Father of inventions Dean Kamen is known as the brainiac who invented the Segway transporter, the iBOT all-terrain wheelchair, the first insulin pump, and countless other ground-breaking devices. He’s less famous for founding FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), an annual robotics competition for students. A recent telephone chat with the New Hampshire inventor and entrepreneur suggests that Kamen’s passion ... (Page G5, 522 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Nov 19, 2009

New England Conservatory is renowned as a premier institution for classical and jazz musicians. But a training ground for singer-songwriters, bluegrass artists, and jam bands? NEC’s department of contemporary improvisation is developing a reputation as just that: a place where promising popular musicians come for rigorous training. Alumni like singer Aoife O’Donovan, fiddler Lissa Schneckenburger, keyboardist John Medeski, and clarinetist ... (Page N6, 280 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Nov 15, 2009

The freshman PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE rarely lavished on the young, but Sarah Jarosz is downright gifted in the elusive art of waiting. Folks have been clamoring for an album from the mandolinist, clawhammer banjo player, and singer-songwriter since she began traveling the bluegrass festival circuit at the tender age of 12. Jarosz wouldn’t be rushed, biding her time until she had ... (Page N1, 1251 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Nov 15, 2009

All new adventures! T wenty years ago Mike Reed was a Florida middle-schooler in thrall to Batman. Today he is a Jamaica Plain husband in thrall to Batman, and the proud co-owner of JP Comics and Games. He and Paul Bryant, a Spider-man devotee, dreamed up the idea in April and opened their doors four months later, during a summer more notable for ... (Page G14, 1102 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Nov 14, 2009

Present perfect Today is my father’s birthday. I gave him a present, as I have every Nov. 10, or most of them. There have been lapses, years when I couldn’t find the time to shop, or didn’t get it together to go to the post office in time, or couldn’t find the right thing. That last excuse sounds especially feeble. It’s the ... (Page G22, 674 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Nov 10, 2009

Coming around again TISBURY - “I have this brain machine. Would you like to try it? It’s so not scary.’’ With that tantalizing offer Carly Simon scales the hidden spiral staircase that bisects her beautiful, whimsical home and returns to the sofa with a Fisher-Wallace Cranial Stimulator. She straps the portable pulse generator to a visitor’s temples. (Page N1, 1449 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Oct 25, 2009

Their back pages The Boston Book Festival runs tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Copley Square. For a complete schedule of events, including presentations and panels, programming for teens and children, writing workshops, and music performances go to www.bostonbookfest.org or call 617-252-3240. (Boston Book Festival events are one hour unless otherwise noted.) (Page G23, 548 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Oct 23, 2009

Is this the end? Book sales are down. Readership is on the decline. E-readers are transforming the very notion of a page turner, and Google aims to digitize the written word - all of them. (Page G22, 904 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Oct 23, 2009

The kid in the halls NEWTON - At first glance, Aaron Wolff’s bedroom screams teen: mound of dirty clothes, hefty history textbook, the collected Calvin and Hobbes. The full-page newspaper ad for “A Serious Man’’ taped to his wall? Not so much. But Wolff’s decorating quirk is understandable: The 15-year-old Newton South sophomore has a plum role in the new Coen brothers film, appearing as ... (Page G4, 1221 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Oct 13, 2009

Mystery theater Imagine you’re walking through an alley behind an abandoned school. You pass a deserted playground, scale a flight of metal stairs, and enter the building through a rear door on the second story. Inside, it’s dark and disorienting. Music plays, something menacing and familiar. You keep moving and find yourself in a small boudoir, where the scent of perfume lingers. ... (Page N1, 1600 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Oct 4, 2009

The family plan The two teenagers perched side by side on a sofa at the Brooks School are dressed nearly identically, in skinny jeans and embroidered blouses. Their bare feet are tucked underneath them and dark scarves cover their hair. Sixteen-year-old Marjeela Basij-Rasikh and her 19-year-old sister, Shabana, don’t much look like political powerhouses, but to hear them quietly lay ... (Page G14, 1050 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Sep 19, 2009

Moby , the militantly vegan and devoutly Christian techno musician, is getting high praise for his new album, “Wait for Me,’’ but don’t bother congratulating him. “I try to base my sense of self on hanging with my friends and doing the laundry,’’ says Herman Melville’s great-great-grand-nephew (hence the nickname), who performs at House of Blues next Thursday. Here is ... (Page G29, 221 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Sep 18, 2009

Harbison follows a jazz train of thought Classical music composer John Harbison has won the Pulitzer Prize, earned the highest rank of Institute Professor at MIT, and led the esteemed Boston ensemble Emmanuel Music. He has not, however, over the course of a half-century crafting operas, symphonies, concerti, and a reputation of international renown, ever scored a gig at Scullers Jazz Club - until this week. Wednesday ... (Page G5, 1221 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Sep 16, 2009

How ‘The Big Lebowski’ became a cultural touchstone and the impetus for festivals across the country So there’s this guy named the Dude, and some dudes break into his apartment and pee on his rug, so the Dude, an LA burnout whose real name is Jeffrey Lebowski, goes to find the other Jeffrey Lebowski, a rich guy the intruder dudes were actually looking for, so he can get him to replace the soiled rug, which totally ... (Page G10, 1038 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Sep 15, 2009

Radio days Charles Laquidara was a big voice in Boston radio for more than three decades, starting in 1969, when he replaced a budding WBCN DJ named Peter Wolf (who wanted to spend more time practicing with his band) and later when he joined classic-rock station WZLX. In 2000 Laquidara moved to Maui, but he’s back in town this month to be ... (Page G3, 415 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Sep 12, 2009

What the end-of-life conversation can bring PLYMOUTH - Ed and Catherine Pratt are fierce rivals. Their battlefield is a cribbage board, and competition is in full swing this summer, though Ed is nearing the end of his life. The couple faces off in Ed’s bedroom, on the ground floor of their North Plymouth home, where the Pratts’ daughter and her family live in a second-floor apartment. ... (Page A1, 1132 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Sep 2, 2009

Raitt, Mahal mix it up but leave the heat off Bonnie Raitt is an anomaly: a card-carrying blues-rocker with a fondness for middle-of-the-road pop. So is her good friend Taj Mahal, who helped revive traditional acoustic blues half a century ago and promptly became a world-music eclectic. They’ve teamed up for a tour, playfully titled “BonTaj Roulet,’’ which suggests all manner of good times rolling. To that end Saturday night, ... (Page G5, 429 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Aug 17, 2009

First time at Tanglewood STOCKBRIDGE - Toby Oft is burning rubber on the back road from Lenox to Stockbridge. It’s a midsummer Monday, Oft’s day off. A long afternoon stretches ahead of him, a reporter is making every effort to follow behind, and Oft - the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s new principal trombonist - is driving like his life depends on it. (Page N1, 1312 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Aug 16, 2009

iPod shuffle John Bauman, formerly of Sha Na Na, now fronting Bowzer’s Original Doo Wop Party In the crush of Woodstock memories being rolled out for this year’s 40th anniversary celebration, we’re not hearing much about Sha Na Na, the ’50s rock ’n’ roll revivalists who got their big break at Max Yasgur’s farm. Never fear: On Sunday John Bauman, a.k.a. Bowzer, ... (Page G23, 233 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Aug 14, 2009

Adventures in ‘table for one’ Cooking for one is all the rage. No fewer than three books published this year are devoted to the subject, such titles as “What We Eat When We Eat Alone,’’ by celebrated author Deborah Madison and Patrick McFarlin, “The Pleasure Is All Mine: Selfish Food for Modern Life,’’ from actress-turned-chef Suzanne Pirret, and “The Pleasures of Cooking for One,’’ by ... (Page G19, 1179 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Aug 12, 2009

Earlier this year Yoko Ono made a quiet trip to town to visit a small Central Square building. Arriving at the Cambridge offices of Harmonix, a video game development company, she sat down in the Star Chamber, where there’s a sofa, a giant TV, and scattered game controllers that look like musical instruments. When animated footage of the Beatles appeared ... (Page A1, 1388 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Aug 9, 2009

The British rock band Arctic Monkeys first came to the Paradise Rock Club in 2006 - a few years out of high school, startlingly evolved, and riding a massive wave of buzz for its sharp first album, “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not.’’ That album became the fastest-selling debut in British history, but the Monkeys didn’t become ... (Page B14, 372 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Aug 7, 2009

The British rock band Arctic Monkeys first came to the Paradise Rock Club in 2006 - a few years out of high school, startlingly evolved, and riding a massive wave of buzz for its sharp first album, “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not.’’ That album became the fastest-selling debut in British history, but the Monkeys didn’t become ... (Page B14, 372 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Aug 7, 2009

Sugarland: Live on the Inside 8 p.m. Channel 5 Invitation Only: Brad Paisley 9 p.m. CMT It’s a country music double whammy. First up: Sugarland in concert from Lexington, Ky., followed by Brad Paisley (above), who rolls out the greatest hits as well as material from his new album, “American Saturday Night.’’ The Paisley special also features an interview that ... (Page G12, 197 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Aug 3, 2009

A folk revival The phone call came late on a Friday night, five summers ago, during the final innings of a Red Sox game. It was Boston artist manager Michael Creamer’s cousin on the line, calling to quiz him about the music business. (Page N1, 1663 words)By: Joan Anderman|Date: Aug 2, 2009