“The problems at the Barnes were so obvious,” he told The New York Times in 1993, “Ray Charles could see them in a swamp at midnight.” - The New York Times
Robert Kimball, a musical theater historian and champion of American popular song who unearthed hundreds of pieces long thought to be lost and helped rediscover the work of the seminal Black Broadway songwriting team of Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. - The New York Times
Wallace was "a self-proclaimed radical historian whose magisterial, unvarnished biography of New York, Gotham, written with Edwin G. Burrows, won the Pulitzer Prize and inspired two more door-stopper volumes about the city.” - The New York Times
She’s from the US, but her family (like a whole lot of people in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and other diaspora landing spots) also claim Ireland. - Irish Times
“(He) often acted as a kind of Indiana Jones of song, as when he helped excavate a treasure trove of manuscripts by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and others that was found in a warehouse in Secaucus, N.J., in 1982. The hoard dated back to the advent of sound pictures.” - The New York Times
The four-time Emmy nominee, who received an honorary Oscar in 2022, says he was diagnosed with the disease three years ago. His 80th birthday is later this month. - AP
“Dunn appeared in more than 650 performances at the Metropolitan Opera, where she became one of the company’s leading dramatic mezzos. Although she portrayed a wide range of roles, she was most closely associated with Bizet’s Carmen, which she (sang) more than 400 times in opera houses around the world.” - Moto Perpetuo
“My problem arose when I discovered Duolingo’s competitive aspect, when I learned that it is essentially a game. ... This means forgoing any real learning, and earning easy points by simply reading sentences out loud.” An excerpt from his latest book, The Land and Its People. - The Guardian
My latest column, about the Ojai Music Festival, is my last. Although the musical scene exhilarates me more than ever — contemporary composition is eternally vital — I wouldn’t want to overstay my welcome. - The Rest is Noise
“A three-judge panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal unanimously issued the decision, saying his trial judge did not violate the former movie magnate’s constitutional rights. … The decision came a day after prosecutors in New York decided Weinstein would not face a fourth trial there.” - AP
“‘It’s as if Edward Hopper had taken up songwriting,’ the comic artist Chris Ware wrote in The Believer magazine in 2009. ‘For lack of a better word, it’s poetry.’” - The New York Times
“Blyth was just 17 when she made Mildred Pierce, based on James M. Cain’s hard-boiled 1941 novel. She had begun her movie career in innocent-teen roles, and played sharply against type as the coddled, conceited Veda Pierce.” - The New York Times
“An intense and impeccably dressed former social worker with hardscrabble West Virginia roots who was blessed with a silken baritone, Mr. Brown acknowledged that he made programming decisions ‘on the basis of one thing — will it help Black people?’” - The New York Times
“I wanted to keep the party going. I wanted to keep the happiness and joy and explosions of laughter going into a dour part of our lives, not our childhood anymore,” Brooks recalled. “ - AP News
