skee-Ball in 1914 and died at 77 in 1930, wouldn’t live to see the game become an international success story.Innovations over the years have added to the game’s popularity. They include shortening the alleys from between 32 and 36 feet to about 10 feet, adding 100-point targets, and the automatic dispensing of prize tickets. One thing remains the same, however.“Skee-Ball is easy to play, but hard to master,” Cooper says.The post New Skee-Ball Documentary Chronicles the Classic Jersey Shore Arcade Game appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Before Broadway or George Costanza, Jason Alexander was just a kid from New Jersey who wanted to be a magician.But, as he recalled at this weekend's Lighthouse International Film Festival on Long Beach Island, a pair of small hands kept him from living out his original dream."I studied with this fantastic close-up magician, and he looked at me after two weeks, mostly because, to this day, I have small hands," said the Seinfeld star, who decided at age 12 to attend magic camp in New York City after his family moved from Maplewood to Livingston. "I cannot palm a standard deck of playing cards. ... And when you eliminate cards from the world of close-up magic, you're probably not gonna play the big four shows anyway."So, Alexander started to perform in local theater in Livingston. At first, it was to impress a girl he'd met at the community pool who'd asked if he could sing. But, quickly, a true passion formed. He took many weekend trips to New York City to see shows with his theater pals. One pivotal play for Alexander was an early preview of Stephen Schwartz’s Pippin, which showed him the similarities between magic and acting.“If you've seen the original company of Pippin, the curtains go up and there's all these disembodied hands, clouds of smoke just going oooooh,” he said during the film fest, speaking in conversation with former CBS Entertainment chairwoman Nina Tassler.That, combined with Ben Vereen’s iconic performance, made Alexander realize that theater was “the combination of magic being used to tell a story. So I'm sitting there, and as I'm sitting here, [I’m thinking], it's an illusion. I can do that illusion. I can have tiny hands and do that."[caption id="attachment_826577" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Jason Alexander sits down for an interview with Nina Tassler at the Lighthouse International Film Festival. Photo: Courtesy of Ed Shin[/caption]Early theater performances in New Jersey—as well as his time studying at Boston University—taught Alexander how to quickly learn new skills. This ranged from singing and dancing to even rollerblading, but it eventually helped him become more adept at comedic performances. That particular talent led to his iconic performance as George on Seinfeld, which ran for nine seasons and is widely considered one of the best sitcoms—if not one of the best television shows—ever made.Alexander, 65, graduated from Livingston High School in 1977 (Fellow LHS alum include comedian Chelsea Handler, class of 1993; former governor Chris Christie, class of 1980; and author Harlan Coben, class of 1980).He was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2019. Accepting the award at the time, he joked: “This is great for me. I don’t know what it does for Jersey.”The post ‘Seinfeld’ Star Jason Alexander Wanted to Be a Magician As a Kid Growing Up in NJ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
From an American Revolutionary-era massacre to the shark attacks that inspired Jaws to the fallout of Hurricane Sandy, Long Beach Island has a storied past—so much so that author Joseph John Mezlo wrote a two-part historical fiction series about it. In Long Beach Island: Those Who Dare and Those Who Strive, he charts LBI's evolution through the lens of a family dynasty who put down roots there centuries ago. He blends history and romantic drama as each generation falls in love, raises families and helps shape the island's future.Mezlo recently spoke with us about his personal connections to the island and the research that surprised him.Tell me about your relationship with Long Beach Island. What drove you to write about the island’s history?My wife and I have been vacationing on Long Beach Island for 55 years now. So our kids have grown up on the island, and we've loved it ever since we first got there. It's changed a lot over the years.The stimulus was a friend of mine by the name of David Bohan, who is a lifelong resident of Long Beach Island and shared with me an article [from] Bay magazine about his family from the early 1900s. He was very proud of the heritage of LBI, and he started telling me stories, and it kind of got me intrigued. I started to do some research about the island, and it just started to smoke, so to speak.What was the most surprising thing you learned about LBI during your research?The first was the extent of the cedar forest that existed at Harvey Cedars, along with the freshwater pond. I think that must have really been beautiful and lent itself to somewhat of a paradise-like kind of setting. I didn't really realize that it was as big and as extensive as it was. And I realized that....when people [dig] up foundations and things, they still come across some of the stumps from the old cedar trees.And the other one was the wreck on the Surf City side of the island, where more than 400 people perished in a single night. If you go to Surf City Hotel, they have the monument to those people outside the hotel. That must have really been a horrendous experience. So those things, particularly, stuck with me. I realized that there were a lot of shipwrecks off the island, but I never realized it was a shipwreck to that extent where everybody on board, or at least a [majority] of people, perished in the span of a night.What did you learn about LBI that distinguished it from other parts of the Jersey Shore?After all these years coming to LBI, my wife and I still say, "You cross that causeway; it's like your troubles go away." You're so much more relaxed being on LBI. But the history in and of itself is very fascinating. And I think the thing that maybe makes it different than the mainland in Jersey are the storms that have reshaped the island and reshaped the lives of people who live on the island. Historic [storms]—most recently, [Hurricane] Sandy—have really reshaped the island dramatically and had devastating effects, but also created opportunities for people.The post Long Beach Island’s Storied Past Comes Alive in Historical-Fiction Series appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
New Jersey has it all, including the best writers and books that take place in the Garden State. Here are some great new beach reads to enjoy while you bask in the sun.The View From Lake ComoAdriana TrigianiDutton, JulyNew York Times best-selling and award-winning author Adriana Trigiani is taking readers to Lake Como in both New Jersey and in Italy. Trigiani is well-known for celebrating her Italian roots in her fiction. In The View From Lake Como, she tells the story of Jess Capodimonte Baratta, who lives in Lake Como, New Jersey. Recently divorced from her husband, she moves into her parents’ basement to hide and heal. She’s the overlooked daughter who dutifully takes care of her parents—but she’s also a talented draftswoman in the marble business run by her uncle. When her family faces an unexpected loss, Jess escapes to Italy, where she takes fate into her own hands. —Jacqueline MrozI'll Have What She's HavingChelsea HandlerThe Dial Press, FebruaryChelsea Handler is having a big year. She turned 50, released her Netflix special, The Feeling (filmed at Montclair's Wellmont Theater) and her seventh New York Times-bestselling book, I’ll Have What She’s Having, a collection of personal essays. "I am incredibly appreciative for the fan base coming back to me," she told New Jersey Monthly in her May cover story. "I think it’s because they know that I am telling my truth, regardless of whether it’s embarrassing."A Dog in GeorgiaLauren GrodsteinAlgonquin, AugustAmy Webb is a chef, wife and stepmother who feels like something is missing in her life. She escapes by watching YouTube videos of a dog that walks children to school in Tbilisi, in the republic of Georgia. When the dog, named Angel, goes missing, Amy volunteers to go find him and begins a journey to a country she knows nothing about. There, she makes new friends and learns about what she really wants in her career, marriage and life. Author Lauren Grodstein is an English professor at Rutgers University-Camden. Her previous book, We Must Not Think of Ourselves, was a "Read with Jenna" book-club pick from Jenna Bush Hager. —J. MrozHot AirMarcy DermanskyKnopf, MarchIn this joyful, quirky rom-com, single mother Joanie is on a first date with Johnny, when a hot-air balloon unexpectedly crash-lands in his swimming pool. Even more surprising is that the occupants of the balloon include Joanie’s childhood crush, Jonathan, now a famous billionaire, and his wife, Julia. Soon, Joanie finds herself on a lost weekend with her date, her ex and his wife—and no one knows what will happen next. This exuberant story of money, marriage, sex and revenge is unforgettable and deliciously funny. Marcy Dermansky, who lives in Montclair, delivers a thoroughly satisfying sixth novel. —J. MrozBrooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get OldBrooke ShieldsMacmillan, JanuaryBrooke Shields is not one to shy away from taking personal subjects public, such as postpartum depression, antidepressant use (including Tom Cruise’s infamous rant about it) and divorce. So it’s no surprise she’d broach aging next. As one of the most famous women in the world, in the spotlight since childhood, the model/actress delves into her own relationship with aging and offers insights so that other women, too, can embrace it and thrive. Shields, 59, also sprinkles in some Jersey memories; she went to Dwight-Englewood School in Englewood and, later, Princeton University. —Julie GordonBy Heart: Recipes to Hold Near and DearHailee CatalanoPenguin Random House, AprilNeptune-based chef and influencer Hailee Catalano has 1.9 million followers on her personal TikTok and 550,000 on Instagram, where she cooks up homey, comforting and achievable recipes. Some of her most popular videos see her preparing a huge sandwich to take to the beach for a picnic. She says she approached her first cookbook, By Heart, the same way she approached social media. “It’s the foods I enjoy, that tell the story of my life in food,” she explains. Read more here. —Georgia KralThe Good Mother MythNancy ReddySt. Martin’s Press, JanuaryJersey-based author and poet Nancy Reddy illuminates the folklore and misleading, often misogynistic mid-20th-century studies regarding child-rearing that continue to plague modern mothers. She dedicates the book—part history lesson, part memoir, part cultural criticism—to “every mom who’s wondered if she’s good enough,” adding, “You’re already doing great.” —Jennifer FinnYou Belong to MeHayley KrischerG.P. Putnam’s, AprilIn Glen Ridge resident Hayley Krischer’s fourth novel, beauty and its associated beasts come to the foreground as a cast of teenage girls enter the world of wellness that is packaged for profit. Blending the drive to look good and fit in with a certain crowd, plus the adolescent search for self, Krischer’s page-turning psychological thriller explores those challenges and their potential costs. —Deborah P. CarterI Leave It Up to YouJinwoo ChongBallantine, MarchIn this charming novel about second chances, Jack Jr. awakens from a coma to find his life completely altered: His advertising job is gone, he’s lost his Manhattan apartment, and the love of his life has left him. He reluctantly heads back to the bustling Korean American enclave of Fort Lee and his parents, who are still running the struggling sushi restaurant he was set to inherit before he abandoned it. He soon begins to embrace new roles, including a romance with the nurse who cared for him. The book is also a homecoming for Jinwoo Chong, who grew up in Princeton. —J. MrozGandolfiniJason BaileyAbrams, AprilWas there ever another television character who did such awful things and somehow made us love him so much? James Gandolfini, who grew up in New Jersey, created in Tony Soprano a fictional man who felt more real in all his contradictions—complex, soulful, angry, sexy, violent, regretful—than perhaps any other figure in TV history. As Jason Bailey describes in Gandolfini, his richly entertaining new biography, while the actor was certainly not identical to his iconic character, he was similarly elusive and hard to know. After all, he writes, “If James Gandolfini wasn’t Tony Soprano, then … who was he?” Read more here. —Kate TuttleSeashells of the Jersey ShoreMelissa AvstreihSchiffer Publishing, AprilWalk along the Jersey Shore and you’re bound to find interesting-looking shells—but do you know what they’re called? Thanks to this book, you can identify and learn about many of the shells you find on the beach. Melissa Avstreih, the mother of two young beachcombers, wrote this book to help satisfy their curiosity. —J. MrozIt's Only DrowningDavid LittGallery Books, JuneHaving spent his twenties writing speeches for President Barack Obama, David Litt is now spending his thirties getting wiped out by the Jersey Shore’s best waves. In his third book, It's Only Drowning, Litt documents his journey trying to find common ground with his brother-in-law—a heavy-metal-loving, hardcore Joe Rogan fan—through surfing. Through humor and self-deprecation, Litt tells an engaging story of trying to form a partnership despite stark differences in lifestyles and politics. Read more here. —James LaForgeThe post Best Summer 2025 Beach Reads, Starring New Jersey appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
In 1995, when Asbury Park was riddled with drugs and crime, a ramshackle former boarding house on Fourth Street went on the market. The roof was caving in; inside, garbage cans caught rainwater that dripped from the ceilings. The price was $7,500, roughly the value of the land.Against the odds, the house, a brown-and-white Victorian with an expansive porch, escaped the wrecking ball that has remade Asbury Park. It still stands at 508 Fourth Street, now well maintained and bearing a gold sign: “Stephen Crane House, circa 1878.” Another marks the building as the headquarters of the Asbury Park Historical Society.It was a miracle that the house, thought to be the oldest in Asbury Park and the childhood home of the groundbreaking author of The Red Badge of Courage, survived, says Frank D’Alessandro, a member of the society and a key player in the effort to save the house.The saga began when Tom and Regina Hayes, who lived on Sixth Street and planned to buy the house as a teardown, were told by a neighbor that Crane had lived there. They confirmed through property records that the house was built in 1871, the same year that Asbury Park was founded, and that the Cranes moved there in 1878. (The family played a prominent role in New Jersey history as well; forebears founded Cranetown, later called Montclair, and in 1776, a Stephen Crane, for whom the author was named, was a member of the Continental Congress.)The author, who died at 28, packed in enough scandal, adventure and writing for several lifetimes, says Susan Rosenberg, a docent who gives tours of the house on Sundays and by appointment. At 18, he was a cub reporter covering the boardwalk for Crane’s New Jersey Coast News Bureau, which became the Asbury Park Press. He was a war correspondent during the Spanish-American and Greco-Turkish wars, survived a shipwreck, and died of tuberculosis in Europe, where he had hobnobbed with Joseph Conrad, Henry James, J.M. Barrie and H.G. Wells.In between, he wrote seven novels, two volumes of poetry, scores of short stories (several of which are set in New Jersey), and hundreds of newspaper articles. He influenced a generation of writers with his spare, journalistic-style writing, including Ernest Hemingway, who hailed him as “one of the best writers, along with Henry James and Mark Twain.”Recognizing the house’s historic value, the Hayeses bought it, but with a new goal of saving it rather than demolishing it. They tarred the roof and opened it up for community events.In 2001, preparing to move out of town, they put it up for sale, but asked their next-door neighbor, Frank D’Alessandro, to put in a bid. “They knew I wanted to keep it as a community resource and museum,” says D’Alessandro. They accepted his offer even though another was higher.Another stroke of luck hit later that year, when Bruce Springsteen donated proceeds from a benefit concert, which the historical society used to replace the roof. “From that moment on, the building stabilized and now is in pretty decent shape,” says D’Alessandro.In 2015, he sold the house for $1 to the historic society and helped get it named to the state and national historic registers. Funds for upkeep come from grants and fundraisers, as well as rent from a second-floor apartment. In addition to tours, the society hosts readings, talks and films. “It’s become a little literary mecca,” says D’Alessandro.[caption id="attachment_825665" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: James J. Connolly[/caption]Despite Crane’s huge influence on modern writing, most who visit the house know him only vaguely as the author of The Red Badge of Courage, which used to be required reading in schools. D’Alessandro himself was underwhelmed by the book in high school, but has since reread it and is “really quite impressed by a guy who did this in his twenties and died at the age of 28.”D’Alessandro has become a bit of an expert on Crane’s short, colorful life. From a young age, the author forged his own path, rejecting the Methodism of his minister father that brought his family to Asbury. Modeled on the adjacent Methodist community of Ocean Grove, Asbury was dry and quiet, quite a contrast to the town it has become. His mother was involved in women’s suffrage and the temperance movement.When he was 18, he began working in the summers for his brother Townley, who owned the news service. He briefly attended Syracuse University, where his maternal uncle was one of the founders. In 1892 he ignited a scandal while reporting on a parade on the Asbury Park boardwalk, contrasting the finery of the Gilded Age spectators with the grimier marchers, inadvertently insulting the working men. Driven from town by that and his affair with a married woman, he moved to Manhattan, where he wrote his first novel, Maggie of the Streets, about a girl whose poverty had forced her into prostitution.He and his common-law wife, Cora, who was reputed to have run a brothel, traveled the world together. Between stints as a war correspondent, Crane wrote The Red Badge of Courage, about the inner thoughts of a young soldier in the Civil War. It’s notable for having been written at age 24, completely from his imagination. Hemingway called it “one of the finest books in American literature.” Crane’s short story “The Open Boat,” based on his experience of being shipwrecked off the coast of Florida, is thought to have been the inspiration for Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea.Crane and Cora bought an estate in Surrey, England, where, despite their lack of money, they lived a fashionable life. He died of tuberculosis in a sanitorium in Germany’s Black Forest at 28.D’Alessandro, who moved to Milltown in 2021, hasn’t lost touch with Crane’s spirit, especially once he discovered that the author’s grave is in Evergreen Cemetery in nearby Hillside. “He was the last of 14 siblings, and the whole Crane family is buried there,” he says. “I stop every so often and put a little flower down.”Free tours of the Stephen Crane House are given every Sunday from noon to 2 pm, and by appointment.The post Author Stephen Crane’s Childhood Home Escaped the Wrecking Ball That Transformed Asbury Park appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Few artists navigate the intersection of personal narrative, cultural critique, and community engagement as powerfully as Camden-born Mickalene Thomas. Known for her bold, intricate portraits that reimagine beauty, femininity and identity, Thomas has earned international acclaim by turning visibility into her medium, centering her work on those who are too often unseen in both public and private spaces.In 2008, Thomas created the first individual portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama, a historic event that underscored her rising influence in contemporary art. This year, Thomas was named on Time magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in the world.Educated at Pratt Institute and Yale University, she brings a deep academic foundation to a practice that is as intellectually rigorous as it is visually lush. Rooted in the traditions of 19th-century French painting and infused with the spirit of blaxploitation cinema, her work constructs a vibrant, feminist visual language—one that reveres the past while radically reshaping it. Across bold, patterned surfaces, Thomas places unapologetically sensual, self-possessed figures—most often women of color—at the center of a reframed cultural narrative.[caption id="attachment_825040" align="alignnone" width="778"] Thomas's Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe: les trois femmes noires avec jardin d'eau Image: Courtesy of Mickalene Thomas Studio LLC[/caption]Though her art resides in museums and private collections across the globe, Thomas’s latest endeavors bring her back home, into the heart of Camden.Speaking from her Brooklyn studio near the Navy Yard, Thomas carries the conversation easily, weaving memories and speaking of her artistic practice as if they are inseparable. For her, home is still deeply connected to New Jersey, where her family’s roots run through Camden. Childhood weekends were often spent driving from Newark and East Orange, where her family then lived. She remembers crossing the Betsy Ross Bridge toward her grandmother’s apartment in the Northgate Towers, a public-housing complex in Camden.“I loved it,” she remembers. “For me, it was that feeling—being excited as a little kid, seeing the bridge, knowing we were close. Later, my grandmother moved to the waterfront near the aquarium, and I still drive by that area when I visit. My other grandmother lived on Westfield Avenue. Sometimes I’ll just pass the old house. There’s something grounding about that.”Her memories of Camden are layered with family, nostalgia and community, all of which shape her current work. This year, Thomas is collaborating with Mural Arts Philadelphia on a new mural in Camden, a project she describes as both personal and deeply necessary. Set to be unveiled in September, the approximately 20-foot piece will be installed at a local high school, the specific location yet to be announced. The mural will serve as a bold tribute to the women of Camden who have shaped the city through policy, activism and culture. Incorporating Thomas’s signature collage and mixed-media techniques, it will fuse historical reference with contemporary aesthetics for a large-scale visual statement.“It’s about paying tribute to the incredible women who have influenced Camden,” Thomas says. “I want young girls to see themselves reflected in this mural. Not just now, but 50 years from now. That’s the legacy—planting that seed.”Food is also part of that connection. “Every time I’m in Camden, I try to stop at Corinne’s Place, a soul-food spot,” she laughs, adding, “I couldn’t even tell you exactly where it is, but I always find it. The food, the energy—it’s one of those places you carry with you.”She’s also completing a large mural for the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital in Brooklyn, part of a newly renovated entry space designed to celebrate the strength of women. Both projects are extensions of what Thomas does best: telling stories through images, honoring history, and making space for those too often overlooked.But as she’s quick to point out, art isn’t just about murals or museums—it’s also about accessibility. “I believe artists have a responsibility to make their work reachable,” she says. Through her partnerships with AvanteArte and JRP Editions, Thomas produces affordable prints designed to land not just in elite collections, but in people’s homes.“When you see images of yourself, your history, your people in your home—that’s where aspiration begins,” she says. “It’s transformative. And when someone writes to me saying, ‘I never imagined I could own a piece of your work,’ that means everything.”[caption id="attachment_825038" align="alignnone" width="778"] Thomas's Isn't She Lovely? Tracey Norman is on view at the Newark Museum of Art. Image: Courtesy of Mickalene Thomas Studio LLC[/caption]That commitment to access extends to institutions that have championed her early and often—none more so than the Newark Museum of Art. “I feel deeply connected to the Newark Museum,” Thomas says. “They’ve supported my work in such meaningful ways. They hold Landscape With Camouflage and my portrait of [model] Tracey Norman. Both pieces deal with identity and visibility, which are at the core of everything I do.” Tricia Laughlin Bloom, senior curator of American art at the museum, echoes that sense of mutual respect. “Mickalene has been a wonderful partner and friend to the museum, from generously lending us her artwork to collaborating on the fabulous commissioned portrait of Tracey Norman now on view. Her work is so beloved by so many because it is beautiful, but also complex, incorporating pop culture and art history while speaking to themes of empowerment.”Thomas speaks with reverence about the collections at the Newark Museum of Art and about what it means to be held, literally and figuratively, in a space that understands the cultural weight of representation. “It’s a smaller museum in size, but not in stature,” she says. “They do big things.”Thomas’s approach to creation is fearless—a word she returns to often. “I’ve learned not to care what people think,” the 54-year-old artist says simply. “You have to live for yourself. You may fail, but you have to try.”Fear, however, is never far from the process. Thomas describes how her most emotionally raw work often comes from moments of anxiety. “The other side of anxiety is creativity,” she reflects. “That’s why I collage. When I’m afraid, I cut things up. I make something. It’s a release, and sometimes it’s not meant for anyone but me.”Mentorship, she adds, is what keeps her grounded in that process. Her mother, grandmother, and the legendary artist Carrie Mae Weems are all figures she credits with shaping both her practice and her outlook. Says Thomas, “Carrie showed me how to be an artist in the world. Not just in the studio, but in the world—with grace, with power, and without apology.”Today, Thomas sees herself not just as an artist, but as a cultural architect, a builder of systems and legacies that stretch far beyond the gallery walls. In her current collaboration with another Camden native, storyteller/writer Darnell Moore, and the Camden Cultural and Arts Project, they’re working as a team to embed art, writing and creative practice directly into the city’s ecosystem.“We have to uplift art the way we uplift science or nature—like it’s essential to how we raise people,” she says. “Art makes us better. It teaches us to see each other and the world differently. And Camden deserves that.”That vision also extends to the stage. While going through old boxes during her recent studio move, Thomas rediscovered the script for Put a Little Sugar in My Bowl, a play her mother and friends once performed in Newark during the 1970s.The three-act drama, written and directed by Oscar Rudy Sykes, with an original score by Allan Walker, explores a family’s intergenerational struggles. The title draws inspiration from Nina Simone’s 1967 song “I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl.”“It’s been on my mind for years,” she says. “Now that it’s resurfaced, I know it’s going to happen—I just don’t know when. But I believe in signs. The future is tomorrow, right?”Recently, Thomas led a cohort of Camden leaders to Baltimore to see how that city integrates the arts into its governance. What stood out was Baltimore’s arts liaison, an advocate at the mayor’s office to represent the cultural community. “That model is exactly what Camden needs,” she says. “Arts need a seat at the table; someone who understands creativity and policy.”Family, she says, keeps her honest. Her 12-year-old daughter frequently offers critiques of her work—especially her color choices. “She has a good eye,” Thomas admits. “She’ll walk into the studio and say, ‘That’s not the right shade of pink.’ And she’s usually right.”Asked if she hopes her daughter follows her into the arts, Thomas shakes her head. “I want her to be whoever she wants to be. But I do want her to live creatively, to see the world that way. Whether she’s a lawyer, a scientist or an artist, creativity is the tool that helps us navigate life.”When pressed to define herself in one word, she doesn’t hesitate. “Incomparable,” she says. “Because I’m willing to live, willing to take risks, even when I don’t know what’s next.”After a pause, she adds, “What’s next is always the same. The work. The practice. The legacy. Art makes people better. That’s really what I hope I’m leaving behind.”Ron Shipmon is an art collector, curator and certified appraiser with more than two decades of experience advising clients across contemporary, emerging and digital art markets.The post Acclaimed Artist Mickalene Thomas Finds Inspiration in Her Camden Roots appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
When Kelsey Grammer was 20 years old and making his way as an actor in Manhattan, he got horrific news. His only sibling, Karen, 18, had been abducted from the parking lot behind the Red Lobster restaurant where she worked in Colorado Springs and was repeatedly raped and murdered.For 50 years, grief dogged Grammer’s days. After a few years as a Broadway actor, he turned to television, where he played Dr. Frasier Crane, the charmingly pretentious psychiatrist on the sitcoms Cheers and Frasier, the latter one of the most successful spinoffs in television history. Playing Crane, for which he won four Emmys and three Golden Globes, was one of the longest-running roles in TV history. He’s since been an actor, voice actor, director and producer for movies, TV and Broadway shows. He won a Tony Award for best musical as producer of The Color Purple in 2016. In 2023, he reprised the role of Dr. Frasier Crane in Frasier on Paramount+.But no measure of success could heal his pain. And there was more. His father, from whom he was estranged, had been murdered in St. Thomas when he was 13, and his younger half-brothers died in a scuba diving accident in 1980, when he was 25.The death of his sister haunted him. He went through a period of drinking and drugs, though he has been clean and sober since 1996. He married four times.“I was her big brother. I was supposed to protect her,” he said at her killer’s probation hearing. “I could not; it very nearly destroyed me.”Despite his grief, or maybe because of it, Grammer never understood exactly what happened that night in 1975, or why Karen left college after one semester and headed west. Until a few years ago, that is, when he started consulting a medium who encouraged him to write about his sister and make peace with the tragedy.“I produced a show called Medium a few years ago, and I’ve kept my hand in that world a bit,” Grammer told New Jersey Monthly. A medium named Esther, he says, “came right out and said, ‘Your sister wants you to tell her story.’ ”On May 6, Karen: A Brother Remembers, was published by Harper Select, an imprint of HarperCollins Focus. It’s a memoir about Grammer’s life as well as his sister’s, a search for answers interwoven with reminiscences about their growing-up years. It’s written in a kind of stream-of-consciousness, with musings on his deepening spiritual life and literary passages that have helped him come to terms with Karen’s loss.He often reflects on the support of his wife, Kayte Walsh, to whom he has been “very happily married” for 14 years, he says. The couple have three children, Faith, Gabriel and James; Grammer has four other children from previous marriages, including two with Camille Grammer of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.Karen is also a memoir of growing up in New Jersey. The Grammers’ roots here date to before the Revolutionary War, he says; his father was born in Deal. His mother’s family moved from California to the Colonia section of Woodbridge when she was young, where her father built the first house on Surrey Lane. She attended the Vail-Deane school in Elizabeth. Grammer was born in St. Thomas, where his father published a magazine about the Virgin Islands; his parents split when he was a toddler and his mother moved back to Colonia with Kelsey and Karen into her childhood home with her parents. “It was lovely,” Grammar writes of the neighborhood. “There were a dozen children of an age who ran along the streets, played baseball, had a few fights, rode bikes, stole a kiss and grew together in nature and nurture.”When he was 10, the family moved to an apartment in Highlands, where his bedroom window had a view of the Manhattan skyline and he learned to sail and surf. He spent many happy days with Karen and his grandfather at Fort Hancock and Sandy Hook, the Atlantic Highlands Yacht Club, and Atlantic City.“Life is funny,” he says. “I spend a lot of time in Atlantic City now because I’m selling beer there.” (His Faith American Brewing Company, named for his daughter, launched in 2015.) His mother, a dancer who studied at the New School’s Mannes School of Music, took them into Manhattan to “give us a taste of the arts,” he says: science museums, Broadway shows and the Philharmonic. “It was a terrific youth,” he says. “New Jersey was a very good place to grow up.”In 1968, his grandfather retired and the family moved to Florida, but just a week later Gordon, whom he calls “the light of my life,” died of cancer. The following year, his father was murdered in St. Thomas, where he was apparently targeted as a publisher during a wave of racial violence following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.He and Karen both graduated from a private high school in Florida 1973. (Karen had skipped a year). Kelsey went on to Juilliard and Karen briefly to Berry College in Georgia before moving to Colorado. “She was a free spirit who loved freedom and adventure,” he writes.The night of her murder, Karen was in the parking lot of the Red Lobster about 11 pm, waiting for a friend to get off work, when she encountered serial killer Freddie Glenn, his accomplice Michael Corbett, and two other men who had been planning to rob the restaurant. Instead, they abducted her, brought her to an apartment where they raped her repeatedly, then to a trailer park where they stabbed her 42 times. Afterward, she managed to escape, stumbling to a neighbor’s, where she collapsed and died, leaving bloody fingerprints on the doorknob.Grammer was devastated, but tried to carry on. He’d been asked to leave Juilliard at the end of his sophomore year, just weeks before Karen was murdered, where he’d been classmates with Christopher Reeve and Robin Williams. He went on to act on Broadway, then came Cheers and Frasier. But, he writes, “All the beauty and excitement of …carving a future were modified, dimmed by seeing and living through the lens of Karen and her death.”[caption id="attachment_823039" align="alignnone" width="778"] Karen and Kelsey Grammer grew up in Colonia and Highlands, New Jersey. Photo: Courtesy of Kelsey Grammer[/caption]Glenn was eligible for parole in 2014, but at hearings over the years, Grammer has advocated to keep him behind bars. At a 2017 hearing he said, “She was so smart and good and decent. She wrote poetry and loved being alive; we could laugh for hours together ... When we heard this man might be paroled, the suffering began anew.” He has come to forgive Glenn, but says releasing him “would be a betrayal of my sister’s life.”Writing Karen, he says, launched him on a “detective” mission to find out more about Karen’s life and death, returning to their childhood homes and visiting Colorado Springs and the parking lot behind the former restaurant. “I loved finding her and her friends, many we knew together and many I did not know existed,” he writes.“Memories just flowed back,” he says. “It’s fantastic stuff that I remembered suddenly and with blinding clarity. I had no idea what I was carrying in there.”Now 70, Grammar is moving on to new projects, and despite his 2011 diagnosis with Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disorder, he remains active and upbeat. “I’m working on some new films that I’m not allowed to talk about,” he says. “Things are very good. We’re very busy now promoting the book.”The two-year process brought him close to his sister again. “I am blessed to feel her alive,” he says. “I have found Karen and I have found myself.”On Tuesday, May 6, Grammer will be at Bookends in Ridgewood signing copies of Karen.The post Kelsey Grammer Recalls His NJ Youth and Makes Peace With His Sister’s Brutal Death appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Moviegoers at Montclair's Clairidge theater who want a drink to go along with their popcorn now have a new menu of options: beer, wine, hard cider and canned cocktails.The nonprofit Montclair Film, which runs the Clairidge, is selling the drinks under a newly implemented law that allows small nonprofit movie theaters in New Jersey to sell alcoholic beverages.The menu at the Clairidge offers refreshments from New Jersey-based companies such as New Jersey Beer Co., Ironbound Hard Cider, Montclair Brewery and Opici distributors. A longtime sponsor of Montclair Film, New Jersey Beer Co. even created a special new drink: The Montclair Film Director’s Cut Blood Orange IPA, available exclusively at the Clairidge as well as across the street at Story Slams and Improv Comedy nights at Montclair Film headquarters.“We are incredibly excited to be able to offer a unique program of beverages to our patrons at The Clairidge,” says Evelyn McGee Colbert, president of the Board of Trustees at Montclair Film. “We thank Governor Murphy for helping local non-profit movie theaters with this new law, and the Montclair Town Council for approving the license for our cinema.”The law, signed by Governor Murphy in 2020, makes relatively inexpensive licenses available to nonprofit theaters with as few as 50 seats. Liquor licenses are a hot commodity in many New Jersey towns; in Montclair, recent licenses fetched prices of more than $1 million.The Clairidge is a six-screen, independent art-house theater focusing on independent, documentary and international films, as well as big-studio fare. The theater hosts conversations with filmmakers, students and community organizations, and is one of the sites for the annual Montclair Film Festival every October.“This license will enhance the entertainment experience for our patrons and will help our organization continue to grow, ensuring that the cinema is here for years to come,” says Tom Hall, artistic director at Montclair Film.For more information and movie showtimes, visit theclairidge.org.The post Montclair’s Clairidge Theater Is Now Serving Boozy Drinks appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Was there ever another television character who did such awful things and somehow made us love him so much?James Gandolfini created in Tony Soprano a fictional man who felt more real in all his contradictions—complex, soulful, angry, sexy, violent, regretful—than perhaps any other figure in TV history. As culture writer Jason Bailey describes in his richly entertaining new biography Gandolfini: Jim, Tony, and the Life of a Legend, while the Sopranos star was certainly not identical to his iconic character, he was similarly multilayered, elusive, and hard to know. After all, he writes: “If James Gandolfini wasn’t Tony Soprano, then … who was he?”Like Tony Soprano, James Gandolfini’s roots were in Italian-American New Jersey. His parents began in Brooklyn, moved to Newark, and ended up in Westwood as they raised their family. James—called Jamie by his mother and two older sisters, and Fini by his buddies at school—was the baby and only son, a good athlete, decent student, and “Class Flirt” in the yearbook.While he wowed his drama teachers in high school, Gandolfini didn’t act at all during his college years at Rutgers, but he discovered literature and fell in love. His girlfriend died in a car crash at 22, a loss Gandolfini would mention throughout his life, once saying that “she made me want to be an actor.”Gandolfini’s acting career spanned more than just Tony Soprano—he appeared on Broadway and in smaller film roles for years before booking the HBO hit in 1999, and his post-Sopranos film roles in Enough Said and Zero Dark Thirty demonstrated range beyond the mobster he made famous.His death in 2013 at just 51 while vacationing in Italy cut short the career of a powerful actor just hitting his stride. As Steven Van Zandt says in Bailey’s final chapter, “He would have been one of the greatest actors of all time. I mean, he was one of the greatest actors of all time, but he would have done a whole lot more work. And it’s a real tragedy.”The post Why New Jersey Loves James Gandolfini—and Tony Soprano—So Much appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Last October, Alex Van Halen, drummer for the legendary rock group Van Halen, was signing copies of his new memoir, Brothers, at Books & Greetings in Northvale. Opening a copy, he was surprised to find a drumstick inside. And not just any drumstick: He recognized it as one he’d used at an Asbury Park concert 45 years earlier. “Oh, my God, what is this doing here?” Van Halen exclaimed.The man who handed him the book replied, “You threw it and I caught it.” A bemused Van Halen signed the stick and the book, and the man walked away with another addition to his prolific collection of autographed drumsticks—more than 3,400 and counting.David Iozzia, a 66-year-old resident of Old Bridge, started collecting drumsticks in 1977. He was 19 and at Passaic’s Capitol Theatre when Simon Fox of Be-Bop Deluxe broke a stick and tossed it to him. Since then, the retired health insurance analyst has amassed a collection that includes the signed sticks of Ringo Starr of the Beatles, Mitch Avory of the Kinks, Carter Beauford of Dave Matthews Band, John Densmore of the Doors, Chris Frantz of the Talking Heads, Liberty DeVito, who played with Billy Joel, and D.J. Fontana, who played with Elvis.At first, Iozzia, who attends about 75 concerts a year, simply collected drumsticks caught from his favored perch in the front row. But in 2000, while at a Psychedelic Furs concert in Atlantic City, he noticed a loose drumstick on stage. He motioned to the guitar player, who kicked it “right into my hand,” he says.After that, he decided to contact drummers on social media ahead of time and ask to meet them before or after their shows to sign one of their sticks. “They were all so into it, and the collection just took off,” he says.Iozzia views drummers as the unsung heroes of bands, usually seated at the back of the stage and given short shrift by fans. “You can sometimes see that little glint of gratitude in their eyes,” he says.The ultimate example of Iozzia’s single-minded mission of lifting up the drummers was the time he attended a taping of Bruce Springsteen’s 2006 Seeger Sessions in Asbury Park, which featured a folk rock drummer named Larry Eagle. Afterward, Iozzia went backstage to have a drumstick signed by Eagle. The Boss himself offered to sign the stick, too, but Iozzia politely turned him down. “It’s all about the drummer,” he explained.No one knows New Jersey like we do. Sign up for one of our free newsletters here. Want a print magazine mailed to you? Purchase an issue from our online store.The post NJ Man Has an Epic Collection of 3,400 Signed Drumsticks appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_824125" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Mark DeLong[/caption]Chelsea Handler’s running late. Well, not really. She’s running late to the revised time of the interview, which is a half-hour earlier than the original time. So she’s running…exactly on time, which might not be what you would expect from a comedian whose onstage persona tends toward the profane and uncompromising, taking other people’s rules and breaking them. Offstage, though, she is relaxed and open, happy to discuss her youth in New Jersey and the career as a comedian, author, and actress that frequently discusses that youth.The occasion is twofold, at least—she has a new comedy special, The Feeling, that premiered on Netflix in late March on the heels of her most recent New York Times-bestselling book (seventh, if you’re counting), I’ll Have What She’s Having. Both titles refer either indirectly or directly to sexual satisfaction. This conversation also built to a peak.This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.[caption id="attachment_823517" align="alignnone" width="778"] Buy our May 2025 issue here. Photo: Mark DeLong[/caption]New Jersey Monthly: First of all, happy fairly recent birthday. You turned 50 in February. Before we move on to talk about New Jersey, I want to ask about your swimsuit ski runs. This is an event where people ski en masse in swimwear. You did one at Soldier Mountain for your birthday and then a world-record attempt at Tahoe after it?Chelsea Handler: I did the one on my birthday, then I partnered with Gold Bond to do a larger one, where anyone who was interested could participate. We had 2,000 people registered, but then they had to close down the mountain because of a blizzard. There was only the bunny hill left. So it ended up being 700 people.Did you set a world record?They broke a different world record, I think.Okay. Goodbye, Soldier Mountain and Tahoe. Hello, New Jersey. Was your family in the state for generations? Your mother was born in Germany, but what about your father’s side? Did they spend time in New York and then come out, or was it New Jersey all the way?They were in New Jersey first. My grandmother emigrated to Newark. My grandfather had an auto business, a gas station and then some auto service. When my grandfather died, my dad took over the business. He started out with three gas stations and, because he was such a good businessman, he ended up with one.[caption id="attachment_823543" align="alignnone" width="778"] Chelsea Handler, at the age of 5, in her hometown of Livingston. Photo: Courtesy of Chelsea Handler[/caption]In the new special, which we’ll get back to later, you say that you didn’t like growing up because “the thesis of childhood is so insulting.” Was this specific to New Jersey, or more general?Childhood as a whole was pretty insulting. I didn’t like the idea that there were so many guardrails. I wanted to be a woman and do my own thing. I didn’t like being hamstrung by the idea that I was such a small little defenseless thing. It wasn’t mainly about geography.Your parents tried various things to get you to buy in. One solution you talk about in the special took you out of state—it’s an East Coast van drive down to Disney World—but when you were in state, did your sense of insult let up?Livingston wasn’t bad at all. It was my family. It was my parents. My dad was a used-car dealer. Our house was strewn with used cars. We had a circular driveway on Morningside Drive, and it was like the Sanford and Son of the neighborhood. We were living in an upper-middle-class neighborhood, but we stuck out like a sore thumb. That was a big problem. I always felt like if I had been put in charge of the family, we could compete.There are all these stereotypes about New Jersey, many of them lazy. What’s the one you like the least?The main one is when people say, “What exit are you from?” That’s the question that comes up over and over again. I didn’t live off the Turnpike, so I didn’t even have an exit. But people never stopped asking. It was the most annoying, repetitive thing, almost analogous to being asked what it’s like to be a woman in comedy.So, scratch next question. New Jersey may have been just a place to grow up, but it’s also a unique place: close to New York, but not New York, with an attitude about that. Did it create you and your personality?Oh, it definitely did. It brings a nice onion. Being in New Jersey means you’re salty, down and dirty. I’m a hustler because of New Jersey. I understood at a very early age what it means to hustle. I had an attitude. I still have that attitude.[caption id="attachment_823995" align="alignnone" width="778"] Chelsea Handler as a teenager. Photo: Courtesy of Chelsea Handler[/caption]You have talked about how your high school in Livingston kept you out of their Hall of Fame as a result of your abortions—something they have denied. What's your sense of the situation with them?They thought I was too outspoken about the abortions, and that rubbed them the wrong way. I guess they’re okay with teenage pregnancy. But I barely graduated from high school, to be fair. I lived in Somerville for my junior year. I moved in with my brother. Things got carried away. I got in lots of trouble. I went back to Livingston, and they had an alternative program for people who were not able to function in the normal school program. I worked at my own pace and made up two years in a year. I think my parents figured, Let’s just get her graduated and get her the hell out of here. But I’m in the New Jersey Hall of Fame.In both your new book and your new special, you talk about an incident with Andrew Cuomo that almost led to a hook-up. Are there other governors on your list? Phil Murphy? Gavin Newsom? Sarah Huckabee Sanders?Definitely Sarah Suckabee Sanders.How about Chris Christie?Not Chris Christie. He went to Livingston High School, too. He’s in the Hall of Fame.Your second book, Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea, got turned into a sitcom in the 2010s. The pilot was not set in New Jersey, but the show was.I wanted the show to be reflective of New Jersey, the way the book was, since all of the stories took place there.It was cast very innovatively. Laura Prepon played you, and you played your sister. Why was that?Bob Greenblatt was running NBC then, and he wanted me to be in the show in some capacity. I was doing the Chelsea Lately show, and I did not have the bandwidth to be the star of the sitcom. Plus, I couldn’t. I was too old. So this was a fun way to be in it, to play my own sister.Your dad on that show was played by Lenny Clarke, a Boston-area comedian and, maybe more importantly, a Martha’s Vineyard comedian. I know we’re focusing mostly on New Jersey, but I wanted to talk about the Vineyard for a second, since about half of your new special takes place there. You summered there for decades. How did that fit into your sense of things?The Vineyard was the happy place of my childhood, the place where everything great happened. I remember it all: the five-hour drive from home, the ferry from Woods Hole. My family’s house was on the beach in Edgartown. It was a nice foil to my winter doldrums. I didn’t love going to school. I didn’t like the social aspect of school. I love learning, but I wasn’t a person who loved learning in school. So it was a reprieve every year.Did you ever go there when it wasn’t summer?The year I was in second grade, my mom wanted to go to the Vineyard in April. She took me out of school in New Jersey, and I attended the Edgartown School in the Vineyard for two months. After that, the school told me that if I stayed up there, I could skip something like three grades. That seemed like maybe that school wasn’t quite up to the standard of the school back home.But if you skipped all those grades, you could have gotten done quicker.True. My parents were not willing.Okay. Let’s get off the island and get back to New Jersey. Your new special was filmed at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair. Is that a venue you picked for location? For affection?Both. I love that venue, and it’s a nice one. I wanted to film in New Jersey because I talk so much about my childhood in this show.[caption id="attachment_823519" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Mark DeLong[/caption]Sean Baker, who directed Anora, which just won a bunch of Oscars, was a projectionist there when he was in high school. He’s a little older than you. Do you know him at all?No, but I met him at Oscar parties. I spoke to him briefly, mostly to congratulate him.I was going to ask about comedy influences anyway, but you get there in a big way in the final stretch of the special, with a New Jersey link, even. The story involves performing at the Borgata in Atlantic City as a young comic and being invited to meet Bill Cosby in his hotel room. I don’t want to spoil the story, but part of it involves this weird jet of venom coming out of Bill Cosby, which is different from the other weird jets we have heard about since. He starts yelling at the comedian who was opening for you, a man, about opening for a woman. Was it tough to have that kind of interaction with Cosby?That was the first experience of learning not to meet my idols, and that was a big one. I worshipped him growing up. Meeting him was a huge disappointment, and the first of many. My two idols, as I say, were Woody Allen and Bill Cosby. My dad also turned out to be pretty disappointing. I remember meeting Chris Matthews once. My brother-in-law was obsessed with him, and he was a guest on the Tonight Show when I was, so I flew my brother-in-law out. Chris Matthews came backstage and was talking about how beautiful I am and how he was attracted. My brother-in-law was like, “Oh my God, he has a crush on you!”Now that you are the famous person, how do you manage those expectations?I don’t know. I don’t have too many expectations with regard to celebrity or fame. I have met so many, and I’m not really excited about any of it anymore. It’s part and parcel of things. So I’m acclimated both to the disappointments and the pleasant surprises.But how about when you are either someone’s pleasant surprise or disappointment? Have you ever seen something online about an interaction that you thought was completely normal, and then a fan got a strange vibe?I’m sure that’s happened, but I don’t spend a ton of time reading about myself online. I don’t find that to be of much value. I read articles about myself, but more from a journalistic standpoint. I’m sure plenty of people would say that they have had plenty of different experiences with me, most of them positive. I’m pretty nice in public. It’s in private that things get bad.You have this great split career at this point, which is both performing your stories onstage and writing them in your books. You know how they ask songwriters whether it’s melody or lyrics first? Do you deal with these stories as written pieces first or as spoken bits of an act?Usually something will happen, and I’ll tell a story, start sharing it with people. Based on their reactions, I’ll know whether it’s a story for the stage. Writing it in the book is different. You can provide so much more context and backstory. You can do that somewhat onstage, but you are looking for jokes and punchlines along the way. There’s also a difference in preparation. I don’t overthink my performances. I am very impromptu with them. With writing, it’s a different kind of art form. This most recent book was my sixth New York Times number one bestseller. I am incredibly appreciative for the fan base coming back to me. I think it’s because they know that I am telling my truth, regardless of whether it’s embarrassing.You seem like a very creatively ambitious and driven person. Are there creative genres that you haven’t tried yet?I think I want to do more acting than I have done in the past, stretch the muscles that I haven’t stretched. I am 50 now. It feels like a reset. I love my podcast, my standup, my books. Nobody tells me what to do or when to do it. I get to go to Europe when I want, which will happen later this year. I’ll be doing a Vegas residency. And I believe that the time off is as important as the time on. It creates the experiences that create the work. Whatever I do, it has to come from that. In my very first book, I talked about one-night stands. That was taboo. Nobody wanted to buy that in America. Everyone turned it down. I sold it to Bloomsbury, a British publisher. You would think they would be more uptight. But they published it and sold it to, like, 50 countries. Then America started printing it. Other books have been about drinking and drug use, about not wanting children. Whenever there’s a subject matter I feel passionate about, I speak about it, and it turns out that I’m speaking for millions of women. There are so many women who can now admit that they don’t think they are mother material, or that they like sleeping around. I want to talk about female freedom. That’s my vibe. I want women to feel empowered.Let’s touch on politics, non-Cuomo politics. In your mind, what’s the biggest problem these days and how would you start solving it? Because the biggest problems are always the easiest to solve, of course.Elon Musk should be removed from government—period. Beyond that, I am waiting for some mass mobilization and protest, some huge women’s march. I don’t know—what is happening is very dark and very uncomfortable. It feels like watching democracy fall. I am as concerned as the next person. But I try to focus on the positive and beautiful things without looking away from what concerns me.I want to finish with some state-icon word association. I’ll just name some icons, and you give a quick reaction. Bruce Springsteen?A-plus. I love him. I saw him in Milan last year and in Oslo the year before. I love him, and I was a late Springsteen bloomer. I only started really listening to him about four years ago.Frank Sinatra?I appreciate him and his music, but I’m not a fanatical fan.Philip Roth?I know lots about him. I have read books about him, and I have read his books. I appreciate his writing. His personal life is a different question.Queen Latifah?I love her. Who doesn’t love her? She’s Jersey magic.She’s in the state Hall of Fame with you.She’d better be.That’s four New Jersey icons. Let’s end with you picking a fifth.Oh, Jon Bon Jovi. He inducted me into the New Jersey Hall of Fame. He’s a great guy. I love him. That was the first concert I ever went to.Ben Greenman is the author or coauthor of more than two dozen books and edited Unrequited Infatuations, the bestselling memoir by New Jersey icon Stevie Van Zandt.Hair by Eduardo Ponce; makeup by Courtney Hart; styling by Molly Levin; wardrobe: Agolde T-shirt, Iro leather jacket.The post Chelsea Handler Gets Real About Growing Up in Livingston and Why NJ Made Her a ‘Hustler’ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_343542" align="alignnone" width="778"] Katie Calautti in the Frenchtown Cemetery. Photo: Courtesy of Katie Calautti[/caption]For Katie Calautti, a writer living in Hunterdon County, cemeteries are not the gloomy, frightening places of horror movies. In fact, spending time in graveyards helps lift her depression and has gotten her hooked on cemetery history and artistry.“Cemeteries are such restful, peaceful places, very park-like and beautiful,” she says. “They really are calming and grounding for me.”Her passion for graveyards, and her popular Instagram series, “Pastries With the Dead,” were ignited one Sunday in 2021, when, feeling low, she drove to Frenchtown, bought a donut and hot chocolate, and wandered into the cemetery. “It matched my mood,” she says. “I was like, This is cool. I like this.”In her Instagram series, which is also on Substack, she documents her trips to New Jersey cemeteries. “Once you visit one, you start noticing that they’re everywhere,” she says. Her interest in death—“I think about it at least 100 times a day,” she says—seems to have struck a chord; her series has nearly 3,000 followers on Instagram. “People seem to be fascinated by conversations about death,” says Calautti, who is a medium and “into the death-positivity movement.”A lover of history, Calautti was also captivated by the intricate carvings and symbols on old tombstones. She’s taken a course in cemetery history with a Harvard professor and meets monthly with academics in the field. She recently took a stone-carving class in Vermont, which her followers helped fund. “There’s this whole network,” she says. “There’s even an Association for Gravestone Studies.”[RELATED: Visit These NJ Cemeteries For a Fascinating Walk Through History]
One of her favorite cemeteries is the old burial ground in downtown Westfield, which inspired Charles Addams’s New Yorker cartoons, which in turn inspired The Addams Family TV show. There, she’s found death’s head symbols (winged skulls) and “some really incredible examples of soul effigies” (a cherub or person’s face with wings), she says. “And lots of headstones with matching footstones, which is rare.”Footstones, she explains, were meant to resemble the footboards of beds where the dead could rest in peace; headstones are shaped like headboards.Westfield’s graveyard also features the “super beautiful” work of New Jersey stone carvers Jonathan Hand Osborn, Henry Osborn and Ebenezer Price. She says, “Jonathan Hand used to sign his name at the top of the stone, so his name got billing over the dead person’s, which is hilarious to me.”Another find is the cemetery’s mistake stone, where “someone misspelled something and had to actually carve it out to fix it, and there’s a hole there,” Calautti says. “They’re so fun.” There’s also a practice stone, where apprentices would try out designs on the bottom of the headstone, which would be underground, or so they thought. “But with erosion, you can see their work,” she says. “It’s so freaking cool.”Calautti thinks Covid helped move the topic of death more into the open. “In the Victorian era, death was intertwined with our lives,” she says. “People would visit cemeteries and have wakes in their parlors.” A Latin phrase, memento mori, (remember, you must die) was popular on on old tombstones, she says. “We have always been obsessed with the idea that we are not here for a long time, we’re here for a good time.”[RELATED: Haunted Attractions Sure to Scare NJ This Fall]
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post ‘Pastries With the Dead’: How Cemeteries Became a Source of Solace for This NJ Writer appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Every two years, Newark transforms into a city of poets. Thousands of musicians, artists, spectators and, yes, traditional poets gather at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and nearby venues for three days of performances, panels and activities.The largest poetry event in the country, the Dodge Poetry Festival is a biennial (every other year) festival established in 1986 by the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, a 50-year-old nonprofit that fights for an equitable and socially just New Jersey. Since 2010, NJPAC has been the festival’s home base, and this past winter, Dodge expanded its partnership with the center through a $1.7 million grant, allowing NJPAC to offer year-round poetry programming and enhancements at the festival.At the 20th festival, from Thursday, October 17 through Saturday, October 19, popular poets and artists–including Joan Baez, Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Javon Jackson and Christian McBride—plus emerging and mid-career poets—will perform and share insight on their own work.“We’re expanding the definition of poetry and spoken word, particularly as it relates to social justice and racial healing,” says David Rodriguez, NJPAC’s executive producer. “We want this to be every person’s festival.” The festival will include songwriting and collaborations between poetry and jazz, dance and hip-hop.A festival first will be a free, outdoor family-fun day at Military Park on Saturday. Tickets can be purchased online.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Dodge Poetry Festival Returning to Newark This October appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_344878" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration: Ryan Olbrysh[/caption]Who needs a song out in Hackensack? Many artists besides Billy Joel, apparently. A long list of creators of popular music, as well as screenplays, stage plays and TV scripts, have made a point of including the Bergen County city in their work. From Joel’s “Movin’ Out” to the original Superman movie and more, the town has long resonated as the exemplar of a place where common folk live just a stone’s throw—yet a world apart—from big-city glamour.Technically a city in its own right, with a population of 45,000 people, Hackensack has been showing up in cultural references since the mid-1920s, beginning with a foxtrot ditty and a Cole Porter tune and going all the way through Zoolander and beyond. More than a few of the scribes themselves maintain this is no accident.“It’s not Park Avenue, it’s not San Francisco. Basically, it’s the city in the shadow of the city,” says Kristian Fraga, an Emmy-nominated filmmaker who grew up in nearby Leonia. “You could be in Iowa and hear, ‘Hackensack, New Jersey,’ and you know immediately it’s not Manhattan.”Fraga has vivid memories of seeing Superman in 1978, shortly after it opened, and hearing Gene Hackman’s character, the villain Lex Luthor, announce the city as the target of his second missile (the first was California’s San Andreas Fault). “I was at a theater in Hackensack, and the place erupted,” he adds. “When Superman saved the day, the audience went nuts again. For a 4-year-old, it made it all feel so real.”The only surviving Superman screenwriter, Robert Benton, 91, speculates that one of his colleagues—either script doctor Tom Mankiewicz or director Richard Donner—chose Hackensack “because the name sounded funny.”But Stephen Borg—whose grandfather Charles “Charlie” Agemian, a banker and businessman whose Hackensack Trust Company merged with Superman-producing Warner Bros.— once said Charlie had told him the city “was chosen in his honor.” Borg told 201 magazine that “as a 10-year-old boy, I really never understood how he did it, but the story sure made me feel good.”Either way, both Hackensack and the Man of Steel, played in that movie by New Jersey native Christopher Reeve, prevailed. Before Superman, Hackman’s detective Popeye Doyle in the French Connection (1971) hears from colleague “Cloudy” Russo (Roy Scheider) that a suspect they’re eyeing “probably sells insurance, owns a chicken farm in Hackensack.”The city’s status as a less-than-first-class destination in disparate media began early, though in recent years the city, which has both urban and suburban portions, has undergone revitalization, with new construction and hip restaurants.In 1924, it was the vocal refrain in the song “Back in Hackensack, New Jersey,” written by Art Beiner and Don Russo. Beiner and Russo’s geographic background, why they conjured “a shack” there, and how dance-hall staple Benson Orchestra of Chicago came to record the song, all remain a mystery. Then, the 1929 Billy Murray/Walter Scanlan recording of a tune called “Shut the Door” ushered in the Depression by modifying the original lyrics to say, “I live up in Hackensack in a house down by the sea/Oh, you live up in Hackensack/Well, why blame that on me?”Their choice of Hackensack, miles from any beach, may be attributed to poetic license, but Cole Porter’s intention a year later was clear when he penned the musical The New Yorkers, a vehicle for Jimmy Durante. Its breakout number, “I Happen to Like New York,” includes the lines “I took a trip to Hackensack/But after I gave Hackensack the once-over/I took the next train back.” The show ran on Broadway for nearly a year and had several revivals; “Happen” became a Great American Songbook staple covered by Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli.By the postwar period, Hackensack had seeped into live theater—namely, Death of a Salesman. In the 1949 Arthur Miller play, a waiter named Stanley tells Happy, Willy Loman’s son, that most diners avoid the quieter part of the restaurant, preferring “a lotta action around them…but I know you, you ain’t from Hackensack. You know what I mean?” To Stanley, and probably Miller, a Hackensack resident is likely to be the boisterous life of the party.In the mid-1950s, Thelonious Monk hopped aboard the Hackensack train with a tribute to jazz engineer Rudy Van Gelder called, simply, “Hackensack,” after Van Gelder’s home-based recording studio. That same year (1954), Rear Window premiered. As Jimmy Stewart’s wheelchair-bound character, Jeff, and his nurse, Stella, spy on a neighbor apparently poised to take his own life, Stella, played by Thelma Ritter, declares that she “has handled enough rhodium triechonol pills to put everybody in Hackensack to sleep for the winter.”Steven DeRosa, the author of Writing With Hitchcock, calls Stella a “down-to-earth person with a Brooklyn accent for whom New Jersey would be a natural reference,” compared to Jeff’s socialite girlfriend, played by Grace Kelly. DeRosa points out that Ritter started her career in theater stock in Elizabeth, “but Elizabeth doesn’t have the same ring to it that Hackensack does.”Or ease of rhyme. Paired with “heart attack” in Long Island-bred Joel’s 1977 “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song),” Hackensack also lined up nicely in a 1962 country tune called “I’ve Been Everywhere,” whose laundry list of locations includes Cadillac (Michigan). The song was penned by Hank Snow and later covered by Johnny Cash. Vina Moses, a spokeswoman for the Hank Snow Home Town Museum in Nova Scotia, marvels at Snow’s facility, despite having completed only fifth grade. “It didn’t matter where he was singing about, he rhymed everything off, including your town,” says Moses.Hackensack has “a certain ring to it,” says city redevelopment director and unofficial city historian Albert Dib. That sentiment was echoed by late composer Peter Schickele, aka P.D.Q. Bach, a classics satirist responsible for “O Little Town of Hackensack.” Asked about his inspiration, his daughter Karla says Schickele “replied, with his customary chuckle, that he just liked the sound of the name.”[RELATED: The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New Jersey]
The name Hackensack comes from the language of the Achkinckeshacky tribe who inhabited the region; it translates to “mouth of a river.” This definition is fitting, since it is located along the banks of the approximately 50-mile-long Hackensack River.The city figures in another novelty song, 2018’s “If I Never Get Back to Hackensack” by veteran singer/songwriter Tom Rush, a New Hampshire native, who had a memorable gig in Hackensack; and in “Lost in Hollywood,” a 2005 heavy-metal banger by California-based System of a Down (“The lines in the letter said/We have gone to Hackensack.”)Musically speaking, nearly every modern decade is represented, especially the 1970s. On Life and Times, the last album Jim Croce released before he died, the song “Roller Derby Queen” describes the queen as “my big blond bomber, my heavy-handed Hackensack mama.” Steely Dan put their own stamp on the major metro vs. Hackensack contest with “Daddy Don’t Live in That New York City No More”: “Driving like a fool out to Hackensack/Drinking his dinner from a paper sack.”In the aughts, alt-band Fountains of Wayne intoned, “And if you ever get back to Hackensack/I’ll be here for you” on … wait for it … “Hackensack”; late Fountains songwriter Adam Schlesinger hailed from Montclair.“In my opinion, it’s just a great word to sing, and I know Adam once said the same thing,” explains former bandmate Chris Collingwood of the Welcome Interstate Managers track, later covered by Katy Perry.Movie-wise, the 1980s saw Brewster’s Millions, with late comedians Richard Pryor as a minor league pitcher and John Candy as catcher for the Hackensack Bulls, whose playing field is bisected by railroad tracks.On the small screen, The Cosby Show, the most-watched TV series of the late 1980s (despite subsequent controversy), name-checked Hackensack as well.A season 6 episode saw Vanessa and her friends playing a drinking game in which each player must call out a city starting with a letter of the alphabet. The girl who gets H bypasses Hollywood, Honolulu and Houston for the Garden State’s most oft-cited burg.In the 2001 Ben Stiller comedy Zoolander, Will Ferrell’s fashion-executive character is threatened, “Perhaps you’d like to go back to turning out novelty neckties in Hackensack.” Bride of Chucky (1998), from the slasher-comedy franchise Child’s Play, reveals that Chucky’s human body is allegedly buried in a Hackensack cemetery; the related TV series Chucky, which came out in 2021 on Syfy, employs the city as a frequent plot location.Then there’s the video game staple Grand Theft Auto, which premiered in 1997; its alternate universe comprised a district called Hackenslash.There are enough mentions to fill a house—at least, one in Hackensack.Pamela Weber-Leaf, a writer for more than 25 years, grew up a few miles from Hackensack, in New Milford.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Why Hackensack Is the Most Name-Dropped NJ City in Music, Movies and TV appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Ronald Reagan was known as the great communicator, famous for clear, powerful declarations like, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” But 40 years ago, during a New Jersey campaign stop, he made an infamous blunder.With a star-studded movie and a massive new biography about America’s 40th president both out now, it’s a good time to revisit the Gipper’s Garden State gaffe.It all began with a September 1984 speech: “We’ve come to Hammonton, just as we went to Elizabeth and Hoboken…because you’re what America is all about,” Reagan said. “America’s future rests in the message of hope in the songs of a man so many young Americans admire — New Jersey’s own, Bruce Springsteen.”His comments echoed conservative columnist George F. Will, who had recently written, “the recitation of closed factories and other problems” in Springsteen’s songs “always seemed punctuated by a grand cheerful affirmation: ‘Born in the U.S.A.!’”It was off-base, but that didn't stop Reagan from co-opting Springsteen’s working-class hero image into his “Morning in America” message of national renewal.What followed was the 1980s version of a viral blowup. The Boss’s Born in the U.S.A. album was on its way to selling 30 million copies. The title track was about a Vietnam vet born “in a dead man’s town / The first kick I took was when I hit the ground.”Springsteen—and other critics—pointed out that Reagan missed the whole point.In fact, Springsteen’s previous album, 1982′s stark, severe Nebraska, was received as a nearly nihilistic take on the Reagan years.But Born in the U.S.A. was ambiguous. While the album was full of songs about characters whose lives are being squeezed by forces beyond their control, they were delivered as raucous ‘80s rock and roll, balancing a dark message with exuberant music that sold millions.After that, Bruce became more direct in his songwriting, and more political. He supported John Kerry against George W. Bush in 2004 and stumped for Barack Obama in 2008.In this approach, he was an early adopter; it has become commonplace for musicians to wear their politics on their sleeves.For more on the Reagan-Springsteen dustup, visit Max Boot’s new 900-page biography of Reagan, Reagan: His Life and Legend.[caption id="attachment_344256" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Dennis Quaid and Penelope Ann Miller in Reagan. Photo: Courtesy of Rawhide Pictures/Rob Batzdorff[/caption]The film Reagan, which came out August 30, stars Dennis Quaid as the former president, alongside Jon Voight, Mena Suvari and Penelope Ann Miller.If you miss them, there is a monument on Hammonton’s Bellevue Avenue (Route 54) marking the spot where Reagan made his 1984 address. It makes no mention of Springsteen.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Remembering Ronald Reagan’s 1984 Visit to NJ—and His ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ Blunder appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_344072" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Put Yourself in the Picture (Roberto Lugo, 2022, Grounds for Sculpture) is a 20-plus-foot tall, oversized riff on Philly artist Roberto Lugo's ceramic pieces. Photo: Arron Andrews[/caption]Step into the larger-than-life world of Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, where you can take a bull by the horns, nosh in a three-dimensional re-creation of Monet’s garden, or snap a selfie inside a 27-foot urn, vibrantly rendered in a patchwork of color. Here, imagination is on display, and you can’t believe your own eyes. This is Seward Johnson’s world.“He’s not only the founder,” says Lynn DeClemente Losavio, chief legacy officer at the Seward Johnson Atelier, which is in part the wellspring of the sculpture park. “He is the creative architect around the ideas that were infused into Grounds for Sculpture.” Johnson, a New Jersey native who died in 2020, was zealously dedicated to his vision for learning, teaching and, most of all, expanding art.[caption id="attachment_344071" align="alignright" width="350"] Buy our October 2024 issue here. Photo: Joe Polillio/AEROJO Drone Productions[/caption]Initially a painter, Johnson left the two-dimensional world of painting at age 38, after his wife enrolled him in sculpting classes, embarking on a journey of artistic discovery that became a vocation, with a calling to educate and share. Grounds for Sculpture, opened in 1992 (and No. 1 on NJM's list of 52 things you must do in New Jersey), is the public outgrowth of Johnson’s passion. But behind the curtain of the stunning 42-acre park, peppered with nearly 300 sculptures set among pristine landscaping, lie two rare and remarkable workshops, where wide-ranging and challenging ideas take wing.[RELATED: The Best Fall Day Trips in New Jersey]
After casting his first piece—a life-size girl created in dense foam, then finished by a foundry in stainless steel—Johnson entered the work in a competition. He took home best in show and was eager for more, returning to the foundry to learn the process. “This was, like, 1969,” explains DeClemente Losavio. “The foundry owner was like, ‘No, that’s not how we do this.’” But Johnson was hooked—and undaunted. He sought out artists and craftspeople to teach him, along the way perfecting his skills and creating a community of like-minded artists.To house his new operation, in the 1980s Johnson acquired the abandoned New Jersey State Fairgrounds, with four oversized warehouses—ideal space for making sculptures that sometimes soar over 20 feet high. Johnson’s atelier became a hub for artists to learn, collaborate, teach each other and make art. “Prolific artists like Magdalena Abakanowicz and Beverly Pepper were coming in and working in the studio,” says DeClemente Losavio. “Apprentices, students and masters of the craft were all working there. It was an amazing creative space.”[caption id="attachment_344075" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Return Visit by Seward Johnson, 1991, the Seward Johnson Atelier. Photo: Arron Andrews[/caption]Inevitably, this inspired hive produced a lot of sculptures. “The artists had started putting their work in the backyard behind the building. They were pretty big pieces, so to find a place to house or display them was really difficult,” DeClemente Losavio says. During a lunchtime conversation between Johnson and a couple of other artists, the notion of turning the backyard into a showplace solidified, and the odyssey of this wonderland took shape.Today, this workshop lives on as the Seward Johnson Atelier, with a separate companion arm dedicated to new technologies, the Digital Atelier. The staff of artists, draftspeople, digital designers, fabricators, metalworkers, painters and more(many of whom multitask in these mediums), have rendered 25–30 percent of the works in the park.A tour through the atelier is wondersome with sights of various projects in different stages of completion. Beyond the swinging doors that separate the atelier’s front-office space and the workshop areas, a craftsperson is diligently hand sanding a huge block of urethane foam that is partially sculpted into what looks like the beginnings of the hull of a boat, or even a not-quite-finished arm for some humongous being. Shelves hold curious pieces like basketball-sized, neckless urethane heads with expressions that range from solemn to ghoulish as they await their next step.Around the bend from the sanding station is the mixing room, where a collection of liquidized raw tints can be blended to offer an endless spectrum of hues. “Seward’s work is designed to be outside, to be touched. You can’t use acrylic paint for that. To get the hyperrealistic finish...how do you do that?” DeClemente Losavio asks rhetorically. In a moment of creative epiphany, Johnson and his team turned to automotive paint, “because what’s more durable than that?” The automotive paint, adapted for sculptures, offers the desired weather- and fade-resistant lacquer. “The evolution of the [sculpture park’s] body of work is based on technology catching up with [Seward’s] ideas,” says DeClemente Losavio.[caption id="attachment_344077" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Nick Valenza, product lead of paint, patina and preservation, reviews the tints in the mixing room. Photo: Arron Andrews[/caption]“We can make any color an artist could ever imagine,” she asserts. For Johnson’s perhaps best-known series, “Celebrating the Familiar,” hyperrealistic figures are fashioned to look like humans and fool the eye. Creating the variations and depth of skin tones for such realism requires not just precise color mixing, but also application.Much of the paint is applied with spray guns, instruments designed for precision and detail that far exceed the potential of a rudimentary spray-paint can. The craftspeople who wield these guns are trained specialists who have earned certifications to work with these highly specialized chemicals.[caption id="attachment_344076" align="aligncenter" width="778"] The paint booth. Photo: Arron Andrews[/caption]There are a several areas for painting, but the premier spot is a 30-foot-tall paint booth—the tallest of its kind east of the Mississippi and one of a handful in the country. Outfitted with a cherry-picker-style lift, the scale of the paint booth is a draw to artists like Roberto Lugo, who painted Put Yourself in the Picture on-site.[caption id="attachment_344078" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Los Mariachis Seward Johnson, 1994, Seward Johnson Atelier, gets a fresh paint job as a staffer uses a precision spray gun to achieve a realistic, human-look finish. Photo: Arron Andrews[/caption]The studio has areas for iron- and millwork, as well as cutting-edge digital operations. The Digital Atelier, formerly the research-and-development arm of the business and once privately owned by a former atelier staffer, is now the hub for high tech creating. Johnson embraced innovation and was always eager to learn and incorporate new ways of doing things.[caption id="attachment_344074" align="aligncenter" width="778"] A metalworker makes sparks fly. Photo: Arron Andrews[/caption]Here, state-of-the-art processes, such as computerized milling, 3-D printing and digital sculpting technologies, can produce objects for projects from movie sets to video shoots and art installations. The technology can reduce months of work into weeks.[caption id="attachment_344079" align="aligncenter" width="778"] G. Frederick Morante, department coordinator at Johnson Atelier, and a sculptor with a studio on the grounds, programs the digital milling machine. Photo: Arron Andrews[/caption]The park’s permanent holdings include the work of more than 150 artists, including New Jerseyans George Segal and Willie Cole. More than 700 artists have created or commissioned work at one or both ateliers.Grounds for Sculpture is a place to “experience life and really embrace what life’s about,” DeClemente Losavio says. “Sometimes, you need to slow down and look at a piece of artwork and see what the deeper story is.”[caption id="attachment_344073" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Mask-making workshop display. Photo: Arron Andrews[/caption]Join the fun► Latex mask-making class • Wednesdays, October 4–25; 5:30–9:30 pmIn keeping with Johnson’s mission, the Seward Johnson Atelier is committed to growing and supporting art in many facets, with public workshops for budding artists and casual crafters. The four-week class takes students through the process of making molds to create wearable latex masks.►Take a private group tour behind the scenesFor more information, contact the Johnson Atelier at 609-890-7777.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Go Behind the Scenes at Grounds for Sculpture’s State-of-the-Art Workshop appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Actress Kelly Bishop was at a gas station in northern New Jersey one morning when the title for her new memoir, at the time just a few chapters underway, suddenly materialized.Best known for her supporting role as Emily Gilmore, the blue-blooded, demanding and deliciously sardonic matriarch on the quirky TV comedy-drama Gilmore Girls (2000-2007), Bishop was dressed down in sweats, sunglasses and a baseball cap when a teenage boy gently approached her. (Fans “come out of the strangest places,” she muses.)He’d recognized what Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino refers to in the memoir’s foreword as Bishop’s unmistakable “whiskey voice,” and relayed that he’d been binge-watching the show on Netflix. Emily was his favorite character, and would always be, he assured her, “the third Gilmore Girl.” (The show stars two: Emily’s daughter, Lorelai, played by Lauren Graham, and granddaughter, Rory, played by Alexis Bledel.)It wasn’t the first time she’d heard a fan invoke that phrase, but amid her current absorption in building a book, it seized her. The Third Gilmore Girl, out now (Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster), traces Bishop’s life up to and beyond her career-defining role on the beloved series—from her ballet roots out West, to her Tony-winning role in Broadway’s original production of A Chorus Line, to her unexpected gig in Dirty Dancing, to her decades-long marriage to TV personality Lee Leonard.[caption id="attachment_344264" align="alignnone" width="778"] Bishop (top right) in Gilmore Girls with Edward Herrmann (top left) and, from bottom left, Lauren Graham, Alexis Bledel and David Sutcliffe. Photo: Courtesy of Gallery Books/Photofest/WB/Ron Batzdorff[/caption]The quotidian scene of Bishop, who has lived in South Orange for nearly 30 years, stopping to fuel her car in loungewear and happily chat with a stranger is a far cry from the “severe, uncompromising” character of Emily Gilmore, as Bishop describes her—who sports Chanel suits and discards maids like Kleenex, turns up her nose at her granddaughter’s high-school commute (“I hate that she takes the bus. Drug dealers take the bus.”) and, in one episode, refuses a breathalyzer after a police officer pulls her over (“Young man, I don’t know where that’s been,” she drawls, eyeing him with arctic disdain, “but I can say with absolute certainty, it won’t be going anywhere near my mouth.”)Although inherently elegant, self-assured and occasionally, as she recounts in her memoir, coolly confrontational when warranted, Bishop, 80, unlike her most popular on-screen persona, has maintained a lifelong aversion to snobbery.“I think there is so much pretense with people when they're striving for not only social acceptance, but some sort of elite place or group of people,” she tells New Jersey Monthly. “A lot of covering; a lot of wearing the right outfit and having the right diamond ring—all that stuff that frankly doesn't interest me too much.”Bishop has been “strong-willed about what worked for me and what didn’t for as long as I can remember,” she writes in her memoir. Born Carole Jane in Colorado Springs, she grew up in Denver with an older brother, Tony. Not dissimilar to the dynamic between her future TV daughter and granddaughter on Gilmore Girls, Bishop’s mother, Jane, was her “best friend.” Her father, Lawrence, on the other hand, was a “detached, mean, alcoholic bully,” whose family lived in frequent fear of his rage and abuse. Life was “peaceful” when he was away, which he often was, working various airline jobs and philandering.As a child, Bishop loved sitting on a stool beside her mother as she pressed her husband’s shirts at the ironing board. “She was a lonely woman…and when I kept insisting that I couldn't go to sleep, which I couldn't, then we’d get into these talks,” Bishop recalls to us. “She's the one who opened up so many thoughts for me and told me so many stories that may have even been inappropriate for a child my age. But she made me very sophisticated as a result.”Since her first day of kindergarten, Bishop detested school, where she seldom spoke or socialized. When she was eight, her mother, a ballet enthusiast, began giving her lessons on their basement linoleum, hoping to invigorate her. Instantly, Bishop was hooked. It “lit a fire in me that ended up defining my future,” she writes. Her father refused to pay for ballet classes, so her mother started playing piano at Denver’s American Ballet Theatre in exchange for Bishop’s tuition.At 18, itching to make a living as a dancer, Bishop moved to New York City, staying with family friends from Denver in the Bronx upon her arrival. She was crushed not to be accepted into the American Ballet Theatre’s company, but soon joined Radio City Music Hall’s corps de ballet—the “far lesser-known dance troupe” with “a separate stage door from the Rockettes,” she writes.After her considerable quietude as a schoolgirl, and as a young ballet dancer—“you don’t talk at all; you don’t even make facial expressions, really, or you can get into trouble,” she says—living on her own on the mean streets of Manhattan saw her begin to speak up more freely.“I’d spent so many years in a nonverbal place that once my mouth opened up, my heavens—I couldn’t believe what was coming out of it sometimes,” Bishop chuckles. “And then it felt good to be able to express myself, so I continued to do so the rest of my life.”Someplace along the way, she also discovered she was funny. “And I loved being funny—so that [kept] me talking,” she adds.In the 1960s, Bishop worked as a Las Vegas showgirl—briefly leaning on “pep pills” (amphetamine) amid her grueling schedule—and danced in two Broadway shows: Golden Rainbow (starring Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé) and Promises, Promises (created by Burt Bacharach, Hal David and Neil Simon). In the latter, she met her first husband, Peter Miller, who turned out to be a compulsive gambler. He “pretty much cleaned me out, emotionally and financially,” she writes. Their five-year marriage ended in a messy, two-year-long divorce.In 1975 came Bishop’s big break: a principal role as Sheila Bryant in Broadway’s A Chorus Line. The musical sold out on opening night, became a major tourist attraction, and was credited with saving Broadway from a years-long decline. It “changed my life,” she writes. Composer Marvin Hamlisch and lyricist Edward Kleban even based one of the songs, “At the Ballet,” on real-life childhood reminiscences Bishop had shared in the show’s early brainstorming sessions.She won a Tony for her performance—best featured actress in a musical—and took a photo that night with Edward Herrmann, who’d won best featured actor in a play. Unbeknownst to both of them, they’d reunite a few decades later on Gilmore Girls as TV husband and wife. (Herrmann died in 2014 after a battle with brain cancer, not long before a 2015 reunion of the series' cast members at the ATX TV Festival in Texas; an empty chair graced the stage in his honor.)A decade after A Chorus Line—and following stints like her first TV acting job in an episode of Hawaii Five-O (1976); her first small movie role in An Unmarried Woman (1978); guest spots in soap operas; and a stock job on a traveling tour of Rodgers and Hart musical Pal Joey (1983)—Dirty Dancing came calling.Bishop was originally cast in the small role of Vivian, a Kellerman’s resort guest interested in seducing Patrick Swayze’s character, Johnny. She writes that it had taken her “a minute and a half” to learn her lines—so when the producer requested a two-week rehearsal, she was bewildered. She concluded that she’d be asked to shoot some dancing scenes with Swayze, which suited her just fine.When she arrived on set in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, she was instead offered the role of Marjorie Houseman, mother of Jennifer Grey’s character, Baby. “Frankly, the role…hadn’t really leaped off the page at me,” she admits in the memoir. But, thrilled by the prospect of working on a film from start to finish, in such a beautiful location to boot, she accepted.[caption id="attachment_344173" align="aligncenter" width="677"] Kelly Bishop's memoir is out now from Gallery Books.[/caption]There was “such comfort between the crew and the cast” who were “stuck together on those mountains,” she says fondly, recalling such “mischievous” fun as being slipped alcoholic beverages toward the end of filming the final dance number, which took four or five days. “None of us thought [the movie] was gonna be any good,” she says. “I mean, we didn’t think it was gonna be a hit”—until they heard the “delightful” soundtrack. She still gets chills when she hears the closing song, “(I've Had) The Time of My Life.”In 2000, on the heels of The Sopranos’ debut and ensuing craze the previous year, Bishop’s agent sent her a pilot script. “Refreshingly, the title didn’t sound Italian at all,” she writes. Upon reading, it was “love at first sight….The dialogue was smart, razor-sharp, and unpredictable. The humor was a delight, and utterly unique.” Bishop phoned her agent immediately with an “emphatic ‘Yes, please.’”Gilmore Girls originally aired on the WB (now CW) and is currently streaming on Netflix (along with its 2016 revival miniseries, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.) It follows free-spirited single mother Lorelai Gilmore as she raises her bookish 16-year-old daughter, Rory, in the fictional small town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut. The show is revered for its unabating stream of witty banter; its sweeping, and sometimes irreverent, cultural and historical references; and its revolving door of eccentric characters (“I’m fascinated by oddballs,” Bishop says).[caption id="attachment_344202" align="alignnone" width="778"] Kelly Bishop, Alexis Bledel and Lauren Graham at the 2016 premiere of Netflix's Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life.[/caption]The chance to inhabit high-society matriarch Emily Gilmore was exciting for a number of reasons. “For so long, I was kind of pigeonholed into this sexy girlfriend type,” Bishop says. “And that was fine—but to suddenly be this very classy, wealthy woman, it put me into another category.”Not to mention, she writes, playing a “cold, condescending, emotionally distant” mother is “infinitely more fun than playing a nice one.”Some of the show’s storylines also posed an opportunity to explore her own family dynamics. She actually modeled Emily after her own grandmother, Louise, who—like Emily’s daughter, Lorelai—became pregnant at 16. She felt “a lot of sympathy” for Louise, despite the fact that she was “awful” to Bishop’s mother. “Just a tough, tough woman,” she recalls. “Very classy—without the money—but certainly a taste and dignity, and a good front.”Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino writes in the memoir’s foreword that she knew she’d found Emily “three words” into Bishop’s audition, noting her “perfect comic timing.” Indeed, Bishop volleyed lines from the famously dense scripts to her fellow fast-talking cast members with balletic ease and precision.Both women—Sherman-Palladino in her writing, Bishop in her acting—also let Emily’s insecurities and vulnerabilities seep through cracks in her upper-crust veneer, deftly offsetting some of her more villainous qualities.Bishop reunited with Sherman-Palladino to star alongside Sutton Foster on the one-season ABC Family series Bunheads (2012-2013), and, most recently, for three guest appearances on Amazon Prime Video’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which ended last year.Bishop moved to South Orange in 1995 with her dear husband of nearly 40 years, Lee Leonard, who hosted programs on ESPN (its first-ever), CNN and News 12 New Jersey. He died in 2018 following years of difficult illnesses.Though Bishop says she’s had to “just accept the fact that I’m gonna miss him every day for the rest of my life,” she feels “blessed” to have experienced such a loving partnership: “There are a lot of people who have successful marriages who didn’t have that kind of comfort and communication and fun.”Bishop lives a “rather quiet life” in the Garden State these days, keeping to a “very small radius” in South Orange, Maplewood, Millburn, Livingston and West Orange. She does Pilates in Millburn, and lives “an eight-minute drive” from Paper Mill Playhouse, where she sits on the advisory board. (Her commute decades earlier, while dancing in a production at the theater? Hitching a ride from Manhattan on the back of a fellow dancer’s bike. “We’d hop on his motorcycle [and onto] the Turnpike,” she recalls.)She’s comfortable around so many New York transplants and commuters—“the same level of sophistication that you find in the city; the same intelligence”—and has always appreciated her community's multiculturalism.Whenever “racial issues arise” in the country, she says, “I want to bring people on tours of my neighborhood,” where residents of all races and nationalities “get along so well.” Passing strangers look each other in the eye and exchange pleasantries. “There's a real civility about living here.”Often she sits out on her deck, reveling in the trees and green and silence.“I am now,” she declares, “a Jersey girl.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post ‘Gilmore Girls’ Star Kelly Bishop Lives a ‘Rather Quiet Life’ in New Jersey appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_343531" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Artist Ricky Boscarino lives and works at Luna Parc. Photo: John Bessler[/caption]Ricky Boscarino’s home is the playhouse we all wanted as children—at least, on the outside.It’s Antoni Gaudi on acid, all bright colors and whimsy, mosaics and carved wooden gingerbread, curved walls and a fence made entirely of crutches, and an entrance that resembles an artichoke—altogether, a haphazard assemblage of whimsy 35 years in the making.But what’s inside might frighten a youngster. There are about a dozen mannequins, including an Eagle Scout, a soldier in a Soviet officer’s uniform, and a bride dressed in Boscarino’s mother’s wedding gown, which hovers 11 feet off the floor in a corner of the ballroom. Not to mention the taxidermy.[caption id="attachment_343947" align="aligncenter" width="778"] An explosion of color, materials and textures can be seen on Luna Parc's exterior. Photo: John Bessler[/caption]Artists’ homes usually provide a hint about their work. But for 64-year-old Boscarino, the 15-room house, which he calls Luna Parc after an amusement park outside of Rome, is his work.Luna Parc, located in Sandyston, a rural hamlet in the northwest corner of New Jersey, is a repository of quirky collections and a showcase for Boscarino’s mosaics and sculptures. Its roots go back to his childhood in Piscataway, where he collected rocks, insects and minerals.“My room became a bit of a spectacle,” says Boscarino. His mother often urged guests to check it out.[caption id="attachment_343533" align="aligncenter" width="778"] The entrance to Luna Parc resembles an artichoke. Photo: John Bessler[/caption]Those childhood finds have grown into a room Boscarino calls the Nature Lab, which features a 200-year-old human skeleton and a taxidermy collection that includes a pearl-necklace-adorned deer and the terrifying head of a Cape Buffalo—“the meanest animal on the planet,” Boscarino points out.In addition to the Nature Lab, there are the Hall of Hats (where most of the mannequins reside), a Zen room, a library filled with art books, a gift shop, one bedroom, and a single but spectacular bathroom covered with mosaics and festooned with old hospital bedpans. There’s also a crypt, where Boscarino plans to have his ashes interred.[caption id="attachment_343943" align="aligncenter" width="778"] A fence made of crutches. Photo: John Bessler[/caption]It was while attending the Rhode Island School of Design that Boscarino discovered camp and kitsch. “That’s when I developed this brain of curating,” Boscarino says. His collections have become exponentially more idiosyncratic: rotary phones, colanders, lava lamps, dentures and dental molds, eye wash cups and glass eyes, to name a few. He’s also a compulsive buyer of outsider art created by self-taught artists.[caption id="attachment_343944" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Photo: John Bessler[/caption]To support himself, Boscarino is always working relentlessly. He opens his house to visitors at certain times in the spring and the fall, charging admission, and teaches classes in mosaic making and concrete sculpting in the summer (check Luna Parc's website for a schedule).He makes and sells silver and bronze jewelry in the shapes of insects, acorns, squid, Fallopian tubes and many other unexpected objects. And he also crafts ceramic face pots, inspired by vessels made by slaves in the 19th century; Boscarino’s depict figures like Amy Winehouse and Frida Kahlo, as well as a wide variety of made-up creatures, some with sadistic grins.[caption id="attachment_343945" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Photo: John Bessler[/caption]Lately, and lucratively, he has begun making large wind sculptures for lawns. All this happens when he’s not working on the house itself.Though Boscarino sometimes calls himself a madcap artist, he’s quite serious about Luna Parc. He’s created a nonprofit foundation that will inherit the house.[caption id="attachment_343948" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Art is everywhere. Photo: John Bessler[/caption]“When I die,” he says, “I want Luna Parc to be up there in the great homes of America,” like Vizcaya, Biltmore and Monticello. Though it’s hard to think of the exuberant Luna Parc in the same category as Thomas Jefferson’s symmetrical, brick, neoclassical manse, it happens to be Boscarino’s favorite American house.If only Jefferson had seen some John Waters movies.[caption id="attachment_343946" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Boscarino works with unconventional items like license plates. Photo: John Bessler[/caption]“It’s basically like living in a museum,” Boscarino says of Luna Parc. “I’m very comfortable here. I don’t even notice the mannequins.”[RELATED: One-of-a-Kind Point Pleasant Home Built Around Century-Old Trolley Car]
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Welcome to the Quirkiest Home in New Jersey appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Adam Sandler is the newest resident of New Jersey—at least temporarily.The comedy icon and his family have moved to the Garden State for the time being while he is here filming Happy Gilmore 2 this fall, New Jersey Monthly has confirmed.Sandler, 58, was said to have looked at houses in places like Montclair and Llewelyn Park (the historic gated community in West Orange where Whoopi Goldberg lives) for himself, his wife Jackie, and their younger daughter, Sunny. His older daughter, Sadie, recently started her freshman year at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts—her father’s alma mater.Sandler, Jackie and Sunny—who appeared last year in the Netflix comedy You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah alongside Sadie—have been spotted all over the Garden State in recent weeks. Sandler's been everywhere from Goldberg’s World Famous Deli & Bagels in Millburn, where he posed for photos with the owners, to the swanky French restaurant Faubourg in Montclair, to the Montclair Golf Club, where we hear he ate lunch with his daughter.[caption id="attachment_343792" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Adam Sandler visited Lokl in Morristown earlier this month. He's pictured here with George Stogioglou, the son of the café's owner. Photo: Courtesy of Lokl Café[/caption]Sandler's been spotted twice at the small coffee shop Lokl Café in Morristown, where he stayed for quite a while, says owner Panos Stogioglou.“We were very excited about it. It was a nice surprise,” he says. “He was super friendly and was there for a long time, taking pictures with all the staff.”Last month, the sequel to the 1996 hit comedy Happy Gilmore held an open casting call at the Hyatt Regency in Morristown, where people came out in droves for a chance at background work.The flick is set to shoot in Bergen, Essex, Monmouth, Morris and Somerset counties from September through November.The original movie was about an unsuccessful hockey player (Sandler) who learned he had a talent for golf.The sequel's cast is set to include Bad Bunny and Travis Kelce alongside Sandler, as well as Julie Bowen, of Modern Family fame, and Christopher McDonald, who will both reprise their roles.The film is being directed by Kyle Newachek, who also directed Sandler in Murder Mystery with Jennifer Aniston in 2019. Sandler is also a writer on Happy Gilmore 2.Happy Gilmore 2 is officially in production, according to Netflix’s social media accounts, which recently showed a shot of Sandler in costume. Sandler shared the post on Instagram and wrote: “It ain’t over. The way I see it… we’ve only just begun.”Filming already took place at Steve’s Burgers, a popular spot on Route 46 in Garfield, as well as in locations in Montclair and South Orange. Reports have said the movie will film at the high-end country club Fiddler's Elbow in Bedminster, which has a beautiful golf course.One Montclair family rented their house out to the production crew for the next several months, New Jersey Monthly has learned.In recent years, an influx of movies and TV shows have decided to film in New Jersey after Governor Phil Murphy reinstated generous tax incentives for projects shooting in New Jersey, giving Jersey the nickname of "Hollywood East."Sandler has been nominated for three Grammys, five Primetime Emmys, a Golden Globe and a SAG Award. Last year, Sandler was awarded the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.Sandler is known for his distinctive style of dressing. In fact, in 2021, Vogue named him the year’s fashion icon for popularizing the “grocery-run look,” which includes wearing oversized T-shirts, XXL-sized pants and Nike sneakers.We're sure he'll fit in just fine here in New Jersey.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Adam Sandler Is Living in New Jersey While Filming ‘Happy Gilmore 2’ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
On Saturday, September 14, the busiest road in Montclair will be even busier than usual—but instead of cars, it will be filled with jazz lovers and musicians.The occasion is the grand finale of the 15th Annual Montclair Jazz Festival, also known as the Downtown Jamboree, featuring some of the top names in jazz performing on two stages along the half mile of Bloomfield Avenue from Grove Street to Midland Avenue, which will be closed to traffic. Also performing will be teaching artists and musicians from Jazz House Kids, the Montclair music education nonprofit that hosts the festival."One of the hallmarks of the Montclair Jazz Festival is to bring the very best of new and upcoming talent to the stage, coupled with an all-star cast of legendary artists we are excited to bring to town,” says Christian McBride, the nine-time Grammy-winning bassist and artistic director of both the festival and Jazz House Kids. “More than 250 artists will be featured over the course of the festival—and one of my favorite comedians on the scene today, Alonzo Bodden.”Andromeda Turre, host on SiriusXM’s Real Jazz channel, will host the main stage.The event, which runs from noon to 8 pm, is free. Bloomfield Avenue will be lined with food and beverage stalls featuring options from Montclair’s vibrant dining scene, plus other merchants. At the Wellmont Arts Plaza, the Verizon Family Jazz Discovery Zone will have music, art and movement activities geared toward kids and their families from noon to 4 pm.A post-festival dance party from 8 to 10 pm at the main stage at Lackawanna Plaza will feature McBride as DJ, along with Prince Hakim, who has deejayed at Bonnaroo, Art Basel and New York clubs. The event, a free festival tradition, features McBride curating tunes under the moniker DJ Brother Mister. McBride is married to Melissa Walker, the founder and force behind Jazz House Kids. He's also artistic director of Rhode Island's Newport Jazz Festival, and host of the NPR show Jazz Night in America.The Montclair Jazz Festival has come a long way from its humble beginnings in Montclair’s Nishuane Park as an impromptu location for Walker’s music students to perform for their parents after summer camp. With that recital, Jazz House Kids was born, and the Nishuane gathering grew to epic proportions. Three years ago, the locale switched to downtown Montclair, in a partnership with the town’s Business Improvement District.The festival has also evolved into a summer-long event, with free performances at the Wellmont Arts Plaza leading up to the September finale. This summer featured Wallace Roney Jr., the Jason Marshall Quartet, the Ries Brothers; and a Prince/David Bowie tribute band, among others.For the full schedule of Saturday’s Downtown Jamboree performances, or to make a donation to Jazz House Kids, visit the festival's website.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Montclair Jazz Festival Expected to Draw Up to 20,000 Music Lovers appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
When Chloe Troast, a 27-year-old actress who grew up in Ho-Ho-Kus, joined Saturday Night Live in 2023, New Jerseyans were thrilled to see one of our own making us laugh. But when Season 50 premieres next month, Troast won't be among the cast."Unfortunately I was not asked back to SNL this season," she wrote in an Instagram post this week. "I wish I was going back to be with all the amazing friends I made there, it truly felt like home. But it wasn't in the cards."Since the announcement, fans have rallied around Troast with messages on social media like, "literally just talked to my therapist about how wrong it is for SNL to fumble chloe troast so hard." and "Chloe Troast was such a standout from last season. Really surprised she wasn't asked back." On a positive note, loyalists can see the actress on the stage and screen. She completed her comedy tour this summer and appears in the HBO Max feature film Sweethearts, which comes out November 28.Prior to this week's news, New Jersey Monthly sat down for a chat with the actress about her New Jersey upbringing, her early interest in comedy and what she loves watching on TV. At the time this interview was conducted, we (and Troast) did not yet know that she wouldn't be returning to SNL this season.How did you become interested in sketch comedy?I became interested in high school. A teacher asked if I’d ever heard of the Upright Citizens Brigade (a comedy theater and comedy school in New York City) and I hadn’t, so at the end of my junior year of high school I would take the train into the city and take UCB classes. I saw so much improv and sketch that summer and caught the bug.How did growing up in New Jersey influence you as a performer?Growing up in New Jersey was super formative. Being so close to the city, I was lucky to see shows in New York with my parents. There are so many professional actors that live in New Jersey and teach classes and run theater camps. We’re really spoiled being so close to New York, the opportunities to see and meet and learn from the best is unlike anywhere else. I also just love New Jersey. I love the people of New Jersey. I grew up with a lot of funny people. They taught me everything I know. I did tons of theater in high school. I went to Northern Highlands but I ended up doing all my theater at the all-boys’ school St. Joseph’s. They let any girls from the surrounding area audition for their shows. I give so much credit to that place for shaping me as a performer. I met the most talented people there. Also Saddle River Youth Theater was probably the place I did the most shows of my life. That’s where I fell in love with theater.[caption id="attachment_343747" align="aligncenter" width="1000"] From left: Chloe Troast as Mama Cass appears alongside host Emma Stone as Mitch Lester during an SNL sketch in December 2023. Photo: Will Heath/NBC[/caption]What was the Saturday Night Live audition process like?The audition for the show was super surreal. I auditioned and screen-tested last year, and then I was like, 'Well that was all I could have ever hoped for!” and then they asked me back to screen test and I was like, “Ok!” Then it happened. Both times were the two most nerve-wracking days of my life. Walking out there and performing on the stage that you only see on TV, it makes you kinda black out. But once you hear the first chuckle out of the people in the room watching, you’re like, “Oh this is just a show, pretend it’s just a show!”What is the writers’ room process like at Saturday Night Live?The writing process is interesting. Most everything that appears on the show Saturday was started on Tuesday of that week. Writers and cast will pitch ideas on Tuesday afternoon. We usually take all night writing sketches. Then on Wednesday, we get up early, edit the sketches and send them off to the producers. The producers pick about 40 sketches to read at table. And we spend the entire afternoon/evening reading 40 sketches with the host. Some things score, some things flop. Then they pick the best 13 or so, and we rehearse and edit them until dress rehearsal on Saturday. Then between dress and air about three things get cut. And that’s kinda the whole thing.Who are your favorite past or current members from SNL? Who has inspired you?I feel like the crew of people with Fred Armisen, Bill Hader and Kristin Wiig was the era of the show that I watched growing up and definitely had the most impact on me. I was super into Documentary Now and Portlandia at the same time, and those ventures really inspired me. There are also so many legendary women from the show that I am in awe of: Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, Rachel Dratch, the list goes on.Favorite sitcoms? Favorite shows on TV right now?I grew up watching SpongeBob pretty religiously. It has affected me deeply. I sorta think in cartoons. I was also a big musical theater person, so I was deeply into (Stephen) Sondheim and stuff at a young age. I was also a YouTube kid—I spent many nights watching makeup tutorials and stuff. Favorite show out now—I loved Stath Lets Flats (on HBO Max), an amazing hybrid of scripted and improvised TV. And, honestly, I loved Succession because it was serious and all that, but also because it was genuinely funny. The show wanted you to laugh at people’s struggles sometimes and I love that.Have you written any sketches for the show? If so, which are you most proud of?I’ve written a few sketches this year that have made it on! Which is really crazy and cool. Probably the one I’m most proud of is Little Orphan Cassidy, which was my first sketch on. It felt like something that was so me, and so weird, and I couldn’t believe it was happening every time it kept getting closer to being on air. I was like, how is this happening? I definitely kinda blacked out during that, too.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Chloe Troast Says NJ Roots Helped Launch Her Comedy Career appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
For Eileen Chapman, director of the Bruce Springsteen Archives, music has always been a kind of home. Her mother was a gifted pianist; her father adored the crooners. “I’m one of five girls, and we each had a record player in our room,” she says. Her childhood house in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Newark was equipped with a basement stage, where her older sisters’ boyfriends played with their bands. A young Frankie Valli rehearsed in her best friend’s yard right next door.As a 20-something in Asbury Park, Chapman lived on the same block as members of the Blackberry Booze Band and the Asbury Jukes, whom she watched perform all over the Jersey Shore (including at the Stone Pony, which she’d manage years later). These days, she sets alerts for favorite artists—Jackson Browne, Jimmy Buffett, the Ramones—on her car’s Sirius radio, while her Alexa speaker welcomes her back from work with tunes at 6 pm every night. “When I think of almost any time in my life,” she reflects fondly, “I can hear a song that went along with it.”It’s fitting, then, that down a tree-lined driveway on the edge of Monmouth University’s campus in West Long Branch, Chapman, 72, directs the daily operations inside an unassuming Cape Cod-style cottage that currently serves as the home base of the Bruce Springsteen Archives. The official repository for preserving the legacy of the Boss (who turns 75 this month), it’s a jewel of a resource—still relatively under the radar—for researchers, historians, writers, filmmakers and fans.Last fall, the archive unveiled plans for a $45 million expansion to a shiny new 30,000-square-foot structure at Monmouth. (“I will try to do my best,” Springsteen joked at the announcement event, “to do nothing for the rest of my life to embarrass a building.”)Slated to open in April 2026, the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music will also serve as a broader celebration of America’s musical history and pioneers. Plans include a 250-seat theater, exhibition galleries, interactive elements, and educational initiatives. (A partnership with Steven Van Zandt’s nonprofit, TeachRock, is already underway.)[caption id="attachment_343899" align="alignnone" width="778"] “Every donation has a story to go with it, which I always love to hear,” Chapman says. Photo: Krista Schlueter[/caption]In the meantime, the archive remains in its charmingly scrappy setting, which Chapman has helmed for more than a decade with a refreshing down-to-earthiness and lack of red tape.It’s not unusual for repositories of similar stature to deny fan access and require formal proof of research projects—but the Springsteen Archives is “much more relaxed,” explains Chapman, whose desk bears a small placard with bubble letters inked in black marker that reads “THE BOSS.”“Of course, we’re very careful with everything—preservation is our primary concern—so people come in, they put on gloves; we stare them down to make sure that they’re taking care of the items. But we want people to be able to see what we have,” she says.To schedule an appointment, email echapman@springsteenarchives.org with at least two weeks’ notice.Visitors come from all over, sometimes with kids, parents or unannounced guests in tow. The bachelorette party of 16 women, decked out in festive attire and psyched for a tour of the compact space, “was a little bit unexpected,” Chapman laughs. Another day, a knock at the door revealed two guys on a road trip from Florida. They were headed to a show at the Pony, but had heard about the archive and “just needed to get in and see it,” she says with a smile. Recalling a widower’s recent visit, she wells up. “It’s sometimes very emotional.”Depending on visitors’ particular interests or projects, Chapman might also introduce them to such locals as Carl “Tinker” West, Springsteen’s first manager, or Vini Lopez, an early E Street Band drummer. If an out-of-towner wants to stop by another nearby landmark—say, the Stone Pony, rock photographer Danny Clinch’s gallery, or the humble bungalow where Springsteen wrote most of his Born to Run album—she’s happy to drive them there herself in her silver Ford Explorer.The archive receives a steady stream of offerings, especially as Springsteen fans age, downsize, or move away from the area. “Every donation has a story to go with it, which I always love to hear,” Chapman says, remembering the woman who found a Springsteen family Bible on the last day of a Middletown house sale for a staggering $5. (It now lives at the archive in a custom-made protective box.)“I think people feel comfortable donating their items here because they know they’re going to be preserved…[and] made accessible,” she says. “They’ve got visiting rights anytime they want—but so do fans throughout the whole world.”Chapman estimates that the current archive holds 40,000 artifacts, tidily contained in rows of beige boxes on floor-to-ceiling shelves. Pieces range from magazines, newspapers and books to posters, ticket stubs and textiles to meticulous scrapbooks kept by Springsteen’s late mother, Adele.Up on the second floor, on a sunny afternoon in late June, two student employees sit cross-legged on the floor, quietly cataloging papers. Fan-made concert signs and Springsteen-inspired wines—one for each album—dwell in the basement. On the main level, sheet music for “Jungleland” is perched atop a corner piano that once belonged to Southside Johnny’s family.Unwieldy items, like pieces of colorful walls recovered from Asbury Park’s iconic but long-shuttered Upstage Club—since turned into condos—await their fates. “We even utilize the bathtub,” Chapman confesses, later pulling back a white curtain to reveal a mountain of boxes. “Until the new building is built, we are scrambling for space.” (A note taped to the restroom mirror: “Bruce says you’re PERFECT.”)Chapman moved to Asbury Park in 1974, the same year the Stone Pony opened. Her parents owned a shop on the boardwalk called Country Kitchen Fudge and Peanuts, which she managed, churning out fudge, popcorn and candy apples (and constantly scalding her arms on the steam that poured out of the nut roasters). She loved the people-watching, the boardwalk characters and the Casino building’s frequent concerts, just steps away.Her father became a passionate city manager in the 1970s, walking the streets daily to strike up conversations with locals and visitors. He referred to himself simply as Bill from Asbury Park.Chapman, too, went on to become a pillar of her community. She managed Mrs. Jay’s Beer Garden in the early 1980s, and opened Jersey’s first all-CD store, which she ran in Belmar from the mid-’80s to 2000. She managed the Fast Lane for a year, and then the Pony from 2000 to 2003, during which time she purchased its first outdoor stage. (Her “amazing and supportive” husband, Tom, built its first outdoor bar.) She’s served on Asbury Park’s city council since 2016. “I think you always have to feel like you’re in the right place at the right time,” she says.The archive’s founding collection started out as a fan project. In 2000, editor Chris Phillips and his team at the beloved international Springsteen fanzine Backstreets, which ceased publication last year (and whose founder, Charles R. Cross, passed last month), put out a call for fan donations—especially old press clippings—for research purposes. Their plan was to create an archive that would ultimately become accessible to the public.The resulting 700-piece collection found a temporary home in the Asbury Park Public Library; Chapman attended the grand opening. In 2010, while working at Monmouth’s Center for the Arts, she read in the paper that the collection had outgrown the library, scattering items among fans’ houses around the United States. She reached out to her longtime friend Bob Santelli, a music historian, journalist and educator, and one of the original curators of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Santelli, then the executive director of the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, had always dreamed about Monmouth (which he attended, and where he later taught) being a “hub for music research,” Chapman says. She pitched the university as the archive’s permanent residence; many conversations with Santelli, school officials and the Friends of the Bruce Springsteen Special Collection (run by Phillips and local preservationist Bob Crane), followed.Monmouth’s library was not equipped to handle the growing collection, so then-president Paul Gaffney offered an empty, unfurnished house on Cedar Avenue. Chapman recalls thinking that the collection had likely increased to a few thousand pieces; she didn’t realize there were 15,000 until everything was nearly en route to campus.The friends of the collection cataloged all the items as they came together under one roof—a massive, monthslong effort. “Almost every day was a learning curve for a while,” says Chapman, who created a formal documentation process. She joined a network of the Society of American Archivists for modest archival teams, then called the Lone Arrangers.But how did the archive house become Springsteen’s official repository? Both Chapman and Santelli had long assumed that Springsteen’s personal papers would eventually go to the Cleveland-based Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. One day in 2017, Santelli phoned Chapman. “I have an idea,” he told her. “Why don’t we ask Bruce about bringing his papers to Monmouth?”Chapman thought it couldn’t hurt for Santelli to contact Springsteen’s longtime manager, Jon Landau—who, she says, loved the proposal and brought it to Bruce and his wife, Patti Scialfa. They, too, were intrigued. Santelli flew to Jersey for a meeting at the Springsteens’ Colts Neck home, only about a dozen miles from Monmouth.“Bruce hopped on his motorcycle and came here to this archive house and looked around and said, ‘I think I like this,’” Chapman recalls. “And so here we are. The rest is history.”The decision was announced during a Monmouth event with Springsteen. Five years later, in 2022, Santelli was named the archive’s executive director.No two days on the job are ever the same, Chapman says. This spring, they opened a pop-up exhibit, currently running in Asbury Park’s Convention Hall, with a small collection of photos, artifacts and merchandise. A few hours before our interview, she’d been culling items to refresh the display, and spent part of her morning reading through a paper Springsteen wrote in grade school. “He got a B, because they said his handwriting was atrocious.”As 2026 draws closer, Chapman and her tiny team remain hard at work to ensure a seamless expansion. There are meetings with architects, theater consultants and landscapers, and efforts to keep up with ever-changing best practices—not to mention the daily grind of managing programs, events, visitors, donations and inventory.They’re also creating a more comprehensive database that will allow future visitors to cross-reference artifacts using searchable finding aids like keywords and dates.“But in the meantime,” Chapman says, “it’s living in my head.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post She’s the One: Meet Eileen Chapman, Director of the Bruce Springsteen Archives appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
You may have seen her appear in her hilarious take as Melania Trump on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, or on Broadway in one of her standout performances, and now fans will have a chance to see Tony winner—and Montclair resident—Laura Benanti perform original songs at two fundraisers this month for the Kamala Harris campaign.Benanti will reprise her impersonation of the former first lady while hosting the September 25 event at City Winery in New York City. She and a host of other Broadway stars are set to perform numbers that showcase the music of composer Miranda Ferriss Jones, also of Montclair, a musical theater creator who has worked closely with Benanti over the past several years.Broadway's Nasia Thomas (Six, The Last Five Years), Morgan Dudley (Jagged Little Pill), Miki Abraham (Shucked), and Khaila Wilcoxon (Six) are also set to take the stage.“These two benefits are mostly all Miranda's music,” says Benanti. “And it showcases how prolific Miranda is, that we're essentially singing 24 songs within the span of one week that Miranda has written almost entirely by herself. And then, in combination with me for one song and then three songs with Rich Edelman. What's amazing is that some of the Kamala songs have been written fairly recently and back-to-back.”In the second fundraiser on September 30, Spiral Bound, a show based on the poems of Richard Edelman that celebrates women's stories, will be performed at Racket in New York City. Written by Ferris Jones, the event features Benanti, Lorna Courtney (& Juliet), Eleri Ward (Florence Welch’s Gatsby), Khaila Wilcoxon (Six), and Sandra Okuboyejo (Hamilton). The show will be followed by a dance party to keep the party going.Both shows are co-creative-produced by Benanti and Miranda.“What's kind of always drawn Laura and I together is this focus on creating a collective of women who are also really driven by activism. It feels like now they're more needed, and more relevant than ever and so we’ve been drawing on these incredible women who are in these shows for workshops and development of these projects,” says Ferriss Jones. “When we asked them to come on board to perform in these shows, the resounding yes was really strong. It’s also the first time that Laura and I collaborated on a song, and she’ll be singing it, which is amazing.”For more info and for tickets, click here.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Broadway’s Laura Benanti to Star in Two Shows for Kamala Harris appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
During the Covid pandemic, Short Hills resident Tanya Lashley had a brainstorm about how to help struggling local businesses. A real estate executive with a background in advertising and sales, Lashley had recently taught herself how to produce some videos. Watching an ineffective ad online, she had an epiphany.“If you see an ad and this woman says, ‘I use Tide,’ you don’t care,” she says. “But if you see your town or someone you know, you pay attention.”Her idea: Make a sitcom about the community, and, in turn, get foot traffic into local businesses.With sponsorship from local merchants and service providers, Lashley launched the Meet Me In web series in spring 2023.Her first edition, Meet Me in Millburn, follows a California advertising executive (played by Lashley) as she adjusts to life in New Jersey; the action takes place over 17 short episodes.Residents co-wrote and performed in the videos, drawing laughs from relatable hot topics like four-way stop-sign protocol, and giving attention to area professionals (for example, the photographer at a fictional social club is real sponsor Eric Richards).A second series, which wrapped in July, focuses on Montclair and has a similar arc, with the addition of a roving reporter who interviews business owners.Lashley says she’s been getting so many requests to highlight other towns that she’s expanding her efforts statewide.Her web series Meet Me in New Jersey, which is set to premiere this winter, covers several counties, focusing on young singles and, possibly, influencers.“People love filming together and seeing themselves,” she says. “They become local celebrities.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post ‘Meet Me in New Jersey’: In New Series, the Actors Are Locals appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: Monmouth County writer and director Kevin Smith turned his place of work into a makeshift film set, bringing together a cast and crew of trusted confidants to create a semi-autobiographical independent sensation.That’s the story of Clerks, Smith’s 1994 debut film, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year—and it’s also the case for Smith’s 16th and latest feature, The 4:30 Movie, set for a theatrical release on September 13 via Saban Films.“I’ve got a type, as they say,” says Smith, 54.Clerks was a vision of ’90s snark and ennui, a day-in-the-life saga of convenience- and video-store employees that was famously filmed where Smith worked at the time, the Quick Stop in the Leonardo section of Middletown. The 4:30 Movie, on the other hand, is a summer-of-’86-set comedy about a group of teens hanging out at their local movie theater.Smith shot his new film at Smodcastle Cinemas, the five-screen Atlantic Highlands movie house he has co-owned since 2022. It’s the theater Smith frequented—and loved—as a kid.Smith sat down for a conversation with New Jersey Monthly on the afternoon The 4:30 Movie had its first prerelease screening, held for a handful of superfans at Smodcastle, where his love of film was cultivated in his youth. After the screening, one fan in the lobby could be heard remarking, “This is a new Kevin Smith, and I like what I saw.”“I know the movie feels good, man,” says the Red Bank-born, Highlands-raised Smith. “It just makes people feel warm inside. If you grew up in the ’80s, it’s really going to hit you someplace, but it just has all the lack of and overwhelming urgency of being a 16-year-old kid.”[caption id="attachment_342890" align="alignnone" width="778"] Smith directed The 4:30 Movie following his stay in an Arizona treatment center after a mental health episode. "It was the only movie I could make at that time," he says. Photo: Courtesy of Ralph Bavaro[/caption]It’s a film Smith describes in adjectives the general public doesn’t normally associate with the off-color work of the man behind Dogma, the Clerks trilogy and Tusk.“It is a very nostalgic, sentimental trifle, but they’re all trifles, really, at the end of the day,” Smith says. “But there’s something really sweet about it, there’s something really warm and wonderful about it. And it was the only movie I could make at that time.”The time he’s referring to is the aftermath of a mental health episode in 2022 that led to his stay in a treatment center in Arizona. There, he dealt with trauma stemming from past sexual abuse and body shaming that had, in turn, fueled the people-pleasing, marijuana-smoking public persona he had become known for.“When I got out of the joint, I was like, I’m not going to smoke weed anymore, because I had stopped for the whole time I was in there,” Smith says. “And so, I was in this weird place of not knowing who I was to be going forward. Because I knew who my identity was: I’m the guy that made Clerks, and I smoke a lot of weed and stuff like that. And then, suddenly, that aspect of it was kind of removed. So when I was going into this [new movie], it was more like, Well, how about before all of that?”Before all of that—the speaking engagements, convention appearances, and work on comic books, TV shows, films and podcasts—there were a childhood spent at the old movie theater on First Avenue in Atlantic Highlands and friendships with the likes of Ernie O’Donnell, now Smith’s business partner as the co-owner and operator of Smodcastle Cinemas.“There are moments for me where [The 4:30 Movie] is tough to watch, from an emotional standpoint, because that’s us growing up,” O’Donnell says. “But it’s so charming....It’s a great coming-of-age [story].”For Smith, the film is highly personal. “I don’t want to be like, ‘This is the most personal movie I’ve ever made,’ but my God, it’s a secret origin story,” he says. “At the end of the day, it’s, ‘Hey, how’d you ever become a filmmaker after all?’ and it tells that story.”Growing up in Highlands, Smith was one of three children of Grace and the late Donald Smith. There, he attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help parochial school and then Henry Hudson High School, acting in school plays and creating comedy skits with friends, including O’Donnell. At the time, Smith “was a long way from realizing that I could be a filmmaker,” as he wrote in his 2021 book, Kevin Smith’s Secret Stash: The Definitive Visual History, but, “I was always drawn to being the center of attention to some degree.”Now, looking back on his Monmouth County youth, Smith says, “I think it’s fair to say, having seen how other people grew up and having raised a kid of my own, I couldn’t have asked for a better childhood.“I couldn’t have asked for a better place to grow up,” he continues. “New Jersey made the difference. It puts a chip on your shoulder to some degree because you live in the shadow of New York, which is always the center of attention, and because of that, it tends to make you try harder.”Smith has certainly followed that credo. In addition to a legendary film career and his ownership of Smodcastle Cinemas, he’s the longtime proprietor of Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, a popular comic book shop in Red Bank named for two of his most famous characters.Over the last two years, the theater has become a go-to destination for movie fans, hosting festivals, new releases, revival screenings, live events, and celebrity appearances from the likes of Bayonne native and Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin and actor/collaborators Jason Lee, Joey Lauren Adams and Justin Long.Rumson writer and actress Siobhan Fallon Hogan, known for comedic roles in movies like Baby Mama and Men in Black, is among the artists who has benefited from Smith’s work; Fallon’s 2022 film, Shelter in Solitude, which she wrote and starred in, held its world premiere at Smith’s theater as part of the inaugural Smodcastle Film Festival.“Kevin personifies New Jersey,” Hogan says, “because he is hilarious, hardworking and loyal.”Fallon says Smith’s theater gives “filmmakers of all ages a chance to experience film festivals, readings, movies and moviemaking. Kevin is all about sharing his talent and giving back.” The third Smodcastle Film Festival is set to take place October 24-27.Smith is outspoken about his love of New Jersey, and now the state is showing him some love right back. The director is being inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame this fall alongside other Garden State luminaries, including Oscar winner Meryl Streep and Giants quarterback Phil Simms. The ceremony is set to air on Fox 5, My9 and social media starting November 13.“Being a New Jersey business owner is a huge point of pride with me,” Smith says. “I’ve traveled and I’ve lived elsewhere and whatnot, but this state made me who I am, and I feel like I probably love it more than it loves me—I definitely love my hometown more than it loves me, that’s for damn sure. New Jersey’s always been kind of nice to me and stuff, but it made all the difference. I wouldn’t have been on this journey had it not been for being from here.”[RELATED: For Zach Braff, Making Movies in New Jersey Is Deeply Personal]
Alex Biese, senior editor of CURE magazine, has been honored by NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists and has been published in USA Today, Chicago Sun-Times, Press of Atlantic City and more.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Kevin Smith Calls His Intimate New Movie a ‘Secret Origin Story’ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
“I love that art has the ability to connect people to their higher selves,” says artist Alison Scherr of Peapack. With her reputation for painting emotive, larger-than-life interpretations of the movement of light and patterns in nature, Scherr has amassed a steadily growing fan base.She began her career as a photographer in New York City, collaborating with magazine and record-label clients, often adding a layer of paint to her images. She later evolved into a prop stylist, designing still-life sets for ad campaigns and magazines for such luminaries as Condé Nast and Bloomingdale’s.“As a photographer, I captured people and created elaborate costumes and magical worlds,” she says. “But when I moved to the New Jersey countryside in 2012, my world and physical space opened up, and I began painting full-time. The subject matter of my paintings started with people, then moved to florals and, more recently, to abstracts on canvas. I also create representational plexiglas paintings that sometimes include hidden messages.”The most monumental painting she has sold thus far, Field Burn ll, is 7 by 9 feet and hangs in an art collector’s light-filled, modern home in Wyoming. “I sell a lot of paintings directly to collectors, both established and first-time art buyers,” she explains. “I often work with interior designers and also love making pieces for corporate spaces.” Her art has been exhibited in several states, and a large commissioned piece hangs in Washington, DC, in the lobby of a building adjacent to the White House.[RELATED: Don’t Be Afraid to Embrace Color in Your Home]
Scherr has worked out of multiple studios, recently at Whittemore Nature Preserve in Oldwick, and also in a privately owned manor house. “Now I’ve taken over our dining room and living room, where incredible, big windows let the light come in,” she says. (Scherr lives in what she calls the Hobbit House, a former water-cistern structure built into the side of a berm.) She typically paints her oversized canvases on the floor, unstretched, using industrial materials. “I like the support of the floor beneath, and it gives me the flexibility to walk around, or on top of, the canvas. My paint strokes are very broad and splashy, and the process requires a lot of physical effort,” she notes. ”As I create with a mix of house paint, ink, pastels and spray paint, I turn off my thoughts and allow music to guide my movements.”A curated collection of Scherr’s work resides at Pottersville and Main, an interior-design studio and retail shop in Gladstone, just a stone’s throw from her home. “I love working with owners John and Geoffrey,” she says. “In fact, we’re collaborating on a collection to debut in their space soon.” Scherr also plans to launch a bespoke jewelry line when the leaves begin to fall.To view Scherr’s work, visit AlisonScherr.com or @AscherrArt on Instagram.Follow our home & style editor on Instagram (@susanbrierlybush).
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post High-Powered Photographer Became Full-Time Painter After Moving to NJ Countryside appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Trenton native Bob Hatrak began his career as a corrections officer back in 1967 when he took on the role as director of education at Trenton State Prison, where he notably started the country's first college degree program for inmates.In 1973 at 35 years old, he became the warden/superintendent at Rahway State Prison (now East Jersey Prison), which was notoriously violent at the time. This made Hatrak the youngest warden of a maximum security prison in America.Hatrak, now 86 and living in Portland, Oregon, recounts the story of his career in corrections in his memoir, Not On My Watch, which he co-authored with his wife, Joan. The book was published earlier this year and can be purchased online.When you started working at Rahway State Prison in 1973, it was just two years after a riot in which hundreds of inmates held six hostages for 24 hours. What was that like?There was still a lot of instability. There were groups that were all about extortion, beating other people up, and raiding people’s cells.How did it compare to your final year working there?By the time I left in 1979, violence was significantly reduced. Around that time, the American Justice Institute identified the five most stable maximum security prisons in America, and Rahway was one of them. We went from last to first.Can you describe your approach to prison reform?We gave inmates an opportunity to become all they could be, but they needed to do it on their own. They had to set their own goals. We had a boxing group that set their career goals around boxing. A group called the Escorts (an R&B group formed in Rahway who performed at Newark Symphony Hall) set their career goals around making albums and records. This approach and these programs helped change inmates’ behavior from criminal to positive.What was some of the backlash you received over your work to improve the education, skills and well-being of prisoners?When I took over Rahway in the early 1970s, all the experts writing about prison reform said that rehabilitation is a waste of effort, and what was needed was more prisons and more people incarcerated. My staff and I were swimming against a strong tide of people believing you should lock prisoners up and throw away the keys. We worked against that and were pretty successful.What prison-reform programs did you initiate and which are you most proud of ?The main programs I started were Scared Straight, where young offenders spend time incarcerated with prisoners to incentivize them to improve their behaviors, and the Rahway State Prison Boxing Association, a trade school that helped inmates, including light heavyweight champion James Scott, create professional careers in boxing. But I’m most proud of starting the first college program for inmates in the U.S. at Trenton State Prison. I found a college, Mercer County Community College, that would work with our inmates, and set up a program where they could earn an associates degree. We built an electronic network (there was no internet yet) that allowed inmates at other prisons to attend the classes remotely. It has since been expanded to the NJ-STEP Program that involves many prisons and colleges, with hundreds working towards their bachelor’s degrees. We were always ahead of the curve in New Jersey.[RELATED: Sweet Justice: How a Chocolate-Making Program Helps Formerly Incarcerated]
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post NJ Prison Reformer Bob Hatrak Details Career in New Memoir appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Broadway star Laura Bell Bundy opens a wooden gate and steps inside a muddy pen to pet a group of donkeys. She’s dressed in a wrinkled, loose-fitting linen shirt, brown cargo pants, and beige boots with red laces—an outfit to ward off ticks. Her signature long, blond locks are tied back in a low ponytail. Getting dirty isn’t of concern as she enthusiastically walks the grounds of her farm, one of two in New Jersey that she owns with her husband, Thom Hinkle, to show off the cows next.It’s a stark contrast to the image audiences probably have of one of Broadway’s most endearing—and funny—leading ladies, who has been charming theater lovers since her breakout role as Amber Von Tussle in the 2002 musical Hairspray. Bundy, who went on to originate the role of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde: The Musical in 2007, has taken the literal meaning of her iconic character’s name all the way to the actual woodlands of Hunterdon County.[caption id="attachment_342280" align="alignnone" width="778"] Laura Bell Bundy and Thom Hinkle are raising their son, Huck, on their Tewksbury farm. Photo: Chris Buck[/caption]During the pandemic, Bundy, who grew up on a lake in Lexington, Kentucky, and Hinkle, an executive producer for television who was raised in Union County’s Roselle Park, decided to leave California, where they’d been living for the past seven years.After briefly considering farms in Kentucky near Bundy’s family, they decided to head back to the East Coast. Bundy missed working on Broadway, and Hinkle wanted to experience four seasons again.First, they looked at properties in Connecticut and New York, then expanded the search to New Jersey, where they are now raising their 5-year-old-son, Huck, on a farm in Tewksbury. In the midst of huge renovations, they bottle maple syrup, plan to open a boutique membership winery in a few years, and even expect to host farm classes and events.“I’ve fallen in love with New Jersey—I can’t believe how much it looks like Kentucky,” says Bundy.[caption id="attachment_342282" align="alignnone" width="778"] The farm's goats were rescued when they were 10 days old. Bundy bottle-fed them for three months. Photo: Chris Buck[/caption]The Hunterdon County farm they settled on in 2021 is about an hour’s drive from midtown Manhattan. “I’m not interested in living in suburbia. If I’m going to be outside of the city, I might as well be outside the city,” Bundy says, explaining why they picked a home so far west on Route 78, when their jobs are mostly in New York City.Right now, she’s filming the movie Miracle on 74th Street there. When I meet her for a farm tour, she holds up her long nails, which are part of her look as an “Eastern European lady,” she says in the character’s accent before stepping away to take a call related to the project—also starring Drew Barrymore, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Dan Hedaya as her husband. Last fall, during her run of The Cottage on Broadway, Bundy would drive into the city, leaving home between 4:30 and 5:30 pm to make it in time for a 7 pm curtain. “The only traffic we have here is you could get behind a tractor,” she says.“Or a cow,” adds Hinkle. “I never thought we’d move back. The farms we saw here were nicer than the ones we saw in Kentucky.”The welcoming community has made them feel right at home. There’s a neighborhood Facebook page, a town Christmas tree lighting, and Fourth of July festivities with potato-sack and relay races.“People wave to you,” Hinkle points out.“It’s the most neighborhoody feeling I’ve ever had in my life, even though the properties are fairly spread out,” Bundy adds.[caption id="attachment_342294" align="alignnone" width="778"] Buy our September 2024 issue here. Photo: Chris Buck; Hair & makeup: Dylan Silver[/caption]The only downsides? It takes three days to mow the lawn, and it’s an almost 20-minute drive to the nearest ShopRite, where Bundy does her own grocery shopping. “But now, with Whole Foods Amazon delivery, my life is much easier,” she adds. “I also buy from local farms, and we have a few small general stores.”Their property boasts a barn, pond, creek, sheep, goats (which were rescued at 10 days old, and Bundy bottle-fed them for three months) and maple trees. Hinkle collected sap from 80 trees over two months and boiled it down to 60 8-ounce bottles of delicious syrup, which he’s been gifting to friends.[caption id="attachment_342283" align="alignnone" width="778"] Hinkle makes maple syrup from trees on the farm and bottles it for friends. Photo: Chris Buck[/caption]There’s no cell phone reception, which Bundy feels is a blessing. Not being plugged in to the internet all the time helps clear her mind and allows for more creativity. “I would much prefer to be on a bicycle all day and jump in a creek—that’s my happy place,” she says, offering carrots to feed the goats.Perhaps it worked. It was their bike rides that inspired the couple’s next great adventure. In September 2022, they purchased another farm that they always passed on their excursions. It cost $1.2 million, and nearly every building was in disrepair. The best part about the deal was that the state offered them money to preserve it as part of its efforts to maintain open space, support local agriculture and protect the environment. “We felt it was win-win,” says Bundy. “We preserved 58 acres through the State Agriculture Development Committee, who were a joy to deal with. Although selling off lots could have been more financially lucrative, we decided to preserve the land to benefit Tewksbury, the town we deeply love, and to respect our neighbors and the community.”[RELATED: Exploring the Future of Farming in New Jersey]
Now, the couple secures their helmets and hops on electric bikes to show me just how close in proximity the two properties are. It’s an impressive two-mile ride weaving through the woods. I follow in my car. “Having a project like this farm appeals to us,” Bundy explains, who is leading on the design concept. “We are idea people. We like birthing a concept and seeing the concept through.”“She just vomits creativity. She’s a producer’s dream, the amount of ideas that she comes up with—I love it,” says Hinkle, who does a lot of the manual labor, along with hiring contractors. There are several tractors on site, too, some of which have seen better days, with Hinkle at the wheel. He works on the farm from 9:30 am until about 12:30 pm, and then goes back home to work on his TV projects on L.A. time.[caption id="attachment_342311" align="alignnone" width="778"] "We’ve really become New Jersey loyalists and want to continue to spread the message that Jersey really is a beautiful place,” says Hinkle of his and Bundy's attitudes about the Garden State. Photo: Chris Buck[/caption]The 300-year-old farm boasts five outbuildings, one of which will ultimately become a wine-tasting room and is one of the first things you see as you drive up the gravel road. “We’re uncovering things probably built in the 1700s-1800s and bringing back to life, things that have been hidden on this farm,” Bundy says as the couple points to the newly repointed stone walls that were covered up by the previous owner’s garbage. They are the fourth family to hold the deed to the property.“This could be France. This could be Spain. This could be Italy, and it’s right down the road from us,” Bundy says, imagining the possibilities as they map out their plans. Bundy outlines with her arms where custom glass doors will go to store the wine. The heralded Ironbound Farm and Ciderhouse in Asbury was a sort of inspiration to them in terms of operating a farm-to-table business.[RELATED: Forget Napa Valley! NJ Wines Are Better Than You Think]
A short walk uphill leads to the main barn on site. They envision live music, educational classes and dining events—all related to farming, due to local ordinances associated with the sale. Once covered floor to ceiling with hay, it will be the primary focus of restoration next year.Across the way, Bundy shows off her future “she shed,” a tin barn. She wants to add a dance floor.Bundy gets into the back of a Polaris ATV as Hinkle steps into the driver’s seat to show off the rest of the property. I take the front passenger seat. They point out three homes: one they plan on moving into this fall after selling their current house; a second one they updated, where Hinkle’s parents now live; and a third cottage, a Dutch Colonial built in the 1700s, stripped to its bones, the architectural plans still in the works. Bundy walks through it with ease, noting the irony that she was renovating a cottage while performing in The Cottage on Broadway. Once it’s ready, she’ll hang up a photo of her from the show as part of its decor.The cottage overlooks an acre of white pinot grigio and grüner veltliner grapes, which were planted this summer and will take roughly three to five years before they can be bottled. Until then, they’re allowed to import grapes and bottle the wine under their name—which they haven’t decided on yet. The goal is to have the tasting room—though probably not wine—ready for a soft opening for Memorial Day weekend of 2025.Hinkle aptly named the 73-acre farm the Hardscrabble, after the first home Ulysses S. Grant built with his hands, and “because Hardscrabble was already taken,” Hinkle explains of his affinity for the 18th president who summered in Elberon. Hardscrabble is also a term that means hard work, and they feel it couldn’t relate more to them. “That’s us,” Hinkle says. “It’s like we do a lot of hard work, but we’re also kind of a mess.”Along the ATV tour, we take a look at five apple trees that were once part of an apple-processing facility on-site, according to records the couple researched. One of the historic apple barns was damaged by the earthquake earlier this year, since the farm is three blocks from the epicenter.Inside, an elevated platform stage has performance-space potential that Bundy can’t help but demonstrate with a little shim-sham. “We’re going to sing ‘Little Lamb!’” she kids, referencing Gypsy, a show she did at the Paper Mill Playhouse back in 1998—staying true to her musical theater roots along the tour.Some might wonder how entertainment professionals know how to revive a farm. “Thom is one of those people that figures out how to do everything quickly,” Bundy says.“We’re kind of doing it as we go—flying the plane as we learn how to fly,” Hinkle says jokingly, adding that the state offers grants, loans and calls with experts to help them. “There’s this network where we dial in once a month and ask a question to all these experts that have been doing it forever. They give you free advice. It is like the most supportive environment we’ve ever been in.”On top of renovations, Bundy and Hinkle are filming their own mostly unscripted reality show about bringing the farm back to life. They plan to release the 22-episode show themselves as soon as they can—Hinkle’s experience as an executive producer will certainly come in handy. “We are about to approach brands to see if someone wants to sponsor the show,” Bundy adds.They’ll also show their family life. Audiences can expect to see the family’s late bulldog, Polly, being exhumed from their current home address and reburied at the Hardscrabble. “We buried her at our current farm. About a month later, we decided we’re moving here,” says Hinkle. “And so what do you do? Do you leave the dog buried with strangers, or do you take her with us?”“Partly why we’re doing this show is to familiarize people with this area and try to get more young people out here. We’ve really become New Jersey loyalists and want to continue to spread the message that Jersey really is a beautiful place,” Hinkle says of their mission, before handing me a bottle of his homemade maple syrup to take home. “We want a place where people can come together.”Leigh Scheps, who grew up in Holmdel obsessing over Broadway, is a full-time senior reporter for Inside Edition Digital and freelance writer with bylines in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair and more.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Broadway Star Laura Bell Bundy Embraces Farm Life in New Jersey appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Movie lovers in Maplewood, frustrated by the lack of an in-person movie theater in their town, are taking matters into their own hands.On Saturday, September 7, more than 150 residents will gather to watch the original 1988 Beetlejuice movie with their neighbors during the town’s first Backyard Movie Night. Fifteen households will set up screens and show the film at the same time in outdoor screenings. The event is intended to show that “our creative town needs an in-person movie theater,” says Angela Matusik, co-founder of the Maplewood Film Society.During the pandemic, the 93-year-old Maplewood Movie Theater in the heart of Maplewood village closed; attempts to lease and reopen it as a cinema have been unsuccessful. It is currently for sale. The backyard movie night is an attempt by the newly formed film society to “attract potential investors while engaging our large movie-loving community,” says co-founder Lisa Cohen. “Our creative town needs an in-person movie theater.”In a recent survey conducted by the Maplewood Film Society, over 30 percent of respondents said they work in a creative field, and 80 percent strongly believe Maplewood would benefit from an in-person movie venue. Over 95 percent of respondents said they would be likely to see a movie at a large-screen venue in Maplewood. “Our town has always attracted creative types and cultural enthusiasts, and having a movie theater on our main street is a big part of that,” explains Matusik.While there are cinemas in nearby towns—such as South Orange, at the Village at SOPAC—the offerings are mainly blockbusters and other releases from the big Hollywood studios, says Cohen. “All over the country, indie art-house cinemas are being reinvented,” she says, adding that many have liquor licenses and unique in-person programming.“Audiences are craving non-mainstream films onscreen, including archival classics, independents, documentaries and foreign films,” says Matusik. ”We love movies of all kinds.”After watching Burton’s film on September 7, participants will be encouraged to see its sequel, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, at a nearby cinema.For more information about Backyard Movie Night and the mission of Maplewood Film Society, contact Matkusik and Cohen at maplewoodfilmsociety@gmail.com, or follow along on Instagram or Facebook.[RELATED: For Zach Braff, Making Movies in New Jersey Is Deeply Personal]
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post The Movies Are Coming to Maplewood for One Magical Night appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Attention, Adam Sandler fans!The sequel to the 1996 comedy Happy Gilmore is looking for New Jersey locals to work as extras when it films around the Garden State this fall.Grant Wilfley Casting, Inc., a longtime New York casting agency, is hosting an open casting call this Tuesday, August 20, from 1-8 pm at the Hyatt Recency Morristown Plaza Ballroom (3 Speedwell Avenue, Morristown). If you can't attend the casting call but are still interesting in being considered, create a profile via gwci.app/talent. No acting experience is required.A casting notice posted has full instructions.The Netflix-produced movie is set to shoot in Bergen, Essex, Monmouth, Morris and Somerset counties from September through November.The pay rate for members of SAG-AFTRA is $216 for 8 hours. Non-SAG pay rate is $176 for 10 hours.The long-anticipated sequel to Happy Gilmore was greenlit by Netflix in May."It’s been almost 30 years since we last saw Happy Gilmore, the long-driving hero who won in the Tour Championship in 1996," Netflix said at the time. "Now, we finally get to catch up with him in a new sequel. That’s right, Adam Sandler is returning to the golf green as Happy Gilmore, and he’s bringing his powerful slap shot with him. No word on any alligators."In Happy Gilmore, Sandler, now 57, played the titular golfer, so we imagine that one (or several) of New Jersey's beautiful golf courses could be featured in the sequel. Netflix has not yet announced a release date for the movie.The post ‘Happy Gilmore 2’ Is Casting New Jersey Locals appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_341377" align="alignnone" width="778"] Dave Davies, cofounder and lead guitarist of the Kinks, outside of Mint Designer Boutique in Tenafly. Photo: Rebecca G. Wilson[/caption]Dave Davies, cofounder and lead guitarist of the Kinks, is sitting in a back booth at Miller’s Bakery in Tenafly on a quiet afternoon. Between sips of a cappuccino with almond milk, he reflects on creating the abrasive, thunderous, duh-DAH-dah-duh-DAH guitar sound that is essential to “You Really Got Me,” the epoch-making song released 60 years ago this summer.“When I came across the tone for ‘You Really Got Me,’ I was stunned that you could do that with a guitar,’’ he says.A little bake shop in New Jersey might not be the first place you’d think to find the English music icon but, as anyone who follows his active social media accounts knows, Davies divides his time between his native London and the Bergen County home of his girlfriend, Rebecca G. Wilson. But he is not merely a part-time visitor to the Garden State. He is a celebrator of its glories—a Jersey guy with a British passport.You can find him flipping through the used and rare vinyl at BB’s Records in Bergenfield (“We consider him not really a customer, but a friend,” says the store’s Anna Pantoliano) or picking up gluten-free pasta and rice pudding from Jerry’s Gourmet in Englewood. He indulges his love of vegetarian dishes at Rudra Indian Bistro in Teaneck (“He would never brag about himself,” says owner Vinay Kallee) and is known to ask the crew at the Cottage Bar just down the street to switch the television over to an English football match featuring his beloved Arsenal.“I think Dave fits right in,” E Street Band member and Middletown-raised Steven Van Zandt says. “He has a working-class sort of journeyman mentality, as most of us do in New Jersey, because we’re not quite New York and we’re not Philadelphia.”[RELATED: Grateful Dead Tribute Bands Are Alive and Kicking in New Jersey]
In the booth at Miller’s, Davies, 77, wears a straight-brimmed black fedora, a purple Ben Sherman shirt, and a black coat with a Nehru collar. A necklace of tulsi wood meditation beads from India, a gift from a poet friend in London, is draped from his neck. His manner is warm, talkative and modest. He doesn’t, for example, mention that Jimi Hendrix himself once asked Davies how he got the sound for “You Really Got Me.”[caption id="attachment_341376" align="alignnone" width="778"] Dave Davies with the Kinks, circa 1964 (bottom left, below brother Ray). Photo: Alamy[/caption]The story is part of rock ’n’ roll lore. As a teenager with a love for messing with the electronics in amplifiers, he hoped to conjure new sounds for the gigs he was playing around London with his older brother, Ray. Inspired by what he called a “brainwave,” he slashed the speaker cone of his tiny, 10-watt Elpico amp with a razor blade, causing the edges to vibrate against the outside shell of the speaker. The result was “a visceral, jagged roar when I played my guitar,” Davies writes in his 2023 autobiography, Living on a Thin Line, now out in paperback.But the first few singles released by the fledgling Kinks, whose members also included Pete Quaife on bass and Mick Avory on drums, didn’t employ the razor-induced roar. “We had a couple of flops,” Davies tells New Jersey Monthly.Then the band went into the studio to record “You Really Got Me,” which had been knocking the kids out during live shows. The record company didn’t think much of it. The producer favored a slow, reverb-saturated version that buried the guitar sound. The band persisted, recording the version we all know now—with Davies’s monster signature riff drenched in homemade distortion.Released in the U.K. on August 4, 1964, “You Really Got Me” rose to number one on the charts, surging past tunes by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. The arc of the song’s influence is long. Regarded as the foundation stone for heavy forms of rock (metal, punk), it has been covered by generations of bands (from Van Halen to Oingo Boingo to Green Day) and celebrated by the likes of Leonard Bernstein, who once called it “a really terrific song, a barbaric number.”Davies was just 17 years old when the song hit, the youngest of eight children (six sisters, followed by two brothers) who grew up in Muswell Hill in north London. Ray, three years older, was moody and brilliant. Dave, the spoiled baby of the family, was outgoing, rebellious and spiritual.His book details the full story, including his famously contentious relationship with his older brother (“Ray and I are muddling along okay”); the early disastrous tour of America that kept the band out of the country for four critical years; the time Avory struck him on the back of the head with a hi-hat, knocking him unconscious; his relationships with both women and men (“I happily explored the possibilities without ever attaching labels like ‘gay’ or ‘bisexual’ to what I was doing”); the groupies, the trashed hotel rooms, and the horrors of drugs and alcohol; his evolution into a songwriter who penned Kinks classics like “Death of a Clown,” “Susannah’s Still Alive,” “Strangers” and “Living on a Thin Line”; and, finally, his emergence from a life of physical and mental turmoil into a kind of state of grace.“As I look around me, everyone seems to be carrying a sadness, or a loneliness, and we really have to support and nurture each other to make our lives richer and more meaningful,” he writes.In 2011, Davies met his Jersey muse. Wilson, then a freelance writer, interviewed him for Punk Globe magazine. Initially an online flirtation across the ocean, the two started dating when Davies toured the United States in 2012. She now serves as his personal assistant and occasional backup singer.They share an easy camaraderie, telling stories about the rescue cats and dogs they have fostered over the past decade. Wilson has no problem parting with the animals after permanent homes are found. Davies, who has been known to bottle-feed kittens, has a harder time. “I’m a soft touch,” he says.The most powerful impression one gets speaking to Davies is how profoundly music has shaped his life. He speaks reverently of performers like Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy, the Everly Brothers and Hank Williams, whose songs enraptured him as a kid in Muswell Hill. There, in the back booth of Miller’s Bakery, he sings, “Hello, Mary Lou, goodbye heart,’’ the signature opening line of Rick Nelson’s 1961 hit of the same name, his voice catching with emotion. “Wow. The tone. The guitar. The voice.” Music spills out of him. It is his gift to the world.The interview over, Davies and Wilson walk across Washington Street to pose for pictures in front of Mint Designer Boutique, attracted by a pair of decorative guitars in its window. The shop’s owner, Simona Blumenfeld Kornberg, emerges with a broad smile at the sight of the rock star. “What a surreal and exhilarating experience,’’ she says.A group of high schoolers in hoodies and backpacks wander by. Even they are impressed. The phones come out. Everyone gets a selfie with the great Dave Davies of the Kinks.Peter Duffy is an author and journalist in New York.[RELATED: Jack Antonoff Is New Jersey’s Biggest Fanboy]
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Dave Davies of the Kinks Loves New Jersey appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Terry Cook has always loved cars. But unlike most four-wheel fanatics, he doesn’t care much about what he drives. His passion is design.Cook designs custom cars and sells them for six-figure sums to collectors at auctions around the world. His creations are low-slung and sensual, with swooping, tear-drop fenders and eye-popping color combinations.“Styling has always been my deal,” says the 82-year-old Cook, who lives in Chester with his wife, Virginia.Cook recalls making images of cars “as soon as I could draw.” As a teen, he got a job as a flagman at Island Dragway in Great Meadows and soon acquired his first Model A Ford hot rod.After studying engineering at Lehigh, Cook lit out for car-crazy California in 1964, where he covered the automotive world for Car and Driver magazine and other publications. Drawn to the Art Deco-inspired classic cars of the 1930s, Cook resolved to design more affordable versions. First, he sketches out his vision, then a professional creates a rendering. Next, a craftsman builds what’s known as a buck, similar to a dress form, and a fiberglass mold is cast.Cook’s biggest success, based on the Lincoln Zephyr, a rakish, pre-World War II luxury model, sold at auction in 1999 for $275,000. Next, he produced fiberglass Zephyr bodies and sold them for about $15,000 as kit cars—without motors or transmissions—to collectors from Australia to Slovenia.Cook also created fiberglass kit cars based on the 1937 Bugatti Type 57 and the 1935 Auburn Boattail Speedster. He has also sold completed versions of his kit cars; one fiberglass Bugatti went for $220,000.Another Cook creation was Lead East, the giant car show and celebration of 1950s culture that he launched in 1983. Cook sold Lead East in 2019, but the extravaganza still attracts thousands to Parsippany each Labor Day weekend.Perhaps Cook’s best deal—and a favorite of his two sons (now grown)—was a license he granted to Mattel to make a Hot Wheels version of his Zephyr. “My children were impressed that they could walk into a Walmart and buy Dad’s car,” he says.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Chester Man, 82, Still Designing Custom Classic Cars appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
He wants to get better, better, better!Jack Antonoff announced this week that he has rerecorded his debut Bleachers album, Strange Desire, amid its 10th anniversary.First released in July 2014, the album—best known for its lead single, "I Wanna Get Better," the Jersey-born band's first No. 1 hit—arose during a “rough time with the full armor of sonic chaos. Voices fluttering around me, hotel room walls echoing in the vocal takes,” Antonoff wrote on Instagram. "[...] It was the sound that I called Bleachers. That feeling of being there but in no way at the center. Watching and dreaming. Shouting from a corner. In the shadow. I wrote from that misunderstood place and I still do."[caption id="attachment_339784" align="aligncenter" width="632"] Bleachers' debut album, Strange Desire, came out a decade ago this July.[/caption]The Bergen County-raised producer and musician, 40, who often waxes poetic about his native New Jersey sitting in the "shadow" of neighboring Manhattan, explained that the album will feature "all eleven tracks reimagined without the armor I needed" a decade ago."Anytime you put out an album, you’re trying to give more context to people; give them as much of who you are in that moment," Antonoff told NJM earlier this year.The project's slightly altered title—A Stranger Desired—is a nod to the audience his band has built in the years since: "It wasn't only a strange desire to write these songs," Antonoff reflected in the post. "There was something unknown to me happening. I was looking for you: my people."[caption id="attachment_339783" align="aligncenter" width="632"] Bleachers' A Stranger Desired is out September 6.[/caption]Those strangers have showed up in droves to Bleachers' 2024 international tour, which kicked off days after the band released a self-titled fourth album in March. It played Antonoff's sold-out Shadow of the City festival at the Stone Pony Summer Stage last month, and is currently slated to conclude at Madison Square Garden in October.The announcement comes after Antonoff's work on several rerecorded albums with his longtime collaborator and close friend Taylor Swift.The first song on A Stranger Desired will be released August 2. The full album is out September 6.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Jack Antonoff Announces Rerecord of Debut Bleachers Album a Decade Later appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
There’s no better way to spend a sultry summer night than outdoors listening to music.In Montclair, there are several venues where you can you can hear live music en plein air while relaxing with a drink and a bite to eat.Montclair Brewery (101 Walnut Street) features musical events throughout the year, but in the warmer months their large parking lot morphs into a beer garden, featuring tables, chairs and a stage. This weekend, there will be music on Friday and Saturday nights (July 19 and 20). Friday, it’s a roots band, Water Street, from northwestern New Jersey; on Saturday, it’s The Normal Living, a seven-piece indie-rock band from Manhattan. (Check the brewery website for the full summer calendar.) Jersey breweries can't serve food on site, but at Montclair Brewery you can bring takeout from any of the many eateries in town—airy-crusted pizza from NJM fave Brick & Dough, perhaps, or Thai food from Sukhumvit, right across the street. Order one of the pub’s signature beers, such as the Hava Guava IPA, or the Baobiere, made from the baobab fruit of brewmaster Leo Sawadogo’s native Burkina Faso. The $5 cover charge goes to the musicians.The Wellmont Arts Plaza, in the heart of downtown Montclair, hosts concerts throughout the summer in partnership with Jazz House Kids, the nonprofit behind the Montclair Jazz Festival. On Thursday, July 25, a “soundcheck” for the jazz festival will feature Wallace Roney Jr. and the Jason Marshall Quartet; on Saturday, July 27, a student jamfest; on Thursday, August 8, the Ries Brothers; and on Wednesday, August 14, a Prince/David Bowie tribute band. (Check out the Jazz House Kids website for the full schedule and details.) Pharmacie Bar + Kitchen serves food and drink on the plaza; you can also pick up food and non-alcoholic drinks at nearby restaurants to enjoy during the concert. Concerts are free; some seating is available, but to be safe, bring your own chair.The big outdoor musical event is the world-class Montclair Jazz Festival on Saturday, September 14, when the cars on Bloomfield Avenue in Montclair will be replaced with multiple stages, food trucks and restaurant grills. (Check the Jazz House website for details.)The new owners of The Kitchen on Forest (171 Forest Street), which has replaced the beloved neighborhood joint Ruthie’s Bar-B-Q & Pizza, plan to continue Ruthie’s tradition of hosting backyard bands. Jazz/rock/folk band Doug Hall and Friends, a local favorite that played the restaurant’s first stint last month, play again on Friday, July 19, from 7-9 pm. The BYO restaurant offers many of the same comfort-food items that Ruthie’s did: ribs, pizza, mac and cheese, and red cabbage slaw. Manager Sibel Ozsays she plans to host the Doug Hall band again, along with other groups, into September and October. (Check their website and Instagram page, @kitchenonforest, for future details.) There is no cover charge, but a bucket is passed for donations, which go to the musicians.[RELATED: The Best Restaurants in Montclair]
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post These Montclair Venues Offer Live Outdoor Music All Summer Long appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The New Jersey Hall of Fame has announced its class of inductees for 2024—and the group includes some of the biggest names in Hollywood.Meryl Streep, who grew up in Bernardsville, Paul Rudd, who was born in Passaic, and Kevin Smith, a Red Bank native, are on this year's list, which features 18 New Jerseyans who have achieved greatness in categories including performing arts & entertainment, sports, and education & science.“The 2024 class of inductees of the New Jersey Hall of Fame illustrate the New Jersey ethic of hard work, determination and grit,” Jon F. Hanson, Chairman of the New Jersey Hall of Fame, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to celebrate the contributions of 18 new Inductees so future generations can learn about their journeys.”Streep, one of our country's most celebrated actors and a three-time Oscar winner, got her start in a fifth-grade play, then starred in musicals at Bernards High School. Things came full circle for the Jersey native in the late '90s, when her movie One True Thing filmed for several months in nearby Morristown.Rudd, of Clueless and Ant-Man fame, spent his early life in Passaic but moved to Kansas City as a kid and attended the University of Kansas—but we're happy to claim him as our own.Clerks director Smith has supported New Jersey throughout his career, filming and setting his movies in his home state, including his newest, The 4:30 Movie, which comes out in September. He's also the owner of the popular comic book store Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash in downtown Red Bank. In recent year he bought his childhood movie theater in Atlantic Highlands and renamed it Smodcastle Cinemas. "It’s a dream come true for a fat kid from New Jersey who spent his childhood at the movies," he told us in 2022. "I can just go down in my bathrobe and watch the latest releases on my screens.”The pre-taped induction ceremony is set to air November 13 on Fox 5 My9 and social media.A full list of inductees is below.Performing Arts & Entertainment* Lesley Gore,Tenafly, singer-songwriter of "You Don't Own Me" and “It’s My Party" * Warren Littlefield, Montclair, former NBC Entertainment president * Paul Rudd, Passaic, actor * Kevin Smith, Red Bank, director, producer, writer * Meryl Streep, Bernardsville, actress
Arts & Letters* Gay Talese, Ocean City, journalist
Sports* Dick Button, Englewood, two-time Olympic gold medalist in figure skating * Tim Howard, New Brunswick, soccer player * Ron Johnson, Madison, football player * Phil Simms, Franklin Lakes, former New York Giants quarterback
Enterprise* George Cooney, Bogota, chairman emeritus of EUE/Screen Gems Ltd * Peter Cancro, Point Pleasant, founder of Jersey Mike’s * Donald Katz, Newark, founder of Audible, Inc.
Education & Science* Elizabeth Coleman White, Whitesbog, botanist * John Forbes Nash, Princeton, genius mathematician * Avi Wigderson, Princeton, computer scientist, mathematician
Public Service* Father Edwin D. Leahy, Newark, Benedictine monk and Catholic priest, headmaster of St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark * Geraldine Thompson, Lincroft, founder of VNA Health Group
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Meryl Streep, Paul Rudd, Kevin Smith Being Inducted Into NJ Hall of Fame appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Mark Davidson still remembers the day more than half a century ago when he learned that an amusement park was being built in Jackson. It was 1971 when the Brick native and his family read the news in the local paper.“My entire family laughed,” says Davidson, now 64, who ended up working at the park for many years. “We thought it was the most ridiculous, funny thing we’d ever heard. I mean, who would build anything in Jackson? There wasn’t even an Exit 7A [on the New Jersey Turnpike] yet, there wasn’t [Interstate] 195 yet. How would people even get there?”But families and thrill seekers found their way to the park, now known as Six Flags Great Adventure, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.“Great Adventure was one of the few parks created in the wave of the big parks of the 1970s that really wasn’t in a close distance of a big population area,” says Davidson, a former longtime park employee and one of New Jersey’s assistant regional representatives for the American Coaster Enthusiasts. “It’s between New York and Philadelphia, but either city is at least an hour away, probably more.”Since the park’s opening, the populations of the surrounding Monmouth, Ocean, Burlington and Mercer counties have increased, “so there are more people who are only 15, 20 minutes from the park than there used to be, so it’s easy to pop in for a few hours with a season pass,” says Davidson. “Whereas 50 years ago, it was a major commitment: you planned your visit weeks ahead, you got in the car at 7 am, you got there when they opened, you stayed until they closed, you were there to ride rides.”[caption id="attachment_339278" align="alignnone" width="778"] Six Flags Great Adventure opened in the 1970s as Enchanted Forest, then was renamed Great Adventure in 1976. Photo: Courtesy of Six Flags Great Adventure Resort[/caption]Today, New Jersey is rich in amusement destinations, with Nickelodeon Universe and DreamWorks water park at American Dream in East Rutherford, the newly built Island Waterpark at the Showboat in Atlantic City, Diggerland USA in West Berlin, and Storybook Land in Egg Harbor Township—not to mention ride-filled oceanfront piers in Seaside Heights, Point Pleasant Beach, Wildwood, Ocean City and Atlantic City.But Great Adventure, with its Wild Safari Adventure and Hurricane Harbor water park, stands apart, thanks to its globally renowned roller coaster portfolio, which includes Kingda Ka, the tallest coaster in the world and the fastest in North America, and El Toro, one of the world’s tallest and fastest wooden rides.“That’s the thing about Great Adventure—you know they’re going to strive to bring the biggest, the newest, the fastest, the craziest,” says Davidson, who worked as a ride operator for a decade-plus.This summer sees the opening of the park’s 15th concurrently operating coaster, the Flash: Vertical Velocity. The ride is touted as North America’s first triple-launch super boomerang coaster and is expected to hurtle riders forward and backward at nearly 60 miles per hour through a 180-degree twisted drop and zero-G roll.“We always try to be an innovative company in coasters,” says Laurie Riccardi, who has spent 42 of her 49 seasons at the park in the marketing department. “That’s why people come to theme parks, and Six Flags Great Adventure definitely has stayed in the forefront of having a lot of thrills for our guests.”The park was founded by Warner LeRoy, an entrepreneur who was described by the New York Times in his 2001 obituary as someone “who combined show business glamour with circus ballyhoo” as the creator of New York City nightlife venues and restaurants, like the iconic Tavern on the Green. As the son of Wizard of Oz producer Mervyn LeRoy and the grandson of Harry Warner of Warner Brothers Studios, creating crowd-pleasing entertainment was LeRoy’s family business. (According to the New York Times, he sold his interest in Great Adventure to Time Warner in 1993.)At its opening in 1974, the park was called the Enchanted Forest. In 1976, it was renamed Great Adventure, and it was sold to the Six Flags corporation in 1977. There are currently 27 Six Flags parks across North America.While the name has changed, the footprint has grown over the years, especially with the addition of the Hurricane Harbor water park in 2000. Rides have come and gone; don’t get 1980s and ’90s kids started on the days of Rolling Thunder and the Great American Scream Machine roller coasters, both long gone now. But one element that has remained consistent is the park’s multigenerational appeal.During recent visits this season, teenagers could be seen running toward the high-flying thrill rides, while grandparents and grandchildren rode the carousel together, and guests of all ages tried their luck in the arcades.“In one sense you just go, ‘Why Jackson? How does Jackson lay claim to all that stuff?’” says comedian and author Chris Gethard, a West Orange native.Gethard appeared in the HBO Max documentary Class Action Park, about Vernon Township’s infamous Action Park (which closed in 1996 because of ongoing safety issues) and shared his thoughts on both Action Park and Great Adventure on his 2019 album, Taylor Ham, Egg, and Cheese. He tied Great Adventure’s hold on the New Jersey youth zeitgeist to an overall culture of fear in the mid- to late-20th century—think slasher movies and stranger danger.“You think about when Great Adventure came about, you think about what it was like to be a suburban kid back then, where you’re constantly being told that people in vans are going to kidnap you, and that all clowns have sinister intentions, and that in any woods there’s probably animal sacrifices happening, and you go, ‘Oh, maybe a sleepy Central Jersey suburb is exactly where your customer base is when you need to find people who are setting out to conquer some fears.’”[caption id="attachment_339280" align="alignnone" width="778"] In the park's early days, patrons drove through the Safari grounds themselves. Photo: Courtesy of Six Flags Great Adventure Resort[/caption]For its 50th anniversary season. the Flash is but one of the changes guests can expect. The Wild Safari, with approximately 1,200 animals housed on 350 acres, is introducing Savannah Sunset Resort and Spa, an overnight glamping experience on the Safari grounds, and now offers guided tours in vehicles instead of patrons driving through it themselves.“It’ll be interesting to see how [Savannah Sunset] goes; it’s definitely different for the East Coast,” says Jeannie Golden, who has worked at the park since 1974 and at the Safari office for about 35 years.Elsewhere, Hurricane Harbor adds Splash Island, a family-focused spot with a treehouse-style structure and seven water slides for younger guests.The park nods to history with nostalgic enhancements, including refurbishments to such rides as the Saw Mill Log Flume and the Giant Wheel and with the Congo Rapids water ride being rebranded with its original moniker, Roaring Rapids.“I think people will enjoy them—especially people who came when the park first opened, and now they have their own children and grandchildren and can say, ‘I remember riding that,’ and the same thing with the giant Ferris wheel,” says Riccardi. “To share that with your family, all different generations—I think that’s exciting.”In addition to the 50th anniversary celebration, running through Labor Day, there are fireworks for the Fourth of July, specialty food and beer during Oktoberfest, the Halloween festivities of Fright Fest and Boo Fest, and the season-closing Holiday in the Park.Asked for her best-kept secret for maximizing enjoyment, Golden shared some advice for Safari-goers: “Just take your time.” As Davidson puts it, the park’s modern attractions ensure there’s something for everyone. “Not everybody rides roller coasters, even though that’s really what’s driven ticket sales and season-pass sales for the last few decades,” he says. “But there’s more than just teenagers that want to come there.”Alex Biese, senior editor of CURE magazine, has been honored by NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists and has been published in USA Today, Chicago Sun-Times, Press of Atlantic City and more.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Six Flags Great Adventure Celebrates 50 Years of Thrills appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
For many book lovers, there’s nothing like a good old-fashioned bound-paper volume. But finding new homes for books that pile up can be difficult in our digital age.
Thankfully, two local organizations accept donations of used books, with proceeds going to worthy causes.
The College Women’s Club of Montclair (26 Park Street, Montclair) is a 501c3 nonprofit that collects used books, audiobooks, CDs, and even sheet music. Volunteers organize thousands of items for two sales each year, one in spring and one in fall. Proceeds go to scholarships for young women with financial need. Donations for the fall sale are accepted on select Saturdays through the end of August.
The Book Barn (18 Pocono Road, Denville), also a 501c3, takes donations of adult, teen and children’s books, puzzles, toys, clothing and media items. All workers are volunteers and proceeds are donated to local charities. Check the Book Barn's website for updates on hours (currently Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday) and other information.
Other options include the Salvation Army, Goodwill, a local library hosting a book sale, or donating a couple of volumes to a nearby Little Free Library.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Don’t Toss That Book! These Nonprofits Happily Accept Donations appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The Newark Black Film Festival (NBFF) at the Newark Museum of Art is celebrating 50 years of offering a platform for the work of Black filmmakers, with a five-day festival (Wednesday, July 10 through Sunday, July 14), panel discussions, a gala and more.NBFF grew from a 1974 grassroots collaboration inspired by a similar traveling festival that launched at a time when Black films were under the mainstream radar. To date, the festival has screened more than 850 films viewed by more than 200,000 attendees.The festival showcases original films released within the last three years that are directed by Black filmmakers or that depict the Black experience. The oldest Black film festival in the country, NBFF is proud to have featured early-career films of Spike Lee, Ava DuVernay, Barry Jenkins and many others. Luminaries like James Earl Jones and Danny Glover have also been featured over the years.[caption id="attachment_339112" align="alignnone" width="1024"] This year's festival includes a screening of the 2023 film Sing Sing. Photo: Courtesy of the Newark Museum of Art[/caption]This year's festival opens with a reception featuring music from DJ Skeme Richards, followed by a screening of the 2023 film Sing Sing. It's an inspirational film that tells the story of an innocent incarcerated man who survives in prison by joining a theater group and discovering a side of himself he never knew.Films are chosen by a panel of industry professionals from entries that include long or short narratives, documentaries, web series and experimental films. The panel sometimes includes fan-favorite throwbacks, such as this year’s screening of the classic 1997 film Eve’s Bayou, starring Samuel L. Jackson, Lynn Whitfield and Debbi Morgan, as well as Meagan Good and Jurnee Smollett. The film’s director, Kasi Lemmons, will be in attendance for a Q&A session.NBFF’s 2024 roster includes 10-plus films, along with special events to commemorate its golden anniversary. Panel discussions include "In Order of Weapons: 50 Years of Black Film," a historic look at Black films, and "Where Creativity Meets Commerce," an instructive talk about the industry.The Newark Museum of Art is also offering an exhibit that highlights milestones of past festivals.A closing gala takes place on Sunday, July 14.For the full schedule and ticket information, visit the festival's website.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Newark Black Film Festival Celebrates 50 Years appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
In her new book Long Island Compromise, Taffy Brodesser-Akner revisits suburbia.It’s a place she knows only too well, having lived in Maplewood with her family for seven years. While her best-selling first novel, Fleishman Is in Trouble, was primarily set in Manhattan, the book and its subsequent miniseries included a couple living in a leafy New Jersey town.A staff writer for the New York Times Magazine, Brodesser-Akner says all her characters are reflections of herself, but it’s easy to see parallels between the author and her New Jersey doppelganger—after all, she wrote Fleishman while living in Maplewood.The new novel follows the decades-long fallout after a prominent Long Island family’s patriarch is kidnapped in the driveway of his own home. It’s every bit as satirically sharp as its predecessor and features nearly as much sex, but Brodesser-Akner wanted to explore even more deeply the role of wealth in family history.“I guess I wanted to discuss money and comfort, and those are things that kind of intersect in the suburbs,” she says. Like Fleishman, her new book has already been optioned for production as a streaming series. (The Fleishman series, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Claire Danes, premiered in November 2022 to critical acclaim.)Now, the author and her family have just returned to the Brooklyn of her birth after her many years in New Jersey. “I’m just a mile from where I was born,” notes Brodesser-Akner.She says she won’t be writing an autobiographical novel anytime soon. “I guess when it comes down to it, I’m still a journalist, someone who likes to assess things best from that kind of proximity. Like a constant visit without a real stake in it. Everything else feels too personal.”Although she penned both novels in New Jersey, at least in part, she feels confident she’ll be productive in Brooklyn, too. “I can write anywhere, a distinction that’s important to the psychology of how I do things,” she says. “Though a great place to write is the Mall at Short Hills ladies’ room, which has a couch and no internet or phone signal.”What will she miss from those years in New Jersey? “The people I was friends with there were really profoundly good friends,” Brodesser-Akner says. And driving the state with her husband, then based in Trenton, introduced her to unknown gems. “It has to be the most interesting state in the union. It contains everything, and yet it’s rounded out by this kind of one state personality, which you can find easily on the New Jersey official Twitter account. The New York official Twitter account will post something mean about New Jersey, and New Jersey will just respond, ‘Your mother.’ In those moments, I don’t know if I did the right thing by leaving!”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Taffy Brodesser-Akner Loves Writing from the Short Hills Mall Ladies’ Room appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Last September, Gregory Andrus embarked on a year-long, 130-mile walk along the Jersey Shore, with the goal of overcoming personal challenges.The author and photographer is documenting this healing journey in his book, A Walk Along the Jersey Shore, to be published in 2025.Since Andrus, 54, of Toms River, began his twice-weekly walks last fall, he has covered over 45 beaches, venturing out in every kind of weather, including snowstorms and howling winds. He began at Sandy Hook and hopes to reach Cape May by December.“I’m taking my time and want to experience all four seasons,” he says.A couple of years ago, Andrus, who suffered abuse as a child and has struggled with alcoholism and homelessness, began working with a therapist to deal with this past trauma and ongoing depression.“I decided to continue my healing process at the place I find most healing—the New Jersey beaches—and walk the entire length.”He’s cheered on virtually by over 65,000 members of his Facebook group, Portraits of the Jersey Shore, launched in 2015. Since then, he’s interviewed and photographed over 2,000 individuals at the shore. Many are included in his first book, Portraits of the Jersey Shore, published in April 2018.On walking days, Andrus drives to the next town on his list, parking in a nearby neighborhood “to get a sense of each town.” He turns off his phone, using only its voice-memo app to tape conversations with locals. Once on the beach, he walks south, averaging six to ten miles per walk.“This is a personal walk of healing for me,” says Andrus.He also aims to raise awareness of the causes that matter to him: mental health, homelessness, addiction and child abuse.“I want to help people remember that life is beautiful and it’s worth fighting through the difficult times.”Follow Andrus’s journey here.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post One Man’s Inspiring, 130-Mile Walk Along the Jersey Shore appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
In Hulu’s hit series The Bear, now in its third season, climbing the kitchen ladder is both exhilarating and excruciating.Here, a quintet of accomplished New Jersey chefs reveal their own shocking kitchen dramas.AJ Capella, executive chef/owner of Summit House“After getting my CIA [Culinary Institute of America] of degree, I worked my way up the cooking line. I took a job as line cook for a well-known Chicago chef at his Manhattan restaurant. From this, I was taught how molecular gastronomy works, and how to manage 15- or 16-hour workdays. I was grateful for the knowledge but resolved that in the future I’d never work my own team that hard.“I also survived a five-day stage at an extremely famous and expensive NYC place. The first three days they had me cutting romaine leaves into the shape of golf-hole flags. I figured they were for an event, but no, they were thrown away—to show me how unimportant I was.“The fourth day, I was led to one of two gold tiles in the blue-tiled kitchen floor. I was told to stand on that tile, not to move or talk, and just observe. I had to raise my hand to use the bathroom. After four hours of standing like a statue, I was moved to the other gold tile. The next day, same routine. After hours of standing still, the chef at the station nearest the tile came to me and said, 'Look, I’m wrapping these pork loins but I’m about to run out of twine, and if I leave my station I’ll run behind and screw everything up. Could you just run to that closet over there and get me a roll of twine?’ I told him, ‘I’m not allowed to move.’ He said, ‘This is for the good of the kitchen. Can you please just do this?’ So I did. And then the chef who had stuck me on the gold tiles came over and said, ‘You were instructed not to move. Now you can get the @!%# out of here.’ The chef who’d asked me for the twine whispered, ‘It was a test, dude.’ I was shown how cruel a kitchen can be, treating young chefs like robots. Yeah, just like on The Bear.”395 Springfield Avenue, Summit; 908-273-6000David Burke, founder of David Burke Hospitality Management, with nine restaurants in New Jersey“Well, there was the night I was held at gunpoint and slapped around for hours by two thieves who thought I knew the restaurant safe’s combination. I was the executive chef at that place, not a chef just starting out, but I have some harrowing stories about those early years too.“For my CIA externship, I got a very competitive placement in the kitchen of a brilliant and famous French chef in Dallas. The crew tasked me with dessert soufflés, which I did just fine. So they asked me to make their potato soufflés. Every table got some. They are amazing creations that I think of as potato pillowcases: fluffy inside with a shell outside. But they’re ferociously difficult to make; perfection is the only way they work, which is why you almost never see them any more. First you precisely fry chunks of potato in a pan of boiling oil so it puffs up from its water without exploding. You have to work fast and very close to the potato, so your fingers can’t help but get burned. Then you drop them in another pan for the deep-fry. Again, more hot splatters and finger burns. But I got it done, and the uncompromising French chef was happy. This experience drilled into me that to produce great food, perfection is your only option. When I became an executive chef a few years later, I’d show the potato soufflé technique to my kitchen crew, and they’d make them, with some safety accommodations.“But back to my early career. While still at the CIA, I did a month-long stage at a three-star Michelin restaurant in rural France. Three stars is the most you can get, and the place had serious rules. I’d been told to bring a pair of black lace-up shoes. I showed up in a beautiful pair of black high-top sneakers. A manager told me I couldn’t wear them in the kitchen—even though no diners ever saw me or my feet. He ordered me to get some black shoes and come right back. But we were in the middle of nowhere, not in, say, downtown Morristown, where a shoe store is a five-minute walk. So I borrowed an extra pair of shoes that another student chef volunteered. Thing is, they were two sizes too small. I spent that long first day—ten hours—on my feet in this hot kitchen. I was in so much pain I could barely make it to my room, where I discovered my feet were raw, bleeding and oozing. I was dizzy from the pain and can’t remember how I got shoes in my size. But I did, and spent the next day working on my aching, stinging feet. My lesson was that where magic that emerges from the kitchen door, a ton of hard work is behind it.”Scott Giordano, executive chef/owner of the Poached Pear Bistro“I got lucky. The chef on my CIA externship became my mentor: Hans Egg, who's Swiss and founded Saddle River Inn, now owned by Jamie Knott. I ended up working for Hans for over ten years. Instead of forcing his cooks to learn by trial and error, he showed his crew the right way to do everything, and treated us like sensitive human beings. He was a combination leader and father figure. His faith in us and his support made us want to do our very best and soak up all the knowledge he put before us.“But before I graduated, I had another a cooking experience I want to forget, but I’ll tell you. It was at a traditional, red-sauce Italian place in North Jersey. Now, let me say that there’s often chaos in a busy restaurant kitchen, but it’s controlled chaos, and the crew gets into a fast-paced rhythm. But at this place, it was unpredictable, uncontrolled chaos. Everyone shouting, pots clanging, steam rising, cooks racing around. Honestly, I was afraid to move off my station, because I’d get knocked down. But Hans managed his kitchen sanely, and now I do too.”816 Arnold Avenue, Point Pleasant Beach; 732-701-1700Demetrios Haronis, executive chef at Tropicana Atlantic City“Some of my best times in the hospitality game were the summers I spent in Spiro’s, the seasonal restaurant my father and uncle owned on the Wildwood boardwalk. Even as a grade-school kid I was there helping with little things. When I was nine, a line cook called in sick, and I worked the station as well as I could. I kept on assisting and soaking it up, and by high school I had hours and a paycheck. It was a blast to be with the crew and my family, and to spend my breaks in the boardwalk arcade.“When I was 17 and got a car, I got a job outside of Cape May in an enormous, high-volume Shore seafood place. I wanted to see how huge, busy restaurants do it. I was the low man on the kitchen totem pole, and the cooks bossed me around. I’d work the sauté station and sauté maybe 500 orders of seafood a night. Early or late in my shift, they’d make me open two bags of clams. That’s 400 clams. The good part is that the hours flew by, and I absorbed so much. Not just recipes and technique, but seeing how a well-run restaurant can just hum along. Then I went to the Academy of Cooking Arts in Cape May and got officially launched.”2831 Boardwalk, Atlantic City; 609-340-4000Anthony DeVanzo, executive chef/co-owner of Bici“I grew up cooking with my Italian family and went to the CIA [Culinary Institute of America]. My first postgrad stage [apprenticeship] was a few days at an adventurous restaurant in Liguria in northern Italy. They served an unheard-of chef’s tasting dinner of 11 courses with wine pairings. It was absolutely fantastic and proved to me there are really no limits to what a chef can do or create.“Then I spent two-and-a-half weeks at a modern Roman restaurant. The kitchen was very friendly and it really improved my Italian. This place was also amazing. The husband was the chef and the wife, the sommelier. You could feel the love they poured into their craft. When the seasonal fava beans came in we peeled them for days, and no one minded. And was permanently inspired by the risotto, made with primo ingredients like those fava beans or spring peas, which tinted the risotto a beautiful green. Today, risotto is a star of the menu at my restaurant Bici.“My next stage was in Sicily, at a mountaintop restaurant where the view was the entire island and the Mediterranean. The food was classic Sicilian, with the sweetest tomatoes and eggplant, basil, spaghetti. The dishes were so simple but the flavors complex and deep. I brought home those taste memories and the Sicilian tradition of ‘Sunday supper,’ when you go to the markets in the morning, cook all afternoon and then invite your family and friends for dinner. Actually, you see a lot of that in New Jersey, and Bici has a ‘Sunday gravy’ entrée every day, rigatoni in a thick red sauce with meatball, sausage and pork.“My so-so early cooking job was at a country club kitchen in Connecticut. I was on the breakfast crew. I had to be there at six and start making pancake batter and cracking eggs. The takeway was ‘no more breakfast service for me.’”61 Main Street, Ramsey; 201-962-9015 The post Just Like on ‘The Bear’: NJ Chefs’ Real-Life Tales of Passion and Pain appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Musician and actor Stevie Van Zandt and his half-brother, playwright and producer Billy Van Zandt, now have another honor to add to the list. This spring, the street where they grew up, Wilson Avenue in Middletown Township, was ceremonially renamed Van Zandt Way.The renaming, sponsored by the New Jersey Hall of Fame and Middletown Township, was attended by Mayor Tony Perry, former NBC news anchor and Middletown native Brian Williams, and officials from the New Jersey Hall of Fame.“We have both been awarded for our work, but being honored by our hometown is obviously very special,” said the brothers. “We will try our best to keep our street proud!”Stevie Van Zandt, musician, songwriter, and actor, is best known as a founding member and guitarist Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, but also has a solo band called Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul. He gained acclaim for his portrayal of Silvio Dante in the Emmy award-winning HBO series The Sopranos, which earned him multiple Screen Actors Guild Awards and an Emmy nomination. He is an inductee of both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.Billy Van Zandt is a celebrated playwright, actor, director and producer. He is the writer of the best-selling memoir Get in the Car, Jane (Adventures in the TV Wasteland) and was nominated for an Emmy Award for his television special I Love Lucy: The Very First Show. Other credits include You’ve Got Hate Mail, Love, Sex, and the I.R.S., and Silent Laughter. He’s also a stage and screen actor, with notable performances in The Godfather Part III and Jaws 2.The post Going From E Street to Van Zandt Way appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Brian Crowe may be the new artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, but he’s not exactly new to the company; 28 years ago, he arrived in Madison for a summer internship and never left.“It was meant to be a stepping stone,” he says of coming to the Garden State from the Dayton, Ohio, theater where he was working post-college. “Afterward, I was going to run off to Chicago with my classmates.”But the internship turned into a one-year position, which then turned into a staff position as director of education. “The professional development and artistic opportunities that were available to me here were quite remarkable,” says Crowe.He had the good fortune to arrive five years into the 33-year tenure of Bonnie Monte, who stepped down in January as artistic director. Monte, who had just launched the capital campaign to renovate the F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre, was “doing some challenging artistic work,” he says. “It was a really exciting time. It was great to be part of the team that was helping to rebuild that beautiful space that we have now as our home.”Monte, a legend in the state’s arts community who remains involved as artistic director emeritus, “really transformed the organization,” says Crowe. In addition to renovating the Kirby theater, she oversaw the transformation of an old valve factory in Florham Park into the Thomas H. Kean Theatre Factory, which houses administrative offices, rehearsal and classroom spaces, and shops for costumes, scenery and props. The factory, completed in 2011, is “part office, part crafts workshop, part interactive museum; a work of art in which we get to create our art every day,” he says.The summer performances at the outdoor stage and stone amphitheater at Saint Elizabeth University in Florham Park is another of Monte’s achievements. (You can catch As You Like It there through July 14.) “Through her 33 years of leadership, she built a reputation for exceptional work,” says Crowe. “The biggest challenge for me is to uphold that level of excellence that has become the hallmark of the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. She’s left behind some enormous shoes to fill.”In addition to bringing in talent, Crowe is himself directing. In May, it was A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, the company’s first musical in 12 years. In October, he’ll direct Macbeth.He also aims to bring in new audiences. “Classical theater is a bit of a niche market,” he says. “But there’s such a wonderfully rich and diverse population in Morris County and the state. Despite its stuffy reputation, classic theater, when done well, has broad appeal. When you get to see Shakespeare and other classics live onstage, and it’s fresh and thoughtful and engaging, it’s super exciting.”Getting bodies in theater seats has been more challenging post-pandemic, however. “We’re in a really critical time,” he says. People haven’t returned to theater the way they have to restaurants and sporting events, thanks to the proliferation of streaming services, he says. But TV is no substitute for live theater. “When we’re in a theater together, our heartbeats align; we’re a community of strangers who now are one entity,” he says. “That’s thrilling. We need to remind people why it’s so exciting and unique to be in a theater.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post A New Era Begins at Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Red Bank's Two River Theater is hosting its final performances of August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean plays this weekend, Friday, June 28, through Sunday, June 30.In Two River's seventh production of Wilson’s Century Cycle—10 plays, each exploring a different decade of African American life in the 20th century—Gem of the Ocean is the first installment of the sequence, taking place in 1904. Like all but one play in the series, it's set in a fictional black neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.The story centers on the local matriarch and spiritual leader, Aunt Ester, who is said to be 285 years old with powers to heal souls. In a community made up of former slaves and their descendants who migrated north in the hopes of a better life, Aunt Ester is a living ancestor who can offer salvation and absolution. As a new Southern transplant seeks her advice and protection for his sins, the unfolding story explores themes of identity, freedom, reckoning with the past, and transcendence into a spiritual realm.[caption id="attachment_338614" align="alignnone" width="778"] Stephanie Berry as Aunt Ester, the sage matriarch, who also appears in several other August Wilson plays. Photo: T. Charles Erickson[/caption]Theater veterans in Two River's production include Brandon Dirden, a West Orange resident, and his real-life wife, Crystal Dickinson. Dirden made his directorial debut at Two River in 2015 with Wilson’s Seven Guitars, and his professional acting debut in Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone in a Houston, Texas production. Dirden has a deep Wilson portfolio: He's also performed in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running, Jitney and Fences. (The latter, perhaps Wilson’s most produced and well-known work, was made into a 2016 film starring Denzel Washington.)[caption id="attachment_338613" align="alignnone" width="778"] Brandon Dirden as Caesar Wilks, playing opposite his real-life wife, Crystal Dickinson, who portrays Black Mary. Photo: T. Charles Erickson[/caption]Of Gem of the Ocean’s seven cast members, six have previously performed Wilson’s work.Wilson has been called the Shakespeare of African American life in the 20th century. Performers, directors and audiences alike are captivated by his lyrical language, the depth of his storytelling, his humor, and the heartbreaking humanity of his characters.Two River Theater, 21 Bridge Street, Red Bank; 732-345-1400.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Catch August Wilson’s ‘Gem of the Ocean’ at Red Bank’s Two River Theater appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_338060" align="alignnone" width="778"] At The Hook in Atlantic City, scantily clad performers elicit gasps and laughs galore. Photo: Courtesy of Spiegelworld[/caption]If you have come to see The Hook via Superfrico—the fantabulous Italian-inspired eatery that adjoins it at Caesar’s—you’ve had a glimpse of the naughty, playful raunch the show imparts with sexy dancing lobsters, pants-less jugglers, and head-scratching magic tricks. If you've skipped the dining-venue warmup, sit back and relax—maybe with a cocktail; there's a cash bar in the back of the theater—and prepare for scintillating ride.Celebrating its second season at Caesar’s Atlantic City, the Hook—produced by entertainment theater company Spiegelworld—has the feel of an old-fashioned carnival show filled with modern-day, adults-only winks and nods.The venue’s setting at the restored Warner Theatre, a 1929 movie house, hints at the madcap, vaudevillian presentation you're in for, with its lush drapes and eye-catching set design (cut-outs of ocean waves; the bow of a ship smashed into the stage).A zany crew of performers are led by a hawker-style MC complete with a saucy sidekick, dressed in sailor whites. Much of the dramatically lit, 75-minute show is Cirque Du Soleil-style acrobatics, which are stunningly up-close and personal in the 414-seat venue. From your seats, the impressive physical prowess of the performers is magical as they spin and flip and seemingly float before your eyes.[caption id="attachment_338059" align="alignnone" width="778"] A juggler keeps his cool. Photo: Courtesy of Spiegelworld[/caption]Be prepared for lots of scantily clad performers that mostly eschew traditional leotards for spangly, sparkly, barely-there, gender-bending outfits. There’s a reason this show is not PG; the sexual innuendos are laid on thick. While some may shy from the risqué undertones, the acts are top-notch, and their execution—on poles, on strings, and on the very swinging anchor from which the show derives its name—is worthy of the uproarious standing ovation at the end.Tickets, available for ages 18+, are available on Spiegelworld's website.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post ‘The Hook’: Atlantic City’s Raunchy, Uproarious Spectacle appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The music of the Grateful Dead endures and, indeed, prospers nearly 30 years after the death of Jerry Garcia. Surviving members Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann (along with jam-band superstar John Mayer) regularly sell out arenas as Dead & Company, and even 84-year-old Phil Lesh still performs in front of packed houses on ocassion. But the music truly lives and breathes on stages large and small through a national underground of Grateful Dead tribute bands, and in that scene, New Jersey is ground zero.There are the Cosmic Jerry Band from Asbury Park; American Beauty Band of New Brunswick; the Englishtown Project, named after a legendary 1977 concert at Raceway Park in Englishtown; and Reflections from North Jersey. The national database gratefuldeadtributebands.com lists more than 40 Dead tribute bands in the Garden State. While non-fans may be quick to brush off Deadheads as weed-loving hippies stuck in another era, music-industry experts, musicians and true fans tell a far different story of why this cover-band scene flourishes with timeless songs that bond a unique community of followers.[caption id="attachment_338158" align="alignnone" width="778"] Englishtown Project is named after a legendary Grateful Dead show in 1977 at Raceway Park in Englishtown. Photo: Vernon Webb[/caption]“It’s a really fascinating way that this culture is perpetuating itself,” says Jesse Jarnow, an author and the cohost of the podcast Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast. “Dead music is alive in a way that’s different from going to fan conventions or something. It’s still an active conversation.”Mike Manuele, who organizes a regular Tuesday Grateful Dead night at the Orange Lantern in Paramus, has 40 bands on his roster. As a bassist who plays in several Dead cover bands himself and often sits in with groups at the Lantern, Manuele sees a surprising depth in the scene.At the Lantern, he makes an effort to “mix it up” in his lineup, both geographically and stylistically. “I try to get bands who do different things, like acoustic bands or young groups,” Manuele says. “So it doesn’t all sound the same, and it’s not just the same bands we’re used to seeing in this area.”[caption id="attachment_338159" align="alignnone" width="778"] Katie Giordano of American Beauty Band at the Orange Lantern in Paramus. Photo: Vernon Webb[/caption]Manuele echoes other Deadheads in his admiration for the community the music engenders. “We call it a family, and the Grateful Dead is just one of those things—it’s an amazing phenomenon,” he enthuses. “It’s a lot of super, wonderful people, and, no pun intended, but I’m very grateful for what it’s meant to me and what it’s done to my life. And for me, what I’m doing on Tuesdays is one small way of giving back to this great thing that’s done so many positive things for me and many other people.”You’ll find an unlikely convert to Jersey’s Dead tribute-band scene in David Krumholtz, an actor with impressive and memorable credits in television, film and theater including CBS’s Numb3rs, the 2023 hit Oppenheimer, the holiday classic The Santa Clause, and the acclaimed 2022 Broadway show Leopoldstadt. Krumholtz, who was born and raised in New York City, spent 15 years in Los Angeles before deciding to move to Bergen County about a decade ago to raise his family.“The culture shock was enormous—I had never really lived in suburbia before, and I started to go a bit stir-crazy,” Krumholtz says. “So what does one do when one’s bored? You hit the Facebook events page. And it was glaringly obvious that there was a robust live-music scene going around me in Bergen County, and half of it, or at least a large portion, was Grateful Dead cover bands.” Krumholtz says he “wasn’t a huge fan, but I did like some of their songs, so I thought it might be interesting.”“And the truth is, I’m a working actor, and I spend half my time working on getting work and waiting for the phone to ring. So I started going out.”Krumholtz’s odyssey from professional actor to part-time musician began one quiet night while watching Touch of Grey, one of the area’s better-known Dead tribute acts. “One night, they were having a rough night, not a lot of people, and I started singing along with them under my breath, and the singer’s girlfriend came over and got me to get on stage and sing a few songs with them,” Krumholtz recalls. “That was awkward, but we’re talking about 1 am in a dive bar just singing a bunch of Grateful Dead tunes randomly to basically no one.”Krumholtz found himself hooked and became a fixture at Touch of Grey shows. “I’ve been doing it ever since,” he says. “I ended up leaving Touch of Grey and joining another band called One Man Gathers, or OMG. And then, recently, I started my own band called Her Angels in Flame, which is a combination of members from other popular bands.”[caption id="attachment_338160" align="alignnone" width="778"] Her Angels in Flame members, from left: Jon Chazen, David Krumholtz, Josh Kates, Christopher Hanson and Eric Cohen. Not pictured: Paul Kates. Photo: Justin Borucki[/caption]The name Her Angels in Flame comes from the lyrics of the Dead’s “Help on the Way.” Krumholtz still sits by the phone waiting for that next acting gig, but his passion for the band and scene is inspiring.“What ended up happening is I made a bunch of amazing friends, not just in the band or in the other bands that I was going to see, but the Deadhead scene itself,” he says. “In New Jersey, or at least in Bergen County, it’s a very close-knit family, and there’s a kinship there.”Josh Kates, who is one of Krumholtz’s bandmates in Her Angels in Flame and is also active in several other Dead-related projects, including Touch of Grey, Reflections and DeadiKates, says there is a “huge community” with “a lot of familiar faces night after night” listening to their music. “The songs have become anthems from the Great American Songbook at this point,” Kates says.[caption id="attachment_338161" align="alignnone" width="778"] Her Angels in Flame Photo: Justin Borucki[/caption]While the popularity of the Dead tribute-band scene may come as no surprise to anyone who makes the rounds at area music venues (or scans Facebook,) it’s not widely known that the phenomenon actually began right here in Bergen County, New Jersey. John Zias, now 71 years old and a musician in Florida, lays claim that his band, Cavalry, was the first to cover the Grateful Dead on stage.Zias discovered the first Dead album as a Bergen County tween in 1967. ”A guy in a subway station was holding it and it just caught my eye,” he remembers. “I knew this kid who had bought it, and I borrowed it from him and never gave it back.”Soon, Zias was lying to his parents and sneaking into New York City for concerts. Two weeks after his 15th birthday, he went to see the Jefferson Airplane open for the Grateful Dead in Central Park. “I was like, Why are the Airplane opening for the Dead?” he recalls. “The Airplane killed, but then half an hour later, the Dead come on, looking completely outside of anyone’s box. Like pirates. And they started playing, and, literally, you could hear the concrete under you shaking. It was one of the loudest, most powerful, most exotic sounds I had ever heard.”Zias says it changed his life. “This show proved to me that that there was something extra there, at that age where you’re discovering how far you can reach in terms of grasping concepts and levels of consciousness….I know I’m getting cosmic here, but that’s how the Dead appealed to a certain personality type and how they’ve been able to transcend generations,” he says. “Even back then, you’d be at a show sitting next to a 17-year-old kid and then someone who’s 77.”Zias started dabbling with playing the Dead’s music in 1968 with his friend Kenny White (who went on to have a long career as a studio musician). “We were doing it in our bedrooms, just guitar and keyboards, and learning whatever was on the first two albums,” Zias says. “The third album came out in 1969, and we started learning all the songs, and by September of ’69, we put a band together.”Soon, Cavalry was playing a solid number of shows, sometimes with another local group called Cheyenne, which took its inspiration from the band Quicksilver Messenger Service, playing some of their covers plus their own original tunes.“We had a scene of budding hippies, about a 100 people who’d come to see us,” Zias remembers. “We were turning scores of people on to the Grateful Dead.”Eventually, New Jersey became one the Grateful Dead’s busiest markets, but it didn’t happen right away. In 1977, Dead fever was in full swing in New Jersey with the band’s record-breaking show at Raceway Park in Englishtown. With 107,000 fans rocking out, it is considered the largest ticketed concert in U.S. history. This summer, Dark Star Orchestra, a popular Dead tribute band, is recreating that show at the Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park, just 25 miles from Englishtown.[RELATED: Stone Pony Celebrating 50 Years in Asbury Park]
“Until Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty came out, there was very little interest in the Dead,” notes Zias of the albums released in 1970. “We created this enthusiasm thing, and who woulda thunk that 55 years later, we’d still be talking about it?”An important part of the early conversation surrounding the Dead happened thanks to Relix, which began as a Grateful Dead newsletter that was sold in parking lots before shows to help tape traders connect and later morphed into a respected music publication focusing on live and improvisational music.As the editor of Relix for over a decade, Josh Baron developed his own perspective on the Grateful Dead’s allure.“The enduring draw of Dead cover bands comes down to the strength of the music itself and how powerful the songs are, and this may sound a little hippie-dippie-ish, but how they catalyze the ability of people to hang out together and experience music together,” Baron says.The element of improvisation is also key to the fan experience. “Generally, they’re thought of as cover bands, but the music they’re playing is structured in a way that allows for improvisation,” says Baron. “So just as no two Grateful Dead concerts were ever the same, no two Grateful Dead cover-band concerts are ever going to be the same because there’s such an element of improvisation to it.”“I think that’s what engages the crowd,” Baron continues, “versus, say, a typical cover band where the band focuses on the hits, and it’s like the same 10 songs every night, and they’re gonna play those songs and that’s it.”Baron also emphasizes that Dead cover bands don’t just cover songs written by the Grateful Dead, just like the Grateful Dead didn’t only play songs written by the Grateful Dead. “The Dead in their own right were something of a cover band, and a number of their songs were not their own but became a standard part of the repertoire,” Baron says.The number of Dead tribute bands is only growing, in New Jersey and elsewhere. “There’s probably no other rock band in the world that has as many tribute bands as the Grateful Dead,” says Jay Blakesberg, who has photographed the national rock scene since 1978 and whose portfolio includes many famous images of the Dead. “Every state, everywhere you go in this country, you can probably find a Grateful Dead cover band any night of the week anywhere you go. Many of these groups have become nationally famous touring bands, while some are micro-regional.”Take Strangers Stopping Strangers, a Dead tribute band based in urban Hudson County. The group formed when musician Jeff Greenspan relocated to Hoboken from Maryland and approached James Calleo, an established Jersey City singer/songwriter and bandleader playing Americana and alt-folk.“We met at open mics and stuff, and Jeff wanted to start a Grateful Dead cover band,” Calleo recalls.Strangers Stopping Strangers had just started to make itself felt on the local scene when the pandemic closed everything down. “That’s when we started doing virtual videos and actually learning how to play the songs well enough for it to sound halfway decent,” Calleo says.After the pandemic, the band hit the road running, and a show at Jersey City’s popular White Eagle Hall solidified its following.[caption id="attachment_338164" align="alignnone" width="778"] Strangers Stopping Strangers performs at the Williams Center in Rutherford earlier this year. Photo: Courtesy of Taylor Weinberg[/caption]For Calleo, covering the Grateful Dead offers a channel to creativity. “We just decided to pull stuff from our own influences,” he says. “We learned the music as far as structure and key riffs, but we’re not trying to mimic the Dead whatsoever.” He adds, “So what we do is take the songs as a framework and then just allow them to go wherever. Once we learned about 100 songs, we actually stopped rehearsing. We decided that it would take away the threat live. A lot of what appeals to this audience is a sense of communal creativity; you’re watching something being created onstage.”“What makes it fun and sustainable mentally for us is to watch all these people move and start dancing. We get up there with no plan, no baggage beyond a set list, and if a jam is happening for five minutes and feels like it’s going stale, we just stop. But if it seems like everyone’s really diggin’ it, you just kind of look at each other and laugh and keep going with it. I call it a vacation onstage where there’s really nothing to worry about whatsoever.”As longtime fans will tell you, it’s hard to stay away from the scene, even if you try. Zias, who is credited as starting the Grateful Dead tribute-band phenomenon with Cavalry back in the late 1960s, decided to walk away at the age of 22 to create his own music. But he returned to the Dead later in life.Today, he plays in his own Dead cover band, Unlimited Devotion, often sits in with Tampa’s Uncle John’s Band, and also plays originals in the Joint Chiefs.“Dead music hits a lot of different levels of emotion and human consciousness,” Zias says of the enduring popularity. “There’s a Dead for everybody. There’s ‘Sugar Magnolia’ for the pop kids, there’s ‘Dark Star’ for the yobs who took a lot of LSD in their youth like me. There’s stuff that rocks you out of your seat. They created a conglomeration of music that draws from everywhere, but always has a touch of wisdom behind it, even when they’re playing what would be considered today some really chill stuff.”“There’s always a third-eye element to Grateful Dead music at its best. Everybody gets something that’s elevating. That music taps into something completely unconsciously that is the most enduring phenomenon that I’ve ever experienced in my 71 years, and it will keep going.”Jim Testa is an award-winning music columnist for the Jersey Journal/NJ.com and editor/publisher of the long-lived JerseyBeat.com.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Grateful Dead Tribute Bands Are Alive and Kicking in New Jersey appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Unless you’re a bona fide Swiftie, you may not know that the Pennsylvania-born megastar is also a New Jerseyite: For twelve summers, her family owned a home on the bay in Stone Harbor, which she has called a “magical place to grow up.”This summer, at the Stone Harbor Museum, you can get a peek into Swift’s formative years in the idyllic Shore town. She vacationed there from 1992 until 2004, when her family moved to Nashville to help her break into the music industry.The exhibit includes photos of Swift as a child in Stone Harbor, provided by her family. Other items include four vinyls of her Midnights album that form a clock display, a “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” concert film poster, a Taylor Swift-inspired Peter Max poster, and a Midnights-themed guitar signed by Swift.“We are thrilled to have these items,” said Teri Fischer, president of the board of trustees for the museum, in a press release. “Taylor Swift is definitely part of the Stone Harbor story, and I know that she does delight and inspire so many of us.”The Swifts were woven into the fabric of Stone Harbor. Scott Swift, the singer’s father, was an EMT with the Stone Harbor Volunteer Fire Company No. 1, while the budding star herself could often be found playing her music in local coffee shops and cafes.“I used to sing karaoke at Henry's [on Third Avenue] and play acoustic shows for hours on end at Coffee Talk, a little cafe on 98th Street,” Swift said in a 2009 interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I used to drag my parents into those places all the time, and all of their friends would show up and put dollars in my tip jar. When I was younger, I used to play for hours and hours in cafes like that. When I would run out of material, I'd just start making up songs on the spot.”Henry’s has since shuttered, along with the Italian Garden restaurant, another favorite of Swift’s. But for those who want to walk in the shoes of the pop icon, the Coffee Talk cafe is still open, along with Springer’s Homemade Ice Cream (also one of NJM's favorite Shore spots). For an authentic reenactment, order the cookies ‘n’ cream, which Swift says was her favorite."When I was little, I used to walk in there and just stare up at all the flavors and toppings, completely frozen and unable to make a final decision,” she told the Inquirer. “I was always so overwhelmed.”The Swift memorabilia will be on display at the museum through the end of September.[RELATED: Jack Antonoff Is Taylor Swift’s Favorite Collaborator and New Jersey's Biggest Fanboy]
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Taylor Swift’s Little-Known Jersey Shore Roots appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
When Joyce Carol Oates learned about the ways in which the women who were held in the former New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum at Trenton in the early 20th century were terribly exploited, she was inspired to write about them—and the men who experimented on them—in her new novel, Butcher (Knopf), which is set largely in New Jersey and based on authentic historical documents.Oates, 86, the author of more than 58 novels and a professor at both Princeton and Rutgers universities, has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and has won many other awards, including the National Book Award and the National Humanities Medal. She lives outside of Princeton.[caption id="attachment_336655" align="alignright" width="350"] Joyce Carol Oates's new novel, Butcher, is out now.[/caption]What made you want to write Butcher? Was it partly to bring attention to the horrible things that were done to women in the past?Yes, I have written, in less lurid detail, about similar restrictions and sexist exploitations of women in the 19th century in my novel A Bloodsmoor Romance some years ago, and I have written of what is called medical misconduct/malpractice in a suite of poems collected in American Melancholy. My second husband, Charlie Gross, was a historian of scientific research and his many books on the subject were fascinating to me. My novel The Man Without a Shadow explores [a man] whose memory has deteriorated, and Butcher explores a similar exploitation of women who are trapped, captive as “mental patients” in the [New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum at Trenton]—an actual place, no longer open, but not far from where I live—under the longtime directorship of the notorious Henry Cotton.Is the book based on real people in addition to Dr. J. Marion Sims, the notorious physician who experimented on enslaved women in the 19th century?Yes, it is based upon three notable, renowned medical men, one of them Henry Cotton, who lived in the 20th century.Did you visit the places in New Jersey where you set your novel, such as Morristown, the Hermitage and Trenton? If so, did those visits change the way you thought about those places?Yes, I have visited Morristown, but not the Hermitage. I have visited Trenton a good deal, served on a jury at the courthouse there, and often visited the Trenton museum, but the old lunatic asylum is long shut up and not available to visitors.You’ve been at Princeton for more than four decades and have advised many students there, including Jonathan Safran Foer when he wrote Everything is Illuminated. It’s unusual for a writer as productive as you to spend so much time helping young writers—why do you do it?Teaching is fascinating to me and a major part of my life.You are one of the most prolific writers in American literature and one of the most honored. Can you talk about your writing routine? When do you write and how often? How long does it usually take you to finish a novel?There is no specific writing routine—I try to write as much as I can each day. Obviously, days vary. Also, each novel is different; some are lengthy and require research, others are based more directly upon personal experience and require little research. Butcher did require research, primarily into “experiments” of the 19th century, and an occasional reliance upon J. Marion Sims’s life story, which is available online from Harvard University. My novel Blonde—a “posthumous autobiography” of Norma Jeane Baker/Marilyn Monroe—required both conventional research and the watching of as many movies of Monroe as were available; my recent novel Breathe—based upon intimate experience—required a minimum of research. My very recent novel Babysitter—based upon an actual serial killer case, unsolved, in the Detroit area in 1977, when I lived there—similarly required a minimum of research.What’s your favorite thing about Princeton? About New Jersey?The people! Definitely, the wonderful friends and colleagues in and around Princeton; the same is true for New Jersey as a whole. I often visit the Delaware Valley; my favorite small town is Lambertville, and also Hopewell. I live not in Princeton but several miles away in the direction of Hopewell, in a suburban-rural area, on three acres of mostly wooded land. New Jersey is a beautiful state, truly a garden state. Though my own garden is a modest one, it brings me much happiness each year.[RELATED: Read Our 2011 Interview with Joyce Carol Oates]
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Joyce Carol Oates’s Dark New Novel Was Inspired by Former NJ Asylum appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Ever think about hosting a late-night talk show? Singing on stage beside iconic hitmakers? Flying to the moon? Well, soon you can—holographically—at the New Jersey Hall of Fame’s (NJHOF) Entertainment and Learning Center, opening at the end of June.Located in East Rutherford’s American Dream mall, just across from the Nickelodeon Universe Theme Park and DreamWorks Water Park, the new 10,000-square-foot center highlights people in our state who have made extraordinary contributions to New Jersey and society (just like the actual Hall of Fame does). Filled with a lot of interactive exhibits, the Entertainment and Learning Center is intended to inspire and engage people of all ages—because “everyone needs a hero,” as NJHOF’s slogan declares.In May, New Jersey Monthly got a behind-the-scenes tour of the new center. At the time of our visit, the NJHOF team was still hard at work, busy perfecting the final details—but the space was already glistening with Jersey magic.Since 2008, NJHOF, a nonprofit organization, has honored more than 230 inductees, including actors, musicians, athletes, scientists and politicians. The Hall of Fame also spearheaded the rest stop program that in recent years renamed service areas for famous New Jerseyans like James Gandolfini, Jon Bon Jovi, Judy Blume and Whitney Houston and created mini exhibits about each of the stars.“New Jersey really has exported more greatness than just about any other state,” says Hall of Fame president Steve Edwards.You're greeted by these Jersey greats the moment you walk into the center. A large screen displays various inspirational quotes and video clips of Hall of Fame inductees; another screen plays videos of other smiling celebs with Jersey ties.Also upfront? One of the center’s most precious artifacts: the exact Ford Model T that Henry Ford gifted Jersey transplant Thomas Edison. (There's also an entire corner dedicated to Edison, designed to be a visual replica of his West Orange laboratory.) You can take an 8-minute, action-packed ride in a simulation of the Ford Model T, in which you’ll travel to the moon and meet holographic icons, including Edison, and hear Hoboken native Frank Sinatra sing “Fly Me to the Moon.”[caption id="attachment_336347" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Sing karaoke next to holograms of Jersey icons like Gloria Gaynor and Frankie Valli. Photo: Courtesy of NJHOF[/caption]Other interactive exhibits let you get up close and personal with Jersey inductees, too. At the karaoke stage, which takes inspiration from Sweden's ABBA Museum, you can belt out tunes beside holograms of Jersey singers, like Newark natives Gloria Gaynor and Frankie Valli.At Late Night Jersey TV, sharpen your interview skills by asking questions to holograms of Danny DeVito or journalist Connie Chung. The interactions are recorded and can be sent to you to keep.[caption id="attachment_336348" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Interview holograms of Jersey celebrities at the Late Night Jersey TV exhibit. Photo: Courtesy of NJHOF[/caption]In the middle of the center, a Wall of Fame features small plaques for all inductees, surrounding a screen that plays excerpts from their induction speeches.And while the center mainly spotlights formal inductees, NJHOF acknowledges that they aren’t the only heroes the state has to offer. Adjacent to the Wall of Fame, the Everyday Heroes Wall encourages New Jerseyans to think about the heroes within their own lives. They can even nominate them to be featured on the wall’s screen.“Heroes are not just rock stars and athletes,” says Edwards. “I love them dearly, but heroes are firemen and police and educators: People that make New Jersey go round. And we want to showcase them in this exhibit permanently.”Other fun exhibits include a small movie theater, a selfie station, a virtual-reality ride in a replica of Jon Bon Jovi’s Chevelle convertible, and much more.For out-of-staters, ticket prices are $24.99 for adults and $20.99 for children. New Jersey residents get a discount: $19.99 for adults and $15.99 for children—just be sure to bring valid forms of ID. Talk about some Jersey edge!For more information and updates, visit the Entertainment and Learning Center's website.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post A Sneak Peek Inside NJ Hall of Fame’s New Learning Center appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_336123" align="alignnone" width="778"] Jelani Remy, who has previously starred in The Lion King and Ain't Too Proud, currently plays Mayor Goldie Wilson and singer Marvin Berry in the Back to the Future musical on Broadway. Photo: Paul Morejon[/caption]Jelani Remy, 36, is no stranger to Broadway musicals, with star turns as Simba in The Lion King and the Temptations’ Eddie Kendriks in Ain’t Too Proud. But in his current role in Back to the Future, based on the 1985 movie, he’s an original cast member, which is a new creative experience.In the musical, which opened last August, the Cedar Grove native plays Mayor Goldie Wilson and singer Marvin Berry, singing the lead in three numbers: “Gotta Start Somewhere,” “Deep Divin’,” and the doo-wop classic “Earth Angel.”“It’s a small role, but I’ve gotten to breathe life into it. I’m the comedic relief of the show. I get to be silly and crack up the audience,” he says.[caption id="attachment_336109" align="alignnone" width="778"] Jelani Remy (center) and the cast of Back to the Future on Broadway. Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman[/caption]Remy began rehearsals with a sense of the characters as he knew them from the movie, and expanded them to be “lovable and memorable,” he says.“I used the cast and the creative team’s leadership to try different approaches until I found what felt right.”Bob Gale, who wrote the movie’s screenplay and the musical’s book, comes to the Winter Garden Theatre often to watch the show. When he does, he and Remy occasionally get together for dinner in the theater district. “He’s a wealth of information,” Remy says. “He remembers every [movie] detail, the why and the how. I think it’s beautiful that he is freely sharing his knowledge.”Like Gale, Remy is also generous with his gifts. When he’s not performing on Broadway, he leads choreography and audition workshops at his alma mater, Cedar Grove High School. In 2022, he helped with choreography for their production of The Prom and was part of the team that pushed for it to continue after it was tentatively canceled due to concerns over LGBTQ+ themes.In fact, Remy got the call that he’d nabbed the role in Back to the Future while he was at Cedar Grove, working with students and the chorus teacher who had pushed him to do his first musical. “I got to tell them first,” he says.[RELATED: Broadway’s ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ Star Fell in Love With Acting at NJ Public Schools]
“Cedar Grove is my roots. You never forget where you come from,” he says. He also credits the district’s longtime theater director, Jennifer Jessen-Foose, for “pushing me into my passion.”Remy explains: “My entire heart is in New Jersey. I grew up here and it shaped me. It’s important to keep going back and helping the next generation of performers.”He also credits his performing experiences at Pleasant Valley Productions, Paper Mill Playhouse’s Rising Star program and the Montclair Operetta Club for helping to get him to Broadway. At Montclair State University, where he studied musical theater, the “legend” Clay James, associate professor of theater and dance, “gave me that collegiate-level tough love.“I had some fantastic teachers throughout my life, which made me want to become one,” he says, of his aspirations to someday work behind the scenes directing, choreographing and teaching.“I love giving an education or sharing something with the next generation. It’s important for the kids to see someone from their community to show them that it’s possible.”Cedar Grove native Jelani Remy (center) and the cast of Back to the Future on Broadway. Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Broadway Star Jelani Remy Says Jersey Roots ‘Shaped Me’ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
I’m a longtime journalist and consider myself well-read, so I was baffled that I’d never heard of the legendary Italian journalist who blazed a trail for women in the 1960s and 1970s.It was a delight to discover her remarkable story in Oriana: A Novel of Oriana Fallaci (Delphinium, March 19), a sexy and inspiring novel that takes readers from Florence in World War II to the war in Vietnam, then to the Greek island where Fallaci met her true love, and finally to Manhattan, where she died in 2006.Tracing the evolution of Fallaci’s fearlessness makes for edge-of-your-seat reading. She helped the Italian resistance against Nazi occupation as a teenager, then rose above the misogyny of her Italian newspaper office, going to Vietnam seven times to cover the war and getting shot covering the student protests in Mexico.By the 1970s, she’d earned a reputation as the world’s best interviewer, getting Henry Kissinger to admit that the war in Vietnam was “useless.”But Oriana is also a romance, and that story is equally gripping. She was as glamorous and sexy as she was tough as driven, having a 6-year affair with an Italian journalist before the fateful day she flew to Athens to interview Alekos Panagoulis, a hero in the resistance against the Greek dictatorship, and fell in love.Author Anastasia Rubis grew up spending summers in Greece with extended family. “Fallaci thrilled me with how strong and assertive a woman could be,” says Rubis, who lives in Montclair. “She made a huge contribution to journalism and championed human rights. I wanted to tell that story.”Click here to see all of our Jersey-centric summer book picks.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Montclair Author Tells Sexy Story of a Gutsy, Trailblazing Journalist appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_336249" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration: Kotryna Zukauskaite[/caption]Julia Phillips’ second novel, Bear (Hogarth, June 25), tells the story of a pair of sisters who seem locked in a life of quiet desperation.Sam and Elena live together in their childhood house, caring for their mother as she lies dying upstairs. In an area of majestic natural beauty, the sisters are working-class townies laboring at service jobs, taking care of tourists and more well-off local residents, and fighting off poverty and depression while dreaming of a day they can leave home and begin afresh.That is, until Sam looks down from the ferry on which she staffs the snack bar and sees the strangest thing: a bear, swimming powerfully through the cold water separating the islands where they live and work from the mainland of Washington State. Before long, the bear is spotted on the sisters’ own island and, suspected in some livestock deaths, gossiped about at the grocery store.Residents are frightened but excited, the bear somehow enlivening a formerly sleepy and staid existence. When the bear shows up at their house, its bewitching, bewildering presence threatens to break their own fierce sisterly bond.Phillips’ 2019 debut Disappearing Earth, a finalist for the National Book Award, also centered two sisters in a landscape of treacherous beauty; here they are adults yet sometimes seem as innocent and endangered as orphans in a fairytale.Phillips grew up in Montclair and attended high school there before studying Russian literature at Barnard College. This summer, sink into the mysterious northwoods vibes in Bear, an unforgettable book about the enchantments of the unknown wild.Click here to see all of our Jersey-centric summer book picks.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Sisters, Secrets and a Mysterious Bear: NJ Author’s Bewitching New Novel appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_336250" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration: Kotryna Zukauskaite[/caption]Before you make your way down the Shore, peruse our recommendations for summer books, all of which were written by New Jersey authors and/or are set here in the Garden State. There’s a mix of fiction and nonfiction, and something for every type of reader.Welcome Home, Caroline KlineCourtney PreissG.P. Putnam’s Sons, April 16In this Asbury Park resident’s debut novel, Preiss tells the story of Caroline, a lost young woman who moves to New York City to escape the Shore town where she grew up. But instead she finds herself single, jobless and apartment-less. When she’s called home after her father takes a fall, she realizes he needs her to take his spot on his men’s softball team. While overcoming the challenges of being the only woman on the team, she stumbles into her childhood crush. Through witty narration, romance, struggle, and heartfelt moments of self-discovery, Caroline realizes home base isn’t so bad after all. —Emily MelvinThe Second ComingGarth Risk HallbergKnopf, May 28In his third book, Montclair resident Garth Risk Hallberg tells the story of a troubled 13-year-old girl, Jolie, her relationship with her estranged father, Ethan, and the journey that could bring them back together. Ethan is an ex-con and recovering alcoholic who fears his daughter is in trouble when he learns that she was nearly hit by a subway train after dropping her phone on the tracks. Can they save one another? From the best-selling author of City on Fire, which was made into a limited series on Apple TV. —Jacqueline MrozWestport, A Crime NovelJames ComeyMysterious Press, May 21Former FBI director James Comey, who grew up in Bergen County, returns with his second thriller, this time taking readers into the world of high finance and corporate espionage. Nora Carleton is back (from Comey’s first novel, Central Park West) to solve crimes, but now she’s working as lead counsel at the world’s largest hedge fund. Her life falls apart when a coworker is murdered, and she becomes the lead suspect. She calls in her old colleagues from the U.S. Attorney’s Office to help her solve the crime. Comey once again uses his extensive background in law enforcement to make this story feel all too real. —J. MrozDesperately Seeking SomethingSusan SeidelmanSt. Martin’s Press, June 18Trailblazing film director Susan Siedelman is best known for her groundbreaking movie, Desperately Seeking Susan, which led to a four-decade careeer in film. In her new memoir, she talks about her life, from her childhood in 1960s suburbia to the Madonna-mania of the 1980s to her genre-bending films, including her punk drama Smithereens. Siedelman, who lives in New Jersey, went on to direct episodes of Sex and the City and has continued to focus her sharp lens on the changing place of women in society. —J. MrozI Don’t Want To Go Home:* The Oral History of The Stone Pony*Nick CorasanitiHarper, June 4Nick Corasaniti, a national political reporter for the New York Times, took a break from his beat to author this detailed account of Asbury Park’s legendary music venue. Corasaniti, who splits his time between Asbury and Brooklyn, interviewed iconic musicians and bands like Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt, Southside Johnny, the Ramones, and Jack Antonoff to document the rock club’s rich history over the last 50 years. Through good times and bad, the Stone Pony has remained a resilient staple in Asbury Park, and I Don’t Want to Go Home covers it all. —Gary PhillipsGreen FrogGina ChungVintage Books, March 12In this deeply personal collection of short stories, New Jersey native Gina Chung paints moving vignettes of womanhood, mother-daughter relationships, the Korean American experience, grief, family and love. The stories range from mock recipes for eating one’s own heart to profound trials of self-discovery through the eyes of a woman falling unexpectedly pregnant. Each story is filled with palpable emotion and melancholy artistry and told with a unique and intimate voice. —Connor CarlinBearJulia PhillipsHogarth, June 25[caption id="attachment_336249" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration: Kotryna Zukauskaite[/caption]Julia Phillips’ second novel, Bear, tells the story of a pair of sisters who seem locked in a life of quiet desperation. Sam and Elena live together in their childhood house, caring for their mother as she lies dying upstairs. In an area of majestic natural beauty, the sisters are working-class townies laboring at service jobs, taking care of tourists and more well-off local residents, and fighting off poverty and depression while dreaming of a day they can leave home and begin afresh.That is, until Sam looks down from the ferry on which she staffs the snack bar and sees the strangest thing: a bear, swimming powerfully through the cold water separating the islands where they live and work from the mainland of Washington State. Before long, the bear is spotted on the sisters’ own island and, suspected in some livestock deaths, gossiped about at the grocery store. Residents are frightened but excited, the bear somehow enlivening a formerly sleepy and staid existence. When the bear shows up at their house, its bewitching, bewildering presence threatens to break their own fierce sisterly bond. Read more here. —Kate TuttleDays of WonderCaroline LeavittAlgonquin, April 29Hoboken author Caroline Leavitt tells the story of a woman who reluctantly gives up her baby after being accused of trying to murder her boyfriend’s father, a superior court judge. When she is released from prison, she begins searching for her child, as well as answers to what really happened that fateful night. The novel is a courageous story about mothers and daughters and the lengths to which they’ll go for love. —J. MrozAkmaralJudith LindberghRegal House Publishing, May 7From the author of the critically acclaimed Thrall’s Tale comes Akmaral, the story of a nomadic woman warrior on the Central Asian steppes in the fifth century BCE. Trained for battle from birth, her prowess in horsemanship, archery and armed combat ignite jealousy in a potential lover and in the clan’s men, who bristle at matriarchal rule. Akmaral confronts complex issues about the sacrifices women make to protect those they love and the choice between kingdom, family and one’s own heart. —Julia MartinAll We Were PromisedAshton LattimoreBallantine, April 2The convergence of three radically different African American female perspectives at a critical time in American history forms the thematic center of this beautifully executed first novel. Set in 1837 Philadelphia, Nell comes from a well-to-do Black family far removed from the life of domestic servant Charlotte, whom Nell’s liberal activism lead her to befriend. The unlikely pair soon become involved in a social-political venture—helping an enslaved woman, Evie, to escape—that has the potential to uncover Charlotte’s dangerous secret and change their futures while testing the nation’s ideals. Lattimore, a former lawyer who grew up in Piscataway, renders this finely researched story with deft details and moving characterization. —Deborah P. CarterWhere Are You, Echo Blue?Hayley KrischerDutton, July 16When journalist and superfan Goldie Klein learns her favorite child star, Echo Blue, has disappeared on the eve of her comeback event, Goldie goes into sleuth mode and heads to Los Angeles to uncover the story. Author and Glen Ridge resident Hayley Krischer brings the ills of pop culture to the forefront in this, her premier adult novel. As Goldie comes up close with the challenges of fame, the power of the media, and recognition of the love-hate relationship the public has with celebrities, Krischer offers a different view of the limelight. The page-turning novel also shines a light on fandom and the line between admiration and obsession in a fame-fueled culture. —DPCOriana: A Novel of Oriana FallaciAnastasia RubisDelphinium, March 19I’m a longtime journalist and consider myself well-read, so I was baffled that I’d never heard of the legendary Italian journalist who blazed a trail for women in the 1960s and 1970s. It was a delight to discover her remarkable story in Oriana: A Novel of Oriana Fallaci, a sexy and inspiring novel that takes readers from Florence in World War II to the war in Vietnam, then to the Greek island where Fallaci met her true love, and finally to Manhattan, where she died in 2006.Author Anastasia Rubis grew up spending summers in Greece with extended family. “Fallaci thrilled me with how strong and assertive a woman could be,” says Rubis, who lives in Montclair. “She made a huge contribution to journalism and championed human rights. I wanted to tell that story.” Read more here. —J. Martin
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Best Summer 2024 Beach Reads With a New Jersey Twist appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Visitors to Cape May this summer can learn about New Jersey’s role in the fascinating history of everyone’s favorite summer treat at an exhibit at the Emlen Physick Estate, We All Scream for Ice Cream, sponsored by Cape May MAC (Museums + Arts + Culture).Some form of ice cream has been around since antiquity, but many innovations in the making of the sweet treat took place during Victorian times in the South Jersey area.Bassetts Ice Cream, the oldest ice cream maker in the United States, began making ice cream with mule power in Salem, NJ in 1861 (Bassett’s moved to Philly’s Reading Terminal Market in 1892, where they still scoop today.)[RELATED: One Thing You Must Do in Every Shore Town]
But ice cream has come a long way from Victorian times, when only the wealthy could afford it, and it came in flavors like oyster and green tomato.Along with learning fun facts, you can view antique packaging, ice cream molds and photographs at the exhibit, which is free and open daily through November 3 in the Physick estate’s Carriage House.While at the estate, you can get more Victorian history by taking a guided tour of the 18-room mansion, which is considered one of the best examples of Victorian Stick style architecture in the country. Admission for the tour is $20 for adults; $15 for kids.Sadly, samples aren't available at the exhibit, but if visiting leaves you in the mood for a cold treat, head to one of the Shore's most iconic ice cream shops; several are located in Cape May.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Ice Cream Exhibit Is a Cool Addition to Cape May This Summer appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
When J.P. Hand was growing up in Cape May County in the 1960s and ’70s, “gunning on the salt meadow”—hunting ducks in the marshes—was a favorite pastime. Learning to carve decoys to lure his prey happened naturally: first, because he had no money to buy them; then, as a hobby; and finally, as a livelihood.“Decoy carving has provided me with a living doing something I enjoy,” he says. “After half a century, when I go out to my workshop to carve, I still enjoy what I do.”Hand, 70, was mentored by other decoy carvers, who practice a craft that dates back to the Native Americans who lived along the Atlantic coast. “No one carver could have developed the arts and mysteries of making a traditional South Jersey decoy,” he says. “Many carvers over many generations have added to the craft.”[caption id="attachment_335921" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Hand says that carving allows him to make a living doing something he enjoys. Photo: Dave Moser[/caption]He uses planks of Atlantic white cedar to carve the hollow decoy, and only one power tool, a bandsaw, to cut out the rough shape according to his pattern. The bird emerges with the aid of hand tools—a hatchet, spokeshave, curved gouge and knife—and is then painted in colors mimicking the bird’s plumage.The patterns and style differ slightly among master carvers. Hand’s carvings are sleek and minimalist, typical of the South Jersey style. One of his signatures is the snaky head and neck he gives some of his waterfowl. His favorite subjects are the green-winged teal and the mourning dove, but he’s also carved geese, swans, shorebirds, raptors, turkeys and songbirds.[caption id="attachment_335922" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Prices for Hand's decoys range from $100 for a songbird to $1,500 for a life-size swan. Photo: Dave Moser[/caption]Hand, who traces his roots to the English whalers who migrated to coastal South Jersey from Long Island in the 1690s, has customers all over the world who find him via word of mouth and decoy shows and dealers. (He doesn’t have a website.) Prices range from $100 for a songbird to $1,500 for a life-size swan.His decoys have been exhibited at the Ward Museum and the Havre de Grace Museum, both in Maryland, and at New Jersey’s Tuckerton Seaport Museum.Would-be carvers can apply to apprentice with a master carver through the New Jersey Council for the Arts, or take a seminar at the Philadelphia Maritime Museum, the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, Tuckerton Seaport, or the South Jersey Carver’s Association in Cumberland County. In North Carolina, there’s the Core Sound Carver’s Guild at Harkers Island. Try online carving forums to find someone to work with hands-on.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Cape May Native is Keeping the Ancient Art of Decoy Carving Alive appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Grab your friends or family and celebrate Pride Month at one of these events around the state.Highlands Pride Fest in the Park📅: Saturday, June 1 (Noon-7 pm)📍: Huddy Park • Highlandsℹ️: Live music, food trucks and a beer garden.💸: FreeJersey Pride Parade & Festival📅: Saturday, June 2 (Noon-7 pm)📍: Asbury Parkℹ️: Jersey’s largest and oldest celebration, with a parade, rally and festival in Asbury Park. Donations appreciated.💸: Free (Donations optional)Long Branch Pride Flag Raising📅: Friday, June 7 (6 pm-8 pm)📍: West End Park • Long Branchℹ️: Featuring special guests Des & the Swagmatics.💸: FreeMontclair Pride Festival📅: Saturday, June 8 (1 pm-4 pm)📍: Bloomfield and Fullerton Avenues • Montclairℹ️: One of the largest Pride events in the state.💸: FreeRed Bank Pride in the Park📅: Saturday, June 8 (Noon-3 pm)📍: Riverside Gardens Park • Red Bankℹ️: Live music and more.💸: FreeNorth Jersey Pride Festival📅: Sunday, June 9 (Noon-6 pm)📍: Memorial Park • Maplewoodℹ️: Live music, a food court, and 150+ vendors.💸: FreeNorth Jersey Pride Run and Kids' Race📅: Sunday, June 9 (9 am)📍: Grove Park • South Orangeℹ️: Run in a 5k and show support for LGBTQ youth and families this Pride Month while raising funds for the nonprofit North Jersey Pride.💸: $5-30Toms River Pride Festival📅: Sunday, June 15 (11 am-7 pm)📍: Bundt Park • Clinton Twp.💸: $5 (kids under 5 free)Keyport Food Truck & Music FEASTival📅: Saturday, May 25 (11 am-8 pm)📍: Keyport Waterfront Park • Keyport💸: $5 (kids under 5 free)Wildwood Food Truck & Music Festival📅: Sunday, May 26 (Noon-10 pm)📍: Byrne Plaza • Wildwood💸: $5 (kids under 5 free)Jersey Shore Food Truck Festival📅: Saturday, May 25-Monday, May 27 (11 am-5 pm)📍: Monmouth Park • Oceanportℹ️: 30+ trucks with local eats, and live music all three days.💸: $6 (kids 12 and under free)
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Pride Events in New Jersey This June appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
When The New Jersey Repertory Company put on its first production in Long Branch in 1997, the town was a vastly different place. There was no Pier Village buzzing with restaurants, shops, and bars, and it was a ghost town at night. In fact, the nonprofit theater was founded to encourage people to visit the deserted neighborhood in the evenings.“A couple donated an old industrial building because they felt a theater would best help revitalize the area,” says Gabor Barabas, who founded NJ Rep with his wife, SuzAnne.Since then, the company has produced 140 plays in its Lumia Theater on lower Broadway. This spring’s production was Two Hander by Julia Blauvelt, starring Ella Dershowitz and five-time Emmy-nominated, Golden Globe winner Jill Eikenberry.NJ Rep’s focus on new works “is a somewhat non-pragmatic mission,” says Barabas. “You’re introducing things that haven’t been done before, and it requires a somewhat adventurous audience.”Despite the challenges, the company has succeeded in its mission. Most NJ Rep productions have been world premieres, with more than 200 subsequent performances in theaters worldwide. It also acts as an incubator for new talent, staging readings and play festivals.And their footprint is expanding. In May 2016, the company acquired a sprawling former school in Long Branch and created the West End Arts Center. Spaces there are opening gradually, starting with a monthly play-reading series, standup comedy and jazz performances. Eventually, the center will have performance spaces, an art cinema, art museum, rooftop café, arts education space, actors’ and playwrights’ residences, and programs in acting, playwriting, sculpture, poetry, music and photography.The Bookstore, NJ Rep's summer show, runs every Thursday to Sunday through August 4. For tickets and information visit njrep.org.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post NJ Rep Theater in Long Branch Opens a New Arts Hub appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_334363" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration: Debbie Galant[/caption]Six years ago, on my 62nd birthday, we were having friends over for brunch when my friend Noel, a recently retired physician, pulled out his phone and started showing photos of his new oil paintings. I’d had no idea he was painting, let alone doing it so well. We were all oohing and aahing when my son turned to me and said, “Mom, I’ve never seen you look so jealous in my entire life.”Rarely does life give you such clear signals. For many decades, I’d been a writer. But after that birthday, I turned to art and began to see the world in such a different way, I barely understood it myself.Noel was my first art friend. He cheered me on, introduced me to titanium buff and Payne’s grey and praised my work. (One thing artists and writers have in common: Praise is our oxygen.) But the most important thing he shared was his art friends. When he invited me into his critique group, I met the people who would become my lion, scarecrow, woodman and Glinda as I navigated a new beginning I was, arguably, too old for.Of course, over the years, I’d developed a nice cadre of writing buddies. I clearly remember going to a reading in 2003 at Watchung Booksellers in Montclair, the epicenter of writing life in this neck of the woods, and discovering that someone I knew, if only slightly, had written and published a novel. Though I’d been a journalist for years, fiction—my true love—felt unattainable. Suddenly, I was walking through the looking glass and beginning to flex my literary imagination.But I’ve discovered these past six years that New Jersey is brimming with visual artists, too. My art friends have now begun to outnumber my writer friends. I’ve met them in classes, on urban sketching expeditions, and, mostly, through my critique group.The biggest art event in my local universe is the annual Open Studios at Manufacturers Village in Orange. Originally built as a factory in the 1880s, Manufacturers Village is a jumble of brick walls and iron catwalks that provides studio space for 55 artists. Every October, thousands of visitors descend on the complex to see the paint-splattered spaces where art is made and to buy directly from the people who make it.I’d been going to the event for years, but after becoming an artist, it was a different experience. I began to know a few people exhibiting. Then came more connections.During the pandemic, an art friend was looking for a studio. When I heard that another artist friend needed to relinquish hers, I matched them up. Another year, I met an artist whose eyes went wide when I mentioned that I belonged to a critique group. She joined, we became friends, and this winter, she helped me get a show with a respected New Jersey gallery.And this past year at Manufacturers Village, I could barely walk 10 feet without running into someone I knew. I didn’t get to see all the art I wanted to, or to buy something I really loved, but I discovered something even better: I belonged.Debbie Galant has an art studio in Clifton and welcomes visitors.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post How I Became an Artist in My Sixties appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_334676" align="alignnone" width="778"] Musician Bobby Bandiera (right) ahead of his band’s 1985 benefit show, with Steve Mannion of Hazlet, vice president for Make-A-Wish, outside the Stone Pony. Photo: Asbury Park Press/USA Today Network/Jim Connolly[/caption]He never intended to open a rock club, let alone one of the most hallowed in music history.It was late 1973, a quiet weekend at the Jersey Shore, and Jack Roig says he was just “killing time.”A computer-programming consultant in Manhattan, Roig had worked many summer weekends on the floor of what he refers to as a “rambunctious” boardwalk bar in Point Pleasant called the Rip Tide. He harbored dreams of opening a small, unremarkable bar of his own, akin to the “gin mills” that dotted every block of his native Washington Heights neighborhood.One thing Roig knew for certain: Asbury Park was off the table. The once-lively resort town was only a few years out from the 1970 race riots, spurred by post-segregation economic and social tensions. Residents had fled; businesses were boarded up. Springwood Avenue, on the city’s west side—previously home to a vibrant Black community and a rich jazz and blues culture—was in ruins. Although the east side of Asbury remained a refuge of sorts for a free-spirited community of young musicians—among them, Southside Johnny, Steven Van Zandt and Bruce Springsteen, who’d been luxuriating in a heady, jam-until-sunrise scene since the late ’60s—the town, on the whole, was still a shell of its former self, especially in the off-season.Roig phoned a real estate agent about an ad he’d seen in the paper. “I told him, ‘I don’t want anything to do with Asbury,’” Roig, 82, recalls. “He said, ‘Well, I have a place I can show you up in Deal, but I just got this [other] listing. I don’t even have keys for it yet. You mind if we stop there? It’s on the way.’”They never made it to Deal. Roig purchased the future Pony—then an abandoned disco called the Magic Touch—on the spot, without so much as stepping inside. “It was impulsive,” he says, recalling Asbury’s barren beachfront. “Not really a very good business decision.” (On the plus side, he points out, there was unlimited parking.)The venue’s layout was conducive to a bar with a band—so “that’s what happened,” Roig says matter-of-factly. As for the name? “I woke up one morning with some young lady, and…she had little horses on her T-shirt, and something clicked,” he recounts.Opening night at the Stone Pony on February 8, 1974—half a century ago this year—was bleak; portending, perhaps, the various storms the venue would weather over the next several decades. Snow piled on Asbury Park. The heat went out; the ice machines died. “Thank God it snowed,” Roig muses, “because the band couldn’t show up, and I didn’t have the money to pay ’em anyway.” Exactly one patron, an acquaintance, materialized and insisted on paying for his beer. The night’s take: $1.Despite that ill-fated first evening, the Pony actually “did all right” until Labor Day, Roig says. He was running the venue with manager Butch Pielka, a former fellow bouncer from Point Pleasant’s recently shuttered Rip Tide, whose regulars began frequenting the Stone Pony. Locals still in Asbury, plus residents from nearby towns, followed suit. So did local bands, Roig says.Once the summer waned, however, so did the customers. In December, part of the Pony’s roof ripped off during a nor’easter. Their insurance company went bankrupt. Foreclosure loomed.It was around that time that the local Blackberry Booze Band, featuring future Asbury Jukes frontman Southside Johnny Lyon, began performing at the Pony. “We played the kind of music we wanted to play…so we got the worst nights,” Lyon says, recalling that a cover band, Colony, known for playing strictly Top 40 radio hits, held the Pony’s coveted weekend slots. But after a few slow Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, the Blackberry Booze Band began attracting crowds. One snowy winter evening, the place was suddenly packed. “I think that’s when people started to realize that this was a real venue to see bands,” Lyon says. “And Bruce would come down to play....It became kind of a place for real musicians.”The Blackberry Booze Band morphed into Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, cofounded by soon-to-be E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt, in 1975 (the same year Springsteen released Born to Run). The Jukes’ horn-heavy melding of rock ’n’ roll, soul, blues and R&B would become, for local fans and faraway listeners alike, a kind of sonic shorthand for the Pony—though Roig emphasizes that every band who played there, unique in its own way, “made the place.”[caption id="attachment_334655" align="alignnone" width="778"] Southside Johnny Lyon, Bruce Springsteen and Steven Van Zandt perform at the Stone Pony during the Asbury Jukes’ famed radio-broadcast show on Memorial Day weekend in 1976. Photo: Asbury Park Press-USA Today Network[/caption]On Memorial Day weekend in 1976, a live national radio debut of the Jukes’ first album, I Don’t Want to Go Home—broadcast on nine stations, Lyon says—gave the rest of the country a taste of the sweaty spontaneity emanating from this little corner of the Jersey Shore. Springsteen showed up to perform. So did Ronnie Spector and Lee Dorsey. That night “really broke [the Pony] open,” Lyon says. “It became a famous club to play....Asbury Park became a small nexus for new bands, and it was very exciting.”Pielka (who died in 2018) and Roig were “hardcore” guys, Lyon fondly recalls. “I used to get into arguments with them all the time about pay for the band, how much can you charge at the door...and I’m not a big guy, but I would take ’em on. Because I knew they needed me, and I knew I needed them.”Throughout the ’70s and ’80s, an increasingly famous Springsteen continued to make frequent surprise appearances, imbuing the Pony with an unmistakably mythic quality. Groupies flocked there, hoping to glimpse him performing, dancing in the audience, or sneaking behind the bar to pour drinks. Tourists came by the busload. Letters addressed simply to “Bruce Springsteen, U.S.A.” arrived in the mail, Roig remembers.Under this spotlight, the Pony began drawing national acts: Elvis Costello, the Ramones, Cyndi Lauper. But no amount of recognition could cushion the Pony from the city outside its dark doors, bogged down by rising crime and corruption, or from the financial and legal woes that would soon put an end to its first act. When the Pony shuttered in September 1991, it wouldn’t be the last time.Deal businessman Steven Nasar reopened the Pony in 1992. He hired local concert promoter (and former Asbury Juke) Tony Pallagrosi to cater to a younger crowd amid a burgeoning punk-music movement. The New Brunswick-born Bouncing Souls opened for Green Day there in 1994. A tent in the adjacent lot for outdoor concerts was an early incarnation of the future Summer Stage scene. Still, Asbury continued to deteriorate through the ’90s, and Nasar closed the Pony in 1998—though not before turning it into a short-lived dance club, Vinyl, and painting it, to the horror of many locals, completely pink.The venue sat untouched until 2000, when Jersey City entrepreneur Domenic Santana purchased it. He didn’t have personal ties to Asbury Park, but had scoped out the city as a potential investment site and been struck by a big group of tourists taking pictures outside the ghostly Pony. Santana brought in Eileen Chapman, an Asbury Park resident since the Pony’s 1974 opening and a stalwart supporter of the city and its music scene, as manager. (Chapman, now an Asbury Park councilwoman and director of the Bruce Springsteen Archives at Monmouth University, had previously managed Mrs. Jay’s, a beer garden next door to the Pony.) Santana renovated the space to return it to its original glory days, recreating lacquer tables and sourcing photos and memorabilia for the walls. Chapman provided a few personal items she’d saved. As they worked to revive the venue, Chapman often put herself in the shoes of the original owners. “I would just think about Jack and Butch....What would they be deciding?” she says. “Carrying on that legacy was really, really important to me. Making sure that everyone who used to come there felt comfortable coming back.”In 2001, Chapman purchased the venue’s first outdoor stage, a major component of the Pony’s revitalization in recent years, from friend Carl “Tinker” West (and Springsteen’s first manager), with money her husband had given her to buy a new car. “After he got over his shock,” Chapman jokes, he ended up building the first outdoor bar to accompany the stage.When developers initially approached Asbury Park with talk of taking over the waterfront, “it seemed they wanted to…create huge condominiums and apartment complexes, and really change what Asbury Park would look like,” Chapman recalls. “They were thinking more Miami. And we were thinking, We need to keep our music here.” She organized a Save the Stone Pony campaign—faxing musicians and record agents all over the world, creating signs, and leading a parade down Ocean Avenue. “It was absolutely important to keep the club there, and to create an entertainment district,” she says. “Opportunities for people to visit…for music to thrive, for musicians to have a place to hone their craft.”The Pony’s current general manager, Caroline O’Toole, came on in 2003. Keeping the venue alive as Asbury Park continued to struggle was not for the faint of heart. Times were often “very dark,” she says, and the Pony’s future remained “unsecure.” Her first Memorial Day, she recalls, “there was not a soul in sight.” The tide turned dramatically in 2008, when corporate developer Madison Marquette purchased the Pony and began putting millions into revitalizing Asbury, transforming it into the city we know now.[caption id="attachment_334654" align="alignnone" width="778"] Asbury Park native FLETCHER performs at the Stone Pony Summer Stage. Photo: David Zeck[/caption]These days, the Pony proudly honors its legendary rock ’n’ roll roots while booking broad, eclectic lineups—bands of all ages and genres, from Gaslight Anthem to Carly Rae Jepsen. There are disco nights and dance parties. Passionate crowds pack the intimate venue year-round and gather at the outdoor Summer Stage May through October. Shows this month include FLETCHER & FRIENDS (June 1–2) and the North to Shore Festival’s Asbury Park leg (June 10–16), featuring Gary Clark Jr., Band of Horses and others. “The Stone Pony represents this intersection of my hometown roots and this wild musical journey I’ve been on over the years,” says singer FLETCHER, 30, an Asbury Park native. “It’s a reminder of where I came from. You can never take the Jersey out of the girl.”Echoes Chapman: “It feels like home....It’s a local place to gather.”The day after E Street Band saxophonist Clarence “the Big Man” Clemons passed away in 2011, the Pony opened its doors as a sort of makeshift memorial site. “We knew people would just want to come and be together and remember him,” O’Toole says. At some point, the house DJ put on a live version of Springsteen’s “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out.” When the words “...and the Big Man joined the band” played, she says, “I swear: I have never felt an electricity like that in the room before. It was unbelievable. To this day, I’ve yet to experience it….It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment.”[RELATED: E Street Band’s Jake Clemons Talks Stone Pony, Pre-Show Rituals and the Supernatural]
In 2015, Bleachers frontman Jack Antonoff launched his inaugural Shadow of the City music festival at the Summer Stage (this year’s is June 15). “I always wanted to have a place where [our audience] could be like, ‘OK, I’ll meet you there’…our place where we can all [reunite],” he told NJM earlier this year.In 2018, rock photographer Danny Clinch cofounded Sea Hear Now, a beloved annual music, arts and surf festival on Asbury’s beach that draws some 35,000 fans (September 14-15 this year; Noah Kahan and Springsteen are headlining). Nick Corasaniti, a Jersey native and longtime Pony-goer, especially relishes Sea Hear Now’s Saturday-night super jams at the Pony, which stretch late and raucous into the early morning. “I wasn’t around in the ’70s, so I missed those epic, till-the-sun-rises, close-the-doors, stop-serving-the-alcohol-but-keep-the-music-going-until-the-band-can’t-go-any-longer [sessions],” he says. “I think the closest we get now are those Sea Hear Now super jams. All of them are magical.”Corasaniti, a political correspondent for the New York Times, has authored an oral history of the Stone Pony, I Don’t Want to Go Home (out June 4 from HarperCollins), an engrossing, comprehensive chronicle of the venue’s ups and downs, told in the voices of the colorful characters closest to it. A book-release party at the Pony is slated for June 8.This past winter, on the anniversary of the Pony’s 1974 opening, New Jersey officials proclaimed February 8 Stone Pony Day. “Not many businesses get something like that, you know?” O’Toole says. “Governor Murphy called me and congratulated me.…It just speaks volumes of what the Stone Pony means not only to Asbury Park and to the Jersey Shore, but to the state. It’s a landmark.” The Pony also hosted a panel that week with the team from the Springsteen Archives; local musicians, employees, community members and founding owner Roig shared memories.“I’m proud of the people that I work with, and that we have been able to keep this legacy going for the next generation,” O’Toole says. “At the end of the day, it’s about the music.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Stone Pony Celebrating 50 Years in Asbury Park: ‘It’s a Landmark’ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Walt Whitman, one of America’s most important literary figures, spent the final 19 years of his life as an esteemed resident of Camden. The internationally acclaimed poet of the body and soul famously and unashamedly declared, “I celebrate myself,” and, “I am an acme of things accomplished.” This month, the people of New Jersey will celebrate him. Whitman’s 205th birthday (he was born on May 31, 1819) is being observed with festivities at two Camden County venues directly associated with his South Jersey residency: Laurel Springs is sponsoring WaltFest on Saturday, May 18, and the Walt Whitman House on Mickle Street in Camden is hosting a birthday poetry event on Wednesday, May 29.May also marks the 151st anniversary of Whitman’s arrival in Camden, where he revised his most famous work, Leaves of Grass, putting the city on the literary map of the United States. “Making Camden his home meant Whitman could be connected to everything he liked about city living, yet be close to the rural environment he loved—an environment that abounded in late-19th-century southern New Jersey,” Leo Blake, curator of the historic Walt Whitman House, wrote in a 2019 essay. As Whitman put it himself, “Camden was originally an accident, but I shall never be sorry I was left over in Camden. It has brought me blessed returns.”[caption id="attachment_334459" align="alignnone" width="778"] Poet Walt Whitman at his Camden home in 1891. Photo: Public domain[/caption]In 1873, the poet, then 53 years old, suffered a paralytic stroke shortly before traveling from Washington, DC, to Camden to visit his ill mother, who died three days later. He stayed, living with his brother George and his sister-in-law on Stevens Street until 1884, when he purchased his first and only home on Mickle Street. Upon his death in 1892, he was buried at Harleigh Cemetery, less than two miles from his residence.By early 1876, the Good Gray Poet, as Whitman came to be known, had met Harry Stafford, who was 18 years old and worked at a local print shop. The two developed an intimate bond; it seems to have been the last serious romantic liaison of the poet’s life. In a letter dating from 1882, Whitman assured Stafford, “I think I understand you better than anyone—(& like you more too).” In a recent email, Whitman biographer Jerome Loving wrote that he suspects their friendship had “a little hanky panky on the side.” Intriguingly, Whitman presented a ring to Harry, who wrote to the poet, “When you put it on there, was but one thing to part it from me, and that was death.”Soon after they met, Stafford introduced Whitman to his family in Laurel Springs (then called Kirkwood). Over various seasons, the poet relished his numerous visits to the Stafford farmhouse on East Maple Avenue, which was only about 12 miles from Camden. The unpretentious, six-room home played critical roles in Whitman’s life.The Song of Myself author enjoyed the family’s hospitality, including meals prepared by Susan Stafford, Harry’s mother, maintaining, “There is not a nobler woman in Jersey.” The poet especially liked her curry-glazed chicken breast. He slept in one of two upstairs bedrooms or the barn, where he may have also done some writing.While in Laurel Springs, Whitman was drawn to nearby Timber Creek. Like Henry David Thoreau at Walden Pond, Whitman kept copious notes of his communion with nature, writing, “Nothing can exceed the quiet splendor and freshness around me.” Looking like a prophet from the Old Testament, but cavorting like a flower child of the 1960s, Whitman relished his “Adamic air-bath,” romping naked amid the trees, birds and wildflowers; he even covered his body with mud from the marlpit. In the autobiographical Specimen Days, he reminisced, “Never before did I get so close to Nature.”For the ailing, middle-aged author, it was a regenerative experience. The poet, in a letter dated February 28, 1881, confided to Stafford: “If it hadn’t been for you & our friendship & the kindness of your mother...I believe I should not be a living man to-day.” As an indication of gratitude, Whitman bequeathed his silver watch to Harry Stafford and a small sum of money to Susan Stafford.In 1884, Whitman bought his “little old house” for $1,750 (approximately $54,770 today) at 328 Mickle Street, in a neighborhood of Camden with a mix of social classes, not far from the ferry to Philadelphia. Although he referred to it as “the shanty of my own,” the two-story, wood-frame residence comprised approximately 1,700 square feet, with two parlors, a dining room, a kitchen and three bedrooms. Whitman added an upstairs bathroom with a copper tub. The Greek Revival townhouse has been open to the public since 1923.“Visitors have a window into the past and a look into the life of one of America’s truly great poets...living in 19th-century America—a time of change, challenges and triumphs for a young nation growing towards maturity,” Blake, curator of the the carefully restored property, tells New Jersey Monthly.On a recent tour, the home gave the impression Whitman might still have been in residence. The rooms had a homey feel, with most furnishings having originally been brought in by Mary Davis, Whitman’s housekeeper. Her needlepoint still hung in the kitchen. At this address, the poet entertained admirers like Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde.On the second floor was Whitman’s bedroom, where he spent considerable time by the window after his second paralytic stroke in 1888. The approximately 360-square-foot space served as a commodious office/bedroom setting. Today, the floor is still strewn with papers. The poet was often photographed in his rocking chair, which is still there, along with its animal-skin throw, his boots, and the cage for his feathered pet, named Canary Bird.In 1890, just a few years after Harleigh Cemetery was founded, Whitman personally selected and was gifted a prominent hillside burial site, measuring 20 by 30 feet, just west of the entrance gate. It was clever marketing to capitalize on his celebrity status to promote the new garden cemetery. (Some years ago, Whitman’s free verse and voice, which had been recorded by Thomas Edison, was posthumously used to sell Levi’s 501 jeans!)At the age of 72, Whitman died in bed at his Mickle Street home. His body was carried down to the back parlor on the main floor, where an autopsy was performed. “The end came peacefully,” announced the original death notice posted on the front door; it was written by Dr. Alex McAlister and remains on view in the house.On March 30, 1892, there was an open-casket viewing at the poet’s residence before the coffin was driven by carriage for the short ride to Harleigh Cemetery, where a graveside funeral service was held. Upwards of 5,000 people were reported to have attended. Several dignitaries served as pallbearers, including Thomas Eakins, the noted Philadelphia-based painter.Inspired by a William Blake illustration, Whitman designed his own rough-hewn granite mausoleum. Its massive stone door is still left ajar so visitors can peer through the original iron gate and see a marble-walled chamber, where the poet is placed between his mother and father. The 15-foot-tall masonry tomb, with his name prominently on its pediment, is a formidable shrine to a luminary who had proclaimed, “My foothold is...mortis’d in granite. “To honor the birth of Whitman, Laurel Springs hosts WaltFest on May 18 from 11 am to 3 pm at the historic Stafford farmhouse. Walt Whitman (played by David Scott Taylor) will receive admirers. A trolley will shuttle visitors to Crystal Springs Park, a spot along Timber Creek that Whitman enjoyed. There is now a half-mile boardwalk to stroll amidst the natural setting. The celebration at the park is also set to feature the 12th New Jersey Infantry Regiment Civil War Reenactors.At the poet’s historic residence in Camden, the 205th Walt Whitman Birthday Celebration is being held on May 29 at 5 pm, just two days before his actual birthday. Winners of the Walt Whitman Association’s High School Poetry Contest are set to read, and professor Edward Whitley of Lehigh University is the special guest speaker.The Pope of Mickle Street continues to inspire Whitmaniacs.As Blake describes it, “Whitman is many things to many people.” And, back in 1889, the New York Tribune proclaimed, “If Camden has a patron saint, it certainly is the ‘good, gray poet.’”Fred B. Adelson, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Art History, Department of Art, at Rowan University.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Celebrate Walt Whitman’s 205th Birthday in Camden County appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
It won the 2018 Tony Award for Best Play and is considered the eighth story in the beloved Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. This month, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will be staged for the first time in a U.S. school, at Hoboken High School.Hoboken was chosen after an extensive search by the play’s license holders, landing the prize because of its robust theater program. The district employs three full-time theater educators, which is a rarity, says Danielle Miller, director of the Hoboken production.The district’s theater program is unique for another reason: Students from kindergarten through high school participate in the productions. High schoolers play the adult characters and middle schoolers the other leads; props are the job of 6th to 12th graders.Miller says young people benefit greatly from participating in theater productions, and she’s seen firsthand how it gives students a stronger sense of self.“It’s about finding their voice and accepting and loving their unique selves,” says Miller. “Theater is powerful.”Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will be performed at Hoboken High School May 15–19; see website for information. Purchase tickets here.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Hoboken High Is First U.S. School to Stage ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Into anything witchy or weird?Well, about 10 to 15 times a year, you can spend the night wandering Lunar Faire, a mystical night market that travels throughout the Garden State between spring and fall.“This is a place where anyone can be who they are, and it's cool,” says co-founder Kelly Dagila. “People in this world just want to be accepted as they are, and I want other people to be in a place where we can all feel that together.”[caption id="attachment_334272" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Lunar Faire has something for all ages. Photo: Mattie Cameron Rosen[/caption]At Lunar Faire events, large, outdoor fairgrounds fill up with more than 200 local vendors, featuring everything from art, crafts, clothes and wellness products to tarot readings and DIY spell jars. “Ninety to ninety-five percent of our vendors are women, non-binary, non-white male [or] disadvantaged businesses, and I’m grateful that we can support [them],” says co-founder Tiffany Casey.Food trucks, tasty non-alcoholic “potions,” glimmering lights, drum circles, drag queens and fire dancers are also part of the fairs. Guests of all ages don whimsical apparel and accessories (think: flower crowns, angel wings, capes, gowns and fairy ears). It’s a fascinating spectacle—part Halloween, part Renaissance Faire, part fantasy wonderland.Dagila and Casey, from Bloomingdale and Boonton respectively, held their first Lunar Faire event in 2021 in North Jersey. Three years later, the fair has grown significantly, receiving requests to host from counties all over New Jersey and adding hundreds of vendor applicants to a waitlist.The fairs typically run from 5 to 10 pm under glowing new or full moons. The first Lunar Faire of 2024 on Saturday, April 28, was held in South Jersey in Mullica Hill and jointly celebrated the pink moon (which was full on April 23) as well as Beltane (a Gaelic May Day festival that indicates the start of summer). It brought in a weekend crowd of well over 3,000 people.[RELATED: NJ Moon Rituals Illuminate Intentions for the New Year]
[caption id="attachment_334274" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Wander through 200+ vendors at Lunar Faire's outdoor Night Market. Photo: Mattie Cameron Rosen[/caption]This Tuesday, May 7, the market will celebrate the new moon in Taurus at the Burlington County Fairgrounds in Columbus. It’ll be back up north in West Milford on Friday, May 24, for a '70s garden disco to celebrate the Flower Moon. And on Thursday, June 6, Lunar Faire will celebrate its anniversary with a prom-themed fair in Augusta. Fair tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door.Check out Lunar Faire’s website and Instagram for more information.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Check Out New Jersey’s Coolest, Witchiest Night Market appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Every spring, playwrights flock to Cape May for the National Playwrights Symposium. This month, about 20 emerging and mid-career playwrights will learn from theater and screen legends during a five-day master class at Cape May Stage (May 12-17).“This symposium is the artistic heart of Cape May—it’s a writer’s paradise,” says Pulitzer, Tony and Oscar winner John Patrick Shanley, who mentored the class last year.It’s an intense five days filled with speaker presentations, student readings and master playwright critiques. Nights are spent rewriting and talking shop with classmates and advisors.On the last night (May 17 this year), the public is invited to attend readings by professional actors of the attendees’s short plays and give feedback.The list of past headliners reads like a who’s who of iconic playwrights and screenwriters: Tony, Obie and Olivier Award winner John Guare; Tony and Emmy honoree and original Saturday Night Live writer Alan Zweibel; and Obie Award recipient and Pulitzer Prize finalist Eisa Davis.A writing exercise at the symposium sparked one playwright’s career. In 2022, John Spellos was tasked by Marsha Norman, a Pulitzer Prize winner, to write about a dark chapter in his life; he reluctantly dashed off a few pages. Norman encouraged him to finish it and, upon returning home, Spellos completed the play. Rosie Is Red, and Everybody Is Blue was presented as a reading at Cape May Stage last year and may become a full production.Another program veteran, Kate Hamill, who attended the workshop in 2015, is one of the most produced playwrights in the United States today. Cape May Stage is presenting her play Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson—Apt. 2B this summer.The symposium grew out of a vision shared by Roy Steinberg, producing artistic director at Cape May Stage, and Shawn Fisher, an award-winning playwright and set designer. “We hoped our next generation of artists would find their own voices,” says Steinberg.Clearly, they have.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post ‘A Writer’s Paradise’: At Cape May Symposium, Novice Playwrights Learn from Legends appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Pulling over along the Garden State Parkway for a bathroom break or a bite to eat? You can learn about some iconic New Jerseyans during your stop.Launched in 2021 by the New Jersey Hall of Fame (NJHOF) and New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy, nine Parkway service areas have now been re-named to honor Garden State celebrities; they feature exhibits with photos, memorabilia and more. Some even have selfie-ready holograms.Millions of people drive the Parkway daily, making these service areas a great way to spread a “daily dose of positive inspiration,” says NJHOF president Steve Edwards.[RELATED: 50 Biggest Moments in NJ Pop Culture History]
An interactive museum featuring all NJHOF inductees, called the Entertainment and Learning Center, is opening at the American Dream mall in East Rutherford this June. Satellite exhibits can also be found in various transit hubs.In addition to these nine rest stops, one named for actor Bruce Willis is under consideration to open in Ocean View. The Salem County-raised Die Hard star retired from acting in recent years and is battling aphasia and frontotemporal dementia.Here are the service areas, from north to south:James Gandolfini, MontvaleThe northernmost service area—dedicated to the late Sopranos star who played one of the most iconic Jersey characters ever, Tony Soprano—is set to open this summer. Gandolfini, born in Westwood to Italian immigrants, was a Rutgers-New Brunswick graduate. He passed away in 2013.Larry Doby, BloomfieldThe barrier-breaking baseball player grew up in Paterson. Doby became the first Black American League baseball player in 1947 when he made it onto the Cleveland Indians, breaking baseball’s color barrier and inspiring the country. Doby lived in Montclair for years with his wife, Helyn Curvy, and died there in 2003.Connie Chung, BloomfieldThe legendary journalist, born in Washington, D.C. to Chinese immigrants, was a longtime Middletown resident with her husband, talk show host Maury Povich. Chung, who worked for almost every major news network in the U.S., was the first woman to anchor the CBS Evening News.Vince Lombardi, RidgefieldOne of the most successful football coaches of all time got his start in Englewood when he began coaching at St. Cecilia High School in 1939. The Brooklyn native eventually made his way from high school football to the NFL, where he coached for the New York Giants and the Green Bay Packers. In 1970, after Lombardi’s death, the Super Bowl MVP trophy was renamed in his honor.Whitney Houston, Union/VauxhallThe Newark native is regarded as one of the greatest singers and best-selling artists of all time, with hits like “I Will Always Love You,” “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” and “I’m Every Woman.” Her diamond record for “I Will Always Love You” is even on display at her service area. Houston got her start singing at Newark’s New Hope Baptist Church, where her funeral was held in 2012, and her service area is located just under ten miles away.Jon Bon Jovi, South AmboyWho says he can’t go home? The Perth Amboy rock star’s service area is just minutes away from where he grew up and about 20 minutes from Sayreville, where he formed his iconic band, Bon Jovi, in 1983. The star keeps close ties to New Jersey with his philanthropic JBJ Soul Kitchen Community restaurants in Red Bank, Toms River, Newark and Jersey City. His service area is set to reopen this summer with updated exhibits and LED monitors.Judy Blume, Wall TownshipThe Elizabeth native and beloved children’s, young adult and adult author has sold more than 82 million copies of her books, including her best-known work, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. In the service area, visitors can see old photographs of Blume, displays of her books and facts about her life.Celia Cruz, Forked RiverThe Queen of Salsa, though born and raised in Cuba, was a longtime Fort Lee resident until her death in 2003. Cruz is one of the best-selling Latin artists of all time, and visitors to her service area can see unique pieces from her closet: an open-toed shoe designed for her by Willie’s of Hollywood; a multi-colored sequin top she wore on stage during the 90s; and one of her beautiful headpieces.Frank Sinatra, AbseconHe may be a Hoboken native, but the singer enjoyed spending time at the Jersey Shore, so it’s fitting that Sinatra would have a service area dedicated to him just miles from the Atlantic Ocean. He had it “his way” by owning multiple homes before his death in 1998, including the signature Sinatra House at Point Pleasant Beach off the boardwalk, overlooking the beach. The singer also frequently performed in Atlantic City (about 15 minutes away from his service area) during his career, including at the infamous 500 Club on Missouri Avenue.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post All the Garden State Parkway Service Areas Named for NJ Celebrities appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_334142" align="alignnone" width="778"] Embroidery Babes founder Michelle Fleischer with one of her custom totes. Photo: Fox Images Photography[/caption]In need of an outlet during a difficult time, Haworth mom Michelle Fleischer picked up an embroidery needle and not only stitched herself out of depression, but eventually into a new business.“I miscarried two days after my birthday, and it was devastating,” Fleischer says, explaining that sharing stories is one of the most rewarding parts of Embroidery Babes, her stitch-and-sip company that sells custom-embroidered designs and offers hands-on workshops.Before becoming a mom to her first child, Gavin, in 2016, Fleischer, who grew up in Tenafly, worked as a corporate trainer in retail marketing. “As a person who likes control, when I couldn’t get pregnant again on my own, it was hard because it was out of my hands,” she says. Fleischer and her husband, Scott, began in vitro fertilization treatments in 2020, but were sidelined by the pandemic shutdown.“I just had to do something, so I started painting. I’d always been a crafter, so then I bought an embroidery kit online and found it therapeutic and just kept doing it.”As the pandemic waned, Fleischer became pregnant with her second child, a girl. She decided to use her stitching skills to update her son’s baby clothes for his new sister.“Before long, people were noticing the pieces I made and asking where I got them,” Fleischer says. “I made an Instagram account and started getting orders.” She personalizes items for customers and sells her own hand-stitched bags, bandannas, baby gifts and more.A natural teacher, she wanted to share her self-care skill with others and began holding the stitch-and-sip workshops. “It’s like a paint-and-sip, only with embroidery. After all, how many paintings of a sunset do you need?” she laughs. The beauty of the stitch-and-sip, Fleischer says, is it’s an opportunity for women (men are welcome, too) to connect, whether they are struggling with a challenge like infertility or just need a night out.Embroidery Babes workshops are held everywhere from breweries to retail stores and charity functions. Events cost around $75 per person (alcohol is usually extra, depending on the venue), and include an embroidery kit with a hoop, threads and stencils. Most people leave the two-hour workshop with a finished product.“I just felt so alone when I was going through infertility,” Fleischer says. “ I don’t want anyone else to feel that way. This business gives women a place to support each other and share their stories.”Follow Embroidery Babes on Instagram and Facebook.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post This NJ Mom Turned a Therapeutic Pastime Into an Empowering Business appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Here are some of the hottest concerts happening in New Jersey this May. Find more arts and entertainment events here, and browse our gigantic events calendar for hundreds more things to do.Please note that all schedules are subject to change; visit each venue’s website for more information.Kelly Clarkson📅: Friday, May 10-Saturday, May 11 (8 pm)📍: Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena • Atlantic Cityℹ️: The original American Idol, multiple Grammy winner and talk show host brings her signature powerhouse pop sound to New Jersey.💸: $199+Sum 41: Tour of the Setting Sum📅: Saturday, May 4 (5:30 pm)📍: The Stone Pony • Asbury Parkℹ️: The Grammy-nominated skate punk/rock band is playing its farewell tour.💸: $86+Richie Furay📅: Saturday, May 4 (7:30 pm)📍: South Orange Performing Arts Center • South Orangeℹ️: The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and cofounder of Buffalo Springfield bids adieu to touring with a final string of shows in celebration of his 80th birthday.💸: $75+Diana Ross📅: Friday, May 17 (8 pm)📍: NJPAC • Newarkℹ️: From lead singer of the Supremes to Oscar nominee and beyond, Diana Ross is a living legend.💸: $59+The Rolling Stones📅: Thursday, May 23-Sunday, May 26 (8 pm)📍: MetLife Stadium • East Rutherfordℹ️: One of the most iconic and best-selling bands of all time, the English rock group is bringing their Hackney Diamonds tour to MetLife Stadium.💸: $99+
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Concerts to See in New Jersey This May appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
In her new book, Over the Influence: Why Social Media is Toxic for Women and Girls—and How We Can Take it Back, Kara Alaimo talks about the pernicious influence of cell phones and social media in the lives of young people, especially girls. Alaimo, 41, is an associate professor of communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University and frequent CNN commentator. She grew up in Somerset County and is now raising her children there. Her book was published in March by Alcove Press.Why is social media so harmful for young girls?Young girls tend to use visually oriented apps like Instagram, which are particularly detrimental for their mental health because they put the focus on people’s bodies and appearances. Girls quickly realize that the easiest way to rack up likes is to make themselves look “hot” in pictures. So we see girls sexualizing themselves at shockingly young ages, and this is absolutely terrible for their mental health. One woman I interviewed told me she got her eating disorder on from going on Instagram as a teenager, and she continues to struggle with anorexia as a young woman.Girls value relationships and are especially vulnerable to the feelings of exclusion that come with social apps, like when they see their friends all together on Snapchat, but weren’t invited. They’re left feeling like their relationships aren’t strong and their lives aren’t as exciting as their peers. Because of course, everyone posts the filtered, glamorized versions of their lives online. This is particularly rough for young girls because, during puberty, their confidence really plummets.Why do you say that women and girls are less safe today than they were just a few years ago?Dating apps are far more dangerous than any of us realize. One study found that 31 percent of women who’d used dating apps said they’d been sexually assaulted by someone they met there. Then there’s “sextortion,” where a man who meets a woman on a dating app convinces her to send a racy image and then texts her that if she doesn’t Venmo him $25,000, he will put the image all over the internet. There’s also catfishers. These days, they’re often part of a global crime syndicate where men are lured with the promise of a job then held practically as slaves and forced to catfish women. They’ll establish an emotional relationship and then say, “I want to fly to see you, but my credit card was just stolen. Can you put the flight on your credit card and I’ll pay you back when I get there?”What can parents do to protect their daughters?Delay getting your daughter a smartphone as long as you can; 14 rather than 12 can make a huge impact on her life. Then, let her do things offline; often she’ll be safer hanging out with friends at the mall than in her bedroom where she might be connecting with a predator on Instagram. And if you have your kid involved in extracurricular activities, it will reduce her screen time and help her build the relationships that are so essential, particularly in the teen years.I recommend parents go on TikTok with their kids. If you start watching something that interests your kid, she’ll get more of that content. And it’s important for parents to know what’s trending there so they can talk to their kids about it. Lately, it’s been “Sephora Kids” and “Botox Babies” telling 10-year-olds they need makeup and 20-year-olds they need Botox. Parents can talk about why we shouldn’t judge anyone, especially ourselves, for our appearance.Don’t ever threaten to take your daughter’s phone away. Too often, girls who get in trouble online don’t tell their parents for fear they’ll lose phone privileges. Make sure your kid knows that, regardless of what happens online, they can come to you for help.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Why Social Media Is Especially Harmful for Girls, and What Parents Can Do appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Two foodie icons—Ruth Reichl, the former Gourmet editor and food critic for the New York Times, and Eric Ripert, the chef and owner of famed New York City restaurant Le Bernardin—made a stop in New Jersey on Thursday.Appearing as part of Succeed2gether’s Montclair Literary Festival, the pair spoke to a sold-out crowd at the Glen Ridge Country Club about Reichl’s new book, The Paris Novel, as well as food critics, cooking and, of course, restaurants.Ripert, 59, who is French, is widely considered one of the best chefs in the world. He earned four stars from the New York Times for his famous restaurant at the age of 29, and three stars from the Michelin Guide.Reichl’s novel, her second, is an adventure about food, art and fashion in 1980s Paris—partly based on her own travels there. It follows a young woman who goes to Paris after her mother dies and leaves her with a one-way plane ticket and a note that reads: “Go to Paris.” Alone in a foreign city, she meets a who’s-who of the Parisian literary, art and culinary worlds.Many readers first encountered Reichl when she was the much-admired restaurant critic for the New York Times. She’s also the author of several memoirs, including Tender at the Bone, Comfort Me with Apples and Garlic and Sapphires.At the event, Ripert, who is now friends with Reichl, said he remembered when he first heard that the Times had a new restaurant critic back in 1993. All the top chefs in New York, he recalled, were nervous about what she would be like. Ripert had also heard that Reichl hated French food.“When you came to New York, the food critics of the New York Times were really powerful," Ripert recalled to Reichl. "At the time, you could close or open a restaurant depending on the review. I never told you this, but before you arrived, everyone was faxing pictures of you, saying that Ruth Reichl was coming to New York. We were so scared of you—we thought, We’re going to get destroyed.”Reichl remembered that, too: “I knew there were pictures of me floating around, and that someone said, 'She has a lot of curly hair, and she smiles a lot.' I thought, Oh, that's good. They think whenever someone in the restaurant smiles a lot, it must be me.”At that time, Reichl had moved to New York, where she'd grown up, after 20 years in California, where she’d fallen in love with Thai, Korean and Mexican food—which were not popular at the time. Contrary to the rumors, she loved French food—but “had a sense that there were all these [other] foods that New Yorkers needed to discover," she recalled. "So I did come with a kind of mission. I thought, It's time that somebody besides the French has a shot.”In 1995, Reichl gave Le Bernardin—Ripert’s flagship restaurant serving modern French cuisine, his first four-star review in the Times.“I was 29 years old, and you basically saved my job and my life,” Ripert said. Le Bernardin went on to receive six more four-star reviews from the Times—an unprecedented achievement. Ripert would go on to appear on several TV cooking shows, including Top Chef, A Cook’s Tour and Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations and Parts Unknown. Ripert and Bourdain were close friends until Bourdain’s death in 2018.In Reichl's novel, the main character, Stella, tastes her first oysters and discovers a passion for food in the City of Lights. Every meal in the book, Reichl said, is based on a meal that she actually ate in Paris.“One of the reasons I chose to set [the book] in 1983 is that when I went to Paris, I was living on $2 a day—which in those days, you could do,” she said. (A year later, she was named the restaurant critic of the Los Angeles Times—her first job with an expense account.)“Stella is experiencing all of this for the very first time," she explained. "So I got to imagine—really imagine—what it's like for someone who's never experienced pleasure, to give herself to the food. And it was very fun for me to do that.”The Montclair Literary Festival continues this weekend; the lineup includes historian and retired Princeton professor Nell Irvin Painter. Find more info on the festival here.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Food Icons Ruth Reichl and Eric Ripert Catch Up at Montclair Literary Festival appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_333910" align="alignnone" width="778"] Maleah Joi Moon in front of the Shubert Theater, where she’s making her Broadway debut in Hell’s Kitchen, the new musical from Alicia Keys. Photo: Erin Patrice O’Brien[/caption]When Maleah Joi Moon was approached about auditioning for the lead role in Hell’s Kitchen, the new Alicia Keys musical on Broadway, she initially turned it down. The actor, who uses she/they pronouns, had no professional stage work to their name, and had fallen in love with acting while performing in shows in the Franklin Township public schools.“I felt like I wasn’t enough to fulfill something of that quality,” Moon says. She had also recently left Pace University, where she’d been studying musical theater, to pursue television acting. “I didn’t want to bare my soul anymore,” she says.Into the breach stepped Moon’s high school theater teacher, Timothy Walton, who encouraged Moon to go for the role in Hell’s Kitchen and coached her through the audition. “He’s the reason all this is happening,” Moon says.In Hell’s Kitchen, which is loosely based on Keys’s life, 21-year-old Moon plays Allie, a teenager living with her mother in a Hell’s Kitchen, New York City high-rise in the ’90s, going through “major life events surrounding love, loss, family and individuality,” says Moon.On April 30, Moon was nominated for a Tony Award for best performance by an actress in a leading role in a musical. The show was nominated for a total of 13 Tonys.[caption id="attachment_333922" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Maleah Joi Moon and Alicia Keys perform with the cast of "Hell's Kitchen" on the March 22 episode of "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon." Photo: NBCUniversal[/caption]Hell’s Kitchen director Michael Greif says he knew at once that Moon was perfect for the role. “She had great instincts, great flexibility, and interpreted the musical and textual material so smartly, bravely and uniquely.”In the sixth grade, Moon tried out for the school play, The Wizard of Oz, and landed the role of Dorothy. She was hooked and performed in every show until graduating from high school. “In Franklin Township, they fostered the arts and really cared about cultivating young artists,” Moon says. “Middle school musical theater director Terri Seggio taught me how to sing a song with emotion when I was ten years old. I was just really, really, really lucky. To this day, I’m so grateful for it.”Moon’s youth, inexperience and overnight success, though, can make it hard for her to trust herself. “Sometimes, imposter syndrome can catch up with me and go, Why are you here?”Fortunately, the support Moon received in Franklin Township is still with them. The New Jersey native stays in touch with their teachers, and a couple of them, “who I love very much and are still like family,” came to the show’s off-Broadway premiere last fall at the Public Theater.Moon also has the support of the Hell’s Kitchen team, including Alicia Keys herself. During rehearsal, Keys checked that Moon was doing okay, drinking water and keeping a journal.“She’s everything you want her to be and more,” Moon says of the superstar. “She inspires me to take good care of myself because she takes good care of everybody else.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Broadway’s ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ Star Fell in Love With Acting at NJ Public Schools appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Bon Jovi fans who have been missing the legendary rock band, which has been on hiatus from touring due to Jon Bon Jovi’s vocal issues, can get their fix in a new documentary on Hulu. Titled Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, the four-part series chronicles the band’s journey from its beginnings in the 1980s through the Slippery When Wet era, when the band sold 28 million records, to the taping of the band’s soon-to-be released album, Forever. The goal of the documentary, Bon Jovi has said, is to tell the “honest-to-God ups and downs of life behind the curtain.” When the lead singer’s vocal issues flare unexpectedly during filming, he is shown getting his neck scanned with lasers. The departure of guitarist Richie Sambora, who left the band in 2013, is not brushed under the rug either. In fact, he’s an interview subject, and his departure is one of the show’s central tensions.Drummer Tico Torres, an original band member, recalled the band’s early days in an interview with New Jersey Monthly. After scoring their first big hit, Runaway, in 1984, things started to take off—but they were still taking the train into Penn Station to play at Madison Square Garden. Once, he recalls, Sambora’s guitar didn’t work. Their nervous energy caused them to play so fast that their set, scheduled for 35 minutes, took only 20. “It was hectic,” he says. “That’s everybody getting their feet wet in the big time.” But he says, their attitude was, “Let's kick ass and take the world by storm.”Torres says it was disorienting to see himself forty years younger. “Watching yourself grow up on camera is strange. You look at yourself and say ‘I look goofy.’ I guess the clothing and styles were in style at the time.”Bruce Springsteen, who has maintained a close friendship with Bon Jovi, also appears in the documentary. In the early years, Torres says, it was unusual for musicians to identify as being from New Jersey. That has certainly changed. In fact, Torres sees the doc as a tribute to Bon Jovi's Garden State roots. “This film is us growing up with you guys—our New Jersey fans,” he says.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Bon Jovi Doesn’t Hold Back in New Hulu Documentary appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_333176" align="alignnone" width="788"] Nell Irvin Painter Photo: Courtesy of Dwight Carter[/caption]A distinguished historian who’s taught at Ivy League universities including Princeton and Penn, a respected visual artist, and an active member of the New York and New Jersey literary community, Nell Irvin Painter—at 81—sometimes seems as if she’s just getting started.[caption id="attachment_333177" align="alignright" width="350"] Nell Painter’s new collection of essays, I Just Keep Talking, is out now.[/caption]I Just Keep Talking, published this spring by Doubleday, gathers more than 40 essays and dozens of visual works from Painter’s academic and artistic career, covering topics from the Clarence Thomas hearings to Toni Morrison’s fiction to what Donald Trump’s election tells us about whiteness. Though the subjects range widely, Painter’s prose is unifying and distinct. Her authorial voice is unfailingly precise, confident and clear, never stodgy and often exuberantly witty.She’s that way in person, too, greeting me at the door of her apartment/art studio in East Orange with warmth and enthusiasm. Painter and her husband, Glenn Shafer, moved to East Orange in 2022 after 20 years in Newark. Before that, the couple lived in Princeton, which Painter describes as “a physically comfortable, easy place to be” that, despite the attractions of a beautiful house and yard, began to “feel really alienating.” In 2002, after time spent in Paris and Berlin convinced Painter and Shafer that they wanted to live in a city, they finally took the advice of “the late and very much lamented” scholar and Newark historian Clement Price, who told them to look for a house in the Forest Hill neighborhood of Newark.These days, the couple splits their time between East Orange and a country house in the Adirondacks, but Painter is a big fan of the Garden State. “What I really like about New Jersey is that it’s so diverse. The world is in New Jersey,” she says. “When people think about what’s so wonderful about New York, half of what they’re thinking about is New Jersey.”After a quick tour of Painter’s airy, art- and book-filled space, we settle into her work area, where she has one desk devoted to producing art and another to writing words. As we talk, she pops up to grab books she wants to show me, moving with a quickness and grace that make it hard to believe she’s 81.“I don’t have any problem being 81 in the way I had a problem being 70,” she says. “The hardest birthday I ever had was when I turned 70. Because when you’re a woman in your seventies, you’re just an old woman. You’ve fallen off the cliff. You’re not even visible enough to be invisible. And I hated it.”She smiles broadly. “But I knew that once you turn 80, you get to be Maya Angelou. And sure enough, I’m fine with 80.” There are the occasional physical complaints—“my hip got hysterical”—but she takes a strength class several times a week at the YMCA to “work the old body out.”As for her mind, the three books she has coming out this year keep her sharp. Along with I Just Keep Talking, new paperback editions of her third and fourth books—Sojourner Truth: A Life, a Symbol and Standing at Armageddon: A Grassroots History of the Progressive Era—will be published this spring.And then there’s Painter’s art—a second career she took up after retiring from Princeton, where she taught until 2005 (before that, she taught at the University of North Carolina and the University of Pennsylvania). In her 2018 memoir, Old in Art School, Painter described the exhilarating and sometimes humbling experience of starting over as a student, first at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, and then at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she received her MFA in painting in 2011.It was her fascination with images and how they intersect with historical narratives that set in motion her third book. “I usually start books with questions,” Painter says. The question she had about Sojourner Truth was how to reconcile the tension between Truth’s famously fiery speech at an 1851 Ohio women’s rights convention with the equally famous image of Truth “sitting there with her knitting,” which “in those days [was] a very common poster on Women’s Studies doors.”The result was her Sojourner Truth book, a radical correction to the record and a biography written vividly enough to earn kudos from novelist Joyce Carol Oates, her Princeton colleague, who writes that, “in her dual roles of historian and cultural critic, Nell Painter is brilliant.”Painter writes, “There’s not much there in my life to match what my country likes to recognize as a Black narrative of hurt. We were never poor, though never rich, and physical violence and addiction played no part in my family.”When I ask Painter about her family, she glows. Her parents, both Southerners, met in college and married soon after, a marriage that lasted 72 years, until her mother’s death. They raised Nell in Oakland, California, at the center of a loving and diverse community centered on their church, which welcomed interracial families and LGBTQ people.The tragedy at the center of an otherwise happy childhood was the death of her older brother, Frank Jr., who died following surgery to remove his tonsils when he was five. She was a small baby. “The older I get, the more I feel like that death has marked my life,” she says. Her parents’ grief never went away, but they poured their love and support into their daughter.She excelled at school, studying anthropology at University of California, Berkeley, French history at the University of Bordeaux, and African Studies at the University of Ghana. Her PhD in history is from Harvard.There was an early marriage—“we just don’t talk about that!”—to an Englishman, and then years later, a second and enduring partnership with Shafer, her husband of 35 years. (A fellow academic, Shafer is a renowned mathematician with a distinguished faculty position at Rutgers.)In addition to her work on Sojourner Truth and African American history, Painter published The History of White People in 2010, a sharp and often very funny look at the pseudoscience of racial difference. “That book bought me my Subaru!” she says, laughing. At the time, some reviewers seemed disappointed she wasn’t writing about Black people, a complaint that still rankles.Painter’s art, which frequently incorporates text on top of figurative images, often addresses race and history. It’s also more personal than most of her writing, although she’s begun to share her own story in recent years, in Old in Art School, and now in I Just Keep Talking.Some of Painter’s work, with its insistence on accuracy, sometimes brutal honesty, and complete disrespect for sacred cows, has ruffled feathers. “I don’t think of my history as political,” she says. “Clearly, it’s my point of view. They’re my questions and my answers. But they’re not questions and answers that depend on your agreeing with me. Something I always wanted in my writing was that people who disagreed with me could still have faith in what I said.”“I tell the truth,” Painter says, “in situations where the truth is not welcome. It doesn’t take much, for a woman.”Now that she’s left academia for a more creative life (although she is the board chair of the MacDowell Colony, a residency program for artists), Painter seems to be embracing the freedom and the work. Her elementary school teacher called her a troublemaker—“a label,” she writes, “I have yet to outlive.”Kate Tuttle is a writer and book critic based in Montclair. She is is a past president of the National Book Critics Circle.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Nell Irvin Painter on Art, Aging and Telling the Truth appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
In 1970, 18-year-old Richard Hunt bounded into the New York rehearsal room where Jim Henson and Frank Oz were auditioning new puppeteers for the Muppets.Hunt, just graduated from Northern Valley Regional High School in Demarest, passed his audition with flying colors. The rest was Muppet history.The Bronx-born, Closter-raised Hunt played characters such as Scooter, Beaker, Statler and Janice, performing with the Muppets until his death at age 40 from AIDS complications in 1992.Hunt’s short but remarkable life is the subject of Funny Boy: The Richard Hunt Biography, by Jessica Max Stein, released in March by Rutgers University Press.[RELATED: Stephen Colbert Is Montclair’s Man-About-Town]
The book explores the many facets of Hunt’s life and work as a member of the original team of Muppet performers, as a gay man, and as a Jersey boy who always looked out for his friends. At restaurants, he always insisted on picking up the check, even if he had to arm wrestle his friends for it.Hunt might not be as well known to the public as Henson or Oz, but he was a key member of the Muppets ensemble. “Hunt brought a sensibility and edginess to the Muppets that they needed, and pushed them over the edge,” Stein says.Stein conducted close to 100 interviews for the book. “People know his work, but they don’t know him. Now I hope people will know him better,” Stein says.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Closter-Raised Muppeteer’s Short But Remarkable Life Chronicled in New Biography appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Over the course of 10 years working for the minor league New Jersey Jackals, Billy Pinckney learned all kinds of baseball lessons. Now, they can be found in his self-published book, Passion Prevails: Baseball’s Top Performers Advise Youth Players on Maximizing Their Experience.Pinckney, a Little Falls native and Montclair State alum, has compiled stories and advice from professional baseball players at various levels. He spoke to lots of Jackals players for the book, as well as former Yankees and Mets, including David Cone, Darryl Strawberry, Willie Randolph and New Jersey’s own Todd Frazier.The book aims to help youth and amateur players as they navigate hardships, coaches, parents and more during their baseball careers, however long they last. “As I played, I realized that some coaches didn’t understand how to be the best coach or role model for a young player,” says Pinckney, a former club player at Montclair State. “In high school, I butted heads with our coaches over philosophies. And I saw that a lot of young players were in similar situations. So I put this book together in order to help young players navigate adversity and the pressure that they’re getting from parents or coaches.”Pinckney’s book also focuses on life after baseball, whenever that may come for an individual. The best advice he has come across is to “separate your sport and life,” and he’s working on that now as he transitions from player to aspiring sports-media member.“Everyone has a rest of their life to live and time to spend on other things and other interests,” Pinckney says. “So if you let baseball or whatever sport consume all of you and make that your identity, it’s very difficult to find true contentment outside of the sport.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Baseball Legends Offer Wisdom for Young Players in Book by Former MSU Player appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_331435" align="alignnone" width="778"] Simeon Marsalis teaches jazz literature to the diverse student body at his alma mater, Rutgers-Newark. Photo: Courtesy of Lawrence Sumulong[/caption]Simeon Marsalis bears a familiar surname courtesy of his father Wynton Marsalis, the famed musician, composer, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Simeon, 33, grew up in New Rochelle with his mother and stepfather, spending summers on tour with his father. Basketball took him to the University of Vermont, where he was a point guard (“the only position I was tall enough to play,” he laughs) and a religion major. His 2017 novel, As Lie Is to Grin, a finalist for the first-novel prize awarded by the Center for Fiction, covered some of the same territory Marsalis traversed as a young Black man exploring his identity amid a complex stew of racism, privilege and history.He joined Rutgers-Newark (where he received his Masters of Fine Arts) as assistant professor of jazz literature in 2023. “The faculty have been so impressed by Simeon’s charisma and talent since he was our graduate student that we couldn’t resist inviting him back into our community as soon as he completed his degree,” says Rigoberto González, distinguished professor of English and director of the MFA program. “He is a perfect fit for the values we hold dear at Rutgers-Newark: dedication to service, commitment to mentorship, and dynamic teaching.”When did you fall in love with literature?I became a reader of literary fiction in my senior year of high school. There was a teacher named Adam Morrison who refused to teach to the test and said, “I’m going to give you three book projects this year.” The first one I wrote was about [Emily Brontë’s] Wuthering Heights. But the book that really did it for me was Stendhal’s The Red and the Black.You went to Vermont on a basketball scholarship, right?Yeah. I wanted to be a scholarship athlete because I wanted to feel like I paid my own way through college, which was very important to me.Vermont is overwhelmingly white. What was that like for you?It was culture shock. I was pretty disillusioned. Then I went to an American fiction class and read John Cheever’s The Swimmer, and really enjoyed how he manipulated time. I said, You know, I think I could do something like this.Now you’re 10 years out of college and teaching college students. Do you see them grappling with the same issues you did?I’m on a very different campus than the one I learned on. But I think the underlying question of how to be inside of an academic institution and stay true to yourself is something that they deal with. Writing the novel helped me consider community and what it meant to me.How do you build community in your current role?At college, I wasn’t involved in much campus activism—on the basketball team, they wouldn’t let you. In Newark, I joined the union, I try to communicate more with students. I think about existing in the university differently now as a faculty member than I did as a student.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Simeon Marsalis’s Jam Is Literature, With a Nod to His Jazz-Genius Father appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_329867" align="alignnone" width="778"] DJ Kacy “Clay Pigeon” Ross in the break room of the rambling WFMU studios in downtown Jersey City. Photo: Christopher Lane[/caption]Friends and family may know him as Kacy Ross, but to tens of thousands of loyal listeners, he’s Clay Pigeon, the congenial geezer from Iowa who helps them start their day as host of Wake ’N’ Bake, the morning show on New Jersey’s freeform radio station WFMU.There are many similarities between Kacy Ross and the character he portrays on the radio five days a week from 6 to 9 am. He did grow up in a small town in Iowa, a fact Clay Pigeon refers to often. But Ross didn’t just stumble into WFMU’s Jersey City studios from some cornfield. He spent decades honing his craft on radio stations across the country, and playing in rock bands for much of his adult life.Ross broke into community radio in Tampa with a man-on-the-street interview program called Mondo Eclectica. “I kept doing it after I moved to Los Angeles, and then Milwaukee,” he recalls. “And I was still sending the shows back to Tampa on cassette every week.” A friend passed along a show tape to WFMU station manager Ken Freedman, who liked it enough to offer Ross a spot.“I had never even heard of WFMU at that point,” says Ross. “But I was like, Wow, this is kind of New York City radio, and that’s pretty cool. So I started sending in The Dusty Show, which was me interviewing people in rural Wisconsin. And it became somewhat popular on the station.”[RELATED: Radio Station in Montclair Has Played the Same Boyz II Men Song Every Day for 13 Years]
Ross moved to New York in 2007 and started doing his show live from WFMU’s studio. A decade later, Freedman decided to create a drivetime morning show and staged a host competition, with different candidates auditioning for a week at a time. “It dragged on for six months, and finally, I got the gig,” Ross says. “That was in June of 2017.”Wake ’N’ Bake with Clay Pigeon became an immediate success. WFMU broadcasts a terrestrial signal at 91.1 FM, which reaches northern New Jersey and Brooklyn, the demographic that provides primary support for the listener-supported station. But WFMU also broadcasts (and archives) its programming on the Internet, expanding its audience around the world. Freedman says that Wake ’N’ Bake reaches 80,000 unique listeners a month.As Clay Pigeon, Ross’s job includes juggling weather, traffic, news, concert listings and station promos, as well as playing an eclectic array of music that might segue from Atomic Rooster to Glen Campbell to some obscure indie band. And, in a voice that invokes a kindly old coot rummaging through his attic for records, Ross fosters a deep connection with listeners. He preps for the show all night, leaves home at 4:30 am, arrives at the studio at 6 am, and returns home to sleep from 11 am to 7 pm.“I like that place where pop and art intersect,” Ross says. “A lot of DJs wouldn’t be caught dead playing some of what I play, but you need someone in the morning to be accessible. I’m being weird and left field, but I’m also playing music people know, so they’re going to be curious and then want to explore and come in the WFMU door.”WFMU depends on listener donations for its funding and will be staging its 2024 fund drive March 4–17; tune in and donate at wfmu.org.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post WFMU’s Clay Pigeon: The Congenial Geezer Who Helps New Jerseyans Start Their Day appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
BAR CRAWLS & MOREHoboken Bar Crawls📅: Saturday, March 2-Sunday, March 17 (times vary)📍: Madd Hatter Hoboken • HobokenMorristown St. Patrick's Day Bar Crawl📅: Saturday, March 16 (1-9 pm)📍: Multiple Bars • MorristownCarney's Cares St. Patrick's Day Weekend Extravaganza📅: Friday, March 15-Sunday, March 17 (times vary)📍: Carney's • Cape Mayℹ️: A 5K run, polar plunge, food and beer make this a cant-miss event.💸: Prices varyPARADESAtlantic City📅: Saturday, March 9 (1 pm)📍: Atlantic City BoardwalkBayonne📅: Sunday, March 17 (1 pm)📍: Begins on Broadway & 5th StreetBergen County📅: Sunday, March 10 (2 pm)📍: Washington Avenue in BergenfieldHackettstown📅: Sunday, March 10 (3:30 pm)📍: 120 Grand AvenueJersey City📅: Sunday, March 10 (1 pm)📍: Dickinson High SchoolMorris County📅: Saturday, March 9 (noon)📍: South Street in MorristownNewark📅: Friday, March 15 (1 pm)📍: Prudential Center on Mulberry StreetNutley📅: Saturday, March 2 (1 pm)📍: Franklin Avenue inRingwood📅: Saturday, March 23 (1 pm)📍: Skyline DriveSussex County📅: Saturday, March 16 (11 am)📍: Spring Street in NewtonUnion County📅: Saturday, March 9 (1 pm)📍: Morris Avenue in Union TownshipWest Orange Morning Mass & Parade📅: Sunday, March 10 (9 am)📍: St Joseph's Church CENTRAL JERSEYAsbury Park📅: Sunday, March 10 (1 pm)📍: 4th & Ocean AvenuesBelmar/Lake Como📅: Sunday, March 3 (12:30 pm)📍: North Boulevard and F StreetClinton📅: Sunday, March 10 (3 pm)📍: Main StreetFreehold Borough📅: Sunday, March 17 (12:30 pm)📍: West Main StreetHamilton📅: Saturday, March 9 (1 pm)📍: Nottingham Fire House, 200 Mercer StreetHighlands📅: Saturday, March 23 (2 pm)📍: Huddy Park, Waterwitch AvenueKeyport📅: Saturday, March 23 (1 pm)📍: Maple PlaceRumson📅: Sunday, March 10 (1 pm)📍: Allen Street and River RoadSomerville📅: Sunday, March 10 (1:30 pm)📍: East Main Street, at Grove Street intersection, in front of Somerset HotelSouth Amboy📅: Sunday, March 17 (2 pm)📍: South Pine AvenueWoodbridge Parade📅: Sunday, March 10 (1:30 pm)📍: Woodbridge High SchoolSOUTH JERSEYBrigantine📅: Saturday, March 16 (1 pm)📍: St. Thomas the Apostle Church Gloucester📅: Sunday, March 3 (1 pm)📍: Martin’s Lake (Johnson Blvd. and Francis St.)Mount Holly📅: Saturday, March 2 (1 pm)📍: High StreetSea Isle City📅: Saturday, March 16 (2 pm)📍: 83rd & East Landis AvenuesSeaside Heights📅: Saturday, March 9 (noon)📍: The BoulevardNorth Wildwood📅: Saturday, March 16 (noon)📍: North Wildwood City Hall (9th & Atlantic Avenues)
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations in New Jersey: Bar Crawls, Parades and More appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Bada bing!The booth where Tony Soprano and his family sat in the series finale of The Sopranos sold at auction Monday night for a whopping $82,600. The finale's iconic last scene was filmed at the popular Bloomfield ice cream parlor Holsten's, which had, until now, seated customers and fans in the booth.Holsten's decided to sell the booth because it and the restaurant's other booths were in disrepair.The auction lot included both seats, the table and the divider wall with the plaque "Reserved for the Soprano Family." Not included was the jukebox that Tony famously turned to the Journey song "Don't Stop Believin."There were 238 bids on the piece of TV history. It went up for auction about a week ago with an initial listing price of just $3,000 but quickly skyrocketed.Holsten's has enjoyed a lot of fan attention since the series finale aired in 2007, even selling Sopranos-inspired mugs and T-shirts.Holsten's said the decision to sell and renovate was a tough but necessary one."Please understand that we don't want to do this. But the integrity of the booths are now compromised," the owners wrote on Facebook. "They have been repaired many times and this furniture is over 60 years old. Obviously, we do not want to do this, however it has come to a point where they are structurally not safe anymore as a whole and we need to think about the safety of our patrons first."Fans flooded social media with their thoughts, with some lamenting the loss of the special seat. "Keep it!!!! It’s a great photo op and brought the company business. People want to sit EXACTLY where Tony sat, not a replica/replacement," one person wrote on Facebook.But others said Holsten's should be celebrated for its longevity in the community, not just its place in TV history."Holsten’s is so much more than a Sopranos memory!! For me it is six decades of fond family memories, and countless delicious ice cream sodas (with coffee chip ice cream)," one person commented. "Though the booth was definitely a fun novelty, and the story will continue to be a piece of Holsten’s history, it is not what has made Holsten’s great since 1939!"
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post ‘Sopranos’ Booth Sells for $82K at Auction appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
By her own estimate, Linda Stanton has moved more than a dozen times in New Jersey. But when she settled in Mullica Township in the Pinelands more than 20 years ago with her late husband, Jim, the move turned into a life-altering one.It deepened their appreciation of the Pinelands and led the couple to start Lines on the Pines, a one-day festival, now in its third decade, to celebrate the region’s residents, history and culture. This year’s event is being held on March 10 at Stockton University in Galloway Township.“We wanted to create something that would serve as a thank you to the Pine Barrens,” says Stanton, 76, a retired elementary school teacher, remembering how she and Jim were avid kayakers whose back door was steps away from the Mullica River. “On our second date, we went kayaking past the house we later bought,” she recalls.She calls Mullica Township “one of the state’s best-kept secrets.”The Pinelands is a place to savor the sights and sounds of nature in a rustic setting. Spanning more than 1 million acres in 56 municipalities across seven counties, the Pinelands National Reserve comprises nearly 25 percent of New Jersey’s land mass and provides a habitat for a diverse range of plants, insects and animals.Elayne Leighton, an artist from Jackson Township who is making her fourth appearance at the festival, has seen its benefits firsthand.“Lines on the Pines has expanded the audience for my artwork,” says Leighton, who took up painting after retiring as a teacher in 2004. Bugs and Insects of the Pine Barrens, her new book, is going to be available at the event.“The Pinelands has inspired me as an artist,” she adds. “When I see something that fascinates me, I’ll paint it.”Lines on the Pines, part of the nonprofit It’s a Sign of the Pines, had a modest beginning. In 2005, Stanton saw a book on the Pinelands (Heart of the Pines by John Pearce) in a gift shop at the Sweetwater Casino restaurant. She later discovered other books on the area, and that led to the first Lines on the Pines festival, held at the restaurant in March 2006, featuring six authors, a historian and a photographer.“People asked, ‘Who’s going to come to a book signing?” she remembers. Any apprehension vanished when the doors opened. “The lines to see the authors were incredible. We had 200 or so people attend.”Initially planned as a one-time event, it gained momentum when the restaurant agreed to host the gathering again in 2007. Except for the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, it’s been held yearly on the second Sunday of March and serves as a harbinger of spring. Lines on the Pines has also brought out a series of books, a CD, and a DVD on the Pine Barrens.“Lines, to me, has always been an exceptional networking event where people interested in the Pine Barrens meet and learn from one another,” says Thomas E. Kinsella, director of the South Jersey Culture and History Center at Stockton University.The event goes beyond vendor sales, according to Kinsella. “It is about meeting local historians, artists, craftspeople, authors and longtime community members who each have a love for the Pines and want to share their knowledge.”Lines on the Pines is an extension of Stanton’s twin passions: teaching and volunteering. She’s been a volunteer at AtlantiCares Mainland Campus in Galloway since the mid-1970s and now manages the gift shop.The educational component of Lines on the Pines focuses on children through the PB&J program, an acronym for Pine Barrens and Juniors. “If we’re not offering something to the younger generation, what’s going to happen to the Pine Barrens?” she observes.“We don’t want children to miss out,” says Stanton, a teacher for 17 years. This year, there will be a program on Bugs and Insects of the Pine Barrens, with crafts centered around that theme. Children will earn a Lines on the Pines patch by completing a series of activities.Previous festivals have allowed children to get close-up views of owls and snakes that live in the Pinelands. “We try to bring the outdoors inside. So many kids are on their computers and phones,” she says. The event shows them there’s a world beyond their screens.To Stanton, a willingness to evolve has been the key to the longevity of Lines on the Pines. “You have to be open to new ideas. We started with authors, then we added artists and brought in historical societies,” she says.One element of the festival has stayed the same: “Lines on the Pines is about making friends, not making money,” she says. “Admission has always been free. I would never charge.”Stanton’s biggest adjustment has been dealing with the death of her husband, Jim, in March 2021 at age 77.“Working without Jim has been difficult,” she says. “When Jim passed, so many people stood up and said, ‘What can I do?’ That has allowed Lines on the Pines to continue.”Carleton Montgomery, executive director of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, says the event has greatly benefited the region.“The Pineland Preservation Alliance has participated in Lines on the Pines, so we have seen all the thousands of people who have learned about the nature, culture and history of the Pinelands because of this event,” he notes, adding, “All those people are now more likely to help preserve the region’s unique resources through the places they visit, talking to politicians, supporting nonprofits, and even taking care of their own piece of the Pines. Linda and her team have achieved something really extraordinary here.”Stanton is confident that Lines on the Pines will continue when she is no longer in charge, explaining that she has an exit plan and people in place to handle administration.Stockton University has been a supportive partner and home for Lines on the Pines since 2018.“Lines on the Pines is welcome at Stockton for as long as it wishes to be there,” says Kinsella, distinguished professor of literature at the school. “It remains one of the university’s most important outreach efforts in support of the Pine Barrens.”Lines on the Pines* will be held on Sunday, March 10, from 11 am-4 pm at the Stockton University Campus Center in Galloway Township. Find out more at linesonthepines.org.Tom Wilk first visited the Pine Barrens in June 1968 during a camping trip at Buttonwood Hill in Wharton State Forest.*
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Beloved Festival Is Three-Decade ‘Thank You’ to the Pinelands appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_329643" align="alignnone" width="778"] Hailey Brock fulfilled her dream of owning a bookstore when she opened the Nature of Reading Bookshop in Madison. Photo: Andy Foster[/caption]During the pandemic, when everyone was staying very close to home, many turned to the comfort of reading—and local bookstores played a key role in getting books to those readers. But they also did so much more.In many ways, independent bookstores became the hearts of their communities, giving residents a reason to get out of their homes, while also offering them a way to stay informed and entertained.In the last few years, that affection for indie bookstores has translated into many more of them opening nationally—including in New Jersey—with more people fulfilling their dreams of owning their own bookshops.“I think indie bookstores, unlike other places, played a certain role for people during the pandemic, whether they were delivering books when people were shut down or writing handwritten notes on packages,” says Allison Hill, CEO of the American Booksellers Association (ABA), a nonprofit trade association that promotes independent bookstores.Since the pandemic, the ABA has seen nearly 600 new independent bookstores open across the country, with its membership up 36 percent. New Jersey has had nearly half a dozen new bookstores open in the past year alone.[caption id="attachment_329641" align="alignnone" width="778"] "The pandemic really motivated me [to open a bookstore] because I started thinking that the only guaranteed time we have is now," Brock says. Photo: Andy Foster[/caption]For Hailey Brock, who is just 26 years old, opening a bookstore in Madison on Earth Day last year was a dream she never thought she’d fulfill so early in life.The Chatham native, who now lives in Madison, had an internship at a bookstore while in high school and fell in love with bookselling. She earned her master’s degree in book history at the University of Edinburgh, and when she returned to the United States during the pandemic, she was trying to decide what kind of work she wanted to do.“I thought about doing something like special collections or rare librarianship, but I always had in my head that I wanted to do something with bookselling or owning a bookstore,” she says. “And the pandemic really motivated me, because I started thinking that the only guaranteed time we have is now. So, while I originally saw bookstore ownership as this distant dream, the pandemic changed my perspective on life—so I decided to go for it earlier than I probably otherwise would have.”Brock is now the proud owner of The Nature of Reading Bookshop, a tiny (merely 250 square feet) and adorable bookstore in Madison that specializes in books about nature, climate change, and what she calls seasonal reading—fiction and nonfiction books that align with each season. She also has books on subjects such as gardening, sustainable living, and flora and fauna.“During the pandemic, I spent a lot of time reading about the climate crisis; before, it always gave me a lot of anxiety, but when everything changed so much during that time, I somehow became more able to read books about it and started thinking about actions to take and what I could do with my humanities background. And it just came to me one day that I should open a nature/climate change-themed bookstore,” she says.Like many new bookshops, she started out with a pop-up at local farmers markets and craft fairs. She was able to open her permanent bookstore after a crowdfunding campaign helped her raise more than $14,000. To save money, she did much of the design and renovation of the shop herself, with the help of a family friend.Brock says business has been good and having three colleges nearby has helped: Drew University, Fairleigh Dickinson University and Saint Elizabeth University. She also has three monthly book clubs that meet at her store, as well as nature-related arts-and-crafts classes that have been very popular.Bookstores have become much more than just a place to buy books, says Hill, of the ABA.“The thing about independent bookstores is that it’s not just about retail; there’s history and relationships. They became a community center and a gathering place. They’re supporting the schools, they’re bringing authors to the schools, they’re doing book drives for local charities,” she says. “During the holidays, people bump into other people they know there, and they know the booksellers. I think a lot of these bookstores offer communities continuity and connection.”That’s definitely been the case at Watchung Booksellers in Montclair, a vibrant independent bookstore that has been in business for 28 years. Run by Margot Sage-El, the beloved shop recently expanded down the street, adding the Kids’ Room, a children’s-bookstore offshoot. Sage-El also brought her daughter, Madeleine Ciliotta-Young, on board to help run the business. The new space is also being used for the store’s popular book talks, story time and other events.“Our events have really increased in popularity, partly because I feel like our audience is wider, but also because people are really looking for connections,” she says.Those connections were especially important during the pandemic, when the bookstore rallied during a dark time, staying open when everything else had shut down and providing books and more for its loyal customers.“We’ve always had an online presence, but it wasn’t even 0.01 percent of our business. And then all of a sudden, after that week in March 2020, I was waking up to a hundred online orders a day from all over the country. Because libraries had shut down and then Amazon paused and people were stuck at home. And then the schools shut down—everybody was trying to figure out how to make it work. So I think parents thought, At least if my kid’s reading, then they’re okay,” she remembers.Customers would come to the store’s back door and pick up their books that were laid out on tables in paper bags; by that time, the bookstore had essentially been turned into a warehouse, she says.“The community totally rallied behind us, and we survived. Our customers were extremely grateful (that we stayed open),” says Sage-El. “It was also an activity for them to go to the bookstore and pick up the books. If people wanted gifts or puzzles, they would come to the window and we’d show them the puzzles that we had, and they’d point and we would put it out for them.”While that kind of above-and-beyond customer service definitely endears a local business to customers, bookshops must still contend with the stiff competition from Amazon, which usually offers lower prices on its books.So why shop at a local bookstore instead of online?Hill believes that, during the pandemic, people came to realize that if they didn’t support local businesses such as bookshops, they would close.“People were homeschooling their kids or started reading with their kids again or just started reading again for pleasure,” she says. “Then we all had the experience of losing our favorite places in the pandemic, like our favorite restaurant or our favorite coffee shop. People went, ‘Wow, this is what happens when we don’t support these small businesses.’“There’s a real economic advantage to a community supporting independent bookstores over Amazon. There’s also the displacement of retail shops,” she says.She points to a 2022 report by the ABA and Civic Economics, a consultancy, showing that when you buy something from an indie bookstore, it generates twice the local economic activity compared to Barnes & Noble, and four times more than Amazon.“So it’s everything from the local sales tax to local vendors staying in business,” she says.Independent bookstores also help increase property values in a town by drawing people in, as they give residents a gathering place and a sense of community. “It becomes such a vibrant part of the fabric of a community, and it’s way more interesting for a town to have a bookstore than a Starbucks or Gap, right?” says Hill.Since the pandemic, stores have begun opening up in places that were once considered book deserts—communities that didn’t have a bookstore and, in some cases, even a library.In addition to the recently opened Nature of Reading and the Kids’ Room, new shops in New Jersey include Wolfe & Kron Books in Farmingdale, the Collective Bookstore in Verona and Chapter One in Mendham. In October, a new Barnes & Noble bookstore opened in Paramus, after having unceremoniously shuttered its location just up the highway after 28 years in business. The catch? The bookstore behemoth is now modeling its new, smaller digs on indie bookshops—specifically curating to engage the local community.In another change, of the new bookshops opening across the country, about 28 percent are owned by people of color, Hill says.“That’s been a big shift. It’s really interesting how the industry is diversifying. I think that partly reflects the overall demographics of the U.S., but I also think that the summer George Floyd was murdered ignited so much interest in not only books about anti-racism, but also books about people of color. It drove demand. Publishers started publishing more. And bookstores started creating spaces that centered on diverse voices. And we saw more diverse people enter into the industry as a result,” she says.In July, The Collective Bookstore opened in Verona—the first independent bookshop to open in the town in decades. Joshua Jacobs, who owns the Hearth Realty Group at the same Main Street location, realized that he didn’t need a physical location for his business anymore, so he and his wife, Lauren, decided to open a bookstore there instead.[caption id="attachment_329645" align="alignnone" width="778"] Bibliophile Joshua Jacobs opened the Collective Bookstore in Verona last year. Photo: Jacqueline Mroz[/caption]It’s a beautiful little bookshop, with a children’s reading section, light fixtures shaped like open books, and even a cozy sofa with a gas-powered fireplace next to it.Jacobs, who lives in Verona with his wife and two children, says he’s passionate about the important role that bookstores play in a town. The response to the bookstore opening has been overwhelmingly positive, he says.“I didn’t really expect the level of excitement that we’ve seen, and how much people were looking forward to us opening,” he says. “The community is extremely important to us, and people say they feel like it’s become a destination. We have the same families coming back on a regular basis. All of our staff members are always engaging with people that walk in. It’s so much more than just a store.”Local bookstores also know their customers in a way that online sellers never will.Sage-El and her fellow booksellers spend a lot of time talking to their customers and advising them on the perfect books for them to read and to give as gifts.“There is the whole discoverability piece of having a local bookstore,” she says. “When we review the book catalogs from the publishers, we really look with our customers in mind and try to pick books that we think will be of interest to them—not just books that the publishers say will be the top books. We know our customers. Books are really personal, and you learn a lot about a person by what they’re looking for.”Hill says local independent bookshops also add character to neighborhoods and connect people in a different kind of way.That’s been the case with Watchung Booksellers, where they hold events such as author book readings and launches, story time, book clubs, and holiday celebrations.Hill says these bookstores return to the ideal of knowing whom you’re buying things from.“You know who the owners are—they’re your neighbors. They live in your community. They can be much more responsive to the interests and the needs of the community. You can get personal recommendations where they really know you. It’s not an algorithm telling you what to order,” she says.“The independent bookstore is going to have that bookseller who fell in love with that debut novel. I think it's way more meaningful to have those kinds of recommendation,” says Hill.Reagan Arthur, publisher of Knopf, agrees that there are real advantages to shopping for books locally, including supporting your community intellectually, economically and culturally.But from a publishing point of view, indie bookstores are often indicators of a book’s potential beyond what publishers have already told themselves a book can do.“And so, months before a book is out, we’re getting notes from independent booksellers across the country,” she says. “Independent booksellers sell what they love. They are honest in their opinions, and they support the books that they believe in. Over time, it definitely adds up; you can point to a lot of books that were made by independent booksellers who recognized something early and then loved and championed it. Eventually, those books took off.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Indie Bookstores Are Making a Comeback in New Jersey appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
People may like to poke fun at New Jersey, but our stories are undeniably American. From newspapers to broadcast to viral moments, these Garden State stories went national in a big way.The Jersey Devil Is Born in the Pinelands1735As legend has it, the mysterious creature said to roam the Pinelands was born as the devil-esque 13th child of a woman named Mother Leeds. Today, the Jersey Devil is reportedly the only state demon in the country. Our NHL team is also named for it.Nearly Whole Dinosaur Fossil Found in Haddonfield1858William Parker Foulke discovered the world’s first nearly complete dinosaur skeleton in a marl pit in Camden County. That discovery, the Hadrosaurus foulkii, a plant-eater with a duck-shaped bill, is now the official state dinosaur. Read about a Haddonfield home redesign inspired by the 19th-century discovery here.Thomas Edison Invents the Light Bulb in Menlo ParkJanuary 1880Thomas Edison, who had labs in Menlo Park and West Orange, created some of the most important inventions of all time, among them the movie camera, the phonograph, the automatic telegraph and, most famously, the light bulb, for which Edison received the patent in January 1880. Today, Edison-focused tours are available in both towns.
President James A. Garfield Dies in Long BranchSeptember 19, 1881Garfield was the only president to die in New Jersey. He was shot and wounded in Washington by Charles J. Guiteau, and later died of an infection while staying at Francklyn Cottage, a Shore escape from the country’s capital. Garfield had been president for just four months before the shooting. Guiteau was executed in 1882.Roselle Is First U.S. Town With ElectricityJanuary 19, 1883It’s fitting that a Jersey town was the first one lighted by electricity from one generating station.Paterson Silk Strike Changes HistoryFebruary 25, 1913About 25,000 workers went on strike, shutting down the important silk industry in Paterson for five months. The workers, mostly immigrants, sought improved conditions in the mills. Although the workers didn’t get everything they desired, the strike played an important part in the country’s movement to improve workplace conditions.Cliffhanger Joins Movie Lexicon From Fort Lee1914The film term cliffhanger originates from the silent serial The Perils of Pauline. It starred the actress Pearl White, who literally hung over the cliffs of the Palisades of Fort Lee and left audiences on the edge of their seats with anticipation as they wondered what would happen next. Fort Lee is known as the birthplace of film, with many early studios and projects.Prohibition Fuels Atlantic City DebaucheryJanuary 17, 1920The start of Prohibition sparked an era of Mob activity, bootlegging and political corruption in Atlantic City. Today’s New Jerseyans saw a slice of that time when the HBO drama Boardwalk Empire ran from 2010 to 2014. The series starred Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson (based on real-life political boss Nucky Johnson) and West Orange’s Michael Pitt.Lindbergh Baby KidnappedMarch 1, 1932In one of the most infamous crimes in American history, famed aviator Charles Lindbergh and wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s 20-month-old son was kidnapped from the family’s home and found dead two months later, just a few miles from their residence. Bruno Richard Hauptmann was executed for the murder of baby Charles A. Lindbergh in 1936. In 2023, a judge shut down a possible re-examination of the case.M&Ms Created in Newark1941The first batch of the iconic candies was made at 285 Badger Avenue. The Mars Wrigley factory is now in Hackettstown. (Read more about iconic candy brands born and bred in Jersey here.)Self-Service Gas Ban Begins1949Today, New Jersey is the only state left in the country that doesn’t allow people to pump their own gas at service stations. The practice stems from the state Legislature passing the Retail Gasoline Dispensing Safety Act, citing driver safety and convenience. Government players have attempted to get the self-service ban reversed over the years, but so far, it has never happened.Three Planes Crash in Elizabeth1951-52In one of the most shocking and tragic stories in New Jersey history, three planes crashed in Elizabeth in a 58-day period from December 1951 through February 1952. All either took off from Newark Airport or were en route to land there. Judy Blume, an Elizabeth native, used the events as the setting for her 2015 novel, The Unlikely Event.Newark Riots Tear the City ApartJuly 12-17, 1967The five-day uprising left Newark devastated for decades. An incident of police brutality sparked the riots in the midst of frustrations about housing discrimination, unemployment, and the failure of leadership to reflect the mostly African American community. The governor sent in the National Guard. Twenty-six people died and many were injured.Grateful Dead Concert in Englishtown is Biggest Ever in U.S.September 3, 1977More than 107,000 fans rocked out, making it the biggest ticketed concert in U.S. history.Physicists Win Nobel Following Discovery in Holmdel's Bell Labs1978Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered cosmic background radiation, proving the Big Bang Theory.Baby M Case Stuns the Nation1987-88New Jersey was at the center of the nation’s first surrogacy controversy when Mary Beth Whitehead decided she wanted to keep the baby she’d birthed as a surrogate for the Sterns of Tenafly. Whitehead used her own egg. The Sterns won custody. The case ignited a debate on the morality and legality of surrogacy and helped gain protections for parents. These days, hopeful parents are increasingly choosing surrogacy in the Garden State.‘Crazy Eddie’ Gets Prison Time1996[caption id="attachment_328696" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Courtesy of Paul Hayes[/caption]Crazy Eddie, the electronics store chain that rose to prominence in New Jersey for its cut-rate prices and notoriously frenetic TV commercials, later become notorious for its dramatic fall from grace amid a colossal fraud scheme. Founder Eddie Antar ultimately pleaded guilty to one charge of racketeering conspiracy. He served time and died in 2006.JFK Jr.'s Fatal Flight Leaves From FairfieldJuly 16, 1999John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn Bessette, and her sister Lauren took off from Fairfield’s Essex County Airport at 8:38 pm with Kennedy piloting his new Piper Saratoga, headed to Martha’s Vineyard. At 9:41, the plane hit the water, killing all three. The accident was caused by Kennedy’s spatial disorientation descending over water at night; hazy weather reduced visibility.9/11 Claims 750 New Jerseyans’ LivesSeptember 11, 2001An estimated 750 New Jerseyans were among the nearly 3,000 lives lost on September 11, 2001. We had the second highest death toll of any state, following New York. Ten years after the attacks, New Jersey dedicated its official 9/11 memorial, called Empty Sky. Located in Liberty State Park, the powerful memorial faces the World Trade Center site. Twenty years after the attacks, New Jerseyans shared personal stories with NJM about 9/11's impact on their lives.Jim McGreevey Comes Out as 'Gay American'August 13, 2004Then governor Jim McGreevey shocked the world by resigning, admitting to an affair with a man, and declaring, “I am a gay American.” Nearly 20 years later, in 2023, McGreevey announced a run for mayor of Jersey City. In recent years, he’s been working with formerly incarcerated people through his New Jersey Reentry Corporation.Charles Kushner Weaves a Sordid Web of Scandal2005Real estate mogul Charles Kushner was embroiled in scandal long before son Jared married Ivanka Trump. In pleading guilty to various charges, he admitted to hiring a prostitute to seduce his sister’s husband, and paying someone $25,000 to film the tryst. The reason? Kushner's sister was a cooperating witness against him. Kushner got two years in prison.Sopranos Series Finale AirsJune 10, 2007When The Sopranos ended its six-season run, the series finale sparked an intense debate that never died. The final scene was filmed at Holsten’s in Bloomfield, making the eatery a household name far beyond the Garden State. For years a plaque hung in the booth where the Soprano family sat that read, “This Booth Reserved For the Soprano Family.” In late February, the restaurant announced that it was auctioning off the booth on eBay amid desperately needed renovations.Bob Dylan Detained in Long BranchJune 2009When cops got a call about an “eccentric-looking old man” walking around Long Branch, it turned out to be music legend Bob Dylan. The 24-year-old police officer who responded to the call didn’t recognize Dylan, nor did she initially believe him when he told her who he was and that he was in town on tour. It was a a shock when she used his passport to verify his identity.Hurricane Sandy Wreaks Havoc on Jersey ShoreOctober 29, 2012[caption id="attachment_328725" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Courtesy of Anthony Quintano[/caption]Hurricane Sandy left destruction and years of rebuilding in its wake. It devastated our Shore and caused billions in damages. Read about what's next for the Jersey Shore a decade later here.Bridgegate Scandal in Fort Lee Shocks EveryoneSeptember 9, 2013Staff members of then governor Chris Christie apparently schemed to shut down the busy lanes into the GW Bridge during rush hour in retribution for the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee’s refusal to back Christie’s bid for re-election—even though Christie is a Republican. The misadventure resulted in massive headaches for drivers and a nine-count indictment.Super Bowl Held at MetLife February 2, 2014The game between the Broncos and the winning Seahawks was the first Super Bowl played outdoors in a cold-weather city.Tracy Morgan Nearly Dies in Cranbury Car CrashJune 7, 2014[caption id="attachment_329278" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Alex Millauer/Shutterstock[/caption]Comedian Tracy Morgan was in a wheelchair for five months, broke every bone in his face, and says he considered suicide after a Walmart truck crashed into his limo on the Turnpike. Morgan’s friend James “Jimmy Mack” McNair, died in the crash. The truck driver pleaded guilty to second-degree vehicular homicide and four counts of third-degree aggravated assault.'The Situation' Sentenced to PrisonOctober 5, 2018[caption id="attachment_328723" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Courtesy of Mike Sorrentino[/caption]Jersey Shore star Mike Sorrentino spent eight months behind bars for tax evasion. He spoke candidly with New Jersey Monthly last year about his road to redemption following prison and drug addiction.Ivana Trump Buried in BedminsterJuly 2022Even though she'd been divorced from Donald Trump for three decades when she died, Ivana Trump was buried at his Trump National Golf Club. Her gravesite is reportedly located in a quiet spot, away from the hubbub of golfers passing through. The former president has said in the past that he wants to be buried at the golf course.Senator Robert Menendez IndictedSeptember 22, 2023Did anyone say gold bars? That’s what was found in the home that Senator Robert Menendez shares with his wife when it was searched by federal agents, along with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash—all central to the stunning charges against the pair. He has been accused of acting as a foreign agent to Egypt and helping to advance the interests of Qatar in a bribery scheme.MORE FROM OUR POP CULTURE ISSUE*:The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New JerseyGet to Know NJM Cover Star Jack AntonoffWhy New Jersey’s Live Music Scene Will ‘Always Be Booming’How Frank Sinatra Became Hoboken's Favorite SonJon Stewart and Stephen Colbert Aren’t Jersey Natives, But They’re Local IconsMartha Stewart Is a New Jersey Icon Who Always Keeps Fans GuessingShaquille O’Neal Has Never Forgotten His Newark RootsAlpine Is the Beverly Hills of New Jersey: Why Celebs Are Drawn to Bergen County HamletWhy Jersey Is the Perfect Home for the Latest Era of Satirical Tabloid Weekly World News*
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post New Jersey Headlines That Shocked the World appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Chatting with Richard Lewis, as I fondly look back on it, was less an interview than a ride on a wild and crazy comedy roller coaster. You’d hang on for dear life and let out shrieks—of laughter—at his fantastical ad-libs.This only encouraged Lewis, who’d spin ever crazier stream-of-consciousness riffs on his fears and neuroses and supposedly traumatic memories of growing up in Englewood.He used to joke that he made so many trips to his school nurse that a plaque to him was erected in the Dwight Morrow High School nurse's office.Did he really work as a paper carrier for The Record, his hometown paper, for just one dreadful day?“I only delivered the papers to therapists’ houses,” Lewis claimed the first time I spoke with him, when he was starring in the ABC sitcom Anything But Love, in 1989. “You can’t throw the papers up against the door, because they might be having sessions, so I would tiptoe...“I got so nervous, because I was so frightened of dogs. In one house, it wasn’t a dog; I think it was one of these huge box turtles. It was a horror. I blame The Record for most of my fear of animals, because of that one day on the route.”Lewis, who died on Tuesday of a heart attack at age 76 in Los Angeles, is credited with coining the phrase “(Blank) from hell," (as in day and date and dream from hell). He was born June 27, 1947 in Brooklyn, but grew up in Englewood. His father, Bill, a co-owner of Ambassador Caterers in Teaneck, died in 1971. His mom, Blanche, was an actress in community theater.Their son came of age as a comic in the late 1970s and early '80s, just as cable television was about to make stars out of standups. Lewis’s HBO comedy specials had names like I’m in Pain, I’m Exhausted and I’m Doomed. That last one was nearly identical to a show I saw at BergenPAC in April 1990. Dressed in trademark black, with slightly stooped shoulders, and hands touching his forehead, he’d pace the stage like a nervous panther, periodically stopping to consult a topics list, six feet long, placed atop a prop grand piano.Lewis made 48 appearances on Late Night With David Letterman and had a sold-out show at Carnegie Hall. But he never stopped performing in his home state—from Englewood to Atlantic City—and never missed a chance to talk to his hometown newspaper.When Lewis said he’d grown up in “the house that guilt built” (aka “the Suffer Dome),” one sensed that there was real pain behind many of these references. He confronted his struggles with alcoholism and substance abuse in his standup routine and his memoir, The Other Great Depression. Sober since August 1994, Lewis is survived by his wife Joyce Lapinsky, whom he married in 2005. And despite having been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease two years ago, Lewis told his fans, via a video he posted on social media last April, that he was doing well and was happy.Lewis became known to a younger generation of fans thanks to HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, for which Larry David tapped his longtime friend to play a version of himself. As David said in a statement on Wednesday, the two were born in the same Brooklyn hospital, three days apart. But they did not meet up until their pre-teens—at an upstate New York State sports camp. Their on-screen chemistry was incomparable.While going through my old Lewis clips, I found one from 2010, to promote a comedy show he was doing with Susie Essman at Montclair’s Wellmont Theater. Lewis started off by explaining why he’d mistakenly called me the day before, when I was at a meeting. He blamed the mishap on a nightmare from hell.“Five minutes before I call you, eight Hasidic dinosaurs were chasing me, saying, “You’re not religious enough,” he said, adding, “ You should see the size of the skullcaps they had on.”There was only one Richard Lewis.Virginia Rohan is the former longtime TV critic for The Record newspaper.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post There Was Only One Richard Lewis appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
If you’re an ardent Sopranos fan and want to own a bit of pop culture history, now's your chance. The famed booth at Holsten’s ice cream parlor and restaurant in Bloomfield, where the final scene of The Sopranos was shot, is up for sale.Holstein's has announced that it’s auctioning off the booth used in that scene. This little slice of pop culture history is available on eBay here—and as of Saturday evening, the bidding had surpassed $76,000. The auction ends on Monday, March 4, at 10:02 pm.It’s a fitting coda to the 25th anniversary of the year The Sopranos premiered. Fans still flock to the Soprano house in North Caldwell as well as Holsten’s. It was at this ice cream shop that James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Robert Iler filmed the show’s infamous last scene. A plaque at the booth reads: "This Booth Reserved For the Soprano Family." The spot is on the Sopranos tour, and even sells Sopranos-inspired t-shirts and mugs.According to Holsten’s Facebook page, they are renovating the restaurant and will be replacing all of the booths there:“The time has come. All good things sometimes need an upgrade," the restaurant wrote on Facebook on Wednesday. "The famous Sopranos booth is getting a much needed face-lift. ... Obviously, we aren’t going to change the nostalgia of our beloved shoppe…we aren’t crazy! Just polishing up the place!”The post also says that the owners didn’t want to remove the furniture, but the integrity of the booths are now compromised; they’ve been repaired many times as they are over 60 years old. “Customer safety is a priority for us and should be for our patrons as well. Thank you and we hope you understand!”In a new book, On Locations: Lessons Learned From My Life on Set With The Sopranos and in the Film Industry, Mark Kamine, the show’s location manager, talks about how the show’s New Jersey backdrop was a key component of the iconic HBO series.Owning the Sopranos booth could be a perfect ending to that very New Jersey story.MORE ON NJ POP CULTURE:The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New JerseyGet to Know Music Superstar Jack AntonoffWhy New Jersey’s Live Music Scene Will ‘Always Be Booming’How Frank Sinatra Became Hoboken's Favorite SonMartha Stewart Is a New Jersey Icon Who Always Keeps Fans Guessing
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post ‘Sopranos’ Booth From Holsten’s Is Up for Sale appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Newark has been a center for creativity and innovation in the fashion industry for more than 75 years—and a new show at the Newark Museum of Art is showcasing some of the most pivotal designers from Brick City, including Narciso Rodriguez and Stephen Burrows.“'The Story of Newark Fashion: Atelier to Runway' brings long-overdue attention to the contributions of this creative community, focusing on bold innovators designing for iconic cultural figures, including Rihanna, Michelle Obama and others,” said Linda C. Harrison, Newark Museum director and CEO. “This exhibition shows the adjacency of the Black and Brown fashion community to household names and global brands.”The exhibit celebrates the city’s deep roots in the garment and jewelry industries, and will be on view through June 2. In development since 2021, this is the museum's first large-scale exhibition dedicated to contemporary American fashion. Bringing together loans from prestigious public and private collections, "The Story of Newark Fashion" features the work of 11 fashion designers with Newark connections.[caption id="attachment_329449" align="alignnone" width="778"] Narciso Rodriguez's designs Photo: Mike Peters Photography/Courtesy of the Newark Museum of Art[/caption]At an opening-night celebration last week, many of the designers with work in the new exhibit were present, including Rodriguez, who says he got his start at his mother’s sewing machine while growing up in the Ironbound section of Newark.“I was always very passionate about fashion—my mom sewed and she loved fashion, and I grew up watching her make things,” says Rodriguez, whose family came to Newark from Cuba. “My dream was to study at the Parsons School of Design and work for Donna Karan, and I was very lucky because I got to do both.”A selection of his beautiful dresses is on display in the exhibit, along with photos of his early years as a designer.[caption id="attachment_329463" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Mike Peters Photography/Courtesy of the Newark Museum of Art[/caption]Newark's story as an influencer in the fashion industry started in the 1950s and 1960s, when groundbreaking Black designers began working in the ateliers and classrooms of Black fashion designers Wesley Tann and Emily Miles. Both were pivotal mentors for the next generation: Tann designed for Jacqueline Kennedy, and Miles was considered Newark's "first lady of fashion.”This history set the stage for the museum’s survey of contemporary designers prominent in the field, including Project Runway finalist Shavi Lewis. Also included in the exhibit are the works of designers Douglas Says and Melody Asherman."The Story of Newark Fashion: Atelier to Runway" is guest-curated by Kristen J. Owens, a historian of Black fashion, with Tracey “Africa” Norman serving as a curatorial advisor. An international model and Newark native, Norman has long been both muse and model to several designers featured in the show. To celebrate Norman and the Newark fashion community, the museum commissioned a full-length portrait by Michalene Thomas of Norman wearing a Douglas Says gown.A catalogue documenting the exhibition and featuring oral histories with the living designers, published by the Newark Museum of Art, is forthcoming.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Groundbreaking Fashion Designers With Newark Roots Get Their Due at New Exhibit appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The list of residents and one-time residents of this Bergen County town reads like an awards-show nominations bill. Alpine is replete with well-known residents like comedians Chris Rock and Tracy Morgan, as well as political pundit Kellyanne Conway. One-time residents include musicians (Britney Spears, Sean “Diddy” Combs, and O’Kelly Isley of the Isley Brothers, who is now buried in Paramus), athletes (Patrick Ewing), entrepreneurs (Norman Sas, inventor of electric football, and John Ringling of Ringling Brothers Circus)—and others.With a median house price of $5.8 million, what is it about this tiny enclave of fewer than 2,000 residents that attracts celebs? Yes, it sits on a cliff that overlooks the Hudson and is close to New York City, but that can be said of other nearby towns. “There are three reasons celebrities flock to Alpine: proximity to New York, lower taxes and privacy,” says Realtor Joshua Baris of NJLux.com (Coldwell Banker). Baris, who sold Diddy’s seven-bedroom, nine-bath house in 2016, has been selling million-dollar properties in Alpine and other tony towns since 2002. He has had his share of celebrity clientele and, he says, understands what they are looking for. “Even though it is a wealthy town, it has a close-knit feel,” Baris says. “I wouldn’t say everyone knows everyone, but everyone knows who is there.”[caption id="attachment_329412" align="alignnone" width="778"] “I had to make miracles happen to get that house,” Chris Rock said of his Alpine pad in his 2009 special, Kill the Messenger. “I had to host the Oscars to get that house. To this day I don’t even believe it’s my house; that’s why I keep a bag packed right at the door.”* Photo: Shutterstock/Featureflash Photo Agency[/caption]At 9.22 square miles, this low-profile town has no downtown, no postal delivery, no supermarket and a single restaurant. In other words, if privacy is paramount, this is a place not to be fan mobbed. “Everyone has a P.O. box,” says Baris. “Without postal delivery, one less person comes to your front door.”In grammar school, Alpine kids enjoy a 1-to-6 teacher ratio. There is no high school in town; students attend Tenafly’s secondary school. Other neighboring towns, including Cresskill and Closter, provide services like shopping, coffee shops, drugstores and restaurants minutes away.MORE FROM OUR POP CULTURE ISSUE:The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New JerseyGet to Know NJM Cover Star Jack AntonoffWhy New Jersey’s Live Music Scene Will ‘Always Be Booming’How Frank Sinatra Became Hoboken's Favorite SonJon Stewart and Stephen Colbert Aren’t Jersey Natives, But They’re Local IconsMartha Stewart Is a New Jersey Icon Who Always Keeps Fans GuessingShaquille O’Neal Has Never Forgotten His Newark RootsWhy Jersey Is the Perfect Home for the Latest Era of Satirical Tabloid Weekly World News*
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Alpine Is the Beverly Hills of New Jersey: Why Celebs Are Drawn to This Bergen County Hamlet appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Nine million people call the Garden State home. But New Jersey is also a home of sorts to a boy-bat hybrid, an ape who holds a PhD, and at least one mermaid. These are just some of the hundreds of characters in Weekly World News (WWN), a satirical tabloid that launched in 1979. A cultural touchpoint, Weekly World News has collected mentions from Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Weird Al Yankovic, Travis Scott and more big names.While WWN has not been a print publication since 2007, it continues to regularly post articles online. However, the tabloid has entered a new era over the last half decade under CEO and editor-in-chief Greg D’Alessandro. And that new era is largely New Jersey-based.
We're still here!! :)
— WEEKLY WORLD NEWS (@weeklyworldnews) February 6, 2024
Since D’Alessandro, 63, took over in 2019, WWN has expanded into film projects, opening its own studio in Vineland, and securing a project deal with Warner Bros.MORE FROM OUR POP CULTURE ISSUE*:The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New JerseyGet to Know NJM Cover Star Jack AntonoffWhy New Jersey’s Live Music Scene Will ‘Always Be Booming’How Frank Sinatra Became Hoboken's Favorite Son*Martha Stewart Is a New Jersey Icon Who Always Keeps Fans Guessing
Although WWN draws on the national fascination with cryptids, tall tales and legends, D’Alessandro, a resident of Ho-Ho-Kus, says New Jersey is the perfect home for it, especially given the lore of the mysterious Jersey Devil. “The Pine Barrens are close to Vineland,” he says. “There’s a lot of fun to be had there, because the Jersey Devil is from the Pine Barrens.” An upcoming project, written with Japanese director Lisa Takeba, will focus on mermen in Manasquan, based on a series of WWN stories.New Jersey features prominently in the first WWN Studios film, Zombie Wedding, which has already screened in film festivals and has a wider release planned for this summer. The movie was entirely shot and set in Vineland, a town of roughly 60,000 in Cumberland County, about an hour south of Philadelphia. Produced with the full support of the town, the project injected more than $800,000 into Vineland's economy. “I made Vineland a character in the movie,” D’Alessandro says. Over the coming months and years, D’Alessandro hopes to solidify a presence in New Jersey, partly by attracting more projects to WWN Studios. He also plans to train film students at Rowan College of South Jersey in Vineland.As D’Alessandro charts a new course for the company, he draws on a distinct understanding of its style, having himself written 5,000 of its articles since 1999. “I had seen it, like everyone else, in the ’90s in supermarkets and grocery stores,” he says. “And the headlines were just wacky and surreal.”D’Alessandro says that WWN’s out-of-this-world appeal offers a contrast to frustrations some people have with the way the news covers real-life events. But even that has shifted in recent years. “The term ‘fake news’ became popular in 2016, from Donald Trump, obviously,” says D’Alessandro. “But we were never called fake news before....We were just sometimes satire, or playful news. Then we started getting calls: ‘Oh, were you guys the original fake news?’...It has such negative connotations. But that’s not us. We’re just this playful, fun publication.”At the root of WWN is a nonpartisan approach that separates it from competitors like the Onion or the right-leaning Babylon Bee. “[WWN] was very imaginative, and straight-on fun,” D’Alessandro recalls. “It didn’t really have an agenda either side, one way or another, right or left.”Daniel Greenman is a reporter at the Martha’s Vineyard Times.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Why Jersey Is the Perfect Home for the Latest Era of Satirical Tabloid Weekly World News appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_328719" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration: Raul Arias[/caption]Long before Shaquille O’Neal became an NBA superstar, the Big Aristotle was born in Newark. While the 7-foot-1 center lived in Germany and Texas before attending Louisiana State University, he has credited Newark’s Boys & Girls Clubs of America for giving him a safe place to hone his skills on the court.The first overall pick in the 1992 NBA Draft, O’Neal went on to enjoy a 19-year career with the Magic, Lakers, Heat, Suns, Cavaliers and Celtics. A Hall of Famer, MVP and four-time champ, he and the late Kobe Bryant formed one of the game’s great dynamic duos in Los Angeles, though they clashed at times.With an unmistakable frame, O’Neal has found as much success off the court as on it. He’s been a spokesperson for brands like Wheaties and Icy Hot, appeared in numerous films, and released multiple rap albums, cementing him status as a pop-culture icon.MORE FROM OUR POP CULTURE ISSUE*:The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New JerseyGet to Know NJM Cover Star Jack AntonoffWhy New Jersey’s Live Music Scene Will ‘Always Be Booming’6 Social Media Influencers From New Jersey Who Are Driving the ConversationHow Frank Sinatra Became Hoboken's Favorite SonJon Stewart and Stephen Colbert Aren’t Jersey Natives, But They’re Local IconsMartha Stewart Is a New Jersey Icon Who Always Keeps Fans GuessingWhy Jersey Is the Perfect Home for the Latest Era of Satirical Tabloid Weekly World News*
O’Neal now works as an analyst for TNT’s NBA programming, often providing comical commentary on the sport he once dominated.He also hasn’t forgotten where he came from. He has tried his hand at real estate—among other business ventures—developing multiple projects in New Jersey, including ones in Newark. In 2022, he DJed on the streets of Jersey City before Flo Rida put on a Fourth of July concert.O’Neal was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2009.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Shaquille O’Neal Has Never Forgotten His Newark Roots appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_328717" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration: Raul Arias[/caption]Queen Latifah has a long list of accolades on her résumé, from her role in the ’90s sitcom Living Single to hit albums, Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated performances in Chicago and Bessie, and last year, a Kennedy Center honor. She even had her own talk show for a while. But the 54-year-old got her start as Dana Elaine Owen in East Orange’s nascent hip-hop scene.“Growing up in New Jersey prepares you for whatever you might encounter outside in the world,” the Newark native once told New Jersey Monthly. “We’re not afraid to go places and try things.”That sentiment couldn’t ring truer for this star. In 1989, she released the album All Hail the Queen on Tommy Boy Records. The smart, flowing and edgy track “Ladies First” didn’t just hit number 6 on Billboard’s rap chart, but also proved to be a pioneering record for female MCs, previously absent in hip-hop culture, adding a layer of feminism to a movement of consciousness. She also set up Flavor Unit Records and Management in Jersey City. Among the stable of artists she signed was Naughty By Nature, also from East Orange.Her 1993 record Black Reign went gold, thanks in part to the single “U.N.I.T.Y.,” a rap classic that confronted misogyny in urban communities.Later work saw her put her angelic voice to jazz and pop and delve into decades of TV, film and social justice. She has been working on an affordable-housing development in Newark for the last several years.MORE FROM OUR POP CULTURE ISSUE*:The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New JerseyGet to Know NJM Cover Star Jack AntonoffWhy New Jersey’s Live Music Scene Will ‘Always Be Booming’6 Social Media Influencers From New Jersey Who Are Driving the ConversationHow Frank Sinatra Became Hoboken's Favorite SonJon Stewart and Stephen Colbert Aren’t Jersey Natives, But They’re Local Icons*Martha Stewart Is a New Jersey Icon Who Always Keeps Fans Guessing
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Queen Latifah’s Jersey Tenacity Remains in Full Force appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Instagram and TikTok aren’t just apps on your phone. They’re how some people, including New Jerseyans, make a living through brand partnerships, paid posts and gigs that transcend social media. These platforms are filled with millions of users, hashtags, and posts on every topic imaginable, highlighted by a group of content creators and influencers who, simply put, influence the conversation—what to eat, what to watch, what to buy, what to find funny.In the social media age, these people are our reality stars, and they are at the forefront of pop culture. Here are six Jersey stars to know now.[RELATED: 'It’s Loud, It’s Brash, It’s Very Honest': Inside New Jersey TikTok]
Eli Rallo, 25TikTok: @elirallo (809K followers)Instagram: @eli.rallo (128K followers)[caption id="attachment_328697" align="alignnone" width="778"] Eli Rallo Photo: Courtesy of Marisa Silva[/caption]She has countless rules on how to feel your best—and you didn’t know you needed to hear them.Monmouth County native and Jersey City resident Eli Rallo is a writer turned content creator turned published author, all in a matter of three years. When Rallo posted a TikTok in May 2020 of her family’s large snack jar, she blew up—and viewers stuck around for her big sister-like life advice and infectious personality. “I really just see myself as somebody who makes the kind of content that I would want to watch and that appeals to me,” she says.Her goal was “never make a career out of just TikTok,” but to “use it as leverage” for her writing, she says. In December, Rallo released her first book, I Didn’t Know I Needed This, outlining rules to elevate relationships and find yourself. She also has a podcast called Miss Congeniality.Rallo's father, Victor, is a Jersey restauranteur and wine critic; he runs NJM fave Undici Taverna Rustica in Rumson as well as Birravino in Red Bank.MORE FROM OUR POP CULTURE ISSUE*:The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New JerseyGet to Know NJM Cover Star Jack AntonoffWhy New Jersey’s Live Music Scene Will ‘Always Be Booming’How Frank Sinatra Became Hoboken's Favorite Son*Martha Stewart Is a New Jersey Icon Who Always Keeps Fans Guessing
Olivia “Livvy” Dunne, 21TikTok: @livvy (7.9M followers)Instagram: @livvydunne (4.9M followers)[caption id="attachment_328714" align="alignnone" width="778"] Olivia Dunne Photo: Cal Sport Media/Alamy[/caption]This Louisiana State University gymnast tumbled her way from Hillsdale to international stardom. With millions of followers, Livvy Dunne has become one of the most famous influencers out there—not to mention the highest-paid female athlete in college sports. Her talent, skill and beauty have led to brand deals and other opportunities unfamiliar to most college students.Dunne’s content captures her life as a gymnast, model (often posing in swimsuits) and fashion influencer. In 2023, Rolling Stone named her one of its 20 most influential creators, making Jersey proud.Salvatore “Sally Slices” Mandreucci, 26TikTok: @sallyslices (4.2M followers)Instagram: @sallyslices_ (1.6M followers)[caption id="attachment_328718" align="alignnone" width="768"] Salvatore Mandreucci Photo: Courtesy of Will Politano[/caption]There’s nothing more Jersey than pizza, and TikTok now knows Salvatore “Sally Slices” Mandreucci as one of the state’s favorite pizzaiolos. He works at Marcello’s Pizza Grill in Hamilton Square with his Sicilian father, its owner and namesake.His content draws viewers in with his charming pizza-making skills and inspirational quotes, often intertwined.Meredith Hayden, 27TikTok: @wishbonekitchen (2.2M followers) and @meredith_hayden (186K followers)Instagram: @wishbonekitchen (1.1M followers)Better known by her social media handle and brand, Wishbone Kitchen, Wyckoff native Meredith Hayden began by posting videos documenting her life as a private chef for families in the ritzy Hamptons. It wasn’t long before she gained a following. In the fall, she stepped away from her chef day job to focus on her debut cookbook, set to drop in 2025. She still posts recipes, hauls and life updates.Jessica Hawk, 54TikTok: @myteacherface (643K followers)Instagram: @myteacherface (202K followers)[caption id="attachment_329277" align="alignnone" width="778"] Jessica Hawk Photo: Courtesy of Jessica Hawk[/caption]Believe it or not, #TeacherTok is a thing. Jessica Hawk, an English teacher for 30-plus years, shares short videos that feature chats with her students (don’t worry, they're never on camera), skits with fellow teachers, and more. She works at Delsea Regional High School in Franklinville.Although she has thousands of fans, Hawk receives lot of harsh comments, too. Why? She is vocal about being happily child-free by choice. “I never wavered, and people have said some horrible things to me over the years,” she says. “All the regrets that people said that I would have in my 50s, I do not have.”Hawk plans to retire this June, but says she will continue creating content.Alejandro Zario, 21TikTok: @alejandrozario (5.1M followers)Instagram: @alejandrosario (1M followers)[caption id="attachment_328686" align="alignnone" width="778"] Alejandro Zario Photo: Courtesy of New York Red Bulls[/caption]West Paterson native Alejandro Zario has a charming personality, passion for soccer, love for his Costa Rican heritage, and good looks. His content mostly consists of comedy bits, lip-syncing, and having fun with his girlfriend and friends. Zario now lives in Los Angeles, but holds his Jersey roots close.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post 6 Social Media Influencers From New Jersey Who Are Driving the Conversation appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Every little thing he does is magic! Former Police frontman Sting will join jazz bassist Christian McBride to perform in an annual fundraiser event benefiting Montclair's Jazz House Kids on Wednesday, February 28, in New York City. McBride, an 8-time Grammy winner and the nonprofit's artistic director, will also host the show.The pair shares a musical history, having worked together on projects over two decades. McBride is credited as a sideman on Sting’s albums All This Time and Sacred Love; Sting is featured on McBride’s album Conversations with Christian.The reunion of these two renowned musicians is a one-night-only event, held at Manhattan's Ralph Pucci International gallery on 44 West 18th Street. Jazz House students are slated to perform as well.For the past eight years, Jazz House and Ralph Pucci have partnered for the annual jazz-set fundraiser, held inside Ralph Pucci International’s luxury furniture design gallery. It's transformed into an intimate jazz club for an eclectic night of music, mingling and fundraising to help keep the arts alive for the talented kids at Jazz House. Jazz House Kids is a nationally acclaimed Montclair nonprofit that strives to give kids a transformative experience through jazz performance, education and community. Find tickets and more information on Jazz House's website.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Sting to Perform With Christian McBride in One-Night-Only Show for Montclair Nonprofit appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_328695" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration: Raul Arias[/caption]Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert weren’t born in New Jersey, but the comedic icons have been tickling people’s funny bones from home bases in the Garden State for years.The two friends skyrocketed to fame on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, which Stewart hosted from 1999 to 2015, taking a humorous and often blunt look at current events; Colbert was a correspondent on the program before getting his own show, The Colbert Report (2005 to 2014). There, he portrayed an over-the-top conservative pundit, typically mocking real-life right-wingers in the process. Colbert, in character, even announced a not-so-serious presidential campaign in 2007.In 2015, Colbert gave up his alter ego to host The Late Show on CBS. Stewart, meanwhile, hosted The Problem with Jon Stewart on Apple TV+ from 2021 to 2023. In early 2024, Stewart delighted fans when it was revealed that he would return to his old stomping grounds on The Daily Show as a part-time host through the 2024 election. The stars have each won multiple Emmys, Grammys and Peabody Awards.Stewart, who has an animal sanctuary in Colts Neck, has used his platform to advocate for 9/11 first responders and veterans. Colbert, who lives in Montclair, helped start the Montclair Film Festival and is a familiar face around town.MORE FROM OUR POP CULTURE ISSUE*:The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New JerseyGet to Know NJM Cover Star Jack AntonoffHow Frank Sinatra Became Hoboken's Favorite Son*Martha Stewart Is a New Jersey Icon Who Always Keeps Fans Guessing
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert Aren’t Jersey Natives, But They’re Local Icons appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_328722" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration: Raul Arias[/caption]Frank Sinatra was 15 when he quit school and began singing at church-basement dances and social clubs in his native Hoboken. He hooked up with a trio called the Three Flashes, and together they passed an audition for Major Edward Bowes’ Amateur Hour radio program—the American Idol of its day. Bowes made Sinatra part of the group and renamed it the Hoboken Four. That episode was short-lived, and Sinatra went back to singing locally.In spring 1938, when he was 22, Sinatra took a job as a singing waiter at the Rustic Cabin, a roadhouse on a desolate stretch of Route 9W in Englewood Cliffs. That’s where the popular bandleader Harry James discovered Sinatra and signed him to sing for $75 a week. Next, Sinatra joined Tommy Dorsey’s band and sang his way to national stardom.Splitting from Dorsey, Sinatra made his solo debut at Newark’s Mosque Theater. That led to his historic sold-out performance on December 30, 1942, at New York’s Paramount Theater. By that time, Sinatra was living in Hasbrouck Heights with his first wife, Nancy.As Sinatra’s career took off, he abandoned New Jersey for Hollywood. Still, he often slipped back into Hoboken to visit his parents at the grand home he had purchased for them at 909 Hudson Street or to buy trays of chocolate-covered apricots at Lepore’s on Fourth Street.MORE FROM OUR POP CULTURE ISSUE*:The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New JerseyGet to Know NJM Cover Star Jack AntonoffWhy New Jersey’s Live Music Scene Will ‘Always Be Booming’*Martha Stewart Is a New Jersey Icon Who Always Keeps Fans Guessing
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post How Frank Sinatra Became Hoboken’s Favorite Son appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
On a recent cold, winter night in Downtown Jersey City, rock ’n’ roll could be heard (dueling guitars, squealing vocals) and felt (pummeling bass, desperate and deliberate drums) through the floorboards at the bar and restaurant Pet Shop. A diverse crowd emblematic of Jersey City filled the small, subterranean space below, as it does every Thursday night.“There’s a bunch of creative people in New Jersey,” says booker and bartender Nasir Mallette (aka @knwldg_), adding that Pet Shop is known to be a place that’s “cool and hip and young.”Homegrown bands are thriving in New Jersey, and that’s because there’s an audience for live, original music here. That translates into audiences for bigger, touring bands as well. From Jersey City to Asbury Park to Montclair and beyond, acts are stopping in the Garden State instead of driving through from Philly to New York City and vice versa.MORE FROM OUR POP CULTURE ISSUE*:The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New JerseyGet to Know NJM Cover Star Jack AntonoffStephen Colbert Is Montclair’s Man-About-TownHow Frank Sinatra Became Hoboken's Favorite Son*Martha Stewart Is a New Jersey Icon Who Always Keeps Fans Guessing
Todd Abramson, booker and general manager at the popular Jersey City venue White Eagle Hall, says the number and quality of shows is on an “upward trajectory” due to an increase in interested residents in Jersey City, Asbury Park and surrounding communities, but also due to established relationships between clubs and artists.“When I was reaching out to agents a few years ago to get people to play at White Eagle Hall, they were very hesitant,” says Abramson, former owner and booker of the famed club Maxwell’s in Hoboken (RIP: 2013). “There wasn’t an established Jersey City market, and now there is.”The post-pandemic influx of 30- and 40-something residents to Jersey towns from Brooklyn and elsewhere has certainly contributed to the music scene, too.“The population shift has helped,” says Peter Mantas, a veteran booker in New Jersey as well as a childhood friend and former manager of Jon Bon Jovi. Mantas now books shows at the sister venues Low Dive and the Break, located right on the boardwalk in Asbury Park.In Asbury Park specifically, redevelopment has played a part, too. “It’s an interesting dynamic,” he says. “We’re cool down here at the Shore. We’re metropolitan, but we’re not metropolitan.”The Stone Pony is a venue that has stood the test of time: busts and booms, Bruce Springsteen’s rise, and, in recent years, Summer Stage and a deal with Live Nation have all contributed. As Asbury has been rebuilt in recent years, more and more music lovers and tourists have come out, providing ample audiences for live music.“The music prevailed, and what carried it is the fans—we have some of the best fans in the world. Dedicated, passionate,” says Kyle Brendle, booker at the Stone Pony for 40 years.New Jersey has long been associated with music: the Boss, Bon Jovi, Sinatra, Patti Smith…we could go on. One could probably play six degrees of separation and find that every musician in America has ties to the Garden State.And, as it turns out, despite increasing difficulty in breaking into the music industry, high rents and thus fewer venues, liquor-license rules, and so many other barriers to entry, there are more bands than ever making music here. “There’s no shortage of bands,” says Brendle. “Jersey is a freaking amazing place.”Those interviewed for this story singled out Asbury as the center of music culture in New Jersey.“There’s a ton of bands and they’re all really good,” says Joe Belock, longtime WFMU DJ host of “Three Chord Monte.” “There are times I’m on the boardwalk and I can’t get into a place, and it’s like, ‘Oh shit.’” Mantas agrees the local music scene is thriving down the Shore. “We gotta realize how lucky we are. We have multiple clubs, multiple cities, can’t take it for granted,” says Mantas. In Asbury, “Bruce Springsteen put us on the map; we have a lot of bands thinking, ‘Maybe we can make it, too!’”The acts he books are veteran bands and young bands, all from New Jersey.Jersey City resident and musical multi-hyphenate Tom Gallo agrees. And he should know: He has a blog, a podcast and a website dedicated to live concert-audio preservation, and he also books and promotes shows—on top of his day job as a lawyer. “Asbury Park is really producing a lot of great young bands right now,” he says.But while New Jersey has an influx of homegrown bands, not every music town is like Asbury, which has clubs of all sizes that can accommodate both up-and-coming groups and bigger acts. Smaller-capacity spaces in cities like Jersey City and New Brunswick are not as prevalent. Gallo says the lack of spaces for live music makes it hard to give all the great local bands exposure. “There are places willing to host live music, but there’s only a few,” he says, adding that Corgi Spirits in Jersey City is closing.Mallette at Pet Shop, who is also a musician, is trying to show that live music is a force for good and is focused on curating bills that represent the diversity Jersey City is known for. “Me being Black and one of the few Black bartenders at one of the busiest places, I make it a point to book Black and brown artists and hip-hop artists,” he says. “I have this quote-unquote position of power, so I want to take it upon myself.”Perhaps the number of Jersey bands one hears about can be chalked up to that age-old and crucial component present in all things Jersey: pride.“Bands from here…they’re always touting New Jersey and their roots,” says Belock. He dropped some names: Real Estate, Smithereens, Bouncing Soles, Yo La Tengo, the Bongos, the Feelies, Titus Andronicus, Screaming Females. “Maybe that’s part of it: ‘Hey, we’re our own identity.’”Even New Jersey bands that got their starts here and have moved to other parts of the country don’t want to let go of their Jersey-ness. The indie-rock band Real Estate, arguably one of the most popular groups to come out of the Garden State in recent years, filmed a music video from their new album, Daniel, in Berkeley Heights. It features another Jersey native, Danny Tamberelli, from the ’90s Nickelodeon favorite The Adventures of Pete and Pete, and was made in collaboration with the creators of the show. Lead singer and songwriter Martin Courtney says Pete and Pete—which filmed in Jersey towns including Nutley—looked like where he was from, which deeply connected him with the show when he was young.And while the members of Real Estate now live across the country, and Courtney calls the Hudson Valley home, Jersey remains a crucial part of the group’s identity.“Spiritually, we’re a Jersey band,” says Courtney. He continues, “You have to have a contrarian vein in you to say you’re from New Jersey….There’s an in-your-face thing about it, just having that pride of where you’re from. You know the truth. It’s a secret that you have: New Jersey actually rules.”Gallo sees a future for himself and the bands he writes about and promotes.“I think it will always be booming,” he says. “It’s such a hub of creativity because of the history. There’s always going to be interesting bands making music in New Jersey.”Georgia Kral is a professor of journalism and communications at Saint Peter’s University and a regular contributor to New Jersey Monthly.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Why New Jersey’s Live Music Scene Will ‘Always Be Booming’ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_328802" align="alignnone" width="778"] Jack Antonoff at Legends Diner in Secaucus Photo: Alex Lockett[/caption]10-time Grammy winner Jack Antonoff is one of the music industry's hottest hitmakers. He's also just a Jersey boy who can't resist a good diner.The Bergen County native, who grew up in New Milford and Woodcliff Lake, often hit up local greasy spoons after playing shows with his early bands, Outline and Steel Train.“There were a few diners which, growing up playing shows in Jersey, we used to go to after the shows,” Antonoff, 39, recalled to New Jersey Monthly in an interview for our March cover story. “A lot of my life was: go to school during the week, and the weekends, I'd play one or two shows. And then after the show at like, 11 pm or midnight, we’d just go to a diner for a couple hours and get home at, like, three in the morning. And that was our life.”Antonoff's current Jersey-born band, Bleachers, even shot a music video at one of his old haunts—the iconic Bendix Diner in Hasbrouck Heights—a few years ago. The musician currently has homes in both Long Beach Island and Brooklyn with his wife, the actress Margaret Qualley.Below, Antonoff dishes on some of his diner etiquette and memories:Favorite Jersey diner?“Well, there was [the now shuttered] Louie’s in Teaneck, which I went to growing up. ...There was a waitress named Alice...this tiny blonde woman who—you couldn't tell if she was like, 40 or 90. [She] just was, like, full Jersey...she was a very special person. I grew up going to Louie’s, and that [was] just the best place on earth.” How do you take your coffee?“Black.” Counter or booth?“Booth, always. I love being alone in a booth even if it annoys [the waitstaff]. I just love sort of sprawling out in a booth.”[RELATED: Why Jersey Is the Diner Capital of the World]
[caption id="attachment_328824" align="alignnone" width="1222"] Buy our March 2024 issue here. Cover photo: Alex Lockett[/caption]Go-to order?“I’m very basic. I get Greek food…The Greek food’s always the best.”Favorite time to visit a diner?"I used to go to a diner on Christmas. I'm Jewish, and I used to go when I didn't have a partner or anything, and I'd just be home and Christmas didn't really mean much to me. And I would go to the diner on Christmas—maybe like noon on Christmas Day. And it was a really interesting array of people. There was a lot of sadness in the room."
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Jack Antonoff Loves a Good Jersey Diner appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_329007" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Illustration: Andrew Ogilvie[/caption]Long before he was a world-famous talk show host, Stephen Colbert was just another denizen of my suburban New Jersey town. He and his wife, Evie, raised their three kids in Montclair and prided themselves not on their impressive resumes, but on being good neighbors and community members. They joined nonprofits and helped launch the Montclair Film Festival. Stephen hosted events at his kids’ schools and taught Sunday school at Immaculate Conception Church.Like most people who’ve been in town awhile, I have a few stories about crossing paths with Colbert around town. I’ve seen him give hilarious surprise performances at fundraisers, jumping onstage and singing with the band dressed in a suit as David Byrne or in gray wig and beard as Dr. John. Once, I was walking toward the Wellmont Theater for his interview with singer Mavis Staples when my friend spied him taking selfies with fans. She grabbed my arm and, like groupies, we took off. As I approached him, fumbling with my phone, he took it, flipped it expertly, and shot. In the photo, he’s making a silly face; I’m smiling ear to ear.MORE FROM OUR POP CULTURE ISSUE*:The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New JerseyGet to Know NJM Cover Star Jack AntonoffWhy New Jersey’s Live Music Scene Will ‘Always Be Booming’How Frank Sinatra Became Hoboken's Favorite Son*Martha Stewart Is a New Jersey Icon Who Always Keeps Fans Guessing
One Halloween, he made a surprise appearance at his own door. My eldest daughter and a friend, bored teenagers at a neighborhood party, had decided it would be more fun to go trick-or-treating at the Colberts’. When they asked me for a ride, everyone laughed. “Yeah, Stephen Colbert is going to come to the door,” they teased.His neighborhood was quiet; no other trick-or-treaters were in sight as we approached his house, despite the inviting pumpkin lights lining the path. Nervously, my daughter’s friend rang the bell. The door swung open and there stood Montclair’s most famous resident holding a bowl of candy, his younger son on one side and a fluffy, well-behaved dog on the other. We gaped for a minute before the girls remembered why they had come—ostensibly, anyway.“Trick or treat!” they said, stepping forward for their take, thanking him and complimenting him on the decorations. Sounding like any run-of-the-mill dad, he said, “Thanks! We worked hard on it.”Being the funnyman he is, though, he couldn’t resist a joke. Noticing me gawking out of view (or so I thought), he peered into the darkness. “How about you? Candy?” he asked, grinning.That was more than a decade ago, and things have changed in Montclair and the world. As host of the top-rated Late Show, Colbert is more security conscious. He’s still involved with the film festival, but doesn’t mill around with fans before events. His kids grown, he’s no longer a presence at their schools or handing out Halloween treats. But at his core, he’s still a regular guy.A few years ago, as I walked down the steps of my house with my dog, he happened to be striding up the street toward me. Without thinking, I blurted out, “Hi, Stephen!” He stopped, smiled, stuck out his hand and said, “Have we met?”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Stephen Colbert Is Montclair’s Man-About-Town appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_328708" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Illustration: Raul Arias[/caption]Domestic goddess. Influencer. Swimsuit model. Is there anything she can’t do?When New Jersey Monthly ran a profile of Martha Stewart just a little over a decade ago, she had long been considered a home and media icon—a status that didn’t budge even during her 2004 prison stint for fraud. But nobody could have predicted that the domestic goddess from Nutley would add titles like social media star and even Sports Illustrated swimsuit model to her resume—all in her 70s and 80s.MORE FROM OUR POP CULTURE ISSUE*:The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New JerseyGet to Know NJM Cover Star Jack AntonoffWhy New Jersey’s Live Music Scene Will ‘Always Be Booming’How Frank Sinatra Became Hoboken’s Favorite Son*
Yes, posing is in Stewart’s roots—growing up in the 1950s, she earned cash working as a model after school at the now defunct department store Bonwit Teller. But that certainly didn’t mean that she would land the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue last year at the age of 81, a coveted gig typically taken by much younger stars. Nor did anyone expect that she’d strike up a friendship and business relationship with the wild, weed-loving rapper Snoop Dogg.But that’s the thing about Stewart. She’s always surprising us, keeping her relevant and interesting to an audience that seems to be expanding by the day.On Instagram, Stewart has 2 million followers, who drink up her occasional thirst traps and other fun snippets from her life in Bedford, New York, and the Hamptons (she moved out of New Jersey years ago).Her Instagram bio recently described her as “Entrepreneur. Author. Cook. Gardener. TV Host. Podcast host. Eternally curious. Teacher. Student. Mother. Grandmother. Friend.” That sounds about right, but what about “Jersey native?”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Martha Stewart Is a New Jersey Icon Who Always Keeps Fans Guessing appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
When a guitar-wielding Jack Antonoff ambled onto the stage at MetLife Stadium last May—about 25 minutes from the Bergen County suburbs of his childhood—he fiddled for a moment with the lapels of his leather jacket, brushing them aside to bare the bold yellow lettering splashed across his signature T-shirt: “Welcome to New Jersey. Now, go home.” Delighted cheers rippled through the already roaring crowd of 82,000 fans.Antonoff’s longtime collaborator and close friend Taylor Swift had just called him onstage as her first surprise guest for night one of three sold-out New Jersey shows on her Eras Tour, the omnipresent musical phenomenon of 2023.The pair performed a playful acoustic rendition of “Getaway Car”—a song they cowrote for Swift’s 2017 Reputation album and whose studio inception was partially captured on film. As later shown in the 2020 documentary Miss Americana, Swift and Antonoff composed aloud four finished lines in a fevered span of less than 30 seconds. (The since-viral scene has been memed and even Halloween costumed by fans far and wide.)“A few miles away [from MetLife], that song was made in this tiny little space,” Antonoff recalls to New Jersey Monthly, referring to his cozy, 200-square-foot Brooklyn home-recording studio, wallpapered with the same colorful tiger design from his boyhood bedroom. Over the course of the past decade, this studio has become the fabled, fertile ground for many of his prolific music-making endeavors, including writing and producing partnerships with some of the world’s most renowned pop stars: Lana Del Rey, Lorde, St. Vincent, Clairo and, of course, Taylor Swift. “It’s crazy,” he continues. “The coolest part, though, is also to play to that many people, acoustic, and have it feel massive and explosive.”Antonoff has always worn duality well. The Bleachers frontman and former fun. guitarist, who turns 40 on March 31, took home his 10th Grammy earlier this month, including his third consecutive producer of the year award. (Swift declared him a “once-in-a-generation producer” while accepting the Grammy for album of the year, Midnights, which Antonoff coproduced.) But among many artists and fans, he’s known as much for his high-powered musical prowess as he is for his empathic and largely egoless studio presence. For all his fame and commercial success, he seems sustained by one solemn pursuit: making good songs. “Age, or success, or lack of success, or accolades…all these external things, they just sort of get left at the door when I go into work,” he says.[caption id="attachment_328824" align="alignnone" width="1222"] Buy our March 2024 issue here. Cover photo: Alex Lockett[/caption]While Antonoff’s comfort zone is most closely affiliated with 20- to 40-something women, he also weaves gracefully among genders, genres and generations. He’s worked with Harry Styles, the 1975, Diana Ross and the “brilliant” Patti Scialfa, whose “ornate…sad and grimy…beautiful” forthcoming album he calls “some of my favorite music ever.”In his own indie rock band, Bleachers, whose new self-titled album is out March 8, Antonoff’s work is simultaneously aching and anthemic, sorrowful yet hope suffused. “When two people are looking at a painting and one person sees a dead body, the other person sees a flower, right?” Antonoff muses. “You hear a song and it’s the saddest thing you’ve ever heard; your friend hears it and they want to, like, bump it in their car and party.”Antonoff grew up idolizing New York City from the North Jersey suburbs, only to move there and realize just how much mystery and majesty his home state holds. These days, Antonoff and his wife, the actress Margaret Qualley, relish the quietude of Long Beach Island—where they own a home equipped with a small studio, just three blocks from the house where Antonoff vacationed as a child. “It’s the best place, and we’re living there year-round now...basically anytime I don’t have to be in the city, we’re in LBI. And I actually prefer it in the winter. It’s really sweet, and just a really nice, small town.” He adds, “I don’t get wrapped up in dumb shit when I can look out at the ocean. It’s real perspective-shifting to see a large body of water—it kind of makes you just want to focus on the things that really matter.” Antonoff and Qualley even tied the knot on LBI this past August at Parker’s Garage, in front of celebrity friends including Swift, who caused quite the commotion when she arrived in town.[RELATED: The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New Jersey]
For years, Antonoff has been gripped by not just an unabashed pride for the Garden State, but also a frenetic obsession with its mythology, especially as it relates to New York City. He philosophizes: “The amount of literal energy that’s shooting off of…Manhattan, in proximity to where I grew up—what does that do when it hits New Jersey and sort of dissipates? I think it creates such a funny place that lives in…the shadow of all that energy.”Childhood drives meant constant confrontation with the skyline. Being so close to a “totally different life,” he says, is a “powerful, very medieval concept.” Jersey music, he once told Seth Meyers, elicits feelings of “a torch worth carrying.”Bleachers songs—synth-heavy, horn-haunted—are steeped in such meditations. Antonoff often sets mournful lyrics to deceptively boisterous sounds—a sensibility he gleaned in part from his local predecessors and contemporaries. New York music, he explains, “can be more pulled back…and relaxed…because people are going to pay attention either way.” But Jersey has to make more noise. “From Sinatra to Southside Johnny to E Street to Gaslight Anthem to My Chemical Romance—all this music, it just flies out at you, daring you to listen and dig into what is being said there,” he says. “I think a big part of the New Jersey sound is having to deliver a lot of sadness with a lot of fireworks—because otherwise, we might get looked over again.”[caption id="attachment_328802" align="alignnone" width="778"] “I used to go to a diner on Christmas," says Antonoff, pictured here at Legends Diner in Secaucus. "I'm Jewish, and I used to go when I didn't have a partner or anything, and I'd just be home and Christmas didn't really mean much to me. And I would go to the diner on Christmas—maybe like noon on Christmas Day. And it was a really interesting array of people. There was a lot of sadness in the room.” Photo: Alex Lockett[/caption][RELATED: Jack Antonoff Loves a Good Jersey Diner]
Born in Bergenfield, Antonoff was raised in a Jewish family in New Milford and Woodcliff Lake, where his parents, Rick and Shira, got him hooked early on classic rock. He attended the Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County in New Milford, then commuted to high school at Manhattan's Professional Children’s School. In the tenth grade he formed a punk band, Outline, with friends, borrowing his parents’ minivan to travel to shows they'd booked down South.When Antonoff was 18, his 13-year-old sister, Sarah, died after a long battle with brain cancer. At a time when most of his peers were absorbed in college plans, “There was such a do-whatever-the-fuck-you-want energy in the house,” he recalls—an ethos of, “Life is short, and it’s precious, and do whatever the hell you want.” It was an attitude that helped Antonoff avoid "cookie-cutter" suburban expectations as he pursued music over higher education. “In that kind of middle-class Jersey upbringing I had...college was king—SATs and college and all this crazy stress," he says. "…Not going to college was pretty bold. …[Those New Jersey towns] can be really heavy in terms of expectation, and there’s not a lot of space...for people who have a different concept of what they want their life to be. I was really lucky because I didn’t give a shit what anyone else thought, because my family was cool with what I was doing.” He remains immensely close to his parents and older sister, the fashion designer Rachel Antonoff, who are often spotted at his shows and have made cameos in his videos.[caption id="attachment_328803" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Alex Lockett[/caption]Antonoff was playing in another band, Steel Train, when, in 2008, he joined the New York-based band fun. He cowrote the group’s massive 2012 hit single, “We Are Young,” which reached number 1 on the Billboard chart and won the Grammy for song of the year. In 2013, Antonoff and Swift wrote and produced their first song together; he has since credited her for cementing his status in the industry as a bonafide producer. They’ve subsequently collaborated on 10 albums, including those in Swift’s mammoth rerecording project.Antonoff released Bleachers’ debut album, Strange Desire, in July 2014. The next summer, he launched Shadow of the City, a music festival held at Asbury Park’s Stone Pony Summer Stage (June 15 this year). “I always wanted to have a place where [our audience] could be like, ‘OK, I’ll meet you there’…our place where we can all [reunite],” he says.Bleachers projects are often accompanied by what can only be described as ultra-earnest spectacles, carried out in gloriously laborious fashion. Amid the release of Gone Now (2017), Antonoff hired a company to remove his childhood bedroom from his family’s Woodcliff Lake home, where he’d lived until age 27, and load it onto a trailer. He brought the wheeled relic on tour so fans could listen to his album inside the same world that birthed it: music and collectibles cluttering every inch; drawers still teeming with clothes; a disheveled twin bed. “Touch whatever you want,” he wrote to fans in a long, reverential statement, explaining that the exhibit was also a metaphor for how intensely he was struggling to let go of a cumbersome past. “Anytime you put out an album,” he says, “you’re trying to give more context to people; give them as much of who you are in that moment. The album itself is like the Bible—but then everything around it is...a way to bring people further and further in.” (The bedroom is parked outside his parents’ house; he plans to bring it to this summer’s Shadow of the City.)Antonoff widely described Bleachers’ third album, Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night (2021), as fixated on a specific journey—the drive from New York City back home to Jersey, to build a future with someone you love. The song “Chinatown” features vocals from Antonoff’s idol turned dear friend, Bruce Springsteen; its video sees him driving the Boss around their native state in a Cadillac convertible (never mind that he didn’t have a license at the time).“I’ve spent a lot of time in a car with Bruce, just driving around, listening to music,” Antonoff says. “...[Driving is] where I do my best thinking, and my best listening—whether it’s [to] other people's music or my own. I just hear things very clearly...I know what I gotta change; I know what I'm feeling, what I'm not...Anytime I've cruised around with [Bruce], we're usually listening to some new mixes of either my music or his, and kind of testing it out in the car.”Antonoff has also recorded inside the (Jersey-bound) Holland Tunnel, shot a music video at the Bendix Diner in Hasbrouck Heights; and partnered with Razza in Jersey City to put out a limited-edition tomato sauce. He released a podcast series, God and New Jersey, in which he dissected, with fellow NJ-bred artists, why we’re “a punch line for some people, Zion to others,” he wrote on social media. He played a live-streamed Bleachers concert inside a bus that barreled over the George Washington Bridge, cruised down the Parkway, then rolled up to the Stone Pony.This month’s Bleachers release coincides with an international tour that kicks off March 19 in London, stops at Coachella and returns to Jersey for June’s sold-out Shadow of the City. The album, Antonoff says, arose uncommonly quickly. “Not really since my first album did I feel like there was just this rush of life that had to be documented right now,” he says.“We all have these stories: ‘Oh, I’m not good at relationships...I'm too focused on my work.’ …I think about it like armor,” he says. “For anything not going well in your life, you need armor to wear because it's a little too painful to just say, ‘Well, this just isn't going well.’ (Laughs.) And maybe that's just because it's just not time yet, you know? ...And so for my whole life, when it came to relationships, I had all these one-liners and these concepts that I would live by—and that all kind of crumbled when I met my wife. …It's often when something good happens and we feel comfortable that we then can look back and say, ‘What was that? [Who] was that person who had to be so hard on themselves and had to be so tough and have all these answers for why they weren't in relationships that were working?’...I found myself writing a lot about [a] laying down of this past self and making peace with [it].”Writing one of the album’s future singles, “Alma Mater,” Antonoff imagined himself driving, mostly around LBI, “kind of having my life and culture just whip by me,” he says. “Frankly,” he deadpans, “I was thinking about, like, Wawa more than any person.” The video for the album’s third single, “Tiny Moves,” stars his wife, Qualley, who choreographed and co-directed, dancing late at night in a Jersey parking lot, the New York City skyline behind her, until sunrise.Is Bleachers a wiser older sibling to his last album? “In a weird way, I think it’s, like, a freer younger sibling—but maybe that’s kind of the same thing, said in different ways,” he grins.“I wrote some really young-sounding songs later in life,” Antonoff says. “And I’ve written...songs when I was really young [but] sort of accessing this older, wise person. Right now, I feel pretty grounded in my actual moment on Earth.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Jack Antonoff Is Producer of the Year, Taylor Swift’s Favorite Collaborator and New Jersey’s Biggest Fanboy appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_328716" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration: Emily Krill[/caption]Sure, we’re known for Sinatra, Springsteen and The Sopranos, but New Jersey has added so much more to the cultural landscape. Here are the 50 biggest pop culture moments in New Jersey's history. 1. The Sopranos Premieres[caption id="attachment_328778" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: RGR Collection/Alamy[/caption]When The Sopranos debuted on HBO on January 10, 1999, nobody could have predicted that a little show about a New Jersey mobster/suburban family man would become one of the most iconic pieces of television ever made. It was especially personal for New Jerseyans. It filmed in our homes, our stores, even our strip clubs. It inspired other productions to flock to the Garden State, a trend that grew as the years went by. Sure, there were critics—mostly Italian American groups who said the show reinforced stereotypes—but even they would be hard-pressed to deny its impact on our state and pop culture. The 2007 series finale is debated to this day, and fans still flock to Holsten’s to sit in Tony’s booth. The show had a revival during the pandemic, and we can’t imagine its popularity ever dying. —Julie Gordon2. Bruce Springsteen’s Debut Album ReleasedBruce Springsteen’s debut album, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., came out in January 1973 to average sales but critical raves and launched Springsteen on a path toward superstardom. Singles included “Blinded by the Light,” “Spirit in the Night” and “Growin’ Up.” The cover features a 1970s souvenir postcard proclaiming Springsteen’s Jersey roots, despite a push by the record company to promote him as a New York City artist, and despite the crime and civil unrest Asbury Park was experiencing at the time. In 2013, Rolling Stone deemed Greetings “one of the 100 greatest debut albums of all time.” *—Julia Martin[RELATED: Read Our Cover Story With Producer of the Year and Proud New Jerseyan Jack Antonoff]*
3. ‘What Exit’ Joke Originates on SNL“What exit?” It’s the biggest Jersey joke of all time—quite the accolade, considering the number of Jersey jokes out there. But what’s the origin? It was Valentine’s Day 1981 when Joe Piscopo (a Passaic native), in the SNL sketch “Paulie at the Card Store,” said, “You’re from New Jersey? What exit?” Piscopo went on to use the zinger throughout his career. For New Jerseyans, the joke makes perfect sense, since the Turnpike and Parkway crisscross the state from Bergen County to Cape May County. —Connor Carlin4. Bet on Atlantic City, Monopoly, and Miss AmericaAtlantic City boasts a slew of historical accolades that resonate beyond the state’s borders. This resort town has a permanent place on a globally known board game (yes, Monopoly, we know where St. James Place is); it boasts the first sand-evading, wood-planked, raised walkway—the country’s first boardwalk, built in 1870, rebuilt in the 1890s, and still standing. Then there’s the phenomenon of the Miss America pageant, which began in AC in 1921. And, of course, in 1978, East Coast casino gambling began with the opening of Resorts International in AC. —Deborah P. Carter5. On the Waterfront Shows Hoboken GritHoboken may have lost its grit, but in 1954, its shabby bars and dockside shanties provided the perfect locations for the classic Marlon Brando film On the Waterfront. Rooftop scenes were shot along Hudson Street, and two historic churches—Our Lady of Grace (for exteriors) and the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul (interiors)—figured prominently. —Ken Schlager 6. Mall Culture Is BornWhen it opened its doors on October 11, 1961, the Cherry Hill Mall became the first enclosed shopping center on the East Coast, birthing mall culture as we know it. It led the region by creating an air-conditioned, 1.3 million-square-foot, dual-winged megaplex. The mall offered an experience beyond retail that included fountains, a pond, tropical plants, and an aviary with exotic birds. Today, many malls are shuttering as patrons return to downtown shopping areas or go online, but the Cherry Hill Mall continues to thrive, with 130 stores and plenty of eateries—but no more birds. —DPC7. Campbell’s Soup Gets More Than 15 Minutes of FameCan you name a more iconic soup than Campbell’s? The “mmm mmm good” brand’s Camden factory made the world’s first jar of ready-to-eat soup, beefsteak tomato, in 1895; two years later, the process of condensing came along, allowing for the small cans we know today. Fast-forward to 1962, and the Jersey soup became a pop-culture icon thanks to Andy Warhol. His Pop Art piece Campbell’s Soup Cans features 32 cans of the soup, which the artist ate daily for 20 years. The Camden factory is still in operation. —Emily Melvin8. Broadway’s Hamilton Name-Checks New JerseyAlexander Hamilton was a Jersey boy. He lived and studied in Elizabeth, fought at Trenton, Princeton and Freehold, spent two brutal winters in Morristown as General Washington’s aide-de-camp, helped turn Paterson into an industrial city, and died in a duel with Aaron Burr in Weehawken, the very spot where his 18-year-old son had been killed dueling two years earlier. So it’s not surprising that Lin Manuel-Miranda tossed a few Jersey jokes into his Broadway musical Hamilton when it opened in 2015. One laugh line is, “Everything is legal in New Jersey,” from “Blow Us All Away,” a reference to the Garden State’s reputation for overlooking illegal activities such as gambling and, fatefully in Hamilton’s case, dueling. —J. Martin9. New Jersey Earns Place as the Diner Capital of the WorldLet’s face it: New Jerseyans are hungry to claim diner supremacy. Although we weren’t technically home to the first diners—those cropped up in Rhode Island and Massachusetts before the turn of the 20th century—we can thank Bayonne’s Jerry O’Mahony for giving us serious greasy-spoon credibility. The key moment came in 1912, when O’Mahony, who owned horse-pulled lunch wagons in Hudson County, pivoted to building such wagons himself. He sold his first to a restaurant entrepreneur who operated it in what is today Union City. “The transaction helped set in motion New Jersey’s golden age of diner manufacturing, which in turn made the Garden State the diner capital of the world,” local diner expert Michael Gabriele explained in New Jersey Monthly’s 2018 diner-themed issue. —Jennifer Finn10. Whitney Houston Remembered in Starry Home-Going Ceremony When Whitney Houston died suddenly in February 2012, her star-studded home-going ceremony was held at her childhood church, New Hope Baptist in Newark. Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys and Houston’s cousin (and fellow New Jersey native) Dionne Warwick performed. Kevin Costner and Clive Davis delivered eulogies, and Oprah Winfrey and Mariah Carey were among the mourners in the nearly four-hour-long ceremony. The 48-year-old’s casket was carried to Fairview Cemetery in a golden hearse, a fitting farewell for music royalty. —Dionne Ford11. Chris Christie Becomes a Beach MemeIt was Fourth of July weekend in 2017, the day after Governor Chris Christie had shut down the state’s parks and beaches because of a budget standoff, when a photographer caught him lounging near the state-owned governor’s beach house at Island Beach State Park. Christie denied being there until a photo surfaced of him in shorts, baseball cap and flip-flops. It triggered widespread outrage and countless memes of him in his beach chair in preposterous and hilarious locations. —J. Martin12. Jersey Shore Invades the Jersey ShoreLove it or loathe it, Jersey Shore became a phenomenon when a group of 20-something party animals with nicknames like “Snooki” and “The Situation” invaded our TVs—and beaches—as the show hit MTV on December 3, 2009. Seaside Heights, where the cast lived, quickly gained national name recognition and became a tourist spot. In the years since, it’s tried to shed the party-town image portrayed on screen. As the cast grew older, the show spun off into Jersey Shore: Family Vacation to includes the stars’ partners and kids. Season 7 premiered in February. —JG13. Aaron Rodgers and Tommy DeVito Dominate Football HeadlinesFor Jersey football teams, 2023 was a rollercoaster year. Future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers moved from Green Bay to the Jets, bringing high hopes that he’d lead the team to their first Super Bowl win since 1969. That dream was quickly quashed when he was injured in the fourth play of his debut, sidelining him for the season. The Jets would end up with yet another losing season. The Giants also failed to make the playoffs, struggling after losing their starting quarterback to injury. But fans were able to turn lemons into limoncello when Cedar Grove local and third-stringer Tommy "Cutlets" DeVito became the feel-good story of the year as the Giants’ starting quarterback—fully embracing his Jersey and Italian American roots along the way. —JG14. Jersey Brings Us ‘Rapper’s Delight’[caption id="attachment_328724" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy[/caption]Although it is named after a neighborhood in Harlem, Sugar Hill Records, which introduced hip-hop to the mainstream with the 1979 Sugarhill Gang classic “Rapper’s Delight,” was formed and based in Englewood. Legendary producer Sylvia Robinson brought together Englewood’s Wonder Mike, Big Bank Hank and Master Gee at her Bergen County studio and changed the face of modern music forever. —CC15. Jaws Reportedly Inspired by New Jersey Shark Attacks Many believe Jaws was inspired by the first recorded fatal shark attacks in American history, which occurred off the coast of Jersey in 1916. Jaws novelist and screenwriter Peter Benchley insisted that wasn’t true—even though his story of a man-eating shark terrorizing a fictional New York summer resort is very similar to what happened here. Either way, Benchley wrote the novel while living in Pennington, and Steven Spielberg (who lived in Haddonfield as a kid) made it into cinematic history in 1975. —Ed Condran16. Bon Jovi Changes the Face of RockPerth Amboy native Jon Bon Jovi formed his eponymous rock band in Sayreville in 1983. Their first hit may have been “Runaway,” but Bon Jovi has stayed close to the Garden State over the years, particularly through his philanthropic JBJ Soul Kitchen Community restaurants. —JF
17. Philip Roth Puts Newark in the Spotlight Author Philip Roth grew up in the Weequahic section of Newark, which inspired much of his writing. Roth set his 1959 novella, Goodbye, Columbus, in tonier Short Hills, but his best-known novel, Portnoy’s Complaint (1969), put Weequahic High School on the literary map. —KS18. NJ's First Drive-In Movie Theater OpensOn June 6, 1933, a culture of Friday night hangs, first dates and seeing a film from the comfort of your car was born. The first drive-in movie theater in America, Camden Drive-In, was located in Pennsauken, initiating a boom that would sweep the country. Now, there is only one drive-in left in Jersey: Vineland’s Delsea Drive-In. —EM19. Stone Pony in Asbury Park Becomes an IconThe iconic music venue in Asbury Park that launched the careers of Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny and Jon Bon Jovi is still a vibrant music hub. Repeatedly threatened by development, the Pony was saved by the musical community and renovated in 2000, with a summer stage facing the ocean. A visit there is a pilgrimage to rock fans around the world. —J. Martin20. Gotham City Is in New Jersey Since its introduction in Batman #4 in 1940, Gotham City has served as the Dark Knight’s stomping grounds. Though the location of Gotham has varied in different Batman incarnations, the most consistent is somewhere in southern New Jersey. DC writer Mark Gruenwald referred to “Gotham City, New Jersey” in Amazing World of DC #14 (1977), and artist Dick Dillin gave a detailed map showing Gotham near Egg Island in The World’s Greatest Superheroes (1978). —CC[RELATED: How New Jersey Shaped Stan Lee Into a Marvel Legend]
21. Surviving Action Park Is a Rite of Passage Surviving Vernon’s Action Park, nicknamed Traction Park and Class Action Park due to its dangerous rides, was a rite of passage for Jersey youth in the early ’80s. One of the country’s first waterparks, it attracted about 1 million thrill-seeking visitors a year and later spawned movies, TV shows and books. It closed in 1996 after six fatal injuries and legions of broken bones, reopening, with safer rides, as Mountain Creek Water Park in 1998. —J. Martin22. Teresa Giudice Flips Table on The Real Housewives of New JerseyIt was the table flip heard round the world. In 2009, when an outraged Teresa Giudice flipped a restaurant dinner table over during the Season 1 finale of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, she cemented the show’s place in pop-culture history and set the stage for dramatic reality-TV moments to come. That includes RHONJ’s current 14th season. —JG23. Michelle Obama's Official Portrait Painted by NJ Artist[caption id="attachment_329066" align="alignnone" width="778"] Michelle Obama portrait photo: Randy Duchaine/Alamy; artist Amy Sherald photo: Kyle Knodell[/caption]Art lovers already knew Amy Sherald for her sober-faced, matter-of-fact portraits of African Americans when, in 2018, she painted the official likeness of Michelle Obama to hang in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, skyrocketing her reputation. The colorful, softly hued painting became an iconic image of one of the nation’s most popular first ladies. In 2020, Sherald’s posthumous portrait of Breonna Taylor for the cover of Vanity Fair also gained national attention. Today, the artist continues her work from her Jersey City studio. —DPC24. Four Seasons Rise to Fame Jersey’s famed doo-wop/rock quartet, the Four Seasons, led by Newark native Frankie Valli, officially formed in 1960 after a failed audition (as the Four Lovers) at a Union County bowling alley called—you guessed it—the Four Seasons. Hits like “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “Walk Like a Man” followed. Jersey Boys, the Tony-winning musical about the group, charmed Broadway from 2005 to 2017, and a Clint Eastwood film hit theaters in 2014. A streaming adaptation stars Wyckoff-raised Nick Jonas as Valli. —JF25. New Jersey Monthly DebutsFormer Princeton roommates Hendrix Niemann and Christopher Leach founded this very magazine in the 1970s, and it’s still going strong today. “We felt the coverage, both broadcast and print, of New Jersey tended to be overly negative and stereotypical,” Niemann told NJM in 2016 about their reason for starting it. The first issue came out in November 1976. The magazine has always covered serious issues plus the fun side of life. In 1982, Norman B. Tomlinson Jr. of the Morristown Daily Record bought NJM and moved it from Princeton to Morristown, where it remains today under the leadership of his daughter, Kate S. Tomlinson, the publisher/editor in chief. —JG and KS26. Kevin Smith Films ClerksWhen Kevin Smith caught Slackers in 1990, the Red Bank native was inspired. He maxed out his credit cards and made the now iconic movie Clerks for less than $30,000. The 1994 film, which was shot at a Leonardo Quick Stop, became a critical and commercial success and was selected for preservation by the United States National Film Registry. Smith made two sequels. He remains a force in Jersey arts as the owner of the Red Bank comic book shop Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. In 2022, he purchased Atlantic Moviehouse, where he used to go as a kid. —EC27. Yogi Berra Leaves His Mark Legendary New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra lived in Montclair for more than 50 years, so it was fitting that in 1998, the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center opened at Montclair State University. Along with exhibits honoring the achievements of Berra and others, it provides educational programs and camps emphasizing respect and sportsmanship. Two months after opening, Berra and his former manager, George Steinbrenner, with whom he hadn’t spoken in 14 years, reconciled there. Berra died in 2015 at age 90. —J. Martin28. Zach Braff Releases Garden StateA lot of filmmakers shoot in New Jersey, especially since Governor Phil Murphy reinstated tax incentives in 2018. But fewer set their plots here. An exception is Zach Braff. The actor/director, who grew up in Maplewood and South Orange, filmed and set his acclaimed 2004 directorial debut here, even titling it Garden State. A decade later, his 2023 movie, A Good Person, filmed at his high school, Columbia. “I love my hometown, and I want to tell stories about my hometown,” he told New Jersey Monthly last year. —JG29. The Fugees Score Big-Time In 1996, South Orange-based hip-hop trio the Fugees had a huge hit with their second album, The Score. The New York Times said the album placed the band at the “forefront of pop music.” The Fugees’ version of the Roberta Flack song “Killing Me Softly With His Song” reached number 1 in more than 20 countries. Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean both went on to have huge solo careers. In 2023, Hill gave a nod to her hometown when she invited members of the marching band her high school, Columbia, to perform with her at the Prudential Center. —Jacqueline Mroz30. @NJgov Rocks Social MediaWith its viral “your mom” tweet in December 2019, @NJgov proved official government accounts don’t have to be boring. Melding Jersey attitude and pride, the X (formerly Twitter) account posts important updates along with memes praising full-serve gas. The edgy account battles @nycgov about bagels and more. Cocreator Megan Coyne now posts from the account @WhiteHouse, but Jersey’s account is still going strong. —Sharon Waters31. Carole King Sings About Suburbia In the early 1960s, Carole King, who would become one of the most successful female songwriters of all time, was living near Pleasant Valley Way in West Orange with husband and collaborator Gerry Goffin when they wrote their hit song “Pleasant Valley Sunday.” It went on to become one of the Monkees’ most successful singles, peaking at number 3 on the charts. Goffin apparently wanted to write the song because he disliked their suburban life; it was a commentary on the boredom and conformity of it. —J. Mroz32. War of the Worlds, With Alien Invasion Set in NJ, Sparks PanicThe infamous 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast ignited panic when listeners thought aliens were invading Earth—with their entry point in New Jersey. Orson Welles’s fictional radio drama, based on H.G. Wells’s sci-fi novel of the same name, said that Martians had invaded the small community of Grovers Mill in West Windsor. Since the 1980s, a bronze monument to the broadcast has stood there. —JG33. Cake Boss PremieresTLC’s reality show Cake Boss skyrocketed a family-owned Hoboken bakery to national stardom when it premiered in April 2009, bringing its lively owner, Buddy Valastro, along for the ride. The original Carlo’s Bakery set up shop in 1910. Now, there are nine Carlo’s locations and 28 vending machines across the county. Cake Boss went off the air in 2020, but Valastro debuted two new shows on A&E in 2023. —EM34. Sea Hear Now Festival Rocks Asbury Park Sea Hear Now has brought superstar musicians to Asbury Park’s shores since its inaugural festival in 2018. The likes of Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Nicks, Dave Matthews, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters and more mega-acts have made this a top-notch jamboree for music fans of all ages each September. The festival also includes surfing and art. —Gary Phillips35. WBGO Becomes NJ’s 1st Public RadioNewark is to thank for introducing the state to public radio. In 1979, WBGO 88.3FM aired for the first time, playing jazz music from Newark. It soon became a 24-hour station affiliated with NPR. WBGO remains active today. —EM36. Les Paul Changes Music in NJ Music legend Les Paul created the first solid-body electric guitar design. Though he was born in Wisconsin, Paul spent much of his life in Mahwah, and his most influential discoveries were made in the Bergen County town. In September 2011, the Mahwah Museum honored Paul by unveiling a permanent exhibition titled “Les Paul in Mahwah.” He died in 2009 at age 94. —EM37. Rachel Zegler Gets Her Big Break[caption id="attachment_328734" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Courtesy of Ramona Rosales/Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp[/caption]After a nationwide search that drew 30,000 aspiring actresses, Clifton’s own Rachel Zegler was picked to play Maria in Steven Spielberg’s 2021 adaptation of West Side Story, which filmed in Newark and Paterson. The now 22-year-old has since been in box office biggies like Shazam! Fury of the Gods, and her star is only poised to rise. —CC38. Judy ‘Blume’s’ in New JerseyJudy Blume, the beloved author of books for children, young adults and adults, grew up in Elizabeth. She began writing in 1959; her books include bestsellers Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. In 2015, Blume published In the Unlikely Event, based on a bizarre series of plane crashes that took place in her hometown in the early 1950s. Blume has sold more than 82 million copies of her books. —J. Mroz39. The Watcher Creeps Us OutHow would you feel if you moved into your dream home and discovered that someone was watching your house and your family’s every move? That’s the story behind The Watcher, a real-life drama that took place on a suburban street in Westfield and was turned into a popular Netflix show in 2022 starring Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale. In both reality and fiction, the family was plagued by ominous letters and sinister threats. The real Watcher was never found. —J. Mroz40. VMAs Choose Newark In 2019, the MTV Video Music Awards eschewed cities like New York and LA for Newark’s Prudential Center, marking the first time the awards show was held in New Jersey. The show featured Jersey tributes including performances by Wyckoff’s Jonas Brothers. The VMAs returned to the Rock in 2022 and 2023. —Leigh Scheps41. New Jersey Mourns Anthony BourdainThere are few people who blended a love of food, travel and Jersey pride quite like Anthony Bourdain. The late chef and host of numerous travel shows grew up in Leonia and considered himself a Jersey boy, regardless of where life took him. In his words, “to know Jersey is to love her.” After his passing in 2018, legions of local fans mourned him, and the state created the Anthony Bourdain Food Trail, featuring 10 local restaurants profiled on his show Parts Unknown. A map can be found at visitnj.org. —CC42. Cheaper by the Dozen Based on Real FamilyPublished in 1948, the novel Cheaper by the Dozen was based on the real-life stories of a Montclair couple (authors Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey) and their 12 children. A bestseller, the book inspired several film and stage productions. The actual Gilbreth house, on Eagle Rock Way, last sold in 2015 for $2.75 million. —KS43. Count Basie Comes BackRed Bank native Count Basie kicked off his jazz career playing Jersey Shore nightspots. He became a giant of the Swing Era after relocating to Kansas City, but on February 3, 1938, he triumphantly returned to his hometown for a show at the River Street School, about a mile from the theater that now bears his name. —KS44. Addams Family Has New Jersey Roots [caption id="attachment_328690" align="alignnone" width="778"] Charles Addams in 1952 Photo: Courtesy of Library of Congress/Bob Sandberg[/caption]Charles Addams, the cartoonist who in 1938 created the macabre Addams Family for the New Yorker that spawned the legendary TV show, grew up in Westfield, playing in the Presbyterian Cemetery and drawing cartoons for the Westfield High School yearbook. Two houses there, on Elm Street and Dudley Avenue, inspired the ghoulish family’s mansion. The TV show, which ran on ABC from 1964 to 1966, has inspired movies, other series, songs and, some think, goth subculture. —J. Martin45. Friday the 13th Scares America Fans still flock to Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco in Hardwick to see where Friday the 13th was filmed in 1979. The special tours showcase the Boy Scouts camp that served as Camp Crystal Lake, where the movie’s murders happened. The slasher film that spawned a franchise was also shot at locations in Hope and Blairstown, where Roy’s Hall shows the cult classic every Friday the 13th. —SW46. Author Harlan Coben Comes Full Circle Blockbuster mystery author Harlan Coben, who grew up in Livingston and now lives in Ridgewood, is the author of more than 35 bestselling novels, with many set in Jersey and adapted into Netflix series. All things Garden State aligned when the TV version of his thriller Shelter, which aired last year, was filmed at his alma mater, Livingston High School, and 20 local towns. —J. Mroz47. Paper Mill Gets Saved and Nabs a Tony Millburn’s Paper Mill Playhouse, opened in 1938, suffered a financial crisis in 2007. A save-the-theater campaign raised more than $1 million in four weeks to finish the season. In 2016, the Paper Mill was awarded the Regional Theatre Tony Award, elevating its status as two shows, A Bronx Tale and Bandstand, transferred to Broadway. —LS48. Jersey Fans Go Wild For Taylor SwiftNobody had a bigger 2023 than Taylor Swift, so it’s only fitting that she caused a commotion not once but twice in New Jersey last year, first with a trio of massive, sold-out MetLife Stadium shows in May and then when she traveled to Long Beach Island for the wedding of her close pal and collaborator Jack Antonoff to the actress Margaret Qualley. Swift literally stopped traffic upon her arrival in Beach Haven, attracting hordes of fans and, unsurprisingly, causing a bit of uproar among locals for all the fanfare. Fun fact: Swift, who grew up in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, spent her childhood summers at the Jersey Shore. —JG49. SZA Defends Maplewood Hometown[caption id="attachment_328726" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: UPI/Alamy[/caption]Maplewood singer SZA stood up for her dad’s favorite family-owned café, Village Coffee Shop, in 2017 when a Starbucks set up shop nearby. The Grammy winner shared frustration with changes in her hometown, urging city slickers flocking to the ’burbs to “shop local and be polite,” writing on social media that people who move to small towns need to “learn how to be a part of a community.” —Falyn Stempler50. Pinegrove Shuffle Goes Viral In 2016, the band Pinegrove, formed by Montclair natives Evan Stephens Hall and Zack Levine, broke out in the indie-rock world. Their album Cardinal was recognized by Spin magazine, and they regularly toured North America and Europe. The band went on hiatus in 2022, so it was a surprise a year later when social media began buzzing with new Pinegrove-inspired videos. Not only was the group not forgotten, but their lyrics and beats had become the backdrop for an arm-flowing, one-step dance dubbed the Pinegrove Shuffle. After a TikTok video went viral, countless new versions popped up and led to a huge increase in Pinegrove plays on streaming platforms. —DPC
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New Jersey appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_328121" align="alignnone" width="778"] Tierney Miller, head of Adult Services at Cherry Hill Public Library, shows off an autoharp from the library’s musical instrument collection. Photo: Courtesy of Cherry Hill Public Library[/caption]Need to borrow a WiFi hotspot? A projector and screen for a neighborhood movie night? Or maybe you want to learn to play an instrument but aren’t sure whether you’re ready to spend the money.Your local library can probably help.More and more New Jersey libraries offer a Library of Things—borrowable items you might not expect to find at these institutions.At the Morristown and Morris Township Public Library, patrons can check out, among other things, snowshoes, a ukulele, or a metal detector, one of the most popular items. “People check it out all the time—it’s funny,” says director Chad Leinaweiver.He says many patrons aren’t aware of everything the library has to offer.The Ridgewood Public Library, too, has a metal detector in its Library of Things; one patron used it to find a lost ring, says assistant director Roberta Panjwani.In the summer of 2023, Ridgewood held an open house to show the public everything the library had in its collection, from gardening kits to a sewing machine, and demonstrated how everything worked.“The library’s always building these bridges,” Panjwani said.One item, a portable air-quality meter, got some use due to the smoke drifting down from the Canadian wildfires. Families can also check out nature backpacks for adults and kids to take on hikes.The Princeton Public Library places a lot of emphasis on its technology items, says assistant director Erica Bess. “Ours is mostly focused on tech because we feel we can make the biggest impact in removing barriers” to technology access, she says. In its Library of Things, patrons can check out hotspots, Chromebooks, or a smartphone media kit. The Princeton Public Library also has low-tech items, such as binoculars, on offer.The library received a grant from LibraryLinkNJ to purchase special Little Thinkers kits, which include Toniebox audio systems that children can use to listen to songs and stories, or act them out. Those items have been extremely popular with families, she says, adding that they are almost always on loan and have a long waiting list.At the Cherry Hill Public Library, patrons can borrow a wide range of musical instruments like guitars, ukuleles, and violins. Youth services supervisor Erica Moon says the violins are almost always checked out. Gardeners can take advantage of Cherry Hill’s extensive seed library of flower and vegetable seeds. Younger children and their families can check out jigsaw puzzles, or even an American Girl doll in the library’s collection. Each of the dolls comes with something extra: a journal for kids to fill in and a historical fact sheet about life in Cherry Hill corresponding with the doll’s time period.“It’s just another way to be creative in the way libraries have always been,” says library director Laverne Mann.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Need Snowshoes? A WiFi Hotspot? A Violin? Try an NJ Library appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Whether you’re celebrating Valentine’s Day with a significant other or good friends, or simply practicing some self-care, there are plenty of ways to make the day special. Get creative with a pastry-, painting- or cocktail-making class, run a 5K, enjoy live music, or get happy at a comedy show. Plus, check out statewide Valentine's Day restaurant specials as well as more Galentine's Day fun.NORTH JERSEYA Night of Love[caption id="attachment_327487" align="alignnone" width="778"] Get in the groove with R&B singers like Trey Songz. Photo: Courtesy of NJPAC Photos[/caption]📅: Friday, February 9 (7 pm)📍: Prudential Center • Newarkℹ️: Featuring R&B artists Keysheia Cole, Trey Songz, Jaheim, and K. Michelle.💸: $75-$155Cupid's Chase 5kℹ️: A Valentine's Day themed 5k that benefits Community Options Inc., which supports people with disabilities.📅: Saturday, February 10 (8 am)📍: The Daily Plan It • Morristown💸: $45📅: Saturday, February 10 (8 am)📍: Glen Rock Municipal Pool • Glen Rock💸: $45📅: Saturday, February 10 (8 am)📍: Tamaques Park • Westfield💸: $45Valentine's Day All-Star Comedy Show[caption id="attachment_327488" align="alignnone" width="778"] Bill Belamy will be joining an all-star comedic lineup. Photo: Courtesy of NJPAC[/caption]📅: Saturday, February 10 (7 & 9:45 pm)📍: NJPAC • Newarkℹ️: Spread love and laughter at this comedy show, featuring Bill Bellamy, Luenell, Capone, Bruce Bruce and Radio Big Mac.💸: $50.50-$100.50Rose City Chocolate Walk[caption id="attachment_327916" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Shutterstock/Brenda Carson[/caption]📅: Saturday, February 10 (1 pm)📍: Madison Community Center • Madisonℹ️: Wander through Madison’s charming downtown as local businesses open their doors to share sweet treats and showcase chocolate-inspired goods.💸: Free (Purchases on the walk)Galentine's Paint and Sip[caption id="attachment_327489" align="alignnone" width="778"] Fusion Paint Event for Galentine's Day. Courtesy of The Museum of Early Trades & Crafts[/caption]📅: Thursday, February 15 (6 pm)📍: Museum of Early Trades & Crafts • Madisonℹ️: Grab your pals for a BYO evening of wood-sign painting, bonding and fun.💸: $40-$50NY/NJ/CT Uganda Community Valentine's and Cultural Gala📅: Saturday, February 17 (6:30 pm)📍: Hilton Hasbrouck Heights • Hasbrouck Heightsℹ️: An upscale celebration celebrating the Ugandan community.💸: $75-$155CENTRAL JERSEYJust in Time for Valentine’s Vendor & Craft Fair📅: Sunday, February 4 (11 am-4 pm)📍: Old Bridge High School • Matawanℹ️: Check out crafts, activities, a Photo Booth and a host of small businesses.💸: More Info on FacebookValentine’s Day Cocktail Class📅: Thursday, February 8 (6:30 pm-8:30 pm)📍: 618 Restaurant • Freeholdℹ️: Learn to craft three new cocktails.💸: $129Cupid's Chase 5k[caption id="attachment_327501" align="alignnone" width="778"] Run a 5k for a good cause. Courtesy of Community Options Inc[/caption]ℹ️: A Valentine's Day themed 5k that benefits Community Options Inc., which supports people with disabilities.📅: Saturday, February 10 (8 am)📍: Duke Island Park • Bridgewater💸: $45📅: Saturday, February 10 (8 am)📍: Lake Como • Lake Como💸: $45📅: Saturday, February 10 (8 am)📍: Performing Arts Center at Princeton High School • Princeton💸: $45"Night Forms" Light Show[caption id="attachment_327492" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Dazzling light show display for this Valentine's Day. Courtesy of DMH Photography[/caption]📅: Thru Sunday, April 7 (5 pm-9 pm)📍: Grounds for Sculpture • Hamiltonℹ️: Inspired by Greek mythology with futuristic sound design, this captivating light show is perfect for a romantic evening out.💸: $24-$30SOUTH JERSEYRock Spa & Salon Couples Experiences[caption id="attachment_327493" align="alignnone" width="778"] Rock Spa & Salon is offering a number of couples experiences. Photo: Courtesy of Hard Rock Casino[/caption]📅: Thru Thursday, February 29 (11 am-4 pm)📍: Hard Rock Casino • Atlantic Cityℹ️: Experience pure bliss with that special someone, getting a full body couple's massage, exploring the wonders of aromatherapy, or a relaxing soak with a glass of champagne.💸: $279-$939Galentine's Crafts & Cocktails Party📅: Thursday, February 8 (6 pm-8 pm)📍: Used To Be's • Mantolokingℹ️: Get creative alongside your pals, choosing from a range of wood designs to paint at your leisure.💸: $38Sweet Art in Disguise📅: Saturday, February 10 (10 am-Noon)📍: John F. Peto Studio Museum • Island Heightsℹ️: A hands-on pastry class, perfect for a romantic date or a good time with friends.💸: $25Cupid's Chase 5k[caption id="attachment_327498" align="alignnone" width="778"] Run a 5k for a good cause. Courtesy of Community Options Inc.[/caption]ℹ️: A Valentine's Day themed 5k that benefits Community Options Inc., which supports people with disabilities.📅: Saturday, February 10 (8 am)📍: Green Acres Park • Burlington💸: $45📅: Saturday, February 10 (8 am)📍: Seaside Heights Boardwalk • Seaside Heights💸: $45Galentine's Day Party📅: Saturday, February 10 (11 am-3 pm)📍: Moda Boutique Lounge • Haddonfieldℹ️: Enjoy a swag bag and get some permanent jewelry with your gal pals.💸: $25
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Best Valentine’s Day Activities in NJ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Nearly 17 years after The Sopranos went off the air (and 25 since it premiered), fans still flock to the Soprano house in North Caldwell. People still drop by Holsten’s in Bloomfield, not only for the ice cream and burgers, but to witness where James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Robert Iler filmed the show’s infamous final scene. There’s even an online map with hundreds of Sopranos filming locations listed, many immediately recognizable and others barely visible onscreen.Clearly, the locations were—and remain—a key component of the iconic HBO series, helping to create the show’s New Jersey backdrop as Tony navigated the worlds of the Mafia and suburbia. In the new book On Locations: Lessons Learned From My Life on Set With The Sopranos and in the Film Industry, the show’s location manager, Mark Kamine, delves into behind-the-scenes moments—and some personal memories of the late Gandolfini and other cast members—that are sure to arouse fans’ interest.“There’s all the New Jersey jokes about industrial waste and ‘What exit?’” says Kamine, a Garden State native. “Even though it’s a show about mobsters, it [provided] an awareness of New Jersey.... It’s a New Jersey phenomenon.”[caption id="attachment_327820" align="aligncenter" width="663"] In his new book "On Locations," Mark Kamine says fans would be surprised to know that "Sopranos" star James Gandolfini was "kind of shy and gentle—you don’t think of Tony Soprano as being a gentle person."[/caption]In the book, out February 6 from Steerforth, Kamine describes how a bear once wrought havoc during filming at the Soprano house and how the home’s real-life residents got more peeved at the intrusions—and sought a higher payday—as the show’s success grew. He describes multiple awkward visits to the real strip club that served as the setting for the Bada Bing, Satin Dolls in Lodi, with barely clothed women dancing while he tried to negotiate filming parameters with the owner. He also remembers Gandolfini, who died in 2013, as much sweeter off-screen than anyone would imagine, given his on-screen alter ego’s toughness, and the type of atmosphere he and Falco created on set. “James Gandolfini was kind of shy and gentle—you don’t think of Tony Soprano as being a gentle person,” Kamine recalls with a laugh. “Jim didn’t want to be the star, and Edie certainly wasn’t like that. So no one was asking for special treatment or expecting it.”[caption id="attachment_327844" align="alignright" width="375"] Kamine grew up in Wayne and raised his son in Montclair. Photo: Courtesy of Steerforth/Clay Enos[/caption]Two of Kamine’s favorite places where the show filmed were the pork store and the college campus that Tony and his daughter, Meadow, visit. After the pork-store location used in the pilot, Centanni’s Meat Market in Elizabeth, decided it couldn’t accommodate further filming, the crew had to jump into action to find a replacement, transforming an unoccupied shop in Kearny into the fictional Satriale’s, which can be seen in the opening credits.The first-season episode “College,” filmed at Drew University in Madison, substituting for Maine, was one of the most memorable ever for both fans and for Kamine. It’s when Tony drops Meadow off on campus, then goes and kills a guy. In the episode, Kamine had an on-screen role as the dean of admissions, a decision by series creator David Chase that shocked Kamine, who says Chase decided “that location guy” would work in the one-line role after the casting process had dragged on and on. “I guess my thinning hairline and stuff made me an eligible candidate for the dean of admissions,” Kamine says.Kamine grew up in Wayne and lived in Montclair with his wife for 17 years, raising their son there. He now lives in New York.His current job is executive producer of another hot show, The White Lotus. When we spoke by Zoom in December, Kamine was in Thailand working on season 3. Although he loved working on The Sopranos in his home state of New Jersey, even he admits that filming in Thailand is “pretty hard to beat.”MORE FROM OUR POP CULTURE ISSUE:The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New JerseyGet to Know NJM Cover Star Jack AntonoffWhy New Jersey’s Live Music Scene Will ‘Always Be Booming’6 Social Media Influencers From New Jersey Who Are Driving the ConversationHow Frank Sinatra Became Hoboken's Favorite SonJon Stewart and Stephen Colbert Aren’t Jersey Natives, But They’re Local IconsMartha Stewart Is a New Jersey Icon Who Always Keeps Fans Guessing
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post How NJ Shaped ‘The Sopranos’: New Book Goes Behind the Scenes of the Show appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
A new exhibit at the New Jersey State Museum introduces the work of a prolific photographer more than 100 years after he documented ordinary people and places in the state. “Discovering Grant Castner” showcases the amateur photographer’s perceptive eye, appreciation for everyday life, and restless curiosity.
“He didn’t just take pictures of his family members,” says Nicholas Ciotala, the museum’s curator of cultural history. “He went out into the community, traveling by train to Belvidere, Camden, Mercer County, Atlantic City, Cape May and Toms River.”
[RELATED: The Best Things to Do in NJ This Month]
Born in Belvidere in 1863, Castner spent his adult life in Trenton. His art reveals an interest in turn-of-the-century transportation and infrastructure, such as the Delaware’s covered bridges. His portraits of working-class New Jerseyans, including African Americans, are reminiscent of those by Jacob Riis, candid and unvarnished: A woman rests with a baby on her lap; a shoeshine man gives a faint smile; a woman sits mending a garment. Castner also depicted New Jerseyans at leisure: men at a campsite, and Victorian men and women as they picnic on a riverbank.
In 2019, a private collector’s estate donated more than 1,000 glass plate negatives to the museum. “To have a whole collection attributed to the same photographer is rare,” Ciotala says. “And it’s especially rare to come across someone totally unknown.” On display with Castner’s images are rarely displayed related objects from the museum’s collection, such as shad-fishing equipment.
"Discovering Grant Castner" is at the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton from February 3 to September 15; admission is free.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Rare Photos of Old New Jersey on Display at NJ State Museum appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_327302" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration: Chris Gash[/caption]When this magazine was in its infancy, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, New Jersey was the national joke. You didn’t have to say much more than the words New Jersey and people laughed—even New Jerseyans, myself included. Traveling, North Jerseyans would tell people elsewhere that they were from greater New York. Mostly, our sense of inferiority emanated from New York, the big city that disparaged what it considered its benighted country cousin.[caption id="attachment_327308" align="alignright" width="350"] The April 1979 cover of New Jersey Monthly, featuring a photo of SNL star Gilda Radner—in character as Roseanne Roseannadanna, who loved to take digs at the Garden State.[/caption]Saturday Night Live always put New Jersey down. John Belushi routinely referred to our state as “the armpit of America.” An issue of this magazine had SNL’s Gilda Radner on the cover using a catchphrase of her character, Roseanne Rosannadanna: “New Jersey? It makes me wanna die.” (Yours truly wrote the accompanying cover story, “How New Jersey Became a Joke.”) Certain accusations against him aside, Woody Allen never let New Jersey alone in his movies. In Sleeper, his character, cryogenically frozen for 200 years, is asked whether he learned anything while in that altered state. “Yes,” he answers. “I discovered that there is intelligent life in the universe—except in certain parts of New Jersey.”But the Jersey joke has all but disappeared. Jokes generally grow tired and inconsequential, but more importantly, New Jersey has distinguished itself in myriad ways. Bruce Springsteen has been acclaimed as the world’s greatest rocker. The Sopranos is celebrated by many as perhaps the greatest show to ever appear on television. America’s finest actors come from New Jersey: Meryl Streep grew up in Bernardsville and Jack Nicholson in Neptune. The musical Jersey Boys was a hit on Broadway. Toni Morrison, teaching at Princeton University, won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and George Segal was widely celebrated as America’s greatest sculptor. It became cool to be from New Jersey.[RELATED: Jersey-Born Celebrities at a Glance]
New Jerseyans began to realize how important their state was. It has the Turnpike, the world’s widest and most traveled road, and the George Washington Bridge, the world’s busiest. On its east side are fine beaches; on its west, the beautiful Delaware River. Every year, the Rutgers-Eagleton poll has shown increasing enthusiasm for the state among its residents. Jersey travelers no longer come from greater New York. Even SNL no longer makes Jersey jokes.When the great French photographic artist Henri Cartier-Bresson was sent over to capture the essence of America in the 1970s, he restricted his work to New Jersey. Asked why, he said that New Jersey was the most varied and typical American state. Similarly, historian John Cunningham suggested in the subtitle of one of his books that New Jersey was “a mirror on America.”New Jersey is now widely seen as the most representative American state. A small part of me misses the Jersey joke, though I’m perfectly happy to do without it.[RELATED: Finally Getting Into a Jersey State of Mind]
Michael Aaron Rockland is Professor of American Studies emeritus at Rutgers University. His latest book is The Other Jersey Shore, due out in May.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Sorry, ‘SNL,’ But the Jersey Joke Is Over! appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Garden State history buffs have two reasons to pick up Duel in the Deep (Naval Institute Press). The new book by David Sears vividly portrays real-life military events, and those battles depended upon the bravery of New Jersey’s finest Navy sailors.Bob Maher hailed from Kearny, and Jim Allegri and Eddie Johnson were from nearby Nutley, says Sears. In December 1940, a year before Pearl Harbor, Bob, Jim, Eddie and dozens of other Jersey boys from Hoboken, Jersey City, Lyndhurst, Montclair, North Arlington, Rutherford and Verona stepped aboard Borie, an aging, outmoded U.S. Navy destroyer whose thin hull and deck plates revealed why destroyers were jokingly reviled as “tin cans,” he says.[RELATED: Point Pleasant Veteran’s D-Day Efforts Lauded as Crucial to U.S. Military History]
In this, his fifth book, Sears describes how these Greatest Generation heroes volunteered for the U.S. Navy ahead of the prewar draft, but few received proper uniforms, basic training or seagoing know-how. But, beginning in January 1942, Nazi submarines—U-boats—prowled off Garden State shores, savaging merchant ships and crews.With the Eastern Seaboard unexpectedly thrust into the Battle of the Atlantic, World War II’s longest and fiercest sea campaign, these Jersey boys saw battle in October 1943 in a high-seas fight to the finish against U-boat submariners in the deepest waters of the Atlantic Ocean.A decorated naval officer and Vietnam veteran, Sears has appeared on the History Channel.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post ‘Duel in the Deep’: When Jersey Sailors Stopped a Nazi Submarine From Their ‘Tin Can’ Destroyer appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Martin Miller’s first month as executive director of the McCarter Theatre Center went better than he could have possibly dreamed. A series of sold-out performanes of McCarter’s opening show of the 2023-2024 season, Bulrusher, culminated in a visit from Tony-winning Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, who Martin says lauded the production.“I chatted with him at intermission,” says Martin. “He said, ‘This cast is phenomenal.’ I will say, the people who work behind the scenes or on stage at McCarter are very good at their jobs.”Miller previously held the position of executive director and producer of TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, Arkansas, the state where he grew up. During his 13 years in that job, he helped the theater grow to produce more than 400 shows a year and make millions of dollars in annual revenue.Four years ago, Miller moved to Princeton, where his wife is on the faculty of the music department at Princeton University. He says he had been attending shows at the McCarter Theatre Center for years prior to his appointment and had become a big fan. So, when the opportunity arose to take over the role of executive director, he was quick to embrace it.The McCarter Theatre Center, which first opened in Princeton in 1930, began its current season this past September, coinciding with Miller’s start at the historic institution. McCarter has seen another recent change in staff as it approaches its 100th anniversary, with Sarah Rasmussen joining the theater as artistic director in 2020. While his time working with Rasmussen and the rest of the McCarter team has been short, Miller says it’s been an extremely positive experience.“I’m really impressed by the talent and passion that all the staff members show for their work. There is a rigor here, a sense that there will be no compromise when it comes to the quality of what’s happening on stage,” he says.The inaugural show of the season, Bulrusher, which wrapped up in early October, is a Pulitzer Prize-finalist play written by Eisa Davis.Productions of Dreamgirls and Choice are coming up this spring.McCarter also hosts single-show events, but Miller emphasizes that runs of plays and productions at the theater are the shows to see. The theater showcased The Woman in Black in October, and coming up are productions of Dreamgirls and Choice.“Bulrusher is just such a beautiful and perfect evocation of what you can do when you create theater in your community,” says Martin. “It’s a rich, lyrical work with a perfect cast, beautiful set, and everybody who has come in to see it has just been completely taken aback by it.”The McCarter Theatre Center has played an important role in the Princeton community, Miller points out. And he has plenty of goals set for the theater, including strengthening its partnership with Princeton University and getting more members of the community to come to the theater, even when there isn’t a show scheduled.In the meantime, Miller encourages anyone who hasn’t seen a McCarter show to catch one soon, describing it as a premier, high-quality theater on par with Broadway. “Anyone who hasn’t experienced it should just get one ticket. That’s all it takes,” he says. “They’ll probably find that they have a new habit that they won’t be able to live without.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Where Princeton’s McCarter Theatre Center Is Headed Under New Executive Director Martin Miller appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
In March, it will be four years since the world shut down at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. In Reflections on the Pandemic: Covid and Social Crises in the Year Everything Changed, out now, stories of personal experience and scholarly expertise shine light on the intricacies of 2020.The collection of essays, poetry and artwork, published by Rutgers University Press, features the diverse perspectives of the Rutgers community, including scholars, staff, students, alumni, and even president Jonathan Holloway, whose piece “Reflections in a Covid Photograph” opens the collection. Though these reflections belong to a specific hub of voices, global relatability and familiarity can be found within the pieces, which are presented in a general timeline of the pandemic.Editor Teresa Politano, an award-winning writer, editor and professor at Rutgers (as well as a NJM contributor) says in the preface that the school was a leader in conducting research on the virus. As the state’s premier research university, Rutgers established the Center for Covid-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness in late March 2020, where various important developments took place, including studies, vaccine trials and the creation of contact-tracing strategies. Rutgers was also the first major university in the United States to require students to be vaccinated.Reflections on the Pandemic covers a range of topics that were relevant to the pandemic, including science, health, racial injustice, environmental issues, politics, relationships, mortality and more.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Rutgers Community Responds to a Tumultuous 2020 in Pandemic Book Collection appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_326055" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration: Daniel Guidera[/caption]The day New Jersey started to feel like home was the day a 75-year-old woman named Phyllis shouted at me for a half-hour straight. She told me I was standing in the wrong place, and not moving fast enough, but also moving way too much. I was at my first pickleball round-robin at Brookdale Park. I showed up out of the blue to learn a new game and get smoked by people of all ages. It was tough love from Phyllis. She was direct in a way that felt familiar to me as a longtime New Yorker. And yet there was also a neighborly aspect to her: She took the time to give me some pointers, and was patient and friendly enough to show me just how badly I was doing. I came home that morning and told my wife, “I think I might like it here.”Three months later I lunged for a ball and felt a pop! in my calf. I crumbled to the ground, howling. Way too dramatically, in retrospect. But in New Jersey, it seems, you just might be lucky enough to have a physical-therapist-slash-standup-comedian playing on the next court. Dr. Rob helped me to my feet, walked me to my car, and told me if I came to his office the next day he’d get me back on the court in two weeks. Sure enough, two weeks later, I’m back in action and someone shouts at me from across the courts, “Hey, Calf Boy! How ya feelin’?” I shout back, “Feelin’ great, Doc!” I had two thoughts. One: It’s a good thing he’s not a urologist. Two: ...I think I might really like it here.I’m not sure what feels so New Jersey about pickleball, or what feels so pickleball about New Jersey, but the two are completely fused in my mind. I started playing when I moved to the state two years ago with my wife and daughter. Between work relocation and the pandemic, we had lived in three states in just over two years and wanted to finally settle in somewhere. We took a chance on New Jersey, having spent a total of maybe five days in the state previously. It seemed like a great place for our daughter to grow up in. But would it be great for a middle-aged writer to grow up in? I didn't want the view of my new state to be my laptop screen and home office wall. I wanted to meet real people, breathe fresh air, and see what made the Garden State so...gardeny.[RELATED: How the Pandemic Got Me Into a Garden State of Mind]
Enter pickleball. Within months, my phone contacts expanded. There were Josie Pickleball and Scott Pickleball and Julia Pickleball—dozens of new local friends, all with the same last name! We played at 3 pm on 90-degree days and at 7 am on 30-degree days. We toweled off wet courts, swept up leafy courts and shoveled snowy courts. The feel of the games has always been relaxed, friendly, loose. At times a bit boisterous, at others more focused, but never too serious. So is that more New Jersey, or more pickleball? Would playing, say, polo in New Jersey feel the same way? I kind of doubt it. Or what about playing pickleball in Peoria or Tampa or Greenwich? I have a hunch that the vibe just wouldn’t be the same.Recently there was a major disruption to my pickleball life. The courts in Brookdale Park were temporarily shut down so they could be moved to a spot in the park where the piercing noise won't ruin the lives of surrounding residents. So my people, the pickleballers of Brookdale Park, scattered to courts in Clifton, Bloomfield, Roseland and beyond.[RELATED: New Jersey Embraces Pickleball Craze With Biggest Club in Northeast]
Turns out it's been a good thing, widening my view of my new(ish) state. One day I drove to a town where I don’t know a soul. I ambled onto the courts and somebody said, "Beginners play over there—this area is for advanced players." I said, "I think I can hang here," which I regretted immediately as I saw balls flying back and forth, fast and furious. I was paired with a very athletic and tall young fellow who must have sensed my unease. He kept saying things like, "This side serves," and, "We play to eleven." I expected him to also say, "This round yellow thing is the ball."I started out playing very tight. But after falling behind 6-3, something flashed through my mind. It was Phyllis, from that first day, shouting at me to stop moving so much. I've been here before, I thought. I belong on this court! I'm a New Jersey pickleball player, damn it! So I planted my feet, settled in, and we came back to win the game. Afterwards, my partner and I exchanged numbers. Add Utkarsh Pickleball to the ever-widening list of contacts.As I walked through the park back to my car, it occurred to me that Phyllis's sage advice was even wiser than I had realized: Stop moving so much! You're right, Phyllis. We should stick around for a while. New Jersey is home now, and I think I might kind of love it here.When not working on his third-shot drop, Adam Peltzman writes and produces children's television shows such as Wallykazam!, Odd Squad and Go, Dog. Go!
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Playing Pickleball Helped Me Feel Like a Real New Jerseyan appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
In 1974, in the wake of growing racial tension in Jersey City’s schools, Carmine Tabone embarked on a radical new mission.He started Camp Liberty as a place for kids to get off the streets, do arts and crafts, play basketball and go for a swim in the summertime. The camp quickly transformed into a safe space for children to explore their identities.Nearly half a century later, Tabone’s story has been made into a documentary film, Man on a Mission, which debuted this year at New Jersey City University.Cocreated by artists Dina Bruno Ciborowski and Roberty Albrecht, the film highlights Tabone’s work as an artist and educator. He founded the Educational Arts Team, an initiative for children to learn and create in community. Camp Liberty transitioned from a ragtag group of passionate community members into a citywide project.For many children, Camp Liberty has been a haven. At the camp, held at Liberty State Park, children of all ages still have the opportunity to explore who they are and what they want in an emotionally healthy environment, while participating in activities such as ceramics, music, dance and theater.“The arts are an opportunity to reflect both within yourself and within the bigger picture of the culture,” Tabone says.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post This Jersey City Camp Is an Arts-Centric Safe Space for Kids appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[video width="778" height="519" mp4="https://njmonthly.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Isabeau-NJM-Photoshoot.mp4"][/video]Video: Amir Campbell Portrait photographer Ronald Gray began working with cameras as a teenager, as a lighting and equipment “lab rat” for his father, who worked as a wedding photographer on weekends and a Philadelphia police officer during the week.[caption id="attachment_324845" align="alignright" width="350"] Photographer Ronald Gray Photo: Peter Hurley[/caption]Now an award-winning photojournalist—and a photographer for the Philadelphia Police Department’s audiovisual unit—Gray, 44, has captured a wide spectrum of the human experience behind his lens: from protests and funerals to weddings and maternity shoots. Photography, he says, is a way of “letting people know that you lived, and letting people know that you mattered. It outlives all of us.”Gray shot New Jersey Monthly’s January cover star, Mount Holly figure-skating phenomenon Isabeau Levito, at the Igloo at Mt. Laurel. Though he snapped plenty of photos of her on the ice, the winning shot was captured in one of the rink's back rooms as videographer Amir Campbell tossed fake snow around—”getting it in all of our eyes!” Gray jokes.Read more about Gray’s process below.[caption id="attachment_324799" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photographer Ronald Gray and videographer Amir Campbell capture figure-skating star Isabeau Levito for New Jersey Monthly’s January issue at the Igloo at Mt. Laurel. Photo: Andrea Hunter[/caption]Was this your first time shooting on ice?Yes. The ice is very slippery—you kinda have to take those, like, little shuffle baby steps. Me, I was making light of it—I was telling Isabeau: If I fall, don't laugh at me.* But it was cool. I love the challenge. I love doing stuff that’s different, things that I've never done before. It's cool—and it worked out really well.NJM's art director Gail Ghezzi explained to me that one of her main impressions of your work was that you’re very skilled at bringing out the human quality of subjects—that there's not a disconnect between your subjects and the person looking at your photos. How do you typically prepare for a shoot?I just try to make sure that we're all on the same page. I try to get an idea of what subjects intend to wear, what they look like. I don't want to necessarily hide flaws—I want to maximize strengths. Because we all have flaws and things that we might feel, you know, a little strange about as far as our looks. Some people have a preference for a particular side, things like that. But I just try to bring out a little bit of them.And I try to find out something about them beforehand if I can. I didn't really know anything about Isabeau, and I had never done anything for a professional skater before. I remember I Googled her, and a couple of YouTube videos came up. I wanted to know what she looked like; I was curious. Then I actually watched her routine. You hear about her age, and you're like, Oh, she's so young. But then when you see her skate, you’re like, Wow. And I was curious—I had so many questions about skating. She was a very, very, very bright young lady. I learned a lot.[caption id="attachment_324675" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Photo: Ronald Gray[/caption]Our art director Gail also noted that you don't aim for absolute perfection in your work; that a viewer can see unique little flaws on your subjects—hair that isn't perfectly in place, skin that isn't utterly uniform. That attention to detail and texture, Gail explained, creates an ultra-human quality in your photos. You often work with makeup artists on your shoots—is there anything specific that you instruct them to do or not do in this regard?With Isabeau, the one thing I didn't want—and I know Gail also didn't want—was for her to be too glammed up. We wanted her to actually look her age, and I just didn't want to be too heavy-handed with the makeup. And that was it.Pretty much 90 percent of the stuff you see in my portfolio, my makeup artist, Andrea Hunter, has done. She'll often have a conversation with the client and say, Okay, what do you have in mind? And sometimes I'll tell clients: Bring a picture. If you were inspired by something and you want to replicate that, bring that. Andrea has the experience and that artistic eye, too, so it works.[caption id="attachment_324619" align="alignright" width="350"] Buy our January 2024 issue here. Cover photo: Ronald Gray[/caption]Is that textured, human quality something you are consciously striving for, or is it more a natural result of your lighting and/or process?It kinda flows naturally. It's a product of lighting—it all starts with the lighting. There is retouching that’s done on the image, but you don't want to overdo it. You want the skin to retain texture in the final images. You don't want a person to be completely smoothed out and look like they're made of porcelain. That's important to me.In addition to editorial and commercial shoots, you’ve done a lot of work in the photojournalism realm. When you're covering something like a protest, you’re not engaging in drawn-out artistic collaborations; you’re quickly documenting moments that are unfolding in real time. Does that ever make photojournalism feel like less of a quote-unquote creative endeavor? Or does its heightened nature allow you to capture something different?Yeah, I think it does, because it's like—you have to have the ability to see something happening before it happens. And I don't know if I would call that creativity, or moreso just good timing, but it's a little bit of everything, too. And it's working certain angles. Because if something crazy is happening—you have a bunch of photographers there, a bunch of people with cameras—you're all shooting the same thing. But when you see the final results, the images can look completely different. So sometimes that creative part comes in from switching the angle to low when everybody else is shooting high. Getting closer when everyone else is shooting far back. Shooting wide when everybody else is shooting tight.This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.*
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Behind the Scenes of NJM’s Cover Shoot with Figure Skater Isabeau Levito appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Sure, winter activities like outdoor ice-skating and cross-country skiing are an invigorating way to enjoy the season. But sometimes warming up inside is more preferable to chilling outside. So this winter, when you're looking to take a break from the cold, check out one of these indoor places in New Jersey—from spas to museums to cozy restaurants and bars—that offer good times without the need to bundle up.
Relax and Unwind at Sojo Spa ClubWhen Sojo Spa Club opened in 2017 in Edgewater, the buzz was mostly about its zen-looking outdoor space with 10 different pools and baths (open year-round) overlooking Manhattan, but the indoor treatments are equally therapeutic. There are infrared and Himalayan-salt saunas, whirlpools and a myriad of body treatments in this oasis of relaxation, where it is easy to spend a day—or even a night, as there’s a hotel and restaurant. —Deborah P. Carter660 River Road, Edgewater
Get Artsy at Tipsy Tie Dye or ReWax & UnWineCraft a fun night out with a unique twist on the classic paint-and-sip experience. Jersey City’s ReWax & UnWine is a BYO candle-making studio with special events like ladies’ nights. The coolest part? After designing your candle, a karaoke party begins! Meanwhile, at Hoboken’s Tipsy Tie Dye, you can select merch to dye with custom colors. There is fun for all ages during the day, but after 5:30 pm it’s adults only and BYO. —Emily MelvinRewax & Unwine, 2 Division Street, Jersey City; Tipsy Tie Dye, 155 First Street, Hoboken
Get Your Game On at Morristown Game Vault or Silverball Morristown Game Vault, located in an old bank, is a veritable playground for retro-game enthusiasts, with more than 100 arcade games and pinball machines. If you’re farther south, pinball is king at Silverball Museum Arcade in Asbury Park. A bonus? Morristown and Asbury Park are both great restaurant towns, so grab a bite at Morristown’s buzzy pizza spot Coniglio’s, Asbury’s Black Swan Public House, or another eatery after playing. —Julie GordonMorristown Game Vault, 22 South Street, Morristown; Silverball Museum Arcade, 1000 Ocean Avenue, Asbury Park
Warm Up With Hot Chocolate at VestaNot only is Vesta worth a stop if you are strolling the Upper Montclair’s shopping district, this chocolate haven is worthy of a dedicated trip. Chockful of handmade treats—including the limited-edition Amethyst Holiday bean-to-jewel bonbons that earned a spot on Oprah’s Favorite Things list in 2023—the hot chocolate is also to die for! Come in from the cold, sit and sip the dreamy, creamy beverage made by the husband (a self-taught chocolatier)-and-wife (a pastry chef and food stylist) team behind Vesta. —DPC598 Valley Road (Suite 2), Montclair
Embrace Classic Cape May at Brown Room Lounge Tucked into the lower level of Congress Hall, which is widely consider the country’s oldest beach resort, the Brown Room lounge is as classic as the building that houses it. Leather chairs, comfy sofas, a large, handsome bar, and a crackling fireplace set a relaxing tone in this cocktail bar, where the soft hum of conversation and music (often live) are as welcoming as a hot toddy on a cold day. —DPC200 Congress Place, Cape May
Crawl Through the Newly Reopened Liberty Science Center Touch Tunnel [caption id="attachment_322105" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Photo: Courtesy of Liberty Science Center[/caption]The Liberty Science Center’s iconic Touch Tunnel reopened in late 2023 after a pandemic-induced hiatus. A favorite since first opening in 1993, the Touch Tunnel is a pitch-black, 80-foot tunnel that visitors crawl through with the objective of finding their way out. While at Liberty Science Center, also check out the Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium and exhibits like “The Science Behind Pixar,” running through May 5. —JG222 Jersey City Boulevard, Jersey City
Visit an Under-the-Radar MuseumThere's always something to discover in New Jersey—and our many museums highlight that sentiment perfectly. This winter, check out one of our state's quirkier, more under-the-radar museums. They specialize in everything from art to pop culture to cars to history to, yes, even bugs. Check out New Jersey Monthly's guide to under-the-radar museums for the full list—and have fun exploring!Play Pickleball Indoors at Mercer Bucks Pickleball ClubLike millions of others, Becky and Frank Gabriele and Sharon and Bob Voelzke discovered a love for pickleball after the pandemic started, playing the mix of tennis, table tennis and badminton in their cul-de-sac almost daily. Last year, the couples opened Mercer Bucks Pickleball Club in Ewing. The 26,000-square-foot indoor space is the Northeast’s largest pickleball facility. It boasts nine courts and hosts open play, tournaments, lessons and more. —Gary Phillips370 Sullivan Way, Ewing
[RELATED: Playing Pickleball Helped Me Feel Like a Real New Jerseyan]
Kick Back at the Stellar Wine Cellar at Lambertville Station [caption id="attachment_324647" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Courtesy of Michael Russo/Genesis Global Group[/caption]The Wine Cellar at Lambertville Station is an ideal spot for a respite from winter. Located in the basement of the hotel on the banks of the Delaware River, it features circa-1800s stone walls and exposed beams and, of course, a fireplace. With 50 small-label wines on tap plus cocktails and bites like a charcuterie board, it is easy to settle in and forget the cold. —DPC11 Bridge Street, Lambertville
Tee Up for Indoor Mini Golf If you thought miniature golf was just for spring or summer, think again. There are several indoor options around the state. Monster Mini Golf has 18-hole, glow-in-the-dark courses under black lights in locations from Cherry Hill to Paramus. Blacklight Mini Golf at American Dream offers a space-themed adventure under black lights (Shop or explore the massive mall’s other attractions, like the aquarium, afterward). Haunted Golf on the Ocean City boardwalk offers 5,000 square feet of creepy fun; during the off-season, it’s open only on weekends. —Connor Carlin
Check Out NJ's Best Thrift and Consignment Stores For those shoppers who love a bargain and one-of-a-kind finds, check out our list of the top thrift and consignment stores in the state. Know the lingo before you go: Consignment stores usually carry pre-owned designer items while thrift stores carry all sorts of pre-owned merchandise, from home goods to clothes, at a deep discount.Spend the Day at Island Waterpark at ShowboatHaving made its premiere splash over the summer, the 103,000-square-foot, tropical-themed Island Waterpark at Showboat features more than a dozen slides, a 1,000-square-foot surf simulator, and a 11,000-linear-foot lazy river. The year-round attraction features a retractable roof. A zip line and the Cloud Coaster roller coaster offer ocean and Boardwalk views. After dark, a section of the venue becomes an adults-only zone with music and cocktails. —DPC801 Boardwalk, Atlantic City
Find a Book Nook at Collective Bookstore [caption id="attachment_324637" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Photo: Jacqueline Mroz[/caption]What could be cozier than curling up with a good book in front of a fireplace? At the new Collective Bookstore in Verona, you can get suggestions from staff and take a book for a test drive in a comfy leather chair next to an electric fireplace. —Julia Martin460 Bloomfield Avenue, Verona
Try an Escape Room and Hatchet Throwing—in the Same AfternoonNeed a workout for your mind and body? Look no further than Amazing Escape Room and Bury the Hatchet in Bloomfield. Get into detective mode at this escape room, then cross the street and try axe-throwing. A package deal of one hour at each place costs $61.58 per person. —CCAmazing Escape Room, 281 Liberty Street, Bloomfield; Bury the Hatchet, 672 Bloomfield Avenue, Bloomfield
OUTDOOR WINTER FUN*:Join NJ's Curling CrazeQuirky Places to Go Ice-Skating**Yes, There’s Dog Sledding in NJ: ‘It’s a Lifestyle’*Where to Cross-Country Ski in NJPolar Plunges at the Shore Make Learning Fun With the Kids at Morris Museum's SparkLab!Education has long been a mission of Smithsonian affiliate Morris Museum. In addition to bringing the kids to visit the museum's dinosaur-fossil collection in the Earth Science Gallery (where you can touch a real dinosaur egg) and the mega model-train gallery, make sure to stop into Spark!Lab, an interactive children’s room geared toward inventing and project-based discovery. Volunteers work and play right alongside the kids, encouraging them and fostering a love of learning. —JG6 Normandy Heights Road, Morristown [caption id="attachment_324619" align="alignright" width="350"] Buy our January 2024 issue here. Cover photo: Ronald Gray[/caption]Embrace a Need for Speed at RPM Raceway Race over to Jersey City’s RPM Raceway, where the longest go-kart track in the world opened a year ago. the multilevel, 2,200-foot track features a 72-second lap time that speed demons will love. Once drivers are done tearing up the track, they can check out the venue’s virtual reality experiences, bowling and more. There’s also the RPM Bar & Grill—just don’t drink and drive! —GP99 Caven Point Road, Jersey City
Dine at one of NJ's Best Restaurants Every year, New Jersey Monthly puts together its list of the 30 Best Restaurants in New Jersey. This year's list features a wonderful mix of long-standing classics and newbies to the scene that span cuisines including include Indian, Japanese, American and, of course, Italian—the most popular type of restaurant in New Jersey. Pick your favorite on the list, make plans for a lunch or dinner out, and enjoy!Indulge at a SteakhouseSteakhouses and winter just seem to go together. Check out our list of New Jersey's top steakhouses, and get ready for a sublime dining experience. The list includes restaurants all over the state.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Indoor Things to Do in New Jersey appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_315866" align="alignnone" width="778"] Nicki Minaj is slated to emcee and perform at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards. Photo: Paramount[/caption]When Tyler Bates joined the Prudential Center in Newark as director of programming in February 2020, his plan was to take the venue to another level.Since then, Bates, who lives in Jersey City, has curated one of the most diverse arena lineups in the country, with an emphasis on Latinx recording artists.The arena, commonly known as "The Rock," is set to host the MTV Video Music Awards for the second consecutive year on Tuesday, September 12 at 8 pm ET/PT. Stars including Nicki Minaj, Olivia Rodrigo, Doja Cat, Kelsea Ballerini, Lil Wayne are slated to perform, with Minaj also emceeing the evening's festivities.Bates chats about booking top shows and hosting hometown superstars.[caption id="attachment_315864" align="alignright" width="350"] Tyler Bates is the director of programming for Newark's Prudential Center. Photo: Courtesy of the Prudential Center[/caption]How does the Prudential Center book massive events, such as the VMAs and the K-Pop band BTS, over venues like Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center?We are in a great spot here in Newark. We're very close to public transportation, and we're just 15 minutes from Newark Liberty International Airport. And that's huge, since fans can fly in and easily travel to our venue. It's very easy to get here from New York, and it's the easiest venue for those in New Jersey to travel to for an event.What was it like when Taylor Swift appeared at the Prudential Center for last year's VMAs?It was so out of the blue when Taylor Swift showed up. Having that kind of star power electrified the room. The entire crowd went nuts. The next day, all people talked about was Taylor Swift appearing at the VMAs at the Prudential Center.Maplewood native SZA is performing at the Prudential Center in October, and the Wyckoff-raised Jonas Brothers are coming in December. How cool is it to host shows from hometown superstars?It's special. We had the Misfits in recently, and Gaslight Anthem [from New Brunswick] opened and just loved playing a big show in their home state. It's a big deal to play in front of your family and friends.[RELATED: Kevin Jonas Is Rocking Dad Life in New Jersey]
The Prudential Center recently scored the NCAA Men's Basketball Eastern Regional over 3,000 applicants.That's pretty massive. An event like that really catalyzes the entire state, in a similar manner to the VMAs or the big shows that come through here and only play a handful of venues. The big events give us the opportunity to showcase the arena, Newark and the state of New Jersey to audiences that have never been here. Our goal here is to have more of these types of events so people can see what the Prudential Center is capable of hosting.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post How Did Newark’s Prudential Center Land MTV VMAs Again? appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Telemarketers, the three-part HBO docuseries set in New Jersey about corruption in the telemarketing industry, is a rollercoaster ride of raucous humor and dark human pathos.Released last month, it instantly resonated with anyone whose dinner was ever interrupted by a pushy phone salesman. Telemarketers exposes what's happening behind the scenes, then goes much deeper, revealing who has masterminded this scourge—and who continues to protect it from accountability.The series opens with grainy footage from a New Brunswick telemarketing office, Civic Development Group (CDG), in the early 2000s. The workers, a rough bunch of ex-convicts, drug addicts and unemployable delinquents, spend their days on the phone trying to convince people to donate to charities—talking with the precision and cheerful lawlessness of experienced criminals.The team’s star salesman is Patrick J. Pespas, a surprisingly fun-loving heroin addict, filmed by a 14-year-old boy hired by CDG for his ability to imitate a “cop voice,” as many calls were for police-related charities.CDG's practices were questionable, to say the least. The company was eventually ordered by the Federal Trade Commission in 2010 to pay an $18.8 million fine for misleading donors into thinking the majority of their donations were going to charity, when in actuality, only a small portion was.[caption id="attachment_315823" align="aligncenter" width="720"] Patrick J. Pespas was the star salesman at New Jersey-based telemarketing agency Civic Development Group. Photo courtesy of HBO[/caption]Over the course of several years, this teenager, Sam Lipman-Stern, documents the goings-on at the agency, slowly becoming submerged in the corrosive environment himself. In one memorable moment, Pespas leans unsteadily into the camera lens and laughs, “We call people up on behalf of some bullshit organization, and chisel ‘em out of money.” The turning point in the film comes when the duo discovers how deep the rot goes in the telemarketing industry: the police not only know about the scam, some of them may be in on it themselves.In this documentary, New Jersey is such a prominent presence, it’s practically a character itself. Everything about the film, from the strong regional accents to the gritty streets of Plainfield, to the pan shots playfully captioned, “Somewhere in New Jersey,” makes the case that Telemarketers, for better or worse, is a story New Jersey can’t deny.But Telemarketers is much more than local color. It’s a classic David and Goliath story, told from the perspective of two unlikely heroes who dare to fight a system designed to grind down powerless, small-town guys like them. Telemarketers is, deep down, a story about class struggle, how the rich and powerful prey on the downtrodden and the weak, and then force them to prey on each other. When Sam and Pat decide to blow the whistle on their industry, it’s about more than contrition. It’s an act of redemption.[caption id="attachment_315825" align="aligncenter" width="720"] Sam Lipman-Stern began working at CDG at the age of 14. Photo courtesy of HBO[/caption]The film took 20 years to make. The throughline is Sam and Pat's ongoing project to expose the telemarketing industry, and if possible, shut it down.To this end, they encounter liars, cheaters, bureaucratic red tape and guys with guns. They endure one humiliation after another, as the audience watches them get older and more philosophical. Finally, at the end of the film, they find themselves in the hallowed halls of Congress. “We have arrived,” Pat says exuberantly. “We are at the halls of power.”But in Telemarketers, everything is a twisty road, and this is no exception.The series is streaming now on Max.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post In HBO’s ‘Telemarketers,’ NJ Is Practically a Character—Whether We Like It Or Not appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_315781" align="alignnone" width="778"] Tony winner Laura Benanti grew up in Kinnelon and recently moved back to the Garden State with her family. Photo: Courtesy of Tina Turnbow[/caption]When an actor plays a famous person on the big, small, or very small screen, the goal is to faithfully embody that person and to entertain an audience. No actor hopes to inspire hate. But that was the response when the actress Laura Benanti put on an accent and a lot of makeup in 2016 to play Melania Trump on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, a role she’s been reprising regularly since then. Upon her first appearance as the first lady, Benanti, who grew up in Kinnelon and currently lives in Montclair with her family, received threats on social media—and the hate continued each time she played the part.For an actress, to go viral is a thrill. But the death threats tempered the excitement. “I had to move in the middle of the night because people threatened to kill me and my family,” she says of quickly and quietly moving from one New York City apartment to another. Despite hateful rhetoric and threats, Benanti has continued to do her Melania Trump act. She appeared on Colbert’s show in April and performed a skit and a medley of songs as the former first lady onstage at the Out Montclair Pride festival in June. She is committed to the bit because she doesn’t avoid controversy when she believes in something.“I don’t understand how anyone can not be political,” she says. “I’m so tired of being told to, like, shut up.”In certain circles, Benanti is a household name. She has been nominated for five Tony Awards, winning in 2008 for her portrayal of Louise in Gypsy on Broadway. She is a regular on stage, has recorded albums, and appeared in films and on television (Younger, Nashville, Tick, Tick…Boom!). Next up, she appears in season 2 of the HBO hit The Gilded Age, which debuts on September 11; a tight-lipped Benanti would only say her character has a “secret“ and “scandalous” relationship with one of the show’s main characters.These days, Benanti is perhaps as well known for speaking out about politics and her personal life and supporting community causes. On a sunny afternoon in May, over an iced latte for me and green juice for her, Benanti described what life as a successful, working performer and parent was like. She was about to start an Off Broadway run of the play Love Letters, starring opposite Matthew Broderick. A new film alongside Jennifer Lawrence, No Hard Feelings, would be coming out in theaters shortly. But politics and people were what really got her riled up. In 90 minutes, we covered the climate crisis, juggling career and parenthood, bodily autonomy, media literacy, local politics, national politics and former President Donald Trump. When the fact that many women supported him in both elections came up, she sighed, saying: “It is so sad. And infuriating.”Benanti is also well known for speaking out about issues that many deem too private for public airing. In April, she wrote an Instagram post about having a miscarriage in the middle of a concert performance on a cruise ship. The post went viral, with pretty much every entertainment and news outlet in the country writing about it. She says she went public with her experience because it’s the sort of thing that should get talked about, but doesn’t.“There is so much shame around women’s bodies and women’s issues. I was literally singing for 2,000 people [when it happened]. I was devastated,” she says. “But in a weird way, it was like I was singing this little being home.”The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year to overturn Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to have an abortion, was a moment that activated Benanti. She has been very vocal about her own difficulties getting pregnant—including having multiple miscarriages, going through in vitro fertilization (IVF) and using a surrogate to carry her second child—and she says she felt a need to help women at that moment in time. “I feel like, in this case, it is doing a service to women to talk about these issues,” she says. “And in particular right now, women are being punished.”Benanti is a Jersey girl through and through. She grew up in Kinnelon and, during the pandemic, moved from New York City back to the Garden State, citing her family’s well-being. “I had told myself we would never live in New Jersey ever again,” she says, laughing. “I’ve grown to love it.”She and her husband, Patrick Brown, have two daughters: Ella, 6, and Louisa, 1. Benanti says there’s no doubt her Jersey background has given her confidence. “This is how I’ve been my whole life. I’ve always had a strong sense of what I feel is right or wrong. People don’t have to agree with me, but I have always had a strong sense of justice,” she says. “That was very encouraged in my home and in my school.”But Benanti, while proud of her outspoken nature and devotion to doing what she sees as the right thing, also muses that it may have had an effect on her professionally. “I feel like, in many ways, I have shot myself in the foot career-wise,” she says. “I am not good at schmoozing. I am not good at being a good soldier and toeing the line. I am not interested in, you know, showing only glamorous, Photoshopped pictures of myself. I think I could have had a more visible career if I had just been pretty and quiet.”One of Benanti’s fiercest champions is her Gypsy co-star, stage and screen legend Patti LuPone. They met in 2008, both won Tonys, and they have been friends ever since. LuPone, who calls Benanti a “unique woman,” says that she is proud of her for her outspoken nature. “More people should be outspoken the way she is,” LuPone says. But she also says she can relate to the challenges it might present: “Women who are outspoken get a terrible reputation.”But being quiet is not exactly what people from Jersey are known for. As Benanti describes it, “Jersey people don’t all agree on the same thing, but there is a passion with which we pursue whatever we think is right.” Benanti says she never saw herself leaving New York City, but the return to her home state has been natural and a positive move for her family. She has met a community of like-minded people, and even other musicians and performers that have inspired her. “[Montclair] is a community in a very different way than I experienced in New York,” Benanti says. “It’s a small-town feel, and I didn’t know how much I needed it.”Benanti is active in her community. Peter Yacobellis, Montclair Township council member, mayoral candidate and director of Out Montclair, says the star’s presence in town can be felt in many ways, from attending council meetings to performing at Montclair’s Pride festival for the past two years to attending a fundraiser “where she was managing this bouncy house where adults had to climb in, and she had a Whac-A-Mole thing where whoever got the most Wiffle balls wins a prize.” Adds Yacobellis, “She’s the real deal.” Two days after the Pride festival, Benanti had a cold. And no wonder—she had just wrapped the play in New York with Broderick and also performed at the Montclair Fund for Educational Excellence fundraiser—not to mention her daily mom duties. But still, she talked with enthusiasm about what’s to come. She is planning to do a musical-theater workshop with fellow local mom and musical-theater writer Miranda Ferriss Jones. She’s writing an audio comedy and music special for Audible that’s in the early stages of production, and she will appear in the upcoming film Goodrich alongside Michael Keaton, out this December. Of course, she will continue to do all she can for the sake of her daughters.“They are entirely my dedication to changing whatever I can, even if it’s in my one-mile radius,” says Benanti.Georgia Kral is a professor of journalism and communications at Saint Peter’s University and a regular contributor to New Jersey Monthly.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Laura Benanti’s Jersey Roots Inspired Her Confidence and Passion appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_315715" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photographer Danny Clinch co-founded Asbury Park's Sea Hear Now festival. Photo: Justin Borucki[/caption]Just a few feet from the beach in Asbury Park—an area rich with rock history—the Transparent Clinch Gallery celebrates music icons.The space displays countless photographs by Danny Clinch, a renowned music photographer who started shooting for SPIN in 1991. It helps that the Toms River native can add a personal touch when customers are browsing images of legends like Eddie Vedder, Tupac Shakur, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Neil Young.“Every photo there has a story,” Clinch says. “It’s the photograph, but then it’s like, ‘How did that photograph happen? What were the things surrounding it that were of that moment?’”For example, Clinch shot the cover art for Bruce Springsteen’s 2020 album Letter to You. The two were walking in Central Park when it started to snow, and Clinch immediately broke out his camera, as he often has throughout his career.[caption id="attachment_315695" align="alignnone" width="778"] Danny Clinch photographed the album cover for Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You during a snowy walk in Central Park.[/caption]He did the same in 1992 when high school friend Tim Donnelly invited him to meet Eddie Vedder at Lollapalooza. Donnelly had an interview scheduled with Vedder for the environmental group Surfrider Foundation.Years later, the three remain friends. In 2021, Vedder’s band Pearl Jam even played at Sea Hear Now—a massive, annual, Asbury-based surf and music festival that Clinch and Donnelly cofounded. Clinch himself joined the band on stage.Clinch and his Transparent staff have been preparing for this year's Sea Hear Now Festival, which takes place September 16-17. They’re installing a Sea Hear Now section at his gallery, and curating art for a Transparent pop-up tent.The tent sells art that festival musicians volunteered to make, and proceeds go to local charities. “That’s always really fun,” Clinch says, “because you discover people that you didn’t realize made art.”[RELATED: 24 Hours in Asbury Park]
For a building dedicated to still images, Transparent Clinch Gallery features plenty of sound. With a small stage and instruments tucked into a corner, Transparent often hosts small concerts highlighting local bands. Since Clinch is so cozy with musicians at every level of fame, it’s not unusual for big-name bands to play pop-up shows at the gallery. The Head and the Heart and the Revivalists did that over the summer before a July 9 show at the Stone Pony. The likes of Nathaniel Rateliff, Gary Clark Jr., Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, and the E Street Band’s Max Weinberg have also performed at Transparent. “I forget that we’re basically there to sell my photography,” Clinch says while recalling how, after that July 9 show, members of the Head and the Heart and the Revivalists returned to the gallery for an impromptu jam session that went past 2 am.This year’s See Hear Now festival is fronted by the acts including the Killers, Foo Fighters, Weezer, Sheryl Crow and the Beach Boys. It remains to be seen who Clinch will play with this year, but he’s already thankful for a lifetime’s worth of unforgettable memories.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post How Danny Clinch Captures the Soul of Music in His Photography and Festival appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_315746" align="alignnone" width="960"] Martin Scorsese will discuss his career with Stephen Colbert as part of the 12th annual Montclair Film Festival. Photo: Brigitte Lacombe, courtesy of Montclair Film[/caption]This year’s Montclair Film Festival will host a special Filmmaker Tribute to legendary film director Martin Scorsese, who will appear in an onstage conversation with Stephen Colbert on October 27.The event, kicking off the 12th annual Montclair Film Festival, will be held at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark at 8 pm. The full festival runs October 20-29.The pair will discuss Scorsese’s career as one of cinema’s greatest filmmakers. Scorsese is an Academy Award-winning director; his latest feature, Killers of the Flower Moon, premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival and will be released in theaters in October.“Over the course of his career as a filmmaker, preservation advocate, and film historian, Martin Scorsese has made an unparalleled impact on the art of cinema,” said Tom Hall, co-head and artistic director of Montclair Film, a non-profit which hosts the Montclair Film Festival. “To honor him with our festival’s 2023 Filmmaker Tribute is an absolute thrill, and we look forward to a delightful, celebratory evening of stories and conversation hosted by Stephen Colbert.”Scorsese, considered one of the most influential filmmakers working today, won an Academy Award for best director for his film, The Departed, which also won best picture. He was nominated for Academy Awards for best director and best picture for The Wolf of Wall Street and The Irishman.“We are so excited to return to NJPAC for our 2023 Filmmaker Tribute to Martin Scorsese,” said Montclair Film executive and co-head Beth Gottung. “We are grateful to our partners, sponsors, and Trustees for their enduring support, and are excited to share this wonderful event as the signature program of the 12th Annual Montclair Film Festival.”Tickets for the conversation go on sale September 13 at 10 am to Montclair Film Members. American Express members and NJPAC donors will receive pre-sale access on September 14 at 10 am. Public ticket sales begin on September 16 at 10 am, at njpac.org and ticketmaster.com, by telephone at 1-888-466-5722, or at the NJPAC Box Office (1 Center Street in downtown Newark). More information about this event can also be found at montclairfilm.org.The full program for the Montclair Film Festival will be announced on September 29.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Martin Scorsese to Appear with Stephen Colbert in Newark Conversation appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_315485" align="alignnone" width="778"] Plainfield native George M. Johnson is one of the most banned authors in the country. Photo: Courtesy of Macmillan Publishers[/caption]The critically acclaimed author of one of the most banned books in the country, All Boys Aren’t Blue, George M. Johnson grew up in Plainfield and lived in New Jersey for many years.Recently, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of books being banned or challenged in school districts across the country, including here in New Jersey. All Boys Aren’t Blue is a story about growing up Black and queer in New Jersey and Virginia.Johnson, 37, is also the author of We Are Not Broken and has two more books coming out soon. The author (who uses they/them pronouns) recently moved to Los Angeles.How did your upbringing in New Jersey help shape you as a writer?I grew up in Plainfield, and my entire family for the most part is still there. We had this very tight family dynamic that my grandmother instilled in all of us. I grew up knowing I was a little different, just because I was effeminate, and I didn't feel like every other boy. But no one in my family ever shunned me for that. I was always included; I was always protected. I think because I got to grow up in that type of upbringing, it allowed me the space to be myself and to kind of grow into the person that I wanted to become, and not the one that society was trying to force me to be. And I think that because of all of that, it gave me the freedom to be a writer and to tell my story and other people's stories. Writing is a form of liberation in many ways. And so as a person who was often fighting against these systems that tried to oppress who I naturally was, writing was how I was able to fight against it.[RELATED: Jersey Towns Battle It Out Over Book Bans]
Why do you think that queer Black voices have been so threatening to some people in this country?It’s interesting because it's not like our voices are something new. If you look back to the Harlem Renaissance, there were multiple Black voices then, and if we look at James Baldwin or Nikki Giovanni or Angela Davis, there have been people who were Black and part of a non-heterosexual community who have always been at the forefront of writing and thought and being critical of the systems at play in this country. What I think is happening now is there’s this fear that because we are more visible now, it is making the youth choose to be like us. But what’s actually happening is that because we're more visible now, other people feel safer to be visible, too—people who have always been like us. And now we don't feel like we have to hide in the ways we did during Stonewall or during the Harlem Renaissance or during other periods in this country. And I think that's really what the greatest fear is—that the more space we allow for people who don't fit into society's mold of hetero norms, [... the more space it allows] for other people who [didn't always publicly identify in ways that they actually wanted to].Why do you think there's been such a dramatic increase in the number of books being banned in the United States?It’s interesting because sometimes I'm caught between: Is it an intentional thing? Or is it just, like, We ran out of ideas, so let's ban books? One question I've been asking a lot of these people who want to ban books is: What’s the difference between a 17-year-old in high school and a 17-year-old or an 18-year-old in college reading these books? When they go to college, they can read whatever they want. So, what is the difference? What is that one year difference making besides the fact that it's blocking important information that they need so that they can be better in college? There's a direct correlation between the rise in sexual assault and rape on college campuses, and the fact that the materials that discuss rape and assault in high school to try to teach kids about consent are being blocked.I think that there is a fear that they have of Generation Z, that is now starting to become very clear after the last couple of votes have happened. Generation Z has very quickly become the largest voting bloc, and they are young adults who love reading YA books like mine, that open them up to worlds of other people—because books are bridges that build empathy for others. And so what happens is: Gen Z will become the next leaders at some point, but if they go into their leadership already knowing trans people, knowing Black people, then when they're making decisions and building this country the way they want to build it, they will want to make sure that they are supporting people that don't [necessarily] look like them. I think that's really what the fear is—that our books help them to understand the lived experience of people who don't look like them, and that it makes them want to change.Do you think that banning books makes young people want to read them more?Yes! It's human nature. When I talk with teens, I find that my book is not their first introduction into things that are sexually explicit. I always think about my own experience. By the time I was 10, I knew what pornography was. When I was 13, the Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton case was the biggest story in the country. There was no way you could shield us from not knowing what happened between them. I always find it funny that [critics] say these books are sexual. I’m like, this country is [sexual]. The former president [was] literally indicted [over alleged hush-money payments to] a porn star. [People] just think [their] teens don't see what actually is happening around them when it comes to sex. [...] Sex is all around them.Can you talk about the efforts in Glen Ridge to ban your book and others?It was so close to home … and it was one of those moments where I had to sit with myself, because I would [have thought] that, at least in my own state, I wouldn't have to deal with this. When it came time for the meeting, I knew I couldn't make it, but I knew my mom and my aunts could go. We didn't know it was going to be that big. [Several hundred people showed up.] For me, it was about defending my book and defending the other books, and standing up for somebody who grew up in this state. When I was a teenager, I didn't have access to this stuff. And so I created these books for the person that I was back then, who deserved to be able to read this stuff. I needed to stand up for 15-year-old me who didn't have a voice back then. I went to Catholic high school, so I already know my book can't be read there. This was me fighting for that person who deserved to have this type of book and this type of resource when I was growing up.It was six people in Glen Ridge trying to remove seven books. I don't even think they had kids in the [schools]. What’s also been interesting with this fight is that people from other places have been coming into other counties to ban books. There was an 11-year-old who spoke [at the Glen Ridge meeting], who identifies as bisexual, and he said, “I've been forced to read heterosexual books my whole life and they're not turning me heterosexual. So, reading books are not going to turn your straight kids gay,” and everybody erupted into applause. Because that's really at the heart of it. I was forced to read heterosexual books my whole life. We all have been, but you still see LGBT people exist, and the only type of books we were forced to read weren't about us.You were named Honorary Chair for Banned Books Week 2022. Can you talk about how censorship can harm young people? What can be done to inform people about it?Censorship harms young people because it places them into a world without any knowledge, resources or capacity to navigate the actual world they're going to live in. When you censor Black books, Latinx books, or books by indigenous people, the child then leaves school with only one frame of reference. When they get to college and they see people of different cultures and they're like, I don't understand this culture. Why do y'all do this? It’s because [of censorship], and that's when the irrational fear starts to build up. That's what censorship does: It creates irrational fears in young adults because it doesn't expose them to the real world that they're going to live in. It's also interesting that they’re not censoring TV, or social media. The same things that I talk about in my books are on TikTok and other places. And so these young people are still getting the information, and I think we can see why they're marching and they're walking out of school [in response to book bans].The best way to keep people informed is to make sure there are other access points where people can get this information, such as libraries.Some of the books that have been banned in the past and present are surprising, such as Charlotte’s Web, The Color Purple and Fahrenheit 451. What are your thoughts about that? When does it end?And where does it start? Some [banned] book lists have 800 books on them. There's no way that [the people wanting to ban them] have read all 800 of these books. That's why I keep saying it's nefarious, because they don't really know what it is they're trying to ban. The Diary of Anne Frank gets caught up in there, and you have to wonder why people shouldn’t know about Nazism and World War II? It’s a part of world history. You remove Charlotte's Web, and you remove Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, and you remove my book … then which books do they actually want kids to read? And, of course, it was the Nazis who also banned books, right? Which was [an early] sign of fascism.We are in a moment where people are tired of always having to answer to the smallest group of people that are affecting all of our lives. That’s what I learned with the Glen Ridge situation, where 500 people had to show up because a few people had issues with our books. That's why we have to fight book bans.Do you ever have young readers come to you and say that reading your book did something important for them?Yes, I've had several young people who have said that reading my book saved their life. I've had people who publicly have changed their name because of the chapter that I wrote about the fact that you have the right to change your name if you don't like it. One teen said that after he read my book, he named his sexual abuser. I get messages about how people say they feel seen for the first time, and they feel heard, and how having the book makes them feel like they also have a space in this world. It's been really beautiful to witness that.I’ve also heard from people who say my books help them build empathy for their friends. There have been heterosexual Black boys who have read the book and had questions about navigating the world as a Black person. And so it has a universal tone to it that allows all young adults to be able to get invested in it.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post NJ Author Is One of the Most Banned in the Country appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
During the pandemic, many people ended up returning to their childhood homes to shelter in place, and novelist Martha McPhee was one of them. She and her family went back to her mother’s farm in Hunterdon County to escape New York City in 2020, living in the home where she was raised.In her first memoir, Omega Farm, McPhee details how she, her husband and their two kids lived with her ailing mother, who was suffering from dementia, for a year. It was a chance for her to care for her mother, but she also began to realize that the house and the 45 acres of property were in a state of serious disrepair.[caption id="attachment_315507" align="alignright" width="350"] Omega Farm is out September 12.[/caption]While living at Omega Farm, McPhee began to manage the forest surrounding her mother’s home, leading to the massive job of replacing the forest’s understory and controlling the deer—as well as to a greater understanding of forest ecology. McPhee is the daughter of celebrated Princeton writer John McPhee. Her parents divorced when she was young. She lived for most of her childhood with her mother, a photographer, and her stepfather, a dreamer and self-proclaimed Gestalt therapist who would meet clients naked in the indoor pool, as well as her four sisters and five stepsiblings. As McPhee embarked on the home-improvement projects, she began to confront her complicated and chaotic childhood and how it had affected her. But her purpose was to “recognize one single life, my mother’s, who had given life to me, to bear witness as she slowly came unmoored, and as my mother became a ghost, to find a way to hold onto that remnant of her, the farm, that I might find—and further—its purpose.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Author Martha McPhee on Returning to Her NJ Childhood Home appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Friday Night Fireworks on the Beach September 1: Kick off the long weekend with some pyrotechnics. Fireworks will light up the sky behind the famous Wildwoods sign. Rio Grande Avenue Beach; 10 pm. FREE.
Jr. Clamshell Pitching Tournament September 1: The Rich Reinhart Junior Clamshell Pitching Tournament, named for the founder of the International Clamshell Pitching Club of Cape May, is open to kids ages 6 to 17. Each player tosses a clamshell about 25 feet towards a small hole in the sand. Shells are provided, or kids can bring their own lucky clamshells. Windsor Beach (across from Congress Hall); noon. FREE.
AirFest 2023 September 1-4: It’s a bird ... no, it’s a plane—and lots of them! This year’s AirFest from the NASW Aviation Museum in Cape May will feature aircraft performing aerial acrobatics. Attendees can also enjoy live music, food and more. 500 Forrestal Road; 10 am–4 pm. $14–$18; children under three, FREE.
Labor Day Concert and Fireworks September 2 (rain date: September 3): Spend Saturday night on the beaches of Manasquan listening to music and watching fireworks light up the evening sky. Main Beach; 7:30-10 pm. FREE.
World Championship Skee-Ball Tournament September 2: At Ed’s Funcade in Wildwood, players vie for skee-ball glory, a trophy and a $1,000 Amazon gift card. Lincoln Ave and Boardwalk; 7-10 pm. FREE.
Fireworks at the Tropicana September 2: End summer with a bang in Atlantic City with a mesmerizing fireworks display. Tropicana beachfront; 10 pm. FREE.
BBQ & NJ Craft Beer Festival September 2-4: Sample brews and barbecue at this annual three-day festival at the Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport. Offerings include tender pulled pork, juicy brisket, smoky ribs and more. Wash it all down with an ice-cold craft beer from a selection of more than 40 options. Live music and free parking make this festival even more of a must. 175 Oceanport Avenue; 11 am–5 pm. $6 per day.
End of Summer Block Party
September 3: This festival will be rocking the block in Wildwood’s Fox Park. Visitors can enjoy crafts, games, rides, food and live entertainment. Ocean Avenue, directly across from the Wildwoods Convention Center; 1-10 pm. FREE.
Viking Village Art & Craft Shows
September 3: Head to LBI's Barnegat Light for a shopping spree, where more than 70 vendors will sell handmade wares. This event will be held rain or shine. 19th Street and Bayview Avenue; 10 am-4:30 pm. FREE.
Labor Day Race
September 4: Lace up your sneaks and get your heart pumping in Ocean City. Participate in the five-mile or one-mile run/walk to benefit local recreation scholarships and programs. 23rd Street Beach; race starts at 9 am. $15-$35.
The post Where to Celebrate Labor Day Weekend at the Jersey Shore appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
It was at Kean University where Ricardo Roig was first introduced to screen printing, an art technique that would eventually define his own personal art. Now, 17 years after graduating, he is returning to where the inspiration struck—as Kean’s newest artist in residence.
Roig, who grew up in Westfield, spent much of his college years at different art programs in Virginia and Maryland. He eventually moved back to New Jersey, transferring to the art program at Kean. It was there that he took a screen printing class that changed his outlook on his own art and process. Screen printing is the process of creating an image by forcing ink through a mesh screen onto a surface.
“I call [my work] hand-cut paper stencil screen print,” Roig says. “[It’s] all printed and a little different, and the imperfections are what created my style. Sometimes I’ll cut them up, glue them together and make a collage. Now I do hand-cut stencil on the wall and spray paint instead of screen printing. It’s exciting to always be developing and trying new things.”
Roig graduated from Kean in 2006, and returned to earn his teaching certification in 2008. He soon became the art teacher in the Westfield public school district while working on his own art after school hours at the Hoboken studio space he and his wife bought. They soon opened Roig’s own exhibition in the studio, which led to exhibits at hotels and larger venues.
The newfound attention led him to quit teaching to continue running his gallery and exhibitions and work on his art full-time. Then his work caught the attention of his alma mater.
Returning to Kean as its artist in residence, Roig will work on various projects for the school, including a 44-by-8 foot mural commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, set to be unveiled this October.
“I would say, look inward and find your voice,” Roig advises any prospective artist. “Stay passionate, feed your creativity, and just keep working. All that love, time and energy creates value, and the others can value it. You value it first, and the others will value it as well.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post He Fell in Love With Screen Printing at Kean University. 17 Years Later, He’s Returning appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
She has been called the patron saint of Springsteen fans. And that’s exactly what Donna Gray—who was bestowed that title by Variety magazine—is.
Gray founded her one-woman operation, Bruce Funds, in 2012, amid Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball tour. The model: Getting concert tickets into the hands of fans who would otherwise be unable to afford or obtain them, plus helping with accessibility and logistical issues that might otherwise hinder a soul-enriching evening of rock ‘n’ roll. “Bruce is on tour; I’m on tour,” Gray says.
Donors can give tickets to specific campaigns or random recipients, and anyone is welcome to nominate a potential recipient. Venmo donations are used to offset additional costs that accompany a night out, from childcare to transportation and parking to food and merchandise.
For Gray, a Connecticut-based editor who previously lived in Parsippany, Bruce Funds has become an enormous “juggling act” as consuming as a full-time job. “I dream about it. I sleepwalk about it. I think about it constantly,” she says. “There’s not a lot of other things that bring me [the same] sense of energetic rejuvenation as helping people get to a show.”
Gray’s involvement doesn’t end once logistics for a given show have been squared away; she checks in with recipients to ensure they arrived. “So if the show is on in Australia, I’m awake,” she says. “I think of them all like my little chickadees: Are they all in the venue okay? Are the tickets okay?”
To date, Gray has facilitated more than 1,200 ticket donations worldwide—from New Jersey to New Zealand; from teenagers to fans in their mid-80s.
Ahead of Springsteen’s homecoming show in Newark this past April, Gray ran a campaign to get a North Jersey high school student and avid drummer, Terrance, to his first Bruce concert. The donated ticket was located behind the stage, technically an obstructed view—but for Terrance, the perfect angle to observe his hero, E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg, in action. The donor “made that young man’s dream come true,” Gray says, wiping tears from her eyes. (One of her mantras: “The tickets always end up in the hands they’re meant to.”)
[caption id="attachment_313918" align="alignnone" width="778"] Springsteen has three Jersey shows remaining on his 2023 tour, for which Gray expects to place "a flood" of tickets. Photo: Courtesy of Shore Fire Media/Danny Clinch[/caption]
At the time of this interview in late July, Gray was expecting to help “a ton of people” for Springsteen’s upcoming trio of MetLife concerts (August 30; September 1 and 3). One ticket recipient from Ocean Township, slated to attend a show for her 60th birthday, doesn’t drive; Gray reached out to a contact at NJ Transit to confirm local trains will be running. “I’m all about creating an experience from start to finish that [recipients] don't have to worry about,” she says.
Gray has always had to screen for potential scammers and scalpers, a challenge compounded each year. But, she says, she still takes to heart the words Springsteen spoke decades ago: “Nobody wins unless everybody wins.”
For more info, visit brucefunds.org or email askdonna@brucefunds.org.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post ‘Patron Saint of Springsteen Fans’ Connects Grateful Fans With Concert Tickets appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
When George Witte, the editor in chief of St. Martin’s Press, takes the train to work in Manhattan, the Ridgewood resident is more than a passive passenger. He’s a productive poet.
Witte finds a seat in the quiet car, pulls out a pen and notebook, and starts writing poetry. “I don’t have a plan in mind,” he says of the writing process. “I try to find a line and feel my way along.”
Many poems written on his commute are featured in An Abundance of Caution (Unbound Edition Press), his fourth book of poetry. The collection offers insightful reflections on life during the pandemic and climate change, plus more personal themes, including a series of poems on the death of his mother.
“Visiting Hours” highlights the range of emotions felt during a trip to see her at a hospital. “Cemetery Geese” details a graveside encounter with nature after her passing, while “As Is” analyzes his feelings at putting his mother’s home up for sale. “The Virgin of Perth Amboy” was inspired by an image that some thought was the Blessed Mother.
Witte says the train poems require revision.
“I go back and rework them, a minimum of six drafts, and sometimes a lot more,” he notes. “I know it’s finished when there’s a certain sense of balance or equilibrium reached—kind of like balancing a very full cup in your hand.”
Witte, 62, began writing poems as a high school junior. Some of his earliest published writing came as an intern at New Jersey Monthly in 1979 after his freshman year at Duke University. “I had at least two articles published in the front of the magazine,” Witte recalls.
He says he plans to keep writing poetry in the future.
“I feel I’m still growing as a writer,” Witte says. “I think I have a lot ahead of me."
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Ridgewood Publishing Exec Writes Poetry on NJ Transit appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Janeece Freeman Clark, founder of the Vanguard Theater Company in Montclair, grew up in Lansing, Michigan, where her love for musical theater was initially sparked. But when she moved to New York City to pursue a career in theater, she was often asked at auditions to act more “Black” or “urban.”
“I was completely insulted,” says Freeman Clark. “I found myself being placed in really specific boxes. I decided the only way to change this was if I got on the other side of the table.”
So in 2015, she jumped at the chance to found her own theater company in the heart of Montclair on Bloomfield Avenue, just a few blocks down from the Wellmont Theater. The goal of the theater is to shift cultural and social narratives through theater; their mission is to DREAM (diversity, reciprocity, education, activism and mentorship).
Since its opening in 2015, the theater has produced classic shows, recasting traditionally white productions and roles with BIPOC (Black, indigenous, and people of color) actors in such musicals as The Music Man in 2017 and Spring Awakening, presented earlier this summer.
The Vanguard has been referred to as Montclair’s best-kept secret. But Freeman Clark says she doesn’t want to be a secret anymore.
The theater is well on its way to that reality, having just last year been awarded the Black Community Commitment Grant by Michael Jordan and the Jordan brand. The theater has also gotten support from another very big name, Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose online shop, TeeRico, and his foundation, the Miranda Family, are sponsors.
As Freeman Clark says, “There’s so much important work that’s being done at the regional theater level.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Montclair’s Vanguard Theater Company Shaking Up Cultural, Social Narratives appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_312691" align="alignnone" width="778"] Modern artist Ellsworth Kelly Photo: Courtesy of Ellsworth Kelly Studio[/caption]
When Ellsworth Kelly was a child, his family moved to Oradell. Living near the Oradell Reservoir inspired him artistically as he observed patterns in the nature around him and became fascinated by local birds.
Kelly’s work often consisted of geometric shapes arranged on a canvas and painted in strong, bold colors. He looked to explore the relationship between form, color and space through his artwork, and he influenced various art movements, such as Minimalism and Pop Art. The late legendary modern artist would have celebrated his 100th birthday this past May.
John J. Trause, director of the Oradell Public Library, says Kelly was a major supporter of his hometown’s library. One of the biggest donors to the library, Kelly even visited in April 2013 during the library’s 100th anniversary celebration. Trause says meeting the trailblazing painter was a delight, and that his personality differed from many of his contemporaries.
“He certainly wasn't a grandstander the way the other artists of his generation were. He was a very affable, great guy, but it wasn't like he was promoting himself the way they did, for example,” says Trause. “He was absolutely thrilled to have come down [to the library]. He was so happy to pose for photographs with us.”
Kelly died in December 2015, at the age of 92. In his memory, the library continues to showcase his work. Two original lithograph prints—"Color Squares 2" (2011) and "Magnolia" (1966)—are currently on display. There are also various framed posters from exhibitions of Kelly’s work throughout the lower level of the library and in the director’s office. Kelly himself donated the posters to the library in 2013.
“Over the years we’ve had a number of programs and lectures about him by scholars and local artists,” says Trause. “It's funny—even some people in the art world are not as aware of his contribution. We’re trying to change that here in his childhood hometown.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Oradell Celebrates 100th Birthday of Late Hometown Artist Ellsworth Kelly appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
When Newark Mayor Ras Baraka asked fayemi shakur to join his administration as the city’s arts and cultural affairs director in 2020, she was hesitant. Her star was rising as a professional artist and writer, and she wondered if this new role would hamper her. Ultimately, it was a position she could not turn down.
“I knew the issues in our artists’ community, and the types of support and the sustainability that [were] needed and deserved,” she says.“Here’s the main thing. I believe that you can do the work if you want to do the work.”
In her role as Newark’s arts and cultural affairs director, shakur (who styles her name without capital letters) took a leading role in the erecting of the new monument to Harriet Tubman, which was unveiled in Newark in March. Leading up to the unveiling, she worked steadfastly to shape the process in a way that centered on Newarkers.
shakur’s ties to Newark run deep. Originally from Plainfield, she spent time as a child visiting her great-grandmother there. She began writing poetry and prose at a young age and was a voracious reader. She moved to Newark in the late 1990s, shortly after finishing her undergraduate studies at New Jersey City University, where she studied journalism.
shakur cemented her career as a cultural doyenne and arts advocate around this time, writing for nationally recognized publications, as well as working at numerous cultural institutions in Newark.
Writing has been a way for her to both create community and to amplify marginalized voices. In 2019, shakur founded A Womb of Violet, a project-based collective “that honors the work of contemporary Black women writers, poets and artists and pays homage to Black feminist and womanist thinkers.” The first volume of an anthology that shakur edited featured the work of women from the collective, all Newark natives.
Looking into the future, shakur has her sights on Newark Symphony Hall, New Jersey’s largest and oldest arts and entertainment venue. In 2021 she was elected as board chair and has been working to revitalize the space.
Currently, shakur is working on a capital campaign to raise funds to restore the building.
“It just would be a phenomenal gift to the city to see that institution return back to its beauty,” says shakur. “Sarah Vaughn performed there, Marian Anderson, Jimi Hendrix. So many phenomenal artists.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Newark’s Arts Director Working to Restore Symphony Hall to Glory Days appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Jerseyans, whether or not their heritage is Italian, know and love Italian food. And judging by its popularity and ecstatic online reviews, Nunzio by Chef Michael DeLone in Collingswood is molto Italiano. A master of the cuisine, DeLone has perfected recipes from every region of Italy's boot. The restaurant resembles an Italian palazzo, with soaring ceilings and hand-painted frescoes on terracotta walls. Tote some Italian wine to this BYO, and presto—you’re in Italia.
And this summer, Wednesdays are even more Italian. There’s live music—romantic, rousing and everything in between—sung in Italian and other languages (sometimes ours) by Shanley Horvitz, who's been singing since childhood.
[caption id="attachment_312683" align="alignright" width="350"] On Wednesdays at Nunzio this summer, Horvitz sings operas, romantic ballads and folk songs from various cultures. Photo: Courtesy of Shanley Horvitz[/caption]
“There must be something in the water,” Horvitz says of her native Vorhees Township, “because the community is passionate about music and the performing arts, and kids have every chance to learn and perform. [...] There was no question about my becoming a professional singer.
“I went to Westminster Choir College in Princeton, now part of Ryder University. I trained as an operatic mezzo soprano and moved to Genoa in northwestern Italy for its many opportunities for singers. I performed frequently and became known for playing the title role in the beloved [Bizet] opera, Carmen.
'Then the pandemic came and the doors closed on singing in public. I came home to Voorhees, and kept up singing lessons and practice.
“When things started to reopen, I made the rounds at restaurants. It was natural for me. I’ve been singing in restaurants since before I could drive myself to them. As a teen, I sang in Beach Haven at The Show Place Ice Cream Parlour, [part of the] Surflight Theatre, which they call Broadway at the Beach. There," she adds with a laugh, "trained vocalists sing as they scoop.
“Singing for customers isn’t Carnegie Hall—where, later, I actually performed a well-received concert. But these local gigs keep your voice in shape, and diners enjoy the change of pace. I was so pleased that Nunzio’s was open to my proposal.”
Affirms Nunzio general manager Anthony Masapollo: “When Shanley knocked on our door, we loved the idea. We like to keep things exciting, and to be an Italian dining destination for multiple reasons. Shanley has a beautiful voice, and adds major entertainment and cultural value. She has brought in a lot of new customers."
“When I perform at Nunzio,” Horvitz says, “nostalgia and joy fill the room. I sing lovely operas full of feeling, plus romantic ballads and folk songs from all over.
“South Jersey is so diverse; there’s usually someone who approaches me after the show to say something like, 'Thank you for making me cry. My grandparents from Sicily—or Ireland, Portugal, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Cuba—played that record.'
“All in all, it’s incredibly rewarding to sing in a sophisticated, multicultural place like Collingswood. And talk about singing for your supper! I get to relish chef Michael’s luscious, authentic Italian dishes. They all reflect the part of Italy they’re from. Eating one dish, suddenly I’m in Napoli. Another, I'm in Tuscany.
[caption id="attachment_312685" align="alignnone" width="778"] The truffle gnocchi at Nunzio is a favorite dish of Horvitz's. Photo: Courtesy of Food Shelter PR[/caption]
"I’m especially partial to chef Michael’s gnocchi with black and white truffle cream. Plus anything with pesto, like his burrata ravioli. Pesto originated in Genoa, where I lived the operatic life,” she adds, a bit wistfully.
“From July 19 through 30, Nunzio’s Christmas in July menu spotlights the Feast of Seven Fishes, Italy’s Christmas Eve tradition,” Horvitz notes. “I’ll be singing at Nunzio every Wednesday through the end of August, and I’d love to sing for you.”
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Shanley Horvitz (@shanleymichelle)
Find more info and upcoming events on Shanley Horvitz's website, and check out her YouTube channel here.
Nunzio’s BYOB, 706 Haddon Avenue, Collingswood; 856-858-9840. Reservations are recommended for Horvitz's Wednesday appearances.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post She’ll Sing for Your Supper: Opera Songstress Brings Her Chops to Nunzio in Collingswood appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The familiar scent of chlorine is almost non-existent throughout Atlantic City's 120,000-square-foot Island Waterpark at Showboat—which bills itself as the world's largest oceanfront water park. The unpleasant odor, which typically smacks indoor water park or pool enthusiasts in the face upon arrival, dissipates due to the Island Waterpark's retractable roof. The sun's rays bounce off of the 11 slides and brighten the six bars as parents indulge in margaritas before relaxing in the 6,500-square-foot Island Drift Lazy River.
That's only one reason that it appears Bart Blatstein's brand-new Atlantic City gamble is a winner. The Tower Investments CEO and Showboat owner has opened the massive Island Waterpark, which complements his arcade and go-cart attractions at the former casino.
The park pleases both parents and children, which is an accomplishment. The line for the 1,000 square-foot Wild Wave FlowRider surf simulator was long on the day I visited, as kids tried to stay on their boards as long as possible. Parents kicked back and enjoyed refreshing frozen margaritas, despite being a whopping $21 each.
There's even an adults-only pool, which is a serene oasis. However, many moms and dads were navigating such slides as the rapid Sonic Serpent and the unpredictable Electric Eel when I visited.
[caption id="attachment_312605" align="aligncenter" width="778"] A retractable roof helps Island Waterpark avoid that infamous chlorine smell.[/caption]
The latter provides the greatest visceral thrill courtesy of the combination of unpredictability, speed, curves and a cool splashdown. There are one and two-person inflatable tubes. Go with the latter since additional weight adds speed. The lead racer will get drenched.
There are two tidal racer slides, where guests zoom head-first on a water mat at a respectable speed. There's a man-made waterfall that is one of the largest custom water forms in the world and a 30-foot-tall Indoor Tree House that can be booked for private parties. There's a pool with two basketball hoops and plenty of balls. We had no problem shooting to our hearts' content while splashing around in between runs on slides.
Island Waterpark has a sleek adults-only venue with a DJ, who spins while overlooking the Bliss Pool. The 21-and-up pool enables guests to gaze at the Atlantic City beach and boardwalk. The Bliss Pool includes Atlantic City's only swim-up bar with bar stools. Free massages are available upon request. There are manicure stations, chair massages, workspaces and Peloton bikes. There's an outdoor turf zone with corn hole. But guests must pay for access to the VIP Bliss Pool area. An additional 30 bucks for access to the adults-only area is worth it if you have children who are fine on their own.
[caption id="attachment_312601" align="aligncenter" width="778"] The Bliss Pool is for adults 21 and up.[/caption]
Admission isn't cheap—$89 per person or $69 at twilight between 4-9 pm. Neither is the food, but it's plentiful. Cocktails start at $17. Burgers are priced at $15. Boardwalk fare, hot dogs, pretzels and chicken fingers are offered. Lines move quickly at the stands, which are located next to arcade attractions.
The park gets a big thumbs-up for cleanliness. The staff was constantly cleaning and often checked the pH levels. It seems as if every other water park experience I've had is followed by an ear infection, but not so after the Island Waterpark.
It's a chill vibe with a playlist, which is designed to appeal to parents. A classic rock tune is almost always followed by a country track surfing over the din of children's laughs and squeals. There's an abundance of staffers, who are attentive. There's lockers for guests. It's $15 for a small locker and $20 for a large locker.
The Showboat has taken a page from the Disney World playbook by incorporating a "Rise n' Shine" hour, which allows hotel guests an exclusive morning hour prior to the general public's arrival. It'll be curious to see if more family-friendly attractions will be added to what used to be known as "America's Playground," which is where seaside recreation was born.
The Island Waterpark is following in the footsteps of the orange loop, which is a developing downtown full of non-casino options, which is finally giving Atlantic City some much needed balance.
Island Waterpark, 801 Boardwalk, Atlantic City; 609-964-7663. Admission is $89, $69 at twilight 4-9 pm (kids 3 and under are free).
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post A Look Inside Island Waterpark at Showboat, Atlantic City’s Massive New Attraction appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
There are hundreds of places to get a better meal in New Jersey, but not many where you can sing, dance and time-travel to a simpler time.
The post Swan Song for Beloved Lyndhurst Karaoke Bar Lee’s Hawaiian appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
On a spring day in 2021, photographer Steve Wagner was taking pictures of a family of osprey he’d come to know well. Each season, the birds (who, in general, can live to be 25 years old and often mate for life) returned to the same nest in Barnegat Bay, and Wagner documented them catching fish, defending their territory, and raising their chicks.
But on this particular day, Wagner witnessed something disturbing. “I was at the nest, and there was a wrapper, a plastic wrapper from roofing shingles, that was intertwined into the nest that wasn’t there the day before,” he says. “The urban runoff, the plastic, has gotten into the environment of our wildlife there.”
[caption id="attachment_312398" align="alignnone" width="778"] Wagner noticed a piece of plastic in the nest of a family of osprey he'd been documenting.Photo: Courtesy of Steve Wagner[/caption]
Wagner, who grew up locally in Normandy Beach, aims to both capture the natural wonders of Barnegat Bay and protect it. His beautiful new coffee-table book, Birds of Barnegat Bay, accomplishes both. The 180-page book places his images of birds alongside interesting facts about each species. Some of the photos feature birds that are well known to most Jerseyans—the herring gull, the great blue heron, the American goldfinch—as well as creatures that may be less familiar or are tough to spot in the wild, such as the snowy owl, the bald eagle and the hooded merganser.
In a mission that is important to Wagner, a portion of proceeds from the book’s sales go to Save Barnegat Bay, a nonprofit working to protect and restore Barnegat Bay—a 64-square-mile section of Ocean County that is home to countless species of birds, fish and crabs.
In addition to photographing wildlife, Wagner focuses on—and has roots in—a very different side of the water. He began his career as a surf photographer, which led naturally into wildlife. “There’s a lot of downtime when you’re waiting for a set of waves,” he says of surf photography. “What happens in that downtime? I started shooting coastal birds in flight that were just going by me in between shooting the surfing. It gradually moved to, Well, I can shoot surfing when there are waves and surfing, but when there are no waves, I can go out and shoot wildlife.”
[RELATED: Yes, the Jersey Shore Has a Thriving Surf Scene]
The book can be purchased for $50 at stevewagner.com, the Barnegat Bay EcoCenter in Toms River, and other Shore-area shops like BookTowne in Manasquan.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Photographer Aims to Capture Natural Beauty of Barnegat Bay—And Protect It appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
In nearly three dozen books, celebrated writer John McPhee has offered in-depth explorations of diverse subjects such as the Pine Barrens, Alaska and oranges. The Princeton resident takes a different tack in Tabula Rasa: Volume 1 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), out in July.
The book is a collection of 50 short pieces, ranging in length from a paragraph to 12 pages, with an underlying connection. The intention of Tabula Rasa, Latin for “blank slate,” McPhee writes, is “to describe in capsule form the many writing projects that I have conceived and seriously planned across the years but have never written.”
McPhee’s writing reflects his eclectic interests, from science to sports, engineering to entertainment. Along the way, he offers glimpses into his personal and professional life.
The wryly titled “Zoom Laude” describes the pandemic’s impact on his students and teaching methods at Princeton University. “The Dutch Ship Tyger” begins with the burning of a 17th-century merchant vessel in the Hudson River in 1613 and how it led to the publication of his first story in the New Yorker years later.
“December 19, 1943” is a powerful autobiographical sketch on the thin line between life and death and a childhood forever changed by one day’s events.
The use of “Volume 1” in the book’s title indicates 92-year-old McPhee is planning a sequel. In “The Moons of Methuselah,” he admits to another motive: “The project’s purpose,” he writes, “is to keep the old writer alive by never coming to an end.”
The post Famed Author John McPhee’s New Book Looks at His Writing Projects appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
When Michael C. Gabriele was finalizing details for the upcoming Jersey-diner exhibit at the Paterson Museum, he and cocurator Heather Garside got together at—where else?—one of the Garden State’s most iconic greasy spoons.
A few miles from the museum, they lunched at the Tick Tock Diner in Clifton, where Gabriele—author of the books Stories From New Jersey Diners, The History of Diners in New Jersey and Colonial Taverns of New Jersey—has been eating since he was a teenager. “My sentimental favorite,” he says fondly.
“Order’s Up! Paterson and the Rise of the New Jersey Diner” opens at the Paterson Museum on Saturday, July 8, kicking off with a public gala from 1-4 pm.
Featuring a panorama of photographs—many taken by Gabriele himself over the years on his many road trips around New Jersey—the exhibit celebrates statewide diners past and present, including those built by the old Silk City Diners division of the Paterson Vehicle Company. Visitors can also expect factoids, artifacts, and a spotlight on Paterson’s legendary hot dog grills and luncheonettes.
And on Saturday, August 5, at 1 pm, Gabriele is presenting “A Roadmap to the Diner Capital of the World”—a 30-minute discussion about the important role the diner has played in Jersey history. “It’s part of the culture, part of the spirit, part of the mythology,” he says.
[RELATED: Why Jersey Is the Diner Capital of the World]
“Order’s Up!” will be on display through September 24.
As for Gabriele’s go-to meal at the Tick Tock? Two eggs (over easy), corned-beef hash (well done), home fries, wheat toast and coffee. And, if he’s in the mood for dessert, a slice of lemon meringue pie.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Paterson Museum Exhibit to Serve Up Jersey Diner History appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_310744" align="alignnone" width="778"] Patty Barber manages daily operations at Silverball Retro Arcade in Asbury Park. Photo: Krista Schlueter[/caption]
Pings, clicks and boings fill the Silverball Retro Arcade in Asbury Park. The satisfying clunk of Skee-Ball and the electro-melodies of Pac-Man mingle with the thwack and jangle of pinball. These are the sounds of fun.
First and foremost, Silverball Retro Arcade is a place to play games. New Jersey has its share of well-stocked arcades, from Game Vault in Morristown to the Yestercades locations in Westfield, Somerville and Red Bank, Lucky Snake in Atlantic City, Jilly’s Arcade in Ocean City, and Retro Arcade & Fascination in Wildwood. But with its scholarly emphasis on rare and vintage pinball machines, Silverball is also a lively museum, as well as a year-round destination on the boardwalk in Asbury Park. Silverball highlights about 200 pinball machines from a rotating collection of about 600. This is where the pinball cognoscenti go to play games.
“All year, people come here from across the country and the U.K.,” says Patty Barber. The senior vice president of Silverball, she manages the daily operations in Asbury Park. “We have one guy who comes up from Philly every week. We also host tournaments through the International Flipper Pinball Association every other month in the offseason.”
[caption id="attachment_310697" align="alignnone" width="778"] Silverball is a pinball lover's paradise, highlighting about 200 pinball machines from its rotating collection of about 600. Photo: Krista Schlueter[/caption]
In 2015, Silverball opened a second location in Delray Beach, Florida, where founder Rob Ilvento lives in the offseason. His pinball empire has humble origins, going back to its 2009 opening in the basement below Groovy Graveyard, a record store on Cookman Avenue in Asbury Park. It was a place to showcase his pinball collection. But Ilvento, a West Long Branch native who dropped out of Rutgers and founded Cluck U Chicken in New Brunswick in 1985, had a knack for knowing what would take off. When his elder daughter took a liking to pinball, Ilvento sensed the potential for a new audience for a game familiar to Baby Boomers and Gen X’ers.
In 2010, Silverball moved to the boardwalk, where it became popular with tourists and beachgoers. (“If you go to Asbury Park, you’ve gotta go there,” Ilvento says.) It cultivated a following of serious players through its VIP membership, which offered a discount on admission and other benefits for subscribers. Paul Rubin, a pinball aficionado who lives in the Laurence Harbor section of Old Bridge, hits the arcade at least once a week. “The attitude at Silverball is wonderful,” Rubin says. “They’re very friendly, they’re happy to see you, and they have some very, very rare machines.”
[caption id="attachment_310751" align="alignnone" width="778"] People come to play games at Silverball from across the country and the U.K. Photo: Krista Schlueter[/caption]
Among those rarities, Ilvento is proud to include a Kiss machine, which Bally introduced in 1979 in tribute to the hard rock band with the painted faces. Among the oldest machines at Silverball is Knockout, a 1950 boxing-themed game by Gottlieb. Ilvento himself loves the Bally machines from the 1960s, along with a favorite from childhood: Evel Knievel, Bally’s 1977 tribute to the daredevil stuntman.
Rubin, 72, has been playing pinball since childhood. “My great-grandfather lived in the Asbury Park area, and he’d give us handfuls of pennies and nickels for the arcade,” Rubin says. “In 1967, I was a lifeguard in Belmar, and there was an arcade in town where I’d play. When pinball took off again with Silverball, I decided to start playing in tournaments.”
Rubin advises newcomers to the game to start slowly and keep practicing. “You can even go to YouTube and learn and practice basic moves,” Rubin says. “It’s like learning to play an instrument.”
[caption id="attachment_310698" align="alignnone" width="778"] Game design delivers an eyeful, whatever the score. Photo: Krista Schlueter[/caption]
At Silverball, a placard hangs above each pinball machine extolling its particular virtues and putting it in historical context. The placard for Melody, a 1966 pinball game by Gottlieb, credits Ed Krynski as the designer and Art Sternholm as the artist, explaining, “This game parallels the classic Gottlieb game Kings and Queens, which is in the museum,” and adding helpful hints: “If you hit the four numbers in one color sequence, the matching eject hole randomly lights to score an extra ball. A lot of points will be awarded if you land in the left hole as the ball is advanced to the right and then ejected to the flipper.”
“I knew people would appreciate the beauty of these machines,” Ilvento says. “It’s art that you can interact with.”
Of course, there’s a difference between the way someone like Rubin interacts with the art and the way your average 10-year-old smacks the flippers and yanks on the plunger. Commercial pinball machines take a lot of abuse and, therefore, need a lot of upkeep. That’s where Tim Sullivan, a 28-year-old from Keansburg, comes in. As operations manager for Silverball, he is in charge of keeping the tech in working order. Tasks include vacuuming the interior of the pinball cabinet, the box-like body that holds the play field, to reduce damage from dust, as well as performing minor repairs such as replacing the coil on a plunger or tightening a flipper.
[caption id="attachment_310694" align="alignnone" width="778"] Some machines are older than ace technician Tim Sullivan, 28. Photo: Krista Schlueter[/caption]
Sullivan also fully restores pinball machines for Silverball. When necessary, a part can be cannibalized from a machine that is beyond repair, but, he says, most parts are commercially available. Working on a 300-pound pinball machine is a lot like being an auto mechanic, he says.
“It’s fun to restore a pinball machine, remove the filth, and bring it back to life,” Sullivan says. He is mostly self-taught. “I’ve been around pinball all my life,” says Sullivan, whose father repairs pinball machines, slot machines and jukeboxes. “I used to go on service calls with my dad.” The younger Sullivan can rattle off arcane details about pinball machines: “There is a mile of wire in a typical game.”
Barber considers Sullivan a wunderkind. “He can hear a strange noise from across the building, know what’s wrong and on which machine,” she says. As a player, Sullivan favors pinball games from the 1990s, such as Getaway, by Williams, and Creature From the Black Lagoon, by Bally, both released in 1992. He holds the high score on many machines at Silverball. Among modern games, he is intrigued by anything made by Jersey Jack, founded in 2011 in Lakewood and now a competitor to Stern, the last of the classic American pinball companies. Jersey Jack designed and manufactured its games in Lakewood, but moved to Elk Grove Village, Illinois, in 2020 to be closer to Chicago, long the center of the industry.
[caption id="attachment_310695" align="alignnone" width="778"] “It’s art that you can interact with,” Silverball founder Rob Ilvento says of the arcade's game machinery. Photo: Krista Schlueter[/caption]
Rubin has a soft spot for the pinball machines of his youth, but he also eagerly follows new releases by Jersey Jack. In Rubin’s opinion, Stern games are overrated. “Jersey Jack is like a Cadillac,” Rubin says. “Stern is like a Chevy.”
Reached by phone while at a pinball event in Paris, Jack “Jersey Jack” Guarnieri likened his company’s mission to a Broadway production. “You want to tell a story of what the game is,” says Guarnieri, who lives in Toms River. “We need to write a whole script for the speech calls. For Toy Story 4 [2022], we hired Tim Allen and Tom Hanks’s brother to record them: ‘Shoot the ramp!’ and ‘Multi-ball!’ and so on. And we need to hire good artists. It’s sensory overload.”
Jersey Jack releases a new game about every year. The first was Wizard of Oz in 2013, the theme of which Guarnieri hoped would appeal to women and young people. The guitarist Slash has purchased Jersey Jack pinball machines for his home, so Guarnieri approached him about creating a Guns N’ Roses machine, which was released in 2020. “We licensed 22 songs for that,” Guarnieri says.
Jersey Jack machines are known for innovations such as LCD screens on both the play field and the upright panel called the back box. There are headphone jacks for full immersion and cameras in the back box to take selfies.
Silverball does not arrange its machines chronologically: Gottlieb’s Melody from 1966 stands next to Jersey Jack’s Pirates of the Caribbean from 2018. But the arcade makes sure that the games most sought by patrons are on the floor. Among the most popular this year is Jersey Jack’s latest release, The Godfather 50 Years, released in 2023 to commemorate the classic 1972 Francis Ford Coppola film. “It’s important to have places like Silverball,” Guarnieri says. “It’s important to have physical public locations to play games. That’s how interest in the games will grow.”
[caption id="attachment_310693" align="alignnone" width="778"] Patty Barber rarely gets to sit down on the job. Photo: Krista Schlueter[/caption]
Anticipating growth, the arcade expanded in 2022, adding about 500 square feet, for a total of about 4,500 square feet, by taking over the adjacent space that had previously housed the restaurant Pop’s Garage. “We took the kitchen out of the game area to make more room for games and to space things out,” Barber says. Silverball also moved the private-party area from the middle of the game floor to its own separate area.
Ilvento would like Silverball to grow even more. He has his eye on the Fourth Avenue pavilion. “That building has 16,000 square feet on the ground level and 16,000 square feet upstairs,” he says. “That would make us the biggest arcade in the world. And we can handle it! Some of our winter weeks are even busier than the first few weeks of summer.”
Kelly-Jane Cotter is a veteran journalist who grew up grooving on the arcades of Asbury Park and Beach Haven.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Silverball Retro Arcade in Asbury Park: A Treasure Trove of Classic and Rare Games appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_310236" align="alignnone" width="778"] Zombie Wedding filmed in Vineland this past fall. Photo: Courtesy of Zombie Wedding/Jeff Harris[/caption]
Vineland, a small city in Cumberland County—once home to the Progresso soup company and the poultry industry—is on the verge of becoming a filmmaking hub in South Jersey.
Greg D’Alessandro, a writer and producer who grew up in Franklin Lakes, has opened a 40,000-square-foot production studio in town. His company, Weekly World News Film (yes, that Weekly World News), filmed its new movie, Zombie Wedding, there this past fall.
Established in 1979, Weekly World News (WWN), a satirical supermarket tabloid, went out of print in 2007. Four years ago, D’Alessandro helped to relaunch it, focusing instead on TV shows, films and podcasts associated with the brand. He is CEO and editor in chief.
Much of its content is comedy horror, including Bat Boy: The Musical. When D’Alessandro was hunting for a location for his production studio, he met Vineland Mayor Anthony Finucci, who was eager to bring new businesses to his city, located between Philadelphia and Atlantic City. Finucci offered him a low-cost, extended lease on a large, long-empty building. The city invested in the film, and the company opened its doors in September 2022. The full studio will launch this year with a Volumetric display, an LED screen that allows for 3-D, full-volume filmmaking rather than green screens, says D’Alessandro.
Zombie Wedding is part of a trilogy, and WWN is also producing a documentary about the newspaper. D’Alessandro also plans to rent the studio to other production companies. “We want people to use the building and help Vineland,” he says, noting his crew spent more than $800,000 in town on hotels, restaurants and bars during a recent filming. They also used residents as crew members and extras. “We want to spend as much money as possible in the town,” he says. “It’s a perfect place for filming; the streets and town look like anywhere, America, and the people here are nice. It has great potential.”
So you think you know Jersey? Check out our list of fascinating things you might not know about our state.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Vineland on the Verge of Becoming a Filmmaking Hub in South Jersey appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Rachel Martens and Janette Ashfarian both felt lost after moving from Brooklyn to New Jersey with their families. But an unlikely connection brought them together—and helped them create a podcast that highlights the people and places making the Garden State home.
The duo met at a friend’s barbecue in Montclair back in 2009. There, they discovered that they had already crossed paths back in Brooklyn, when they had unknowingly bid against one another for the same apartment.
Then, years later, frustrated by the isolation of the pandemic, they talked about their hopes and dreams for the future, and Martens mentioned her desire to start a podcast. The idea for their joint podcast, Lost in Jersey, was born, and it launched earlier this year.
Martens, who tackles the sound engineering in addition to her cohosting duties, describes the podcast as New Jersey’s version of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, because the cohosts get to know their neighbors and learn about what makes them unique.
“But it’s also being witty and funny and relaxed,” she says.
Ashfarian, who manages all aspects of artwork, graphics and social media, says the podcast is modeled on the phone conversations in which she and Martens effortlessly jump from discussions about politics to home decor to parenting to careers to therapy.
Ashfarian says that, through the podcast, she and Martens have met people who strive to achieve their dreams while living in the Garden State. “It makes me love New Jersey more and more,” Ashfarian says.
Some of the guests who have joined Lost in Jersey include Montclair council member Peter Yacobellis, writer Kate Zernike, street photographer Chanda Hall, and New Jersey Monthly contributor Dionne Ford, whose new memoir explores her family’s history and her journey to find healing.
The diverse array of guests is “what makes it eclectic and fun,” Martens says, adding that they are just getting started.
Ashfarian has a vision for the podcast’s future: “I want the governor. I want every celebrity that lives in New Jersey on the podcast. Every single one of them. I want anybody who’s done big things, and also I want just regular people that we interact with every day.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Two Former Brooklynites Felt Lost in New Jersey. Their Friendship Led to a Podcast appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_309494" align="alignnone" width="778"] Former FBI director James Comey has found a new passion in crime fiction. Photo: Courtesy of James Comey[/caption]Former FBI director James Comey has taken a surprising turn with his latest project, a crime novel called Central Park West, much of which is set in his home state of New Jersey.Comey grew up in Allendale, where, as a teenager, he was the victim of a frightening home invasion. He and his brother were held at gunpoint by a man thought to have been the Ramsey Rapist, a criminal who terrorized Bergen County in the late 1970s. For years, Comey had nightmares about the incident. (No one was ever sent to prison for the crimes.) Comey, who raised his children in Maplewood and now lives in Virginia, went on to become a prosecutor, a U.S. attorney and a defense lawyer before joining the FBI and taking the job of director in 2013. He was fired by former President Donald Trump in 2017, prompting an investigation into Russian election interference and collusion with the Trump campaign. His new book draws on his experience in law enforcement and the legal system and his background in prosecuting the Mob, which figures prominently in the novel. [caption id="attachment_309493" align="alignright" width="350"] Central Park West is out now. Photo: Courtesy of James Comey[/caption]Why did you want to write a crime novel, and have you been wanting to do so for a long time?I was first nudged by my editor from my last nonfiction book, Saving Justice, which is a set of stories from cases I did. It’s funny, he would refer to something in the book as a scene, and he would say it reads like fiction. Then he asked if I’d ever considered writing crime fiction. I said no. And then he would nudge me again. I sort of ignored it. But then I was talking to Patrice, my wife, about it, and she said, “You know, you might have more fun with it than you think,” ...and then she pitched me on this story about the Mob in New York, and I started writing it and found it harder than nonfiction—but addictive. So I never expected to be here, but I’m very glad that my old editor nudged me. Because I really did enjoy it as much as he thought I might.What is your writing schedule like?The day began with my wife, Patrice, and I having coffee and talking about her comments on what I’d written the day before. I write on a Google doc—I learned how to type at Northern Highlands High School. She makes editorial comments like, “This doesn’t make sense,” or, “This looks good.” And then we discuss those comments. Then I go to work. Some days I run out of gas after a few hours, and some days you just get lost and look up and it’s been six or seven hours, and you didn’t eat. When the weather’s OK, I’ll sit on our back porch, or I’ll go sit in the corner of our living room and work on my laptop.How much of your experience in law enforcement did you use in the story?A ton of it is drawn from my experience—really in three different ways: first, as a line prosecutor in Manhattan doing Mob stuff; then, as the U.S. attorney in Manhattan after 9/11; then, as the FBI director, because it gave me insight into a lot of things that the bureau does. What I tried to do is write it as real as fiction can be. I mean, it’s still fiction, but I tried to bring people into the courtroom, into the cases, in an accurate way, so the reader will get a sense of how it really works. The people are drawn from witnesses and lawyers and colleagues I really dealt with. The character Frenchie is closely based on a real, high-end art thief who was a witness for me. One of my current editors wanted to change something about the way in which Frenchie stole a Remington from an Upper East Side gallery. And he said, “That just doesn’t seem realistic.” And I said, “Look, it actually happened that way.”When you were a teenager growing up in Allendale, you and your brother were held at gunpoint by someone thought to have been the Ramsey Rapist. That must have been a frightening experience. Did it give you insight into how victims feel?I was a senior in high school in the fall of ’77, which for the New York metropolitan area was the summer of the Son of Sam, when the killer was preying on people. But in Bergen, especially Northern Bergen, there was a figure who was all over the media called the Ramsey Rapist, who was a serial robber and rapist who was preying on babysitters. It was a really big deal in that area at the time. I was home one night in my family’s little ranch house in Allendale. And the police thought that this guy thought he saw my sister in the basement alone—it turned out it was actually my brother, and he obviously didn’t know that I was home. It’s a really, really scary story. [The intruder] had a ski hat on and had a gun, and he held my brother and I captive. We escaped out a bathroom window; then he caught us again. I was certain he was going to kill us. It was just a crazy, crazy night.People used to say to me, “Thank God you weren’t hurt.” And I would say, “Yeah, we’re very lucky.” Of course I’m thinking, What does that mean? I thought about that guy every night—not most nights, every night—for five years.I’m 62 years old, and my parents are both gone now. But when I drive past that house, I still think of it. And so it gave me, I hope, empathy for victims of crime. I hope it made me a better prosecutor [and] law enforcement person, because I could try to understand a piece of what violent crime does to innocent people.Is that partly why you got into law enforcement?I don’t think so. That’s what’s so odd, is I think I still wanted to be a doctor after that. But, you know, we’re all poor narrators of our past. I have to think it was something that nudged me, but I didn’t know I wanted to be in law enforcement until I went to law school. I worked in the legal aid clinic and thought, This is part of helping people that I like—just like the reason I wanted to be a doctor. And then I was struck by lightning in a courtroom in the Southern District of New York, watching the government try and detain a Mob boss. I’ve always hated bullies. And I thought, These are the biggest bullies there are. If I can be part of saving people from these people, wow. And that’s when I went home and called my girlfriend, now my wife, and said, “I know what I want do with my life.”Your novel is set partly in Hoboken and Maplewood. What are your ties to those places?I used to live in Hoboken for four years—first, right near 10th and Bloomfield, and then 8th and Willow. When we got married, we lived at 12th and Washington. I wanted to have Nora [the main character in the novel] live near there because I know that area really well. Then, we moved out to Maplewood.What made you want to set your novel in those places?They are places that I have fond memories of, and I could go there in my mind and feel it—the sidewalk and the train station. I just spent so much time in those places. Hoboken is a walking city, and I spent so much time walking around that I could imagine it in a way that I was really there, which is harder with places that I’ve never been to.Have you started working on your next book yet?Yes, I’ve finished the draft of the next one, and it’s in the process of “family review.” I have five kids and they’re really smart, so they read it and give me feedback. Then I’ll send it out to friends who know law enforcement. I imagine this as at least a trilogy. The next book will move the locus of action to Westport, Connecticut, to an enormous hedge fund—which I also worked at— between government stints. I was the general counsel of Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defense contractor—so that’ll figure in future books, and then Bridgewater Associates, which is a hedge fund.Will the next book feature the same characters?The character of Nora will be at the center of the next book. She’s a great character.Yes, I can see her. It’s another thing that happens in fiction—they become real. And when someone suggests a change, your reaction is, “I can’t change that. That’s Nora.” And my wife has to say, “Dear, Nora is made up.”Some novelists say that they sit down and the characters kind of guide the story.It’s true. Nora is inspired by my oldest daughter [Maurene Comey], who’s a federal prosecutor in Manhattan. She prosecuted Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein, until Epstein killed himself. And she prosecuted the Maxwell trial in courtroom 318. Here’s where it’s really strange. It’s the same courtroom where I prosecuted John Gambino when she was a little girl growing up in Maplewood. I wanted to go watch the trial. I was writing this book while she was doing that trial, and I wanted to go watch, but she banned me because she said, It’ll be too much of a thing. How do you compare the pressures of working in law enforcement and being the FBI director to writing a novel?They’re similar in the sense that your work is going to be judged by people you don’t know. And that’s true in a high-profile public job and in this. But [they’re different] in the sense that this is a lonely, almost solitary job in the way that being director of the FBI is not, because you’re surrounded by people literally all the time. You have a security team around you all the time. The job never leaves you. And that’s a different kind of pressure. It makes it much harder than being a novelist. [New Jersey author] Harlan Coben described himself to me in a way that fits me. He said, “I am a socially adept introvert.” And so am I. I can do all the public stuff, but I don’t get energy from it.I would much rather be alone or with my family in my backyard, sitting on my porch working on something like this. So it’s easier for me in that way too. Whereas being FBI director was hard because I don’t want to be famous. I don’t want to be out there with big groups of people. I know I’m going to have to go on the road and promote this book, but that public profile for someone with my kind of personality is a lot of work, in a way that being a novelist is not.Do people still ask you about the Hillary Clinton email investigation? Does that still come up when you talk to people?It does sometimes. But far less as time goes by, and almost never with younger audiences. But people do. And I tell them it’s one of the biggest nightmares I’ve ever been involved in. I had two choices, and, as one of my colleagues said, there were two doors, and they both led to hell. There was no good option for me, for us then. But now people recognize me much less, which is a good thing. Now I get, “I think I know you?”I’ll tell you a true story from this week. I was in the supermarket just outside of Richmond, Virginia, and a lady came up to me and said, “I think I know you.” And I kind of shrugged. And she said, “I think I do.” And I said, “Well, I used to work in the government.” And she said, “No, my husband works in the government, that’s not it.” And I said, “Well, I used to be the FBI director.” And she says, “Nah, that’s not it. I’ll think of it.” And she walks away.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Ex-FBI Chief James Comey Draws on Jersey Roots in New Crime Novel appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
He might be a global superstar now, but Charlie Puth hasn’t forgotten his Jersey roots.The Rumson native, 31, is heading home on June 3 for a show at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel—made even more special because that's where he saw his first concert, James Taylor."It’s going to be a full circle, special moment,” says Puth.Although it'll be a brief trip (he has a show in Virginia the next day), the "See You Again" singer plans to squeeze in time with loved ones and indulge in his favorite pizza—a must for any true Jersey boy.“[I’m looking forward to] having Sea Bright pizza backstage after the show, an entire grandma pie to myself," he says. "But not before because then I won't be able to sing.”Puth—who has performed at arenas all over the world, released multiple platinum-selling albums and earned millions of social media followers—says his upbringing in the Garden State heavily influenced his pursuit of a music career, growing up surrounded by local acts and bands who gained small but loyal followings. He says the state has a unique way of making anyone into somewhat of a celebrity.“Everyone’s a mini celebrity in New Jersey. Whether it's a suit maker in town making suits for everyone [or] a pizza guy, everyone is a personality," he says. "New Jersey is the state with the most personalities. Growing up around that made me want to have that and then some.”Puth has come a long way from those humble Rumson beginnings. He’s gone from idolizing Jersey heroes like Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi to speaking with them occasionally over the phone. He made a name for himself with his first two albums, Nine Track Mind and Voicenotes, and is now touring the continent in promotion of his latest release, the self-titled Charlie, released last October.This album is his most personal yet, delving heavily into past relationships. Puth says it was a challenge writing and recording the first few songs, but once he got through those, he was able to create the rest of the album in its entirety with more ease.“The only way to make music that feels real is to tell the truth," he says. "The most important thing is for people to relate to it and make their own memories and experiences toward the album. If people can relate to it, it's my pleasure.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7GITgqwDVgPuth has previously worked with some of the biggest names in the industry, including James Taylor, Selena Gomez, Elton John and Boyz II Men. But this project features his first collaboration with a K-pop artist, Jungkook of the popular boy band BTS on the track “Left and Right.”“It was one of the most positive experiences I ever had working with a different artist," Puth says of Jungkook. "When I met him, he didn't really carry himself like he was a big presence. He was very humble, respectful of my team as we were of theirs. It was such a regimented, easy process filming the music video and getting the vocals done.”Puth is working on his next album, which he expects to finish by the end of the tour. He says the project will be entirely R&B, a genre he’s worked on before but never put together in a full album.As for the future, Puth dreams of headlining a show at the Prudential Center in Newark one day, having previously performed there as an opener for Shawn Mendes in 2017. But in the meantime, he’s grateful to perform this weekend at what will be his biggest Jersey concert to date—and to pick up a scooped sesame bagel with butter from Bagel Masters in Shrewsbury (no eggs because he’s allergic).The post How Charlie Puth’s New Jersey Roots Shaped His Music Career appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_309248" align="alignnone" width="778"] Jenn Hampton is Asbury Park's curator of public art. Photo by Krista Schlueter[/caption]When Jenn Hampton, known as Juicy Jenn, moved to Asbury Park in 2003, the city was still famously deserted, poverty-stricken and crime-ridden, and the historic Palace Amusements was being torn down. But her idea to create murals throughout the city helped transform Asbury into a destination for the arts and was a major part of the city-by-the-sea’s radical transformation. She gravitated to Asbury Lanes, the 1960s-era bowling alley that reopened as a live-music venue in 2004. Eventually, she took on the role of booking the fringe acts it was known for—the punk bands, films, burlesque performers, DJs, visual artists—along with cheap drinks and famous tater tots. And as she is known to do, she poured her whole being into it.
In 2006, the city was feeling positive momentum when Hampton, now 48, opened the Cry Baby Gallery and then the Parlor Gallery, both on Cookman Avenue.
She was still managing the Lanes, which became an indie clubhouse for the Shore and Central Jersey region, helping to attract new visitors, and even residents, to Asbury. When the company I-Star bought up 70 percent of the buildable land on the Asbury waterfront, it included Asbury Lanes. But the development company rebuilt and reopened the venue without her.
“Music creates a certain community that feeds an art community. An art community feeds a music scene,” she says. “I had the best of both of those worlds. I didn’t need anything else. I was so heartbroken after I lost Asbury Lanes.”
She comforted herself by spending time by the ocean and came up with the idea to commission artists to adorn boardwalk buildings with art. “I thought that working with artists to inspire visitors might heal my broken heart,” she says.
The proof of concept came when Hampton’s longtime business partners, Michael Lavallee and Brad Hoffer, painted an expansive mural in the boardwalk passthrough of the Casino building (which was recently closed indefinitely due to structural rust). In 2015, Carrie Turner, now executive director of the Asbury Arts Council, and Angie Sugrim, both former employees of Madison Marquette, which owned the boardwalk buildings, diverted funds from advertising to pay eight artists to adorn walls. “Art is educating people, making them comfortable. My brain doesn’t work in a way that is only driven to the profit. Your return on investment in art isn’t as obvious,” she says.
[RELATED: 24 Hours in Asbury Park, the Jersey Shore’s Coolest Town]
Today, Hampton’s Wooden Walls Project has grown to include ambitious installations and residencies, giving thousands of Asbury visitors a visual experience they won’t see anywhere else on the East Coast. She’s also worked to bring projects to the overlooked west side of the city.
But after 20 years of the transformation, Hampton is aware of the trade-offs. Facilitating public art helped fuel Asbury’s gentrification—but now some people who helped to pave the way can’t afford to live there.
“I try to tell our local officials that you wouldn’t want to be in this city if we didn’t have the vibrant music and art that we have,” she says. “That was why we were all drawn here.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Meet the Creative Force Behind Asbury Park’s Transformative Art Scene appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_309037" align="alignnone" width="778"] Joshua S. Levy hopes that his stories help children work through their own experiences. Photo: Chris Buck[/caption]Joshua S. Levy understands the reality of living multiple lives. Levy, 37, is a director in the commercial and criminal litigation group at Gibbons P.C., a law firm in Newark.Outside of his 9-to-5 job, Levy writes middle-grade fiction.The Milford resident’s latest book, The Jake Show (HarperCollins, May 23), tells the story of Jake Lightman, a Jewish teenager starting seventh grade at his fifth new school since his parents’ divorce. Torn between the worlds of his Orthodox mother and secular father, TV-obsessed Jake dreams up realities in his head in order to escape his constantly shifting world. When his new friends invite him to summer camp, Jake must create an elaborate lie so that both of his parents will let him go.As a Jewish kid with divorced parents, Levy says he had to navigate similar realities. Growing up, Levy says there weren’t many books that highlighted his experiences or featured children from Orthodox backgrounds. Levy feels “so privileged to be able to tell this story, both for [himself] and to kids who might see themselves in aspects of it, too.”But Levy also believes The Jake Show is a story for everyone. “A kid who is caught between the different worlds of his different family members—that framework is universal,” he says.Part of Levy’s inspiration comes from his time as a counselor at Jewish summer camps and as a middle school teacher, prior to attending law school.Levy says that middle school is a dynamic time for children who are finding their voices, developing confidence, and learning how to accept differences between themselves and others.He is also the author of a three-part sci-fi series, the final installment of which is coming out in August, and two more books coming out next summer. Levy says he hopes that his stories help children work through their own experiences.Every person is going through something important, Levy says. When the last page is turned, “I don’t want the reader to walk away thinking there is a right or wrong way to be.”Click here to read all of our Jersey-centric summer book picks.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Jersey Lawyer Writes Middle-Grade Fiction in His Free Time appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_309034" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration by Kotryna Zukauskaite[/caption]It’s been quite a year for novelist Ann Napolitano. Dear Edward, the writer’s 2020 best-selling novel about the lone survivor of a plane crash, was turned into a successful series on Apple TV+. And now, none other than Oprah Winfrey has chosen Napolitano’s latest book, Hello Beautiful, as her 100th book club selection.Hello Beautiful is a touching, carefully woven story about the four Padavano sisters from Chicago. But it’s also the story of William Waters, a man who marries into the family, bringing with him hefty emotional baggage that he isn’t capable of unpacking.Napolitano says she’s been fascinated with large families since her middle school years. Growing up in North Jersey, her best friend’s mom had an enormous extended family that included five sisters. Napolitano said she was eager to see if she could write about that dynamic, bringing it to life on the page in the way she’d often seen it play out.Her books went unpublished for years, and she was turned down by agents before she found success with Dear Edward.Napolitano’s extended family is also large. She credits her mother’s brother with the book’s title.All of her mother’s siblings lived in New Jersey. But her Uncle Ed moved to Chicago and frequently sent her postcards of landmarks there, always opening them, “Hello Beautiful.” These postcards were meaningful to a shy, bookish child.“I knew he didn’t really know what I looked like because he hardly ever saw me, but they made me feel very special because I felt like he was seeing the beauty that was inside me,” she says.Hello Beautiful (Dial Press, March 14) will tug on your heartstrings as you navigate the precious bonds of sisterhood and more. But pace yourself as you follow the sisters on their journeys. Don’t rush toward the end, because when you get there, you’ll be aching for more of the Padavano sisters.Click here to read all of our Jersey-centric summer book picks.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post NJ Author Receives Oprah’s Stamp of Approval appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_309033" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration by Kotryna Zukauskaite[/caption]Sea ChangeGina ChungVintage Books, March 28In her debut novel, Bergen County native Gina Chung contemplates trauma, loss and change. She tells the story of Ro, a Korean American woman estranged from her mother. Below the surface, Ro experiences heartbreak when her boyfriend leaves to join an expedition to Mars, leaving her to continue working at an aquarium. Ro finds comfort in Dolores, a giant Pacific octopus who lives in the aquarium. When Ro discovers that Dolores has been sold to a wealthy investor, she must decide if she will let the past bury her, or if she will battle against the current and create a new life for herself. —Olivia BardoSpeaking Yiddish to Chickens: Holocaust Survivors on South Jersey Poultry FarmsSeth SternRutgers University Press, March 17Nearly 1,000 Eastern European Jews immigrated to Vineland and the surrounding region after World War II to start new lives as farmers. Bloomberg journalist Seth Stern, whose maternal grandparents made that journey, compellingly recounts the farmers’ successes and setbacks in adapting to a new life and language. It’s a story that remains relevant amid the continuing debate on immigration. —Tom WilkThe Daughter ShipBoo TrundlePantheon Books, June 27In her unique debut novel, Maplewood resident Boo Trundle tells the story of Katherine, a woman haunted by sexual trauma and other dark memories, losing and finding herself over the course of her lifetime. Told through the perspectives of Katherine’s multiple inner lives, The Daughter Ship details the fractured parts of the mother of two, who struggles with many fears and intrusive thoughts. The story unfolds in alternating vignettes narrated by Truitt, Star and Smooshed Bug, versions of her childhood self who convene in a rusted World War II submarine in Virginia Beach, where they manage the stormy waters of her past and strive for liberation in Katherine’s future. —OBDeliver Me From Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s NebraskaWarren ZanesPenguin Random House, May 2Dive into the making of an iconic album by a New Jersey rocker. In Deliver Me From Nowhere, Montclair author and musican Warren Zanes tells the story of how Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska came to be. One of Springsteen’s darker records, the 1982 solo project includes songs such as “Atlantic City,” “Open All Night,” “Mansion On The Hill” and “Johnny 99.” Now Zanes, who played alongside the Boss as a member of the Del Fuegos, is telling the tales behind an album that Rolling Stone has consistently described as one of the greatest of all time. —Gary PhillipsThe Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in ScienceKate ZernikeSimon & Schuster, February 28When MIT admitted in 1989 to discriminating against female members of its faculty, it created a paradigm shift in the way institutions across the country treated women at the top levels of science. New York Times reporter Kate Zernike, who lives in Montclair, tells the story of the women who made it all happen and their brave fight to be treated fairly. She also examines how their effort to be treated equally continues to have an impact on the world of science today. —Jacqueline MrozWalking With Sam: A Father, A Son and Five Hundred Miles Across SpainAndrew McCarthyGrand Central Publishing, May 9Brat Pack actor Andrew McCarthy, who grew up in Westfield, wanted to find a way to create a meaningful connection with his eldest son, Sam, before he left home. So the pair decided to set out on a trek, walking 500 miles across Spain’s Camino de Santiago. As father and son traveled the country, they talked about divorce, school, McCarthy’s relationship with his father, and blisters. Before this trip, the actor had first been to Spain 25 years earlier. McCarthy, who starred in the iconic films Pretty in Pink and Less Than Zero, is the author of two other books, The Longest Way Home and Just Fly Away. —JMThe Jake Show Joshua S. LevyHarperCollins, May 23[caption id="attachment_309037" align="alignnone" width="778"] Joshua S. Levy hopes that his stories help children work through their own experiences. Photo: Chris Buck[/caption]Joshua S. Levy understands the reality of living multiple lives. Levy, 37, is a director in the commercial and criminal litigation group at Gibbons P.C., a law firm in Newark. Outside of his 9-to-5 job, Levy writes middle-grade fiction. The Milford resident’s latest book, The Jake Show, tells the story of Jake Lightman, a Jewish teenager starting seventh grade at his fifth new school since his parents’ divorce. Torn between the worlds of his Orthodox mother and secular father, TV-obsessed Jake dreams up realities in his head in order to escape his constantly shifting world. When his new friends invite him to summer camp, Jake must create an elaborate lie so that both of his parents will let him go. Read more here. —OBJamie MacGillivray: The Renegade’s JourneyJohn SaylesMelville House, February 28 Former longtime Hoboken resident and acclaimed filmmaker, actor, screenwriter and novelist John Sayles (Lone Star and Passion Fish are among his many notable films) has written a historical novel about a Scottish soldier named Jamie MacGillivray who escapes death twice and is then shipped to the Colonies to become an indentured servant. It follows his story as well as that of Jenny, a poor servant girl who is also sent in chains to the New World. This sweeping novel chronicles their escape and romantic liaison, while they cross paths with the leading historical and political figures of their time. —JMFrom Protest to President: A Social Justice Journey through the Emergence of Adult Education and the Birth of Distance LearningGeorge A. Pruitt with Melissa A. MaszczakRutgers University Press, December 2022George A. Pruitt’s long career in higher education culminated with 35 years as president of Thomas Edison State University in Trenton. The Mississippi native writes movingly of growing up in segregated conditions and how he overcame those obstacles. Pruitt chronicles the presidential post’s challenges and rewards, provides a unique perspective on the evolution of education, and shares leadership lessons he learned along the way. —TWIn the OrchardEliza MinotKnopf, April 25In her third novel, Maplewood’s Eliza Minot tackles the life of a young wife and mother, and all her dreams and challenges, on a single day. Maisie Moore is the mother of four young children, and this day unfolds just weeks after she has given birth. She is distracted by the family’s finances, the demands of her kids and running a home. When the family is out for their annual apple-picking trip, Maisie ruminates about marriage, birth, mothers and infants. —JMHow Can I Help You?Laura SimsG.P. Putnam’s Sons, July 18An engrossing mystery set at a small-town public library follows Margo, a former nurse with a dark past who has reinvented herself as a library assistant, and her colleagues, as they navigate annoying reference calls, lewd patrons—and murder. But when a struggling novelist joins the staff as a reference librarian, she begins to suspect Margo is hiding something sinister and puts her library skills to use probing deeper into Margo’s past. Author Laura Sims, who is a part-time reference librarian in South Orange and the author of Looker, will keep you guessing in this slow-burn psychological thriller—until the very end. Bunny author Mona Awad called it “compulsive and unforgettable.” —Jaime BedrinHello BeautifulAnn NapolitanoDial Press, March 14[caption id="attachment_309034" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration by Kotryna Zukauskaite[/caption]It’s been quite a year for novelist Ann Napolitano. Dear Edward, the writer’s 2020 best-selling novel about the lone survivor of a plane crash, was turned into a successful series on Apple TV+. And now, none other than Oprah Winfrey has chosen Napolitano’s latest book, Hello Beautiful, as her 100th book club selection. Hello Beautiful is a touching, carefully woven story about the four Padavano sisters from Chicago. But it’s also the story of William Waters, a man who marries into the family, bringing with him hefty emotional baggage that he isn’t capable of unpacking. Read more here. —JB
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post 12 Summer Reads Starring New Jersey appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Cape May Music FestivalMay 25–June 22: This festival presents classical, jazz and more. Most concerts will take place outdoors at the Episcopal Church of the Advent. The series kicks off with a performance by OkCello on May 25 and a free performance by the Atlantic Brass Band at the Rotary Bandstand on May 28. $20–$50 per concert. Wildwoods International Kite FestivalMay 26–29: Head to the beach at Rio Grande Avenue for this free annual spectacle. Weekend festivities will begin with the Unlocking of the Beach ceremony on Friday and end with the World Indoor Kite Competition and Performance on Monday.Memorial Beach Challenge for 31 HeroesMay 27: The sand course features Navy SEAL–approved obstacles. The main competition is followed by a kids’ fun run. All proceeds benefit 31 Heroes, an organization that supports service members, veterans and their families.Beach Ball DropMay 27: All weekend long, the Atlantic City Boardwalk will buzz with contests, games, giveaways and music. Don’t miss the main event: the annual Beach Ball Drop. On Friday at 5 pm in front of Resorts Casino, more than 5,000 colorful beach balls pour out of giant nets over the Boardwalk.Bradley Beach Memorial Day FestMay 27–29: Tunes from bands and deejays fill the air, hundreds of craft vendors set up shop, food vendors sell fare and kids have fun with sand art and water slides. Saturday’s parade begins at 10 am. Events will happen at Ocean Avenue and Riley Park.Viking Village Arts & Craft ShowMay 28: Head to Barnegat Light to browse more than 70 vendors selling fine art, photography, ceramics, clothing and accessories. 10 am–4:30 pm; free admission. Rain or shine.Stone Harbor Turtle Trot 2023May 28: Come out of your shell and join the 23rd annual event. The name of the race is inspired by the Diamondback Terrapins that cross Stone Harbor roads in search of a nesting area. A portion of proceeds benefits the Terrapin Conservation Project at the Wetlands Institute. 8 am; $25–$35. 95th Street Beach.Margate Mothers’ Association Annual Memorial Day ParadeMay 29: Uniformed groups and decorated bikes/strollers will march in this short procession, stepping off at the corner of Ventnor and Union Avenues and ending at War Memorial Park, where a ceremony will follow.Wildwood Memorial Day Parade and CeremonyMay 29: The parade steps off at 10 am in front of Wildwood High School and ends at Memorial Park. A wreath-laying ceremony will follow.Highlands Craft ShowMay 30: Find a delightful array of handmade crafts at this rain-or-shine bazaar at Huddy Park. More than 50 artisans will sell their works from 10 am to 5 pm.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Where to Celebrate Memorial Day Weekend at the Jersey Shore appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_308692" align="alignnone" width="778"] Teresa Giudice and Louie Ruelas tied the knot at the Park Chatêau Estate & Gardens in East Brunswick. Photo: Jenna Russo (@silentcapturephoto)[/caption] Related posts fromNew Jersey Bride: * Teresa Giudice’s $10,000 Wedding Hair * Top Wedding Venues in NJ * Get Inspired by Real NJ Weddings Anyone who knows Teresa Giudice—either personally or from her longtime stint on Bravo’s The Real Housewives of New Jersey—knows that the reality star throws one fabulous party.So it’s only fitting that her wedding to entrepreneur Louie Ruelas, held last August at the luxurious Park Château Estate & Gardens in East Brunswick, was the ultimate party—filled with jaw-dropping entertainment, decor and flowers that truly dazzled the couple’s 225 guests.“I wanted everybody to walk in and be wowed, like, ‘Oh my God, this is spectacular,’” Teresa tells New Jersey Bride. “And that’s what they did when they walked in. They were wowed.”The venue, one of the most high-end wedding locales in the state, is impressive enough on its own, with its elegant mansion set on 15 acres of stunning grounds. Pair that with Teresa and Louie’s flair for all things fun and their unique personal touches, and the day was unforgettable. Fans can get an up-close look at the wedding by tuning into the special Teresa Gets Married, which airs on Tuesday, May 23 at 8 pm on Bravo and starts streaming on Peacock the next day.[caption id="attachment_308645" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Pre-order your copy of New Jersey Bride here. Photo: Jenna Russo (@silentcapturephoto)[/caption]During the reception, guests boogied to music from a 16-piece band provided by Jordan Kahn Music Company and a DJ from Geo Events later in the evening. Jordan Kahn also put together an extravagant display of live, immersive entertainment. Sultry burlesque dancers stripped down to nearly nothing, aerialists showed off their impressive moves, a sword swallower provided some dangerous fun, and stilt walkers in metallic suits strutted across the dance floor.The couple also enlisted drummer Tito Puente Jr., a childhood friend of Louie’s and the son of famed musician Tito Puente, and saxophonist Art Crichlow to play more terrific tunes.The performers were glitzy, glamorous and sexy—just like Teresa envisioned. “I wanted the dancers to have as little clothes as possible,” says Teresa with a laugh, adding: “Yes, I’m all about sexiness, I wanted that sexy vibe.”Overall, Teresa and Louie hoped for—and achieved—a day that was “elegant, magical, timeless and classic.” Teresa adds, “I wanted a lot of entertainment because I’m all about having a good time.”It worked. The dance floor was packed all night with family and friends—like bridesmaids and fellow RHONJ cast members Jennifer Aydin and Dolores Catania, plus plenty of other television stars, including Loni Love and Bob Harper, Real Housewives of New York City alumni Jill Zarin and Dorinda Medley, and Real Housewives of Atlanta personalities Kenya Moore and Cynthia Bailey.“You know when you go to a wedding and it’s, like, nobody’s dancing? And it’s, like, everybody sitting down and eating—the dance floor is empty?” says Teresa. “I swear, I don’t remember that at all at my wedding. It was never empty.” “Luckily,” she adds, “the cocktail hour had a ton—a ton—of food,” so guests could have fun during the reception and not worry if they missed part of the dinner. “It was insane. And I’m Italian, so growing up, food was the most important thing to us.”Click here to continue reading this story on New Jersey Bride.***
The post Inside ‘RHONJ’ Star Teresa Giudice’s NJ Wedding to Louie Ruelas appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_308396" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Martha Stewart covers the new Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, on newsstands May 18. Photo: Ruven Afanador/Sports Illustrated[/caption]This Jersey girl knows how to work it!At 81 years old, New Jersey native Martha Stewart covers the new Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in a plunging white one-piece bathing suit—and she rocks it."Usually I'm motivated by pay, but this time I was motivated by showing people that a woman my age can still look good, feel good, be good, blah blah blah," the home-design guru says in a behind-the-scenes video for the publication.Svelte Stewart grew up in Nutley in the 1950s, where she earned extra cash by working as a model after school at the now-defunct department store Bonwit Teller. As a teen, she was also very focused on her schoolwork and served on student council, as she told New Jersey Monthly in a past interview. “It was very important to me to be an all-around student,” she said in 2011 of her time at Nutley High School. “I was pretty centered on being smart and well read and had a lot of hobbies, and I was the art director of [the school's literary magazine] The Gauntlet.”Back then, her name was Martha Kostyra. “I lived for every day, and I tried to get all my work done, and I was a good child, basically,” she said. She went skating, attended high school football games and bonfires, and caught tadpoles.Today, she lives in Bedford, New York and has a home in East Hampton.Anyone who's followed Stewart recently won't be too surprised by her turn as a cover model. Her Instagram account has featured sultry swimsuit shots. The sexy white suit on her SI cover is by Monday Swimwear, while her vibrant cover-up comes from Torso Creations and her ring was designed by Jacob & Co.[caption id="attachment_308373" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Martha Stewart reveals her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover on Monday's episode of the "Today" show. Photo: NBC News/Today[/caption]Still, she said that posing for the SI cover was not easy. "To be on the cover at my age was a challenge, and I think I met that challenge," she said while revealing the cover on Monday's episode of the Today show.She got a call from the magazine in November and had to be ready to shoot by January. So how did she prepare?"I didn't starve myself, but I didn't eat any bread or pasta for a couple of months," said Stewart, noting she always lives a "clean life." "I went to Pilates every other day, and that was great.... I'm still going to Pilates every other day."Her past modeling experience, which helped her pay for college at Barnard, also helped.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post At 81, Martha Stewart Covers Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Like a True Jersey Girl appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Both political and social, the themes that fuel Blues for an Alabama Sky, now playing at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, are as relevant today as they were in the play’s 1930 Harlem setting. Written by novelist/activist/playwright Pearl Cleage, the show, which explores racial and sexual discrimination, gender roles and how intolerance perpetuates gun violence, follows a tight-knit group of friends living in Harlem and the impact an outsider—a southerner—makes to the delicate balance of their lives.The play stars Crystal Dickinson, a Seton Hall graduate who lives in West Orange, as Angel, a singer at the storied and segregated Cotton Club. After being dumped by her Mobster boyfriend—and then fired because of the scene she makes at the club during the breakup—Angel is desperate to find a man to take care of her. Consoling and willing to play the part of provider is gay costume designer Guy (played by Kevin R. Free, the artistic director of the Mile Square Theater in Hoboken). Guy is certain his dream of providing gowns for superstar Josephine Baker will come true and bring him the riches to provide for them.Adding to the cast of characters is Delia (Maya Jackson), a shy yet feisty young woman who is serious about her work with Margaret Sanger to bring a birth control clinic to Harlem. Her love interest, Sam (Stephen Conrad Moore), a doctor at Harlem Hospital, represents the educational and economic promise of the north. And finally, there’s Leland (Brandon St. Clair), newly migrated from Alabama. This character displays none of the sophistication or open-mindedness of the now northerners and is hampered by his small-town puritanical values.As director Nicole A. Watson points out, Blues enlivens details of Black American life in a way that only fiction can because of incomplete record-keeping about Black history. “What theater can do is restore their names. It can reinvent, reimagine and revive the lives that the historical record has chosen to omit.”Playwright Cleage says the story came to her while gazing out a car window as she traveled through Alabama. Ultimately, the stage show provides an up-close snapshot of Black southerners who came north during the Great Migration—the period from 1910 to 1970 that saw the relocation of six million descendants of slaves to northern and western states for better social and economic conditions.Blues for an Alabama Sky is 2 ½ hours long and runs through May 28. For more information visit mcarter.org.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post ‘Blues for an Alabama Sky’ Brings 1930s Harlem to Life at McCarter Theatre appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
When the latest version of Disney classic The Little Mermaid hits theaters this month, featuring its first Black lead character, the new casting will reflect a truth that children’s book writer Tracey Baptiste has known all her life—that there have always been Black mermaids.
Baptiste’s latest picture book, Mermaid and Pirate, is out now. Image courtesy of Algonquin Young Readers
A longtime New Jersey resident, Baptiste was born in Trinidad and Tobago and grew up within view of the sea, hearing Caribbean folktales that inspired her writing, including her popular Jumbies picture-book series. When children start to disappear in the second installment of the series, in the book Rise of the Jumbies, its young heroine, Corinne Le Mer, teams up with the beautiful and fearsome Mama D’Leau, or “mother of the water.”
She’s a type of mermaid found in Caribbean lore, rooted in the mythological West African character Mama Wata, says Baptiste. The book explores how their stories crossed the ocean from West Africa to the Americas through colonization and at a time when people were kidnapped for chattel slavery.
Disney’s choice to cast Halle Bailey as the lead in The Little Mermaid, making the actress the first Black Ariel, was initially met with backlash that played out on social media.
“Many people pointed out that Black mermaids were not extraordinary and tagged my book in their comments,” Baptiste says. Her 2019 New York Times op-ed in response to the controversy, “Mermaids Have Always Been Black,” went viral. Baptiste followed up the opinion piece with her own Black mermaid picture book, Mermaid and Pirate, published in April, a month before The Little Mermaid hits theaters.
Parents also responded to the controversy by posting videos of their Black children responding with delight and awe at the news of the latest Disney princess, with the hashtag #RepresentationMatters.
“The reason a lot of those girls were having such a strong reaction to that is because they haven’t seen a Black actress play this kind of role,” Baptiste said. “Often when Black actresses are cast in fantasy roles, they tend not to be the hero and they tend not to beautiful, so this was a big deal for kids.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post NJ Author Writes New Kids’ Book After Viral Black Mermaid Piece appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Kern Bruce’s “Black American Refugee,” 2022, mixed media, 16″ x 21.” On loan courtesy of the artist.
The Morris Museum’s exhibit “Each One Teach One: Preserving Legacy in Perpetuity” explores the unique relationship between mentor and mentees in the African-American art world. For the show, which is open through August, the mentors’ work is placed alongside the work of their mentee, allowing viewers to recognize the influence and impact of the symbiotic relationship.
The exhibition was created in partnership with Art in the Atrium (ATA), a Morris County-based art program founded in 1991 as a vehicle to celebrate Black culture and create avenues for showcasing African-American fine artists. Well known ATA artist including Ben F. Jones (Paterson), Gladys Barker Grauer (Newark) and Willie Cole (Somerville) have all participated in the mentor/mentee relationship.
Jersey City artist Cheryl R. Riley, whose work is on display in this show, holds a diverse portfolio that includes licensed lighting and furniture designs; commissioned furniture; fiction-inspired, mixed-media sculptures; public art and more.
Riley paired up with mixed-media artist Theda Sandiford, who has lived in Jersey City for the last 15 years. Sandiford’s chosen mediums include fiber and found-object designs, like her shopping-cart series, in which she uses the carts to symbolize emotional baggage.
In a statement, Riley describes first meeting Sandiford: “Her kind smile, obvious curiosity, delight in art and life were apparent immediately…Though I am considerably older than she, it is Theda who is my mentor. She is always an open ear for life issues, my digital-native tutor, marketing coach and introduction to art-world exhibits.”
The two longtime professional artists collaborated on many avenues in the business of art, from creation to promotion and sale to show. “We are not really mentor/mentee,” Sandiford said in a video interview. “We’re like mentor/mentor. I’m for you and you’re for me, and we’re for everyone in the arts community.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Morris Museum Explores Artist Collaborations in African-American Art World appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Seventy-nine years ago, on D-Day, Leonard G. “Bud” Lomell was speeding across the dark, icy Atlantic Ocean toward the coast of France, hoping to take out a bank of Nazi artillery.
He and a small group of Army Rangers had been ordered to take part in the June 1944 allied invasion of Europe.
“To destroy those guns would save tens of thousands of lives,” recalled the Brooklyn native, who grew up in Point Pleasant. This mission is at the center of a riveting new book by Steven Gillon.
Lomell grew up with immigrant parents during the Great Depression, making ends meet clamming, fishing and caddying at the Manasquan River Golf Club.
Once drafted, he chose to become a Ranger Battalion sergeant.
But as Gillon’s book, Len Lomell: D-Day Hero (Dutton), makes clear, his battlefield exploits were among the most heroic—and important—in U.S. military history.
“His orders were to lead his 22 men up the 100-foot cliffs of Pointe du Hoc and dismantle the…guns pointing down on Omaha and Utah Beaches,” Gillon writes. Amid the chaos of the allied landing, Lomell was forced to complete the mission “almost single-handedly,” earning him a slew of honors, including the Army’s highest medal, the Distinguished Service Cross.
Had Lomell’s mission failed, “it’s possible that Germany’s guns could have wreaked a lethal amount of havoc on the invading Allied forces,” says Gillon.
Lomell later took part in an assault on a German installation, which left him with severe injuries.
After the war, Lomell returned to the Shore to practice law, raise a family, and stay active in veterans affairs. He died in 2011, though his 101-year-old widow still resides in Toms River.
“At a time when we’re so divided,” said Gillon, “Len Lomell represents the best of us…. He’s the American dream.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Point Pleasant Veteran’s D-Day Efforts Lauded as Crucial to U.S. Military History in New Book appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Kimberly Akimbo, a heartfelt new Broadway musical, is putting New Jersey in the spotlight. Set largely in Bergen County, it is a frontrunner to win Best Musical at the Tony Awards on June 11. Not since Jersey Boys has a theatrical production brought so much attention to the Garden State.
The show, a real crowd-pleaser, tells the story of a lonely teenage girl from New Jersey named Kimberly Levaco, who has a health condition that causes her to age rapidly, giving her the appearance of a woman in her early 70s. Since the average lifespan for people who suffer from the condition is 16 years, Kimberly (played by Victoria Clark, a Tony contender) is determined to find happiness in a world where time is running out for her.
The show, with lyrics and book by David Lindsay-Abaire and music by Jeanine Tesori, is based on Lindsay-Abaire’s 2001 comedy of the same name.
A scene in Kimberly Akimbo is set in a Bergen County ice skating rink. Photo courtesy of Joan Marcus
Kimberly Akimbo opens with Kimberly about to celebrate her 16th birthday alone at an ice skating rink in Bergen County. The cast sings about Paramus, Ho-Ho-Kus, West Orange and Bayonne. Kimberly’s family refers to something bad that happened when they lived in Lodi, forcing them to move.
“It’s Friday night in Bergen County, and there are parties everywhere,” the opening number begins.
Eventually, Kimberly makes some friends, including Delia, a girl played by South Jersey native Olivia Elease Hardy, making her Broadway debut. Hardy grew up in Sicklerville in Gloucester Township and is the only cast member from New Jersey.
“Since I’m from down south, I didn’t understand the Bergen County jokes,” says Hardy, 24, with a laugh. “Everybody was like, ‘You know about Lodi, right?’ But I didn’t know anything about it.”
She believes New Jersey works well as a setting for the play because it’s one of the most culturally diverse states in the country, so there’s something for nearly everyone to relate to.
South Jersey native Olivia Elease Hardy, far right, is the only cast member from the Garden State. Photo courtesy of Joan Marcus
Hardy says it’s fun to hear the reaction of the audience, especially when it’s obvious they come from one of the towns being mentioned. “I guess being from New Jersey, I’m always in on the joke,” she says. “I’ve had the best time. I couldn’t ask for a better cast, creative team, script and story. I think the show is important, especially right now, since conversations about death and loss have been so prevalent. It’s so important to remind people that you have the option to live life the way you want to live.”
Audience member Josie Harris especially enjoyed a scene about a big competition between Kimberly’s school and her own hometown of West Orange. “I found it very entertaining—I went in not knowing what to expect,” she says.
David Lindsay-Abaire created Kimberly Akimbo, and wrote the lyrics and book for the celebrated Broadway show. He chose to set the play in New Jersey. Photo courtesy of Joan Marcus
Lindsay-Abaire received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2007 for his play Rabbit Hole and has been nominated for several Tony Awards. He also wrote the book for the musicals High Fidelity, Shrek the Musical and Good People.
Lindsay-Abaire, who grew up in South Boston and now lives in Brooklyn with his wife, says the working class Bergen County town in the musical mirrors his own childhood hometown. He spoke with New Jersey Monthly.
How did you come up with the idea for this musical?It was a play 20 years before it was a musical. And the play came about when I asked a friend about his new baby niece, and he said, “She’s amazing. She’s like this little old woman trapped in a baby’s body,” and that was the seed of the play. As I thought about it, the baby protagonist became a teenager, and I thought, What a great a role for an older actress, to play a character who was dealing with typical teen concerns like crushes and a dysfunctional family, while simultaneously contending with her own mortality.
Many years later, the composer Jeanine Tesori and I were working on Shrek the Musical together, and there were so many people involved on that show and so many producers giving notes, and I said to her, “I’d love to write another musical with you, but I wish we could do it the way I write a play, where there’s no one else involved until we’re ready to share it.” And she loved that idea. So Jeanine was the one who pulled Kimberly off a shelf and said, “I think there’s a musical in here.”
I read that you wanted to set it in Boston, but ended up setting it in New Jersey instead. Can you talk about why you set it in New Jersey?Honestly, while the play isn’t strictly autobiographical, there is a lot of personal stuff that I channeled into the play, including bits about my family, and I wanted to distance myself from the material to fool myself (and maybe my family members) into thinking I wasn’t writing about my family.
So instead of setting it in South Boston, where I’m from, I set the play in a working class New Jersey neighborhood that felt like South Boston. My friends from Jersey are so similar to the people I grew up with—they’re honest and funny and often prickly on the surface, but have big hearts and gooey centers, and those are the people I wanted in my story. So Jersey is just Southie in disguise.
New Jersey figures prominently in this play—especially towns in Bergen County. Were you already familiar with those towns? How did you come to use them in the play?Yeah, I have lots of friends and family who are from Jersey or who have lived in Jersey, so I’m pretty familiar with it, especially Bergen County. Plus, we have several Jersey folks on the Kimberly team, both onstage and behind the scenes, who were there to keep me honest if something didn’t feel quite right to them. If I ever had a question, I had several experts on hand. And as a writer, the more specific I could be, the more truthful and authentic the story would feel, so that’s how all the Jersey details got sprinkled in.
Audience members from New Jersey have told Kimberly Akimbo‘s creator, David Lindsay-Abaire, that the show “feels like home.” Photo courtesy of Joan Marcus
Have you had feedback from Jersey residents who attend the play? Were they excited to hear their towns mentioned?One of the most gratifying things to me as a writer on this show is when someone from Jersey tells me that the show feels like home to them. They love the town shout-outs and the various locations mentioned. Although we deliberately don’t mention exactly where in Bergen County Kimberly lives, I’ve had several audience members tell me that they know precisely which ice skating rink is being referenced in the show. Then another audience member will say, “No, it’s another rink,” and they argue with each other. I love that.
Did you think it would be funny to set it in New Jersey?I understand that, to a lot of people, Jersey can be a punchline, but I was never interested in making fun of Jersey or having a laugh at Jersey’s expense. So it’s always surprising to me when people say, “There are so many Jersey jokes in the show!” There actually aren’t.
There are lots of Jersey references and towns mentioned, and sometimes the audience will laugh at that, but I think that’s more because they’ve been conditioned to believe that Jersey [is a] laugh line. But as the writer, I’m not usually trying to get a laugh in those moments; I’m just telling the audience where we are. And sure, some of the teenage characters complain about their town and wanting to escape it, but that’s a universal experience. It’s exactly what I felt growing up in Southie, and what friends of mine felt. Their longing to be somewhere else isn’t about New Jersey; it’s about teenagers dreaming of a different life. Who doesn’t want to escape where they’re from?
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post ‘Kimberly Akimbo’ on Broadway: Laughs, Tears and Plenty of NJ References (Not Punchlines!) appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
“I believe in ghosts and often experienced a creepy feeling walking around the land that surrounds my family’s home,” says Califon native Asher Grodman. Photo courtesy of Emily Assiran
Despite growing up on a haunted farm in Califon, Asher Grodman never imagined his breakout acting role would involve portraying a pantless spirit on one of television’s highest-rated sitcoms.
In the CBS show Ghosts, adapted from the British television series of the same name, Grodman, 35, stars as the ghost of Trevor Lefkowitz, a Wall Street trader who died of a heart attack while half clothed. Since his untimely death, the character is now spending the afterlife at Woodstone mansion with other spirits who have perished at the site. (Rounding out the cast of spirits are two other New Jerseyans, Teaneck native Danielle Pinnock, who plays Alberta Haynes, a 1920s Prohibition jazz singer, and Maplewood resident Richie Moriarty, who portrays Pete Martino, a scout troop leader.) Ghosts airs Thursdays at 8:30 pm; the season two finale premieres on May 11.
In addition to the ghosts, the series, filmed in Montreal, also features two live humans who inherit the mansion and decide to turn it into a bed and breakfast. The pair happily interact with the mansion’s ghostly residents; Grodman’s own experience of growing up in a haunted house was much different.
“I remember hearing stories about how our home, built in the 1700s, was haunted by friendly ghosts who guided soldiers through a nearby swamp,” Grodman says. “While I never witnessed any ghosts, out of respect for the past, I’ll say that I believe in ghosts and often experienced a creepy feeling walking around the land that surrounds my family’s home.”
Ghosts or no ghosts, Grodman has fond memories of growing up on a farm with his parents, Marc and Pam, his younger brother, Zane, and a menagerie of pets, including horses, geese, five cats and 14 dogs.
“As a kid, I used to love hayrides, making s’mores around the campfire and spending time with farm animals,” he says.
Grodman attended elementary and middle school at Far Hills Country Day School, and continued his education at Newark Academy in Livingston. School was where he got his first taste of acting.
“I was a shy kid with anxiety issues, but when I was in seventh grade, my mom encouraged me to try out for the school play,” Grodman says. “I agreed because I had a huge crush on a girl in the show. When I was supposed to sing ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ in front of the entire school, I changed the lyrics to ‘hazel-eyed girl,’ trying to impress her, but instead she was mortified.”
Although Grodman didn’t find romance, he did discover a love for storytelling and being part of the theater community. He continued acting in high school and, after graduation, went on to receive his bachelor’s degree in film and English at Columbia University, where he also competed on the university’s fencing team. He then moved to San Francisco for his master’s degree from the American Conservatory Theater.
In the years that followed, Grodman landed roles in popular television shows including Succession, Chicago Med, House of Cards, Elementary, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and returned to the stage to appear in regional theater productions, including the title role in Amadeus at South Coast Rep in Costa Mesa, California.
“There were also countless auditions and periods of unemployment,” says Grodman, who also used those times to pursue his passion projects.
He wrote, produced and directed Academy Award-winning actor Eli Wallach in the short film The Train.
“The movie was inspired by a story my dad told me about Holocaust survivor Andre Mencz and how a single moment in time can change a person’s life,” Grodman says.
In the film, Grodman portrays Adam, a preoccupied young man who reluctantly agrees to take time out of his busy day to meet with his girlfriend’s grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, played by Wallach. The film won Best Short at the Williamsburg Independent Film Festival in 2015. The Train marked Wallach’s last film, and he died in June 2014, before its release.
“Eli was mesmerizing in the film,” Grodman says. “He was a joy to work with and would come to the set each day with these amazing stories that just captivated everyone on set.”
While Grodman continued to audition for acting roles, he also worked to perfect his craft and found satisfaction helping other aspiring actors. He remembers teaching acting to teen inmates at Rikers Island in the Bronx as one of his most challenging jobs.
“Gaining their trust and watching them experience breakthroughs was very rewarding,” he admits.
Buoyed by that experience, Grodman later applied to teach acting in both theater and film at Hunter College in New York City, where he now works as an adjunct professor when he’s not filming Ghosts.
“I think my experiences have helped me to become a better acting teacher,” Grodman says. “I love working with the students; they’re curious and excited about finding their unique voice as actors.”
Grodman found his own voice in Ghosts, his first comedic role. While on the outside his character appears to be a superficial finance-fraternity bro, Grodman saw a different side of Trevor. He also appreciates the opportunity to play a Jewish character, who shares his culture.
“I’m a Jewish kid who grew up in a not very Jewish area and was bullied,” Grodman says. “I see Trevor as the little brother of the group, since he’s the most recently deceased.”
Today, Grodman splits his time between Montreal, where Ghosts is filmed, New York City, where he lives and teaches acting, and his family’s farm in New Jersey, where he visits frequently with his dog, Zazie, a yellow Labrador retriever.
“I love bringing friends from New York City to rural New Jersey to enjoy the local farmers markets and the scenic trails,” he says.
Linda Childers is a California-based writer whose work has been featured in The Cut, Shondaland, USA Today, and The Boca Raton Observer.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post ‘Ghosts’ Star Asher Grodman Grew Up on a Haunted NJ Farm appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Divinity Roxx’s one-woman show kicks off this May at the Crossroads Theatre Company. Photo by Chris Buck
Divinity Roxx is a Grammy-nominated recording artist, composer and musician who performed in Beyoncé’s all-female band. Now, she’s trying something entirely new: acting.
Her one-woman show, Starchild: The Ballad of Debbie Walker, premieres on May 24 at the Crossroads Theatre Company in New Brunswick. The show is set to run until June 4.
Roxx developed the script and wrote the songs. She says it’s “the origin story of the superhero Divinity Roxx. Superheroes transform spaces, places and people, and I think I do that in my music. Every superhero has an origin story, and it’s not all glitzy and glamorous.”
“It’s the most challenging thing I’ve ever done,” says Roxx, an internationally renowned bassist. “And I don’t think I’ve ever been this vulnerable before as an artist.”
Born Debbie Walker, Roxx says her mother referred to her as her starchild. “I think it was really important for her to build confidence at an early age [and] for me and my siblings to feel special in a world that would chip away at that confidence.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been this vulnerable before as an artist,” Roxx says of her latest pursuit. Photo by Chris Buck
When she was about 10, Roxx was first introduced to the name Divinity by a local rapper named MC Crush. Roxx looked up the word in the dictionary and saw that it meant “of God,” she says. “I spent years trying to live up to the name—such a big name to carry.”
She attended the University of California, Berkeley for communications, but music kept calling. Roxx started rapping, performing with her hip-hop group, Divinity and the Breakfast Unit. They were about to go on tour and release a record when she ruptured her Achilles tendon.
While recovering, she picked up the bass. At the time, she didn’t know that teaching herself to play the instrument “was going to be the key that opened up the entire world to me,” she says.
Roxx loves the constant challenge the bass presents. There’s a really difficult song, “Teen Town” by Jaco Pastorius, explains Roxx. “Once you get it, man, you feel like you can do anything.”
Roxx’s tough upbringing colors her play. So does forgiveness. Photo by Chris Buck
Roxx experienced some hard times as a child. Growing up during the crack epidemic in Atlanta, she saw her neighborhood and family change. “It always felt like a safe and incredible place. We saw it transform into a dangerous place,” she says. “My mom had succumbed to drugs. My cousins were drug dealers. Living through that and looking for security and being the oldest [child] with all the responsibility—there were a lot of tough times.”
Throughout her play, Roxx delves into forgiveness. “Forgiving of oneself and some forgiving of my mom,” she says. “[Our] relationship is so transformative. There’s a lot of unconditional love [in the show] and really exploring what that is and how you get to that.”
In this production, Roxx also hopes to honor the generations that came before her. “There’s some homage to pay. We can’t let their stories just simply die with them,” says Roxx, who lives in West New York with her wife.
“We want to tell the truth, man. We want to be courageous,” she says. At the same time, “we want to sugarcoat it and we want to make it pretty and neat, but audiences can feel that. If you want people to be deeply moved, you have to go to those places where you are deeply moved.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Divinity Roxx Debuting ‘Vulnerable’ One-Woman Musical in NJ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Thanks for the shout-out!
Bill Hader, of Saturday Night Live fame, showed New Jersey some love while out for a stroll in Los Angeles on Wednesday, wearing a red T-shirt emblazoned with the words “Jersey City Recreation Sports Program,” as seen in photos published by Page Six.
Hader’s rep told us the star was given the tee as a gift, but that the actor, who was born in Oklahoma and lives in Los Angeles, doesn’t know where his friend got it.
The shirt appears to be a re-creation of a vintage tee worn by Blondie member Chris Stein back in 1977. According to the brand Worn Free, which currently sells a version of the shirt, Stein found his original item in a thrift store.
Hader has no obvious ties to the Garden State. Neither does his on-again girlfriend, the stand-up comedian Ali Wong, with whom he was photographed on Wednesday.
That said, Hader did once star in a pretty funny Jersey-themed SNL skit, where he played the host of a game show called Ohhhhh!—an over-the-top fictional show “by guys from New Jersey for guys from New Jersey”—that co-starred real New Jerseyan Jon Bon Jovi. Hader even tried his hand at a New Jersey accent (you can decide for yourself how well he measures up!).
Funnily enough, Hader was photographed wearing another New Jersey-themed T-shirt last year. Henry Winkler, Hader’s co-star on the HBO show Barry, tweeted a photo of the pair last August, in which Hader was rocking a vintage-looking tee from the long-shuttered store Star Music in Morristown.
The post Bill Hader Shows New Jersey Some Love appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Midway through the film One True Thing, Meryl Streep surveys her surroundings and laments, “I wish I had redone this kitchen years ago when I had the mind to do it.”
Alas, in the film, Streep’s character, Kate Gulden, is dying of cancer. And the kitchen? That’s actually the domain of Michael Aaron Rockland and Patricia Ard, whose vintage Morristown home was the setting for the 1998 film.
Rockland and Ard purchased the ornate, Queen Anne-style Victorian in 1987. Located in Morristown’s historic district, the 1886 home is just one block from Macculloch Hall Historical Museum and the Thomas Nast Home, a National Historic Landmark where the late-19th-century political cartoonist resided for the last 30 years of his life.
Rockland and Ard have lived in their 1886 Morristown home since 1987. Photo by Laura Moss
It is only fitting that Rockland should live in an historic home. Now retired, he taught American history at Rutgers for 50 years. He is also the author of 15 books and a longtime contributor to this magazine. Ard, also retired, taught English literature at Ramapo College.
Upon moving into their six-bedroom home, Rockland and Ard began making improvements, expanding the front porch, combining two parlors into one large living room and creating a dramatic entrance to the living room, with a wide archway. They flanked the archway with two sets of twin columns, salvaged by their carpenter from someone else’s rotting porch.
Those fluted columns were destined to play a central role in One True Thing. Director Carl Franklin used them to frame several scenes; at one point early in the film, Streep ducks behind one of the columns as she awaits the arrival of her husband (played by William Hurt) at his surprise party.
The living room columns played a key role in the film. Photo by Laura Moss
The couple were taken by surprise when the art director for One True Thing and his staff came knocking. “There were seven or eight of them,” Ard recalls. They explored, measured and videotaped every part of the house. After some bumpy negotiations, a deal was struck. The homeowners were given a temporary home to inhabit during the shoot, which took more than six months. The production paid them $75,000.
“We were told later that we were totally ripped off,” says Rockland. “They bowled us over with Meryl.”
[RELATED: How Scores of New Jerseyans Get Their Homes in Movies and TV Shows]
The contract signed, a crew of 12 moved every stick of furniture from the house. Every room was painted or papered—often in flowery patterns to reflect the fictional Kate Gulden’s fussy taste. Despite the home’s high ceilings, large rooms and oversize doorways, several walls were moved to accommodate certain shots.
Rockland and Ard were allowed to visit the set as they liked, and both of their children, Kate and Josh, appeared as paid extras in some of the outdoor crowd scenes, which were shot in Maplewood. (Rockland has three other children from a previous marriage.)
The couple keeps a photo of Meryl Streep on display, which she signed while filming the movie.Photo by Laura Moss
Interactions with Streep during the shoot were limited. When she wasn’t on camera, she typically retreated to Rockland’s third-floor study where a bed had been installed for her naps. But Streep, who grew up in nearby Basking Ridge and Bernardsville, went out of her way to tell the couple how much she loved their home. “She was as nice as she is talented,” says Rockland.
His experience with Hurt was not as painless. “I called him Bill one time,” says Rockland. “He went nuts.” Hurt insisted on being called William. “I thought, What’s the matter with this guy?” On the other hand, Rockland did discover Hurt reading one of his novels (A Bliss Case, published in 1989) during a break from shooting. That compensated for the actor’s rudeness.
Production paid the couple $75,000 to film in their home for six months. Photo by Laura Moss
There were bigger difficulties with the producers. Rockland had noticed members of the crew stomping out cigarettes on the home’s precious heart-of-pine floors—despite a stipulation in the contract that there be no smoking in or around the house. Rockland stormed into the production office and declared, “If I see one more cigarette here, I’m going to stop the movie.”
Rockland was reminded that all of the floors were going to be sanded and refinished, but that didn’t stop him from repeating his threat. That’s when things got heavy. One particularly tough member of the team got up in Rockland’s face. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he snarled. For Rockland, it was like a scene out of The Godfather. Needless to say, he backed off.
Crew installed a tin ceiling in the kitchen, which the homeowners kept. Photo by Laura Moss
Finally, the shoot was over and the crew restored Rockland and Ard’s home to its original state. Well, almost.
The kitchen plumbing leaked, paint spotted the floors in some places, and an improperly replaced second-floor bathroom window tumbled from its framing one night with an alarming crash.
Renee Zellweger and Meryl Streep in “One True Thing.” Photo: Photofest/Universal Pictures
Which brings us back to the kitchen. While Rockland was happy to say farewell to the fruit-print tiles and red Formica counters installed for the movie, he coveted the retro-looking tin ceiling the crew had installed. Unprompted, one of the producers asked Rockland if he’d mind if they left the ceiling in place. Bingo!
“That was a tremendous triumph,” says Rockland. “We got the ceiling for free.” What’s more, they used a significant portion of the fee they had received to remodel the kitchen yet again. Kate Gulden, no doubt, would have been pleased.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post What Happened When a Meryl Streep Movie Took Over One NJ Couple’s Home For 6 Months appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Ever wonder how the homes in movies and TV shows end up there? Ever wish your own house could be featured on the big screen? Well, here’s your chance!
With reinstated tax incentives leading to a boom in projects being filmed in New Jersey, production companies and homeowners both have more opportunities for work in the Garden State. The Scout Source, a Montclair-based company, serves as a go-between for both parties, representing more than 700 homes in the tri-state area for use in movies, television series and commercials.
[RELATED: What Happened When a Meryl Streep Movie Took Over One NJ Couple’s Home For 6 Months]
With a detailed database, the Scout Source can fulfill the specific requests of producers—such as a precise kitchen setup—while saving companies the pain of cold scouting. The Scout Source negotiates on behalf of the homeowners and walks them through the filming process. “It’s a lot to open your home to 80-100 people,” says co-owner David Clark.
Buy our May 2023 issue here. Cover photo by Chris Buck
The Scout Source has worked on TV shows and movies—including Zach Braff’s new picture, A Good Person, which filmed in his native Essex County—but mostly does commercials, including major ads and even Super Bowl spots.
The company worked on an Amazon commercial with celebrity couple Colin Jost and Scarlett Johansson, and a Hellmann’s ad with comedian Pete Davidson. When former Giants quarterback Eli Manning shot an ad with one of the Scout Source’s clients, he signed autographs and played catch with kids who lived at the shoot site, Clark recalls.
Not every shoot brings famous faces into people’s homes. Some feature animals, like the time a crew needed to get a donkey in a bathtub. Another shoot called for an elephant in a living room. That meant finding a location with “an above-average door,” Clark says.
Of course, homeowners get more than just unique encounters. Filming typically pays $5,000-$7,000 per day, Clark says. Prep days pay roughly $2,000. The Scout Source gets a cut. Production companies will pay for hotel rooms for homeowners, depending on shoot length and logistical concerns.
People hoping to list their homes on the Scout Source should visit scoutsource.com. Co-owner Asa Miraglia says the company is interested in various styles of homes to accommodate a wide range of projects.
“We will speak to anyone that calls us,” she says. “It’s not like a like a high-end, fancy thing. We’re always open to people.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post How Scores of New Jerseyans Get Their Homes in Movies and TV Shows appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Growing up, Dionne Ford knew from a young age that her family was descended from slaves. But when she discovered the identity of her great-great-grandmother, Tempy, who was enslaved, she realized that she was finally able to begin to heal from the trauma that she’d experienced as a child and young adult.
Ford wrote her new book, Go Back and Get It: A Memoir of Race, Inheritance and Intergenerational Healing (Bold Type Books), after exploring a wide range of therapies and lifestyle changes to tackle her history of sexual abuse.
“Finding info about my great-great-grandmother, Tempy, was so restorative to me,” says Ford, 53, who lives in Montclair. “In the process of focusing my attention on her life, I realized there were parallels repeated in my own story.”
Tempy had six children with the man who had received her as a wedding gift, a Louisiana cotton broker. His wife was unable to have children of her own.
[RELATED: Discovering My NJ Hometown’s Ties to Slavery—And Freedom]
“I always wanted to find out more about Tempy. Her story was like a guiding light to me. I think it brought me a lot of comfort and courage,” says Ford.
Ford, who is a contributor to New Jersey Monthly, documents her search for her ancestors and how difficult it is to find out about relatives who were enslaved.
Ford says people don’t want to talk about how much sexual violence is rampant in our culture, especially with Black women. But she says that writing about her own sexual assaults helped to alleviate her own shame and guilt about what had happened. “There was a feeling that my abuse was my fault, and I had to shield everyone around me from the pain and discomfort that I experienced.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post NJ Author Finds Stories of Her Enslaved Female Ancestors—And Unexpected Healing appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
For many readers, Judy Blume’s iconic book was “a friend during adolescence.” Illustration by Katy Lemay
The April opening of the long-awaited film version of the iconic book, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, has middle-aged women all around New Jersey aligning calendars with pals and posting plans on Facebook to watch the movie together.
Cassandra Dorn, 54, will make a detour on her way to the theater to see the movie, stopping at the Judy Blume Service Area on the Garden State Parkway in Wall to pay homage to the author of the book, a proud New Jersey native.
“From there, we will caravan to a movie theater and watch the movie as a Judy Blume sisterhood,” says Dorn, of West Long Branch, who wants to snap photos of her friends under the rest-area sign. She’s also exploring renting a theater to watch the film with friends.
“I think every woman of a certain age, and it spans decades, has read that book and almost saw that book as a friend in adolescence,” says Dorn, an English teacher at Red Bank Regional High School.
The film reminds them of a time when they were struggling with puberty, and information on body changes wasn’t as accessible. The feminine-hygiene brands in the book, which was originally published in 1970, might be outdated now, but not its message, prompting mothers to share the book with daughters and granddaughters. The novel remains popular today.
The New Jersey Hall of Fame recently completed its Judy Blume exhibit inside the highway-service-area building. An inside wall features photos of Blume and covers of her books—including Are You There God?.
Jackson resident Tina Kas, 54, has planned a dinner-and-movie night with friends who connected through a local moms’ club when they had preschoolers. That was 15 years ago, and now they are ordering Are You There God? on Kindle to reread before seeing the film.
“It covers what a lot of young girls go through,” said Kas, the mom of two teen boys. “It was realistic; it really covers that age.” Kas, like Dorn, hopes the film does the book justice.
The city of Elizabeth, Blume’s hometown, hopes to host 30-40 residents for a showing at a local theater, says Ruby Contreras, city spokeswoman. Elizabeth resident Emily Ruiz, 55, wants to be at the top of that invite list. Ruiz recalls that her single mother worked a lot, and would never discuss the topics Blume covered. Ruiz says she learned about menstruation from Are You There God?
“Judy Blume made me feel safe, she made me feel accepted, that it was OK to be a late bloomer. She had a huge impact on my life,” says Ruiz, a business administrative analyst for the city of Elizabeth. Noting that the main character has questions about religion, Ruiz says she began talking to God after reading the book.
Carolyn Edgar, of Toms River, was overjoyed when she heard about the movie. “The first thing I did, besides squeal with excitement, is I called up my friends,” says Edgar, 51, about her five pals from high school. The longtime fans want to invite Blume to their theater to watch the movie with them.
Blume has not announced any plans to be in the Garden State for the premiere, but she seems happy about the love from locals. “I’m excited to learn my Jersey girl fans are planning to see Margaret together. It’s nostalgic, for sure, and I hope they love it as much as I do,” Blume said in a statement.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post ‘A Judy Blume Sisterhood’: Jersey Fan-Girls Await Film Adaptation of ‘Are You There God?’ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Standing on a Tampa stage in February, Bruce Springsteen told the story of his childhood friend, George Theiss. The New Jersey rocker recounted how the two joined the Boss’ first band, the Castiles, years ago, and how, in 2018, Springsteen visited Theiss shortly before he died of lung cancer.
Theiss’ passing made Springsteen the only surviving member of the Castiles and inspired the song “Last Man Standing” on the 2020 E Street Band-backed album, Letter to You.
“At 15, it’s all tomorrows,” Springsteen told the crowd. “At 73, a lot of yesterdays. A lot of goodbyes. That’s why you gotta make the most of right now.”
That message accompanied a longer soliloquy about growing old, as well as a concert that launched Springsteen and E Street’s first tour since 2017. The impassioned monologue has since become a staple.
“That, to me, is one of the all-time historical high points of Bruce’s performance,” says E Street drummer Max Weinberg, who spoke to New Jersey Monthly in February. “It blows my mind. It’s different every night. And I’ll be 72 in a couple of months. You do reflect, as he says, on the difference between when you’re a teenager and when you’re this age.”
Weinberg, a Newark native, actually turns 72 on April 13, a day before Springsteen and the E Street Band are set to play their first New Jersey show since September 2016. The Prudential Center is hosting the musicians in Weinberg’s hometown on April 14 before three additional Garden State gigs at MetLife Stadium on August 30, September 1 and September 3.
Weinberg is looking forward to the homecoming, which will give the South Ward product a “poignant” opportunity to pass by the tiny venues and dive bars he once played. In the meantime, he is thrilled to be back on the road with Springsteen.
“It’s like no time went by at all,” says Weinberg, who lives in Florida now. “You run out of superlatives. It is fantastic, but it’s also extremely rewarding to be playing with the band again, and energizing. All the things you think it would be.”
But the band’s first tour of the pandemic era has also offered moments to mourn the people and time lost. Even as Springsteen and company rejoice at the chance to party with fans again after years of delays, members have missed shows due to Covid-19.
Weinberg also noted that the ensemble still grieves late peers like Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici “every night we play.”
Still, celebratory vibes have largely dominated the shows, even though steep prices caused an uproar before the tour began. Springsteen has played songs old and new, hits and deep cuts, and has been varying set lists slightly from night to night.
“He keeps it fresh. He’s always trying different things,” Weinberg says. “He’s still out there literally, as the song goes, proving it every night. It’s really something.”
Such change keeps Weinberg and his bandmates on their toes, but the drummer still gets a kick out of performing after decades in the music industry.
“I get excited about every show. That’s the point. You recognize, particularly if you’ve done it for a long time, what a privilege it is to do it,” Weinberg says. “We all feel that. Bruce feels that as well.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Max Weinberg Talks Touring With Springsteen: ‘You Run Out of Superlatives’ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The first annual Newark LGBTQ Film Festival—the first of its kind in New Jersey—is coming to its namesake city from April 14-16.
Beatrice Simpkins, the Newark LGBTQ Community Center executive director—one of the organizers of the event—says her goal is for “the folks of Newark to really own this festival.”
The festival received more than 80 film submissions, including feature-length movies, short films, documentaries and experimental flicks that celebrate the history and future of art from the LGBTQ + BIPOC community in Newark and beyond.
The festival kicks off April 14 with a cocktail reception and a screening of the film The Inspection, followed by a panel featuring Elegance Bratton, the film’s director. The festival is also screening the 2008 documentary Dreams Deferred, which tells the story of Newark’s Sakia Gunn, a member of the LGBTQ+ community who was murdered in 2003. That movie’s director will participate in a panel at the festival, too.
The festival follows the tradition of the center, which opened in response to Gunn’s murder and violence against the queer community. The center is honoring Gunn’s legacy and family members, who are set to attend the festival.
Simpkins says the festival is for the entire community, adding that it will provide opportunities for workshops and networking. She hopes those in attendance will come away feeling visible and celebrated.
Festival organizers also include the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and other community sponsors.
Tickets for the festival are $7-$15, and the public can make donations to the community center and the festival at newarklgbtqcenter.org.
If “people come away from this festival feeling positive about who they are as LGBTQ + BIPOC people in the city and what that represents,” then the festival will be a success, Simpkins says.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Newark to Host Inaugural LGBTQ Film Festival appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
A premise behind this June’s inaugural North to Shore Festival—a monthlong extravaganza uniting Asbury Park, Atlantic City and Newark for shows by acts including Halsey, Santana and Southside Johnny—is that it doesn’t take a lot of persuasion to lure major talent to the state’s stages.
The festival, announced in March by Gov. Phil Murphy after two years of planning with his input, amounts to a statewide bid to be recognized as a festival destination, says John Schreiber, president and CEO of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark, which will produce the event.
Comparisons to Austin’s long-running and wide-ranging South by Southwest Festival (SXSW) are inevitable. In addition to the music, North to Shore, which hopscotches from Atlantic City from June 7 to June 11, to Asbury Park from June 14 to June 18, and winds down in Newark from June 21 to June 25, will run film screenings, tech talks, stand-up comedy acts and dance events.
The SXSW comparisons, Schreiber says, are not entirely misplaced. The governor mentioned SXSW in their initial talks about the festival: “What’s happening in Texas relative to voting rights and the legislature’s handling of democracy is something he found not right,” Schreiber says. “New Jersey is a progressive, inclusive state. He said, ‘Why can’t we have something like that here?’”
David Rodriguez, NJPAC’s executive vice president and executive producer, says we can—and easily. “Artists like Halsey, who’s from New Jersey, made it a point to be one of the first people on board,” he says. The lineup “is either an artist from New Jersey or one who wishes they were. They know enough about the wealth and diversity of talent we have here to want to come celebrate with us.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post NJ’s North to Shore Festival Echoes SXSW Model—But Promises Jersey Flair All Its Own appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The chill is subsiding, and New Jerseyans are ready to step out from the shadow of winter into the sunny embrace of spring. Here’s how to enjoy the outdoors all over the Garden State.
North JerseyVisit an Oasis in the Meadowlands
Richard W. DeKorte Park (Lyndhurst)
In the heart of the industrial Meadowlands, within sight of the Turnpike and the Manhattan skyline, DeKorte Park is an unexpected oasis of marshlands and estuarial waters attracting hundreds of bird species, from herons to harriers. On the paths and boardwalks that undulate through the marsh, spring visitors can welcome back returning migrants like sandpipers and tree swallows. —Leslie Garisto Pfaff
Bask in the Cherry Blossoms
Branch Brook Park (Newark, Belleville)
While many people think Washington, DC, has the largest collection of cherry blossom trees in the United States, it’s actually Branch Brook Park. Each April, more than 5,000 trees bloom, creating a spectacular sight—and landing the cherry blossom festival a place in New Jersey Monthly‘s Book of Records. The 2023 festivities run from April 1-16 and feature a bike race (April 1), 10K run (April 2), one-mile run (April 15), family day (April 15) and Bloomfest (April 16). —Julie Gordon
Central JerseyExperience Larger-than-Life Art
Grounds for Sculpture (Hamilton Twp.)
Grounds for Sculpture is a glorious place to experience spring in Jersey, with 42 acres of parkland punctuated by massive sculptures from artists including founder Seward Johnson. Enjoy the art and then picnic, or dine at the Grounds’ lovely, Monet-inspired Rat’s restaurant; just be sure to make a reservation. —JG
Enjoy the beauty of tulips this spring at Holland Ridge Farms. Photo: Courtesy of Holland Ridge Farms
See NJ’s Biggest Tulip Display
Holland Ridge Farms (Cream Ridge)
In mid-April, millions of tulips burst to life at Holland Ridge Farms. Stroll through fields of bright yellow, bubblegum pink and creamsicle orange. Have fun with photo props, and pick blooms to take home as temporary souvenirs from this 300-acre paradise. —Jacqueline Larcara
Take a Trip Back in Time
Renaissance Faire (Southampton Twp.)
Don period garb and head to the New Jersey Renaissance Faire for non-stop outdoor entertainment on May 20-21, May 27-28, and June 3-4. At this rain-or-shine affair in a wooded area, experience jousting, sword fighting, aerial acrobatics, music and more. —JL
South JerseyGo ‘Ice Swimming’ in Batsto
Washington Twp.
Granted, the ponds in Batsto are no longer covered by ice, but they are still damn cold. Search out the Ice Women of South Jersey on social media and join them for their chilly minutes-long soaks in some of the cleanest freshwater in the region. They say it’s good for inflammation, the mind and the soul. —VF
Walk the Bridge
Ben Franklin Bridge Walkway (Camden)
The Benjamin Franklin Bridge Pedestrian Walkway offers a bird’s-eye view of the Delaware River and Camden and Philadelphia waterfronts. Bring binoculars to view ship traffic and river landmarks, including the Betsy Ross Bridge. A round-trip walk from Camden is nearly 3 miles and reaches an elevation of 165 feet. —Tom Wilk
Stay in a Cabin in the Pine Barrens
Bass River State Forest (Bass River Twp.)
For just $75 per night, you get a cozy 1930s-era cabin on the shore of Lake Absegami deep in the Pine Barrens, complete with a fireplace, full kitchen, bathroom, and sleeping for six. Mosquito haters will love the screened-in porch. Not exactly roughing it. And that’s perfectly OK with us. —VF
Hike the Batona Trail
Burlington County
Covering around 50 miles, the Batona Trail showcases the natural world of the Pinelands. The blazed trail is easy to follow and passes through the Wharton, Brendan T. Byrne and Bass River state forests. The trail can be hiked in segments and features relatively flat terrain. —TW
See a Flick Outside
Delsea Drive-In (Vineland)
Travel back to the 1950s as you watch a double feature under the stars at the classic Delsea Drive-In Theatre in Vineland, open since 1949. Beginning in late May, trade in the couch for the car as you curl up with a bucket of popcorn on a cool spring night. Open through Labor Day. —JL
See Unusual Plants
Linwood Arboretum (Linwood)
This triangular acre of rare and uncommon flowers, woody shrubs and trees offers visitors the chance to see plants they likely won’t find elsewhere in New Jersey. Home gardeners will appreciate that curators make a point of encouraging visitors to try growing some of these unusual plants. A bike path runs alongside. —Barbara Leap
Go Birding by Boat
Stone Harbor, Cape May
Shore birds like pelicans and herons are rarely seen up close except from small boats cruising salt marshes. Birding By Boat (starting April 15) and Salt Marsh Safari (starting in May) offer two-hour, narrated daytime and sunset eco-cruises providing such intimate encounters. —BL
Reach for the Stars
Cape May Science Center (Cape May)
On April 22 at 8 pm, bring a blanket or lawn chair and sit beneath the stars in the courtyard of the Cape May Point Science Center. Amateur astronomer Kevin Beare will present the first of a six-part astronomy program. With luck, you may see one of the oldest known meteor showers. —Monica Cardoza
Multiple LocationsCatch a Trout
Trout is some of the tastiest freshwater fish in the United States, and fortunately, New Jersey is home to plenty. The season opens in April, and all you need to do is stick a line in the water. Well, and be patient. Some of the best angling can be found in the Round Valley and Merrill Creek reservoirs. —Victor Fiorillo
Hop on a Boozy Beer Trail
With over 130 craft breweries and more bubbling up in New Jersey, thirsty patrons can enjoy beer trails running throughout the state. Don’t like beer? Jersey is also home to over 50 wineries and a handful of distilleries with options for imbibing al fresco. —Gary Phillips
Stroll Through Private Gardens
Every year, the Garden Conservancy invites private homeowners around the country to open their gardens to the public for a day or more during Open Garden Days. The first New Jersey garden this year is open on April 1 in Nutley—a strolling garden with thousands of early spring flowering bulbs. Next up is a naturalistic garden in Far Hills on April 29. —MC
Catch a Minor League Game
Jersey doesn’t have a Major League Baseball team, but there are plenty of minor league clubs—and their prices are a lot cheaper! Fans of the Yankees can see prospects play for the Somerset Patriots, while Phillies fanatics can enjoy a similar experience at a Jersey Shore BlueClaws game. Then there’s the New Jersey Jackals, who now call historic Hinchliffe Stadium home. Jersey’s other MiLB teams include the Trenton Thunder and Sussex County Miners. —GP
Visit a Secret Garden
When you live in the Garden State, checking out a garden or two has to be on your spring to-do list. Some of our favorite out-of-the-way spots are Avis Campbell Gardens in Montclair, the Gables in Beach Haven, and Cross Estate Gardens in Bernardsville. —JG
Take Your Pooch to the Shore
Pre-Memorial Day is a great time to bring your dog to the Shore, as many beaches, including those in Asbury Park, Brigantine and Ocean City, allow leashed dogs in the off-season. Check with individual beaches before heading out; rules vary. —JG
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Fun Things to Do Outside in New Jersey This Spring appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
We’re a sucker for free shows.
The Jersey-bred Jonas Brothers are set to kick off the Today show’s free Citi Concert Series on May 12, the same day their hotly anticipated sixth record, The Album, is released. The outdoor series takes place at Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan.
“You don’t want to miss it,” Joe Jonas said on Thursday’s episode of the NBC morning show, announcing the concert while sitting alongside his brother-bandmates Kevin and Nick Jonas.
News of the show comes as Kevin, 35, Joe, 33, and Nick, 30, are wrapping up a five-night Broadway residency at the Marquis Theatre. Each night featured a different album from the Grammy-nominated group’s discography—and tickets were tough to score. The residency concludes Saturday with a debut performance of The Album.
Though the guys—who formed the band in 2005, broke up in 2013 and reunited in 2019—grew up in Wyckoff, Kevin is the only brother who still lives in New Jersey. He and his wife, Danielle Jonas, are raising their two daughters in Denville, near Danielle’s parents and some of her childhood friends.
“We are true Jersey, through and through,” Kevin told New Jersey Monthly in an interview last year.
Kevin is grateful New Jersey can serve as a home base for Danielle and the kids while the band tours, telling us: “It’s been a blessing—really nice for us to have a safe place here and a community around us.”
Although Nick and Joe now live on the West Coast, they do get a taste of Jersey when they’re back visiting their home state—if Kevin and Danielle have anything to do with it. “We still bring the Taylor ham to them,” Danielle told us of the guys’ visits. “Or the meatballs.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Jonas Brothers Will Kick Off ‘Today’ Show’s Free Citi Concert Series appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Zach Braff wrote his new movie, “A Good Person,” during one of the most difficult periods in his life. Photo: Jeong Park/Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures
During a pivotal moment in Zach Braff’s new movie, A Good Person, lead actress Florence Pugh stands on the platform at the South Orange train station waiting for her ride into Manhattan. It’s the same place where Braff, who grew up in South Orange and Maplewood, waited countless times as a teen on his way to auditions in New York, yearning to make his showbiz dreams come true.
Braff, who wrote and directed A Good Person, could have filmed that scene—and the entire movie—in any town in the United States. He could have set the story—which revolves around a woman (Pugh) dealing with tragedy, addiction and an unlikely and complicated friendship with her ex-fiancé’s father (played by Morgan Freeman)—anywhere. But for Braff, it’s always been about New Jersey.
“I love my hometown and I want to tell stories about my hometown,” he says.
In recent years, a growing number of productions have opted to shoot in New Jersey, after Governor Phil Murphy reinstated tax incentives for film and television projects in 2018. But what sets Braff apart from many of his colleagues is that, to him, New Jersey isn’t just a backdrop. He not only works here, but builds storylines around the place he grew up because his home state means something to him. “We love him for that,” says Steven Gorelick, executive director of the NJ Motion Picture and TV Commission.
Braff filmed much of “A Good Person” in his hometowns of South Orange and Maplewood, including at his high school, Columbia. Photo: Jeong Park/Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures
Braff’s Jersey pride could not have been spelled out any more clearly than with the title of his directorial debut, the highly lauded 2004 film Garden State, which he wrote, directed and starred in alongside Natalie Portman. Referring to A Good Person (which his theaters on March 24), he says, “Of course I could have told the story anywhere, but I wouldn’t have related to it.”
Braff spent his formative years in New Jersey; it was where he experienced the joys of being a class clown, the pain of his parents’ divorce, the wonders of catching the acting bug. Five years ago, New Jersey was where he saw his father, Harold Braff, who imbued in him a love of theater and of New Jersey, lose his battle with cancer. “I don’t know what the equivalent of patriotic for your state is, but he was that; he just loved Jersey,” Braff recalls of his father. “And I think he instilled that in me.”
Braff describes himself as a “bit melancholic” during his childhood. After his parents divorced, they shared joint custody of Braff and his siblings. “I think I had OCD and I was dealing with anxiety. I was a bit lost,” Braff says.
Braff had “zero interest in sports” (today he uses exercise, specifically riding on his stationary Peloton bike, as a stress reliever), which was “tough,” as team sports are often an important part of making friends. Instead, Braff made movies with his pals and tried to make other kids laugh.
He remembers a seminal moment in fifth grade, when he was assigned an essay. “I wrote mine using other kids in the class as the characters in this funny essay, and I got up in front of the room and read it,” he says. “I remember the kids cracking up and belly laughing, and I remember seeing the teacher in the back of the room belly laughing. And I was like, This is the greatest feeling ever. I wrote this, and they’re all giving me this affirmation. It was kind of at that moment that I was like, So is this a job that you can do?”
Braff, seen on the set of “A Good Person,” says his father imbued in him a love of theater—and New Jersey. Photo: Jeong Park/Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures
Braff got his first taste of acting thanks to his dad, an attorney and law professor at Rutgers, who acted in local community theater performances on the side. Starting around age 10, Braff would tag along to his dad’s rehearsals with the Livingston Community Players and Florham Park Players and help out behind the scenes. “I was kind of like their mascot,” Braff says. Despite his age, the stage crew soon started taking him seriously because “they saw what a hard worker I was.”
He truly fell in love with acting while attending Stagedoor Manor, a prestigious theater camp in upstate New York. He soon began auditioning for professional gigs and landed his first at 14, a pilot for CBS produced by the famed Bruce Paltrow, called High. It was a gritty high school drama set and filmed in New Jersey. Interestingly, High was also the first role for Bruce’s daughter, Gwyneth Paltrow, who was cast as the “pretty high school senior, and I was sort of the nerdy high school freshman,” Braff says.
Fast-forward thirty years, and Braff was back at his old high school, Columbia, to shoot A Good Person in the fall of 2021. Locals will appreciate the location-spotting opportunities in the movie. Braff features places that are meaningful to him, including Columbia, from which he graduated in 1993; the South Orange Duck Pond, where as a kid he loved to steer an electric boat and feed the ducks with his mother; and the South Orange train station, which, to a teenage Braff, represented the possibility of pursuing what he loved most.
“One of the special things about being in South Orange and Maplewood was that direct line to Penn Station,” he says. “When other kids would go off to soccer or lacrosse practice, I was going into the city to audition.”
Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman star in “A Good Person.” Braff does not have an on-screen role in the movie. Photo: Jeong Park/Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures
During one scene in the movie filmed at a soccer game at Columbia, you can even see an apartment building where Braff’s father lived following his divorce from Braff’s mom.
The movie was filmed mostly in South Orange and Maplewood, but also includes scenes shot in Clifton (Colonial Pharmacy), Elizabeth (the now-shuttered Pastime Tavern), Morristown (Loyola Jesuit Center) and other area towns. Braff wanted to shoot at the Livingston Mall, where he hung out as a teen at the arcade (which has long been closed), but the film’s budget wouldn’t allow for an additional location.
The movie’s subject matter is also very personal for Braff. He wrote it during one of the most difficult periods of his life. In a four-year span that included a portion of the pandemic, he lost his father to cancer, his sister to an aneurysm, his manager Chris Huvane to suicide, and his best friend, the Broadway actor Nick Cordero, to Covid-19. Braff says he “needed to write” in order to deal with the grief and to “find some purpose.” “It just felt completely inauthentic to write about anything other than tragedy and the human desire to stand back up after tragedy,” he says.
However, Braff says he wanted to stay true to himself and not make the movie maudlin. As any fan of Braff’s hilarious work in the long-running TV series Scrubs can confirm, Braff has serious comic chops. A Good Person has funny moments, particularly some with Freeman and with Saturday Night Live legend Molly Shannon, who plays the mother of Allison (Pugh).
“It’s how me and my family deal with loss—we find humor and we find ways to laugh and have a release,” Braff says.
As the title suggests, Braff’s directorial debut, “Garden State,” took place in New Jersey.
Braff does not appear in this movie, something unexpected for him; he starred in both Garden State and his 2014 film, Wish I Was Here (which he wrote with his brother Adam Braff). “I wanted to tell, for the first time, a story that was what I was feeling in my heart, but not necessarily about me.”
He wrote the movie for its star, Pugh, whom he was dating at the time. “We were dating, and she is just a phenomenon to me,” he says. The two are no longer together, but speak fondly of each other.
Pugh says that having “someone who knows me so well write a character for my voice only has to be one of the most unique and bonding feelings.” She also says living and filming in New Jersey was “the highlight for me. Especially with Zach’s personal history and ties there, it felt so special to be bringing this story to life there.”
These days, Braff no longer lives in New Jersey. He studied film at Northwestern University in Illinois and has homes in Los Angeles and New York. But he comes to New Jersey to visit family, and, of course, to make movies.
His impact on the state is important. Gorelick, of the film and TV commission, says A Good Person spent $11 million in New Jersey (In comparison, some TV series spend $80 million-$100 million on one season, he says). In addition to economic growth for the state, Gorelick says that a movie like A Good Person gives New Jersey publicity that no amount of advertising can provide.
For Braff, his home state is so much more than a location: “New Jersey’s a character in the movie.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post For Zach Braff, Making Movies in New Jersey is Deeply Personal appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
A week after George Floyd’s killing by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020, Michelle Miller’s cell phone buzzed.
The CBS Saturday Morning cohost had covered other stories about violence and racial animus: the shootings of Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin, the mass murder in a Charleston, South Carolina, church, the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. Now, with the nation aflame over Floyd’s fate, a senior producer at CBS News’ weekday morning show—where Miller sometimes served as cohost— wanted her perspective.
The resulting television segment was more personal than anyone expected.
“I exposed why stories like that really resonated with me,” says Miller, who lives with her husband and children in South Orange. The contours of her childhood—indeed, of her entire life—had been etched by racism.
She had been abandoned by her mother, whose Mexican immigrant parents disapproved of her relationship with a Black man, a prominent surgeon and civil rights activist.
Michelle Miller says her husband, Marc H. Morial, has been asking her to write a book for 25 years.
In the television piece, Miller described herself as “the product of an interracial union that my father celebrated and my mother to this day does not acknowledge.”
After it aired, a tearful Miller added: “No one on that side of my family knows who I am, knows that I exist.”
“The story lasted just minutes, but its impact on me was indelible,” says Lisa Sharkey, a former journalist who is senior vice president of creative development at HarperCollins Publishers. Sharkey encouraged the writing of Miller’s emotional new memoir, Belonging: A Daughter’s Search for Identity Through Loss and Love, published by Harper in March.
Working with cowriter Rosemarie Robotham, Miller artfully details her struggles with her motherless childhood and racial identity. The memoir also chronicles happier events: Miller’s rise through the broadcast-journalism ranks (she has won Emmy, Gracie, DuPont and Edward R. Murrow awards) and her marriage to Marc H. Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League and former mayor of New Orleans.
But the book’s most powerful theme is Miller’s continuing efforts to find maternal surrogates and, finally, connect with her biological mother, the pseudonymous Laura Hernandez.
“My husband’s been asking me to write a book for 25 years,” Miller says.
She had promised her mother never to expose her. She also may have been afraid of the emotions the project would stir. “I sprint through life, and, for whatever reason, I am racing to take care of everything that I need to take care of,” Miller says. “It almost allows me this superhero ability not to feel in the moment.”
The book rips away that defense. It tells a complicated story of racial rejection and acceptance, and of Miller’s longing for a more conventional upbringing.
“I wanted the nuclear family—a mother and a father, this idyllic life,” she says.
Instead, Miller lived with her paternal grandmother, “Bigmama,” with her father making frequent visits. “Look, my story is not a story of tragedy. It’s not a story of a hard-knock life,” she says. “I grew up in South Central Los Angeles, but I did not want for anything because my dad was a physician, and my grandmother was an astute investor and businesswoman, outside of being a retired teacher. We had means. I was an entitled kid”—even a debutante—“growing up in the hood.”
Bused to predominantly white schools, she excelled academically but had trouble fitting in, sometimes feeling like a “racial imposter.” Multiracial by heritage, with a mix of European, Native American and African ancestry, she identifies as Black.
Belonging is filled with complex, vivid characters, including her late father, Dr. Ross Miller Jr. A brilliant Howard University graduate, he was the first doctor to minister to Robert F. Kennedy’s fatal wounds on the night of his 1968 assassination.
Miller would later tell that story on the air, too.
Michelle Miller with her happy brood, husband Marc H. Morial, center, their children and son-in-law. Photo: Courtesy of Randi Baird
The scion of a distinguished family that included a federal judge and a college president who was also an ambassador to Sweden, Miller’s father was staunchly supportive of his daughter, though worried, reasonably enough, about her choice of broadcast journalism as a career. He was also, the memoir says, “a charming rogue” who pursued overlapping, sometimes dishonest relationships with the many women who loved him. In his professional life, however, he remained “a great proponent for women,” Miller says.
The doctor and his first wife, Iris, had just adopted two little girls when Hernandez, with whom he was having an extramarital affair, got pregnant. When Iris discovered the situation, she retaliated by taking one of the girls—the darker skinned child— back to the adoption agency. No one in the family ever saw her again.
Ross continued to date Hernandez intermittently for years and offered to marry her. But because of her family’s opposition, she declined and asked him to stop bringing their daughter, a toddler who would cry nonstop when they said goodbye, to their meetings.
The couple later parted ways, and Ross would eventually divorce Iris and remarry.
Miller has no recollection of those early visits with her mother. She does remember that, when she was about nine, her father took her, without warning, to see Hernandez, who was about to marry and leave the country with her new husband. “That was not a good move,” says Miller.
The visit set up a clash between her father, angry at her mother’s neglect, and her mother, afraid of having her past exposed. The reunion ended abruptly.
Years later, when he was dying of cancer, Ross urged his daughter, then 22, to seek out her mother. As the memoir recounts, they had an emotional lunch during which Hernandez told her daughter that Ross Miller was, for years, “the love of my life.”
“There was wonder about being physically in the presence of this woman,” Miller recalls of their lunch. “But I didn’t feel a burning attachment to her. I didn’t feel that she had a burning attachment to me. I felt politely pleased that she met with me and that she answered my questions. I genuinely felt lighter in the moment. I thought, once she had met me, she would slowly begin to change her mind about having a relationship with me.”
That never happened, despite Miller’s attempts to keep in touch by phone. Hernandez, civil but emotionally detached, emerges from the memoir as a tragic figure, caught in the web of both America’s racism and her own mistakes.
“She was stuck in her loop. She was stuck in her lie,” Miller says.
In the end, her insistence that Hernandez acknowledge her publicly created a rift that continues to this day.
Among the lessons Miller says she has learned is, “You can long for things your whole life and not appreciate what is in front of you.” One of her deepest regrets involves her grandmother’s late-life caregiver, Vondela, who helped raise her after her grandmother’s death.
“When I lived with her those five years, we were thick as thieves, but when I left” to attend Howard University, “I did not give her what she needed,” including an invitation to her college graduation.
Miller says she remains open to reconciliation with her mother, who, in 2016, stopped answering her calls. The book is “a nudge for her to come out,” Miller says. “If there’s something so fundamental to who you are that you’re hiding, you can never be yourself. You’re always looking over your shoulder. I don’t know how you live with something like this.”
But Miller stresses that she wrote the book for herself, as well as “to pay homage to my father and my grandmother, and to knock down the stereotype that Black men don’t care for their family.
“The through line for me is that, despite this sense of longing, I always did belong,” Miller says. “You have to find belonging within yourself. Appreciate what you do have. Everything I lived through got me here—every mistake, every misunderstanding, every vulnerability. I hope that my life and my mistakes and my triumphs are a lesson to others.”
Julia M. Klein, a cultural reporter and critic in Philadelphia, has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Mother Jones, Slate and other publications.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post CBS News’ Michelle Miller Details Her Search to Belong appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Toni Morrison poses for a publicity photo for her novel Jazz. Image courtesy of Toni Morrison Papers/special collections at Princeton University Library; photo by Brandon Johnson
Toni Morrison once told a reporter, “If you find a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”
As the exhibition “Toni Morrison: Sites of Memory,” at Princeton University Library’s Milberg Gallery, which runs from now until June 4, demonstrates, that means writing on sticky notes if you have to.
Thirty years after Morrison received the Nobel Prize for Literature, the exhibit is being held to honor a lifetime of literary work, as well as her 17 years teaching at Princeton.
Morrison, who died in 2019, is among the university’s most famous professors.
In 2014, eight years after she left the lecture halls, she gave its library 400 boxes of material.
In those boxes were typewritten manuscript pages from books including “Jazz,” legal pads covered in the Pulitzer Prize-winner’s handwriting, outlines, exchanges with editors about drafts of her novels, datebooks and, yes, Post-its that she scrawled on when she had only moments to get down a thought.
When her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970, Morrison was still working full-time as an editor, the first Black woman at Random House to hold that job.
Much of the material on view at Princeton has been off limits to the public until now. Jennifer Garcon, a librarian for modern and contemporary special collections at Princeton, said lead curator Autumn Womack started piecing together the show in 2020 as a way of reconstructing Morrison’s evolution and process for fans, scholars and artists of all stripes.
“One of the things the show does is it allows people to ruminate on their own kinds of creative practice,” she says. “It gets you thinking about how one gets to a finished product.”
Sometimes, as with Morrison, it’s a “recursive, meandering, personal process that isn’t straightforward and, to allow for creative possibilities, probably shouldn’t be.”
“Sites of Memory” situates New Jersey at the center of a national spotlight aimed at the Nobel laureate this spring: In March, the U.S. Postal Service issued a Toni Morrison Forever stamp.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Toni Morrison Exhibit at Princeton Honors a Lifetime of Work, Down to Her Post-Its appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
When Layqa Nuna Yawar came to the United States from Ecuador, he felt like an outsider. Now, he hopes his 350-foot mural in Newark Liberty International Airport will make travelers from other countries feel welcome.
When designing “Between the Future Past,” his permanent piece in the airport’s impressive new Terminal A, Yawar wanted to “look at different narratives and create new iconography.”
Airport employees were his models. During photo sessions, they had conversations about labor, migration, indigeneity, legal status, queerness, womanhood and the meaning of home.
Those exchanges fed his design. The mural also depicts Lenni-Lenape dancers, flora and fauna, overlooked historical figures, and immigrant families and refugees.
“It comes down to, who gets represented? So, we’re aggrandizing people,” he says. “Public art educates, but it’s so much more powerful when it doesn’t spoonfeed information.”
Creating art has helped Yawar understand himself.
“As an immigrant, I’m always dealing with this idea of identity,” he says. “Immigrant trauma is true, and art is helping me heal and deal with that.”
Yawar grew up in West New York and attended Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts where, as he puts it, he “learned how to be an artist in order to forget how to be an artist.”
After graduating, he stopped painting for a while and traveled the world.
“What I was trying to find is a reason to [make art],” he says. “How could I make portraits of people that could have an impact?”
Eventually, he found his current practice, which he calls “socially engaged mural making.”
Yawar estimates that he has about 100 murals worldwide and about 20 in Newark.
Yawar now lives in Newark, and teaches at Rutgers in Newark and New Brunswick. On May 13, he will be honored at the Newark Museum of Art’s Art Ball.
Although his airport mural is complete, Yawar feels a piece of public art is not truly finished until the public assigns meaning to it.
“[Artists] make things and then put them out into the world,” he says, “and the world looks back.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post NJ Artist Hopes His Mural at Newark Airport Makes Everyone Feel Welcome appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Violinists Yulia Ziskel and Joe Deninzon are a married couple, but their musical styles differ vastly. Photo by Jasmine Hsu
When Yulia Ziskel and Joe Deninzon met as students at Indiana University, they were surprised by how much they had in common: They had both moved to the United States from St. Petersburg, Russia, with their families (Deninzon at age 4 and Ziskel at age 17), and they had both been classically trained in the violin from a young age.
The connection between them was immediate.
Today, the New Jersey-based couple is married and living in Dumont in Bergen County, where they are raising their two children and still playing the violin—but now professionally.
Deninzon comes from a family of musicians. His father was a violinist in the Cleveland Orchestra, and his mother was a concert pianist. Ziskel comes from a family of engineers, but has always had a natural gift for music. A neighbor who heard Ziskel singing brought her to her first violin lesson.
Ziskel is now a first violin in the New York Philharmonic, continuing her love of classical music. Deninzon, on the other hand, decided to combine his violin skills with his love of rock music, and today leads the progressive rock band Stratospheerius playing an electric violin—a head-turner of an instrument.
“Electric violins have been around for 70 years or more, but it’s still a novelty to a lot of people,” says Deninzon. “My goal is to educate people…about what’s possible with this instrument, and younger musicians with how you can work as an electric string player.”
The couple says their genre difference is a positive thing. “It’s a blessing we have never taken the same audition together,” says Ziskel. “It’s like having two different jobs. We can appreciate each other’s worlds, but we don’t overlap.”
Deninzon agrees: “We know our strengths and weaknesses. At the same time, if Yulia has had a long day and she wants to tell me about something that happened in the orchestra or some repertoire she’s working on, I totally understand what she’s talking about, and I can support her that way.”
Like most musicians, their line of work depends heavily on live performances, which were put on hold when the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020. The couple soon had to find new ways to get their music out to the world.
Deninzon began teaching violin lessons online, and Ziskel and the New York Philharmonic performed outdoor shows all over New York City as the NY Phil Bandwagon. The couple see the temporary halt in their careers as a silver lining.
“We got to spend more quality time together as a family,” says Deninzon, who shares son Max, 14, and daughter Arianna, 9, with Ziskel. “We’re usually so busy running around playing concerts and touring. It was great to calm down, and it made us appreciate a lot of the things that we have.”
Ziskel and Deninzon have since returned to performing live, and they want the world to know that, while the violin is a renowned classical instrument, there’s much more to it than meets the ear.
They also hope to use their music to move people.
“If you are proficient at what you do, you can really touch souls with your instrument,” says Ziskel. “I sure hope that I can touch other lives with what I do, with the sound I produce on this instrument, with my proficiency, and as a part of my New York Philharmonic family.”
Deninzon’s band is set to realease its latest album, Behind the Curtain: Live from ProgStock, on May 18.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Strings Attached: Meet NJ’s Violin-Playing Power Couple appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Painted by artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, this new mural will be on permanent display on Englewood’s West Palisade Avenue. Photo courtesy of Sam Lee
A new mural in downtown Englewood celebrates Black women’s voices, raising awareness about African American suffragists and honoring contributions by the local community.
The mural, painted by artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, is located on the wall of the Women’s Rights Information Center on West Palisade Avenue. It was designed with input from Black women in Englewood, as well as the greater community, and will be on permanent display.
“People suffered to give us these rights. Everyone can do something,” Lil Corcoran, executive director of the Women’s Rights Information Center, says of the women in the mural.
The project was facilitated by the Northern New Jersey Community Foundation’s ArtsBergen initiative in partnership with the Women’s Rights Information Center, Metro Community Center and the Woman’s Club of Englewood.
The mural features leaders from the past and present, including suffragist Ida B. Wells; Dr. Josie Carter of the Women’s Rights Information Center; Hali Cooper, an Englewood resident and Black Lives Matter activist; Englewood resident Kia S. Thornton Miller and her daughter, Toni Michelle Miller; as well as a group of protesters picketing against segregation in Englewood’s public schools.
“Through public art, we honor the significant accomplishments of these women in history, while bringing together and elevating the voices of Black women in the City of Englewood today,” says Danielle De Laurentis, associate director of the Northern New Jersey Community Foundation.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Englewood Mural Honors Black Women’s Voices appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
It’s the simple things, like a Taylor ham, egg and cheese on an everything bagel, that Rachel Zegler missed most about New Jersey while she was away for nearly all of 2022 filming two movies. Oh, and the diners. Can’t forget the diners.
“Anywhere else in the world, if the menu is longer than three pages, you shouldn’t go there,” the 21-year-old Clifton native jokes.
After celebrating the holidays with her family in her childhood home, Zegler is slowly settling into Eastern Standard Time in her new apartment in New York City. This March, her second film, DC Comics’s Shazam! Fury of the Gods, premieres. In her superhero movie debut, Zegler plays Anthea, sister of Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu’s characters. The auditions were entirely over Zoom. Zegler didn’t even know what role she had read for until the director, David Sandberg, called to tell her she landed it.
“I fell in love with the idea [that]… you don’t really know if she’s good or bad,” Zegler says of the character. “Everybody already assumed she’s a villain. But you don’t know, and that’s what’s really fun about playing Anthea.”
[RELATED: How New Jersey Shaped Stan Lee Into a Marvel Legend]
Zegler was filming the Shazam! sequel in Atlanta right before her big-screen debut, Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, came out in December 2021. That was just the beginning for Zegler, as she won a Golden Globe for her star turn as María in West Side Story. Then 2022 called for six months in London filming Disney’s live-action Snow White—in which she plays the title character—and a few more months in Poland for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, in which Zegler plays Lucy Gray Baird. In between takes, she learned to play guitar for the part.
There have also been high-profile appearances at the Oscars and Grammys.
Zegler’s rise to stardom began in her home state. Just 16 years old at the time, she tried out for the iconic character of María in West Side Story through an open casting call. It took a year of callbacks before she landed the breakout role, which had her film scenes in Paterson.
Zegler played María in Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story.” Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios
When Spielberg rang, Zegler was a senior at Immaculate Conception High School in Lodi and about to play Fiona in the school’s musical production of Shrek. She had never had a professional performing job before.
When the casting news broke, tickets sold out quickly for the musical. Fans clamored for Zegler’s autograph, and the school added extra security due to heightened interest in its leading lady.
“The whole world knew what was happening. It really changed everything to suddenly have the world watching you in this tiny little school,” says Gregory Liosi, the school’s theater director and the artistic director of the Hackensack Performing Arts Center. He directed Zegler in Shrek and three other leading roles in high school musicals.
During those four years, people close to Zegler assumed she was Broadway bound. No one imagined Hollywood would come first. “We were all aware that she obviously had a future. After high school, she’d audition, get something on Broadway, and that would be her path,” Liosi says.
Even from an early age, Zegler had it, explains Kathleen Kellaigh, Zegler’s former director and the artistic director of ACT Studios in Clifton. “She naturally has that presence,” Kellaigh says. “She gets it innately. She’s born to that greatness. When you are in her presence, there is this energy that is palpable.”
Zegler was 12 years old when Kellaigh met her at an audition for the Theater League of Clifton’s production of Fiddler on the Roof. Zegler’s mom, Gina, had seen an ad for auditions in the Clifton Journal and “thought it would be good for me because I had just started to sing out,” Zegler recalls. “I just started to use my voice in a powerful way, and my mom was really instrumental in making sure that I explored that aspect of my life.”
Zegler was influenced by stage and screen legends Audra McDonald, Chita Rivera and Sutton Foster. Photo courtesy of Nathan Johnson
The production marked Zegler’s first foray into musical theater.
For the next few months during rehearsals, if anyone in the cast was missing, Zegler could step in, Kellaigh says. “She was not only holding her own against the adults, but leading the adults. Not deliberately; it wasn’t like she would take over. It was just by being who she was and taking the chances that she was willing to take.”
Growing up, Zegler was influenced by stage and screen legends Audra McDonald, Chita Rivera and Sutton Foster. It’s not lost on Zegler that she played two roles Foster originated: Fiona in Shrek and Millie in Thoroughly Modern Millie. She even got an Instagram message from Foster raving about her West Side Story performance. “It was life changing to read that from somebody that you admire so much,” Zegler says. “My soul left my body.”
Singin’ in the Rain was Zegler’s favorite movie as a kid, and she loved 2013’s Inside Llewyn Davis, starring Oscar Isaac. But watching movie after movie was all for fun at the time—or so Zegler thought. “It wasn’t until after I started working in film that I realized how influenced I was,” she says.
Zegler’s favorite New Jersey celebrity is none other than Bruce Springsteen, who came to visit the set of West Side Story. When asked what her dream New Jersey performance venue would be, she immediately recites a Boss-centric family tale. “My dad stumbled in on Bruce Springsteen performing at the Columns down at Avon-by-the-Sea,” Zegler recalls. “Everybody’s just eating their Thursday prime rib special. I would do that. I think that’s fun.”
When college was approaching, some of Zegler’s theater directors felt she didn’t need to go. Kellaigh remembers telling Zegler’s mom, “Don’t worry about the college thing. This is something you need to understand about her. Her time is now.” Zegler was accepted into Montclair State University’s musical theater program for the fall of 2019. She deferred to shoot West Side Story.
Zegler felt filming Shazam! was like freshman year of college. “Being on your own is such an interesting thing when you’re coming out of a pandemic,” she says. “It was like my real college experience…because I was living in the same space as so many people that I was working with and seeing at work every day.”
Zegler doesn’t feel college will ever be off the table, but she is adamant that she will pick a different major if she ever attends. “Probably something that would service the world rather than myself,” she says.
Zegler’s passion for other people helps her stand out as much as her acting chops.
One year, for the school musical Beauty and the Beast, Zegler posed for pictures as part of a fundraiser. “The way she interacted with the children who came up to take a picture, without any training whatsoever, was spot on,” Liosi remembers. “She was so good at it, effervescent, and so kind to every single person that took a picture. I used to jokingly say that Disney made her in a lab because she was so perfect in that sort of Disney persona when she was Belle [in Beauty and the Beast] and [Ariel] in The Little Mermaid. Next year, she’s going to be on the big screen in Snow White. So I guess I was right. My joke came true.”
After filming four consecutive movies and an upcoming animated musical, Zegler is ready to check off her biggest dream: Broadway.
It’s “closer than everyone thinks,” she teased. “I’m bursting at the seams about it. So very soon.”
Leigh Scheps is an entertainment reporter from the Jersey Shore who has never met Bruce Springsteen.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Rachel Zegler’s Jersey Upbringing Prepared Her for Stardom appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Now a freshman a Harvard, Marley Dias, 19, has collected more than 14,000 books with a Black girl as the protagonist. Photo courtesy of Andrea Cipriani Mecchi
Kudos for the longest book drive ever go to Marley Dias.
In November 2015, as a pre-teen, this West Orange resident made an offhand remark to her mom about how few books she read in school that featured Black girls as the protagonist. In response to Marley’s frequently quoted remark, “I’m tired of reading books about white boys and their dogs,” Marley’s mom, Janice Johnson Dias, who runs a public health and social action nonprofit, challenged her with, “What are you going to do about it?”
What she did was set an ambitious goal to collect 1,000 books featuring Black girls by February 2016. Marley’s efforts went viral, and she neatly exceeded her goal. Today, thanks to her website, the initiative has collected more than 14,000 books, helping her land a spot in New Jersey Monthly’s Book of Records.
Distributed to community groups and schools, Marley explains, “We want them to go where they can have the most impact. In a community educational space, more than 30 kids may read each book, and students will have the benefit of reading the books with teachers and educators who understand the importance of racial identity, diversity and inclusion.”
Marley Dias kicked off her campaign in 2015. Photo courtesy of Erin O’Brien
Fast-forward to 2023, 19-year-old Marley is now a freshman at Harvard. She has spoken at the White House, was named one of the nation’s most influential teens by Time in 2018, and was the youngest honoree on Forbes’s 30 Under 30 list that same year.
In 2020, she hosted Bookmarks, a Netflix children’s show where celebrities read books by Black authors. This year, she served as the first guest editor for an online magazine called Feminist.
A published author, her book, Marley Dias Gets It Done: And So Can You! (Scholastic 2018) is a guide to inspire other young people find their voices to make changes in their communities.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post How One NJ Teen Collected 14K Books With Black Girl Protagonists appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Working as a naturalist primarily from her Vineland home, Mary Treat was a groundbreaking scientist who discovered new flora and fauna, including three species of ants that were named in her honor, and was praised by Charles Darwin for her work. Treat has also inspired modern-day writers, appearing as a character in Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Unsheltered and inspiring a character in The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert.
While Treat wrote six books and more than 100 scientific articles, her achievements have mostly receded into the background since her death in 1923—until now. Deborah Boerner Ein takes the trailblazing scientist out of the historical shadows with Mary Treat: A Biography (Lulu), the first book-length account of her life. For Ein, a Hammonton resident who spent four years researching and writing, a Treat biography was overdue.
“So many women who contributed to science, art and other disciplines have gone unnoticed or were not given the recognition they deserve,” says Ein, editor of SNJ Today, a weekly newspaper in Vineland.
Born in 1830, Treat studied botany in school and became an advocate of the sciences. The “study of botany,” she noted in an 1866 article, “raises woman above the frivolities of dress and fashion.”
Treat, who lived in Vineland from 1868 to 1919, specialized in the study of carnivorous plants, such as the Venus flytrap, and branched out into entomology. Charles Darwin praised her findings and acknowledged that “I am much indebted to Mrs. Treat” in one of his books.
“Darwin corresponded with Mary Treat more than any other woman scientist,” Ein says. “There are 15 known letters that passed between the two of them.”
Treat took advantage of the biological diversity in her backyard and surrounding region. “Vineland and South Jersey were a tremendous influence on her,” Ein says, adding that Treat traveled to Batsto and Atsion in the Pine Barrens to complete her studies on carnivorous plants.
Ein hopes her book ensures that Treat’s contributions will be remembered.
“She forged a wider path for women to follow their interests and passions,” Ein notes, “and laid the groundwork for later generations of ecologists to further explore and understand how all living things are interconnected in nature.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Trailblazing NJ Scientist ‘Forged a Wider Path for Women’ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
For book lovers who want more than flowers or a box of chocolates this Valentine’s Day, Varina Palladino’s Jersey Italian Love Story is the perfect read.
Author Terri-Lynne DeFino grew up in Wyckoff and made a name for herself among fantasy and romance readers. Now comes her old-fashioned yet thoroughly modern family dramedy, set in the fictional town of Wyldale.
This Garden State love storybegins with the titular widow deciding it’s time to actually listen to her mother and start dating again. A colorful cast of family and friends offers their help—whether the main character, Varina Palladino, wants it or not.
Along the way, there are fights and hugs, tears and romance. “Readers will be glad to immerse themselves in the Palladinos’ exuberant world [and this] bighearted story,” Publisher’s Weekly recently raved.
“My agent said with any new book, there’s always calls [from Hollywood] asking, ‘Who owns the rights?’” DeFino says. “There have been a lot of calls.”
DeFino was born in Paterson; her father was a lawyer, while her mother raised four kids. Grandparents and lots of cousins lived nearby.
“It was a large, loud Italian family,” DeFino says. “Going off into a corner with a book was sometimes very peaceful.”
New Jersey readers in particular will recognize many of the salty Italian American expressions that open each chapter, partly inspired by another Jersey family—the Sopranos.
Though she now resides in Connecticut, DeFino is still a Jersey regular, vacationing down the Shore or sharing a pie at Patsy’s in Paterson (one of NJM’s favorite pizza spots).
“In the end,” she says, “it always feels like home.”
Hungry for more Italian American culture? Check out our roundup of delicious restaurants.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post ‘Jersey Italian Love Story’ Is a Funny and Salty New Read appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Sea Hear Now, Asbury Park’s annual beach bash, is returning this September with a lineup that’s sure to rock the Jersey Shore.
The Foo Fighters and the Killers are headlining the fifth annual festival, which takes place from September 16–17. The lineup includes, but is not limited to, Greta Van Fleet, Weezer, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Mt. Joy, Sheryl Crow and the Beach Boys.
The Foo Fighters recently announced their first shows since the death of long-time drummer Taylor Hawkins in March 2022. It’s not yet clear who the band’s new drummer will be.
Sea Hear Now, which debuted in 2018, brings major musicians to Asbury Park every year. The festival features three stages at North Beach Asbury Park and Bradley Park, as well as a professional surfing competition. The 2023 surfing lineup includes Cam Richards and Sam Hammer, among others.
Sea Hear Now also celebrates art and ocean sustainability and serves up tons of New Jersey dining options. Danny Clinch’s Transparent Gallery, which features creations from the festival’s musicians and hosts smaller, intimate performances, highlights much of the weekend’s art.
Clinch is a well-known music photographer and film director from Toms River. He is one of the festival’s co-founders.
“It’s the last great party of the summer, but it’s also for people who live at the Jersey Shore,” Tim Donnelly, another co-founder, told New Jersey Monthly last year. “Asbury Park has been built on a good time. So to be able to provide that platform for people and do it in a distinctly New Jersey way—it’s a great actualization of 21st-century New Jersey, especially the Jersey Shore.”
Tens of thousands of people head to Asbury Park for Sea Hear Now every year. Photo by Kevin Doherty for Sea Hear Now
The very first Sea Hear Now festival featured headliners Jack Johnson and Incubus in 2018. New Jersey’s own Bruce Springsteen also surprised alongside Social Distortion. Sea Hear Now’s second act was led by Dave Matthews Band and The Lumineers. Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins then headlined the sandy show in 2021 after the Covid-19 pandemic canceled the event in 2020.
Stevie Nicks and Green Day led the pack in 2022.
Notable non-headliners who have performed at Sea Hear Now include Blondie, Ben Harper, Brandi Carlile, The Front Bottoms, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, The B-52’s, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Dropkick Murphys, Dispatch, Billy Idol, Patti Smith, The Avett Brothers, Lord Huron, Dirty Heads, My Morning Jacket, Cage The Elephant, Billy Strings, Gary Clark Jr., The Head and the Heart, Michael Franti and Spearhead, and Shakey Graves.
The festival also always makes space for local bands, who get a chance to play for bigger crowds and on the same stages as some of music’s biggest stars.
For those interested in tickets, presale begins Thursday, February 9, at 10 am for one-day and two-day general admission, GA+, VIP, platinum and ultimate experience tickets. Those interested can sign up for the presale code here.
A public sale will follow with any remaining tickets.
The post Foo Fighters, The Killers Headlining 2023 Sea Hear Now Festival in Asbury Park appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Effie, the terrier mix who was rescued by South Jersey’s Match Dog Rescue, will be playing on Team Ruff in the Puppy Bowl XIX on February 12. Photo courtesy of Animal Planet
The Puppy Bowl is billed as a feel-good TV sports special—but there’s more to it than meets the eye. All of the daring dogs on the field were given a second chance by rescue organizations, three of which are in New Jersey.
“It’s cute to watch but then when you actually reflect on where they came from, it means a lot more,” says Nina Marcos, a representative of Match Dog Rescue, a South Jersey nonprofit that rescued three dogs participating in this year’s match.
Celebrating its 16th anniversary this year, the Puppy Bowl XIX is a three-hour-long soppy sports competition that aims to raise awareness about the rescue shelters across the country fighting to save animals’ lives. Around 122 puppies from 67 different shelters across 34 states will be wagging their tails on the field to fight for the Wayfair “Lombarky” trophy.
While some of the rescued animals are freed from neglectful and abusive homes, others are saved from wandering the streets. However, overpopulation in shelters has contributed to a rise in pets at risk for euthanasia, which is where rescue organizations step in to find forever homes for those animals desperately in need.
“Thinking about the resiliency of these dogs, it really does make you proud,” Marcos says.
Take Effie (@yourbfeffie on Instagram) the terrier mix. Her pregnant mother was saved by Match Dog Rescue from Texas, where the homeless animal population is exceedingly high, in part because of its relaxed spay and neuter laws. Effie was born in a foster home on Garden State soil, and shortly after was adopted by a dog-loving couple across the Hudson River.
Wondering which team to root for? Well, New Jersey will have pups playing for both teams. On Team Ruff, Effie will be joined by her Match Dog Rescue mate Barnaby, as well as Poe and Walker from Chatham’s shelter, A Second Chance for Ziva. On Team Fluff, Myrtle of Match Dog Rescue will partner up with Asiago of South Jersey’s Tri-State Basset Hound Rescue.
Rescue organizations near and far hope that viewers will be inspired to adopt when considering finding a furry friend to join the family.
“We do a lot of the work in the middle, but then it’s really up to the adopters to take them in and really make them their forever companion,” says Erin Camporin, president of A Second Chance for Ziva.
The Puppy Bowl XIX will be available to stream February 12 at 2 pm on Animal Planet with Discovery+.
And if you’re looking for some Super Bowl fun and food, check out our roundup of great parties and specials.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Puppy Bowl XIX: Dogs Saved by Jersey Shelters Will Compete appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Newark’s Bill Bellamy is hosting NJPAC’s Valentine’s comedy show. Photo courtesy of NJPAC
As a student at Rutgers in the mid-1980s, Bill Bellamy received a trial-by-fire education in comedy.
When small campus collectives put on talent or fashion shows, he was always the first call for hosting duties—a golden opportunity to practice his stand-up and establish his Newark-born-and-raised voice in front of captive classmates. “I was hosting little café nights telling my five-cent jokes,” he says. “I ended up being the Rutgers comedian.”
Upon graduating, Bellamy began his professional career by playing now-defunct local spots in East Orange such as Club 88 and the Peppermint Lounge, “the number 1 place for entertainment on a Thursday night,” he says. Comics like Bernie Mac, Chris Rock and Steve Harvey also got started there. “We were all coming up in the game—young guys trying to make our mark, trying to get on TV,” Bellamy says. “We didn’t know that all these jokes would pay off.”
More than 30 years later, after making his mark in Hollywood and performing all over the country, Bellamy is returning to his old haunts and duties. On February 11, he and four other comics—Eddie Griffin, Adele Givens, Tommy Davidson and Smokey Suarez—will take the stage at Newark’s NJPAC for the Valentine’s All-Star Comedy Show. The star-studded lineup performs at 7 and 9:30 pm. Tickets range from $50.50–$100.50.
The event represents a nostalgic, full-circle moment for Bellamy. Though he has played this show before, Bellamy’s enhanced hosting role lets him show off his personality and engage more with the Newark crowd. “It’s a home-court advantage,” he says. “I know all the Jersey jokes, I know all the funny stuff about Jersey, so I’ve got the cheat code.” Hosting also allowed him to hand-pick a diverse comic ensemble; Bellamy is eager to see the reactions to his group of “super friends.”
Bellamy broke out in the early 1990s on MTV and continued to find roles in television and movies—most notably Def Comedy Jam, Any Given Sunday and Insecure. But the comedian, 57, has remained loyal to his roots, visiting his home state to see family a few times a year and exuding Jersey’s underdog spirit. “That’s the beauty of my perspective,” he says. “I always want to show my fans that I never forget where I come from, and I’m very proud of where I come from. And now that I’m in a position to bring entertainment to my city, why wouldn’t I do that?”
Considering Bellamy coined the phrase booty call early in his career, NJPAC attendees can also expect some Valentine’s Day humor. “It’s obviously a date night and it’s a love weekend—people are trying to step their game up,” he jokes, before providing this advice for the evening: “Show up and show out.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Bill Bellamy Reflects on Being ‘The Rutgers Comedian’ Before Big Break appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Looking for fun this March? Check out these events and activities happening all over New Jersey.
Please note that all schedules are subject to change; visit each venue’s website for more information.
ArtTricia Zimic uses Chacma baboons as muses in her latest exhibition. Photo courtesy of Tricia Zimic
Tricia Zimic: Sins & Virtues
Thru March 5
Tricia Zimic is a Long Island-born, Pennsylvania-based painter and sculptor whose works can be found in public and private collections across the United States and Europe. Her latest exhibition, Sins and Virtues, uses Chacma baboons as characters in dramatic narratives and scenes. Wednesday-Sunday, 11 am-5 pm; $5-$7. Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton. hunterdonartmuseum.org
ComedyPinky Patel
March 11
TikTok comedian Pinky Patel has gone viral and amassed more than 5 million followers with her hilarious rants and observations. Now, she’s traveling the country on her New Crown, Who Dhis tour. 8 pm; $37.50-$65.50. New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark. njpac.org
MusicMarco BeneventoMarch 10
Marco Benevento is an experimental musician born and raised in Jersey whose music has explored and combined elements of jazz, indie pop and psychedelic rock. Benevento is bringing his distinct sound and high-energy performance to Jersey City while touring his latest album, Benevento. 8 pm; $20. White Eagle Hall, Jersey City. whiteeaglehalljc.com
Leslie Odom, Jr.March 31
Leslie Odom Jr. is best known for his breakout role as Aaron Burr in the hit Broadway musical Hamilton, as well as memorable film turns like his Oscar-nominated role in One Night in Miami and his recent appearance in the mystery-comedy Glass Onion. The star shows off his musical chops in Morristown this month, performing a mix of jazz, soul and pop. 8 pm; $69-$129. Mayo Performing Arts Center, Morristown. mayoarts.org
StageCatsMarch 10-12
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s iconic musical Cats won seven Tony Awards and ran for 18 years, making it one of the longest runs in Broadway history. Now, the cast of Cats are looking to make more memories in Morristown. Various showtimes; $69-$109. Mayo Performing Arts Center, Morristown. mayoarts.org
Special EventsThe Jurassic World universe will come to life from March 3-5 at the Prudential Center. Photo courtesy of Feld Entertainment
Jurassic World LiveMarch 3-5
The Jurassic World universe and the island of Isla Nublar come to life in a one-of-a-kind theatrical show called Jurassic World Live. Adapted from the hit movie franchise, this adventure features some of the biggest dinos that once roamed the planet, including the velociraptor, stegosaurus, triceratops and Tyrannosaurus rex. Book your seats for this production, which is fun for the whole family. Showtimes vary; $20-$235. Prudential Center, Newark. prucenter.com
Champions of MagicMarch 4
The Champions of Magic, a quintet of magicians and illusionists, have been selling out shows all over the world and garnering millions of views on YouTube and social media for the past decade. Now the team is taking its astonishing tricks, daring escape acts and physics-defying stunts on the road. 8pm; $29-$99. State Theatre New Jersey, New Brunswick. stnj.org
FestivalsEnjoy a day of imbibing at the Morristown Armory. Photo: Shutterstock
Big Brew Beer FestivalMarch 4
With more than 200 craft beers on tap, the Big Brew Beer Festival at the Morristown Armory is a fantastic way to spend a day filled with beer, food and live music. A free shuttle is running between the venue and the Morristown train station. Noon-4 pm, 5:30-9:30 pm; Morristown Armory, Morristown. bigbrewnj.com/morristown
Philip Roth FestivalMarch 17-19
Celebrate Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and Newark native Philip Roth at the Philip Roth Unbound festival. Writers and artists, including Chisa Hutchinson and John Turturro, are set to discuss Roth’s work. Event times vary; $10-$40. New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark. njpac.org
Garden State Film FestivalMarch 23-26
The 21st annual Garden State Film Festival is screening 235 films from 23 different countries over the course of four days. The festival has been supported in the past by big names such as Bruce Springsteen, James Gandolfini, Glen Close and Ed Asner. It’s taking place across nine venues in Asbury Park, Ocean Grove and Cranford. Screening times vary; $15-$135. Various venues and towns. gsff.org
St. Patrick’s Day EventsBring the whole family to the Mt Holly St. Patrick’s 5K Run & Family Fun Walk on March 4. Photo: Shutterstock
March 4This 5K family walk and kids’ mile run benefits Mount Holly recreation programs. 11:15 am; $25-$35. Downtown Mount Holly. facebook.com/mtholly5K
March 11
Enjoy family-friendly fun at Morris County’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Noon. Downtown Morristown. morristown-nj.org
March 16Take an Irish whiskey cocktail class with refreshments at 618 Restaurant. 6:30 pm; $129. 618 Park Ave, Freehold. 618nj.com
March 16
This 21-and-over party has dancing, a buffet dinner, beer and wine at Jacques Reception Center. 6:30 pm; $75. 500 Palmer Ave, Middletown. middletownnj.org
March 17A classic bar crawl is moving through Atlantic City on Saint Patrick’s Day. 4 pm; $11. 133 S Tennessee Avenue, Atlantic City. pubcrawls.com/city/atlantic-city-nj
BenefitsNAACP Cape May County 3rd Annual Freedom Fund GalaMarch 11
The Cape May County Branch of the NAACP is hosting a gala to raise funds for their programs and services, such as their scholarship program, clothing drive, community clean-up and holiday gifting program. Tickets to the gala will include a night of cocktails, dinner and plenty of dancing. 5 pm; $150. Wildwoods Convention Center, Wildwood. cmcnaacp.org
Harmonium Broadway Cabaret TroupeMarch 25
The Harmonium Broadway Cabaret Troupe is performing hit songs from classic Broadway shows like Into the Woods, Guy and Dolls and Wicked in this musical theater show for music enthusiasts of all sorts. There’s also going to be a silent auction and wine pull, and proceeds benefit the Ukrainian American Cultural Center of New Jersey. 7 pm; $50. Ukrainian American Cultural Center of New Jersey, Whippany. uaccnj.org/event/harmonium-choral-society
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post The Best Things to Do in NJ in March: St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations, Festivals and More appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
If your beloved sled was a Flexible Flyer, you’re likely to see one just like it, no matter the style or year, at the Flexible Flyer Sled Museum in Moorestown.
Located in the vestibule between the Moorestown Library and Town Hall, this free museum features 27 Flexible Flyers that were produced between 1890 and 2014. They include rare sleds, such as the Fire Fly, which cost $2 in its day.
The founder and curator of this unique museum is Philip Snow, who loved to sled all day with his three older brothers during winter visits with their maternal grandfather in Moorestown.
Snow, 62, who grew up in Delran and Marlton and now lives in Ocean Grove, realized about eight years ago that no one had created a museum honoring these well-crafted sleds and their brilliant Moorestown inventor, Samuel Leeds Allen, who crafted the first of many toys that have their roots here in New Jersey.
The Flexible Flyer Sled Museum in Moorestown features 27 of the iconic sleds. Photo courtesy of the Flexible Flyer Sled Museum
So Snow opened the Flexible Flyer Museum in 2015, in collaboration with Joseph Galbraith, the library director at the time.
Nearly every sled in the museum is from Snow’s personal collection. Disappointed in adulthood that he no longer had his own childhood sled, he began purchasing old-time Flexible Flyers in a tribute to his passion for the sport.
He started with one from the 1930s that he discovered in a Moorestown antiques store for his young son Andrew. When daughter Amelia, born two years later, was old enough to sled, she, too, received a Flexible Flyer.
Snow obsessively collected sleds from all over the country, paying anywhere from $3 to $300 for each. Eventually, more than 40 of them filled the garage and basement of Snow’s home in Pennsauken.
“One day,” he says, “my wife, Denise, said to me, ‘Would you please get those sleds out of here?’” That may have been the moment that inspired him to create the museum. He chose what he considered the best examples from each era, along with several donated sleds and a pair of 1938-50 wooden Flexible Flyer skis, originally $14.50, and their poles. He also set up a glass display case that holds rare paraphernalia about Flexible Flyer history.
The largest Flexible Flyer ever made is also on display, and you can’t miss it. It’s 8 feet, 5 inches long; 16 inches wide; and includes four pairs of metal footrests. Retail price in 1900: $12.
For more unique museums in New Jersey, check out our guide to under-the-radar treasure troves.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post An Obsessive Collector Opened a Museum of Vintage Sleds appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The Jersey City artist who goes by the name Woolpunk comes from a long line of seamstresses and lacemakers, so as a child, she assumed all women knew how to knit and sew. It took her a while to realize her skills were worthy of art.
Now, her 30-foot-wide, 13-foot-long, upcycled mixed-media banner, made largely from secondhand donations from the local community, drapes over the Montclair Art Museum’s Laurie Art Stairway. The 51-year-old East Hanover native’s installation, “Sunflowers & Graffiti’d Sky in the Garden State,” is meant to encourage people to question how consumer habits contribute to excessive waste in landfills.
“That really was the point, to show that fabrics can exist in many life cycles,” Woolpunk says of her piece, which opened in September and is on display through August 2023. “I asked the community to donate and create a circular economy. They can come back and see what they did by not throwing [items] away.”
People who donated to her project “can come back and see what they did by not throwing [items] away,” Woolpunk says. Photo courtesy of Megan Maloy
The banner’s background is an enlarged image of a sunflower-filled community garden near Woolpunk’s home, which she photographed. Practicing what she preaches, the environmentally friendly artist sorted through hundreds of donations of used goods—from clothing to purses to curtains—and embroidered them with commentary about excessive consumer culture.The creation took nearly six months to complete. While some of her embroidered messages are obvious, like the phrase, “Make Things Green,” others are subtle, like the simple word shopping on top of a bug-stained tablecloth. Both stress the project’s recycling theme.
“My hope is that we could all just use that same energy to recycle in our homes every day and think about the choices we make when we are shopping,” Woolpunk says, noting that comprehensive change requires community cooperation.
Woolpunk saw landfill waste firsthand while working at Hudson County’s branch of United Way, a nonprofit that fights for health, education and financial stability in the communities it serves. United Way partners with Amazon fulfillment centers in the Garden State, receiving its surplus of unpurchased goods. “It made me really sick to my stomach because I knew where [the surplus might be] going next,” she says. “It was going to the landfill.”
Working at United Way in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy unexpectedly inspired another artwork that served as a vehicle for change. To address the rise in homelessness at the time, Woolpunk hand-made a multifunctional utilitarian blanket with pillows and waterproof tarps sown in. She said she did this to give Sandy survivors a sense of dignity.
Woolpunk always aims to create something rebellious.
“I’m not really interested in making something beautiful, even though sometimes my work does have a beauty to it,” she says. “It’s just very much about the punkness of it, the authenticity of it, and about just the spirit of being free and pushing boundaries.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Artist Transformed Secondhand Donations Into Thought-Provoking Mural appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
When trying to come up with a podcast that would set him apart, Morristown’s Mike Ham knew the answer wasn’t to interview the same celebrities everyone else was talking to, but rather to speak to everyday New Jerseyans.
That’s exactly what he does on his new podcast, Greetings From the Garden State.
“Everyone is chasing the same kind of guest [for their podcasts],” says Ham, 32, a Garden State native. “There are so many people that live [in New Jersey] that have done such cool things beyond the four walls of their restaurant or store. Why not talk to them?”
For the past year, Ham has set out to do just that. He has traveled from neighborhoods in North Jersey to southern Shore towns to speak to small-business owners, artists, activists and Olympic athletes about their success stories and the struggles they’ve faced.
“There is no shortage of people who have good stories,” Ham says. Photo courtesy of Greetings From the Garden State
At press time, Ham has created more than 50 episodes, ranging from 30 to 60 minutes long, that are available online as well as on most streaming platforms. There are also video versions on YouTube.
“It’s the regular person,” he says. “I think this show has staying power because there is no shortage of people who have good stories and businesses that people want to check out. Then you appreciate that business, that place, that person even more.”
Guests on the show have included Steve Bower of Clifton’s Ghost Hawk Brewing Company, who shared how he built his brewery in the aftermath of a stroke and lost both his brother and best friend in the span of a year. Ham also interviewed Krystal Weisberg of Montclair’s FLK Method, a hybrid exercise and yoga studio, who created the unique fitness program after being burnt out by her 9-to-5 marketing job and battling a rare vascular disease. Her program is popular with the likes of Montclair makeup mogul Bobbi Brown.
The show’s introduction song is a snippet from a single by Manny Cabo, a winning Voice contestant who hails from Elizabeth. Cabo’s story is another that can be heard on Ham’s show.
These stories are just examples of what listeners can expect to hear when they press play on the podcast all about the people of New Jersey.
“They are your neighbor,” he says. “They are just like you.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Podcast Spotlights Fascinating Stories From Everyday New Jerseyans appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Roe v. Wade and abortion have become heavily debated issues this year following the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of the decision in June. The Family Roe: An American Story, by Joshua Prager, is essential reading to learn the full story. The paperback is out this month.
Prager, a Maplewood resident, spent about 11 years researching the case, searching through countless documents and interviewing several people involved, including Jane Roe, whose real name is Norma McCorvey.
In the book, Prager takes a broad look at the famous court case, particularly at McCorvey’s life both before and after the decision. She had a troubled upbringing and had given birth to two daughters prior to the case.
Prager reveals the identity of McCorvey’s third child as Shelley Lynn Thorton, also known as the Roe baby. As the court proceedings took too long to allow McCorvey to have an abortion, she gave birth to the girl in June 1970 and put her up for adoption.
The book also covers McCorvey’s life in the decades following Roe v. Wade. In the mid-1990s, she turned to evangelical Protestantism and became an anti-abortion activist, calling her involvement in the case “the biggest mistake of [her] life.”
The book also includes Linda Coffee, the lawyer who represented McCorvey and filed the Texas lawsuit, and Mildred Jefferson, a pro-life leader.
The Family Roe was named a top book of 2021 by NPR, Time and the New York Times, and was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Maplewood Journalist Investigates Full Story Behind Roe v. Wade appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
When it comes to specialized guitar repairs, Curt Wilson is considered a world-class craftsman in a field that’s becoming a lost art. He’s so highly regarded for his expertise that many well-known musicians travel for his services.
As a sought-after luthier (a maker of stringed instruments, such as violins or guitars), Wilson is considered a trusted afficionado to avid guitar players looking for custom enhancements for their instruments. When news of his extraordinarily finely tuned talents began reaching the communities of musicians in New York, Philadelphia and beyond, a steady stream began bringing their cherished instruments to him for refurbishment.
A few of his loyal, longtime customers include Tommy Stinson, former bassist for the Replacements and Guns N’ Roses; Jody Porter, former lead guitarist in New Jersey’s Fountains of Wayne power-pop band; Philly favorite Kurt Vile; and guitarist Steve Hunter, who played with Lou Reed and Alice Cooper, among others.
Wilson’s skill and artistry enables him to address all guitar-related needs, including re-fretting necks, all things electric, major structural fixes, and building instruments from scratch. Audubon musician John Magill, of the band John Magill and the Have Nots, has known Wilson for nearly 17 years and is a repeat customer for his guitar-repair service. “I call Curt a disturbed perfectionist because he always needs to get everything exactly right. I think it’s how he approaches his work, because the instruments need to be perfect before he lets them go. That’s what puts him way above anyone else I’ve ever used for repairs,” Magill says.
Audubon musician John Magill calls Wilson “a disturbed perfectionist.” Photo by Jennifer Pottheiser
“My main guitar is a vintage 1960 Gibson J-50 acoustic that became unplayable and considered unfixable. So, I started collecting signatures on it for years…including Patti Smith, Keith Richards, Chrissie Hynde, and dozens of other Hall-of-Famers. Eventually, I asked Curt to try and fix it. He worked his magic and repaired it beautifully—and that’s the guitar I play onstage today.”
Wilson custom builds premium guitars from the reclaimed roof of the original schoolhouse, where his workshop is now located. His creations are called SchoolHoused guitars, and the distinctive sound of his work is arguably the essence of centuries-old history.
Wilson crafts every guitar by hand and so far he’s made 25 of these one-of-a-kind instruments. Through word-of-mouth, his orders have skyrocketed and he now has a waiting list of about 30 people. (Prices start at $2,000). Wilson takes incredible pride in these instruments and says, “It’s always a thrill to see a guitar that I built appear on the stage, or in a video.”
Wilson has so far fashioned 25 guitars from scratch. Photo by Jennifer Pottheiser
Jody Porter owns two custom “Beach Blaster” Telecaster-style electric guitars that Wilson tailored to Porter’s personal specifications and made from the original schoolhouse’s roof. Played on stage many times, these guitars appear on multiple songs on his latest album, Waterways (2020).
“Both guitars turned out exceptionally well. Curt even left a hole in the wood from an original nail, that I call chronological coolness,” he says. “Curt is really, really good at his craft, and a good human being, too.”
Born in 1958, Wilson was a rock and roll fan from a young age. His love of guitars began around the eighth grade, when his parents gave him an inexpensive Conn Acoustic. Later, he played a Teisco “Del Rey” electric six-string from Sears.
The quality, and the quantity, of his guitars have increased over the years. Although he works on a variety of name brands, he’s partial to the Gretsch company. His vintage 1958 Gretsch Cadillac Green “Country Club” model is his beloved possession, purchased in the 1970s for a mere $300. Today, it’s valued at more than ten times that.
Wilson’s journey to open his business can be described as a series of serendipitous events. He did not initially intend to embark on restoration, or to move his business into an historic structure. After 30 years of running an auto-supply company, he spends time doing what he loved best—fixing and building instruments at home, where he lives with his wife, Carmen, a teacher in Hopewell.
When his workshop began bursting at the seams, Wilson started looking for a new location for his one-man shop. Without a plan or destination in mind, Wilson drove through Mercer County and randomly discovered the crumbling, historic schoolhouse on Pennington-Hopewell Road in Hopewell, which was up for auction within a week.
Today, Wilson is the proud owner of Old School Guitar–Repair, Restoration and Lutherie, located in a historic schoolhouse built in 1825, that he renovated himself. The one-room structure was originally known as Marshall’s Corner Schoolhouse and was transformed into a music workshop, where Wilson now builds and overhauls an array of stringed instruments.
His vision for Old School Guitar required about 18 months of renovation, officially opening in 2013. Wilson loves running his thriving solo business. He says his philosophy is simple. “I’ve never been a planner and never known what I wanted to do when I grew up. I just go with whatever happens. For me, I kept my goals low, and everything turned out great.”
Wilson ran an auto-supply company for 30 years before opening Old School Guitar. “At the schoolhouse, I’m happy every day of the week,” he says. Photo by Jennifer Pottheiser
Refurbishments to the building were extensive and included a new geo-thermal heating and air-conditioning system. The original roof, built from Douglas fir, was replaced; once-hidden cornerstones were exposed, and a new loft was added. The transformed, natural light–filled structure has soaring 25-foot ceilings, with exposed beams that rise above the new loft that’s filled with playful music memorabilia, including classic amplifiers, a pedal-steel guitar and more. Combined, these elements result in the interior’s warm, acoustic sound.
“The schoolhouse’s original 18-inch-thick greystone walls are independent from the floors, which means there’s no echo, and that’s ideal for a recording studio environment,” he says.
Wilson estimates the building’s time-worn wooden planks are over 250 years old. When he first inspected their condition and counted the rings, he was delighted to find that this dry wood with a tight grain was prime for upcycling.
According to local history, the quaint, one-room schoolhouse was used for educating children until 1930, when it became the local Lion’s Club headquarters. It was also rumored to have been used as a community gathering spot during the famous Lindbergh baby-kidnapping case in the 1930s, as it was one of the few area places with a television. Later, in the 1970s, it was home to the Stonybrook Millstone Watershed Association. After that, it remained vacant and fell into disrepair.
Wilson says the building was nearly forgotten for decades. “For years it sat there. The weeds had grown so tall around the school that it was completely hidden from sight. Anyone driving by on the road would never know there was a building there.”
Discovering some interesting artifacts, including antique inkwells and remnants of train tracks, was an unexpected part of the process. The classroom’s slate blackboard, uncovered during the renovation, is now incorporated into the design.
“At the schoolhouse, I’m happy every day of the week, and it’s always fun to come to work,” Wilson says. “There’s never been a bad day here, and I absolutely love my job.”
Marla Cimini is a longtime contributor to New Jersey Monthly.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Jersey Guitar Craftsman Is Leading Expert in a Lost Art appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
To enhance the 52 weeks in your year, we at New Jersey Monthly are giving you 52 thrilling, quirky, only-in-New Jersey experiences to try (or revisit) this year. Ever been to Cowtown, Jersey’s secret rodeo? Seen the dazzling art at Luna Parc? Sat at Tony Soprano’s table at Holsten’s?
The question “What should we do this weekend?” just became more fun to answer.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT1. DELIGHT ON THE GROUNDSNever been to Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton? Place it at the top of your list. The 42-acre sculpture park blends peaceful pathways with installations of large-scale works by contemporary sculptors and the eye-popping sculpted tableaux by Seward Johnson, the park’s founder. A dozen resident peacocks add to the enchantment. Start (or end) your visit with a taste of French home cooking at Rat’s Restaurant. The park is open Thursday-Monday year-round and is a treat in any season. —Ken Schlager
2. WALK IN A WACKY ART WONDERLANDIf the devil is in the details, Ricky Boscarino is one devil of an artist. Luna Parc, his home, workshop and ever-changing magnum opus in Montague, is crammed with details that dazzle, delight and sometimes confound. The house and environs give new meaning to the term adaptive reuse, as in a hut ablaze with bottles and a pathway dotted with bowling balls. Luna Parc is open to the public several weekends a year. —Leslie Garisto Pfaff
3. TAP YOUR TOES IN THE PINELANDSEvery Saturday night, the Pinelands Cultural Society in Waretown presents a lineup of live country and bluegrass artists, many from the Pine Barrens area. The all-acoustic shows take place at Albert Music Hall, an air-conditioned, indoor pavilion built in 1997 to replace a venue that burned down in 1992. Most shows feature five different acts from 6:30-9 pm. At $5 per ticket, it’s an old-fashioned bargain. —KS
4. SADDLE UP FOR FUNCowtown Rodeo is one of New Jersey’s must-attend spots. Photo by Bill Streicher/billstreicher.com
Here’s a secret: New Jersey has a rodeo. Said to be the longest-running weekly event of its kind in the country, the 90-year-old Cowtown Rodeo in Pilesgrove presents classic cowboy kicks and tricks on Saturday nights from Memorial Day weekend through September. See bull riding, steer wrestling, saddle-bronc riding, bareback riding, team roping and barrel racing—and be sure to grab piping-hot roasted peanuts before taking your seat. —Olivia Beach
5. HIT THE JACKPOT IN ATLANTIC CITYNot much about the Jersey Shore is a gamble, but in the state’s gaming mecca, the beaches are often a side bet. Look to Atlantic City for a vibrant array of entertainment, from slots and Blackjack to top-notch restaurants and rocking music venues, upscale hotels to the bustling Boardwalk. Want more? Check out the arcades, hit a plush spa, or take the kids to the IMAX Theatre. —Deborah P. Carter
6. BASK IN THE BARDSee Shakespeare as he was meant to be seen at the Outdoor Stage of the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. Nestled in a hillside on the campus of Saint Elizabeth University in Florham Park, the grass-and-stone amphitheater seats 400 and offers views through towering evergreens. But come summer evenings, all eyes turn to the stage, where actors serve up the best of the Bard. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. —Monica Cardoza
7. DRINK FROM A GLASS THAT’S ALWAYS FULLGlassmaking has been a South Jersey tradition for more than 300 years, and the Museum of American Glass in Millville explores that creative, colorful history. Artifacts range from a mid-1700s food jar made in Alloway to the world’s largest glass bottle, which stands at 7 feet, 8 inches tall. The complex, part of WheatonArts and Cultural Center, belatedly celebrated its 50th anniversary with a special exhibit last year. —Tom Wilk
8. EXPERIENCE JERSEY CITY’S ART SCENEEduardo Kobra’s David Bowie mural in Jersey City.
Jersey City’s burgeoning art scene can’t be contained in its studios, though places like 150 Bay Street in the Powerhouse Arts District and Mana Contemporary—which offers studio tours you can book online—are great places to start. You can also spend a whole day walking (or driving the 21 square miles) around Jersey City and taking in the murals and street art (including Eduardo Kobra’s well-known David Bowie piece) for which the area is famous. Visit jcmap.org/our-murals for a virtual map. —Falyn Stempler
9. GET A NOSTALGIC FIX AT THE DRIVE-INOnce an American cultural staple, drive-in theaters abounded nationwide, reaching their peak during the 1950s with more than 4,000 sites. Today, a handful remain, with several in the Garden State. Built in 1949 and reopened in 2004, the Delsea Drive-In, located in Vineland, offers single and double features on weekend nights from spring into fall for $11–$22. Newer to the scene is Newark Moonlight Cinema, which opened in 2020 and aims to promote the work of Black actors and filmmakers. Most locations are seasonal, including Demarest Farms in Hillsdale, Barnegat Summer Drive-In Movies and Cranford Theater Drive-In.
—FS
FOOD & DRINK10. INDULGE IN MIND-BLOWING BREAD AND BUTTERCarb central at Jersey City’s Razza. Bryan Anselm
Razza in Jersey City is famed for its pizza, but chef/owner Dan Richer puts the same care into bread and butter ($8). He bakes the loaves from a mix of three different flours from a sourdough starter he has fed daily since creating it in 2008 from wild yeasts gathered in Hunterdon County. He churns the butter from organic cream. “I liken butter to cheese,” he says. “I think butter can have that same appeal.” Next project? Aged butters. —Eric Levin
11. DRINK YOUR APPLE A DAYAt Ironbound Farm, the 108-acre regenerative farm and cidery in the rural heart of Hunterdon County, the tasting room and market are open year-round. Warm up with hard apple ciders and seltzers, fortified ciders (enhanced with brandy, herbs and botanicals), and cocktails, some of which feature local ingredients like Pine Barrens cranberries or farm-grown ginger. —Shelby Vittek
12. HEAD TO THE IRONBOUNDCome for the twinkly lights festooning Newark’s Ferry Street and stay for the tapas, custard cups and port. Newark’s Ironbound section is four square miles of multiethnic feasting. Classic stops include the tapas institution Mompou, the beloved bakery Teixeira’s, and Lopes Sausage, a butcher shop with an old-school salt table, for those who prefer meat preserved in salt. For Portuguese port, Lisbon Wines & Liquors is a must-visit. And don’t overlook the latest dining additions to the neighborhood scene. Dutch’s, in the Hotel Tryp, is one of longtime Newark tour guide Liz Del Tufo’s go-tos. —Tammy La Gorce
13. RECREATE TONY SOPRANO’S LAST SUPPERThis famed booth at Holsten’s in Bloomfield was featured in the last episode of The Sopranos. Photo by Eric Levin
An old-fashioned ice cream parlor (making its own ice cream) in Bloomfield, Holsten’s traces its history to 1939, but its place in pop culture was cemented in 2007 by the final moment of HBO’s The Sopranos, in which the camera zooms in on Tony in a booth then cuts to black. The moment is commemorated with a plaque that reads, “This booth reserved for the Soprano family.” —EL
14. GET A FOOD LOVER’S FRONT-ROW SEATStep inside Hearthside BYOB in Collingswood (which is one of NJM’s 30 Best Restaurants), and your nostrils relay the news: The wood-burning grill and oven propel the New American menu. Reserve a literal front-row seat among the four chairs at the counter facing the open kitchen. You’re close enough to shake hands with the chefs, and you won’t be the first to do so. —EL
DOWN THE SHORE15. BIKE ON A BOARDWALKCycling on a boardwalk is a unique thrill. It’s easy (they’re all flat), scenic (the ocean is always in view) and exhilarating (thanks to the briny breezes). During the summer months, New Jersey’s oceanfront boardwalks typically limit cyclists to early morning, but in the off-season, longer hours prevail (check ahead). The Atlantic City Boardwalk—the nation’s first—provides the longest ride. You can bring your own bike or rent a beach cruiser from a local shop. —KS
16. EAT THE FRESHEST SEAFOODBill Bright’s fishing vessels, Retriever and Defiance, cast off from Wildwood from spring to fall and return laden with reminders that the Garden State’s bounty doesn’t end at the shoreline. At Hooked Up Seafood’s dockside tables, people feast on the likes of mahi, tuna and swordfish, blackened or seared, in generous portions with a vegetable side. Bright’s family also farms littleneck clams. —EL
17. VISIT THE TENT COLONYPicture a tightly knit neighborhood of 114 canvas tents attached to small wooden cottages, with tiny porches and colorful striped awnings. This summer colony in Ocean Grove, founded in 1870 as part of a Methodist retreat, offers an unexpected shot of charm near the Great Auditorium and the vibrant nightlife of Asbury Park. A perfect day trip to the area includes strolling along the streets, getting a scoop at Day’s Ice Cream, and hanging at Ocean Grove’s low-key beach. —Sharon M. Goldman
18. GO BACK IN TIMEEven if you’ve never been to Island Beach State Park, you may recognize the Judge’s Shack, so ubiquitous are images of this last of the oceanfront fishing shacks that once dotted the dunes along the longest stretch of undeveloped coastline in the state. You can’t go into the shack, but you can walk along the beach and try to capture its regal and rustic countenance with your own camera. Park at lot 13, follow the trail up the dune, walk down to the beach, and head north, marveling at what all of the Jersey Shore once looked like. —Kevin Coyne
19. SEE THE WINDMILL AT WINDMILLYou know you’ve arrived at the original WindMill restaurant in West End, Long Branch, because a replica windmill with blades about 20 feet long stands on its roof. Decades ago, the blades actually turned, says owner Rena Levine Levy. (In 2015, when the blades were stationary, a winter storm sheared them right off.) At nine inches, the WindMill dog, a pork-beef blend, is lengthy itself and is sold nationally. —EL
20. PLAY A MEAN PINBALLSilverball Museum Arcade is a family-friendly stop in Asbury Park. Courtesy of Charles Acosta/pinballphotos.com
Enter Asbury Park’s Silverball Museum Arcade, and the blinking lights and clanging bells make it immediately clear that this is no fussy, quiet showplace. Instead, armed with an entry pass that replaces quarters and tokens, kids of all ages can play nonstop classic pinball games and other arcade games—from Skee-Ball to Pac-Man. —SMG
21. VISIT THE SANDY HOOK LIGHTHOUSEAt the tip of Sandy Hook’s thin peninsula in Highlands, which juts into the southern end of New York Harbor, the oldest operating lighthouse in the United States, the Sandy Hook Lighthouse—which was first lit in 1964 and is still in use today—stands tall. In fact, the beacon atop the octagon-shaped tower, which sits on the grounds of the decommissioned Fort Hancock, has only been darkened during the Civil War, Spanish-American War and two World Wars. The lighthouse has been closed for repairs, but is set to reopen for tours this spring—making a visit even more special. —SMG
22. CHECK OUT THE CHICKENSTucked away at the end of a sandy road in West Cape May is Beach Plum Farm, a working farm that supplies various items to prominent restaurants in the area and also serves breakfast and lunch from an Amish barn to guests at indoor and outdoor tables. The bar loft is home to a tiny shop of housewares and local products, while fresh-from the-chicken eggs, produce, meats, wine, herbs and honey are also for sale. Guests are welcome to sit around and relax at the firepit, take a tour of the farm, or stroll along the grounds, where chickens also roam freely. For a more immersive experience, Beach Plum Farm offers cottages for overnight stays. —Amanda Staab
SHOPPING & WELLNESS23. CULTURE SHOPDevoted to all things Japanese, Mitsuwa Marketplace in Edgewater is like your first taste of wasabi: exciting and a bit overwhelming. In its gleaming supermarket aisles, you’ll find massive daikon radishes and squat kabocha pumpkins, gemlike salmon roe and culinary exotica like eggs poached in the shell. Specialty shops proffer elegant crockery and kawaii (“cute”) everything (otter-shaped pencil cases, Pikachu surgical masks). And then there’s the food court, with its dizzying selection of Japanese fast(ish) food, from ramen and katsu to bean-filled pancakes and mochi donuts. —LGP
24. TREASURE HUNTCharming and walkable, Lambertville is a great town for antiquing—from stores with high-end furnishings to multi-vendor spots with statuary, art, jewelry and more. Weekends and Wednesdays, the huge, year-round, outdoor Golden Nugget Flea Market is also worth a visit. —DPC
25. STRETCH IN THE SANDIf the thought of exercising outdoors, with the sun on your face and the soothing sound of waves in the distance, is appealing, yoga on the beach is for you. Bring a towel, water and sunscreen, and get ready for downward dogs in the sand. Classes typically run about $10. A list of offerings is at myareayoga.com.
—Jacqueline Mroz
26. BROWSE AND BUYBrand names abound at the shops at American Dream, the massive East Rutherford mall that is also home to attractions including a water park and an aquarium. Fashionistas will delight in Hermes, Tiffany and Louis Vuitton—and the list goes on! —DPC
27. GET READY TO RENOVATEOld-house lovers, DIY buffs and designers will love perusing the finds at Salvage Angel in Asbury Park, where 20,000 square feet of vintage architectural items like doorknobs, railings, plumbing fixtures and windows await new homes. —DPC
28. SAY AHH* AT THE SPAIndulge in some self-care at Edgewater’s SoJo Spa.* Photo by Ella Ross
SoJo Spa in Edgewater is an eight-level oasis of relaxation with seven saunas and multiple indoor and outdoor whirlpools. Open daily until midnight, the outdoor baths and rooftop infinity pool offer stellar views of Manhattan. Along with the saunas and whirlpools, you can partake in body treatments for an extra fee. SoJo also offers great midweek specials. —DPC
SPORTS & GAMES29. ARRIVE AND DRIVETake a spin around the track at Millville’s Motorsports Park. Mike Woeller/Wind Shadow Studios
If fast and furious is your M.O., visit New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville for a 15-minute Arrive & Drive Go-Kart session on 1.1-mile Tempest Raceway. You’ll be given a brief overview of the kart, plus a helmet, neck brace, fireproof suit and gloves, before being let loose for 15–20 laps around the track. “The karts can hit 55 or 60 miles per hour, but top speed depends on how well you negotiate the turns,” says the park’s Brandon Schulhof. Drivers must be at least 13 years of age and 5 feet tall, and while walk-ins are accepted, reservations take precedence. —Lindsay Berra
30. SEE A DEVILS HOCKEY GAMENamed for the creature that—as legend has it—roams the Pine Barrens, these hockey-playing Devils call Newark’s Prudential Center home. The team has been playing in the Garden State since 1982 and is the only major professional sports team that proudly features New Jersey in its name (the Jets and Giants go with New York, despite playing at the Meadowlands). Rivalry matchups with the New York Rangers, New York Islanders and Philadelphia Flyers are always a treat, as are the many Jersey Shore–inspired concessions available at The Boardwalk in Section 126. —Gary Phillips
31. PUTTER AROUNDModeled after the famed Himalayas putting course at St. Andrews in Scotland, the Pynes Putting Course at the USGA Museum in Far Hills has just enough slopes and troughs to make it a challenge—even for the most-capable putters. Choose from one of two historic golf-ball replicas (the bramble or the square mesh) and one of four historic putters, and start reading the greens. The holes range in length from about 25 to 50 feet; each is a par 2. All of the holes are challenging, although some more than others. The greens fee is $5. The course is closed in winter, but typically reopens in March, depending on the weather. When you go, plan to check out the museum, too. —KS
32. GO OFF TO THE RACESIt’s a sure bet that tens of thousands of steeplechase fans will descend on Somerset County for the 101st Annual Far Hills Races each October, rain or shine. Revelers flock to this equestrian-themed affair, a nationally televised event, to enjoy tailgating, people watching and pari-mutuel horse-race wagering. Since the tradition began in 1870, the National Steeplechase Association event has raised more than $18 million to support local health care organizations. Individual tailgating spots and private tents are available. Avoid traffic by taking the train to Far Hills and walking to the nearby event. —Susan Brierly Bush
HISTORY & SCIENCE33. CHANNEL EINSTEIN AT PRINCETONWith its Collegiate Gothic architecture, lush landscaping and crisscrossing footpaths perfect for pondering, Princeton University gets obvious props as the Garden State’s only Ivy League university campus. But the charming town surrounding the school is also chock-full of historic attractions (be sure to check out Albert Einstein’s house at 112 Mercer Street, where Einstein lived from 1935 until his death in 1955) and delicious food choices (the Bent Spoon has been serving up award-winning farm-to-spoon ice cream since 2004). Then there is the (unfortunately) currently closed Princeton University Art Museum, which is expected to reopen in 2024 with a bold new building designed by architect David Adjaye. We can’t wait to start exploring. —SMG
34. BRIDGE THE HISTORY GAPThe last privately owned toll bridge across the Delaware River, Dingmans Bridge is a throwback to the days before E-ZPass. The two-lane span links Sussex County with Pike County, Pennsylvania. A toll taker collects the toll by hand ($1 each way, cash only) on the Pennsylvania side. The 530-foot wrought-iron truss bridge dates to August 1900. For the thrill of the crossing, take Route 15 North to Route 206 North toward Layton, and follow the signs to the bridge. —KS
35. RELIVE THAT FAMED DUELExperience the Hamilton-Burr saga in two acts. Up along the cliff that rises north of the Lincoln Tunnel helix, along a quiet, shady street in Weehawken with a postcard view of Manhattan, is a vest-pocket memorial park with a bust of Alexander Hamilton. It was below this spot in 1804, on the dueling grounds down near the Hudson River, that Aaron Burr fired the shot that still rings so loudly on Broadway, and that killed Hamilton. Drive a little more than an hour south, and you can see where Burr eventually ended up 32 ignominious years later—buried in Princeton Cemetery. —KC
36. LET YOUR SPIRIT SOARWhen Pope John Paul II visited New Jersey in 1995—the only time a pope has ever visited the state, whose population is proportionally among the most Catholic in the nation—he made two public stops: Giants Stadium for a Springsteen-scale Mass, and the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, a soaring, granite, French Gothic edifice with twin bell towers that New Jerseyans are often surprised to learn is the fifth largest cathedral in North America. —KC
37. EXPERIMENT AND EXPLOREThe Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium is the biggest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. Courtesy of Liberty Science Center
The massive, 300,000-square-foot Liberty Science Center makes learning about science fun for both kids and adults. Almost everything in the space is interactive, from the beloved Touch Tunnel to a live-animal display with 110 species. Liberty Science Center is also home to the biggest planetarium in the Western Hemisphere, the Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium, an 88-million-pixel dome. —OB
38. LIGHT UP WITH EDISONDiscover the place where modern America was molded at the corner of Main Street and Lakeside Avenue in West Orange. Take a tour of the Edison Laboratory Complex, which preserves original phonographs, motion picture cameras, electrical fixtures and other trappings used by Edison and his workers from 1887 to 1931. Also, walk through Glenmont, Edison’s 29-room, red-brick Victorian estate filled with mostly original interiors and family keepsakes. —OB
39. MEET A WAR HEROThe Battleship New Jersey in Camden is the most decorated in Navy history and saw action in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War and the Middle East. The ship has an overall length of 887 feet, 7 inches—and the Fire Power self-guided tour route covers 1.5 miles, so history buffs should plan on at least 90 minutes for a visit. —LB
OUTDOORS & NATURE40. FIND POWER IN FLOWERSHillsborough’s Duke Farms boasts a breathtaking Orchid Range. Photo by Laura Moss
Tropical flowers abloom in New Jersey? It happens all year long at the Orchid Range, a stunning glass-and-steel conservatory at Duke Farms in Hillsborough, the 2,740-acre estate that was once home to tobacco heiress Doris Duke. Some 1,300 brilliantly colorful orchid varieties thrive in the Orchid Range’s two LEED Platinum-certified buildings. Thanks to the large variety, plenty of orchids are always in bloom, whatever the season. When visiting, you can also stroll or cycle the miles of paved trails that weave around the park-like estate’s naturalized landscape. The Orchid Range is open daily, but winter weather can cause occasional closings. —KS
41. CHEER THE CHERRY BLOSSOMSSee the beauty of the cherry blossoms at Branch Brook Park. Photo by Shutterstock
For about two weeks every April, the nation’s largest concentration of cherry trees bursts into magnificent pink-and-white bloom in Branch Brook Park, a 360-acre urban oasis straddling Newark and Belleville. Essex County celebrates this arboreal pageant with its annual Cherry Blossom Festival, scheduled this year for April 1-16. You can join in a bike race (April 1), a 10K fun run (April 2), family day (April 15), or BloomFest, a parkwide celebration that includes entertainment, vendors and food trucks (April 16). Or just stroll at your own pace among the blossoming beauties. —KS
42. FLOAT OVER THE MEADOWLANDSTowering phragmites waving in the breeze welcome visitors as they step onto the half-mile floating boardwalk beneath the Marsh Discovery Trail sign at Richard W. DeKorte Park, a former landfill and today a thriving nature reserve in the Meadowlands. If the tide is high, you may feel a gentle rocking motion on the walkway as it advances through the tidal marsh, where long-legged white egrets fish for their dinner and diamondback terrapins sun themselves. Benches provide the perfect perch to scan for birds, all against the backdrop of the Manhattan skyline. Stay for the sunset, and investigate the other three miles of easy walking paths. —MC
43. WALK WITH DINOSAURSA colony of prehistoric beasts—built not from fossils but from from branches, animal bones and leaves by New Jersey artist Robin Ruggiero—can be found off the pink-blazed, 1.3-mile Boy Scout Trail at the east end of the group campsite at Allaire State Park in Farmingdale. After visiting the dinosaur trail’s unique and visually stunning Tyrannosaurus rex, triceratops, pterodactyl and stegosaurus, be sure to check out Allaire Village, a 19th-century iron-making town, and take a ride on the narrow-gauge Pine Creek Railroad. The park also features miles of other marked, multi-use trails, fishing on the Manasquan River, and a visitor’s center and museum. —LB
44. GO TO GREAT HEIGHTSThe highest point in New Jersey? At 1,803 feet above sea level, that would be the appropriately named High Point State Park. It’s also the Garden State’s northwesternmost point—and it’s a thrill to visit. Drive into Wantage’s 16,000-acre state park and head straight to the top. It’s a short uphill walk from the upper parking lot to the 220-foot-tall New Jersey Veterans’ Memorial monument. Walk around the monument’s base for a spectacular 360-degree view across New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York. The interior of the monument is open on weekends from Memorial Day to Columbus Day. The intrepid can climb the 291 steps to the top for an even more breathtaking view. —KS
45. BE ONE WITH THE RIVERTubing on the Delaware River is the ultimate summertime water play for those aged six and over. The adventure begins at the Cooley Tract of the Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park on Route 29 in Kingwood, where outfitters from outdoors retailer Big Bear Gear in Lambertville rent gear and launch you and your tube into the river. Look for eagles, fish, turtles, and a short stretch of Class 1 rapids as you spend your day on the water. The 5-mile trip lasts between 90 minutes and three hours, depending on the current, and a shuttle returns you to your car. Take the time to register early to ensure your choice of tube (closed or open bottom) and accessories such as a cooler carrier. —MC
46. WITNESS A WONDERSince the Great Falls in Paterson became part of the National Park System a decade ago, more people have found their way to this hidden natural wonder, a sight that should be mandatory viewing for every New Jerseyan. The vertiginous footbridge across it, familiar as a body-disposal site to fans of The Sopranos, is closed now, as is Libby’s Lunch, the legendary neighboring hot dog spot whose famed Texas wieners were a highlight of Great Fallls visits for decades. But open nearby is the Paterson Museum, a sprawling, colorful repository of the history of the industrial city that arose around the Passaic River. —KC
47. FLOCK TO THE BIRDSA prothonotary warbler is just one of many feathered creatures you might spot at the Cape May Bird Observatory. Photo by JasonYoder/Shutterstock
Some birds live in New Jersey. Others think it’s a great place to visit. Most seem to gravitate toward Cape May. You don’t have to be an accomplished bird-watcher to enjoy the show they stage at the Cape May Bird Observatory. Birding is always in season, but the spring and fall migrations offer the most jaw-dropping sightings, as thousands of high-flying birds check in at the Cape May peninsula for a little rest and relaxation. Take a self-guided tour, or book a guided walk or boat tour on the observatory website. —KS
48. DANCE WITH THE WOLVESAs visitors arrive like clockwork for a morning tour at Lakota Wolf Preserve in Columbia, several powerful but serene-looking wolves prowl inside their enclosures. Jim Stein, who owns the preserve and cares for the animals with his wife, Becky Mace, leads the tour. Here, Stein delivers his entertaining and informative talk while tossing snacks over the 9-foot fences to keep the wolves engaged. At a visit last fall, 15 gray wolves (of various subspecies and colors) were in residence. The preserve provides tours and guided photo sessions year-round, weather permitting. —KS
49. GO UNDER THE SEADelight in underwater creatures at Camden’s Adventure Aquarium. © Adam Monacelli/USA TODAY NETWORK
Urchins, stingrays and sharks—not only can you gaze at them in their watery habitats, but at Camden’s Adventure Aquarium, you can pet all three. In fact, everything at this 8,000-square-foot facility was designed to bring visitors closer to its 15,000-plus aquatic and semiaquatic animals. Diminutive critters like salamanders and clownfish shimmy just out of reach behind glass portholes, and larger water-dwellers, like hammerheads, are never far from the glass walls enclosing them (including the apex predators swimming above and alongside you in the Shark Tunnel). Feeling adventurous? Walk the rope bridge over shark-infested waters or swim with them. Or just pull up a rocking chair and gaze out at the Delaware—a reminder that water—and its denizens—really are all around us. —LGP
50. EXPLORE BY BOATThe Delaware and Raritan Canal is a watery old shipping corridor that has been transformed into a long, narrow, snaking state park popular with runners, walkers and bikers. But a kayak or canoe lets you travel the canal itself the way it was meant to be traveled. The canal looks like a river, but it moves so slowly that you can paddle it like a lake, so you can make a round trip from a single launch spot. An easy, pleasant, shady journey starts at Princeton or Griggstown; rentals are available at both places. —KC
51. REFLECT AND REMEMBERA swath of greenery and cobblestone surrounded on three sides by the Hudson River in the northeast portion of Jersey City’s Liberty State Park is a tranquil, out-of-the-way spot to watch the setting sun beautifully illuminate Lower Manhattan. The area is also a place to quietly reflect and remember, as it is the home of the powerful Empty Sky memorial honoring the 749 New Jersey residents who lost their lives on 9/11. —MC
52. CHECK OUT A CRANBERRY BOGJust a short drive down a dirt-and-gravel road delivers you back in time to a restored cranberry farm from the 1870s. At the 90-acre Cloverdale Farm County Park in Barnegat, a replica of the original farmhouse that today serves as the visitor center (open Friday–Sunday) introduces visitors to the farm’s history. Then it’s off on a 1.4-mile, level, sandy, self-guided trail past the cranberry sorting house and around several cranberry bogs. Be sure to print out the self-guided nature-trail map before you go (you never know about cell phone reception in a bog). —MC
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post 52 Things You Must Do in New Jersey appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Zain Asher is the anchor and host of CNN International’s One World with Zain Asher. She recently moved to Montclair with her husband and two children, and last year released Where the Children Take Us, a memoir centered on her mother’s profound influence throughout her often challenging London childhood. Asher’s brother is the actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in the 2013 film 12 Years a Slave.
Asher recently spoke with NJM about what inspired her story—and what she hopes readers take away from it.
What made you want to write your new book, Where the Children Take Us?I had just turned 36, which is how old my mother was when she got that phone call about a car crash in which my father died [in Nigeria]. The second reason was becoming a mother myself—that’s when I fully understood the gravity of what my mother went through and the extent of the sacrifices that she made. I believed that if I collated all of these lessons that I learned into a book, someone out there could benefit from it. It’s not meant to be prescriptive, but to inspire.
“It’s not meant to be prescriptive, but to inspire,” Asher says of her memoir.
How did your father’s death change you, your mom and your family?Initially, it was an emotional earthquake. It was the greatest shock to our system that you could imagine. My mother was pregnant and wasn’t able to function and be a parent. It was difficult for my older brother, too. The turning point was when he got kicked out of school. That’s when my mother rolled up her sleeves and began to fight for us.
Your mother saved your family from falling apart. Where do you think she found that strength?I’ve been deeply inspired and strengthened by how much our mother fought for us. She tried to be both a mother and a father to us. I can’t even imagine where she got the energy to do that—especially as a single mom with a newborn baby. Every time my willpower is running on low, I remember my mom and I’m filled with gratitude for her.
Can you talk about the ways that your mother inspired you to succeed, such as encouraging you to attend Oxford University?Sometimes in our society, there can be a tendency to not appreciate and not welcome ambition in women. My mother was the total opposite of that because of what she experienced as a young woman [during the Nigerian Civil War]; she ate termites and crickets to survive. For her, ambition was all about survival. We lived in a neighborhood with poverty and crime. She had to fight for her children no matter what.
My mother would say: ‘You’re just as smart as the people who [attend Oxford].’ She tore down those walls in my mind.
How did your family and your upbringing lead you to become an anchor at CNN?My mother was good at finding the work-around for anything. When my teachers said I wasn’t good enough to attend Oxford, she said, ‘What can I do to change that?’ Her solution was, if it’s about hard work, then I can make it easier [for my daughter to succeed] by eliminating distractions. I didn’t get into Oxford because I was the smartest person in the room; my mother created an environment where I had nothing to do but study. She took away our TV and our phone.
What would you like people to take away from your book?The book is a memoir, but there’s so much more to it than that. I wanted to showcase the beauty of my culture and my country. It’s not meant to make anyone pro-immigration, but I do feel like I can showcase through my family that immigrants have a lot to offer. Our culture is vibrant and rich. I was given a gift by being born in the UK and what I was given. I haven’t taken it for granted. You can’t put a price tag on being a British or U.S. citizen.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post CNN Anchor Zain Asher Honors Mother in Memoir: ‘She Had to Fight for Her Children’ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
A rock ‘n’ roll icon selling natural, holistic remedies?
It may sound implausible, but when you talk to Stevie Van Zandt—Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and a founding member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band—about why he wanted to create a line of healthy products, it starts to make sense.
“For me, the message from the pandemic was that we all need to strengthen our immune systems,” says Van Zandt, who grew up in Middletown. “My wife (actress Maureen Van Zandt) is a vegan, so I’ve been conscious of developing good habits for years.”
Little Steven’s Underground Apothecary line of natural, holistic remedies was created to help improve physical and mental health while boosting the immune system.
Little Steven’s Apothecary includes coffees (seen here), teas and more holistic products. Photo courtesy of Astrida Valigorsky
Van Zandt, who starred as Silvio Dante on The Sopranos, as well as in the TV show Lilyhammer, says he noticed a big difference in his health when he cut out sugar. “You’re fighting a war all the time. I’m always taking ginger and blue pepper onstage—I find it really helps my voice,” says Van Zandt, 72.
That’ll come in handy when the E Street Band heads out this year on tour, which includes a special “homecoming” show on April 14 at the Prudential Center in Newark.
The products are now sold in select stores and online at wickedcoolwellness.com and littlesteven.com. They include boutique teas, coffees and lollipops, and use products such as Wakaya’s ginger, turmeric, kava, maca and Manuka honey.
Ten percent of the profits are being donated to Teach Rock, Van Zandt’s music-education initiative.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Steven Van Zandt Ditched Sugar and Feels Great appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
New Jersey lost many bright stars in 2022.
We remember the famous faces who were born here, made their home here, or represented the Garden State in another, memorable way. Although they are gone, their legacies live on.
Ron GalellaJanuary 10, 1931-April 30, 2022
Ron Galella, a legendary celebrity photographer considered to be the “Godfather of U.S. paparazzi,” died of congestive heart failure in his Montville home on April 30. He was 91 years old. Galella made waves as trailblazer capturing candid shots of celebrities, who had previously maintained highly-curated public images. Galella was dubbed a creep, a stalker and worse when he was making a name for himself in the 1960s. Marlon Brando even once punched him in the face, breaking Galella’s jaw. His hunt for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s pictures led her to sue him, and a judge barred him from photographing her anymore. Luckily for Galella, this happened after he captured his most famous photograph of her, wandering the New York City streets in 1971, where she is seen with a half-smile and her hair blown across her face from the wind. He told New Jersey Monthly that he considers it “his Mona Lisa.” The walls of the photographer’s Montville home were covered with his iconic work, when we visited about a decade ago. There was even a room dedicated to and inspired by the legendary Andy Warhol, who was rumored to be a Galella fan.
Ray LiottaDecember 18, 1954-May 26, 2022
Ray Liotta is seen on NBC’s “Shades of Blue” in 2016. Photo: NBC/Photofest
Ray Liotta, whose unforgettable role as Henry Hill in the 1990 mob classic Goodfellas made him a household name, died on May 26 at the age of 67. The star, who grew up in Union after being adopted as a baby, passed away in his sleep in the Dominican Republic, where he’d been shooting the film Dangerous Waters. Liotta, an alum of Union High School, was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2016 and said on stage of his home state, “To me, New Jersey is about family. And Taylor ham,” which garnered laughs from the crowd. “Which you can’t find anywhere but here.” He also recalled that in Union, there was a saying that “Union has loads of good kids.” “But what I have to say is, New Jersey has loads of great people,” he added. In 2021, he gave another nod to his Jersey roots with a role in the Sopranos prequel movie, The Many Saints of Newark, as “Hollywood Dick” Moltisanti.
Tony Sirico1942-July 8, 2022
Tony Sirico is seen on “The Sopranos.” Photo: HBO/Photofest
Tony Sirico—a Brooklyn native who played one of the most memorable New Jersey television characters of all time, mobster “Paulie Walnuts” Gualtieri on The Sopranos—died on July 8 at 79 years old. “Tony was like no one else: he was as tough, as loyal and as big hearted as anyone i’ve ever known. I was at his side through so much: through good times and bad. But mostly good,” actor Michael Imperioli wrote on Instagram upon announcing Sirico’s passing (He played Christopher Moltisanti and shared many a scene with Sirico). “And we had a lot of laughs. We found a groove as Christopher and Paulie and I am proud to say I did a lot of my best and most fun work with my dear pal Tony.” Sirico died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Taurean Blacque1940-July 21, 2022
Taurean Blacque starred on “Hill Street Blues” in the ’80s. Photo: NBC/Photofest
Taurean Blacque, an actor best known for his role as Detective Neal Washington on NBC’s acclaimed drama “Hill Street Blues,” died on July 16 at the age of 82. He passed away in Atlanta following a brief illness, according to Deadline. Blacque was born in Newark and graduated from its Arts High School; however, he did not pursue acting until he was almost 30. He takes credit for making Neal Washington a quiet character, aiming to move away from the “hip, jive Black man” stereotype, he once told TV Guide (via the New York Times). His name at birth was Herbert Middleton Jr., but he took on the stage name Taurean Blacque to capture casting directors’ attention. The name is an homage to his astrological sign, Taurus, which is a Venus-ruled Earth sign represented by the Bull. As the Times reports, he had two biological sons and 11 adopted children. This led him to become an adoption advocate, serving as a spokesperson for Los Angeles County adoption services and later becoming the national spokesman for adoption under the Bush Administration in 1989.
Paul Sorvino1939-July 25, 2022
Paul Sorvino is seen in 2017 in “Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders.” Photo: CBS/Photofest
Paul Sorvino—best known for roles like “Big Paulie” Cicero in the 1990 mob classic Goodfellas and Sergeant Phil Cerreta on Law & Order, but also a gifted opera singer, sculptor and chef—died on July 25 at the age of 83. The New York-born, former Tenafly resident, whose Oscar-winning daughter, Mira Sorvino, spent much of her childhood in the Bergen County suburb, is also survived by his children Amanda Sorvino and Michael Sorvino and his beloved wife of nearly eight years, Dee Dee Sorvino. Although he left the Garden State years ago, he once told New Jersey Monthly, “I still have a lot of fondness for New Jersey. If there was a New Jersey song, I’d sing it.”
Anne HecheMay 25, 1969-August 12, 2022
Anne Heche is seen circa 2007/2008 promoting “Men in Trees.” Photo: ABC/Photofest
Actress Anne Heche died on August 12 following a horrific car crash in Los Angeles, which was ruled an accident. A Hollywood star, Heche spent some of her difficult youth at the Jersey Shore, including Atlantic City and Ocean City. “That’s where I first became an actress,” she told Suburban Life magazine in 2017 (via nj.com). “I literally started singing for my supper, right on the Boardwalk. I would flip burgers and sing show tunes to get people to come to our stand.” Her first job was at a local dinner theater in Swainton, which she said helped support her family. “So, you could definitely say that New Jersey changed my life,” Heche said. “I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Jersey.”
Frank Vallelonga Jr.Green Book actor and former Bergen County pizzeria owner Frank Vallelonga Jr. died on November 28 at 60 years old. He formerly served up pies as the owner of Tony Lip’s Italian Restaurant & Pizza in Franklin Lakes, which was a nod to his father, who was nicknamed Tony Lip (and was known for playing crime boss Carmine Lupertazzi on The Sopranos). Vallelonga’s body was found dumped in the Bronx, according to the New York Times, and Bronx man Steven Smith, 35, was charged with concealing the corpse. Smith has claimed Vallelonga was “dead already,” per the Times.
Bob McGrath1932-December 4, 2022
Bob McGrath (bottom right) appears with the cast of “Sesame Street” in 2004. Photo: PBS/Photofeset
Bob McGrath, who for decades put smiles on the faces of children and parents alike as Bob Johnson on Sesame Street, died at his Norwood home on December 4. He was 90 years old. McGrath, an original cast member who worked on the children’s program until 2016, was born in Illinois but lived in New Jersey for the last 60 years, the bulk in Teaneck. He was as beloved off-screen as he was on TV, according to northjersey.com. “He was a person we’d see in our neighborhood,” former Teaneck Mayor Jackie Kates told the website, referencing a famed Sesame Street tune. “But he was also part of our family. The loss feels very personal.”
Helen Slayton-Hughes1930-December 7, 2022
Photo: ABC/Photofest
Helen Slayton-Hughes, best known for her role as Ethel Beavers on the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation, died on December 7 at the age of 92. She was born in Glen Ridge. In addition to Parks and Rec, she made appearances on numerous other popular shows over the years, including The West Wing, The Middle, Arrested Development and Pretty Little Liars. She reportedly had four children and six grandchildren, and was related to another Jersey celeb, Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage (who grew up in Mendham), her first cousin once removed, according to nj.com.
Dino Danelli1944-December 15, 2022
Dino Danelli, the Jersey City-born, original drummer of the rock group the Rascals (first known as the Young Rascals), died on December 15 at age 78. He had been in declining health for years, Joe Russo, the group’s historian and a close friend, told the New York Times. The band, formed in Garfield in 1965, is considered among the first American bands to form following the British Invasion the year prior. The band made their debut at the Choo Choo Club in Garfield. The group dissolved in the early 1970s, but Danelli’s music career carried on. In 1980, he collaborated with fellow Jersey boy Steven Van Zandt, guitarist of the E Street Band, on a side project called the Disciples of Soul. Van Zandt, a longtime Rascals fan, delivered the group’s 1997 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction speech, where he called Danelli “the greatest rock drummer of all time,” according to the Times.
The post New Jersey Celebrities Who Died in 2022 appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
She’s a Jersey girl.
The popular American Girl brand has launched its 2023 Girl of the Year doll, Kavi Sharma—and she hails from the great state of New Jersey, specifically Metuchen in Middlesex County.
“We are so excited that American Girl chose Metuchen. Our Borough is a diverse, vibrant community with residents and programming that reflect the world around us,” Metuchen Mayor Jonathan M. Busch tweeted following Thursday’s announcement. “Kavi is a welcome addition to the ‘Brainy Borough’ and we can’t wait for the children in our community to share her and their Metuchen stories with the rest of the country.”
As American Girl notes, theater enthusiast Kavi lives “a short train ride” from New York City and her beloved Broadway. The ride from Metuchen takes about an hour. Photo courtesy of American Girl
Each year, American Girl releases a Girl of the Year doll, all of which are contemporary characters “that represent a wide range of backgrounds to reflect what it means to be an American girl today,” according to the company. American Girl famously crafts detailed back stories and books to accompany its dolls, who represent various time periods in history as well as modern-day life.
Kavi’s story is of an Indian-American girl growing up in a close-knit family in New Jersey. She loves singing, dancing and performing, and her dream is to one day be on Broadway.
A paperback journal and a hardcover Kavi novel are being released in collaboration with author Varsha Bajaj. “Kavi’s story is important to all the young readers who will see parts of their lives represented. I took immense delight in showcasing slivers of Indian culture, including dance, yoga traditions, food, clothing, and magical festivals like Diwali and Holi,” Bajaj said in a statement released by American Girl on Thursday.
According to reports, Kavi is the brand’s first South Asian Girl of the Year.
Kavi seems to already have a lot of fan love, garnering positive comments on social media after the doll’s release was announced. Photo courtesy of American Girl
To celebrate Kavi’s release, Metuchen is hosting a Bollywood block party at Metuchen Town Plaza on December 30 (5-7 pm).
Kavi already seems to have a plethora of local support. After the news of the doll’s release, social media was flooded with fan love.
“I am so excited for this doll!” one local parent wrote on Instagram. “My soon to be 2 yr old daughter is named Kavi. We’re an Indian American family living in NJ and my little one practices yoga with her grandma. It feels like this doll was made for her and I cannot wait to purchase it for her. I can’t explain how big this is. Growing up I would never see my name anywhere. Now my daughter has a doll with the same name as her. This is huge!!!”
Kavi is available online now and in American Girl stores and other select shops beginning January 1.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post American Girl’s 2023 Girl of the Year Doll Hails From New Jersey appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Looking for fun this January? Check out these events and activities happening all over New Jersey.
Please note that all schedules are subject to change; visit each venue’s website for more information.
ArtCristina de GennaroAll month long
The Hunterdon Art Museum is exhibiting the drawings of Cristina de Gennaro, with compositions inspired by and depicting the desert floors of New Mexico. De Gennaro says she framed her work depicting sagebrush, weeds and parched soil to be decentered, claustrophobic and uncomfortable. Wednesday-Sunday, 11 am-5 pm; General admission $5-$7. Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton. hunterdonartmuseum.org
*Nigerian-Cameroonian artist Samuel Fosso’s current exhibition is comprised of self-portraits.* Photo courtesy of Samuel Fosso
Samuel Fosso: Affirmative ActsThru Jan 29
Samuel Fosso is a Nigerian-Cameroonian artist and photographer whose current exhibition is composed of self-portraits. Fosso makes statements on identity and consumption through fashion, makeup and visual references to pop culture and African history. Tuesday-Saturday, hours vary. Art on Hulfish, Princeton. artmuseum.princeton.edu
ComedyJimmy Shubert is performing at Uncle Vinnie’s Comedy Club this month. Photo courtesy of Jimmy Shubert
Jimmy ShubertJan 20-21
Jimmy Shubert is a true comedic veteran, having performed on stage since the early 1980s. He’s also had recurring roles on The King of Queens and Entourage. Now Shubert is bringing his everyman observations to Uncle Vinnie’s. 9 pm; $25-$56. Uncle Vinnie’s Comedy Club, Point Pleasant Beach. unclevinniescomedyclub.com
Vic DiBitettoJan 21
Vic DiBitetto, the “Donkey of Comedy,” has amassed hundreds of millions of views across his social media channels for his outlandish observational humor. He’s looking to make some more memories and share some laughs with an audience in Newton. 8 pm; $44-$59. The Newton Theatre, Newton. skypac.org
MusicEric Rachmany of Rebelution is embarking on a solo tour, with a stop in Asbury Park. Photo courtesy of the Stone Pony
Eric RachmanyJan 20
San Francisco native Eric Rachmany is best known as the lead singer and songwriter of the Grammy-nominated reggae rock band Rebelution. Now, he’s hitting the road on a solo tour to perform acoustic covers and versions of some of Rebelution’s biggest hits. 7 pm; $29-$35. The Stone Pony, Asbury Park. stoneponyonline.com
Joe BataanJan 28
Legendary New York Latin soul artist Joe Bataan was born and raised in Spanish Harlem, surrounded by diverse cultural and musical influences. His music has blended a multitude of genres for nearly 60 years, including soul, disco, funk and hip-hop. 8 pm; $25. White Eagle Hall, Jersey City. whiteeaglehalljc.com
Big Head Todd and the MonstersJan 28
Formed in Colorado in 1986, Big Head Todd and the Monsters are a rock band that combines elements of other genres such as blues, folk, country, funk and jazz. Their most well-known work is their 1993 album Sister Sweetly, which has gone platinum in the US. 8 pm; $49-$74. The Newton Theatre, Newton. skypac.org
Special EventsGlobal phenomenon Stomp is stopping in Morristown this month. Photo courtesy of Steve McNicholas
StompJan 7
Originally premiering in the United Kingdom in 1991, Stomp has since become a global phenomenon, making various TV appearances and performing at live events and celebrations all over the world. This explosive and unique show avoids conventional percussion instruments, instead using everyday objects to create rhythm. 3 and 8 pm; $49-$89. Mayo Performing Arts Center, Morristown. mayoarts.org
The iconic Monster Jam will put on four shows over the course of three days at the Prudential Center. Photo courtesy of Prudential Center
Monster JamJan 27-29
Prudential Center is hosting Monster Jam over the final weekend of the month. This action-packed, supersized monster-truck event features races, skill and freestyle competitions, and fearless drivers. Make a pit stop in Newark for an evening of cool tricks and sick flips! Showtimes vary; $20-$110. Prudential Center, Newark. prucenter.com
StageSee an Olivier Award–winning show in New Brunswick. Photo courtesy of State Theatre New Jersey
Dragons and Mythical BeastsJan 15
Dragons and Mythical Beasts, the magical, Olivier Award–nominated show from London’s West End, is coming to the Garden State. Bring the whole family to get up close and personal with mesmerizing creatures. 1 & 5 pm; $19-$54. State Theatre New Jersey, New Brunswick. stnj.org
Living & BreathingOpens Jan 28
From Texas playwright Mando Alvarado and director Rebecca Martinez, this play centers on an art piece that is a living Latino behaving as a statue. The statements behind the piece affect a diverse group of three friends. Showtimes vary; $30-$60. Two River Theater, Red Bank. tworivertheater.org
Mark EvansJan 29
Mark Evans is a Welsh actor, singer and dancer with theatrical credits like Waitress, Wicked and The Book of Mormon under his belt. Now, he’s bringing his solo cabaret show, Hide and Seek, in New Jersey. 7 pm; $30. South Orange Performing Arts Center, South Orange. sopacnow.org
BenefitsART OF Salsa and BachataJan 21
Part of the Arts Council of Princeton’s ART OF events series, this event teaches participants how to dance salsa and bachata. The event is going to have an expert instructor and a DJ for a party after the lesson to test out what you’ve learned. There’s also going to be drinks and food, and proceeds support “smART kids,” the Arts Council’s arts enrichment program for underprivileged middle school students. 7-11 pm; $125. Arts Council of Princeton, Princeton. artscouncilofprinceton.org
The Chili RunJan 29
This 2-mile run/walk in Pitman benefits the HEADstrong Foundation. Each runner receives a complimentary t-shirt, a serving of chili and a beer. Vegetarian chili is also available. The event culminates with a post-run party that includes a DJ and an ugly sweater competition. 10 am; $40. Carolina Blue, Pitman. gooddayforarun.com
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Fun Things to Do in New Jersey This January: Art, Concerts and More appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Looking for New Year’s Eve plans?
We’ve got you covered with this guide to celebrating the end of 2022. From dinners and parties to concerts and creative events for kids, there’s no shortage of festive events on December 31!
Showboat’s Off the Hook Seafood and Music Fest, Atlantic CityWhat better way to ring in the New Year than with an all-you-can-eat seafood dinner? The Off the Hook Seafood and Music Fest at the Showboat Hotel takes place from 4 pm-1 am and features live entertainment, craft cocktails, beer, wine and seafood-centric dining packages. There’s also a complimentary Champagne toast at midnight!
Kids can meet their favorite Nickelodeon characters at American Dream early in the day on New Year’s Eve. Photo courtesy of American Dream
Nickelodeon Universe’s Noon Year’s Eve Party, East RutherfordBefore parents toast champagne during the evening, they can bring their kids to American Dream’s Nickelodeon Universe for a kid-friendly countdown to noon on December 31. The inaugural party starts at 11 am and includes character meet and greets, selfies at the themed photo station, theme park rides and more.
Noon Year’s Eve at the Cherry Hill Public Library, Cherry HillThe Cherry Hill Public Library is having a decidedly different afternoon celebration, but it’s one worth reading about. Bring your toddlers by from 11:45 am-12:15 pm on December 31 for play, dancing, silly hats, noisemakers, and a countdown to a bubble blast at noon.
Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, Red BankThis legendary Jersey Shore band is performing at 6 pm at Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre on New Year’s Eve. Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes have been a Jersey staple for nearly 50 years and have shared the stage with fellow Garden State legends Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi.
New Year’s Eve Dinner at Pier House, Cape MayA four-course New Year’s Eve Dinner is being served from 5-9 pm. Options include seared Cape May scallops, pear champagne salad, branzino, and veal medallions. The dinner also includes a glass of Prosecco.
New Year’s Eve Champagne Ball at The Reeds at Shelter Haven, Stone HarborThis party, from 7:30 pm-12:30 am, includes a champagne wall, open bar, hors d’oeuvres, a three-course dinner, midnight toast, and breakfast. Plus, there will be a DJ and lots of dancing into the new year!
New Year’s Eve at BAR 32, Atlantic CityLooking for a laid-back NYE experience? Enjoy Bar 32’s intimate evening for two, featuring cheese and charcuterie, dessert and two handcrafted cocktails.
Kids Yoga Countdown to 2023, MaplewoodHere’s a relaxing way to ring in the New Year. Bring your children to Baker Street Yoga from 2-3 pm on December 31. There, they’ll take an age-appropriate yoga class, play some games and countdown to 2023. All kids receive festive hats or glasses and a glass of sparkling cider.
New Year’s Eve Parties at Pilsener Haus, HobokenPilsener Haus is throwing not one, but two parties on the last day of the year. The fun begins with a family-friendly midday party at 3 pm. Then there’s a bash, complete with hors d’oeuvres and a champagne toast, for the older crowd at 8:30 pm. The festivities end at 1 am.
Deon Cole at Music Box, Atlantic CityLooking for a laugh before the ball drops? Comedian Deon Cole has you covered with New Year’s Eve shows at 7 and 10 pm. Cole is known for Netflix’s The Harder They Fall and ABC’s black-ish, among other shows and stand-up specials.
College Hoops in The Garden State, Various locationsWatch a different kind of ball drop—and bounce—before the parties begin. Several of New Jersey’s Division I men’s and women’s college basketball programs are playing early in the day on New Year’s Eve, including Seton Hall, Princeton, Fairleigh Dickinson, NJIT, Rider and Saint Peter’s. Check out each school’s athletics site for gameday information and tickets.
New Year’s Eve at Exit Zero Ferry Station, Cape MayThis family-friendly event, from 2-7 pm, includes a photo station, face-painting, a kids’ dance party, and an early New Year’s Eve ball drop at 6 pm. The restaurant is opening at noon on New Year’s Day and offering Bloody Mary and Mimosa specials, too.
Earth, Wind & Fire, Atlantic CityThis iconic genre-blending band is ending 2022 with two shows at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on December 30 and 31. The venue is also offering a few different casino promotions on New Year’s Eve.
Lambertville Station Inn is throwing a Masquerade Ball on New Year’s Eve. Photo: Unsplash/Julio Rionaldo
Lambertville Station Inn’s Masquerade Ball, LambertvillePut on your formal attire and masquerade masks before arriving at Lambertville Station Inn’s Riverside Ballroom on New Year’s Eve. A variety of packages for the 8 pm-1 am party offer a cocktail reception, open bar, dinner, champagne toast, live music and more.
New Year’s Eve at Jockey Hollow, MorristownThis bar and kitchen is going all out for New Year’s Eve. Diners can pick from early and late seatings and three-, four- and five-course tastings. Menu items include, but are not limited to, scallop crudo, prosciutto-wrapped monkfish, braised veal, chocolate pot de creme, and pineapple upside-down cake.
Gatsby’s Penthouse NYE, HobokenHead to the W Hotel in Hoboken for a Great Gatsby-inspired New Year’s Eve Party. The Roaring 20s event includes a premium prepaid bar, four DJs, complimentary light bites, and skyline views of Manhattan.
Cash Cash at Premier Nightclub, Atlantic CityCash Cash, an electronic music group from Roseland, takes the stage at Borgata at 9 pm on New Year’s Eve. And for those looking for more fun, Premier is hosting Zedd on December 28 and Marty Rock on December 30.
The Ashford’s New Year’s Eve Met Gala Party, Jersey CityRing in the New Year from 9 pm-3 am at this Jersey City establishment’s marathon party. VIP tickets include rooftop access, an open bar, a buffet, and a champagne toast.
NYE ’22 at The Shannon Rose, Ramsey & CliftonThe Shannon Rose is throwing New Year’s Eve parties at both of its locations. The pubs’ events, which being at 9 pm, include live music, an open bar, a four-course dinner and a champagne toast at midnight. Seating is first come, first serve, and patrons must be 21 or older.
90s By Nature Dance Party, Asbury ParkTurn back the clock on New Year’s Eve by attending this 90s-themed dance party at House of Independents. Doors open at 9 pm—for those 21 and over—before a nostalgic playlist leads you into the new year.
Rhythm & Spirits, Atlantic CitySpend your New Year’s Eve feasting on a four-course Italian dinner before Rhythm & Spirits’ holiday party. With seatings from 5-10 pm, dishes include antipasto, ricotta gnocchi, shrimp fra diavolo, and hanger steak. Robert Polillo is also singing Frank Sinatra classics during dinner.
NYE Specials at MudHen Brewing Company, WildwoodThis Wildwood brewery is offering plenty to do on New Year’s Eve, including a photo booth, drink and food specials, live music and complimentary champagne at midnight. The party starts at 7:30 pm and lasts until 1 am.
Gypsy Bar, Atlantic CityThis Borgata tequila bar offers guests a place to party without a cover fee. Festivities include live music, starting at 7 pm, and a champagne toast at midnight. But the party won’t stop until 2:30 am.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Where to Celebrate New Year’s Eve in NJ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Consignment shops across the Garden State are teeming with treasures. Photo by Rebecca Handler; styling by Susan Brierly Bush; hair & makeup by Sharon Royce; wardrobe & jewelry courtesy of Duet Curated Consignment in Livingston (Dolce & Gabbana dress, Prada purse, Piero Milano earrings).
We’ve got the best of everything here in the Garden State—great shops and terrific venues for sports, theater and all types of leisure.
But let’s face it, all of this comes at a price, and we are Jerseyans—we love a bargain.
Here are our top picks to help you enjoy it all for less.
HEALTH & BEAUTYCheck Out Local Spa Deals and SpecialsKick back for a day of indulgence at Elements Spa at Crystal Springs Resort in Hamburg. Photo courtesy of Elements Spa
Start 2023 off on a relaxing note. | READCULTUREEnjoy Free and Discounted Events“Transformed Objects Reimagined by American Artists” is one of the exhibits you can see for free at the Montclair Art Museum on the first Thursday of every month. Photo courtesy of Peter Jacobs
Snag deals on concerts, museum admission and more. | READBuild a Great Art Collection on a BudgetCheck out local galleries to see the work of emerging artists, such as this one by Nadia Liz Estela. Photo courtesy of Nadia Liz Estela
To outsiders, art collecting can seem mystifying, an unfamiliar terrain inhabited exclusively by the uber-wealthy and those to the manor born. But being an art collector need not require deep pockets. Here are some strategies to get started. | READMark Your Calendar for NJ’s 2023 Restaurant WeeksPlan a visit to the Sushi Loft at Red Horse in Rumson during Jersey Shore Restaurant Week. Photo courtesy of Red Horse/John Vitollo
Eating out is fun. Paying less than full price for terrific food makes it more so. Town-wide restaurant weeks are a great way to do that. | READSHOPPINGVisit NJ’s Best Thrift and Consignment ShopsThis Livingston mainstay offers luxurious items for a fraction of the cost. Photo courtesy of Duet Curated Consignment
Bargains await the clever shopper willing to do a little legwork to find the best deals. If you’re ready to navigate the world of more-for-less shopping, explore consignment shops and thrift stores. | READGet More Bling for Your Buck*Before your next jewelry hunt, heed this advice from local shop owners.* Photo courtesy of Ward Vintage
“Hunting for vintage jewelry is a thrill,” says Jennifer Ward, owner of Ward Vintage in Bernardsville. “Some of the best costume-jewelry brands were founded by people who had worked for Cartier, Harry Winston and other great designers. A piece doesn’t have to be signed for it to be of quality. If you find something that speaks to you, get it.” | READSPORTS & PLAYSave on Sports and Leisure ActivitiesRent a luxury car, get season tickets for less and more. | READEnjoy Eco-Friendly OptionsPrograms like Charge Up New Jersey offer incentives for clean driving. Photo: Shutterstock/Zviahintsev Denis
Take advantage of local incentives for clean driving, renewable energy and more. | READFind Tee-Riffic Savings at Local Golf CoursesTake advantage of weekday and twilight rates at Heron Glen in Ringoes. Photo courtesy of Heron Glen Golf Course
NJ abounds in great public and semi-private golf courses. | READREAL ESTATEBuy our January 2023 issue here. Cover photo by Rebecca Handler
Consider Property in Atlantic CityFor those who dream of owning a slice of the pie at the Jersey Shore but believe it’s unattainable, don’t forget Atlantic City. Not only are condos and homes affordable, but it’s one of the few cities in the country where properties can be purchased for less now than in 2005. Move quickly, since AC is being developed by some of the same heavy hitters that revitalized Asbury Park. —Ed CondranCheck Out Condos in WeehawkenSomehow, the charming city on the Hudson is under the radar. Weehawken is an easy ferry, bus or Uber from Manhattan, and it’s more affordable than Hoboken and Jersey City. —ECGETAWAYSTake Advantage of Winter in ACCheck out the Borgata Hotel and Casino’s off-season pricing in Atlantic City. Photo courtesy of Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa
Rooms in Atlantic City go for more than $500 a night during the summer. If you don’t care about the beach breezes during the balmy dog days, why not indulge during the off-season? Rooms at the Borgata go for around $100. A night at the Tropicana is $48. There are also an array of deals at various casino restaurants during the off-season. And don’t forget to consult our roundup of AC’s best restaurants. —ECSave at the Jersey ShoreAlready yearning for a trip to the Shore? Working directly with an agent is one of the best ways to cut costs because there are no hidden fees, says James Ward, a broker associate at Shore Points Vacations in Point Pleasant Beach. Book early, as prices may go up as inventory goes down. Renters can also save 20–25 percent by booking during summer’s shoulder seasons (late spring and early fall). —Falyn StemplerEXPERT ADVICEEffectively Make New Year’s Resolutions“Nothing helps achieve a bigger goal like achieving a small goal,” says life coach Allison Task. Photo courtesy of Donna Dotan
Making a resolution this year? “Be realistic and give yourself some grace,” says Montclair-based career and life coach Allison Task, author of the self-help book Personal (R)evolution. | READSave Money as a Garden State ResidentHere are a few practical tips for Garden State residents. Photo: Shutterstock/Pickadook
It may sound like an oxymoron, but there are some ways to save while living in New Jersey. We asked Roger Moss, an advisor with the Montville Financial Group, how Garden State residents can keep a little more of their hard-earned green. | READ
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Live the Luxe Life for Less in New Jersey appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Take the Veluxity 2018 Mclaren 570S for a spin; it’s $1,795 a day! Photo courtesy of Veluxity/John Hinchey
RIDE LIKE A BIG ROLLEREver wonder what it would be like to tool around New Jersey in a $359,000 Lamborghini or a $400,000 Rolls-Royce? Veluxity Exotic Car Rental has the wheels to satisfy your curiosity. Veluxity will deliver one of its high-end luxury or sports cars to any New Jersey location. Ballpark prices for a daily rental range from $500 for a BMW X5 to $1,295 for an elegant Bentley GT convertible all the way up to $3,000 for a teeth-clenching 690 horsepower Lamborghini Aventador.
“These cars are ideal for New Jersey back roads,” says Veluxity owner Ron Petruska. Some clients rent to satisfy a personal craving; others want to make an impression on a business client. Luxury rentals also rank among the great birthday or Father’s Day treats. Renters must be at least 24 years old, with full insurance coverage. Rentals come with 75-125 free miles per day. Visit Veluxity’s website or call 914-584-1974. —Ken Schlager
BUY SEASON TICKETSIf you’re tired of the exorbitant prices set by big-name professional teams (yes, New York teams, we’re looking at you!), tickets are a fraction of the cost for the Lakewood Blue Claws and Trenton Thunder.
Concessions and parking are much less, and it’s a relaxed baseball experience as you check out emerging ballplayers. —Ed Condran
PLAN YOUR PLAYA single-day ticket for Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson is $49.99. A gold pass, which includes unlimited admission to the park, and parking, is just $74.99. The Platinum pass adds Hurricane Harbor for a few dollars more. The passes make sense if you plan to visit the popular theme park more than once in 2023. The big bonus is that you can visit Six Flags parks around the country for free with the gold pass. —EC
SIGN UP FOR THE SEASONBuy Jersey Devils season ticket packages at the mid-point of the season. If you put a deposit down in January for the 2023-24 season, your seats will be reserved in mid-February for the next campaign. The bonus is ten free games for the remainder of the 2023 season. —EC
Want more ways to live the luxe life for less in New Jersey? Check out more tips and tricks for saving on everything from entertainment to your taxes in the Garden State.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Save on Sports and Leisure Activities in NJ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Music & moreSAVE AT THE SYMPHONYIn an effort to entice a new generation of music enthusiasts, the New Jersey Symphony, based in Newark, is offering residents ages 21–40 a great deal. Join the New Jersey Symphony Young Friends program at no cost and snag tickets for some of the best seats in the house priced between $35 and $45. —SV
ENJOY DISCOUNTED EVENTSIt’s been 25 years since the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark opened its doors, and this premier cultural organization is celebrating its anniversary by offering the public $25 tickets to select shows—from jazz great Terence Blanchard to ballet from the State Ballet Theatre of Ukraine and lectures from astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson—all year long. Bravo! —SV
TheaterPAY WHAT YOU CANThe Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey welcomes younger audiences with its $30 Under 30 program for every performance. Over 30? The Madison theater, which specializes in presenting Shakespeare’s canon—and made NJM’s 52 Things You Must Do in New Jersey list—also reserves pay-what-you-can tickets for every performance (except opening nights) on a first-come, first-served basis. —Deborah P. Carter
Luna Stage is a small but mighty venue that produces innovative local and global content, including readings, film screenings, interactive experiences and traditional productions. All shows are pay-what-you-choose. —DPC
GRAB CHEAP SEATSFrom musicals to classics, Two River Theater puts on a diverse roster of performances that patrons under 35 can purchase for $25. For the general public, a limited number of $25 seats (some with partial views) are also available. —DPC
MuseumsGET PASSES AT THE LIBRARYLocal libraries are good for more than just books. Many libraries around the Garden State also participate in museum-pass programs, through which you can get discounted, if not totally free, visits to a local museum or attraction. Museum passes vary from library to library, so check with yours; the easiest way to find out is to ask your librarians, who are more than willing to help. At many county libraries, reserving a museum pass is as easy as putting a hold on the latest novel you can’t wait to get your hands on. —Shelby Vittek
SNAG FREE MUSEUM ADMISSIONOn the first Thursday of every month, the Montclair Art Museum welcomes visitors of all ages at no cost. The museum’s Free First Thursdays includes admission, talks, music and other activities. Enjoy a gallery tour of exhibits like “Transformed Objects Reimagined by American Artists” from MAM’s permanent collection, as well as current exhibitions. While attendance is free, advance registration is recommended. —SV
973-746-555
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF MEMBER BENEFITSWhen you sign up to become a member of any of the dozens of Jersey-based museums that are part of the North American Reciprocal Museum (NARM) Association network, you get access to them all. The program includes 23 arts historical and cultural institutions around the Garden State, and more than 1,000 institutions in four countries. Benefits include free admission and shop discounts at participating museums, such as the Morris Museum in Morristown, the Princeton University Art Museum, the Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge in Medford, and Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center in Millville. —SV
CHECK OUT NEWARK’S ARTS SCENEPart festival, part art walk, part market, Newark First Fridays have a little bit of something for everyone. On the first Friday of every month, a host of artists, food vendors, musicians and performers come together to showcase all the Brick City has to offer. Attendees can look forward to exclusive deals on art and admission to spots such as Akwaaba Gallery and Brick City Comedy Revue. —SV
Want more ways to live the luxe life for less in New Jersey? Check out more tips and tricks for saving on everything from entertainment to your taxes in the Garden State.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Ways to Enjoy Free and Discounted Music, Shows and More in NJ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Take advantage of weekday and twilight rates at Heron Glen in Ringoes. Photo courtesy of Heron Glen Golf Course
New Jersey abounds in great public and semi-private golf courses.
The best way to save on public golf is to register with your county. For an annual fee as low as $40 (depending on the county), residents get advance-booking privileges and reduced fees.
Monmouth County, for example, charges residents only $50 a year for a season pass (less for seniors and juniors). Passholders can play the highly regarded Hominy Hill for just $40 on weekdays (carts extra). Without the pass, it’s still a relative bargain at $65 on weekdays.
Wherever you play, weekdays and twilight times (typically late afternoon) always cost less. Twilight times are great in late spring and summer, when you can play into the early evening hours. Consider the challenging Heron Glen in Ringoes, where nonresidents of Hunterdon County pay $54 on weekdays and $33 weekdays after 3:30 pm (carts extra; less for seniors).
Be flexible! Some excellent courses (including Bowling Green in Oak Ridge and Architects in Phillipsburg) offer dynamic (or adaptive) pricing online, with great deals available based on open tee times.
Want more ways to live the luxe life for less in New Jersey? Check out more tips and tricks for saving on everything from entertainment to your taxes in the Garden State.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Tee-riffic Savings for New Jersey Golfers appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Check out local galleries to see the work of emerging artists, such as this one by Nadia Liz Estela. Photo courtesy of Nadia Liz Estela
To outsiders, art collecting can seem mystifying, an unfamiliar terrain inhabited exclusively by the uber-wealthy and those to the manor born.
But being an art collector need not require deep pockets. Here are some strategies to get started.
Visit galleries, museums and auction houses. Train your eye, and learn about different media and what you like about them. Discover your tastes and be guided by your instincts and your passion. (A good place to start? New Jersey Monthly’s ultimate guide to under-the-radar museums.)
Be selective. In the vetting process, each work should fit within specific guidelines and fulfill particular needs like genre (abstract or representational), medium (painting, photography, sculpture, etc.), even size.
Know that research is essential when building a collection. Without it, you are operating in the dark. When a work catches your eye, make a note. Then do your homework. Auction houses are great resources for research—and for art that can be snapped up for nominal sums. Rago Auctions in Lambertville holds a yearly auction of unreserved (meaning that no minimum dollar amount must be met) decorative and fine art. This means the items must sell if someone bids on them. Frequently, items sell for a few hundred dollars. With estimates from $100 to $10,000, the auction is a lollapalooza for art enthusiasts.
Be fiscally minded. Everyone has a budget; work within yours. Consider emerging artists. Universities like Rowan, Rutgers and Montclair State have master of fine arts programs and are a great place to discover new art talent in which to invest.
Be aware of—but not beholden to—trends. Although digital art has been in existence since the 1980s, crypto art, NFTs, web3 art, and digital art created on block-chain technology are among the newer trends in collecting. When considering crypto-art, be mindful that desirability, resale and demand are directly linked to the platform where the works are minted (published/sold). Edition number, smart contract, (terms of sale, reassignments of any resale), and the artists and digital creators also inform the value and price.
Since 2016, great attention has been focused on artists of color, female artists, and artists under 35 years old.
When building your collection, don’t limit yourself to what’s trendy. Seek out quality, which is defined by how a work is made and how it looks. Quality is the only true barometer of fine art.
Want more ways to live the luxe life for less in New Jersey? Check out more tips and tricks for saving on everything from entertainment to your taxes in the Garden State.
Ron Shipmon is an art collector, curator, art advisor, arts contributor and certified art appraiser, with more than three decades of expertise in the contemporary, emerging and digital art markets amassed from working with both corporate and private clients across the United States and around the globe.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post How to Build a Great Art Collection on a Budget appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Photographer Chris Buck gears up to take portraits of David Krumholtz during an NJM shoot in Ridgewood. Photo courtesy of Gail Ghezzi
Editorial photographer Chris Buck has long been known for his compelling, eccentric portraits, often of celebrities.
The Toronto native, 58, theorizes that his fascination with famous subjects stems from childhood. “I think I’m trying to work through my own troubles from my youth of maybe not being accepted or not being invited into the popular crowd of boys in middle school,” he muses.
Buck recently captured a portrait of Wykoff resident David Krumholtz to accompany a New Jersey Monthly story about the actor’s experience inhabiting a poignant role on Broadway.
Buck, who moved to Montclair five years ago from Manhattan, spoke with us about the psychology behind portraiture, why he doesn’t play music on set and what he admires about the Garden State.
You recently photographed David Krumholtz for New Jersey Monthly. What did you want to bring to his portrait?It was great to learn more about David. I knew so many of his roles—he’s like a Zelig character, who seems to have been in so many important movies, and in different genres and eras. When you look up his clips, it’s kind of insane where he pops up and who he’s brushed shoulders with.
In meeting him, he tells great stories about it, because he seems to see himself as a bit of a journeyman actor who does lots of different things and is open to different kinds of roles. So he ends up kind of moving into these different worlds, but as a regular person. It feels very welcoming to be with him. He’s obviously a talent and has fantastic achievements—and yet he also has a real modesty and humanity about him that made it really a delight to work with him.
In making his portrait, we kind of made the picture about his two big projects that are happening right now. One is the Santa Clause movie series, in which he plays the head elf. And then he’s also in this Broadway play, Leopoldstadt, which is about Jewish people in Vienna in the early 20th century. And we tried to encapsulate that in one picture, by having a Star of David on a Christmas ornament. It was a fun way to combine the two themes. He’s sort of more associated with that elf role than anything else in his career—which is fascinating, because he is Jewish by heritage himself. So it was fun to kind of break that down and put it into the image.
Buck’s portrait of Krumholtz for NJM captured the actor’s two major projects this year. Photo by Chris Buck
Is there an added intimidation factor when you’re taking photos of high-profile people? And, if so, has it evolved throughout your career?Well, yes. And certainly the intimidation factor of a famous person or a powerful person is also their appeal, so it’s sort of a double-edged thing: You’re there because it’s high stakes. That’s what makes it great—but it also makes it scarier. There’s more preparation involved; you build in more safety nets so that if it doesn’t go well, you have something to fall back on. Having a good background and good lighting—that’s your safety net, having the technical stuff in place. So if the person shows up and does nothing, the photo may not feel very connected, but at least it’ll look cool. But if you can get a gesture or expression that feels more connected or more spontaneous, then the audience is going to be more engaged, and it’ll be more exciting and feel more unique.
But I’d say for the first 15 years of my career, every shoot with anyone prominent was absolutely, totally terrifying and anxiety-causing. I still prepare and get scared and nervous before important shoots, but that total freaking-out quality is very unusual now, just because of my level of exposure to these situations.
After I photographed President Obama in the White House, everything felt a little easy, you know? That was definitely a high-stakes situation where I expected to get really very minimal results, but I got a great photo that feels really of-the-moment, authentic, and still feels very much in my style. A lot of times—and I don’t mean this as a criticism—but you’ll see great photographers go and photograph a sitting president, and it will be much more about the subject. And it will sort of feel like an outlier from their body of work—here’s this portrait and that portrait, and then there’s the one of the president. And the portrait of the president feels fine, but like it’s more about the subject than about the photographer. I think my Obama picture feels like it’s evenly me and him, and that’s really hard to get.
“I think my Obama picture feels like it’s evenly me and him,” Buck says. Photo by Chris Buck
Were you always conscious of that desire to put yourself into the portraits?In my very early days of making portraits, I was initially trying to do a picture that the subjects would like and that I would like, and then kind of find where the overlap was. At some point I realized: I can’t read their mind, and they can’t even really articulate what they want. They want me to do my thing, but in a way that’s gonna make them look good. But they can’t articulate what that is.
I mean, obviously everyone wants to look cool and young and thin—but those things aren’t that interesting, especially to me. I like people not looking cool. Young or old is equally interesting to me. If anything, I prefer people looking older; people who look like they’ve had experience and a life of adventure. I don’t want pictures to be unflattering, because if anything that’s just as distracting as flattering. Flattering is boring, but unflattering is just distracting. I want the portrait to be interesting in a way that brings in some of their personality, and some life.
But what I realized in those early days is: If I make the picture about me, and about what I’m feeling, and essentially make those portraits self-portraits, then I will likely come upon something interesting. It was kind of an invitation for me to go all in: If I make it about how I feel, then I have at least a chance of making it feel authentic, and that the audience will connect to it.
What motivates you, at a very basic level, to do this work?Oh, wow, if only I knew! I don’t really know. I remember being in school—kind of an “understanding media” type of class—and there was this very perceptive teacher. And he was like, Why do you want to photograph celebrities? And I kind of made a joke about having some deep-seated psychological issues that I was trying to work through. That was the best answer I could think of. [Laughs.] It’s still kind of true.
I mean, I think maybe now that I’m older and more secure and such, I’m interested in people and their stories—but, say, with the celebrities: I think I’m trying to work through my own troubles from my youth of maybe not being accepted or not being invited into the popular crowd of boys in middle school. By photographing celebrities who are kind of the cultural version of the popular crowd, I’m trying to kind of figure that out and parse it and maybe, I don’t know, send them a message? I don’t really quite understand it; I think it’s something related to that.
I do think that there’s an aspect of not knowing that is valuable. And the fact that I’m still trying to figure it out—that journey is key to making good work.
Are you known for any eccentric creative routines or on-set must-haves?It’s funny—your own practices seem so ordinary or reasonable. I only know what’s different based on what my photo assistants tell me.
I don’t generally play music on set. I had a set of shoots recently for New York magazine, and more than one subject literally, like, set up their phone to play music while we were shooting because it made them uncomfortable that I wasn’t.
And I do that for a few reasons. One, my voice is kind of a little quiet and hard to hear, so people can’t hear me if I’m playing music. Two, I kind of like people being a little uncomfortable. It’s funny, ’cause photographers often talk about, you know, how I get my subject comfortable; how I create an environment that feels relaxed. And I don’t want it to be unrelaxed, but my goal is to get people in a position where they’ll do what I want them to do. The process is sort of complex—and I guess, on some level, manipulative—but it’s also transparently manipulative.
I thought of this a couple years ago: That having your portrait made is like going to see a psychologist. If you could do it on your own, you would. If you could figure out your anxieties or problems by just sitting and looking out the window, then you wouldn’t go see someone and spend all that money and time and vulnerability. You would just kind of think about it and then act on the results you think of, you know? But I think there’s a reason why people’s selfies tend to be pretty terrible. I mean, they’re fine, but they’re very limited in scope. Whereas a real portrait can have real nuance and insight. And I think that’s what I’m trying to do when I do a sitting with someone.
Do you have any favorite Jersey locations for shoots, or spots that have been particularly exciting?Well, my favorite part of being in New Jersey is that it’s more “America” than living in New York City. Especially when I get sent outside of my little cloistered Montclair—which is beautiful, but it’s almost a bit too picture-perfect. Getting outside Montclair, I get into more of the kind of real Americana that I really love—whether it be stores, or dive bars, or just towns having their little Main Streets. I just love that stuff. I love Americana and regular Americans, and I’m very happy being here. I find being in America very inspiring.
I don’t think most Americans really know this, but coming from Canada, there’s a genuine kind of entrepreneurial quality and positivity that is very powerful. I think a lot of people who immigrate here talk about this. I think Americans find it perplexing and kind of often roll their eyes at it—but for people who move here, it’s a very powerful influence. People tend to be helpful to each other, and positive, and respectful of people’s differences, in a way that is really not common in other places.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
The post Close-Up: Photographer Chris Buck Talks Celebrity Portraits, the ‘Real Americana’ of NJ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Stan Lee is known for his unique Marvel career, but he also sometimes contributed to competitor DC Comics, most notably in his Just Imagine… series from 2001–2002. The series puts Lee’s spin on DC characters, and in the first issue, Just Imagine: Stan Lee’s Batman, Batman is Wayne Williams, an African American man who takes revenge on those who framed him for robbery.
The issue featured Lee’s writing and the art of another comics legend, Joe Kubert. Kubert is best known for work on DC characters Sgt. Rock and Hawkman, as well as for founding the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, New Jersey’s own accredited cartooning college. Emma Kubert, Joe Kubert’s granddaughter, a graduate of and teacher at the school, recalls Lee as “being a really big fan of my grandpa’s.”
Lee makes a cameo in 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, something he did in most Marvel films prior to his 2018 death. Photo: Columbia Pictures/Photofest
Just Imagine: Stan Lee’s Batman features the work of comic book artist Joe Kubert in addition to Marvel legend Stan Lee’s writing.
The Kubert School currently teaches 90 undergraduates across three years in a semester system. It is a hybrid experience post Covid. Joe, who lived in Dover for over 40 years, founded the school in 1976 because he wanted it “close to home,” says Emma.
It was first run by Kubert with his wife, Muriel; after his death in 2012, sons and school graduates Adam and Andy, Emma’s father, took over. Anthony Marques bought the school in 2019; Emma says he “runs the school like Joe did.”
Kubert’s influence remains in some key policies. Student classes are a year long with the same peers and teacher, and drawing for up to 10 hours a day is required. “The school is run [the way] a freelance artist would live everyday life,” says Emma. What her grandparents didn’t foresee, she says, is the community that that experience creates, which “really is kind of the staple of the school.”
Kubert School teachers are required to be working industry professionals, and the curriculum is designed to support job placement. On top of drawing fundamentals, which Emma teaches, students learn topics from storyboarding to digital production to graphic design, as well as how to use computer programs like Illustrator.
Of the school’s impact, Emma says that “usually for an artist, it takes 10-plus years to develop their skills, but by having the kind of curriculum that we have at the school, you can really fast-track that [kind of] learning.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one (or more!) of our newsletters to get the best of where we live sent to your inbox every week. Want a print magazine mailed to your home? Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Stan Lee Was ‘A Big Fan’ of DC Comics Competitor Joe Kubert appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Illustration by Yiran Jia
Long before he was the center of the Marvel Comics Universe (MCU), Stan Lee was just another 19-year-old at Fort Monmouth for basic training—as Lee quipped, “Guarding New Jersey from an impending enemy invasion”—shortly after enlisting in November 1942.
Lee was initially “put on sentinel duty overlooking the Atlantic,” according to Abraham Riesman’s 2021 book, True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee, “freezing his tuchus off in what he assumed was a kind of official hazing ritual.”
But this soon became an important moment in Lee’s early career. “This was an eye-opening experience,” another Lee biographer, Bob Batchelor, tells New Jersey Monthly. “His time at Fort Monmouth exposed [Lee] to recruits and draftees from all over the country….It broadened his ideas about storytelling.”
At the time, of course, there was “no way Stan could have known his military service would have any direct impact on his writing,” Riesman notes in True Believer.
Ultimately, though, Lee (who died in 2018) learned valuable lessons during his time at the Jersey Shore, on his way to creating icons such as Spider-Man, Iron Man and Black Panther, who have since come to dominate American popular culture—thanks in no small part to another show business titan with Garden State ties.
Kevin Feige—a graduate of Westfield High School—has served as a top producer on three dozen MCU blockbusters in the last two decades, including the latest entry, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which hit theaters in November.
Ultimately, by one estimate, the collective labor of Stan Lee, Kevin Feige, and MCU’s army of musclebound heroes and evil villains has generated worldwide revenues of nearly $30 billion, “making it the biggest movie franchise ever,” according to Business Insider.
Stan Lee entered the U.S. Army in early 1942 and served as a member of the Signal Corps after basic training in Fort Monmouth.
MCU fans have even glimpsed the Garden State in several recent blockbusters. A fictional Jersey military base plays a pivotal role in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger as well as Avengers: Endgame, the 2019 flick that is now the highest-grossing film of all time. Meanwhile, the Disney+ TV show WandaVision is set in the (real) North Jersey town of Westview.
Marvel also returned to Jersey this past summer with a new take on Ms. Marvel—Kamala Khan, a character first introduced in the 1960s as an Air Force officer and female counterpart to (then male) Captain Marvel.
In 2013, the Ms. Marvel comics character was reimagined by a creative team including Jersey natives Sana Amanat and G. Willow Wilson as a Muslim American teen, who now stars in her own Disney + TV series.
“Ms. Marvel is a new kind of superhero,” head writer and executive producer Bisha K. Ali says. “I never saw a young teenager of color—specifically a Pakistani—in a comic book. Are you kidding?”
As Kamala Khan herself put it in one episode: “It’s not usually the brown girls from Jersey City who save the world.”
Marvel’s setting was a homecoming, of sorts, for Stan Lee, who would have turned 100 years old this December. He was born Stanley Martin Lieber, a short stroll from the New York-New Jersey waterfront, in December 1922.
His parents, Jack and Celia, were working-class Jewish immigrants who raised Lee, as well as his younger brother, Larry, on Manhattan’s West End Avenue, and later, in the Bronx.
Though he would eventually earn fame and fortune in the visual world of comic book art, Lee was actually more of a word nerd growing up—a “nut for reading,” as Riesman writes. Young Stan devoured everything from Shakespeare and Mark Twain to Leo Edwards’s once-popular Poppy Ott children’s series.
Lee had an uncle on his mother’s side who worked in the up-and-coming comic book industry. After graduating high school at the age of 16, Lee took his facility with narrative structure to the offices of what was then known as Timely Comics (later morphing into Marvel Comics).
By the late 1930s, Adolf Hitler was rattling sabers across Europe. This was reflected in a new Timely character—Captain America—introduced in March 1941.
“Lee had already been heavily influenced by working on the early Captain America comics. Many had Nazis on the cover as villains,” notes Batchelor, whose updated Lee biography, Stan Lee: A Life, was rereleased in October.
When Pearl Harbor was attacked in December 1941, Lee did not wait to be drafted.
“I felt I had to go in the army,” Lee wrote in his 2002 autobiography, Excelsior. “I used to go to penny arcades…and shoot those little guns and win prizes all the time—I figured I was a shoo-in to handle real guns.”
But frostbite, not firearms, was a bigger concern once Lee was posted in Jersey.
“My first assignment at Fort Monmouth was to stand guard duty at night, there in sight of the Atlantic Ocean,” Lee recalled. “Once the sun went down and the frigid wind came up, I turned into one human ice cube of a sentry.”
When he was finally able to leave his icy post, Lee raced back to the barracks “so fast I almost caused a sonic boom.”
Lee was eventually selected to serve in the Army’s communications wing—the Signal Corps. And while he was only at Fort Monmouth long enough to endure the rigors of basic training, the experience left a deep impression on Lee, according to biographers.
“Fort Monmouth was a big, austere base, and well-known as a research facility,” says Batchelor. “Think about it—radar, the most innovative communications equipment—all from this base in New Jersey!”
Lee’s subsequent military postings would keep him far from the front lines. But his storytelling instincts were stirred up nonetheless.
Lee was, as Excelsior puts it, “fired up with excitement, anticipating the adventure of climbing telephone polls and splicing wire under fire.”
Lee was starting to “see things in comic book form,” he wrote.
Army higher-ups later tapped Lee as “one of only nine men assigned to the [Signal Corps’] so called playwright division,” charged with educating soldiers about everything from equipment to morale.
“When he wrote training manuals or used cartoon images to educate users on a piece of delicate equipment,” Batchelor notes, “Lee thought about all those different men and how he could best reach them.”
Also part of Lee’s job was building morale—propaganda.
“Stan Lee was a hype man!” says Riesman with a laugh. “His job was about salesmanship. Salesmanship. Mission purpose. Camaraderie.”
[RELATED: Stan Lee Was ‘A Big Fan’ of DC Comics Competitor Joe Kubert]
This instinct for hype—mixed in with heaping doses of creativity, exaggeration and occasional outright lies—served Lee well after the war as he rose through the comic book industry, cultivating a madcap persona, at once eccentric and approachable.
And prolific.
Lee makes a cameo in 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, something he did in most Marvel films prior to his 2018 death. Photo: Columbia Pictures/Photofest
In the early 1960s, Lee and frequent collaborator Jack Kirby unveiled the Fantastic Four, followed by the Incredible Hulk, the X-Men, Daredevil, Iron Man and more. Thus began a thrilling run of creativity—and financial success—that was interrupted at times by shifts in cultural taste, but has dominated the 21st century.
Alongside all of the acclaim, however, were never-ending emotional and legal disputes about who actually deserved most of the credit—and cash—for these comic creations. Right up until Lee’s 2018 death, having earned and also lost hundreds of millions of dollars, Lee was entangled in legal and financial disputes, amid charges that a onetime business associate was essentially imprisoning the 95-year-old Lee in an elaborate effort to steal his money.
Such sensational heights of fame seemed unlikely right after Stan Lee left Fort Monmouth and joined artists such as Theodore “Dr. Seuss” Geisel and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington director Frank Capra in the Signal Corps. Another Signal Corps member was a talented illustrator from Westfield, New Jersey, named Charles Addams, whose ghoulish cartoons for the New Yorker evolved into a television and movie franchise still with us today.
In a movie landscape decimated by Covid-19, 2021’s Addams Family 2 raked in $125 million. Not bad at all. But not in the same (if you will) universe as the Marvel/Stan Lee flick SpiderMan: No Way Home, which has thus far earned nearly $2 billion across the globe.
Lee popped up as Willie Lumpkin in the 2005 flick Fantastic Four. Photo: 20th Century Fox/Photofest
In the not-too-distant future, when you watch an Addams Family reboot or a new superhero streaming series, it might have its own Fort Monmouth connection.
Stan Lee’s onetime basic training site was shut down in 2011. Since then, local officials have tried to sell developers on potential uses for the 300-acre site. Earlier this year, Governor Phil Murphy pronounced himself “thrilled” that Netflix was planning to turn the old Army base into a state-of-the-art film-production facility.
[RELATED: Inside New Jersey’s Thriving Film and TV Industries]
Which could be seen as yet another homecoming, of sorts, for Stan Lee. Whatever his actual role in the big bang that created the Marvel Universe, it was substantial and important. Another bookish kid with deep connections to Jersey, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz, once wrote: “If Western popular culture has a common idiom, a force that binds us all, the stories contained in Marvel Comics are probably it. In a few short decades…[they have] rewired how millions, perhaps even billions, of people imagine what is possible, what is heroic, what is good.”
All of which suggests that Stan Lee used a lot more than his tuchus during his chilly stint at the Jersey Shore.
Tom Deignan is a Woodbridge resident and regular contributor to New Jersey Monthly. He has written for the Washington Post and New York Times and is researching a book about Ellis Island.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one (or more!) of our newsletters to get the best of where we live sent to your inbox every week. Want a print magazine mailed to your home? Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post How New Jersey Shaped Stan Lee Into a Marvel Legend appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Zach Braff’s newest film features a pair of Hollywood heavyweights—and two New Jersey towns.
A Good Person, written and directed by Braff, filmed in South Orange and Maplewood in 2021. Braff, 47, grew up in South Orange, and his movie’s new trailer spotlights locales such as the South Orange train station and Columbia High School, the Scrubs star’s alma mater.
The trailer, released by MGM, highlights performances from Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman. Pugh, Braff’s real-life former girlfriend, plays Allison, whose life veers off-course when a fatal accident claims her soon-to-be sister-in-law. Freeman plays Daniel, a model train enthusiast and Allison’s would-be father-in-law. The two develop an unlikely and healing connection in the aftermath of their shared tragedy.
[RELATED: Inside New Jersey’s Thriving Film and TV Industries]
Pugh, 26, produced the movie with Braff. Freeman, 85, previously starred in Braff’s 2017 remake of Going in Style.
“This is the first time I’ve had the pleasure and the privilege of watching how the art is made from the very beginning to the very end,” Pugh wrote in an Instagram post accompanied by the trailer. “I am so proud of this creation, I’m so grateful to all those who jumped on board this crazy journey with us.”
A Good Person also stars Molly Shannon, Celeste O’Connor, Chinaza Uche and Zoe Lister-Jones.
Zach Braff (left) and Morgan Freeman on the set of Braff’s 2017 film Going in Style. Photo: Warner Bros./Photofest
Braff first made a name for himself as an actor by playing J.D. on Scrubs, the medical comedy TV series that debuted in 2001.
A Good Person is not Braff’s first movie to include his home turf. His directorial debut, Garden State, took place, naturally, in New Jersey. The 2004 flick earned a Grammy for best soundtrack.
“I love New Jersey and I’ll keep setting my films in New Jersey as long as they let me,” Braff told New Jersey Monthly in an interview a few years back.
A Good Person, which will be rated R, hits theaters March 24.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one (or more!) of our newsletters to get the best of where we live sent to your inbox every week. Want a print magazine mailed to your home? Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Zach Braff’s New Film Stars Florence Pugh, Morgan Freeman and New Jersey appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The holiday hit Hip Hop Nutcracker, known for its revolutionary remix of a traditional ballet, celebrates its 10th season this year.
The original New Jersey Performing Arts Center show, which tours nationally, is distinguished by its contemporary hip-hop choreography set to the Nutcracker’s classic score by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It also includes a unique plot that emphasizes the holiday-spirited show’s themes of love, family and community, says director and choreographer Jennifer Weber. The show takes place on Saturday, December 17, at 2 pm (buy tickets on NJPAC’s website).
Top-tier talent will take the stage this season, including New York rapper Kurtis Blow, one of hip-hop’s founding fathers, who has also been dubbed America’s Christmas rapper for his hit song, “Christmas Rappin’” (1979).
“Every year it gets stronger,” says Weber, the founder of Manhattan-based dance company Decadance Theatre. She says the idea to mix the two drastically different genres together came to her after she was asked, ‘How do you make hip-hop vulnerable?’ Her answer? Take away hip-hop music, which has a steady beat, and replace it with classical scores, which have a more unpredictable sound.
“I think the hip-hop movement makes you hear the classical music in a totally new way, and the classical music makes you see the hip-hop choreography in a totally different way,” she says.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one (or more!) of our newsletters to get the best of where we live sent to your inbox every week. Want a print magazine mailed to your home? Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post ‘Hip Hop Nutcracker’ Fuses Drastically Different Genres appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Have you seen the Deli Guy on TikTok (@parkwooddeli) with nearly 500,000 followers and 6 million likes? Picture this: a jolly fellow behind a counter staring intently into the camera, eyes lit with excitement as he slices imported prosciutto and fresh mozzarella. Each video begins with, “Parkwood Deli!” or, “It’s me, the Deli Guy!” Often, there’s a yelp followed by, “There’s nobody better than me!”
That’s Roger Schnorrbusch talking. He’s the owner of Parkwood Deli in Midland Park, and he loves making sandwiches. How much? Just ask the 24 million people who watched him make a 4-foot-long hero with salami, ham, provolone, Jersey tomatoes, lettuce—aka “roughage”—and hot peppers.
“We do it good, we do it fresh, we show enthusiasm!” Schnorrbusch says.
@parkwooddeli LA beast is coming to take down this MONSTER! (Going live at 2:00) #parkwood #parkwooddeli #roger #food #njeats #nj #fypシ #EatFreshRefresh #xyzbca #f ♬ original sound – ParkwoodDeli
New Jerseyans know we’ve got it good: the Shore, the food, the personalities! And now, thanks to TikTok, our unique quirks and hilarious characters are broadcast to people everywhere. The hashtag #newjersey has more than 6 billion views on TikTok, #jerseyshore has over 2 billion, and #newjerseyeats has more than 2 million. People love us.
In @saybeast’s TikTok videos about the Jersey Shore, creator Alex Burman brings to life characters New Jersey residents will find familiar. In videos about Avalon, Sea Isle City and Wildwood, Burman name-drops local restaurants and charmingly role-plays folks you’d expect to see in those Shore towns. The Wildwood video, shot on the boardwalk, received more than 2.2 million views by late September.
@saybeast Can’t spell Wildwood without “wild” - follow my IG @SAYBURM #philly #delco #nj #wildwood #beach #shore ♬ original sound – saybeast
“Can’t spell Wildwood without w-i-l-d. Can’t spell it without w-o-o-d either,” says the character, sporting a tank top emblazoned with the word Jawn, with a belly laugh. Anyone who’s spent time in South Jersey knows this guy. And anyone anywhere gets the humor.
“I like immersing myself in the culture and showing people what it’s all about, and poking fun at it at the same time,” explains Burman, whose account has over 71,900 followers and 2.2 million likes. “I like to look at what’s relatable.”
Virality is achieved when emotions get stirred—happiness, surprise, FOMO (fear of missing out). New Jersey TikTok certainly inspires these feelings and responses, but the reason Jersey culture is resonating with people inside the state and out is more meaningful than that. These videos highlight what residents already know and love about the Garden State. The people are authentic. The accents are thick. There’s a lot of pride.
Pearl Gabel, one of the masterminds behind the legendary @NJGov Twitter account, says that what makes New Jersey so appealing online are the authentic characters who aren’t afraid to be funny and who proudly promote themselves.
“One of the strengths of TikTok is you show all these diverse people with quirks that are just thriving and owning it,” says Gabel, who is now director of brand strategy and digital integration at a strategic-communications firm. “Humor is one of those universal things,” she says. “You can really tap into that and connect with people.”
Burman, who is from outside Philadelphia, says people enjoy his videos because the characters he portrays are memorable and recognizable. But they are also appealing because they’re funny.
“There’s some sort of attitude or impression we give off,” he explains. “We want to be right or headstrong, and from time to time, we like to argue.”
Schnorrbusch, whose TikTok account was his son’s idea, is grateful for the attention the deli is getting from people all over the country; a bulletin board in the deli is signed by visitors from as far away as Toronto, Daytona Beach and Rhode Island. But he thinks his videos are resonating because of his work-hard-get-the-job-done-have-fun persona.
“You go to work every day, you didn’t go to college, but you’re very exuberant,” he says of himself. “You’re the person that shows people what they can achieve.”
Gabel calls that classic Jersey.
“New Jersey is the ultimate underdog, and everyone loves an underdog,” she says. “When you’re from the seeming armpit of America, it’s a punchline…. But to find that universal humor, it’s a great connection. That’s New Jersey.”
“Official” New Jersey is on the platform, too. The @NJGov account on TikTok, which doesn’t have quite as popular a following as its original counterpart on Twitter, is nonetheless also leaning into Jersey’s unique culture. There are videos about the Shore, as well as Taylor ham versus pork roll, of course. On #nationaleatahoagieday, the account posted a clip from The Office, in which Michael Scott (Steve Carell) orders “gabagool” at a restaurant. The text overlay reads: “POV you’re in South Jersey,” accompanied by the emojis for bread, tomato and lettuce.
@njgov sub hoagie hero #nationaleatahoagieday ♬ original sound – New Jersey
Good food is indeed synonymous with New Jersey, and the many TikTok accounts that showcase the restaurants here are testaments to that. Mariam Aqeel runs the @wandering_for_eats account on TikTok (100,000+ followers, 1.4 million likes). She says her videos on birria tacos and the best burgers in New Jersey are popular because restaurants are an important part of Jersey culture.
“It’s a thing—we focus on our food,” she says. “And we have a lot of fun, unique restaurants here.”
@wandering_for_eats What’s your fave burger spot? #njfoodie #jerseycitynj #jerseycity #hobokennj #hoboken #burgers #njeats #hudsoncounty #njrestaurants #njfoodblogger #nj ♬ Believe Me – Navos
Aqeel, who also runs a marketing company to promote restaurants online, says her videos are appealing because she’s just a regular Jersey girl whom people can relate to.
“I’m the girl next door who found a place,” she says. “It’s a lot more interesting coming from a local person.”
Social media provides users with a lot of things: information, entertainment, an escape from life for a few minutes. Garden State TikTok provides all of that, but with what Gabel calls Jersey energy. Says Gabel: “It’s loud, it’s brash, it’s very honest. You can’t mess with New Jersey energy.”
Georgia Kral is a frequent contributor to New Jersey Monthly.
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one (or more!) of our newsletters to get the best of where we live sent to your inbox every week. Want a print magazine mailed to your home? Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post NJ’s Top TikTok Stars Are as Unique as Our State appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Blood and Ink: The Scandalous Jazz Age Double Murder That Hooked America on True Crimeby Joe PompeoWilliam Morrow
In 1922, the shocking murder of a New Brunswick Episcopal minister and a woman who was a member of his church choir—and who, it later turned out, was his mistress—captivated the nation. Vanity Fair correspondent Joe Pompeo of Montclair presents the story of this sensational murder and the frenzy that surrounded the violent deaths, stirred up by the emerging tabloid press. His book, which came out on the 100th anniversary of the murders, sheds new light on the Hall-Mills case, a mega-scandal from the Roaring Twenties that fueled the rise of tabloid culture and the fascination with true-crime podcasts and television shows today. —Jacqueline Mroz
Down and Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdainby Charles LeerhsenSimon & Schuster
From a Leonia boyhood as “a comic-book obsessed nudnik,” chef Anthony Bourdain became a culinary cult figure, best-selling author and globe-trotting television star, but in 2018 committed suicide at 61. The author details a life that epitomized the promise and peril of the decades when chefs like Bourdain could become superstars. —Eric Levin
We Are All We Haveby Marina BudhosWendy Lamb Books
Maplewood’s Marina Budhos wrote this young adult novel during the pandemic, when a lockdown propelled her to imagine a story of flight and hope. Set in 2019, it’s about a Pakistani-American teenager, Rania, whose mother is swept up in an ICE raid, leaving Rania and her younger brother to fend for themselves. They go on a road trip, searching for a safe place to be. —JM
Babysitterby Joyce Carol OatesKnopf
Princeton professor Joyce Carol Oates’s latest novel is about a serial killer who plagues the affluent suburbs of Detroit in the 1970s. Events are set in motion when a wealthy wife and mother has an affair with a charismatic stranger. Oates uses the abductions and killings to examine corrupt politics, racism and sexual predation in this gripping, disturbing story. —JM
Drinking Gamesby Sarah LevySt. Martin’s Press
This memoir is a collection of essays about a late 20-something writer, Sarah Levy, who grew up in Livingston and is trying to get sober. Levy determines to quit after waking up next to a stranger one morning, with no recollection of how she got there. Levy’s sobriety story questions how alcohol and binge drinking are enmeshed in millennial culture today. —Falyn Stempler
A Touch of Moonlight: A Novelby Yaffa S. Santos
HarperCollins
Jersey-born and -raised author Yaffa S. Santos infuses Dominican folklore into a riveting romance novel. The story follows Larimar Cintrón, a caretaker for her family who is also hiding a secret; she is a ciguapa, a mythical creature in Dominican folklore. She tries to balance her secret life with work and with trying to live up to her family’s expectations. —FS
Still Watersby Jenna CaldwellNew Degree Press
Journalist Jenna Caldwell, who grew up in Newark, tells the story of a high school teacher named George who suddenly awakens to a life he doesn’t recognize: his home, his job, his wife, his kids and even himself. Anchored only by memories of his past, George tries to adjust to his new life while being challenged by trauma in this gripping novel set in Brick City. —Thomas Neira
Martha Graham: When Dance Became Modernby Neil BaldwinKnopf
This is the first new major biography of the colorful life of Martha Graham in three decades. Written by Neil Baldwin, a Montclair resident who teaches at Montclair State University, it tells the story of Graham’s rise, from growing up in Pennsylvania to becoming the star of exotic ballets to founding her own dance company at the age of 32. —JM
Walking the Old Boonton Lineby Wheeler AntabanezAbandoned Books
Many Essex and Hudson County residents are familiar with the old Boonton Rail Line, an abandoned train track that once connected Montclair to Jersey City. While most of the tracks have been overtaken by trees, graffiti and local wildlife, they still contain hidden pieces of history. New Jersey resident Wheeler Antabanez set out to walk the entire track and documented his journey. —TN
Sailing by Starlight: The Remarkable Voyage of Globe Star by Rod Scher
Sheridan House
Marvin Creamer never took a sailing lesson or navigation course, but that didn’t stop him from pursuing his dream of circumnavigating the globe—without navigational instruments. The longtime Glassboro resident and professor set off from Cape May with his crew in December of 1982 on the 35-foot Globe Star. Author Rod Scher compellingly chronicles the 29,400-nautical-mile adventure, during which Creamer and his crew overcame near-hurricane-force winds, waves almost 40 feet high, frostbite, fire, broken bones, seasickness, multiple malfunctions of equipment and a near capsizing. Click here for more about this incredible story. —Tom Wilk
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one (or more!) of our newsletters to get the best of where we live sent to your inbox every week. Want a print magazine mailed to your home? Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post 10 Great Books to Gift This Holiday Season appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Marvin Creamer never took a sailing lesson or navigation course, but that didn’t stop him from pursuing his dream of circumnavigating the globe—without navigational instruments. The longtime Glassboro resident and professor set off from Cape May with his crew in December of 1982.
Creamer’s 29,400-nautical-mile adventure, which ended with his return to Cape May in May 1984, is compellingly told in Sailing by Starlight: The Remarkable Voyage of Globe Star by Rod Scher (out now from Sheridan House).
“I really lucked out and had access to so much source material, including Creamer’s unpublished manuscript of the voyage, notes and journals,” says Scher, who lives in Oregon.
The trip’s goal was a simple one: “Creamer’s objective was to show how ancient people could have traveled using no instruments other than their brains and their five basic senses,” Scher writes.
A longtime professor of geography at Glassboro State College, now Rowan University, Creamer was 66 when he began his journey. The largely self-taught seaman, who had previously crossed the Atlantic nine times, encountered a fair share of skepticism.
“Doomsayers had a field day. They reckoned we would be lucky to survive for two days,” noted Creamer in his journal, explaining he used stars, ocean currents and his knowledge to guide him. The margin for error was razor thin. “One mistake and it’s a different book,” Scher says.
Creamer and his crew on the Globe Star for their astonishing voyage. Courtesy of the Creamer family/Rowan University
Creamer’s journey on the 35-foot Globe Star encountered its share of challenges. He and his crew overcame near-hurricane-force winds, waves almost 40 feet high, frostbite, fire, broken bones, seasickness, multiple malfunctions of equipment and a near capsizing.
Through interviews with Creamer’s family and four crewmembers, Creamer emerges as an expert sailor who also had his shortcomings.
“He was a bit of a martinet,” Scher says of Creamer, who couldn’t put his family ahead of his sailing. “A lot of times it was ‘my way or the highway.’” He could be hard to bear at home.”
But Creamer, who died at 104 in August 2020, wouldn’t be denied in his quest.
“Marv was one tough guy, mentally and physically,” Scher says, noting Creamer suffered a dislocated shoulder during the journey and had a crew member pop it back into place. “He had courage and resolve.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one (or more!) of our newsletters to get the best of where we live sent to your inbox every week. Want a print magazine mailed to your home? Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post The Glassboro Man Who Sailed the World With No Navigational Help appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
As gamblers occupied tables and slots at Atlantic City’s Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Saturday night, a vastly different scene unfolded within the site’s Etess Arena.
There, the sounds of slot machines were drowned out by the rhythmic guitars and famous harmonies of the Beach Boys, who delivered good vibrations with a festive twist. The band’s current iteration, led by lead singer and original co-founder Mike Love, stopped in New Jersey on its “‘Tis the Season” tour, which features the Holiday Vibrations Orchestra.
The performance, a 35-song set with an intermission, included some of the Beach Boys’ most popular hits, such as “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” “I Get Around,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “Kokomo” and “Good Vibrations.” But the group, which first rose to fame in the early 1960s—albeit with a vastly different roster of members—also paused the nostalgia for holiday classics throughout the concert. With takes on “White Christmas,” “Jingle Bell Rock” and “Frosty the Snowman,” as well as originals like “Little Saint Nick,” the Beach Boys blended their expected fun-in-the-sun style with seasonal tunes fit for a crisp December evening.
The show was a reminder that the city referred to as America’s Playground has more to offer than just betting and gaming during the winter, when the cold weather leaves Atlantic City’s beaches and historic Boardwalk rather empty (often resulting in discounted hotel rates!). In addition to boasting delicious restaurants and other entertainment options in the casino resorts, the area attracts an array of famous bands, musicians and comedians—even when temperatures drop.
[RELATED: Is Atlantic City Finally On a Roll?]
Below are just some of the acts and holiday celebrations coming to Atlantic City’s casinos while it’s too chilly to enjoy the sand and surf.
Hard Rock’s Etess Arena holds 7,000 people at full capacity. Photo courtesy of Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino* December 9–10: Greta Van Fleet * December 30–31: Earth, Wind & Fire * February 10–11: Def Leppard & Mötley Crüe * February 16–18: Billy Strings * March 16: The Killers
Borgata December 10: Nikki Glaser * December 10: Jerry Seinfeld * January 14: Dancing With the Stars* – 2023 Live * January 15: Sidewalk Angels featuring Rob Thomas * January 28: Whitney Cummings * March 3: Smokey Robinson
Caesars Atlantic City December 17: Atlantic City Ballet Presents: The Nutcracker * March 11: Patti LaBelle * March 26: Atlantic City Ballet Presents: Midsummer Night’s Dream*
Ocean Casino Resort* December 11: Cirque Dreams Holidaze * December 30: Duran Duran * February 25: Elvis Costello
Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City* December 8-11: Santa’s Christmas Wonderland * January 21: Pink Floyd Laser Spectacular
Tropicana Atlantic City* March 25: Chaka Khan
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one (or more!) of our newsletters to get the best of where we live sent to your inbox every week. Want a print magazine mailed to your home? Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post Jerry Seinfeld, the Killers and More: Atlantic City’s Offseason Goes Far Beyond Just Gaming appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
David Krumholtz played Bernard the Elf in the Santa Clause film franchise and now stars in Tom Stoppard’s Broadway play Leopoldstadt. Photo by Chris Buck
Bergen County’s David Krumholtz returned to his well-loved role as Bernard the Elf in the Santa Clause movie franchise this holiday season. But lately a weightier, wisecrack-free character is landing him in the spotlight: Krumholtz plays Hermann, the patriarch of a well-to-do Jewish family, in Tony Award winner Tom Stoppard’s latest Broadway hit, Leopoldstadt.
It’s the turn of the 20th century in Vienna, and Hermann converts to Christianity to better his chances at social and professional mobility. But he’s derailed by what Krumholtz describes as “an unwelcome comeuppance.”
“Ultimately, he cannot escape his destiny,” says Krumholtz, 44, who moved to Wyckoff with his wife, Vanessa, and their young son and daughter from Los Angeles five years ago. “It’s a deeply devastating play with some very hard truths to tell.”
For Krumholtz, those truths often feel personal. His father grew up in Manhanttan, surrounded by Holocaust survivors. In 2017, he died of multiple system atrophy, a rare neurological disorder.
“I’m doing the play in tribute to him,” he says. “It’s been a chance for me to reconnect with my own Judaism, which would have been my father’s dream come true.”
David Krumholtz on stage in Leopoldstadt with actress Faye Castelow, who plays Gretl to his Hermann. Photo courtesy of Joan Marcus
Making the leap to live theater after a 30-year career on screens—Krumholtz starred in the CBS series NUMB3RS and in movies including Harold & Kumar—hasn’t been easy.
“I’ve been spoiled by film and television, where you shoot one scene on one day, and then it’s over, and where it’s rare to work every single day,” he says. But living in New Jersey, where he has fallen in love with what he calls “the keenness and smartness of New Jerseyans,” and has become part of the bridge-and-tunnel crowd, has been a balm. Every day, he drives to the Longacre Theater in Midtown Manhattan.
On the way, “I’ll call a friend to tell them how intimidated I am by the play, how frightened I am,” he says. “It settles me down.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one (or more!) of our newsletters to get the best of where we live sent to your inbox every week. Want a print magazine mailed to your home? Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post David Krumholtz: ‘Leopoldstadt’ Role Allowed Me to ‘Reconnect With My Own Judaism’ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Looking for fun this December? Check out these events and activities happening all over New Jersey.
Please note that all… Read the rest
The post Fun Things to Do in NJ in December: Art, Concerts and More appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The student-run nonprofit produces monthly drug- and alcohol-free music shows while fostering confidence and self-esteem.
The post Terry’s Serendipity Café Is Safe Space for Montclair Teens appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Wonder Drug explores how helping others can be a life-changing therapy.
The post Jersey Doctors Wrote a Book on the Healing Power of Compassion appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
In her book, Sit, Stay, Heal, Dr. Renee Alsarraf of Montclair explores how lessons from furry friends helped her along her journey.
The post This Vet Oncologist Treated Dogs for Decades. Then She Got a Cancer Diagnosis of Her Own. appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Check out the captivating results of our annual search for local photographers' best work.
The post The Winners of New Jersey Monthly and Unique Photo’s 2022 Cover Search Contest appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
An influx of studios and shoots has earned our state a new moniker.
The post Hollywood East: Inside New Jersey’s Thriving Film and TV Industries appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Atlantic City's historic amusement park will boast two exciting new attractions by 2025.
The post Two New Rollercoasters Coming to Atlantic City’s Steel Pier appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
In Blue’s Big City Adventure, out now on Paramount+, Josh Dela Cruz travels to the Big Apple with Blue to audition for a Broadway musical.
The post NJ Native Stars in ‘Blue’s Clues’ Film Adaptation appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Montclair native Susan Glasser wrote The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021with her husband, Peter Baker.
The post The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser on Trump’s Presidency—and the Perils of a Second Term appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The Boss is promoting his new covers album, “Only The Strong Survive,” for four nights on Jimmy Fallon's show.
The post Bruce Springsteen Slated for Soulful ‘Tonight Show’ Takeover appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The Four Seasons frontman is returning to his native Newark this November for a concert at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.
The post Frankie Valli on Jazz, His Go-To Jersey Restaurant and What He Sings in the Shower appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Looking for ways to enjoy New Jersey this November? Check out these events, including colorful comedy and spectacular shows.
The post Fun Things to Do in NJ in November: Art, Comedy and More appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The Atlantic City Tattoo Expo, which takes place in early November, has come a long way since its 2001 debut.
The post Atlantic City’s Embrace of Tattoo Expo Reflects How Ink Culture Has Evolved appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The massive new Adjacent Music Festival is bringing a star-studded lineup to the Atlantic City beach next Memorial Day weekend.
The post Blink-182, Paramore to Headline New Atlantic City Festival Full of Jersey Artists appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Laurie Lico Albanese’s new historical romance, Hester, revisits the classic heroine from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.
The post Montclair Author’s Novel Reimagines the Life of Hester Prynne appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Nina Cooke John's Shadow of a Face in Newark is an artistic and educational homage to the noted conductor of the Underground Railroad.
The post NJ Architect Hopes Visitors Connect to Her Harriet Tubman Memorial on a ‘Spiritual Level’ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Chad Hunt's Halloween series functions as a time capsule for grateful parents.
The post This Maplewood Photographer Captured Trick-or-Treater Portraits for Nearly a Decade appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Released 18 years ago this month, the cult hit Sideways unexpectedly crushed public perception of merlot. But this lovely grape deserves better.
The post Almost Two Decades After ‘Sideways,’ Has Merlot Made a Comeback? appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The popular game is releasing a Jersey Shore–centric board—but not before gathering suggestions from local establishments and residents.
The post Monopoly Seeking Community Input for South Jersey Shore Edition appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
First-time restaurateur Quinta Li combines her two primary passions at Ficus Café and Ficus Above.
The post Ficus in Princeton: Where Food and Art Mingle appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The nonprofit theater's overhaul includes a new stage and improved acoustics.
The post Multimillion-Dollar Renovation Complete at BergenPAC in Englewood appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Jersey native Jay Blakesberg has been capturing such artists as the Grateful Dead and Joni Mitchell since the late 1970s.
The post Rock Photographer’s New Book, Museum Exhibit Showcase Musical Greats appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
“This is where the motion picture industry started, and this is where a theater belongs to commemorate that,” says Mayor Mark Sokolich.
The post Barrymore Film Center Opening in Fort Lee, a City Rich with Movie-Making History appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
In "Jersey Breaks," the former U.S. poet laureate, whom Bruce Springsteen has called “the voice of the Jersey Shore,” probes his Monmouth County childhood.
The post Robert Pinsky Traces Poetry Roots to Vivid Long Branch Youth in New Memoir appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
A highly immersive center in the East Rutherford complex will become the first permanent home for the New Jersey Hall of Fame since its 2008 inception.
The post New Jersey Hall of Fame Breaks Ground at American Dream appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
State Theatre celebrates its centennial with the best of Broadway, amazing concerts, music, comedy and more in a fully renovated theater.
The post State Theatre New Jersey Offers the Best of Broadway—Much Closer to Home appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Find frights and delights all over New Jersey as Halloween nears.
The post Haunted Attractions Sure to Scare NJ This Fall appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
From Oktoberfest celebrations to family-friendly events, the Garden State has a plethora of fun fall happenings.
The post New Jersey Fall Festivals and Fairs You Won’t Want to Miss appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Looking for ways to enjoy New Jersey this October? Check out these events, including autumnal activities and eclectic art shows.
The post Fun Things to Do in NJ in October: Fall Festivals, Art and More appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The Maine-based nonprofit is performing, and hosting a clinic, at Richard J. Codey Ice Arena on October 1.
The post Ice Dance International Makes Its Way to West Orange appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Kim Kachougian oversees Saturday Night Live's film unit and creates floral arrangements for celebrity guests. She also runs a floral studio in Hoboken.
The post ‘SNL’ Set Decorator Is a Jersey Girl appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
For a writer whose late mother adored the barrier-breaking Queen of Salsa, the Forked River service area serves as a poignant link to the past.
The post Parkway Rest Stop, Renamed for Celia Cruz, Prompts a Ride Down Memory Lane appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
After a years-long hiatus, the New Brunswick band announced a reunion in March. Now they're gearing up for a Jersey concert—and a brand-new album.
The post The Gaslight Anthem’s Reunion Comes With Great Expectations appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Icons like Stevie Nicks and Green Day headlined this year's Sea Hear Now, but the Asbury Park festival let local bands shine as well.
The post At Sea Hear Now 2022, Local Bands Seized Bigger Stages appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
New Jersey resident Nate Burleson spent 11 years in the NFL. Now he’s enjoying a meteoric broadcasting career that’s transcended sports.
The post At CBS, Nate Burleson Fulfills a Dream That’s Bigger Than Football appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Brezinka's piece accompanies an essay in our September issue on the 20th anniversary of The Rising album—the Boss's response to 9/11 and its aftermath.
The post Close-Up: Artist Wayne Brezinka on His 3-D Portrait of Bruce Springsteen appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Opinion: Springsteen’s 2002 album feels like a fuller reflection on September 11 and its aftermath than the annual services we’ve become accustomed to.
The post 20 Years Later, Bruce Springsteen’s ‘The Rising’ Is Worth Revisiting on 9/11 appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
This new reality TV series is shooting its pilot episode in Newark this October. Submit your online auditions through September 15.
The post Calling All Writers: Are You America’s Next Great Author? appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The Red Bank native proves the Garden State is not just a quick stop. He's back to launch a film house and reboot his cult-classic film.
The post ‘Clerks’ Director Kevin Smith Returns to a Jersey Shore State of Mind appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Looking for ways to enjoy New Jersey this September? Check out these events, including autumnal activities and iconic comedic acts.
The post Fun Things to Do in NJ in September: Fall Festivals, Comedy and More appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The beloved festival brings iconic musicians, surfers and so much more to the Jersey Shore every September.
The post Sea Hear Now, Asbury Park’s Giant Beach Bash, Ready to Rock Again appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
"I’m inside someone’s life for a period of time, and then I’m gone."
The post Close-Up: Photographer Dave Moser on Chasing Intimate Portraits—and Connections appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Journalist Sopan Deb, a Howell native, published "Keya Das’s Second Act" this summer. It follows a Bengali-American family living in suburban New Jersey.
The post Sopan Deb’s First Fiction Novel Spotlights New Jersey’s Bengali-American Community appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Investigative journalist Gary Weiss's new book tells of massive fraud at a popular NJ electronics store.
The post ‘Retail Gangster’ Recounts Crazy Eddie’s Stunning Fall from Grace appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Looking for ways to enjoy New Jersey this August? Check out these events, including hilarious comedy acts and superstar concerts.
The post Fun Things to Do in NJ in August: Comedy, Music and More appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Bruce Springsteen joined fellow Jersey native and Bleachers frontman Jack Antonoff for a surprise performance at Radio City on Tuesday.
The post Bleachers, Bruce Springsteen Bring Jersey Flair to Radio City appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
“I started considering how I could take that poor trajectory of my life and turn it into something more," says the Longport native, now the subject of the documentary "For the Dream."
The post Ben Gravy Shares the Story of His Sobriety and Unique Surf Mission appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Dupré Kelly rose to fame as a rapper with Lords of the Underground. Now he represents his home, Newark's West Ward.
The post Newark Rapper Turned Councilman Dupré Kelly Eager to ‘Govern Where I Grew’ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The longstanding Garden State tradition in Readington boasts about 100 hot-air balloon ascensions—plus live music, rides, fireworks, food and a 5K.
The post At the NJ Lottery Festival of Ballooning, Soar to Thrilling New Heights appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
"Remember Them" celebrates local icons like Frank Sinatra, James Gandolfini and Whitney Houston, who changed the face of the Garden State.
The post New TV Series Spotlights Late NJ Legends appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
As a Jersey City resident, Vivian Amaro has relished the opportunity to work on a show starring a hero from her neck of the woods.
The post ‘Ms. Marvel’ Designer Brings Her Jersey City Neighborhood to the MCU appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
In "More After the Break," the NBC New York journalist returns to ten powerful stories she's covered during her career, many in her native New Jersey.
The post NBC Reporter Jen Maxfield’s New Book Revisits Past Interviews She Couldn’t Shake appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The Newark show is being billed as a "homecoming."
The post Bruce Springsteen to Play NJ Concert, Announces U.S. Tour Dates appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
BBQ, booze and tunes by the beach—what could be better?
The post NJ State Barbecue Championship in North Wildwood Is Quintessential Summer Festival appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The festival has become a fixture in Essex County, annually featuring local and national musical acts, 75+ arts and food vendors, and thousands of attendees.
The post Maplewoodstock: From Humble Roots to Two-Day Extravaganza appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
At Anchors Aweigh in Bradley Beach, the musician loves creating New Jersey- and Asbury Park-inspired designs.
The post Bouncing Souls Rocker Bryan Kienlen Runs a Thriving Shore Tattoo Shop appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Looking for ways to enjoy New Jersey this July? Then check out these events, including hilarious comedy acts and superstar concerts.
The post Fun Things to Do in NJ in July: Comedy, Music and More appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Fabian Nicieza's "The Self-Made Widow" just came out this month.
The post Deadpool Co-Creator Tackles Suburban Life in New NJ Mystery appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Whether you're traveling to the beach or staying inland this Fourth of July, there are plenty of places to celebrate the holiday in New Jersey.
The post Where New Jerseyans Can Have a Blast This Fourth of July appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Judy Blume, who was born and raised in Elizabeth, is one of America’s most beloved authors.
The post Judy Blume Documentary to Shed Light on Author’s Youth in NJ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
New Jersey is planning a number of Juneteenth celebrations this weekend. The holiday commemorates the ending of slavery in the United States.
The post Where to Celebrate Juneteenth in New Jersey appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Flemington native Nate Cooper always loved to make people laugh, but never realized that one day he’d become a professional clown.
The post Cirque du Soleil Star Went From Class Clown to World-Class Performer appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Revel in the Garden State's hottest celebrations of music, food, arts and more.
The post A Guide to Summer Festivals in New Jersey appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
In "Cultivating Justice in the Garden State," Ray Lesniak details 50 years in politics.
The post How Ray Lesniak Became a Force in NJ’s Bruising Political World appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Kamala Khan, a.k.a. Ms. Marvel, hails from the Garden State. But the young superhero represents more than just New Jerseyans in the MCU.
The post Marvel’s Jersey City Superhero Ready For Her Barrier-Breaking TV Debut appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.