New Kids on the Block: Bobbles & Lace Turns Up the Volume

  Every time I return home from school, be it for a week, a month, or a summer, I can bet that my friends and I will pay one particular boutique more visits than any other. That boutique is Bobbles & Lace, a little slice of high fashion amidst the more conservative clothing shops common on the North Shore. It came as no surprise that on my most recent visit, the cocktail dress clad manikins stood poised behind a large glass window that now boasts a most deserved Best of Boston accolade: “Best Party Dress 2009”. Considering the percentage of party dresses in my friends’ closets that came straight from the ever changing racks of the sparkly, Washington St. wonder, I can’t imagine a more deserving recipient. 

Boggles & Lace’s fun, trendy clothes and unique jewelry are not the store’s only selling point. Ninety-nine percent of the boutique’s clothing is under eighty dollars, and that’s before sale items are taken into account. Currently, the store is having a thirty dollar jean and shoe sale. That doesn’t mean the european denim and funky pumps are thirty dollars off, it means they cost a flat thirty dollars. The North End store, the second of three locations in Marblehead, Boston, and Newburyport, has two racks of clothing which are always fifty percent off of the ticketed price. Lindsay Rose Rando, one of the two owners of the Marblehead store, calls Bobbles & Lace “a family business”. She is the niece of co-owner Valerie White. Lindsay’s sister-in-law heads the Newburyport store, while her mother-in-law frequents all three locations. 

Both Lindsay and Valerie are veterans of the fashion industry, albeit in pretty different senses. Lindsay’s careers have taken her from LA to London, as stylist, model, and fashionista. Valerie’s job list is expansive as well, from selling jewelry off of a push cart on Newbury St. to serving as director of merchandising for a national store. According to Lindsay, the popular boutique was “kind of like the next step”. She and Valerie have never been happier, claiming that they have a warm familiarity with all of their regular customers (of which there are many). From size to personal style, the fashion loving family is generally able to spot a specific piece that will work for their particular shop’s frequenters; “You can go to Macy’s or something but never see the same face”. Not here; just name the occasion and trust that the perfect little dress/lacey top/kitten heels, will find their way to your dressing room.

While faces may remain consistent, the clothing certainly doesn’t. Lindsay and Valerie handpick all of the pieces that Bobbles & Lace carries, buying one of each piece of jewelry and one size in each piece of clothing. The philosophy? “You snooze you loose” claims Rando smilingly. While you may have to become a more motivated shopper to catch your perfect item, the exertion is worth the security that you wont be one of twenty wearing it to the party. 

 

Valerie is Bobbles, named after a store she worked in previously also located on Washington St., and Lindsay is Lace. The combination is, according to both Best of Boston and their ever growing army of faithful customers, a winning one. It’s a rare shopping experience when there seems to be an equal exchange between customer and retailer that goes beyond material. Both Lindsay and Valerie are genuinely happy in what they do, a fact that contributes as much to the store’s popularity as do their choices in merchandise. The same holds true for the family store’s two other locations. The key to their good fortune (besides passion and hard work)? Lindsay summates it with ease: “High fashion in a small town: good recipe for success”. 

Back to School, Back to School

To the first of faithful followers:

Spring semester classes commenced here at Trinity all of eight hours ago! 

Off to a great start with a schedule full of english courses, and thus far inspired and inspiring professors. Due to the combination of class work, track & field, and my position as arts editor of our school's weekly newspaper, my blog posts will be once weekly for the next few months but don't be disheartened! This should only aid their quality, and I'll be attending a bunch of great art happenings per the Tripod and will have a multitude of rockin things to share. 

My next post will be up tomorrow (or at this point, later today) - a review of a wonderful Marblehead store that's truly one of a kind. 

Going forward, Sunday will be the regular day for updates beginning this Sunday, so two going up this week. Check in then, or at your leisure throughout the week, for reviews of New England shows and shops, as well as nationwide reviews of movies, books, and albums. 

Thanks again for your support and interest! And the blog will be updated daily again come May. Remember to check out my next article later today and beyond that, Sunday's the day!

Blind Faith: The Depth of Eli

 

If word of the latest Denzel flick had you prepping for another action packed movie with a performance two thirds powerful and one third soulful from our consummate leading man, you wouldn’t be entirely ill prepared.The Book of Eli did build differently than many of the blockbusters, the success of which Denzel has been such a vital contributor. Excluding Training Day, Washington consistently portrays characters with an allegiance to the moral. He takes this vigor for values to a new level when stepping into the shoes of Eli. 

The Book of Eli paints a tough picture of a post apocalyptic world, one in which humans have survived only in the highest and lowest regions of the country (and presumably, the globe). We meet Eli in full camouflage, nestled into the leaves of the forest with a bow and arrow, his trademark weapon, where he expertly hunts the mutated looking cat that will be his dinner. Times is rough. He travels peacefully down a wasted desert road, entering the few houses he encounters in search of food, a night’s shelter, and whatever clothing he can claim from the dead bodies within. While Eli is subject to constant movement, the audience is quickly made privy to the one invariable aspect of our protagonist’s journey: he reads his large leather bound book day in and day out, without fail. 

And so the journey begins, Eli and his book amid the beautiful solitude of the desert. It isn’t until our first encounter with other people that we flirt with the notion that Denzel’s character might be a little..special. Single handedly taking down an overwhelming number of high jackers with the kind of artful choreography that makes war appear to be an art form, Eli continues on his path without a scratch into one of the Earth’s few organized civilizations. A civilization that is home to both the damsel, Solara, and the villain, Carnegie, in this not so classic, classic progression.

With a bit of persistence and lot of boldness, Solara (Mila Kunis), earns her spot as Eli’s fast learning and faster acting companion. And our villain? Carnegie, played to perfection by Gary Oldman, is a power hungry monarch posing as town mayor. One of the few people on the planet still able to read, he has a legion of illiterate brutes scour the roads for every book they can find in search of the one he desires (you’d be on to something if you assumed it was the book Mr. Washington has in his possession). 

An unpleasant encounter with Carnegie’s gang of hooligans in the town’s central bar captures the attentions of Carnegie and his eventual knowledge that Eli possesses the key to his success. A chase across country ensues, during which Eli will defy the odds, kick some more ass, and shock audiences into submission when a gape worthy truth is revealed at journey’s end. And the book? The secret to Eli’s calm command and the key to Carnegie’s ruthless pursuit for mass control? The Holy Bible. 

 

With The Book of Eli, faith trumps sight and impossible is only a state of mind. While the film builds more slowly than some of those which Denzel fans may be accustomed to, nothing is lost to this element on account of the intensity and surprise value the film ultimately provides. I’d recommend it to anyone who appreciates a good fight scene as well as some depth of inspiration. And an all star cast certainly doesn’t hurt the mix either. 

Paced on a Runaway Train: The METRIC Engine

Well, after listening to their CD on repeat for the entire summer, I finally saw Metric perform live this past month. An insane set, headed by Emily Haines (vocals, synthesizer, guitar) and rocked out by lead guitarist James Shaw, bassist Josh Winstead, and drummer Joules Scott-Key, left me with the same burning question I had had since June: why isn’t this band HUGE? Sure, some of the biggest songs from their fourth and most well circulated studio album Fantasies have been featured on the prime time TV show set, from Grey’s Anatom

y andCSI to Entourage and Gossip Girl, with a few video game features in between.

But a band that manages to retain thoughtful lyrics and indie rock cred without sounding sleepy or repetitive? A band with concert light shows reminiscent of a Parisian discotheque that sounds every bit as haunting and lively (antonyms only in lesser talents) live? These Canadian superstars should be topping charts on I-tunes by now. If you love music, you probably know who Metric is. But if you like music, you should know who Metric is. If you find organized sound remotely tolerable you should know who Metric is. But this is not, as of yet, the case.

Perhaps the issue is poor management decisions. While they are steadily picking up steam and fans as their unique sounds garners appearances on an increasing number of screen genres, a national tour might have been a bit preemptive. There was a decent sized group of hipsters and other indie cronies yelling alongside me at their performance in Connecticut, and I’m

sure more of the like at their shows in Bostonand New York City, but these are people who already know they have more to offer than their few radio plays. A stint as an introductory act for a more well known band’s national Headline might have been a more sensible endeavor, expanding their still limited fan base and allowing them to reach a larger populace come their time as a starring act across the fifty (okay, 48 because we’ll assume Hawaii and Alaska are getting the shaft) states.

At least you guys know about them now! Hope you’ll check them out because, for serious, good stuff. And poor or fantastic management decisions aside, I’ve no doubt Metric is on the rise because they’re simply too talented and stylish, in dress, performance, and of course their jams, to be headed in any other direction.

http://ilovemetric.com/

Four Steps to Freedom

There seems to be a stigma attached to reading self help books if you’re on the lesser side of middle aged. The stigma is not cool. So I’m pretty uncool, and it’s going great. My latest obsession? The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom. The four clearly defined “Agreements” are really just the best third of the classic Twelve Step approach. The message is clear, the directions, well, direct: make these four personal agreements and your life, thus far lived in a state of half lethargy, underachievement, or any number of  travesties well below what you were ordained to perform during your time on the planet, will become a rocket with a kick of Nas, topping light speed on your way to raging kick-ass-ness. A simple plan, a difficult discipline, a phenomenal book. And as is often the case in such an equation, legitimate results. 

You may be wondering, what is an agreement? As defined by Ruiz, agreements are all of those rules, regulations, and opinions that ultimately make or break our life experience. Before accepting Ruiz’s four, healthy agreements, we must shed those externally injected by society. These are not so much our own as they are fragments of humanity’s communal dream. A dream that, according to Ruiz, quickly went to hell.  These false agreements include the fact that you’re fat if you don’t look air brushed, or a dreamer if you’re taking risks for a career that you might actually like. They include that you’re only worth as much as your shoes, so keep your eyes perpetually to the pavement and only raise them when you come across a pair in your respective league. That you can’t laugh too loud, and you shouldn’t smile at people you don’t know; that you must be there by 7:30 am sharp so skip breakfast, run that red light, and flip off that elderly driver, slacker! That genuinely happy people are probably kind of crazy and if you aren’t double fisting a quintuplet shot expresso and a cell phone with some serious frown lines in the making, you’re probably lazy and not contributing to the happiness (read: collective misery and boundless self consciousness) of society. This is where The Four Agreements come in. 

1. Be Impeccable with your Word
   
2. Don’t Take Anything Personally 
3. Don’t Make Assumptions
4. Always do your Best 

With a gentle allusion to religious text, Ruiz enforces that speech is the blessing and curse of the human condition. The message is that, ultimately, we live in what comes out of our mouths. Negative speech creates a negative reality, while positive speech can only aid in building the opposite. Preaching practice as the key, Ruiz writes of attaining impeccable speech and the power inherent in doing so. In this same vein, the second agreement urges people to understand that the things others say, from insults to compliments, have nothing to do with you and everything to do with them. The idea is that everyone operates in the world based on their own agreements, incorrect as some of those may be, and their opinions and judgments reflect on only those agreements, not on you. In other words: “You eat all their emotional garbage, and now it becomes your garbage”. Nearly as freeing as the second rings the third agreement: Don’t Make Assumptions. Say goodbye to hours, days (cumulative years?) spent creating hypothesis about your imagined success, or destined failure, at something you’ve never tried; say goodbye to your bets about the complicated personal character of that guy who builds towers with his pencil shavings for the entirety of your morning psych class, and getting mad because a best friend/boyfriend/girlfriend/great aunt twice removed didn’t “just know” what you wanted for Christmas, needed to hear, thought of the movie, without your saying anything? Yeah, that has to go, too. The new order of the day? Ask, speak, act, sleep for goodness sakes, just don’t dive into the endless depths of educated, bitter, irate, joyful, or giddy guessing. 

And the grand finale: Always Do Your Best. Because, as I hear as though in a daze while half conscious at Bikram Hot Yoga, “If you can, you must”. Just try. Sucking with an effort is usually more rewarding than succeeding without one. It brings another Bikram mantra to mind, “you can’t build muscles you already have”. I’ll stop. But with repetition, these efforts begin to walk hand in hand with success more often, at which point you’re onto something. Ruiz certainly was, and though these are some of the most practice intensive agreements I’ve ever made (especially the first one..) they’re one more example of an effort well compensated. 

Diamond in the Roost - Salem Boutique Expands Possibilities for Taste on a Budget

You know that beautiful little boutique? The one tucked away on a quiet side street (preferably cobblestone), with the tasteful window hangings and the to die for hand made picture frames, antique home decor, and gem colored vases gleaming enticingly in subtle sunlight? You know how that artfully done up window is as close as you get to any of that little boutique’s treasures, because the first sight of a price tag might send you into cardiac arrest? Well eaters of Kashi and other heart-health conscious shoppers, say goodbye to the days of lonely sidewalks and enter the warmth of Roost. This diamond in the center of historic downtown Salem arrived on November 6th and has already created a sizable and ever growing buzz due to a rare combination of the traditional and the nouvelle. Add this to the ever rarer reasonable price point and looks like we might have a serious revolutionary on our hands. 

 

Owners and spouses Kate Leavy and Jamie Metsch created Roost with a clear goal in mind: “[We wanted] a place where someone could walk in, spend ten or twenty dollars, and feel like they got a good value”. From the acid toned flowers that adorn the windows to the earth toned house wares within, there’s nary a vase, bowl, or hip table accessory that doesn’t reek of casual elegance and a modern appreciation for antique sensibility. The shop’s full appellation “Roost Urban Country Design” is a perfect fit. The worn wooden armoires that line the back walls, adorned with sunny colored pitchers, neatly stacked decorative wine bottles, and beautifully illustrated home decorating books (one of which I purchased as a family Christmas gift at a shockingly good price) immediately bring to mind a city loft with a country tinge or a suburban home with a sprinkling of mod flavor. Leavy stocks the store with merchandise “..inspired by color, texture; things that are different with something for everyone”. From parents to college students, kids to the elderly, it seems hardly plausible that Roost wouldn’t be a hit across the board. 

Kate was scheduled to interview for a job one Friday. The Thursday before she proposed to husband, Jamie, that they open a store and run it independently instead; his response: “Let’s do it”. It’s been done. The ownership matches the vendibles in both taste and quality: “Jamie and I are all about recreating ourselves while creating value in our lives”. It looks like a mission well accomplished, and they were thoughtful enough to provide us with some great values while they were at it. 

Roost is located at 40 Front Street in Salem, Massachusetts and is open daily with the exception of Tuesday.