Curiosity Rover Delivers Billion-Pixel View of Mars

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover delivers the first gigapixel image from the Red Planet's surface in a panoramic view that captures actual Mars lighting conditions.
by David McGee
 

 
 

‘Welcome Has No Boundaries’

Zimbabwe's beloved OLIVER 'TUKU' MTUKUDZI has released his 61st album, SARAWOGA, of songs of hope and respect. 'There's always something to talk about,' he tells us, and then proves it.
by David McGee
 

 

 

Bound Together in the Spirit of Cultural Exchange

On DUSTY ROAD, KLEZMER-ISH explores music of immigrants from various cultural backgrounds who left their homelands in search of a different and better life.
by David McGee
 

 
 

Lara St. John and Friends Do Schubert Right

The talented eccentric, LARA ST. JOHN, is back with a group of formidable friends with a 'Schubertiade,' an exciting exploration of 15 tunes written by Schubert and scintillatingly rendered on disc.
by David McGee
 

 

 

France’s Ever-Visceral Harpsichord Legacy

'These are not performances that conjure ghosts of the past: harpsichordist ADAM PEARL reveals that this music lives as viscerally today as it did two-and-a-half centuries ago.
by David McGee
 

 
 

Spring in Verse, In Romania and In Song

Nature’s Temple: we celebrate Spring with RUBY & THE ROMANTICS, William Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson, e.e. cummings and others..
by David McGee
 

 

 

Prokofiev, Conflicted: Great Composer or Great Compromiser?

SERGEI PROKOFIEV was a great composer, but was he also a great compromiser when it came to bowing to the demands of the Soviet regime, which viewed him as a threat to the people?
by David McGee
 

 
 

Bully: A Visit with Laura Vaccaro Seeger

Pictured above is an early image from Caldecott Honor medalist Laura Vaccaro Seeger’s Bully, released in July from Neal Porter/Roaring Brook. A little birdie (named Neal Porter, in fact) told me months ago that Laura created ...
by David McGee
 

 

 

For the Lost Children of Chile

NIÑOS: POEMS FOR THE LOST CHILDREN OF CHILE offers 'a powerful reflection on political violence in the lives of children,' as JULES explains in this month's featured book for young readers.
by David McGee
 

 
 

It’s All Too Beautiful: Nellie McKay Sounds Off on…Everything

NELLIE MCKAY is never at a loss for words--about animals, the '60s, her new album (MY WEEKLY READER)--and she told it as it is in a lively TALKING ANIMALS interview with DUNCAN STRAUSS
by David McGee
 

 

 

GMO Labeling: Just Give Us Some Truth

ON Nov. 6 California voters rejected Prop 37, an initiative that would have required food manufacturers to label most foods containing GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms), but that has not deterred the pro-Prop 37 movement. A...
by David McGee
 

 
 

THE TURNING POINT (1952)

WILLIAM DIETERLE directs this fine early '50s film noir starring WILLIAM HOLDEN, EDMOND O'BRIEN, ED BEGLEY and ALEXIS SMITH and L.A.'s Bunker Hill section. SHORT SUBJECT: DISNEY's 'TRICK OR TREAT.'
by David McGee