Asbury Park Saturday morning market. By Paul Goldfinger © Blogfinger.net. Click to enlarge. August 15, 2015. Eileen bought the tomatoes and zucchini from this farmer’s daughter.
BARRY WHITE:
Archive for the ‘Asbury Connection’ Category
Faces at the Farmers Market (the Asbury Park version)
Posted in Asbury Connection, Asbury Park Connection Photo Gallery, Photograph by Paul Goldfinger, Photography series Faces at the Farmers' Market, tagged Asbury Park farmers market on April 28, 2021|
A tale of two boardwalks
Posted in Asbury Connection, Blogfinger Presents, Photography by Moe Demby, Photography: girls in summer clothes, Photography: Jersey Shore Gallery, tagged Marvelous Wonderettes on April 11, 2021|
Asbury Park boardwalk. June, 2015. By Moe Demby,Blogfinger staff. ©
Moe Demby has his eyes on more than pepperoni as he visits the A. Park boards.
We don’t know if Moe actually ate pizza or if he was using that café as a duck blind, hunting for chicks.
If any of you get some great shots of girls in summer clothes, we are working on a center fold edition, so send them to us before you settle for Playboy.
Thanks Moe—as they say in baseball, “good eye, good eye.”
THE MARVELOUS WONDERETTES:
A hotel is blooming in our sister city. Do we need one nearby in the Grove? And how about those North End condos that are proposed in the NERP?
Posted in Asbury Connection, Blogfinger News, North End Redevelopment, Ocean Grove North End Redevelopment Plan, tagged A small hotel in Ocean Grove, Joe Williams on Blogfinger on March 28, 2021| 6 Comments »
RE-POST from 2015. Still relevant:
Old Salvation Army housing is being turned into a boutique hotel in Asbury Park. Prosper Bellizia photo, Blogfinger staff. April, 2015. ©
Is this the historic look that the HPC wants for the North End?* The CMA seems to want to re-create the good old days in the Grove and call it “historic.”
This space on the southern border of Asbury Park, across from Wesley Lake, will get condos in the future. Does Ocean Grove need to add more condos to the neighborhood? Isn’t AP more in need of “redevelopment” than we are? Blogfinger photo.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
If you were wondering what our new North End hotel might look like, better hope it doesn’t take shape like the one on top. The NERP calls for an 85 room hotel, but don’t worry—-remember that the HPC must approve the design. What? You don’t trust the HPC? Perhaps you are thinking about the Greek Temple on Main Avenue or about the new Mary’s Place which will take up two lots and look like a pseudo- Victorian building designed to fool the tourists.
Or perhaps it occurs to you that there are enough hotels in the neighborhood counting the one above, so maybe we don’t need another hotel in the Grove. Currently in Asbury Park there are 3 hotels: Berkley-Carteret, Tides, and Empress. In Ocean Grove we have Majestic, Shawmont, and Laingdon.
How about a nice park which we could call “Hotel Park” to remember the old North End Hotel which became useless in its time and was finally torn down in 1978.
Did you have a look at recently built condos in Ocean Grove (e.g. on Ocean Pathway) or in Asbury Park? What do you think?
Editor’s note March, 2021. We have posted the architects design* for the hotel and condos. It has a pseudo-Victorian look.
Historic zoning should not have permitted a hotel now at this site. Just because there was a hotel before in that vicinity does not mean that another one should be allowed. The 1911 hotel at the North End was demolished in 1978. Note that the Asbury Hotel has opened in the interim, while the Tides has closed.
JOE WILLIAMS From his album Music for Lovers
That old black magic
Posted in Asbury Connection, Asbury Park Connection Photo Gallery, tagged Madam Marie, Santana on Blogfinger on December 6, 2020| 1 Comment »
College girls shine at SantaCon.
Posted in Asbury Connection, Asbury Park Connection Photo Gallery, Photograph by Paul Goldfinger, tagged College girls at SantaCon on November 28, 2020|
Could this muse be the sweetheart of Sigma Chi? Asbury Park, NJ, December 2015. Photo by Paul Goldfinger © Blogfinger.net. Re-post.
THE AMES BROTHERS:
Chairmen of the boards.
Posted in Asbury Connection, Asbury Park Connection Photo Gallery, Jersey Shore gallery, Photograph by Paul Goldfinger, tagged Beach boys in Asbury, Frankie Randall singer on November 22, 2020|
Asbury Park. 2014. Paul Goldfinger photo. © Click to call this meeting to order.
FRANK RANDALL:
Once upon a summertime…..
Posted in Asbury Connection, Asbury Park Connection Photo Gallery, Blogfinger Presents, Photography in Asbury Park, Photography: Jersey Shore Gallery, Photography: The Other Side of Asbury, tagged Summertime in Asbury Park on November 2, 2020|
Asbury Park. June 19, 2016. Paul Goldfinger photo. © Click to enlarge.
MONICA ZETTERLUND (Swedish jazz singer) and THE BILL EVANS TRIO. This is from an album called Waltz for Debby which was recorded in 1964 to great critical acclaim.
“Once Upon a Summertime” is a French song written by Michel Legrand. Johnny Mercer wrote the English lyrics as heard in this album.
A quixotic search for a fine coffee shop near OG? Try Café Volan (510 Bangs Avenue) in A. Park.
Posted in Asbury Connection, Asbury Park Connection Photo Gallery, Blogfinger Jazz Corner, Blogfinger Presents, Blogfinger restaurant review, tagged Café Volan, coffee houses, coffee shop on November 1, 2020| 1 Comment »
Café Volan. A.P. Paul Goldfinger photo. Re-posted from 2018.
Eileen Goldfinger at Volan sampling a scone from Balthazar’s * in SoHo. Paul Goldfinger ©
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger. There are a few minor revisions in this 2015 and 2018 re-post.
Some of you might wonder about the persistent search for a great coffee shop near OG, since there are several places in the Grove where you can buy coffee. The reason is, for some of us, we seek more than just coffee. In our culture, and in Europe, the coffee shop is a comfortable gathering place where one can appreciate the best coffees from around the world.
Such shops are not general practitioners, they are specialists, and they know how to create a first rate cappuccino or latte. Coffee is of primary interest in such places, not an afterthought. The Barbaric Bean was beginning to be like that, but the Grove’s only true coffee shop has vanished.
A real coffee shop is a welcoming place which has seating and where you can savor the barista’s drinks while reading the paper, having a fascinating conversation, people watching, or enjoying a special snack. It tends to be where the local characters go. Wi-Fi is often available for those who are working on the next great American novel. After all, J.K. Rollings wrote Harry Potter while sipping some brew in a local coffee shop.
In Asbury Park today an Ocean Grove friend introduced me to a real coffee shop; in fact, Café Volan seems like a throwback to old Soho or Greenwich Village in the ’60’s. Café Volan on Bangs Avenue, just off Cookman near the Brick Wall, is so laid back that you can imagine Bob Dylan singing unamplified on a stool, or Lenny Bruce doing shtick.
It is a dumpy place, but that’s fine because it feels like home—–like cafés I visited when my friends and I would wander around Bleeker or Christopher Streets in “The Village.” It is the sort of coffee house where the locals and regulars wander in.
My impression from the moment I walked in was: “I am going to like this place.” It resonated at a very personal level and felt like somewhere you might re-visit again and again.
A visit to Café Volan is like time travel, but there is one thing that doesn’t spell nostalgia—it is the delicious high quality of their coffee. They also serve some unique snacks and toasted exotic breads. They get their coffee from North Carolina, and their breads and pastries are brought in from Brooklyn. I haven’t been to Williamsburg for many years, but this entire place seems to have been shipped intact from there.
If you like places that seem authentic and live up to it, try Café Volan —within walking distance of the Grove.
Note: 2020: There now is a coffee shop in the Grove . Odyssey is on Main Avenue, and Buskerdoo is at the intersection of Sunset and Memorial in Asbury.
And the OG bakery does a nice job with coffee, and they do have a wide selection of baked goods.
*Link to our post about Balthazar’s from 2013:
Blogfinger post on Balthazar 2013
CHARLIE PARKER. He got his start in New York, but this jazz great didn’t play in coffee houses. Mostly he was up in Harlem in jazz clubs. The folk singers were in the Village coffee houses in the ’60’s, but there were jazz venues in the Village which my friends and I visited often, growing up in a Jersey bedroom community, 20 minutes from downtown.
This is “All the Things You Are.” It was written by Jerome Kern (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics) We recently posted a Miles Davis version, and the song holds up even without those magnificent poetic lyrics. Below is Charlie Parker on alto sax.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
In the footsteps of Robert Frank
Posted in Asbury Connection, Asbury Park Connection Photo Gallery, Photography by Moe Demby, Photography: Nocturnal Ocean Grove, tagged Asbury Park barber shop, Moe Demby photographs on July 28, 2020| 2 Comments »
Asbury Park barber shop. By Moe Demby ©
Moe Demby, of our photo staff at Blogfinger sent us two black and white photos reminiscent of Robert Frank’s style of photography. As noted in our Frank article, photographers tend to learn from those who came before. Moe, a successful, award winning photojournalist by profession, has been influenced by Frank and by Robert Capa.
Ocean Grove. By Moe Demby, Blogfinger staff.
These two images were obtained on November 17, 2014.
GENE AMMONS (From Woody Allen’s film Fading Gigolo.) The song is “My Romance.” Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart (lyrics) wrote this song for a Broadway musical (1935) called “Jumbo.” My Romance is a hugely popular song for jazz musicians.
Gene Ammons with his tenor sax.
Across Sunset Lake
Posted in Asbury Connection, Asbury Park Connection Photo Gallery, Photograph by Paul Goldfinger, Photographic Gallery: New Jersey, Photography at The Jersey Shore, Photography in America, Photography the other side of Asbury Park, tagged Asbury Park New Jersey, Jason Isbell on Blogfinger on July 2, 2020|
Asbury Park. By Paul Goldfinger ©. 2014. Blogfinger.net
JASON ISBELL and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Water Park on the Asbury Boards
Posted in Asbury Connection, Asbury Park Connection Photo Gallery, Blogfinger Photograph, Music from the movies, Photograph by Paul Goldfinger, tagged Asbury Park water park on March 19, 2020|
By Paul Goldfinger. © July, 2014. Asbury Park, NJ Click to enlarge
DORIS DAY. Here’s how it works: You go to Rome and visit the Trevi Fountain. Then you turn around and throw your money over your shoulder into the water. Then you get your wish. Really? And “thrown by three hopeful lovers.” But who’s keeping score?
Signs of the Times: Bruce Springsteen helps Asbury Park, and Blogfinger tries to shoot straight while driving there.
Posted in Asbury Connection, Asbury Park Connection Photo Gallery, Blogfinger Presents, tagged Bruce Springsteen on Blogfinger on January 29, 2020| 4 Comments »
Bus in front of me on Main Street, A. Park, Sept. 21, 2016, was purchased by Bruce Springsteen for the A. Park Senior Center where the AP seniors can relive their glory days. Blogfinger action photo (taken while stopped at a light just when the light turned green.) © Click to enlarge.
By Paul Goldfinger, Traffic Editor @Blogfinger.net (Re-post from 2016)
Bruce Springsteen has always been generous at the Jersey Shore, especially in Asbury Park where he and other musicians spread their musical wings and found their voices. Bruce just published his memoirs called, what else, “Born to Run.”. It is over 500 pages, but early reviews say that it is a wonderful book, written in a style similar to his music.
This photo was taken in the jaywalking capital of the world—Asbury Park. I don’t know why, but people there love to cross Main Street against the light. Just today I was cut off by a bicyclist who suddenly crossed against the light in front of me, while not even looking to notice whether I would run him over or not. So if you do try to jaywalk in A. Park on Main Street, you’d better be born to run.
My theory about automobile and pedestrian risks in Asbury on Main Street is that the place is too small and too populated for the amount of cars; too many distractions and jaywalkers and buses and taxis and deliveries, and double parking for its own good—especially in season.
Plus, click on the photo to see a driver heading south making a westbound turn onto Third Avenue while about to run over a woman crossing the street. Ironically, they both had green lights indicating that everybody over there needs to pay attention and follow the rules.
I did not notice that drama until I viewed the photo. I was too busy reading the rear end of Cousin Brucie’s bus. So, I was merely following the mandate of some bumper stickers which say, “Watch my behind and not hers!”
If you drive along or through Memorial Drive in Asbury there are all sorts of stop sign issues which can create hazards. The photo below shows an OG car (ours–Eileen driving on 4th Ave.) which was clobbered on 4th Avenue when some jerk ran a stop sign at the intersection with Memorial Drive. She miraculously had minor injuries.
The Asbury driving chaos is out of hand. We have hazards in OG, but we don’t usually have the traffic congestion found in AP mostly all the time. (2020: The turn lanes will help, but Memorial Drive is still a problem)
OG car destroyed on 4th Avenue in AP after a driver breezed through a stop sign on Memorial Drive. Blogfinger photo. ©
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN “Glory Days.”
Raw on Mattison….
Posted in Art, Asbury Connection, Asbury Park, Blogfinger Presents, Photograph by Paul Goldfinger, Photographic Gallery, Black and White, Photography Asbury Park lifestyles, tagged Asbury reflections on November 15, 2019|
Mattison Avenue, A. Park. Paul Goldfinger photograph. © Summer, 2019.
JACK TEAGARDEN: “A Hundred Years From Today.”