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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