Friday, January 15, 2021
“A woman can be a man’s friend only in this sequence: first an acquaintance, then a mistress, and after that a friend.”
Anton Chekhov, Uncle Vanya
Continue reading Almanac: Chekhov on…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMThursday, January 14, 2021
“The only real revolution is in the enlightenment of the mind and the improvement of character, the only real emancipation is individual, and the only real revolutionaries are philosophers…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMWednesday, January 13, 2021
James Earl Jones appears in a scene from the original Broadway production of August Wilson’s Fences, performed on the 1987 Tony Awards telecast:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“Finality is not the language of politics.”
Benjamin Disraeli, speech in the House of Commons (February 28, 1859)
Continue reading Almanac: Disraeli on politics at About Last Night.
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMTuesday, January 12, 2021
From 2011:
For the most part I’ve only talked about it in passing on this blog, but a year ago I started writing a one-man play about Louis Armstrong and Joe Glaser, his longtime manager. …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“It is depressing to hear the unfortunate or dying man jest.”
Anton Chekhov, “On the Road” (trans. Constance Garnett)
Continue reading Almanac: Chekhov on dying at About Last Night.
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMMonday, January 11, 2021
In my latest Wall Street Journal “Sightings” column, I write about the appeal of widescreen films. Here’s an excerpt.
* * *
We’ve all heard about the perilous state to which …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:02AMArtie Shaw plays his “Concerto for Clarinet” with his big band in the 1940 film Second Chorus, directed by H.C. Potter:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related vid…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“Faith is an aptitude of the spirit. It is, in fact, a talent: you must be born with it.”
Anton Chekhov, “On the Road” (trans. Constance Garnett)
Continue reading Almanac: Chekhov on…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMFriday, January 8, 2021
In Friday’s Wall Street Journal I review the Mint Theater’s webcast of Lillian Hellman’s Days to Come. Here’s an excerpt.
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One of the few welcome surprises of 2020 was the…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AMIn solitude
What happiness? who can enjoy alone?
Or, all enjoying, what contentment find?
John Milton, Paradise Lost
Continue reading Almanac: John Milton on loneliness at About Last Night.
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMThursday, January 7, 2021
“A Mob’s a Monster; Heads enough, but no Brains.”
Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack
Continue reading Almanac: Benjamin Franklin on mobs at About Last Night.
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMWednesday, January 6, 2021
A scene from Hitler: The Last Ten Days, directed by Ennio De Concini and starring Alec Guinness as Adolf Hitler:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that ap…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“Power is never stable when it is boundless.”
Tacitus, History
Continue reading Almanac: Tacitus on power at About Last Night.
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMTuesday, January 5, 2021
“It is the prerogative of great men to have great defects.”
Rouchefoucauld, Maxims
Continue reading Almanac: Rochefoucauld on the flaws of great men at About Last Night.
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AMFrom 2011:
Directing is mainly listening. The director’s first job is to ensure that the actor speaks the text in such a way as to make it intelligible to members of the audience who have …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AMMonday, January 4, 2021
William Walton talks about his life and work and is seen conducting his own music:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday,…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“We live everything as it comes, without warning, like an actor going on cold. And what can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself?”
Milan Kundera, The Unbearable …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AM“There are some bad qualities which make great talents.”
Rochefoucauld, Maxims
Continue reading Almanac: Rochefoucauld on talent at About Last Night.
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMFriday, January 1, 2021
Louis Armstrong and the All Stars perform “Basin Street Blues” on The Bell Telephone Hour. This episode was originally telecast by NBC on February 2, 1964:
(This is the latest in a ser…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AMI wait for you in the harshest desert
and next to the flowering lemon tree,
in every place where there is life,
where spring is being born,
my love, I wait for you.
Pablo Neruda, “Letter o…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMThursday, December 31, 2020
A year ago today, my beloved Hilary was in an intensive-care unit at New York-Presbyterian, fighting for her life as she awaited a double-lung transplant. She had no idea that worse awaited …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:02AMIn today’s Wall Street Journal I write about the Stephen Joseph Theatre’s webcast of a radio play written and performed by Alan Ayckbourn. Here’s an excerpt.
* * *
Alan Ayckbourn…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AMThe stone fidelity
They hardly meant has come to be
Their final blazon, and to prove
Our almost-instinct almost true:
What will survive of us is love.
Philip Larkin, “An Arundel Tomb”
Co…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMWednesday, December 30, 2020
I will make you always remember this place, this day, and me.
Terence, “Eunuchus”
Continue reading Almanac: Terence on memory at About Last Night.
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMLouis Armstrong and his big band perform “I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues,” by Ted Koehler and Harold Arlen, in 1933:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMTuesday, December 29, 2020
From 2004:
I haven’t taken part in many weddings in my life, and none at all in recent years, so when my friend Laura asked me to read the Eighty-Fourth Psalm at her wedding last Saturday,…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AMI shall remember while the light lives yet
And in the night time I shall not forget.
Algernon Charles Swinburne, “Erotion”
Continue reading Almanac: Swinburne on memory at About Last Nig…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMMonday, December 28, 2020
Cab Calloway and his big band perform “Blues in the Night,” by Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this sp…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AMAnd when the stream
Which overflowed the soul was passed away,
A consciousness remained that it had left,
Deposited upon the silent shore
Of memory, images and precious thoughts,
That shall …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMFriday, December 25, 2020
In today’s Wall Street Journal I review webcast versions of Meet Me in St. Louis and An Iliad, plus a video concert by Melissa Errico. Here’s an excerpt.
* * *
New York’s Irish R…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:03AM 
