Movie Reviews
5:48 pm
Thu August 2, 2012

A Couple Made For Each Other, But Not For Marriage

The easiest way to put divorce onscreen is to slap a couple of clearly mismatched souls up there and proceed to show them bickering over money, property, the kids, the family dog. Celeste and Jesse Forever takes the harder and more honorable way, giving us two people who genuinely care for each other, who are perhaps perfect for each other in all the ways you can list on paper, and who still fall victim to some essential loneliness that seems to be hardwired into their union.

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Shots - Health Blog
5:39 pm
Thu August 2, 2012

West Nile Virus Makes A Comeback This Summer

Credit Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Christopher Doll releases fish into the water of a neglected pool to kill mosquitoes that might carry West Nile Virus in Concord, Calif., in 2009.

The West Nile virus is back, and it's looking like it could be particularly bad this year. As as result, federal health officials are warning people to protect themselves against the mosquito-borne infection.

The West Nile virus first showed up in the U.S. in 1999 and quickly spread from coast to coast, raising widespread alarm. Some have argued that red-breasted robins play a key role in the spread of the virus.

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The Torch
5:39 pm
Thu August 2, 2012

If Gabby's Got The Gold, Why Flip Over Her Hair?

Credit Thomas Coex / AFP/Getty Images
Gabrielle Douglas performs Thursday on the beam during the artistic gymnastics women's individual all-around final. Some people are focusing on her hair rather than her skill.

Originally published on Fri August 3, 2012 8:37 am

Gabby Douglas, the 16-year-old gymnast from Virginia Beach, Va., won another gold medal Thursday. The first was won with her team earlier this week. She was the only member of the team to perform in all four rotations. So, why are some black women obsessed with her hair? Writer Monique Fields has this perspective.

Never mind how she flies like a raven on the balance beam. Or flutters across the floor. Or soars on vault. Or swings on the uneven bars.

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Music Interviews
5:39 pm
Thu August 2, 2012

Lin-Manuel Miranda On Learning From Ruben Blades

Credit Steven Henry / Getty Images
Lin-Manuel Miranda performs in his Tony-winning musical, In the Heights, in 2008 in New York City.

Originally published on Fri August 3, 2012 8:59 am

Movie Reviews
4:30 pm
Thu August 2, 2012

In The Scottish Dunes, It's David Versus The Donald

Originally published on Thu August 2, 2012 6:53 pm

In the red corner, a leering Donald Trump, brandishing plans to build a luxury golf resort on one of Britain's last remaining wilderness areas. In the blue, a small group of dignified local homeowners trying to stop him. The setup is a documentary filmmaker's dream, and Anthony Baxter's You've Been Trumped fully exploits the conflict's inherent gifts — including Mr. Trump's incautious mouth — with the kind of gleeful umbrage popularized by Michael Moore and eaten up by audiences.

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Movie Reviews
4:03 pm
Thu August 2, 2012

In A Decrepit Future, An Identity Crisis Multiplies

Set in a high-tech yet shabby future, the remake of Total Recall is a fully realized piece of production design. But its script, credited to six authors, is more like a preliminary sketch.

Directed by Underworld franchise veteran Len Wiseman, the movie retains some elements of Paul Verhoeven's friskier (and more graphically violent) 1990 original. Yet it also makes lots of changes, notably by downplaying the brain-bending aspects of the scenario in favor of thought-free action. (Also, it never leaves a devastated Earth for Mars.)

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Movie Reviews
4:03 pm
Thu August 2, 2012

The 'Global Catch' In Our Insatiable Taste For Sushi

Originally published on Thu August 2, 2012 6:05 pm

Sushi: The Global Catch, a shrewdly constructed documentary on the challenges of the modern sushi industry, functions like a densely packed information delivery system — heavy on content, spare on style. Yet it offers a few striking images that speak for themselves: a commercial fishing vessel netting thousands of pounds of bluefin tuna, buyers for clients all over the world inspecting hundreds of tuna laid out in Tokyo's Tsukiji Market, a statue in the small fishing town of Oma depicting a large bluefin rising from the waves and, opposite, a pair of fists advancing to meet it.

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Movie Reviews
4:03 pm
Thu August 2, 2012

'360': Intertwined Lives In A Connected Europe

For all the glum punditry about our brave new world of connected disconnection, there are endless possibilities for free play — though you'd never know it from the sorry crew of malcontents in 360, an ambitious post-millennial take on Arthur Schnitzler's La Ronde.

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JazzSet
3:40 pm
Thu August 2, 2012

Chihiro Yamanaka And Jane Bunnett On JazzSet

Originally published on Fri August 3, 2012 12:32 pm

In May, JazzSet host Dee Dee Bridgewater emceed three nights of concerts held at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater as part of the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival in Washington, D.C. Chihiro Yamanaka and Jane Bunnett opened the first night; they come from Japan and Canada, respectively, and each has a compelling story.

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Theater
3:07 pm
Thu August 2, 2012

Playwright Fugard Bucked South Africa's 'Racist Ideas'

South African playwright, actor and director Athol Fugard describes the time Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990 as "a period of euphoria that was the most extraordinary experience of my life."

He says he was also convinced he would be the country's "first literary redundancy."

"My life had been defined by the apartheid years," he tells Michel Martin, host of NPR's Tell Me More. "Now we were going into an era of democracy ... and I believed that I didn't really have a function as a useful artist in that anymore."

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