Arts

Illustration: A little boy in a boat reads a book as the boat is picked up by an octopus.

Books
Arts

Field Trip! 10 Books That Will Send Kids Exploring

8:34am May 31, 2013

by Mara Alpert

Children's librarian Mara Alpert recommends 10 titles that will send youngsters off on brand-new adventures. In these books, kids will learn what baby animals do on their first day of life, what baseball games are like in Japan, and what happens when you read a poem from bottom to top.

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Arts

Playing in the Street with Second Sundays on Fourth

11:42pm May 30, 2013

by David Ford

Are you ready for a party? Camino Bakery owner Cary Clifford sure is.

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Many drive-ins and mom and pop theaters will soon have to make the switch from film to digital after putting it off because of the high cost of new projectors.

Arts

Drive-Ins Soon Face Hollywood's Digital Switch

5:48pm May 30, 2013

by Brenna Angel

This is the year that drive-in movie theater owners have dreaded: They must convert their projectors from film to digital. It costs tens of thousands of dollars to make the switch, and that may be too much for many of the remaining 400 or so drive-ins left in the United States.

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Before Midnight is the third film in Richard Linklater's series that explores the romance and life of a couple, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy). The two previous films were Before Sunrise and Before Sunset.

Arts

'Before Midnight,' Love Darkens And Deepens

1:55pm May 30, 2013

In Richard Linklater's third film about Jesse and Celine, the two have officially coupled up, but it's no fairy tale. The love is still there, but the daily grind is getting in the way of communication. Linklater, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy join Fresh Air's Terry Gross to talk about the new film.

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How OxyContin's Pain Relief Built 'A World Of Hurt'

12:40pm May 30, 2013

New York Times reporter Barry Meier's new e-book explores opiate painkillers and the consequences that come with long-term use. He focuses in particular on OxyContin, how it came to be prescribed for chronic pain, what the consequences have been, and how it became a street drug.

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Lynda Barry is an assistant professor of Interdisciplinary Creativity at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Arts

Cartoonist Lynda Barry Helps College Students Tap Innate Creativity

11:50am May 30, 2013

by NPR Staff

Like most of her work, cartoonist Lynda Barry's course at the University of Wisconsin is unorthodox: No artistic skill is required. In class, and in her own work, the cartoonist aims to strip away the stiffness of adulthood and plug people into their innate creativity.

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Arts

The Marvelous Wonderettes Sing Audiences Back to the 50's

12:11am May 30, 2013

by David Ford

The Marvelous Wonderettes is a musical comedy by Roger Bean that salutes the high school Songleader squads of the 1950s using pop songs from that era to tell the tale.

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Cooking With Cicadas: No Weirder Than Eating Cheese?

7:18pm May 29, 2013

by Maria Godoy

We know, eating bugs sounds strange, but 2 billion people already do it — and the U.N. has made the case for insects as a key protein source. For U.S. East Coasters, the coming of the 17-year cicadas provides an opportunity to cook with bugs. If you want to try your hand at it, there's a cookbook to guide your way.

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NPR's Andrea Hsu paid $75 for her midcentury modern table and chairs, shown here in a 1963 Drexel Declaration catalog. She quickly realized it was a steal.

Arts

Midcentury Furniture + Grandkid Nostalgia = Modern Trend

7:18pm May 29, 2013

by Andrea Hsu

It first showed up in the 1950s and '60s — think low-slung sofas, egg-shaped chairs and the set of Mad Men. Today, midcentury modern furniture is "blazing hot," as one dealer puts it. One explanation is that people often like what their grandparents liked.

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French film Blue Is the Warmest Colour, winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, tells the story of a teenager named Adele (Adele Exarchopoulos) who falls in love with a blue-haired art student named Emma (Lea Seydoux).

Arts

From Boos To Bravos: A Recap Of Cannes

4:30pm May 29, 2013

Fresh Air's critic at large John Powers returns from the 2013 Cannes Film Festival with tales of the good, the bad, and the parties. He says Blue Is the Warmest Color was "the film of the festival" while Only God Forgives was the biggest disappointment.

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