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Her fearful Symmetry —

The words come from Blake’s poem, “TheTyger” — but the title now belongs to Audre Niffenegger, for her second novel.
Her first novel was the wildly successful “The Time Traveler’s Wife” — a book I own but that I confess I haven’t read.
Regal literary is sponsoring a contest to promote the paperback release for the book [...]

Antonina Pirozhkova, Isaac Babel’s widow dies at 101

This is also worth reading — and one of those cases where I wish I knew that she had been living in Florida all these years.  The obit mentions a book she wrote about Babel which sounds really worth reading, and of course her own accomplishments as one of the lead engineers responsible for Moscow’s [...]

Remarkable Obit: Eileen Nearne British WWII Spy

Read this amazing Obit to the end — her heroism is incredible and the article gives a great sense of how she did what she did, and its impact on her life.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/world/europe/22nearne.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries

A Suggestion for Prez GW Bush re: his memoirs

Peter Osnos in his column for the Century Foundation regarding Tony Blair’s memoirs concludes with the following suggestion, worth noting, to President George W, Bush concerning his upcoming tome:
One final note: Blair used the celebrated American lawyer agent Bob Barnett to negotiate the multi-million book contracts that were undoubtedly among the [...]

Wiesenthal considered

Tom Segev’s “Simon WIesenthal” The life and Legends” (Doubleday) has just been published and is getting some interesting response. A positive and stirring review from Dwight Garner in the New York Times, “The Man Who Refused to Forget,” and a more critical by equally passionate one by Ron Rosenbaum, “Self made Golem” at Tablet, the [...]

Alain Corneau, famous French director, dies

Alain Corneau, the famous French director and writer is dead.
Here is his New York Times obit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/movies/31corneau.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries
He was most famous for “Tous les matins du monde” which starred Gerard Depardieu but the reason I was familiar with his work was because he the director and co-writer of “Police Python .357″ a movie that I’ve been attempting [...]

TOLDJA! Skirball’s copy of Nuremburg laws reclaimed by National Archives

Nikki Finke has made TOLDJA one of her signature blog exclamations, but I couldn’t help borrowing it in this case.
A few years ago when I wrote about the sketchy provenance of the Huntington Librarys Nazi holdings, gifts by General George Patton of items he took possession of at war’s end, some thought I was making [...]

THE CIRCUS BACK IN TOWN - BETTER THAN EVER!

“Funundrum” this years Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey show, is filled with new technology and harks back to the circus’ roots and tradition. I have to say that it may be their best show in recent years.
THEY ARE PLAYING IN LOS ANGELES AT STAPLES THIS WEEKEND(JULY 16, 17,18), AND THEN WILL BE AT THE [...]

Skirball Concert Series

From Brittany Lambertus, publicist at Rock Paper Scissors, here’s info about the Skirball’s Summer concert series:

Each week, the Skirball Cultural Center presents a new world music artist in an effort to connect people to one another and share their many different cultural heritages.

“Though many think of the Skirball as a primarily Jewish organization, our [...]

Q & A with JEFF BRIDGES by Tom Teicholz

When Jeff Bridges won the Academy Award for best actor for his performance in “Crazy Heart,” and spoke so wonderfully about his parents and their influence on his being an actor, it reminded me that many, many years ago, in 1982, I had interviewed Jeff Bridges for Andy Warhol’s INTERVIEW magazine and that he had [...]