Mary Bridget Davies as Janis Joplin and Sabrina Elayne Carten as Blues Singer in the Cleveland Play House production of One Night with Janis Joplin.
Credit AP
Rock singer Janis Joplin. (Performance date and location unknown.)
Credit Janet Macoska / Arena Stage
The cast of the Cleveland Play House production of One Night with Janis Joplin. Over a dozen singers and band members come together to celebrate the queen of rock 'n' roll.
The countercultural revolution of the 1960s may have been all about sex drugs and rock 'n' roll, but for one young Texas singer it was all about the blues. No one sang the blues quite like Janis Joplin.
Joplin was part of a legendary line-up of musicians at Woodstock in 1969: Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead, Joan Baez. She wasn't on the music scene long, though. Joplin died in 1970 of a drug overdose. She was only 27 years old, but in that short time her bluesy rasp helped define the music of a generation.
In an attempt to remember what it was like to have most of his life ahead of him, filmmaker Ross McElwee turns the camera on his son, Adrian, seen above.
Credit St. Quay Films
McElwee looks at the reliability of memory and the power of small moments in his new film.
Filmmaker Ross McElwee is a one-man crew: soundman, cameraman, narrator. He reached a wide audience with his sweet documentary Sherman's March, which chronicled his journey through the South searching for love. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 1987. He's made five documentary features since then.
McElwee's latest film is Photographic Memory — and it presents a different side of the director.
Early in Photographic Memory, we see McElwee in a small town in Brittany, France, in a state of digital disorientation.
On-air challenge: You will be given two words. Change one letter in each of them to make two new words that name things that are in the same category. (Hint: In each pair, the letter that you change to — that is, the new letter — is the same in each pair.) For example, given the words "poked" and "tummy," the answer would be "poker" and "rummy."
Round 9 of Three-Minute Fiction is in full swing. Readers from all over the country have made their selections, and now judge Brad Meltzer is close to making his decision. Meltzer is best-selling author of The Tenth Justice and The Inner Circle. He tells host Guy Raz about his favorite stories in Three-Minute Fiction so far. You can read the stories at www.npr.org/threeminutefiction.
Theweekends on All Things Considered series Movies I've Seen A Million Times features filmmakers, actors, writers and directors talking about the movies that they never get tired of watching.
Originally published on Mon October 22, 2012 1:10 pm
What is the point of the best-seller list? Depends who you are. If you're a reader, it's a guide to what's popular — what's new, what your neighbors are buying, and what you might like to read next. If you're a publisher, it's a source of feedback and a sales tool: It tells you how your books compete, and gives you triumphs to crow about on paperback covers.
There was a huge art heist this week. Paintings by Gauguin, Matisse, Picasso, Monet and other artists were stolen from an exhibition hall in Rotterdam. Picasso's "Harlequin Head" and Monet's "Waterloo Bridge" were among the purloined works. And their loss is estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars.
Mao Zedong signs Sidney Rittenberg's copy of The Little Red Book during a gathering of party leaders in Beijing on May 1, 1967, at the beginning of China's Cultural Revolution.
Credit Courtesy of Sidney Rittenberg
Sidney Rittenberg exhorts a crowd in Beijing's Tiananmen Square to defend Mao Zedong Thought — or Maoism — in December 1966.
Sidney Rittenberg went to China as an American GI at the end of World War II and fell in love with the country. He was discharged as a Chinese translator for the U.S. Army, but decided to stay there.
By the time Rittenberg came back to the United States, more than 30 years later, he had become one of only a few American citizens to join the Chinese Communist Party. He translated English for Chairman Mao Zedong, told off Madame Mao during the Cultural Revolution, and endured 16 years of solitary confinement in Chinese prisons.
John Lennon loved word play; he wrote songs that have not only become standards, but also milestones, like "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "Strawberry Fields," which he wrote with the Beatles, and "Imagine" and "Give Peace a Chance," which he wrote on his own. For most of his life, he also composed letters to friends and family; then lovers, as he grew up; and strangers, as he grew famous. His notes, letters and postcards often contained small, funny drawings and self portraits.
In January 2007, Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California was sworn in as the speaker of the House of Representatives — and became the first woman to hold that position. She is currently the House minority leader.
We've invited Pelosi to play a game about men breaking gender barriers — three questions about men who've gone where no man has gone before.
Time now for a home viewing recommendation from film critic Bob Mondello. This week, Bob's getting ahead of the Halloween curve, with an 8-disk Classic Monsters collection from Universal Pictures.
The scene you know best is nowhere to be found in the novel Frankenstein. No electrifying the creature with lightning, no ecstatic doctor's cry of "It's alive, it's aliiiiiiive!"
Three of Josh Berner's fat-infused cocktails. From left: Play It Sam, United Colors of Basilton and Chile Manteca Y Dulce. Scroll down for the recipes.
Credit Karen Castillo Farfán / NPR
Then he adds 2 ounces of oil, in this case, toasted sesame oil.
Credit Karen Castillo Farfán / NPR
Berner stirs the oil into the simmering gin and cooks and stirs for about 20 minutes.
Credit Karen Castillo Farfán / NPR
Once the alcohol-fat mixture is blended, Berner lets it cool to room temperature. Then he pours it into a freezer-safe container and freezes it overnight to allow the fat to rise to the surface.
Credit Karen Castillo Farfán / NPR
He pours the mixture into a serving bottle.
Credit Karen Castillo Farfán / NPR
When he's ready to serve, Berner pours the alcohol into a cocktail shaker with ice and the other ingredients.
Credit Karen Castillo Farfán / NPR
He shakes.
Credit Karen Castillo Farfán / NPR
He pours.
Credit Karen Castillo Farfán / NPR
The next day, Berner pulls the mixture from the freezer and strains it in a sieve lined with cheesecloth, leaving the fat behind.
Credit Karen Castillo Farfán / NPR
I taste.
Credit Karen Castillo Farfán / NPR
Josh Berner of Ripple, a bar and restaurant in Washington, D.C., pours a bottle of gin into a pot over a very low heat.
Originally published on Wed October 24, 2012 11:03 am
The practice of imparting the flavor of something heavy into a lighter liquid is centuries old. Ancient Indian healers did it with botanicals; early Christian monks did it with bitters. But the process is getting new attention as part of the craze to put all things food into all things drink.
Originally published on Fri October 19, 2012 2:46 pm
At Monkey See this week, we've been talking about friendship and pop culture. We close with this discussion with Julie Klam, whose new book, Friendkeeping, goes on sale next week.
This interview was originally broadcast on Feb. 1, 2012. How to Be Black will be released in paperback on Oct. 30.
It's no coincidence that Baratunde Thurston's new memoir and satirical self-help book How to Be Black was slated for release on the first day of Black History Month.
