I wonder why more citizens here in New Jersey don’t make the time to attend the New Jersey Environmental Federation Conference; an annual event held at Rutgers Law School in Newark. At very least, it’s an exercise in expanding the mind, by learning, listening, growing; it’s just a better thing to do than sleeping to 10 AM on a Saturday, watching television for an hour and making two passes around Costco’s bakery department. One summer back in 1967, I worked in an industrial bakery in Newark and I fell in love with the bakery smell; so that’s why occasionally I make two passes through Costco’s; it’s a close enough smell and it takes me back to the days of the  ‘Lone Ranger.’

a perspective view looking down in Rutgers Law school

So where does this expression come from? “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired” One of my heroes, Fannie Lou Hamer said this. She was instrumental in organizing Mississippi Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and later became the Vice-Chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, attending the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  She believed fervently in the righteousness of the cause of civil rights. This past Saturday, I attended the New Jersey Environmental Federation Conference in Newark at Rutgers Law School. I’ve been going for years, especially looking forward to Dr. Nicky Sheats talk about environmental justice; one of the causes that mean so much. For me, being in college during the decade of civil rights in the 1960’s and then attending the very first Earth Day on April 22nd 1970 and now seeing civil rights and environment become concentric circles of commonality is painfully relevant in 2012.

Fannie Lou Hamer. A hero. "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired"

Amy Goldsmith from New Jersey Environmental Federation being honored;.

After breakfast and introductory speeches, the conference separated into workshops. I circled the ‘Enough is Enough’ workshop;  needed to learn how the cumulative effect of pollution in water, air and food is making people sick and what we can do about it. The speakers were amazingly credentialed; Dr. Nicky Sheats, Phd, Center of Urban Development, Steve Anderson, Research Scientist, Peter Montague, PhD, Environmental Research Foundation(I love listening to his rational dire global warming warning words) and Henry Rose, State Coordinator, NJ Environmental Justice Alliance. Henry was passionate and right on when he uttered “environmental apartheid.”   I learned that Hess (Oil) Corporation plans to build a 655-megawatt natural gas power plant in the East Ward (Ironbound) section of Newark, a city and a section dangerously overburdened by an onslaught of environmental affronts, degradation and pollutants.  By a 7-1 vote, the Newark board approved a measure last Thursday night and despite grass roots opposition, the board gave the project the go-ahead in a 15-minute meeting. When I heard this, I raised my hand and suggested that the title of this workshop should be changed to “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

Attendees listening to awards ceremony

My using Fannie Lou Hamer’s words simply mean I’m sick and tired of hearing year after year about blatant examples of environmental injustice. There are enough graphs and statistics which clearly show the amount of pollution is related to the color of skin and how much money someone has in their pocket.  People’s health around this new Hess energy center is going to be impacted again. Since the 19th century, Newark Ironbound has been a manufacturing hub, producing everything from iron to beer to paint. In the 1950s and 1960s, Ironbound’s Diamond Alkali/Diamond Shamrock Chemicals Corp. produced Agent Orange, a carcinogenic chemical weapon used extensively in the Vietnam War.

half hour before workshop Nicky Sheats, Steve Anderson, Peter Montague and Henry Rose strategizing

conference speakers, Ben Forest, Angela Clerico,Senator Jennifer Beck & David Pringle

Last year at the Conference, I was outraged when PurGen wanted to build a coal firing plant in Linden and the reason officials gave me was that Linden(already off the charts in asthmatic rates) had the infra-structure in place to support a plant which needed an ocean to dump waste into and railroad tracks to move coal. I raised my hand and pointed out that exactly the same railroad tracks and ocean run up and down the rest of the east coast. There was silence; always silence

Environmentally our time is running out. I voiced this to one of my favorite PhD speakers after his talk.  Global warming and climate change is so here. The Pentagon even knows this and is beginning to project huge population shifts from coastlines and how it impacts our future security. I’ve been observing attitudes that if we put a man on the moon so fast, we can do anything but maybe once we can’t.  Then I got cute. I told the PhD scientist about the movie ‘The Graduate’ when Dustin Hoffman’s character, Benjamin Braddock hears the word “plastics” at his graduation party.  I’ve done the same thing to a myriad of graduates over the years. Most graduates never know what I’m talking about when I whisper, “plastics.” I recently whispered, “water” to my son instead.  “America will get out of debt with China one day when we start shipping them water,” I said semi-seriously. But then the PhD smiled at me.

General Anderson addressing conference

I was pleased later in the day at the second workshop when I heard NJ State Senator Jennifer Beck mention how she voted against her Republican Party and Governor on certain environmental issues. We need more courage and commitment like that. I keep looking at big picture of things; the planet and how we keep ignoring, violating and nothing changes. Amy Goldsmith, State Director, was honored for her amazing dedicated years of service and unlimited energy. Lisa Plevin, Chief of Staff USEPA, Gray Russell (a former rocker too) Environmental Coordinator, Montclair, John Weber, Northeast Regional Manager, Surfrider Foundation and Robert Westreich, Esq. (he never lost a case with First Amendment right to canvass neighborhoods throughout the state for over 20 years) all received Conference Awards. By the way, the luncheons are worth the price of admission alone.

with(retired) Brigadier General Steven Anderson

In the keynote address, Retired Brigadier General Steve Anderson electrified with his candor and passion for environmental change. Here’s a few of his quotes rapid fire. “We’ve got to get off oil. We won’t exist.”  “The increased competition for oil is a threat to our security.”  “Green economy is where the money is.” “President Obama was absolutely right when he stopped the Keystone pipeline.”  General Anderson made a point as soon as he started to speak, saying he was a Republican.  Sometimes he fooled me and other audience members.  He just cares.  “It’s a 20 year process to get off oil. We need to do it under our terms.”  “1000 Americans died moving oil around over there. We spend $20 billion a year on oil. The Pentagon is the world’s largest consumer of energy.”  “We are funding both sides of war. We buy oil and the money ends up in Iran.”  “What troops need is renewable energy.  Afghanistan has 340 days of sun; so harness solar. And wind, geothermal and waste to energy systems.” “How do we help?  Pressure the Department of Defense (DOD).”

At the birthday party after the conference for the 40th year of ‘Clean Water Action,’ General Anderson was quite accessible. I managed to pay him my highest compliment, when I said, “Listening to you, I don’t think anyone could tell what political party you’re in which means you care about doing the right things for people.” He smiled and we took a picture together.  Finally my exhortation to all those within earshot of me; “Get thee to the NJ Environmental Federation conference next year.” I’ve heard it through the grapevine that it increases cerebral vascular circulation which makes you smarter.

asbury park ocean 2 blocks away. looks like southern california

backstage before awards ceremony

One goes through life and sometimes gets to look in an old attic mirror or through a looking glass or slips down a rabbit hole and manages to be a guest at a tea party. Since November, I’ve plunged into Jersey and Asbury Park music and somebody noticed me and my purist enthusiasm. I was set to cover the Jersey Acoustic Music (JAM) Awards a couple of weeks ago for NJ Discover TV when I got a call asking me to be a presenter at the prestigious awards in Asbury Park.  I was overwhelmed and deeply honored; right up there with anything in this or any one of my past lives. I’d give the award for ‘Top Accompanying Musician.’  A little background music:

father and son reporting for njdiscover.com

emily grove winning award

The Jersey Acoustic Music Awards honors original artists who tirelessly perform around the state at small venues. To prepare, on the Friday before the awards, I went to Point Pleasant’s Green Planet Coffeehouse to see Alexandra Inglis, a sixteen year old nominee (and winner) for ‘Top 18 and Under Performer’ and was, as they say, ‘blown away’ by her voice and lyrics.

what i look like as an award presenter with maggie beltran.

As the hall filled it became evident to this first time Acoustic awards attendee that most everyone knew one another in this special community of Jersey Acoustic Music.  MC Anton Daub stressed the night was more about getting recognition from fellow musicians. A wondrous array of singers performed in the round throughout the program in between awards. Jo Wymer’s singing ‘dazzled.’ She liked my one word description of her then went on to win Top Female Performer. Emily Grove won Top Female Vocalist and perhaps was taken back when I mentioned writing about her talent in my blog nearly two years ago, after seeing her sing at Asbury Park’s Clearwater Festival.

16 yr old alexandra inglis performing

kevin john allen with choir . a powerful song.

A few weeks ago, I journeyed to the Strand Theatre for this amazing intimate interactive ‘Songwriters by the Sea’ Backstage event and saw Cat Cosentino sing. She won for Top Pop/Rock and deservedly so. I also met Lo Kloza nominated for Top Female Vocalist and Top New Act. Exuberant and excited, she mentioned her much anticipated CD release party at ‘Downtown’ in Red Bank on June 20th.  With Jon Caspi’s ‘the little ones’ I was noticeably moved by his song of children in the African war zones being kidnapped and made into soldiers. Right out of sixties protestation; I was home.

anton daub singing to open awards.

a view of Rutgers Law looking up. i need to look up.

At intermission, strangely I wondered what folks do in Billings, Montana or near the Bridges of Madison County, Iowa, when they can sing but don’t have an Asbury Park, a musical mecca nearby. Kevin John Allen, nominated for Top Male Songwriter, performed the final song with a powerful emotional moving twist. He brought a number of singers together in a choir like mode to sing, ‘Jesus Could You Call Me’ from his new CD ‘Life’s Lonely Rodeo.’  Sounds of silence filled the hall while they sang.  So here I am in the middle of all this magic music when a few months ago, I was eating large bowls of oatmeal, self-sprinkled with raisins and cinnamon (controls sugar metabolism) and wondering what I was doing with the rest of my life; now I presented an award at JAM to Taylor Hope, winner of Top Accompanying Musician.

The power of media; It was announced earlier today that name Mason is the number two baby name in America because a Kardashian named her son that. I wish media could rally folks into more proactive environmental stances.  I finally figured out who and what I am in this world and what I’ve been most of my life since I looked at the world from a back window on a Newark bus. I am and always will be an eracist.  I’d love to see racism erased. What a silly species we are; focusing on color or gender or God. Go sign the Kyoto protocol. Stop building polluting institutions where poor people live. And now to close, I’m whispering to you all, “water.”  I’m going upstairs now to watch ‘The Graduate.’ April she will come. So will December and January.  And I wish just one boutique food store would sell parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme  next to each other in the herb/spices aisle.

NOW HERE THIS:   a bit of an advertisement. I don’t do those very much here. BUT there’s a very unusual upbeat funny precious 2 minute video involving 102 year old Emily Cook who talks about the life briefly and then invites me back to her room. Not to be missed especially the last 23 seconds.   PLEASE  check it out and share it.

http://www.hooplaha.com/getting-better-all-the-time/

HooplaHa Videos and Article LINKS to Check Out. Very Interesting!!!!                                               

Judy Feinstein: Female Pilot:

Judy Feinstein pilot:

http://www.hooplaha.com/no-rearview-mirror/

Fatherhood:

http://www.hooplaha.com/fatherhood/

Ida Gonzalez: A Mother’s Journey to Light:

http://www.hooplaha.com/a-mothers-journey-to-light/

Common Sense Approach to Common Sense:

http://www.hooplaha.com/common-sense-approach-to-common-sense/

Flexitarianism:

http://www.hooplaha.com/flexitarianism/

Meryl Streep and Me:

http://www.hooplaha.com/meryl-streep-and-me/

 A Real College Pep Band Video (yes 85 seconds):

http://www.hooplaha.com/rutgers-rah-a-college-pep-band/

Also a very worthwhile cause to read up on:

 Butterfly Circle of Friends.    http://www.butterflycircleoffriends.org

MY CONTACT INFORMATION

website:  http://vichywater.net

Facebook:  Cal Schwartz

Twitter:  Earthood

Email: earthood@gmail.com

 book trailer. hey its 65 seconds long

 Vichy Water Book Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qj2ko9gcC                     

IMPORTANT LINK

If on Facebook check out this NJ Discover site:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000125711074

OR   www.njdiscover.com

LINKS TO VIDEOS.  Please Watch.

1.   ZOMBIE WALK   October 22, 2011

Zombie Walk Asbury Park

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfFA-y115nc&feature=autoshare

2.  VETERANS DAY NJ VIETNAM MEMORIAL

Nov 11, 2011

Veterans Day at NJ Vietnam War Memorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYwkaa_xreg&feature=related

3.  RANDALL HAYWOOD & VICTOR JONES JAZZ CONCERT

Nov 19, 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNohzH8AHvM&feature=player_embedded

my new wonderful home

Before my much anticipated Springsteen review; Immersion into Monmouth County music and art has caused a slippage into a time warp; I haven’t blogged in two weeks. Need to address that. Evolution is a wonderful world. No Darwin stuff here. Just a personal journey from starting blogging two years ago and of course, a novelist to a journalist in July, a writer and producer for both NJ Discover TV and HooplaHa in November.

a view from the train heading into Springsteen concert in NYC. There is beauty in a NJ smokestack.

A nor’easter hit New Jersey a few days ago. We needed the rain to avoid drought and suburban folks not being able to water their lawns on both even and odd days. I stopped watering my lawn 15 years ago and washing my car 20 years ago. Water everywhere, but not an endless supply of drops left. Down the salmon and even yellow colored brick roads, water will replace oil as the global commodity.

last scene from 'The Graduate' first scene was "plastics"

talking about red beetles being used to color starbucks strawberry frappes. small world.. this work art is from SICA Gallery in Asbury Park Arts NIght last sat. night.

For those of you who remember the movie, ‘The Graduate;’ the opening scene when one of Benjamin Braddock’s (Dustin Hoffman) parent’s friend whispers just one word to Ben, “Plastics.” I’m whispering here on my blog, “Water.”  Perhaps, I can dig a well here in central Jersey, purify and bottle water in plastic made out of plants and call it ‘Jersey Shore Water’ and ship it over to China which will have a huge imported water market one day (My personal theory; when that happens, the USA wipes out its debt). I need to call my son in Williamsburg, Brooklyn where only under-30 year olds live and whisper to him, “Water in plastic.”

a view inside MOMA almost an art form in itself.

caught my eye. moma

Suburbia is a curious place. Not a prolific amount of adventurers here. I live on a corner house which parallels a main road with 40 mile/hour speed limit. Three houses in a row across that great street divide look out on my mostly weedy and yellow lawn. I don’t know any of the people in those houses and it’s been 20 years that we’ve been suburban neighbors. I said to my wife on Saturday as we were heading to Brooklyn and saw the middle house’s car pull out of the driveway, “I don’t know who they are. I wonder why. I guess 187 feet away is an insurmountable distance and it’s been two decades.” Silence filled the car. Intense thought does that. I was trying to understand how people 187 feet apart for 20 years have no clue who each other are. Not that there were ever any ‘We Like Ike’ or ‘Jimmy Carter’ political signs on our lawns. Maybe they’ve been put off with my yellow grass while they’re green. Then my wife introspected. ‘It’s another world over there, across the street.” Imagination played with my retina. I saw a sign, ‘Welcome to the Amazon River.’ Sure enough; it was a river, not black asphalt which separated us all these years. And on careful inspection, I saw those nasty piranha fish and was horrified yet redeemed in a convoluted way. Now I know why I never crossed over the river. Piranhas are nasty fish with a voracious appetite; so it’s been suburban self-preservation all these years. Absurd, isn’t it?

a step into abstract art at moma

actually inside this painting. that's me in the white sweater taking a pix of the painting.

So what’s this I hear about Wal-Mart bribing officials in Mexican towns to get quicker permits to build more stores? I don’t have a running love affair with American companies/corporations. In my novel, ‘Vichy Water,’ I postulated that ‘some’ American companies are collectively responsible for the deaths of more people than the Germans in World War II.  Would that be 50 million lives? Easy to calculate; start with cigarettes (Just this morning I saw a commercial on NBC Today Show. “Smoking kills 25,000 people every year in New York State”), coal (soot) dust, food companies that love salt, car and drug companies that don’t recall, the power company in California that used poisonous hexavalent chromium (thanks Erin Brockovich), insurance companies who reject treatments, purveyors of trans-fat, plastics (that word again) that land in land-fills and decompose into poisonous phthalates and so on forever.

nuzzling up to a sculpture of pres Johnson with 3 birds in his hand. somebody in new jersey messaged me to stand up straight.

actually i am eye to eye with this.

Back to Wal-Mart. So there are 2100 Wal-Mart stores in Mexico and the word on the street;  a lot of stores quickly; perhaps local town officials were allegedly (I love using this word) bribed by Wal-Mart, spending millions in bribes to get permits from local Mexican officials to build fast and tighten noose on competition. There are stringent American laws prohibiting bribing foreign officials punishable by heavy fines (duh) AND stiff prison sentences for company executives. Wal-Mart is concerned and looking into it. Once a decade or so I offer up one of my kidneys in a sure bet: no Wal-Mart official will ever go directly to jail; just like the ‘Monopoly’ game. Finally, Starbucks is NOT going to use red beetles/insects to color some of their strawberry frappes etc. instead using a lycopene (from tomatoes) derivative. Hey, lycopene is healthy stuff; a wonderful anti-oxidant; why not used all the time?

in the sculpture garden at moma. now i'm ready for a Springsteen concert

Two weeks ago my son and I went to the Bruce Springsteen concert in Madison Square Garden. To prepare cerebrally and emotionally, I got into the city eight hours before the concert and wandered, roamed and absorbed the world of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) to innervate neural ganglionic connections in my mind. And it worked. I was naturally and visually elevated, feeling the air beneath my wings and souls (soles) of my feet. I wonder so many things these days. One wonderment; how can a sedentary sofa compare to MOMA, Manhattan and fruit and pretzel stands on city sidewalks.  Rather than more words at this juncture, MOMA and me pixs.   My review of the Springsteen concert, more cerebral musings, was picked up by Facebook’s ‘Bruce Springsteen News’ because, like the ending of the Mickey Mouse Club song, they “liked it.”  Review at end of blog.

Finally, nearly two years ago I convinced my wife to get a mammogram. Remember I’m the guy who blogs about living to 150 years all the time; she’s not as diligent with health issues. The deal was that I accompany her to the office for the exam. I went for the deal. And I also wound up spending nearly 6 hours 44 minutes sitting in gender solitude that day. What I experienced that day was powerful emotionally, more so than even walking around MOMA or going to a Springsteen concert and sitting on the floor. Emoting about the mammography office that day in August 2010, I started my blog that night and posted it. Thing is; my blog was young back then so not many folks may’ve seen it. Blog times have changed; 200,000 yearly visitors and growing. I think it needs reposting now; stylistically it became part of my stream of consciousness. And here’s that blog from August 2010 (it’s all archived. Even the follow-up blog to that)

BLOG:

suburban poetry: only Male in a special Mammography office. august 23, 2010

Calvin Schwartz

an august thursday last week. 10:30 am. i need to accompany and support. first sight. a painting of a woman, large prominent features, wings, surreal, tall as me.

two women assistants looked at me looking. one pointed with a long finger and i imagined, some kind of instrument used for cutting dense overgrowth in a jungle far away from central jersey. she pointed to a waiting, waiting room of varying comfort level of chairs, none soft and cushiony. a lonely box of kleenex on table near a book, ‘art of survival’, binder broken, pages ready to evacuate. anatomical paintings on wall; two half globes, america and australia. two lockets with small pictures of women. two half globes of a green mossy substance, small dinosaurs and dragons walking precariously on side. a painting of a planter covering a wide chest expanse, a vine escaping.  reminded me of a bean stalk. i was jack for sure. looking around, wondering, imagining, asking myself questions. what if? why am i the only testosterone person here?(just the word i thought of too) music piped in through speaker directly over my head (what used to be my soft spot). my day of crossing canal coincidentally close. not just music, no elvis. no rap. no dusty springfield. no iris dement. no voices. lots of piano. 5 hours of this music. not music but a dirge dragging on. i was in the land of funereal thoughts. couldn’t help it. outside the window to my left, a courtyard separating a one story building with all glass walls and no people about. one lone tree notably branch neutered and not moving or blowing in the wind. i wondered if the operation made it lethargic. the sky was uncannily blue. not a cirrus or cumulous cloud for 5 hours. not one passing by to change view. why was i the only male here? the colors all around were beige, green and white. chairs were too. i was feeling ominous, beige and white and sickly.

a woman walked in with a clipboard. filled out a form. i was busy reading a primer on hemingway, the particular page about living life, experiencing and inventing. i was where i never dreamt to be. no eye contact with the woman. i think it was mutual, perhaps for me out of privacy respect. another woman walked in, dropped belongings and paced back and forth endlessly. i understood. i felt. that’s it. i started feeling things like never before. was i invading a private world. i still waited for gender company which never came. why was i the only male? i walked outside office looking for gender company. even my gender’s washroom, no gender company. the silence of a washroom, water splashing. strange but i was noticing things i never noticed. something was happening. surreal air in the conditioning system.

back to waiting room. even a crying baby would’ve worked to break an eerie silence. more women and clipboards. i started noticing faces. a sadness. a fear. a silence. one woman sat facing me. i tried to bury myself in book. there’s only so much clinical hemingway to absorb in an hour. an assistant walked in and handed that woman a large folder of x-rays or something. a few muffled words. a face left with no emotion. i saw fear. i wasn’t there. i was silent but felt i was changing. i think i was resolving to notice things in my world for the rest of my time in it. i couldn’t help it. i was changing. i hoped for gender company. none would ever come. another woman and a clipboard. another what if for me and then another one. hours passed. i didn’t even want one of the butter cookies on a tray in kitchenette(what a strange word, kitchenette). i wanted no water.  i wanted no movement. i just noticed a painting was not perfectly level and the neutered tree which i realized was probably my gender was still not moving. maybe there was no wind. a mighty wind would win branch movement. i wondered about this special kind of place and a special kind of fear and it’s gender tender specialty. the dirge music annoyed but i knew why it was there. i noticed i’d been there a long time. patients have come and gone and i still sit, hemingway now resting near the lonely kleenex box. if i wrote tissue box would readers know?  why am i the only male here?  why is there such loneliness here? why am i so lonely?  why am i still here?  why hasn’t one of the pointing fingers come in to reassure and point me out?

finally an assistant. “just coming out now” i noticed her face, then a whisper, “we have to come back for a biopsy at 2:45pm”  we drove around then some lettuce with balsamic to  masticate, kills time. back in waiting room. more women no men. more clipboards. more fear. more noticing details. i was never so quiet for so many hours. a few more hours. more, what if?  i wondered about erectile dysfunction and if that gets more money for research than where i am. there are no words as hard as i try to describe my evolution and revolution. i’ll notice and feel and be a better human. promise to myself.

lasting thoughts: a day without male company. a day of fear, unknown, feeling, noticing and thinking about words. two hours ago on this day of my birth, writing words, praying and communing. then a simple phone call that things are alright. happy birthday calvin. Best Gifts are simple life things. i noticed that.

NOW The BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Madison Square Garden Concert REVIEW  from 

“Bruce Springsteen News’ on Facebook:

A review from Madison Square Garden April 9, 2012 by BSN’s own reporter @ Calvin Schwartz.

by Bruce Springsteen News on Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 1:43pm ·

Springsteen Concert: Madison Square Garden, April 9, 2012: Electric Sociology Defined.

Calvin Schwartz, writer NJ Discover TV   http://www.njdiscover.com/

Email: calvinbarryschwartz@gmail.com

Facebook: Cal Schwartz

http://vichywater.net/blog  (a frequent blogger about Asbury Park, Jersey Shore and Springsteen geography)

a city sidewalk scene on the way to Springsteen concert

prodigal son 84 minutes before concert in MSG. note top right. the woman knitting to kill some time.

I’m a writer, blogger, reporter and novelist from central Jersey (two miles from Freehold), with leanings towards the cerebral side of life. I was asked to share a few thoughts on Monday night’s Bruce Springsteen concert. I’m not a music critic and I don’t ever want to be, but I love everything about Springsteen from the molecular point of view; as I search to describe myself. Molecular means that I’ve felt for the last several years, a fine particulate of Springsteen dust settling down on me. Dust you ask? Remember the old movie ‘Incredible Shrinking Man’ from 1957, when sparkly dust descends on this man in a boat and causes him to shrink into eternity. For me, in a positive way, this observed Springsteen magic has elevated (opposite of shrink) me; heightening an awareness for my central Jersey surroundings and made me a better writer. And as I descend on the places where Bruce is felt, like Asbury Park, I’ve noticed his magical dust is part of almost everyone. He is molecular; people feel him, his energy (he can’t be 62), caring and words. He lifts and elevates his home grown geography, meaning us here in Jersey and rock fans globally.

74 minutes before Springsteen concert. perhaps a new signature pix.

the AV desk. note the 2 Springsteen musical catalog books on right table.

Yesterday I had the need to be in New York, within two miles of Madison Square Garden, about 8 hours before the concert; I’d like to think for absorption of molecular incidentals, so I strolled semi-aimlessly around MOMA(Museum of Modern Art), all the time in high anticipation mode that soon I’d be on the floor of the Garden for Bruce Springsteen. My prodigal son and I woofed down a salad with extra string beans and jalapenos, hooked-up with son’s college friends for a beer, then I wandered inside the Garden about an hour before doors open. Being on the floor, I had the opportunity to roam around close to AV computers, where I caught sight of  two Springsteen musical catalog books. Those books are probably needed by computer show people; you never know when Bruce decides to add a song, like he did with ‘Rosalita’ at the finale, even catching Steve van Zandt by surprise as I surmise.

27 minutes before Springsteen concert. prodigal son pondering elation.

Tribute to Clarence Clemons on the big screen

Why do I love Springsteen concerts?  My need for first hand observations of “amazing electric sociology;” a term I conjured introspectively trying to come up with right words; the old ‘nail it’ philosophy. Watching meticulously as the Garden slowly filled with cravers of rock, you could sense everyone was waiting to have unbridled fun, standing, gyrating, singing, throwing digits and fingers into Springsteen molecularly charged air. I guess saying ‘palpable’ works, but there’s so much more involved. I think for first timers, and even for the regulars (I bumped into a Rutgers friend afterwards at Penn Station. It was his 102nd concert), this would be a life experience; they always are; like a meta-morphed cool cat with multiple lives; every time you go to a Springsteen concert, they’re never the same especially if you dig electric sociology.

one of the funnier cultural pixs: note utilization of cell phone cameras. kind of reminds me of scene from movie 'Starting Over" with Burt Reynolds and Jill Clayburgh. "Does any body have a valium?"

Springsteen on Stage

“New York, New York,” appropriately filled the Garden, the band arrived and Springsteen who is molecularly thoroughly Jersey, comments on the New York Giants winning but  playing all home games in Jersey and perhaps renaming the Empire State Building to Jersey State but leaving it where it is. ‘Badlands’ blasted the audience into permanent stand upright positions. Bruce magically becomes part audience, turning, moving close to loyalists, even those sitting behind. He forgets no fan because it’s genuine love; electric sociology. That’s essential Bruce; in the audience chugging two beers, lying down and being elevated, picking a young boy from the audience to sing and slide across the stage and a young girl to dance in ‘Dancing in the Dark’ reminiscent of Courtney. Personally, I could listen to him sing ‘Jack of All Trades’ (me?) from ‘Wrecking Ball’ all night long like I’m doing now, inspiring my writing.

The concert went on all night long; electric sociology. Springsteen loves his audience; they love him back. To my left this 60 something man stood for three hours; moving, smiling, laughing, contorting, throwing hands into the air, loving every moment; that’s a Springsteen concert. Jake Clemons, Clarence’s nephew filled while the audience pulled; you could feel it; electric sociology.  I closed my eyes a few times and listened to Jake. At the finale, the tribute to Clarence slowed my respiration; the love on the big screen evident while watching Bruce watch. Ah, the finale. Like an old coffee commercial for me, “Heavenly.”  ‘Born to Run’ and Dancing in the Dark’ with a ‘10th Avenue Freeze Out.’ I watched carefully for as many signs of electric sociology; the love all around between Springsteen, the Band (they’re ALL amazing) and the audience. I thought about being in college for a moment; how what I’ve seen should be required reading or viewing for sociology, American history, European literature (Bruce is universal). No one left a seat to be first on a subway; electrically sociologically glued to our seats near where we stood all night. With my son, memories forever and bonding beyond comprehension. That’s my wrap on a typical molecularly Springsteen concert.

NOW HERE THIS:   a bit of an advertisement. I don’t do those very much here. BUT there’s a very unusual upbeat funny precious 2 minute video involving 102 year old Emily Cook who talks about the life briefly and then invites me back to her room. Not to be missed especially the last 23 seconds.   PLEASE  check it out and share it.

http://www.hooplaha.com/getting-better-all-the-time/

HooplaHa Videos and Article LINKS to Check Out. Very Interesting!!!!  

Judy Feinstein: Female Pilot:

Judy Feinstein pilot:  http://www.hooplaha.com/no-rearview-mirror/

Fatherhood:

http://www.hooplaha.com/fatherhood/

Ida Gonzalez: A Mother’s Journey to Light:

http://www.hooplaha.com/a-mothers-journey-to-light/

Common Sense Approach to Common Sense:

http://www.hooplaha.com/common-sense-approach-to-common-sense/

Flexitarianism:

http://www.hooplaha.com/flexitarianism/

Meryl Streep and Me:

http://www.hooplaha.com/meryl-streep-and-me/

A Real College Pep Band Video (yes 85 seconds):

http://www.hooplaha.com/rutgers-rah-a-college-pep-band/

Also a very worthwhile cause to read up on:

 Butterfly Circle of Friends.    http://www.butterflycircleoffriends.org

MY CONTACT INFORMATION

website:  http://vichywater.net

Facebook:  Cal Schwartz

Twitter:  Earthood

Email: earthood@gmail.com

 book trailer. hey its 65 seconds long

Vichy Water Book Trailer

IMPORTANT LINK

If on Facebook check out this NJ Discover site:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000125711074

OR   www.njdiscover.com

LINKS TO VIDEOS.  Please Watch.

1.   ZOMBIE WALK   October 22, 2011

Zombie Walk Asbury Park

2.  VETERANS DAY NJ VIETNAM MEMORIAL

Nov 11, 2011

Veterans Day at NJ Vietnam War Memorial

3.  RANDALL HAYWOOD & VICTOR JONES JAZZ CONCERT

Nov 19, 2011

Randall Haywood and Victor Jones Interview from Chico’s House of Jazz Asbury Park

Randall Haywood and Victor Jones Interview from Chico’s House of Jazz Asbury Park

FINALLY FROM LINDA CHORNEY GRAMMY NOMINEE:

Asbury Park Convention Hall. a view from a bridge nearby. at nite. country music in air

Before drifting into the deep recesses of my Asbury Park mind, I need to do a movie discourse. Funny, I’ve been thinking lately of actually making a movie; a blend of real and unreal in a special place of reverence. ‘There’s still time brother;’ a thought from the scary prophetic movie, On the Beach.

The other night I was in the mood to watch Casablanca. My viewing of the movie eclipsed the century mark; recollect I’ve seen this tech noir movie more than 100 times; I can almost but not quite tell the exact dates I watched it. Some people can tell that fact; they’ve got a condition called hyperthymesia in which they possess a superior autobiographical memory. Folks with hyperthymesia can recall almost every day of their lives in near perfect detail, as well as public events that hold some personal relevance to them.

Marilu Henner. Superior autobiographical memory

wilson the volley ball from 'castaway'

Those affected describe memories as uncontrollable associations, when they encounter a date, they “see” a vivid depiction of that day in their heads. Recollection occurs without hesitation or conscious effort. Actress Marilu Henner has this condition. Oh, I don’t really have it but I dwell frequently in the past; how I could’ve tweaked a few things and made 2012 living different; how did I lose a sibling; this notion provokes walks at night, near 2 AM in central Jersey, head tilted skyward to stars, moon and the parallel worlds/universes out there. A few years ago, I read about Princeton PhD candidate Hugh Everett’s thesis in 1951, when he mathematically proved the existence of parallel worlds. Maybe there’s a million of me (and you too) at this exact moment in time. Reckon you should’ve seen my facial expression when I found Everett’s doctoral thesis on line, read the first paragraph or so, and felt like Tom Hanks, in Castaway talking to ‘Wilson’ a former volleyball. My two college degrees got me to the third paragraph before running off to seven layer cake land (a frustration buster).

Vichy Water, a novel

Back to Casablanca; a long story of being a Humphrey Bogart fan. I suppose most of you all know seven years ago on a rainy March Sunday around 9:30 AM, when I was watching Casablanca for the 74^th time, I saw Claude Rains  throw a bottle of Vichy Water (French mineral water) into a metal garbage can near the end of the movie. Then I let out a blood curdling scream because a novel popped into my head. Two years ago my novel ‘Vichy Water’ was published; a special achievement in a life. One of my favorite scenes in the movie: Paul Henreid (Victor Laszlo) starts singing ‘La Marseillaise,’ the French National Anthem, in one of the most memorable and moving scenes.  After the movie, I went to YouTube and found famed French singer Mireille Mathieu’s version, singing in front of the Eiffel Tower; how unbelievably moving an anthem. I read comments made about Mathieu and the anthem; a few proclamations that it’s the most inspirational national anthem ever. I was curious about the lyrics into English translation.

Let’s go children of the fatherland,

The day of glory has arrived!

Against us tyranny’s

Bloody flag is raised! (repeat)

In the countryside, do you hear

The roaring of these fierce soldiers?

They come right to our arms

To slit the throats of our sons, our friends!

Famed French singer Mireille Mathieu

I listened to Mathieu sing La Marseillaise for literally several hours. Powerful stuff; I began to envision myself in Paris this August, working on my 2^nd novel, being inspired and moved. I was bothered by some of the lyrics; rather graphic images of throats. I was also haunted by images of the Germans marching with ease and little resistance into Paris and the French citizens helping to round up fellow Parisians into the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup in 1942 (ultimate destination, concentration camps) as depicted in the movie, Sarah’s Key. My respiration levels during that movie were some of the lowest readings ever in a life.

A few nights ago I was flicking channels, looking for blue lights that would mess up my melatonin levels but somehow soothe me to sleep. I like muffled television sounds in the wee hours of the morning to facilitate sleep. It works for me. I stumbled upon Lethal Weapon, (from 1987, 24 long years ago) with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. I promised myself a few years ago, after a publicized Mel Gibson despicable racist anti-Semitic rant to Los Angeles police, that I’d never watch anything involving him again. But this scene I stumbled upon was one of my favorites; to me it was as poignant and telling a societal revelation as there is, so I watched. Here’s the setup: Gibson and Glover (Roger Murtaugh), LA cops, are about to investigate a woman, Dixie. Her house explodes.  Soon after, cops Mel and Danny encounter four small black neighborhood kids who may’ve witnessed the perpetrator who planted the bomb. They identify themselves as police officers but one kid says, “My mother told me that policemen shoot black people.” Then I thought about Trayvon Martin being shot recently in Sanford, Florida. I thought to myself, “24 years ago, seems like a long time, but I guess not.

Asbury Park. Bangs Art Gallery. scene. grand opening.

With Artists Christopher Fitzgerald (amazing collages in background) and Kortez Robinson just before opening of Bangs Art Gallery in Asbury Park

Fifteen years ago or so I was travelling into New York City with seven other sales reps in a hired van to take us to the Parker-Meridien Hotel (French) and then to Javits Convention Center for Vision Expo, an international eyeglass exhibition. After dropping our clothes off at the hotel (it was 4 PM) the van driver was cruising downtown via Fifth Avenue. At 40^th Street we hit a red light. I saw Danny Glover on the corner trying to hail a cab unsuccessfully. I rolled down my window and offered him a lift. He said, “I can’t get a f—— cab.”  Then Glover picked up his suitcase and started coming to our van. I remembered at the time there was a bit of a scandal going on with New York City cabs not wanting to pick up African-Americans for ‘fears.’ I was excited because I was about to pick-up one of my favorite actors and give him a lift. We had all the time in the world I thought (thinking of the movie, The Time Machine by HG Wells) because the convention started the next day.  Suddenly the light turned green and my van driver sped off, not knowing my intentions and therefore leaving Danny Glover standing by the curb and me in fifteen year devastation, on what Danny Glover thought of me and what could’ve been.

Kortez Robinson mixed media/canvas) Art also on display Heldrich Hotel. New Brunswick. Esoteric Urbanism Exhibit

Posing(modeling?) in the eclectic photographic studio of Andrei Jackomets in Asbury Park. The last time I modeled was in Ohio in spring 1964 a few days before Barry Goldwater campaigned down the road.

Lately I’ve been pondering how curious topics arrive at my computer keyboard. Earlier this week, I wrote about Monmouth County Cemetery Chasing because NJ Discover TV writers (me) have been on the grounds of several local cemeteries for rather serendipitous reasons. At NJ Discover we’re all over Monmouth County doing our job description; discovering, elevating and exploring our home county. Last month, I’ve also immersed myself into the art scene in Asbury Park and an hour ago, I realized that I should be telling a tale of art discovery.

asbury lanes at night. my shadow on ground.

Asbury Lanes. Asbury Park. bowling balls and candles and sound equipment. sounds like an old sixties song.

Through the magic of Facebook with never ending stories of networking and events, last month I heard about an ‘artsy’ item at Asbury Lanes called Dr. Sketchy Asbury Park and decided to click the JOIN button after getting an invitation from Tim. I checked Google first; a new tool of investigative reporting. “Since 2005, Dr. Sketchy’s has been the name in alternative drawing. From illegal flash mobs to the Museum of Modern Art, Dr. Sketchy’s has brought artists a rule-breaking cocktail of dames, drinking and drawing. Dr. Sketchy’s branches draw in over a hundred cities around the globe, from Akron to Zagreb. Whether you’re an art star or a scribbling newbie, Dr. Sketchy’s is the perfect place to get your fill of life-drawing.” For me, all a new world; in the past I’ve thought that if Christopher Columbus had approached me way back in my medicinal and potions medieval shop, a mile from where Queen Isabella lived, I would’ve jumped at the opportunity for a long ocean voyage. Crazy after all these years; so I still jump.

sitting in lounge area asbury lanes. neat art in background.

artists sketching at Dr Sketchy Asbury Park. makes sense.

Cut to a recent Sunday afternoon; I arrived at Asbury Lanes for the Dr Sketchy’s Asbury Park sketching session themed as vampire motif with young female models. Asbury Lanes is as close to back to the future, 1950’s ambience, as I’ve seen since Michael J Fox drove a Delorean car. An old self photo booth, bowling ball rack with the top shelf filled with candles, a vending machine, the kind you pull the handle to release (four selections available) set the mood for ambience. A bar that almost reminded me of the The Shining (old movie references again) was off to the left; neat eclectic art work on the walls; an image of Springsteen, Henry Winkler and a rhinoceros and four rows of liquor in a bright showcase. A sign in the snack bar read, “Menu on counter. Booze in back. Vegetarian eats too.” Even the water fountain arrested eye contact.

Tim from Dr Sketchy Asbury Park with Tara-Jean Vitale producer from NJ Discover

with model Tricia Pain at Dr Sketchy. the theme was Vampires.

Then we met congenial and inventive Tim, the host of Dr. Sketchy and Christopher Fitzgerald, an extraordinary artist and force field. Meanwhile 60 real artists with sketch pads positioned over ten vacant bowling alleys did their thing drawing the beautiful ‘dames’ posing in vampire suggestive poses on a stage. Finally, posing for an old fashioned photo-op with striking model Tricia completed my day in a brave new artistic world.

frenetic studio of Andrei Jackomets preparing for vintage pin up model shoot

A few weeks later, Tim invited me as a journalist to cover a special photographic shoot at a private studio in Asbury Park. Of course, there wasn’t much processing just what this shoot was all about. Entering a vestibule (neat descriptive word), I rang the doorbell of suite five, was buzzed into a voice calling down a flight of stairs. “I’m from NJ Discover,” I yelled towards the voice. Next, I entered the photographic artist studio of  amazing Andrei Jackomets; a frenetic universe of sets, props, and four models being meticulously made up for a vintage art-deco classy pin-up shoot. More brave new world explorations for this reporter. Tim was thrilled with my effort of being there. I was thrilled to be standing on the deck of the Santa Maria, so I thought; another Columbus voyage for me.  Time and energy expended into creating this shoot amazed. I asked permission to photograph what was witnessed. Works of Andrei lined the walls; an extraordinary artist. Everyone was gracious. Space was tight and most of the time, I couldn’t find a place for my 6’5” frame. Andrei and I saw eye to eye; he asked me to pose and then he posed with a model for my camera. I remember what Winston Zeddmore said at the end of Ghostbusters. “I love this city!” (and still another old movie reference)  And I do love the invention of Asbury Park. And thanks Tim, Dr Sketchy.

LIVE ASBURY PARK at the Press Room. performance of an evening with Dusty (Springfield) and thanks to Carlos Armesto, creative director for a magical night.

an Asbury Park beach scene. a photographer taking a couple's picture.

Last Saturday, March 24th the new Bangs Art Gallery (congratulations Doug Z’illa) in Asbury Park celebrated an opening. Christopher Fitzgerald displayed his dazzling mixed-media collages before its multi-gallery tour. Rather than describe; check out pictures.  With dynamic social commentary artist Kortez Robinson, from Freehold; I stared at his mixed media/canvas and was transported far away; I like when art makes you think by reaching for an often misplaced social conscience. The gallery was crowded and folks talked not only about present art but how great it is to see Asbury Park alive. Prior to the gallery opening, we grabbed a sandwich on Cookman Avenue and afterwards walked across the street to The Press Room for Live Asbury Park’s presentation of ‘An Evening with Dusty,’ which recreated a 1969 concert experience with the original pop Diva and blue-eyed soul singer, Dusty Springfield.  Dusty was delivered by “powerhouse singer Kirsten Holly Smith, complete with peroxide beehive and panda eye shadow, backed by a trio of pop-soul doo-wop girls who step out for their own funky star turns.”  By the way, what a night; those that confine their souls to the sedentary couch TV ought to know this entire evening in Asbury Park cost me $24.75 for two for everything and this is 2012 not 1955, the year the Dodgers won the World Series.

So I battle with the old internal introspective mechanism as relates to this particular blog. I love Paris in the spring time or in August when I dream of going for a month to work on my second novel but “Golly,” as Sally Field from Norma Rae uttered in the movie, I’d miss the Jersey Shore and Asbury Park this summer, with its amazing renaissance of music, art and food. And “there is no place like home” as Dorothy said, in the Wizard of Oz. However I don’t know why she wasn’t wearing the red ruby slippers at the end of the movie. Wouldn’t it have been provocative?  Oh well.

red ruby slippers. so cool brewster if they are on at end of movie.

NOW HERE THIS:   a bit of an advertisement. I don’t do those very much here. BUT there’s a very unusual upbeat funny precious 2 minute video involving 102 year old Emily Cook who talks about the life briefly and then invites me back to her room. Not to be missed especially the last 23 seconds.   PLEASE  check it out and share it.

http://www.hooplaha.com/getting-better-all-the-time/

HooplaHa Videos and Article LINKS to Check Out. Very Interesting!!!!

Judy Feinstein: Female Pilot:

Judy Feinstein pilot

Fatherhood:

http://www.hooplaha.com/fatherhood/

Ida Gonzalez: A Mother’s Journey to Light:

http://www.hooplaha.com/a-mothers-journey-to-light/

Common Sense Approach to Common Sense:

http://www.hooplaha.com/common-sense-approach-to-common-sense/

Flexitarianism:

http://www.hooplaha.com/flexitarianism/

A Real College Pep Band Video (yes 85 seconds):

http://www.hooplaha.com/rutgers-rah-a-college-pep-band/

Also a very worthwhile cause to read up on:

Butterfly Circle of Friends.    http://www.butterflycircleoffriends.org

MY CONTACT INFORMATION

website:  http://vichywater.net

Facebook:  Cal Schwartz

Twitter:  Earthood

Email: earthood@gmail.com

book trailer. hey its 65 seconds long

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qj2ko9gcC_M

IMPORTANT LINK

If on Facebook check out this NJ Discover site:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000125711074

OR   www.njdiscover.com

 LINKS TO VIDEOS.  Please Watch.

1.   ZOMBIE WALK   October 22, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfFA-y115nc&feature=autoshare

2.  VETERANS DAY NJ VIETNAM MEMORIAL

Nov 11, 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYwkaa_xreg&feature=related

3.  RANDALL HAYWOOD & VICTOR JONES JAZZ CONCERT

Nov 19, 2011

Randall Haywood and Victor Jones Interview from Chico’s House of Jazz Asbury Park

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNohzH8AHvM&feature=player_embeddedr

Gulliver wearing a red shirt. I feel the pain.

I’m in one of those crazy after all these years, stream of consciousness moods; so here goes, my adventures with Gulliver University, located here at East Brobdingham, near the oranges and candle wicks of my misspent youth. I suppose an author’s literary license warning; a lot of kitchen-sink paraphernalia that I’ll be throwing into this blog. I’ve got my reasons. Life is dull and short. I love good old Gulliver U. even though they’ve been trying for a century to extricate themselves from the wasteland of not being a brand name. Even Al Capone chose not to throw a speak-easy during prohibition into a store front that lined the cobblestone street of the Gulliver main thoroughfare. So Gulliver students remained alcohol free when other colleges were drunk with success on the 1920’s gridiron.

It’s modern day now. Gulliver students and alumni hang out on the football message board and stick their chests out proudly if they’ve achieved 74,000 or 22,000 posts. General George Patton, with the pearl handled revolver, awards special posthumous citations to inane time spent on the board. Good ole George. My parents were upset when he slapped that soldier.  I wondered how much time was involved in producing 74,000 posts so I pretended to write a post of several paragraphs which took five minutes. Then I brought out my Texas Instrument calculator from the 1970’s and figured that 74,000 posts took 256.94444444 days to write (24 hours a day) or 513.88 days if he works 12 hours a day and so forth. “Golly,” I said to myself.  The dude has spent a year or two of weekdays ripping people apart; some who are so well intentioned and replete with more Gulliver U spirit than most board folks.

Al Capone. He ignored Gulliver University

Then I watched a special video made with Gulliver U. pep band students for a national website, which in an abstract (you have to think to appreciate) way defines what college spirit and pep bands are all about. News of the video was posted on the Gulliver U. football message board and 240 people actually clicked, not the tens of thousands who should’ve watched their Gulliver U. pep band bring pride and esprit de corps to their college. Then an epiphany like a counter clockwise swirling bathtub drain when you stick your finger in the center to see if you can alter the history of mankind. The water manages to avoid the finger until it’s all down the drain. On the same football message board with close proximity to the post on the Gulliver U. pep band, someone posted a story about farting into the phone while talking to a credit card company that morning. The rest is not necessary here but 1600 message board loyalists spent their time responding and reading but NOT taking the 85 seconds to support their college and pep band by simply viewing the video.

General Patton's medal for time served on message board.

I wish these guys were from Gulliver. But knowledge is still good.

The epiphanies and lessons learned from the Gulliver Message Board: it explains why the Kyoto protocol (global greenhouse gas emissions) is still not signed by the world’s countries and why Gulliver U is what it is and do we have to bring Ebenezer Scrooge (Alastair Sim) back from his good old town to tell us more about what the future holds. Damn, I love Gulliver U and oranges, candle wicks and forty day old chocolate chip cookies in a microwave. Where’s Forrest Gump when I need him. Maybe life is not like a box of chocolates but more like a Gulliver U. message board. People used to call me Forrest Gump( I have a picture album called Forrest Gump)  because I get myself into unique situations by personally meeting some of the world’s most impressive intellects and interesting people; funny how I have no desire to meet the guy with 74,000 posts.

Dr. Ray Kurzweil and me. Forbes called him a "thinking machine"

Dr Michio Kaku (amazing astro-physicist and futurist) and me. a long long way from the dude with 74,000 posts on the Gulliver U football message board.

HooplaHa Videos and Article LINKS to Check Out. Very Interesting!!!!

Judy Feinstein: Female Pilot:

http://www.hooplaha.com/no-rearview-mirror/

Fatherhood:

http://www.hooplaha.com/fatherhood/

Ida Gonzalez: A Mother’s Journey to Light:

http://www.hooplaha.com/a-mothers-journey-to-light/

Common Sense Approach to Common Sense:

http://www.hooplaha.com/common-sense-approach-to-common-sense/

Flexitarianism:

http://www.hooplaha.com/flexitarianism/

A Real College Pep Band Video (yes 85 seconds):

http://www.hooplaha.com/rutgers-rah-a-college-pep-band/

Also a very worthwhile cause to read up on:

Butterfly Circle of Friends.    http://www.butterflycircleoffriends.org

MY CONTACT INFORMATION

website:  http://vichywater.net

Facebook:  Cal Schwartz

Twitter:  Earthood

Email: earthood@gmail.com

book trailer. hey its 65 seconds long

Vichy Water book trailer 65 seconds long

IMPORTANT LINKS

If on Facebook check out this NJ Discover site:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000125711074

OR   www.njdiscover.com

LINKS TO VIDEOS.  Please Watch.

1.   ZOMBIE WALK   October 22, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfFA-y115nc&feature=autoshare

2.  VETERANS DAY NJ VIETNAM MEMORIAL

Nov 11, 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYwkaa_xreg&feature=related

3.  RANDALL HAYWOOD & VICTOR JONES JAZZ CONCERT

Nov 19, 2011

Randall Haywood and Victor Jones Interview from Chico’s House of Jazz Asbury Park

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNohzH8AHvM&feature=player_embeddedr

asbury park boardwalk

I do love Asbury Park (New Jersey). As a kid growing up in Newark, my parents saved and scrimped all year to make it to the Jersey shore for August, renting a small bungalow in a Belmar backyard on Seventh Avenue. On weekends, if I behaved all week and babysat for my sisters, my reward was the quintessential boardwalk and Palace Amusements of Asbury Park. My sister Hildy called it Raspberry Park.

with mario casella and eric greene from slim chance and the gamblers at wonderbar in asbury park

Asbury Park pinball

I’ve been saying since I stumbled into journalism in July, and spending a great deal time in Asbury Park, there is magical dust from a hovering Springsteen cirrus (fair weather) cloud that keeps descending, and inspiring musicians and artists; almost remindful of the dust (snow) that watched over Dorothy, Cowardly Lion, Tin Man and Ray Bolger’s Scarecrow as they approached Emerald City.

A few weeks ago, I covered the launch of ‘Live Asbury Park,’ at the ‘Press Room’ (missing Springsteen live there by two nights); an exciting new non-profit live entertainment company. Carlos Armesto, Artistic Director, will bring the spirit of Asbury Park into all avenues of the arts; “to move audiences, open minds and give the artistic experience of a lifetime.”

at launch for Live Asbury Park at 'Press Room'

Asbury Park boardwalk lonely surfboards

Adventures in Baby Sitting in the blog title: streams of consciousness relating to adventures on Facebook and social media networking; like meeting people in real life, babysitting for T.S. Garp or his mother Jenny Fields. Last week I was hanging out in Facebook at, NJ Discover’s Wall. Earlier that day, I had a NJ Discover TV breakfast meeting at a pancake establishment. On the way back, I drove up a rural country road in Colts Neck, Monmouth County, New Jersey, passed this magnificent old church. I made an illegal turn and stopped to read a sign: “Dutch Reformed Church completed and erected in 1856.”

Asbury Park Convention Hall

Asbury Park lanes at night. my shadow on the bottom.,

With camera always by my side, I snapped a few and posted the pix on the wall of NJ Discover to which a Facebook Florida stranger asked me on behalf of NJ Discover, if there was a cemetery in the back and if so, it could very well be where her mother and grandparents are buried. I didn’t know about a cemetery but something (a favorite word) made me respond, by offering if I ever return (which was doubtful) to investigate and try to find her mother’s grave stone.

Dutch Reformed Church 1856

Singer Danny White in Belmar Studio

On Thursday, I was down the Jersey shore, a few towns over from my beloved Asbury Park, in Belmar, hanging out with fast rising singer Danny White (‘A Beautiful Crazy’ cd newly released). After huge amounts of caffeine sweetened with a dark brown liquid confection, I headed to my favorite jetty in the world, including all gin joints, and meditated by the mighty Shark River (a few blocks long?). A fierce seventy degree warm wind blew virginal sand in my face as my feet rested on jetty boulders. I did see a ship heading to Kilimanjaro and the bridge over a troubled Shark River water lift to let a boat pass under.

At Belmar St. Patrick's Day Parade

my jetty in belmar at shark river

Something then directed me to that country road and that church, reasonably far out of the way. I drove to the rear and there was this old cemetery as the stranger on Facebook described. A spiritual quality was there even in the way the trees bent in the wind.  I snapped pictures but forgot the stranger’s name; when I saw that certain headstone, I knew it was her mother’s. A special good deed accomplished, I was about to make a get-away; somehow taking pictures in a reverent silent place bothered me. A man of rural authority approached. “I’m from NJ Discover TV,” I quickly stated and told the story of the woman Facebook stranger. Tom(the caretaker) asked if I’d like to learn cemetery history.

The marker of Ryers Crumal, the last Indian chief from the Sand Hill Nation, part of the historic Lenni Lenape Tribe, was inches away from my shoe, frozen in soft soil, afraid to move closer. Then Tom pointed to the far end of the cemetery where no graves were, yet one lone grave stood. James Miller, an African-American,(the only one buried there) without family or friends had died in 1901 and the church provided. “Would you like to meet Reverend Scott Brown now?”   Meeting Reverend Brown was pure magic too. Later I sent the picture of her mother’s grave to the Facebook stranger( no more)who wrote a beautiful emotional thank you message.

Cemetery

Ryers Crummal

A few weeks ago I flicked the cable box at 11 PM and landed at the beginning of a movie, ‘Prom,’ made in 2011 for the generation or two after my 26 year old son. I thought saffron light and muffled sound from a somewhat (stretching) reasonably crafted movie on TV, might supply the thrust into my REM stage of sleep but instead I watched (in a fetal position) a remarkably predictable movie to within 120 seconds of the ending. Long haired rebellious boy gets pretty girl at prom. The morning after, I sought reasons for my viewing behavior; reasons are rationalizations; as a writer and reporter I need to be in tune and be able to reach culturally and substantively younger and younger generations. However I shall never write nor will I attempt to write a children’s book nor will I seek the nomination of my party for President of the United States. Lyndon Johnson said the same thing about running for office.

This Sunday morning I saw a travel commercial for historic and beautiful Turkey; people snorkeling in azure blue water then being served a tropical drink. It was really inviting. Then starkly and harshly, I conjured up images of the movie (I am an old movie guy. Give me ‘Casablanca’ and  liberty) ‘Midnight Express,’ from 1978, about an American, Billy Hayes, imprisoned in Turkey for smuggling hashish; perhaps one of the most vivid movies I’ve ever seen and can’t seem to lose the imagery over these decades; the resilient power of movies.

James Miller 1901

Movies. Great lines. “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.” “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” Robert Duvall in ‘Apocalypse Now.’  Streams of consciousness made me think. Just throw it all on a wall. So there’s a massive asteroid that could hit Earth in 2040. I see things; people running around in togas and being fed grapes from the fingers of nubile virgins or male instructors from work-out places where endless bikes are spinning and creating a gentle breeze with self- generated electricity. An ever changing sign across the street has gas at $19.99/gallon. Scientists are keeping a close eye on a big asteroid that may pose an impact threat to Earth in a few decades. The space rock, which is called 2011 AG5, is about 460 feet (140 meters) wide. It may come close enough to Earth in 2040 that some researchers are calling for a discussion about how to deflect it.  Talk about the asteroid was on the agenda during the 49th session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), held earlier this month in Vienna. Ah ha. There’s (plug time) an interesting relevant novel ‘Vichy Water’ available on Kindle. Of course I wrote it and the name of this blog. The near-Earth asteroid 2011 AG5 currently has an impact probability of 1 in 625 for Feb. 5, 2040. And Rutgers will be playing Michigan in basketball that day. I’ll be sitting in the handicapped section but I don’t know why.

from movie SLEEPER Woody Allen 1973

Someday over the rainbow in that wonderful place called OZ, a company that makes a consumable, ingestible will come along and say their product actually does no good for the internal areas of a human being and will voluntarily withdraw their golden fleece (fleecing?) from the market. Perhaps I will be in a wheel chair in 2040 when cigarette companies cease and desist. Of course there’s Woody Allen’s movie, ‘Sleeper,’ which makes me laugh. Imagine waking up 500 years in the future, being unfrozen by a team of physicians only to realize they’re all smoking cigarettes and being told that it was finally proven it’s good for you.

caramel coloring in soda

Now take soda. With a father-in-law once in the soda business, I brushed my teeth with an endless cheap supply of it. The moment diet soda arrived; I joined and voraciously consumed even more. A notion to get into the soda manufacturing business passed after I measured the wrong amount of sugar so that a pitchfork was able to stand erect in the syrup vat. The other day Coke and Pepsi announced a reformulation of the caramel coloring additive or else use a cancer warning label. Someone authoritative said you’d have to consume 1000 cans per day to worry about cancer. Five years ago, I came to my senses and stopped all soda and switched to seltzer. By the way, folks who drink diet soft drinks on a daily basis may be at increased risk of suffering vascular events such as stroke, heart attack, and vascular death, according to a new study by the University of Miami Miller School Of Medicine and at Columbia University Medical Center.  I want 150 years, still playing tennis and no more wire hangers or soda. Did I read about a Georgia state trooper using soda to wash blood stains off a highway? Good old phosphoric acid they use as a preservative. Maybe someday soda companies can package soda as a household cleaner or solvent. I’ll pose for free as a new modern senior citizen Mr. Clean with copious amounts of brown hair.

Steve Jobs has always been a hero. Then he passed and I’m reading his biography. Not such a hero anymore. Apple is now worth $500 billion; wealthier than many countries. Sitting on the dock of my jetty the other day in Belmar, after reading how Steve Jobs completely ignored his friend Daniel Kottke, his soul mate in college, in India, and in a rental house they shared, and then Jobs absolutely cut Kottke out of any chance to make a few dollars on an Apple IPO; I was dazed and confused for a brief jetty sitting moment. Gosh, Kottke was even with Jobs when they started Apple in a garage. Jobs did give his parents $750,000 dollars; how nice. But the jetty illuminated me. Some folks get it and some don’t and never will. To be charitable and take care of those close to you is a gift. Some folks never understand it’s a gift to gift to others. I see a scene from ‘Beetlejuice,’ with folks sitting and waiting for disposition.

An Asbury Park gin joint looks like the bar in the movie 'The Shining'? Maybe.

Perhaps a similar scene somewhere over Dorothy’s rainbow; people waiting in a going coming around spinning white room with white shag carpeting; if you drop an old faded penny, it disappears. Some of our species have qualities of charity and warmth to go through life with and some don’t.  ‘Beetlejuice’ with a shrunken head scared me; another lasting visual like ‘Midnight Express.’ Some of these words are close to home and pound occasionally on left side of my cardiac chamber, causing severe compression and fake heart attack symptoms. Ah, but I’ll be in Asbury Park all throughout the week, exploring, meeting and stuffing as much of the ocean air into my lungs as I can manage. I won’t think about Jobs (Steve), or asteroids, cigarettes or soda. I’ll enjoy the moments the Jersey shore life afford, think about Dorothy and the fact there is no place like home while my Jobs Ipod plays, “Let it Be.”

HooplaHa Videos and Article LINKS to Check Out. Very Interesting!!!!

Judy Feinstein: Female Pilot:   http://www.hooplaha.com/no-rearview-mirror/

Fatherhood:  http://www.hooplaha.com/fatherhood/

Ida Gonzalez: A Mother’s Journey to Light:  http://www.hooplaha.com/a-mothers-journey-to-light/

Common Sense Approach to Common Sense:

http://www.hooplaha.com/common-sense-approach-to-common-sense/

Flexitarianism: http://www.hooplaha.com/flexitarianism/

Linda Chorney’s’ Emotional Jukebox’ Album: 

Also a very worthwhile cause to read up on:

Butterfly Circle of Friends.    http://www.butterflycircleoffriends.org

MY CONTACT INFORMATION

website:  http://vichywater.net

Facebook:  Cal Schwartz

Twitter:  Earthood

Email: earthood@gmail.com

book trailer. hey its 65 seconds long

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qj2ko9gcC_M

IMPORTANT LINKS

If on Facebook check out this NJ Discover site:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000125711074

OR   www.njdiscover.com

LINKS TO VIDEOS.  Please Watch.

1.   ZOMBIE WALK   October 22, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfFA-y115nc&feature=autoshare

2.  VETERANS DAY NJ VIETNAM MEMORIAL

Nov 11, 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYwkaa_xreg&feature=related

3.  RANDALL HAYWOOD & VICTOR JONES JAZZ CONCERT

Nov 19, 2011

Randall Haywood and Victor Jones Interview from Chico’s House of Jazz Asbury Park

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNohzH8AHvM&feature=player_embeddedr

Tiny Tim married Miss Vicki on Johnnie Carson Show in Dec. 1969

Before August Wilson and ‘Jitney’ a few streams of consciousness wandering thoughts.

A mushroom cloud over the Pine Barrens in New Jersey; of course being a visual writer, that’s what I just saw when I ceremoniously closed my eyes. Maybe the cloud was really of the impact variety when an object from deep outer space picked New Jersey as destination one. Did I just see a small child wearing an old cloth diaper that used to be home delivered by diaper service trucks, emerge from the crater? Ah, the purpose of these few lines is to set up part of this blog; that I’m in the mood to wear a hat of a rebellious sixties kind of guy on his way to Haight-Ashbury to protest protesting. But echoes of my mother’s common sense thinking to be the master of the unspoken word or a slave to the spoken word, still resonate. So I’ll use the green cryptic kryptonite this small child brought to earth to help me tip toe through the tulips. I remember when the late Tiny Tim married Miss Vicki on Johnnie Carson’s Tonight Show in December, 1969; a month after I tied my really loose knot for four years. And I just realized the commonality of Tiny Tim and me.

part of the New Jersey crowds for Seaside Heights Polar Bear Plunge.

spectators watching the polar bear plunge on the beach. temp 44 degrees

A long time ago I took a bath and watched the water swirl down the drain in counter-clockwise cyclonic fashion. I heard a swooshing sound and inserted my index finger into the center of the funnel, to see if I could alter history; the water found a way to work around the obstruction and continued evacuation. Someday if I come into a sizeable amount of disposable income, I’d like to sit on an easy chair across from a member of the analytical profession and ask probingly why I’m so haunted by the movie ‘On the Beach.’ I keep visualizing signs, ‘There’s Still Time Brother.’

So a few weeks ago a $2 billion central New Jersey business invited regional members of the media (I’m media too) to a luncheon conference to explain how they are investing the same amount of money that put a man on the moon, into changing their image to a more responsive, civic, caring company and to make their demographic want them, not run in opposite directions to competitors. I love the movie ‘Clueless.’  Whatever?  Some folks either get it or they don’t. I offered to help them with futuristic guaranteed  social media connections. They’ll never get it. Chicago deep dish pizza is good. So is the sun on my face. La De Dah. I saw a chicken crossing the road in their parking lot bedecked with orange flags. I’m a flexitarian so I eat chicken sometimes. Here’s a link to a cool story on Flexitarianism.   http://www.hooplaha.com/?p=1023

my friend the cow. i do NOT eat his relatives

After the meeting with these ridiculous executives( I use the term loosely), I thought about British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who in September, 1938 came back to England after meeting with Hitler, giving him the Sudetenland and said, “My good friends, this is the second time there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honor. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Now I recommend you go home, and sleep quietly in your beds.” And I’m stretching this segue from Neville, to a World Health Organization panel that recently endorsed the open publication of the full details of two controversial experiments with bird flu.

Neville Chamberlain circa 1938 "peace for our time"

coming out of the icy cold lite water (atlantic ocean)

The research in question produced genetically altered bird flu viruses, and critics say these germs could be dangerous for people if they ever escaped the lab. A committee that advises the U. S. government on security issues related to biological research recently said that key details should be kept under wraps, so as not to give terrorists ideas. Peace for our time. Some biological terrorist could find the information when it’s published and maybe wipe out a few hundred million people. It’s a nasty virus. The WHO panel, in contrast, held a closed-door session to consider the matter and concluded that full publication is preferable. Peace for our time has a certain eerie resonance.

the charge of the lite brigade into the ocean. Eric from NJ Discover with camera

More peace for our time: the Middle East, nuclear issues and a world community. Admittedly, I watched ‘Charlotte’s Web’ several times. Sure it’s a cartoon but I like Wilbur and his relationship with Charlotte; refreshing to find inter-species (animal-insect) communication and environmental cooperation; almost a brave new world. Heard the other day someone thought it best to get married every ten years to a different spouse because we humans change so much in every decade, it makes for better short term communicative marriages; different strokes in every decade. A few decades ago I was a pharmacist advising patients not to drink and take sedatives. Then I sold eyeglasses for multiple decades to opticians and optometrists.  Now I’m a journalist (NJ Discover TV), novelist and script writer for hooplaha.com. Ah ha. I lived the decades of change and made one marital change along the way, so I’m aboard a bit.  A study by the Pew Research Center highlights rapidly changing notions of the American family. 4 in 10 say marriage is becoming obsolete. And Fatherhood. Here’s a fun story on that institution as it pertains to the TV show, ‘The Apprentice.’ Link: http://www.hooplaha.com/?p=1127

two river theatre 67 minutes before show

downtown Red Bank 74 minutes before play. yes this is just a February nite.

Ever hear the expression about beating yourself up? Well I’ve been doing that since Thursday night February 23^rd when I saw August Wilson’s play ‘Jitney’ performed at the Two River Theater in Red Bank, N.J.  Here’s the deal. Early last week a friend, Toby, messaged me on Facebook, that because of popular demand the play ‘Jitney’ was being extended several days and that I should see it. Well I do run around incessantly, taking in all I can find these last years and Toby imparts valuable judgment. I didn’t know August Wilson or his work. I ordered tickets and have never been to theatre at Two River. Welcome to the beating up of this blog writer, a denizen of the magical state of New Jersey. How did I grow up, mature, absorb and celebrate new worlds of cerebral explorations without ever knowing the work of August Wilson? I’m so damned angry at myself.

August Wilson

On a jetty at the New Jersey shore I ponder the universe, environment, trans-humanism, singularity, spirituality, parallel universes, vortex energy, and the list goes on but I never heard of August Wilson. I’ve listened countless times to the speeches on August 28, 1963 at the March on Washington and wrote a novel about sixties urban experiences and yet I never heard of August Wilson. I aspire to be a renaissance man, dilettante and quintessential absorber of modern life so I play beer pong, do keg stands and run to the Hayden Planetarium to hear Dr. Michio Kaku or Dr.Neil Degrasse-Tyson speak but I never heard of August Wilson.

Dr Michio Kaku and me

But now I have heard and what a wondrous night my wife and I had discovering August Wilson’s work performed by an amazing ensemble cast at Two River Theatre. Where do I begin? Well. Dinner in Red Bank; I thought we were in the Dolomites in Northeastern Italy; quaint ambience and obsessive attention to food taste. The theatre experience was so unique; it began 45 minutes before curtain with ‘Before Play,’ where actor, director and Professor Darrell Willis spoke about August Wilson in the lobby. Mine eyes were opening. It’s not within the boundaries of this blog nor am I writing a term paper on August Wilson or a Times review but I felt the words of an amazing poet playwright rivet me to a seat; motionless and spellbound. (You might as well Google August Wilson and ‘Jitney’). The set design was so real, I wanted to drift on stage a few times to answer the phone. I love watching actors who are so precisely intense that their eyebrows even move in the middle of a scene when they’re not talking; they’re living the role. What a cast. How people in a 1970’s Pittsburgh car service (taxi) driver office depended, shared, learned from, and loved each other was magnificently and delicately told.  Wilson writes about the African-American experience (he wrote 10 plays covering different decades and all but one take place in Pittsburgh). So now I know, appreciate and love the words of August Wilson, and his ‘Jitney’ and Two River Theatre in Red Bank and I’ll never look back; I’m done beating myself up and thanks to Toby for being my accelerant to learning more about life.

NY Post Sports headline after Rutgers St Johns game. NCAA is silent.

about to plunge into the ocean. costume and all.

Yes, I still hate the NCAA, the body of aging, grossly over-paid inept men (Maybe a few women) who preside over college sports but no one presides over them. Back in March 2011, Rutgers men’s basketball team played St. Johns in Madison Square Garden in the Big East tournament. Big money perhaps wanted St. Johns to win so at the end of the game the three referees did everything in their power to fix the game for St. Johns. Oh sure, this sounds far-fetched but referees walking off the court with 1.7 seconds left in the game was more than enough time for Rutgers to take a winning shot and it was done on camera. The NCAA rewards egregious behavior (not making five blatant foul calls against St. Johns) by sending the referees away from New York City to continue in other tournaments. Peace for our time. People forget. And the referees continue to take Rutgers to task for protesting. In a recent game against Georgetown, referees fixed the calls so it was impossible for Rutgers to win and beat the odds. Last week at Marquette, Rutgers attempted three foul shots while Marquette took 24 foul shots; major inequity. I still hate the NCAA for allowing this. Blog archives for March and April 2011 covered the fixed St Johns game.

crowded boardwalk at polar bear plunge with a giraffe looking down amused . only in New Jersey

more boardwalk crowds to get on beach

New Jersey Mon Amour; of course I love New Jersey; lived here all my life except for two years when I served in Brooklyn; no it doesn’t mean military service, rather it’s living in Brooklyn, NY after I got married and having to get up every other morning and move my car to the other side of the street. A few days ago, with my inspiring motivational editor Tara-Jean, covering one of the most amazing events I’ve ever been at (Seaside Heights Polar Bear Plunge), we talked about the bad press New Jersey always gets. Tongue and cheek went to work. “We’re in the middle of the capital of the world, equidistant between New York City and Philadelphia, and the world is jealous,” I said.  She said the article complained that everything is so expensive here, a ridiculously high cost of living. He said (me) that New Jersey is the second richest state (per capita income, average price of a house) and the second smartest state (2^nd highest percentage of high school graduates going to college). He also said these numbers were from a couple of years ago and maybe changed a bit. After we covered this Polar Bear Plunge (for NJ Discover TV), I realized it’s the people of New Jersey that are wondrously magical and elicits the title words, “Mon Amour,” my love.

Tara-Jean with NJ Discover with a Hulk fax(simile)

Tara-Jean from NJ Discover interviewing Big Joe Henry from Jersey 101.5 FM at Seaside Heights Polar Bear Plunge

Here’s the set-up to the event. The Seaside Heights (in the epicenter of the real Jersey shore) Annual Polar Bear Plunge is dedicated to raise money for Special Olympics New Jersey and this year, 30,000 spectators came to the boardwalk to watch 6000 brave souls from all over the country (mostly Jersey) plunge into a very cold (44 degrees) Atlantic Ocean, in 44 degree air temperature with a 44 mph wind. Personally, I haven’t been in the ocean since 1975 and I blame the movie ‘Jaws’ for lighting my fearful fire (some literary license, not much)

yours truly with Polar Bear Plunge mascot courtesy of NJ State PBA

And at 1 PM, it was a sight to behold (and stand out of the way) as the 6000 headed to the ocean, mostly topless (men) or women in bikinis in February. I was so swept away by the purity of the event and the souls of New Jersey people, that I started thinking about getting a team together for next year and doing it. And Wanda Ramos (Click Crop and Create), from Matawan, a photographer extraordinaire and friend, prompted, suggested, urged we do this together next because people from New Jersey are so unique and magical. Wanda sold me well, lit the warm fires of dreams and wanting to be part of the spirit of the day. The event did raise over $1.5 million for Special Olympics. Only in New Jersey do you see these things?  Here’s the NJ Discover TV coverage of the event. And watch for Tara-Jean’s interview with Big Joe Henry from Jersey 101.5 FM radio.

NJ Discover VIDEO of Seaside Heights Polar Bear Plunge Feb 25th

It’s nearly 5 AM on Monday morning now. I love the quiet solitude of early morning pre-sunrise introspective thinking and writing. I also love writing this blog which I’ve been doing for over two years; if you all keep visiting, linking and spreading the word, I could become that half- million visitor blog man down the road. Yes down the road; I love the expression. But I worry about the roads, cyclonic expressions, and folks who preach peace in our time and forget history because those that forget are condemned to relive it.  Maturation is a wonderful thing; getting older. Celebrating discovery is also wonderful as is August Wilson. I love New Jersey and I’m going to be awful cold and wet on a Saturday afternoon next February down the road in Seaside Heights but I won’t be alone.

Linda Chorney’s’ Emotional Jukebox’ Album

Linda Chorney's Grammy Nominee Album.

Also a very worthwhile cause to read up on:

Butterfly Circle of Friends.    http://www.butterflycircleoffriends.org/

MY CONTACT INFORMATION

website:  http://vichywater.net

Facebook:  Cal Schwartz

Twitter:  Earthood

Email: earthood@gmail.com

Vichy Water   book trailer. hey its 65 seconds long

Vichy Water book trailer 65 seconds long

IMPORTANT LINKS

If on Facebook check out this NJ Discover site:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000125711074 

OR   www.njdiscover.com

ARE you in search of another blog that is also outspoken, unique BUT refreshingly, topically unbridled which means uninhibited ????  Meet   LINDA CHORNEY:

http://lindachorney.wordpress.com/

Immortality Institute (which represents advocacy and research for unlimited lifespan)

http://www.imminst.org/

LINKS TO VIDEOS.  Please Watch.

1.   ZOMBIE WALK   October 22, 2011

zombie walk

2.  VETERANS DAY NJ VIETNAM MEMORIAL

Nov 11, 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYwkaa_xreg&feature=related

3.  RANDALL HAYWOOD & VICTOR JONES JAZZ CONCERT

Nov 19, 2011

Randall Haywood and Victor Jones Interview from Chico’s House of Jazz Asbury Park

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNohzH8AHvM&feature=player_embeddedr

downtown Newark

Before jumping into this blog. Here’s a copy of a tweet I  just sent out about hooplaha.com and an article I wrote on my being a Flexitarian.   “question: got 3 min? read about it in 700 words. I am a Flexitarian   http://www.hooplaha.com/?p=1023      at hooplaha”

Strange. It seems I mentioned Newark (my hometown) no less than a dozen times Saturday. I’m always talking about Newark, the memories and the bittersweet collection of streets, two-family houses, want-to-be skyscrapers and art deco (all seemingly built in the 1930’s) schools which helped to form my notions and awareness of the universe. I know Eisenhower was president when a gang of us Newark kids from the Weequahic section sat on a twenty-step stoop, after a ferocious game of street hockey(with homemade sticks), during the summer solstice, and pondered all the stars in the sky and the spirit that put them there. Newark was my life, roots, dreams and hopes. I know that and will never forget it.

Newark. right before a street hockey game

Tara-Jean Vitale and me reporting at Seaside Heights boardwalk for NJ Discover TV

I was so proud when fellow Newarker, Whitney Houston dazzled the world with her angelic voice and music. On Saturday night, through three courses of dinner and extra wine to delay restaurant departure, I was consumed searching for more information about Whitney Houston; I was in an all too familiar state of denial and disbelief while squeezing the sides of my new IPhone 3G, as if there was a way to squeeze-out what you only wanted to see and hear.  I wanted to see her Sunday at the Grammys. I will never understand why celebrities leave us much too soon and I will truly miss her.

I briefly touched on the city of Newark; its electrons, atoms, special city water which breweries loved, detailed facades of city school buildings, crossing guards in pin neat authoritative uniforms, a park with a nine-hole golf course where I once attempted to caddy for a day, a local library that had a certain paper smell and if they could bottle it now, I’d wear the paper cologne scent proudly (just like Seinfeld’s Kramer and his sweaty beach cologne) and my last summer job there in 1967, where I clandestinely spent most of my working time on the third floor roof of an industrial bakery, a mile from Newark Airport.  I dreamed the dream of far-away places and finding myself.  Watch how fast I move now. I finished Rutgers University in Newark, got married, divorced and remarried and one day woke-up, after 12 years as a Pharmacist, as an eye-glass salesman.  Newark helped to form my dreams and sense of self.

i sold this stuff for 30 years

Grappa in case your interested. It's clear liquid.

In the eyeglass business, I soon met Henry, who helped develop my cerebral faculties and inspired a new life-long pursuit of liberty, knowledge, perfection and curiosity. Funny; Henry seemed decades older, wiser and worldlier than me; he was the latter stuff but I was actually older.  I would spend the best part of two decades marveling at Henry’s mind and reminding myself of some distant commercial, wanting to be just like Mikey or Henry.  I don’t remember the actual moment bells heralded a whole new journey to intellectual pursuits, but Henry made me want to shove as much knowledge into the deep layers of gray matter; just keep learning every day, he kept teaching; about social relationships, or Viktor Frankl and how he survived World War II or about how mission, goals, feedback, rewards and support define leadership performance, or about acquiring a taste for grappa (go Google this Italian wine but don’t necessarily start drinking it. On the other hand I think it makes a good paint remover), or about acquiring a taste for dark chocolate or opening up boutique shops to sell the confection.

a red Seaside Heights arcade open in middle of winter. Skee ball anyone?

Henry could talk football or renaissance and sell anything to anyone. Henry; if you could hear or see me now; you set me on a path because I admired and marveled your vision of the world; I’m arriving albeit slowly, but every step forward I take, where I’m at now, is a direct result of absorbing you all those years. And I thank you in a very public blog.  So now I’ve come to the fork in the road and I’m going to take it. It’s segue time. Henry molded me. Now I’m living La Dolce Vita as a journalist myself and coincidentally, Henry and I worked for an Italian company. I wonder if there wasn’t a Fellini around, somewhere in those wonderful majestic mountains in northeast Italy, a long way from Newark.

La Dolce Vita (Fellini’s masterful film) means the sweet life in Italian. The film is a story of a passive journalist’s week in Rome, and his search for both happiness and love that will never come. Generally it’s regarded as the film that signals the transition between Fellini’s earlier neo-realist films and his later artsy films, it is considered one of the great achievements in earthly movie making. So I’m a journalist now, working for NJ Discover TV and Hoopla Ha (Only Good News) and I’ve found happiness in these pursuits and after nearly 37 years, still in love with my wife so I don’t have to search like Marcello Mastroianni’s character, Marcello Rubini, for fleeting love. I’ve got it at home and all over New Jersey in my work.  But since I’m playing with concentric circles with the movie, here’s my past week or two roaming and exploring the streets of New Jersey as a journalist and loving it.

my Seaside Park friend Joanna Livingston Seagull

In no particular order except the guiding light of streams of consciousness; last week with Tara-Jean Vitale from NJ Discover TV, we discovered the glorious abandon of the Jersey shore in the depths of winter’s icy grip. Actually you’ve got to love global warming if averse to snow shovels. It hasn’t snowed in Jersey. I just knew it wouldn’t, so I never bought a snow blower because primary source of snow removal (prodigal son) moved to NYC last summer.  Tara-Jean and I explored the boardwalk at Seaside Heights. Normally (during summer) there are a hundred thousand boardwalk meanderers; last week one aging couple walked  towards an elevated giraffe with only one other human in sight; I thought I saw Alan Ladd from the movie ‘Shane;’ riding away on a horse, so I called out to him “Come back Shane, we want you.” I don’t think he heard me.  Later we found an open arcade and surrealism stroked my clean shaven face, as we walked in solitude, bathed in red.  One lone employee was’ fixing’ machines and ten vacant skee ball games beckoned.

a mother and children waiting for a season in Seaside

winter boardwalk abandon

Later the same day, under too true blue skies, we journeyed to a cemetery in Marlboro that lies across the road from Marlboro State Psychiatric Hospital which closed its doors years ago. There in a Potters field of sorts, 924 people, who died in the hospital,(from 1931 to 1960) were buried with only small metal or concrete grave markers numbered from 1 to 924. No names on the markers except for a memorial under several trees with all the names and the day they died.  I’ve been moved and haunted enough times in my modern era but not quite like this. I stared at the stillness all around and I wondered. It occurred to me that everyone buried there and myself and Tara-Jean all crossed a birth canal and took a first breath. We were all equal for a brief moment in time. What happened here to these people? No families (save for one) to erect a remembrance. How’d they die? Why did a preponderance of people die in 1942? Was there a bad employee who took advantage back then? Gosh I remember the movie ‘The Summer of ’42.’  One of my favorites of all time; perhaps the most bittersweet of them all; I was on that island during the summer of distant war, playing with Hermie, Oscy and Benjie. I still shudder when passing prophylactics in a drug store because of the movie. The druggist scared me. Back to the cemetery; I wonder about  too many things; about these human beings who were unlucky in life to have been sent to a mental hospital. I wonder.  I do.

the loneliness of a chicken in winter on a Jersey amusement park on boardwalk

more boardwalk winter abandon and an elevated giraffe

I’d travel the world over (mostly stateside). Jump on a balloon and circumnavigate. Look down from high (up). Anything to get back to future. I wondrously did that a few weeks ago on Cookman Ave. 629 Gallery (Patrick Schiavino) for The Art of The Protest Song Occupies Asbury Park to hear amazing singers: Arlan Feiles, Joe Rapolla, William L. Valenti and Frank Lombardi in concert telling the story in words and music of protest songs. Right up my alley coming out of the sixties. How would I define a’ swig of nirvana’: the attached pix.  When they sang “This land is your land” at finale. Amazing music. Amazing art. It facilitated my cerebral drifting under the nearby boardwalk and to an occupied park in NYC. Drifting means finding a dreamy state(e=mc2). I did. Yes I am living La Dolce Vita and I am a journalist.

marlboro state psychiatric hospital and a cuckoo's nest top right

On the grounds of Marlboro Psychiatric cemetery. 924 people rest.

Meanwhile back in Asbury Park (a place of ocean and musical renaissance). I attribute part of the city’s rebirth to sprinkled magical electrons and neutrons from nearby Springsteen and Bon Jovi etc.) On Facebook, I met Glenn Goss from the band Underground Junction (band member Steven Bauer played ‘Manny’ next to Pacino’s ‘Tony Montana’ in Scarface).  Glenn and I sat on an old kitchen table circa 1952 in the back room (my new private office thanks to Judy and James) of ‘Flying Saucer’s Antiques on Cookman  Avenue. Commonality of artists talking about the world and travails and realities; Glenn‘s a musician, I’m a novelist.  New soul brothers we are.  A few nights later, back in Asbury at the ‘Trinity and the Pope’ Cajun restaurant and bar for some late night jamming watching my new brother Glenn.

Art of Protest Song Finale singing "This Land is Your Land" I was back to the future again.

a tribute to Jersey music on Cookman Ave in Asbury Park

Last week I tossed my faded jeans aside, put on a white, lightly starched shirt from a bag, not a wire hanger and teamed up with my fellow writer, reporter from NJ Discover, Tara-Jean Vitale and went to interview David Goldman(at an event sponsored by the Northern Monmouth Chamber of Commerce at Sterling Gardens in Matawan) who fought an inspiring international five year battle to be reunited with his son Sean who was abducted to Brazil in 2004. Increased awareness globally to human trafficking and international kidnapping eventually led to key U.S. government officials including President Obama, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg and Congressman Christopher Smith of New Jersey to get involved with the Goldman case.

Judy F from Flying Saucer Antiques

with Glenn Goss in front of Flying Saucer Antiques

‘David Goldman recently wrote ‘A Father’s Love: One Man’s Unrelenting Battle to Bring His Abducted Son Home (Viking/Penguin) and is a co-founder of the ‘Bring Sean Home Foundation (BringSeanHome.org). I found Goldman to be warm, caring, committed and incredibly accessible. He looked at me and said, “I’m simply a father who cares.” And I loved the fact of being a not Fellini-esque journalist while also thinking about my son who just texted, reminding me that Rutgers men’s basketball is playing #2 Syracuse on Sunday. We go to many things together the past 16 years except I don’t think he saw Fellini’s film. I don’t think he even knows who Fellini is. I just realized; it’s probably my fault.

with Glenn Goss and Craig Wisdo in Asbury Park's 'Trinity and the Pope'

Glenn Goss performing 'Ballerina'

As a sub-theme to many of my blogs, living to 150 years, I’ve supplied relevant and timely tidbits of research and examples of my living habits which can bring me as an active card carrying member of  USTA(United States Tennis Association) to that lofty trans-humanist goal of longevity. I mentioned the USTA, for part of the 150 attainment is still being able to play tennis at that somewhat advanced age. That’s the essence, key and mighty asterisk for me to living long; playing tennis (albeit doubles) at that age. I love asterisks by the way. Who ever invented it, I owe a debt. Asterisks buy us whatever escape clause we need; it explains and excuses everything. Long live the asterisk.

So if you take three naps a week, you can reduce your chances of a heart attack by 40%. Neuroscientists at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have made a dramatic breakthrough in their efforts to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers’ findings show that use of a drug in mice appears to quickly reverse the pathological, cognitive and memory deficits caused by the onset of Alzheimer’s.  And here’s a neat longevity test of 13 questions (and according to my results, I’m on my way to 98):

http://media.nmfn.com/tnetwork/lifespan

Tara-Jean Vitale from NJ Discover TV and David Goldman

David Goldman's Book

Last Thursday I found out about a party for Emily Cook, celebrating her 102^nd birthday in Middletown, NJ yesterday.  Of course I went as a NON Fellini journalist, wanting to tell her she’s already 2/3 of the way to my goal of 150. She laughed when I told her my goals. And she just stopped driving a few months ago and has done nothing remarkable in the last 102 years for longevity. I did notice a curiosity. Emily lives at Regal Pointe, which is not assisted-living, nor a nursing home but a building of apartments where seniors live in an active independent environment and pay an all-inclusive rent. At her party there was a nice balance of genders (which I appreciate being masculine) and a large number of folks in their mid and upper nineties. I liked that too and wondered if the living environment contributed.

with Emily Cook, 102, yesterday at birthday party

Emily Cook's birthday party

Finally this spit, scalpers and Springsteen ticket subject:  Bruce is performing in the Jersey/New York metro area before he tours Europe. Don’t ask how hard it was to get tickets because he’s playing in only 20,000 seat venues not 80,000 capacity stadiums. Ticketmaster sells the tickets. It’s impossible to get. You wait forever and the on-line prompt tells you 15 minutes; that was weeks ago. But I hate spit in my face and in all our faces. It’s the same as Wall Street spit. And Bankers spit. Moments after the tickets were sold-out, the scalpers and high priced ticket selling folks go on line and start selling Springsteen tickets for enormous profits over face.  Everybody yells facial spit. A NJ Congressman threatens. And even Ticketmaster says they will look into the spit still moist on the public’s faces.  The spit has dried leaving an apathetic faint forgotten apparition stain. The Kyoto protocol goes unsigned. The Giants won the Super Bowl. I can barely remember who won last year. The referees who obviously fixed the Rutgers-St. Johns basketball game last March go on rewarded and everybody has forgotten the spit. And all the concerts to come will be scalped and Ticketmaster will go on having nice days. Someone will invent a nice antibacterial cloth to wipe the dried spit; maybe a congressman moonlighting.

This was a special few weeks; especially meeting Emily Cook yesterday; her ebullient smiling face and then asking me if she should sit on my lap for the photo-op. She meant it. Then the best: we were talking about origins. She’s from Newark and so am I and so was Whitney Houston.  I told Emily that I’d be back next year for her 103^rd birthday party.  We shook hands and she squeezed my hands tightly. We smiled at each other and knew I’d be back. But I was Fellini sad walking out through the main entrance because I remembered Whitney Houston won’t.

Bruce Springsteen at Light of Day concert in Asbury Park in January.

A great article about Linda Chorney from her blog:

http://lindachorney.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/thanks-n-j-discover-a-blog-of-blogs-and-some-babbling/

Linda Chorney’s’ Emotional Jukebox’ Album

Also a very worthwhile cause to read up on:

Butterfly Circle of Friends.    http://www.butterflycircleoffriends.org/

MY CONTACT INFORMATION

website:  http://vichywater.net

Facebook:  Cal Schwartz

Twitter:  Earthood

Email: earthood@gmail.com

book trailer. hey its 65 seconds long

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qj2ko9gcC_M

IMPORTANT LINKS

If on Facebook check out this NJ Discover site:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000125711074

OR   www.njdiscover.com 

ARE you in search of another blog that is also outspoken, unique BUT refreshingly, topically unbridled which means uninhibited ????  Meet   LINDA CHORNEY:

http://lindachorney.wordpress.com/

Immortality Institute (which represents advocacy and research for unlimited lifespan)

http://www.imminst.org/

LINKS TO VIDEOS.  Please Watch.

1.   ZOMBIE WALK   October 22, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfFA-y115nc&feature=autoshare

2.  VETERANS DAY NJ VIETNAM MEMORIAL

Nov 11, 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYwkaa_xreg&feature=related

3.  RANDALL HAYWOOD & VICTOR JONES JAZZ CONCERT

Nov 19, 2011

Randall Haywood and Victor Jones Interview from Chico’s House of Jazz Asbury Park

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNohzH8AHvM&feature=player_embeddedr

I like to jump in right away to things near, dear and relevant like today’s mentioning Rutgers University but before delving, here’s a bit of a blog subject explanation.

Recently I became a contributing writer for Only Good News/ Hoopla Ha, an amazing website now in beta test, and launching next week. Here’s their mantra:  “Think…Relate…Smile…That’s what we’re all about. Visit us daily for an instant dose of happy, feel good inspiration. Make every day… a Hoopla Ha Day!” Here’s the link to the beta test: http://beta.hooplaha.com/.  And thanks to Hoopla Ha for allowing me to post my article on my blog; they paid for it.

Marx Brothers. soup or something like that.

From Meatballs. It just doesn't matter. A nice mantra.

As my world continues to evolve into more journalistic pursuits with NJ Discover TV and with Hoopla Ha, I still need to inject my blog at vichywater.net with effusive and topical material; this article is perfect. Blog wise, I was torn between this article and drifting into the world of football, college and super and taking it into my streams of consciousness, depositing it in a fictional country similar to what the Marx Brothers elaborated. So maybe next week; I’ve even got a name already for the University where academics battle athletics in the fields of dreams with cannons and bow and arrows and recriminations. I have reliably computed that in the past two weeks, 67% of all local programming in New York and New Jersey has concentrated on the Super Bowl not a possible war in April in the Mid-East. I suppose leave the stock market alone at a three year high.  I want to scream if I hear about one more Super Bowl recipe for slider hamburgers with toppings from an obscure town near the Arctic Circle. “It just doesn’t matter,” I want to yell as Bill Murray did in Meatballs. I don’t eat red meat; you should all know that by now. America has an obesity epidemic. This 67%  is mostly about food intake.  So I’ll close now with a loud resounding cheer, “Go New Jersey Giants, Beat New England and Go Rutgers, with a top 25 recruiting class coming in September.”  Now my article:

Father and son at Rutgers football stadium pre game warm up

Muhammad Ali knocks out Sonny Liston in 1964. I was 3 minutes late and missed it.

Fatherhood: A Journey to ‘The Apprentice’

Since fatherhood caught up to me when I turned 40, a few abstract thoughts came to mind like being forever young, living to 150 years; basically notions of finding ways to keep up with my son as he gets older (maybe I won’t). When he was ten years old (16 years ago), I took him to his first college football game at Rutgers to do some father-son bonding. The following year we got season tickets for all the major sports at Rutgers and we’re still going strong. Of course there is more to the institution of fatherhood for me. I’ve been working hard at it for reasons like the essence of this article.

college beer pong. i have long arms. helps my play.

a keg stand. that's me in mid air. another college thing to do.

Six years ago my son was a college sophomore; living in the dorm and had just become a member of a fraternity (the same one I joined a few weeks after Muhammad Ali defeated Sonny Liston to win boxing’s Heavyweight Championship in 1964).  One Wednesday, my son called and asked what I was doing Saturday night and if I wasn’t busy, I should come down to the fraternity  house and hang with him and the guys. There was no hesitation. “What time? Should I come straight to the frat house?” I instantaneously knew what my son’s invitation meant to me and our relationship since the day he was born. I also thought about meeting real life movie ‘Animal House’ characters and I did. Third floor beer pong was going on when I arrived. My son and I teamed-up but I managed not to drink beer; visions of my making the cover of Time or Newsweek danced in my head as being a father who endorsed under-age college drinking; there’s something positive about partial conservatism and vibrant visuals.

Randall Pinkett who won The Apprentice (an undergrad at Rutgers) and Mr. Trump(do I have to call him that if I didn't get picked?)

Cut to a few months later. Rutgers University, Donald Trump (‘The Apprentice’) Randall Pinkett, who actually won ‘The Apprentice’ and was an undergraduate at Rutgers, endorsed a program reaching out to the Rutgers community to get them involved in the audition process for an upcoming season of ‘The Apprentice.’ Normally laborious long lines of waiting to audition were waived for a select group of Rutgers people. Without hesitation, even at 60 years old and far removed from only 20 and 30 somethings, I became one of the 125 people who auditioned on Rutgers College Avenue campus student center. Prior to sitting with Randall Pinkett and telling him why I’d make a great contestant (I could probably beat every one of the contestants in singles tennis or around the world basketball), I filled out forms and wrote five essays. One essay asked “What is Your Most Impressive Work or School Achievement.” Without hesitation, I wrote about my son calling and asking me to come down to the frat house and hang out. This was my most impressive achievement. In a public discourse like I’m doing right now, I’d venture to say no one from the world of ‘The Apprentice’ had any idea what I was talking about.

But I know that I’ve prioritized life, put my son and our relationship where it should be, ahead of any class of business pursuit; so when he grows up to be a young beer pong playing fraternity guy, he’d be comfortable and secure enough with me and our relationship to want me to hang out with him and his frat brothers; indeed my most impressive accomplishment and achievement. I figured that no one at ‘The Apprentice’ would understand or appreciate the depth of my essay answer and it would probably wind-up on the cutting room floor.

As they say on Broadway, I’m still waiting for the call back. Funny thing; I had a connection that could’ve placed my application and essays on Donald’s desk. However, this particular edition of ‘The Apprentice’ was shot in Los Angles for the summer (taking me away from my beloved New Jersey) and if you lost that week’s segment, the on screen television punishment was sleeping in a tent. I did that once my freshman year and woke up with a frog in my sleeping bag. I resolved no more tents in my life so I declined to have my application appear on Donald Trump’s desk. I hope that didn’t show my age.

******************************

One Important note. Here’s a wonderful music video to listen/watch on You Tube featuring Linda Chorney, right from here in New Jersey, Grammy nominated for Best Americana Album.

Linda Chorney music video

Also a great article about Linda Chorney from her blog:

http://lindachorney.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/thanks-n-j-discover-a-blog-of-blogs-and-some-babbling/

Linda Chorney

Also a very worthwhile cause to read up on:

Butterfly Circle of Friends.    http://www.butterflycircleoffriends.org/

MY CONTACT INFORMATION

website:  http://vichywater.net

Facebook:  Cal Schwartz

Twitter:  Earthood

Email: earthood@gmail.com

book trailer. hey its 65 seconds long

Vichy Water book trailer 65 seconds long 

IMPORTANT LINKS

If on Facebook check out this NJ Discover site:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000125711074

OR   www.njdiscover.com  

ARE you in search of another blog that is also outspoken, unique BUT refreshingly, topically unbridled which means uninhibited ????  Meet   LINDA CHORNEY:

http://lindachorney.wordpress.com/

Immortality Institute (which represents advocacy and research for unlimited lifespan)

http://www.imminst.org/

LINKS TO VIDEOS.  Please Watch.

1.   ZOMBIE WALK   October 22, 2011

zombie walk

2.  VETERANS DAY NJ VIETNAM MEMORIAL

Nov 11, 2011

Veterans Day at NJ Vietnam War Memorial

3.  RANDALL HAYWOOD & VICTOR JONES JAZZ CONCERT

Nov 19, 2011

Randall Haywood and Victor Jones Interview from Chico’s House of Jazz Asbury Park

Randall Haywood and Victor Jones Interview from Chico’s House of Jazz Asbury Park

Linda Chorney’s Album

With Linda Chorney during a NJ Discover TV shoot.

Before we talk about the paucity of Jersey winter snow, here are a few words about Linda. Life is a bowl of cherries as my friend, Linda Chorney sings on her Grammy nominated album “Emotional Jukebox.” I said goodbye to her the other day as she headed west to warmer climate and proximity to Los Angeles for the February 12^th Grammy show. Being a tease sometimes, I did mention that the temperature in New Jersey from the day she left hit 85 degrees. I tongue and cheek the institution of global warming, which is real and might make me a millionaire one day. The millionaire deal; if I live well inland, and the waters of the Atlantic Ocean rise because of melting glaciers and ice formations, then one day, but only for a short period of time, according to the Army Corp of Engineers, whom I play scrabble with on line, I’ll have beach front property. One of the corpsmen told me the beach front property deal might only last one season and to sell quickly then run to Western Pennsylvania.

from the movie 'Mommie Dearest' Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford is yelling "no more wire hangers"

speaking of wire hangers. i took this pix 2 weeks ago in downtown Brooklyn USA

Because a few Facebook groups are concerned with meteorology (many of the groupies are known in some parlances as snow weenies; those folks who live for blizzards and paralyzing snows and read a plethora of futuristic computer reports and charts like North Atlantic oscillation) I’ve decided that New Jersey will not have any snow this winter so I don’t have to buy a snow blower (my source of snow removal moved into his own NYC apartment last June). Passing mid-January the other day, and no sign of significant snow well into February (the weenies are depressed and are already looking at long range forecasts for next December. Well some of them. Others have just given up and are hanging out in Reddit) I’ve been gloating on my decision not to buy a snow blower. My next door neighbor, Charlie Brown, agrees with my wisdom.

Joan Crawford. She doesn't look like she hated wire hangers. Go figure.

Yesterday, ceremoniously I ran around the house in shorts and a red Rutgers tee-shirt yelling, “No wire hangers and no more winter snow.” My tolerant wife of many moons thought I was crazy after all these years. I call it unbridled enthusiasm. Oh the ‘no wire hangers;’ it comes from the movie ‘Mommie Dearest’ when actress and Pepsi stockholder Joan Crawford, a very bad lady, yells those words constantly to her abused little daughter, Christina, who later wrote the mother of all tell-all books about her mother.

So I never watched ER the TV show. Actually I never really watch much television; a lot of underlying reasons for such behavior. Give me liberty, some news, biography, discovery, college sports, history and old movies and I’m OK you’re OK.

J. R. Ewing. Can you believe I bought a hat like that in suburban Jersey

Years ago CBS  TV produced ‘Dallas’ starring Larry Hagman, glamourizing oil rich Texans. One season the story line went off a tangent and CBS resolved that by coming back and scripting the whole year as a dream; an easy way to get out of a bad original script, except viewers like me, who actually wore a J. R. Ewing cowboy hat around the streets of suburban Jersey, wasted a viewing year. No wire hangers and no more insipid television. My wife watched ER.

a generic ER pix

they say hospital food is a turn off.

So this wife comes home from work last week with a sore throat and high fever. A higher fever the following morning means emergency room. I love the word triage; makes me think of ménage. I’ve got 6 years of pharmacy studies under my skin so I know things.  We’ve got vitals and a pulse off the chart and with an abnormally high fever and sore throat, probably a strep throat; an untoward bug for a lady adult to have. I would’ve rushed blood tests to make sure it was strep and get her on IV antibiotics, start cardiac drugs to slow the heart (pulse), throw in a blood thinner(anti-pyretic for the fever) because atrial fibrillation. But hours go by, nothing happens and ineptitude is in the air ducts and heating system. And that poor downtrodden weary patient rep in a suit too short, exposing faded argyle socks; he avoided additional contact with this husband who had all kinds of acquaintances and threats to run to yet another suburban hospital for appropriate care.

On the other side of midnight and a curtain separating ER beds is an aged European lady, barely able to speak English. She’s alone and rang for the nurse for an hour, calling out for help in broken guttural sounds but no help comes because life is for the living and she has no one to be an advocate; there’s neglect, uncaring and microbes all over this sad excuse for an ER. The old woman even called in desperation to a custodian with mop. Then it hit me. She was Father Damien Karras’s mother from the movie ‘The Exorcist.’ A cold wind blew on my face; chills ran up and down my extremities. I could hear her calling for ‘Dimmy,’ a term of endearment for her son.  Out of gripping fear of Mrs. Karras, and being possessed, I started walking to the nurse station to help her when finally a nurse approached with an extra blanket; the poor woman was cold; it’s the winter of my discontent with Emergency Room care in suburban New Jersey. One of my favorite movies was ‘The Hospital’ starring George C. Scott. Had I slipped through that wormhole, time stuck in celluloid? For three days I drifted into medieval times of plagues and famine. They sucked her blood three times a day for every kind of test; I later learned some of those tests were wasted days and nights; just good for the paper chase of reporting to the insurance company to pump a bill up and secure profits for the hospital. I know that.  What a business for someone to check and cross check hospital tests with what’s billed and what’s actually done or the best yet, needed.  I surmise major crimes of deceit. It’s all in the game as Tommy Edwards sang. Get thee to a nunnery but stay the hell away from suburban Jersey ER rooms.

You Tube Tommy Edwards “It’s All in the Game”

the joy of honest college sports as Rutgers fans rush court after upsetting #10 Florida. No cheating refs)

(the sports cover of the NY Post the day after refs fixed the St John’s game)

If you are so moved or curious, you can go back and look at my blogs from March 11^th 2011 and April 23^rd 2011 when I began hating the NCAA (watchdog of college sports). It all began last March when Rutgers Men’s basketball team played St. John’s in Madison Square Garden’s Big East Tournament. All the big money wanted St. John’s to win and play Syracuse the next day. Near the end of the game, Rutgers (a huge underdog) was about to upset St. John’s and cause a lot of bettors to lose ( I wouldn’t be surprised if one of those losers was the head of the Big East Conference.) So the three referees (under the eyes of the NCAA) did everything they could to help St. John’s by not calling five egregious fouls on them which would’ve put Rutgers on the foul line and then in front of the world and the announcers (and me) walked off the court with nearly two seconds left which was enough time for Rutgers to make a three point shot and win.

(more college sports joy; with the Pinstripe Bowl trophy before Rutgers wins it the next day)

Unheard of in college sports but imagine the pay day these referees got for fixing the game and all the money gamblers made. The NCAA loosely comments on the game and moves the three crooked referees out of Madison Square Garden for the remainder of the tournament. Personally, I hate the NCAA because no one oversees them; a neat monopoly. Some of NCAA executives make $300,000 a year plus for more than 30 years. They spit in the eye and there’s still silence across the land. I bring this up because one of the referees from the St. John’s game (Jim Burr) officiated at Rutgers versus West Virginia last week. Rutgers somehow got seven fouls called against them early in the game and West Virginia had none against them. I listened to the announcers when a West Virginia player threw a vicious elbow at a Rutgers player, enough for a flagrant foul, but nothing was called against West Virginia and Jim Burr was there and the NCAA is a vile crooked organization. Now I need a bowl of oatmeal sprinkled with raisins from sunny California.

I champion the absurdities of life. The American Red Cross President and CEO Marsha J. Evans salary for the year was $651,957 plus expenses and we all donate to them. I’m also a bit of cynic. The hype is beginning for the end of the world next December. I expect the hype to pick up and become intense by summer, somehow coordinated with the political landscape. Enough people start to buy into the hype, become fatalists and start living for each day by spending large amounts of money on seven-layer cakes, new zoot suits, a weekend in Dubai, a new car, a few packs of cigarettes and six month subscriptions to periodicals.

(the 3 complicit refs and head of big east who obviously ‘adjusted game outcome’ and NCAA looks the other way)

The effect becomes measurable across the land.  Consumer spending increases and factory orders are up and unemployment drops. Economy is booming by the time kids knock on your door and ask for ‘Trick or Treat.” A lady on the street where I grew up in Newark preferred to give us a trick with a deck of cards. She had a heavy Fidel Castro accent and disappeared one day and not until now, being a fully matured cynic, do I wonder what happened to her. And I’m suddenly inspired to close off this blog by saying what Walter Cronkite used to say and he was the most trusted man in America, “And that’s the way it is”  How’s that for a blog ending?

Walter Cronkite

(Seven layer cake sales to soar staring in summer?)

Two friends get published and go to basketball games.

One Important note. Here’s a wonderful music video to listen/watch on You Tube featuring Linda Chorney, right from here in New Jersey, Grammy nominated for Best Americana Album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=F3XLPk_9juo

Also a great article about Linda Chorney in Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120120/us-music-grammywatch-chorney/

Also a very worthwhile cause to read up on:

Butterfly Circle of Friends.    http://www.butterflycircleoffriends.org/

CONTACT INFORMATION

website:  http://vichywater.net

Facebook:  Cal Schwartz

Twitter:  Earthood

Email: earthood@gmail.com

book trailer. hey its 65 seconds long

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qj2ko9gcC_M

IMPORTANT LINKS

If on Facebook check out this NJ Discover site:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000125711074

OR   www.njdiscover.com   

ARE you in search of another blog that is also outspoken, unique BUT refreshingly, topically unbridled which means uninhibited ????  Meet   LINDA CHORNEY:

http://lindachorney.wordpress.com/

Immortality Institute (which represents advocacy and research for unlimited lifespan)

http://www.imminst.org/

LINKS TO VIDEOS.  Please Watch.

1.   ZOMBIE WALK   October 22, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfFA-y115nc&feature=autoshare

2.  VETERANS DAY NJ VIETNAM MEMORIAL

Nov 11, 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYwkaa_xreg&feature=related

3.  RANDALL HAYWOOD & JAZZ CONCERT

Nov 19, 2011

Randall Haywood and Victor Jones Interview from Chico’s House of Jazz Asbury Park

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNohzH8AHvM&feature=player_embedded

Linda Chorney’s Album

Before I jump into my Rutgers sweatshirt and hat, as I need to get in the mood for blogging on this cold, partly cloudy Friday morning, I found ‘Dangling Conversation’ by Simon and Garfunkel on You Tube. Here’s the link. Go listen.

Dangling Conversation You Tube

About the time Jimmy Hendrix (Rolling Stone just wrote that he is the number one guitarist of all time) changed his name to Jimi back in September 1966, I heard ‘Dangling’ for the first time. It was a bit haunting; I thought they were singing about me. I had a girlfriend and our relationship was disintegrating and I was taking a strange course in college. I kept looking in the mirror.

“Yes, we speak of things that matter,

With words that must be said,

Can analysis be worthwhile?

Is the theater really dead?”

Jimi Hendrix

Pharmaceutical Analysis at Rutgers Pharmacy School was the hardest course I ever took; the labs were five hours long; we saw day drift to darkness in every lab. And the lyrics speak about “can analysis be worthwhile?”  Of course they were singing about the kind of analysis (not Pharmaceutical Analysis) you do while inclined on a sofa with a metronome spitting out your $100/ hour charge. I never did sofa analysis and flunked the course but aced the lab so I just had to take the lecture portion over again. Perhaps when you all finish this blog installment, some might support the notion of my investigating some form of analysis. Well, I’m not inclined to do so. But the song transports me back to studying chemical pursuits in my battleship grey small bedroom in Maplewood, New Jersey, cigarette smoke wafting from an overflowing ashtray( I had the notion that nicotine kept you awake and I was studying Pharmacy/Pharmacology) and hearing nightly TV sounds of Vietnam War casualties drifting upstairs from the den. So this is the mood as my fingers now depress keys and birth these words.

tuna? dumplings. i wish

Miss Crabtree. My favorite never had teacher from Little Rascals

And the blog title; ‘Dumplings with Tuna Salad Filler.’ Well it’s nothing more than streams of consciousness bordering on my favorite pastime; dwelling on absurdities of modern life. I used to eat tuna salad four times a week; now a couple of times per month. I hate mercury sloshing around my colon and getting absorbed. By the way zinc and calcium (600mg) supplements are good for the old colon (24% reduction in colon cancer? Perhaps). Atlantic Blue Fin tuna are almost extinct. Japan loves raw tuna for sushi so they keep over fishing. On New Year’s Eve my gang ordered dumplings in the small neighborhood Chinese restaurant we frequent. I passed on the doughy confection; it’s stuffed with meat and I stopped eating red meat in 1975. Truth is told; my stopping red meat back then was because of a six foot tall (I’m 6’ 5 ½”) blonde blue-eyed girl from Short Hills. Two dates and I moved on to less imposing un-chilly granite statues but stayed true to all the tenets of not eating red meat. However, guess what. I’ve been a flexitarian all these years. Flexitarianism means that you are an omnivore who predominantly eats a plant based diet but also eats animal meat occasionally. That’s me, Miss Crabtree. I do eat some chicken and turkey just no red meat.

President Calvin Coolidge. Was I really named after him? But I'm not silent

walking uptown to Yankee Stadium on Dec 30th It's crowded.

The entire world is fossil fuels driven. I look at the Republican presidential campaign and lackluster candidates; one calling the other an outright liar liar; one having affairs and leaving a wife  because she was sick; one trying to do away with contraception. Where is Calvin Coolidge II when you need him? (They say history is treating my namesake, Calvin Coolidge in a much better light. Maybe he wasn’t that silent after all)  Back when I was studying Pharmaceutical Analysis, an acquaintance got his girlfriend pregnant and he had to get her one of those back alley illegal abortions and she almost died. I love all the promises, promises to change America and the world as part of the political ‘both sides of the aisle’ rhetoric. No one is changing the accelerating world; it’s just not going to happen; makes me want to go to Louis’ in the Bronx for the best veal in the city. But I don’t eat veal. What am I to do? Maybe go to Sarajevo for a long weekend. I know this great deli there; yes, they make this neat tuna fish salad with chopped up jalapenos and red peppers.

See if you can guess what I am now?

Now remember I’m just firing away here. A scene comes to mind from ‘Animal House’ when John Belushi (Bluto) stuffs his face with a hardboiled egg and dark green jello and asks Faber college cafeteria table sitters, “See if you can guess what I am now.” Get it? The climate is so messed up. Global warning warming is so real. I wonder when people board an airplane and sense something but never get off the plane because there’s nothing you can do about it. Fossil fuels are a great earth epitaph; so is its merchandising corporate world. Politicians know there is nothing you can do anymore. So they all jump in bed with the big guys, get elected, make a few speeches and juggle a few congressional cosmetic bills. Make the patient comfortable in hospice or assisted living. I wonder who wrote the book of love and if all prisoners in our over-crowded jails are going to be released as a humanitarian gesture a few weeks before Thanksgiving. I call the world’s inability to agree on the Kyoto Protocol the new ‘Tower of Babble.’ Ah fossil fuels. Canada walked away from the Kyoto Protocol because of all their oil which is stuck in tar sands. You need a lot of resources, water and pipe lines to work it right. Canada may have more oil than Saudi Arabia (I’m whispering by the way).

And I loved the movie ‘Gasland.’ 3,500,000 gallons of water are used/wasted for each well. And the people around the wells are getting sick just like in the movie ‘Erin Brockovich.’ Speaking of water; I have another acquaintance who said that a friend of his, who used to be a chief executive of a major oil company, told him not to worry about oil; there’s plenty of it, but worry about water instead. China’s largest freshwater lake has shrunk to its smallest size in years due to drought, state media and officials said just yesterday, endangering the ecology in the area and fishermen’s livelihoods.

with a tips bag of all things

Pennsylvania has come under fire lately as pollution from drilling in the Marcellus Shale threatens water resources across the state. But instead of ratcheting up oversight, Gov. Tom Corbett wants to hand authority over some of the state’s most critical environmental decisions to C. Alan Walker, a Pennsylvania energy executive with his own track record of running up against the state’s environmental regulations; more big business and fossil fuels again writing our epitaph. Nobody really cares. It’s the greatest addiction; fossil fuels. But the world seems more concerned about Kim Kardashian’s wedding and whether it was a fake. It was the top question asked in 2011 at Ask.com. It’s all accelerating. Moore’s Law describes how computer chips double in performance every 18 months. That’s accelerating too. We’re running out of time and space; perhaps they might have to get to the atomic level (electrons) to continue accelerating chips but electrons are too unreliable just like tuna salad with unwashed jalapenos.

in front of Macy's window on 34th street December 30th

son and me under final time clock

At 3AM Thursday morning, I heard from a Facebook friend that I should consider going to Montevideo, Uruguay.  He lives in Iowa. I’ll think about it in syncopated time which is accelerating. I apologized to my almost 26 year old son for the last time a few months ago. I can’t stop eating chocolate and we can’t stop environmental degradation and hatred. Darfur is what I think about subliminally in my blogs. Go back in time and look. Back last May, my psychic friend Ruth from Seattle called and warned me about New Jersey feeling an earthquake. Of course I laughed and responded with what my generation x y z son has been saying to me all these years, “Yeah, right.” So on my birthday, August 23^rd 2011, the earth moved here in New Jersey and I still hate corporations peddling fossil fuels and allied products. All earth bound politicians have given up the good fight. I think it’s time for me to watch ‘Casablanca’ tonight. Over Christmas, I watched ‘A Christmas Carol’ three times. There’s nothing quite like Scrooge (Alastair Sim) waking up Christmas morning reborn and overjoyed on how he can help Tiny Tim and his family. Finally, I’ve found the age old answer to “blood is thicker than water.” It isn’t. And next Christmas Eve, I know where I’ll be. And a final thanks to Hugh Everett and his 1954 Princeton PhD dissertation on parallel universes.

a character with tips bag. you know who it is.

ah. planet tralfamadore. no i-phones there?

I love college sports. I remember the old Ballantine Beer commercial logo, “purity, body, and flavor.”  I’ve (umbilical) attached to my alma mater, Rutgers University and their sports programs. So living the loco life, I find myself on campus 70 times between September and May for all gender’s sports (sounds like more than two genders available. Perhaps on Planet Tralfamadore there are more than two. I was told yesterday by another Facebook friend there are no I-Phones on that planet. I wonder why.) In Steve Jobs bio, I read about developing powers of intuition. Jobs haunts me for a lot of reasons; for one, with billions of dollars in his piggy bank, he still couldn’t buy more time or health.

Bill Raftery from ESPN interviewing Rutgers coach Mike Rice with high scorer Eli Carter looking on after Florida win in double overtime.

And what will corporations or rich relatives or the objects of Occupy do in future time?  Back to college sports; on December 29^th Rutgers Men’s Basketball team played #10 ranked Florida here in New Jersey. I was there, four rows up from the floor when Rutgers defeated Florida in double overtime. I waited until the students rushed the court to celebrate first, then I ran out; perhaps the rushing is a better blood thinner than Plavix or aspirin.

me with relaxed Rutgers assistant coach David Cox

i rushed the court after the upset win by Rutgers. a blood thinner?

The next day, I was in Manhattan for the Pinstripe Bowl (Rutgers versus Iowa State) at Yankee Stadium. I walked from 33^rd Street where several thousand Rutgers loyalists gathered at Legends bar for tailgating (me too); then slowly uptown, absorbing New York City on Christmas week. It was bumper to bumper people and quintessentially magically electric. I was on 34^th Street, where a movie miracle occurred with little Natalie Wood (they’ve re-opened her death inquiry. How strange) standing in front of Macy’s holiday window. That’s worth a pinch on the left arm. A few blocks away, I saw Sponge Bob, Pooh and the Grinch, live and in colorful costume posing for pictures, each with a bag for tips. A women with child from out of town asked “who are they posing for?” I said, “This is New York City. It’s for themselves.” She laughed. I made an out-of-towner laugh. Rutgers easily defeated Iowa State, who was the only team to defeat Oklahoma State, who probably will finish #2 in the country.  So what happens to Rutgers rankings?

Rutgers tailgate at Legends before Pinstripe Bowl

Pre-game coin toss at Pinstripe Bowl

On the subway down to Grand Central Station after the game, I was packed tightly next to a couple from Iowa. It was their first trip ever to New York City and it was delightful talking to them. I love that bridging of New York subways of Madison Avenue county stuff. Finally, I described New York City to them my way. If the world pooled all the concrete, steel and glass together, found an island somewhere warmer and higher up from the coast and decided to build a bigger and better duplicate of New York, they couldn’t. Simply, there is nothing like this city anywhere in the universe and non-duplicitous. They agreed and were wonderfully congenial and warm. I thought to myself, welcome to mid-America ideals and values. They loved St. Patrick’s Cathedral. So do I. We shook hands as the subway doors opened and wished each other a happy healthy New Year. I whispered the plural, New Years. And that’s what I’m wishing you all right now. Plural.

a personalized New Years Greeting card. Remember my quest to live to 150 years

One Important note. Here’s a wonderful music video to listen/watch on You Tube featuring Linda Chorney, right from here in New Jersey, Grammy nominated for Best Americana Album.

Linda Chorney music video “Cherries”

(Linda Chorney and me with the largest collection of R magnets in central jersey during a NJ Discover TV shoot)

CONTACT INFORMATION

website:  http://vichywater.net/

Facebook:  Cal Schwartz

Twitter:  Earthood

Email: earthood@gmail.com

book trailer. hey its 65 seconds long

Vichy Water book trailer 65 seconds long

IMPORTANT LINKS

If on Facebook check out this NJ Discover site:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000125711074

OR   www.njdiscover.com    

ARE you in search of another blog that is also outspoken, unique BUT refreshingly, topically unbridled which means uninhibited ????  Meet   LINDA CHORNEY:

 http://lindachorney.wordpress.com/

Immortality Institute (which represents advocacy and research for unlimited lifespan)

http://www.imminst.org/

LINKS TO VIDEOS.  Please Watch.

1.   ZOMBIE WALK   October 22, 2011

zombie walk

2.  VETERANS DAY NJ VIETNAM MEMORIAL

Nov 11, 2011

Veterans Day at NJ Vietnam War Memorial

3.  RANDALL HAYWOOD & JAZZ CONCERT

Nov 19, 2011

Randall Haywood and Victor Jones Interview from Chico’s House of Jazz Asbury Park

Linda Chorney’s Album has been nominated for Best Americana Album Grammy!!!!!