Arts

Director Damien Chazelle's second film centers on the agony of a drummer in a high-powered music school. The movie ties you into knots: The fear of failure is omnipresent. So is the jazz vibe.

In Little Failure, the novelist recounts his emigration from the USSR to the U.S. when he was 7. For the first few years, he says, he would sit alone in the cafeteria, talking to himself in Russian.

Today on the show we're going to find out once and for all just how low we can go. No, not THAT kind of low. There'll be no profanity, no cruelty, no foul humor, just a whole lot of fun with America's #1 selling cello bass duo: Low & Lower. They've got a world premiere coming up by renowned composer Lawrence Dillon, so I guess we'll call this segment Low & Lower & Larry. Then, from the enormous double bass, we get even bigger with Theatre Gigante—the theatre of big ideas. They're here with their own brand of Shakespeare, movement, dance and sound. My Dear Othello puts the “D” in deconstruction, and what exactly that means, well, Theatre Gigante's leaving that on up to you. Sweet Honey in the Rock is celebrating four decades of great music-making. They're fierce at 40, and headed to the Triad! Mary Dalton has the skinny on the gritty new British prison film "Starred Up". And after reaching for the stars we head down into the canyon…Steep Canyon Rangers are lighting up the Blue Ridge Music Center.

In the new play Colossal, a former football player, paralyzed after taking a bad hit during a game, reflects on his glory days and his struggles as a gay man in the macho culture of football.

On this week's show, we get around to a discussion (as unspoiled as practical) of the film adaptation of Gone Girl, and we talk about what we've learned from movies, books, and television.

The new female Thor has picked up her hammer, but the mainstream comics industry is still experiencing some growing pains as it figures out where women fit in as characters, creators and fans.