COMING ATTRACTION: ROSEMOTHER’S JAM JAZZ CONCERT, MARLBORO-MORGANVILLE N J SUNDAY OCTOBER 18TH bY Calvin Schwartz

I met Rosemary Conte nearly four years ago at an Easter Sunday benefit concert to raise awareness and funds for homelessness in Ocean County; she organized the concert. It was through her social consciousness that helped to change my view of the world and launched my own journalistic efforts for homelessness awareness. Along the road these few years, I’ve also had pleasurable opportunities to hear Rosemary Conte, the jazz singer perform her evocative, emotional, soulful music.

At NJ Discover, we’re committed to the causes of homelessness, hunger, social awareness and music which is what Rosemary ( aptly nicknamed ‘Rosemother’)  is all about.  Her efforts are now focused on rekindling and inspiring the local jazz scene.  Some of the energy for this began in her house with old fashioned jazz jam sessions. Now it has evolved to a group called ‘Reality Jazz’ performing at the Monmouth Academy of Music Arts in Morganville. Actually this show is part of a broader project called ‘Rosemother’s Jam – 100% Jazz’.

bY Calvin Schwartz  10-10-15

SHOW INFORMATION:

Rosemother’s Jam Jazz Concert ~ Music you’ll love in an intimate setting. Reality Jazz ~ Sunday, Oct. 18, 3-5pm

Rosemary Conte, Vocals ~ Brad Mandigo, Piano

Bob Boyd, drums ~ Tony Cimorosi, bass

Monmouth Academy, Recital Room

1230 Campus Dr., Morganville-Marlboro, NJ ~ 732-617-1124

$15 Admission ~ $5 for students & Senior Citizens

PRESENTED BY: 

EXCERPTS FROM ROSEMARY’S PRESS RELEASE:

“Decades ago, there were jazz listening clubs all over NJ and especially the Shore, where I and other jazz artists played. You could hear a pin drop in a live jazz scene. Today, you rarely hear live jazz played by local jazz artists in a listening context. Jazz died at the Jersey Shore as another music was being born to run. Ironically, in the 70s, a young Clarence Clemons who lived across the street on Ocean Avenue, would come to the old Blue Water Inn in Sea Bright and ask to sit in with my band. We let him.”

“Rosemother’s Jam – 100% Jazz’ is my answer to the lack of opportunity for accomplished local jazz musicians to play live, the kind of music they’ve studied and loved all their lives, and for multi-generations of people to learn about jazz. I’ve opened my home to monthly jazz jam sessions. I invite them three to five players at a time, to play their own compositions and classic and newer jazz repertoire, unencumbered by the roles they serve playing local bars and restaurants, and in pop oriented event bands.”

“We’ve been jamming together for six months, and music fans have asked if they can come over when we play. This tells me that despite what I hear from Shore venues, there is an interest in jazz and people just might support it if they could find it. I want to do my part to develop a greater audience for jazz and to introduce it to the younger generations.”

“My living room is too small for an audience of any size, so I’ve rented a recital room at a music school. The October 18 concert will be the first Rosemother’s Public Jam”

“Jazz education and preservation is important to me, and there’s an education component to my jazz jam project that can’t be simulated in a classroom. Under the Rosemother’s Jam umbrella, I’ve created the Fly On Wall Program.”

“I’m inviting music students interested in jazz, a couple at a time, to be ‘flies on the wall’ during jams at my house … to observe the pros discussing a piece of music, its form, improvising, and masterfully playing ensemble. I’m reaching out to local colleges and universities to connect their music students to this opportunity. There is no fee for this.”

GOINGS ON AND WORTHWHILE: NJ Emerging Artists Series; SHERRY RUBEL; CHANGING PERSPECTIVES/Photography now at The Monmouth Museum bY Calvin Schwartz    July 20, 2015

Let me cut to the essence. This art exhibit focuses on homelessness here in New Jersey. How I arrived here, living comfortably in suburban Monmouth County, far removed from homeless images except an occasional sighting of people sleeping on the floor in Penn Station, NYC or down 33^rd Street in the midst of winter, is a brief story of synchronicity and being in the right place.

Over three years ago, on Easter Sunday, I was asked to cover a musical concert rally for the homeless living in Tent City, Lakewood. From a distance, I saw a yellow school bus deposit residents of Tent City at the plaza during the concert. There were grilled hot dogs and tables of donated clothing waiting for them. I was too far away to interact.  Minister Stephen Brigham spoke about the needs of the homeless and the shortcomings of Ocean County.   At the end of the day, I packed up my camera, went home for a warm  dinner and forgot about that day only after writing an article on the great music heard which was organized by Rosemary Conte.

A few months after Sandy devastated, I was at a benefit concert at McCloone’s in Asbury Park.  Rosemary Conte performed again and just after, she introduced me to Sherry Rubel, who was involved in promoting the concert. A month later, Sherry and I had coffee in East Brunswick and subtlety I was being inculcated into the world of Tent City and homelessness. A few weeks later, Tara-Jean Vitale, co-host at NJ Discover TV, and I were walking around the snow covered dirt roads of Tent City. It was cold, stark and numbing to see how people survived in just tents without electricity, running water or heat. I’d never be quite the same again thanks to Sherry’s activism and soul. Before its ultimate date with bulldozers, I’d been to Tent City several times.

The photographic art exhibit of Sherry Rubel’s emotional journey into Tent City and homelessness is now at The Monmouth Museum until August 9^th.  Her photos (art) are stark, expressive and black and white; for me a magnetizing effect that deposits me right back to Tent City with feeling and raw emotion. I call her photos “earthy art.” They grab your sensibility and ultimately, for viewers, may possess the energy of involvement. Visiting the Monmouth Museum is one of those perfect night/day adventures. Red Bank, with its plethora of eateries a few minutes away, adds to allure of Sherry’s exhibit, the Museum’s offerings and a perfect family cultural outing.

For more info:  @RevivalVillage        https://www.facebook.com/tentcitybook

New Jersey, Homelessness and Charles Dickens; Awareness, Advocacy, Activism and Sherry Rubel    BY Calvin Schwartz    March 22, 2015

Four years ago, homelessness was a distant concept for me living in suburban Monmouth County. My only  realization that fellow humans were homeless came from TV news stories in New York City when the wind chill was zero and the police humanely gathered and deposited them in temporary shelters for the night. On expeditions to New York City, for a day at the museum or a family dinner, I’d see homeless people, sometimes sitting on the steps of a church, or lying on the cold concrete, passed out, inebriated or worse. Occasionally, I’d see an ostensibly homeless person with a sign and cup trying to raise money. Once on 33^rd Street, I saw a homeless woman and small child asking for money. I gave them a few dollars. What always hits me is that when every human is born, we arrive from the womb and are exactly the same in the hope and dream department for that brief moment in time.

I never saw homelessness here in Jersey because I’ve been sheltered in the suburbs most of my adult life.  Then four years ago, I transitioned into Journalism from a successful career in optical sales and management; quite a difference. Three years ago, I was asked to cover an Easter Sunday benefit concert in Lakewood, New Jersey for Tent City; a community of homeless people living in the woods in tents without power or heat for up to ten years. News of these horrific conditions began to trickle into local media. Rosemary Conte, activist, organized the event. At the end, Tent City founder, Minister Stephen Brigham brought a busload of residents of Tent City to receive donated clothing and food. It was a hard rain for me to see and process; homelessness. I had no idea or understanding.

A few months after Hurricane Sandy, Sherry Rubel, a photographer and activist, produced a concert in Asbury Park to raise money for victims. Rosemary introduced me to Sherry and a month later, I met Sherry for coffee on Route 18 and learned all about the realities and exigencies of Tent City. Then on cold cloudy morning in February, with patches of snow on the ground and smoke sneaking out from the tent’s wood-burning stoves, Sherry Rubel escorted NJ Discover’s Tara-Jean Vitale and me on a tour of Tent City; it was stark, inhospitable and brutally real. Homeless humans were living in conditions that made it seem like it was 1929 and Herbert Hoover was on the radio. We walked around and visited people in their tents; it was deathly cold.  A strange eerie silence followed us. My soul has never been the same since. These last few years, I see the world a little different and I’m  grateful to Sherry for the consciousness raising and awareness. She boldly continues her activism.

Recently I heard that Sherry went to N.J. Senate Speaker Steve Sweeney’s office last September and met with his staff to discuss how tiny homes could meet the needs of the homeless. That discussion led Legislative Senate Bill 2571, which has gained acclaim and is currently now being sponsored by Sen. Raymond Lesniak.

In this particular article: http://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/2015/03/08/manufactured-tiny-homes-affordable-home-options/24436415/Advocates

It states “Rubel fears her original vision of building a community with services as well as tiny homes is getting lost, and that the bill only provides for the construction of affordable homes.”

When a court resolution was finalized in 2013, Tent City in Lakewood was bulldozed and what was home for over a hundred homeless (un-housed humans) over a period of seven years was gone.  These Ocean County homeless no longer had a safe haven and temporary housing alternative. When Tent City went to Ocean County Court over a year ago, (I sat in court with them) to determine its ultimate fate, people were appalled and outraged with the decision which left no permanent resolution for the homeless of Ocean County. After this decision, Sherry Rubel was driven and determined to bring the spirit of ‘Destiny’s Bridge’ to fruition and bring about the realization of the “Tiny Home Pilot Program” legislation.

And so it all goes with no resolution, permanency or humanity. We are almost one year later and many Tent City people are homeless again and looking for a clearing in the trees to set up another tent. And so are many other homeless/un-housed humans falling into the darkness of a bleak unaffordable economy and housing environment.

Sherry Rubel spoke to me about the current state of homelessness. “The Tiny Home Pilot Program legislation was never about affordable housing as politicians, HUD and Social Services interpret it. I don’t speak political language full of policy and regulations. I speak from my heart. I don’t care about how things work in a system that’s already broken. I only care about finding answers and discovering new innovative ideas that work to assist in resolving a critical problem that needs to be addressed. I guess I’m an outside the box thinker; still believe that where there is a will there’s a way. That’s what I’m trying to do; assist in coming up with new innovative ideas and thinking. What I’ve discovered is how boxed in everyone actually is. Everyone seems to get in their own way.  Please don’t get me wrong. There are many organizations with great programs that are working and those organizations should be praised for their amazing work but so much more is needed. I want to take the best of them all and apply it to a practical workable program. I call it ‘REVIVAL VILLAGE’ www.revivalvillage.com  which is a three phase innovative, sustainable, holistic, and economically efficient approach to resolving a very critical issue; perhaps one of the most pressing issues of our time.  Everyone ultimately has something to contribute to a community/village. All we really need is land. We have the plans all laid out.”

As I wrap up this article and finished talking with Sherry, I need to send props to Steve Conboy from Eco Building Products who has generously provided a donation of 14 emergency shelters/ Tiny Homes for immediate use. Not only does Steve want to assist in this project but he would like to employ homeless residents of “Revival Village” with building jobs for the Tiny Homes. It’s important to mention that ‘Destiny’s Bridge,’ is also a wonderful documentary created by Filmmaker Jack Ballo that will be showing at Salt Studios in Asbury Park on Saturday April 11th. Jack spent years at Tent City in Lakewood telling their story. I’ve seen the documentary several times; it’s powerful, beautiful and riveting.

There is so much to say about homelessness; it’s overwhelming. I recall a recent study by NASA scientists that gives our species another 30 years or so. One of the culprits (also climate change, food, water) is social unrest on a global scale. Now I look back to when Charles Dickens published ‘A Christmas Carol’ in 1843. Scrooge asked “Are there no workhouses?” In Dickens’ writing, the Spirit of Christmas Present reveals two children representing Want and Ignorance.  The issues of homelessness (Want) in New Jersey are daunting and overwhelming. As I see it, not much has changed here in New Jersey (and Ocean County) since 1843.

Calvin Schwartz

PLEASE HELP  SPREAD THE WORD!!!

TRENTON HOSTS APRIL 15TH GLOBAL RALLY FOR THE HOMELESS

On April 15th cities in the U.K., Ireland, Canada and the USA will be rallying in solidarity for and with our homeless brothers and sisters around the world. The EVENT in NJ will take place at the State House in Trenton, beginning at 10:00 AM and running until approximately 2 PM.

https://www.facebook.com/events/788420991213835/

 “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.” – President Franklin Roosevelt

An Evolution to Awareness: Tent City, Lakewood, NJ.  Homelessness. And a Train to See Kobe Bryant.   By Calvin Schwartz

road into tent city

A quick thought before the article: if you like the article. please LIKE the writer on Facebook at:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Calvin-Schwartz-Cerebral-Writer/258272024192114?fref=ts

Just thinking; I lived a big piece of my life in middle class bliss called suburban Monmouth County, New Jersey which is 40 minutes from Manhattan and an hour from Philadelphia. There are pockets (towns) in the county that have horse farms.  Mint juleps on cane benches on white wooden porches with Mercedes lined up in front of a three-car garage are common place; my way of describing subtle opulence. But I’m refreshingly middle class and damn proud. In July 2011, I even extended the energies of pride into becoming a journalist for a local county paper and a few months later, immersed into the television/internet reporting world of NJ Discover. Two years prior to that, my first novel, ‘Vichy Water’ was published. I became a writer on the late side of life’s journey but that’s OK, I’ve spiritually stopped counting years.

During these recent years, if anyone would’ve mentioned Tent City(Lakewood) and homeless people living in tents (80 of them) 27 minutes away from my electric two-car garage door and driveway, I would’ve gone on doing whatever I was doing, not paying attention because it was still too far away conceptually to grasp. Then last Easter Sunday, I was asked to cover (as a reporter for NJ Discover) a concert organized by Rosemary Conte to raise funds and awareness for the people of Tent City in Lakewood; it was still beyond my attention span and relevancy quotient; it just sounded like a cool thing to do. Rosemary Conte decided to have the concert for Tent City after being inspired by the photographic work of Sherry Rubel (friend of son, Steve Conte who lent Sherry use of his original song, “Busload of Hope” for fundraising).  Sherry was gearing towards an exhibit of her black and white images of Tent City.

Remembering how British sailors were impressed (against their will) into service in the 1600’s, I did the same exercise with my son who became cameraman for a day at the downtown Lakewood concert. The holiday cut into the attendance but the music was good. Then it was announced that Minister Steven Brigham (founder and spiritual leader) was bringing a bus filled with Tent City residents for a food and clothing buffet. When they arrived, I saw them from a distance, waiting in line for donated prepared food. That’s as close as I got to Tent City and its human residents; no faces to Tent City for me to attach to my optic nerve and compassion processing centers. Weeks later I wrote my article with some pictures I took; I focused more on the music. Life is funny. I met a few musicians from that concert and Rosemary Conte who have evolved into friends of mine. I never gave it thought that our thread of commonalty began with the Concert for Tent City.

My memories about homeless come from walking the streets of New York City and seeing people living in a cardboard box or sleeping on steps of a church after midnight. Yes, sometimes I dropped a few dollars for them. I remember Mayor Giuliani rounding-up homeless and busing them away; perhaps he thought it was a curative of the issue. One brutally cold night in New York, I walked by a homeless man sleeping in a big box. That image stayed with me a long time. It’s still there. But I thought about the notion that every human being begins life the same way by exiting the birth canal. So we all are bonded by that first journey. Then every one of us, including Tiny Tim, from ‘A Christmas Carol’ takes different pathways in life.

Homelessness was a long way from my consciousness; a distant abstraction. Life has a curious way to get you involved; reminds me of an old television show, Candid Camera; “when you least expect it”, you get hit gently in the head with a mallet of reality; a headache about the human condition. My hand is waving wildly from the back of the classroom. I yell to the teacher, Miss Crabtree, “I am human. My mother told me.” Back in December, my friend Rosemary Conte was singing in a concert in Asbury Park to raise money for Hurricane Sandy relief. Because loyalty is a gift, I went to see her and met the concert organizer, photographer and fellow human, Sherry Rubel. Chemistry and gut feelings are also gifts. I sensed great compassion and commitment when I talked to Sherry in a hallway on the second floor of McCloone’s overlooking the Atlantic Ocean during a cold rain. Three weeks later on a cold sunny morning in East Brunswick, New Jersey, Sherry and I found a vacant table in a Starbucks and talked about the world and her dreams/hopes which centered on a place called Tent City in Lakewood where 80 people live in tents because. Curiously, just outside the window at her back was a grey-bearded old man sleeping on a chair with his bike next to him. Perhaps all his worldly possessions were on that bike. He was sleeping in 25 degree air temperature. Looking back, was it a portent of things to come? I did promise Sherry, because she was so passionate, that I’d come to Tent City and do a story for NJ Discover.

On the morning of February 4^th Tara-Jean Vitale (NJ Discover producer) and I headed down Route 9 to Lakewood’s Tent City. I did my Google due diligence and read about the politics and exigencies of Tent City; about homeless humans living there. But you never grasp or know what to expect unless you drove an ambulance in World War I; my reference to Hemingway, ‘A Farewell to Arms’ and my having to live a story visually to really feel emotions as a writer/journalist. I was clueless about this foreign world I was entering and it was brutally cold outside. The night before, Sherry briefed me on the politics and current events on how the county of Ocean (which has no homeless shelters) and the city of Lakewood want Tent City closed and bulldozed. A brave lawyer defends Tent City; he wins stays of execution; a human judge decries that you cannot throw humans out into a nowhere land. Minister Steven Brigham has devoted his life to the dream of dignity for homeless. At some point this day, we’d get a chance to meet this amazing man; Sherry promised.

Perpendicular to Tent City main entrance is a small street where we parked; across this street were low income apartments. Sherry met us as I hoisted the tri-pod and cameras out of the trunk. We jumped back into the car and fogged-up the windows while she talked about the protocol and etiquettes of our visit. On our way, I suddenly stopped. I’m a writer collecting my emotions, trying to glimpse tents through dense forest. A strange feeling came over me. Do I really want this because I sensed a queasiness in my intestinal lining; butterflies evacuating in a panic. I felt like coughing resignation; get away while the going is good. “John Wayne, where’s your horse?”  I sensed something; I’d never be quite the same again by the time the sun rose a little higher in a perfectly majestic dark blue sky; how poetic; I was grasping. Then I ran back to the car trunk and opened it and yelled to Tara-Jean and a bewildered Sherry. “I want you both to see this ceremony. I’m taking this huge weighted box of symbolic politics off my back and shoulder so that when I walk into Tent City there is absolutely nothing political about me; I’m just a human being with eyes, ears and a working cardiac chamber.”

Two Lakewood police cars blocked the frozen bumpy dirt road; they were leaving. I was dizzy (too much strange foreign visual input) and cold as I glanced at the first tent on the right; a barking dog was tied with a rope to a tree. I wondered if the dog knew about Tent City. As if a magic wand from Glenda (that Northern witch) passed over us, tents were suddenly everywhere with musty smoke from wood burning stoves coming out of make-shift chimneys; a strange smell(suffering?) wafted in the air we breathe. The ground was covered with patchy snow; why wasn’t I here during the summer? We were now in the middle of the city; as far as the eye could see through thick trees, tents lined a bumpy dirt road. Just then a tall young man approached; Sherry greeted him and then introduced us to Angelo. He was near his tent. We shook hands; he had worn gloves (bare fingers exposed) and invited us into his tent. He was a charming, outgoing eloquent man. Something (a perfect word here) struck my extant dizziness; he was absolutely proud to show us his home; a bed, a wood burning stove (he excused himself to run out and chop a log for more wood) and a few shelves of clothing. But it was his home; the bed was made like it was ready for army inspection. I was faint and still dizzy; it was all real and beyond my imagination; but everyone here was human. Sherry whispered there are all kinds of people here from different walks.

Some tents were perfectly appointed. How strange I thought; could I be in the Catskill Mountains at a tent colony for the summer; Woodstock just up the road. It’s 1969 and soon a big concert. No, this was a real world of homeless humans waiting for a Springsteen song to be written about them. I whispered to myself, “My God.” Angelo’s tent was so cold. How do humans sleep? Yet as we walked past tents and people; something was (that word again) hard to describe which grabbed me in disbelief. Was this an exciting way of life?  A woman walked over to Tara-Jean; “Come let me show you my tent.”  They were proud of their homes. It was theirs; a belonging. I felt it. Next we saw a tent where there was a warm shower and another set up as a chapel and finally a kitchen of sorts with stacks of empty pizza boxes. Local pizza restaurants frequently drop off pizza. Overcome with dizziness now; I knew it was a manifestation of shock and disbelief; how and why. We’re all humans that passed through birth canals dressed the same way.

I keep saying ‘humans.’ Reason; two of the letters in the word are U and S; spells us. ‘Us’ works in a democracy but when we start using the word ‘them,’ democracy weakens. I’ve heard and read people near Tent City (the humans who want them out) refer to the people here as them. “Get them out of here.” How sad. From a distance, Sherry saw Tent City leader Minister Steven Brigham approaching. Eye to eye we stood shaking hands; he was almost as tall as me. Eyes were intense and filled; easy to see. And here’s where I save words. Minister Steve would let us interview and film him so you can watch the video. I’m not sure if anyone else has ever spent such quality time with this amazing man of peace and compassion.

I’ve decided not to describe any more physicality of Tent City now. I would be some kind of dizzy (light headed, heart-broken, sad) all week and beyond while on this journey to self-awareness. What did I learn from this day of my intestinal excavation? Both Sherry and Minister Steve talked about Destiny’s Bridge which is both a new acclaimed documentary movie by filmmaker (storyteller) Jack Ballo and a concept dream for a future community of homeless people who one day might live together in dignity, productivity and self-reliance. Conceptual dignity is a common thread. Homeless people today are rounded up and thrown into distant shelter’s calloused halls with cots and no privacy; warehoused and usually kicked out in the morning for another day without borders and wandering streets; no human dignity or productivity. Destiny’s Bridge is a dream and a hope for belonging, community, ownership, training and human services. Minister Steven Brigham has given the last 12 years of his life to see that dream come to life. Tent City is soulful energy which fuels this dream every day.

Sherry Rubel has spent the last year of her life being involved, caring, documenting and photographing; she’s there relentlessly and compassionately. Jack Ballo has been at Tent City three days a week for the past year creating a documentary film legacy depicting the hope of Destiny’s Bridge. As I write this, Jack is considering several New Jersey film festival premieres over the upcoming spring and summer including the Garden State Film Festival in April. For me, a journalist, this film is about humans, homelessness, New Jersey and dignity; the film’s issues are a no-brainer and should be on New Jersey film festival radar. I remember leaving my political notions in the trunk of my car for the good of honest human reporting. I wonder who wrote the Book of Love when Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. President Kennedy promised we’d be first on the moon. I wonder about the homeless.

Mine eyes had seen the coming and so much more that day. Tara-Jean and I asked permission to come back. While we were readying to leave, four residents were talking near a tent; a dog was barking in the distance. On a nearby table were packages of hamburger buns stacked three high. Minister Steve had disappeared down the dirt road. Our drive back to suburbia and gas heat, electricity, bathrooms, two door refrigerators and other banal comforts was relatively quiet and pensive yet Tara-Jean and I had differing views of the world. But that’s OK, Mah.

My awareness journey was not over. The next night I picked-up extraordinary singer/songwriter Arlan Feiles and headed for a NJ Transit train into New York City. Wonder where this is going?  One of his songs (a favorite of mine), ‘Viola,’ is about this courageous woman Viola Liuzzo who was a Unitarian Universalist civil rights activist from Michigan who was murdered by Ku Klux Klan members after the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches in Alabama. While on the train heading into Penn Station and eventually Brooklyn’s Barclays Center to see the Nets play Kobe Bryant and the Lakers, I told Arlan about Tent City.  Subconsciously I hoped.

In the fourth quarter we saw Kobe take off from the foul line and sail over two Nets defenders and jam the ball; poetry in motion. Then Arlan got a text message; there was an open mic on Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn; Arlan did four songs and blew the place away. Next a slice of ethereally tasting Brooklyn pizza and by the next blink of my tied left eye, it was 11:44 PM inside the New Jersey Transit waiting room inside Penn Station. Remember; it was very cold outside. Two dozen human beings were spread out sitting in chairs, sleeping, ostensibly waiting for a train. Then an Amtrak cop appeared; he pulled out a ‘Billy club’ and pounded on the walls behind the sleeping humans. He yelled, “Let me see your ticket. If you don’t have one, you have to leave.” He was throwing homeless humans out into the cold night. He was also profiling. I never took out my ticket. He never asked to see it; thus the second day in a row seeing homeless humans without dignity or warmth. The cop never saw my camera flash. On the meandering slow train back to suburbia, I felt that feeling again.

Cut to Friday night; a few days later. I don’t understand everything in the universe which pretends I’m modeling clay. Recently something made me order the DVD ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ with Henry Fonda.  I’d never seen it before and shame on me. Universal energies abound and it was time. After knee braces pulled tightly in place, I jumped on the exercise bike and pedaled full throttle into a dizzying oblivion while I watched this 1940 black and white movie about an Oklahoma family forced off their land. The Joad family travels to California, suffering the plight of the homeless during the Great Depression. I was back at Tent City; nothing had changed from Lakewood, New Jersey to Steinbeck’s novel in 1939. Time froze. So did I on the bike.

Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) is talking to his mother near the end. The sweat is dripping from me; 924 calories burned so far. “How am I going to know about you Tommy?” Tom replied to his mother, “A fellow don’t have a soul of his own. Maybe just a piece of a big soul. Then it don’t matter. I’ll be all around in the dark. I’ll be everywhere. Where ever you look. Where ever there’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there.”  I closed my eyes; suddenly it’s last Monday and I’m sitting in the Tent City chapel talking/interviewing Minister Steven Brigham, a 12^th generation American. I’m black and white and talking to John Steinbeck.

Then I just sat motionless on the bike and watched the movie credits fade to black. Of course I was dizzy again; a different kind of dizzy with resolution and substance.  I remembered that Sherry Rubel wrote a fascinating blog about a Tent City resident, Kevin, who’s been in and out of county jail and Tent City. Kevin is Tom Joad. Synchronicity, personal journey, Tent City, Sherry Rubel, Minister Steven Brigham, Tara-Jean Vitale (NJ Discover producer) and being an apolitical human being enhance my cerebral spiritual synapses.(conscience) Homelessness is on my mind; sounds like a song title. We could use a fresh song.

What I noticed these past weeks are so few humans around these parts (New Jersey and beyond) know (care) what’s going on in Tent City. I’m saddened but not surprised; still dizzy after all these weeks. I’m heading somewhere. There’s a last scene in a movie, ‘Here Comes Mr. Jordan’ when Robert Montgomery stops and realizes he’s going somewhere but he’s not sure. He can’t explain it but he gets up and leaves his boxing dressing room. I worry about a next court date in March for the humans of Tent City; what if?  I need to get back there. I just looked out a window behind me and saw children dancing around a May Pole; why are they dancing in slow motion? They’re human children; a few years removed from the birth canal. There is no real window; a mirage? And the Atlantic City hotel, Revel just went bankrupt ($2.4 billion). A few hours ago someone close to me asked why I’m writing about Tent City when I usually write about musicians, artists or environmentalists. I didn’t answer. That was my answer.

Here are some links:

Tent City Project:  https://www.facebook.com/TheTentCityProject?fref=ts

Tent City website: http://tentcitynj.org/index.html

Facebook: Destiny’s Bridge the movie:  https://www.facebook.com/DestinysBridge?fref=ts

Jack Ballo film maker:  http://www.ultravisionfilms.com

Sherry Rubel Photography: www.sherryrubelphotography.com

Calvin Schwartz:  vichywater.net

Facebook: Cal Schwartz   and Calvin Schwartz-Cerebral Writer

Twitter: @ earthood

earthood@gmail.com

A week or so prior to Marc Ribler and Friends, A Singer Songwriter/Classic Rock Tribute Night, appearing at McCloone’s in Asbury Park on Wednesday April 25th instead of the usual Tuesdays, I met Marc on Facebook of all places and we did the friending thing. I also asked to officially report and film his concert for NJ Discover TV. The digital age produces rapidity in response time and in the actual bonding (friending) processes. The next night we morphed from Facebook to cell phone and in our live voice communication phase, we discovered concentric circles of commonality; from ancestral homelands, spirituality, parallel universes, Ray Kurzweil and Singularity and Bob Dylan, who was one of the artists they were doing a tribute to on Wednesday. A special jetty at Belmar’s Shark River waits for a future communicative phase.

Marc is a singer songwriter, guitarist and a producer. Being a consummate groupie, I knew he sang with Carole King and Roger McGuinn and opened for Celine Dion, Michael Bolton, James Taylor and Sly and the Family Stone to name a few.Wednesday’s concert was billed as a tribute to Dylan, The Band and honoring the life of Levon Helm. Communicative chemistry is wonderful.  In addition to Marc Ribler’s amazing musical gifts, he exudes genuineness, warmth and a feeling you’ve known him all along; we finally met live without Memorex an hour before the concert. The venue at Mc Cloone’s overlooking Asbury Park’s ocean and Convention Hall from high on the second floor is purist perfect for my music absorption and appreciation. When lights later bathed Convention Hall, just beyond the rear window, in multi colors, a warm ethereal feeling evolves; maybe it’s the subliminal of a ‘working class’ rock star and son of Asbury Park’s first album scene.

Appearing with Marc this night were Jeff Kazee, John Conte and Lee Finkelstein. But in the air ducts, were particulates of notions of more of Marc’s surprise friends showing up. Suddenly Southside Johnny was on stage as one of Marc’s friends. I was just four feet and a few inches away from the stage and I was beginning to feel this heavenly notion that would sense surround me the rest of the night and take a time-released form for weeks to come. Earlier it was ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’ and I pinched my arm (I really do that for a reality check). Along came Glen Burtnik and the piece of heaven deal was sealed. A recurring theme for me as I discover: damn, how can anyone miss the talented magical concerts that Marc brings on Tuesdays; perhaps folks have powerful umbilical ties to their old 1960’s Castro convertible pull-out sofa. What I was hearing was such a gift. Then more ‘pieces of heaven’: ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door.’ And ‘The Mighty Quinn.’  Hearing ‘The Weight’ which was so powerful, it reminded me once again that after seeing ‘Easy Rider’ in 1969 and hearing that song, I was afraid to even travel to South Jersey. All renditions sublime this heavenly night.

To complete my “little piece of heaven” journeyed experience was the auditory absorption of a few of Marc’s original songs.  He’s a songwriter, I said to myself . So when his lyrical originality flowed like an ornate fountain in front of a columned forum of collectivism, I was  innervated and moved. Movement continues into this writing. I’m  going to continue to explore Marc’s original music. And as they say in my journalistic profession; update at eleven, one day, down this incredible pastel yellow brick road I’ve found.

The rest of Marc’s friends sealed my piece of heaven: Marc Muller, Rosemary Conte, Tom Bowes, Paul Avrutin, Jake Nozek, Mary McCrink, Kristian Rex and Tony Pallagrosi whom it seems, I bump into several times a week.  Mary McCrink; her magical voice gave up, perhaps the best version of ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’ ever for me. In the finale, with all the friends singing ‘Any Day Now;’ it was easy to feel/see a special love and magic on stage. Replete with emotion, I borrowed Marc briefly after the concert and thanked him for providing “this little piece of heaven.” Rarified ethereal sound pieces in this crazy world, I thought. I also thought about finding ways to yell to folks to lose sedentary sofa sitting and come to the musical Asbury boardwalk on Tuesday evenings; like I guess I’m yelling now.

Cal Schwartz   May 4th 2012

“If you’d like to get out of a pessimistic mood yourself, I’ve got one sure remedy for you. Go help those people down in Birmingham; in Mississippi or Alabama……Maybe we’ll see this song come true….” Pete Seeger said these words a long time ago (1960’s) when he was introducing a song at a concert; ‘We Shall Overcome.’ When I heard what amazing things Rosemary Conte, noted Jazz singer from Monmouth County was doing to organize a concert to raise awareness and donations for the people who live in a tent city in Lakewood, I didn’t hesitate a moment in calling Rosemary and asking if NJ Discover TV could be there. It was Easter Sunday and hard to round up a TV crew. Then I thought about how sailors in times of Christopher Columbus were impressed into service, so I called my prodigal son and impressed him into service with a camera and smile.

It was a perfect Easter Sunday for a meaningful concert for the homeless; Blue sky. Spring warmth. Gentle breezes. 3 PM. Town Square in Lakewood. With the help of her musician sons, Steve (lead guitar with New York Dolls) and John (who has performed with Bon Jovi and Southside Johnny), Rosemary Conte put together an impressive ‘Tent City Band’ featuring Jersey artists Marc Ribler (guitar), Daniel Gonzalez(drums), Tommy Labella(sax), Danny Petroni(guitar), Brad Mandigo, Lisa Desimone(vocals), Joe Mosello(trumpet) and more.

What an amazing band. Personally, I like to drift when music moves me; their powerful sounds took me far away but never far enough away to realize that there are no homeless shelters in Ocean County; that’s why there’s a tent city in the middle of Lakewood and that’s the awareness message Rosemary’s efforts delivered. Rosemary’s jazz vocals anchored her caring and concern. What a voice. Often I wonder why more citizens don’t extricate themselves from the sedentary couch and explore the world of New Jersey, with all its talent and poignant causes.

Rev. Steve Brigham, Tent City’s founder and a tireless advocate for the homeless in Ocean County spoke to the audience. The cause is so powerful. People are homeless in our midst, right here in Central Jersey, the second richest state in America. The band sang a Dylan song. I really closed my eyes. It was 1968. Pete Seeger was singing with the ‘Tent City Band.’  Rosemary Conte and her sons were really singing. I drifted. And now I thank her for an amazing day. And like Pete Seeger said a long time ago, maybe we’ll see that song come true for our citizens in Tent City in Lakewood.

PLEASE donate to Tent City Homeless Encampment:    the direct link to donate to our 501c3 account via PayPal is    http://TentCityNJ.org/PayPal

Or http://TentCityNJ.org/Donate   which also contains info on other online donation options.

OR, Lakewood Outreach Ministry Church, PO Box 326, Lakewood, NJ 08701