Category: people

“He was always funnier than he was given credit for; now he has honed his deadpan to such perfection that every questioner becomes the straight man in a double act. … He still resists explaining [his songs] and his relentlessly dry self-deprecation works as a very effective, very entertaining shield.”

“As a choreographer, Mr. Ford was drawn to political and cultural themes. His work, rooted in ballet, jazz and modern dance, paid homage to figures as disparate as Rod Rodgers … and Mumia Abu-Jamal.”

Every year for decades, on Poe’s birthday, an unknown man would leave three roses and half a bottle of cognac on the author’s Baltimore grave. But the “Poe Toaster” hasn’t turned up since 2009, and aficionados are about to declare the tradition over.

“The author, who was famous for demanding control over every detail of his work while living, is still in control. In a sense, J.D. Salinger has been able to cheat death because – in the continued absence of his unpublished manuscripts – he has managed to deny us the ability to measure the second half of his life and to determine his full impact upon literature.”

“In 1947, Vogue magazine sent Rosamond Bernier to Paris to cover European cultural life as it recovered after World War II. She met everyone who was anybody — Pablo Picasso befriended her, Henri Matisse wooed her, Alice B. Toklas baked for her.” And Aaron Copland gave her away at her wedding.

“The Daily Telegraph has paid a British composer a five-figure sum after wrongly reporting that his magistrates court trial for assault was continuing.”

“Pauline Kael thrived on a prickly, combative relationship with her editor; Gilliatt operated more like a bird under Shawn’s protective wing. Kael became, and still remains, the most famous film critic in America not named Roger Ebert. Gilliatt, on the other hand, was undone by scandal and faded into obscurity, where she remains nearly 20 years after her death.”

Artists and twin sisters Jane and Louise Wilson do what it takes for their art. “Last year, when they were refused permission to film within the Dubai hotel where the Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh was assassinated in January 2010, it occurred to them they could solve the problem more directly. A member of their crew simply booked a night in the room.”

Was Pablo Neruda murdered, as his bodyguard believes? “While Neruda’s widow and his own foundation have rejected the theory, its resurgence nearly 40 years later reflects the suspicions haunting this nation of 17 million that the full story behind the coup and the dictatorship remains untold.”

Doug Wheeler “has said no to major museum exhibitions, because of his doubts that the works would be shown in the way they were intended. In a career of more than four decades he has never had a full-time American gallery represent him except for a brief, troubled turn with the Los Angeles dealer Doug Chrismas. He even once turned down Leo Castelli.”