defend the indefensible: new jersey

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the ride to princeton junction is really nice. i just did that in may.

― astor riviera (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 17:25 (twenty years ago)

There's this pretty kickass record store in like Pompton Plains. The guy who runs it just does it as a hobby, so it's only open when he doesn't have to be at his day job. Also, it's kind of hard to find (even though it seemed to be on kind of a main street). Good place, though.

― willpie (willpie), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 18:00 (twenty years ago)

I think the place your talking about is called "Music Music Music"--it's on Rt 23. The owner is a super nice guy. He has a ton of vinyl but a lot of it is in bad shape and it's kinda hard to browse since it's all on tall shelves. Worth a look if you're in the area, though.

― Keith C (lync0), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 19:40 (twenty years ago)

I'd be happy to take a carload of people down from here to Princeton as well - though if you're coming from NYC it's probably easier to take the train.

Yeah, I heart Macawber's as well. I don't understand the love for PJ's, but I only went there once. Maybe I just got a bad batch or something.

I also think Small World Coffee is some of the best coffee I've had.

It'd also be fun to picnic at Grounds for Sculpture if it weren't getting colder now (and also I don't know if they're still open this late in the year).

― Hurting (Hurting), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 02:25 (twenty years ago)

BTW, does anyone ever go to Conduit in Trenton? I played there once like a long while ago when they first reopened it, but there was no one there, in spite of the fact that the headliner was Clem Snide. Seemed like it was hard to get people to come to that area or something.

― Hurting (Hurting), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 02:26 (twenty years ago)

What about Sound Exchange on Rt. 23? I used to go there and stare at Pop Will Eat Itself weird shaped vinyl and Can CDs, all way expensive. And Twonky Video/Neet Stuff in Somerville, that's a weird place. Amazing video collection, some wacky stuff but you pick up a broken toy off the ground and they're like "that's 30 dollars".

and Cafe Soundz! How many times to I have to mention it? That's how I met Morgan Geist and James Plotkin. And it's still there.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 02:35 (twenty years ago)

When I first came to New Brunswick we had Cheap Thrills - pretty good store, in fact. But New Brunswick is the kiss of death for record stores. Even the Sam Goody closed.

― Hurting (Hurting), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 02:42 (twenty years ago)

morristown used to have a hardcore ghetto. so it's not ALL soccer MILFs!

The Hollow, right near Headquaters mall.

I'm flying home to NJ for 2 days tomorrow; I can't wait to stop & get some real bagels for breakfast, and then drive to the next strip mall for some Dunkin Donuts coffee. And take my 2.5 year old neice to a diner for lunch! She already understands that you only ever order breakfast food and the toast has to arrive soaked in butter and it's important to sit around & talk for a few hours. She's a big chatterbox, so she's down with it. I think we're probably going to the Chester diner.

― lyra (lyra), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 03:09 (twenty years ago)

disco fries!

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 06:29 (twenty years ago)

aww yeah.

(disco fries was my name on friendster!)

― astor riviera (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 10:40 (twenty years ago)

What about Sound Exchange on Rt. 23?

I never really liked this place, although it was the go-to "indie" store in the area. Did you ever go to The Flip Side in Pompton Lakes, Dan? That was my source for thrash and hardcore cassettes in the late 80's.

Best NJ record store not yet mentioned on this thread is Vintage Vinyl on Rt. 1 near Edison. Used to have a ton of cheap vinyl in the back, these days the stock is not as impressive but it's still a good store.

Did anyone ever go to the converted diner in New Brunswick (on French St) that was a record store? It was only vinyl--the place was a mess and the owner was pretty eccentric. Good finds in there, though. I have no idea if it's there anymore, I doubt it.

― Keith C (lync0), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 12:03 (twenty years ago)

I grew up in Morristown and I'm glad I did. High School was a real meltingpot. After I left and got to know kids who grew up in New England and the midwest they seemed really under-exposed to me.

― steve ketchup, Wednesday, 19 October 2005 14:18 (twenty years ago)

xpost Whoa, I went to that diner/record store once. It was a very very surreal experience - in fact I'd almost forgotten about it. I think the place was only open like two hours a day and/or by appointment. He had some strange militia-type paraphernalia on his door, and he was a very odd guy. Nothing was in any kind of order, just piles and shelves of records. I almost bought a record called "Black Dick for President" from him, just because it was called "Black Dick for President"

I never liked Vintage Vinyl all that much, mostly just because I got a weird vibe from the people there like I wasn't buying the "right" kind of music. There was also Curmudgeon off Route 27, which is now gone as well.

― Hurting (Hurting), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 14:55 (twenty years ago)

Ahh, Curmudgeon... I got some great Throbbing Gristle LPs there for like 2 bucks each.

Last christmas when I was back in Jersey visiting family, I got to introduce my wife and my parents to disco fries -- an overwhelming success!

― ianinportland (ianinportland), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 15:22 (twenty years ago)

I can't believe all the Morristown people on this thread. Craziness.

― lyra (lyra), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 15:34 (twenty years ago)

The first time I went to Vintage Vinyl it was amazing, it looked like a Sam Goody for metal-heads but I picked up the Xpressway Vision video and some Sun City Girls records. I've gone back on trips down to Philly to DJ and found it mostly only good for the occasional good classic rock or freestyle dollar record.

Never went to Flipside.

Nobody's mentioned Planet X yet, a techno store in New Brunswick during the early days of techno stores.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 15:41 (twenty years ago)

Wait, there was a techno record store on Easton Ave in New Brunswick, but I don't remember what it was called. It was really small and had almost no records, thereby convincing my friends and I that it was a drug front.

― Hurting (Hurting), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 15:43 (twenty years ago)

One time I went to the diner/record store the guy was playing a cassette tape of some radio call-in show. But he kept rewinding it every 5-10 seconds or so and repeating the same part. It was freaky as hell. The stuck-up clerks at other stores have nothing on that guy, nothing.

― Keith C (lync0), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 16:46 (twenty years ago)

I'm going ice skating tomorrow or Saturday:
http://parks.morris.nj.us/parks/mennenmain.htm

It's freezing out here tonight! I think it's in the lower 40s outside the house right now.

― lyra (lyra), Thursday, 20 October 2005 22:54 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

if anyone REALLY wants to do a trip-to-princeton FAP (or something), please post here!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 28 November 2005 02:55 (twenty years ago)

eisy eis: i'd probably be down depending on timing

also, i'm not going to bother with this thread bt fuck anyone who didn't stick up for the home of both nervous and redman

― nervous (cochere), Monday, 28 November 2005 03:03 (twenty years ago)

with reading the old posts on this thread, obviously. and eis by timing i meant that it'd have to be at least past the first week/week and a half of december

― nervous (cochere), Monday, 28 November 2005 03:03 (twenty years ago)

if anyone REALLY wants to do a trip-to-princeton FAP (or something), please post here!

i'm down for that, but it depends when. late december is better for me too.

― athol fugard (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 28 November 2005 03:13 (twenty years ago)

also, yeah, wd be better for me if the P stood for PREX or the like instead of pub bc of age issues. or if there were any good shows in the area, etc

― nervous (cochere), Monday, 28 November 2005 03:17 (twenty years ago)

late december/early january would be ideal for me. and yes, we can avoid pubbing -- it isn't like princeton is a big party town!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 28 November 2005 03:22 (twenty years ago)

best state song ever?

― tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Monday, 28 November 2005 04:23 (twenty years ago)

My gf heard that song for the first time recently and came up with a pretty good idea for the new license plate slogan: "New Jersey: Brag About It!"

― Abbadabba Berman (Hurting), Monday, 28 November 2005 04:37 (twenty years ago)

i've always been fond of john gorka's jersey anthem:

http://s46.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=06TDVYG96WUR2XPFLIG7Z8F7M

― athol fugard (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 28 November 2005 04:49 (twenty years ago)

Best thing I've ever read about the song "Born to Run," i.e. "Springsteen is a liar":

http://nypress.com/18/47/listings/music.cfm

(I too was a NJ teen Bruce hater in the author's era)

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 28 November 2005 14:43 (twenty years ago)

xp to JBR, eis: we'll start a nj fap thread soon enough, at least as soon as i figure out when i'll be back in the area

― nervous (cochere), Monday, 28 November 2005 21:58 (twenty years ago)

i'd like to go to princeton sometime in january, i'd prolly have enough money to make it worth the trip to the record exchange then.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 28 November 2005 22:15 (twenty years ago)

shit stence. i'm back at school in january
sometime between dec 10 and the end of the month is looking to be best for me

― nervous (cochere), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 00:01 (twenty years ago)

unsurprising from NY Press, but that article is extraordinarily dumb

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 00:07 (twenty years ago)

xpost I'm not a big fan of Springsteen either, but that criticism seems a bit of a stretch - it doesn't really matter if boardwalk jobs were plentiful on the Jersey Shore in the late 70s. The song is about that teenage urge to feel "free" (and also about seduction), and people have that no matter where they grow up.

― Abbadabba Berman (Hurting), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 00:17 (twenty years ago)

What gabbneb said.

Anyway, if Springsteen is guilty of some kind of false populism, the populace sure doesn't seem to see through it.

― Abbadabba Berman (Hurting), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 00:18 (twenty years ago)

a) only confessional songwriters are artists
b) I have already recognized that "a" may not be true, but surely you won't press me on it
c) Bruce Springsteen in 1975 was not a confessional songwriter
ergo, d) Bruce Springsteen is not an artist
e) while it has occurred to me that there may be a connection between songwriting and literature, it has not occurred to me that the narrator of a song may be unreliable
f) anyway, hold on, I need to change the subject on some anti-elitist GOP-talking-point subtext shit

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 00:25 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, some of those were also points I was going to raise. I also don't know for a fact that none of Bruce Springsteen's material is confessional, and since this guy doesn't even like Springsteen, I doubt he knows that either.

And also, fuck the NYPress.

― Abbadabba Berman (Hurting), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 00:28 (twenty years ago)

the most obvious flaw of the article is clearly the fact that it seems like he's mostly talking about summer. I mean, even the wealthiest tourist beach communities are depressing as fuck 10 months out of the year.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 01:09 (twenty years ago)

hey folks, if you do a princeton/prex FAP, ill gladly give you a tour of WPRB.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 01:22 (twenty years ago)

ahh fuck, we should just rent a van/large car for a day and drive all over the state.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 01:23 (twenty years ago)

and yes, we can avoid pubbing -- it isn't like princeton is a big party town!

no trip to princeton is complete without a visit to the annex.

also, RIP PIZZA COLORE.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 01:35 (twenty years ago)

If the weather were warmer, I'd say we should picnic at Grounds for Sculpture.

― Abbadabba Berman (Hurting), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 01:48 (twenty years ago)

i wish terrace club were still throwing awesome shows/parties.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 18:36 (twenty years ago)

best state song ever?

last wednesday on WFMU they played every single variation of this song (as performed by the chordblenders, natch). eventually they just stopped after the third line where they mention the city, figuring everyone got the idea after about 20 listens of the same song. it was glorious.

i miss princeton. sandwiches at hoagie haven are U+K if jerseyFAP '05 ('06?) gets off the ground.

― joseph (joseph), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 07:06 (twenty years ago)

lets do this SOON.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 07:21 (twenty years ago)

Where is the good mexican food in jerz, people?

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 07:35 (twenty years ago)

http://www.njguido.com/

― bingo (Chris V), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 11:36 (twenty years ago)

FAJIC (fancy a joey's in clifton?)

― joseph (joseph), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 14:21 (twenty years ago)

Where is the good mexican food in jerz, people?

-- Forksclovetofu (forksclovetof...), November 30th, 2005.

El Oaxaqueno in New Brunswick is pretty good if you're looking for something "authentic". They make a mean mole sauce, and there are lots of items in Spanish only on their menu that I'm not sure what they are (one of them is grasshopper tacos).

― Abbadabba Berman (Hurting), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 14:40 (twenty years ago)

i second el oaxaqueno. how about a new brunswick FAP? then we could totally hang out at the menlo park mall, check out the grave in the loews theatre parking lot and other zany central jersey stuff.

i kid.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 15:57 (twenty years ago)

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