Tag Archives: New Jersey

A trip back in time…

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The Labor Day weekend has come and gone, which moves us squarely into the direction of the onrushing conclusion of 2024. I’m struggling to come to terms with it being September “already.” As always, time flies and doesn’t give one single fuck whether you’re having fun or not.

I extended this long weekend a bit so I could schlep over to New Jersey last Thursday to see Avril Lavigne, a long-time pop punk emo girl favorite, joined with opener Simple Plan, in a show that would have killed me dead 20 years ago. Honestly, it was everything I’d hoped for. It’s not often I have no regrets about having to wade into a crowd numbering in the tens of thousands, but this was one of those rare exceptions. 

I had some hesitation after reading some negative reviews of the performance online but found all the issues raised to be completely overblown or nonexistent. I spent the entire night with a smile on my face – no easy feat when I’ve been kept up well past my bedtime. It felt very much like a trip back to the early 2000s… and I guess that was really the goal. It was nice to spend a couple of hours in my 20s again.

Freedom Mortgage Pavilion was a surprisingly nice venue. No issues with the food and beverage options. Clean facilities overall. Everything was well organized. The only flaw in the evening was the physical location of the venue. It’s how I imagine the Green Zone in Baghdad must have been – a safe haven surrounded by high walls, fences, and armed patrols. Once I was inside the bubble, all was well… getting to the bubble, letting Waze direct me through the side streets of Camden, NJ felt like a very questionable decision. Obviously, nothing unfortunate happened, but it wasn’t a good look and marred the experience being the first and last impression of the evening.

In any case, if anyone is on the fence about going to see the show, I can’t recommend it highly enough. All in, it was a hell of a good time, and I’d go again tomorrow if they came back to play an encore. 

Bias Much?

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I was working in a FEMA office when the first reports of levees breaking in New Orleans came across the wires. Within minutes it seemed that the federal government was useless and the administration incompetent.

Today, five days after Sandy pummeled the East Coast, residents of New York and New Jersey are in almost exactly the same situation, but the media collectively don’t seem to be pounding the same drum.

I’ve certainly got my own view on why the two stories seem to be getting different treatment. I hope there are plenty of people out there in the blogosphere noticing the same thing. And above all, I hope there are readers from coast to coast wondering why one was the “story of the century” and the other doesn’t seem to be getting much more attention than a few “human interest” stories. It would be farcical if the result wasn’t so damned important.

Down the shore…

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We’re getting into the time of the year when where I really want to be is sitting under a palm tree sucking down rum drinks from little coconut shaped cups. With a house in Tennessee that’s not quite paying for itself and finally getting the costs of a cross country move into the just about paid off range, I’m grudgingly coming to accept that flying somewhere warm and tropical probably isn’t in the cards this year. And that makes me die just a little bit on the inside. I think I’m just having a hard time justifying that kind of vacation while paying someone else for the privilege of living in their house. Maybe my attitude on that will change if I still have a house in Memphis two or three years from now and on indefinitely into the future. I suppose that’s a first world problem and all, but still, I’ll miss my regularly scheduled rum punch marathon.

Since last year’s major vacation involved packing, moving, and unpacking an inordinate number of boxes I’m still determined to manage at least some time sitting on a beach somewhere. Maybe I’ll just pack it up for a long weekend and head to Atlantic City. If I’ve learned nothing else from MTV, it’s that New Jersey is full of tasty adult beverages and people in serious need of mocking. It might just be the best vacation ever.