What's New in Princeton & Central New Jersey?
Reprinted from the September 26, 2007, issue of U.S. 1 Newspaper
Short Subjects
Got a Big House?
Back to TopDo you watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition? Are you addicted to HGTV? Do you subscribe to more than three home improvement or design magazines? Is your interior decorator on speed dial? Do you own a really big house? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might be a candidate for the Junior League of Greater Princeton’s 2008 Designer Showhouse, which takes place this spring.
The Junior League says in a press statement that the ideal house has 25 or more design spaces and generous grounds — to be transformed by interior and landscaper designers. The JLGP Showhouse fundraiser has become a springtime tradition in the Princeton area.
Here’s what happens to your house: The property owner typically receives significant permanent improvements, such as flooring, wall coverings, and exterior walkways or patios (all furniture and removable decor is taken away after the showhouse closes). Previous Junior League Designer Showhouses have been featured in prominent national magazines including Better Homes and Gardens and Traditional Home.
Fly in the ointment: It helps if you also own a second home or have the ability to make temporary living arrangements, because the JLGP will take possession of the house and property during the project and for several months prior so that designers can complete their work.
Proceeds from the Designer Showhouse provide funding for the Junior League of Greater Princeton’s mission and community projects, which focus on improving the math and science literacy of at-risk preschool children and their parents.
Interested? Call 609-771-0525 or E-mail showhouse@jlgp.org.
— Jamie Saxon
Got Klezmer?
Back to TopThey’ve performed at kibbutzes and army bases in Israel as well as New York City’s Gracie Mansion and City Hall for Mayors Guiliani and Bloomberg. They are the Odessa Klezmer/Polka band, headed up by Ed Goldberg, a computer science professor at the College of New Jersey, who plays the accordion, piano, bass, and electronic bouzouki, and has performed at Carnegie Hall on four occasions. He has made over 125 recordings of Polish, Ukrainian, country, Israeli, and Klezmer dance music, four of which have won Grammy awards. His band, established in 1984, comes to Hopewell Valley Vineyards on Saturday, September 29.
The performance will showcase music on the band’s “Who Stole the Kishka?” album (kishka is a sausage or pudding from Eastern European cuisine), which incorporates music from Poland, Rumania, Germany, Turkey, Ukraine, Spain, Hungary, Israel, Russia — and New York’s Lower East Side — to fit traditional Klezmer style. Jewish immigrants brought this upbeat, celebratory dance music to America in the late 19th century.
Music Night, Saturday, September 29, 7 to 10 p.m. Hopewell Valley Vineyards, 46 Yard Road, Pennington. The Odessa Klezmer/ Polka Band. $5. 609-737-4465.
Silent Gem
Back to TopWhat caught our eye about the announcement for Housing Initiatives of Princeton’s second annual “Harvest for Home,” on Sunday, September 30, at the Johnson Education Center off Rosedale Road,was its unusual silent auction.
Normally silent auctions include the same old, same old: gift baskets of gourmet food, a round of golf, a pet portrait. But check out these “Harvest for Home” silent auction items: one week in Borgo Sambuco, a 16th century Umbrian farmhouse that sleeps 22; a custom wardrobe consultation with Vogue fashion editor Sally Singer; a cooking demonstration by famed cookbook author and Princeton memoirist Betty Fussell; a discussion with New York Times science writer Gina Kolata about her new book, “Rethinking Thin;” an opportunity to have your name appear in a forthcoming novel, college admissions counseling, SAT coaching, a custom flavor by the Bent Spoon, and quilts by local quilters.
Housing Initiatives of Princeton is a transitional housing program offering housing and social services to working families, helping them to overcome homelessness and attain self-sufficiency.
Harvest for Home, Sunday, September 30, 3 to 7 p.m. Housing Initiatives of Princeton, D&R Greenway’s Johnson Education Center, Rosedale Road. Music by Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem; Rackett,the “three car garage band with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon; Princeton University’s Tigressions, an a cappella group; and Quipfire, an improv comedy troupe. Also, silent auction, activities for children, and a picnic supper. $40; $20 for ages 6 to 16. 908-874-4081.
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