August 15, 2008
As a kid, Kyle Baker was obsessed with comic books and built a career in kids’ animation working on shows like Looney Toons and Rugrats. Baker’s new book, Nat Turner, is the furthest thing from kid stuff. It’s a graphic retelling of the violent 1831 slave rebellion in Virginia. Drawn in black and white and shades of grey, Baker depicts the historic revolt with a vivid, pulpy intensity. Baker tells Kurt how he ended up telling this story.
In the 1930s Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote books about her childhood on the American frontier in the late 1800s. In the 1970s Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert starred in a hugely successful TV show based on the stories. A zillion reruns later "Little House" has returned, as a musical. The production is up now at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, and Gilbert, all grown up, has been cast as Ma. Minneapolis theater maven Sarah Lemanczyk looked into the buzz surrounding the show.
Weigh in: What TV show or book would you dread seeing as a musical?
This summer, Iron Maiden is on a massive world tour. To the despair of some fans, they won’t be stopping in La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. Ruxandra Guidi stumbled onto a diehard fan base for a British metal band that had its last hit 20 years ago.
His groundbreaking book A Pattern Language urged architects consider emotional and spiritual ideas when designing. It was the beginning of an elaborate, nuts-and-bolts philosophical system. Alexander failed to revolutionize the practice of architecture, but he inspired a movement in computer programming that affects how all of us use the Web. Studio 360's Lu Olkowski talked to the architect and some of his disciples, including "wiki" inventor Ward Cunningham.
In the last decade, Newman has made new fans writing scores for Pixar movies. But before that, he was confounding listeners with his cheerfully bitter piano songs. After a 9-year hiatus, he’s put out a new record and mixed in some politics too. Newman talks with Kurt about his career and plays live for us in the studio.
Studio 360 is a co-production of
Public
Radio International and
WNYC New York Public Radio, and is funded in part by
Ken and Lucy Lehman, the
National Endowment for the Arts, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, and
DK Eyewitness Travel. Studio 360's American Icons series is supported in part by the
National Endowment for the Humanities. Our series on creativity and science is supported in part by the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Our series on Underground Heroes is supported in part by the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. 
