Arts

Arts

Oscar Nods Go To 'American Hustle,' 'Gravity,' '12 Years A Slave'

3:07pm January 16, 2014

Nominations for the 86th annual Academy Awards were announced Thursday. American Hustle and Gravity got 10 nominations each, including nods for best picture, best director and best actress.

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Chiwetel Ejiofor (left) plays Solomon Northup, a New York freeman kidnapped into slavery in 1841 and eventually resold to plantation owner Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender).

Arts

For A Free Spirit, A Grim '12 Years' In Chains

12:39pm January 16, 2014

by Bob Mondello

A brutal corrective to gauzy portrayals of the antebellum South, this true story of a man kidnapped into slavery took home the top audience prize at the Toronto Film Festival. NPR's Bob Mondello says it emphatically deserved the honor. (Recommended)

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Arts

Four Decades - A Retrospective Show of the Work of Roy Nydorf

9:01am January 16, 2014

by David Ford

Roy Nydorf is an award-winning Triad artist. Based in Oak Ridge, the Guilford College professor of art has exhibited nationally and internationally, with works in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art among many others. In May of 2012, the Green Hill Center for North Carolina Art presented an exhibit titled Four Decades. It was the first major survey Roy's work, including drawings, prints, paintings and sculpture.

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Arts

These Guitars Are For The Birds — Literally

7:44pm January 15, 2014

A new exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., features a flock of 70 finches and an array of tuned and amplified guitars. As the flock fills the open room, the birds are free to land on the guitars, making music of their own as they move and jump off the instruments.

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Arts

Meet the Artist: Percussive Arts Society President John Beck

8:40am January 15, 2014

by David Ford

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Books
Arts

Chang-rae Lee Stretches For Dystopic Drama, But Doesn't Quite Reach

2:04pm January 14, 2014

by Maureen Corrigan

Lee is acclaimed for his realistic and historical fiction, but he's made a foray into the futuristic sci-fi genre with a new novel called On Such a Full Sea. Fresh Air book critic Maureen Corrigan says sometimes it's better for writers to stick closer to familiar shores.

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Watch an interactive of the Supreme Court justice narrating her personal family photos. (Above: Sotomayor, 1959)

Books
Arts

As A Latina, Sonia Sotomayor Says, 'You Have To Work Harder'

12:46pm January 14, 2014

The Supreme Court justice tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross, "In every position that I've been in, there have been naysayers who don't believe I'm qualified or who don't believe I can do the work." She has committed herself to proving those people wrong.

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Before protesting in The Square, Khalid Abdalla (left) acted in such films as The Kite Runner, Green Zone and United 93.

Arts

Three Protesters, One 'Square': Film Goes Inside Egypt's Revolution

12:46pm January 14, 2014

by John Powers

As we approach the third anniversary of the demonstrations in Egypt, Fresh Air critic John Powers reviews a documentary that captures the story of Cairo's Tahrir Square. He says the film "is less a final reckoning than an exciting bulletin from the front lines of an unfinished revolution."

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There are dozens of varieties of borscht — but at its most basic, it's a beet soup with potatoes, tomatoes and often beef or pork.

Borscht Make Your Heart Beet? They're Serving 70,000 Gallons In Sochi

8:57am January 14, 2014

by Serri Graslie

Organizers of the Winter Games are preparing to serve up quite a bit of the hearty, deep-red Russian soup. Which is kind of ironic, says Russian food writer Anya von Bremzen, since borscht carries with it complicated political implications. And not all borschts are created equal, she warns.

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Arts

Farmer Jason's Music Inspires Children to Appreciate Nature

8:44am January 14, 2014

by David Ford

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