Come one, come all to the magical Snow Ball! Art House Productions and presenting sponsor SILVERMAN proudly announce the 17th Annual Snow Ball Gala on Saturday, January 25, 2025, from 8 PM to 11 PM, with an exclusive VIP Honoree Dinner starting at 6 PM. The event will be held at Hudson County Community College’s Culinary Arts School and Conference Center, 161 Newkirk St, Jersey City, NJ 07306. This year’s theme, Spectacle of Wonder, brings the enchantment of the circus to life as we celebrate the vibrant arts and culture scene in Jersey City and honor the incredible individuals who champion Art House Productions’ mission to support artists and enrich Hudson County through exceptional arts programming. Creative black-tie attire is encouraged.

Art House is thrilled to honor the following outstanding contributors to Jersey City’s arts community:

• Hudson County Executive: Craig Guy
• Jersey City LGBTQ+ Pride Festival Producer: Eddie Baez
• Executive Director of the Historic Downtown Special Improvement District (HDSID): Rachel Sieg
• Artist, Curator, and Arts Advocate: Bryant Small
• President and CEO of Jersey City Medical Center RWJ Barnabas Health: Michael Prilutsky

The post Art House Productions’ Snow Ball Gala: Entertainment Lineup, Festivities & Honorees first appeared on River View Observer.

 No Jersey City club had a better name than The Dopeness, a little restaurant and performance venue on Second Street off Newark Ave that served kitschy food and entertainment that ran the gamut from stand-up comedy to jams and slams. Then, suddenly The Dopeness sign came down and a new sign went up for The Citizen. Run by the same team – Anthony Gude and Stephen Schlat – (minus one original partner) The Citizen has what The Dopeness never had:  a liquor license.

Now, visitors who stop by The Citizen can order a Colt 45 and a shot of “Jaimo”, 16-year old Single Malt Scotch, or The Grateful Dead and Moscow Mule – drinks that get squirted into the glass by way of nitro fusion. After one of those you may forget all about The Dopeness and welcome The Citizen with open arms.

“The liquor license was officially granted on Oct. 22^nd and now we have a full bar,” co-owner Gude says, “We have a nice selection of top-shelf drinks and late-night deals that are synonymous with the dive bars in the Village. Weâ€re classy but we serve it all in plastic cups for safety.”

Entertainment-wise, co-owners Gude and Schlat are broadening The Citizenâ€s horizons. The bands Melting Pot and Japanda just played there; and for its Holiday Happy Hour Toy Drive starting at 5 pm on Thurs, Dec. 17, singer GISELLE BELLAS gives a special performance at 8 pm.  (Bring a toy to be donated to the Children’s Specialized Hospital.) On Fri, Dec. 18,

at 9 pm, THE NAKED CITIZEN, an evening featuring the artistry of burlesque takes the stage.

“Our biggest thing before the end of this year is the burlesque show.” Gude says. “We have a film festival potentially coming in and a lot more planned for 2016.”

The burlesque show is a Christmas Cabaret run by The Love Show and NYC Stilts. Performing as a guest star is Satine Sâ€Allumer who is originally from Australia and has toured nationally. There has been a revival of Burlesque since the early 1990â€s, Sâ€Allumer says, and although the art of the striptease is part of her performance, she nor any of the other dancers that will be performing will  go the full Monty There are pasties and G-strings and other adornments that keep the show R-not-X-rated.

.“Burlesque is a fantastic venue for self-expression,” Sâ€Allumer says. “It celebrates all genders, all body types, and all sizes. Itâ€s body positivity.”

Along with the new shows and liquor license, The Citizen boasts new décor, too, sort of a nautical theme like a Retro 1950s-60s pro-citizenship thing, Gude says.

“Weâ€re trying to be Renaissance guys,” Gude says. “We have something really good here.”

THE CITIZEN:

332 Second St, JC

(201) 963-4277

Hours:  Tues-Thurs, 5 pm-Midnight

Fri:  5 pm-2 am; Sat: 5 pm-3 am

For more info visit The Citizen on Facebook.

The post NEW PERSONA- With a New Liquor License and Broader Range of Entertainment – The Dopeness becomes The Citizen first appeared on River View Observer.

The post Giselle Bellas at The Delancey NYC 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.