Wednesday, January 19, 2022
Randy Merkin on TV
Eckhartz Press author Randy Merkin (Behind the Glass) was on Channel 7 this morning.
RIP Pat Brickhouse
I spent quite a bit of time with Pat during the first few years of Just One Bad Century. She taped a bunch of videos for me, including this one below. I also wrote about her for Shore Magazine, and she gets a whole chapter in the Eckhartz Press book Cubsessions. Sad to hear about her passing. She was a firecracker. RIP, Pat.
RIP Bill Jackson
The sad news keeps on coming. This is my childhood right here. Saw him at the Gateway Theater in Chicago in the early 70s. He got on stage and drew pictures for us out of our initials. Thought it was about the coolest thing I ever saw (as a ten-year-old).
Bill Jackson has passed away. He was 86. Here he is with Dirty Dragon at the Evergreen Plaza Shopping Center in Evergreen Park, IL. I will do a tribute podcast episode of him on Vanished Chicagoland Stories soon. What tremendous talent that man had. He will be missed. R.I.P. pic.twitter.com/l7lPgbqBtx
— Vanished Chicagoland (@vanishedchicago) January 18, 2022
Deleted JoJo Rabbit Scenes
This is my favorite movie of the last decade, so imagine my surprise and delight when I found a bunch of deleted scenes. If you go on Youtube you can go down the same wormhole I'm just now emerging from. Here's one of my favorites...
New Morning Host at the Mix
His name is Chris Petlak, and Robert Feder has all the details about the man who is replacing Eric Ferguson. This paragraph kind of jumped out at me...
Petlak, who grew up in Mount Prospect and graduated from Prospect High School, began his career as a promotion assistant and social media manager at Hubbard Radio Chicago in 2008. He later moved to Los Angeles to pursue standup comedy. He also created, wrote, produced and starred in “The Jamz,” a Netflix sitcom about a fictional Chicago radio station.
Same high school as me (at least for my senior year). Also, someone with a writing background. I'll most likely be in touch with him soon to interview him.
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?
*January 17, 1905, the first chainsaw was invented. Two former MMCI guests have told us great stories about using chainsaws on stage, Tubes lead singer Fee Waybill (Listen to entire interview here), and radio legend Kevin Matthews (Listen to entire interview here)
*January 18, 2008, I appeared on Steve Cochran's show on WGN Radio to unveil my brand new venture, Just One Bad Century. (The website still exists)
*January 20, 1996, Chicago added several new area codes. I wrote a song for John Landecker and the Legends about this called "Land of 1000 Area Codes" (Which can still be found on the Landecker & the Legends CD, Baby Boomers)
*January 20, 2008, the show Breaking Bad debuted. We interviewed the woman who played the principal of the high school in the show, Carmen Serano. (Listen to the entire interview here)
*January 21, 2014, Dave appeared on the Pete McMurray show to promote his side-hustle, the Pothole Store. (That interview is still available here)
*January 21 is baseball announcer Len Kasper's birthday. We interviewed him in his last season with the Cubs. (Listen to the entire interview here)
*January 21, 2020, the CDC announced the first COVID case in America. We interviewed patient zero Gregg Garfield. (Listen to entire interview here)
Eckhartz Everyday
“Truffle Hunt” serves up a five-star gourmet feast of murder, hidden historical gems, deep family pride, a dash of humor and romance, topped with delicate slices of heavenly, golden truffles and a glass of nectar from the deepest Eastern European wine cellars. As a gourmand, mushroom hunter, animal lover and world traveler, I ate the delicious book up in just a couple of sittings. Now, all I need is a truffle hunting dog, a simian bartender, and I can I can bring the pages of this book to life in my kitchen!
Vesna Plakanis, Owner, A Walk in the Woods, Nature Guide Service
*Ken Frailing is celebrating a birthday today. Frailing has the distinction of being part of two Eckhartz Press books. He pitched for the Cubs, so naturally, he is in the book EveryCubEver. He was also a member of the 1972 White Sox, so he is also a part of our new Dick Allen book Chili Dog MVP. Both books are still available at Eckhartz Press.
Tuesday, January 18, 2022
Eckhartz Everyday
*Happy birthday to Eckhartz Press author Bob Boone. Bob's collection of short stories, City U, came out last year during the pandemic, and has gotten great reviews.
“Bob Boone has the unique knack of finding the uncommon in so-called common people. The dialogue of his characters always rings true, never mincing words. Boone is a master of twists and turns in his stories, always keeping his readers thoroughly engaged.”
Here he is at Printer's Row Litfest last September.
From the Writing Archives
In 2014, Eckhartz Press published my fifth book Father Knows Nothing. The book features about a hundred of the four hundred plus columns I wrote during the nine years it ran (in various publications owned by the Northwest Indiana Times). That means a lot of the columns did not make the final book, including this one I'm featureing today. I teased it yesterday in a post. This one goes back to 2011, right after my novel The Living Wills came out.
My kids never tire of hearing stories about my childhood, but there is one thing they will never ask me about under any circumstances.
My career.
They just don't care. I can understand that on a certain level. My own father was an engineer, and I remember that after I discovered he wasn't a train engineer...he was just a civil engineer...his job didn't interest me in the slightest. Even when I attended a school he had personally designed (Heidelberg American Middle School), I wasn't impressed. I remember telling him: "The hallways are a little confusing."
So, I suppose it's only fair that my own kids are similarly unimpressed with my career. When they were little, I worked in radio. My two oldest sons Tommy and Johnny were even featured on the show quite a bit. But I remember their reaction one time when a stranger was impressed by meeting them because he had heard them talking on the radio.
They thought the guy was nuts.
When this fan asked Tommy what it was like hanging out with a famous disc jockey like John Records Landecker, he just shrugged his shoulders. So did Johnny. To them, John was just one of Dad's friends. No big deal. And being on the radio was also no big deal. It's just a bunch of people sitting in a room with microphones.
When my first book came out, I gave an autographed copy to my oldest son. He put it in the closet. When my first novel came out two years later, I gave copies to all three boys. Two of them have no idea where their copies are now. When my most recent novel came out, none of the boys wanted a copy. None of them even asked me what it's about.
But when that book came out, I did something I thought might actually interest them: I was interviewed by WGN Television.
I mentioned it to the boys at breakfast that morning as I put on my suit.
"Is it going to be on the Internet?" Sean asked.
"I'm not sure," I said. "I hope so. If not, I can probably post it on YouTube."
"Do you know how to do that?" Tommy asked.
"No. Do you?"
He just shook his head and continued eating his waffles. No follow up questions. Not the slightest bit of interest. After they came home from school I asked them if they wanted to watch the interview. All three of them said no. Bridget, to her credit, actually did want to see it when she came home from work. I even heard her guilting the boys into watching it too. Only two of them were moved by her techniques; Tommy and Sean. Johnny still didn't care. He stayed in his room reading Captain Underpants.
The rest of us watched the segment together. After it was over, Tommy said: "That's it?"
"Yup," I replied.
Sean didn't say a word, he just walked away. Bridget said: "That was pretty good, but..."
"What?"
"You were a little slouchy."
Gotcha.
I must say, there's very little chance of getting a big head in this household. I suppose that's probably for the best. But I also have a pretty good idea now how my Dad felt when I told him the hallways in his school were a little confusing.
Father Knows Nothing is here at Eckhartz Press for only $10, and the e-book here at amazon.com
Monday, January 17, 2022
What the World Needs Now
I post this every year on MLK day. It's a great song from 1971, produced and written by Tom Clay.
RIP Les Grobstein
So sad to hear this news. Chicago sportscaster Les Grobstein has passed away at the age of 69. Robert Feder has the details.
I did interview Les for Chicago Radio Spotlight back in 2009. You can read the entire interview here.
Here is my favorite story from that interview...
Rick: You were also one of the select few live witnesses to one of the most compelling moments in Chicago radio history. Tell me about the day that Larry Lujack burst into the Steve & Garry studio and challenged him to a fight. You were right there in the studio when it happened.
Les: I thought I was going to have to break up a fist fight. It was Thanksgiving eve, the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, and the office was almost totally empty. Steve was ripping Larry on the air, which he did nearly every day. Garry had a broken foot. Larry (photo) was hanging out at the station, which is something he did on occasion, long after his show was over.
Well, Larry walked into the studio and wished Steve & Garry a happy Thanksgiving. It was very tense. They went back and forth, and back and forth, and one of Steve’s kids was there, and he started crying. After that, Larry left. After Larry was gone, Steve said "If he ever comes back in here, I’ll break both of his legs."
Well, things continued in the days to come. I flew to Miami for the Dolphins-Bears game (1985), because Steve & Garry were doing the show from Miami Beach. I got a lot of Bears players live on the air with Steve and Garry. We had Fridge, Fencik, etc. So anyway, I'm doing a sportscast from there, and at the end of the sportscast, Larry came on from Chicago to say “Hey Les, did you hear about my new feature? It's called 'Whose afraid of the big fat pig? The truth about to Steve Dahl.' Needless to say, this got back to Steve.
So, we're back in the studio in Chicago, and I'm doing my sportscast, talking about the Bears, when all of a sudden the door opens and Larry comes in and my mic is still open and I say “Lar, why couldn't you do this when Jim Johnson was in here?” Of course, he came in while I was there on purpose because I was on both of their shows. Jim was a Steve & Garry partisan, but I wasn't allowed to choose sides.
Steve says “Larry get out.” But Larry says, "I heard what you said the other day, so I just wanted to see if you’re going to break both my legs before I throw your head through the wall." It wasn’t a bit. It wasn’t fake. Then Larry says he is going to promote his new feature, so Steve and Garry leave the studio, and Steve says "Let’s leave Mr. Insane alone in his insane world." Garry, who has a broken leg remember, hobbles out of the studio. Lujack sits down at the console and says "So, I guess I’m finishing the show. He said 'Les, we were talking about football, right?' I did the sign off and got the f*** out of there.
About ten minutes later three Chicago coppers got off the elevators and most of the employees were gone. I greeted the cops and they said they got a report that a riot had broken out at WLS, and I told them there was nothing to worry about.
The next morning I was in studio with Larry for what was supposed to be the "Whose afraid of the big fat pig" thing, but he didn't do it. He said that he and Steve had a nice chat and had resolved their differences. Of course, within two days Steve was ripping him again and the war stayed on for the rest of their time there.
Eckhartz Everyday
*On this day in 2012, Brendan Sullivan and I appeared on WGN-TV to promote our book The Living Wills (Still available here at Eckhartz Press). I wish I still had the video of that appearance, but I don't. I do, however, have a review from my wife who watched us being interviewed by Dina Bair. Despite our witty repartee and Dina's overt endorsement of the book, Bridget's review was this: "You looked a little slouchy."
*On this day in 2019, Eckhartz Press author Richard Reeder appeared on Rabbi Doug's television show in Chicago to promote his book 1001 Train Rides in Chicago. (Still available here at Eckhartz Press) It was like the meeting of two kindred spirits. That video does still exist, and you can watch it below.
*Today is the birthday of America's first-ever Post Master General, Benjamin Franklin. Vicki Quade's Eckhartz Press Book Close Encounters of a Chicago Kind has an entire chapter about her entertaining encounters at a local Chicago post office. Hilarious, and highly recommended. Her book is still available here.
*Former Chicago Bull Dwayne Wade is celebrating a birthday today. D-Wade gets his own chapter in Randy Merkin's great Eckhartz Press book, Behind the Glass. That book was our top selling book this Christmas season and is still available here.
Saturday, January 15, 2022
Minutia Men
David Bowie’s early years, Led Zeppelin’s wild party, Liver tattoos, the best Popes of all time, a crackpot COVID rap, and Lassie’s amazing life saving techniques are discussed by Rick and Dave.
Friday, January 14, 2022
Free Kicks
Free Kicks is back for a new season. In this week's episode...
Little known clubs from places like Hartlepool, Boreham Wood, and Kid’minster take on the big boys in the Premier League.
Cubs Birthday Tweet of the Week
His story is told in EveryCubEver, and this week, on Twitter...
Born OTD in 1947, Paul Reuschel. According to @jodonnell17, Paul once lived on the street I live on now. On 8/21/75, brother Rick pitched a shutout for 6 1/3 innings before tiring. Paul pitched the rest. The brothers remain the only siblings to combine for a shutout #EveryCubEver pic.twitter.com/qd70pfgj0H
— Rick Kaempfer (@RickKaempfer) January 12, 2022
Photo of the Week
Vince Argento sent this picture of Bridget and me this week. It was taken at his wedding in 1998. Look at these two kids.
Eckhartz Everyday
*On this day in 2018, the Eckhartz Press book Out the Door was named the Book of the Year by the Chicago Writers Association. See a photo gallery here of the proud author M.L Collins and her publishers at the event. Out the Door is still available at Eckhartz Press.
Thursday, January 13, 2022
Another Sign of the Apocalypse
Radio host @MancowMuller announced on NewsNation he is running for governor of Illinois and says he wants to "leave people alone" but acknowledges he has "a graveyard" of skeletons in his closet. Read more: https://t.co/N6c6hl6i6S pic.twitter.com/IJ8s2ecxL5
— NewsNation Now (@NewsNationNow) January 13, 2022
Eckhartz Everyday
*On this day in 2012, Brendan Sullivan and I sat down and discussed our book The Living Wills. This is the video of that interview...
Wednesday, January 12, 2022
SAG Award Nominees
My favorite category is below. Variety has all of the categories.
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series
Michael Douglas (“The Kominsky Method”)
Brett Goldstein (“Ted Lasso”)
Steve Martin (“Only Murders in the Building”)
Martin Short (“Only Murders in the Building”)
Jason Sudeikis (“Ted Lasso”)
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