Continuing on the Great Depression theme from yesterday’s post: the current episode of This American Life, #368 which was titled, “Who Do You Think You Are?” is outstanding, featuring old interviews of people who’d survived the Hoovervilles of the Great Depression, the horrors of the Second World War, and all the chaos that followed on that time. Parts are very moving. And then there’s a discussion of what it’s like to see a black president from the point of view of a man who remembers explicit segregation and unrepentantly open racism against him as a black American — as a …
Month: November 2008
What’s New?
Recent stuff you might have missed, or want to check out, in case you don’t notice it over in the sidebar: For those of you in the UK, the December 2008 issue of InterZone, containing my story “Country of the Young,” is now on shelves in the UK. It’s the first in a projected series of tales set in a future North Korea. The best future North Korea I can imagine, in fact. This one’s a train wreck of love, ideology, immigration, and biotech. It’s not available online, but it’s mentioned very positively in this review at The Fix. StarShipSofa …
No Depression in Heaven
I don’t usually use soundtracks for posts, but hey, it’s always worth doing something a little different sometimes, right? My friend Jack was, when I first met him, a devoted inhabitant of that space where black and white and poor and crazy meet in early American music. He introduced me to musicians like Ralph Stanley and the Blue Sky Boys, and showed me how they connected to people like Howlin’ Wolf and Mississippi Fred McDowell. It was with Jack that I first heard McDowell, and Robert Johnson, and so much other music, and was initiated into the secret history of …
Time After Time
Music for when everything’s feeling difficult: Time After Time, sung by Cassandra Wilson, from the album Traveling Miles. Here are the lyrics. Yes, a Cyndi Lauper song, on my blog. The song won’t be here too long, for copyright reasons. But someone needs a copy, so… Here’s a video with the lyrics synched up:
“Dhuluma No More” podcast at Starship Sofa
The podcast of my story “Dhuluma No More” (from Asimov’s Oct/Nov. 2008) is now live at Starship Sofa. Check out the website — he’s got tons of excellent stories by others, including, last week, one of my favorite authors, Bruce Sterling — but feel free to download the podcast directly from here. The podcast has some other excellent content besides my story — including a fantastic piece (of a piece?) called “How We Did It, Or, Orson Welles and the Pickle Jar of Doom” by Lawrence Santoro, a short story by Bertram Chandler, some poetry by Mikal Trimm, a book …