Terry's Serendipity Cafe

Friday after Thanksgiving Serendipity Ca
2018-11-22 00:00 (America/New_York)
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” !

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Festival Underground 2018. Claire and Ro
2018-06-16 00:00
Festival Underground 2018. Claire and Rory won our Annual Scholarship award. The Scholarship Award Committee were impressed with their contributions to Serendipity Cafe. The generator ran perfectly, thanks, PRCA! But next year we want to go back to the old picnic ground. This year’s Staff Band performance of “Big Time Woman” was awe inspiring to say the least. A wonderful day all around.

GSA at Watchung. Gay May Day postponed a
2018-05-26 00:00
GSA at Watchung. Gay May Day postponed a week due to rain, but good performances and a good amount of money raised for the Ali Forney Center.

Rap'n'Dipity at the Lutherans. Very smal
2018-04-13 00:00
Rap’n’Dipity at the Lutherans. Very small turnout, 30. Great performance by Your Mystery Guest, though. Too bad you missed it.

B’nai Keshet was our host and we had nea
2018-03-03 00:00
B’nai Keshet was our host and we had nearly double the attendance of January. Our new staff task assignment sheet was in effect along with new guidelines for staff behavior, all of which was noticeably working. We have a May 19 date for our fund raiser with the GSA, Gay May Day in Watchung Plaza. And we will have Festival Underground and Make Music Day in June.

We were at the First Lutheran Church. we
2018-01-26 00:00
We were at the First Lutheran Church. we’re going to have to promote these events better, they are more fun with a larger audience. The entertainment was good, but, aside from Liv, not that exciting. We’re currently working on getting locations for the next shows, there are scheduling problems.

Terry’s Serendipity Café at B’nai Keshet
2017-12-28 00:00
Terry’s Serendipity Café at B’nai Keshet: This event was well received, good music, good open mic, Mental Hazard was a big hit I think. Attendance was quite low and we paid too much rent, aside from that, it was ok. We needed more staff participation in group setup especially during open mic. Always good to see Your Mystery Guest.

Alumni Serendipity at the Lutherans. Amo
2017-11-24 00:00
Alumni Serendipity at the Lutherans. Among the alumni present were Mackensie, Chelsea, and Aidan Feliciano, strangely Greg and I found an Open Mic paper plate with Aidan F. and Anna Berlin (Michael’s daughter) on the list. Probably from 2009 or thereabouts. Things went quite smoothly, timely setups, good music. The coffee I made was not good, I’ll have to work on that.

Scarendipity 2017 at the Lutherans. Aida
2017-10-13 00:00
Scarendipity 2017 at the Lutherans. Aidan and I had a great time with the dry ice, and there were quite a few costumes. We were able to transport all our gear including the Halloween stuff without my old 1999 Toyota minivan, which we have replaced with a Honda CR-V. Which held the lights and the drum kit, so not bad all together. Music was good, respect needs a little work, missing our missing seniors.

The Amphitheater again. Fine but cool we
2017-09-29 00:00
The Amphitheater again. Fine but cool weather, low bug count. Good solid bunch of music, with Anna as Entertainment head. Nice opening shtick with Aiden and Jakey, good open mic, several 12 string guitars audible. Money raised for Mexico City relief.

Terry’s Serendipity at the MHS Amphithea
2017-08-25 00:00
Terry’s Serendipity at the MHS Amphitheater. If it wasn’t for Chelsea, we wouldn’t have had Serendipity Café Friday night. She wins the brass figligee with bronze oak-leaf palm for being the only staff member at load-up. Fortunately a goodly collection of staffers was present for the rest of the show, gradually. Good music, including Birdwing, good to see Sam Skinner drop in and do an open mic song, and it was fun reciting “Jabberwocky” for the assemblage. Thanks to Mike and Greg for being there, handling the situation, watching the lights go on and off, etc. And Chelsea produced a new Zine issue as well.

Serendipity at the MHS Amphitheater. It
2017-07-28 00:00
Serendipity at the MHS Amphitheater. It worked, in spite of the forecast and the food poisoning. Music was good, staff was good, cookies were good. Any opinions about Veggie Straws or Capri Sun?

Festival Underground 2017. Rainy days ar
2017-07-17 00:00
Festival Underground 2017. Rainy days are ok if you’re really underground. We weren’t. But Greg brought his 2 tents (we were too tense) and we gave Ben Wilson the Scholarship Award for outstanding Staff Service, and Lily and Maiya’s bands played. And Shadowmakers chickened out. Thanks to PRCA for the cute and quiet generator.

Independence Day Parade! With Ben as Spi
2017-07-04 00:00
Independence Day Parade! With Ben as Spiderman and Lucas as Olaf, and of course, Elvis as Elvis, we got to display our newly-minted and designed (Thanks, Greg) banner. Good day, lotta dancing.

Make Music Day Montclair. (This went on
2017-06-21 00:00
Make Music Day Montclair. (This went on all day). Lotta work, lotta fun! I got to play with New Tricks, and in the Ukulele Parade! Watchung Mountain riders at Diamond were quite Greatful Dead-ish. Hoopers, even.

Festival Underground at Edgemont Park. W
2017-06-17 00:00
Festival Underground at Edgemont Park. Well, it was partly rained out, but Greg saved the day by carrying 2 tents over to the park on his bike! Maiya’s band was greatvery jazzy, with trumpet, Jake sitting in on guitar, and fine vocalists. Then Lily V and the LV band were good and original. Open Mic was fun and congratualtions to Ben Wilson on winning the 2017 Terry’s Serendipity Cafe Staff Scholarship Award!!

St. Luke's Church. Starting with Soular,
2017-05-26 00:00
St. Luke’s Church. Starting with Soular, who presented some fine vocals, we had great music and a smallish crowd. But the vibe was great and we did raise some money in the benefit jar. There’s more to say, but something is wrong with the hosting.

Terry’s Serendipity Café at the Lutheran
2017-04-28 00:00
Terry’s Serendipity Café at the Lutherans’. Good music, good audience and a large staff went a long way towards making this an excellent event. We felt good about working, learning setup and pack up tasks etc. And we collected over a hundred bucks for Meena. Hung out on Ed’s deck afterwards. Critique was quite favorable. Thanks!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

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.
