Talk Show 17 with Jennifer Haigh, Margot Livesey, Mark Jude Poirier, Stacey Richter, Daniel Wallace
Jaime Clarke09.10.08
Winnebagos and chickens, Jesus and Disneyland, beach people selling VCRs, fearing and loathing (or trying anyway), and picking blackberries for Tom Robbins (he’s another roadside attraction), these are just some of the images revealed in Talk Show 17 as host Jaime Clarke talks to authors Jennifer Haigh, Margot Livesey, Mark Jude Poirier, Stacey Richter, and Daniel Wallace about their most memorable road trips. Art by Danny Jock.
Five Hundred Eighty-Six Days, Fourteen Hours, Forty-Six Minutes, Eleven Seconds
Michael Louie09.05.08
Quitting an addiction, any addiction, is no easy matter. Whether it’s crack, meth, heroin, or an MMO, the longer one pursues a dragon (or maybe an Orc in this case), the harder it is to give up the chase. But Michael Louie’s on the wagon now, from a video game. And after his time given over to a Final Fantasy (FFXI to be precise), Louie looks back at his lost weekend that turned into, added up to, well…the game runs the numbers for you.
Talk Show #16 with Elizabeth Crane, Michael Dahlie, Tony D’ Souza, and Salvatore Scibona
Jaime Clarke08.12.08
In this gadget edition of Talk Show, host Jaime Clarke asks his participants about the technology that changed their lives—pens, toilets, sewing machines, and televisions—for better or for worse. Art by Danny Jock.
Gold Free Games
Tom Flynn08.08.08
America, unlike a lot of small countries, expects its fair share of Olympic medals each time the torch lands somewhere around the globe. For smaller countries, those three disks of metal – gold, silver and bronze are a lot more elusive, especially that most esteemed medal, the gold. So hopes are often pinned on a sport or two, maybe one athelete even, while a bronze is nothing to be scoffed at, but lauded. Tom Flynn remembers the success of one Norwegian runner, who could stand as a lighthouse for other underdog countries as the Olympics begin in Beijing this week.
Holy Man: Dennis Wilson Revived
Andy Beta07.30.08
It’s been about 25 years since Beach Boys member Dennis Wilson drowned in the waters of the Pacific – the muse for his masterful one solo record Pacific Ocean Blue. But Wilson, had he lived, had much more on the way, such as the legendary unfinished Bambu, now offered along with POB as a Sony double cd. Also now available is the Criterion DVD version of Two-Lane Blacktop, a classic road race movie which stars Wilson, James Taylor (yes the James Taylor) and Warren Oates in one of his most bizarre characterizations on film (which, as Andy Beta writes, "is really saying something.") Under the shadow of elder bro Brian critically for years, the young lost Dennis is finally getting his due.
Talk Show #15 with Kevin Brockmeier, Sloane Crosley, Sophie Gee, Samantha Hunt, and Melissa Pritchard
Jaime Clarke07.17.08
Host Jaime Clarke talks to authors Kevin Brockmeier, Sloane Crosley, Sophie Gee, Samantha Hunt, and Melissa Pritchard and asks them, if they could overcome the constraints of time and talk to any person from history, who would it be and why? And under what circumstances? Like if you could teleport back and see Arthur Rimbaud as the Parisian poet wiz kid and then catch him later as the sunburnt 30 something colonialist – ask if he enjoyed any of what he laid out for himself in A Season in Hell… ah but that’s neither here nor there, for what’s dreamed up here. Listen to what these authors come up with. Art by Danny Jock
And Where Might That Be Now, Tom?
Scott Bradfield07.12.08
Writer Thomas M. Disch died from his own hand last week in New York. Proudly obstreperous and uncouth towards his many (and unfortunately often he felt insipid) genre fans and critics of the SF and fantasy variety, Disch was misunderstood in his time. We’ll see how the bulk of history remembers him, while here friend and fellow novelist Scott Bradfield remembers Disch with admiration, sadness, and love.
Brooklyn Nets, or Whatever
Adam Underhill07.07.08
Some in Brooklyn are still pissed that the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. Does the NY borough deserve another chance to hold onto a major league team? (Jay-Z thinks so, and who’s to argue with him?) Adam Underhill says to Brooklyn, meet your Nets, or whatever they’ll be called, and Nets meet your new hood. Art by Danny Jock.
The Big Hit
Tom Flynn06.23.08
Wimbledon 2008 is in the books, and a couple of weeks prior, Tom Flynn had predicted another classic Nadal/Federer rematch, wondering if Nadal’s "big hit" forearm would overcome the Swiss on grass, or if the clay king would need a little more of that old Tracy Austin finesse – and less of the Peter Fleming kill shots – Flynn recalled from the tennis heros of his youth… (Well after 5 long sets and a little rain, the Spaniard used a little bit of everything to end Federer’s reign at Wimbledom, stopping him shy of 6 titles in a row). Art by Danny Jock.
Talk Show 14 with Elisa Albert, Anita Diamant, Michael Lowenthal & Jim Shepard
Jaime Clarke06.02.08
What is your generational moment?…That collectively binding experience that those roughly your own age can instantly recall with vivid, almost photgraphic abhorant pain or glee (well generally, as here, these moments tend toward those that produce the former emotion rather than the latter). Host Jaime Clarke moderates the talk around the topic with writers Elisa Albert, Anita Diamant, Michael Lowenthal & Jim Shepard. Art by Danny Jock.
