“[He] became an instantly recognizable supporting player for more than half a century on stage, television and film. With a balding pate and articulate style, he was often cast in well-educated or avuncular roles” – most famously the wealthy white New Yorker who adopts two Harlem kids in the sitcom Diff’rent Strokes.
Month: January 2013
Why Dustin Hoffman Won’t Carry A Gun Onscreen
“I’ve always trusted that what I think is funny they will laugh at, what I think is moving will move them, what feels … interesting, they will find interesting. I don’t find anything interesting about a gun. A gun is there to threaten or kill. … A gun is rarely used in film in a way that feels like … life.”
What We Fear, And What We Should Fear
“People tend to worry too much about things that it doesn’t do any good to worry about, and not to worry enough about things we should be worrying about. … it may sound comforting to say that ‘the only thing we need to worry about is worry itself’ … but anybody who has lived through Chernobyl or Fukushima knows otherwise.”
Abraham Lincoln And The Rhetorical Power Of ‘Not’
“This is not to say that Lincoln was a naysayer or negative thinker, but rather that he demonstrated an acute understanding of the power of negation in language and was unusually adept at putting that force to use.”
The Pride And Prejudice Dance Revival
“There are around 10 Regency-specific balls per year in the UK – and more across America.” Eric Barthe, creator of events website balltrotter.com, says that “almost every town the UK has a small Regency dancing society.”
Video Games Take Off As Spectator Sport
“Professional gaming, or e-sports, exploded in popularity in the US and Europe last year. The scene has been big in Asia – particularly South Korea – for about a decade, with top players … earning six-figure salaries and competing for rock-star glory in Starcraft tournaments that attract audiences in the hundreds of thousands.
England To Review All Opera Funding In Light Of ENO’s Money Crisis
“ENO’s problems will intensify debate about how to share out increasingly scarce resources among the arts in England. Opera accounts for 11% of Arts Council England’s total investment, a slice of the cake that its detractors see as unfairly large, though its defenders argue that opera is by its nature a large-scale art form, and concomitantly expensive. ”
Bass-Baritone John Carol Case, 89
“He first came to notice in 1948 when he sang in Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols under the composer’s direction” and went on to become one of RVW’s most frequent collaborators.
US National Book Awards To Select Semifinalists For First Time
“In an effort to broaden the reach and impact of the National Book Awards, the National Book Foundation will select a longlist of 10 titles in each of its four categories (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people’s literature), beginning in 2013. The longlist (10 titles per category) will be announced five weeks before the finalists (five titles per category) announcement.”
Seeing Royal Ballet Dancers In A New Light
“Now Is All There Is – Bodies in Motion, a series of 34 images created over the past two years, captures the astonishing poise and expression of the dancers’ bodies away from their workaday environment at the Royal Opera House.”