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BBC America, available on many U.S. cable TV networks, is offering modern adaptations of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. One of the stories -- "The Miller's Tale" -- has been recast to take place in a karaoke bar. Hear NPR's Scott Simon and Peter Bowker, who adapted the 14th-century literary classic.

David Sedaris is the author of the best-selling collections Barrel Fever, Naked and Me Talk Pretty One Day. His essays appear regularly in print in The New Yorker, Esquire and GQ and can be heard on the radio on This American Life. We rebroadcast a June 15,2004, interview with Sedaris.

Chris Nickson reviews the debut album by Guinean musician Ba Cissoko and the band that bears his name. It's called Sabolan. The band includes two koras -- harp-like instruments with 21 strings.

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.

What do you get when you combine traditional Jewish music with infectious Afro-Cuban rhythms? The new album by Roberto Juan Rodriguez, Baila! Gitano Baila!, attempts that daring fusion. Tom Moon has a review.

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.

In plays such as Death of a Salesman, All My Sons and The Crucible, Miller offered great entertainment mixed with pungent social criticism. He earned fame far beyond that accorded to most American playwrights. And he kept writing for more than six decades.

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.

NPR's Alex Chadwick guides listeners through the funeral of Ray Charles. The late R&B pioneer was saluted by musicians, actors and political luminaries at services at the First AME Church in Los Angeles.

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks with Zalmai Ahad about his new book Return, Afghanistan, a photography collection of Afghanistan. An exhibition of his work opens Wednesday at the National Geographic Museum.