Go To Tuesday

A scissor-kicking live act that tours 200 days a year - Count me in for Gaelic Storm on Wed.

Tuesday, September 14
Max’s Kansas City- Steven Kasher Gallery

Wednesday, September 15
Gaelic Storm- Highline Ballroom
Sahara Smith- Union Hall

Thursday, September 16
Clare Burson- Joe’s Pub
Sahara Smith- Living Room
Jukebox the Ghost- Williamsburg Music Hall

Monday, September 20
Jason D. Williams- Lakeside Lounge

Counseling Cornell kids

I am always glad to help Cornell students, and was delighted to join Cornell’s panel on A New Media Landscape at the Cornell Club in NY recently. Thanks to Magdalena Kalinka Bartishevich and Amanda Christofferson at Cornell for organizing the event and inviting me to join the high powered pack of alums which included Ken Saji, Senior Editorial Director of MTV Networks (Cornell ‘92) as moderator, and panelists Susan Danzinger, Founder and CEO of DailyLit (Cornell ‘86), Scott Schiller, Senior VP of Advertising and Sales at Comcast Interactive Media (Cornell ‘81), and Sheryl Tucker, media and conference development consultant to Time Warner Inc. (Cornell ‘78), pictured from left to right, along with me, below.

We touched on a lot of topics regarding media’s future and the job market, and the Cornell students were an engaged and intense audience. My advice to today’s grads is this: Study the classics but embrace each wave of  technology as it is breaking through…and be aggressive about developing social media skills that you can bring to your career.

Another Side of the Jersey Shore

Shore Fire South’s location in Ocean Grove, NJ, keeps us up on the thriving NJ music scene and exposes us to many delightful artistic and spiritual neighbors who view OG as a mecca. Such was the gathering at the home of journalist and author Mary Walton, whose “A Woman’s Crusade: Alice Paul and the Battle for the Ballot” has been hailed by Ms. Magazine as “richly endowed…detailed, absorbing”. A former reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Mary dedicated her groundbreaking work on the NJ suffragette to legendary Inquirer editor Gene Roberts. Pictured: author Mary Walton accepts kudos from her friend Connie Ogden; both women are generous contributors to the Ocean Grove community.

We also met Paul Goldfinger (aka blogger Blogfinger) at the party…Paul has all the real inside skinny around Ocean Grove and Asbury Park, and describes his eclectic blog as a ‘digital breeze from the Jersey shore’…later I stopped by the Tumblety Howell Gallery, where artists such as Don Bernhardt, Sue Tumblety, and Joan Laufer toasted photographer Esta Singer on her first show at the gallery. I’m especially drawn to Esta’s cellphone shots of OG and Asbury in winter; they capture the solitude that I love about the beach at that time of year. Here, artist and gallery owner Peter Tumblety hangs with Esta and Marilyn Laverty while master framer Terry Howell greets a collector.

Last week, Shore Fire staffers Mark Satlof, Lauretta Charlton and Chris Brudzinski visited Shore Fire South for the day…here we gather for lunch at the legendary Windmill, home of the world’s best hot dog.

We worked hard all day but got a chance to sample the surf before Earl moved in…

Lunch With Peter Himmelman

Peter Himmelman was in NYC this week to promote his new album ‘The Mystery & The Hum‘ (an album that Nick Loss-Eaton and I think is a masterclass in songwriting – listen to “This Lifeboat’s On Fire“) and after a visit to Sirius/XM, Peter and I agreed that lunch was in order.

Peter adheres to a strict Kosher diet and has an iPhone app that locates the closest Kosher restaurants with directions and a menu!  We went to the unassuming Taam Tov on 47th Street, a bustling Buhkaran Kosher restaurant tucked away on the third floor of a  slightly shabby building – it turned out to be incredible, with a very interesting menu of specialties from what is now Uzbekistan and the surrounding region.  We were both gushing about how great the food was for the rest of the day.  Another reason to love NYC – stumble into a seemingly off-the-radar Kosher/Uzbek restaurant in midtown and have a great meal…

Peter had Kharcho – a soup with beef, vegetables and garnished with cilantro.  He also ordered Baba Ganosh that came with a massive round of a traditional bread called Lepeshka.  The bread was excellent: a crusty shell with a fluffy center and covered with flame-licked sesame seeds.

I had Shawarma and it was great – filled with yogurt and lamb and set on top of a pile of crispy fries.

Here’s Peter telling the waiter how much he loves his soup:

the spread:

Never Been To Mississippi But Eden Brent Live Is The Next Best Thing

OK, I’m not going to lie, I’ve not been to Mississippi but watching Eden Brent perform at Rockwood Music Hall last month is the next best thing. She’s lived on the Mississippi river all her life, coming from a line of towboat legends. She learned to play her signature Delta boogie-woogie piano in Greenville, MS, earning the nickname Little Boogaloo after her late mentor Abie “Boogaloo” Ames. Here’s a photo of Eden, Mark, Nick, Tad Hendrickson of AOL Music and me after her Rockwood performance.


The most incredible thing about Eden Brent is her one-of-a-kind, larger than life personality, which shines through brilliantly during her live performance and on the record. Listen to her riotous NPR Weekend Edition interview with Scott Simon HERE. Brent’s new record definitely has a southern soul, but there’s also jazz and ballads.

Listen to Eden Brent’s new record ‘Ain’t Got No Troubles’ (9/7, Yellow Dog Records) HERE.

And HERE.