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06-14-11: A Panel Discussion with Howard V. Hendrix, Andrea Hairston and Pan Morigan Moderated by Terry Bisson from SF in SF on May 9, 2011


"Science is just another myth, in that sense..."

—Howard V. Hendrix

Not surprisingly, given how lively the readings were, the panel discussion moderated by Terry Bisson on May 9, 2011, featuring novelist, critic and poet Howard V. Hendrix, novelist Andrea Hairston and musician Pan Morigan was quite lively itself. The air of the whole evening seemed electric.

Hendrix brought a great critical perspective to the proceedings. He's the kind of academic who gives academia a good name. He says things that are so smart they seem obvious, until you realize that nobody has ever made that observation before.

Andrea Hairston teaches drama, and she brought some of that to the panel. Her story is so full of drama, and not surprisingly is the result of some dramatic research into not just history but her own history.

Pan Morigan brought a perspective that we don't often get at SF in SF, simply because musicians aren't generally on the panels. Perhaps we need to include more musicians and there is certainly no shortage of musicians who incorporate science fiction and fantasy into their music.

You can hear the music of words spoken by thoughtful writers by following this link to the MP3 audio file.




06-13-11: A 2011 Interview with Jo Nesbø

Click image for audio link.
"I come from a storytelling family."

—Jo Nesbø

This time, we managed to get the guitar, and I'm glad we did. As usual, Nesbø's people told me he would be in town and available to speak at the last moment, so getting this together was something of a fire drill. Last time, I'd tried to borrow a guitar from a friend, but he was loath to loan me anything. This time, I talked my son into loaning me his grandmother's guitar. Luckily, it was perfectly in tune.

I had arranged to meet Jo Nesbø at Bookshop Santa Cruz, to make use of their office as a place to get both audio and video. My son, Dietrich, is shooting HD video of these interviews, and we're just now getting the hang of the whole setup, so we were ready to rock — literally — when Nesbø showed up. I handed him the guitar. He sat down on one end of the comfy couch, and I on the other, when we started talking and it hardly seemed like a week had passed by since our last chat.

We talked about Nesbø's sense of crafting story, which literally comes from his family tradition of telling stories. We also talked about the Harry Hole series in general, as well as the origins of 'The Snowman,' and the dark places it takes Harry Hole.

But of course, we also made use of that Yamaha guitar. Nesbø sang three songs in the course of the interview, and the recordings are superb. You can hear Jo Nesbø talk and sing by following this link to the MP3 audio file.



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