Category: people

“News of the death of Gómez — more commonly known by his nickname, ‘Chespirito’ — generated an outpouring of mourning. Murals began materializing in Latin American cities. A South American news anchor teared up as she delivered the news. The Peruvian congress observed a moment of silence. And the Mexican president tweeted condolences — as did such entertainers as the rock band Molotov and pop singer Paulina Rubio.”

Billionaire collector Ron Perelman “sued Gagosian and his gallery in September 2012, accusing them of concealing material information and manipulating art prices. Gagosian sued Perelman the same day, accusing him of reneging on an agreement to buy two pieces of art for more than $23 million and offering less money and other works in exchange.”

“‘I had to jump through hoops for him,’ Lily recalled. ‘I’m sure he was testing if this white girl was OK to work with.’ … ‘We had conversations that spiraled into the ozone,’ Richard recalled. ‘In minutes, we’d create enough characters to populate entire neighborhoods.'”

The gifted jazz singer – who was also a talented songwriter, arranger, author, and character actor – was tormented his entire life that he never achieved the same level of fame as Frank Sinatra. “What was it, then, that kept Tormé out of the pop-culture pantheon? Was his stylish singing caviar to the general? Or was something else at fault?”

Creativity is “an ineffable bug that takes you over but also something that you can learn. … My parents taught me that you can have a creative approach to thinking that is almost scientific. You don’t have to be at the mercy of the muse. You need your own internalized thinking process that you can perform again and again.”

“He served as artistic director of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, the Royal Swedish Ballet, and the Batsheva Dance Company in Tel Aviv, and he “won acclaim for creating or staging ballets, operas and Broadway musicals” through Europe and North America, including 19 productions at Ontario’s Stratford Festival.

“In the hills overlooking Granada, forensic archeologists buzz excitedly around a cordoned-off site. A blue tarp sits in the middle, marking the spot where they believe lies the answer to one of Spain’s great mysteries of recent times.”

“Hanifa Alizada, a photo-artist and art teacher at Kabul University, has been refused a visa to enter Canada to deliver a speech about life for Afghan women and to exhibit her work at a symposium [in Ottawa] Jan. 22-25.” No reason has been given.

“Though Obrist is often assumed to be the kind of megalomaniac who is more prominent than the artists he shows—and who is willing to crush the heterogeneity of artists’ work in order to extract coherent themes—that assumption doesn’t properly capture him.”

“They can just poke you and poke you and poke you as though it’s just fun and games and means nothing. I don’t wish to cultivate that thing so many public figures have, where you basically become numb, become a roadblock, because so many people are saying nasty things or attacking. And I just go no, no. They win if I do that. I have to stay human, so sometimes that means you react.”