Color Them Your Color, Baby... BLONDIE's back

Musically, the ultimate "Fred's Pick" has been Blondie, for over three decades now... The band emerged from New York's grimy downtown punk scene (along with the Ramones and Talking Heads), and paired a flawless AM radio pop sensibility with the energy and attitude of the new music movement that they helped create. Led by Deborah Harry, already on the plus-side of 30 and an icon herself as a female front-person in a basically All Guys business, Harry brought glamour and sex to punk, yet also brought to the table an icy detachment that never let you feel that she could be yours, unlike more traditional female sex symbols. Her ironic take on sexuality combined with the band's love of Pop Art made her, and them, media darlings and global superstars, and reigned as rock's hottest act of the late 1970s into the early 80s. Now, a reenergized Blondie is touring behind the 30th anniversary of the watershed album PARALLEL LINES, that spawned 6 Global smashes, and finally broke the band in the United States with the first "New Wave" #1 single, disco-hybrid "Heart of Glass". Blondie was and is cool because they were style-setters and trailblazers, thumbing their noses at what was the status quo in popular music, and scored hits that defied genre classification. They scored with "Rapture", the 1st "rap" #1, (and the first rap most radio listeners ever even heard). "The Tide is High" brought reggae to the top of the US charts, and "Call Me" and "Atomic" merged disco with power pop. Excursions into both 60s girl-group territory as well as the "punk" that they were initially identified with were merged seamlessly to create some of the rock era's most perfect pop singles. Their influence is still being felt today, and they are finally reaping the accolades of their place in music history, with last year's induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame sealing the deal. Now (amazingly) 63 years old, the seemingly ageless Harry is still prowling the global stage with Blondie, and is also producing new music herself. (Her solo NECESSARY EVIL was released this past year, propelled by club hit "Two Times Blue"). As for Blondie, and PARALLEL LINES, both sound as fresh today as they did in 1978...

"This Was Not A Boat Accident..."

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend, the official kickoff to the summer "Blockbuster" movie season. Its hard to believe that 1975 saw the birth of this phenomenon, with the ultimate summer smash JAWS. What better way to celebrate the start of summer than with some ruminations about this definitive moment in popular culture...

The JAWS phenomenon kicked off after the massive success of Peter Benchley's novel, and it was still riding high on the bestsellers list when the film (already notorious for an extremely difficult, and budget-busting, shoot) opened on June 20, 1975... Lines stretched around city blocks for weeks, as this extremely well-marketed film ingrained itself in our collective consciousness, and came to define Event Cinema. By tapping into our primal fears of the unknown, coupled with well-defined and masterfully played characters that we could all identify with, JAWS managed to both thrill and terrify, and still make us chuckle here and there. With a grizzled old sea-salt with a vendetta, a book-smart marine biologist who finds himself out of his league, and a hero who hated the water joining forces to topple the ultimate boogeyman, JAWS resonated with its global audience, and managed to transcend its genre and become a modern classic.

Abetted by John Williams' classic score, Steven Spielberg's breakout film becomes a swashbuckler as well as a monster movie, with action sequences that rival (and surpass) much of what followed in its wake. It is Hitchcockian in its approach to terror, in that what is implied actually scares more than what is shown onscreen, and the shark doesn't make its debut onscreen until well into the film (a not-exactly-bargained-for benefit of the near-impossibility of working with the laboriously constructed mechanical shark...).

Though it spawned 3 sequels (the serviceable JAWS 2, and the wretched JAWS 3D and JAWS: THE REVENGE), nothing before or since has surpassed the original in sheer terror. Naysayers (and revisionist thinkers) blame this film for the shameless commercialization of the film industry, for placing boffo box-office biz before all else, and for the breakdown of American cinema's artistic aspirations. JAWS lit the fuse, perhaps, but the fact that this ultimate underdog (It barely managed to complete production) went on to become the first film to crack the coveted -but-never-quite-reached $100 Million mark only adds to its cache. And it has gone on to define Summer Cinema, both financially and thematically.

And it defined my life in 1975. But that's another essay...

On The Radio... Again!

This past Tuesday saw the release of Donna Summer's first full-length release since 1991. CRAYONS finds disco's first (and biggest) superstar effortlessly spanning the generations with a surprisingly fresh CD that is her most consistent work since her heyday. While nothing will ever come close to the double-LP BAD GIRLS that defined radio in 1979, the 2008 version of Donna sounds like she has never left us, with a dozen tracks that are all strong and radio-and club- ready. The two standouts are "Fame (The Game)", and "Be Myself Again". The former a blistering, guitar-driven track that echoes her hit "Hot Stuff", a scathing indictment of what it is that defines "Celebrity" in this new milennium. The latter, an autobiographical ballad that finds Summer accompanied by only a piano as she reflects on the ultimate cost of her own stardom, stands as one of this icon's finest moments. Ironically, the record's low point is "I'm A Fire" (which has already hit #1 on the dance charts...). It is hard to believe it's been nearly 35 years since she first hit with "Love to Love You". CRAYONS sits comfortably among her best work.

Monday blurb

After a deal that fell through, and several setbacks, the condo sale finally went through today! The Purchase and Sale, that is... A delayed closing means no $$ until July 30, but at least its DONE (for the most part...). So thats good news...
The majority of today was spent writing my father's eulogy, that I will deliver Saturday at his "Celebration of Life". It is a very surreal experience, because it forced me to think in the past tense; of something that has ended. It also changed my perspective, and I found myself writing from a child's perspective. Foraging through pictures and boxes of memories made me see my Dad again as I saw him when I was young, and it gave me a new appreciation for his role in my life... Feeling inspired, for Mothers Day we made a photo montage of all the wacky pics of Mom from my bar & DJ/VJ days. Figured, why not do a tribute to someone while they are still around to enjoy it?

MADONNA: Four Minutes To Save Her Stature?

This past week, Madonna released her 11th studio album (and her last for long-time label, Warner): HARD CANDY closes this chapter in her career, and preceeds her new association with LiveNation-- her latest lucrative alliance. So, 2008 finds Madonna topping the global charts once again with her Justin Timberlake collaboration "Four Minutes to Save the World", from this new CD that also includes work with Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, and Timbaland. The Reinvention Queen has reinvented herself as marketable (once again) to US radio. That is basically what this project boils down to, in my opinion... How shrewd to show up, right out of the gates at LiveNation, with a global smash? While Madonna has never really lost her dominion over our popular culture, her grasp of her American audience has managed to lessen over the past ten years. She scored with "Music" and "Hung Up", and a few lesser hits since 2001, and her spectacular and smart disco extravaganza CONFESSIONS ON A DANCEFLOOR CD regained her some clout here, but since the US charts have been predominantly urban-leaning she has lost some of her audience . So what does she do? She reinvents herself as disposable and IRRELEVANT... And what happens? The smashing success of HARD CANDY! Its ironic, because (as a longtime fan and listener/ "spectator"), Madonna seems to have sold out for the first time. Instead of blazing trails (or legitimizing lesser-known trails...), she finds herself in the company of Fergie and Nelly Furtado: Smart, shrewd, and disconcerting. If Madonna has chosen intentionally to be generic, than she is even more of a whiz than anyone ever gave her credit for. While the CD does have its high points (It is, after all, still a Madonna record...), only a few tracks would sit comfortably with the rest of her catalog. Its very "today". It wont be very "tomorrow"... At worst, this will find her sitting very pretty with industry execs at LiveNation once she kicks off her next phase. At best, we have a mediocre new CD from Madonna, with a few singles we'll be humming all summer. Hmmmmmmmm... Well played.

Photo Montage/ Memorial...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b3VohBQ1Fk

Memorial/ Celebration of Life May 17

My Dad...
Song "Even Now" by Linda Eder

Fave Book-of-the-Moment..

Jeff Povey's THE SERIAL KILLERS CLUB has quickly become my favorite book of the last six months, easily... Deftly straddling both the thriller and the satire genres, SKC concerns a lonely guy who assumes the identity of a serial killer who very nearly took his life, had our hero not killed him in self defense. Lured by a mysterious ad for a top-secret social organization of serial killers, our narrator annoints himself "Douglas Fairbanks, Jr." and insinuates himself amongst his not-quite-peers (each nicknamed after a famous celebrity)... Soon enough, he finds himself thriving on the twisted sense of community the group offers him, but not before FBI agent Wade shows up, who may or may not have proof that our hero did, indeed, kill his attacker and got away with it. (Think "Desperately Seeking Susan" meets "The Silence of the Lambs"). Now, "Dougie" must bump off his "fellow" serial killers, or find his own future in jeopardy. But as he finds himself falling for "Betty Grable", he wonders if Detective Wade is really who he claims to be, and just what Wade's motivations truly are.

There are moments in THE SERIAL KILLER'S CLUB that are laugh out loud funny, thanks to the unique voice Povey gave "Dougie", and the sheer absurdity of Burt Lancaster and Cher comparing notes on their hideous deeds, and a "Carole Lombard" who will not let his gender be defined by his chosen screenstar nickname...

SKC is both gruesome and hysterical, and (much like the series of DEXTER novels) manages to fill its own niche in popular fiction. A DEFINITE "Fred's Pick"!!

DESTINATION MOON!

Dance/ R&B Diva Deborah Cox somehow managed to emerge from her late-90s heyday ("Things Just Aint the Same"/ "Nobody's Supposed to be Here"), when her urban-flavored album tracks were transformed by remixer Hex Hector into massive big-room club stompers that virtually defined the 1998 club landscape, to find herself planted squarely in 2008, via 1956. DESTINATION MOON is her homage to vocalist extraordinaire Dinah Washington, and is a sultry and swinging collection of a dozen key tracks from Washington's impressive canon. Its easy to be a cynic when familiar voices from the past who have become less- and less-familair as the years go by find themselves exploiting the classics to make themselves relevant again. Linda Ronstadt, most notably, paved the way with her Nelson Riddle trilogy more than 2 decades ago. Rod Stewart has gone back to the well 4 times with his "Songbook" series, each one more successful than the last. Cox certainly doesnt have the name recognition of a Stewart or Ronstadt, so I was more inclined to give her a pass and allow for the possibility that this effort wasnt purely motivated by easy sales. Plus, she's got a great voice-- I was excited to give it a listen, and the gamble paid off! Washington's songs are standards, yes, but ones that were ready to be revisited, and ready to be reinterpreted. These are not the same old handful of tracks that turn up on every nostalgia collection, and Cox's vocal chops more than rise to the occasion. She swings, she belts the blues, and she croons. Best (and title) track: her thrilling take on Dinah's signature "Destination Moon"... A definite Fred's Pick!

HOLD TIGHT

http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/mCZOPTT7O5EI:mAZRABQKO9P4R

Just finished this one yesterday afternoon-- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED/ Harlan Coben's books are the best>> (Link, above, for a preview)...

Listening to the FUTURE of my PAST...

After getting a link to a great (and CHEAP) site for music downloads I have been going nuts filling up my iTunes library, figuring I should take advantage because nothing this good ever lasts... So, I have been filling up my back catalog of artists that I wouldnt necessarily spring full price for. Therefore, for example,I am no longer content to own the CHANGESBOWIE David Bowie compilation, but now feel I must own every Bowie album I owned as a kid. (Bowie was my obsession as a kid, along with Charlie's Angels and JAWS. I wanted to be him for Halloween- see the posted pic of the "Aladdin Sane" LP cover for my inspiration- but my mother wouldn't let me shave my eyebrows off... I have since forgiven her...) Same with Alice Cooper records. Greatest Hits CDs may be essential, but replacing stuff I owned on vinyl in elementary school is like a bizarre trip down memory lane... Aside from the obvious nostalgia of hearing the more obscure tracks after 25+ years, I find that I really miss holding the record; the 12" square LP record jacket with the pictures and the liner notes, etc etc... So much for a format that was made obscure by cassettes (Ahhhhhhh, the 80s...), which in turn were eclipsed by CDs (Ahhhhhhh, the LATE 80s...), the rapidly vanishing format of a tangible medium. So, now we are all digital. And its all still good, and brings me up to speed. I am completely modern and of -the- moment, and am happily able to live in my past. With just a few clicks!

Duran Duran? 23 years was a long time to wait to own the SEVEN AND THE RAGGED TIGER record, but I held out, and now it's mine. And under a buck, complete with album artwork! And no embarrassment on the checkout line at Sound Odyssey!!

What? Someone else has a blog??

The funny thing about a blog... you never know who has one, and what you may find! The following (below) was discovered by my boss at work, who came upon it completely by accident when Googling for some information on Beacon Hill. Granted, the following blog was posted by someone from last summer-- shortly following the announcement that I was closing my shop--- not exactly breaking news these days...I am re-posting it not just because it is a bit "newsworthy" to me, but also because it touches upon themes of loss, and of taking things for granted, and regret... (i.e. how Ive spent the last few weeks, coping with the loss of my father).So, here goes:



Friday, July 20, 2007

So Yesterday: Running a Video Store

For a while, my Grandfather Rogers was a blacksmith. He chose this profession because it was improvement over life on the farm, and because in the early 1900's he didn't realize that, career-wise, he was beating a dead horse. Sure, there were still horses around for a good long while, but, "Hey, pal, get a car," which is how my father and his buddies would taunt the few remaining horse drawn travelers still around during the 1920's.My grandfather's next career had more long run staying power, that's for sure.With his brother, Jim, he opened a tavern, grandly and quite imaginatively named The Rogers Brothers Saloon. (None of this Roscommon Pub, or Thirsty Druid, or Tir na Og for yer man in those days. I grew up in the same part of Worcester where The Saloon was, and the area was full of equally imaginatively named bars and taverns: McGuire's Breen's, Mulcahy's, Moynahan's, Donahue's, and Hennessey's.) The Rogers Brothers Saloon did have its own theme song, however, sung to the tune of "Back Home Again in Indiana:"Back home again, in Rogers' bar roomThat's the place I long to be...Unfortunately, bar-keeping went tempoarily the way of the buggy whip and blacksmith, and Rogers Bros. was closed down by Prohibition.Neither one of the Rogers Bros. had to spend much time worry about a next career move. They both died - still in their forties, Jim perhaps even younger than that - in the early 1920's, leaving my grandmother and Great Aunt Annie with young kids and little money.Careers come. Careers go. And, technology being what it is, the pace at which they go grows ever more accelerated. (Clerk-typist: does this job category even exist anymore?)I was thinking about all this when I saw in our little neighborhood newspaper, the wonderful Beacon Hill Times, that Fred's Video on Charles Street is closing.Not that I can even begin to feign surprise.When was the last time I checked anything out at Fred's?Not since we got Comcast On Demand, thank you. (Sorry, NetFlicks is just too much pressure to decide in advance. Everything comes around to On Demand eventually.)No more making reservations at Fred's. No more browsing the stacks on Saturday evenings, trying to decide whether we were up for two flicks - or even three. No more pouncing on a video that someone had just returned. No more shoving my returns into the slot early on Sunday morning, only to find that the receptacle was so fillled that you had to prod other returns out of the way.No more Fred.He is shutting down ...Fred Rose has been a neighborhood fixture for so many years, going from Emerson College kid in 1990, when he started working at the store he bought in 1996, to nicely graying before our very eyes.According to the article in the BH Times, he hasn't yet decided what he's doing next. He is personable, hardworking, entrepreneurial, and business-savvy enough to know when to call it quits. (Wish I'd had that good sense a few stops along the way.) I wish him the best of luck. I'm sure he'll do just fine.For now, I'll have to wonder what will go into the spot that Fred's Video is vacating.We absolutely have enough realtors in the neighborhood. We're good on restaurants, coffee shops, grocery/convenience, and liquor stores. We've got a local, unchained drugstore and hardware store. A shoe repair shop. Upscale gift shops, funky "stuff" shops, and shops that cater to rich kiddos, skinny young things, prepsters who buy cumberbunds with lobsters on them, and folks who pay lots of money for handbags. We have our very own Post Office - plus a UPS store. Antique stores we've got.It would be nice to have a bookstore.I know, I know. The ones we've had here haven't been able to make a go of it. There are two Borders and B&N a short walk away.Still, if some rich Beacon Hiller wanted to open bookstore... Someone who, unlike Fred, does not need to earn a living...The space that Fred's Video occupies is not very large. It would have to be a teensie, tiny little bookstore. Perhaps it could just carry poetry. Or children's books. Mysteries. Travel guides. Or books that I like to read. (I'd be happy to supply a list.)I know that we're told that books, like videos, are so yesterday.Still, wouldn't it be nice to have our very own little book boutique? Hopefully owned and operated by someone as nice and good for the neighborhood as Fred was for all these many years.

Puppini Sisters: Must-have download!!!

Sounds like it could be a novelty/ throwaway, but I would call them less of a gimmick than a curiousity that you need to check out... These are serious vocalists, with a tremendous amount of respect for their musical inspirations...Here is a trio, "sisters" a la 40s-era Andrews, complete with vintage hair and outfits BRILLIANTLY covering some of WWII's best-loved swing standards ("In the Mood", "It Don't Mean a Thing if it Aint Got That Swing", etc), yet places these homages alongside cover versions of relatively current hits by such disparate artists as Kate Bush, Blondie, the Bangles, and even Beyonce. So "Crazy In Love" sounds like it BELONGS with a standard like "Sway", and totally kicks it 40s-style... Of course, you will need to have a bit of an open mind if this music is completely alien to you, but if you can allow for that you will be rewarded...

The Puppini Sisters have 2 CDs out now, and a fiercely devoted following. If this were to inspire a revival of Roosevelt-era vocals a tenth of the magnitude that the film SWINGERS did for vintage and new swing, we could all be very lucky. Their version of "Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B" gives Bette Midler's definitive take a run for its money.

...and you have never heard Disco stompers "I WIll Survive" or "Heart of Glass" as you will on the Sisters 2 available CDs. Highly Recommended!!!!

As good as the book?

This book ROCKED... Completely creepy, claustrophobic, and freaky. I have put off seeing this film, though, I gotta say. A brilliant horror novel often translates into crap once its adapted. Granted, the writer (who penned the incredible A SIMPLE PLAN, as well as its Oscar-winning screenplay that starred Billy Bob Thornton) also wrote THIS film adaptation. I dunno, the trailers look a bit lame. There arent too many decent thrillers out there, I still may check it out. Id tell you the plot, but then you'd think I was nuts to love the book...

More PICKS! (Or "Picks-To-Be", hopefully...)

As I just finished TURNING ANGEL, the book I blogged about last week, I am now in the market for my next book, which will most likely be the new thriller by Mary Higgins Clark. I find her consistently reliable, a quick and easy read, and her fiction to happily be not overly dense. She's about all I can take right now! (WHERE ARE YOU NOW/ Released Today...)

Next week sees the release of Harlan Coben's new thriller HOLD TIGHT. He is definitely me favorite author of the moment, and Ive read everything he has ever written, often in one or two sittings. Intricately plotted, rollercoaster-ride suspense with twists upon twists-- Im hoping this is as good as his previous ones. Again, that comes out next Tuesday...

Wednesday

Today I am on auto-pilot. My father is being cremated this afternoon, and I feel completely isolated and disconnected. The memorial and "Celebration of Life" will be held in mid-May, but today is a dark day for me.. Here is a great pic of Dad and me from one of those Woolworths photobooth things/ I think Im about 3 years old here>>

<<

...and here is a great pic of my father in his Navy days, posing here with his buddies and Eva Gabor..

...his last words to me were "I Love You, and You Take Care". Im trying. I will be glad when this week is over

On a happier note...

...and a much-needed distraction, it looks like that condo deal is going through after all! I hope so, because I am running out of Snoopy pics! The inspection is set for this Thursday at 4pm...

My Dad...

This past Friday my father passed away. The reality is just beginning to settle in, as this was a man who battled (and beat) cancer 25 years ago, and after a 1997 quadruple bypass managed to outlive his expected 5-6 years by double that amount. We often joked that 20 years from now we would still have him around defying the odds, sitting outside, having a smoke and greeting the neighbors who all knew and loved him... Now, flowers mark the place where he once held court...

This is my first experience with someone so close to me passing away. I was close with my grandmother, sure, but the generational disparity there alone assured me some distance when the inevitable happened there, thirteen months ago. I had lost a good friend very unexpectedly in an automobile accident during the Christmas season, 2002. But a familial loss is different.

Suddenly, all the little nuances and attributes of my relationship with my father took on greater resonance. Things that I had long forgotten about resurfaced. The personality traits of his that were less than spectacular took a backseat to memories of him taking my friends and me to drive-in movies and rides to the mall or the skating rink on weekend nights. Of he and I doing the dishes in the kitchen while I blared records from the den, enlightening him to the Stray Cats, Blondie, the Ramones, and Culture Club. "What's Blondie been up to these days?" he would often ask, as recently as a few years ago... He was proud of my owning my former business, and was very inquisitive about my new job in real estate. He was also happy and supportive of my personal relationships, and got to meet Greg and his parents-- That I am particularly happy about!

I was also happy to have been a relatively frequent visitor to Hawaii, where I got to see him on a somewhat recurring basis over the years. We weren't HUGE communicators, to be honest, but we always talked about my friends that he remembered from when I was growing up, about books that he had been reading, and about my nieces (his grandchildren) who were his pride and joy. Dad was happy to keep to himself, was happy to lose himself in a good spy novel, and to keep me updated on any hijinks involving Yasmin, Jihan, or his other buddies (the cats!).

The fact that he wasnt overly forthcoming about any mysteries surrounding his own upbringing and family life, nor were any insights shed about a few unanswered questions about things that went on when he was raising us, leaves us with a father who was a flawed guy with a big heart; a simple man on many levels, yet enigmatic to the end...

I love him, and I miss him...

IN MEMORIUM...

Charles E Rose (8/21/30- 4/4/08)

BOOOOOOOOOOOO..

Red tape!! Deal stalled for now... All is not lost/ more showings lined up, and another open house this Sunday. Why did I assume everything would just go smoothly??? LOL...

HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Condo offer was finally accepted!! Let the paperwork begin...

A literary "Fred's Pick" in the making!

I'm one-third of the way through TURNING ANGEL, another of author Greg Iles' Mississippi-based thrillers. I have read several of his novels (including the recent TRUE EVIL), and I have to say that he's got to be one of my fave writers. His fiction is dense and literate, and deals with difficult issues of morality and ethics against a backdrop of smalltown seaminess, murder, and more. His protagonists never fail to draw you in, and this one is no exception. Its too soon to delve into plot (as his plots are never what they seem), but rarely has a book grabbed me this quickly. This one is a few back in his catalog/ I think he has written two since TURNING ANGEL, but any of his books are a good launching point. The tension tightens like a vise as the chapters fly by. For those who like their thrills on a DVD player, seek out TRAPPED, based on Iles' novel 24 HOURS...

A bit downbeat...

Has been a bit of a crazy month with me, here... Have been incredibly sidetracked with the unexpected failing health of my father (which seems to be changing on a daily basis). The fact that he lives in Hawaii with my sister and her family makes it that much more difficult. I flew out 2 weeks ago to see him in the hospital (where he remains...), and his condition seems to have improved (COPD/ Emphysema, which lead to a dizziness/lightheadedness and a resulting fall. 20 stitches above his eye, and massive cerebral bleeding... It looks as though he will be requiring care 24/7 once he is released. He has had more than one very close call in the past (cancer, quadruple bypass, etc) so its safe to say there is room for some cautious optimism... My sister has gone above and beyond the call, and Im grateful that she is there for him (even though, as a patient, he can be a pain in the ass!) Thats her in the picture with me, taken last summer...As for me, I am okay. I find Im a bit flightier than usual these days, and prone to bouts of moodiness and distractedness...

And SPEAKING of moodiness (terrible segue), we just rented THE BRAVE ONE starring Jodie Foster as a mugging victim (that took the life of her fiancee), and the sense of alienation and dislocation that consumes her as a result. She becomes a vigilante of sorts, and attempts to reclaim her life, only to find that she remains a shell of what she once was. It works as a thrilling genre film, in that there is a fair amount of action and gore, but all of that takes a back sense to the reflective drama that is ultimately this film's essential hallmark. It is a dark and brooding drama, and perhaps the most "human" revenge flick you will see in a long time. Highly Recommended, and definitely a "Fred's Pick"! The ending is unforgettable...

WOO-HOOOO!!!

New B-52's out this week!! First new CD in over 15 years!!

...Expect Summer appearances by Hall of Famer's Blondie (South Shore Music Circus, 6/21), and George Michael (TD Banknorth Garden, 7/27): Both shows go on sale to the general public next Friday, April 4... I saw GM in Philadelphia during his FAITH Tour-- First time driving in the city, and I made a right turn the wrong way on a 5 lane highway/ 5 lanes of cars headed right at me... Thats my main memory of the show (and of city driving) : 5 friends crammed into my dad's LeBaron, all SCREAMING at me... Now I'll take the T. Or let Greg drive :)

Condo Listing "Progress Report"

Things are really moving along with the condo I have listed (see link at bottom of page...)! A few offers and counter-offers have already been submitted, and there is still an open house scheduled for this coming Sunday. I think it will sell very quickly! It's an exciting process to go through, and I am looking forward to seeing how it will all pan out...

FRED's VIDEO: The last hurrah!!

Taken at the send-off party for my old shop (and my first week on the job at Marston-Voss!) That's Robert (L), and Jesse (R)...

Navigating...

I am basically feeling my way around in the dark here, trying to get organized in a relatively timely manner. This blog-thing may become second nature to me, but now I am all over the map!

As of now, I think the Real Estate section of the blog will be sectioned off as its own entity, off to the right. It will be easier to update that way, and will not get mixed up with whatever else I may post. If you are not interested in apartments or buying a home, simply skip that part. If you are in the market for a new place to call home, you probably couldn't care less about what movies I have seen, or what I am doing this weekend...

So as it stands, this will be the new format.

...and for what it's worth, Greg and I are going to a BRUINS game tonite with tickets that I won a few weeks ago :)

First Post!

"Hey! Whats going on?" (as I always greeted people at my shop...)

Welcome to my first post here! This is primarily a spot where I will post real estate listings in Boston's historic (and fun) Beacon Hill neighborhood! Check back often, as it will be periodically updated with great rentals and sales options for those interested in relocating to Beacon Hill (or bouncing to another spot in the neighborhood, for those who already live here)...



I also plan to post about other topics of interest to me, either in a "popular culture" vein (i.e. movies, books, music, etc), or anything else that seems relevant to me at the time. "FRED'S PICKS" was a favorite spot in the former Fred's Video, a fixture on Charles Street for over a decade, and now is the time to resurrect it!!



Now, I have to figure out how to navigate this whole "blog" thing-- new posts to come shortly!!



Fred