Meet Jill: our more-than-enthusiastic Oak Bluffs sales guru whom we’ve come to know quite well over the past years. After all, she’s been summering on the Vineyard her entire life. Sailing away from her outside-of-Boston roots, she takes on island life and lots of sun-filled days at State Beach (her favorite sandy shore). We always look forward to visiting our Oak Bluffs store and catching up with Jill, knowing that she’ll talk our ears off about the latest scores (big-time sports fan right here!). And the best part for her is that she gets to meet vacationers from all over the country and work her magic.
It wasn’t hard for Jill to pick out what to wear for this shoot, as her favorite thing about working at Oak Bluffs is checking out the new merchandise that rolls on in (she had her eyes set on this dress!). Aside from tons of great memories from this past summer, she’s got a few things on her wish list to pack up before she takes off for her freshman year at William & Mary this fall. We wish her the best of luck and know she’ll be taking a little bit of the Good Life back to Williamsburg with good spirit and great style.
If you haven’t already heard... Martha’s Vineyard is an old fishing town with lots of history. But it’s the fishermen around here who keep the real story alive, and our friend Al Gagnon has more than a few fish tales to go around.
He’s been a captain, a mate, an offshore, onshore and commercial fisherman…and right now he’s at the helm of the Caroline for The Boathouse Club in Edgartown. It’s safe to say he very well could be a fish’s worst nightmare.
And like all great fishermen, he’s well known around the local watering hole, The Wharf, where he’s shared his fair share of shark chasing (yes, we said shark) and tuna catching adventures. Al has placed three times in the Monster Shark Tournament in Oak Bluffs, the largest sport fishing event in all of New England, where islanders and vacationers swarm the harbor to see anglers of all ages bring in their catches.
It’s also been said that he knows how to give back to his friends and family around the island by sharing his winnings and dropping off a few extra pounds of tuna on his way home from the docks now and again. And right now, he’s been extra busy pulling together a little crew of his own with his brand-new daughter Piper and son Fisher (we bet he’ll most definitely live up to his name.) When it comes down to it, we think Al’s a great guy to get on board with.
Phil’s a born-and-bred Vineyarder who eats, lives, breathes and sleeps music. When he’s not performing with local bands or on tour, you’ll find Philly D (as friends call him) up in his new state-of-the-art Oak Bluffs recording studio, TPS (a.k.a. The Print Shop Studio aptly named because it’s over his family’s stationery store), working on new tunes or laying down multi-tracks for others. Meanwhile you can hear Phil play his Vineyard-inspired rock music throughout the year at various island spots to the delight of both the locals and tourists alike.
We sat down with Phil at the newly renovated Dreamland Ball Room where he’s currently the entertainment director who gets to seek out great talent to perform at this famous venue. In fact, this season alone he’s booked some amazing groups (like the bands DCLA and Kodacrome) playing everything from jazz to electro-pop to hip hop/rock.
It’s been Phil’s dream to be a combo solo-artist/producer/director living the Vineyard Good Life. Well, as Ian (who’s no stranger to the music biz himself) put it, "That’s what we call a great mix!"
