Felt compelled to write about the yearbook controversy at my alma mater, East Brunswick High School (thank you Jewish Journal) https://lnkd.in/gjDMTiFR
This part was cut (understandably) but wanted to shout out some fellow EB success stories....
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As a suburb, East Brunswick Township, NJ is positively unspectacular, but it punches above its weight in residents who’ve gone on to big careers in entertainment. Among them: ‘The Social Network’ star Jesse Eisenberg, who this year produced a stunner of a film, Sasquatch Sunset, which screened at Sundance Institute and SXSW. As it turned out, a consultant for the movie, The Ape Initiative director Jared Taglialatela, is also from East Brunswick (class of ’93). Elsewhere in the industry, class of ’79 grad Matt Pinfield went on to become a major-market radio DJ (currently on the air in Los Angeles), as did Paul "Cubby" Bryant (New York’s 106.7), and several more graduates from that era ended up in senior executive roles at Universal Music Group and Sony Music. One EB resident is a legit pop star — Jax, of American Idol and “The Dress” fame (yellow or blue?), is signed to Atlantic Records and had a Top 40 hit in 2022 with “Victoria’s Secret.”
I like to think the seeds of their successes were sown by the years spent in East Brunswick and that their ambition was nurtured by the EAST BRUNSWICK PUBLIC SCHOOLS system’s teachers, some of whom we admired to their end. Like longtime IPLE instructor John Calimano. When he died of cancer in 2019, former students gathered in the classroom where he taught to hold a debate that was true to “Cal” form. I tuned in via Facebook Live from L.A. and felt my heart swell more than once hearing his acolytes’ thoughtful tributes. An open ear was all Cal ever asked for, and if he were leading a debate on Gaza and Israel today, he’d blast an unflinching “point of order!” if one student group tried to hijack another’s assigned seat at the dais. There’s space for everyone.
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1yThanks for sharing. I look forward to checking some of these out.