March 07, 2008
Inspired by his new film "Be Kind Rewind," director Michel Gondry created a special exhibit of movie sets at the Deitch Projects art gallery in New York, where people can walk in and make their own movies. So Studio 360's Michele Siegel gathered her co-workers to remake The Coen brothers cult hit, "The Big Lebowski" -- starring Kurt in the title role.
(With production help from Katie Rolnick.)
Watch Studio 360's "The Li'l Lebowski:"
When WHYY's Jonathan Menjivar got ready to buy his first suit, he was nearly 30. It was for his wedding. Menjivar explores his adult experience with this classic adolescent rite of passage with Scott Sternberg, the owner and designer of Band of Outsiders. It all comes together at the Martin Greenfield factory in Brooklyn, where that perfect British-invasion throwback suit is made.
John Silber has titled his new book Architecture of the Absurd: How “Genius” Disfigured a Practical Art. When he was the president of Boston University, he dealt with a lot of building projects and he’s been known to rail against excesses in architectural cost and design. Silber tells Kurt about the first time he walked into architect Frank Gehry’s Stata Center at MIT. He sure was mad!
Weigh in: Is there a building you find “absurd”?
To see S. Epatha Merkerson be tough, just turn on a TV and look for "Law and Order"'s Lt. Anita Van Buren. But to see her smile, you’ll have to catch her in the Broadway revival of "Come Back, Little Sheba." Jenny Lawton finds out if Merkerson is a tough cookie or as nice as pie.
(With production help from Andrea Silenzi.)
According to Nicholson Baker, we’ve got World War II all wrong. For his new book Human Smoke, Baker scoured newspaper articles, interviews, and accounts of atrocities, and he tells Kurt that the case for the "good war" just doesn't add up.
Weigh in: What do you think of Baker’s argument?
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, and the Lily Auchincloss Foundation. 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. 
