Category: people

“Founded by copyright activists in early 2006, the Pirate Party believes people should be able to freely copy books or music for private use. The party is dedicated to radical reform of copyright law, abolition of the patent system and guaranteed online privacy rights.”

“Washington Post art critic Blake Gopnik recently attracted a Twitter impostor of his own. As with the fake [Frank] Luntz feed, the impostor generally posted non-malicious comments that likely seemed plausible to the casual observer. But after the fake Gopnik posted a dismissive comment about a museum, the real Gopnik received some snarky remarks on an art blog at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The fake Twitter feed has been removed.”

“Jarre, father of the composer Jean-Michel Jarre, rose to prominence relatively late in life. His breakthrough came in 1962 when he wrote the score for Lawrence of Arabia, for which he was awarded an Oscar. He won two further Oscars for Doctor Zhivago and A Passage to India, and composed music for more than 150 films.”

“The 6ft 3in art dealer — or “gallerist”, to use the art-world jargon — is at a crossroads. After all, for the past 15 years, since he set up the gallery White Cube, Jopling, known as “JJ”, has managed his London stage like a ringmaster. Ubiquitous, supremely confident, signature-styled in spectacles and suit, Jopling has become more than a dealer, almost a figurehead. Jopling, whether he liked it or not, became an emblem of London’s artistic renaissance in the 1990s.”

What would it have been like to be brought up by George Orwell? Pretty grim, you might think. But you would be wrong.

“[A]s part of the duo England Dan and John Ford Coley [he] sang the hit ‘I’d Really Love to See You Tonight’ and other 1970s soft-rock touchstones… Although he was a Texas native, Seals called himself England Dan to avoid trading on the family name that his older brother Jim had made famous as half of another soft-rock pairing, Seals & Crofts.”

The old saying that there are no second chances in the theater is belied by tenor Stuart Neill, who’s getting his fourth wind. After early successes, including recordings with Colin Davis and Michael Tilson Thomas, he had a five-year exile from opera, retooling his voice and singing Christmas carols in suburban Philadelphia. Now, having saved La Scala’s opening night (and its worldwide simulcast), Neill is finally getting re-engaged. He tells David Patrick Stearns what it took to get there.

“Mr. Flagello, a son of Italian immigrants in New York City, sang at major opera houses like La Scala in Milan, the Vienna State Opera, the San Francisco Opera and the Houston Grand Opera. But it was the Met that he made perhaps his most distinguished mark.”

“Eddie Bo, a potent, eclectic New Orleans pianist, singer, songwriter and producer who inspired a dance craze with his 1962 hit ‘Check Mr. Popeye’ and later directed fans to ‘Check Your Bucket,’ died Wednesday, March 18, of a heart attack. He was 79.”

“A cache of letters from the author George Orwell has sold at auction for £84,000. They document the time in the early 1930s when Orwell was staying with his parents in Southwold, Suffolk, after he returned from Burma. The letters are to his friends in the town … and one subject he discusses is the writing of his first two books.”