Talking doping, whales and concussions on 'Californian Radio'

I co-hosted today's "Californian Radio" with Louis Amestoy, The Californian's digital convergence manager. 

Our topics included Lance Armstrong and performance-enhancing drugs, whale sightings on the Central Coast, chatting with a California Interscholastic Association representative about a new state law requiring training in concussion awareness, and new approaches The Californian is taking to cover prep sports this fall. 

It's a fast-paced show, so give it a spin. 

(The audio podcast version is here). 

Californian e-book highlights 'Unbeaten' season

The Bakersfield Californian has just released "Unbeaten," its third e-book this year, an iPad-only celebration of Bakersfield High School's unbeaten 2011 football season. 

The Drillers' 13-0 season was the latest in a long string of titles for the state's most consistently successful prep-football program. 

Louis Amestoy, The Californian's Digital Convergence Manager, used Apple's iBooks Author program to produce the 150-page book that's stuffed with multimedia by repackaging a variety of staff-produced stories and photos with video highlights recorded Game-by-game summaries include detailed stats. by BHS staff. 

All told, "Unbeaten" includes:

• 132 photos, most never-before-published.
• 41 videos of game highlights. 
• Game stories, stats and  Californian prep reporter Zach Ewing's richly reported live-blog posts.
• Features on head coach Paul Golla and Drillers legend Frank Gifford, and more.

The 41 videos feature key plays from throughout the season.And all this for only $3.99 in the iBookstore. 

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'Why Melky Why?'

File this under Fast Turnaround: The Baseball Project has jumped on the troublesome (if you're a Giants fan or baseblal purist) news that San Francisco star Melky Cabrera had been suspended for 50 games for using testosterone, which is illegal under pro baseball rules. 

The Baseball Project, as you might suspect, is a band whose focus is on baseball-themed music. I'm hesitant to call it a supergroup, but its members do include alumni of The Dream Syndicate, REM and Young Fresh Fellows. And they're getting pretty good at not only interpreting baseball history but jumping on the news of the day. 

Cabrera's suspension was announced Wednesday afternoon, and The Baseball Project delivered this ditty earlier today. One may argue the song written by Scott McCaughey (the Young Fresh Fellows guy) is a stretch lyrically and musically, but let's set that aside for a moment. 

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