Late night open thread

So Supreme Court Justice David Souter is retiring according to NPR, opening up a spot on the high court. Did you know there is absolutely NO official qualification test or standard for someone to be nominated to the Supreme Court? It's true. Other offices have pre-set rules such as age, birthplace, etc. Anyone can be nominated to the Supreme Court of the United States of America. We were discussing this in a late night editorial/pizza eating/hockey watching meeting in the Jersey City Desk offices tonight. Intern and dancer (exotic not ballet) Kiki had a suggestion as to whom President Barack Obama should nominate. She thinks New Jersey should get some love (Actually MORE love as Antonin Scalia is a Trenton native) on the high court. Her suggestion?

Associate Justice Jon Bon Jovi! The first Supreme Court justice to be called "Hawt!!".


Time for Jersey City, After Dark

You can't take kids from charter schools anywhere these days

Four students from the Hoboken Charter School had to be arrested and two sent to the hospital after a fight broke out that also broke a window. We're not sure what part of the Bill of Eights the students were studying when the brawl started and police say they have no ideas either but they do suspect brass knuckles were involved. One student claims he was backed into a corner and assaulted by two brothers and the window was broken when a teacher tried to intervene.

The Hoboken Charter School; Readin', Writin' and Rasslin'.

Late night open thread

Tonight we'd like to showcase our naughtiest little Devils fan from last night's game. As you all know Johnny was there and didn't get to see the replays of the horrible late goals Carolina scored to tie and then win the game. He was checking out some of the clips on the YouTube and came across this image of a Devils fan *GASP* flipping the double bird at the celebrating Hurricanes. You can see her handiwork live by clicking the link and forwarding it to about a minute in.

Naughty naughty


Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Yankees finally admit the obvious, maybe $2500 is too much for a ticket to a baseball game

Embarrassed by huge chunks of empty seats on the teevee in the high end seats, the New York Yankees have decided to drop the prices of the uber premium seats as much as 50%. The Wall Street Journal this morning pointed out the folly (and when the Wall Street Journal is jumping in your business over sports you know you have a PR crisis on your hands) of having the rest of the stadium, the taxpayer subsidized stadium we might add, packed in the cheaper seats while the gold bar and caviar sections were empty.

The Yankees have said some of the tickets that don't sell at the new lower prices will be donated.

Ever petulant, Yankees Managing General Partner Hal Steinbrenner said these changes in prices were for this year only, there is no problem with the overall pricing strategy. We disagree, $2500 is overpriced for any seat at any sporting event. Overpriced is overpriced. We'd be willing to bet Mr. Steinbrenner a couple of hot dogs that those seats will be sold for less next year or he'll be facing the same problem he has now: the equivalent of several car payments to see a 3rd place team playing .500 baseball.

Joseph Moreira, welcome back to Jersey City, how was Maryland?

Joseph Moreira has been wanted by the police since he was accused of murdering Juan Batista in Jersey City Heights in 2005. Moreira had been living in Maryland under an assumed name but was ratted out in a tip to police and the US Marshals were able to locate and and arrest him.

Moreira is expected to make his first appearance in court later this week. We certainly hope he enjoyed his time in the greater Maryland area but we also don't think those Baltimore snow globes nor those plastic clicky teevees with the cool images you look at through the peep-hole are allowed in prison.

Late night open thread

There is no hockey on tomorrow night. Other than go yell at traffic perhaps you can suggest something for Johnny to do...

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Hey, Marty, they're called pucks, you get paid to stop them

Wow, simply wow. The New Jersey Devils utterly collapsed and pissed their season away in the span of 90 seconds tonight losing game 7 to Carolina 4-3. The Devils gave up goals seconds apart to Jussi Jokinen and Eric Staal and tomorrow after they clean out their lockers, the Devils are golfing. Jokinen scored on a beautiful cross ice pass from Joni Pitkanen (and full marks to Tim Gleason's diving effort to hold the puck in the Devils zone. Gleason could have been the goat by taking a 4:00 minute high sticking penalty in the third period) to tie the game with 1:20 to play. OK, you steel yourself and prepare for the fact that overtime is comin-----OOPS, NOT SO FAST, the Hurricanes just scored AGAIN. New Jersey fans, at some point you are going to HAVE to come to grips that your all world all everything netminder let in two softies tonight. The first goal by Tuomo Ruutu was a soft one as was the series clincher. Brodeur was not the unmovable force in a game 7 as he has been so many times in big games. This was the second time in this series the Devils coughed up a late goal to beat them. Not a good sign. The New Jersey Devils are in dire need of a top two defenseman in the offseason. A 25 minute a game stud. It was apparent they are missing this type of player in this series.

Johnny could analyze this to death but he'd be here until dawn, the fact is, Cam Ward outdueled Brodeur in game 7 and in the last 3 minutes the Hurricanes wanted it more.

Now the next part dovetails nicely. Always hyper-aware of what the Rangers are doing, Devils fans cheered when they saw that the Capitals had gone up 2-1 on a goal by former Red Wing Sergei Fedorov. They cheered loudly. Johnny was quizzical about this development. Wouldn't it be better if the Rangers WON? At the time the Devils were up 3-2, if they win AND the Rangers win the Devils get HOME ICE ADVANTAGE in the next round against Pittsburgh. Do you want the Rangers to lose or do you want the Devils to have a greater chance to win the cup? Tonight you sounded like it was more important to you for the Rangers to lose than the Devils to get home ice in the next round. Strange, that. No pragmatists at the Prudential Center it seems.

So, yes the Devils and Rangers go down in a flaming pile of fail on the same night. No more live hockey games for Johnny this year and that in the words of The Stooges is "No Fun at All"

Here's the crappiest cell phone video you'll ever see of Brian Rolston's goal, the goal that would prove to be New Jersey's last this year...And as always used without the expressed written consent of the National Hockey League

Game 7 showdown at Prudential Center tonight

BIG BIG BIG game tonight in Newark, game 7 between Carolina (boo hiss) and YOUR New Jersey Devils! Winner take all. Johnny will be there as he loves the high drama of a game 7. One bad bounce and you're done, one mistake and you can break out the golf clubs, one bad game and you're---well you're the San Jose Sharks who avoided the embarrassing second round collapse this year by losing in the first round last night to Anaheim.

OK Devils, let's do this thing...

Hurricanes, come out to play-y-y-y-y-y

Late night open thread

With all this talk of swine flu, what better time to promote St. Paul Pork Products?


Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Oh here we go, people are upset with a Presidential fly over near NYC and Jersey City

First off, and this can't be repeated enough, the authorities in both NYC and Jersey City were ALERTED ahead of time of the photo opportunity at the Statue of Liberty by a faux Air Force One and an F-16 fighter jet. A lot of office workers began fearing another terror attack and left their buildings. OK, we get that we suppose, but understand, LOCAL authorities knew, it was their call to not alert the citizenry. Maybe they should have alerted certain office buildings about the exercise.

If you're upset, talk to them:
Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy: (201) 547-4900/(201) 547-5555
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg: 311 (or 212-NEW-YORK outside NYC)

No planes here


Nope, no planes or big gorillas looking north


None here either, looks like the all it's OK to get back to work


UPDATE:
Now, Mayor Bloomberg is saying he wasn't told, sounds like somebody didn't think he was high enough up the chain of command, LOL.

The NY Daily News points out:

NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said the department was told told of the "aerial photo mission" last Thursday but ordered to stay quiet about it. But they did alert 911 operators at 7 a.m. to tell callers it was an authorized military mission.

Sounds like Bloomberg's anger should be directed internally to a department he oversees.

Monday open thread

You won't be seeing much of Johnny at all today. He's got big doings elsewhere. Zoltron can't run things, Johnny jokingly told him the line for Bonnaroo had begun to form and so he headed for Tennessee a few months early.

Late night open thread

OK Devils fans, Johnny just emptied his piggy bank to get a game 7 seat on Tuesday. You're not gonna let a Red Wings fan buy a ticket to support YOUR team while you stay home and fret out a game 7 are you? Johnny had better see and hear all your smiling faces at The Rock on Tuesday. He wants to see and hear Devils Nation in full throat. Johnny who sometimes gets to analyzing the Devils games he goes to this time will be loudly cheering FOR the Devils. Yep, standing and cheering and stomping his feet. Oh he'll still be wearing his Red Wings sweater but he wants to see a Capitals vs. Devils series in round 2 (Face facts it sure looks like the Rangers are over and done with, and yes he wants to see Pittsburgh try and prove their true worth vs Boston).

One game, loser goes home, winner gets the glory. Would it be too much to hope for overtime? A Devils win yes, but a series ending goal in overtime would be fantastic. Double overtime game 7 series winner anyone?


Time for Jersey City, After Dark

It's 92º in Jersey City on this April 26th, there can be only ONE culprit

Sunday morning classics with George Burns and Gracie Allen

Grab a piping hot up of good morning America, get comfy and enjoy a scene from the George Burns and Gracie Allen show. This week's special guest is Mr. Jack Benny. Great comedy never goes out of style.

Late night open thread

As seen in the lost and found section of the paper: Lost: small apricot poodle. Reward. Neutered. Like one of the family.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Rangers coach John Tortorella has been suspended for game 6 by the NHL

What a classy guy. John Tortorella, who was sitting out circus act Sean Avery in game 5 because he was showing a lack of discipline on the ice in game 4, apparently didn't have the brains to heed his own advice. In the third period of game 5 in Washington, Tortorella squirted water through two panes of glass at heckling fans behind the Rangers bench. The heckling kept up (and after being squirted with water why wouldn't it?) and then Tortorella stood up on the bench, leaned over and threw a bottle of water at the heckling fan---but the Rags coach's aim was no better than his decision making skills and he hit a female Capitals season ticket holder in the face:

Claudette Chandonia told The Washington Post the bottle Tortorella threw hit her in the head. "He was losing and he was frustrated, I guess," Chandonia said, according to the report. "I couldn't believe it. I looked up, and he was throwing the water bottle -- and then it hit me right here, right in the head, and it bounced off me."

What a jackass. If you'll recall last night we took Mr. Tortorella to task for his pissy press conference. When asked about the incident he said he didn't want to discuss it because it was nothing. When asked again, some lackey from the Rangers traveling media staff said the press conference would end if there were another question on the topic. Somebody call that Rangers employee a waaaaaambulance. We'll be taking no questions tonight about how or why our coach assaulted Capitals fans, we mean it.

The Rangers are coming unglued but remember, it was THEY who simply had to have Sean Avery come back to Broadway. They got rid of him once for a reason, and now seem somehow surprised he's back to acting like a seven year old with ADD and a sense of entitlement. As for Tortorella, he deserves the suspension. Squirting water at fans? The NHL has the tape and says Tortorella STARTED the incident. Then he throws a water bottle and hit a woman. If you would have hit Johnny's wife with a water bottle you'd not only be suspended, you'd be going to the dentist on your unexpected day off. What a big big man you are Mr. Tortorella. And now, you've put your team at a huge disadvantage going into a massively important game for your team.

So now Avery will be playing in game six while Tortorella sits it out due to lack of discipline.

Ogie Ogilthorpe could not be reached for comment.

NFL Draft open thread

What are your thoughts on whom the New Jersey Jets and New Jersey Giants should pick or trade for on this most hallowed of NFL dates on the calendar?

Help a Johnny out, where can one get Coleus plants 'round these here parts?

Johnny's got a green thumb and likes growing stuff. Granted, he won't have room for his tomatoes and peppers and such he grew back in Ypsilanti but he will have space for an herb pot or three and would like even two Coleus plants. So, where can a transplant get a plant to replant?

These being Coleus plants:

Late night open thread

Anybody catch Ranger coach John Tortorella's press conference after the Rags 4-0 loss to Washington tonight? Yeah, John, I got a question for you, panties in a wad much?

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with PATTY GRIFFIN!

Well OK, if we had a Letterman clip we'll have a Conan clip. Here is the incredible Patty Griffin from 1999 on Late Night with one of Johnny's favorite Patty Griffin numbers 'Blue Sky'. Flaming Red, the album this song is on should be in your collection, if it's not, you have something to do tonight. Johnny has been lucky enough to see Patty (She asked Johnny to call her by her first name--what, it could happen. Johnny Action Space Punk--friend to the stars) twice and if you're ever able to do it, cough up a few bucks for the ticket, you'll be so glad you did. She's not to be missed.

Patty Griffin with 'Blue Sky'

Red border for Flaming Red, get it? You're lucky Johnny's in tonight, Zoltron wanted a Pablo Cruise video...

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with BLUE RODEO!

Like Mr. Letterman is about to tell you, Blue Rodeo is from Canada (or as Kiki calls it, North Dakota's gay neighbor). This clip is from their US teevee debut in 1991 though the band started in Toronto in 1984. Maybe they got lost eh? This cut, 'Trust Yourself' hit #13 in Canada in 1990. If you've seen the movie 'Postcards from the Edge' you've seen Blue Rodeo as they were the band featured at the end.

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with THE DECEMBERISTS!

Our good friend EDEE was our movie trivia winner earlier this week and chose this really cool song as the bounty. Johnny didn't know much at all about The Decemberists so he did a little research. They are out of Portland Oregon and formed in 2000. The band's name was taken from the 1825 Russian revolt known as the Decembrist revolt. The band is also well known for getting into a hilarious 'feud' with comedian Steven Colbert who challenged the band to a guitar solo-off (in which Colbert cheated and substituted Peter Frampton for himself) over a 'green screen' video dust up.

Here are EDEE's choice, the Decemberists with 'Sleepless'.

Martin Brodeur tied NHL playoff shutout record last night

With his incredible performance against Carolina last night, Devils netminder Martin Brodeur tied the NHL record for playoff shutouts with 23. Brodeur has never ever looked sharper which is saying something with all the magnificent games in his storied career. Brodeur made 44 saves in New Jersey's heart stopping 1-0 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Devils must now wait until Sunday night to try to finish off Carolina in Raleigh in the first elimination game of this series. Devils fans have to be feeling confident they can win one of the next two games and advance.

Late night open thread

OK kids, how about a wonderful ghost story before bed. Not just a ghost story but a documented ghost. Johnny lived in a haunted house before he moved out here. You hear that and say "Well OK a lot of people SAY they have lived in haunted houses but I wasn't there to see or hear anything..."

Tonight you get your chance. From the chilling Sci-Fi Network show Ghost Hunters, a trip inside the St. Augustine Florida lighthouse. This'll send a chill down your spine.


Time for Jersey City, After Dark

If you're going to hate, learn to hate correctly

Dateline Union City: Two morons broke into a Union City all-girls Jewish school and placed a burning cross on a desk. Yes, a cross. The Bnos Sanz School on New York Avenue was vandalized last night around 9:30 pm.

Seriously you two, maybe YOU should be spending more quality time IN school learning and not vandalizing when you're vandalizing incorrectly. Burning crosses are supposed to inspire fear in black families, swastikas are the symbol of hate for Jewish people. All you two have done in your EPIC FAIL is to show what mental midgets you are. Real vandals are laughing at you.

A before school cartoon, just like the olden days

Brought to you by the fine family of ACME products

Late night open thread

US state trivia night:

In which US state are the iconic Tonka Trucks made? Answer here.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Come on out to the Hoboken Earth Day Tire Fire and Bar-B-Q, we've got fun for the whole family

Stevens Park will be the site for this year's Hoboken Earth Day Tire Fire and Bar-B-Q to help celebrate Hoboken's contributions to Earth Day. There will be fun for the kids as they can actually throw little kiddie molotov cocktails to stoke the tire fire (which isn't expected to go out this year until mid-June), they can also meet Sooty The Clown and have fun over at the glass busting booth. Adults will love the beer tent and real life Hoboken St. Patrick's Day Parade simulator.

Don't miss it!

Here's a shot from last years fun

Local Board of Education results from yesterday

With almost all precincts reporting:

Jersey City
Sean Connors: 20.89%
William DeRosa: 15.86%
Patricia Sebron: 13.02%

59.82% voted 'yes' on the tax levy.

Hoboken
Theresa Minutillo: 20.84%
Maureen Sullivan: 19.66%
Ruth McAllister: 18.98%

51.55% voted 'no' on the tax levy.

North Bergen
Maurena Luzzi: 32.45%
Julio Marenco: 31.25%
Ruth Shaw: 31.39%

87.99% voted 'no' on the tax levy.

Kearny
James Doran, Jr.: 23.16%
Paul Castelli: 20.16%
Lisa Anne Schalago: 19.84%

54.67% voted 'yes' on the tax levy.

Weehawken
Richard Barsa: 35.64%
Paul Salandra: 32.11%
Joseph Rutigliano: 31.98%

72.32% voted 'yes' on the tax levy.

Secaucus
Gary Riebesell: 21.13%
Charles Krajewski III: 19.42%
Thomas A. Troyer: 18.01%

53.10% voted 'yes' on the tax levy.

Late night open thread

We're guessing the Devils fans among us will be pretty sour at the way the Devils game ended. Marty Brodeur was bumped outside the crease and Carolina's Jussi Jokinen scored on a tip of a Dennis Seidenberg shot with .2 seconds left to beat New Jersey 4-3. No, not 2 seconds left, .2 seconds left. The NHL has a mess on it's hands. If they come out and explain Brodeur was out of the crease some goalie at some point is going to get murdered playing a puck behind the net or outside the crease. Hey, the NHL has to decide, either Carolina scored a tainted goal or goalies are fair game. Not a good place to be if you're Gary Bettman.

In other hockey news the Red Wings continued their steamrolling of the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight in Columbus 4-1. Henrik Zetterberg had two markers for Detroit who showed the Blue Jackets and their fans that yes, the Red Wings are a physical team quite capable of grinding opponents bones to make their bread.

RJ Umberger, meet Brad Stuart


Umberger as some of you hardcore hockey fans will recall has a history of getting blown up in the playoffs. Here we see then Buffalo Sabre Brian Campbell work his magic. The Sabres legendary Rick Jeanneret with the call...


A Red Wings fan threw an octopus on the ice at Nationwide Arena and to that fan we say "Job well done". No reason their ice should be a virgin any longer. You play the Red Wings, your ice will soon see an octopus on it. Welcome to the NHL Playoffs Columbus. It wasn't boiled either, it was the slimy nasty kind that splat and stick and leave a mark. Luckily it was after the game was in hand.

Remember when Chris Osgood was going to cost the Red Wings any chance to win the cup? Yeah, about that, he's 3-0 with a .970 save % and has allowed 2 goals on 78 shots.

Pittsburgh went up 3-1 on the hapless Flyers, while currently St. Louis is thus far refusing to go quietly into the NHL elimination night tied 2-2 with Vancouver late in the third period. San Jose tries to avoid a ghastly opening round embarrassment to the Ducks tonight with a 1-0 score for the Sharks early in Anaheim tonight. San Jose managed to lose both games at home to the Ducks to start the playoffs.

OLD TIME HOCKEY with Stu Grimson, the Grim Reaper!


Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Incidents like this make Johnny glad he doesn't fly

A flight at Newark airport was delayed this afternoon because a woman checked a Swiss army knife with a 1 1/2 inch blade and another knife with a 2 1/2 inch blade.

First, lady, do you have manure for your brains? Don't you realize how things work at the airport these days? We're SURE it was important you take those knives with you to Las Vegas. What, are you in Cirque du Soleil's new show there 'Le Stab'? Think McFly, think..

Second, we really need to get over this pants wetting over something so small. Yeah, Johnny knows where he lives now and knows what happened when box cutters made their way onboard some flights. It's still ridiculous the flight had to return to the gate and then have everyone de-planed and the aircraft swept. Can't we trust the staff to hold onto these items? Seriously, this psychobilly freak-out behavior by the TSA needs to stop. Practical thinking not panicked thinking will win the day.

We're also of the opinion that the next person jumping up with a Swiss army knife trying anything will be themselves attacked and have their own head lopped off by said knife by the other passengers anymore. It'd also probably be more entertaining than the in-flight movie.

Tuesday morning open thread

Johnny's gotta move the servers around and plug in the thingamajig into the whatsit so you're free to discuss anything your hearts desire this morning...

Late night open thread

Tonight, a few good minutes with two late night Kings O' Comedy from way back in 1984. Jay Leno before he was a big big deal on David Letterman when he was on NBC.


Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Movie trivia time!

Get those thinking caps on movie buffs, this one is gonna be a little tougher. Which 90's movie is this image taken from? If you guess correctly you can pick a video for this weekend's music series! Good Luck.











Final clue:

Oh dear God, it's here! It's found us!! The giant Space Cat head with laser eyes attacks two men in Jersey City!

Somehow, someway citizens the Giant Space Cat Head has made it's way east to Jersey City. Nobody is safe now. Two men were walking on Kennedy Boulevard near Manhattan Ave. when suddenly, the cat head came flying out of Leonard Gordon Park and started firing at them. They took refuge under a vehicle there and were not seriously hurt. One of the men who asked to not be identified for fear of Giant Cat Head retaliation told police "That's messed up, I mean a giant cat head with laser beams?! Has Hell opened upon us?"

Jersey City police had no comment for the Jersey City Desk but it was clear they have no idea what they are up against.

(File footage)

Late night open thread

Travis Zajac was the hero for the Devils tonight in Raleigh scoring on his own rebound just 5 minutes into free hockey lifting New Jersey to a 2-1 series lead. Most excellent news before bed tonight. And since Zajac scored, it's an LOLCat night.


Time for Jersey City, After Dark

The New York Yankees, they take and take and take, if you're waiting for the part where they give back, you're in the wrong place

Let's see, the public is on the hook for hundreds of millions in tax money for the new Yankee Stadium. The Yankees will keep all the concessions, any parking an all that teevee money. What a deal for taxpayers right?

It gets worse. The Yankees, in order to get their new stadium built, razed many local parks and high school and community ballfields. You'd think that in order to be good community citizens, they'd make up those costs and repay the local area in kind. You'd think. Sadly, one local high school is now playing home games out on Staten Island while the school has had to buy 2 busses at the cost of $75,000 and needs another one to move the kids around. A local football field bit the dust. In fact, some local park organizers say the local area stands to lose 4 acres in park land. All Hallows, a local high school who lost their home field and the ones playing out on Staten Island have received a pitching machine from the Yankees as some kind of payment, unfortunately, it's too big for their new cramped space.

Hoo man, thanks Yankees.

The Yankees keep promising things will be rebuilt, they keep quoting timelines that are quickly becoming unworkable due to the rising construction costs and other issues so who loses? Not the Yankees, unless its on their field.

We're going to give the Jersey City Desk last word on this sad matter to civil rights lawyer Norman Siegel:

“There needs to be an apology to this community for the promises unkept.”

The Devils are really up against it tonight in Raleigh...

Johnny remembers the 2002 Stanley Cup Finals when Detroit played Carolina for the title and had an amazing 3 OT game at the RBC Center in game 3. It's loud. Not just regular loud but dare we say, hillbillies dranking bur all day loud (Johnny remembers a kid who was 13 at the time being interviewed about his Hurricanes--kid's name was Spanky Creech, like we said a hillbilly paradise). All three overtimes it rocked and rocked and got louder and louder. Of course the Wings won that night on a goal by Igor Larionov but the point is, the Devils will need some extra effort to carry them tonight especially with captain Jamie Langenbrunner out for at least both games in Raleigh with the dreaded 'lower body injury'.

So, who steps up? Who is the Devil that will be THE MAN today? Will it have to be Martin Brodeur? Will Zach Parise show his 40+ goal season was no fluke and put a couple in the back of the onion bag? Will Brendan Shanahan show off that veteran leadership and dent the twine on the powerplay? Hard questions await Devils fans, the answers will be known by bedtime.

Here's the Larionov goal by the way, 1:06 AM

Saturday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with THE POLICE!

The Police with one of Johnny's favorite tunes 'King of Pain'. Amazing lyrics. Then again, that's an English teacher for you....

That's my soul up there....

Saturday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with BON JOVI!

We had a contest winner this week who sure knew their rock and roll trivia and Johnny said they could pick a song for this weeks videos and their choice was a Jersey boy for a Jersey blog, here is our contest winners call, Bon Jovi with 'One Wild Night'

Saturday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with THE EAGLES!

Talk about a case of sleeping on the job, what would this dump be without some music? How about some Warriors inspired music here with the Eagles and Joe Walsh on lead vocals with 'In the City'

Late night open thread

Tonight we'll leave you with a Johnny original shot of the Met Life Building in the Big Appletini.

Click it for a bigger image. Oh, and by the way, this just into the Jersey City Desk Sports Desk, the Indians just scored on the Yankees again.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

In other Jersey City Desk news, it's gonna be 75º and sunny today

Bye

Apparently now in Hoboken you need to ask if your waiter is actually employed by the restaurant

Yes food fans, a new kind of scam is afoot in Hoboken. Twice a man pretending to be wait staff at two local restaurants approached tables of patrons and asked if they "Were ready to pay". After collecting the cash for the bill, he beat a hasty retreat right up and out of the establishment. Hobson's Choice, at 77 Hudson St. and Margherita's Pizza and Cafe, at 740 Washington St. were both hit with this scam. The man was described as being 20 something and having spikey hair. In the Margherita's case he asked to be put on a waiting list for a table and sat and it appears waited for a table ready to pay with cash and jumped into action.

In both cases the restaurants did the right thing and waived the bills as they said it wouldn't have been right to charge their customers twice.

Well here's something else to be wary of diners. We're not sure there's a polite way to ask your waiter "Are you SURE you work here", but maybe it's time to start.

Late night open thread

OK, first things first. If you don't have Music Choice on your cable package you can skip down to the next paragraph. Dear Music Choice programmers--can you ASSHATS ever just leave music channels where they're at? Why the hell do you have to keep changing them? What's the point? No sooner does Johnny learn all of the ones he likes and you idiots go move them all around again for NO REASON. Douchecanoes....

Well thrillseekers, it just wasn't to be tonight at the Prudential Center, as many of you know already, Carolina evened the series with New Jersey 1-1 with a 2-1 overtime victory over the Devils. Johnny smelled overtime midway in the second period and told Mrs. Johnny then it was headed to free hockey. This of course thrilled her to no end. Then Johnny began torturing her with memories of 3 and 4 overtime NHL playoff games; "Remember that time Pat LaFontaine scored on Easter morning when the Islanders beat Washington in 4 overtimes? That was cool eh?". Give Hurricanes head coach Paul Maurice credit too, he started short shifting his defense corps early in the third period like he felt overtime was coming too. Johnny was watching the Carolina bench and counting time on the Hurricanes defense shifts and it was never more than 30 seconds, in some cases the third Carolina pairing was out for 15 or 20 seconds, just long enough to get a clear and a dump in. Lo and behold in overtime the Carolina defense were active active active holding pucks in and a defenseman scored the OT winner with an assist from another defenseman. Make it Tim Gleason from Joe Corvo. D to D and back to Raleigh at 1-1. FYI, this was Carolina's fifth playoff overtime victory over the Devils in five tries. Yikes.



Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Oh Devils fans, shall we have some fun at Ranger fans expense?

Remember when Rangers fans were crowing about how Mats Sundin would automatically sign with the Rangers because, well, they were from New York and everyone wants to play in New York because harumph, it's New York? Well here is a dynamite spoof of that situation taken from a BRILLIANT movie called 'Downfall' the inside story told by those who were in Hitler's bunker in those last fateful days of World War II in Berlin.

Have your say on a bevy of Jersey City news

News roundup Friday:

A brawl at a church? Yep, we've got that covered, what say you?

An armed robbery Tuesday night near Journal Square, what's it all about Alfie...

On the good side, over 600 volunteers will turn out to help paint and repair some Jersey City properties, give 'em some love

Late night open thread

In other sports news, Hockey Inc. started the defense of the Stanley Cup with a 4-1 thrashing of upstart Columbus. After the first period the Blue Jackets had 8 shots on goal. Sweeeeet.

Sorry fellow Garden Staters, loyalties in hockey never change.


Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Boy, Yankee fans, frontrunners much?

It was disgraceful to see the OPENING DAY ever of the new Yankee Stadium and the place half empty after the Indians took a 10-2 lead. Seriously, how many days is the opening inaugural day of the stadium going to happen? The answer, TODAY ONLY. What was that all about? You can't sit through ONE loss to break in your new stadium?

That looked pretty sad folks.

Isn't tonight the big Mayor Bloomberg fundraiser for Mayor Healy?

Big doings in Gotham tonight kiddies. Mayor Bloomberg is hosting a fundraiser for Jersey City Mayor Healy as our mayor stokes his campaign warchest for the mayoral election later this year. Johnny has an inside person attending (he might, you don't know) and we'll get you all the gossipy tidbits at a later date.

Late night open thread

Well the Devils looked sharp tonight in beating the Hurricanes 4-1. The Hurricanes are gonna have to play better, MUCH better to challenge the Devils Friday night. Johnny will sure be there for that one, The Rock will be, well, rocking.

The Rangers stole one in Washington tonight. In some way we shouldn't be surprised, Lundqvist is a better goalie than Theodore, not much debate there. The question was are the Rangers going to get enough offense to challenge the Caps goal machine. Tonight the answer was a solid YES.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Johnny's most excellent Devils first round primer and prediction

OK here we go, just minutes from the greatest tournament in all of sports. The New Jersey Devils have drawn the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round.

For as similar as these teams are, it's the small differences that will decide the series. Both teams forecheck hard and have great leadership. Langenbrunner and Elias and Shanahan provide excellent leadership for New Jersey. Rod Brind'Amour and Eric Staal provide it for Carolina. Both teams have solid if unspectacular defense corps. Cam Ward, the Carolina netminder, while lacking the career accolades of Devils star goalie Martin Brodeur can and most likely will match him. Do not think if you're a Devils fan just because Ward's name isn't Brodeur he's not a capable netminder.

Johnny thinks this'll break down like this: The Hurricanes will have an advantage in the faceoff circle, that's critical. Brind'Amour is one of the best ever. The Devils will have an advantage in sheer ability to score goals. If Parise gets bottled up, the Devils still have go to guys. Carolina isn't as goal ability strong as New Jersey. The Devils have home ice but Johnny thinks that's something that fans worry more about than players. Carolina got hot at the end of the year to make it in as the 6th seed. The Devils started strong and had a few normal travails that good teams have and still wound up with over 100 points.

Here's the difference; The Devils are better rested, giving them a little more energy to draw on coming in. This is going to be a long hard series. The Devils need to win the first two games at home, that could prove their undoing if they don't. You need those first two at home to really apply pressure on the opposition, forcing them to beat you 4 out of 5 games.

Devils in 7

Other first round matchups

Capitals over the Rangers in 5
Bruins over the Canadiens in 5
Flyers over the Penguins in 7

Western Conference
Sharks over the Ducks in 6
Red Wings (Woo Hoo) over the Blue Jackets in 6
Blues over Canucks in 7
Blackhawks over the Flames in 7

So, any Jersey City Desk readers going to one of these ridiculous 'teabagging' parties?

Citizen involvement and action is a good thing when it comes to government. We love that. But when it's nothing more than a right wing ploy sponsored by FOX News and several Republican groups, it stops being citizen action and becomes corporate political whoring. When a news station sends it anchors to not report on a teabagging event but to make speeches and end their name to the event, it's not citizen activism. Fox News is doing just that today. Here's a list of just who and how this is being funded besides Fox News:

– Freedom Works staffers coordinate conference calls among protesters, contacting conservative activists to give them “sign ideas, sample press releases, and a map of events around the country.”

– Freedom Works staffers apparently moved to “take over” the planning of local events in Florida.

– Freedom Works provides how-to guides for delivering a “clear message” to the public and media.

– Freedom Works has several domain addresses — some of them made to look like they were set up by amateurs — to promote the protests.

– Americans for Prosperity is writing press releases and planning the events in New Jersey, Arizona, New Hampshire, Missouri, Kansas, and several other states.

*Americans for Prosperity is run by Tim Phillips, who was Ralph Reed’s former partner in the lobbying firm Century Strategies.

*Freedom Works is run by former Republican congressman Dick Armey.

As someone pointed out, if you're going to have a huge nationwide teabagging party you're going to need a Dick Armey.

Citizens please, this has nothing to do with activism or outrage, it's STAGED. The student protest at the New School in New York City that broke into a police induced riot was citizen activism. The actual Boston Tea party was citizen activism.

Again, we don't normally take political sides here, we still don't but we know a pig in a poke when we see one

Late night open thread

Holy Mackinaw, what a performance. Amazing show tonight at the Nokia Theater by Miss Neko Case. Hot set, the new songs were utterly brilliant and the older ones were huge crowd pleasers. Note to the Nokia Theater staff who walked around outside before the show "warning" patrons about taking pictures; Stop being jagoffs and don't try and blame Neko for YOUR policies on cameras and pictures. Johnny has seen her before, she's said outright on a few occasions she doesn't mind cameras being used. She said in Cleveland one night she was OK with video cameras. Look at YouTube for heaven's sake, look what we post here. Nokia Theater staff, they weren't all that, the concert and the facility itself, yeah, great stuff. The song 'Red Tide' was exceptionally exceptional as was Johnny's all time favorite 'Star Witness' and 'Prison Girls' with all the backing vocals, beyond the delightful Kelly Hogan sounded big and bold. Kelly Hogan you ROCK, your stage presence is second to none. Mr. Rauhouse, your steel guitar on 'Deep Red Bells' was like nothing Johnny had ever heard before. A tip of the hat to you sir.

So, now you're saying, I missed Neko this time Johnny, when can I make up for this horrible error in judgement? Well citizen Neko's coming to Jersey City....FACT! She'll be performing at the All Points West festival July 31-August 2nd. Neko will perform Saturday August 1st along with The Arctic Monkeys and The Ting Tings. Friday night July 31st is The Beastie Boys and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Sunday August 2nd brings Coldplay and Echo and the Bunnymen.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

One more with Neko this afternoon

Johnny's gotta go get gussied up and ready for the big show tonight. He'll leave you with Neko's song 'Favorite', asking the cosmic question; What if suddenly fate decided to become your very best friend?

A little something to help you ease into your afternoon

Another Neko Case favorite, from the album 'Fox Confessor Brings the Flood' here's 'Maybe Sparrow'.

Hmmmmm, what should we cover next? Real news? Commentary? Nah...

Here is a live recording of a dynamite new song off of Middle Cyclone called 'The Pharaohs'. This was recorded last fall at the Slowdown in Omaha Nebraska. Johnny's all about this song, one of his favorites from the new platter. We'll toss in the lyrics for free so you can sing along.


THE PHARAOHS
Neko Case 2008

WE WERE MARRIED IN THE MIRRORED HALL WHEN I WAS SIXTEEN
YOU SPOKE THE WORDS "I LOVE GIRLS IN WHITE LEATHER JACKETS"
THAT WAS GOOD ENOUGH FOR LOVE
IT WAS GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME

I LISTENED IN WHEN YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE ALONE
CALLING THE SPHINX ON A TORNADO'S PHONE
WHO KNOWS WHAT YOU MEANT?
I ONLY HEARD WHAT I WANTED

YOU SAID I WAS YOUR BLUE, BLUE BABY... AND YOU WERE RIGHT
YOU SAID I WAS YOUR BLUE, BLUE BABY... AND YOU WERE RIGHT

YOU WANDERED THE HALLS ALL THE NIGHT TIME
MY BODY BURNED, MY LEGS ACHED
BUT YOU NEVER CAME TO BED, YOU JUST LEFT ME THERE AWAKE
YOU KEPT ME WANTING, WANTING, WANTING
LIKE THE WANTING IN THE MOVIES AND THE HYMNS
I WANT THE PHARAOHS BUT THERE'S ONLY MEN
I WANT THE PHARAOHS BUT THERE'S ONLY MEN

YOU SAID I WAS YOUR BLUE, BLUE BABY... AND YOU WERE RIGHT
YOU SAID I WAS YOUR BLUE, BLUE BABY... AND YOU WERE RIGHT

As promised, to start your day right, some Neko Case

The newest video from Middle Cyclone for the song 'People Got a Lotta Nerve'

Late night open thread

Neko, dear Neko is in town tonight at the Nokia Theater, or at this late hour WAS at the Nokia Theater tonight AND the best part is she'll be there tomorrow night. Of course Johnny will be there with bells on to bring you a full account of her Middle Cyclone Tour stop. If you don't have tickets, fear not citizen, Neko will be performing for FREE tomorrow night on David Letterman.

Guess what we'll be featuring tomorrow here at the Jersey City Desk, just guess. If Neko Case screwed you over when you were a kid or she kicked you in the nards at some point, skip JCD tomorrow, but come back Wednesday.


Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Sad news--Mark 'The Bird' Fidrych was found dead today

Boy as a Detroit area kid who was coming of age in the 1970's Mark Fidrych was a local folk hero. The free spirit Tigers pitcher sure shook things up for a year. Johnny always felt baseball got cheated by his shoulder injury cutting short his run. Apparently Fidrych was working on a truck on his farm in Massachusetts and it fell on him.

RIP Bird, we'll miss you

Devils and Rangers announces playoff schedules

The New Jersey Devils draw the Carolina Hurricanes while the New York Rangers will start the Stanley Cup playoffs vs the Washington Capitals. Playoff schedules for the first round are:

No. 3 New Jersey Devils vs. No. 6 Carolina Hurricanes
Wednesday, April 15, Carolina at New Jersey, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, April 17, Carolina at New Jersey, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 19, New Jersey at Carolina, 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, April 21, New Jersey at Carolina, 7:30 p.m.
*--Thursday, April 23, Carolina at New Jersey, 7:30 p.m.
*--Sunday, April 26, New Jersey at Carolina, TBD
*--Tuesday, April 28, Carolina at New Jersey, 7:30 p.m.

No. 2 Washington Capitals vs. No. 7 New York Rangers
Wednesday, April 15, NY Rangers at Washington, 7 p.m.
Saturday, April 18, NY Rangers at Washington, 1 p.m.
Monday, April 20, Washington at NY Rangers, 7 p.m.
Wednesday, April 22, Washington at NY Rangers, 7 p.m.
*--Friday, April 24, NY Rangers at Washington, 7 p.m.
*--Sunday, April 26, Washington at NY Rangers, 2 p.m.
*--Tuesday, April 28, NY Rangers at Washington, TBD

* notes if necessary

Welcome to Monday dear readers

For 50 points, who wrote this song?

Late night open thread

So, did you eat yourself sick on chocolate rabbits and peeps today? Good for you. You were supposed to.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Happy Easter from the Jersey City Desk

Let's learn about 'Easter' shall we? Professor Eddie Izzard is holding class this morning

Late night open thread

As seen here in Jersey City tonight.


Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Riot police in New York City, on the wrong side as usual, assault a citizen exercising free speech

Helping prop up New School President, who should be out on his ass, the NYC police helped arrest 22 peaceful protesters who occupied a building on campus. They were charged with burglary, riot and criminal mischief charges. (What, no TERRORISM charges that the government is so fashionably tossing around like Mardi Gras beads anymore?). After the students retrenched in Union Square, they marched toward President Kerry's house and once again the police were on hand to stifle dissent.

Earlier as Der Fuhrer Bloomberg's police stormed the building being occupied a police officer knocked a man to the ground then a MOB of police officers arrested the man for daring to say to police "How Dare you". This now is an arrestable (and apparently assault-worthy) offense in New York when police are attacking, openly attacking first amendment speech.

This is gonna get ugly people, when strong arm police tactics stifle free speech they need to be stood up to. Maybe a few cops in NYC would to well to get a punch in the mouth and realize just how wrong they're being and just WHAT they stand violently in support of.

Get video of these cops people, get badge numbers, there are names hiding behind these badges and they MUST and WILL be held accountable in some way. They work FOR you, they are PUBLIC servants and thusly their names are PUBLIC record. Stand up to these thugs. YOU have rights against them too. Read and listen citizens (With a word and language warning for this clip):


Your Right of Defense Against Unlawful Arrest

"Citizens may resist unlawful arrest to the point of taking an arresting officer's life if necessary." Plummer v. State, 136 Ind. 306. This premise was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case: John Bad Elk v. U.S., 177 U.S. 529. The Court stated: "Where the officer is killed in the course of the disorder which naturally accompanies an attempted arrest that is resisted, the law looks with very different eyes upon the transaction, when the officer had the right to make the arrest, from what it does if the officer had no right. What may be murder in the first case might be nothing more than manslaughter in the other, or the facts might show that no offense had been committed."

It appears SOME local media outlets were fooled by the fake press release that Lil' Kim would be running for Mayor of Hoboken...

...but not the Jersey City Desk!

Seriously, Johnny is the kind of guy who INVENTS the fake press releases like that. Channel 7 in New York and 1010 WINS reported the bogus news. The Jersey Journal ran with the Channel 7 report and asked the speculative question if we'd be calling her Mayor.

Come on people, she's a convicted felon. Do we REALLY think she'd run for Mayor of Hoboken? Puh-leeze. Listen if fake news is gonna be run in the Jersey City Desk, we'll be the ones inventing it.

Late night open thread

Well, sadly the New Jersey City University Women's Bowling team lost to Nebraska-Omaha earlier today 4-3 to eliminate them from the NCAA title chase. Earlier in the day the NJCU women eliminated defending national champions Maryland Eastern-Shore 4-1-1. So, what did we learn? As the only Division III team to make it to the tournament, we're REALLY REALLY PROUD of the team. We applaud Candice D'Angelo, Jennifer Daunno, Nicole Drejerwski, Jenn Marmo, and Amanda Small. Jennifer Daunno had a 279 game this weekend, an AMAZING feat. Not far behind was Nicole Drejerwski with a 262 and Jenn Marmo with a 254. You could give Johnny 3 rolls per frame and he'd not score that high.

With no seniors on this team, the future is bright indeed. Thanks ladies, you didn't lose anything, you just didn't win. You rolled like champs.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Friday might MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with THE CLASH!

So Johnny is in NYC tonight having dinner at the fabulous restaurant '41' on Greenwich Avenue in the West Village (Quaint little place, excellent choices in food, both appetizers and main courses, and the staff went above and beyond as you're about to hear), and as he walks in he hears them playing The Clash. Now, that's pretty cool. A dinnertime Clash song, excellent mood setter. But hipsters, it wasn't just ONE Clash song, no it was an entire CD of Clash songs which really set a fantastic mood in the place. At one point, about the time the song 'Complete Control' came thumping through the sound system the barmaid thought maybe she had made a mistake in leaving the Clash on for the dinner hour. There weren't a whole lot of people there at the time and Johnny overheard her lament. He spoke up and said no, in fact it was the RIGHT choice for the dinner hour. Being the great gal she was, after one jazzy song by Louis Armstrong, she put the Clash back on. Johnny made sure her tip was a little bigger than it might have been, all because of the music.

So The Clash it is tonight and why not turn your speakers up for some dinner music, 'Complete Control'

Friday might MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with ELVIS COSTELLO!

Sherman, set the Way-Back Machine for 1977. He we'll find Elvis Costello on the old show Top of the Pops performing '(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes'. The video has a couple Elvis info nuggets and we're throwing in those for free tonight.

Friday might MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with THOMPSON TWINS!

Oh the pogo dancing going on in the audience, it makes you wanna find a Bartles and Jaymes wine cooler to enjoy this 80's throwback clip. Pssssst, the Thompson Twins weren't even twins. Thomas Dolby played keyboards with the band (though not ever a member) early on and helped them touring. Here are the Thompson Twins with 'In the Name of Love'.

New Jersey City University Women's Bowling team rolls on in NCAA tourney

Our gals defeated the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore earlier today eliminating them and will now face The University of Nebraska-Omaha at 3:30 in a one and done situation, lose and you're out. The scoring of UNJC's victory is as follows:

(2) New Jersey City University (88-37) def. (3) University of Maryland Eastern Shore (115-41), 4-1-1
(208-200, 205-167. 169=163, 185-210, 202-202, 245-203); Maryland Eastern Shore eliminated

According to the NJCU Gothic Knight's webpage, the rest of the tourney shakes out like this:

Third Round (Friday, April 9), 3:30 p.m.
MATCH #9: (4) Vanderbilt University (88-20) vs. (6) University of Central Missouri (85-37)(Loser eliminated)
MATCH #10: (1) University of Nebraska-Lincoln (68-20) vs. (2) New Jersey City University (88-37) (Loser eliminated)
Fourth Round (Friday, April 9), 5:20 p.m.
MATCH #11: (5) Fairleigh Dickinson University (112-27) vs. Winner of Match #9
MATCH #12: (7) Delaware State University (119-36) vs. Winner of Match #10
Fifth Round (Saturday, April 11), 5 p.m. (if necessary)
MATCH #13: Winner of Match #11 vs. Loser of Match #11 (Loser eliminated)
MATCH #14: Winner of Match #12 vs. Loser of Match #12 (Loser eliminated)
Sixth Round (Saturday, April 11), 8 p.m.
CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL (MATCH #15): Winner of Match #11/13 vs. Winner of Match # 12/14

UPDATE: Some screen shots of our gals in action and WINNG!!!

Friday morning open thread

Johnny's gonna go crucify intern Zoltron on this Good Friday for leaving the coffee maker on all last night. You all talk while Johnny pounds nails, and then goes and gets a new coffee maker.

Late night open thread

New Jersey City University sits in 2nd place after the 9 qualifying rounds in the NCAA Women's Bowling Championships. We pray we're reading this right as bowling scoring is not Johnny's strong suit. We'd guess it means that our gals from NJCU will advance to play in final rounds as the weekend progresses. ANYBODY who knows anything about this chime in please. The first day scoresheet can be found here. You gals are doing an awesome job representing NJCU. Relax and have fun. Seriously, there is zero pressure from any of us, this is all gravy. Just go roll 'em and enjoy the moment. After all, only one of two things will happen, you'll win or you won't. So, in the meantime until you know, go for it, have fun.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Didn't get enough of the NCAA Final Four title action bunky? Follow the New Jersey City University women's bowling team quest for an NCAA title

That's right ten pin fans, the New Jersey City University women's bowling team is ranked #7 in the nation and is kicking ass and taking names. We'll even bet they don't use alley balls. The squad is competing in the NCAA Bowling Championships in scenic (and trust us when we say that, we know the area) Canton, Michigan. If you would like a link to LIVE tournament action, well you've come to the right place. Click HERE for tournament streaming action.

Here's wishing the Gothic Knights all the luck in the world. May your balls roll true. By the way, enjoy the sights and sounds of Canton, Mi. Johnny has a few friends in Canton still and thinks they'd agree, "Canton: People come, people go, nothing ever happens."

UPDATE: Johnny's been looking in on some of the action and now sees the joy of what bowling a strike on a team looks like. Any time Johnny has been bowling, strikes aren't uh, on the menu shall we say. But woe be to mice and other small critters in the gutters.

UPDATE #2: Hey, camera guy, less talkie more bowling sounds, shouldn't be too hard in a BOWLING ALLEY. We're not interested in you, we want the ladies. Shut your yap.

UPDATE #3: University of Maryland Eastern Shore SUUUUCKKKKKSSSS, Go NJCU!!!!!

UPDATE #4: It looks like NJCU is coming back/moving up. From what the Jersey City Desk Sports Department can tell, this is a good thing. Scoring update HERE. Here's hoping the University of Nebraska gets some bad clams at dinner. Oh, and Camera Guy, we apologized in the comments for being so rude. You're doing an excellent job. We just couldn't see and that XM station the alley had on was awful. Write it off to crankiness on our part. We're still in here pulling for you all! Please pass along our support to the ladies.

UPDATE #5: Here is the team we're cheering for. Ranked #7 nationally and no seniors on the team. We hope nobody turns pro early. The ONLY Division III team in the show! We are very proud of ALL of you!!!

Sounds like Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising" is about to take on a whole new meaning

New Jersey musical God Bruce Springsteen is being accused of being a homewrecker and cheating with one Ann C. Kelly according to Kelly's soon to be ex-husband Arthur J. Kelly in court papers filed in Monmouth County.

Mr. Kelly claims his wife is a hussy thusly:

"she has committed adultery with one Bruce Springsteen, who resides in Rumson, N.J., and Colts Neck, N.J., at various times and places too numerous to mention."

No word on any of this from the Boss though is sure appears he may be raising his right hand and telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth sometime soon. More on the whole sordid affair here.

Late night open thread

If you had tickets to the Kid-N-Play reunion concert tonight in Union City, you will need to return those tickets to the place of purchase. A member of the band was arrested tonight in Kearny. The band regrets any inconvenience.


Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Anger spills over in Hoboken, and we've got your link

The Hoboken Tax Reform Coalition has a website with some pretty interesting ideas, commentary and has a cool Ramones-esque logo for Hoboken REVOLT. Are people in Hoboken Revolting? Hmmmmm, so many ways to answer that leading question but in this case we'll just say click on the link and see their beefs and decide for yourself. Johnny loves him some angry citizen activism.

Getting booed by the hometown crowd two games before the playoffs start isn't where the Devils wanna be

The Devils played an absolutely lackluster, dull, and plodding game last night vs the Toronto Maple Loafs, er Johnny means the Toronto Maple Laffs, wait, the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Rock and lost 4-1.

The Devils and all-world netminder Martin Brodeur had better begin figuring things out and FAST. This late season tailspin has cost New Jersey's own the #2 seed in the playoffs to Washington. The difference? Well that would mean playing a hot Penguins team in the first round vs a floundering Montreal club.

The problem now facing the Devils is do you really want to rest a few players a game or two in the two remaining regular season games. No doubt they want to head into the playoffs clicking on at least MOST cylinders but by the same token one would think a night off before the end could benefits one or two Devils veterans. Johnny feels it's now more imperative to get some type of cohesive game working then it is to rest players, bumps and bruises be damned.

This is one bad skid heading into the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Late night open thread

Tonight a few good minutes with the hilarious Margaret Smith debating the question "Does love make the world go 'round?"


Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Nice, NYC Mayor Bloomberg now resorting to 'push polling'

In one of the less savory campaign tactics, Mayor Michael Bloomberg's campaign, or someone hired by said, has been calling homes under the guise of asking survey questions which soon turn into mud slinging questions. According to the New York Times, Bloomberg's telephone 'polling' goes something like this:

Are you registered to vote?

Do you plan to vote in the mayoral election?

Would your impression of Mr. Weiner change if you knew he missed votes in Congress?

Would your impression of Mr. Weiner change if you knew he had difficulty keeping staff?

And so on and so on and so on.

Ya know, for somebody who we feel bullied the system into allowing a third term for himself (it's not like the city was CLAMORING for third Bloomberg term), these push polls are more of the disgraceful behavior Bloomberg has exhibited in the past. Push polling is something you expect from desperate fringe candidates. Push polling is one of the lowest forms of campaigning. But now it seems push polling and Michael Bloomberg go together like a hand in a glove.

Bank teller in Hoboken siphons off enough from customer account to buy an Aston Martin; When confronted she says it was a gift

Because we all so often allow bank tellers access to our own personal accounts as their own personal use or "gift fund", riiiiight. Dana Samarelli of Secaucus who worked at the Hoboken North Fork branch siphoned off $541,000 from an elderly customer's account by pretending to help him set up bill payments as it was difficult for him to get around. When the FBI asked her how this might have happened she said it was a "gift". Samarelli is charged with with one count of bank fraud and another count of acting as a principal in the crime.

You can read all about Samarelli's scheme and how she worked it at the link above. Thanks Dana, for helping really keep the good name of banks and bankers going in this day and age.

Late night open thread

If your birthday is today you share it with the real Butch Cassidy who would have been a cool 147 today and you also share it with actress and former TAXI star Marilu Henner who is a more manageable 57 today.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Now THIS is funny

Johnny loves to throw the interwebs phrase 'PWNED' around a lot. This is using it properly.

From a shootout in one of the Swedish hockey leagues we get this goal. Johnny thought he'd see 'em all...

Did ya know then, FOX is working on a sitcom based in Hoboken?

Parker Posey will play a Hoboken yuppie (How on earth did she find research material?) who works in New York at a publishing house. The show will be called "I know who you peed on last St. Patrick's Day Parade". OK, OK, it'll be called "The Return of Jezebel James." The show is from the producer of the highly annoying 'Gilmore Girls" show.

Oops, wait, the show was cancelled. After only three episodes. Guess the world isn't ready for shows based on Hoboken people. It would have had a ten season run if it were based here in Jersey City and based on Johnny's life.

Really, a show on characters who live in Hoboken? We were happy to show the folly here....

Late night open thread

It was on this day in 1994, 15 years ago that Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain committed suicide in Seattle.

My my how time flies.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

What's the big deal about North Korea launching a missile, The Jersey City Desk does it all the time

So far, since we got out there, we have launched small rockets with Jersey City Desk satellites for the weather, for our mobile uplink, for the GPS (Kiki tends to get lost) and one for spying. We launch them right over New York City and we haven't hit anything yet (that we'll admit to). We just head to a parking lot down by the Hudson River, light the ACME fuse and boom, instant satellite. So North Korea launched a missile/rocket over Japan, BIG DEAL, it happens.

Late night open thread

Johnny owes you basketball gods a beer when we see you. Sparty On!

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

His name is Durrell Summers, he's 6' 4" 195 lbs...

The UCONN player he's about to posterize is Stanley Robinson: 6' 9" and 220 lbs. Just listen to the ROAR of 60,000 Michigan State fans in Ford Field. That HAD to be intimidating to the UCONN kids...

SPARTY ON!

Final Four open thread

Johnny has shuttered the Jersey City Desk office today and sent Zoltron and Kiki home, or off to New York City so we can all watch the games. Johnny's going to eat himself into a coma. He's sent an advance team to Balduccis over at 8th Avenue and 14th Street in New York to bring home some tasty morsels for the coming feast.

Use this thread should you have anything to comment on for the Final Four, NHL hockey or maybe you wanna get a jump on baseball's start later next week.

Late night open thread

Dear Basketball God(s),
Johnny here, we don't talk much it's true. Johnny's not the biggest hoops fan as you well know. Yeah, it's been a while, 2005 I believe. Do you suppose there is any way you could work some botulism tainted food into the UCONN breakfast chow line tomorrow morning? Nothing fatal or anything like that, just enough so Pepto Bismol doesn't cut it and the Huskies are, shall we say, dehydrated. Consider it cosmic retribution for two reasons. #1 Calhoun is a cheater. Not an "I bought a plane ticket for a kid because his grandma died" cheater, no, Johnny means "a lack of institutional control cheater". #2, the state of Michigan sure could use it. While the rest of America is in the first or second year of the recession, Johnny's friends back in the Great Lakes State are in the eighth year of theirs. A really nice weekend where Detroit comes off as the beautiful city across the river from Windsor Ontario that has successfully hosted Super Bowls and the world's largest outdoor electronic music festival would be divine. It would give some mighty fine people a few hours away from their cares and give a quick infusion of happy that's badly needed. Hey, 20,000, yep, TWENTY THOUSAND Spartan fans went to watch them PRACTICE at Ford Field today. Of course you'll want to reward that kind of interest in your game.

Plus, those kids at MSU and head coach Tom Izzo are really great people. They don't go looking for cameras when they dunk a ball, they go looking for teammates. You never ever ever have to ask if Tom Izzo is running a clean program. Besides, Michigan State plays basketball the way you basketball gods intended; hard work, DEFENSE, no cutting corners and sweat equity. Why, we can even make a Jersey City case here as none other than the greatest two year college player in NCAA history, Earvin 'Magic' Johnson recently opened a restaurant here in the big JC. He grew up in Michigan, played High School ball at Lansing Everett, college at MSU, pro ball in Los Angeles but when it came time to open a business, he chose Jersey City. Ya see, it's Kismet.

Look, sleep on it, you don't have to so meddle with UCONN's food until morning anyway. It sure would be a swell gesture though. Oh, and if you see the hockey god(s) tell them Johnny's gonna need to see them again this year too.


Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with BLONDIE!

Yep, Johnny was in the mood for some Blondie tonight and while he loves most of the Debbie Harry and Chris Stein penned tunes, this is one of his all time favorites. If any of you NYC hep cats know where Johnny could see and or meet Ms. Debbie don't hesitate to let him know, he'd love to meet her and tell her what a great influence she's been on him musically. She's just too cool for school. A voice like an angel and inflections that really really hit their mark.

Here's Blondie with 'Slow Motion'

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with THE PAYOLAS!

The Payolas are a Canadian band out of Vancouver, B.C. Their big breakout album was 1982's 'No Stranger to Danger' which was produced by Ian Hunter sidekick and geetar hero Mick Ronson. This alum included this song. "Eyes of Stranger' which was featured on the Valley Girl soundtrack. This song won a JUNO Award for best song of the year in Canada in '82.

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with DICK DALE AND THE DEL-TONES!

From way back in 1963, when the world was in black and white and the earth was still cooling, here is the guitar master Dick Dale and the Del-Tones with what would become a huge hit as the theme to Pulp Fiction in 1994, 'Misirlou'. You may notice a middle eastern flavor to this song, in fact you'd find that in many of Dick Dale's tunes. He was born to a Lebanese father and listening to his father's music had an obvious impact on young Mr. Dale (and his real last name is Monsour). Dick has never used drugs nor alcohol and is a vegetarian. He's a healthy California lifestyle kinda guy.

You may not always associate Newark with great culture, but you certainly can this month

Here is a link to a very nice piece in the Jersey journal by Peggy McGlone on the Newark Museum celebrating it's 100th anniversary this month. The article calls the museum one of New Jersey's best kept secrets. In reading the article it really does have some amazing art and culture there. Best part it's only a PATH ride a a little light rail away.

For more info, click on this handy dandy link.

Late night open thread

Once more into the movie trivia bag; In which movie was this shirt made famous?

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Movie trivia time

For 50 points and control of the board, name this movie:

Johnny got him some Devils playoff tickets for the first round, if they don't wake up he won't need to worry about getting second round seats

Boy howdy, the Devils are playing some lackluster hockey just two weeks before the tournament for Lord Stanley's Cup begins. Head coach Brent Sutter is not normally a drama queen but he sure was last night at the end of the second period walking across the ice towards the Devils dressing room berating any and all officials left on the ice. It cost him a 2 minute bench penalty, and to be fair it didn't factor in the outcome, but also failed in it's attempt to fire up the Devils.

What is REALLY the most troubling is all world netminder Martin Brodeur has looked, well, crappy these last few games. Not seeing pucks well, giving up terrible rebounds and in general just not looking comfortable in net. Since the Devils are a team built from the goal out, this is a huge problem this close to the playoffs. The forwards are not coming back and backchecking as hard as they were a month ago and some seriously bad decisions are being made with the puck in their own end when pressed by opposing forwards. Johnny did warn of this before the trading deadline as you'll recall. He begged Devils GM Lou Lamoriello to add a solid puck moving defenseman and a sandpaper type forward who would add some passion and grit. Lamoriello's answer at the trade deadline was 35-year-old defenseman Niclas Havelid who fit nether category.

Johnny is of the mind the responsibility for this lies with the players who don't seem to be all that into playing NHL hockey right now. Past that, notorious cheapskate Lou Lamoriello had his chance to add to the team and chose to just add a journeyman role player.

The Devils had better snap out of this right quick or they'll be made quick work of by a team that has had to fight hard and play hard just to make it into the playoffs. A team who for all intents and purposes has been playing playoff hockey since February. A team interested in playing hard every night, something the Devils are falling short of.

Late night open thread

OK, this MUST be prefaced tonight with the statement this is NOT in any way shape or form an April Fools joke. This is an actual situation where a woman called 911 in Kissimmee Florida because she had locked herself INSIDE her own car.

"It's getting very hot in here, and I'm not feeling well" Click HERE to see how 911 miraculously saved her life. We hope our dear readers in Jersey City and the Tri-State area might have handled this differently.

Calling 911 while locked in your own car, dear god we're doomed as a society.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

The case of the $18,454 whiz

How well do you remember your Fast Times at Ridgemont High Jersey City? Remember when Brad Hamilton gets fired from All-American Burger and blames his buddy in the restroom by yelling "I hope you had a hell of a piss, Arnold!" Well Bayonne resident Kevin Denver took an $18,454 wee last Friday morning. Police were called in on a report of public urination at Broadway and 19th Street. They found Mr. Denver and checked for outstanding tickets and warrants (we hope he had zipped up by this time) and found he owed $18,454 from state Superior Court.

Hope you had a hell of a piss, Kevin.

Mayor Healy, when you dodge debates, you're really dodging questions like "Why has our city become a wild west show?"

When you read about what the Jersey Journal is calling a "shooting gallery", where are you on this? Read these quotes from Jersey City residents:

"Lately it's been crazy"

"I seldom go out. My wife used to walk to the post office, but I told her don't go"

"He (the shooter) shot him right in front of the windows, and I ducked behind the counter."

"It's not safe"

What are you doing about it other than running TeeVee ads claiming you're change we can see? Yeah, we can see change around Jersey City, we can hear it too, trouble is Mayor Healy, the sound of change sounds like a ricochet. It's not JUST in the Greenville section, it's everywhere. You CLAIM in your teevee ads the cops support you and crime is way way down under your stewardship but that's not being backed up by the facts here. The fact is people are frightened to go outside. You CLAIM some computerized algorithm is sending cops here they are needed, apparently that means they show up AFTER the shooting has stopped.

You need to crawl off your high horse and start attending debates whether or not you deem them worthy of your time and start answering HARD questions. You'll show up at every ribbon cutting ceremony and parade you can find but you're dodging public debates at a time Jersey City needs leadership, not political posturing.

By the way, this is NOT an April Fools joke...

Actress Lindsay Lohan arrested as part of a brawl last night outside the Iron Monkey bar right here in Jersey City!

Details are a touch sketchy but apparently actress Lindsay Lohan and a couple friends were arrested after a set-to with another group of patrons at the Iron Monkey located at 97 Greene St. down near the waterfront. As the drinks flowed tempers flared said one eyewitness who asked not to be identified saying they didn't want news cameras camped outside their home. "Apparently Lindsay really beat the hell out of one mouthy chick who was making fun of some of her movies. One of her friends stood up for her but Lindsay then really went off on the mouthy chick." Other patrons said once the fight started Lohan's friends and the other party started brawling. Nobody from the Iron Monkey would comment and Jersey City's PD said nothing about the arrest of the celeb either.

See what happens when you mix alcohol and bad movies? See what happens when normal folk stand up to celebrities? BAD THINGS happen. Word has it Lohan was booked and posted bail and as she left the lock up said "*&%^$$)!§∞ Jersey City".

Late night open thread

We hope you enjoyed a day away from the horrible, awful, sad news of the day. We know we enjoyed having fun.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark