Category Archives: Around Town

Personal posts — some social justice (Not in Our Town), some faith-related (Princeton United Methodist Church), some I-can’t-keep-from-writing-this

In the moment: Jane Buttars

Dance and the other arts, , , , ,

 

jane buttars

I just discovered these You Tube renditions of Jane Buttars improvising at the keyboard. They are just too delightful not to share, and I couldn’t choose among them, so here goes:

Here she is, live and jaunty. She’ll never play this exact way again because it’s improvised, but we can all hear it here.

Here she takes us on a journey to the east.  Perhaps my favorite.

In 2014 she did a duo in a quite different mode.

Last year she and Grammy-winning cellist David Darling issued a CD, Tympanum, and here is one of the meditative pieces, Awakening. I must get that CD out and begin enjoying it again. Her latest CD, pictured here is titled “Keys to the Inside.”

Jane works with the international association Music for People. Her Princeton -based studio offers monthly improv sessions to the general public, titled “Music from the Inside.” For information, janepiano2@comcast.net

Jane — you are helping me bring the new year in the right way, “in the moment.”

 

Got buttons? this could be for you

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

Bennett O'Donnell Castree

The New Jersey State Button Society (NJSBS) will celebrate the start of its 75th anniversary year with a free program, “The Button Sampler,” on Saturday, January 9, at 2 p.m. at the Lawrence headquarters of the Mercer County Library System, 2751 Brunswick Pike. If you are curious about buttons you own and want to attend, call the library at  609-989-6920, email me, or email lawprogs@mcl.org — or just show up. A similar program will be Saturday, March 19.

The program honors the book “The Button Sampler,” co-written by the late Lillian Smith Albert. A Hightstown resident, she founded the NJSBS in 1941, when interest in button collecting began to surge. Through her research and study Albert helped to make button collecting the important hobby which it is today. The members of the state society share an interest in studying, collecting, and preserving clothing buttons, both old and new.

To share their enthusiasm and knowledge, my fellow NJSBS members will tell about favorite buttons and offer help to new collectors. Bring up to a dozen clothing buttons and learn about buttons made from a selection of the dozens of different materials, including black and colored glass, china, plastic, metal, shell, and wood.

There will be another button meeting during National Button Week, on Saturday, March 19, at 2 p.m., so mark your calendars. And the NJSBS will celebrate its Diamond Anniversary at its Show and Competition on Saturday, May 7,  9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Union Fire Company, 1396 River Road (Route 29), Titusville, NJ.

 

Call Christie: Tuesday deadline to save lives

Around Town, Healthcare, , ,

epipen

One of my grandsons has potentially fatal allergies. If  he accidentally eats one of the forbidden foods (soy, garlic, tree nuts, fish, many others) he must have a shot of epinephrine immediately — or …. .

If Governor Christie doesn’t sign the Epinephrine Access and Emergency Treatment Act, passed by the New Jersey legislature late last year, the bill will be considered vetoed. Noon on Tuesday, January 12 is the deadline. Please call Gov. Christie’s office at 609-292-6000 to urge him to sign this important legislation. It only takes a minute.

This act (bill numbers A 4094 and S 2884) would permit entities, such as youth camps, restaurants, daycare centers, sports leagues and scout troops, to stock undesignated epinephrine auto-injectors for use by trained individuals in the event of anaphylaxis.

New Jersey has already recognized the importance of making epinephrine and trained users available in K-12 schools and in colleges and universities. Other public settings where someone may come into contact with their allergens and experience anaphylaxis, maybe for the first time, should also be permitted to stock this life-saving medication for use by trained individuals. Autoinjectable epinephrine is a safe and easy to use medication that is the first line treatment for anaphylaxis.

You can read the text of this legislation here.

My grandson, age 11, is careful about what he eats and never goes anywhere (ANYwhere) without his epi-pen. But I worry about other children with less information or undiagnosed allergies. Why jeopardize lives that could be saved?

The information in this post came from FARE: Food Allergy Research and Education. 

 

Sly grin: Reporters as deliverers?

Business, Memoir, , , , , , ,
lisbon delivery boy
In Lisbon, Portugal, a delivery boy is featured on the monument for  newspaper magnate Eduardo Coelho

I couldn’t help but smile when I saw that Boston Globe reporters, frustrated by delivery problems, volunteered to get out and actually deliver Sunday’s paper themselves. Article here, courtesy of my Twitter feed. In 1986, for my first week at U.S. 1, everyone on the staff (plus the freelancers) loaded up with papers and headed out from Mapleton Road to their delivery routes.

As Rich Rein used to say . . . “When you deliver, you get to know your readers.” Our deliverers are also paid to be reporters — to note when companies come and go. Even when we moved “up” to Roszel Road, cheerful willingness to pitch in on delivery was a condition of employment.

I couldn’t help but be sad when I realized that the Globe fired 600 people who worked for its former delivery service. Yes they hired 600 more  but the previous workers were surely living on the margins, some struggling to learn a new language in a new country. You don’t work midnight to eight, putting miles and miles on your car or your feet, unless you really need the money.

Then I remembered how gratifying it was for those of us who wrote the paper to actually deliver a paper that is warmly welcomed by its readers.  In virtually all the buildings, I would be greeted by — “Oh good, U.S. 1 is here, thank you!”

Globe reporters got thanked too.

boston globe photo
from this Tweet https://twitter.com/HappitoBurrito/status/683497867626049536/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

 

 

 

Steve Kruse: cycling planner

Around Town, , , , , , , ,
kruseSteve Kruse, center, outgoing PBAC Chair, on a fact-finding bike ride with Mayor Liz Lempert and members of the Princeton Traffic and Transportation Committee.
The Princeton Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee (PBAC) notes that Steve Kruse is leaving the post of chair after nearly eight years. His replacement has not been named. Here are excerpts from that organization’s blog. For the rest of it, here 
Kruse is our neighbor, and I liked the description:  “Steve is a true bike person. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of cycling, and his brain seems to specifically retain the most quirky details of two-wheeled activities. He has spent years thinking about and planning bike routes and facilities around Princeton. . .”
Among the accomplishments under Kruse’s tenure:
launch of the Princeton Cyclovia
and the infrastructure for a  cloud drive of bike planning-related materials.
The job’s not done yet, not by half, but as the author notes, “When Princeton becomes a town that pro-actively helps people on bikes, it will be because of the efforts of trailblazers like Steve.”

Dorothy Mullen: Nutrition Non-Profit Pioneer

Around Town, Healthcare, , , , ,

Changing your diet can turn your life around, says Dorothy Mullen, founder of the Suppers Program. She will speak at a January 10 breakfast at Princeton United Methodist Church on Sunday, January 10. “How You Feel is Data! An experiential workshop on brain health and food.” Enjoy a hot and tasty breakfast at 8 a.m., and the program starts at 8:30. A $5 donation is requested.

Mullen explains her vision here.  She founded the Suppers network of nearly free-to-users programs — where people cook, eat, and develop a palate for the kind of food that can often turn around chronic health problems. Suppers hosts 30 to 40 events per month and serves people with diabetes, autoimmune diseases and addictions as well as those who simply want to learn to prepare delicious fresh food from scratch. The program has no bias of its own about which whole food eating style is healthiest, and members are taught to do their own experiments to discern which way of eating benefits them the most.

Mullen has a master’s degree in addictions counseling from the College of New Jersey and uses addiction models to help people turn around entrenched eating behaviors that have placed them at risk for chronic disease. She is also a garden educator, having created garden based-education programs for the Princeton Public Schools for 13 years.

The Suppers program began at Mullen’s house and is spreading, she hopes, nationwide. “Live according to your intentions, not according to your impulses,” she says. She aims for Suppers to be, for those with food problems, like Alcoholics Anonymous is for drinkers.

 

 

Nassau: follow Denison’s tracks

Around Town, Faith and Social Justice, , , ,

In a New York Times column on why diversity isn’t working in colleges, Frank Bruni points out that even when “diverse” candidates (read black, Latino, economically challenged students) they tend to self segregate. Colleges aren’t doing much about helping students feel comfortable with people different from themselves. Here’s an idea from Denison University:

At Denison University, near Columbus, Ohio, there are special funds available to campus groups that stage events with other, dissimilar groups. Adam Weinberg, the college’s president, told me that he’d attended a Seder at which Jewish students played host to international students from China.

And he said that the school was examining everything from the layout of campus walkways to the architecture of common areas to try to ensure that students’ paths crossed more frequently than they diverged.

“We have a group of students and faculty meeting to think about our quad and how can we make some small changes that would bring back a public square where students might congregate,” he told me.

This could work ‘at home,’ at Princeton University, in more than one way.

An aside: William Bowen, former P.U. president, went to Denison.

Eric Newton: Cancer Survivor

Healthcare, , , ,

 

 

Here is a link to my story in this week’s U.S. 1 Newspaper, on stands until Wednesday, December 16.  It’s about Eric Newton, pictured above with his daughter Jasmine. He had the same kind of cancer that my husband had — George’s was diagnosed early and he is fine now. And the same kind of cancer that my cousin had, but hers was not diagnosed early enough. Eric’s prognosis was grim until he entered a Phase II clinical trial of an immuno therapy drug similar to the one that has given Jimmy Carter a new lease on life. It’s an exciting development.

#TheGenerationofNow

Faith and Social Justice, , , , , ,

 

goldie taylor

Goldie Taylor (above, veteran journalist now editor at The Daily Beast) joins Zelli Imani and Brittany Packnett in a #BlackLivesMatter panel at #TheGenerationofNow program at the Carl Lewis Center on Sunday, December 13, 1:30 to 6 p.m., arranged by redefy. Primarily for teens but open to adults, organizers expect more than 200 people, but you may be able to register here.

If you can come only for part of the afternoon, the panels are from 1:30 to 4:55 p.m. and they are in this order: The first panel, with Donya Nasser and others,  is on interfaith activism — how to advance racial justice between different faith-based communities. Second is #BlackLivesMatter. Third is Haroon Mogul, an expert on Islam, foreign policy, and the Muslim World, on combatting Islamophobia. The fourth panel, with Lina Wu, Caroline Lee and others,  is on marginalization of the Asian experience in mainstream culture.

Mel Leipzig and Leon Rainbow: for Trenton Kids

Dance and the other arts, Faith and Social Justice, Uncategorized, ,

 

One of my favorite people, celebrated realist painter Mel Leipzig, will give a gallery talk at Princeton Shopping Center where two of his paintings on display including the one above (Gregory at Gallery Henoch, photo by Tasha O’Neill). The talk will be Monday, December 14, 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Princeton Shopping Center on North Harrison Street. He will be joined by Leon Rainbow, a graffiti artist who — I believe — has one foot in the corporate world as a web designer, his work below.

These paintings  are part of an exhibit “Art for Read to Achieve,” hosted by the Center for Child and Family Achievement, which has come up with an efficient way to really improve education for children in Trenton. It’s worthy of support.

Faith Ringgold one of the other featured artists and other names you’ll recognize are Alonzo Adams, Romare Bearden, Judith Brodsky, Elizabeth Catlett, Aminah Robinson, Lucy Graves McVicker, Sydney T. Neuwirth and Thomas Malloy. There is a range of prices.

It’s an exciting exhibit, to see all these artists together. The exhibit and sale. cosponsored by the Arts Council of Princeton, runs till December 22, open daily except Mondays (and events like this one).Mel will be a superb lecturer/teacher on December 14.

 

“See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil” by Leon Rainbow

Credit: Tasha O’Neill

2015 12 Rainbow

Tuesday – Thursday 11 am – 7 pm

Friday 1pm -8 pm

Sat – Sun 1pm – 5 pm

 

 

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