Asbury Park was certainly ready for a carnival Mardi Gras 2022 party!

Our 6th Asbury Park Mardi Gras was held on February 26. Our Mardi Gras celebrations started back in 2016, but we skipped last year.  Everyone was ready for a party, so it was time for a carnival Mardi Gras 2022! Take a look at all the fun we had.

KING CAKE BABY HUNT:

The activities kicked off with the return of the King Cake Baby scavenger hunt at noon.  Our hunters visited 19 of Asbury’s coolest businesses looking for the hidden babies.  For their hard work, they received a Mardi Gras donut from Purple Glaze, and some other lagnaippes (that’s an extra treat) from the merchants. When the hunt was completed they could take a celebratory photo at our Mardi Gras selfie station. Eleven lucky hunters won prize packs donated by the local businesses, and one participant won a Mardi Gras-colored bicycle donated by Second Life Bikes!

MARDI PAWS PET PARADE:

The best dressed dogs around paraded down Cookman Avenue at 2:00, for the 2nd parade organized by Paws Pet Boutique.  The parade was led by the king of the dogs, Scooby Doo, and one of our favorite shop-dogs, Shady the greyhound. The big winners were Billie for best-dressed large dog, Millie for best-dressed small dog, and Dozer for best over-all.  The parade raised over $300 for Wag On Inn Rescue.

Watch the parade here!

MARDI GRAS HAPPY HOUR:

Oysters!

Taka presented another yummy happy hour with their own spin on New Orleans food and drink. We chowed down on shrimp poboys, andouille poboys, and oysters Rockefeller, and hurricane drink specials.

THE MASQUERADE BALL:

The night ended at the Saint, with our favorite NOLA inspired band, the VooDUDES. After two years of frustration, it was time to dance! Between sets, we crowned our ruler of Mardi Gras, Nicole of Asbury Park. She will be assisted in her royal duties by Lady Jennifer of Red Bank. We left the ball tired but happy.

Here’s a little bit of the party: “Ring of Fire” . Laissez le bon temps rouler!

Welcome to 2022! Let’s do some Asbury Park events!

We are thrilled that we’ve finally got some Asbury Park events on the calendar.

Visit us at the Shoppes at the Arcade on Saturday, February 5th, for two special events:

Paws Pet Boutique will be doing Valentine’s Day pet photos from 12 to 3. You know that your cat or dog is your real valentine, so show it to the world.  They will have a backdrop and a kissing booth! $10 donation will go to Wag On Inn Rescue.

Also on 2/5 will be the grand opening of Courageous and Confident Club, the new boutique upstairs in unit 7. They have an amazing line of comfortable, fun, and stylish clothing and accessories. The ribbon cutting is at noon. There will be a flower at the door for every customer, and swag bags while supplies last.

On Saturday February 26th will be the return of Asbury Park Mardi Gras. Join us for the King Cake Baby Hunt, Mardi Paws Pet Parade, and the Masquerade Ball.  You can get more info on our events page, or on our Facebook event page. 

Finally, Light of Day is back in Asbury Park in March. We missed it in 2021, and the January 2022 event was postponed due to the Omicron surge. But now it’s going to happen from March 10th to March 13th. This is a wonderful fundraiser to raise money and awareness to defeat Parkinson’s disease, ALS, and PSP in our lifetime.

So get out of the house and visit us in Asbury Park. Things are happening!

It’s a return to normalcy in Asbury Park–live music is back!

We are so happy to see the Asbury Park clubs reopening and filling in their schedules. It’s finally a return to normalcy after all these months.

The Saint (601 Main Street) reopened last weekend and I heard great reports on both the early show with Helen O’Shea and the Shannakees and the late show with Electric Six.  You can check out their upcoming schedule here.

The Stone Pony Summerstage starts up next weekend with Splintered Sunlight on the 30th. They are already doing  outdoor shows at the Southside Beer Garden. It’s the perfect summer evening, with live music and ocean breezes. Grab a beverage and a sausage sandwich! See the schedule here. 

There’s more outdoor performances with the shows that are sponsored by the Asbury Park Music Foundation. Don’t miss Music Mondays in Springwood Park. When you’re shopping downtown on the weekends at our Reopen Street Festival , you can catch peformances at Cookman Avenue Live. There are acts playing Fridays at 7:00 and Sundays at 3:00, right down the block from Backward Glances. All the APMF shows are free! (but help them out by dropping some money in the bucket or buying some merch.)

But there’s even more! Outdoor shows at the Arthur Pryor Bandshell on the boardwalk, and indoor shows at the House of Independents, Langosta Lounge, the Wonder Bar, Asbury Lanes, and Tim McCloone’s Supper Club. There’s DJs, open mikes, piano parties, and Sandy Mack Jams at the Asbury Hotel. Plus performances at the Transparent Clinch Gallery attached to the hotel. Click on the links to see all the schedules. We’ve been starved for live music but now we get to pig out!

As the APMF’s t-shirts say, “Music Saved Asbury Park”.  Now music can save your soul with a visit to AP.

There’s a new Superman TV show, so let’s look at Super style through the years!

Hello, I am Cindy and I am a Superman superfan.  I’m looking forward to the new Superman show, “Superman & Lois”, premiering tonight on the CW.  There have been many versions of Superman and Lois Lane through the decades, and each one has its own Super style. Let’s take a look at the fashions that make the man of steel and his girl Lois.

George Reeves’ Clark Kent clothes

Superman was created by Joe Shuster and Jerry Seigel in 1938, but he gets his first taste of Tv popularity in the “Adventures of Superman” starring George Reeves in 1952 through 1958.  This Clark Kent was nerdy as usual, but wore great double-breasted suits and fedoras, like a 40’s private eye.    Phyllis Coates was the first Lois, and was a tough broad.  Noel Neill replaced her and played Lois as a little sweeter and more innocent. Both wore wonderful fitted suits, and oh those cute hats!

Christopher Reeve’s Superman outfit

The next Superman who grabbed me (I wish!) was Christopher Reeve in 1978. Wearing a 3-piece 70’s suit and slicked back hair, he was a great nerd, but a hunky hero.  Margo Kidder played his Lois in pastel colors and 70’s style.

In the 90’s, we got “Lois & Clark: the new Adventures of Superman”. Dean Cain’s Clark wore power suits with wide ties and wire rimmed glasses. Teri Hatcher’s Lois wore darker suits with patterns like polka dots, checks and stripes. In her off hours from the Daily Planet, there was lace and sexy clingy fabric.  Very 90’s!

Teri Hatcher’s Lois Lane attire

It seems like we get a new Superman every 10 years. Superman for the 2000’s was young Tom Welling on “Smallvillle”. His farm boy wore a lot of plaid! Erica Durance was Lois Lane. She was much more casual than past Loises; she frequently wore jeans and bared her shoulders in tank tops.

Each set of super couples were a mirror of their fashion times. What will we get from Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch in 2021? Let’s tune in and see.

These Super-photos were taken at the Super Museum in Metropolis, Illinois.

Make your own vintage accessories with these easy to knit instructions!

I love vintage knitwear catalogs! They have such great fashion photography and the photos are a great time capsule.  I’ve collected a bunch of these, from the 1930’s to the 80’s, and have used some of their images in displays and on this website. See the busy lady on our “How to Order” page or the professorial gentleman on our Men’s 40’s/50’s clothing page. But these brochures also have step-by-step instructions to knit period clothing.  Now, I’m not a knitter, but I would love to see some of you recreate these vintage fashions today! So I’m starting you out with some easy to knit designs.

The booklet I’ve chosen is from the 1940’s from F & K Yarn Co., New York, N.Y.  These pages have instructions for easy to make hats, gloves, and mittens.  (Yes, you can be as well mittened as Bernie Sanders) This is a great project for a winter quarantine! So why not give these a try, and please send me photos of your finished projects.

Get on the bus for a virtual visit to the Woodstock festival location in Bethel NY!

I recently made a music pilgrimage to the original Woodstock festival location. It’s a wonderful, safe visit to the museum at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. They are currently limiting attendance to 25 % capacity and masks are required.

The museum does a great job setting up the differences between the early 60’s pop culture and what led up to the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in 1969.

Of course, I was very interested in the display that contrasted early 60’s fashion, mod fashion, and the clothes worn by festival attendees!

If you go, I recommend you pay an extra $5 for the outdoor “Meet Me at Woodstock: an Augmented Reality Tour Experience”. This prerecorded tour is narrated by Nick & Bobbi Ercoline, the couple pictured on the front of the Woodstock soundtrack album. They take you on tour of the site, letting you know where all the important places were in 69. It’s as close as you get to being there.

So put on your Janis glasses, fringed vest, and  love beads and go! It’s only 2 1/2 hours from Asbury Park. I highly recommend this trip!

Save the Saint Asbury Park’s coolest club! UPDATE

This damn virus is hurting us all. We were upset to hear that the Saint Asbury ‘s independent rock club was thinking about selling.  Unfortunately, clubs are going to be one of the last businesses to reopen. The Saint is owned by Scott & Meg, not a big corporation with deep pockets. Luckily, their bartender Marguerite set up a Go Fund Me page to raise the funds to get them through.

UPDATE:  It is now over 5 months later, and the Saint still needs your help. The funds raised by Marguerite’s page got the Saint through the last few months, but have been depleted by rent and other expenses. The new Go Fund Me page can be found here. Hopefully the club can reopen with larger capacity soon.  But wouldn’t you hate to see them close and not have done anything about it? So even if you gave last time, reach in and give them a little more.  I did.

Scott from the Saint is one of the reasons I decided to move my store here. We’ve been friends for years, since before he opened the Saint, and even before the days of his prior venture, T-Birds Cafe. He is major supporter of the independent music scene, and any city that has a venue like this is worth investing in.

the VooDUDES at the Saint

Scott helped with my grand opening celebration in A.P., arranging for Richard Bacchus of D Generation to play a set at the party. The Saint has been our home for the Asbury Park Mardi Gras Masquerade Ball for the last 2 years. They’ve always been there to host numerous fundraisers for organizations in need. Now they need us.

Asbury Park without the Saint is unacceptable.  Please donate to this good cause & help keep Asbury Park cool! Save the Saint!

“Asbury Park Riot Redemption Rock n Roll” is streaming for free!

If you’re a Bruce fan, or just a fan of music history, you should check out “Asbury Park Riot Redemption Rock N Roll”. This well done documentary covers the history of music in Asbury Park NJ, race relations, and the power of music. It’s streaming for free on YouTube until the end of August. You can watch the full hour and a half film here.

I was able to see this film at its premiere at the Paramount Theater in 2017. There was an amazing jam session with many of the musicians who played at the famous Upstage club after the film showing, including Bruce Springsteen and Little Steven Van Zandt. They added some of the footage from the jam to the finished film.

The Upstage club has now been gutted and will soon be apartments, but it stayed an untouched time capsule for many years. I was lucky enough to take a tour in 2015. You can see pictures from my visit, as well as photos from the 2017 Upstage jam here.

Check out the trailer for this wonderful film:

Welcome to the Upstage

Backward Glances is back and open for shopping!

Asbury Park is now open for shopping and outdoor dining, and so are we! No, it’s not a normal summer, but we hope you can still come visit and have a little fun.

We’ve got safety protocols in place. Our employees are wearing masks, and as per government orders, shoppers must wear masks to enter our building and stores. We have hand sanitizer placed by our entrance and on our counter, and we ask that you take a squirt before shopping.  We are cleaning high contact areas regularly with bleach solution, and are sanitizing dressing rooms in between each use.  We’ve removed three racks of merchandise from the store to make room to social distance (these rack are now in our hallway, so you still have just as many items to shop!) If you are uncomfortable shopping in person, all our products are still available to ship or do curbside pickup.

Cookman Avenue is closed to traffic on the weekends, and it’s quite the festive atmosphere.  We’ve got merchandise on the street and all the restaurants have sidewalk tables.  So mask up and come out!

Don’t have a nice mask to wear? We can help! Check out the cool masks we have for sale.