All posts by bfiggefox

Michelle Mathesius: Making Waves, Again

Dance and the other arts, ,

When I saw the New York Times article headline about a protest led by a “dance teacher at LaGuardia Performing Arts High School” I knew Michelle Mathesius was leading the charge. And deftly going to the media to buttress her case.  LaGuardia’s mission is to encourage talented students in the performing arts, but — lately — the very talented ones have been rejected for admission in favor of those with so-so talent and higher academic standards.

This is not the way to create Broadway stars.

If you don’t know Michelle as a dancer, you have heard of her ex husband, Bill, a former judge and Republican prosecutor known for being outspoken.

I wrote about her for the Trenton Times during the glory days of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, when it had money, when she was dancing and choreographing and teaching and organizing and doing all with a flair. She led the movement to celebrate New Jersey’s early dance star, Ruth St. Denis, and she helped create the vo-tech schools of performing arts. La Guardia Performing Arts High School snatched her away and though I went to one of its impressive recitals, we lost touch.

Surely the legions of LaGuardia graduates will come out of the woodwork, out of the rehearsal studios, off the Broadway stages — to join Mathesius in her protest. Dance on, Michelle!

 

 

Janet Gardner: Uncovering History

Around Town, Dance and the other arts, Faith and Social Justice, ,

If you want to know where to find the best south Asian food around here, ask Rocky Hill resident Janet Gardner. She’s spent years in Vietnam and Cambodia making award winning documentaries. Her film “Lost Child — Sayon’s Journey” will be screened on WHYY tonight at 11 p.m. To celebrate the Cambodian New Year, it will be screened at the Buddhist Temple in Philadelphia on Saturday, Aprl 26, at 4 p.m.  Admission free.

Nicole Mulvaney wrote about it today for the Times of Trenton.

Established in 1990, Gardner’s company focuses on films about hidden history. Her films include Dancing Through Death, about a Cambodian classical dancer under the Pol Pot regime,  Mechanic to Millionaire, about the Cooper Union founder Peter Cooper, Precious Cargo, about the babylift from South Vietnam, Siberian Dream, about a Buddhist woman and former fashion model who grew up in the Buryat/Mongolian culture — and several more.

I met Janet when she alerted me to a great place to get Pho.  I have our TV programmed for this important show.

Ed Felten in the news

Open SSL is like a public infrastructure without a tax base, said Ed Felten in an interview on NPR re Internet security and Heartbleed. Felten was the Princeton Regional Chamber’s luncheon speaker in March.

Small Treasures

Around Town, Dance and the other arts, , ,

barbara at MACQG

You may know of my passion for collectible buttons, and that I give talks about them for the New Jersey State Button Society about the beauty and history of buttons and how to start a collection of your own.

enamel fop

If you have your mother’s button jar, or if you are a quilter, or a sewer, and have more than a passing interest in the “world’s smallest antique,” you have three opportunities in the next month to learn more and perhaps pick up a few treasures.

 Saturday, April 26, at 1 p.m. at Kuser Farm Mansion, 390 Newkirk Avenue, Hamilton NJ 08610.  Carol Meszaros and I present a free talk and workshop, “World’s Smallest Antique: Each Button Has a Story.” This talk will feature buttons that could have been worn by Teresa Kuser.  RSVP to Kim Daly (Kdaly14@aol.com) or to me.

Thursday, May 8, 7 to 9 p.m. at Lawrence Library, we present “Small Treasures.’ Refreshments will be served, registration encouraged at 609-989-6920 or email lawprogs@mcl.org. The NJSBS has a display in the library through May.

button workshopThis photo taken at Hickory Corner Library shows how, after the talk, you get to choose and mount buttons, and take home a card of “small treasures.”

Saturday, May 10, 9 to 4 p.m., in Titusville, is the New Jersey State Button Society Spring Show. Here is where you get to ogle all kinds of buttons. Dealers set up tables and you can look for buttons for your sweater, or buttons about cats, or buttons to make into pins or use for crafts.

Do let me know if you expect to come to any of these button opportunities  or want to be on the list (or off the list!) for the future.

 

Checking his Privilege

Checking his Privilege

A white student at Princeton University rejects the idea that “I ought to feel personally apologetic because white males seem to pull most of the strings in the world.”

Stress Shortens Life: Study of Black Children

Stress Shortens Life: Study of Black Children

Researchers at Princeton University proved what we already knew, but had not documented: stress shortens your life. They studied 9-year-old black boys in both disadvantaged and advantaged environments.

Bridgegate Journalist: At the Chamber

Around Town, ,

EScottStudio

So far, Eric Scott has been the only journalist to get a personal interview with Governor Chris Christie on the Bridgegate scandal. He is the news director for NJ 101.5, and speaks at the Princeton Regional Chamber on Thursday, April 3, at 11:30 a.m. For details on Scott and what he will say, here is the U.S. 1 story.

Charles Ewen of
EastCarolinaUniversity
 Will offer a lecture entitled:
 X Marks the Spot: The Archaeology of Piracy
 Monday March 31, 2014
106 McCormick Hall, 5 pm.  (Princeton Art Museum)
Doris Z. Stone New World Archaeology Lecturer for the AIA
Reception to follow
Pirates have long captured the popular imagination.  However, it has been only recently that scholars (mainly historians) have tried to separate fact from fiction and taken a pragmatic view of piracy.  Archaeology has been remarkably silent on this topic.  However, the discovery of the wreck of Blackbeard’s ship the Queen Anne’s Revenge, has raised the question with archaeologists as to “what is a pirate and how would you recognize a pirate site”?  The answers are not as apparent as one would expect, especially from an archaeological perspective.

Jonathan Shenk: Pastor to Painter

Jonathan Shenk: Greenleaf Painters

Congratulations to Jonathan Shenk, whom I often see at Princeton chamber lunches and breakfasts.  Recently named a Princeton Regional Chamber Champion for Business, he had an excellent feature article in the Sunday Times of Trenton about his ecologically sound company, Greenleaf Painters. 

It is his second career. He had been pastor of Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church and wanted to take a new direction. A temporary painting job turned into an entrepreneurial opportunity. Here is a link to the story about that in West Windsor-Plainsboro News.

City Gardens: Jon Stewart bartended there

Around Town, Dance and the other arts, , , ,

AmyWuelfing - Copy

Bet you didn’t know where Jon Stewart got his start. Amy Wuelfing, co-author of a new book on City Gardens, reveals that he started his stand-up career by bartending at that music club. Wuelfing, an ebullient redhead who is a VP at Caliper Corporation, brings her book No Slam Dancing, No Stage Diving, No Spikes, to  the Daily Show tonight (if you are podcasting, that’s March, April 25).

How did I know? My friend, Kate Newell, interviewed Wuelfing for U.S. 1 Newspaper for a fun article entitled No Slam Dancing and Definitely No Selfies.  Newell explains that City Gardens “was originally a late 1970s jazz club that opened in a old car dealer building on Calhoun Street and used the quasi-exotic moniker King Tut’s City Garden.” 

Maybe you were a regular on Thursdays at legendary 90 cent dance nights.  If so, you met Stewart, quoted in the book:  “I went there by myself — that’s what a loser I was. It was one of the few places you could dance by yourself. You could wear a brooch and no one would say anything. It was the ‘80s. We all dressed like Molly Ringwald and didn’t know why. Even the guys.”

Big name acts got their start here. Big name acts who could come only on Thursdays were turned down here — because they would interfere with 90 cent dance night!

Newell asks — “How did this all happen in a bunker-like building, in an economically obliterated city with nothing but flyers and word-of-mouth promotion?” And answers.

It’s an amazing and entertaining story. Here ‘s a link to the book, and here’s one to the article on princetoninfo.com.

PS: Moms whose daughters are stage-struck or music-struck, there’s a lesson for you here. Your daughters can actually earn money AND follow their passion.