The term “prodigy” rarely applies to set designers, but Mr. Conklin’s instincts were on full display in his youth. Growing up in Hartford, Conn., he attended symphonies and operas with his family, and by the age of 10 he was building his own models, based on photographs he found perusing the magazine Opera News. - The New York Times
“What has been labeled the ‘bible of the racist right’ has influenced American culture in a way only fiction can. … There is no exaggeration in saying that The Turner Diaries and books like it have played a part in spreading hateful ideas that now even influence government policy.” - The Atlantic (MSN)
Film director Joe Dante had owned the piece since 1984, when a person was clearing out a section of the Paramount Pictures film lot that had once been owned by RKO, the defunct studio which produced "Citizen Kane." - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
In gaps between jobs, an assortment of artists, coders and labourers played policemen, caterers and journalists. As one of the extras playing a journalist, I could draw on personal experience. - The Observer (UK)
Following steep drops in donations and especially government funding, the company has called off all performances of Puccini’s Girl of the Golden West this fall. It was to be the only traditionally presented staging of the coming season; the remaining productions are of unconventional repertoire. - Detroit Free Press
The tragedy of the contemporary academy is that even when traditional liberal learning clearly wins with students and donors, it loses with those in power. - The New York Times
“The annual $100,000 prize for fiction ended its 20-year partnership with lead sponsor Scotiabank earlier this year. At that time, Giller Foundation executive director Elana Rabinovitch did not comment on the financial effect the loss of the lead sponsor would have on the prize’s future.” - Quill & Quire
Nicholas McCarthy, a 35-year-old Briton who was born without a right hand, has not only conquered the well-known works such as the Ravel concerto, he has commissioned new pieces for piano one-hand and revived little-known pieces from a repertoire that number more than 3,000 scores. - The New York Times
“The three-hour performance (at the Avignon Festival) has been created by Milo Rau, the Swiss director and playwright acclaimed for his theatre interpretations of court proceedings, including the Moscow trial of the Russian punks Pussy Riot and the trial of the Romanian despot Nicolae Ceaușescu.” - The Guardian
“(He) evolved from a conservative, high-profile member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints into an outspoken atheist and liberal, all while using his pen to skewer presidents and the powerful.” (He liked to describe himself as an “editorial harpoonist.”) - The Washington Post (MSN)
Since the 1970s, Allen has written several books of short stories and essays, as well as a memoir, Apropos of Nothing, published in 2020, but this is his first novel. What’s With Baum, to be released later this year by Swift Press, is about a middle-aged Jewish journalist-turned-novelist ‘consumed with anxiety about everything under the sun.” - The Guardian
The bill reclaims the entire $1.1 billion previously appropriated for the next two years for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The CPB distributes two-thirds of its funding to over 1,500 local public radio and TV stations, with most of the rest going to NPR and PBS to support national programming. - AP
The cancellation, effective next May, of US late-night TV’s highest-rated program comes as CBS’s corporate parent, Paramount Global, seeks FCC approval of an $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media. Colbert has long been a strong and high-profile critic of Donald Trump, including in his monologues on The Late Show. - CNN
Wisconsin Dance Theatre, based in the southern part of the state between Milwaukee and Madison, just opened its debut production — A Hero’s Homecoming, a World War II story which artistic director Samuel Huberty believes is more resonant with today's audience than are classic story ballets about royalty and the supernatural. - Wisconsin Public Radio
