Michael Bierut, Jessica Helfand|Audio
March 27, 2020
Episode 123: Closing Doors, Opening Doors
This week, Jessica and Michael celebrate composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, whose may 90th birthday events have been postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Michael talks about three precepts that guide Sondheim’s creative practice:
The first one is: Less is more.
The second is: Content dictates form.
And the third one is: God is in the details.If you heard someone had built their practice around those three precepts, would you not think they were a designer? I mean, he really thinks like a designer, which is why he’s so appealing to me as an artist.
Also mentioned this week:
- Michael Bierut, Tweet on COVID-19 visualization
- Juan Delcan and Valentina Izaguirre, Instagram, Safety match
- Vox on flattening the curve; curve GIF; cattening the curve
- Harry Stevens, Washington Post, Why outbreaks like coronavirus spread exponentially, and how to “flatten the curve”
- Alissa Walker, Curbed, Why I didn’t wait for my city to order me to stay home
- Open Culture, Ursula K. Le Guin’s Daily Routine
- Emma Steinbohel, Twitter thread on Design Observer Studio Session
- The Guardian, YouTube, Quarantined Italians sing from balconies to lift spirits
- Kaylee Whiteman responds to Laura Benanti’s #SunshineSongs Laura Benanti Twitter thread
- Laura Collins-Hughes, New York Times, Where to Celebrate Sondheim in New York,
- Broadway.com, Laura Benanti has been in two Sondheim shows
- Fresh Air, 2010 interview with Sondheim
- 92nd Street Y, 75 at 75: Stephen Sondheim’s 1971 Lyrics & Lyricists talk
- HBO, Six by Sondheim
- Seth Rudetsky — Deconstructs “Opening Doors” from Merrily We Roll Along
- Neil Patrick Harris and Theresa McCarthey, Take Me to the World — Evening Primrose
- Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters, Evening Primrose Medley: Take Me to the World
- Liza Minnelli and the Pet Shop Boys, Losing My Mind
- Werner Herzog on Chickens
- Nell Zink and Robert Walser, n+1, Thanks for the Underpants
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