This Weekend’s Best Bets

By • Jun 4th, 2010 • Category: Arts, Blog

For full event listings, be sure to check out our full Cultural Calendar. But for the quick-and-dirty, here are your Best Bets for the weekend. Hosting an event? You can submit your events to our calendar directly on the site. It’s easy — check it out here.

TODAY

JC Fridays, JC Fridays, JC Fridays! The quarterly arts celebration turns five years old today with events all across the city; there are by far way too many for us to go over, so check out the JC Fridays site for all the details. As part of the celebration, there is a special Friday Groove on Grove show this evening, featuring a few of Jersey City’s finest musical talents — The One & Nines, Tris McCall (playing with a full band), Heather Duby and the Rebecca Vallejo Project (6 pm).

But even with all the JC Fridays hubbub, there are a few other notable events going on tonight as well. The Loew’s kicks off its final weekend of the season with films from the 1980s — tonight’s feature is Raging Bull (8 pm); while you’re there, be sure to check out the artwork on display from students at the Jersey City Arts High School. Meanwhile, the Puerto Rican Association for Community Organization (PACO) celebrates its 40th anniversary with a fundraising banquet (special guests: Sen. Bob Menendez and Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuno) at the Westin (6 pm).

SATURDAY

Music aficionados of all stripes should head to Parlay Studios in the Powerhouse Arts District, where Iris Records owner Steve Gritzan is putting on his Record/CD Riot event for the first time ever in Jersey City. The all-day affair features dozens of vendors with vinyl, CDs and music memorabilia (10 am to 5 pm). Meanwhile, the outdoor festival season continues at Hamilton Square with the annual June-a-Palooza street fair, which doubles as a fundraiser for Learning Community Charter School (12 to 5 pm). And later in the afternoon, parents should join one of our own, Jersey City Dad blogger Tad Hendrickson, as he hosts the first-ever Jersey City Dad Happy Hour at Zeppelin Hall (4:30 pm).

As the day turns into evening, there’s an opening reception for Ken Bastard‘s latest exhibition — Blasted Lands — at Fish With Braids Gallery (7 pm), and the Loew’s keeps the ’80s goodness rolling with back-to-back screenings of Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (6 pm) and The Blues Brothers (8:15 pm). And if you’ve got a hankering for some slightly offbeat original live music, the Lamp Post is where it’s at, with a free show from Jersey City’s Jack Parsons Moonchild and SodaCan (10 pm).

SUNDAY

The can’t-miss event today is the annual Festival of the Andes at NJCU; the festival celebrates the highland cultures of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Eduador, Peru, Venezuela and Uruguay with live music, dance performances, good food, vendors and — yes — llamas (11 am to 6 pm).

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is the founding editor of the Jersey City Independent; he now works for a public-policy nonprofit in Trenton.
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