His 1981 novel, about a patient of Sigmund Freud's who ended up a victim of the Holocaust, was a huge success commercially and critically (it was runner-up to Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children for the Booker Prize), and its mimicry of Freud's letters was good enough to fool Anna Freud. - The Guardian
"A Dutch art collective can release an experimental erotic film showing the French novelist Michel Houellebecq having sex with young women in spite of the author's attempt to stop its circulation, an Amsterdam court has ruled." (The project, by the way, was Houellebecq's wife's idea.) - The Guardian
A novelist and essayist who was for several years considered a likely Nobel candidate, "(she) found herself ostracized in the (newly-independent) country of Croatia for refusing to embrace its aggressive nationalism and spent the rest of her life abroad." - The New York Times
Starting in the 1970s, he overtook Alfred Deller as the world's leading male alto through his work with David Munrow's Early Music Consort of London, Christopher Hogwood's Academy of Ancient Music, and other ensembles, developing a large discography and blazing a trail for the current countertenor boom. - Gramophone
For a writer so relentlessly suspicious of the accounts we give of ourselves, and so attuned to the meager defenses we muster against self-exposure, memoir is a risky medium. - The New Republic
A rescue ship funded by British street artist Banksy was seized in Lampedusa on Sunday after Italy's coast guard said the boat had disobeyed its instructions to head to Sicily after carrying out a migrant rescue operation. - Reuters
Walter Cole made Portland grow up. He, as Darcelle, "was a progressive pioneer, winning over just about anyone he encountered, helping ease a sometimes hidebound city’s fear and stigma of gay people, cross-dressers, drag performers, and anyone who fell outside the borders of restrictive 'normalcy.'" - Oregon ArtsWatch
"His artistic breakthrough came with 'John Somebody,' a playfully inventive work for solo electric guitar with taped accompaniment, which he assembled from 1980 to 1982, and which, as performed regularly and recorded in 1986, won him considerable acclaim." - The New York Times
The actor, who recently starred in Creed II, "was arrested on Saturday in Manhattan and charged with assault and harassment after what the police in New York described as a 'domestic dispute.'" - The New York Times
The oldest son of Andrew Lloyd Webber had "a protracted battle with gastric cancer," representatives said. "We are all totally bereft," said Webber, who missed a Broadway opening to be with his son's family. - Seattle Times (AP)
“For about a month afterward, was slurring words. He had trouble typing; he was discouraged from flying for a few weeks; and until recently, he couldn’t sign his name (he has just discovered, thanks to ‘Camelot’ autograph seekers, that that’s improving). - Variety
“Scott was just so present, and then he exterminated himself,” says Dana Gioia, former California poet laureate and a friend of Timberg for many years. “Why did he do that? Because the culture was exterminating too. He just went along with what the outer world was telling him.” - Los Angeles Times
Everything about the man said London, but he spent 20 of his 46 years in Ireland, including seven years at a grim Ulster boarding school in Ulster about which he was unusually closed-mouthed. And an acquaintance from his Irish childhood was a key figure in his downfall. - Literary Hub
A UK TV crew spotted the man — who was also seen wearing a long black coat and glasses — as he took phone pics soon after news emerged that the famous street artist’s latest stencil had just been destroyed in Herne Bay in Kent. - New York Post
"The conductor Richard Bonynge ranked her among the top four sopranos of the 20th century. And according to Ms. Zeani, Maria Callas's husband, Giovanni Battista Meneghini, confided to her that she was 'one of the very few sopranos that my wife is frightened of.'" - The New York Times
