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Two Years Ago Keith Jarrett Had A Stroke. Here’s How He’s Doing

"I sit down at the piano. Last couple of days, I was there every day. I don't get much back from my right hand, though." - NPR

Alda Merini, Italian Poet Who Died 13 Years Ago, Has Become Widely Famous On Social Media

Merini was "the voice of the marginalized. The lady of the Navigli. The mad poet. Alda Merini didn’t like these labels, but as one of Italy’s most celebrated literary figures, she couldn’t escape them." - The New York Times

Mary Ellin Barrett, Daughter Who Fiercely Defended Irving Berlin’s Image, Has Died

In the 1980s, "Barrett offered a new portrait of her father: droll, self-effacing, with an unspoken perfectionism that would doom him to bitterness in old age but that for four decades of maturity pushed him to dazzling artistic achievements, along with attentiveness to his family." - The New York Times

The Ukrainian Guy Selling Music Discs That Have Survived Russian Bombing

I noticed a listing for an LP that read “Nirvana ‘The Best’ LP survived after AIRSTRIKE from Kharkiv, UKRAINE. For help. - The New Yorker

George Bartenieff, An Eminence Grise Of Off-Off-Broadway, Is Dead At 89

He could easily have been one of the cohort of mainstream New York stage actors who pay their bills with guest spots in TV series, but he was drawn to the experimental and socially conscious work being made in downtown Manhattan, co-founding two key theater companies. - The New York Times

When Buckminster Fuller Met Steve Jobs

Fuller had devoted his career to predicting the impact of technology, but he saw nothing special in Apple: “I remember him saying that he thought the computer was a toy.” - Fast Company

Larry Josephson, A Public Radio Pioneer Several Times Over, Is Dead At 83

In the mid-1960s, with his daily morning show at New York's WBAI, Josephson helped invent freeform radio. In the 1980s, he pioneered the job of independent public radio producer, bringing to the air shows like Bob & Ray, Jazz From Lincoln Center, Alec Baldwin's Here's the Thing, ... - MSN (The Washington Post)

Bernard Marson, The Man Who Made SoHo Artists’ Lofts Legally Possible, Is Dead At 91

In the late 1970s, artists were settling, illegally, in vacated factory space in the Lower Manhattan neighborhood.  Marson, an architect and developer, spotted a provision in zoning regulations that could render the lofts legal — and he spent years fighting the city to make that provision stick. - The New York Times

MTT — So Much For That Retirement

Mostly with his old orchestras in San Francisco and Miami, but elsewhere as well, Michael Tilson Thomas is vigorously raising the baton, receiving the kind of rave reviews he has been well used to in a half-century-long career. - San Francisco Classical Voice

Actress Pat Carroll Dead At 95

From the 1950s through the '70s she was star of TV comedies and game shows before reinventing herself, at 50, as a classical stage actress, winning awards for playing Falstaff, Juliet's Nurse, Mother Courage, and Gertrude Stein.  (Oh, and she voiced Ursula in The Little Mermaid.) - The New York Times

The People Who Probe For Meaning In Abandoned Theme Parks

As it turns out, there's an entire community of people captivated with defunct, abandoned or retired theme parks and attractions around the world. - NPR

Retiring Mellon Funder Susan Feder Talks With Marc Scorca

"It's being open-minded, it's listening. It's not thinking you have all the answers and being open to new experiences." - Opera America

Qin Yi, Last Of China’s “Four Great Actresses” And Whose Career Spanned Chinese Cinema History, Dead At 100

"She weathered the ups and downs of 20th-century Chinese history, and thrived under different political realities. ... Her remarkable onscreen life spanned the Chinese Republican regime (and Mao's revolutions) right through to the modern commercial blockbuster period." - The Guardian

“Prophet Of Doom” Mike Davis Has Terminal Cancer.  Does He Have Any Parting Words Or Calls To Action?

"Uh, no.  I've resisted various things, one of which is the writerly idea that you have to write something profound about your termination.  I have no intention of doing that, nor any compulsion to write some mock-heroic thing." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)

Melissa Errico Writes About Being Back On The Road As A Touring “Girl Singer”

"There are others out there, too, crisscrossing the country, living on the lower slopes, and sometimes on the summits, of show business.  We are the last wandering minstrels, racing town to town, big clubs and small, piano player to piano player. (I had nine this year.)" - The New York Times

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