Studio Walls--July 10, 2024

 

A weekly update/preview of my latest podcasts, and a look back at some of my previous audio work from this week in history over the past 40+ years.

Here are a few from the archives...

July 7, 1974—West Germany wins the World Cup, beating Netherlands 2-1. 

=This was the tournament that spurred my love of soccer, and eventually inspired the Free Kicks podcast

July 7, 1899—Adolph Luetgert dies

=Chicago historian Robert Loerzel wrote a book about that crazed killer. He told us all about it in this episode.

July 7—Ringo Starr birthday 

=Felix Cavaliere tells the story of playing in Ringo's All star band in this episode.  

=Bill Schnee tells the story of recording Ringo's album sessions, when all three of the other Beatles showed up.  

***

July 8, 1990—Germany wins the World Cup, beating Argentina 1-0. 

=This was the tournament that restored my love of soccer, and eventually inspired the Free Kicks podcast.

***

July 9, 2005—Adam Greenberg’s only Cub at bat

=One of the all-time great baseball stories.  

July 9, 2006—Men in Blazers stars Roger Bennett and Michael Davies meet at a wedding reception in New York.

=Roger Bennett told us that story in this episode.

July 9, 2019—Chance the Snapper found. 

=Block Club Chicago Editor-in-Chief Shamus Toomey told us the story of the alligator that put his Chicago website on the map.  

July 9, 1971—Grand Funk at Shea Stadium. 

=They sold more tickets in a shorter amount of time than the Beatles did six years earlier. Mark Farner told us more. 

 

***

July 10--Fred Mitchell birthday

=The legendary sportswriter appeared on this episode of Minutia Men Celebrity Interview.

 

***

July 11, 1996—5:30 Club

=This is a video of the John Landecker show's opening segment every morning on WJMK--The 5:30 Club. My age and shape are mentioned. 

July 11, 1960—To Kill a Mockingbird is published. 

=And now it's banned in Florida. Scott Turow talked to us about his thoughts regarding its banning. 

***

July 12, 1979--Disco Demoilition

=This video from that night does a pretty good of explaining the hype.

***

July 13, 2014—Germany wins the World Cup, beating Argentina 1-0. 

=Pretty good week in history for Germany, eh?

July 13—Cheech Marin birthday 

=We interviewed Tommy Chong, who told us all about his ex-comedy partner Cheech.  

Studio Walls--July 3, 2024

 

A weekly update/preview of my latest podcasts, and a look back at some of my previous audio work from this week in history over the past 40+ years.

Here are a few from the archives...

June 30, 1959—Two balls in play at once at Cubs game

=We have the audio of that totally confusing play-by-play

June 30—Mike Tyson birthday

=Dan Frischman of the show Head of the Class has a great story about his brush with Mike Tyson. He told it to us in this episode of Minutia Men.

***

July 1—Release of the New York Times bestseller The Lie by William Dameron

=He appeared in this episode of Minutia Men Celebrity Interview.  

July 1—Canada Day

=Mr. Zero, one of the leaders of the Canadian Band The Kings appeared on Minutia Men. 

=Felix Cavaliere from the Rascals talked to us about his inexplicable popularity in Canada. 

=Canadian journalist Paul Saltzman told us a story about Beatles making fun of Canada. 

***

July 3--Tom Cruise birthday

=I told my Tom Cruise story in this episode of Minutia Men.  

July 3, 1971—Don Kessinger hits an inside the park homer 

=We have the audio. 

July 3, 2020—Rick appears on Phil Manicki show on WGN 

=We talked about the media business, including our show Minutia Men. You can hear it here.

***

July 4, 1954—West Germany beats Hungary 3-2 to win the World Cup

=Just another reminder to listen to Free Kicks.

July 4—Bill Schnee birthday

=The famous recording engineer/producer has some incredible rock and roll stories. A great sampling of them are in this interview. 

***

July 5, 1970—Leo Durocher starts a brawl 

=We have the play-by-play audio.

 

***

July 6, 1970—Ron Santo hits 3 homers 

=We play the play-by-play audio.

July 6--Robert Loerzel birthday

=The Chicago historian tells us all about the 1919 race riots in Chicago. 

July 6—Burt Ward birthday

=Mike Toomey has a story about dealing with Robin. 

July 6—Nick Digilio birthday 

=Nick came on the Minutia Men show shortly before debuting his Radio Misfits podcast.

Studio Walls--May 8, 2024

 

A weekly update/preview of my latest podcasts, and a look back at some of my previous audio work from this week in history over the past 40+ years.

Here are a few from the archives...

May 5, 1989—Field of Dreams debuts

=Dad, would you like to have a catch? Our Dwier Brown interview 

May 5, 2016--The Minutia Men Podcast debuts 

=That's right, this is our 8th anniversary. That's a lot of minutiae. 

May 6, 1998

=Kerry Wood strikes out 20 batters in a game, setting a record. I was there and told the story in this episode of Minutia Men. 

May 7, 1898—Watford Football Club debuts 

=Happy 126th birthday to Watford, a reminder to listen to Free Kicks with Adam & Rick.

May 8, 2015—Rick appears on Lossano & Friends

=I ended up telling my Larry Lujack story

May 8, 1993—First Matt Foley sketch on SNL

=We had the real Matt Foley (Farley's college buddy) on the show. 

May 9—Danny Rapp of Danny & The Juniors birthday. 

=The Rascals leader Felix Cavaliere got his start in Danny's band, and told us that story in this episode of Minutia Men Celebrity Interview.  

May 10—Bono’s birthday. 

=Irish actress Amy Shiels (Twin Peaks) was on the show, and we swapped Bono stories.  

May 11--Minutia Men release 50^th episode (2017). 

=In April we just released our 350th. Time flies.

Studio Walls--March 20, 2024

 

A weekly update/preview of my latest podcasts, and a look back at some of my previous audio work from this week in history over the past 40+ years.

Here are a few from the archives...

March 17 (St. Patrick’s Day)--Timothy O’Shea (Irish musician) appeared on the show and performed for us.  

March 17—Catholic Confession Hotline. We've called it before. Will we call it again?

March 18—Rich King birthday. The former sportscaster/author appeared on the show several times, including this one.

March 18—Adam Levine birthday. The lead singer of Maroon 5 was discovered by one our guests, famed songwriter/record producer John Denicola. He told us that story.  

March 19—Frank Jasper birthday. The Oscar gate crasher told us all about his famous stunts.  

March 19—Dave T. Koenig birthday. The Mrs. Maisel star chatted with us a few years ago. 

March 19--Bruce Willis birthday. I told the story of my mid-90s brush with Bruce on this episode of Minutia Men.

March 19, 1953—First TV broadcast of the Oscars. Our go-to Oscar expert is Eric Litt.

March 20—Carl Reiner birthday. Carl is my writing hero, and I told the story of what is was like meeting him, on this episode of Minutia Men.  

March 20, 1966—The Rascals appear on the Ed Sullivan show. Felix Cavaliere was on the show and told us the story of that day. 

March 20--Mitch Michaels birthday. Our interview with Mitch is here. 

March 21—Eddie Money birthday. Kurt Elling came on the show and told us the greatest Eddie Money story ever.  

March 22--Werner Klemperer birthday. Dave had a brush with Werner and told us that story in this episode.

March 22—William Shatner birthday. One of the strangest interviews we ever did was with a street band (one guy) from Seattle who goes by William Shatner's Hairpiece.

March 22—Andrew Lloyd Webber birthday. One of his main lyrical collaborators (Glen Slater) told us what Sir Andrew is really like.  

March 23, 2003—The documentary Scrabylon released. We talked to the director, Scott Petersen. 

March 23, 2023—Marquee announces “When it was a game” Cubs special (that I participated in). It was eventually called "Cubs Flicks". You can see part of it here.  

March 23—Mark Buehrle birthday—Spike Manton is a friend of the White Sox great and told us a funny story about him. 

Minutia Men Celebrity Interview Classic--Felix Cavaliere

 

We have now done over 200 interviews on our various Minutia Men podcasts, and this year we're going to revisit some of the best. This past year we got a chance to talk to the man who founded the Rascals, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Felix Cavaliere. We talked about his hit songs like "It's a Beautiful Morning", "Groovin" and "People Got To Be Free" and the role he inadvertently played in getting Little Stevie Van Zandt the role of a lifetime in the hit series The Sopranos.

You can listen to it here.

Studio Walls

 Every week I send my Minutia Men Co-Host Dave Stern a list from our audio archives for this week's Studio Walls feature. These are the possibilities for this week. Which one will he choose?

November 26—Jeff Torborg birthday. Mark Giangreco told us a great story about the former White Sox skipper.

November 27—Robin Givens birthday: Dan Frischman told us a memorable story about her days on the show Head of the Class. : 

November 28, 1925—Grand ol Opry founded. John Landecker and Rick believed that anyone could write a country music song. To prove it, they did it during a commercial break. (Landecker AUDIO)

November 29--Release of “The Balding Handbook” (2012). Cueball Wizard was our promotional song. 

November 29—Felix Cavaliere birthday. We did a very entertaining interview with the Rascals lead singer on Minutia Men Celebrity.

November 29—Minnie Minoso birthday. We have audio of the annual interview we did with Minnie at the Landecker Mini Golf tournament.

November 29—Don Cheadle birthday. Amy Landecker told us a truly great story about her encounter with Don. 

November 30, 2016--Father Knows Nothing came out. The Twelve Teen Days of Christmas debuted shortly thereafter. It's a promotional song for the book Father Knows Nothing.  

December 2—Dan Butler birthday. Dan played Bulldog on the show Frasier. He also appeared on the show Minutia Men Celebrity Interview.  

December 3, 2014—Rick on WLS Radio with Bruce Wolf for Father Knows Nothing