Skip to footer

Top Picks: Jennifer Hudson on 'Hairspray Live!,' 'Florence Foster Jenkins,' and more

The Globespinning app lets you give travel advice or get inspiration, the Mars Images app shows the most recent photos being taken by the rovers on Mars, and more top picks.

|
NBC
Jennifer Hudson (C.)
  • By Staff

Hudson highlight

If you missed NBC’s latest live musical, “Hairspray Live!,” earlier this month, you can still check out one of the production’s best moments: Academy Award-winning actress and singer Jennifer Hudson taking on the song “I Know Where I’ve Been,” a performance that was widely viewed as a highlight of the broadcast. Hudson’s song can be seen on NBC’s YouTube channel at http://bit.ly/jhudsonhairspray.

Intriguing history

Focusing on such topics as Britain’s history in Africa, the Klondike gold rush, and the Terracotta Warriors, the History Hit podcast, by Dan Snow, presents an intriguing and wide-ranging look at various historical events, with knowledgeable guests providing insight. Check out the podcast at http://www.historyhitpodcast.com.

Itinerary inspiration

Want to share your travel experiences with others or looking for inspiration for an upcoming trip? The app Globespinning lets users assemble their own itineraries using photos from their trip. They can then share the itinerary with other Globespinning users, offering suggestions on how to have the best trip possible. Or if you’re going to an area you don’t know, you can check out other users’ itineraries for recommended destinations. The app is free for iOS.

Planetary photos

Add a little outer space to your day with the app Mars Images. The app shows the most recent photos being taken by the rovers on Mars, including Curiosity and Opportunity. The Mars Images app is free for iOS and Android.

True art

In the movie Florence Foster Jenkins, Meryl Streep portrays a real-life 1940s New York socialite who loved to sing – but none of her acquaintances could bear to tell her that she never hit the right notes. Monitor film critic Peter Rainer writes that Streep is “a wonderful comic actress” and that actor Hugh Grant, as Florence’s husband, “gives a tremendously knowing and resonant performance.” The movie, Rainer says, “manages to be both flat-out hilarious and deeply melancholy, sometimes all at once.” “Florence Foster Jenkins” is now available on DVD and Blu-ray. 

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: Jennifer Hudson on 'Hairspray Live!,' 'Florence Foster Jenkins,' and more
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Arts/2016/1223/Top-Picks-Jennifer-Hudson-on-Hairspray-Live!-Florence-Foster-Jenkins-and-more
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe