Mr. Media® Radio

Image via WikipediaBy BOB ANDELMAN There are plenty of creative people whose work I love but you’ll never catch me pursuing an interview with them. Bruce Springsteen, for one. I like the idea of leaving a little mystery out there, a little bubble I’ll never personally pop. Nevin Martell, on the other hand, had a different idea. He is devout fan of the old comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, created by Bill Watterson. And who isn’t? It is one of the most brilliant dailies ever created and when Watterson ...

By BOB ANDELMAN I’m, like, totally up on Manhattan society—of the 1980s. If they were ever mentioned in Spy magazine, I know who they are and what they’ve done. But this is, like, 2010, and I couldn’t be further from knowing who’s hot, who’s not—or why it matters. Sometimes, though, it’s not about me—hard t believe, I know—it’s about you, beloved listeners. So I’m delighted to welcome Devorah Rose to today’s show. Devorah is the editor-in-chief of Social Life Magazine in the Ham...

By BOB ANDELMAN It’s always fun to welcome familiar faces—and voices—to the show and today I get that pleasure with actress Elaine Hendrix. Probably best known for her role in The Parent Trap with Lindsay Lohan and Natasha Richardson, Elaine is one of those beautiful, distinctive actresses who is always working. In fact, she joins us to discuss the release of several new films: Good Intentions (now on DVD) and Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2. You can see the trailer for Good Intentions at GoodIntentionsM...

By BOB ANDELMAN (AUTHOR'S NOTE: I recently found this typewritten story in my files from July 25, 1985. Probably produced on my Apple IIc! I believe it was a freelance piece I wrote for the St. Petersburg Times when I was writing most of the paper's pop music articles and reviews. This version was not edited by the paper.) The Vatican. The Mafia. Hundreds of millions of dollars, earned and laundered. International finance and intrigue. It sounds like a Mario Puzo novel, but it's actually the setting f...

By BOB ANDELMAN The post-war baby boom is becoming something else, more than half a century later. But is that something else a bust? In his new book, Baby Boomer Bust?—and the title ends in a question mark—Roger Chiocchi (pronounced KEY-o-key) says it may be a problem that the average baby boomer nearing retirement only has $68,000 in a 401k. And no, if you’re looking at the totality of retirement, and not just the first year, that is not much. Tomorrow, April 15, 2010, I’ll be attending the sec...

Mickey Mantle, image via WikipediaBy BOB ANDELMAN Sportswriter Peter Golenbock is one of my heroes, a guy I want to be like in many ways when I grow up. For now, however, I’ll settle for just being to call him a friend. The major characteristic I admire about Peter is his ability to be working constantly. He’s always writing a new book, always engaged in an envious research project. Actually, more than one. As a guy who also makes his living writing books, it drives me nuts. Let me give you an exampl...

Image via WikipediaBy BOB ANDELMAN I’m going to turn 50 later this year. It’s a weird sensation, knowing AARP is prepared to invite me into its ranks, that I probably have fewer years ahead paying into Social Security and Medicare than getting money from Social Security and Medicare, that middle-age is finally, officially, about to catch up with my more salt-than-pepper thin hair and beard, that all the talk about preparing for retirement is no longer just talk. Whoa, slow down, Bob. You’re depress...

Danny Pudi, image by Rob Poetsch via FlickrBy BOB ANDELMAN It’s a shame Lorne Michaels didn’t sign up Danny Pudi for “Saturday Night Live” before the producers of the NBC sitcom “Community” cast him as “Abed.” He is so flexible in body, mind and voice as to suggest a combination of Jim Carrey, the late Phil Hartman and a thoroughly modern Rich Little. Pudi looks so unassuming that no matter how often you see him do his stuff on “Community,” you can’t help but do a doubletake, rewind...

By BOB ANDELMAN I start each show talking about “So much media, so little time…” But David Mathison sees the media differently. Instead of observing it from afar, he wants you to be the media—you, yourself. Mathison, a former executive with the Reuters news agency, takes the whole notion of 21st century media very seriously. In his new, self-published handbook, Be The Media: How to Create and Accelerate Your Message… Your Way, Mathison lays out how anyone can have a message and spread it using ...

By BOB ANDELMAN When I was a little boy, it was common to see matchbook covers with ads saying things like “Learn to Draw!” The idea was that if you could draw the pokey little donkey, you, too, could one day become a famous and wealthy artist. (More people smoked back then, so matchbooks were everywhere. Not so much anymore, of course.) Today, if you think you might have drawing talent, sooner or later you’re going to wind up studying a book by artist Christopher Hart. Hart has sold more than 2.5 ...