Skoog came on board at a rough time, just as 9/11 obliterated any arts attention. “The softly spoken, self-effacing and courteous Skoog set about refreshing the repertoire and encouraging British choreographers, including Christopher Hampson and Michael Corder.” - The Times (UK)
“I had a stalker. We had an injunction on her and I thought that everything was safe and then I was on stage doing a press night in the West End and someone stood up out of the front row and put flowers at my feet and I realised it was my stalker.” - The Guardian (UK)
Colón’s “driving musical energy and mischievous bad-boy image — he was long promoted as ‘El Malo’ — helped made him a luminary of New York salsa music, and 1978 collaboration with Rubén Blades, Siembra, became one of the top-selling salsa albums of all time.” - The New York Times
A self-taught mosaicist, Mr. Zagar used broken bottles, handmade tiles, mirrors, and other found objects to cover walls across the city, particularly in South Philly. His Magic Gardens on South Street has become a landmark, attracting 150,000 visitors a year. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
On top of a career designing sets and lights for more than 50 Broadway productions and over 30 George Balanchine ballets, he became, in 1967, the founding artistic director of the National Theater of the Deaf, which combined spoken dialogue and sign language to create, in effect, a new genre. - The New York Times
“For more than four decades, he was a central figure in European opera, admired not for flamboyance but for integrity, stylistic intelligence, and a distinctive vocal timbre that combined gravity with warmth.” - Moto Perpetuo
Between 1967 and 2023, he made forty-seven features (nearly one a year), many of them running considerably more than two hours. His body of work, considered in terms of number of features and of total running time, is one that probably no one in his generation or younger can match. - The New Yorker
He is charged with two counts of simple battery following incidents in the midnight hours of Tuesday morning. This is, of course, by no means his first run-in with law enforcement. - AP
Michael Silverblatt, the longtime host of the KCRW radio show "Bookworm" — known for interviews of authors so in depth that they sometimes left his subjects astounded at his breadth of knowledge of their work — has died. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)
“Among the world’s most admired and influential filmmakers, … with subjects ranging from a suburban high school to a horse race track, his work was aired on public television, screened at retrospectives, spotlighted in festivals, praised by critics and fellow directors and preserved by the Library of Congress.” - AP
“(The) Oscar-winning actor … disappeared into an astonishing range of roles — lawmen and outlaws, Southern-fried alcoholics and Manhattan boardroom sharks, a hotheaded veteran and a cool-tempered mob consigliere — and emerged as one of the most respected screen talents of his generation.” - The Washington Post (MSN)
“She became the only black woman ever to win the Nobel prize in literature. But the facts remain: she is difficult to read. She is difficult to teach. Notwithstanding the voluminous train of profiles, reviews and scholarly analysis … she is difficult to write about.” - The Guardian (UK)
“Keep a diary, get a camera, learn to print your own photos. Don’t put it all in your phone, because everything in your phone belongs to someone else. And if you want to write a secret to someone, send a letter.” - The Guardian (UK)
“A Dutch novelist, travel writer and journalist, (he) was lauded for his insights into European history and culture and often tipped as a possible winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.” - AP
