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Rick Ross Apologizes for Lyrics

Rick Ross performing in June 2012.Chad Batka for The New York Times Rick Ross performing in June 2012.

The Miami rapper Rick Ross sent Twitter messages to his fans and to his sponsors on Thursday apologizing for a lyric in his song “U.O.E.N.O.” that seems to condone rape.

The twin apologies came after the lyric drew criticism from the women’s group UltraViolet and from other rappers, who said Mr. Ross seemed insensitive when he spoke in the song about drugging a woman and taking her home.

Last week, Mr. Ross was unrepentant when he appeared on the New Orleans radio station Q93 to defend himself and his rhyme:

Put molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it/
I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it.

The rapper said he had been misunderstood, pointing out “the word rape wasn’t used.”

But criticism continued to build. Talib Kweli, a New York rapper, called Ross misguided on the Huffington Post. “Rick Ross condoned rape in that song and he shouldn’t, and he should apologize, and the apology that he offered was unacceptable,” he said.

Then UltraViolet, a feminist organization, threatened to protest outside a Reebok store in Manhattan and promised to circulate a petition demanding the company cut ties with the rapper. The group’s co-founder Nita Chaudhary told Reuters that the performer “is pushing the idea that if you don’t use the word ‘rape’ it doesn’t count. We are fed up and disgusted with Reebok.”

In response Mr. Ross sent a terse comment out over Twitter on Thursday afternoon: “I don’t condone rape. Apologies for the #lyric interpreted as rape.” He followed it an hour later with a second message: “Apologies to my many business partners, who would never promote violence against women.” That note specifically mentioned Reebok and UltraViolet.



Roger Ebert Is Remembered on Twitter, a Place Where He Found a New Voice

Mr. Ebert in 2010 at the Webby Awards in New York.Justin Lane/European Pressphoto Agency Mr. Ebert in 2010 at the Webby Awards in New York.

Throughout his career Roger Ebert, who died on Thursday, continued to embrace new ways of expressing himself.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who started off in newspapers, he made the transition to television in 1975 with the program that grew into “At the Movies,” the long-running syndicated television program with his fellow critic Gene Siskel, which made both men into household names. And when the Internet started to raise questions about the future viability of newspapers as a business, Mr. Ebert charged forth into the digital void with well-received blog posts (even if he didn’t make a lot of money from them). He even excelled at writing captions for the New Yorker’s weekly cartoon contest.

But late in his life, when he could no longer use his own voice, a result of his struggle with cancer, Mr. Ebert reinforced his place as a major cultural force with a strong presence on Twitter, where over 800,000 users of the service subscribed to his broad array of updates. Mr. Ebert used Twitter to hold forth on topics well beyond movies, and explained his embrace of the format in this way:

I don’t make any claims for Twitter. It suits my circumstances. It can occupy way too much time. But there’s something seductive about it: The stream, the flow, the chatter, the sudden bursts of news, the snark, the gossip, time itself tweet-tweet-tweeting away.

The power of his brand on Twitter wasn’t simply based on numbers. Rather, the avidity and engagement of the audience who followed Mr. Ebert were in part what made his social media presence so powerful. So it came as no surprise when some of Mr. Ebert’s peers in film criticism and colleagues in movie journalism took to Twitter to remember him following his death with the kind of rapid-fire responses at which Mr. Ebert himself excelled. Here is a selection of some of those tweets:

And Bilge Ebiri at New York magazine identified a potential legacy in Mr. Ebert’s work:



New Works by John Kander, Nicky Silver Set for the Vineyard

The composer John Kander, seated, with the book writer and lyricist Greg Pierce.Robert Caplin for The New York Times The composer John Kander, seated, with the book writer and lyricist Greg Pierce.

The Vineyard Theater has announced that it will produce two premieres as part of its 2013-14 Off Broadway season. This fall brings the musical “The Landing,” with a score by the Tony Award-winning composer John Kander and book and lyrics by Greg Pierce. In the spring of 2014, the theater will mount “Too Much Sun,” a new play by Nicky Silver (“The Lyons”), with direction by Mark Brokaw. Run dates and casting were not announced for either show.

“The Landing,” to be directed by Walter Bobbie, is the first collaboration between Mr. Kander, who with the lyricist Fred Ebb wrote the musicals “Chicago” and “Cabaret,” and Mr. Pierce, whose play “Slowgirl” was the inaugural production at Lincoln Center Theater’s new Claire Tow Theater last year. “The Landing” is Mr. Pierce’s debut as lyricist and book writer. Consisting of three musical tales of love and obsession, the show returns to the Vineyard for a full production after having a developmental production there last year. The Vineyard’s relationship with Mr. Kander dates back to 1987, when it produced a revival of “Flora the Red Menace,” which had a book by George Abbott and Robert Russell, music by Mr. Kander, and lyrics by Mr. Ebb. In 2010, the Vineyard produced the premiere of the Kander and Ebb musical “The Scottsboro Boys,” which transferred to Broaday.

“Too Much Sun” is a dark comedy about an actress who, in a time of crisis, descends upon the summer home of her estranged daughter and her husband. The show continues Mr. Silver’s relationship with the Vineyard, which most recently produced his play “The Lyons,” which transferred to Broadway last year. The Vineyard has also produced Mr. Silver’s “Pterodactyls,” “Raised in Captivity” and “The Maiden’s Prayer.”

The last show in the Vineyard’s current season is the premiere of “Somewhere Fun,” written by Jenny Schwartz (“God’s Ear”) and directed by Anne Kauffman. Previews are to begin May 15 with opening night set for June 4.



Talking ‘Mad Men’: Catching Up Before the New Season Begins

Jon Hamm as Don Draper in Ron Jaffe/AMC Jon Hamm as Don Draper in “Mad Men.”

Editor’s note: The author Sloane Crosley and the journalist Logan Hill are friends and fellow “Mad Men” obsessives. (There are fans and then there are those who try to find a poster seen in the background of an episode. That’s Ms. Crosley. Mr. Hill once came up with a list of books Don Draper might read.) Each week, they will chat here about all things “Mad Men,” from Don Draper’s affairs to Trudy Campbell’s outfits. In advance of the sixth-season premiere of the show this Sunday, they’re looking back and offering some predictions. Read on, check out Alessandra Stanley’s take and then return Monday morning for their post-premiere analysis.

Sloane Crosley: Greetings and salutations.

Logan Hill: Hello, Hello. I’m drinking a fancy “Mad Men”-ish drink with rye, blackberry liquor and bitters.

SC: That’s a lot of ingredients. I am drinking straight bourbon. So should we start at the very ending, with the finale

LH: Yes, let’s talk about Season 5. It’s the only season that didn’t win an Emmy for outstanding drama series. And quite a few of my friends were disappointed. Were you Matthew Weiner was just complaining about it to ArtsBeat. But he won’t get much sympathy. 4 of 5 Emmys Boo-hoo. He’s the Yankees of highbrow TV.

SC: I was really surprised and moderately disappointed. I also wouldn’t be shocked if that public snubbing didn’t directly contribute to his excessive privacy now. I think he has a semiunderstandable, “Fine, this is why we can’t allow you to have nice things” attitude about his show.

LH: His concern with spoilers is absurd: It’s not like zombies are going to eat one of them. And every prediction I’ve ever made about this show has been utterly misguided, anyway. I was sure Roger would commit suicide, not Lane.

SC: Yes, there was much doom and gloom and even minor characters claiming, “I’m sick of this whole dynamic.” But I certainly didn’t see Roger going. At least not on purpose. I could see him accidentally cutting off his own arm with a corkscrew while tripping. That has a logic to it. But you think Weiner’s being absurd!

LH: I suppose I actually think he’s a sadist, who likes controlling and playing with the audience. Watching “Mad Men” is like working at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. As the immortal hellcat Ida Blankenship said, “It’s a business of sadists and masochists and you know which one you are.” As a fan, I’m a masochist.

SC: Speaking of sadism, I do think the show has reached a “Twin Peaks” crazy-fans-going-through-the-trash-at-the-studio level. Weiner’s P.R. mistake, if I may, has been that he’s so public about his fears. And after all that, are they justified The spoilers are pretty weak. They go to Hawaii.

LH: Yes. The spoilers just don’t matter, but “Mad Men” fans are crazier than “Lost” fans, maybe because they think the answers are really out there-in 1968 or whenever. Like those Kubrick nuts in the new documentary “Room 237,” they (um, we) are that rare breed of conspiracy theorists who trust the system.

SC: No one will claim the dog dreamt this one up; I’ll give you that. There is that issue with historical shows where there’s almost a parallel show people are watching. A show where the audience is on a treasure hunt for the reality of the past. As any Pavlovian rat knows, it’s a lot more dangerous to give the audience the cheese 1 out of 100 times than no times. So the show is tethered to history just enough to make everyone crazy. I remember the Joan Baez poster backstage at the Rolling Stones concert during the Harry Crane White Castle episode. I actually tried to find it.


LH: Ha! I once Photoshopped a fictional Don Draper shelf of books he might have been reading.

SC: Of course being in the dark about historical reveals is only mildly irksome. What’s really bothering people is that we can’t predict what will happen with these fake people.

LH: I’m also less interested in how the 1968 Democratic National Convention works its way into the show than what happens with, say, Peggy, now that she’s out of the office. That little strut into the elevator to the crunchy guitar of the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me” Killed me.

SC: I did love that. Though I also remember my pride for her being tinged with fear that she would cannonball into the Matrix of nothingness when the elevator failed to show up. See I like a few scenes prior, when Don kisses her hand. It’s just such a fitting tribute to their dynamic. You see it again when they run into each other at the matinee. (Did we ever find out what they were watching) I hope for more of that this season.

LH: Yes! (And, yes: “Casino Royale.”) In the first season premiere, Peggy flirted and touched Don’s hand, and Don pushed it away. And in “The Suitcase,” he kissed it. I do hope she becomes his legitimate rival. In 1968, by the way, Virginia Slims launched its “You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby” campaign. Who better to coin it than Ms. Basket of Kisses

SC: Alternatively, the whole thing could open in 1980. Peggy crimps her hair with star shapes. Pete discovers White Snake. Sorry. Moving on, can we have a frank conversation about prostitution Do we see the fact that Joan has prostituted herself out coming back and biting her

LH: The Joan plotline shocked me, more than anything else on the show. Though I did rewatch the series premiere, in which her first advice to Peggy was, “Go home, take a paper bag, cut some eyeholes out of it. Put it over your head, get undressed and look at yourself in the mirror …”

SC: I was distressed but not shocked at all. Joan comes from such a traditional and close-minded “women are good for X” background. If fans want more of a peek into the motivations behind their favorite characters, they have to look at the more minor cast, the older generation. Megan’s mom and her relations with Roger are not nearly as important as her comment that her daughter has the temperament of an artist without the talent. Or Betty and her father before he died. Or Peggy and how she had to escape the outerborough thumb of her mother. It’s all there.

LH: Oof! The thought of all those hateful parents makes me want to rebel and drop acid myself. But do you think that Megan’s mom is right

SC: Oh, definitely. This is why it hurts. Show me a world in which Megan is perfect for a TV spot as a Swedish yodel-person and I will show you a world in which Dawn runs SCDP.

LH: But she’s so European, Sloane! They needed a “European girl!”

SC: I’ve said it before and I will say it again. Or, rather: Je me répète: Megan is French CANADIAN. Her blood runs thick with maple syrup, not red wine. So let’s knock off the idea that she is an exotic creature of some kind.

LH: And what about Pete He’s likely going to have a new corner office and a Manhattan bachelor pad. How much trouble do you think he’ll get up to

SC: Well, the interesting thing about Pete, to my mind, is that his Machiavellian antics have given way to a real sadness. While I liked seeing him in touch with his feelings at the end of Season 5, I hope he doesn’t get so inspired by reading bedtime stories to his kid that he turns into a bowl full of mush himself.

LH: As Peggy said a few seasons ago, “Every time something good happens, something bad happens.” The more Pete gets everything he ever wanted, the unhappier he becomes.

SC: Though he’s marrying Alexis Bledel in real life!

LH: Which makes me wonder: Will Roger really drive a Lincoln (like Slattery, who endorses them) Will Don sell Mercedes (like Hamm) And will Glen become an American Apparel model with that awful mustache

SC: Peggy (Moss) will do infomercials for an alien-based newfangled religion! So. What are you looking forward to

LH: It’s sick, but I’m looking forward to Don having illicit sex again. I think that once he stopped sexing up the Midges and Bobbies of the world, the series slowed down.

SC: I would like Don to have illicit sex so long as it’s totally out of character (see also: Jewish mistresses). In the final scene of Season 5, he’s tempted by a girl at the end of the bar, who is a poor man’s Megan. Where’s the fun in that Given the times, I would like to see at least a meaningful flirtation between Don and a woman of color.

LH: And Betty Fat Betty Skinny Betty

SC: I think Betty will get a larger arc this season and I don’t mean the curvature of her rear. Medium Betty. Her food issues are marvelous. What about Pete

LH: Pete, I suspect, will become a creature of even more pure greed in the next season. He’s always seen himself as such a victim. That self-pitying line in the finale about his marriage being “some temporary bandage on a permanent wound” Poor little rich kid…

SC: Trudy will become one giant pastel ruffle and we won’t see her face anymore. They’ll replace her with a different actress and we won’t even know.

LH: Her pregnancy outfit seemed to be confected from meringue.

SC: Betty would swallow her whole.



2 New Library Sentries Welcome With More of a Purr Than a Roar

They are not quite as regal as Patience and Fortitude, the famous lions on guard outside the main public library branch on Fifth Avenue. But these two lazy beasts have still been warmly welcomed at the library branch in Riverdale, the Bronx, where they arrived earlier this year.Chang W. Lee/The New York Times They are not quite as regal as Patience and Fortitude, the famous lions on guard outside the main public library branch on Fifth Avenue. But these two lazy beasts have still been warmly welcomed at the library branch in Riverdale, the Bronx, where they arrived earlier this year.

There was no grand entrance at this library, no sweeping staircase to preside over, and certainly no tourists to pose with for photos.

Maybe that’s why this pair of stone lions was sleeping on the job.

The Bronx cousins to that grand pair on Fifth Avenue, Patience and Fortitude, could use a few pointers in looking lionly.

The lions, each weighing about 900 pounds, sprawled lazily on stone pedestals in the late afternoon sun on Wednesday, their eyelids closed to the busy stream of children and stroller-pushing mothers passing between them every few minutes to go in and out of the New York Public Library branch in Riverdale.

“Why are they sleeping” demanded Robert Ernau, 41, a subway cleaner, as he stopped to look at their faces. “Someone has to wake them up.”

The sleeping lions need names.Chang W. Lee/The New York Times The sleeping lions need names.

The lions have been the subject of a monthlong naming contest among library patrons. More than 200 entries have been received, including Rest and Peace, Honor and Justice and, in a nod to Disney’s ever popular Lion King, Simba and Scar. The contest, which ends on Friday, will culminate in a naming ceremony on April 12.

The Bronx lions were relocated to the Riverdale library in January after their home of many years, the Loews Regency Hotel on Park Avenue, began undergoing an extensive renovation designed to “epitomize Manhattan sophistication.” The hotel decided that the lions, a fixture at the front of the hotel, were better suited elsewhere, and donated them to the public library. (James S. Tisch, chief executive officer of Loews, is also a member of the board of the New York Public Library.)

Library officials said that the Riverdale branch, which circulates about 12,000 books and DVDs a month, had ample space for the lions. “It’s a very popular branch,” said Amy Geduldig, a spokeswoman for the library. “It does a lot of good in the community and we thought our patrons there would appreciate it.”

As for the history of the lions, that remains a mystery even to their previous owner, with no record of who carved them or why. Still, Lark-Marie Anton, a spokeswoman for the Loews hotel, noted that “they were fond members of the family and we’re ecstatic that we’ll be able to visit them in their new home.”

The lions have company at the Riverdale library, joining two (live) goldfish inside who have been named Goldi and Locks by children.

Though the Bronx lions are much smaller than the lions that have stood sentry outside the main library branch on Fifth Avenue for over a century, and are rough-hewn stone instead of polished Tennessee marble, they have been welcomed with open arms. Indira Urbano, 10, said she hugged first one lion and then the other when it appeared two days later. “When I walk in, I always look at them,” she said.

The lions formerly guarded the Loews Regency Hotel on Park Avenue. Jonathan Tisch, the Loews chairman, posed with a lion and a symbolic sledgehammer shortly before the lions' removal as part of an ongoing renovation.Jesse Scaturro/Loews Hotels The lions formerly guarded the Loews Regency Hotel on Park Avenue. Jonathan Tisch, the Loews chairman, posed with a lion and a symbolic sledgehammer shortly before the lions’ removal as part of an ongoing renovation.

Jackson Spence, 9, said he came up with the name Honor to go with his 5-year-old sister’s suggestion of Justice for the lions. Their mother, who grew up on the Upper West Side, has told them about visiting what she called the Lions’ Library, referring to the Fifth Avenue branch. “It used to be plain here,” Jackson said. “This kind of brings it to life a little more.”

Jackson’s mother, Anna Spence, added that naming the lions would weave them into the fabric of the neighborhood. “It personalizes the library more,” she said. “We’re sort of a small town in Riverdale and the library is our hub.”

But still there were the inevitable comparisons.

Gabriel Hallinan, 19, a student at Hunter College, said he did not notice the lions at first because they were rather unimpressive. “You always wish if you had lions at your library, they would be more upright,” he said. “They looked not so much virtuous as sleepy.”

But Aaron Hasson, a teacher, said it was a nice touch that the lions had not gone to waste even if they were not exactly up to guarding the Riverdale library.

“Sometimes, you get tired and just want to relax and have a little catnap,” Mr. Hasson, 69, said. “I know where they’re coming from.”



A Summer Series of Off Broadway Musicals at City Center

New York City Center will be home this summer to a new series of Off Broadway musicals reincarnated by contemporary artists and intended to attract young audiences with tickets priced mostly at $25 and free, preperformance events.

Called “Encores! Off-Center,” the series will feature three shows under the artistic direction of Jeanine Tesori, a composer (“Caroline, or Change,”).  It begins July 10-13 with “The Cradle Will Rock,” a tale of exploited workers written by Marc Blitzen, directed by Sam Gold and choreographed by Chase Brock. The show, originally developed in 1937 with funds from the Federal Theater Project, a branch of the Works Progress Administration, was brought to City Center by Leonard Bernstein in 1947.

It will be followed on July 17 by a one-night-only performance of “Violet,” with music by Ms. Tesori and lyrics by Brian Crawley. Starring Sutton Foster and directed by Leigh Silverman, it is set in the Deep South of 1964 and concerns the relationship between a physically scarred young white woman and a young black soldier. It opened for a limited run at Playwrights Horizons in 1997.

The series ends with Gretchen Cryer and Nancy Ford’s “I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road,” about a middle-aged singer’s attempted comeback.  It opened in 1978 at the New York Shakespeare Festival at the Public Theater. The City Center version is directed by Kathleen Marshall and will run July 24-27.

The series is intended to be the first of an annual event, Ms. Tesori said. Tickets go on sale April 15. “Encores! Off-Center” will also feature free precurtain conversations and other events with artists, scholars and musicians.



Schools in Norway Postpone Exams for Bieber Concert

Every school kid longs for snow days. But Bieber days Five schools in western Norway have postponed their midterm exams to allow students to go to Justin Bieber concerts in the capital, the country’s education ministry said.

Officials said the move was practical, motivated by the fear that many students would skip the exams in favor of seeing Mr. Bieber.

“We’ve all been 14 years old and know that interests can be intense,” the education minister, Kristin Halvorsen, told The Associated Press.

Mr. Bieber, 19, is extremely popular in Norway. Dozens of teenage girls were injured during his free concert in Oslo last year as they fought to get a glimpse of him. The five schools that have rescheduled their exams are in the Alesund region, about 230 miles northwest of the capital, but many fans are expected to make the trek. The exams had been scheduled to take place on April 16 and 17, the same days Mr. Bieber is to perform.



Fast-Food Workers Walk Off the Job

Lucas Jackson/Reuters

Fast-food workers in New York City, like these outside a McDonald’s in Times Square, walked off the job Thursday morning to press for higher pay. The strike, sponsored by a labor-community coalition, seeks a $15 hourly wage. Many workers make the minimum, $7.25 an hour, or a dollar or two more.



‘Girls’ Co-Star Christopher Abbott Is Leaving the Series

Christopher Abbott played Charlie on the HBO coming-of-age comedy Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times Christopher Abbott played Charlie on the HBO coming-of-age comedy “Girls.”

The on-again, off-again romance between Marnie and Charlie on the HBO comedy “Girls” is very much off. Christopher Abbott, the actor who played Charlie on that series, will not return for its third season, HBO said Thursday morning, confirming a report that appeared in the Page Six column of The New York Post.

“Girls,” a New York coming-of-age comedy created by and starring Lena Dunham, and produced by Ms. Dunham, Judd Apatow and Jenni Konner, has become one of HBO’s most talked-about series since its debut in 2012. It has rapidly made stars out of its young actors, including Mr. Abbott (“Martha Marcy May Marlene”), who played Charlie, a seemingly aimless young man who, after a bad breakup with Marnie (Allison Williams), finds success by creating a popular iPhone app.

Charlie and Marnie seemed to have reconciled in the Season 2 finale of “Girls,” but Mr. Abbott’s departure suggests that plot line won’t extend very far into Season 3, which is currently in production. A press representative for Mr. Abbott said in an e-mail on Thursday morning that he was “grateful for the experience of collaborating with Lena, Judd, and the entire ‘Girls’ cast and crew, but right now he’s working on numerous other projects and has decided not to return to the show.”



Trove of Photographs Donated to Jazz at Lincoln Center

Frank Driggs with some of his collection in 2005.Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times Frank Driggs with some of his collection in 2005.

One of the largest collections of jazz photographs in the world, an archive painstakingly assembled over six decades by the record producer and writer Frank Driggs, has been donated to Jazz at Lincoln Center.

When Mr. Driggs died, in September 2011, he left behind eight filing cabinets in his Greenwich Village home bulging with more than 78,000 photographs of jazz, ragtime and pop artists, from the obscure to the iconic, all alphabetized in well-thumbed manila folders.

Many of the photographs had been given to Mr. Driggs, a former producer for Columbia Records, by the musicians themselves during decades when he haunted New York’s jazz clubs. The collection is widely regarded as unique in its size and scope: there are 1,545 images of Duke Ellington; 1,083 shots of Louis Armstrong; and 692 photographs of Benny Goodman.

During his lifetime, publishers, labels, historians and film producers frequently mined Mr. Driggs’s files for historic material, paying for the use of the images. He was a major contributor to Ken Burns’s TV documentary “Jazz,” first broadcast in 2001. In 2005, his collection, which includes posters, tickets and other memorabilia, was appraised at $1.5 million by Dan Morgenstern, a jazz scholar at Rutgers.

Though several jazz institutions tried to acquire the collection, Mr. Driggs resisted those overtures and continued to amass photographs until his death. Now, the executor of his estate, Harris Lewine, has given the trove to Jazz at Lincoln Center, along with rights to the photographs. That will give the nonprofit a new revenue stream.

“Jazz at Lincoln Center has a deep and nuanced understanding of the importance and relevance of the collection, and they shared a unique vision about how they will make it available, accessible and relevant,” said Mr. Lewine, an author who collaborated with Mr. Driggs on the 1982 book “Black Beauty, White Heat: A Pictorial History of Classic Jazz.”

The jazz nonprofit has promised to create a permanent display for the collection at the Frederick P. Rose Hall on Columbus Circle, said Gabrielle Armand, the group’s vice president for marketing and corporate sponsorship. Ms. Armand said the photographs would also be made available to scholars and museums.

Donna Ranieri, a friend of Mr. Driggs who has administered the collection for his estate, said the collector left instructions in his will that the photos and memorabilia should be given to an educational institution, but did not specify which one. It took more than a year for Mr. Lewine and the lawyers handling Mr. Driggs’ estate to settle on Jazz at Lincoln Center. “Frank loved New York with all his heart,” she said. “It was the epicenter of everthing to him, and the fact that the collection is staying in New York is a great thing.”

An amateur jazz trumpeter from Vermont, Mr. Driggs moved to Manhattan in the early 1950s and began saving posters, fliers, ticket stubs and photos. At the time, he was writing for jazz magazines and spending his nights at clubs like Basin Street, Jimmy Ryan’s, Birdland, Café Bohemia and the Savoy Ballroom. He became relentless in tracking down and acquiring photographs. He often asked musicians he interviewed for access to their personal collections.

“I was interested in the history of jazz and I began buying photographs to fill in the gaps in my knowledge and gaps in the current accounts of the day,” Mr. Driggs told The Times in 2005.

In the late 1950s, the producer John Hammond hired Mr. Driggs at Columbia Records, where he was responsible for re-issuing important recordings by Fletcher Henderson, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Gene Krupa and the bluesman Robert Johnson.

Though he talked in his later years about selling his store of images, Mr. Driggs could never bring himself to part with it, friends said. “It was his whole life’s work and it was hard for him to give it away during his lifetime,” Ms. Ranieri said. “It gave him a reason to get up in the morning.”



Trove of Photographs Donated to Jazz at Lincoln Center

Frank Driggs with some of his collection in 2005.Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times Frank Driggs with some of his collection in 2005.

One of the largest collections of jazz photographs in the world, an archive painstakingly assembled over six decades by the record producer and writer Frank Driggs, has been donated to Jazz at Lincoln Center.

When Mr. Driggs died, in September 2011, he left behind eight filing cabinets in his Greenwich Village home bulging with more than 78,000 photographs of jazz, ragtime and pop artists, from the obscure to the iconic, all alphabetized in well-thumbed manila folders.

Many of the photographs had been given to Mr. Driggs, a former producer for Columbia Records, by the musicians themselves during decades when he haunted New York’s jazz clubs. The collection is widely regarded as unique in its size and scope: there are 1,545 images of Duke Ellington; 1,083 shots of Louis Armstrong; and 692 photographs of Benny Goodman.

During his lifetime, publishers, labels, historians and film producers frequently mined Mr. Driggs’s files for historic material, paying for the use of the images. He was a major contributor to Ken Burns’s TV documentary “Jazz,” first broadcast in 2001. In 2005, his collection, which includes posters, tickets and other memorabilia, was appraised at $1.5 million by Dan Morgenstern, a jazz scholar at Rutgers.

Though several jazz institutions tried to acquire the collection, Mr. Driggs resisted those overtures and continued to amass photographs until his death. Now, the executor of his estate, Harris Lewine, has given the trove to Jazz at Lincoln Center, along with rights to the photographs. That will give the nonprofit a new revenue stream.

“Jazz at Lincoln Center has a deep and nuanced understanding of the importance and relevance of the collection, and they shared a unique vision about how they will make it available, accessible and relevant,” said Mr. Lewine, an author who collaborated with Mr. Driggs on the 1982 book “Black Beauty, White Heat: A Pictorial History of Classic Jazz.”

The jazz nonprofit has promised to create a permanent display for the collection at the Frederick P. Rose Hall on Columbus Circle, said Gabrielle Armand, the group’s vice president for marketing and corporate sponsorship. Ms. Armand said the photographs would also be made available to scholars and museums.

Donna Ranieri, a friend of Mr. Driggs who has administered the collection for his estate, said the collector left instructions in his will that the photos and memorabilia should be given to an educational institution, but did not specify which one. It took more than a year for Mr. Lewine and the lawyers handling Mr. Driggs’ estate to settle on Jazz at Lincoln Center. “Frank loved New York with all his heart,” she said. “It was the epicenter of everthing to him, and the fact that the collection is staying in New York is a great thing.”

An amateur jazz trumpeter from Vermont, Mr. Driggs moved to Manhattan in the early 1950s and began saving posters, fliers, ticket stubs and photos. At the time, he was writing for jazz magazines and spending his nights at clubs like Basin Street, Jimmy Ryan’s, Birdland, Café Bohemia and the Savoy Ballroom. He became relentless in tracking down and acquiring photographs. He often asked musicians he interviewed for access to their personal collections.

“I was interested in the history of jazz and I began buying photographs to fill in the gaps in my knowledge and gaps in the current accounts of the day,” Mr. Driggs told The Times in 2005.

In the late 1950s, the producer John Hammond hired Mr. Driggs at Columbia Records, where he was responsible for re-issuing important recordings by Fletcher Henderson, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Gene Krupa and the bluesman Robert Johnson.

Though he talked in his later years about selling his store of images, Mr. Driggs could never bring himself to part with it, friends said. “It was his whole life’s work and it was hard for him to give it away during his lifetime,” Ms. Ranieri said. “It gave him a reason to get up in the morning.”



The Good Karma Food Truck

Dear Diary:

I am a roach coach fiend. I get my morning corn muffin and iced coffee from one just outside my office on 34th and Park. At lunch, I walk one block away from my office and grab a chicken and rice platter with the special white sauce and everything on it. And after work around 6, right outside the Port Authority, before I make my way into the station for my bus commute home through the Lincoln Tunnel into Hoboken, I frequently grab a hot dog as a pre-snack dinner from a third food cart.

(My girlfriend gets mad at me if I eat before dinner on days she makes a big meal. But by the time I get home and dinner is finally ready, I feel like a starved boy. She interrogates me if I don’t eat a full dinner, and I must lie that I am having stomach problems. It’s the only time I lie to her.)

But it was on a recent walk to work one morning on the corner of 38th and Fifth that I noticed another food cart that really made my day.

On the side panel just below the container filled with pink-and-blue packets of processed sugar was a sign that read, “Take a Smile (They’re free),” with smiley-faced slips of paper to take. Next to it read another sign, “Take What You Need,” with slips of paper for “Passion, Courage, Strength, Motivation, Forgiveness” â€" other options were apparently already taken. Coincidentally, I had no pocket change and decided to take a smiley face.

“I feel it’s my role to bring hope to people,” said the soft-spoken merchant when I asked him why he put up the signs.

If only we all had such roles.

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Hillary Clinton Foreign Policy Book Coming Out Next Year

Former Secretary of State and possible presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton will publish a new book in 2014 about American foreign policy, her publisher, Simon & Schuster, said Thursday morning.

A news release said, “The yet-to-be titled book will use a number of dramatic moments during Secretary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State to frame her thoughts about the recent history of U.S. foreign policy and the urgent, ongoing need for American leadership in a changing world.”

Among the topics she will touch on are the killing of Osama bin Laden and the overthrow of the Qaddafi regime in Libya. Mrs. Clinton has been under siege by Republicans for her handling of the Libyan conflict, and the killings of the American ambassador and three other Americans last year in Benghazi.

The book will also address many of Mrs. Clinton’s signature topics like the critical role of protecting women and girls in developing economies and could burnish her credentials for a presidential run.

Mrs. Clinton is the author of four previous books, all published by Simon & Schuster: “It Takes a Village” (1996), “Dear Socks, Dear Buddy” (1998), “An Invitation to the White House” (2000) and “Living History” (2003).



New ‘Arrested Development’ Season Coming to Netflix on May 26

The cast of Hulu The cast of “Arrested Development,” including Jason Bateman, center, during the original run of the series.

It’s no longer just a dream in the hearts of “Arrested Development” fans, a wild-eyed scheme in the mind of series creator Mitchell Hurwitz or a question for its cast members to answer in every interview they have given since 2006. A new season of “Arrested Development” will be released on Netflix on May 26, it was announced on Thursday.

Netflix said in a news release that it would post 15 new episodes of “Arrested Development,” constituting a fourth season of that cockamamie comedy series, all at once at 12:01 a.m. Pacific time on May 26 in every territory where the service is available.

Ted Sarandos, the chief content officer of Netflix, said in a statement that Mr. Hurwitz was presenting “Arrested Development” in “a brand-new way, crafted for the on-demand generation that has come to discover the show in the years since it last appeared on TV.” He added, “The highly anticipated return of this show is sure to make history all over again.”

Mr. Hurwitz said in a statement that Mr. Sarandos was “going to be immensely disappointed.” He continued: “In truth we are doing something very ambitious that can only be done with Netflix as partners and on their platform. Finally my simple wish for the show is coming true: that it be broadcast every second around the clock to every television, computer or mobile device in existence.”

“Arrested Development,” which originally ran for three seasons on Fox between 2003 and 2006, starred Jason Bateman as one of the few arguably sane members of a complicated family played by Michael Cera, Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walter, Will Arnett, Tony Hale, Portia de Rossi, David Cross and Alia Shawkat. Though the series won the Emmy Award for outstanding comedy series in its debut season, it was never a ratings smash and its last episodes were broadcast in a final, two-hour blurt opposite the opening ceremonies of the 2006 Winter Olympics.

In the years since, Mr. Hurwitz has vowed to revive the series, possibly as a movie, while its cast members offered nebulous statements of semi-support. Then, in 2011, Mr. Hurwitz said that he was preparing a new season of “Arrested Development” episodes, which would serve as a prelude to a (still largely hypothetical) movie.

Netflix, which describes itself as an Internet television network, has been rapidly adding original content to its lineup this year. In February, it introduced “House of Cards,” a political thriller starring Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright and Kate Mara, and whose producers include David Fincher. Other series planned for the months ahead include “Hemlock Grove,” from the horror director Eli Roth, and “Orange is the New Black,” from the “Weeds” creator Jenji Kohan.



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