"Recognizable by her shaved head and elfin features, O'Connor began her career singing on the streets of Dublin and soon rose to international fame … but was known as much for her private struggles and provocative actions as for her fierce and expressive music." - AP
He won the prestigious Leonard Bernstein Award in 2016, has recorded several acclaimed albums (including his 2013 debut Reveries and a 2019 performance of Mozart’s horn concertos with the Camerata Salzburg); and had a two-year residency with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. - The Guardian
"Kevin Spacey was acquitted of sexual assault on Wednesday after the Oscar winner’s star turn as a witness in his own defense spared him a possible prison term and gave him a shot at a career comeback." The verdict arrived on his 64th birthday. - AP
To be able to make creativity and invention sound “natural,” one needs an avid, almost greedy urge to absorb anything—and everything—that is out there. - The Nation
"The new monument will be established across three locations in Illinois and Mississippi in an effort to protect places that tell Till's story, as well as reflect the activism of his mother, who was instrumental in keeping the story of Till's murder alive." - NPR
After a half century Ms. Ono has moved out of New York City to the sprawling Catskills farm she bought with Mr. Lennon in 1978. For many, it signals that yet another link to old New York — the one filled with grit and glamour, run by artists and musicians — is missing. - The New York Times
Traditionally, the model for dealers has been to bet on raw talents, and support these artists until work by some of them sells well enough to cover the bets made on all the others. Under the mega-gallery model that Gagosian pioneered, the top dealers don’t even bother with nascent artists. - The New Yorker
"A longtime resident of Paris, Chaplin did most of her acting in French features, among them Nuits rouges (1974) and À l’ombre d’un été (1976). According to IMDb, her last credit came in the 1994 film Ciudad Baja, starring Mike Connors." - The Hollywood Reporter
Donato "was in the coterie of Rio de Janeiro musicians — among them Antonio Carlos Jobim, João Gilberto and the guitarist Luiz Bonfá — who developed the subtle swing and harmonic sophistication of bossa nova in the mid-1950s. But Mr. Donato didn’t confine himself to any genre." - The New York Times
"Few entertainers have had such a remarkable second act. He had his first top-selling hit in 1951 with 'Because of You,' then topped the charts again more than 60 years later, collaborating with Lady Gaga to become the oldest person ever to have a No. 1 album." - MSN (The Washington Post)
"(His) fresh ideas about the human will were overshadowed in the broader culture by his analysis of a kind of dishonesty that he found worse than lying — an analysis presented in a bluntly titled surprise best seller, On Bullshit." - The New York Times
"Thousands of people knew Harriet Rosenfeld Choice by the words she wrote for this newspaper, decades worth of her enthusiastic and influential coverage of the jazz scene, which compelled her to be one of the founders in 1969 of the Jazz Institute of Chicago." - MSN (Chicago Tribune)
Someone has dug out a 2005 interview on NPR's All Things Considered. Host: "We assume that you are who you say you are, but how can we be sure?" Banksy(?): "Oh, you have no guarantee of that at all — this could be a better prankster than I was." - CNN
"Derek defined himself as a reviewer rather than a critic, having started when more judgmental figures were leaving the arena. Among many choice anecdotes, he recalled that one of his predecessors on The Guardian ... was fired for dismissing The Sound of Music in a one-word review: 'No'." - The Guardian
Birkin "helped define chic female sexuality of the 1970s as an actress in arty and erotic European movies and in her relationship — equal parts romantic and artistic — with the singer Serge Gainsbourg." (Later came the Birkin Bag.) - The New York Times
