Power House Art District’s 5th Annual Barbeque & Street Fair

Even though the prediction of Summer Rain on Saturday on our beloved Isthmus proved false, the Power House Art District’s 5th Annual Barbeque & Street Fair Street Fair was moved to Sunday. I’ve been having some aggravating stuff going on in my non-blog life and I thought I wasn’t in the mood to dig on a street fair. I was in that Ramone’s song state of mind—I don’t like summer or spring, I don’t like anything—but the fact is I do like Summer. My problems could wait until Monday. I took a walk in the afternoon, just in time for the rain. That would be irony. Our life, our weather.

I went after lunch, I wasn’t in the mood for fatty foods or boozing but there was indeed a barbeque going on. I saw the smoke. I saw the packages of buns. I know the signs. There was some face painting. For a moment I thought it was a revival of CATS, but the young woman informed me she was adorned with a puppy face. She was drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette. She told me she was a Vegan. I guess it’s about balance. I was impressed with the 3-D effect the face painting achieved with the eye glasses. They looked so real. Turns out, they were real and not part of the face art. They provide vision correction, genuine optical devices.

I did catch a good set by Shayfer James, a piano man. It’s not that piano playing is a dying art, but it has become mainly a side instrument for about two decades pop music wise. The last piano man to have a hit was Bruce Hornsby and that was in the 80s. The stage was a loading dock of one of the old, I think it was abandoned—or is that as of yet undeveloped—warehouse. I actually worked on the loading dock of a warehouse in my youth. I’m so old I remember when warehouses in New Jersey actually housed wares, and were not just mix-used projects. Wearing a jaunty fedora, vest and poorly tied parson’s tie, James had a carnival sound with some pleasantly surreal lyrics. I was thinking mix of Tom Waits and Queen, and I don’t even like Queen. There was some Billy Joel and Brecht/Weil influences I thought, but with a definite progressive rock edge. Some of the ballads didn’t work so well, but I suspect that was due to the fact the guy had to play on a loading dock. The more rocking tunes achieved a funhouse feel. Really entertaining set, the approach original and refreshing. (visit: http://www.shayferjames.com/)

The humidity swelled and sun showers fell. There's that sizzling sound you hear when the drops hit the street.

I can’t quite articulate the difference in art and sensibility that is apparent in the Power House district compared with say the 4th Street Art Fair, some of the other galleries or the weekly creative grove flea market. It’s maybe more “SoHo,” the art more products like nice greeting cards than paintings and such.

I heard somewhere that the streets down here are the last authentic cobblestones in Jersey City. It’s a pretty cool nook of old industrial era buildings in this so called district. Always worthwhile to take a stroll down that way.

Kids were having fun. The piano sounded great. The painted faces made me laugh. My aggravation quickly dissipated. My problems waited until Monday. Summer Rain never lasts long and sunshine always splinters through the clouds. When in doubt, always go to the fair.