Best known as a founding member of the Grateful Dead, Weir goes solo on his new album, which was inspired by his time working as a ranch hand in Wyoming as a teen. Critic Ken Tucker has a review.
In his new book Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods, Michael Wex explores the history and culture of Yiddish: its complaints, curses and codes.
Britt Bennett's debut novel centers on three African-American friends dealing with their community's expectations and their own mistakes. Critic Maureen Corrigan says it is full of "mini epiphanies."
Safran Foer's new novel, Here I Am, is told from the points of view of different members of a Jewish family. He says it's about things falling apart — but also about "people trying to mend things."
Actress Gaby Hoffman on being a child actress, her unconventional childhood growing up in Manhatten's Chelsea Hotel where Andy Warhol lived as well as other artists, performers, and outcasts. And she'll talk about her role on Transparent, and her recurring role on Girls.
The new movie, which tells the story of Nat Turner's 1831 slave revolt, is a righteous-vigilante tale — and an answer to D.W. Griffith's 1915 film of the same name.
Dacus mixes plainspoken language with rock-music instrumentation on her debut album. Critic Ken Tucker says the singer-songwriter's vulnerability goes against the grain of much current pop music.
Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a new documentary, Ballets Russes, just out on DVD. It tells the story of ballet after the death of Sergei Diaghilev, who founded and ran the company until 1929.
Producer, composer and arranger Thom Bell was one of the prime originators of the Sound of Philadelphia, creating hits with the Delfonics such as "La La La Means I Love You" and "Didn't I Blow Your Mind." Bell was born in Jamaica and moved to Philadelphia at age 5. He planned to become a classical conductor, but in his early 20s, he was signed by Cameo Records to create a Philadelphia version of Motown.
Andrea Arnold's new movie about a teenage girl who takes up with an unusual group of salespeople won a the Jury Prize at Cannes this year. Critic David Edelstein calls it a "wonderful" film.
Series executive producer Stephen Falk and and co-star Aya Cash discuss their TV show "You're the Worst." FAlk says that the characters, Jimmy and Gretchen, are "stand-ins for the dark parts of all of us that are still deserving of love at the end of the day."
Arnold's latest film, which won the Jury Prize at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, tells the story of a group of abandoned teenagers who travel together selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door.
He's been awarded the 2005 Pianist of the Year award by the Jazz Journalist's Association, and he also received the first ever 2005 Playboy Magazine Jazz Artist of the Year. His new album is called Same Mother, which reflects the 30-year-old musician's current interest in the blues.
