Sedge Thomson's West Coast Live, San Francisco's Radio Show to the World!

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JANUARY 1ST, 2005! (from 12/30/95)

From the Cowell Theater in San Francisco..

  • Jorma Kaukonen, lead guitarist from Hot Tuna and Jefferson Airplane.
  • Ed Volker, keyboardist from the Radiators.
  • Jazz scat singer, Kellye Gray.
  • Yoshiko Kakudo, from the Asian Art Museum.
  • Travel tips from Karl and Carl, who'll bring you their timeless tips for exploring the world in the new year.
  • Diane Hidy, as the house pianist.
  • For reservations: 415-664-9500, or Ticketweb
  • an incredible mix of music, ideas and laughter
  • www.WCL.org for current schedule information (also 415-664-9500).


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  • You can find the Brit By the Bay links here.

JANUARY 8th, 2005 (from 11/28/98)

From the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. .

  • San Francisco chef Ron Siegel of Charles Nob Hill, who battled Iron Chef Hiroyuki Sakai in the "Lobster Confront".
  • A cappella from The Bobs.
  • Surfer Daniel Duane, author of "Looking for Mo".
  • Barry Humphries (a.k.a., Dame Edna Everage).
  • imogen Heap, pianist/singer evoking the passion of luminaries such as Patti Smth and Kate Bush.
  • The naturalist perspective from Claire Peaslee.
  • Music from piano player Mike Greensill.

JANUARY 15th (a provocative show from 5/10/03)

Live show from Greens Restaurant.

  • Annie Somerville, Greens Executive Chef, author of the new "Everyday Greens: Home Cooking from Greens, the Celebrated Vegetarian Restaurant" and "Fields of Greens".
  • Scoop Nisker, a voice of counterculture radio in the Bay Area for 35 years, originally as a KSAN DJ, he is a Buddhist teacher and writer whose latest book is the generational retrospective "The Big Bang, the Buddha, and the Baby Boom".
  • Noah Levine, author of "Dharma Punx", in which he chronicles his own transformation from self-destructive punk rock rebel to Buddhist student, and the reasons he believes these two seemingly opposed worlds can coexist.
  • Fenton Johnson, author of "Keeping Faith: A Skeptics Journey" who was raised with Christian Trappist monks in the American South, abandoned organized religion, then began to reexamine faith through the Zen Center.
  • Norman Fischer, author of "Taking Our Places", is a Zen priest, teacher, poet, former abbot of San Francisco Zen Center, and founder of The Everyday Zen Foundation, an organization created to broaden the reach of engaged Buddhist practice.
  • David Chadwick, author of "Crooked Cucumber".
  • Wendy Johnson, organic gardener, fervent defender of the earth, and former head of the Zen Center's Green Gulch Farm.
  • Artist Mayumi Oda.
  • Cyril Pahinui whose spirit of aloha, musical intelligence, great ear, and killer chops make him one of Hawaii's most respected and beloved slack-key guitarists, and Patrick Landeza, one of the stars of a new generation of slack-key songwriters..
  • Music from piano player Mike Greensill.

JANUARY 22nd LIVE from the EXPLORATORIUM

Live show from the Exploratorium.

  • SISTER HELEN PREJEAN, author "Dead Man Walking", "The Death of Innocents"
  • BOX SET, music of this great duo
  • REDMOND O'HANLON, author of 'Trawler'
  • RON MCLARTY, author and actor
  • DAVID JACOBS-STRAIN, blues guitar phenomenon
  • Music from piano player SAM BARRY.

JANUARY 29th live from the Exploratorium

Live show from the Exploratorium.

  • DOUGLAS COUPLAND, author
  • SIMON SINGH, his new book is on The Big Bang
  • WILLIAM POWERS, author of "The Blue Clay People"
  • Music from piano player Mike Greensill.
  • FEBRUARY 5 at The Empire Plush Room, 940 Sutter between Leavenworth and Hyde, in the York Hotel in San Francisco. A buffet breakfast is available in the lobby for a nominal $5 price, which you can purchase there. The EPR has both banquette and chair seating, with small tables. Parking, public transport, and post-show restaurants readily at hand.

     

  • Will Durst A Burst of Durst - wry, trenchant and hilarious political notes
  • Adam Hochschild , Author, Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves
  • Hot Buttered Rum String Band CD: In These Parts
  • Guy Johnson , West Coast Live's First Poet Laureate. He was last on in November with his mother, Maya Angelou, to great acclaim
  • Martyn Joseph, New CD: Whoever It Was That Brought Me Here Will Have to Bring Me Home
  • R.J. Owens, Magician. Actor at the Plush Room through March in Dirty Little Secret a San Francisco history
  • With the Dapper Mike Greensill on Piano Tonight with Wesla Whitfield at the Fox Theatre in Redwood City to benefit the Peninsula Symphony

FEBRUARY 12

From the SF MOMA 3rd Street, San Francisco. Admission to the museum, featuring the ROBERT BECHTLE exhibit opening today, after the broadcast included in ticket price.

FEBRUARY 19

From The Starlight Room, 21st floor, Sir Francis Drake Hotel. Our first time in this venue, with a beautiful view, so important in radio....Coffeee, pastries and so on available at the coffee cart in the lobby.

FEBRUARY 26

From the new Empire Plush Room 940 Sutter Street, San Francisco

 

MARCH 5

'The Great Outdoors' indoors at the new Empire Plush Room 940 Sutter Street, San Francisco

MARCH 12

'The Boogie O'Woogie' show at the new Empire Plush Room 940 Sutter Street, San Francisco

MARCH 19

'Leap of Faith' show at the new Empire Plush Room 940 Sutter Street, San Francisco

  • ANNE LAMOTT author of PLAN B: FURTHER THOUGHTS ON FAITH
  • TOM REISS, the author of The Orientalist,
  • THEODORE BIKEL, singer, actor, raconteur
  • OMAR FARUK TEKBILEK, Turkish musician and nominee for BBC World Music Award - Middle East category
  • CHRIS BATY author of No Plot? No Problem! with winner of the WCL fiction writing contest
  • KIM DOWER , a.k.a. Kim-from-LA, media consultant who'll advise the winner of the contest.
  • Harmonica lessons on-the air with harmonicas for the first 65 in the audience, led by REV. SAM BARRY, who also is our house pianist today as Mike Greensill is playing with his Trio at the EM Bistro-Corky's Jazz Room in Beverly Hills this week. Sam Barry, understudy for Mike Greensill, offers piano and harmonica lessons.

APRIL 23, 2005 from April 17, 2004

from The 12 Galaxies. (Except on KALW -- see below)

  • Surf Coasters (Surf Music from Japan)
  • Roger McGuinn, guitarist, The Byrds
  • David Sanger & John Hart, authors, "San Francisco Bay"
  • Ruth Ozeki, novelist and filmmaker
  • Alice Stuart, musician and swimmer
  • the Aquaphones
  • the luscious Mike Greensill at the piano

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  • KALW San Francisco only: excerpts from the July 17, 2004 broadcast with JACK GERMOND, LARRY GALLAGHER, CARL HIASSEN, MIKE DAISY, and OAK ASH and THORN as KALW continue with their fun-raising party this Saturday.

APRIL 30, 2005

from The Empire Plush Room.

  • ADAM CURTIS, just added: writer and director of some of the most important films of our time, often shown on the BBC, including 'Century of the Self' and 'The Power of Nightmares.' films to be shown in SFIFF and at PFA this weekend
  • PAM HOUSTON, author of stories about wild, courageous women
  • The STAIRWELL SISTERS, who call themselves the all-gal driving old-time stringband!
  • R.W. 'JOHNNY' APPLE, peripatetic NY Times editor and bon vivant now with a travel book
  • JUDITH OWEN, saucy Welsh jazz singer 'We're a melancholy people, happily depressed most of the time'
  • THE BILLS, the roots string band from Canada that plays like they're the Berlin Philharmonic. A gorgeous sound and compelling lyrics.
  • LAURENCE GONZALES, with the science, psychology, and art of wilderness survival
  • MIKE GREENSILL, the entertaining piano raconteur!

SATURDAY MAY 7

at the new Empire Plush Room 940 Sutter Street, San Francisco

  • SARK, the ecstatic, colorful celebrant of creative pleasure and wisdom
  • SCOTT SIMON, the NPR host sleeps in Saturday morning and comes visit with us. He has a new novel called Pretty Birds set in Sarajevo.
  • OPIE BELLAS , a jazz singer from the old school has a sexy voice, impeccable taste and rare musical instinct.
  • MARC IAN BARASCH, field notes on the compassionate life
  • CONSPIRACY OF BEARDS , the all-male acapella chorus sings the songs of Leonard Cohen
  • MIKE GREENSILL, the entertaining piano raconteur!

SATURDAY MAY 14

at the new Empire Plush Room 940 Sutter Street, San Francisco

SATURDAY MAY 21

at the new Empire Plush Room 940 Sutter Street, San Francisco

  • ANNE LAMOTT, author of Operating Instructions and Tender Mercies is back with Plan B
  • NERISSA NIELDS author and singer with a book in hand
  • SONY HOLLAND chanteuse on the loose
  • TANGO # 9 innovative hipness of a traditional kind. Beautiful music.
  • LIN HSUI-WEI, from "The Kingdom of Desire" - an adaptation of Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' performed by The Contemporary Legend Theatre (based in Taiwan)

SATURDAY MAY 28

at the new Empire Plush Room 940 Sutter Street, San Francisco

SATURDAY JUNE 4

at an Undisclosed Location Garden Show

  • ROBERT F. KENNEDY, Jr., EDWIGE DANTICAT, KAREN AMRSTRONG, DR. BARRY BRAZELTON, cellist Chris Yennie of Broceliande ..

SATURDAY JUNE 11

at at the SFMOMA where your show tickets includes the museum today!

SATURDAY JUNE 18

our benefit show for KRCB recorded June 8 at the Jackson Theater in Sonoma County

 

  • JUDY COLLINS, her new book called Morning Noon and Night, new CD, Portrait of an American Girl
  • KARL and CARL pitch their tent for Tips on Travel
  • CLAIRE PEASLEE, our naturalist explains the curious eating practices of the moon snail
  • FRED EUPHRAT, KRCB's forester and commentator on the ecosystem of the wine country
  • HOUSTON JONES BAND, high-octane Americana
  • Rev. SAM BARRY, at the piano, with Peter Tucker, drums and Christopher Kee, bass

SATURDAY JUNE 25th

a guaranteed classic from the archives -- -- and the back live on July 2nd at the Freight.

the show of February 3rd, 2001

at the Plush Room

SATURDAY JULY 2nd - back live at the Freight today!

at at the Freight and Salvage 1111 Addison, Berkeley, off University and San Pablo

SATURDAY JULY 9th

at at the Freight and Salvage 1111 Addison, Berkeley, off University and San Pablo.... SILENT (and not so) FILM SHOW

SATURDAY JULY 16th

at at the SFMOMA where your show tickets includes the museum today!

  • KEVIN SMOKLER editor and essayist for the collection Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times, provocative thoughts by brilliant writers about the nature and future of books and reading.
  • LISA SEE , author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
  • DAVID EDGAR , renowned British playwright who brings an astute eye to American politics. His Nicholas Nickleby after Charles Dickens is brought to CalShakes.
  • MADELEINE GRYNSTEJN SF MOMA Curator discusses The Art of Richard Tuttle, whose exhibit, opening July 2nd, can be seen after the broadcast.today as part of your admission to West Coast Live.
  • The San Francisco Theater Festival, a free day-long festival featuring a 'tasting' of the best of Bay Area professional theater on July 24th at Yerba Buena Gardens, presents the cast from the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre singing an excerpt from "Blue", a play by Charles Randolph-Wright.
  • Rev. SAM BARRY, at the piano, with Peter Tucker, drums and Christopher Kee, bass

July 23rd, rebroacast from July 20th, 1996

From Pier Half in San Francisco. A fantastically hot day, first year of Books by the Bay taking place for the ninth time this weekend. .

  • Amy Tan, author of "The Joy Luck Club", "Kitchen Gods", and "Required Reading and Other Dangerous Subjects".
  • Hot Club of San Francisco.
  • Brenda Gill, author of "Late Bloomers" and "Here at the New Yorker".
  • Harpist Deborah Henson-Conant.
  • Anne Lamott, author of "Bird by Bird" and "Operating Instructions", and "Crooked Little Heart".
  • Rock band Barroom Bookworms.
  • Diane Hidy, as the house pianist.

July 30th from June 8th, 1996

From the Cowell Theater in San Francisco. A great jam with Taj and Jim, Taj, AS Byatt and Calvin Trillin are some of the aquaphone operators.....

  • Bluesman Taj Mahal, featuring his latest recording "Phantom Blues".
  • Calvin Trillin, author of "Messages from My Father" and "The Tummy Trilogy".
  • Jim Campilongo & the 10 Gallon Cats.
  • A.S. Byatt, author of "The Babel Tower", "Possession", and "Angels & Insects".
  • Tibetan music ensemble Chaksam-pa.
  • Diane Hidy, as the house pianist.

SATURDAY AUGUST 6th from April 20, 2002

a classic from the archives. Listen and be delighted on your local station, the net, or Sirius Satellite channel 108....

SATURDAY AUGUST 13th

BACK LIVE at at the Freight and Salvage 1111 Addison, Berkeley, off University and San Pablo....

  • STEVE and COKIE ROBERTS, authors and commentators
  • STEPHEN ASMA author of The Gods Drink Whiskey: Stumbling Toward Enlightenment in the Land of the Tattered Buddha
  • WESLA WHITFIELD the singer whose storytelling from the great American songbook lifts your spirit almost the way chocolate can.
  • STEVEN KARWOSKI whose one man show Confessions of a Substitute Teacher preps us all for back to school
  • CRAIG CAROZZI author of author of The Curse of Chief Tenaya

SATURDAY AUGUST 20th

BACK LIVE at at the Freight and Salvage 1111 Addison, Berkeley, off University and San Pablo....

SATURDAY AUGUST 27th

a classic from the archives January 26, 2002

Live show at the Lucie Stern Community Center in Palo Alto. Improved audio archives on-line soon. Meanwhile, Custom interview CDs are available. Write to our producer e-mail or call the office!. Our show is the cover article in the 2002 January 25 issue of the Palo Alto Weekly. The San Jose Mercury News previewed trhe show on 2002 January 25 and reviewed the show on 2002 January 27.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 3rd

LIVE FROM A special "Labor Day Weekend" show from an undisclosed location, where we hold our own "Burning Man," a 4' high mannequin which we'll torch on the radio. No need to bake on the playa. Listen in the comfort of home. With authors Sylvia Brownrigg, Ayelet Waldman, Beth Lisick and trombonist Mal Sharpe, monologist Josh Kornbluth, musicians Mike Greensill, Sam Barry, and Mitchell Holman, Isabel Douglass and Kathi Goldmark, with discussion of preparedness for disasters, based on San Francisco's own experiences, a childrens' roundtable talk on books with several kids, and a middle-school report on current fashions with a make-over for the lucky host.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 10th

BACK LIVE at at the Freight and Salvage 1111 Addison, Berkeley, off University and San Pablo....

  • ANGELA STREHLI, the specatacular blues singer
  • DAVID ROSS MACDONALD , drummer of the Australian sensation the Waifs, is a singer-songwriter in his own...write!
  • SCOOP NISKER , one-man showing with his zen chuckle insights
  • LYNN FREED , author of the new Reading, Writing and Leaving Home: Life on the Page. Also House of Women, Home Ground.
  • LAN SAMANTHA CHANG , author of INHERITANCE, and now director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
  • Music from piano player MIKE GREENSILL.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 17th

  • A Beat Special, from the De Young Museum, with DENNIS HOPPER, MORT SAHL, DAVID AMRAM, GEORGE WINSTON and others. (from Oct. 5, 1996) Except in San Francisco, which will carry a WCL special about SPALDING GRAY during KALW's membership drive.

SATURDAY morning SEPTEMBER 24th, 2005, LIVE broadcast from the Upstage Theater and Cafe, 923 Washington, Port Townsend WA

  • live from the Port Townsend, WA Film Festival , with film stars, and Pacific Northwest musicians live from one of the great festivals of cinema. What better place to find a radio show, we ask you. You'll be welcome in the audience.
  • DEBRA WINGER, actress and ARLISS HOWARD, writer-director, whose film Big Bad Love is screening at Port Townsend, site of Ms. Winger's role in An Officer and a Gentleman. Her film work includes Shadowlands and The Sheltering Sky; his includes Jurassic Park, The Lost World and Full Metal Jacket.
  • PEARL DJANGO, the stellar Pacific Northwest Gypsy Swing band whose latest CD title, Chasing Shadows, sounds like a description of the movies, while their music takes us to that little cafe and those beautiful eyes we remember so well....
  • JIM WHITTAKER , first American to climb Chromolunga, aka, Mt. Everest
  • JIM LYNCH, Olympia-based journalist and author of The Highest Tide, a novel about the wonder of a boy for the sea during the summer that will change his life
  • THE EDGE , leading NorthWest improv troupe
  • DAN GELLER and DAYNA GOLDFINE and 92 year-old Ballet Russe dancer MARC PLATT , filmmakers of a documentary about the Ballet Russe
  • LINDA OKAZAKI ,artist, illustrator
  • ANDREW SHIELDS, piano man
  • West Coast Live goes on the Road to celebrate the artists of this great Pacific Northwest art center and our new carriage on KUOW2 Seattle

SATURDAY OCTOBER 1st

 

BACK LIVE this Saturday morning at at the Freight and Salvage 1111 Addison, Berkeley, off University and San Pablo....coffee, tea, pastries available. Bring a friend for a morning date!

SATURDAY OCTOBER 8th

LIVE at at the Freight and Salvage 1111 Addison, Berkeley, off University and San Pablo....

SATURDAY OCTOBER 15th

LIVE at at the Freight and Salvage 1111 Addison, Berkeley, off University and San Pablo....And then, because of technical problems at our satellite uplink in Chicago, it wasn't live after all. We carried on with the show in the hopes the problem would be fixed "any minute now." The problem was fixed thirty minutes after the show ended. What most listeners around the country heard was our Buddhism show from Green's of a couple of years ago. A great show, but not what we wanted to air. There's a Buddhist lesson in there. A few stations took the Sunday re-transmission of the show. We will air this show in lieu of an "encore" in the next few weeks. Sometimes you can listen on-line

  • ROBERT COOVER, novelist, short story writer, and early proponent of using computers, screens and the internet as media for telling stories.
  • BLAME SALLY , for outstanding music and writing.
  • GUS LEE, author of China Boy
  • HOWARD JUNKER , editor and founder of ZYZZYVA
  • OH MR. SOUSA! , a troupe playing at the Freight. Hilarious, marchable.
  • Music from piano player Rev. SAM BARRY.

SATURDAY OCTOBER 22nd

LIVE at at the RANCHO NICASIO in Nicasio, Marin County in downtown Nicasio...

SATURDAY OCTOBER 29th

LIVE at at the RANCHO NICASIO in Nicasio, Marin County in downtown Nicasio...

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 5th

LIVE at at the Freight and Salvage 1111 Addison, Berkeley, off University and San Pablo....

  • BARBARA BOXER, author of new thriller, A Time to Run, with a day job as an U.S. Senator
  • San Francisco GIRLS CHORUS, with sublime singing both world-wide and autumnal
  • MARTINE LOCKE, Australian singer-songwriter sensation
  • LISA RANDALL, author of WARPED PASSAGES: UNRAVELING THE MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE'S HIDDEN DIMENSIONS
  • LUCY KAPLANSKY, the singer-songwriter whose wonderful voices sets lyrics she's written from her insights to the human heart to a mindfulness in music.
  • KIM ADDONIZIO, author of LITTLE BEAUTIES
  • Music from piano player MIKE GREENSILL.

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 12th

LIVE at at the CHABOT SPACE and SCIENCE CENTER high atop the Oakland Hills, 10000 Skyline Blvd, Oakland

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 19th

the Love and Happiness Show, LIVE at at the Freight and Salvage 1111 Addison, Berkeley, off University and San Pablo....

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 26th

Thanksgiving Weekend Show LIVE at at the Freight and Salvage 1111 Addison, Berkeley, off University and San Pablo....

SATURDAY DECEMBER 3RD

presented LIVE at the Empire Plush Room in The York Hotel 940 Sutter Street (between Leavenworth and Hyde), San Francisco on Saturday, December 3rd. A Telephone Company switching failure blocked our entire transmission. We are presenting this show today (Dec. 17th) on all public radio stations that carry West Coast Live.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 10th

LIVE at the Empire Plush Room in The York Hotel 940 Sutter Street (between Leavenworth and Hyde), San Francisco with a theme inspiried by children, actual and inner

SATURDAY DECEMBER 17th, 2005

presented LIVE at the Empire Plush Room in The York Hotel 940 Sutter Street (between Leavenworth and Hyde), San Francisco on Saturday, December 3rd. We are presenting this show today (Dec. 17th) on all public radio stations that carry West Coast Live.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 24th, 2005

The WEST COAST LIVE HOLIDAY MINCE PIE SPECIAL as snow falls gently across the San Francisco Bay Area, we carry the mid-winter light to you via the cheery:

And out in town, take in "High Standards" with house pianist MIKE GREENSILL and WESLA WHITFIELD at the New Conservatory Theater through December 31st.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 31st, 2005

Sit round the Hogmany radio hearth as Sedge and Mike present their favorite moments from 2005 West Coast Live shows. No tickets available for this show. With Anne Lamott, David Sedaris, Melissa Bank, Tango No, 9, The Bills, and others.