Lori-Ann Sciachitano
Distribution Manager

Food: ✮ ✮
Atmosphere: ! ! ! !
Service: ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Price: $
Location: 61 New St
Distance from campus: .5 miles
Website: N/A

One would think that a restaurant close to a college campus would work extra hard to make the quality of their food better than average. That is not necessarily the case with Woodrow’s Café. While Woodrow’s does have some good points it was a generic sort of place.
The setup of the restaurant is really cute. It has lots of grouped tables with the ability to be moved around to fit whatever size party you have. Each wall is covered in different fiesta colors, as well as art from students at Rutgers.
The beverage choices are your average café style coffee drinks, the hot mocha being the highlight of the experience. Soda choices are the average Coke and Pepsi with a few Stewart’s choices thrown in.
As for food choices it was the generic café soups and sandwiches, with no salad choices at all, which was very shocking. I have never been to a café that didn’t at least have one salad choice. There are two soups of the day every day of the week, with one vegetarian option and one non-vegetarian option.
We tried the vegetarian mushroom soup, which had a fine puree of mushrooms and a strong flavor of garlic. It was served with fresh made whole wheat bread that was crusty on the outside and warm and chewy on the inside.
We had two sandwiches The Woodrow Special and Eggplant Balls. The Woodrow was fresh grilled chicken, roasted red peppers and balsamic vinegar. The only flavor that was really prominent was the red pepper, and the chicken by itself was pretty plain.
The Eggplant Balls were served with hummus and were bland as well. Both the hummus and eggplant balls were lacking flavor and were most definitely missing garlic. Both of the sandwiches were served on homemade pizza bread that was the only redeeming quality to both the sandwiches.
All in all Woodrow’s was a pretty big disappointment. I have walked past this restaurant numerous times and was intrigued by its promises of healthy homemade meals, only to be let down when finally trying it out.
If you regularly read the Newb, you know that four issues back, we reviewed a restaurant on Halsey Street called The Coffee Cave. The Coffee Cave offers many of the same amenities as Woodrow’s Café, and they are, in my opinion, of a better quality.
If you are looking for something in the same price range go to The Coffee Cave. If you are looking for something with similar atmosphere and service go to The Coffee Cave. If you are looking for a greater variety of soup choices and must tastier sandwiches go to The Coffee Cave.

Lori-Ann Sciachitano is a sophomore in Science Technology and Society and can be reached at distribution-manager@njitvector.com.

Matan Shavit
Entertainment Editor

Every Thursday, Hell’s Kitchen Lounge hosts Brick City Burlesque. Burlesque is like a variety show for stripping. The acts, though, are not the mere removal of clothing. They are fully choreographed performances to music complete with acting, seduction, and a sense of humor. Approaching female nudity with an irreverent tongue-in-cheek wit, Brick City Burlesque is sexy and funny, and captivates the audience throughout.
Popularized in the United States in the 19th century, burlesque evolved as a mix of adult entertainment, a performing art, and satiric comedy. Burlesque often draws focus to the female form, but the main attractions are the actresses themselves. Modern burlesque is often thought of as classier than traditional stripping because of the artistic quality of the show.
At Brick City Burlesque, performers Minnie Tonka and Philly Caramel appeared on stage last Thursday.
Each of them was featured in three acts. Minnie Tonka performed a Mary Tyler Moore routine to the theme song from the show, danced in a gold dress in a more erotic style, and finished with a reverse strip tease. The last one was the only instance of full nudity in the show, though it was right at the beginning. For someone putting clothing on, it was oddly compelling. It felt as though she reversed the paradigm of taking clothes off, but still did it seductively.
Philly Caramel performed in an industrial themed costumed, as a drunkard, and as a pink poodle to happy, old-timey music. All three were laugh out loud funny, but the drunken stripping was raucously hilarious. Fumbling with her clothing, she kept a goofy grin on her face the whole time, finally revealing that she had mismatched the pasties covering her otherwise exposed breasts.
Both performers preserved the allure and teasing of burlesque, while letting their personalities add genuine humor. They made liberal use of facial and bodily expression, and both responded well to the music and to the crowd, interacting well with everyone. Spectators were cheering, screaming, whistling, and laughing, and often all four together.
The performances were spaced throughout the evening, with each girl appearing once, and then taking a half hour break before the next set of two acts. This was clever on the part of the organizers because it compelled people to stay and see more each time, while letting them pause to talk about the show, socialize, and of course, order more drinks.
Between acts, the host announced to the audience that the girls would only keep dancing if the crowd applauded and tipped enough. He then drew everyone’s attention to the pole dancer, Rizzle Dizzle.
The bar itself is moderately priced with a pretty good selection of beers, mixed drinks, and liquor. The kitchen is closed by the time the show starts however, so the night menu consists solely of cold sandwiches. That late at night, most people are not ordering food.
Overall, Brick City Burlesque is a fantastic form of entertainment, and although seeing the whole show will take all night, viewers should stick around to see every act.
The show starts at 11PM every Thursday at Hell’s Kitchen Lounge. You must be 21 or over to attend. With no cover charge and the promise of an amazing show, it is well worth attending.
To find out more about Brick City Burlesque at Hell’s Kitchen Lounge, visit www.hellskitchenlounge.com or search YouTube for some performances.

Matan Shavit is a junior in Applied Math and Computer Science. He can be reached at entertainment@njitvector.com.

KEVIN RIVAS
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.
Release Date: February 23, 2010
Rated M

With Heavy Rain, developer Quantic Dream defines a new genre within the well-established video game market. In an industry filled with first-person shooters, strategy games, racers, and MMORPGs, the PS3-exclusive takes on a new type of gameplay that can only be described as an intensely interactive drama. The developers are taking a risk with their storytelling-style engagement, but it’s definitely a risk worth taking.

Presentation & Storyline
Heavy Rain focuses heavily on its storytelling as the backbone to the game. The developers have brought a superb storyline that truly engages the player in all depths of the game. The game offers a truly unique experience for every player. Heavy Rain doesn’t follow just one story that is usually standard in games. The game takes pride in providing players with multiple experiences where no two are ever alike.

Without giving too much away, Heavy Rain revolves around solving the Origami Killer case through the perspectives of four key characters. The game is segmented into scenes involving these characters and their interactions based on the player’s decisions.

Heavy Rain plays out like a movie, where the ensemble cast gets to play out each of their parts in solving the mystery of a series of kidnappings and murders. Intense doesn’t begin to describe the action and drama that literally has the player on the edge of their seat.

The game isn’t without its flaws. For a game that relies heavily on storyline, Heavy Rain does have noticeably unusual moments of strange line delivery from the voice actors. However, this is rare and he game has some of the best voice acting heard in any game to date.

Another issue also lies in the spotty graphical presentation of the game. Certain objects are rendered right before the player on screen. The game also has an overall playtime of about eight hours or shorter, depending on the decisions made. Finally, the game starts off at a slow pace, but truly picks up and never lets the player go until the gratifying or displeasing conclusion (based on all the player’s decisions throughout the game).

Gameplay
With decision-making as the advancement mechanism within the game, Heavy Rain is most reminiscent of the classic game “Dragon’s Lair” mixed with “God of War”. Just like “Choose Your Own Adventure” books, the game offers a unique experience that varies from player to player.

What makes the gameplay stand out is that every decision made, whether big or small, causes a butterfly effect throughout the entire game. Many of these decisions are made with a clearly laid out control scheme. The control mechanic includes the player slowly moving the joystick, holding down a series of buttons, and button smashing. The player executes these movements in a well-timed manner in order to progress.

Progress is also unique to the gameplay. Not following the usual failure model of a “Game Over”, Heavy Rain plays from start to end. Regardless of whether a decision takes one of the characters out of the game, the storyline still continues. Considering the intensity of the many situations in the game, the player will find much use for the pause button to contemplate choices that will change the experience entirely.

Conclusion
Once is not enough to fully immerse yourself in the entirety of Heavy Rain’s world. Especially considering the usual eight-hour experience, Heavy Rain is worth playing multiple times in order to witness the more than twenty-two endings reported.

There are many concerns with players feeling that Heavy Rain may not be the game for them. It’s comes with a strong recommendation, though. Heavy Rain is not one to be missed by any movie lover who wishes to truly feel the influence of their decisions.

DAVID TRESS
CONTRIBUTINGWRITER

Chaos. An omnipotent, crawling chaos lurches its way towards you. You haven’t the slightest clue how you’ve ended up in this dimensional rift, but it doesn’t matter anymore. Guitars and percussions beat you into submission, while a sickly rasp echoes in the distance; this is the soundtrack to your demise. It is death not only of the flesh, but of the mind as well. The very concept of sanity vanishes in the blink of an eye.

This, in a nutshell, is Portal.

A quintet hailing from Brisbane, Australia, Portal has been practicing its twisted brand of death metal for over 15 years now, but despite this very few concrete details are known about the band. A Google search turns up little, save for the stage names of the band members (their real names remain unknown) and some rather cryptic interviews. Portal’s 3rd full-length album, entitled Swarth, was released on October 20th, 2009, and stands as the best in the band’s admittedly small discography.

At first glance, Swarth appears to be mere indistinguishable noise, due to both the extremely lo-fi way the album is produced, and the extremely dissonant nature of the music itself.

The guitars don’t play riffs so much as they coalesce into a thick muck, the drums and bass are nearly inaudible, and the vocals appear and disappear seemingly on a whim.  One song will end as another begins, and the lyrics, written in bizarre mangled English, offer no help in determining what is going on.

So it almost goes without saying that Swarth is a difficult listen; however, it is also quite a rewarding one. While not as flashy as other technical death metal bands such as Gorod or Cryptopsy, Portal manages to combine a pervasive, alien atmosphere with extremely refined technical musicianship, resulting in an album that can be engrossing in ways that few others can be.

Details slowly reveal themselves over the course of repeated listenings: the structural repetition of “The Sweyy,” the subtle ambient touches of “Larvae,” the slow churning grind of “Werships” and “Marityme”.

The Curator serves as the vocalist for Portal, his voice a unique mix of death metal growl and a black metal shriek. Horror Illogium and Aphotic respectively provide the lead and rhythm guitars for Portal, and their work continues to impress, alternating between furious riffing and sludgy rumblings.

And though the bass playing of Omenous Fugue and the drumming of Ignis Fatuus are more-or-less buried under the guitars, they do a good job of holding the songs together, preventing them from completely spiraling out of control.

It cannot be stressed enough that Swarth is not for the faint of heart. If your only exposure to death metal is through a band such as Children of Bodom you may wish to look elsewhere. If, however, you’re a fan of bands such as Deathspell Omega, Blut aus Nord, or the Axis of Perdition, then Portal’s newest offering will be right at home in your collection. Rarely has an album ever provided such a lucid glimpse into such truly uncharted territory: the outer limits of the human psyche.

Lori-Ann Sciachitano
Distribution Manager

With the snowstorms we’ve had the past week the newb was stranded on campus. We figured it was a great opportunity to go exploring Newark for some great weekend eats. Little did we know that like our campus a lot of places in Newark close early or don’t open at all on the weekends. In light of this discovery we present a very special Newb. The top 10 places to eat on the weekend. We will provide the location and weekend hours with a general rating and a brief description of each place. There may be repeats. Happy eating!

Breakfast

3. Central Restaurant:    ****
30 Central Ave
Saturday 6:00am-5:30pm, Sunday 6:00am-4:30pm
Central Restaurant is a cute diner that serves breakfast all day, great for a late morning or after religious service. In the early morning there are breakfast specials that include your meal with juice, tea, or coffee with most being less than $6.

2. Intrinsic Café:    ****
5 Sussex Ave
Saturday: Closed, Sunday: noon-12am
Intrinsic Café has the best hot and cold drinks in the city. With bottomless cups of coffee, individual tea pots, and enough bubble tea flavors to explode your head. The atmosphere is great and the variety of baked goods, from bagels and rolls to Chinese steamed buns, is key.

1. Je’s Restaurant:    *****
260 Halsey St
Saturday 8:00am-7:30pm, Sunday 9:00am-7:30pm
When we original reviewed Je’s we went for lunch but we’ve returned on numerous occasions for breakfast. Je’s breakfasts are big cheap and good. Our favorite is the 2 eggs any style with slab bacon grits and biscuits. With that everyone’s welcome feel it is a great breakfast spot. Don’t forget to ask for a side of fried apples!

Lunch

3. Kara’s Roti Shop:    ****
579 South Orange Ave
Saturday: 8:30am-7:00pm Sunday: 9am-5pm
Kara’s has a great selection of traditional Trinidadian favorites from Roti and Doubles, to Bakes, there are great prices and friendly service. They don’t make you feel dumb when you ask what something is and you can choose the spiciness.

2.  The Coffee Cave:    *****
45 Halsey St
Saturday: 11am-8pm Sunday: 11am-6pm
The Coffee Cave has the best soup we’ve tasted in Newark. With new flavors everyday you’ll never get bored. Our favorites were the chicken tortilla and mulligatawny.

3. Hobby’s Deli:     *****
32 Branford Pl
Saturday: 11am-3pm Sunday: closed; they are also open until game time for every Devil’s home game
Hobby’s is one of the best spots in Newark, with an amazing staff, great sandwiches, great prices and tons of Newark History it’s a wonderful lazy Saturday lunch spot with pickles and a brisket wrap.

Dinner

3. Ando’s Restaurant:     ****
9 Wilson Ave
Open 24 Hours Saturday and Sunday
An awesome diner in the middle of the Ironbound Andro’s has great specials, large portions, and friendly staff. Most items are made fresh daily with new specials every day. Their French fries are to die for.

2. Adega Grill:    ****
130 Ferry St
Saturday 3:00-10:00pm, Sunday noon-10pm
This is not a place to go out with the boys, this is date night/mom and dad are visiting type of place. If you are looking to impress someone with the true taste of Newark Adega is a great spot. A little on the pricy side but portions are huge.

1.  Ferry Street BBQ:    *****
89 Ferry St.
Saturday and Sunday: 11am-10pm
With ribs and chicken seasoned to perfection falling off the bone, cooked right in front of you Ferry Street BBQ has large portions for awesome prices. Open late it’s great for a pre bar hopping or sporting event meal. Definitely not a spot to miss.

Overall Best Weekend Spot

Alta Horas:     *****
266 Ferry St
Open 24 hours Saturday-Sunday
Alta Horas has a great variety of burger choices, great drink selections, and is open 24 hours and will deliver to NJIT anytime before midnight. The best late night munchies or stuck in your apartment because of snow spot. Looking for leftovers? The Da Hora is the sandwich for you.

DANIEL OVALLE
STAFF WRITER

This week, we tread some old waters with Jack Hill’s Spider Baby or The Maddest Story Ever Told. Hill is the Director of the already “B-Movie Broken-Down” Blacksploitation classic Coffy, in which Pam Grier is sexy and sassy as a vengeful sister out to take down a drug ring that turned her sister into a junkie.

If you liked Coffy, well … Spider Baby is nothing like it, but it is definitely still worth your time and money and earns its 3.5 out of 5 CHUDs rating. (That’s rights CHUDs, Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers.)

Spider Baby features Sid Haig and Lon Chaney, two of horror’s best actors doing some great work. You would remember Chaney from his portrayals of the Wolfman and various other big screen monsters during the 1940’s and 50’s. Sid Haig had a recent resurgence because of the modern B-Movies by Rob Zombie House of 1000 Corpses and The Devils Rejects in which he played the killer clown Captain Spaulding.

As seen individually in these two greats work, their talents in tandem are magnificent. Chaney does fine work conjuring Lawrence Talbot (aka the man who becomes the Wolfman) in his nervous and protected portrayal of Bruno, the accursed family’s housekeeper, and Haig is both funny and a bit creepy as the man-child Ralph who lives with this horrible curse.

What curse do I speak of? Well the movie gets right to work mapping out the primary struggle in the first 5 minutes. It opens with the protagonist who confides in us, the audience, the mad happenings that he has lived through.

He tells us of an odd but wealthy section of his family tree that, through some recessive gene, all inherited an ailment that causes an individual to regress mentally after the age of 10. Worst of all though is that once they become of a certain age they devolve into a cannibalistic and angry state.

That last fact was unknown to the outside world until our storyteller, the kind Peter, and his greedy sister come to claim the ailing family’s property. This tactic of telling the audience the entire plot, then showing the action is a classic B-Movie trait; I enjoy the confusion of watching a random B-Movie and being completely confused for twenty minutes. I can just imagine watching the first scene without that intro, and how much stronger the violence would have affected.

This movie is not overtly violent, or sexual, or funny, but is does give you a taste of all three with clean and natural transitions between them. The unifying thread of Spider Baby is the superb characters developed by Haig, Chaney, and the two young actresses who did very well as the afflicted sisters Elizabeth and Virginia.

Their love and protection for each other as a family provides a surprising message as these characters’ develop into the heroes, and the so called normal people who want to break them up are quickly detested.

If you like your horror with a hidden message of family camaraderie then Spider Baby is for you. This movie is available for purchase on DvD and for rent at Blockbuster or Netflix. It is also currently available on Netflix streaming.

Daniel Ovalle is a senior in Science Technology and Society and can be reached at DOvalle@njitvector.com.

Daniel Ovalle

Staff Writer

Popcorn (1991) directed by Mark Herrier, might be a perfect B-Movie. It is surprisingly good, mainly because of its surprises. I sat to watch the movie on an ugly night in the middle of the week. I was in the perfect mental state and shared the room with a pile of snacks and a bigger pile of friends. We were all ready to watch a bunch of bad movies with no necessary direction planned. Popcorn was chosen because of its title and its two line description on Netflix. We were all in for a trip, and anyone who follows in our footsteps will experience a B-Movie that disserves the 5/5 Vengeful Popcorn rating.

Popcorn follows the story of a group of college students in a film club who are looking for some extra money to fund films they want to produce. Their advisor is in possession of some great gimmicky 1950’s B-Movies and suggests that the group screen them as originally intended.

These formats include a 3-D giant fly movie, an electric man film presented in shockovision, and a smellovision film. (Watching a B-Movie about watching B-Movies… is that like Meta or something?) The students begin renovating the old theater which will host this event when an odd old man shows up out of nowhere with a chest of authentic special effects equipment from the 1950’s. He asks them to use his things, but what the students don’t know is that within the chest is the last remaining print of a haunted experimental film… the film of one of the student’s nightmares!

So far everything mentioned is common horror movie territory. But this is just the platform, the spring board, and though it is not a high dive that doesn’t stop the movie from doing some sort of triple sou cou backflipy mc twist into a pool of awesome sauce.

This movie never falls flat. It hits you head on and makes no apologies. Once it got rolling I tried hard not blink for fear of missing some ridiculousness and ending up totally lost. Yes that is how fast it moves and yes that is how much fun you can have. (If you think hydrating your eyes externally to prevent blinking fun.)

Now let’s get to some serious (not really) B-Movie breakdowning. Question: Does the movie have a ridiculously scored 80’s movie montage? Answer: Yes. Question: Does the movie have a reggae dance party? Answer: Yes! Question: Is this movie supposed to be silly or gory or what? Answer: Well, Popcorn has an identity crisis… it is really silly with great over acting, but once the villain comes forward he is so convincingly crazy that it pushes the edge.

Question: Is there a twist? Answer: There are twists of First-Saw-Movie-ian proportions. There are so many unexpected twists that you might just about brick before you discover the villain’s identity. And once you discover his identity it both makes perfect sense and is a ridiculous surprise. A flaw some viewers would find is that there is no hint of the villain’s identity, but that is perfect in my opinion because upon the reveal you experience the same surprise and horror as the female protagonist.

Popcorn gets extra B-Movie points because it is an especially egregious box office failure, and its lack of any note worthy actors or production staff. Really there is no reason anyone should know about or watch this movie. No reason, that is, other than the fact that it is awesome. To watch Popcorn you can purchase the DvD from various DvD venders or rent it from Netflix or Blockbuster. It is also available for streaming on Netflix.

Daniel Ovalle is a senior in Science Technology and Society and can be reached at DOvalle@njitvector.com.

Lori-Ann Sciachitano

Distribution Manager

Food: ***

Atmosphere: ***

Service: 3333

Price: $$

Location: 6 Wilson Ave

Distance from Campus: 2 miles

We here at the Newb would like to issue a formal apology to you, our loyal readers. Back in October when we reviewed a local restaurant, we claimed that there were no 24 hour diners in Newark. After discovering Andros Restaurant in the Ironbound, we have what we are proud to say is a Jersey style 24-hour diner!

Located next to a strip club at the curve of Ferry St., it is a great spot to stop after a night out on the town. It is walking distance from the popular night clubs of the Ironbound and not far from the Prudential Center.

It is set up like a traditional diner with booths, tables and a long counter with stool seating facing the desert case. The color scheme is one we’ve seen many times in restaurants in Newark: pink and mint green. We chose to sit in a booth, and the seats were very comfortable. Unlike some diners, the cushions on the benches were still firm enough making the distance between the table and your mouth very far.

Andros offers a variety of beverages from traditional sodas, coffees and teas, to a complete open bar with house sangria, shakes and homemade lemonade. We tried a banana chocolate shake and homemade lemonade.

The coffee was a great cup, strong and never ending. The banana chocolate shake had a fantastic even flavor of banana and chocolate; it was served in a traditional silver mixing cup filled with that extra bit of shake. The homemade lemonade was a great mix of sweet and sour with pieces of fresh lemon served with the same extra cup.

For meals we had a traditional Reuben, a Cuban sandwich, a burger, and filet of sole franchise. The Ruben, Cuban and burger were all served with French fries, pickle and coleslaw while the sole was served with rice and steamed veggies. The filet of sole was a very generous portion with two large filets and a generous portion of rice. It had a nice tangy flavor of lemon and was tender and flaky.

The burger was a typical burger; nothing spectacular, nothing disappointing. The Ruben was made with corned beef, but you could choose to have it with pastrami or turkey. It was very moist and the Swiss cheese melted to perfection. The Cuban sandwich was a sandwich and a half packed with roasted pork, ham, pickles, mayo and Swiss cheese all pressed together through a Panini machine. The fries that were served with the sandwiches were great, perfectly crispy and spicy.

We ended the meal with desserts of carrot cake, rice pudding, and strawberry cheesecake. The carrot cake was moist with thick layers of cream cheese filling. The rice pudding was, while not the best rice pudding, a nice creamy blend of flavors. The cheesecake was served with two giant strawberries that complemented the sweet cake to perfection.

All in all, Andros is a great spot for typical diner food but straying from the typical diner fair may leave you disappointed. Andros gets bonus points for its fast, friendly service and its 24 hour status. So after a night of drinking or screaming your head off at a Devil’s game, Andros fits the bill.

Mike Lowry
Editor in Chief

Last Friday night at NJPAC, many rock and roll dreams came true when the music of Led Zeppelin was brought to life live by a performing group from Toronto Canada known as Classic Albums Live.

Formed with the purpose of reproducing note for note every last detail of the most timeless rock and roll albums, the group tours the US and Canada playing the most famous albums from bands like The Who (Who’s Next?), Supertramp (Crime of the Century), The Beatles (Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, the White Album, Abbey Road, Revolver), Bob Marley (Legend), AC/DC (AC/DC), Pink Floyd (Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here), Led Zeppelin (Led Zeppelin I and II) and many others.

“We take a forensic approach,” Said lead guitarist and musical director for the Led Zeppelin show Dom Polito. “There’s a lot of songs that Led Zeppelin themselves didn’t play because of the extra tracks. You’ll see the extra guitar player there playing the extra tracks trying to make it sound as authentic as the record. I think they’d be happy with that.”

The show is designed more like a rock and roll recital than a more traditional rock show, in the sense that the music is reproduced precisely including every last detail, including the inflection of the vocals, musical nuances in solos, and studio sound effects. Extra musicians take the stage during some tracks to fill in the parts that can’t be played concurrently by the other musicians.

On the music of Led Zeppelin: II, “There’s a lot of joy in this album,” said keyboard player and performer Lindsay Clark. “[Zeppelin] played better than we ever could,” she added when asked what she thought the original band members would think if they were in the audience.

“The emotions that come out of the songs that they wrote are probably the same emotions [Jimmy Page] felt when he played them,” said Polito.

The show was held in the grandeur of NJPAC’s crown jewel,Prudential Hall, in front of a large and diverse audience spanning multiple generations. “It’s Timeless,” said Polito about the music of Zeppelin. “I play shows like this and I see three generations: Dad, son, and Grandpa all wearing Led Zeppelin shirts. It’s timeless music.”

The first half of the lineup featured all the songs on the album in order: “Whole Lotta Love”, “What is and What Should Never Be”, “The Lemon Song”, “Thank You”, “Heartbreaker”, “Living Loving Maid (She’s Just a Woman)”, “Ramble On” (Which was never actually performed by Zeppelin live until their 2007 reunion show in London), “Moby Dick”—including the simply classic drum solo pioneered by John Bohnam, reproduced flawlessly —, and “Bring it on Home.”

Singing the music of Zeppelin during a sound check at NJPAC

The second half of the show featured nine other great hit songs chosen by fans and ticketholders who voted online ahead of time. This list featured “Good Times, Bad Times”, “Dazed and Confused” (where yes, they actually played the guitar with a violin bow for that very special sound), “Immigrant Song”, “Rock and Roll”, “Black Dog”, “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You”, “Stairway to Heaven”, “The Song Remains the Same”, and “Kashmir”.

“This is a great concert series. It’s not only about Led Zeppelin, it’s about every classic album that’s out there being recreated by some of the best musicians in this series” said Polito. “I’d be hoping that [Zeppelin would] think we do them justice; and I think we do.”

“Classic albums live is great,” said Brian from Shrewsbury NJ after the show. “I’ve been to two shows now. I’ll definitely come again.” About NJPAC, he also commented that it was “Very clean… [and] they make it very comfortable for you to get [there]. You feel as if you’re lost, they will help you find your way. It’s very comfortable here.”

NJPAC will be featuring Classic Albums Live again in April featuring The Beatles’ The White Album. Tickets are affordable, ranging from $28 to $40 for orchestra seats. Every seat in the hall, however, offers a great view, and most importantly, acoustic clarity and wonderful sound.

In addition to the main event, before the show in the lobby of Prudential Hall and during intermission, there was more live music from a talented and lively jazz group. The musicians were amongst the crowd interacting with their audience, and the pre-show and intermission break completed the experience. Even the balconies outside the doors to Prudential Hall served as box seating for the lobby performance. The utility and beauty of the design begs to be filled with great performances, and the shows do not disappoint.

NJPAC offers a variety of programming every day of the week at prices that are still relatively affordable, including a special Student Rush program which allows students attending school (from elementary school through college) to purchase tickets for certain events for only $13. (More info at www.njpac.org, search “Student Rush”).

For further information and upcoming events, look for NJPAC on Facebook, Twitter (@njpac), and online at www.njpac.org. For more information on Classic Albums Live, visit www.classicalbumslive.com.

Daniel Ovalle
Staff Writer

Pam Grier is one “Foxy” lady known recently for her work in the L Word. She is delightful to watch in any role, and an added bonus is that most of these roles are in great B-Movies. Her sexual awareness and confidence drives any movie in which she is featured.
In the first Pam Grier vehicle Coffy (1973) written and directed by Jack Hill Ms. Grier thrills as the title character Coffy, a hard working, tough nosed nurse by day who, after her shifts, seeks revenge from the smack dealers corrupting her streets. This blacksploitation/sexploitation classic covers all bases of both genres and never disappoints, fully meriting a B-Movie Breakdown rating of 4 Foxy Fems out of 5.
Stemming from the beautiful B-Movie crock pot of the 1970’s this movie is a spectacular concoction of the best of the decade’s exploitation film qualities. Let’s first inspect the blacksploitation qualities. For me a blacksploitation film starts with the music, and this move has some groovy music. You may ask: “Does the title song constantly sing the name Coffy?” Yes, yes it does. The music is funky, funny, and very well timed and paced with the action.
Speaking of action, this movie is chocked full. From the first shot gun blast to the final chase, action is never more than a few minutes away and can happen during any unexpected scene. Is it a regular interrogation? No, it is a full on fight. Oh look a nice get together. Wait… those women are all prostitutes and Coffy is going to beat them down.

That’s right like any good sexploitation movie with Coffy you are never too far from a girl fight, rifled with torn dresses an exposed niceties.
Yes in case the term sexploitation did not give it away, this movie displays gratuitous nudity. What can you expect? Well, surprisingly graphic violence, displays of drug use, black on black violence, and a lot of generally naughty jive talk. All encompassed in a great Blackspliotation… Sexploitation… well let’s just call it a B-Movie. Fans of bad accents would enjoy the undercover Pam Grier’s attempt to pass as Jamaican.
This movie is very sexy and is loaded with high octane action and some gruesome violence. The “Fun Due to Poor Quality of Film Making“  aspect is low on this one other than that the jive talk and that delightful Jamaican accent scene. For the 1970’s exploitation fan this movie is a must own. Allow me to suggest the “Fox in a Box” box-set for Coffy and two other Pam Grier greats. Coffy can be rented from Blockbuster and Netflix. It is also available for solo purchase on DvD.