Category: people

“[T]he once-penniless street performer behind Cirque du Soleil is involved in an intriguing legal spat over the colourful acrobatic manoeuvres that allegedly take place in his bedroom. Guy Laliberté, the billionaire impresario whose troupe will today celebrate its 25th birthday, has announced plans to sue the publishers of an unauthorised biography which depicts him as a bed-hopping scoundrel with an inexhaustible appetite for sex, drugs, and a rock and roll lifestyle.”

“When Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan left Milwaukee for the Big Apple, we didn’t expect him to become a celebrity endorser of Broadway shows, but here he is waxing enthusiastic about ‘Irena’s Vow’ on the World War II drama’s website.”

“Journalistic encounters with the cerebral, musically brilliant Mr. Maazel are unpredictable. He can be dismissive, censorious, attentive or engaging, attitudes also encountered by the musicians who play for him. On this day in early June he was philosophical.”

“Although Mr. Norse is often classified with the Beats, he had already developed his themes and his style when, in the early 1960s, he fell in with Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Gregory Corso, just a few of the many writers with whom he formed romantic or professional relationships.”

Visiting 79-year-old artist Ilya Glazunov, Mr Putin stopped in front of a large painting of a medieval knight. “The sword is too short,” he is reputed to have said. “It’s only good enough for cutting sausage.” Not wishing to displease his powerful guest, Mr Glazunov immediately agreed to correct his mistake.

“[Christopher] Garabedian plays every night at Al-Rif, a tony restaurant and one of the few doing business in Baghdad these days. […] Some [customers] come to listen to Garabedian’s medley of Western and Eastern tunes, including Iraqi traditional songs, that has earned him many admirers.”

“[H]e was well known for pitting the painterly against the political to create giddily joyful, destabilized compositions that satirized, and offended, without regard to race, creed, gender or political leaning.” He was also, in 1997, the first African-American to represent the U.S. at the Venice Biennale.

“Albums by a blind Japanese pianist have surged up the country’s online charts since he won a prestigious US award at the weekend, online retailer Amazon Japan said Wednesday. Nobuyuki Tsujii, who is 20 years old and has been blind since birth, on Sunday became the first Asian and the first blind pianist to win the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas.”

“A couple of occasions [in college] I had a bouncer look at [her fake ID] and go, no, you’re not so-and-so. If I tried to say yes, I am, they’d go, ‘No, you’re not, you’re Anna Paquin!’ Like, they’ll know because my movie is playing across the street. They’d be like, this is the worst fake ID I’ve ever seen, go away.”

“I just said, ‘Ok, enough stress.’ Mozart is so naked and yet requires perfection. I don’t know too many sopranos who think, ‘Yeah, I get to sing Donna Anna tonight! Wow! I can’t wait!’ So it was nice just to be able to say, ‘I’d rather sing Strauss.'”