Let’s explore limitations; they serve as the DNA of art, creation, and life. Singer/Songwriter Zola Jesus views personal, geographic, and formal boundaries as open doors. Her disclosures are as full as her heart; and she prefers her Russian Cinema as she prefers her craft — painterly, slow, brutal, rewarding, gorgeous, inaccessible, and with realism to its furthest reaches.
Murmur 61 : Streeter Seidell "Funny Sans Frontières"
Writer/Creator/Comedian Streeter Seidell (staff writer for Saturday Night Live) has some of the wisest insights we’ve heard for emerging funny people, including: what confidence has to do with comedy, the volume and value of the web-series for young comics, and how many "after parties" SNL actually has. We'll get there someday and report our findings.
Murmur 60 : Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never) "The Obvious Child"
Please...no more irony. No more post-modernism. No more hidden messages. Our head is about to explode! The work of musician/composer/creator Daniel Lopatin (aka Oneohtrix Point Never) engages our sense of love as much as he does our IQ. He is a multi-generational human resource for all-things sonic and visual; private and cinematic; high and low. Just the way we like our art.
Murmur 59 : Soledad O'Brien "I Will Follow (Follow)"
The new world requires new maps. We. In turn, need new cartographers to help us redraw the journey of the "Entrepreneur", the "Innovator", the "Risk-taker". Soledad O'Brien has reinvented these titles as swiftly as she's earned them; and, friends, she's just getting started.
Murmur 58 : Hampton Fancher "One More Kiss, Dear"
Hampton Fancher, screenwriter/architect for BLADE RUNNER both then & now, joins us to discuss all of the impossibly random steps that led us back to 2049, including: bumping into Ray Bradbury on the street, chasing Charles Bukowski down in New York, and what a Nazi officer's diary taught Philip K. Dick about empathy. When the legend becomes fact, (still) print the fact.
Murmur 57 : Harry Shearer "No Static At All"
With the passing of legendary Steely Dan co-father, Walter Becker, we're humbled to be joined by actor/writer/bassist Harry Shearer as he reflects on Mr. Becker and Mr. Donald Fagen's legendary musical progeny -- from the beautiful imperfection of Donald's voice; to Walter's insight into Derek Small's kidneys; to the value of collaborative tension -- Harry reels it all in.
Murmur 56 : Dan Le Batard "Actors and Athletes and Bears"
The lines between art, sport and journalism are thinner than ever. Perhaps nonexistent. To wit, no one paints within these faint boxes better than ESPN's Dan Le Batard. Here he discusses his strategy (or lack thereof) on all media-and-microphone-based matters...and egos.
Murmur 55 : The Blind Boys of Alabama "The Art of Healing"
Two generations of The Blind Boys of Alabama: Mr. Jimmy Carter (the group's legendary co-Founder) and Mr. Joey Williams (at 25 years as a member, the "baby" of the Boys) check-in to discuss -- the difference between sight and vision, whether or not they'd accept an invitation to sing for the current President, and if art has the power to heal troubled times.
Murmur 54 : James Jean "The Forget-Me Knot"
Artist James Jean (pictured here w/Mr. Sun) explores the artist's fear of and need for Exposure. James is a singular creator who counts amongst his collaborators Darren Aronofsky, Gerard Way, and the late Chester Bennington of Linkin Park. James likes to disappear; but we found him, and, here, so can you.
Murmur 53 : David Finkel "The Art of Hell"
David Finkel - Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient - checks-in to discuss how his time imbedded in Iraq changed his view of "war art". Why was Restrepo a greater struggle for him than The Hurt Locker? Which fantasies do war movies get correct, and what realities can they never possibly portray?
