WGI Wig Out

Vanderbilt University in Nashville was host for a regional for Winter Guard International, which is some kind of competitive color guard drill team thingamajig. The costumes for some of the groups were fruit loopier than Toucan Sam's tummy after a well-balanced breakfast. Enjoy, my retinas still haven't forgiven me.

Stupid Question Tuesday

What happens to a werewolf astronaut on the moon?

Douglas Preston Interview

Douglas Preston is perhaps best known for his Pendergast series he writes with Lincoln Child. I had a chance to talk to him in January of 2008 about his solo novel Blasphemy. It's a story of a particle accelerator and the love triangle it's involved in. OK, maybe not quite, but a particle accelerator starts talking and science and religion are headed for their own collision course.

Chuck Thompson - Book Talk Podcast - March 2008

Man, talking with Chuck Thompson was mighty fun. Not only is he an engaging guy with a sense of humor, but he was also a member of Mood Paint which was a precursor to one of my favorite bands, Pond. He also co-wrote one of my favorite Pond songs, Young Splendor. His book is a travel memoir called Smile When You are Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer. He dishes some dirt, but he also tells some great stories without much snark. Click here for the goodness.

Lauren Groff Interview

On February 21, 2008 Lauren Groff stopped by the WYPL studios to have a chat about her debut novel, The Monsters of Templeton. This was her first in-person radio interview, so a decided shift from the ueber-recognizable Neil deGrasse Tyson from last week. Click here for the interview goodness.

Woo Hoo! I Interviewed Neil deGrasse Tyson!

INTERVIEW WITH DR. NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

OK, sometimes stuff just falls in one's lap. Last week I got to interview Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, host of NOVA science NOW, director of the Hayden Planetarium, and all-around smart guy. He was in Memphis for a lecture and I had called his people two weeks prior to see if I could get him to come on to the radio program I produce for WYPL Radio called Book Talk. His publicity person didn't call me back until the day he was in town, THREE HOURS before his only window. I was really nervous because I hadn't even bothered preparing for an interview that I wasn't expecting to happen.

So I drove downtown to pick him up at his hotel. We got back to the station and had a nice 30 minute chat. On the way back, he plugged his iPhone into my car stereo, and we listened to "American Woman" by The Guess Who and "Atomic Dog" by George Clinton. Listening to George Clinton with Neil deGrasse Tyson while driving in my Saturn. Life is way too odd sometimes.

I finally have figured out how to store files online, so you can download the interview here. And a bonus for all you, this is the full interview. The one for radio had 2.5 minutes pared off. I will also start posting my other interviews on my blog. It's not quite a real podcast. But I've talked to some cool people over the years, like Walter Mosley, Kinky Friedman, Haven Kimmel, and Bruce Campbell. So check back once a week and listen to me be nervous and listen to authors talk about themselves. And extra bonus, all the interviews are done in-person so the audio quality is usually pretty good.