Category: people

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra music director Miguel Harth-Bedoya ran afoul of strict — some say ridiculous — security procedures imposed back in January by Performing Arts Fort Worth Inc., the organization that owns and runs Bass Hall.  The rules forbid any bags or purses larger than 12 by 4 by 12 inches. Luggage, backpacks and shopping bags are not allowed, and bags or purses larger than 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 inches must be inspected. Ushers and security personnel have been scrutinizing arriving audience members and inspecting larger bags.

“Like Mark Twain, David Letterman distinguished himself as a cockeyed, deadpan observer of American behavior and, later in life, for his prodigious and distinctive facial hair. Now the two satirists share a further connection … He will officially receive the prize in a ceremony that will be held [at the Kennedy Center] on Oct. 22 and broadcast at a later date.”

Founder and longtime director of the DanceAfrica festival in Brooklyn and the African American Dance Ensemble in Durham, NC, Davis “was known both for his re-creations of traditional dances from throughout the African world and for his contemporary choreographed pieces that fused African traditions with modern dance.”

Coupland gave Gen X its name and identified what are still seen as its signal traits: cynicism; irony; a melancholic sense of having been sidelined by the major forces in social history; and, above all, a mistrust of corporate culture in all its forms. (One of the novel’s chapters is titled “I Am Not a Target Market.”) “We live small lives on the periphery,” the novel’s narrator explains; “we are marginalized and there’s a great deal in which we choose not to participate.” On a revisit nothing stands out quite so painfully as the book’s ambient self-pity and whininess.

“The plaintiff, Alex Kaseberg, claimed in a lawsuit filed in July 2015 that writers from Conan … lifted five monologue jokes from his blog over the course of more than a year. … Judge Janis Sammartino on Friday dismissed the claims for two of the jokes, but said Mr. O’Brien must face the allegations for the other three.”

“[He] lent his burly frame and Texas drawl to numerous TV series beginning in the late 1970s. In addition to the acclaimed HBO series Deadwood, he was seen on shows including Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nashville and 24, on which he played the vice president of the United States. Among the movies in which he appeared were Red Dawn (1984) … Oliver Stone’s Nixon (1995), in which he played Alexander Haig. He won an Emmy in 1980 … for his performance as the leader of the Jonestown cult in the mini-series Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones.”

Having come through what can only be described as a midlife crisis, she is getting ready to find solace not through any of the traditional remedies (sports car, younger paramour, dangerous hobby), but with a new city — New Orleans, which she now describes as “the great love of my life that I just didn’t know about.”

Octavia Bürgel: “My mother, the art world, and I function as an ever-evolving trio, and while my mother and I each require the other two to sustain, I cannot say that the art world has needed me for anything.”

Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who has been president of the board during the Oscars So White years, is not seeking reelection to the board. Oh, and in other news, Netflix’s chief content officer would very much like one of the seats on the board.

Yoga and hypnosis didn’t work, so he went for something different. Why? “Grant spent his life as a creature in flight. His mercurial nature was the making of him – a peculiarly Gatsby-esque urge that allowed a Bristol street urchin named Archie Leach to reimagine himself as an American prince, the embodiment of Hollywood grace and glamour.”