Bob Collins
A study out this week says deep-brain stimulation, intended as a treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder, leads to a greater appreciation of the music of Johnny Cash. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Arts & Culture
Norman Rockwell’s The Rookie sold this morning for $20 million, NPR reports. Read more →
Ruth Ziolkowski, who died yesterday, is a vanishing breed in America; like her husband, she was willing to spend her life energy on a project that could not possibly be finished in her lifetime.
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Theodore Johnson III heard from plenty of people when he wrote his NPR Code Switch blog post about the racist origins of the song that has made generations scamper for the neighborhood ice cream truck. Read more →
Happiness is vulgar in Iran. Six Iranian young people have been arrested for making a video featuring Pharrell Williams’ “Happy,” a song that people the world over have used to do something similar in breaking down the walls that humanity erects. Tehran Police Chief Hossein Sajedinia ordered the arrests, calling the video “obscene” and “vulgar.” Read more →
While some people in the U.S. have been focusing on the disparate treatment of women in the workplace — specifically, the newsroom — over the last week, another inequality has broken out in the open in Europe: Women in classical music, NPR reports. Read more →
This might well be the spark that leads to the end of racist Native American mascots. This is NOT ok and something needs to be done #und #siouxperdrunk pic.twitter.com/v4vaIdlAmQ — PaoPao (@QuechuaPride) May 13, 2014 In the wake of the University of North Dakota “Siouxper Drunk” party outrage, Native American leaders have finally found a Read more →
Steve Kandell of BuzzFeed lost his sister in the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings and decided to check out the Museum. In particular, he gives a different sort of voice to the issue of the Museum also being a cemetery. Read more →
Art can provide an escape from the daily stress but it’s got its own kvetching and politics to mire itself in.
Art-A-Whirl, the tremendous northeast Minneapolis art festival, is at the heart of the discussion about whether art has to be oh so serious, and, sometimes, artsy. Its growing, becoming hugely popular and, like everything else, changes, to the consternation of some who want it to always be what it always was. Read more →
It was no surprise, really, when the hucksters and street vendors showed up around the site of World Trade Center buildings while the holes in the ground were still smoking in 2001. We don’t expect much in the way of decency when there’s a quick buck to be made. But the new 9/11 Museum that opened last week is also cashing in on the collapse, to the consternation of family members of those killed. Read more →
Commercial radio and TV will probably die off when the :15 and :30 second advertisement does. One gets the sense that the day is approaching, considering advertising’s growing fascination with docu-ads, entertaining films that, at the end, sell you something.
The latest comes from Cornetto, a U.K. ice cream company, which has taken 8 minutes to tell you that more than just the world of advertising is changing in a hurry. Read more →
Jill Abramson, the ousted boss at the New York Times, is expected to speak for the first time about her firing from the Times. She’s giving the commencement speech this morning at Wake Forest.
Watch it here. Read more →
Carl retired as an NPR newsreader a few years ago, and last night he taped his final episode of Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me. Of his many accomplishments, proving that a serious news person can have a personality may be the most important, especially for public radio types. Read more →
Each speaker tried the impossible today: finding the rhetoric to describe meaning to the day two planes destroyed the icons of American financial power in the world. But words seemed to fail them all. Things don’t fail, however. The red bandanna Welles Crowther used to protect himself while he helped people out of the buildings and which was later used to identify his body. There are wallets and shoes that are now part of the museum. Read more →
Someone’s son, daughter, wife, husband, brother, and/or sister is going to work in California today, risking their lives to rescue people caught by the terrible wildfire north of San Diego. It’s what they do.
The fire is already a tragedy that could be made much worse because of people like this. Read more →