Friday, April 5, 2019
Glen Campbell and the Smothers Brothers sing “Thank You Very Much” on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. This episode was originally telecast by CBS in February of 1968: (This is the la…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“His liking for Chinese art was an affair of the mind; in a world of increasing noise and hugeness, he turned in private to gentle, precise, and miniature things.” James Hilton, Lost Ho…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMThursday, April 4, 2019
“Conway remarked with a smile: ‘I suppose you’re certain, then, that no human affection can outlast a five-year absence?’ “‘It can, undoubtedly,’ replied the Chinese, ‘but on…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMWednesday, April 3, 2019
Peter Pears and Julian Bream perform John Dowland’s “Fine knacks for ladies” and Philip Rosseter’s “What then is love but mourning” on the BBC in 1959: (This is the latest in a s…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“Since the point was raised, it seemed to me that Mrs. Rainier was too good, and that for this reason she might miss the secret English bull’s-eye that can only be hit by guns sighted to…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMTuesday, April 2, 2019
From 2009: No matter how you think you feel about a book that you’ve written, your feelings are guaranteed to change when you see your treasured words set in cold type for the first time. …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“Extraordinary how stupid one can be when one would prefer to impress by being knowledgeable.” James Hilton, Random Harvest
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMMonday, April 1, 2019
Not long after my recent car crash, a friend wrote: “Do hope you are feeling recovered, and that the missing patch of hair isn’t too obvious.” (I’d previously mentioned in this space…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:02AMExcerpts from a TV interview with Lady Diana Mosley (formerly Diana Mitford) in which she talks with Mavis Nicholson about her marriage to Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of F…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“When youth departs, may wisdom prove enough.” Anthony McCarten, screenplay for Darkest Hour (spoken in the film by Winston Churchill)
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMFriday, March 29, 2019
In today’s Wall Street Journal drama column, which appears in the paper’s online edition, I review an important off-Broadway revival of Juno and the Paycock. Here’s an excerpt. * *�…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:04AMThe twenty-eighth 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 lis…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:03AMTerence Rattigan’s The Browning Version, starring John Gielgud and Angela Baddeley, adapted for radio by Cynthia Pughe, and originally broadcast by the BBC on January 30, 1958: (This is t…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:01AM“I always divide people into two groups. Those who live by what they know to be a lie, and those who live by what they believe, falsely, to be the truth.” Christopher Hampton, The Phila…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:00AMThursday, March 28, 2019
In today’s Wall Street Journal “Sightings” column, I discuss a new book about one of the world’s most important film-music composers. Here’s an excerpt. * * * Which classical…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:02AM“The fate of all people who imitate others to achieve authenticity is to live a lie.” Theodore Dalrymple, “Exposing Shallowness” (The New Criterion,June 2000)
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMWednesday, March 27, 2019
Two new magazine pieces by me have been published in the past few days. One of them, my latest monthly essay for Commentary, is about Western movies: Stagecoach set the tone for Western fi…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 12:10PMBuddy Rich sings Cole Porter’s “All of You” and plays an impromptu blues on an undated episode of “In Melbourne Tonight,” an Australian TV series. This segment is thought to have o…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“What moves men of genius, or rather, what inspires their work, is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.” Eugène Delacr…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMTuesday, March 26, 2019
From 2009: Everybody who knows about jazz knows about “West End Blues.” I doubt, though, that most people know where the song, written by Joe Oliver, Armstrong’s mentor, got its name�…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“The ego is an opinion-generating mechanism, one that calls into question the impossibility of perpetual motion.” Patrick Kurp, Anecdotal Evidence, Feb. 10, 2019
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMMonday, March 25, 2019
With one exception, the various brushes with death that I’ve reported in this space have heretofore been experienced and survived by Mrs. T. No more: I got back on the scoreboard late last…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:02AMA reel of TV commercials created by Stan Freberg: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:01AM “When people cannot write good literature it is perhaps natural that they should lay down rules how good literature should be written.” George Saintsbury, The Book of the Queen’s Do…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:00AMFriday, March 22, 2019
In today’s Wall Street Journal drama column, I review two premieres, John Guare’s Nantucket Sleigh Ride and Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations. Here’s an excerpt.…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:02AMLaurence Olivier is interviewed by Michael Parkinson about his film career on Cinema. This program was originally telecast by Granada Television on November 19, 1970: (This is the latest in…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“Here, as else- and every-where in criticism, not only the hardest thing but also the hardest thing to get recognized when attained, is the appreciation of difference without insisting on …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMThursday, March 21, 2019
“As has been suggested above, the Book of History is the Bible of Irony: and, it may be added, the newspaper is a sort of key to that book though no doubt they change positions very frequ…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMWednesday, March 20, 2019
Playhouse 90’s TV version of Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” originally telecast live by CBS on November 6, 1958. The adaptation is by Stewart Stern and the telecast was directe…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“Droll thing life is—that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself—that comes too late—a crop of un…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMTuesday, March 19, 2019
From 2009: I see a good many pre-1970 musicals as part of my duties as drama critic of The Wall Street Journal, and it occurred to me the other day to draw up a list of the best ones. Here,…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM 
