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Ocean Grove. October 29, 2014. By Paul Goldfinger ©

Ocean Grove.  By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor. ©   Re-post. Click once to enlarge.

I heard a talk by a National Geographic photographer, a famous artist , who was discussing how he makes his photos come alive. He was referring to the fact that when he found a photogenic scene, it usually wasn’t enough.

He needed life–he needed “magic,” usually involving the addition of a person or people. So he would wait, sometimes for quite awhile until something happened, and then he would trip the shutter.

Today I was photographing the “White House” owned by Charlotte and Tom Pritchard at 93 Main, where Charlotte had created a fun Halloween display.  I was looking for magic and I found some in the form of inquisitive squirrels as well as tweeting birds   (real tweets—not the digital kind).

So I made a couple of video clips to catch the sounds, but suddenly I was aware that a couple was approaching, walking towards my location from the east. Magic perhaps?

I was standing in the street, next to the curb, so they didn’t see me at first.  As they came by, I fired my iPhone a few times. But the best was when the young woman turned my way, saw me with my camera, and reacted instantly. The photo above was the only frame that captured this “decisive moment.”

I told her that she would be on Blogfinger, and she was happy to hear that. As for me, magic and a pretty girl—that’s the best!

 

–By Paul Goldfinger, Editor  @Blogfinger

 

Al Green:   “Sha-La-La Make Me Happy.”

 

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By Paul Goldfinger © 2012

Ocean Grove, NJ.   Fletcher Lake, photo by Paul Goldfinger    Posted on November 1, 2012. Click all photos to enlarge

 

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.net.   Update 2025

The huge storm of October 29, 2012 has been such an iconic event for the Jersey Shore that photographs of  Superstorm Sandy in Ocean Grove and its aftermath will become a genre of its own, as occurred with Bob Bowné’s now famous image of the surf  thundering into shore, demolishing the OG Fishing Pier.

Here is a BF link regarding Bob’s remarkable photo:   Bob Bowné iconic Sandy photo Oct. 29, 2012.

You can use our search box  (top right) to see some of our Sandy photographs and posts of OG which have been published on Blogfinger.

We were lucky that we did not have devastating destruction, but we did have some.  The Great Auditorium roof was seriously damaged. And the boardwalk was also partly ruined.

Sandy was a turning point for our town—a momentous event.

The storm showed us our physical vulnerability. Luckily, we were not hit as hard as other places at the Shore.

Sandy  revealed the potential of OG to come together as a community and it showed how much this town means to people all over the world.  As some of you may recall, the day after Sandy hit, Blogfinger.com  received 25,000 hits from everywhere.   Ocean Grove is a very special place with many interested in its fate.

Volunteers from all over, up to  New England, arrived and went to work. The Camp Meeting set up facilities for them, and in the Community Room they offered Wi-Fi access and information about assistance for victims.  The Red Cross came to help.

Ordinary citizens drove into town and found ways to help at the beach front.

Neptune Township failed to help at the damaged Ocean Avenue-boardwalk-beach zone.  They did not show over a technicality, ie that they have no jurisdiction over those privately owned locations.

Other towns along the Jersey Shore have also been changing since Sandy, but this town, with its definition as a historic residential community, should have grabbed that momentum and run with it.  But no, as we see with the North End situation, we are still failing to define ourselves as a special  and unified small town with everyone caring about the Grove’s  future.  Factions continue to divide us.

And now, on October 12, 2025, as a Nor’easter begins to roll in, we are reminded of how we felt that October day in 2012 as Sandy  made landfall here.

 

STUART MATTHEWMAN.  From the original movie soundtrack of the film  Twin Falls, Idaho–“Amapola”

 

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Auditorium Pavilion. Paul Goldfinger photo ©.

Auditorium Pavilion. Paul Goldfinger photo. .Click to enlarge.

 

GREEN DAY:   From their album American Idiot (2004)

 

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This Zombie was photographed 2 years ago in A.Park, but now we bring her back to the Grove. Paul goldfinger portrait. ©

This Zombie was photographed in 2016 in A. Park, but now we bring her back to the Grove for a command performance.  Arrrggh.   Paul Goldfinger portrait. ©

 

MARSHALL BROTHERS with a 1951 doo-wop performance for Halloween:

 

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Blogfinger has covered many Zombie Walks in Asbury Park, but not this year. Below is one of my favorite photos from a Zombie event: 2013.

In  1934, an Ocean Liner (SS Morro Castle), was traveling from Havana to New York  when it caught fire and beached on the shores of Asbury Park. There were 137 deaths.

A handful of survivors washed  up at the Zombie Walk in Asbury Park (October 2013)

Paul Goldfinger photo. Asbury Park Zombie Walk, 2013. ©

Paul Goldfinger photo. Blogfinger.net.   Asbury Park Zombie Walk, 2013.  Click once  to enlarge.

 

By Paul Goldfinger  Editor Blogfinger.net

MARTHA WAINWRIGHT     From the soundtrack of The Aviator:

 

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Zombie Walk #5 Asbury Park. October 4, 2014. Paul Goldfinger photo ©

Zombie Walk.  Asbury Park. October 4, 2014. Paul Goldfinger photo

 

Zombie Walk in A. Park.     2026 version will be:  October 3, 2026.

 

JACK TEAGARDEN

 

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October, 2014. By Paul Goldfinger ©

Freehold farm.   By Paul Goldfinger     Click to enlarge.

 

“You Complete Me”  from the Hundred Foot Journey  by A.R. Rahman (soundtrack for the film)

 

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A color police color guard signals the start of the Memorial Service. All photographs by Paul Goldfinger, editor @Blogfinger. ©

A  police color guard enters the Great Auditorium, signalling the start of the Memorial Service. All photographs and text  by Paul Goldfinger, editor @Blogfinger. ©.  Click photos to enlarge.

 

Multiple color guards wait inside. ©

Multiple color guards wait inside. ©

 

By Paul Goldfinger, MD. Editor Blogfinger.net

Today, Tuesday, May 19, 2015, was the 31st Annual Law Enforcement Memorial Service in the Ocean Grove Great Auditorium. It is the oldest event of its kind in the U.S. Five officers  who lost their lives in the line of duty this past year were honored along with others who were previously lost.  The youngest one was only 22 years old, and he died just five months ago.

Many dignitaries including Gov. Chris Christie, were present to offer prayers, gratitude, remembrances and condolences.

 

Gov. Christie on stage before the ceremony. ©

Gov. Christie on stage before the ceremony. ©

Over a thousand law enforcement personnel were present in dress uniforms including large groups from the New Jersey State Police, Newark and Jersey City PD’s.

Neptune Township Police Chief James Hunt and his police were there along with  representatives of PD’s from around the state, plus federal, county and state agencies.

 

Jersey City Police Department. ©

Jersey City Police Department. ©

The Governor presented plaques, hugs, and kind words to the families of the 5 men. To the survivors he promised, “We care about you.”

 

West Windsor-Plainsboro High School choirs get ready in the choir loft. They got to sing in the Great Auditorium with the famous Hope-Jones organ. It was beautiful. ©

West Windsor-Plainsboro High School choral groups get ready in the choir loft. They got to sing in the Great Auditorium with the famous Hope-Jones organ. It was beautiful. ©

 

“You Raise Me Up” was performed by Tyrone McAllister of the Asbury Park PD.

The version below is by the Celtic Woman:

 

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Choir Festival in the Great Auditorium. By Paul Goldfinger. © To order metallic coated professionally made prints, contact Blogfinger@verizon.net.

Choir Festival in the Great Auditorium. Photograph by. Paul Goldfinger. Blogfinger.net.  Undated

 

We have learned from a CMA official that the events mentioned above will return this season “as they were before the pandemic.”

We don’t know if that means no distancing, masks, etc, but there will still be some constraints coming from Trenton this summer.

However  this is good news assuming it is all done according to Health Dept. guidelines.

 

THE FIREBIRDS:

 

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Despite the heat, the light was lovely at end-of-day 5/2/18.  “America the Beautiful.” Paul Goldfinger photo ©  Click to enlarge

 

MARTHA AND THE VANDELLAS

 

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Deal Lake. Taken from the Elberon side looking toward A. Park. Paul Goldfinger photo. July12, 2016 ©

Deal Lake. Taken from the Loch Arbour side.  Paul Goldfinger photo. July 12, 2016 ©  Click for maximum glitter.

 

DEXTER GORDON.   Recorded July 7, 1970 in New York City   “The Christmas Song.”

 

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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.

 

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Ocean Grove. 6:30 pm. July 26, 2018.  A girl in her summer clothes.  Click all photos for better view.  Paul Goldfinger photographs © Blogfinger.net

 

 

Beach Patrol, late shift. OG 7/26/18. Rough seas. Lifeguard tournament will be next week. Paul Goldfinger portrait. ©

 

 

CONNIE EVINGSON   From her album  Gypsy in my Soul.

 

 

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