Category: people

J. Michael Diehl: “My relationship with Trump began in 1989, when he asked me to supply several grand and upright pianos to his then-new Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City. I’d been running a music store for more than 30 years at that point, selling instruments to local schools and residents. My business was very much a family affair (my grandsons still run the store). And I had a great relationship with my customers – no one had ever failed to pay.”

“Their ages are already very public and easy to find. The law is designed for the working performer… who wanted the opportunity to be able just to be seen for the first time or to be able to go into a room when they’re not known and be able to show their work and not have the subconscious bias of their age being the deciding factor of whether they should be able to come in that room or not for an audition.”

“All I can say is that after Emancipation, when the slaves were freed, there was Reconstruction, which was essentially a lot of blowback. So, after Obama’s eight years, there’s serious blowback. People in America are often encouraged not to think. The basis of politics is to heighten their fears and make them buy something. But, you know, y’all just had Brexit. We were like ‘Whaay! We’re not the only stupid ones!'”

“With his 1963 film Blood Feast, Lewis is widely credited with pioneering the splatter genre, despite it being considered ‘an insult even to the most puerile and salacious of audiences’ in a Variety review. A later critique described it as ‘one of the important releases in film history, ushering in a new acceptance of explicit violence that was obviously just waiting to be exploited’.”

The LA Philharmonic conductor was at lunch at the White House last week and the Marine band played. He was impressed. One thing led to another and…

“There is no dispute about the basic facts of the trial of Socrates. It is less obvious why Athenians found Socrates guilty, and what it might mean today. People who believe in both democracy and the rule of law ought to be very interested in this trial. If the takeaway is either that democracy, as direct self-government by the people, is fatally prone to repress dissent, or that those who dissent against democracy must be regarded as oligarchic traitors, then we are left with a grim choice between democracy and intellectual freedom.”

“[Marc Anwar joined the cast of Coronation Street] as Sharif Nazir in February 2014 as a member of the first Muslim family on the cobbles. The Sunday Mirror published screenshots of messages posted on his private Twitter account that appeared to hit out at India over Kashmir … They also referred to Indian people as [redacted].”

“His is a story of why endurance and persistence are essential in the music business – even if your career seems only to consist of blind alleys at the start.”

“Dural took up the accordion in 1978 and founded Buckwheat Zydeco a year later. In 30 years of touring and recording he took zydeco to unexpected physical and musical places. From his take on Bob Dylan’s ‘A Night Like This’ for Australian TV in the ’80s, to ‘Hey Joe’ on David Letterman’s Late Show in the ’90s, to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in May, Dural was a welcoming presence who made his audiences happy.”