2,374 stories by "Terry Teachout"
"We are born helpless. As soon as we are fully conscious we discover loneliness. We need others physically, emotionally, intellectually; we need them if we are to know anything, even ourselv…
From 2007:
Six months ago, I bought a Fairfield Porter lithograph. Two weeks ago, I stood at the edge of a rocky cove near the southern tip of a remote island off the coast of Maine, looking…
"The safest road to Hell is the gradual one"the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."
C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
Continue r…
I wrote a review-essay for Saturday's Wall Street Journal book section occasioned by the publication of Straighten Up and Fly Right, Will Friedwald's important new biography of Nat Kin…
Immediately after I heard of the death of Julian Bream last Friday morning, I wrote an obituary about him that appeared on The Wall Street Journal's website later that day. Here's an exce…
Mabel Mercer sings Cole Porter's "Where, Oh Where" (from Out of This World) in an undated video clip of a live performance:Â
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-relat…
"All mortals tend to turn into the thing they are pretending to be."
C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
Continue reading Almanac: C.S. Lewis on pretense at About Last Night.
The greatest classical guitarist of the twentieth century died today. I reviewed one of his New York solo recitals for the Daily News back in the Nineties, and have never forgotten how wo…
In today's Wall Street Journal drama column, I write about William Friedkin's 1970 screen version of Mart Crowley's The Boys in the Band. Here's an excerpt.
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You can count…
Art Carney and Garson Kanin are interviewed on The Bill Boggs Show in 1979:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wed…
"I am almost inclined to set it up as a canon that a children's story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children's story. The good ones last. A waltz which you can like only w…
In today's Wall Street Journal "Sightings" column, I consider the New York Philharmonic's plan to renovate the interior of David Geffen Hall, its home, and suggest an alternative. Here's an …
"Only the skilled can judge the skilfulness, but that is not the same as judging the value of the result."
C.S. Lewis, "Is Criticism Possible?"
Continue reading Almanac: C.S. Lewis on what c…
Julie Andrews sings "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?" (from My Fair Lady) on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1961. Because she was replaced by Audrey Hepburn in the screen version, his is the only sur…
"I can't imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once."
C.S. Lewis, letter to Arthur Greeves, February 1932
Continue reading Almanac: C.S. Lewis on rereading books at About …
From 2010:
To be gratuitously nasty in public discourse is like relieving yourself in a swimming pool. Even if nobody knows you did it, you still made the pool a dirtier place for everybody"…
"The very man who has argued you down will sometimes be found, years later, to have been influenced by what you said."
C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms
Continue reading Almanac: C.S.…
Jim Hall and Larry Goldings play Hall's "All Across the City":
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Frid…
"Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken."
C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves (courtesy of Brenda Becker)
Continue reading Almanac: C.S. Lewis on the tragic natu…
In today's Wall Street Journal I review a PBS webcast of Kenny Leon's 2019 Shakespeare in the Park production of Much Ado About Nothing. Here's an excerpt.
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PBS continues …
Pablo Picasso paints for the camera in 1949 in a scene from Visit to Picasso, directed by Paul Haesaert:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appea…
"A puritan is a person who pours righteous indignation into the wrong things."
G.K. Chesterton, interview, New York Times (November 21, 1930)
Continue reading Almanac: G.K. Chesterton on pur…
"Music is essentially useless, as life is."
George Santayana, The Life of Reason
Continue reading Almanac: George Santayana on music at About Last Night.
Duke Ellington and His Orchestra perform Ellington's "Afro-Bossa" at a 1965 concert in Baghdad:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space…
"Its beauty comes from the fact that nothing you see was built before 1900."
Marcel Duchamp (quoted in Virgil Thomson, Virgil Thomson)
Continue reading Almanac: Marcel Duchamp on the Manh…
