thanks, you make a lot of sense. but for me it all boils down to
people living in the past and projecting their current
unhappiness/need to be fulfilled on a place incapable of fulfilling.
not because Asbury isn't a great place. because it isn't a therapist.
when you want life to be like it was 40 years ago, or when you were
21, you need a therapist. same goes for springsteen. expecting him to
be who he was when i was 11 is insane. i know i sound harsh on the
glory days seekers, but regardless of their intentions, they are
misplaced. take it to the couch. lots of things are magical to young
people (hopefully). if you have no magic in your life as an adult, you
probably bought the BS, fell into decisions you shouldn't have, care
too much about what others think of you and if you are keeping up with
the jones'.
and though i am no city planner, i feel secure in thinking that to
replicate ap in some shape of its former self would make no sense and
be economically unviable. we aren't the Americans we were 50 years ago
and thank god for that. i do think a ferris wheel would be a blast,
but the carnie fests are a fine substitute.
i am a little obsessed with thinking of asbury as a place created with
spiritual intentions. bradley moving beyond what he knew to create a
place of spirit which simply opened up another set of human issues to
deal with. which is what always happens when we grow, learn and
expand. i love to think of bradley and the sexual repression of the
time when gay friends talk about all the "sucking and f**king" that
went on all over the place in public in the desolate days...te hehehe.
can you imagine what those people would think of ap being a gay
community? delightful!
--- In AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com, "sandpiper15" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > what is hanging in my mind is this idea of the "promise" that
> > sandpiper pointed out to me, and my own lack of understanding about
> > how people have mythologized this place, expect so many things from
> it
> > etc.
>
> Well that's exactly it. Among outsiders, those who "remember"
> Asbury's "glory days" and wish for them to some day "come back" are
> doing just that - mythologizing. Baby boomers who spent their
> childhood summers in Asbury Park likely did so mostly on the
> boardwalk or the circuit, with the occasional foray onto the old
> Cookman. They were promised, via the chronological sleight-of-hand
> that is youth, that not only was Asbury Park a cotton-candy
> summertime fantasyland, but also that its status as such would last
> forever. They remember the technicolor images you see on the
> postcards for sale on eBay. The carousel and the tilt-a-whirl and the
> motorboats on Wesley Lake and the Skee-Ball and the ionized air of
> the bumper cars. But what 9 or 10 year old visitor in 1955 or 1960
> was going to stop to consider what life west of Main Street must be
> like? What postcard ever featured the segregated entrances to the
> Bangs Avenue school? If the last memory of actually being in Asbury
> Park that outsiders have is of riding the carousel and playing skee-
> ball, and that represented a very happy time in their lives, then the
> realization that those rides and amusements disappeared in such a
> violent and un-fantasy-like manner will naturally inspire the wistful
> hope for the return of that fantasyland to some degree. The promise
> was broken. They want it fulfilled.
>
> > I just can't understand being seemingly obsessed with ap's
> > progress or lack of when you don't live here. to the point of brutal
> > criticisms...
>
> I touched on this with Sharon a while back vis-a-vis New Orleans. You
> don't have to live someplace to either want desperately for it to
> succeed or to take delight in its failure. Asbury Park is,
> unwittingly, the figurative repository for all the hallmarks of the
> continuing "great experiment" that is America. Race, class,
> capitalism, aspirationalism, regionalism, crime, culture, government,
> etc. It's all there in one tiny square mile.
>
> > is it some sort of spiritual seeking? some sort of
> > quest/expectation...im not sure..but there is something seriously
> > dysfunctional in expecting anything outside of ourselves for some
> sort
> > of promised land.
>
> The mythical promised land, perhaps. But maybe some see in Asbury
> Park a chance to right finally get right what was for so long gotten
> wrong. One can argue interminably about the wisdom of such
> expectations or the chances of success. But certainly the desire is
> born not from malice.
>
> > the obsession with ap is as wacked to me as the
> > obsession with springsteen. don't get me wrong, i can still sing
> every
> > word to thunder road, but i am not a teen anymore. hes just a
> singer.
>
> He'd probably be the first to agree with you.
>
> > if you delight in the failure of this place or any
> > other....you are too sad for words. your lack of soul isn't asbury's
> > problem.
>
> The money quote. Nice.
>
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