Hello World...

Thank goodness I have those 9 lives...well 8 now.

When I first bought property in Northampton, Massachusetts it was 20 years ago. My family had moved to Massachusetts 5 years prior and I had found a place I truly adored. Northampton had a certain, yet deliberate, quality of artistic arrogance equal to the masses, be it poor or rich...it did not matter. If you became accepted into the Northampton community you were blessed...it was a truly unknown corner of Heaven.

Northampton, Massachusetts is, as it has always been, the ART CAPITAL of the UNIVERSE. IF you are a writer, poet, musician, painter, with any real talent you resume better include Northampton, Massachusetts. This town blossoms with the excitement of Georgetown, DC with the anonymity of the most stringent AA meeting. Every corner of Northampton is haunted with romantic rumors that claw into academia while given pure credence to urban myths the area is famous for. Not only has Northampton been the back drop for movies like "Cider House Rules" and "In Dreams" but it plays real life to it's own rich, sometimes demented, past of music, art, love and academia.

After living in Washington DC for so many years I found Northampton a perfect place to settle down and raise a family. I had a family business in the next town and we were quickly becoming a thriving member of the local Chamber of Commerce. This was truly a young Italian man's dream. After unfortunate circumstances much of this dream of a impeccable Northampton was lost...not only for myself and my family but for most of the Northampton residents and, at the time, store owners. To understand why Northampton went in a different direction you need to understand that much of a cities politics is dictated by the real estate and who controls it. It is hard to name names but Northampton fell victim to a cycle of corporate minded real estate control and a, kind of, Monopoly plagued it's very ownership. Ironically, in 1989 Northampton and Smith College both produced thrier own versions of Monopoly...I know this because I printed the games through my printing company in Hadley MA...SUNRAISE.

I guess, at the time, Northampton had big hopes to become larger than life with the likes of celebrities like Kevin Eastman, co-creator of the Teen Age Mutant Ninga Turtles and the less known music originator Dinosaur Jr. We were in the presence of true artists born from the very streets we walked in every day. Northampton, after the movie companies moved in, went from being Jesus Christ to becoming Jesus Christ Superstar and it was no fault of the city...A city has no consciousness, does it?

Well I would like to be the first one to say WELCOME HOME NORTHAMPTON, MA! I became reintroduced to a city that is going to do it right this time. The city streets quietly bubble with excitement as we enter a new chapter of city pride... a city owned by the people for the people. A place where art is in it's infancy and you may run into Pablo Picasso if you keep your eyes open. A city so rich in education that after a coffee at the local Starbucks you leave with an honorary doctrine in humanity. A geographic anomaly where contradiction is constant and consistency belongs to the contributing citizens. The citizens are nothing less than street scholars with an education perfect in it's balance academic certification and street doctrine. I sleep well knowing the works of art that reside at Northampton's Smith College Art Museum...a museum equal to that of the Hirshorn in Washington DC, are safe and protected. I love my city and she loves me back.