praeceptrix

Tony winner William Finn has died. I thoroughly enjoyed his work, which included the Falsettos trilogy and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. He was 73.

I am currently listening to a fascinating audiobook: They Thought They Were Free. it is an extremely timely and distressing read. Edited for clarification: the subtitle of the book is "the Germans, 1933-1945". The author recounts interviews and discussions with 10 members of the Nazi Party. The parallels to the present, to the justifications put forth by the magats are upsetting, to say the least.

Composer Sofia Gubaidulina, 93, has died. I had not heard of her, nor sung anything by her. The obituary makes me want to ask our conductor about doing some of her music on a future program.

South African playwright Athol Fugard has died.

Joffrey Ballet star Christian Holder, nephew of Geoffrey Holder, has died. He was 75.

As it happens, Betsy Arakawa was important enough to merit her own obituary in the NY Times.

One of the lawyers for Sean Combs is quitting.

Operatic bass Paul Plishka, 83, has died.

Danish ballerina Kirsten Simone has died. She was 90 years old.

Canadian actor Julien Arnold has died. He was 60. He died during a performance of A Christmas Carol.

Actor Timothy West has died. He was 90.

Please post pictures of your pets. We need beautiful pictures right now. I can't post pictures of my sweet Artemus Squeakifur, gone 3 weeks ago today, because the images are too big.

Hallmark is being hit with a lawsuit after an executive allegedly made ageist comments about female actors and crew.

English soprano Sarah Leonard has died. She was 71.

There's a petition to stop Chris Brown from performing in South Africa, due to his history of violence against women.