Filmmakers rely on private screening rooms to show their unfinished films to invite-only audiences. NPR's Susan Stamberg visits one screening room on Rodeo Drive, run by 97-year-old Charles Aidikoff, and his grandson, Josh. Four generations of Aidikoffs have worked in the projection business.
Thomas Mallon's new novelization of the infamous political scandal re-imagines the events through the eyes of the perpetrators. Critic Heller McAlpin says Mallon manages to capture both the metastasizing dishonesty and the ludicrousness of this great American tragedy of political ambition run amok.
The Civility Project, which is an ongoing project that reminds citizens of the importance of respect in matters of public discourse, is celebrating its one year anniversary this week. To honor the occasion, leaders of the project, including members from the Library Center and Community Foundation of the Ozarks, will be hosting the free program series called “Building Common Ground: Discussions of Community, Civility and Compassion.” The program series includes poetry readings, photo exhibits and a soup dinner. KSMU’s Rebekah Clark has more.
Barney Rosset was at the center of some of the most important literary developments in modern American history. As the head of Grove Press, he was the first to publish Samuel Beckett in this country (Waiting for Godot) and he went to court to publish D.H. Lawrence and Henry Miller. Rosset died Tuesday at the age of 89.
At the groundbreaking on the National Mall on Wednesday, Obama said the newest Smithsonian museum has been has "a long time coming" will serve "not just as a record of tragedy, but as a celebration of life." The National Museum of African American History and Culture is expected to open in 2015.
It takes a few leisurely hours to draw the magic out of meaty beef bones. Boiled at length, they produce a savory base for all sorts of soups, from borscht to pho.
New Orleans hosts one of the biggest Mardi Gras celebrations on Tuesday. Local self-described "Mardi Gras Indians" are known for their eye-catching regalia, but police seem to look critically at them. Host Michel Martin speaks with Clarence "Big Chief" Dalcour of the Creole Osceola Mardi Gras Indians.
Nick Nolte is nominated for an Oscar for his supporting work in Warrior, which might appear to be your basic kicking-and-punching catharsis. But commentator Mark Blankenship says it's actually far more frightening.
How much do we read into ourselves when we write a diary? Author Patrick DeWitt recommends the dark, deep journal of a man suffering from a nervous breakdown.
We're streaming our video, downloading our books and doing away with the hard copies that used to help communicate our personalities to one another. Bob Mondello points to a surprisingly early vision of that kind of digital future — and asks what's behind the worry it expresses.
The 2012 Academy Awards are almost upon us, and among this year's nominations for best picture, five were based on books. But for author Tessa Harris, that number isn't high enough. She recommends three of her favorite literary works that would have made terrific films.
Many Americans use Presidents' Day to reflect on the nation's core values, but the founding fathers often had complicated relationships with those ideals. A new exhibit explores that issue. "Slavery at Jefferson's Monticello" highlights the lives of slaves owned by the third U.S. president and the author of the Declaration of Independence. Host Michel Martin speaks with the exhibition's lead curators.
Sunday the world lost a man who elevated a simple arcade game into an American obsession. Steve Kordek was Mr. Pinball. National Pinball Museum founder David Silverman talks to guest host Mary Louise Kelly Kordek and his legacy.
Weekend Edition Sunday host Rachel Martin speaks to Peter Straughan, one of the screenwriters of the film, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. The current remake of John le Carre's spy novel is nominated for a best-adapted screenplay Oscar.
In her new book, Peggielene Bartels describes going from secretary at the U.S. Embassy to king of a fishing village in Ghana. Dividing her time between Otuam and Washington, D.C., she straddles two cultures — and says she loves every bit of it.
Every answer consists of two adjoining U.S. states. Each clue is a four-letter word formed by one or more letters starting one of the state names plus one or more letters starting the other state name. For example, given "mist," the answer would be "Mississippi" and "Tennessee," or "Missouri" and "Tennessee."
The seemingly accidental death of a troubled starlet is the catalyst for events in a new thriller that takes the reader from Dublin to New York to the Congo. "It's an exploration ... of the power dynamics that go on" between executive boardrooms and warlords, author Alan Glynn says.
In a Borrowers adaptation from Japanese animators Studio Ghibli, a spirited, inches-tall girl and her family negotiate the hurdles and hazards of the oversized human world. Critic Bob Mondello says in an age of hyperactive kid flicks, this gentle, imaginative and visually lush film deserves a look.
There's Dollywood devoted to Dolly Parton, Graceland venerating Elvis, and now there are plans for "Napoleonland." The amusement park proposed for the outskirts of Paris would celebrate the achievements of French general and emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Historian Peter Hicks of The Fondation Napoleon in Paris talks with Robert Siegel about the plans for the park and why Napoleon continues to fascinate people nearly 200 years after his death.
The TV show The Simpsons is airing its 500th episode on Sunday. In its run, the show has aired more than 170 prime-time hours and had 23 seasons with hundreds of guest stars. Melissa Block and Robert Siegel offer a look back on the long-running animated series with insight from a few of the people who know it best: the writers.
In Liza Johnson's drama, Return, Linda Cardellini plays a vet who comes back from her time overseas with no way to make sense of where she was and what it meant. Critic David Edelstein says the film's lack of a traditional story arc makes it seem even more real.
While broadcast networks may still think of Friday nights as a TV dead zone, there are programmers who are finding hope in the notoriously terrible timeslot.
Belgium's Oscar entry for Best Foreign Language Film is a noir thriller exploring the brutal underbelly of the cattle industry — and an intense character study of an aggressive, troubled farmer who is shooting up for his own reasons.
Two CIA-agent buddies (Chris Pine and Tom Hardy) use their spy skills to vie for the same woman (Reese Witherspoon). Critic Ian Buckwalter says despite game performances from its trio of stars, the movie is nonsensical, inept and, at worst, unfunny.
