Jeanne-Claude, Christo's Collaborator & Wife, Dies At 74 "Artist Jeanne-Claude, who created the 2005 Central Park installation 'The Gates' and other large scale 'wrapping' projects around the globe with her husband Christo," has died "at a New York hospital from complications of a brain aneurysm."

Associated Press 11/19/09

email this story | Posted 11/19/09@09:28AM

Lloyd Webber Hospitalized Again He was readmitted when a "chronic infection" developed after his prostate cancer surgery. "His spokesmen said last month that the cancer was in its early stages and he hoped to return to work before the end of the year. But an update on his website said he now hoped to be back in the New Year."

The Guardian (UK) (Press Association) 11/18/09

email this story | Posted 11/19/09@05:37AM

John Irving Explains Why His Novels Aren't About Himself "I was pretty determinedly not a practitioner of autobiographical fiction. But the longer I get away from something - the political anger, the personal hurt, the psychological obsession - the easier it is to write about. And the more I can afford to be playful or, a better word, manipulative."

Bookforum Dec/Jan 2010

email this story | Posted 11/18/09@10:07PM

Shaquille O'Neal, Art Curator The longtime basketball star has made rap records, acted in film and TV, worked as a reserve police officer and earned an MBA. Now, "[m]oonlighting for the first time as a curator, O'Neal is overseeing 'Size DOES Matter,' an exhibition on the theme of scale in contemporary art coming in February to New York's nonprofit Flag Art Foundation."

Bloomberg 11/18/09

email this story | Posted 11/18/09@09:47PM

Find Your Favorite Poet's Grave With New Website "Planning your next vacation and don't want to miss Lord Byron's final resting place? Want to see Charles Baudelaire's last stop? With this handy website [www.poetsgraves.co.uk] you can search by poet's name or by location, get maps to the gravesite, read a sample of the deceased's work or a brief but informative biographical note."

MobyLives 11/18/09

email this story | Posted 11/18/09@09:42PM

FBI Spent 45 Years Tracking Studs Terkel The oral historian and radio host applied for a job with the FBI in the 1930s, but he looked like a communist to the bureau, which started a paper trail on him in 1945. "His file ends in 1990, when agents clipped a Wall Street Journal article quoting his reaction to financier Michael Milken's junk-bond scandal."

Chicago Tribune 11/18/09

email this story | Posted 11/18/09@07:31AM

Edward Woodward, 79, Star Of TV's The Equalizer The British actor played Robert McCall, the title character of the CBS detective series, from 1985 to 1989. He also starred in the films The Wicker Man and Breaker Morant.

Los Angeles Times 11/17/09

email this story | Posted 11/17/09@10:09PM

Irving Kriesberg, 90, Not-Quite-Abstract Expressionist Painter "Where hard-line Abstract Expressionists shunned figural elements in their work, Mr. Kriesberg used them lavishly. As a result, he was often called a Figurative Expressionist; the term applied to midcentury Expressionists whose work was not strictly abstract."

New York Times 11/18/09

email this story | Posted 11/17/09@09:59PM

Allen Hughes, 87, NY Times Music And Dance Critic He covered music and dance for the paper as a staff critic from 1960 to 1986 and later as a freelancer. "From 1963 to 1965, when he was the chief dance critic of The Times, he championed avant-garde groups, often to the consternation of mainstream ensembles, and advocated for multimedia presentations and other innovations."

New York Times 11/18/09

email this story | Posted 11/17/09@09:52PM

Longtime NYT TV Critic John J O'Connor, 76 "O'Connor joined The Times as a television critic in 1971 and retired in 1997. His tenure coincided with sweeping industry changes, beginning with the advent of the mini-series."

The New York Times 11/16/09

email this story | Posted 11/16/09@08:54AM

Why Art Tatum Was Never A Superstar "What was it about Tatum that kept him in relative obscurity? Part of the problem, I suspect, is that his personality was almost entirely opaque. We're told that he liked baseball and drank Pabst Blue Ribbon beer by the quart, but little else is known for sure about his private life."

The Wall Street Journal 11/14/09

email this story | Posted 11/15/09@09:19AM

Edward Albee: Theatre Disappoints Me "According to Albee, the problem is that the world of theatre has changed in ways he disapproves of. He is especially irked by the increasing importance of a director's vision, which is now understood to be just as valuable as what is being directed. In interviews and public speeches, Albee has been vocal about his distaste for those who neglect his strict stage directions."

The Economist 11/13/09

email this story | Posted 11/15/09@09:10AM

Bluesman Robert Johnson's Birthplace Confirmed "There's the myth he sold his soul to the devil to create his haunting guitar intonations. There's the dispute over where he died after his alleged poisoning by a jealous man in 1938. Three different markers claim to be the site of his demise. His birthplace, however, has been verified."

Yahoo! (AP) 11/13/09

email this story | Posted 11/13/09@05:45AM

Slatkin Cancels Concerts After Heart Attack "Detroit Symphony Orchestra music director Leonard Slatkin has canceled his appearances with the orchestra during the next two weeks on the advice of doctors following a heart attack he suffered on Nov. 1 in Rotterdam in the Netherlands."

Detroit Free Press 11/12/09

email this story | Posted 11/13/09@04:12AM

Teens Get Police Trouble For Rapping Their Order At McDonald's "Late last month four teens were cited for disorderly conduct in American Fork, Utah, after repeatedly (and, some would argue, hilariously) rapping their order at a McDonald's drive-through."

Chicago Sun-Times 11/13/09

email this story | Posted 11/13/09@03:52AM

'The Amazing' Carl Ballantine, Slapstick Magician, Dead At 92 He was "an inveterate quipmeister whose stand-up comedy persona, an incompetent magician known as the Amazing Ballantine or Ballantine the Great, predated and influenced the antic characters of Steve Martin and others." He was also known as "the scheming, profiteering seaman Lester Gruber on the television series McHale's Navy."

New York Times 11/11/09

email this story | Posted 11/11/09@09:47PM

Douglas Campbell, 87, Shakespearean Veteran And AD Of Guthrie Theatre A "rough-and-ready, red-haired Scot," Campbell was a mainstay of Tyrone Guthrie's companies: the Old Vic, the Stratford Festival in Ontario (where he acted and directed for 25 seasons), and the Guthrie in Minneapolis, where he served as artistic director during the 1960s.

The Guardian (UK) 11/11/09

email this story | Posted 11/11/09@09:35PM

Bruce Weber Photos Of Roberto Bolle - A Whole Book Of Them The photographer whose very name symbolizes the fusion of beefcake and art spent three years working with ballet's current reigning heartthrob. Roberto Bolle: An Athlete In Tights "features writing from Bolle, as well as texts by Elsa Morante and illustrations by Paul Cadmus and Jeremiah Goodman."

Vanity Fair 11/09/09

email this story | Posted 11/11/09@09:18PM

Jim Carrey's (Suitably) Bizarre Web Site "When you click on any of the site's tabs … the screen launches visitors on an in-your-face, Alice-down-the-rabbit-hole journey … Along the way, you are also treated to views of Carrey's eyeball, a giant squid, and the actor posed as Adam from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling. The site is also filled with Easter Eggs."

Wall Street Journal 11/07/09

email this story | Posted 11/10/09@09:58PM

The 'Bitter Tears' Of Johnny Cash How the country music legend, at the peak of his fame, took up the Native American cause, battled the music industry over his album of "Indian protest ballads" (which some DJs called "un-American"), and sang one of those ballads literally to Richard Nixon's face.

Salon 11/08/09

email this story | Posted 11/10/09@09:48PM

Darcey Bussell, Now A Serene Sydney Housewife And Mum Says Britain's former prima ballerina assoluta: "I have relaxed. My husband never thought it was possible. … For me, it's just trying to know who I am now that I am not a dancer, because I have only known myself as a dancer. So being a mum really isn't such a bad thing. … I am enjoying it. So far."

The Observer (UK) 11/08/09

email this story | Posted 11/10/09@09:37PM

British Curator Murdered With His Daughter In Sydney "A British art curator and his daughter have been found dead of multiple stab wounds alongside an injured toddler at a million-dollar home in Sydney's affluent eastern suburbs." Police "found the bodies of Nick Waterlow, 68, and his daughter Chloe, 37, a cookbook author, on Monday night." Nick Waterlow's mentally ill son is said to be the suspect.

The Times (UK) 11/10/09

email this story | Posted 11/10/09@06:51AM

Abandoning Albéniz: Liona Boyd Reinvents Herself Once the most glamorous of classical guitarists (and a former belle of Pierre Trudeau), Boyd has come through a painful divorce, a vida loca in Miami and a battle with focal dystonia to arrive at a new career as a singer-songwriter.

The Globe and Mail (Canada) 11/07/09

email this story | Posted 11/08/09@10:15PM

When Akram Khan Kept Quiet "In Asian culture, you don't have a voice. You just accept what everybody says." The star Bangladeshi-British choreographer, dubbed a "great new hope" of dance, still lives around the corner from his parents and claims he never stood up to anyone in his community: "No, because it's a form of disrespect. … I disagreed all the time, but it was in my head."

The Independent (UK) 11/06/09

email this story | Posted 11/08/09@12:36PM

Francisco Ayala, Spain's Literary Lion, Dead At 103 "Considered one of 20th-century Spain's most distinguished intellectuals, Mr. Ayala was routinely mentioned as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Besides being a novelist, he was a poet, critic, essayist, lawyer and academic sociologist. Much of his work was banned in Spain during the Franco era."

New York Times 11/05/09

email this story | Posted 11/05/09@10:19PM

George Zoritch, 92, Ballet Russe Leading Man He was "an international star in the rival Ballet Russe companies who stood out for his matinee-idol looks and bold stage presence and who later became one of American ballet's respected teachers."

New York Times 11/06/09

email this story | Posted 11/05/09@10:05PM

Susan Graham In Bed With Renée Fleming (With Her Ex-Boyfriend Watching) "[With] Renée and me, there's no barrier … We can do anything with each other and we don't care. … One of the reviews said we seemed giddy in bed together, and we really were." (She's talking about playing Octavian to Fleming's Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier at the Met; the ex-boyfriend is conductor Edo de Waart.)

San Francisco Chronicle 11/04/09

email this story | Posted 11/05/09@09:56PM

'Ayn Rand Is One Of America's Great Mysteries' "She was an amphetamine-addicted author of sub-Dan Brown potboilers, who in her spare time wrote lavish torrents of praise for serial killers and the Bernie Madoff-style embezzlers of her day. … So how did this little Russian bomb of pure immorality in a black wig become an American icon?"

Slate 11/02/09

email this story | Posted 11/04/09@10:27PM

Woody's Account Of His Dinner With Ingmar "With mild exasperation, Mr. Allen said, 'This has been documented a million times.' He and Bergman, he said, 'have met, we've had dinner, we've spoken on the phone. I've had dinner with him, with Liv Ullmann …" Is it true that, throughout that dinner, the men never spoke?

New York Times 11/04/09

email this story | Posted 11/04/09@10:08PM

Claude Lévi-Strauss, 100, 'The Father Of Modern Anthropology' "Part philosopher, part sociologist and entirely humanist, he studied tribes in Brazil and North America, concluding that virtually all societies shared powerful commonalities of behavior and thought, often expressing them in myths." Lévi-Strauss called those commonalities "structures," and his insight was the basis of the school of thought known as "structuralism."

Los Angeles Times 11/04/09

email this story | Posted 11/03/09@10:27PM

Van Gogh's Correspondence Now Available Online In English "In what is perhaps the first project of its kind, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has put English-language translations of 902 of Vincent van Gogh's personal letters on line." Vangoghletters.org "allows you to search them by keyword, correspondent, city and more."

Los Angeles Times 11/03/09

email this story | Posted 11/03/09@10:25PM

Impresario John Kenley, Who Brought Big Stars To Little Cities, Dies At 103 He was "renowned for taking large-scale productions to small towns and cities and festooning the shows with headliners like Mae West, Gloria Swanson and Burt Reynolds."

New York Times 10/31/09

email this story | Posted 11/03/09@10:15PM

Richard Burton's 'Economy Of Motion' Dick Cavett, in an epilogue to a series of online columns remembering the late actor, reveals that the widely praised slow-motion actions Burton employed in his 1980 Broadway run of Camelot "were in part bred of pain." He needed, and subsequently had, a gruesome operation called a laminectomy.

New York Times 10/30/09

email this story | Posted 11/03/09@10:07PM

Leonard Slatkin Suffers Heart Attack After Performance The veteran conductor, currently music director of the Detroit Symphony, experienced chest pains while leading the Rotterdam Philharmonic on Sunday and collapsed in his dressing room afterwards. He is now recovering in a Dutch hospital following an emergency angioplasty.

Detroit Free Press 11/03/09

email this story | Posted 11/03/09@07:48PM

Stieg Larsson's Partner, Family Battle Over His Estate Swedish writer Stieg Larsson, who was "largely unknown before his sudden death at 50, has become one of the most successful writers in the world," with an estate estimated to exceed £20 million. "But because he and the architect Eva Gabrielsson, his partner of 32 years, never married and he died without making a will, the proceeds have defaulted to his blood relations...."

The Guardian (UK) 11/02/09

email this story | Posted 11/02/09@07:47PM

Tony Kushner At The Top "His long-prodigious intellect and his perennial ability to combine dramatic political agitation with a deep sense of emotional need has deepened into an acute awareness of human frailty. Many of those close to him say he is now doing his very best work."

Chicago Tribune 11/01/09

email this story | Posted 11/02/09@12:33AM

Gershwin Heirs Fight Over Royalties "The dispute -- over how to divide foreign royalties -- is spelled out in lawsuits in separate Los Angeles courts. In a Superior Court case that could be titled "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," the trust that controls lyricist Ira Gershwin's estate is suing Warner/Chappell Music, one of the giants of song publishing."

Los Angeles Times 11/01/09

email this story | Posted 11/01/09@08:52AM

Landscape Artist Lawrence Halprin, 93 "As postwar America sprouted suburban malls, urban parks, corporate compounds and federal urban renewal projects, Mr. Halprin helped forge a new, sharper style of landscape architecture, often as dependent on concrete as on vegetation. Places he shaped include Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco; Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis; a sequence of urban spaces with dazzling fountains in Portland, Ore.; a park atop a freeway in Seattle; and large plazas in Los Angeles."

The New York Times 10/30/09

email this story | Posted 10/30/09@07:59AM

United Airlines Loses The "United-Breaks-Guitars" Guy's Luggage "The video nabbed nearly 6 million views on YouTube and prompted the airline to promise it would do better. But when Carroll flew into Denver International Airport on Sunday, he learned that United had lost his bag. What's worse, Carroll was in Colorado to do a keynote speech for a group of hundreds of customer-service executives."

Toronto Star 10/29/09

email this story | Posted 10/30/09@07:16AM

Louisa May Alcott's Lifelong Craving For Goodness "At age 11, she wrote in her journal, … 'I made good resolutions, and felt better in my heart. If I only kept all I make, I should be the best girl in the world. But I don't, and so am very bad.' Decades later, she returned to the journal and attached a note to the entry: 'Poor little sinner! She says the same at fifty'."

Double X 10/29/09

email this story | Posted 10/29/09@09:58PM