Category: people

Said former Nelson-Atkins Museum director Marc Wilson, “He became the No. 1 purveyor of things Asian, especially objects, in the Western world. When it came to objects, he was unbeatable.”

“But who is James Corden? Well, he’s a Tony winner, for starters; he’s the Baker in Into the Woods; he’s in Begin Again with Keira Knightley; and he’s pretty damn famous in the U.K. But he’s not a household name in the U.S. – yet. Here’s your quick and easy guide to Corden’s career so far.”

“As the sixties progressed, the feelings she displayed – pain, lacerating anger, the desire to burn down whole cities in revenge – made her seem at times emotionally disturbed and at other times simply the most honest black woman in America.”

Fans of the bestselling author/public radio legend will know that he is obsessed with picking up the litter along the roadsides near his West Sussex home. Now the local council has honored him in the most fitting way possible.

“Richard Mangino, a quadruple amputee, became the world’s first successful double hand transplant case at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. … Now Mangino, a musician and painter who lost his lower arms and legs to an infection in 2002, has gained enough sensation in his fingers to draw as well as play music.” (includes video)

Possibly the most brilliant, and surely the funniest, on-air fundraiser public radio has ever had, Post was (in the words of a WNYC executive) “a world-class curmudgeon whose irreverence and iconoclasm have entertained audiences and appalled radio station managers for four decades.”

Here’s one of the most respected American periodicals posting a picture of a somber-faced Sonny with a piece “in his own words,” rhapsodizing about how he hates music and he’s wasted his life. Where’s the humor in that?

“[Dante] created such a compelling portrait of undying love that [they] went down in Western cultural history … They have inspired symphonic tone poems by Tchaikovsky and others, paintings by artists such as everyone from Botticelli to Ingres to Dante Gabriel Rosetti, no fewer than three sculptures by Rodin, including his famous The Kiss – and more than 18 operas.”

Nelson Pressley has scoured the Great Man’s writings and interviews to provide “a primer on some of the talismans, techniques and tallies.” Favorite tool? Clement Wood’s rhyming dictionary. Favorite therapy for bad reviews? Slonimsky’s Lexicon of Musical Invective. Favorite of his own shows? (You’ll have to click through for that one.)

“If you gaze into Werner Herzog talking about Werner Herzog for long enough, does Werner Herzog gaze back into you?”