Creators, gatekeepers, and the future of the comedy business.

A transcript of Oswalt’s keynote at last week’s Just For Laughs conference.

“Transforming into an Administrative Jekyll for a certain amount of time every day limits the amount of time my Creative Hyde can come up with content to market and sell. Luckily, amphetamines have that problem tackled as well: when you’re using them, you don’t have to sleep… at all.”

When U.S. customs law met abstract art in the form of a bird, “shimmering and soaring toward the ceiling while the lawyers debated whether it was an ‘original sculpture’ or a metal ‘article or ware not specially provided for’ under the 1922 Tariff Act.”

The life and films of Werner Herzog.

How an art project led to a visit from the U.S. Secret Service.

The director on Obama, the state of black cinema, the Knicks, the Nets, the tragedy of public education in America, gentrified New York and why he lives on the Upper East Side.

His book panned in the New York Times after being misread by the critic, an author responds.

On trying out for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Experiments in making others feel good.

On the surprising radicalism of library music – “music that has been composed and recorded for commercial purposes.”

An interview with Pavement’s Bob Nastanovich on his career afterlife as a “a clocker and chart-caller” and occasional breeder at an Iowa race horse track.

On the road with three high school show choirs and a dream.

The curious case of SpongeBob SquarePants illustrator Todd White, three ninjas, and an art caper.

A self-conscious celebrity profile.

Remembering George Plimpton’s old-fashioned style.

Above all, he was a gentleman, one of the last—a figure so archaic, it could be easily mistaken for something else. No, my father’s voice was not an act, something chosen or practiced in front of mirrors: he came from a different world, where people talked differently, and about different things; where certain things were discussed, and certain things were not—and his voice simply reflected this.

Americans learn to love themselves.

A profile of Fiona Apple.

The people behind San Francisco’s Summer of Love.

An interview with Marc Maron.

The man who made millions selling counterfeit wines.

Invented in 1899, it hasn’t been improved upon since.

On Jenny Craig’s European expansion and how dieting differs in France and the States.

A profile of the Hollywood star-maker behind Vanna White, Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy.

How Google’s utopian/dystopian plan to scan the world’s books failed and the Harvard-led team that’s picking up the pieces.