Getting Schooled

Sometimes it seems harder and harder to find anything in the media world worth studying and thinking about, or even paying attention to. What have we learned afterward? Anything worthwhile? But one thing I've found that's actually worth your time is Studio 360, a radio show on the arts and culture. It's North America-centric, to be sure, but it ranges very broadly. The show I heard today was about cuteness, what it is, how it works, really just everything interesting and enlightening you could say on the subject. At one point they were talking about how cuteness and sexuality can be blended, and the host and interviewee were giving examples—early Shirley Temple (evidently she did a Marlene Dietrich schtick), juvenile beauty contest contestants, the Lewis Carroll photos, and suddenly I had the perfect example, and I was back in college, eager to make a contribution in a class I really enjoyed, waving my hand high from the back rows, wanting to be called on before the moment passed. Anyway, if you're jaded about the media—and what right-thinking person isn't?—and you want to get the kind of charge you get when you're learning and your world is actually getting a little bigger and richer and deeper, check out Studio 360. Quality stuff.