"Free James Titus" in the Warren Reporter

An image of James Titus,
who was convicted of the
1866 (sic) murder of Tillie Smith
in Hackettstown.

Independence Township man leads charge to have Hackettstown man convicted of Tillie Smith murder pardoned -- nearly 150 years later
By Warren Reporter
December 06, 2009, 4:04PM


Story Written By Todd Petty

Regardless of whether you believe in ghosts, Hackettstown residents have been aware of the presence of Tillie Smith for well over a century. Murdered in 1866 (sic), Tillie’s name still elicits an impassioned reaction from local residents – it is a part of their dialogue, a part of their folklore, and a part of their history.

However, pieces of the story may still remain unwritten — there remains a specter of doubt regarding the involvement of James Titus, the man who was found guilty and sentenced to prison for seventeen years for Tillie’s murder.

One resident in particular from Independence Township, Erik Anderson, is determined to close the case once and for all. Anderson is working to have Titus pardoned for a crime that he does not believe that Titus ever committed.

“If you look at the case and if you read the trial documents, it’s really obvious that there is a ton of reasonable doubt,” Anderson said.

More at NJ.com.

More at FreeJamesTitus.BlogSpot.Com.

More on  Twitter, Myspace and Facebook, too.

Traffic is a Serious Problem in Hackettstown

Hackettstown sits at the bottom of Schooley's Mountain.  The Musconetcong river turns west towards Philipsburg where the Golden Skillet, which is one of the last privately owned Fast Food restaurants in New Jersey. It's a classic. In fact, it was my father's favorite restaurant, but it also would be nice if we could knock it down and build a road over where it is, so that we could reduce traffic on Mountain Avenue making it not the most dangerous road in New Jersey anymore. Here's a letter I am proud of that I wrote to the Warren Reporter about this issue.


Click on picture to read Erik's letter.


I didn't choose the title "Shame on state". I wasn't trying to blast them. It is just a difficult situation.

Most of the bypass would affect Washington Township (Morris County) but most of the benefit would go to the Town of Hackettstown, so, if the Highlands Council were to permit, it's very much Washington Township's decision to do it or not. But, as you know, in Northwest New Jersey, everybody watches Fox News and listens to Rush Limbaugh (at least all the elected officials do), so there is a slim chance in hell that.

Also, this fight is not even a problem because the Highlands Council has designated all of Washington Township (Morris County) a protected territory, so they aren't developing anything on the other side of the Musconetcong. The Highlands Act and the Highlands Council is very controversial in Northwest New Jersey. Most of the rest of the state gets it's water from up here, and the residents up here don't like it.

Just google "Highlands Act NJ" or "Highlands Council NJ" and you'll see what I mean.

Here are just a few resources you can look at to find out more, if you want:

-New Jersey Highlands Council (Official Website)
-New Jersey Highlands Council - Master Plan
-Environmental Controversy, New Jersey Style: The Highlands Council and the NJ DEP - NJ.com Blog
-Lower affordable-housing quotas by Highlands Council might entice towns to follow its plan - Hunterdon County Democrat
-Landowners looking to take Highlands lawsuit to New Jersey Supreme Court - Express-Times
and the most recent news from my Township:

-Independence Township rejects state Highlands law mandate- Express-Times, Nov. 14, 2009

So I hope that makes you aware of what is perhaps the most pressing issue in Northwest New Jersey. It's all inter-related. If you think of something you can do to help, like go to a meeting and speak out, or write a letter, please do it. We need all the help we can get.

Warm Regards,

Erik B. Anderson
Independence Township, New Jersey
Established 1782

REVIEW: Oedipus The King - Pax Amicus Theatre - Nov. 8, 2009

- Oedipus the King -

Pax Amicus Theatre, Budd Lake, NJ - Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009 - 2PM

The King of Funny Faces' Review

Cross-posted here.

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"This is the best production of Oedipus that has ever been done."

Stan Barber didn't mind saying so, after his own production today of Oedipus the King at Pax Amicus Castle Theatre in Budd Lake, New Jersey. He has been leading the Theatre Group there for 39 seasons. Then he said, "I'm sorry" with a smirk and a shrug of his shoulder like Mohammed Ali. In other words, Stan Barber is prepared to defend that claim if anyone out there - anyone in the whole world - were to try to take him to task for saying it.

I haven't seen any other performances of Oedipus the King, so I can't verify the autheniticity of his claim for sure, but it is certainly the best one I have ever seen. It definitely sets a very high standard that any company that tries to perform it again in my presence is going to have to contend with.

The performance was dark and scary and well done, like a good tragedy should. I remember thinking that the way the actors moved and spoke were remarkable long before I heard Mr. Barber make his claim. The characters literally jumped out at the audience. The closing of the first Act was positively haunting. The chorus seemed to literally float out over the audience and evaporate when the lights went dark.

The dialogue in the play, from a 1984 translation from the Ancient Greek by Don Taylor XIII, was equally impressive.

"Scorns! Hurricanes! Let them come!"

          "It must go on! I must know the truth!"

and, in a softer voice that is even more chilling:

"Why should I take pilgimages...to any holy place..if the gods' warnings provoke laughter, and no thought of what comes after?"

In the beginning of the play,  Oedipus (Jordan Feltner), a member of the royal family of neighboring Corinth who married the Queen of Thebes after her husband was murdered (ostensibly by bandits and thieves) is determined to find out who killed the previous king. It remains a mystery how Oedipus has been unaware of the circumstances of his predecessors' murder for so long, but what is known is that he is determined to find out the truth. He is prepared to grant mercy on the perpetrator if he shows himself, but none if he tries to hide. A prophet accuses him of the murder in an early scene and then the madness begins. Oedipus' uncle/brother-in-law Creon (Daniel Kisala) was as wise as a character can get. He defended himself admirably against the King's unreasonable accusations. He is the true hero of the play, and the second-most highly developed character. Jocasta (Cynthia Enfield) is listed second on the playbill, but her character is not as highly developed as Creon.

Jocasta is not qa wicked queen who seduced her own son. All the characters in the play are sympathetic. Oedipus is truly not an evil man, even though he is a mass murderer. He is a well-meaning king and father who saved the citizens of Thebes  (his "children") by solving the Riddle of the Sphinx. But, like many great men, he was driven insane by circumstances completely beyond his control. Jocasta's declaration that her Son/Husband is a doomed man when she sends him into exile is not a personal attack, or an insult intended to hurt the man. It is just a fact: something that needs to be said. And that is what makes it genuinely more horrifying than any of the torture-porn movies that are produced in the cinema these days.

Sophocles' Oedipus the King is a tragedy in the truest sense. The story of the doomed king of Thebes, who was prophesised to kill his own father and then fall in love with and marry his mother. It has been a classic since it came out 2420 years ago. It inspired an entire psychoanalytic theory. If it has stayed alive for 2420 years, it will probably influences the world forever. It is essential viewing for anyone with an interest in psychology, psychoanalysis, psychiatry, ancient history and tragedy.

There is still three more performances in Budd Lake. Catch them if you can.

 Monday, November 16 - 10 pm

I am very pleased that this production was a success at Pax Amicus, which has been the local Community Theatre in my area since before I was born. I have a picture of me outside the Castle Theater (which anyone can see from the road if they look across Budd Lake from Route 46) greeting an actor in an animal costume in the late 1970's. I have been looking for it...when I find it, I will be sure to update this blog again and post at least a link to it.

Someday, I would be very happy to be able to audition (and get a part) at this theatre.  You know I will post about that, too. I have been critical of Pax Amicus in the past. I feel bad now. I feel like I was close-minded and boneheaded, but I know now that was not a sensible way to proceed.

Long live Pax Amicus Castle Theatre! Long Live Stan Barber! Long Live Jordan Feltner, Cynthia Enfield and Daniel Kisala! Long live everyone involved with this production!

Warm Regards,

Erik B. Anderson
The King of Funny Faces
Independence Township, New Jersey
Established 1782

The King of Funny Faces with the Royal Family of Thebes

From bottom left: Creon, Jocasta, The K.o.F.F. and Oedipus the King

Erik Got A Ruling from The American Heritage Dictionary Usage Panel

June 1, 2009

Erik B. Anderson
Hackettstown, NJ 07840

Mary Huot
c/o Huoghton Mifflin Company
222 Berkeley St.
Boston, MA 02116

Dear Ms. Huot:

I am doing some research for my autobiography and I need your help.I need to know if the word "ironically" is used incorrectly in the three short articles I am including in this letter.

An article on Wikipedia says:

The American Heritage Dictionary’s usage panel found it unacceptable to use the word ironic to describe mere unfortunate coincidences or surprising disappointments that "suggest no particular lessons about human vanity or folly."

This is my argument:

1. The fact that James Titus was wrongly convicted of rape and murder, served 19 years in prison and lived in Hackettstown for almost 50 years is a "surprising disappointment."

2. The fact that the scene of the crime burned down on Halloween night, 1899, is another "surprising coincidence." [The HackettstownHistory.com article "Fall Into Halloween" is no longer online].

and

3. The fact that Marilyn Manson torched his drummer's drum kit on the night before the last show of the tour in the winter of 1995 is...well it's not a coincidence or a surprise knowing what I know about the last night of the tour that ended in December 11, 1995, but it most certainly does not suggest( any particular lessons about human vanity or folly.

So, the word ironically is used incorrectly in each of these documents, and the reasons for these events have not been adequately explained. I believe the real answers to these questions are very important indeed.

Can you confirm if I have used the correct argument to determine that it is incorrect usage already? Is there a formal process to request a "ruling"?

I cannot ask Webster's, because the third definition of irony in Webster's New World College Dictionary: Fourth Edition (page 755) calls it: "a combination of circumstances or a result that that is the opposite of what is or might be expected or considered appropriate [an irony that the firehouse burned]."

I appreciate the fact that you are there. This is very important to me on a personal level. Is there anything more that I can do?

Sincerely,



Erik B. Anderson
Independence Township, New Jersey
Established 1782


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Click on image to read letter.

Poetry Colloquium at Centenary College - VIDEOS

New Century Poetics: A Poetry Colloquium at Centenary College of New Jersey.
October 19 & 20, 2009.

Featuring Poet Mark Doty, winner of the National Book Award.

http://www.centenarycollege.edu/cms/en/gates-ferry-lectures/

It was a great time. I especially enjoyed sitting at the "grown-up table" with Basil King, Michael Heller, Burt Kimmelman, Mark Weiss, Paul Sohar and Mark Lamoreux. I regret that the memory in my camera ran out before Paul Sohar read his poem, which was the best of the night.

I'm sorry that I couldn't keep myself from breathing at inconvenient times during the reading and that my hands were very shaky. I'm not a professional videographer.

If you enjoyed these videos, please let me know:



Basil King is a painter/poet, born in England before World War II and living in Brooklyn since 1968. He attended Black Mountain College as a teenager and completed apprenticeship as an abstract expressionist in San Francisco and New York. For the past three decades he has taken his art “from the abstract to the figure, from the figure to the abstract.” His books include Mirage: a poem in 22 sections, Warp Spasm, Identity, 77 Beasts/Basil King’s Beastiary, Talisman#36/37, In the Field Where Daffodils Grow, Short Stories.

More...




Burt Kimmelman has published five collections of poetry – Musaics, First Lif, The Pond at Cape May Point, Somehow, and There Are Word; his volume of poems titled As If Free is forthcoming in 2009. For over a decade he was Senior Editor of Poetry New York: A Journal of Poetry and Translation. He is a professor of English at New Jersey Institute of Technology and the author of two book-length literary studies: The "Winter Mind": William Bronk and American Letters and The Poetics of Authorship in the Later Middle Ages: The Emergence of the Modern Literary Persona, as well as scores of essays on medieval, modern, and contemporary poetry.

More...




Jared Harel's poems have been published or are forthcoming in such literary journals as the New York Quarterly, California Quarterly, Barrow Street, Notre Dame Review, The Portland Review, and Rattle. He was recently awarded First Runner-up in the 2009 BOA Editions “A. Poulin Jr. Book Prize.” A graduate of Cornell’s MFA program, he currently lives in Astoria, Queens and teaches creative writing and composition at Centenary College.

More...



Mark Weiss has published six books of poetry, most recently As Landscape. He edited, with Harry Polkinhorn, the bilingual Anthology Across the Line: The Poetry of Baja California. His translations include Stet: Selected Poems of José Kozer; The San Antonio Notebook, by Javier Manríquez; and Gaspar Orozco's Notes from the Land of Z. The Whole Island: Six Decades of Cuban Poetry is due from UC Press November 1st. He lives at the edge of Manhattan's only forest.

More...



BJ Ward's books include Gravediggers Birthday and Landing in New Jersey with Soft Hands, both published by North Atlantic Books. His work has been featured on National Public Radio, New Jersey Network, and the web site, Poetry Daily, as well as in publications such as Poetry, TriQuarterly, and The Literary Review. He has been awarded a Pushcart Prize and two Distinguished Artist Fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. He teaches at Warren County Community College.

Poem Name: Thanksgiving

More: http://www.bjward.net/



Michael Heller has published eight volumes of poetry, most recently Eschaton. His critical work includes a collection of essays on George Oppen and a mixed-genre meditation on the work of the painter Max Beckmann. His poetry and criticism have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. His many honors include the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Prize of the Poetry Society of America, a New York Foundation on the Arts Fellowship and awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Fund for Poetry.

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Heller_(poet)

*******

I have more videos, of Carlos Hernandez Pena and a few others that I haven't uploaded yet. If and when I get permission from these poets, I will upload their videos.

Warm Regards,

Erik B. Anderson
The King of Funny Faces
Independence Township, New Jersey
Established 1782

Lucinda Williams Set List

The Fillmore at Irving Auditorium,
15th and Irving, NYC - April 5, 2009
"The Cool Crowd Comes Out on Monday Night"

First Set - Highlighting the Album "World Without Tears"

1. People Talking
2. Overtime
3. Fruits Of My Labor
4. Sweet Side
5. Rescue
6. Are You All Right?
7. Come On
8. Unsuffer Me
9. Everything Has Changed
10. West
11. Well, Well, Well
12. Real Love
13. Tears of Joy
14. Honeybee
15. Plan to Marry

I found a nice spot to dance in the back. Every song was played beautifully.

Sadly, I did not stay for the second set.