Clever signals. Scrappy stories.
The Algorithm Taught Us to Say “Unalive”
Content moderation was built to classify speech at machine scale. Users answered by inventing speech machines could not immediately classify. Now the workaround vocabulary has escaped the platforms that created it, and English is absorbing the argument.
Somerset County, New Jersey
Investment of a Lifetime
We keep using the language of capital to describe our attention to teams, celebrities, creators, fictional worlds and other people’s lives. Maybe the portfolio most in need of attention is our own.
Somerset County, New Jersey
Before America 250, New Jersey Looks Back at America's 200th
The New Jersey State Museum's Spirit of '76 exhibition uses the Bicentennial to examine how a divided country tried to celebrate itself 50 years ago - and why that exercise feels newly relevant during the Semiquincentennial.
New Jersey State Museum · Trenton, New Jersey
From Khan to Kirk: New Jersey Marks 60 Years of Star Trek
The statewide anniversary calendar now stretches from restored films and fan dinners to library celebrations, a symphonic concert, musical parody and William Shatner himself. For one franchise, New Jersey has found a remarkable number of ways to say happy birthday.
New Jersey
At Morey's Piers, the Water Park Is Going to the Dogs
PigDog Puppa Palooza returns Sept. 13 with one last improbable use for a Wildwood water park: handing the pools over to the dogs while the Airshow moves overhead.
Raging Waters Water Park · Mariner's Pier, Wildwood, New Jersey
Bound Brook Goes to Warp for a Three-Part Star Trek Celebration
Brook Arts Center is marking Star Trek’s 60th anniversary with a film, a symphonic voyage and a New Jersey-premiere musical. Then William Shatner brings The Wrath of Khan to State Theatre New Jersey in January.
Brook Arts Center · Bound Brook, New Jersey
When the Audience Joins the Investigation
True crime used to turn criminal cases into stories. Podcasts, forums, searchable archives and social platforms turned the audience into participants. The result can revive a cold case, identify a person who lost their name, or create a second injustice before police ever reach the first.
Somerset County, New Jersey
Nerd Fest Brings the Small-Con Advantage Back to South Jersey
The Jersey Shore Comic Book Show returns to Swedesboro Sept. 20 with comic artists, indie creators, collectibles, Star Wars cosplay and the kind of convention floor where there is still time to stop and talk.
Holiday Inn Swedesboro · Swedesboro, New Jersey
The Jersey Shore Card Show Returns to Toms River, Where the Hunt Is the Point
Three months after its first card-focused show, the Jersey Shore Comic Book Show is bringing collectors back to the Toms River Elks Lodge for six hours of sports cards, trading games, pop-culture cards and the particular pleasure of finding the thing you did not know you were looking for.
Toms River Elks Lodge · Toms River, New Jersey
Lunar Faire’s Final Five Nights Move Across Five Very Different New Jersey Grounds
The traveling witchy night market closes its 2026 season with Elements, Zodiac, Vasquerade, Dark Carnival and Halloweekend, and the setting changes almost as much as the theme.
Middlesex County Fairgrounds · East Brunswick, New Jersey
The New Jersey Film Festival Opens a Month-Long Window for Independent Film
The 45th bi-annual fall festival begins tonight at Rutgers and runs through Oct. 4, mixing in-person screenings, 24-hour streaming windows, filmmaker conversations, free workshops and an audio-visual concert.
Voorhees Hall · Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
The Places We Can Visit Without Entering
Virtual heritage is moving beyond museum novelty. The same 3D scans used to monitor caves, ruins and conflict-damaged monuments are becoming public experiences, raising a strange new possibility: the digital version of a place may remain accessible long after the physical one cannot be.
Somerset County, New Jersey
Eighteen Days Until the Lucas Museum Opens the Door on Narrative Art
The long-awaited Los Angeles museum opens Sept. 22 with more than 1,300 works, continuous film screenings, comic art, illustration, cinema, mythology, a 13-acre park and one unusually broad argument about what belongs in an art museum.
Lucas Museum of Narrative Art · Exposition Park, Los Angeles
When the Biopic Becomes a Room
David Bowie’s newest documentary does not ask an audience to sit in front of a screen. It surrounds them with photographs, music and spatial sound. Across museums, festivals and immersive venues, the life story of an artist is beginning to escape the rectangle.
Venice, Italy
The Web Is Slowing Down on Purpose
A loose rebellion against algorithmic velocity is sending some creators and readers back toward blogs, newsletters, personal websites, RSS and feeds they can actually control. It is not replacing the fast web. It is building an exit ramp from it.
Somerset County, New Jersey
William Shatner Is Bringing The Wrath of Khan to New Brunswick - Then Taking the Stage
State Theatre New Jersey will screen Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan on Jan. 29, 2027, followed by a live appearance and audience Q&A with William Shatner. Tickets go on sale Sept. 18 at 10 a.m.
State Theatre New Jersey · New Brunswick, New Jersey
Rocky Horror Is Ready to Do the Time Warp Again in New Brunswick
Barry Bostwick joins a 4K screening, live shadow cast and full audience-participation night at State Theatre New Jersey on Oct. 3.
State Theatre New Jersey · New Brunswick, New Jersey
DollyFest Will Bring Dolly Parton's Celebration Home to Tennessee in 2027
The official two-continent festival is headed to Nashville and London. Our coverage plans are centered on Tennessee, with a separate return to Dollywood already taking shape.
Nashville, Tennessee
For One Weekend, Wildwood Becomes New Jersey's Firehouse
The New Jersey State Firemen's Association convention brings the business of the fire service, the spectacle of apparatus and the quieter ritual of a statewide family reunion back to the Shore.
Wildwoods Convention Center · Wildwood, New Jersey
He's Not Really Going Into Fires, Is He?
At a Firefighter I, Firefighter II and EMT graduation, the ceremony is familiar to the Academy. For the families in the seats, and the people being sent back into their communities, nothing about it is routine.
Somerset County Emergency Services Training Academy · Hillsborough, New Jersey
The Final Stretch Has a Look
Somerset's final home week of 2026 brings Damian Priest, a WWE giveaway jersey that actually understands the assignment, and one last turn as the Jersey Diners.
TD Bank Ballpark · Bridgewater, New Jersey
The Sandwich Has Acquired Counsel
Smucker spent decades turning a crustless PB&J into a recognizable industrial product. Now a federal court is being asked where sandwich architecture ends and brand identity begins.
Northern District of Ohio
The Internet Is Teaching Us to Leave the Internet
The strange rise of analog hobbies in an always-online world.
Somerset County, New Jersey
Open All Night: Kevin Smith Brings Clerks Back Home
On September 25, SModcastle Cinemas will run the entire Clerks trilogy through the night, with Kevin Smith in the room. The marathon is part nostalgia, part endurance test, and part reminder that very few filmmakers remain this accessible to the people who grew up with their work.
SModcastle Cinemas · Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey
A Vow, a Wave, and the Runner on Second
A regular Saturday at TD Bank Ballpark moved from renewed promises to Yankees rehab assignments, four Somerset home runs and the unforgiving arithmetic of extra innings
TD Bank Ballpark · Bridgewater, New Jersey
Six Degrees of Kevin Smith
Before the doors opened in Hillsborough, the show was already revealing what made it work: access, ease, and a crowd connected by more than one kind of fandom.
Iron Peak Sports & Events · Hillsborough, New Jersey
The Ballpark Remembers
Sopranos Night, a twenty-minute rain delay, and the long afterlife of the free shirt
TD Bank Ballpark · Bridgewater, New Jersey