Jack Fritscher: “We became bi-coastal lovers for more than two years and remained friends for ever. We fricated our edginess together. We were both re-quivering Catholics mixing the sacred and the profane. … It was sex, love, art, letters, phone calls and business. It was life.”
Category: people
‘I’m Judgy McJudgerson’ – Audra McDonald Can’t Give Herself A Break
“Over dinner one evening, she tears up talking about [her six Tony Awards], as if she had gotten them fraudulently. … So vigilant is she about not seeming grand or entitled that you can’t help wondering what phantoms she’s boxing.”
Naná Vasconcelos, Brazil’s Great Percussionist, Dead At 71
“A master of the berimbau, a single-string, multi-toned Afro-Brazilian instrument, he is best known for collaborations with Brazilians Milton Nascimento and Egberto Gismonti, Argentine Gato Barbieri and Americans Don Cherry and Pat Metheny.”
If It’s Not Difficult, Brian Dennehy Won’t Do It
“I’m only interested in doing stuff that’s hard to do, that’s challenging, and as a result pays off or blows up in your face.”
Mikhail Baryshnikov On Putting His Friendship With Joseph Brodsky Onstage
“I almost never directly connect to the audience. It is like someone reciting poetry for his own enjoyment, like people sing in the shower. I’m trying to remember his voice, his mannerisms. Sometimes I imitate him. And suddenly the tape starts with Joseph’s own voice. His presence is what those poems are about.”
Inside The Battle For Picasso’s Multi-Billion-Dollar Estate
When Picasso died, 43 years ago at the age of 91, he left an astounding number of works—more than 45,000 in all. (“We’d have to rent the Empire State Building to house all the works,” Claude Picasso said when the inventory was completed.) Picasso did not leave a will.
When Shakespeare’s Father Saved Paintings From Henry VIII
“William Shakespeare’s father has been credited with saving priceless paintings that were hidden in an historic chapel in Stratford-upon-Avon. John Shakespeare was Bailiff of the town during the Reformation under King Henry VIII, and was ordered to remove them from the Guild Chapel.” (video)
The Cross-Dressing Nobleman Who May Have Been Shakespeare’s Lover
“Little is known about the pair’s friendship, but it has been speculated that they had an affair during 1592 and 1593, when Shakespeare left a plague-ravaged London and began writing longform poetry and sonnets.”
When (Women) Actors Age Onscreen
“I’ve gathered strength behind my years, I owned them, I’ve earned them, I’ve deserved them, I have a right to have them. And I don’t like my neck, I don’t like a lot of things but it’s OK, it’s OK.”
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Great Pioneer Of The Period-Instrument Revival, Dead At 86
“In 1953, he founded the Concentus Musicus Wien as a platform for his work on Renaissance and baroque music, using period instruments – many of which he had to buy at his own expense – to counteract ‘stultifying, aesthetically sanitized music-making.'” The group went on to make history with recordings of Bach’s complete sacred works and a legendary cycle of Monteverdi’s operas. Despite controversy over some musical quirks, Harnoncourt went on to become one of the most influential conductors of the late 20th century.