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Top Picks: Jade Bird's EP 'Something American,' 'Ladies First' on Netflix, and more

'Lady Bird,' which stars Saoirse Ronan as the title character, is available on DVD and Blu-ray, the Pocket Universe app can test you on stars, and more top picks.

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Francesca Allen
  • By Staff

Bird songs

A diminutive London-based singer/songwriter with a powerhouse voice, 20-year-old Jade Bird (her birth name) offers up a compelling mix of youthful energy, precocious lyrics, and enough personality to fill a stadium (which we expect will be happening very soon). Her debut EP, Something American, contains wonderful originals, but you need to watch her perform to truly appreciate what makes her such a phenomenon. Search “Jade Bird” on YouTube and bear witness to a bright new star.

Portable universe

The Pocket Universe app not only identifies stars and constellations, it also tells you when the International Space Station is visible and details the phases of the moon. Plus, it can test you on stars. The app is $2.99 for iOS.  

Netflix

‘Ladies’ bull’s-eye

Deepika Kumari struggled with poverty during her early life in India but then became the top-ranked archer in the world, going on to compete during multiple Olympics, in London and in Rio de Janeiro. The Netflix documentary short Ladies First follows Kumari and depicts how she succeeded. It’s available for streaming.

Female fighters

Women have been in the middle of combat throughout history, and the new Smithsonian Channel series Epic Warrior Women focuses on the specific groups who have fought over the years, including female gladiators in Rome and the Amazons in West Africa. “Epic Warrior Women” debuts March 19 at 8 p.m.

AP

Mother-daughter duet

First-time director Greta Gerwig and her film, Lady Bird, were recognized by the Oscars and now the movie is available on DVD and Blu-ray. It stars Saoirse Ronan as the title character, who is fed up with her life attending high school in northern California. Monitor film critic Peter Rainer writes that the relationship between Lady Bird and her mother (Laurie Metcalf) is “one of the more believable mother-daughter duets I’ve seen in a while at the movies.... The adolescent coming-of-age pangs experienced by Lady Bird, to which we can all relate in some measure, are, after all, timeless.”

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