Friday, January 10, 2020

Neil Peart

Minutia Men Celebrity Interview--John Records Landecker

This week's Minutia Men interview is with my old pal (and boss) John Records Landecker.

Listen to it here.

Thursday, January 09, 2020

Pat Colander auction

For fans of the late Eckhartz Press author Pat Colander, her estate is having a sale of some of her artwork. Here's an excerpt from the piece in yesterday's Tribune...

The event sale is at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 23 at Rivich Auction House and Gallery, 1828 Indianapolis Blvd. in Whiting. Wine will be served at a preview reception at 6 p.m., one hour before the auction, which will include curated selections from Colander’s personal art and literary collections, paintings, books, glassware and personal items. There will also be an online auction for bidding from afar, with many of the lots already posted, by searching “Rivich Auction” at www.liveauctioneers.com. Smaller items will be sold with a silent auction during the event.

A number of autographed books, including some from her late film critic friend Roger Ebert, are included in sale.

In 2017, Pat published her last book that detailed her life in journalism and many great behind-the-scenes newsroom stories. She grew up on the south side of Chicago and graduated from the University of Illinois and Purdue University Calumet. Her final book was "Hugh Hefner's First Funeral and Other True Tales of Love and Death in Chicago" (2015, Eckhartz Press, $15.95). The book title is taken from her details of the shocking death of Bobbie Arnstein, the executive secretary to Hugh Hefner and hailed as the woman behind the man who created the men's magazine empire. Other tales in the book range from a tour of the old Cook County morgue and the investigation that led to the capture of the Tylenol tampering killer.

Colander was also fascinated by the death of candy heiress Helen Brach, who was the subject on one of her earlier books, "Thin Air: The Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Helen Brach," published in 1982.

Artist Scott Covert used a stretched canvas and oil and wax-based crayons to create large works which depicts “rubbings” of the façade of tombstones and crypts of notable strange famous deaths, including those of comedians Phil Silvers, Oliver Hardy, Stringbean, Jackie Gleason, Marty Feldman, Lenny Bruce, Andy Kaufman and others. A matching piece by artist Covert does the same final resting place treatment for great writers including John Steinbeck, Louis L’Amour, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, William Faulkner and Bob Kane.

Tuesday, January 07, 2020

Mike Murphy

I was bummed to read this morning that Mike Murphy has hung up his headphones and retired from ESPN AM 1000. He wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but I always enjoyed listening to his show. He and I shared a love/hate relationship with our favorite team (the Cubs). I even appeared on his show when EveryCubEver came out, and put him in the updated version of the book when he told me that he caught the only homer of Jose Arcia's career.

(Check out this fascinating Mediaburn video of Murphy in action back in the 1990s.)

I hope he changes his mind. He had a unique voice on Chicago sports radio.

Old Aches and Pains

Former White Sox great Luke Appling...at the age of 75.

Robert Feder

Always appreciate it when Robert Feder mentions me in his column. He didn't have to do it. Here's today's tidbit...

The January edition of Illinois Entertainer features an interview with Brad Edwards, the investigative reporter who moved up to main news anchor at CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2 last spring. (Here is the link.) “It’s a remarkable thing we’re trying to do at CBS 2. We are actually doing some accountability journalism,” Edwards tells media columnist Rick Kaempfer. “It’s going to take some time to change a generation of viewing habits, in combination with a dwindling market share for local news in general.”

Monday, January 06, 2020

Kyle Long

Classy departure...

Ricky Gervais

One of his better jokes from last night's Golden Globes...