Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience of second-rate cartoon characters who’ll live out their lives of quiet desperation in Toontown without ever being drawn by the hand of a master craftsman like Chuck Jones… in the NEW new media capital of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida!

By Bob Andelman

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Pronoun trouble.

That’s the name of the very first piece of art my wife and I ever bought together. It was a framed animation cell – No. 101 of 300 – featuring Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck in an argument. It’s signed by legendary animator and multiple Academy Award winner Chuck Jones and “authenticated” with a seal from his daughter Linda Jones.

Mimi and I spent what, for us, was then a small fortune to buy it. We hung it prominently in our living room for many years; when Rachel was born, it moved to her room. And just recently, we reclaimed it and it hangs proudly in our bedroom.

KURTIS FINDLAY audio excerpt: “Crawford in introspective; the adult as a child, while the kids around him relate to the world in a kid way. It’s like ‘Peanuts’ but Charles Schulz had a much better way to handle commentary than Chuck Jones did — which is why ‘Crawford’ didn’t last long.”

We didn’t buy it as an investment; I’m a writer, she’s an editor – “Pronoun Trouble” just spoke to us both.

So much has been written and said about Chuck Jones, including not one but two autobiographies, that it’s hard to imagine there is anything new left to say or show.

And yet there is.

In the beautiful new book Chuck Jones: The Dream That Never Was, animation fans will be delighted to discover an entire missing chapter in the artist’s catalog: “Crawford,” a would be cartoon and comic strip character that never quite hit its mark despite more than two decades of trying.

Dean Mullaney and Kurtis Findlay, working with the Jones family, have reconstructed the animator’s life in the 1960s and ’70s along with a trove of finished and raw Chuck Jones art and sketches that tells the “Crawford” story in pictures and gags.

Chuck Jones Crawford website • Facebook • Kurtis Findlay on Twitter • Order Chuck Jones: The Dream That Never Was from Amazon.com

Bob Andelman is the host and producer of Mr. Media® Interviews. He is also the author or co-author of 12 books, including Mind Over Business with Ken Baum, The Consulate with Thomas R. Stutler, The Profiler with Pat Brown, Built From Scratch with the founders of The Home Depot, The Profit Zone with Adrian Slywotzky, Mean Business with Albert J. Dunlap, and Will Eisner: A Spirited Life. Click here to see Bob Andelman’s Amazon Central author page. He is a member in good standing of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (member page).

Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience of wussy musicians from Cincinnati who can’t figure out how a band from Kentucky made it to Mr. Media before they did… in the NEW new media capital of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida!

By Bob Andelman

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I am really picky about the bands that come on this show.

We’ll invite maybe one a month to be guests. Regular viewers, I love music – and it’s great to have groups come into this 21st century form of media to talk and play a few acoustic numbers. But it’s gotta be a sound I can get behind, you know?

Tonight I think I’ve picked another winner in a band from Newport, Kentucky called The Ready Stance. They play a modern rock style that’s catchy without being cloying and that will remind you at points of perhaps Tom Petty or The BoDeans and at other moments you might hear a little Athens or even Seattle.

WES PENCE audio excerpt: “Chase is the quintessential, energetic frontman.” 

The Ready Stance audio interview with Mr. Media, Bob Andelman, May 10, 2012

You can LISTEN to this interview with rock band THE READY STANCE by clicking the audio player above!

The band features guitarist and founder Wes Pence; lead vocalist and guitarist Chase Johnston; drummer Eric Moreton; and bassist Randy Cheek.

Enough of me talking about them… Watch the video now for the interview and three live acoustic performances of original songs by the band, two on their new album, Damndest, and a third unreleased tune. How cool is that?

(One correction: In the interview, I got my bands mixed up. Nick Tremulis is with the band Candy Golde; that band has a song called “The Hold Steady” on its debut EP. The reference to the band The Hold Steady was a mistake. My bad.)

The Ready Stance Website • Facebook • Order Damndest from Amazon.com

The Ready Stance

Bob Andelman is the host and producer of Mr. Media® Interviews. He is also the author or co-author of 12 books, including Mind Over Business with Ken Baum, The Consulate with Thomas R. Stutler, The Profiler with Pat Brown, Built From Scratch with the founders of The Home Depot, The Profit Zone with Adrian Slywotzky, Mean Business with Albert J. Dunlap, and Will Eisner: A Spirited Life. Click here to see Bob Andelman’s Amazon Central author page. He is a member in good standing of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (member page).

The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience of the most famous AI in America, including Robot from Lost in Space, Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Blue from IBM and Al Gore from Current TV… in the NEW new media capital of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida!

By Bob Andelman

Mr. Media® Radio Network • Email • Twitter • Facebook • LinkedIn • YouTube • Free Mr. Media iPhone/Android App • Stitcher

Bleeker: The Rechargeable Dog by Jonathan Mahood

What little boy in the last hundred years didn’t grow up wanting to own or even build his own robot?

And a robot dog? Zoinks! What a great idea!

Jonathan Mahood knows what I’m talking about. He may not have built his own 3-D robot, but he used his particular talents to accomplish the next best thing: he created “Bleeker: The Rechargeable Dog,” a comic strip you can now find online and in daily newspapers worldwide.

JONATHAN MAHOOD audio excerpt: “With newspaper comics, it’s got to be easy for the reader to get on board. I got my first iPod and I was sitting outside with my dog. I was thinking about how these two things follow me around. I started working with Skip and a brother, but it didn’t work out. Then it was a dog that looked like a battery.” 

Jonathan Mahood audio interview with Mr. Media, Bob Andelman, May 1, 2012

You can LISTEN to this interview with cartoonist JONATHAN MAHOOD, creator of the daily newspaper comic strip BLEEKER: THE RECHARGEABLE DOG, by clicking the audio player above!

Bleeker – along with his boy owner, Skip – is billed as the next step in the evolution of daily comics going back to Charlie Brown and Snoopy, and on through Calvin and Hobbes. In “Peanuts,” of course, the dog was the dreamer, fighting the Red Baron in aerial dogfights. In “Calvin,” the boy took us all with him on his outer space adventures as he restlessly daydreams in elementary school. But “Bleeker” is what technology has wrought: a fully realized, loyal and allergy-free pet with built-in iPod, cell phone, camera, printer and GPS.

Oh, and he has a built-in jetpack, too.

And an airbag. (Parents, don’t even ask.)

Bleeker: The Rechargeable Dog started life as an online strip and today is distributed to newspapers, websites and mobile applications by King Features Syndicate. It can be read daily on more than 100 newspaper sites, DailyINK.com and Bleekercomics.com.

Jonathan Mahood Bleeker Website • Bleeker on Daily Ink Comics • Facebook • Twitter

Bob Andelman is the host and producer of Mr. Media® Interviews. He is also the author or co-author of 12 books, including Mind Over Business with Ken Baum, The Consulate with Thomas R. Stutler, The Profiler with Pat Brown, Built From Scratch with the founders of The Home Depot, The Profit Zone with Adrian Slywotzky, Mean Business with Albert J. Dunlap, and Will Eisner: A Spirited Life. Click here to see Bob Andelman’s Amazon Central author page. He is a member in good standing of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (member page).

The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience of fabulously single gay men who, after reading 44 Horrible Dates think the only commonality is the author… in the NEW new media capital of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida!

By Bob Andelman

Mr. Media® Radio Network • Email • Twitter • Facebook • LinkedIn • YouTube • Free Mr. Media iPhone/Android App • Stitcher

Order from Amazon.com by clicking the book cover above

Eddie Campbell is – prepare the cliché machine – looking for love in all the wrong places.

Of course, that’s a bit of a problem, because he’s also tried all the right places and come up with nothing but zeroes.

The author of 44 Horrible Dates has tried bars, restaurants, supermarkets, coffee shops, friends, blind hookups and still come up empty in his quest for true love.

EDDIE CAMPBELL audio excerpt: “He was 45 minutes late, he’s on drugs, we’re at an In-N-Out Burger drive-thru and he just called me stupid. I looked at his rearview mirror and I noticed there were cars blocking him in. So I got out of his car and started walking home down Sunset Boulevard.  About halfway home, I realize my house keys are inside his car.” 

Eddie Campbell audio interview with Mr. Media, Bob Andelman, May 1, 2012

You can LISTEN to this interview with EDDIE CAMPBELL, author of 44 HORRIBLE DATES, by clicking the audio player above!

I thought I had some horrible stories from my days in the hetero dating pool, but Campbell’s – from the world of gay dating – are, pants down, far worse.

The poor guy just wants to find Mr. Right – not just Mr. Right Now – fall in love, settle down and get married in one of the growing number of United States that allow that.

Is that so wrong?

Let’s find out.

Eddie Campbell Website • Facebook • Twitter • YouTube • In-N-Out Burger • Order 44 Horrible Dates from Amazon.com

Bob Andelman is the host and producer of Mr. Media® Interviews. He is also the author or co-author of 12 books, including Mind Over Business with Ken Baum, The Consulate with Thomas R. Stutler, The Profiler with Pat Brown, Built From Scratch with the founders of The Home Depot, The Profit Zone with Adrian Slywotzky, Mean Business with Albert J. Dunlap, and Will Eisner: A Spirited Life. Click here to see Bob Andelman’s Amazon Central author page. He is a member in good standing of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (member page).

The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience of Phragmipedium experts whom I wouldn’t trust to guard the bougainvillea I’ve been growing in the backyard… in the NEW new media capital of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida!

By Bob Andelman

Mr. Media® Radio Network • Email • Twitter • Facebook • LinkedIn • YouTube • Free Mr. Media iPhone/Android App • Stitcher

Order from Amazon.com by clicking the book cover above

Craig Pittman’s beat at the Tampa Bay Times is covering Florida’s environment in all its politically skewed glory.

Want to know how an oil spill could impact the Gulf of Mexico and the Sunshine State’s beaches? Pittman’s the guy to read.

So it might seem like the intrigue over a single orchid’s origins and rightful ownership would be a little under his radar. But, investigative journalist that he is, Pittman smelled a good mystery lurking behind the lush tropical setting of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida.

CRAIG PITTMAN audio excerpt: “By making this big, splashy discovery that would get some headlines, the (orchid experts at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens) thought, ‘This will remind them of our value, this will make them want to continue supporting our work.’ And it kind of backfired.” 

Craig Pittman audio interview with Mr. Media, Bob Andelman, April 23, 2012

You can LISTEN to this interview with TAMPA BAY TIMES environmental reporter CRAIG PITTMAN, author of THE SCENT OF SCANDAL, by clicking the audio player above!

The Scent of Scandal: Greed, Betrayal and the World’s Most Beautiful Orchid is a story that took the reporter years to fully develop and was one he began writing about way back in 2002. It’s extremely well-written—which is not really a surprise coming from an award-winning journalist whose previous books include Paving Paradise and Manatee Insanity.

If you ever read Susan Orlean’s book The Orchid Thief or saw the crazy-ass film made from it, Adaptation, you’ve already had a peek into this highly competitive world of illegal imports, competitive bookworms, snooty dilettantes, and rascally worms.

Craig Pittman Website • Facebook • Twitter • Tampa Bay Times • Order The Scent of Scandal from Amazon.com

Bob Andelman is the host and producer of Mr. Media® Interviews. He is also the author or co-author of 12 books, including Mind Over Business with Ken Baum, The Consulate with Thomas R. Stutler, The Profiler with Pat Brown, Built From Scratch with the founders of The Home Depot, The Profit Zone with Adrian Slywotzky, Mean Business with Albert J. Dunlap, and Will Eisner: A Spirited Life. Click here to see Bob Andelman’s Amazon Central author page. He is a member in good standing of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (member page).

The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!