Join Hearts Afire Radio Show Hosts Carl and Martie Granieri as they welcome special guests Don Williams, Barbara Altman, Michele Dawn Mooney of NBC TV 40, Political VIPs and people of Good Will from churches and organizations from all over South Jersey to an uplifting musical event to benefit the earthquake victims in Haiti.
The show will broadcast live on WOND Radio, 1400AM from 1- 6 pm on Sunday, March 14, from the Ocean City Music Pier. It will feature the 100 Voice Hearts Afire Inter-Denominational Praise Choir and 10-piece Praise Band, made up of musicians and singers from the casino showrooms of Atlantic City. It is sponsored by Tropicana Hotel Casino.
All proceeds go directly to Food for the Poor, a Miami-based U.S. non-profit that has been on the ground in Haiti for 25 years and receives annually the highest ratings possible for efficiency and reliability. With only four percent operating costs, 96 percent of every dollar goes right to those in need. Donations are being accepted 24 hours per day by clicking here.

Fans of MTV’s Jersey Shore are a little sad to the see the show air its season finale tonight (Jan. 21) (though a lot of Jersey Shore residents are probably glad to see the controversial show go), but The Late, Late Show With Craig Ferguson has the perfect remedy. The show will air a pretty hysterical trailer for the fictional Jersey Shore: The Movie tonight (tomorrow morning, whatever). Entertainment Weekly scored an early look at the bit, which stars Mila Kunis, Nick Lachey, Tom Lennon and Super Mario (Ferguson).
Seaside Heights in Ocean County, where the show is set, may be a little removed from the A.C. area, but it’s not that far. After all, the cast made a trip to The Quarter’s Providence nightclub in last week’s episode and cast members will be appearing Feb. 13 at the Taj Mahal’s Casbah.
Besides, it’s just too funny, though slightly NSFW. Go here to see the clip.

And in a strange coincidence, Sea Isle City officials  issued  a press release today saying the city is not in talks to be the host of the next season of Jersey Shore. Apparently there is a rumor floating around that the Cape May County town is up next for the show. Sea Isle Mayor Leonard C. Desiderio says, “We have not been contacted about the show Jersey Shore filming in Sea Isle. This is an unsubstantiated rumor and in fact, we understand the show is returning to Seaside Heights for the next season. My staff and I are in communication with MTV to clear up this matter and ensure the media is provided with accurate information.”

Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino.

Cast members from MTV’s Jersey Shore reality TV series will be stepping into the South Jersey scene when they visit the Taj Mahal’s Casbah on Saturday, Feb. 13 (rescheduled from Saturday, Jan. 16). Cast members Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino and DJ Pauly D will be at the Casbah.

Jersey Shore debuted on MTV on Dec. 6 and was an immediate sensation as it put eight Italian-American 20-somethings into a summer house in Seaside Heights, a popular summer hot spot in North Jersey. Viewers get a glimpse of their lives and over the top personalities as the characters learn to live together, sharing meals, love, nightlife and learning to co-habitate. Drama unfolds with each episode and it has quickly become one of MTV’s most popular reality series.

Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, 27, is from Staten Island, NY. He is known for his antics with the ladies and his rock-hard six pack abs. The way he sees it, he has the situation under control.
Pauly D, 28, hails from Johnston, RI and is Rhode Island’s most well-known DJ. He keeps a tanning bed in his house and orders gel by the case and does his hair twice a day — once in the morning and once before hitting the town.

Joe (left) and Scott hang with Chazz Palminteri

After being conspicuously absent from the radio airwaves for nearly nine years, the Joe & Scott Morning Show returned last spring and rocketed to the top of the Arbitron ratings.
The pair first teamed up in May 1995, broadcasting on 100.7 WZXL from Wildwood. In January 1998, Equity Communications purchased WZXL and relocated it to its current Bayport One location on the Black Horse Pike in West Atlantic City.
Joe and Scott broke up in 2000 and seemed content to have settled into new career pursuits, but their fondness for live morning-drive radio led them back down the same road-once-traveled. In 2008 they approached Equity Communications about reuniting and recreating the chemistry that was the hallmark of the Joe and Scott team. The duo was re-hired in April and, after the Spring 2009 Arbitron ratings were released, ranked at the top of the morning ratings with their core demographic — men between the ages of 25 and 54. (more…)

Rants and raves about burning topics that have caught my attention midweek, be it greedy corporate shenanigans, frustration or joy in regards to the Philly sports teams, a movie or DVD that has fired up my imagination, an intriguing personality, or my on-going battle to lose weight in our fast food world. — Lori Hoffman, Associate Editor, Atlantic City Weekly

With the launch this week of our terrific new Web site, and this being the 35th anniversary of AC Weekly/The Whoot, it got me to thinking about all the amazing changes that have taken place in the newspaper business.
Look, we all know that the newspaper business is evolving daily and that the end of hard copy papers is looming. Those of us journalistic dinosaurs who still get a great deal of pleasure from reading the Sunday paper — in our hands, not on a computer screen — will be sad the day the newspapers die. Maybe it won’t be in my lifetime (I’m 55), but I suspect it will.
And, although I might be an old school dinosaur, that doesn’t mean I’m sitting around moping about it. I used to write stories on a yellow note pad. Eventually I learned to use a typewriter and then an electric typewriter. I was still using the plain typewriter when I wrote movie reviews and sports stories for the Argo, the Stockton College newspaper. I believe I had graduated to an electric model when I slipped my first movie review for Whoot! (The Entertainment Paper for Night Owls), under a garage door in Somers Point in 1975. (more…)

We are really excited here at AC Weekly. As of Monday, July 27, AC Weekly has a new Web site. The site has plenty of cool features (like daily poll questions), more extensive listings and a user friendly vibe that will make it easier to find exactly what you need when it comes to info on who’s headlining in town, what are the hot movies, dining options, nightlife action and all the other great content you’ve come to expect from ACW. Since we are still in the process of adding content to the site, it will only get better. This new site will also allow us to post breaking news when it happens. Please drop by, take a look around and tell us what you think.

Levon Helm is at the helm again with the follow-up album to his 2007 Grammy-winning Dirt Farmer release. Where Dirt Farmer was rugged, rocky and steeped in American traditional music, Electric Dirt (released June 30) has more gospel, blues, soul and interesting cover selections, including the opener track, “Tennessee Jed” (Grateful Dead) and Happy Traum’s “Golden Bird.”

Although there are obvious similarities between Dirt Farmer and Electric Dirt (both released on Vanguard and produced — or co-produced — by multi-instrumentalist, producer extraordinaire and former Bob Dylan guitarist Larry Campbell), the new album, which has already been hailed by music critics — including a four-star review from Rolling Stone — gives a more “expansive” impression of the former drummer/vocalist for The Band.

Says Campbell, “We knew we couldn’t just remake Dirt Farmer; it had to be something different. Because as great as that record was, as convincing as Levon was and as pure as his impulse was to make it, that’s just one aspect of what he’s about. I knew that we had to keep that [organic] vibe but build on it — get more expansive.”
The 11 songs on Electric Dirt also include “I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel To Be Free,” Randy Newman’s “Kingfish,” the Helm original “Growing Trade” and a pair of Muddy waters tunes, which were cut during the sessions for Dirt Farmer: “Stuff You Gotta Watch” and “You Can’t Lose What You Ain’t Never Had.”

The Levon Helm Band will be at the Borgata Aug. 29 opening for the Black Crowes.

Here’s a YouTube clip from Helm’s Web site on the making of the new album.

The cover of the Sept. 25, 1975 issue of Whoot.

Caesars Atlantic City is celebrating 30 years in town. Resorts celebrated that milestone last year. Atlantic City Weekly has them both beat. AC Weekly began on this day, 35 years ago, June 19, 1974 as Whoot “The Entertainment Paper for Night Owls.”

A young Stockton College student named Lew Steiner had an idea for an entertainment paper to cover the Atlantic City nightclub (The Whoot Route) and dining scene. With the help and backing of his parents, co-founders Herb and Marcia Steiner, he brought that idea to life. When gambling became a reality in 1978, Whoot was already established as the go-to guide for what was happening in the AC region.

Lew and I knew each other from Ventnor and later as college students at Stockton, where we both worked for the school newspaper, The Argo. I began doing movie reviews for the Whoot in 1975, moved on to the Philadelphia Journal and Philadelphia Bulletin from 1978-80, then returned to my hometown weekly in 1983. I’ve been here ever since.

When you work for a weekly paper you tend to do a bit of everything. As well as all the fun, glamorous stuff like covering shows and interviewing celebrities, my Whoot duties included typing in ad copy on early photographic typesetting machines that had to have the type fonts placed in the machine manually, only four at a time. I helped opaque the page negatives by filling in the flaws by hand with a special type of Sharpie, often late at night. I remember one evening where I went to a show, covering a performance by Ann-Margret, then returned to the office around midnight to help finish the negatives.
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This week’s issue of New York magazine features a great little tribute to our very own columnist Pinky Kravitz. There will be a segment from the article in Pinky’s column this week. Check Thursday! Also, see this week’s edition of New York for what they deem the ‘Best’ in A.C.