Nj Geocacher Makes National News

[+briansnat]

Team Gwho gains a mention in this Washington Post article about Weird NJ mag:

 

Weird N.J., Celebrating The Odd State of Mind

 

By Libby Copeland - The Washington Post

 

Someday centuries from now, when people want to know about the great

state of New Jersey around the dawn of the millennium, they will turn not

to history books or time capsules but to Weird N.J., a magazine that

captures the spirit of a varied, beautiful and truly exotic place.

 

Here, in the publication created by Mark Sceurman and Mark Moran,

decaying drive-ins and huge rooster statues and men with pompadours

are things of beauty. In their New Jersey, some place called Midgetville

is always just around the corner, and so is albino village, where the albinos

are murderous. Everybody in the state has a story. Some guy claims he has

Hitler's toilet seat.

 

Here is New Jersey, explained.

 

Other states have their eccentricities, but few have New Jersey's reputation.

You don't hear any good jokes about Connecticut. New Jersey stands for our

flashier, coarser self, the self that lets its dark roots show and doesn't

care.

Think of New Jersey and think of girls shoving past each other in nightclubs.

Think of roadside diners with Greco-Roman facades and mauve vinyl seats,

their counters laden with heavy Danishes wrapped in plastic. Think of all

those

30-year-old guys living in their mothers' basements, working out every night,

cornering other guys in bars and asking them to step outside.

 

"We can take any [expletive] that people throw at us," Sceurman says.

 

Because of Mark and Mark, cranks are not friendless. In this New Jersey,

everybody's a conspiracy theorist and everybody believes in UFOs.

 

Today, the men are touring southern New Jersey. They visit a man who

has 10,000 glass telegraph insulators mounted on telephone poles around

his lawn like alien trees, and they stop by a gold-colored church shaped like

a pyramid, known as the Temple of Hope and Knowledge, which is now up for

sale. (A tattered sign recommends that worshipers attend "the service for

one to beg for mercy and hope.") They go to a roadside Catholic shrine called

Our Lady of the Highway, which is located in a triangular building smaller

than

a Taco Bell, next to a Sunoco station.

 

They stop for lunch at an empty roadside bar whose desolation they find

appealing, and whose menu offers only one dessert item: "Jell-o Shots $1.00."

 

They hunt for a couple of roads they've heard about: Unexpected Road

and No Name Road. When they find them, they get out of Sceurman's

jeep and take pictures like giddy boys.

 

"We get joy out of the most mundane things," Sceurman says.

 

Mark and Mark could have grown up in Providence and started a magazine

called Weird R.I., but they didn't. Could there be some cosmic connection

between their geography and their mission, some power that New Jersey

exerts over its inhabitants, driving them to celebrate their eccentricities?

 

It is an old state, so it's had plenty of time to build weirdness. It is the

nation's densest state, capable of cramming much weirdness into a small

space. It has wilderness: dirt roads running through the Pine Barrens, and

the Meadowlands, where the dead keep quiet. It has lonely warehouses off

turnpike exits, and casinos in Atlantic City, where it is always daylight and

old people carry their dreams in plastic cups. And, of course, it has that

northern stretch that sits under a sulfurous cloud, and every time you drive

through it, you look at your boyfriend like it's his fault, those beans he had

for lunch.

 

Is there any less graceful word than Hackensack? (Or Mahwah? Or Ho-Ho-Kus?

Or Peapack?)

 

You tease the state and it gives you the finger. You don't feel bad for it the

way you feel bad for much-maligned West Virginia, because New Jersey can

take care of itself. Notice how Jerseyans excise half of their state's name,

as if one word is enough: Just "Jersey." (As Sceurman points out, New Yorkers,

for all their attitude, never call their state "York.")

 

Sceurman, 47, a quiet, bearded man, grew up in Essex County, hearing

stories of a nun encased in glass on the side of a road, and of a place

called Heartbeat Road, where passersby can supposedly still hear a

murdered person's heart. When he was about 9, Sceurman's older brother

tried to scare him by driving him to an area in Clifton that was supposedly

home to albino residents who -- local legend said -- would eat strangers

venturing into their midst.

 

Sceurman has always had a love for things squalid and paranormal. On a

date in the early '80s, en route to a hot dog stand, he diverted the car

through a dump to explore. His date married him.

 

He worked for about 20 years as a graphic artist for an alternative music

magazine that he still co-owns. In the late '80s, he began sending out a

newsletter to friends, updating them on his life and including a section on

strange things he wanted to explore in the state. After a story about the

newsletter in a local paper around 1993, Weird N.J. acquired a small fan

base, who eagerly read Sceurman's thoughts on "The Glowing Grave of

Montville," "Interesting Hikes in Industrial Waste" and "Mysterious Bigfoot

Sightings in the Northwest Corner." Sceurman offered recommendations

on unique bars (Mom's Place in Wallington: "The best shuffleboard") and

published muddy photographs of things like the town of Sea Breeze, "The

most desolate place in New Jersey."

 

Mark Moran, 43, a graphic artist who'd also grown up in Essex County --

fascinated by tales of a nearby Mafia family compound, and by a Bavarian

style castle that supposedly hosted satanic orgies -- started contributing

photographs to what was then essentially a pamphlet in the mid-'90s. Around

1996, Moran and Sceurman joined forces. Their magazine comes out twice

yearly, selling for $4 an issue on newsstands. A recent issue, No. 21, has

sold 60,000 copies.

 

There's a Web site, www.weirdnj.com, and a book called "Weird N.J." that

came out last September and has sold 100,000 copies. Their next book,

"Weird U.S.," is scheduled to come out in October, and they've shot a pilot

episode for a show of the same name for the History Channel. Sceurman

says they only began turning a profit in the last two years.

 

Their small office, located in a historic battery factory in downtown West

Orange, features a painting of a three-eyed devil on velvet, a Nixon poster

and an autographed photo from Butch Patrick, who played Eddie on "The

Munsters." There are books with titles like "The Big Book of Freaks."

 

Sceurman says the office is ideally situated to pick up twin scents that

seem to encapsulate the ethos of New Jersey.

 

"The wind's blowing west, it's the dump," he says, sounding pleased to be

able to share this. "When it blows east, it's the Dunkin' Donuts."

 

If Weird N.J. stands for anything, it stands for giving voice to the unheard,

the artists, the brave souls who dare to live differently.

 

The elderly are the most creative. An old man builds a pyramid of 200

bowling balls, and an old lady crafts lawn sculptures from thousands of

milk jugs. One time she makes an Easter bunny; one time a 75-foot rainbow

with a pot of gold at the end. She is thrilled to have visitors, even when

she's

not expecting them.

 

When you show up on your tour of South Jersey tourist destinations, she

greets you enthusiastically, wearing only a towel.

 

She is Josephine Stapleton, 70, a bus driver who lives in Mays Landing, not

far from Atlantic City. In front of her house: approximately 1,000 one-gallon

milk jugs, painted and arranged into an American flag. Also: some split tires

that are supposed to act as flower planters but that are currently empty;

plus concrete blocks lining the grass. In the back yard: a rusting trailer, a

pile of tires, a doghouse with the word "Spot" scrawled on it, and a bathroom

sink on a tree stump, acting as a birdbath. There is also Stapleton's alter

ego,

a dummy made entirely of milk jugs, wearing a mop wig and a housedress.

She changes its outfits with the seasons.

 

"This is Jugabelle!" Stapleton says on a recent afternoon, after she has

changed from her towel into a purple outfit. "Everybody loves her to death."

 

Sceurman trains a video camera on Stapleton and interviews her for the

benefit of Weird N.J. fans.

 

"Have you ever met any other jug bottle artists?" he asks.

 

"People came to me and they wanted to know how to start it," Stapleton

says. "And I said, it's a lot of hard work, so if you don't wanna work, don't

start it."

 

Sceurman and Moran spend whole days visiting people like the Milk Jug Lady.

 

If you study old issues of Weird N.J., you find that certain phenomena are

described over and over. There are the wavers -- old men, mostly, who sit

on lawns or at roadsides and greet passing cars. There's been Wavin' Willie

and Wavin' Joe, Dave the Wave, the Birdman of the Pulaski Skyway, an Elvis

impersonator named Ed, and some guy that Moran calls Do-It.

 

"This guy's a trip," Moran says. "He runs down the street jogging, and when-

ever he sees you, he throws up his arms and yells a big 'Do it!' "

 

There are the collectors: the guy who collects raisin boxes, and likes to

dress like the Sun-Maid girl, and someone else who collects the ink fillers

from pens. A feature called Cemetery Safari chronicles the state's most

eccentric graves and monuments: a stone armchair, a life-size stone

Mercedes-Benz.

 

Not everything can be witnessed, of course -- chiefly, the paranormal

incidents that Weird N.J. chronicles. There is a haunted mental hospital

where an abandoned piano supposedly still plays; there is a Jersey Devil

that's always bothering people. Sceurman and Moran throw everything

into their magazine indiscriminately, giving equal respect to fact and myth.

 

"If we printed the real story, we wouldn't have a magazine," Sceurman says.

 

And really, does it matter if the "Possessed Pole of Passaic Park," a street

sign that supposedly rocks back and forth, is actually possessed? Isn't it

enough that people pose for pictures with it?

 

Even though the Marks are in their forties, this is a publication in some way

created by teenagers, possessed of cars and burdened by boredom. Weird N.J.

is a collage of suburban legends. Even those of us who didn't grow up in New

Jersey have spent afternoons looking for monsters in our neighbors' back

yards. We've all tried -- and failed -- to find the albino village.

 

Every issue features letters from readers. They write in with stories,

like the tale of "The Sock Man of Middletown," who supposedly would pay

teenagers $5 per pair of dirty socks, and "The Lump Man of Butler," who

had a huge lump between his eyes. They pose questions: "You guys ever

check out the crematory in Hightstown?"

 

Among the hard-core fans is William Angus, 33, a phone company customer

service agent from Bergen County who ventures out to find Weird N.J.

landmarks between three and 10 times a month. He has seen an abandoned

American military jet decaying in the woods, and an abandoned mental

hospital near a morgue, where an apparition may or may not have jumped

into one of his photographs. Sometimes he takes his 5-year-old son on

cemetery trips.

 

"I am obsessive-compulsive, and I don't say that as a layman; I have been

diagnosed," Angus says. "When I have a whole day, I leave at 7 o'clock in

the morning and I might not be back until 8, 9, 10 o'clock."

 

Sceurman and Moran tend to steer clear of their fans. They get a lot of

mail from prisoners, for example. When the phone rings one afternoon in

the office, nobody picks it up. Mark Moran eyes the caller ID.

 

"That could be Neil," he says, referring to a guy who sends them creepy

letters, written all in capitals with no punctuation.

 

In some way, such letters are reassuring. They are proof that, despite

New Jersey's relatively small size, there are vast tracts of odd beauty

still to be explored. Moran and Sceurman don't worry about running out

of material.

 

"As long as there's New Jersey and people living in it, there will be a weird

element to it," Moran says.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---

[+Mopar]

Nice job, William!

[+Harrald]

I hope if they do get a show on the air that they work William into it. He's got a good face for TV and would be a great closing segment of a "Weird US" show.,

[+lostinjersey]

I hope if they do get a show on the air that they work William into it. He's got a good face for TV and would be a great closing segment of a "Weird US" show.,

>hides face in embarassment<

 

I have a horrible voice and am prone to wild gesturing. Unless I wanna be a monkey boy on Jimmy Kimmel live, I think not.

 

But thanks for thinking highly of me.

[+GeoKender]

And have Uncle Floyd conduct the "Weird NJ" orchestra!

 

Congrats, GWho!

Edited July 3, 2004 by GeoKender

[+lostinjersey]

forgot to mention...

 

1) guess I wasn't hardcore till a reporter said I was.

 

2)I'm a little perturbed that right after she mentions me she says that the Marks avoid their fans. Which is sorta true and not true. I know several fans who've hooked up and gone out with them on trips. They also are quite pleased to do the handshake thing at the events and parties.

 

Course I've never gone out with them so maybe she meant they avoid me

 

or maybe I'm just paranoid (to go along with being OCD)

 

3) she didn't mention my website (www.lostinjersey.com) dahm!

 

4) she didnt mention that the cemetery trips are often to virtuals. thought maybe I'd get a mention about geocaching. as it is she didn't say mucha bout me at all. I thought the article was more to be focused on the fans and no the magazine so much. Guess I was wrong. I should be pleased I even made it I guess. then again, maybe not seeing as all i did was make myself sound like a whack who takes his 5 yr old to visit graves.

[BassoonPilot]

I thought the article was more to be focused on the fans and no the magazine so much. Guess I was wrong. I should be pleased I even made it I guess. then again, maybe not seeing as all i did was make myself sound like a whack who takes his 5 yr old to visit graves.

Actually, I liked the article ... especially the part where the writer made it appear you go "Weirding" for 1, 2, up to 3 hours!

[+lostinjersey]

I thought the article was more to be focused on the fans and no the magazine so much. Guess I was wrong. I should be pleased I even made it I guess. then again, maybe not seeing as all i did was make myself sound like a whack who takes his 5 yr old to visit graves.

Actually, I liked the article ... especially the part where the writer made it appear you go "Weirding" for 1, 2, up to 3 hours!

OMG. At first I'm reading your post and thinking What the hell is he talking about?"

 

Then I re-read the lines you referenced. I never even noticed that! I think it's implied that I mean all day but I can definately see where it might be read that way.

 

Feh. I knew what I meant, and you all know I'm out there weirding it all day log (when i go the time that is) so its ok.

[+ZeeWire]

It's been a while since my last visit, but I'm happy to see that the "regulars" are still around, and that GWho made National News, congrats William! you certainly deserve it!

[+Team Shibby]

Congrats!! Good article

 

I too was a little confused when she did not state AM or PM as the time you return, but I have known of you and your website ever since I began geocaching, so I knew what she meant!

 

Kar