Maine Event

It was a little premature to call last Friday evening a night out with my Valentine—we had three full weeks before the big fat day of love. But after watching a performance of Almost, Maine in the Bickford Theatre at the Morris Museum, I was easily swept into the season of cupid. 

Tools: Share

The Tide is (Maybe?) Turning

As I watched—and celebrated—the Giants' victory last night, I felt a tingling in my veins that I haven't had since the Knicks' miracle run to the NBA Finals in 1999. In a North Jersey bar where scores of Giants fans were spraying beer, hugging, screaming, jumping, dancing, and crying, it felt good to be a sports fan in the New York City area again.

Tags: New Jersey | New York Knicks | sports | Devils | New York | Sports | Giants | Boston | Nets

Tools: Share

Across the Great Divide, or, "I Cheated on New Jersey"

Driving home through the Holland Tunnel Saturday night, I felt guilty. We had had the kind of evening that you can only have in New York, and I had thoroughly enjoyed it. What hit me as we emerged from the tunnel into the glare of the gas stations on both sides of the bumpy highway, was  a feeling of disloyalty. 

Tools: Share

A Lesson in Jersey Grammar from the Fab Faux

Flashback to First Night--December 31--in Montclair. Onstage, the Fab Faux, the mind-bogglingly good Beatles cover band.

"Happy New Year!" bassist Will Lee called to the audience. He's from Texas, but he spoke very well. (Years of playing in Paul Shaffer's Letterman band have ironed out his regionalisms.)

Guitarist Jimmy Vivino leaned into his mike and noted that on this side of the Hudson River, the correct greeting is "Happy New YEAZZ!" The audience, packed into the pews of the First Congregational Church on South Fullerton Avenue, shouted back in kind.

Tags: Paterson | Fab Faux | Lee, Will | First Night | Montclair State University

Tools: Share

Go Big Blue

Hours after the New York Giants beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the wild-card round of the NFC Playoffs, I can't help but believe that my dear friend Bernard Spigner is peering down from Heaven with a smile and a wink. Spigner, the former Communications Director for the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, died of pancreatic cancer last year. It was a short and shocking descent from diagnosis to death, leaving his wife, Debbie, and their son too early.

Tags: Bernard Spigner,

Tools: Share