Pollock’s Legend Still Splattered On Art World
Even a century since his birth, American “splatter artist” Jackson Pollock still provokes heated debate about the very definition of art. Was a man who placed a canvas on the floor and dripped paint straight from the can actually creating a work of art? “It’s very hard if you try to build the paint up [...]
Fresh Air Weekend: Glocks, David Milch, The Smiths
Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors, and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week: How The Glock Became America’s Weapon Of Choice: In his book Glock: [...]
Newbery Medal Winner Jack Gantos Plays Not My Job
On Monday, Jack Gantos won the Newbery Medal, the highest award in children’s literature, for his novel Dead End in Norvelt. He’s also written the Rotten Ralph series for kids, several novels … oh, and a memoir about the 18 months he spent in a federal penitentiary on drug-smuggling charges. (We don’t know if that [...]
‘Star’-Crossed: When Teens With Cancer Fall In Love
You wouldn’t necessarily think of a cancer support group as a place where teens meet and fall in love — but that’s exactly what happens to Hazel and Augustus, the young protagonists in The Fault in Our Stars, the latest from author John Green. Hazel is 16 — she has thyroid cancer with a “satellite” [...]
‘How It All Began’: A Lively Ode To Happenstance
British writer Penelope Lively was in her late 30s before she began her career writing children’s books. Now, four decades and 20 works of fiction later, she has just released the novel How It All Began, in which she explores the capricious role that chance plays in our lives. Lively’s lifetime habit of storytelling began [...]
‘Smash’ Stars An ‘Interesting Tribe’: Theater People
NBC’s new drama, Smash, plumbs the drama behind the curtain. The series is the story of a Broadway musical — from the first idea, to auditions, rehearsals and the big premiere. Theresa Rebeck is the show’s creator and executive producer. She’s also a screenwriter, playwright and a Broadway veteran — with a hit play “Seminar,” [...]
Newspoet: Tracy K. Smith Writes The Day In Verse
Today marks the start of an exciting project at All Things Considered. Each month we’ll be bringing in a poet to spend time in the newsroom — and at the end — to compose a poem reflecting on the day’s news. The first poet to participate is Tracy K. Smith. She has received degrees in [...]
Movie Titles That Might Have Been
Shrek, Hitch, Gattaca: What’s in a name? Shakespeare said a rose by any other name would smell as sweet — but for Hollywood the question is more like, “Would that rose, by any other name, sell as many tickets?” On a trip to Latin America recently, I saw a theater poster for a musical direct [...]
In ‘Shoot My Man,’ Mosley Tells Tale Of Atonement
In All I Did Was Shoot My Man, author Walter Mosley takes readers back into the world of private investigator Leonid McGill. The novel is Mosley’s fourth thriller featuring the New York City PI, and this time, he’s wrapped up with the case of a woman named Zella Grisham. Grisham has just served eight years [...]
Farewell To An Unlikely Hero: Why ‘Chuck’ Packed Such A Potent Punch
Tonight’s double episode marks the end of Chuck, NBC’s genial spy-nerd comedy that has existed on a perpetual cancellation bubble since its debut in 2007. Against overwhelming odds and in spite of eternally low ratings, Chuck’s life and death speaks in surprisingly potent ways to how television is changing. More than anything, Chuck is a [...]
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