learn how to laugh on a monday

You know the feeling when you're totally laughing uncontrollably, and you're worried you're either going to stop breathing, or that you'll start crying hysterically if you continue? Well that's what you'll most likely experience if you're smart enough to make it to the Gold Hawk tonight for the Hoboken Comedy Experiment, presented by Adam Wade and Chris Deluca.

The show is FREE and is chock full of awesomely funny people, like Christian Finnegan from VH1's Best Week Ever, and a few other comics and writers from Comedy Central, and Fox's Talk Show with Spike Ferensten.

*Hurry and catch Christian before he disappears into thin air!

Hoboken Comedy Experiment
@the Gold Hawk
10th btwn Park & Willow
Monday July 30
8:30 PM
FREE

Comics performing tonight include Christian Finnegan, Todd Levin, Bob Powers, Amanda Melson, Andres du Bouchet, Peter Kassnove and Hoboken's own Adam Wade, and will be hosted by Chris DeLuca.

old school rad

HH would like to meet whomever owns this:





Totally amazing in every way possible!

zip cars - the hottest thing on 4 wheels

Here's an interesting piece from yesterday's New York Post - detailing the newest trend in real estate: zip cars! My parter and I were members when zip car first launched in the city, and although car availabilities were shoddy at best during the beginning, the company has blossomed into quite a cool business.

Unfortunately, Metrostop and their planned fleet of Zip Car Toyota Prius's was not mentioned in the article. What a bummer! In case you didn't know - Zip Cars will be available to Metrostop residents when the building opens next spring. Anyway, here's the piece below - and all you Metrostop owners can sit back and bask in the glow of being right on-trend. Enjoy:

ZIP-ZIP-HOORAY!
BUYERS AT NEW BUILDINGS IN MANHATTAN AND BEYOND WILL BE ABLE TO SHARE CARS

By LISA KEYS

July 26, 2007 -- Forget marble bathrooms (boring), spas (whatever) or concierge services (yawn) - Zipcar is the latest amenity being unveiled at many of the area’s newest developments.

The car-sharing service - which boasts some 45,000 members in the New York City area alone - is teaming up with developers around the boroughs and beyond to bring its rent-by-the-hour-or-day cars to a slew of new buildings. Just this week, Zipcar announced a partnership with Equity Residential, owners of 608 properties around the country.

The company’s New Jersey properties, such as The Landings at Port Imperial and Jersey City’s The Pier, will have Zipcars parked on-site. Residents living in Equity Residential’s Manhattan buildings (such as Trump Place and Hudson Crossing on West 37th Street) will have to walk to the nearest Zipcar parking lot. But regardless of where they live, all residents, should they choose to join Zipcar - which has a membership rates starting at $50 (plus a $25 application fee) with car-rental rates from around $10 an hour and $69 a day, with insurance and gas included - will receive a $75 credit.

While this is the first time Zipcar has partnered with a real-estate company on a national level, such cooperation is not new. Zipcar’s first real-estate partnership began in 2004, with two vehicles parked on-site at Peter Cooper Village/Stuyvesant Town. Today, residents receive a discounted membership rate of $20 and have access to eight cars.

As new developments rise faster than Lindsay Lohan’s blood-alcohol level, the phenomenon has spread.

“Developers have recognized Zipcar as a solution to some of their parking and congestion problems,” says Julian Espiritu, the Manhattan-based regional vice president of Zipcar. “Plus, they can sell this program as an amenity to their residents.”

Existing buildings that have added Zipcar as an amenity include City Lights in Long Island City and Waterside Plaza on FDR Drive. Increasingly, however, Zipcar is pairing up with developers in order to include Zipcar parking spaces from the ground up.

“Typically, in an urban environment, parking areas are located in or under a structure,” says Espiritu. “We’re eventually going to park there anyway, so it’s a great opportunity for us to market our services to that building.”

Recent and upcoming developments with on-site Zipcars include the Kalahari in Harlem, Riverhouse in Battery Park City, the Esperanza in Asbury Park, N.J. (which will feature Zipcar Jaguars) and many Brooklyn properties being marketed by the Developer’s Group, including the Aurora in Williamsburg and One Brooklyn Bridge Park. (Taking the Zipcar-as-marketing-tool trend a bit further, last fall the Developers Group offered prospective buyers free Zipcar use for shuttling between nine open houses in Brooklyn and Queens.)

“New Yorkers, who are famous for not having a love affair with their cars, actually have a secret yearning for a car,” says Adrienne Albert, national director at the Marketing Directors, who is marketing Jersey City’s Beacon and Trump developments, which will offer Zipcars. “New Yorkers may not use it in everyday commuting, but they sure love the car experience.”

5 screen movie theater coming to nw hoboken!

It's official. Clearview Cinemas is leasing land from Tarragon-URSA, the developer responsible for much of the redevelopment of northwest Hoboken. Construction is set to begin very soon on a new 5 screen movie theater, which will be located on 14th Street between Grand and Adams. It is scheduled to open this time next summer. This makes HH truly happy. I would go to the movies every day if possible. I CANNOT WAIT!

Carly recently filed a full report (with visuals!) on Hoboken Now - The Insider's Guide to Hoboken, which is part of NJ.com. Click here to read her blog! I love reading Carly's posts - they are more fun than eating a giant tub of movie theater popcorn with a large Cherry Coke!

gotcha!

The mystery has been revealed! After months of wondering who is living in this future goldmine, sandwiched between two major redevelopments, I have finally snapped the money shot! She's the proud owner of this lovely ranch style corner lot home that is just begging to be retired to real estate heaven. If I was her, I'd SELL - she would get a FORTUNE for her property. She does take great care of her home though, it's clean and well kept, and the yard is always perfect. She just keeps the blinds shut all the time, and the empty yard attached to the left of her home is now full of tall growing wild flowers:


She's also put up various signs to show other NW Hobokenites that she is a warm and friendly neighbor. You know - signs that scream "Hey you, come on over for a glass of iced tea, let's hang out on the porch and get to know each other!" Here's one example:


Ladies and Gents, I give to you, the big reveal. Drum roll please.............



* Her identity will remain a closely guarded secret, kept hidden behind the infamous magenta face dot.

1000 jefferson - european style swim trunks included

Love the dude in his tight swim trunks. But something tells me the typical Hoboken man who's moving into these luxury rentals will be wearing something more along the lines of long and baggy board shorts. Just a hunch.


Here's a shot of the 1000 Jefferson sales office:


Here's one of the corners - beautiful brick and cement work:


Not too sure if I like the bathroom finishes. Green really isn't my color:


Are these going to be picture windows or french sliding doors with juliet balconies? :


How cool is this thing?


Reminds me of the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile:


Here's a shot of someone working on the cement:


Rental office info is below. They are currently offering:

1 bedrooms from $1900 a month
2 bedrooms from $2750 a month
3 bedrooms from $4000 a month


Pretty sweet deal considering there are no other pools in the neighborhood...

orange store opening!

Walked by Adams and 13th Street and there were workers in the corner retail space painting the place orange. Wonder what's going in there? Anyone know? There was no signage. Could it be another dry cleaner? Or perhaps a nail salon? Maybe a Jamba Juice? An ING Direct branch? Oh wait - they are on-line only.


We'll know soon enough!

st. ann's italian festival- the highlights

I wandered over to the St. Ann's Italian Festival which is taking place in our neighborhood for the next week or so. It was just that time when Hoboken fills up again, and everyone's getting home from a hard weeks work. St. Ann's Festival takes place from July 20th - 26th and features live music, food, games & rides for kids and adults. Just walk on over to 7th & Jefferson to witness the spectacle. Below is my full report. But first, a few general ambiance pics:


The above pic show the view to the west towards the cliffs. Velocity Hoboken is one block west.




Here are some highlights from the various booths scattered throughout. The first was one of the most intricate looking booths out there. Wild Bills - he offered a menagerie of interesting flavored sodas, and you got to keep your cool silver cup and come back for refills:


Here's the JUGS Radar Speed Ball cage - totally awesome name, but the girl operating the booth was hiding in the corner when we walked by, so I'm not sure if she lived up to the name. Maybe she'll be working tomorrow? :


Water Works: simply the coolest looking one on the block. Very old school. Reminded me of summers down in Wildwood on the boardwalk (minus the mesh tank tops and sky high bangs and spandex). Cool sign too:



Loved the frogs:


Anyone who regularly reads HH will know I'm not a huge fan of cats. Especially stray ones that people feed. Let's be honest, I love animals, and at one time even wanted to be a veterinarian, but allergies play a large role in why I'm not a cat fan. It's a disaster, really. I am however, a big fan of this:


Wendy Williams would totally dig this one. "How ya doin?!"


My partner refused to sit in the chair. She was very friendly though:


Pic came out a little fuzzy, but I had to include Mr. Cartoon Octopus:


One of the festival sponsors, Metrostop, had a booth set up within the 'adult' area of the church parking lot, where you were free to have alcoholic drinks in plastic cups. She should have been handing out shots of Pucker or serving green apple-tinis in recycled glass wear! Booth looked nice though, and I especially enjoyed her cowboy boots:


The Food. Clearly my favorite part of any outdoor fair. This being an Italian festival, you just know the food is going to be amazing. We sampled quite a few things, I mean why not? Eating fried and fattening food doesn't count when you're doing it to raise money for the big guy upstairs, right?


First up was the rice ball. It was a gargantuan fried ball that weight as much or more as my head (and that's quite a feat). Full of rice, cheese, mystery meat, then coated and deep fried and smothered in tomato sauce. I wanted to bury my face in it it was so good:


You must RUN to Luca Brasi's right now and order one. Luca should also try throwing some scrambled eggs and tomatoes and spinach and goat cheese in there and calling it the breakfast ball. I'm telling you, it'd be genius.


Ok - the showstopper of St. Ann's HAS to be the Mozzarepa. It looks like this:


And tastes like heaven. Large golden circles of pure joy and happiness. Two sweet cornbread cakes, with a layer of gooey melty mozzarella cheese in the middle. I cannot describe the sensation. They've event printed up special cardboard holders that look like this:


I'm telling you, they were amazing. It felt like this:


Like touching the hand of god, Mozzarepa style:


Do you think he loves Mozzarepas as much as I do? :


Here are a few more highlights. Meat:


Meat:


Meat that hypnotizes you:


And bananas. Meat optional:


The People. There were a ton of people in attendance. Families, couples, teenagers with mohawks, grandparents, dogs, you name it they were there. The church steps proved to be a popular area to sit and chill:



The dude with the hat had great style:


These ladies were awesome. I think they were monitoring the sound system for the temporary stage set up, but to me they looked distracted:


Here was the informational tent put up outside St. Ann's:


This guy had amazing style. Love the sunglasses too:



Small vehicles were allowed:


My favorite part of the evening was the adult only beer tent set up in the parking lot of the church:


I enjoyed Budweiser Select, which I hadn't tried before. Tastes like every other overpriced light beer on the market, but after walking up and down the street eating everything in sight it becomes torturous not having an ice cold beer to wash it down with.


This was the tented bar area where most of the 20 something's hung out. Girls wore large sunglasses and even larger hand bags, and the guys had on their Seven jeans and untucked button downs. It was charming:


I like the giant Bud Light cans hanging from the tent ceiling:


Here are some random signs that I thought were cool:






I included Mr. Fried Oreo because I just had to point out they were selling FRIED OREOS. Who's the genius behind that one?


Here are some random miscellaneous pics that I just thought were either funny or strange. First up: Dora the Explora / Sponge Bob/ Blow Pop Explosion!


These lit up at night:


A cool vinyl tablecloth:


Italian horns with little men on top of them?


I don't know why but I thought the shoe stand was a bit odd:


The cork wreath:


Plush Toys in Prison:


Life size Bud posters featuring girls with oddly yellow skin in bikinis swigging Bud Light:


As the sun started to set, the crowds started to dwindle, kids went home happy with prizes and full stomachs, and we strolled home. If you can, in the next few days, come on by and check out the festival, it's worth a visit. At least just to taste the Mozzarepa :)