NPR's weekly podcast of the best arts and culture stories is ready for your delectation. This week, we've got a serious look at the return of the war movie. (Exhibit A, of course, is HBO's immersive new series The Pacific). Critic Bob Mondello talks about the tricky ideological balance war movies must strike in order to find audiences.
And while Tyler Perry might be best known for churning out lowbrow comedies and romantic dramas that have made him a gazillionaire, the writer/director/star seems to be setting his aesthetic sights much higher these days. He steered the movie Precious into the mainstream by championing the film as executive prodicer, and now he's adapting a classic work of black feminist drama, the 1975 play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf. Perry talks about his new art-house film division and how he feels about critics who think he doesn't have what it takes.
When the rock band OK Go learned that its label was going to prevent YouTube from letting fans embed its (amazing) latest video, the musicians were deeply unhappy. So unhappy, they decided to leave EMI. In this interview, band members discuss their attempts to battle old models and develop new strategies for creativity and ownership in the music industry.
We round out the week with an analysis of how much ebooks should cost, and a moving appreciation of the life of Mark Linkous, who founded the acclaimed alternative rock band Sparklehorse, and who took his own life at the age of 47.
(And if you're looking for the Twilight project Linda mentioned, you'll find it here.)
Listen below or subscribe to the podcast here.
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