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Post-Tokyo high

Monday, November 24, 2008

Last night I visited the new highrise called Tokyo Midtown, which is the tallest building in the city and on its lower floors contains -- thanks to vast swaths of wood, elaborate lighting, and other beyond-the-call-of-duty architectural and furnishing details -- the most convincingly, tastefully luxurious shopping mall I've ...

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New Amsterdam, New Paris

Saturday, November 22, 2008

By Kurt Andersen

I will probably never be an expatriate. But that doesn't mean I don't fantasize in every foreign city I visit about which neighborhood I'd live in. In Tokyo, I think it'd probably be on the Naka-meguro canal, a quiet, Amsterdamish stretch of just-hip-enough gentility only two subway stops from the ...

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Tokyo Confidential

Thursday, November 20, 2008

By Kurt Andersen

As we walked down one of the narrow side streets of the Times Square-ish entertainment district around the Shibuya train station, past swank rock clubs and 'love hotels,' we came upon an unlit, grimy, highly decorative stone-and-stucco facade that looked to be from the first third of the 20th century -- an ...

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Sun(glasses) King

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

By Kurt Andersen

I knew about otaku, the term for Japanese obsessively interested in particular cultural artifacts -- particular kinds of anime, arcade video games, 1950s L.A. jazz, whatever. But I had no idea how deep and odd the obsessions ran until today.

As I was wandering through the neighborhood of ...

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I saw the light in Naoshima

Sunday, November 16, 2008

By Kurt Andersen

You'd think that a New Yorker wouldn't succumb easily to urban claustrophobia. But when I finally got to the fields and mountains of rural southern Japan -- three trains and four hours later -- the sense of relief and calm I felt were palpable. I was making a pilgrimage to ...

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Kawaii Kurt

Thursday, November 13, 2008

By Kurt Andersen

The motto of a fictional character of mine was All Cliches Are True. As I was reminded twice, spectacularly, during my first full day in Tokyo.

Of course I knew about the (cliche of the) Japanese schoolgirl subculture, and its devotion to cuteness, uniformity, pinkness, intense girl-to-girl friendliness, technology, and ...

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Richard Serra Reviewed

Friday, June 01, 2007

By Kurt Andersen

New York, NY —

Early in his career the sculptor Richard Serra was ridiculed for his mammoth metal sculptures. He's gone on to become one of the most influential sculptors of our time. Starting this Sunday, The Museum of Modern Art is launching a retrospective of his work.

Studio 360's ...

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Re-Branding Christmas

Friday, December 22, 2006

By Kurt Andersen

New York, NY —

WNYC's Kurt Andersen has also been thinking about how to re-make Christmas.

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Commentary: Idaho Dynamite

Saturday, April 23, 2005

All of us are tempted and sometimes give in to the temptation to indulge in stereotypes of unfamiliar places and people, instead of really knowing and experiencing them.

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Bob's Secret

Friday, April 16, 2004

By Kurt Andersen

New York, NY —

Advertisers use celebrities to hawk their products on TV all the time. But Studio 360's Kurt Andersen is still getting over the shock of seeing a musicial legend during the commercial break.

Read the entire commentary on Studio 360's website

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Defying Formula

Thursday, November 14, 2002

Kurt Andersen applauds the odd artistic career choice, whether it's Tom Hanks as a hitman or Ang Lee as a Hollywood blockbuster director.

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Plans for the Former WTC Site

Friday, October 05, 2001

By Kurt Andersen

New York, NY —

New Yorkers are already debating what should happen next at the site. Studio 360's Kurt Andersen has this look at what architects, critics and people on the street are thinking.