gleny.com

I have often been called a "Belmar Guy". I totally accept that title, I love this town. I live here, party here, vacation here. Sometimes I work here. I really like this town. The Belmar Parade committee how ever doesn't have the same opinion of me. They hate me, completely and whole heartedly. They suck. This year Seaside's St Patty's Committee contacted me and invited me into their parade. The back story was last year; one of the Seaside committee saw us driving our "patty wagon" down Main St. and fell in love with our happiness and enthusiasm. He tried to call me last year, but the timing was off and when I called him back I missed the lineup. He remembered me from 05' and called me this year. This time I was all over calling him back and we made into the parade.

The weather for Belmar's parade was about 42 and windy. But Seaside was about 58 and sunny. I tend to believe it had to do with Committee Karma. I guess float against float, Seaside and Belmar have about the same parade. The only thing I can think of that made Seaside a much better parade was of course; Gleny.com and the Patty Wagon.

We brought about 12 people, rocked the music ( DJ buddy love) and of course we had the midgets. It all went so smooth. We promenaded down the street and I even had a band leader baton, which I learned how to toss and catch on the go. I really enjoy bringing in the herd during the parade events. I will miss Belmar's parade next year still, but thank you Seaside for letting us in, we had a blast.

The video of the parade will be in the Winter Wrap up DVD available soon.

 

Click play on the leftto see the little video montage...

An Article from the IRISH VOICE... about us!

The St. Patrick's Day parade in Belmar is one of the largest parades in the state, and this year was no exception. An occasional cloud lazily floated on the cool ocean breezes as a crowd estimated to be in the hundred thousand range lined the parade route to cheer on marching bands, emergency vehicles with screeching sirens, and bagpipers. Apple cheeked toddlers were hoisted on their parents' shoulders while their older siblings scurried under the feet of the crowd to get a good spot up front.
There was one group of little people (I was unable to get the politically correct consensus as to whether to use "midget" or "dwarf" to describe their stature, so we all arrived on "little people" over a pint) who were not able to participate in the festivities. They milled around an ornately decorated bus, holding up signs that read "Belmar oppresses little people."
Could this be? A St. Patrick's Day Committee was banning leprechauns from their parade?
"We're here to march," said one little person who went by the name Leo. "I drove a long way to come here and pass out candy to the kids in the parade route and bring a little fun into the mix. We just got kicked out of the staging area."
"We've been coming here for nine years," says a bewildered Glen Kislowski, the organizer (and big person) of the protest. "We had sixty two people partying on the main street here last year. No one will give us a straight story on why we are banned this year. We just get a curt email from the organizers telling us 'you're banned.'"
The Irish Voice reached out to one of the Grand Marshall and festival co-organizer, Eugene "Chip" Cavanagh, who tells a different story.
"We got a lot of complaints about that crowd last year," he said of Kislowski's posse. "They had open containers of alcohol in the middle of the street, and that is against the law, plain and simple. They're lucky they didn't get locked up."
"There's a guy walking down the street (as part of the parade) dressed in a pint of Guinness, observed protester Colleen Bilodeau of Jackson, NJ. "That doesn't promote drinking too much!"
In addition to the public drinking, Mr. Cavanagh cites the platforms at the top of the bus where the little people greeted the crowd as being unsafe.
A closer inspection of the protestor's signs and handouts reveal that they are associated with gleny.com, a web site of partygoers who blog about the best bars and sell the kinds of marital aids you'd find at the glass concessions counter of a Times Square peep show.
"The site is frisky, but that is real life," says Kislowski "Belmar became a town on bars and clubs and renters. They said they got complaints last year, but they didn't say what it was. It is an overall shun, to me in particular and the youth in general."
Kislowski is so distraught over what he sees as the town council's effort to discourage Belmar's partying ways by raising taxes and cracking down on beachgoers that he is contemplating a run for office.
Nothing could be further from the truth, according to Cavanagh during an interview with The Coast Star, a local newspaper serving southern Monmouth County, which includes Belmar. "They were trying to figure out a way to get out of the doldrums of winter and kick-start the summer," he says of the reasons founders like Mr. Stanley and Jerry Lynch had for starting the parade in 1973 to begin with. According to the article, he and his fellow co-chairman, Bill O'Connell, will continue to stage the parade to re-energize the residents of Belmar and the Jersey Shore.

http://www.irishabroad.com/stpatrick/US/NoLeprechaunsNeedApply.asp

By TEAM SAVANNAH

Gleny.com Photos of the event here

there was a long 30 minute video, that we are going to package with the extended cuts of GROUNDHOG DAY, THE PLUNGE, and the PARADE.