I can’t remember ever acting like this. I really can’t. I’ve met celebrities, famous scholars, I even met (at the time) Vice President George Bush once but they didn’t get my pulse going like this. Maybe Bush wasn’t a good comparison. Anyway, I got a personal email from Larry Mantle yesterday! Who’s Larry Mantle you ask? Only the greatest talk show host in the history of radio. Okay, here’s how it happened!

I’m tuning in to KPCC 89.3 as I do every day. Its one of the local NPR affiliates based in Pasadena. Larry Mantle’s Airtalk program is on and he introduces the next segment: my favorite, Filmweek. And the sounds I’ve only daydreamed about pass over the airwaves, “Today we’ll be reviewing the films Music And Lyrics”, which wasn’t actually a part of my daydream, nor were the other three films mentioned but finally, “And Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon”. Needless to say I jumped in my seat and immediately fished out my cellphone to call Kim then Scott Glosserman, and pulled the truck over so I could have an uninterrupted flow of radio waves to my tiny walkman reciever.

The film was reviewed by Jean Oppenheimer. The review was brief, no more than a minute. In all Jean didn’t compliment the film nor did she criticize it really. She used words like “cute” to describe the premise and she said it would undoubtedly be a popular dvd among teens and college students. I guess that’s good. Then again she also described Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant’s performances in Music And Lyrics as “cute”. Then something happened. Something glorious happened. But before I tell you what that was, let’s talk a little bit about the man.

Larry Mantle handles the Airtalk program weekdays from 10AM to 12 PM. Now, I love all of KPCC’c content. Its intelligent, balanced, respectful and consistently entertaining. But Larry Mantle is that rare host who combines all of those qualities with a vast knowledge of a seemingly infinite range of topics and a sense of integrity, exploring those topics in a fair and unbiased manner. I marvel at his ability to flow with any topic and any guest with ease. And particularly contentious issues demonstrate his skill at cutting through political spin to get to the core of the arguments at hand. Above all you get the sense that he is a good man. In Larry’s hands guests and subjects restore my sense of humanity. Does it seem like I revere the man?

So I sent an email to the station to thank them for their support of our film with the review and the interview Scott and I did on Pat Morrison’s show several months back. In an addendum I gushed a bit about what a great job Larry does. Two nights ago I had a new message in my inbox from the man himself and I freaked. Kim commented that she’d never seen me like this (she’s known me for twelve years!) Here’s the email:

“Dear Nathan,

Thank you so much for your kind comments. They mean a great deal to me. I’m
also glad to hear that I pronounced your name correctly!

Congratulations on the positive response that your film has generated. I wish you
great success with all your future acting endeavors. I’ll be keeping an eye
out for your work.

Sincerely,

Larry”

I was speechless, red-faced and knockkneed like a little girl who’s just won a beauty pagent.

KPCC is running a pledge drive now and needless to say I made a donation. I’m a proud member of KCRW, PBS, and now KPCC. Was this a commercial or what?