my baby's name is jamco, new media

(the fun i have w/ my work... chef john caputo of

bin 36 cutting swordfish steaks before service)

to grab the bull by the horns, i've lost any momentum i had going with this blog with my writing silence over the past few months - and that's a major bummer to me.

i moved to chicago with no job and a recent master's degree specified to a field that - because i couldn't have plotted my career course better - doesn't exist in the job marketplace. it's not like there are tall buildings in new york full of firms eager and awaiting a creative writer to come and start crunching ledger sheets and quarterly earnings and mutual funds. writers crunch words, and as the internet grows, the written word holds less and less value.

so this blog, for all its worth, was my way to try and crack any kind of something that might lead to a job in chicago. and funny enough, it did.

writing that piece way back in july on stephanie izard's backyard party scored me a gig working her social media and website (a gig i'm still working). in turn, working for steph scored me a job waiting tables at hot chocolate, which is helmed by mindy segal who this year is nominated, for the fourth year in a row, for a james beard award for outstanding pastry chef in the country - and she's gonna win it this year. while i swore off waiting tables ever again after leaving boston, i made some good cash working this job and became friends with even better people, one of which set up an introduction to a woman i'd heard so much about, even before moving to chicago, and i badly wanted to meet. it was through this woman - i don't know why i'm keeping her anonymous, her name is ellen malloy - that i found work with the hearty boys doing the same type of work that i do for steph. that was november.

and i think it's pretty safe to say that november was the last month that i really kept this blog running at a pace that engaged the few readers i had.

(when the hearty boys' catering vans

were tagged, there was work for me!)

a couple weeks after i met ellen another friend of mine, who i also met at stephanie's dinner, referred me to bin 36 for social media work and again, i'm doing the same type of stuff for them that i do for steph. obviously, a pattern was developing. restaurants and chefs, so consumed with the thousand moving parts that compose restaurant operation, had no time to keep up with this new thing called social media, but like those who i'm working with, were smart enough to understand they needed to find some way to manage social media somehow in order to keep their business relevant. which, is too bad when you think of it, because shouldn't food speak for itself?

(and work with steph is never dull...)

the pattern was obvious. there was work to be had in this field, and there were few in chicago who could do it. and so, almost five months later, i'm finally putting the last pieces in place to move forward and enter this wide open field.

my company is called jamco, new media and when the logo is finished, it'll be a playfully spilled jar of jam that i hope will reflect my laid back and fun edge, while still instilling the confidence and appearance of someone who gets it. because if it doesn't, then obviously... i don't get it. and there's a good chance i just don't.

i'm working with lawyers for the first time in my life and saving up cash for the big checks i'll have to write to get this thing going. but it's fun - a lot of fun - and hopefully, i'll be back in my old cities, crossing familiar bridges, and pulling along old and new friends on this venture (that's right dante, i'm coming for you!)

so here i am, clearing the stale air from the past few months that covered the navel - and i hope taking the first step to resurrecting this little platform of mine to share these little stories about this stuff i love so much, this stuff called food.