Podcasting: 5 Frequently Asked Questions for Yours Truly

On Wednesdays I run a guest-blog post when I happen to have one. This week's didn't come through. Oh well! So I'm going to talk about podcasting, my new enthusiasm. (Click here to visit my main podcast page.)

WHAT PROMPTED YOU TO START PODCASTING?
I started podcasting back in 2009 because I wanted to make available my lecture at the Library of Congress about the research behind my novel based on the true story, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire. The last prince was, in fact, Agustin de Iturbide y Green, grandson of Mexico's first emperor, Agustin de Iturbide. Because the story takes place in Mexico during its Second Empire or so-called "French Intervention," one might very naturally assume that my archival research would be primarily in Mexico. But in fact the Library of Congress has the main archives, that of the Emperor Iturbide (first Emperor) and the Iturbide family. Mexico's second Emperor, Maximilian von Habsburg, has his archive in Vienna and, though I did visit that archive, fortunately for me, there is a nearly complete copy at the Library of Congress. Anyway, I explained all of this is elaborate detail in my lecture, now a podcast, which you can listen to here.

HOW DO YOU MAKE A PODCAST?
There are many ways, and I won't bother count them, but I can tell you, I find it very easy to use Apple's "Garage Band" program. I usually just talk into my iPhone's dictation app and take the mp3 file from there. I am sure professional sound engineers would be horrified. Oh well! If I want to add music, I buy clips at royalty-free sites such as istock.com, uniquetracks.com or Music Bakery.

HOW DO YOU GET A PODCAST ONLINE?
Again, there are many ways, but the one I like to use is podomatic.com. I offer the feed at iTunes. Next year when I start up my Marfa Mondays Project, I plan to also add those podcasts to a youtube page. Stay tuned.

*****UPDATE 1/16/2012***** The Marfa Mondays Podcasts have launched. Read all about it and listen in here.

WHY ARE YOUR PODCASTS FREE?
As they say, information wants to be free. And well, many of my podcasts (such as this one), are, quite frankly, intended to help promote my books and workshops. Others are for my writing students-- a gift to them. Others, such as "Conversations with Other Writers," are just fun to do and I hope people enjoy them.

WHAT PODCASTS DO YOU LISTEN TO?
Podcasting is still very new to me. Just like blogs and youtube channels, there are so many that it takes some time to sift the (alas) few grains of wheat from the Himalayas of chaff. A few podcasts I am delighted to have found are NPR's (and the iPad app lets you put together a playlist); Rice Freeman Zachary's Notes from the Voodoo Lounge; James Howards Kunstler's; and Dr Rita Louise's "Just Energy".

---> For the complete archive of Madam Mayo's guest-blog posts, click here.

Music and the Brain

Music and the Brain, a magnificent series of podcasts from the Library of Congress. More anon.

C.M. Mayo Now Podcasting on podomatic.com

Now podcasting at http://cmmayo.podomatic.com/
Subscribe via RSS feed (free) or subscribe via iTunes (also free)

As of May 14, 2010:

Library of Congress lecture on the research in the Iturbide Family, Emperor Agustin de Iturbide, and Kaiser Maximilian von Mexiko archives for the novel based on the true story, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire.

Historical Society of Washington DC lecture on research for the novel The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, with special emphasis on the Forrest and Green families and the historic country estate, Rosedale.

More podcasts to come on this research, as well as craft of creative writing lectures and much more.

Cinco de Mayo - Pub Date for the Paperback Edition of The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire

Today, Cinco de Mayo, is the pub date for the paperback edition of The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire (Unbridled Books). Check out the new trailer as well as the Reading Guide, excerpts, genealogies, photos, my Library of Congress lecture, and much more at my website, www.cmmayo.com



This book is available from the publisher, Unbridled Books, as well as all major on-line booksellers and fine bookstores throughout the United States, Canada, and also many English-language bookstores in Mexico. If you don't see it on the shelf, any bookstore can order it for you. ORDER HERE.

Forthcoming in Spanish this fall with Random House-Mondadori as EL ULTIMO PRINCIPE DEL IMPERIO MEXICANO, translated by Mexican poet and novelist Agustin Cadena. Want news? Click here for more information about my mailing list.

Tonight at the Library of Congress: Michael D. Coe "The Kislak Oyohualli Shell Pendant: Eroticism and War Among the Toltecs"

7 pm Coolidge Auditorium, Jefferson Building, Library of Congress, 10 First St SE ADA@loc.gov

Grace Cavalieri's "The Poet and the Poem" from the Library of Congress: Francisco Aragon and C.M. Mayo

Now on-line: Grace Cavalieri's The Poet and the Poem, the radio show from the Library of Congress, interviews with and poetry by Francisco Aragon and Yours Truly. Click here to listen to the show.

Grace Cavalieri's The Poet and the Poem Radio Series at the Library of Congress

Read all about it here.

Guest-blogger Grace Cavalieri's Favorite Venturesome and Vivid Movers of the Earth

Anyone who has been lucky enough to meet Grace Cavalieri--- or, luckier still, hear her read her poetry--- knows what a light-filled soul and gifted artist she is. It is a very special honor to have her blogging here today. A brief bio: Grace Cavalieri is the author of fourteen collections of poetry, including children's books. Her latest publication is Anna Nicole: Poems (pictured, left). Cavalieri's plays include off-Broadway productions. She's also written texts and lyrics performed for opera, television and film. Her 21st play "Quilting the Sun" was presented at the Smithsonian Institution, and received its world premiere at Centre Stage, S.C. Grace teaches poetry workshops throughout the country at numerous colleges. She produced and hosted "The Poet and the Poem," weekly, on WPFW-FM (1977-1997) presenting 2,000 poets to the nation. She now presents this series to public radio from the Library of Congress via NPR satellite. Grace has received the Pen-Fiction Award, the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting Silver Medal, and many, oh so many, others. She writes full-time in Annapolis, Maryland where she lives with her husband, sculptor Kenneth Flynn. Over to you, Grace.

I chose 5 great practitioners in the arts because I love to surround myself with energy and light. When I associate with artists who are venturesome and vivid, my own dreams and desires manifest. I love these 5 guys. I asked each artist to describe his/her site.

First, I wish to introduce the work of Holly Picano, a meteor on the art scene. She says, "I capture people's feelings through the expressions and colors that I paint. I enjoy catching the flirty side of life in my subjects." And if you want evidence, click this! What I’d like to add is that Holly is the preeminent portrait painter of celebs in our country and did the portrait cover of my new book, Anna Nicole: Poems. We had a great month looking at her sketches and bantering about earrings and things. And she got it perfectly. On The Mark. So I salute Holly for bringing my Anna to life with humor, style, dignity, and radiant paint. She also did a magnificent cover for DiDi Menendez’s OCHO # 12 (the print arm of MiPOesias magazine) which I guest edited. Holly’s Marie Antoinette art stunned the cover (or was it Madonna who said "Let them eat this cake?!") Check and see.

Next I present Amy King, a heartstoppingly stunning poet of the 21st century who is a teacher, Impresario of a poetry series, (readings at Stain Bar in Brooklyn), an editor with MiPOesias Magazine, and a leader in the field of forward motion in poetry. "Amy King blogs from the isle of New York, where she has resided for the past eleven years. Her posts contemplate a quirky range of subjects typically dubbed 'politics, popular culture, philosophy, and poetry,' but those headings do not truly convey her off-center take on the ethos and pathologies of the day." (And she adds) or, if you want something a little more palatable: "Amy King blogs from the isle of New York, where she has resided for the past eleven years. She considers a range of matter in the realm of politics, pop culture, poetry, and philosophy, with a zest that demands your return attention." Amy uses the objects of the world in her poetry to convey details of emotion and meaning. Her invisible bridges within the text are made of intuition, the highest form of art.

Poet Karren Alenier adds the critical element and theoretical basis for her own considerable take on the arts, specifically American opera, in her blog. Karren’s blog "The Dressing" is on Scene4 Magazine http://www.scene4.com/karrenlalondealenier/ . Her blog addresses what's underneath the art being examined. "As the Dresser, Alenier pulls out her magnifying glass and her telescope to get different perspectives on opera, theater, concerts, movies, books, and lectures. Her curiosity drives her choices of subject matter and she keeps asking and answering question in her quest to understand the value of what she has experienced poems by contemporary poets that speak to the subject at hand." Karren’s poetry is sassy, original and musical. Her specialty is Gertrude Stein about whom she wrote an opera libretto. Her iconoclastic textbook The Steiny Road to Operadom: The Making of American Operas is a necessary resource for any classroom. She is a tireless worker, a literary citizen, and a pillar in the house of Washington DC Poetry. Karren heads the Word Works, a small press publishing house presenting books and poetry programs since 1977.

And now to photography-- where the reigning king of my universe is Dan Murano. He says, "I love landscapes and urban-scapes, street photography, industrial photography, portraits and cats, abstract designs of reflections and shadows and lines, architecture and still life. I classify my work as journalistic/ fine art." By day Dan works for a national newspaper as a photo editor. for its website. However, this is the year we wait for his own beautiful books, combining visual image with poetic image. When he presents a photographed landscape, although no people may be shown, the vibration of human life is always present. His personal sensitivity provides an emotional prosperity to his photos. The material world is his playground. Let me say that photography can be transformed into feeling by the virtue and vision of Dan Murano.

Tragedy is just failed humor, one pundit said. And I say that Birdie Jaworski has made humor High Holiday and Tragedy is nowhere to be seen. Humor is one of the noblest of all arts. Her blog is www.birdiejaworski.com. Birdie explains her journey to book, "Four years ago I paid ten bucks to peddle Avon door-to-door. I was thirty-eight years old, a single mother desperate to clothe and feed her two young boys. I started writing stories the week I started selling cosmetics. I don't know why. When people ask, I tell them I wanted to remember my strange customers, the women who hid Latin lovers in their closet, the ones who paid me in pennies and pumpkin bread. But the truth was something different, something I still can't articulate. My heart pumped heavy blood, swollen red cells that carried the weight of collected memory. I had to unload it." She complains "I haven't written much lately-- I've been teaching middle school this year, and my time has been sucked into some kind of exhausting time warp. Blah! I just wanna write! I hope to figure out a way to be a full-time writer this summer. I can do it!" Well I know one 8th grade teacher with a prize winning novel under her belt: Don't Shoot! I'm Just the Avon Lady!, which every member of my family has read (Sorry Birdie, I should have bought 6 instead of passing it around.) My husband immediately put in an Avon order for some makeup for me and the hope that Birdie will write 10 more books. Her blog about being an Avon Lady, with all the mishaps and near calamities, had so many hits Birdie had no choice but to make it into a book. And we are glad she did. After reading this book, we all wanted to sign up for the 8th grade again just to hang out in Birdietime.

So these are my favorite peeps on-line... dynamic movers of the earth... and while you are in cyberspace, please check on my poetry programs from the Library of Congress for hour long interviews and poetry commentaries on MiPOradio And while we have your attention, click on www.themontserratreview.com where as editor I review books and theater, because we need to shine light on those who give us back to ourselves via their own lives in print and on stage. And if we don’t, who will?

--- Grace Cavalieri

P.S. Madam Mayo says: check out Kathi Wolfe's interview with Grace Cavalieri on "scene4" here.


--->For more Madam Mayo guest-blog posts, click here.
Up next--- this Friday--- Tom Christensen.