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Andre Dubus III is most recently the author of The Garden of Last Days. Condition of the Show: Plagued by decaying verdure and intrusive catering managers. Author: Andre Dubus III Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Correspondent: I had to remark on the beverage motif throughout this book. We open this book with, of course, April having a plastic coffee cup with her legs. And then two hundred, three hundred pages in, we see the cop with the #1 GRANDDAD mug. And then we also have Virginia heating a cold cup of coffee in the microwave. So Dubus: Ho ho! This is brilliant, man. (laughs) Correspondent: But the concern for coffee in this is rather extraordinary! Because coffee is almost this life force of good versus the drinking one sees from the antagonists in this book. All the antagonists tend to drink. Or they resist drink in order to be good. And so Dubus: Oh, this is fascinating. Correspondent: So there s a certain coffee-alcohol axis I had to ask you about. Dubus: Well, God, it just sounds like a weekend in my life. Correspondent: (laughs) Dubus: Drink Friday night, drink coffee on Saturday morning. Fascinating. Wow. I hadn t even known that. Listen, I do believe that we live in our bodies. Even those of us who live very ethereally from the chin up. And I truly believe that these central details shape us and guide us. You know, I had this experience a few years ago where my wife and I had a little spat over money the first thing in the morning. My coffee was cold, gone cold during the fight. I get in the car. It hardly starts up. And I m worried about money and can I fix this clutch. I drive off. A guy cuts me off in his truck. And I m telling you. If that car could go fast, I d go down the road, rip him off the truck, and beat on him. The next day, my wife and I were fine. We weren t having a spat. My coffee was delicious. It was the perfect cup of dark French roast. Black. That I like. And it was just the right temperature. I had a little cup, driving cup. And it wasn t spilling. The car started up. I pull out into the word and another guy cuts me off. And this time, Ed, I said, Go in peace, my brother. You should be careful. You might hurt someone or yourself. I had all this good will. And it had to do with my coffee being good. (laughs) Correspondent: But I m wondering how this Dubus: This stuff isn t unimportant? Correspondent: It s important. But I m curious. You have to be aware since there is so much coffee in this book that you re repeating this symbol over and over again. So readers like me say, Well, coffee. Might be a symbol. Or as we re suggesting here, it may not be a symbol at all. It may just be some aspect of the world you re drawing from that just happens to repeat itself. Dubus: But, Ed, man, I really believe that the reader tends to know more than the writer. At least, certainly in my case.

Listen to Librivox Community Podcast Show #82 - 26th June 2008 Download audio file (librivox_community_podcast_82.mp3) Duration 16:09 Your host this week is Cori Samuel. Equipment reviews: digitaltoast goes retro, while Starlite is back to the future with a new H2! Music: From Dvorak s New World Symphony in the public domain at musopen.com. Book promotion samples from: Our Vanishing Wild Life by William T. Hornaday, Strange Pages from Family Papers by T. F. Thistleton Dyer and The Stories Mother Nature Told Her Children by Jane Andrews. An interview by Starlite with one of LibriVox s many listeners, her mom! A response to that interview by lezer it s 1min 25secs of Dutch, so bear with us, non-Dutch-speakers! In slightly-summarised translation, she says: Who would listen to an audiobook in Dutch?! Please forgive my voice-with-a-cold, but I had to respond to that! At this time, there are more than 10 complete Dutch books available on Librivox, and each one of those has been downloaded hundreds to thousands of times. If I may blow my own trumpet: my first solo, [i]Majoor Frans[/i], has been downloaded more than 11000 times in about 10 months. And there are still so many beautiful Dutch books that deserve to be acoustically liberated , according to Librivox s motto. Even people who can t read any English, can find the Librivox audiobooks, now that completely Dutch-language sites such as biblioo.nl provide direct links to the Dutch audiobooks in the Librivox catalog. What s the best place to start as a new Dutch volunteer? Well, perhaps by reading a Dutch poem for our multilanguage poetry collection - or participate in the two Dutch group projects: the Camera Obscura and Andersen s fairy tales translated in Dutch. Dear Esther s mother, to end with, a direct personal appeal to you: you have such a beautiful voice, also on behalf of the other Dutch anna at Librivox, I would like to ask you to record a fairy tale for us! Think of all the children around the world who would love to be read to by a dear grandmother from far far away! Well, now I have hijacked the Librivox podcast for long enough - what will the non-Dutch listeners think of us? I hand the microphone back to Cori. Finally, anoldfashionedgirl and ductapeguy duet on the LibriVox Song. The guitar backing track for this is in the forum, courtesy of DTG, so feel free to have a go yourself just don t forget to post or send Cori the result! P.S. Yes, that was a cat miaowing at 3:19, you d think I never fed him. Subscribe to the Librivox Community Podcast or hit this iTunes link to get you to the subscribe page. Past and present Librivox Community Podcast files can be found at our spot in archive.org. Archived shownotes for the Librivox Community Podcast RSS feed for those shownotes

The newest LibriVox New Releases Podcast, with select samples of audiobooks released in May 08 is now available for download. Hosted by volunteer FNH, this smooth, relaxed podcast samples but a few of the great 115 new releases for May 2008! Listen now! The podcast for releases in May 2008 is downloadable HERE.

Rachel Shukert is the author of Have You No Shame? Condition of the Show: Contending with tenuous widows and the mysterious circumstances of Mr. Segundo s death. Author: Rachel Shukert Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Shukert: Jason Priestly and Fred Savage were the two guys on TV who I had big crushes on as a child. I had a picture of Fred Savage in my locker that I cut out from the newspaper. I remember that he was holding a candy box. Like a Valentine s heart box. And I would pretend that he was holding it for me. And then when I got a little older, I thought Jason Priestly was the handsomest man I had ever seen. I mean, when I say a little older, I mean ten. But I had a big poster of him in my room too. Correspondent: Who was the first crush you had? Shukert: Gene Kelly. Correspondent: Really? And he s not referenced in the book. Shukert: No. That s private. (laughs) Correspondent: Not anymore. It s public now. But this is an interesting distinction. Are you slightly ashamed of these crushes? Shukert: No, I m not ashamed. But there s a difference between being ashamed of something and just having something close to your heart. (laughs) Correspondent: Wow. Well, I m curious. How much does a crush linger over the course of one s life like this? I mean, you can be safe with Jason Priestly and Fred Savage, but Shukert: I don t have crushes on them anymore. Correspondent: But you still have a crush on Gene Kelly. Shukert: Yes, but he s dead. Correspondent: He s dead. The dead people are the ones to really lust after the best. Shukert: Yeah, I think that that s true. Correspondent: Because there s no way that you can possibly consummate it. Shukert: I also loved Paul Newman as a child. Correspondent: What are you going to do when he dies? Shukert: I ll be sad. I ll mourn like a widow.

Listen to Librivox Community Podcast Show #81 - 31st May 2008 Download audio file (librivox_community_podcast_81.mp3) Duration 20:57 Your host this week is Cori Samuel. The Astonishing Statistics of May! Featuring valiant attempts to hit a fast-moving target by ductapeguy. An interview by Andy Minter, with gloriana. Music: From Sousa s Band, Hippodrome March and Trombone Sneeze. Subscribe to the Librivox Community Podcast or hit this iTunes link to get you to the subscribe page. Past and present Librivox Community Podcast files can be found at our spot in archive.org. Archived shownotes for the Librivox Community Podcast RSS feed for those shownotes

Listen to Librivox Community Podcast Show #80 - 23rd May 2008 Download audio file (librivox_community_podcast_80.mp3) Duration 15:46 Your host this week is Cori Samuel. The Greenwich Tunnel Kru: russiandoll, earthcalling, AGSec, hugh, carlmanchester and Cori. Version of this week s Weekly poetry by icyjumbo (thanks again for the tip, Kristin!) Greener Than You Think - the story behind one of our latest solo recordings. Our most recently catalogued works can always be seen at: What’s New? LibriVox song by ductapeguy thread here. Music: Scott Joplin s Maple Rag, version created by Zachary Brewster-Geisz, and in the public domain at archive.org. SFX: Espresso machine sounds found in the public domain at pdsounds.org. Subscribe to the Librivox Community Podcast or hit this iTunes link to get you to the subscribe page. Past and present Librivox Community Podcast files can be found at our spot in archive.org. Archived shownotes for the Librivox Community Podcast RSS feed for those shownotes

Mort Walker is the creator of Beetle Bailey. A forthcoming volume of the first two years of Beetle Bailey is coming next month. Condition of the Show: Observing fifty years of development. Author: Mort Walker Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Correspondent: Here we have a military strip. But there s no reference to Iraq. And I wanted to ask you about this kind of balance. Walker: I try to avoid anything controversial. Because if you do something pro-Bush, fifty percent of your readers are going to get mad, fifty percent of your readers might like it. But I m after the whole broad spectrum. So I m really avoid those things. Correspondent: But to talk about the broader audience, I mean, Bush s approval rating isn t exactly the best in the world. It s under 30%. So you have 70% of the audience if you were to play around with this kind of thing. Walker: Yeah. Well, anyway, I try not to get too topical or controversial. That s why I ve avoided the war pretty much. I don t mention Iraq very much. Very seldom. Correspondent: Even though this war has lasted longer than World War II? I mean, doesn t it seem ? Walker: But there s so many people that are angry about it that I ve got to be really careful about how I treat it. Mostly, I just ignore it. People say, Well, when is Beetle going to go to Iraq? I said, Jesus Christ. I hope never! You know, I don t want to send him there because it s very difficult to deal with. I m just keeping him in basic training. It s the common experience that all soldiers have. If I take him out somewhere and specify into some particular kind of work, I ll lose a lot of my readers there. They won t be interested or they won t understand it. But everybody understands basic training. That s where I keep him. Correspondent: I mean, you had this similar situation with Jack Flap. That s why I present this as well. I mean, that didn t hurt you. In fact, that got Beetle Bailey more attention, you know? Walker: Yeah, but it was a common experience. Anyway, that hasn t hurt me.

Christian Bauman is most recently the author of In Hoboken. Condition of the Show: Contending with contentious Midtown diners. Author: Christian Bauman Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Correspondent: You have this particular rock n roll novel dwelling upon Hoboken, as well as Mona Smith, who is this Erica Jong-like figure, who is the mother of Thatcher. But I wanted to ask you about this. Because it s very fascinating to me. I have the belief that if you write a rock n roll novel, there needs to be some additional element. Some additional hook. Because if you dwell too much on rock n roll music, well, it s going to possibly be something of a circlejerk. So I wanted to ask you. Was this a consideration in setting this book in Hoboken? The Hoboken aspect came first? What happened here? Bauman: Yeah, I think the Hoboken aspect came first. Well, first of all, I should point out that everyone keeps calling it a rock n roll novel. It is actually a folk novel. So we should just be clear here. There s a lot more Woody Guthrie here than anything else. But it s a good point. You know, the whole thing I wanted to do, in as far as I wanted to anything and it didn t just happen the way it happened I was trying very hard this time to do two things. One was to write about a place. A very specific place to the point where the place became one of the characters in the book. And of those places where I ve either lived or been alive in my life, Hoboken was one of them that stood out as a good place to go. And the other one was that I really wanted to try and write an ensemble novel to the best of my ability. And I kind of failed in that aspect.

Ralph Bakshi is the director of such films as Heavy Traffic, Coonskin, and American Pop. There is also a recent book, Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi, now out that collects his work. Condition of the Show: Caught in a musical daydream. Guest: Ralph Bakshi Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Correspondent: I wanted to ask you about music in your films. It’s certainly important in American Pop. You pilfered from your record collection for that, as well as the “Maybelline” sequence in Heavy Traffic. And there’s “Ah’m a Niggerman” from Coonskin, which you wrote. I’m wondering if you did this because you have an aversion to Carl Stalling-style orchestral music. Bakshi: First of all, I love music. I’ve always loved music. And I’ve loved various kinds of music. Music is part of our lives. It’s part of the soundtrack that what we all grow up with. Especially in my day. I don’t know today. There’s so many things going on. I’m talking about yesterday and my day, which are the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. Music is so emotionally important to the movie. It’s just as important as anything else. If the song is emotionally correct for a scene, the scene plays better. Or the scene plays better than it would have with a different song. So music is so critical to movies. I chose songs that I knew emotionally worked with these scenes that I wrote. Because whenever I listened to music while either driving in a car or sitting at a bar or listening to Coltrane or Billy Holiday – you daydream. If you don’t daydream to music, then you’re not listening to good music. (Lengthier excerpts from this program can be found here and here.)

Steven Greenhouse is the New York Times labor reporter and the author of The Big Squeeze. Condition of the Show: Reporting upon the darker truths of America. Author: Steven Greenhouse Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Correspondent: Look at Jennifer Miller, who is this woman who worked at HP for ten years. She didn t have to work as a temp for that long. She could have easily cut out. She could have gone and demanded more from the HP managers. So I would argue that the workers who have allowed themselves to be placed in these particular conditions are perhaps just as responsible as these businesses and these corporations that are trying to squeeze out more profits and also trying to combat the influx of low-cost imports. Greenhouse: Again, Ed, you ask a good question, and it s hard to say. Jennifer Miller was a worker at HP. High school graduate. Very little college. She started as a McDonald s worker. She became a McDonald s manager. She got tired of that. Then she got a permanent job at HP. That job was sent overseas. So she was kind of bought out. Then a few months later, she was approached. How would you like to return to HP as a temp? She thought it was going to be a two-month gig. And as I explained in the book, she was there for ten years as a temp. She said that the job was good. It used a lot of advanced skills. She was often treated with respect, but she said the bad thing was she was a temp and didn t get the same benefits as HP workers. She didn t quite get the respect. So you ask why didn t she quit? Correspondent: And I should point out that she was even barred from the company parties. I mean, this is a key indicator. In my view, I would say, Well to hell with this. I m going to find someone who I can be on staff with. Greenhouse: It wasn t just she. But all temps were barred from the company you know, they might create a wonderful new piece of software, created a wonderful printer, and all the regular permanent employees could go to the party and celebrate and go for the two-day ski holiday to celebrate. But the temps who work alongside the regular workers in a crazy situation, they weren t invited to the parties. So yeah, for someone like Jennifer, there was some eating humble pie there. So the question is why didn t she quit? She said, For me, Jennifer Miller, a mere high-school graduate living in Idaho, that was a terrific job. I was making $30 an hour. I was really using my brain. I was often working alongside terrific people. Sort of semi, somewhat treated as an equal. But on the other hand, no. And she said, considering what else was out there, going back to McDonald s working as a manager, which isn t such a bad job, but she said working at HP as a temp was better. Her argument was HP was good in many ways, but there was this one big negative. That she was treated as a temp.

Fiona Maazel is the author of Last, Last Chance. Condition of the Show: Considering the niceties of superplagues. Author: Fiona Maazel Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Correspondent: If one looks at more lower brow choices, like Stephen King s The Stand or The Andromeda Strain, or any number of superplague television series, like The Survivors and things like that, one tends to find a narrative that begins with the decimation of humanity. Yours is not that particular book. Again, going back to this question of inversions, I m wondering if you made a particular choice. You had to have known about The Stand. Maazel: Sure, it s true. But I didn t think it was an inversion. I thought it was credible actually. I did a lot of research about plague and also about the CDC and bioterrorism. And just how unlikely the scenario I proposed is. It s extraordinarily likely. This isn t an alternate reality kind of novel. It didn t seem likely that someone would unleash a plague and actually wipe out all of humanity. That s just not credible. I wanted to come up with a credible scenario. So I guess from the perspective of someone writing fiction or reading fiction, one might expect something like a terrific slate wiper to come along, as we ve seen in so many of these movies and books. But I actually wanted something that seemed really realistic. That only 3,000 people would die and the fact that they put a stop to it. For instance, when we had this little anthrax outbreak or even bird flu, people are dying, but they re still containing it. I was more interested in the anxiety, the terror, the foreboding of what could happen. Might this thing wipe out a hundred million Americans or a hundred million people? That was more interesting to me than watching this disease tramp across the country and actually kill off half the United States.

Ed Park is most recently the author of Personal Days. Condition of the Show: Plagued by brutal downsizing. Author: Ed Park Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Park: It s such a pleasure to talk to someone who s also named Ed. Correspondent: Yes, I know. I mean, it s a hell of a first name. There needs to be a Society of Eds set up in the five boroughs. Park: It s pretty rare. Correspondent: I know. I wanted to ask you a commonplace question and then get to the nitty-gritty of this book. I know that you wrote a good chunk of this book while you were working at the Voice. But the sense I got was that you didn t write all of it at the Voice. So I m curious as to how much of this was written in a Voice-less setting, so to speak. Park: Well, if you mean by at the Voice, while I was still employed by them, that s true. Most of it was written before I left the Voice. I was let go at, basically, Labor Day. Right before Labor Day Weekend of 06. But by that time, I did actually have a draft. There were many changes that I knew were necessary. I wrote it though. In terms of physical space, I could never even write my articles at the Voice. Just in the Voice office. I was hired as an editor. Basically editing, sending emails, on the phone, stuff like that. So it wasn t really a place where, ironically enough, I could get a lot of writing done. So all the writing took place in my apartment. I was living on 89th Street. A lot of it was the same as I d done for my previous fictional projects, where I would just try to write in the morning before coming into work. What was a little bit different about this book was that, as things got more tense at the Voice, as things really looked like they were going in a bad way, I took some vacation days, personal days, and would really treat the book as my job in a way.

Cynthia Ozick is most recently the author of Dictation. Condition of the Show: Overtaken by a tyrannical dictator. Author: Cynthia Ozick Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Correspondent: I wanted to ask you about Dictation, the title story. This was very interesting to me for a number of reasons. Because here you have two writers, Henry James and Joseph Conrad, two secretaries of Henry James and Joseph Conrad, and then on top of that, you have a number of repetitions throughout the story, as if to echo or beckon the typewriter. Like in the very beginning, when you have Henry James describing Almayer s Folly, you kept saying, He saw. He saw. And there s a number of interesting things you are doing in the syntax of the story that almost echoes the typewriter. So I wanted to ask how this particular stylistic device came about. I know you spend a lot of time on your sentences. So you had to have been at least somewhat aware of this. Ozick: Well not so much of the repetition in consonance with the typewriter, no. I wasn t aware of that at all. And I m rather taken aback by hearing you say, Have you actually seen this or heard this? I have not. (laughs) I have not. I m sorry to disappoint. That is not what I had in mind. What I had in mind really was the joy of the mischief when it occurred to me. And the stylistic aspect had to do more not with the sounds if that s what you re getting at but with the tones and styles of speech of these people in that era. Particularly with the formality of the young ladies, who must call each other Miss. To venture into a first name is really quite forward and not to be countenanced by polite society at first. And also the great pleasure of, I suppose, my parodying of James and Conrad. Though, here s a confession, and having very much to do with style. I purloined certain phrases directly from the letters of James and Conrad. So there are sentences buried in there which are absolutely authentic. Because they re stolen directly. Not full sentences, but phrases here and there. So that gave me a lot of joy too. Because it was a kind of imitation, mimicry, reflection of what these two amanuenses were up to in their mischievous plan.

Sloane Crosley is the author of I Was Told There d Be Cake. Condition of the Show: Placing the authors and book titles under too much scrutiny. Author: Sloane Crosley Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Correspondent: In Lay Like Broccoli, you write, Being a vegetarian in New York is not unlike being gay. But I must ask you. Why care so much about how you are perceived? Because that s essentially what this is all about. Crosley: That specific essay or the whole book? Correspondent: Well, that specific essay. But also the whole book. Because there s a bit of hiding behind the essays. Crosley: Well, is there? I think it s more that clash between trying to grow up and trying to realize who you actually are once you become a grown-up. So I m not actually hiding behind any specific concern I have about people s perceptions, but more just trying to figure out who you are. It s like you re trying on different cells. I was telling someone the other day that my favorite part of In Cold Blood I assure you this makes sense for an interview about a humor collection. Correspondent: I m sure. Go for it. Please. Crosley: My favorite part of In Cold Blood is actually this tiny detail where he finds Nancy s diary and he s going through it, and obviously it becomes a huge part of the book. But he talks about the actual handwriting and the different various inks and the different colors she would use as she s trying on different cells, as if to say, Is this Nancy? Is this Nancy? Is this Nancy? Now granted, she s what sixteen at the time> So in an ideal world, I would have less colors of ink and different styles of handwriting to try on at twenty-nine years old. So when I say the thing about the vegetarian thing, and the vegan thing, it s more observational than something I m actually petrified with living with on a day-to-day basis.

Tobias Wolff is most recently the author of Our Story Begins. Condition of the Show: Speculating upon Mr. Wolff s unknown powers. Author: Tobias Wolff Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Correspondent: This idea of first-person narration that is somewhat removed maybe this is more of a classical sense of the short story, in the sense that today, contemporary short stories are, as you point out, more of a gushing therapy session. Maybe that s what we re talking about. Wolff: Well, I don t know. Again, when I think, for example, of Philip Roth s first-person narrators, they are interested in the world at least as much as they are interested in themselves and interested in other people. And that shows up in the narration. It would be a pretty boring story that was so if I could put it this way narcissistically defined if you didn t get a sense of the world beyond the narrator or of other people beyond it. I would think that, unless it was deliberately taking on the pathology of narcissism, it would be a deficiency of the story. Some stories, of course some first-person stories rely on a very heavy colloquial. And that may be something that you re noticing with some of the stories. Like the one I just quoted from, Next Door, is quite colloquial. In other stories, you get the sense that the narrator is telling the story not in the immediate moment of the story, but perhaps from a distance. Which also would give you a wider vision of the circumstances and the people involved. And also perhaps a more articulate voice. A more capacious voice. So it isn t just a Catcher in the Rye, moment-by-moment narration, but something that would open up a little more in the way of Philip Roth or William Trevor. The way their first person stories work. (A lengthier excerpt from the show can be found here.)

David Hajdu is most recently the author of The Ten-Cent Plague. Condition of the Show: Dabbling into hidden threats. Author: David Hajdu Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Correspondent: I m wondering if certain artists may have changed their names because the comic book industry was considered a great calumny for many of these various artists and writers. Did you face a problem along those lines in tracking people down? Hajdu: I did. I had trouble with people who changed their names, but not for that reason. Because most people used their real names. Most people, but not all. Some use pseudonyms. Still do in comics. But most people intended to use their real names. But women married. And women who married in that time took on their husbands names. And I was surprised to find when I was doing my research how many women there were in comics. I mean, dozens and dozens of women who did terrific, beautiful, important work. Marcia Snider is one. I was never able to find her. I d been told that she d married. And nobody I could find knew what her married name was. In the case of the great many women artists, I only had their maiden names. And I couldn t find them. I tried social security records, but they weren t of that much value. And I did hit a wall with women artists. And I m sure to this day, much of their story remains untold because they ve been impossible to find. Correspondent: Well, what steps did you take to atone for this? Because if you re slicing off a portion of comic book history a very important part of comic book history that involved women I mean, how did you make up for this? Hajdu: Well, I sought to do justice to the story that I can tell. I don t know what I don t know. I did make a point to ask about those women to the people who I could find. And that s the only recourse.

Sarah Hall is most recently the author of Daughters of the North (published in the UK as The Carhullan Army). Condition of the Show: Remaining optimistic about a dystopian future. Author: Sarah Hall Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Hall: I think familiar territory is always of comfort to a writer. I find the North of England, where I m from, fascinating. It s a very dramatic landscape. It s kind of a Wordsworth country. So you ve got the Romantic sense on one hand. And then you ve got the strange past battling with the future. I suppose Hardy did this to an extent as well. You pick a territory. And even if it s rural, you have human beings working within that arena. So human drama is going to arise out of those interactions. And I ve always felt, even though the settings are sometimes quite remote and underpopulated in my fiction, there s enough going on. You can explore ideas of civilization, breakdown of civilization, human emotional dramas. All the rest of that. But I think what s interesting with Daughters of the North is even though we re casting ahead maybe thirty, forty years from now and I think British science fiction and speculative fiction does this a lot there s this idea of play. When catastrophe happens, everything is knocked back to the past. And so here is what you re left with. Day of the Triffids. This strange science fiction going on. But at the same time, everybody s going down to the pub like they always have.

Listen to Librivox Community Podcast Show #79 - 24th April 2008Download audio file (librivox_community_podcast_79.mp3) Duration 12:18 Your host this week is Cori Samuel. Voices for the Addicted: musicmaiden, russiandoll, gypsygirl and Cloud Mountain. Please feel free to share your stories in that thread too. New Projects Launch Pad - chocoholic explains all. What are your favourite recordings? - Steampunk talks about this new thread comments and suggestions very welcome. Our most recently catalogued works can always be seen at: What’s New? here s a little sample. Sound FX: Gong and Object Falling Noisily Off a Table found in the public domain at pdsounds.org. Subscribe to the Librivox Community Podcast or hit this iTunes link to get you to the subscribe page. Past and present Librivox Community Podcast files can be found at our spot in archive.org. Archived shownotes for the Librivox Community Podcast RSS feed for those shownotes

Errol Morris is most recently the director of Standard Operating Procedure, which opens on April 25, 2008. (There is also an accompanying book written by Philip Gourevitch.) Guest: Errol Morris Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Correspondent: I actually want to bring up your most recent article for the New York Times, in which you delineated the difference between a single image and a moving image, in the sense that a moving image involves trying to create a map of reality. Because you re not paying consistent attention to the actual moving image. But here you are with a film that has reenactments as well as interviews. And so I m wondering: to what degree do you guide the viewer s sense of mapping reality? Or is this a kind of cinematic device that is similar to, say, for example, the writings of Lautréamont in which he has this narrator who guides the reader and this is your effort to help out the viewer through the reenactments and through the juxtaposition and through the editing? Morris: I think it s both. I ve never been compared to Lautréamont before. Here s what I would say. There s a movie. A movie is a movie. But you can also ask what is behind the movie. Was my intention to investigate the story? Was it my intention to find out new things? It s self-serving of me to say so, but I would say yes! I mean, what s the idea here? The idea is there is this set of photographs. They ve been shown all around the world. Hundreds of millions of people have seen these photographs. I don t think that s an exaggeration. But do we really know what we re looking at? Has anyone talked to the people who took the photographs? What actually was going on in the photographs? I ll give you an example. One picture that Susan Sontag remarks on is the picture of Sabrina Harman with her thumbs up. Smiling. The body of an Iraqi prisoner. Al-Jamadi. A lynching? I would say yes. But who is responsible? You look at the picture and you think, Ugh! It s the woman in the picture. The smile! The thumbs up! She s the culprit. She s implicated. We come to find out. Wrong! Wrong! So this is an ongoing problem that I have with how photographs are interpreted in general.

New York ComicCon is a rather insane event featuring all manner of comic artists and other assorted individuals. Many thanks to Eric Rosenfield for interview assistance and his laconic pal Phil for moral support and a shoulder to cry on. 1. Mike Pellerito In this somewhat naughty conversation, Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Managing Editor Mike Pellerito offers his candid views on maintaining the purity of the Archie universe. 2. Joe Gonzalez We venture into Podcast Arena to discuss the appropriate way of covering New York ComicCon with a fellow podcaster. 3. Aaron Goold One of the folks behind Yo Yo Nation explains why he is a spokesman for Duncan. There is also some speculation on secret yo-yo societies in New York. 4. Jack Ringca I am unsure what pernicious position Mr. Ringca holds within Duncan, but he seemed to have a few diabolical ideas involving Mr. Goold and conquering the universe with a yo-yo army. 5. Joseph Semling The purchasing manager of Brian s Toys offers a helpful explanation of the economics behind lightsabers. 6. David Williams The co-founder of Fanlib insists that he s flying fan fiction writers out to Hollywood. But we learn that this isn t the case at all. He seemed especially convinced that all fans are protected from lawyers. 7. Dan Piraro The man behind Bizarro explains the precise circumstances that help him generate ideas and reveals how some of his more daring strips end up in Scandinavia. 8. Ross Milhako Attracted by the risque title, Our Young, Roving Correspondent questions the creator of Dead Dick Zombie Detective upon the filthy and salacious qualities of his comic s name. 9. Tim Fish The Boston-based comic book writer behind Cavalcade of Boys explains precisely what he means by cavalcade and offers some insights on gay romance comics. 10. Patch A gentleman who only referred to himself as Patch explains how Teddy Scares inverts the nature of the cute and cuddly teddy bear. There is also an ethical debate over whether zombie teddy bears can appeal to an UglyDoll audience. We dutifully pledge, per this interview, to investigate Teddy Scares in five years and determine, per Patch s assured declarations, whether or not Teddy Scares retain their edge. 11. Kim Caltagrione, Mike McLaughlin Steve Vincent We talk with the New Jersey underground comics operation, Angry Drunk Grahics, about the fine line between angry and drunk and how Ms. Caltagrione ties this ontological spectrum together. Includes discussion of Mike Diana, the first artist to receive a criminal conviction for obscenity in the United States and who is published by Angry Drunk Graphics, and the Diana-drawn illustration of Jesus with a penis. 12. Brian Phillipson The co-creator of God the Dyslexic Dog insinuates a forthcoming jihad involving canines. Or at least that s what we re left to conclude from this conversation that somehow manages to include nonoverlapping magisteria and dyslexic fundamentalists. 13. Chris Wozniak Chris Wozniak insists, despite developments involving Kathy Griffin, that he is the Woz. But even though he has created bitter midgets, the Woz doesn t have any explanation as to why his midgets are bitter. 14. Jeffrey Brown A mention of Brown s appearance on a Canadian sex program leads into an unexpected delineation between the real Brown vs. the invented Brown. (Partial transcript here.) 15. Kyle Baker A conversation between Baker and McCloud is unexpectedly interrupted, but segues into issues of artistic control, television, people who don t read comics, thwarted animation deals, families coming back in style, Special Forces, Nat Turner, the Haitian Revolution, mainstream publishers getting into graphic novels, and other assorted topics. 16. Scott McCloud Scott McCloud reveals a future deal involving a graphic novel in New York, the present state of advocating graphic novels, the Creator s Bill of Rights, and the failure of micropayment systems.

Chen Shi-Zheng is the director of Dark Matter. Liu Ye is the star. The film is now out in theaters. Condition of the Show: Adopting a theoretical construct. Guests: Chen Shi-Zheng and Liu Ye Subjects Discussed: The visual emphasis on stairwells, metallic college environments, the relationship between character and environment, string theory, researching cosmology, comparisons between Joanna Silver and Jo Ann Beard, basing a film on Gang Lu, the Virginia Tech massacre, Amazing Grace being sung in Chinese, Chen s operatic background, performing an intimate scene with Meryl Streep, behavioral mannerisms, tables and windows, glass architecture, the origins of the Laurence Fang character, the corrupting influence of America, chemistry between Liu Ye and Aidan Quinn, television motifs, reflective surfaces, shallow information, Britney Spears, and the five elements of the Chinese horoscope. EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Correspondent: The Meryl Streep character, Joanna Silver, bears a striking resemblance to Jo Ann Beard, who wrote, of course, The Fourth State of Matter. And I m wondering, in terms of secondary materials, if this was intentioned. The Joanna Silver character seems to have more money than Jo Ann Beard did, and I wanted Chen: First off, I don t know Jo Ann Beard. I know a lot of Joannas in New York. And there s a lot of people. Rich ladies interested in Chinese culture studying tai-chi, trying to speak a few words of Chinese to me in my world. So that s where the Joanna character comes from. Correspondent: Oh, okay. Chen: Just people who saw China as an exotic country, an exotic culture, that were fascinated by what was Chinese. Correspondent: Because there was a very famous essay written in The New Yorker based off of the Iowa State massacre that was also reprinted in The Best American Essays that was written by Jo Ann Beard. And here you had a Joanna Silver character. So I didn t know if there was any overlapping in terms of the Gang Lu scenario. In terms of there being overlapping characteristics upon this film. Or is this really not meant to be something that is rooted in a real ? Chen: It s not rooted in the real events. The real events were the starting point in making a movie. I think most of the characters you see most are friends of mine who came to this country, who have experienced a different life, and it isn t meant to tell the stories I know. Not the story of Lu Gang.

Brad and John Hennegan are the filmmakers behind First Saturday in May, which opens in theaters on April 17, 2008. Condition of the Show: Racing to the finish line. Guests: Brad Hennegan and John Hennegan Subjects Discussed: Why the Hennegans chose six horse trainers, cutting the film down from a three hour epic, Pop-Up Video-style captions, the seven mysterious trainers who didn t make it into the film, the problems of knowing that Barbaro was going to win the Kentucky Derby, tracking a story after a victory, focusing upon the media, frightening reporters who hold both a cup of coffee and a reporter s pad in one hand, not using a voiceover, footage that begins with a question, laying down the rules, juxtaposing the God s eye view of NBC footage with ground-level footage, giving cameras to children, why the trainers were not photographed in their homes, getting away from the track, whether or not Dale Romans is humorless, Frank Amonte s effusiveness, trainers who feel the need to look good in front of the camera, the lack of gambling portrayed in the film, the Kentucky Derby elite, previous film experience, kayak.com, and cheap travel. EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Correspondent: Going back to this notion of family, we see many kids essentially speak in lieu of the trainers. I thought that that was an interesting choice on your part. Because I m watching this, going, wow, these folks are really trying to keep up a presence. They must actually look good in light of this particular Derby crowd. And then on top of that, they have this whole family image. I think of I m forgetting. It s the Arkansas trainer Holthus. Brad Hennegan: Bob Holthus. Correspondent: Bob Holthus, who has his wife wearing this garish, white outfit. This genteel kind of appearance. And this was striking to me, because it seemed very much that image was even more important in some cases than the actual training. And then you have this juxtaposed by Frank [Amonte], who is very much a naturalistic person. Who is openly affectionate with his family in contrast to the other people. How much was look a part of this documentary? You have to keep the image in order to John Hennegan: No, no, no. I mean, Bonnie s a woman, like a lot of women we know, that just likes to look good. She s got a hundred hats. Brad Hennegan: She calls it her costumes. John Hennegan: Right. She likes to go to the racetrack and dress up. If you saw Bob, her husband, Bob probably wears a variation of the same thing everyday. To someone like Bonnie, the racetrack s a celebration of her. And she wants to look good. Etcetera. Brad Hennegan: Bonnie s also a hell of a handicapper by the way. She s a great handicapper. But, you know, it s just like any business. There s some people that are slick. Slick talking businessmen. There are others who aren t. You can compare it to any business where some feel that the exterior is very important, where others don t.

Mark Sarvas is the author of Harry, Revised. Condition of Show: Concerned with revision. Author: Mark Sarvas Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Correspondent: Anna is actually a palindrome. Is that intentional? Sarvas: No. And the thing that really troubled me with Anna was that I was, I think, a year and a half into writing this book when John Banville s novel, The Sea, came out. And in The Sea, the main character Max is mourning the death of his wife Anna. And I thought, Oh my God. Everybody s going to think that this is my Banville homage. And this was really not. I was looking for a simple and an elegant name. And Anna floated into my mind. That was a more instinctive choice than anything else. Correspondent: And yet there s inarguably an elegant variation in this. I have to ask you about a dancing St. Elmo s fire of the groin. Sarvas: Okay, you Correspondent: This was really all you had to say was that it was an erection. Sarvas: Well, see, you mentioned that. You sent me a text message, and Correspondent: I asked five people about this and they said, What the fuck? (laughs) Sarvas: But, and look. First of all, this is a book of nearly 300 pages. Not every single metaphor s going to sail. There will be those that don t. Correspondent: Well, it s definitely memorable. That s for sure. Sarvas: But to my mind, I was not describing an erection. I didn t intend to. And the fact that you thought that that was what I meant argues that I didn t do my job well. Because what I was really hoping to describe. And this is perhaps not the stuff of a normal Segundo podcast and I hope my wife isn t listening to this . Correspondent: (laughs) Sarvas: is that weird sort of tingling, pre-erotic moment that announces the onset of an erection. Where you re beginning to feel that surge, that electricity in that way. But you haven t actually flown the flag up the pole yet. And that s what I meant. If I wanted to say erection or boner or some other, I would have said that. Correspondent: But the fact that it s ambiguous is very interesting. Because then it leaves I mean, this could be discussed endlessly in book clubs across the country. Sarvas: And I think it s actually better that way. Correspondent: It s the phrase that definitely I can t get out of my mind and makes me look at you in a sort of cockeyed way.

Nicholson Baker is most recently the author of Human Smoke. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Deceased. Author: Nicholson Baker Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Baker: What I always find is that the stuff that was kept indiscriminately is often more interesting than the stuff that was deliberately kept. You know, the stuff that was in the pocket of somebody when I don t know, when some terrible thing happened. The shopping list that you find on the sidewalk. I mean, there are many, many shopping lists right now in people s lives. Millions of them. And I m not going to worry that they re all being thrown out. I don t think that people should be saving all their shopping lists. I just think that it s sometimes beautiful to have one and think about the order of things on it. And that anytime you have those odd things in a place like Wikipedia, if you have strange, sometimes misshapen entries that people have written about something that they want an ancestor that they re proud of or themselves that there s something really fascinating about what it was that moved people to want to go on record for that thing. [NOTE: For related discussion pertaining to Human Smoke, visit the Human Smoke entries on Filthy Habits.]

Richard Price is most recently the author of Lush Life. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Caught in a crime scene. Author: Richard Price Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Correspondent: Another thing I had read is that you don t like to write. At least you do like to write. But then you also don t like to write. Price: I like to be finished. If I could take a pill that would knock me out and put me in a coma for two years, but when I woke up, there would be a completed manuscript that I would like, I ll give you the two years. Correspondent: (laughs) Price: Yeah, I don t like writing. I mean, this is kind of like abstract. But I find writing agony. Basically, you just sit there by yourself and rearrange twenty-six letters of the alphabet for decades on end. I mean, there s no physicality to what you re doing. There s no hand-eye coordination. There s no social element. Correspondent: Well, there is hand-eye coordination now. Price: What? Typing?

Listen to Librivox Community Podcast Show #78 - 10th April 2008Download audio file (librivox_community_podcast_78.mp3) Duration 18:42 Your host this week is Cori Samuel. Original thoughts by AmethystA and mlemmons. Excerpts from: Emma by Jane Austen - section read by kayray Bleak House by Charles Dickens - section read by asy Mansfield Park by Jane Austen - section read by acrobatty Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters by Austen-Leigh and Austen-Leigh - read by gypsygirl Snippets of music from Fantasy in C Major Op.15 D.760 Wanderer by Franz Schubert - played by Daniel Blanch. To Subscribe to the Librivox Community Podcast, go to: http://feeds.feedburner.com/LibrivoxCommunityPodcast or hit this itunes link to get you to the subscribe page http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=203970211 Past and present Librivox Community Podcast files can be found at our spot in Archive.org Archived shownotes for the Librivox Community Podcast can be found at http://librivox.org/category/librivox-community-podcast/ and the rss feed for those shownotes is: http://librivox.org/category/librivox-community-podcast/feed

Buy the Book Today's podcast, guest hosted by Anna Ridley, features popular blogger turned author Catherine Sanderson and popular poet turned pop star Simon Armitage. Get the Podcast Download the podcast [MP3] Add the Penguin Podcast feed to your RSS Reader and have the show delivered automatically (copy this link to your RSS reader ) Subscribe to the podcast directly in iTunes [itunes ] Download penguinpodcast52.mp3 About this podcast For information about any of the authors and books featured in these podcasts, plus features, interviews and news on the best in UK fiction and non-fiction, visit Penguin Books. Living in Paris with her partner, the workaholic Mr Frog, and their adorable toddler, Tadpole, Catherine decides to alleviate the boredom of her metro-boulot-dodo routine by starting a blog under the name of Petite Anglaise. Writing with disarming honesty about Paris life, about the confines of her hollow relationship with Mr Frog and about the wonder and pain that comes with being a mother, she finds a new purpose to her day. As Petite Anglaise, Catherine regains her confidence and makes virtual friends, including one charismatic and single Englishman who lives in Brittany, James. And after meeting James one evening in a bar, Catherine feels she has regained her ability to fall in love, too. Buy the Book Visit the Petite Anglaise blog From punk to mod to New Romantic, and eventually to acclaimed poet, Simon Armitage writes about a life where music and poetry have been core. And about a place, the village of Marsden in west Yorkshire, where he can stand and look out across a huge circumference of inspiration and influence: Joy Division, the Smiths and The Fall to the west, the Comsat Angels and Pulp to the south, Andrew Marvell and Larkin way out east, Ted Hughes and Plath just to the north. Gig is a warm, vivid, wonderful book about music, poetry, family and … always … the North. Buy the Book Visit The Scaremongers website

Jennifer Weiner is most recently the author of Certain Girls. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Avoiding literary desegregation. Author: Jennifer Weiner Subjects Discussed: [list forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Correspondent: There are also these larger thematics, I think, in your work. In both of these books, you have a pregnancy happening while you re having to let go of someone. In the first case, it s the boyfriend. And in the second case, it s the daughter. And this to me is intriguing. Likewise, there s the poetry that is frequently throughout your books. And so I m saying that there s some stuff in here that I m wondering why not push this further? It s almost innately a part of a Jennifer Weiner book. Weiner: And no one notices it. It s interesting. Correspondent: I do. Weiner: Well, thank you. You are rare. You re a rare reader. Because for most people, it s like, Yeah! Shoe shopping! And I love shoe shopping. There s nothing wrong with it. But I always like it when people get those little coded things that sneak in there. Because I was a closet Trekkie. Correspondent: Yeah. Weiner: We can talk about that. Correspondent: Yeah, well, we can talk about that! Weiner: I m in a support group. Correspondent: I mean, let s say that you were to write a chick lit book. Or rather a novel. Let s just do away with this really ridiculous term. Because, quite frankly, if we were to apply David Copperfield to the same standards, it would be a chick lit book because it ends up happy. Weiner: Yes. Correspondent: So let s just go ahead and do away with that. And let s just talk about you, hypothetically, writing about a closet Trekkie who finds love or something. Or even Jezebel Bright. Weiner: Uh huh. Well, it could happen. I mean, I never really know what my next book s going to be until it just kind of comes. So there s two things I m playing with now. One is fiction. One is nonfiction. And the fiction one has really dark, dark, dark stuff going on. And I m not really sure how the whole science fiction part of the puzzle fits into it. But I don t know if it s going to be Jezebel Bright or if Jezebel Bright becomes the book within that book almost. The way it kind of did a little bit with Certain Girls and Lyla Dare and