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A Nostalgic, Yet Tainted Journey With The Beach Boys
In 2012, the band became another rock group that was celebrating its 50th anniversary. This year, it released Made in California, an eight-hour, six-disc retrospective of their career that, perhaps inadvertently, shows how this once-great force in American popular music faded from public view.mp3 file | windows media
How ALEC Serves As A 'Dating Service' For Politicians And Corporations
Leaked internal documents reveal new insights into the goals and finances of the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC brings together state legislators and representatives of corporations to develop model bills that lawmakers try to pass in their state legislatures.mp3 file | windows media
Danish 'Nightingale' Is Freshly Femininst, And Also Frustrating
Nina Borg, the heroine of Death of a Nightingale, is a Red Cross nurse on a mission to save the dispossessed. But she neglects her own family as she rescues those in need in Agnete Friis and Lene Kaaberbol's elaborately plotted page-turner.mp3 file | windows media
Delia Ephron On The Closeness And Complexity Of Sisterhood
Novelist Delia Ephron says that losing her older sister Nora was like "losing an arm." But for all their collaboration and closeness, Delia writes about the complications of sisterhood in her new collection of autobiographical essays, Sister Mother Husband Dog (etc.).mp3 file | windows media
Fresh Air Weekend: Alexander Payne, Baby Photos And Ted Williams
Director Alexander Payne talks about his new film Nebraska. Alexis Madrigal explores the best way to share photos of his new baby. And Ben Bradlee Jr. talks about The Kid, his new biography of baseball player Ted Williams.mp3 file | windows media
Delightful 'Six By Sondheim' Leaves You Wanting Six More
HBO's new TV special is part biography, part music-appreciation lesson and part performance piece. Critic David Bianculli says it's a superbly compiled work, overseen by two of the people most intimately familiar with the composer himself.mp3 file | windows media
Great Soundtrack Aside, 'Inside Llewyn Davis' Hits A Sour Note
Brothers Joel and Ethan Coen continue to mine American pop culture in their latest film. It's 1961 in Greenwich Village, and a homeless folk singer is trying desperately to break out. Critic David Edelstein says the overarching tone of the film is snotty, condescending and cruel.mp3 file | windows media
'On Sondheim': The Musical-Theater Legend At 80
The New York Times calls Stephen Sondheim the "greatest and perhaps best-known artist in American musical theater." Sondheim composed the music and lyrics for, among others, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods and Company. In 2010 he joined Fresh Air to discuss his career in musical theater.mp3 file | windows media
'Pearl Earring' Is The Crown Jewel Of The Frick's Dutch Exhibit
New York City is home to more paintings by Johannes Vermeer — eight — than any other city. And until mid-January, it's playing host to one more: the world-renowned Girl with a Pearl Earring. Critic Lloyd Schwartz says, since the painting's 1994 restoration, "It's even more breathtaking than I remembered."mp3 file | windows media