Tag: 01.19.20

Singer-Songwriter David Olney Says ‘I’m Sorry,’ Closes His Eyes, Drops His Head, And Dies Onstage

Olney, 71 and regarded as “the founding father of Americana,” was performing at a songwriters’ festival in Florida when he suffered a fatal heart attack. “‘He was very still, sitting upright with his guitar on, wearing the coolest hat and a beautiful rust suede jacket we laughed about because it was raining … outside the boathouse where we were playing,’ singer Amy Rigby, who said she was sitting next to him onstage, wrote on Facebook.” – The Washington Post

Edith Kunhardt Davis, Author Of ‘Pat The Bunny’ Sequels, Has Died At 82

Davis followed rather literally in her mother’s footsteps when she wrote the sequels to her mother’s bestselling and beloved children’s book. But she didn’t write the children’s books until she got sober – and that was after she was pregnant and had a son whose weak heart killed him when he was young. “His death from heart disease in 1990 became the subject of Ms. Davis’s 1995 memoir, I’ll Love You Forever, Anyway. An account of her grief made all the more anguishing by her guilt, it stood in stark contrast to the cheerful children’s tales for which she was known.” – The New York Times

To Research How To Make A Better Museum, Ask Kids

Says one designer who experienced many a test lab with kids and families at London’s V&A: “A nine-year-old said: ‘Objects have rights.’ The phrase has stuck. It captures both the need to conserve objects and to consider them as active participants in the museum experience. It has brought the collection alive, allowing us all to imagine and design around objects’ ability to talk to visitors and to each other.” – The Observer (UK)

A Royal Ballet Dancer Says It’s On Dancers (And Companies) To Make Sure Ballet Doesn’t Look Elitist

Marinela Nuñez: “When I’m dancing, I always think – even when I am in a fairytale ballet such as The Sleeping Beauty – that it is real. It touches me and it makes me think of my life; it should have that impact when you’re watching. Some people always say that ballet is elitist and it’s definitely not. It is this beautiful piece of art, unfolding live in front of you, not like something in a museum.” – The Observer (UK)