By MARY ANN BOURBEAU

Looking to form a pickup hoops or softball game, but don’t have enough friends? Try Joinagame, a new social network for pickup sports based right here on the Green.

Launching today, Joinagame was built by Corey Wagner of Rumson and Patrick Finan of Fair Haven to handle all the pesky details, such as finding and reserving an available field or court.

But it also addresses a bigger hurdle: not knowing enough people who might be game for a game.

“Once you leave college, you lose your sports network,” said Wagner.

Wagner and Finan work with the recreation directors in Fair Haven, Little Silver, Red Bank, Rumson, Sea Bright and Shrewsbury, as well as Atlantic Highlands and Oceanport, to monitor availability of facilities. Once a person registers at Joinagame, he or she can sign up to play a game already formed online or start their own.

Sports offered are basketball, flag football, kickball, soccer, softball, tennis, Ultimate Frisbee and volleyball.

Joinagame is free, though some towns offer players the option of reserving a field for $40, which all the players would split via online payments. Joinagame takes care of all the paperwork, insurance and payments, making it a win-win for the players and the municipalities. The site will soon offer referees for hire, too.

“It’s free to register and we hope to keep it that way, covering our costs with advertising from sports merchandise stores or bars,” said Wagner.

Finan, 22, earned a finance degree from Providence College in Rhode Island, where he played intramural tennis, soccer, hockey and softball.

“Sports are a huge passion of mine,” he said.

But Joinagame isn’t just for the freshly minted grads. “I’ve seen a lot of parents who bring their kids to practice and say they miss being out there themselves,” he said.

Wagner, a 25-year-old construction worker, and Finan, who is currently waiting tables, met four years ago when Wagner began dating Finan’s sister Jennifer. They’ve spent the last five months creating the site.

Wagner says Joinagame works as well for avid players as it does for those who can only squeeze in a game or two a season.

“A pickup game is nice, because you can show up once,” he said. “You don’t have to commit to a league, and if you don’t mesh with the guys, you can get a whole different group next time.”

The key challenge to their roll-out, they said, is getting enough players on board from the outset so that games have enough players to commence. They spent a full day last week putting up fliers in area coffee shops, salons and other high-traffic businesses, and were pleased to find a lot of interest.

“I was surprised how quickly people picked up on the concept,” said Wagner. “We’re starting local to see how it goes, but we would like to do it for every town in the area.”

For the third consecutive year, Red Bank Middle Schoolers have exterminated the competition in a national video-production contest sponsored by a pest-control trade group.

The $3,000 grand prize for the school’s ‘I Hate Rats’ video, above, adds to a long list of accolades, cash and supplies won by the school’s vaunted video program.

Not bad for a bit of rapping that features rodents, rat poop and a reference to the plague.

RBMS students have been steamrolling the competition in recent years. In addition to this year’s video, which as in past years is to be used as a public service announcement, the middle school has created prize-winners on the topics of mosquitoes and cockroaches.

In 2009, the school’s budding YouTubers bagged $30,000 worth of electronic equipment for the school in one shot.

The latest prize, awarded by the National Pest Management Association, is to be used for science education, the association said in an announcement Monday.

From the announcement:

“Every year, Red Bank Middle School stands out for its high-quality work and the students do an exceptional job of discussing the important health risks associated with household pests,” said Missy Henriksen, vice president of public affairs for the NPMA.

Runner-up Lakewood Christian Schools of Long Beach, CA also received a $1,000 grant for its PSA, “Flea On Trial.”

“The contest encourages children to learn about the fascinating world of animals and insects while also understanding the importance of protecting public health, food and property from pests,” Henriksen said. “This contest also allows teachers to make learning a fun and interactive experience inside the classroom.”

Teachers and students in grades four through eight were challenged to create educational television PSAs highlighting the health and property risks posed by common household pests such as rodents, ants, cockroaches and stinging insects. Entries werejudged on originality, creativity, health messaging and overall appeal.

The contest was administered through the trade group’s educational children’s website, PestWorldForKid, where other entries may be viewed.

Michael Zapcic with Thomas Mumme, left, during Thursday’s live ‘SModcast’ at Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. Below: Kevin Smith on the center monitor during a taping earlier this week in Red Bank. (Photo below courtesy of Robert Bruce. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Michael Zapcic had the “really surreal” experience earlier this week of walking past Madison Square Garden, glancing up at the massive Jumbotron and seeing a commercial for ‘Comic Book Men,’ a new cable show in which he appears as himself: a self-described comic book geek.

“I’m like holy crap! It’s them! It’s us!” he recalled Thursday, in the tone of an average, fedora-wearing citizen spotting a caped man flying overhead.

Life in the mini-Gotham that is Red Bank may never be the same.

Only, yeah, it will be exactly the same, because ‘Comic Book Men’ is a reality show, one focused on the daily interplay of three employees of  “possibly the world’s most famous comic book store” – Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash on Broad Street, where the show is set.

Over six episodes, four opinionated, superabsorbent sponges of superheroism – Zapcic, Ming Chen and Walt Flanagan, plus original store manager Bryan Johnson – spend a lot of time  “just arguing about stupid movie plot points, which happens every day without cameras anyway,” says Chen.

Ming Chen mans the mic. The podcasts have a prominent role in ‘Comic Book Men.’ (Click to enlarge)

The show is the brainchild of Middletown-raised filmmaker Kevin Smith, who owns the 15-year-old store and participates in each show during podcasts – known in the sprawling Smithian ‘smerchandise’ empire as ‘SModcasts’ – that bookend each episode.

The SModcasts, normally taped in the store at a poker table strewn with Surf Taco crumbs, were recorded on a specially built set elsewhere in Red Bank in recent months.

There’s also lots of interaction with customers, some of them from overseas, looking to buy and sell comic books, toys and tchotchkes.

Red Bank resident and sage “pop culturist” Robert Bruce is in it, too, offering an appraising eye for rarities: comic books, action figures, toys and more.

“His focus is on the most obscure things in the world,” says Zapcic, who apparently butts heads with Bruce in the show, as in real life.

At some point, a faux Batmobile is expected to pop up, too.

It’s basically a “character-driven show,” Zapcic said during a redbankgreen interview that doubled as a SModcast Thursday. “The producers “basically pointed the cameras at us and said, ‘be funny.’”

The Stash staffers own up to being totally amped about their debut Sunday night: Ming says he’s had trouble sleeping. But what excites him most, he said, is that the natural comedic chemistry of his colleagues Flanagan and Johnson will finally be on display for all Gothamites to enjoy.

“These two guys are so damn funny, and without even meaning to be,” said Zapcic.

“That’s the key part. They’re not trying,” Ming said.

AMC, home of ‘Mad Men,’ ‘Breaking Bad‘ and ‘The Walking Dead,’ launches the series at 10 p.m. Sunday.

For more about both the store and the show, tune into redbankgreen‘s ‘smodcast’ interview of Chen and Zapcic here. Click on ‘Smodco Morning Show #80.’

They’re calling it a “lambnapping.”

The pastor at Holy Cross Church in Rumson says a young thief stole several of the figures from the parish Christmas manger on Ward Avenue at 4 a.m. Thursday.

The crime was captured on videotape.

Here’s the background, as published on Reverend Michael Manning’s blog Saturday:

Jesus and the baby lambs are taken in from the creche each evening for safe keeping. The larger figures are difficult to move, but not apparently hard enough.

One lamb has mysteriously returned, and the donkey which was taken from the creche was left by the curb. Police are enhancing the original video which is of higher quality than this YouTube mpeg.

The life size Nativity figures were donated by parishioners in memory of loved ones.

We can hope that the remaining lamb is returned in time for Christmas.

Here’s a video that tracks a couple of Red Bank kids as they explore Yestercades, the retro gaming emporium that’s been the buzz of Broad Street since even before it opened in October.

Niko Porter, a fourth-grader at the Red Bank Middle School, and Patricio Vera, a senior at Red Bank Regional, took a whirlwind tour of the arcade, which features such classics as Pac Man, Frogger, Space Invaders and Tetris.

Niko, by the way, no longer sports that awesome mop of hair. He recently donated it to be made into a wig for a cancer patient.

redbankgreen‘s picture person Trish Russoniello did the edit.

By JOHN T. WARD

It’s “time expired” for racing to beat a $38 parking ticket in downtown Red Bank, officials said Wednesday night.

Say hello to “multi-space, revenue controlled” parking technology, complete with cellphone interactivity.

Fulfilling a pledge made by Mayor Pasquale Menna two years back, the borough council awarded a contract for a yet-to-be-determined number of pay stations that will, among other wonders, send visitors texts when they’re in danger of being ticketed and allow them to extend their stays from the comfort of a restaurant.

Oh, and for the town? A sweet spike in parking revenue, with an accompanying drop in enforcement and maintenance costs, says an executive at vendor Integrated Technical Systems of Wallingford, Connecticut.

After reviewing six bids, the council opted for Luke II machines, made by Digital Payment Technologies, which will cost the town about $12,000 each.

Borough officials said the expense would be borne by the town’s parking fund, holding more than $500,000, money collected over the years from new businesses that were required to dig deep when they couldn’t provide sufficient parking – a requirement that’s now in moratorium.

The pay kiosks will be rolled out as early as next spring in the parking lots at English Plaza, Maple Cove, Marine Park and White Street, said council president Art Murphy. “We’ll get a consensus” on how well they work before additional machines are purchased for metered streets and lots, he said.

The technology is the same used by the City of Asbury Park, which has about 100 of the kiosks, Joe Yorlano, director of sales at ITS, tells redbankgreen. Similar machines are used at the Little Silver train station, and a pilot program is underway in Long Branch, he said.

Red Bank, he said, opted for a pay-by-parking-space system. Each space will be numbered, and a visitor has to enter that number at the time of payment, which can be made with cash, credit card, smart card, or an online account with a third-party vendor.

There’s no need to return to your car to place a receipt on the dashboard, Yorlano said, because the record of the transaction is available wirelessly to the town’s parking enforcement arm.

The machine’s manufacturer boasted recently that parking revenue in Asbury Park soared 60 percent on the installation of the machines,and Yorlano says gains of 30 percent and more are common. One big component of that, he said, is the elimination of “piggybacking,” which now occurs when a paid spot is vacated and taken by another motorist.

“With the multispace system, everybody who parks, pays,” he said.

The system also allows towns to dramatically cut costs, he said. Enforcers no longer have to check individual meters. Instead, they have a digital readout showing which spaces are no longer paid for, and can ticket accordingly.

“There’s also a lot fewer machines,” he said. “In a 70-space lot, you might need just three or four installations,” reducing maintenance expenses.

And while the cost per unit is high compared to single-heads, “municipalities are turning to this concept because the payback analysis is usually in the range of nine months,” Yorlano said. Towns can even sell ads to run on the LCD displays, he said.

Red Bank RiverCenter executive director Nancy Adams said the downtown promotion agency’s member businesses are “thrilled that there are going to be more choices for shoppers, so they don’t have to run out of lunch or a meeting” to feed an expiring meter, and can instead extend their stays via cellphone text.

“It jump starts us into a new century,” said Menna, who recently signaled his intention to have a parking deck built at the White Street lot when he said he would appoint up to three experts in the field as advisors on January 1.

By JOHN T. WARD

Red Bank RiverCenter, the downtown business-promotion entity, has gone mobile with the introduction of an app for iPhones and iPads.

“It’s part of our marketing mission, getting information about Red Bank out far and wide, and making it easy to come to the theaters and restaurants and stores in town,” says RiverCenter executive director Nancy Adams.

She envisions visitors getting off the train and using their iPhones to find places to go.

“There are who just don’t want the paper” on which directories and maps have heretofore been printed, she says.

Mimicking RiverCenter’s website, and branded with the agency’s “Only One Red Bank” slogan, the app’s meatiest element is its business directory, broken down into categories of dining, shopping arts and services.

Users can dig into “books” in the shopping list, for example, and find, well, no book stores, but two retailers carrying books among their wares.

Under “Italian” in the dining list are 20 eateries, including Mr. Pizza Slice and Sicilia Café. Listings include tap-to-call phone numbers and links to websites, where available.

The app features a page of “hot deals,” though no deals are yet being offered.

“We’re hoping to have our local ‘Groupon-ish’ feature loaded with special offers very soon, says longtime borough resident Steven Craig Sickles, who built the app, at no charge, using it as a prototype for a service he plans to offer elsewhere.

Also featured:

•  An events calendar, so far showing Tuesday night’s Menorah Lighting at the train station (no time given) and successive $5 Cheese Fridays at the Cheese Cave on Monmouth Street.

•  Municipal phone numbers

•  RSS feeds from two news sources, one of them being the area’s only independent, Authentically Local online publication: redbankgreen.

“To cement the app’s hometown appeal,” Sickles says he’ll be adding “more local interest and social networking features, including resident, local journalist and business blogs, and even a feature that will allow users to know when their other friends are in town.”

The app uses Google Maps to direct users, and as some of its familiar errors are immediately evident. The locator map for the mid-block Bagel Station on Monmouth Street, for example, shows it at the corner of Monmouth and Water streets – the actual location of Juanito’s restaurant. Juanito’s, meanwhile, appears to be located on the railroad tracks at the nearby train station.

The app still has some glitches to be worked out, Adams says. And there’s no non-Apple version available yet, though RiverCenter is exploring the possibility of getting one.

Thanks to a redbankgreen reader’s post on Facebook, we learned recently of this feel-good video shot in downtown Red Bank.

It’s a message for Lifevestinside, an effort aimed at “increasing kindness in society, [which] will lead to more connectedness and a better, happier world.”

The video appears to have been shot in the summer of 2010 or prior, when Broad Street’s Bella Mystique and Ballew Jeweler’s were still open, the space now occupied by Red Ginger Home was vacant, and the River’s Edge Café still occupied the space that’s now home to Surf Taco.

A worker restoring the arched windows at 12 Broad Street recently. Nima Nili, below, is overseeing the building’s transformation. (Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

There’s no scaffolding, and few external signs of what’s going on inside, but one of Red Bank’s stateliest business addresses is getting its most extensive makeover in decades.

It’s not just about bringing in Zebu Forno, either. While the popular coffee-slash-bagel-slash pizza spot is relocating to the ground floor from three doors south, a gut-job transformation of office space above has already begun to attract well-heeled tenants that many downtown merchants say they can’t survive without.

A rendering by architect and tenant Mike Monroe, below, shows a proposed metal canopy above the entrance. (Click to enlarge)

The aim, says project manager Nima Nili, is to create a “Soho-meets Red Bank” vibe at 12 Broad Street, next door to Urban Outfitters.

Whole floors have been gutted and reimagined, with exposed-brick walls and spiral ductwork; restored chair-rail moldings; hardwood flooring, and in some places, 11-foot ceilings and uncovered beautiful support columns. Arched windows are being restored.

Much of the design is being guided by Mike Monroe, a prolific architect whose stamp is all over Red Bank: Pazzo, Blue Water Seafood, the new JBJ Soul Kitchen. He’s also overseeing the simultaneous remodeling of office space next door, above the Urban Outfitters store.

The final touches, Monroe says, will be a cleaning of the limestone facade and, pending borough approval, the installation of a metal canopy.

“That will really dress up the building,” says Monroe.

The makeover was necessary, says Nili, who was brought in by his longtime friend Nazmiyal to oversee the renovations. Through a company called Gotham West, Nili has rehabbed buildings in downtown Jersey City and elsewhere.

“You could tell that the building was not getting as much attention as it deserved,” Nili says.

It also represents “a big bet” at a tough economic time. Nili says the overhaul represents an estimated investment of $1.5 million into the property on top of the $4.5 million that former tenant Jason Nazmiyal, who had an imported rug store for 10 years in the space now being taken over by Zebu, paid for the building in 2009.

“It’s absolutely a big bet, but we’ve never been ones to sit back and let the market dictate how we do things,” says Nili. “If we’re not proactive and don’t change the approach of the building to make it work, then it won’t work.”

The makeover affects every inch of the structure except the fifth floor, which was fully remodeled and leased by an oil trading firm before Nazmiyal bought the building.

Nili expects the work to be completed by February 1. But already, the work has attracted tenants, including Monroe’s firm;  Global Research Consortium, a Wall Street trading operation; another architectural firm, Gassert Design, which has also contributed to the project; and Pro U, an executive leadership consultancy. A headhunting firm is slated to take a portion of the second floor. The third floor, like all the others at 5,200 square feet, is being marketed as a space for a single tenant.

Noting that former tenants such as photographer Danny Sanchez and the Fred Astaire Dance Studio relocated elsewhere in town, Monroe firm architect Maria Piccolo says, “No one ever leaves, which is good.”

Erected in the 1880s as the Peters Building, 12 Broad later become home to Robert Hance & Sons department store. The Broad Street National Bank took it over in 1920, replacing the entire facade with the limestone and the second-story arched windows, according to Middletown historian Randall Gabrielan .

Various editions of photo history books by Gabrielan refer to remodelings in 1973 and 1996, but Nili says this one is the most thoroughgoing one in close to 90 years.