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RED BANK: AFTER RBMS, HIGH SCHOOL SUCCESS

The Red Bank Middle School class of 2019 was well represented in the RBR class of 2023. (Click to enlarge.)

Press release by the Red Bank Borough Public Schools

Red Bank Regional High School celebrated its Senior Awards recognition ceremony on June 7, and the Red Bank Middle School Class of 2019 received numerous awards and scholarships.

This group of students truly represented our “Best in America” mentality by achieving recognition in various award categories, including academic, athletics, arts, and community service.

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RED BANK: ELBOW-TO-ELBOW AT ‘FACEOFF’

An historically large field of candidates for office in Red Bank sat elbow-to-elbow on the stage of the Red Bank Middle School for a “Faceoff Over Red Bank’s Future” Tuesday night.

The crowded race includes 13 candidates for council and two for mayor, all of whom participated (one via phone link).

A combined in-person and online audience of more than 230 heard the candidates lay out their visions and positions on issues at the event, which was organized by redbankgreen and moderated by site founder John T. Ward. The complete video is above. (Click to enlarge.)

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RED BANK: HOGAN, PORTMAN SPLIT ON ‘DEBATE’

Mayoral candidates Tim Hogan, left and Billy Portman, right, at last week’s dedication ceremony at the Senior Center. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Red Bank’s two mayoral candidates disagreed Monday on whether one of them has “refused” a call for a one-on-one debate.

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RED BANK: CANDIDATES JOSTLE FOR POSITION

All council candidates participated in the League of Women Voters’s online event. (Photo from Zoom. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Thirteen candidates for Red Bank council sought to make an impression on voters during a fast-paced candidates showdown Monday night.

The occasion was an online event hosted by the hosted by the League of Women Voters of Monmouth County, the first of two planned showdowns ahead of an historic election May 9.

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RED BANK: PORTMAN CITES HOGAN ‘CONFLICT’

Mayoral candidates Billy Portman, upper right, and Tim Hogan, lower left, with league volunteers during the forum. (Photo from Zoom. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Red Bank mayoral candidate Tim Hogan‘s job as president of Riverview Medical Center would present a “massive conflict of interest” if he wins, incumbent Billy Portman said Monday night.

The two jostled for position at the first candidate showdown leading to an historic May 9 election.

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RED BANK: MAYORAL CONTENDERS UP FOR ‘FACEOFF’

Mayoral candidates Billy Portman, left, and Tim Hogan. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

Incumbent mayor Billy Portman and challenger Tim Hogan have agreed to participate in redbankgreen’sFaceoff Over Red Bank’s Future” next month.

So far, nine of the 13 candidates for council also have agreed to answer questions at the event.

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RED BANK: CANDIDATE FACEOFF SET

With a high-stakes election nearing, Red Bank voters will have a chance to see and hear from up to 15 candidates for municipal office at a future-oriented redbankgreen forum next month.

The League of Women Voters of Monmouth County is also doing a thing.

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RED BANK: KIDS HONOR VETERANS

After a one-year pandemic interruption, groups of school children returned to the annual Veterans Day commemoration in Red Bank Thursday.

With poems, songs and handmade ‘thank you’ cards for veterans, students from St. James School, the Red Bank Charter School and Red Bank Middle School participated in the event, held at the Veterans Monument on Monmouth Street – alongside the onetime borough hall.

Check out redbankgreen’s event photos below.

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RED BANK: INDIE FILMS TO LIGHT UP SCREENS

The trailer for ‘I Am Another You,’ a documentary about a young man who chooses to live on the streets, screens as a free, community-welcome entry at this week’s Indie Street Film Festival. Below, artist Ron Haywood Jones‘s mural for the festival at 97 Broad Street remained unfinished Tuesday morning because of rain interruptions. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

Its community mural may still need some finishing touches, thanks to uncooperative weather. Still, the third annual Indie Street Film Festival kicks off in Red Bank Wednesday evening, ushering in a five-day rush of innovative cinema, movie talk and parties.

A project of the filmmaker cooperative Indie Street (working in partnership with Red Bank RiverCenter), the festival spreads decidedly non-Hollywood magic across the borough’s theaters, restaurants, night spots, and even the middle school auditorium. And there’s a free, community-welcome screening mixed in among the orange-pass-only fare.

Check out the festival schedule below; information about passes and tickets can be found here.

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RED BANK: STUDENTS STAND FOR PEACE

Students at the Red Bank Middle School were out on Harding Road taking turns sharing messages of peace and other reminders of Martin Luther King Jr. outside the Red Bank Primary School Tuesday.

According to vice principal J.T. Pierson, a new group of 20 students will be out every 15 minutes during the school day. (Photo by J.T. Pierson. Click to enlarge.)

RED BANK: INDIE FILM FEST GETS UNDERWAY

Lead festival organizer Jay Webb, right, with guests at Wednesday night’s opening reception on the patio of the Count Basie Theatre. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

With a display of carved-surfboard art, a New Jersey premiere screening of Dave Made a Maze and a DJ’d after-party at three separate venues, the second annual Indie Street Film Festival officially got underway in Red Bank Wednesday evening, ushering in a four-days-and-nights slate of screenings, panels, workshops and get-togethers with an admirable “Cannes-do” spirit.

A project of the fillmajer cooperative Indie Street (working in partnership with Red Bank RiverCenter), the sequel to last year’s inaugural event looks to make a long-running “tentpole franchise” of the venture. It’s a multi-venue happening that offers plenty of reasons to visit the borough’s theaters, restaurants and nightspots — or even its best-kept-secret middle school auditorium — during that time of year when the beaches make their biggest bid for buzz.

Take it here for info on individual event tickets and festival passes — and read on, for a rundown of goings-on between through Sunday. More →

RED BANK: FESTIVAL SERVES FILMS & EVENTS

A portion of the colorful mural painted earlier this month on the Catherine Street wall of Kitch Organic heralds the second annual coming of the Indie Street Film Festival, co-founded by Jay Webb, below.

To Wanamassa resident Jay Webb, losing oneself in the flickering lights of a hushed, darkened room is only part of the joy of a film festival for cinephiles. Another is getting together and gabbing about what they’ve seen, and who’s doing what in an art form wholly dependent on collaboration.

Which is one reason the schedule for the second edition of the Indie Street Film Festival, which returns to Red Bank next week, is studded with community events in between screenings of some 60 films.

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RED BANK: BANDIERA AND ‘HOPE’ AT BASIE

bobby_bandiera_and_jon_bon_jovi_at_hope_concert_8_2015Bobby Bandiera, joined here by longtime tourmate Jon Bon Jovi at a past Hope Concert, brings the ninth edition of his all-star benefit show back to the Basie Friday.

donegoodlogoIt’s just about the last of the big holiday-themed entertainment events to take the stage of the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank each December — a frankly awesome rock and roll extravaganza that plants a glittering star atop the tree at an eleventh hour when various Scrooges, Nutcrackers and vocal choirs have scurried off to their last-minute shopping excursions.

Ask Bobby Bandiera and he’ll probably tell you that a dose of charitable spirit is more important than ever in the final countdown to Christmas and Hanukkah — and that the day-to-day survival of our neediest neighbors doesn’t take a holiday break when the rest of the community settles into its family traditions.

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LITTLE SILVER: A GUEST VIRTUOSO AT RBR

rbr-interstring-christian-howesThis past October 21, Red Bank Regional High School welcomed renowned musician and educator Christian Howes, as a lead-in to the school’s annual Inter-String Concert. The Ohio-based guest artist conducted an all-day workshop that brought together students from Red Bank Middle School and Little Silver’s Markham Place School, working with RBR high school string players and culminating in the concert event that showcased the talents of 65 young musicians.

ON THE GREEN: TOUCH A TRUCK — OR COPTER

092014 touchtruck19The kids are in the driver’s seat once more this Saturday at the annual Touch-a-Truck fundraiser in Red Bank, while Middletown Day offers an opportunity to get hands-on with a NorthSTAR emergency helicopter (below).

middletown-day-copter“Every kid stops and watches when a police car or fire engine races by,” says Monmouth Day Care Center exec director Heidi Zaentz — and this Saturday, they’ll have an opportunity to get up-close and hands-on with various trucks, tractors, and emergency vehicles — even an emergency Medevac helicopter at a couple of big yearly events that have become major fundraising vehicles in their own right.

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RED BANK: A HANDS-ON FAVORITE FUNDRAISER

092014 touchtruck13One of the most popular public events of the local kid year returns on September 24, when Monmouth Day Care Center presents the 7th annual Touch-A-Truck event at Red Bank Middle School.

Press release from Monmouth Day Care Center

In the words of Heidi Zaentz, executive director of Monmouth Day Care Center, “Every kid stops and watches when a police car or fire engine races by” — and on Saturday, September 24, kids will receive a rare opportunity to get up-close and hands-on with these hard working vehicles and more, when MDCC hosts its seventh annual Touch-a-Truck “fun-raiser” event.

Scheduled to run “rain or shine” from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. outside the Red Bank Middle School at 101 Harding Road, the popular event also includes crafts, games (activity tickets required) and music. Food vendors will be on site, and a 50-50 raffle will be held.

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RED BANK: MOVIE SATURDAY ON INDIE STREET

The trailer for “65 Percent,” a documentary by Mike and Jon Altino of Middletown, screens at the Red Bank Middle School at 1 p.m.

indie street logo 2Saturday-morning cartoons, a locally made documentary and shorts-in-a-bunch enliven Saturday’s schedule of the Indie Street Film Festival, which got underway in Red Bank Wednesday night and continues through Sunday afternoon.

Click the “read more” for the full schedule and a sampling of delightful and outrageous movie trailers. More →

RED BANK: FRIDAY’S INDIE STREET LINEUP

isff 070616 1Sand artist Joe Mangrum creating a temporary painting at the festival opening-night cocktail party on the Count Basie patio Wednesday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

indie street logo 2

Screenings at four Red Bank venues fill Friday’s schedule of the Indie Street Film Festival, which got underway Wednesday night and continues through Sunday afternoon.

Click the “read more” for the full schedule and a sampling of delightful and outrageous movie trailers.

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RED BANK: A MOVIE FEAST ON INDIE STREET

A documentary about people who eat white dirt adds some grit to the first full day of the Indie Street Film Festival. 

indie street logo 2Scandalously long, beautiful legs. A guy with a compulsion for commandeering buses and trains. Geophagy, or dirt-eating.

These and other delightfully strange and wondrous topics fill the schedule of Red Bank’s Indie Street Film Festival as it enters its first full day of screenings and other events Thursday.

Click the “read more” for the full sked and a whole dirtload of delightful and outrageous movie trailers.

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RED BANK: TURN HERE FOR INDIE STREET

The festival flickers to life with “Morris from America” on the big screen at the Count Basie Theatre. Here’s the trailer.

indie street logo 2Day One of the first-ever Indie Street Film Festival gets underway in Red Bank Wednesday, kicking off five days of heaven for movie lovers.

The opening day schedule is light, with one just one film lighting up the giant silver screen of the Count Basie Theatre and two parties. But the festival shifts into high gear Thursday with daylong screenings and other events at five venues, and keeps up the pace through Saturday before winding down Sunday.

Check in with redbankgreen throughout the week for festival coverage and next-day schedules with tons of trailers to help you decide which darkened room to bring your popcorn to. Meantime, here’s the first-day lineup:

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RED BANK: INDIES INVADE THIS WEEK

rb indie film mural 070416A mural on Monmouth Street near Maple Avenue touts the five-day Indie Street Film Festival, which flickers to life Wednesday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

indie street logo 2For the first time since 2007, Red Bank will swarm with screening maniacs this week as independent films, filmmakers and cinephiles invade the downtown — and one or two nearby outposts.

Encompassing nearly 100 feature-length and short films, four screening venues and a handful of bars and restaurants, the five-day Indie Street Film Festival kicks off Wednesday, promising to liven up a post-Independence Day interval when the borough traditionally slips into an early doldrums.

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RED BANK: DOWNTOWN GETS INSTANT MURAL

rb mural 060416 4A team of painters, including 13 students from the visual arts program at Red Bank Regional, worked on the mural throughout the day Saturday and into early Sunday. (Photos by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

rb mural 060416 3Racing to finish before an expected rain, a team of artists and volunteers painted a two-story mural in downtown Red Bank over the weekend.

Overlooking the parking lot for Buona Sera restaurant at Monmouth Street and Maple Avenue, the mural promotes a film festival scheduled to light up movie screens in town next month.

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RED BANK: FILM FEST MURAL GREENLIGHTED

rb IFF Mural 051116A scan from a flyer given out at Wednesday’s council meeting shows a rendering of the proposed mural, at left, and the building it would go on. At bottom right is a 150-foot-tall mural the artist, Misha Tyutyunik, helped create in SoHo. (Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

HOT-TOPIC_03A prominent black wall in downtown Red Bank may soon be covered with a two-story-high, somewhat psychedelic mural.

The borough council greenlighted the makeover Wednesday night after an organizer of a film festival scheduled to hit town this summer offered it as what he called a “gift” to the town.

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