tris mccall

this seems like a good day to remind my friends to use social media sparingly, if at all, and recommend that you volunteer as little personal information to the people who run these sites as you can. with love and concern from new jersey.

i won the new jersey press association award for criticism. my thanks to everybody i've written about. i've learned so much from you. it means a lot to win it for the @jerseycitytimes.

@sadarlo1 @SForcesKat i hasten to report that i am still funny-looking! and still not an influencer!

@SForcesKat Bring back the uggo reporters! 😤

I remember when journalists were fugly middle aged alcoholics who loved to harass interns and sleep under their desks like vagrants. An entire world gone after 2008. Everybody is a polished influencer/reporter now. 🥲

@AmyKup me! it's been my thing lately.

Do I know anyone in Jersey City / NYC who likes art history? 🖼️

@paranoiacs the album that made me a tea drinker.

‘Muswell Hillbillies’ is the Kinks LP wherein Ray Davies’ roiling conservatism fully cross-pollinates with his burlesque impulses, resulting in a comic concept album about being too afraid to leave the house. Merle Haggard’s poetic provincialism meets The Band’s musical big tent.

@Peter1987Fallow @CJGriffinEsq that has not been true about me.

@CJGriffinEsq The press is an arm of the Democratic party, the only Democrats they'd conceivably go after are former officeholders.

I have a feeling we're going to keep learning about shady stuff that happened during Fulop's tenure. Solomon isn't going to cover the last administration's secrets the way so many leaders do. Hopefully he fixes JC's OPRA dept so the public/press can play a role in exposing it!

@MarkTricke37459 @paranoiacs i've always wanted an impressive celeste cv.

@paranoiacs He has an impressive celeste CV. Northern Sky Sunday Morning.

Reflecting on how John Cale’s piano playing on Nick Drake’s “Northern Sky” is at once one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard, and also how it is like the thirtieth most important thing to occur over the course of his career in music. There truly is nobody else like him.

@loveisworry14 MM&P and The Room's Too Cold are both great. I also love Lilac and a whole bunch of Ace Enders side projects. hellogoodbye's Would It Kill You? is one of the underrated albums of the 21st century. TBH, I don't know anybody else who likes it, but I absolutely love it.

About to get tickets to see The Early November and Hellogoodbye at Starland even though I’ve never heard a full album by both. Listening to The Mother, The Mechanic and The Path as my first Early November album which I know is a backasswards choice given the length

@JoshuaParkhurst i dunno, man, $254m budget shortfall seems plenty dr. evil-ish. that's a monstrous municipal adversary. no hype is necessary. the only move for solomon is to get in front of it while wagging a finger at the prior mayor. doubt that will work when taxes go up/services get cut.

We appear to have a similar dynamic in Jersey City. Actual fiscal hole that an incoming administration turns into a Dr. Evil pronouncement (sequel version) to lay the ground to excuse shortcomings and shift blame for what may be unpopular choices.

@AmyKup halftime show is not my favorite genre, but that was a really good one!

Just like Kendrick Lamar's halftime show last year, no one can deny the absolute splendor of that Bad Bunny halftime show.

@eaconner i'm in favor of dreams at all sizes. but this one was never going to come true. whatever slim chance there was of this project materializing was lost the day the state pulled out. everything the city did after that was unconscionable. and in the baddest of bad faith.

The "dream smaller" crowd won. As an old-school liberal, I believe strongly in the value of funding and investing in public goods. We couldn't get a public library system started today with how some people think the role of government. 1/ nj.com/opinion/2024/0…

@wakeupnj blaming a political party rather than the responsible party for this problem = running interference for steven fulop. the democrats did not create this mess. a specific democrat did. don't create a smokescreen for him. say his name.

Democrat led Jersey City is staring down a $255 MILLION budget deficit for 2026, that's nearly 30% of the entire operating budget More than what the city spends on police + fire combined! The new mayor is blaming the old, but honestly, it's just utter incompetence running that town no matter who is in charge nytimes.com/2026/02/04/nyr…

@alwaysbe4444 @SolomonforJC sure, the whole council can. but solomon was consistently outvoted by the mayor's airtight six-vote majority.

@trismccall @SolomonforJC Council can: •Approve or reject the budget •Amend line items (add, cut, reallocate funds) •Hold hearings and grill department heads •Attach conditions (reporting requirements, program limits) •Block tax increases or bond issuances (often critical)

Jersey City, we promised to always be honest with you—even when the news is hard. Today, we're keeping that promise. After weeks of working with outside financial experts, we can now share the full picture of our city's finances. The truth is serious: Jersey City faces a structural budget deficit of approximately $250 million. That's roughly 28% of our entire operating budget—one of every three dollars we need to keep our city running. This crisis didn't happen by accident. It was built through years of deliberate choices that prioritized short-term political wins over our city's long-term financial health: -> By 2023, nearly 26% of city revenue came from one-time gimmicks—property sales, depleted reserves, emergency borrowing—that can't be repeated -> $20 million was spent on consultants for a museum that was never built -> Over $3 million in overpaid taxes that they for forgot to get back -> Health insurance was underbudgeted by over $34 million in 2025 alone -> Six union contracts expired with no money set aside for back pay -> The city's reserves—our rainy day fund—are essentially gone -> All three credit rating agencies have downgraded Jersey City in recent years We didn't create this problem. But we're not going to hide from it either. Our approach going forward is guided by four principles: (1) Tell the truth—always. (2) Lead by example—no more vanity projects. (3) Protect working families. (4) Find real solutions—no tricks or gimmicks. The full budget report is now available at JCNJ.ORG/BUDGET. We've also created a video that explains exactly how we got here and what comes next. This will be hard. But Jersey City has faced hard things before—and we've always come through when we faced them honestly, together. No spin. No tricks. Just the truth.

@alwaysbe4444 @SolomonforJC sure, blame him for the snow plowing. but it's not fair to blame him for his predecessor's budgets.

@trismccall @SolomonforJC You mean amateur hour snow plowing job that made Jersey City the laughing stock of the region? That too he blamed it outgoing mayor.

@alwaysbe4444 @SolomonforJC not fair. solomon consistently voted against bad budgets and mixed-up priorities. he ought to be judged on what he does now.

@SolomonforJC Weren’t you a councilman during this time that voted on the budget and contracts? Did you just ignore them all so you can blame it all on outgoing mayor?

@BrandonWest5050 @SolomonforJC blaming a political party for this takes the actual politician(s) who made the mess off the hook. no need to water it down. we know the names. let's place the blame where it belongs.

@SolomonforJC Another Dem lib disaster. Half of that deficit prob due to theft/graft/bribery. Dems can’t run cities.

@paranoiacs i reckon stuart shared the spotlight for the same reason jerry garcia did. he didn't want the group to be a vehicle for a single talent. he wanted a community -- a gang of misfits. he got one, and that move secured b&s a long future. and in retrospect, fold your hands is great.

"At once rousing and mournful and positively buzzing with the erotic friction of sin and salvation." It was my distinct pleasure to write about Belle & Sebastian's 1996 masterpiece "If You're Feeling Sinister" for Pitchfork, an LP which lit a path for me. pitchfork.com/reviews/albums…

@DJCalc i love *remain in light*, but *fear of music* is the one i always go back to.

I just listened to Fear of Music by Talking Heads. Is it possible that I have been wrong for years by insisting that Remain in Light is the greatest Talking Heads album?

@paranoiacs like so many other ray davies songs, it was brave, emotional, very funny, and ahead of its time. "i know what i am/and i'm glad i'm a man/and so is lola." that's brilliant in so many ways. we who wave the rainbow flag really haven't improved on that since 1970.

The most manly song in the English language to explicitly extol the virtues of dating someone of your own gender, the Kink's "Lola" sews up the loose ends of Sun Records hiding-in-plain-sight homoerotica and parses the difference between cherry wine and cherry cola. A masterwork.

@LOVElSPOWER very very easy to imagine.

am i insane to say that i think born to run era bruce could’ve done a great cover of this (obviously if the song was released then) open.spotify.com/track/4IvZLDtw…

@LeVibrantColors no, we didn't film it. chances are, we'll do another *story hour* soon.

@trismccall Was this recorded/filmed? Would have loved to see it! -Billy

let me tell you a story. on friday, we will be reading *rafe*, a tale of a demon who wants to play the drums, in the theater at art house productions (345 marin blvd., jc). it's free! our storytelling will be augmented by songs, synth, projections, and (maybe) a few opinions.