Month: November 2011

Holiday Magic or Several More Reasons to Shop Small Not Mall

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Alexandra's Bread

Kim Smith writes-

During my mad rush Tuesday morning to shop for our Thanksgiving dinner, I first stopped in at Alexandra’s Bread to pick up several loaves of their freshly baked bread. Knowingly, I had placed an advance order because the bread at Alexandra’s is so super delicious they are often sold out. I not only needed baguettes for dinner Tuesday evening, but for our fondue dinner planned for Wednesday evening. It is our tradition to serve fondue on Christmas Eve and to the kids, fondue symbolizes warm- and cozy-holiday-fun-dinner; they now request it for “Thanksgiving Eve” as well.

I next popped into Pearl’s to see if Sue had any fondue forks. Pearl’s is a wonderful vintage everything shop at the east end of Main Street. Fondue forks are designed with extra long, heatproof handles and I needed several additional forks for our guests. Sue did not have any fondue forks, but Deb, the meter attendant who was, very fortuitously, standing at the counter chatting with Sue, mentioned she just-so-happened to have a set at her home that had not sold at her recent yard sale. Deb said she’d be happy to deliver her forks to Pearl’s and Sue very graciously agreed to be the go-between. I bought them sight unseen for ten dollars.

Next stop was Abacus Computer and MacDaddy, across the street from Pearl’s and several doors down from Alexandra’s. Their tagline is “Your PC and Apple Repair Service Specialists.” I explained to Frank that my daughter was arriving Tuesday night and was only staying for a few days. Could they possibly squeeze in a look at her laptop to see what was wrong? Yes, no problem, and requested we bring in the computer promptly at 10:00am Wednesday morning.

The following morning Frank and Thad looked it over and thought perhaps they could repair and have it back to her by that afternoon, even though it was by no means an easy fix, needing a new hard drive, along with various other problems. WOW—you don’t get service like that at the big box stores, as a matter of fact, at the Apple Store in NYC, the salesperson told my daughter her laptop was unfixable and not to waste their time.

Next stop was Pearl’s, where we picked up the most gorgeous boxed set of wooden handled fondue forks, circa 1960—very Eames looking— and far more elegant than the forks we had planned to use. Thank you Sue and Deb and thank you Holiday Spirits!

More Holiday Magic—later that afternoon, Abacus Computer and The MacDaddy called with the good news Liv’s computer was ready for pick-up. Cleaned and repaired, it is working perfectly. Thank you Frank and Thad and thank you again Holiday Spirits for working your Holiday Magic!

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Check Out Kim’s Blog Here

Gorgeous Gloucester Sunrises On www.gloucesterwebcam.com Right Now

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Check ‘em out and bookmark the site to bring you back to G Town even when you’re away- Live!

www.gloucesterwebcam.com

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Carrie Fisher Quote of The Week From Greg Bover

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

    “Holding on to a resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”

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Carrie Fisher (1956-    )
Born to Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, one of Hollywood’s golden postwar couples who messily divorced when she was two, the actress, novelist, lecturer, and screenwriter is perhaps best know for her portrayal of Princess Leia in the early Star Wars movies. She is thought of as one of the smartest people in the film industry and has had a less well-know career as a script doctor and writer. Her novel Postcards from the Edge and her memoir Wishful Drinking detail her battles with substance abuse and eating disorders. The Emmy Award winning Fisher continues to tour as a lecturer and appears frequently on television (30 Rock, Sex in the City, etc.)

Greg Bover

The Compass Rose-Custom Tattoos

Posted on by Alicia Pensarosa

Gloucester has a new tattoo shop on Main street-The Compass Rose.  Mike and I passed by today and we stopped to check them out.   The shop is at 35 Main street in a pretty sweet 2nd floor location. It’s clean, professional, with artwork covering the walls.  Mike decided to get a custom skull tattoo.

 

Matt Maguire owns the shop and also works as an artist along with  Jon Saulnier. We didn’t have a chance to meet Matt, but he sounds like a pretty cool guy and a great artist. Mike worked with Jon, describing the tattoo he wanted while Jon worked his magic designing the tattoo.

Jon working on Mike’s tattoo:

One of Jon’s works of art:

The finished tattoo:

Jon did such a great job on Mike’s tattoo. The design and colors are perfect.  I’ll be making an appointment for myself this week to get my rosa rugosa tattoo touched up.  The Compass Rose welcomes walk-ins as well as appointments for custom work. You can contact them and see their work at http://compassroseink.com.

~Alicia

Merry Christmas and A Feel Good Turkey Story From Charity (no relation) Ciaramitaro

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

If you don’t feel good about the way you or your mom cooks your Turkey after seeing this shit-show then god help us all.

Charity writes-

First turkey: my poor vegetarian mommy tried to cook a nice turkey for my brother and his beautiful girlfriend.  Second turkey: my daughter and I cooked, she is just basting it one more time.  I gave her directions but she didn’t listen.  She called me crying and said she couldn’t talk about it for 6 months. I warned her that it might end up on Good Morning Gloucester.  She said OK as a warning to others and as long as we don’t verbally talk about it.
Happy Holidays!
Charity Ciaramitaro

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Is that pineapple I see in that turkey?

Note to self- do not under any circumstances eat at a vegetarian’s house for Thanksgiving.

The Santa Parade

Posted on by Donna Ardizzoni

What an amazing day to watch the parade.  Lots of fun, music and joy.

Mrs. Claus

The Coast Guard

 The elves of Toodeloos on the Parade Route

Rick Doucette and Big Bird

Snow falling at the Tree

 Love Christmas..  Have all a great season

Donna

 

Time Travels

Posted on by Marty Luster

TIME TRAVELS

Each time I walk through Gloucester, it’s like tripping through time;

whether down by the docks, or out along the back shore,

or up along Main Street, Middle Street or in Dogtown,

Eastern Point, Lanesville or, more to the point, Rocky Neck.

 

One afternoon in July, camera in hand, I headed out

Rocky Neck Avenue cloaked in the peace of Smith Cove

and the universe of color, texture and form  in

the galleries, shops and displays  all along the way.

 

As I approached Alma McLaughlin’s gallery and

raised my camera to my eyes, I was surprised to

find that time had been reversed and the last hundred years

on the Neck had vaporized; it was as it had been.

 

But the strangest part of this sight and gentle afternoon

was that I was not alone on Rocky Neck Avenue,

visiting the old sites and scenes of a century past.

Like a lantern dimly lit, a woman  came in view

and joined me on my  serene trip through time.

 

We did not speak, but both briefly paused to appreciate

the bright creations that adorned the walls of the gallery

that could be seen through the orderly glass-paned store front;

in a building, a street,  we had come so far to see.

Marty Luster

Dangers of Breakfast with Joey

Posted on by paultmorrison

  Great fun had by all at breakfast this morning and I was able to get a Richard Belzer punchline out without any of the other tables hearing. But back to the Dangers of Breakfast with Joey. He insists on taking a photo of all plates especially at Passports where everything looks yummy. The trick is to just stick a fork in it and give a stir and he’ll bail on your messy plate.  Pictured is a lovely Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon in danger of becoming cold before Joey brackets it with several exposures. Nice to also see the boss keeps his nails clean and doesn’t chew them. You can check his cute cuticles by clicking on the photo.

gimmesound music lineup for Sunday

Posted on by Vickie & Peter

Kory112711
Beautiful weather.  Lots going on.  No reason to stay home.  Watch Kory’s lineup video and head out the door.  Click the picture to watch the video or go here to get today’s Live Music lineup    We have another contest starting Monday , so stay tuned to hear more about it.  It is something you are going to want!

Sold Out Again- Thank You GMG Community

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Well the first batch of 100 sold out in three days so I reordered 50 and am keeping 10 for myself.  I’m not going to take any more orders but I have a few (6 or so) that I’ll keep for folks if they want to pick them up here at the dock- first come first served.

TO CLARIFY ALL OF THE DVD’s are THE SAME none of them in the first or second batch have Saturday Greasy Pole or The Why I Love Gloucester Interviews.  If I order another batch the new batch won’t have those chapters in the either.

If enough people write in on the comments on this post that they wanted to buy some I’ll consider putting in an order for another 50.

I want to thank all the folks that ordered them and despite my mess up of sending in the wrong master copy to the duplicator and the DVD missing those two chapters (out of 21) we actually sold a record number yesterday and after contacting some folks about the mess up we didn’t have a single person cancel their order.

I still believe that this DVD is unlike anything ever produced that captures so much of the essence of Gloucester despite it missing the Saturday Greasy Pole (it still has the Friday 2011 Greasy Pole).

Here is a preview of the opening chapter featuring background music from Dan King put to a slide show of my favorite Gloucester at Dawn Photos in widescreen format-

I’m taking the order form down as well so if you didn’t order one you can let me know that you intended to and I may place another order if there is enough interest on Monday.

Here’s the details from yesterday:

The DVD is still awesome but thought I should let people know about it.  If the reason you bought one was because out of the 21 Chapters those two were critical to your decision to purchase one I will issue you a refund before I ship them.

They look great and I’m thrilled with the results of how they play and Beth Swan’s cover arrangement, I just must have slipped one of the test DVD’s into the envelope when it went to the duplication company.  It still has the Friday Greasy Pole, the mutant lobsters, the Novenas, The Gloucester at Dawn Video with Dan King’s music to it, The Good Harbor Zen videos, Down in The Fish Hold of The Captain Domenic, and more.

Just thought I’d let y’all know before I ship them though in case that was why you bought one.

I’ll be writing a check out for $132 for the Greasy Pole rebuilding fund.  We ordered 150 total DVD’s, I’m keeping 10 for myself and 8 DVD’s were given as extras when people ordered 5 and got one free and one person who ordered 10 and got two free and I assume the 6 extra DVD’s that are unsold will sell so I added them into the total as if they were sold and paid for.