VISUAL ARTS

MANA CONTEMPORARY, 818 Newark Ave, JC, (201) 604-2702, www.manacontemporary.com. Through Feb. 25, 2017; hosted by Mana Contemporaryâ€s Middle East Center for the Arts (MECA):  TEXTILE – TERRITORY – TEXT; a group show that examines “concepts of identity, belonging, abjection, and exile in contemporary textile art works by Middle Eastern artists Etti Abergel, Andi Arnovitz, Asad Azi, Hila Lulu Lin Farah Kufr Birim, Fatma Shanan Dery, Mervat Essa, Leor Grady, Buthina Milhem, Yoav Raban, Farid Abu Shakra, Tal Shoshan, Nevet Yitzhak, Amira Ziyan. Curated by Irena Gordon, the show features video installations, animation, painting, photography, and sculpture.

DEEP SPACE GALLERY, 77 Cornelison Ave, JC (201) 777-0166. Opening Oct. 15 GLOSSBLACK, solo exhibition. “Raised in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, Jimmy is an American graffiti writer who began painting in the early 2000s. Today, with over a decade of work under his belt, he has solidified himself as a nationally recognized practitioner of the art. As graffiti culture rises in popularity, he manages to continually find new territory, creating pieces that are instantly recognizable. Working predominantly in aerosol and oil paint, his dynamic lettering styles, layering techniques, craftsmanship, and dedication to detail result in striking works of art.” For more info, www.glossblack.org.

 THEATER 

 JERSEY CITY THEATER CENTER, Merseles Studios, 339-345 Newark Ave, JC www.jctcenter.org.  Runs through Fri, Nov 11: VANITY. The theme is presented in both art and theater. Running

November 3, 4, at 7 pm: MAGNIFICENT YOU. “Multimedia performance, combining, dance, movement and film exploring the sociological, psychological, and spiritual causes & effects of narcissism –developed for Vanity by Driggproductions, a dance & film company in conjunction with  JCTC artist residency program – followed by a Talk-Back. Tix $18 Advance / $20 at the door

 JERSEY CITY THEATER CENTER, Merseles Studios, 339-345 Newark Ave, JC www.jctcenter.org.  VANITY: the theme is presented in both art and theater. On stage Nov. 15, 16, 18, & 19: AND THEN THEY CAME FOR ME: REMEMBERING THE WORLD OF ANNE FRANK. “This poignant multimedia play, by award-winning playwright James Still and directed by Susan Kerner, weaves videotaped interviews of two teen-age friends of Anne Frank – Holocaust survivors Eva Schloss and Ed Silverberg – with live actors recreating scenes from their lives during WWII. The message of And Then They Came For Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank resonates beyond the 20th century genocide in Europe. As performed by a racially diverse cast, the play speaks to the senseless persecution of people worldwide based on nationality, religion, race, and gender. Eva Schloss, Anne Frankâ€s posthumous stepsister and internationally honored Holocaust educator, will participate with the actors and director in a post-play discussion” Tix: $18 online/$20 at door.

 MILE SQUARE THEATRE, 1400 Clinton St, HOB. www.milesquaretheatre.org; (201) 683-7014. Mon, Nov. 7, 8 pm: (Tix $150 to support the theaterâ€s 2017 season). 2ND ANNUAL MST BROADWAY CABARET: AN EVENING OF SONG BY BROADWAY PERFORMERS. “Join some of Broadway’s most dynamic performers for an evening of show tunes from productions past and present at the intimate Mile Square Theatre. Performers include Leslie Becker (Bonnie and Clyde, Wicked), Joe Cassidy (If/Then, Catch Me If You Can), Michelle Duffy (Heathers), Graydon Long (The Audience), Sabina Petra (Beauty and the Beast), Catherine Porter (Next to Normal), Jonathan Rayson (Little Shop of Horrors), Sara Schmidt (Jersey Boys, Brooklyn), Lucia Spina (Legally Blonde, Kinky Boots), Maggie Weston (MST’s It’s a Wonderful Life), and Musical Director Meg Zervoulis (American in Paris, Matilda).

  Liberty Science Center, Liberty State Park, 222 Jersey City Boulevard, JC. (201) 200-1000; www.lsc.org. “Bring your friends to an after-hours adventure at Liberty Science Center. Thurs, Nov. 17, 6-to-10 pm. (And on the 3rd Thursday of every month.) Guests 21 and over can enjoy cocktails, food, music, dancing, laser shows, and more at SCIENCE SPEAKEASY! “Travel back in time for a glittering shindig at Liberty Science Center inspired by the Prohibition era. Meet expert whiskey distillers, taste their products, and learn about the science behind the popular spirit. Test your luck and learn about the math behind your favorite casino games. Get dolled up in your spiffiest 1920â€s-inspired outfit; the LSC After Dark team will be on the hunt for the best-dressed guests, and you could win big. Follow the clues and look for our secret stage. If you find it, youâ€ll be treated to an enlightening underground tech performance. Experience a new laser show in our massive IMAX Dome Theater. Tix are $20 (online) and in advance. There will be a $5 additional charge for all tickets purchased at the door on the night of the event.”

 

FOR THE KIDS

 

HUDSON THEATER ENSEMBLE, at the Hudson School Performance Space, 601 Park Ave, HOB. (201) 377-7014; reservations@hudsontheatreensemble.com. Sat & Sun, Nov. 19, 20 & 26, performances 11 am and 1 pm. All tix $10. Silly on Sixth Childrenâ€s Series presents THE FROG PRINCE, a funny and zany musical. (Show runs about 45 minutes.)

 JCTC-KIDS at the Jersey City Theater Center, Merseles Studios, 339 Newark Ave, JC. www.jctcenter.org. Sundays through Dec 11 at 1 pm: Puppetworks presents Lewis Carrollâ€s ALICE IN WONDERLAND.  Tix: Children: $8; $11 at the door. Adult: $9; $12 at the door. School discounts available. Go to www.jctcenter.org for tix.

 LIBERTY SCIENCE CENTER, Liberty State Park, 222 Jersey City Boulevard, JC. (201) 200-1000; www.lsc.org. BODIES REVEALED* “LSP presents real human figures and organs that reveal the wonder and beauty of the human form. The exhibition shows detailed views of human anatomy, from whole body displays to individual skeletal, muscular, nervous, respiratory, digestive, urinary, reproductive, endocrine, and circulatory systems. Unlike models that idealize the body through the eyes of an artist, this exhibition shows the body and its systems as they really exist, including natural variation.*Bodies Revealed is a premium exhibition, available with the Premium Pass or a Combination Ticket.

 LIBERTY SCIENCE CENTER, Liberty State Park, 222 Jersey City Boulevard, JC. (201) 200-1000; www.lsc.org. Opens Oct. 15:  National Geographicâ€s EXTREME WEATHER. “Weather has always been one of the most dynamic and complex forces shaping our planet, but now it’s intensifying in varied and complex ways. Among the melting tidewater glaciers of Alaska, National Geographic Emerging Explorer Dr. Erin Pettit leads a young team of researchers into the splash zone at the face of Dawes Glacier aboard a boat custom-designed to get as close as possible to the calving ice. In the Great Plains of the United States, Oklahoma native Justin Walker tries to place pods of sensors inside tornados as part of an effort to determine if tornado outbreaks are growing more extreme. A prolonged draught in California has caused the death of huge swaths of forest, creating a dangerous surge in the intensity of wildfires. Follow researchers and everyday heroes as they uncover surprising connections to help us understand and adapt to our ever-changing weather.”

CLUBS

BRIGHTSIDE TAVERN, 141 Bright St, JC. Mon, JAZZ JAM; Tues & Wed: KARAOKE; Thurs: OPEN MIC NIGHT; Fri: COMEDY; Sat & Sun: Brunch, DANCE, KARAOKE, OPEN MIC

OUT OF TOWN HAPPENINGS

 THE NEW VICTORY THEATER, 229 W. 42^nd St, NYC. www.newvictory.org. Nov. 4-13: “From Akram Kahn, arguably the pre-eminent British dance-maker of his generation” (The Telegraph) comes a heartwarming story about our connections to the past, family and finding your own path. CHOTTO DESH, meaning ‘small homeland,’ draws on Khan’s unique quality of cross-cultural storytelling, creating a compelling tale of a young man’s dreams and memories from Britain to Bangladesh. Performed as a solo dance piece, CHOTTO DESH integrates gorgeous interactive animation and an evocative score to create a brilliant and bewitching adventure.”

NEWARK MUSEUM, 49 Washington St, Newark, NJ. (973) 596-6550; www.newarkmuseum.org. Now showing NATIVE ARTISTS OF NORTH AMERICA LONG-TERM INSTALLATION “This fall, the Newark Museum will unveil its newly redesigned and reinterpreted Native American galleries. Featuring more than 100 rarely exhibited objects from throughout the United States and Canada, Native Artists of North America will showcase an exciting selection of works from the permanent collection, dating from the early 19th century to the present, including many objects never before exhibited. Among the works on view will be expertly woven Pomo baskets, exquisite hand-made items of dress from across the continent, and Southwestern pottery and textiles.  Other highlights will include works by the Haida master carver Charles Edenshaw and Pueblo painters Fred Kabotie, Tonita Peña and Awa Tsireh. Additional works by contemporary Native American artists will be installed in adjacent galleries, including recent acquisitions by Jeffrey Gibson and Preston Singletary.”

 SEND US YOUR ARTS LISTINGS. If you have an art opening or performances coming up including visual arts, performing arts and street arts, send an email to:  riverviewobserver@gmail.com and weâ€ll list it in ARTScene.  

ALL ARTscene LISTINGS ARE FREE.

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TLC Monday Nights …10pm

By Sally Deering   Photos by David Bayne

No disrespect to Frank Sinatra, but Hoboken’s bouncing a new favorite son on its knee, a charismatic cake baker who followed in the floured footsteps of his father to become the star of his own reality TV show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since the premiere of “Cake Boss,” tourists have turned the busy little bake shop into a must-see on their vacation itinerary. Out-of-town customers mingle with locals as they crowd into the red-bricked storefront bistro, nestling into café tables and “oohing” and “ahhing” the cannoli, cream puffs, brownies, layer cakes and other sensational home-made pastries on display. Digital cameras in hand, they pose for pictures with Valastro’s vivacious mom and personality-plus sisters while trying to decide what will satisfy their sweet tooth. And once they choose, they snap pictures of each other giddily diving into their desserts — and, rightly so. I mean, have you ever tasted a Carlo’s “lobster claw?”

 

“Anybody else, come on down,” Valastro’s mom calls out to the crowd after posing for a snapshot with Valastro’s sibs and Cristin Wright, 15, of Rhode Island who came to taste the desserts she sees every week on the show.

 

“I’m a fan,” Wright says, beaming after her photo opp. “I watch it every Monday night. I like to watch them make the cakes. I hope to be a pastry chef when I grow up.”

Throughout the day, crowds pour through the door leaving little doubt that the Cake Boss’s star is on the rise.

As sweet as the cream in his tiramisu, Valastro, 32, is warm, funny and passionate about his family and the tradition of baking.  And beneath the celebrity stardust and the boisterous persona that hoots and hollers, cajoles and kibitzes is a humble baker who wears his heart on his chef’s coat sleeve for the man who taught him everything he knows — his dad, Buddy Sr., who passed away long before the cameras came.

“When I was 5, my dad would take me to the bakery on weekends and sit me up on the bench and roll out Pasta Frola,” Valastro says in his tiny upstairs office during a break from taping. “He would give me a cookie cutter and I would cut out cookies and decorate them. It was a fun time with my dad. Then when I was 11, I started making a difference helping out in the store. The more I was there, the more I was intrigued. I looked up to my dad. I wanted to mimic him.”

Valastro comes from a long-line of bakers. His grandfather baked bread in Sicily and Valastro’s father Buddy, Sr., learned the trade. At 13, he went to work for Carlo’s on 4^th and Adams Sts. in Hoboken, a popular bake shop that had been around since 1910.  When he married Mary several years later, the couple bought the bakery and kept the name. Inside the current shop, if you stand near the pie case, you’ll see a photograph of Mary and Buddy, Sr., in their Adams Street store holding a smiling baby Buddy “Cake Boss” Jr.

 

Having a dad as a baker, meant that birthday cakes were something special at home and Valastro recalls the time his father made him a Batman Cave cake.

“My dad was a great cake decorator,” Valastro remembers.

 Buddy Sr., passed away when Valastro was 17 and although he never attended culinary school, he dedicated himself to continuing the family business and “putting it on the map.” Back then, Valastro says, birthday and wedding cakes were very traditional, usually made with whipped cream icing and buttercream rosettes. So, Valastro began working with fondants and other new culinary techniques. When he opened Carlo’s Bake Shop in its present location, he was still in his 20s and the business and his career started taking off. He entered several Food Network bake-offs – winning a $10,000 wedding cake challenge — and pitched his own show. The TLC network liked the idea and even christened him “Cake Boss.” After the first season aired, the TLC aired a “Cake Boss” marathon and that’s when Valastro, his Hoboken bakery and family became reality show stars.

On a recent visit to the Bake Shop, TLC cameras were filming an episode with Valastro and his kitchen crew creating a cake for the Camden Aquarium. Valastro was experimenting with liquid sugar to make coral, pouring the hot mixture into pitchers of ice cubes. When the blue, orange and yellow sugars chilled, he gently shook them loose and they looked just like aquarium coral. The challenges of creating novelty cakes inspires Valastro and he just keeps topping himself like in the episode where he had to create a mechanical robot cake and then deliver his niece’s roller-skate-themed birthday cake – on roller-skates.

 And now that the show is a huge hit, customer requests are getting more elaborate, Valastro says, “They don’t want a cake they want a cake that will spin, talk and move.”

 And then there are all those lobster tails to make. The big demand for this scrumptious delight makes it the most popular pastry in the shop, Shaped like, well, lobster tails, they have a crunchy exterior, like a light, sweetened Shredded Wheat biscuit filled with a sweet cream that sends taste buds into orbit.  Valastro says they’re difficult and time-consuming to make, but even he admits it’s his favorite pastry when a craving calls for something sweet.

Valastro’s craving for the sweet smell of success hasn’t gone to his head although it can be a bit daunting, he says, like when he visits New York City and sees himself on a huge billboard in Times Square. He’s both surprised at the show’s popularity and grateful for all that “Cake Boss” has brought to his family business. There’s just one special ingredient missing in his piece of the pie – the dad who inspired him with just one little cookie cutter.

CAKE BOSS can be seen on The Learning Channel (TLC) Monday nights at 10pm   CAKE BOSS show schedule and times

Carlo’s Bake Shop

95 Washington Street,

 Hoboken, NJ 0730

201-659-3671 

visit them on the web @ www.carlosbakery.com

The post Cover Story -CAKE BOSS- Buddy Valastro -Our River View Interview first appeared on River View Observer.