The massive pier reconstruction has begun in Ventnor, a controversial project that may had the incidental effect of galvanizing an opposition movement among second-homers in this town. In any case, new pilings are being installed, and the pier's floor/roof/cover (a designation that depends on whether your perspective is fisherman walking out on the pier, beach trekker passing underneath or slacker poking around at the sand in the shade) ripped off. It's starting to look a little like Stonehenge out there:

Word around our favorite cafe at 4th and Atlantic in Ocean City _ which announced its imminent demise months ago, but obstinately refused to stop serving coffee, scones and an increasingly full lunch menu _ is that a new location has been found. The owners, who bought a vineyard in California but apparently still have a jones for importing La Colombe coffee to Jersey, have reportedly signed a lease for a building at 1st and Asbury, the old Cousin's, beginning in February, when the old Fourth Street Cafe lease is up. Looks like a nice spot, with an enclosed porch and outdoor patio, pretty much the same neighborhood. Should satisfy the many bereft Fourth-Streeters who left their email addresses and pleas in a little notepad at the old location. Just goes to show you, some things are too good to let go of.

Vineland?
For a huge music festival organized by the people behind Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits and festivals in Glastonbury and Reading, England?
That's a tough one to wrap your mind around at first, Vineland, N.J. being more associated with depressed economic conditions, migrant workers, chicken farmers and a drive-in movie theater than alt rock music festivals featuring the likes of Amy Winehouse, the White Stripes and Dylan. But waddaya know, Vineland is suddenly a cool global brand. It's already, as my well-read colleague notes, the name of a Thomas Pynchon book (set in California), and Patti Smith, who grew up in nearby Woodbury, wrote about Vineland in a song aptly titled "Ain't it Strange." So maybe it was inevitable. Bring it on. We're always ready for drop-ins at the shore in August. What's another 150,000 who bring their own sleeping bags? Fairmount Park's dunderheaded loss is the Jersey shore's gain this summer, Vineland being just a few dozen miles of curvy back roads from most shore points, pretty much suburban Jersey shore. As one commenter on the Vineland daily newspaper's website joked, "I can hear it now: Rte 49 is closed, man." Hopefully not route 40, though. Who knows, one day, telling people you hang at the Jersey shore may yield this response: Hey, isn't that near Vineland?