As a “Game of Thrones” fan, I was glued to my television on Sunday for the première of the fourth season. It was superb, as I expected.Immediately following that dramatic episode, a new comedy debuted on HBO titled, “Silicon Valley.” I was in the mood for a laugh after all of the “Game of Thrones” murder and mayhem, so I decided to give it a shot. I’m glad I did, because it’s a hilarious look at the technology-centric culture of northern California.The show is the brainchild of Mike Judge, who’s known for cartoons such as “Beavis & Butthead” and “King of the Hill,” and the movies “Office Space” and “Idiocracy.”“Silicon Valley” is to the tech world what “Office Space” was to cubicle life. If you still wear at least 15 pieces of flair and have a red Swingline stapler on your desk — and if you have no idea what I’m talking about, I highly recommend you watch “Office Space” immediately — then I bet you’ll enjoy “Silicon Valley.”The show focuses on Richard Hendrix, a nervous, awkward programmer portrayed by Thomas Middleditch. Richard works at Hooli — a not-so-subtle jab at Google. Like all tech giants, Hooli’s all about innovation. The office looks like a colorful playground, complete with bicycle meetings. As the name suggests, employees use a massive, multi-seat bicycle to zip around the campus and chat about ... well, whatever it is programmers chat about.Richard lives with a group of tech-minded people in an “incubator” owned by Erlich (T. J. Miller). Instead of charging rent, Erlich wants 10 percent of his tenants’ creations. This colorful cast of characters includes Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani, who shines in all of his sketches on “Portlandia”), Gilfoyle (Martin Starr, of “Freaks and Geeks” fame) and Big Head (Josh Brener, who has appeared on the “Big Bang Theory”).That “incubator” rental agreement shows that the applications these programmers are developing may as well be lottery tickets — create the right thing at the right time, and you could become rich overnight. Just look in the news at Facebook’s recent purchases of Oculus VR for $2 billion and WhatsApp for $19 billion, and it’s clear that this comedy is based in reality.Richard’s working on a site called Pied Piper, which is basically a search engine for music. When it’s discovered that the site has some impressive functions that could be utilized in other programs, Richard finds himself in the middle of a “Shark Tank”-style bidding war between Hooli founder Gavin Belson (Matt Ross) and venture capitalist Peter Gregory (Christopher Evan Welch, who died in December from lung cancer).What would you do if you were suddenly offered millions of dollars for your creation? Would you take a buyout, or would you prefer to retain control of your company? That’s the panic-attack-inducing question that Richard faces in “Silicon Valley,” and I’ll definitely be tuning in this season to see what happens.“Silicon Valley” airs on HBO Sundays at 10 p.m.The first episode is available for free on YouTube: .
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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