04-17-09 :Agony Column Exclusive : Alan Cheuse : Three Books
Alan Cheuse is the nation's foremost radio book reviewer, and as it happens, one of our best novelists as well. Having interviewed Mr. Cheuse now and again, and having heard his reviews, I decided to see if he was up for a semi-regular feature here in the Agony Column Podcast. I proposed a simple format. I'd ring him on the phone and we'd talk about three books worth reading.
Because the heavens smile upon me, he agreed. This week, we're starting with three books that haven’t been in this column before; 'In Other Rooms, Other Wonders' by Daniyal Mueenuddin; 'The Stalin Epigram' by Robert Littel; and ' A Pocket History of Sex in the Twentieth Century' by Jane Vandenburgh. Worthy of your valuable time and money? You can find out by following this slink to the MP3 audio file.
04-16-09 :'Private Midnight' Soundtrack CD : Kris Saknussemm and Clamon
The music starts early in Kris Saknussemm's 'Private Midnight.' "Wayward heart ... always leads me in danger ... of staring fondly at strangers ..." It's the sort of smoky jazzy thing you hear, "when you're weaving out of a fern bar." Writers use music as cues in their work at their peril; presume that someone has heard a song and if they haven't, you've lost them. Presume that a reader may like a song and if they don't, you've lost them. Kris Saknussemm takes care of that potential problem with a pre-emptive strike — a soundtrack CD for his novel 'Private Midnight.'
In case you were expecting something relatively normal on the 'Private Midnight' soundtrack CD, please allow me to dash those expectations. His band is Clamon, including Saknussemm himself, Paul Nunns, Nel Staite (Lead Vocals),John Davey (Saxophone), Evil Steve, Tortoiseshell Male, Stef Koumouris (Piano/Wayward Heart), David Picone (Drums/Wayward Heart) and Steve Wilfred (Guitar/Let the Creatures Loose). Do note that one of the chapters of 'Private Midnight' received First Prize in the 10 Minute Play Category of The Missouri Review's first Audio Competition.
04-15-09 :Agony Column Podcast News Report : Lou Anders on Steampunk, Victoriana and Elizabethan SF
It had been too song since I last spoke to Lou Anders, editor for Pyr Books. And as I dug through some titles that had been hastily moved out to the garage, I came across some work that jumped out at me as belonging in my Steampunk week. Chris Roberson's 'End of the Century,' for example. Once Lou got out of an apocalyptic traffic jam, I got him on the phone to talk about steampunk, Roberson and whatever else came to our minds.
As the editor of the Pyr imprint, Lou Anders is a busy guy. He's putting out some 30 books this year, and his mucky-mucks want more. And here's the big surprise, because as publishing seems to be collapsing around us, science fiction imprints are springing up all over, and doing quite well thank you very much. I talked to Lou about Pyr, some upcoming titles, steampunk and not-steampunk in a conversation you can hear by following this link to the mp3 audio file.
04-14-09 :Agony Column Radio Broadcast from February 8, 2009 : Nancy Chen and Sarah Powers
Some interviews really surprise me, and I must say that both Nancy Chen and Sarah Powers managed that. Nancy Chen's book' 'Food Medicine and the Quest for Good Health,' seemed like a book and interview that were destined to be. I've been heading down this path for along time, so to meet and speak with her about her synthesis of these three themes was almost like being re-incarnated.
Sarah Powers, on the other hand, offered the pleasures of the completely unknown. I'll admit that I was entirely and pretty much deliberately unfamiliar with yoga until I spoke with her. My wife had attended a yoga class, but that was the extent of my knowledge. So to sit down with Sarah Powers and just ask, straight out, "What's yoga?" was really refreshing. You can hear the MP3 of my broadcast Agony Column Radio show from February 8, 2009 by following this MP3 audio link.
04-13-09 :A 2009 interview with Phil Austin and Nick Danger : "That third eye is real"
It's just a little less than two weeks until the Firesign Theatre shows up here in Monterey to do a live show at the Monterey Golden State Theater, and I was fortunate enough o be able to get Nck Danger himself, AKA Phil Austin, on the phone to talk about the Firesign Theatre and his work as Nick Danger. I was delighted to learn the genesis of Nick Danger — Johnny Dollar.
When you talk to Austin or the rest of the group, it's really clear why the Firesign Theatre's work is amazing as it is. Listening to tracks like "The Further Adventures of Nick Danger" or "Everything You Know is Wrong," you start to wonder just how much background research was done. The flow of the audio is incredibly dense and layered, and on one hand, it sounds as if they made the whole thing up in one swell foop, live in the studio. That's because the alternative is that they spent months researching and rehearsing the work, performing it hundreds of times and doing thousands of takes then carefully assembling these from four track tapes to an audio experience that sounds like a big-budget movie sans visuals. And the best part is that, as when reading, the listener gets to put it all together in the listening experience. Hearing about the origins of their work, such as the story of Johnny Dollar, just makes it that much more interesting. In "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar," Johnny Dollar was an insurance investigator who started the show with a phone call, and went on to solve the crime. But he didn't have the advantage of a Third Eye.
But wait — there's more! Following the interview, I'm podcasting the entire 28-plus minutes of 'The Further Adventures of Nick Danger' from 'Danger Box.' In a sense I should apologize, because as with some of the books I recommend, I suspect some listeners will find themselves compelled to dive into the Firesign Theatre's entire oeuvre. If you get a chance, see them live. If you do, just Don’t Crush That Dwarf — Hand Me the Pliers.
New to the Agony Column
02-01-12: Commentary : Stan Lee Splashes 'Stan Lee's How to Write Comics' and 'Stan Lee's How to Draw Comics' : Lessons in the Form, From the Master
01-23-12: Commentary : Sara Paretsky Nails 'Breakdown' : The Machine Stops
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2012 Interview with Sara Paretsky : "Everything in a courtroom is a story; it's not justice, it's combating narratives."
01-18-12: Commentary : Téa Obreht Conjures 'The Tiger's Wife' : The Grammar of Vision
01-13-12: Commentary : Hard Case Subterranean Block : Not from Bob's Basement Tapes
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2012 Phone Interview with Lisa Randall : "...there seems to be some evidence, especially from one of the experiments."
01-10-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Terry D'Auray Catches Lawrence Block and 'The Burglar on the Prowl' : "A show well worth the price of a ticket."
12-29-11: Commentary : My Life in the Bush of Books : Island of Vice by Richard Zacks, Iago by David Snodin, The Coincidence Engine by Sam Leith and The Dipatcher by Ryan David Jahn
12-21-11: Commentary : Cold Hand in Mine by Robert Aickman : From the Seedy to the Sublime
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Three Books with Alan Cheuse : 'Kill Bin Laden' ; Ryu Mitsuse, '10 Billion Days and 100 Billion Nights' ; Michael Crichton and Richard Preston, 'Micro'
12-20-11: Commentary : David Blackbourn Visits 'Marpingen: Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in a Nineteenth-Century German Village' : Externalizing a Culture Clash
12-15-11: Commentary : Ayize Jama-Everett Reveals 'The Liminal People' : The Powers That Be
Agony Column Podcast News Report : The Agony Column Live with Lisa Goldstein and Ayize Jama-Everett, and music by Fenyang Smith, December 10, 2011 : "... let's look at what happens if people have abilities that other people don't have ..."
11-28-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Scott Wallace : "Within months of first contact, these groups experience a huge die-off."
11-22-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Charles Frazier, Part Two : "It's not me telling you, there's this storyteller voice."
11-21-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Charles Frazier : "If we're going in the wrong direction, we could turn around and go back."
11-17-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Gianni Mola : "The only way you can learn, I told them, is to watch me cook it."
11-11-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Karl Marlantes : "...the way I "think" about things, with quotes around think, is I tend to write them down..."
10-31-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Colson Whitehead : "In the Apocalypse, somebody's gonna have to do the grunt work..."
10-17-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Russell Banks : "They are in a sense, permanently marked and thrown into this darkness..."
