A self-taught mosaicist, Mr. Zagar used broken bottles, handmade tiles, mirrors, and other found objects to cover walls across the city, particularly in South Philly. His Magic Gardens on South Street has become a landmark, attracting 150,000 visitors a year. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
On top of a career designing sets and lights for more than 50 Broadway productions and over 30 George Balanchine ballets, he became, in 1967, the founding artistic director of the National Theater of the Deaf, which combined spoken dialogue and sign language to create, in effect, a new genre. - The New York Times
“For more than four decades, he was a central figure in European opera, admired not for flamboyance but for integrity, stylistic intelligence, and a distinctive vocal timbre that combined gravity with warmth.” - Moto Perpetuo
Between 1967 and 2023, he made forty-seven features (nearly one a year), many of them running considerably more than two hours. His body of work, considered in terms of number of features and of total running time, is one that probably no one in his generation or younger can match. - The New Yorker
He is charged with two counts of simple battery following incidents in the midnight hours of Tuesday morning. This is, of course, by no means his first run-in with law enforcement. - AP
Michael Silverblatt, the longtime host of the KCRW radio show "Bookworm" — known for interviews of authors so in depth that they sometimes left his subjects astounded at his breadth of knowledge of their work — has died. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)
“Among the world’s most admired and influential filmmakers, … with subjects ranging from a suburban high school to a horse race track, his work was aired on public television, screened at retrospectives, spotlighted in festivals, praised by critics and fellow directors and preserved by the Library of Congress.” - AP
“(The) Oscar-winning actor … disappeared into an astonishing range of roles — lawmen and outlaws, Southern-fried alcoholics and Manhattan boardroom sharks, a hotheaded veteran and a cool-tempered mob consigliere — and emerged as one of the most respected screen talents of his generation.” - The Washington Post (MSN)
“She became the only black woman ever to win the Nobel prize in literature. But the facts remain: she is difficult to read. She is difficult to teach. Notwithstanding the voluminous train of profiles, reviews and scholarly analysis … she is difficult to write about.” - The Guardian (UK)
“Keep a diary, get a camera, learn to print your own photos. Don’t put it all in your phone, because everything in your phone belongs to someone else. And if you want to write a secret to someone, send a letter.” - The Guardian (UK)
“A Dutch novelist, travel writer and journalist, (he) was lauded for his insights into European history and culture and often tipped as a possible winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.” - AP
With his ensembles Gächinger Kantorei and Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, he undertook the first complete recording project of Bach’s cantatas and major choral works. As the period-instrument movement picked up steam through the 1980s, ‘90s and onward, Rilling was the last remaining Bach specialist to cling strictly to modern instruments. - Moto Perpetuo
He was discovered by director Robert Altman for the 1970 films M*A*S*H and Brewster McCloud; he subsequently featured in Heat (1995), Dogma (1999) and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004). Yet it was his co-starring role in alongside Ruth Gordon in Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude that would establish his place in cinema. - Deadline
“The influential founder of France’s École Philippe Gaulier … taught the art of clowning for decades and his students included Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Thompson, Rachel Weisz and Geoffrey Rush.” - The Guardian
“Scarlett Pavlovich filed a lawsuit against Gaiman and his wife, Amanda Palmer, in Wisconsin in February 2025, accusing Gaiman of multiple sexual assaults while she worked as the family’s nanny in 2022. She filed lawsuits against Palmer in Massachusetts and in New York on the same day she filed the Wisconsin action.” - AP
