2,374 stories by "Terry Teachout"
"To perceive Christmas through its wrapping becomes more difficult with every year."
E.B. White, "The Distant Music of the Hounds"
Continue reading Almanac: E.B. White on Christmas at About …
Charles Bruffy and the Kansas City Chorale perform "Nova, Nova," the second movement from Jean Belmont's Nativitas:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that …
"Now Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home."
G.K. Chesterton, The Thing
Continue reading Almanac: …
In today's Wall Street Journal I review three webcast productions of A Christmas Carol and a webcast of The Steadfast Tin Soldier. Here's an excerpt.
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Stage versi…
Mel Tormé sings "Moonlight in Vermont" on TV in 1967. The pianist is Stan Kenton:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday,…
"This is a pleasant surprise, Archie. I would not have beieved it. That of course is the advantage of being a pessimist; a pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing …
In today's Wall Street Journal I chronicle the best theater of 2020"all of it in the form of streaming webcasts. Here's an excerpt.
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The last time I went to a theate…
"To assert dignity is to lose it."
Rex Stout, The League of Frightened Men
Continue reading Almanac: Nero Wolfe on dignity at About Last Night.
"We're Despicable," written by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill for the soundtrack of Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, originally telecast by NBC in 1962:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- …
"There is nothing like infantilism for keeping the eyes bright and the skin smooth."
Rebecca West, The New Meaning of Treason
Continue reading Almanac: Rebecca West on immature adults at …
From 2007:
I'm writing these words at nine a.m. on Christmas Eve. Not a creature is stirring, not even Mrs. T, who isn't a morning person, or my mother, who went to bed gratefully last night…
"Those who foresee the future and recognize it as tragic are often seized by a madness which forces them to commit the very acts which make it certain that what they dread shall happen."
Reb…
Nancy LaMott died a quarter-century ago this past weekend. While she isn't as well remembered now as she deserves to be, Nancy was a rising star in 1995, having made her Carnegie Hall debut …
Marin Mazzie sings Stephen Sondheim's "Not a Day Goes By," from Merrily We Roll Along:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each …
"The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living."
Cicero, Philippicæ
Continue reading Almanac: Cicero on memory at About Last Night.
In today's Wall Street Journal I review the Wilma Theater's webcast of Will Arbery's Heroes of the Fourth Turning. Here's an excerpt.
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Philadelphia's Wilma Theater, one of…
Greer Garson presents the 1952 Best Actor Oscar to Humphrey Bogart for his performance in John Huston's The African Queen. It was Bogart's first Oscar:
(This is the latest in a series…
"I don't claim to know that God exists. I only claim that he does without my knowing it."
Tom Stoppard, Jumpers
Continue reading Almanac: Tom Stoppard on God at About Last Night.
My "Sightings" column in this week's Wall Street Journal is about large-scale virtual presentations of famous works of art. Here's an excerpt.
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The bad news is "Imme…
"To die is poignantly bitter, but the idea of having to die without having lived is unbearable."
Erich Fromm, Man for Himself
Continue reading Almanac: Erich Fromm on death at About Last …
The Paul Taylor Dance Company performs an excerpt from Taylor's Musical Offering, set to the music of Bach and accompanied by the Orchestra of St. Luke's. This performance was filmed on J…
"At that moment the realisation hit me"and has never left me since: true Philistines are not people who are incapable of recognising beauty; they recognise it all too well; they detect its p…
From 2013:
' W. Jackson Bate, Samuel Johnson
' David Cairns, Berlioz….
Read the whole thing here.
Continue reading Lookback: ten books that have stayed with me at About Last Night.
"The laugh can't be the goal, the line after is the goal."
David Cromer (quoted in The World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent of Angels in America, by Isaac Butler and Dan Kois)
Co…
"Happy Feet," a production number from King of Jazz, a 1930 film shot in early Technicolor, directed by John Murray Anderson, and starring Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra. Bing Crosby and…
