“In 1971, the Met booked her for four art lectures. Audiences were enthralled. She became one of the hottest tickets in town.” And that was just the beginning.
Category: people
‘The Master Of Space And Time,’ Rocker Leon Russell, Dead At 74
After starting his career as a much-in-demand session pianist (he put together Joe Cocker’s US band), he spent the ’70s as a rockabilly star in his own right. (Elton John was once his opening act.) “He wore a cocked top hat, and with salt-and-pepper hair past his shoulders and a beard that reached his chest, created an inscrutable image that was equal parts shaman, tent revival preacher and cosmic ringmaster.”
‘The Most Beautiful Man I Have Ever Known’: Leon Wieseltier Remembers His Friend Leonard Cohen
“Leonard had an unusual inflection for darkness: He found in it an occasion for uplift. His work is animated by a laudatory impulse, an unexpected and profoundly moving hunger to praise the world in full view of it. His attitude of acceptance was not founded on anything as cheap as happiness.”
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Opera Debut At The Kennedy Center
The Supreme Court justice made her official opera debut on Saturday night at the Kennedy Center — after a scattering of supernumerary roles in the past — as the Duchess of Krakenthorp, a small spoken part.
Singer Regina Spektor Says The Only Reason She’s Jewish – And An Artist – Is Anti-Semitism
The singer: “The only reason I’m Jewish is probably antisemitism. Think about Soviet Russia – religion is illegal. So there’s no cultural Judaism, no tradition. The only thing that made Jewish people marry other Jews is that they didn’t want to be called ‘kikes’. They knew they wouldn’t hear the word ‘zhid’ come out of their husband’s face when they had their first marital fight. So it’s the only reason a lot of us exist.”
Robert Vaughn Was Known Best For ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ But His Acting Range Was Wider And Stronger Than That
The almost-84-year-old, who most recently starred in the BBC series “Hustle,” died on Friday. “He could play the silliest stuff without it leaving a mark on him. His performance took the edge off the bad writing and filled up the good.”
From Internment Camps To Star Trek To Marriage Equality: George Takei’s Museum
The Japanese American National Museum isn’t really Takei’s museum, but he’s donated “300 linear feet of banker’s boxes” worth of relics from his eight decades of life as an actor and activist.
Can’t Stop Paying Attention To Your Phone? There’s A Reason For That – It’s Called “Design”
You might just think it’s your failure of attention. But that itch to glance at our phone is a natural reaction to apps and websites engineered to get us scrolling as frequently as possible. The attention economy, which showers profits on companies that seize our focus, has kicked off what Tristan Harris calls a “race to the bottom of the brain stem.”
Leonard Cohen’s Last Interview (With David Remnick): “I’m Ready To Die”
“He was already suffering from a number of health problems. “At a certain point, if you still have your marbles and are not faced with serious financial challenges, you have a chance to put your house in order. It’s a cliché, but it’s underestimated as an analgesic on all levels. Putting your house in order, if you can do it, is one of the most comforting activities, and the benefits of it are incalculable.”
Leonard Cohen, Singer/Songwriter And Poet, Dead At 82
Though he never had a song in the Top 40, “[his] intensely personal lyrics exploring themes of love, faith, death and philosophical longing made him the ultimate cult artist, and [his] enigmatic song ‘Hallelujah’ became a celebratory anthem recorded by hundreds of artists.”