We remember fireman turned writer Larry Brown. He died last week. He was 53. At the age of 29, Brown decided to become an author, and taught himself fiction writing. He moved from short stories for motorcycle magazines to critically acclaimed works in literary journals to a novel, Dirty Work.
The complete 45-episode series of the TV show Pee-Wee's Playhouse is now out on DVD. Reubens originally created the Pee-Wee character at the Los Angeles improv group called The Groundlings. Pee-Wee's Playhouse went on the air in 1986. It ran on CBS for 5 years, garnering 22 Emmys.
Some of classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz's favorite movie themes just happen to belong to films just released on DVD. He reviews four of them: Gone with the Wind, Freaks, I Vitelloni, and The Golden Coach.
His new book is In Search of Paul: How Jesus' Apostle Opposed Rome's Empire with God's Kingdom. Crossan looks at the life of Paul, and describes how the most important Christian value is justice. Crossan is professor emeritus of De Paul University, and is considered by some to be the foremost scholar of historical Jesus. His The Historical Jesus is an alternative and fact-based look at the life of Christ.
Actress Sandra Oh, now seen in the film Sideways, is becoming a familiar face to both TV and movie audiences.
Oh began her career on Canadian television before coming to the United States. She gained notice as an intrepid assistant on the HBO series Arli$$, for which she won a Cable Ace award. Her films include Under the Tuscan Sun, Bean, and The Red Violin. She has also appeared in episodes of Six Feet Under and Judging Amy.
After a chart-topping and occasionally controversial music career, she is now turning out children's books, publishing four in just over a year. Her latest is The Adventures of Abdi. The others are The English Roses, Mr. Peabody's Apples and Yakov and the Seven Thieves. Her fifth, Lotsa de Casha, is due out in April 2005.
Ken Tucker reviews Kimya Dawson's 'Hidden Vagenda' and finds her hidden agenda might be to sing about death. He says she taps into childhood's honesty to achieve maximum adulthood.
As part of the first cast of Saturday Night Live, Dan Aykroyd helped bring the Coneheads and the Blues Brothers to life.
He went on to star in a number of films, including Trading Places and Grosse Pointe Blank. He also received an Academy Award nomination for his role in Driving Miss Daisy.
We talk with Aykroyd about his two latest projects: the book Elwood's Blues: Interviews with the Blues Legends and Stars, and the upcoming movie Christmas with the Kranks.
Critic David Edelstein reviews The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, now in theaters. He calls the TV cartoon that spawned the animated film "a joyful spasm of whacked-out surrealism," but says the film has a much more straightforward plot and some pedestrian characters.
We feature an excerpt from the radio program Leonard Bernstein: An American Life. The 11-part documentary series is about the life and work of the preeminent American composer/conductor. It's produced by Steve Rowland, narrated by Susan Sarandon, and distributed by WFMT - Chicago.
Writer Augusten Burroughs is the author of two best-selling, often bitingly funny memoirs. In his first, Running With Scissors, he recalled his mentally ill mother, who gave him away to her equally mentally ill shrink — who then adopted him. Of that experience, Burroughs wrote, "I then lived a life of squalor, pedophiles, no schools and free pills." His second memoir, Dry, was about getting sober in a 28-day stay at a gay alcoholism-rehab center. Burroughs' new book is a collection of stories, Magical Thinking.
James Bennet is the former Jerusalem Bureau chief for The New York Times. He recently returned to the Middle East to cover the death of Arafat and the jockeying for power among the Palestinian factions.
Caouette made his filmmaking debut with the autobiographical documentary Tarnation. He made it on his home computer for only $218. It includes snapshots, super-8 home movies, answering machine messages and dramatic reenactments from his chaotic upbringing in a dysfunctional Texas family.
Pickett's novel Sideways has been made into a critically acclaimed film starring Thomas Paul Giamatti and Haden Church (left). It's about two ex-college roommates, now middle-aged, who set off on a week's trip through California wine country.
Critic John Powers reviews a new DVD of John Cassavetes films. It includes Shadows, Faces, A Woman Under the Influence, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie and Opening Night.
Film critic David Edelstein reviews Kinsey, the film starring Liam Neeson as the famous Dr. Alfred Kinsey who conducted the first scientific studies on human sexual behavior.
