#240 (of 365) "Our Park by Night" Craft Spells

5/16/2025

I currently have two incomplete versions of a novel called Our Park by Night. I won't get into either plot but I have musings of a plan for a new version, which may or may not be a horror story version of The Goonies. With teens who skate. Which is not what I have written in either version. Some of the characters may remain the same. So to say I am fascinated by the title of this song is an understatement, and in particular I am obsessed with the cover of the single, which never appeared on a Craft Spells album, as far as I can tell. It's a skater at night, presumably in a skate park at night, which is the fascinating (to me) concept that I want to write into a story and have attempted (twice) and failed. Why am I obsessed with skating? Dunno for sure. Never skated. I mean, I think I did have a skateboard as a kid, but the most I could do was skate up and down the street. No tricks, no skate park visit--not even sure we had a skate park in town. I think my fascination came later, in college or post-college, with the "scene" itself -- rebel kids who are invested in something different than the mainstream, the skate/surf/punk music scene that I'm obviously a fan of, even if I've never been a part.

There's a pretty extensive skate park at Berry Lane Park in Jersey City, and Elie and I go to the park often, and she plays in the skate park sometimes (even though she's not allowed) since it's fenced in so I can let her go off leash and run around chasing balls on the grass. I'm too old to skate now. And I'm too old to hang out with skaters or understand their culture in 2025 but I still like going there with Elie. Berry Lane is in a largely black region of JC, and many/most of the skaters are black or Latino, which is not something I would have expected, but the whole point of skate culture is diverting expectations, and the setting of my next novel could be Berry Lane Park in Jersey City, or a fictionalized version. Stay tuned. For now, this is a great fucking song.

"Our Park by Night" - Craft Spells // Our Park by Night 7" (2015)