Comfortable in Controversy
melanie jones interviews garry trudeau
Garry Trudeau began drawing Doonesbury at Yale in 1970. Since then, his strip has become both a pop-culture phenomenon and one of the standards of political satire in America. The first comic strip artist to win a Pulitzer for editorial cartooning, Trudeau continues to infuriate and inspire, and is considered by many to be “far and away the most influential editorial cartoonist in the last 25 years” (Wiley Miller, Non Sequitur). Melanie Jones spoke with Trudeau about politics, comedy, and what, exactly, Doonesbury means.
Your comic at Yale, Bull Tales, eventually became Doonesbury. Why the change?
…Simple Pleasures
maggie astor interviews patrick mcdonnell
Patrick McDonnell, the creator of “Mutts,” a comic strip centered on a dog named Earl and his feline companion Mooch, is soft-spoken and modest despite winning the National Cartoonists’ Society’s highest honor, the Reuben, and having his work dubbed by Charles Schulz “one of the best comic strips of all time.” His characters, from grouchy Sourpuss to mild-mannered dog owner Ozzie, have graced everything from the Marines’ Toys for Tots holiday posters to New Jersey’s animal-friendly license plates, and he has begun to expand his artistic vision to writing children’s books. His success has also enabled him to use…
Science as Humanity
melanie jones interviews deborah blum
No one can accuse Deborah Blum of being an underachiever. She is an environmental psychologist whose articles on animal testing, compiled in The Monkey Wars, were awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1992, and her follow-up biography of psychologist Harry Harlow, Love at Goon Park, was named Best Book of the Year by Publisher’s Weekly, Discover Magazine, and Library Journal. As a professor of journalism and mass communication at UW-Madison, Blum has served on numerous advisory committees in the science community and been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Psychology Today, and Rolling Stone. Her most recent…
Ballad and the Geek
hillary ford interviews jonathan coulton
A mainstream musician might have qualms about writing a pop/rock romantic ballad for a pining computer programmer (“Code Monkey”) or a Christmas song set in a dystopian robot-controlled future (“Chiron Beta Prime”). Fortunately, Jonathan Coulton isn’t a mainstream musician, and his growing fan base isn’t looking for mainstream music. A former computer programmer, Coulton’s music career is based on free Internet downloads and Creative Commons, which allows other artists to use his work. As a result, the singer has been featured in games World of Warcraft and Portal, on the Daily Show, and on its correspondent John Hodgman’s spin-off…
Split Second
dena yago interviews nonny de la peña and peggy weil
S econd Life, launched by Linden Research Inc., is fast becoming the new virtual sensation. As a 3-D downloadable client program that allows its “Residents” to interact with one another through avatars, or virtual representations, some times from thousands of miles away, “the World” is no longer limited to gaming or chats. Users often use Second Life to create virtual stores and markets where items are bartered, and with more and more advanced technological advances, even educational purposes. That’s the idea behind Gone Gitmo, a virtual representation of Guantanamo Bay and the habeas corpus abuses that occur there. Nonny de…
The Strawberry Lover
melanie jones interviews jess klein
After just seven years under Rykodisc Productions, Jess Klein has released three critically acclaimed acoustic-folk albums, had single “Strawberry Lover” debut as the number one most-added album on an adult alternative radio station, and launched a worldwide tour, including a sold-out appearance at the Fuji Rock Festival in Tokyo. Her latest, “City Garden,” earned a perfect rating by MOJO, Britain’s leading music magazine, and caused the Boston Globe to dub her “quite simply one of the most gifted performers.” Yet if not for an audition attended on a whim in her late teens, this extraordinary singer-songwriter would never have…
The Village Voice
robert brink interviews li yang
At 8:30 tonight, Chinese film director Li Yang’s celebrated Blind Mountain will screen at the School of International and Public Affairs in Altschul Auditorium. For SIPA, Blind Mountain’s significance lies in its honest look at legal and human rights issues in China. For film students, the daring nature of the film will likely be a cause for conversation. Richard Pena, professor in the department of film studies, notes that Yang is “one of the leading members of a vibrant new generation of Chinese filmmakers who are taking long, hard looks at the human cost of their…
The Tomboy Turned Dressmaker
lara schilling interviews sari gueron
The buzz around young designer Sari Gueron has been growing steadily over the past few years among independently-minded celebrities and creative city girls alike. At the recent showing of her fall 2008 collection in Chelsea, actresses Maggie Gyllenhaal and Julianne Moore were among the guests. Sari’s interest in the infinite possibilities of the dress—easily the most emblematic feminine piece—combined with a keen eye for detail and a simplistic, relaxed attitude toward dressing have made her the go-to designer for unique pieces that don’t scream for attention. In an age where many designers feel the pressure to…
Sustained Conversation
yvonne liu interviews sara arrow and daniel greenberg
In Low Library on Feb. 18, a ceremony was held to commemorate the launch of the first student-led sustainable development journal in the nation. Columbia’s Earth Institute star, Jeffrey Sachs, was on hand along with several other distinguished speakers in the field. The journal, dubbed Consilience after a book by Harvard professor Edward Wilson, came together over the course of the year and has made the publishing of student research its main goal. The Eye sat down with managing editor, Sara Arrow, BC ’10, and co-founder Daniel Greenberg, CC ’10.
How did Consilience originate? What inspired it?…
On Spitting, Knitting, and not Quitting
buck ellison interviews oliver herring
Brooklyn-based artist Oliver Herring wanted to become a doctor but studied art to avoid conscription into the German army. He took his BFA from the University of Oxford and MFA from Hunter College. Though Herring studied painting, his work spans many media. In his early works, Herring knitted packing tape into garments and furniture. His more recent projects have incorporated stop-motion video and photography, as well as the participation of strangers. Herring has invited people to make videos with him, to spit food dye on themselves for hours, to flood their backyards. He has had solo exhibitions at the…
Art/School, Confidential
alex gartenfeld interviews anton vidokle
Anton Vidokle is an artist very much interested in the way information is distributed. He is the founder of e-flux, the Web service that announces international art events and has opened special projects such as a pawnshop for artists, Martha Rosler Library and e-flux video rental. Vidokle was born in Moscow but moved to the Lower East Side in 1981. On the last weekend of January, Vidokle launched a new project, “Night School,” at the New Museum, on a Lower East Side very different from the one in which he came of age. “Night School” is…
Mother Nature’s Son
dena yago interviews leigh ledare
Leigh Ledare steps in where normal parent-child boundaries dissolve. Nearly a decade ago Ledare, currently a School of the Arts student, came home from college to find his mother had become a stripper. For the last eight years, he has been compiling a visual and textual documentary of his mother, hoping to create the most complete portrait of such an enigmatic maternal figure. His book, Pretend You’re Actually Alive, will be published in early April by Andrew Roth. One of Leigh’s video works is currently on show at the Rivington Arms gallery in New York, and…
Merrell Hambleton Interviews John Miller
This month, Barnard visual arts and art history professor John Miller has simultaneous shows opening at Friedrich Petzel and Metro Pictures galleries. They will feature Miller’s recent work—sculptural pieces compiled from found objects and plastic fruit, all of it coated in gold. In a phone call Wednesday afternoon, Miller took a few minutes to talk about the artists and criticism, the link between gold and feces, and the excesses of opera.
You work in a number of different mediums. What is the advantage to your art? Do you prefer one medium over another?
Deans of Admissions dream of prospective students like George Olive, CC ’08. When the Rhodes and Marshall scholarship recipients were announced earlier this month, Olive got two pleasant surprises—he’d been chosen for both awards. Because each scholarship is exclusive, Olive couldn’t accept both, so he declined the Marshall. Despite his status as one of the most celebrated college seniors in the country, Olive is earnest and articulate, and he manages to render infectious his enthusiasm for international energy policy. We’d give him a scholarship, too. What made you…
When a friend of mine received a nearly life-sized painting of five pom-pom-toting cheerleaders as a housewarming present, I was intrigued. Later, at Gawker Artists, a showcase of up-and-coming local talent, I discovered that my friend was in possession of an original work by the self-proclaimed “world’s greatest cheerleader painter,” Joe Heaps Nelson. A Brooklyn-based artist, Heaps works mainly in series. Aside from cheerleaders, his subjects include tugboats, bulldogs, and mammoths. His work was recently shown at the third incarnation of the Guild of the Black Eagle, a salon exhibition held semi-annually at Hochbaum Studio on…
The Eye Interviews CU’S Two Rhodes Scholars
—Alexandria Symonds Ryan Reineck Interviews Joe Heaps Nelson