Arts

Michael Douglas stars as the flamboyant pianist and entertainer Liberace in Steven Soderbergh's new HBO biopic, Behind the Candelabra.

Arts

Douglas, Damon Illuminate HBO's 'Candelabra'

6:43pm May 23, 2013

by David Bianculli

Steven Soderbergh's latest film is a showbiz story about Vegas icon Liberace and his secret lover — played, respectively, by Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, both terrific in their roles. It premieres Sunday on HBO.

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Moore (photographed at New York Fashion Week in February 2013) has earned Oscar nominations for her roles in Boogie Nights, The End of the Affair, Far From Heaven and The Hours.

Arts

Julianne Moore, Relishing Complicated Characters

4:03pm May 23, 2013

In What Maisie Knew, Moore plays a troubled rock star who might initially seem like a rotten person, but Moore's performance humanizes the character, highlighting her human frailties — something Moore has done in many parts.

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Arts

A Read Down Memory Lane: Lessons From Your Former Self

1:55pm May 23, 2013

Writings from childhood — cards, stories and other notes — can hide for decades, like time capsules tucked away in boxes, old bedrooms, attics and journals. Writer Jim Sollisch talks about how old thank you notes from his youth foreshadowed his adult life.

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Patricia Volk is an essayist, novelist and memoirist. She grew up in a restaurant-owning family in New York City.

Books
Arts

Beauty Marks: Patricia Volk's Lessons In Womanhood

12:12pm May 23, 2013

by Maureen Corrigan

In her new memoir, Shocked, Volk examines the two women who had a lasting impact on her as she began to parse who she was as a woman: her beautiful, critical mother, Audrey Morgen Volk; and the famous — and unconventional — haute couture designer Elsa Schiaparelli.

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Arts

Singing for the "Tone Deaf"

8:30am May 23, 2013

by David Ford

Carol Roan is an Indiana University graduate where she also earned a Master's degree in Vocal performance.

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The video for Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's newly released song starts by re-creating the conditions of his captivity during the 81 days he was held in police detention in 2011, and later dissolves into a dystopian nightmare.

China's Artist Provocateur Explores New Medium: Heavy Metal

8:18pm May 22, 2013

by Louisa Lim

In 2011, police detained Ai Weiwei for 81 days. Now, he's released a song that's turned the experience into a heavy metal protest song, along with a dystopian nightmare video. The lyrics are explicit and angry. Ai says his music is for the many political prisoners who remain jailed.

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Books
Arts

Fictional 'Mothers' Reveal Facts Of A Painful Adoption Process

4:38pm May 22, 2013

After years trying to conceive, novelist Jennifer Gilmore and her husband decided to adopt. What they thought would be a relatively simple process was instead a long and painful one. In her latest novel, Gilmore channels these autobiographical experiences into fiction.

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Once vehemently opposed to the idea of being the subject of a documentary, Brooks had a change of heart. The result is a new American Masters episode, Mel Brooks: Make a Noise.

Arts

Mel Brooks: 'I'm An EGOT; I Don't Need Any More'

11:54am May 22, 2013

The screenwriter, producer, director and actor, whose name has become synonymous with American comedy, talks about his penchant for spoofs and his decades-long friendship with Carl Reiner. Brooks, who is among a handful of people who've won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards, is the subject of a new documentary on PBS.

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Arts

Forecast Music and Their Innovative American Tunes

8:45am May 22, 2013

by David Ford

Forecast music is an adventurous new music group founded in Brooklyn, NY in 2001.

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One of the highlights of the new China Art Palace in Shanghai is a giant digital rendering of a famous ancient scroll, "Along the River During Qingming Festival," which includes figures that walk and talk. The work was first presented at the 2010 World Ex

China Builds Museums, But Filling Them Is Another Story

5:43pm May 21, 2013

by Frank Langfitt

China has been building museums with abandon, opening about 100 annually in recent years. Two of the biggest opened on the same day last fall on opposite banks of Shanghai's Huangpu River. But filling these museums — with both art and visitors — is proving more challenging.

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