A Pussy Riot in Asbury Park

By Tom DeSeno

A friend once told me that he snot-chuckles like a 14 year old boy whenever he hears the name of the Russian female protest collective Pussy Riot.   That’s culturally understandable.

Don’t mistake though the seriousness of these women and the issues that surround them.  They are making a fascinating imprint on modern politics, power and protest.

On February 24 the House of Independents, Asbury Park’s new venue that is giving that City the artistic aesthetic it always pretended to have, is presenting “A Conversation with Pussy Riot:  Hosted by John Cameron Mitchell.”

To get a proper perspective of Pussy Riot, you have to realign your point of view from American to Russian when dealing with political terms.  It also helps to look at what they aren’t as much as what they are.

They aren’t a band, at least not in the traditional sense.   There’s music, but it’s not their focus.  It’s not even good music, probably by their own intention.  The music is beside the point of their varied socio-political messages.

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Christie’s back home, Sandy victims are not | Di Ionno

When we first met Joseph Ready, his Sandy-wrecked home in Union Beach was jacked 20 feet in the air, uninhabitable for his family, but open to feral cats and vandals. The cats left bird carcasses on his floors and the vandals clogged the toilet. He was living in a FEMA trailer, paying $850 a month in… Read the rest of this entry »

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LBJ’s election year SCOTUS nomination was not confirmed

Justice Antonin Scalia’s death isn’t the first time a president has faced a Supreme Court vacancy during an election year. In June 1968, just weeks after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, and days after Robert Kennedy was gunned down, Chief Justice Earl Warren submitted his resignation to President Lyndon Johnson. An appointee of President Dwight… Read the rest of this entry »

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U.S. Supreme Court Blocks Obama’s Clean-Power Plan – States Get Temporary Stay

President Barack Obama At least for the short term, New Jersey will not have to adopt tough new plans to curb emissions that contribute to global warming as ordered by the Obama administration. With the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision late Tuesday to temporarily block implementation of the Clean Power Plan, the state can hold off imposing… Read the rest of this entry »

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Highlands Man Tasered and Arrested After Eluding Cops for 12 hours After Routine Traffic Stop

Jeffrey Olander. photo via facebook

Jeffrey Olander, 51 of Highlands, fled from two traffic stops on Thrusday afternoon, eluded the Atlantic Highlands, Highlands and Middletown Police Departments for 12 hours and threatened to shoot Highlands Police Officers before he was tasered and arrested in the hallway outside his apartment on the fourteenth floor of the East Pointe Condominiums shortly before 4 a.m. Friday morning, according to a statement by Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramicconi.

Members of the Monmouth County Emergency Response Team (MOCERT) and the Highlands Police Department made the arrest.

This was the first time a Monmouth County law enforcement officer has deployed a Conductive Energy Device (commonly called taser) to subdue a suspect since the tool was first authorized for use in New Jersey.

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Why the feds are interested in the bugs in your Valentine’s flowers

NEWARK — Before Valentine’s Day shoppers pick up that floral bouquet for their sweethearts, a small army of federal agents behind the scenes made sure that the gift was a beautiful gift of cut flowers, and nothing else. Particularly, no Tetranychus sp., Aphididae or Agromyzidae. In the vernacular, that’s mites, black so-called “leaf miner” flies and… Read the rest of this entry »

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Greg’s List: Things to do in Monmouth County this weekend, February 12-14, 2016

By Greg Kelly

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Friday, February 12

• Valentine’s Day with Megan Hilty at Count Basie Theatre (Red Bank) –MORE INFO
• Chapter Two at Center Playhouse (Freehold) –MORE INFO
• Substance of Bliss by NJ Repertory Company (Long Branch) –MORE INFO
• Bad Seed by Monmouth Players (Atlantic Highlands) – MORE INFO
• Rumors by South Street Players (Spring Lake) – MORE INFO
• NJ State Council on the Arts Fellowship Exhibit (WLB) – MORE INFO
• 19th Century New Jersey Chairmaking Exhibit (Freehold) – MORE INFO
• Radio Technology Museum Open at InfoAge (Wall Twp.) – MORE INFO
• Beautiful Childhood: Permanent Collection Portraits (Freehold) – MORE INFO

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Obama carbon emissions rule halted by Supreme Court

The Supreme Court halted the EPA’s major anti-global warming initiative late Tuesday evening, dealing a major blow to President Obama’s hopes of overseeing a green energy transition in his final year in office. The 5-4 decision by the court puts the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulation on hold while a lower appeals court hears states’ challenge to… Read the rest of this entry »

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Trump and Sanders win N.H. primary, Christie trails early

NASHUA, N.H. — Businessman Donald Trump and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders won the New Hampshire primaries Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. Gov. Chris Christie, who had staked his campaign on doing well in the first 2016 presidential primary, was trailing other key Republican candidates in early returns. Trump, who has led opinion polls for months,… Read the rest of this entry »

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Success strikes impossibly fast for Keansburg/Middletown rockers

KEANSBURG — In terms of a band’s life cycle, Can’t Swim is an embryo. The raucous Keansburg four-piece recorded its first EP over the summer, and has yet to rock a single gig. The band released its first single — the first bit of music anyone has ever heard from them — in December. But nevertheless,… Read the rest of this entry »

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