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So here we go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>1. \u003cstrong>The \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Knives Out \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>sculpture. \u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/11/27/782165138/knives-out-a-classic-comic-mystery-of-uncommon-sharpness\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">We’ve talked about\u003c/a> the sweaters in Rian Johnson’s great whodunit, and about the performances, and about the … uh, commitment? … of Daniel Craig’s very silly accent. But let’s also appreciate the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/11/26/782904344/get-a-clue-go-see-knives-out\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">enormous sculpture\u003c/a> made of knives that frames the heads of every member of the family as they’re interviewed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>2. \u003cstrong>James Marsden jumping on the trampoline in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Dead to Me\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong> James Marsden is one of those interesting actors who can do so many different things well that he’s easy to take for granted. It’s a mistake, though. Playing a slick, inspirational-speaking jerk, he wakes up, goes out on his balcony and executes a series of silly trampoline moves he says are meant to “get [his] lymph nodes going.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>3. \u003cstrong>John Mulaney’s plaid pants in the “Co-op” episode of \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Documentary Now\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>The comedian’s wardrobe choices have showed up on this list before, but they’ve never been quite so indelible as his weirdly magnetic ’70s get-up as \u003cem>Documentary Now\u003c/em>‘s \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/02/27/698126773/the-show-tunes-and-plaid-pants-of-the-documentary-now-sondheim-send-up\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">version of Stephen Sondheim\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KMpuoSB8HA\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>4. \u003cstrong>“This is a love story” in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Fleabag\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>We were all so lucky to get two seasons of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s masterpiece, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPaEqk3kVjo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the turn to camera to say\u003c/a> “this is a love story” set up the brilliant second season with intrigue, humor and Waller-Bridge’s inimitable kind of heart. The sequence of shots is so brilliant, and the entire episode so satisfying. We’ll be lucky to see its equal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>5.\u003cstrong> Aasif Mandvi in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>This Way Up. \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>Aisling Bea’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/08/21/752811433/this-way-up-deserves-a-spot-on-your-crowded-viewing-list\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">series about a young Irish woman\u003c/a> fresh out of mental health treatment offered a lot of simple pleasures. But one was seeing Aasif Mandvi, who was very funny on \u003cem>The Daily Show\u003c/em> and plays an awful lot of doctors because Hollywood is Hollywood, play the boyfriend of the character played by Sharon Horgan. A fine romantic lead, Mandvi got to show some chops that I personally hadn’t seen very much before, and it was thrilling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>6. \u003cstrong>Natasha Lyonne killing it in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Russian Doll\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>Natasha Lyonne is a force, and this performance (and her work in \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/02/01/690276468/natasha-lyonne-anchors-the-riveting-russian-doll\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">creating the show\u003c/a>) is a force. May everyone find such a perfect place to be at the peak of their powers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHcKoAMGGvY\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>7. \u003cstrong>J. Smith-Cameron in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Succession\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>There is so much to admire about \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/08/12/750189331/succession-back-to-the-pit-of-vipers-for-another-season-of-discontent\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">HBO’s rich-jerks drama\u003c/a>, but one of the real stars of Season 2 was J. Smith-Cameron as Gerri, one of the Roy family’s faithful lieutenants. Once mostly a figure in meetings hovering over paperwork, Gerri ended Season 2 with a sharper sense of humor, a more distinct role in the family, a star turn at the Roy Family [Figurative] Murder Breakfast and a sexual relationship-ish that’s both offbeat and sweet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>8.\u003cstrong> The big resolution in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Unbelievable\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>It wouldn’t be fair to say much about the photo that loads late in \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/10/01/766049015/unbelievable-is-a-searing-drama-about-violence-and-justice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Netflix’s fact-based series\u003c/a> about an unsolved rape case, but making a plot turn feel so simultaneously satisfying and wrenching is very difficult. And while the series largely belongs to performances from Kaitlyn Dever, Merritt Wever and Toni Collette, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better wordless 30 seconds in all of 2020 than the ones Eric Lange, playing a detective, delivers early in the last episode when this scene hits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>9. \u003cstrong>The manipulation of time in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Watchmen\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> episode 6. \u003c/strong>The first—and maybe the only—season of HBO’s \u003cem>Watchmen \u003c/em>was excellent throughout, but it reached a new high in the sixth episode, as interwoven past and present stories created connections that were surprising, but seemed somehow inevitable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>10.\u003cstrong> Billy Crudup in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Morning Show\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong> I’m among those who believe that Apple TV+’s first big series, about the aftermath of a sexual harassment scandal on a network morning show, got a rougher reception than it deserved—partly because it takes a couple of episodes to find its feet and focus. But even many of those who remained unimpressed by it found kind words for the snake-like, inscrutable, toothy and toothsome performance by Billy Crudup as a network executive who could do good only when it meant doing well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf7N_j6Uvkg\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>11. \u003cstrong>The turn in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Parasite\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>I was very lucky to see Bong Joon-ho’s fabulous, complex film at the Toronto International Film Festival without knowing almost anything about it. I didn’t even really know what \u003cem>kind \u003c/em>of movie it was, and that was as it should be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>12.\u003cstrong> Jeremy Bearimy, baby. \u003c/strong>At the end of the third season of NBC’s \u003cem>The Good Place\u003c/em>, the conscientious, anxious, deeply moral Chidi (William Jackson Harper) and his partner-in-crime Eleanor (Kristen Bell) are forced to part company. After being reminded that theirs is a story that spans many lifetimes, Chidi uses what was once a silly, jokey phrase about the structure of time to make a profoundly romantic declaration, telling Eleanor that they will “chill out in the dot of the i forever.” That this means nothing if you haven’t \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/09/26/764229236/the-good-place-starts-its-final-approach\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">watched the show\u003c/a>, and everything if you have, is what makes it so distinct and moving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFm9ClqlGuo\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>13.\u003cstrong> Jennifer Lopez’s dance in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Hustlers\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>, and the accompanying video. \u003c/strong>I don’t disagree with the many people who have said J. Lo should be in the running for awards for her performance in Lorene Scafaria’s crime drama. But that doesn’t mean I don’t also appreciate the athleticism of Lopez’s first dance on the pole, as well as the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRhOWrk5_NM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">behind-the-scenes look\u003c/a> at her training that she shared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>14.\u003cstrong> Every time Christian Siriano said “You’re killing me” on \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Project Runway\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>A great example of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/06/14/732423982/project-runway-proves-change-can-be-healthy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">how to reset\u003c/a> a competitive reality show, Siriano was the perfect new mentor, and the way he freely expressed his frustration with the designers was one of his secret weapons. (See also: “You’re putting a zipper right on the boob?”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>15. \u003cstrong>\u003cem>Oklahoma! \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>It’s not that \u003cem>Oklahoma! \u003c/em>hasn’t always been a dark musical—it has. But the Broadway revival I got to see this spring brought out new layers of darkness, new kinds of bleakness. The finale—which I will not describe—is one of the most startling, provocative stage moments I’ve ever seen, particularly working from such a well-known text. (Bonus: Soraya McDonald’s \u003ca href=\"https://theundefeated.com/features/the-unbearable-whiteness-of-oklahoma-on-broadway/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">excellent piece\u003c/a> at \u003cem>The Undefeated\u003c/em> about the production.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>16. \u003cstrong>\u003cem>What The Constitution Means to Me. \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>Heidi Schreck shook up the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/03/30/707858702/staging-a-debate-over-what-the-constitution-means-to-me\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">one-woman show\u003c/a> with her combination of speech, debate, dramatic monologue and call to arms. The piece is so smart and thoughtful that it’s easy to forget, when describing it, that it’s also funny and entertaining—enlivened by a late development that had the audience I was part of enthralled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3GV1K2nctM\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>17. \u003cstrong>The horse fight in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>John Wick: Chapter 3—Parabellum\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>. The biggest problem with any John Wick movie, I now believe, is that it can’t be all Keanu Reeves fighting bad guys using horses and library books.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>18. \u003cstrong>The way \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Crazy Ex-Girlfriend\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> landed the plane. \u003c/strong>It’s so hard to end a show as ambitious as \u003cem>Crazy Ex-Girlfriend\u003c/em>—particularly when it set itself up as, in part, a romantic-comedy spoof and then demonstrated that a romantic-comedy ending would be an utter betrayal of its first principles. The final episode showed respect to Rebecca’s desire to be loved; her growth as a person; the musical talent that’s been under our noses the entire time; and the fact that no matter how much she works to improve herself, White Josh will never, ever like her. Extra points for the way that, as the show wound down, co-creator and star Rachel Bloom \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/lindaholmes/status/1105976011487879169\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sold it like double the rent was due at all times\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>19.\u003cstrong> The unreal, unsettling doppelgangers in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Us\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>Doppelgangers are such a staple of horror that to make them really, genuinely scary, you have to develop their look and style in a very particular way—\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/03/22/705875221/jordan-peele-looked-into-the-mirror-and-saw-the-evil-inside-us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">as Jordan Peele did\u003c/a> in \u003cem>Us\u003c/em>. Led by Lupita Nyong’o as Red, the family of copies that shows up in their red jumpsuits, with their scissors and obviously ill intentions, use their stillness as a weapon, settling for “creepy” until it’s time to be worse than that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>20. \u003cstrong>The “Anna Ishii-Peters” episode of \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>PEN15\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>I’m not sure why stories in which teenagers bond with each other’s families are so consistently moving, but “Anna Ishii-Peters” follows in the tradition of \u003cem>My So-Called Life\u003c/em> and its “Other People’s Mothers” episode to great effect. \u003cem>PEN15 \u003c/em>is a lovely, thoughtful, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/02/11/691694798/looking-at-middle-school-through-grown-up-glasses-in-pen15\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">big-hearted look at adolescence\u003c/a>—in addition to being a raunchy, candid document of the kind of body horror that only happens in middle school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>21. \u003cstrong>The third season of the podcast \u003c/strong>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Slow Burn\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong> New host \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/11/07/776908450/slow-burn-season-3-turns-its-investigative-eye-to-the-murders-of-biggie-and-tupa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joel Anderson takes listeners through\u003c/a> two of the most famous (officially) unsolved murders of the 20th century: those of rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls. Finding the line between overexplaining and underexplaining, the series (in the manner of all good true crime) moves beyond its specific subjects to talk about how rap was developing in the 1990s, and how it was changed by the deaths of these two very young men.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>22. \u003cem>\u003cstrong>Bon Appétit\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong> videos! \u003c/strong>Few instructional YouTube channels are as beloved and useful as the one from \u003cem>Bon Appétit\u003c/em>, which has almost five million subscribers. It contains plenty of straight-up how-to pieces, but continues to innovate with series like Reverse Engineering, a monthly show in which deputy food editor Chris Morocco tries to recreate dishes he’s allowed to taste and touch but not see. \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbpMy0Fg74eXXkvxJrtEn3w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The whole channel\u003c/a> is a pleasure from start to finish, and its passionate following is well-earned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE4KHYrWEXY\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>23. \u003cstrong>The synchronized swimming in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>The adventures of Midge Maisel have sometimes satisfied and sometimes not. But a stretch of the third season set in Miami was full of delights, including an opening sequence in the sixth episode that incorporated underwater filming, synchronized swimming and the hangover from a night out with Lenny Bruce. Great stuff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>24. \u003cstrong>The end of \u003c/strong>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Again With This: BH\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>Back in May 2015, Sarah Bunting and Tara Ariano—who were, full disclosure, my bosses at\u003cem> Television Without Pity \u003c/em>for years—began \u003ca href=\"https://www.againwiththis90210.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a podcast project\u003c/a> to recap each episode of \u003cem>Beverly Hills, 90210 \u003c/em>one at a time. That dumb show, it turns out, ran for 10 seasons, most of which were supersized, because it ran well into the summer. (There are seasons that have more than 30 episodes.) In December of this year, they finished. Not only was this a nutty exercise in completism, but taking the time to examine individual episodes late in the run of a show that had long since given up on itself offers a rare glimpse at what network television used to look like when it just wanted to run out the clock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>25. \u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley. \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>2019 was \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/04/30/718663783/elizabeth-holmes-and-theranos-in-pop-culture\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Year When We Talked A Lot About Theranos\u003c/a>, the company run by Elizabeth Holmes, who’s now awaiting a federal fraud trial. There are a lot of ways to learn about the story—the 2018 book \u003cem>Bad Blood \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/06/23/622795416/reporter-john-carreyrou-on-the-bad-blood-of-theranos\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">by John Carreyrou\u003c/a> is probably the best source document. But Alex Gibney’s 2019 HBO documentary is also a corker, for sure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtDaP18OGfw\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>26.\u003cstrong> The moment in Mike Birbiglia’s \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The New One\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> that you’ll know when you see it. \u003c/strong>You don’t necessarily expect a one-man show to have a twist. But Birbiglia’s show about raising children and buying furniture, which is now available on Netflix, uses surprise better than any show like it that I’ve ever seen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>27.\u003cstrong>\u003cem> We Cast a Shadow\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>, by Maurice Carlos Ruffin\u003c/strong>. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/01/30/689747338/in-we-cast-a-shadow-the-horrors-are-close-to-home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A book about \u003c/a>race, class, parenting and the future, \u003cem>We Cast A Shadow \u003c/em>is the book about which I was proud to simply announce: “This book knocked me on my ass.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>28.\u003cstrong> Points of view in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Fleishman Is in Trouble\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/06/15/732097604/fleishman-is-in-trouble-a-debut-about-divorce-dating-and-disappearance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s divorce novel\u003c/a> is incisive on the ideas of family and relationships, to be sure. But what impressed me most was how pointed I found its implicit critiques of the modern American literary novel—as focused as it often is on sad men and their sad stories and their sad struggles, with no room for anyone else to speak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>29. \u003cstrong>The audiobook presentation of \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Beastie Boys Book. \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>I allow myself one cheat per year, in which I can include something that didn’t technically come out in the year at issue, but that I consumed during the year. This time around, it’s the wonderful audiobook of \u003cem>The Beastie Boys Book\u003c/em>. As someone who never really reacted much to \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/10/29/661647527/rap-buddhism-and-broken-radiators-the-beastie-boys-have-a-story-for-everything\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the group at the center\u003c/a> of the book, I didn’t expect to be so mesmerized by it. But it’s inventively presented, very well written and performed by a large and impressive cast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpsAi0rF968\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>30. \u003ca href=\"https://www.bookforum.com/print/2601/bret-easton-ellis-rages-against-the-decline-of-american-culture-20825\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">This piece about Bret Easton Ellis\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>31. \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/marysdesk/status/1110975466192715777\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">This clip of Nina Totenberg\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>32. \u003cstrong>The Jonathan Coulton album \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Some Guys\u003c/em>\u003c/strong> \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kf7ikrMyLQjQmmYoahDU3d71luPzQU8XU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recreates defiantly uncool ’70s music\u003c/a> like “How Deep Is Your Love” and “Easy” with an unironic love that brings it beautifully to life. Sometimes you just have to love with your whole heart, and you find that fidelity is the best kind of reinvention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>33. There is \u003cstrong>a chapter in John Hodgman’s \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Medallion Status \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>called “Nude Rider,” and it contains not only very interesting information about appearing naked on film, but also a discussion of what it’s like to be told that you look very much like a monstrous historical figure. It is well worth your time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>34. The Internet can be a good place for good dogs. We all need the reminders that they bring, and in \u003cstrong>Winky\u003c/strong>‘s case, it was that you have time, and sometimes you just have to do things on your own schedule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/WKCDOGS/status/1094642149541535745\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>35. \u003cstrong>Trevor Noah\u003c/strong> took on one of the hardest jobs one could possibly take on when he assumed the host chair at \u003cem>The Daily Show\u003c/em>. And while opinions vary on how the show has been in his era, he’s a smart and thoughtful guy who thrives on teasing out nuance in a variety of situations, as he did in \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/lindaholmes/status/1094209365970743296\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a very good response to an audience question\u003c/a> about Liam Neeson discussing his old revenge fantasies. Particularly for an off-the-cuff answer to such an explosive question, I think he knocked it out of the park. More discussions like this, please.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>36. Very often, when celebrities drink for the benefit of cameras, they play up how drunk they are. But when \u003cstrong>Seth Meyers went day drinking with Rihanna\u003c/strong>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3n5Pk8fkLg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">he got legitimately smashed\u003c/a>. Just \u003cem>smashed\u003c/em>. The combination of his precipitous decline with her wonderful, infectious, cackling laugh made it one of my favorite silly things of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>37. \u003cstrong>Sam Shepard’s \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>True West \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>was revived this year on Broadway, and the lead performances from Ethan Hawke and Paul Dano brought out the differences, and not just the similarities, between the classic theatrical brothers. In particular, Dano’s particular spin on the spinning out of the quieter Austin was tragic and painful and very funny all at the same time, and I could have watched him make toast for many, many hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>38. \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MLBGIFs/status/1118370837789323266\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">This baseball GIF\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>39. \u003cstrong>The Buzzfeed vertical \u003c/strong>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Cocoa Butter\u003c/strong>\u003c/em> has found great success with a series of videos in which black tasters try each other’s home cooking. My favorite is called \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/cocoabutterbf/status/1127257411608354817\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Black Moms Try Other Black Moms’ Soul Food\u003c/a>. There is such joy and such delicious and mischievous suspense as you wait to find out what will happen when everybody tastes the food of whoever is being the most shady about everybody else’s cooking! It’s a fabulous series, inventive and funny and satisfying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/cocoabutterbf/status/1127257411608354817\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>40. Look, you don’t need me to tell you how much of an impact \u003cstrong>“Old Town Road” and Lil Nas X\u003c/strong> made this year. But for me, one of the most delightful aspects of that story was how the song was boosted by its appeal to kids, never more clear than in the video of Lil Nas X \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/Complex/status/1133796630942113793?s=09\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">visiting an elementary school\u003c/a> where the kids absolutely lost their minds together. Joy, unbound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>41. Am I allowed to talk about an NPR project? Sure I am. You’ve heard a lot of true crime podcasts, perhaps, and you’ve heard a lot of history podcasts. But I particularly loved \u003cstrong>\u003cem>White Lies\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510343/white-lies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">delved into the murder of James Reeb\u003c/a> in 1965 while he was in Selma, Ala. participating in civil rights activism. Hosts Chip Brantley and Andrew Beck Grace masterfully mixed history and education in the traditional senses with the kind of investigation that can make true crime so interesting. And they showed great care in putting the murder of Reeb—a visiting white minister—in the context of other violence at the time, including killings of black citizens whose cases never received nearly the notoriety this one did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>42. When I started \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/07/15/741146427/we-all-watch-in-our-own-way-a-critic-tracks-the-tv-revolution\">TV critic Emily Nussbaum\u003c/a>‘s book \u003cstrong>\u003cem>I Like To Watch\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>, I would have said I didn’t want to read any more examinations of how to treat artists whose ugly behavior had come into focus, particularly as the #MeToo movement grew. I would have said I was full up, in particular, on Louis C.K. discourse. But Nussbaum has always been a writer of exceptional sharpness when it comes to navigating the complexities of her own reactions. The chapter in the book, right in the middle, that examines these questions at length is essential and wise, one of the best meditations I have read on what fans of these artists—and the many others similarly situated—should do now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>43. I’m pretty confident \u003ca href=\"https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n19/patricia-lockwood/malfunctioning-sex-robot\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the most enjoyable piece of culture commentary\u003c/a> I read all year was called “\u003cstrong>Malfunctioning Sex Robot\u003c/strong>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>44. In spite of the fact that I already shouted out the wonderful way he weaponized horses to hilarious effect, I’m going to throw a further mention to \u003cstrong>Keanu Reeves\u003c/strong>, who not only did \u003cem>John Wick 3\u003c/em>, plus a funny turn in \u003cem>Toy Story 4\u003c/em>, but was also tremendous fun playing a version of himself in the Ali Wong/Randall Park romantic comedy \u003cem>Always Be My Maybe\u003c/em>. As deadly serious as he is in the \u003cem>John Wick \u003c/em>series, that’s how goofy he is in \u003cem>Always Be My Maybe\u003c/em>, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/05/31/728311649/love-finds-ali-wong-and-randall-park-in-always-be-my-maybe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">what a pleasure it was to watch\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex403ii_Bhs\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>45. \u003cstrong>The book\u003c/strong> \u003cstrong>\u003cem>Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>takes on the very tough task of unraveling a specific event within the context of a hugely complicated, incredibly sensitive historical conflict—series of conflicts, really—with painful implications for many, many people. Patrick Radden Keefe accomplishes the goal admirably, making the book both a riveting story and a primer for anyone who hasn’t studied Northern Ireland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>46. I feel like the podcast \u003cstrong>\u003cem>Reply All \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>winds up on this list every year, but I make no apologies, because it truly is one of my most reliable sources of podcast enjoyment. This year, I think my favorite was \u003ca href=\"https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/n8hw3d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">“30-50 Feral Hogs,”\u003c/a> an episode devoted to finding the story behind what had quickly become a running public joke. This show is what genuine curiosity sounds like to me, and I’m always so grateful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>47. Add me to the many voices praising this year’s new edition of \u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Joy Of Cooking\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>. It’s a big, varied, lovingly and accessibly written book that will take you through the basics while also seeming thoroughly modern.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>48. I have rarely been as frustrated by the vanishing of a wonderful network comedy as I was by the end of ABC’s \u003cstrong>\u003cem>Speechless\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>. But to its credit, the show managed to end in a place that offered hope and a path forward to the lovable DiMeo family. I consider it one of the big losses of 2019, but it still gave me a lot of highlights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHW3G6mRvqw\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>49. There are many pleasures in Greta Gerwig’s \u003cstrong>\u003cem>Little Women\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>, but one that got me right in the heart was seeing \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/12/24/790812857/saoirse-ronan-playing-jo-march-in-little-women-was-a-confidence-boost\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Saoirse Ronan\u003c/a> and Timothée Chalamet work together again. It used to be that screen couples often acted together again and again; here’s one vote for persuading them to bring that tradition back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>50. One of my favorite developments of the year in streaming was the arrival of \u003cstrong>\u003cem>Billy on the Street\u003c/em>\u003c/strong> at Netflix. Is it a new show? \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2016/12/12/505245220/billy-eichner-makes-a-career-out-of-love-hating-celebrity-culture\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">It is not.\u003c/a> But now, you can watch it as it was meant to be seen: In exactly the dosages you need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=50+Wonderful+Things+From+2019&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "From J. Lo to Keanu, baseball GIFs to Phoebe Waller-Bridge's masterpiece, here are 50 great cultural moments—from TV, movies, theater, books, podcasts and more—from the year that was.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Standard caveats (really standard—same as \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/12/27/679839731/50-wonderful-things-from-2018\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">last year\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2017/12/27/570931638/50-wonderful-things-from-2017\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the year before\u003c/a>): I don’t watch everything. I am behind on many things. That’s just the way the world is. So if something you loved isn’t here, it is not a rebuke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And: These are cultural, mostly pop-cultural, things. These are not the best things in the world. Like yours, my actual list of wonderful things from the year, if I wrote it in a journal instead of for work, would be a list of people and moments spent with them—of days when it was unexpectedly sunny and of times when things suddenly felt better. But whatever journey you’re on at any given moment, you can always use more good things. So here we go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>1. \u003cstrong>The \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Knives Out \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>sculpture. \u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/11/27/782165138/knives-out-a-classic-comic-mystery-of-uncommon-sharpness\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">We’ve talked about\u003c/a> the sweaters in Rian Johnson’s great whodunit, and about the performances, and about the … uh, commitment? … of Daniel Craig’s very silly accent. But let’s also appreciate the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/11/26/782904344/get-a-clue-go-see-knives-out\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">enormous sculpture\u003c/a> made of knives that frames the heads of every member of the family as they’re interviewed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>2. \u003cstrong>James Marsden jumping on the trampoline in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Dead to Me\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong> James Marsden is one of those interesting actors who can do so many different things well that he’s easy to take for granted. It’s a mistake, though. Playing a slick, inspirational-speaking jerk, he wakes up, goes out on his balcony and executes a series of silly trampoline moves he says are meant to “get [his] lymph nodes going.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>3. \u003cstrong>John Mulaney’s plaid pants in the “Co-op” episode of \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Documentary Now\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>The comedian’s wardrobe choices have showed up on this list before, but they’ve never been quite so indelible as his weirdly magnetic ’70s get-up as \u003cem>Documentary Now\u003c/em>‘s \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/02/27/698126773/the-show-tunes-and-plaid-pants-of-the-documentary-now-sondheim-send-up\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">version of Stephen Sondheim\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/7KMpuoSB8HA'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/7KMpuoSB8HA'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>4. \u003cstrong>“This is a love story” in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Fleabag\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>We were all so lucky to get two seasons of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s masterpiece, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPaEqk3kVjo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the turn to camera to say\u003c/a> “this is a love story” set up the brilliant second season with intrigue, humor and Waller-Bridge’s inimitable kind of heart. The sequence of shots is so brilliant, and the entire episode so satisfying. We’ll be lucky to see its equal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>5.\u003cstrong> Aasif Mandvi in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>This Way Up. \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>Aisling Bea’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/08/21/752811433/this-way-up-deserves-a-spot-on-your-crowded-viewing-list\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">series about a young Irish woman\u003c/a> fresh out of mental health treatment offered a lot of simple pleasures. But one was seeing Aasif Mandvi, who was very funny on \u003cem>The Daily Show\u003c/em> and plays an awful lot of doctors because Hollywood is Hollywood, play the boyfriend of the character played by Sharon Horgan. A fine romantic lead, Mandvi got to show some chops that I personally hadn’t seen very much before, and it was thrilling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>6. \u003cstrong>Natasha Lyonne killing it in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Russian Doll\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>Natasha Lyonne is a force, and this performance (and her work in \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/02/01/690276468/natasha-lyonne-anchors-the-riveting-russian-doll\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">creating the show\u003c/a>) is a force. May everyone find such a perfect place to be at the peak of their powers.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/YHcKoAMGGvY'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/YHcKoAMGGvY'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>7. \u003cstrong>J. Smith-Cameron in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Succession\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>There is so much to admire about \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/08/12/750189331/succession-back-to-the-pit-of-vipers-for-another-season-of-discontent\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">HBO’s rich-jerks drama\u003c/a>, but one of the real stars of Season 2 was J. Smith-Cameron as Gerri, one of the Roy family’s faithful lieutenants. Once mostly a figure in meetings hovering over paperwork, Gerri ended Season 2 with a sharper sense of humor, a more distinct role in the family, a star turn at the Roy Family [Figurative] Murder Breakfast and a sexual relationship-ish that’s both offbeat and sweet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>8.\u003cstrong> The big resolution in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Unbelievable\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>It wouldn’t be fair to say much about the photo that loads late in \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/10/01/766049015/unbelievable-is-a-searing-drama-about-violence-and-justice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Netflix’s fact-based series\u003c/a> about an unsolved rape case, but making a plot turn feel so simultaneously satisfying and wrenching is very difficult. And while the series largely belongs to performances from Kaitlyn Dever, Merritt Wever and Toni Collette, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better wordless 30 seconds in all of 2020 than the ones Eric Lange, playing a detective, delivers early in the last episode when this scene hits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>9. \u003cstrong>The manipulation of time in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Watchmen\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> episode 6. \u003c/strong>The first—and maybe the only—season of HBO’s \u003cem>Watchmen \u003c/em>was excellent throughout, but it reached a new high in the sixth episode, as interwoven past and present stories created connections that were surprising, but seemed somehow inevitable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>10.\u003cstrong> Billy Crudup in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Morning Show\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong> I’m among those who believe that Apple TV+’s first big series, about the aftermath of a sexual harassment scandal on a network morning show, got a rougher reception than it deserved—partly because it takes a couple of episodes to find its feet and focus. But even many of those who remained unimpressed by it found kind words for the snake-like, inscrutable, toothy and toothsome performance by Billy Crudup as a network executive who could do good only when it meant doing well.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/Cf7N_j6Uvkg'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/Cf7N_j6Uvkg'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>11. \u003cstrong>The turn in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Parasite\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>I was very lucky to see Bong Joon-ho’s fabulous, complex film at the Toronto International Film Festival without knowing almost anything about it. I didn’t even really know what \u003cem>kind \u003c/em>of movie it was, and that was as it should be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>12.\u003cstrong> Jeremy Bearimy, baby. \u003c/strong>At the end of the third season of NBC’s \u003cem>The Good Place\u003c/em>, the conscientious, anxious, deeply moral Chidi (William Jackson Harper) and his partner-in-crime Eleanor (Kristen Bell) are forced to part company. After being reminded that theirs is a story that spans many lifetimes, Chidi uses what was once a silly, jokey phrase about the structure of time to make a profoundly romantic declaration, telling Eleanor that they will “chill out in the dot of the i forever.” That this means nothing if you haven’t \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/09/26/764229236/the-good-place-starts-its-final-approach\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">watched the show\u003c/a>, and everything if you have, is what makes it so distinct and moving.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/RFm9ClqlGuo'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/RFm9ClqlGuo'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>13.\u003cstrong> Jennifer Lopez’s dance in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Hustlers\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>, and the accompanying video. \u003c/strong>I don’t disagree with the many people who have said J. Lo should be in the running for awards for her performance in Lorene Scafaria’s crime drama. But that doesn’t mean I don’t also appreciate the athleticism of Lopez’s first dance on the pole, as well as the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRhOWrk5_NM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">behind-the-scenes look\u003c/a> at her training that she shared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>14.\u003cstrong> Every time Christian Siriano said “You’re killing me” on \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Project Runway\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>A great example of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/06/14/732423982/project-runway-proves-change-can-be-healthy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">how to reset\u003c/a> a competitive reality show, Siriano was the perfect new mentor, and the way he freely expressed his frustration with the designers was one of his secret weapons. (See also: “You’re putting a zipper right on the boob?”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>15. \u003cstrong>\u003cem>Oklahoma! \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>It’s not that \u003cem>Oklahoma! \u003c/em>hasn’t always been a dark musical—it has. But the Broadway revival I got to see this spring brought out new layers of darkness, new kinds of bleakness. The finale—which I will not describe—is one of the most startling, provocative stage moments I’ve ever seen, particularly working from such a well-known text. (Bonus: Soraya McDonald’s \u003ca href=\"https://theundefeated.com/features/the-unbearable-whiteness-of-oklahoma-on-broadway/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">excellent piece\u003c/a> at \u003cem>The Undefeated\u003c/em> about the production.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>16. \u003cstrong>\u003cem>What The Constitution Means to Me. \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>Heidi Schreck shook up the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/03/30/707858702/staging-a-debate-over-what-the-constitution-means-to-me\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">one-woman show\u003c/a> with her combination of speech, debate, dramatic monologue and call to arms. The piece is so smart and thoughtful that it’s easy to forget, when describing it, that it’s also funny and entertaining—enlivened by a late development that had the audience I was part of enthralled.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/W3GV1K2nctM'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/W3GV1K2nctM'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>17. \u003cstrong>The horse fight in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>John Wick: Chapter 3—Parabellum\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>. The biggest problem with any John Wick movie, I now believe, is that it can’t be all Keanu Reeves fighting bad guys using horses and library books.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>18. \u003cstrong>The way \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Crazy Ex-Girlfriend\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> landed the plane. \u003c/strong>It’s so hard to end a show as ambitious as \u003cem>Crazy Ex-Girlfriend\u003c/em>—particularly when it set itself up as, in part, a romantic-comedy spoof and then demonstrated that a romantic-comedy ending would be an utter betrayal of its first principles. The final episode showed respect to Rebecca’s desire to be loved; her growth as a person; the musical talent that’s been under our noses the entire time; and the fact that no matter how much she works to improve herself, White Josh will never, ever like her. Extra points for the way that, as the show wound down, co-creator and star Rachel Bloom \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/lindaholmes/status/1105976011487879169\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sold it like double the rent was due at all times\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>19.\u003cstrong> The unreal, unsettling doppelgangers in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Us\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>Doppelgangers are such a staple of horror that to make them really, genuinely scary, you have to develop their look and style in a very particular way—\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/03/22/705875221/jordan-peele-looked-into-the-mirror-and-saw-the-evil-inside-us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">as Jordan Peele did\u003c/a> in \u003cem>Us\u003c/em>. Led by Lupita Nyong’o as Red, the family of copies that shows up in their red jumpsuits, with their scissors and obviously ill intentions, use their stillness as a weapon, settling for “creepy” until it’s time to be worse than that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>20. \u003cstrong>The “Anna Ishii-Peters” episode of \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>PEN15\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>I’m not sure why stories in which teenagers bond with each other’s families are so consistently moving, but “Anna Ishii-Peters” follows in the tradition of \u003cem>My So-Called Life\u003c/em> and its “Other People’s Mothers” episode to great effect. \u003cem>PEN15 \u003c/em>is a lovely, thoughtful, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/02/11/691694798/looking-at-middle-school-through-grown-up-glasses-in-pen15\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">big-hearted look at adolescence\u003c/a>—in addition to being a raunchy, candid document of the kind of body horror that only happens in middle school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>21. \u003cstrong>The third season of the podcast \u003c/strong>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Slow Burn\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong> New host \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/11/07/776908450/slow-burn-season-3-turns-its-investigative-eye-to-the-murders-of-biggie-and-tupa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joel Anderson takes listeners through\u003c/a> two of the most famous (officially) unsolved murders of the 20th century: those of rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls. Finding the line between overexplaining and underexplaining, the series (in the manner of all good true crime) moves beyond its specific subjects to talk about how rap was developing in the 1990s, and how it was changed by the deaths of these two very young men.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>22. \u003cem>\u003cstrong>Bon Appétit\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong> videos! \u003c/strong>Few instructional YouTube channels are as beloved and useful as the one from \u003cem>Bon Appétit\u003c/em>, which has almost five million subscribers. It contains plenty of straight-up how-to pieces, but continues to innovate with series like Reverse Engineering, a monthly show in which deputy food editor Chris Morocco tries to recreate dishes he’s allowed to taste and touch but not see. \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbpMy0Fg74eXXkvxJrtEn3w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The whole channel\u003c/a> is a pleasure from start to finish, and its passionate following is well-earned.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/rE4KHYrWEXY'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/rE4KHYrWEXY'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>23. \u003cstrong>The synchronized swimming in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>The adventures of Midge Maisel have sometimes satisfied and sometimes not. But a stretch of the third season set in Miami was full of delights, including an opening sequence in the sixth episode that incorporated underwater filming, synchronized swimming and the hangover from a night out with Lenny Bruce. Great stuff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>24. \u003cstrong>The end of \u003c/strong>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Again With This: BH\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>Back in May 2015, Sarah Bunting and Tara Ariano—who were, full disclosure, my bosses at\u003cem> Television Without Pity \u003c/em>for years—began \u003ca href=\"https://www.againwiththis90210.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a podcast project\u003c/a> to recap each episode of \u003cem>Beverly Hills, 90210 \u003c/em>one at a time. That dumb show, it turns out, ran for 10 seasons, most of which were supersized, because it ran well into the summer. (There are seasons that have more than 30 episodes.) In December of this year, they finished. Not only was this a nutty exercise in completism, but taking the time to examine individual episodes late in the run of a show that had long since given up on itself offers a rare glimpse at what network television used to look like when it just wanted to run out the clock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>25. \u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley. \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>2019 was \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/04/30/718663783/elizabeth-holmes-and-theranos-in-pop-culture\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Year When We Talked A Lot About Theranos\u003c/a>, the company run by Elizabeth Holmes, who’s now awaiting a federal fraud trial. There are a lot of ways to learn about the story—the 2018 book \u003cem>Bad Blood \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/06/23/622795416/reporter-john-carreyrou-on-the-bad-blood-of-theranos\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">by John Carreyrou\u003c/a> is probably the best source document. But Alex Gibney’s 2019 HBO documentary is also a corker, for sure.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/wtDaP18OGfw'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/wtDaP18OGfw'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>26.\u003cstrong> The moment in Mike Birbiglia’s \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The New One\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> that you’ll know when you see it. \u003c/strong>You don’t necessarily expect a one-man show to have a twist. But Birbiglia’s show about raising children and buying furniture, which is now available on Netflix, uses surprise better than any show like it that I’ve ever seen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>27.\u003cstrong>\u003cem> We Cast a Shadow\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>, by Maurice Carlos Ruffin\u003c/strong>. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/01/30/689747338/in-we-cast-a-shadow-the-horrors-are-close-to-home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A book about \u003c/a>race, class, parenting and the future, \u003cem>We Cast A Shadow \u003c/em>is the book about which I was proud to simply announce: “This book knocked me on my ass.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>28.\u003cstrong> Points of view in \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Fleishman Is in Trouble\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/06/15/732097604/fleishman-is-in-trouble-a-debut-about-divorce-dating-and-disappearance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s divorce novel\u003c/a> is incisive on the ideas of family and relationships, to be sure. But what impressed me most was how pointed I found its implicit critiques of the modern American literary novel—as focused as it often is on sad men and their sad stories and their sad struggles, with no room for anyone else to speak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>29. \u003cstrong>The audiobook presentation of \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Beastie Boys Book. \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>I allow myself one cheat per year, in which I can include something that didn’t technically come out in the year at issue, but that I consumed during the year. This time around, it’s the wonderful audiobook of \u003cem>The Beastie Boys Book\u003c/em>. As someone who never really reacted much to \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/10/29/661647527/rap-buddhism-and-broken-radiators-the-beastie-boys-have-a-story-for-everything\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the group at the center\u003c/a> of the book, I didn’t expect to be so mesmerized by it. But it’s inventively presented, very well written and performed by a large and impressive cast.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/QpsAi0rF968'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/QpsAi0rF968'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>30. \u003ca href=\"https://www.bookforum.com/print/2601/bret-easton-ellis-rages-against-the-decline-of-american-culture-20825\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">This piece about Bret Easton Ellis\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>31. \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/marysdesk/status/1110975466192715777\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">This clip of Nina Totenberg\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>32. \u003cstrong>The Jonathan Coulton album \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Some Guys\u003c/em>\u003c/strong> \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kf7ikrMyLQjQmmYoahDU3d71luPzQU8XU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recreates defiantly uncool ’70s music\u003c/a> like “How Deep Is Your Love” and “Easy” with an unironic love that brings it beautifully to life. Sometimes you just have to love with your whole heart, and you find that fidelity is the best kind of reinvention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>33. There is \u003cstrong>a chapter in John Hodgman’s \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Medallion Status \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>called “Nude Rider,” and it contains not only very interesting information about appearing naked on film, but also a discussion of what it’s like to be told that you look very much like a monstrous historical figure. It is well worth your time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>34. The Internet can be a good place for good dogs. We all need the reminders that they bring, and in \u003cstrong>Winky\u003c/strong>‘s case, it was that you have time, and sometimes you just have to do things on your own schedule.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>35. \u003cstrong>Trevor Noah\u003c/strong> took on one of the hardest jobs one could possibly take on when he assumed the host chair at \u003cem>The Daily Show\u003c/em>. And while opinions vary on how the show has been in his era, he’s a smart and thoughtful guy who thrives on teasing out nuance in a variety of situations, as he did in \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/lindaholmes/status/1094209365970743296\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a very good response to an audience question\u003c/a> about Liam Neeson discussing his old revenge fantasies. Particularly for an off-the-cuff answer to such an explosive question, I think he knocked it out of the park. More discussions like this, please.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>36. Very often, when celebrities drink for the benefit of cameras, they play up how drunk they are. But when \u003cstrong>Seth Meyers went day drinking with Rihanna\u003c/strong>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3n5Pk8fkLg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">he got legitimately smashed\u003c/a>. Just \u003cem>smashed\u003c/em>. The combination of his precipitous decline with her wonderful, infectious, cackling laugh made it one of my favorite silly things of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>37. \u003cstrong>Sam Shepard’s \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>True West \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>was revived this year on Broadway, and the lead performances from Ethan Hawke and Paul Dano brought out the differences, and not just the similarities, between the classic theatrical brothers. In particular, Dano’s particular spin on the spinning out of the quieter Austin was tragic and painful and very funny all at the same time, and I could have watched him make toast for many, many hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>38. \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MLBGIFs/status/1118370837789323266\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">This baseball GIF\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>39. \u003cstrong>The Buzzfeed vertical \u003c/strong>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Cocoa Butter\u003c/strong>\u003c/em> has found great success with a series of videos in which black tasters try each other’s home cooking. My favorite is called \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/cocoabutterbf/status/1127257411608354817\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Black Moms Try Other Black Moms’ Soul Food\u003c/a>. There is such joy and such delicious and mischievous suspense as you wait to find out what will happen when everybody tastes the food of whoever is being the most shady about everybody else’s cooking! It’s a fabulous series, inventive and funny and satisfying.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>40. Look, you don’t need me to tell you how much of an impact \u003cstrong>“Old Town Road” and Lil Nas X\u003c/strong> made this year. But for me, one of the most delightful aspects of that story was how the song was boosted by its appeal to kids, never more clear than in the video of Lil Nas X \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/Complex/status/1133796630942113793?s=09\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">visiting an elementary school\u003c/a> where the kids absolutely lost their minds together. Joy, unbound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>41. Am I allowed to talk about an NPR project? Sure I am. You’ve heard a lot of true crime podcasts, perhaps, and you’ve heard a lot of history podcasts. But I particularly loved \u003cstrong>\u003cem>White Lies\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510343/white-lies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">delved into the murder of James Reeb\u003c/a> in 1965 while he was in Selma, Ala. participating in civil rights activism. Hosts Chip Brantley and Andrew Beck Grace masterfully mixed history and education in the traditional senses with the kind of investigation that can make true crime so interesting. And they showed great care in putting the murder of Reeb—a visiting white minister—in the context of other violence at the time, including killings of black citizens whose cases never received nearly the notoriety this one did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>42. When I started \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/07/15/741146427/we-all-watch-in-our-own-way-a-critic-tracks-the-tv-revolution\">TV critic Emily Nussbaum\u003c/a>‘s book \u003cstrong>\u003cem>I Like To Watch\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>, I would have said I didn’t want to read any more examinations of how to treat artists whose ugly behavior had come into focus, particularly as the #MeToo movement grew. I would have said I was full up, in particular, on Louis C.K. discourse. But Nussbaum has always been a writer of exceptional sharpness when it comes to navigating the complexities of her own reactions. The chapter in the book, right in the middle, that examines these questions at length is essential and wise, one of the best meditations I have read on what fans of these artists—and the many others similarly situated—should do now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>43. I’m pretty confident \u003ca href=\"https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n19/patricia-lockwood/malfunctioning-sex-robot\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the most enjoyable piece of culture commentary\u003c/a> I read all year was called “\u003cstrong>Malfunctioning Sex Robot\u003c/strong>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>44. In spite of the fact that I already shouted out the wonderful way he weaponized horses to hilarious effect, I’m going to throw a further mention to \u003cstrong>Keanu Reeves\u003c/strong>, who not only did \u003cem>John Wick 3\u003c/em>, plus a funny turn in \u003cem>Toy Story 4\u003c/em>, but was also tremendous fun playing a version of himself in the Ali Wong/Randall Park romantic comedy \u003cem>Always Be My Maybe\u003c/em>. As deadly serious as he is in the \u003cem>John Wick \u003c/em>series, that’s how goofy he is in \u003cem>Always Be My Maybe\u003c/em>, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/05/31/728311649/love-finds-ali-wong-and-randall-park-in-always-be-my-maybe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">what a pleasure it was to watch\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/Ex403ii_Bhs'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/Ex403ii_Bhs'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>45. \u003cstrong>The book\u003c/strong> \u003cstrong>\u003cem>Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>takes on the very tough task of unraveling a specific event within the context of a hugely complicated, incredibly sensitive historical conflict—series of conflicts, really—with painful implications for many, many people. Patrick Radden Keefe accomplishes the goal admirably, making the book both a riveting story and a primer for anyone who hasn’t studied Northern Ireland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>46. I feel like the podcast \u003cstrong>\u003cem>Reply All \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>winds up on this list every year, but I make no apologies, because it truly is one of my most reliable sources of podcast enjoyment. This year, I think my favorite was \u003ca href=\"https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/n8hw3d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">“30-50 Feral Hogs,”\u003c/a> an episode devoted to finding the story behind what had quickly become a running public joke. This show is what genuine curiosity sounds like to me, and I’m always so grateful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>47. Add me to the many voices praising this year’s new edition of \u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Joy Of Cooking\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>. It’s a big, varied, lovingly and accessibly written book that will take you through the basics while also seeming thoroughly modern.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>48. I have rarely been as frustrated by the vanishing of a wonderful network comedy as I was by the end of ABC’s \u003cstrong>\u003cem>Speechless\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>. But to its credit, the show managed to end in a place that offered hope and a path forward to the lovable DiMeo family. I consider it one of the big losses of 2019, but it still gave me a lot of highlights.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/QHW3G6mRvqw'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/QHW3G6mRvqw'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>49. There are many pleasures in Greta Gerwig’s \u003cstrong>\u003cem>Little Women\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>, but one that got me right in the heart was seeing \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/12/24/790812857/saoirse-ronan-playing-jo-march-in-little-women-was-a-confidence-boost\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Saoirse Ronan\u003c/a> and Timothée Chalamet work together again. It used to be that screen couples often acted together again and again; here’s one vote for persuading them to bring that tradition back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>50. One of my favorite developments of the year in streaming was the arrival of \u003cstrong>\u003cem>Billy on the Street\u003c/em>\u003c/strong> at Netflix. Is it a new show? \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2016/12/12/505245220/billy-eichner-makes-a-career-out-of-love-hating-celebrity-culture\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">It is not.\u003c/a> But now, you can watch it as it was meant to be seen: In exactly the dosages you need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=50+Wonderful+Things+From+2019&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Ilana Glazer is ready for you to get to know the real Ilana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s different, she’ll have you know, than Ilana Wexler, her free-wheeling alter-ego on \u003cem>Broad City\u003c/em>, the comedy Web-turned-TV series she created alongside her co-star, Abbi Jacobson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For one, she jokes in her new stand-up special, unlike the fake Ilana, the real Ilana is mature enough to take her vitamins before she hits the bowl of weed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrbsQRpM9Ok\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jokes aside, Glazer is still figuring out who the real Ilana is, after closing a decade-long chapter on the \u003cem>Broad City \u003c/em>world with the series finale earlier this year. As in the final episode, the inseparable duo of Glazer and Jacobson, must go through the growing pains of striking out on their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Thinking of myself as an individual entity when it comes to my work … it’s just been hard,” she said in an interview with\u003cem> All Things Considered\u003c/em>. “You know, it was my whole twenties.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Glazer’s working out her real-life solo act in part on stage in an hour-long special, \u003cem>The Planet Is Burning\u003c/em>, set to hit Amazon Prime next month. In it, we see the 32-year-old wrestle with adult-y things like her marriage—and her discomfort with the unfamiliar assignments of “wife” and “husband.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like her \u003cem>Broad City\u003c/em> character, Glazer still dances around, slips in and out of voices and impressions, and sings. But beneath that jubilance is a seriousness rarely captured on screen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While her 20-something character laughed her way through constant shenanigans, she and Jacobson were working hard behind the scenes. “I do feel a little bit like I missed out on mistake-making,” Glazer said. “\u003cem>Broad City\u003c/em> was this context for our mistakes, where we got to put them in a box and then leave them there. And now I don’t really have that box.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past decade, Glazer said she’s also realized that she boxed up some feelings while buckling down on the work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been so grateful and ‘Thank you so much for this opportunity,’ for so long,” she said. “Also, in \u003cem>Broad City\u003c/em>, I played the light character and Abbi played the darker character.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avzXGjdBLkA\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lately, she said, she’s embracing that darker side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m angrier than I’ve been allowing myself to see,” she said. “I have this fire in me that I was not seeing was part of my light.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That fire lit under her appears to drive her political activism efforts. She helped start \u003ca href=\"https://generatorcollective.com/\">Generator Collective\u003c/a>, a storytelling project that encourages Americans to share their own stories about how public policies affect them personally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group’s goal, she said, is to “lower the barrier of entry to talking about politics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Glazer’s new material might be another attempt at lowering that barrier with humor to talk about the current political moment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003cem>The Planet Is Burning\u003c/em>, between her twerking and stage-strutting, the comedian touches on the rise of white nationalism through a stolen-haircut joke, and diagnoses the lack of climate change action as the “ultimate \u003ca href=\"https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=FOMO\">FOMO\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In watching herself in the footage from her special, she said, she sees someone who is “more me than Ilana Wexler was.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think people think because of Ilana Wexler and \u003cem>Broad City\u003c/em>, I’m like this happier, more \u003cem>up \u003c/em>person,” she said. “And I am, but I’m kind of an optimistic nihilist. ‘Cause like while we’re on the planet, why not have fun? But—it’s literally burning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Ilana+Glazer+Strikes+Out+On+Her+Own+In+New+Stand-Up+Special&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Ilana Glazer is ready for you to get to know the real Ilana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s different, she’ll have you know, than Ilana Wexler, her free-wheeling alter-ego on \u003cem>Broad City\u003c/em>, the comedy Web-turned-TV series she created alongside her co-star, Abbi Jacobson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For one, she jokes in her new stand-up special, unlike the fake Ilana, the real Ilana is mature enough to take her vitamins before she hits the bowl of weed.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/JrbsQRpM9Ok'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/JrbsQRpM9Ok'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Jokes aside, Glazer is still figuring out who the real Ilana is, after closing a decade-long chapter on the \u003cem>Broad City \u003c/em>world with the series finale earlier this year. As in the final episode, the inseparable duo of Glazer and Jacobson, must go through the growing pains of striking out on their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Thinking of myself as an individual entity when it comes to my work … it’s just been hard,” she said in an interview with\u003cem> All Things Considered\u003c/em>. “You know, it was my whole twenties.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Glazer’s working out her real-life solo act in part on stage in an hour-long special, \u003cem>The Planet Is Burning\u003c/em>, set to hit Amazon Prime next month. In it, we see the 32-year-old wrestle with adult-y things like her marriage—and her discomfort with the unfamiliar assignments of “wife” and “husband.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like her \u003cem>Broad City\u003c/em> character, Glazer still dances around, slips in and out of voices and impressions, and sings. But beneath that jubilance is a seriousness rarely captured on screen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While her 20-something character laughed her way through constant shenanigans, she and Jacobson were working hard behind the scenes. “I do feel a little bit like I missed out on mistake-making,” Glazer said. “\u003cem>Broad City\u003c/em> was this context for our mistakes, where we got to put them in a box and then leave them there. And now I don’t really have that box.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past decade, Glazer said she’s also realized that she boxed up some feelings while buckling down on the work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been so grateful and ‘Thank you so much for this opportunity,’ for so long,” she said. “Also, in \u003cem>Broad City\u003c/em>, I played the light character and Abbi played the darker character.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/avzXGjdBLkA'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/avzXGjdBLkA'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Lately, she said, she’s embracing that darker side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m angrier than I’ve been allowing myself to see,” she said. “I have this fire in me that I was not seeing was part of my light.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That fire lit under her appears to drive her political activism efforts. She helped start \u003ca href=\"https://generatorcollective.com/\">Generator Collective\u003c/a>, a storytelling project that encourages Americans to share their own stories about how public policies affect them personally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group’s goal, she said, is to “lower the barrier of entry to talking about politics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Glazer’s new material might be another attempt at lowering that barrier with humor to talk about the current political moment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003cem>The Planet Is Burning\u003c/em>, between her twerking and stage-strutting, the comedian touches on the rise of white nationalism through a stolen-haircut joke, and diagnoses the lack of climate change action as the “ultimate \u003ca href=\"https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=FOMO\">FOMO\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In watching herself in the footage from her special, she said, she sees someone who is “more me than Ilana Wexler was.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think people think because of Ilana Wexler and \u003cem>Broad City\u003c/em>, I’m like this happier, more \u003cem>up \u003c/em>person,” she said. “And I am, but I’m kind of an optimistic nihilist. ‘Cause like while we’re on the planet, why not have fun? But—it’s literally burning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Ilana+Glazer+Strikes+Out+On+Her+Own+In+New+Stand-Up+Special&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Neil Innes, Monty Python Collaborator and Rutles Member, Dead at 75",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4206142\">Neil Innes\u003c/a>, whose gift for wry and funny songwriting led to work with \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/tags/126953390/monty-python\">Monty Python\u003c/a>, The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and The Rutles, died Sunday, December 29. His death was confirmed by his agent, Nigel Morton, who said in a statement that Innes died “quickly, without warning,” of natural causes. He was 75.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Innes’ family wrote:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\u003cem>It is with deep sorrow and great sadness that we have to announce the death of Neil James Innes on 29\u003c/em>\u003cem>\u003csup>th\u003c/sup>\u003c/em>\u003cem> December 2019.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>We have lost a beautiful kind, gentle soul whose music and songs touched the heart of everyone and whose intellect and search for truth inspired us all.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Innes wrote several original songs for Monty Python’s sketch-comedy TV show, \u003cem>Monty Python’s Flying Circus\u003c/em>, as well as 1975’s classic movie, \u003cem>Monty Python and the Holy Grail\u003c/em>, in which he also appeared as an actor. Innes’ years as a supporting player with Monty Python led to a long-running stint as co-leader of The Rutles, a fictional late-’70s \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/15229570/the-beatles\">Beatles\u003c/a> pastiche that featured Monty Python’s Eric Idle as the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/15158238/paul-mccartney\">Paul McCartney\u003c/a> stand-in, Dirk McQuickly, and Innes as the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/15405854/john-lennon\">John Lennon\u003c/a> stand-in, Ron Nasty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qf8y7v0WIE\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Rutles ultimately became a “real” band, appearing on \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em> and recording a mockumentary film called \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077147/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>All You Need Is Cash\u003c/em>\u003c/a> in 1978. Assorted reunions, tours, retrospectives and compilations have followed in the decades since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a way, The Rutles’ long history of affectionate Beatles mimicry amounted to Innes’ musical life coming full circle: The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band had, after all, appeared in the Beatles’ 1967 film \u003cem>Magical Mystery Tour\u003c/em> (wherein it performed its song “Death Cab for Cutie,” which would later give \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/15163859/death-cab-for-cutie\">a different well-known band\u003c/a> its name). Working under a pseudonym, McCartney himself produced The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band’s biggest hit, 1968’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVr2hbE6aW0\">I’m the Urban Spaceman\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woqgI7loyo4&feature=emb_logo\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent years, Innes continued to tour and perform—in 2011, he even popped up at NPR’s Tiny Desk, where he performed two Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band songs (“Democracy” and “I’m the Urban Spaceman”), as well as The Rutles’ “I Must Be in Love.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Neil+Innes%2C+Monty+Python+Collaborator+And+Rutles+Member%2C+Dead+At+75&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4206142\">Neil Innes\u003c/a>, whose gift for wry and funny songwriting led to work with \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/tags/126953390/monty-python\">Monty Python\u003c/a>, The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and The Rutles, died Sunday, December 29. His death was confirmed by his agent, Nigel Morton, who said in a statement that Innes died “quickly, without warning,” of natural causes. He was 75.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Innes’ family wrote:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\u003cem>It is with deep sorrow and great sadness that we have to announce the death of Neil James Innes on 29\u003c/em>\u003cem>\u003csup>th\u003c/sup>\u003c/em>\u003cem> December 2019.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>We have lost a beautiful kind, gentle soul whose music and songs touched the heart of everyone and whose intellect and search for truth inspired us all.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Innes wrote several original songs for Monty Python’s sketch-comedy TV show, \u003cem>Monty Python’s Flying Circus\u003c/em>, as well as 1975’s classic movie, \u003cem>Monty Python and the Holy Grail\u003c/em>, in which he also appeared as an actor. Innes’ years as a supporting player with Monty Python led to a long-running stint as co-leader of The Rutles, a fictional late-’70s \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/15229570/the-beatles\">Beatles\u003c/a> pastiche that featured Monty Python’s Eric Idle as the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/15158238/paul-mccartney\">Paul McCartney\u003c/a> stand-in, Dirk McQuickly, and Innes as the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/15405854/john-lennon\">John Lennon\u003c/a> stand-in, Ron Nasty.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/8qf8y7v0WIE'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/8qf8y7v0WIE'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>The Rutles ultimately became a “real” band, appearing on \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em> and recording a mockumentary film called \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077147/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>All You Need Is Cash\u003c/em>\u003c/a> in 1978. Assorted reunions, tours, retrospectives and compilations have followed in the decades since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a way, The Rutles’ long history of affectionate Beatles mimicry amounted to Innes’ musical life coming full circle: The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band had, after all, appeared in the Beatles’ 1967 film \u003cem>Magical Mystery Tour\u003c/em> (wherein it performed its song “Death Cab for Cutie,” which would later give \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/15163859/death-cab-for-cutie\">a different well-known band\u003c/a> its name). Working under a pseudonym, McCartney himself produced The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band’s biggest hit, 1968’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVr2hbE6aW0\">I’m the Urban Spaceman\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/woqgI7loyo4'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/woqgI7loyo4'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent years, Innes continued to tour and perform—in 2011, he even popped up at NPR’s Tiny Desk, where he performed two Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band songs (“Democracy” and “I’m the Urban Spaceman”), as well as The Rutles’ “I Must Be in Love.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Neil+Innes%2C+Monty+Python+Collaborator+And+Rutles+Member%2C+Dead+At+75&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Confession: I’ve turned into a last-minute holiday shopper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t always this way, I swear, but almost a decade of parenting has taught me that what a kid likes in June is most definitely not what a kid will like in December (\u003cem>Star Wars\u003c/em> excepted, of course), so I can either waste money and save time, or wait until the last minute and waste slightly less money. Whether it’s toys or books, it’s always the same, so I wait. I wait until the “may not arrive until after Christmas” warnings start coming, and then I panic, do a quick survey of what my kids are obsessed with RIGHT THIS SECOND, pull out the checkbook and hope for the best.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I know I can count on anything in Tui Sutherland’s \u003cem>Wings of Fire \u003c/em>series for my son, and Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s latest utensil drama, \u003cem>Chopsticks\u003c/em>, for my youngest, but my middle baby was a doozy this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m holding a little black book in my hand. It’s hardcover with an imprinted gold title on the front and the spine. It can’t be more than 6 by 4 inches, and the text on its 313 pages (not counting the index) is tiny and dense. I found my 7-year-old reading this book a few weeks ago, and she hasn’t put it down since. It’s not exactly a children’s book.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s reading \u003cem>From the Deep Woods to Civilization \u003c/em>by Charles Alexander Eastman, the Santee Dakota writer and physician.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I mean, she’s all about it. One of her most prized possessions is a bag my Monacan grandmother made from a turtle shell. This year she made — almost completely by herself, mind you — a \u003ca href=\"https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016956-three-sisters-stew\">Three Sisters stew\u003c/a> to take to her Thanksgiving party at school, she desperately wants my father to take his beaded breastplate out of its glass case (that’s not going to happen) and she is more than willing to go toe to toe if someone makes a crack about how long her brother’s hair is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s tough and proud and interested, but Charles Alexander Eastman? I wasn’t prepared for her to read his works until at least third grade (ha!).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But surprisingly, if taken slowly and thoughtfully, \u003cem>From the Deep Woods\u003c/em> is not the worst book in the world for children, and I am thrilled my little girl is showing such interest in her heritage. I am also thrilled that her interest came so close to the holidays — it made picking a present easy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='large' align='right' citation='Juanita Giles']‘The family in \u003cem>\u003cstrong>Fry Bread\u003c/strong>\u003c/em> eats it just the way my family does: Sweet with honey or preserves, savory with meat and tomatoes, and they eat it with thanks and happiness.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to the Three Sisters stew she took to school for Thanksgiving, my daughter also had me bring in fry bread. I ALWAYS bring in fry bread, and bless their hearts, those little children go crazy for it. “She made the bread; she made the bread!!!” The second grade was practically swarming, and I felt super bad for whichever parent brought in candy corn because it was knocked to the floor in the ensuing melee to get to the fry bread. (My daughter asked in a whisper, “You DID make extra for supper, didn’t you?” Yes, honey, I did.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So \u003cem>Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story\u003c/em> was waiting for her under the tree this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t know if Kevin Noble Maillard actually intended for a 7-year-old to drop dough into a cast iron skillet full of hot oil, but I can tell you that’s exactly what happened in my house on Christmas afternoon after my daughter opened \u003cem>Fry Bread\u003c/em>. For my little girl, Maillard hasn’t written a book to expand the diversity of her bookshelf or explain a culture about which she may know little to nothing — Maillard has written a book about HER life and HER family, not to mention a book about one of her all-time favorite foods (which she has been begging me to let her make by herself, but eh … “fry bread is sound … sizzling oil popping” so, we’ll just have to see about that.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My kids are often told they don’t look “Indian enough,” but illustrator Juana Martinez-Neal doesn’t brook any such nonsense. The Native American family in \u003cem>Fry Bread \u003c/em>is just like our own family (OK, a tad more well-behaved): There is blond hair, cornrows, red hair and yes, straight, black hair (such is the legacy of First Contact). My kids love seeing themselves included, and I love sharing that moment with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside tag='native-american, book-review, the-great-american-read' label='More Stories You'll Like']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As happy as my kids are with this book, make no mistake, \u003cem>Fry Bread\u003c/em> isn’t merely a feel-good story about a picturesque Native American family cooking together with joyful abandon and minimal mess. Fry bread is not the least divisive of foods: Born of mortal necessity, fry bread might seem the last food Native Americans would choose to celebrate (and many people choose not to). My children know fry bread isn’t “traditional,” and they know why. To his credit, Maillard doesn’t shy away from tackling that issue. “Fry bread is history … the long walk, the stolen land … with unknown food we made new recipes from what we had.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also to Maillard’s credit, he doesn’t leave it there. Fry bread IS worth celebrating. That diverse Native American family that means so much to my kids? Fry bread is instrumental to its very existence. The 19th-century boyhood of Charles Eastman is gone: The wild rice, the bison, the venison, the fish, the ducks, the huckleberries — all gone. But Maillard takes the food of necessity and places it directly on the table of plenty. The family in \u003cem>Fry Bread\u003c/em> eats it just the way my family does: Sweet with honey or preserves, savory with meat and tomatoes, and they eat it with thanks and happiness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So yes, \u003cem>Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story\u003c/em> is the perfect gift for my little girl, for all my children. Long after the Legos or dolls are set aside and forgotten, \u003cem>Fry Bread\u003c/em> will be brought down from the cookbook shelf (yes, Maillard includes his own recipe!), thumbed through with floury hands searching for the words “Monacan Indian Nation” inside the cover, and splattered with oil as it sits by my old cast iron skillet. I hope Kevin Maillard will excuse me for wrapping up a splatter screen along with the book.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Juanita Giles is the founder and executive director of the Virginia Children’s Book Festival. She lives on a farm in Southern Virginia with her family.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2019 \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to the Three Sisters stew she took to school for Thanksgiving, my daughter also had me bring in fry bread. I ALWAYS bring in fry bread, and bless their hearts, those little children go crazy for it. “She made the bread; she made the bread!!!” The second grade was practically swarming, and I felt super bad for whichever parent brought in candy corn because it was knocked to the floor in the ensuing melee to get to the fry bread. (My daughter asked in a whisper, “You DID make extra for supper, didn’t you?” Yes, honey, I did.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So \u003cem>Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story\u003c/em> was waiting for her under the tree this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t know if Kevin Noble Maillard actually intended for a 7-year-old to drop dough into a cast iron skillet full of hot oil, but I can tell you that’s exactly what happened in my house on Christmas afternoon after my daughter opened \u003cem>Fry Bread\u003c/em>. For my little girl, Maillard hasn’t written a book to expand the diversity of her bookshelf or explain a culture about which she may know little to nothing — Maillard has written a book about HER life and HER family, not to mention a book about one of her all-time favorite foods (which she has been begging me to let her make by herself, but eh … “fry bread is sound … sizzling oil popping” so, we’ll just have to see about that.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My kids are often told they don’t look “Indian enough,” but illustrator Juana Martinez-Neal doesn’t brook any such nonsense. The Native American family in \u003cem>Fry Bread \u003c/em>is just like our own family (OK, a tad more well-behaved): There is blond hair, cornrows, red hair and yes, straight, black hair (such is the legacy of First Contact). My kids love seeing themselves included, and I love sharing that moment with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>From the moment Andrew Lloyd Webber decided to set the T.S. Eliot poetry collection \u003cem>Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats\u003c/em> to music, \u003cem>Cats\u003c/em> has felt like an escalating series of dares, or a Bialystock & Bloom scheme that accidentally became one of the biggest sensations in Broadway history. It did not seem likely that a plotless revue where cats either introduce themselves or introduce other cats would ignite public interest. Or that Grizabella’s ascendence to the Heaviside Layer would last longer than the acid trip that summoned it to life. Or that a single song, “Memory,” would be so transcendent that it could carry a production for decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For nearly 40 years, however, there was widespread consensus that \u003cem>Cats\u003c/em> could never be made into a movie. There’s no story to be told, the action is confined to a junkyard backdrop, and the sight of performers thundering around in cat costumes and make-up is the type of conceit that’s readily accepted on stage, but not as suitable to screen. And yet now, through the magic of digital technology, audiences can witness a surly, bewhiskered Ray Winstone manning a barge as Captain Growltiger or the Ian McKellen saying “Meow, meow” with the gravitas expected of a Shakespearean actor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/gNTDoOmc1OQ\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s hard to know how to react to \u003cem>Cats\u003c/em>, other than gape in slack-jawed amazement that the dare has continued for so long. The two trailers released in advance of the film have been a cultural phenomenon in themselves, a meme-friendly trip to the uncatty valley, but there’s never any point in its 110-minute running time where it seems less strange or disconcerting. In the true \u003cem>Cats\u003c/em> tradition, the idea should have been scuttled in the testing phase, when the skin-tight melding of faces and bodies with “digital fur technology” looked glitchy and unsettling, like one of the ghosts from a Japanese horror movie. And yet director Tom Hooper and the studio pressed on, under the not-unreasonable logic that audiences will embrace such abstractions readily, as they had on Broadway and the West End.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hooper and his co-screenwriter, Lee Hall (\u003cem>Billy Elliot)\u003c/em>, have done what they can to ease the transition. There’s more narrative tissue connecting one set-piece to the next, and an expanded role for Victoria, a discarded kitten, to be the consistent perspective that ties the whole odyssey together. Played by the renowned ballerina Francesca Hayward, whose face reflects the right amount of wide-eyed curiosity and wonder, Victoria falls in with the Jellicle cats that haunt the streets and abandoned spaces of nocturnal London. The cats gather every year for the Jellicle Ball, and the furry matriarch Old Deuteronomy (Judi Dench) will make the “Jellicle Choice,” in which one cat will selected for rebirth on the Heaviside Layer. (A warning: Do not making a drinking game out of the word “Jellicle.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And with that, various cats show off their personalities, like a disturbingly itchy Rebel Wilson as Jennyanydots, a large tabby cat who leads a spirited number with kitchen mice and cockroaches, or Jason Derulo as Rum Tum Tugger, who’s all about showing off his swaggering self-confidence. Lurking in the shadows is the non-singing mischief-maker Macavity (Idris Elba), “the Napoleon of Crime,” whose plan to win the Jellicle Ball involves disappearing all the other contenders and chaining them to a barge in the middle of the Thames. Meanwhile, the mangy and ostracized former glamour-queen Grizabella (Jennifer Hudson) reminiscences through tears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s not enough story, even in this plottier version, to sustain the swings from whimsy to pathos, but it’s the comedy in \u003cem>Cats\u003c/em> that lands flattest, relying heavily on Wilson and James Corden, as alleycat gourmand Bustopher Jones, to pull faces and do pratfalls. The too-muchness of Hudson’s rendering of “Memory” recalls the staging of “I Dreamed a Dream” in Hooper’s botched \u003cem>Les Misérables\u003c/em> adaptation from 2012, which he shot heavily in wide-angle close-ups. Hooper still hacks up the choreography in \u003cem>Cats\u003c/em>, but he does get enough distance from McKellen’s Gus the Theatre Cat to allow the actor to deliver a soulful final curtain call.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite such small moments of dignity and grace, the fundamental wrongness of a screen version of \u003cem>Cats\u003c/em> never dissipates. Whenever it feels like Stockholm syndrome might kick in, an actor will lick his paws to groom his face or the excitable tails that extend from the cats’ very human behinds will stand in semi-erotic attention. But if the show’s history is any indication, a big enough swath of the population will not feel as skittish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Copyright 2019 \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>From the moment Andrew Lloyd Webber decided to set the T.S. Eliot poetry collection \u003cem>Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats\u003c/em> to music, \u003cem>Cats\u003c/em> has felt like an escalating series of dares, or a Bialystock & Bloom scheme that accidentally became one of the biggest sensations in Broadway history. It did not seem likely that a plotless revue where cats either introduce themselves or introduce other cats would ignite public interest. Or that Grizabella’s ascendence to the Heaviside Layer would last longer than the acid trip that summoned it to life. Or that a single song, “Memory,” would be so transcendent that it could carry a production for decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For nearly 40 years, however, there was widespread consensus that \u003cem>Cats\u003c/em> could never be made into a movie. There’s no story to be told, the action is confined to a junkyard backdrop, and the sight of performers thundering around in cat costumes and make-up is the type of conceit that’s readily accepted on stage, but not as suitable to screen. And yet now, through the magic of digital technology, audiences can witness a surly, bewhiskered Ray Winstone manning a barge as Captain Growltiger or the Ian McKellen saying “Meow, meow” with the gravitas expected of a Shakespearean actor.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/gNTDoOmc1OQ'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/gNTDoOmc1OQ'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s hard to know how to react to \u003cem>Cats\u003c/em>, other than gape in slack-jawed amazement that the dare has continued for so long. The two trailers released in advance of the film have been a cultural phenomenon in themselves, a meme-friendly trip to the uncatty valley, but there’s never any point in its 110-minute running time where it seems less strange or disconcerting. In the true \u003cem>Cats\u003c/em> tradition, the idea should have been scuttled in the testing phase, when the skin-tight melding of faces and bodies with “digital fur technology” looked glitchy and unsettling, like one of the ghosts from a Japanese horror movie. And yet director Tom Hooper and the studio pressed on, under the not-unreasonable logic that audiences will embrace such abstractions readily, as they had on Broadway and the West End.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hooper and his co-screenwriter, Lee Hall (\u003cem>Billy Elliot)\u003c/em>, have done what they can to ease the transition. There’s more narrative tissue connecting one set-piece to the next, and an expanded role for Victoria, a discarded kitten, to be the consistent perspective that ties the whole odyssey together. Played by the renowned ballerina Francesca Hayward, whose face reflects the right amount of wide-eyed curiosity and wonder, Victoria falls in with the Jellicle cats that haunt the streets and abandoned spaces of nocturnal London. The cats gather every year for the Jellicle Ball, and the furry matriarch Old Deuteronomy (Judi Dench) will make the “Jellicle Choice,” in which one cat will selected for rebirth on the Heaviside Layer. (A warning: Do not making a drinking game out of the word “Jellicle.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And with that, various cats show off their personalities, like a disturbingly itchy Rebel Wilson as Jennyanydots, a large tabby cat who leads a spirited number with kitchen mice and cockroaches, or Jason Derulo as Rum Tum Tugger, who’s all about showing off his swaggering self-confidence. Lurking in the shadows is the non-singing mischief-maker Macavity (Idris Elba), “the Napoleon of Crime,” whose plan to win the Jellicle Ball involves disappearing all the other contenders and chaining them to a barge in the middle of the Thames. Meanwhile, the mangy and ostracized former glamour-queen Grizabella (Jennifer Hudson) reminiscences through tears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s not enough story, even in this plottier version, to sustain the swings from whimsy to pathos, but it’s the comedy in \u003cem>Cats\u003c/em> that lands flattest, relying heavily on Wilson and James Corden, as alleycat gourmand Bustopher Jones, to pull faces and do pratfalls. The too-muchness of Hudson’s rendering of “Memory” recalls the staging of “I Dreamed a Dream” in Hooper’s botched \u003cem>Les Misérables\u003c/em> adaptation from 2012, which he shot heavily in wide-angle close-ups. Hooper still hacks up the choreography in \u003cem>Cats\u003c/em>, but he does get enough distance from McKellen’s Gus the Theatre Cat to allow the actor to deliver a soulful final curtain call.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite such small moments of dignity and grace, the fundamental wrongness of a screen version of \u003cem>Cats\u003c/em> never dissipates. Whenever it feels like Stockholm syndrome might kick in, an actor will lick his paws to groom his face or the excitable tails that extend from the cats’ very human behinds will stand in semi-erotic attention. But if the show’s history is any indication, a big enough swath of the population will not feel as skittish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Copyright 2019 \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "NPR's Favorite Movies of 2019",
"headTitle": "NPR’s Favorite Movies of 2019 | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>NPR’s movie critic and \u003cem>Pop Culture Happy Hour \u003c/em>hosts picked 20 of their favorite films of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>1917\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqNYrYUiMfg\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Working with stories his grandfather told him, \u003cem>Skyfall\u003c/em> director Sam Mendes has crafted a World War I battlefield saga about British soldiers tasked with getting an urgent message to the front. About 1,600 lives are at stake, so there’s urgency aplenty. And with Oscar-winning \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/09/13/760642044/cinematographer-roger-deakins-films-are-artistic-yet-unpretentious\">cinematographer Roger Deakins\u003c/a> on hand, it was bound to have epic sweep. Mendes and Deakins employ all the usual war-movie tricks, with one extra: They’ve told the story in real time, contriving to make the film—from trench explosions to airplane crashes to waterfall slaloming—look like a single continuous shot. — \u003cem>Bob Mondello\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Atlantics\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6b4PgKq2dE\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mati Diop’s Cannes award-winning debut feature is a genre exercise in which genres morph at will, with Senegalese history twisting together with magical realism in a narrative pretzel. What begins as a labor-dispute drama becomes, by turns, a romance, a police procedural, a comedy and, finally, a haunting ghost story grounded in woman power, class resistance and the tragedy of mass migration. — \u003cem>Bob Mondello\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Avengers: Endgame\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcMBFSGVi1c\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Say what you will—you can’t deny that the final chapter of a decade of big-budget Marvel superhero storytelling didn’t feel like the culmination it was. And for all the talk of Thanos, \u003cem>Endgame\u003c/em> was never about the villain. Nor was it about\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/04/30/607093337/ok-lets-talk-about-the-ending-of-avengers-infinity-war\"> the Snapture\u003c/a>, which we can all now agree was pretty goofy, as heroic dilemmas go. No, it was about this roster of heroes we’ve come to know, each vibrating at his or her (but mostly his) respective frequency, converging one final time. The result was sad, and thrilling (“On your left!”) and—most importantly—satisfying. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Booksmart\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhd3lo_IWJc\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beanie Feldstein is a force of nature as a high school overachiever who, on the eve of her graduation, begins to wonder if she needed to work so hard. Kaitlyn Dever, who had a fantastic 2019 between this and the Netflix series \u003cem>Unbelievable,\u003c/em> is her best pal. The two have a chemistry that’s both intimate and fraught, just like real best friends, and the tensions between them feel earned and important. Billie Lourd turns in a scene-stealing turn as a girl who just keeps showing up everywhere, and the movie builds to one of the most satisfying conclusions a comedy provides this year. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>The Cave\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaZkwBWuN2A\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Director Feras Fayyad (\u003cem>Last Men in Aleppo\u003c/em>) has built his riveting documentary around Amani Ballour, a heroic female doctor operating a hospital in tunnels under the city of Ghouta during Syria’s civil war. Her struggle to save lives is complicated by all the usual horrors of war—bombing, starvation, insufficient medical supplies—and a few others exclusive to this conflict: the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons on its own people and sexism that leads the people benefiting from the doctor’s work to disparage her for working. — \u003cem>Bob Mondello\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>The Farewell\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgJT_9IGqsA\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Writer-director Lulu Wang’s film is based on the radio piece she did for \u003cem>This American Life,\u003c/em> which was based on her own life: Her beloved grandmother back in China was dying, but her family refused to tell this news to the elderly woman. In the film, Billi (Awkwafina) flies to China to be with Nai Nai (Zhao Shuzhen), reluctantly going along with the lie. \u003cem>The Farewell\u003c/em> is the kind of film in which characters spout broad characterizations about the cultural differences between East and West—pronouncements that \u003cem>should\u003c/em> seem ham-fisted, and land with a thud. But Wang’s direction is so intimate and sharply observed, and the performances so natural and unforced, that this warm and gentle film earns every emotion it wrings from you. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Fast Color\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tySUZIiXObc\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marvel movies have been around so long that it’s easy to forget that their big-budget effects, A-list stars and sweeping scope represent just one approach to superhero storytelling. There have been several stripped-down, character-based takes on the genre before (\u003cem>Chronicle,\u003c/em> \u003cem>Super\u003c/em>), but\u003cem> Fast Color \u003c/em>exudes a confidence—and a skill for clever, unshowy world-building—that even the most bloated blockbuster would envy. Julia Hart’s visually gorgeous film about a young black woman with destructive powers (a compelling, grounded Gugu Mbatha-Raw) embraces the metaphor at the heart of the superhero idea and proceeds to unpack it in a host of fun and surprising ways. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Gloria Bell\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCwCdQK2Qss\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in late February, as I was grunting my way through a set of barbell squats, my egregiously heterosexual personal trainer asked me if there were any movies coming out soon that he would like to see. I remember thinking to myself: “In the magnificent \u003cem>Gloria Bell,\u003c/em> Julianne Moore plays a well-meaning but basic woman who channels the transformative, redemptive power of disco music and wrap dresses; she ultimately realizes every gay man’s dream of getting rescued from a humiliating experience by the loving embrace of Holland Taylor. The film’s entire emotional arc takes place in close-up, across the porcelain plains of Moore’s perfect face.” I told him he’d like \u003cem>The Beach Bum\u003c/em>. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Hustlers\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUG2U-IxPx0\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All hail Jennifer Lopez, who opened a fur coat and welcomed both Constance Wu and an entire moviegoing audience eager to see Lopez in another solid movie role. As Ramona, an experienced stripper who leads a team of scammers, she’s merciless and athletic, drawing the eye as only a movie star can. The story has a surprising heart, and Keke Palmer is particularly funny and likeable as a member of the team. It’s a good time and a good showcase for a number of performances. And that fur coat is already iconic. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>I Lost My Body\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iblGg3Rpub8\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first three minutes of this animated French puzzler—in which a severed hand escapes a dissection lab and embarks on a peril-filled odyssey to seek its body—contains more imaginative oomph than all of \u003cem>Frozen II\u003c/em>. And the film gets only quirkier from that bizarre beginning, bobbing and weaving through a romance between a hapless pizza delivery guy and a high-rise-dwelling hipster to contemplate profound questions about fate—and what the future holds. — \u003cem>Bob Mondello\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>The Irishman\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHXxVmeGQUc\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the first two of the film’s luxuriously rich 3 1/2 hours, Martin Scorsese’s epic offers the sort of raucous, splattery, mob-movie spectacle he has so often trafficked in, with a digitally de-aged Robert De Niro as the titular hit man and Al Pacino as Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa. Then the screenplay nudges the actors in sadder directions, and the story gets more invested in loss. For while \u003cem>The Irishman\u003c/em> is, like many mob movies, about violence and betrayal, it’s the work of a filmmaker who has earned the right to sum up this genre. So it’s also about regrets, remorse, reckonings; it’s an elegy. — \u003cem>Bob Mondello\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Knives Out\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi-1NchUqMA\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What a delight to see a film so attentive to detail, so finely and fondly crafted, and so beautifully cast—one that has no higher goal than to entertain. Rian Johnson’s comedic whodunit gives delicious moments to every member of its all-star cast, and it spotlights Ana de Armas, who plays it mostly straight in a film full of hams and stands out anyway. Like or lump Daniel Craig’s goofy Southern accent, you have to admit this family really knows how to fight. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>The Lighthouse\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42_UHhpq530\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two men—a crusty old salt (Willem Dafoe) and a taciturn young landlubber (Robert Pattinson)—begin a monthlong shift as keepers of a lonely lighthouse. Things proceed to go gorgeously, grotesquely and full-tilt bananapants awry. From its opening frame, a gray ship emerging from a gray mist (the film is shot in stunning black-and-white), Robert Eggers’ film careens from the hilarious to the horrific, from the gritty to the surreal. Dafoe is wonderful, but—surprisingly, perhaps—it’s Pattinson who takes the bigger swing. He goes big, and it pays off hugely. And so, \u003cem>so\u003c/em> goofily. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Little Women\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AST2-4db4ic\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Greta Gerwig finds a perfect \u003cem>Lady Bird\u003c/em> follow-up in the story of the March sisters. Faithful to the tone of the book and most of the particulars, Gerwig nevertheless changes the structure and the emphasis in ways that make the tale feel more satisfying and complete. Amy is more than a brat; Beth is more than a saint. Gerwig invests in all the characters, and she emphasizes how Jo (Saoirse Ronan) is a writer not only of passion but also of commerce. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Marriage Story\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHi-a1n8t7M\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Director Noah Baumbach gets excellent work from Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson as a divorcing couple watching their split become more and more acrimonious. As their lawyers, Laura Dern, Ray Liotta and Alan Alda do very good supporting work, and a late piano-bar scene—one of several 2019 salutes to the power of Stephen Sondheim—layers theater history atop the film in an intriguing way. Arguments have brewed over whose side to be on (and whose side the film is on), but more than anything, it’s on the side of divorce being a demoralizing, painful experience even for people who hope it won’t be. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Midsommar\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vnghdsjmd0\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A young woman (Florence Pugh) reeling from a family tragedy finds herself in a remote Swedish commune under the flat light of a merciless midnight sun. The horrors that proceed to emerge in Ari Aster’s haunting film aren’t cloaked in shadow, and the matter-of-fact clarity with which they occur makes them all the more disturbing. The truly malevolent, unseen forces that drive \u003cem>Midsommar\u003c/em> aren’t supernatural but too unsettlingly human: grief, guilt and our need for community, whatever the emotional cost. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELeMaP8EPAA\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The title’s a tipoff: Quentin Tarantino’s love letter to Hollywood takes place inside a fable of Southern California that’s sun blasted by day and neon lit by night. It’s a place and a time rife with a history that, in Tarantino’s hands, gets massaged until it goes a bit feathery at the edges. Fading action star Rick Dalton (an anxious, needy Leonardo DiCaprio) and his faithful stand-in, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt, who here somehow manages to embody a humble swagger), navigate the transition from film to television, from Old Hollywood to New, and from button-down order to Manson Family chaos. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Pain and Glory\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVGOsrb1H6E\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pedro Almodóvar’s quasi-autobiographical opus finds a film director (Antonio Banderas) looking back on the breakage in his life—his health, his family, his loves and, centrally, the decades-long silence between him and an actor he helped put on the map. If you know that in real life, Banderas and Almodóvar had barely spoken since their early films together, that plotline will resonate. But the parallel wouldn’t matter if the film weren’t ravishing on its own. \u003cem>Pain and Glory \u003c/em>revels in art, passion and the origins of desire; it’s Almodóvar’s most affecting, accomplished and personal work in years. — \u003cem>Bob Mondello\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Parasite\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xH0HfJHsaY\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s a tale of two Korean families: the wealthy Parks, who live in a designer house on a hill, and the scrappy, working-class Kims, who inhabit a grungy basement apartment across town. When the Parks employ the Kims in their home, the stage is set for writer-director Bong Joon-ho’s caustic social satire. Initially, it plays as a comedy of manners in which the haves aren’t hateful, just insensitive. By the last reel, the film becomes a metaphor for class war, and that comedy of manners has curdled into a furious snarl of rage. — \u003cem>Bob Mondello\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Us\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tzFRIQfwXg\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doppelgangers are an unsettling horror trope, but in Jordan Peele’s film, the red-suited, scissor-wielding doubles of a nice family on vacation are even creepier than usual. Lupita Nyong’o is brilliant as Red, the leader of the group of invaders, and she invents a spidery walk that is somehow almost human but very much not. Peele’s themes of what is seen and what is hidden come through loud and clear, and the ambiguous final moments are intriguing without seeming unfair. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=NPR%27s+Favorite+Movies+Of+2019&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "\u003cem>Parasite, Knives Out, Avengers: Endgame, Little Women \u003c/em>and \u003cem>Marriage Story \u003c/em>are among the year-end list of 20 films that NPR critics loved the most.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>NPR’s movie critic and \u003cem>Pop Culture Happy Hour \u003c/em>hosts picked 20 of their favorite films of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>1917\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/YqNYrYUiMfg'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/YqNYrYUiMfg'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Working with stories his grandfather told him, \u003cem>Skyfall\u003c/em> director Sam Mendes has crafted a World War I battlefield saga about British soldiers tasked with getting an urgent message to the front. About 1,600 lives are at stake, so there’s urgency aplenty. And with Oscar-winning \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/09/13/760642044/cinematographer-roger-deakins-films-are-artistic-yet-unpretentious\">cinematographer Roger Deakins\u003c/a> on hand, it was bound to have epic sweep. Mendes and Deakins employ all the usual war-movie tricks, with one extra: They’ve told the story in real time, contriving to make the film—from trench explosions to airplane crashes to waterfall slaloming—look like a single continuous shot. — \u003cem>Bob Mondello\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Atlantics\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/u6b4PgKq2dE'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/u6b4PgKq2dE'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Mati Diop’s Cannes award-winning debut feature is a genre exercise in which genres morph at will, with Senegalese history twisting together with magical realism in a narrative pretzel. What begins as a labor-dispute drama becomes, by turns, a romance, a police procedural, a comedy and, finally, a haunting ghost story grounded in woman power, class resistance and the tragedy of mass migration. — \u003cem>Bob Mondello\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Avengers: Endgame\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/TcMBFSGVi1c'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/TcMBFSGVi1c'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Say what you will—you can’t deny that the final chapter of a decade of big-budget Marvel superhero storytelling didn’t feel like the culmination it was. And for all the talk of Thanos, \u003cem>Endgame\u003c/em> was never about the villain. Nor was it about\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/04/30/607093337/ok-lets-talk-about-the-ending-of-avengers-infinity-war\"> the Snapture\u003c/a>, which we can all now agree was pretty goofy, as heroic dilemmas go. No, it was about this roster of heroes we’ve come to know, each vibrating at his or her (but mostly his) respective frequency, converging one final time. The result was sad, and thrilling (“On your left!”) and—most importantly—satisfying. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Booksmart\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/Uhd3lo_IWJc'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/Uhd3lo_IWJc'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Beanie Feldstein is a force of nature as a high school overachiever who, on the eve of her graduation, begins to wonder if she needed to work so hard. Kaitlyn Dever, who had a fantastic 2019 between this and the Netflix series \u003cem>Unbelievable,\u003c/em> is her best pal. The two have a chemistry that’s both intimate and fraught, just like real best friends, and the tensions between them feel earned and important. Billie Lourd turns in a scene-stealing turn as a girl who just keeps showing up everywhere, and the movie builds to one of the most satisfying conclusions a comedy provides this year. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>The Cave\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/TaZkwBWuN2A'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/TaZkwBWuN2A'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Director Feras Fayyad (\u003cem>Last Men in Aleppo\u003c/em>) has built his riveting documentary around Amani Ballour, a heroic female doctor operating a hospital in tunnels under the city of Ghouta during Syria’s civil war. Her struggle to save lives is complicated by all the usual horrors of war—bombing, starvation, insufficient medical supplies—and a few others exclusive to this conflict: the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons on its own people and sexism that leads the people benefiting from the doctor’s work to disparage her for working. — \u003cem>Bob Mondello\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>The Farewell\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/kgJT_9IGqsA'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/kgJT_9IGqsA'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Writer-director Lulu Wang’s film is based on the radio piece she did for \u003cem>This American Life,\u003c/em> which was based on her own life: Her beloved grandmother back in China was dying, but her family refused to tell this news to the elderly woman. In the film, Billi (Awkwafina) flies to China to be with Nai Nai (Zhao Shuzhen), reluctantly going along with the lie. \u003cem>The Farewell\u003c/em> is the kind of film in which characters spout broad characterizations about the cultural differences between East and West—pronouncements that \u003cem>should\u003c/em> seem ham-fisted, and land with a thud. But Wang’s direction is so intimate and sharply observed, and the performances so natural and unforced, that this warm and gentle film earns every emotion it wrings from you. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Fast Color\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/tySUZIiXObc'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/tySUZIiXObc'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Marvel movies have been around so long that it’s easy to forget that their big-budget effects, A-list stars and sweeping scope represent just one approach to superhero storytelling. There have been several stripped-down, character-based takes on the genre before (\u003cem>Chronicle,\u003c/em> \u003cem>Super\u003c/em>), but\u003cem> Fast Color \u003c/em>exudes a confidence—and a skill for clever, unshowy world-building—that even the most bloated blockbuster would envy. Julia Hart’s visually gorgeous film about a young black woman with destructive powers (a compelling, grounded Gugu Mbatha-Raw) embraces the metaphor at the heart of the superhero idea and proceeds to unpack it in a host of fun and surprising ways. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Gloria Bell\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/YCwCdQK2Qss'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/YCwCdQK2Qss'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Back in late February, as I was grunting my way through a set of barbell squats, my egregiously heterosexual personal trainer asked me if there were any movies coming out soon that he would like to see. I remember thinking to myself: “In the magnificent \u003cem>Gloria Bell,\u003c/em> Julianne Moore plays a well-meaning but basic woman who channels the transformative, redemptive power of disco music and wrap dresses; she ultimately realizes every gay man’s dream of getting rescued from a humiliating experience by the loving embrace of Holland Taylor. The film’s entire emotional arc takes place in close-up, across the porcelain plains of Moore’s perfect face.” I told him he’d like \u003cem>The Beach Bum\u003c/em>. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Hustlers\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/LUG2U-IxPx0'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/LUG2U-IxPx0'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>All hail Jennifer Lopez, who opened a fur coat and welcomed both Constance Wu and an entire moviegoing audience eager to see Lopez in another solid movie role. As Ramona, an experienced stripper who leads a team of scammers, she’s merciless and athletic, drawing the eye as only a movie star can. The story has a surprising heart, and Keke Palmer is particularly funny and likeable as a member of the team. It’s a good time and a good showcase for a number of performances. And that fur coat is already iconic. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>I Lost My Body\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/iblGg3Rpub8'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/iblGg3Rpub8'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>The first three minutes of this animated French puzzler—in which a severed hand escapes a dissection lab and embarks on a peril-filled odyssey to seek its body—contains more imaginative oomph than all of \u003cem>Frozen II\u003c/em>. And the film gets only quirkier from that bizarre beginning, bobbing and weaving through a romance between a hapless pizza delivery guy and a high-rise-dwelling hipster to contemplate profound questions about fate—and what the future holds. — \u003cem>Bob Mondello\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>The Irishman\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/WHXxVmeGQUc'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/WHXxVmeGQUc'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>For the first two of the film’s luxuriously rich 3 1/2 hours, Martin Scorsese’s epic offers the sort of raucous, splattery, mob-movie spectacle he has so often trafficked in, with a digitally de-aged Robert De Niro as the titular hit man and Al Pacino as Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa. Then the screenplay nudges the actors in sadder directions, and the story gets more invested in loss. For while \u003cem>The Irishman\u003c/em> is, like many mob movies, about violence and betrayal, it’s the work of a filmmaker who has earned the right to sum up this genre. So it’s also about regrets, remorse, reckonings; it’s an elegy. — \u003cem>Bob Mondello\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Knives Out\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/xi-1NchUqMA'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/xi-1NchUqMA'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>What a delight to see a film so attentive to detail, so finely and fondly crafted, and so beautifully cast—one that has no higher goal than to entertain. Rian Johnson’s comedic whodunit gives delicious moments to every member of its all-star cast, and it spotlights Ana de Armas, who plays it mostly straight in a film full of hams and stands out anyway. Like or lump Daniel Craig’s goofy Southern accent, you have to admit this family really knows how to fight. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>The Lighthouse\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/42_UHhpq530'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/42_UHhpq530'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Two men—a crusty old salt (Willem Dafoe) and a taciturn young landlubber (Robert Pattinson)—begin a monthlong shift as keepers of a lonely lighthouse. Things proceed to go gorgeously, grotesquely and full-tilt bananapants awry. From its opening frame, a gray ship emerging from a gray mist (the film is shot in stunning black-and-white), Robert Eggers’ film careens from the hilarious to the horrific, from the gritty to the surreal. Dafoe is wonderful, but—surprisingly, perhaps—it’s Pattinson who takes the bigger swing. He goes big, and it pays off hugely. And so, \u003cem>so\u003c/em> goofily. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Little Women\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/AST2-4db4ic'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/AST2-4db4ic'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Greta Gerwig finds a perfect \u003cem>Lady Bird\u003c/em> follow-up in the story of the March sisters. Faithful to the tone of the book and most of the particulars, Gerwig nevertheless changes the structure and the emphasis in ways that make the tale feel more satisfying and complete. Amy is more than a brat; Beth is more than a saint. Gerwig invests in all the characters, and she emphasizes how Jo (Saoirse Ronan) is a writer not only of passion but also of commerce. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Marriage Story\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/BHi-a1n8t7M'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/BHi-a1n8t7M'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Director Noah Baumbach gets excellent work from Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson as a divorcing couple watching their split become more and more acrimonious. As their lawyers, Laura Dern, Ray Liotta and Alan Alda do very good supporting work, and a late piano-bar scene—one of several 2019 salutes to the power of Stephen Sondheim—layers theater history atop the film in an intriguing way. Arguments have brewed over whose side to be on (and whose side the film is on), but more than anything, it’s on the side of divorce being a demoralizing, painful experience even for people who hope it won’t be. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Midsommar\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/1Vnghdsjmd0'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/1Vnghdsjmd0'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>A young woman (Florence Pugh) reeling from a family tragedy finds herself in a remote Swedish commune under the flat light of a merciless midnight sun. The horrors that proceed to emerge in Ari Aster’s haunting film aren’t cloaked in shadow, and the matter-of-fact clarity with which they occur makes them all the more disturbing. The truly malevolent, unseen forces that drive \u003cem>Midsommar\u003c/em> aren’t supernatural but too unsettlingly human: grief, guilt and our need for community, whatever the emotional cost. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/ELeMaP8EPAA'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/ELeMaP8EPAA'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>The title’s a tipoff: Quentin Tarantino’s love letter to Hollywood takes place inside a fable of Southern California that’s sun blasted by day and neon lit by night. It’s a place and a time rife with a history that, in Tarantino’s hands, gets massaged until it goes a bit feathery at the edges. Fading action star Rick Dalton (an anxious, needy Leonardo DiCaprio) and his faithful stand-in, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt, who here somehow manages to embody a humble swagger), navigate the transition from film to television, from Old Hollywood to New, and from button-down order to Manson Family chaos. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Pain and Glory\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/mVGOsrb1H6E'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/mVGOsrb1H6E'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Pedro Almodóvar’s quasi-autobiographical opus finds a film director (Antonio Banderas) looking back on the breakage in his life—his health, his family, his loves and, centrally, the decades-long silence between him and an actor he helped put on the map. If you know that in real life, Banderas and Almodóvar had barely spoken since their early films together, that plotline will resonate. But the parallel wouldn’t matter if the film weren’t ravishing on its own. \u003cem>Pain and Glory \u003c/em>revels in art, passion and the origins of desire; it’s Almodóvar’s most affecting, accomplished and personal work in years. — \u003cem>Bob Mondello\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Parasite\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/5xH0HfJHsaY'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/5xH0HfJHsaY'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Here’s a tale of two Korean families: the wealthy Parks, who live in a designer house on a hill, and the scrappy, working-class Kims, who inhabit a grungy basement apartment across town. When the Parks employ the Kims in their home, the stage is set for writer-director Bong Joon-ho’s caustic social satire. Initially, it plays as a comedy of manners in which the haves aren’t hateful, just insensitive. By the last reel, the film becomes a metaphor for class war, and that comedy of manners has curdled into a furious snarl of rage. — \u003cem>Bob Mondello\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Us\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/1tzFRIQfwXg'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/1tzFRIQfwXg'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doppelgangers are an unsettling horror trope, but in Jordan Peele’s film, the red-suited, scissor-wielding doubles of a nice family on vacation are even creepier than usual. Lupita Nyong’o is brilliant as Red, the leader of the group of invaders, and she invents a spidery walk that is somehow almost human but very much not. Peele’s themes of what is seen and what is hidden come through loud and clear, and the ambiguous final moments are intriguing without seeming unfair. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=NPR%27s+Favorite+Movies+Of+2019&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "After 25 Years, Mariah Carey's 'All I Want For Christmas is You' is No. 1 at Last",
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"content": "\u003cp>It’s no longer uncommon for pop songs to experience a slow rise to the top of the pop charts. Just this year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/718208340/lil-nas-x\">Lil Nas X\u003c/a>‘s “Old Town Road” followed a long and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/07/18/743121439/lil-nas-x-old-town-road-billie-eilish-bad-guy-remix-billboard-charts\">remix-strewn\u003c/a> path to 19 weeks at No. 1, while \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/502301111/lizzo\">Lizzo\u003c/a> experienced huge hits with songs originally released in 2017 (“Truth Hurts”) and 2016 (“Good As Hell”). But this is another level altogether: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/15324690/mariah-carey\">Mariah Carey\u003c/a>‘s holiday juggernaut “All I Want for Christmas Is You” \u003cem>just this week\u003c/em> topped the \u003cem>Billboard\u003c/em> Hot 100 for the first time in the song’s 25-year history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXQViqx6GMY\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in 2013, my colleague and pal \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/706635917/chris-klimek\">Chris Klimek\u003c/a>—as thoroughgoing an expert on Christmas music as you’ll find—\u003ca href=\"https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/12/new-christmas-songs-from-kelly-clarkson-and-mary-j-blige-wont-become-holiday-classics-why.html\">wrote a piece for \u003cem>Slate\u003c/em>\u003c/a> in which he wondered why no new holiday songs had pierced the public consciousness since “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” (As he wrote at the time, “The holiday-song canon is closed.”) Now, at least for this particular week in December 2019, Carey’s classic doesn’t just represent the last word in holiday songs; it’s the last word in \u003cem>songs\u003c/em>, period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The newfound chart dominance of “All I Want for Christmas”—it climbed as high as No. 3 last holiday season—can be chalked up to any number of factors, including nostalgia, the ever-growing influence of streaming services and the fact that “All I Want for Christmas” has aged remarkably well. It’s a deeply durable song; as if you need proof, consider 1) that it’s probably already stuck in your head and 2) Carey’s 2012 performance of the song with Jimmy Fallon, The Roots and an assortment of instruments found in any given elementary-school classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWEfszb9h8Q&feature=emb_logo\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But you also can’t discount the sheer accumulated strength of Carey herself: with “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” the singer is just one No. 1 hit shy of the record—20—set by \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/15229570/the-beatles\">The Beatles\u003c/a>. When she had a mere 18 No. 1 hits, she was mired in a tie for second with some also-ran by the name of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/15624007/elvis-presley\">Elvis Presley\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fortunately for Lil Nas X, the record \u003cem>he\u003c/em> set in 2019—those 19 consecutive weeks at No. 1—is almost certainly safe, given that interest in “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is likely to decline, however temporarily, in just a week and a half.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Merry Christmas (Deluxe Anniversary Edition) \u003cem>is out now via \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://mariahcarey.lnk.to/MerryChristmas25\">\u003cem>Legacy Recordings\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=After+25+Years%2C+Mariah+Carey%27s+%27All+I+Want+For+Christmas+Is+You%27+Is+No.+1+At+Last&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Released in 1994, this modern Christmas classic tapped out at No. 3 last season. This year, the Queen of Christmas claims her No. 1 crown. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But you also can’t discount the sheer accumulated strength of Carey herself: with “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” the singer is just one No. 1 hit shy of the record—20—set by \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/15229570/the-beatles\">The Beatles\u003c/a>. When she had a mere 18 No. 1 hits, she was mired in a tie for second with some also-ran by the name of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/15624007/elvis-presley\">Elvis Presley\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fortunately for Lil Nas X, the record \u003cem>he\u003c/em> set in 2019—those 19 consecutive weeks at No. 1—is almost certainly safe, given that interest in “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is likely to decline, however temporarily, in just a week and a half.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Merry Christmas (Deluxe Anniversary Edition) \u003cem>is out now via \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://mariahcarey.lnk.to/MerryChristmas25\">\u003cem>Legacy Recordings\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=After+25+Years%2C+Mariah+Carey%27s+%27All+I+Want+For+Christmas+Is+You%27+Is+No.+1+At+Last&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Facing a barrage of criticism for pulling ads featuring a lesbian couple from its airwaves, the Hallmark Channel has reversed course, and says it will now work to “reinstate the commercials.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ad for the wedding planning site Zola shows a couple at the altar, wishing they had used the service before their big day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Do you think Zola could have made planning your perfect wedding easier?” asks the officiant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We do!” The two women say, before kissing and walking down the aisle as a married couple.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pVnnGK6BP4&feature=emb_logo\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hallmark pulled the ad and three others featuring the couple after pressure from One Million Moms, an organization which says the ad promotes homosexuality. The group, a division of the conservative American Family Association, \u003ca href=\"https://onemillionmoms.com/current-campaigns/hallmark-is-now-airing-lgbt-commercials-open-to-lgbt-movies/\">cited\u003c/a> complaints from \u003ca href=\"https://www.complaintboard.com/hallmark-channel-l12907.html\">an online complaint board\u003c/a> about the channel, one which said: “Please Hallmark … we r fed up with having the gay agenda crammed down our throats! You are one of the few channels we thought we would not have to deal with this issue!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Late on Sunday, the Hallmark Channel released \u003ca href=\"https://corporate.hallmark.com/news-article/hallmark-affirms-its-commitment-to-diversity-and-inclusion/?fbclid=IwAR2H2vSNun-yM4fAq7Fyxxj038mXrpZdykCBt0kfP6KXIyBIo8z7N6TWtF8\">a statement\u003c/a> apologizing for the ad’s removal, saying it “has been agonizing over this decision as we’ve seen the hurt it has unintentionally caused.” Taking the ad off the air was “the wrong decision,” the network said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/hallmarkchannel/status/1206422589725433857\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hallmark will be working with GLAAD to better represent the LGBTQ community across our portfolio of brands. The Hallmark Channel will be reaching out to Zola to reestablish our partnership and reinstate the commercials,” \u003ca href=\"https://corporate.hallmark.com/news-article/hallmark-affirms-its-commitment-to-diversity-and-inclusion/?fbclid=IwAR2H2vSNun-yM4fAq7Fyxxj038mXrpZdykCBt0kfP6KXIyBIo8z7N6TWtF8\">according to the statement\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hallmark originally said that it chose to remove the ads because the controversy was a distraction. “The debate surrounding these commercials on all sides was distracting from the purpose of our network, which is to provide entertainment value,” it said in a statement to the Associated Press by Molly Biwer, senior vice president for public affairs and communications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Hallmark brand is never going to be divisive,” Biwer said in an interview with \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/7926c82c3a646ebe73c13d98d1c43bd7\">the AP\u003c/a>. “We don’t want to generate controversy, we’ve tried very hard to stay out of it … we just felt it was in the best interest of the brand to pull them and not continue to generate controversy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zola submitted six ads to Hallmark, and all had been airing since Dec. 2. The company says Hallmark did not object to an ad in which a heterosexual couple was seen kissing, but flagged the four ads that included the lesbian couple. Zola has since pulled its other ads from the channel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The only difference between the commercials that were flagged and the ones that were approved was that the commercials that did not meet Hallmark’s standards included a lesbian couple kissing,” Zola’s chief marketing officer, Mike Chi, said in a statement. “All kisses, couples and marriages are equal celebrations of love and we will no longer be advertising on Hallmark.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis called the decision hypocritical and discriminatory. “LGBTQ families are part of family programming,” she said in \u003ca href=\"https://deadline.com/2019/12/hallmark-channel-at-center-of-storm-over-ad-featuring-lesbian-brides-kissing-1202809545/\">a statement\u003c/a> to Deadline. “Advertisers on The Hallmark Channel should see this news and question whether they want to be associated with a network that chooses to bow to fringe anti-LGBTQ activist groups, which solely exist to harm LGBTQ families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Netflix, which has pushed hard into Hallmark’s market as a provider of feel-good holiday movies, threw shade at the company on Saturday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Titles Featuring Lesbians Joyfully Existing And Also It’s Christmas Can We Just Let People Love Who They Love,” it \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/netflix/status/1206012403126657024\">wrote \u003c/a>on Twitter, referencing Netflix’s hyper-specific content categories. The tweet was accompanied by a still that trumpeted its own approach to LGBTQ content: a scene of two girls kissing in the high school holiday movie \u003cem>Let It Snow\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/netflix/status/1206012403126657024\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Facing+Backlash%2C+Hallmark+Channel+Says+It+Will+%27Reinstate%27+Ad+Of+Lesbian+Brides+&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hallmark pulled the ad and three others featuring the couple after pressure from One Million Moms, an organization which says the ad promotes homosexuality. The group, a division of the conservative American Family Association, \u003ca href=\"https://onemillionmoms.com/current-campaigns/hallmark-is-now-airing-lgbt-commercials-open-to-lgbt-movies/\">cited\u003c/a> complaints from \u003ca href=\"https://www.complaintboard.com/hallmark-channel-l12907.html\">an online complaint board\u003c/a> about the channel, one which said: “Please Hallmark … we r fed up with having the gay agenda crammed down our throats! You are one of the few channels we thought we would not have to deal with this issue!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Late on Sunday, the Hallmark Channel released \u003ca href=\"https://corporate.hallmark.com/news-article/hallmark-affirms-its-commitment-to-diversity-and-inclusion/?fbclid=IwAR2H2vSNun-yM4fAq7Fyxxj038mXrpZdykCBt0kfP6KXIyBIo8z7N6TWtF8\">a statement\u003c/a> apologizing for the ad’s removal, saying it “has been agonizing over this decision as we’ve seen the hurt it has unintentionally caused.” Taking the ad off the air was “the wrong decision,” the network said.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>“Hallmark will be working with GLAAD to better represent the LGBTQ community across our portfolio of brands. The Hallmark Channel will be reaching out to Zola to reestablish our partnership and reinstate the commercials,” \u003ca href=\"https://corporate.hallmark.com/news-article/hallmark-affirms-its-commitment-to-diversity-and-inclusion/?fbclid=IwAR2H2vSNun-yM4fAq7Fyxxj038mXrpZdykCBt0kfP6KXIyBIo8z7N6TWtF8\">according to the statement\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hallmark originally said that it chose to remove the ads because the controversy was a distraction. “The debate surrounding these commercials on all sides was distracting from the purpose of our network, which is to provide entertainment value,” it said in a statement to the Associated Press by Molly Biwer, senior vice president for public affairs and communications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Hallmark brand is never going to be divisive,” Biwer said in an interview with \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/7926c82c3a646ebe73c13d98d1c43bd7\">the AP\u003c/a>. “We don’t want to generate controversy, we’ve tried very hard to stay out of it … we just felt it was in the best interest of the brand to pull them and not continue to generate controversy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zola submitted six ads to Hallmark, and all had been airing since Dec. 2. The company says Hallmark did not object to an ad in which a heterosexual couple was seen kissing, but flagged the four ads that included the lesbian couple. Zola has since pulled its other ads from the channel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The only difference between the commercials that were flagged and the ones that were approved was that the commercials that did not meet Hallmark’s standards included a lesbian couple kissing,” Zola’s chief marketing officer, Mike Chi, said in a statement. “All kisses, couples and marriages are equal celebrations of love and we will no longer be advertising on Hallmark.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis called the decision hypocritical and discriminatory. “LGBTQ families are part of family programming,” she said in \u003ca href=\"https://deadline.com/2019/12/hallmark-channel-at-center-of-storm-over-ad-featuring-lesbian-brides-kissing-1202809545/\">a statement\u003c/a> to Deadline. “Advertisers on The Hallmark Channel should see this news and question whether they want to be associated with a network that chooses to bow to fringe anti-LGBTQ activist groups, which solely exist to harm LGBTQ families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Netflix, which has pushed hard into Hallmark’s market as a provider of feel-good holiday movies, threw shade at the company on Saturday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Titles Featuring Lesbians Joyfully Existing And Also It’s Christmas Can We Just Let People Love Who They Love,” it \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/netflix/status/1206012403126657024\">wrote \u003c/a>on Twitter, referencing Netflix’s hyper-specific content categories. The tweet was accompanied by a still that trumpeted its own approach to LGBTQ content: a scene of two girls kissing in the high school holiday movie \u003cem>Let It Snow\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Charlize Theron Explores the Complexities of #MeToo in 'Bombshell'",
"headTitle": "Charlize Theron Explores the Complexities of #MeToo in ‘Bombshell’ | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>In 1994, actor Charlize Theron was just starting out in show business when a famous director invited her to an audition at his home. When she showed up, she found the director drinking and in his pajamas. He touched her leg; she apologized and left in a hurry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Driving away, Theron became angry—with herself: “I just kept hitting the steering wheel,” she says. “I put a lot of blame on myself … that I didn’t say all the right things, and that I didn’t tell him to take a hike, and that I didn’t do all of those things that we so want to believe we’ll do in those situations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t until years later that Theron understood her experience as sexual harassment. It’s a subject that she’s taking on in her latest film, \u003cem>Bombshell\u003c/em>, which follows the women of Fox News who came forward to accuse then-CEO and chairman \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/18/528925119/roger-ailes-former-fox-news-ceo-dies-at-77\">Roger Ailes\u003c/a> of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/07/21/486938004/roger-ailes-accused-of-sexual-harrassment-out-as-chairman-of-fox-news\">sexual harassment\u003c/a>. Theron is one of the film’s producers and also plays former Fox News host \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2016/12/07/504622630/megyn-kelly-on-trump-and-the-media-were-in-a-dangerous-phase-right-now\">Megyn Kelly\u003c/a>, who wrote about Ailes’ unwanted sexual advances in her 2016 book, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/books/titles/502042223/settle-for-more\">Settle for More\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Theron says she felt conflicted about playing Kelly: “We have different points of view on a lot of issues,” she says. “And she has definitely said things in the past that I took issue with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nevertheless, Theron embraced the opportunity to explore what she calls the “grey area” of sexual harassment: “It’s not always physical assault. It’s not always rape,” she says. “There’s a psychological damage that happens for women in the everyday casualness of language, touch or threat—threat of losing your job. Those are things I’ve definitely encountered.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2G9-KhBek8\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch3>Interview Highlights\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On the movie’s portrayal of the women who worked for Fox News\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A lot of these women have been somewhat hypocritical when it comes to sexual harassment, and have made statements about sexual harassment that have not necessarily been about really bettering the workplace for women or just for women in general. … We weren’t trying to make them heroes. We weren’t trying to whitewash all of the things that they have said in the past. We were going to pepper those things into the film so that we were authentic to them and the story and still feel like, through all of that, that what they did was still incredible. They took down this media mogul, and that has never happened before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On confronting the director who sexually harassed her years later—and it being unsatisfying\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In sexual harassment, you’re always waiting for that moment where there’s full closure, where you feel like you’ve actually … had your moment, where you get to say your piece. And that never really happens. I’ve heard this repeatedly in hearing other women’s stories, and that is the unfortunate thing about sexual harassment. You never get that moment where you feel like the tables are reversed and now he’s finally getting it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The closest we’ve ever gotten to it is seeing people like Roger Ailes or \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/12/11/787306873/harvey-weinstein-reaches-tentative-25-million-deal-to-settle-sex-claims\">Harvey Weinstein\u003c/a> seeing some real consequences. I’ve never seen that in my entire career. This is really the first moment in my life where I see that maybe there can be real consequences for people with these actions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On why the name of the director who harassed her hasn’t been made public \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I actually did disclose his name. You don’t know that because every time I disclosed his name, the journalist made the decision to not write his name, and it goes to show just how deeply systemic this problem is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I remember the first time somebody asked me if I ever had a casting couch experience, and I openly shared the experience and named him, and the person decided to not write his name. So the story is out, and strangely, when the Harvey Weinstein story broke, I, for the first time ever, Googled the story and the story came up everywhere. It popped up everywhere, and nowhere could you find this guy’s name. And it was incredibly upsetting to me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m conflicted in the sense that I know that, if I said his name again while I’m promoting this film, that it would take over the importance of this story and that would become the story. I think there will be a time and a place where I will definitely share this. … I’ve always been honest about it. I don’t have a desire to protect him, but I also don’t want him to overshadow this film right now. So there will be a right time where I will talk about this again, and I will say his name, yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On growing up in apartheid-era South Africa and what she was taught in school about race \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On our farm, all of the workers, everybody who worked in the company—and it was a pretty substantial company—all lived on the farm. So my whole childhood, I was raised with Xhosas and Zulus and South Sothos and all different cultures. Their children were raised with me on the property and I consider them my family. … It was only until I was 12 or 13 that I went to an art school in Johannesburg where I really got to witness firsthand absolutely the atrocities of apartheid. …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>History was leaning very much into our white history. The heroes of our story, of our founding fathers, were all white. That was really the story that we were all told. … This climate that we’re in right now with our polarizing political views in this country, it was very similar in South Africa. I had friends whose father would be for apartheid and once they found out that black people lived on our farm wouldn’t let me come over for a sleepover. …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I always wonder what my life would have been like if I grew up in one of those families—if I was just an innocent child who was born into the family, like one of my friends, who believed that apartheid was the right way of life. I was just incredibly blessed that I was raised … by a mother who was just aghast by all of this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I didn’t really truly understand what any of this really did to me as a young child until I was in my mid-30s and I went to therapy for the first time, because of a relationship that was failing. And what I discovered while in therapy, trying to save my relationship, was that I had a lot of trauma from being a young child growing up in South Africa during the apartheid era. …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[It’s] a lot to reconcile with when you realize that you benefited under an administration, a nation, a country, because you had the “right” skin color. I benefited. My life was more comfortable because of the suffering of a lot of people who just by chance were born in the “wrong” skin color. That was a lot for me to carry; it still is. It’s something that I’ll carry for the rest of my life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On her mother killing her father in self-defense \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My father was a very sick man. My father was an alcoholic all my life. I only knew him one way, and that was as an alcoholic. … It was a pretty hopeless situation. Our family was just kind of stuck in it. And the day-to-day unpredictability of living with an addict is the thing that you sit with and have kind of embedded in your body for the rest of your life, more than just this one event of what happened one night. I think our family was an incredibly unhealthy one. And all of it, I think, scarred us in a way. Of course, I wish what happened that night would have never happened. It’s unfortunately what happens when you don’t get to the root of these issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My father was so drunk that he shouldn’t have been able to walk when he came into the house with a gun. My mom and I were in my bedroom leaning against the door, because he was trying to push through the door. So both of us were leaning against the door from the inside to have him not be able to push through. He took a step back and just shot through the door three times. None of those bullets ever hit us, which is just a miracle. But in self-defense, she ended the threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This family violence, this kind of violence that happens within the family, is something that I share with a lot of people. I’m not ashamed to talk about it, because I do think that the more we talk about these things, the more we realize we are not alone in any of it. I think, for me, it’s just always been that this story really is about growing up with addicts and what that does to a person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On her decision to adopt as a single parent \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I cast a very wide net. I wanted to believe that somehow my child would find me in the way that we were just meant to be. So I wasn’t specific with anything. … In whatever country they would allow me as a single woman to adopt, that’s where I filed. And it just happened to be that both my children ended up being American. They were born in the United States and they both happened to be African American. Everything that I hoped would happen during my adoption process did happen because these two babies were meant to be in my life—and they’re my children. …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s definitely something that we still need to work on, this concept of what a family looks like and what constitutes the “right” family or a “strong” family or what we think that should look like. In a lot of places—and I think even for a lot of people and in America—it still feels very traditional in the sense that it should be that every child should have a mother and a father. We’ve kind of wrapped our heads slowly around the idea of two mothers and two fathers, but not so much around the idea of a single parent. It’s just so unfortunate. I know so many people who would be incredible parents. My fight was a little bit easier because of my circumstances, but I would want that for all women who want to share their life and be part of raising another young, small child’s life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Heidi Saman and Joel Wolfram produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Patrick Jarenwattananon adapted it for the Web.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2019 Fresh Air. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/\">Fresh Air\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Charlize+Theron+Portrays+The+%27Gray+Area%27+Of+Sexual+Harassment+In+%27Bombshell%27&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Theron has direct experience with what she calls the \"psychological damage\" of sexual harassment. Her new film follows the women of Fox News who accused then-CEO Roger Ailes of inappropriate behavior.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In 1994, actor Charlize Theron was just starting out in show business when a famous director invited her to an audition at his home. When she showed up, she found the director drinking and in his pajamas. He touched her leg; she apologized and left in a hurry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Driving away, Theron became angry—with herself: “I just kept hitting the steering wheel,” she says. “I put a lot of blame on myself … that I didn’t say all the right things, and that I didn’t tell him to take a hike, and that I didn’t do all of those things that we so want to believe we’ll do in those situations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t until years later that Theron understood her experience as sexual harassment. It’s a subject that she’s taking on in her latest film, \u003cem>Bombshell\u003c/em>, which follows the women of Fox News who came forward to accuse then-CEO and chairman \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/18/528925119/roger-ailes-former-fox-news-ceo-dies-at-77\">Roger Ailes\u003c/a> of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/07/21/486938004/roger-ailes-accused-of-sexual-harrassment-out-as-chairman-of-fox-news\">sexual harassment\u003c/a>. Theron is one of the film’s producers and also plays former Fox News host \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2016/12/07/504622630/megyn-kelly-on-trump-and-the-media-were-in-a-dangerous-phase-right-now\">Megyn Kelly\u003c/a>, who wrote about Ailes’ unwanted sexual advances in her 2016 book, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/books/titles/502042223/settle-for-more\">Settle for More\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Theron says she felt conflicted about playing Kelly: “We have different points of view on a lot of issues,” she says. “And she has definitely said things in the past that I took issue with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nevertheless, Theron embraced the opportunity to explore what she calls the “grey area” of sexual harassment: “It’s not always physical assault. It’s not always rape,” she says. “There’s a psychological damage that happens for women in the everyday casualness of language, touch or threat—threat of losing your job. Those are things I’ve definitely encountered.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/B2G9-KhBek8'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/B2G9-KhBek8'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003chr>\n\u003ch3>Interview Highlights\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On the movie’s portrayal of the women who worked for Fox News\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A lot of these women have been somewhat hypocritical when it comes to sexual harassment, and have made statements about sexual harassment that have not necessarily been about really bettering the workplace for women or just for women in general. … We weren’t trying to make them heroes. We weren’t trying to whitewash all of the things that they have said in the past. We were going to pepper those things into the film so that we were authentic to them and the story and still feel like, through all of that, that what they did was still incredible. They took down this media mogul, and that has never happened before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On confronting the director who sexually harassed her years later—and it being unsatisfying\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In sexual harassment, you’re always waiting for that moment where there’s full closure, where you feel like you’ve actually … had your moment, where you get to say your piece. And that never really happens. I’ve heard this repeatedly in hearing other women’s stories, and that is the unfortunate thing about sexual harassment. You never get that moment where you feel like the tables are reversed and now he’s finally getting it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The closest we’ve ever gotten to it is seeing people like Roger Ailes or \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/12/11/787306873/harvey-weinstein-reaches-tentative-25-million-deal-to-settle-sex-claims\">Harvey Weinstein\u003c/a> seeing some real consequences. I’ve never seen that in my entire career. This is really the first moment in my life where I see that maybe there can be real consequences for people with these actions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On why the name of the director who harassed her hasn’t been made public \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I actually did disclose his name. You don’t know that because every time I disclosed his name, the journalist made the decision to not write his name, and it goes to show just how deeply systemic this problem is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I remember the first time somebody asked me if I ever had a casting couch experience, and I openly shared the experience and named him, and the person decided to not write his name. So the story is out, and strangely, when the Harvey Weinstein story broke, I, for the first time ever, Googled the story and the story came up everywhere. It popped up everywhere, and nowhere could you find this guy’s name. And it was incredibly upsetting to me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m conflicted in the sense that I know that, if I said his name again while I’m promoting this film, that it would take over the importance of this story and that would become the story. I think there will be a time and a place where I will definitely share this. … I’ve always been honest about it. I don’t have a desire to protect him, but I also don’t want him to overshadow this film right now. So there will be a right time where I will talk about this again, and I will say his name, yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On growing up in apartheid-era South Africa and what she was taught in school about race \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On our farm, all of the workers, everybody who worked in the company—and it was a pretty substantial company—all lived on the farm. So my whole childhood, I was raised with Xhosas and Zulus and South Sothos and all different cultures. Their children were raised with me on the property and I consider them my family. … It was only until I was 12 or 13 that I went to an art school in Johannesburg where I really got to witness firsthand absolutely the atrocities of apartheid. …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>History was leaning very much into our white history. The heroes of our story, of our founding fathers, were all white. That was really the story that we were all told. … This climate that we’re in right now with our polarizing political views in this country, it was very similar in South Africa. I had friends whose father would be for apartheid and once they found out that black people lived on our farm wouldn’t let me come over for a sleepover. …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I always wonder what my life would have been like if I grew up in one of those families—if I was just an innocent child who was born into the family, like one of my friends, who believed that apartheid was the right way of life. I was just incredibly blessed that I was raised … by a mother who was just aghast by all of this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I didn’t really truly understand what any of this really did to me as a young child until I was in my mid-30s and I went to therapy for the first time, because of a relationship that was failing. And what I discovered while in therapy, trying to save my relationship, was that I had a lot of trauma from being a young child growing up in South Africa during the apartheid era. …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[It’s] a lot to reconcile with when you realize that you benefited under an administration, a nation, a country, because you had the “right” skin color. I benefited. My life was more comfortable because of the suffering of a lot of people who just by chance were born in the “wrong” skin color. That was a lot for me to carry; it still is. It’s something that I’ll carry for the rest of my life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On her mother killing her father in self-defense \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My father was a very sick man. My father was an alcoholic all my life. I only knew him one way, and that was as an alcoholic. … It was a pretty hopeless situation. Our family was just kind of stuck in it. And the day-to-day unpredictability of living with an addict is the thing that you sit with and have kind of embedded in your body for the rest of your life, more than just this one event of what happened one night. I think our family was an incredibly unhealthy one. And all of it, I think, scarred us in a way. Of course, I wish what happened that night would have never happened. It’s unfortunately what happens when you don’t get to the root of these issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My father was so drunk that he shouldn’t have been able to walk when he came into the house with a gun. My mom and I were in my bedroom leaning against the door, because he was trying to push through the door. So both of us were leaning against the door from the inside to have him not be able to push through. He took a step back and just shot through the door three times. None of those bullets ever hit us, which is just a miracle. But in self-defense, she ended the threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This family violence, this kind of violence that happens within the family, is something that I share with a lot of people. I’m not ashamed to talk about it, because I do think that the more we talk about these things, the more we realize we are not alone in any of it. I think, for me, it’s just always been that this story really is about growing up with addicts and what that does to a person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On her decision to adopt as a single parent \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I cast a very wide net. I wanted to believe that somehow my child would find me in the way that we were just meant to be. So I wasn’t specific with anything. … In whatever country they would allow me as a single woman to adopt, that’s where I filed. And it just happened to be that both my children ended up being American. They were born in the United States and they both happened to be African American. Everything that I hoped would happen during my adoption process did happen because these two babies were meant to be in my life—and they’re my children. …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s definitely something that we still need to work on, this concept of what a family looks like and what constitutes the “right” family or a “strong” family or what we think that should look like. In a lot of places—and I think even for a lot of people and in America—it still feels very traditional in the sense that it should be that every child should have a mother and a father. We’ve kind of wrapped our heads slowly around the idea of two mothers and two fathers, but not so much around the idea of a single parent. It’s just so unfortunate. I know so many people who would be incredible parents. My fight was a little bit easier because of my circumstances, but I would want that for all women who want to share their life and be part of raising another young, small child’s life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Heidi Saman and Joel Wolfram produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Patrick Jarenwattananon adapted it for the Web.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2019 Fresh Air. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/\">Fresh Air\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Charlize+Theron+Portrays+The+%27Gray+Area%27+Of+Sexual+Harassment+In+%27Bombshell%27&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "'Knives Out,' A Classic Comic Mystery Of Uncommon Sharpness",
"headTitle": "‘Knives Out,’ A Classic Comic Mystery Of Uncommon Sharpness | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Certain fictional mansions exist only so their owners can mysteriously die in them. The gothic revival abode of famous novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) in Rian Johnson’s \u003cem>Knives Out\u003c/em> is one of them. All brick turrets and spindly spires on the outside, all dark wood and winding staircases on the inside, it’s a perfect place to throw a party—especially one in which all the suspects in a death are gathered at the request of law enforcement. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family Harlan leaves behind is a motley collection of the idiosyncratic products of his wealth: daughter Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her husband Richard (Don Johnson); Linda and Richard’s hot, aggressive, disappointing son Ransom (Chris Evans); Harlan’s son Walt (Michael Shannon) and his wife Donna (Riki Lindhome) and their son Jacob (Jaeden Martell); widowed daughter-in-law Joni (Toni Collette) and her daughter Meg (Katherine Langford); and the mysterious Greatnana (K Callan), always watching from the corner. There’s also Harlan’s faithful nurse Marta (Ana de Armas), perhaps the only person Harlan truly liked and trusted. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A police detective (LaKeith Stanfield) and his helpful right hand (Noah Segan) have gathered everyone for interviews—and accompanying them is Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), a southern detective so thickly accented that he’s compared to Colonel Sanders. Why Blanc is there at all is one of many things I would not dare reveal, as this film is not a trick or a postmodern deconstruction of a genre, but is instead an actual old-fashioned whodunit that will eventually tell you whodunit and why, precisely as it should.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/qGqiHJTsRkQ\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If it sounds like a very big cast full of potentially very big performances, please know it is one. With the exception of de Armas and perhaps Evans, everyone in the film is working in marvelous broad strokes, drawing these characters as types but not retreads. From Collette’s goofy lifestyle influencer to Shannon’s stone-faced and resentment-driven grump, they’re all perfectly cast. And that’s before you get to Jamie Lee Curtis, resplendent in Linda’s luscious, vibrant, real-estate-peddling pantsuits, with round glasses and a cap of perfectly kept, snow-white hair. The work of assembling this group is a credit to casting director Mary Vernieu, and a reminder of what an art it is to find the right people for the right parts. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Knives Out\u003c/em> is also one of the best-dressed movies you’ll see this year, both in terms of actual wardrobe from costume designer Jenny Eagan and from production designer David Crank. This is a very rich family that, as some rich families do, often looks both indulgent and stupefyingly tacky. Their family home is similarly luxurious and weird at the same time, its elaborate rugs and ornate \u003cem>everything \u003c/em>speaking to both the family’s excesses and its overly complicated existence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13871507\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/KnivesOutGroup_1200.jpg\" alt=\"Group portrait of the cast of 'Knives Out.'\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13871507\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/KnivesOutGroup_1200.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/KnivesOutGroup_1200-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/KnivesOutGroup_1200-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/KnivesOutGroup_1200-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/KnivesOutGroup_1200-1020x680.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Knives Out,’ written and directed by Rian Johnson, brings together an all-star cast for a festive and fun family fatality. \u003ccite>(Claire Folger/Lionsgate)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The same goes for the things they are given to say. Johnson’s dialogue is sharp and filled with quotable lines no fair review would quote, and sometimes, just as the story gets very big and broad, a joke will go by very quietly, almost under the breath. Everyone in this cast can nail a line reading to the wall, including a couple of folks—Don Johnson for one, Daniel Craig for another—who have maybe never been given such a good workout for their comic chops. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That goes for Chris Evans as well, even though he’s spent the past several years in some of the most popular movies of all time. He was allowed to be funny in a wholesome sort of way in his Captain America days, but it’s a special treat to see him tear right into this rich-brat bit, both preternaturally handsome and cheerfully obnoxious, a one-man cable-knit charm offensive, emphasis very often on “offensive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What Rian Johnson has done here is a masterful feat of balance, staying within the rules of the creaky-old-house genre but making just enough adjustments to stay clear of story trouble. Because story trouble isn’t uncommon in a film like this: There’s only so long it’s fun to watch people accuse each other while clues accumulate and red herrings fly by before you start to want something to happen, something to be revealed. In \u003cem>Knives Out\u003c/em>, there’s not just one information dump; there are several. The twists are plentiful enough that even if some ungenerous person tried to spoil the film for you, they couldn’t really; you’d still be missing chapters upon chapters of necessary information. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13871506\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/KnivesOutChris_1200.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Evans leans on a table in white cable knit sweater with four empty beer bottles in front of him.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"899\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13871506\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/KnivesOutChris_1200.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/KnivesOutChris_1200-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/KnivesOutChris_1200-800x599.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/KnivesOutChris_1200-768x575.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/KnivesOutChris_1200-1020x764.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Move over, Captain America: Chris Evans in this cable-knit sweater may be Peak Chris Evans. \u003ccite>(Claire Folger/Lionsgate)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>If it seems to you that this film has much in common with \u003cem>Clue\u003c/em>, Johnson knows it. You feel echoes of \u003cem>Murder, She Wrote\u003c/em>? He knows. You think Craig sounds like Foghorn Leghorn? Yup, Johnson knows that too. (Although Craig says he based the voice on historian Shelby Foote.) Self-aware but not self-conscious, \u003cem>Knives Out \u003c/em>acknowledges its debts to the trappings of mystery and frolics in them like a field of clover. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, touches of a contemporary consciousness drive the story. Marta is “the help” to many of the Thrombeys, and the family treats her with a sharply observed combination of affection, condescension and dismissal, provided she stays in what they consider her place. Given how big the other performances are, de Armas and her work here, which has both comedy and stillness, could have been swallowed up. But they aren’t at all. She’s often the most compelling person in the story, even as she’s doing the least. (Not hard, when everyone else is, as they say, doing the most.) \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is always a delight to see someone joyfully, efficiently, and indelibly demolish any alleged hard barrier between art and entertainment. \u003cem>Knives Out \u003c/em>is Rian Johnson’s salute to mysteries, but it is also his latest demonstration of his uncommon mastery of the idea that you can—that you \u003cem>should \u003c/em>— artfully entertain an audience with loving attention to detail; that it is just as high a purpose as to artfully devastate or confound them. It’s one of the best movies of the year, and one of the most purely enjoyable, as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Copyright 2019 \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Certain fictional mansions exist only so their owners can mysteriously die in them. The gothic revival abode of famous novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) in Rian Johnson’s \u003cem>Knives Out\u003c/em> is one of them. All brick turrets and spindly spires on the outside, all dark wood and winding staircases on the inside, it’s a perfect place to throw a party—especially one in which all the suspects in a death are gathered at the request of law enforcement. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family Harlan leaves behind is a motley collection of the idiosyncratic products of his wealth: daughter Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her husband Richard (Don Johnson); Linda and Richard’s hot, aggressive, disappointing son Ransom (Chris Evans); Harlan’s son Walt (Michael Shannon) and his wife Donna (Riki Lindhome) and their son Jacob (Jaeden Martell); widowed daughter-in-law Joni (Toni Collette) and her daughter Meg (Katherine Langford); and the mysterious Greatnana (K Callan), always watching from the corner. There’s also Harlan’s faithful nurse Marta (Ana de Armas), perhaps the only person Harlan truly liked and trusted. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A police detective (LaKeith Stanfield) and his helpful right hand (Noah Segan) have gathered everyone for interviews—and accompanying them is Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), a southern detective so thickly accented that he’s compared to Colonel Sanders. Why Blanc is there at all is one of many things I would not dare reveal, as this film is not a trick or a postmodern deconstruction of a genre, but is instead an actual old-fashioned whodunit that will eventually tell you whodunit and why, precisely as it should.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/qGqiHJTsRkQ'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/qGqiHJTsRkQ'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>If it sounds like a very big cast full of potentially very big performances, please know it is one. With the exception of de Armas and perhaps Evans, everyone in the film is working in marvelous broad strokes, drawing these characters as types but not retreads. From Collette’s goofy lifestyle influencer to Shannon’s stone-faced and resentment-driven grump, they’re all perfectly cast. And that’s before you get to Jamie Lee Curtis, resplendent in Linda’s luscious, vibrant, real-estate-peddling pantsuits, with round glasses and a cap of perfectly kept, snow-white hair. The work of assembling this group is a credit to casting director Mary Vernieu, and a reminder of what an art it is to find the right people for the right parts. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Knives Out\u003c/em> is also one of the best-dressed movies you’ll see this year, both in terms of actual wardrobe from costume designer Jenny Eagan and from production designer David Crank. This is a very rich family that, as some rich families do, often looks both indulgent and stupefyingly tacky. Their family home is similarly luxurious and weird at the same time, its elaborate rugs and ornate \u003cem>everything \u003c/em>speaking to both the family’s excesses and its overly complicated existence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13871507\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/KnivesOutGroup_1200.jpg\" alt=\"Group portrait of the cast of 'Knives Out.'\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13871507\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/KnivesOutGroup_1200.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/KnivesOutGroup_1200-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/KnivesOutGroup_1200-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/KnivesOutGroup_1200-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/KnivesOutGroup_1200-1020x680.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Knives Out,’ written and directed by Rian Johnson, brings together an all-star cast for a festive and fun family fatality. \u003ccite>(Claire Folger/Lionsgate)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The same goes for the things they are given to say. Johnson’s dialogue is sharp and filled with quotable lines no fair review would quote, and sometimes, just as the story gets very big and broad, a joke will go by very quietly, almost under the breath. Everyone in this cast can nail a line reading to the wall, including a couple of folks—Don Johnson for one, Daniel Craig for another—who have maybe never been given such a good workout for their comic chops. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That goes for Chris Evans as well, even though he’s spent the past several years in some of the most popular movies of all time. He was allowed to be funny in a wholesome sort of way in his Captain America days, but it’s a special treat to see him tear right into this rich-brat bit, both preternaturally handsome and cheerfully obnoxious, a one-man cable-knit charm offensive, emphasis very often on “offensive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What Rian Johnson has done here is a masterful feat of balance, staying within the rules of the creaky-old-house genre but making just enough adjustments to stay clear of story trouble. Because story trouble isn’t uncommon in a film like this: There’s only so long it’s fun to watch people accuse each other while clues accumulate and red herrings fly by before you start to want something to happen, something to be revealed. In \u003cem>Knives Out\u003c/em>, there’s not just one information dump; there are several. The twists are plentiful enough that even if some ungenerous person tried to spoil the film for you, they couldn’t really; you’d still be missing chapters upon chapters of necessary information. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13871506\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/KnivesOutChris_1200.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Evans leans on a table in white cable knit sweater with four empty beer bottles in front of him.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"899\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13871506\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/KnivesOutChris_1200.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/KnivesOutChris_1200-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/KnivesOutChris_1200-800x599.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/KnivesOutChris_1200-768x575.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/KnivesOutChris_1200-1020x764.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Move over, Captain America: Chris Evans in this cable-knit sweater may be Peak Chris Evans. \u003ccite>(Claire Folger/Lionsgate)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>If it seems to you that this film has much in common with \u003cem>Clue\u003c/em>, Johnson knows it. You feel echoes of \u003cem>Murder, She Wrote\u003c/em>? He knows. You think Craig sounds like Foghorn Leghorn? Yup, Johnson knows that too. (Although Craig says he based the voice on historian Shelby Foote.) Self-aware but not self-conscious, \u003cem>Knives Out \u003c/em>acknowledges its debts to the trappings of mystery and frolics in them like a field of clover. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, touches of a contemporary consciousness drive the story. Marta is “the help” to many of the Thrombeys, and the family treats her with a sharply observed combination of affection, condescension and dismissal, provided she stays in what they consider her place. Given how big the other performances are, de Armas and her work here, which has both comedy and stillness, could have been swallowed up. But they aren’t at all. She’s often the most compelling person in the story, even as she’s doing the least. (Not hard, when everyone else is, as they say, doing the most.) \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is always a delight to see someone joyfully, efficiently, and indelibly demolish any alleged hard barrier between art and entertainment. \u003cem>Knives Out \u003c/em>is Rian Johnson’s salute to mysteries, but it is also his latest demonstration of his uncommon mastery of the idea that you can—that you \u003cem>should \u003c/em>— artfully entertain an audience with loving attention to detail; that it is just as high a purpose as to artfully devastate or confound them. It’s one of the best movies of the year, and one of the most purely enjoyable, as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "NPR's 25 Best Albums of 2019",
"headTitle": "NPR’s 25 Best Albums of 2019 | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This list was made by writers, editors and producers at NPR Music operating under two rules: Albums had to be released during 2019 and no lead artist was allowed to appear on both this list and our list of the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/12/11/778226410/the-25-best-songs-of-2019\">\u003cem>25 Best Songs of 2019\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. You can find the rest of our picks for \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/12/11/778229970/best-music-of-2019-editors-note\">\u003cem>the best music of 2019 here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>25.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Tyler, The Creator\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>IGOR\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmAsUQEFYGI\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Generally speaking, breaks-up are trash. But what if you’re not even allowed to call it a break-up?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>IGOR, \u003c/em>the fifth studio album from Tyler, The Creator, mourns a love that was never really allowed to flourish in the first place. Across 40 minutes, \u003cem>IGOR\u003c/em> draws, erases and redraws emotional lines in the sand, smudging up Tyler’s self-esteem with each new boundary crossed. The pining of “EARFQUAKE,” the short-lived euphoria of “I THINK,” the feeble negotiation of “NEW MAGIC WAND,” the obvious lie of “I DON’T LOVE YOU ANYMORE,” the diluted compromise of “ARE WE STILL FRIENDS?” Think of these tracks as the face muscles that construct the dead-eyed, sanguine smile you flash during that first unexpected run-in with your ex. Even with a supporting chorus of Kanye West, Lil Uzi Vert, La Roux, Solange and more, the true magic of this album is Tyler’s ability to let his guard down just enough to give you symphonic slivers of his heartbreak. —\u003cem>Sidney Madden\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2017/12/11/569203961/tyler-the-creator-tiny-desk-concert\">Watch Tyler Perform At NPR’s Tiny Desk\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>24.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Tanya Tucker\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>While I’m Livin’\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVEd0YUx7X8\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In spite of the reverence shown for country music made in the 1970s and the groundswell of nostalgia for ’90s country, Tanya Tucker—an artist whose high-caliber hits spanned both eras—has been perpetually underappreciated. This year she found champions in Shooter Jennings and Brandi Carlile, who took up the task of framing Tucker with a warmly rustic, often rocking vintage sound on \u003cem>While I’m Livin’\u003c/em>. The album cast a more intimate spotlight on her gravelly timbre and the sensuality and gravitas of her phrasing, but more than that, its songs showcased her interpretive gifts and, at long last, placed her at the center of her own enthralling mythology. —\u003cem>Jewly Hight\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/world-cafe/2019/11/12/778265643/hear-tanya-tucker-perform-selections-from-her-first-original-album-in-17-years\">Hear Tanya Tucker In Concert At AmericanaFest\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>23.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Kris Davis\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Diatom Ribbons\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVhEV5RDG4w\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the hands of pianist Kris Davis, a musical phrase can bristle or bloom—sometimes managing both at once, as often happens on this visionary album. Working with two core partners, turntablist Val Jeanty and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, Davis devises a new strain of avant-garde chamber-jazz, volatile yet gleaming. A clutch of blue-chip guests (like Nels Cline and Marc Ribot on guitars, Tony Malaby on tenor saxophone and Esperanza Spalding on spoken word) bring personality as well as fire. This is sound that refuses stasis, insisting on endless renewal from one moment to the next. —\u003cem>Nate Chinen, WBGO\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>22.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Bad Bunny & J Balvin\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>OASIS\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPc3Pe42bGI\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bad Bunny and J Balvin have both taken up the charge to make urbano a worldwide project without sacrificing the hunger that has made the genre seem abrasive and vulgar to some in their industry. That this album-length collaboration by two of urbano’s most visible artists covered as much genre territory as it did prompted another examination of its often relegated place within “Latin” music, whatever that is. From the knotted bass punto guajiro on “Yo Le Llego” to the rock en español”Un Peso” with Enanitos Verdes’ Marciano Cantero to the two taking a backseat to Afrobeats rising star Mr. Eazi on the closer “Como Un Bebé,” \u003cem>OASIS \u003c/em>stretches across the spectrum of where urbano has been and where it’s going. —\u003cem>Stefanie Fernández\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/altlatino/2018/12/24/679179404/bad-bunny-en-espa-ol-el-nuevo-disco-y-sus-influencias\">Bad Bunny’s Alt.Latino interview\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>21.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>John Luther Adams\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Become Desert\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VN9TBfWAEo\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is, simply put, one of the most stunning recordings of 2019. John Luther Adams’ follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize-winning \u003cem>Become Ocean\u003c/em> is brought to life here by the Seattle Symphony and its conductor emeritus Ludovic Morlot in grand-scale minimalist fashion. The orchestra’s 100 or so musicians and a chorus of singers weave a beatless, beatific drone that draws inspiration from the deceptive monotony of our planet’s deserts, where time only appears to stand still. Like its namesake, \u003cem>Become Desert\u003c/em> feels infinite, stretching out in every direction at once; even after 40 celestial minutes, its ending arrives unexpectedly, lest we forget that sand always runs out. —\u003cem>Otis Hart\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2014/09/28/350911062/an-inviting-apocalypse-john-luther-adams-on-become-ocean\">John Luther Adams on All Things Considered\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>20.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Sault\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>5\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1F0qO7QIR4\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then, out of thin air, an impossibly polished, balanced and restrained piece of work from a faceless trio—we think it’s a trio, at least—quietly slipped into the world. The surreptitious Sault—is it pronounced “soo” or “salt” or “so,” we wonder—may have connections to the equally mysterious-at-the-outset group Jungle, a rumor that has some heft given the evolved disco/pop/R&B/soul genetics they clearly share. But while mysteries are fun, and can be a slam-dunk marketing approach too, there’s no urgent need to solve this one. First of all, this lovely, wholly consistent album is answer enough. But also, the group will most likely be unavoidable in the new year, so enjoy the unknowing while you still can. —\u003cem>Andrew Flanagan\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>19.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Lana Del Rey\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Norman F****** Rockwell\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qolmz4FlnZ0\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=ten%20year%20challenge&geo=US\">Twice this year\u003c/a> across social media, the so-called ten-year challenge meme made the rounds (and prompted some extremely 2019\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/kateo/status/1084199700427927553\"> cybersecurity concerns\u003c/a>). Consider, then, a side-by-side accounting for a certain pop star who came into full flower over the course of the decade: In 2011, Lana Del Rey’s mere presence was viewed by some as an affront to the ideal of authenticity; in 2019, few albums achieved the critical consensus that greeted \u003cem>Norman F****** Rockwell! \u003c/em>At some point between “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE6wxDqdOV0\">Video Games\u003c/a>” and “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrSX_OcpeJg\">The Greatest\u003c/a>,” Lana Del Rey went from upending accepted norms to voicing our collective unease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Norman F****** Rockwell! \u003c/em>sharpens the singular vision that’s always animated Lana Del Rey’s body of work. As her discography has grown, her imagery has evolved: less shorthand, more self-reference. With callbacks crisscrossing place and time, her music is now made of her own sepia-toned mythology. In collaboration with producer Jack Antonoff, drawing on the Laurel Canyon sound, she achieves both timelessness and timeliness in tone. Wistful, resigned and cutting, it’s a fitting swan song for the decade. —\u003cem>Lyndsey McKenna\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/09/04/757545360/lana-del-rey-lives-in-americas-messy-subconscious\">Ann Powers on Lana Del Rey\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>18.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>iLe\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Almadura\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTzL-G2kIA8\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>iLe recorded \u003cem>Almadura\u003c/em> long before the political situation in Puerto Rico came to a historic conclusion this past summer, but the themes she addresses on the album were the same as those raised in the massive protests that eventually drove its governor from power: musical stands against injustice and inequality, passionate statements of cultural pride and a barely contained fury at being at the mercy of U.S. policies for over 100 years. Case in point: “Tu Rumba” comes across as a hypnotic love song that stands as a personal statement of desire, but like the best protest music, the power of the message is in the storytelling. It’s a cleverly-worded plea for social justice set to a masterful pastiche of Afro-Caribbean rhythms. The powerful music on \u003cem>Almadura \u003c/em>will long outlast the injustices iLe and the rest of the island are fighting against. —\u003cem>Felix Contreras\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/altlatino/2019/07/10/740190505/ile-and-making-movies-discuss-music-activism-and-mixing-the-two\">Alt.Latino’s interview with iLe\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>17.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Holly Herndon\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>PROTO\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4sROgbaeOs\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spirit of collaboration courses through Holly Herndon’s third album, \u003cem>PROTO\u003c/em>. The talk that’s surrounded it has focused on Herndon’s co-creation of an AI that became part of an ensemble she worked with to make the record. While that’s of note, it does a disservice to the music, which is epic on every level. Human voices and machine voices coalesce in double helix formations; trance motifs and mile-wide drums offset the choir’s earnest emoting and lyrics unfurl like folk stories. \u003cem>PROTO \u003c/em>is an album about the human spirit and the future that new kinds of collaboration—or, as Herndon calls it,\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/hollyherndon/status/1199455651170263040\"> interdependence\u003c/a>—could bring. —\u003cem>Ruth Saxelby\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/10/07/767904887/the-2010s-a-music-making-evolution-and-revolution\">All Songs Considered interviews Holly Herndon\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>16.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Burna Boy\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>African Giant\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zvDLW5Klo8\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Burna Boy has been a superstar of Nigerian music for years. “I am an AFRICAN GIANT,” he blasted on Instagram after Coachella displayed his name on a festival poster with what he considered a too-small font. Months later, he released his fourth album with the same title. Whether it’s conceit or confidence, Burna Boy deserves to brag. Every one of the album’s 19 tracks is a gem and features his signature Afro-fusion genre blend of dancehall, reggae, R&B and hip-hop. Though fundamental African rhythms are clearly defined, the album’s dance-infused pop sensibility makes it a crossover success. And while its musicality and artfulness are outstanding, the album spans party anthems and themes of love, history and political activism too. It’s no surprise that Burna Boy received his first Grammy nomination for this album. Look for his name in larger fonts in the future. —\u003cem>Suraya Mohamed\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/11/18/779548274/burna-boy-tiny-desk-concert\">Watch Burna Boy perform at NPR’s Tiny Desk\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>15.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Ancestral Recall\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYFFV7exVWs\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New Orleans trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah is one of the most compelling voices working in music today—and his latest “stretch music” album is possibly his most ambitious work to date. With guest artists including musician/poet/rapper/actor Saul Williams, \u003cem>Ancestral Recall\u003c/em> is an intense, keenly felt and richly articulated celebration of many of the musical streams that have nourished generations of the African, Native and Caribbean diasporas—a sonically and texturally spacious project that would feel urgent and necessary at almost any time, but asserts itself especially now. From the exuberant, endlessly intricate West African polyrhythms of “I Own The Night” to the Afro-Latinx groove of “The Shared Stories of Rivals” to the metallic, Afrofuturist clang of “Prophesy,” this project is both firmly rooted in the past and a vision of a dynamic, powerful future. —\u003cem>Anastasia Tsioulcas\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SxzS4mtH9o\">Watch Jazz Night In America’s Christian Scott special\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>14.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Weyes Blood\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Titanic Rising\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFtRq6t3jOo\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A lot of artists made big, ambitious albums in 2019, but few soared as wondrously as Weyes Blood’s \u003cem>Titanic Rising. \u003c/em>Singer Natalie Mering’s meticulously layered harmonies drew comparisons to the celestial sounds of Enya and her winding melodies, crystalline voice and autumnal reflections owe just as much to ’70s folk-pop icons like Joni Mitchell or The Carpenters. It’s a beautiful and potent mix, one Mering deftly subverts with hints of madness. Songs suddenly stagger and devolve into warped or broken electronics while her videos, for songs like “Everyday” or “Mirror Forever,” include graphic scenes of murder, rape and drug use. It’s a beautiful world, but we are not okay. —\u003cem>Robin Hilton\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/12/11/786391406/weyes-blood-tiny-desk-concert\">Watch Weyes Blood perform at NPR’s Tiny Desk\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>13.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Our Native Daughters\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Songs Of Our Native Daughters\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeTEgDy7kbQ&list=RDFeTEgDy7kbQ&index=1\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our Native Daughters chose a band name and album title that highlight the kinship ties between the four group members—Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Allison Russell and Leyla McCalla—and their musical, cultural and spiritual ancestors. It would’ve been a historic event for four women of color who write, reinterpret and perform roots music on banjo to simply come together and make music—their collaboration is, in and of itself, a reminder of the whitewashed African roots of their instruments. But, urged on by Giddens, they shaped a song cycle aimed at reversing the erasure of black women from American historical narratives, at zeroing in on the dehumanizing suffering black women faced under slavery, their strategies of survival and resistance, their sharp, sly critiques of oppressive systems, their creativity. The Daughters’ collaboration is enriched by the distinctness of each of their voices: the dogged Appalachian blues rock of Kiah’s “Black Myself,” the willowy reverence of Russell’s “Quasheba, Quasheba,” the commandingly vivid narration of Giddens’ harrowing call-and-response “Mama’s Cryin’ Long,” the Kreyol liveliness of McCalla’s “Lavi Difisil,” the polyrhythmic communal audacity of “Moon Meets the Sun.” It’s an album that rustles with collective imagination and purpose. —\u003cem>Jewly Hight\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/02/14/693624881/first-listen-our-native-daughters-songs-of-our-native-daughters\">Jewly Hight reviews \u003cem>Songs Of Our Native Daughters\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>12.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Ari Lennox\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Shea Butter Baby\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf06109Zivo\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/728737359/ari-lennox\">Ari Lennox\u003c/a> declared her intentions for her debut album right from the title. \u003cem>Shea Butter Baby\u003c/em> speaks to an often misunderstood and underrepresented music lover: The Black woman. The D.C. native sings about universally recognizable ebbs and flows of life on songs like “Broke,” “BMO” and “Speak To Me,” which are sprinkled with euphemisms that will hit women of color first. Producers Elite and Ron Gilmore handle the bulk of production, lacing her words with jazzy and soulful sonics that put her range on display. Awards season has begun and we’ve already seen \u003cem>Shea Butter Baby\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/a35mxg/ari-lennoxs-shea-butter-baby-deserves-better-than-its-award-season-soul-train-awards-grammys-2019-snubs\"> obviously snubbed\u003c/a> by the Soul Train Awards and the Grammys. It’s just more confirmation that we need Ari’s voice now more than ever. —\u003cem>Bobby Carter\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/09/25/763604571/ari-lennox-tiny-desk-concert\">Watch Ari Lennox perform at NPR’s Tiny Desk\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>11.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Vagabon\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Vagabon\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzFb1z_-Cvw\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The working title for Laetitia Tamko’s second album as Vagabon was \u003cem>All the Women in Me\u003c/em>—a versatile phrase to sum up everything from the roles women play in society to the singer’s own complex identity as a Cameroonian who relocated to New York at 13. But the moniker didn’t stick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After 2017’s \u003cem>Infinite Worlds\u003c/em> pushed past the boundaries of bedroom pop, Tamko’s new record expands her sound still further, most notably landing on synth-smeared electro-pop in masterful, appropriately fluid songs like “Flood” and “Water Me Down.” Singing of her deep ambivalence about love and identity, Tamko ultimately settled on the only album title that could sum up the full measure of her sleek, soulful shape-shifting: \u003cem>Vagabon\u003c/em>. —\u003cem>Stephen Thompson\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/10/15/757514260/stream-laetitia-tamko-on-the-making-of-vagabon\">Laetitia Tamko On The Making Of \u003cem>Vagabon\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>10.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Jenny Hval\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>The Practice Of Love\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wACSfREgJys\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What does it mean to make a family? How do we care for each other? How do we make sense of our relationships with our bodies or the planet—and how do those relationships impact each other? To grapple with these questions, Jenny Hval made her most accessible album yet; the production is delicately beautiful and hypnotic, with lyrics that unspool like poetry. Hval and her collaborators conjure Georgia O’Keefe, ponder childlessness and search for God. Quotidian objects—dried figs, stretch mark cream, a cigarette, a porn magazine—become vessels for meaning both grander and more visceral than expected. This isn’t \u003cem>love\u003c/em> in the strictly romantic sense—nor is it strictly platonic, or familial, or sexual. Instead, as the title promises, the album depicts intimacy as a process: a series of trials and metaphors that draw us closer to each other. —\u003cem>Marissa Lorusso\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>9.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>billy woods & Kenny Segal\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Hiding Places\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXFgjQ9dZ8M\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s said that comedy is tragedy plus time, but what if the tragedy never ends? Does the lengthening onslaught ever become absurd enough to laugh at? billy woods released two great albums in 2019: the jagged \u003cem>Terror Management\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Hiding Places\u003c/em>, a collaboration with L.A. producer Kenny Segal. The latter is an album-length self-excavation that crawls through moldy memories in a brutal poetry that is at times darkly funny but mostly wrestles with personal and societal truths that’ll leave you touched, shook. woods found an inspired partner in Segal, whose beats are built like the condemned house falling apart on the album’s cover. On “Speak Gently,” heavy fuzz guitar suddenly disintegrates as if Thanos had snapped his fingers; it’s disarming, haunting. woods rocks references to authors who distilled drama with forceful wordplay (John Steinbeck, J.D. Salinger and Charles Dickens), but he himself knocks at their door with an ability to wrap nostalgic imagery within a crucial moment that never leaves your psyche: “Dollar movie theater, dingy foyer, little kid, not a penny to my name / F*****’ with the joystick, pretendin’ I was really playin’.” —\u003cem>Lars Gotrich\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/12/11/778228299/9-rap-albums-as-dark-and-dystopian-as-2019\">billy woods is the rapper of 2019\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>8.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Lankum\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>The Livelong Day\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxKx-BBWX8Q\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This stunningly beautiful, trance-inducing album record draws heavily on traditional Irish folk music, but with a deep dark Dublin twist. The sound of drones play a central role in the overall tone of \u003cem>The Livelong Day. \u003c/em>Brothers Ian and Daragh Lynch, Radi Peat and Cormac MacDiarmada create crushing, apocalyptic, layered drones using Uilleann pipes, harmonium, fiddle, voice and more. It has the intensity of electronic music, but this is all acoustic musicin service of songs that are often centuries old. The opening track, “The Wild Rover,” goes back at least to the 16th century and is often thought to be a drinking song, one you might raise your glass to at a pub, singing, “No, nay, never no more / Will I play the wild rover / No, never no more.” But the original intent is that of a temperance song, and that’s how Lankum approach it, with a sustained heaviness to match the story’s consequence and building sense of regret. \u003cem>The Livelong Day\u003c/em> makes the past entirely fresh and present. —\u003cem>Bob Boilen\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/10/21/771982922/lankum-and-the-strange-new-sounds-of-ireland\">Lankum’s All Songs Considered interview\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>7.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Caroline Shaw / Attacca Quartet\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Orange\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQlcyXacUrc\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those who might consider the string quartet little more than a fusty, forgotten genre haven’t heard \u003cem>Orange\u003c/em>. With help from the expressively agile Attacca Quartet, Pulitzer-winning composer Caroline Shaw takes inspiration from the old masters but makes the music shine in her singular way. Shaw gene splices strands of Mozart and Ravel into rigorously assembled pieces such as “Plan & Elevation,” proving that while some tricks of string quartet architecture remain, her buildings emerge with fresh authority. From the album’s compact spaces to its expansive vistas, Shaw excels in the evocative power of the pluck—formally termed, pizzicato—which is the backbone of the ricocheting yet songful “Limestone & Felt.” They say the mark of a great artist is a smart, distinct and identifiable voice. If that’s true, Shaw has arrived, speaking loud and clear. —\u003cem>Tom Huizenga\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2019/04/19/700361912/caroline-shaws-love-letter-to-the-string-quartet\">All Things Considered’s review of \u003cem>Orange\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>6.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Sharon Van Etten\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Remind Me Tomorrow\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7sTHoeH0eA\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Remind Me Tomorrow \u003c/em>opens with six seconds of silence. Then: simple piano chords. It’s a compelling, echoing acoustic introduction to a primarily synth-driven album, which at times resolves into chaotic crescendos. The starkness of those first chords of “I Told You Everything” offer a reprieve; a chance to gather yourself, to take one last breath before dunking deep beneath the surface. Because Sharon Van Etten has no time for superficiality. She pulls you under with her. Like that opening track warns, she tells you everything. \u003cem>Remind Me Tomorrow \u003c/em>is an album of introspection and honesty that never feels navel-gazing. In a time when people deploy terms like “emotional bandwidth” to refer to how much energy they have to support their own friends and family, this album reminds us that vulnerability is not a commodity, but the essence of genuine connection. —\u003cem>Raina Douris, World Cafe\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/10/07/766645155/sharon-van-etten-tiny-desk-concert\">Watch Sharon Van Etten perform at NPR’s Tiny Desk\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>5.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Aldous Harding\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Designer\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTgyJ8jWD3M\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No music I heard this year convinced me I could hear my own cells dividing like \u003cem>Designer\u003c/em>, Aldous Harding’s approachable, enigmatic third album. It’s lovely, but how do you explain it? The New Zealand-born Harding writes songs in familiar, folk-simple forms but appends them with odd angles that sometimes land like jokes and sometimes like warnings. Voices emerge from the depths to thread hints of peril or restlessness into the fabric of gentle melodies. Harding’s lyrics are filled with poetic images that slip away when you try to grasp them—\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2019/02/19/695796657/aldous-harding-talks-about-her-intriguing-new-song-and-video\">she’s spoken\u003c/a> about her desire to resist interpretation. (With her flexible but utterly distinctive voice, she sometimes reminds me of Cat Stevens, if you never had a single clue what Cat Stevens’ songs were about.) The title track stops and starts as if looking over its shoulder to see if you’re still there. “The Barrel” could be a consideration of motherhood, or it could be about creation and destruction, a tale of a minor deity, off in a corner of the universe, a god sinking her fingers into clay, shaping a new world by rules as she imagines them. All that inscrutability could be off-putting, but \u003cem>Designer \u003c/em>is the kind of art that rewards questioning. It only frustrates if you demand answers. —\u003cem>Jacob Ganz\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kcrw.com/music/shows/morning-becomes-eclectic/aldous-harding\">Aldous Harding performs live for KCRW’s \u003cem>Morning Becomes Eclectic\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>4.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Solange\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>When I Get Home\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6giKIu5jUvA\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back when DJ Screw was plying his chopped-and-screwed mixtape trade heavy in Houston, Solange was living out her wonder years. His time-altering mixes—as otherworldly as Sun Ra’s Afrofuturist musings; as inventive as Kool Herc’s Merry-Go-Round breakbeat technique—were the soundtrack for anybody coming of age in the ’90s in H-Town. They tainted the water. They colored a universe. In the 19 years since DJ Screw’s death, his Screw music escaped Houston and infected the world. It practically became a genre unto itself, with DJs taking up the mantle, younger artists adopting the sound and producers incorporating his slurred, stutter-step technique. Then, Solange messed around and made the hardest Screw tape of the decade in the form of an R&B album: The woozy BPMs. The repetitive phrasing. The freestyle flows. If \u003cem>A Seat At The Table \u003c/em>was all about her giving the world a piece of her mind, \u003cem>When I Get Home\u003c/em> is Solange returning to her interior world for some peace of mind. It flew over some folks’ heads, but only because it so thoroughly resists the white gaze. “These are black-owned things,” as Solange sings on “Almeda.” She’s been around the world, professionally and personally, but there’s a special kind of power in being at home with yourself. —\u003cem>Rodney Carmichael\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/03/06/700256924/solange-at-home-in-space-city\">‘Still Tippin’: Solange At Home In Houston’\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>3.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Raphael Saadiq\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Jimmy Lee\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOrZgRJ88kc\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a producer, an electric bassist and a singer-songwriter, Raphael Saadiq has long been meticulous: about chord voicings and melodic pathways, about the quantum mechanics of rhythm, about his sly evocations of classic soul and the wobble or sheen that brings them up to date. You could always count on him for craft and concision, the way you count on a sports car to roar to life when you turn the ignition key.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Jimmy Lee\u003c/em>, Saadiq’s first studio release in eight years, has all of those musical trademarks in place. But it’s also untidy, uneasy, irresolvable. Drawing from personal history—including the death of his older brother, the album’s namesake, from a heroin overdose — Saadiq delivers an anguished suite of songs about black struggle and surrender, incarceration and redemption. The result is revelatory, not only for the raw emotion in his lyrics and delivery but also for the way that this material pushes his music out of a comfort zone. —\u003cem>Nate Chinen, WBGO\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/12/05/784786360/raphael-saadiq-tiny-desk-concert\">Watch Raphael Saadiq perform at NPR’s Tiny Desk\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>2.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Angel Olsen\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>All Mirrors\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uaN60k0-zY\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I didn’t know that the record was going to sound this way at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those words, spoken by Angel Olsen \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/11/05/776382293/angel-olsen-and-john-congleton-on-how-they-made-all-mirrors\">during a conversation\u003c/a> we had just after \u003cem>All Mirrors\u003c/em> was released this fall, summed up my sentiments too. This album, Olsen’s fourth, runs screaming from her quiet side, with songs propelled by string arrangements that, along with her dramatic vocal performance, enhance the lyricism of some of Olsen’s most energetic songs. She co-produced this record with John Congleton; those string parts were written by Ben Babbitt and arranged by Jherek Bischoff. Congleton told me that after they first made a solo acoustic version of the album (a version you may get a chance to hear in 2020), they worked to expand its scope, aiming for “early period Scott Walker” as an inspiration, “where it’s fantastic songs, with really cool arrangements and you’re hearing something totally new.” This is an album of deep inner struggles thrust onto a bigger stage, with words—”What about my dreams? What about the heart?”—that matter, magnified magnificently. —\u003cem>Bob Boilen\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/11/05/776382293/angel-olsen-and-john-congleton-on-how-they-made-all-mirrors\">Angel Olsen’s All Songs Considered interview\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>1.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Brittany Howard\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Jaime\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfizQsGWOxI\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Black radicalism, the philosopher Fred Moten has written, cannot be understood outside the context of its origins in oppression; as a force of rebirth, it also always breaks out of that context. The same, Moten says, is true of black music—a broken circle, rooted and free, it demands a new way of listening. The first solo album by Alabama Shakes front woman Brittany Howard inspires such heady thoughts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sinking her fingers into the dirt of her own life story as a black biracial queer woman born in the Deep South, now living far West of that beloved, problematic home, Howard wrote a set of songs that invoke Moten’s image of the groove as a broken circle. These are songs that draw the ear into their slow rhythms, only to disrupt and rearrange themselves; that build melodies like vines growing, turning and knotting into loops, getting tangled as they move toward sun. They tell stories of desire with names like “Stay High,” unorthodox faith through declarations like “He Loves Me” and family history by facing painful memories (in “Goat Head,” the stench of racism permeates). Yet following her own perspective, Howard turns confession on its head. To realize her songs’ deceptively plainspoken complexity, Howard and producer Shawn Everett brought together jazz disruptors Nate Smith on drums and Robert Glasper on keys, alongside her old bandmate and musical anchor, bassist Zac Cockrell. They took chances. They got psychedelic, locked into heavy funk, slid into classic R&B and then cleared space for Howard to be lonely, like the blues chanteuse she also can be. This album is a radical act of self-claiming, one that does more than reintroduce a great 21st Century voice. It turns a broken circle into an open road. —\u003cem>Ann Powers\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/10/15/768439696/brittany-howard-tiny-desk-concert\">Watch Brittany Howard perform at NPR’s Tiny Desk\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=The+25+Best+Albums+Of+2019&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This list was made by writers, editors and producers at NPR Music operating under two rules: Albums had to be released during 2019 and no lead artist was allowed to appear on both this list and our list of the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/12/11/778226410/the-25-best-songs-of-2019\">\u003cem>25 Best Songs of 2019\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. You can find the rest of our picks for \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/12/11/778229970/best-music-of-2019-editors-note\">\u003cem>the best music of 2019 here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>25.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Tyler, The Creator\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>IGOR\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/HmAsUQEFYGI'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/HmAsUQEFYGI'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Generally speaking, breaks-up are trash. But what if you’re not even allowed to call it a break-up?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>IGOR, \u003c/em>the fifth studio album from Tyler, The Creator, mourns a love that was never really allowed to flourish in the first place. Across 40 minutes, \u003cem>IGOR\u003c/em> draws, erases and redraws emotional lines in the sand, smudging up Tyler’s self-esteem with each new boundary crossed. The pining of “EARFQUAKE,” the short-lived euphoria of “I THINK,” the feeble negotiation of “NEW MAGIC WAND,” the obvious lie of “I DON’T LOVE YOU ANYMORE,” the diluted compromise of “ARE WE STILL FRIENDS?” Think of these tracks as the face muscles that construct the dead-eyed, sanguine smile you flash during that first unexpected run-in with your ex. Even with a supporting chorus of Kanye West, Lil Uzi Vert, La Roux, Solange and more, the true magic of this album is Tyler’s ability to let his guard down just enough to give you symphonic slivers of his heartbreak. —\u003cem>Sidney Madden\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2017/12/11/569203961/tyler-the-creator-tiny-desk-concert\">Watch Tyler Perform At NPR’s Tiny Desk\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>24.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Tanya Tucker\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>While I’m Livin’\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/WVEd0YUx7X8'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/WVEd0YUx7X8'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In spite of the reverence shown for country music made in the 1970s and the groundswell of nostalgia for ’90s country, Tanya Tucker—an artist whose high-caliber hits spanned both eras—has been perpetually underappreciated. This year she found champions in Shooter Jennings and Brandi Carlile, who took up the task of framing Tucker with a warmly rustic, often rocking vintage sound on \u003cem>While I’m Livin’\u003c/em>. The album cast a more intimate spotlight on her gravelly timbre and the sensuality and gravitas of her phrasing, but more than that, its songs showcased her interpretive gifts and, at long last, placed her at the center of her own enthralling mythology. —\u003cem>Jewly Hight\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/world-cafe/2019/11/12/778265643/hear-tanya-tucker-perform-selections-from-her-first-original-album-in-17-years\">Hear Tanya Tucker In Concert At AmericanaFest\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>23.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Kris Davis\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Diatom Ribbons\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/DVhEV5RDG4w'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/DVhEV5RDG4w'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>In the hands of pianist Kris Davis, a musical phrase can bristle or bloom—sometimes managing both at once, as often happens on this visionary album. Working with two core partners, turntablist Val Jeanty and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, Davis devises a new strain of avant-garde chamber-jazz, volatile yet gleaming. A clutch of blue-chip guests (like Nels Cline and Marc Ribot on guitars, Tony Malaby on tenor saxophone and Esperanza Spalding on spoken word) bring personality as well as fire. This is sound that refuses stasis, insisting on endless renewal from one moment to the next. —\u003cem>Nate Chinen, WBGO\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>22.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Bad Bunny & J Balvin\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>OASIS\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/kPc3Pe42bGI'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/kPc3Pe42bGI'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Bad Bunny and J Balvin have both taken up the charge to make urbano a worldwide project without sacrificing the hunger that has made the genre seem abrasive and vulgar to some in their industry. That this album-length collaboration by two of urbano’s most visible artists covered as much genre territory as it did prompted another examination of its often relegated place within “Latin” music, whatever that is. From the knotted bass punto guajiro on “Yo Le Llego” to the rock en español”Un Peso” with Enanitos Verdes’ Marciano Cantero to the two taking a backseat to Afrobeats rising star Mr. Eazi on the closer “Como Un Bebé,” \u003cem>OASIS \u003c/em>stretches across the spectrum of where urbano has been and where it’s going. —\u003cem>Stefanie Fernández\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/altlatino/2018/12/24/679179404/bad-bunny-en-espa-ol-el-nuevo-disco-y-sus-influencias\">Bad Bunny’s Alt.Latino interview\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>21.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>John Luther Adams\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Become Desert\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/1VN9TBfWAEo'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/1VN9TBfWAEo'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>This is, simply put, one of the most stunning recordings of 2019. John Luther Adams’ follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize-winning \u003cem>Become Ocean\u003c/em> is brought to life here by the Seattle Symphony and its conductor emeritus Ludovic Morlot in grand-scale minimalist fashion. The orchestra’s 100 or so musicians and a chorus of singers weave a beatless, beatific drone that draws inspiration from the deceptive monotony of our planet’s deserts, where time only appears to stand still. Like its namesake, \u003cem>Become Desert\u003c/em> feels infinite, stretching out in every direction at once; even after 40 celestial minutes, its ending arrives unexpectedly, lest we forget that sand always runs out. —\u003cem>Otis Hart\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2014/09/28/350911062/an-inviting-apocalypse-john-luther-adams-on-become-ocean\">John Luther Adams on All Things Considered\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>20.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Sault\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>5\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/i1F0qO7QIR4'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/i1F0qO7QIR4'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>And then, out of thin air, an impossibly polished, balanced and restrained piece of work from a faceless trio—we think it’s a trio, at least—quietly slipped into the world. The surreptitious Sault—is it pronounced “soo” or “salt” or “so,” we wonder—may have connections to the equally mysterious-at-the-outset group Jungle, a rumor that has some heft given the evolved disco/pop/R&B/soul genetics they clearly share. But while mysteries are fun, and can be a slam-dunk marketing approach too, there’s no urgent need to solve this one. First of all, this lovely, wholly consistent album is answer enough. But also, the group will most likely be unavoidable in the new year, so enjoy the unknowing while you still can. —\u003cem>Andrew Flanagan\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>19.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Lana Del Rey\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Norman F****** Rockwell\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/qolmz4FlnZ0'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/qolmz4FlnZ0'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=ten%20year%20challenge&geo=US\">Twice this year\u003c/a> across social media, the so-called ten-year challenge meme made the rounds (and prompted some extremely 2019\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/kateo/status/1084199700427927553\"> cybersecurity concerns\u003c/a>). Consider, then, a side-by-side accounting for a certain pop star who came into full flower over the course of the decade: In 2011, Lana Del Rey’s mere presence was viewed by some as an affront to the ideal of authenticity; in 2019, few albums achieved the critical consensus that greeted \u003cem>Norman F****** Rockwell! \u003c/em>At some point between “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE6wxDqdOV0\">Video Games\u003c/a>” and “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrSX_OcpeJg\">The Greatest\u003c/a>,” Lana Del Rey went from upending accepted norms to voicing our collective unease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Norman F****** Rockwell! \u003c/em>sharpens the singular vision that’s always animated Lana Del Rey’s body of work. As her discography has grown, her imagery has evolved: less shorthand, more self-reference. With callbacks crisscrossing place and time, her music is now made of her own sepia-toned mythology. In collaboration with producer Jack Antonoff, drawing on the Laurel Canyon sound, she achieves both timelessness and timeliness in tone. Wistful, resigned and cutting, it’s a fitting swan song for the decade. —\u003cem>Lyndsey McKenna\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/09/04/757545360/lana-del-rey-lives-in-americas-messy-subconscious\">Ann Powers on Lana Del Rey\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>18.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>iLe\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Almadura\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/RTzL-G2kIA8'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/RTzL-G2kIA8'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>iLe recorded \u003cem>Almadura\u003c/em> long before the political situation in Puerto Rico came to a historic conclusion this past summer, but the themes she addresses on the album were the same as those raised in the massive protests that eventually drove its governor from power: musical stands against injustice and inequality, passionate statements of cultural pride and a barely contained fury at being at the mercy of U.S. policies for over 100 years. Case in point: “Tu Rumba” comes across as a hypnotic love song that stands as a personal statement of desire, but like the best protest music, the power of the message is in the storytelling. It’s a cleverly-worded plea for social justice set to a masterful pastiche of Afro-Caribbean rhythms. The powerful music on \u003cem>Almadura \u003c/em>will long outlast the injustices iLe and the rest of the island are fighting against. —\u003cem>Felix Contreras\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/altlatino/2019/07/10/740190505/ile-and-making-movies-discuss-music-activism-and-mixing-the-two\">Alt.Latino’s interview with iLe\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>17.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Holly Herndon\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>PROTO\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/r4sROgbaeOs'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/r4sROgbaeOs'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>A spirit of collaboration courses through Holly Herndon’s third album, \u003cem>PROTO\u003c/em>. The talk that’s surrounded it has focused on Herndon’s co-creation of an AI that became part of an ensemble she worked with to make the record. While that’s of note, it does a disservice to the music, which is epic on every level. Human voices and machine voices coalesce in double helix formations; trance motifs and mile-wide drums offset the choir’s earnest emoting and lyrics unfurl like folk stories. \u003cem>PROTO \u003c/em>is an album about the human spirit and the future that new kinds of collaboration—or, as Herndon calls it,\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/hollyherndon/status/1199455651170263040\"> interdependence\u003c/a>—could bring. —\u003cem>Ruth Saxelby\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/10/07/767904887/the-2010s-a-music-making-evolution-and-revolution\">All Songs Considered interviews Holly Herndon\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>16.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Burna Boy\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>African Giant\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/4zvDLW5Klo8'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/4zvDLW5Klo8'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Burna Boy has been a superstar of Nigerian music for years. “I am an AFRICAN GIANT,” he blasted on Instagram after Coachella displayed his name on a festival poster with what he considered a too-small font. Months later, he released his fourth album with the same title. Whether it’s conceit or confidence, Burna Boy deserves to brag. Every one of the album’s 19 tracks is a gem and features his signature Afro-fusion genre blend of dancehall, reggae, R&B and hip-hop. Though fundamental African rhythms are clearly defined, the album’s dance-infused pop sensibility makes it a crossover success. And while its musicality and artfulness are outstanding, the album spans party anthems and themes of love, history and political activism too. It’s no surprise that Burna Boy received his first Grammy nomination for this album. Look for his name in larger fonts in the future. —\u003cem>Suraya Mohamed\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/11/18/779548274/burna-boy-tiny-desk-concert\">Watch Burna Boy perform at NPR’s Tiny Desk\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>15.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Ancestral Recall\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/FYFFV7exVWs'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/FYFFV7exVWs'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>New Orleans trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah is one of the most compelling voices working in music today—and his latest “stretch music” album is possibly his most ambitious work to date. With guest artists including musician/poet/rapper/actor Saul Williams, \u003cem>Ancestral Recall\u003c/em> is an intense, keenly felt and richly articulated celebration of many of the musical streams that have nourished generations of the African, Native and Caribbean diasporas—a sonically and texturally spacious project that would feel urgent and necessary at almost any time, but asserts itself especially now. From the exuberant, endlessly intricate West African polyrhythms of “I Own The Night” to the Afro-Latinx groove of “The Shared Stories of Rivals” to the metallic, Afrofuturist clang of “Prophesy,” this project is both firmly rooted in the past and a vision of a dynamic, powerful future. —\u003cem>Anastasia Tsioulcas\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SxzS4mtH9o\">Watch Jazz Night In America’s Christian Scott special\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>14.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Weyes Blood\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Titanic Rising\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/RFtRq6t3jOo'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/RFtRq6t3jOo'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>A lot of artists made big, ambitious albums in 2019, but few soared as wondrously as Weyes Blood’s \u003cem>Titanic Rising. \u003c/em>Singer Natalie Mering’s meticulously layered harmonies drew comparisons to the celestial sounds of Enya and her winding melodies, crystalline voice and autumnal reflections owe just as much to ’70s folk-pop icons like Joni Mitchell or The Carpenters. It’s a beautiful and potent mix, one Mering deftly subverts with hints of madness. Songs suddenly stagger and devolve into warped or broken electronics while her videos, for songs like “Everyday” or “Mirror Forever,” include graphic scenes of murder, rape and drug use. It’s a beautiful world, but we are not okay. —\u003cem>Robin Hilton\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/12/11/786391406/weyes-blood-tiny-desk-concert\">Watch Weyes Blood perform at NPR’s Tiny Desk\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>13.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Our Native Daughters\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Songs Of Our Native Daughters\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/FeTEgDy7kbQ'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/FeTEgDy7kbQ'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Our Native Daughters chose a band name and album title that highlight the kinship ties between the four group members—Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Allison Russell and Leyla McCalla—and their musical, cultural and spiritual ancestors. It would’ve been a historic event for four women of color who write, reinterpret and perform roots music on banjo to simply come together and make music—their collaboration is, in and of itself, a reminder of the whitewashed African roots of their instruments. But, urged on by Giddens, they shaped a song cycle aimed at reversing the erasure of black women from American historical narratives, at zeroing in on the dehumanizing suffering black women faced under slavery, their strategies of survival and resistance, their sharp, sly critiques of oppressive systems, their creativity. The Daughters’ collaboration is enriched by the distinctness of each of their voices: the dogged Appalachian blues rock of Kiah’s “Black Myself,” the willowy reverence of Russell’s “Quasheba, Quasheba,” the commandingly vivid narration of Giddens’ harrowing call-and-response “Mama’s Cryin’ Long,” the Kreyol liveliness of McCalla’s “Lavi Difisil,” the polyrhythmic communal audacity of “Moon Meets the Sun.” It’s an album that rustles with collective imagination and purpose. —\u003cem>Jewly Hight\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/02/14/693624881/first-listen-our-native-daughters-songs-of-our-native-daughters\">Jewly Hight reviews \u003cem>Songs Of Our Native Daughters\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>12.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Ari Lennox\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Shea Butter Baby\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/Qf06109Zivo'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/Qf06109Zivo'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/728737359/ari-lennox\">Ari Lennox\u003c/a> declared her intentions for her debut album right from the title. \u003cem>Shea Butter Baby\u003c/em> speaks to an often misunderstood and underrepresented music lover: The Black woman. The D.C. native sings about universally recognizable ebbs and flows of life on songs like “Broke,” “BMO” and “Speak To Me,” which are sprinkled with euphemisms that will hit women of color first. Producers Elite and Ron Gilmore handle the bulk of production, lacing her words with jazzy and soulful sonics that put her range on display. Awards season has begun and we’ve already seen \u003cem>Shea Butter Baby\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/a35mxg/ari-lennoxs-shea-butter-baby-deserves-better-than-its-award-season-soul-train-awards-grammys-2019-snubs\"> obviously snubbed\u003c/a> by the Soul Train Awards and the Grammys. It’s just more confirmation that we need Ari’s voice now more than ever. —\u003cem>Bobby Carter\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/09/25/763604571/ari-lennox-tiny-desk-concert\">Watch Ari Lennox perform at NPR’s Tiny Desk\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>11.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Vagabon\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Vagabon\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/mzFb1z_-Cvw'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/mzFb1z_-Cvw'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>The working title for Laetitia Tamko’s second album as Vagabon was \u003cem>All the Women in Me\u003c/em>—a versatile phrase to sum up everything from the roles women play in society to the singer’s own complex identity as a Cameroonian who relocated to New York at 13. But the moniker didn’t stick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After 2017’s \u003cem>Infinite Worlds\u003c/em> pushed past the boundaries of bedroom pop, Tamko’s new record expands her sound still further, most notably landing on synth-smeared electro-pop in masterful, appropriately fluid songs like “Flood” and “Water Me Down.” Singing of her deep ambivalence about love and identity, Tamko ultimately settled on the only album title that could sum up the full measure of her sleek, soulful shape-shifting: \u003cem>Vagabon\u003c/em>. —\u003cem>Stephen Thompson\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/10/15/757514260/stream-laetitia-tamko-on-the-making-of-vagabon\">Laetitia Tamko On The Making Of \u003cem>Vagabon\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>10.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Jenny Hval\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>The Practice Of Love\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/wACSfREgJys'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/wACSfREgJys'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>What does it mean to make a family? How do we care for each other? How do we make sense of our relationships with our bodies or the planet—and how do those relationships impact each other? To grapple with these questions, Jenny Hval made her most accessible album yet; the production is delicately beautiful and hypnotic, with lyrics that unspool like poetry. Hval and her collaborators conjure Georgia O’Keefe, ponder childlessness and search for God. Quotidian objects—dried figs, stretch mark cream, a cigarette, a porn magazine—become vessels for meaning both grander and more visceral than expected. This isn’t \u003cem>love\u003c/em> in the strictly romantic sense—nor is it strictly platonic, or familial, or sexual. Instead, as the title promises, the album depicts intimacy as a process: a series of trials and metaphors that draw us closer to each other. —\u003cem>Marissa Lorusso\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>9.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>billy woods & Kenny Segal\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Hiding Places\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/gXFgjQ9dZ8M'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/gXFgjQ9dZ8M'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s said that comedy is tragedy plus time, but what if the tragedy never ends? Does the lengthening onslaught ever become absurd enough to laugh at? billy woods released two great albums in 2019: the jagged \u003cem>Terror Management\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Hiding Places\u003c/em>, a collaboration with L.A. producer Kenny Segal. The latter is an album-length self-excavation that crawls through moldy memories in a brutal poetry that is at times darkly funny but mostly wrestles with personal and societal truths that’ll leave you touched, shook. woods found an inspired partner in Segal, whose beats are built like the condemned house falling apart on the album’s cover. On “Speak Gently,” heavy fuzz guitar suddenly disintegrates as if Thanos had snapped his fingers; it’s disarming, haunting. woods rocks references to authors who distilled drama with forceful wordplay (John Steinbeck, J.D. Salinger and Charles Dickens), but he himself knocks at their door with an ability to wrap nostalgic imagery within a crucial moment that never leaves your psyche: “Dollar movie theater, dingy foyer, little kid, not a penny to my name / F*****’ with the joystick, pretendin’ I was really playin’.” —\u003cem>Lars Gotrich\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/12/11/778228299/9-rap-albums-as-dark-and-dystopian-as-2019\">billy woods is the rapper of 2019\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>8.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Lankum\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>The Livelong Day\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/JxKx-BBWX8Q'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/JxKx-BBWX8Q'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>This stunningly beautiful, trance-inducing album record draws heavily on traditional Irish folk music, but with a deep dark Dublin twist. The sound of drones play a central role in the overall tone of \u003cem>The Livelong Day. \u003c/em>Brothers Ian and Daragh Lynch, Radi Peat and Cormac MacDiarmada create crushing, apocalyptic, layered drones using Uilleann pipes, harmonium, fiddle, voice and more. It has the intensity of electronic music, but this is all acoustic musicin service of songs that are often centuries old. The opening track, “The Wild Rover,” goes back at least to the 16th century and is often thought to be a drinking song, one you might raise your glass to at a pub, singing, “No, nay, never no more / Will I play the wild rover / No, never no more.” But the original intent is that of a temperance song, and that’s how Lankum approach it, with a sustained heaviness to match the story’s consequence and building sense of regret. \u003cem>The Livelong Day\u003c/em> makes the past entirely fresh and present. —\u003cem>Bob Boilen\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/10/21/771982922/lankum-and-the-strange-new-sounds-of-ireland\">Lankum’s All Songs Considered interview\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>7.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Caroline Shaw / Attacca Quartet\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Orange\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/eQlcyXacUrc'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/eQlcyXacUrc'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Those who might consider the string quartet little more than a fusty, forgotten genre haven’t heard \u003cem>Orange\u003c/em>. With help from the expressively agile Attacca Quartet, Pulitzer-winning composer Caroline Shaw takes inspiration from the old masters but makes the music shine in her singular way. Shaw gene splices strands of Mozart and Ravel into rigorously assembled pieces such as “Plan & Elevation,” proving that while some tricks of string quartet architecture remain, her buildings emerge with fresh authority. From the album’s compact spaces to its expansive vistas, Shaw excels in the evocative power of the pluck—formally termed, pizzicato—which is the backbone of the ricocheting yet songful “Limestone & Felt.” They say the mark of a great artist is a smart, distinct and identifiable voice. If that’s true, Shaw has arrived, speaking loud and clear. —\u003cem>Tom Huizenga\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2019/04/19/700361912/caroline-shaws-love-letter-to-the-string-quartet\">All Things Considered’s review of \u003cem>Orange\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>6.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Sharon Van Etten\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Remind Me Tomorrow\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/j7sTHoeH0eA'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/j7sTHoeH0eA'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Remind Me Tomorrow \u003c/em>opens with six seconds of silence. Then: simple piano chords. It’s a compelling, echoing acoustic introduction to a primarily synth-driven album, which at times resolves into chaotic crescendos. The starkness of those first chords of “I Told You Everything” offer a reprieve; a chance to gather yourself, to take one last breath before dunking deep beneath the surface. Because Sharon Van Etten has no time for superficiality. She pulls you under with her. Like that opening track warns, she tells you everything. \u003cem>Remind Me Tomorrow \u003c/em>is an album of introspection and honesty that never feels navel-gazing. In a time when people deploy terms like “emotional bandwidth” to refer to how much energy they have to support their own friends and family, this album reminds us that vulnerability is not a commodity, but the essence of genuine connection. —\u003cem>Raina Douris, World Cafe\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/10/07/766645155/sharon-van-etten-tiny-desk-concert\">Watch Sharon Van Etten perform at NPR’s Tiny Desk\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>5.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Aldous Harding\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Designer\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/pTgyJ8jWD3M'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/pTgyJ8jWD3M'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>No music I heard this year convinced me I could hear my own cells dividing like \u003cem>Designer\u003c/em>, Aldous Harding’s approachable, enigmatic third album. It’s lovely, but how do you explain it? The New Zealand-born Harding writes songs in familiar, folk-simple forms but appends them with odd angles that sometimes land like jokes and sometimes like warnings. Voices emerge from the depths to thread hints of peril or restlessness into the fabric of gentle melodies. Harding’s lyrics are filled with poetic images that slip away when you try to grasp them—\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2019/02/19/695796657/aldous-harding-talks-about-her-intriguing-new-song-and-video\">she’s spoken\u003c/a> about her desire to resist interpretation. (With her flexible but utterly distinctive voice, she sometimes reminds me of Cat Stevens, if you never had a single clue what Cat Stevens’ songs were about.) The title track stops and starts as if looking over its shoulder to see if you’re still there. “The Barrel” could be a consideration of motherhood, or it could be about creation and destruction, a tale of a minor deity, off in a corner of the universe, a god sinking her fingers into clay, shaping a new world by rules as she imagines them. All that inscrutability could be off-putting, but \u003cem>Designer \u003c/em>is the kind of art that rewards questioning. It only frustrates if you demand answers. —\u003cem>Jacob Ganz\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kcrw.com/music/shows/morning-becomes-eclectic/aldous-harding\">Aldous Harding performs live for KCRW’s \u003cem>Morning Becomes Eclectic\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>4.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Solange\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>When I Get Home\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/6giKIu5jUvA'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/6giKIu5jUvA'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Back when DJ Screw was plying his chopped-and-screwed mixtape trade heavy in Houston, Solange was living out her wonder years. His time-altering mixes—as otherworldly as Sun Ra’s Afrofuturist musings; as inventive as Kool Herc’s Merry-Go-Round breakbeat technique—were the soundtrack for anybody coming of age in the ’90s in H-Town. They tainted the water. They colored a universe. In the 19 years since DJ Screw’s death, his Screw music escaped Houston and infected the world. It practically became a genre unto itself, with DJs taking up the mantle, younger artists adopting the sound and producers incorporating his slurred, stutter-step technique. Then, Solange messed around and made the hardest Screw tape of the decade in the form of an R&B album: The woozy BPMs. The repetitive phrasing. The freestyle flows. If \u003cem>A Seat At The Table \u003c/em>was all about her giving the world a piece of her mind, \u003cem>When I Get Home\u003c/em> is Solange returning to her interior world for some peace of mind. It flew over some folks’ heads, but only because it so thoroughly resists the white gaze. “These are black-owned things,” as Solange sings on “Almeda.” She’s been around the world, professionally and personally, but there’s a special kind of power in being at home with yourself. —\u003cem>Rodney Carmichael\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/03/06/700256924/solange-at-home-in-space-city\">‘Still Tippin’: Solange At Home In Houston’\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>3.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Raphael Saadiq\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Jimmy Lee\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/QOrZgRJ88kc'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/QOrZgRJ88kc'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>As a producer, an electric bassist and a singer-songwriter, Raphael Saadiq has long been meticulous: about chord voicings and melodic pathways, about the quantum mechanics of rhythm, about his sly evocations of classic soul and the wobble or sheen that brings them up to date. You could always count on him for craft and concision, the way you count on a sports car to roar to life when you turn the ignition key.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Jimmy Lee\u003c/em>, Saadiq’s first studio release in eight years, has all of those musical trademarks in place. But it’s also untidy, uneasy, irresolvable. Drawing from personal history—including the death of his older brother, the album’s namesake, from a heroin overdose — Saadiq delivers an anguished suite of songs about black struggle and surrender, incarceration and redemption. The result is revelatory, not only for the raw emotion in his lyrics and delivery but also for the way that this material pushes his music out of a comfort zone. —\u003cem>Nate Chinen, WBGO\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/12/05/784786360/raphael-saadiq-tiny-desk-concert\">Watch Raphael Saadiq perform at NPR’s Tiny Desk\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>2.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Angel Olsen\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>All Mirrors\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/6uaN60k0-zY'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/6uaN60k0-zY'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>“I didn’t know that the record was going to sound this way at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those words, spoken by Angel Olsen \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/11/05/776382293/angel-olsen-and-john-congleton-on-how-they-made-all-mirrors\">during a conversation\u003c/a> we had just after \u003cem>All Mirrors\u003c/em> was released this fall, summed up my sentiments too. This album, Olsen’s fourth, runs screaming from her quiet side, with songs propelled by string arrangements that, along with her dramatic vocal performance, enhance the lyricism of some of Olsen’s most energetic songs. She co-produced this record with John Congleton; those string parts were written by Ben Babbitt and arranged by Jherek Bischoff. Congleton told me that after they first made a solo acoustic version of the album (a version you may get a chance to hear in 2020), they worked to expand its scope, aiming for “early period Scott Walker” as an inspiration, “where it’s fantastic songs, with really cool arrangements and you’re hearing something totally new.” This is an album of deep inner struggles thrust onto a bigger stage, with words—”What about my dreams? What about the heart?”—that matter, magnified magnificently. —\u003cem>Bob Boilen\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>■ MORE: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/11/05/776382293/angel-olsen-and-john-congleton-on-how-they-made-all-mirrors\">Angel Olsen’s All Songs Considered interview\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch6>1.\u003c/h6>\n\u003ch3>Brittany Howard\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>Jaime\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/CfizQsGWOxI'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/CfizQsGWOxI'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Black radicalism, the philosopher Fred Moten has written, cannot be understood outside the context of its origins in oppression; as a force of rebirth, it also always breaks out of that context. The same, Moten says, is true of black music—a broken circle, rooted and free, it demands a new way of listening. The first solo album by Alabama Shakes front woman Brittany Howard inspires such heady thoughts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sinking her fingers into the dirt of her own life story as a black biracial queer woman born in the Deep South, now living far West of that beloved, problematic home, Howard wrote a set of songs that invoke Moten’s image of the groove as a broken circle. These are songs that draw the ear into their slow rhythms, only to disrupt and rearrange themselves; that build melodies like vines growing, turning and knotting into loops, getting tangled as they move toward sun. They tell stories of desire with names like “Stay High,” unorthodox faith through declarations like “He Loves Me” and family history by facing painful memories (in “Goat Head,” the stench of racism permeates). Yet following her own perspective, Howard turns confession on its head. To realize her songs’ deceptively plainspoken complexity, Howard and producer Shawn Everett brought together jazz disruptors Nate Smith on drums and Robert Glasper on keys, alongside her old bandmate and musical anchor, bassist Zac Cockrell. They took chances. They got psychedelic, locked into heavy funk, slid into classic R&B and then cleared space for Howard to be lonely, like the blues chanteuse she also can be. This album is a radical act of self-claiming, one that does more than reintroduce a great 21st Century voice. It turns a broken circle into an open road. —\u003cem>Ann Powers\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Singer Marie Fredriksson, who co-founded the hitmaking Swedish pop group Roxette, died yesterday in Sweden. She was 61 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before she became one of the most recognizable voices of her era, Fredricksson grew up in a tiny village, where her mom was a factory worker and her dad a postman. There wasn’t any day care, so he’d take her along while delivering mail and sing to her—the experience was formative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2C5TjS2sh4\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fredriksson \u003ca href=\"http://www.mariefredriksson.se/bio.php\">began\u003c/a> her music career in earnest as a teenager, performing in bands before going solo. But later, as half of Roxette, Fredriksson scored half a dozen hits—including the one above—and sold around 75 million albums. Frederiksson was diagnosed with brain cancer seventeen years ago, but she kept recording and touring until 2016, when her illness eventually forced her and bandmate Per Gessle to \u003ca href=\"https://www.thelocal.se/20160418/swedish-roxette-cancel-europe-summer-tour\">cancel\u003c/a> an upcoming summer tour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Speaking in 2015, Fredriksson \u003ca href=\"https://vi.se/artikel/srwAdMdB-a0Ev3DKW-e491b\">recalled\u003c/a>, to the Swedish magazine \u003cem>Vi\u003c/em>, of her extended period of sickness: “When things were at their most difficult… even if nobody else believed in me, I believed in myself. Felt I had to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCC_b5WHLX0\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Roxette%27s+Marie+Fredriksson+Dead+At+61&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Singer Marie Fredriksson, who co-founded the hitmaking Swedish pop group Roxette, died yesterday in Sweden. She was 61 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before she became one of the most recognizable voices of her era, Fredricksson grew up in a tiny village, where her mom was a factory worker and her dad a postman. There wasn’t any day care, so he’d take her along while delivering mail and sing to her—the experience was formative.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/k2C5TjS2sh4'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/k2C5TjS2sh4'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Fredriksson \u003ca href=\"http://www.mariefredriksson.se/bio.php\">began\u003c/a> her music career in earnest as a teenager, performing in bands before going solo. But later, as half of Roxette, Fredriksson scored half a dozen hits—including the one above—and sold around 75 million albums. Frederiksson was diagnosed with brain cancer seventeen years ago, but she kept recording and touring until 2016, when her illness eventually forced her and bandmate Per Gessle to \u003ca href=\"https://www.thelocal.se/20160418/swedish-roxette-cancel-europe-summer-tour\">cancel\u003c/a> an upcoming summer tour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Speaking in 2015, Fredriksson \u003ca href=\"https://vi.se/artikel/srwAdMdB-a0Ev3DKW-e491b\">recalled\u003c/a>, to the Swedish magazine \u003cem>Vi\u003c/em>, of her extended period of sickness: “When things were at their most difficult… even if nobody else believed in me, I believed in myself. Felt I had to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"soldout": {
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