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sub_dividedWall Street Journal article:
New Jersey: Hidden State of Culture
Hellz yeah! Though why the author thinks it's a secret that NJ is a cultural powerhouse, I don't know: just like there have been more US Presidents from Ohio than from any other state, there have been more successful musicians, comedians, actors and filmakers from New Jersey than from any other state. Surely there must be a handful of New Yorkers who are at least peripherally aware of this fact?
I disagree with the author's analysis, as well: according to Lee Seigel it's NJ's close proximity to NYC + the mix of tight packing and open spaces -- (sub)urban hell next to rural paradise -- which explains the innate creativity of New Jerseyans. Actually I agree that NYC plays a role, but not with the rest of his thesis.
I first want to say that this is totally unsupported theorizing. Okay. Here we go:
With all due respect this is garbage! Except for the early political figures Seigel names -- and let's face it, there were only about five heavily settled states back then, odds were high -- and Alexander Hamilton is from Barbados! -- all of the cultural icons he names are from North Jersey, not South Jersey. I don't know that Frank Sinatra ever saw the Pine Barrens. The Shore or the Newark Botanical Gardans, more likely.
So what's North Jersey/New Jersey like? First of all the scorn heaped on NJ by neighboring city-dwellers (Philadelphians used to be the major culprits here, these days it is mainly New Yorkers) serves to pull together, to some extent, people who otherwise wouldn't have much in common. NJ is a little bit like Long Island or Rhode Island, a (relatively) small and crowded place regarded by surrounding cosmopolitans as a hellish cultural backwater. There are a hell of a lot more people in NJ than in RI or LI, though. The true horror of the Jersey Turnpike isn't that it's a 12-lane highway surrounded by industrial parks and shopping malls, it's that it's a 12-lane highway surrounded by industrial parks and shopping malls for nearly one hundred miles.
This corridor of densely populated uber-suburbia not only means that there's a greater pool of talent to draw from, but also that there's a built-in audience for Jersey-centric cultural products. NJ's close proximity to a major cultural center (NYC) means, moreover, that movies about NJ get national play -- and have been getting national play for ages. (American's first big film studios were in Fort Lee, NJ.) So there's a kind of cultural groundwork that's already been laid -- The Sopranos follows in the wake of On the Waterfront and doesn't have to explain itself the way a Cohen Brothers movie like Fargo, about the underbelly of the Midwest, has to explain itself. (Or had to. By this point the Cohen brothers have laid their own groundwork.) Comedians, filmakers, authors, singers, etc from New Jersey get a cultural leg up.
Another point: NJ has had an historic lock on comedians (and to a lesser extent singers and actors) because there are so many Italian, Jewish, and Black people here. In fact those three groups are the majority! So there is this huge pool of untapped talent -- although this is changing as Italians and Jews are folded into the "white people" umbrella -- actually Italians are probably already there -- because for years very smart people from these backgrounds were barred from politics and business (besides "ethnic" businesses). Where else to turn but to the stage? (And to the sciences: there are more engineers per square mile in NJ than anywhere else on earth.) And there was NYC, a gigantic stage, right across the Hudson.
There's also New Jersey's economic position. There's a lot of money here, as a well as a lot of poverty. 7/10 of the nation's wealthiest counties (measured by real estate tax) are in NJ. I believe we are also the state with the greatest income gap in the country -- or perhaps that was Connecticut, and NJ was second. And there's a constant influx of new discrimated-against groups -- New Jersey is second only to Hawaii in percentage of residents who were born in a foreign country. So there is a lot of money floating around, coupled with a lot of people who are motivated to go into entertainment to make money. And then, artists in NJ have a lot of opportunities for exposure (local audience + New York and Philadelphia), as well as a higher-than-average chance of catching on nationally.
So that's why I think New Jersey is a cultural powerhouse. Disadvantage rubbing shoulders with advantage + cultural head-start + large inbuilt audience. So maybe we should be thanking the New Yorkers and Philadelphians for giving us something to define ourselves against, lol.
PS. Oh and on the Turnpike vs. Parkway thing. I prefer the Turnpike, but probably only because I don't have to drive on it during Rush Hour. (Which in NJ lasts 3 hours the morning, 2 hours in the afternoon, and 4 hours in the evening - Rush 9 Hours.) Lee Spiegel says, "limited access points prevent congestion" but let me tell you, it ain't so.
Charmian: heh, you should post on this
rally ur jersey peeps
me: i have strong feelings towards my home state
it's like francis bacon said, the greater the initial hate, the greater the eventual love
New Jersey: Hidden State of Culture
Hellz yeah! Though why the author thinks it's a secret that NJ is a cultural powerhouse, I don't know: just like there have been more US Presidents from Ohio than from any other state, there have been more successful musicians, comedians, actors and filmakers from New Jersey than from any other state. Surely there must be a handful of New Yorkers who are at least peripherally aware of this fact?
I disagree with the author's analysis, as well: according to Lee Seigel it's NJ's close proximity to NYC + the mix of tight packing and open spaces -- (sub)urban hell next to rural paradise -- which explains the innate creativity of New Jerseyans. Actually I agree that NYC plays a role, but not with the rest of his thesis.
I first want to say that this is totally unsupported theorizing. Okay. Here we go:
With all due respect this is garbage! Except for the early political figures Seigel names -- and let's face it, there were only about five heavily settled states back then, odds were high -- and Alexander Hamilton is from Barbados! -- all of the cultural icons he names are from North Jersey, not South Jersey. I don't know that Frank Sinatra ever saw the Pine Barrens. The Shore or the Newark Botanical Gardans, more likely.
So what's North Jersey/New Jersey like? First of all the scorn heaped on NJ by neighboring city-dwellers (Philadelphians used to be the major culprits here, these days it is mainly New Yorkers) serves to pull together, to some extent, people who otherwise wouldn't have much in common. NJ is a little bit like Long Island or Rhode Island, a (relatively) small and crowded place regarded by surrounding cosmopolitans as a hellish cultural backwater. There are a hell of a lot more people in NJ than in RI or LI, though. The true horror of the Jersey Turnpike isn't that it's a 12-lane highway surrounded by industrial parks and shopping malls, it's that it's a 12-lane highway surrounded by industrial parks and shopping malls for nearly one hundred miles.
This corridor of densely populated uber-suburbia not only means that there's a greater pool of talent to draw from, but also that there's a built-in audience for Jersey-centric cultural products. NJ's close proximity to a major cultural center (NYC) means, moreover, that movies about NJ get national play -- and have been getting national play for ages. (American's first big film studios were in Fort Lee, NJ.) So there's a kind of cultural groundwork that's already been laid -- The Sopranos follows in the wake of On the Waterfront and doesn't have to explain itself the way a Cohen Brothers movie like Fargo, about the underbelly of the Midwest, has to explain itself. (Or had to. By this point the Cohen brothers have laid their own groundwork.) Comedians, filmakers, authors, singers, etc from New Jersey get a cultural leg up.
Another point: NJ has had an historic lock on comedians (and to a lesser extent singers and actors) because there are so many Italian, Jewish, and Black people here. In fact those three groups are the majority! So there is this huge pool of untapped talent -- although this is changing as Italians and Jews are folded into the "white people" umbrella -- actually Italians are probably already there -- because for years very smart people from these backgrounds were barred from politics and business (besides "ethnic" businesses). Where else to turn but to the stage? (And to the sciences: there are more engineers per square mile in NJ than anywhere else on earth.) And there was NYC, a gigantic stage, right across the Hudson.
There's also New Jersey's economic position. There's a lot of money here, as a well as a lot of poverty. 7/10 of the nation's wealthiest counties (measured by real estate tax) are in NJ. I believe we are also the state with the greatest income gap in the country -- or perhaps that was Connecticut, and NJ was second. And there's a constant influx of new discrimated-against groups -- New Jersey is second only to Hawaii in percentage of residents who were born in a foreign country. So there is a lot of money floating around, coupled with a lot of people who are motivated to go into entertainment to make money. And then, artists in NJ have a lot of opportunities for exposure (local audience + New York and Philadelphia), as well as a higher-than-average chance of catching on nationally.
So that's why I think New Jersey is a cultural powerhouse. Disadvantage rubbing shoulders with advantage + cultural head-start + large inbuilt audience. So maybe we should be thanking the New Yorkers and Philadelphians for giving us something to define ourselves against, lol.
PS. Oh and on the Turnpike vs. Parkway thing. I prefer the Turnpike, but probably only because I don't have to drive on it during Rush Hour. (Which in NJ lasts 3 hours the morning, 2 hours in the afternoon, and 4 hours in the evening - Rush 9 Hours.) Lee Spiegel says, "limited access points prevent congestion" but let me tell you, it ain't so.
Charmian: heh, you should post on this
rally ur jersey peeps
me: i have strong feelings towards my home state
it's like francis bacon said, the greater the initial hate, the greater the eventual love