This Week in A & E

Accordion music

I'm an accordion fanatic—the wheeze of the bellows is a siren song to me. The instrument's tremendous range and versatility make it virtually ubiquitous in international roots music, so I can listen to a lot of different things and still get my dose. Moscow meets Mexico, Dublin meets Texas, Wisconsin meets the Balkans, and everybody dances! I especially like the squeezebox paired with saxophone. The late Valerio Longoria Sr. and his musicians used this combination to great effect in some of their tunes, creating a sublime harmonic dissonance that makes me just about pass out from ecstasy.

--Katherine Ware

Curator of Photographs, Philadelphia Museum of Art

The Design of Everyday Things

OK, I'm pretty nerdy. But damn, this Donald Norman guy is smart. How do you know whether to push or pull a door? And why are you sometimes exactly wrong? Why are long rows of light switches so confusing? Norman dissects all the subtle design cues we pick up on, savaging bad design and setting up a framework for good interface. He breaks down all actions (turning on a lamp, drinking from a cup) into seven (!) beautiful stages. That alone makes it required reading for artists. It's like Stanislavski taught by a scientist. This book does what great art can do: It shows you the inner workings of something familiar, and you never see it the same way again.

--Andrew Simonet

Co-Director, Headlong Dance Theater

South Korean Film

When you mention new-ish Asian cinema, it seems most people know the ultraviolent Japan-ese horror/action films (Suicide Club, Battle Royale, etc.) but South Korea has quietly been releasing some of the best dramas in the last five years. A bunch are just starting to get noticed (Old Boy, 3 Iron, etc.). It's an arduous process to "discover" these films, but well worth the effort. Generally it involves logging on to member-only message boards sharing the latest Korean releases. If you're not one for cueing up 20-hour downloads, try eBay. The next "Big Film" is Lady Vengeance, which makes its Philadelphia debut at this year's Philadelphia Film Festival. I might have been the only one dorky enough to have stayed up all night to make sure I got tickets for it the moment it went on sale.

--Sean Agnew

R5 Productions

FBI Porn Squad as crime TV

I'm obsessed with the FBI Porn Squad. It's scary. It's hilarious. I think it would be perfect material for a new TV show based on the CSI and The X-Files models: FBI: XXX. The action centers around a pair of Scully and Mulder wannabes. They spend late nights scouring the Internet for BDSM and pee-lover sites, hanging out in stairwells and leather bars and analyzing rope fiber in boring detail. Their colleagues make crude jokes about them at the water cooler. In the season premiere, a Supreme Court Justice who bears a striking resemblance to Clarence Thomas is investigated.

--Kendall Roark

Singer-songwriter/professional student