I awoke to the sound of a railroad whistle. A sound I do not often hear. However in small towns across the mountainous Tennessee Valley that sound is very much present. With diner coffee and trolley cars, Roanoke is a valley from the past.

During the summer of 2009 I began carrying around small blank notecards to make ink drawings. I ended up using many of them for a writing project www.cuppingatlanta.com that was published at roughly the same time. It was a great excercise and helped me slowdown and identify and capture a few fleeting moments.

There are quite a number of places where these images are from, Toronto, Canada; Antigua, Guatemala; Los Frios, Domincan Republic; Los Angeles, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Atlanta, Georgia; and a few others. Looking back at them all at once is a great reminder of the many exciting adventures I embarked upon during this time. Much of this travel was driven by the writing project I mentioned above, some of it was work related, some to visit and spend quality time with family members.

Driven by yet another coffee related project I am compelled to pick up a pen and paper to draw yet again. It is always a welcome excercise and I hope this forthcoming work is as satisfying as the last.

Recently on www.twitter.com/barismo it was announced there will be a new coffee shop coming to a space in Cambridge, I went down to the proposed location and took a few photos of the space as is. It will be interesting to see the transformation, the building has great potential, and is in a very walkable residential neighborhood just a short distance from the Cambridge City Hall on Broadway. Stay tuned for further developments!