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News of domestic data-gathering by the National Security Agency dominates Capitol Hill for a second day. Lawmakers have had plenty of opportunity to ask the former head of the NSA, Gen. Michael Hayden, about the operation: Hayden is campaigning for Senate confirmation as director of the CIA.

Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint have come together to write and record a warm, hopeful new album. The two chose to make The River in Reverse in Hurricane Katrina-ravaged New Orleans as a gesture of hope. Most of the album's 13 tracks were recorded as free-flowing jam sessions.

The Flaming Lips have become the flagship band for modern psychedelic pop, pushing the boundaries of sound while steadily growing a fanatic audience over the last 20 years. Not too bad for a group of "fearless freaks" from Oklahoma City.

Featuring five accomplished New York City musicians (most notably Norah Jones on piano and vocals), The Little Willies' members bonded through their shared love of classic country and Americana. Low-key and relaxed, the band's take on classic American music is intimate and engaging.

Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov's music brings together influences of his eastern European roots, Jewish heritage and native Argentina. His new song cycle, called Ayre, was written for soprano Dawn Upshaw.

Performance Today spent a week at Portland's Chamber Music Northwest, as part of the festival's 35th anniversary season. We talk to Louise Scott, 88, chairperson of the festival when it was founded.

(Rebroadcast from Nov. 5, 2002.) Worden was director of the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia. She died on Aug. 2 at the age of 57, from a brief illness. She turned the little-known medical museum into a museum with a worldwide reputation. The museum was founded in the 19th century. It originated with the collection of Dr. Thomas Dent Mutter who gathered unique specimens for teaching purposes. It exhibits medical deformities, pathologies and medical anomalies, like the horned woman, the man with the giant colon, deformed fetuses and a plaster cast of the Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker. Worden put together a book of photographs from the museum's collection of human oddities and outdated medical models.

Hendra was the editor in chief of Spy magazine and an original editor of National Lampoon. He also played Ian Faith in the mockumentary, This is Spinal Tap. He has written an unlikely new memoir about his lifelong friendship with a Benedictine monk he was brought to when he was 14 years old, after getting caught in an affair with a married woman. Hendra writes in his new memoir Father Joe: "His was the wisdom I craved though it was never what I expected; his judgment alone I feared though never once did he pass judgment on me."

Singer/songwriter, guitarist Richard Thompson. He first became known for his work with "Fairport Convention." He's since gone solo and is known for his dark songs, which blend elements of British folk ballads and the blues. He's released a number of solo albums, including Mirror Blue and Rumor and Sigh. Rykodisc also compiled a retrospective of his work Watching the Dark: The History of Richard Thompson. Currently, Thompson is performing a show he calls "A Thousand Years of Pop Music," which includes British and American folk songs, jazz and pop.

Cold War Kids' music seems almost haphazard, but a closer listen reveals the intricacy that gives the California band its distinctive sound. Piano and guitars set each song's mood, ranging from mellow to reckless, and the bass jacks up the intensity at just the right moments.