Max Brooks is a best selling author, and writer, he was a writer on SNL…most of his successful books were “World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide” Max Brooks is witty, thoughtful, insightful and, oh by the way, he’s also the son of the legendary Mel Brooks and the late Anne Bancroft. Anne won the Academy Award for “The Miracle Worker” in 1962. You might have seen Max on Bill Maher’s “Real Time” .…
I’m going to take a break this morning , a break from writing about the horror of this administration, and tell you about my all time favorite political ensemble TV. And it’s really the ONLY one. I don’t consider SNL a strictly political show, though even if it were, it’s not that funny much to me anymore and hasn’t been for years. Nope, the funniest, the most biting, the most inventive, and the most intelligent political…
Last week was baseball’s opening day. and I wanted to remember the two finest people I ever knew in the sport, and probably the two finest people I had the pleasure to meet anywhere else either. The man on the left was Brooks Robinson, my very close friend for more than 50 years. We lost Brooks two years ago. And man on the my right, was Stan”The Man” Musial he has been gone 12 years.…
You may know of the legendary songwriter-lyricist, Johnny Mercer. Johnny was one of the great lyricists of all time, he wrote “Moon Rover”, “The Days of Wine and Roses ” and “Autumn Leaves”. Johnny Mercer was a giant in the songwriting world. One day in 1957 a woman named Sadie Vimmerstadt, a grandmother and beautician, from Youngstown , Ohio upon hearing that Ava Gardener left Frank Sinatra, (after Sinatra left his first wife), Sadie exclaimed…
When is the last time you wrote a letter? No, not a complaint, not a response to some bill, but an honest to goodness “pen in hand” letter. Of course, without any technology 150 years ago and before that, people effectively HAD to write hand written letters. Some were forceful, some were witty, many were romantic, and many more were direct and some even brilliant. But there was an art to letter writing. People who…
We are in uncharted territory in America. There is fear and anger and distrust and contempt everywhere. Everyone thinks they are right, often at the exclusion of others. The other day I came upon a short clip from the TV series “Afterlife”, a wonderful series starring and created by Ricky Gervais. Gervais plays a man who has lost the love of his life, and contemplates ending his life because he is lost and lonely. There’s…
We lived in the Pacific Palisades for twenty years. It was an idyllic place and community to raise three children. When we first arrived, it was a sleepy little seaside village, a welcomed respite from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles. And now it’s completely gone. All that remains from this once vibrant and charming village of the Pacific Palisades, CA It’s so unimaginable, so surreal, to think such a beautiful place that harbored…
I want to salute and honor the brave men and women who are risking their lives battling the most horrific fires in California history and some of the worst fires this nation has seen or will ever see. It’s what we have to and should do. Respect, honor, and thank them. Because these first responders are working 18-19 hour shifts and are exhausted and without a lot of backup and support on their shifts. Jumping…
As this year comes to a close, we need to remember the good in people. God knows we’ve seen enough hate, and violence, and contempt for people. We need to uplift one another and highlight those who do it in big in small ways..everyday. Dolly Parton is an incredible human being.She reminds me a lot of my late friend, the wonderful Brooks Robinson in that, like Brooks, Dolly is an icon with a heart go…
How do you define success? One word HAPPINESS. A very good friend once told me if you have your health and are surrounded by people who love you, you have everything in life you are entitled too. How do you define career success? That’s something different. That can change. Let’s say you are an actor and your goal in life is to “be a star like Tom Cruise.” Or a singer and your goal in life is to be Taylor…
It should come as no surprise to anyone reading this blog that I am no fan of Donald Trump.It may surprise you to hear me say, “Give him a chance.” Maybe, just maybe, he is on to something. Government budgets are out of control.Maybe Elon Musk and Vivik Ramaswami can curtail some of Washington’s wasteful spending. The U.S. government for the first time has spent more than $1trillion this year on interest payments for its $35.3trillion national debt,…
Baseball season is over, and that fact alone makes me somewhat wistful. When the baseball season ends, I am always reminded of my old friend, Bart Giamatti who was a frequent visitor to my “Up Close” show. Besides being President of the National League, and later Commissioner of baseball, Bart was a poet. I think my favorite poem of his fits my mood exactly the day after the baseball season ended. Bart wrote: “It breaks…
I’m old enough to remember a February 1964 night in Miami when a brash, young, Cassius Clay ripped the invincibility mask off an aging Sonny Liston. I thought Liston was going to kill this crazy, young loudmouth. That night, a seventh-round barrage of left jabs and hooks exposed Sonny as a man quite different from the Superman image we fight fans had of him. Liston appeared to age two decades that night. While listening to…
Saturday night, my wife Karen and I attended the Billy Joel concert at the Los Angeles’ spanking new Intuit Dome. For me, the past and future merged. Billy Joel is old, reliable and reassuring. The Dome is new and intimidating. Just getting to the venue proved to be a curious intermingling of current and future technology. The Intuit Dome was built by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at a cost to Ballmer of more than $2…
Bruce Springsteen celebrated his 75th birthday last month. And heres what he says about growing old. “Age. Age brings perspective. And the fine clarity one gets at midnight…on the tracks…looking into the lights of an oncoming train. It dawns on you rather quickly. Theres only so much time left. Only so many star filled nights….snowfalls…brisk fall afternoons…rainy midsummer days. So how you conduct yourself…and do your work..matters. How you treat your friends, your family, your…
I don’t know Tua Tagovailoa. I’ve never met him. By all accounts he is a very fine young man. He’s also, at age 26, so young and gifted he might be able to play football for another decade or so. That’s if he stayed healthy. I’m not in the business of telling people what they should do in their life. But if it were me, and had suffered those concussions, I know what I’d do.…
Legendary baseball player Rod Carew became an American citizen last month. As his long-time friend, I had the rare pleasure of attending his swearing-in ceremony. Fourteen-year-old Carew arrived here from Panama 64 years ago, and if baseball GMs had any idea of the impact that he would make on the game, they would have sent a limo for him. Rod won nearly every award a professional baseball player could: the 1967 American League Rookie of the Year, the…
Mickey Mantle died 29 years ago this week. The fact that it has been 29 years is mind boggling to me, and maybe to you too. Mickey was easily one of the most beloved baseball players of his generation, and among the greatest players of all time. He was deeply flawed. He was an alcoholic, a womaniser, had health issues that couldn’t keep him on the field. But Mickey seemed to be almost a mythic…
To me, the smartest, wisest, most thoughtful, and most articulate voice in American politics is the most “unelectable”, at least where the country is now. He’s Pete Buttigieg, the Secretary of Transportation. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at the University of Oxford. In 2007, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree with first-class honours in philosophy, politics, and economics after studying at Pembroke College, Oxford. He’s also Harvard educated. He speaks eight…
And another thing. How hard would it have been for Trump to say”Although we have our differences, I congratulate Joe Biden for his service to this country, and I look forward to winning the election against whoever is the Democratic candidate”? Instead , all Trump said was ” Joe Biden is the WORST President in the history of this country”. First of all, its not even CLOSE to true. In fact, MOST historians say that…
R.Brandon Johnson: Actor/Host. From 2011 to 2013, the Minnesota native, starred as Gary Wilde on the Disney Channel series Shake It Up opposite ZENDAYA. . He has also hosted the TNT reality competition series 72 Hours. Johnson got his first big break on the small screen playing the recurring character Michael McBain on the ABC Daytime series One Life to Live in 2003, playing the role until 2004. Johnson returned to the series in 2007 and in 2008 in the recurring role of…
Mykelti Williamson: Actor/Director, has worked constantly over the course of his 40 year career. He is best known for his roles in the films Forrest Gump (as Bubba), 12 Angry Men (1997), Con Air, and Ali, and the television shows Boomtown, 24, and Justified. In 2016, he portrayed Gabriel Maxson in Denzel Washington’s acclaimed film adaptation of August Wilson’s play Fences, reprising his role from the 2010 Broadway revival. Mykelti has also directed numerous episodes of television including the Law & Order franchise.
Netflix is currently running an in-depth documentary entitled, Remembering Gene Wilder. This great comedic actor starred in such seminal movies as, The Producers, Willie Wonka, Bonnie and Clyde, Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, Stir Crazy, and so many more. I had the privilege of working with Gene on a short-lived sitcom that I produced called Something Wilder. While Gene’s on-scene persona was that of an extrovert, the real Gene Wilder couldn’t have been more different. There were…
I love John Oliver. I think his show, “Last Week, Tonight”is one of the most entertaining, informative, and often drop dead funny shows on TV. His show goes deep into some of the most complicated subjects .He is fearless and acerbic and pointed, and Oliver says things that almost no one who reports the news would say or reflect on. John Oliver earns 1 million dollars per episode for his show on HBO. But yesterday,…
World renown entrepreneur Art Levitt will be joining Frank and Billy on A Mick A Mook and A Mic podcast this summer. Levitt was the founding CEO of Fandango, Inc., the premier online movie ticketing and entertainment business. Art launched Fandango in July 2000, and led the company to growth and profitability, establishing the company as a nationally recognized brand known for its creativity, operational excellence, and premium service experience. From 1996 to 2000, Levitt…