Search results for

For the last several years, avant-garde jazz pianist Mathew Shipp has been trying to revitalize jazz with an infusion of electronica. Antipop Consortium vs. Matthew Shipp is his latest effort in a style that's being called "jazztronica." Critic Tom Moon has a review.

Art conservation authorities in Florence, Italy, are preparing to undertake an ambitious project to clean Michelangelo's David. But many question whether the technique to be used to restore the nearly 500-year-old Renaissance masterpiece will do more harm than good. And the dispute is raising questions about art restoration in general. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.

Diana Abu-Jaber's book, Crescent, weaves fragrant cooking, romance and the horrors of Saddam Hussein into her novel of Middle-Eastern immigrants and exiles in Los Angeles. Read an excerpt from the novel.

Small ads in supermarket tabloids, comic books and magazines offered a chance at the big time in the music business. Thousands of would-be lyricists responded with their "song-poems" and their savings. NPR's Scott Simon reports on a new anthology of the results.

Actress Katharine Hepburn, who won a record four best actress Oscars in her 60-year career, dies at the age of 96. Hepburn starred in such film classics as The Philadelphia Story and The African Queen. She married only once, briefly, but the great love of her life was actor Spencer Tracy, with whom she made nine films and remained close companions until his death in 1967. Hear NPR News.

Merriam-Webster releases the 11th edition of its Collegiate Dictionary, which includes new words such as "dot commer" and "headbanger." The Internet has made the biggest influence on the American language, both with the new words it has generated and the speed with which the public has adopted them. Hear John Morse, president and publisher of Merriam-Webster.

Baseball Hall-of-Famer Larry Doby, the first black player in the American League, dies after a long illness. He was believed to be 79. Doby was named to seven straight All-Star teams in his 13-year career, most of it spent with the Cleveland Indians. He experienced discrimination both on and off the field, but in later years rarely displayed bitterness. Hear NPR's Bob Edwards.

Walter Mosley is best known for his entertaining Easy Rawlins mysteries, but with his latest title the author decided to turn his sights on heavier stuff. His new book, a non-fiction essay on America and its role in the world, is called What Next: A Memoir Toward World Peace. In a talk with NPR's Juan Williams, Mosley discusses his views on the war on terrorism and the looming conflict with Iraq. Hear an extended version of the interview and read an excerpt of the book.

Bloggers -- or Web loggers -- have been sharing their most intimate thoughts and opinions on the Internet since the mid-1990s, mostly with text, links and photos. Now, increasingly they're adding their voices -- literally -- to their online diaries. NPR's Ari Shapiro reports on the advent of audio blogs.

Russian emigre comic Yakov Smirnoff is back in the limelight. His act about communist life became one of the first casualties of the end of the Cold War. But this week he opened a new one-man show on Broadway. He speaks with NPR's Scott Simon.