Sharron Cohen, Cape Ann light station host keeper, Thacher Island. photograph by Patrick Marasco

Sharon Cohen

The job: “Keepers are basically park rangers. We keep an eye on people to make sure they don’t do anything that would damage the structures on the island. We call the Rockport harbormaster if we think boaters or kayakers are in trouble. We work the winch that pulls the launch onto the ramp; greet visitors; manage the gift shop, campground, and museum; mow paths and cut brush; sweep the lighthouses; paint; pick up trash; and maintain and repair structures and equipment…whatever needs to be done to keep the island safe and pleasant.”

Why: “Thacher Island is a magical place. When I’m there, I feel [like] the steward of something that matters. I want to take care of it and [for] others to experience that specialness, too.”

Memorable moment: “There is an hour between first light and dawn when the sky and sea undergo a breathtaking array of color changes. The birds wake and, if it’s June, their chicks wake with them. Every single morning is different and wonderful.” thacherisland.org  —K.J.

Transit celebrates the North Shore on its new album.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Especially when you’re living on a tour bus.

“We spend six to nine months out of a year traveling. The more you do that, the more you appreciate where you’re from,” says Tim Landers, guitarist and vocalist in the North Shore-based band Transit. At just 22 years old, the Stoneham resident has gone from gigging with his buddies at “every church and VFW within a 50-mile radius” of their North Shore hometowns to hitting the road on a national headlining tour. (They play Cambridge’s new concert hall, The Sinclair, on May 14.) Their new album, Young New England, plays like a pop-punk paean to the land of the bean and the cod—and the Red Sox, too.

Influenced by Saves the Day, Taking Back Sunday, and other “emo” (emotional) rock bands that emerged in the late-’90s, Transit has rapidly earned devoted fans and critical thumbs-up from the alternative music press. Like those groups, Transit pairs rollicking, fist-pumping tunes with melancholy lyrics about love and the (magnificently misspent) glory days of suburban youth. Every energetic anthem is tinged with nostalgia, making it the perfect soundtrack for hopping like a pogo stick at a crowded club show or singing aloud as you cruise through town.

“We wanted to write an album about how blessed we were to grow up around here,” says Landers. Recorded at Maximum Sound Studios in Danvers, Young New England features lyrical tributes to everything from Lynn, “the city of sin,” to the cobblestone streets of Boston. Even the album cover is a composite photo of scattered autumn leaves and houses on the Rockport shoreline.

Beverly’s Caspian

Transit may now be touring with their idols and selling out their own shows on a cross-country trek, but that just makes the group appreciate its small-town roots even more. “It’s cool growing up in a close-knit town where everyone knows one another,” reflects Landers. It won’t be long before even more people know their name. transitband.com  —Scott Kearnan

Where Transit tracks chug along with verve, Beverly-based instrumental band Caspian is masterful at building slow-burn drama. The experimental act serves up ambient, orchestral rock arrangements, with synthesizers swelling and bass guitars throbbing. Listening to the results—like their latest album, Waking Season—is the aural equivalent of walking across a gorgeous lunar landscape. They’ve played everywhere from North Shore venues to renowned national events like SXSW—next is Boston Calling at Boston’s City Hall Plaza, May 25-26. They’ll share a bill at the Hub’s inaugural indie music festival with major names like fun., The National, and Of Monsters and Men. caspianmusic.net, bostoncalling.com

Linda Shepherd of Buyers Desire Home Staging

Talking real estate turnover with Linda Shepherd of Buyers Desire Home Staging.

Standing out among the rest is vital when it comes to selling a home. With the ease of online market research comes the need to give buyers a reason to investigate a property in person. By creating visual appeal, Linda Shepherd allows prospective buyers to see a home’s potential. Her neutral settings lure the broadest pool of buyers and help increase chances that a home will sell.

What do you keep in mind when staging a home? We conduct an assessment of the buyer demographic for the home by analyzing factors of the town, such as school systems and median income. We stage with the target buyer in mind by setting up “emotional connection points” that will subconsciously grab buyers’ attention and tell them that this is the perfect home. The architecture also inspires our choices. We’ve seen traditional homes decorated in all modern furniture. This creates a disjointed feeling that turns potential buyers off.  We also take the homeowners’ current belongings into consideration. Staging shouldn’t be expensive; using lots of what the homeowner already has and mixing in fresh florals, bright pillows, and interesting accessories may be all the home needs.

What do homeowners need to address before you arrive to stage? Most commonly, the problem is the paint color.  Bold paint colors scare potential buyers off.  We once recommended that a seller tone down bright blue walls to more neutral colors.  She chose not to paint because it was “too much work.” However, potential buyers will also be thinking it will be “too much work” and they’ll move on to the next house. Potential buyers should never see anything broken or needing repair. Removal of personal photos, lighting, cleanliness, evidence of pets, and even smells. These can be delicate subjects to discuss, but we talk to the homeowners compassionately. They’ve hired us, and they want our honest opinion.

What concerns do clients often have when considering staging? Some question whether staging really works. A seller once told us that she didn’t believe it would make a difference.  The realtor was adamant that the homeowner stage, so she did.  She received five offers at her first open house, four above asking price. Homeowners are also concerned that they will spend the money to stage and the house won’t sell. While we cannot guarantee the home will sell, last year’s statistics from Real Estate Staging Association showed that staged homes sold 73 percent faster than homes that hadn’t been staged.

What’s in your collection of props? Any “lucky” pieces that help make a sale? We do have one lucky piece of art that seems to work well in any house. It’s an abstract series of squares in rust, blue, and gray tones. Most of what we have in our inventory are florals, pillows, and art. The art is rather neutral subject matter. Done properly, artificial plants and flowers can look just as good as, if not better than, live ones and will stay beautiful throughout the buying process. It’s easy to make an outdated couch look new by adding bright pillows and a throw in a contrasting color. We also have a lot of accessories for bookcases, built-ins, and coffee tables. Our goal is for the home to look like a magazine picture.

Marblehead’s George Howard is bringing digital music forward—by going back to basics. By Scott Kearnan – photographs by Tim Cook

Howard, COO of Norton LLC, believes in fair sharing.

Authenticity. it’s an important word to George Howard.

Howard stands at the kitchen counter in his Marblehead home, whipping up an all-natural smoothie of fresh fruits and veggies. “You should try one,” he says. Howard is a healthy guy; he starts every day with a run, practices yoga, studies Buddhism, and consumes a mostly raw, vegan diet. It’s a restorative lifestyle that helps him stay energized and balanced as he juggles life as a husband and father with a wide professional repertoire.

Nowadays, Howard is mainly focused on his work as COO of Norton LLC, the parent company of Concert Vault, Wolfgang’s Vault, Daytrotter, and Paste magazine, each a unique property in a music empire. Throughout his storied career, Howard has had a hand in nearly every aspect of the music business; he’s run a seminal record label, managed major artists like Carly Simon, and helped found TuneCore, now the world’s largest distributor of digital music.

Howard pops kale and kiwi into the blender; it whirs, stirring up a green tornado. He pours the mixture into a glass. “Here you go,” he says, handing it over. “If you don’t like it, I won’t be offended.”

It’s tasty. Really green—but tasty. And unmistakably unadulterated—an earthy flavor that could only be made by Mother Nature. It makes sense that Howard would place such a premium on organic eating. Whether in food or business, he appreciates what is authentic, and he uses each of his innovative ventures as an opportunity to buck an outdated music industry that too often exploits performers, turns art into assembly-line merchandise, and feeds consumers manufactured claptrap.

“Eventually, you have the same reaction to over-processed music that you do to over-processed food,” explains Howard with a smile. “You get sick of it.”

Music Business Beginnings
Howard was born in North Carolina and grew up in Philadelphia; he came to New England to study English literature at Boston University. But he was also writing music, playing guitar, and gigging with bands in the teeming early-’90s rock scene, one that predated Kurt Cobain and Co.’s ushering of grunge into mainstream pop culture. “It was pre-Nirvana, and the last gasp of true indie [music],” recalls Howard, kicking back by a crackling fireplace in his living room. His tone is slightly professorial, which makes sense; he teaches management at Berklee College of Music. But he has a sense of humor, too. Before long, he’s demonstrating his skateboard skills, and tumbling head over heels into a yoga pose.

“It was an awesome, creative time,” he continues. “I was surrounded by all these insanely talented people.” Among them was college acquaintance Mary Timony, who went on to play guitar and sing in the post-punk bands Helium and Wild Flag. “I remember listening to her play and thinking, ‘More people need to hear this.’”

Though he had already been pressing vinyl records, it was during post-grad studies at Brown that Howard officially launched his own record label, Slow River, in 1993. It released a number of successful singles, and signed the popular band Sparklehorse. Soon larger labels, looking to capitalize on the exploding indie-rock genre, were making Howard lucrative offers to release his Slow River records. Though those with “bigger pocketbooks” came calling, Howard chose to work with the North Shore’s Rykodisc. It had especial credibility among artists, and Rykodisc, then based out of Pickering Wharf in Salem, was the first CD-only record label. That unique combination—respect for musicianship and forward-thinking innovation—was attractive to Howard.

In 1999, 30-year-old Howard was named president of Rykodisc by its new owner, Chris Blackwell, the music industry pioneer who founded Island Records and signed legends like Bob Marley and U2. Howard ran Rykodisc out of Gloucester, where he lived, and remained there until 2003, when he left amid another transition in ownership. But a non-compete clause in his contract prevented him from moving to another label. Cue the sound of a record screeching to a halt.

A Different Tune
Stepping outside the label world was an abrupt transition. “Since I was 19 years old, my job was putting out records,” says Howard. “That was all I had ever done.”

But he found other ways to employ his music industry expertise. He wrote his first book, Getting Signed!: An Insider’s Guide to the Record Industry. He started teaching management courses: first at Northeastern University, then Berklee—and then, after moving to New Orleans for several years, at Loyola University. It was a pretty good time for a professional detour. In the first decade of the new millennium, record labels were struggling to keep up with a technological revolution. CD consumers were replaced by a generation that freely file-shared MP3s, and the consequences were devastating for labels and artists; according to Forrester Research, annual revenue from U.S. music sales plummeted from $14.6 billion in 1999 to $6.3 billion in 2009.

“The record business was imploding,” says Howard, calling the mid-’00s “dark days” for artists. They lost sales to illegal downloads as labels, which obstinately resisted every format change—from cassettes to CDs and now to MP3s—and failed to innovate approaches to distribution. At the same time, new software like Pro Tools gave independent artists a cheap, easy way to make professional-grade recordings, which robbed record labels of a big bargaining tool. Previously, labels offered to fund expensive studio sessions for artists; in exchange, they owned the master recordings and paid artists slim royalties. There were suddenly fewer incentives for artists to work within the outmoded label system.

It was that environment into which Howard helped launch TuneCore in 2005. TuneCore offered independent artists the opportunity to place their music on iTunes and other online retailers. “TuneCore helped solve the biggest problem for artists, which was distribution,” says Howard. And whereas similar services took back-end percentages of sales, TuneCore charged artists a flat fee for its service. “Keep what you sell,” says Howard of the ethos that helped turn TuneCore into the world’s largest distributor of digital music.

Despite an increasingly crowded marketplace, it’s now easier than ever for unsigned artists to release music. But developing TuneCore is hardly the only way in which Howard has helped musicians—and fans—embrace new digital worlds.

George Howard with Carly Simon

A New Day
In many ways, it seems like the music industry is on the verge of another major change. Recent years have seen an explosion of subscription-based services, like Pandora and Spotify, which allow users to stream unlimited music to home entertainment systems and mobile devices. There’s no need to buy albums or songs; users simply queue up tunes on demand.
Howard isn’t a fan of what that means for music. “Something that upsets me, and that I’m trying to change, is that music has become devalued,” he says, adding that those services are filled with the same catalogs of ubiquitous hits, mainly by bubblegum artists like Katy Perry and Justin Bieber. The streaming model has encouraged a proliferation of mass-market Muzak: “Commodified wallpaper,” he calls it.

Enter Daytrotter, one of several Norton companies that Howard helped develop—first via his own consulting firm, Rock and Roller, and today as Norton’s COO. Daytrotter’s website offers its members streams and downloads of songs by hipster-friendly rock acts, both established names and emerging up-and-comers. But unlike other, interchangeable online music stores, Daytrotter boasts a catalog that is totally unique to its service. Participating artists stop by The Horseshack, a cozy studio in Rock Island, IL—a small city three hours west of Chicago—to rerecord their songs exclusively for Daytrotter members.

Daytrotter, which had been early to discover future stars like Mumford & Sons, fun., and The Lumineers, has compiled over 2,400 sessions since launching in 2006. These unique recordings eschew the bells and whistles of high-gloss studio wizardry in favor of intimate, stripped-down versions that ring with artistic authenticity. “I don’t want to create the musical equivalent of air freshener,” says Howard.

These special recordings offer more than artsy credibility for performers. Other streaming services, like Pandora and Spotify, cannibalize the music industry, says Howard; why would fans ever buy a record when they can listen to it over and over again for free? Plus, the per-stream payments to musicians are just fractions of pennies. Yet the services would like to pay out even less; they’re pushing Congress to pass the Internet Radio Fairness Act, a bill that critics like Howard say is an unconscionable attempt to slash the already-microscopic royalty fees owed to working artists.

Howard says Daytrotter sessions don’t supplant an artist’s existing recordings; they instead offer distinct additional versions. The artists might join Daytrotter on national “Barnstormer” tours, getting paid to play barn venues across the country. Daytrotter will often press limited-edition vinyl records, replete with original artwork and liner notes, and split sales with the band. According to Howard, vinyls are enjoying a minor comeback among music aficionados who miss having a tangible testimony to their fandom in an era where most music lives in a digital cloud. That also helps explain the success of Wolfgang’s Vault, a Norton company that bills itself as the world’s largest store for music memorabilia.

Howard knows that the rootsy vibe of Daytrotter won’t appeal to every music consumer; after all, compared to the music super-malls of Pandora and Spotify, it’s a niche boutique. But its innovative approach offers real benefits to artists, he says, and serves a growing audience of listeners who are tiring, at least for now, of manufactured pop.

“Look at this year’s Grammy nominations,” says Howard. Mumford & Sons, The Lumineers, and fun.—bands that Daytrotter featured several years ago—all received nods. “We reach these cultural moments where we can’t take it anymore. How else to explain Mumford & Sons, four guys from Britain playing banjos, selling millions of records? That is the culture saying, ‘Quit it with this manufactured stuff.’”

Luckily, Howard is ready to hand it a kiwi-kale smoothie, so to speak, which might just do the trick.

Super Producer As COO of Norton LLC, George Howard has his hands in a lot of projects. Here, a breakdown of each and what they’re all about.

Concert Vault
Cheaper than a time machine, Concert Vault unlocks access to hundreds of audio and video recordings from live concerts at legendary venues. Name an era, name an artist, name a stage; if YouTube is a digital junk heap, this is a finely curated museum of music. wolfgangsvault.com/concerts

Daytrotter
This unique digital music store is an antidote to overplayed Top 40. Big-deal bands like Vampire Weekend and Mumford & Sons rearrange and re-record their songs exclusively for Daytrotter members, who score virtual entry to intimate jam sessions with favorite artists. daytrotter.com

Paste magazine
This music-focused digital magazine attracts over 2 million monthly visitors, combining mainstream entertainment coverage with an indie sensibility, plus a knack for finding emerging artists that are bound to, well, stick. pastemagazine.com

Wolfgang’s Vault
With over 25 million individual items—concert tees, original posters, ticket stubs, you name it—this is Ground Zero for music memorabilia collectors, not to mention casual fans in search of a cool gift. wolfgangsvault.com

Adam Benezra

Adam Benezra knows just what you need for your next move. By Jeanne O’Brien Coffey – photograph by Shawn Negri

Fifteen years ago, when Adam Benezra started selling used moving boxes, recycling wasn’t cool yet. In fact, many of his friends at Gentle Giant Moving Company, where he’d been putting in 60- to 70-hour weeks as a crew chief, hassled him about his business idea. But he had been helping out with his aunt’s fledgling recycling business in Melrose, and he had been raised with a strong entrepreneurial spirit, so he knew he could make it work.

“Within a year, I was paying my mortgage,” Benezra brags of his company, Winchester-based Benezra Boxes. These days, demand for recycled boxes is so high that during the busy spring and summer moving season, when he sells as many as 3,000 boxes a week, he has to supplement his offerings with high-quality new boxes–still undercutting competitors when it comes to price.

Benezra and his company take the guesswork out of moving supplies. He’ll bring a van stocked with every conceivable kind of box to clients’ homes or businesses, check out everything that needs to be packed, then unload exactly what they need on the spot—all for less money than your average chain store retailer.

“When [people] are moving, no one has a clue what to do,” Benezra says. “I can walk through a house and know exactly what they need.”

When the recession hit in 2007, people stopped buying boxes and started handing off their used moving boxes to friends or tried to sell them on their own. That’s when Benezra began offering packing services. While he won’t name names, he has packed everyone from hedge fund managers to professional athletes, along with everything from prize mounted marlins to a set of fine china that was a gift from Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana. With such A-list moves under his belt, rest assured that your most treasured possessions are in good hands with Benezra. benezraboxes.com

Pack Like a Pro Adam Benezra’s tips for an efficient moving day

Size Matters Choosing the right box size is essential, according to Benezra. “People always get the wrong-size boxes,” he says. “They’ll put books in a box even the Incredible Hulk couldn’t lift.”

Top Shelf  Lightweight crushable things like lampshades, dried flowers, or baskets should be put in boxes labeled “top load only.” This tells the movers to stack those boxes on top, keeping them from being crushed by heavier ones.

Unbreakable When packing china and other fragile items, use paper to create an even layer of cushioning in the bottom of the box, then pack dishes standing on edge—not flat. “This is what I call ‘the egg theory,’” Benezra says. “A lot of weight on an egg sideways will crush it. However, vertically, an egg can withstand much more pressure.” For more tips, visit benezraboxes.com.

Singer Chelsea Berry

Cape Ann native and singer Chelsea Berry is striking a chord in the music industry. By Jill Diver

When you listen to 29-year-old Chelsea Berry and her Joni Mitchell-type voice, you’d never guess that she was formally trained in opera and classical music. You’d be even more surprised to learn that she started touring at the age of 15, accepting every invitation she was given to play at festivals, coffeehouses, and bars. Right away, however, it’s plain to see that Berry is a woman who knows that her success depends on her commitment to hard work.

Berry, a Berklee College of Music alumna and Manchester-by-the-Sea resident, says that living in her Cape Ann town has been a great incubator for her folk music. “Folk music can be a narrow window,” she says. But it seems that even in such a niche genre, she has done well. She recently played with Marshall Crenshaw, best known for his songs like “Someday Someway” and “There She Goes Again,” and has opened for Chris Isaak, known best for his song “Wicked Game.” She’s even played at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

Until now, all of Berry’s work was based on folk music by the likes of Carole King. She explains that while her other albums “never had a cohesive idea to them—they were just songs that I put together,” she hopes that her new project will segue into something that’s more like a combination of Ani Difranco, Florence and the Machine, Sheryl Crow, and Alanis Morissette, complete with loud, rippy guitar.

Berry’s current project is titled Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. “The thing about this album is that I’m trying to get away from the singer-songwriter thing,” she says. “I’m trying to make the album have a more cohesive sound, and I want it to sound like a band and be a rock album.” Berry has already laid two tracks, which are, according to her, “so far, beyond awesome.”
Most of Berry’s recent shows have sold out, which is what her team expects of her February 9 show at the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport. All the same, she continues to work toward new and ever-changing goals. “I’m hoping we’ll always be doing bigger shows,” she says.

Of her future, Berry says, “I’m interested in always doing something different and not settling for anything…I would rather be doing something I love and not [making] any money. Any other way and I don’t function.”Although she’s happy with her musical life as it is, Berry says she’s finally signing contracts and earning “legit money.” “It’s not for tips anymore,” she says.
Devil and the Deep Blue Sea is a work in progress, and the message Berry wants to send is one she says she tries to convey all the time: “Take care of each other. [The idea] comes from my dad. He’s always said, ‘Do something good for someone and don’t tell them.’ I love to inspire people to go out in the world and do good.” chelseaberry.com.

Pat Brown

Love Proctor. Talking “happily ever after” with Rockport Town Clerk Pat Brown. By Kiley Jacques

Pat Brown, Rockport’s town clerk, is a big part of the marriage process. She’s one of the first faces couples see when they’re ready to take the plunge, so she’s borne witness to her fair share of excitement, tears, and fears. Serving as Justice of the Peace means keeping an eye on community affairs, documenting memorable occasions, and storing a mighty history inside the old Town Hall.

What’s the historical role of town clerks in providing marriage certificates? Early town clerks were paid with the fees they collected. Some clerks in Massachusetts still keep a portion of the fees they collect. As keepers of records, town clerks would gather information, and sometimes it would take months for things to be recorded. Physicians were not as prevalent as they are today, and often births would be [documented] months after the event when parents or midwives would [report] the information. With marriages, couples had to file a marriage intention before they were issued a marriage certificate. Town clerks filed the intentions, issued the certificates, and were paid a fee for performing ceremonies as Justices of the Peace.

Any typical couples’ blunders? One of the major hang-ups [couples have] is which name they will use after marriage. I’ve seen people in tears at the counter, arguing over whether or not they will change their names. Also, in Rockport, there is a fee of $20 to file a marriage intention; I’ve had couples argue over who is going to pay the fee and others insist on splitting it.

How far back do the town of Rockport’s marriage records go? Rockport’s records date back to when it was incorporated, on February 27, 1840. Prior to that, records would have been kept in Gloucester. The first couple to file an intention was Mr. Robert Eaton and Miss Betsy Smith on March 11, 1840. They both lived in Rockport and the intention was published on March 15, 1840. They were married by Reverend Wakefield Gale (a graduate of Phillips Academy in Andover) on March 24, 1840.

Any advice for couples taking the plunge? One thing that couples are not aware of when they file a marriage intention is that there is a three-day waiting period between when an intention is filed and when a marriage certificate is issued.  There are also legal impediments to marriage in Massachusetts like “No man shall marry his mother, grandmother, granddaughter, sister, stepmother, grandfather’s wife, grandson’s wife, wife’s mother, wife’s grandmother…” [the list goes on!] town.rockport.ma.us 

Harris and Lekkakos

Individually, Maria Lekkakos and Marc Harris own successful salons on the North Shore and in Boston, respectively. Together, the newlywed couple is a force to be reckoned with, pouring their passion into industry projects—and a new life together at home. By Karyn Polewczyk

A Chance Encounter
Perhaps it was destiny that brought together Maria Lekkakos, the former Miss Massachusetts-turned-proprietor of the eponymous Wenham salon and spa, M. Lekkakos, and Marc Harris, a South Boston native with a West Coast rockstar vibe. Both were drawn to the salon industry at a young age—she became an esthetician at 19; as a teenager, he felt inspired by his first Newbury Street haircut—and both went on to carve out paths that would lead to their subsequent rises to the top. Despite these similarities, and despite traveling in the same social circles for years, it wasn’t until a mutual friend introduced them at a party that the spark ignited. Maria’s smile—“that big, warm, vivacious smile”—plus a firm handshake (“very important,” he adds) left Marc intrigued—and inspired— by the woman who would eventually become his wife.

Lekkakos, who maintains the poise and polish of her days as a beauty queen, says it was Harris’s firsthand understanding of the salon and spa industry that stood out and helped forge their connection. “I’d had relationships where my boyfriends didn’t want me to succeed,” she says. “Marc gets it. He’s strong, he’s independent, he’s driven, and I love that about him.”

Five years of dating, four salons, two cities, and one joint venture later, the couple was engaged—and then came that big fancy (Greek) wedding.

“M&M”
Of planning the couple’s wedding, Lekkakos says, “I kept saying I wanted things to look dramatic, and Marc would say he saw dollar signs.” It was rumored that the bride’s desire for drama include a yacht, which was said to have transported the couple between their Greek Orthodox ceremony and their lavish reception (attended by former Miss USA Shandi Finnessey and Congressman Steven Lynch, among other A-listers) at the Boston Harbor Hotel. No yacht, it turns out, but there was plenty of sophistication. The couple worked closely with their vendors (including Andrianna’s of Exeter, NH—who was “there every step of the way,” raves Lekkakos) so that every detail of their August 2012 wedding, down to each guest’s place setting, had a touch of “M&M.”

“It was about cultivating this taste of happiness, this extension of our everyday style: luxurious, contemporary, modern. I viewed the wedding planning the same way I’d view planning a business,” Lekkakos says.

The couple cite their rock-solid foundation as the core of their partnership. “There was a moment of realization at the reception [when we thought], ‘We’re together, we’re one,’” says Harris. “You could feel the love and support in the room. It was very powerful.” Lekkakos nods, adding, “It gave me a high to see everyone so happy—that we got to see everyone just have the time of their lives. I’ll have those memories forever. The material stuff just doesn’t matter.”

[Show as slideshow]

On Working Apart
“I don’t want to [run my business like] Salon Marc Harris,” Lekkakos says. “And he doesn’t want to [run his business like] M. Lekkakos Salon & Spa. But we think of how we can make each other’s individual brands stronger; we give each other advice. It works for us.”

That also means a different approach to management. Harris has an operational team to help with his staff of 100; his role, he says, is to massage the relationship between team members—“the gray area,” he calls it. He also spends up to three days a week behind his chair, providing the sleek signature styles for which  his salons are known. “I love the art of cutting hair. I love fashion. I love style. I’m a passionate person,” he says.

Lekkakos, on the other hand, is fully engaged in managing her staff of 12—no easy task, says Harris, who spent his own time in the trenches while building his empire. “She wears a lot of hats,” he says, “so she’s driven, she’s task-oriented, and she has success in mind.” Lekkakos admits to picking her husband’s brain for inspiration as the salon side of her business evolves; Harris also relies on Lekkakos as a sounding board for trends in the spa industry.

“Our mantras are different,” Harris says. “Hers is, ‘Hurry up, let’s get going.’ Mine is, ‘Let’s make it happen, and if you hurry up, it’s a job done poorly.’ She says, ‘No, not if it’s the right track.’ We spar. We laugh about it. But you know what?” he asks, glancing again at Lekkakos with a smile. “She’s right.”

Working Together
Inspired by the success of Restaurant Week, the couple in 2010 began to lay out plans for a similar concept within the salon industry, where top salons would borrow Restaurant Week’s discounted pricing model as a way to attract new clients and create a buzz. In April 2012, Salon Week was born; it ran successfully again in October, including salons from Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York, with another one in the works. “Salon Week encompasses an energy the industry is hungry for,” Harris says. “We know we’re on the first step of the ladder. We want to bring this nationwide. Yeah, we’ve got a mountain to climb—but this is special, and we’re tenacious.”

So are there are any additional plans for collaboration, like a product line, perhaps, or a co-branded salon? After acknowledging the intensity of their individual pursuits and the dedication needed to continue with Salon Week, neither sees the potential for additional joint projects just yet. Lekkakos’s clients will make sure of that, too—they’re constantly checking in to make sure M. Lekkakos Salon & Spa is staying put in Wenham. “I grew up in Rockport,” she says, “and I love Wenham, how beautiful it is, and my clients.”

At the end of the work day, the couple retires to their home in the Back Bay (“I get the best of both worlds,” says Lekkakos, referring to her scenic commute up the coast). They admit it can be difficult to turn the switch to “off”—especially when they share so many of the same career joys and frustrations, not to mentiom a mile-long list of ideas. “We don’t have a traditional relationship,” says Harris. “All day long, our plates are full, and a lot of it is very high stress. We know when we work hard and share a common goal, collectively, we’re stronger, and we feel equipped to handle whatever comes our way. But,” he adds, “like any couple, we try to create an awareness. We say, ‘Okay, the day is over. It’s time to let it go, to sit down and have dinner, to be present.’”

Lekkakos adds, “When you deliver what you want and it happens, it’s [powerful]. It’s [inspiring]. It makes you feel so good that what you’re delivering is working. It’s an honor.” In simpler terms, she says, “it’s magic.”

M. Lekkakos Salon & Spa is located at 154 Main Street in Wenham. Salon hours, gift certificates, and additional information can be found at mlekkakos.com. Salon Marc Harris has multiple locations in Boston. For locations, hours, and more, visit salonmarcharris.com. To learn more about Salon Week, visit salonweek.com. Andrianna’s is located at 155a Front Street in Exeter, NH. Their products and services can be found online at andriannas.com. ●n

The North Shore is home to a prolific community of authors whose ties—to the area and to one another—run deep. By Julie Batten

Notable titles by North Shore authors

Kevin Carey

Kevin Carey is a writer—not a very famous one (yet), but like so many writers, a man who “writes because I can’t imagine not writing.” As an English professor at Salem State University and the author of a new volume of poetry that just came out last spring, The One Fifteen to Penn Station, he’ll be the first to tell you that “poetry starts in the gut, not in the head.”

Carey writes about growing up in Revere, playing basketball with a high school team that slayed giants, fatherhood, and “places I’ve been, people I’ve known.” As a longtime member of the Salem Writers Group, which meets twice monthly at the Athenaeum in Salem, Carey has been writing everything from plays to poetry to essays to documentary films since the ’90s. “The writing community on the North Shore is a lot larger than people realize—and a lot busier,” he says.

“The kind of commitment to the arts that you expect of a literary haven like Cambridge has migrated, says Askold Melnyczuk, founder of Boston’s internationally renowned literary journal, AGNI magazine, and author of numerous award-winning books, including House of Widows and Ambassador of the Dead  (as well as the forthcoming Smedley’s Secret Guide to World Literature). “No longer is the cultural calendar under central control of a handful of gatekeepers.”

Askold Melnyczuk

Melnyczuk is an English professor at UMass Boston and Bennington Writing seminars and originally founded AGNI with the intention of creating a platform for promising young writers to debut their work alongside seasoned professionals. Therefore, he knows how to grow writers and the communities they inhabit. Melnyczuk sees the wealth of writing organizations springing up and literary events taking place in the area outside of the city as inevitable, with technology making it “difficult to think about geographic place of birth because [the process of creating] seems to be universal.” Quite simply, good writing begets good writing, and it’s here on the North Shore by the droves.

On a recent Saturday night at Jabberwocky Bookshop in Newburyport, the folks who run the Tannery Reading Series there invited renowned writer Andre Dubus III and first-time author Anthony D’Aries to read excerpts from their memoirs to a standing room-only crowd. Dubus’s Townie and D’Aries’s The Language of Men promised to deliver “red-blooded, blue-collared stories about dishing manhood in the 21st century,” and they didn’t disappoint. Sidling up to the podium in cowboy boots and Doc Martens respectively, Dubus and D’Aries delivered, with a stilling candor, moving accounts of their upbringings, their relationships with their fathers, their children, and their adolescent battlegrounds.

Anthony D’Aries

“So, what does it really mean to be a man?” jibed Karen Kapur, one of the founders of the series (which will be moving to the Peabody Essex Museum in 2013).“I used to think it meant using your fists,” said Dubus, a Haverhill native. “But I can tell you that I’ve never felt more like a man than when I’ve held my children in my arms as they slept.”

Dubus, a Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, chose to live and raise his children in the Newburyport area because “there’s a physical beauty here that is good for the soul.” With such titles as House of Sand and Fog and The Garden of Last Days behind him and another feature film in development (The Citizen), it makes a case for looking out the window with pen in hand. Dubus claims that reading a smattering of poems each morning also helps him slide into the subterranean channels of his imagination. “Making art doesn’t feel good—most of what [writers] unearth [is what] most people don’t want to unearth.”

That morning poetry is Dubus’s way into a creative space could please few people more than it does January Gill O’Neil, executive director of Mass Poetry and author of her own volume of poetry, Underlife. In collaboration with Salem State University, O’Neil has been working alongside fellow poet and Mass Poetry founder Michael Ansara since the festival was first held in Lowell in 2009. The event brings poets together from all over New England to share their words and teach workshops to all who attend the three-day celebration. “There is a convergence of art and talent and interested people who care about poetry and connecting to the unique synergy that is the North Shore’s literary community,” says O’Neil. “People are gravitating toward a shared experience—it’s something that Twitter and Facebook can’t offer.”

Andrew Dubus III

This year, the poetry festival will feature Academy of American Poets Chancellor Sharon Olds, as well as Terrence Hayes, Tracy K. Smith, and Nick Flynn, among others. Once again, downtown Salem will throw open its doors to poets and their poetry from May 3-5. Readings and workshops will take place in bookstores, restaurants, gift shops, the Old Town Hall, on trolleys headed across town, and amid the Old World charm of the Gables. Headlining events will be held at the Peabody Essex Museum, whose atrium each year becomes the backdrop for such literary gurus as Mark Doty and Major Jackson.

“The North Shore is absolutely a literary center, of course, and has been since its founding,” says Newburyport resident and award-winning poet Rhina Espaillat. Her own group, the Powow River Poets, which includes such notable talents as Mike Juster, Alfred Nicol, Debra Warren, Len Krisak, and Bill Coyle, was started 20 years ago, when Espaillat moved to the area from New York City. As a group that meets bi-monthly to workshop their poetry at the public library in Newburyport, they have been coaching each other for the past 20 years, racking up quite a share of such prestigious honors as the Robert Penn Warren and Robert Frost Book Awards, among others. The group will be presenting again this year at the Newburyport Literary Festival, an event that showcases all genres, on April 26 and 27.

January Gill O’Neil

Espaillat’s other group, Melopoeia, which in translation means “the making of poems or music,” is a performance collaboration between herself and fellow Powow poet Alfred Nicol, set to the music of John Tavano and vocalist Ann Tucker. Espaillat joins a few other area poets who have turned to this amped-up literary delivery, including Robert Pinsky, former Poet Laureate of the United States, whose work with Grammy Award-winning pianist Laurence Hobgood was on tap at the Regatta Bar in Boston last year and is the focus of his recently released CD, PoemJazz. Confluence, a piano and poetry duet featuring J.D. Scrimgeour, founder of the Salem Writers Group and professor of English at Salem State University (SSU), and renowned musician Phillip Swanson, is also of this new hybrid blend of genre. “I love knowing of all the possibilities that exist for people, especially young people, to get drawn into literature and poetry in the area,” says Espaillat.

In Lynn, poet Enzo Surin couldn’t agree more. When he started up the City Unplugged Coffeehouse there, it was with the intent of engaging non-traditional reading communities in the literary scene “in a way that wasn’t intimidating,” he says. “We also wanted it to be family friendly, so that there would be no added expense [for childcare] to coming out to listen and share.”

Surin, who grew up in a tough part of Queens, NY, found early on that writing was his way out. “Literacy was a way for me to escape the neighborhood and see it from a different perspective; what I understand now, though, is that my function as an author is diminished if the people I am writing for can’t read my work.” The poet, a Pushcart Prize nominee who teaches at SSU and Bunker Hill Community College, has published his own volume of poems, Higher Ground and has seen the impact of his open mic readings in “so many moments where the light clicks on and someone’s face lights up because something has been expressed that would have otherwise been lost.”

Faces lit up on a recent Saturday afternoon in Gloucester, when the Gloucester Writers Group, in collaboration with the Cape Ann Museum, and the Charles Olson Society hosted a conversation about poetry with Anne Waldman. As a poet, Waldman is arguably one of the great literary voices of our time. Having caught the attention of the Beat Generation’s Allen Ginsburg, Waldman traveled extensively with the Rolling Thunder Revue, a poetry caravan of sorts that attracted musicians like Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, and Joe Cocker in the ’70s. She later co-founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute (now Naropa University) in Boulder, CO, where she remains a Distinguished Professor of Poetics and the director of Naropa’s famous summer writing program. Waldman’s poetry is as beautifully startling as her über-theatrical delivery of it.

That a poet such as Waldman should be reading on Cape Ann rather than in some swanky gallery on Newbury Street is not at all surprising. After all, the North Shore’s literary heritage is extensive, with names like Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Updike, Anne Bradstreet, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Charles Olson existing in the same milieu as Rhina Espaillat, Andre Dubus III, Askold Melnyczuk, and all the Kevin Careys in the world climbing their way to the forefront. Says Espaillet with regard to the preponderance of talent and literary happenings in the area: “A rising tide raises all boats.”  ●n

[Show as slideshow]

The Flipside Crew

Corin Ashley, Singer, Flipside, Malden. By Kiley Jacques

His job: Singer/guitarist in the wedding band Flipside.

His bandmates: “I’m the classic rock guy, and I play a lot of acoustic guitar; our lead singers are a bit younger and more attuned to what’s happening in Top 40 pop. We have a monster soulful Hammond organ player, and an awesome drummer; the sax player is a jazz genius—he’s from Barbados, so he’s got the island vibe. Our bass player is a professor at Berklee; plus, everybody in the band sings.”

Favorite covers: “The songs that make people yell ‘Wooo!’ involuntarily and run to the dance floor. There’s nothing like the honest joy people feel when they hear a song they love.”

Favorite North Shore venue: “All of them! But I particularly enjoy playing at the Crane Estate, and the team at the Peabody Essex Museum is always great. I really like Willowdale in Topsfield, too. I think that’s a great spot to do an acoustic guitar cocktail hour.”

Silliest thing a wedding guest has done: “I [saw] a man fall down on the dance floor and get up and continue dancing with a wine glass stuck in his back. I’ve got some good stories, but I’m saving them for my book someday.” murrayhilltalent.com/product/boston-band-flipside

Jodi R.R. Smith

Oh, Behave! Author Jodi R. R. Smith’s latest book rolls out a new roadmap for good manners.

With the internet and social networking creating new privacy conundrums almost daily, good manners sometimes seem like a quaint—and rare—commodity. But to Jodi R. R. Smith, they’re still very serious business.
Author of The Etiquette Book: A Complete Guide to Modern Manners, the Marblehead resident (and owner of Mannersmith Etiquette Consulting) had a lot to wrestle with when she sat down to write her third book. “It took about four years to finish,” she says with a sigh. “My first two books were more of a gateway for people who wanted just quick tips on etiquette. This one deals with all of its finer points.” The resulting 406 pages (Smith and her editors whittled it down from its original 800-plus pages) take on everything from dining habits and same-sex marriage to the changing landscape of etiquette in business.

“I always say that etiquette evolves to keep pace with society and technology,” she explains. For example, if you read an etiquette book from just 10 to 15 years ago, it would say that a man must always wait for a woman to extend her hand to him before reaching out to shake it. “That’s completely changed,” Smith observes. “Especially in the workforce, where manners have become gender-neutral. These days it’s all about rank; the highest ranking person holds out a hand first.”

Smith’s obsession with etiquette reaches back to her high school days, when she became fascinated with what kind of behavior made some people likeable. (“Not just popular,” she clarifies. “That’s very different. I mean what makes some people want to be around someone.”) She started researching everything written on the topic, from as far back as 1885 to new studies on psychology and perception. “All of it got boiled down into my brain and found its way into the book,” she says.

That includes, of course, the Internet. When she first started writing, there was no Twitter in existence yet. But by the time her tome was finished, it was a brave new world of confidentiality (or lack thereof) out there. “Privacy really doesn’t exist anymore on the Web,” she says. To that end, she added an entire chapter dedicated to electronic etiquette. “People need to actively guard their privacy and think twice or even three times before hitting ‘send’ or ‘post.’” mannersmith.com. —Alexandra Hall

Don Glass

At Just Imagine Hypnosis Center, hypnotist Don Glass helps clients change unproductive behaviors—overeating, smoking, phobias, and more—just by altering the way they think. By Debbie Strong

Linda Ready had been struggling for years with her weight when, last spring, her husband came home from his Lowell Lions Club meeting and described a presentation given that night by an area hypnotist, Don Glass, who used hypnotherapy to help clients lose weight—and keep it off.

Ready was fascinated by the remarkable success rate Glass reported, so she contacted him and quickly signed on to a four-session round of his newest treatment option, the Virtual Gastric Band (VGB) program, during which the client is convinced through hypnosis to believe that she has undergone gastric band surgery. While hypnotized, clients are guided through all aspects of surgery: entering the hospital, meeting with the surgeon and anesthetist, and experiencing the actual surgery—operating room smells, machines beeping, etc.—and post-op care. When they emerge, patients truly believe they’ve had the surgery and automatically begin to eat less, dropping pounds naturally and without feeling hungry.

Sound a little far-fetched? It works, Glass says, because a person’s subconscious mind—the part of the mind used when you’re daydreaming—is trained to accept new suggestions or to retrain old bad habits that may have become ingrained behaviors in early childhood. “The subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined,” he says. Glass doesn’t put clients to sleep or use the clichéd swinging pendulum, either; he simply guides clients to an ultra-relaxed, hyper-focused state and suggests new, healthier habits. “When a client is in a relaxed state of hypnosis, they become acutely aware—you could be 300 to 400 times more aware than normal—and are very receptive to positive suggestions.”

About 75 percent of his clients come for help with smoking (a two-session, $269 experience with a 90 percent success rate) or weight loss (either an eight-session program for $2,200 or a four-session program for $800), but people also come to him for help reducing stress, battling addictions or depression, alleviating phobias, memory or sports performance enhancement, and more. Glass has seen such positive results with his work that all prices include a 100 percent lifetime guarantee; clients can return for a free session if their problems ever return. He stresses that the one crucial ingredient for success is that the person truly wants to change and is not held back by fears or apprehensions. That’s why every client’s hypnosis experience begins with an initial, rapport-building “intake” session, during which Glass and the client get to know each other, discuss the client’s goals and fears, and determine together if hypnosis is the right option.

As for Ready, she began the VGB program in May, and after four sessions with Glass, about one month later, had dropped 25 pounds from her frame. Now, almost a year later, she has kept the weight off. “I felt the band right away,” says Ready, who says her doctor was “blown away” when she went for an appointment and revealed her new body. “I began to feel full after half a sandwich or hamburger; I truthfully did not want to eat any more.” Since dropping the weight, Ready’s health has improved and she enjoys a more energized, active lifestyle. “It was the best thing I ever did for myself.”

Just who is this miracle worker who helped a perfectly sane adult believe she had undergone bariatric surgery with just the power of his voice? Glass is an affable, energetic man who found his way to hypnosis after losing his wife—a selfless woman whose life was all about helping others–to cancer in 2010. “But self-hypnosis, or meditation, is something I had been using my whole life,” to cope with stressful situations and the attention deficit disorder he dealt with as a young man, Glass says. Since 2010, he’s been treating clients from all over the Merrimack Valley at offices in both Dracut and Andover. He received his official training from the National Guild of Hypnotists, a 62-year-old organization that trains and certifies hypnotists from around the world and has about 10,000 members to date. Glass also volunteers his hypnotherapy services to help at-risk children from broken homes or in other challenging situations, and he plans to start a hypnosis-based ADD or ADHD support group down the line.

Glass recently began meeting with clients at a third location in Billerica, renting office space from Sandy Chapnick and Honi Kawut, who run Billerica Chiropractic Office. “Don has a very calming presence,” says Chapnick, “and such an impressive, great grasp of his profession.” Beyond their cheerful personalities, he and Glass share a passion for their respective crafts and an overwhelming desire to help others. They’ve even begun referring patients to one another, finding that hypnotherapy and chiropractic therapy are “the perfect marriage,” says Chapnick. “We have a common goal of helping people feel better and lead healthier, more fulfilling lives.”

If hypnosis works so well and is so relatively affordable and low-risk, then why aren’t clients all over the country lining up to try it? “Younger people are more inclined to accept hypnosis, because they’re seeing the results” says Glass, who, when he’s not helping clients, enjoys an active lifestyle of road cycling, indoor rowing, and healthy cooking. “That’s opposed to older folks, who have allowed themselves to be conditioned by Hollywood and TV versions [of hypnosis].”

As resistant as society has been in the past, Glass says he’s noticed that the tide is beginning to change toward hypnosis. “I think the masses are beginning to line up.  Not at the rate I’d like to see, but it’s happening—and more importantly, the rate of acceptance is growing.”  ●n

Brainfox, a new North Shore-based web comedy collaborative, finds humor in the daily grind of local life. By Emma Haak

The Masters of Laugh: Brainfox Team

It’s a typical afternoon inside the Gulu Gulu Café in Salem. Locals and tourists come in for lunch, hot drinks, and to catch up. But at one particular table, a lively story is being told about, of all things, chewing gum. Specifically, a game involving chewing gum, a car ride, and the old Nintendo game Star Fox. For the members of Brainfox, a North Shore-based web comedy collaborative, conversations like this are all in a day’s work.

Officially launched in September, Brainfox is the comedic brainchild of Audrey Claire Johnson, Brett Johnson, and Tim Lewis (who is no longer with the group). It started as a way for the trio, who worked together sporadically on previous projects, to collaborate creatively on a regular basis. With several well-received web videos under their belt, the group, now led by the husband-and-wife team of Brett and Audrey Claire, has big plans to bring the funny to the North Shore.

Though Brainfox is relatively new, Brett and Audrey Claire have a long history. They met as undergrads at Gordon College, each involved in their own performing niches: Audrey Claire as a dramatic actor and Brett as a member of an improv troupe. In fact, it was theatre that first brought the couple, now married for four years, together. “I worked as a [teaching assistant] for the theatre department, and I was whipping out of a professor’s office and ran almost smack into him in a hallway,” she says. “Later that semester, we crossed paths again, involved in separate shows but always curious about the other. He also wooed my affection with card tricks, which is embarrassing to admit.”

After graduating—Audrey Claire in 2005, Brett in 2007—they continued to work in performing arts, occasionally working with In the Car Media, a production company started by fellow Gordon grads. The group collaborated on many projects, including Song and Dance, a short about two couples going to great (comedic) pains to disguise their broken relationships, which took home numerous prizes at the 2011 Boston 48 Hour Film Project, including Best Cast, Best Script, and runner-up for Best Film. “When we got together, it would be really fun and really productive, and we’d make something we’d be really proud of,” says Brett, “but it was sporadic.”

Audrey Claire Johnson as Debbie and Jill Rogati as Nina

Enter Brainfox, a way to work together continuously. The trio started the group last June and named it after the childhood car game that Brett, who grew up outside of Albany, New York, played with his brother. They spent the summer brainstorming before beginning their video releases in the fall. First up: “Nina and Debbie,” the first in a planned series about the misadventures of two North Shore moms. In the first installment, the heavily accented Nina and Debbie (played by actress and frequent Brainfox collaborator Jill Rogati and Audrey Claire, respectively) break a sweat by walking around a local track at a glacial pace while discussing their latest annoyances and having a crucial debate: whether to stop at Dunkin’ Donuts or Honeydew Donuts after their so-called workout.

It’s obvious from watching “Nina and Debbie” that Brainfox finds plenty of inspiration in their surroundings. “The people around me inspire me to write female characters that I want to impersonate,” says Audrey Claire. Plus, the Delaware native says, “There are things about Massachusetts that just strike me as really different and strange.” And apparently ripe for parody, like Santa landing via lobster boat in Marblehead and the amusement park horror ride that is Route 128. It’s in these small oddities that Brainfox finds its best material. “Ideas come from seeing things in everyday life that are sort of off and then pointing that out and heightening it,” says Brett.

But the group doesn’t limit its sources of inspiration to what’s immediately around them. Take Slavoj Zizek Shoreside, Brainfox’s imagining of the obscure and eccentric Slovenian philosopher and theorist. The video, shot at Salem Willows, features Brett as Slavoj Zizek, dressed in tattered clothes and gesticulating wildly as he discusses the sexual undertones of yachting, chatters nonsensically about Avatar, and explains why recycling cans signal the end of Communism, all while questioning the cameraman’s cinematographic choices. “I wanted to recreate this specific individual who’s very gestural and accented,” says Brett. Mastering Zizek’s unique speaking style required quite a bit of prep work on Brett’s part. In the end the practice paid off: The video has reached more than 1,000 views on Brainfox’s YouTube channel. Their videos can also be found on the group’s website, itsbrainfox.com.

Brainfox’s videos appear effortless. They’re well written, acted, directed, and, most important, achingly funny. And while comedy comes naturally to the couple, a lot of work goes into making a short video. On average, it takes about a month from inception to completion for a medium-length video like “Nina and Debbie” or Zizek. During this time, a script is written, passed along to friends and collaborators for suggestions, and rewritten until it’s perfect. Then the actors rehearse the skit while the team scouts locations, perfects costumes, and decides how best to film it. For a video that calls for high production value, they’ll call in friends from In the Car to help them out behind the scenes and bring in more actors to fill the roles. It all depends on the story they’re trying to tell. “When we sit down and have our artistic meetings, we talk about the full range of mediums you can use in online video. We have stuff that would be really funny if we shot it on an iPhone, all the way to the other spectrum, because the characters or the story are best represented like that,” says Audrey Claire.

This production process is highly collaborative and draws on the strengths of both Audrey Claire and Brett. Each is involved in many aspects of a video, as they take turns writing, directing, and acting in the shorts. Audrey Claire says that Brett’s “Mary Poppins’ carpet bag of comedic tools” makes him an asset in any kind of video they shoot. Citing the small fraction of independent comedy teams that feature female actors and writers, she says her female presence is her draw. And while they’re both irreplaceable for different reasons, it’s the combination of the two that helps Brainfox come up with unique and innovative comedic content.

Dan Stevens and Dave Ells

Brainstorming these ideas can happen at any time for the Beverly-based couple. “I wake up in the morning saying, ‘So, about that one line…’ and, ‘Do you think it would be funnier if we did this instead?’” says Audrey Claire. But since Brainfox is not a 9-to-5 time commitment yet, they have to work around busy schedules at their respective jobs. Brett works as an IT administrator at the Montserrat College of Art in Beverly and does regular standup comedy gigs around the North Shore. Audrey Claire is a full-time actress, shooting movies in the area and recently scoring a leading role on the upcoming web series, “617 The Series.” But the two make sure to keep Brainfox a top priority, and they take any available opportunity to discuss the next video shoot, the production order, and any new ideas coming down the pipeline.

At the moment, Brainfox’s pipeline is very full. A second installment of “Nina and Debbie” was shot in early November, in which the ladies are invited to participate in a 5K run for breast cancer research, but would rather sit or shop for a cure instead. December also marked the official premiere of Albionic, a high-concept, highly stylized story about a man whose legs are replaced with those of an albino person—and the fact that everyone around him thinks that’s totally normal. Both Audrey Claire and Brett cite the piece as their favorite Brainfox creation thus far. “It’s unique in tone compared to the rest of our videos,” says Brett, while Audrey Claire loves the “campy, soap opera-style” humor.

The Brainfox leaders are equally excited about branching out into new areas, as they plan to do with two upcoming projects. One is their mockumentary-style take on a woman (to be played by Rogati) who lives and breathes rainstick playing. “She’s been rejected from every music festival in Connecticut because they don’t take her seriously,” says Audrey Claire, “so she decides to throw her own concert at a local dive bar.” The other will mark their first foray into a multi-episode series: a comedic look at political intrigue and small-town gossip in the fictional New England town of Whatsboro.

From their first video about two North Shore moms discussing their daily minutia to a mini-saga about one man’s journey to come to grips with his incredibly pale legs, Brainfox has come a long way in a just a few months. While their own ambition and work ethic have certainly helped, they say being based on the North Shore has also been a factor in their success. “Being in this area, we have an amazing community full of people who work with us and appreciate what we do,” says Audrey Claire. “The North Shore is a really good place to be an artist—not speaking just to comedy—because it’s a community that’s really aware and supportive of the arts.”

And just as Brainfox has no plans to change locale, they also have no plans to slow down. “Who knows what we’ll have done a year from now?” says Brett. “There’s still so much we want to try. So much room for discovery.”

Marathon Man: Pat O'Connor

Pounding the pavement with North Shore running buff Pat O’Connor

For residents of the Boston Metro area, April means one thing: Boston Marathon madness, which culminates this year on April 16. In honor of the event, Northshore talked with running enthusiast and sometime marathoner Pat O’Connor—head coach/proprietor of LunchTime Runner and  the Outreach Marketing and Promotions Coordinator for the Greater Boston Running Co. stores in Newburyport, Lexington, and Hingham—about his beloved sport.

What’s the toughest marathon you’ve ever run? My first marathon in Boston.  For an experienced runner, I had a rough last six miles. I did not respect the distance enough and set my goals too high.

Any marathon mishaps? During my second Boston experience, as I was cruising through Kenmore Square, I noticed some faces in the crowd wincing at me. I had felt that my toes were going numb for a few miles at that point. When I looked down at my feet and turned back to look behind me, I realized that my white shoes were red with blood and I was leaving bloody footprints.  I had lost all but two toenails. My shoes, as it turned out, were an entire size too small.

Where is your favorite place to run non-competitively? Middlesex Fells Reservation that encompasses the Medford/Winchester/Stoneham/Melrose area around Route 93. [It has] wooded rolling trails that go on for miles. I can run more than 15 miles without running the same path twice.

What makes ours such an attractive region for runners? …Regionally, with the change of seasons, there is a unique challenge to racing and training, especially in the fall. It is beautiful—especially for cross-country. The North Shore has great country-like roads and peaceful parks for running.

What is LunchTimeRunner?  …The philosophy is not only to help busy adults train for their goals in a comprehensive way with high quality and low-to-moderate quantity, but runners of all ages…Working with athletes of all abilities, I focus on individual fitness training levels, efficient technique, and flexibility and strength. The actual running in the program complements all the other aspects of running. Running can be a beneficial means of exercise, stress reduction, and mind and energy enhancement if it is approached the right way with some guidance.

Closet King, Gary Fraser

Gary J. Fraser owner North Shore Closet Co., Salem

What he does: Designs, fabricates, and installs custom closet systems.

Biggest problems that plague his clients’ closets: (1) Wire shelving falling off the wall, “often times in the middle of the night”; (2) Space: “Whether it’s an old home or new construction, there never seems to be enough closet space, especially if the closet has those funky roof lines running through it.”

Easiest fix for a cluttered closet: Make the closet more user friendly. Double hanging (rod over rod) helps increase hanging space and makes room for more shelving, which can be used for sweaters, shoes, etc.

His pet peeve: Light switches inside the closet. “They sometimes have a tendency to limit closet designs.”

How he organizes his own closet: The few things that I hang are not organized at all. All the rest goes in drawers or shelves. Jeans with jeans, shorts with shorts, t-shirts with t-shirts. I’m a guy…it’s simple.

How he got into the field: I used to do a lot of interior house painting. Some of the homes were high-end new construction. The carpenters were told to build it out with shelves and hanging space. I was told to ‘make it look good.’ I knew there had to be a better way. I started my research and the rest, as they say, is history. northshorecloset.com. 

Spice Set

Newburyport craftsman Jordan Castro turns concrete and recycled marble into contemporary kitchenware.

A decade of “flipping” houses and doing kitchen renovations taught Jordan Castro that the building industry was not for him. But it also gave him an idea: What if he could mix concrete with recycled stone dust from marble countertops, plus a little sand and water, and create something distinctive and desirable?

“It took a lot of trial and error,” Castro says of his search for the ideal formula. “It’s not rocket science, but it takes…time to find the right balance.”

Concrete and marble weren’t the only things he threw into the mix. In a perfect alignment of experience, talent, and passion, Castro combined his building expertise with his inner artist and chef to create Culinarium, a collection of unique and stylish kitchenware. “It has an austere beauty and appeals to people with both rustic and contemporary sensibilities,” he says of his line of salt cellars, pepper mills, spice sets, coasters, and fruit trays.

“It’s a novel application,” says Castro, who runs his small family business, Port Living Co., with his wife, Annastasia, from their Plum Island home. “People are not used to seeing concrete used in kitchenware, but it has a wonderful aesthetic value and is very smooth and tactile,” he adds. “I also work with aluminum, cork, and wood, but our concrete products sell the best.”

The recycled marble dust comes in “cakes” from a factory in Burlington. Castro does all the mixing, molding, sanding, and waxing at his workshop in The Distillery in South Boston and the products are shipped directly to customers.

While loath to play the “green” card (“Everybody’s doing it—that whole label has been hijacked by everyone,” he says), Castro is happy his products are recycled, sustainable, and free of chemicals, but that’s not his primary motivation.

“The reason I use recycled product is because it has the qualities I need. This sounds corny, but every product we make, I fashion it, I touch it, a lot of quality control goes into it. I love to cook, and these are the things I like to use.”

As for the future? “I don’t want to expand too quickly,” he says. “I want to keep [Culinarium] a specialty item, and there are so many things I want to explore with this.” portlivingco.com. —Andrew Conway

Kathy Bechtel, owner/culinary director, italiaoutdoors usa

What Italiaoutdoors offers: “Unique, active (biking, skiing, hiking, walking) adventures in Northeastern Italy. Our tours combine expert recreational programming with an unmatched food and wine program.”

Where she works: “My HQ in my home in Newburyport, on the road in Italy, and the Northeast regions of the Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige, Fruili-Venezia Giulia, and Emelia Romagna.”

Her role: “I create and lead the culinary side of our programming, including selecting wines and the wineries we visit, leading cooking classes or selecting restaurants, and educating our clients on the regional cuisines.”

Favorite moment on tour with clients: “When they climb a hill they didn’t think they could, or ski a slope that perhaps made them a bit nervous at the top. With a bit of coaching, they can really rise to meet challenges they didn’t think they could handle a few days before.”

Best part of the job: “Italy is an incredibly diverse country. As we explore by bike, foot, or skis, each day we see different foods, wines, and traditions, all reflecting the unique culture, history, and geography of the regions we visit. It’s almost like visiting a different country every day.” italiaoutdoorsfoodandwine.com; chefbikeski.com.

Stylist and personal shopper Aricia Symes-Elmer helps fashion-frustrated clients achieve the perfect look.

As the fast-paced world of fashion grows more complex, some people have a tough time keeping up. Trends may come and go, but, as stylist and personal shopper Aricia Symes-Elmer tells us, it’s not always about the trend—it’s about a combination of feeling good and looking great.

Since 2008, Symes-Elmer, owner of the personal shopping and styling company Shift Your Style in Andover, has helped clients of all ages, shapes, and sizes revamp their closets to build practical, stylish wardrobes. The aim, she says, is to leave her customers feeling confident by wearing what looks great on their bodies.

To determine what fits and feels the best, Symes-Elmer always starts a new project by getting to know the client, his or her closet, lifestyle, body type, and the clothes he or she likes. Then, it’s time to get shopping. If necessary, Symes-Elmer will shop for a client and find the best-fitting styles out there. Depending on a client’s budget, she can integrate different clothing items without breaking the bank or even setting foot in a store.

“I don’t care what size or shape you are, how tall or old you are; you can look fantastic,” she says. “When I see women who haven’t bothered for a while, and I put them in a blouse, a dress, or a pair of jeans that looks great and I see their faces light up…[I think] ‘Explain to me why you wouldn’t just wear these jeans every day.’”

Symes-Elmer also works with shoppers at Northshore Mall in Peabody. In an initial briefing, she and her clients work together to determine a budget and shopping list. They then take to the mall to tackle the racks while keeping smart spending in mind.

Although Symes-Elmer started her fashion career in shoes and spent years traveling to Asia and Europe for her work in operations and manufacturing, fashion is where she knew she’d end up. It’s in her current line of work that the sartorial wonder woman and mom of three boys has been helping people realize that, no matter what, they can look and feel great.

“There are so many people who struggle with getting dressed,” she says. “For me, it’s creative, fun, and easy. I wanted to share that ability with people, but to also teach them how to do it themselves.” timetoshiftyourstyle.com.

Packing Pointers: Symes-Elmer’s ten essentials for a mid-season getaway.

1. A scarf to use as a pillow on the plane, tie your hair, add pop to an outfit, and wear as a wrap. 2. An extra top in your carry-on in case of spills. 3. Simple dresses: with bling and heels for night, or flats for a stroll. 4. A patent leather oversized bag that looks great and cleans with a quick wipe. 5. Layers! They give you lots of options. 6. Pack neutrals and complementary colors with pieces that pop. 7. Accessories that go from day to night. 8. A pair of flats and heels. 9. A metallic belt. 10. Go with your favorites. It’s fun to think you’ll wear those  “special” items that have been dormant in your closet, but stick with what you know best.

Rink Master, Larry Abbott

Whether temperatures outside are brisk or balmy, Larry Abbott can almost always be found on the ice. Abbott operates Hockeytown USA in Saugus all year long, a job he’s enjoyed for nearly four decades. The rink is a common gathering space among area youth and adult groups, whether for figure skating or ice hockey, but even Abbott himself will join in the action, competing weekly in hockey matches. Here, Abbott talks to Northshore about life on the ice.

How did you get into hockey? I started when I was eight or nine years old, and just because the kids in the neighborhood were doing it. We played on the ponds. I grew up in Melrose. We played hockey on the local teams, and then progressed to the high school level, and then I went to college and played at Boston University.

What do you love most about playing? It is something I have done all my life, and I have been in the ice business all my life. So I just enjoy the game. I enjoy the people. They are very classic people, hockey players. They seem to be very genuine. I like the team aspect of it. Everyone has to pull together. It’s good exercise, and we have a lot of fun and meet a lot of nice people along the way.

How do you create an adult ice hockey team? A team captain could come in and build his own team. We have some leagues that just take individuals. We place them according to their abilities, set their schedules up, give them shirts, and away we go.

How does younger players’ style compare to the older ones’? If you’re talking the 18- to 30-year-olds, they play a little different game than the guys in their 50s and 60s. The older guys grew up when there were no face masks, so they have a little more control over their sticks. The younger guys are products of an era where they had face masks, and the game became a little faster, a little more reckless, and a little more physical. The kids that have the face masks play with a little different style than the older guys that used to play without the masks and have a little more respect for what you do with your stick.

As a Bruins fan, how was it for you witnessing their Stanley Cup win last season? Oh, it was terrific. It was a great game to watch. They played with a lot of intensity and a lot of heart. After all these years of watching other teams do it, we finally got to watch the local team win. Hockeytownsaugus.com.

Transforming snow and ice into artwork with master sculptor  Sean Fitzpatrick of Fitzy Snowman Sculpting in Gloucester.

Except for ski trips and visits to the skating rink, snow and ice are often nothing less than a nuisance for many of us, requiring constant shoveling and scraping. But for Sean Fitzpatrick, master sculptor and proprietor of Fitzy Snowman Sculpting, the winter elements are pure and simple supplies from which he fashions stunning snow and ice sculptures. Fitzpatrick talks to Northshore about his unique craft and how he keeps frostbite at bay.
How did you get into sculpting? [I] fell in love with impermanent art after making my first snow sculpture…over 20 years ago. My passion took over, and I developed a very successful business plan as a result.

What was that first sculpture? Santa Claus, at the request of my then three-year-old daughter, Shannon.

Where do you work now? My work takes me all over the Unites States and around the world. Locally, a majority of my ice sculptures are created at my ice studio at Cape Pond Ice in Gloucester.

What tools do you use? Chain saws, blow torches, hand saws, and chisels.

How do you keep warm at work? With ice and snow, there’s a lot of Kevlar protection gear. I dress in layers but heat up quickly. It’s always 28 degrees in my ice studio in Gloucester, but with no wind, it’s fairly comfortable.

Ever have any mishaps or, because of the weather, meltdowns? Occasionally, weather can be a problem, which is why I always suggest tenting outdoor events.

What’s been your most challenging sculpture so far? Last winter, I created a 200-ton snow/ice village at the Derby Street Shoppes in Hingham.

Do you ever get any outrageous requests? I was asked to carve a 10-ton snow bust of Rachael Ray for her daytime show. I had less than six hours to create it. A typical project like that would take over 20 hours to create.

What’s the best part of your job? Performing in front of large crowds. It’s the best ego boost any artist can ever get.

What will you be working on next? I have several projects involving ice, pumpkins, sand, and team building, but not necessarily in that order. fitzysnowman.com. —Rebecca Kensil

Berberian at Andover Eye Care

Todd Berberian, the optician-turned-designer and owner of Andover Eye Care, sets himself up for stardom in the eyewear industry.

What does an optician do on his day off? How about design a line of eyewear so popular that his sunglasses will soon be featured in a movie? Such is the case of Todd Berberian, owner of Andover Eye Care, who created his line of Todd Rogers eyeglass frames in 2010.

In a way, Berberian’s story is a modern-day version of The Little Engine That Could. After all, breaking into an industry dominated by famous designers during an economic recession takes—no pun intended—vision. And, as Berberian points out, who understands vision more than an optician?

“I’m a bad artist, but I’ve always liked fashion,” says Berberian, who has been an optician for 20 years. But while his store sold some of the biggest brands in eyewear, he said he was often disappointed in the quality and style of the products. “One of the reasons I did this is that I was tired of buying super-expensive products that, when they arrived, weren’t perfect. They were crooked, or the plastic was of an inferior quality. And keep in mind that these are selling for big bucks.”

He soon found himself working after hours, creating his own designs and teaching himself more advanced techniques in cutting lenses. He learned to customize frames not only to fit his customers better, but also to be more flattering and more fashion forward. Eventually, he began to dream of starting his own fashion line, but was told from the outset by everyone that without money and connections, his chances were slim.

Again, he stuck to his vision. Often, the big-name designers who lend their names to eyewear don’t actually have any direct knowledge or connection to the industry. Berberian, on the other hand, knew his business, knew what customers liked, and knew what looked and felt good on them.

In his mind, the question was not “Why should an optician create designer eyewear?” but “Who else could do it better?” An important step in the process was to find a manufacturer who could not only turn his designs into reality, but do so at an affordable price. The process took four or five years, or as he puts it: “I had to kiss a lot of frogs.”

Berberian took several disappointing trips overseas to meet with potential manufacturers, during which time, he says, “I burned some bridges, and it’s a small industry.” Still, he persevered and finally found a few manufacturers who understood his goals. When his first box of frames arrived at his home, he said he got goose bumps, but even then, he took his time.

“I finally had my samples, and I went through each frame, one by one, for quality control. I showed them to friends. I took pictures of them, and studied them afterward before choosing the ones I wanted.” When the product arrived at his store, Berberian instructed his staff not to direct customers toward the frames or to let on that he was the designer. To his delight, the frames took off. The next step was to create brand awareness.

“Often, when people create a product, they just slap a name on the product,” Berberian says. “I knew I didn’t want to do it like that.” He created the name Todd Rogers—Rogers is his middle name and his mother’s maiden name—and put energy into creating catchy tag lines. The idea was to invest his fledgling line with “a feeling” that felt true to his personality and vision.

The next big test arrived when Berberian took his wares to the New York Vision Expo East, where they were assigned a booth at the bottom of an escalator that attendees had to use to reach some of the most popular exhibits.
“We designed the booth to look like what you’d see at a concert, with T-shirts stuck to the wall,” he says. One of them read: “I know you’re admiring my glasses,” with the “gl” and the “es” in tiny letters. Needless to say, the booth drew a lot of positive buzz. “We brought a new kind of vibe, and even though we’re a small company, the whole show was talking about us,” he says.

Berberian understood that creating that vibe was as important as creating the eyewear itself, and marketing played a key role in this part of the process. “We were looking to promote our indie name with viral marketing,” he says. One example of his creative marketing approach is an ad he shot that depicts Berberian with his back to the camera with his beloved dog, Prana. There are no eyeglasses in the picture, although there is a Todd Rogers logo on a T-shirt hanging out of his jeans pocket.

“On the way to the photo shoot, my PR manager told me that the camera does not like someone’s back, but people now tell me that it is their favorite picture.”

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before the word got out. Berberian was written about in a trade magazine called Eyecare Business, in which he was included in a piece on designers who are also optometrists and opticians. Another writeup, in which he was named among Andover’s “Hottest Bachelors” in The Andovers magazine, proved to be more embarrassing, although Berberian is a good sport about it.

“That article is going to follow me around forever,” he says, laughing. He was nominated by a customer and was under the impression that his appearance in the magazine would be a small, forgettable item. “Instead, I found myself on the cover,” he says, a fact he didn’t discover until he noticed a few people staring at him at Butcher Boy market, where the magazine was on display. “There I was, in sweats, a hoodie, and flip-flops, thinking, ‘get me out of this market— now.’” Nowadays, Berberian is off the bachelor market and is the doting father of a six-month-old son, Jackson.

If more proof were needed that Todd Rogers Eyewear has caught on with the cool set, a character in an upcoming film being shot in Toronto, called And Now a Word from our Sponsor… will wear a pair of Todd Rogers sunglasses in the movie. So with all this success, why is the designer still in Andover?

“I love Andover,” says Berberian, who moved there from his native Somerville—or “the ‘Ville,” as he calls it (the abbreviation is lasered onto a pair of white Converse sneakers that Berberian sometimes wears at work, a tribute to his hometown). He especially likes downtown Andover’s classic New England beauty and its inhabitants, a mix of locals and transplants. He also credits the great local schools, interesting companies, and beautiful houses for giving the town its character. “Andover is fashionable. It’s preppy, but, guess what? Preppy is a huge fashion influence, especially now.” That aesthetic is part of what influenced his designs, he notes, calling his eyewear style “Classic New England with a twist.”

Berberian also wanted to ensure that his eyewear sold at a reasonable price, noting that his line in his shop sells in the $200 range. That said, he admits that the optician in him sometimes gets in his way when selling his own eyewear.

“There have been times when someone comes in and wants a pair of Todd Rogers and there’s been another brand that fits better,” he said. “In that case, I steer them toward the other pair.”

When asked if he has advice for other entrepreneurs starting out in this difficult economy, he modestly replies: “If I can do it, anyone can.” On the other hand, given the dogged perseverance it took to get his line up and running, he can’t resist adding: “You also need to see between the lines.”

[Show as slideshow]

Andover Eye Care, 777 Main St., Andover, 978-749-7300

Robert Ventola

What he does: West Newbury-based Ventola heads up the visual design and consultation company Display Concepts, Inc., which specializes in window displays.

His clients: For 30 years, Ventola has created themes for numerous retail windows, including displays for John Farley Clothiers in Newburyport and Giblees Fine Clothing in Danvers. Ventola also designs for companies nationally and internationally and has done numerous runway shows.

His approach: “I want to know what [clients] like, where they go to dinner; I want to know about their lifestyle. It helps to formulate a direction for them, so when we do a presentation, we’re probably 90 percent [correct] with the first presentation. That is what has given us the reputation that we have.”

His favorite project: While designing a theme for a New York show based on faux fur, Ventola came up with the idea to use an all-white background with a white stage and to have every model walk down the runway with a St. Bernard—show dogs, of course.

Future projects: This year alone, Ventola has 31 projects for the holiday season. Come November, he will have his displays set, but until then, he will be spending every day in his shop designing and creating.

Making the grade with Phillips Academy Head of School Barbara Landis Chase. By, Lindsay Lambert

It’s back-to-school time again, but this academic year will be especially momentous for one local administrator in particular. After 18 years, the 2011-2012 school year will serve as Barbara Landis Chase’s last as Head of School at Andover’s prestigious Phillips Academy. Here, Chase talks to Northshore about her approaching retirement, the school’s elite alumni, and requisite (but harmless) student pranks.

How do you feel heading into your final year at the academy? My feelings are complicated—sadness at leaving a place where I have found such fulfilling and important work, and where my husband and I have lived happily for so many years, but also a sense of exhilaration as I contemplate the next chapter.

Phillips Academy boasts some powerful and influential alumni. What makes the school’s alumni so successful? Andover is a place that honors the life of the mind; it stretches students with the rigor of its academic program and the breadth of extracurricular activities. The school does its best to articulate and live its values, especially the motto Non Sibi (not for self) on the Academy’s seal and the directive from our 1778 Constitution to combine goodness with knowledge.

Have you ever been on the receiving end of students’ pranks? Most pranks are gentle and amusing, thank goodness. I do know they call me “Babs” when I am out of earshot. It is not a name I love or have ever been called, except by a few close friends who were teasing me, so I choose to think the nickname is in that spirit.

Were there any pranks that had to be punished that you actually found amusing? A few of our students once released blue mice (blue is the Andover color) in the library of a rival school. Not a good thing, for the mice or the other school’s library, but it was clever in concept. There was a penalty for that, not a terribly harsh one, but a penalty nonetheless.

What has been the highlight of the now 17 years you’ve spent as Head of School at Phillips Academy? I can’t possibly pick one; there are too many—fascinating classes, great performances and games, celebrations and conversations, periods of mourning when the whole school pulled together, getting to know amazing alumni. What ties all the high points together is the people—the students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents. They’re just the best.

Gail Boucher co-owner/artist at Atlantis Charter Art Cruises. By, Felicity Long

What she does: Boucher, or “Captain Gail,” as she’s known, leads art cruises on the Merrimack River aboard the Atlantis, a 37-foot motorboat.

A typical outing: Classes are unstructured and can be customized. “Sometimes an artist will bring a group of students, or a group will come without a formal teacher. We also get a lot of photographers.”

Best views: Artists especially love the views of Plum Island, the Old Coast Guard Station, and the lighthouse. “The boat’s tower offers wonderful views for photography, although passengers have to be physically able to climb it.”

Best part of the job: “I love talking to artists, but I’m also a fisherman, so the passengers are a nice mix. We have been doing this for 16 years, and we have a lot of repeaters. We don’t have to advertise very hard.”

The season: Cruises typically run from mid-May to mid-October. Because routes are affected by the weather, tide, and wind, a typical cruise involves anchoring off multiple scenic spots for quick studies. Trips are usually three to four hours, but longer excursions are available.

The crew: Boucher, her husband Norm, and their beagle, Winslow, named for the artist Winslow Homer, accompany passengers on every cruise.

atlantis-charter.com; glbfineart.com.