Category: people

The Miami Herald fired dance and music critic Octavio Roca for copying some passages he wrote for a newspaper where he previously worked. “When confronted, he sought to justify his recycling by likening himself to a college professor who delivers the same lecture to different students. And he argued that, because he was repeating his own words, he hadn’t committed plagiarism, which is the theft of another’s work.” But Herald editors, standing reason on its head, dismiss Roca for commiting what… stealing opinions from himself?

Bernard-Henri Levy is a true French celebrity – a philosopher, author, journalist, filmmaker, diplomatic envoy, world traveler, political activist and all-around celebrity intellectual. “Levy’s omnipresence here reaffirms a French tradition that may seem odd in countries where philosophers don’t exactly dominate prime time. The French revere intellectual achievement and celebrate “grandeur,” a concept that combines excellence and glory. Not only do certain French authors and academics become institutions, Levy is the latest to show that they can be stars too.”

Pablo Neruda “would have turned 100 on July 12. Today he is the emblem of the engaged poet, an artist whose heart was consumed by passion — for people and politics. García Márquez called him “the greatest poet of the 20th century, in any language.” While the homage might have been overinflated, there is little doubt that Neruda is among the most enduring voices of the last, tumultuous (in his own words, “the saddest”) century.”

Marlon Brando might have been a great actor, but Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest remember his important role in defending Indian fishing rights. “The Indians who once stood in protest with Brando during Washington’s ‘Fish Wars’ of the 1960s, remembered him not as acclaimed movie star, but as a sensitive defender of civil rights. Marlon Brando was the first person of non-color to step forward to help us. Marlon Brando was ahead of his time.”

“Marlon Brando, the rebellious prodigy who electrified a generation and forever transformed the art of screen acting but whose obstinacy and eccentricity prevented him from fully realizing the promise of his early genius, died on Thursday at a Los Angeles hospital. He was 80.”

Like so many other artists dubbed “genius,” Marlon Brando was his own worst enemy, writes Stephen Hunter. He invented an entirely new way of acting that revolutionized the film industry, and yet, his interaction with the insular Hollywood world was “rebellious, beyond [narcissistic], almost countercultural,” and would be his undoing. “Death finally found Brando at 80 and he went to it sublimely, having had much experience with the ends of things: He had murdered his own career years earlier. But in the beginning, oh, boy, was he something.”

Forget all the controversy, all the self-destructive weirdness, says Ty Burr. “It’s this simple: Marlon Brando is the most important actor in the history of the movies. He broke the art of screen performance in two. Before Brando, films starred people whose work was rooted in the theater, and whose plummy diction or rat-a-tat toughness was all a marvelous put-on… That’s why Brando freaked people out at first. He crossed some inarticulate border of self-presentation that felt private, taboo.”

Rachel Moore is a former ABT dancer. Now she’s taken on running the company as its new executive direcctor. “Moore’s performing role now is to bring stability to a premier company that has seen tumult in recent years, with questions raised by former trustees about the company’s financial health, and a high turnover of executive directors. She is the fourth executive director in four years.

J. Max Bond, the architect in charge of the World Trade Center memorial, is a master of diplomacy, of bridging differences between competing artistic personalities. He is one of the most respected men in his profession. And he is African-American, astonishingly enough the first to be involved in the Ground Zero project in any way. “With the inclusion of Bond (and Richard Franklin, another African American colleague from his firm), the white male club at Ground Zero has been integrated. It is the story of Bond’s life.”

The Girl-group string quartet Bond has a new album out. “They think it’s funny to have to explain that they are virtuosos rather than vamps, a preconception that has plagued the comely classical crossover group since their debut “Born” sold more than 2 million copies in 2001.”