Did you miss that performance of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the arts center last month? Or the oboe concerto recital at the concert hall? Well it looks like you weren’t the only one. Last week, a new report from the National Endowment for the Arts presented a rather grim picture of the state of […]
Yo-Yo Ma
The virtuoso cellist has gotten a lot of attention in the last decade for forming and leading The Silk Road Ensemble ?- a group that draws its members and music from countries all across Asia. Whether on the road or at home in Cambridge, Ma tells Kurt how every day begins with a Bach cello suite.
Gatsby Gets Schooled
Students in Garth Wolkoff’s English class in Brooklyn admire Gatsby, and find Daisy suspiciously ?chillax.? Azar Nafisi, who taught the book in Tehran, recounts the time her university students put the book on trial. The decadent capitalist Jay Gatsby, she says, should be a warning for radical Islamists.
You’re a Complicated Man, Charlie Brown
At its peak, over 350 million people around the world read “Peanuts” every day. Its creator, Charles Schulz, led a much darker life than anyone realized, and he put his troubles into the funny pages. Kurt talks with biographer David Michaelis about how America’s most beloved comic strip made “depressed” a household word.
Your Brain on Videogames
American kids spend an average of seven hours a week gaming. But what about the grown-ups inside the industry, who play eight to ten hours -? and then leave the office and go home to play some more? Jonathan Mitchell asked game producer Marc Nesbitt about living almost full-time in the simulated world.