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02-13-09 : A 2009 Interview With Lalo Fiorelli : Behind 'Secret Splendors of the Desert : Anza-Borrego Desert State Park', Part 2

Lalo Fiorelli has been photographing Anza-Borrego State Park for more than 30 years; after fifteen years, he began to realize he might have enough material for a book. But in all of his thirty-plus years of wandering through the park named after Borrego — sheep, he's never, sort-of, actually, like, seen one.

l In the second part of my interview with Lalo Fiorelli, you're going to hear about his book, 'Secret Splendors of the Desert : Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.' Once we'd heard about his beginnings as a photographer and his cutover to digital photography, I asked him about the park itself, its flora, fauna and geology. There's a lot to cover in this book, with 100 pages of photographs. The story of the trestle is reall quite impressive in itself, and I'll let Lalo do the talking. You can hear the second part of our conversation, which focuses on Fiorelli's work in the park, by clicking on this link.



02-12-09 : A 2009 Interview With Lalo Fiorelli : Behind 'Secret Splendors of the Desert : Anza-Borrego Desert State Park', Part 1

Books tell stories, even books of photography like 'Secret Splendors of the Desert : Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.' But I like to hear the stories behind the books as well, and a book like this, created over fifteen years, has one hell of a good story.

Lalo Fiorelli has a photo in the back of his book; it's a sepia-toned portrait of a five year-old boy holding a camera. That boy is of course, Lalo Fiorelli, and the grown-up version has indeed become quite a photographer. I talked to him about his latest book, 'Secret Splendors of the Desert : Anza-Borrego Desert State Park,' during which he made the conversion from a trusted film camera to a digital camera. You can hear the first part of our conversation, which focuses on Fiorelli's work as a photographer, by clicking on this link. More images



02-11-09 Agony Column Broadcast Radio Show from 12-28-2008: Brian Yaeger and Jimmy Santiago Baca

It's shows like this that I love to broadcast. When I started my career as an interviewer, I was pretty much, as I've heard in the media-drone "focused like a laser" on science fiction, fantasy and horror authors; genre fiction. But I've always liked to read in a sort of round-robin manner so as not to get too tired of one sort of book. Also, in my show, I like to bring in voices other than my own. That gets us from genre stalwarts like yesterday's show to one like today's podcast.

Jimmy Santiago Baca
OK, so first off, I don’t drink wine; it doesn't set well in my stomach, and to a certain extent, I'm glad, because I can see that my collecting instinct would me to spend boatloads of money I don't have on expensiuve wine instead of expensive books. So I was quite happy to talk to Brian Yaeger about his book, 'Red, White and Brew: An American Beer Odyssey.' Likewise, I was happy to have Kathryn Petruccelli upload the Jimmy Santiago Baca interview she did. In case you’re wondering, the interstitial music is by Esquivel. Here's a link to the podcast of the broadcast show from 12-28-2008.



02-10-09 Agony Column Broadcast Radio Show from 12-21-2008: Joe R. Lansdale and Cecilia Holland

Catching up with podcasts of the actual broadcast show, we bring you Joe R. Lansdale and Cecilia Holland from the studio at NPR West, and SF in SF. If you’re enjoying this podcast, one way to help support it is to take a few moments and write NPR and tell them that you do enjoy it, and would like to see this material included in their lineup.

"This Material" in this case, being the re;ading from SF in SF of 'Flaming London', with appropriate (overly cautious, in my book, but then my book is avowedly profane!) beeps. We then get to hear an edit of the 'Leather Maiden' interview. I followed that up with the SF in SF interview of Cecilia Holland. The interstitial music is from "Tin Hat." Here's a link to the podcast of the broadcast show from 12-21-2008.



Nancy N. Chen
02-09-09 A 2008 Interview with Nancy N. Chen : Clearing the Foodway

I spoke with Nancy N. Chen at the Capitola Book Café, just before she appeared to speak with and answer questions from her readers. I was pleased to find yet another entry into the complicated web of food and health ; even more so when I noticed the book had a chapter on comfort foods.

Comfort foods, she argues, are universally spoken of as having a healing quality that may not seem likely given so many of them include ingredients one would not purposely put in "health food." But Chen is an anthropologist, and she brings that science to focus on the cultural aspects and perceptions of both food and medicine, breaking down the barriers and showing that the two are not so separated as western culture would have you believe. You can hear our conversation via this link; proceed directly to the grocery store afterwards and pick up the ingredients for your own comfort food.



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