"Creative work of value is possible on when there is resistance, either of the medium or from the audience at whome the work is aimed." -- Stanislaw Lem
Yes, I will be back, I hope to at least four days this upcoming week. Last week kept me quite busy; Monday I packed up my gear, headed to a hotel in San Francisco, where I ended up interviewing Brian and Wendy Froud in my super-tiny hotel room. It was a very interesting conversation that took me back — to the time of The Dark Crystal. That nightk, I recorded the Frouds for SF in SF; a nice, long, chat with Terry Bisson, then an informative Q & A. By the time I got back to my hotel room, it was nearly 10 PM.
A short twelve hours later I was at KPFA in Oakland, to interview Justin Cronin about his novel, the first in a trilogy, 'The Passage.' Over-talked and over-exposed as a "vampire" novel, it is much more of a post-apocalypse adventure in the vein of 'The Stand' and 'On the Beach.' To say the least, the conversation with Cronin and the trip to KPFA was "eventful." I'll leave it at that.
I came back to SF on Thursday, to interview David Mitchell about his novel 'The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet,' which also proves to be the first in a trilogy. I'll write more about that for the Monday Podcast / review next week.
I do appreciate readers' and listeners' patience. We have been having a time that can at best be called interesting, here in Aptos. The economy is to say the least, challenging. As ever, readers can help by emailing KUSP and asking to them to retain my show, which seems to be in continual jeaopardy of being pulled off the air. And write to your local NPR station, and ask them to contact me aout running my show on their schedule. This is the single best way to ensure that I can keep getting these interviews to you. Thanks again, folks.
05-10-10:Call for Email to KUSP
"Creative work of value is possible on when there is resistance, either of the medium or from the audience at whome the work is aimed." -- Stanislaw Lem
Thanks again to all those who wrote last time, your support is ever appreciated. I'm hoping now i can get my readers and listeners to support this website and podcast by writing to KUSP, the station that hosts my live radio broadcast.
I've been asked to cease and desist from broadcasting non-fiction interviews, because, I am told, they may confuse my audience. Readers and listeners know that my gating measurement for reading a book or talking with an author is not the genre or the subject, but rather the quality of the execution and the compelling nature of the authors I speak to.
While I do now and again receive emails from readers and listeners who would prefer I stay entirely in one realm or another, my hope is that even readers who greatly prefer one subset of writing can appreciate anything well-done, and occasionally, find that their own
05-19-10:What is Up with The AGONY COLUMN?
"In a system of a million parts, if each part malfunctions only one time in a million, a breakdown is certain." -- Stanislaw Lem
On Sunday, May 9, the logic board and video in the computer upon which this site is created malfunctioned. In the course of the repair, it so happened that it was discovered that the hard drive was about to fail as well; everything was replaced. And so, a week later, I took up where I'd left off.
I rapidly discovered that something was still amiss; I was unable to access the external data drives where most of this work actually lives. Subsequently, I have been told that this is an indication that the replacement board is also bad. My time even creating this patch page, is limited.
I'm told I should be able to get my computer back in a week. We'll see just how applicable Mr. Lem's words are. In the interim, I confess that I can read email from my iPad, so email me with your concerns, requests and suggestions. Your listenership and readership is GREATLY appreciated. I may take a stab at doing updates from my wife's computer. I've been at this a while now, and I intend to continue. Thanks again!
New to the Agony Column
09-06-10: Commentary : Brendan Connell Tells 'Unpleasant Tales' : Close-up and Too Close-up
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Guy Gavriel Kay : "I'm telling myself you bloody well better figure out where this is going because you have to start heading there sometime around now."
09-03-10: Commentary : The Eternal Youth of 'Madame Bovary' : "To be simple is no small matter."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Bruckner Chase at Blue Ocean Film Festival : "...a breath to your right and look at the moonset over the Pacific, and a breath to your left and see the sun rise over the mountains..."
09-02-10: Commentary : Collecting Philip K. Dick : The Books That Launched A Thousand Films
08-30-10: Commentary : David Doubilet Captures 'Water Time Light' : Painting with Pixels
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview With David Doubilet and Jennifer Hayes : "Everything people have always feared about photography comes true underwater."
08-25-10: Commentary : Vendela Vida 'The Lovers' : Reading and Revelation
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A Live Reading and Interview with Vendela Vida At Bookshop Santa Cruz : "...there was an owl that came into this place we were renting one day..."
08-24-10: Commentary : Jeff VanderMeer and 'The Third Bear' : Absurd Is as Absurd Does
08-20-10: Commentary : Joe R. Lansdale Takes 'Deadman's Road' : Deader Than Thou
Agony Column Podcast News Report : On the Phone with Vendela Vida : "You do all this background information, most of which never makes it into the book."
08-19-10: Commentary : Gary Shteyngart Tells a 'Super Sad True Love Story' : Retro-Prescience
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Gary Shteyngart Live Reading and Interview at Bookshop Santa Cruz : "...please like me, this will make up for Hebrew school if all of you like me.."
08-18-10: Commentary : Mark Pilkington Unleashes Weapons of Mass Deception : "ECM+CIA=UFO"
Agony Column Podcast News Report : David Corbett and Barry Eisler for The Agony Column Live at Capitola Book Café, August 7, 2010 Q and A : "This is NewSpeak."
08-16-10: Commentary : Howard Norman Asks 'What is Left the Daughter' : The Past Always Rises
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Howard Norman : "I'd wanted to write from the beginning an epistolary novel; this is just an epistolary novel that's consisting of one letter."
08-12-10: Commentary : James O'Neal Copies 'The Double Human' : Proceeding into the Future
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Barry Eisler and David Corbett Live at Capitola Book Café on August 7, 2010 : "If anyone thinks it's absurd that the government might assassinate the founder of WikiLeaks, it's quite a bit less absurd than I wish it were".... — Barry Eisler
08-11-10: Commentary : Joe R. Lansdale Takes Huck Finn to 'Dread Island' : "Classics Mutilated"
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Barry Eisler Reads at The Agony Column Live on August 7, 2010 : "...they'll pick up that angle and run interference for us..."
08-10-10: Commentary : David Corbett Asks 'Do They Know I'm Running?' : Crossing Borders
Agony Column Podcast News Report : David Corbett Reads at The Agony Column Live on August 7, 2010 : "These Families are making incredible sacrifices..."
08-09-10: Commentary : David Mitchell and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet : The World is Ever the World
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with David Mitchell : "The periodic table of the human heart is still the same now as it was then."
08-06-10: Commentary : Tim Powers Sails 'On Stranger Tides' : History, Fantasy and the Reality of Reading
08-03-10: Commentary : Robert M. Price Spins 'The Tindalos Cycle' : Terrorize, Horrify, Repeat
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A Short Chat with Gary Shteyngart : "...the technology is outpacing our ability to absorb what it is doing to us..."
08-02-10: Commentary : A Second Tour Through 'The Passage' : Sending Characters into Time
07-30-10: Commentary : Subterranean Press and Robert R. McCammon Wake at 'The Wolf's Hour' : The Time Before Cheese
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Three Books with Alan Cheuse : Allegra Goodman, 'The Cookbook Collector,' Noam Shpancer's 'The Good Psychologist' and Elie Wiesel 'The Sonderberg Case'
07-28-10: Commentary : Rule Britannia, In Space 2 : En Route, RJ Frith and Peter F. Hamilton
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Brian and Wendy Froud at SF in SF on Monday, July 19, 2010: Q & A : "The people you deal with at the publishers ... if they last the end of the week, you're lucky."
07-27-10: Commentary : Rule Britannia, In Space : UK Space Opera Demonstrates Excess is Not Enough (Part one, the Arrived)
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Brian and Wendy Froud at SF in SF on Monday, July 19, 2010 : "Well, I thought if I do faeries then nobody's going to say that I've got it wrong."
07-26-10: Commentary : Brian and Wendy Froud Seek 'The Heart of Faerie Oracle' : Cards, Books and a New Perspective
