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Daily Circuit Blog
Stephanie Curtis

Does Sideshow Bob constitute true artistic excellence?

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During Friday's Roundtable, our guest Dessa said that she had seen true artistic excellence only a handful of times. So we asked everyone at the Roundtable for an example of an artistic work that they considered excellent.

Mark Nelson, actor and medical student, picked a movie: "I was studying for a quiz and my family started watching 'Moonrise Kingdom.' Does that count?" he asked. "I love almost everything that Wes Anderson does. I laughed until I cried. That movie is so beautiful. So fantastic."

Guante, hip-hop artist and educator, went back in time: "Honestly, what comes to mind right away — one of the reasons I am such a big critic of everything — is because I remember Seasons 3 through 10 of 'The Simpsons,' which is so well-written and well-constructed and incredible that it is hard to like anything else."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EryhQdXTjP8

Dessa, hip-hop artist and writer, chose a performance she saw at the Guthrie.

"One of the moments where I was really arrested aesthetically watching Matthew Amendt play Henry in 'Henry V'," she said. "I wrote down his name and I write to him an email every year to see if I can get him to do anything in the arts with me at all. He's really startlingly good.

"And Whitney singing the National Anthem. Google it, man."

No need to Google:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupsPg5H6aE

Guante had to throw in an extra:

"One thing that made me cry is watching Gogol Bordello singing 'Wanderlust King' on David Letterman," he said. "It's not even a sad song. It's a happy song. It's just mind-bogglingly good."