Mr. Media Interviews by Bob Andelman

Today's Guest: Chuck Workman, Stephen J. Kern, documentary film producers, In Search of Kennedy   In Search of Kennedy, a documentary film by Chuck Workman and Stephen J. Kern. Order your copy now by clicking on the film poster above! If MTV edited a presidential campaign video, it would probably look and feel a bit like In Search of Kennedy, a new documentary film by Chuck Workman and Stephen J. Kern. The movie applies a 21st century sheen to the most iconic of 20th century political figures, John F. Kennedy. It is incredibly au currant, with the 2008 Democratic references narrowed down to Obama and Clinton. The movie - which reminds us that, in 2000, even George W. Bush was sold to the American public as being Kennedy-like! - is crammed with familiar faces interviewed expressly for this project, including Norman Mailer, Tom Hayden, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Michael Moore, Garrison Keillor, Chris Matthews, Arianna Huffington and Senators Edward Kennedy, Joseph Biden and Chris Dodd. Alec Baldwin and Elisabeth Peña speak the words of prominent writers. Workman, who wrote and directed In Search of Kennedy over a three-year period, received his Oscar® for his live action short “Precious Images.” Previously, Workman produced and directed two critically acclaimed theatrical documentaries, on two other ‘60s icons, Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol (1990) and The Source, (1999) about the Beat Generation and Jack Kerouac. One of the things that may surprise people is that this isn’t just a recitation of JFK’s greatest hits. It is a warts-and-all presentation of Jack and all the Kennedys, from the Bay of Pigs and Marilyn Monroe to Chappaquidick and William Kennedy Smith. Whether you’re a Kennedy fan or just a political junkie, you’ll no doubt find In Search of Kennedy provocative and entertaining. John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Website • Facebook • Twitter • Tumblr • YouTube • Pinterest • Wikipedia Chuck Workman Wikipedia • IMDB • NPR Stephen J. Kern LinkedIn   The Millionaire's Convenient Arrangementby Jane Peden. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Jesse Bradford, actor, "Outlaw" Jesse Bradford in "Sequestered" Over the past week, I’ve been delighted to play host to the two leading ladies of NBC’s new legal series, “Outlaw” – Carly Pope and Ellen Woglom. They both told me how wonderful the star’s show, Jimmy Smits, is. Who cares about him? JESSE BRADFORD podcast excerpt: "I've never really had a steady gig. That was always a tremendously appealing life to me throughout my 20s; I didn't want my life to be about my work. But now, at 31, I would love to have a steady gig."  What I really want to know, only a man can tell me: what’s it like to work with Carly and Ellen, who have starred, respectively, in the film Young People F@cking and the TV show “Californication”? I know, I know: I’m hopeless. You’ll probably recognize Jesse Bradford, by the way: he’s been in a pile of successful films by renown directors prior to playing Eddie Franks on “Outlaw,” which airs Fridays @ 10 p.m. on NBC. There was Clint Eastwood,’s Flags of Our Fathers and Oliver Stone’s W. He also appeared in Steven Soderbergh’s King of the Hill and Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio. Good work, if you can get it. Jesse Bradford Twitter • IMDB • Wikipedia • Instagram LISTEN! More Mr. Media interviews with the stars of "Outlaw": Ellen Woglom • Carly Pope The Millionaire's Convenient Arrangementby Jane Peden. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Peri Gilpin, Candace Cameron Bure, actors, "Make It or Break It" Make It Or Break It, Peri Gilpin, ABC Family, Mr. Media Interviews Could one man possibly be responsible for all of our nation’s salacious schtick? Yes, say sitcom staples Peri Gilpin and Candace Cameron Bure – and that man is Bob Saget. Interviewed on Mr. Media, Peri, who played Roz Doyle on Frasier, and Candace, who played D.J. Tanner on Full House, roast their pal Bob – who led the Full House cast as widowed dad Danny Tanner – big-time. Discussing her TV alma mater with host Bob Andelman, Candace says: “There’s definitely a place for shows like Full House, where, as parents, we can safely allow our children to watch, and not worry about whether they’ll be exposed to something that isn’t age- appropriate.” That’s when Peri, who co-stars with Candace in the ABC Family series Make It or Break It, jumps in with this zinger: Candace Cameron Bure, Peri Gilpin, actresses, Make It Or Break It, Mr. Media Interviews “Wait a minute. What about Bob Saget?” “Exactly. I grew up with that,” replies Candace. “I grew up wayyyy too fast.” “Are you going to blame everything bad that’s happened to you on Saget?” asks our host. “We’re blaming him for all the dirty jokes in our lives,” says Peri. “All the dirty jokes in America,” adds Candace. “I know Bob because I work out at the gym with him – and Candace was there, too, for a while,” says Peri, before whacking the final nail into the Sagat legacy: “So I know Bob’s little ‘spicy act.’” Peri Gilpin Wikpedia • Twitter C andace Cameron Bure Website • Facebook • Twitter • Pinterest • Order Reshaping It All from Amazon.com WATCH! Candace Cameron Bure returned to Mr. Media for a 2013 video interview! The Millionaire's Convenient Arrangementby Jane Peden. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Georgene Lockwood, author, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Organizing Your Life Order 'The Complete Idiot's Guide to Organizing Your Life', 5th Edition, by Georgene Lockwood, available right now at a great price by clicking on the book cover above! Only one of the three of us living in the Mr. Media® residence is organized. The other two? Not so much. It’s a constant pressure point, too, where the one is constantly picking up after the rest. They complain they don’t have any room, don’t know where anything is, can’t find something important at a crucial moment… If this sounds like your home and your life, let’s work together today to do something about this. GEORGENE LOCKWOOD podcast excerpt: "Where do you begin? Do you begin in a corner? You might begin on the couch so someone can sit on it. For most people, it's the area that causes the most stress and aggravation every day." Joining me today is Georgene Lockwood, author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Organizing Your Life, now in its fifth edition. I will say this: there is a ray of hope in the Mr. Media home. One of the two non-organized entities here pounced on Lockwood’s book when it arrived and immediately started babbling about all the great ideas found within it. Time will tell whether they take or get left in a pile somewhere. Georgene Lockwood Website • Facebook • LinkedIn • Sylvana Vintage Designs blog • Twitter  Order The Complete Idiot's Guide to Organizing Your Life from Amazon.com ] The Millionaire's Convenient Arrangementby Jane Peden. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Mindi Abair, saxophonist Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience that includes Clarence “Big Man” Clemons, David Sanborn and the ghosts of Charlie Parker and John Coltrane … in the new new media capitol of the world – and birthplace of Mindi Abair! … St. Petersburg, Florida!   Part 1 of 4 Order 'Wild Heart' by saxophonist Mindi Abair, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the CD above! Not everyone took saxophone player Mindi Abair’s path to being a guest on Mr. Media. Most get booked through a publicist, quite honestly. I get a note or a phone call saying, “Have you ever heard of…” Something like that. I consider each one carefully and invite only the men and women who strike a chord with me. But in Mindi’s case, I received an email from someone whom I trust without question – her aunt, Becky James. Becky has been transcribing audio interviews for me for the last two decades. She probably knows things about me from those recordings that even my wife doesn’t, and bless her, she’ll take those stories to the grave. MINDY ABAIR audio excerpt: "Every one of the American Idol contestants looked at me backstage and said, 'NO!' They are not making you wear that underwear onstage, are they? But I did the dress rehearsal in men's underwear, trying to look like Tom Cruise... They gave me tighty-whiteys! I've known Randy Jackson for years; I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head! ... It was not until I came out in my regular clothes that Steven Tyler asked who I was."  American Idol Anyway, one day she sent a note saying, “You should have my niece, Mindi, on your show. She’s a saxophone player.” Umm… But then I did a little homework. Mindi Abair is an outstanding saxophone player, one of the most talented individuals of her generation on her instrument. And, if you don’t want to believe me – or Aunt Becky – you should have seen her recent appearances on “American Idol,” first blowing away the audience and judges alongside contestant Paul McDonald on Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll.” She returned a few weeks later to accompany another singer on the show, Casey Abrams. Oh, and she was just named Best International Instrumentalist at the Wave Awards in Toronto. And another thing: Mindi -- a graduate of St. Petersburg's Northside Christian High School and Berklee College of Music in Boston -- was featured on the front page of Yahoo Music as their lead story the day after her first "American Idol" feature. By the end of the day, “the mystery saxophist” story had received 3 million clickthroughs. What can I say? Aunt Becky knows her saxophone stuff! Mindi Abair Website • Fan Club • Twitter • Facebook • MySpace • iTunes • YouTube   Part 2 of 4     Part 3 of 4 (Part 4 of 4 was deleted due to alleged copyright infringement.)   The Millionaire's Convenient Arrangementby Jane Peden. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Christopher Ward, Canada’s first MuchMusic VJ, author, Is This Live? Inside the Wild Early Years of MuchMusic: The Nation's Music Station Watch this exclusive Mr. Media interview with CHRISTOPHER WARD by clicking on the video player above!  Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience of Alannah Myles and Bryan Adams impersonators doing “The Safety Dance”… in the NEW new media capital of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida! "Is This Live? Inside the Wild Early Years of MuchMusic: The Nation's Music Station" by Christopher Ward. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above! What I don’t know about the Canadian music video scene could fill a half an hour or more… as rock ‘n’ roll historian Christopher Ward is about to discover. Ward has published a charming new oral history of MuchMusic—a Canadian take on MTV for my clueless fellow Americans. The book—Is This Live? Inside the Wild Early Years of MuchMusic, The Nation’s Music Station—takes us behind-the-scenes at the creation of the video music network where the only rule was, “You can do anything you want on air, just don’t spend any money.” CHRISTOPHER WARD podcast excerpt: "Being live at MuchMusic was like improv comedy. People love to see you fail and figure out how you're going to get out of it." Canadian music stars of the 1980s who blew up around the world—thanks in no small part to MuchMusic—included Bryan Adams, Corey Hart and Loverboy. And it also made mostly local guitar heroes out of Platinum Blonde, Gowan, the Spoons and Glass Tiger. Unless you’re a native of the Great White North, you’re probably wondering what Ward’s connection to all this might be, right? Well, he was Canada’s first VJ, or video disc jockey. But unlike their American counterparts who precorded all of their patter between music videos, Ward and his cohorts worked live. Ward got his start as an entertainer as a member of Second City Touring Company, where he became friends with future SNL comedian Mike Myers and was Myers’ sidekick on the original “Wayne’s World” before Dana Carvey brought life to Garth. He has also written songs for Diana Ross, Wynona Judd, The Backstreet Boys and Alannah Myles, for whom he wrote the #1 hit, “Black Velvet.” CHRISTOPHER WARD podcast excerpt: "Mike Myers calls me the 'entertainment survivalist' because we would go on the road together and I was prepared. I would bring a sandwich and I would have cold beer stashed in the van. I was ready to cope. I took pity on him and brought extra sandwich, extra beer, and a splitter for the headphones. And we both loved The Clash." Christopher Ward Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram • TuneIn • LinkedIn • Wikipedia • Much • IMDB • Goodreads Kicking Through the Ashes: My Life As A Stand-up in the 1980s Comedy Boom by Ritch Shydner. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Terri Libenson, cartoonist, "The Pajama Diaries" Terri Libenson is creator of "The Pajama Diaries" daily comic strip My mother’s maiden name was Kaplan. My favorite person in the whole world—after mom, of course—was my grandfather, Sam Kaplan. I even convinced my wife to give my son “Kaplan” as his middle name. So I must admit a touch of prejudice in reading cartoonist Terri Libenson’s daily strip, “The Pajama Diaries.” How could I resist the story of a family of Kaplans as told by someone who grew up in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania? That’s where my Kaplans are from, too. All that, and the fact that “The Pajama Diaries” makes me laugh. Order by clicking the book cover above TERRI LIBENSON podcast excerpt: "I've always drawn and I gravitated toward cartooning at a very young age. What inspired me was 'Peanuts'; I used to draw Snoopy and Woodstock all the time. My brother also had a lot of MAD magazines and I used to read those over and over again."  Before launching “The Pajama Diaries” in 2002, Terri was a writer and illustrator for American Greetings. She also did another strip for two years, “Got a Life.” This summer, Terri is taking the Kaplan family back to a time before Jill and Rob had kids. It’s a chance to fill in parts of the strip’s back story and probably give the artist a change of pace. Terri Libenson Website • Blog • Buy Pajama Diaries gear • Order The Pajama Diaries collection from Amazon.com Order 'The Pajama Diaries: Bat-Zilla' by Terri Libenson, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above! [amazon_link id="0983327262" target="_blank" container="" container_class="" ][/amazon_link] Order Will Eisner: A Spirited Life (2nd Edition) by Bob Andelman, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Chris Browne, cartoonist, "Hagar the Horrible," author, The Monster Who Ate the State Part 1 of 4 (More below)   Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience of famous vikings including Leif Ericksen, Erik the Red and Brett Favre… in the new new media capital of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida! Order 'Hagar the Horrible: The Epic Chronicles: The Dailies 1976-1977' by clicing on the book cover above! Hagar the Horrible is getting his due. Finally. The adventures of one of the most unique, consistently funny comic strip characters – a dirty, drunken viking, of all things – is finally being collected in book form with publication of Hagar the Horrible: The Epic Chronicles. The strip, created in 1973 by Dik Browne – co-creator of with Mort Walker of “Hi and Lois” – holds a special place in my heart. When it debuted, I was a 13-year-old with his own subscription to the Newark Star-Ledger. My parents paid for home delivery of the New Brunswick Home News, but it was an afternoon paper with horrible comics and even worse sports coverage. So I took my own money each week – earned cutting lawns in the summer, shoveling snow in the winter – and paid for a morning Star-Ledger subscription. CHRIS BROWNE audio excerpt: "Hamlet, the thin little wisp of a boy in the comic strip, was based on me when I was younger and much wispier." I’m proud to say I have read Hagar from the very beginning. It was a big kick then, a few years ago when an odd business magazine assignment landed me in the Sarasota, Florida home and studio of cartoonist Chris Browne, son of Dik and his successor on Hagar. Chris was a wonderful host and I think it safe to say we hit it off famously. Friendship aside, it’s taken me years to convince Chris to step up to the microphones for a Mr. Media® interview, but the timing couldn’t be better as we celebrate his father Dik’s original work and Chris’ continuing efforts on Hagar the Horrible. Chris Browne YouTube • Website • Facebook • Twitter • Hagar the Horrible (Comics Kingdom) • Blog • Hagar History • The Onion • Raising Duncan by Chris Browne Part 2 of 4 Part 3 of 4 Part 4 of 4 Kicking Through the Ashes: My Life As A Stand-up in the 1980s Comedy Boom by Ritch Shydner. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above!   The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Danny Trejo, actor, Machete, Spy Kids   Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience of hardcore ex-cons who are scared silly by being anywhere close to Machete, even if it’s via Wi-Fi… in the NEW new media capital of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida! Order by clicking the DVD cover above Of course there are stereotypes in Hollywood! Look up “Scary Mofos” in any dictionary and you’ll find a picture of actor Danny Trejo. Even when he’s smiling, he’s frightening. (No disrespect, sir.) Mention his name in casual conversation and watch the visceral fear come rising up in someone’s eyes. As the master thespian Jon Lovitz once said, “Acting!” Yeah, maybe. DANNY TREJO audio excerpt: "Machete doesn't wear a cape and he has no superpowers. He's just a badass. Clint Eastwood was just a badass. Iron Man needed a therapist and he had a daddy complex! Machete is just a guy, a day laborer. There is some sense of realism!"  Order 'Machete' [Blu-ray] starring Danny Trejo, available right now at a great price by clicking on the book cover above! The truth is that Trejo can terrorize moviegoers with just a look because he’s been in bad places none of us would really want to go, including San Quentin during 11 years in and out of jail. But he’s made those hard years pay off for him in the decades since. Remember the impression he made the first time you saw him in Robert Rodriguez’s Desperado? Or how about as “Razor Charlie” in From Dusk Till Dawn with George Clooney? Or Con Air and Anaconda? He can also play a character that I can only describe as “less than threatening” in films such as the Rodriguez’s Spy Kids series, which introduced us to the legend of Machete Cortez. Machete was spun off from those movies into a full length feature; a sequel, cleverly titled Machete Kills is now in pre-production according to IMDB. I am thrilled – and maybe a little terrified – to have Danny Trejo on the show today to talk about his role as “Capone” in a new movie, Ranchero, in which he plays a wheelchair-bound motel pimp opposite Roger Gutierrez and Christina Woods. Danny Trejo Website • Twitter • Facebook 1 • Facebook 2 • Wikipedia • YouTube Kicking Through the Ashes: My Life As A Stand-up in the 1980s Comedy Boom by Ritch Shydner. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Jeremy Redleaf, filmmaker, Sarah Palin parody, Juneau   Jeremy Redleaf, director, Juneau Apparently there is a big national election campaign underway in the United States featuring an old man, a black man, a bald man and a woman who shoots moose. Who knew? Anyway, amidst all the noise for John McCain and Sarah Palin, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Jeremy Redleaf has created a short, musical film parody called Juneau. It sounds just like that other movie of the same name with a different spelling. And instead of a pregnant teen named "Juno," it revolves around a pregnant teen named "Bristol." Jeremy Redleaf Website • Facebook • Twitter • YouTube • LinkedIn Kicking Through the Ashes: My Life As A Stand-up in the 1980s Comedy Boom by Ritch Shydner. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!