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JerseySmarts.com

Just a Reminder About The Facts in New Jersey’s Great Education Debate

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While I’m in Chicago searching for new ways to enhance New Jersey’s charter school industry, I hope that you’re doing well in New Jersey or from wherever you’re reading this blog! I was scanning through my archive of information that I’d eventually like to post on this blog and I came across the video below. What strikes me in the video is the discussion about money. What the hell does the NJEA do with all of the money that it collects from its members? In a state where charter schools aren’t even funded equally on a dollar-for-dollar basis, but the vast majority achieve higher academic results than their district neighbors, I think the taxpayer has a right to know where the $130 million that the NJEA collects in dues goes each year.

Listen up, particularly, around the 1 minute mark when Governor Christie starts talking about the truth about the “it’s about the kids” argument. In the Governor’s own words, “It’s easy to say it’s about the kids when…” Watch the video below to find out how the Governor finishes that line!

Enough is enough of the same old crap in New Jersey’s broken education system. The time has come to fully fund charter schools and to break the unnecessary (and, frankly useless) statewide teachers’ union. There’s no need for a statewide association when countywide and local teachers’ unions are the source of the state group’s power. Break the NJEA now and save the future of education in New Jersey!

This Drummer Must Have Been at the Wrong Place!

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Sometimes I see a video on the interwebs when I’m at the office and it makes me laugh out loud. This gets pretty embarrassing because then my coworkers begin to think, “What’s wrong with Joe?” Well, the other day what was “wrong” with me is that I saw the video below and laughed out loud watching this drummer. Take a look!

That guy is crazy! He’s definitely at the wrong gig!

Governor Christie Comments on His Parents and His Direct, To the Point, Tone

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You’ve got to love New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Not only is he fixing the problems in this state with a head-on attitude, but he’s doing it in a clear, concise style that nobody can misinterpret. Governor Christie is a breath of fresh air because he tells us exactly what he’s thinking and he doesn’t hide from his own words. In fact, in the clip below Governor Christie talks about how he became the direct-speaking guy that he is and why he uses that direct-to-the-point tone.

Governor Christie is the man! Thank God we have him as our Governor. With this guy in charge, New Jersey might actually become a place that young people like me can actually afford to live in. Thanks, Governor!

Album Review: Oracular Spectacular by MGMT

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Sometimes I hear a song that I like on Sirius XM’s Alt Nation and I go home to find out more about the band who sings the song. Generally, I’ll then go to YouTube to hear some more of their songs and, if the band is good and the music is worth listening to, I’ll find a way to download the music either through iTunes or through some other online distribution method.

Such was the way that I wound up downloading MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular album. If you don’t know, MGMT is the band that sings one of the songs that always seems to be on Alt Nation – Kids. It’s a catchy song that mixes a bunch of different styles and sounds like a lot of fun. I’m sure that if you haven’t heard it on Alt Nation or whatever your local radio station is, that you’ll enjoy it. In fact, I’ve got a YouTube video for the song embedded below. Maybe you want to scroll down there and listen to it while you read the rest of this post (I take no responsibility for the weirdo video associated with the song).

After downloading the rest of the album, though, I don’t think that most of MGMT’s music is for me. While I’ve had some recent success with listening to (and liking) all of Cartel’s Cycle and Owl City’s Ocean Eyes, my luck ran out with MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular.

To MGMT’s credit, though, the album doesn’t have a lot of bad songs on it. In fact, most of the songs are pretty good. However, the general sound – which is a type of electronica and psychedelic blend (some even call it synthpop, but I don’t know what that means) – it just wasn’t for me. However, if you like that sort of stuff, then you’ll absolutely love MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular.

Pretty weird video, huh? So if this stuff is for you, then by all means – go and get yourself a copy of this album. But if this isn’t really your thing, then you might want to just download a copy of Kids from iTunes or Amazon.com or some other music service. If anything, that’s a pretty good song. Enjoy!

Album Review: Cycles by Cartel

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Two weeks ago I was walking through the new Best Buy in Eatontown. It’s a really nice store and utilizes the space from the old PathMark really well. If you live in the area you should definitely check it out. As I was walking through the store on its opening day, I noticed that there was a stage getting set up in the back of the retail floor. Eventually, I wound up in that part of the store and it just so happened that a band was setting up to perform. I thought that was kind of cool – you know, a live band in the store and all.

Well, it turns out that I don’t like live bands in stores because it gets really loud, really quick! Yet, as I was browsing around the store and the band was playing, I really began to enjoy the music. In fact, at one point I found myself trying to figure out if there were any posters or signs indicating the band’s name because I wanted to look them up and see what the deal was with these guys.

After I left the store, some of the music that the band was singing was stuck in my head. When I got home I Googled some of their lyrics and found out that the band was named Cartel – a group that had some notoriety with some big time hits in the last few years and who had been on some MTV show. After finding that out, I was pretty impressed that a band with a national audience and a clear abundance of talent was playing in the local Best Buy. That’s pretty cool.

After doing some YouTubing to hear some more of the band’s songs, I wound up downloading their new album, Cycles, and I’m glad that I did because it is a great album. First things first with this album – there is something to be said for the lost art of track planning on an album. It used to be that you could pop in an album and listen to the whole thing without coming across a bad song or a poorly produced song. In recent years, I think that art has gone to the wayside and been replaced with poorly produced songs or songs that are essentially “filler” in between the commercial hits.

Cartel’s Cycles doesn’t have that problem at all. It was very enjoyable to listen to the entire album all the way through. In fact, the first four songs are very upbeat in their tempo with lyrics that are easy to understand and performances that are crystal clear and fun for the listener.

Granted, the style of Cartel’s music isn’t for everyone; I understand that people have different tastes. I have a wide variety of tastes, too. Cartel’s style can be defined as part alternative rock and part power pop (I don’t really know what power pop is, but that’s what the interwebs call this style). Take a listen to one of the songs from the album below and I think you’ll get at what type of music these guys sing.

While I enjoy all of the songs on this album, my favorite songs are the first four – Let’s Go, The Perfect Mistake, Faster Ride, and Deep South. In fact, I liked these songs so much that I went and got the two other albums that this band has put out and there’s pretty good, too.

This album, much like Owl City’s Ocean Eyes, are fun for me to listen to while I do web design and while I’m working on my computer for other reasons. Anyway, listen to that song embedded above and maybe some of their other stuff on YouTube and I’m sure that you’ll begin to like their stuff. Cycles by Cartel gets a high recommendation from JerseySmarts.com and yours truly. Check it out!