Episode 85: Midsummer Music

Michael and Jessica both love musical theater, and one day they hope to sing an entire episode of the Observatory.

For now, here’s an episode about many kinds of music they like and how they listen.

Mentioned this week:

The Band’s Visit
2013 Tony Awards opening with Neil Patrick Harris
Itzhak Perlman plays theme from "Schindler's List"
The Cinematic Orchestra plays Austin Peralta, Lapis
Alfred Newman, Airport
David Shire, The Taking Of Pelham One-Two-Three
Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire, Cyrano
Adweek on Adrian Shaughnessy’s Graphic Design on the Radio
Swing Out Sister, Live In Tokyo (2005)
Talking Heads, Once in a Lifetime
Natalie Walker, New York, 7 Days With the Most Talented Theater Teens in the Country: Inside The Jimmy Awards
Agnes Obel

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Posted in: Music , The Observatory

Michael Bierut studied graphic design at the University of Cincinnati, and has been a partner in the New York office of Pentagram since 1990. Michael is a Senior Critic in Graphic Design at the Yale School of Art.

Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer and writer. A former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Eye and Communications Arts magazine, she is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale and a recent laureate of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame. Jessica received both her BA and MFA from Yale University where she has taught since 1994. In 2013, she won the AIGA medal.

More from Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand

Episode 127: Fear and Longing
Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters; Hrishi Hirway and Mike Errico; The Quiz Broadcast; Shakespeare and Co. Project

Episode 126: Screens and Dreams
Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration; Unorthodox; My Brilliant Friend; The Affair; Anil Dash on the dangers of social media; Anna Wiener on Silicon Valley; quarantine dreams

Episode 125: Zoom Aesthetics
Zoom aesthetics and COVID-19; Kyle Chayka on minimalism; Deborah Berke on shared spaces; Jessica Salfia’s poem “The First Lines of Emails I’ve Received While Quarantining”; Megan O’Grady on artistic recluses

Episode 124: That Thing You Do
Making art and design during the COVID-19 pandemic; Christoph Niemann and Daniella Zalcman; Adam Schlesinger; spec scripts for Larry David

Episode 123: Closing Doors, Opening Doors
Looking at COVID=19: Flattening the curve, Washington Post designers Harry Stevens on visualizing social distancing, Alissa Walker on how dots are people, Stephen Sondheim at 90

Jobs | November 14