Arts & Life

Men play a struck beau while women and children sing behind them at an Mbenzele Pygymy village.

Why Pygmies Aren't Scared By The 'Psycho' Theme

12:46pm January 12, 2015

by Michaeleen Doucleff

Deep in the Congolese rain forest, a group of Pygmies lives in near isolation from Western music. When a team of scientists played them music from Star Wars and Psycho, the results were surprising.

Actor George Clooney and his wife Amal looked pretty good on the red carpet.

Arts

What Those George Clooney Jokes Know About Red Carpet Culture

11:31am January 12, 2015

by Linda Holmes

George Clooney's September marriage has been the subject of a lot of jabs that are only sort of about him.

Tina Fey, Margaret Cho and Amy Poehler talk onstage during the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards. Fey and Poehler hosted the awards for the third (and, they say, final) time.

Arts

Big Wins For 'Transparent' Make It Clear: TV's Undergoing A Revolution

11:25am January 12, 2015

by Eric Deggans

The show, which portrays a 70-year-old coming out as transgender, won two Golden Globes — the first wins for original programming by Amazon.

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This guy is about to become someone's Christmas dinner. But probably not before he swims around the family bathtub for a couple of days.

In Slovakia, Christmas Dinner Starts In The Bathtub

8:06am January 12, 2015

by Meghan Sullivan

Christmas carp is a holiday mainstay in many central European nations. Traditionally, it swims in the family tub for a day or two, sometimes becoming a sort of pet before it ends up on the plate.

Books
Arts

Miranda July Balances Weirdness And Reality In Debut Novel

6:45pm January 11, 2015

by NPR Staff

The director and artist says one of the challenges of writing The First Bad Man was shaping her main character's odd psyche. Then, she says, she realized, "I can always take it back if it's too much."

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Arts

Ellar Coltrane, Taking Notes On Life And Girls For 'Boyhood'

11:26am January 11, 2015

NPR's Tamara Keith spoke with the star of the film, Ellar Coltrane, who spent more than a decade shooting the movie. This story first aired on July 12 on Weekend Edition Saturday.

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Books
Arts

After Silence, An 'Outline' Of A Life In Fragments

11:26am January 11, 2015

by NPR Staff

Rachel Cusk's new novel Outline reflects the fragmentation of her own life in the story of a writer coming to terms with her dissolving marriage while on a summer teaching trip to Greece.

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Books
Arts

This Weekend, Visit San Francisco's Famed Forbidden City In 'China Dolls'

11:26am January 11, 2015

by NPR Staff

In this installment of Weekend Reads, Jean Kwok recommends Lisa See's novel China Dolls, about the unlikely friendship formed by three young women on vaudeville's all-Asian "Chop Suey Circuit."

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Arts

Finding The Pieces To Form A New Nation

11:26am January 11, 2015

by Will Shortz

For each familiar two-word phrase and name, take one or more letters from the start of the first word plus one or more letters from the start of the second word to name a country.

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Over the past 25 years, Mona Shafer Edwards has depicted some of the most famous trials in Los Angeles, including Rodney King and O.J. Simpson (above).

Arts

Eyes Of The Courtroom: Sketching The Nation's Biggest Trials

6:47pm January 10, 2015

by Daniel Hajek

You may not have heard of illustrator Mona Shafer Edwards, but you've probably seen her work: she's been drawing high-profile courtroom cases for years. She says behind every sketch, there's a story.

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