Terry's Serendipity Cafe

Last Serendipity Café of the year, at th
2014-12-26 00:00 (America/New_York)
Last Serendipity Café of the year, at the Lutherans. A surprisingly large attendance (115) and staff-aided-by-alumni made this a fun Serendipity. “Big Time Woman” (open mic) with Beryl on drums and Matt Arons(sp) on lead guitar. We did extra verses. Finished on time (ish) with plenty of staff for the last mile. Thanks!

Another record attendance, great bands,
2015-01-31 00:00
Another record attendance, great bands, fun open mic, and a whole bazaar of artists, photographers, Zine producers joined the usual band merch sellers. This caused some discussion at the critique meeting about the extra conversations generated by the artists as a second focus of attention, away from the musicians. However we did manage to put on the whole show, deal with most of the lost-and-found items, and reinforce the RESPECT culture.

“The Carendipity” fund raiser for SOFIA
2015-02-27 00:00
“The Carendipity” fund raiser for SOFIA in cooperation with the NOW club was a great success, we all took pledges, donated money, wore wristbands and helped out a good cause.

Great attendance, great new music, a hug
2015-03-27 00:00
Great attendance, great new music, a huge Open Mic, and serveral comments on the quality (good) of our sound expertise made this a successful Serendipity Event.

- This was the Big Rapendipity, with all
2015-04-17 00:00
– This was the Big Rapendipity, with all rap music at the Lutheran Church on Park St.. We SOLD OUT before 9 pm. We felt that this was much more of a party audience than we had planned for, but I think we now know a lot more about setting up and running this kind of event. Mike was great (with several staff helpers) in getting the audience duly stamped and entered. The kids we turned away seemed to understand that the event was sold out and responded to requests not to hang out in the parking lot.

– With six bands plus open mic, this eve
2015-05-30 00:00
– With six bands plus open mic, this event was quite lengthy. However the crew at the end was sufficiently numerous that we made light work of it, even with Michael’s bad back. We were sad but proud to host the final performance of “No Noise”, but we hope there may be others. Attendance was good but not staggering, so, we did not stagger and we did not fight. Like the Midnight Special.

A persistent drizzle attempted to stop u
2015-06-20 00:00
A persistent drizzle attempted to stop us from doing the Festival but we were even more persistent. Great work by all the staff, bands, founders, audience members. Too wet for sidewalk chalk and bubble blowing, but we sang RESPECT, gave out our staff award [Congratulations, Alana!], and got our blackboard erased. And the following day was Make Music Day in which the staff were ever present and hard working. They all deserve many thanks. Especially Greg, with lost phones, bent tents, bicycles and minivans.

Fine warm weather contributed to the exc
2015-07-24 00:00
Fine warm weather contributed to the excellent turnout for Serendipity Café at the Amphitheater last Friday. We’re guessing there were over 50 in the audience, and a good size staff turnout as well. Music was great, included Tula Vera and Your Mystery Guest. We also put Open Mic at the end, which we will discuss at length at the next meeting. And thanks to the helpers who moved gear to 325 Grove St. for the first time, and wanted to move in.

Another lovely evening at the amphitheat
2015-08-21 00:00
Another lovely evening at the amphitheater. We raised about $80 for the victims of the fire on Claremont Ave, and the Montclair Student Café project will match that. So a check will be written as soon as Greg gets us contact information. The music was fine, quite hip-hoppish, and we liked how easy the loading and unloading at Ed’s new house turned out to be.

We did not use the Park House due to ove
2015-09-25 00:00
We did not use the Park House due to overcrowding of furniture, and other considerations, so we were back at the Amphitheater. Partially makes up for no Amphitheater last year. It was a good Serendipity Café, and well attended for an Amphi show. Got an email from PRCA, though, that the school had called that someone got into a classroom during our event. Apparently a door was left unlocked, anyhow no damage was done, so I don’t think we’re in trouble. But we should discuss this.

Scarendipity at the Lutherans. With a do
2015-10-30 00:00
Scarendipity at the Lutherans. With a dozen pumpkins and skeleton out of the closet, we had a scary large number of people, headless and headed. Music was great, good progress teaching the newbies how to RESPECT and a fair amount of fun & open mic to boot. So there you go.

Our November event was in December, to k
2015-12-05 00:00
Our November event was in December, to keep from smashing into Thanksgiving plans. An error in scheduling caused a last minute (OK last 72 hour) change in venue, but it worked out well. We had over 100 paid audience members (101), some new bands, artists, new audience volunteer helpers, new bands and some fun as well. Thanks to all those who hung on until the last lap. And we got praised for our cleanup and chair placement. Thanks, everyone!

Our December event was in December befor
2015-12-19 00:00
Our December event was in December before we ran out of time. This was a small but respectfully presented Serendipity Cafe. Except for melting the tupperware a little, and a few mental lapses, such as leaving the blackboard behind, (retireived later), it went well.

Serendipity Cafe at First Lutheran Churc
2016-01-29 00:00
Serendipity Cafe at First Lutheran Church. This was a small event also. I left the cookies in my garage, was the big mistake. So I ate them. But I put in the money for the whole box. Remind me to compute the prices for cookies using the fibonacci series, so we don’t have to guess.

"Rapndipity" at First Lutheran Church. A
2016-02-26 00:00
“Rapndipity” at First Lutheran Church. Attendance was up over 100 again, and we collected over $70 for Toni’s Kitchen. Thanks to Margot for working the crowd. The Rap Battle which replaced open mic created the most controversy, but the audience seemed to really enjoy it. It prompted a lot of discussion at our Critique meeting this week (3/2/16). Couple of cable problems I’ll Look into.

Serendipity Cafe at First Lutheran Churc
2016-04-01 00:00
Serendipity Cafe at First Lutheran Church. The Dollys had a light-up bass drum with their name, Tula Vera played, and Lucy started things off. It was a very smooth, not too big event, and we had presenters from SOFIA that were invited by the NOW club at MHS. We raised $73 for SOFIA which we will match and present them with a check for $146. Once again there was a complaint about aux inputs being noisy, even with the new cable. We agreed to bring stuff to a meeting and work on the problem.

The April Serendipity at last. Back at t
2016-04-29 00:00
The April Serendipity at last. Back at the Lutherans’ we had another light turnout, but fund raising for the Animal Shelter went well, and we presented them with a check for $150. Citrus, a band from South Orange, had a horn section. A couple of Alumni Showed up. The veggie pizza was not well received.

The Gay May Day event raised a record am
2016-05-21 00:00
The Gay May Day event raised a record amount of money for the Ali Forney LGBTQ+ Homeless Shelter in NYC, for the second year in a row. We were proud of that. And Tula Vera played extremely well. We had music from noon until after 4 PM and no complaints! Doing this event at Watchung Plaza is much better than the Church St. sidewalk.

A good sized crowd and some fine music h
2016-05-26 00:00
A good sized crowd and some fine music helped us to raise over $100 for Make Music Day, which we will match. Grace’s bake sale was a success, and we had some fun as well. Many thanks to the late shift of the staff, who hung out on my deck watching the city twinkle after the unloading was done.

Festival Underground 2016 was quite enjo
2016-06-18 00:00
Festival Underground 2016 was quite enjoyable. The weather was fine, we had two fine recipients of the Staff Scholarship Award, and we raised $131 for the Pulse victims in Orlando. We’ll bring that up to $200 and send it this week.

The Independence day parade, with Elmo,
2016-07-04 00:00
The Independence day parade, with Elmo, Cat in the Hat, and Elvis was a fine sunny day. Lucas got a bit light headed in that cat costume, but every kid in town wanted a hug and a selfie. We met Sarah Copeland along the route, who pointed out that we should have Terry’s name on our banner. And we will, right?

A bit of rain, but not enough to suppres
2016-07-29 00:00
A bit of rain, but not enough to suppress the excellent turnout for Serendipity Café at the Amphitheater. We’re guessing there were over 80 in the audience, and a good size staff turnout as well. Music was great and varied. I love doing the event at the Amphitheater. They need to get that electric socket fixed by the auditorium door, though. Good to see Nelson again, the MHS custodian.

Another bit of rain, and another enjoyab
2016-08-26 00:00
Another bit of rain, and another enjoyable Amphitheater gig. That one guitar guy was too loud. but I liked the Engineers (Small? Little?) And we did Open Mic first, just to try it, and it didn’t give the performers that much of an audience. My guess is we won’t do that again. And we needed respect teaching and snack bar plugging. Next time.

We intended to be in the Amphitheater, b
2016-09-30 00:00
We intended to be in the Amphitheater, but rainy weather moved us indoors onto the auditorium stage, where music and trivia filled a somewhat small but successful evening. We had Cynthia from SOFIA who lead us in taking the pledge again, and good music as usual.

Scarendipity was held at the Lutheran Ch
2016-10-22 00:00
Scarendipity was held at the Lutheran Church on Park St, and was quite well attended. I think we had around 150 audience members, over 30 of whom got the costume discount (we’re big on cosplay). We raised some money for the Fair Workers organization, and we had interesting music, and a fun jam (C-blues) at open mic, with Matt, Nathan, Ed, and sorry but I don’t have the bass & drum names, they were right on, though. Good show, folks

The November Terry's Serendipity Cafe wa
2016-12-02 00:00
The November Terry’s Serendipity Cafe was held in December at the Lutherans. Huge amounts of donations were made to help the people at Standing Rock resist the pipeline, over $180 in cash, plus food, clothing blankets, etc. And the music was good. Audience participation and respect were in top form. There are a few tech details we need to work out with the bluetooth receiver, and we did break some coffee pots, but it was my fault for not checking carefully enough. Attendance was just over 100.

And Decembers's show was a fitting finis
2016-12-29 00:00
And Decembers’s show was a fitting finish to the year. Over 100 in attendance, great bands, fun open mic, no broken pots, in short, everything you could ask for in an event of Terry’s Serendipity Cafe. A Happy New Year to the audences and staff, and a special thanks to Mike Berlin for retrieving the chalkboard and closing the front door. We might have gotten some points off for that. I glued the rubber back on the Pearl kickdrum pedal, and put all the parts of the hi-hat clutch back together. And the screw that fell off the cymbal stand. We need some focus on taking down the drum kit, I think. I’ll look at the mic stands tomorrow.

Our first Terry's Serendipity Cafe at St
2017-01-27 00:00
Our first Terry’s Serendipity Cafe at St. Luke’s was a success. Although we did not figure out how to deal with the many entrances, the room sounded good, the attendance was acceptable, and the music was good. We had a problem with one band using up too much setup time, but we’ll work on that for next time. At the subsequent critiques, the location was given a very positive approval. And we raised $134 for the Sylvia Rivera Project.

With a record $280 raised for Planned Pa
2017-02-24 00:00
With a record $280 raised for Planned Parenthood, this was a fine event. We had a good long open mic, fine bands, a good size staff. And we ate up all the pizza! Lots of people helped with setup & operations, so I thing we made progress in the learning dept. We ought to start thinking about how to get along without our seniors. Speaking of which Margot D. stopped in for a visit!

Rap'n'Dipity at B'nai Keshet. It went qu
2017-03-25 00:00
Rap’n’Dipity at B’nai Keshet. It went quite smoothly, high attendance, but not as much respect, though. The open mic [hottest rhyme contest] worked well. Some things need to be worked on for rap setup. And we fried channel one of the main (QSC) amp. But we got along on one channel, and it has been replaced with a new one. The old one was bought used about 5 years ago.
