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.