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Globe South best bets

2009-11-29T02:08:21Z

BOOKS Stoughton: Stoughton native Elizabeth Dembrowsky reads from her debut novel, “My Monk.’’ She will also read poems inspired by Naomi Rosenblatt’s mixed media exhibit, Refugees from Paradise. Thursday, 7-8:30 p.m., Stoughton Public Library, 84 Park St. Free. 781-344-2711, www.stoughtonpubliclibrary.org.

Living large at Patriot Place

2009-11-29T02:06:46Z

It didn't take any more prompting than a friend's recommendation to get me out the door and headed to Tavolino at Patriot Place in the darkness of a late Thursday afternoon this month.

Jeff Corwin draws crowd at Science Center event

L.E. Crowley, Globe Correspondent — 2009-11-29T02:03:51Z

The mother-daughter team of Pam and Samantha Maurer had been on a Jeff Corwin quest that, after five years, joyfully ended at Norwell’s South Shore Natural Science Center Monday, when the popular cable television host returned to his hometown for a visit.

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2009-11-29T02:03:51Z

Portraits of courage, in oil and words

Sam Allis, Globe Staff — 2009-11-29T01:59:42Z

Chris McGurk is number 31. He sits motionless in a chair, his back straight. A thin afternoon light from the north pours through the windows to his right, illuminating his shaved head and strong face. He carries on a conversation as Matthew Mitchell paints his portrait - the latest in a series on war veterans that will grow ...

In Plymouth, an authentic taste of Italy

Christine Legere, Globe Correspondent — 2009-11-29T01:59:12Z

PLYMOUTH - For Patrizia Galassi, cooking has always been one of life’s great pleasures. But it took decades for the favorite pastime of this native of Italy to blossom into a lucrative career as a restaurant owner and chef.

Tobey Maguire loses control

Christopher Wallenberg, Globe Correspondent — 2009-11-28T17:55:48Z

NEW YORK - In the blockbuster “Spider-Man’’ franchise, peeling back the mask of the spandex-clad superhero and his angsty young alter-ego Peter Parker is a famously Herculean task. Likewise, trying to crack the carefully cultivated surface of Tobey Maguire, the 34-year-old star who brought to life the web-slinging crime-fighter, proves no less a difficult a chore.

Funny how they see things

Matthew Gilbert, Globe Staff — 2009-11-28T17:54:53Z

Character is the great currency of any good sitcom. Funny jokes, farcical situations, and ironic asides are nothing without well-developed characters and strong comedic actors to bring them to life. Here are three who have broken out recently:

Memory in motion

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2009-11-28T17:54:50Z

How do actors memorize their lines? It is a question audience members often ask ourselves. We may struggle to remember a three-item grocery list, and yet there the actors are onstage, smoothly reeling off Shakespeare soliloquies or delivering mouthfuls of dialogue as if they were making it up on the spot.

When musical cultures collide

Andrew Gilbert, Globe Correspondent — 2009-11-28T17:54:43Z

Pianist Erik Deutsch came of age in the wide-open spaces of Colorado, and his music still carries unmistakable traces of the alpine air and sweeping CinemaScope views. But the band he brings to Boston Tuesday evokes the Rockies refracted through the urban grit of Brooklyn.

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2009-11-28T17:54:43Z

He changed the way we look at US

Mark Feeney, Globe Staff — 2009-11-28T17:54:21Z

NEW YORK - So what’s the big deal: It’s just a book, right? Well, yes and no. Robert Frank’s “The Americans’’ certainly is a book, one that consists of 83 photographs taken during 1955 and 1956. But to say it’s “just’’ a book is like saying the same thing about “Moby-Dick.’’ Both works are central, defining documents of American culture. ...

Laugh tracking

Matthew Gilbert, Globe Staff — 2009-11-28T17:53:59Z

Maybe it was when 10-year-old Manny put down his newspaper to get another cup of espresso, like a little executive Buddha, or maybe it was when he insisted on wearing his traditional Colombian poncho to grade school, that it came to me: “Modern Family’’ is an instantly lived-in and fleshed-out sitcom. The ABC comedy arrived in September fully formed, filled ...

A shift in tone for music awards

Jonathan Perry, Globe Correspondent — 2009-11-27T17:39:13Z

The Boston Music Awards have managed a tricky feat this year. The annual showcase, which honors the best musical talent that Boston has to offer, is simultaneously scaling back and expanding its reach.

Sting keeps to the shadows in ‘Winter’s Night’

Mark Shanahan & Meredith Goldstein — 2009-11-27T01:33:49Z

Sting and his wife, Trudie , keep with tradition on Christmas Eve: They go to a local church, sing along to carols, then head back home to their English estate to open presents with their family.

A shortsighted memoir from Palin

Claude R. Marx — 2009-11-27T01:27:53Z

Sarah the victim. After she experienced a meteoric rise to the heights of American politics, one might have expected Sarah Palin to produce an optimistic memoir that was enjoyable to read and somewhat forward looking.

He’s the mind behind magic of ‘Mr. Fox’

Wesley Morris, Globe Staff — 2009-11-27T01:25:55Z

Early last week, Wes Anderson’s girlfriend had to be in Boston for a day or two. Rather than stay home, he came with her. Anderson is 40, but he seems considerably younger. Not youthful per se, but young. He speaks in long, energetic paragraphs that end when all the necessary information has been delivered. This isn’t as transactional or charmless ...

DVD gift guide

2009-11-27T01:21:09Z

If you have a classic-rock geek on your list - the kind who still rhapsodizes about the warmth of vinyl and can name great sidemen through the ages - and you want to splurge on them, look no further than the nine-DVD set “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum Live.’’ Culled from 24 years of induction ceremonies, this ...

Looking inward

2009-11-27T01:05:51Z

The novelist Michael Chabon’s newest book is a lyrical collection of essays, “Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son.’’ He has poignant and sometimes hilarious riffs on everything from growing up in the 1970s, to the evolution of Legos, to the virtues of the “pitifully low’’ historic standards to which fathers are held, to ...

Top music book

2009-11-25T22:29:59Z

‘They both knew that they would be best friends for a long, long time. Not that they talked about it; it was just there.’’ This is one of many things that Clarence Clemons writes about Bruce Springsteen in his highly entertaining new memoir, “Big Man: Real Life & Tall Tales.’’

Books

2009-11-25T22:26:59Z

“Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Story Behind the Song,’’ Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen & Jo-Ann Geffen Funny, poignant, and insightful essays written by the songwriters of some of pop music’s biggest hits. The best - like the adulterous backstory to “Stop! In the Name of Love,’’ involving a disgruntled girlfriend and a baseball bat - deepen, entertain, and ...

Music gift guide -- DVDs

Globe Staff — 2009-11-25T22:12:50Z

Pink, “Pink’s Funhouse Tour: Live in Australia’’ See the daring young lady on the flying trapeze sing “Sober.’’ Witness her have a silly pillow fight with her dancers during “So What.’’ Watch her “Get the Party Started’’ in this document - which includes a CD - of one of the year’s most vivid and enjoyable concert tours.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

Wesley Morris, Globe Staff — 2009-11-24T18:21:31Z

It starts with the Vicodin for his back, which he injured rescuing an inmate during Hurricane Katrina’s rising floodwaters. Then there’s the coke before entering a crime scene, and the crack while having sex with a woman in a parking lot.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Ty Burr, Globe Staff — 2009-11-24T17:44:06Z

The wry stop-motion delight “Fantastic Mr. Fox’’ feels lovingly fussed over. With its papier-mâché skies, animal characters sporting glued-on tufts of fur, landscapes that seem to be cobbled together from spit and plasticine, it’s a defiantly handmade artifact - a tabletop movie.

Extra, extra credit

Mark Feeney, Globe Staff — 2009-11-24T01:08:49Z

There are 100,000 credit card transactions per minute in the United States, and Americans carry nearly $1 trillion in credit card debt. Plastic has become as much a part of the American way as Mom, apple pie, and the flag. At least two of those items you can purchase with a credit card.

Who’s lining up to fill Oprah’s shoes - or her time slot?

David Bauder, Associated Press — 2009-11-23T02:20:04Z

NEW YORK - Will it be Ellen DeGeneres, Dr. Phil, or Dr. Oz? Maybe none of the above. The announced shutdown of “The Oprah Winfrey Show’’ in two years creates room for a new queen (or king) of daytime television.

A vital chronicle captured live

2009-11-23T01:50:15Z

My first impression of Tom Waits's concert in Atlanta last year was that it could never be captured on disc.

Holiday shows’ various guises include off-color

Geoff Edgers, Globe Staff — 2009-11-21T17:31:22Z

There is no Santa Claus at the Ramrod. But starting next week, you’ll find the holiday spirit in a basement theater at this gay bar, where a gussied-up Ryan Landry and his Gold Dust Orphans bring back their camp-fueled comedy “All About Christmas Eve.’’

As Oprah heads to cable, will her golden touch go with her?

Johnny Diaz and Megan Woolhouse, Globe Staff — 2009-11-21T04:40:08Z

There is no way to overstate the influence of Oprah on the life of 49-year-old Barbara Moulton of Boston.

Oprah's departure presents problem for TV stations

Caryn Rousseau and Ryan Nakashima, Associated Press Writers — 2009-11-20T05:22:17Z

For more than two decades, Oprah Winfrey has been the inspirational, change-your-life champion who reigned over daytime television much like Johnny Carson once ruled late night.