Category: people

For 50 years, the Pirelli Calendar has been an “arty soft-core ode to pinups produced by the Italian tire manufacturer, shot by renowned photographers, starring supermodels, and never sold but given to an exclusive group of 20,000 VIPs, musicians, politicians and royalty.’ … But that was then.

“One aspires to the suaveness of George Clooney or the intensity of Daniel Day-Lewis, and perhaps enjoys their movies, but no one buys the T-shirt. There are murals of Bill Murray that decorate the interiors of bars from Toronto to Sydney, and tattoos of the actor’s face inked onto the arms and calves of 20- and 30-somethings. Tumblr blogs celebrate his awesomeness. It’s clear that he has come to symbolize something. But what, exactly?”

“In brief, the young and promising Cuban-American artist fell to her death in September 1985 from the 34th-floor window of her Greenwich Village apartment; her newlywed husband, legendary sculptor Carl Andre, was indicted, tried and eventually acquitted of her murder. His defense attorney argued, among other points, that Mendieta had committed ‘sub-intentional suicide.’ … Ana Mendieta’s backstory is, finally, being overshadowed by her growing artistic legacy. It may have taken the art establishment years to find her work, but once it did, the response was what Mendieta seems to inspire, generally: devotion, even obsession.

“Their glamour onstage and on screen stirred audiences during the turmoil at the birth of modern China, nearly 70 years ago. When the Communists took over, these actresses concealed their affection for Ingrid Bergman and Bette Davis, tucked away their love of fashion and steered their careers toward movies that promoted proletarian values.”

Scott Timberg: “A sudden, unexplained announcement of just about anything involving Pynchon makes more sense than the equivalent involving almost any other writer. The most obvious reason is because Pynchon is a recluse: The details of his life are better known today … but for a long time, even Pynchon zealots were not quite sure where he was. … The Internet’s combination of mystery and conspiratorial nonsense makes it the perfect vehicle for puzzling news about the writer.”

“Paata Burchuladze, a world-renowned operatic bass and in Georgia also known for his charity foundation Iavnana (‘Lullaby’), on Friday announced that he has cancelled all opera performances for the next year to develop an organization he founded last year called Georgian Development Fund, which many believe may turn into a political party.”

“With money from the W.P.A., he helped found the South Side Community Art Center in Chicago, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year.”

“Blake also claimed he encountered Satan on the staircase of his South Molton Street home in London.”

“Not long after working with Ozu on his penultimate film, ‘The End of Summer’ (1961), she left the cinema abruptly, implying, in her final news conference, that she had acted in films only to help support her large extended family. She lived the rest of her life in seclusion in Kamakura.”

“You would never expect to find a banjo in a hip-hop band, but ‘The Room Where it Happens’ just cried for it. That to me is probably my single greatest idea in the whole show, only because it’s so quirky and is so of the style of the music. It’s so Kander and Ebb-y, Dixieland, so I just sat down to orchestrate it, and I’m thinking to myself, ‘What can the guitar do?’ And literally in a flash of light, I’m like, ‘Oh my god, it could be a banjo!'”