Friday, March 13, 2020
Mrs. T opened her eyes this morning for the first time since her double-lung transplant surgery. She appeared to respond when I asked her to blink if she could hear my voice and understand w…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 01:40PMSid Caesar portrays a young pianist making his first concert appearance. This performance was originally telecast by NBC in March of 1959 as part of “Some of Manie’s Friends,” a posthu…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“All of us—the public, critics, and composers themselves—spend far too much time worrying about whether a work is a shattering masterpiece. Let us not be so self-conscious. Maybe in th…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMThursday, March 12, 2020
I’ve written a special “Sightings” column for The Wall Street Journal in which I consider the potentially devastating effects of coronavirus on theater in New York—and suggest a rem…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 01:25PM“We were talking about old age and he said that nothing could be done about it, and that he had a very strong feeling that people died at the right moment, and that the greatness of a pers…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMWednesday, March 11, 2020
Walter Brennan is the guest on This Is Your Life, hosted by Ralph Edwards. This episode was originally telecast live by NBC on March 30, 1955:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“What makes Puccini a greater composer of operas than, in my humble opinion, a great composer, is that he knows how long it takes a person to cross the room.”
Benjamin Britten (quoted in…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMTuesday, March 10, 2020
From 2004:
Prior to the release in 1988 of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, I no longer watched animated cartoons save on the rare occasions when I found myself in a hotel room on a Saturday mornin…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“I am an arrogant and impatient listener, but in the case of a few composers, a very few, when I hear a work I do not like I am convinced it is my own fault. Verdi is one of those composer…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMMonday, March 9, 2020
Mrs. T’s doctors told me a few minutes ago that she is continuing to make excellent progress recovering from last weekend’s double-lung transplant surgery. She has been fully sedated sin…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:28PM“Night Club Boom,” a March of Time newsreel about New York nightclubs originally released in 1946. Among the musicians seen performing are Jimmy Dorsey, the Ink Spots, and Eddie Condon�…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:02AM“Do you wish to find out a person’s weak points? Note the failings he has the quickest eye for in others. They may not be the very failings he is himself conscious of; but they will be t…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMSaturday, March 7, 2020
I’ve written an open letter to the family of the anonymous, now-deceased organ donor whose lungs were transplanted into Mrs. T’s chest this week. You’ll find it on the op-ed page of to…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 04:01AMIf I can ease one Life the Aching
Or cool one Pain
Or help one fainting Robin
Unto his Nest again
I shall not live in Vain.
Emily Dickinson, “If I can stop one Heart from breaking”
Con…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 04:00AMFriday, March 6, 2020
Mrs. T continues to recover smoothly from her double-lung transplant surgery. Her chest cavity, which was deliberately left open after the operation, was washed out and closed up last night,…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:05AMIn today’s Wall Street Journal I review the off-Broadway premiere of Katori Hall’s The Hot Wing King and the Broadway transfer of Girl From the North Country. Here’s an excerpt.
* *…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:02AMBing Crosby sings “Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da,” by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, on an episode of The Hollywood Palace originally telecast by ABC on March 1, 1969:
(This is the latest in a se…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“There must be a spice of mischief and wilfulness thrown into the cup of our existence to give it its sharp taste and sparkling colour.”
William Hazlitt, “On Depth and Superficiality�…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMThursday, March 5, 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 02:28PMIn today’s Wall Street Journal “Sightings” column, I discuss Hollywood movies whose subject matter is infectious disease, with special reference to Panic in the Streets, directed by El…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:02AM“There must always be two kinds of art, escape-art, for man needs escape as he needs food and deep sleep, and parable-art, that art which shall teach man to unlearn hatred and learn love.�…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:00AMWednesday, March 4, 2020
Billy Joel performs “New York State of Mind” on The Mike Douglas Show. This episode was taped on August 9, 1976:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos tha…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:01AM“Even for spirits less fastidious than Strachey’s, there is, even at the best of times, a great charm in the past. Time, that sedulous artist, has been at work on it, selecting and rejec…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:00AMTuesday, March 3, 2020
I’m overjoyed to report that Mrs. T’s condition has improved significantly since yesterday. She was having problems with “coagulopathy,” which is a fancy way of saying that her blood…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:17PMFrom 2010:
A colleague remarked to me at breakfast the other day that 2009 must have been the most eventful year of my professional life to date, and I couldn’t argue with him. The twin su…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“I used to think that a man ceased to live when he ceased to be in love. Now I know that he ceases to live when he can no longer look forward.”
James Lees-Milne, diary, April 30, 1975
Co…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMMonday, March 2, 2020
Mrs. T survived her double-lung transplant surgery and was moved to the cardio-thoracic intensive-care unit of New York-Presbyterian Hospital at noon today. She was on the operating table fo…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:42PMVictor Borge performs at the Eisenhower White House. This kinescope is an excerpt from an episode of The Colgate Comedy Hour, originally telecast by NBC on January 11, 1953:
(This is the l…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“‘Now I want you to tell me just one thing more. Why do you hate the South?’
“‘I don’t hate it,’ Quentin said, quickly, at once, immediately; ‘I don’t hate it,’ he said. …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMSunday, March 1, 2020
We got the Big Call. The transplant coordinator at New York-Presbyterian Hospital phoned Mrs. T on Saturday night with what is known as a “donor offer.” In plain English, a pair of lungs…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:41PM“Remember that hope is a good thing, Red, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”
Stephen King, “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption” (from Different Seasons)
Con…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:37PM 
