Author: Joey Ciaramitaro

The creator of goodmorninggloucester.org Lover of all things Gloucester and Cape Ann. GMG where we bring you the very best our town has to offer because we love to share all the great news and believe that by promoting others in our community everyone wins.

Janet Ruth Young, Author of The Babysitter Murders, to Read at Gloucester Bookstore Thursday October 20th

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Babysitter cover

Gloucester author Janet Ruth Young will read from her novel The Babysitter Murders at The Bookstore of Gloucester, 61 Main Street, on Thursday, October 20, at 7 p.m.

The Babysitter Murders, published in July by Simon & Schuster, is a book for everyone who’s had a thought they’re afraid to say out loud. Seventeen-year-old Dani Solomon adores Alex, the little boy she babysits. But one day, Dani has a vision of harming Alex—an image so gruesome she can’t get it out of her mind. Dani becomes convinced that she may try to kill Alex. She confesses the thoughts to keep him safe, setting off a media frenzy that makes "Dani Death" the target of an extremist vigilante group.  Soon, everyone in town will have an opinion on Dani’s character, and those closest to her will have to choose loyalty or betrayal.

In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called the book a "provocative exploration of a community’s response to the mere possibility of a horrific crime" and "a realistic and disturbing look at our cultural response to mental illness."

Young has set the story in the fictional North Shore town of Hawthorne, Massachusetts. Cape Ann readers will spot variations on familiar places and events including a popular ice cream restaurant called Icey’s, a forest called Havenswood with a landmark known as Shark’s Jaw, a scandal that brings an unwanted media circus to town, and a slew of anonymous commentators who stir up trouble on the website of the town’s newspaper, The Hawthorne Beacon-Times.

For more information contact the bookstore at 978 281-1548 or go to janetruthyoung.com

Janet Ruth Young Oct 2011

Can I Pass A Law?

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

The other day I run into someone I know and they are in a surprisingly chipper mood.

HUGE SMILE, I mean HUGE SMILE on her face.  So I ask what’s up and she tells me how she talked to the credit card company which she’d been ducking calls for months and told them that she wouldn’t be paying her bill. 

The person from the credit card company said that they would need some payment and she replied that she would pay them $8000 out of the $18,000 that she owed them OR ELSE she would file bankruptcy and they would get NOTHING.

They accepted her offer and she is going to walk away from OVER HALF of the money she borrowed.

SMILING…NO REMORSE…NO SHAME WHATSOEVER…IN FACT I SENSED A FEELING OF PRIDE IN HER ACCOMPLISHMENT

So I asked her about her credit and wasn’t she worried that her credit would be ruined.

She turned and lifted up a stack of credit card applications telling me that she could get $100,000 in credit right there in her hands with all the credit cards that the companies are trying to give her even though they know she has horrible credit history. 

I sat there flabbergasted.

Now you can’t tell me that these credit card companies aren’t aware of the horrible credit score of my friend.  You can’t log onto the internet without some company offering you complete credit score information for like 29 cents.  It’s readily available.  This girl’s credit scores must have had a gazillion red flags.  Yet credit card companies are still willing to lend her money.

Can we pass a law that says if you can’t pay off the debt you already have and are in default for months that you are not allowed to sign up or receive more credit without putting up some hard assets to back it up?

…and a corollary law that says if you are a lending institution and you make credit available to someone who knowingly has more red ink on their credit statement than a Target Flyer then your lending institution gets ZERO an I MEAN ZERO help in a bail out.

Is this not a monumental failure to asses risk, especially given that this person’s credit scores and default information is readily available with a few strokes on a keyboard? For the cost of an $8 credit report you mean to tell me the credit card company looks at that brutal pattern of abuse of credit and are still willing to lend $20,000 on a signature?

Are these the same banks offering this credit that are going to get bailed out because they are too big to fail?

WHAT PART OF THIS EQUATION MAKES IT TOO DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND THAT THERE NEEDS TO BE CHANGE IN THE WAY CREDIT IS ASSESED AND LOANED?

Read this-

Nice job on 20/20! I recently completed a year long collection of credit card applications. I have kept track of every offer from April 05 to April 06 and I received 141 of them. I regret not keeping more specific data but I’m attaching a couple of photos and a chart. Feel free to use this material in any manner you wish.

Yep She’s BAAAAACK- Check Out The Eurodam in Gloucester Harbor On thecutbridge.com’s Webcam RIGHT NOW!

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

 

Click to go to www.gloucesterwebcam.com and see all the great Gloucester Webcams and the ones that will be coming in the next two weeks!

image

The Eurodam can be seen on the Cut Bridge Cam from Patty Knaggs

or on the DiscoverGloucester Dropcam-

image

As an aside we just heard from the 24th webcam to be featured- The Schooner Adventure

The cams should be arriving this week and Tim from www.gloucesterbytes.com will be busy installing them!

Photos from this Weekend’s Gloucester Letters To Annabelle Shoot

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Producer Seng Varipath writes-

Hi Joey.  Just wanted to send you some pix I took during last weekends Letters to Annabelle shoot in Gloucester.  Thanx again for all your help and support.  Only 1 day left of shooting and it’s a wrap for LTA then it’s all Postproduction work until the end of November online premiere.

You might just recognize some of these set locations-

Cast of LTAPeek a BooRyan and Wood_2Ryan and Wood_LocationShooting at NightShooting at Night_2Teens of LTA

http://www.facebook.com/LettersToAnnabelleSeries

iPhone 4s Camera Photos From Charity Ciaramitaro

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Charity writes-

Seize the day!  Recent events have reminded our family to be thankful for everyday, every minute.  It’s a difficult thought, to be able to experience great joy and beauty we must also experience great sorrow and pain.  I was having a hard time today finding that fair.  It was my 10 year old daughter that reminded me it’s not meant to be fair it just is what it is.  She said lets just go out and enjoy some beauty.  We went out to enjoy this beautiful fall day and I took the opportunity to try the camera on the 4s.  Not bad!  Charity

photo 1photo 2photo 3photo 4

Thank You To The Staff At Seacoast

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

DSC00539

Folks that know me know about my dad and his Alzheimer’s disease.  It’s very difficult to accept that the rock of a man who raised you gets reduced in mental capacity so rapidly by it’s symptoms.  Life is life and as horrible as it is I cling on to the fact that he got to retire early and enjoy lots of time with my mom down in Florida for quite a while before the onset of the disease.

I’d like to tell you all about the angels who care for him at Seacoast Nursing Home.  When visiting him in the nursing care facility in Florida he was very lethargic, could barely communicate with me and could barely walk. 

There are no illusions that he will magically regain his brain functions and be able to resume life the way we once knew it but since coming home and with the compassionate care that he receives at Seacoast he has made significant strides in his mood and his energy level. 

It’s hard enough to watch someone you love begin to fail the way someone with dementia fails but it lessons the pain when you know that the people that care for him when you can’t take such loving care of your parent, spouse or loved one.  I cannot explain the comfort it brings me knowing he receives the kind of care he does from these angels.

I can’t thank the staff at Seacoast enough for caring for my dad the way they do.  It’s not just a job for these people.   They care and it shows. 

Thank you so much

-Joey

My message to all those folks asking me to join the Occupy Boston Movement:

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

If there was some type of message I might be able to discern from your movement I might consider joining the cause but to be honest I‘m exhausted working close to 100 hours a week trying to do the right thing and support my family.

If y’all ever get your shit together and come up with a bullet list that doesn’t include bailing on your financial and personal responsibilities I might consider it.

But until then I’ll be down the wharf grinding out a living. 

Good luck. 

You can read my rant here, it was about personal responsibility ,not about bailing on it.

If you want, what would be near the top of my list after the Congressional reforms, would be shareholder revolt.  Shareholders should demand  that the board of directors of these big public companies get haircuts in pay and they need to return more dough back to the shareholders.  After all, that is the reason you buy stocks to begin with- to participate in that company profits in the form of dividends.  Companies are sitting on record amounts of cash but they don’t even pretend to return it to the investors in higher dividends.  Could you imagine how much they would be rewarded by folks that can’t get by on the meager returns in banks if they could get reasonable dividend returns?

Get rid of lobbyists, and stop putting barriers and ridiculous demands on small businesses to drive them out and into the hands of large businesses and when I say large business I don’t mean 50- 500 employee companies I mean Fortune 500 companies.

Did I hear that the big unions are getting involved?  What a shame it would be if all the good that might have come from it ends up being something that hurts small businesses, because you know that’s generally who ends up taking it in the culo.  Small businesses and the middle class working man.

Just Was Contacted By Fox Casting- MasterChef 3 Casting in Boston!!

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

I NOMINATE SISTA FELICIA!!!!!

Hi Joey!

I’m a casting producer with the show MasterChef on FOX and I wanted to let you and your readers know that we’re coming to Boston for our third season of casting!  In case you’re not familiar with our show, we are the Gordon Ramsay cooking show that looks for the top "home chef" in America.  That means that anyone 18 years and older who has a love for food (and doesn’t cook professionally for a living) is eligible.  Our show offers people of all ages and walks of life a second chance – for those who have a passion for cooking, but never pursued it professionally for whatever reason, they now have the opportunity to win a huge cash prize and learn from the best in the industry – including chef Gordon Ramsay himself.

I’m reaching out to see if you might be able to help us spread the word about our open casting call for the third season of our show, coming up in Boston on November 5th!  Again, this is a truly incredible opportunity for anyone who loves food, and we had a lot of luck last year finding amazing contestants in Boston!

I’ve attached our flyer and was hoping you might be able to post it to your blog, Facebook and/or Twitter! We’re just trying to let as many people know about the opportunity as possible and if you haven’t seen the show, it’s incredibly positive and really offers these contestants a world-class education in cooking.

I’m available to speak by phone at any time if you have questions or would like to speak directly.

Thank you in advance for anything you can do to help us spread the word and I hope to hear from you soon!

image

http://www.masterchefcasting.com/

There was an error getting your video.

Spaghetti Dinner at St Ann’s Photos From Fr Matthew Green

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Father Green writes-

The St Ann’s Women’s Guild held its spaghetti dinner fundraiser this evening. Here are a few photos.
Some of the organizers:

image

It was run by the women’s guild, but men were allowed in the kitchen!

image

Fr. John Kiley dined with some visitors from his former parish in Ipswich, Our Lady of Hope.

image

Both older and younger generations were present:

image

Keep up the good work with the blog!
God bless,
Fr Matthew

Welcome Eurodam Passengers

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Bob Hastings From The Chamber writes-


Welcome Eurodam Passengers

Ahoy Gloucester!  The Holland America Eurodam is arriving tomorrow morning, Tuesday October 18th.  The first passengers are anticipated to arrive onshore at Cruiseport between 7:30 am – 8:00 am.  There will be approximately 2,000 passengers coming to our shores.  Let’s give them a warm Gloucester welcome.

Not The Eurodam-

End of Summer Sails Photos From Elinor Teele

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Elinor writes-

Hi Joey,
End of summer sails around the Cape. More photos available in my new Boats Gallery – http://squamcreativeservices.com/photography/photography-gallery/.

2011 HarvestFest From Thomas Philbrook

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

A heartfelt "THANK YOU" to all those hard-working souls who contributed to making Rockport’s 2011 HarvestFest the great success it was. It was a super day in the neighborhood!
-Tom Philbrook

HarvestFest2011

Wingin’ It

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Hi Joey,

Nice day for windsurfing!  This guy was sailing from Niles Beach across the outer harbor.

Enjoy!
~Bill O’Connor
North Shore Kid

Winging_It

Statement From The Gloucester Fishermen Athletic Association About Next Year’s Gloucester Triathlon

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

"The Gloucester Fishermen Athletic Association has decided not to host the annual Gloucester Fisherman Sprint Triathlon in 2012, as we’ve done since its creation in 2009. The triathlon takes a huge amount of time and resources to organize and run, so the GFAA plans instead to focus on other efforts that better support our fundraising goals. We are immensely grateful to all who participated in the Gloucester Tri and helped make it possible the last three years. The Gloucester Fishermen Athletic Association remains more committed than ever to helping all of Gloucester’s children participate in the sport of their choice, regardless of financial circumstances."

-Janda Ricci-Munn, founder/race coordinator, Gloucester Fisherman Sprint Triathlon

Gloucester Fishermen Athletic Association

978-283-1034

janda@jrmtraining.com

click the photo below for a slide show of past Gloucester Fishermen Triathlon photos

EMS Procession For Paul Frontiero III

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Our Paul asked us to document this last part of his son’s life.

Special thanks to Kim Smith, Father Matthew Green and Patricia Natti for providing pictures as well as the music. 

During the moving mass by Father Garibaldi, Patricia Natti sang Ave Maria which sent a chill up my spine. I obviously wasn’t about to whip out my camera to record it but was thinking of how nice it would have been to have as the backdrop to the video Paul asked us to take.  I said it to Kim Smith who was sitting next to  me at the time. 

After the ceremony the family gathered downstairs in the church where I ran into Patricia and Father Green who agreed to meet back at the church at 4:30 PM to record the audio for us.

I spoke to Paul and he sends deep thanks for such an act of kindness.

Here is a link to the editorial in the Gloucester Daily Times

Halloween Party Kids Unlimited, Island Art and Hobby, Harbor Goods, and Local Colors October 30th! Moved To Rose baker Center

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Halloween Party

Sunday October 30th has been moved to the Rose Baker Senior Center due to the weather forecast.

Same Time from 2:00 – 4:00pm

All activities, prizes and treats will be awaiting all the Little Trick or Treater’s in their costumes.

image

Mayoral Debate – At Large Candidates Q&A Saturday, October 22nd from 1 – 3 pm

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Damon Cummings forwards-

Ward 4 City Councillor, Jackie Hardy has put together a Mayoral, Councillor at Large candidates forum/debate to be held in Ward 4.  The response from both Mayoral candidates and candidates for Councillor at Large has been positive.

Save the date:

What:    Mayoral Debate – At Large Candidates Q&A

When:   Saturday, October 22nd from 1 – 3 pm

Where:  Lanesville Community Center, 8 Vulcan Street

Both Mayoral candidates have accepted the Ward 4 invitation and will be debating the issues.

Most at large City Council candidates have accepted the invitation and will be attending as well.

We are looking for a good attendance, as this may be  the only time both Mayoral candidates will have the opportunity to actually be at the same place at the same time to "debate" the issues that are important to you.

Save the date…

When – NOVEMBER 7TH.

What – Election Eve – Fun Rally

Where – Gloucester House Restaurant at 7 Seas Wharf, Rogers Street

Master of Ceremonies – Mr. Rick Doucette (of Teen and YMCA fame)

For many years this event was held at Cameron’s

This year Mr. Lenny Linquata has offered the Gloucester House Restaurant

The event doors open at 6pm

Ceremony and candidate’s exchange of "fun gifts” begins at approximately 7pm

All candidates are encouraged to attend this fun-filled evening – please bring your friends, relatives, neighbors and your sense of humor

Hope to see you there

No city funding will be expended on this event.