The 'In Character' Blog
 
 
February 27, 2008

Your Turn: Captain America

From Marvel Comics, created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
Nominated by Kevin Spooner

Captain America.

 

Marvel Comics

When I think of a fictional role model and hero, I immediately find myself thinking of Captain America, as he has always seemed to be a focal lens for the issues of the day that have preoccupied our nation.

He has maintained his relevance constantly from the 1940s, when he served as a banner behind which our nation could rally to fight the Axis powers, to modern times, when he stood up to (and was subsequently martyred by) his own government for adopting invasive and unconstitutional principles.

He has always served as a symbol of strength and honor for our nation. He's the pinnacle of what an Everyman can achieve, as resilient as his unbreakable shield. Captain America captures what is truly great about us as a people.

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Your Turn: Carroll "Toddy" Todd

From Victor/Victoria, directed by Blake Edwards
Nominated by Chris Nelson

Why choose a gay cabaret performer in a Julie Andrews musical set in 1930s Paris? Well, for an 11-year-old boy sitting in the dark next to his mother in 1982, he meant everything!

Toddy was warm, loving, and yes, fabulous, but he was more than that: He was presented as utterly normal. He was the perfect best friend, he enjoyed a good laugh at his own expense, he even got a hunky boyfriend! If you don't think that a role model like that wasn't important to a pre-teen during the Reagan years, you need to get out more.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Carroll "Toddy" Todd" »

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Your Turn: Nan Wu

From A Free Life by Ha Jin
Nominated by Valerie Mendenhall Cohen

Nan is the main character - "hero" would be quite the wrong word - of this brilliant novel about Chinese immigrants in America. Nan is the absolute antithesis of some personae mentioned in the "In Character" series (you know, gun-toting saviors, corporate bad-guys in good suits, well-groomed dogs, and so on).

Nan does not prevail over nasty people, nor does he perform brave deeds in dangerous situations. No, he simply puts his head down, day after day and year after year, with a patience that is in the end far braver than the startling acts of other "heroes."

Continue reading "Your Turn: Nan Wu" »

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Back on the 'In Character' Job

Hi, all. So it's been quiet around here the last few days. 'Course by "here" I mean on the blog, because it certainly hasn't been quiet at NPR. I've been a little busy with Oscars ('cause, among other things, I handle most of the movies pages you see on NPR.org). But we're all done with that, and I've even had a day off to recharge, so we're back in the game.

We're looking at Hester Prynne and Harriet the Spy -- both defiant individualists, those two, though in rather different ways -- this coming weekend. Looking forward to what NPR's Andrea Seabrook (Hester) and Neva Grant (Harriet) have to say about them. And to your feedback, naturally.

As for what we'll do with those stories on the Web, who knows? It's early yet. [ducking, because Elizabeth is probably going to take a swing now]

Actually it's looking like I'll have a few nice extras for you on the Hester Prynne, at a minimum. Andrea's producer, Tina Tennesen, tells me they were able to get John Updike on the phone to talk about Hester, and I'm hoping we'll have some extended excerpts from that conversation. Plus maybe some scenes from various film and TV versions of the story ...

Meanwhile: Never mind that the lowest-ranked Oscar ceremony in history has confirmed what we suspected, which was that Americans who haven't' seen the nominated movies certainly aren't' going to think of the Oscars as appointment TV. I suspect NPR's audience might be outliers in that crowd, so maybe it's worth asking how many of you did catch the Best Picture candidates, and whether any of their characters lit a fire in your imaginations.

So c'mon, send in those In the Wake of Oscar nominations!

-- Trey Graham

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February 26, 2008

Your Turn: Hank Stamper

From Sometimes A Great Notion. Book by Ken Kesey, movie directed by Paul Newman
Nominated by Wayne Thompson

A woman I once knew said that this novel saved her life -- she read it while in the hospital being treated for cancer.

"What's it about?"

"Its about a family that runs a sawmill."

Hmmm . . . and so it was three years later that I opened its green-lettered white cover, and a wild world of forests, river, men and women opened before my mind's eye.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Hank Stamper" »

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February 19, 2008

Your Turn: Marge Gunderson

From Fargo, directed by the Coen Brothers
Nominated by Laura Toepfer

Frances McDormand as Marge Gunderson.

Driven: Fargo's unflappable Marge Gunderson.

Gramercy Pictures

Marge Gunderson does not fit the mold of movie character cops. She's neither urban nor urbane. She's not hard-boiled or emotionally broken. She eats at the buffet, not at the bar. She's her own woman but doesn't need to demand it, and that's what makes her strong.

It's her strength that remains with me, and she showed me how to be independent while still asking for help. "Prowler needs a jump," is one of my favorite lines in the movie.

But her independence is genuine. She doesn't need to be rescued in the end. Instead, she can sorrowfully and optimistically tell the killer she has captured that it is, in her world, a beautiful day. She helps us to see that it is.

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Your Turn: Frasier Crane

From the TV series Cheers, created by James Burrows and Frasier, created by David Angell
Nominated by Kelly Dean Hansen

When Frasier Crane was introduced on Cheers as a recurring romantic rival, the eventual longest-running character in television history was humbly born.

Kelsey Grammer's inimitable portrayal of the pompous, metrosexual shrink who endlessly engages in self-destructive behavior allowed us to deeply adore the man, flawed as he was. We love Frasier because even though he can't manage his own life, the advice he gives to others, particularly his family, is almost always perfect.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Frasier Crane" »

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Your Turn: Optimus Prime

From the Transformers franchise, created by the Takara and Hasbro toy companies
Nominated by Jennifer Kuntz

As a child of the 80s I learned that the best things in life were supposed to be big, powerful and manly. When it came to TV characters the biggest, most manly, most powerful robot was, of course, Optimus Prime. Mostly it was that voice. A slightly smoky baritone, strong and clear. He sounded like a hero. And he CARED about people. He would put himself in harm's way to protect others. You can call it hackneyed, but when I was 12 it was glorious.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Optimus Prime" »

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Your Turn: Tweety Bird

From Warner Bros. Looney Tunes
Nominated by Judy Silva

If I'd been asked if an American fictional character captured in any way who I was, I would've said "no" and chuckled about it. But come to think of it, on a much deeper "inner-child" level, I'd have to say the answer is yes.

Tweety Bird has mesmerized me since I could barely talk on my own. Now I have to wonder if it was something beyond the cuteness of my feathered friend. I believe that subconsciously I could relate. Could it be that my personality was much like Tweety's? Was I conniving, mischievous and an instigator while putting on the premise that I was not any of that? Ask anyone, and they'll tell you I was a sweet, giving, polite and peace-loving child. But was I?

My whole life, I've been like Tweety Bird, conniving and instigating any "Sylvester" unfortunate enough to fall prey to my game. It's true what they say: "Birds of a feather flock together."

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February 17, 2008

On Air: Gordon Gekko

» Hear the 'Weekend Edition Sunday' radio commentary

Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko.

This morning, biz reporter Jim Zarroli digs into one of the movies' most famous claims: "Greed is good."

Did you know there's a sequel in the works? The screenwriter tells Zarroli that Michael Douglas' Gekko was so charismatic that he undercut the movie's cautionary-tale impulse:

"What do you want to be coming out of the movie? Do you want to be Bud Fox, broken and downtrodden and never having quite made it? Or do you want to be Gordon Gekko, who, yeah he's going to jail, but what a swashbuckler he was until the very last moment?"

Check it out.

-- Trey Graham

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February 15, 2008

Your Turn: Seymour Glass

From J.D. Salinger's Glass family stories
Nominated by Andrew Schlewitz

I first read the Seymour stories in my mid-twenties, while working in Guatemala as a Peace Corps volunteer. I had been drifting away from my staunch Lutheran roots, feeling a bit spiritually disoriented, and living abroad in a very difficult job added to that feeling.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Seymour Glass" »

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Your Turn: Julia Sugarbaker

From Designing Women, created by Bill Kenny
Nominated by Consuelo Hummons

Julia Sugarbaker is "everywoman." When my father was absent and my mother was every woman and man, it was reassuring to see this character that was so like my mother on television. She had a sharp tongue and an even temper, she was glamorous and brilliant, and NOBODY messed with Julia. It helped me to recognize these traits in my mother and appreciate what she did for us.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Julia Sugarbaker" »

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Your Turn: Chance (Chauncey) the Gardiner

From Being There, written by Jerzy Kosinski
film directed by Hal Ashby
Nominated by Mark Peterson

Nearly 40 years ago Jerzy Kosinski created a character so self absorbed in his media and his own narrowly-defined life that he wavered between the comic and the pathetic. Circumstances thrust Chauncey Gardiner into the larger world that existed beyond his father's estate grounds. Armed only with his TV remote control and his small subset of knowledge gained from television shows and gardening, Gardiner triumphed.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Chance (Chauncey) the Gardiner" »

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February 14, 2008

Your Turn: Charlotte A. Cavatica

From Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White
Nominated by Fran Glick

As an avid reader and a school librarian, I have been fortunate to know many characters in diverse works of fiction written for children and adults. My fourth grade teacher contributed to my development with her daily read-alouds. She chose the best books! It was in her classroom that I met Charlotte A. Cavatica, the heroine of Charlotte's Web by E.B. White.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Charlotte A. Cavatica" »

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Your Turn: Bender Bending Rodriguez

From Futurama, created by Matt Groening
Nominated by Travis Larchuck

The short-lived and then revived animated program Futurama features a futuristic New York populated by aliens and mutants. So it's ironic that the most human character on the show is a robot by the name of Bender Bending Rodriguez.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Bender Bending Rodriguez" »

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February 11, 2008

On Air: The Little Tramp

» Hear the 'All Things Considered' radio commentary

Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) impersonates Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp

An icon's icon: Lucy Carmichael (Lucille Ball, right, with Dick Martin) pays tribute to another classic comic figure: Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp.

Photo: Ralph Crane, Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
 

Editor's note: Turns out writing and producing an 8-minute radio essay wasn't enough to get all the Chaplin out of Bob Mondello's system. He offered up a sidebar on the best of the Little Tramp onscreen; I told him to save it for the blog. Enjoy. -- Trey Graham

When I was in college, I took only one film-appreciation class — cured me of them, actually. My professor had a sort of dictatorial way of talking about movies ... expected us to accept his judgment of them. As a budding critic, I was disinclined to accept without question anyone else's opinion.

One thing he made us memorize for the midterm was "the five greatest Chaplin films in order of their greatness." It was that last phrase that got me: I still remember he thought The Great Dictator was tops. But that was the one in which Chaplin was not the Little Tramp -- and even then I knew that was crazy.

Chaplin made dozens of films starring the Tramp, but only five full-length features. They're all pretty glorious, and though I have my personal favorite (Modern Times), I'll not argue if you like City Lights or Gold Rush better. (We might have a dustup if your fave is The Circus.

Otherwise, I'd say just enjoy. The five features, in order not of their greatness, but of their release:

The Kid (1921) The Little Tramp adopts a tyke (Jackie Coogan) and wades into serious sentimentality for the first time. Audiences complained that Chaplin was trying to take their comedy away, but they showed up in droves. Besides, Chaplin taught Jackie Coogan all his mannerisms, and watching the Kid doing the Tramp's tricks turns out to be every bit as funny as it is adorable.

The Gold Rush (1925) Much of the picture features the Little Tramp snowbound in a cabin while he's prospecting for gold with just one other prospector (Mack Swain as Big Jim McKay). But the film's scale is so grand that it's acknowledged as one of only two great silent-comedy epics. (The other is Buster Keaton's The General.) Highlights include the dance Chaplin does with dinner rolls, the boiled shoe he serves for Thanksgiving dinner, and the cabin teetering on the edge of a cliff.

The Circus (1928) A bedraggled circus entertains absolutely no one until the Little Tramp stumbles into the ring one afternoon and cracks up the audience without meaning to. The circus manager hires him immediately — the only problem being that the Tramp only makes people laugh when he's not trying to. He can't do it on purpose. Sort of a primer on comedy ... a little strained in spots, but a must for anyone who wants to know how comedy works.

City Lights (1931) Sentiment's in full glorious flower in this story of a blind flower seller who doesn't realize that the guy who's offered to pay for an operation so she'll see again is a tramp. (Chaplin as a boxer, street sweeper, buddy to an eccentric millionaire who only likes him when he's drunk.) All hilarious, and after laughing all through it, the ending wrings tears without even trying. Thought by many critics to be the Little Tramp's finest film.

Modern Times (1936) The last film in which the Little Tramp appeared is my unabashed favorite. At the height of the Depression, a down-on-his-luck Chaplin takes a job in a factory (and gets caught in its gears), takes a night-watchman job in a department store (and becomes a Nijinksky on roller skates), goes to jail, leads a protest rally, sings a song (the only time audiences ever heard the Tramp's voice) — and ends up with "the Girl" (Paulette Goddard). Transcendent.

-- Bob Mondello

Editor again here: Do make sure you check out the All Things Considered story. I promise you'll want to listen, when the audio is live, not just read it; Bob's essay is really lovely, and all the more impressive for being a radio piece about a silent film star. -- Trey Graham

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'In Character' Everywhere

In Character podcast logo.

That's right. We're a podcast now.

So click through, sign up, and take Cookie and the gang with you on your daily jog.

With the In Character podcast, you'll always have the latest radio story in your pocket. (For the Web extras, though, you'll have to click back to the series page at NPR.org.)

Thanks to Mike Katzif, Robert Spier, the NPR Digital Media tech team, and anybody we're overlooking. (Sorry, guys.)

--Trey Graham

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February 10, 2008

On Air: Cookie Monster

» Hear the 'All Things Considered' radio commentary

Watch the Video:


Elizabeth Blair led off this blog with a post that confessed her fondness for Cookie Monster. Now her magnificent obsession has made it to the radio -- and to the video.

As part of our In Character explorations, we convinced Cookie Monster to come to NPR's New York studios, where Elizabeth talked to him about the boundaries of his appetites -- and got him to answer a version of the Proust Questionnaire. The video is above, as well as on the story page.

Oh, and you'll definitely want to watch through to the end. Check the expression on Blair's face when Cookie pulls that [spoiler deleted] off the desk to eat it. If you're wondering what she's so alarmed about, I'm guessing it's whether she's going to have to pay for a replacement: Those things run thousands of dollars apiece.

--Trey Graham

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February 8, 2008

With a Fist in the Air

The Washington Post recently ran a story on a group of syndicated cartoonists planning a protest this weekend. They're targeting newspaper editors who choose not to syndicate one strip created by or featuring minorities because they're already publishing another strip -- often just one strip -- that meets that "diversity demand."

The cartoonists drew strips with similar plot lines -- all of which involve an older, white character lamenting the appearance of "politically correct" minority-drawn strips on the comics page.

While a story in The Root states that the cartoonists eschew calling their united effort a "protest," their decision strikes me as reminiscent of another character originally created in the comics, one whose unique combination of idealism and cynicism deserves recognition. And so, a Your Turn nomination:

Huey Freeman
From The Boondocks by Aaron MacGruder

Huey Freeman, from 'The Boondocks.

Truth to power: Boondocks firebrand Huey Freeman isn't the silent type.

Cartoon Network

His name is taken from Huey P. Newton, the co-founder of the Black Panther Party, and not without reason. The 10-year-old radical socialist Afrocentric activist grew up on Chicago's South Side with his younger brother, the wanna-be gangster Riley, where he experienced the debilitating effects that the United States' long history of racial discrimination had on poor African-Americans.

Their Grandfather Robert took them in when their family situation deteriorated, and moved them to the mostly white neighborhood of Woodcrest, whose denizens are met with his suspicion.

Although at times he seems to have an uncanny wisdom beyond his years, Huey is still 10. Other boys might enjoy science fiction; Huey's obsession is what the "mainstream" might call conspiracy theories. (He is, however, inexplicably skilled in the martial arts, which he uses to beat down enemies of black prosperity.)

Huey is usually depicted as the voice of reason, playing the straight man to the antics of Riley and Grandpa, but his occasionally far-sighted view of the world makes him the kind of well-read, youthful intellectual we can respect in some instances -- and lovingly chuckle at in others.

-- Lindsay Totty

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February 7, 2008

Your Turn: Tess McGill

From Working Girl, directed by Mike Nichols
Nominated by J.N. Cody

Working Girl's Tess McGill is film's first corporate heroine, a woman who succeeds on smarts and gumption. She burns to climb the corporate ladder, but no clear path for women exists.

Tess was my first career role model. (My generation was told we could be "anything we wanted." Empowering? How about maddeningly short on specifics!)

Sure, our mothers worked: as teachers, secretaries, nurses. Then came Working Girl, with Wall Street energy, paneled board rooms, mergers & acquisitions.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Tess McGill" »

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Your Turn: Travis McGee

From the Travis McGee mysteries by John D. MacDonald
Nominated by Frank Almade

Variously described as a beach bum, a knight errant and a ladies man, Travis McGee was a counterculture icon before the phrase was invented. To this northern kid, his Florida world, houseboat life and relationships with women were exotic -- and his quirky encounters with violence attractive.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Travis McGee" »

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February 6, 2008

Your Turn: The Little Engine that Could

From The Little Engine That Could, by Watty Piper
Nominated by Robert Pawlikowski

I don't know why The Little Engine That Could bubbled up from my past while listening to this series, but suddenly I heard it chugging up the long hill, with the constant mantra, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can."

Continue reading "Your Turn: The Little Engine that Could" »

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February 5, 2008

Your Turn: Harriet the Spy

From Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh
Nominated by Amy Cornell

Harriet M Welsch, the savvy word-wise heroine of Harriet the Spy, captured my heart the first time I met her. Harriet, a 5th grader like me, carried a notebook with her everywhere she went as she aspired to be a writer. She took notes on the funny adult world that surrounded her and her frank observations of her friends and classmates at school.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Harriet the Spy" »

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Your Turn: Indiana Jones

From the Indiana Jones films, created by George Lucas and directed by Steven Spielberg
Nominated by Matt Barnes

Dr. Jones was everything that made for a strong and likable hero. Nothing stopped him. Not spikes, arch-nemeses or even Nazis. What made his whip-slinging, gun-fighting persona the most amazing for me was that he did it all for the history. He used his brain more than this brawn, even though he was undoubtedly tougher than nails. He got hurt, kept going and complained later. He didn't give up when the going got crazy rough.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Indiana Jones" »

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February 4, 2008

Your Turn: Ferdinand

From The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, illustrated by Robert Lawson
Ferdinand the Bull, directed by Dick Rickard
Nominated by Alex Sanchez

cover detail: from 'The Story of Ferdinand

Diversity on the hoof: Munro Leaf's tender-hearted Ferdinand

Illustration by Robert Lawson, courtesy Viking

My favorite book as a boy went like this: While other bulls loved to fight and dreamed of being chosen for the bullring in Madrid, Ferdinand preferred to smell fields of flowers. When by mistake, he was put into the ring to fight, he wouldn't. He stubbornly sat there, smelling the flowers in the women's hair, until there was nothing to do but send him home.

Since the book's first publication in 1936, people have praised its message about being true to who you are, being an individual, and being at peace with yourself -- whether you conform to others' expectations or not.

At times throughout my life (I'm now 50) when I've doubted myself or struggled with decisions that went contrary to what others said, I've remembered Ferdinand. His gently powerful example of individuality captivated me as a boy and continues to inspire me to this day.

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Your Turn: Flem Snopes

From William Faulkner's Snopes Family trilogy
Nominated by William Dykes

Aside from having one of the most revoltingly evocative names in American literature, Flem is himself evocative of the worst side of the American character: The bright side is frugal, Flem is cheap; the bright side socially mobile, Flem a social climber; the bright side chaste, Flem impotent.

He is the American dragon, snatching up virgins and gold but incapable of putting either to use. Amoral, vulgar, smug, he is also the vision of America we so often see reflected back by foreigners who represent us in art.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Flem Snopes" »

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Your Turn: Tarzan

From the Tarzan books by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Nominated by Chris Langlois

All I really needed to know, I learned from Tarzan. In the 1950s, Tarzan was my hero. I loved cowboys too, but they relied mostly on guns and horses. What fascinated me about Tarzan was his near nakedness in the face of mortal danger. All he ever fought with were a knife, his muscles, and his wits. Wow!

Continue reading "Your Turn: Tarzan" »

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Your Turn: Kinsey Millhone

From the Kinsey Millhone books, by Sue Grafton
Nominated by Brenda Kuhlman

As a kid I was mesmerized by 1960s images of female detectives like Honey West or Agent 99: women who were strong, smart and drop-dead gorgeous in heels. Enter Kinsey Millhone twenty years later, who doesn't own heels. Neither do I. Plus, like me, she cuts her hair with toenail scissors, owns only one all-purpose dress, secretly craves Quarter-Pounders and has a soft spot for octogenarians. Shes not fearless, not always smart. But she does the right thing in the end.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Kinsey Millhone" »

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The 'In Character' Blog on the Radio

George (Sherman Hemsley) and Louise Jefferson (Isabel Sanford)

Funny business: Louise (Isabel Sanford) looks dubious, but George's Thomas Jefferson getup is all part of a Bicentennial-themed marketing plan.

Bettman/Corbis
 

The In Character Blog got another shot at drive-time today -- this time on Morning Edition. Host Renee Montagne read excerpts from this essay on George Jefferson for something like 13 million coffee-swilling NPR junkies -- complete with a clip from the beloved TV series.

Congrats to Jeffrey Alexander Brathwaite of Atlanta, Ga., who made the nomination. You could be next -- but only if you've submitted yours.

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On Air: 'The Sheik'

» Hear the 'Morning Edition' radio commentary

This morning, NPR's Neda Ulaby takes a close look at a singular American icon: The Sheik, as embodied by Rudolph Valentino (an Italian actor, no less) in the Hollywood movie of the same title.

In this video (also available on the story page), Neda goes all film-school on us, offering up additional background on the "transitional moment"The Sheik arrived in, culturally speaking; on how the film's heroine is punished for her independence; and how its treatment of female sexuality differs from, say, that of Birth of a Nation).

There's a personal story in there, too, so click to play. And weigh in with your own thoughts on The Sheik ...

-- Trey Graham

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February 1, 2008

Your Turn: Spider Jerusalem

From Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson
Nominated by Max Gartman

Spider is a journalist. [Note: Strong language, possibly NSFW, at that link.] He is the Warrior of Truth. Nothing will stand in his way: not enemies, friends, loved ones, not his own life. He rushes into war zones and police riots and historical reservations to tell the truth and tell it slant. He will not accept being lied to.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Spider Jerusalem" »

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Elizabeth Blair.

Elizabeth Blair

blogger

 
Trey Graham. Photo: Stan Barouh.

Trey Graham

blogger

 
 
 

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The classic bad girl. The mad scientist. The wise-cracking sidekick. In Character is an NPR series exploring famous American fictional characters, from Atticus Finch to Ugly Betty. What do they say about society? About individual experience? About the comedy and complexity of who we are? Join us, online and on the air, as we ask what makes them tick — and what that means for us.

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