Linguist Geoff Nunberg considers the sending of Valentine's messages via telephone, the postal system, and e-mail. What does it say about the evolution of personal communication?
The filmmaker has released a new Valentine's Day album called A Date with John Waters. It's a compilation of love songs including Mink Stole's "Sometimes I Wish I Had a Gun" and the late Edith Massey (aka the Egg Lady) singing "Big Girls Don't Cry."
Underground comic book artist Robert Crumb created ZAP COMIX and is the artist behind such 1960s and 1970s icons as Mr. Natural, Fritz the Cat, and Keep-on-Truckin. His wife, Aline Kominsky Crumb, was one of the earliest underground female cartoonists. Her new book, Need More Love: A Graphic Memoir, chronicles her life and career. Robert's new book is The Sweeter Side of R. Crumb.
The famous, or perhaps notorious, model Anna Nicole Smith died last week, prompting a tsunami of media coverage. Here's a look at the reasons for all the hoopla. One shouldn't be embarrassed about finding her story fascinating.
Writer Nuruddin Farah's new novel, Knots, is about the terrible conditions for women in Somalia. The central character is a Somali-Canadian woman who returns to Mogadiscio, her native city.
Investigative reporter Lowell Bergman is the producer of the new documentary, News War: Secrets, Spin and the Future of the News. The series is about the mainstream news media and the political, legal and economic forces at play.
Lead singer/guitarist Pat DiNizio and drummer Dennis Diken from the band The Smithereens. Their new album, Meet the Smithereens, is a track-by-track homage to the Beatles' Meet the Beatles.
Joe Hunter, who died last week at the age of 79, was one of the Funk Brothers, the session musicians who helped create the Motown Sound. He could be heard on such hits as "Money" by Barrett Strong, "Shop Around" by The Miracles and "Heat Wave" by Martha and the Vandellas. This interview originally aired on Nov. 18, 2002.
A review of a new collection of James Brown's first four years of singles: James Brown: The Singles: The Federal Years 1956-1960 (Hip-O Select). James Brown was one of the most distinctive and influential musical figures of the last half-century. He was a one-of-a-kind performer, which wasn't always something that worked in his favor.
Actor Mark Wahlberg is an Academy Award nominee for best supporting actor for his role as a police sergeant in the film The Departed. After a number of smaller film roles, Wahlberg became known for his role as a porn star in Boogie Nights. Wahlberg's other films include The Perfect Storm, Three Kings, The Italian Job, and Invincible.
Singer Frankie Laine gained TV immortality by singing the theme of Rawhide. He first became successful as a jazz singer recording standards like "Black and Blue" and "West End Blues." (RB of 7/29/87)
German writer and director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's movie, The Lives of Others, has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
Donnersmarck writes that his film is "a human drama about the ability of human beings to do the right thing, no matter how far they have gone down the wrong path."
When Elif Shafak's novel The Bastard of Istanbul was published in her home country, the best-selling author was was accused of "public denigration of Turkishness." She was eventually acquitted. As many as 60 writers, journalists, publishers, scholars and intellectuals have been prosecuted under the Turkish penal code. One of them was editor Hrant Dink, who was assassinated last month by a Turkish fanatic.
In his new book, Dr. Michael Stein uses the stories of patients, including that of his terminally ill brother-in-law, to explore the personal side of sickness. Stein, a professor of medicine and community health at Brown University Medical School, discusses The Lonely Patient: How We Experience Illness.
Directors Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton, and writer Michael Arndt. Little Miss Sunshine, their bittersweet film about a dysfunctional family, has been nominated for four Academy Awards. This was Faris and Dayton's feature film debut after directing hundreds of music videos, and also the first screenplay of Arndt's to be produced.
Writer Jon Mooallem wrote "Designer-Dog Fights," a story in the New York Times Magazine about the breeders who breed dogs to create a canine with a particular mix of behavioral and physical characteristics.
In this week's issue of The New Yorker, Michael Specter writes about the murders of 13 journalists in Russia that have taken place since Vladimir Putin took office in 1999. Specter's article is "Kremlin, Inc: Why are Vladimir Putin's opponents dying?"
