“[He] was a coal miner-turned-classical trumpeter who brought style, sophistication and glamour to what had previously been a Cinderella area of performance; his combination of golden, silk-like tone and a captivating personality made him the instrument’s first big star.”
Month: February 2012
Death Of A Salesman, A Play For Our Time
Charles Isherwood: “There is never a wrong time to take a fresh look at a great work of art. But … [the] current moment could hardly be more opportune for another wrenching rendezvous with Willy Loman, the American dreamer fighting a losing battle with fortune in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.“
2012 Pritzker Prize To Architect Wang Shu
“The Chinese architect Wang Shu, whose buildings in a rapidly developing China honor the past with salvaged materials even as they experiment with modern forms, has been awarded the 2012 Pritzker Architecture Prize. Mr. Wang is the first Chinese citizen to win the prize … and the fourth-youngest.”
Is There An Australian Style Of Dance?
“The [Australian Ballet’s] world premiere of Infinity tonight, featuring work by three of Australia’s most respected choreographers, Graeme Murphy, Stephen Page and Gideon Obarzanek, … gives us an opportunity to reflect on the idea of ‘Australian dance’. Does Australian dance have something recognisable in quality, style or form?”
Post-Oscars, France Celebrates Its Exception Culturelle
“For filmmakers, movie production officials and even some politicians, the haul was a clear endorsement of the so-called French cultural exception – the idea that filmmaking and other arts should be protected from the ravages of a market economy, through financial support and other means.”
Mexican Conductor Kidnapped, Held For Seven Months
“Rodolfo Cazares, a Mexican symphony conductor, was sleeping in bed with his wife in northern Mexico when masked gunmen burst into their home and shook them awake. … Seven months later, Mr. Cazares – a 36-year-old leader of the Bremerhaven city orchestra in Germany – and three other men are still missing, even after family members paid four ransoms to a presumed drug cartel.”
Erland Josephson, 88, Star Of Ingmar Bergman’s Films
“[He] was widely regarded as Bergman’s most frequent surrogate onscreen: a modern man in all his psychological and moral complexity – intelligent, lustful, self-centered, introspective and outwardly self-confident.”
Theater Producer Theodore Mann, 87, Founder Of Circle In The Square
“[As] a founder of the influential Circle in the Square, [Mann] was a driving force in the rise of Off Broadway theater in the 1950s … [and] had a hand in discovering or nurturing many stage actors who would go on to celebrated careers.”
Shepard Fairey Pleads Guilty In Criminal Case Of Obama ‘Hope’ Image
“The creator of the Barack Obama ‘HOPE’ poster pleaded guilty Friday to criminal contempt, saying he made a ‘terrible decision’ in 2009 to destroy some documents and fabricate others in a civil lawsuit pertaining to The Associated Press photograph he relied upon to make the poster.”
True Love, Nietzsche, And Groundhog Day
Clemson philosopher Todd May considers the 1993 film starring Bill Murray in the light of Nietzsche’s concept of eternal return.