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He’s a funny money man: Onetime comic is serious about giving money advice

Published December 20th, 2011 in The Indianapolis Star

Peter Dunn was in sixth grade when he bought his first share of stock in Philip Morris. By the time he graduated from Pike High School in 1996, his share had tripled in value. Pete the Planner had found his calling.

Today, at 33, he handles a lot more than $37. By trade, Dunn works out of Carmel, with clients ranging from full businesses to young couples, teaching them how best to manage their money.

Off the books, he’s Pete the Planner — author of two finance education books; blogger, tweeter, Skyper, emailer and Facebooker about all things personal finance; TV personality appearing on WISH-TV, CNN and Fox News; radio show host on WIBC-FM (93.1); part owner of Roboto Wear, a clothing company; in-demand professional speaker; and about as close as financial planners get to being a real life celebrity.

And somehow, he always has time for breakfast. On Mondays, it’s yogurt, granola and a cup of coffee at Cafe Patachou in Carmel. That’s before a day, like every day, that is “always different, and always a whirlwind,” said Dunn. Continue reading

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Beirut’s Zach Condon on ‘Rip Tide’: ‘I Was Trying to Write a Pop Album’

Published September 21st, 2011 in Billboard Magazine

Zach Condon, the songwriter and mastermind behind Beirut, may be just as famous for his music as for the cultures that have influenced it. Beirut’s debut, 2006′s “Gulag Orkestar,” played like an old-world village party in the Balkans. Follow-up “The Flying Cup Club” found Condon obsessed with French chanson; 2009 EP “March of the Zapotec” took cues from Mexican funeral brass bands.

So when Condon explains Beirut’s latest LP, “The Rip Tide,” out Aug. 30 on his own Pompeii Records, he knows what fans may be thinking.

“The cliché is, ‘What country is he going to do next?’” Condon deadpans. “But before I even started this album, I wanted to dig into the Beirut sound as far as I could go. I was trying to write a pop album.”

To cut to the core of his sound, Condon, a Santa Fe, N.M. native, needed isolation. In the fall of 2010, he packed up a broken-down Saab, rented a woods-enclosed farmhouse in upstate Bethel, N.Y., and brought a neighbor’s beagle for company. “Writing in the city provides too many distractions,” says Condon, who immersed himself in his work, waking early to chop wood for the stove and taking breaks to “whack golf balls into the trees.” In the process, he sharpened a sound that was all his own. After all, Condon says, becoming a musical atlas of influences was never the idea. Continue reading

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A Conversation with Jim Ward

Published August 1st, 2011 in My Old Kentucky Blog


Jim Ward is a busy, busy man.

His new bar in El Paso, Hope and Anchor, is still in its infancy. He’s currently renovating an old building nearby into a new rock venue. Oh, yeah, and (as we wrote earlier this month) he’s also releasing a new solo album. And touring Australia, writing new songs with his band Sparta, running his own studio and, somehow, managing to have a fairly normal home life.

Ward, who famously first became a punk rock household name with At the Drive-In, will release In the Valley, On the Shores The End Begins & Electric Six on August 2, on his own Tembloroso Recordings.

Ward talked with MOKB about many of his countless projects, and a whole bunch of other things. Check out the conversation below. Continue reading

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All Good, yet again

Published July 29th, 2011 in Relix Magazine

All Good has long been the little festival that could — and in it’s 15th year, it finally became the festival that did, and did it big.

That’s not to say All Good was ever short of great in years past; rather, something clicked on Marvin’s Mountaintop in way-out-there West Virginia July 14-17, and you’d be hard pressed to find a festival-goer who wasn’t struck by just how smoothly the 4-day weekend went, from the near-seamless ‘no overlapping sets’ practice, to the not-too-hot sunny weather, to the reasonable costs of food and, of course, the undeniably peak quality of so many of the festival’s acts.

All Good began a decade and a half ago in Maryland with less than 1,000 people, staffed by founder Tim Walther and a handful of friends. In 2011, the fest maintained its friends-and-family vibe while brimming with about 30,000 people. The venue certainly didn’t hurt — All Good is tucked into the foothills of West Virginia, so while walking to your campsite might be a hike, it’ll be a breathtakingly scenic one. Hidden streams, treks through the woods and a huge cliff outlining the campgrounds were just part of the package. Continue reading

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Mentor support equals teacher retention in Pittsburgh

Published July 15th, 2011 in The Jewish Chronicle

A good teacher is hard to find, and maybe harder to keep.

As the nation’s economy continues to sag, local Jewish day schools are fighting to retain their teachers through professional support, even working with outside sources.

“We fight [to retain teachers] on a regular basis. We often have to,” said Rabbi Yisroel Rosenfeld, dean of Yeshiva Schools in Pittsburgh. “We’ll often have teachers with us for several years, then move on to where they can get a better salary.”

According to the National Education Association, the average starting teacher salary in Pennsylvania is $38,229, with an overall average of $57,237.

That salary scale makes it that much more challenging to retain quality teachers in Jewish day schools.

“When teachers in Jewish schools have a family to support, that’s the moment when the money comes in,” said Amanda Pogany, associate director of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Israel. “Teachers often still feel committed to the field; they just seek another position in Jewish education.” Continue reading

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All Good Festival convenes jam bands south of Pittsburgh

Published July 14th, 2011 in Pittsburgh City Paper

It took 14 years, but Tim Walther finally got the nod of approval he’d been waiting for.

It was July 10, 2010, around 12:45 a.m., and Walther was standing just offstage at All Good Festival, the annual music festival in West Virginia that he founded. The night’s headlining band was Furthur, featuring Phil Lesh and Bob Weir of jam-band godheads The Grateful Dead. As the applause of more than 20,000 people rained down onstage, Lesh slowly walked toward Walther and leaned in.

“You guys throw one hell of a party here.”

With that, 14 years of hard work running All Good all seemed worth it — especially as 2010 was the festival’s biggest year to date.

A year later, Furthur is back as the crowned Friday-night headliner and Walther says ticket sales are set to outpace 2010. But he can’t daydream about another smiling compliment from his heroes quite yet.

“We’re managing 1,300 staff at this point, and 500 volunteers,” plus more than 40 bands, he says from the All Good office in Jefferson, Md. “It’s a lot to manage. People think I’ve got this glamorous job as a rock-concert promoter, but we’re working 24/7 as of a month ago, and this is a year-round project. It’s 90 percent work and 10 percent enjoyment. But I’m getting close to the enjoyment part.”

Continue reading

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Animal Collective lives with the hype post-Merriweather Post Pavilion

Published July 7th, 2011 in Pittsburgh City Paper


In 2009, Animal Collective shot from weirdos’ favorite rock band to rock bros’ favorite weirdos.

Its album Merriweather Post Pavilion, which held a massive blogosphere hit in the neon-quivering “My Girls,” was the most critically drooled-upon album of that year. The album pushed Animal Collective (David “Avey Tare” Portner, Noah “Panda Bear” Lennox, Brian “Geologist” Weitz and Josh “Deakin” Dibb) to the forefront of online music obsession. So even while “My Girls” put Animal Collective on the radar of many a radio-rock dude, bloggers and their mustachioed kin remain fiercely possessive.

But where does that leave the band’s members? Trying their best to ignore the hype. As Animal Collective heads out on tour, the group will play new music and experiment with tweaky, psychedelic sounds, like always, amidst the most deafening buzz in indie rock. We checked in with Dibb to talk shows, new jams and hailing the rock ‘n’ roll greats. Continue reading

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Gillian Welch returns with ‘The Harrow and the Harvest’

Published June 27th, 2011 in Billboard Magazine

Ten years ago, Mumford & Sons didn’t exist. Neither did the Felice Brothers, or the Civil Wars, or Fleet Foxes.

But the foundation of the roots music revival currently flourishing with those bands was laid when the soundtrack to “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” became the surprise smash of 2001, set aloft by the gorgeous, plaintive voice of Nashville-based Gillian Welch, who also served as associate producer on the project.

Now, eight years after her last album, 2003′s “Soul Journey,” Welch returns with “The Harrow and the Harvest,” out June 28 on her own Acony Records, and she’s ready to rejoin the ranks of the roots artists that she inspired. “We’re definitely flying the flag,” says the artist, who is just back from a touring run with Buffalo Springfield.”She’s a core artist in the genre,” Acony GM Lori Condon says. “With the success of Mumford and the Avetts, people are more accustomed to hearing banjos and acoustic guitars today. That should help people get ready for what they’ll hear with Gillian. Continue reading

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Men’s Clubs launch Scotch boycott in Pittsburgh

Published June 25th, 2011 in The Jewish Chronicle

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Dr. Ira Unger loves Scotch, but not more than he loves Israel.

That’s why, at his daughter’s recent high school graduation party, he chose to serve bourbon over his preferred Scottish single malt.

“I’ve developed a taste for Scotch,” said Unger, a member of Beth El Congregation of the South Hills’ Men’s Club, “but if this boycott of Israeli goods isn’t solved, I can certainly develop a taste for bourbon.”

So what does Israel have to do with cocktails? Recently the answer has been, quite a bit.

In January 2009, the West Dunbartonshire Council (WDC) in Scotland declared a boycott on the purchase of Israeli goods, citing excessive military action against Palestinians during the IDF’s Gaza incursion that year. Earlier this month, Rabbi Charles Simon, executive director of the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs (FJMC), sent an email to many of his constituents calling for a response boycott of the Scotch whisky brands created in the region. Continue reading

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Jeff the Brotherhood ‘Champion’ with new album

Published June 19th, 2011 in Billboard Magazine

Some fathers build treehouses with their kids. Robert Ellis Orrall built a record label.

Nearly a decade ago, songwriter/musician Orrall founded Infinity Cat Recordings in Nashville with his sons Jake and Jamin, then 16 and 14. Soon after the boys began working to put out other bands’ recordings they started cutting their own, and Jeff the Brotherhood was born. As the label slowly grew, so did the Brotherhood — with Jake on guitars and vocals and Jamin on drums — sharpening its fuzzy guitar blowouts and garage-pop songs on limited editions and splits with bands like Best Coast and the Greenhornes, constituting much of Infinity Cat’s 60-plus releases.

“It’s been a long, slow climb, and our ethic has always been completely DIY,” Orrall says. “But people started to poke in the last few years.”

One of those pokes turned into an 18-month negotiation and, finally, an announcement in May: Jeff the Brotherhood had signed to Warner Bros., which would distribute the duo’s “We Are the Champions” album on June 21. Continue reading

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