Category: people

“Now I loathe and despise the media in a way I did not think possible. I used to engage with the media knowing that some of it would be adversarial, but now it’s superfluous at best and toxic at its worst.”

“The show was initially going to be just about all the dog contests Major was entered in – including the one where he wins biggest ears in a show in south-east England – until Melody started to feel a growing sense of guilt. If she was going to force him to compete, and subject him to a judging panel, shouldn’t she put herself through a similar experience?”

The new Elaine Stritch documentary “raises familiar questions about career longevity and the innate compulsion to create.”

“Her willingness to back the visions of directors such as Anderson, Jonze and Bigelow could even be said to put a 21st-century spin on the sort of cultural patronage practised in Renaissance Italy by the Medici family.”

“The money is heading toward smaller bookstores, which are under pressure from competitors like Amazon and e-books. Patterson’s own books are big sellers everywhere — he doesn’t depend on small bookstores to succeed. But his giveaway is driven by a broader concern.”

The balaclava-clad Russian rockers were just starting a protest song in front of an administrative building in downtown Sochi when members of a Cossack militia (brought into town as extra security for the Winter Olympics) attacked them with whips and pepper spray. The song: “Putin Will Teach You How to Love the Motherland”. (includes photos and video)

In December the author sued a small museum in her Alabama hometown, accusing it of profiting from her intellectual property without compensating her. It was the second lawsuit Lee had filed within six months.

“Humor is a great boom-boom against tough stuff. Make ’em laugh, make ’em laugh, make ’em laugh. I’ve been dependent on it, maybe too much so, all through my life. And I think sadness can also help. Whatever helps, grab it and run.”

A good day on Twitter for him is when he can discover “a new structure” that he can use over and over. “I guess I want to see myself as an aphorist,” Jarosinski said. “And not even a Twitter aphorist. I think we need to reestablish that as a profession.”

Dudamel “rejects calls to make a political statement, saying it would not be in the spirit of El Sistema, a foundation of the government serving more than 500,000 school children and probably its most popular program. It is not a political institution, Dudamel said. It belongs to no one party or group but the entire citizenry, and he said he will do everything in his power to keep it out of politics.”