Andre Agassi with West Coast Live host Sedge Thomson during the show's broadcast at Freight and Salvage

Here's a challenge: what do you do Saturday mornings between 10am & noon? Really, I'm curious. Insert answers at the bottom of this page so I can destroy them!

West Coast Live broadcasts every week at this time with a new rotation of authors, live performances by established and emerging bands, the piano medleys of Mike Greensill, and Sedge Thomson's expert interviewing. The show this past Saturday, November 21 was recorded from Berkeley's Freight and Salvage, but has been known to broadcast in less conventional places. Like out in the ocean. Or from a restaurant.

Wherever they are, you can listen to West Coast Live, if you're in San Francisco, Oakland, or San Mateo, at KALW 91.7 FM, but if you're the one who happens to be elsewhere you can still catch them. If you can help it, though, try to witness the action. Freight and Salvage is one of the show's regular homes; despite the new location at 2020 Addison Street being right next to the downtown Berkeley BART station (right off Shattuck), it feels when you get inside as though you've stepped into the intimacy of a town hall meeting. The room is large and inviting, with wood-panelled walls arched into the sky and a small coffee bar complete with fresh pastries in the back. The theater seating features two basic tiers, and I moved around to change perspective, but no matter where I was I had a good view and was comfortable.

And I could hear everything, despite - or because of - Sedge's ability to control the crowd without raising his voice. Even when the audience erupted into bursts of laughter (and this happened regularly) Sedge maintained his focus on the guest(s) in question and really, although he was doing everything out in plain view, seemed to be invisibly directing the show as though in the back room control booth of a large live television production. Fun, attentive and pertinent, Sedge is somehow able to weave guests and questions in and out of a completely unscripted time frame while still reaching to get as much out of them as he can. Clockwork. And they consistently delivered.

I walked in to the first act, Po' Girl, showing off an incredibly soulful fusion of the clarinet, banjo, accordion and drums. I was actually really impressed by this band, which has four studio albums to date and can be found on tour here. Listen to some of their music at their site, where you can pre-order a handmade issue of their forthcoming album, "Follow Your Bliss." These guys are true gypsies, traveling around the US, into Canada, and even over to the UK in the next few months. Good! I think they have something valuable to share. Here's a clip from the Rhythm & Blues festival in Groningen on May 2nd, 2009:

The feature of the day was an interview with Andre Agassi, author of the new book Open: An Autobiography and, of course, accomplished tennis legend. I have to say that I never have been a tennis fan but I somehow was always routing for Agassi - even to the point of checking in on the ol' television to see how he fared. Strange, isn't it? How we can get caught in the significance of something even if it doesn't otherwise play into our interests. I was aware of his book and assumed most of the interview would be about his admission of drug abuse, but wise Sedge had better concerns, even noting that "everyone has covered that in other interviews and ... I think there are other interesting things in this book to talk about."

I'm not into sports literature really, although I'm not against it (I just read a great story in an old copy of Instant City that takes place at Giants Stadium), but from what Sedge and Andre talked about I am compelled to find a copy of Open. Recruited for help on the project was Pulitzer Prize-winning author JR Moehringer, whose book The Tender Bar gave Andre "an escape from the emotions that I was going through when you're about to stop doing something you've done your whole life. Picture that," he said to Sedge, "if I told you this was going to be your last interview: you know, it's like, you go 'wait a second, that's just not easy, that's who I am. This is what I do...'" This resonated with the audience; they could easily grasp the import of someone like Sedge - and there can't be many - stepping down from his post. There are some men who, when they stop doing what they're doing, what they're doing stops too. When people say "They don't do it like that anymore," they pay tribute to a tradition that meant something and dwindled into non-existence anyway, for whatever reasons (but usually new technologies).

West Coast Live is in some ways a relic of better times, when you could walk or ride your bike down the street and join the part of your community that was engaged in the arts around you and the expressions of others who are either like-and-a-part-of you or those who have come from 'other lands' to share their own ways and flavors, their own tinge and flourish. Wait, this relic survives! Thrives! I just -- I had myself a cup of coffee and settled in to the show and, watching not only the guests, who were all intreresting and ready to share, or Sedge, who was every bit and even more impressive than I'd heard and expected, but the crew, who is not behind the scenes and, as far as I'm concerned, is part of the show, watching them signal and organize and however assist the production so lovingly and obviously proud of what they do -- it was just heartwarming, you know, to have so many people care about what they're doing and to enjoy that for two hours and wait, O, it's Saturday now, noon, I'm in Berkeley and the world is amazing. I felt that in those two hours I was somehow given extra time.

That's my official report. West Coast Live is not a thing of the past, though stepping in front of their set does feel a bit nostalgic. Truth is, it is still done like that, is like this every week. If you haven't checked it out, please, do yourself a favor! The next three Saturdays (Nov 28, Dec 5 + 12) will all be recorded live at Freight and Salvage. Send me a line and we can go together!

I want to regale you with tales of Agassi's book. How he witnessed Pete Sampras tip a bellboy, bet on the amount, then convinced the kid to tell him how much it was:

Come on, you gotta come clean. What did he give you?
He gave me a... a dollar.
That's impossible!
No, thats not the worst of it. He told me to give the dollar to the guy who hustled to get his car.

Here Sedge broke in to reiterate how Andre's dad was a card dealer at a Vegas casino, and what bearing that might have had on his son's perception of proper tipping procedure. "Having been raised..." Andre, thinking he was changing the subject, interrupted: "Don't let that go. That's good stuff right there!" The crowd exploded. Agassi reminded me of the character Jason on True Blood (anyone?) kind of stupidly innocent and lovable. "I wasn't gonna let it go," a smiling Sedge assured him.

The interview, lasting nearly 45 minutes, could have been on someone's front porch. It could have been the crowd at a junior league baseball game, watching their favorite kids participate in the nation's most famlial pasttime.

There were other guests: The Real Vocal String Quartet, who added yet another layer of culture and class - and lord, who doesn't appreciate a good inventive string quartet, especially live; there was Jay Kinney, author of The Masonic Myth: Unlocking the Truth about the Symbols, the Secret Rites, and the History of Freemasonry, who did some of that for us, explaining that the Masons are not involved in any monetary conspiracies - he joined them in part to get to the bottom of that ruckus; and Romney Steele, author of My Nepenthe: Bohemian Tales of Food, Family, and Big Sur. Nepenthe is the famous restaurant on the side of HWY 1 that Romney's parents, as legend has it, purchased from Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles and maintained not only as the road's only restaurant for so many years, but also as a kind of safehaven for travelers down on their luck.

You don't know who you're going to see on the show (unless you check the website!), but you're guaranteed that Sedge and crew will make the most of it. Be there or tune in. For yourself. For your country, by gosh.

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• Read my review of Reynard Seifert's ZZZombiezzz and share your thoughts about literature, po-po-modernism, whatever amen.
• Read my dedication to the heroes we have as peers, with performances by Rob Brezsny. Additional wisdom provided by Nina Lesowitz, who promises you have more than you can possibly imagine right now!

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