Front Row - 21/08/2008

Presented by Mark Lawson. Mark talks to Academy Award-winning American songwriter Randy Newman about his new album, Harps and Angels, his approach to the songs he writes for himself, and to those he contributes to major Hollywood films. Mark finds out how writers decide on the right name to grace the covers of their novels, with Jonathan Freedland, Sam Bourne, Nicholas Cornwell, Nick Harkaway, Ruth Rendell, Barbara Vine, Thomas H. Cook, Iain Banks, and Iain M. Banks. A retrospective at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park of the collaboration between sculptor Isami Noguchi, choreographer Martha Graham and furniture and interior designers Charles Eames and Paul Laslo. Noguchi's chosen material for most of his sculptures was stone, and the retrospective - the largest to be staged in Europe - includes architectural designs, ceramics, furniture, zen gardens, drawings and stone carvings. British sculptor Sarah Staton discusses both the Noguchi exhibition and her own work, currently on show at the Bothy Gallery, with Mark and the curator Clare Lilley. Staton's exhibition includes pieces inspired by cocktails and by topiary in Venezuela.