Above the Law

By Tammy Duffy

What happens when people ignore the laws of our state?  What happens when public officials feel they are above the law? Nothing good comes out of these two things. People can get hurt, sick or a business can collapse due to bad press.

In the state of NJ there are guidelines that all retail food establishments must follow. There is no deviation allowed.  The laws are for everyone. They were established by the NJ Department of Health & Senior Services Consumer & Environmental Health Services Food & Drug Safety Program. These laws keep our communities safe.

This past week a new restaurant, Wit or Witout on Sloan Rd, in Hamilton, N.J., received a visit from local mayor, Kelly Yaede. Below is the story about her visit that was written by Trenton Times staff writer, Rich Caccaggna.

http://www.nj.com/mercer-community/index.ssf/2015/03/wit_or_witout_opens_in_hamilto.html

I could not even read the story because I was stunned by the photo that coincided with the column. The local mayor who has very long blonde hair (as seen in photo) was in the kitchen with no hair restraint. Not even a ponytail.

In CHAPTER 24 (N.J.A.C. 8:24) Sanitation in Retail Food Establishments and

Food and Beverage Vending Machines, it is clearly stated…

“Food workers shall wear clean clothing and wear hair restraints in the form of a cover that will prevent hair from falling into the food. (8:24-2.3k/2.4c1)”

One may ask, why is the mayor of the town in the kitchen, clearly cooking without any type of hair restraint?  This is a very basic law. Everyone knows this law. Yet, the mayor was cooking in an establishment ignoring this law. Is she above the law?

One would think after all the drama that unfolded this past year in the town, people would be more careful. There were several hepatitis cases in Hamilton that were potentially caused by unsafe food handling. The last thing the town should want is a photo demonstrating the mayor in a retail restaurant’s kitchen, ignoring the laws.

So, who gets in trouble for this? The  restaurant?  Will the Hamilton Township Department of Health issue the restaurant a citation for this? They should, if they follow the law.  The manager at the restaurant should have never allowed this to happen. 

Did the NJ Department of Health create their standards for everyone, except when a mayor comes into the kitchen? I do not see this clause in the regulations. The laws are for everyone, mayors are not exempt.

Posted by tammyduffy at 4:34 PM EDT

Updated: Saturday, 21 March 2015 7:21 AM EDT

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Local Salons Raise Money for “Free Wigs” Program

Care Couture Hair Art Show  

Posted by tammyduffy at 6:49 AM EDT

Updated: Saturday, 21 March 2015 7:21 AM EDT

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 Saturday, March 28, 2015 

12-5pm

Art Book Swap New York is a free event organized by the New Art Dealers Alliance and Lauren Wittels in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art Library.

Posted by tammyduffy at 6:41 AM EDT

Updated: Saturday, 21 March 2015 7:23 AM EDT

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Celebrate Woman's Day

To me, Women’s Day is about two things – recognition and celebration. Despite all the progress that has been made in achieving equality for women, things are moving too slowly. There are still too few women in leadership positions; way too many women are still being abused in their domestic homes; too many women are being paid less at work; and definitely way too many women make up the statistics when we talk about poverty. I feel that Women’s Day is a good way to bring all these to the forefronts of people’s minds, both men and women. Sometimes in the humdrum of daily life, we forget what women the world over are going through. This day, we remember.

I hope that as we remember this day in years to come, we will remember more and more, until we never forget. But at the same time, it is necessary that we use this day to celebrate the success stories that women have had and encourage us to do even more to achieve our goal of equality for all.

Posted by tammyduffy at 7:34 AM EST

Updated: Sunday, 8 March 2015 7:46 AM EST

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Community Performers Invited to MCCC Late Night Series

Mercer County Community College’s (MCCC’s) Late Night Series, an open-mic event hosted by the MCCC Drama Club and MC Post Midnight, invites performers from Mercer County and beyond to share their talents in dance, music, acting, film-making, poetry and more.  Performances take place in the college’s Studio Theatre, located on the West Windsor Campus at 1200 Old Trenton Road (next to Kelsey Theatre).  Dates this spring are March 13 and 27; April 10 and 24, and May 8.  Showtime is 10 p.m.  Doors open at 9:30; sign-up for the open-mic is 9:45 p.m.  For more information, email Jody Gazenbeek-Person at gazenbej@mccc.edu.  

Posted by tammyduffy at 2:47 PM EST

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Frida Kahlo is coming to The New York Botanical Garden, May 16th, 2015 and it cannot get here fast enough.  

After reading the calendar of events, Frida Kahlo: Art, Garden, Life is massive with its programming surrounding the actual exhibition which includes over a dozen of her works, many of which are from private collections, live music and dancing giving us a colorful range of the performing arts, family events and so much more!  You will need to plan in advance for these events (especially for those who are traveling into NYC just to experience the exhibition and The Bronx!)

The timing of the exhibition could not have been better.  The Bronx is now home to one of the largest Mexican populations in the New York City region.  

‘Frida Kahlo: Art, Garden, Life’ is going to be a 6 month-long celebration not only of one of the most celebrated artists in the world but also of culture of her Mexican homeland, the people, and everything that has taken roots here in our borough and are city.

This blockbuster exhibition will be the first to examine Frida Kahlo’s keen appreciation for the beauty and variety of the natural world, as evidenced by her home and garden as well as the complex use of plant imagery in her artwork. Featuring a rare display of more than a dozen original Kahlo paintings and works on paper, this limited six-month engagement will also reimagine the iconic artist’s famed garden and studio at the Casa Azul, her lifelong home in Mexico City.

Accompanying events invite visitors to learn about Kahlo’s life and enduring cultural influence through poetry, lectures, Frida al Fresco evenings, Mexican-inspired shopping and dining experiences, and hands-on art activities for kids.”

Casa Azul in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory

The Haupt Conservatory will come alive with the colors of Kahlo’s Mexico, greeting visitors with an evocation of the artist’s garden at the Casa Azul (Blue House), her lifelong home.  Passing through blue courtyard walls, visitors will stroll along lava rock paths lined with flowers and showcasing a variety of important garden plants from Mexico.  A scale version of the artist’s pyramid — created to display pre-Hispanic art collected by her husband, muralist Diego Rivera — will feature traditional terra-cotta pots containing desert plants found in her garden, as well as the organ pipe cactus fence located at Rivera’s studio in nearby San Ángel.  Experience the Casa Azul as the ultimate expression of Kahlo’s connection to Mexico and the natural world.

Kahlo’s Woks in the Art Gallery

 The LuEsther T. Mertz Library’s Art Gallery exhibition, curated by Adriana Zavala, PhD, will feature 14 of Kahlo’s paintings and works on paper — many borrowed from private collections — highlighting the artist’s use of botanical imagery in her work.  Focusing on her lesser-known yet equally spectacular still lifes, as well as works that engage nature in unusually symbolic ways, this grouping will include Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (1940); Flower of Life (1944); Still Life with Parrot and Flag (1951); and Self-Portrait Inside a Sunflower (1954).

Exhibitions in the Mertz Library are made possible by the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust.

Additional support has been provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and by a Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Sponsored by Carolina Herrera New York.

Visit this link below to see all the festivities that are planned to coincide with the exhibition.

 http://www.welcome2thebronx.com/wordpress/2015/03/02/frida-kahlo-art-garden-life-a-sneak-peak-at-what-to-expect/

Posted by tammyduffy at 6:34 AM EST

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According to MCCC Gallery Director Dylan Wolfe, the show will include work from all phases of Rivera’s creative career, which in earlier years featured large-scale abstractions, while in more recent times has focused on smaller narrative pieces inspired by storyboard graphics and computer art.  The exhibit even includes a few pieces preserved from Rivera’s childhood.

Rivera notes in the exhibit’s catalog, “The work…has been arranged by theme and subject rather than by chronology.  It is the persistence of these themes and subjects – not always linear – that has shaped my vision over the decades.”

An MCCC professor emeritus, Rivera is a painter and educator who has lived and worked in Mercer County, NJ, for more than 40 years.  His work has been exhibited prominently in the United States, including exhibits at the Whitney Museum, the Luise Ross Gallery, and the Abington Art Center, as well as numerous venues in Paris, where Rivera regularly spends time painting.  He is a graduate of Yale Art School, with an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania.

Rivera’s previous exhibits have drawn glowing reviews. Cathy Vikso, of the Trenton Times, wrote, “There is an iconic quality to his pieces, recalling the carefully wrought panels and religious icons of medieval art.”  Dan Bischoff, of the Newark Star-Ledger, said,” Rivera says [his] paintings are autobiographical, but each [work] seems more like a distillation than a rapidly jotted down memory, and their complexity in such small dimensions is made the more interesting for their visual clarity, though their meanings are often elusive.” Dallas Piotrowski, former curator at the Chapin Gallery, noted, “The paintings of Rivera are for the mind.”

Gallery hours are Mondays through Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; and Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.  More information about this and other exhibits at the MCCC Gallery is available at www.mccc.edu/gallery.  Directions to the campus and a campus map can be found at www.mccc.edu.

Posted by tammyduffy at 12:01 AM EST

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Ghandi Comes To Hamilton

By Tammy Duffy

Last evening marked the inaugural art exhibition for a new art gallery in Hamilton, N.J, Studio Shraza.  The art gallery is located at 1800 East State Street, Bld A, Suite 115 at Studio Park. This gallery is owned by S.H. Raza and resembles that of a NYC art gallery.

The opening exhibition entitles, History in the Making, is a collaboration between the gallery and the country of India’s photo archives. This is a retrospective of Kulwant Roy. Roy was considered on of India’s most outstanding photojournalists. He spent tireless days of his life documenting some of the rarest moments in the socio political history of India. Some of the rarest photographs ever taken of political meetings are on display in the exhibition. 

These photos and  thousands of other images remained forgotten in boxes for over 20 years after the death of Roy in 1984.  These images demonstrate a remarkable photographic record of modern Indian history, which have never been published.  Displayed on the walls are the rare photos, including a 1939 picutre of Ghandi in a heated argument with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the head of India’s Muslim League.  Roy photographed many of Ghandi’s travels and was a major chronicler of the Independence movement. 

This gallery is the first of its kind ever to exist in the town of Hamilton, NJ. The gallery is open from 10am to 5pm 7 days a week. 

Posted by tammyduffy at 7:46 AM EST

Updated: Saturday, 28 February 2015 7:57 AM EST

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