Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead says the group Five Elements isn't his favorite setting for saxophonist Steve Coleman, but Sine Die is their strongest work yet. Cassandra Wilson contributions are a real highlight; she contributes vocals to four songs.
Underground cartoonist Kim Deitch. In 1967 he began doing comic strips for the "East Village Other" where he introduced his more famous characters, Waldo the Cat, and Uncle Ed, the India Rubber Man. Since then he has contributed to dozens of underground comics.
Blue Jasmine finds the filmmaker stuck in old ruts; though his technique is as sound as ever, his worldview seems to have congealed decades ago. Cate Blanchett, Sally Hawkins and Alec Baldwin star in a story inspired by Bernie Madoff and Blanche DuBois.
Author Lisa Servon says a growing number of Americans are giving up on traditional banks and relying instead on alternatives, including prepaid debit cards, check-cashing centers and payday lenders.
In the book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, neurologist Oliver Sacks explores the relationship between music and the mind.
Through a series of case studies ranging from songs stuck in one's mind to a newfound passion for concert piano after being struck by lightning, the professor of Neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the NYU School of Medicine examines the complexity of human beings and the role music plays in our lives.
Rowlands won acclaim for her performance in "A Woman Under the Influence" and "Gloria." She collaborated with her late husband actor/screenwriter/and director John Cassavetes for thirty years. Rowlands is starring in the new film "Unhook the Stars" in which she plays Mildred, a middle-aged woman who finds herself at a crucial turning point in her life. The film was written and directed by Rowland's son, Nick Cassavetes.
Ken Tucker reviews the new home video release titled "A Young Children's Concert with Raffi." Raffi is a singer of children's songs that adults find catchy as well.
Baker, one of America's great rhythm-and-blues singers of the 1950's, died earlier this week. She was 67. The Associated Press says the cause was heart complications. Baker was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. Her hits included "Tweedlee Dee," "Jim Dandy," and "I Cried a Tear." After living in the Philippines during the '70's and '80's, Baker made a comeback in the '90's when she appeared on Broadway in "Black and Blue." (REBROADCAST FROM 3/26/91).
Constitutional lawyer Douglas Kmiec supports the new security measures instituted since the September 11th attacks. He is Dean and St. Thomas More professor, at the Catholic University of America. He also was head of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Reagan administration. He can often be seen on PBS's News Hour with Jim Lehrer. His most recent book is "Individual Rights and the American Constitution."
You'd have to be dedicated to your work to set yourself aflame for "research purposes" — but author Kevin Conley did just that. His new book catalogs his four years spent following Hollywood stuntmen.
Writer/director Nicole Holofcener. Her new film Lovely and Amazing is a comedy about the insecurities that many women have about their appearance. It stars Catherine Keener, Brenda Blethyn and Dermot Mulroney. Holofcener also wrote the screenplay for the film Walking and Talking.
Leigh's social-realist comedies depict British working class life. He begins work on his films without a script, piecing them together from improvisations with his cast. His latest film is Vera Drake about a working class woman in Britain in the 1950s who secretly performs abortions.
A new biography tells the story of Buck's Chinese childhood, as the daughter of zealous missionaries. In Pearl Buck in China, Hilary Spurling makes a compelling case for a reappraisal of Buck's fiction -- transforming her from dreary "lady author" into woman warrior.
Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Freud, Dora, and Vienna 1900," by historian Hannah S. Decker. It's an account of Sigmund Freud's work with his patient Dora -- a case which has often been viewed and critiqued through the lens of contemporary feminist scholarship.
Activist Michael Harrington has been a leader of the American left for the last thirty years. In the 1950s, he was the associate editor of The Catholic Worker, a socialist, Catholic newspaper. In the 1960s, he worked with the Civil Rights movement, including joining Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Advisory Committee. He was also active in the labor movement and worked against the war in Vietnam. Harrington chaired the Socialist Party from 1968-1972, and has been the National Chair of the Democratic National Socialists of America since 1973.
Medical journalist Jeanne Lenzer warns that implanted medical devices are approved with far less scrutiny and testing than drugs. As a result, she says, some have caused harm and even death.
Julia Sweeney is currently performing a one-woman show called "Letting Go of God" at the off-off-Broadway theater in Manhattan. A Saturday Night Live cast alum, Sweeney also wrote and performed the 1996 Broadway show "God Said, Ha!" Her films include Pulp Fiction, Clockstoppers and It's Pat, based on her gender-confused character on SNL.
Dean Burnett says the human brain is like a computer that files information in a way that defies logic. According to Burnett, brains can alter memory, cause motion sickness and affect intelligence.
The ACLU recently announced its Arts Censors of the Year, a list that includes acting NEA chair Anne-Imelda Radice, Rev. Donald Wildmon, Oliver North, feminist Catherine MacKinnon, and the Duval County, Florida Public School District. We talk with Marjorie Heins, the director of the ACLU's Arts Censorship Project, about what earned the aforementioned this dubious distinction.
In 1968, jazz pianist Bill Evans led a trio with Jack DeJohnette and Eddie Gomez. They spent five weeks in Europe; a newly unearthed concert recording catches them live in a Dutch radio studio.
