LifeStyle NEW JERSEY
SPRING 2013
The Essence of Spring RE-DO AC • SPRING HOME & DESIGN ROYALTY ON THE VENTNOR BOARDWALK • FAMOUS NJ
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“There she is, Miss America. There she is, your ideal. The dream of a million girls who are more than pretty can come true in Atlantic City. For she may turn out to be the Queen of femininity.”
THE • VIEW
She’s Back!
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hankfully they kept the iconic statute of Bert Parks firmly rooted at the Atlantic City Sheraton. From 1955 to 1979, the legendary Mr. Parks enjoyed the prime moments of his career hosting Miss America in Atlantic City. His classic song (“Here She Comes, Miss America”) will always be the music that presents the new Miss America as she is officially crowned. Six years ago, Atlantic City yielded this classic event to none other than Las Vegas after a famous run of over ninety years. Now we learn that the famed Miss America Pageant has indeed returned to the bright lights of our area; a good piece of news in a time when good news is noticeably lacking. “For decades, the Miss America organization has awarded scholarships to thousands of young women to help further their goals of higher education and achieve their dreams,” said New Jersey Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno. “We are confident that Atlantic City’s famous boardwalk and variety of restaurants, shops, and entertainment venues will showcase the city’s vibrancy and attraction to the participants and many visitors that will attend the Miss America Pageant every year.” This turn of events is not exactly going to be a classic game changer for Atlantic City, but it is certainly a celebrated win for our region. Miss America belongs in Atlantic City and, hopefully, this will be the case forever. So this September, plan a visit to the boardwalk for the welcoming return of the historic parade. You might just get a glimpse of your favorite contestant, and a peek at her funky shoes. Now it’s time to figure out how we can re-invent the 500 Club.
Dar la Hendricks Publisher
njlifestyleonline.com
LIFESTYLE | Spring 2013
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C O N T E N T S F EATU RES Lifestyle Architecture
Add excitement to your decorating style this Spring.
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Re-DO AC
AC’s $30 million marketing makeover.
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Royalty on the Ventnor Boardwalk
A local landmark.
Lifestyle Legends
An inside look at prominent celebrities from NJ.
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D EPARTMENTS
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Lifestyle Fashion A list of what’s on-trend this spring season.
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First Person
24
Lifestyle Travel
28
Lifestyle Art
36
Health Watch
40
Living Healthy
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Money Watch
42
Lifestyle Business
48
Lifestyle Nostalgia
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Social Studies
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Restaurant Report
The extraordinary career of a homegrown screenwriter is detailed. Cranwell, the undisputed queen of the Berkshires. Ocean City artist Frank Kallop continues to express himself. Elevate your riding experience with the elev8bike.
LifeStyLe NEW JERSEY
SPRING 2013
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Getting the most from your doctor’s visit. Getting your fiscal house in order. Will improved air service help AC’s convention business take off? An innocent item of clothing and its ties to Atlantic City. Get the picture on events and happenings.
Best of the Bunch The best BYO bottles. Comments and observations on the area restaurant scene.
Dining Gallery All of the details on the area’s great dining venues.
A Final Word The late Alexander Mauro.
Spring 2013 | LIFESTYLE
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The Essence of Spring RE-DO AC • SPRING HOME & DESIGN ROYALTY ON THE VENTNOR BOARDWALK • FAMOUS NJ
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LifeStyle NEW JERSEY
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Darla Hendricks darlabh2@gmail.com Associate Publisher
Barbara Scarduzzio barbaras1@comcast.net Creative Director
Darla Hendricks Editor
Bill Henry Advertising Director
Charles Epstein Account Executive
Nancy Astin-Manno Contributing Writers
Sterling Brown J.R. Calderwood Molly Golubcow Bill Henry Sherry Hoffman Alyson Boxman Levine Nina Radcliff, MD Matt and Tom Reynolds Phillip Silverstone Robin Stoloff Ellen Weisman Strenger
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the care yOu want, in the place yOu lOve at a price yOu can affOrd.
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The Shores is a true treasure in retirement living right in Ocean City. Inside the compassion of our staff and the friendliness of our residents mirror the warmth of a summer ocean breeze. NewJersey Lifestyle is published by New Jersey Lifestyle, LLC. The entire contents of New Jersey Lifestyle are copyrighted and may not be reproduced without the express written consent of the publisher. New Jersey Lifestyle, LLC assumes no liability for products or services advertised herein. New Jersey Lifestyle, LLC reserves the right to edit, rewrite or refuse editorial material and assumes no responsibility for accuracy, errors or omissions. All correspondence should be sent to:
For more information or to schedule a tour, call 609-399-8505 or visit theshoresretirment.org.
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LIFESTYLE FASHION
What’s Trending Now From the catwalks of New York to the shelves of local retailers, a list of what’s on-trend this spring season
It’s that time. Time to pack away that bubble jacket and banish those clunky Uggs as the weather warms up and styles begin to abruptly shift. This spring, adding a few trendy pieces to your closet will dramatically enhance your mood and instantly prepare you for the warm seasons
ahead. Remember to always work trendy pieces into your wardrobe in small doses so that they will fit seamlessly with your existing pieces. This way, you will wear them more than once and will be surprised just how one or two new on-trend items can freshen
BY ALYSON BOXMAN LEVINE
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up your entire wardrobe. As you transition your wardrobe for spring fashion, look for the following hot-list items that are sure to spruce up any closet. nnn Peek-a-boo Midriffs Across the runways in Paris to New York,
Page 6, left to right: Cut-out Swimsuit, Kenneth Cole; White Trench, Burberry. Page 7, left to right: Wide-Striped Dress, Tommy Hilfiger; Oceanic-Inspired Separates, Rebecca Minkoff; Colored Lace Dress, Carolina Herrera.
skin-bearing pieces are ever-present in spring collections. However, this year’s trend is substantially more discreet than years past. Thin strip cut-outs in dresses and high-waisted skirts and bathing suits dominate this new movement, one that is all about showing just a slight touch of skin. And remember, you don’t have to have the perfect midriff to sport these new looks, as this spring is all about subtle peeks. By utilizing key-hole cutouts and strips of exposed midriff, this season’s peek-a-boo style is all about showing a little and making it go a long way.
nnn Crisp White For spring and summer 2013 designer collections, white is literally everywhere and on everything, from coats to accessories, trousers, shirts, and dresses. Everything from crisp snow whites to rich, earthy ivories serve as one of the hottest movements to hit the fashion runways this spring. Start the warmer season off with this crisp trend and look for an oh-so-white trench coat. With this versatile piece added to your closet, you will be able to carry this upscale trend through to the height of summer if you pair it with a
light, effortless dress. nnn Oceanic-inspired Pieces According to fashion experts, blue is the new black. From a soothing, yet exciting, cobalt blue to the union of green and blue in a harmonious sea-foam, fashionistas will find influences of blue peppered in ready-to-wear items throughout spring and summer. You will be on-trend as you stroll along the boardwalk wearing ocean blue this season, as water prints are incorporated quite literally. Fabrics appear to be floating beach scenes, adorned with blue njlifestyleonline.com
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Prepare your closet now with a few key trendy outfits and accessories — for whatever adventure this season holds. and sea-foam green drapings and stripes. The gentle brush strokes form delicate pastel patterns on dresses, shirts, and pants while bringing along a calming effect that be clearly defined as an art influenced trend on the 2013 runways. nnn Still Seeing Stripes Stripes have appeared on catwalks for a few seasons now and, like it or not, they
are definitely still here to stay for spring and summer. Some of the higher-end designers’ collections include dizzying prints and thick, wavy stripes. Gold tones and sequin accents complete select pieces as well, as it seems that anything goes with this reoccurring trend. Have fun with the bold color combinations — black and white, red and white, navy and white — and the
varied width of the stripe, from pinstripe to mixed widths, both horizontal and vertical. Create a timeless nautical look with a navy and white striped top, paired with classic white cropped pants, and spring sandals. In addition, wide horizontal stripes provide a new type of bold color block effect that can be found on seasonal sweaters and sheath-style dresses.
Fringe Necklace, Stella and Dot
Bloom Rectangle Bisque, $188
Gladiator Boot, Tom Ford 10
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LIFESTYLE FASHION nnn Amazing Lace Used as both an accent and as the main attraction, lace was spotted all over the spring 2013 runways — from skirts, to dresses, tops, shoes, and purses. Typically associated with neutral colors such as black or tan, lace has now ventured into other hues, making a bold statement. This year’s lace is worn in all different ways, and all different colors. Check out Carolina Herrera’s orange-colored couture lace dress: feminine but with a fun girly edgy. Lace is super easy to style and goes perfectly with leather, jeans, and also summer cashmere. Even designer Marc Aurel, known for his interesting and unusual signature tops and knits, has incorporated colored lace into his new collection of stylish casualwear. nnn Hot Accessories Fun fringe necklaces and bracelets, and
oh-so-tall gladiator boots, have invaded the runways, standing out as this season’s must-have accessories. Even fashionistas like Rihanna and the Kardashian clan have been spotted recently sporting fringe necklaces. And with designers like Diane von Furstenberg jumping on the fringe bandwagon, this trend is here to stay and will surely dress up any outfit. Look for this Stella and Dot graphic cutout necklace that sways with ivory and golden seed bead fringe. A fun and sexy combination of boot and sandal, gladiator boots are the new “it shoe” for this season, and designers like Versace and Alexander Wang are participating in this stand-out footwear trend. Either calf-high or knee-high, with either classic notes or cutting-edge features, the cutaway boots effortlessly flaunt the beautiful days of spring and summer. Here, Tom Ford toned down his cutaway boot with the elegant notes
seen in the nude turtleneck, gorgeously paired to a blush pencil skirt. And remember to always let accessories speak for themselves; wear one statement accessory at a time. So, as the sun begins to warm up our coastline and coats and turtlenecks are tossed to the back of the closet, start preparing your wardrobe for the spring and summer season. Have that perfect up-to-date piece in your seasonal fashion arsenal to wear to that special luncheon or long-awaited graduation. Don’t wait until the last minute and, as desperation sets in, you find yourself down to wire, aimlessly rooting through the racks at Macy’s. Prepare your closet now with a few key trendy outfits and accessories — for whatever adventure this season holds, you will be effortlessly, and fashionably, on-trend.
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LIFESTYLE | Spring 2013
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B D LIFESTYLE
ARCHITECTURE
ring on the rama
Add excitement to your decorating style this Spring
E
njoy dramatic ambiance with furniture
that has elegance style. A mix of elegant textures in throw pillows and drapes extend beautiful ambiance in your living spaces. Dramatic ambiance is stylish home accessories that coordinate a grand interior. Modern accent furniture and artwork spread dramatic ambiance throughout your home. Dramatic ambiance is an incredible style in a classic, contemporary or eclectic room. Enjoy the beauty and unique design elegance of dramatic ambiance in your living spaces. Decorate your home for dramatic ambiance. Ambiance in home décor is the overall style effect of warm, elegant design. Create the style of ambiance with soothing colors, home accessories and lighting. Other ways to adorn your home in ambiance is with decorative finishes and textures. The element of ambiance in home decorating is personal and inviting.
A Reflection of You
Decorate and make your home a special place that you truly care about. Choose colors that appeal to you personally. Go for furniture pieces and accessories that showcase your unique style and taste. A blend of modern design and style that inspires you is the real design of interior spaces. A reflection of you turns style risks into style victory. Modern decorative vases, area rugs and artwork reflect personality and design strength in room decor. Your favorite fabrics, finishes and colors are ready-to-style delights in every room. Enjoy rooms that engage and inspire your life through casual elegance. Lift up the style of every room with your special touch of love. Improve the style of your home one space, one room or one idea at a time. Visualize a completed design style that defines the best style for your home. Use the tools of creative change makers. Paint walls and install new treatments for windows to set the foundation for real style. A personal décor is one to love and adore. Find style confidence in home spaces that are connected to modern possibilities. Decorative and tasteful home accessories add elegance in your living spaces. Coordinate a modern look for your home that is stylish and personal.
Decorate and make your home a special place that you truly care about.
Happiness in Home Styling
Turn up the bliss factor in your home decorating. Coordinate a unique design style that is unexpected and modern. One of the best ways to create style impact in home décor is with accent furniture. Try new accent chairs in decorative patterns or color tones. Decorate to make your home a beautiful and special place to live. Add elegant accents that you love in every room. Treat each space with carefulness. Create designer style in living spaces that delight and thrill. Show the love of luxury in room spaces as a design treat. Enhance your home with the love of style and for true happiness. — EAB Home Stylist njlifestyleonline.com
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Lifestyle Architecture
Custom project by Kelly’s All Pro Landscaping
T
By J.R. Calderwood
ransforming a suburban back yard into
a “destination get-a-way” is possible. If your budget allows, hire a landscape architect to give your yard a five-star wow factor. If doing the work yourself, try incorporating a few of the concepts professionals use. Most suburban back yards are fairly small which means space is limited. Start by defining your greatest needs or desires so you can factor them into your design. Do you want to include a pool or pond? Do you want a space for barbequing and dining? Do you want a private seating area? Is it important to have a vegetable garden? Would you like to care for perennial flowers or would you prefer low maintenance plants? Is more shade or privacy needed? Is it important to preserve a section of lawn for playing ball? 14
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Start by defining your greatest needs or desires so you can factor them into your design. Create Rooms
To install your wish list while giving your yard the illusion of space, divide it into “rooms”. Incorporate separating “walls” and adjoining paths. Short “walls” might be created with plant materials, retaining walls or raised garden beds that are constructed from concrete, stone, or brick. Walking paths created with interesting flooring materials can also be useful room demarcations.
Plan Your Plantings
Placing the right size of plants is imperative for a small garden if it’s to retain its manicured look over time. Always consider the predicted full-grown height and spread of plants before adding them. Add only as much as you’re willing to maintain. It’s all too easy for an over-planted small garden to become quickly overcrowded. Choose dwarf or miniature plant species and attractive grasses to delicately enhance each room.
Add Fun and Functional Focal Points
A focal point in an indoor room is that large piece of architecture, furniture, picture, or other item that captivates
a person’s attention when he first enters a room. In a welldesigned room, all other furniture and features centre around and play off the focal point. Use the same train of thought for your outdoor rooms. Focal points in garden rooms can range from a large outdoor fireplace to a favourite tree. You might want to add a water feature, a garden statue, a whimsical art piece, or create an inviting seating area. Each focal point, of course, should fit the scale of the room it’s found in. Small-scaled focal points placed throughout your garden can become pleasant surprises to the visiting explorer. A focal point may also serve a dual purpose. A water feature can double as a sound barrier, a bench will provide needed seating, an attractive shed will provide needed storage, a gazebo will provide shade, a single small tree can provide privacy. When designing your suburban garden, plan in rooms, plan to scale, and attend to the small details within each room by grooming every corner of it. The result should be a very welcoming garden that serves multiple purposes and becomes a place you want to visit often.
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LIFELINES
e R
AC’s $30 Million Marketing Makeover By ELLEN WEISMAN STRENGER
DO AC. We’ve all seen the logo — on cars and billboards, in newspapers
and magazines, and on podiums in front of the likes of Governor Chris Christie. ”DO AC” car magnets are everywhere. (Mine was stolen off of my car.) Does anyone even remember life before “DO AC,” when Atlantic City was the city that was “always turned on”? The question now is: Will this new, hip logo — which is the centerpiece of a slick, expensive marketing campaign — really put Atlantic City back on the map as a tourist destination? That’s the plan, says Liza Cartmell, CEO of the Atlantic City Alliance (ACA), which was created by state law to serve as the casino-funded marketing arm of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA). “DO AC” is the first step, and there’s a lot more to come. Cartmell, a New Jersey native who “grew up at the shore” (in Monmouth County), hopes to help Atlantic City regain its former glory. “Atlantic City was always a place where you could expect the spectacular,” she said. Even now, she believes “the spectacular” is still here — in the form of beautiful, free beaches, amazing resorts, a world-famous boardwalk, great restaurants, and a huge diversity of things to. The challenge 16
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now is to promote it, add to it, and bring more people here to experience it, so they’ll want to come back again and again. Cartmell’s ultimate goal is for AC to make a spectacular comeback — with “more visitors, more jobs for people who live here, and more repeat visitation by tourists.” Four-Letter Slogan Why make “DO AC” the rallying cry for AC’s new marketing campaign? It all began with a guy trying to skip out of work early. This guy happened to be on the creative team of Euro RSCG New York, the ad agency selected for AC’s new $30 million marketing campaign. As Cartmell tells it, one Friday he asked to leave work early, saying, “I’m going to do AC this weekend.” It turns out he had just done everyone’s work for the day. The ACA wanted a slogan that created a “call to action,” says Cartmell, and here it was. “DO AC” was short, sweet, easy to remember, and fit neatly inside a circle — just like the logos of so many other beach towns. What’s more, people already talked about doing AC — so why not get all 50 million people from Boston to DC (our target market) to use the same succinct
Photos by Nick Valinote
little phrase? “It’s not great English,” Cartmell acknowledges, “but it’s how people speak.” With the advent of texting and twitter, acronyms are in. We all say (or have heard younger people say) LOL and OMG (instead of laugh-out-loud and oh-my-God). We talk about going to DC, LA, and NYC. Now, if all goes well, AC will join the list of cities best known by their initials. AC Redux Along with AC’s abbreviated, “new” name, the “DO AC” campaign presents a new image of AC that’s fresh and fun. While the old “Atlantic City” was about gambling, the new “AC” is a getaway with every kind of fun you can imagine. According to the ads, we are “the city that was created to escape the city” — the perfect getaway destination. The ads tell people: “Do anything, do everything, do AC” — in other words, we’re the place where you can do it all. Never thought of Atlantic City in those terms? It’s time to start, especially when you’re talking to out-of-towners (a.k.a. potential visitors who might come here and spend money). Actually, when you think about it, we really are that place.
Clear your mind and look around. All the stuff in the ads — the packed boardwalk, sparkling beaches, restaurants and nightclubs, outdoor concerts, sumptuous spas and shopping — it really is here. We were just too focused on gaming — and more recently, on the poor economy — to notice it. In short, we have gotten a $30 million marketing makeover, which shows the world AC’s previously overlooked (or undersold) features. And as for the casinos, Cartmell calls them “destination resorts.” Now that everyone in the Northeast can gamble close to home, it’s AC’s non-gaming attractions that have the power to attract tourists. Our makeover highlights features that set us apart from other gaming destinations — what Cartmell calls our “brand” — which includes: the ocean and boardwalk, over 150 great restaurants, outlet shopping, great golf courses, boating, whale watching, the lighthouse, Lucy, and much more. And, as the CRDA’s master plan for AC continues to unfold, that list will grow to include more places to wine, dine, and shop (like Margaritaville and Bass Pro Shops), a huge indoor market, an arts district, a lively calendar of festivals, and much, much more. njlifestyleonline.com
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LIFELINES
The “DO AC” campaign targets “fun seekers, people who feel they have the right and the ability to cut loose,” and who are likely to take a few days off here and there to go someplace within driving distance. Notably, all of this marketing money and master-planning can only do so much if the local community isn’t on board. We are all ambassadors of the new AC. “It’s essential that the local community embrace AC as a tourist destination,” says Cartmell. “We live and die by our own hospitality.” What’s the Plan? The “DO AC” campaign’s first goal is to get people to come here, right now. ACA’s research shows that recent visitors have a much more positive view of AC than people who haven’t been here in the past 10 years. While the latter group is more likely to focus on the city’s negatives — seeing casinos as fortresses amidst a crime-ridden, gritty landscape — more recent visitors focus on the fun stuff — like the boardwalk, the Walk, and the 18
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Pier, and are more likely to come back, says Cartmell. The “DO AC” campaign targets “fun seekers, people who feel they have the right and the ability to cut loose,” and who are likely to take a few days off here and there to go someplace within driving distance, says Cartmell. “We’re that place you go when you don’t have time [or don’t want to spend the money] to take an airplane trip,” she explains. This means we don’t compete with Vegas, but we do compete with New York City, DC, Philly, and the Poconos. Our competitive advantage: “There aren’t too many places on the East Coast where you can do such a wide range of things in such a small area.” This spring, the one-year-old “DO AC” campaign moves into its second phase, with ACA rolling out a lively calendar of events, thus creating “a more urgent call to action,” says
Ellen Weisman Strenger is a freelance writer and Chicago native. She lives in Linwood, NJ.
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Challenges One key objective of the wine festival, says Cartmell, is to show the world that the boardwalk is still here. Polls taken after Superstorm Sandy showed that over 41% of people nationwide and 52% of people in the Northeast thought that the AC boardwalk was gone. ACA marketing efforts since then have reduced those numbers, but to date, a quarter of the nation and a third of the Northeast believe the boardwalk was destroyed. “That’s my biggest challenge today,” revealed Cartmell. Other hurdles to AC’s success as a tourist destination have to do with the city itself. First, there’s the urban redevelopment that didn’t happen during the past 30 years while casino gambling flourished in AC. “Money made here was siphoned off and used elsewhere in the state, rather than reinvested in AC,” explains Cartmell. Another hurdle to AC’s success is “bus therapy” — where municipalities throughout NJ and beyond “treat” drug addicts and homeless people by buying them a bus ticket to Atlantic City, Cartmell explains. Essentially, the city has become a victim of its own success in offering excellent
services for these people, at places like the Atlantic City Rescue Mission, Sister Jean’s Kitchen, and the John Brooks Recovery Center (an addiction treatment center and methadone clinic) — all of which are in AC’s state-designated tourism district. “They do great work,” stresses Cartmell. “They’re just not in the right place. If you’re trying to compete with Disney, you can’t have that. You don’t see homeless people hanging around Disney.” The CRDA is currently working to overcome both of these hurdles, helping these social service organizations relocate and funding various urban redevelopment projects. The one thing the CRDA can’t change: the weather. AC is less attractive to tourists when it’s too cold to wear flip-flops. The solution? Go after more well-heeled travelers, namely, business people, says Cartmell. “Our hotels are over 90% booked on weekends yearround and during the summer. Now we just need to fill rooms midweek during the off-season, and that means business conventions.” While these tasks are daunting, Cartmell’s biggest frustration is “the nay-sayers.” “We did a focus group in Philly to get people’s perceptions of AC,” said Cartmell. “When we showed a picture of someone walking on the beach, one woman said, ‘That’s not Atlantic City. I’ve been to the beach there and it’s not that nice!’” But it was AC. Yes, we are that place.
Terra Mar Plaza | Tilton Road | Northfield, NJ | 609-641-2088
Cartmell. In keeping with AC’s history of the spectacular, she adds “we’re working on unusual stuff.” There’s “an outrageously terrific” Columbus Day event that she’s not allowed to talk about yet, as well as a beach volleyball tournament on AC’s newly-installed courts. An especially important event on May 4th and 5th is the Atlantic City Boardwalk Wine Promenade where people can taste lots of different wines while strolling the boardwalk.
njlifestyleonline.com
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LIFESTYLE LIVING
Royalty on the
Ventnor Boardwalk A local landmark for almost a half a century, Vassar Square Condominiums is still the place to be at the beach By MOLLY GOLUBCOW
S
he stands tall and elegant, always facing the beach. Her sleek lines and subtle curves give her a classy look — not just a simple rectangle-box with windows. Her tan colored bricks look like the sun has gently caressed them over the years. And, her angled glassenclosed balconies adorn her with a timeless style. Who is this beauty that graces the Ventnor boardwalk? Vassar Square, a luxury condominium building with a reputation of being a “classy” place to live for over 45 years. If you think of the real estate mantra, “location, location, location,” the Vassar comes to mind immediately. Located on the first beach block in Ventnor, Vassar Square stands as the unofficial greeter to the city. Strangely enough, Jackson Avenue, the last street in Atlantic City, is cut right down the middle with the north side belonging to AC and the south side to Ventnor. Although her address is technically in
Main lobby with ocean views.
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The furniture in the main lobby is in muted sea greens, and takes a backseat to the architecture of bronze colored crystal chandeliers and areca palms.
The main lobby with carved pilasters topped by corinthian capitals and surrounded by bronze inset mirrors
The Vassar stands minutes away from all flavors of shore life. If you prefer Atlantic City glitz, the casinos are a short walk away.
Photos by Jim Logue
Ventnor, the building actually spans from Jackson Avenue to Vassar Square. The Vassar stands minutes away from all flavors of shore life. If you prefer Atlantic City glitz, the casinos are a short walk away. Or, you can walk or bike down the boardwalk to the Ventnor North section — an area filled with restaurants ranging from fine dining at Sage to local staples like a Sac-O-Sub, as well as other cafes, shops, and art galleries. Originally, Vassar Square Arms was built as a high-end apartment building. Construction started in 1968 and quickly became a desirable location for year-round and vacationing residents. Not only was the building new and interesting in design, it also offered residents extra amenities like an in-house beauty parlor and a cafÊ. In the late 1970s, the advent of gambling gave way to a profitable real estate boom in the Atlantic City area. At that njlifestyleonline.com
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In addition to Vassar’s amenities, the building displays a sense of style not only from an architectural perspective, but its interior decor as well.
The elevator lobby with richly veined marbled walls, inlaid terrazzo floors and marble top table with orchids in cachepot.
time, Vassar Square’s management decided that it would be an economically good idea to convert the existing apartments to condos. In 1978, “going condo” was a relatively new concept and the Vassar was the first high-rise on the boardwalk to go that route. Because renters were offered discounted prices, most people opted to buy their apartments. One resident, Norman Berger, bought his unit and still resides at the Vassar. He “fell in love with the building — architecture, location, and amenities” over 35 years ago and still praises its merits. According to Berger, who served on the Condo Board for over eight years, the Vassar was “… the in place to live. I remember when the condo offering first took place — people were literally standing in line wanting to buy a unit at the Vassar.” Zev Rose bought his unit in the late 70s because he feels that owning a unit instills a “sense of ownership” and 22
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Another view of the main lobby.
pride in the building that continues to this day. Although Rose originally bought his unit as an investment property, he and his wife started spending more time at the Vassar. Because of its amenities and its ideal boardwalk location, the Roses decided to nix the rental property idea and move from their house in Margate to their condo overlooking the beach. Although many years have passed since Vassar was constructed, the building is still a desirable property. The 215 units range in size from studios to three-bedroom layouts — all boasting spacious balconies overlooking the beach or bay. The Vassar offers amenities that sound more like a vacation resort than those you expect from a condominium. For example, residents and their guests can exercise in the well-equipped gym on the rooftop floor facing the ocean. Also located on the rooftop are a library with Wi-Fi, a card room, and an ocean front party room connected to a
rooftop deck with panoramic views to die for. Joanne Ferraro, a realtor with Prudential Fox & Roach, considers the Vassar “one of my favorite condo buildings to show.” In addition to its prime location and ocean views, Ferraro feels the building has always maintained a reputation of being well-managed and fiscally responsible. Ferraro also sees Vassar’s many amenities as a great selling point — ocean front, pool, security, valet parking, beach chair service, inhouse-café, and much more. Whether residents are looking for year round or summer residences, Vassar’s stellar reputation and ideal location give Ferraro great selling points. In addition to Vassar’s amenities, the building displays a sense of style not only from an architectural perspective, but its interior decor as well. For example, the lobby in the Vassar overlooks the beach and exudes a grand style. Jim Logue,
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interior designer at Finishing Touch in Northfield, sees the lobby décor very much in the “Hollywood Regency” style — an approach that was in vogue on the West Coast during the 1930s and 1940s. According to Logue, “the layout and décor spring from a mélange of antique and modern furnishings encased in a neo-classical framework.” Logue also points out that the lobby allows “glitz and glamour to rule even in a casual environment of flip-flops and sand.” From the carved wood paneling with mirror inserts embellished with Corinthian columns, to the inlaid terrazzo floors, to the marble walls of the elevator lobby, Vassar’s “Versailles-atthe-Shore” motif gives the building an ageless style. Although many buildings do show their age over time, the Vassar grows more graceful and elegant in her maturity. Jerry Segal, president of the Condominium Association, recently reported that the Vassar has been deemed structurally sound and safe for many years to come based on results from an engineering analysis of the building. Although the grand lady is structurally in good shape, Segal and other board members still have plans for cosmetic improvements throughout common areas of the building. For example, current upgrades include “sprucing up” areas like the pool, hallway carpeting, and wallpaper. Segal feels that basic upkeep of the building ensures that the Vassar remains one of the most “people friendly” and desirable properties at the shore. After 45 years, the Queen of the Ventnor Boardwalk still reigns as “the place to live” in the Atlantic City area. The unique design of the building, friendly staff, and gorgeous views of the ocean from each balcony are only a few of the amenities that make Vassar Square great. But what speaks volumes to the reputation of the building are its pleased residents — some who have made Vassar their home for many, many years. Just ask Leedy Braman — after 36 years at the Vassar she sums it up ever so nicely, “I love this building and have no plans to ever move.”
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FIRST PERSON
Sun, Sand and Success Born on the beaches of Margate, the extraordinary career of a homegrown screenwriter is detailed as he rises to the top of his Hollywood craft By SHERRY HOFFMAN
Scott Neustadter
The Neustadter family is what locals call “Old Atlantic City.” They’ve been here for generations. They’re well-known leaders in the community, beloved, philanthropic, and highly-respected. They deserve a story of their own. This story, however, is about one Neustadter in particular: Scott, a 36-yearold native of Margate and the son of Anne Goldberg Neustadter and her late husband, Michael. “I’ve lived in New York, London, and now L.A., and the only place I really miss is Margate,” Scott Neustadter said during a recent phone interview from his Los Angeles home. “I had always been terrified of L.A. and never wanted to come here,” he added. “But I realized, if you want to make cars, you live in Detroit. If you want to make movies, you move to L.A.” He was right. He changed coasts in 2007, and has been making movies ever since; great movies, award-winning movies. His debut film, 2009’s (500) Days of Summer, earned Neustadter and writing partner, Michael Weber, a string of awards, including the Independent Spirit 24
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Award and a Golden Globe nomination for best screenwriter. He’s also in good company, having won The Satellite Award for best screenplay. Past winners include George Clooney and M. Night Shyamalan. In addition to the awards, Neustadter and Weber have become what some critics are calling “the voice of their generation.” Others have gushed that 500 Days is this generation’s Annie Hall, Woody Allen’s Oscar-winning classic from the late 1970s. First film! Overnight success! But they never tell you how many years are in an “overnight.” Neustadter began interning during his junior year at Atlantic City High School, splitting his week between Margate and Manhattan. He continued that through his four years at the University of Pennsylvania. When he graduated college, he moved to New York permanently, and landed a job with Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Productions. “I was very lucky to get that job,” he said, in something of an understatement. “What I did there was read every script that came in to see what was worth the company’s time.”
He was very good at his job, sending what he felt were worthwhile scripts up the ladder to the next reader. He read the scripts before anyone. In a way, being the first reader made him responsible for pushing movies like Analyze This, Meet the Parents, and The Good Shepherd, up the production food chain and into our local theaters. “After four years in New York, I decided I was done with the movie business,” Neustadter said. He left New York to attend the London School of Economics, where he earned a Master’s degree in media and communications. While there, he met and fell in love with the girl who inspired the Summer Finn character (played by Zooey Dechanel) in 500 Days. The movie review web site, “Rotten Tomatoes,” describes the plot as “a movie about a man who falls head over heels for a woman who doesn’t believe in love.” “I’m kind of an open book,” Neustadter confessed. “Unfortunately, (500) Days of Summer is way too close to home, and everybody who knows me recognized me as the Tom character.” In the film, Tom gets his heart broken in several million pieces.
Photos from left to right: Michael Weber and Scott Neustadter; Scott and his dad, Michael Neustadter on the set of (500) Days of Summer; Scott with 500 Days director, Marc Webb at the Deuville Film Festival in France; Scott and Michael Weber winning the Independent Spirit Award; The Neustadter Family at Sundance, 2010.
There comes a time when we look back at our lives and recognize the singular moment when we chose our road. To borrow from Robert Frost, Neustadter took the one less traveled by, “and that has made all the difference.” “After I graduated, I just started writing a lot,” Neustadter said. ”I went back to Margate to work on my master’s thesis. It was summer, how could I not? I wrote most of (500) Days of Summer on the beach on Rumson Avenue. That was always a place I could go, with my headphones and just think. Plus it’s home, and home is home, you know?” In the back of his mind — and in the front, too — Neustadter knew he was supposed to take his Master’s degree and turn it into a meaningful and practical job. Instead, he found himself completely focused on writing for the first time in his life. “And it was exciting,” he remembered. “I still wasn’t confident enough about the writing thing to show anyone the script, nor was I that interested in moving back to New York and doing exactly what I had been doing before. I decided to apply for jobs in television in L.A. I had never done TV before, and I knew I’d have to start at the bottom. But why not? How hard could it be?” He lucked into an “amazing” job at CBS as the assistant to the head of drama development. “It lasted about six months before my astounding incompetence was too much for them to take, and I was deservedly fired,” he said. “And this basically forced me to show this script to people, because the only other alternative was moving back home.” Neustadter and Weber, who met when Neustadter hired him as an intern at Tribeca, wrote 500 Days. Their writing style is unusual, but it works. They live on different coasts and communicate by email and phone, then divide the scenes. “I’ve known a lot of people who write in the same room, tell jokes, and look over
each other’s shoulders,” Neustadter said with a laugh, “but I think we would kill each other. This is perfect.” It took Neustadter six years from the time he started writing 500 Days until it landed in theaters. Do the math; that’s almost 2,200 overnights. “People who read the script liked it,” Neustadter said, “but they didn’t know what it was because it was so funky and different. So people said ‘let’s see what else you’ve got because we like you, and your voice, and we’re excited to hear more.’” 500 Days put them on the Hollywood radar. The writing team was starting to attract attention and was asked to develop script ideas for the Pink Panther sequel starring Steve Martin. “We were like, ‘really? What would make you think we’d be good at that?’ But I came up with an idea, pitched it and they bought it,” Neustadter said. “So they hired us to write the script.” How did the Pink Panther turn out? “They ended up changing it completely, which always happens in L.A. But the concept was mine and that was exciting because all of the sudden you’re involved, and they’re making something that you wrote,” he said. And that was the end of the beginning. The “now” chapter begins with the partners being every producer’s choice to turn books into films. Here’s some of the work that’s coming down their yellow brick road: — The script adaptation of Tim Tharp’s The Spectacular Now, which was a spectacular hit at Sundance. It’s a young adult book that, Neustadter says, is “sort of like Ferris Bueller meets Sideways.” It’s set for a summer release. — The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green, a young adult book about a teenage girl with terminal cancer who falls for a boy in her support group. “Time” magazine called it the best fiction book of 2012. It’s set to start filming this summer for release in 2014.
— Rosaline, based on Rebecca Serle’s debut novel When You Were Mine, about Romeo and Juliet, as told by the girl Romeo was seeing right before he met Juliet, and set in 16th Century Verona. It’s being cast. Perhaps the next chapter — and the cherry on the parfait of their careers — is Royal Wedding, an original screenplay by the Neustadter and Weber team. Sony Pictures bought the pitch in a sevenfigure deal. It’s about a Midwestern girl who goes to Britain and snags herself a prince. They were also just chosen to pen Where’d You Go Bernadette and Rules of Civility. The latter is “The New York Times” bestselling novel by Amour Towles, and the movie script gig writers on both coasts were drooling for. It’s their fourth major book adaptation. “I’m very excited for this one,” revealed Neustadter. “I think it could be super cool.” It all seems super cool. Neustadter has all this, and heaven, too. In 2010, he married Lauren Levy, vice president of production at 20th Century Fox. In 2012, their son, Michael, was born. The world has another Michael Neustadter, who will grow to be his own man - and one that would have made his late grandfather and namesake proud. Neustadter’s been training for this career since he learned to change channels. “While I was growing up I saw four movies a day,” he said. “I heard a lot from my parents of ‘you’re wasting your time. You should go outside and play.’ I said ‘trust me. I know what I’m doing.’ Later, when I had written scripts but was too embarrassed to show anyone, my parents said, ‘You have to try.’ Their support was huge.“ It’s inevitable. Someday soon, someone on a red carpet holding a microphone will stop Scott Neustadter and ask, “Who are you wearing?” And everyone in Margate will be cheering him on. njlifestyleonline.com
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LIFESTYLE
Travel
The Berkshires:
Musical, Mystical & Majestic By DAN SCHLOSSBERG
C
ulture and the arts light up the tourist season, and amid the historical rolling hills sits Cranwell, undisputed queen of the Berkshires
Waconah Falls near Dalton in Berkshire County MA
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Photos by DAN SCHLOSSBERG
Norman Rockwell was right: the Berkshires are beautiful in any season. The talented American artist captured so many images of the rolling hills and ruddy residents that a museum bearing his name remains one of the region’s most popular attractions. Less than three hours north of New Jersey by car, the Berkshires occupy a rural area of western Massachusetts known for history, culture, and a benign summer climate. Abolitionist author Harriet Beecher Stowe crafted Uncle Tom’s Cabin in the silence of the woods and Rockwell later proved just as poetic with a paintbrush. Two centuries after Stowe stirred a nation’s emotions, the hills are alive with the sound of music. The Boston Symphony spends their summers at Tanglewood, entering its 76th year as an outdoor concert venue, while Jacob’s Pillow attracts devotees of dance to a well-hidden enclave of wooden structures but dulcet tones. Even political parody thrives in the area: the Capitol Steps, a troupe of former Congressional aides, pokes fun at politicians of both parties by changing the lyrics of popular songs — and weaving wigs, hats, and various props into the production. Far from their familiar Georgetown base, the Capitol Steps are starting their seventh season at the Cranwell Resort, Spa, and Golf Club. A four-diamond resort that belongs to Historic Hotels of America and Small Luxury Hotels of the World, Cranwell has 114 rooms, four tennis courts, two pools, a handsome spa, and a historic legacy that spans three centuries. The Gilded Age that made Newport memorable for its majestic mansions also touched Cranwell. The Victorian Tudor structure where breakfast is served looks like a castle outside, but a British gentleman’s club inside. Topped by a leather ceiling, the dining area not only gives guests gorgeous views of the rolling hills, but allows them the chance to sit where giants of a bygone era once swapped stories. Among those who passed through
The Berkshires not only offer the sound of music but the sight; instrument sculptures are a common sight in Lenox, Tanglewood, and on the campus of the Cranwell Resort.
Artists and sculptors have left their mark all over Lenox and the surrounding communities in Berkshire County.
The Berkshire Museum, founded in Pittsfield in 1903, offers a mix of art, ancient civilizations, and natural history. It is one of a dozen handsome museums in the area.
Lenox, Cranwell’s host community, were Andrew Carnegie, Nathaniel Hawthorne, George Westinghouse, and Edith Wharton, not to mention the Astors and the Vanderbilts. Their socalled “cottages,” built before the dawn of the 20th century, left Cranwell with rooms that have character, according to general manager Carl Pratt. The Cranwell story started in 1853, when the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher bought Blossom Hill for $4,500. He said at the time, “From here, I can see the very hills of heaven.” Beecher eventually passed the property on to his famous sister. The building that now occupies the site was built as a residence by John Sloane, a furniture magnate and Vanderbilt relative, in 1894. The landscape architect who designed New York’s Central Park, Frederick Law Olmsted, also designed the grounds surrounding the Sloane cottage, which he called Wyndhurst, but is now called The Mansion. Thirteen years into the 21st century, the Sloane name survives at Sloane’s Tavern, a casual dining facility that caters to swimmers and golfers. The resort took its name from Edward Cranwell, who bought it in 1930 but later converted it into a religious school for boys. Like the resurrection of the New Testament, Cranwell rose from the dead after recapturing the elegance of a bygone era. Its spa is one of the largest in the northeast and its golf course one of the most historic; it opened in 1927, the same year Babe Ruth hit a record 60 home runs for the Yankees. It hosts weddings, conferences, and leisure travelers seeking seclusion not only in the mountains but in a mystical land steeped in culture and tradition. “Our staff has either grown up in this area or been here many years,” Pratt said in an exclusive interview on Travel Itch Radio last fall. “Guests feel the difference and look forward to coming back.” Although Cranwell is a four-season resort, summer options are more plentiful. When the weather warms, choices include biking, hiking, golf, tennis, swimming, and shopping for njlifestyleonline.com
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antiques in the surrounding towns of Pittsfield, Stockbridge, and Williamstown. In nearby Lee, a restaurant name Joe’s attracts celebrities who enjoy the decor, ambience, and prices that prevailed when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president. In addition to Tanglewood and Jacob’s Pillow, cultural options range from Shakespeare & Company to art museums and summer stock theater. Attractions often offer discounts or free admission for children and students. Visitors can also choose between whitewater rafting and picnicking in any of two-dozen state parks. And there’s no shortage of country drives, including treks to the woods of the Appalachian Trail, the covered bridges of Kent and
Visitors can also choose between whitewater rafting and picnicking in any of two-dozen state parks. And there’s no shortage of country drives.
Top left: Instruments of every size and description decorate the pastoral grounds of Tanglewood, summer home of the Boston Symphony. Bottom left: The Berkshires not only offer the sound of music but the sight. Instrument sculptures are a common sight in Lenox, Tanglewood, and on the campus of the venerable Cranwell Resort. Top right: Cranwell visitors relish the restaurant and the view from The Mansion, a Victorian structure with an interior that resembles a British gentleman’s club. Bottom right: Cranwell Resort, Golf Club, and Spa occupies a 380-acre campus in Lenox, Mass. It is a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World and Historic Hotels of America. 28
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Lif estyl e Tr a v e l West Cornwall, the Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, and the tallest waterfall in Massachusetts. Photos are fantastic everywhere but especially from the top of Mt. Greylock, the highest point in the state (and less than 30 minutes away). Named after Charles Lennox, the third duke of Richmond and Lennox, the town hasn’t changed much since incorporation in 1767. Surrounded by mountains on both the east and west, it retains its rural character, providing a year-round home to just 5,077 people. Suffice to say the population quadruples during the summer tourist season. Long before Tanglewood became the summer home of the Boston Symphony in 1937, the Berkshires were a beacon for sweltering city dwellers seeking the natural air-conditioning of the mountains. Land in Lenox went for a whopping $20,000 an acre in 1903, putting the town on a par with Newport and Bar Harbor. Ten years later, however, enactment of the federal income tax ended the mansion building boom. When maintenance became impossible during the lean years of the Depression, many were converted from private to public use (see Museum of the Gilded Age at Ventford Hall). Unlike some, which were torn down or destroyed by fire, Cranwell survived the test of time, not to mention the vagaries of winter weather in New England. Because Cranwell is a community-within-a-community, some guests prefer to stay put. The resort resembles a college campus, with glass-enclosed walkways linking housing units,
the main lobby, and the indoor pool and spa. Golfers enjoy the tree-lined fairways while families find the outdoor pool a perfect meeting place. Both the spa and the cuisine have won prizes. The former embraces 35,000 square feet, features 50 different services from wraps to massages, and is a three-time winner of “Best Spa in the Berkshires,” according to a reader survey by The Berkshire Eagle. An even more significant prize came Cranwell’s way when Boston Magazine’s New England Travel & Life issue named it “Top Resort in Massachusetts.” Even those who require a gluten-free, Vegan, or other special diet can be accommodated at Cranwell, which has both quality and quantity in its quartet of dining venues, all of which use local produce whenever possible. The wine list and menu choices are extensive. The resort is located 45 minutes east of Albany, two hours west of Boston, and two-and-a-half hours from New York. Amtrak and Metro North rail service may be preferable to the summer traffic. For reservations or further information, contact Cranwell Resort, 55 Lee Road, Lenox, MA 01240, tel. 800-2726935, www.cranwell.com. Former AP newsman Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is travel editor of New Jersey Lifestyle and Sirius XM Radio’s Maggie Linton Show. He is also host and executive producer of Travel Itch Radio and a travel writer for many major publications.
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LIFESTYLEART
Kallop By STERLING BROWN Photos by BILL HORIN/ARTC
i
OCEAN CITY ARTIST FRANK KALLOP CONTINUES TO FIND NEW WAYS TO EXPRESS HIMSELF
n this less-is-more world of gastric bypass, downsized jobs and tiny cars, Frank Kallop is growing. Not in pounds, because he keeps himself trim, but in ability. You might say Frank is growing in expression. Or you might say he keeps on the move. You could even say Frank Kallop is on a gallop. Choose your metaphor. “It’s like this—I don’t want to stand still,” he says, standing quite still amidst the walls filled with paintings in his Ocean City house. The 56-year-old adjunct professor of art at Richard Stockton College in Pomona has agreed to discuss his long career, and he mentions his childhood drawing animals, his BFA in painting at the San Francisco Art Institute, his years as a surrealist in California and New Jersey, and his 2001 MFA in painting at the New York Academy of Art. “All the while, I kept moving through different genres,” he says, “and now I feel comfortable painting in each of them. That upsets some people. They want to know, for instance, am I a landscape painter, or a figure painter, or an abstractionist? I say, why limit myself? I do them all. But I do them my own
way, in my own style.” Whatever he does then, from surrealism to realism, is Kallopian. This is apparent in his most recent painting, a striking composition resting on an easel. Despite his saying it was painted in the style of Modigliani, some of Frank comes through. Don’t ask me how. All I can say is that, knowing Frank painted it, it looks as if Frank painted it. It’s a Kallopian Modigliani. Or a Modiglianian Kallop. “Last November, a man and wife asked if I would paint her face and figure in the pose of Amedeo Modigliani’s famous La Belle Romaine. The woman had undergone breast cancer surgery, and the painting was to enhance her process of healing.” The commission came soon after Frank’s studio on the first floor of his house was inundated with four feet of water during Hurricane Sandy. The storm was aptly named, considering that the Jersey shore was covered with water, then sand. Frank lost many paintings and art supplies during Dead Painter
else is within the frame, exude silence. An example is Frank’s The Yellow Pitcher. A pitcher sits on a marble block beside three small flowers and a glass vial. Beneath them are two nuts and an upturned bowl holding a cake of soap. Since the most conspicuous attribute I bring to any discussion of art is my ignorance of the subject, we’ll let Frank comment: “I wanted the painting to be almost colorless. It’s entirely in tones of beige and white, except for the yellow pitcher and the tiny flowers. I tried to project stillness, quiet and mystery.” After listening, I ask: how does he teach his students to do this—transfer paint into silence? “By encouraging them to study composition, line, form, perspective and the relationship of light to dark,” he says. Before I can seek further explanation he’s bringing out something quite the opposite of the pitcher painting, an abstract thrash of color called The Perfect Way, which may be perfect but is far from serene, and Reservoir, a work of abstraction that earned its name by its containment of commingled thought and image. Leanne
End of Mythology
that confluence of wind and tide. Afterward he was sick from mold contamination, and so he himself was in need of healing. After reading books on Modigliani’s life and artistic approach, Frank went to work at a borrowed studio in Linwood, and now, on a cold and damp February afternoon he is showing his beautiful painting of the cancer survivor—a painting he calls La Belle Leanne. He says: “I would be willing to do this for other women who have lived through cancer. If she has a favorite figure painting, I would recreate it in her image. Or I could create a figure painting in my own style.” Had he painted Leanne entirely in his style, he said, he would have rendered her more realistically. Her image would have had more depth, light and shadow. As he explained it, her form would have more . . . form. This is coming from a man who, when asked years ago to explain how he makes a still life painting look so still, said he seeks to express a sense of quietude. Think about it: you want to paint a flower, so you mix some paint, lift it with a brush, and stroke it on a canvas in such a way that the flower looks quiet. Easier said than done, but if you have the talent, you succeed: the flower, its background, and whatever 32
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Lif estyl e A r ts On a nearby wall is a painting done in what he calls the format of plein air, a French term meaning it was painted outside. Frank said he painted 6th Street, Ocean City, Facing East, in the rain. Explaining how, he said: “When you paint rain, you don’t worry about inserting every drop. You think of how the edges of objects are less delineated, and observe the alterations of light and color. For instance, you won’t have a clear blue sky.” When Frank says he’s growing as an artist, or changing as an artist, he means that in more than one way. It’s not just the paintings that have changed. Frank himself in the paintings has shown that change. He says he doesn’t want to stand still, but one of his most impressive paintings is of himself lying quite still. It’s called Dead Painter, and it is Frank unquestioningly looking very dead. If The Yellow Pitcher is a still life, Dead Painter is a still unlife. Another unique painting, The Luminous Pause, is of Frank flying through a woman’s belly. The woman, evidently an easygoing sort, seems not to mind. And then there’s Frank as a surreal tree. His leg bones rise from a sturdy trunk. His skeleton takes on flesh at his chest. His arms, extended, become branches. One limb blooms, the other burns. The End of Mythology presents a firmly-planted artist—an artist who, despite the ravages of life, continues to grow. He works every day. He gets up each morning and puts in his hours. They are very productive, as is evident from the paintings on display. “Art for me is serious work,” he says. “It’s a job.” What an excellent job—to pick up a paintbrush and let your mind and talent expand. To transpose a cancer survivor into a Modigliani nude, to present yourself as a tree, to express the absolute silence of a flower. How wonderful if all our work had some small measure of this. How wonderful if in all we did we could be artists. Frank Kallop, whose artwork is exhibited at the William Ris Gallery in Stone Harbor, can be reached at his website: www.frankkallop.com. By the way, he’s looking for a new studio. Frank is endorsed by ArtC — promoting the arts in southern New Jersey. www.artcnow.com
Reservoir
Yellow Pitcher
LIFESTYLELEGENDS by Alyson Boxman Levine
Starring Jersey Girls (and Boys)
An inside look at some of the prominent celebrities that hail from our illustrious Garden State Whitney Houston
Jack Nicholson
Meryl Streep
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What do iconic actress Meryl Streep and edgy comedian Chelsea Handler have in common? Yes, they are both famous women, but there is another not-so-obvious similarity … they both were born in New Jersey. Stamped on your “domestic passport” as an eternal reminder of your beginnings, the location in which one is born will always hold a special place in one’s heart, no matter how far they move away nor how insanely famous they become. Being born in New Jersey brings with it a certain badge of honor, an intangible edge that is proudly carried around with you for the rest of your life. Sure, we all know that “The Boss” Bruce Springsteen and legendary crooner Frank Sinatra hail from New Jersey, but there are numerous additional mega-stars that began their life here as well. How many are surprises to you?
Christopher Walken. She went on to win an Academy Award for her portrayal of a woman who abandons her family only to come back and fight for custody of her son in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). Streep won her second Oscar for Sophie’s Choice (1982), in which she gave a heartwrenching portrayal of a woman with a tortured past. Reportedly a perfectionist in her craft, and meticulous and painstaking in her role preparation, she turned out a series of highly-acclaimed performances in awardwinning films like Silkwood (1983), Out of Africa (1985), Ironweed (1987), A Cry in the Dark (1988), and as Clint Eastwood’s married lover in The Bridges of Madison County (1995). Known for her ability to master almost any accent, Streep won her most recent Oscar for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.
MERYL STREEP Born in Summit, New Jersey in 1949, Mary Louise Streep has been nominated for an Academy Award a whopping 17 times and has been a winner three times. Considered by many movie critics to be the greatest actress working today, Streep is a true chameleon on the screen, amazingly portraying real-life characters seamlessly, including Julia Child, Susan Orlean, Ethel Rosenberg, Karen Silkwood, and, most recently, Margaret Thatcher. A graduate of Vassar College and the prestigious Yale Drama School, Streep began her career on the New York stage in the late 1960s, appearing in many Broadway productions. She gave a critically-acclaimed performance in her first film role, Julia (1977), and the next year she was nominated for her first Oscar for her role in The Deer Hunter opposite heavy hitters Robert DeNiro and
JACK NICHOLSON Hollywood’s reigning bad boy for decades (and decades), Nicholson was born John Joseph Nicholson on April 22, 1937. Known for his moving portrayals of unconventional outsiders, Jack Nicholson is one of the most prominent film actors of his generation. An actor, producer, screenwriter, director, 3-time Academy Award winner, and 12-time nominee, Nicholson is also noted for being one of two actors — the other being Michael Caine — who has received Oscar nods in every decade from the 1960s through the 2000s. Known for playing charming, anti-authoritarian characters, Nicholson’s career has included some of the most talked-about performances in Hollywood history, including Chinatown, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and his role as menacing Jack Torrance in Stanley Kubrick’s
Chelsea Handler
Bruce Willis
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Sure, we all know that “The Boss” Bruce Springsteen and legendary crooner Frank Sinatra hail from New Jersey, but there are numerous additional mega-stars that began their life here as well. spine-tingling The Shining. Nicholson grew up in Manasquan, New Jersey, on the Jersey Shore. His parents were John, a department store window dresser, and Ethel Nicholson, a hairdresser and talented oil painter. June Nicholson, his older sister, was an aspiring actress. Already in his 30s, Nicholson very surprisingly learned from a magazine reporter that June was actually his mother and John and Ethel were his grandparents. The identity of his father has never been definitively established and, according to one source, no proactive pursuit of this identity is being sought by the actor. He is a graduate of Manasquan High School, where he was voted “Class Clown” by the class of 1954. And, believe it or not, in 2004, he attended his 50th high school reunion in Manasquan, adorning his trademark Ray-Ban sunglasses. WHITNEY HOUSTON Born on August 9, 1963, in Newark, New Jersey, Whitney Houston’s family moved from Newark to East Orange, NJ when she was four years old. Her mother, Cissy Houston (cousin of Dionne Warwick), and godmother Aretha Franklin, were all legendary figures in American gospel/soul music. Thus, from an early age, Houston was destined to become a singer. As a child, she wowed audiences at New Hope Baptist Church … and the rest is music history. At age 19, Houston was discovered by music icon Clive Davis, who swiftly navigated her from gospel to pop stardom. In 1985, she released her debut album, Whitney Houston, and became an overnight pop sensation. Over the next year, her hit singles “Saving All My Love for You” and “How Will I Know” helped the album reach the top of the charts, where it stayed for 14 weeks. Houston followed the monumental success of her first album with a second release, Whitney, in 1987. That album went platinum many times over, won Grammy Awards, and led to a successful world tour. During this time, the singer founded the Whitney Houston Foundation for Children, a nonprofit organization that funds projects to help needy children throughout the world. After a long and public struggle with drugs and alcohol, Houston died on February 11, 2012. She currently remains the only female artist to have three albums sell over nine million copies each: “Whitney Houston” (1985), “Whitney” (1987), and “The Bodyguard” (1992). 36
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CHELSEA HANDLER Chelsea Joy Handler was born February 25, 1975, in Livingston, New Jersey. The youngest of six children, Handler, who, according to reports, felt that she got lost in the crowd growing up, showed her talent for wisecracks. After attending Livingston High School, she relocated to Los Angeles to become an actress at 19. While making ends meet as a waitress, Handler turned to stand-up comedy. She wowed audiences with her brash act and was able to land some gigs playing comedy clubs. In 2002, Handler got a part on Girls Behaving Badly, a cable comedy. The following year, she debuted her own series, The Chelsea Handler Show, where she poked fun at celebrities in skits and sketches. While her self-titled show only lasted one season, Handler found a larger audience for her sharp-tonged quips on pop culture with a late night talk show. Chelsea Lately premiered in 2007 and has since become a ratings winner. In addition to her show, Handler continues to write books and tour with a stand-up act. Chelsea is a best-selling author of the books “My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One Night Stands,” “Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea,” and “Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang.” BRUCE WILLIS Born Walter Bruce Willis on March 19, 1955, Bruce Willis’s career was launched when he played wisecracking David Addison on TV’s Moonlighting, opposite Cybill Shepherd. Collectively, he has appeared in films that have grossed in excess of $2.5 billion, placing him in the top 10 stars in terms of box office receipts. The oldest child of David and Marlene Willis’s four children, Willis moved with his family to Carney’s Point, New Jersey, in 1957, at age two. Raised in Penns Grove, New Jersey, he picked up an interest for the dramatic arts in high school. After graduating from Penns Grove High School, Class of 1973 — which voted him “Most School Spirit” — Willis was reportedly discovered by a casting director while bartending one night. In the summer of 1988, Die Hard, an action-packed flick that cast Willis as John McClane, an iconic cop, hit movie screens with a bang. His status as a theater-filling movie star was firmly minted. Willis reprised the role of McClane in the eagerly-anticipated sequel Die Hard 2 (1990) and Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995), this time also starring Samuel L. Jackson.
Lif estyl e Le g en d s Willis also provided the voice of baby “Mikey” in the popular family comedies Look Who’s Talking (1989) and its sequel Look Who’s Talking Too (1990). Over the next decade, Willis starred in The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990), Hudson Hawk (1991), The Last Boy Scout (1991), the darkly humored Death Becomes Her (1992), and the vanilla police thriller Striking Distance (1993). Willis also appeared in several independent and low-budget productions that won him new fans and critical praise. He appeared as a cagey prizefighter in the Quentin Tarantino-directed mega-hit Pulp Fiction (1994); the Terry Gilliamhelmed apocalyptic thriller Twelve Monkeys (1995); the Luc Besson-directed sci-fi opus The Fifth Element (1997); and The Sixth Sense (1999), a film with a true surprise ending directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Willis starred alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Sylvester Stallone in the film The Expendables (2010). In 2012, he reunited with the film’s cast to star in The Expendables 2. Currently, Willis can be seen on the big screen in A Good Day to Die Hard, the fifth film in the Die Hard franchise. And the list goes on and on. … Below are more celebrities that hail from New Jersey, along with the cities in which they were born. Jason Alexander, Newark, NJ David Copperfield, Metuchen, NJ Danny Devito, Neptune, NJ Michael Douglas, New Brunswick, NJ Kirsten Dunst, Point Pleasant, NJ James Gandolfini, Westwood, NJ Queen Latifa, Newark, NJ Ray Liotta, Newark, NJ Joe Pesci, Newark, NJ Kelly Ripka, Stratford, NJ Roy Scheider, Orange, NJ Kevin Spacey, South Orange, NJ John Travolta, Englewood, NJ Do you know a celebrity from NJ that is not on the list? Share your favorite on our New Jersey Lifestyle Magazine Facebook page.
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HEALTHWATCH
Photo by Eric Weeks
Elevate Your Riding Experience
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From concept to creation, local inventors take cycling to a new level with the elev8bike
“I
t’s as easy as riding a bike!” We have all heard that expression. But with the modern race and road bikes of today, we sit on a hard leather seat, our back is hunched forward, there is pressure on our wrists, our neck is tight, and when we stop we are off-balanced, leaning to one side to get a foot on the ground. Is that easy? Not really. That is what prompted the inventor of elev8bikes to build a more comfortable bike. Bill Becker, from Atlantic County, was enjoying his retirement in Hilton Head, South Carolina and decided to take up bicycling for some exercise. The whole ride was miserable. He was uncomfortable, his neck and back hurt and he felt unsteady. He wanted to experience the joy of bike riding that he remembered as a kid and knew there had to be a better way. He sat down on his office chair to think. Then the idea hit him. The chair was very comfortable, moved up and down easily and absorbed movement. Why couldn’t a bike use that same technology? Tearing the chair apart, he analyzed the cylinder that adjusts the height and discovered it was made by a German company, one of the best in the world. He enlisted their help to redesign the gas spring cylinder specifically for a bicycle. Bill applied this technology to his bike and added higher handlebars so you could sit up straighter. Thus the first prototype
was born. Realizing it still needed some improvements, Bill reached out to his son, Mark Becker, of Northfield, owner of Barista’s Coffee House in Galloway. With backgrounds in welding, fabrication and design, they were both ready for the challenge. Over long distance phone calls, they collaborated, planned and designed, figuring out what would and what would not work. In a small welding shop in Somers Point Mark built another prototype, this time from scratch. It was the first prototype built completely from the ground up. It was so comfortable and easy to use they decided it should be manufactured and marketed. While that might sound easy, Mark describes it as a long and frustrating process. After getting their design patented, his father spent many exasperating months meeting with top bike companies, but no one was willing to take a chance on this new and slightly unusual invention. Then one day, Bill was riding his one-of-a-kind bike in Hilton Head and he was spotted by a man who goes by the name of Matt Papka. Matt was very impressed by what he saw. Mr. Papka happened to have contacts in the right places. He secured investors, developed the Elev8 name, found one of the best bike manufacturers in the world who believed in the elev8bikes technology and became an advocate
By ROBIN STOLOFF
of the elev8bike. They added some improvements to the design and setup a full distribution network for the elev8bikes. Matt Papka is now president of elev8bikes. It was a long and grueling process, but their dream finally became a reality when their first container of bikes was delivered last June — twelve years after Bill Becker first had the idea. When I rode the bike, my first impression was that it had a “springy” feel. The seat seemed to absorb any shock or bumps, Plus it was very comfortable to sit up straighter, unlike a racing bike that requires you to bend forward. With a simple flick of a actuator lever, the seat gently glided up and down. Before I stopped, I simply lowered the seat and planted
Where to buy it The elev8bike was featured on the hit daytime show, “The Doctors”. For more information or to purchase a bike, go to www.webebikes.com — retails for $998. On sale now for $779.
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Photo by Eric Weeks
“As impressed as I was with the bike, I was even more impressed by the perseverance of the bike’s creators. All of us have had an idea from time to time about an invention, but how many of us follow it through?”
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HEA LT H WAT C H my feet firmly on the ground. With a regular bike, you are off-balanced when you stop and need to tilt to the side to get your feet down. Many years ago, I fractured my hip in a bike accident after flipping over the handlebars. To this day, I still have a slight fear of riding a bike. On the elev8bike, I feel more secure and relaxed. It is the ultimate cruiser bike. The bike also comes with an optional “trainer” on which you attach the bike to use it indoors. Another great feature — you can switch gears without pedaling. If you need to increase or decrease resistance, you can do it from a stopped or cruise position. If you are moving quickly and then have to stop at an intersection, you can lower the gear with ease and start pedaling again at a lower resistance. Designed for the boomer generation, the bike has also received good bit of attention from kids. Mark says kids always comment on how “cool” it looks and one 10-year old boy called it the most comfortable bike he has ever ridden. As impressed as I was with the bike, I was even more impressed by the perseverance of the bike’s creators. All of us have had an idea from time to time about an invention, but how many of us follow it through? For the Becker family, it was a challenging process that required a huge financial and emotional investment. They stayed with it, they pushed through the tough times and are so excited to introduce the new elev8bike, conceived and born on Hilton Head South Carolina. As Mark says, you can “elevate yourself to a better riding experience.” The elev8bike — giving a whole new meaning to the phrase “It is as easy as riding a bike.”
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Robin Stoloff has been the Health Reporter for NBC 40 since 1986. Her award-winning series, “Health Update,” is the longest-running health feature in New Jersey. To see her health features or let her know what health topics interest you, join her on Facebook/reachouttorobin or log onto nbc40,net, click “features” and “health.” A fitness instructor and health advocate, Robin produced her own workout video on the beaches of Atlantic City. Her personal and professional mission is to “empower others with health information and encourage them to take positive actions towards healthier, longer and more fulfilled lives.” njlifestyleonline.com
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LIVING HEALTHY with Nina Radcliff, MD
Getting The Most From Your Doctor’s Visit Tips to maximize your appointment time and get all the answers you are seeking A doctor’s visit is usually 15 minutes or less. During that time, your physician needs to attain a history of your symptoms, perform a physical exam, prescribe a treatment, and answer your questions. That leaves little time to dilly-dally. As a patient, here are some keys to optimize that time and have a meaningful exchange.
• Do
some research. Before your appointment, look up information about your symptoms as well as possible diagnoses and treatments. This can allow you to have an informed and productive discussion with your doctor and create a list of questions that you would like answered.
• Refocus your doctor. We all have bad days. Your doctor may have
had to admit a patient to the hospital or inform someone for the first time that they have cancer. If your doctor appears distracted or rushed, acknowledge it in a non-confrontational manner such as “It seems like you’re having a very busy day.”
• Focus
on one issue at a time. It is often difficult for doctors to discuss multiple medical issues without falling behind and keeping other patients waiting. Plan to address one issue at a time, and consider limiting it to 1-3 issues (starting with the most important). If you have more issues, when you are scheduling your appointment let the receptionist know that you may need more time. If not, schedule another visit.
• Stick with the program. True story: “My back pain started when
I picked up my cousin Jeff and his wife from the airport. I had not seen them in three years … no maybe four years. Anyways, this is his 2nd marriage. His first wife said he worked too much. This wife is a little younger and she will probably leave him too. Their flight was late, so we ordered pizza for dinner because I did not feel like cooking and doing the dishes that night…” There goes 1-2 wasted minutes. The patient provided little information that could lead to a diagnosis and get him better. An alternative approach could be: “I started having back pain two weeks ago after lifting some luggage. The pain started immediately and is an aching feeling in the lower back and an electric pain that shoots down my right buttocks. It has not gotten better after two weeks of ibuprofen.”
• Answer “checklist” questions. 42
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Based upon your main complaint,
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your doctor creates a “differential diagnosis” or a likely list of potential diagnoses. Although it may seem business-like, your doctor has been trained to ask checklist type questions in order to steer through and sort the information.
• Avoid
being dramatic, if possible. You are more likely to be taken seriously when you appear levelheaded. Although being ill can be painful and uncomfortable, a patient who yells and cries “My pain is so bad I am going to kill myself if you don’t do something. Help me!” is less likely to be taken seriously. An alternative is “The pain is severe and unbearable. I cannot sit, sleep, or go to work. I really need you to figure this out.”
• Ensure that your questions are answered. This is where a list
helps. Additionally, before leaving you should clearly understand your diagnosis. If your doctor is not certain, you should be clear on what the likely causes are and what steps will be done to determine this.
• Bring a family member or friend. They can help ask questions, remember what happened or write things down. After all, two heads are better than one and four ears are better than two.
• Do your part. Your doctor is not a magician and getting or staying
healthy is a two-way relationship. For example, a diabetic may be asked to keep a log of their blood sugars, take their medications as prescribed, eat healthy, and exercise. By following your doctor’s medical advice, you are demonstrating that you are committed to getting better, and it is more likely that you will. Studies have shown that 80% of diagnoses can be made based on a patient’s history alone. By being informed and staying focused, you can help your doctor navigate through any maze, especially when the diagnosis is ambiguous. Remember, you know your body better than anyone else and you are the key to facilitating your doctor’s diagnosis and treatment.
Nina Radcliff is a board certified anesthesiologist, a member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, and licensed to practice in CA, PA and NJ. You can follow Nina on Facebook (Nina Radcliff), and Twitter @drninaradcliff. Nina can also be emailed at drninaradcliff@aol.com.
LIFESTYLE
MONEYWATCH By Matt and Tom Reynolds
GETTING YOUR FISCAL HOUSE IN ORDER With all of the current discussion about the U.S. Government struggling to get its fiscal house in order (debt ceiling, deficits, sequester, etc.), we thought it was the ideal time to discuss household fiscal responsibility and provide readers with some tips for getting their fiscal house in order. As financial planners and practicing CPA’s, we interact with people from all across the financial spectrum. Our experience has taught us that whether a household is in good financial condition or not has less to do with household income, and more to do with household spending. (Sound familiar … can you say federal government?) We see families who make more than $500,000 annually who can’t borrow a nickel because they are so maxed out with debt. We also see families who make $60,000 annually who have a house, two cars, and no debt other than a mortgage. What it comes down to is simple math. You can’t spend more than you make indefinitely. You can do so in the short-term by borrowing to fund the difference, but at some point that option runs out. So, why do so many families find themselves in a financial mess? We believe there are three main reasons: 1) Inadequate Savings — Most families, even those in financial distress, can handle their regular monthly bills and expenses with the income they make. After all, many of the monthly expenses are based on factors we control (where you are going to live, what kind of car are you going to drive, where you are going to shop, etc.). Most families make these decisions based upon their current income. However, when the car unexpectedly breaks down, or the roof on the house needs to be replaced and there is no safety net available, many households will put it on a credit card and worry about it later. At the end of 2012, the average U.S. household had $7,117 in credit card debt. What is even a scarier statistic is if you take out the number of households that have no credit card debt, then the average credit card debt per household balloons to almost $15,257. Since the median household income is around $53,000, that means the average household has credit card debt of almost 30% of their gross income. Savings is a critical way to avoid letting these unplanned expenses ruin you. By spending less than you make, you can build up a reserve to cover you when the unexpected happens. 2) Lack of Budgeting — You can’t possibly have a savings plan if you don’t take a hard look at what is coming in and what is going out. Invariably, when we ask someone who is experiencing financial difficulties what their monthly budget is, they look at you like you have three heads. Balancing any budget requires knowledge of the revenue in and the expenses out. This is the only way to have a realistic vision of your financial situation. Budgeting is free and only requires time and discipline to achieve. We usually recommend starting with the easy side first, the revenue side. Figure out what your net pay is on a
weekly or monthly basis. Next, tackle your fixed expenses: mortgage, real estate taxes, insurance, car payments, and anything else that is a fixed amount every month. Subtract your fixed expenses from your net pay and that leaves you the balance for variable expenses. Variable expenses include everything else you spend money on, including but not limited to food, clothing, gas, utilities, entertainment, and miscellaneous services. We advise all clients to assign an amount under variable for savings. It doesn’t have to be a lot, even $25 or $50 per week. The idea is to get used to saving consistently. If there is nothing left for savings after your variable expenses or even worse if you are negative, then you have to reduce some expenses to bring your budget in line. 3) Understanding the Difference Between Wants and Needs — We live in an entitlement society. Many households believe they are entitled to a certain standard of living, whether they can afford it or not. The same person who says they cannot save $100 a month will spend $200 per month on their teenagers’ cell phones. We need to go back to the age where basic needs were food, clothing, and shelter. Basic needs do not include $175 per month for television, $75 per month for highspeed internet, and $150 per month for Smartphone service. These things are great if you can afford them, but they are luxuries. If the only way you can afford these things is by charging them, then you are in for financial ruin. Vacations are another big area we see households dooming themselves. Families used to save up for trips and then go. Now, many go away without $500 saved and charge $3,000 - 4,000 on the trip and worry about it later. Newsflash, if you don’t have the trip paid for before you leave, you shouldn’t be going. It is easy to get yourself in a financial mess. It is much more difficult to be responsible, spend within your means, and choose only those things that you can truly afford. What the past twenty plus years dealing with peoples’ finances has taught us is that, in the long run, those that live within their means will be much happier than those that live extravagantly above their means because of the detrimental effects that financial stress can have on you physically, as well as the health of your relationships. Money is still the leading cause of relationship failure and, unfortunately, always will be. Matt & Tom Reynolds Co-Managing Partners — CRA Financial This article is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be relied upon as the basis for an investment decision. Consult your financial adviser, as well as your tax and/or legal advisers, regarding your personal circumstances before making investment decisions.
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LIFESTYLEBUSINESS
By ELLEN WEISMAN STRENGER
Arriving with Ease Will improved air service help AC’s convention business take off? You’ve got to love business conventions. These huge meetings
bring hundreds of out-of-towners into our area, usually midweek, when Atlantic City’s hotels are emptiest. Because conventioneers stay and dine at their company’s expense, they’re more likely to have extra money for shopping and revelry. Some even bring friends or family along and stay a few extra days — spending even more money. If you care about the local economy, you’ve got to love conventions. After losing 90 conventions to Hurricane Sandy, AC’s business and tourism leaders are trying to show convention planners more love than ever before: l The Atlantic City Alliance (ACA), a casino-funded marketing group, has put up $1 million in funding for this year alone to help bring big meetings into AC. l Harrah’s is planning to build a $134 million, 200,000-squarefoot, Las Vegas-style conference center starting as early as this spring. l The CRDA (which is bankrolling $46.2 million of Harrah’s conference center) is continuing its grand plan to make Atlantic City a more desirable tourist destination, with projects like Margaritaville, a huge indoor market featuring Jersey produce, and a new art district. If only their love could fly — in the form of airplanes. Even before Sandy, AC was hard-pressed to attract large, national meetings attended by people from all over the country. The problem: getting here. 44
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“We get some national conventions, but not a lot,” says Jeff Vasser, president of the Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority, which operates the Atlantic City Convention Center and helps sell conventions for casinos and other properties in town. “Our biggest problem selling conventions today is air service.” Locals know this problem all too well. AC is served by two airports — Atlantic City, which is convenient, but has few flights — and Philadelphia, which is an hour by car, not convenient to public transportation, and a very expensive cab ride away. In short, neither airport is presently an ideal conduit for bringing conventioneers into Atlantic City. Faced with this limitation, can we ever hope to compete with Las Vegas — or even smaller cities, like Philly and Baltimore — for convention business? To some degree, we already can and do compete. In fact, Atlantic City’s star seems to be rising. Convention center bookings are up 17% so far this year, and despite cancellations caused by Sandy, the convention center hosted 193 conventions last year versus 180 the year before (although cancellation of several huge shows caused revenues to plummet). According to Vasser, Atlantic City has become much more attractive to meeting planners now that we have an ample hotel rooms (about 20,000 — up from an inadequate 12,000 in 2002) and now that planners see us as a “fullservice destination,” with numerous shopping, dining, and entertainment options. “Ten years ago, we didn’t have this,” notes Vasser. And now that “gaming is all over,” casinos are more motivated to support nongaming activities — like conventions — that fill their hotel rooms midweek. As a convention destination, Atlantic City is clearly not in the same league as Vegas, Chicago or Orlando, with their huge airports, endless attractions, and convention centers of over a million square feet (Atlantic City’s convention center has half a million square feet). Even cities like Boston, DC and Philly are hard to compete with. Yet we do compete head-tohead with all of these cities for conventions, and sometimes win — as with the Philadelphia Candy Show, which left Philadelphia for Atlantic City in 2006, says Vasser. Cities on a more level playing field with AC include Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Providence, and Charlotte, he notes. Like those smaller cities, we are blessed by our East Coat location. “Our strength is the regional market,” says Vasser. “We’re lucky; we don’t have to rely so heavily on air service because we are driving distance from major population centers in the Northeast.” Thankfully, these population centers are home to numerous corporations that regularly hold regional meetings. Harrah’s proposed conference center would capitalize on that advantage. Described in press reports as a “game changer,” the conference center’s 100,000 square feet of meeting space will be specially designed for corporate meetings — with meeting spaces that are smaller than the massive exhibition halls of Atlantic City Convention Center. “The proposed Harrah’s convention center fills a void we’ve had in this town for [mid-sized] meeting space,” says Vasser, who had no part in plans for the conference center, but is 100% behind it. The new conference center will be ideal for 46
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corporate sales meetings and product launches, he explains. When these meetings are held at the Atlantic City Convention Center, notes Vasser, they take up space that could be more profitably sold to larger meetings. But are regional meetings enough to pack Harrah’s conference center, as well as the rest of the city’s meeting spaces? “No,” says Vasser. “We need a good mix of regional and national meetings.” This leaves us in a holding pattern, circling over the airport problem. According to Vasser, organizations that hold national meetings know about us and want to come to Atlantic City, but also know they ”have to fly through Philadelphia, which is problematic.” Not only is it a hassle; it’s expensive. Meeting planners need to arrange and pay for car service — usually shuttles or busses — to transport everyone to AC. But this year, ACCVA and the ACA have a plan to sweeten the deal for big, national meetings. The ACA has created a $1 million fund to defray transportation and other costs for meeting planners bringing large, new conventions to Atlantic City. These meeting must use at least 1,000 room nights. Since it was rolled out in January, the funding program has “generated a lot of buzz among meeting planners, but no big wins yet. These bigger shows are usually planned several years in advance,” explains Vasser, who is unsure whether the subsidy will be renewed next year. How about flying conventioneers into Atlantic City International Airport (ACY)? Unlike the Philadelphia International Airport, which is bursting at the seams with 33 million passengers a year, ACY sees just under 1.5 million passengers and can accommodate double that since the opening of its new terminal last November. That terminal more than doubled the size of the airport building, adding 75,000 square feet of space and three additional boarding gates (two equipped to handle international flights), says Sam Donelson, acting executive director and director of engineering and operations for South Jersey Transportation Authority (SJTA), which owns and operates ACY. Yet with all this capacity, ACY currently has only one air carrier — Spirit Airlines. It’s a great option, but only for the tiny segment of convention-goers living in cities where Spirit runs frequent flights back and forth from Atlantic City (like Orlando). Obviously, ACY is not in a position to bring conventioneers here from all over the country. But it could be in the foreseeable future, Donelson asserts. The key? “We need to have good air service connecting AC to places like Chicago, Atlanta, Phoenix, and Vegas,” cities where people from all over the country can easily change planes and fly into AC, he says. To those of us still wondering what happened to Air Tran — which stopped its service out of ACY in January 2012 — adding this air service may seem like a fantasy, but not to Donelson. To him, the Air Tran example proves that the cost of bringing more air service into AC is actually manageable. Air Tran remained at ACY for only two years because SJTA gave them a two-year revenue guarantee. SJTA agreed to pay the difference between what the air carrier took in and what it needed to be profitable — which ultimately totaled $3 million over the two-year period. (Notably, Air Tran was on the road
LI FES T Y L E B US I N E S S to profitability. Its revenue shortfall was much less the second year than the first). But after two years, in accordance with Federal Aviation Administration regulations, the revenue guarantee had to end. At that point, says Donelson, “Air Tran decided they’d be more profitable elsewhere.” That story could have ended differently if someone other than SJTA — for instance, a coalition made up of casinos and tourism organizations — had funded the revenue guarantee, notes Donelson. That’s because a coalition, unlike the SJTA, would not be subject to the FAA regulation limiting revenue guarantees to two years, he says. What would it cost? Donelson thinks the $3 million SJTA spent to subsidize Air Tran over two years is a good indicator. “Just as the casino industry got behind the ACES train, I think in order to have well-established and sustained air service to support AC, we need some kind of coalition to come in and offer financial support for revenue guarantees.” The CRDA did recently look at the possibility of teaming up with an airline charter service to bring more air service into Atlantic City, but ultimately decided against it, says CRDA director John Palmieri. This wouldn’t have done much for convention business anyway, says Vasser. “Meeting planners are not very interested in using charter services.” Would the CRDA or some other organization ever be willing to show conventioneers a little extra love by forming a coalition to subsidize air service between Atlantic City and key major cities? Only time will tell whether this idea could actually take off.
To our loyal customers, and our customers to be:…
Sandy did us wrong, but we want you to know that Gleeson’s is still available to solve your audio/video needs (whatever that might be). While we will not reopen our showroom until May, we are still here to serve you. Please call me at (609) 399-4910 and we will arrange a personal meeting at your location. We’ll discuss by phone, and whatever you need, we will solve it in person. We thank you for your loyalty and consideration, and I just wanted you to know that we are totally committed to serve you! Sincerely, Don Tomlinson
Gleeson’s Audio Video 1048 Asbury Ave Ste. 1 • Ocean City, NJ 08226 (609) 399-4910 • www.Gleesonsav.com
As of press time, Governor Christie announced that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the three major airports serving New York City, would take over ACY as soon as July. “I think it will give Atlantic City airport significantly more leverage to be able to do things that need to be done,” said Christie. According to The Atlantic City Press, Port Authority officials said the move could lead to a tenfold increase in the number of flights through ACY.)
Ellen Weisman Strenger is a freelance writer and a Chicago native. She lives in Linwood, NJ. njlifestyleonline.com
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LIFESTYLENOSTALGIA
Tony Bennett’s Pajamas
By MOLLY GOLUBCOW
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The trail of an innocent item of clothing and its ties to the beloved heyday of Atlantic City
T
he setting was October, 1980, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It was my last night working as a Safety Deposit Box clerk at Resorts Casino when I became an accomplice to the crime. By the title of the job, you can probably guess that there was a distinct lack of glamour, excitement, or need for much of a brain to accomplish that job. As a courtesy, hotel guests could check-in valuables while staying and gambling at Resorts. It was dull and routine — ask the guest for their hotel key, fill out the Safety Deposit Box card, unlock the box, and hand it to the guest. When the guest was finished, you put the box back, lock up, smile, and give the key back to the guest. The only saving grace to the job was that the office was shared by the Security Manager as well as several hotel managers. The office was small, but drunks, prostitutes, card counters, and assorted riff-raff were constantly escorted in and out by security guards and/or ACPD. When your evening promises nothing more than issuing safety deposit boxes, vicariously playing cops and robbers helps pass the time. One of the hotel managers that shared the office with Security, Mr. L., was in charge of catering to the every need and whim of the headliners performing at Resorts. From stretching Joan Rivers’ new Gucci pumps to delivering specific types of bottled water to Natalie Cole’s dressing room to arranging for Sinatra to
have a drink, alone, in a public lounge, Mr. L., would fawn and cheat and lie to please these special guests. My interview with Mr. L. was unique. It began as we rushed into the elevator in the lobby of Resorts and headed up to the 14th floor. Mr. L. never bothered to tell me where we were going and why. He never asked crucial interview questions like, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” On the contrary, as we passed the 6th floor, Mr. L. asked me why a nice Jewish girl wanted to be a Safety Deposit Box clerk. I tried to explain that I had just graduated from college and was looking for a job until I could figure out what to do with my English degree. If he heard me, he did not acknowledge and continued scribbling notes on his clip board. When the doors opened, we walked down a hallway to a set of double-doors. Mr. L. unlocked the door and we went into the room. Looking back, I don’t recall worrying that my interview was being conducted in a hotel room with a man that I just met. The pompous Mr. L. seemed more like a cartoon character than a threat to female innocence. In any case, the interview began with, “Do you know whose suite you are in?” I looked around and noticed baskets of fruits and flowers all over the room. I replied with a “no” and Mr. L. informed me that it was Bill Cosby’s. My “So what?” reply slipped out of my mouth just like the devil had made me do it. At that point I assumed I had lost the job
because of my curt response. But, Mr. L. lit up like a jackpot slot machine. “You’re hired. I don’t need any silly girls who are going to annoy my performers by giggling and asking for autographs. So, when can you start?” And so my year as a Safety Deposit Clerk began. Most evenings were fairly uneventful. On occasion, Mr. L. would give me an “urgent” assignment that would call for “the utmost discretion.” These top-secret duties included delivering flowers and escorting headliners from Point A to Point B. One flower delivery sent me to Burt Lancaster’s room. Lancaster was in town filming “Atlantic City.” When I knocked, I really didn’t expect Lancaster to answer the door. But, he did, in his boxers, thanked me without a tip, and closed the door. On another occasion, Mr. L. was double-booked and asked me to escort Danny Thomas to dinner — which means walk him from his room (Point A) to the restaurant (Point B). I picked up Mr. Thomas and headed off to the restaurant on the 3rd floor. In the elevator, a man kept staring at Thomas and finally blurted out, “Hey, I know you. You’re Tony Bennett!” I was horrified because I was sworn to protect headliners — what would Mr. L. do? As the elevator door opened on our floor, Danny Thomas said to the gawking fan, “No, I am not Tony Bennett, but I do sing much better than he does.” On my last night as a safety Deposit njlifestyleonline.com
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Box Clerk, my co-clerk that night discovered a box tucked away in the office closet. She opened it and discovered it was from the dry cleaners left over a year ago. She decided that it was lost and never would be found and, more importantly, that her boyfriend could use the sweaters. She asked me if I wanted anything, but I declined — it seemed wrong. But, she insisted that I take something from this goody bag! She shoved an article of clothing into my bag. I reluctantly agreed because hey, it was my last night at Resorts and I was going to live a little. When I got home, I took out my souvenir. I now was the proud owner of a pair of men’s blue and white, pinstripe pajamas. They were silk, Neiman Marcus, and monogrammed with a “B.” The inside label clearly said “T. Bennett.” Unimpressed, I folded them up and placed them in my underwear drawer. I considered returning them, but how and to whom and where? So, the PJs were quickly forgotten until one morning several weeks after my pajama caper. I was living at home with my parents, having returned to the nest after college. My father walked by my room and I could have sworn his pajamas looked familiar. I jumped out of bed and found him in the kitchen making a cup of tea. I asked him where he got those pajamas and he informed me that my mother gave them to him. When I told him that he was wearing Tony Bennett’s pajamas, he just looked down at them, tightened the drawstring on the pants and said, “Well, they’re mine now.” There really wasn’t much that I could do at this point, even if I wanted to bring them back to Resorts. In addition to my father’s new found love for these PJs, my mother had altered them to fit my father’s rather short physique. Sorry, Mr. Bennett, but your PJs would now be shorts on you! My mother, who did not seem to think it was odd that her 21-year old daughter had a pair of men’s pajamas in her underwear drawer, never asked me about them, nor did she consult me about her sewing plans. The gig was up — Tony Bennett may have left his heart in San Francisco, but he lost his pajamas in Atlantic City.
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The Social Scene
SOCIALSTUDIES
A Successful Tasting Gallagher’s Burger Bar hosts a fun evening of Craft Beers and Small Bites
Photos by Eric Weeks
Gallagher’s Burger Bar at Resorts Casino in Atlantic City held their first Craft Beer & Small Bites event on February 1st. The tasting event featured a host of craft beers, including: Avinger Brau Weisse from Germany; Duchesse de Bourgogne Flemish Red Ale from Belgium; Anderson Valley Oatmeal Stout from Boonville, California; Red Seal Ale from Salt Lake City, Utah; and the list goes on, with the over 60 craft beers in all. Guests were given a checklist to choose which ones were their favorites, and Gallagher’s will take into account the final results and add the most popular choices to their drink menu. Guests also enjoyed the delectable bites that were offered throughout the evening. Due to the event’s success, Donna McCarthy, director of operations for Ark Atlantic City, and Rose Ann Bottiglieri, Burger Bar manager, will be holding the event again on April 26, 2013. For more information, contact The Burger Bar at 609-340-6554. Left to right: A couple that stopped by for the tastings, Donna McCarthy, Steve Palamaro, and Dean Dooley.
Darla Hendricks (L) and Barbara Scarduzzio (R)
L to R: Jen Santori, Shannah Smith and Kelly Filoon
L to R: Corey Hafner, Kaitlyn Weinberg, Doug Winaelstein, Marc Weinberg and Gretchen VanDuyne
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Dominic (L) Cordivari and Carmen Bartender Heather Karr serves up Genaro (R) the samplings.
L to R: Rachael Jordan, Patty Hagmaier and Kate Hagmaier
L to R: Val and Don Cain, Tim Smith and Sean Smith read up on the craft beer choices.
The Social Scene
SOCIALSTUDIES
Standing Room Only at Senior Citizen’s Free Concert Series Photos by Nick Valinote
The Schultz-Hill Foundation presented the first of a three-part Senior Concert Series on February 14 at the Dante Hall Theater for the Arts in Atlantic City. Entitled “Love is in the Air”, the event played to a full house by the Greater Ocean City Theater Company, under the direction of Michael Hartman. In cooperation with Atlantic County Intergenerational Services and the CRDA, this special Valentine’s Day concert included a “greet and meet” with the cast, as well as a dessert party. The Senior Concert Series was developed to bring better awareness of the ARTS to area senior citizens. The Greater Ocean City Theater Company at Greet and Meet.
The Greater Ocean City Theater Company.
Atlantic City Mayor Langford greets the audience.
John Schultz (L) and Gary Hill (R) assisting residents from Seashore Gardens.
Co-founders John Schultz & Gary Hill greet the audience.
Linwood Education Foundation Gala a Success The Linwood Education Foundation (LEF) held their 2013 Gala for Education at the Atlantic City Country Club in March. This year, the honorees were Kim Petrella, LEF Teacher of the Year and Thomas “Tim” Glenn III of Glenn Insurance. Attendees enjoyed cocktails, dinner, dancing and a silent auction.
The honorees Kim Petrella and Tim Glenn
L to R: Jeff Vasser, Joe Dugan, John Nardone and John D’Alessandro
L to R: Jen Pierce, Mary Fabietti and Angie Vasser
Linwood Mayor Richard Depamphilis with honoree Tim Glenn
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The Best BYO Bottles Revisiting a long-lost love affair with a special wine When I first arrived in the U.S. 35 years ago, I had no idea where my saunter through life would lead. However, my first stop was a liquor store in NJ, owned by my late fatherin-law, who dominated the post prohibition New Jersey liquor industry for 50 years. He owned two stores, the former in Barrington NJ, and the latter, where I was incarcerated for the next 4 years, in Lawnside N.J. So here I was, a 24-year-old, working 15 hours a day, 6 days a week, 52 weeks a year, and bored out of my brains. I was selling the same products to the same customers at the same time every day. Products such as Thunderbird, Schmidts, and Joe Orliebs Beers, Boones Farm, Lancers Rose and Four Roses, not to mention Planters Peanuts (salted) and Lucky Strikes. Bleak though this may all sound, during the dog days of the 1970s something wonderful happened in this country. A chap called Bob Mondavi and a couple of brothers called Ernest and Julio Gallo began educating the masses on the benefits of drinking alcoholic beverages made from grapes (as opposed to apples, pears and whatever matter Manischewitz squeezed into those square bottles). While I was learning to live in 56
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PHILLIP SILVERSTONE’S BEST OF THE BUNCH
America, and suffer disgusting beverages with deficient quality and ample alcohol, a curiosity for wine was surfacing throughout the baby boomer generation. Blue Nun, Mateus, Riunite, and Pink Chablis were names becoming common place in liquor stores and on wine lists. And then the inevitable happened … French wines were discovered. Wines that came from the most respected vines in the galaxy, wines actually made from real grape varieties and produced with tender loving care. Among the wines arriving on our shelves was a brand called simply B&G - Barton & Guestier. These wines were not only fabulous, they were seriously affordable. I fell madly, deeply, head-over heels in love with B&G wines, my salvation from an ocean of unpalatable, mediocre swill. It’s been 30 years since I sold wines in a liquor store, and I now reach millions of people through my multi-media activities. So much in the world of wine has changed, so many brands have disappeared and life in Grapestown USA is somewhat more complicated, “Do you have an app for a nice Chardonnay era?” So imagine my recent elation when a package of wine arrived containing a really nifty label with a familiar name - B&G. While I was wasting my life label surfing the esoteric hyped up designerdriven world of wine, B&G were happily peddling
their wares to their loyal followers. And I am ashamed to admit that I strayed. Indeed, I was unfaithful to my first true wine love. Yet here on my doorstep, was this old friend extending a forgiving cork, giving me another opportunity to fall in love all over again. Overwhelmed with uncontrollable excitement, I popped its cork and watched the nectar flow, its provocative perfume eliciting recollections of our first rapturous encounter. Why am I telling you this? Because I have found some B&G wines, easily available in New Jersey wine stores and often on sale, which are a perfect fit for spring-to-summer quaffing. It doesn’t get any easier when looking for wine for BYO dining or for sharing with friends in the garden. Barton & Guestier is one of the oldest and most prestigious wine negociants in Bordeaux - a company whose history is inextricably woven into the very fabric of France’s legendary wine history. The firm was established in 1725 by Thomas Barton of Curraghmore, Ireland. At the time, Ireland was one of the largest export markets for Bordeaux wines, and Barton made a pilgrimage to the Medoc to seek his fortune as an exporter of these great wines to his homeland. It was a move which coincided with a tremendous boom in Bordeaux exports. Nicknamed “French Tom”,
he quickly earned the respect of winegrowers in Bordeaux, and was one of the first negociants to purchase vineyards in the region as a way of improving his wine quality and consistency. As Thomas Barton was turning the reins of his company over to his son, William, a young Frenchman by the name of Daniel Guestier was earning a reputation as an importer of Bordeaux wines into Baltimore, in the British colonies in America. Guestier’s lineage was an ideal preparation for his career. His grandfather was a French Royal Navy officer, and his father managed both Chateaux Lafite and Chateau Latour for the Marquis de Segur. But for Daniel Guestier, the wine importing business turned out to be more exciting. It was Guestier who built a series of extremely fast ships, including the legendary “La Grande Nancy”, to run the British blockade of the colonies during the American Revolution. And it was Guestier who delivered the wines of Bordeaux that President Thomas Jefferson had ordered from the well-respected negociant. Thomas Barton’s grandson, Hugh, took over
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the company just at the time when the French were revolting, and he was arrested by the Revolutionary Committee for “having dealings with the enemy.” His company was closed and Hugh Barton was given an appointment with the guillotine, although one would assume he tried to change it for one with a manicurist. Only the courage and ingenuity of his wife, Anna, allowed him to escape, dressed in the women’s clothing she had smuggled into the prison. Hugh and Anna spent the next seven years in their ancestral home in Ireland. Daniel Guestier, whose own dealings with the revolution were much less incendiary, managed the company in his friend’s absence and was quite successful. The result was a partnership which was built on extraordinary trust - the two worked without any written agreement until 1802, and then renewed this contract for 28 years with a simple exchange of letters, “I’ll give you my “B” if you let me have your “G”. While the Bartons purchased Chateaux Langon and Leoville, Daniel Guestier bought both Chateaux Batailley and Beychevelle. The two men had clearly made their mark on some of the greatest wines in the world. The two families continued to manage the company for more than two centuries. In the 1950’s they asked the Seagram group to take a role in the growth and management of the company. While Ronald Barton remained at the helm until 1986, majority ownership passed to Joseph E. Seagram & Sons upon Ronald’s death in 1986. As the company grew, it expanded both its markets and sources of supplies. And the list of wines has also grown to include a broad range of classic wines from the greatest wine regions of France: Bordeaux, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Cotes du Rhone, and the Loire. The winemaking staff of Barton & Guestier continues to place tremendous importance on the vineyard. Relationships with key growers are carefully maintained, and the company works with these growers to make sure the grapes meet the standards of Barton & Guestier. Any grapes or wines which do not meet these stringent quality standards are simply not accepted at B&G. The production technology at Barton & Guestier is among the most sophisticated in the world. A stunning array of stainless steel, new oak cooperage, and computer monitoring equipment allows each lot of grapes from each region to be treated with the care and precision that great
winemaking requires. And, as promised, here are the Barton & Guestier wines I highly recommend for the sunny seasons: Pinot Noir Bistro Wine, $8.95, 100% Pinot Noir This wine features classic vinification process, with long maceration and partly ageing in oak. Intense aromas of bright cherry and vanilla on the nose; a good structure on palate; a well-balanced wine with a lingering finish. Food matches include spicy Mediterranean tomato based dishes and pasta. Vouvray, $8.95, 100% Chenin Blanc Pale straw with green highlights, this wine features a great nose of subtle white flowers mixed with white fruits. A lovely and intense wine with floral notes, peach and pear flavors. Serve as an aperitif, and with cheese, light desserts. Macon Villages Chardonnay, $9.95, 100% Chardonnay Pale straw color with golden highlights, this wine features intense bouquet with both floral and white fruits overtones. A flavorful wine on the palate with a long and toasty finish. Serve as an aperitif, and with fish, white meats. Cotes Du Rhone Tradition, $10.99 Grape varieties include Grenache and Syrah. A cherry red color, with a rich and complex nose (morello cherry, spice, tobacco). Concentrated wine, well-structured with spicy and black fruit flavors. Food matches include spicy food, red meat, and cheeses. Rose D’anjou, $9.99 Grape varieties include Grolleau and Cabernet Franc. An intense salmon-pink wine with fine and elegant nose, with ripe red berries aromas and hints of black pepper. Enjoyable wine with overtones of sweet red fruits and spices. Food matches include summer salads, exotic and spicy dishes. I think Shakespeare said it best: “To B&G or not to B&G, that is the question.” Cheers! Phillip Silverstone’s column appears in every edition of New Jersey Lifestyle. “Time Out with Phillip Silverstone” is heard on WWDB 860 AM Fridays, from 10 AM - 11 AM. You can also “Listen Live” and hear the podcast through his web site: www. thesilverstonecollection.com/category/ podcast.
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COMMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS ON THE AREA RESTAURANT SCENE
Changes At The Quarter T
he year 2013 happens to be a year when some changes are in order. The restaurant business is very definitely part of this process, and all of a sudden an upscale Burger Bar makes a lot more sense than frozen Russian vodka. Certainly, The Quarter at the Tropicana is one of the most creative presentations in America, and that’s not about to change. However, some elements will change as time goes on. The Red Square restaurant was fabulous in its day; however, 2013 brings a different picture. The new Broadway Burger Bar is a perfect fit at the Tropicana and it’s a restaurant of the times (affordable, fun, and fantastic burgers). What’s not to like? The beer aficionados will love the sixty craft beers, and there will be plenty more than burgers on the menu. The restaurant will also offer organic grassfed beef, salads, and jumbo shrimp and crab cocktail, chicken sandwiches, turkey burgers, and vegetarian options like the barley & lentil burger or the sesame tuna burger. Broadway Burgers puts its own spin on comfort food favorites, including four varieties of macaroni and cheese and 12 different versions of mashed potatoes. We do have some history here. The Broadway Burger Bar opened in Las Vegas to a standing ovation. The people love it, and Atlantic City’s promises to be even better. The Tropicana; The Quarter; The Burger Bar; it’s all happening now!
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LIFESTYLE
Restaurant Report
Delightful Classic Malts and Quality Craft Beer It’s interesting to watch bars and restaurants add quality to their beverage menus. One would think that in this economy, people are more apt to spend less in the area of beverages, but it’s just not the case. There is a tremendous audience for higher quality at the bar. I recently attended an event at Robert’s Steakhouse in the Taj Mahal, which was a Classic Malts Dinner. The evening was hosted by Diageo certified Master of Whisky, Kevin Loser. We experienced an evening showcasing four award-winning Scotch Whiskies: Talisker 10, Cragganmore 12, Lagavulin 16, and Dalwhinnie 15. The event’s menu was thoughtfully created by Robert’s executive chef Will Savarese and designed to complement the evening’s featured Scotch whiskies, which have become popular upscale items. Prior to this event, we attended a Craft Beer Event at Gallagher’s Restaurant at Resorts. This was a tasting event featuring a host of craft beers, including the likes of Avinger Brau Weisse from Germany; Duchesse de Bourgogne Flemish Red Ale from Belgium; Anderson Valley Oatmeal Stout from Boonville, California, North Coast Brewery; Red Seal Ale from
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Hours Mon: 4pm - 9:30pm Tue - Fri: 12pm - 9:30pm Sat: 12pm - 10:30pm Sun: 12pm - 9:30pm
a l l a G h e r
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Salt Lake City, Utah; and the list goes on and on. There were approximately 60 craft beers involved. Since the economic downturn began, consumers generally haven’t been spending as freely as they once did. But that has not been the case when it comes to craft beers. The latest research from Chicago-based Mintel, a global supplier of product research, shows that sales of craft beer nearly doubled between 2007 and 2012 — growing from $5.7 billion in 2007 to $12 billion in 2012. Clearly there is an audience for high priced, high quality beverages. Two steakhouse events are at least an indication that people are looking for better products, and they are willing to pay more for them.
s
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u r G e r
BURGER BAR
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a r
Featuring Gallagher’s signature dry-aged sirloin in its burgers cooked over a wood fire. A wide array of toppings available to create your own signature burger. Also featuring salads, a turkey burger, garden burger and everyone’s favorite — Wagyu Kobe Sliders with caramelized shallots.
Gallagher’s Burger Bar at Resort’s Hotel & Casino • 1133 Boardwalk • Atlantic City, NJ Tel 609-340-6554 • www.arkrestaurants.com njlifestyleonline.com
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DINING Gallery Barista’s Coffee House
68 West Jimmie Leeds Rd, Galloway 609-568-5519 baristascoffeehouse.com At Barista’s Coffee House, the coffee, cappuccino, espresso’s, smoothies & signature drinks are great! Debbie and Mark Becker hit it perfectly. They even installed a drive–thru for folks on the run. Most importantly, they happen to be totally committed when it comes to quality, and yes, their always freshly-brewed coffee is superb in every respect. Start (or finish) your day at Barista’s in Galloway. Meet the owners who are friendly, passionate, and dedicated to their ever-growing business. And their bagels have to be the best in the entire area. Open daily: M-F 6 am to 7 pm, Sat 7 am - 6 pm, Sun 8 am - 4 pm.
The Melting Pot Girasole Ristorante & Lounge
3108 Pacific Avenue, Atlantic City, NJ 609-345-5554 www.girasoleac.com An Italian boutique restaurant with a strong Mediterranean influence. Fresh ingredients and simple preparations, served in style, with Versace banquettes and place-settings. A beautiful bar with a noteworthy selection of custom cocktails and quality wines offered.
Phillips Seafood
King’s Lounge
Berkshire Grill
6105 Black Horse Pike, Egg Harbor Twp 609-272-8808 berkshiregrillnj.com Superbly prepared entrees including aged USDA Choice steaks, slow roasted Prime Rib and Grilled Chicken Portofino. Signature entrees include Mandarin Glazed Salmon, Spinach Pecan Salad and Shrimp & Mussels Linguine. A large selection of sandwiches, salads, wraps, steaks, chicken, seafood and pasta is offered.
2112 Atlantic Avenue, Atlantic City, NJ 609-441-1100 www.meltingpot.com At The Melting Pot, fondue truly becomes a memorable four-course dining experience. Patrons can dip into something different — and discover all the ingredients for a unique dining experience including a relaxed atmosphere, private tables, attentive service, fine wines and signature fondue dinners.
6415 Delilah Road, Egg Harbor Twp, NJ 609-383-8200 www.kingsloungenj.com Feel like a member of the Royal Family at the delightful King’s Lounge. Relax in one of their leather seats by the fireplace enjoying martinis or a cocktail, or dine at a high-top table, booth or dining table surrounded by their chic decor. Enjoy a variety of exotic dishes, including seafood, poultry or pasta, or treat yourself to a hand-ground kobe beef burger. The menu features delicious appetizers and salads, and is wonderfully affordable. Open Monday - Saturday, 11 am 2 pm for lunch and 5 pm - 11 pm for dinner.
Pier at Caesars, Atlantic City 609-348-2273 phillipsseafood.com The eighth restaurant in the Phillips family, Phillips Seafood brings guests a classical American seafood menu boasting an array of fresh seasonal fish and Phillips’ famous jumbo lump crab cakes. Renowned chef Robbin Haas has designed a menu that offers guests the freshest, finest seafood available, complete with a rolling oyster cart where regional varietals are shucked tableside and a double-decker live lobster tank stocked with 3-10 pound lobsters. Phillips brings an upscale, interactive dining experience to guests with their exhibition kitchen and sweeping ocean views.
Renault Winery
Library IV Crab Trap
2 Broadway, Somers Point, NJ 609-927-7377 www.thecrabtrap.com Overlooking the Great Egg Harbor Bay in Somers Point is the Crab Trap Restaurant. Flourishing as a 400 seat full service restaurant serving the finest seafood in South Jersey. As many businesses expand, they often lose touch with the quality and small personal touches that made them special. At the Crab Trap they don’t believe that has happened or ever will. 62
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1030 N. Blk Horse Pike, Williamstown 856-728-8064 www.libraryiv.com The area’s greatest steakhouse under the direction of owner Brian O’Keeney. Offering quality prepared food and friendly service. Serving hand-cut steaks by the ounce, prime rib, seafood, veal and chicken. The Library IV restaurant has been the area’s top steakhouse for 30 years. A recently completed remodel includes a new kitchen, new 30 foot long salad bar and dining rooms. A casual and cozy atmosphere sets this restaurant apart from the others, and their commitment to top quality has stood the test of time.
72 N. Bremen Avenue, Egg Harbor City 609-965-2111 www.renaultwinery.com Shades of Tuscany, located on 1,400 beautiful acres, only twenty miles from Atlantic City, Renault features two restaurants. Joseph’s features the superb cuisine of one of the area’s most talented chefs — Chef Joseph Degennero — with a moderately priced menu and a wine program that includes selections from the Renault collection. Open every day for lunch and dinner. In season, check out the Sunday Tuscan Brunch. The Gourmet Restaurant at Renault features a Seafood Buffet on Friday nights from 5 - 8 p.m. and a Saturday night dinner with chef stations from 5 - 9 p.m. On Sunday from 10 2 p.m. is Renault’s Award Winning Sunday Brunch.
We’ll be the first to admit our name doesn’t tell the whole story. Seaview Dolce
401 South New York Road, Galloway, NJ 609-652-1800 www.dolceseaview.com The entire presentation of this beautiful resort delivers an ambiance from another era. There’s something very special about enjoying a delightful breakfast, lunch or dinner with a panoramic view of the historic Bay Course. Their famous Friday Night Seafood Buffet and the equally famous Sunday Country Club Champagne Brunch represents some of the best dining experiences on the entire East Coast.
Smithville Inn
1 N. New York Road, Smithville, NJ 609-652-7777 www.smithville.com A lovely historical inn on 40 acres of pristine gardens and lakes. The Smithville Inn offers a wide selection of cuisine and is one of South Jersey’s premiere Restaurants. Minutes away from Atlantic City, in the Historic Towne of Smithville. Serving sophisticated comfort food in a warm environment. Specialties include Chicken Pot Pie, Crab Cakes, and Osso Bucco Frico. A tradition of hospitality that has been carried on since 1787. Banquets and private parties. Sunday brunch.
Sofia
9314 Amherst Avenue, Margate, NJ 609-822-9111 sofiaofmargate.com Embrace the hospitality and diverse flavors, served individually or combined, so skillfully in a cuisine that is good for your heart, body and soul. A Greco-Med restaurant located by the bay in Margate, Sofia is arguably the most stylish non-casino newcomer in years. Sporting a handsome mix of flagstone, fieldstone, and rustic dark wood, it has a transporting outdoor deck; and a kitchen specializing in grilled whole fish and tantalizing tapas. Now featuring a spectacular sushi bar. Sofia Restaurant is a must-visit at the Jersey Shore.
Bountiful Seafood. Succulent Steaks. Perfect Pastas. And yes, Award-Winning Crab Cakes.
On the circle in Somers Point 609-927-7377 Serving from 11am Children’s Menu Available Lunch • Dinner • Cocktails Live Music • Deck Bar
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CASINO DINING ATLANTIC CLUB CASINO
Ono Chinese Bistro & Bar
Boston Ave & Boardwalk, Atlantic City 609-347-7111 atlanticclubcasino.com Enjoy traditional Chinese fare with their classic Sushi Bar, Seafood, Beef & Pork, Chicken & Duck, Chow Mein, Noodles and Rice, Egg Foo Young, Vegetables and Tofu. The view of the boardwalk and ocean is as amazing as the food, now under the direction of Chef Brian Tsui.
BALLY’S
Arturo’s Ristorante
Wolfgang Puck American Grille
Bally’s Casino, Atlantic City 609-340-2300 www.ballysac.com Bally’s own Little Italy! Chef Maurizio prepares Milk fed Veal anyway your heart desires, Picatta, Marsala, Francese, and of course, their famous Veal Parmigiana. Vibrant Italian mosaics and offers tranquil views of the boardwalk and the Atlantic Ocean.
One Borgata Way, Atlantic City 609-317-1000 www.theborgata.com The man who revolutionized the culinary industry carries an undeniable cachet, synonymous with bold, innovative cooking and an unmistakable panache and passion that redefined dining in America. Offering contemporary American cuisine, the restaurant offers two distinctive dining areas ranging from casual and relaxed to elegant and upscale.
BORGATA
CAESARS Nero’s Tuscan Steakhouse
Patsy’s
Boston Ave & Boardwalk, Atlantic City 609-340-6856 atlanticclubcasino.com Real Italian food is what this classic (New York) restaurant is all about. It’s a clone of the Neapolitan joint on West 56th Street and a well-known Sinatra favorite that has become an Atlantic City favorite. It’s Patsy’s — forget about it! ChickenSaltimbocca, Veal Parmigiana, Steak Pizzaiola, and Pork Tenderloin are all less than $20. There’s even family-style meals that start as low as $14 (up to $36 for four people).
Izakaya
One Borgata Way, Atlantic City 609-317-1000 www.theborgata.com A modern Japanese pub that defies comparison. Extraordinary sushi, sake and robatayaki served in a sensual, yet modern atmosphere. Izakaya’s tempting cocktails and sharable plates make it the premier spot for am after-hours nosh and drinks, or a delicious late night meal.
Caesars Casino, Atlantic City 800-223-7277 caesarsac.com Nero’s Tuscan Steakhouse offers oceanside dining in a magnificent old world setting. Entrees feature Prime grade steaks and a fresh seafood selection that you won’t find anywhere else. Their commitment and responsibility to the environment is to sustain future resources for our planet. They are committed to promoting organic agriculture, and supporting local growers and artisanal food producers whenever possible.
HARRAH’S
THE STEAKHOUSE The Steakhouse Simon AC Steak & Seafood
Boston Ave & Boardwalk, Atlantic City 609-347-7111 atlanticclubcasino.com It’s yet another “Hot” Atlantic Club restaurant. There are three steaks on the menu for less than $20 (including their 10-oz. NY Strip), and delicious appetizers for under $10 (Crab Cake, BBQ Pork Chops, and Seafood Tacos). Meatloaf ($16); DoubleCut Pork Chop ($17); their classic The Oak’s Chicken Cordon bleu ($18) and the Filet of North Atlantic Salmon ($16) have quickly become house favorites. 64
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Old Homestead Steak House
One Borgata Way, Atlantic City 609-317-1000 www.theborgata.com Their domestically-raised, hand-massaged Kobe beef is not only the envy of the trade, it’s trademarked. But that isn’t the only reason the venerable Old Homestead has been a New York City landmark for 137 years. “It’s consistency on all fronts,” says Marc Sherry who, with brother Greg, opened their second location at Borgata. The menu nearly mirrors New York’s — and for good reason.
777 Harrahs Blvd, Atlantic City 609-441-5575 harrahsresort.com Whether you like your steak rare or well done, everything is prepared exactly to your wishes at The Steakhouse! Experience the finest in steakhouse culinary tradition. Choose from succulent Angus Roast Prime Rib of Beef to Pork Porterhouse. With a menu like this, you can’t go wrong. Plus, let their staff help you pair your meal with the finest vintages from our glass-enclosed wine cellar. Hours of operation are subject to change and availability. Advanced reservations recommended.
RESORTS
Gallagher’s Steakhouse
N. Carolina & Boardwalk, Atlantic City 609-340-6555 gallaghersresorts.com Gallaghers is located on the 2nd floor of Resorts Casino. A classic steakhouse serving hearty salads, dry-aged meats, wonderful fish and shellfish. Their glass-enclosed meat locker is in the front of the restaurant for all to view; and all of the beef is dry-aged for 21 days at a constant 36 degrees to insure tenderness. Offering the finest selections of seafood as well. An ambiance of warm woods and deep reds. Friendly, efficient and gracious service. Open for dinner Sunday thru Thursday 5-9:30 pm, Friday 5-10 pm, Saturday 5-11 pm.
SHOWBOAT
Scarduzio’s
Showboat, Atlantic City 609-343-4330 www.showboatac.com Located on the casino level of Showboat, Scarduzio’s serves the finest in steaks, chops, chicken and seafood. Meat lovers will enjoy premium USDA Prime beef grilled to your specifications; naturally raised pasture fed with an all vegetarian diet, hormone and antibiotic free USDA certified prime cuts of beef and lamb exclusively from DeBragga — one of the premier NYC butchers located in the heart of the meatpacking district. Also, indulge in the classic Sushi and Raw bar selections.
TRUMP PLAZA
Max’s Steakhouse
Boardwalk at Mississippi, Atlantic City 609-441-6420 www. trumpplaza.com Can a steak become a work of art? One visit to Max’s Steakhouse at Trump Plaza, with a taste of what Chef Les Bender has to offer, and the answer is a resounding yes. Classic warm red hues, impressive woodwork and traditional, crisp, white tablecloths capture your attention and set the tone for an exceptional dining experience. Featuring Certified Angus Beef, the menu includes bone-in-rib eye, seared salmon and scallops, ahi tuna and the ultimate surf and turf, featuring an 8-ounce coldwater lobster tail and an 8-ounce filet mignon.
TRUMP TAJ MAHAL Roberto’s Ristorante
Capriccio
N Carolina & Boardwalk, Atlantic City 609-344-6000 www.resortsac.com No passport needed for this Italian experience. Capriccio’s all new menu features gourmet Italian cuisine in an exquisitely comfortable Mediterranean atmosphere, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Capriccio’s has beautiful murals on the walls featuring Old World Italy. Try the lobster with shiitake mushrooms and sweet peppers served on a baked polenta round; or the Costolette di Vitello alla Lombardese; or absolutely the Ossobuco di Vitello alla Lombardese, braised in a red wine and tomato sauce served with saffron risotto. The food is as spectacular as the view.
Il Mulino New York
Trump Taj Mahal, Atlantic City 609-449-1000 www.trumptaj.com Il Mulino New York is the epitome of a traditional, white table cloth, Old New York Italian hangout. The restaurant’s menu offers only the best ingredients, beautifully prepared and presented by tuxedo clad waiters. Choose from a wide range of Italian classics along with an extensive list of inspired specials and wine recommendations.
Boardwalk at Mississippi, Atlantic City 609-441-7820 www.trumpplaza.com At Roberto’s Ristorante at Trump Plaza, a stop to look over the menu is worth the visit alone. Northern and southern Italian cuisine is all prepared under the watchful eye of Chef de Cuisine Robert Pfander of Ocean City. Entrees run the gamut from oven cappalini spiaggia to seasoned lamb chops to sauteed Dover sole. Complement it all with the ideal bottle of wine from Roberto’s extensive collection, as you take in the breathtaking views of the Atlantic Ocean. The perfect ending to a perfect dinner is guaranteed with an individual souffle of either grand marnier or chocolate.
REVEL Robert’s Steakhouse
Amada
Revel Resorts, Atlantic City www.revelresorts.com/dining/amada For sweeping views and Spanish small (and large) plates, it doesn’t get any better than Amada, the Atlantic City outpost of Chef Jose Garces’ famous Philadelphia tapas restaurant. With its tile floor and rustic wood ceiling, Amada transports you to straight to Spain, where sangria flows from terra cotta pitchers and the smell of sizzling chorizo entices you to order just one more plate for the table.
Trump Taj Mahal, Atlantic City 609-449-1000 www.trumptaj.com Opened October 2012. Robert’s is one of a few steakhouses in Atlantic City to perform its painstaking dry-age techniques in house, for six weeks. While Robert’s Steakhouse of New York is designed to please omnivores of all varieties, the superstars of the menu remain the steaks, including a hearty, bonein NY Strip, a delicate filet mignon, and the ultimate Porterhouse for two. Additionally, there are grilled garlic and rosemary lamb chops, citrusy seared scallops and a decadent, truffle-laced risotto. The kitchen uses locally-grown produce and offers many seasonal specialty dishes.
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A FINAL WORD By BILL HENRY
Alexander Mauro; played with Pedicin
Michael Pedicin, Jr.’s album cover from 1979
I
was gazing at the obits in the Philadelphia Inquirer recently. (I actually read them every morning just to make sure my name is not included.) The above headline in the paper took me to his column. I have never met Alexander Mauro, but I do remember him playing the drums for Mike Pedicin back in the day in Somers Point. I most certainly remember Pedicin, and, as I continued to read the obituary, the memories began to flow. For me, Somers Point was the Anchorage, Tony Mart’s, and Bayshores (and of course, a cheesesteak and seven for a buck at Gregory’s). I don’t know how many people remember Bob Horn who preceded Dick Clark on American Bandstand, and I doubt too many folks remember a hit song called “Shake a Hand” that the Pedicin group performed on Bandstand in 1954, and again in 1957. The music was very different in those days, which is to be expected, and everything was a tad more innocent. How can one forget the dances in Ocean City
(Philadelphia Inquirer - February 21, 2013)
at 6th Street and the Boardwalk? The music was everything from “Shake a Hand” to Phil Phillips and “The Sea of Love”. I was too young to get into the clubs, but I was always fascinated with the music. The truth is that just being there was enough. You could stand on the streets and appreciate the entire scene. I am happy to report that Mike Pedicin is alive and well and living in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. Mike’s son, Michael Pedicin Jr., is associated with the local Richard Stockton College and is a world-class musician, having followed his father’s lead on the saxophone. The memories are what the shore is all about, and you grab them no matter how and when they are delivered (even an obituary). In terms of Mr. Mauro, I hope, and even assume he had a great life. The man was part of something very special and he lived a blessed life of music. Anyone who played on the stages of those sacred venues actually beat the devil. It’s a gift for those who were lucky enough to be there. May he rest in peace.
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