Top Posts From AJBlogs For 11.29.15

AJBlogs Posted: November 29, 2015 10:00 pm

Got Miami Week Blues? A New Twist

It’s Art Basel Miami Beach time, and some 250 galleries will be showcasing their art and artists at the convention center there beginning mid-week. Then there are all the satellite fairs, the gallery and museum… … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear ArtsPublished 2015-11-29

One Composer, Four Choreographers

Dance celebrates the music of Thomas Adès at New York City Center. Anna Nowak lifted by James Pett in Wayne McGregor’s Outlier. Photo: Kevin Yatarola “His music moves from here to there in a way… … read more

AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2015-11-29

This is what we know

What will your death be like? Probably not like this. Blank,seen in the Bush Theatre’s recent RADAR Festival, is a semi-improvised piece by Nassim Soleimanpour. A one-time-only performer receives a script full of… … read more

AJBlog: Performance MonkeyPublished 2015-11-29

Compatible Quotes: Billy Strayhorn

That’s all I did – that’s all I ever did – try to do what Billy Strayhorn did.—Gil Evans Billy Strayhorn was my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of… … read more

AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2015-11-27

Jenny Diski Speaks of Death and Dying

Jenny Diski learned some months ago that she had inoperable lung cancer and, at best, another three years to live. She now writes about the experience and her treatment. Something she said about writers and… … read more

AJBlog: Straight|UpPublished 2015-11-27

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So you want to see a show?
Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) in The Wall Street Journal ... [read more]
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-02-21
Almanac: Malcolm Muggeridge on man’s dreams
“The really terrible thing about life is not that our dreams are unrealised but that they come true.” Malcolm Muggeridge, Chronicles of Wasted Time ... [read more]
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-02-21
J.P. Morgan’s Fixer-Upper: Conserving His Library, “A Building Unlike Any Other in New York” (video)
Having reviewed (here, here and here) the Morgan Library & Museum’s extensive 2010 renovation, I didn’t expect to be writing about another major Morgan re-do any time soon. But ... [read more]
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2019-02-20
The man who wasn’t Gershwin
My latest essay for Commentary, in which I discuss the complicated career and unhappy life of Oscar Levant, is now on line. Here’s an excerpt. * * * Oscar Levant vanished into the ... [read more]
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-02-20
Snapshot: Hugh Hefner is interviewed by William F. Buckley, Jr.
Hugh Hefner is interviewed by William F. Buckley, Jr. on Firing Line. This episode was taped on September 12, 1966, for later syndicated telecast: (This is the latest in ... [read more]
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-02-20
Almanac: Malcolm Muggeridge on hypocrisy and the reformer
“He represented, indeed, to a superlative degree, the great moral fallacy of our time—that collective virtue may be pursued without reference to personal behaviour.” Malcolm Muggeridge, Chronicles of Wasted Time ... [read more]
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-02-20
Creative Placemaking
Recently I had the pleasure of reconnecting with a friend and colleague. The Community Engagement Network hosted a conversation with Lyz Crane addressing the topic of creative placemaking and ... [read more]
AJBlog: Engaging MattersPublished 2019-02-19
Recent Listening: Dave Young And Friends
Dave Young, Lotus Blossom (Modica Music) Young, the bassist praised by Oscar Peterson for his “harmonic simpatico and unerring sense of time” when he was a member of Peterson’s trio, ... [read more]
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2019-02-19
Beckett’s ‘Rockaby’ Set by William Osborne
For singing actress and tape of voice, four trombones and piano; text of Samuel Beckett. (25 minutes) Premiere: Staatstheater Kassel, April 25, 1986 In Rockaby we hear the whispered thoughts of ... [read more]
AJBlog: Straight|UpPublished 2019-02-19
Lookback: rediscovering Joe Mooney
From 2009: Of all the countless newspaper and magazine pieces that I’ve written over the years, one of the most immediately consequential was “Too Cool to Cash In, Favorite ... [read more]
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-02-19
Almanac: Malcolm Muggeridge on politicians
“Commentators on the political scene tend in retrospect to regard the figures who emerge into prominence as totally derisory. Understandably so. It is extremely difficult, as I know from personal ... [read more]
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-02-19
“Telegraph” Gaffe: Louvre Affirms Its Hope to Display the Elusive Leonardo “Salvator Mundi”
Contrary to what the Telegraph pretends, the Musée du Louvre did ask for the loan of the “Salvator Mundi” and wishes to present it in its October exhibition. So wrote ... [read more]
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2019-02-18
Portrait of a good bad guy
I wrote a Wall Street Journal “Sightings” column in 2015 about Edward G. Robinson’s art collection. It’s no longer widely remembered, but Robinson, the greatest of all big-screen gangsters, ... [read more]
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-02-18
Just because: Malcolm Muggeridge interviews Salvador Dalí
Salvador Dalí is interviewed by Malcolm Muggeridge on Panorama. This program was originally telecast by the BBC on May 4, 1955: (This is the latest in a series of ... [read more]
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-02-18
Almanac: Malcolm Muggeridge on fake news
“I also learnt at an early age the great truth that the twentieth century is an age of almost inconceivable credulity, in which critical faculties are stifled by a ... [read more]
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-02-18
Buddy DeFranco’s Birthday
What is your favorite key? Assuming that it’s not Z-minor, you will find it in the introduction. Vibraharpist (vibraphonist, if you prefer) Terry Gibbs explains in his introduction. Gibbs’s companions ... [read more]
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2019-02-17
Diversity story. Or non-diversity.
A story one of my students told me, a few years ago. I might not remember every detail. But as I recall, a family member was visiting this student. Someone ... [read more]
AJBlog: SandowPublished 2019-02-14
Kahlo: It’s Fridalandia in Brooklyn
I enjoyed seeing the Brooklyn Museum’s Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving, but as regular readers of this blog know, it’s always all about the art for me. And while ... [read more]
AJBlog: Real Clear ArtsPublished 2019-02-11