The audience was impressive, by being ov
2011-12-31 00:00 (America/New_York)
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

Although the Church people were late in
2013-10-25 00:00
Although the Church people were late in opening up we got the project off the ground and going by 7:07, not too bad. The event had 100 audience members, 35 with costumes, there was good music, and decorations. The pumpkins out front were a nice touch. We forgot the arrow committee, however, and some newbies didn’t know where to go. Cleanup was fast and clean. What more do you want?

We haven’t been to First United Methodis
2013-11-23 00:00
We haven’t been to First United Methodist in a while, but we had a good time there. Attendance was in the 70’s, it didn’t rain much, and we had a large staff at the end so things went quickly putting stuff away. We did blow a couple of light bulbs, but Ed replaced them and we’re set to go. Alexis found us a good set of bands. Sophie, LeadBeater, The Sun Hurts, The Space Monkeys, Manon, all top notch acts. And we got in some open mic with Gifts!

It was a smooth Serendipity on B’nai Kes
2013-12-21 00:00
It was a smooth Serendipity on B’nai Keshet. As far as I can tell we remembered everything (I thought I had forgotten my clipboard, but it was in the car). 74 people paid to attend, The bands were good. We hosted Sunflower’s first Serendipity gig, which might have been their first gig ever, and the open mic was fun with Peter Guiffra and I doing “Blue Suede Shoes” and Alexis coming up for (what else) Big Time Woman. Sammy Mellman was there, Thatcher Snyder, and some other Alumni, not so rare.

Last Friday’s extra cool (< 10F) Serendi
2014-01-29 00:00
Last Friday’s extra cool (< 10F) Serendipity Café at the Lutherans had good music. I should get the names of the band from Bard, I think, that was instrumental in making the sound good. The floor was hard to clean though. And it appears as though we made a profit of over $7! I’ll put up more after the critique.

Although no couples took advantage of th
2014-02-22 00:00
Although no couples took advantage of the tremendous $1.00 discount, we had a good time at Fletcher Hall, of the UUC on Church St. We blew no breakers, sound & lights ran smoothly and the coffee was good, considering. The music was good, Small Victories and Ana Bonesteels band were new to me, and they sounded great. I wish we could have heard her voice more clearly. And late word is in that the foot switch for the Blue Voodoo amp has been found. Well!

Been a while since we did those stairs,
2014-03-21 00:00
Been a while since we did those stairs, but we had a large crew and it went quickly. Music was good, I liked the electronic stuff that was not a gameboy. Not too big a crowd, 50 people, and we broke a mic stand boom thing, and left the coffee pots behind. All will be corrected before the next event though, you can be sure of that.

So I screwed up the date for the 4/26 sh
2014-05-03 00:00
So I screwed up the date for the 4/26 show which the Church thought was 4/25, and they were right. So we changed it to 5/2, last Friday. So even though the intended large group of cover bands didn’t make it, bands from the Meatlocker and a House show that were suddenly cancelled showed up at Serendipity so we had very interesting music, too band the audience was so small, ‘cause it was one of the best, musically. Staff was great, too. Good to see founder Ranira Morris who made a substantial donation, and Greg Pason was there so we could jabber about Make Music Day..

We keep the whole town supplied with mus
2014-06-21 00:00
We keep the whole town supplied with music, by cooperating with the famous Make Music Day celebrations all around the world. Festival Underground was super. Gillian Morello won the scholarship award, and the staff gave Ed a BIG gift card to Fleet Feet and wrote the nicest things in a card. Julia and Anna took Mike’s place and drove the truck & carried stuff. The weather was perfect.
