OPEN MIC NIGHT @THE RAT

What a week! What a night! Not only was it a great Open Mic Night session--they're ALWAYS good, thanks to our local musicians and our friends who come to support them--but moreover, it just got better and better the later it got...I'm still recovering from how it ended! Our regular musicians and hosts--hey, you know who you are, and THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, for all you give to our community week after week--were so inspired by Mike Pfeiffer's solo performance, that after he played his sets, no one wanted to let him stop!

Oh no, not only did we all want him to keep playing, we had one musician after another just running in and taking the mike, taking the floor, joining in, participating, sharing, laughing, singing, playing...as our daughters would say, "OMG!" It brought chills down your spine, it inspired, it motivated. It became an incredible jam session that allowed all of the musicians who were willing and able to join in, to enjoy the night to the last little minute we were able to stay open. And for those of us in attendance, again, "OMG!" I've just finished uploading just 4 of these impromptu jam sessions (3 are embedded here) to our "The National Hotel NJ" youtube channel. I can't wait to share these with you! And I have other clips that I'll post to our youtube channel featuring other musicians from our Open Mic Nights. The talent just keeps pouring out!

And the funny thing, is that last night was probably one of the MOST enjoyable nights at The National Hotel, simply because of how naturally and organically it happened. Thank you, Mike. I know you're coming back next Thursday night for our weekly Open Mic Night, and then again on Sunday, August 8th for our Sunday Musical Afternoon Series. One of our very own, regular and local musicians already nicknamed him, "The Rhythm Machine." All I can say is, we cannot wait!

On that note, do check out our updated roster of artists who will participate during our Sunday Musical Afternoon Series through September. They'll be performing upstairs in our Restaurant & Bar, from 5 - 7 p.m. Pete and I are buoyed by the support, the enthusiasm, and the encouragement that we receive from our local artists, and in turn are thrilled to be the venue of choice for them to perform and share their talent. You have to realize that having the arts be an integral part of The National Hotel is one of the key reasons Pete and I just love our relationship with Frenchtown, love having taken this giant leap of faith, and being a part of the breathing fabric of The National Hotel.

And don't worry, now that we've finished a successful 3 Sunday series of dinner theater in conjunction with our own local River Union Stage, we will continue to look for opportunities to bring different artistic talent to the building. We have a few things "in the works" now that we'll share later in the month...stay tuned!

Do post a comment if you have any suggestions, ideas or feedback. And keep on finding information on us by becoming a fan of The National Hotel on facebook, follow us on Twitter, or just visit our website regularly for updates. I've come to terms with all the technology--it really just means that everyone has the choice of retrieving and accessing information in the manner that he/she wants. It's no longer "fed" to us; we search and retrieve it the way that we want, when we want. Now that's empowering! So follow us, find us, visit us...I hope we've covered all our bases!!

Poetry Open Mic, Music, and More!

Sunday was a beautiful day. Sunny, flowers blooming...oh yeah, still can't get over Kristine Marinelli's ability to keep this hidden from me for so many months...beautiful cars driving slowly

by, taking in the sights and enjoying a spring day on Race Street in Frenchtown.

How appropriate that it's National Poetry Month and that The National Hotel would be carried into the month by the hands of those who write and read poetry, who took the time to organize, arrange, and participate in our first Poetry Open Mic.

We had the most amazing weekend at The National Hotel. When Pete and I started planning upcoming events, we had our “wish list.” Among them was our Open Mic Night where music would fill our grand old building. Another “wish” was to have poetry readings, so that local artists could have a venue where they could feel free to share their creative talent, express themselves, and enlighten those of us fortunate enough to be in the room listening.

However, Pete nor I could ever have envisioned the support we received from the community, and especially from our local Frenchtonians. Between Alex Wolfson, Banjo Bill, and Jesse Ketchel (among others stepping in & out of the picture when there were conflicts with schedules) taking the lead in organizing and hosting our Thursday Open Mic Nights, to now having Skye Van Saun (a poet, editor, author and teacher) with her partner in crime in this undertaking, John Smith (a Hunterdon County high school teacher and poet), to organize and host our monthly Sunday afternoon Poetry Open Mic, Pete and I are in awe of just how fortunate we are. As my mom said,

“How appropriate to carry forward the tradition of the arts that have been a center-point of The National Hotel for more than a century and a half. Writers put on paper what we all feel, what we wish we could say, what needs to be shared. What a wonderful experience to share with everyone.”

What’s next on our wish list? You’ll have to keep checking-in.

Our Poetry Open Mic launched this past Sunday with very little fan fare, no media coverage, no e-invites, no special planning…just Skye and John putting up flyers all over Frenchtown, and verbally mentioning it to people. How amazing to walk downstairs on Sunday at 2 p.m. and find that 10 people were already sitting in The Rathskeller Pub Lounge. And by 2:45, we had 40 people…STANDING ROOM ONLY!

The power of the written word, recited for all to hear, was mesmerizing. The beauty of the angst, the pain, the humor, and the tales of love lost, love gained, and love shared in a mere two hours of poetry readings, left us trying to figure out just what we’ve done right in some past life to deserve an afternoon filled with creative treasures within our reach. As Julie Andrews sang in The Sound of Music, “I must have done something good…"

The joy of listening to writers read their works, and to readers who read others’ poems that resonated deeply and profoundly with them, is a very personal experience. For both Pete and for me, poetry and the arts are a necessary part of life. Pete shared with Skye how his mom used to read poetry to him as a child. She is a wonderful poet, orator and has a memory for sharing stories and poems that is astounding. Pete can credit much of his ability to tell stories like no one else I’ve ever heard, to his mom. (Take that with a grain of salt, because he is my husband, but I really do feel that way). My own mom is a published author in my home country, Chile. To this day, I find poems, words, written and scribbled on scraps of paper near her bed when I visit her. Every time I read them, I can hear her voice and see the beauty of things through her eyes. Poetry has been a part of her life since her youth, and she always made it a part of my brother’s life and my own. Our daughter, Shiara, participated in a poetry anthology workshop in her old school in New York City, PS 6, The Lillie Devereaux Blake School. Her teacher submitted the work to the Anthology of Poetry book series, where her poem was published, which delighted my mom most of all. And our youngest, Laina, has a way of capturing the essence of what she sees in just a few words. I think her favorite poet to date is Shel Silverstein, and his book "A Light in the Attic." Wait till they both get to Edgar Allan Poe—I’ll need to take them to the famed street on the Upper West Side of New York City, where Poe lived and worked for many years and where Edgar's Cafe now stands in the spot where Poe had his farm nearly 200 years ago, at 255 W. 84th St. And what about Robert Frost…oh, there are so many wonderful writers and poets.

And oh, how many wonderful writers and poets abound in Frenchtown! If you joined us, you know that what I’m saying is the absolute truth. If you missed it, be sure to join us next month for the next installment. You missed witnessing young men, barely at the start of their 20s, filling the room with stories about their first true love or heartache, followed by a more “mature” poet, spilling her heart out about her ex-husband, or another one about her dead husband; the age range and depth of content was incredible. I created a little vignette of the poetry that was read on Sunday, can be found at the bottom of this post and on youtube too, but if you want to hear the entire poems, you'll need to join us next month!

It reminded me of the nights I’ve been in The Rathskeller with Pete and how we enjoy listening to the conversations of the 22 year-old customer talking with the person next to him who is 50 years his senior—but both are enjoying the same vibe and rhythm of conversation. Only in Frenchtown. Only at The National Hotel.

This was followed by yet another appearance of The Jericho Mountain Grass (“The Grass”), who wowed a room-full of diners with their new-age grass tunes and unique sound. It was a pleasure seeing them again following their last appearance in February. Our two daughters called it “foot-stomping happy” music…how true! Check out the YouTube clip for a little glimpse on The Grass's performance this past Sunday.

That’s what can happen at The National Hotel. This building is unique. It’s an institution. It’s a gathering place for all and a hub for town events—better yet, life events. This great old lady of a building creates the ambiance, the “seductive atmosphere” that a patron described just two weeks ago. She couldn’t get over how the building seemed to be alive, to draw people, to be inclusive and inviting. She found the entire building, with its historic charm to be a “seductive atmosphere.” You gotta love that! How fantastic that Pete and I are along for the ride.

Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment, share a story, ask a question. Pete and I hope to see you soon, at The National Hotel. You never know. Pete might take the microphone next…

MUSIC AT THE NATIONAL HOTEL

The National Hotel is bursting at its seams with musicians who have shown up to support our efforts to feature local talent. Not only were we treated to an absolutely wonderful Thursday Open Mike Night (a.k.a. open mic night), two days ago, where participants enjoyed jamming with each other, supporters showed up throughout the night to encourage, listen, enjoy, and share in their friends' passion, but moreover, we were honored to have been chosen to be the hosts of this musical night. And this Sunday, we have yet another treat: Teri Rambo. She'll perform at The Rathskeller Pub Lounge from 4 p.m. - 7 p.m. (note the time change, please). As I've written about before, Teri is an Indie/Folk musician, and we will have the opportunity to listen to some of her own work, as she performs this Sunday. We are so excited!

Please do come out and support our local talent. We've been so fortunate these last few Sundays when we hosted our past musical acts. They've been absolutely enchanting--drawing people from our upstairs Restaurant & Bar, downstairs, to hear them, to listen to their songs, to watch first-hand a performer sharing his/her talent.

Some things happen because one works so hard at making sure all the little details are taken care of. But life is funny in how it presents you with opportunities that are unexpected, sometimes opening doors that you thought you'd end up having to spend hours, days, months just knocking endlessly to see if your efforts produced any results. Such is the case of our Thursday Open Mike Nights at The Rathskeller Pub Lounge.

Pete and I envisioned this very early in the process, built it into our website, knowing that one day, the building would be able to feature musicians, poets, writers, and numerous other creative artists that bring that extra depth into our lives. There's never been a performance, a musical revue, an artistic endeavor, that we regret seeing or in which we participated. On a very personal level, the arts have always been an important part of our lives.

We used to live in Hell's Kitchen (renamed "Clinton" when we lived there, and now finding better branding opportunities being re-renamed to "Hell's Kitchen" yet again for the residential properties, and "Midtown West" for the commercial real estate). Well, just a short stroll away was Lincoln Center. Every summer they open their doors to have free musical and artistic events, featuring international dance companies, musicians, and artists that cater to the young and the old. They even have ballroom dancing evenings, with an hour of instruction before the night starts if anyone wants to join in. Completely open to the public, Pete and I shared these days with joy and enthusiasm, later on including our munchkins, Shiara and Laina too. But New York City is full of these opportunities, even walking through Central Park, which in the summer offers free productions performed at their Delacorte Theater (Shakespearean productions with a hit list of performers that span the NY Broadway scene to Hollywood), Summerstage, a series of concerts, opera productions, and numerous other opportunities for the citizens trapped in high rises, to meander through that beautifully planned and maintained park.

And so much more, from museums, to the World Financial Center's ongoing performing arts programming, again, free and open to the public, from art installations to live performances. Wherever you look, there's always something that one can enjoy.

And then having the opportunity to reopen The National Hotel's doors, Pete and I knew that we would like to be able to share this passion, this amazing dimension to our lives, by being able to reach out to our local artists to see if anyone would be interested. And boy, how pleasantly this has come full circle--without sending out a media blitz to inform people about our desires, our goal to fill our building with artists. It's our local talent that makes this area so wonderful, so rich, and such a community.

Alex Wolfson and I started talking about Open Mike Nights at The Rathskeller Pub early on after opening the doors to The National Hotel. He definitely made me feel as though this was something doable, something that Frenchtown needed--a place to feel like you can express yourself in the way that only an open forum where you are surrounded by fellow artists and friends, can allow you to feel.

So it started. Very organically. No press releases, no advertisements. Just word of mouth and viral emails. And you came. You shared your love of music, your love of the building, your love of spending an easy night with old friends and new.

And to our wonderful surprise, again organically, others have stepped in to help organize these nights, encourage fellow musicians, many with other day jobs, careers, families, and homes that keep them busy during the hours the sun is out--but they came. We are so fortunate to have so many other wonderful Hunterdon County and Bucks County residents who are dropping by, listening--some came on our first night to listen, and actually took the mike this past Thursday to perform--and some perhaps planning on just what they can do to share their talent with those around them. These nights are for them; these nights are for you.

THURSDAYS AND SUNDAYS JUST GOT BETTER!

I am so impressed by all that my husband, Pete, has been able to accomplish. You might think that it's a very subjective view given that he's my husband, but truly, every day he manages to push through the daily grind to find the beauty in The National Hotel. While I'm in NYC working at a local non-profit and spending my evenings with our two beautiful daughters, he is working towards creating a truly special atmosphere, a welcoming environment, and a destination for all who want to feel like they are a part of something unique, all through The National Hotel. It's a joy to witness, and an even greater joy to be able to share this through our blog, marketing, communications, and outreach efforts.

Tonight was just full of exciting prospects. Our Thursdays will kick off our Open Mike sessions beginning on Thursday, February 4th!!! Sign-ups start at 8:30 p.m. and the show jump starts at 9 p.m. downstairs in The Rathskeller Pub. Click here to get contact information to let us know if you're interested in participating!

And, Sundays truly got better! Not only will we feature local artists in our Rathskeller Pub Lounge, but we will also be the proud hosts of an open mike session for writers and poets. Wait...that's not all. Pete has also secured other entertainers, who will just wow you. And everything is done through our local artists, our local talent! I'm going to leave those details to my next post, because I don't want to gush all over this page.

Super Bowl Sunday is on the 7th, so we'll save our next performer, Teri Rambo, for the 14th. Please join us in the Rathskeller Pub Lounge, on February 14th, from 3 p.m. - 6 p.m. Teri is an Indie/Folk musician who has written her own music. We hope you'll make the time to share this special upcoming afternoon with us. Mark your calendars!

I do think it's important to recognize how fortunate we were to be able to feature a truly special Sunday afternoon on January 24th. We were treated to the performance of Dennis Thatcher ("Den"), and after the 1st hour or so, he was joined by two lovely ladies who accompanied him with beautiful voices, rhythm and talent.

Den played classic cover rock, and was able to entertain one and all. Even our youngest daughter, Laina, who is a Beatles' fan, was able to request a song from Den. He captured all of our attention, even drawing some of our staff from the upstairs Bar, downstairs to The Rathskeller Pub Lounge, to listen to his music. We were all transfixed by his music, and by his stories. He told some pretty funny tales about growing up in Frenchtown and the different people from town who helped shape his life.

It truly was a fun, relaxed and enjoyable afternoon. I even had the pleasure of having 2 assistants: Laina, as the new videographer, taking turns with Shiara, our oldest daughter, as an additional photographer! And to add to this wealth of involved people, I received an email from one of our very first supporters, Alana Balogh, who helped spread the word about Den! She took it upon herself to email her friends about our Sunday program. This is after all she did a couple of months ago, when she single-handedly contacted musicians in the area to let them know that The National Hotel was hoping to feature live music in the near future. We received such an incredible response from musicians who were interested in performing, that we will always be grateful for her interest and for her continued support. The National Hotel has truly allowed us to meet wonderful people, who continue to give of themselves, and to show us an immense trust in our ability to ensure that The National Hotel surges forward even in this recovering economy. Thank you to all our friends, new and old.

We hope you had the opportunity to join us, but if you didn't, click on the webclip below to get a sampling of the music Den played.

We hope that you'll come and support our local artists and send us your feedback if you'd like to see us reach out to other musicians, or have a particular one in mind. You can also email us at info@thenationalhotelnj.com if you'd like reach us directly rather than on this public forum.

See you on the 14th to welcome Teri Rambo!