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05-01-09:
Agony Column Exclusive Podcast : Alan Cheuse, Three Books :
Amos Oz, 'Rhyming Life and Death,' Elmore Leonard, 'Road Dogs' and Rory Clements 'Martyr'
If you want to know what you should be reading tomorrow, you can listen to what Alan Cheuse has to say today. He's the book commentator for NPR's All Things Considered, and the source of seemingly endless variety when it comes to reading suggestions. Today's discussion goes all over the map, from literary thought-experiments to slick, smart, mainstream fiction to new books you might not have heard of, but will be glad to hear about.
Alan Cheuse always manages to surprise me with this literary choices. I plucked his review of 'Rhyming Life and Death' from the San Francisco Chronicle, which is to be commended for its extensive and varied book coverage. The latest novel by Amos Oz is a slim volume with lots of payoff. And how can you go wrong with Elmore Leonard? You can't, and his latest, 'Road Dogs,' brings together three protagonists from previous novels. Finally, we talk about the first book by Rory Clements, a British journalist whose historical mystery, 'Martyr' is an immersive historical journey and a toe-tapping murder mystery. You can hear what Alan and I have to say about these fine works well worth your time and money by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
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04-30-09:
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Richard Lupoff Reads at SF in SF : "T-Shirts"
At the last, heavily attended SF in SF, you could have been forgiven if you were to wonder where in the hell the "Science Fiction" had scampered off to. Peter Beagle's story featured a fantasy staple, the dragon, in a modern setting and was written with a nice feel for magic realism. I have to admit, I did not know what to expect from Richard Lupoff. I've enjoyed his goofy, entertaining mysteries and his horror fiction. But what he read was took me by surprise.
Lupoff's story, "T-Shirts" was another wonderful piece of super-American magic realism. To my mind it would have made a wonderful episode of The Twilight Zone, especially if done in the trademark black and white style of the first and to my mind best (only, really) run of the series. He's working on a series of short story collections for Elder Signs Press; the first volume out is 'Terrors.' If I'm not mistaken, "T-Shirts" is from a forthcoming volume titled 'Wonders.' "T-Shirts" is a period piece, and he really re-creates an era. You can hear his story by following this link to the MP3 audio file podcast.
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04-29-09:
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Mark Rudd at Cal State East Bay, Part 2: "You don't dehumanize the enemy."
For a presentation lasting nearly two hours, Mark Rudd's lecture at Cal State East Bay was really quite lively. From a future war with China to a confrontation with the only FBI agent to infiltrate the Weather Underground, the second half of this show - and it really was a show - more than equals the first. I have to say that the group that showed up from DC didn't do itself any favors and they won no converts with their questions. They tried to rattle Rudd, but he proved to be I think to them, annoyingly generous and unconcerned with their accusation. He was quite straightforward and up front while they quickly began to move from questioning Rudd to hectoring him. They also stirred up some folks in the audience who didn't want to hear them natter on. I was actually sitting next to the gang leader — and it was a gang, even if they were all cops of ex-cops — and I tried to shut him up to no avail. Larry Grohlwald, the FBI agent, parroted their take on matters, but came off just a little bit better than they did. You can hear the back-and-forth between Rudd and Grohwald by following this link to the audio MP3 file.
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04-28-09:
Mark Rudd at Cal State East Bay, Part 1: "I was kind of on my way down"
When Peter McGettigan and I arrived to record Mark Rudd's lecture in the library at Cal State East Bay, the lines of battle were already drawn. Every chair in the room was blessed with a single sheet of paper containing: "Questions For Communist Terrorist Mark Rudd." The organization driving the questions, Pipeline News, had a heavy-duty right-wing agenda and three or four beefy ex-cops on the scene to hector Rudd. It was going to get ugly and fast.
McGettigan and I got the audio and video set up pretty quickly, then waited as the room filled with listeners and tension. Rudd arrived and after a brief introduction by Hank Reichman, began a straightforward reading where he was open and willing to answer the questions posed to him. He encouraged interruptions, which he received, and responded to them until Reichman, an effective moderator, tried to move the discussion along. You can hear the tension mount by downloading the linked MP3 audio file of the first part of the confrontation presentation.
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04-27-09:
A 2009 Interview with Mark Rudd : "It was a moment in which people felt a terrible need to do something"
Just over a month ago, I wrote that Mark Rudd wasn't going to make friends with his new book, 'Underground: My Life with the SDS and the Weathermen' (William Morrow / HarperCollins ; March 24, 2009 ; $25.99). Little did I know how true this would prove when I finally had the opportunity to interview him. I shouldn't have been surprised that he would have a busy schedule when he came to Northern California. My hopes for getting him down to Santa Cruz so we could tape an interview at the Community TV studios were dashed, and instead, I found myself driving up the Cal State East Bay with Santa Cuz Book TV videographer Peter McGettigan.
There we first attended a lecture, reading and Q&A with Rudd, hosted by Hank Reichman. I'll write more about that scene over the next couple of days as I podcast the audio of the raucous event. But I think first, it's best to get a clean overview of Rudd and his life from my interview with him after the event. Reichman, who did a superb job managing a rowdy event, and Diane Daniel, the Cal State East Bay Publicist, were kind enough to find us a perfect conference room with great sound and a good setup for McGettigan's video. Rudd was tired (and after such an emotionally draining event, who can blame him?) but as you can hear in this linked MP3 interview, we managed to have a great conversation covering the salient points of how he was transformed from an intellectual high-school nerd into a federal fugitive and eventually a teacher in New Mexico. Stay tuned for the action-packed two-part prequel. We're hoping to get the video extracted sooner rather than later, and to make video more a part of our podcast.
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