Category: people

In a Q&A, the director of St. Elmo’s Fire, The Lost Boys, Flatliners, Batman Forever, Batman and Robin, and Phantom of the Opera talks about his own wild youth (he began drinking at 9 and having sex, mostly with men, at 11, and he insists he was not a victim of abuse), his celebrity adulthood in fashion and film, the good and the difficult actors he’s directed, and having made critical flops that were box-office hits. But which famous people he’s slept with? No way. – Vulture

“Like many of his fellow composers in the 1950s and ’60s, Mr. Davidovsky was drawn to the new possibilities offered by technology. But he was uneasy with the prospect of music that was immune to human interpretation. Beginning in 1963 with Synchronisms No. 1 for flute and tape, he coaxed electronic sounds into partnership with traditional instruments to create musical pas-de-deux that were full of mystery and drama.” – The New York Times

He almost single-handedly turned the fading Welsh village of Hay-on-Wye into one of the world’s secondhand book capitals and a model followed by towns in more than a few other countries. – The New York Times

“In Domingo’s first performance since sexual harassment allegations surfaced against him, the crowd cheered every one of his big moments. He had to stop the standing ovation at the final curtain call, not wanting to take away love from the other performers.” – Los Angeles Times

“The fact that Lawrence Ferlinghetti, a friend and publisher of his better-known confreres, has recently celebrated his hundredth birthday in style by publishing Little Boy, an uncategorizable stream-of-consciousness bildungsroman offers an inspiriting case study of keeping the blessed callings of poetry, art, and political radicalism alive by example.” – The Baffler

Well, let’s be real: Susanna Sirefman wanted a better design for the “sidewalk shed” portion of scaffolding – that is, the part that people (say, New Yorkers) generally walk through. “The winning design had to be safe or safer, provide better storefront access, create a 180-degree different experience for pedestrians, use state-of-the-art building technologies, be easily installed, and complement a mix of streetscapes. And be beautiful.” – The New York Times

Santore reached millions of people through his illustrations for the covers of TV Guide before he turned to classic literature for children. His TV Guide covers were legendary, and as a matter of fact, “his 1976 cover depicting Redd Foxx as the title character in Sanford and Son is in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington.” – The New York Times

Anna Torv, who plays a serial-hunting psychologist on Mindhunter, explains: “When you’re an actress, you don’t even realize that the majority of the time you end up carrying the emotional weight of whatever scene you happen to be in. If someone’s going to cry, it’s going to be the girl. If someone is emotional and having a meltdown, it’s going to be the girl. … It’s just the expectation, so that’s what your instincts end up honing. All of a sudden to be in the skin of this woman who is just so dry … Anytime I showed a flicker of something, especially in the beginning, David would be like, ‘Please, pull it back.'” – The New York Times

“He was a very strong face for the Charlotte Symphony, but he worked his butt off behind the scenes with the power players in Charlotte. He got people to realize that this was something important to put money into because it was good for the city.” – Charlotte Observer

“[The dissident artist] said he initially chose Germany after leaving China as it had worked so hard for his freedom, but now felt that Germany had changed and he was once again an exile. ‘Today, due to the political conditions in China, I have again been forced out,’ he said, accusing Europe of pandering to Beijing on human rights so as to win more business.” – Thomson Reuters