Jon Marcus wrote the book on Boston secrets. No, seriously. It’s called Unknown New England, and it’s among eight titles he has authored or coauthored, most about Boston and New England. Boston born and bred (and descended from a line of small-time Boston mobsters), Marcus is the former editor of Boston magazine and writes about New England and other topics for magazines including Conde Nast Traveler, Yankee, the Boston Globe magazine and websites including concierge.com. He teaches at Boston College and Boston University.
Amadeu Tolentino was born and raised in Brookline and has a degree in graphic design from Curry College in Milton. He’s lead web designer at Watertown-based Checkbox Survey Solutions, a developer of survey software , where he has played key roles in the revamp of the website; senior web and graphic designer at BevNet in Watertown. He and Marcus met in Juliet Simmons’s spin class and started brainstorming a project they could work on together. Proving that exercise can, in fact, be harmful to your health.
Raised in Franklin somewhere between Gillette Stadium and the Wrentham Premium Outlets mall, Jeff Wallace is a BC grad, a onetime scratch golfer, and a bartender who writes about music because he sucks at guitar and wants to feel like a rock star. Wally doesn't know how many shows he’s seen—around 700, he thinks, including Phish 14 times in one year and the Dave Matthews Band once a year with his mother. He wants to someday own his own bar. He’d call it “Wally’s” if that name hadn't already been taken by his favorite nightspot.
Courtney Megliola worked with rock stars and athletes as a publicist at the FleetCenter (or TD Banknorth Garden, or TD Garden, or whatever it's being called now), and has spent the past few years doing corporate PR, event planning, and marketing. A Boston University grad, she thinks Anna’s Taqueria has the best Mexican food in Boston, and that the Village Smokehouse in Brookline Village has the best barbecue north of the Mason Dixon Line.
Emily Crump-Milne is a lifelong New Englander who arrived in Boston by way of Connecticut and Rhode Island. A former marketing associate at the Boston Globe, Emily is an avid and indiscriminate animal lover who volunteers at the Quincy Animal Shelter, where she rescued two cats. Her husband thinks this is an upgrade from her pet rats, which were rescued from a medical-research company. Crump-Milne thinks she's found the best Indian food in the Western Hemisphere: Punjab Café in Quincy. If only they delivered…
Natalie Iknaian was raised way out in Marlborough, so it was not until she was getting her degree in graphic design in Boston that she realized what the big(-ish) city had to offer. She can live off apples and cupcakes, and her favorite secret is Paris Creperie in Brookline, which serves yummy Nutella hot chocolate.
T.K. Skenderian was born, educated, first employed, and had his first kiss in Boston. In that order. A BC grad, he once was a concessions vendor at Fenway selling things that no one wanted, such as Classic Coke and Yankees hats. Now communications manager for the Boston Athletic Association, he has worked as a production assistant for New England Cable News and a broadcast announcer for the Bourne Braves of the Cape Cod Baseball League. A world traveler, he once mastered an ATM in Yangshuo, China, that operated only in Mandarin. This remains the life accomplishment of which he is most proud.
Ming Pimhatai Tiemchaiyapum is a Bostonian by way of Bangkok, where she worked for the English-language Thailand Outlook Channel. Her favorite hobby is hunting for things that are free—free food, free movies, free drinks, free shows—and she’s good at it, trained in this important skill as she was during her time as a poor graduate student at Emerson College.
Keegan Skidmore first experienced the Boston running scene as an 18-year-old freshman at Boston College, where the marathon (and the party that accompanied it) was hard to avoid. His love for actually participating in the sport, however, didn't materialize until he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi, Africa. Three years and four marathons later he isn't looking back. In addition to covering the Vineyard, Skidmore contributes to the Fitcognito blog.
One of several Natalies on the mysecretboston.com launch team, Natalie Moravek is happy to go by just her middle name of Stella, risking as she does the inevitable Streetcar Named Desire reflex. (Go ahead—you know you want to.) A Boston University graduate with a degree in journalism, Moravek loves trivia nights, is a freelance copy editor, and lives in Cambridge.
Carla Rosa has the best address of all of us: Fenway Park, where she works at ARAMARK. Trilingual (in English, Spanish, and Portuguese), she was raised in New Bedford and started visiting Boston for its clubs, lounges and museums, eventually making the big (permanent) move up Route 24. Rosa is working on her business-management degree and likes music, running, basketball, and La Verdad restaurant for its carne assada burrito.
Born and raised in Belmont, Jared Keller has written for the Weekly Dig, National Journal’s “The Hotline,” The Atlantic Wire, and Preservation, the magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. A graduate of Wesleyan University, Keller has plenty of secrets of his own: a certified archer, he's the drummer of a little-known funk-soul quartet called Barefoot Junction and an occasional photographer. His favorite Boston secret? The largest stash of kung fu movies in the city.
Videographer and editor Brandon Thieme has been a producer for MTV and Men’s Health TV, NESN’s On the Hook and Port O Call, VH1’s Undiscovered Genius, NBC’s Hip Hop Nation FoxSport’s extreme-sports show Playground Earth, and many others.
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