Charles Dickens Was Obsessed With Theatre (Who Knew?) The novelist "originally wanted to be an actor. ... He was an avid theatregoer, joined the Garrick Club at the age of 25 and had many theatrical friends ... He visited circuses and melodrama houses; his periodical writings covered vents and 'grimacers', waxworks, freak shows, actors, gaslight fairies and clowns."

The Guardian (UK) 02/08/12

email this story | Posted 02/08/12@11:56PM

The Real Star Of The Artist - Uggie The Dog - Retires Due To Illness "Now it's been revealed that the 10-year-old Jack Russell, who will retire from feature film-making after the Academy Awards ceremony, is leaving the biz due to a mystery illness that has baffled experts and cost his trainer thousands of dollars in vets' bills."

The Guardian (UK) 02/07/12

email this story | Posted 02/08/12@11:54PM

Meryl Streep: How Opera Training Helped Me "I learned the importance of breath. There was a thing I learned in my lessons from Estelle -- to breathe from your back. She would always say, there's room in the back -- that you expand three dimensionally. ... I use it all."

Los Angeles Times 02/07/12

email this story | Posted 02/08/12@07:17AM

Antoni Tapies, 88, Painter And Sculptor "[He] came to prominence in the late 1940s with richly symbolic paintings strongly influenced by Surrealist painters like Miró and Klee, a style he abandoned by the mid-1950s as he turned to what became his signature work: the heavily built-up surfaces that were often scratched, pitted and gouged and incised with letters, numbers and signs."

The New York Times 02/07/12

email this story | Posted 02/08/12@12:02AM

Werner Herzog Insults All Chickendom From the 40-second video, Werner Herzog on Chickens: "Try to look a chicken in the eye with great intensity, and the intensity of stupidity that is looking back at you is just amazing."

Slate 02/07/12 (includes slanderous video)

email this story | Posted 02/07/12@11:52PM

Dickens Gets A Google Doodle For His Burthday The search engine redecorates its logo for the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens' birth.

The Telegraph (UK) 02/07/12

email this story | Posted 02/07/12@06:42AM

Iranian Actress Barred From Homeland For Posing Topless; Supporters Start Topless Facebook Protest "A fleshy rebellion is spreading hot and fast across the cybersphere, as a growing number of activists are stripping down in support of Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani, who was reportedly banned from her homeland after posing topless for French magazine Madame Le Figaro."

The Wrap 01/30/12

email this story | Posted 02/07/12@12:00AM

The Artist Who Got Paid With Facebook Stock "The graffiti artist who took Facebook stock instead of cash for painting the walls of the social network's first headquarters made a smart bet. The shares owned by the artist, David Choe, are expected to be worth upward of $200 million when Facebook stock trades publicly later this year."

The New York Times 02/02/12

email this story | Posted 02/06/12@11:54PM

The Famous Bosnian Film Director Who Turned Serbian Emir Kusturica, who won the Palme d'Or at Cannes twice, for When Father Was Away On Business and Underground, renounced his Muslim roots in 1995, at the end of the Bosnian War, and was baptized Serbian Orthodox. (He hasn't returned to Sarajevo since.) He now lives part-time in Paris and part-time in a recreated 17th-century Serbian town where he has founded an international film festival.

Los Angeles Times 02/05/12

email this story | Posted 02/06/12@11:52PM

How Charlotte Gainsbourg Feels About Her Work (It Ain't Pretty) "The first time I performed live, I did a terrible show in Paris. It was a nightmare and I thought I'd never do it again. No, even my agent told me how dreadful it was. ... I'm not a professional actress like Meryl Streep: she knows where she's going. I never know where I'm going! If I'm good in a scene, it's a miracle."

The Observer (UK) 02/05/12

email this story | Posted 02/06/12@11:49PM

Actor Ben Gazzara Dead At 81 "In a 60-year career that began on stage, the gravel-voiced Ben Gazzara appeared in more than 100 films and TV movies. He also starred in the 1960s series Run for Your Life, enjoyed a renaissance in the '90s and won an Emmy in 2002."

Los Angeles Times 02/04/12

email this story | Posted 02/05/12@12:43PM

The Intensely Interior Philip Glass (Either You Get It Or You Don't) "That time-consuming transfiguration is at the core of the Glass mythology, but drugs work differently on different metabolisms, angels appear only to the elect, and I lack the gift of spinning Glassian tedium into bliss. In fact, I start to get his music at precisely the point where his first acolytes fall away."

New York Magazine 01/29/12

email this story | Posted 02/03/12@08:41AM

Dorothea Tanning, 101, Last Of The Surrealist Painters Though her own fame was overshadowed by that of her husband, Max Ernst, she had a successful career in her own right, moving from dreamlike portrayals of the female form to, by the 1950s, more abstract "prism paintings." In her 80s, she found new acclaim as a writer.

The Guardian (UK) 02/02/12

email this story | Posted 02/03/12@12:01AM

Caravaggio, Violent Hothead And Marketing Genius "In the seething cesspool of Caravaggio's Rome, violence was a form of advertisement; it let people know you were, so to speak, the wrong guy to f#@k with. Caravaggio's notorious life was good publicity, too for the new, gritty style of painting he created vivid, theatrically lit, psychologically realistic slices of life."

The Big Think 02/03/12 (video)

email this story | Posted 02/02/12@11:57PM

Artist Mike Kelley, 57 "An influential Los Angeles artist whose physically messy and psychologically complex projects laid the groundwork for present-day installation art, has died. He was 57. He was found dead Tuesday evening at his home in South Pasadena in what several friends described as a suicide following a serious depression."

Los Angeles Times 02/02/12

email this story | Posted 02/02/12@08:25AM

Wislawa Szymborska, 88, Nobel Prize-Winning Poet "She was popular in Poland, which tends to make romantic heroes of poets, but she was little known abroad. Her poems were clear in topic and language, but her playfulness and tendency to invent words made her work hard to translate."

The New York Times 02/02/12

email this story | Posted 02/02/12@12:08AM

Patricia Neway, 92, Soprano Star Of Opera And Broadway Stages For 15 years a principal at New York City Opera, Neway was particularly known for her work in contemporary operas. Her two most famous triumphs, both on Broadway, were as Magda Sorel in Menotti's opera The Consul and as the Mother Superior in the original run of The Sound of Music.

The New York Times 02/01/12

email this story | Posted 02/01/12@11:59PM

Revealed: Steve Jobs Was Vinyl Music Fan Neil Young shocked the D:Dive Into Media conference in Dana Point, Calif., on Tuesday with the news that Steve Jobs didn't listen to digital music around the house. The iconic musician and sound-fidelity fanatic told interviewers that the late Podfather was a pioneer of digital music whose legacy was tremendous, "but when he went home, he listened to vinyl."

The Globe & Mail (Canada) 02/01/12

email this story | Posted 02/01/12@05:11AM

A Philip Glass 75th Birthday Party The composer stops by for ice cream cake and conversation with his old friends at WNYC radio, where he talks about being parodied on South Park and how he beat the dreaded ninth-symphony curse.

WNYC 01/31/12 (audio)

email this story | Posted 01/31/12@11:58PM

Philip Glass On The Occupy Movement "We've haven't seen this since the Vietnam War years - there was a whole generation playing video games when we should have been on the streets. ... I think that what they're doing is the right thing - it was right when it was the 70s, it was right in the 60s, it's always right."

The Huffington Post 01/31/12 (includes video slide show)

email this story | Posted 01/31/12@11:57PM

Camilla Williams, 92, Pioneering African-African Opera Singer "[Her] debut with the New York City Opera on May 15, 1946, was thought to make her the first African American woman to appear with a major U.S. opera company." In 1954, Williams "became the first black artist to sing a major role with the Vienna State Opera."

Los Angeles Times (AP) 01/30/12

email this story | Posted 01/31/12@12:04AM

Carlos Fuentes Says Only Legalizing Drugs Can Save Mexico The country's most prominent author says that only decriminalization can end drug smuggling and the violence it has spawned in Mexico, leaving more than 50,000 people dead over the past five years.

The Telegraph (UK) 01/30/12

email this story | Posted 01/30/12@11:58PM

As She Alters, And Controls, Her Career Path, Who Is Renée Fleming, Anyway? The 52-year-old crossover opera star has now taken on the role of creative consultant to the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and her opera career keeps on morphing. What will she do next, and why?

The New York Times 01/28/12

email this story | Posted 01/29/12@08:41PM

Eiko Ishioka, 73, Designer Of Costumes For 'Spider-Man' She won an Oscar for her design of Francis Ford Coppola's "Dracula" in 1992, but the designer didn't stop with movies. "Ishioka spread her talent across a variety of genres. She tried her hand at opera, designing the set and costumes for Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle at the Netherlands National Opera, and she directed Bjork's controversial music video for the 2002 single Cocoon."

BBC 01/27/12

email this story | Posted 01/29/12@08:24PM

Writer William Gibson Invented Cyberspace. What's He Doing Now? What does one of the most famous living science fiction writers listen to? "It's called 'The Original Sound of Cumbia: The History of Colombian Cumbia & Porro as Told by the Phonograph 1948-79' and it was compiled by someone who calls himself Quantic. I'd call it dance music but what do I know? Do I dance to it? Not that I'd readily admit to."

The New York Times 01/29/12

email this story | Posted 01/29/12@08:20AM

Dimitra Arliss, 79, Starred Opposite Redford In 'The Sting' "On Broadway, Arliss starred opposite Stacy Keach in 'Indians' and with Kevin Kline and John Malkovich in 'Arms and the Man.'" And she moved from "The Sting" to "Xanadu" and Clint Eastwood's "Firefox."

Washington Post (AP) 01/28/12

email this story | Posted 01/29/12@08:02AM

Conductor Paavo Berglund, 82 One of the most admired interpreters of Jan Sibelius, Berglund held chief conductor posts with the orchestras of Bournemouth, Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen and conducted most of Europe's top orchestras during his career.

AP 01/26/12

email this story | Posted 01/26/12@11:55PM

Actor James Farentino Dead At 73 "Handsome, with a sculpted chin and wavy black hair, Mr. Farentino was best known for recurring roles on television series and TV movies."

The Washington Post 01/26/12

email this story | Posted 01/26/12@11:51PM

Why Do Artists Decline Royal Honors? "From Lucian Freud to Roald Dahl, creative talents have long been rejecting honours from the Queen. But why? Maybe they just don't want to be part of an elite gang of Fred Goodwins."

The Guardian (UK) 01/25/12

email this story | Posted 01/26/12@09:54AM

Actor Nicol Williamson, 75 "[He] was considered 'the greatest since Marlon Brando' by John Osborne and reckoned by Samuel Beckett to be 'touched by genius'; but his prickly temperament helped derail what might have been one of the great theatrical careers."

The Telegraph (UK) 01/25/12

email this story | Posted 01/25/12@11:58PM

Filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos, 77, Killed In Road Accident "[He] was working on a new film, The Other Sea, when he was hit by a motorcycle [in Piraeus] and sustained serious head injuries. He died later in hospital."

The Guardian (UK) 01/25/12 (includes film clips)

email this story | Posted 01/25/12@11:54PM

Top Chinese Maestro Beats Up New York Mugger Long Yu, music director of the China Philharmonic, was in Manhattan to lead the New York Philharmonic in a Chinese New Year program. He was walking along Columbus Avenue one night this week when a man asked him for a cigarette and then punched him; Long Yu chased his attacker down the street and punched back.

The New York Times 01/25/12

email this story | Posted 01/25/12@11:44PM

Frederica Von Stade, Now Retired, Is 'Available' Says the beloved mezzo, now 66: "If somebody asked for a Belle Hélène? Sure! ... Maybe something like the Grandmother in A Little Night Music. Not Marcellina in Figaro, not the old Countess in Queen of Spades. I won't take old-lady roles just to be onstage."

The Wall Street Journal 01/25/12

email this story | Posted 01/24/12@11:50PM

Salman Rushdie Video Address To Indian Book Fest Cancelled After Threatened Violence "Nearly 30 Muslim activists had tried to enter the venue and police had told him large crowds were gathering at city parks to march. The video-link had been organised after Sir Salman withdrew from attending the festival, saying that sources had told him of an assassination threat."

BBC 01/24/12

email this story | Posted 01/24/12@08:39AM

Rudi Van Dantzig, Choreographer, Dead At 78 "As a choreographer, Van Dantzig made more than 50 works, most of them on contemporary themes, although he also produced well-received versions of standard classics ... Many of his ballets contain a strong thread of social criticism; he was not afraid to explore difficult subjects" such as homosexuality and environmental pollution.

The Guardian (UK) 01/23/12

email this story | Posted 01/23/12@11:50PM

Robert Nelson, 81, Maker of Experimental Films "Confoundingly plotless but cleverly and energetically edited to render images in often poignant, often uproarious juxtaposition, Mr. Nelson's movies are varied in tone and subject matter, but they all exhibit the subversive relish of a renegade, quirky wit." Nelson died of cancer on January 9.

The New York Times 01/21/12

email this story | Posted 01/22/12@10:38PM

Ellsworth Kelly At 88: Still Colorful, Still Painting, Still Abstract "Ellsworth has been fearless in his commitment to the limitless possibilities of abstraction," said James Cuno, chief executive and president of the J. Paul Getty Trust in Los Angeles. ... "With concentrated imaginative power he has made some of the most beautiful and important paintings of the Modernist era. And he is at the height of his powers, not elegiac but ecstatic, filled with the wonder of seeing the world afresh."

The New York Times 01/20/12

email this story | Posted 01/22/12@09:54AM

Etta James, 73, Singer of 'At Last' "Etta James sang professionally nearly her whole life, and could stock a long shelf full of memorable records: gritty blues songs in the 1950s, hits in a broad range of styles in the '60s. But "At Last," the soaring ballad she first committed to wax in 1960, was her signature number, the one that followed her like a sweet lost child for a half-century."

Time 01/20/12

email this story | Posted 01/22/12@09:34AM

Salman Rushdie Abandons Plans For Indian Book Festival Appearance After Death Threats "Opposition from some Indian Muslim groups erupted this month after Mr. Rushdie was invited to attend Asia's largest literature festival, and senior Muslim leaders called on the government to prevent the 65-year-old author from entering the country."

The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/20/12

email this story | Posted 01/20/12@05:18AM

We Have Lenin And Kim Jong Il, But Who's The Great-Granddaddy Of All Embalmed Despots? None other than Alexander the Great. His preserved body, hijacked by one of his generals, was displayed in a secular shrine just as Lenin's and Kim's corpses are now, and for the same purposes.

The Wall Street Journal 01/13/12

email this story | Posted 01/19/12@11:49PM