A Jazz Musician Carves Out a Funk Niche

Writer Fouad Ajami joins Fresh Air to talk about Beirut, and how it attracted Lebanese who lived in the countryside. The civil war in Lebanon, Ajami says, has led to a collapse of the country's cultural and religious pluralism, which is born out in several internecine conflicts.

Novelist Donald Westlake has written everything, from confession stories to westerns to science fiction. But he's found the most success with his mystery and crime stories. He wrote a series of novels under the name Richard Stark featuring an emotionless criminal named Parker; his newest book, Trust Me on This, is a humorous tale of a tabloid journalist.

TV critic David Bianculli wasn't impressed by the often intrusive coverage of last week's DNC. But watching clips of past conventions on C-SPAN, he was thrilled to see footage of politicians in their prime.