Category: today’s top story

“The city of Phoenix and a developer who was poised to demolish a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home have reached an agreement that will put any work on hold while a search continues for a buyer, a city official confirmed Wednesday.”

“Late yesterday, longtime Philadelphia Inquirer theater critic Howard Shapiro found out that he’s been reassigned – to South Jersey. … A memo went out to Inquirer staff on Friday, stating: ‘… we need to dramatically bolster our coverage in the South Jersey and Pennsylvania suburbs’.”

“This year the boldface names belong to writers and musicians: Junot Díaz, 43, the writer and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Chris Thile, 31, a mandolinist and composer in New York City; David Finkel 56, a Washington Postreporter; Dinaw Mengestu, 34, a novelist and journalist in Washington; and Claire Chase, 34, a flutist and arts entrepreneur in Brooklyn.”

“The Minnesota Orchestra is on the brink of its first work stoppage since 1994. Union musicians voted unanimously on Saturday evening to reject what management had described as its final contract offer.” Talks are continuing, with arbitration possible in the near future.

A Virginia woman came across Paysage Bords de Seine at a West Virginia flea market in 2010 and had it authenticated this year. Just days before it was to be sold at auction, documents have surfaced indicating that the painting was stolen from the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1951.

“After going without pay for a month, the musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra accepted a new collective bargaining agreement Wednesday, barely averting a postponement of the fall season. The deal will cost players $5.2 million in compensation over two years, change their pay structure, and cut their numbers significantly.”

“Undaunted by the outcry over a YouTube trailer for Innocence of Muslims, two ex-Muslim filmmakers are trying to develop separate feature-length biopics that would offer critical takes on Muhammad’s life. Experts predict that those projects will trigger further anger and violence, as has accompanied nearly every attempt to portray the prophet in any media in recent decades. But some believe that the faith will inevitably embrace showing Muhammad on film as the best and most effective way to get his message to the masses.”

The book, dreamt up (literally) by the 18-year-old Shelley in 1816 and written at a fever pitch during the next two years, was lying at an angle on a top shelf in Lord Byron’s library.

“I lost my 40s, essentially. I was 41 when this started, and the 40s are supposed to be the prime of a man’s life. Instead my 40s were all this crap. I know friends of mine who were around me and helped me through this said to me, years later, in my mid-50s, that ‘you look younger now.’ If I look back at the pictures, I can see exactly what they mean.”