The Labor Day contractions are getting closer together, and today’s edition of Red Bank oRBit has laboriously selected a handful of diversions for your pleasure, from the Long Branch Jazz & Blues Festival, to the Broadway Scrapbook revue — to the return of the Reverend Horton Heat (right), with whom we’ve got an exclusive interview on the eve of his latest Jersey Shore pitstop.

The raucously rocking Rev is just the latest in a long line of celebrity “gets” that our little hyper-local arts and entertainment website has brought you — an elite bunch that includes familiar actors (Jason Alexander, Martin Short, Robert Wagner, Joe Pantoliano), rock icons (Roger McGuinn, Southside Johnny, Will Lee), jazz/blues legends (Mose Allison, Hubert Sumlin, Bucky Pizzarelli), old-school new wavers (Billy Bragg, Robert Gordon, Wreckless Eric), comics (Pat Cooper, Judy Gold, Colin Mochrie), plus authors, filmmakers, choreographers, roller derby queens, drag queens, scream queens, famous puppets, and, for some reason, esteemed U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky.

It can take a lot out of us, for sure, so let’s all enjoy the long holiday weekend — and check back with Red Bank oRBit over the next couple of days, for some fresh interviews with a couple of strange visitors to our fair Shore — showbiz wheeler dealer Howie Mandel, and UK punkrock pioneer Hugh (The Stranglers) Cornwell!