Here’s some news from The Bat Segundo Show. I’ve only listened to his interview with Brian Evenson but if this is any indication of the quality of his interviews, then they are all worth checking out.
After a short hiatus, The Bat Segundo Show, the cultural radio program featuring unusual and insightful interviews with today’s authors, filmmakers, and cultural voices, has returned to the airwaves, providing eight new installments for those contending with the exigencies of holiday travel.
And beginning in 2010, the show will adopt a more regular frequency, airing a new weekly installment every Friday.
These new shows (in no particular order) include the prolific Muslim novelist Michael Muhammad Knight (#307) discussing wrestling and religious difference, verbal banter with Laurel Snyder (#313) over the controversial topic of spaghetti eating habits and staying true to one’s voice, Star Trek II director Nicholas Meyer (#310) clarifying uncanny similarities between Chekhov and Joe Wilson, Walmart work environments revealed with Marjorie Rosen (#311), a descent into walking with mystery novelist Lawrence Block (#308), and efforts to pinpoint conflicting emotion within fiction with the remarkable writer Brian Evenson (#309) .
We also have cartoonist Laurie Sandell (#306) discussing the fine line between truth and memoir and a charged colloquy with Rebecca Solnit (#312), which revealed that her recent spat with Dan Baum was hardly limited to his inflexibility.
Mr. Segundo, however, is more concerned with the unspecified relationship between humans and walls, and has become quite alarmed by the uncommon behavioral phenomenon of dissociative fugue. We remain confident that tomorrow’s gustatory onslaught of turkey and mashed potatoes will quell his nerves.
As always, the main Segundo site can be found here:
To subscribe to the show with a podcatcher program (for later transfer to your iPod), copy and paste the following URL into your program:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/segundo
On the main site, there is also a black box that is rather large but friendly, should you desire to subscribe to the show via iTunes.
Please note: You do not have to have an iPod to listen the show! If you go to the main Segundo site, you can save the MP3 to your lovely machine by clicking on the bat picture or, if you’re the kind of person who prefers swinging a bat over clicking on one, we do have a user-friendly interface with many listening and streaming options below the capsules.
Here are links to the new shows:
SHOW #306 — Laurie Sandell (33:39)
Direct Link to Show: http://www.edrants.com/segundo/laurie-sandell-bss-306/
Five Second Excerpt: “I feel pretty comfortable that there’s not going to be any big explosive James Frey situation..”
* * *
SHOW #307 — Michael Muhammad Knight (38:38)
Direct Link to Show: http://www.edrants.com/segundo/michael-muhammad-knight-bss-307/
Five Second Excerpt: “That’s why at the end, I deserved to have my head chopped off.”
* * *
SHOW #308 — Lawrence Block (40:29)
Direct Link to Show: http://www.edrants.com/segundo/lawrence-block-bss-308/
Five Second Excerpt: “You’re also one of the few people left who remember.”
* * *
SHOW #309 — Brian Evenson (44:55)
Direct Link to Show: http://www.edrants.com/segundo/brian-evenson-bss-309/
Five Second Excerpt: “If you can’t move this bar to your body, then what do you do? I took a lot of time thinking very seriously about that and trying to figure out what would I do.”
* * *
SHOW #310 — Nicholas Meyer (47:27)
Direct Link to Show: http://www.edrants.com/segundo/nicholas-meyer-bss-310/
Five Second Excerpt: “Well, talking back to prescience is one of the weirder things that you can do. And I think the fact that Chekhov addressed Khan so disrespectfully in the well of the Botany Bay obviously qualifies him for a Federation reprimand.”
* * *
SHOW #311 — Marjorie Rosen (39:11)
Direct Link to Show: http://www.edrants.com/segundo/marjorie-rosen-bss-311/
Five Second Excerpt: “Freedom to further integrate with American culture?”
* * *
SHOW #312 — Rebecca Solnit (1:06:02)
Direct Link to Show: http://www.edrants.com/segundo/rebecca-solnit-bss-312/
Five Second Excerpt: “I’m trying to just clarify specifically what the ‘evidence’ was. ”
* * *
SHOW #313 — Laurel Snyder (48:42)
Direct Link to Show: http://www.edrants.com/segundo/laurel-snyder-bss-313/
Five Second Excerpt: “And you object to this line of reasoning, writing, ‘How could you ever eat spaghetti without a fork? And how could you live without spaghetti?’ I must object to your objection.”
* * *
Thanks again for listening!
The Bat Segundo Crew
He’s pretty good, yeah. I’ve heard a few interviews. Sometimes I get the feeling that he’s kind of overreaching–that he’s using language more sophisticated than his understanding of the text–but he’s got interesting taste, and doesn’t let authors off the hook, which I appreciate.
Sadly, I don’t think anyone will be able to fill Silverblatt’s shoes, if he’s pushed off the air. You guys know he could lose funding, right? It’s terrible.
Also, I just now saw that he’s interviewing Tao Lin on December 3rd! Wow.
http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/bw
Yeah, I think I was on Evenson’s website and found this a few weeks ago. The most interesting thing for me was his ‘obsession’ with an early William Trevor story ‘Miss Smith.’ Haven’t read it, though I’ve digested a bunch of Trevor. There are more similarities, along the lines of theme, i.e. murder, grief, than one would think.