Last Sunday, theater lovers tuned into the Tony Awards, Broadway’s famous awards show. Many of the plays and musicals we regard today as classics have won Tony awards, and many of the theater professionals involved in their creation have had storied careers. Two of these artists are the composer and
The German artist Sigmar Polke, celebrated as an “early and astute adopter of American Pop art,” died last Thursday in Cologne, Germany. He was 69. A refugee from East Germany, Mr. Polke grew up in Dusseldorf, where he began his career as an artist in the early 1960s. Sharply critical
For the past few summers, the literary world appears to have been seized by a storm: literature translated from different languages. This summer’s huge hit was a Swedish thriller called The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, the third in author Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, and the result was readers
Yesterday proved to be a big day for David Crystal’s popular new work, A Little Book of Language. Crystal spent the afternoon speaking with radio journalist Neal Conan on NPR’s Talk of the Nation. Fielding questions from Conan and listeners alike, Crystal discussed at length how languages develop, how they
This Wednesday, June 16, is the anniversary of the day in the life of Dubliner Leopold Bloom which is immortalized in James Joyce’s novel, Ulysses. The day is now referred to as Bloomsday, and is celebrated annually in many ways; revelers often are found either tracing Bloom’s steps in Dublin,
Tuesday was a major event for midterm primary elections; eleven were held that day, and the results revealed a great deal about the current state of partisan and electoral politics. There were high-profile candidates stepping into political races for the first time, as well as high-profile incumbents facing primary challenges.
Jonathan Mirsky has a terrific review of Bill Hayton’s Vietnam: Rising Dragon in the June 24 issue of the New York Review of Books. He calls the book “enlightening and persuasive”.
This month, the music world celebrates the 200th anniversary of the birth of one of its most intriguing, mysterious, and undeniably talented figures, Robert Schumann. Yet for many, Schumann’s legacy of greatness is clouded by the oft-propagated legends of his crippling depression and mania. For generations, any interest in
Today’s Washington Post included a strong review by Michael Dirda of David Crystal’s A Little Book of Language: “Like Gombrich’s A Little History of the World, Crystal’s A Little Book of Language may be for children (of all ages, as the saying goes), yet it’s by no means childish or juvenile. In other words,
With the 2010 FIFA World Cup little more than a week away, host country South Africa is putting the finishing touches on preparations that began more than six years ago. The decision to stage the competition in South Africa is an historic one, as it represents the first time an