MetaFilter posts tagged with Interview

It's good to be the king.

Room 641-A — Sun, 19 May 2013 14:19:38 -0800

On June 6th, 2013, Mel Brooks will be presented with the 41st AFI Life Achievement Award, but this post is about his Tomato and Onion Omelette. Bon Appétit talks cooking, coffee, and career with Mel Brooks, Omelette King.

“Don’t go around asking the question, ‘Is this character likeable?’

Fizz — Fri, 10 May 2013 14:55:06 -0800

Claire Messud: “A woman’s rant” [National Post] "Over the last week, discussion surrounding Claire Messud’s new novel, The Woman Upstairs, has shifted from the book to an interview its author recently gave to Publishers Weekly, in which Messud took issue with the following question: “I wouldn’t want to be friends with Nora, would you? Her outlook is almost unbearably grim.” "It seems every cultural essayist or literary critic has voiced his or her feelings over the past few days, with most agreeing that, yes, it was a dumb question."

Podcast about the highs and lows of female childhood and adolescence.

Kattullus — Fri, 10 May 2013 07:36:48 -0800

The JV Club is a podcast [iTunes, SoundCloud] hosted by comedian, actor and SF Sketchfest founder Janet Varney. The podcast takes the form of a longform interview with an actor, comedian, writer, or someone else that Varney wishes to interview. The conversation usually focuses on the childhood and teenage years of the interviewee, who is always female, and the interviews frequently get very raw and emotional. The first guest was Christina Hendricks, and some of my favorite episodes were the interviews with Kerri Kenney Silver, Maria Bamford, Tig Notaro (who came on again), Stephanie Escajeda, Morgan Walsh, Erica Rhodes, Lynn Chen, and Susan Orlean.

"Never, ever let anybody use your gender as an excuse."

zarq — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:55:06 -0800

"Women get flustered under fire. They're too fragile, too emotional. They lack the ferocity required to take a life. They can't handle pain. They're a distraction, a threat to cohesion, a provocative tease to close-quartered men. These are the sort of myths you hear from people who oppose the U.S. military's evolving new rules about women in combat. But for women who have already been in combat, who have earned medals fighting alongside men, the war stories they tell don't sound a thing like myths" Multi-page link to the article. Additional Feature * Women of the 101st Airborne Division: "As part of Nathaniel Penn's "Natural Born Killers"—an oral history documenting the experiences of American female soldiers on the field that marks the official lifting of the U.S. military ban on women in combat roles—in the May issue of GQ, we spoke to a group of female servicewomen currently stationed in Fort Campbell, K.Y. as they prepare for deployment to Afghanistan this spring. These soldiers were assigned to the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division roughly a year ago as part the Women in The Service Review program. The program first introduced women to historically male-held roles in combat arms battalions—an experiment, in part, to make sure that they could handle it. Mission accomplished. Here, five of them talk to us about past deployments, navigating expectations, and their changing roles in the Army."
Video * "Natural Born Killers: Battle Tested" * "Natural Born Killers: Battle Ready, Women of the 101st Airborne"

Who would win in a fight? Trudy or Annie?

The Whelk — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:11:03 -0800

Paul F. Tompkins and Allison Brie talk Community and Mad Men and then they create unsexy gifs and imitate various internet memes.

Leo just kept ingesting sweet crap

The Whelk — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 09:06:07 -0800

Dan Goodbaum edits together selected excerpts from Elvis Mitchell's interview with Quentin Tarantino about the role of food as a indicator of power in his movies (full interview here). Grantland's 20 Best Tarantino Food Scenes

Killing Is Harmless

empath — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 23:59:26 -0800

We have made the act of killing and shooting so fun, but we’ve also taken the importance out of it by piling so much of it in. You don’t ever have to think about the concept of pulling a trigger, because even if you run out of bullets, we’re going to give you so many more bullets! So many more people to shoot! In fact, even if all the people in the game aren’t enough, we’re gonna give you Horde mode! You can kill people until you can’t kill them anymore!

The writers of the controversial Far Cry 3 and Spec Ops: The Line discuss the past, present and future of FPS's. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

"Tell them what really happened, Sting."

escabeche — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 14:35:13 -0800

A joint interview with the Police from April 2000. A career-spanning reminiscence rich with bickering, musical insights, and curse words. Copeland: In 'Wrapped Around Your Finger' there's the classic line where he goes, "things they would not teach me of in college." Sting, I just want to say, I went to college and learned all this Jungian shit. It's just Psych 101. It had no mystique for me at all. Sting: You explain it then, Stewart. Copeland: 'Synchronicity' is about the overall unconscious that binds us together. If I wear a red tie and you happen to wearing a red tie, it isn't a coincidence, it's because we have this bond that goes beneath the outer surface. Something we can't even measure, but it's there. And that's Psych 101. Revolver: Sting, you want comment here? Sting: No, no, I'm a simple man. A simple man in my huge Tuscan villa, so piss off.

David Frost interviews Paul McCartney

HuronBob — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 20:41:32 -0800

Paul McCartney interviewed by David Frost. "Paul McCartney, one of the most famous musicians of all time, rose to prominence 50 years ago as part of the British pop sensation The Beatles. From humble, working-class beginnings, McCartney, 70, is now one of the richest men in the world. He has even topped the bill at the White House, playing for US President Barack Obama. In this episode, he sits down with Sir David for a full hour to tell Frost Over the World his own story of the band, and its break up; to discuss some of the highs - and a few lows - of his life; and to provide a glimpse into his world behind the headlines."

“I never attacked anyone weak."

Rustic Etruscan — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 09:45:52 -0800

Cult writer Renata Adler, whose novel Speedboat has been reissued by NYRB Classics, sits down for an interview with The Believer. New York Review Books has also republished Adler's novel Pitch Dark. Speedboat reviewed in Slate. Adler remembered on the New Yorker's Page-Turner blog. Renata Adler previously.

Godwin on Godwin

vidur — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:18:29 -0800

"Relatives don’t really show me any examples, but there was a point where my daughter, who is about to turn 20, when she was in her early teens, she thought it was a hoot when she was mad at me to compare me to Hitler. She’d look at me with a very mischievous look and say, 'You know, you’re acting just like Hilter.'"

"When I say this, it should mean laughter, not poison."

Rory Marinich — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 04:14:35 -0800

"Naming restricts. Once restricted, it’s easy to be judged and punished. Identity is more subtle, more liquid, I hope." An interview with Richard Siken, a poet whose work is easy, entertaining even, yet ferocious as all hell. If you're new to Siken, Scheherazade is a short introduction to the man and his style. You Are Jeff is a prose poem in twenty-six short, brutal chapters. Litany in Which Certain Things Are Crossed Out is one of his best: "You get magic gloves! A fish that talks! You get eyes like flashlights! / What more do you want? / I make you pancakes, I take you hunting, I talk to you as if you're / really there." He also paints.

You've Come a Long Way, Baby...?

Miko — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:34:25 -0800

Makers: Women Who Make America is a sweeping 3-hour documentary of the movement for women's equality in the last half of the twentieth century. Airing this month on US public television, it's accompanied by an online archive of videos of interviews with individual women in leadership across a variety of fields. Leaders and activists, celebrities and pioneers, and everyday women retell the story of their awakening, organizing, and world-changing efforts.

there was seldom a point when he wasn't drinking

Rory Marinich — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 10:50:20 -0800

"Dan hates himself; he also worships himself, and the fact that 90 people will come to every show that we do, and they'll love him — I think it's an experiment in finding out whether or not those people are being sincere. 'Do they really like me, or do they like the idea of me? Am I good person? What if I came out onstage and didn't do a show? What if I just rapped about fucking your mother? What if I didn't do anything? What if I took my shirt off, and I'm fat? What if I go off my diet? What if my girlfriend came out and told you I called her a c---? Would you still like me?'" Dan Harmon and Life After 'Community'

Noisey British Masters

juiceCake — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 10:52:04 -0800

Noisey's feature British Masters features interviews by John Doran with Bryan Ferry, Luke Haines, Gary Newman, and Johnny Marr, thus far.

The Lafcadio Hearn of Our Time

Ice Cream Socialist — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 11:20:51 -0800

Donald Richie , American author, journalist, critic and expert on Japan, dies at 88.

Smilingly excluded here in Japan, politely stigmatised, I can from my angle attempt only objectivity, since my subjective self will not fit the space I am allotted . . . how fortunate I am to occupy this niche with its lateral view. In America I would be denied this place. I would live on the flat surface of a plain. In Japan, from where I am sitting, the light falls just right – I can see the peaks and valleys, the crags and crevasses.

-- from The Japan Journals, 1947-2004

Interviews with Mr. Richie from 2009 and from 2001. previously

The Black Community cannot afford the luxury of ... that subject

Scientist — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 17:49:52 -0800

In which Neil deGrasse Tyson is asked a simple interview question and responds with a powerful story of perseverance and epiphany in the face of institutional bias and the intra-racial pressures which once pushed him to abandon his dream of becoming an astrophysicist.

Why should women accept this picture of a half-life, instead of a share?

infini — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 08:49:14 -0800

Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, which turns 50 next month, transformed the lives of women across America. ... Gail Collins, author and columnist for the New York Times, wrote the introduction to the 50th anniversary edition of The Feminine Mystique. Collins may be best known for her sharp and witty voice on the Times's Op-Ed page. In 2001, she became the first woman to serve as Editorial Page Editor for the New York Times, a post she held until 2007. Collins grew up in the kind of "typical" suburban household Friedan described. But The Feminine Mystique, released when Collins was in college, sparked the second wave of feminism and shaped the landscape Collins would enter into. An Interview with Collins about her own experiences, childcare, the rise of female breadwinners, and what she sees for women in the future.

I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Poe.

entropone — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 08:24:48 -0800

After a few weeks of well-reported rumors that Lance Armstrong was going to confess, he publicly admitted to years of doping in the first of a two-part interview with Oprah Winfrey. The NYTimes called it "a confession without an explanation". Bicycling Magazing breaks down what he did and didn't say. And the ever well-versed Bonnie D. Ford said, "Beware the sudden conversion." Betsy Andreu, who had been hounded and harassed by Armstrong for years for reporting that he heard him admit to PED use to a doctor in 1996, was angry at Armstrong's avoiding the topic. Of course, his reticence could be due to significant legal problems surrounding confession, perjury, and a federal whistleblower lawsuit against him. What do the fans say? Twitter was blazing. Part I can be seen on Youtube links. Part II airs tonight at 9PM EST on the OWN, available streaming on the internet.

Start with a kiss to break the tension?

greenhornet — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 21:21:14 -0800

Russell Brand Interviewed by Marlena Katene. Marlena Katene (theaacjournalist) also does a range of interviews with all sorts of comedians and celebrities.

Enfant Terrible

chunking express — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 08:15:52 -0800

Enfant Terrible. An interview with the terrifying Antoine D’Agata, a photographer for Magnum.

"The problem with photography is that it only deals with appearances."

Lorin — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 11:47:51 -0800

Duane Michals: An unofficial celebration. From portraitist and pioneer of the photographic narrative [Warning: sidescrolling] to metaphysician and poet, Michals' work has done much to promote the idea of photography as an inventive art form. As a gay artist, an oft repeated factoid about Michals is that he has not been involved in gay civil rights; Michals' response to this claim is simple: "I think anybody who does any piece of art or work on a political subject is an activist. A person has to be what he wants the world to be." [NSFW: Nudity]

I would respect you like CRAZY

Horace Rumpole — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 11:21:30 -0800

For Vanity Fair's Comedy issue, the groundbreaking improvisational comedy duo of Mike Nichols and Elaine May sit down (but don't quite sit still) for their first joint interview in decades.

Beate Sirota Gordon, 1923-2012; "The Only Woman In The Room"

flex — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 11:45:45 -0800

Beate Sirota Gordon, Long-Unsung Heroine of Japanese Women’s Rights, Dies at 89: a NYT obituary relates the fascinating story of a young woman who was just the right person in just the right place at just the right time and managed to strike a blow for gender equality.

A civilian attached to Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s army of occupation after World War II, Ms. Gordon was the last living member of the American team that wrote Japan’s postwar Constitution. Her work — drafting language that gave women a set of legal rights pertaining to marriage, divorce, property and inheritance that they had long been without in Japan’s feudal society — had an effect on their status that endures to this day. “It set a basis for a better, a more equal society,” Carol Gluck, a professor of Japanese history at Columbia University, said Monday... “By just writing those things into the Constitution — our Constitution doesn’t have any of those things — Beate Gordon intervened at a critical moment. And what kind of 22-year-old gets to write a constitution?” If Ms. Gordon, neither lawyer nor constitutional scholar, was indeed an unlikely candidate for the task, then it is vital to understand the singular confluence of forces that brought her to it: Had her father not been a concert pianist of considerable renown; had she not been so skilled at foreign languages; and had she not been desperate to find her parents, from whom she was separated during the war and whose fate she did not know for years, she never would have been thrust into her quiet, improbable role in world history.

*on Wikipedia *The Story of Beate Sirota, a transcript of a 1999 Nightline interview *About Beate Sirota Gordon at the site for the film The Gift From Beate (Japan, 2004) *The Japan Times - Film depicts Japan's gender equality strife: Written by American woman, Article 24 now seen under LDP threat (link via Shakesville) *The Jewish Daily Forward - Beate Sirota Gordon Dies at 89: Asia Arts Expert Pushed for Japanese Women's Rights *Asia Society - Remembering 'Iconic' Beate Sirota Gordon, 1923-2012; includes two YouTube videos of Gordon speaking in 2007 and 2011 *Shinya Watanabe - Beate Sirota Gordon; includes photos (link via Hoyden about Town)

The Year Of Horsey Dancing In The Background

The Whelk — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 09:31:24 -0800

2012's Best News Bloopers