Trask Avenue

Your papa never told you about right or wrong…

Did you watch The Sopranos? Admittedly, it was a rough show. It is easy to understand why some folks were turned off by the amount of deathly violence. Seems like if you make a movie or television show about organized crime, it must be peppered with people dying in a variety inglorious and bloody ways. Sometimes it appeared as if The Sopranos relished in it.

I grew up in northern New Jersey so, in some ways, watching The Sopranos was like watching a videolog of places I’ve known all my life. There’s always a visceral thrill to see a place with which you are familiar pop up on the screen. I imagine natives of Los Angeles, New York and Chicago experience this all the time. But seeing Jersey stuff, now that is a novelty. Or at least it was a novelty until the glut of horrendous, non-Mafia related “Jersey” shows which have polluted the airwaves over the past half-decade or so. Still, even those shows don’t showcase the places I recognize from my wonder years.

A few years ago I decided to try and find some of the spots which appear in The Sopranos opening credits. I wanted to capture them on digital film before they disappeared. Although I have not lived in that part of the state in 20 years they were still easy to find. Some things never leave our memory.

You woke up this morning…

Things ain’t been the same since the blues walked into town…

Born under a bad sign with a blue moon in your eyes…

You’re one in a million you’ve got to burn to shine…