Looks like St. John, sounds like Sinatra
Friday, February 9th, 2007
There is no shortage of great, live music on St. John. Marty Beechler, aka Marty Beech, is one of the island’s most prolific performers, covering great rock bands as well as his own material at venues around the island, like Chloe and Bernards, Infusions and The Beach Bar. And now Marty Beech has his own CD called Summer Wind, a Tribute to Frank Sinatra. Meet Marty, hear his “how I got here” St. John story, and find out the inspiration for his tribute to Old Blue Eyes in OnStJohn TV’s newest interview. Watch it here!
Not funny. But kinda is, since nobody got hurt. The local paper reports two jeeps (both yellow by the way) collided head-on last week on the road that runs from the barge dock to Marketplace. The Tradewinds says one of the drivers was on the wrong side of the road. We are more worried about all the trucks than forgetful vacationers. The trucks have always been a scary problem, but it just kind of seems they’re driving faster and crazier than ever. Please remember to stay on the left. And if you hear a big truck gearing down around the corner or over the hill, stay way, way left. Some of these truck drivers think the line in the road is meant to be straddled.
Virgin Grand Estates finally has new signage at its entrance, after years of a tattered, faded piece of plywood. We think VGE is the new IN ‘hood. After decades of starts and stops, it has really started to develop. There are some great villas up there, many of them in rental programs. Years ago, you could access Virgin Grand Estates right from South Shore Road. The road is still there. Turn left at the Westin into the timeshare drive. It’s been blocked off for a long time, after a dispute between the developer and the hotel. SOMETHING YOU MAY NOT KNOW: If you rent a villa up there, you can still walk down the hill to that entrance. A nice short cut to the Westin for lunch or hanging out at Great Cruz Bay. Don’t think I’d do it at night though. It’d be creepy scary walking up the hill in the dark. 
The photo in last Sunday’s NYT identified as a St. John villa is “Cote’ Sud,” according to the nice folks at the Travel Section desk. (When you’re On-StJohn, your emails get answered.) And now we know why we didn’t recognize the villa. Cote’ Sud is actually on Frenchman’s Bay on St. Thomas. The NYT even referenced it in a 
As you’re eating, drinking, yelling and cheering today, just a quick time out from your friends at On-StJohn.com. Did you order the Virgin Islands 50th anniversary DVD? We’re posting this again because we know a lot of people watched the preview and interview with producer Steve Simonsen that we put together. But we don’t know how many of you bought it. 
The On-StJohn newsroom was crippled over the weekend by an onslaught (three) of spam comment postings. The entire IT staff (Russ) worked feverishly (20 minutes) installing mission critical software to protect our enterprise architecture. (You know people who actually use words like this, don’t you?) Strangest thing. We did get hit with spam comments. And they attempted to post to the Bartender entry. And they were pharmacy spams with one keyword in common. The name of the drink that Michelle made: P***KIL**R. Thanks, but no thanks. We prefer ours with ice and a cherry. 
Introducing a new, occasional On-StJohn feature: Our Favorite Bartenders. We start with OUR favorite bartender. Everybody else is a distant second to Michelle at the Beach Bar. Michelle came to St. John a few years ago by way of Boston. She is funny, sarcastic and very good at what she does. She’s also tough. She can chase Crazies out of the bar like a 300 pound bouncer. Believe me, we’ve seen it! Oh, and she’s also pretty hot. 
The highest-priced villa ever listed for sale on St. John will have a new owner soon. Cliff House, a sprawling 5 bedroom manse in Peter Bay complete with its own gym and a Queen Mary pool deck, is under contract, according to several sources, not the least of which is a big old front page story in the Tradewinds which pretty much makes it official. Cliff House was most recently listed at just under $13 million. Its owner for the last decade has been Starfish Market owner David Mugar. (What, you thought the owner of Starfish Market lived in a lean-to?) You can see it from Cinnamon Bay. It’s the big, pinkish house above Ritchie Rich’s place. 
We’re one (month) old! How are we doing? No really. Ya gotta tell us. What do you want to see more of. (Or less of. We can take it.) Thanks very much for reading. We’re having fun putting something together every day. And we appreciate the feedback that says you’re enjoying this site too. And as long as that happens, we’ll be more than motivated to keep helping you waste a little of your productivity every day. There are a couple of new features we’re putting together, and we’re willing to tinker with the site to make it more interactive. (But no formal forum. There are already excellent places to go for that.)
