We taped an episode of “Arts Close Up” w
2011-04-14 00:00 (America/New_York)
We taped an episode of “Arts Close Up” with Meg Beatty Patrick on Channel 34 for broadcast in early May. Anna, Julia, Josh, Harris, Emily, Thatcher, Charlie and Ed were there. We did some interview-like stuff, some Josh/Harris guitar, some Anna B tunes, and Thatcher & Charlie improvised a Serendipity “commercial”. It will be on the schedule, and in the On Demand menu, I hear. Thanks to Sharon Collucci, and Michael Reitman, the blues photographer. Use the following link, and select category “Arts Up Close” Montclair TV34

show was loud and echo-ey. Good performa
2011-04-29 00:00
show was loud and echo-ey. Good performances all around especially the famous Pokey-Men, plenty of audience members. Staff was non-existent except for Emily and Anna at load-up time, though, and we are currently searching for our missing snare drum stand.

The Relay for Life on was punctuated by
2011-05-21 00:00
The Relay for Life on was punctuated by a rainstorm, but the drying out worked and we got the system back on line & no damage but mud. There was all night DJ work by Max and Emily, under a point system of great complexity. A grand appearance by Alma and the New No Rehearsals, plenty of darkness, a 2 AM ukulele jam with guitar, good performances by Passing Notes, Stolen Jars, and others, but my notes are all blurry, I’ll probably not be able to read the list until Josh makes a copy for the entertainment notebook. In spite of all that, it appears that the ASC collected over $90,000.00! And it was much better after I went home and put on dry socks.

Festival Underground 2011 was an awards
2011-06-18 00:00
Festival Underground 2011 was an awards fest, with Anna Berlin and Katherine Wolfgang receiving the annual Staff Scholarship Award, presented by Carlos Lejnieks, who, by coincidence, spoke at the MHS graduation ceremony this year. Carlos is a founding staff member, and gave us some history, as well. Ken Pasture received a special award for trucking, and dedication and Farrah Stephenson from the American Cancer Society, presented Serendipity with a plaque thanking us for our participation in Relay For Life for the last 2 years. The music was tops, although I wish we had Stolen Jars. The chalk art was immense, and widespread.

The Warm Serendipity: at least a hundred
2011-07-22 00:00
The Warm Serendipity: at least a hundred in the shade. But we had Los Huevos, Sumi, Stolen Jars, a standup comic, Anna and Carmen, I even got to sit in with Vinnie & Los Huevos. We had S’mores, with a camp stove, lotsa water, and visits by alumi Ethan Cantor, Oliver Rew, Ross Hamilton. And Even Peter Guiffra was there. Many thanks to Ken and Mike for all the help.

Another Warm Serendipity, this time in t
2011-09-24 00:00
Another Warm Serendipity, this time in the Park House in Edgemont Park. The consensus seems to be that it was good, there was a good sized audience, the coffee was great, and the bands mostly got to play their whole sets. Josh Heaps was the entertainment head, and we were slightly overbooked. The Alumi theme was carried on by the Porchisas with founding members Alan and Adam. And then Pinegrove with Alumni Evan Hall, Zach Levine, Nick Levine. Aden Feliciano was there, as well as Catherine Weller-Demming, a founder and current Deputy Mayor. Alma Schneider of the Parents Who Rock presented us with a check for $1363.00 which the PWR raised at their annual backyard party, which we did the sound for, with Emily, Max, and a couple of other Staff members helped out at. There’s pix on Facebookm see link above.

After doing sound for the Veteran’s Day
2011-11-11 00:00
After doing sound for the Veteran’s Day ceremonies in Edgemont Memorial Park, we trucked over to St. James’ church and had a full Serendipity Café with a not full audience. Seems to me we need to work on getting the audience numbers up. Good music, though, and thanks to St. James for letting us use their Parish Hall on short notice after our Scarendipity Cancellation.

The Tree lighting on Friday, followed by
2011-12-07 00:00
The Tree lighting on Friday, followed by the Café at Bnai Keshet went exactly as planned, including more than double the previous attendance. The music was good, The Skin Cells were well organized, so were the Toasted Plastic and all the locals. Nice work, everyone!

The audience was impressive, by being ov
2011-12-31 00:00
The audience was impressive, by being over 160 people, of whom 94 paid $3.00 to come in. The performers were grand, the sets a bit short, mostly, but the open mic was definitely best of the year. Thanks to the staff, the audience, the performers and the advisors for a great year!

Our first time at Central Presbyterian C
2012-01-28 00:00
Our first time at Central Presbyterian Church. Good size audience, lots of 8th graders due to the Space Monkeys band, plenty of things for the critique. A great way to start the year.

at B’nai Keshet: Much calmer than last m
2012-02-25 00:00
at B’nai Keshet: Much calmer than last month, mostly due to the audience being half the size. Space Monkeys again. Some thought it was the same show. But we sold some snacks, had A good deal of open mic, and, about a week afterwards, found the coffee mill. OK!

at First United Methodist Church. For a
2012-04-07 00:00
at First United Methodist Church. For a lot of staffers, this was the first time at FUMC and the stairs were a surprise. But things went well until everyone went home before the final cleanup. The music was good, though, and even though Toasted Plastic from Ridgewood only had a small audience, they were full of praise for the Montclair audience’s respect and attention. We have to work on publicity and support.

First Lutheran Church. The turnout for t
2012-04-28 00:00
First Lutheran Church. The turnout for the final unload was great, I think we set a world speed record. Entertainment was good & smoothly presented. Attendance was still on the small side, so we can still work on that. Wound up with a red electric guitar in the lost & found. We think it belongs to Jen.

After an exchange of emails and a bit of
2012-05-17 00:00
After an exchange of emails and a bit of a cooling off period, we get to announce that we are not involved in this year’s Relay for Life. Maybe someday we will know why, but we’ve decide to look ahead and maybe rename the July event “Jonahdipity”.

Wow! The Festival Underground 2012 was e
2012-06-18 00:00
Wow! The Festival Underground 2012 was extra good. Weather: 10, Music: 10 Attendance, way more than usual. Thanks to Ross H. and our Senior Staff Scholarship award winners, Price and Harris. And our runner up: Snatcher.

Did the critique of the 7/27 Amphitheate
2012-08-02 00:00
Did the critique of the 7/27 Amphitheater show which was by all accounts a success. Charlie doesn’t like outdoor shows, though, so we’re kicking him out of the club. Or maybe letting him graduate. Something. Anyhow the parade was great, thanks to our costume wearers, Gillian, Emily, Alexis, Price, Max, and of course the candy flingers, banner bearers, etc.

The 8/31 event was very good reprise of
2012-09-04 00:00
The 8/31 event was very good reprise of the 7/27 Amphitheater concert, except no fishing. We somehow managed to get along almost entirely without Ken P., with Trucker Mike doing all the heavy trucking. Couple of leftover items probably belong to Toasted Plastic, of Ridgewood, who think Serendipity is something every town should have, but not many towns do.

On Sept 22, we held the Alumni Serendipi
2012-09-24 00:00
On Sept 22, we held the Alumni Serendipity which was warm and humid, but we hosted over a dozen alumni, Byron in a top hat and ran over only a little. Pinegrove and Werebears were great, Gifts were wonderful, the Space Monkeys lead off, and we promised “Based on the Novel..” something, because there wasn’t time to fit them in open mic. I had to give the old “respect” speech, since the audience was not paying attention to Ben Rosefeld and his acoustic guitar during open mic..

Halloween cancelled? Not Scarendipity. W
2012-10-31 00:00
Halloween cancelled? Not Scarendipity. Went well, good music, organized staff. Lotta costumes, The usual scheduling improvisations, dry ice. Then Hurricane Sandy couple days later left us without much power, heat, etc. But we managed our critique meeting, ‘cause there was power at the Park House.

A huge crowd, augmented by a great alumn
2012-11-24 00:00
A huge crowd, augmented by a great alumni showing made this Serendipity a record setter, with over 130 in the audience and great music beginning to end. Makes me thing Serendipity is going to last for a while.

Big crowd at St. James for the Save Darf
2013-01-18 00:00
Big crowd at St. James for the Save Darfur, or Anti Genocide Serendipity and Bake Sale. Good stuff, but too much setup with those Bears. And the stairs got Alex. We did not have a December event. First Night was cancelled, and we almost did a show, but the Meatlocker beat us to the punch, got all the good bands. Yay Meatlocker!

Serendipity at B’na Keshet. Not too big
2013-02-16 00:00
Serendipity at B’na Keshet. Not too big a crowd, but interesting music. Sammy again, and the Holographic Jellyfish. Hannah is working on the Tumblr. Page for Serendipity.

Serendipity Café at First Lutheran Churc
2013-03-23 00:00
Serendipity Café at First Lutheran Church. Decent crowd, good music, smooth operations. Nice open mic. Austin should get a bigger audience, don’t you think?

Funds were raised for Gifts and Werebear
2013-04-26 00:00
Funds were raised for Gifts and Werebears during a good, well reviewed Serendipity Café at First United Methodist Church. The basement was good, we had over 70 in attendance and matched $20 of donations to the kickstarter mentioned above, and then added $60 more at the following meeting. We’re ready for the Gay May Day event, 6 hours long!

Shut down by the police during Gay May D
2013-05-18 00:00
Shut down by the police during Gay May Day. We need to work on how to avoid this. Hard copy of permit is a necessity.

Good Serendipity Café at the Lutherans.
2013-05-31 00:00
Good Serendipity Café at the Lutherans. Had over 65 people pay to attend, good bands, Werebears and Gifts made their Kickstarter goal and played. Hot weather, but well done. Drum kit needs work, tom support came loose again. Critique tonight (6/5/13)

Festival Underground was highlighted by
2013-06-22 00:00
Festival Underground was highlighted by Jon Bell & his son’s band GNGR, and my Sons’ band On the Water. They were all so good, as was Mannon. The audience was small, as usual, and our Senior Staff Award winner, Ben Opatut decided to go, along with most of the staff, to Punk Island, but we had a very enjoyable day anyhow, talking with Jon, jammin’ with the bands, etc. Evan was there, from Pinegrove. The policeman who came to tell us there had been a “noise” complaint was one of the best I’ve interacted with in years! What a great guy. He got what he wanted, and we got to continue, and no one was angry!

The Independence Day Parade was Elvis’ 2
2013-08-01 00:00
The Independence Day Parade was Elvis’ 20th and we went all out. We had 5 costumed paraders, (There are pix on facebook). It went really well, I think we slowed up the parade by an hour. Then on 7/26 we did an Amphitheater show, and the weather was perfect, the hip-hop was unusually good, the audience (Due mainly to Lyrical’s manager Jared) was huge and the raccoons were cuter than a dog. There was some good harmony by Marissa and Chris, Adult Mom was there, and some others that I’m too old to remember. Next month we will have another, I hope just as big.

The 8/23/31 Amphitheater show was a good
2013-08-31 00:00
The 8/23/31 Amphitheater show was a good summer event. Lotta hiphop, or possibly Rap. Mannon, open mic Michael dancing, hardly any mosquitos. Ended by jamming with Alexis & some other staff members. Once again, hardly any mosquitoes, and no raccoons this time.

According to our critique and review of
2013-09-28 00:00
According to our critique and review of the 9/21 Serendipity at the Park House, it was smooth and entertaining. I would have preferred the electric power to be a little more usable and the garbage situation somewhat less smelly, but the music was good, we raised money for the Save Darfur Club, and we got to make a few speeches to the audience. “Big Time Woman” is always a high point in any program, and the cleanup was fast and efficient, in spite of the rain. Thanks to Ken and Mike, and the expert Serendipity Staff
