Borough Attorney Greg Cannon at Wednesday’s council meeting. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s borough attorney apologized Wednesday night for a bizarre episode last month in which he redirected a video camera belonging to former Councilwoman Cindy Burnham.
Attorney Greg Cannon offered the mea culpa after being pressed for it by Locust Avenue resident Ben Forest.
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Borough Attorney Greg Cannon at Wednesday’s council meeting. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Former Red Bank Council President Cindy Burnham blasted borough Attorney Greg Cannon after he redirected a video camera she was using to record the governing body’s semimonthly meeting Wednesday night.
Mid-meeting, while others on the dais were speaking about unrelated matters, Cannon walked from his seat beside Mayor Pasquale Menna to the front row of the audience and re-aimed Burnham’s tripod-mounted camera before returning to his seat.
At a packed meeting, above, the board of ed voted to reinstate teacher Basil Henning, below. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Fair Haven’s school board reinstated a sixth-grade Spanish teacher Wednesday night, 10 days after he was placed on administrative leave over crass satirical web videos in which he appeared.
Following a recommendation by Superintendent Nelson Ribon, the board ended the administrative leave of Basil Henning, a tenured teacher whose paid removal, announced in an unusual Sunday night email to parents, was prompted by at least one parent’s complaints.
Henning is free to return to work Thursday morning, though an investigation continues, Ribon told redbankgreen following the meeting, at the Knollwood School.
Warning: video featuring Basil Henning, also seen below in a 2014 photo, includes graphic language. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A Fair Haven middle school teacher has been placed on administrative leave following a complaint over satirical web videos in which he appeared.
Superintendent Nelson Ribon announced in a Sunday night letter to parents and teachers that Knollwood School Spanish teacher Basil Henning had been placed on administrative leave. No reason was given for the action, and Ribon declined to comment to redbankgreen Monday, citing rules concerning personnel matters.
But Henning’s administrative leave followed complaints by at least one parent about videos in which Henning plays a foul-mouthed Jets fan who keeps up a constant patter about hookers, oral sex and other adult matters in addition to football.
Who turned out for Red Bank’s contribution to a worldwide ‘Dance for Kindness,’ held on Broad Street Sunday? Among the several hundred orange-clad participants were Amanda Gorfain of Red Bank and her mother, Joanna Leddin of Fair Haven, who rehearsed with others for about three weeks. “It was something we could do together, and a no-brainer to support kindness,” said Gorfain. “Who doesn’t want to be part of a flash mob at the exact same moment that they are doing this all over the world?”
We’ve got tons of photos, plus a neat video, after the “read more.” (Photos by Susan Ericson and John T. Ward.)
Councilman Ed Zipprich, left, at Democratic HQ on election night in 2007. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A video showing Red Bank Councilman Ed Zipprich under arrest for driving while intoxicated in 2011 is “making its rounds among Monmouth County’s politically connected,” the Asbury Park Press reported Friday.
On its website, the newspaper includes a link to the video on YouTube, but YouTube shows the video as having been removed by the user, who is not identified.
Video from the Dance for Kindness global event in 2013. The next one, planned for November 9, will include downtown Red Bank, and anyone can participate.
A worldwide “kindness” phenomenon with digital roots in Red Bank is set to return next month.
The folks behind 2011’s pay-it-forward “Kindness Boomerang” video – which was shot downtown and has racked up 30 million YouTube views around the world – are organizing a “kindness freezmob/flashmob” dance in 30 countries on November 9, five days in advance of World Kindness Day. And Red Bank is among the 80 cities participating, say organizers.
‘Driving Jersey,’ a television series that mines the Garden State for its culture, kicks off a new season Wednesday night with footage shot in Red Bank, where producer (and borough resident) Steve Rogers cornered locals for thoughts on their favorite movies.
The season premiere episode, which takes “a sweet look at New Jersey’s place in the history of the silver screen,” airs on NJTV at 8:30 p.m.
Ten-year-old Red Banker Faith King interviews actor Ryan Reynolds on the red carpet at the premier of his new film, “Turbo,” in New York Tuesday night. The short video, made for KidzVuz, a video channel for kids, had attracted nearly 39,000 views on YouTube by Thursday morning. Philly.com has a story. (Click to enlarge)
Red Bank Regional graphics students Damian DeSena and Jessica Olivera produced this video for parents who “have never gotten that memo” on morning drop-off no-nos at the Little Silver school. According to the school handbook, students should be dropped off at either the main entrance or the student parking lot near the media center entrances. (Click to enlarge)
Filmed in June before a Count Basie Theatre screening of the blockbuster summer hit “Jaws,” the above video is an example of Driving Jersey’s storytelling style. Steve Rogers at work, below.
By DANIELLE TEPPER
In the hands of mainstream media, New Jersey has been not been treated kindly. With shows like Real Housewives and Jersey Shore purporting to offer sneak peeks into the Garden State of mind, residents are rarely seen as they really are, and are instead depicted as “pornographic cartoon characters, in the words of Red Bank videographer Steve Rogers.
That was the injustice Rogers set out to rectify when he embarked on his Driving Jersey video series in 2007.
After losing a media industry job in New York, Rogers stepped into the roles of writer, producer, and director to start telling true-to-life Jersey stories through raw interviews with real residents. Driving Jersey, he says on the program’s website, “represents and reflects the most misunderstood and misrepresented place and people in all of America.”
Since the show started, Rogers and his partner, Ryan Bott of Manahawkin, have dipped into their own pockets for funding. But now, after four years of creative success, theyre asking for help. Via Kickstarter, theyre hoping to raise $10,000 by November 1.
A parking gate in Red Bank goes a little nutty Tuesday morning. The gate is at a 23-car parking lot at the corner of Hudson Avenue and Linden Place that’s owned by the borough but leased to Downtown Investors for use by employees of the nearby Smith Barney complex. (Click to enlarge)
In conversation on a sweltering day a few weeks back, Steve Catania, owner of The Cheese Cave on Monmouth Street in Red Bank, casually mentioned what a nice, light, summer dinner cheese makes.
Really? Cheese for dinner, redbankgreen asked?