Musings, observations, and written works from the publisher of Eckhartz Press, the media critic for the Illinois Entertainer, co-host of Minutia Men, Minutia Men Celebrity Interview and Free Kicks, and the author of "The Loop Files", "Back in the D.D.R", "EveryCubEver", "The Living Wills", "$everance," "Father Knows Nothing," "The Radio Producer's Handbook," "Records Truly Is My Middle Name", and "Gruen Weiss Vor".
January 27, 1756, 170 years ago, Mozart was born. Mozart is featured in the Eckhartz Press book, Back in the DDR. Sounds like it's time for a free excerpt from the novel.
This short excerpt is taken from Chapter 2 of Back in the DDR. It's the day our main character Rudi visits Mozart's birth house in Salzburg.
It was only about a twenty-minute
drive to Salzburg. Onkel Franz and Tante Margot in the front seat of their
Mercedes, me in the back.
We
attended mass at the Salzburg Cathedral. I thought Holy Name Cathedral in
Chicago was big, but this was gigantic, and beautiful. Three green domes
towered over the structure. Inside, every word echoed, and the music from the
organs went right through you. Bright white walls—probably marble—and red and
white tiles in geometric patterns on the floor, were striking. The murals on
the ceiling were obviously religiously themed, but the ceilings were so high it
was hard to even see them from my view. Surrounded by this size and beauty,
sitting in these small, wooden, uncomfortable pews made me feel like a tiny
speck in the universe. I didn’t listen to a word of the Mass. I was mesmerized
by the sights.
Before we
left the church, Onkel Franz showed me a few other things, including four giant
statues: Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and the two patron saints of Salzburg,
Rupert and Virgil. He also pointed out a baptismal font from the 1300s that was
used to baptize Mozart himself.
That was
only the beginning of the Mozart references. We walked through Mozartplatz on
our way over to Mozart’s birth-house. Mozart-related items were on sale
everywhere you looked. The Mozart-Kugeln that I gave to Tante Margot for
Christmas were literally sold in every store. By the time we finally arrived at
the Mozart birth-house (not hard to spot, it’s written in giant white script on
the front of the five-story yellow building), I was getting a little cold and
tired.
“Rudi,” Onkel
Franz said to me, beaming with excitement, “try to soak it all in. Absorb the
wisdom and magic of these walls. This is where the greatest composer of
all-time was born and lived. He might be waiting to sprinkle some of that
majesty on a fellow musical boy.”
There were portraits of him in every room,
at all different ages, and there was no escaping one thing; Mozart had a giant
nose. What a honker. It was hard to see anything else. He wasn’t what you’d
call a good-looking man, or an elegant man. In fact, he was downright ugly. I
looked right into his eyes in every portrait and noticed something else
interesting. Sometimes he had blue eyes, sometimes green, sometimes brown (not
sure why they couldn’t nail that down), but in every portrait he looked
miserable and unhappy. He wasn’t smiling in any of them.
The apartment was set up to look like it did
in the 1700s. There was a kitchen with a very large wood-burning stove, a
dining room with pewter plates, glasses, candlesticks and utensils, and, of
course, lots of musical artifacts. Mozart’s first violin and harpsichord (which
is sort of like a piano) were on display, along with letters to/from friends
and relatives. The tour guide told us about Mozart’s love of opera. She told us
that he had six siblings, five of which died in childhood. She told us about
his very strict upbringing, and about the musical background of Mozart’s father
Leopold. I didn’t know any of that before today, so I did find it interesting.
Mozart was significant to the story-line in another way, but you'll have to pick up a copy of Back in the DDR to find out what that was. It's still available at Eckhartz Press.
Yes, it's true, I'm not doing an update of EveryCubEver this season. On the other hand, I do plan on featuring every Hall of Fame Cub this year right here on this blog. And those entries will be from EveryCub Ever.
One more January Hall of Famer birthday, and this one's a biggie. Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks, was born on January 31, 1931.
Ernie Banks 1931-2015 (Cubs 1953-1971)
Ernie is not only a Hall of Famer, but also the first African-American player to ever play for the Chicago Cubs. The way he became a Cub is almost a fluke. At the end of the 1953 season, Gene Baker was called up to be the first African-American Cubs player. Ernie was signed shortly thereafter from the Kansas City Monarchs. They signed Ernie strictly because they needed another Black player to room with Baker. They honestly had no idea what they were getting in Banks. One of the Cubs coaches, Ray Blades, gave Ernie a book called How to play baseball even though he had hit .380 for the Monarchs. Banks only got in the lineup first because Baker was hurt (he got into a game three days later). At the time, inserting Banks into the lineup was a very controversial move, because shortstop was considered a thinking man’s position, and Banks was the first African-American in major league history to play shortstop on a regular basis. Needless to say, it worked out just fine. Why do they call Ernie Banks Mr. Cub? Ernie is among the top 5 all-time Cubs in games played (1st), at-bats (1st), hits (2nd), runs (5th), doubles (3rd), home runs (2nd), and RBI (2nd). He led the team in homers for two full decades, the 1950s (with 238) and the 1960s (with 269). Unfortunately he also played in more losses than any other player in baseball history. In a little known bit of trivia, he also was the first African-American manager. When manager Whitey Lockman was kicked out of a game on May 8, 1973, Ernie was the acting manager for one inning. Frank Robinson became the first full-time African-American manager just a few months later. Banks was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1977, and in 2008 Ernie became a part of Wrigley Field when the club unveiled his statue. Countless Cubs fans take pictures in front of it every year.
Historical note: On the day the Supreme Court ruled segregation in public schools illegal (1954), Ernie tripled and knocked in two runs for the Cubs in a 10-6 win over the Pirates in Pittsburgh.
The latest news from Eckhartz Press, and a chance to peek into some of the great previous offerings from our humble little publishing company.
The Book of the Year Awards
=Another Eckhartz Press book is taking home some well-deserved hardware this coming Friday. (January 23). Daily Herald Opinion Editor Jim Slusher won in the Non-Fiction Book of the Year category. Come on out to the Book Cellar in Lincoln Square (Chicago) on Friday to see him, listen to him do a short reading, and buy his book. He will happily autograph it for you.
=The award ceremony last year was at the Tip Top Tap in the Allerton Hotel. Mark Taylor won in the same Non-Fiction Book of the Year category. Mark's book Hospital Heal Thyself came out this week in 2024. An international publisher bought the book later in the year, but not before Mark's Eckhartz Press version won the award. Congrats to him!
=Last Comiskey author Ken Smoller (a finalist himself last year) was there too. That's him in the photo with Eckhartz Press publisher Rick Kaempfer.
=This week in 2023 the Chicago Writers Association honored Dr. David Fletcher and John Owens, writers of Chili Dog MVP. It was a great year for the book. It helped influence the Hall of Fame voters, who finally voted Dick Allen into the Hall of Fame in December of 2024.
=Speaking of Chili Dog MVP...
=One of the ex-White Sox players featured in the film and the book, the all-time great Wilbur Wood, passed away this weekend. (NY Times Obit). In 1972, during the Chili-Dog MVP season, Wilbur pitched an astounding 376 innings.
The City News Bureau of Chicago was the starting point for several of America’s most celebrated journalists: Mike Royko, Seymour Hersh, and Pam Zekman among others. The local wire service closed in 2005 after operating around the clock for 115 years. Stories about CNB have taken on characteristics of epic fishing tales, a mixture of fact and fiction: The bureau broke stories on the St. Valentine’s Day massacre (true), the Tylenol murders (also true), and on Pearl Harbor (not verifiable); one of its reporters committed armed robberies in order to write stories about them (unlikely); and its reporters would get yelled at by gruff editors until they cried (exaggerated).
To set the record straight and to tell the real history of CNB, two former staffers have produced Sirens in the Loop: A History of the City News Bureau of Chicago, publishing February 1. The book was a passion project of Paul Zimbrakos, the legendary managing editor who worked at CNB from 1958 until its closing. Zimbrakos passed away in 2022 before finishing the book, but his friend and former employee James Elsener picked up and finished the project.
=This Saturday (Jan 24), Jim will be on WGN Radio with Steve & Johnnie. Tune in at 10pm.
=Another big week for Nick Digilio and his book 40 Years, 40 Films. He held a screening of this month's Nick's Pick (Heaven Can Wait) and sold a bunch of copies of his book.
=This week will be an even bigger deal. A full-on library presentation including excerpts of films at the Rogers Park Chicago Public Library. It's free, but you can register for the event here.
=Meanwhile, earlier last week, Nick had another Eckhartz Press author (and publisher) David Stern on this SNL podcast. Entertaining discussion for sure...
=And finally, Eckhartz Press doesn't have any books about the Blackhawks (yet), but now we do have an Eckhartz Press author who was allowed to shoot the puck between periods of a game at the United Center. Sure it was 12 years ago, but we are retroactively claiming it.
=Gloria Golec was the guest for this How to Share podcast interview (entire interview is here). Thanks so much to Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon for doing such a wonderful job. Here is a video excerpt.
=Doug E. Jones has been out there promoting his novel via his Twitter/X handle. You never know who you will reel in that way. This week, Doug posted this tweet...
Hey, #Chicago! What do Joe Pepitone, Bozo The Clown, and Cuddly Dudley have in common? Nothing. But in 1974 Chicago they mean everything to Rick as he tries to pay off his dead father’s debt to the Irish mob. Take Me Back to Chicago is available from Eckhartz Press.
=He got a response from Vanished Chicago's famed podcaster/blogger Pete Kastenes. A picture of himself with his very own Cuddly Dudley...
=Thanks to everyone who came out on Thursday to Jeff Reiter's talk at Mayslake Peabody Estate in DuPage county. He attracted a nice group of dedicated birders and sold quite a few books.
=Jeff is back out on the road again next month. He will be appearing at the great birder event, Gull Frolic in Lake County, on February 15.
=Don't forget, Jeff is not some fly-by-night newbie in the birding world. In fact, his first column about birds came out 22 years ago this week (1/22/04). You can read it in the pages of The Best of Words on Birds.
Additional upcoming Eckhartz Press
author events. Mark your calenders...
=David Stern will be appearing at KinoWerks (5645 N. Ravenswood in Chicago) on February 14th. He'll have a table selling an assortment of Eckhartz Press books at their Arts Event that day.
=Mark Wukas (The Kiss of Night) will be appearing at
Welcome to the Show at the Getaway (4530 N. Lincoln Avenue) on February 16.
=Vicki Atkinson (Surviving Sue) will be appearing at
Wauconda Library (11am-12:30pm) on February 20. Vicki's debut novel is coming
out later this year on Eckhartz Press.
=Robert Conlon (Celtic Knot) will be appearing at the Gman (on Clark in Chicago) on March 15.
=Lauren LoGiudice (Inside Melania) brings her Misfit Variety show to the Annoyance March 13. Show's
at 9.
Happy Birthday!
=Eckhartz Press author Bob Boone celebrated a birthday yesterday (January 18). Bob wrote a collection of short stories for us in 2021 about life at local community college. It's called City U. Still available at Eckhartz Press. (Photo L-R: Bob Boone, Richard Reeder, Rick Kaempfer)
=Eckhartz Press publishers Rick Kaempfer and David Stern were in New York last week, and they had a meeting with the filmmakers putting the finishing touches on the Mob Adjacent film. It's getting very exciting.
=Eckhartz Press author Chuck Swirsky was in the news this week. He was the recipient of a pretty blistering critque from ESPN-Radio announcers Marc Silverman and Tom Waddle (who have both been to an Eckhartz Press book signing). The duo was upset that Chuck was upset about Ben Johnson's profanity laced anti-Packers rant. Of course we are standing by our author, Chuck. But we are not upset, because if we get upset about Waddle and Silvy getting upset about Chuck getting upset, we're pretty sure some sort of space-time upset-continuum will be disturbed.
=By the way, Chuck Swirsky has some great photos in his book, including these two with this week's birthday boys Vince Carter and Pat Tomasulo.
=The Eckhartz Press signing that Waddle and Silvy attended was the book launch for Randy Merkin's first book. Here's the photographic evidence.
=We've mentioned that Randy's second book is currently in our hands, preparing for a spring release. The great thing about Merkin's first bookis that there are stories about Hall of Fame legends everywhere you turn, including three stars celebrating birthdays this week,Jack Nicklaus, Wayne Gretzky, andChris Chelios(photo with Randy). There will be more Hall of Famers in the next book.
=This week is Ozzie Guillen's birthday (January 20). We like to think of Ozzie as an Eckhartz Press author too. After all, Ozzie wrote the foreword to Ken Smoller's book, Last Comiskey.
=This week last year (January 19), we lost one of the main characters from the book. Former White Sox manager Jeff Torborg, passed away. He was 83 years old. Jeff was the skipper of the team during their last season at old Comiskey.
=Dan McNeil was out and about last year at this time. You may have caught him at Blue Island Beer Company, or the Sports Collector Show in Orland Park (photo below).
=Eric Litt also brought his two Eckhartz Press books, Worth a Second Look and Oscars Biggest Mistakes, to a book fair in Skokie hosted by New Book Joy. Thanks to everyone who came out to say hello!
=Don't forget that The Flip Side is available in the Kindle format. Click here .
=This week in 1982 the #1 album in the country was "Great White North" by Bob & Doug McKenzie (from SCTV). Naturally the boys made an appearance at a Flip Side store with the Rosenbaums...
=This week in 2024 Rick Kaempfer appeared at the Chicagoland Record Show (1/21). Here are a few photos from that signing. (Top photo includes fellow Loopers Neil Sant, Artie Kennedy, and Bill Holub, second photo includes David Stern and Record show founder John Govi.)
=A bonus photo from the book for this week's birthday boy (1/24/49) John Belushi.
=The Loop Filesis dedicated to two special ladies, the late promotional geniuses Sandy Stahl and Cindy Gatziolis. Cindy's birthday would have been this week (January 25). That's her on the left (with fellow Looper Tricia Mladic)
=Rock journalist Bill Paige got the opportunity to interview some of the biggest rock stars during rock and roll's heyday. Among them, Steve Perry, who turns 76 this week (1/22). He rates his own chapter in Bill's great 2017 Eckhartz Press book.
=Tom Weinberg was a WTTW producer for years, and wrote a book about his greatest adventure, looking for a lost city in the jungles of Honduras. The photos alone, like the one below, are worth the price of admission. This week in 2018 he had a book signing at The Book Stall in Winnetka.
=He may be the White Sox radio announcer now, but back in 2016, Len Kasper was the TV play-by-play man for the Cubs. In the book Cubsessionsthis week's birthday boy tells the story of that magical night in Cleveland.
=This week in 2020, Eckhartz Press author Andrew C. Langert released his biography of Lewis University's Brother James Gafney. This photo is Andy holding the very first copy of the book.
=This week in 2019, Eckhartz Press author Chet Coppock made his final public appearance for a charity. He grabbed the mic and entertained the Bowling for Veterans event. That's a photo of him at the event below, along with a shot of Chet with his lifelong friend Jack Brickhouse. Jack was born this week (January 24), 110 years ago.
=Randy Richardson is not just the president of the Chicago Writer's Association, he's also a three-times published Eckhartz Press author. His first book for us was the coming of age novel Cheeseland. This week in 2013, Randy recapped the many stops on his media tour.
