Day: February 9, 2014

Yellow Water Nasty Rooms- Welcome to Sochi!

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

If this doesn’t highlight in boldface italicized underlined font that Big Time Sporting Events Belong In Big Time Cities I Don’t Know What Does.  Who is on the Olympics Committee?  Fire the whole lot of them.  Like yesterday.  They shouldn’t be making decisions any more.  Who the hell wants to go to this dumpy ass third world city to celebrate the biggest sporting event on the planet- The Olympics?  This is where you hole up the most elite athletes in the world?  Hotels with brown water?  Mickey Mouse sheets?  WTF is going on over there??????  Imagine you train your whole life for the winter Olympics dreaming of St Moriz Switzerland, Vancouver, Turin, Oslo, and then you get off the plane in Sochi, check into your room, turn on the water and its urine colored and the beds are better at the Pine Street Inn.

Lets see I’m on the Olympics Hosting City Selection Committee and I’m gonna pick a world class city to host the 2014 Olympics.  You don’t suppose that all that Russian oil money doesn’t come into play?  Has to, right?  I mean how else in the world do you justify picking this kind of third world hotel hosting city over a real big time developed country.  (and I understand that these aren’t really third world country conditions, but compared to US hotel Standards and real International City Standards they are)

This goes for the Superbowl too.  (and I’m aware that there’s talk of a Superbowl coming to Foxboro)  Let me just state for the record- Probably no one deserves more respect in the NFL than Bob Kraft.  Classy, took a team from despair and turned them into Champions, humble, the whole works.  They did a great job with Patriots Place, the mall , the dining options, the hotels, ect, ect.  But lets not get crazy here.  Foxboro is a blip of a town with such little to do.  It’s  SOOOO far removed from a real City that the poor people that would come up here to watch and cover the Superbowl  would be scattered all over the place and there would no way to cohesively host them.  Not like they can in New Orleans, San Fran, Miami or Dallas.

Put me in the camp that says that these events should only be held in Cities with tons of awesome hotels and restaurants and fun things to do.  Foxboro?  Really???  

Hmmm, lets see where would I rather spend  a 4 day weekend to celebrate the Superbowl in February? 

Miami, nah, too warm and sunny and too many awesome restaurants and sights to see. 

New Orleans?  No way.  Place is wayyyy too fun and centrally located and set up for a huge event like the Superbowl.

Oh, I got it!  Foxboro!!!!  That thriving metropolis where we can have people have to drive to get to and stay in other cities like Providence or Boston, no where near the stadium and for there be no way to cohesively party with all the other fans rooting for your team.

Yeah, that’s the ticket, Foxboro.

 

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Melody Beattie Quote of the Week from Greg Bover

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.”
Melody Beattie (1948-    )

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A St. Paul, Minnesota native, Beattie is best known for her writing on co-dependence, the excessive preoccupation with the needs of another, at the cost of paying attention to one’s own needs. She survived kidnapping at age 4, childhood sexual abuse, alcohol and drug addiction, marriage to an alcoholic, divorce, and the death of one of her own children. She spent three years caring for her mother as she died from Alzheimer’s disease. She has written more than a dozen books on topics including grief, denial, meditation and 12 Step programs.

Love Shack!

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

What do you give your lover for Valentine’s Day?

Why, a Shaque D’Amour, of course!

Love Shack ©Kim Smith 2013

Where can you purchase your Love Shack?

Gloucester’s Nichols Candy House, naturally!

Originally posted January, 2013.

A Magical Moment Just Occurred in my Kitchen

Posted on by Sista Felicia

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… this share is for all who know the story behind why I hosted my First St. Joseph Altar last year… yesterday while driving to my Cousin Amy’s baby shower my mother Pat,  Aunt Gina Ciaramitaro and I set a schedule for this years St. Joseph’s Day preparations, activities and Feast. Opening your home and hosting a feast for a small army takes precise orchestration and teamwork.  While at the bridal shower I announced the dates to my family members, so they could block off their calendars.  Today  I began sending private text messages to others between preparing Sunday Dinner. While I was preparing twice baked potatoes, I was texting my life long friend Michele Tocco the dates while the potatoes cooled for a moment.  At the same time I began humming to myself The St. Joseph Rosary in Sicilian.  I picked the first potato to cut, and reached for my camera to snap a shot for a future recipe post, an action I do dozens of times throughout my days cooking. I snap a shot depicting the cut, then let the potato fall open in my hand to snap a second shot of the potato halved. To my surprise 2 identical cross shapes appeared on each half…. I could feel a warmth around me.  My eyes filled with tears as I looked up towards the heavens and said out-loud…” So I guess your all happy with the dates we selected for our Families St. Joseph Festivities this year❤️

I like to think of happenings like this to be little  gifts from my guardian angels above. Thank You Grandpa & Grandma with the Wharf, Nono & Nona with the Store, Uncle Mick & Auntie FeFe  Militello  and Uncle Charlie<3

GMG CROSS POTATO post

Keep your eyes and ears on Darlingside – featured in this month’s Noise

Posted on by Vickie & Peter

Every month, when the new issue of The Noise comes out, I’m grateful for the forces that brought T-Max to Gloucester and for his perspective on local Music.  This month, he chose to feature a Massachusetts band with a unique sound, so we can all enjoy watching their star rise together: Darlingside.  See the article here … and check out this video!

Beverly Votes “Yes” For New Brimbal Avenue Interchange – …and Whole Foods

Posted on by Lowell Peabody

After much controversy  the results of a special election for the project have been released and it was approved by a vote of 3,978 “Yes” to 3,743. Along with the new interchange will come a new shopping center to be anchored by Whole Foods. Photo at least gives an idea of the changes.

New Interchange

Community Photos 2/9/14

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Snow From Elinor Teele

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I am so fortunate to have a job that gets me out and about in every kind of weather. I am constantly astounded by the beauty that surrounds us.Here are three scenes from this past Thursday.

Best,

Janet(Rice)

Annabelles PetCare

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The Wetlands at Good Harbor Beach: A Veritable Runway and Landing Strip for Canadian Geese

submitted by Peter Digre

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nationally prominent poet Brendan Galvin reading in Gloucester today Saturday Feb 8th, 5pm

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

The reading is at Trident Gallery, 189 Main Street, Gloucester, at 5pm, to be followed by a reception with light refreshments. Admission is free, but reservations are recommended (978-491-7785 or events@tridentgallery.com) so that the gallery can try to ensure adequate seating.
“We are lucky to have a poet of Galvin’s reputation coming to read on the North Shore.  As I know from experience, his poetry moves you immediately at a reading and then stays with you for years, growing in depth and importance, words you want to read and read again.” — Matthew Swift, gallery director

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He grew up in the Boston area and lives in Truro, Massachusetts, a small town on outer Cape Cod.  He has published over 500 poems in magazines, textbooks and anthologies, including 21 poems in The New Yorker.  More details are at the Facebook event page https://www.facebook.com/events/508016975980702 .  A quotation from a book-length poem of his is on the image, a full recent poem is posted at http://wintermeditations.tridentgallery.com/, and another couple of excerpts are included in the latest Trident Gallery Newsletter if you join soon at TridentGallery.com.

Critical praise for Brendan Galvin:

“Few living poets are as memorable in their descriptions of the goings-on in the non-man-manufactured world.” — The New York Times Book Review
“Over the past four decades, in an era deeply suspicious of the relationship between language and external reality, Brendan Galvin has been quietly reminding us that the best poetry can deepend our understanding of the natural world and of each other.” — National Book Award statement
“Brendan Galvin is an essential presence in contemporary American poetry.” — Tar River Poetry
“If future literary historians wish to demonstrate an excellent late-twentieth-century non-formalist who writes directly and accessibly, let Galvin be their example….More toughminded than most of his peers, Galvin is also far less predictable.” — X.J. Kennedy, Shenandoah: The Washington & Lee University Review
“Brendan Galvin has an exciting gift for finding the unexpected word that proves miraculously perfect in its setting.” — The Atlantic Monthly


About Brendan Galvin:

Brendan Galvin is the author of sixteen collections of poems. Habitat: New and Selected Poems 1965-2005 (LSU Press) was a finalist for the National Book Award. Ocean Effectsappeared in fall, 2007. His translation of Sophocles’ Women of Trachis appeared in the Penn Greek Drama Series in 1998. Whirl Is King appeared from LSU Press in 2008. His crime novel, Wash-a-shores, is available on Amazon Kindle. The Air’s Accomplices, a collection of new poems, is forthcoming from LSU Press.

His awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, two NEA fellowships, the Sotheby Prize of the Arvon Foundation (England), the Iowa Poetry Prize, and Poetry’s Levinson Prize, as well as the first OB Hardison, Jr. Poetry Prize from the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Charity Randall Citation from the International Poetry Forum, the Sewanee Review’s Aiken Taylor Award in Modern American Poetry, and the Boatwright Prize from Shenandoah.

He has been Wyndham Robertson Visiting Writer in Residence in the MA program at Hollins University, Coal Royalty Distinguished Writer in Residence in the MFA program at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, visiting writer at Connecticut College, and Whichard chairholder in the Humanities at East Carolina University.

He lives in Truro, Massachusetts.

Phyllis A Art Exhibit

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Joey,
Could you please post the following?
Hoping to put together an art exhibit featuring the fishing vessel Phyllis A at Marine Railway. Have seen many paintings and great photos around town. Please contact Gene Ehlert at lmegbe@yahoo.com (board member of Phyllis A Marine Association)
978-865-3049 or cell 603-788-4605
Thanks