With her platinum hair, raspy voice and glamorous ’50s-style dresses, Ms. Astor was a formidable presence among the music, film and art makers who gathered at the Mudd Club in TriBeCa. - The New York Times
"'It was kind of hanging out of my face, sitting on my cheek, I've said like a soft-boiled egg. And blind.' Sir Salman said losing one eye 'upsets me every day'. ... But he considers himself lucky to have avoided brain damage." - BBC
Ozawa refused to live in Boston, raising his family in Tokyo and commuting when required. His English was never more than functional. Most musicians grasped what he wanted; any who protested did not last long. - The Critic
“For more than a half-century, Ms. Ringgold explored themes of race, gender, class, family and community through a vast array of media, among them painting, sculpture, mask- and doll-making, textiles and performance art.” - The New York Times
Eleanor was "a writer and film director who documented the making of some of her husband Francis Ford Coppola's iconic films, including the infamously tortured production of Apocalypse Now, and who raised a family of filmmakers." - CBC
This inaugural list by Politics NY includes the obvious (directors of prominent institutions like the Morgan Library, Roundabout Theater, BAM, both Mets), the famous (Alan Cumming, Fran Drescher), the officials (government and union types), and the hip. - Politics NY
"Lê’s early work comprised large-scale photomontages that he made by weaving together strips of photographs, deploying the method used by his aunt in creating grass mats. … Among the photographs Lê used were pictures of Vietnamese art and architecture, documentary images from the war, and stills from Hollywood Vietnam War films." - Artforum
"(He) was the most politically literate working-class dramatist and screenwriter of our times, a scholar of Marx, Gramsci and Trotsky, who translated his passion into a series of plays and television dramas without equal." - The Guardian
Though Eike Schmidt describes himself as "a democrat and antifascist" and "more of an Aristotelian centrist than a representative of the right," he is running with the backing of three right-wing parties. The German-born Schmidt, now an Italian citizen, is widely admired for his management of Florence's flagship museum. - ARTnews
Benjamin "brought colorfully expansive saxophone flourishes to the Grammy-winning Robert Glasper Experiment and added rich layers of texture to recordings by Solange, A Tribe Called Quest and many others." - The New York Times
"In Hollywood, taking a step back can mean audience amnesia and producer disinterest — but McAdams braved it before, at the height of her fame in 2005, when she thought things were moving too fast." - The New York Times
Tynes, as a Black woman, found little work in the United States, but "with her incendiary, full-throated voice, in roles like Aida and Salomé, sang at opera houses in Vienna, Prague and Budapest, earning high praise on the continent." - The New York Times
Days before the actor’s body was found, Lawrence, Kansas, police said they had probable cause to arrest Brings Plenty “in response to allegations of domestic violence." - CNN (MSN)
"Moving against the stream of rational, functional modernism in the 1960s and early 70s, Pesce experimented with materials and production methods to create furniture pieces imbued with political or religious meaning for brands from Cassina to B&B Italia. Many would go on to become icons of Italian design." - Dezeen
He founded Sankai Juku, which did more than any other troupe to spread butoh in the West, in 1975 and had led it ever since. "Butoh performances are characterized by slow, intense and sometimes contorted movements. The dancers often appear with white body paint and shaved heads." - The Asahi Shimbun (in English)
