The life and films of Werner Herzog.

A profile of Bruce Springsteen.

David Johnson’s unrequited correspondence with Jay-Z.

Meeting Nick Drake, London, 1970.

On jazz and the hipster psychopath.

The spiritual union of Johnny Cash and Rick Rubin.

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.

A veteran critic reviews 32 shows in 30 days.

On New York City’s “Young Turks of radical urban playground design.”

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.

An ode to the MSNBC anchor.

“Good espresso depends on the fourM’s: Macchina, the espresso machine; Macinazione, the proper grinding of a beans; Miscela, the coffee blend and the roast, and Mano is the skilled hand of the barista, because even with the finest beans and the most advanced equipment, the shot depends on the touch and style of the barista.”

A profile from Cooper’s early days an an anchor.

The taming of the political reporter.

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 collecting books.

I have lived in books, for books, by and with books; in recent years, I have been fortunate enough to be able to live from books. And it was through books that I first realised there were other worlds beyond my own; first imagined what it might be like to be another person; first encountered that deeply intimate bond made when a writer's voice gets inside a reader's head.

Growing up with Charlie Brown.

Listening to the Big Star songwriter, who left the group before dying in a solo car crash at 27.

His voice, on the recordings, is too sensitive. That's meant not as an aesthetic judgment. It wasn't too sensitive for the material, in other words. It was too sensitive for life. You listen to him sing, closely, and if you don't know another thing about what happened to him, you know that the guy with that voice is not going to last.

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.

The story of an opportunity missed.

A self-conscious celebrity profile.