06-08-11:Andrea Hairston Reads from 'Redwood and Wildfire' Accompanied by Pan Morigan at SF in SF on May 7, 2011
Words, Music, Magic
Andrea Hairston and Pan Morrigan changed the world Saturday, May 7. They brought real magic to SF in SF. And of course, they challenged the sound crew (of one), that guy who is barely fit to set up a microphone. That night I found I was setting up for something rather different than usual. It was more than a reading — we were talking about a performance.
Usually, SF in SF is pretty straightforward. I show up and set up mics, speakers, recording, PA. I'm a roadie, who does a couple of spot interviews. But when Andrea Hairston showed up with musician Pan Morigan, I was in for a challenge in terms of getting the audio right — and a treat as a member of the audience.
On the audio side, well, there's a reason to lug around the same stuff for years. Andrea and Pan indicated they'd be reading / performing standing up, and fortunately, I was able to set up the mics in a manner that made it possible to capture not just the voices, but the ambience of their performance. It was really remarkable, and if they took that on the road, or got a slot on the late-night TV shows, they'd be topping the bestseller charts. There's no doubt about that.
On the audience side, well, I was completely blown away. This was instant-buy territory. And when I podcast the interview, you'll note that the three of us talked for nearly half an hour, until Rina came over and practically dragged them away so the second part of the show could start. Since all those late night guys are deprived, here is your chance to hear enough audio to make you go directly to your favorite online independent bookseller, or your local bookstore to order 'Redwood and Wildfire.' Just follow this link to the MP3 audio file.
06-07-11:Howard V. Hendrix Reads at SF in SF on May 7, 2011
"...it is in the sense that imagination is dreaming with a purpose..."
—Howard V. Hendrix
Is the quote from his fiction, his poetry or his criticism? With a guy like Howard V. Hendrix, that's a pretty good question because his work is sort of a continuum. Not that his poems are in the narrative style, or that his criticism and fiction are written in self-consciously poetic prose. No, it's that the same world view infuses all of his work, and Hendrix speaks from and to the imagination.
SF in SF gets lots of interesting guests, and while we have had poets before, this was the first time that I'd seen Hendrix read poetry. His poems were short, smart and often fun, though not "jokey." Hendrix is a man of many talents, and he brought them all out for us to see.
Hendrix's most recent book, co-edited with George Slusser, was 'Visions of Mars: Essays on the Red Planet in Fiction and Science,' which, he explained came out of a conference on Mars. It includes essays on the facts and fictions that surround Mars, and from his reading of the Introduction, I thought it sounded really quite interesting. Facts about facts and facts about fiction, what a great mix.
Wilson is pretty good about achieving his goals. He told me in our interview that he started the novel by writing his favorite scenes of robot-on-human combat, over the years, and then eventually, began working on this book. When he had a hundred or so pages, he turned them over to his people at Random House, and somehow these pages ended up over at Dreamworks, where he ended up in a race to finish the book so they could write the movie.
Of course, what Wilson told me explains quite succinctly why this book is so successful: he wrote this book for himself. This is something I've heard before from many writers, who just write the sort of books that they want to read. Generally speaking, that's a pretty good formula, if there is one, for a good book to read.
08-21-15: Agony Column Podcast News Report : Senator Claire McCaskill is 'Plenty Ladylike' : Internalizing Determination to Overcome Sexism [Incudes Time to Read EP 211: Claire McCaskill, Plenty Ladylike, plus A 2015 Interview with Senator Claire McCaskill]
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Emily Schultz Unleashes 'The Blondes' : A Cure by Color [Incudes Time to Read EP 210: Emily Schultz, The Blondes, plus A 2015 Interview with Emily Schultz]
07-05-15: Commentary : Dr. Michael Gazzaniga Tells Tales from Both Sides of the Brain : A Life in Neuroscience Reveals the Life of Science
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Michael Gazzaniga : "We made the first observation and BAM there was the disconnection effect..."
04-21-15: Commentary : Kazuo Ishiguro Unearths 'The Buried Giant' : The Mist of Myth and Memory
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro : ".... by the time I was writing this novel, the lines between what was fantasy and what was real had blurred for me..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Marc Goodman : "...every physical object around us is being transformed, one way or another, into an information technology..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 199: Marc Goodman : Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
