Search results for

Ridley Scott's chilling 1979 space horror film Alien is being re-released to theaters on Halloween in a new director's cut. Weekend Edition film commentator Kevin Murphy offers a review.

Sid Caesar talks to Susan Stamberg about his long career in show business — and gets cajoled into performing her mother-in-law's cranberry relish recipe (you must listen to the end of her report to hear it).

People over the age of 35 tell market researchers they'd buy more music if they didn't have to wade through racks of CD geared for 18-year-olds, read magazines tailored to 15-year-olds, or listen to radio aimed at 12-year-olds. NPR's Rick Karr talks with a former corporate turnaround specialist who sees the music industry in need of an intervention, and a publisher and editor who think a new magazine for older listeners is the key.

Before there was Saturday Night Live, young comedians including John Belushi, Chevy Chase and Gilda Radner dished up irreverent humor on The National Lampoon Radio Hour.

NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Maggie Balistreri, author of the The Evasion English Dictionary. The book describes the use of language to evade speaking directly. Balistreri defines the many subtly different ways Americans pepper our speech with euphemisms and oblique references.

A new version of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf is now available in the United States. The music comes in a boxed set with a storybook illustrated by Bono. The rendition does away with the orchestra and instead brings the story to life with a mandolin, banjo, accordion, and percussion of all kinds. NPR's Melissa Block talks with musician Gavin Friday. (Publisher: Bloomsbury USA)

Fans of New York Yankees center fielder Bernie Williams know him as an elegant runner and a smart hitter. Now, he's showing a different side with his new CD, The Journey Within. Trained as a classical guitarist in Puerto Rico, Williams says the album is influenced by the music of his childhood.

Years ago, the tombstones of Richard Hickock and Perry Smith -- the two killers portrayed in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood -- mysteriously disappeared. Now they have resurfaced at a museum that won't put them on display. Harriet Baskas reports on a Kansas museum's dilemma as part of the "Hidden Treasures" series.

Nearly four decades after the end of the Civil War, W.E.B. Du Bois set out to collect images that accurately portrayed the spirit of America's blacks. He wanted the photographs to help counteract stereotypes of African Americans as poor and uneducated. NPR's Michele Norris talks with the author of a new book about Du Bois' collection.

Technically speaking, the Greek film Hard Goodbyes: My Father is a contender for the Oscars and the Golden Globes. But with runs in only two U.S. theaters, the odds are against it. The film is a coming-of-age story about a 10-year-old boy living in Athens, and Liz Yuan liked it enough to try her hand at distributing it. Hear NPR's Michele Norris.