Brushes with Oscar

Sunday night is the Academy Awards. Every year at this time, I dig into my archives to retell a few stories about my personal brushes with Oscar winners and Oscar nominees.

If you're interested, here are two of my favorites...

Julie Andrews

John Travolta

Dylan Gardner

I've known this young lad since he was born. He's the son of Landecker and the Legends guitarist Mark Gardner, and he was born around the same time as my oldest son Tommy.

We used to go to Mark's house every year for a Legends Christmas party, and little Dylan would be playing the drums in their basement (I seem to remember him doing this at a ridiculous age like 3 or 4). Dylan has also appeared on stage with Landecker & the Legends, most recently in 2009 when he performed the Doors song "Roadhouse Blues" at the age of 13.

The Gardners moved out to Arizona shortly after that show, but it's obvious that Dylan's musical career is just getting started. He plays guitar, bass, and piano on the song. I'm very impressed with the youngster.

Punch a Packer Person Polka

This is a little ditty I wrote several years ago for Landecker & the Legends, but it certainly works again this week.

It's called: "Punch a Packer Person Polka"

Is it just me, or are the Packer fans obnoxiously cocky this year?

The Rick Kaempfer interview

I was interviewed by Margaret Larkin for her podcast a few weeks ago, and she posted it last night.

You can hear the interview here.

Ringo

I just got the June issue of Shore Magazine in the mail. It's the music issue, and contains a back page essay I wrote about my brush with a Beatle.

If you're interested, you can read it here.

Memory Lane

This video was made during my days at the Loop. It's a stroll down memory lane for me. You may enjoy it too...

Speaking of show trials

15 years ago yesterday, the OJ Simpson trial officially began. It lasted until October.

Careers were made during that trial. Just ask Greta Van Sustern. She was unknown before the trial, and a celebrity after it ended--because she covered it daily on CNN. Mark Fuhrman became a celebrity too.

Heck, I must admit, it wasn't bad for me either. During that trial the John Landecker show was cranking out material on a daily basis that shot us to the top of the Chicago radio ratings. Roe Conn is another one that was catapulted into the spotlight.

On the other hand, a guilty man probably got away with murder. I know he's in jail now, but OJ Simpson was actually acquitted.

It's still hard to believe 15 years later.

Easy Rider

It was released 40 years ago today.

I was fortunate enough to meet the director and co-star of that movie, Dennis Hopper. He's a very interesting guy. (Read all about that meeting here.)

Enjoy a clip of the movie too. This is obviously pre-booze tax.

Michael Jackson & Lisa Marie

15 years ago this week the big headline in all the newspapers was the surprise marriage of Michael Jackson & Lisa Marie Presley.


We had some fun with that story on the John Records Landecker show.