KPFA - Radio Wolinsky

Josh Kornbluth and Jacob Kornbluth, creators of the film “Love and Taxes,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.

Josh Kornbluth is a noted monologuist, having come into the field after seeing Spaulding Gray in action. Jacob Kornbluth, his younger brother, is a documentarian working with Robert Reich on Reich’s blogposts on Facebook, and director of tthe forthcoming film, “Saving Capitalism.” Together, they’ve created a film based on one of Josh’s monologues, using the monologue interspersed with comic re-enactments and dramatic scenes, featuring several Bay Area actors.

In this interview, they talk about the film, Josh talks about his work and Jake talks about becoming a director and the nuts and bolts of filming.

A shorter version of this interview aired on KPFA’s Arts-Waves program.

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Douglas Preston, author of “The Lost City of the Monkey God” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.

Douglas Preston has written several works of fiction and non-fiction, including a best-selling series of thrillers co-written with Lincoln Child (the Agent Pendergast series). In his latest work of non-fiction, Preston delves into the story of a lost city in Honduras, in Mosquitia, and a civilization that vanished after the Spanish came to the Americas.

His story involves con men and crooks who spent decades looking for the city, then turns to a documentarian who became obsessed and eventually took state of the art equipment to discover whether such a city exists. In fact, he found two, and Douglas Preston was there. Still later, in 2015, Preston went on an expedition into the jungle to see what remains of the ruins, and while there contracted a rare and often fatal tropical disease which is currently in remission.

This extended interview also contains an overview of Preston’s writing career, including a look at the process in which he and Lincoln Child create the Pendergast books. A shorter version airs on Bookwaves on KPFA.

Douglas Preston website

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Wes Craven (1939-2015), noted director of horror and genre films, interviewed by Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff on October 13, 1999 while on tour for his one novel, “Fountain Society.”

Wes Craven, who died at the age of 76 on August 30, 2015, was considered one of the masters of cinema’s horror genre. Best known for The Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream films, ,He was best known for two series of films, the Nightmare on Elm Street films, and the Scream series, which also served as an academic deconstruction of the genre. Starting life as a humanities professor, Wes Craven moved over to film as first a sound editor, and then film editor before turning to writing and directing with The Last House on the Left. Along with the first Nightmare film (and the deconstruction last New Nightmare entry), he directed all four Scream films, along with Red Eye, Cursed, The Serpent and the Rainbow, and the non-genre Meryl Streep vehicle, Music of the Heart.

His first and only novel, “Fountain Society,” was published in 1999, and it was during his book tour that he stopped by KPFA where he was interviewed by Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff. That interview was digitized and re-edited in 2017 by Richard Wolinsky.

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George Saunders, author of the novel Lincoln in the Bardo, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.

George Saunders is the highly acclaimed author of several short story collections, including “Tenth of December,” “CivilWarLand in Bad Decline,” “In Persuasion Nation” and others, along with political commentary that recently appeared in The New Yorker and other magazines.

His latest novel takes place in the form of a fictional oral history from the perspective of several ghosts who survive after death in a Washington DC graveyard in 1862. Willie Lincoln, the favored son of Abraham Lincoln, has gotten sick and died, and during the course of the book, the President visits his son’s tomb.

The book deals with the Civil War, with the relationship of blacks and whites in America, with beliefs about life and death, and with the relationship of history and memory. It has gotten rave reviews since publication.

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Dan Hoyle, playwright and performer of “The Real Americans,” playing at the Marsh in Berkeley through February 25, 2017, is interviewed by Richard Wolinsky.

Dan Hoyle has been taking his show, “The Real Americans” around the United States since 2010, with stops at Berkeley Rep and other places. Based on interviews conducted during a trip across the country via van, “The Real Americans'” has been expanded and revised to reflect the Trump candidacy and presidency. After Berkeley, he takes the play to Washington DC and elsewhere.

In this interview, he talks about his show and its political elements, performs excerpts from the show, and discusses his career. The son of Geoff Hoyle of Pickle Family Circus, Dan Hoyle has multiple degrees, and spent time as a Fulbfight Scholar in Nigeria, the basis for his solo play, “Tings Dey Happen.”

A shorter version of this interview aired on KPFA’s Arts-Waves program.

More information: The Marsh

Dan Hoyle website

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