#Jersey review

[rey-129-fan]

Well, it's been a while since I've posted any fanfic... Let's change that.

Good news! I'm not dead! My brain did try to get me to do things that could unalive myself for a bit, and then I lost nearly an entire side of my family over the span of 3 years, but I'm still here and still kicking! And I have two new puppies who are adorable and so loving.

Now for this story, this is inspired by a few posts I saw on @theglamorousferal, mostly the one about Amity Parkers going to college in Gotham and buying a hotel (I'm making it a co-op student house, but I've never lived in one, so if something's unacceptably wrong, tell me, if not, artistic license), but also the one where our main Trio buy a building to set up shop there, and wind up adopted my Jason (I swear, I saw that post after I wrote the first chapter, but it just fit so well).

***

Honestly, Amity Park was weird long before the Fentons moved there- the original settlers named the nearby lake Eerie, and it wasn’t after the Great Lake.  It’s just that before the Fentons’ machine punched a hole through reality and created a permanent doorway to the land of spirits and ghosts, the weirdness was not as blatant.

Prior to that, Amity Parkers were some of the few that could move to Gotham without suffering a breakdown that was common for new arrivals.  Now there was a slight dip in newcomers for about a decade or two after the Bat made his debut and then the crazies that followed him, but then Amity Parkers got used to the spirits of the dead wandering around following the aforementioned punching through reality.

All this to say that Gotham Universities were a rather common destination for young Amity Park adults seeking higher education.

Now because of this, there were always apartments advertising themselves for people from the small town.  They, after all, tended to not have a breakdown after their fifth rogue attack and just pack up and leave halfway through their lease.  But it got very annoying having to sift through all the advertisements when looking for a place to stay- something Danny Fenton saw his older sister go through when she got in to Gotham City University.  The boy then shared what he was witnessing with his two best friends- Tucker Foley and Sam Manson.  Tucker offered to help filter out the spam, which Danny’s sister Jazz thanked him for but turned down.  Sam… Sam instead got thinking.

Sam had been to Gotham a few times in her life.  She had an idea of the areas closest to the schools and how much those should cost.  And looking at the letters Jazz was getting, the offers were a little too high for a regular college student to afford.  Sam was also familiar with how many hotels were not being used in Gotham- people building them in hopes tourists would come to stay while visiting the East Coast, tourists that could not be convinced to visit due to the high crime rate and the lack of activities or places of interest in the city itself.

She quickly went to work, looking in to these empty hotels.  She was rather upset by their numbers and put together a spreadsheet of them, with details like number of rooms, any amenities they may have, and nearby landmarks.  She then grabbed her two dorks and marched to Casper High’s Community Outreach director.

Now Sam’s presentation raised a few eyebrows, mostly because it was in a completely different state, but Sam shot back that because of the efforts to incorporate the town’s new ghostly residents and provide them with helpful ways to feed their obsessions- efforts led by the Fenton family- Amity Park had very few homeless, and those that were had a huge community safety net to help them get back on their feet.  Additionally, with how many people moved between the city and the town, helping the city could be argued to also be helping the town.

The Outreach Director just sighed and gave Same the green light to at least draft and send out a proposal to the powers that be in Gotham, saying that there wasn’t much that could be done before they got backing and approval.  Sam thanked them before leaving, Danny and Tucker trailing behind.

She was back the next day with a draft of her proposal and a list of who to send it to.

***

Since returning from the dead in the eyes of the public, Jason Todd was often contacted by groups trying to use the Wayne fortune to fund their own personal projects.  They thought Jason would be the easiest to con- sorry, persuade- since he was a former street kid unlike the rest of his family.  Thus surely he would know just how much this new building with low income housing would help the people of Gotham- it even came with a pool and gym!

Yeah, he did know how much the people of Gotham needed housing, but $2K a month was not affordable when you’re barely making $30K a year!  Oh and the pool and gym were only available for those who could shell out an additional $2K a month.  Jason knows, he read the whole document carefully.

God, sometimes it was hard to tell who was worse, the psychos in Blackgate or real estate investors.  And sadly, he couldn’t just pop a bullet in their heads and be done with it because 1) it would raise too many questions and 2) it would make Bruce get all sad and mopey- again.  Jason just did not have the mental energy to put up with that on top of the rest of his life as a crimelord/vigilante/long-lost adoptive second son of a billionaire.

All this to say, he was not impressed when he first glanced over a proposal to convert the unused hotels around the city into housing units- especially since it was from someone that did not live in Gotham.

Manson?  Wasn’t there a family with that name that would attend some of Brucie’s galas?  Oh yeah, their family made its fortune off patenting the machine that wrapped toothpicks in plastic, as well as a couple others.  And they had a daughter around Repla- Tim’s age.  Hopefully this wasn’t her trying to be a kiss-ass like her parents.

Jason finished reading and sat back.  The proposal wasn’t too bad.  Converting hotels into apartment buildings would be easier than office buildings, and the suggestion to use ex-convicts that wanted to turn over a new leaf as building managers certainly wasn’t the worst.  Also creating a fund for those that couldn’t afford rent, as well as community kitchens and gardens were certain plusses, though would need to have the right people in charge to make sure they actually worked as planned, and to keep the Court of Owls from messing with it.

Overall, it was something Jason would consider, after some research and maybe talking with the rest of the Bats and Birds.  And if this was from the Manson kid, maybe get Dickie or one of the others to talk to her next time there was a gala in town.  Or talk to her himself, if the Pit wasn’t too loud.

…Dick was probably the better option to talk with her if it came down to it.

***

There's the first chapter. I'm going to go write the next one. When I have a good log of them, I'll then go and edit them and put them on AO3.

This has no title yet because I suck at naming. Feel free to comment with suggestions for a name, both for the fic/au and for the eventual hotel/co op. As well as any shinanegans and majors/colleges/universities for our liminal young adults.

Part 1/? Next >

[boxwinebaddie]

i regret to inform y’all that if you thought jersey’s favorite movie was something deep and complex…it’s actually mamma mia and mamma mia two: here we go again

[freshthoughts2020]

[eregyrn-falls-art]

Time for this year's Art Year in Review!

All during this year I have felt like I was struggling to get anything done. So looking back on it, I'm surprised to find that I did more this past year than I did in 2021. (Still not up to the levels of 2020 though.) The VAST majority of it was due to one project: the 10th Anniversary piece in June (48 pictures, 87 individuals, done in 9 days). If not for that, the year's total would have been pretty pathetic; I even wrapped up the year just doing some updated character-redraws of old pieces. But... I *did* do that, and probably burned myself out a bit doing it, so credit to myself where it's due.

Totals: 72 pieces (22 of them full backgrounds and color); 164 individuals.

I hope 2024 is better all around.

Links below the cut.

2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017

January: D&D character commission: Air Genasi

February: GF Finale anniversary piece

March: Pines Family and Winter Plaidypus

April: GF 10 Years Later Zine piece (taking the kids to meet the Jersey Devi)

May: Paper Ford at the Fairy Nail Salon commission

June: Gravity Falls 10th Anniversary: Let's See How Far We've Come

July: Disco Boys in Scary-oke

August: Dipper & Mabel's Birthday 2022

Sept: Indiana Stan and Professor Ford (Indy redraw #2)

Oct: Stan and Ford meet the Jersey Devil teaser

Nov: Stan and Ford meet the Cornstalk Men (update)

Dec: Stan and Ford vs. the Krampus (update)

Template by @mossygator

[admiralgiggles]

The use of conversational tone plus the relatability of his stories made me feel like I was listening to a friend, and who doesn’t appreciate that kind of a connection with an author?!

If you’re in need of some laughs like I was, then I highly recommend “Clear as Clay.” *Props to Baby Lombardi for helping out with revisions.

[thatgeekwiththeclipons]

Happy 54th Birthday to filmmaker Kevin Smith! ^__^

[thebowerypresents]

Mannequin Pussy Bring Terrific New Album to Sold-Out Brooklyn Steel

Mannequin Pussy – Brooklyn Steel – May 16, 2024

Maybe you hadn’t seen them before. Maybe someone brought you. Maybe you were there alone. If any of the above applied, Mannequin Pussy heard you. They get you. If there was an overarching message at Brooklyn Steel on Thursday night, it was that you were welcome. More than welcome: You were invited to scream. Literally. 

Marisa Dabice, lead vocalist, reprised a Mannequin Pussy standby — an overture to the audience to recognize their anger, embrace it and move it out of their systems. In a breathy voice that built to pure id, Dabice, to cheers and whoops, declared the world of politicians and the like all pure “bullshit.” This was an evocative moment and also a marker in a set that built shockingly linearly from the anthemic indie feels to the raw power reminiscent of older albums that made Mannequin Pussy must-see. 

The yearning of “Sometimes” gave way to “Loud Bark” gave way to “Aching” gave way to “Clams” — the first three off Mannequin Pussy’s new LP, I Got Heaven. A steady turnup that I’m sure was carefully planned. Dabice was a vision, keeping the energy hot and heightened. And I hope the band’s heights were realized. Looking at the sold-out crowd of deeply loyal listeners, some made that very night, I’d say they were. —Rachel Brody | @RachelCBrody

(Mannequin Pussy play Union Transfer in Philadelphia on Sunday.)

(Mannequin Pussy play Union Transfer in Philadelphia on 5/22.)

(Mannequin Pussy play Union Transfer in Philadelphia on 5/23.)

(Mannequin Pussy play Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park, N.J., on 9/27.)

Photos courtesy of Edwina Hay | thisisnotaphotograph.com

[lonestarbattleship]

USS NEW JERSEY (BB-16) in full dress during the Atlantic Fleet Review.

Photographed on October 3, 1911.

NARA: 55171564

[immigrationlawyernewjersey]

When it comes to legal representation, experience matters. Trust the Law Offices of Dizengoff and Yost to advocate for you with the knowledge and skill necessary for a successful outcome.

[stromer]

new jersey devils?? no. new jersey ipad kids

[razorsadness]

LYNDA HULL (1954–1994)

Lynda Hull, like Walt Whitman, not to mention Dorothy Parker, William Carlos Williams, Allen Ginsberg, W. S. Merwin, Anne Waldman, Patti Smith, & Amiri Baraka, was born on the mystifying planet of New Jersey. Hull’s poems dazzle like the lighter fluid inside the sturdy, stainless steel lighter she stole from her father, a spout of spitfire, when she ran away from home at sixteen. “I remember this the way I’d remember a knife against my throat: that night, after the overdose, you told me to count, to calm myself,” Hull writes in “Counting in Chinese,” a poem derived, one assumes, from Hull’s years high as the moon on the lam in Chinatown, married to an outlaw gambler from Shanghai. Taking up her pen & mostly laying down her syringe, Hull was divorced & remarried to a poet by 1984, living on fugitive wonder & figurative language, lines of Hopkins & Akhmatova in Arkansas &, later, Indiana. Hull sometimes read her poems wearing dangling earrings & ankle-strapped high heels with her flapper’s hairdo dyed the same color as her beret. In addition to lighter fluid, Hull’s poems display the properties of rain just before it evaporates. Hull’s poems hold saltwater: “Tide of Voices” in Ghost Money (1986), “Shore Leave” in Star Ledger (1991); “Rivers into Seas” in The Only World (1995), published a year after her death in a car crash in Provincetown a few miles from the beach. When she wakes on the other side, Hull spends the hours she’s not writing poetry mulling figures of wonder with holy wine while listening to fugitive jazz. Sometimes Bird appears with his horn on the cover of Ornithology. Having retained her uncanny ability to channel varieties of sound, Hull scats to Bird like Ella Fitzgerald wiping sweat from her brow. Sometimes ghosts come by. When she was alive, Hull memorized the entirety of “The Bridge,” a fifty-six-page multi-section poem about the Brooklyn Bridge written by Hart Crane, Hull’s favorite poet, in 1923 when he was twenty-three & working as a copywriter in Cleveland, nine years before his suicide. Hart Crane comes by sometimes. Hull regales him with passages of “The Bridge” long into the eternal evening.

—Terrance Hayes, from “Two Tributes” (Boston Review, October 2021)

[arthurdrakoni]

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth imagines an alternate 1940s where Charles Lindbergh has been elected President of the United States. This is my review.

I have a bit of a habit about putting books that are popular or widely praised. I don't consciously avoid them, it just kind of happens that way. Still, I get around to them eventually. Occasionally they're underwhelming, but more often than not, I do genuinely enjoy them. Such is the case with The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. 

The Plot Against America begins in an alternate 1940. Celebrity aviator Charles Lindbergh has been elected President of the United States in a landslide victory over incumbent president Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Lindbergh has pledged to keep America out of the war in Europe and the Pacific. In fact, he's signed a non-aggression treaty with Germany and Japan. Still, many Americans, particularly Jewish American, worry that Lindbergh is getting a little too chummy with the Axis Powers. The story follows the turbulent years of the Lindbergh Administration through the eyes of young Philip Roth and his family.

This was one of those books that wasn't too high on my reading list until it was. I can't say what exactly prompted me to give this one a try. Maybe it was the miniseries adaption that HBO put out. I haven't watched the miniseries yet, but I do plan to. Maybe it was the various alternate history Facebook groups I take part in. Maybe it was something else entirely. Honestly, I can't really say. I will say that this book being part of the Audible Plus Catalogue was a nice bonus. Audible Plus is a new thing that Audible is doing. It's like Netflix, but with audiobooks.

Whatever the reason, I finally gave The Plot Against America a try, and I loved it. You will occasionally see literary fiction authors dip their toes into speculative fiction. However, this is the first time I've seen a literary fiction author try their hand at alternate history. Philip Roth ruffled some feathers when he made some comments that seemed to imply that he believed that he had invented the concept of alternate history. I haven't seen exactly where that went down, so I won't really comment on that.

I will say that Roth does an excellent job of combining his signature style with the alternate history setting. I took a look at some of Roth's other books in order to compare the writing style, and The Plot Against America defiantly fits the mold. There are segments of the book that almost feel weirdly nostalgic at times. Roth describes daily life in 1940s New Jersey in such loving detail, it can be easy to forget that you're reading an alternate history novel. And yes, this is a Philip Roth book, so it is pretty much required to take place in New Jersey.

One aspect I liked is that Jewish Americans are not a united front against Lindbergh. Sure, there are plenty, like the Roth family, who are weary of his policies, and actively push back against him. However, there are also Jews who are supportive of Lindbergh, or at least, believe he isn't that bad and can be reasoned with. Minorities are not a monolith, so I felt this added more realism. 

I guess this book goes to show that you can still do interesting things with World War II alternate history than just the typical Nazi Victory scenarios. 

Have you read The Plot Against America?  If so, what did you think?

Link to the full review on my blog: https://drakoniandgriffalco.blogspot.com/2021/12/book-review-plot-against-america-by.html?m=1

[lovingmusicalmen]

I've been watching so much theatre lately, and I really just want to talk about it and analyse the musicals and plays I've seen and my family and friends are fully done listening to me talk about it... if I set up like a completely separate blog to talk about the shows I see and kinda review them I guess? From like a theatre nerd POV, or do a podcast or something... would that be something anyone would be interested in?

Because I really want to talk about like major specifics of the shows I've seen lately - Six, Newsies, Bonnie and Clyde, Jersey Boys, Heathers... but I don't want to bore my family and friends but I figured there might be an audience for it somewhere on here?

... or maybe set up a discord server to talk about it or something?? I dunno, it was just a thought - let me know if anyone would be interested in that kinda thing from my hyper focused musical nerd brain 😂😅

[bisexualspongebob]

all i really care about lately are craize sweet corn crackers, lengthy youtube essays, shadow the hedgehog, and the bi transfemme top who treated me SO fucking well last night

[admiralgiggles]

I never knew I needed a noir anthology of Jersey based stories, but here we are. Over all, it was a good read, even if you don’t hail from the Garden State. My favorite was “New Day Newark” by S.J. Rozan. It’s about a 70 year old lady named Miss Crawford who’s tired of the rival gangs taking over her street corners and influencing the impressionable youth, so she conspires a plan to take them all down.

I don’t remember I how I found this book, but I’m sure glad I did.

[gayhomolesbian]

Mira's burger review #2

chimney rock inn in new jersey. hoo boy, the burger was filling, a decent prince, and fucking amazing. 8/10. I'd give it a 9, but the burger was a bit greasy, and mildly unpleasant to hold, but so good nonetheless. good job chimney rock inn.