The world premiere of Reparation by Gino Dilorio at Luna Stage happens next weekend on February 9, but you can get a sneak peak of the play about an “investment banker who has made a career by playing the race card finding himself out of options and out of friends” tonight, February 2, at the West Orange Public Library. Tony nominated actor Frankie Faison will perform a scene from Reparation followed by a discussion, led by Luna’s artistic director Jane Mandel,  with the playwright Gino Dilorio. It’s all part of WOPL’s Black History Month of sceduled events.

Scene from “Reparation” and Discussion
Thursday, February 2 at 7 pm
West Orange Public Library, 46 mount Pleasant Avenue, West Orange, NJ
Free. Advance registration is required. Sign up online or by calling 973.736.0198

Have a laugh at Comedy Night at The Mount. This annual fundraiser for Montclair’s Mt. Hebron Middle School will feature comedians Eric McMahon and Melvin George II. The adults-only fundraiser is sponsored by the Mount Hebron PTA. Enjoy refreshments and lots of laughs all for great cause.

Comedy Night at The Mount
Friday, February 3. Light refreshments at 7 pm, show at 8 pm
Mt. Hebron Middle School, 173 Bellevue Avenue, Montclair, NJ, 07043
$45 per person. For Reservations and more information email here.

Compás is playing a free concert at Tapastry restaurant in Montclair. Compás are Montclair locals Adrienne Riofrio, born in the US to Ecuadorian parents, and Erik Feder, who was born in Montclair, raised in NJ and joined the group through Parents Who Rock. Also in the band are Dario Scholis on guitar, his son Gabe Scholis on percussion (amazingly still in High School!), and Juan Pablo Cano on bass. The show begins at 7:30 pm and continues for 2 1/2 – 3 hours. You’ll hear Latin music from many different parts of South America, while you enjoy your Spanish cuisine. Compás will also be selling its new CD Calle Alta.

Compás
Saturday, February 4 at 7:30 pm
Tapastry, 12 Church Street, Montclair, NJ, 07042
Free

On Saturday, be sure to check out Theo Wangemann: The Man Who Made the Phonograph Musical, which we told you about here. Historian Patrick Feaster will present a one-hour program about the life and career of Theo Wangemann (1855-1906), who was arguably the world’s first professional recording engineer, at Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange.

Theo Wangemann: The Man Who Made the Phonograph Musical
Saturday, February 4 from 12 pm – 1 pm
Thomas Edison National Historical Park, 211 Main Street, West Orange, NJ
Entrance fee is $7, children under 16 free. Reservations are required. Seating is limited. Call 973-736-0550, ext. 89 to make a reservation.

Sunday is all about the Super Bowl even if you’re like me and couldn’t care less about football. If you’re not attending, or throwing a party, at someone’s home, you can join the fun at some local bars in Baristaville:

• Park Sports Bar & Grill in Montclair is throwing a Super Bowl party beginning at 4 pm complete with drink specials, giveaways and raffles.
• St. James’s Gate Publick House in Maplewood is offering drink and food specials.
• Egans & Sons in Montclair will be playing the big game and offering drink specials.

To see what else is going on in Baristaville, make sure to check our calendar.

With property tax credits and rebates included, the average New Jersey homeowner paid $7,519 in net property taxes last year — compared with $6,244 in 2009 — according to statistics released by the state Department of Community Affairs on Friday.

That $1,275 increase represents a 20.4 percent hike in net property taxes — which is the amount of money that the average New Jersey household actually pays in property taxes after property tax rebates or property tax credits are subtracted.

While Christie has been touting his success in holding overall property tax increases to 2.4 percent, the bigger issue is the cut in direct property tax relief. Average property tax rebates topped $1,000 in each of Corzine’s final three years in office, offsetting more than 14 percent of the average property tax bill. In comparison, Christie’s direct property tax credit covered just 3 percent of last year’s tax bill.

Under Christie, the average New Jersey household is spending well over 11 percent of its income on property taxes — compared with between 8 percent and 9.25 percent under the five previous governors and a national average of less than 3 percent.

Here are local average property taxes according to Townstats.org.
Millburn $19,989
Glen Ridge $17,218
Montclair $16,392
South Orange $15,682
Maplewood $13,118
West Orange $11,822
Bloomfield $9,356

Read the rest of the story here. Photo by Andrew Magill via Flickr.

A STRONG COLD FRONT WILL MOVE ACROSS THE REGION EARLY THIS EVENING… AND BEHIND IT… A STRONG NORTHWEST FLOW WILL DEVELOP. WINDS WILL RANGE FROM 20 TO 30 MPH WITH 40 TO 45 MPH GUSTS. WINDS SHOULD SUBSIDE TO 10 TO 20 MPH LATE THIS EVENING.

THESE WINDS COULD PRODUCE SOME DOWNED TREE LIMBS AND POWER LINES… CAUSING ISOLATED POWER OUTAGES AND LOCALIZED ROAD CLOSURES.

The cold front is part of a larger weather system that is moving across much of the East coast.

Democrats have rejected the idea. “Marriage equality isn’t like sports betting,” Senator Raymond Lesniak, a Union County Democrat, told the New York Times. “It’s a civil right, which is already guaranteed in our Constitution. It’s up to the Legislature to guarantee these rights.”

Newark Mayor Cory Booker agrees, and gave an impassioned speech yesterday, saying that civil rights issues should not be put “to a popular vote subject to the sentiments, the passions, of the day.” Watch the video below and then take our poll at the bottom.

Open Mic Night at Trend Coffee & Tea House
Thursday, January 26 from 7:30 pm – 10:30 pm
Trend Coffee and Tea House, 411 Bloomfield Avenue, Montclair, NJ 07042
Free

Also tonight in Montclair, MSU history professor and resident Zoë Burkholder will discuss her book Color in The Classroom at Watchung Booksellers. The book examines the way that American schools have created and disseminated specific ideas about race over the course of the twentieth century. Read our full review here.

“Color in The Classroom” with author Zoë Burkholder
Thursday, January 26 at 7 pm
Watchung Booksellers, 54 Fairfield Street, Montclair, NJ, 07042
Free

On Friday night, sit back and enjoy The Sounds of Sarah Vaughn at SOPAC. Broadway vocalist Rosena M. Hill (Come Fly Away, The Color Purple) and her husband, Grammy-winning trombonist Jason Jackson (Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Dizzy Gillespie All Star Big Band), pay tribute to the legendary vocalist nicknamed “The Divine One.” With jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut, saxophonist Don Braden, trumpeter Greg Gisbert, bassist David Wong, and drummer Neal Smith, the South Orange couple will present a unique musical experience of jazz, blues, standards, Latin, show tunes, spirituals, and original arrangements into their performances, telling the story of Sarah Vaughan through the music she recorded.

The Sounds of Sarah Vaughan
Friday, January 27 at 8 pm
SOPAC, 1 SOPAC Way, South Orange, NJ
Tickets: $30, $40 / SOPAC Members: $25, $35. Purchase online or call 973.313.ARTS

John Wesley Harding calls his style of music “folk noir” and “gangsta folk.”  Under his real name, Wesley Stace, he has written three novels. Harding most often plays solo or as a duo, but has also done concerts with various backing bands: The Good Liars, The Family Values, The Radical Gentlemen and a band in NYC called The English UK. His work includes “I’m Wrong About Everything”, which was included on the soundtrack for High Fidelity. He also does a great cover of Madonna’s Like a Prayer. Harding has released 15 albums, including 2009′s Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead which he recorded with The Minus 5. A new album, which he recorded with The Decemberists came out earlier in 2011. @the Art Studio is very excited to have John Wesley Harding perform on Saturday night!

I love his song There’s a Starbucks (Where the Starbucks used To Be)

John Wesley Harding
Saturday, January 28. Doors open at 7:30 pm, show at 8 pm
@The Art Studio, 211 Glenridge Avenue, Montclair, NJ, 07042
$15. Purchase online here

On Sunday, enjoy the music sf Sean Harkness as part of the Music at the Mansion series at Oakeside Bloomfield Cultural Center. Guitarist Sean Harkness recently garnered both the Outstanding Instrumentalist of 2011 Backstage Bistro Award, and a MAC Award [Manhattan Association of Clubs and Cabarets] for his New York solo shows.  Sean has appeared as an artist and sideman extensively in New York’s finest jazz venues including the Blue Note, Smoke, Small’s, the Jazz Standard, Birdland, Iridium, Feinstein’s, Edison Ballroom, Mile’s Café, the Metropolitan Room, St. Nick’s, and Top Of The Rock at Rockefeller Center.  He has six commercial recordings released to date. Also performing will be Wendy Lane, whose performances in venues across the country have earned critics’ praises for her versatility and sophistication, and the cabaret and songwriting team of David Alpher (pianist/composer), an NYU graduate and Jennie Litt (singer/lyricist). They have delighted audiences with cabaret shows that offer in-depth explorations of the Great American Songbook.

Music at the Mansion
Sunday, January 29 at 3 pm
Oakeside Bloomfield Cultural Center, 240 Belleville Avenue, Bloomfield, NJ
Tickets are $10 per person and are available at the door or by calling 973.429.0960 to make reservations.

Another option on Sunday is a book signing at Words in Maplewood. Frank Brady will discuss and sign copies of his book Endgame, which charts the story of Bobby Fischer’s remarkable rise and fall — from America’s brightest prodigy to the edge of madness. The NYTimes called Endgame, ““…a rapt, intimate book, greatly helped by its author’s long acquaintance with Fischer, who died in 2008, and his deep grounding in the world of chess.”

“Endgame” with author Frank Brady
Sunday, January 29 at 2 pm
Words, 179 Maplewood Avenue, Maplewood, NJ
Free

To see what else is going on in Baristaville, make sure to check our calendar.

So it may come as something of a relief to commuters to know that New Jersey Transit is planning to make its seats wider. According to an article in the New York Times today, New Jersey Transit “has a five-year plan to add 100 double-decker train cars that have seats 2.2 inches wider than the 17.55-inch seats found in its single-deck trains.”

It’s one of many transportation agencies that is addressing the need to accommodate Americans’ growing waistlines. In what is apparently an unironic move, Amtrak will also be adding larger seats to 25 new dining cars.

A spokesperson for New Jersey Transit told the Times that NJ Transit decided to make the seats wider at the request of riders. The new seats will accommodate riders ranging from a woman in the 5th percentile to a man in the 95th percentile.

The new trains—the first of which will appear this summer—will replace the single-deck trains which, according to the New Jersey Transit website, will mean more than 20 percent more seating. Let’s hope that means no more standing in the aisles.

Photo by tom.arthur/flickr

“It’s unfortunate,” said Stephanie Gallo, chairman of the West Orange parade. “We would love to welcome all the participants from Hoboken. Anybody who wishes to participate, we’d love to have them.”

Hoboken 411 reported that during last year’s parade in Hoboken, there were 30 arrests, 16 simple assaults, six aggravated assaults, four thefts, two sexual assaults and one robbery.

Gallo says the West Orange St. Patrick’s Day parade has never had those kinds of problems. “Our police department is phenomenal,” she said. “We have a great working relationship with the town.”

Any groups that would like to march should contact parade organizers through their website.

Here is the notice that appeared on the Hoboken parade’s website today:

Dear Hoboken Community,

The Hoboken St. Patrick’s Parade Committee met earlier this week to discuss what would have been our 26th annual parade. After a long, arduous and sad meeting, the committee has decided to cancel the 2012 Hoboken St. Patrick’s Parade. The City of Hoboken’s inability to protect our spectators, bands and participants led us to this heartbreaking decision.

The parade committee is proud of its traditions and the countless Hobokenites who were honored to march down Washington Street over the years. Since 1986, the first Saturday in March has been a glorious day to honor Saint Patrick and our Irish heritage. We are forever indebted to our long-time sponsors, neighbors and friends who came out to enjoy the day each year.

For those who were not here in the beginning, or think that 26 years is not long enough of a tradition, we remind all that the parade was a strong catalyst in the revitalization of the Hoboken we love so dearly today. There are many opinions on this topic and many who will be surprised by our decision. We chose not to go to court and not to continue to negotiate over the heavy-handedness of one person. The idea of marching in a parade, in the dark, on a week night, is as insulting as it is unreasonable. While we remain devoted to our heritage, we love our city too much to lower ourselves to the level of those who speak from a place of ignorance and ethnic/religious intolerance.

Moving forward, we will proudly consider the gracious invitations we have received from other communities throughout the State of New Jersey to march in their celebrations of Irish heritage. Evidently, there are some elected officials elsewhere in the state who have figured out how to protect their residents during ethnic, religious and other community celebrations.

Like our ancestors before us, some of whom are credited with building Hoboken, we are not “St. Patrick’s Day Irish.” We are committed, proud, and blessed with long memories.

As is our tradition, we cordially invite everyone to worship with us at our Irish Mass honoring Saint Patrick on Saturday, February 25th at 5:00 p.m. at Our Lady of Grace Roman Catholic Church.

Until we meet again, “May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always
your back …”

Sincerely yours,

Hoboken St. Patrick’s Parade Committee

Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre, a professional Theatre in Residence at the Baird Center in South Orange, will present the New Jersey premiere of Shooting Star by Steven Dietz. Never before seen in this area, Shooting Star tells the story of college lovers Elena Carson and Reed McAllister who have been snowed in overnight at a middle-America airport an have an unexpected and life-altering reunion.  Elena has stayed true to her hippie-ish, counter-culture path, while Reed has gone corporate and conservative.  As the night gives way to laughter, banter and remembrance, Elena and Reed revisit a past that holds more surprises than they imagined – and a present neither of them could have predicted.  During its run at Trinity Repertory Company in 2009, NPR Radio said, “Shooting Staris a work both funny and sad; a quick and sharp play about our lives, one that gives us all the fun and all the tears of our times.” Dreamcatcher’s production of SHOOTING STAR features Resident Acting Company members Harry Patrick Christian (Montclair) and Laura Ekstrand (Livingston), and is directed by David Christopher (Cranford). Scott McGowan (Maplewood) is Stage Manager, and Paula Clarkson (Metuchen) is Assistant Stage Manager.  The design team includes Jorge Arroyo (Montclair – Lighting), Wesley Krantz (Buffalo, NY – Sets), and Mike Magnifico (Lyndhurst – Sound).

Shooting Star
Friday, January 13 through Sunday, January 29. Performances are Friday and Saturday nights at 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm
The Baird, 5 Mead Street in Meadowland Park, South Orange, NJ.
Tickets are $30 and can be purchased online or by calling Brown Paper Tickets at 1-800-838-3006. 

Also on Friday, The Porchistas are hosting a North & South Jersey Rockfest at Tierney’s Tavern in Montclair. The bands’ friends from the other side of the parkway bridge join them for an exciting night of Rock, folk, indie, alt-country and alternative music. Thomas Wesley Stern will play form their new EP Hope Folk, The Amboys will play their “brassy, rousing collection of scrappy, country-fired rock ‘n’ roll” and the Accidental Seabirds will open for The Porchistas.

North & South Jersey Rockfest
Friday, January 13 at 8 pm
Tierney’s Tavern, 136-138 Valley Road, Montclair, NJ, 07042
$7

August: Osage County, a drama by Tracy Letts, comes to Studio Playhouse in Montclair this weekend as well. “Meet the Westons. Dad has disappeared. Mom’s popping pills. One daughter’s bound for divorce. A romance is brewing. A lie has been uncovered. And a hell of a family reunion is about to begin. And that’s just the start.” Wow, sounds like my family. Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize, Tony and Drama Desk Award winning play has already been hailed as an American classic. As you might expect with a family like this, the show contains strong language and mature themes.

August: Osage County
Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 3pm on January 13 – 28.
Studio Playhouse, 14 Alvin Place, Montclair, NJ 07043
Tickets are $18 for adults, $15 for students and seniors age 65 and up. Tickets are 2 for 1 on opening night, Friday, January 13.
To reserve tickets in advance, call the box office at 973-744-9752.

On Saturday night enjoy an eclectic blend of contemporary dance works by four  New Jersey based dance companies in Modern Renaissance “X” at the Maurice Levin Theatre of JCC MetroWest in West Orange. The works of  three African American choreographers: Zakiya Atkinson, Erin Pride, and Dawud Jackson will be performed with participating companies Zaman Dance Theater, The Well Performance Project, Nikki Marx Dance Project, EDP Dance Project.

Modern Renaissance “X”
Saturday, January 14 at 7:30 pm
Maurice Levin Theatre, JCC MetroWest, 760 Northfield Avenue, West Orange, NJ
$15. Purchase tickets online here.

On Sunday check out the 7th Annual West Orange Classic Film Festival. Hosted by The West Orange Arts Council, the festival aims to honor its film heritage in the town where Thomas Edison invented movies 120 years ago. This weekend see Doctor Zhivago, Winner of five Academy Awards, including for screenwriting and cinematography.

7th Annual West Orange Classic Film Festival
Sunday, January 13 at 2 pm
AMC Theatre, Essex Green Shopping Center on Prospect Avenue, West Orange, NJ
Tickets are $10 ($7.50 for members of the W.O. Arts Council)

This weekend is a three day weekend for most in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Day on Monday, January 16. Check out the Barista Kids list of events, celebrations and services throughout Baristaville to honor MLK.

To see what else is going on in Baristaville, make sure to check our calendar.