Arts & Life

Books
Arts

An Afghan Author On Losing Her Homeland — For The Second Time

9:22am August 26, 2021

by Nadia Hashimi

"It is too cruel to ask if it hurts more the first or second time a homeland is lost," says Afghan American author Nadia Hashimi, whose parents are from Kabul. "I know one never becomes numb to it."

The Healing Memorial In Detroit Supports Collective COVID Grief

5:55am August 26, 2021

A new art installation will be unveiled this month in Detroit in remembrance of those lost to or impacted by COVID-19. Artist Sonya Clark explains the meaning of The Healing Memorial.

Bob Ross hosted The Joy of Painting for 31 seasons in the 1980s and '90s. He died in 1995. The painter is now the subject of a new documentary, Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed.

Arts

Bob Ross Documentary Filmmakers Ran Into Some Happy Little Legal Hurdles

8:00pm August 25, 2021

by Audie Cornish

Actor Melissa McCarthy and her husband, filmmaker Ben Falcone, are big fans of Ross. But they found it was difficult to land interviews about the celebrity painter — people were scared of being sued.

Artificial intelligence brain by particle form.

In 'Dopamine Nation,' Overabundance Keeps Us Craving More

2:34pm August 25, 2021

by Terry Gross

Psychiatrist Anna Lembke's new book explores the brain's connection between pleasure and pain. It also helps explain addictions — not just to drugs and alcohol, but also to food, sex and smartphones.

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Books
Arts

Think You Know Where The Stories In 'Skinship' Are Going? Think Again

12:16pm August 25, 2021

by Maureen Corrigan

The eight short stories in Yoon Choi's extraordinary collection splinter out in unexpected ways, shifting focus from a single life to decades of complex family history.

Charlie Watts performs at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., with the Rolling Stones in 2019.

Appreciating Charlie Watts, The Rolling Stones' Understated Drum Master

12:05pm August 25, 2021

by Eric Deggans

Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, who died on Tuesday, played with a deceptively simple style that took some fans time to appreciate.

Nirvana artifacts and exhibits are seen at the opening of In Bloom: The Nirvana Exhibition, at a London art gallery on Sept. 13, 2011. The album's 20th anniversary featured a $20 bill, but the original album had a $1 bill.

Man Photographed As A Baby On 'Nevermind' Cover Sues Nirvana For Sexual Exploitation

11:41am August 25, 2021

by Deepa Shivaram

Now 30 years old, Spencer Elden, the naked baby on Nirvana's iconic cover, is suing the band, the photographer and the record labels that he says profited from the image.

One In A Million took Aaliyah's air of mystery and the laid-back vibes, and reworked them to help pioneer a new way forward in pop and R&B.

What Made Aaliyah So Special Is More Complicated Than It Seems

10:53am August 25, 2021

by Aisha Harris

At 14, she stood out for her cool and "mature" demeanor. But at the heart of that persona was a youth lost too soon.

'Seeing Ghosts' Navigates The Melancholia Of Loss — Of People, Places And Identities

6:16am August 25, 2021

by Kristen Martin

While this book would not exist without Kat Chow's grief — while Chow would not be the person she is now without that grief — her project here aims for more than just mapping her primal anguish.

Hung Liu, Resident Alien, 1988. Oil on canvas. Collection of the San Jose Museum of Art, gift of the Lipman Family Foundation.

Arts

Remembering Hung Liu, A Portraitist Who Memorialized The Invisible

5:53am August 25, 2021

by Chloe Veltman

A career retrospective for the Oakland-based Chinese-American painter, who died on Aug. 7, opens at the National Portrait Gallery on August 27.