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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Cruising the Center

Sweet Rides, originally uploaded by bloomfieldguy.

The Bloomfield Center Alliance sponsors two events in the summer that nicely represent one of the more appealing differences between living in the sortaburbs and living in the City: Cruise Night and the Farmer’s Market. While a Farmer’s Market isn’t terribly unique — I haven’t visited yet, but after walking through Venner “Park” last night, I don’t imagine ours is terribly big — the central location of both events makes for a nice community-building opportunity in a relatively small town like Bloomfield.

If it were about 5 degrees cooler when we headed uptown for Cruise Night last night, we would have walked there, but instead we drove — those carbon offsets alleviating a bit of the guilt — parked on the south end of the Glenwood/Broad Street intersection, and walked the two block stretch of classic (and not-so-classic) cars on display. There were approx. 25 cars there and at least as many people milling around them, checking them out and talking to their owners.

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Please Keep Out of Water

Please Keep Out of Water, originally uploaded by bloomfieldguy. This seemingly purposeful collection of bottles has been sitting on the bank of the, um, creek (?) in Watsessing Park for a couple of days now. They were IN the water on Monday. Considering this creek is presumably one of the reasons we have to pay an extra $2k/year for flood insurance, it's nice that all of the trash gets pulled out before it can back up a drain somewhere down the line, but is it that much more work to bag it and dump it properly?

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Going Local

Going Local, originally uploaded by bloomfieldguy.

I picked up the local paper, The Star-Ledger, today instead of the Daily News for the first time. While I prefer the tabloid format over broadsheet, esp. on the train, I want to have a better appreciation for what’s going on in and around my new hometown. The Essex County section’s feature on the Family Day Nursery’s new learning garden was exactly the kind of local story I love to read about, but the quality and focus of their sports coverage will ultimately dictate whether or not it supplants the News as my morning read.

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Thrillerfest 2008

Guy LeCharles Gonzalez and Kathleen AntrimThrillerfest kicked off yesterday at the Grand Hyatt Hotel here in New York and I had the pleasure of attending the full day — I’ll be back tonight and most of Saturday — meeting some great people, picking up some interesting books, and taking in some insightful information on the publishing game from the perspective of successful authors in the thriller genre. Prior to attending, I considered myself a fan of thrillers but quickly realized the genre I tend to enjoy most is classified more as mystery than thriller — marketing semantics that, according to several authors, means more money for the thriller genre — the difference being the former’s focus on figuring out what happened while the latter emphasizes something that’s going to happen and the clock is ticking.

Lawrence Block’s Scudder series, my hands-down genre favorite, definitely falls under crime mystery, while Charlie Huston’s Thompson and Greg Rucka’s Kodiak series are thrillers, though neither author is in attendance at the show nor represented in the Barnes & Noble bookstore on-site, presumably because neither is a member of the sponsoring organization, International Thriller Writers. Inspired by the energy of the conference, I picked up four novels by authors I’ve never read before, including Kathleen Antrim (pictured, right), Steve Berry, Andrew Gross and David Liss, all but the latter I saw or met yesterday. I’ve started reading Antrim’s Capital Offense, which she describes as “What if the First Lady was plotting to kill the President?” and so far, it’s a brisk read that hits all the right notes expected from the genre.

The first session of the day, Learn How to Pitch Your Book (conducted by Antrim & Bob Mayer), was particularly fascinating for its breakdown of the process of developing a 25-word summary of your book that serves not just as your pitch to agents and editors — the only two influential people who will have actually read your entire book before it hits the bookshelves — but when done well, will represent it all the way through the sales process, internally and externally.

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Bloomfield Station

This is the Bloomfield station where I catch the train into the City every day. It's a shame that this part of it is in such a state of disrepair -- especially considering the other side just got a nice facelift -- but politics have apparently gotten in the way of its restoration and the surrounding area's revitalization. It would be nice to see a development plan that balances local flavor with notable franchises, a small movie theater and a good selection of restaurants because I'd rather not drive up to Montclair whenever we want to find something new and…

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Breaking Ground

Bloomfieldguy

There are 8 million stories in the naked city, plus another 2-3 million, give or take, if you count the transplants who still commute in for work from the surrounding cities and towns in Long Island, Connecticut and, yes, New Jersey.

From Bloomberg to Bloomfield is my story, a native New Yorker on his third go-round living in the Garden State, now as a first-time homeowner in the town of Bloomfield, which is in Essex County, due West of the Lincoln Tunnel and just north of Newark and East Orange, which are effectively the Bronx to Bloomfield’s Mt. Vernon, the former being where I’m from originally, the latter where I lived for most of my high school years.

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Spindle Update: Scheduling Delays

If you’re one of Spindle‘s obsessive readers who’s figured out our update schedule and checks in every second Tuesday for new content, you’ve probably noticed our schedule has been slipping a bit the past couple of months.  Thankfully, it’s not for lack of content, as the submissions continue to come in at a steady pace and many of them are pretty good!*

Truth is, I started a new job about two months ago and it has completely swallowed up the little bit of free time I used to have to keep Spindle on its intended monthly schedule.  Plus, I’m coaching my son’s Little League team AND Salomé just wrapped up her Master’s Degree AND we just bought our first house, so Spindle-time has been virtually non-existent since the beginning of March.

No worries about the fun coming to a premature end, though, as I expect to be back on a regular schedule shortly, and will post mini-updates sporadically whenever I’m able to until I do get back on schedule. I’m particularly excited about the upcoming debut of our newest column, “GSNY”, by Gabrielle Sierra, who has a great voice and some very interesting stories to tell.

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