Arts & Life

Arts

Who's Gay On TV? Dads, Journalists, Investigators And Footmen

8:24pm January 02, 2013

by Neda Ulaby

Neda Ulaby looks at the current landscape of gay characters on television, from the highest brows of Downton Abbey to the surprisingly welcoming world of reality shows.

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In Bernie, Jack Black plays a small-town mortician who murders his live-in companion after she won't stop nagging him. The movie is based on a true story.

Jack Black: On Music, Mayhem And Murder

5:44pm January 02, 2013

Actor Jack Black plays a kindly small-town funeral director who murders a millionaire in the film Bernie. Black is also one-half of the comedy folk-rock group Tenacious D. In May, they released an album in the style of heavy metal bands from the 1980s.

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W. Kamau Bell's new FX weekly series Totally Biased mixes standup, sketches and interviews.

Arts

'Totally Biased' Comic On Race, Politics And Audience

10:05am January 02, 2013

Comic W. Kamau Bell's show, produced by Chris Rock, mixes standup, sketches and interviews. Bell tells Fresh Air about the origins of his political humor and why it's important for him to have a multiracial audience.

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The expiration date on foods like orange juice and even milk aren't indicators of when those products will go bad.

Science
Arts

Don't Fear That Expired Food

8:57am January 02, 2013

by Dan Charles

When food passes its sell-by date, it's swept from the supermarket shelf. But that doesn't mean it's not safe to eat. Taste and smell are usually better indicators of a food's safety. And some items, like canned foods, can even last years or decades after their expiration date.

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Books
Arts

Listen Up! Audiobooks For Every Taste

5:46am December 31, 2012

From a charming tale of the tooth fairy to the very grown-up fiction of Graham Greene, read by the very grown-up Colin Firth, Robin Whitten of AudioFile magazine picks some of 2012's best audiobooks for your holiday listening.

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The Amazing Spider-Man #700 is the final issue of the series.

Arts

Peter Parker's Dead, But Spider-Man Will Live On (Sort Of)

8:47pm December 30, 2012

by Steve Mullis

Marvel Comics has killed off the iconic web-headed superhero — or to be more precise, they've killed off Peter Parker. Spider-Man will continue web-slinging, albeit with a twist that has earned writer Dan Slott the ire of many fans.

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Ben Fountain is the author of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk and the short story collection Brief Encounters With Che Guevara.

Books
Arts

Author Ben Fountain's Book Picks For 2013

6:33pm December 30, 2012

by NPR Staff

Ben Fountain's first novel, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, was nominated for the 2012 National Book Award. He's well-read for 2013, so we thought we'd ask him what to look forward to in the book world.

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Books
Arts

Short Stories To Savor On A Winter Weekend

5:38pm December 29, 2012

Author Hortense Calisher once called the short story "an apocalypse in a teacup." Critic Jane Ciabattari presents her favorite mini-apocalypses of 2012, from veteran authors like Sherman Alexie to newcomer Claire Vaye Watkins, who combines a unique voice and a shadowed family history in her debut collection.

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Arts

Graphic Novels That Flew Under The Radar In 2012

5:38pm December 29, 2012

As 2012 winds to a close, Glenn Weldon shares a couple of graphic novels that caught his eye this year: Drama by Raina Telgemeier and The Crackle of the Frost by Lorenzo Mattotti and Jorge Zentner. (This piece initially aired Nov. 20, 2012, on All Things Considered).

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Books
Arts

True Originals: Biographies That Defy Expectations

6:26pm December 28, 2012

by Michael Schaub

Our list of this year's best biographies focuses on books about individuals who lived their lives off the beaten path. From the story of a spy turned chef to the story of the real Count of Monte Cristo, these books chronicle subjects who refused to conform to the expectations of others.

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