Hey everyone,
Well I said last week I was going to be making some minor changes to the BlowUpRadio.com website. Well I
guess I did a little more than that as I got rid of that ugly green background on the site and
replaced it with (in my opinion) a much calmer, more naturalistic looking background. I hope you
all find the new background much less of an eye sore to look at.
I also cleaned up and re-designed all of the links pages on the site, giving it a (hopefully)
much more user friendly look.
Now on to other things...
I realized recently that I talk a lot about the scene in this newsletter but don't always talk
about other people that are doing a lot to help the scene. This week I intend to at least
partially rectify that matter by speaking a bit about a person who is currently doing a lot for
the Central NJ music scene, Gary Wien.
Last summer Gary published a wonderful book detailing the history of Asbury Park's music scene
from the late 60's (the early days of Bruce), through the present day. Beyond the Palace, is a
detailed primer on what was and what is Asbury Park's music scene (which is far more than Bruce,
Southside Johnny and Bon Jovi). Sure the book doesn't include EVERY band that ever played the
Jersey Shore (even the author notes how impossible it would be to do that), but it does give a
nice overview and some really interesting in depth interviews with people who are and/or have
been part of the Asbury Park music scene.
Had Gary Wien stopped there, it would have been a nice way to help the scene, but he didn't. He
has gone on to create several websites around different music scenes within the Garden State. Asbury Music, Brunswick Music and Trenton Music. Each site
contains scene news, articles and message boards, in addition to resource links.
But wait, there's more...
Gary also started publishing Upstage Magazine last October as a monthly 'zine promoting all the happenings in the
central Jersey scene. Billed as, "the search for intelligent nightlife", Upstage Magazine has listings for
upcoming local concerts, as well as comedy, dance, theater and art. Among it's contributors are
well known local scene writers Bob Makin and Chris Barry (as well as Gary himself).
So there you have, Gary Wien, the first of hopefully many people I can profile here in hopes of
shedding light on to others helping the scene.
Working together we can make this scene flourish!
Peace,
Lazlo
|