This week on Studio 360 we take a look at F. Scott Fitzgerald’s American classic The Great Gatsby. We might not like to admit it, but Gatsby’s popularity–and its iconic status–has more than a little to do with length. It’s short (a brilliantly compact 182 pages), easily finished in a weekend. Not so the late novelist David Foster Wallace’s masterwork Infinite Jest. Jest is LONG — a bone fide doorstop at 1,000 pages — and that’s not counting the 100 or so pages of endnotes. (That’s right, endnotes…in a novel.) But for those gutsy enough to take on infinite pages this summer, help has arrived! Infinite Summer an online book club/support group launched last month aims to help you take your summer reading to the next level by harnessing the awesome power of peer pressure. Keep track of your reading progress with page counts and pie charts, and fortify yourself with encouraging words from fellow literary ironmen and women (among them, Decemberists’ frontman Colin Meloy). Happy reading!
When Studio 360 asked the New York-based design firm Worldstudio to give the gay pride flag a 21st century makeover, we had to leave a lot of great conversations out of the final story. Here’s a little bit more from the lively brainstorming session Worldstudio principle Mark Randall held with his team of designers, including Andrea Pellegrino, Nina Mettler, and Tom Koken.
Worldstudio designers present their research, and try to decide which colors and symbols represent today's gay movement
This is amazing. Especially a few minutes in when they bring out the banner with a giant Christ-like image of Michael. (See also my earlier post with their original “Thriller” performance from ‘07.) Thanks to Jocelyn Gonzales for this link.
We’re big Regina Spektor fans here at Studio 360, and so we were psyched when she dropped by the studio last week to play some songs from her new album, Far. We would have loved to run the entire interview but, alas, some gems had to be cut for time. For example, we loved how she referred to her superstar line-up of producers as her “professors”:
What did make the cut? Spektor’s ruminations about her faith — or lack thereof. Listen to the interview and hear a live in-studio performance of her new single “Laughing With.” For anyone counting, we’re pretty sure she mentions God 33 times. But check our math.
Yesterday, Papermag ran an interview with Kurt about the kerfuffle. Why mess with a beloved symbol? Kurt: “I think it’s an interesting way to make people look more closely at the things they take for granted, which is something we do on the show anyway.” Read the whole interview here.
Isaac Mizrahi reveals the winning listener design during this week’s broadcast.
Also, Mark Randall of Worldstudio and Kurt talked with WNYC’s Brian Lehrer about the redesign and its critics.
This video of Filipino inmates performing a mass-ensemble dance to “Thriller” was circulating around the web a year or so ago. Given today’s news, we thought it was worth another look. Jackson’s death adds a dose of poignancy to the bizarre spectacle.
Remember Janna Levin? She’s the astrophysicist and writer who talked to Kurt last year about that crazy psychedelic Swiss particle accelerator called the Large Hadron Collider. When she’s not teaching classes at Columbia University or writing science-inspired historical fiction, she’s listening to the sweet sounds of black holes (and no, that’s not a new band from Brooklyn). Apparently, black holes in space make sounds, and she’s giving a lecture on the discovery called “Songs from Space: Black Holes and the Big Bang in Audio” on Tuesday June 23rd at Columbia. It’s part of Amaldi 8, a conference dedicated to exploring big ideas and big experiments in science on the horizon. The event is free and open to the public, and it’s sure to bring new meaning to the term “space rock.”
No new movie, book, or George Lucas rumor to peg it to, but Britain’s Architects Journal decided this week to list its Top 10 favorite buildings from Star Wars. Sure, it’s blogger catnip: Top 10 List + Star Wars + architecture = hits from every sci-fi geek and design snob this side of Tatooine. But it’s a clever round up, including photos of some real-world buildings, in places like Abu Dhabi and Porto, that appear to have quite a bit of Star Wars DNA in them. As for me, I’m over Brooklyn and desperately trolling craigslist for an Ewok treehouse in Endor. — Michele Siegel
June is gay pride month, and rainbow flags will be flying high at pride celebrations around the country. The flag was designed by Gilbert Baker in 1978 and is recognized around the world. But what would a pride flag look like if it were designed in 2009?
The design firm Worldstudio is taking on the challenge to re-imagine a new flag for the 21st century. But we also want your ideas! Add your comments and your designs to our Flickr pool. On our June 26th show, we’ll reveal Worldstudio’s design, along with our favorite listener submissions.
July in June. We aired one of our favorite Miranda July short stories this past weekend. Then I noticed this video popping up on some of my favorite blogs. It’s from July’s installation at the 2008 International Triennale of Contemporary Art in Yokohama, Japan. It’s thoughtful, funny, wordy, and the tiniest bit pretentious. Hooray for existential art! And it makes me excited to see what she comes up with next. — Michele Siegel
Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen is a weekly radio show about arts and pop culture. Kurt and the 360 staff post here about their cultural discoveries online and around the world.
Michael Eisner says PBS should get no more (public?) $$, and--yikes--that playwrights should get rights-less screenwriter-like deals.#AIF09 2 hours ago
