Category: people

What’s happened to David Hockney? In the past decade “he has refused to simplify his signature style, choosing instead to interrogate the rules of representation and reproduction. He’s done photomontage art and fax art, and has written books on what it means to see. He has, in other words, gone Warhol, a wise PR move for an artist always erroneously (yet profitably) associated with Pop, but a disaster for one of the few living painters who can command respect for his traditional skills.” – Feed

So Albert Einstein was Time Magazine’s Person of the Century. But even in debates over whether he deserved the honor, there was little scrutiny of the claims made for his influence. Hooey, writes David Greenberg. Time to do a little setting-straight of the historical record. – Slate

— for smoke inhalation after a fire in his Manhattan home. – Boston Herald (AP)

Author Carol Shields puts aside her struggles with cancer as she publishes a new collection of stories and finishes her biography of Jane Austen. – National Post (Canada)

— responsible for nurturing the careers of some of the UK’s best playwrights until she died in 1993. Now one of Margaret Ramsay’s stable – Alan Plater – has put her onstage in a play that gets inside the head of an agent. – The Telegraph (UK)

— takes on Shakespeare’s most violent play in her first major movie. – Boston Globe

Mick Jagger was to have been knighted New Year’s Day but Tony Blair nixed the idea. – The Sunday Times (UK)

“The big roles are behind me. It’s a lot of sitting in hotels. I decided I don’t need this anymore,” says Marilyn Horne, who said goodbye to opera in 1996 and to classical recitals in 1999.” – Los Angeles Times

Teenage singing sensation Charlotte Church was one of Britain’s most talked-about, highest-paid stars (earning about £6 million) in 1999. Now she’s abruptly fired her manager, the one who discovered her and helped make her a star. Legal action commences. – BBC

— then released after leading 500 demonstrators protesting the building of a dam in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. – BBC