Arts & Life

Nick Frost (from left), Eddie Marsan, Simon Pegg, Paddy Considine and Martin Freeman play a group of friends who reunite for a pub crawl challenge in The World's End.

Arts

Boozy Bromance 'World's End' Rises Above Its Lowbrow Tactics

3:30pm August 23, 2013

by David Edelstein

Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's latest collaboration follows five friends who reunite for an epic tour of 12 suburban English pubs. Critic David Edelstein calls the sci-fi comedy "the year's most uproarious movie."

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Martin Freeman (from left), Paddy Considine, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Eddie Marsan star as five old high school friends who reunite to finish an epic pub crawl in The World's End, directed by Edgar Wright.

Books
Arts

An Epic Pub Crawl Gone Wrong Culminates In 'World's End'

4:33pm August 22, 2013

Five old high school friends reunite to finish a pub crawl they started 20 years earlier in the latest from Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright — the creators of the zombie send-up Shaun of the Dead and action comedy Hot Fuzz.

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Guy Pearce (front left) plays Jack Irish in TV movie adaptations of two Peter Temple novels. The films, Bad Debts and Black Tide, are broadcast by digital provider Acorn TV.

Arts

Aussie Detective Jack Irish Is More Than Old-School Macho

4:28pm August 22, 2013

by John Powers

The fictional Australian hard-boiled detective is the star of several sharp, funny novels by Peter Temple. Two of those books have recently been adapted into TV movies starring Guy Pearce. Critic-at-large John Powers says Pearce perfectly conveys a complex blend of old and new masculinity.

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Dunbar High School has a notable list of graduates, including the first black presidential Cabinet member, the first black general in the Army and several of the lawyers who argued the Brown v. Board of Education decision.

In Nation's First Black Public High School, A Blueprint For Reform

2:26pm August 22, 2013

by NPR Staff

Journalist Alison Stewart chronicles the history of Dunbar High School in her new book, First Class. She says the Washington, D.C., school — which has graduated Army generals, Cabinet members and musicians — can serve as a model for urban schools today.

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Ben Winters wrote the best-selling Sense And Sensibility And Sea Monsters, as well as Bedbugs, Android Karenina and several books for kids. So far, he's published two books in the Last Policeman series.

Books
Arts

Awaiting The Apocalypse In The Quiet Town Of Concord

12:43pm August 22, 2013

by Neda Ulaby

Ben Winters' mystery novels are set in the capital of New Hampshire, a community hardly known for its crime or intrigue. The twist? In his books, the planet is about to be hit by an asteroid, and everyone knows they're soon going to die. Amid the chaos, one Concord cop fights for law and order.

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Books
Arts

'Dressing Constitutionally': When Fashion And Laws Collide

10:19am August 22, 2013

by NPR Staff

Ruthann Robson's new book explores the issues around what we wear and how it's legislated, including everything from First Amendment questions to government concerns about public nudity.

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Juan Gabriel Vasquez is also the author of The Informers.

Books
Arts

'Things Falling' Is A Potboiler, But One That's Set To Simmer

6:38pm August 21, 2013

by Rosecrans Baldwin

The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vasquez takes readers on a journey through Colombia starting in the late '60s — but it's not your average detective story. Reviewer Rosecrans Baldwin says the real mysteries in the book are in the minds of the characters.

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Mexican detective Marco Ruiz (Demian Bichir) teams up with his American counterpart, Sonya Cross (Diane Kruger), to solve a murder in FX's The Bridge.

Arts

'Bridge' Actor Demian Bichir On Portraying Border Life

1:34pm August 21, 2013

In the new FX series, Bichir plays a Mexican detective who teams up with an El Paso cop to solve a series of murders. He tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies that The Bridge aims to give equal treatment to both sides of the border.

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Microwave pralines are easier to make than stovetop pralines, and just as tasty.

'Treme' Cookbook Captures The Flavor Of A Show And A City

11:34am August 21, 2013

by Melissa Block

Melissa Block talks with Lolis Eric Elie, a writer and editor behind the HBO series Treme about a new cookbook written in the voices of the show's characters. Elie says it reflects both old New Orleans traditions and more recent influences.

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Books
Arts

Elmore Leonard, The 'Dickens Of Detroit,' Dies At 87

5:22pm August 20, 2013

by Noah Adams

Legendary crime writer Elmore Leonard published 46 novels, including Get Shorty and Out of Sight. His works were adapted countless times for film and TV. Noah Adams remembers the man whose advice to other writers was "try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip."

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