"After a harrowing deep dive through old Trump-rally speeches and xenophobic Tucker Carlson clips, I believe I have come as close as one can to explaining the origins of this bizarre bit. But be warned: Somehow the more you learn, the less sense Trump’s latest obsession makes." - New York Magazine
Ashley Benefield was acquitted of second-degree murder but convicted of manslaughter in the 2020 death of her ex-husband in Florida. The Benefields were the founders of the highly-publicized American National Ballet, which, in 2017, fell apart for lack of funding just as it was about to start rehearsals. - The Washington Post (MSN)
Crawford entirely changed the field. He “was a pioneer who shaped the scope of American music research. … It wasn’t about celebrating an unchanging canon, but about opening up the magic of musical experience.” - The New York Times
"The concept: Dallas for young people. The main characters: twin sisters, one mischievous (Jessica), the other more sensible (Elizabeth).” The Sweet Valley High universe books sold more than 200 million copies and engendered spinoffs and TV shows. - CNN
"Many of Lapham’s innovations at Harper’s and LQ were elegant systems of thievery. (Copyright holders were always paid for the republication of their poetry or prose.) The Harper’s Index and Readings Section and every issue of Lapham’s Quarterly were exercises in the arts of collage and anthology." - The Washington Post (MSN)
He had an international career in a wide repertory and was a star at English National Opera, but his greatest contribution was in British music. Britten wrote several roles for him, and he made over 100 recordings, with his performances of Elgar, Britten, Walton, and British art song being highlights. - Presto Music
"(He) was considered one of the most original and prolific musical voices in Europe and the most performed German composer of contemporary classical music. … He insisted that great art results from aesthetic liberty and intellectual rigor, not adherence to predetermined ideas about beauty." - The New York Times
His goal: “to ask questions, not to provide ready-made answers, to say, in effect, look at this, see how much more beautiful and strange and full of possibility is the world than can be imagined by the mythographers at Time or NBC.” - Harper's
Josh Hartnett, raising goats (and four children) in Hampshire, says, that “‘unlike when he’s in New York or LA, ‘where people only want to talk about your career,’ he says, here ‘nobody cares,’ which is just how he likes it.” - The Guardian (UK)
He was “a big-picture scholar,” readable to non-academics as well as other scholars, and “the theories about resistance to power that he extrapolated led to a new view of supposedly primitive peoples and to a new academic field, resistance studies.” - The New York Times
“Ms. O’Brien grew up in a newly independent and staunchly Catholic Ireland with firm ideas about the roles of women, who had no lawful access to abortion, contraception or divorce. In much of her work, Ms. O’Brien limned characters who yearned to break free.” - Washington Post (MSN)
Few currently active conductors have developed such a natural affinity with the recording studio. The independent producer Andrew Keener, who collaborated on his UK recordings, tells me that Slatkin always stood out as ‘a conductor who is totally studio wise, and who knew how to apportion time in the studio. - Gramophone
"His exquisite, relaxed playing (of the 21-stringed hard) mixed the ancient and modern, as he switched from pieces that dated back hundreds of years to his own compositions that he said reflected influences ranging from other African artists to Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding and Pink Floyd." - The Guardian
When Mr. Gottlieb, who died last June at 92, wasn’t heartlessly lancing thousands of words out of Robert Caro’s biographical volumes or marking up the manuscripts of Toni Morrison and Salman Rushdie, he loved watching movies. Along the course of his career, he built a vast collection of books on Hollywood’s golden age. - The New York Times
Born into a very old and eminent family (though one no longer, by his day, very rich), he wrote about the American aristocracy with skepticism and even scorn. Twice he reinvented one of the country's oldest magazines, attracting readers, attention and respect (though never profit). - The Washington Post (MSN)
