Re-designed – and it feels so good

Slightly over a month since we first launched, Asbury Pulp – Fact & Fiction on the Jersey Shore, has some exciting news to share. But first, a reiteration of who and what we are.

Asbury Pulp is a creative collective of writers who are anxious to take advantage of a web platform that allows for greater flexibility when sharing information and digging deeper editorially into what makes the region hum.  Those writers consist of seasoned publishing professionals and fresh new talent.

Like the magazine it soon will be (plans for our monthly color digest are proceeding along!), it’s best enjoyed as a webzine. Think of us as the rambunctious step-child of the New Yorker and Time Out, or The Atlantic and Details – for the Shore. Log on when you have some time to spend and want a different scoop on area news, people and events. You can friend us on Facebook to stay in the loop, or sign up for an email subscription from our front page.

We’ve been having a blast and are just getting started – so much so, that we’ve already upgraded our website in order to really rock and roll. And we have to thank a very talented person for making that happen.

When the former interface proved unable to keep up with the demands of multiple daily postings, we realized that upgrade was imperative. Fortunately for us, friend and colleague Heather Jensen had already reached the same conclusion and offered to lend her expertise to the undertaking.

It was a remarkable and generous offer considering Heather rarely accepts any sort of commissions these days due to a very full professional plate. Nonetheless, she swung into action and chose the new theme and performed the critical design and technical tasks necessary to create a first-class site. As a person and professional she always had our respect; now she also has our immense gratitude for carving out the time in her crowded schedule to create an AsburyPulp.com that meets the high expectations of the region it covers. (We’ll have more about Pulp’s people posted soon on a contributors’ page.)

Heather re-designed the site to allow us to highlight the work of our writers and enable those words to be shot around the World Wide Web much more efficiently. It’s not only easier for us to bring you more stories and information, it’s easier for you to read and share them.

Because everyone deserves some great pulp in their lives – and we thank Heather for ensuring that everybody gets their fix.

Because of her efforts, we’ll be expanding our coverage and doubling down on our promise to deliver unique news and stories, in-depth reviews and even fiction. All with a healthy dose of audio and video and, to keep everything in perspective, a dose of humor now and then (like our weekly Best of Craigslist listings).

Asbury Pulp aims to bring you the back story – not the daily story. It’s not a news site. There are several local news sites that bring you just the facts, ma’am, a few of which are redbankgreen.com, asburyparksun.com, asburypark.net and the wonderful example of citizen journalism called blogfinger.net (specific to Ocean Grove but fun reading).

For additional cultural information, we urge readers to check out Tom Chesek’s excellent UpperWetSide.com; we do often and are never disappointed by his comprehensive coverage and sharp writing. For a more music-orientated site, we dig AsburyRising.net.

We’re certain we’re all going to trip all over ourselves now and then; it’s inevitable. And you can be sure we’ll feel free to dip into the breaking news pool when something strikes our fancy. But our core mission is fundamentally different from the sites above.

On this site, we hope to follow in the footsteps of writers like Joseph Mitchell, George Plimpton, Pete Hamill – and Hunter S. Thompson when there’s a rum bucket in front of us. Hey – why not aim high? The Jersey Shore demands it and, as seen through the prism of the phenomenon that is the creative community of Asbury Park, we know our readers won’t settle for anything less than an all-out assault on the World Wide Web by Asbury Pulp – Fact & Fiction on the Jersey Shore.

It’s a place that always was and always will be. A region where an app can mean either something you order or download, serve or design – and you can feel good about it all. That’s the magic of the Shore. That’s what we want to capture through fact and fiction stories. Asbury Park and the Jersey Shore should never have to groan under the pejorative label ‘hip’ – and we want to help make sure that never happens.

Its appeal and charms transcends such nonsense. Like the great pulp magazines of the 20^th century we give a wink and nod to, Asbury Park and the Jersey Shore are resilient survivors which will always follow a beat of their own.

Define yourself. We’ll do the rest. Thanks for reading. Time to hit the streets now…