Ioannis Interviewed

Fiction is something I’ve quietly been pursuing alongside the news analysis. Media is seductive in that it offers an immediate outlet to voice your concerns. But it’s not well suited to explore how relationships between individuals and communities play out against the backdrop of the larger world. And I was finding post-9/11, post-Iraq that those two realms—the personal on the one hand, and the external, which has become increasingly politicised—were growing inextricable. Fiction was better suited to explore that relationship.

Malaysian-based American writer and freelance foreign correspondent, Ioannis Gatsiounis, talks to Eric Forbes of MPH about his new collection of stories Velvet and Cinder Blocks.

And here he is too on this week's Fairly Current Show, talking to Fahmi Fadzil :

... about writing stories, living in and responding to all things Malaysian, and his most recent collection of writings ...

And notice how he slips into saying "we" when he talks about Malaysia, a sure sign of being hooked by the country.

Anyway, started reading the book today ...

My Friends on Pop TV

Have you discovered The Fairly Current Show yet?

This is a great new venture by Fahmi Fadzil and Mark Teh (both well know theatre practioners and much more), a new weekly Internet TV programme which features interviews with well known Malaysian personalities though not the kind of celebs talking about the usual kinds of things that you would get on terrestrial TV :

The show is part of PopTeeVee, a new media network initiated by Hardesh Singh (composer, producer, music entrepreneur & all-round good fler) and friends. In the very near future, PopTeeVee will also feature other channels, including a local music channel (The Wknd Sessions) and a youth/student-generated campus news channel.

You can watch and download all episodes here, and if you subscribe to the group on Facebook you will know when next episode is up.

The latest episode features award-winning journalist Jacqueline Ann Surin*, author of Shape of a Pocket, talking about press freedom and those "spiked" columns.

Previous episodes have featured Ng Sek San (our friend who kindly lets us use his gallery for our readings) talking about the cutting of trees in his part of Bangsar, Adrian Yap of KLue/Junk, on Urbanscapes, the 'user-generated', day-long creative arts fest which happened last Saturday, and Shanon Shah, musician and activist, talking about his first play Air Con (which, hurray, I'm going to see tonight!).

Watch for the PopTV sign behind the speakers in these episodes. Hilarious!

*(I decided not to embed the link on the page because the recording starts automatically ...)