National Lifestyle

FORT BELVOIR, Va. — A sword from the defence of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812. A stopped wristwatch recovered from the wrecked E-Ring of the Pentagon on the Sept. 11 attacks.

Lambchop, “Trip” (Merge) Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner invited his ever-morphing ensemble to record some covers in Nashville and the resulting album, “Trip,” surely defined the frontman’s creed and genre-blending approach to music.

NEW YORK — In a songwriting session with a group of rappers, which Ingrid Andress was attending to help write a hook, the conversation turned to immature guy talk about “all the different girls they had.” Uncomfortable and over it, Andress left.

Nonfiction 1. Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey, narrated by the author (Random House Audio) 2. Clanlands by Sam Heughan, Graham McTavish, Diana Gabaldon (foreword), narrated by the authors (Hodder & Stoughton) 3.

Dust, dust and more dust. The parched Texas landscape of “Dreamland,” Miles Joris-Peyrafitte’s Depression-era drama, is chock full of the toxic gray stuff, which billows across fields and coats everything in sight.

The new film “ Ammonite ” unearths the stories of two women buried by history: paleontologist Mary Anning, who in the 19th century made significant prehistoric fossil discoveries along the coast in Southwest England, and geologist Charlotte Murchison

NEW YORK — PEN America has announced the winners of a new award, supported by a grant from the estate of the late Madeleine L'Engle, for participants in the literary and human rights organization's Prison Writing Mentorship Program.

NEW YORK — “The Climb” is a portrait of a male friendship told in single-shot chapters with cataclysmic happenings — marriage, death, children — in between.

NEW YORK — The Associated Press has pulled out of its planned coverage of Wednesday’s Country Music Association Awards show due to restrictions that have been placed on still photographers and screen captures of the broadcast.

TORONTO — Taking down a corrupt energy corporation. Foiling an armed robbery. Rescuing wayward pigeons. It's all in a day's work for Miles Morales, your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man.