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Gregor Piatigorsky, the Russian cello virtuoso, used to talk about "tasting the blood" of music -- music as destiny. "You are taken by it," he said. Piatigorsky also was taken by the works of art he collected. Samples of his collection -- along with his prized Stradivarius cello -- are on exhibit in Baltimore. NPR's Susan Stamberg reports.

The new Al Pacino movie People I Know offers an acid portrait of Manhattan politics, and Pacino provides the story with a complex, nuanced anti-hero. NPR's Bob Mondello offers a review.

The Stax Museum of American Soul Music opens Friday in Memphis, Tenn., honoring the recording studio that once churned out hundreds of R&B and pop hits. The Stax studio -- built in a movie theater that once stood on the same site as the new museum -- drew music talent from all over the South, including Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes. Stax became known for the trademark rich, gritty soul that defined its sound. NPR's Kathleen Schalch reports.

The 22-year-old American topped a competitive field Thursday in Beijing. Figure skaters from Japan came in second and third.

Marooned in Iraq is the latest film from Iranian-based Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi, who won acclaim for his first effort, A Time for Drunken Horses. The story touches on Saddam Hussein's brutal crackdown on the Kurds in the 1980s, but it's really a "road movie musical" with an often comic sensibility. Pat Dowell reports.

Songwriter Felice Bryant dies at age 77 at home in Gatlinburg, Tenn. She collaborated with her husband to pen some of the best-known tunes in country music and early rock 'n' roll. Her songs Bye Bye Love and Wake Up Little Susie were Everly Brothers standards, just as Rocky Top became a country standard. NPR's Melissa Block offers a remembrance.

The comic book mutants known as the X-Men are back on the big screen. X2: X-Men United, packs in more characters -- good and evil -- than the first X-Men film. Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan offers a review.

Mexican tenor Ramon Vargas releases In My Heart, a CD of 17th and 18th century Italian love songs sung in the Bel Canto or "beautiful song" style. It's a type of operatic singing characterized by rich tonal lyricism and brilliant display of technique. NPR's Michele Norris talks with Vargas.

Fifty-five years ago, John Steinbeck's best friend died after being struck by a train near Monterey's Cannery Row. Ricketts, a marine biologist, was cast as the fictional "Doc" in Steinbeck's best-selling novel. In a two-part Morning Edition report, NPR's Renee Montagne looks back at one of American fiction's most famous locales and at Ricketts and his lasting legacy.

Twenty years ago, the British literary magazine Granta published a list of what it considered the best young novelists of Britain. Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie, Julian Barnes, and many more went on to find fame and sometimes fortune. And Granta had found itself a tradition. The March edition features a new group of young authors. NPR's Lynn Neary speaks with Granta editor Ian Jack and two of the writers on the list: Alan Warner and Andrew O'Hagan.

The Handmaid's Tale, an opera based on Margaret Atwood's novel of the same name, makes its North American debut at the Minnesota Opera in St. Paul. The opera tells of a world where religion is used to justify political agendas and women are stripped of their rights. Minnesota Public Radio's Marianne Combs reports.

Like an actor who refuses to watch his own movies, author Michael Chabon says he can't stand to read his books. On Morning Edition, Chabon and fellow writers Jane Smiley and John Edgar Wideman share their thoughts about the nature of writing in a virtual "salon" styled after the Algonquin Round Table. Hear a longer version of their discussion online.

Henry Ford's affordable, mass-produced Model T changed the face of America. But the innovative automaker's failure to look beyond the Model T was nearly disastrous for his company, author Douglas Brinkley tells NPR's John Ydstie. At npr.org, Hear Brinkley describe how Ford Motor Co. avoided that fate by adapting.

A new book on President Kennedy has attracted attention because of the disclosure that he had sex with a White House intern. But some historians dispute author Robert Dallek's assertion that Kennedy's presidency was not damaged by his risky sexual behavior and bad health. In an extended interview with NPR's Juan Williams, Dallek discusses Kennedy's medical history and his assassination.

Journalist David Brinkley, whose career paralleled much of the evolution of American television news coverage, dies of complications from a fall at age 82. Brinkley first gained fame in the 1960s co-anchoring NBC's evening news program with Chet Huntley; he later hosted ABC's This Week with David Brinkley. Brinkley won 10 Emmys and three Peabodys during his career. Hear NPR's Cokie Roberts.

From the Maori culture of New Zealand comes Whale Rider, a film with an appealing 11-year-old central character. She's seeking to follow in her father's footsteps as tribal chieftain. Her grandfather is skeptical. NPR's Bob Mondello offers a review.

Actor Buddy Ebsen, best known for his role as Jed Clampett on the TV series The Beverly Hillbillies, dies at age 95. Ebsen, who started his career as a dancer on Broadway shows and MGM musicals in the 1930s, also starred as a private investigator in the 1970s TV show Barnaby Jones. NPR's Neda Ulaby reports.

How I Learned What I Learned is the latest from playwright August Wilson. He's won two Pulitzer Prizes for Fences and The Piano Lesson. This time Wilson makes his acting debut in a one-man show. Marcie Sillman of member station KUOW reports.

Quirky lyrics that mix Spanish and English and an eclectic musical style have helped make Kevin Johansen one of Argentina's hottest musicians. The Argentine-American artist hopes to win over U.S. audiences with a stateside tour that begins this week. Brian Byrnes reports. Hear songs from Johansen's latest albums.

A nondescript booth in New York City's Grand Central Terminal will be the first collection point for a new national oral history project modeled after recordings made of ordinary Americans during the 1930s. NPR's Bob Edwards talks to David Isay about the StoryCorps project.

As John F. Kennedy's personal photographer, Jacques Lowe helped create the myth of Camelot with his snapshots of the youthful president and his elegant wife. Hundreds of Lowe's previously unpublished photos appear in Remembering Jack: Intimate and Unseen Photographs of the Kennedys. NPR's Michele Norris speaks with Bob Adelman, Lowe's long-time assistant.

The fictional White House drama, The West Wing, captures its fourth Emmy for Best Drama Series, beating out the critics' favorite, The Sopranos. And Everybody Loves Raymond wins an Emmy for Best Comedy Series for the first time. Hear NPR's Bob Edwards.

When playwright Nilo Cruz won this year's Pulitzer Prize for drama for his play Anna in the Tropics, it became only the second play to win the honor without having staged it on Broadway. The play opens Wednesday night in Princeton, New Jersey -- a step closer to the Great White Way. Joel Rose of member station WHYY has a profile.

Actor John Ritter, whose portrayal of the bumbling bachelor Jack Tripper helped make the TV sitcom Three's Company a hit in the 1970s, dies at age 54 of a previously undetected heart problem. Ritter became ill Thursday while working on the set of his current show, 8 Simple Rules ... For Dating My Teenage Daughter. NPR's Melissa Block has a remembrance.

Jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves is among the few musicians still practicing the improvisational art of scat. In her new album, A Little Moonlight, the Grammy winner fearlessly takes on jazz standards and makes them her own. NPR's Michele Norris talks with Reeves.