By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 12/04/12 7:26pm

Gadgetry

WIRED Magazine's 8th Annual WIRED Store Opening Night Party - Red Carpet

Totally Wired: New EIC Hosts Pop-Up Launch in Soho

The lights were bright, the music poppy and the toys plentiful at the opening of the Wired pop-up store party in Soho last week. Incoming editor in chief Scott Dadich greeted the crowd with a big smile and a lot of handshaking. He was splitting town for San Francisco soon—he starts at his new post in early January. Mr. Dadich looked Bay Area-appropriate in a jaunty tie designed by his wife and black-and-white Burberry sneakers to go with his suit.

“He looks like Ron Burgundy,” a friend noted.

The crowd gravitated toward the dance floor, where ?uestlove pumped out songs that made the Transom nostalgic for bar mitzvah music. Among the guests we spotted This American Life host Ira Glass and actress Amber Tamblyn, the latter trying out a new Chromebook. Kinect stations at the Buick Verano Turbo activation lined the sides of the room, and nobody seemed too old to wave his or her arms wildly. Read More

By Daniel D'Addario 10/19/12 9:00am

The Eight-Day Week

Ira Glass (Getty Images)

To Do Saturday: American Bandstand

Though we missed Mr. Sedaris yesterday, we’re still getting our fill of “IRL” encounters withThis American Life personalities. Today, it’s Ira Glass, the venerable NPR quirk-meister, appearing with modern dance troupe Monica Bill Barnes and Company. Before and after the dance performances, with titles like “Mostly Fanfare” and “I Feel Like”—quirk on quirk!—Mr. Glass is Read More

By Drew Grant 2:26pm

movies

Mike Birbiglia in 'Sleepwalk With Me' (IFC)

Mike Birbiglia’s Sleepwalk With Me Is Anything but a Snooze

A longer conversation with Mike Birbiglia and Ira Glass about Sleepwalk with Me can be found here.

Mike Birbiglia is not a morning person. The 34-year-old comedian has compared himself to a bear when he has to wake up. He does the impression: a rather pitiful, yawning “roar” made while clumsily swiping at anything nearby. “Bear” by way of cowardly lion.

It’s understandable that Mr. Birbiglia has a tough time in the morning—he spends his nights running around in his pajamas. The baby-faced writer/actor/comedian—and now director—suffers from REM behavior disorder, a rare neurological dysfunction that causes him not only to sleepwalk, but to physically engage with the things he confronts in his dreams—for example, a menacing, hovering jackal. Read More

By Drew Grant 8/21/12 5:22pm

movies

In his dreams! Mike Birbiglia wins big in 'Sleepwalk With Me' (IFC)

Wide Awake: Mike Birbiglia’s Sleepwalk With Me Is Anything but a Snooze

Mike Birbiglia is not a morning person. The 34-year-old comedian has compared himself to a bear when he has to wake up. He does the impression: a rather pitiful, yawning “roar” made while clumsily swiping at anything nearby. “Bear” by way of cowardly lion.

It’s understandable that Mr. Birbiglia has a tough time in the morning—he spends his nights running around in his pajamas. The baby-faced writer/actor/comedian—and now director—suffers from REM behavior disorder, a rare neurological dysfunction that causes him not only to sleepwalk, but to physically engage with the things he confronts in his dreams—for example, a menacing, hovering jackal. Read More

By Foster Kamer 8/09/12 4:58pm

MEDIA ETHICS

shame project adam davidson

NPR Planet Money Host Adam Davidson Under Fire from Rogue Media Ethicists [Updated]

NPR’s Planet Money—which was born out of the Peabody award-winning This American Life episode about the financial crash in 2008, “The Giant Pool of Money”—is the financial news digest of choice for plenty of people who enjoy their finance explained to them in a generalist, Ira Glass-approved tone. Now, the show and Davidson are coming under fire for some perceived standards and ethics breaches. Let’s break this down. Read More

By Kim Velsey 6/11/12 7:00pm

Red Carpet Real Estate

A spot fit for a radio star?

Ira Glass To Live This American Life In Chelsea Carriage House

Chicago, it’s really over. Sure, Ira Glass left a few years ago. Sure, he packed up the entire This American Life crew, said that he was never coming back, but all that time, he couldn’t seem to settle down in any of the New York neighborhoods. And sometimes he even talked about how much he missed you, how he used to be able to get in a car and be anywhere in Chicago in 20 minutes. But now he’s  gone and bought a condo at 159 West 24th Street!

Yes, Mr. Glass and wife Anaheed Alani paid $1.26 million for the one-bedroom apartment, a buy first spotted by The Real Deal. Read More

By Kat Stoeffel 3/16/12 2:40pm

Shattered Ira Glass

mikedaisey

This American Life Retracts Apple Factory Story; Author Mike Daisey Pulls a John D’Agata

PRI’s This American Life has retracted its most popular broadcast ever, “Mr. Daisey Goes to the Apple Factory,” because it contains “significant fabrications,” host and executive producer Ira Glass announced today. An excerpt of Mike Daisey’s one-man show The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, it has been downloaded 888,000 times and streamed another 206,000. Read More

By Kat Stoeffel 9/05/11 9:19am

Back to School

rookie

Tavi Launches Magazine with Help from Friends at This American Life and The Awl

Tavi Gevinson’s online magazine for teens, Rookie, launched today. Although it publishes daily, Rookie will have monthly themes to create the cohesiveness of a magazine issue, according to managing editor Emily Condon. This month is “beginnings,” appropriately. Rookie may still publish print volumes–a Rookie yearbook, say–but there are no immediate plans, she added.

In Read More