Arts

You may recognize this drawing from Allie Brosh's popular "This Is Why I'll Never Be An Adult" blog post. (It's now a popular Internet meme.)

Books
Arts

Even When It Hurts 'ALOT,' Brosh Faces Life With Plenty Of 'Hyperbole'

4:21pm December 09, 2013

On her Hyperbole and a Half blog, Allie Brosh writes stories about her life illustrated with a "very precise crudeness." Most are lighthearted — about her dog or her favorite grammatical mistake ("a lot" vs. "alot) — but her most popular posts have also been the most upsetting, about her crippling depression.

Queue Listen Now

Arts

Mark Hampton of Hampton House Gallery Teaches Presentation and Care of Artwork

8:21am December 09, 2013

by David Ford

For Mark Hampton, framing is in his blood. His parents opened Hampton House Gallery back in 1977, and Mark's been involved in the business in one way or the other ever since. Hampton House Art and Framing offers paintings, three dimensional art, and digital photographic restoration services, but it's the framing that has captured Mark's imagination the most. He's attended several seminars and taken numerous framing courses, and beginning in January, he'll be teaching PRESENTATION AND CARE OF ARTWORK at Sawtooth School for Visual Art.

Queue Listen Now

Getting Away with Murder, by Heraldo Munoz

Books
Arts

'Getting Away With Murder': A Study Of Benazir Bhutto's Death

6:13pm December 08, 2013

by NPR Staff

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in 2007. Heraldo Munoz, who led the United Nations investigation into her death, portrays the tense political climate that surrounded Bhutto's return to politics and the circumstances of the killing in his new book.

Queue Listen Now

Arts

The Intended Madness Of Comic Eric Andre's 'Anti-Talk Show'

6:12pm December 08, 2013

by NPR Staff

With an unstable host, a reluctant sidekick and a house band oblivious to its surroundings, The Eric Andre Show has been described as "the weirdest show on TV." For all its inappropriateness, the show has generated a rabid fan base and has been renewed for a third season.

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

'Pomegranate Lady' Depicts The Comedy And Tragedy Of Exile

6:33pm December 07, 2013

by NPR Staff

Goli Taraghi writes about life in Iran — about love, loss, alienation and exile. She is particularly equipped to the task, as her own exile from the country began in 1980 at the outset of the Iranian Revolution. She discusses her latest collection of short stories, The Pomegranate Lady and Her Sons.

Queue Listen Now

Bickering In Bangladesh; Curling; Glow-In-The-Dark Tattoos

3:31pm December 07, 2013

by NPR Staff

Ozy editor Eugene Robinson tells NPR's Arun Rath about two dueling divas in Bangladeshi politics, the rising popularity of an obscure winter sport, and tattoos that you can wear to work.

Queue Listen Now

Gillian Anderson plays Stella Gibson, an enigmatic police investigator, in the BBC Two series The Fall.

Arts

Gillian Anderson On 'The Fall' And Getting Arrested In High School

11:39am December 07, 2013

by NPR Staff

The X-Files actor's latest project is a British police procedural in which she plays the enigmatic Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson. Anderson tells NPR's Scott Simon what drew her to Gibson as a character, and how her London roots contributed to her fateful nomination as most likely to get arrested in high school.

Queue Listen Now

The life and work of composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim is examined in Six by Sondheim, a documentary from James Lapine, who also directed several of Sondheim's shows.

Arts

Delightful 'Six By Sondheim' Leaves You Wanting Six More

3:06pm December 06, 2013

by David Bianculli

HBO's new TV special is part biography, part music-appreciation lesson and part performance piece. Critic David Bianculli says it's a superbly compiled work, overseen by two of the people most intimately familiar with the composer himself.

Queue Listen Now

Sondheim, shown here in 1974, won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for Sunday in the Park with George. He has also received eight Tony Awards, eight Grammy awards and a Kennedy Center Honor.

Arts

'On Sondheim': The Musical-Theater Legend At 80

3:05pm December 06, 2013

The New York Times calls Stephen Sondheim the "greatest and perhaps best-known artist in American musical theater." Sondheim composed the music and lyrics for, among others, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods and Company. In 2010 he joined Fresh Air to discuss his career in musical theater.

Queue Listen Now

In the Coen brothers' latest film, down and out Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is trying to make ends meet as a folk singer in New York in the early 1960s.

Arts

Great Soundtrack Aside, 'Inside Llewyn Davis' Hits A Sour Note

3:05pm December 06, 2013

by David Edelstein

Brothers Joel and Ethan Coen continue to mine American pop culture in their latest film. It's 1961 in Greenwich Village, and a homeless folk singer is trying desperately to break out. Critic David Edelstein says the overarching tone of the film is snotty, condescending and cruel.

Queue Listen Now