Saturday Morning for Saturday 30 January 2010
Guest details for Saturday Morning 30 January 2010
8:30 Nina Fedoroff
Dr Nina V. Fedoroff is Evan Pugh Professor of Biology and Willaman Professor of Life Science at Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on the molecular biology of plant genes, particularly the response of plants to stressful environments, and she is the author of the 2004 book, Mendel in the Kitchen: a Scientist's View of Genetically Modified Food (National Academies Press, ISBN: 9780309092050). In 2007, Dr Fedoroff was appointed as Science and Technology Adviser to then US Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, a position she still holds for the current Secretary, Hillary Rodham Clinton; she is also Science and Technology Adviser for the US Agency for Independent Development. Dr Fedoroff visited New Zealand for the New Zealand-US Joint Commission Meeting, Global Challenges, hosted by the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, and to give a public lecture, Rethinking Agriculture in a Changing Climate, co-hosted by The University of Auckland's Faculty of Science and Plant & Food Research.
8:45 Lucien Johnson
Multi-instrumentalist and composer Lucien Johnson spent three months last year in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, as a guest of the French Cultural Institute of Haiti, working on Zannimo Late, a musical version of George Orwell's Animal Farm, at the Festival des Quatre Chemins, Haiti's only theatre festival. The play was performed by 17 Haitian actors and musicians who formed part of the Pye Poudre Cultural Centre, destroyed in the recent earthquake. Johnson has organised a fundraising concert providing direct aid for victims of the earthquake, at Wellington's San Francisco Bathhouse on Thursday 4 February from 8:30pm, featuring Harbour City Electric, The Yoots, The Orchestra of Spheres, Big Boxman and Johnson's own quintet, Lucien Johnson and the Baron Samedi. Donations can also be made through the Alliance Française de Wellington.
9:05 Philip Hoare
Philip Hoare has written biographies of Noel Coward and aesthete Stephen Tennant, and histories of the military hospital at Spike Island, and Victorian utopian sects. His most recent book, Leviathan or, The Whale (Fourth Estate, ISBN: 9780007230143), won the 2009 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction. Hoare wrote and presented the BBC Arena documentary The Hunt for Moby-Dick and is currently working on a documentary called Moby-Dick in the Pacific: The Quest for Queequeg. Philip Hoare is a guest at New Zealand Post Writers and Readers Week (8-14 March) during the New Zealand International Arts Festival 2010 (25 February - 21 March).
10:00 Playing Favourites with Eddi Reader
Scottish singer Eddi Reader was a member of the band Fairground Attraction, and has since recorded seven live albums and nine solo studio albums; the most recent two in 2008: Love is the Way, and The Songs of Robert Burns (both Rough Trade). She appeared with Jools Holland and the Rhythm & Blues Orchestra in Richard Linklater's 2009 film Me and Orson Welles, and will perform at this year's WOMAD festival in Taranaki (12-14 March).
11.10 Fariba Hachtroudi
Iranian-born writer Fariba Hachtroudi is the daughter of the eminent mathematician and champion of democracy Mohsen Hachtroudi, and was living in Paris at the time of the Islamic Revolution. In 1981, she moved to Sri Lanka where she taught at Colombo University, before returning to France in 1983, writing articles denouncing Khomeini that earned her a fatwa. In 1985, she entered Iran illegally, a journey she described in her book L'Exilée (1985); she returned there legally in 2006 and 2009. She is currently the French writer in residence at the Randell Cottage in Wellington, and will be the main speaker at a public press conference in support of the people of Iran, from 6:00pm at BATS Theatre, Wellington, on 1 February, organised by the New Zealand Society of Authors and MoHa, the Mohsen Hachtroudi Foundation (Paris).
11:45 Children's Books with Kate De Goldi
Kate De Goldi's most recent book is The 10pm Question (Longacre), and she provides the foreword to the reissue of 1968 novel Sydney Bridge Upside Down by New Zealand writer David Ballantyne (Text Publishing, ISBN: 978-1-921520-02-0), Kate will discuss four books found on the children's shelves of the Christchurch City Libraries that are not widely available in shops: Marcelo in the Real World by Franciso X Stork (Arthur Levine Books/Scholastic), On the Wings of Heroes by Richard Peck (Dial Books/Penguin), The Locked Garden by Gloria Whelan (HarperCollins), and Rodzina by Karen Cushman (Clarion Books).
Music played on the programme
Tabour Combo: Chale Lanmou
From the 1992 album: Go Tabour Go
(Mini Records)
Played at around 8:45am
Fairground Attraction: Perfect
The 1988 single
(RCA)
Played at around 10:05am
Benjy Ferree: Fear
From the 2009 album: Come Back to the Five and Dime, Bobby Dee, Bobby Dee
(Domino)
Played at around 11:10
Darius Rucker: Don't Think I Don't Think About It
From the 2008 album: Learn to Live
(Capitol)
Played at around 11:40
Playing Favourites with Eddi Reader
Eddi Reader: Comin' Thru the Rye / Dram Behind the Curtain
From the 2008 album: The Songs of Robert Burns (Deluxe Edition)
(Rough Trade)
Played at around 10.20
Kate & Anna McGarrigle: Talk to Me of Mendocino
From their 1975 debut album: Kate & Anna McGarrigle
(Warner)
Played at around 10:25
Elvis Presley: Pocket Full of Rainbows
From the original soundtrack to the 1960 film: G.I. Blues
(RCA Victor)
Played at around 10:40
Eddi Reader: Never Going Back Again (Queen of Scots)
From the 2008 album: Love is the Way
(Rough Trade)
Played at around 10:50
Edith Piaf: La Vie En Rose
The 1946 song from the 1994 compilation album: L'Immortelle
(EMI)
Played at around 10:55
Studio operators
Wellington engineer: Carol Jones
Pre-record engineers: Kevin Golding, Marc Chesterman, Phil Swallow