Category: people

Calvin Trillin – the often-political poet who got his start in published verse with a little gem titled “If You Knew What Sununu” – does not harbor any illusions about matching up with the great poets of his or any other era. (In fact, he once penned a two-line poem on the subject: “They’ve named another poet laureate / It’s not me yet.”) But Trillin’s latest collection of doggerel debuted at #7 on the bestseller list, and while the humor of his work may have something to do with it, there’s no doubt that his liberal slant and anger at the Bush administration is feeding sales as well.

Composer John Tavener, turning 60, says his music is inspired by God. “Critics, who tend to like complexity, have accused him of attracting audiences by over-simplification. But this is, surely, to miss his point. Tavener strips away the complexity to get to what he calls the ‘essence’.”

“Frey was one of a number of California artists working in clay in the 1950’s and 60’s who turned away from that medium’s conventional refinement to produce works with robust sculptural qualities associated with Abstract Expressionist painting, Pop Art and what would come to be known as California Funk.”

Artist Steve Kurtz, who has been under investigation by the FBI for bio-terrorism, wants the government to return property confiscated during the investigation. He is being charged with “improperly obtaining biological materials for his artwork.” “Although the majority of cases in U.S. District Court end with plea agreements, Kurtz is not interested in such an outcome. ‘There’s no discussion of that. There’s been no hint of that. We’re not interested’.”

When NPR unceremoniously dumped Morning Edition host Bob Edwards a few months back, the network’s execs said that they wanted to take the program in a new direction, and were confident that listener animosity towards the decision would blow over. Now they’ll have a chance to test that theory: Edwards has signed on as the new morning host for XM Satellite Radio, with a time slot that will have him going up directly against his old show in most markets.

Jazz critic Stanley Crouch may “use his perch at the Daily News to inveigh against gangsta rap with all deliberate fury and alarm, but his habit of violent exchanges with writers and editors puts him a notch above Snoop on the ne’er-do-well scale. In most cases gangsta rap is just talk—Biggie and Tupac are the exceptions. But while Crouch has yet to peel caps, the gangsta ethos is realer for him than it is for your average gun-talker.”

Carlos Kleiber was a singular conductor. “There was, in fact, only one guiding force in his life — music — and he gave himself to it with almost supernal passion and intensity. Every concert and opera performance he conducted was a genuine event, and not simply because he conducted so seldom. His painstaking preparation, his abhorrence of routine, his fanatical musical idealism made it so. ‘Difficult’ was the word most commonly used to describe the Berlin-born Austrian conductor, who was the son of another famous conducting Kleiber, Erich.”

“For an artist said to be preoccupied with death – pickled sharks, pinned butterflies, decomposing cows’ heads – the reality of it didn’t hit Damien Hirst until 18 months ago. Shortly before Christmas 2003, his great friend Joe Strummer, former lead singer with The Clash, sat down in a chair in the kitchen of his Somerset home, near Bridgwater, and had a fatal heart attack.”

“A recent study of skeletal remains from monks that lived during the Middle Ages (476-1450 A.D.) that revealed most monks were overweight, but perhaps not entirely jolly because they suffered from conditions associated with obesity, such as arthritis.”

The brilliant career of conductor Carlos Kleiber could have been even more memorable, says Harvey Sachs, had the man been able to tolerate even the smallest error. Time management is perhaps a conductor’s most important skill, and while Kleiber was adored by his musicians, his tendency to pounce on minutiae often made it difficult for performances to gel in a larger sense. “His maniacal perfectionism and the sense of desolating frustration that overwhelmed him when his goals were not met must have had something to do with his increasing isolation.”