"We Must Re-establish Who We Are..."

This is the NJ quote of the day from Tom Coughlin, coach of our Giants.  It sounds so Beowulf-ish - Giants versus Vikings this weekend!  Coach Tom gives us all something to think about this New Year's Eve, though.  Don't we all need to re-establish who we are? I don't know about you, but I could use a little re-focusing, some definition of purpose amid all the distractions.  It doesn't need to be a huge deal, but finding the center is very fulfilling and leads to better work and play.  Re-establish yourself in 2010!  Defeat your Vikings!

Viking Funeral

Today's Jersey Words:

"You just have to keep trying to do good work, and hope that it leads to more good work. I want to look back on my career and be proud of the work, and be proud that I tried everything. Yes, I want to look back and know that I was terrible at a variety of things."


...Jon Stewart, The Daily Show

Waterfront Property...

Do you remember this gateway on the Hoboken Piers?  Do you remember, "Let's go. Everyone works today"? If so, you could have been a contender for a vivid image from the New Jersey classic film On the Waterfront, filmed on Court Street in Hoboken in 1954.  The backstory, though, is something that maybe youse don't know.  That's why we needed Jim Fisher, historian and professor at Fordham University, to tell it in On the Irish Waterfront the real story of the fight for the soul of the ports of New York and New Jersey.

If you grew up any where in Hudson County, you know about the docks, now gentrified with condos and townshouses, that formed the commercial passageway to the largest market in the world.  The story of their dynamic is one of politics, greed, corruption, brute strength, and brute force.  It is also the story of  the psychomachia, the struggle between good and evil for the soul of man.
To me, On the Waterfront remains one of the great Catholic movies of all time, along with Dead Man Walking, Grand Torino, and Angels with Dirty Faces.  The "soul" of the film lies in the "This is My Church" speech given by Karl Malden in the character of Father Barry, the unofficial chaplain of waterfront labor.  Father Barry was based on the real-life "waterfront priest" Father John M. Corridan, S.J., a Jesuit priest, graduate of Regis High School who operated a Roman Catholic labor school on the West Side of Manhattan. Father Corridan, and the world of labor and ethnic politics that give him his context, is  the driving force behind both Fisher's book and the  classic movie.

New York - A striker points out something of interest to Rev. John M. Corridan, S.J., Associate Director of the Xavier School and adviser to dock strikers. The Rev. Corridan, a recognized expert in labor, said the Wildcat Dock Strike is largely a revolt against Joseph P. Ryan and the racketeers and mobsters along the waterfront. The Rev. also predicted that even if strikers return to work "an explosion is brewing on the waterfront which will make this strike seem like a picnic." (1951)

Don't miss On the Irish Waterfront.  It's a smart book about tough times, times that shaped national and local politics and made many people consider the working role of God in their lives.
 
Here are today's Jersey Words: 
 
"If you do it to the least of mine, you're doin' it to me....and only you, with God's help, have the power to knock him out for good."
 
     ...from the screenplay of On the Watefront by Budd Schulberg
 
Keep writing,
 
Maureen

On the Irish Waterfront...

Just in from Mark Dionno...

East Point Lighthouse, Port Norris, New Jersey 12/28/09

So, what do you think about all this Jersey Shore nonsense?  I just drove down the shore yesterday through the seasonal ghostowns of the absent rich.  I think this show gives a new meaning to the "Big Lemon" on the Seaside Boardwalk.

First Day on the Job!

Good Morning, New Jersey!

Welcome to Jersey Writers, home of Uncle Walt, Doc Williams, Queen Latifah, Muldoon at Princeton, Roth in Newark, Joe Weil in Elizabeth, and even that poet Bruce down the shore.  Join me on a journey that explores the images and words of our garden of a state where all sorts of juxtaposed stuff grows.  Let's own it and celebrate it, Jersey girls and guys.  Walt Whitman would have.
To be aboslutely honest and corny, I was influenced to start this blog by the movie Julie and Julia (though I was not influenced by the same film to debone a duck or make an aspic.)  What a great project Julie set for herself!
Some guidelines:

• This is a blog about New Jersey and its cultural outreach.  Let's stay on topic.
• Let's not be literary snobs. Where's the fun in that?  Martha Stewart is from Nutley and her cookie book is amazing. Check out those champagne glasses Lou Costello's "Who's on First?" is a classic looped 24/7 at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Bud and Lou  Everyone from New Jersey gets to play here.
• Do you want me to connect to your site or link?  Please let me know. 
• Let's keep sarcasm at a minimum.  This is not going to be a dark place on the internet.  I am not happy about the comments that follow newspaper articles online these days.  Mean-spirited, anonymous, cowardly junk.
• Send me stuff that you think is cool or important.  No stuff about work or politics.

Thank you for joining me here.

Here are today's Jersey Words:

" At the last second, poetry saves you,
  Undoing the knots of the dastardly villian
  Who has tied you up to the tracks of your life..."

                  ... from Villian by Joe Weil in The Plumber's Apprentice

Keep writing,

Maureen

PS:  The picture at the head of this blog was taken by me in Branch Brook Park, Newark, New Jersey.  In the foreground is a lion designed by Fredrick Law Olmstead, who also created Central Park in NYC and the lions in front of the public library and 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue..  In the background is the Cathedral  Basilica of the Sacred Heart, center of life for the Archdiocese of Newark.