With the new school year starting there is plenty to think about and much to learn.
Discovering New Haven for the first time, whether you're a fresh-faced college student or a brand new professor, can seem daunting.

Most people will tell you, all you need to know is one five-letter word: pizza. Sure, that's true and hats off to the contenders for the best pie, Modern Apizza, Sally's Pizza and Pepe's Pizza. But there's so much more to this city of Elm than thin crust and good cheese, and to prove it we've solicited help from some of the area's top dogs in their fields to dole advice on such things as music, food and drink. Plus, they threw in the much-coveted "life advice," helping people learn exactly what they need to know.

If you're going to get acclimated with this place, you might as well know who are the people behind all the unwritten rules, trends and pure fun.

Today's economy has brought a wave of DIY types who no longer buy prepackaged, pre-processed, but instead ravage the internet searching for an at-home, do it yourself solution. It's DIY for everything from roofing a house to making baked onion tartlets. The era of Renaissance men and women has begun.

Seeing this trend develop over the past few years, Barcelona Wine and Tapas Bar spirits director Chris Hickey, knew it was only a matter of time before his clientele would want to know how to make the delicious and much-acclaimed drinks Barcelona has been recognized for.

A beer is not just a beer and a burger isn't just a burger. At least that's the one thing to take away from the recently opened Prime 16.

Inside this Temple Street hot spot, it's obvious that the guys running this show have an eye for detail. Though a burger joint to the core, there's not waitresses wearing pieces of flair, nor is there bric-a-brac and rusty license plates on the wall.

Independent music has gone through a bit of a change over the years. Once a tag phrase used to categorize any bands or tunes that weren't tied to a major label, stuff that was "indie" soon became a descriptive for a particular sound. And even that pigeon-holing changed a bunch.
But with word change and altered semantics and all that aside, the basis of independent music was indeed, a do-it-yourself community of bands and music lovers. And that's Gary Vollono in a nutshell.