“Bill Cosby, the enduringly familiar funnyman, has been selected to receive this year’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the Kennedy Center announced yesterday.”
Tag: 04.02.09
Gehry To Design D.C.’s Eisenhower Memorial
“Frank O. Gehry, one of the world’s leading architects, has been selected to design a national tribute to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a memorial commission announced yesterday morning. The memorial is planned for a four-acre site on Independence Avenue between Fourth and Sixth streets SW. … This would be Gehry’s first project in the heart of Washington.”
When Libraries Fill In For Social Services
“Libraries across the country are seeing double-digit increases in patronage, often from 10 percent to 30 percent, over previous years. But in some cities, this new popularity — some would call it overtaxing — is pushing libraries in directions not seen before, with librarians dealing with stresses that go far beyond overdue fines and misshelved books.”
Diaz, Leavitt Shortlisted For Dublin’s Lavish Lit Prize
“Junot Diaz’s ‘The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,’ winner of a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Critics Circle award, was selected as one of eight finalists in the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, worth 100,000 euros ($132,200). Diaz joined David Leavitt and a mix of authors born in countries as diverse as France and Pakistan in the final round of the contest, billed as the world’s richest prize for a single work of fiction published in English.”
NY City Opera Pulls Together A Season
“In 2009-10 the company will present a tasting menu – just five productions – symbolic of its traditions: modern works (Hugo Weisgall’s Esther), new productions (Don Giovanni in a staging by Christopher Alden), the underperformed (Chabrier’s Étoile), war horses (Madama Butterfly) and Baroque works (Handel’s Partenope).”