Sorry to see that Sony’s DVD manufacturing plant in Pitman, NJ, is closing after 50 years of making albums, then CDs, and most recently DVDs. This newspaper link mentions the great loss to NJ of a plant that “dates to the birth of rock and roll” but leaves out one of the most historic aspects of the place…that a young New Jerseyan named Patti Smith worked there briefly before setting out for New York and super-stardom. I believe that “Piss Factory” was inspired by her work at the CBS (now Sony) manufacturing plant. More here about the plant closing… http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011110113019
Real Stars of Jersey Shore, Halloween stylin’
October 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The Jersey Shore is crawling with artsy types. Our newly arrived OG neighbors Chris and Marc Zingarini are another great example. Chris was formerly with Goldman Sachs and is now owner of fashion forward pet boutique Doggie & Kitty Style in Haddonfield, NJ, but you can tell by her fantastic trousers what a rocker she is. Marc, who has been recognized by the publisher of the PA edition of Super Lawyers magazine as being among the top 5 percent of practitioners in his practice specialty in PA, is a Trenton native and a Jersey guy at heart. He and Chris are the world’s second biggest Alejandro Escovedo fans (we at Shore Fire are #1) and love Neko Case, Bruce, and country music too.
Photo’d here: Chris Zingarini, Raul, and Marc Zingarini.
And Mango Laverty, featured in a K-9 copy outfit from Chris’ boutique Doggie & Kitty Style. Pumpkin mask courtesy of Martha Stewart’s Grandinroad collection.
A Real Star of the Jersey Shore
October 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The real stars of the Jersey Shore aren’t Snooki and The Situation, they’re folks like the tremendously erudite and impossibly elegant NBC anchor Brian Williams, a Monmouth County homie of ours. Brian’s recent interview feature with Bruce was terrific, btw, both intelligent and fun.
Enjoying the autumn sunshine post-interview are me (Marilyn Laverty) and the awesome Mr. Brian Williams.
If you want to see the interview, here it is.
Smarts and Arts at Jersey Shore
October 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment
MTV programming notwithstanding, more signs of intelligent life at the ‘real’ Jersey Shore: Talented Ocean Grove neighbor David Spelman, who splits his time between OG and NYC. David and I met to discuss art and business at lunch at Asbury favorite The Boards, where we met his wife graphic designer Mary Wagner, then biked around a bit.
David has an expansive palette of talents, is a cosmopolitan friend and a great socializer. In fact, just last night he introduced me to visionary (and dapper) producer Charles Cermele at Mavis Staples’ sold out City Winery gig (we love Mavis). Charles’ stewardship of Lincoln Center’s American
Songbook series has been so brilliant and well received, no wonder we were honored to hear from Mr. Cermele that he is a fan of our “curating” of Shore Fire’s roster! And guess what we discovered — Charles Cermele is another neighbor at the Jersey Shore, a long-time homeowner in Asbury Park.
In these photos: Marilyn Laverty with music supervisor/producer/Ellnora Festival curator David Spelman returning from an Asbury Park bicycle safari.
Below: Marilyn Laverty, Mango, and David Spelman outside Shore Fire South. Mango needs an agent, btw, he’s a natural star…..and he’s hungry.
Moguls and Mavericks
September 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The Toronto International Film Festival world premiere of The Promise: the Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town combined a visit to one of my favorite cities with the chance to do the red carpet ‘thang’ with two of my favorite people, brilliant manager Jon Landau and award-winning director Thom Zimny. The film is remarkable, btw, a rock’n'roll Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. It showed me I could take some lessons on being a ‘boss’ from the film’s hero. Bruce’s interaction with the band during challenging recording sessions is a model of patience and restraint. I could use a little more of that and will try harder, fellow ShoreFireians.
From left: Jon Landau, Marilyn Laverty, Thom Zimny, and TIFF’s extraordinary PR director Pamela Mollica (thanks for everything, Pam!)
Counseling Cornell kids
September 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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
September 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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…
Summer Shakespeare Fun
August 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Summer means time outdoors and while many folks prefer barbecues and swimming pools, I’d be lost without al fresco concerts and Shakespeare productions. Shore Fire’s had great outdoor shows, from Zac Brown to the National to Government Mule. And having theatrical friends has made my outdoor experience with the Bard even more sublime this year. The New York Classical Theater’s rendering of Richard III featured Monmouth County friend (and Sam’s former classmate) Sean Gilbert (pictured here in rehearsals) in the role of Prince Edward.
It was a fabulous outdoor production which took advantage of several breathtaking Central Park backdrops as both players and audience traversed from scene to scene on a perfect moonlit night. I had previously seen Sean Gilbert in musical productions, and was impressed by his handling of Shakespeare!
Delightful weather was in store in NJ last weekend when I was one of a robust crowd of almost 500 on hand to see the terrific Spring Lake Shakespeare in the Park presentation of Twelfth Night. Pictured here: Marilyn Laverty (me) with the charming Countess Olivia (Lilly Darche) and indefatigable producer Jeanette Pappas, two of my favorite and most talented Jersey Shore gals. Kudos to producer and director Sandra (Sam) McLaughlin and a musical shout out to Tom Mac Gowan!
Beautiful people, beautiful Seattle
October 14, 2009 By 1 Comment
One great thing about Seattle is the people are as nice as the city is beautiful. I had a great time in Seattle recently meeting with Nicole Vandenberg of Vandenberg Communications, Trey Many and Ali Hedrick of the Billions Agency and Kate Jackson and her colleagues at Sub Pop.
Vandenberg Communications prez Nicole Vandenberg with me in Pike’s Place Market after our lovely lunch at Matt’s in the Market.
I enjoyed a latte with Ali Hedrick and Trey Many at The Billions Agency near their offices on 1st Ave.
I was also given a tour of the Sub Pop offices by their PR head Kate Jackson. Here I am with Kate in front of Sub Pop’s historic photo collage.
Thanks to Virginia Piper at Vandenberg Communications who rushed to help me retrieve my Blackberry and saved the day. I hope to return to visit again soon.
Happy 84th, David Gahr – Fete for Legendary Photographer
September 21, 2006 By 15 Comments
It was worth driving 80 mph on the Jersey Turnpike yesterday morning to make it to Manhattan’s Cosmic Diner (52 St. and 8th Ave.) in time to sing “Happy Birthday” to legendary photographer and all-around mensch David Gahr. Gahr, who turned 84 this week, is known to us not only as a great shooter who captured some of the best images ever of musicians such as Bruce Springsteen; Bob Dylan; Miles Davis; John Lennon, Janis Joplin (see the great photos) and so many top stars. He’s also one of the funniest, most irreverent, and occasionally downright vulgar photogs we’d ever let near a superstar. When David is around his subjects, he’s the star!
David’s good friend, the venerable scribe and man-about-town Arthur Levy, organized the guest list, ordered the birthday cheesecake from S&S;,chauffeured the guest of honor from Brooklyn’s Park Slope in the midst of the season’s worst traffic (thanks to the United Nations) and managed to keep the whole thing a secret.
Biff Henderson, of the Letterman Show, happened in on his lunch break; Arthur pursuaded him to say hi to Dave.
David Gahr surprised even those who’ve known him for decades with a story about meeting Marilyn Monroe when David was on assignment to cover Monroe’s husband Arthur Miller (Monroe had only a bathrobe on, and she pulled a photo of his out from under it.) Hanging on every word were: “Sing Me Back Home” producer Leo Sacks; Holly George Warren, author of an upcoming bio of Gene Autry, who also volunteered to drive David to his account in Queens after the bash; long-time Gahr attorney Joel Siegel; independent record producer Gregg Geller; Verve’s Joe McEwen; former Sony pr VP Mary Ellen Cataneo McEwen, looking gorgeous while chatting about Montclair, kids and the record biz with her erstwhile colleagues, pr consultants Howard Wuelfing and Keith McCarthy; Andy Schwartz, taking a break from work on his forthcoming rock history book (with Scott Schinder) for an educational publisher; Legacy producer Steve Berkowitz, who’s just completed ‘Johnny Cash: the Legend, Volume 2′ and is working on a complete collection of the works of Lonnie Johnson; former Sony staffer Barry Feldman, whose Barry Feldman Financial Services for NY Life specializes in music biz clients; Sony BMG Special Markets’ Doug Wygal; and our wonderful friends at Legacy, those intelligent and soulful guys Jeff Jones, Adam Block, Tom Laskey, John Jackson and Randy Haecker.
Happy Birthday, David Gahr! 84 years young…and feisty!
