Friday, June 5, 2020
“The sense of unhappiness is so much easier to convey than that of happiness. In misery we seem aware of our own existence, even though it may be in the form of a monstrous egotism: this p…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMThursday, June 4, 2020
“People don’t like reality,. They don’t like common sense. Until age forces it on them.”
Graham Greene, Loser Takes All
Continue reading Almanac: Graham Greene on realism at About L…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMWednesday, June 3, 2020
A scene from The Third Man, written by Graham Greene, starring Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles, and directed by Carol Reed:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related vide…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“It is impossible to go through life without trust: that is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, oneself.”
Graham Greene, The Ministry of Fear
Continue reading Almanac: Graham Gre…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMTuesday, June 2, 2020
From 2006:
Fame is intense but fleeting in a TV-driven culture, which is one of the many reasons why I love watching the old What’s My Line? kinescopes that air at three-thirty each morn…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.”
Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory
Continue reading Almanac: Graham Greene on childhood at About…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMMonday, June 1, 2020
Hilary Teachout, my beloved wife and life’s companion, died two months ago this Sunday, and her ashes were returned to me a week and a half ago. Save for that bleak landmark, nothing much …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:29PMGraham Greene talks about writing and boredom in a 1983 interview:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related interviews that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“Morality comes with the sad wisdom of age, when the sense of curiosity has withered.”
Graham Greene, A Sort of Life
Continue reading Almanac: Graham Greene on morality at About Last Ni…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMFriday, May 29, 2020
In today’s Wall Street Journal, I review a webcast from Chicago of TimeLine Theatre’s 2013 revival of To Master the Art, a play about Julia Child. Here’s an excerpt.
* * *
As the…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:03AM“A Dream Comes True: The Making of an Unusual Motion Picture,” a promotional featurette for Max Reinhardt’s 1935 Hollywood screen version of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Drea…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AMThey have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly.
But, bear-like, I must fight the course.
William Shakespeare, Macbeth
Continue reading Almanac: Shakespeare on despair at About Last Night.
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMThursday, May 28, 2020
“Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair.”
Elie Wiesel, Nobel lecture, December 11, 1986
Continue reading Almanac: Elie Wiesel on despair at …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMWednesday, May 27, 2020
Jerry Lewis “introduces” James Brown on The Jerry Lewis Show in 1968:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesd…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“Human life begins on the far side of despair.”
Jean-Paul Sartre, The Flies
Continue reading Almanac: Sartre on despair at About Last Night.
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMTuesday, May 26, 2020
From 2008:
I have a Facebook page, believe it or not, but I don’t do Irony Lite, nor do I care whether other people find my tastes insufficiently cool, much less insufficiently “white”…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“Despair is the price one pays for setting oneself an impossible aim.”
Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter
Continue reading Almanac: Graham Greene on despair at About Last Night.
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMMonday, May 25, 2020
Kingsley Amis is interviewed by Simon Raven on Monitor. The interview, introduced by Huw Wheldon, was originally telecast by the BBC on February 2, 1958:
(This is the latest in a series of…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“Despair is the conclusion of fools.”
Benjamin Disraeli, The Wondrous Tale of Alroy
Continue reading Almanac: Disraeli on despair at About Last Night.
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMFriday, May 22, 2020
In today’s Wall Street Journal I review the latest American Shakespeare Center webcast, a revival of Frank Galati’s stage version of The Grapes of Wrath. Here’s an excerpt.
* * *…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:03AMMichael Parkinson interviews James Stewart and his wife Gloria on the BBC in 1973:
(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“To rank the effort above the prize may be called love..”
Confucius, Analects
Continue reading Almanac: Confucius on diligence at About Last Night.
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMThursday, May 21, 2020
My wife Hilary died a bit more than two months ago. I wrote a fair amount about her passing at the time, but of late I’ve limited myself to the occasional tweet. That’s not because I’m…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 11:54AMMy latest Wall Street Journal “Sightings” column is about the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on smaller arts organizations and the neighborhoods they serve. Here’s an excerpt.
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SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“Every time that a human being succeeds in making an effort of attention with the sole idea of increasing his grasp of truth, he acquires a greater aptitude for grasping it, even if his ef…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMWednesday, May 20, 2020
Buddy Rich and his big band play Bill Potts’ “Big Swing Face” at Holland’s Northsea Jazz Festival in 1979:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that a…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth New Exertio…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMTuesday, May 19, 2020
From 2005:
I noticed the other day that I’d stopped taking time off on weekends. No, it’s not that I’m in the vise-like grip of an obsession: it’s that my weekly routine gradually ch…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“PERSEVERANCE, n. A lowly virtue whereby mediocrity achieves an inglorious success.”
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary
Continue reading Almanac: Ambrose Bierce on perseverence at…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMMonday, May 18, 2020
A new episode of Three on the Aisle, the twice-monthly podcast in which Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I talk about theater in America, is now available on line for listening or d…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 10:44AMVladimir Horowitz plays Scriabin’s D-Sharp Minor Etude, Op. 8, No. 12, at Carnegie Hall in 1968. The video is from a concert telecast by CBS. The audio has been synchronized from a high-qu…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM 
