He “captured the promise, the harshness and the sheer beauty of California in novels like Continental Drift and Snow Mountain Passage and in nonfiction works like Farewell to Manzanar, about a World War II internment camp for the Japanese.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
After The Nightmare Comes True
Liu Yan was one of China’s very best classical dancers, and she had been given the only solo dance spot at the opening ceremonies for the 2008 Olympics. Just two weeks before the performance of a lifetime, she suffered a freak accident in rehearsal, with injuries that have left her paralyzed from the waist down.
Making Art ‘Across Barriers Few Could Imagine’
“Judith Scott couldn’t hear or speak, yet she found a language with which to describe her inner world. Hawkins Bolden couldn’t see, yet his statues stare at you with haunted eyes. And both Royal Robertson and Ike Morgan, isolated by mental illness, communicated through paintings what they couldn’t express any other way.”
Again, Some Guy Sues YouTube Because Other People Uploaded His Work
“German composer Frank Peterson has filed a lawsuit at the Higher District Court in Hamburg against Google/YouTube, claiming that his music videos and other audiovisual repertoire were used illegally.”
Barenboim Cheered In Cairo
“In a rare performance by a prominent Israeli musician in Egypt, Daniel Barenboim has received a rapturous reception at the Cairo Opera House. Mr Barenboim conducted the Cairo Symphony Orchestra playing Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.”
Maurice Druon, 90, Anglophile In The Académie Française
He became famous for writing the words to the WWII anthem “Le Chant des Partisans,” wrote such classic French historical novels as Les Rois maudits (“The Accursed Kings”), and spent two decades battling the inclusion of women in the Académie and of English words into French, even as he spoke proudly of learning his English from Winston Churchill.
Recovering Yeats The Playwright
A great poet? Sure, but “what Yeats really wanted to do was write plays.” Says Irish Rep director Charlotte Moore, “Most people have never seen a play by Yeats. And they are quite hard to do. His language is difficult, more difficult than Shakespeare. But the language is also beautiful. Every time through I hear something new.”
Lexington Phil Selects Music Director
Scott Terrell, 38 and currently resident conductor of the Charleston Symphony, takes the podium at the Kentucky orchestra beginning this June. He succeeds retiring music director George Zack, who held the position for 37 years.
Outcry In France Over Electric Chair Crucifix
“[W]e cannot deny that few things are better at getting a conversation started than a provocative piece of art – especially if it involves the use (or abuse) of a religious symbol. The latest case in point: This week, a cathedral in the French town of Gap displayed a sculpture that depicts Jesus Christ sitting in an electric chair.”
The Rapper Of Suburbia
“Whether they talk about it or not, plenty of rappers are from the suburbs, but not one has created an aesthetic around it until [Asher] Roth. […] He’s also facing a very long white shadow. Has the archetype of the white rapper mapped out by Eminem, the one-man category killer, left any room for Asher Roth?”