SF MoMA, Vigorous At Age 35

“With new multimedia tours, inventive collaborations with local and international artists and, most significantly, ambitious new expansion plans, the museum is intent on looking ahead. Two weeks ago, officials said they had raised $250 million in just six months, letting the museum double its endowment and put $150 million toward the building of a new wing and other development.”

Ariel Ramirez, 88, Argentine Composer Of ‘Misa Criolla’

Ramírez’s most famous work, written “just as the Second Vatican Council permitted the celebration of the Catholic Mass in the vernacular, … combined Spanish text with indigenous instruments and rhythms. Its effect is that of a reverent carnival, and it has sold millions of albums and been performed countless times across the world.”

Manfred Honeck, The St. Francis Of Conductors

“Virtually every conductor I’ve worked with – the worship has been of themselves,” says one orchestral musician. Among top maestros, it’s unusual to find an individual as openly, and even enthusiastically, devout as the Pittsburgh Symphony’s music director. “Yet [Honeck] wears his piety lightly. There is little sanctimony about him, and …[s]tories abound about his humility and charity.”

Librarians Are Hot (Really)

“A new generation of young, hip and occasionally tattooed librarians … call themselves guybrarians, cybrarians and ‘information specialists,’ and they blog at sites like The Free Range Librarian and The Lipstick Librarian.” Not to mention The Depraved Librarian and other sites whose names we can’t reprint. (And you should see what goes on at ALA conventions.)

‘Liked The Actress? You’ll Love The Addict’: Why Celebrity Rehab Makes Good TV

“[The] pathologies on the shows are much the same, as are the solutions: rules, rules, some talking, and more rules. For people accustomed to living without boundaries or consequences, this can be challenging and therefore make for vibrant television. The defenses they’d spent years building up to become famous are just as entertaining as they crumble down.”