Bohemian rhapsody

There's a little slice of Greenwich Village in Bucks County.

For the past 37 years, John & Peter's Place in New Hope has been presenting an eclectic mix of musical acts in a Bohemian atmosphere.

In Friday's Good Times, Lisa Rich interviews the owner of John & Peter's, John Larsen, a truly colorful character. The 82-year-old free spirit recalls the trials and tribulations of running this shoestring operation over the years, and the top artists who performed there before they became famous, such as George Thorogood and Norah Jones.

Another interesting personality profiled in this week's edition is the Rev. Charles McCollough, who is interviewed in Janet Purcell's Fine Arts column. Since retiring as an official with the United Church of Christ (in the interest of full disclosure, I'm a member of that denomination), McCollough has devoted himself full-time to sculpture. His work is now on display at the Straube Center in Pennington as part of its winter exhibition.

Also in Good Times, classical music columnist Anita Donovan previews the Dryden Ensemble's "Bach Looking Bach" program, which juxtaposes Bach's compositions with those of the earlier composers who influenced him, taking place Saturday at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Doylestown, Pa., and Sunday at Princeton Theological Seminary. She also gives us a heads-up about the Princeton Symphony Orchestra's "POPS: The Broadway Concert," coming up Saturday at Princeton's Richardson Auditorium.

Ted Otten interviews members of the cast of the Off-Broadstreet Theatre's production of the British sex farce "Bedside Manners," now playing in Pennington.

In her regular "Backbeat" column, Lisa Rich tells us about an appearance by Lemonheads founder Evan Dando Sunday at the Record Collector music store in Bordentown.

Michele Angermiller interviews Shelly Snyder, a student at The College of New Jersey who is a finalist in Saturday's "King or Queen of Campus Comedy" competition on the Rutgers campus in New Brunswick.

Susan Sprague Yeske reviews the Green Parrot Restaurant and Pub in Newtown, Pa.

We also present Stephen Whitty's reviews of "Edge of Darkness" and "When in Rome."

Check out all these interesting articles and more in The Times of Trenton's Good Times section Friday.

Grounds for Photography

A few months ago I reconnected online with a cousin I hadn't seen in more than 20 years. We both grew up in Connecticut, but careers, marriage and the deaths of family members who usually brought us together caused us to lose touch.



So to my surprise, it turned out we're both living in New Jersey now, and she lives in Ewing, close to my workplace in Trenton. And, as it turns out, shes a really good amateur photographer.



And Susan Alexander Mills is one of the 35 photographers whose work was selected out of more than 200 entries for Grounds for Sculpture's Winter Season 2010 Exhibition, which opens tomorrow at the Hamilton sculpture park.



"Focus on Sculpture 2010" is a juried exhibition of amateur photographers' images of sculpture. Susan's subject is the MLK Fountain on the Princeton University campus. Her image, which resembles an Impressionistic painting, accompanies this post.



Grounds for Sculpture is a 35-acre park located on the former site of the New Jersey State Fairgrounds. Founded in 1992 by J. Seward Johnson, it features more than 200 works by both established and emerging artists. It's located at 18 Fairgrounds Road, Hamilton, just off Exit 65B of Route 295 and close to NJ Transit's Hamilton station.



I've been wanting to visit Grounds for Sculpture since I started working at The Times a year ago, but since I live up in Bergen County, the distance has kept me from getting around to it. Now I have an extra incentive to get there and see Susan's work along with everything else there.

Peter the Magic Folksinger

I was a huge fan of Peter, Paul and Mary, the legendary folk singing trio of the '60s.

On Sunday afternoon, one-third of the group will be performing in Princeton. Peter Yarrow will appear at Princeton High School in a benefit concert for the Princeton Public Library.

Lisa Rich's "Backbeat" column about Yarrow is the cover story in this week's Good Times section, coming out in tomorrow's edition of The Times of Trenton.

My most indelible musical memory involves Yarrow and his musical partners, Noel Paul Stookey and the late Mary Travers.

In May 1970, I was a freshman at Bucknell University. PP&M were scheduled to give a concert on campus, and as it turned out, it fell just a few days after the Kent State shootings.

Like most colleges around the country, our campus was on strike to protest the Cambodia invasion. We were all on pins and needles worrying that the National Guard would march on campus and start shooting at us.

One of the songs PP&M performed in the concert was Yarrow's "The Great Mandala (The Wheel of Life)," which is about an imprisoned war protester who goes on a hunger strike and eventually starves to death. With several antiwar activists imprisoned at the Lewisburg federal penitentiary only a few miles away, the recorded version of the song struck close enough to home.

However, in their performance PP&M added a verse about a crowd gathering around the prison gates shouting "Kill him! Kill him!" over and over, rising to a crescendo.

All around me people were breaking down in sobs. It was the most intense musical experience I ever had.

If you go to Princeton High School Sunday, you're sure to have a moving experience of your own.

Elsewhere in Good Times this week, you'll see Steve Whitty's review of the movie "Extraordinary Measures," which is based on the real-life story of the Crowley family of Princeton, who took it upon themselves to find a cure for the rare genetic disorder afflicting two of their children. The movie, which stars Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford, for some inexplicable reason is relocated to Oregon.

Classical columnist Anita Donovan gives a preview of the Greater Princeton Youth Orchestra's concert Saturday night at Princeton's Richardson Auditorium, and the Westminster Conservatory Orchestra and Chorus performance in the Princeton Chapel that same night. She also interviews the Princeton Symphony Orchestra's new director, Rossen Milanov, who will conduct the orchestra for the first time at its concert Sunday at Richardson Auditorium.

Ted Otten writes about the Actors' NET of Bucks County's premiere performance of Paul Osborn's "On Borrowed Time" this weekend at the Morrisville Heritage Center just across the river in Morrisville, Pa.

Michele Angermiller has had a busy week. She interviews former Olympic skater Natasha Kuchiki, who is appearing as Mulan in "Disney on Ice: 100 Years of Magic," coming to Trenton's Sun National Bank Center Wednesday for a run through Jan. 31. She also interviews Frank Santorelli, who played Georgie the Bartender on "The Sopranos," who was repeatedly getting beaten up by Tony Soprano. This weekend he brings his standup comedy act to the relative safety of Catch a Rising Star at the Hyatt Regency in West Windsor.

And for all the foodies out there, Susan Yeske reviews H.I. Rib & Co. in Pennington, which is alive and well despite rumors that it had been demolished along with the next-door strip mall.

So whatever your interests, there's plenty to do in the Trenton area this weekend. Get out and take advantage of the cultural opportunities the Capitol region offers.

The Trenton arts scene

Trenton, New Jersey, is hardly anyone's idea of a cultural mecca, right?

There's more going on there than you would expect. As arts and entertainment editor of The Times of Trenton, it's my job to stay on top of the cultural scene in the Trenton area, and believe me, there's a lot going on.

For starters, Trenton itself has a couple of major concert venues. There's the Patriots Theatre at the Trenton War Memorial, which plays host to numerous top local and nationally known orchestras. You've also got the Sun National Bank Arena (until recently the Sovereign Bank Arena), which plays host to top names in popular entertainment.

Trenton also has the Trenton City Museum, which displays both historic artifacts and exhibitions of the fine arts. There are also numerous smaller venues in downtown Trenton that host art exhibitions and musical performances.

You don't have to venture far outside Trenton to find the university community of Princeton and all the cultural attractions that pertain to an Ivy League institution. Princeton's own Richardson Auditorium is a major concert venue, and the university's art museum houses a major collection.

Princeton is also home to the McCarter Theatre Center, a venue that attracts major classical and popular artists. Also in town is the Westminster Conservatory, a training ground for top vocal and instrumental talent.

Mercer County is particularly blessed with its visual arts venues. In nearby Hamilton is the famous Grounds for Sculpture, one of the nation's largest sculpture gardens. And facing each other on the Delaware River are the twin artists' colonies of Lambertville, N.J., and New Hope, Pa., which are chock full of galleries displaying the works of local artists.

Of necessity, this is a superficial introduction to the Trenton area arts scene. In future entries I'll go into greater detail as I give you a heads-up about what's appearing in the latest edition of our weekend arts and entertainment tabloid, Good Times. I'll point you to the columns by my staff of knowledgeable writers: Anita Donovan on classical music, Lisa Rich on rock and pop music, Ted Otten on theater and Janet Purcell on visual arts. Stay tuned.