Wednesday, January 20, 2021
Sound footage of the presidential inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, W…
Linked From ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“Power doesn’t have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-warming and self-justifying. When you have it, you know it.”
Ralph Ellison, I…
Linked From ArtsJournal at 07:00AMTuesday, January 19, 2021
From 2006:
I woke up this morning at nine-thirty, an hour later than my normal get-up-and-go time. As I descended from the loft in which I spend my nights, it struck me that I had nothing wh…
Linked From ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“We have all forgot more than we remember.”
Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia
Continue reading Almanac: Thomas Fuller on memory at About Last Night.
Linked From ArtsJournal at 07:00AMMonday, January 18, 2021
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli plays the slow movement of Ravel’s G Major Piano Concerto, accompanied by Sergiu Celidibache and the London Symphony:
(This is the latest in a series of ar…
Linked From ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“Things are beautiful if you love them.”
Jean Anouilh, Mademoiselle Colombe (trans. Louis Kronenberger)
Continue reading Almanac: Jean Anouilh on beauty at About Last Night.
Linked From ArtsJournal at 07:00AMFriday, January 15, 2021
A new episode of Three on the Aisle, the podcast in which Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I talk about theater in America, is now available on line for listening or downloading.
He…
Linked From ArtsJournal at 07:03AMIn today’s Wall Street Journal drama column, I review two theatrical webcasts drawn from important New York productions of the past by the Hunter Theater Project and Shakespeare in the Par…
Linked From ArtsJournal at 07:02AMA scene from the 1963 film of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya,” directed by Laurence Olivier and starring Olivier, Rosemary Harris, and Michael Redgrave:
(This is the latest in a series of art…
Linked From ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“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…
Linked From 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…
Linked From 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- …
Linked From 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.
Linked From 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. …
Linked From 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.
Linked From 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 …
Linked From 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…
Linked From 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…
Linked From 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.
* * *
One of the few welcome surprises of 2020 was the…
Linked From 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.
Linked From 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.
Linked From 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…
Linked From ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“Power is never stable when it is boundless.”
Tacitus, History
Continue reading Almanac: Tacitus on power at About Last Night.
Linked From ArtsJournal at 07:00AMTuesday, January 5, 2021
From 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 …
Linked From ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“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.
Linked From 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,…
Linked From ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“There are some bad qualities which make great talents.”
Rochefoucauld, Maxims
Continue reading Almanac: Rochefoucauld on talent at About Last Night.
Linked From ArtsJournal at 07:00AM“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 …
Linked From 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…
Linked From 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…
Linked From 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 …
Linked From ArtsJournal at 07:02AM 
