Lynn Eads: Online Parenting Coach & Author

Most people don’t really consider themselves to be experts in much–for example. My kids once accurately defined our specialized fields: “Dad’s kinda funny sometimes and mom finds stuff.”

But when it comes to hammering out that brief description of yourself in LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram it can be surprisingly difficult to find much to really brag about–let alone translate it to a full-blown resume.

It’s a lot easier to look at your reflection and see that one tiny zit rather than combed-hair, clean teeth or at maybe even someone who remembers to clean the mirror once in a while.

Lynn Eads, featured … Read More…

Our Wonderful World: Podcasts for When You Want to Learn Something New

From our newest contributor, Chelsey Johnson…

Want to explore anything and everything under the sun, while staying in the same place? Get excited because it’s totally possible and free. You don’t need magic, you just need to grab your device and listen to a podcast!

Podcasts are audio shows that are packed with different stories and lessons. There is a podcast for every topic imaginable — whether you want to learn about how everyday tools are made or want to know more about a show you binge-watched last weekend. If you’re a curious creature itching for more knowledge about the … Read More…

Podcast: Inside the Detroit Blues Society

 

Join  host Pete Kalinski from Royal Oak’s Boo’s Music Bistro inside Mr. B’s Restaurant as he welcomes two of the city’s foremost fans and promoters of Detroit’s legendary blues legacy–President of the Detroit Blues Society, Steve Soviak and Vice President Tom McNab.

It’s first meeting in 1985 began a multi-decade of transformations to increase public interest in the Society. Large-scale events included a number of indoor and outdoor concerts and school workshops. Increased membership and a more organized approach allowed the Society to embark on special projects. Educational programs became more formalized and in 1996 the Scarab Club Educational/Blues Heritage Series began. Each event featured a theme based on some aspect of the Detroit blues tradition.

IMG_6664Read More…

New Podcast: “Detroit in World War II” with Author Greg Sumner

Note:  This podcast was co-produced with Digging Detroit and can also be found at this link.

A look inside the “Arsenal of Democracy” as Professor Gregory Sumner of University of Detroit Mercy joins Digging Detroit’s Thomas J. Reed Jr. and Detroit History ToursBailey Sisoy Isgro at Detroit’s historic Abick’s Bar.   Sumner previews his upcoming book-signing, Detroit in WWII, at Abick’s on November 10, 2015.

Thanks to our Abick’s host, Eric and Kit, we visit with Prof. Sumner in the cigar room–formerly a barber shop.  Amazing eats was provided once again by Andy Surowiec of Smokin’ Pole BBQ!

Topics include:

  • Advantages of being an Hoosier looking in at Detroit
  • Coming out of isolationism with the $1 men and patriotism of Joe Louis and  Edsel Ford
  • Warren Tanks … Read More…

New Podcast: Archivists Roundtable at Historic Abick’s Bar in Detroit

What to keep, what to throw away? The eternal question for the archivist.

In a partnership with Digging Detroit, we take our podcast on the road and chat with some of Michigan’s top historical archivists in a roundtable discussion at historic Abick’s Bar on their unusual world–sometimes spent in dusty shelves and digging through dark basements and mysterious attics–but often waiting for you at the reference desk.

They’ll share some familiar requests, general misconceptions, surprise treasures and offer some great advice for everyone on preserving documents, photographs and memories for posterity.

Recorded August 4, 2015 at Abick’s Bar & Grill

Host

Pete Kalinski:  Digging Detroit Host/Producer

Guests:

Rebecca Bizonet:  Oral History Project Archivists at The Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

Andrea Gietzen:Read More…

New Podcast: Woodwords! Launching (and Maintaining) a Blog & Podcast with Kale Davidoff

Woodwords, “Your Detroit Avenue to Alternative Pop Culture and Talk” is a new blog and podcast created by MMD contributing writer and podcaster Kale Davidoff.

Kale joins Kevin to discuss:

  • The first two months of a blog
  • Writers and stage-fright
  • The big thing before the big thing (aka “Off the Wall” pre “Thriller”)
  • Cold-calling special guests for podcasts
  • Just diving in and keep on swimming forward
  • Surprises and the fun of evesdropping at the table next to you at the bar
  • Marketing blog-posts with Facebook and Twitter trends
  • Maintaining a blog
  • Power of a deadline
  • Consistency of Vanna White

New Podcast: Fathers, Daughters, Wedding Songs & Horse Racing with Ladd Biro

Ladd Biro has loved music and been a performer his entire life–but never wanted to be a starving artist either.  For 40 years he has worked in the entirely non-9-to-5 world of the track–and been in bands and created albums.

He contacted Kevin Walsh about creating a music video for “In Days Gone By,” a song that a friend of his wrote for his niece’s wedding–dedicated to the special relationship between a father and daughter.

Ladd joins Kevin as they discuss:

  • The world of horse-racing
  • Loving music–and keeping it as part of your life
  • The creation of “In Days Gone By”
  • Raiding photo albums of family and friends
  • The universal appeal of daddy/daughter dances
  • What makes a band work
  • Mars and Venus–and … Read More…

New Podcast on 2015 Oscars: Our Experts on Birdman, NPH & Hanging Lightbulbs

Following a contest on MyMediaDiary.com, the top three winners guessing the 24 categories from the 2015 Academy Awards, Collin Ward, Melissa Balan and Steve Palizzi, were invited by hosts Kevin Walsh and Kale Davidoff to discuss the following:

  • Best and Worst of the Show
  • Bad Clips Shown for Good Actors
  • Underwhelming Films
  • New Categories such as:Neil Patrick Harris and the Hosting Curse–Too Naughty/Too Nice
    • Best Picture–5 Years from Now
    • Best Trailer
    • Best Stuntwork
    • Best Voice-Over Work
  • Recommended Changes
  • The Academy Voters Country Club/US Senate
  • Snubs
  • Joan Rivers
  • Popularity of Hanging Lightbulbs
  • Birdman and Hollywood’s Love Affair with Itself

In the podcast, Melissa … Read More…

New (and Old) Frontiers: Above Detroit with Aerial Photographer Alex MacLean

Alex MacLean has seen Detroit from the sky at various stages since 1980.  The large green-spaces below, for example, were once crowded neighborhoods and business districts in a city’s footprint that is large enough to fit Houston, Boston and Manhattan.  These grassy fields seen from Google Maps might be mistaken for parks.

Similar green spaces a few miles north of town generally have bunkers and greens fees.

A trained architect, pilot, author and photographer, MacLean lives in Massachusetts but has seen Detroit from above as Ronald Reagan received the Republican presidential nomination, for the 1998 demolition of the landmark Hudson Building and last autumn at  a request from the New York Times.  Each visit is like dropping into a different chapter of the city’s history–urban farms were previously dangerous abandoned homes and lots.

From the sky, many travelers … Read More…

New Podcast: OSU’s Urban-Renewal, Harbaugh & the Tigers (with MMD Writers Kale Davidoff & Steve Mitzel)

On the two-year anniversary of MyMediaDiary.com, featured writers Kale Davidoff (a MSU Spartan) and Steve Mitzel (a UofM Wolverine) cover the following sports topics with host Kevin Walsh:

  • Urban Meyer and the Buckeyes national title
  • The new NCAA playoff system
  • Jim Harbaugh’s arrival in Ann Arbor–and likelihood to stay?
  • The Big Ten’s return to power
  • Is the SEC hurt by the new system?
  • Different venues, different fans
  • Being a stranger in a hostile stadium
  • The Tigers and Justin Verlander (and will they ever win the Series)

Read Kale’s posts on MMD

Read Steve’s posts on MMD

New Podcast: Digging Detroit – Dodge, Detroit & Women in Industry

Digging Detroit’s Tom Reed and Pete Kalinski discuss the early days of Detroit’s automotive history with historians Bailey Sisoy Isgro and Madelyn Rzadkowolski.

Topics include:

  • Advertising’s current portrayal of the Dodge Brothers
  • Dodge’s famous dependability—and fix-it-yourself car kits
  • General Patton and the Dodge military contract
  • Women and Detroit’s cigar industry as a vehicle for entry into the workforce (and why Detroit was a cigar center)
  • Using campaigns of conscience to get women into the workforce during WWI
  • Detroit’s African American 600% population boom between 1910-1920
  • Detroit as the “Paris of the Midwest”
  • More campaigns of conscience to force women out of the workplace after WWII
  • Dodge’s role in the arsenal of democracy
  • Fear of women earning too much–and gaining political clout)
  • Promoting the myth … Read More…

New Podcast – Life Lessons & Sound FX with Ric Viers

 

 

Veteran film and TV sound expert Ric Viers, author of The Sound Effects Bible and The Location Sound Biblejoins Kevin Walsh following a workshop Ric gave to Michigan high school students on his 10 Location Sound Commandments, which offer important life-skills as well.

They discuss:

  • Soft Skills and Reputation-how the most skilled person on the set may not be the one who stays on the set.
  • How Does One Begin as a Sound Guy?
  • Fatherhood and the osmosis of sound-awareness
  • Gathering sound-effects (and where to leave your keys)
  • Publishing a book (after finding a niche)
  • The “Oh Crap” Kit

Check out Ric’s page on Amazon as well as his own website, Read More…

New Podcast: De-Agonizing the Essay with Erik Bean, Ed.D.

 

Kevin Walsh interviews author and educator Dr. Erik Bean on his most recent books, including:

– Rigorous Grading Using Microsoft Word AutoCorrect

– WordPress for Student Writing Projects, Grades 6-12

They discuss…

– Overcoming student and teacher fatigue essay-fatigue with the technology

– Student and teacher reactions to new tricks for the old dog of MS Word

– Advantages of blogging for students (and overcoming stage fright)

– Trolling (and how to address them)

– Getting published–five times!

New Podcast: Marketing Guru Discusses Google-Ads, App-Creation & Common Mistakes

 

Kevin Walsh interviews Sandy Barris, a longtime marketing expert.

He is the author of 97 Marketing Secrets to Make More Money and the app, Sales Goal On Fire Pro.  More information at www.SandyBarris.com

Sandy shares his lifelong journey and lessons, including:

Writing a book, not to sell but to use as a giant business card of credibility

How Google’s AdWords works, and which words cost the most)

Creating an App (or hiring the right people to do it for you)

Marketing a la carte (one-day turnaround for customers who just need booster-shots)

War stories (successes and failures)

Election Ads (does negativity work?)

New Podcast: Flooding, Insurance & Ethics – Dialogue with Attorney Judy Herman

This interview follows Kevin’s August 15th, Acts of God? Creative Interpretations During Flooding: Unlike a Good Neighbor…

Following the intense rain within a single four-hour period in August, 2014, thousands of metro Detroiters found their basements flooded with sewage and little to no assistance from their insurers “flood” coverage.

Attorney, Judy Herman, discusses her 27 year career dealing with insurance companies and offers some advice for consumers and ethical guidelines both companies and customers would be wise to follow.

New Podcast: Breaking Through as a Novelist – Judy Burke and “Blackrock”

First time novelist, longtime educator Judy Burke shares with Kevin her eight year journey transforming a fantasy into the international espionage thriller, Blackrock–and how it all started with an Irish lighthouse and next appears in bookstores in November.

Topics include…

  • Elmore Leonard and his influence
  • The writing process and when life gets in its way
  • Characters, even when they’re great, and how to kill them off
  • Dialogue’s importance
  • Publishing companies vs. self-publishing
  • Knowing when to end the book

Visit Judy’s website to get a sneak peek at: www.JudyBurke.com

Perhaps “Compromise” and “Politics” Can Coexist? Candidate Fishman Switches Sides and Hopes So

At first, term limits made sense.  At first, letting the giant wooden horse into the gates of Troy made sense, too.  For many, the possibility of voting for a Democrat who was a Republican nine months ago makes less sense.

“We’ve always had term limits; they’re called elections,” joked retiring US Republican Congressman, William S. Broomfield in 1996 to me when he was being inducted into the Royal Oak Dondero High School Hall of Fame.  Michigan had just voted to only allow its state elected officials a few terms under the design that it would eliminate “career politicians.”

Instead we have legislative musical chairs with no one staying in one job long enough to make any decisions that have any impact beyond six years.  Like … Read More…

New Podcast: The Hoops & Hype of March Madness

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Contributing writer, Kale Davidoff, joins Kevin Walsh and media professionals Aaron Lebovic and Matt Moss to analyze the opening weekend of March Madness.

Topics include:

– Why is this event so special?

– What non-basketball part of the event do you like/dislike most?

– Review of brackets busted and intact

– Best/Worst of CBS coverage

– What changes would you make to either the tournament itself or its programming?

New Podcast: The Oscar Post-Op Show Starring Kim Novak, John Travolta and at Least One Mispronounced Celebrity

Kevin Walsh is joined by Sheri Horwitz, Aaron Lebovic and Collin Ward as they dissect the  2014 Oscars, including…

  • Our Panel’s Prediction-Accuracy (and those pesky costume awards),
  • Cringeworthy Moments:  Kim Novak’s Vertigo, Travolta’s stumblings, etc.,
  • The Big Surprises:  Shutout for Hustle,
  • What Should Be Cut:  Montages of Heroes, what?
  • Ellen:  Too-low key and casual–or just right?

“Mr. Lincoln, All the Ladies Like Whiskers…” Long Beards, Nostalgia & Entrepreneurship

Listen to our podcast with beard-entrepreneur, Doug Geiger, founder of the beard-care and philosophy website canyouhandlebar.com...[powerpress url= “http://traffic.libsyn.com/mymediadiary/MyMediaDiary_BeardExpert_DougGeiger_.mp3″ length=”10212890″ type=”audio/mpeg”]

It’s hard to find many statues honoring a fashion expert, but in Westfield, New York you’ll find one dedicated to an eleven year old adviser to the president.

GraceBedell statue3

Abraham Lincoln, in addition to his many accomplishments as a statesman, orator and joke-teller was also a bit of a trendsetter.  Grace Bedell, an 11 year-old fan during his presidential run, wrote to him and famously recommended the candidate grow some facial hair, “All the ladies like whiskers.” And while women wouldn’t have the vote for another … Read More…