Greetings From Asbury Pulp!

In addition to my work with the Asbury Park Press, I’ve started writing for the website, Asbury Pulp, an writers portal featuring commentary on websites, restaurants, visual arts, music and whatever else the community is talking about.

Today there’s a great article about Carrie Potter-Devening’s new book on the old Upstage club at Asbury Park, one of Springsteen’s boyhood haunts.

As that article and the site’s name imply, the principal focus of Asbury Pulp is Asbury Park, but its interests fan out over the region, the nation and the globe. The site was conceived and created by Steven Froias of the local paper TriCity News (the tri-cities being Red Bank, Long Branch and Asbury Park), a highly opinionated tabloid covering news and issues relevant to the region.

I had approached Steven a couple years ago about possibly doing some work for the TriCity, but obstacles popped up for both sides. So when he started the website, he contacted me again. This time it seemed an easy, natural fit.

My two articles so far:

• The Silence of John Cage talks about the importance of the composer/philosopher in the centennial year of his birth
• A Hymn of Praise to Vinyl talks about the spiritual importance of 12-inch records

Less hard news, more literary magazine, Asbury Pulp invites contributions from writers in the community. Visit the site, read and join in the conversation if you’re so inclined.

--C.
www.theandofone.blogspot.com
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'Sandy'

This Fourth, I'm thinking a lot about the farewell of Bruce Springsteen's song "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" from The Wild, The Innocent and the E-Street Shuffle.

Funny, the line "the aurora is rising behind us" -- I had always figured "Aurora" was the name of a ferris wheel or roller coaster or something. It just fit. I'm guessing now that he was using it in the generic sense, synonymous with "aura" but implying a solar source -- a bright, bright star radiating light. The star, of course, is the boardwalk itself and the fireworks of the Fourth of July.

Bruce is leaving in this song, and the boardwalk itself is leaving. This is the early 1970s. Asbury was already headed down the steep incline from its peak in the 1950s and '60s, to bottom out in the late 1990s with the boardwalk especially looking like a shuttered ghost town. Disillusioned and lamenting "our carnival life on the boardwalk," bored with "hanging in the dusty arcades, slamming those pleasure machines," he pleads with "Sandy" to love him tonight "for I may neee-ver see you again."

"Sandy" is the perfect name for his beloved: the beach, the resort, the magical unreality of the boardwalk's "Palace Amusements" and Madame Marie's mysticism.

Photo by Russ Meseroll

His next stop would be the grittier reality of Born to Run's "Meeting Across the River," themes of harsh, wounded souls, flayed, struggling and doomed, that he would develop more fully in "Darkness on the Edge of Town" and his later poetic masterpiece, "Nebraska."

The line of themes of childhood loss of innocence, desperate struggle, a growing maturity and sense of community that pace Springsteen's long discography are naturally reflected in the man himself. In his philanthropic gifts to Asbury Park, the emphasis has never been heavy on rebuilding the amusements, the carnival life. Instead, his focus was, and is, on schools, community projects, helping the underserved who struggled during the long years of the city's economic stagnation.

Along those lines it interesting to me that, here in Asbury Park -- and in New Jersey -- we take such pride in "Sandy" and "Born to Run". All those who know these (and that may be just about everybody in the world by now) recognize the sadness, the critical love, even condemnation, and longing after escape in both songs.

Judging by Springsteen's evolution as an artist and as a human being, it is easy to believe that nostalgia for Asbury Park's amusements is misplaced. It is easy for me to see a resonance with my belief that the town's emphasis on money over community has always been one of its greatest flaws.

But maybe we're not so wrong to be proud. We represent the community and the culture that produced him, after all and we can take some small credit for having nurtured him toward his great achievements, his massive success.

If in the final estimate, we as New Jerseyans are just "a town full of losers," then at least one of us got free and we can cheer him on his heroic journey. If he is the best we can do, that's ain't half bad.

--C.
www.theandofone.blogspot.com
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Fasola, the Original Article

Artist and historian Linda Griggs happened on my writing about the Sacred Harp tradition and wrote a note to say that 2 p.m. this Saturday, March 19, there will be a singing at Convention Hall in Asbury Park as part of festivities surrounding the Smithsonian Institution's "New Harmonies" exhibit. Sacred Harp is the title of one of the most popular songbooks in the tradition known as "shape-note" or "fasola," a widely practiced amateur congregational singing. The songbook has been in continuous publication since 1844 and many of its songs originated in earlier published volumes. The singing is free and anybody can join in to try it out.

Griggs researched an article that was published in the Asbury Park Press. She found that the writers behind one of the original fasola songbooks were most likely from New Jersey--Hopewell, specifically. The style, she writes,

was nearly wiped out in the north by the mid 1800's
by Lowell Mason and the "Better Music" movement. It persisted in both
White and Black churches in the South and is one of the roots of
bluegrass and country. Johnny Cash, the Louvin Brothers and Hank
Williams all sang Sacred Harp.

Lowell Mason, whose family owned a piano-selling business, was interested in promoting a stricter European style music education and degraded the amateur singing as "buckwheat notes." But the tradition survived and as Southerners moved North to factory jobs in the 20th Century, they brought the shape-note singing back with them. Sacred Harp sings could still be found in New Jersey into the 1970s. The 1990s saw a revival of interest in the style and there are now regular Sacred Harp singings in Montclair and Princeton.

The Smithsonian's "New Harmonies" is on display at the Asbury Park Public Library, 500 First Ave., through April 17 and features photos, videos and memorabilia related to American roots music.

Griggs, who has a studio on the Lower East Side in New York City, is a fascinating character with her hands in many different historical and artistic projects. Her own artwork makes use of texts, drawn directly onto the canvas.. The style seems inspired both by common artwork of early 20th Century rural America and by "outsider art" which often deals in simple expressions of mystical experience.

--C.
www.theandofone.blogspot.com
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Springsteen Video

Here's the video of the recent Springsteen and E-Street Band performance in the Asbury Park Carousel Building. I mentioned in an earlier post that my grade-school-aged son more or less accidentally was among those in attendance, albeit outside in the cold. The video was made available online starting this morning, as a promotion for the newly released box set compilation, The Promise. If the video below doesn't display properly, click on the title displayed on the video and it will take you to the full screen view on www.vevo.com.



--C.
www.theandofone.blogspot.com
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Walking on Cookman

Just back from a lovely walk on Cookman Avenue with my family, chatting with the gallery owners and other entrepreneurs down there. It was a great evening, with dinner and dessert and running into friends, visiting some of the more creative shops.

Still, I couldn't help but notice, for the umpteenth time, the Asbury Park Chamber of Commerce slogan "Bought In!" pasted with bumperstickers on the glass storefronts. A vague feeling of nausea hits me every time I see this slogan. I'm a longtime homeowner here--"Bought In!" long before it became a catchphrase. But even so the slogan makes me squirm.

What it seems to say is that our community is not a caring one, but is actually a community of delighted speculators for whom return on investment will be the bottom line. The return is virtually guaranteed, otherwise we wouldn't be so gleeful as to put an exclamation point on it. The message says: we're not putting down roots, we're in this for the money. And Asbury Park is a sure bet. ("!")

Now, the Chamber of Commerce exists, of course, to cultivate the climate for growing wealth opportunities. I certainly don't mean to criticize that. And neither can I lay claim to any great business savvy.

But even so, it seems to this lowly musician that if our slogans equate money with our level of commitment to our community, then what we will reap will be more of the same--the same culture of selfish greed that brought this town to its knees during its most difficult decades and has never completely subsided.

A commitment to a community is not a commitment to make money, or a commitment to spend money. It's a commitment to people, a commitment to be active for the betterment of all the people. For some, a commitment to community doesn't even involve personal gain. Are those folks less "Bought In!" for never having spent a penny and expecting no dime in return?

I can understand the impulse to make investment in Asbury Park attractive. But it seems that at the same time we've cheapened the appeal of the city. Reduced it to the level of pork bellies and copper--a commodity.

In the end, of course, words are just words. The city's social and economic climate will be shaped more by people and actions than slogans. But still, "Bought In!" rankles.

We're not a commodity. We’re a lovely little Shore city with lots of good people living here. We're a community.

--C.

Been to the Kingdom

Attended the performance of "Kingdom" at the VFW Theater in Asbury Park on Sunday night. On the whole I think the cast and the production team did a great job and I applaud ReVision Theatre for bringing an ambitious new musical on a sensitive topic to our little shore town. I was impressed by the acting, although I think some of the leads were playing to a bigger theater and could have done more by lowering the intensity and upping the nuance. My favorite performance of the night was Dell Howlett, who plays Cano, a key character in the plot. Cano is complex and commanding and Howlett was totally at ease and convincing in the role. The lighting was flawless. The orchestra--keyboard, guitar, bass and drum set--was great, although the score didn't ask much of the musicians.

As a musical however, "Kingdom" is a disappointment. The best part is the lyrics: Basically the entire play is done in rhyme, most of it in rapping rhythms. Within the conceit of constant rhyming, the poetry is well crafted and often clever. The melodies and raps that set this text are mundane, but at least they don't get in the way. There aren't any memorable musical moments (although there are some memorable dramatic ones). Most depressing for me was the lack of imagination in the band's accompaniment. There was just nothing there. I'm certainly glad the ReVision producers saw fit to use live musicians. I wish they had had something worthwhile to play.

The music also never seems to alter mood--the tension and melodrama of the opening just continues unabated throughout. Every song is another opportunity for searing emotional trauma--some variation would have made at least some of those moments more meaningful.

Along with being the vehicle for Howlett's performance, Cano is also the most interesting character in "Kingdom," from a literary point of view. As the head of the local chapter of the fierce gang, the Latin Kings, he advocates self-discipline, conflict resolution through dialog and working for the betterment of the community. Once deprived of his leadership, the gang chapter becomes a rabble, descending immediately into spiral of pointless, vengeful violence.

Like the mafia of old, Cano's Latin Kings are a crude blend of social support group, religion, militia and criminality as a means to noble ends. The character of Cano, who sees only the good the Latin Kings can do and tries to cultivate the good in those around him, makes the story more complicated and worthy of discussion than it would be otherwise. In all other respects, the play is a two-dimensional portrait of gangs or ghetto life. Marisa's plea against violence at the end is well-written but predictable. A little too noticeably, it is also a recreation in aggressive modern vernacular of Maria's speech at the end of "West Side Story."

--C.

Easter Beatles

Happy Easter morning! Bright and sunny, with a springtime chill--very nice, particularly after the daylong rain of yesterday. Before we head off to the services at Trinity Church here in Asbury Park, I thought I would let you know that The Showroom, a new(er) space on Cookman Avenue, is showing old movies. Last night at 7 p.m. and today again at 4 p.m., they are showing the Beatles first movie "A Hard Days Night." Like Elvis' films, this band film was intended purely as a marketing gimmick, designed to take advantage of the Beatles' enormous popularity with the younger crowd in corny, G-rated comedy (ratings didn't exist then, but the idea was the same). The result is a silly romp that nonetheless shows off the underground appeal of the four "moptops" ("cheeky lads," the British media always said). It is hard to believe now, but the Beat Generation loved "A Hard Days Night" and saw it as part of the ascendancy of the youth of America into a position of power. Probably they were right.

I don't think the Beatles in Liverpool ever dreamed of making a career in movies, and their film legacy is an almost accidental creation, a byproduct of their stardom more than their talents as a recording and performing musical unit. But it is a fascinating legacy and the films remain engaging and wild. And the canon begins with "A Hard Days Night."

--C.