Arts & Life

Arts

This Year At The Razzies, An Award Actors Might Actually Want To Win

6:33pm January 14, 2015

The 35th Annual Razzie nominations are out — that not-so-coveted prize for the worst of Hollywood. This year there is a new category, the Redeemer Award, for those stars who have tried so hard and come so far.

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On Broad City, Abbi Jacobson (left) and Ilana Glazer play two single, 20-somethings living in New York City with dead-end jobs. They spend a lot of time hanging out, smoking weed and making each other laugh.

Arts

In 'Broad City,' Two Women Make Comedy From The 'Muck' Of New York Living

2:09pm January 14, 2015

The Comedy Central show is about single 20-somethings who sit around and make each other laugh. Stars Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer poke fun at New Yorkers' "sick, masochistic romance" with the city.

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David Adam is a writer and editor at the journal Nature and was a special correspondent at the Guardian, writing about science, medicine and the environment.

Why OCD Is 'Miserable': A Science Reporter's Obsession With Contracting HIV

10:58am January 14, 2015

David Adam has had obsessive-compulsive disorder for 20 years. In The Man Who Couldn't Stop, he chronicles his experiences — and how medical understanding and treatment of OCD have changed over time.

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Books
Arts

The Daily Texture Of Life Becomes Art In 'The First Bad Man'

10:03am January 14, 2015

by Annalisa Quinn

Miranda July's new novel The First Bad Man defies neat summaries; reviewer Annalisa Quinn calls July "a master of the intimate weirdnesses of human thought," who treats dusty mental corners with care.

Books
Arts

Fact And Fiction Blur In Frustratingly Opaque 'Swarm'

6:37am January 14, 2015

by Tasha Robinson

Fantasy master Michael Moorcock makes himself a character in his new novel The Whispering Swarm, but reviewer Tasha Robinson says the story doesn't fully satisfy either as biography or fantasy.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays British mathematician Alan Turing in The Imitation Game. "You're not asked to like the character," Cumberbatch says. "You're introduced to him, warts and all."

Arts

Benedict Cumberbatch: Code Breaker Alan Turing Was A Puzzle Himself

6:49pm January 13, 2015

by NPR Staff

Cumberbatch stars in The Imitation Game, as the British mathematician who helped break German codes. "It's a war thriller, it's a love story and a tragic testament to a genius wronged," he says.

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Perry Wallace, playing for Vanderbilt University, blocks the shot of 'Pistol' Pete Maravich, circa 1970.

Perry Wallace, Who Broke Basketball Barriers, Didn't Set Out To Be A Pioneer

6:49pm January 13, 2015

by NPR Staff

Strong Inside tells the story of the first black player in college basketball's Southeastern Conference. Wallace says the hard work of integration is "a gritty, dirty, ugly business."

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Books
Arts

Book Review: 'Sympathy For The Devil' By Michael Mewshaw

6:45pm January 13, 2015

by Alan Cheuse

Alan Cheuse reviews Sympathy for the Devil, Four Decades of Friendship with Gore Vidal by Michael Mewshaw.

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Arts

'La Dolce Vita' Star Dies At 83

5:20pm January 13, 2015

by Neda Ulaby

Swedish-born actress Anita Ekberg, who was best known for her role as Sylvia in the 1960 film La Dolce Vita, died in Italy on Sunday at the age of 83.

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Ephraim Benton, a former resident of Tompkins Houses in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, is now an actor. Benton started a community-based organization called Beyond Influencing Da Hood, which puts on health fairs, film festivals and various fr

An Exhibit Offers A Different Angle On Life In Public Housing

5:20pm January 13, 2015

by Pam Fessler

An exhibit in Brooklyn aims to upend stereotypes about public housing by profiling residents and their achievements. The curators know their subject well; they once lived in public housing themselves.

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