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The Duluth, Minn., trio called Low are known for slow, quiet songs. But on their new album, The Great Destroyer, the band sets a different course.

An enormous work of art opens Saturday in New York's Central Park. The Gates Project is the brainchild of artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The husband-and-wife team's work consists of 7,500 squared arches topped with orange flags.

From the comedy Scrubs actor Zach Braff and producer-creator Bill Lawrence. Braff plays medical resident John "J.D." Dorian. Lawrence previously worked on Spin City. Braff made his feature film writing and directing debut with Garden State which opened last fall. It's now out on DVD. (This interview was originally broadcast on Oct. 4, 2004.)

Lorne Michaels is the creator and long-time executive producer of Saturday Night Live, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Last fall, Michaels was awarded the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. The tribute was taped and will be broadcast on Wednesday, March 2, on PBS. It includes comic performances by Dan Aykroyd, Candice Bergin, Darrell Hammond, Tina Fey, Steve Martin, Conan O'Brien and others.

In the new film, The Woodsman, Kevin Bacon plays a sex offender just released from prison. Bacon was first recognized in the 1982 film Diner, and went on to roles in Mystic River, A Few Good Men, Flatliners, and Footloose. He's made over 50 films and inspired the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game, in which players try to link another actor with Bacon in as few steps as possible. He is married to the actress Kyra Sedgwick, who also co-stars in The Woodsman.

BBC America, available on many U.S. cable TV networks, is offering modern adaptations of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. One of the stories -- "The Miller's Tale" -- has been recast to take place in a karaoke bar. Hear NPR's Scott Simon and Peter Bowker, who adapted the 14th-century literary classic.

-- Writer Mark Jordan Legan has a second roundup this week of what the reviewers are writing about this weekend's big movie releases. This edition looks at the films Million Dollar Baby, The Life Aquatic and The Aviator.

Alan Cheuse reviews Nobel Prize winner V.S. Naipaul's new novel Magic Seeds, which continues the story of Indian intellectual Willie Chandran begun in Naipaul's 2001 novel, Half a Life. Cheuse says the novel's thick plot is only a platform from which Naipaul delves into a complicated world of mind and feeling.

NPR's Bob Mondello reviews the first full-length feature film of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. He says director Michael Radford's adaptation features stunning performances from Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons.

White House officials announce the designers of the First Family's inaugural gowns. Oscar de la Renta has designed the outfit for First Lady Laura Bush. And a team of designers was called in to make the gowns for the Bush daughters. NPR's Steve Inskeep talks with Village Voice style writer Lynn Yaeger.