Take a Trip to Space on a Tiny Balloon

This summer, Luke Geissbuhler, the cinematographer behind the mokumentary-style movie Bruno and the upcoming film The Virginity Hit, masterminded a very different kind of movie.  With nothing more than a weather balloon, an HD camera and a GPS device, Gessbuhler and his 9-year old son created a homemade spacecraft and set out to capture its journey [...]

Read Full Post »

I Am Sitting in a Video Room

In 1969, experimental composer Alvin Lucier designed a simple project with a not-so-simple intention.   He sat in a room and made a short recording of his voice, which he then played back into the same room and re-recorded.  Lucier then re-recorded the re-recording, and repeated this process over and over again, making copies of copies [...]

Read Full Post »

OK Go Out-Goldbergs Rube Goldberg

Finally, a YouTube time-suck guaranteed to delight you with repeated viewings.  If, by the end, your jaw is not scraping the floor, you will be sporting an ear-to-ear smile of gee-whiz amazement. The band OK Go made viral video history back in 2006 with their goofy treadmill choreography. For one of their new tunes, “This [...]

Read Full Post »

Echoes of Gekko

The sequel to Oliver Stone’s 1987 film Wall Street is set to be released this spring, and Michael Douglas is back as the deliciously unctuous Gordon Gekko.  [Update - 3/11: The film’s release date has been pushed back to September.] My favorite part of the trailer (posted below) is when a prison guard, returning Gekko’s [...]

Read Full Post »

Ladies and Gentlemen…

Greetings from Studio 360′s home base in New York City! After weeks of listening to tape and mixing (and remixing) our stories, we’re proud to post the first sounds of our trip to Japan. On this past week’s show, we broadcast an interview with the writer Pico Iyer in Nara Park (remember Bad Bambi?), a [...]

Read Full Post »

Design for the (Japanese) World: Vol. 2

More great design solutions that I wish we could bring back with us to the US: ITEM 1: Say you’re shopping in a department store with your toddler and you need to go to the bathroom… where do you stick the kid? TOTO, maker of the world’s most amazing (and complex) toilets offers another great [...]

Read Full Post »

Meanwhile, back at Studio 360…

Kurt Andersen and most of the staff are in Japan. Who’s minding the shop?

Read Full Post »

Revenge of the nerds

Holy Geekdom! The DENPA party Sunday night was euphoric. Two floors full of happy nerds, dressed up as their favorite manga/anime/computer game characters, dancing to extremely loud computer game music, drinking, smoking and taking pictures of each other in studied poses. Takero Mimura, one of the producers of the night said that these parties are [...]

Read Full Post »

Kurt, Pico, and Bambi

Yesterday the whole team was in Nara (30 minutes by train from Kyoto) to meet with the writer Pico Iyer — we’ve turned to him several times on the show for his keen, beautifully expressed observations of life in various corners of the world. Pico first came to Japan 20 years ago — and although [...]

Read Full Post »

Street festival for drummers, breakdancers

On the streets of Shibuya today: drum circles, drumming lessons, and breakdancing. We met a young radio reporter (Pejk spotted his DAT recorder) and he told us it’s the third annual Shibuya music festival, called Shibu-on. Some video highlights: first, breakdancing unplugged – to hand drums, pan flute and didgeridoo. (No patchouli or hacky-sacks sighted.) [...]

Read Full Post »