September 26, 2012

Lance Liverman Resolves His Case With Guilty Pleas, Early Court Date

Township Committeeman Lance Liverman has had his day in court.   In an exclusive interview with Town Topics, Mr. Liverman said that on September 20 he appeared in Hopewell Township Municipal Court and pleaded guilty to charges that included “driving under the influence” (DUI),  and refusing to take a breathalyzer test immediately after he was in an accident last month.

His license has been revoked for seven months, and he is paying several thousand dollars in fines.

The accident occurred around 2 a.m. on August 9 when Mr. Liverman was driving home from a dinner with friends in Philadelphia, and his car hit an 18-wheeler that was parked on the side of Interstate 95 near Scotch Road.  He was charged with operating a motor vehicle under the influence, driving recklessly, making an unsafe lane change, and refusing to take a breathalyzer test following the accident.

After a September 11 court appearance at which no conclusion was reached, Mr. Liverman had been scheduled to appear in court for a trial on October 9.  Although he planned to plead guilty on September 11, he said, the media frenzy that greeted him when he arrived at the court discouraged him from proceeding.  Sympathetic Hopewell officials, including Municipal Court Judge Charles M. Ouslander, okayed a request from Mr. Liverman and his lawyer, Stephen Krazny, to appear in court on an unannounced date in order to avoid the melee.

Lest he be accused of preferential treatment, Mr. Liverman noted that this accommodation is not an unusual one.  “It’s done all the time,” he said.  “People said, ‘this shouldn’t be’ and felt bad for me.”  As a result, his name did not appear on the docket of cases to be heard on September 20, and “nobody was there” to observe the low-key denouement.

“I admit that I had a few beers,” Mr. Liverman said of the night the accident occurred.  “But I wasn’t drunk.”

While agreeing that it may have been naive of him to refuse to take a breathalyzer test, Mr. Liverman said that his decision at the time had to do with “the way I was approached. I didn’t think it would serve my best interests.”  Although he “hopes that this was not the case,” the fact that Mr. Liverman is black “could have been” a factor in how things played out. “I’ve been asked that question 50 times,” he reported.   Mr. Liverman said that the arresting officer reprimanded him for slouching as he sat, handcuffed, in police headquarters the evening of the accident, and refused to honor a request to lower the charges against Mr. Liverman.  “‘No, I want to see him in court,’” Mr. Liverman quoted the officer as saying.

During the interview, Mr. Liverman expressed “amazement” at the outpouring of support he has received from the Princeton community in the wake of the incident.  “I serve Princeton,” he commented, and along with the support of his family and Princeton Township, he has, and continues to receive, encouraging emails, cards, phone calls, and offers from area residents willing to drive for him.  “I’m very blessed and very fortunate,” he observed.  He also took the opportunity to apologize to the Princeton community “for this unfortunate incident.  I am truly sorry for disappointing anyone,” he said, adding that “as a leader I know that my actions are always amplified.”

Perhaps one of the best outcomes of the experience, Mr. Liverman suggested,  is that he has “already taught someone.”  Just this past Saturday he received a phone call from a motorist who agreed to take a breathalyzer test “because he knew of my case.”

“I haven’t changed any of my views,” said Mr. Liverman, who confirmed that he will remain in the upcoming race for Princeton Council.  “I’m the same guy I’ve been for 19 years.”

Mr. Liverman speaks with pride about his wife, Latonya Kilpatrick Liverman, a patent-holding doctor in the Research and Development arm of Colgate-Palmolive, and his mother, who also resides in Princeton. The Livermans’ three daughters are all in Princeton Public Schools, and include a second grader at Community Park; a seventh grader at John Witherspoon Middle School; and an 11th grader at Princeton High School.  “I’m at every back-to-school night,” Mr. Liverman joked.


Princeton Future Considers Transportation Options; Lempert and Woodbridge Serve as Meeting “Panel”

Mayoral hopefuls Liz Lempert (D) and Dick Woodbridge (R) were named as a “panel” and given the chance to ask questions in response to four transit-related presentations given on Saturday morning at a Princeton Future meeting.

After the first presentation, a talk billed as a “Planned Projects Status Report of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission’s Central New Jersey Transportation Forum” by Sustainable Jersey Chair Pam Mount, Princeton Future Chair Sheldon Sturgis was quick to point out – not without humor – the virtual absence of questions from the candidates. Not surprisingly, perhaps, each referred to their own achievements and ideas on the topics at hand.

Focusing on local, present-day concerns, Ms. Lempert, who is Township Deputy Mayor, cited recent Township Committee street improvements, and spoke of the difficulties posed by the current Department of Transportation “trial” that limits left-hand turns onto Route 1 at Washington Road and Harrison Street.  Referencing  his long-time history in the area, Mr. Woodbridge, who grew up in Princeton and served as Township mayor, spoke of changes he has witnessed over the years and referred to old friendships with officials like former Borough Mayor Marvin Reed, who was at the meeting.

Looking ahead, however, Mr. Woodbridge picked up what became a recurring theme of the morning: that Princeton is a regional center with broad, metropolitan concerns.  Mr. Woodbridge noted that more than two million people a year visit Princeton.

Neither candidate responded to Ms. Mount’s assertion that she “believes in government, but on a very limited basis.”

Mr. Reed, who is currently chair of the Master Plan Subcommittee of the Regional Planning Board, gave a report on “A Mobility Plan for the New Princeton.”   People who packed the Library’s Community Room for the meeting had a good laugh when Mr. Reed pointed out that consolidation means Borough residents will no longer be able to blame Township residents for whatever is wrong, and, of course, vice-versa.

In his talk, Mr. Reed emphasized the discrepancy in the number of people traveling into Princeton (approximately 25,000) and the number of motorists leaving the area (approximately 6,500) each day.  He also noted that any future development in the area will be “redevelopment,” rather than the creation of large new corporate facilities or groupings of multiple new houses.

On a related note, Consolidation Commission Chair Anton Lahnston averred that it is simply not possible to “build out of congestion.” He also spoke of the “perception in Princeton” that public transportation is “not for us.”

Ralph R. Widner of the Princeton Traffic and Transportation Committee delivered a well-received report on “Using a Traffic Database to Fully Frame Problems and Options.”  He suggested that 80 percent of Princeton’s traffic problems “come from outside,” and that focusing on “point to point” transit systems in the community was not the way to go. He reported that statistics being compiled for a local traffic database would “provide a total map of the whole problem,” and cited a need for being proactive and creating a “foreign policy” on traffic that would be in the New Jersey economy’s best interests.

Yan Bennett and Steven Kruse of the Princeton Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee gave the fourth presentation, “An Ad Hoc Bike Plan for Princeton,” emphasizing the need to reconcile car traffic volume with the number of bicycle riders in the area.  Responding to this last talk, Ms. Lempert, who is a member of the the Joint Pedestrian and Bike Committee and the Traffic Safety Committee, discussed educating the public about bike routes in order to become a “bike-friendly” city.  Mr. Woodbridge described observations he’s made during his routine 13-1/2 mile bike ride around the area.

Princeton Future, which was created in 2009, describes itself as a “diverse, nonpartisan group of volunteers of Princeton Borough, Township and region. .. dedicated to protecting and enhancing our unique community and we share concerns about the directions future growth and development may take.” This most recent meeting gave participants an opportunity to join “break-out sessions” focusing on particular kinds of neighborhoods after the presentations.

 

Princeton Battlefield Society Files Appeal in Institute Case

The Princeton Battlefield Society has filed an appeal in the ongoing battle to prevent the Institute for Advanced Study from building a faculty housing development on land the group maintains was key to the Revolutionary War. The appeal was filed on September 21 in Superior Court, to try and reverse an approval given to the project by the Delaware and Raritan Canal Commisson on August 15.

The Institute had sought a waiver from the Commission because part of the development is in stream corridors, according to the Battlefield Society. But because they lacked a quorum, the Commission could not act on the proposal. They gave default approval, due to a rule that a project gets automatically approved should the Commission be unable to act on it within 45 days.

“We’re questioning the constitutionality of it,” says Jerald Hurwitz, president of the Battlefield Society. “If you don’t have a quorum, it automatically gets approved? How does that work? That means that all somebody needs to do to sabotage a process is simply make sure they can’t be heard within the 45 days. There’s something wrong with that.”

The project, which was approved by the Regional Planning Board last March, would include homes on seven acres, with 14 acres left open for use by the public. The Battlefield Society filed a lawsuit in July appealing the approval. They are preparing an additional lawsuit involving the use of wetlands, maintaining that the project would violate the Clean Water Act.

Additionally, the group filed a complaint in Chancery Court in April, asking for a judicial determination on various site limitations created by a 1992 agreement between the Institute and Princeton Township.

While he doesn’t believe that the recent ruling by the Canal Commission was intended to automatically grant the Institute a waiver, Mr. Hurwitz doesn’t   think the process is fair. “We don’t get our day in court because there is no hearing. How is that? We felt we had to do or say something,” he said. “This is a gray area and I think there are some serious problems with it.”

The Canal Commission has had several vacancies recently, and there have been no recent appointments by Governor Chris Christie. But several new members have been nominated and are awaiting legislative approval.


Tilghman is Praised For Her Accomplishments

The announcement last weekend of Princeton University President Shirley M. Tilghman’s impending retirement has prompted local government and University officials to express appreciation for her accomplishments during her eleven-year tenure. Ms. Tilghman will depart at the end of the academic year in June and will return, after a year off, to teach.

“President Shirley Tilghman has made many contributions to enhance student life, campus development, and the academic experience that have and will continue to elevate this great University and expand its impact on the world,” said Princeton Borough  Mayor Yina Moore, in a statement. “On behalf of the citizens of the Borough of Princeton, I wish President Tilghman well as she returns to her role as Professor Tilghman.”

Township Mayor Chad Goerner praised the “very constructive, professional dialogue” between the Township and the University under Ms. Tilghman’s watch. “As I look back at the last several years, I see a significant amount of accomplishment, and part of that is due to the relationship we have with the University,” he said. “We negotiated the first significant voluntary contribution [the University’s payment in lieu of taxes] for Princeton Township, and I have to say that a lot of that is due to the fact that we have had that level of professionalism and dialogue” with the University.

Mr. Goerner added, “I think it’s a good thing that next year we will start with a new governing body and a new University president at the same time. Having that fresh start will be important.”

Ms. Tilghman will step down as Princeton’s nineteenth president at the close of the academic year in June. In a letter e-mailed to students, faculty, staff and alumni, she revealed her plans. There is a “natural rhythm to university presidencies,” she said in her letter, and with “major priorities accomplished or well on their way to being realized, and the [recently completed $1.88 billion Aspire fundraising] campaign successfully concluded, it is time for Princeton to turn to its 20th president to chart the path for the next decade and beyond.”

A Canadian by birth, Ms. Tilghman came to Princeton in 1986 as the Howard A. Prior Professor of the Life Sciences. She was one of five winners in 2002 of the L’Oreal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science. The following year, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Developmental Biology. In 2007, she won the Genetics Society of America Medal. She was a member of the National Research Council’s committee that set the blueprint for the U.S. effort in the Human Genome Project. She was also a founding member of the National Advisory Council of the Human Genome Project for the National Institutes of Health.

Ms. Tilghman’s accomplishments during her tenure as president include a large increase in the number of students on financial aid and more than double the average aid they receive; a master plan focused on architecture, landscaping and sustainability; the additions of Whitman College, Lewis Library and Sherrerd Hall; creation of the Lewis Center for the  Arts and the new Princeton Neuroscience Institute; and an expanded global perspective.

The University’s Dean of the Faculty, David Dobkin, commented, “It has been a remarkable pleasure to be able to work with Shirley for the past nine years. She has been a superior president of Princeton. Though Princeton has a tradition of excellent leadership and there is every expectation that the next president will be as good, Shirley’s leadership has raised the bar for that next person.”

Town-gown relations have been tense at times during Ms. Tilghman’s presidency, particularly in relation to the voluntary tax payments and the controversial decision to move the Dinky train station 460 feet south of its current location to accommodate the University’s $300 million arts and transit neighborhood.

But Borough Councilman Roger Martindell, among those involved in those issues, said of Ms. Tilghman, “I think she’s done a wonderful job for Princeton University. There has been a significant increase during her tenure there in financial support for the municipalities, and I wish her the best of luck.”

The search committee for Ms. Tilghman’s successor will be led by Kathryn A. Hall, chair of the University’s Board of Trustees. The committee will include four members of the faculty who will be elected by the faculty, nine Board members, two undergraduates, a graduate student, and a member of the staff. Ms. Hall said she hope to be ready to bring a recommendation to the Board by next spring.


School Referendum Passes; “Infrastructure” Improvements to Begin

In an election where less than ten percent of Princeton’s 19,145 registered voters turned out to vote, a school referendum asking for $10.9 million for school improvements was approved on Monday.  The vote was 1,238 to 571 with 58 people voting by mail.

Approval of the referendum means an estimated $150 a year more in taxes for the average Princeton homeowner.

In a September 12 “Princeton Public Schools Report,” Superintendent Judy Wilson described work to be funded by the referendum as “maintenance and safety projects, and a couple of instructional projects.”  This will include “ necessary work” on roofs and windows; drainage systems; “safety work” to improve fields and track; and “energy efficiencies across the system.”

Ms. Wilson pointed out that it has been 11 years since the last school referendum. “It’s time to take care of some of the basics, essential projects that must and will be taken care of,” she observed.  The availability of “great interest rates”  and low construction rates make this a particularly attractive time to do the work, she added.

Proposed projects funded by the additional money at all four elementary schools will include installation of gym air handlers, upgraded playground equipment, and extensions of security and technology systems.  Plans for Johnson Witherspoon Middle School include “repurposing” the old gym into a media center; air conditioning second-floor classrooms; and interior fire-door replacement.  Track, turf and bleacher replacements, “select locker replacements,” and renovations to create additional instructional space are some of the projects slated to take place at Princeton High School.

“Monday’s referendum is relatively small and focused only on needs in those portions of buildings and grounds that have arisen since or were not addressed in prior construction,” noted a statement released by the Board of Education.  Board members noted that “each of the projects identified for this referendum has been reviewed for over 18 months in public meetings of the Board’s Facilities Committee.”  They echoed Ms. Wilson’s comment about this being “an optimal time to take advantage of low construction
bids and capture historically low interest rates,”  and pointed out that applying to state agencies, which are not awarding any new grants for facility projects, was not an option at this time.

The district estimated that all the work will be completed during the next 18 to 24 months.


Site Plan Review Board Recommends Passage of University Arts and Transit Plan

After hearing presentations from members of the design team charged with creating Princeton University’s $300 million arts and transit neighborhood, the Regional Planning Board of Princeton’s Site Plan Review Advisory Board (SPRAB) voted on Monday, September 24, to recommend approval to the planners with certain caveats. Should the Planning Board follow this advice, construction could begin on the first phase of the project this coming spring. The Lewis Center for the Arts, its centerpiece, would be projected for a 2017 opening.

The plan has been a source of controversy among local residents because it involves moving the Dinky train station 460 feet south and turning the existing station buildings into a restaurant and cafe. The project has been opposed by the organization Save the Dinky, and is the subject of two pending lawsuits.

Several university consultants and employees were on hand for the meeting in the Township municipal building. University Architect Ron McCoy led the presentations, which included input from
architects Steven Holl, Rick Joy, and landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh. Mr. Holl, designer of the Lewis Center building, said he sees the project as a “middle gateway” to Princeton, “a place where the community and the University can join.” Having worked on the design since 2007, Mr. Holl said, “We’ve improved, improved, refined and improved, and I’m really excited about where we are now.”

But SPRAB chairman Bill Wolfe expressed several concerns about the project. “Despite being very enthusiastic about the quality of the design, I am very, very unhappy with the overall plan,” he said. The concept of the transit center as a gateway to the town and university is not sufficiently grand, he felt. “This is where important scholars from all over the globe first set foot in Princeton,” he said. “In this site plan, the most important public space to the University and the town should be the transit plaza. But it doesn’t yet look it.” Mr. Wolfe was also disappointed that the proposed arts center was not designed to be closer to McCarter Theatre and that University Place does not run straight to the transit plaza.

Mr. McCoy said the University “has been at this for years,” and had many conversations. “We’re very confident that the solution we’ve arrived at is a good compromise,” he said.

Among the features of the plan described by Mr. McCoy and the design team were parking for Dinky riders, a transit plaza at the new Dinky station site for taxis, jitneys and buses, and enhanced public areas with art that has yet to be determined. A traffic circle at the intersection of Alexander Road and University Place will improve flow, Mr. McCoy said.

The arts complex will include a black box theater, a dance theater, music rehearsal hall, and two studios, to serve the University during the day and be used for public performances at night, he said. Bluestone walkways, green roofs, enhanced plantings and underground wiring and utilities were also detailed.

Trees to be planted will have high canopies in order to keep the buildings “filled with light in winter,” said Mr. Van Valkenburgh when describing the landscaping. The commuter parking lot will be divided with trees. The University Place Green, a major part of the project, will have landscaping modeled after the trees in front of Nassau Hall.

Mr. Joy’s firm will design the new station and renovate the historic Dinky buildings with the assistance of Princeton-based Mills + Schnoering Architects. “This is a great opportunity to give some of the most historic buildings on campus to the community,” he said of the old station building, which will be turned into a restaurant. “We’ve maintained and honored the presence of the original building, and sort of snuck in our addition on the back side,” he said of a planned addition.

SPRAB member Joshua Zinder, who is an architect, suggested that the canopy on the historic building be kept. “The removal of the canopy is too bad,” he said. “That structure, with some clever landscaping, could be the east/west gateway. It’s a big part of the historic character of the station.” Mr. McCoy acknowledged that the canopy was “a difficult issue,” but a new canopy will be built. Mr. Zinder also recommended that a material other than stucco, which is planned, be used.

SPRAB included these comments, as well as those from Mr. Wolfe, with the recommendation to the planning board.


First Day of Fall

While the Autumn Equinox may have shifted the seasons Saturday, a summer calm prevails in this Lake Carnegie Sunday afternoon idyll. (Photo by Emily Reeves)

September 19, 2012

Readers Offer Reasons for “Yes” Vote On Public Schools’ Bond Referendum

To the Editor:

We urge Princeton residents to vote YES on Monday, September 24, on the public schools’ bond referendum. If approved, the funds will pay for many necessary and extremely important facilities improvements that will benefit all the children in our town’s schools each day.

As parents of baseball and soccer players, we are particularly pleased that the school district’s plans include the essential, long-needed refurbishment of the Valley Road playing fields. Despite diligent maintenance, time, weather and heavy use have taken their toll. Drainage improvements and re-grading are absolutely necessary to allow children to continue using the fields safely for years to come. Without immediate refurbishment, the fields will soon become unsafe, and further deteriorate to the point that future repair will be more expensive, perhaps even cost-prohibitive. Our current student athletes need safe playing fields. And the many Princeton Little League and youth soccer players who aspire to future glory deserve to have safe facilities when their turns come.

This project, and the other necessary, cost-effective projects designed to keep our schools safe and strong, are why we enthusiastically support the referendum. Please remember to vote YES on Monday, September 24. Polls open from noon to 9 pm.

Jean & Jon Durbin, Mt. Lucas Road

Beatrice & Michael Bloom, White Pine Lane

Bonnie & Lance Itkoff, Elm Road

Karen & Archibald Reid, Westcott Road

Cindi & Bill Venizelos, Rosedale Lane

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To the Editor:

We are pleased to support the Princeton Public Schools’ referendum on September 24. We are enthusiastic about the projects that will improve energy efficiency in schools throughout the district; we are pleased to note the expansion and improvement of classroom spaces; and, we are supportive of the efforts to improve the safety and security of the schools for our students, faculty and staff.

We are especially pleased to support the improvements in the playgrounds and athletic facilities throughout the district. While priority use of the high school fields is given to the high school and middle school teams and the fields are sometimes leased to community club sports activities, the high school track, the artificial turf field, the tennis courts and other outdoor facilities are available for pick-up games, work outs, and family fun. The playgrounds at the elementary schools are available for community use on weekends, after school and evenings, and throughout the summer.

Many school districts lock down their athletic facilities. PPS opens the gates to the community and it is common to see adults walking and running on the track in the early morning or evening, to see kids engaged in informal soccer, lacrosse and football games, to see families playing together on the fields, and to see children playing in the school playgrounds.

As parents of a high school athlete, we know firsthand that the improvements in the track, fields and bleachers represent overdue maintenance that must be completed to ensure the safety of student athletes and fans. As members of the community we look forward to enjoying these investments long into the future.

Karen A. Jezierny

Gregg R. Smith

Mt. Lucas Rd

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To the Editor:

As parents of a student-athlete at Princeton High School, we urge Princeton residents to vote YES on Monday, September 24 on the public schools’ referendum. Athletics are an integral and indispensable component of the large majority of our middle and high school students’ educational and social lives. We know from watching our child learn and grow that his participation in school sports is not merely fun, or social, or physically healthful. More significantly, athletics are key to his engagement in academic studies and to his connection with the larger community. Participating in PHS sports instills discipline and promotes his burgeoning senses of purpose, responsibility and citizenship, on and off the fields.

Research demonstrates that athletics participation raises academic achievement, and our experience bears this out. Look at the numbers: more PHS students are participating in sports than ever — almost 90 percent this year. The school’s academic achievement is the envy of the state. There IS a connection. Our much-used athletic facilities for the track, cross-country, soccer, lacrosse, football, field hockey, and baseball teams have long passed their useful life expectancies; replacement and refurbishing are immediately necessary. Support our student-athletes, now and for years to come. Vote YES on Monday, September 24.

Michael and Julie Harrison

Jefferson Rd

Beware the Ides of Commodore Stockton: Renaming Two Buildings Is Not a Solution

To the Editor:

In reviewing the steps taken during the initial stages of consolidation, we can only hope that our elected leadership keeps local resident, Commodore Robert Stockton in mind. Stockton California was named for Commodore Stockton. At one time, Stockton, like San Bernardino, and Scranton were all thriving municipalities, about the size of Princeton. Now all three are bankrupt.

Now is the time for our elected officials to protect our financial future, while considering consolidation. For example, we now have two municipal buildings. Totally, there is about twice the square footage of office space compared with surrounding municipalities.

An article in Town Topics (“A Two-Person Solution for the New Princeton,” July 18) states that “…in the interest of doing away with old perceptions for the two buildings, the committee has been referring to them, for example, as the ‘Witherspoon Building’ and the ‘Monument Building’ respectively.”

This is our one chance to do this right. Instead of kidding ourselves that changing reference names will accomplish anything, it might be good to think what happens when a bureaucracy has too much office space. Assistants get hired, more staff is added, taxes go up etc.

Why not lease out one building, and tell the administrators that they have to utilize the space available in the remaining municipal building? It isn’t the total answer, but it’s a start. Somehow we need to get past the mindset that renaming buildings is a meaningful step to achieving the savings possible through consolidation.

William Stephenson

Governors Lane

Mayors Encourage Princeton Residents To Oppose “Misguided” Bill A-2586

To the Editor:

The Mayors and Governing Bodies of the Borough and Township of Princeton are opposed to legislation which would exempt private colleges and universities from municipal zoning.

S-1534 was approved by the State Senate at the end of June. And now, the Assembly companion, A-2586, is projected to be put forth by the Higher Education Committee for a vote by the full Assembly this fall. This legislation passed in the Senate despite the efforts of the League of Municipalities, most of the mayors and elected officials of the impacted municipalities, and the American Planning Association, all of whom strongly oppose the legislation.

If this legislation were to become law, all private colleges and universities would be exempt from municipal zoning. Proponents of the legislation argue that colleges and universities serve a unique public interest and should not be subject to the additional expense of meeting the requirements of the local zoning and planning boards.

On the contrary, there is no justifiable reason why these institutions should be treated differently than other non-profits, such as hospitals, care centers, and prep schools. There is no justifiable reason to exempt private colleges and universities from the same requirements for businesses and our own residents.

A bigger concern with this legislation is that the public, in particular, the residents impacted by the expansion of private colleges and universities, will not have the opportunity to comment on or object to the increased demand for parking, traffic, police protection, fire protection, and the like. As a result of such expansion, the demand on municipal services would increase, perhaps dramatically with little or no input from taxpayers, all of whom will bear the expense of such demands.

Furthermore, the new legislation extends to any property which the private college or university owns or acquires, even if that property is not on its main campus. That situation has an enormous adverse impact on our downtown residential neighborhoods and central business districts. That situation, without proper planning and consideration of infrastructure impacts, allows for the degradation of the fabric of our diverse community and a reduction of the tax base of the municipality, as these institutions are exempt from property taxation.

This misguided legislation is very troublesome. We encourage citizens to contact (via the N.J. Legislature switchboard, 609-847-3905) Jack Ciattarelli and Donna Simon, our State Assembly representatives from the 16th District, as well as our former District 15 representatives, Reed Gusciora and Bonnie Watson-Coleman, to ask them to oppose A-2586. If you haven’t already done so, sign the petition that generates a letter to the governor and Assemblywoman Riley, chair of the Higher Education Committee, by visiting the www.princetonboro.org mayor’s page.

Yina Moore, Mayor

Princeton Borough

Chad Goerner, Mayor

Princeton Township

Princeton Curbside Food Waste Program Had Been Left Out in Solicitation of Bids

To the Editor:

I am deeply troubled to learn that our municipality has solicited bids for new contractors to haul Princeton’s waste without requiring that all the bids provide for a composting pick up. Moreover, the Princeton Curbside Food Waste Program is no longer accepting participants and may be discontinued.

The Princeton Curbside Food Waste Program was launched in June 2011. In only one short month, ten (10) tons of organic waste was saved from landfills. The Township received an Innovation Award from Sustainable Princeton for the program.

Why would Princeton consider any bids that would result in abandoning a successful program that leads us toward creating a more sustainable and conscious community? Four hundred and sixty Princeton residents are already participating and paying for this program, demonstrating that we are a community that cares about composting!

Bids are due back on October 3, 2012. I urge residents and participants to vocalize their support for the program during the review period. In this election year, I reach out to all local candidates to make known their position on the program.

Abandoning the Curbside Food Waste Program would be huge step backwards for our community. With this program, Princeton has the opportunity to lead by example and show other towns how to act socially, ethically and economically responsible with the waste we generate.

Bainy Suri

Chestnut Street

Delicious Food, Lively Music, Conversation At Friends of Princeton Republicans Event

To the Editor:

On behalf of myself, and the over 200 Republican, Democrat, and Independent affiliated attendees at the “Community Barbecue” on September 15, I would like to sincerely thank “The Friends of the Princeton Republicans” for hosting this spectacular event.

The venue was the beautiful Johnson Education Center, the food was delicious, and the lively music got everyone dancing. Above all, the thoughtful and insightful conversations among the guests made the occasion particularly memorable.

Beverly T. Elston

Quarry Street

Penn’s Neck is Not a Jug Handle: An Eight-Point Report on Closures

To the Editor:

1. The streets in the older sections of Penn’s Neck are not wide enough to handle large volumes of traffic. In addition, there are no curbs and many streets do not have sidewalks. Especially as winter approaches, it is vital to ensure the safety of residents and children walking on the roadways.

2. Many of the people we have spoken to have followed their GPS when it tells them to turn right at Washington Road. In fact, some of these people make multiple passes through the neighborhood because they are following directions. How does this reflect on West Windsor when visitors come to Princeton?

3. The signs on Route 1 are too small and too far from the Washington Road intersection. A drastic improvement is needed. The signs that are posted on Route 1 now do not have any relevance to visitors (drivers unfamiliar with road names). The sign on Route 95 tells of the road closures, but does not suggest an alternative to access Princeton (i.e. Route 206). The white sign with small black print in front of the Hyatt, for instance, does not catch the eye, and does not give mileage information. A sign needs to be placed between Alexander Road and Washington Road on Route 1 leading Princeton-bound traffic north and giving mileage of the new route.

4. What is the solution for people who turn right onto Washington Road in error? There are currently no directions leading them to an alternate route. Signs need to be placed on Washington Road telling people how to get to Princeton. Also Alexander Road is too small for large trucks or tour buses and often extremely congested.

5. The wait time on Washington Road should be made clear to those people coming to or leaving the train station. Currently the line to Route 1 on Washington Road stretches for over a mile for many hours during the day. What can be done to help people find other routes and to access the train station in a timely manner?

6. Timing of the traffic light at Route 1 and Washington Road is not acceptable. The DOT indicated that any change in the traffic light must be requested by the Township. Please fight for us and for the commuters who use the Princeton Junction train station.

7. West-Bound turns for residents out of Penn’s Neck during times of heavy traffic: we are unable to leave our homes and side streets from 7:30-10:00 a.m. and 3:30-7:30 p.m. Commuters are not always willing to allow residents access to the roads. What will be done to make Washington Road accessible to West Windsor Residents and commuters to/from the Princeton Junction Train station?

8. Repeat U-turners are a big issue. We have noticed the same vehicles using our neighborhood as their new traffic route. Commuters are actually upset that we don’t want them to use the neighborhood. What is the solution? How can we stress that Penn’s Neck is a neighborhood and not a de-facto jug handle?

For more information and to join us in working to a solution: Contact the DOT: www.state.nj.us/transportation/contact/Join the NoUTurns Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/noUturns

Sharon Sibilia and Sanja Dimic

Washington Road

West Windsor Township

A Leader with Unmatched Experience, Dick Woodbridge Knows Princeton

To the Editor:

I have attended several Woodbridge for Mayor events recently, including the inspiring Princeton Community Barbecue on Saturday. The absence of party labels and the bipartisan tenor of the community gathering were remarkable and heartening. The barbecue was about a United Princeton and a bright vision of the future for our Town absent wider agenda state or national.

I was born in Princeton, attended elementary school on Nassau Street as did Dick Woodbridge. I ran a family-owned hardware store on Witherspoon Street that served the Princeton community for over 65 years. Dick and I served on the Borough Council together, each of us serving as council president in different years. As a Princeton local, I love this town, know its history from the ground up. Be assured Dick Woodbridge knows Princeton inside and out, has put heart and soul together with the better part of his life into serving his beloved hometown. He is a community leader with unmatched experience as a locally elected office holder and volunteer, both in the Borough and the Township.

It is with a strong sense of Community, personal knowledge, and trust in the experienced leadership and sterling character of a longtime friend and associate that this Democrat supports Dick Woodbridge to become the newly formed united town of Princeton’s first Mayor.

Irv Urken

Kennedy Court

Former PTO President Knows Issues Bond Referendum is Trying to Resolve

To the Editor:

I will be voting for the Princeton Public Schools bond referendum on September 24. I am a parent of children at both the middle school and high school. I am also a former PTO President of the middle school and have seen the issues that the referendum is trying to solve. A majority of the monies being spent will be for things such as rotten windows, reconditioning of pavement and refurbishing of roofs that the community will not necessarily notice from the outside but are imperative for the safety of the students and the functioning of the building. However, part of the monies will also go towards improving areas that will directly be used by the students such as the media center which has needed updating for more than a couple of decades. Currently, the media center cannot accommodate the amount of children it should be attracting to this part of the school. The challenge of keeping a middle school age student engaged in reading and research is even more of a challenge when the school’s media center is not up to the task. The above are not all of the improvements that the District is planning. For more information, please go to: www.princeton1k2.org. It is crucial to do these projects now while the interest rates and construction costs are at a historical low as well as to halt the deterioration any further to the infrastructures. Please vote yes on September 24.

Tamera Matteo

Snowden Lane

Levelheaded, Poised, and Solution-Oriented, Liz Lempert Will Listen to All Princetonians

Dear Editor:

I have had the privilege of working with Liz Lempert on Democratic Party matters and have seen first-hand the strong leadership skills she will bring as mayor of the new Princeton. Liz is an excellent choice to be our first mayor because she will listen to the concerns of ALL Princetonians and work hard for us.

Liz is a levelheaded, poised, and solution-oriented person who uses collaboration and good organization as the tools for success. As deputy mayor and township committeewoman she is well-versed in the issues facing our community and will bring a unique combination of fiscal discipline, commitment to diversity, and a focus on environmental sustainability to the job. I enthusiastically urge my fellow citizens to vote Liz Lempert for mayor on November 6.

Margaret Griffin

Battle Road

Quality Dealership and Quality Product Highlight Volvo of Princeton’s Concept

AUTOMOTIVE EXCELLENCE: “We sell safety. This is major. At Volvo of Princeton, it’s all about safety, customer service, energy-efficiency, reliability, and recyclability” Chris Long, general manager of Volvo of Princeton, is shown by a silver XC60, Volvo’s popular cross-over vehicle.

What is it about a Volvo? This automobile has almost unmatched customer loyalty. Once people have one, they keep it as long as possible, and then, only when necessity dictates, turn it in for — of course — another Volvo.

“Customer loyalty is incredible,” says Chris Long, general manager of Volvo of Princeton (Long Motor Company) at Route One South in Lawrenceville. “We have customers who come back for another Volvo, and refer friends here. Customer service is very important to us. If customers have questions or if there is ever a problem, we take care of it right away. If people bring their cars in for service, we make sure they understand what is going to be done.

“Also, the cars today are so amazing, with such high quality and so many features. We’ll go over a new car with the customer for 35 minutes to make sure they understand it before they drive it away.”

Volvo of Princeton is very much a family business, adds Mr. Long. “My dad, David Long, with his brothers Matt and Larry opened the business at 255 Nassau Street in 1982.”

It relocated to its current spacious quarters in 1991.

Family Focus

The family focus is strong. Chris Long’s Three brothers are also in the business, and founders David and Matt continue to oversee the operation. There is lways a member of the Long family in every location

In addition to Princeton, the Long Motor Company has Volvo dealerships in Edison and Bridgewater?, and last April, they branched farther afield with the purchase of a Porsche/Mercedes-Benz dealership in Atlantic City. “This was an opportunity to diversify, and there has been a great response,” says Mr. Long. “My dad is in charge of the operation there.”

Volvo, with its unique history and passionately-devoted owners has a story all its own, he adds. Safety, durability, and longevity are stressed again and again. This has been paramount since the company began producing cars in Sweden in the 1920s.

“The guiding principle behind everything we make at Volvo is, and must remain, safety,” said Assar Gabrielson, a Volvo founder.

But how did this automotive company in Sweden (originally a ball-bearing manufacturer!) become such a big success in the car-conscious U.S.A.?

“The Swedes were very clever,” explains Mr. Long. “They had a contract to produce small delivery vehicles, and something happened to the contract, so in the early 1950s they added windows on the sides of the vehicles to resemble station wagons, and introduced them to the American audience.”

Love Affair

Thus began the American Volvo love affair, and it has only grown stronger over the years. The Longs felt Volvo would do well in Princeton, and it has been an excellent match.

“Our firm, an independent family-owned business, buys the most Volvos of any other small independent company in the world — outside of Sweden,” reports Mr. Long, who has worked full-time in the business since 1994. “Princeton people love their Volvos, and they keep coming back for more.”

Volvo cars are manufactured, assembled, and shipped out of Sweden, and the North American headquarters is in New Jersey, he adds.

Careful attention to every detail of the automobile’s production is key. “Steel is very important when the cars are made, and we use a very high grade of steel. It is also about the placement of the steel in the car. The air bags are another aspect. Many factors are involved to create the safest car,” points out Mr. Long.

“Another thing, Volvo is very environmentally-friendly. For example, Volvos are 85 percent recyclable.”

Also appealing to customers is the recent emphasis on design. Long known for its box-like shape, Volvo has added new lines with a more stylish look, a bit more flair. “We have a great range of styles,” says Mr. Long. “Our S-60 mid-size sedan is very popular, and we have a convertible, a sporty hatch-back, a wagon and various versatile SUVs.”

Exactly Right

Silver continues to be the best-selling color, he adds.

Mr. Long is enthusiastic about the upcoming years, with Volvo poised to make a breakthrough in a number of areas. “In the next 12 to 18 months, Volvo will be revamping; coming out with smaller engines, higher performance, and two or three hybrids will be available. The company has been very careful about hybrids because they want to get it exactly right. Also, three of our current cars get 30 miles per gallon.

“I am really looking forward to the next five years,” he says. “It will be out of sight — changes with engines, environmental awareness. It is so exciting!”

Mr. Long, who grew up in the business, and learned it all — “sales, service, parts” — has always loved cars, and is fascinated by the changes in the industry. “The whole business changed with the internet. It’s so much easier to obtain information, and customers are much more knowledgeable. And with all the technology today, our technicians have on-going training and education at computer school. Some cars now start with the press of a button — not a key. It’s amazing!”

“Tiger” Car

Customer satisfaction is a priority at Volvo of Princeton, and Mr. Long enjoys the interaction with all the clients. “We do all we can to make it a satisfying experience for them. We have a courtesy shuttle, our black and orange striped ‘Tiger’ car, to take people home or to the mall. We also have a complimentary loaner car, if their vehicle has to stay a longer time for service.

“And there are a lot of summer sales events now, with great leasing opportunities and payment plans available. For new Volvos, we offer free maintenance for five years or 50,000 miles.”

Volvo of Princeton has won many awards for sales and service over the years, and giving back to the community has always been an important part of the Long family’s philosophy.

“My dad received the Salute to Dealer Award from Ford Motor Company, when they owned Volvo,” notes Mr. Long. “This is based on commitment to service to the community, and he was one of nine recipients out of 62 nominations from 30 states.”

The company has donated a Volvo to the American Red Cross of central New Jersey’s annual raffle for more than 10 years, and Mr. Long is on the board. Volvo of Princeton regularly contributes to numerous charities and organizations in the area.

“The focus is about giving back,” says Mr. Long. “This has always been important to us. We want to make a difference to people.”

Volvo of Princeton is open Monday through Thursday 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday until 6, Saturday until 5. (609) 882-6000. Website: www.volvocountry.com


Visual Landscape Aesthetic, Harmony and Design Are Specialty of Princeton Lawn and Landscapes

CREATIVE HARMONY: “We’re getting known for being the landscape “theme” experts. We do the landscape in keeping with the architecture and design of the client’s house.” Tom Rinehart, owner and founder of Princeton Lawn and Landscapes, emphasizes the importance of an overall landscaping theme in harmony with the house and environment.

Your home is your haven, and ideally, this should be reflected outdoors as well as indoors. A landscape design in keeping with the architecture of your home and the environment can go a long way both toward enhancing your personal pleasure as well as the property’s future value.

“We believe that the grounds of a home should be in balance with the design of a home,” says Tom Rinehart, founder and owner of Princeton Lawn and Landscapes. “We offer an unsurpassed visual aesthetic in landscape design and superior service at a fair price.”

Whether the house is a stately Tudor, a charming cottage, or traditional colonial, Princeton Lawn and Landscapes can provide the appropriate landscape design.

“For example,” explains Mr. Rinehart, “if your home resembles a cottage in Provence, then your landscape design should incorporate elements such as rustic limestone, decorative planters, groomed boxwoods, and of course, loads of lavender. Unfortunately, a lot of landscapers recommend a contemporary American look regardless of the architecture of your house.”

Design and Color

Mr. Rinehart has a special interest in design and color. Formerly a vice president at Macy’s, he has had a successful career in the fashion industry, including establishing his own children’s wear company. After moving to Princeton 12 years ago, he became a strategic consultant to a number of companies in New York and Philadelphia, as well as focusing on executive searches for many other firms.

In time, he found he wanted to make a change. “My passion was always to get outdoors again,” he explains. “I am originally from Ohio, and I was the first male in the family in 200 years not born on a farm! But we loved to be outdoors, and our whole family gardened together on Saturdays.”

Also, the idea of his own business always appealed to Mr. Rinehart — from his earliest days. “From the time I was 12 or 13, I cut lawns and saved all my money for college. I loved the dignity of work, and was proud to have my own bank account.”

So, after careful research into the landscaping industry, he acquired an existing business, Blue Sky Landscapes in Manalapan.

Dave Guy, former president of Blue Sky, became Mr. Rinehart’s partner in Princeton Lawn and Landscapes last February.

“Dave has a pragmatic sense of design, and expertise in native species, creating hardscapes, lawn renovation, and superior customer service,” notes Mr. Rinehart. “We feel there was a niche for two things in landscaping: one, excellence can be affordable. You can establish a profitable business and not overcharge. And two, the importance of aesthetic sense and style. We are targeting Princeton, Pennington, Hopewell, Kingston, Montgomery, and Belle Mead. We are very focused.”

“Outdoor Living”

Providing planting design, installation, and maintenance, and “outdoor living”, including hardscapes, such as patios, walkways, courtyards, outdoor kitchens, and fireplaces, is a year-round job, says Mr. Rinehart.

“We had our first job in early March. It was a patio and big landscaping installation. We have had great word-of-mouth and referrals, and we are very busy. First, the challenge was getting jobs; now, it’s scheduling all the jobs. We are very encouraged.”

Customers generally focus on two issues, he adds: low maintenance and deer-resistant plants. In the latter case, Mr. Rinehart recommends a variety of deer-resistant plants, such as American holly, viburnum, barberry, juniper, spirea, lilac, dogwood, and butterfly bush.

“We also have organic deer-resistant products to apply that are our own recipes,” he adds. “We like to use plants that are native to the climate and environment, which generally require less maintenance. We also have very big potted containers that only need watering once a week. In addition, after we do a plant installation, we leave behind written instructions. If we are seeding and sodding a lawn, we come and water it for two to three weeks every day. We guarantee the lawn.”

If clients are simply not into maintenance themselves, Princeton Lawn and Landscapes will provide weeding, trimming, lawn cutting, and watering, as needed.

Mr. Rinehart and the staff will advise customers on appropriate plantings for sun and shade, and also the best materials for a hardscape. For example, he points out, “If you want a natural look that blends in well with the local environment, we highly recommend field stone or blue stone. If you want a more economical, easier to install option, synthetic materials are constantly improving aesthetically and look better than ever now.”

Residential Focus

Residential work is the company’s focus, and this is Mr. Rinehart’s special priority. “My passion is residential. I feel it is more creative. I love the idea that we can create a landscape design to go with the theme of the house. And this will also enhance the property value. If owners eventually decide to sell, they will get their money back.”

Small and large projects are all part of the job — everything from a day-long clean-up to a current hardscape, including three patios. Jobs typically take one day to three weeks or more.

Water gardens are another customer favorite, reports Mr. Rinehart. “We also do bird habitats, butterfly gardens, and bird baths.”

Mr. Rinehart is very proud of the company’s special technology feature, enabling clients to see “before and after” pictures of a landscape. “We have fabulous software that can show people how the new landscape or hardscape will look. I love showing this to them on the internet, and then having them see it in person.”

He also is planning to develop an on-line business, including selling self-contained water features and birdbaths. “I am really excited about building the on-line retail business, which will allow us to offer clients exceptional products.

“We look forward to doing beautiful things, to acquiring a phenomenal reputation, and then building on that reputation.”

Princeton Lawn and Landscapes can be reached at (609) 497-3206. Website: www.princetonlawn.com email: tom@princetonlawn.com.


Obituaries 9/19/12

Richard J. Goeke

Princeton native, World War II veteran Richard J. “Dick” Goeke, 91, passed away peacefully on Wednesday, September 12, at his home in Princeton, NJ, with family at his side. A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Monday, September 17, at St. Paul Church, Princeton, NJ. Interment was followed at Princeton Cemetery.

A life-long Princeton resident, Dick was a veteran of World War II, proudly serving as a member of the U.S. Navy Armed Guard. This branch of the Navy defended both U.S. and Allied merchant ships, including cargo ships, tankers, troop ships and other merchant vessels. He saw service in the American and European-African Middle Eastern Areas. He married Ann Wuest, his “Valentine,” on Feb. 13, 1943.

After his return from service in 1945, Dick worked for the painting contractor and retailer, Morris Maple & Son. He then moved on to the painting department at Princeton University, originally working on campus buildings. Later he transferred to the University’s real estate department, where he became the painting foreman.

Dick retired from the University in 1986 after 35 years of service. During retirement, he enjoyed reading, spending time with family and friends and traveling with his wife and friends — to Europe, Canada, the Caribbean, Alaska, Hawaii, and many other places in the United States.

Those who knew Dick will remember him for his friendliness and his exceptional sense of humor — he was a joke-teller extraordinaire. He was often a day-brightener for friends and family who were ill, whom he made a point of visiting in the hospital or at home. In 1992, he and Ann were recognized as the Outstanding Nursing Home Volunteers for Mercer County for their service at Princeton Nursing Home. Dick was an active member of the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Armed Guard, a life member of American Legion Post 76, and a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9312 and the Commanders Club of the Disabled American Veterans.

In addition to Ann, his loving wife of 69 years, Dick is survived by his children, Charles Goeke and his wife, Carol, and Ann Raas and her husband, Scott. He will be greatly missed by his grandchildren Chris Goeke and his partner, Kathleen Sauve; Cindy (Goeke) Skelton and her husband, Gary; and Alyssa and James Raas, as well as by his great-grandchildren, Dylan and Kylie Skelton and Shelby and Piper Goeke. He will be fondly remembered by his sister-in-law, Mary Goeke, nieces, a nephew, and many cousins and friends.

In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate donations in Dick’s memory to Princeton First Aid & Rescue Squad, PO Box 529, Princeton, NJ 08540-0529 (online at www.pfars.org.), or Princeton Hospice, 208 Bunn Drive, Princeton, NJ 08540.

———

John D. Emerick

John Durston Emerick died at his home in Quechee, Vermont on September 13, 2012 after a prolonged illness. He was the beloved husband of Joan S. Emerick, who survives him. Born in 1938 in Syracuse, N.Y., he was predeceased by his parents, Stanley F. Emerick and Anne D. Emerick. Surviving him are his brother Stanley F. Emerick, Jr., and his sister-in-law Penny P. Emerick. Also surviving him are his children, John D. Emerick, Jr., Peter C. Emerick and Stacy E. Heller and their spouses as well as his seven grandchildren.

Mr. Emerick was an alumnus of The Pebble Hill School in Dewitt, NY and was a graduate of Syracuse University, Class of 1961, where he was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity. He was employed at The Great Bear Spring Water Company from 1961-1982, a company founded by his great grandfather in 1888. In 1983 he bought Minute Press in Princeton, NJ which later evolved into Millstone Group, a graphic design business, before Mr. Emerick retired in 2002.

Mr. Emerick was a skilled photographer who explored many evolutions of his talent over the years. He was an avid collector and supporter of the arts, particularly photography. He was also a skilled golfer, having started as a young boy, and he enjoyed playing and following golf regularly. He divided his time between Princeton, NJ and Quechee, VT.

A memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 13, 2012 at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Skillman, NJ. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to either the Pulmonary Hypertension Association, Suite 1000, 801 Roeder Road, Silver Springs, MD 20910, or Storm King Art Center, PO Box 280, Old Pleasant Hill Road, Mountainville, NY 10953. Arrangements are under the direction of the Mather-Hodge Funeral Home, Princeton.

 

Bob Dylan’s “Tempest” — “Heavy Loaded, Fully Alive and Revved Up”

I wear dark glasses to cover my eyes, there are secrets in ‘em that I can’t disguise…

—Bob Dylan, from Tempest

It was an image for the ages, post-millennium Americana in all its glory at the White House May 29 as President Barack Obama presented the Medal of Freedom to Bob Dylan. Masked behind dark glasses, the 71-year-old with the shadow mustache and air of tenuously contained vehemence (“You’re like a time-bomb in my heart,” he sings in “Duquesne Whistle”) might have stepped from the pages of a story by Flannery O’Connor. When he was called forth to receive his medal, a cheer went up from the overflow East Room crowd. Dylan did not look happy. Not once did he come near to a smile. He was fidgeting like a prize fighter at the ringing of the bell, the president standing by while a disembodied female voice read the inane citation, something about “a voice in the national conversation.”

Tending to the other honorees, including astronaut-senator John Glenn and Nobel-prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison, President Obama had been his usual unflappable self. With Dylan, it was as if he were putting a collar on a pit bull or decorating a land mine. Maybe he’d had a sneak preview of the new album, Tempest, where Dylan growls, “I got dogs could tear you limb from limb,” “I could stone you to death” (“Paid in Blood”); “Ever since the British burned the White House down/There’s a bleeding wound in the heart of town” (“The Narrow Way”); “Then she pierced him to the heart and the blood did flow” (“Tin Angel”); or “I can strip you of life/strip you of breath/ship you down/to the house of death” (“The Early Roman Kings”). In “Long and Wasted Years,” where the singer “can’t disguise” the secrets in his eyes, he warns that “the sun can burn your brains right out.”

As he and Obama shook hands, Dylan gave the president’s arm several little pats, as if to say, no harm done, hang in there, you’re all we got.

His Darkest Work?

No doubt it was Dylan’s idea that Columbia Records release Tempest on September 11, 2012, 50 years to the day that his debut LP Bob Dylan came out. A more curious coincidence is that his highly-acclaimed album, Love and Theft, appeared on September 11, 2001. Paranoid bloggers who suspect Dylan has the devil’s unlisted phone number and may even be his emissary contemplate a satanic conspiracy of wonderful dimensions (throw together the operative words and you’ll find at least one blog debating the issue).

There’s no denying, now more than ever, that Dylan trades in ominous nuances and edgy stalemates, the play of shadows and century-spanning vignettes of gutter romance and violence, of which there are, as I’ve already hinted, a remarkable abundance in the new album. Numerous reviewers think Tempest may be his darkest work ever. In the last chapter of  his memoir, Chronicles Volume One, where Dylan’s “little shack in the universe was about to expand into some glorious cathedral, at least in songwriting terms,” he discusses the origins of the tear-your-heart-out dynamic that’s still in force in Tempest. One of the key transformative influences was seeing Brecht on Brecht (with music by Kurt Weill, Brecht’s lyrics translated by Marc Blitzstein) at the Theatre de Lys in the Village in early 1962. Dylan was “aroused right away by the raw intensity of the songs,” “songs with tough language… herky jerky — weird visions” sung by “thieves, scavengers or scallywags” who “roared and snarled.” He mentions “grim surroundings, creepy sensations,” and how “every song seemed to have a pistol in its hip pocket, a club or a brickbat.”

The number that hit him the hardest was “The Black Freighter” or “Pirate Jenny.” After calling it “a wild song. Big medicine in the lyrics. Heavy action spread out,” he writes, “Each phrase comes at you from a ten-foot drop, scuttles across the road and then another one comes like a punch on the chin.” He can’t let it go, still fascinated by what it did to him: “It’s a nasty song, sung by an evil fiend, and when she’s done singing, there’s not a word to say. It leaves you breathless.”

Knowing he’s on to something, Dylan tries to find out “what made the song tick, why it was so effective.” What excites him as a songwriter is that “you couldn’t see what the sum total of all the parts were, not unless you stood way back and waited ‘til the end. It was like Picasso painting Guernica.” Inspired by “Pirate Jenny,” he “began fooling around with things,” taking a lurid story out of the Police Gazette and using Brecht’s song “as a prototype…piled lines on, short bursts of lines.” He liked the idea “but the song didn’t come off.” He was “missing something.” He wastes no time revealing what it was.

When Dylan signed his first contract with Columbia, producer John Hammond gave him an acetate of King of the Delta Blues by Robert Johnson. “From the first note the vibrations from the loudspeaker made my hair stand up,” Dylan writes. “The stabbing sounds from the guitar could almost break a window.” So writes the composer of lines like “Blades are everywhere and they’re breaking my skin” in “The Narrow Way.” When Johnson started singing, he “seemed like a guy who could have sprung from the head of Zeus in full armor.” Six pages later Dylan brings Rimbaud into the mix (“That was a big deal, too…the bells went off”), which “went right along with Johnson’s dark night of the soul” and “the Pirate Jenny framework.” Woody Guthrie’s “hopped up union meeting sermons” are also mentioned, but Dylan’s debt to his mentor is so intimate and respectful that it seems dispassionate by comparison. At this point, five pages from the end of Chronicles, Dylan sets the stage: “I was standing in the gateway. Soon I’d step in heavy loaded, fully alive and revved up.”

The Course of a Lyric

So here he is at 71, with a new album that is undeniably “heavy loaded,” with an event at its center he knew he wanted to write a song about back when he was 20, before he ever made a record. “The madly complicated modern world was something I took little interest in,” he writes in the first chapter of Chronicles. “What was swinging, topical, and up to date for me was stuff like the Titanic sinking.”

In the 45 verses of the title song on Tempest, with its Shakespearean resonance, Dylan is still channeling his early allies, Picasso and Guernica, Rimbaud (“The Drunken Boat”), Robert Johnson (“short punchy verses that resulted in some panoramic story”), and Brecht’s “Black Freighter” while using the Carter Family’s “The Titanic” as his prototype. “I was just fooling with that one night,” he says in an interview with Mikhail Gilmore in the latest Rolling Stone. “I liked that melody — I liked it a lot. ‘Maybe I’m gonna appropriate this melody.’ But where would I go with it?” While he borrows most of the first verse of the Carters’ version and makes good use of the dreaming watchman from the second verse, Dylan’s moon rises not on the ocean but “Out on the Western town.”

Time to set aside the road map and the rule book. If Bob Dylan wants to put the town where it has no business being, like in the middle of the North Atlantic, or vice-versa, that’s his prerogative. “A songwriter doesn’t care about what’s truthful,” he says in the Rolling Stone interview. “What he cares about is what should’ve happened, what could’ve happened. That’s its own kind of truth.” The next 16 verses of “Tempest” are generally true to the historical reality, chandeliers swaying, orchestra playing, smokestack leaning sideways, ship going under, but (with one exception) you won’t find the passengers Dylan mentions on the actual Titanic, although “Leo” and “his sketchbook” (the actor Leonardo diCaprio) were in the James Cameron film. But what about this character Wellington, who was sleeping when “his bed began to slide”? Now he’s strapping on “both his pistols” (“How long could he hold out?”), so it’s that Wellington, and Dylan has cut from April 14, 1912 to the War of 1812. No sooner do you encounter someone who was actually on board (“The rich man Mr. Astor/kissed his darling wife”), then you hear that “Calvin, Blake and Wilson gambled in the dark,” and the Titanic is becoming Desolation Row, with (it seems) John Calvin, William Blake, and (could it be?) Woodrow Wilson joining Wellington and “Davey the brothel keeper” who “came out and dismissed his girls.” Typical of the violence flaring throughout the album, you have brothers on board fighting and slaughtering each other “in a deadly dance.”

Wherever and however Dylan chooses to take it, the ballad’s 45 verses offer the main course in Tempest’s feast of imagery, and 14 minutes on his Titanic is better than 194 on James Cameron’s recently re-released billion-dollar 3-D blockbuster.

“It’s All Good”

Dylan’s band is, as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie used to say of one another, “the other half of his heartbeat”: Donnie Herron (steel guitar, banjo, mandolin, violin); David Hidalgo (guitar, accordion, violin); guitarists Charlie Sexton and Stu Kimball, drummer George G. Receli,  and Tony Garnier’s bass, which at times suggests a lovelorn ghost. The 45 seconds of sunshine leading into “Duquesne Whistle” (co-written with Robert Hunter and released as the album’s single with an accompanying music video) is some of the most sweetly seductive music in all Dylan, and when the drum and bass come pounding in bigtime after the light, melodic spell created by the opening, you feel like the guy in Nash Edgerton’s rough and tumble Chaplin-meets-Tarantino video who can’t help dancing as he playfully stalks the beautiful girl. Look for John Lennon’s face 13 seconds into the video, a subtle acknowledgment of the way he and the Beatles haunt the album, which ends with “Roll On John,” a strong, unsparing elegy for Lennon, who also haunts “Soon After Midnight,” with its subtle echo of the Beatles song “This Boy.”

As for the rest, as Dylan sings on Together Through Life, “It’s all good,” especially “Long and Wasted Years,” the circular motion of life’s wheel of fortune in its gyring guitar; “Scarlet Town” with its sinister “Ain’t Talkin’” ambience; and “Narrow Way,” which swings fiendishly under a killer lyric.

In the Rolling Stone interview, Dylan rightly expresses righteous indignation on the issue of his unacknowledged borrowings. In Desolation Row, there’s room for Wellington and Whittier, Blake and Bo Diddley, and even the city of Vienna, which provided the cover art. The detail shown is from  “The Moldau,” one of the four statues in the “Pallas Athena” fountain in front of the Austrian parliament. As I’ve indicated, Dylan has vividly expressed his debt to Brecht, who wrote “The Song of Moldau,” which has a line, claims a blogger from Vienna, that can be translated, “the times they are a changin.”

Last time I checked, the Princeton Record Exchange had restocked discounted copies of Tempest, both regular and deluxe editions.


Brentano String Quartet Opens Fall Season with Creative and Inspired Program

For the past several years, the Brentano String Quartet, Resident String Quartet at Princeton University, has kicked off the fall music season in Princeton with a free concert in Richardson Auditorium. Mid-September can be a time when families are getting adjusted to the school year or getting children organized at college, but enough people took a break from early fall activities last Friday night to almost fill Richardson as violinists Mark Steinberg and Serena Canon, violist Misha Amory and cellist Nina Lee  presented their annual concert. This Quartet could easily get away with just playing the classics, but Friday night’s concert proved that these musicians have been thinking imaginatively. The concert was part of a multi-venue commissioning project to assign an unfinished fragment or work of music to a contemporary composer to write a companion piece.

The fragments themselves are works of art. Behind many great masterpieces are the composer’s sketchbooks and unfinished thoughts, and in these days of computerized composition programs, these fragments are gems as one can hear a composer’s thought processes until something interrupted the work or pulled the composer in another direction. Particularly in the case of the Franz Schubert and J.S. Bach fragments, one wondered what was going on in the life and mind of the composer that these pieces ended in the middle of a solo phrase. This was the challenge to the contemporary composer — to pick up where the 18th or 19th-century master had left off and forge a new path for the music.

Charles Wuorinen drew his inspiration for his Marian Tropes from the 15th century sacred music of Josquin and Dufay. Staying true to the early Renaissance contrapuntal and harmonic styles, Mr. Wuorinen interwove open interval sonorities and tapered Josquin cadences into a tonal work with echoing phrases and a drone which might have been heard at the time from a sackbut or low stringed instrument. The occasional jarring glissando or discord reminded the audience that this is the 21st century, and the four members of the Brentano Quartet smoothly passed what would have been vocal lines among their instruments.

Franz Schubert lived such a short time and composed so much seemingly flawless music that an unfinished work of his is like a diamond just needing a bit of polish. It is unclear why Schubert never finished what is now called a Quartettsatz in C Minor, and American composer Bruce Adolphe maintained the lyrical thought of Schubert’s complete “Allegro assai”and fragmented “Andante.” The great Schubertian tune of the first movement was conveyed by Mr. Steinberg as first violinist, and picked up by cellist Ms. Lee in Adolphe’s Fra(nz)g-mentation.  Adolphe incorporated a jagged rhythmic drive into the quick tempo borrowed from Schubert’s first movement, and the musicians easily found the lyricism and musical gentility of Schubert’s style.

The fragment treatment which contrasted most dramatically with its original material was Sofia Gubaidulina’s Reflections on the Theme B-A-C-H, based on Bach’s unfinished “Contrapunctus XVIII” from The Art of the Fugue. Whereas Bach’s peaceful “Contrapunctus” was nicely blended in the Brentano Quartet, with an especially elegant melodic line from second violinist Ms. Canin, Ms. Gubaidulina’s arrangement provided a great deal of variety in dynamics with sharp instrumental lines and driving rhythms, conveying the composer’s well-known unconventional approach to sound.

All of the composers commissioned by the Brentano String Quartet for this “Fragments” project found great challenge in examining unfinished musical art from previous centuries and bringing them into the 21st century. John Harbison, who composes in almost every genre, found humor and sauciness in his “Finale” to Haydn’s unfinished Quartet in D Minor. Amidst the rhythmic drive of the Harbison piece, the members of the Brentano Quartet showed that they were independent players, yet cognizant of one another and always working together. The final Mozart fragment and its follow-up Mozart Effects by jazz composer Vijay Iyer flowed right into each other, with an almost indiscernible end of the old and beginning of the new. It was fitting that the Brentano Quartet ended this inventive musical concert with a work of Mozart, whose final unfinished Requiem has spawned some of the most significant musical mystery discussions of the past two centuries.


Christopher Durang Channels Chekhov in McCarter World Premiere; Star-Studded Cast Mixes Regret and Sadness with Absurdist Comedy

Sigourney Weaver and David Hyde Pierce in the world premiere of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang at McCarter Theatre Center. Directed by Nicholas Martin, the production, which is produced in association with Lincoln Center Theater, runs through October 14. Photo: T. Charles Erickson

When “Chekhovian”—sadness, regrets, introspection, frustration—meets “Durangian”—wild absurdities, astonishing eccentricities, anarchic comedy—the results turn out to be both moving and hilarious. Christopher Durang’s new play, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, which opened at McCarter’s Berlind Theatre last weekend, populates its contemporary Bucks County setting with a collection of characters loosely based on figures from the turn-of-the-century (1900) Russian playwright’s somber masterpieces.

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is full of contemporary references, to its present-day setting and the world of pop culture, and at the same time imbued with Chekhovian nostalgia and memories of a kinder, gentler past, in this case the 1950s and ‘60s, of these characters’ and Mr. Durang’s youth.

The updating and geographical shift work well. Certain artists’ names become adjectives for a reason, something to do with timelessness and universality, as Emily Mann obviously realized four years ago in her creation of A Seagull in the Hamptons, a contemporary adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull (1896). Mr. Durang, now 63, describes in an interview how “a few years ago I was at a place in my life where a lot of Chekhov’s characters are, where they’re looking back and asking ‘did I take the right road?’, ‘oh, I didn’t do that and I should have,’ and ‘I didn’t go to Moscow, should I have?’” Mr. Durang had moved to a farmhouse in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, which further brought to mind the world of Chekhov’s plays and his characters, who “are living in the country and their more glamorous relatives are off doing things out in the world while the people who are living at home feel like they haven’t had lives.”

The distinguished cast here, under the direction of Nicholas Martin, Durang veteran and former director of the Williamstown Theatre Festival and Boston’s Huntington Theatre, delivers with style and poignancy this hybrid of outrageous comedy and sad, moving family drama—“Chekhov in a blender,” as Mr. Durang describes it.

Mr. Durang has written several of the funniest plays of the past 40 years, from The Marriage of Bette and Boo (1973), Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You (1979) and Beyond Therapy (1981) to Betty’s Summer Vacation (1999) and Miss Witherspoon (another McCarter premiere in 2005). Mr. Durang, less acerbic, a bit gentler in his satire and characterizations but no less hilarious than he was in his earlier work, is in excellent form here and this top-flight McCarter production serves the play brilliantly.

Three of the finest, and most celebrated, veteran comedic actors anywhere portray the protagonists here, three middle-aged siblings, given names out of Uncle Vanya and Three Sisters — Vanya (David Hyde Pierce), Sonia (Kristine Nielsen) and Masha (Sigourney Weaver) — because their professor parents were enthusiasts of community theater and Chekhov in particular.

Vanya and Sonia, brother and (adopted) sister, live in the old family farmhouse, beautifully rendered in David Korins’ meticulously detailed set. The action of the play takes place in the sunroom with stairs leading up to the second floor and upstage exit leading to the front door and other parts of the house. From the sunroom, characters can look out on a pond, as they eagerly await — still waiting hopefully at the end of the play — the appearance of an auspicious blue heron.

Their dull, often contentious, lives are interrupted by the arrival of their self-absorbed, movie star sister Masha (Sigourney Weaver), who has been gallivanting around the world being a celebrity. She arrives with her much younger stud boyfriend Spike (Billy Magnussen), a wannabe actor with a penchant for taking off his clothes and parading around in his underpants. She summarily announces — shades of Chekhov — “I’ve decided to sell the house.” Masha is not particularly sensitive to the needs of her siblings or of anyone but herself, but she is the only one making a living and paying the bills.

The histrionic cleaning lady Cassandra (Shalita Grant) appears with a colorful array of moderately reliable psychic powers, blood-curdling prophecies and deft voodoo techniques; and Nina (Genevieve Angelson), a young star-struck neighbor, drops in, to Masha’s chagrin, on invitation from Spike.

The principals go out to a local costume party — Masha is determined to commandeer all attention as Walt Disney’s Snow White and to assign all other roles for her siblings and friends, and the action continues through one evening and into the next day.

The six-member ensemble is wisely, shrewdly cast and brilliantly focused, individually and as an interrelated group, in the creation of these eccentric and diverse individuals.

Mr. Pierce, who made his Broadway debut right out of college in the original production of Beyond Therapy in 1982, creates a character like his namesake in Chekhov, but less anguished, more peaceful, hopeful and happy in his consignment to a quiet life of regrets and only the most modest pleasures. Mr. Pierce’s deadpan style and searingly funny comic gift (renown on Broadway, Off-Broadway, on film, and perhaps most memorably as Niles in Frasier on TV) serve him well here, as he helps to ground his more exuberant sisters and captures both the Chekhovian nostalgia and the Durangian hilarity. He explodes into a show-stopping final-act diatribe on the value of “shared memories” — all lost to younger generations of the twenty-first century. Remember those postage stamps you had to lick? Typewriters? Howdy Doody, The Ed Sullivan Show, Davy Crockett and coonskin caps, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Annette Funicello and The Mickey Mouse Show and Old Yeller, all now replaced by “video games, in some virtual reality, where we would kill policemen and prostitutes as if that was some sort of entertainment “?

As Spike, whose texting during the reading of Vanya’s play set off the declamatory monologue, observes, “Wow, what’s up with him? That was a major flip out.”

Ms. Nielsen’s Sonia provides another unforgettable characterization in her over-the-top, bi-polar miseries and rages and her comical body language and vocal histrionics, as she laments her spinsterhood and her doomed rivalry with her glamorous sister. Even Sonia gets her moment, however, in the second act, as her Maggie Smith-as-Evil Queen at the costume party wins her the modicum of attention and accompanying self-confidence she has so sadly missed in the previous fifty years of her life. Her next-day telephone conversation with a man she met at the costume party is a tour-de-force of Durangian humor combined with Chekhovian poignancy, as we laugh loudly then empathize fondly from moment to tense moment. Durang aficionados will happily recall Ms. Nielsen’s brilliant star turns in Betty’s Summer Vacation and Miss Witherspoon, along with a host of other distinguished stage and screen credits.

Ms. Weaver, in this part created especially for her by Mr. Durang, who has been a friend and often a collaborator since Yale School of Drama in the early 1970s, embodies the role of Masha with flair, obviously delighting in taking on this extravagantly caricatured version of herself. Ms. Weaver (star in, among many other stage and screen appearances, Alien, Ghostbusters, Working Girl, Gorillas in the Mist, Avatar and the upcoming Vamps, in which she plays a vampire) delivers all the right moves to create this ultimate aging prima donna who has been gallivanting around the world. The character does appear as a one-dimensional stereotype, all surface, difficult to identify with, until late in the play when her misfortune — and the fact that she is contemplating a grandmother role in her next movie — brings her down to earth with a certain heartwarming humanity.

The three supporting characters are far from minor. Ms. Grant’s Cassandra, not Chekhovian but straight out of Greek mythology, injects a significant dose of adrenalin into the proceedings with her ominous predictions and her mystical, sassy, high-energy interactions with the main characters. Mr. Magnussen’s sexually charged, narcissistic Spike is another extreme stereotype and one from yet another dimension — certainly out of place in rural Bucks County or Chekhov’s world or amongst any adults, Masha excepted, over the age of 30. Mr. Magnussen makes the most of Spike’s incongruity in this setting to deliver a number of rich comedic moments.

As Nina — more Chekhovian echoes — the youthful Ms. Angelson presents an appealing, sincere and idealistic presence, and more thought-provoking contrast to illuminate the other extravagant figures in this play.

Because of the extensive allusions to Chekhov and also to popular culture of the past sixty years, the best audience for this play, which will move on from McCarter to Lincoln Center at the end of October, would undoubtedly be in Mr. Durang’s late middle-aged age group and preferably familiar with Chekhov’s Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters and Cherry Orchard. But the good news is, even if you don’t qualify on one or both of these scores and even though you might miss some of the jokes, there is still plenty going on in Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Chekhov and Durang, along with Mr. Martin and his wonderful cast, provide a hilarious, lively, entertaining evening for all.

Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike will run through October 14 at McCarter’s Berlind Theatre, 91 University Place in Princeton. For tickets, show times and further information, call 609-258-2787 or visit www.mccarter.org.


Area Exhibits 9/19/12

The Arts Council of Princeton at Paul Robeson Center has sculpture by Jonathan Shor on view on the terrace through September 29. The Annual Members Show is in the Taplin Gallery through September 29. For more information call (609) 924-8777 or visit www.artscouncilofprinceton.org.

Artists’ Gallery, 18 Bridge Street, Lambertville, has “Expressions in Wood, Glass and Bamboo,” works by Charlie Katzenbach and Norine Kevolic, through September 30. Visit www.lambertvillearts.com.

Bernstein Gallery at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, has works by Negar Ahkami, Ghada Amer, Reza Farkhondeh, Zeina Barakeh, Ofri Cnaani, Parastou Forouhar, and Shadi Ghadirian as part of “The Fertile Crescent” project, through October 19.

Bucks County Gallery, 77 West Bridge Street, New Hope, Pa., presents a solo exhibit by Christine Graefe Drewyer October 5-28. The opening reception is October 6 from 2-5 p.m. Visit www.buckscountygalleryart.com.

Cafe 44, 44 Leigh Avenue, is showing “Art + 10” September 7-October 1. Paintings and photography, subtitled “A Slice of Life,” are the subject of the show, which includes works by Heather Stoddardt Barros, James Bongartz, Betty Curtiss, Jeannine S. Honstein, Stephen Kennedy, Ryan Lillienthal, Meg Brinster Michael, Tasha O’Neill, Katja De Ruyter, Gill Stewart, Karen Stolper, and Mary Waltham.

College of New Jersey Art Gallery, Pennington Road, Ewing, is presenting “Bruce Rigby: Recent Work” through October 11 in honor of Mr. Rigby’s retirement from teaching. Visit www.tcnj.edu/artgallery.

D&R Greenway, Johnson Education Center, 1 Preservation Place, presents “Sustainable Harvest: Creating Community Through the Land,” a mixed-media show about farmland, iconic farm structures, and new perspectives on crops and creatures, through November 9.

Firestone Library at Princeton University, has in its Milberg Gallery “Woodrow Wilson’s Journey to the White House,” through December 28. In Cotsen Children’s Library through September 30 is “Noah’s Art: Designing Arks for Children.” “First X, Then Y, Now Z: Thematic Maps” runs through February 10 in the main exhibition gallery. “Your True Friend and Enemy: Princeton and the Civil War” shows in the Mudd Manuscript Library Cotsen Children’s Library through July 31. “Into the Woods: A Bicentennial Celebration of the Brothers Grimm” is scheduled for October 15-February 28.

Gallery at Chapin, 4101 Princeton Pike, has “Yardsong: A Botanical Adventure” through September 28. The show is of digital photography by Madelaine Shellaby. From October 1-26, drawings and paintings by Dot Bunn are on view. The reception is October 3 from 5-7 p.m. Call (609) 924-7206.

Gallery 14, 14 Mercer Street, Hopewell, shows “Sanctuary II” by Edward Greenblat, “A View of South Beach” by Martin Schwartz, and “Spiritual Places,” a group show by AgOra, through October 7. Gallery hours are Saturday and Sunday, noon-5 p.m. or by appointment.

Garden State Watercolor Society presents its 43rd Annual Juried Exhibition October 8-28 at Prallsville Mills in Stockton. For times and details on special events, visit www.garden
statewatercolorsociety.net.

Gourgaud Gallery, Cranbury Town Hall, 23-A Main Street, Cranbury, hosts the “Winter Workshop Series Exhibit” by workshop artists including Linda Gilbert, Colleen Cahill, and Hannah Ellis through September 30. Visit www.cranbury.org.

Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, presents Ming Fay’s “Canutopia” installed in the new East Gallery through February 15. Artists displayed in other GFS galleries through September include Sharon Engelstein, Willie Cole, and Marilyn Keating. See www.grounds
forsculpture.org.

Historical Society of Princeton, Bainbridge House, 158 Nassau Street, is showing “Einstein at Home” through February 8. For more information visit www.princetonhistory.org.

The James A. Michener Art Museum at 138 South Pine Street in Doylestown, Pa., has “To Stir, Inform, and Inflame: The Art of Tony Auth” is on view through October 21. “I Look, I Listen: Works on Paper by Marlene Miller” is exhibited through October 14. “Creative Hand, Discerning Heart: Story, Symbol, Self,” runs through December 30. Visit www.michenerartmu
seum.org.

The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, 71 Hamilton Street, on the Rutgers campus in New Brunswick, has “Lynd Ward Draws Stories: Inspired by Mexico’s History, Mark Twain, and Adventures in the Woods” through June 23, 2013. Through January 6, “Art=Text=Art: Works by Contemporary Artists” will be on view, from the collection of drawing collectors Wynn and Sally Kramarsky. “In the Company of Women: Prints by Mary Cassatt” runs September 29-March 3. The museum is open free of charge on Saturday, September 29 as part of National Museum Day Live.

Mariboe Gallery at Peddie School, Swig Arts Center, Hightstown, presents a photography exhibit, “Occupying Wall Street,” by Accra Shepp, through October 3. Then from October 12-November 12, “Nuits Blanches,” recent paintings by Frank Rivera, is on view. An opening reception and talk by the artist is October 12 from 6:30-8 p.m. Visit www.peddie.org/mariboegallery.

MCCC Gallery, Mercer County Community College, West Windsor, is showing “Roger Hane and The Big Idea,” works by the illustrator Roger Hane, through October 4. A slide lecture will be presented September 24, 7 p.m. Visit www.mccc.edu/gallery.

Morven Museum & Garden, 55 Stockton Street, presents “Portrait of Place: Paintings, Drawings, and Prints of New Jersey, 1761-1898” September 28-January 13. Museum hours are Wednesdays-Fridays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. on. Group tours of 10 or more can be arranged any day by advance reservation. There is free on site parking.

New Hope Sidetracks Art Gallery, 2A Stockton Avenue, New Hope, presents its Sixth Annual Naked in New Hope exhibition, a group show about the human body, through November 3.

Outsider Art Gallery, 10 Bridge Street, Suite 4, Frenchtown, has a show of work by artists from the Canary Islands and England through November 1. Additional venues are the first floor of New Hope Arts, next door, and The Raven, New Hope Lodge, 400 West Bridge Street. Call (215) 862-4586.

Princeton Brain and Spine Care Institute at 731 Alexander Road, suite 200, presents “The Activity of Form,” a photography exhibit by Laura McClanahan, Greg McGarvey, Barbara Osterman, and Larry Parsons, through September.

Princeton Day School Anne Reid ’72 Art Gallery is presenting “Peter Lighte: Pieces of China” as its first show of the season, October 1-5. An opening reception and silent auction is September 28. Opening hours are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visit www.pds.org.

Princeton Public Library, 65 Witherspoon Street, is showing photography by Mary Cross (“Egyptland”) and painter Ifat Shatzky through December 31 as part of “The Fertile Crescent: Gender, Art and Society” series taking place in nine area venues. (609) 924-9529 or www.prince
tonlibrary.org.

The Princeton University Art Museum presents “Encounters: Conflict, Dialogue, Discovery” through September 30. The show includes more than 60 works from the museum and private collections and mixes media, historical period and place of origin. “Root and Branch,” which explores the form of a tree in art and includes several art forms, runs through November 25. The Museum has installed 12 sculptures by Ai Weiwei at Scudder Plaza, in front of Robertson Hall, through July 2013. Works by Parastou Forouhar, Mona Hatoum, Sigalit Landau, Shirin Neshat and Laila Shawa are on view through January 13 as part of “The Fertile Crescent” project. “Dancing into Dreams: Maya Vase Painting of the Ik’ Kingdom” is October 6-February 17. Museum hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m. Call (609) 258-3788.

Quiet Life Gallery, 17 North Main Street, Lambertville, shows “Fearless Fighters’ Portraits” by Elise Dodeles through September 30. Visit www.quietlifegal
lery.com.

Rider University Art Gallery presents “Photographic Psychology: Forces That Shape the Psyche” through October 14. An artist’s talk will be September 20, 7 p.m. Visit www.rider.edu/artgallery.

Small World Coffee, 14 Witherspoon Street, has an exhibit called “The Future is Female 2.0” through the month of September.

Stover Mill Gallery, 852 River Road, Erwinna, Pa., will have “Brush and Chisel,” paintings and sculpture by Christine McHugh and Ron Bevilacqua, through September 23. Visit cmart
worksonline.com or call (215) 804-5612.

Straube Center, 1 Straube Center Boulevard, Pennington is showing “Ataractic Themes,” an exhibit of landscapes, portraits and still life work capturing a sense of calm and tranquility, through December 1. Visit www.straubecenter.com/art_at_straube.php.

Trisha Vergis Gallery, 287 South Main Street (Laceworks Complex), Suite 11, Lambertville, is presenting a Gallery Sneak Preview on Saturday, September 29 from 4 to 9 p.m. The preview will feature five local artists and a champagne toast to a new adventure.  Hours: Wednesday to Sunday, 1 to 6 p.m.  Call (609) 460-4710 or visit www.trishavergisgal
lery.com.

Triumph Brewery, 138 Nassau Street, presents a solo exhibit of portraits and abstracts by Jannick Wildberg, September 25-November 25. The opening reception is September 25 from 7-9 p.m.

West Windsor Library, 333 North Post Road, Princeton Junction, shows a solo exhibit of watercolors and acrylics by Elizabeth Peck during the month of October. An opening reception is Sunday, October 7, from 2-4 p.m.

Enduring Franchise Finds Latex-Clad Heroine Fighting More Mutants

MOWING DOWN THE MUTANTS: Writer director Paul W.S. Anderson’s real-life wife Milla Jovovich returns yet again as Alice in Mutant Land in “Resident Evil: Retribution,” the fifth in the Resident Evil series.

The Resident Evil film franchise is proving to be every bit as enduring as the hordes of flesh-eating zombies featured in its every episode. The movies are based on the popular series of high body-count computer games which has also spawned some comic books, graphic novels, cartoons, and a line of merchandise with action figures and more.

This fifth screen adaptation marks yet another collaboration between writer/director Paul W.S. Anderson and his wife, cover girl-turned-actress Milla Jovovich. She, of course, reprises her lead role as Alice, the pistol-packing protector of a planet once again threatened with extinction.

As usual, Anderson does his best to exploit his supermodel spouse’s good looks, between keeping her clad in form-fitting latex for the duration of the adventure and seizing on any excuse to take a pause in the action for a lingering, extreme close-up of her flawless facial features. Otherwise, RE 5 offers formulaic zombie fighting fare, with Alice and an intrepid team of defenders (Michelle Rodriguez, Boris Kodjoe, Bingbing Li, et al) representing the last hope of humanity.

At the point of departure, our heroine, by way of voiceover, quickly recounts the back story of what’s transpired in the prior installments. We learn that the trouble all started when an industrial accident triggered a viral outbreak which in turn led to the rise of the undead.

Today, the diabolical Umbrella Corporation is apparently again up to no good, and on the verge of unleashing an army of mind-controlled minions, including clones of our pretty protagonist. Over-plotted to the point of absurdity, there’s no reason to try to follow RE 5’s storyline.

For while Milla might be up to the challenge of executing the script, the same can’t be said about her supporting cast’s wooden delivery of every last line of dialogue. The worst in this regard is Hong Kong star Bingbing Li who is crippled by the English language making a disastrous Hollywood debut here. A visually-captivating fantasy for teenage males with raging hormones, the demo most apt to appreciate enjoy watching an invincible vixen in spandex waste wave after wave of mindless mutants.

Fair (*). Rated R for partial nudity and pervasive graphic violence. Running time: 95 minutes Distributor: Screen Gems

To see a trailer for Resident Evil: Retribution, visit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fetL5JuKGv4 


A Family’s Flight From The Nazis Is the Subject of a Documentary

FLIGHT OF A FAMILY: Pictured after their resettlement in New York State, the Bauer family is the subject of a documentary by Dan Bauer, to be screened at Princeton Public Library this weekend.

Growing up near Buffalo, New York, Dan Bauer often heard the stories of his family’s harrowing escape from the Nazis. A comfortable Jewish family in 1930’s Vienna, they were forced to leave when Hitler began rounding up Jews and sending them to concentration camps. Mr. Bauer, who is McCarter’s Theatre’s communications director, knew about his grandfather’s time at Buchenwald, and how a family connection managed to get him released. He knew about the family’s eventual relocation to New York. He was aware of who had survived and who had not.

But it wasn’t until his grandmother was approaching her 100th birthday that Mr. Bauer began to feel that her story needed to be told. With the help of family members and friends, the novice filmmaker directed a documentary he called leben um zu sagen (“Live to Tell”), which will be screened Sunday, September 23 at 2 p.m. at Princeton Public Library. A panel discussion will follow the 30-minute showing.

“When my grandmother was 99, my stepmother mentioned to me that someone should get her story on video,” Mr. Bauer said over a cup of tea last week at Infini-T Tea and Spice Souk. “Once I started thinking about it, I knew I wanted to do it properly. I knew I would need a budget and some expertise to put together a project that would be a keepsake.”

Mr. Bauer’s younger brother agreed to help finance the project. Rutgers film student Mary Conlon, daughter of Princeton Public Library librarian Susan Conlon, was hired to do the filming. She was assisted by her father, a former cameraman at New Jersey Network. Mr. Conlon also loaned the equipment.

“I started to look at documentaries,” Mr. Bauer recalled. “I wasn’t happy with what I was seeing. They just weren’t what I wanted. They kind of left me cold.”

Mr. Bauer decided to reach out to Susan Wallner, a friend who used to work for New Jersey Network and now works for PMK Video. “Susan agreed to edit the film,” he said. So because I knew everyone involved, I was able to be a close part of the process. There was a lot of back-and-forth, a lot of integrating family photos into the story. It felt like a true collaboration.”

Beautifully coiffed and elegantly dressed, the subject of the film seems decades younger than her 100 years. Grete Bauer is comfortable in front of the camera, telling her family’s remarkable story of  survival with quiet dignity.

Her grandson chose not to conduct the interviews himself. “I felt it was important to have someone young, who hadn’t heard the stories, asking her the questions,” he said. “I used Emilia LaPenta, who works at McCarter, and it worked well. I think it shows in the softness of my grandmother’s manner and the way she speaks about what happened.”

Mr. Bauer also had Ms. LaPenta interview his father Ulrich and his cousin  Heinz Herling. “I knew my grandmother would tell the story, but I also knew my father and cousin could help put the story in perspective,” he said.

All of the interviews were conducted the weekend of Grete’s centennial birthday gathering, at the Highland Park assisted living facility where she moved from the house in Brocton, New York that was the family’s headquarters for decades. The “talking heads” in the film are interspersed with family photos, some of which Grete was surprised to see when she viewed the film, Mr. Bauer said.

Mr. Bauer visits his grandmother every Sunday. Though the film is finished, he still asks her questions and records her answers. “I’m trying to put something more together for the family, with photos,” he said. “There is so much more to tell.”

The two have always been close. “She lived 45 minutes away from us, and I saw her often,” Mr. Bauer said. “When I was in college, she’d drive over and drop off brownies at my dorm room door. Now that she’s here, I definitely find time to see her every weekend.”

Princeton Public Library’s Susan Conlon is pleased to screen leben, um zu sagen and not just because her daughter was involved in the creation. “I think that Dan has achieved value that will appeal to people on two levels: he has captured this important part of his own family’s story and by sharing it others can find meaning in it; and as a “document” it illustrates and inspires others to take time and steps to preserve these experiences in their families and with people in their lives,” she said.

While Mr. Bauer had written about his family’s experiences in college and graduate school, he never thought of himself as a third generation Holocaust survivor. “A friend recently said to me, ‘Isn’t it interesting that all of your creative work comes from this one subject?’ That really  made me think,” he said.

The screening on September 23 will be followed by a panel discussion between Mr. Bauer, Dr. Paul Winkler of the New Jersey Holocaust Commission on Education, and Susan Hoskins, executive director of the Princeton Senior Resource Center.

“To me, this is more than a Holocaust story,” Mr. Bauer said. “I want to encourage people to get their family stories. Don’t wait until your grandparent is 100 years old. All senior citizens have a story to tell. I see this as a snapshot, by no means my grandmother’s full life story but of course a very important part of her story.”