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The Duluth, Minn., trio called Low are known for slow, quiet songs. But on their new album, The Great Destroyer, the band sets a different course.

Day to Day television critic Andrew Wallenstein reviews the new HBO film Lackawanna Blues, an adaptation of a popular one-person off-Broadway play.

As the chaos of Fashion Week in New York City winds down, writer Najwa Moses reviews the style extravaganza that left her impressed with the shows -- but underwhelmed by the clothes.

Melissa Block talks with John Beatty, who teaches a course on Shakespeare's Macbeth at Brooklyn College, about his efforts to rehabilitate the Scottish king's image. Macbeth is portrayed in Shakespeare's play as bloodthirsty, but Beatty says history suggests he was a respected king.

In the new film, The Woodsman, Kevin Bacon plays a sex offender just released from prison. Bacon was first recognized in the 1982 film Diner, and went on to roles in Mystic River, A Few Good Men, Flatliners, and Footloose. He's made over 50 films and inspired the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game, in which players try to link another actor with Bacon in as few steps as possible. He is married to the actress Kyra Sedgwick, who also co-stars in The Woodsman.

White House officials announce the designers of the First Family's inaugural gowns. Oscar de la Renta has designed the outfit for First Lady Laura Bush. And a team of designers was called in to make the gowns for the Bush daughters. NPR's Steve Inskeep talks with Village Voice style writer Lynn Yaeger.

Day to Day television critic Andrew Wallenstein talks about the Nickelodeon network's new series Zoey 101, starring Jamie Lynn Spears, a younger sister of pop star Britney Spears. Wallenstein says it's sad that so many kids on television seem to need a famous last name to get a break.

Alan Cheuse reviews Nobel Prize winner V.S. Naipaul's new novel Magic Seeds, which continues the story of Indian intellectual Willie Chandran begun in Naipaul's 2001 novel, Half a Life. Cheuse says the novel's thick plot is only a platform from which Naipaul delves into a complicated world of mind and feeling.

NPR's Bob Mondello reviews the first full-length feature film of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. He says director Michael Radford's adaptation features stunning performances from Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons.

Some high-profile black film directors, led by Spike Lee, have come together to create Miracle's Boys, a television series for teens about growing up in New York City's Harlem district. NPR's Ed Gordon speaks with two of the directors, Ernest Dickerson and Bill Duke.