Ocean Grove, Lake Avenue. September 30, 2016. By Paul Goldfinger © This image was inspired by Paul Strand’s 1916 photo “The White Fence.”
DINAH WASHINGTON: “Though spring is here, to me it’s still September…in the rain.”
Posted in Photograph by Paul Goldfinger, Photographic Gallery, Black and White, Photographic Gallery: Ocean Grove | Tagged September in the rain | Leave a Comment »
DEA agents prepare to raid a fentanyl lab in New Jersey. DEA photo, special to Blogfinger. © 2017
Blogfinger.net:
From the Asbury Park Press:
“The raids in Toms River, South Toms River and Berkeley took place in December, led by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Monmouth-Ocean High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force.”
Since 2012, 700 people died of drug overdoes in Monmouth and Ocean Counties . Heroin from Mexico (mostly via the Sinaloa cartel) was involved in most of those deaths, often mixed with other drugs such as fentanyl. Most of the latter is synthesized in Mexico, but some of it is pharmaceutical grade originating in the US. Fentanyl is extremely toxic, even in tiny doses. It was originally developed as an anesthetic agent for medical use.
In 2016, 64,000 individuals died of drug overdoses in the US.
Most of the recent arrests (Dec, Jan and Feb) in Monmouth and Ocean Counties were of both men and women. Heroin, powdered cocaine, crack cocaine, fentanyl, and cash were recovered. These arrests will usually lead to stiff Federal charges. 2 of those arrested were found to be members of the Sinaloa cartel.
The DEA Monmouth/Ocean office was set up by the regional office in Newark last year in response to the unusually high rates of drug deaths at the Shore. It is unclear as to why the overdose deaths here have been higher than in most counties in NJ. Typically Ocean County ranks 3rd in the State, while Monmouth is 5th.
Years ago there were drug dealers active in Ocean Grove. Long time Grovers can relate some stories about that. Note that marijuana remains a problem, but the cartel and distribution connections for fatal, powerful drugs remain the main focus of the DEA who work alongside local and state police agencies, including Neptune Township and the State Police.
Posted in Blogfinger Presents | Tagged DEWA in Monmouth Ocean counties | 3 Comments »
Tisch School of the Arts. Greenwich Village, NYC. Paul Goldfinger photo.
BOBBY DARIN
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In front of St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery on East 10th Street. NYC Street Series. 2014. By Paul Goldfinger. Silver gelatin print. Click image once for larger view.
By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor, Blogfinger.net
A quiet Sunday morning in the East Village. In front of a church, it seems odd to see a lion. The lion looks towards the church and is contemplative. He carries a shield befitting his role as king of the beasts.
But in contrast to that, he stands quietly mute, as if on guard against any evil that might appear in his small peaceful territory with his subjects, the pigeons, at his feet.
He wants to be the protector of anyone who might feel lonely and who would sit on those benches. You get the feeling that he would roar if it became necessary.
Denise Van Outen : “Tell Me on a Sunday” It’s a sad New York story.
Posted in Music from the movies, Photos: New York City street series | Tagged Music from the Deer Hunter, NYC, Photo: East Village | 1 Comment »
Normal heart rhythm suddenly deteriorates into ventricular fibrillation. Internet ECG
By Paul Goldfinger, MD, FACC. Editor, Blogfinger.net.
I was covering the all-night shift in the ER at LaGuardia Hospital in Queens. As a cardiology resident at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, I wasn’t supposed to moonlight, but many of us did it anyhow.
LaGuardia Hospital was the main facility for HIP (Health Insurance Plan of Greater NY)–which was one of the earliest HMO’s. It was a run-of-the-mill neighborhood hospital.
I had read a paper in a cardiology journal called “Blind Defibrillation.” It came out after coronary care units had been invented. The CCU experience taught us that the main cause of death during a heart attack (acute myocardial infarction—acute MI) was a fatal but reversible rhythm disturbance called VF or ventricular fibrillation.
In the CCU, all patients with heart attacks wore electrodes for continuous ECG monitoring, so that is how we learned about VF. But we also learned that we could save the life of such a patient by giving them a timely electric shock to the chest using a device called a defibrillator.
Of course, you all know about that from TV, but back then, it was new and exciting. In the CCU all patients were monitored, so we always had ECG evidence of VF before we defibrillated a patient. If a patient on the med/surgical floors who was not on a monitor had a cardiac arrest, we always did an ECG before using the defibrillator, however, that did waste some time.
But what if someone out of the hospital, with a classic history of myocardial infarction (chest pain, sweating, shock) had a cardiac arrest? The ambulance crew, who then did not have access to an ECG machine or a defibrillator, would bring them in doing CPR.
Wouldn’t it be reasonable to not waste time getting an ECG? After all, “time is muscle” as they said then and now. Just go ahead and shock them even without ECG documentation (ie “blind defibrillation ” as described in that journal article.) The idea was a bit controversial at first.
Well, that night, a patient came into the ER at LaGuardia with a history suggesting an MI. He was talking to us and was placed on a stretcher, but before the ECG electrodes could be applied, he had a cardiac arrest and went unconscious with no pulse or respirations. I asked the nurse for the paddles and shocked him even without ECG evidence (i.e. blind defibrillation). His pulse came back immediately, and he opened his eyes and looked around. It seemed like magic—a miracle.
Looking back on it, the story would have been perfect if he said, “What’s up, doc?” But he said, “What happened?”
The nurse and I were thrilled. We started an IV anti-arrhythmic medication and then we had coffee.
These days, Emergency Medical Technicians can shock people in the field, although they do get ECG evidence with current equipment. Some machines won’t deliver a shock unless it reads VF when the paddles are placed. But if the ECG reader isn’t working, they should do blind defibrillation.
Defibrillators are now available in airplanes and stadiums. Some high risk patients have internal defibrillators implanted which can sense if VF is occurring, and they will deliver a shock on their own. And yet, even today, there might be a situation, falling between the cracks, when blind defibrillation might save someone’s life.
Another new variation on this theme is that an “ambulance drone” can be sent to the victim of an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. A person standing by can place the paddles on the chest, as instructed by the drone operator by phone, and then hit the button. This saves the time of waiting for an ambulance and it significantly improves the survival rate of sudden death outside of hospital from 8% to about 90%. But currently this technology is not widely used in the US.
www.tudelft.nl/en/ide/research/research-labs/applied-labs/ambulance-drone/
THE BEATLES: “Across the Universe”
“Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup,
They slither while they pass, they slip away across the universe
Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my open mind,
Possessing and caressing me.”
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2014 Blogfinger.net. Sue Gioulis OG artist.
We started Blogfinger in 2009, but WordPress began counting hits some years later, so our actual count is higher. Today’s WordPress count 9/29/26 is 4,922.88.
Paul Goldfinger, Editor, Blogfinger.net
SESAME STREET: “The Song of the Count.”
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In a country churchyard, the last rose of summer. St.-Cirq- Lapopie, southwestern France. By Paul Goldfinger photo and darkroom print. Silver gelatin print. Blogfinger.net. Click to enlarge. Reposted from one year ago. August 18, 2015.
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
By Thomas Gray
“The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea,
The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.”
JOHN RUTTER: (“Blow, blow thou winter wind.”)
Posted in Photo gallery: Europe, Photograph by Paul Goldfinger, Photographic Gallery France, Photographic Gallery, Black and White | Tagged Last rose of summer in France, Photo: St Cirque | Leave a Comment »
Civil War recreation on the Ocean Grove beach. The event retold the story of a battle in South Carolina where a regiment of black volunteers (54th Massachusetts) distinguished itself in the storming of Fort Wagner. Paul Goldfinger photo. Click for full view.
SOUNDTRACK: Dixie/Bonnie Blue Flag (The American Brass Quintet)
Posted in Blogfinger News | Tagged Civil War reenactment in OG | 1 Comment »
Paul Goldfinger photo on Madison Avenue on the east side of New York. J. Crew.
PALOMA FAITH. “New York”. From her album. Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?
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Paul Goldfinger, MD on the road past the Truro Dunes in Cape Cod.
Click once to view the page above.
This contest winner was posted on the front page of a national medical newsletter. I also had a black and white image in the New England Journal of Medicine. Some medical journals used to publish photographs.
Patti Page:
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Dover NJ. 1960; Blackwell Street. By Henry Boschen. Click once to enlarge. Re-posted 2024 by popular demand from Dovericans who love this nostalgic image. And click on “Comments” below.
By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor. Blogfinger.net
Henry Boschen (1922-2011) made this wonderful black and white image in 1960 on Blackwell Street in Dover, New Jersey, a blue collar town in Morris County which was founded in 1869. In 1960, before the Rockaway Townsquare Mall was built in 1977, Dover was the place to go for shopping. It was a diverse town, and many of the merchants were Jewish. A growing Hispanic population was beginning to change the personality of Dover. Spanish restaurants and credit unions were opening. Most of the immigrants were from a particular town in Puerto Rico.
Henry’s image captures the warmth of Christmas in 1960 when shoppers would flock to visit downtown Dover where an old-fashioned homespun style was found in the shops. You could buy a fine men’s suit at the Quality Shop and pick up fresh fish at Fred’s. The Walk-Well shoe store was a family business, as were many of the stores downtown.
Dover Photo was one of the few Leica dealerships in New Jersey, so aficionados like me would go there to buy lenses, superb cameras and darkroom gear. Murray and his sons would offer technical advice to visitors. They displayed original photos and they offered trade-ins on equipment. I was one of their best customers.
Dover General Hospital, known for its excellent nursing and physician care, was sixty years old that year and was within walking distance to downtown. It was founded by a group of Dover women who wanted to improve healthcare at the turn of the century.
My first medical office was on Blackwell Street. I chose Dover because they had no cardiologist and I wanted to work in the trenches instead of at some ivory tower. The National Community Bank downtown gave me a mortgage before I even saw my first patient. The town doctors told the banker that I was a good risk. My practice was busy from day one.
Henry Boschen, my patient and friend, gave me this print, and it is a great treasure.
And we send our best Christmas and New Year’s wishes to Henry’s loving wife Jane, who is now living in nearby Randolph and to daughter Edie who is one of those wonderful former nurses at Dover General. Paul Goldfinger, MD
RICHARD BURTON
Posted in Blogfinger Presents, Music from the movies | Tagged Dover New Jersey, Henry Boschen | 25 Comments »
Ocean Grove, September, 29, 2015 Photograph by Jean Bredin, Blogfinger staff. (Sandy was 2012)
MARY STALLINGS from her album But Beautiful
Posted in Around the Grove with Jean Bredin, Around town with Jean, Photographs by Jean Bredin | Tagged Autumn in Ocean Grove | Leave a Comment »
Above: “This Photograph is my Proof” by Duane Michaels. Click to make it a bit bigger.
By Paul Goldfinger, Photography editor, Blogfinger. 2014.
Duane Michaels, an important American photographer, is 80 years old, and there will be a retrospective of his work opening in a few days at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh.
Michaels has been a pioneer in photography by doing two things. The first was handwriting narrative text on his images. He says that the writing “gives information that the photograph could not convey.”
Well, so much for a picture being worth a thousand words. His words usually consist of poems or brief stories as seen in the photos above and below.
The second advance was to place multiple photographs in sequence to relate a story. Duane Michaels is a storyteller. We do that on Blogfinger.net.
Here is a quote from the Carnegie: “Michaels is cited as being seminally important in his willingness to bend the rules of the medium to suit his own ends. He is credited for broadening our understanding of the philosophical dimensions of photography from the 1960s to today. ”
The picture on top is called “This photograph is my proof.” I think it is enjoyable to read his brief narrative which adds an extra dimension to appreciating his images.
Paul says:
In general, I like my own images to be self explanatory to the point of rarely giving them titles. Just documenting the place and date is usually sufficient for me. However I actually am drawn to the notion of adding handwritten meaning to a photographic print per Michaels.
It is a fascinating and original idea. And photography collectors always prefer a signed print. During my darkroom years I always loved the tangibility of a finished product on light sensitive paper. But I rarely made prints to write on.
So lately I have been showing my images on computer screens, and the quality is marvelous, but it’s not the same. For one thing digital prints are made with digital cameras, while classic photos are made with negative film and film cameras (still in use.)
I sometimes turn my photo files over to a specialty lab where fine-art digital images can be printed onto classical papers. So that is sort of a compromise, and that is how modern day professionals who shoot digital are able to sell photos in galleries unless they continue their darkroom methods which many do. Or they just go with the times, where all art work in fashion, for example, is obtained digitally.
One of the beauties of creating an actual darkroom photo print, mounted on a mat board, is that you finish with a tangible work of art that you can hold in your hand, unlike one shown on the computer. A handwritten note by the photographer adds a hand-made touch. I like to display my actual paper photographs without frames—just the image on a mat board leaning against the wall or on some sort of easel.
But to hold a darkroom print in one’s hand adds a precious quality to the enjoyment of a fine photo. I have many of my original darkroom photos in boxes because they are something special .
In my blog, I usually add music (“soundtrack”) to my photos to provide an added dimension. Like Michaels, I want to enhance the appreciation of the photograph, but, at least online, I do it with music, which is less specific than a written note–actually it is something different. It’s like the soundtrack for a movie. Most movies have music which usually have no direct connection to the visuals but provide an emotional dimension.
My idea of accompanying still photographs with music is fairly original, although there are precedents.
In 2011 we posted a piece about a museum show which featured the photography of Disfarmer accompanied by live music with Bill Frisell. (link)
DON’T MISS THE DISFARMER POST AND PHOTOS AND VIDEO BELOW. YOU WILL NEVER FORGET……Paul Goldfinger.
WARREN VACHE´ and BRIAN LEMON with Harry Warren’s “A Love Affair to Remember.”
Posted in Blogfinger Art Department, Photo Editorial, Photo News, Photography in America | Tagged Duane Michaels photographer | Leave a Comment »