| David
Chase: Even as a teenager,
taking the bus into the city to film school from his parents' home
in North Caldwell, Mr. Chase remembers looking out over the "rivers
like glass, the miles after miles of reeds in the water, and the
factories" and thinking, "this is America, strong and big. The brute
beauty of the factories, the winking airports, made me feel alive."2
Lee Siegel (Author,
Literary Reviewer):
California? Too much
fantasy, too much hazardous sunlight and too much obsession with
software and hard bodies. New York City? Too much reality, too
little sunlight and too much obsession, period. Everywhere in
between? Riches, to be sure, but no place has New Jersey's tightly
packed diversity, its quick changes from urban to country, from
mountains to coast, from gritty to gorgeous.2
Lee Siegel
(Author, Literary Reviewer):
You can refine
Jersey's countless dimensions into two polarized elements:
industrial and pastoral. The struggle for dominance between them is
at the heart of the American drama -- the Civil War, for example, or
the urban/agrarian friction that has shaped the schism between
liberal and conservative to this day. It could be that Jersey is so
representative of America's original strife that dismissing the
state as a crude and unlovely place is a good way to sweep certain
national anxieties under the rug.2
Vincent Curatola:
Being born and raised in Englewood has been the nucleus of my acting
career. As a boy of ten, my paper route consisted of (these
people lived on my block): Tony Bennett, Jerry Vale, Sarah Vaughan,
Dizzy Gillespie, Wilson Pickett, Betsy Palmer, Leslie Gore, Van McCoy,
and a lot of other talented people. You see where I got my inspiration
for the performing arts!
My commute into Manhattan as a teenager to Loyola at 83rd and Park
from Englewood was even more of a thrill every day because of the
celebrities I would see on my way to school. My wife Maureen and
I love living here. New Jersey truly affords us the best of both
worlds.
Queen
Latifah:
"I never really left [New Jersey], this is where I'm from. This
is home. I was around to see things change, but I love Newark,
period. There's a kind of energy there. I think the city
will come back."*
"Jersey's special.
We've got a sweet spot between New York and Philly. Sometimes
places have too much going on. Jersey's got it just right.
And judging by our property taxes, our secret is out."1
Roger Sanchez: "I love the quality
of life in New Jersey. It has everything, including great
shopping and restaurants. And I am a short distance to New
York."1 |
