2,374 stories by "Terry Teachout"
"I wish that I could save myself constant repetition by printing across the dog's-ear place of these pages the warning, 'Never judge a critic by your agreement with his likes and dislikes…
From 2010:
As part of our long-term project of staying at all six of the Frank Lloyd Wright houses that can be rented for overnight stays, we launched our vacation by flying to Pittsburgh an…
"Let us also once more rejoice in, and thank God for, the fact that we know nothing about Homer, and practically nothing about Shakespeare."
George Saintsbury, A Last Scrap Book
Continue …
In order to divert those of you who, like me, are sticking close to home these days, I've been posting images of some of the prints and paintings that hang on the walls of the Manhattan apar…
King Vidor and William Wyler are interviewed about their work as film directors in an undated British telecast from the Fifties:Â
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-rel…
"But dinner is dinner, a meal at which not so much to eat"it becomes difficult to eat much at it as you grow older as to drink, to talk, to flirt, to discuss, to rejoice 'at the closing of t…
In today's Wall Street Journal I review the Folger Shakespeare Library's webcast version of a 2008 revival of Macbeth co-directed by Aaron Posner and Teller. Here's an excerpt.
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Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, and Bill Fabric perform "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught," from the score of South Pacific, in a newsreel clip commemmorating the 1952 National…
"The small things of life were often so much bigger than the great things, she decided, wondering how many writers and philosophers had said this before her, the trivial pleasures like cooki…
"'Perhaps you will join us one day,' said Mrs. Beltane, in the rather perfunctory tone in which social invitations not meant to be accepted are sometimes issued, and to which the only suitab…
I've written a "Staying Inside Guide" piece for The Wall Street Journal about the novel sequence, highlighting three of my favorite authors who have worked in the genre. Here's an excerpt…
André Watts, Leonard Bernstein, and the New York Philharmonic perform Liszt's First Piano Concerto as part of a Young People's Concert featuring young classical performers, originally telec…
"She liked to think of herself as a straightforward sort of person. 'People always know where they are with me,' she would say rather smugly; it never occurred to her that people might not a…
From 2010:
I find it hard to grasp that one of the founding members of a performing ensemble that has long been so much a part of my aesthetic life is no longer with us. The good news"if you…
"'I always think one needs a drink at this time,' he said, as they approached his front door.
"'A drink?' said Marian in a surprised tone, and Aylwin realized that they were so much younger …
Jack Mangan interviews Carson McCullers on board the S.S. Queen Mary. This clip was originally telecast in 1951 by WJZ-TV as part of Ship's Reporter, a TV series in which Mangan interv…
For trouble comes to all of us: the rat
Has courage, in adversity, to fight;
But what a shining animal is man,
Who knows, when pain subsides, that is not that,
For worse than that must follo…
In this week's Wall Street Journal "Sightings" column, I ask the following question: can summer concerts and other public performances in large outdoor spaces help bolster the flagging mo…
In today's Wall Street Journal I review the online world premiere of Anno Domino, a new audio-only play by Alan Ayckbourn. Here's an excerpt.
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One by one, drama companies …
Jack Mangan interviews Graham Greene about The Third Man on board the S.S. Queen Mary. This clip was originally telecast in 1950 by WJZ-TV as part of Ship's Reporter, a TV series in…
"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 pai…
"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 Last Ni…
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 vi…
"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 Green…
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 mo…
