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COVER STORY
Us and Them
Kurt Andersen and Azar Nafisi talk about how artists
around the world view American art and culture.
  American
Effect
A show at the Whitney Museum in New York gathered
works by nearly 50 artists from 30 countries. It's called "The American
Effect". Sarah Lilley went to find out exactly what that means.
Go to the Whitney Museum's site
View
Miwa Yanagi's "Yuka"
Go to Danwen Xing's site
See
a photo of Gilles Barbier's "Nursing Home"
View
a still from Maria Marshall's video
 Lars
Von Trier
These days, a Hollywood movie opens around the world
the same time it opens in the U.S. - but Americans see fewer foreign movies
than ever. Danish filmmaker Lars Von Trier talks about his perspective
on America. Lars Von Trier is the Danish filmmaker who directed Breaking
the Waves and Dancer in the Dark. Like Dancer in the Dark his new film
Dogville is set in America -- but it was shot entirely on a soundstage
in Europe. Produced by Trey Kay.
Go to the official Dancer in the Dark site
Go to the official
Dogville site
Niki
Caro
Trey Kay also spoke with other foreign directors and
discussed their views of American cinema and culture. The fledgling New
Zealand director Niki Caro is having great success with her film Whale
Rider. She spoke about how her opinion of America has evolved over time.
Go to the
official Whalerider site
Claude
Chabrol
We also had the privilege to hear from the legendary
director Claude Chabrol, a founder of the French New Wave. Mr. Chabrol
shared his feelings of respect, and of wariness, for American culture.
See
more information on Chabrol’s latest film, “Flower of Evil”
 Dvorak
Back in the fall of 1892, the prominent Czech composer
Antonin Dvorak sailed to New York and wound up staying for three and a
half years. While he was here he created several masterworks -including
his best known, the New World Symphony. Jeff Lunden explains that with
that piece, the Czech composer pointed American composers toward a new
style of American music.
Read
a review of Michael B. Beckerman's book on Dvorak
The
Garden of Earthly Delights
Ruben Ortiz Torres is a Mexican artist living in California.
For a performance piece, he took lawn equipment, and customized it. He
created a metal-flake magenta lawnmower that danced to music. Sara Harris
talked to Ortiz Torres about his piece "The Garden of Earthly Delights".
Go to Ruben Ortiz-Torres's
site
Go to the Lowriders
site
Go
to the Charles H. Scott gallery site
Go to a Chicano culture
site
Read about
the leaf blower debate
SPECIAL GUEST
Azar Nafisi
Azar Nafisi is a professor at Johns Hopkins University,
and the author of a critical study of Vladimir Nabokov's novels published
in Iran. She taught literature in English at the University of Tehran,
the Free Islamic University, and Allameh Tabatabai University. She was
expelled from the University of Tehran for refusing to wear the veil.
Her book Reading Lolita in Tehran, published this year, recounts her experience
teaching great books to students privately in her home. She emigrated
to the United States in 1997.
Read
an interview with Azar Nafisi in The Atlantic Monthly online
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Commentary
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Now
Playing
MacHomer. In Fort Worth, Texas right now there's
a one-man show by Rick Miller that combines two of our favorite things:
The Simpsons and William Shakespeare. Produced by Sarah Lerner of KCUR
in Kansas City.
Go to the MacHomer
website
Download this show from
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