Outdoor Movies Inflatable Screen
Last Thursday nite I went to a block party on Halsey Street that I got email about only that day. While there, I picked up a bunch of postcards with various kinds of info to tell people about, plus a poster for this year’s “Open Doors” art festival. It’s not, apparently, called an “art festival” or “artfest”. “Artapalooza” is used in other cities. But we need something to describe it and the many events and venues under the heading “Open Doors”. Artsplosion, Artoberfest (Newark arts’ busiest month is October; it runs me ragged.), and Newartfest/ival are also taken. We need some generic term by which to refer to what happens each October in Newark, “festival”, “jamboree”, or something. “Open Doors” is a title, not a description, and does not itself indicate that it has anything to do with art.In any case, the first of the Open Doors events is the 17th at NJIT, so I have time to put those events into my online calendar. Once I have done so, I’ll create a clickable link to that calendar in this blog’s template. I’ll also include some other calendars, here and/or as a page on my Resurgence City and/or TourismNewark.org website/s. For now, let me deal with items for Wednesday and Thursday of this week.”The Wednesday Afterwork Soulcial” runs 6pm to 2am at Nick’s Bar & Restaurant. This is apparently a weekly event that started September 30th, and is apparently intended for black Newarkers. You see, white people, Orientals, etc., are soulless. Hm. Perhaps I shouldn’t mention this event, since some of the people who read this blog are not black, but I will. I found a Facebook page for Nick’s Bar, and not everyone shown as a “friend” is black. I also see that a Newark-based country band (yes, that’s what I said), called “Secret Country”, has played at Nick’s. A blogpost on Glocally Newark also shows lots of white people, so maybe the Soulcial is an attempt to bring more black people into a predominantly white bar?? Anyway, Nick’s is at Central and Halsey (Nick’s Bar & Restaurant, 28 Central Avenue, Newark 07102; tel: (973) 642-0123; fax: (973) 642-7770; nicksinnewark@gmail.com). The card for the Soulcial event has different contact info: Sean H. (973) 885-0811 or DL (862) 250-0058, ishineushine826@yahoo.com.Two Thursday Events. There are two events that have come to my attention, one at 3pm at the new Central High School on 18th Avenue (near Boyd Street) and one from 6pm on Halsey Street between Central Avenue and Bleeker Street, Downtown.The 3pm event is auditions for a December 12th performance of The Nutcracker. While that work is ordinarily a ballet, I must wonder from the description in this email notice if the Newark version is going to be ballet, modern dance, tap, or what.The dopey web service Twitter is aptly named, incorporating “twit” in it. I can’t be bothered with such nonsense, and a great many other people can’t either. Facebook requires you to join even to search within that site. I am not joining Facebook or any other “social networking” site. They are targeted for scams and identity theft, and a great many odd and dangerous people hang out on such sites. I’m about as odd as I can take. The closest thing I find thru Google to a proper, ordinary website for the Halsey Street association or whatever it is that sponsors this Block Party and has a consistent logo is a Glocally Newark post. I must ask, “What is the problem with creating a website if there is a more-or-less formal organization for Halsey Street merchants/events?” Help us out, people. Create a HalseyStreet.org website. (I see a HalseyStreet.com, but it’s based in the 908 area code; NJ, but not Newark (973).)I did a Google search on “Greater Newark Convention Visitors Bureau” and found a single webpage, about Go Newark Restaurant Week. I suppose that is co-sponsored by the GoNewark.com website. There was a clickable link to the GNCVB that I checked out, and the whole website appears to comprise two pages, the Restaurant Week page and a Contact page. I’ve been waiting for some organization or City agency to do something about tourism, but the merest start of a City website for a C&VB that I saw is pretty pitiful. (Hector Ortiz, shown as contact for the GNCVB, is or was a deputy mayor.)Well over a year ago, I was told by someone at the “Beautiful Newark” project’s sponsor, The League, that the City was finally setting up a C&VB. She gave me Mr. Ortiz’s email address, and I wrote to ask if there was some way I could help. No one answered me. I got not so much as a “Don’t trouble yourself, buddy. We’re taking care of this ourselves and don’t need any help from the likes of you.”I had earlier made a start on a TourismNewark.org website, which at least has a slideshow of about 50 fotos to go with the introductory text. I have been unable to add to that site, for other demands (like trying to update this fotoblog at least four times a week), but I’m only one person. The Convention & Visitors Bureau is part of the Brick City Development Corporation and has received public funding for its work.The GNCVB was established over 14 months ago? So where is a website of consequence? Where are the brochures? Maps? Local artists Lowell Craig and Kati Vilim created a map with some tourist information, on their own, I think. The City’s website does have a “Visitors” area, comprising several clickable tabs to bare lists, in tiny, hard-to-read GRAY type (not even a crisp black). These unillustrated listings provide the most minimal of information, and no locator maps.”Places to Dine” says there is a “Newark Restaurant Guide” atop the left column of that webpage. There isn’t. Lower in the left column there’s a graffical representation of a calendar but no actual calendar, with clickable spaces for the various days. Indeed, the left column seems to refer not to things of interest specifically to visitors, but to navigation for the City website generally.What is going on? Or, more to the point, why isn’t anything going on in creating Newark into, as I put it on my private, meager, bare start of a TourismNewark home page, “A Destination, Not Just an Airport”?If I had a staff and budget, you can bet there’d be a great website, with hundreds of fotos, 360-degree videos of key locations with narration about the city’s history and attractions (in fact, if I’m to do this for my own tourist site, I’d better do it before the leaves fall!), maps with color-keyed and numbered dots for restaurants, galleries, concert halls, sports venues, etc., and foto-illustrated brochures on display in kiosks in places like Newark Penn Station and Newark Airport, plus downloadable .PDF versions online — and other things — to promote Newark tourism.
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