This Weekend’s Best Bets
By Jon Whiten • Feb 5th, 2010 • Category: Arts, BlogIt’s a jam-packed weekend for all kinds of culture here in Jersey City. Be sure to check our full Cultural Calendar for complete listings, but here are our Best Bets for the next three days.
TODAY
Target First Fridays is back at the Jersey City Museum this evening, with crafts, some wine and a sneak peek at a few Spring 2010 exhibitions. What’s more, our good friend Dancing Tony has put together a live music bill for the evening — Heather Duby and Higgins will be performing in the museum’s intimate theater. Should be a great space to catch a show. The whole thing gets rolling at 5 pm, and it is free to all. If you want to check out the music, though, you’ll have to cough up a few bucks at the door. Over at the 58 Gallery, a music-themed exhibition — “Urban Audio Manifesto #3” — celebrates its opening at 7 pm. The show features Mikal Hameed’s interactive “plug and play” works that allow anyone to plug their phones, mp3 players or what have you directly into the artworks. Should make for a heady “participation based viewer experience.” On a more traditional note, Made With Love favorite Ace Case will be back at the Jersey Avenue cafe this evening for a BYOB show at 8 pm. And last, but not least, check out what the next generation of Jersey City artists and musicians are up to — and spend some money to support the environment — at the first-ever Green Teen Music and Arts Festival, which hits Grace Church Van Vorst starting at 7 pm.
SATURDAY
History buffs will want to make it back to the museum at 1 pm for a book release/Q&A event with the authors of the new book St. Peter’s College, which — as the name implies — is a history of St. Peter’s College, a longstanding Jersey City institution. And if you’re already at the museum, you might as well stick around for the 29th Black Maria Film + Video Festival, which runs from 2 to 4 pm. There are four solid offerings for nighttime fun: There’s a Carnival party that is doubling as a fundraiser for the Creative Grove Artist Market (at the Mary Benson Gallery at 9 pm), the Subway Surfers/Frankie and the Bugs show (at the Lamp Post around 10 pm), a screening of the so-good-it’s-bad film The Room (at Art House Productions at 8 pm), or the Roadside Graves/Montagna & The Mouth To Mouth/The Exotic Aquatic show (at the Iron Monkey at 11 pm).
SUNDAY
Made With Love has back-to-back Sunday events worth checking out — Kelly Saint Patrick will be playing live from 1 to 3 pm (a perfect opportunity to snag some brunch), and an exhibit of Valentine’s Day themed embroideries from Ashley Lucas will celebrate its opening from 3 to 5 pm. Later on, swing by LITM for two of Japanese animation legend Hayao Miyazaki’s films — Princess Mononoke at 6 pm and Spirited Away at 8 pm.
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Jon Whiten is the founding editor of the Jersey City Independent; he now works for a public-policy nonprofit in Trenton.
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