Studio 360: Cheever, Handey, Suphala

August 31, 2007

American Bloomsbury

A tight-knit group of writers live and work together, animated by sexual electricity. The beautiful teenage novelist falls for an older poet who’s in love with another woman. The pioneering feminist journalist dies in a freak accident with her Italian lover, leaving behind a string of broken hearts. This was all happening in the 1850s, when Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, and Margaret Fuller lived in close quarters in the village of Concord, Massachusetts. Susan Cheever, the author of American Bloomsbury, tells Kurt about the surprisingly un-Victorian personal lives of these literary stars.

Podcasts for the People

Remember the old museum audio tours? The big clunky tape recorder slung over your shoulder, telling you to visit the artwork in a strict sequential order? Times have changed. Today’s audio equipment is elegant, like handheld wands with no cords to get tangled up in. And because it’s digital, you can skip around easily. But for lots of art lovers, that’s not enough. The MP3 age is shaking up the form and content of museum tours, and we sent Aimee Rinehart to find out how.

(© Wilmoth Photography - www.beachbum.homestead.com)

My Nature Documentary

The writer Jack Handey has been watching a lot of wildlife shows on TV. And he has some ideas to use show business techniques to help us better appreciate the wonders of nature. With production by John Delore, and additional voiceover by Brad Cresswell.

Hoberman Sphere

If you know any kids in grade school, you know this thing: it’s made of little plastic rods folded together into a spikey ball. When you pull out the segments, the Hoberman Sphere opens up into a big ball, three times its original size. And now a big Hoberman Sphere will orbit the earth. As part of our series on Science & Creativity, Lu Olkowski talked to the designer who gave the sphere his name.

Simulation of the Hoberman Sphere deployed in space:
(provided by Paul Bernhardt, Naval Research Laboratory)

If you do not see the video you must install Adobe Flash Version 8 or better.

Suphala

At 17, this American child of Bombay parents decided to take up the tabla, the traditional hand drums of Indian music. But in Suphala’s hands the tabla is not so traditional. She stopped by Studio 360 to demonstrate and perform. Her new album is called Blueprint.

Terence Blanchard

One of many wrenching scenes in Spike Lee’s documentary When the Levees Broke

is a man bringing his mother back to the horrible ruin of her home. The man is Terence Blanchard, a trumpeter and band leader. He also wrote the music for Spike Lee’s film. Blanchard has just come out with a new album that expands on that score, and he talked to us about his experiences writing about Katrina. Produced by Reese Erlich.

Studio 360