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David Remnick: Remembering Peter Schjeldahl

Peter was a man of well-developed opinions, on art and much else. He was someone who, after being lost for a time, knew some things about survival. We met more than twenty years ago. - The New Yorker

Why Peter Schjeldahl Mattered As A Critic

Schjeldahl was a belletrist as a writer — a once fashionable, now vaguely disreputable genre of fiction, poetry and essay writing with an acute concern for “fine language,” which he, virtually alone, managed to make worthwhile for art criticism during a dense era of academically minded theory. - Los Angeles Times

Geoff Nuttall Of The St. Lawrence Quartet Has Died At 56

Nuttall, who also ran the chamber music series at the Spoleto Festival, was a violinist, "a charismatic musician who played boldly," with an "electrifying ability to engage flowed from his deep desire to communicate." - The New York Times

Carmen Callil, 84, Who Founded Virago Press And Introduced Atwood To The UK

Callil "championed female writers and transformed the canon of English literature," including by bringing many women authors back into print. - The Guardian (UK)

Salman Rushdie Has Lost Sight In One Eye, Use Of One Hand After Attack

His agent: "He had three serious wounds in his neck. One hand is incapacitated because the nerves in his arm were cut. And he has about 15 more wounds in his chest and torso. So, it was a brutal attack." - The Guardian (UK)

Actor Josephine Melville, 61, Dies Backstage After Performing A Play

Melville had just performed at the Nottingham Playhouse in the play Nine Night. She also played a recurring character on the British soap EastEnders and was a director as well as actor. - The Hollywood Reporter

Singer Carly Simon’s Sisters, Both Musicians, Died This Week

Lucy Simon, 82, was a Tony-nominated Broadway composer; Joanna Simon, 85, was a mezzo-soprano who (according to The New York Times) "stood out for her range of material, mastery of foreign languages and willingness to take risks." - Variety

New Yorker Art Critic Peter Schjeldahl Has Died At 80

Schjeldahl was a poet, art lover and sometime artist before he became an art critic. The Fourth of July parties he and wife Brooke Alderson threw were legendary. As a critic, "He was first and foremost a visual pleasure seeker, on the prowl for new thrills." - The New York Times

Jury Finds Kevin Spacey Not Liable For Sexual Assault Of Anthony Rapp

"A jury sided with Kevin Spacey on Thursday in one of the lawsuits that derailed the film star's career, finding he did not sexually abuse Anthony Rapp, then 14, while both were relatively unknown actors in Broadway plays in 1986.  The verdict in the civil trial came with lightning speed." - AP

Geoff Nuttall, Co-Founder And First Violinist Of The St. Lawrence String Quartet, Has Died At 56

In addition to leading the St. Lawrence as it became one of the most admired string quartets in North America and artists-in-residence at Stanford (where he was a beloved faculty member), he directed the popular chamber music concerts at Spoleto Festival USA. - CBC

Ever More Stories Of Bill Murray’s Bad Behavior Are Popping Up

Tales of inappropriately sexual behavior (described by the actor as joking), screaming at colleagues, and even dropping a nine-year-old Seth Green into a trash can head-first have been cascading around lately, and it appears that if his latest project continues at all, it will be without him. - The Washington Post

Remembering Theatre Critic Dan Sullivan

For his generation of critics, reviews were not a freelance assignment but a beat, as regular as a sports columnist, whom such critics often resembled. Reporting what was on view was the first obligation. Verbs needed to be strong. Prepositions should not end paragraphs. Nouns were your friend. - American Theatre

Derek Jacobi, At 84, Thinks He’ll Never Do Live Theatre Again, Either

"It's not stage fright exactly. But I'm not comfortable like I used to be. And it's far easier to do telly and films. They throw money at you for very little, and you get to do it until you do it right." - The Guardian

Patti LuPone Says She Has Given Up Her Actors’ Equity Card And Her Stage Career

She tweeted the news on Monday but actually turned in her card this summer.  LuPone said in a subsequent statement, "When the run of Company ended this past July, I knew I wouldn't be onstage for a very long time. And ... I made the decision to resign from Equity." - Playbill

How Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla Has Changed The Orchestra

She could probably now have any orchestra she wanted. But at the moment she doesn’t want any of them. She comes from a tightly knit musical family in her native Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital. She views the orchestra as a family. - Los Angeles Times

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