By Paul Goldfinger c.1990.
REBECCA LUKER: “Summer With You.”
Rebecca Luker
Archive for the ‘Jersey Shore gallery’ Category
Jersey Shore Gallery: Beach Haven
Posted in Jersey Shore gallery, tagged Beach Haven, Jersey Shore gallery, Rebecca Luker on Blogfinger on August 22, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Jersey Shore Gallery: Gateway National Park at Sandy Hook
Posted in Jersey Shore gallery, tagged Photo: Sandy Hook on August 8, 2026| 1 Comment »
Paul Goldfinger © Sandy Hook. Re-posted from 2012. Click to enlarge.
ROY ORBISON “Beautiful Dreamer” by Stephen Foster (1864)
“Beautiful dreamer,
Wake unto me
Starlight and dewdrops
Are awaiting thee
“Sounds of the rude world
Heard in the day
Led by the moonlight
Have all passed away”
The sad or happy carousel horse at Exit 82. Reflections after the summer season—2015
Posted in Jersey Shore gallery, Photograph by Paul Goldfinger, Photography at The Jersey Shore, Photography in New Jersey, tagged Carousel in Seaside Heights on July 24, 2026| 2 Comments »
Seaside Heights. October 12, 2015. Paul Goldfinger photo. Click once to grab the brass ring and enlarge the photo.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger (Re-posted 2026 from October 2015)
This carousel horse, photographed after the season in Seaside Heights, reminds me of Broadway—sometimes happy and sometimes sad. I’m thinking of the show Carousel which proclaims, “June is busting out all over.”
The Fantasticks has a song called “Round and Round” which begins as a gorgeous fantasy—-“Life is a colorful carousel,” but later the song becomes dark, sad, and scary.
However, for the most part, Broadway brings us joy as in “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” from Oklahoma.
I see this carousel, devoid of riders and seemingly sad because the season is over, and yet the scene, like a Broadway set, is bursting with vivid colors and, in a way, with memories of life itself.
So, in wondering about this photograph and how to see it, I decided that it is joyful and not sad, and if the horse could talk he would say, ” Please sir, I want more oats” (sorry for the Oliver joke, such as it is.) I wonder how a child would view it.
And certainly now, in 2021, with Broadway (and even the London stage) mostly dark for an indefinite period of time, we will have to wait to experience the joy of the musical stage.
Of course, we can still hear the music. We try to keep that music alive on Blogfinger. It’s easy to forget, but we won’t. (Thanks Mom!)
Here is MIMI HINES from a show called “The Roar of the Greasepaint—the Smell of the Crowd.” It is a happy song full of the sort of vivid optimism that we often find in Broadway musicals and, sometimes, in life.
Seaside horses and a Brazilian cool-jazz back-ground.
Posted in Jersey Shore gallery, Photograph by Paul Goldfinger, Photographic Gallery: New Jersey, Photography: Jersey Shore Gallery, tagged Horses in Seaside Heights, Paul Desmond on Blogfinger on July 10, 2026|
Seaside Heights. October, 2015. Paul Goldfinger photo. Blogfinger.net
Below a scene from Mighty Aphrodite. Paul Desmond’s music was featured. And speaking of the Greek Goddess of Love, today is Eileen Goldfinger’s birthday. Happy Birthday kid!
When I was a high school and college musician, I played a French made Selmer alto sax, as did Desmond.
Paul Desmond was my musical hero. I always tried to emulate his “cool” style. It was a sweet sound which touched me for its floating-in-air quality.
Paul Desmond. The search for a perfect reed is the bane of a sax man’s life. Internet photo. Reed sentiment is mine: PG
He was not only a performer with the Dave Brubeck group, but he was a jazz composer as well, and his “Take Five” was the first jazz song to sell a million copies. Paul Desmond’s sound provided a special flavor for the Dave Brubeck Quartet and was widely emulated by jazz musicians like me as a member of the Fairleigh Dickinson University Jazz Band and leader of the Paul Gary Quartet. (seen below on a Selmer tenor sax)
Bunny, I, Charlie (bass) and Frank (drums) warming up in Frank’s basement in Rutherford. We were college kids. Bunny and I were from FDU while Frank went to Seton Hall. Charlie was a precocious high school senior whose girlfriend was our groupie. Bunny rarely sang, but when she did, it was “Willow Weep for Me.” (We weeped for her singing.) Bunny was so slim that she could play between the white keys. Wallpaper compliments of Frank’s Mom. There are no recordings of our group.
Desmond’s remarkable tempo style was featured in Woody’s 1995 film “Mighty Aphrodite.”
The song below, “Romance de Amor,” is a Brazilian composition by Paul. It is from the album Skylark.
Paul Desmond drank and smoked heavily. He died at 52 of cancer.
Romance de Amor. (Love Song). Written by Paul Desmond.
“Oh, oh, wouldn’t she be so nimble, fiddling with her thimble…..” Stephen Sondheim
Posted in Jersey Shore gallery, Photography by Paul Goldfinger on June 5, 2026| 3 Comments »
A TRIBUTE TO STEPHEN SONDHEIM:
Were you ever taken to the cleaners? Ocean, New Jersey. 2013. By Paul Goldfinger©
STEPHEN SONDHEIM. From ” Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” (the album is Putting It Together)
The Battle of Monmouth. 1778.
Posted in Jersey Shore gallery, Music from the movies, Photograph by Paul Goldfinger, Photographic Gallery, Black and White, Photographic Gallery: New Jersey, Photography: Jersey Shore Gallery, tagged Battle of Monmouth Courthouse, Monmouth Battlefield State Park on April 16, 2026| 1 Comment »
Monmouth Battlefield State Park. Photograph atop Combs Hill. By Paul Goldfinger 2014. . Click once to enlarge.
Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor Blogfinger.net
The Battle of Monmouth took place in the vicinity of Monmouth Courthouse in Freehold.
On a blistering hot day on June 28, 1778 the land that is now Monmouth Battlefield State Park was the site of one of the longest battles of the American Revolutionary War.
From the “State Parks Information”: “Here at Monmouth, Washington restored a reputation battered by defeats in 1777. In the day-long battle in the hills, wood lots, farm fields and meadows, the main Continental Army, retrained at Valley Forge, repulsed attacks by the main British Army.
By the end, over 600 men were dead, dying or wounded and the Continental Army held the field.”
The vista above is from Combs Hill where the Continental Army had placed their artillery.
The park is a beautiful place where you can visit, picnic, ride horses or sleighs. The visitor center is near where I was standing to make this photograph. The address is 16 Rt 33 Business in Manalapan.
I enjoy photographing battlefields, although this is only my second. The first is Gettysburg which we have visited quite a few times. Battlefields are evocative of so many qualities of man including bravery, fighting for right and freedom, loyalty and sacrifice.
It seems as if you can time- travel back in such a place as this, and that is an emotional experience.
I tried to capture that mood in this photograph which is much better felt in black and white than with color. —
Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.net
BAND OF HM ROYAL MARINES: “Main Theme from Saving Private Ryan” (2006) Written by John Williams.
Big-Dawg-at-Dusk. Avon-By-the-Sea.
Posted in Blogfinger Presents, Jersey Shore gallery, Photograph by Bob Bowné, Photographic Gallery: New Jersey, Photography at The Jersey Shore, tagged Avon-by-the-sea on March 31, 2026|
Bob Bowné. January 14, 2016. © Special to Blogfinger. No extra charge for the hyphens.
MAUDE MAGGART sings Irving Berlin
Jersey Shore Gallery: Spring Lake
Posted in Jersey Shore gallery, tagged Lawrence Lebo sings I Want a Butter and Egg Man. on March 20, 2026|
Photo by Paul Goldfinger © Dec. 2013. A look back on 3rd Avenue, Spring Lake, NJ
LAWRENCE LEBO: “I Want a Butter and Egg Man” with the “Little Big Band” from the album Don’t Call Her Larry.
The Garden State. Colts’ Neck, Monmouth County, New Jersey.
Posted in Jersey Shore gallery, Photography: Black and White gallery, tagged Colts Neck, The Garden State on March 14, 2026|
Paul Goldfinger © Rt. 34, Colt’s Neck, NJ. USA. Click once to enlarge.
BUDAPEST PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA. “Cavalleria Rusticana: Intermezzo sinfonico.” By Pietro Mascagni. From the film Raging Bull. Re-posted from June, 2014.
This place is at Delicious Orchards. Don’t miss it.
Jersey Shore Gallery: Red Bank
Posted in Blogfinger Jazz Corner, Jersey Shore gallery, Music, Music from the stage, Photograph by Paul Goldfinger, tagged MUSIC--Count Basie, Red Bank on February 14, 2026| 1 Comment »
Broad Street. Red Bank, NJ. Birthplace of Count Basie. By Paul Goldfinger . Reposted on Blogfinger.net. Click once
SOUNDTRACK: “It Had to be You.” The Count Basie Orchestra.
Boardwalk—Asbury Park Casino: August, 2012.
Posted in Jersey Shore gallery, Music from the movies, tagged John Cafferty--Boardwalk Angel, Tonight's the night for a brand new start on January 30, 2026|
In Asbury Park near border with Ocean Grove, looking south. August 2012. Paul Goldfinger photo. Click once
JOHN CAFFERTY AND THE BEAVER BROWN BAND. “Boardwalk Angel” (From Eddie and the Cruisers)
Suffragists active at the Jersey Shore.
Posted in Blogfinger News, Jersey Shore gallery, tagged Suffragists in Long Branch on January 22, 2026| 2 Comments »
Suffragists put up a poster in Long Branch, 1915. Photo from the Library of Congress in Remembering the Jersey Shore by Joe Czachowski, 2010.
Christabel Pankhurst. British protestor (for the vote.) From PBS doc. About 1905.
Riots and violence in London. Suffragists beaten and arrested. PBS.
By Paul Goldfinger, MD. Editor, Blogfinger.net. 2020
“Votes for women” activists were busy in the summer of 1915. These three were advertising a speech by activist Anna Howard Shaw whose biography The Story of a Pioneer”was published that year. Suffragists organized concerts, lectures, parades and even ball games from Keyport to Atlantic Highlands to Asbury Park.
Alice Paul, an American feminist, was born in Mt. Laurel, NJ (see Ocean Grover Mary Walton’s book about Alice Paul, available at the Comfort Zone).
If you watch the PBS special on the Suffragists, you will see Mary, former Blogfinger reporter, interviewed.
Alice Paul, a Jersey Girl and a feminist.
The Historical Society of Ocean Grove has a great deal of information about the women’s movements in OG.
SOUNDTRACK: COUNT BASIE AND TONY BENNETT—What is the world coming to?