You’re hardcore Jersey if the first time you saw the opening credits to The Sopranos you laughed your ass off. A recognized at least 95% of the locations. (I still say the finest representation of jersey on film in Buckaroo Banzai.)
Full disclosure: I have also been to Delicious Orchards, Mendoker’s, and American Harvest. Sigh. Parents live in East Brunswick, sister used to live in Jamesburg. The nearest good Mexican food is in New Brunswick.
Sandy Hook, parking lot G, make a right. Naked people.
I just spent a sunny week in a little house in Ortley Beach with my folksand my daughter. I haven’t been down that stretch of Route 35 in a long-ass time, and I was struck that some of the little towns are exactly as they were 30 years ago (Chadwick Beach, I think, was still wall-to-wall tiny little bungalows) while some have seemingly been almost complete turned over into McMansions and little apartment buidlings.
Yeah. Right. Like “New Brunswick City Hall”, and the Yoyodyne Plant that, by itself, is bigger than the district of Grover’s Mill. With freakin’ palm trees outside it . (In New Jersey. Right)
Ok, never been to Jersey, except maybe the airport but here’s my story.
Many years ago when I was in the Air Force, we were at one of those excruciating day long training events about political correctness. for starters we did one of those around the room introductions, first guy from Jersey says “I’m from Jersy.” Down the row a ways the 2nd guy says “condolences, I’m from Jersey too.” Down the row some more 3rd guy shares his Jersey condonlences and the 1st guy says “what are you talking about, I love Jersy.”
Ok, so later in the day the sergeant doing this lecture Has chosen Jersey #1 and is laying into him in a manner designed to piss anybody off. I could tell that most of the people in the room where getting angy even though it wasn’t being directed at us, and we knew that’s what he was trying to do, the sgt. was african american, and clearly trying to provoke th N-word. So this winds up with the sgt. saying something like “and this ends our meeting because I have an appointment.” Then he normalizes his voice and asks “how are you going to handle that?” Jersy #1 says “I think you’re going to be late for you appointment, 'cuz you’re going to have 4 flat tires.”
I took awhile for the laughter to die down, and hours later the sgt. was like “I can’t believe you said that.” What a hoot.
You’re on the West Coast and end up in a bar whose schtick is to have incredibly rude waitresses who constantly insult the customers. Except you don’t get the joke because you think they’re just being cheerful and outgoing.
I never saw the “Harold and Kumar” movie, doesn’t it have the same problem? Besides the Sopranos, does any movie or TV show set in Jersey make any efforts to film there? Garden State had some real Essex and Morris County exteriors, if I remember correctly. House seems really un-Princetony to me, but I’ve only seen it a few times.
[Favorite old school Jersey inside joke: a friend’s mom saw ex-governor Brendan Byrne give a speech somewhere. At some point he claimed to be Italian-American, saying “After all, I have an Italian last name.” Everyone started at him. “Brendan Byrnearena!”]
Well he is a huge Giant fan, he constantly does fund raising events for various Jersey causes, he is a fair actor, he sounds like a nice guy in interviews, I met him once and we talked Giants and baseball rather than music, great guy. I did not realize it was him until some younger women ran over for his autograph.
…
Then I hear his music and I remember what crap it is.
**Ichbin Dubist: ** Even Clerks II only had a few scenes from NJ, all the exteriors at the Mooby’s were in Southern California. Clerks was completely filmed in NJ however.
My damn post got eaten, must have been the Jersey Devil.
Hey there’s one, you know that the hockey team isn’t named after Satan.
Harold and Kumar got a lot wrong but it still made me homesick. I saw it in a military theater while I was deployed. Just to here them say they were going to New Brunswick (the city of my birth) and seeing the highway sign for it made my day. Of course they got most of it wrong. I don’t remember a White Castle in New Brunswick. If there was one and that one was closed wouldn’t you rather go to Green Brook or South Plainfield instead of going all the way to Cherry Hill?
Other than that it is worth it to see Neil Patrick Harris in his greatest role as…Neil Patrick Harris.
I’ve been on stage at the Pony twice, do I win the thread? No Bruce, though. Ah, you have to love Asbury Park. If your two big enthusiasms are salt water taffy and crack, it’s heaven.
I prefer all the other weird hamburger joints whose names begin with “White” to White Castle. Manna and Rose for starters.
If you played on the stage, I gladly give you the thread.
Just tell me when and what group? I might have been there.
I’ve been on stage more than once, but simply to help move stuff between acts for the Jazz & Blues Festival and a Clearwater Xmas Benefit around 1990.
I would guess I have been to the Pony somewhere over 50 and under 100 times.
I got pressed into security where they “made” me help form a human wall around the stage while Bruce was playing. That was pretty cool. He kept the Pony open well past 3am and the Police did not care.
The Pony is going away now, I have not been there for at least 8 years but I am still sad that it is going. It might already be gone, I am not sure.
Who remembers the Haunted Mansion on the Long Branch Pier, for that matter who remembers the Long Branch Pier?
I see we’ve managed to sucker in Hal Briston, so let’s go a little more obscure:
You know where to get “real” blueberries in Ocean County.
New Egypt ain’t a state like New Mexico, and it sure as hell ain’t Plumstead!
You’ve been to the “cranberry festival” and see no problem with eating cranberries raw.
Thanksgivings always have Laird’s Applejack in the cider. You know, for taste. Honestly.
You’ve played the one last slot to try and get toll money.
You knew how to get to Belmar from the Parkway without paying a toll.
Like everyone else at Stockton, you hate the smell of pine. (Aahhh… the good old days of Pine Tuna Fish, Pine Pepsi, and some Pine Chocolate Pudding!)
You’ve thought that Cape May in the winter was a good idea at one time.
7-11s seem to attract crowds, but only in the summer.
You know there are only 3 teeth in all of Keansburg.
East Windsor is MUCH different than West Windsor.
You’ve been on a school trip to High Point, Walpack, or both.
You have something with the name of Stockton State, Glassboro State, Trenton State, Upsala, or Montclair State College lying around your house.
Whipporwhill Valley Road. Nuff said.
When people say The Driscoll Bridge, you get a look like deer in the headlights, until they explain it’s the “one on the parkway”
Speaking of which, C-A-R-B-O-R-U-N-D-U-M. CARBORUNDUM. CARBORUNDUM. C-A-R…
Red Bank Register. Now it’s doctor’s offices.
You know the paper Geraldo had a piece of.
You’ve eaten at either a Vic’s or a Vito’s at least twice.
Diner food is the only food you can get since Denny’s closed. Only one IHOP existed in NJ at the time.
As an aside: What’s the difference between class and being some rich a-hole? Bruce answered the door to sign for his own UPS packages. Jon couldn’t be bothered, even though we needed HIS signature on the diad. House is decorated like shit, too. Italian reproductions of French baroque. His wife did all the decorating.
