Thieves Thwarted!

Need a hit of good news? How about this story out of Montreal last week:  a Paul Klee painting stolen in 1989 —that’s 21 years ago!—was recovered and returned. “Portrait in the Garden” (below), valued at $100,000, was stolen from New York’s Marlborough Gallery. Robert Landau, owner of Landau Fine Art in Montreal, says he [...]

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The Large Hadron Collider Is a Smash Hit

After 15 years and several false starts, the Large Hadron Collider research program has finally begun.  Early this morning, 3300 feet below the Swiss-French border near Geneva, it successfully smashed two protons at record-setting energies. “There were cheers in all the control rooms,” Caltech physicist Harvey Newman told the LA Times, shortly after witnessing the [...]

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360 Staff Pick: Fever Ray

Fever Ray Fever Ray First there was the Knife, the Swedish Electronic duo of brother and sister Karin and Anders Dreijer.  Now there’s Fever Ray. Last year sister Karin went her own way (as she’s been known to do) and formed a new band. Fever Ray’s self-titled album is full of dark Scandinavian incantations and it is spectacular. Karin’s haunting voice [...]

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360 Staff Pick: Kid Sister goes Ultraviolet

Ultraviolet Kid Sister The prize for best booty-shakin’ performance of SXSW in Austin last week goes to Chicago rapper Kid Sister.  Her first single, “Pro Nails” (featuring Kanye West), is just the tip of iceberg. Ultraviolet takes the best of high-energy 80s dance hip-hop and shoots it through a 21st century indie-electro filter: tight, fast [...]

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Asperger’s Gets Prime-Time Attention

Last week on Studio 360, we explored how arts and creativity can teach us about autism.  And last year, Kurt talked with Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic Tim Page whose Asperger’s Syndrome wasn’t diagnosed until he turned 40.  For others, it may go undiagnosed for a lifetime.  But is it possible that a character on a [...]

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Masterpiece Theater: Laptop Edition

We all know that the Internet has its drawbacks. (Why do I know that Sandra Bullock’s husband cheated on her?  Why does a certain relatives think I enjoy videos of kittens?)  But its power to aggregate—pulling material from across time and around the world—can still knock your socks off.  I stumbled across an example this [...]

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360 Staff Pick: Don’t Cry

Don’t Cry Mary Gaitskill In her new collection of short stories, now out in paperback, Mary Gaitskill plumbs the depths of her characters’ hearts and minds. As always, her insight into their behavior is spot-on.  When Gaitskill induces cringing, it’s only because her characters’ actions ring so true. – Cary Barbor

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Teatro Indocumentado

Last fall, Andrew Stelzer went to Iowa for Studio 360 to tell the story of a unique amateur theater group, Teatro Indocumentado. The group formed in the aftermath of the largest immigration raid at a single site in United States history. In May 2008 Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 389 undocumented migrants in [...]

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#1 Indie Rocker

Like Michael Jackson, Alex Chilton hit it big young, charting #1 with “The Letter” before he could vote. But Chilton was not like Jackson. His most serious effort at stardom, the early-70s Big Star, never went mainstream; the songs were too innocent, too authentically teenage – the sex and drugs was about not having sex [...]

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Cure for Cabin Fever

Rather abruptly, an icy, slushy, uncommonly frigid winter has melted into blue skies and mellow sunshine. In New York, we’re taking advantage of the thaw to head to the High Line. The High Line is the city’s newest park – it opened mid-last year – and it’s an amazing feat. It was built on a [...]

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