Cary Barbor

Today, Leonard spoke to chef Grant Achatz, whose restaurant, Alinea, is consistently named one of the best restaurants in America for its creative takes on traditional food. Achatz is known as one of the leaders of molecular gastronomy, which places an emphasis on the chemical properties of food. Molecular gastronomists like Achatz are often known for their elaborate, almost surreal plating techniques.

We were sad to learn that among those killed in last week's Afriqiyah Airways crash in Libya was the talented Irish-born writer Bree O’Mara, 42. She was en route from her home in South Africa's North West Province to London to sign a publishing deal for her ...

A playwright swaps homes with a longtime collaborator and friend — an actress named Molly Fox. Throughout the course of a single day in the Dublin cottage, the unnamed playwright ruminates on her friendship with Molly as well as other friends and family members. All the while, she's trying -- ...

Earlier this year, we blogged the spectacular season opener of the Metropolitan Opera: a gorgeous (and perhaps scandalous) production of Bizet’s 'Carmen.' I was fortunate to see the final performance last weekend -- and while  I must admit that opera has never been one of my ...

On her new album the Beninoise singer-songwriter hops back and forth between traditional West African tunes and western pop (she covers Curtis Mayfield's 'Move On Up' and James Brown's 'Cold Sweat,' ...

Spring has officially arrived in New York City and that means getting out of the apartment--at last!--and into the parks and playgrounds.

This foot-long block of blue foam reflects this happy change: it's a miniature, pop-out playground sent to us by the Rockwell Group,  designers of

It's been three years since we've heard something new from Merle Haggard, but it's clear that he's been hard at work.  He's just released I Am What I Am, his first album for his new label Vanguard. His longtime band The Strangers backs him up. The ...

After making a splash in Europe, the delightful V.V. Brown releases her first album, Travelling Like the Light, in the U.S. today.

And she'll perform a set at the Apple Store in Soho tonight at 7 p.m. (It's free!)

Not in New York City? ...

The movie starring Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck doesn’t hold a candle to the gripping BBC series on which it was based.  A newspaper investigates the death of a young woman, uncovering layer after layer of intrigue in the process. The plot is watertight and ...

The rich harmonies and ultra-contemporary arrangements of Sonos bring a cappella singing to a level those guys in the striped vests and boater hats never could have dreamed of.

Don't know Sonos? You're in for a treat. The L.A.-based sextet visited Studio 360 last fall to talk with ...

It turns out that the guards at the Metropolitan Museum of Art have a lot more to say than 'The bathrooms are down the hall and to the left.'

Many of them are artists in their own right. There's a show up at the new 25CPW ...

Need a hit of good news? How about this story out of Montreal last week:  a Paul Klee painting stolen in 1989 —that's 21 years ago!—was recovered and returned. 'Portrait in the Garden' (below), valued at $100,000, was stolen from New York's Marlborough Gallery.

We all know that the Internet has its drawbacks. (Why do I know that Sandra Bullock's husband cheated on her?  Why does a certain relatives think I enjoy videos of kittens?)  But its power to aggregate—pulling material from across time and around the world—can still knock your socks off.  I ...

In her new collection of short stories, now out in paperback, Mary Gaitskill plumbs the depths of her characters' hearts and minds. As always, her insight into their behavior is spot-on.  When Gaitskill induces cringing, it's only because her characters' actions ring so true.

There's a public art exhibition opening next week in New York City that has me a bit concerned.

It's called Event Horizon, and it consists of 31 life-size human figures made of iron and fiberglass. The forms will stand on pathways and sidewalks in the Madison Square Park area of ...

Rosie and Skate are sisters; they have each other's backs even as they bicker and spar.  Forced to navigate the world as adults a few years too soon, while stumbling through first loves and the horrors of high school, they're wiser than most teens in fiction.  Officially a young adult ...

Strangely overlooked in this year's Oscar nominations – even for Marvin Hamlisch's kinetic score – The Informant! gets inside the highly unreliable thoughts of Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon), a biochemist turned whistleblower for Archer Daniels Midland.  Amid beige cubicles, the story unravels in surprising and funny ways, ...

I had the good fortune to hear the outstanding Irish writers John Banville and Colum McCann a few days ago, when they did a reading together at New York's 92nd Street Y. Banville won the Man Booker prize in 2005 for The Sea and McCann won ...

Last week’s show about the Lincoln Memorial reminded me of the opportunity I had a few years ago to see Lincoln's handwritten draft of the Emancipation Proclamation at the New-York Historical Society.

The document is so fragile that it can be displayed only 10 days out of ...

We got nearly 200 great entries to our redesign Valentine challenge. And on last week's show, Elizabeth Gilbert picked the winning entry: a bouquet of rolled bacon strips that look like roses (only yummier!) by Sarah Tisdale. As Gilbert said so aptly, 'Nothing can compete ...