Ukrainian musician and engineer, Oleg Berg, has started an internet trend altering popular hit songs from their major or minor chords to the opposite and thus changing the song’s feel entirely. NPR looks at this trend and the broader issue of how the human brain processes music and the emotional cues presented by a major or minor key. Listen to the full story here.
I’ll admit, I was late to the Harlem Shake phenomenon. A 30-second video where one person dances to a dubstep beat surrounded by people seemingly going about a task not paying attention, then 15 seconds in the video cuts to everyone dancing with obscure costumes and props. Here NPR speaks with Jay Smooth, Harlemite and host of the hip-hop video blog Ill Doctrine, about the origin of the Harlem Shake and how it has evolved into the popular meme.
Also worth a read: Long Before the Harlem Shake, We Did the Shimmy
I don’t think I’ve ever ordered a “secret” item before…but am I really missing out? 8 patties, really?!
NPR reveals the latest restaurant to go hidden.
In & Out is probably the best known “secret menu” fast food restaurant
For your curiosity:
18 Secret Menu Items [via Business Insider]
The Best Hidden Menus [via Ranker]
The monumental British documentary series, 7 UP, first followed 14 seven-year-olds from varying economic backgrounds in 1964 – and has continued checking in every seven years thereafter. This year marks the 7th follow up, the cute and candid 7-year-olds are now 56…and after 49 years, the personalities and social statuses haven’t skewed much.
Fresh Air’s Terry Gross spoke with the director, Michael Apted, and one of the 14 subjects, Nick Hitchon, on their experience with the series and thoughts on the latest installment. Listen to the interview here.
“[T]he idea was that we would get some 7-year-old children from different backgrounds — from rich backgrounds, from poor backgrounds, from rural backgrounds … and have them talk about their lives … and see whether that told us anything. And of course it did, because it was both very funny and also chilling, showing that, in fact, the class system was very active, and that people in certain backgrounds had a real vision of their future, and others really didn’t know what day it was.”
Also worth reading:
○ They Grow Up, but They Remain a Lifetime Pursuit [NY Times]
○ What “56 UP” Reveals [New Yorker]
Fifty years after Where the Wild Things Are, beloved children’s author Maurice Sendak has a new book, even though he passed away last year. Morning Edition spoke with Tony Kushner, long time friend of Sendak, about My Brother’s Book. A touching conversation about Sendak, his last work, and the meanings behind so many of our favorite stories.
“There’s a lot of consuming and devouring and eating in Maurice’s books. And I think that when people play with kids, there’s a lot of fake ferocity and threats of, you know, devouring, because love is so enormous, the only thing you can think of doing is swallowing the person that you love entirely.”
![Published posthumously, Maurice Sendak's My Brother's Book combines poetry and art in an elegy to Sendak's brother. [npr.org]](https://hearditonnpr.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/maurice.jpg)
Published posthumously, Maurice Sendak’s My Brother’s Book combines poetry and art in an elegy to Sendak’s brother. [npr.org]
In Kentucky, two young ad execs are advocating for this new state slogan:
![[npr.org/KentuckyForKentucky]](https://hearditonnpr.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/kentucky.png)
Proposed new state slogan
[npr.org/KentuckyForKentucky]
Read more here.
Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice is celebrating it’s 200th birthday. The BBC naturally had lots of coverage, which brought my attention to Austenland, a rom com/mockumentary about a young woman obsessed with Pride & Prejudice. Watch the movie trailer and Sundance review here.
Austenland
Happy 200th Pride & Prejudice!
• Also worth reading: “Janeites: The curious American cult of Jane Austen” [BBC]
• The Real Jane Austen, book review. [Fresh Air]
A day behind, but still worth sharing. Smithsonian Magazine writer Megan Gambino recently wrote about Lincoln’s menu for his second inaugural ball – which ended in some-what of a food fight. Listen to the NPR story here.
“The floor of the supper room was soon sticky, pasty and oily with wasted confections, mashed cake, and debris of fowl and meat…”
![Menu for Lincoln's 2nd inaugural ball, March 6, 1865 [Smithsonian Institution / NPR.org]](https://hearditonnpr.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/lincoln-menu.jpg)
Menu for Lincoln’s 2nd inaugural ball, March 6, 1865 [Smithsonian Institution / NPR.org]
5 interesting factoids about the inauguration that will surely help strengthen your Trivial Pursuit game.
And from ABC news, “12 surprising facts about Inauguration.” (quite fascinating, actually)
![[MPI/Getty Images]](https://hearditonnpr.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/inauguration.jpg)
[MPI/Getty Images]
I heard it on NPR 