"Knaifel was one of the most prominent Russian composers of his generation, both at home and in the West. He played a key role in redefining Russian contemporary music after the fall of the Soviet Union, bringing religious themes to the fore and pioneering a radical minimalist aesthetic of contemplation." - Gramophone
Andrea Munro yesterday wrote an essay for the Toronto Star detailing the abuse, her mother’s response, the ways her father (owner of Munro’s Books in Victoria) treated her, and the legal case she brought against her stepfather, who was found guilty. - The New York Times
Azara was “a sculptor who evoked ancient feminine imagery in her carved and painted wood pieces, ... who in 1979 was a founder of the New York Feminist Art Institute, a school run by and for women artists.” - The New York Times
Once a promising teenage soccer player, Pål Enger decided he was a better criminal than athlete and began a career of art and jewelry thefts interspersed with prison sentences. On opening day of the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Enger took Munch's Scream from Norway's National Gallery in Oslo. - AP
"Hadi Matar was charged with second-degree attempted murder and assault in connection with the attack. He has pleaded not guilty. … The deal required a guilty plea to ... second-degree attempted murder for a sentence of 20 years" followed by 10 to 20 years in a federal prison on terrorism charges. - ABC News
He was also an Oscar nominee for Shampoo (starring Warren Beatty), The Last Detail, and Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, and he both wrote and directed four features, including Tequila Sunrise. He was also popular as an uncredited script doctor, contributing to, among other films, The Godfather. - CNN
Albania's most famous author both domestically and abroad, Kadare won numerous awards (including the very first International Booker Prize) and was a perennial candidate for the Nobel. "He leaves a body of work as immense as Balzac’s, as unrelenting in its critique of dictatorship as Orwell’s." - The Guardian
Mull, who was also a singer-songwriter, rose to fame in the 1970s on Norman Lear’s satirical soap opera “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” and its spinoffs, “Fernwood 2 Night” and “America 2-Night.” - Los Angeles Times
"When Daniel Day-Lewis read the name of Kathy Bates, there was some surprise in the Shrine Civic Auditorium. In the 1990 race to win the Oscar for Best Actress ... Bates was a virtual unknown. What’s more, she was nominated for playing a villain in a horror movie.” - El Pais
Though his publishing house has a massive influence, his histories of Paris may be more lasting. “Hazan’s passion derived in part from his despair over the disappearance of the old working- and middle-class Paris under a vast tide of tourism, gentrification and ostentatious wealth.” - The New York Times
“Murphy has been so famous for so long, occupying such a lofty place in the cultural landscape, that it can be easy to overlook just how game-changing a figure he actually is.” - The New York Times
Mull, who died Thursday at age 80, "was a comfortingly disquieting presence -- deceptively normal, even bland, but with a spark of evil” in many of his most famous characters, ranging from Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman up to Sabrina the Teenage Witch. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo News)
Kehinde Wiley’s accusers have responded to concerns raised by the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) regarding museums’ decisions to rescind exhibitions of the artist’s work in the wake of sexual assault allegations. - Hyperallergic
"(Testing revealed that) the levels of arsenic and mercury in Beethoven’s hair were slightly elevated. The lead levels, on the other hand, were a startling 64 to 95 times higher than the hair of someone today." - NPR
"'The Kinkster,' as he sometimes called himself, brought an outlaw spirit and vaudeville showmanship to politics, books and music, pushing the bounds of good taste while chomping on a cigar and donning a black cowboy hat — an accessory that barely concealed the curly dark hair that inspired his nickname." - The Washington Post (MSN)
