The Jersey City Independent"

James Fisher is the kind of history professor you wish you had. Sure, he looks the part, round glasses and floppy hair, but what most recommends him is his energy. Not energy as in some kind of new age-y good aura, but literally his enthusiasm and passion for his subject, whether that be history, theology or the subject of his latest book — wherein all his other interests seem to merge — the Port of New York.

This holiday season you’ll have plenty of opportunities to revisit the classics, whether for you that means A Charlie Brown Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life, or, as it is in my family, the musical version of A Christmas Carol starring Albert Finney and simply titled Scrooge. And when there are days where the [...]

On a rainy Saturday afternoon in Jersey City one might wonder what to do. Extend brunch well into dinnertime? Stay home and catch up on missed episodes of your favorite shows on Hulu? Venture out into the rain to get going on the Christmas shopping you’ve neglected to start?
Sure. Yes. Those are all good options, [...]

Photo: Tatsuro Nishimura
Flood Warning! If the New York Times is to believed, residents of Jersey City should be prepared for high waters beginning today.
Sure, the forecast calls for rain, but that’s not the half of it. Today is also the opening night for The Attic Ensemble’s presentation of Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire’s 2006 tear-jerking [...]

Cynthia Harris and Bob Leach chat with festival-goers (Photo courtesy the Jersey City Free Public Library)
This past weekend’s rainy weather did little to dampen the spirits of the city’s bibliophiles as evidenced by the consistent stream of traffic flowing through Saturday’s second annual book festival held at Van Vorst Park.
“Surprisingly, it turned out [...]

Ahh, September: the air is getting cooler, the kids are going back to school and local authors are making their way out of the Free Public Library and into Van Vorst Park for the second annual Book Festival, or “A Tale of Our City,” as it’s being called.

Authors with areas of expertise ranging from rock [...]

Fishing is a ritual; as it is for characters in a David James Duncan novel so it is for Jose from Newark who comes to Jersey City with his friends to fish on the weekends, and for Sam, who’s recently decided to try his hand on the Hudson, fishing for Bluefish off of Grundy Pier. It’s a solace for Louis, the fly-fisherman from Alberta, and a bonding experience for Mike and Marlon.

In addition to beer, I’ve always had a fine appreciation for metadata. That is, I love to know anything and everything I can know about a thing, particularly a thing I really like.
So, for example, I’m the kind of kid that begged his parents for Star Wars schematic books so I could really understand [...]

Well friends, our secret is out. This past Thursday night my wife Steph and I took a walk around the neighborhood, over to Buon Appetito for a slice, down to the waterfront, back up through Paulus Hook and eventually to our destination, Zeppelin Hall. As we approached from the back, still a good hundred yards [...]

Editor’s note: Who couldn’t go for a beer right about now, after this kind of week here in Jersey City?
Beer correspondent (nice title, huh?) Jonathan Fitzgerald is on vacation this week. In his absence he asked a friend, fellow Jersey resident and writer Kevin Gosa, to assume his beer blogging responsibility. (Clearly, he takes this [...]