NJ Day 2 - Music, Memoribillia, and Making Connections
Today's morning Joe came from Greene's Beans in Sparta (NJ, not Greece). The coffee was really good, but I felt a bit over priced. I'm still glad I went because the place has a very cute, homey vibe, full of homemade crafts and chocolates.After that I went to the Morris Museum- which just blew my mind. There's no unifying thread but every individual exhibit was amazing. The big draw is the Guinness collection of music boxes and automata. Murtagh Guinness was a wealthy member of the brewery dynasty, whose passions was automated musical instruments and figurines, and he bequeathed his entire collection to be a public exhibit. I didn't know I could like guinness more. The collection was so fascinating in the way these weird little devices are tied to the the historical rise of the middle class, technological advancements, changing tastes in music, and social satire, It's really insane. I'll be honest the tinny music isn't super appealing but it's all just so damn impressive how it works, and the designs of every instrument and automaton are just beautiful works of art.
Other exhibits included: dinosaurs, geology, a historical mansion, and lots of art. THe two artisitc exhibitions that stood out to me was one feature on an artist named Ysabel Lemay who specialized in a form of art called hypercollage where she digitally manipulated several images into a larger picture:
The other art exhibit was called Combat Paper, and featured art by several veterans on special paper made out of old army uniforms. Naturally the stencils and paintings tended to touch on pretty heavy topics, but there was something very beautiful about witness catharsis through art. It might also have hit me particularly emotionally since one of my younger cousins just started boot camp.
From there I went to Red Bank because that's where Kevin's Smith's comic book store is. I grew up watching his movies and they inspired me that it was possible to just be a dork with a knack for funny dialog and succeed. The store was filled with lots of memorabilia as well as a wide array of comics. It was almost closing time when I got there so I didn't buy anything but that was good because I probably would have geeked out and spent too much money if given the opportunity
I had dinner at Oriental Empire. It was really good Chinese food. I had the house chow mein, which was loaded with veggies, chicken, pork, and shrimp. The service was also great. I was very impressed by the level headedness of the waiter as a guy complained that he got salmon eggs even though thats what he ordered because he thought sushi had to always be fish. I can't imagine how rude you have to be to tell someone who speaks a language you don't that they gave you the wrong thing.
For dessert I went to Luigi's Ice Cream. Their specialty was the creamy bun which was insane and not for the faint of heart. A glazed donut is cut in half and filled with two scoops of ice cream of your choice (I got PB cup and Nutella) then you get a choice of topping, they warm it up a teensy bit and then there's more topping. It would probably be better to split with two people, but I was young and foolish then. I enjoyed every minute of it, but not so much the minutes afterwards when I had to drag my sagging belly to the comedy show.
It wasn't an open mic, but a showcase at Roxy and Duke's Roadhouse. Just a super cool venue, it was filled with eccentric decorations and the stage looked like an old-fashioned burlesque club.
There was a weird crowd, because the biggest contingent was a church group. They were willing to go with a surprising amount given stereotypes of a church group but for the most part they weren't into anything that was too raunchy.
Comics were pretty good despite the crowd. I missed the first chunk because of traffic. I saw Shafer Ward and Kate Ireland from the night before. I thought they were very excellent both nights. My favorite bit of Shafer's was about being two poor stick up to a racist gas attendant because he was getting a good deal. Kate did a great bit about depression which was prabably the best mental health related bit I've seen at any show on this trip.We hung out for a long time afterwards. They were so down to earth, really informative and fun. Kate's pretty new to stand up but Shafer's been doing it for a while but they both were clearly big fans of stand up and had cool perspectives on it.
My favorite comic of the night was Dominé Spinelli. She was clearly working on new material but she just had the stage presence down and she knew how to get the church crowd more than anyone else which was pretty impressive. She did a bit about cheating on casual relationships that they were not into at all so she acknowledged that they weren't into it. but later she called back to it, and wore them down and they were laughing about it by the end of the night. But the way she did it was cool, because she found a way to get them to laugh at something they disagreed with by doing it on their terms.
Interesting counterpoint: There was an anti-comic named Joseph Winehouse, who was doing some Andy Kaufmann/ Neil Hamburger type stuff. I thought he was super funny, but he was not gonna do his act on any one else's terms. I'm a bit torn about that, because in some ways the joke really works because of that total commitment, but that does mean that it's not gonna land hard in some places.
Favorite joke of the night: Joseph Winehouse: "Did you know that you're supposed to bring a rooster to a cock fight? Won't make that mistake twice."
Favorite random sightings: Sushi Ya (read in Ilana from Broad City's voice); A bumper sticker that said "No Bama for this Mama" and then an old man driving the car; Cheesequake State Park; PHOle; A Time to Kiln
Regional Observations: New Jersey highways have so many more lanes than New England highways, and somehow they're still all full.
Albums Listened To: Dance (A$$) Remix by Big Sean Ft. Nicki Minajl Dark Matter by Randy Newman (new album); Darkness on the Edge of Town by Bruce Springsteen (very fitting, and goddamn Badlands is a great album opener); Darwin Deez by Darwin Deez (just radar detector); David Comes to Life by Fucked Up; Daydream by the Lovin' Spoonful (some big tonal shifts album to album); Dead in Brooklyn by Vic Ruggiero
People's Favorite Jokes:
What did the turtle say to the merchant? And what do you shell
If Miss-ouri and Miss-issippi wore a New Jersey, what did Dela-ware? Idaho Alaska. (I guess my aunt that said it the first time didn't have the whole picture)
A string walked into a bar and ordered a beer. The bartender said “We don’t serve strings in here”. The string went out to the alley behind the bar and threw himself around in a frustrated rage, tying himself into a knot, covering himself with dirt and leaving himself in tatters. He marched back into the bar and demanded a beer. The bartender scrutinised him and asked “Aren’t you the string that was in here a little while ago?” The string replied “I’m a frayed knot”
Song of the Day:
Here's a video dedicated to a great world leader. I hope all of you like it. I know he will. -Randy Newman
