The Bat Segundo Show was a long-running cultural radio program devoted to quirky and very thorough long-form interviews with contemporary authors, idiosyncratic thinkers, and other assorted artists. Guests included David Lynch, Octavia Butler, John Waters, John Updike, Stephen Fry, Marilynne Robinson, Karen Russell, Weird Al Yankovic, Robert A. Caro, and more than 500 others. There was also a program called Follow Your Ears, which was a thematic investigative counterpart, in which I pursued a specific subject through several angles. The entire archive of what I did from 2005 to 2014 is included here.
Bill Plympton is an independent animator. He has just completed an 80-minute feature, Idiots and Angels. The website can be found here. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Concerned about whether he is becoming a cartoon. Guest: Bill Plympton Subjects Discussed: The origin of the square-shouldered suit guys, Plympton’s approach to humor, “Push Comes to Shove” and […]
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MoreTerry Sanders is most recently the director of Fighting for Life, which opens in New York and Los Angeles on March 7th. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Convinced that he is fighting for his life. Guest: Terry Sanders Subjects Discussed: Maintaining an apolitical tone, whether being a military doctor involves politics, apolitical semiotics, how much reality […]
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MoreStephen Chow is most recently the director of CJ7, which opens on March 7th. Jiao Xu is the very talented young star of the film. We are happy to report that this is our first bilingual podcast. Stephen Chow and Jiao Xu answered in Cantonese. Diane, an adept, amicable, and very helpful translator, assisted us […]
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MoreDavid Bruckner, Jacob Gentry, and Dan Bush are the writer-directors of The Signal. AJ Bowen played exterminator Lewis Denton, Scott Poythress played Clark, and Chad McKnight played Jim Parsons. The film opens on February 22, 2008. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Resisting the suggestions of broadcast signals. Guests: Cast and crew members from The Signal: Writer-directors […]
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MoreSteve Erickson is most recently the author of Zeroville. He returned to the program for a second conversation with The Bat Segundo Show #447. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Confused by floating point integers. Author: Steve Erickson Subjects Discussed: Approaching a novel with fewer fantastical elements, following the narrative laws of movies, Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, […]
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MoreEran Kolirin is the writer and director of The Band’s Visit, now playing in theaters. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Contending with the inflexible language demands of the Academy. Guest: Eran Kolirin Subjects Discussed: Using a great deal of static shots, Antonioni, the influence of comic books, creating a cinematic fable, contending with too many extras […]
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MoreThe second Bat Segundo program involves several interviews conducted at BookExpo America 2005, which were strung together into a program. At the time, Bat Segundo hadn’t quite figured out what it was about. Even the Bat Segundo character at the beginning isn’t entirely defined. But this program does provide a modest glimpse of the publishing […]
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