Terry's Serendipity Cafe

Independence Day Parade with Elvis! Than
2018-07-04 00:00 (America/New_York)
Independence Day Parade with Elvis! Thanks Lucas, Avery and the irregulars.

A rain-in rather than a rain out! Even t
2018-07-27 00:00
A rain-in rather than a rain out! Even though the building was locked when we got there, Gabbi and I searched the building (clockwise) for a way in, which we found around on Midland Ave. We walked through the building and got the Auditorium doors open from the inside. So we moved all our gear onto the auditorium stage, got some fans and lights working, set up the PA and had a really good time. The bands seemed to get into the spirit of Serendipity, especially Gabi the Artist, and the music was solid.

This amphitheater show was not rained ou
2018-08-24 00:00
This amphitheater show was not rained out! But the lawn mowing left a bit to be desired. Things were open for us this time, and we ran our “extended open mic” outdoors in weather that was acceptable. Youngest performer in a long time, a 12 year old singer songwriter, would you believe.

Another not rained out amphitheater show
2018-09-28 00:00
Another not rained out amphitheater show. This time the ants did not get the pizza, since we had tables to put them on. The chairs were quite popular, too. Good music with Sammy Trombone, Emil Noll & friends, Uncleater, and others also Alumnus Aidan Feliciano at open mic and a spirited version of “Big Time Woman”. Benefit for the Incarcerated Workers Organizing committe for which we collected $53. The turnout was small but dedicated and respectful.

Scarendipity at the Lutheran Church. Art
2018-10-19 00:00
Scarendipity at the Lutheran Church. Art, music and pumpkins spelling out “Scarendipity” combined to make this an enjoyable Halloween party. A little light on the snacks, perhaps but the artists reported some sales, and the Make the Road collection was substantial.

Friday after Thanksgiving Serendipity Ca
2018-11-22 00:00
Friday after Thanksgiving Serendipity Cafe at the Lutherans. Music was good, attendance was up. New staffers working on tasks! Good to see Alumni Staff and performers. Plenty of help right up to the end. That’s what I call “Terry’s Serendipity Cafe” !

Good Event at the Lutherans, attendance
2018-12-28 00:00
Good Event at the Lutherans, attendance up again to over 60, fine music, alumni presence, solid staff participation, without Mike Berlin or Greg Pason. Special thanks to Ben and Madeline, who helped out greatly, even though Lola was not there!

Interesting new performers and the Free
2019-02-09 00:00
Interesting new performers and the Free Store made this a creditable start to the new Year. Attendance was over sixty again, but I had hoped we could grow some more. Mike Berlin was back with his huge Grand Caravan, making the transportation easy once again. There were a few things we should talk about at the critique meeting, but all good!

Serendipity at the Lutherans. Interestin
2019-03-22 00:00
Serendipity at the Lutherans. Interesting performers, but alas, a small audience. But we managed to collect $60 for a Honduran family relocated to the USA. A lot of new staff members got a chance at tasks they had never before attempted. This is good experience for future events.

Rapndipity at Lutherans. Things went qui
2019-04-12 00:00
Rapndipity at Lutherans. Things went quite well, with 100 paid attendees, a record for the year. The music was loud, and there were some issues with content, but we worked a lot of it out at the critique meeting.

Gay May Day with GSA, good bands, lots o
2019-05-18 00:00
Gay May Day with GSA, good bands, lots of money raised for the Ali Forney Center. Nicely done, staff.

Festival Underground at Edgemont Park. C
2019-06-22 00:00
Festival Underground at Edgemont Park. Congratulations to Gold Carson, winner of the 2019 Serendipity Staff Scholarship Award! We all appreciate what you have done to keep Terry’s Serendipity Café running smoothly in its 24th year. The Weather was sunny at last, the music was fine, (I liked Beach Bod), The staff band was SPECTACULAR, and I don’t know how the lemon sugar cookies tasted.

The Atrium Cafeteria turned out to be a
2019-08-02 00:00
The Atrium Cafeteria turned out to be a fine place, with plenty of space, restrooms and electric power. We had great bands, a fine open mic and quite a few mosquitoes. Television Skies ended up the show with a top notch performance. There were no complaints that I heard about. Also we bought our staff pizza from Ruthie’s this time.

Great to see our old friends and Alumni
2019-08-23 00:00
Great to see our old friends and Alumni, such as Maya B, Your Mystery Guest, Elana and Danielle Sclar, Rory MacLeod, and others. Good music, good weather. We must now recruit a new staff.

The small audience did not deter this gr
2019-09-27 00:00
The small audience did not deter this group from putting on a fine show in spite of the adversity of circumstances. I need to speak to PRCA about help with flyer approval. And some other things.

Scarendipity at the Lutherans. Good, but
2019-10-25 00:00
Scarendipity at the Lutherans. Good, but not great. We needed more audience, but there was a lot going on Friday night. The decorations worked out extremely well, though, and the costume contest was the best in years.

Terry’s Serendipity Café, at the Luthera
2019-11-29 00:00
Terry’s Serendipity Café, at the Lutherans, good staffing, smoothly run, good music, interesting mix of Alumni and new members. Also attendance was up!

The 25th Anniversary year got off to a g
2020-01-03 00:00
The 25th Anniversary year got off to a good start with an almost all singer-songwriter show. My favorite part was Lena and Katrina singing together. The open mic was good. The audience was a bit smaller than last time, but quite enthusiastic.

Great music at B’nai Keshet Saturday
2020-02-08 00:00
Great music at B’nai Keshet Saturday night. Good to have a bunch of bands, I always like it when the drum kit gets used. A little problem with the door code, but after that, all good. And we got Legacy Coffee beans for our Bunn-O-Matic.What we needed was a larger audience.

Festival Underground, with Avery Laverne
2020-06-20 00:00
Festival Underground, with Avery Laverne as this year’s Staff Award winner. We had a long awaited live show at Watchung Plaza, and agreed to do it again. A smaller load of gear was unloaded by the staff deftly and quickly. Sammy Mellman, Katrina Weismman & Lena Fine, Blue Suede Andy, Werebears, Hudson Pollack.

Serendipity in Watchung Plaza with Ziggy
2020-07-17 00:00
Serendipity in Watchung Plaza with Ziggy Grover, Lena Fine, Milerne, Gabi Gamberg, ROstafa, open mic. We love to do this.

Starting with a bang as a MiniCooper hit
2020-08-21 00:00
Starting with a bang as a MiniCooper hit a truck on Watchung Ave, our August show was actually quite calm. The Staff reacted quite well to changes in the arrivals of the entertainers, and they were “all good”. Special shouts to Daryl Shelton and Sweeney for hanging out, performing some tunes, giving some younger folks electronic music gear, and playing with the Aeroprop!

It was good to have Your Mystery Guest b
2020-09-25 00:00
It was good to have Your Mystery Guest back, I forgot how much fun that duo is. And Hello to Luca Cece and his guitar, nice work! We tried out our new Fender Sidekick 25 amp, a donation, which worked well. We had quite a lineup of small fenders there, for a while. Thanks to the staff, alumnae, and others who made it a good show.

We managed a decent show, in spite of so
2020-10-24 00:00
We managed a decent show, in spite of some internal miscommunications. Thanks to the staff for setting up all the scary decorations. I’ll post a picture of the set if someone will send me one. More soon.

Late start, but Maria was there on time!
2020-11-28 00:00
Late start, but Maria was there on time! The Hootnanny worked. And Claire and Sam were essential. Thanks to Wizard Brain for the harmonica! Gabi the artist was our show ender, good stuff from all. It’s nice to have alumni that come around and help!

Make Music Day Winter 2020 in the snow!
2020-12-20 00:00
Make Music Day Winter 2020 in the snow! Not a bad show, good bands, not wet, coldest Terry’s Serendipity Café in history! And we ended with a jam and hootenanny, exactly at 4 PM.

Terry’s Serendipity Café at Watchung Pla
2021-03-20 00:00
Terry’s Serendipity Café at Watchung Plaza. Spring was celebrated by an outdoor concert by Wizard Brain, Blatant Men, Bearing Obscurity and Charlie Ballinger. New recruits, mostly as a result of the previous week’s Friday show for the 9th graders in the parking lot by the Innes building, introduced us to at least 3 new staff members, and that helped out a lot at the show. We also raised over $120 toward the generator fund. Only about $20 bucks more will do it!

We started Wednesday ok, but by Saturday
2021-04-24 00:00
We started Wednesday ok, but by Saturday it was confusion. Anyhow Daryl stepped in as Werebears, Arabella debuted as a singer songwriter as seen on TV and Joe Caldwell stepped in and did some nice stuff. There was a jam, of sorts and some really fancy pedalboards. Thanks all!

Rand Skate courts, Skate Essex awareness
2021-05-01 00:00
Rand Skate courts, Skate Essex awareness raiser with Screenager, John Cozz, Big Stink, Blatant Men. A lot of Mayors and that, with speechifying. Dancing, raffle. 4 hours on the generator, 1.5 liters of fuel used. Worked fine & quitely

Gay May Day in Watchung Plaza. Very good
2021-05-22 00:00
Gay May Day in Watchung Plaza. Very good performances including Machinery of the Human Heart, Screenager, Matt Ellin, Hudson Pollack. Raised around $200 for Ali Forney Center. We sent $42.
