Arts and Culture

Features on our favorites in books, music, film, and comedy.

The Blue Hen at the Adelphi Hotel, Saratoga Springs, New York [dailyblender.com]

Summertime in Saratoga Springs

Amid the upstate areas where vacationers flock, Saratoga Springs is a popular pick. To some, it is the home of horse racing, where folks dress in finery and peer over papers as determined steeds propel past. To others, it is a performing arts destination, and its annual New York City Ballet season the most anticipated event of them all.

Nichelle Nichols - Uhura (Star Trek)

On Star Trek and Star Power: A Q&A with Nichelle Nichols

On deck in the original show, amid traditional male forerunners Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Sulu, appeared the stunning Lieutenant Uhura, played by actress Nichelle Nichols. Though Nichols was considered a supporting character, her poise and perfection, along with a surefire, commanding voice, made her a highlight of every episode.

Steven Soderbergh and his Singani 63 at Expatriate. [dailyblender.com]

Screenplays and Singani 63: An Interview with Steven Soderbergh

If you didn’t know who you were looking for, I’m not sure you would’ve even noticed him standing there on the sidewalk. Pacing back and forth along the curb, a phone pressed to his ear, he had a black cap pulled tightly over his head, black jacket, black shirt, black pants.

Quick Spin Interview: Author Simon Van Booy

Simon Van Booy has a way with words. A way with people, really. An observation of life that builds on a page like the slow, calculated movements of the constructs of an igloo. His stories offer a richness to life’s every day instances – love and loss, birth and death, the climbing and the falling of dreams.

A Beginner’s Guide to the Bridgetown Comedy Festival

Here at DB, we talk a lot about festivals. Many of them involve standing in line holding plates of minuscule sandwiches or doll-sized fried chicken while of course sipping (sometimes batch) cocktails in every corner of the country. And we’re not complaining.

Daily Blender Exclusive: Author Christopher Moore

As a Midwest kid who grew up in a faith-heavy community, it almost felt a little sacrilege to read Christopher Moore’s Lamb. The story of Jesus’s teen years as told by his best friend, Biff, Lamb spins the story of the Messiah’s early life, before the healing and the leading and the fishes and the whatnot.

Quick Spin Interview: Author Bret Anthony Johnston

Bret Anthony Johnston’s outward appearance oozes fiction writer. You see his thick-rimmed glasses and often solemn photos and you think, Yup, this is what they’re all like. But Johnston (whose name sounds a little like a member of a boy band, doesn’t it?) is so much more than the scarf-wearing stereotype you might associate with the typical writer.

Quick Spin Interview: Comedian Myq Kaplan

If the name of a comic’s album gives us any insight into what to expect in his comedy, then Myq Kaplan’s albums titles are supremely helpful. There’s his most recent album – “Small, Dork, and Handsome” – along with “Meat Robot,” and “Vegan Mind Meld”, to name a few.