Taylor Quimby

Last week, we reviewed new experiments in spoken word with Marc Masters of music review site Pitchfork. He told us about the new spoken word album Sex Magic – a poetic reading of lyrics from the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s 1991 release, Blood Suger Sex Magik…

Afterwards, we asked listeners to suggest songs for us to “Blankenship,” our new term for reading song lyrics as poetry.   Here’s the best one we came up with.

Today, we celebrate National Poetry Month with a mix of audio craft and spoken word.  Poetry Out Loud was a band of poets which experimented with spoken word forms in the 1970s.

In 2006, Wells Fargo became the first bank to offer one-on-one psychological consults to wealthy customers. Unlike the counseling offered for debt-ridden, financially insecure Americans, Wells Fargo’s therapists were there to address emotional issues associated with having a huge portfolio. The service is becoming an industry standard for banks and brokerage firms.

The average college graduate today will walk away tens of thousands in debt, fewer job opportunities and lower relative wages than previous generations.  While some students increase their post-college chances by majoring in trending fields like science and engineering – others follow less practical paths in the study of  philosophy, religion…and cartooning.  Yup, cartooning.  

21 Jump Street sits atop the box office this week. It is a reboot of the late 1980's television hit about cops going undercover in high schools.  Turns out there are real-life police officers on the high school hallway beat, and, as Slate reporter Will Oremus uncovered, there are specific strategies these fre

Making it to the NBA or any pro sports league is an expensive, potentially dangerous undertaking with extremely tough odds.  For homeschooled kids, the likelihood of a career in sports is especially tough. For years, many states barred kids from outside the public school system from playing on their athletic teams. Now, 25 states allow homeschooled students onto varsity teams, signaling a change in attitudes -  along with more room for debate on whether and how to integrate them.

Who are the "brave" men and women who volunteer for active duty in reenacted wars? I spoke with Nick 
Kowalczyk, Professor of Writing at Ithaca College and war correspondant...of sorts. He covered a re-enactment of the Siege of Niagara, a battle from the French and Indian War, for Salon. 

Hallmark holiday or not, Valentine’s Day carries joy, expectations, sadness, and more than its share of tired tropes for just about everyone. What, we wondered, signals love in the age of digital-era dating? Synching calendars on Outlook? Downloading a marriage counselor app on your smart-phone?

Maps are a calling for Dave Imus. Late last year, his teeny company -- Imus Geographic’s beat out National Geographic, and the US Census Bureau to win the annual “best of show” award from the Cartography and Geographic Information Society. It’s pretty much American mapmaking’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize. We were intrigued by an article about Dave’s map of the United States in Slate Magazine.

Mitt Romney speaks over repeated cheers from an ecstatic crowd of supporters.  "Americans know that our future is brighter and better than these troubled times."  He also alludes to recent attacks he absorbed from his fellow candidates for his time at Bain Capital, saying, "President Obama wants to put free enterprise on trial, and in the last few days we've seen a few Republicans join him."  He made a chant of the message you've seen plastered from campaign signs and stickers, shouting "We still believe!"

Everybody is calling the race for Mitt Romney - the question now is by how much?   The mood upstairs reflects  his likely victory; supporters are dancing enthusiastically and waving campaign signs.  They're packed shoulder to shoulder in what is probably a very warm and sweaty room...  Nice and cool down here in the media room.