FaFaFohi, gentrification, and Clerks reflections

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: : I must say I was amsued to hear Gary basically calling Red Bank a ghetto with some white business owners thrown in for good measure. Anyone who lives or has been here a few times knows the town is far from a ghetto. : I happen to live about, oh, five hundred feet from "the stash" and have seen the gentrification they spoke of on the Stern show this morning. It's hard to understand how Red Bank qualifies as gentrified since the town has always had a sprawling business and resedential community. Anyway, far be it from me to defend the town, especially since the town's very own city-hall endorsed website has a picture of a skateboarder busting a jump at the same time said city-hall looks upon skateboarders as crackheads with wheels. : But it's hardly gentrified. Yuppified, yes. Glorified, of course. Republicanized, well it tries, but there's too many of us with common sense out here to let that happen fully. : But I digress. Kevin has always been one of the most direct, honest, and sensible media types i have never had the pleasure of meeting. Ok, I sat in a nearby booth at the Broadway Diner once while I spent the entire meal discouraging a friend from approaching kevin with both praise and carrer advice. However, I have read and heard many interviews to formulate this opinion. : I did meet Jason once when "the Stash" was on Monmouth street. I had just moved into town (four years ago) and was pleased to find a comic book store so close to home. Upon entering the store I found a semi-long haired clerk playing Nintendo behind the counter and what appeared to be his girlfriend (I'm guessing since she was asking him something about what dress to wear for a prom or wedding or something). : I had heard of "Clerks" but never actually seen it. I had tried to rent it a few times in Jersey City but it was never in. I asked the kid "What's up with all the Clerks stuff?" which hung prominently from the ceiling. : "Oh, my friend Kevin made that movie and I was in it, so we sell some of the stuff here" was his modest reply. Obviously the people behind the guy who made "Clerks" did not buy into the hoopla that many of the fans do. Not that that's a bad thing, but my point is that they were humble. I immediately rushed out and tried to rent the movie. Well, after I had read my new comic books. : The local video store, Pahsor Video, had plenty of copies as I'm sure the demand called for. I've seen it about twenty times since then. More than reminding of my own weed smoking, authority insulting, hockey playing childhood (and adult life??) it touched an nerve in me that spoke to my own life. No, no to go out and get a better job (What can be a better job than bartending?) but it made me realize that I, too, could do something with my life. : Ok, I'm going off on a tangent here. Suffice it to say, the movie and Mr. Smith's success story was inspirational to me. I have since been published and continue to write today for plaesure, fun, and sometimes profit. : Spare me the emails with grammatical and spelling corrections for I am nothing without a spell-check. : Bored yet? Good. But you read all the way here, didn't you? : Otis the Fink-a-sotis.

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