People

A longtime professor at Harvard University, Glazer, was among the last of the deeply-read thinkers who influenced culture and politics in the mid-20th century. Starting in the 1940s, Glazer was a writer and editor for Commentary and The New Republic. He was a co-editor of The Public Interest, and wrote or co-wrote numerous books.  – Washington Post

Her work touched millions of people deeply, and not only those who consider themselves poets or poetry lovers. Oliver’s work managed to do something rare: It reached people who didn’t particularly like or “get” contemporary poetry. – Washington Post

It certainly looks that way. And now there are some recent sculptures (and ideas) that might need taking back… – The New York Times

“When I say it’s you I like, I’m talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see, or hear, or touch. That deep part of you, that allows you to stand for those things, without which humankind cannot survive.” – New York Review of Books

“The filmmaker Jean Renoir made a career of dismantling the beliefs of his absentee father, the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Jean satirized the aristocracy and upended his father’s saccharine scenes of leisure.” — The Paris Review

“[She and the film have] started a national conversation about inequality, the treatment of domestic workers and who is welcome on the red carpet in a country where Indigenous women are rarely seen in magazines” — she’s now the first indigenous woman ever to appear on the cover of Vogue México — “much less at Hollywood awards shows.” — The New York Times

“Often compared to her literary idol Ralph Waldo Emerson, with whom she shared an abiding interest in the natural world, Ms. Oliver combined a precise, unfussy style with an almost religious devotion to examining nature. … Ms. Oliver was a rarity in modern American literature — a best-selling poet, so popular she was interviewed by journalist Maria Shriver in O, the Oprah Magazine.” — The Washington Post

Dr. Sherman Hershfield was a rehab doctor from Beverly Hills, who, after his stroke, started speaking in rhymes. He started recounting the Holocaust in rhyme on the bus, and a passerby suggested he visit an open-mic rap night in South Central. He was 40 years older and 40 shades whiter than anyone there, but he ended up befriending KRS-One and became “Dr. Rapp.” — The Atlantic

She became known in the 1980s for projecting slides and film images into the bodies of her dancers, who performed more often in rock clubs than in theaters; in the 1990s, she made short experimental films and cyanotypes. (Okay, yes, she was also married to Steve Buscemi.) — The New York Times

Charles McNulty: One of a kind, Channing was a like a cross between Marilyn Monroe and Gracie Allen, with a personality voice that could make a tune completely her own. When she sang, pixie dust shot into the air. She was an Al Hirschfeld cartoon sprung into swooning life. – Los Angeles Times

Of course he was better-known as a politician. But he was also a considerably accomplished amateur artist. His artistic work has had relatively little notice next to his political career, but his work is worth examining. – The American Interest

“[Her] novels and biographies often examined the lives of women as creative forces and as muses, and [she] published an acclaimed memoir that explored her complicated personal history … [with] what she later recognized as the monstrous egos of mother and her stepfather.” — The Washington Post

Jeremy Geffen, who has been Carnegie’s top artistic administrator for 12 years, succeeds Matias Tarnopolsky, now CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra. “New York is wonderful,” said Geffen, “but it can be difficult to get people’s attention … whereas in Berkeley, I was struck by the degree to which people are aware of, and open to, great attractions.” — San Francisco Chronicle

“The blonde, saucer-eyed Broadway musical comedy star … was associated with one role — Dolly Gallagher Levi in Jerry Herman’s Hello Dolly! … Ms. Channing was said to have never missed a performance in Dolly during its first Broadway run beginning in 1964, and played the part countless other times over the years in a variety of national tours.” — Playbill

The high-pain-threshold artist, who claimed political asylum in France in May 2017, ignited the façade of the country’s central bank the following October. A court has sentenced him to time served (a year) plus a two-year suspended sentence. His ex-girlfriend, who fled with him, received a 16-month suspended sentence. The pair was also fined more than €21,000, which they say they won’t pay. — Hyperallergic

“A distinguished Wagnerian and Strauss specialist, his more than four-decade international career saw him perform on the world’s greatest stages, but it was the Bayreuth Festival that he made his artistic home.” — Limelight (Australia)

“In the unlikely chance that anyone knows who broke into my car tonight and stole my bag, please try and persuade them to at least return my script. Many weeks worth of notes and ideas. And perhaps my children’s medical cards.” – Variety

Ali, who won an Oscar for his work in the 2017 movie Moonlight and just won a Golden Globe for Green Book, had been tooling around as “the black guy” in movies for years. Then the script for Moonlight came up. Did he want to play a drug dealer? Turned out he did. – The Guardian (UK)

Glancy “was perhaps the best example in his time of a Detroit business leader who took on important civic roles.” His leadership helped bring the orchestra back from an underfunded brink in the early 1990s. – Detroit Free Press

“[Her] professionalism and perseverance in the 1970s helped a generation of women infiltrate the boys club of television news … She broke ground on topics like sex abuse in the workplace and in prison. She also reported on a diet pill that was linked to lung disease; … racism in law enforcement; and publicly funded programs that provided horrific care for disabled children.” — The New York Times

The likely answer not only opens up a new avenue for archaeology, it indicates that a highly-skilled medieval art associated with men (chiefly monks) had female practitioners as well. — The Atlantic

Mary Kay and Johnny, starring Stearns and her husband (who wrote the scripts) as a couple not unlike themselves (prefiguring such series as I Love Lucy), told comic tales of a banker and his wife — and, once Mary Kay became pregnant, their child. — The New York Times

America’s fitness-center availability tracks closely with key markers of socioeconomic class: income, education, and occupation. – CityLab

“New York art dealer Mary Boone pleaded guilty in September to filing false tax returns. Now, as she awaits sentencing — which could be up to six years in jail — her lawyers have filed a massive memo calling for leniency from the judge, citing a history of childhood trauma that has left Boone to battle mental illness and addiction.” (Gee, Officer Krupke …) — Artnet

Dani Shapiro is a writer who spent years exploring her life and identity. Then she took a home DNA test and discovered what she thought she knew about her heritage was wrong… – Washington Post

The 102-year-old actress objected to the FX series’ portrayal of her as a gossipy hypocrite who (this was very important to de Havilland) used dirty words. A California appeals court ruled against her on First Amendment grounds, and the Supreme Courts of both California and (now) the US have refused to reconsider the case. — The Hollywood Reporter

Regarded as one of the best harpsichordists of her generation, with a repertoire covering four centuries, from William Byrd through Francis Poulenc, Verlet was especially known for her performances and recordings of Bach, Scarlatti, Rameau, and, above all, Couperin. (in French; for Google Translate version, click here) — Le Figaro

“Lusk’s passing is not just the death of a great animator, but the closing of an era in American animation history. He was the last living Disney animator who had made significant contributions to the original animated features produced by Walt Disney, starting with the company’s very first feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. ” – CartoonBrew