Internationally known and Renowned Martial Arts Legend Grandmaster Austin Wright Sr. was honored for his extraordinary dedication to service and leadership with the prestigious 2025 Odyssey International Community Service Award of Excellence. The award was presented during the Odyssey International Business Networking Gala, held at the distinguished Newark Museum of Art in Newark, New Jersey.

Grandmaster Wright received this distinguished recognition for his Outstanding Contributions to Martial Arts Education, Youth Empowerment, Veteran Leadership, and Community Well-Being, reflecting a lifelong commitment to uplifting communities locally and internationally through discipline, mentorship, and service.

Further solidifying his global influence and legacy, Grandmaster Wright was recently featured in three internationally recognized martial arts publications, including International Martial Arts Magazine, Deadly Art of Survival, and Martial Arts World Magazine, earning two front-cover features—a rare and notable achievement in the martial arts world.

During the same gala, Grandmaster Wright was also presented with an official Resolution from the City of Jersey City, New Jersey, honoring his lasting impact and exemplary leadership.

The event was masterfully directed by CFO Persia Oliver, whose vision helped bring together influential leaders, honorees, and changemakers from around the world.

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by  Diane Lombardi-Fleming

Hudson County native and the author of his bestselling memoir, The Boss Always Sits In The Back, Jon Dâ€Amore has published his long awaited sequel. Except that itâ€s not really a sequel. Deadfellas incorporates the best (and the worst) of the North Jersey mob with a supernatural theme, which makes for a satirical tale where everyone involved gets their just reward. Where “The Boss” was based on Dâ€Amoreâ€s true life events, Deadfellas stays with the Jersey mob theme, but the story is fiction. “No one would have guessed that mixing the underworld with the real underworld would result in such an entertaining combination,” Dâ€Amore says, after receiving reviews from literary insiders and other authors fortunate enough to get advance copies.

            The author expertly used his ability for storytelling, humor, creativity and deep character development to tell a tale that has the reader rooting for the bad guys. Dâ€Amore has taken these unlikely elements and once again created a “hard to put down” book. The main characters are complex, honorable, sinister, loyal, and in spite of their occupation, likeable. Yet, by the final chapters, one finds theyâ€re hoping everyone gets out alive.

            The fact that Dâ€Amore knows and understands the mob is evident from the first pages of Deadfellas. That he has a sense of humor is also evident. That he is a master at weaving very different elements into a cohesive and fun book is a joy for the reader, and speaks highly of the authorâ€s creativity and imagination.

            Historically, itâ€s the book that gets released and is eventually, and hopefully, turned into a screenplay. But when Jon Dâ€Amore is involved, things never happen in the traditional manner.

            Several years ago while living and working in Hollywood as a script doctor, Dâ€Amore partnered with screenwriter Steve Barr to create an idea for a feature film to fit the zombie-genre. Jon and Steve now laugh as they remember producers telling them they had missed the boat, and that the “zombie wave is over.” As detailed by Barr in Deadfellas†Foreword, this was soon followed by the release of films like Zombieland, and a stream of TV shows such as The Walking Dead, iZombie and many others, “Once again,” states Dâ€Amore, “Those who claim to know what theyâ€re talking about, often donâ€t.”

            Dâ€Amore will be touring the country, beginning in Los Angeles in early September and will arrive for several appearances in New Jersey and New York City during late-September into early-October.

            To purchase signed copies of Deadfellas and The Boss Always Sits In The Back, go to www.Deadfellas.com. Unsigned copies and e-books are also available through Amazon, BarnesAndNoble.com and iTunes.

The post Jon D’Amore Delivers His Next Book, Deadfellas first appeared on River View Observer.

Singerâ€s Debut EP Due Out Soon

 By Sally Deering  

She got the call, and an hour later opera singer Giselle Bellas of Jersey City was in Avatar Studios in Manhattan working out a song with Louis C.K. for the 5^th episode of his Peabody and Emmy Award winning TV Show LOUIE (Thursdays, 10:30 pm,  FX). Louis C.K. sang the lyrics he wrote into an iPhone and left Giselle to collaborate with his band SweetPro, which does all the original music for the series. The result: Giselle sang a haunting tune called “Diarrhea” that plays over the episodeâ€s losing credits.

Since that fateful call made by Giselleâ€s producer Adam Tilzer, who is also the sound engineer on LOUIE, Giselle has turned in performances on six LOUIE episodes collaborating with Louis C.K. and SweetPro and singing tunes that show off her vocal versatility, 4-octave range and sense of humor.

“I did all the female vocals for the show,” Giselle says on a coffee break at a Jersey City bagel shop. “For one scene, I had to scream ‘Why? Why?†over and over in the style of a French woman.”

Classically trained, Giselle began her music studies when she was a kid growing up in Orlando, Florida, with her single mom who raised her on a waitressâ€s earnings, taking extra jobs to keep food on the table and music in Giselleâ€s life.

“She sold clothing out of her car so she could buy me a piano,” Giselle says.

That sacrifice seems to have paid off big time. Given a full opera scholarship, Giselle attended the Music Conservatory at the New World School of the Arts in Miami. She performed solo at Carnegie Hall and then transferred from the New World School to The New School in Manhattan where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature.

Her opera credits include roles in HANSEL AND GRETEL, DON GIOVANNI, Lâ€ELISIR Dâ€AMORE, LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, Lâ€AMICO FRITZ, and LA BOHÈME. That was back when Giselle had set her sights on an opera career, performing all the great lyric soprano parts in opera houses all over the world. She even held a job at the Met gift shop in Manhattan hunting down obscure opera recordings for customers while soaking up the opera scene

“I was surrounded by opera,” Giselle says. “I would go backstage and watch performances. But opera took away my swagger. It is a very rigid world and I felt I was never good enough.”

Giselle decided to break from the constraints of the opera world when during an audition, she was grilled more about her blue nail polish than her work as a singer. When Giselle started recording music for the LOUIE show, her singing career took a different trajectory, she says, and the experience helped her regain her swagger.

“I call it my music evolution,” Giselle says. “Iâ€m a little more ‘ballsy†now.”

That ‘ballsiness†includes collaborating with members of SweetPro and recording her own music; Giselleâ€s debut EP comes out soon. Community-minded, she volunteers with the Jersey City Youth Foundation and has sung “The Star-Spangled Banner” at several events sponsored by the Jersey City Mayorâ€s Office. Recently, she made a non-exclusive agreement with Joma Music Group which will be promoting her songs to TV and film projects.

“They put songs on TV shows like ‘Scandalâ€,” Giselle says.

Will she be adding Season 6 of LOUIE to her fall schedule? Itâ€s too soon to tell, she says. Still, fingers are crossed and hopes are high. She describes Louis C.K. as a sensitive genius and it seems her work on LOUIE has not only given her the opportunity to create with one of the greatest comics of our time, it inspired her to write and sing her own tunes far from the world of opera.

“(My songs) are Pop, but not Bubble Gum Pop,” Giselle says. “More like Pop with a message, like Leslie Goreâ€s ‘You Donâ€t Own Me†and tunes by Adele and Peggy Lee. My songs are more like what Pop used to be.”

To learn more about Giselle, go to: 

www.giselle.us; or visit her Facebook page.

You can also hear Giselle sing “Diarrhea” and other songs on YouTube.com

 

 

 

The post OPERA SINGER GOES POP Giselle Bellas Breaks Out on 5th Season of LOUIE first appeared on River View Observer.

Adding Flair to Tradition, Richmanâ€s Dancers Promenade to Madonna

 By Sally Deering

 Slip the Clutch, Shoot the Star and Roll Away with a Half Sashay; these may be non-sequiturs to most of us but to square-dance fans these terms get them twirling on the dance floor and if Howard Richmanâ€s calling the dance, there might be some Madonna in the mix.

Square Dance calling may not be a typical job found on a resume, but Richman does it to add to his income as a theater artist and he travels throughout the Tri-State area to gyms, schools and church halls to put people through their paces on the dance floor.

“When square dancing was in its hey-day there were no computers, internet, or texting, and on Friday or Saturday night this was the chance to meet people,” Richman says. “It has since evolved.”

For those of us who barely remember dancing the Virginia Reel in grammar school, traditional square dancing has three levels. The entry-level called “Mainstream” comprised of 64 movements; “Plus” with another 30 movements and “Advanced” with another 30. Mainstream and Plus have their own clubs where people take classes and hire callers like Richman to swing them through a labyrinth of patterns in time to the music.

“Itâ€s like when you first learn the alphabet,” Richman says, “first you learn letters, then words,  then sentences and then it gets more literary. In the Mainstream level 68 different steps or movements can be strung along in many different combinations which get you back to your partner and back to your home position. Once you learn those, you can go to any mainstream level club.”

One of the exciting things about square dancing, Richman says, is that the dancers never know whatâ€s coming next.

“Thatâ€s modern American square dancing,” Richman says. “They get up and I start speaking the calls and theyâ€re doing what Iâ€m telling them to do and Iâ€m putting them through a good combination of movements in a smooth and flowing way. You have to know left from right but itâ€s okay to have two left feet.”

GREENWICH VILLAGE SQUARE DANCES

Richman learned he had a thing for square dancing back in the mid-1980s when he saw a newsletter advertising a square dance in Greenwich Village.

“There were a lot of nice people there,” Richman says. “I was an aspiring dancer at the time, so I picked up the steps pretty quickly.  I was singing along with the music, and someone said to me, you should be a caller. I looked at it as a performance; I never dreamed it would go this far.”

THE MUSIC ISNâ€T JUST COWBOY SONGS ANYMORE

When Richman calls a square dance he uses a range of music from traditional square dance songs to contemporary pop tunes. Square dancing is 128 beats per minute, thatâ€s the speed the music should be for calling, Richman says. Heâ€s called square dances to pop songs like Meghan Trainorâ€s “All About That Bass”.

“Iâ€ve called Madonna songs, Destinyâ€s Child, Paul Simon,” Richman says, “and traditional country songs like ‘Back in the Saddle Againâ€.”

PRACTICE WITH FRIENDS

Stating out as a square dance caller, Richman says he practiced his calls with a little help from his friends.

“You get people over to your house and tell them Iâ€m going to call for an hour and then Iâ€ll feed you,” Richman says. “You memorize things and things start to click. Itâ€s my job to remember whoâ€s partnered with whom.”

Although, sometimes partners can get jumbled on the dance floor.

“It used to be easier, the guyâ€s shirt would match the galâ€s dress,” Richman says. “There would be the couple in blue, the couple in yellow, now itâ€s much more casual, you have to look and pay attention at the beginning of the set. And people will switch partners now whereas in the past it used to be a woman would only dance with her husband.”

Richman will go in and teach a class before he starts calling the dance, and in June, he will have come full circle and will be back in Greenwich Village, this time teaching square dance. A Jersey City resident who grew up in South Orange, Richman admits square dance calling isnâ€t a typical profession in New Jersey.

“Itâ€s a pretty rare job,” Richman says.

He credits square dance caller Joe Landi for inspiring his style.

“I make people think more than most callers,” Richman says. “I can be challenging, but Iâ€ve been told my music selection is fantastic, and Iâ€m not boring.”

If you go:

To find out Howard Richmanâ€s square dance schedule, go to:

www.callerhoward.com

The post LORD OF THE SQUARE DANCE Howard Richman gets Dancers Swinging first appeared on River View Observer.

On Wednesday, July 23rd reality TV Celebrity Teresa Guidice appeared at Jersey City’s popular restaurant VB3 to promote her new line of wine Faberlini.

Ms. Guidice  of The Real  Housewives of New Jersey fame has also  written 4  cookbooks of which 3 hit the NY Times Best Selling Author list. The popular reality star  has her own hair care line called “Milania” named after her daughter and has also appeared on Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice.

The post Teresa Guidice of The Real Housewives of New Jersey Makes Appearance at Jersey City’s VB3 Restaurant first appeared on River View Observer.

Published as part of the new Arcadia Publishing imprint Legendary Locals, John Gomezâ€s book LEGENDARY LOCALS OF JERSEY CITY shines new light on the people of Jersey City, past and present who stand out in the crowd. LEGENDARY LOCALS OF JERSEY CITY (Arcadia Publishing; 128 pgs.; $21.99, soft cover focuses on Jersey Cityâ€s Whoâ€s Who and “Who Was”

At first, when Gomez, who is also the founder of the Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy was approached by Arcadia Publishing to do the book, he was reluctant.

“I write about buildings,” Gomez says. “Iâ€m an architectural historian, but then I thought we canâ€t have buildings without the people in them, so I agreed. I had a list of 500 people and had to shrink it to 150.”

Gomez decided to include information in the book that people who are historians would not necessarily know. To accomplish this required a lot of research, he says, and when he decided to add Jersey City Mayor Frank “Boss” Hague to the list, he came across surprising tidbits like the time Hague had a run-in with Russian communist Leon Trotsky in Journal Square. Hague, who was anti-Communist, learned Trotsky was to make an appearance in Journal Square to recruit communists and Hague was there to kick him out.

‘Research and I have a very mysterious relationship,” Gomez says. “Whenever I do research I come across surprising things. I wanted to give the book something fresh and original. When you look and read the book you come away with something about that person that you didnâ€t know anything about.”

Also in Gomezâ€s book is Ann Willis, the first woman architect from Jersey City who made it big. She was one of the first two women architects to be admitted into the New Jersey Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. She designed Trinity United Methodist Church located at the southwest corner of Summit Avenue and Bowers Street in Jersey City.

“She was a major architect,” Gomez says, “and her buildings are still here. We look at buildings and never know who the architect is.”

The Brennan Courthouse in Jersey City rededicated its first-floor Rotunda for architect Theodore Conrad who was a huge figure in Americaâ€s past, having designed the Eternal Flame Memorial for President John F. Kennedy at Arlington Cemetary.

“Ted Conradâ€s spirit was the inspiration for this book,” Gomez says. “I met him in the 1990s. He was a huge influence on many people in Jersey City. When you read the book closely, itâ€s a testament to Ted Conrad.”

Also featured are Alfred Charles Bossom who designed the First National Bank at Exchange Place and the Greenville Bank and Trust Company at Ocean and Lembeck Avenues in Jersey City; and George Siegler who helped build the Holland Tunnel. Dr. Lena F. Edwards a Jersey City physician, who worked at Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964 with 29 other recipients including John Steinbeck, Walt Disney and Carl Sandburg – is also featured.

“During the ceremony, Lena Edwards stood side-by-side with these giants,” Gomez says.

Gomez outlined the chapters in the book according to Civil Rights Leaders, Photographers, Mom & Pop stores and other categories that are connected by the theme, Gomez says.

“The book wasnâ€t hard to shape,” Gomez says. “It was hard to do the research. I researched in the New Jersey Room at the library; I used Columbia University, my own archives, ancestry.com, Google books – I used about 20 sources. When itâ€s a history book you have to make sure everything is right.”

Jersey Cityâ€s history is rich in creativity, Gomez says, and the Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy which he founded shares the cityâ€s history with visitors who embark on the Conservancyâ€s walking and bus tours designed to educate and inspire them about the cityâ€s history. Gomez continues to be in awe of the Cityâ€s architecture, especially the Powerhouse building located downtown.

“The Powerhouse is one of a kind; thereâ€s nothing like it in the world,” Gomez says. “Itâ€s what I call a one hit wonder. Designed by architect John Oakman it would never be repeated. Thatâ€s how grand and significant it is. What happens to it is very important to Jersey City.”

LEGENDARY LOCALS OF JERSEY CITY can be found on the bookshelves of New Word Bookstore on Newark Ave and Garden State News on Central Ave in Jersey City, and at Barnes & Noble Booksellers on Route 3, Paramus.  It can also be purchased online at Amazon.com and

Barnes&Noble.com.

Gomez says that although his new book may have a sequel, heâ€s working on a book that has nothing to do with Jersey City.

“Itâ€s a book on architectural experience and theory,” Gomez says, “and it should be out later this year.”

 If youâ€d like to purchase LEGENDARY LOCALS OF JERSEY CITY, its available online at Amazon.com, and B&N.com, for $21.99. For more info, contact John Gomez at www.hpnetwork.org.

 Book Signings of LEGENDARY LOCALS OF JERSEY CITY by John Gomez will be held at:

 Van Vorst Park Association: Tues, Feb. 18 7:30 PM at the Barrow Mansion, 83 Wayne Street, Jersey City

Village Neighborhood Association: Thurs, Feb. 20, 7:30 PM at 365 Second Street, The Italian Village. More info: jcvillage.org

Hoboken Historical Museum: Sun, Mar. 2, 4 PM @ 1301 Hudson Street, Hoboken. More info: hobokenmuseum.org

Morris Canal Community Development Corporation: Thurs, Mar. 6, 6:45 PM at 317-319 Pacific Avenue, Jersey City; For more info: sparkklem@morriscanalcdc.org

Jack Miller’s Pub: Fri, Mar. 14, 8 PM at 293 Academy Street, Bergen Square. More info: jedsey_journal@compuserve.com

The post Legendary Locals of Jersey City-Book by John Gomez Shines New Light on The City’s Movers and Shakers first appeared on River View Observer.

By Sally Deering

Would your children eat a Spinach Brownie?  How about a Mac & Cheese Cupcake with Vegetable Puree or a Cauliflower Pizza?  They might if they made it themselves.

Those crazy concoctions were created by Rene Gonzalez, founder of Bambino Chef, a cooking school for kids in Jersey City. Inside Bambino Chefâ€s storefront thereâ€s a kitchen with brightly colored utensils where kids don aprons, create food they make themselves and in the process learn to be empowered in the kitchen. At Bambino Chef, Rene creates recipes for cookies, cupcakes, pizza – the skyâ€s the limit and the dishes she creates help give kids a good attitude toward their taste-buds†nemesis, the vegetable.

“I want kids to build relationships with vegetables,” Rene says. “In our classes they touch them, peel them, mash them. We make cookies with sweet potatoes. Yesterday we made mini carrot cakes. We teach them you donâ€t have to put frosting on cake. You can drizzle it with a little honey or a little condensed milk and that will be your sugar substitute. If you cut out the sugar, after a while you wonâ€t want it that much.”

Through workshops taught in 50-minute sessions that are age appropriate, from 2 –years to teens, children are introduced to healthy foods and prepare dishes that incorporate fresh, healthy ingredients. Kids can enroll in a 10-class semester, drop-in classes and special workshops.                                                                                                                                                                

“For one class, we mashed white beans and broccoli into patties and breaded them,” Rene says. “They looked like trees on an island. The breadcrumbs were the color of sand; the palm trees were the broccoli. We made spaghetti with basil and cherry tomatoes to look like birds eggs. We made Cake Pops with green peas and garlic and the kids loved them.”

Bambino Chefâ€s charming storefront has a full kitchen and a long table for kids to mix and mash. The charming place is also available for birthdays and special events like pajama parties and baby showers. Adults can take cooking classes, too.

“I was in finance, I was a tough cookie,” Rene says just minutes after hosting a tea party for moms and their babies. “It wasnâ€t me, I was miserable. This is what I want to do. Children are amazing and now Iâ€m back to who I was meant to be and who I want to be. And I want this to be a happy environment. The kitchen is a happy place.”

Bambino Chef is in after-school programs at several local schools like the French-American Academy of Jersey City. Rene says: “We go to them, we bring our equipment.” And before she gets the kids at Bambino Chef to try out her recipes, she tries them on her three children first.

“I didnâ€t create pizza, but I make my own pizza with ricotta cheese, cheddar, spinach and slices of pear,” Rene says.

 Bambino Chef has a fun atmosphere and itâ€s easy to see kids would feel right at home mixing, mashing and baking. Rene and her husband Gerson want to give children who visit Bambino Chef a fun and memorable experience. And you never know. With shows like Master Chef, Jr. a popular TV show where kids as young as 10 years-old make soufflés, itâ€s quite possible Rene could be teaching the future Gordon Ramsey or Cake Boss.  

“I tell the children cooking is so much more than pouring ingredients together,” Rene says. “Thereâ€s math, numbers, youâ€re concentrating, using your memory skills. Itâ€s science, too. So you have math, science, confidence. Children are so happy when they see the final result, when they make their meal from scratch. With cooking they see, ‘I accomplished thisâ€.”

 Rene Gonzalezâ€s Green Pea Cheese Balls

A special recipe from Rene Gonzalez for kids 3 and up to do with Mom or Dad

1 cup green peas

1 cup mashed potatoes

1/4-to-1/2 cup cheddar cheese

(optional) ½ cup well cooked (over-cooked) rice, nice and sticky

Mix those ingredients

Add one egg, a little garlic and mix together

Add pinch of salt

Take your childâ€s favorite crackers; crumble them into breadcrumbs; and roll the balls in the breadcrumbs

Bake at 400-degrees for 10-15 minutes

Take out of oven, let cool and enjoy!

 

FYI

Bambino Chef

213 Newark Ave Jersey City Tel: (201) 333-9090 info@bambinochef.com

 

 

The post Bambino Chef: Where Kids Learn to Shake ‘N Bake first appeared on River View Observer.

On this all-new episode, Kelsey takes her remaining suitors to an elementary school class to see how they interact with kids, since she is studying to become a teacher. Later, one of the city guys attempts to learn to two-step at an authentic country bar. When elimination night comes around, more men will be sent home.

Danny Martinez of Jersey City, NJ. is one of the bachelors competing for Kelseyâ€s heart in the fourth season of the popular dating reality series. Martinez, a 25-year-old student, describes himself as handsome, fun, charming and loves to party. He loves partying so much that he averages around 12 hours of sleep every week. When it comes to relationships, Danny believes itâ€s the manâ€s role to protect and provide for the woman.

The post Jersey City’s Danny Martinez Remains in Top 15 on CMT’s SWEET HOME ALABAMA first appeared on River View Observer.