Impossible to sum the central figure of American musical theatre up, but: "Sondheim not only bound music, lyrics and book inextricably together, but he explored in far greater depths the human condition in all its anxieties and moral complexities." - Washington Post
James Beeks, who performs in Superstar under the stage name James T. Justis, is charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia with obstruction of Congress, a felony, as well as a misdemeanor charge of unlawfully entering a restricted building or grounds. - Deadline
Computer-assisted preparation makes it ‘harder and harder’ to demonstrate the superiority of his intuition and strategic thinking in classical games. Players with good memories, decent calculation and solid technique can use the latest AI discoveries to boost their chances against him. - London Review of Books
P.S. Vinothraj worked in a flower market at age nine and a sweatshop at 14. At 19 he ran to the big city (Chennai) and slept on the streets. Now his first feature is a festival hit and India's official submission to the Oscars. - The Guardian
Three of those killed were members of the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies, a group of women whose pompom routines have been a staple of local holiday parades since the 1980s. - The New York Times
When she was a child, her officer father dressed her up as a mini-me in full uniform. As a young woman, she moved freely about Paris, observing everything, by dressing as a boy. (She claimed the idea was her mother's.) Taking a male pseudonym? Easy. - Aeon
Like so many Texan artists before and after him, he had a tortured relationship with his home state and its mythology. He kept trying to get away from the cowboy thing. It kept sucking him back in. - Texas Monthly
He "galvanized protests against the Vietnam War and started a controversial men’s movement with a best seller that called for a restoration of primal male audacity." - The New York Times
Christopher Knight: "Lots of smart people write smart things about art but nobody was a better writer than Dave. ... Hickey, a brilliant and cantankerous wit, wrote for the ear. His work needed reading, not scanning, and rewarded effort with pleasure." - Los Angeles Times
The artist, dead at 76, did this near an on-ramp: "A young woman was sitting on a bale of hay, surrounded by potted palm trees and 4,000 square feet of green turf, patting a Guernsey calf that was tied to a railing." - The New York Times
Caroline Todd (a pen name for Caroline Watjen) and her son Charles (er, David) wrote more than 40 mysteries set in rural England after WWI. "They were one of the better mystery writers," says historical mystery writer Rhys Bowen. - The New York Times
While he did a great deal of high-quality work, his most admired projects were in two modern monuments which replaced medieval landmarks destroyed in World War II: Coventry Cathedral (the baptistry) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral (the lantern tower.) - The Guardian
His songwriting wit was for grown-ups, yet he reached his widest audience with sharpshooting ditties for kids as a regular musical contributor to ABC-TV’s long-running Saturday morning animated show “Schoolhouse Rock!” - The New York Times
He had previously pled not guilty to several charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft; in an apparent plea deal, he confessed to one count of wire fraud, for which he faces up to 20 years in prison and must pay $86 million in restitution. - ARTnews
