Thursday, Dec 31, 2009 11:02pm
Thursday, Dec 31, 2009 2:10pm | COMMENTS (2)
I met Alison Bolshoi at the Garden Club of Montclair. She’s warm, friendly and a great flower designer too. But until she had to cut back her garden club activities because of her heavy tour schedule, I had no idea she was an extraordinary opera singer!
I love opera. Maybe I first got interested because my Dad, a Viennese native, used to play Der Rosenkavalier and various Brecht Weill music on our old stereo console when I was growing up. At any rate, I just want to make sure our Baristaville First Nighter’s are aware that among all of the first rate and delightful performances we can enjoy this evening, there is opera. Luscious, dreamy, soaring, haunting opera: Two sets, from 7:45-8:30, and 8:50-9:35 at St. Luke’s Church, 73 South Fullerton Avenue.
I will be accompanied by the wonderfully talented Michael Fennelly and the program will range from Dvorak, to Puccini, to Verdi, to Strauss, to Wagner, with a lot of little fun things thrown in for good measure
Thursday, Dec 31, 2009 1:00pm | COMMENTS (3)
The following streets will be closed December 31, 2009 for First Night festivities:
Church Street (entire length) 6:00 p.m. -1:00 a.m.
South Park Street (from Bloomfield Avenue to the exit of the Crescent Deck) 5 pm – 1 am.
Valley Road (from Bloomfield Avenue to Church Street) 5 pm – 1 am.
Trinity Place (from Church Street to the Crescent) 5:00 p.m. – 1:00 a.m.
Orange Road (at Bloomfield Avenue to Church Street) 11:00 p.m. – 1:00 a.m.
St. Lukes Place (11:00 p.m. – 1:00 a.m.)
Click here for a complete map of First Night activities. And here’s info on the First Night Shuttle:
Thursday, Dec 31, 2009 12:00pm | COMMENTS (10)
What to do with leftover UPS boxes? Sue Kasdon of Glen Ridge, owner of the Immortal Cat, made a McMansion for her cat Pablo.
Thursday, Dec 31, 2009 9:30am | COMMENTS (28)
Thursday, Dec 31, 2009 9:05am | COMMENTS (6)
Will this change your plans for ringing in 2010?
THE WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IS NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM EST THIS EVENING.
THE LEADING EDGE OF PRECIPITATION HAS REACHED CENTRAL NEW JERSEY AND EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA AND IS MOVING RAPIDLY TO THE NORTHEAST. SNOW WILL DEVELOP IN NORTHERN NEW JERSEY AND NEW YORK CITY EARLY THIS MORNING… SPREADING EAST THROUGH SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT… THE LOWER HUDSON VALLEY AND LONG ISLAND BY LATE MORNING. THE STEADY SNOW WILL CONTINUE THROUGHOUT THE DAY MIXING WITH RAIN OVER EASTERN LONG ISLAND AND THE NEW YORK METRO AREA THIS AFTERNOON. BY THE TIME THE STEADY SNOW ENDS THIS EVENING… 1 TO 3 INCHES OF SNOW IS EXPECTED ACROSS MOST OF THE AREA… WITH 2 TO 4 INCHES OF SNOW EXPECTED OVER THE LOWER HUDSON VALLEY AND INTERIOR CONNECTICUT.
Clever Commuters report a tortuous bus ride in today, and say the helix has been closed.
Dionne Ford Kurtti, a writer and mom, has been tracing her family’s ancestry since she was 12-years-old and tells of her journey on her blog, Finding Josephine. It all started, she explains, when, “I asked a simple question: ‘Grandpa, are you white?’ My grandfather’s answer sent me on a lifelong journey to piece together our family story and reveal a not uncommon but often untold part of American history.”
She is celebrating Kwanzaa with her two daughters and husband. Their decision to do so for the past two years, was to remember their ancestors and reclaim the African culture that was lost during the Middle Passage. In the process, they are learning much more about their past…..
Wednesday, Dec 30, 2009 3:00pm | COMMENTS (4)
Residents of NJ are divided on whether the past decade has been good to them, with 30% saying life has improved, 34% saying it has worsened, and 31% believing nothing’s changed since 2000, according to a poll by the Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey, released on Tuesday, Dec. 29.
But they’re an optimistic bunch, with about half expecting a better ten years ahead.
Among under-30s, two in five felt life had improved, while 25% thought it had gone south; among 30 to 50 year olds, 35% felt life had improved, 31% said it got worse. From that age upwards, NJians were less optimistic, with 44% of 50-69 year olds saying life had worsened, and just 24% who felt life got better. Of those 70 years and older, the majority, about 45% felt the quality of life remains the same, while 38% feel it has sunk.
The survey found that black and Hispanic New Jerseyans are more positive than white state residents about the past decade’s influence on their lives. About 4 in 10 black and Hispanic adults felt life had improved over the past ten years. Just 1 in 4 white residents felt this was so.
Among Hispanics, 35% found life has gotten worse, while 40% found it improved. Among white residents, 38% felt life had worsened, and 32% found it unchanged.
Wednesday, Dec 30, 2009 2:30pm | COMMENTS (17)
Montclair is home to some astonishing photographic talent–Ed Kashi, Jay Seldin, and Claire Rosen, to name three. And now, Claire Rosen, a young and truly creative and accomplished artist, has had one of her images selected as a finalist in the W photo Contest. The topic is ‘obsession’. The image that Rosen submitted is of a woman reclining on a couch, exhausted from her endless reading–she is covered with, and surrounded by, books of every size and description. It’s a lovely, evocative photo on its own, but it is especially appropriate for a photographer in a town like Montclair, where writers abound.
I was able to go online and cast my vote for this wonderful photograph. If you would like to vote too, here’s a link. And good luck to you Claire! How wonderful to be recognized by an iconic fashion journal like W!