Eli Jace walked into the Bloc 11 Café in Union Square looking like he stepped off the set of a Grunge rock band. He is a lanky young man with longish hair, and sports a beard in its seminal stages. Jace happens to be the Arts Editor of the local magazine the Somerville Scout. The magazine describes itself as: “Direct, Vibrant and Local.”

Jace, 25, is originally from Arizona, and came to Somerville last April. He did a stint as a stringer at a small paper in the Berkshires. But when the job went south he wound up in the Paris of New England, Somerville, Mass. Jace has a degree in Journalism, and he works at Target in Somerville to make ends meet. Jace told me that he lives with roommates near the high school on Highland Ave. He likes Somerville because it offers him the chance to write about a highly eclectic group of artists and events that are part of Somerville’s landscape.

I asked Jace what he writes about. He said: “ I concentrate on music and sports. One of my favorite pieces is about the post-apocalyptic performance/music group Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys. The iconoclastic group performed at the local club Radio. Jace writes in his article for the Scout:

“There was androgyny, Kabuki masks, red balloons, girls disrobing at intervals, breasts with mustaches, breasts without mustaches, Native American headdress… an inflatable Bozo the Clown, and some of the most chunky, grizzled rock’n’roll in town. My eyes were like wall sockets stuffed with too many plugs.”

 Jace said the market is very sour for aspiring journalists and like many folks of his ilk he hustles and struggles to get by. Journalism is not Jace’s only genre. He is also a serious fiction and poetry writer.

 He usually writes in the privacy of his apartment, and likes to take walks to Davis Square and Bunker Hill in Charlestown to clear his head.

Jace is also a consummate blogger. He uses this medium to create an audience for his work He tweets, and uses other outlets to spread his word.

I asked Jace about the Somerville Scout—his main writing venue. Jace said: “ It was started by Holli  Banks, and it is going strong with sponsors and advertisements. I profile members of the arts community. I find them by searching the internet, Google, etc…

There was a burning question I had to ask the young writer. “ Do you consider Somerville the Paris of New England?” This thoughtful reporter paused and nodded yes. Jace then left Bloc 11, and with his reporter’s gimlet eye he undoubtedly was looking for his next story.