Some SWEET Melodies

May 7, 2012 By Josh Leave a Comment

I had the pleasure last Friday night of attending a house party (a “Sweet and Greet,” if you will) in honor of Brooklyn’s singer/songwriter sweetheart Risa Binder. Risa, whose debut album ‘Paper Heart‘ came out this past February, has an impressive catalog of self-penned narrative country-pop gems that she shared with a packed apartment of friends and acquaintances.

Risa led a beautiful understated sing-along of one of my favorite songs of all time, Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams”:

And watch Risa perform “You Made It Rain,” the autobiographical lead single from her debut album:

And it wasn’t only Risa’s voice that was sweet as sugar; the incredible Baked By Melissa also supplied the party guests with some complimentary bite-size cupcakes that defy words. My favorite? The peanut butter & jelly cupcake, of course.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that this is the first of many “Sweet and Greet”s I attend in my lifetime, because Music + Desserts = nothing better.


Thanks Baked By Melissa for the treats! Definitely made a sweet night even sweeter!

(And Risa’s right, the peanut butter cup is to die for.)

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Tagged With: baked by melissa, risa binder

Warning: This Will Make You Hungry

March 27, 2012 By Kyle Leave a Comment

I’ve lived in Brooklyn for more than two years now and the novelty still hasn’t worn off of Pies ‘n’ Thighs. The week I moved to South Williamsburg, the reopening of Pies ‘n’ Thighs in a new location right down the street was the talk of the neighborhood, so I had to pop my head in and check it out.

Biscuits and gravy, chicken biscuit, chicken and waffles, catfish, mac ‘n cheese, black eyed peas – I was overwhelmed with delicious. (Yes, there are some tasty non-meat alternatives as well, like the “Hippie Banjo” egg sandwich on a biscuit, with avocado, sprouts, tomato, and mayo.) Post-meal, there was a variety of some of the richest pies I’ve ever tasted, along with donuts and cake. For a warm summer brunch, their Shandy (lemonade and beer mix) is tough to beat.

Two years later, and rarely a few weeks go by when I don’t venture back to my first and favorite Brooklyn dining spot – which I’m sure my body hates me for. I haven’t spent a great deal of time down south, but the consensus in my circle was that this as legitimate as NYC southern cooking can get. They don’t need my blog post either, having been featured on TODAY Show, The Martha Stewart Show, in The New York Times and a variety of other outlets since re-opening.

Fun fact – the joint was founded by Stephen Tanner, Georgia native and bassist of amazing sludge-rockers Harvey Milk.

http://piesnthighs.com

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Tagged With: brooklyn, Brunch, Harvey Milk, Pie, Pies n Thighs, Southern Food, williamsburg

Week of Beauty

February 7, 2012 By nmaldonado Leave a Comment

We kicked off 2012 with a pretty intense month of January, Shore Fire’s most successful January on record, actually! So what better way to relax while still being productive than bringing the beauty salon to us? The kind ladies of our Brooklyn Heights neighbors, Plaza Nails, brought their equipment to give the office manicures. Here are a few shots of the manicures in action:

VP Mark Satlof enjoying a basic buff. No polish!

Lauretta Charlton taking advatange of a new color in the office before heading off to a wedding

The best part about the nail day was the spontaneous decision to include pedicures as well! When faced with the obstacle of adding a place for warm water into each office for a pedicure, Carrie Tolles offered an interesting yet creative solution by bringing out her crock-pot, conveniently located in her office. See for yourself below:

Carrie Tolles and her handy crock-pot (Nice book, Carrie!)

To sweeten the deal even more, we finished off the week with a couple of days of massages by the incredibly talented (and very friendly!) Karen Clifton Mahoney of Karma Massage. Karen hauled her chair over to Suite 1600 and turned everyone’s muscles to putty. Caleb Shively said it best when he described Karen’s work as making him “feel like a kid again.” We all left the room relaxed and revitalized, just what we needed. Speaking of Caleb, he followed instructions perfectly by bringing comfortable clothing. Check out these photos of the days of relaxation with Karen and be on the lookout for Caleb’s sweet pants:

Now THIS looks relaxing!!! Anthony D'Amato getting a head massage

Madelyn Frascella enjoying a little work on her back and shoulders

Caleb Shively's Venice Beach weightlifter pants

Thank you, Marilyn, for giving us a great week of relaxation! This was such an awesome way to kick off the new year! Bring on February!

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Tagged With: Business Perk, crock pot, Karma Massage, Manicur, Pedicure, Plaza Nails, Relaxation, shore fire, weight lifter pants

The Facebook Timeline just sparks FB memory lane

January 31, 2012 By nmaldonado Leave a Comment

In the final days of our current Facebook layout, I find myself feeling mixed emotions about the next wave of changes. Part of me is reassured that the new layout will soon become second nature  and navigation will be no issue at all. For some reason, it’s this thought of reassurance that also bothers me. I’m still quite young but I’m not a fan of realizing how my parents must have felt my entire life,  the anxiety of trying to keep up with new technology. For example, I remember the look on my mother’s face as I tried to explain Google for the first time when I was in high school. I don’t remember exactly how I put it, but it was something along the lines of “Mom, Google is everything in the universe, like, literally everything, at your finger tips…on this 17 inch screen. Get it?” Her mind was blown, but once she got the hang of it, I got called at all hours to see what she just “Googled.” Voila, second nature. For the most part, I think the last few Facebook updates have been easy to slide into and comprehend. The most monumental change until now that I can remember was the addition of the news feed. Remember that? I’m willing to bet 90% of everyone’s first news feed was about how scary and stalkerish it was. Now how else do you navigate Facebook? Going to hundreds of friends’ pages everyday? I think not.

Which brings me to the pinnacle of my trip down Facebook memory lane – Thefacebook. It was the original. It was exclusive. University students only. No teeny-boppers posting their camera phone self-portraits in the mirror (that was still for Myspace). No apps. No parents to comment or “Like” EVERYTHING you do. No Like option at all. It was just your face on the top left corner, a minimal “About” section to the right, a comment area at the bottom and few options for finding friends and messages to the left (please see bro-page below). It was boring but it’s kind of cool to think about how different it was.

What Thefacebook once was...

Though the information available on the average FB page has increased, the basic layout has stayed consistent, until now. Yes, we’ve come a long way since those days of Thefacebook.  The exciting part is with the new timeline, I can use the new Facebook for my trip down memory lane. Year by year, even month by month, I can easily navigate all the way back to my very first wall comment. I haven’t switched to Timeline just yet, call me old fashioned. Just like I listened to cd’s until 2011 (when I was forced to purchase my first iPod and go digital), I’m going to hold on to my last breaths of old school Facebook while I can. Then I will embrace the new.

Amidst all these Facebook updates, how do I cope with the change? I listen to this:

…and of course, this version too. It doesn’t get much better than Maya Rudolph’s air drums:

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Tagged With: facebook, Facebook Over the years, Facebook Timeline, thefacebook, Time Line

Auster Extravaganza for Issue Project Room

January 3, 2012 By Marilyn Leave a Comment

Sophie Auster, Marilyn Laverty, Paul Auster, and Karen Auster at Issue Project Room fundraising reception

Interior of Issue Project Room at 110 Livingston Street in Brooklyn, which New York Magazine dubbed "Little Carnegie"

Mary Pat Thornton and Cormac McEnery hosted a wonderful evening of music and literature at their Pierrepont Street home in support of the Issue Project Room, an exquisite performance center at 110 Livingston Street (Brooklyn) that is becoming a hub for creative culture for all of New York. In keeping with Issue Project’s philosophy of presenting groundbreaking work in all the arts for audiences of all ages, the evening featured a reading of unpublished letters by literary icon Paul Auster as well as a musical set by his gorgeous and charming daughter Sophie.

I’m really grateful to my colleague Karen Auster, the dynamic founder of the Auster Agency, for introducing me to the Issue Project Room, which is not only a breathtaking jewel of a space but also a nurturing community that fosters artistic collaboration and experimentation. What a treat it was to meet Paul Auster and receive a signed copy of his novel Sunset Park, which I read on Christmas vacation and found to be irresistible, moving, and quite devastating. Hearing Paul’s daughter Sophie perform was a revelation — she’s got a rich and expressive voice and I look forward to hearing her new EP, “Red Weather”, when it’s released this year. If you want to follow Sophie, you can find her @SophieHAuster.

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Tagged With: Art, Auster Agency, brooklyn, Creative NYC, Issue Project Room, NYC, Paul Auster, Sophie Auster, Sunset Park

Shore Fire Holiday Party at the Hi-Fi, part 1

December 7, 2011 By Caleb Shively Leave a Comment

Last night, Shore Fire trekked all the way to Manhattan’s Lower East Side to celebrate the Holidays. Good Friends, “El DJ”, an open bar, and Bhi Bhiman made for a  very memorable night. Special thanks to the Hi Fi for hosting us.

If you see yourself in the below pictures, leave us a comment! Check back for more pictures later today.

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Tagged With: Bhi Bhiman, Hi Fi Bar Manhattan, Holiday Party, shore fire

Time flies and Fruit flies

November 15, 2011 By Marilyn Leave a Comment

When super talented singer/songwriter Nikki Jean and I lunched at The London Hotel’s Maze restaurant, we were tickled to see star chef Gordon Ramsay, looking thinner and younger than on his TV show, as he walked briskly through the restaurant to his kitchen. We had a great lunch (NJ proclaimed her fare as ‘the best grilled cheese sandwich ever’) but were surprised to spy a coupla cute little bugs (both flying and crawling) at our table. Hey, if we had wanted a picnic, we would have gone to Central Park… If Chef Ramsay had returned from the kitchen, we would have enjoyed pointing out our little insect visitors to the picky prickly owner!

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Dining, Fly in my Soup, Gordon Ramsey, London Hotel, Maze restaurant, Nikki Jean, shore fire

Halloween Redux: Shore Fire Kids run Wild

November 9, 2011 By Mark Leave a Comment

Halloween’s a big time here at Shore Fire, particularly for parents in the office. Who says there’s no good trick or treatin’ in NYC?  You can get a load of costumes from year’s past here

The cold forced Matt’s kids Sally (on left) and Emma (on right) to bundle up this year, so you might have a hard time telling that Sally is a genie, and Emma is the goddess Athena.  What’s not so hard to tell is that Matt agreed to Sally’s request that he dress as a “male nurse.”

Here’s another shot of Sally and Emma with their pals from down the street, Emmet (the Stormtrooper) and Louisa (also Athena!)

Rebecca Shapiro decided to venture into big kid territory this year — the haunted streets of Chelsea- with her 5-year-old daughter Roxy and 2-year-old son Simon. Roxy dressed as “Strawberry Shortcake” sans hot pink wig and a groggy just-woken-up-from-his-nap Simon as a little cow.

Uptown, on 138th St., the crowd of kids gets bigger and bigger every year in what’s become a cherished tradition; this year we couldn’t fit all the children on one stoop. In homemade costumes, that’s my son Eli, far left, as a cyborg, and Leo, far right, as “Duct Tape Man.”

Here’s Eli and Leo with our next door neighbors, Lenny and Rani.

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Tagged With: shore fire kids, shore fire kids halloween

Indulgence in the Lowcountry: Exclusive Photots from the Southern Ground Music and Food Festival

October 31, 2011 By David McTiernan Leave a Comment

Last weekend, Charleston, South Carolina became, if only for three days, the ultimate live music locale. The inaugural Southern Ground Music & Food Festival, curated by Zac Brown Band, descended on the Lowcountry for a weekend of sensory overload, from the southern six-piece’s own buttery harmonies to the melt-in-your-mouth pork tenderloin being sold from their mobile kitchen on-site.

ZBB reached a new level of super-serving here, over-delivering for the thousands lucky enough to be on-site.  Here are some shots I captured of ZBB, My Morning Jacket, and Sonia Leigh from the raucous scene at Blackbaud Stadium. Plans are already in place for next year’s festival – I think I’ll start fasting now.


Filed Under: Blog, Featured Tagged With: Blackbaud Stadium, Charleston, Exclusive, Food Fest, My Morning Jacket, sonia leigh, South Carolina, Southern Ground, Southern Ground Music and Food Festival, zac Brown band, ZBB

Long live CMJ

October 28, 2011 By Chris Taillie Leave a Comment

Every year there seems to be discussion about whether CMJ still matters, and if it will, and/or should, continue to exist. Well, CMJ is always one of the highlights of my year (last year I saw 35 bands) and I hope it continues for as long as it can!

This time around I got to spend a lot of it with The Barr Brothers from Montreal. They are insanely talented and insanely sweet people and played 4 shows including The Apple Store and the always great M For Montreal showcase and emerged from the hubbub as one of the break out acts of 2011 with over-capacity gigs, landing on Top 5 (NPR) and Top 10 (AM New York) preview lists, in festival recaps and more. I snapped some photos along the way (and got to see some other great bands too).

The Barr Brothers perform in the crowd @ The Apple Store

jetting over the W'Burg bridge for more Barr Bros CMJ action

just about to play their final CMJ show @ Rockwood, check out that harp!

a tiny portion of the band's huge collection of mad-scientist instruments being packed away on Allen Street post-Rockwood show

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Tagged With: Barr Brothers, CMJ, CMJ 2011
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