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SATURDAY JANUARY 3rd, 2009

- We remember some who died in 2008, who graced our lives with inspiration, wit, and insight on West Coast Live visits in past years. We welcome the voices of the late greats EARTHA KITT, NUALA O'FAOLAIN, TONY HILLERMAN, STUDS TERKEL, and ODETTA. It will be a special special.

SATURDAY January 10, 2009

- We celebrate our 15th Year anniversary of West Coast Live at the San Francisco Ferry Building, site of CUESA's San Francisco Farmers' Market -- (our broadcasts on January 17 and 24th will be in Napa at Silo's Jazz Club). As for ways to get to the January 10 anniversary show, show, here's a map. Guests include:

LADY BIANCA , singer, songwriter and pianist with gospel, blues and rhythms.

LORCA HART, jazz dummer and his trio

STEPHEN J. CANNELL, tv producer and mystery writer.

WES SCOOP NISKER , author and commentator, whose crazy wisdom is a good start to the new year.

CLAIRE PEASELEE , naturalist.

MARY RISLEY ,chef, teacher and food-runner.

MIKE GREENSILL, just back from his and Wesla's weekend singing at the Algonquin in New York.

 

SATURDAY January 17, 2009

- We broadcast on January 17 and 24th from The NAPA RIVER INN at Silo's Jazz Club), 530 Main Street, Napa, CA 94581, 707-251-5833, Coffee, tea, refreshments available in the lovely 'hood. Guests include:

WESLA WHITFIELD, renowned cabaret singer and humanist sings with Mike Greensill.

CINDY PAWLCYN, founder and chef of some of the wine country's iconic restaurants,

ROBERT ROPER, author of Now the Drum of War, the story of Walt Whitman and the Civil War.

STACEY D'ERASMO , author of Tea and The Sky Below.

MIKE GREENSILL, Napa/St. Helena homeboy.

SATURDAY January 24, 2009

- We broadcast on January 17 and 24th from The NAPA RIVER INN at Silo's Jazz Club), 530 Main Street, Napa, CA 94581, 707-251-5833, Coffee, tea, refreshments available in the lovely 'hood. Guests include:

HOT CLUB OF COWTOWN, the outstanding Western String Trio, Django Reinhart would want to sit in with.

JERRY MANDER, author of The Superferry Chronicles, a struggle in Hawaii, and Four Arugments for the Elimination of Television,

NANCY SPILLER, author of Entertaining Disasters, the perhaps fictional account of an L.A. food writer whose marriage (insert food disaster metaphor here) while preparing for a dinner party.

KARL and CARL , with Tips on Travel for the Wine Countries, which might be near the Benelux countries, if they're not mistaken.....

LAUREN COODLEY , co-author of Napa: The Transformation of an American Town.

MIKE GREENSILL, Napa/St. Helena up-valley lad at his own piano.

JANUARY 31st, 2009, a classic, from January 31, 2004

Archive show from five years ago today. It's a good one. Our next West Coast live show, at the S.F. Ferry Building, Saturday 7 February, 2009

LEO KOTTKE, acclaimed guitarist and droll story teller of many great records

NORTON BUFFALO,with his band

JOHN LESCROART, author of the Dismas Hardy mysteries.

ANCHEE MIN, author of Empress Orchid

ELIJAH WALD, popular music historian and performer, with notes on the blues.

Music from piano player SAM BARRY in for MIKE GREENSILL.

 

 

 

Artisan-made Radio....

RESERVATIONS: for your 2 hours of slow-food organic radio with only the freshest conversation, music and play: 415-664-9500, or TICKETWEB Tickets for most shows are $15 when purchased in advance via phone or ticketweb. The walk-up price at the door the day of the show is $18. Children up to 12 $5. Occasionally, special broadcasts have different ticket prices which will be noted.

 

Doors usually open at 9:30AM, the show finishes its set-up as you arrive, then we broadcast live 10am - 11:59am coast-to-coast.. You can hear us, too, on-line via many of the public radio stations that carry West Coast Live both on-the-air and streamed across the globe by KSJN, Jefferson Public Radio, KALW, and many other places, if you're outside one of our broadcast areas. Please see our affiliate page.

 

 

LIVE SATURDAY FEBRUARY 7, 2009 - at the San Francisco Ferry Building, site of CUESA's San Francisco Farmers' Market -- (as will our shows be in February). As for ways to get to the show, here's a map.

RODES FISHBURNE, San Francisco author of Going to See the Elephant a new comic novel.

ALAN BLACK, author of Kick the Balls: An Offensive Suburban Odyssey, an account of a Scotsman teaching junior soccer in the US.

ELIZABETH BLUMENSTOCK, virtuoso viiolinist with music by Bach and Telemann.

MEL KNOX, wine barrel importer and former bookstore detective

WATER TOWER STRING BAND, in from Portland, Oregon, for the San Francisco Bluegrass Festival.

GORDON JENKINS, in for the Slow Food Nation Food With Heart celebration next week at the Ferry Building.

Music from piano player MIKE GREENSILL, who knows his meat from his veg.

 

 

LIVE SATURDAY FEBRUARY 14, 2009 West Coast Love - at the San Francisco Ferry Building, site of CUESA's San Francisco Farmers' Market. As for ways to get to the show, here's a map.

SALLY KELLERMAN, actor and song stylist

JONATHAN KEATS,conceptual artist and author of The Book of the Unknown: Tales of the Thirty Six, his take on certain kinds of saints.

TERRY SAWYER of Hog Island Oyster Company, where 3 million bivalves are raised each year in Tomales Bay.

JOE QUIRK, author of It's Not You, It's Biology, his take on, sperm and eggs

( Sorry, we received word on Feb 12 that JONAH LERNER has a family emergency and cannot be with us.)

Music from piano player MIKE GREENSILL, whose musical roots sprout great sounds

 

LIVE SATURDAY FEBRUARY 21, 2009 - at the San Francisco Ferry Building, site of CUESA's San Francisco Farmers' Market -- . As for ways to get to the show, here's a map.

BEN TAYLOR,handcrafted songs, the proponent of Kung-Folk, his new CD: The Legend of Kung Folk part 1 (The Killing Bite).

T.C. BOYLE,author. whose new novel, The Women, is inspired by the life and loves of architect Frank Lloyd Wright

JAY RAYNER, British novelist, world-wide writer about food and universal humorist,

VAL MCDERMID British mystery writer, whose detectives take on the underbelly of Jolly Ol'.

ROB REICH, accordion virtuoso and composer, whose expresiveness shows in his new CD, The Balancing Act.

Music from piano player MIKE GREENSILL, whose musical marvels astonish even himself.

 

LIVE SATURDAY FEBRUARY 14, 2009 West Coast Love - at the San Francisco Ferry Building, site of CUESA's San Francisco Farmers' Market. As for ways to get to the show, here's a map.

SALLY KELLERMAN, actor and song stylist

JONATHAN KEATS,conceptual artist and author of The Book of the Unknown: Tales of the Thirty Six, his take on certain kinds of saints.

TERRY SAWYER of Hog Island Oyster Company, where 3 million bivalves are raised each year in Tomales Bay.

JOE QUIRK, author of It's Not You, It's Biology, his take on, sperm and eggs

( Sorry, we received word on Feb 12 that JONAH LERNER has a family emergency and cannot be with us.)

Music from piano player MIKE GREENSILL, whose musical roots sprout great sounds

 

LIVE SATURDAY FEBRUARY 21, 2009 - at the San Francisco Ferry Building, site of CUESA's San Francisco Farmers' Market -- . As for ways to get to the show, here's a map.

BEN TAYLOR,handcrafted songs, the proponent of Kung-Folk, his new CD: The Legend of Kung Folk part 1 (The Killing Bite).

T.C. BOYLE,author. whose new novel, The Women, is inspired by the life and loves of architect Frank Lloyd Wright

JAY RAYNER, British novelist, world-wide writer about food and universal humorist,

VAL MCDERMID British mystery writer, whose detectives take on the underbelly of Jolly Ol'.

ROB REICH, accordion virtuoso and composer, whose expresiveness shows in his new CD, The Balancing Act.

Music from piano player MIKE GREENSILL, whose musical marvels astonish even himself.

 

LIVE SATURDAY FEBRUARY 28, 2009 West Coast Live - at the San Francisco Ferry Building, site of CUESA's San Francisco Farmers' Market. As for ways to get to the show, here's a map.

DANIYAL MUEENUDDIN author of In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, a collection of human comedy stories set in his native Pakistan.

JOE GORES Edgar Award winning author: Spade & Archer: The Prequel to DASHIELL HAMMETT's The Maltese Falcon, when stevedore's worked the wharves of the Ferry Building.

JACQUELINE WINSPEAR, another California mystery writer. whose new novel, Among the Mad, continues the saga of Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator in London in the late 1920s and early 1930s in England.

GRUPO FALSO BAIANO, Brazillian inspired choro group, reeds, mandolin, guitar, perscussion. The story of their name on their website,

Music from piano player MIKE GREENSILL, whose musical prowess gets him a free cup of coffee in most places.

 

LIVE SATURDAY March 7, 2009 - at the San Francisco Ferry Building, site of CUESA's San Francisco Farmers' Market -- . As for ways to get to the show, here's a map.

ZOE HELLER, author, whose new novel, The Believers, follows Notes on a Scandal and Everything You Know.

COLLEEN LINDESAY, Urban Scout, who knows how to explore the city and its marvels, from marmalade fruit to swimming holes.

BARRY JENKINS, film director whose new film, Medicine for Melancholy, features two characters, Micah and Jo, who search for themselves throughout San Francisco during a time-out-of-time weekend.

KITKA women's vocal ensemble, with guest TZVETANKA VARIMEZOVA , performing Eastern European folksongs.

WILL ENO, playwright, whose one character, Thom Pain (based on nothing), also searches, at the Cutting Ball Theater,

WILL BROKAW of Brokaw Nursery about the sexy avocado.

 

Music from piano player MIKE GREENSILL, whose musical marvels astonish all of us.

 

LIVE SATURDAY March 14, 2009 West Coast Live - at the sublime CAVALLO POINT - The Lodge at the Golden Gate . As for ways to get to the show, here's a map.

BELA FLECK, banjo virtuoso and filmmaker, whose documentary Throw Down Your Heart, shows this week at the Roxie in San Francisco and the Elmwood in Berkeley,

TUCK and PATTI, the renowned duo whose latest, I Remember You, celebrates the Great American Songbook.

DAN HICKS and The Hot Licks, celebrating their new rhythm and words cd Tangled Tales.

CLAIRE PEASLEE, naturalist, anticipates the burgeoning springtime.

ALAN BOSS, astronomer, his new book details the search for other life in the universe and the Kepler Mission.

Please subscribe to the mailing list for full details. We look forward to seeing you at Cavallo Point.

 

LIVE SATURDAY March 21, 2009 West Coast Live - at the sublime CAVALLO POINT - The Lodge at the Golden Gate . As for ways to get to the show, here's a map.

Lowriders HAROLD BROWN and LEE OSKAR bring their unplugged r 'n' r to the show.

JOSHUA NELSON, The Prince of Kosher Gospel Music, need we say more?

KARL and CARL who know their Condé from their Nast, with their Tips on Travel, as channeled by Michael O'Brien and Geoff Bolt,

JENNIFER WOODLIEF, whose book A Wall of White, recounts the events and people swept up in a 1980s Sierra avalanche.

CHRISTINA SUNLEY, whose novel The Tricking of Freya, melds a tale of American family secrets with the myths and landscape of Iceland.

MIKE GREENSILL, whose ebullience is matched only by his effervescence.

Please subscribe to the mailing list for full details. We look forward to seeing you at Cavallo Point.

Saturday March 28, 2009 (from June 19, 2004)

Show from The 12 Galaxies.

DAVID SEDARIS, writer

"THE UNEMPLOYED GUIDE TO SAN FRANCISCO" authors

ASYLUM STREET SPANKERS, acoustic comedic songs of social comment

DAN BERN, singer-songwriter

CLAIRE PEASLEE, naturalist

The MIKE GREENSILL

 

Saturday April 4th, 2009 from November 22nd, 2008

Great writers, LIVE at the the Head-Royce School Theater on the occassion of their annual book fair, 4315 Lincoln Avenue, Oakland. Today, featuring:

TONI MORRISON, author of Beloved, A Mercy, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

SYLVIA BROWNRIGG, author of The Delivery Room and other novels.

BÉLA FLECK, banjo virtuoso, who has a new film about taking the banjo back to Africa called Throw Down Your Heart.

LINDA TILLERY and The Cultural Heritage Choir with their stunning a capella songs and rhythms.

MIKE GREENSILL, nimble house pianist.

 

 

LIVE SATURDAY April 11, 2009 West Coast Live - We are cookin' at the sublime CAVALLO POINT - The Lodge at the Golden Gate . As for ways to get to the show, here's a map.

ALVA NOË author of Out of Our Head, about the biology of consciousness.

ERIC LINDELL, the San Francisco original bluesman and his band

COYOTE GRACE, the duet becomes a band.

BRENDA WEBSTER, author of the novel Vienna Triangle, set amongst in the intrigue in Freud's inner circle.

JOSEPH HUMPHREY, Michelin-starred Excecutive Chef, whose Cavallo Point kitchen includes a 12' Molteni stove.

MIKE GREENSILL, whose ebullience is matched only by his effervescence.

Please subscribe to the mailing list for full details. We look forward to seeing you at Cavallo Point.

 

LIVE SATURDAY April18, 2009 West Coast Live - at the San Francisco Ferry Building, site of CUESA's San Francisco Farmers' Market -- . As for ways to get to the show, here's a map.

MISS MARTHA REEVES, Motown's soul dancing diva.

DANNY O'KEEFE, musician.

EDWARD HUMES author of The Eco Baronswith author CHEENI RAO,

newspaperman DAVID WIEGAND,

WILL DURST, political satirist

MIKE GREENSILL, guest host for Sedge Thomson today.

Please subscribe to the mailing list for full details. We look forward to seeing you at the show.

 

LIVE SATURDAY APRIL 25, 2009 - at the San Francisco Ferry Building, site of CUESA's San Francisco Farmers' Market -- . As for ways to get to the show, here's a map. Sedge welcomes:

LYNN FREED author of The Servant's Quarters

VIENNA TENG, musician, composer.

JANE VANDENBURGH, author of her memoir Sex in the Twentieth Century

BLAME SALLY, the acclaimed distaff group returns.

JOEL FORRESTER, composer and jazz pianist.

MIKE GREENSILL, at his piano today.

Please subscribe to the mailing list for full details. We look forward to seeing you at the show.

 

LIVE SATURDAY MAY 2nd, 2009 - at the San Francisco Ferry Building, site of CUESA's San Francisco Farmers' Market -- . As for ways to get to the show, here's a map. Sedge welcomes:

JEFFREY MASSON author of The Face on the Plate and many other books about animals and humans

TANGO No. 9, one of the great Bay Area ensembles, inspired by Piazzola as well as La Dolce Vita.

JANE S. SMITH, author of The Garden of Invention: Luther Burbank and the Business of Breeding Plants

THE BOY CHORISTERS OF THE GRACE CATHEDRAL CHOIR OF MEN and BOYS, the acclaimed voices under the direction of Dr. Jeffrey Smith.

DAVID RETSKY, of County Line Harvest, near Petaluma.

The genial MIKE GREENSILL, at his piano today.

Please subscribe to the mailing list for full details. We look forward to seeing you at the show.

 

LIVE SATURDAY May 9, 10 AM- Noon - at the San Francisco Ferry Building, site of CUESA's San Francisco Farmers' Market -- . As for ways to get to the show, here's a map. Sedge welcomes:

BEN VEREEN , showman/

RUTH REICHL, food writer and memoirist

JEFF HOLLINGER, who writes about the cocktail.

ROY ROGERS, bluesman

The genial MIKE GREENSILL, at his piano today.

Please subscribe to the mailing list for full details. We look forward to seeing you at the show.

 

LIVE SATURDAY May 16, 10 AM- Noon - at the San Francisco Ferry Building, site of CUESA's San Francisco Farmers' Market -- . As for ways to get to the show, here's a map. Sedge welcomes:

ARMISTEAD MAUPIN stops by with WORD for WORD who perform one of his stories from the Rhinoceros Theater production.

T.J. STILES, biographer of Commordore Vanderbilt, the tycoon.

ANDY RASKIN , whose memoir mixes in his life with the creator of Top Ramen, Momofuku Ando,

MUMIY TROLL unplugged Russian R n R from Vladivostock, on the Pacific Rim

ROVA , the revered masters of the saxophone quartet.

HAL NEWBEGIN, wildcrafter and proprietor of sage-scented Juniper Ridge.

The genial MIKE GREENSILL, at his piano today.

Please subscribe to the mailing list for full details. We look forward to seeing you at the show.

 

LIVE SATURDAY May 23, 10 AM to Noon. our 800th Show! - at the San Francisco Ferry Building, site of CUESA's San Francisco Farmers' Market -- . As for ways to get to the show, here's a map. Sedge welcomes:

MARIEL HEMINGWAY , who is advocating holistic living and simple lifestyles, including with her book, Mariel's Kitchen. because It is clean and it is good.

LISA M. HAMLITON, whose book Deeply Rooted: Unconventional Farmers in the Age of Agribusiness, depicts growers as stewards of the land and their pace of life.

SLAID CLEAVES , the singer-songwriter of uncommon grace, wit and heft.

MATTHEW AMSTER-BURTON,, the Seattle food-writer's account Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater, confesses to encouraging his five-year old to try new foods.

KARL and CARL (Michael O'Brien and Geoff Bolt, or is it Geoff Bolt and Michael O'Brien?) mark our 800th show with indelible ink on our linen shirt, with travel insights for the summer.

The genial MIKE GREENSILL, at his piano today.

Please subscribe to the mailing list for full details. We look forward to seeing you at the show.

 

LIVE SATURDAY May 30, 10 AM- Noon - "Living Journalism"at the San Francisco Ferry Building, site of CUESA's San Francisco Farmers' Market -- . As for ways to get to the show, here's a map. Sedge welcomes:

JON CARROLL, veteran magazine editor and columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, the original blogger before the name was known,

ELLEN ULLMAN, whose books include The Bug, has written on the world we are becoming through computers.

BRUCE BRUGMAN , founder and publisher of The San Francisco Bay Guardian.

PEGGY ORENSTEIN , author of Waiting for Daisy and contributor to the New York Times Magazine.

MERLE KESSLER and J. RAOUL BRODY, with some newspaper songs.

WESLA WHITFIELD with some newspapering songs. She's at the Rrazz room with our house pianist, her devoted roommate

The genial MIKE GREENSILL, with the Mike Greensill Trio today.

 

SATURDAYS JUNE 6 & 13, 2009

- We broadcast on June 6th and 13th from The NAPA RIVER INN at Silo's Jazz Club), 530 Main Street, Napa, CA 94581, 707-251-5833, Coffee, tea, refreshments available in the lovely 'hood. Sedge's June 6th Guests include:

DEBORAH MADISON and PATRICK McFARLIN, a founding chef of Greens with the illustrator of What We Eat When We Eat Alone. We'll ask you, too!

SHAWNA YANG RYAN, author of the novel Water Ghosts,the tale of real-life immigrants' enclave in early 2oth century California,

JEFFREY ROTTER, author of The Unknown Knowns, a tale of international terrorism and water parks.

JOHN NÉMETH , harmonica virtuoso and his blues band.

COYOTE GRACE , the singer-songwriter duo

MIKE GREENSILL, Napa/St. Helena up-valley lad at his own piano.

SATURDAY JUNE 13, 2009

- We broadcast on June 13th from The NAPA RIVER INN at Silo's Jazz Club), 530 Main Street, Napa, CA 94581, 707-251-5833, Coffee, tea, refreshments available in the lovely 'hood. Sedge's June 13th guests include:

ANNIE BARROWS, author of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. and the Ivy and Bean books.

LUIS ALBERTO URREA, author of Into the Beautiful North, and The Devil's Highway,

The RHYTHM ANGELS, Celeste Krenz and Rebecca Folsom, in their American folk and roots duet.

The JULIANE BAND , the Napa-based eclectic acoustic band.

CLAIRE PEASLEE, naturalist, from PRBO Conservation Science.

MIKE GREENSILL, Napa/St. Helena up-valley lad at his own piano.

 

 

SATURDAY JUNE 20 -- a Classic from the 16 years of West Coast Live archives - Today from MAY 26, 2007. Next Live Broadcast, the 4th of July!

Aware of the fate of the oceans, JULIA WHITTY, author of a collection of short stories and a new book about the fate of coral reefs.. She also wrote the cover story of the current Mother Jones magazine about loss of species by 2100.

MAL SHARPE, man-on- the-street meets man-about-town, from the surreal to the jazz-honed, Mal knows from zeitgeist.

HELEN SIMPSON, author of the set-in-England In the Driver's Seat and Four Bare Legs in A Bed and other books, from London, with brilliant and droll insights and writing about love and relationships and children and, well, life.

MIKE LIPSKIN, a man who just doesn't take the piano out for a walk, he takes it out for large-gaited strides.

TERESE GENECCO, where BETTE MIDLER collides with MELISSA ETHERIDGE, and KAYE BALLARD dances with ROSEMARY CLOONEY, and other high concepts lead to TERESE GENECCO!

Music from the refreshed pianist MIKE GREENSILL.

 

SATURDAY JUNE 27 -- a Classic from the 16 years of West Coast Live archives - Today from June 23, 2007. Next Live Broadcast, the 4th of July!

DANIEL HANDLER, Adverbs, a lemonly non-snickettly collection of stories

MIN JIN LEE, author, Free Food for Millionaires her new novel just out

WAILIN' JENNYS, 3-part harmonies

CRYSTAL ZEVON, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, the memorist talks about her rocking rolling life

MIKE GREENSILL, the man who knows the white keys from the black keys

 

 

LIVE SATURDAY JULY 4th, 10 AM- Noon - "Independence Day"at the San Francisco Ferry Building, site of CUESA's San Francisco Farmers' Market -- .

As for ways to get to the show, here's a map. Sedge welcomes:

the Declaration of Independence, in Annual Reading by members of the theater audience.

ROY ZIMMERMAN, singing political satirist.

SOPHIA RADAY, author of Love in Condition Yellow, the memoir of an unlikely marriage, when a Berkeley liberal marries an Oakland police officer and soldier.

other sparkling guests to be announced.

STEVEN OKAZAKI, Emmy and Academy Award winning film maker, whose latest, The Conscience of Nhem En, takes us into Cambodia through the eyes of a Cambodian photographer who documented innocents. An HBO film.

VERONICA CHATER, author of Waiting for the Apocalypse, the memoir of a Catholic family which seeks a purer Catholicism in Portugal than in an Jose -- but are there ever surprises in this moving and funny account.

KATE CHRISTENSEN, author of The Great Man, and her new novel Trouble

The citizen MIKE GREENSILL at his piano which once slept in the Lincoln bedroom.

 

LIVE SATURDAY JULY 11, 10 AM- Noon - "Art in Plein Sites" featuring the new roof garden at the at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

-- . As for ways to get to the show, at 151 Third Street, here's a map.. You will be let in to the theater before the official opening, and may stay to enjoy the rest of the museum after the broadcast.