You donāt have to be squeamish or euphemistic to think of the lavatory as the reading room. Bathrooms guarantee a kind of solitude that can be hard to find elsewhere in the apartment, and reading requires concentration. If youāre in the loo, youāre (probably) not on the computer. As literacy continues its agonizing decline, the […]

Tris McCall
Tris McCall has written about art, architecture, performance, politics, and public culture for many publications, including the Newark Star-Ledger, the Bergen Record, Jersey Beat, the Jersey City Reporter, the Jersey Journal, the Jersey City Independent, and New Jersey dot com. He also writes about things that have no relevance to New Jersey. Not today, though.
Rogue Waves June: Jersey City Jazz Festival and More
The Jersey City Jazz Festival pitches a big tent. This yearās event is the most varied in its history, with very little redundancy in a lineup that involves more than two hundred musicians at thirty shows spread over four early June nights. Tonightās ticketed kickoff event at White Eagle Hall (337 Newark, $25, show at 8 […]
Diana Schmertz: An Artist Takes on Book Banning and American Politics
If theyāre sufficiently harsh, words can leave an impression. Lately, some of the harshest and most wounding have come from state legislatures. Certain lawmakers have framed non-straight Americans as a threat to children, and theyāve sought to excise their stories from school curriculum. Book banning ā once thought of as a relic of a more […]
The Vegetarian Option: Ondo
Weāre launching our vegetable-forward exploration of Jersey Cityās most acclaimed restaurants with a look at the modern Korean eatery Ondo (3 2nd St.). Korean food is often associated with barbecue, bibimbap with slices of spicy pork, and giant platters of bulgogi in thick folds. But what if you arenāt interested in eating meat? Is there […]
Review: The Beyoncé Laser Show at Liberty Science Center
In autumn 2022, Liberty Science Center reinvigorated the laser show genre with a half hour set dedicated to the music of Taylor Swift.Ā Ā That was great ā so great that it was a sure thing that the science museum would try again with another artist.Ā Ā It was also inevitable that that artist would be BeyoncĆ©.Ā Ā No other major […]
The Downtown Art Crawl, Step by Step and Studio by Studio
Crawling implies slow and deliberate movement. Babies crawl, caterpillars crawl, traffic crawls when youāre stuck in a jam. The designers of the Downtown Art Crawl ā the same people behind Art Fair 14C and the upcoming October Jersey City Art Week ā are believers in careful appraisal. They donāt want you blazing through their event. […]
Alone in Deep Space, Clarence Rich Takes on the Ancients
It is arguable that Clarence Rich is the best known visual artist in Jersey City, even if most of the people whoāve seen and appreciated his work wouldnāt recognize his name. In a town of hundreds of muralists and spray-paint taggers of middling quality and questionable imagination, heās the real deal ā a street artist […]
Diners at Box Cafe Eat and Drink to Immersive Dance Performance
Bars and restaurants are often disaster areas. The floor of a cafĆ© can be a cavalcade of dismay. The stood up, the broken up, the lovelorn, the hopelessly inebriated and the would-be heroes, the frustrated rockers and out-of-control dancers: theyāre all hanging somewhere in the shadowed corners of the public house. Going out means putting […]
Rogue Waves May: Live Music in Jersey City
There hasnāt been much action at Monty Hall (43 Montgomery St.) since the beginning of the pandemic. Thatās been a shame. Any room affiliated with WFMU ā the legendary free-form radio station upstairs ā is bound to have exciting bookings. For years, Monty Hall was one of the most reliable spots in Jersey City to […]
Review: “50 Years of Beats and Sneaksā at MANA
Everybody has seen sneakers dangling from phone wires by tied-together shoelaces, but no consensus on their meaning has ever been reached. Do they indicate a place to buy drugs? Are they a marker of gang territory? A tribute to a lost child? Do they signify that someone nearby has graduated college or gotten married? Less romantically, […]