{"id":3309,"date":"2009-01-24T17:06:24","date_gmt":"2009-01-24T22:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=3309"},"modified":"2009-01-24T17:09:07","modified_gmt":"2009-01-24T22:09:07","slug":"location-location-location","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/location-location-location","title":{"rendered":"Location, Location, Location"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why New Jersey rocks<\/a>:<\/p>\n

New Jersey’s small size has a lot to do with both its much-inflated deficiencies and its virtues. A lot is packed into limited territory. Urban squalor is squeezed up against dairy farms; picturesque villages right out of a New England landscape are a sneeze away from sulfurous factories and malodorous highways. For a lot of people, caricature of the state’s deficiencies is an efficient way to reduce its multifaceted nature to a clear meaning.<\/p>\n

The jumble of contrasts is, on the contrary, the source of Jersey’s remarkable harvest of talent. It drives certain people to either build a unified artistic sensibility out of the divisions around them, or to create art unhindered by a narrow identity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and why Billy Joel sucks<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I decided to make a serious effort to identify the consistent qualities across Joel’s “body of work” (it almost hurts to write that) that make it so meretricious, so fraudulent, so pitifully bad. And so, risking humiliation and embarrassment, I ventured to the Barnes & Noble music section and bought a four-disc set of B.J.’s “Greatest Hits,” one of which was a full disc of his musings about art and music. I must admit that I also bought a copy of an album I already had \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Return of the Grievous Angel<\/em>, covers of Gram Parsons songs by the likes of the Cowboy Junkies and Gillian Welch, whose “Hickory Wind” is just ravishing\u00e2\u20ac\u201dso the cashier might think the B.J. box was merely a gift, maybe for someone with no musical taste. Yes, reader. I couldn’t bear the sneer, even for your benefit.<\/p>\n

And I think I’ve done it! I think I’ve identified the qualities in B.J.’s work that distinguish his badness from other kinds of badness: It exhibits unearned contempt<\/em>. Both a self-righteous contempt for others and the self-approbation and self-congratulation that is contempt’s backside, so to speak. Most frequently a contempt for the supposed phoniness or inauthenticity of other people as opposed to the rock-solid authenticity of our B.J.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why New Jersey rocks: New Jersey’s small size has a lot to do with both its much-inflated deficiencies and its virtues. A lot is packed into limited territory. Urban squalor is squeezed up against dairy farms; picturesque villages right out of a New England landscape are a sneeze away from sulfurous factories and malodorous highways. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Location, Location, Location”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[530,86],"class_list":["post-3309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-suburbs","tag-billy-joel","tag-ron-rosenbaum"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-Rn","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":419,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm","url_meta":{"origin":3309,"position":0},"title":"I believe I can cryHow\u2026","author":"Gil","date":"November 1, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I believe I can cryHow come this stuff doesn't happen when Billy Joel & Elton John are touring together?","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3425,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-feb-13-2009","url_meta":{"origin":3309,"position":1},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Feb. 13, 2009","author":"Gil","date":"February 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"It's an extra-spooky, hockey-mask-wearing Friday the 13th edition of Unrequired Reading! Boo! The A.V. Club offers back-to-back Random Roles interviews with two VM faves: Illeana Douglas and Bruce Campbell! * * * Roger Ebert contemplates the long-term view, as in that Flaming Lips lyric, \"Do you realize that everyone you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17784,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-659-ron-rosenbaum","url_meta":{"origin":3309,"position":2},"title":"Episode 659 – Ron Rosenbaum","author":"Gil","date":"October 21, 2025","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 659: Ron Rosenbaum \"I'm always looking beyond the surface of the words to deeper meanings. Or sometimes shallower meanings.\" One of my fave writers, Ron Rosenbaum, returns to the show to celebrate his amazing new book, BOB DYLAN: Things Have Changed (A Kind Of Biography) (Melville House\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2025comp.jpg?fit=1101%2C800&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2025comp.jpg?fit=1101%2C800&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2025comp.jpg?fit=1101%2C800&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2025comp.jpg?fit=1101%2C800&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2025comp.jpg?fit=1101%2C800&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":178,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/its-all-about-location","url_meta":{"origin":3309,"position":3},"title":"It’s all about location","author":"Gil","date":"March 12, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I hang out in New York, I bump into Jon Stewart in a parking garage.I go to Orlando, I bump into Danny Schayes at Bahama Breeze.","rel":"","context":"In "basketball"","block_context":{"text":"basketball","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/basketball"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5668,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-101810","url_meta":{"origin":3309,"position":4},"title":"What It Is: 10\/18\/10","author":"Gil","date":"October 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: I started The Odyssey, but decided to take a short break with Never Let Me Go. What I'm listening to: Fox Confessor Brings The Flood and Sir Lucious Left Foot What I'm watching: Bear Nation (some of my best friends are bears) and Withnail & I What\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=006124418X","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6813,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-disarm","url_meta":{"origin":3309,"position":5},"title":"Podcast: Disarm","author":"Gil","date":"January 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories - season 3 episode 1 Ron Rosenbaum -\u00a0Disarm Our first guest of 2013 is Ron Rosenbaum,\u00a0one of my favorite living writers!\u00a0This episode of The Virtual Memories Show is The Bomb! I've been a fan of Ron's writing (let's call it \"literary journalism\") since reading Long Island, Babylon\u00a0(originally titled\u00a0The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=voyantpublishing&l=as2&o=1&a=1416594221","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3309"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3311,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3309\/revisions\/3311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}