“A mysterious visitor who each year leaves roses and cognac at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe on the writer’s birthday failed to show early Tuesday, breaking with a ritual that began more than 60 years ago.”
Tag: 01.19.10
Oliviers To Honor Public’s Favorite Long-Running Show
“The new award is for shows which opened before January 1, 2009 and ran throughout 2009. … This means that 20 productions are in the running” for the Olivier Award, on which the public will vote.
A Chief Of Staff Spreads Poetry Through The Senate
“And so it is that he began lobbing poems into the e-mail inboxes of every chief of staff in the Senate.” The poems, by writers like Dickinson, Rilke and Williams, are “intended to get his BlackBerry-addicted, tunnel-visioned, life-as-a-treadmill colleagues to think about the ‘huge dimensions of life that get shortchanged’ in the grinder that is Capitol Hill.”
Sherlock Holmes Still Paying Dividends To Author’s Heirs
“At his age, Holmes would logically seem to have entered the public domain. But not only is the character still under copyright in the United States, for nearly 80 years he has also been caught in a web of ownership issues so tangled that Professor Moriarty wouldn’t have wished them upon him.”
Cleveland Orchestra Strike A Symptom Of Field’s Troubles
“Current economic hardships, of course, are partly to blame. But industry experts point out that in the flush years of the 1990s, orchestras went on spending sprees without building up their endowments for a rainy decade. Now the crunch is on.” And that’s not the only problem facing the nation’s orchestras.
German Obama Musical: Brechtian, No. Alienating, Yes.
“‘Hope,’ a musical that tells the story of Obama’s election, had its premiere at Frankfurt’s Jahrhunderthalle on Jan. 17. … Parts of it are so silly they have to be seen to be believed. Cringe-making moments include a love song between Michelle and Barack, the president-to-be dressed in a gray V-neck cardigan with a large diamond pattern.”
When You Reach Me Wins Newbery Medal
“Librarians and bloggers who write about books for young people had widely tipped the book, by Rebecca Stead, as a favorite before Monday’s announcement.” Also Monday, Jerry Pinkney’s “The Lion & the Mouse” won the Caldecott Medal.