A while back I talked about pigs with Yael Grauer of the food magazine Spezzatino. The entire interview is available here as a downloadable .pdf. Yael asked some good questions that led the conversation off into a few less-common corners.
Another interview for the Coop paperback tour, although we got delightfully off-track and managed to discuss Truck and Population 485 and the music as well. I like this blog radio business. I can yap all around the country while staring at my actual (as opposed to virtual) chickens.
A friend forwarded this video of the poet Kevin Young reading four selections. Last Saturday we had a whole crew of kin over to the place for a meal that included a big ol’ tank of pork in various forms, and Mr. Young is right on the money regarding the joys of that meat (“Ode to Pork”, commencing at roughly 4:35 in the video, but I’d watch the whole thing, this is good stuff) (and catch that “B/babe” joke in there). Kevin Young will be appearing here, by the way. Based on our schedules, we’ll likely cross each other in the airport. The “Ode to Boudin” is a gorgeous thing, a poem for his departed father, the universal intersection of grief and food and joy and memory: …his sisters/my aunts dancing/in the yard to a car radio...
Thank you to Jim Fleming and Wisconsin Public Radio for the gracious reading of Coop. It’s a humbling honor to hear that coming out of the radio. And for two weeks I’ve been running into folks who’ve caught a listen. One of those things a guy never expected…and as a lifelong cheesehead, even more meaningful.