Category: people

The 26-year-old conductor has “both the earnest demeanor of youth and the distinguished manner of an established maestro. In fact, if any comparisons are to be made, it should be with Simon Rattle, … who discovered Ticciati, then a teenage timpanist and violinist in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.”

“A slew of celebrities are joining forces to demand that legendary actress Carol Channing be selected for the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors. Among those voicing their support for the nomination are Lily Tomlin, Chita Rivera, Phyllis Diller, Lucie Arnaz, Buzz Aldrin, Kate Linder, Tommy Tune, Loni Anderson, Alison Arngrim, Tippi Hedren and Sen. [Dianne] Feinstein.”

“On a nice day in Detroit, you might take your kids to Bell Isle, near downtown, to feed the geese. Or, if you’re a crime writer, you might set a scene here. Perhaps, in the icy dark, a murder weapon goes into the Detroit River, or a car blows up on the bridge. … ‘That house was on fire last time I saw it,’ Leonard says, pointing at a red house. ‘That’s the opening scene in Mr. Paradise. Three bodies.'”

“[She] shared with her father … an imposing physique and determined character. However, it was to her mother, Marie Vorobieff Stebelska – better known as Marevna and generally regarded as the world’s first female cubist painter – to whom she displayed unfailing loyalty after Rivera abandoned them both to return to his native Mexico when his first daughter was less than two years old.”

“Ai described his evolution from an artist to an activist as ‘a very natural act’ and said that social media are ‘like water and air, but in China we can’t even talk about it.’ When asked if he fears not being allowed to reenter the country, the artist replied: ‘Nothing can silence me as long as I’m alive. I don’t give any excuse. It isn’t going to change my beliefs.'”

Einstein never desired to become a t-shirt, an action figure, or a friendly greeting card. (Full disclosure: I own all of the above.) “As punishment for my contempt for authority,” he said, wearily, “fate has made me an authority myself.” If we want to pay proper tribute to Einstein, we must find inspiration in what he actually stood for: no holds barred intellectual rebellion.

“In every generation, a few musicians reach a level of fame that takes them into an orbit beyond their art. They become iconic, like Pavarotti; they become spokesmen, like Bono; they come, at the very least, to represent their field to a wider public. Ma, 54, has certainly reached this level. He’s one of the most recognizable classical musicians on the planet.”

“Though he was not widely known outside Brazil and enjoyed mass popularity only intermittently in his homeland, Mr. Alf, born Alfredo José da Silva, is highly regarded among Brazilian musicians and musicologists. The writer Ruy Castro … has called him ‘the true father of the bossa nova’.”

An original framed photograph of the anti-slavery activist, a silk-and-linen shawl given to her by Queen Victoria, and her own personal hymnal are “among an extraordinary trove of Tubman artifacts given Wednesday to the National Museum of African American History and Culture by esteemed collector and author Charles L. Blockson.”

“We meet at a London hotel that smells of cabbage. Anger is 83 years old; his hair is jet black, his shoes red, his trousers tan. One eye is bigger than the other, and his face is unlined. He is both beautiful and grotesque: Warren Beatty meets Frankenstein’s monster.”