The Jersey City Museum is in dire straits, with a massive debt load forcing it to lay off its staff, miss payments to vendors and, most recently, close its doors to the public entirely. However, through all the reporting done on the institution’s problems, one question has remained largely unasked: what do Jersey City’s artists make of this mess?
This Friday began early for me as I got out to check out Creative Grove, and see how the shops would set up with Groove on Grove’s special appearance for JC Fridays. I spent some time wandering around checking out the local art scene and the available wares. With items ranging from screen printed T-shirts to homemade organic cookies and lemonade, there was something for everyone. Around 6 pm the music started up, with four acts slated to go on.
One of New Jersey’s most strident boosters now has a seat at the state’s largest paper. Tris McCall, who has graced stages all over Jersey City for the better part of the ’00s, joined the Star-Ledger as a pop music critic earlier this month, working under longtime critic Jay Lustig, who became the paper’s arts [...]
- Another Step Towards Marion Greenway Park: The City Council is set to vote tonight on a condemnation settlement to acquire 34.52 acres of the former PJP Landfill and convert it into a public park. Corporation counsel Bill Matsikoudis says approving the settlement is the final step towards acquiring the property. – Murder Suspect Arraigned [...]
- NJCU Students and Faculty Rally: More than 50 people rallied in NJCU’s administration building yesterday, urging the university to open up its budget process, freeze tuition and refrain from furloughs and layoffs. The group also decried Gov. Christie’s recent cut of higher education funding. – Kenny Corruption Sentencing Postponed: Former Ward B councilman Phil [...]
Jersey City’s Brennan Courthouse, with its stately marble columns and lofty domed ceiling, seems an unlikely venue for live music. But because county executive Tom DeGise is an avid folk music fan, the building turns into the Brennan County Coffee House once a month, featuring a variety of folk performers as well as an open mic. And who better to perform there than Jersey City musician Tris McCall, who writes and sings about Hudson County politicians?
- Today is the federal holiday honoring the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. City office and the parking authority are closed; here are some celebrations in the area. – Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York is urging federal officials not to close immigration detention operations at the Varick Federal Detention Facility [...]
McCall’s new “broadly autobiographical” album takes us all over New Jersey, from the Delaware Water Gap to the Staples at Newport Center. “Many of these songs were written at a time when I didn’t exactly feel welcome in my own hometown,” he says. “Since I have always had a near-religious loyalty to the place where I’m from, you could look at Let The Night Fall as a chronicle of a crisis of faith.”
Cross-posted at Jersey Beat. Tris McCall’s last record took us on a guided tour of hipster Williamsburg, using both metaphor and keen powers of observation to convey a keenly felt sense of time and place. On Let The Night Fall, McCall’s back in his beloved New Jersey, whether celebrating the Garden State’s unique cultural institutions [...]
- Ward B councilman Phil Kenny officially tendered his resignation yesterday, one day after pleading guilty in federal court to accepting bribes. Meanwhile, Kenny’s campaign treasurer says the dirty money in question has been donated to charity. – A probe into a drug ring operating out of a Varick Street restaurant has led to 17 [...]
 |
 |
 |
|
||
 |
|
 |
|
||
