Missed It: Stephen Fry on Craig Ferguson
Posted by admin in late night TV, talk show on March 14, 2010
The week I was on vacation, away from CBS TV, Craig Ferguson pulled off an experimental episode of his Late Late Show. On the February 23 episode (which unfortunately is no longer archived on the CBS website), after the opening monologue he interviewed the British actor and writer Stephen Fry for the length of the whole show without a studio audience. That element of the show hearkened back to the format done by original Late Late Show host, Tom Snyder, who always had done the show without a studio audience.
The opening monologue, which I linked to above, reveals the transparency in which Ferguson consistently conducts the show. He conceded that he was slightly bothered by the dust-up on NBC involving Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien. Coming out of that, it got Ferguson thinking about the dynamics of his television show and itching to try a show without a studio audience (an aspect of his normal show that he fully concedes he appreciates and feeds off of on a regular basis).
If anyone doubted his being inspired by Snyder’s old format, Ferguson eliminated that possibility with the closing line of the monlogue, quoting Snyder’s traditional line to his audience: “Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air.”
CBS did not post the entire episode, but I’m sure if you look through You Tube, you might find snippets here or there. But for now, I provide you the five-minute snippet CBS was kind enough to post. Should I find out they will be replaying the episode, I will try to post a note here or on my Twitter account (TalkingwithTim).
One last thought on this experiment, to echo Entertainment Weekly’s Ken Tucker, who wrote a great analysis of this episode: “I vote for one edition a month of The Late Late Show in this format.”
Missed Last Week: Joe Sacco’s Playlist
Posted by admin in Literature, Music, comics on March 11, 2010
Footnotes in Gaza
Many folks may already be aware of it, but if you are not–Paper Cuts (the NY Times literature blog) features an author offering his or her musical playlist on a weekly basis, in its Living with Music feature. It’s a great concept that I look forward to reading every week.
I meant to mention this when it first appeared, but am now catching up on things. Graphic novelist/journalist Joe Sacco was featured last week–and I have to say I never would have pegged him for a Wings fan. Be sure to also look into Sacco’s latest work, Footnotes in Gaza.
No Interviews This Week, with Apologies
Unfortunately, as things timed out over the past several weeks I have exhausted my interview backlog more quickly than expected. Poor planning and timing on my part, I’ll fully concede. I apologize.
In the interim, please feel free to enjoy these interviews I recently did for Robot 6 with Jim Ottaviani, Michael Dowers, James Kochalka, Jim Rugg and Ho Che Anderson.
I’m Still Processing My Cayamo 2010 Experience
Posted by admin in Music, Uncategorized on March 9, 2010
So it was somewhat reassuring to see that the folks over at Paste (some of whom I met at a Paste discussion session on the cruise) are still processing the experience themselves.
Today they posted Seven Cayamo 2010 Artists Share Their Favorite Moments, be sure to read it, particularly if you’re a fan of Steve Earle, Katie Herzig, Glen Phillips, Lissie, Luke Bulla, Rachel Yamagata, or Vienna Teng.
What amazes me most about the list is realizing how many things I missed, while I was busy seeing other incredible musical acts.
Recommendations: Holman Podcast, Upcoming Oscar Liveblog
My longtime friend, critic Curt Holman, is now part of the team behind the Creative Loafing podcast, Running Dialogue: A Podcast About Movies. This past Friday, they released the third episode of the podcast, in which Holman, “Collider’s Matt Goldberg and /Film’s Russ Fischer disagree vigorously about ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ consider the legacy of director Tim Burton and the future of 3-D, and end up – somehow – discussing the merits of seeing films in theaters vs. waiting for the DVD.”
In addition to mentioning the podcast, I want to heartily recommend that once the Oscar ceremony starts you should head over to Screen Grab, Creative Loafing’s Movie and TV blog where Holman and others will be liveblogging the event. I’ll likely be lurking in the comment sections, making snide asides as the show or the blog inspires me.
Mike Resnick on His Writing
Posted by admin in Literature, commerce on March 3, 2010
Business of Science Fiction
Normally I try to incorporate the interview subject’s latest project in the interview headlines, but Mike Resnick has so many books on the cusp of being released (or already released) that I did not want to focus upon only one. This email interview covers a wide range of books, including The Business of Science Fiction: Two Insiders Discuss Writing and Publishing (Set to be released on March 6); The Buntline Special (Pyr) and Blasphemy–as well as a variety of other topics. My thanks to Resnick for his time and to Kevin J. Anderson for putting me in contact with Resnick.
Tim O’Shea: When you and Barry Malzberg started collaborating on columns a number of years ago, did you ever envision it could grow into a full fledged book?
Mike Resnick: It wasn’t why we began the column, but once I saw that it was popular and continuing, yes, I always assumed there’d be a book.
O’Shea: Are there any central ways that you hope readers benefit from The Business of Science Fiction? Are there certain books that helped you when you were first starting out as a writer or were the lessons you learned something that had to be experienced firsthand–not in a book?
Resnick: We’ve got a combined 90 years in the field, we’ve each written or edited over 100 books, we’ve each edited science fiction magazines, I’ve been a publisher, Barry has worked for an agent…there’s simply nothing we haven’t seen, no scam we can’t describe, and we’re secure enough at this point in our careers that no one’s likely to blackball us for letting unpleasant truths out of the closet.
Oh It’s A Good Tuesday for Music
I knew it was gonna be a good Tuesday for music, what with new releases from Peter Gabriel and John Hiatt.
And then Claire Small (who I interviewed back in January) gave me get a listen to the title track for her upcoming release, How Do You Like Love?–due out on May 18, 2010.
I’m not trying to make everyone jealous, by the way, actually she’s made it available for everyone to download for free. Just go to her site and enjoy.
Calming Down from Cayamo 2010 Fun
Sorry for the blog silence for the past several days. My professional and personal life got quite busy just prior to going on Sixthman’s Cayamo Cruise 2010 from February 21 to 26.
I was hoping to see a few shows on the first day of the cruise, but even I was surprised I was able to work five concerts into one day. I was banking on getting to see Katie Herzig and Emmylou Harris in concert on the first day–but I lucked out and was able to see John Hiatt, Edie Carey and Darrell Scott perform as well.
Ultimately, when all was said and done–I actually saw Hiatt perform four separate times over the course of the cruise. There are numerous other artists I got to see and learn about for the first time. A few of them, I really hope (can’t promise) to be able to interview in the coming months. If nothing else, I hope to interview folks at Sixthman, who organized the cruise.
And if I’m lucky, I’ll get to go to Cayamo 2011. But for right now, I am grateful for getting to be part of Cayamo 2010.
Daryl Gregory on The Devil’s Alphabet
Posted by admin in Literature, Uncategorized on February 17, 2010
The Devil's Alphabet
A couple of weeks ago, after I interviewed comics writer/prose novelist Chris Roberson over at my other online home, Robot 6, we got to discussing novelists that he would recommend to feature here. One of the first names he mentioned was novelist Daryl Gregory. Roberson was kind enough to get me in contact with Gregory who was willing to discuss his latest novel, The Devil’s Alphabet. Before starting the interview, let’s delve into part of his bio: “Daryl Gregory’s first novel, Pandemonium, appeared from Del Rey Books in 2008 and won the Crawford Award for 2009. It was also a finalist for several other awards, including the Shirley Jackson Award and the World Fantasy Award. His second novel, The Devil’s Alphabet, appeared in November, 2009, and was named one of the best books of the year by Publisher’s Weekly.”
Also, here’s some background on the novel itself: “Switchcreek was a normal town in eastern Tennessee until a mysterious disease killed a third of its residents and mutated most of the rest into monstrous oddities. Then, as quickly and inexplicably as it had struck, the disease–dubbed Transcription Divergence Syndrome (TDS)–vanished, leaving behind a population divided into three new branches of humanity: giant gray-skinned argos, hairless seal-like betas, and grotesquely obese charlies.
Paxton Abel Martin was fourteen when TDS struck, killing his mother, transforming his preacher father into a charlie, and changing one of his best friends, Jo Lynn, into a beta. But Pax was one of the few who didn’t change. He remained as normal as ever. At least on the outside.
Having fled shortly after the pandemic, Pax now returns to Switchcreek fifteen years later, following the suicide of Jo Lynn. What he finds is a town seething with secrets, among which murder may well be numbered. But there are even darker–and far weirder–mysteries hiding below the surface that will threaten not only Pax’s future but the future of the whole human race.” My thanks to Gregory for his time and thoughts.
Tim O’Shea: In addition to naming you in a manner that allowed you to avoid being called junior, do you think your parents unintentionally helped make your name more marketable for when your began your writing career?
Daryl Gregory: Wait, would my name be more unmarketable as a “junior”? Growing up, I thought it was pretty lame as it was. That’s why for my first publication — a science fiction story that appeared in “Rambler Roundup,” the Marion Hills Elementary School newsletter, when I was in fifth grade — I used the pen name “James Clark Savage,” Yes, I’d been reading a lot of Doc Savage.
We should explain to your readers that my father’s name is Darrell — note the subtle change in spelling — and that he also has a different middle name. So I’m a phonetically near-junior. The marketing genius of this — and I have to believe my parents planned it — is that it gives me something to talk about in interviews like this one.
Looking Forward to Cayamo: Edie Carey
In my run-up to next week’s Cayamo 2010 cruise, I am trying to focus on certain new artists I am just learning about prior to the cruise. Today I am focusing upon Edie Carey. Go to her site, listen to her music.
Given how much of a Shawn Colvin fan that I am, I’m shocked I’ve not run across Carey before. I’ve never heard anyone sound so much like Colvin–and as you can guess that’s a compliment, not an insult. She has her own distinctive songwriting style, however, and I look forward to seeing her perform live next week.