Skip to footer

Top Picks: 'My Old Lady' on DVD and Blu-ray, Chuck Prophet's album 'Night Surfer,' and more

The series 'A Path Appears' shows celebrity activists exploring topics like teen mothers and child slavery, photographer Amos Chapple's series shows how the residents of frigid Yakutsk, Russia go about their day, and more top picks.

|
Amos Chapple
  • By Staff

Rockin’ Under the radar

San Francisco’s Chuck Prophet is one of those artists that makes you shake your head and wonder, “Why isn’t he the biggest rock star in the world?” He’s got the songs, the hooks, the swagger, and that voice – iconic, ironic, and every bit as commanding as Dylan’s, Petty’s, or Jagger’s. Take a listen to his latest album, Night Surfer, and get in on rock ’n’ roll’s best-kept secret. 

Parisian charm

With My Old Lady, director Israel Horovitz adapts his play of the same name for the screen. Kevin Kline stars as Mathias Gold, who inherits a Paris apartment unaware that it’s still occupied by a 92-year-old Englishwoman, Mathilde (Maggie Smith), and her daughter. According to French law, Mathilde can stay put and collect monthly payments from Mathias until her death. It’s out on DVD and Blu-ray Jan. 27. 

Colder than you are

Think you have it bad with freezing January temperatures? Meet the residents of Yakutsk, Russia, which is often called the coldest city in the world. There, temperatures have already dropped to minus 50 degrees F. Photographer Amos Chapple’s series captures the locals going about their day swathed in fur against beautiful snow-covered vistas. Bundle up and check out his cool photo gallery at http://bit.ly/yakutskcold.

Actors on the Bard

Who better to teach about Shakespeare than the actors who love him? In the PBS series Shakespeare Uncovered, renowned actors who have taken on some of the best-known roles from the Bard discuss the plays, delving into the history of each work. In the first installments, “Downton Abbey” actor Hugh Bonneville explores “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Oscar winner Christopher Plummer looks at “King Lear.” It premières Jan. 30 at 9 p.m. Check local broadcast listings. 

On the road with Kristof

In A Path Appears, writers Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, as well as celebrity activists such as Jennifer Garner and Mia Farrow, explore such topics as teen mothers and child slavery. Although viewers should be aware of graphic content, the three-part series, which debuts on PBS’s “Independent Lens” on Jan. 26 at 10 p.m., has a heartening message as it highlights efforts to improve lives. The series concludes Feb. 9.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Top Picks: 'My Old Lady' on DVD and Blu-ray, Chuck Prophet's album 'Night Surfer,' and more
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Arts/2015/0123/Top-Picks-My-Old-Lady-on-DVD-and-Blu-ray-Chuck-Prophet-s-album-Night-Surfer-and-more
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe