A Cupcake & Lemon Party

It was another twofer as Chris Thieke and Andy Silva celebrated their birthdays with the staff, augmented by a tasty smorgasbord of cake and pie. Nothing like a little citrus (and some sunny dispositions) to take our mind off a blisteringly cold February and start to think about the summer months ahead. Here's a shot of Chris (at left) and Andy engaged in twin candle extinguishment duty:


And here's the carnage after the staff took to the offerings with all the gusto of a tank full of laser beams equipped sharks:

Rockin Ralph and Rockin' Bowl

It was a typically rockin' time last Saturday at the Ralph's World show. In a reprise from a couple of years ago, I went with my kids Eli (l) and Leo (r) and as usual had a blast. Ralph's keeps putting incredible records out and he's got a brand new one All Around Ralph's World. Played a couple of tunes off that alongside crowd favorites like We Are Ants and the indelible Coffee Song. I loved working with Ralph in the past and was psyched to get to say hello. Ralph is on a major roll, just check out his song for Huggies, the Potty Dance.



Here's a picture that Leo took from up close.



Right after Ralph's World, we rushed over to the amazing Brooklyn Bowl. The place was packed, mostly with families, and all our kids had a blast while the adults got to have a few beers. It was impossible to get them all to smile at the same time so here's the best: Leo, my friend Denny's son, Eli and Shore Fire's Matt Hank's sweet girls Emma and Sally. Special thanks to Bowl owner Pete Shapiro for helping us get a lane and especially for the amazing desserts he had sent over.

A most special birthday for Diana

Yes, it was finally time for the big one, the landmark birthday, the one everyone's been waiting for. It's been a long time coming but our very own Diana D'Angelo has hit the big twenty-one, and is ready to take a few writers out for drinks. As you can see she was grinning ear to ear for the occasion:


Here's Diana as she got ready to blow out her birthday... well, pastry collection, which may be a first for an afternoon Shore Fire birthday celebration, flanked by the front of Chris Taillie and the back of Andy Silva. The pastries were spread among the staff with joy, partly aided by the intrepid tong-wielder whose prominently displayed arm is obscuring Mark Satlof, just after bestowing some morsels on Matt Hanks, seated to his left.


And as the sugar and good conversation sets in, the staff eases back to celebrate another wonderful year with the lovely Ms. D'Angelo, at far right, with (counterclockwise) Chris Taillie, Carrie Tolles, Nora Lyons, Rob Krauser, Mr. Hanks, Mr. Satlof, and a glimpse of our fearless leader, Shore Fire President Marilyn Laverty, peeking into the photo at far left:


Happy Birthday Diana!!

Costello's Show is a Spectacle here in NYC

My kids and I stumbled across a massive display of posters advertising Elvis Costello's Sundance show "Spectacle," right in the heart of the Times Square subway station a week or so ago. There's at least 15 large posters in a row, so massive that I came up the stairs and stopped short in my tracks it was so impressive...and as of yesterday, it was still there. Wow. Then today, I gasped as I was reading the New York Times, flipped a page on the A section, and came across a full color full back page ad for tonight's episode. Double Wow!


From

New York Benefit Shows for Haiti Relief

As details of Haiti's devastation continue to pour in, the music community has ramped up efforts to raise funds to help the recovery efforts. An amazing amount of benefit concerts, fundraisers, ebay auctions and more are happening all over the country. Here are two NYC events we plan on attending and thought our fellow New Yorkers would want to know about:

City Winery is presenting a series of shows beginning Wednesday Jan 20 and going through Jan 23 featuring performances by Rosanne Cash, Josh Ritter, Patti Smith, The Swell Season, Yo La Tengo and more while Brooklyn's Bell House will host a show on Wed Jan 27 featuring Jimmy Fallon, Ted Leo, Sondre Lerche and A.C. Newman among others.

100% of funds raised from the City Winery benefit will be directed to Doctors Without Borders, Partners in Health and an emergency mobile hospital aid mission organized by the Jewish Renaissance Medical Center. The Bell House show will benefit Save the Children and Partners in Health.

Of course, we urge you to donate any way you can.

More info and tickets for each show here:

City Winery:
http://www.citywinery.com/news_items/18/

Bell House:
http://www.thebellhouseny.com/calendar.php

Cups & Cakes For Lauretta's Birthday

The battle for the honor of best cupcake in the city has become a serious NYC pastime, with fierce advocates and strong opinions, and Sugar Sweet Sunshine has been chronicled here as an office favorite on multiple occasions. But Lauretta Charlton's birthday celebration marked the debut of a new contender -- Brooklyn's One Girl Cookies -- that might just have a shot at the title. Here's Lauretta making a wish flanked by Mark Satlof, Elizabeth Lutz, and Matt Hanks captured in mid-applause.


The huge smile says it all, it's a hit. Here's Lauretta with (from right to left) Elizabeth, Mark, Nora Lyons, Diana D'Angelo, Carrie Tolles, and Matt. Happy Birthday Lauretta!

To Spain w/ Josh Rouse!

On these cold, dark December days, Josh Rouse's new album 'El Turista' (March 9 / Yep Roc Records) transports me to a warm afternoon on the Mediterranean shore. The music is incredible, immersed in Spanish, Brazilian, and Cuban influences but encompassing Josh's signature sense of melody.

Download the mp3 "I Will Live On Islands" for yourself here.



Check out these embeddable Takeaway Show clips from La Blogotheque:

Josh Rouse - Oh, look what the sun did / Duerde Mobila - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Josh Rouse - Cotton Eyed Joe / Valencia - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Josh Rouse - I Will live on Islands... - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Josh Rouse - Quiet Town / Mesie Julian - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

The New Kindles are Here! The New Kindles are Here!

Thanks to Shore Fire's President Marilyn Laverty, we got brand new Kindles yesterday at our annual pot luck. That plus Matt Hanks' amazing peanut butter and bacon pie made for a wonderful time.

A quick, day after survey of "what did you download first?" finds that Marilyn, Mark Satlof (me) and Brendan Gilmartin downloaded Moby Dick, with the atmospheric addendum that Brendan has been reading his Kindle on the high seas (during his commute on the Staten Island Ferry). Diana D'Angelo's got the Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe; Chris Thieke's digging the Compete Works of HP Lovecraft; Nick Baily has subscribed to the Economist; Lauretta Charlton plans "Second Sex" by Simone de Beauvoir as her first read; and Matt Hanks is starting with a trial subscription to The New Yorker (and his wife Courtney grabbed the new Alice Munro short stories collection Too Much Happiness).

Rob Eisenberg, Who Are You? I Need "Feliz Hanukkah"

So much for the Modern World. Me and my two boys laughed till we cried driving to school this morning, listening to Rob Eisenberg singing "Feliz Hanukkah" on XM Radio's Hanukkah Radio channel...I wanna fry you some crispy latkes, they're no good for your heart....and can you believe it, I can't find any trace on the internet. So here's hoping Rob's got a Google alert on...email me, Rob, msatlof at shorefire.com - Thanks, Mark

Getting To Know: Butch Walker!

Butch Walker played three sold-out nights at Joe's Pub last weekend, and lucky for us, he's been in town all week. He came to our holiday party on Monday, and yesterday I was treated to a private show of some songs from his brilliant new album 'I Liked You Better When You Had No Heart' at the offices of Crush management. In the meantime, I've gotten to geek out w/ Butch on a variety of subjects ranging from music to music photography to George Jones to more music to kids to the Rolling Stones to even more music!

I'm looking forward to more quality hang time w/ Butch in the new year. Watch this space for more revelations.

Shore Fire Holiday Party, 09 Brooklyn Bowl Edition: Thanks to our Friends

And finally, thanks to everyone who came from near and far to Brooklyn Bowl last night to contemplate the year's end and prepare for what's next in 2010.




Sirius XM's Jeremy Tepper and Sony Legacy's Rob Santos preparing for the next round.

PR Newser's Joe Ciarallo with his friend Meg, of Random House.
Cat Empire manager Corrine Wilke, Velour's Sean Hoess, Chris Taillie, and Velour's Morgan Young.

Check out that spread!

Old friends and former Columbia colleagues Arthur Levy and Ronnie Kairey.

Jornos Jim Bessman and Ira Robbins of Premiere Radio Networks.

Regina Joskow and John Newcott, both of Verve, with Arthur Levy and Andy Schwartz.

Flatiron Management bros Ben Weber and Mike Martinovich.

Freelancer Tad Hendrickson, Shore Fire's Brendan Gilmartin and freelancer Will Hermes, down from New Paltz.

Shore Fire Holiday Party, 09 Brooklyn Bowl Edition: Thanks to the Staff

Our Brooklyn Bowl holiday party last night was a blast....we've worked hard all year and we were blessed we could celebrate. And we couldn't do it without our terrific staff, most of whom made it into one of my shots and seen here with some of our other attendees:




L-R - Blue Note's Perry Greenfield, Shore Fire President Marilyn Laverty, Shore Fire Senior Vice President Mark Satlof


Nora Lyons with Sirius/XM's Jeremy Tepper and Sony Legacy's Rob Santos.


Chris Taillie with Nick Loss-Eaton


Marilyn Laverty and Elizabeth Lutz.

Sony's Fran DeFeo with Rebecca Shapiro, who is looking terrific just five days after giving birth to a bouncing baby boy!


Rockingale Record's Karen MacMillan with Brendan Gilmartin and friend.

Prefixmag.com's Dave Park with Chris Taillie and Nick Baily


Lauretta Charlton with Random House's Meg (??) and Joe Ciarallo of PR Newswer


Carrie Tolles, Matt Hanks and Matt's wife Courtney Banfield.


Elizabeth Lutz with Diana D'Angelo


Nancie S. Martin with Director of Multimedia for Time.com, Craig Duff

Shore Fire Holiday Party, 09 Brooklyn Bowl Edition: Thanks to the Musicians

Shore Fire capped a great year with our annual holiday party last night, but this year a venue change to the amazing Brooklyn Bowl added a whole other dimension to the festivities. It had to be our biggest yet, lanes packed with friends old and new, journalists of all stripes. But let's not forget that it's really our clients, the musicians, who are our most honored guests. This year Butch Walker, Annie Clark (St. Vincent), Cat Empire, Myron Walden and Sonya Kitchell were spotted in the crowd:


Matt Hanks with Annie Clark

Marilyn Laverty with Sonya Kitchell


Matt Hanks with Butch Walker

Happy Birthday, Nancie!

Last Thursday we celebrated the fearless, ever-fashionable Nancie S. Martin's birthday here at Shore Fire with Crack Pie from the venerable Momokufu (please, no jokes, please).


It does not look menacing, but the Crack Pie is nothing to be scoffed at; it is SO good that the tiniest slice tastes like a week long vacation in heaven, all expenses paid. (Our Brendan Gilmartin, right, looks on skeptically while Nancie, the only person who had had the pie before, looks perfectly serene.)


Here's Nancie, making the wish.


And here's the gang after the hit. You'll notice several of us already showing symptoms of withdraw!

Happy Birthday, Nancie! See you in rehab!

TuneCore Loves Rock & Roll, Joan Jett, Shore Fire

We were immensely proud to get our copy of the TuneCore Sales Certification Award for Joan Jett selling over 100,000 songs via TuneCore. Click here to find out more about the awards. Here's our own Chris Taillie and Nancie Martin, who worked on the campaign for Joan, with the newly minted award. If you come to visit, look on your left as you come through the front door and you'll find it hanging prominently. Thank you, TuneCore!

A fun couple of days w/ The Swell Season

The best part of my job is definitely getting to spend time with musicians that I respect and admire. The past two days have been a delight since I got to spend them with Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova from the Swell Season. They came into town on Tuesday straight from a sold out show in DC. I met them at WNYC where they were guests on Soundcheck for part of the "Soundcheck Smack-down" series - they were debating the love song vs the break up song with host John Schaefer. It was a fun segment and both Glen and Mar spoke about the different types of songs beautifully. Then they performed one of their own, the slow-burning soul number "Low Rising" - one of my favorite songs! you can listen to Glen and Mar on Soundcheck here:

On Wednesday we did a couple of online performances for People Magazine and Rolling Stone. It's so incredible to see Glen and Mar perform in front of just a handful of folks when most people only see them perform in the larger venues. I'm not knocking the larger shows though, I love those too and can't wait to see The Swell Season at Radio City in January!

Above is a picture I took with Glen and Mar just before we said goodbye. I know its a bit blurry but you get the idea.

My How They've Grown: Shore Fire Kids Halloween '09

Halloween is a highlight for the kids of Shore Fire.

Down at the Jersey Shore, Shore Fire President Marilyn Laverty donned a Dorothy costume for the festivities with her son Sam (on left, with friend, on right), who's dressed as Mario (from the Mario Brothers, of course).


Up in my neck of the woods in Harlem, Halloween's become the hang out holiday of the year for the growing number of kids on our block. For the sixth year in a row, we've gathered on the stoop for a group shot before running up and down the street to fill up buckets of candy. That's my Leo on the right, all in orange as a hermit crab, with my Eli behind him in the Revolutionary War soldier costume.


Eli in a home-made (by me) Revolutionary War costume.


Inspired by their trip to Disneyland this summer, Matt Hanks' daughters Emma (age 7) and Sally (age 3) both dressed as fairies, Silver Mist and Tinkerbell respectively. As for Matt, anyone who has ever eaten a meal with him will recognize he's dressed as creole seasoning kingpin Tony Chachere! He puts the stuff on everything but his Halloween candy.


Here's Rebecca Shapiro's 3 1/2 year old daughter Roxy dressed as Annie...she belted out "Maybe" while trick or treating.