7 stories to read this weekend

It was Structure week for us at GigaOM and as a result I didn’t have enough time to do my usual amount of reading. Nevertheless, here are some of my picks from this week. I hope you get a chance to enjoy them.

• How Pixar developed art for Monsters University. Need I say more? [New York Times]
• How the right amount of ambient noise increases creativity. I guess there is a case for good music when writing. Dave Brubeck and Miles Davis for me. [99U]
• The tinkerings of Robert Noyce. What a great article about one of the forefathers of Silicon Valley by none other than Tom Wolfe.
• Remembering James Gandolfini and Tony Soprano. A tribute by Alan Sepinwall. Also the New Yorker editor David Remnick.
• Hack: confessions of a presidential campaign reporter. Michael Hastings passed away last week. This GQ piece gives us a little peek into his life.
• The adventure of super boy. The story of Justin Beiber by Vanessa Grigoriadis
• Attention startups, the automotive industry isn’t a Rust Belt monolith. Nice piece by Marc Weiser of Great Lakes VC.