Arts & Life

The Show that Never Ends, by David Weigel

Prog Rock Gets Some Respect In 'The Show That Never Ends'

12:33pm June 13, 2017

by Jason Heller

David Weigel is primarily a political reporter, but in The Show that Never Ends he spins his love of prog rock into a detailed, affectionate history of a genre that's never completely gone away.

One of Fallen Fruit's public art installations — a fruit tree in a planter at the Los Angeles State Historic Park.

This Art Group Installs Pick-Your-Own-Fruit Parks Around Los Angeles

11:21am June 13, 2017

by Clarissa Wei

Since 2004, the group Fallen Fruit has been planting fruit trees around the city and across the U.S. Once mature, the trees produce hundreds of pounds of produce a year — all free to the public.

Books
Arts

'So Much Blue' Is Percival Everett's Best Yet

10:56am June 13, 2017

by Michael Schaub

By turns funny, shocking and heartbreaking, Everett's new novel follows a painter who's deeply ambivalent about his apparently idyllic life and digs into the moments in his past that shaped him.

Ben Platt performing "Waving Through A Window" from Dear Evan Hansen at Sunday night's Tony Awards.

At The Tonys, 'Dear Evan Hansen' Has A Big Night In A Dark Season

10:36pm June 12, 2017

by Linda Holmes

The 2017 Tony Awards weren't a coronation of any one show, but it was hard not to notice a theme of pointed social and political thought behind many of the winners.

Allison Williams and Daniel Kaluuya star in Jordan Peele's Get Out. Click here for a review.

Arts

50 Years After 'Loving,' Hollywood Still Struggles With Interracial Romance

6:36pm June 12, 2017

by Bob Mondello

Hollywood's long history of not putting interracial romance on-screen goes all the way back to the Hays Code, which prohibited the depiction of "sex relationships between the white and black races."

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Sponsors Pull Support For 'Julius Caesar' That Seems To Depict Trump

5:01pm June 12, 2017

by Jeff Lunden

Delta pulled its sponsorship of New York City's Public Theater over a production of Julius Caesar that seems to depict an assassination of President Trump.

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A visitor stands in front of Masterpiece during a press preview of "Lichtenstein, a Retrospective" at the Tate Modern in London in 2013. The iconic painting was owned by Agnes Gund, who recently sold it to fund a new criminal justice reform fund.

Art Collector Sells A Lichtenstein For $165 Million To Fund Criminal Justice Reform

2:29pm June 12, 2017

by Camila Domonoske

Agnes Gund sold Roy Lichtenstein's Masterpiece for an eye-popping sum to support the new Art For Justice Fund. The group will fight against mass incarceration and support released prisoners.

'Hue 1968' Revisits An American 'Turning Point' In The War In Vietnam

1:38pm June 12, 2017

Author Mark Bowden says the capture of Hue, Vietnam, was part of a wave of well-planned Communist attacks that shocked American commanders and helped turn U.S. public opinion against the war.

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Kat Thek's New York City bakery, Troll Cakes, sends Internet trolls baked goods with their words written on them.

This Baker Makes Internet Trolls Eat Their Words — Literally

11:26am June 12, 2017

by Noor Wazwaz

Tempted to respond back to Internet harassers? New York City baker Kat Thek does just that. Her company, Troll Cakes, will find your perpetrator and send them a cake with their words written on it.

Arts

In 'The Hero,' Sam Elliott Continues His Career Renaissance

5:46pm June 11, 2017

NPR's Lakshmi Singh speaks with actor Sam Elliott about his new film, "The Hero." Sam Elliott plays an aging actor, coming to terms with his mortality and a career as a typecast cowboy.