Arts & Life

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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Last year's Comikaze, seen here in September 2012, attracted tens of thousands of attendees.

Arts

Comikaze: Not Just The Other Comic Convention

8:43am May 29, 2013

by Linda Holmes

Dissatisfied with the scope and costs of the biggest fan convention in the country, one fan started a new gathering of her own, and she quickly brought some big names in to help out.

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Nadeem Aslam's other books include Season of the Rainbirds and The Wasted Vigil.

Books
Arts

Novel Examines Afghanistan War From A Pakistani Perspective

8:43am May 29, 2013

by NPR Staff

Nadeem Aslam's The Blind Man's Garden explores the consequences of Sept. 11 through the story of two young brothers who go to Afghanistan in late 2001 to help wounded civilians. Aslam says he wrote the book over four and a half years, part of which was spent in total isolation.

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Arts

What's Happened To Wonder? The Bliss Of Confusion

2:12pm May 28, 2013

As children, we are allowed to be confused, lost, and full of wonder. As adults in the age of Google, we are expected to project confidence, knowledge and understanding. Ta-Nehisi Coates, senior editor for The Atlantic, talks about how learning a foreign language reignited his imagination.

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Arts

From 'Groovy' To 'Slacks,' The Words That Date You

2:11pm May 27, 2013

When Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich used the word "slacks" in a column, a reader commented: "Slacks? How old are you?" The reader's comment got Schmich thinking about the words we choose and how much those choices can reveal about our age. (Originally broadcast on October 22, 2012.)

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Books
Arts

Three-Minute Fiction Readings: 'Compromise' And 'The F'

5:25pm May 26, 2013

NPR's Bob Mondello and Susan Stamberg read excerpts of two of the best submissions for Round 11 of our short story contest. They read The Art of Compromise by Lindsey Appleford of Boerne, Texas, and Claudia Who Found the F by Sean Enfield of Denton, Texas.

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Arts

The Movie Gillian Anderson Has 'Seen A Million Times'

5:25pm May 26, 2013

by Lily Percy

Actor Gillian Anderson could watch the animated movie Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa a million times. "I cannot stop laughing when I see this film," she says.

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Russian soldiers take their position near the village of Shatoy, Chechnya.

Books
Arts

Transcending Hardships By Saving Others In 'Constellation'

12:05pm May 26, 2013

by NPR Staff

In his debut novel, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, Anthony Marra takes readers to the war-torn republic of Chechnya. People disappear, informers betray and those with humanity endure great hardships.

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Keith Carradine (right) performs with the cast of Hands on a Hardbody during its spring 2013 run in New York.

Two Songs That Led Keith Carradine From Screen To Broadway

6:22pm May 25, 2013

by NPR Staff

One of Keith Carradine's most famous roles in recent years was as Wild Bill Hickok on the HBO TV show Deadwood. But Carradine is also a musician, and it was a song that jump-started his career — and another that drew him to his latest Broadway role.

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