Arts

Bob Mondello offers an appreciation of the career of Mickey Rooney, who died at 93.

Fresh Air listens back to our 1989 interview with Snow Leopard author and Paris Review co-founder Peter Matthiessen, who died Saturday at age 86. His new novel In Paradise comes out Tuesday.

At 86, Matthiessen has written what he says "may be his last word." In Paradise, a novel about a visit to a Nazi extermination camp, caps a career spanning six decades and 33 books.

The 5-foot-3 dynamo poured his uncanny energy into a lifetime of roles alongside Hollywood's biggest stars. Rooney, whose sunny portrayals of youth earned him an honorary Oscar, died Sunday.

Journalist Matt Taibbi investigates the differences between punishment for white-collar and blue-collar crimes in The Divide. He also questions beliefs about who is "appropriate for jail."

Is it possible there's too much good TV? Sunday nights are starting to look that way. Between Game of Thrones, Mad Men and many more, there's a lot to navigate. NPR TV critic Eric Deggans helps.

Festival season has arrived, and in a big way. Two major arts festivals that call Winston-Salem home launch tonight, and the Triad Arts team has worked their microphones to the capsule to bring you an inside look. First up, it's the Phuzz Phest Music Festival. This weekend festival features more than 50 bands, and while we couldn't get to all of them we do have music & interviews with No Age, Jessica Lea Mayfield, The Love Language, Must Be The Holy Ghost and many more. Then we turn our attention to the silver screen and the 16^th annual RiverRun International Film Festival. The 12 day festival has a film for every taste, and in honor of those that refuse to be defined or confined by genre, we're bringing you an interview with filmmaker David Gordon Green. He's been behind the lens making us laugh uncomfortably with Eastbound and Down and Pineapple Express, and now he's inching back to his roots with the dark drama Joe. Then Associate Producer Bethany Chafin talks with Filmmakers Safyah Usmani and Tania Kharchenko, about their Documentary short “Songs of Hope.” You can listen to the complete Triad Arts Weekend show (above), or check out the Phuzz Phest and RiverRun segments below.

NPR television correspondent Eric Deggans reports that David Letterman will announce his planned retirement from CBS on his show Thursday night. Letterman will leave the show and the network in 2015.