Search results for

Vanished Kingdoms

Etta Baker is credited with helping to spark the folk music revival of the 1960s -- no small feat for someone who didn't become a professional musician until she was in her 60s. Now, at the age of 78, Etta Baker has released her first solo recording, and this Thursday the National Endowment for the Arts will honor Baker and other artists as living national treasures for contributions made to America's folk heritage. Dean Olsher visited Baker at her home and has this profile.

British movie director Stephen Frears usually works on his own turf, but his latest effort takes place in Los Angeles. Los Angeles Times and Morning Edition film critic Kenneth Turan reviews the movie, Dirty Pretty Things.

About 60 years ago, English children's author Dodie Smith penned I Capture the Castle. Now the story of a family living a fractured fairy tale of sorts in a rented rundown castle has made it to the big screen. NPR's Bob Mondello offers a review of the film.

Jazz singer Stacey Kent's story would make a good Hollywood movie -- born in New Jersey, studied in Europe, hit the jazz club circuit in London and found love and success. She's back with a new CD that pays tribute to the American singers and songwriters she calls her childhood heroes. Listen to samples from the CD.

Cinematic teachers have spent decades hacking through blackboard jungles and dashing up down-staircases. But there may never have been a teaching movie quite like School of Rock, with overgrown kid Jack Black taking out his arena-rock frustrations on elementary school students. NPR's Bob Mondello reviews director Richard Linklater's newest film.

An exhibit at London's Natural History Museum contains photographs that are meant to be touched. Artists created the tactile photos by utilizing a type of plastic in order to create texture which gives the sense of depth, light and shadow. Carrie Giardino reports.

The new film documentary Bonhoeffer chronicles the life of the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an early and outspoken critic of the Nazi regime who was eventually executed for a failed plot to kill Hitler. Director Martin Doblmeier talks with NPR's Scott Simon.

It's a Scottish invasion at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. There's a castle, golf, bagpipes, haggis burgers and Scotch to boot. It's all a part of the Smithsonian's Folklife Festival, an annual celebration of the world's folk arts and traditions. NPR's Robert Siegel reports.

Marking the start of the World Series -- and a heartbreaking week for fans of the Boston Red Sox -- NPR's Steve Inskeep reads selected baseball prose.