Todd Sampson

Iconoclast (n.) One who attacks and seeks to overthrow traditional or popular ideas or institutions.

Icococlasts (n.) A Sundance Channel series produced by Robert Redford where two iconoclastic personalities interview one another.

I originally saw Iconoclasts a few years ago during the first season when producer Brian Grazer interviewed media mogul Sumner Redstone. I thoroughly enjoyed it; but didn’t manage to see any further episodes until recently.

The series is now in its third season and looks like it is still fantastic. Over the last month I caught three episodes:

• Makhail Baryshnikov and Alice Waters — I can’t believe that I have lived in San Francisco for a year now and still not made it to Chez Panisse. (I had a reservation for last November, but my son got a cold so we never made it.)
• Mike Myers and Deepak Chopra — I know this sounds like a crazy celebrity pairing, but it was fantastic.
• Wynton Marsalis and John Besh –As a long time fan of Marsalis Family and New Orleans food & life in general this was great to see.

If you are ever in need of inspiration, you can’t do much better than Iconoclasts. If you don’t get the Sundance Channel, I did see that Season 2 is available on iTunes.

Further, if you are a Jazz lover, I highly recommend checking out Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s Congo Square; which was featured on the Wynton Marsalis’s Iconoclasts episode. The Congo Square performance from the 2007 Montreal Jazz Festival will be released on DVD next month. The album is available now on iTunes by searching for “Congo Square.” And if you have young kids, there isn’t a much better introduction to Jazz than Wynton’s Jazz ABZ: An A to Z Collection of Jazz Portraits picture & rhyme book.  Great stuff.