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Arts & Culture / Music & Film

Flash mob in Chicago

Latest IMAX Film Studies History of American Music

Air and Space Museum makes way for the Flying Elvi

Joe Leahy at his Kilima coffee plantation at the height of his wealth and power.

The Reckoning

Thirty years ago, an acclaimed series of documentaries introduced the world to an isolated tribe in Papua New Guinea. What happened when the cameras left?

The film is equal parts 21st-century technology and late 19th-century art

How the Creators of Loving Vincent Brought the First Fully Painted Animated Film to Life

Vincent van Gogh’s swirling coats of paint really move in the Oscar-nominated film thanks to 62,450 original oil paintings

Costume designer Ruth Carter says she found inspiration in the tradition and costume of African peoples. She thrilled over Ndebele neck rings, Suri face paint, and Zulu headgear and blankets and asked her crew to stay true to these traditions.

The New Director of the Smithsonian’s African Art Museum Reflects on the Look and Fashion of Black Panther

The blockbuster movie borrowed from multiple African peoples to create a unique Wakandan style

Terje Isungset on the ice horn

Europe

These Musical Instruments Are All Made of Ice

Chill out at Norway’s Ice Music Festival this February

Tommy Wiseau clutches a football in ‘The Room,’ the 2003 film he wrote, produced and starred in.

Why Is Some Art So Bad That It’s Good?

Sometimes a work of art is characterized by a string of failures, but nonetheless ends up being a gorgeous freak accident of nature

Black Lightning's costume favors style over subtlety.

The TV Show ‘Black Lightning’ Gives the Superhero World a Jolt of Social Justice

For the protagonist of WB’s new comic book show, community and family come first

In 1997, the world gasped as Gianni Versace was shot to death on the doorstep of his Miami mansion.

The True Story of “The Assassination of Gianni Versace”

Did the designer meet his killer seven years earlier?

In December 1957, Lymon appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” to sing “Goody Goody,” nearly two years after “Why Do Fools Fall in Love?” was a hit debut single.

Teen Idol Frankie Lymon’s Tragic Rise and Fall Tells the Truth About 1950s America

The mirage of the singer’s soaring success echoes the mirage of post-war tranquility at home

John Lennon chats with Mike Love (far right, in dark blue) as the Beatles sit for a photo with Maharishi and other course participants.

1968: The Year That Shattered America

The Ashram Where the Beatles Sought Enlightenment

Beach Boys singer Mike Love recalls what it was like to be at the Indian locale, which remains a destination for fans of music and meditation

In the nothingness of space, sound waves have no medium by which to travel.

Science in the Movies

The Science of Silence in ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’

The soundless lightspeed attack that baffled some fans was actually the film’s most scientifically accurate moment

Hugh Jackman in "The Greatest Showman."

Based on a True Story

P.T. Barnum Isn’t the Hero the ‘Greatest Showman’ Wants You to Think

His path to fame and notoriety began by exploiting an enslaved woman, in life and in death, as entertainment for the masses

A still from Emmett Otter's Jug-Band Christmas

This Cult Classic Christmas Special Is Quintessential Jim Henson

Although it features few of the usual Muppets, ‘Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas’ brings the holiday spirit to the whole family

Jimi Hendrix was “a central figure in the history of African-American music,” says Kevin Strait, a historian and curator at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, home to this gold-brocade vest that the musician wore.

Gone at 27 and Eternally Youthful For the Ages, Jimi Hendrix Would Have Been 75 This Year

A gold-brocade vest at the Smithsonian evokes the innovative musician’s enduring legacy

BB-8 is an “astromech droid” who first appeared in The Force Awakens.

What the Robots of Star Wars Tell Us About the Future of Human Work

The films’ much-loved robots exist mostly to assist rather than replace humans—and like us, they are prone to errors

Hurricane Maria, September 2017

Turning Hurricane Data Into Music

Can listening to storms help us understand them better? A meteorologist and a music technologist think so

Jane Goodall reaches out to touch hands with Flint, the first infant born at Gombe after her arrival.

New Jane Goodall Documentary Is Most Intimate Portrait Yet, Says Jane Goodall

The famed chimp researcher didn’t want yet another documentary made about her. Jane changed her mind

The film (with Dustin Hoffman and Katharine Ross) is still subversive, though in different ways.

When ‘The Graduate’ Opened 50 Years Ago, It Changed Hollywood (and America) Forever

The movie about a young man struggling to find his way in the world mesmerized the nation when it debuted

Gold plating sheathes most of C-3PO’s costume. Later films included variations such as a red arm.

How Anthony Daniels Gives C-3PO an Unlikely Dash of Humanity

The fussy but brave “protocol droid” plays the role of the Greek chorus in the Star Wars franchise

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