By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor Blogfinger.net. Video by Jean Bredin, Blogfinger.net staff.
We have reported before about the ambitions and future of Asbury Park as the city continues to move forward. The Asburians have been doing very nicely in acquiring a reputation as a fine destination for gourmet dining, music scene, bar hopping, impressive youth scene, many churches, and one expensive condo development after another.
The avenues to the west, beyond the train tracks such as 2nd Avenue north to Sunset Avenue have been upgraded to lovely tree lined residential neighborhoods with many first class renovations of homes from another era.
It remains to be seen what they will do with affordable housing, run down racially segregated areas, run-down low brow Main Street, expanding the music scene, dirty Wesley Lake and ground water pollution, efforts to uplift their history, and relationship to Ocean Grove to their south. And culturally A. Park is an impressive location for the gay community.
So the outlook for AP looks positive, but this past Sunday, Blogfinger.net got a whiff of something worrisome. The Parkers love to have parades, and last Sunday we attended a large St. Patricks’s Day parade, and it was impressive.
It shares the spotlight with the Pride Parade which is very similar except for the color themes. My preference is for the flamboyance and variety of the Pride Parade. But I left both of these events early.
Not only because these AP parades tend to be repetitious, because that is expected, but because of the grandstand where they have recently hired a loudmouth with loudspeakers. You can hear him on our video above. These parades are for We-The-People and we don’t enjoy this big mouth telling us how to have a great time.
My observation is that visitors for the parades enjoy people watching, kibitzing with friends and children, singing along, holding signs, observing the antics marching by including the music. floats, impressive costumes, and handouts. It’s great fun. I like to do street photography–I am a professional photographer and an amateur sociologist and I love to tune into conversations for my “True Conversation” posts on Blogfinger.net. I’m sure there are many creative people in the crowd who can figure out how to best enjoy the parade.
But that guy with the loudspeaker spoils and distracts—He cuts into the crowd fun and diversity–he is pushy and he tries to steer the folks by telling them when to applaud, what they are seeing, what they should be believing, and how to have a good time. This is the dumbing down of the Asbury parade scene. Thank goodness they haven’t used him for the Zombie Parade on the boards.
You can hear him in Jean Bredin’s video above. She and I are from OG, and we both, separately, decided to leave early, mostly because of the big mouth with the speakers. He interferes with the enjoyment of the parade and the fun experienced by those who attended. He disallows the sheer enjoyment of reacting to the event. He is a source of obnoxious noise pollution. It would be noisy enough without his stupid and predictable ranting.
In our opinion, they should forget the “amplified influencer” and give the crowd the chance to decide for themselves, enjoy on their own, and experience the sheer pleasure of it all.
As far as I am concerned that big-mouth should be fired. He ain’t me babe.
JOHNNY CASH AND JUNE CARTER CASH: