In 1819, Ludwig van Beethoven was middle-aged, almost broke, nearly deaf, and suffering a mid-career cold streak. When music publisher Anton Diabelli asked him to remix a middling beer-hall waltz Diabelli had composed as the basis for an all-star compilation volume, Beethoven first refused, then changed his mind. Over the next three-odd years, the Maestro was intermittently obsessed with Diabelli’s tossed-off little ditty, creating not one, not two, but yes, three-and-thirty variations on a…

In his latest play, Love-Lies-Bleeding, now being staged at the Kennedy Center, renowned author Don DeLillo seems to have capitalized on the societal rift that divided the country during the Terri Schiavo scandal: Is it ethical to end the life of an individual in a “persistant vegetative state”? And while DCist commends him for not merely exploring the two sides of the ethical debate and instead focusing on the interpersonal ramifications of one family’s story,…