wanted: job with long hours, no benefits, no pay, and extra stress, but that i can do whatever i want, and wear flip-flops year round

so, if you don't know already...kate and i opened a store in downtown salem called roost. we've been open for two whole weeks and people seem to love it. well...we love people!!

this all came about because kate had a job interview in early october. she had been voluntarily captaining Team U, the U is for Unemployed, since late june and felt the need to get a job. let's just say, by late september, i may have been helping her feel that way. so with a call back and an interview looming in the immediate future, kate cracked. "i don't want to work for somebody else's dream anymore", she exhausted.

then don't!!

she blew off her interview on friday, october 9th, and we signed a lease for the space that saturday the 10th. fast?...maybe. unplanned?...sort of. the kind of reckless decision making that landed us in north shore, ma a year ago?...perhaps. exactly what kate needed?...without a doubt!! now we just need to figure out what we'll sell.

so here we are, five weeks later...open for two weeks...and we're loving life. yeah, it's long hours. yeah, it's a lot of stress and financial headaches. but it's our stress and headaches...and we can do it in flip-flops...it's what kate always dreamt for.

we're having our Grand Opening Party on Monday, November 30th from 5pm-9pm. there will be free wine and tasty bites. and for all you facebookers and tweeters, check us out on facebook and twitter for more pictures of the shop. look up "roost salem" on facebook, and "roost_salem" on twitter. we'll try and be more active on this post. so much social media these days. it's like a full time job keeping it up with it all. here's how to find us offline:

roost ~ urban country design

40 front street

salem, ma 01970

(978)744-HOME

fairey tales

7 inches tall, 520 lb.

entranced on his prey. a demonic brow shadows two piercing eyes like the mask of a bandit, then falls into his wide flat pan nose. deep cuts from the center of his face suggest what little you can see of his "giant" jowls. if you were not familiar with this "giant", you might

mistake darkness for two tips of a sinister mustache. the only word..."OBEY", evocative, implying some level of persuasion or brainwashing. what does it want me to do? the image is so simple in design my eye races over his face, then goes back to the beginning. i read the word "OBEY" over and over. there's so little to the message, it's repetitive only because i react to it again, and again, and again. an adolescent memory begins to well. a memory of being told what to do...being told to "OBEY". but i am an adult now. you can't tell me. i don't want to "OBEY". i make my own choices, right?

at the same time, the image is nonsensical. why this guy's face? why "OBEY"? why obey the screen print? if you know who's face it is, the image becomes a joke. i can hear the "giant" command, "OBEY", and it makes me laugh. it's alert, it's playful, like a toy...that i gotta have.

i gotta have this sticker. it's clever and witty. how can i have this sticker. it's amusing and intelligent. i gotta have this sticker to put on my car. i gotta have this sticker to make people think. i gotta have this sticker to make people laugh. i gotta have this sticker to annoy people. i gotta have this sticker to give to my friends. i gotta have this sticker. i gotta have this sticker so everyone knows i'm in and i get it.

i gotta "OBEY"

kate and i went to the boston institute of contemporary art on thursday for my birthday (thursdays are free by the way). they're exhibiting

the work of shepard fairey, notorious street artist who went viral with his andre the giant "OBEY" stickers back in the late eighties. more recently he has gained fame for designing the obama "HOPE" poster for the 2008 u.s. presidential election. his work is talented and provocative. if you have a chance, it's a really inspiring show, go check it out..."OBEY"

here are a few shots of street art in asheville, nc. even though street art does not go through the usual channels of exhibit, it still evolves from the same purpose...to make YOU react. these artist have just taken it to the streets to deliver right to your front door...sometimes literally.

so go out and enjoy...

tureculturecultureculturec

ulturecultureculturecultur

eculturecultureculturecult

- carolina lane

change?! does anyone have any change?!

- train tracks, art district

the bird!!

- train tracks, art district

2012

- carolina lane

"never read a book through merely because you have begun it" - witherspoon

Winter would seem an ideal stretch to rip through a few good books...

Set up a small little corner of the couch, maybe a cup of coffee or a snack.  Imagine yourself in the author's world...sweeping the dusted sidewalks in a tiny village in southern Serbia, at a PTA meeting in Cambridge wishing the parent next to you were dead, searching for places in the Sudanese desert to park your plane.  You visualize what each character looks like, sounds like. You assign them each movie actors in your mind...this one's Dev Patel, she's Emily Mortimor, and he's John Malkovich...no, Hugh Laurie.

All good in theory.  But in practice...I never could sit still long enough to read past chapter two.  Mr. John Witherspoon's advice..."Drop it."  He was a signer on the Declaration of Independence...seems worthy a enough man to listen to. 

So, we put down our books (after Kate finished hers) and went snowshoeing last week up "Passaconoway"...as Kate like's to say.  That's Abenaki for Past Conway, NH.  

Blistering wind and snow pushed our little Toyota Scion around the icy highway like a hockey puck.  We chose to "shoe" down in the protected valley of Crawford Notch.  The fresh powder was so deep our snowshoes still compressed two feet of snow...at which point the side walls of snow would collapse on the board of our shoes, making it that much harder to lift our feet.  Add a couple of dogs on the back of each foot and forget about it.

This week I stopped reading (like I was planning to read in the first place) to write my own chapter two for a B-Boy (that's birthday boy) snowshoe hike with Drew up Mt Major looking over Lake Winnipesaukee.  Which is Abenaki for...well, Lake Winnipesaukee.

I've always felt Mt Major to be one of the best bang-for-your-buck hikes in New England...short little two-hour hike in the snow, bald face with 270 degree views of the lake and beyond...

Awesome!!

So here's my story...wildly unrehearsed...

Little after note here:

Tired of reading about "how great the snow is", "snow is so pretty", "snow is our friend"...

If you're thinking to yourself, "Who's Jamie think he is, Captain Snow?  When everyone wants to read blogposts of snow, they go to him.  Oh, now he's Johnny Snowshoe, snowshoeing away like he's friggin' Tommy Noble.  What the hell's he doing?  Thinks he's got it goin' Bossanova...with the little dogs in the back goin' Craaa-zy.  What is this garbage?"

Not this time.  No way.  Never.  Monday, I had to jump out my window to shovel a four-foot drift from in front of both stormdoors.  Good story...but that last dumping just about broke me...definitely ready for non-snowblogs.

Haiku in the Snow

my, how the snow falls

stacking high on the curbside

from the midnight plow

school's not cancelled yet

so lace up your skates and grin

find new diversion

spirited and game

we just play with more clothes on

it ain't all that bad

frog pond "on the rocks"

low-angle view of high-rise

a boston common

five things i learned about sports while down south

it's monday night up here in rockport, ma...figure it's got to be monday night just about everywhere in the US right now...and i began thinking about television...we've downsized our cable service to the basic network stations...an exercise in winter hibernation (and life on the cheap...)

despite our acts of telecommunication piety, kate is already planning her wednesday nights at my parent's apartment to watch top chef...I, on the otherhand, don't think i'll miss television too much...(what's the first sign of withdrawal?...denial?...check!!)

now, although i would not call myself a big sports guy, my mind wandered to monday night football (or lack there of)...then to the nfl playoffs (or lack there of, pats fans)...then to sports in general (thank god for the bruins...and the eagles, pats fans)...which i then realized, i haven't heard a peep about college football since i left asheville over a month ago...

to all you up here in new england, you're probably thinking, so what...but, let me tell ya, down in the south you would more likely find statues of heisman trophy winners gracing city hall steps, than some ancient white guy in a three-point hat and calf-length stockings...i suppose they have the stockings in common

anyway...i think they play the national championship games on new years day...and despite all the trouble they had deciding who was #1 towards the end of the season, they must have laid it to rest by now...

where am i going with this?..i have no idea...but it got me thinking about the sports i watched while in asheville...here's a quick list of five things i learned about sports while living south:

5.  universities have football teams...and people seem to care...(apparently the gators are #1...yeah team esselstyn!!)

4.  most of these universities have basketball teams too...

3.  no matter how well a hockey team from the south does, nobody notices... (carolina and tampa bay won back-to-back stanley cup championships while i was down there...nobody noticed)

2.  the favored strategy for winning in sports...go straight, turn left, go straight, turn left, repeat

1. being a "yankee" and red sox fan is possible

things i'm still trying to figure out...who the SEC and Big 10 are and what sports they play

Six?...I do not think this word means what you think it means...

they were calling for six inches of snow last night...they must be using metric inches...

as Asheville, and most of the southeast, bakes in the balmy 60F degrees, we're being baptized...blessed...buried in snow.  nothing brings neighbors together like snow shovels.

a wicked big storm's whipping through...what do you do?  you lace up your boots and go find a pub.  in Rockport's case, which is a "dry" town, you go find a coffee shop and dulce...not to worry friendly friends and visitors, Gloucester is two miles away, and they have many a watering hole to choose from. we bundled up in layers and went for a walk.  made a quick view for you...i intentionally left it rotated.  figured many of you who haven't seen real snow were told that it falls straight down...didn't want to confuse anyone.

One if by Land, Two if by Sailor...

a few more shots of our long walks on the beach... 

rockport landscaping consists of a few decommissioned traps, several candy colored buoys, and a well maintained class-D lobster boat...or maybe a well-kept dinghy...

as mentioned in a previous post, rockport's most famous landmark is a small fisherman's shack at the end of Bradley Wharf.  recognized by students of art and art history as Motif Number 1, this little red structure has commanded many a portrait and picture, now including my own.

while a lesser known landmark, perhaps due to its constant relocation, marks the labor and pride of cheerful exploration and thorough examination...recognized by students of the natural arts as Motif Number 2..