QUOTABLE I: “He, more than anyone else I know, had the humor and the wit and the experience and the point of view of life on the road. He had the greatest, most realistic, bitterly funny version of life on the road. I definitely wanted him to come in and write the songs and just be there for Jeff to watch. A little bit of Stephen lives on in the character.”

— T Bone Burnett, on picking fellow Fort Worth musician Stephen Bruton to co-write the songs for the movie Crazy Heart, starring Jeff Bridges. Read more from Burnett on dfw.com.

QUOTABLE II: “A lot of times sports is better on television — instant replay, the comfort of your chair, the close-ups. An arts experience is essentially a live experience, and it’s an intimate experience. I think that’s helping to keep people going.”

— Steven Wolff, principal of AMS Planning & Research, a company that advises large performing arts centers, in a Los Angeles Times story explaining why the fine arts have held their audiences more firmly than sports and movies.

SITTING THIS ONE OUT: Jaap van Zweden will miss the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day concerts due to a sore shoulder. The conductor’s doctor says Van Zweden needs several weeks of rest. Scott Cantrell has the details on his replacement for next week’s concerts.