Sunday, March 09, 2014
Cape May City NJ
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Cape May NJ
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Cape May NJ
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Cape May Court House NJ
Thursday, August 11, 2011
C Snookies Room
There's two general points-of-view toward the show Jersey Shore. One is that it's terrible for New Jersey & the Jersey Shore. The other is that it typifies one aspect of boardwalk town sleaziness. I pretty much go with the latter. I don't like how it inflates the its particular sleaziness, but the characters are not inauthentic. They aren't caricatures; they only play them on TV. The semi-fictional "reality" show drives some Jerseyans into spasms of denial, just as the totally fictional but plausible The Sopranos did. New Jersey grows plenty of the types from both programs. A lot of Jerseyans want the state's image to be the one projected by a slick magazine, New Jersey Monthly; affluent middle-class; hip, expensive restaurants; fashionable boutiques; classical music & jazz that musicians play without breaking a sweat; features listing the state's best & most exclusive divorce lawyers & cosmetic surgeons. Well, that's true, too. I can draw you a map for a tour of Jersey that avoids everything sleazy or potentially offensive to easily-bruised sensibilities. It can start or end at a Victorian bed & breakfast in Cape May City. Seaside Heights is not for those who need to control their environment & like everything muted. On a good summer evening, a good boardwalk is the "11" setting on the Marshall amp.
A boardwalk store displaying cheaply made pink bikini bottoms with "Kiss Snooki's Ass" printed on the rump is just offering the more topical version of the timeless "Italian Bitch" tee shirt hanging on the racks inside. Of course, a motel with no pool that relies on nightly walk-ins to light the "No Vacancy" sign will put "C Snookies Room" on the letter board marquee. Seaside Heights attracts people who want to "C Snookies Room" because Snooki Polizzi herself would want to see it & stay at that motel if she weren't Snooki. Doing business on & around the boardwalk is about selling some stuff different from what you sold last year & yet the same. People that return to Seaside Heights & Wildwood boardwalks year-after-year (proportionally few of whom stay for a week in Seaside Heights & Wildwood proper - most stay in towns north & south of the boardwalk) are just as adverse to radical change as the readers of New Jersey Monthly.
Jersey Shore didn't create a culture, it just branded one that already existed & will continue to exist when the show is over. Jerseyans resent, with some justification, the branding of the entire shore with a culture that exists in only some of the towns. On shore vacations, I center myself in convenient proximity to the big, raucous Wildwood boardwalk, but I also spend an afternoon in sedate downtown Stone Harbor, have dinner at an affordable outdoor restaurant on the Cape May Mall, enjoy the county zoo, prefer a beach at the Hereford Inlet end of North Wildwood, take a cruise on the Lewes ferry, & visit two lighthouses, My favorite tacky shell/souvenir shops aren't even on the boardwalk. & I've always avoided the bars where people like the cast of Jersey Shore hang out. Those bars have lousy DJs.
A boardwalk store displaying cheaply made pink bikini bottoms with "Kiss Snooki's Ass" printed on the rump is just offering the more topical version of the timeless "Italian Bitch" tee shirt hanging on the racks inside. Of course, a motel with no pool that relies on nightly walk-ins to light the "No Vacancy" sign will put "C Snookies Room" on the letter board marquee. Seaside Heights attracts people who want to "C Snookies Room" because Snooki Polizzi herself would want to see it & stay at that motel if she weren't Snooki. Doing business on & around the boardwalk is about selling some stuff different from what you sold last year & yet the same. People that return to Seaside Heights & Wildwood boardwalks year-after-year (proportionally few of whom stay for a week in Seaside Heights & Wildwood proper - most stay in towns north & south of the boardwalk) are just as adverse to radical change as the readers of New Jersey Monthly.
Jersey Shore didn't create a culture, it just branded one that already existed & will continue to exist when the show is over. Jerseyans resent, with some justification, the branding of the entire shore with a culture that exists in only some of the towns. On shore vacations, I center myself in convenient proximity to the big, raucous Wildwood boardwalk, but I also spend an afternoon in sedate downtown Stone Harbor, have dinner at an affordable outdoor restaurant on the Cape May Mall, enjoy the county zoo, prefer a beach at the Hereford Inlet end of North Wildwood, take a cruise on the Lewes ferry, & visit two lighthouses, My favorite tacky shell/souvenir shops aren't even on the boardwalk. & I've always avoided the bars where people like the cast of Jersey Shore hang out. Those bars have lousy DJs.
Labels: boardwalks, Cape May, culture, jersey shore, TV
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Cape May Point NJ
Cape May Ferry before the new terminal building was constructed.
Cape May Lighthouse when it still had a beach.
Labels: Cape May, jersey shore, postcard, sex with a Republican
Sunday, August 22, 2010
North Wildwood NJ
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Lurae Motel, North Wildwood NJ
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Cape May NJ
Remembering a great weekend ten years ago.
Maybe I'll tell you about it some time.
Labels: Cape May, jersey shore, love, Mahalo, postcard, sex, Wildwoods NJ
Sunday, January 04, 2009
North Wildwood NJ
For good fishing and crabbing try
Dad's Place
located at the Grassy Sound Toll Bridge
Modern Luncheonette
Prop,. Mr. & Mrs. Richard Harrison
I considered kicking off 2009 postcards with a great vintage motel. peculiar bar, or boardwalk scene. Then I remembered this card. Not much to look at. I know where Dad's Place was, by Hereford Inlet on the turnoff to Stone Harbor, although I'm pretty sure it was gone by the late-Eighties when I began visiting Wildwood. It looks like I would have loved hanging out there, digging the scenery & the scents, chatting with crabbers - people also just hanging out but trying to catch supper, too. Mrs. Harrison was probably in the restaurant, Mr. Harrison on the pier selling bait, renting crab traps & row boats. I was fortunate to see some of the old Grassy Sound; the two -lane concrete road across the marshes from the mainland, rickety bridges over the creeks, cottages & fishing shacks on pilings, some inhabited, some falling down, facing silted tidal ditches that hadn't been dredged in decades, abandoned boats in various states of disintegration. I could see in my imagination as it had been, 30, 40, 50 years before.
Labels: Cape May, jersey shore, postcard, Wildwoods NJ
Sunday, November 09, 2008
blues pinks grays
As I've marveled at the map of a country that elected Barack Obama, I've also enjoyed an election map of New Jersey, a state that gave Obama a resounding win. The Star-Ledger published a map of the presidential results in every town in Jersey. The towns aren't labeled. There are three shades of red for McCain, deepest being more than a 25% plurality, lightest is pink, three for blue, & gray where less than 5% separated the candidates, which the map treats as a "tie."
What jumps out immediately is the diagonal blue belt of the Route One Corridor stretching across Mercer & Middlesex Counties, spreading outward. Ocean, Monmouth, & northwest Jersey are shades of red. Atlantic County is now mostly blue. Burlington didn't deliver a single deep red McCain town.
Obama carried only four small Cape May towns; Wildwood, West Cape May, Cape May Point (the lovely village with the lighthouse), & Woodbine. But much of Cape May is single digit McCain. The Repug county chairman down there not only gloated, he mocked the "youth vote." I say to Mr. Von Savage, if Barack had stopped there for two hours in August & had a rally in Cape May Courthouse, you might not be so smug. Plus, the Democratic county organization State Senator Jeff Van Drew tried to build in the 1990's, & which had some success back then, fell into apathy. Democrats in Cape May missed a great opportunity this year. Why am I obsessed with Cape May, which has small political importance in Jersey? It's our southernmost county, has our only southern-flavor city, & was one of the birthplaces of the religious political right movement. There were some scary people in Cape May County when I was a kid. But Cape May now is where environmentalism & preservation of a quality of life blend liberal & conservative.
The map would have been bluer, with more grays & lights pinks if Obama had needed to build a ground game here like the ones in PA & VA. Our electoral votes were in the bag. He carried the state 57% to 42%. Nobody bothered to campaign here. Not even Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who is hardly beloved but does his job. Democrats had hoped to flip three congress seats, got only one & that was in the Philadelphia media market. The poor showings in the other two districts were at least partly due to Obama enthusiasm flowing elsewhere. Many Dem party volunteers packed up & worked in other states.
What jumps out immediately is the diagonal blue belt of the Route One Corridor stretching across Mercer & Middlesex Counties, spreading outward. Ocean, Monmouth, & northwest Jersey are shades of red. Atlantic County is now mostly blue. Burlington didn't deliver a single deep red McCain town.
Obama carried only four small Cape May towns; Wildwood, West Cape May, Cape May Point (the lovely village with the lighthouse), & Woodbine. But much of Cape May is single digit McCain. The Repug county chairman down there not only gloated, he mocked the "youth vote." I say to Mr. Von Savage, if Barack had stopped there for two hours in August & had a rally in Cape May Courthouse, you might not be so smug. Plus, the Democratic county organization State Senator Jeff Van Drew tried to build in the 1990's, & which had some success back then, fell into apathy. Democrats in Cape May missed a great opportunity this year. Why am I obsessed with Cape May, which has small political importance in Jersey? It's our southernmost county, has our only southern-flavor city, & was one of the birthplaces of the religious political right movement. There were some scary people in Cape May County when I was a kid. But Cape May now is where environmentalism & preservation of a quality of life blend liberal & conservative.
The map would have been bluer, with more grays & lights pinks if Obama had needed to build a ground game here like the ones in PA & VA. Our electoral votes were in the bag. He carried the state 57% to 42%. Nobody bothered to campaign here. Not even Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who is hardly beloved but does his job. Democrats had hoped to flip three congress seats, got only one & that was in the Philadelphia media market. The poor showings in the other two districts were at least partly due to Obama enthusiasm flowing elsewhere. Many Dem party volunteers packed up & worked in other states.
Labels: Cape May, New Jersey politics, THE election
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Cape May NJ
Trade Winds Shop, Cape May NJ
"Unusual Things From Many Lands"
Labels: Cape May, jersey shore, postcard
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Cape May Point NJ
Sunset Beach at the end of Sunset Boulevard. Entertaining tourist trap five minutes from the lighthouse. I always stop by. View of what remains of the concrete ship. See Delaware on a clear day. Tee shirts, snack bar, typical Jersey shore nicknack gift shop crammed with all sorts of peculiar stuff. This place tries to sell you pricey "Cape May Diamonds," polished quartz. People actually comb the beaches for them. But it's pretty good for the same shell jewelry & lighthouse souvenirs that cost more in Cape May City. The sunsets can be spectacular here.
It's a likable roadside attraction. But if the family that owns it ever decides to sell, the state ought to pay whatever it takes to buy it, tear it down, & hand the beach back to the birds & horseshoe crabs. Otherwise, condos would block the sunsets.
Labels: Cape May, jersey shore, postcard
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Cape May NJ
What's slightly unusual about this card is that it's a view from a shaded hotel porch.
Windsor Hotel in the 1930's.
Too hot for the beach, think I'll just sit here.
Labels: Cape May, jersey shore, postcard
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Cape May City Boardwalk
What you see is still what you get.
I always feel obliged to walk on it although the victorian houses & shopping district are the attractions.
Labels: boardwalks, Cape May, jersey shore, postcard
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Cape May NJ
Concrete Ship, Sunset Beach, Cape May NJ
This is not what you'll see now.
Labels: Cape May, jersey shore, postcard
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Cape May City, New Jersey
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Admiral Hotel, Cape May New Jersey
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
Cape May Point: A Letter to the Atlantic City Press
Dear Editor;
The borough of Cape May Point includes one of the most important, endangered, environmentally-sensitive stretches of coast in New Jersey. Millions upon millions of government dollars are spent to protect the real estate of this tiny community with a permanent population of about two-hundred and forty souls. It is a folly for this town to maintain control of its beaches and absurd for it to even make a proprietary claim on the dredged sand, much less charge admission in the summer. Fire those lifeguards, Mayor Frazier, and give it up.
Bob Rixon
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
Dear Editor;
The borough of Cape May Point includes one of the most important, endangered, environmentally-sensitive stretches of coast in New Jersey. Millions upon millions of government dollars are spent to protect the real estate of this tiny community with a permanent population of about two-hundred and forty souls. It is a folly for this town to maintain control of its beaches and absurd for it to even make a proprietary claim on the dredged sand, much less charge admission in the summer. Fire those lifeguards, Mayor Frazier, and give it up.
Bob Rixon
Labels: Cape May
