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Top Picks: 'The Bookshop,' the Procreate app, and more

The podcast 'Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda' is focused on the idea of connection, Julian Baumgartner of Chicago’s Baumgartner Fine Art Restoration recently posted a YouTube video showing the methods he used to restore 'The Assassination of Archimedes,' and more top picks.

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Courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment
  • By Staff

Charming ‘Bookshop’

The Bookshop, which is available on DVD and Blu-ray, tells the story of a widow who converts her home in 1950s coastal England into a bookshop. Monitor film critic Peter Rainer writes that the movie “evoke[s] an instant nostalgia for all things literary” and praises Patricia Clarkson’s performance as an opponent of the bookshop, writing that she delivers “a remarkably pure performance, affirming once again the actor’s truism that a scoundrel should never be played as such.” It’s rated PG for some thematic elements, language, and brief smoking.

Improving painting

What goes into the process of restoring an old painting? Julian Baumgartner of Chicago’s Baumgartner Fine Art Restoration recently posted a YouTube video showing the methods he used to restore The Assassination of Archimedes. You can see it at http://bit.ly/archimedesconservation.

Insight into the Boss

Couldn’t get tickets to see Bruce Springsteen’s 2017 show on the Great White Way? No problem – Springsteen on Broadway is available on Netflix. Springsteen performs and shares intimate stories about his life. It has a lot of foul language, so this is one just for adults, but the insights into Springsteen’s work are unrivaled. 

Chats with Alan

You likely know actor Alan Alda from his work on “MASH” and “Scientific American Frontiers,” but the man formerly known as Hawkeye is also a podcaster. His program, Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda, is focused on the idea of connection, and recent guests have included W. Kamau Bell and Rachael Ray. You can find it at art19.com/shows/clear-vivid-with-alan-alda.

Andy Nelson/TCSM/File

Digital artist’s canvas

Painting en plein air is the embodiment of the romance of the Impressionist movement ... but it’s such a mess. Fortunately, there’s Procreate, available on the App Store for the iPad and iPhone for $9.99. It’s a digital artist’s canvas optimized for use with the Apple Pencil, and it works with fingers, too. Pros and amateurs alike praise its precision and emulation of traditional mediums: It’s great for letting your creative impulses loose on the go – or on your couch!

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