Mouse on Mars spins symphonies of wet blips, bleeps, buzzes, and beats into disjointed ditties of electronic joy. Since the early '90s, the D'sseldorf duo of Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma has been composing a world within an electronic soundscape that is anything but cold. It's as if these two only fi

Abstract electronica, Bright, Bubblicious, Cartoonish, Kinetic, Pop, Smart

Crowds, conspiracies, consumer society, and futile attempts to thwart despair -- these are the trademark features of the work of Don DeLillo, a prolific American novelist at the edge of contemporary trends. DeLillo is undoubtedly an ironist, as his characters relentlessly mock their relation to

Catastrophe, Death, Ironic, Neo-ironic, Postmodern fiction, Smart, Witty

John Maeda is distressed at the state of the design arts. As upgrades in design software keep users in a constant state of tutelage, esteem tends to fall on those who master the app, not the craft. The conceptual innovations at the core of artistic creation lose out as software presents new tools to

Mathematical, Playful, Repetitive, Smart, The digital era

"I believe that we respond most and best to work in any art form (and to other experience as well) if we are pluralistic, flexible, relative in our judgments, if we are eclectic," wrote Pauline Kael, the undisputed queen of journalistic film criticism. Born in tiny Petaluma, California, Kael went

Eclectic, In-your-face, Smart, Witty