Iris would have been 100 last month

AJBlogs Posted: August 12, 2019 11:52 am

It’s difficult to remember when I first met Iris Murdoch and John Bayley – in my experience, they were inseparable. – Paul Levy

‘Notorious’ Doesn’t Begin to Describe Her

'Ruth Bader Ginsburg came to the Supreme Court not just as another federal judge. She reflected women's emergence as fully equal members of American society in the late 20th century.' — Jess Bravin, Supreme Court Correspondent for The Wall Street Journal... Read more

Source: Straight|Up Published on: 2020-09-19
Opening a theatrical time capsule

In today’s Wall Street Journal I write about the 1955 TV version of Charles Laughton’s stage version of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, starring Lloyd Nolan as Queeg. Here’s an excerpt. * * * Great stage performances and productions are the sand castles of art. Unless they should happen to be filmed, it is their... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-09-18
Almanac: C.S. Lewis on pride

“Catch him at the moment when he is really poor in spirit and smuggle into his mind the gratifying reflection, ‘By jove! I’m being humble,’ and almost immediately pride—pride at his own humility—will appear.” C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters Continue reading Almanac: C.S. Lewis on pride at About Last Night.... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-09-18
“Birkenau” Blunder: Metropolitan Museum Says Richter’s Riffs on the Holocaust are “Poignant”

POIGNANT?!? “Horrific,” “Profoundly Disturbing,” “Jolting”…but surely not “Poignant.” That mild adjective was used by the Metropolitan Museum’s communications office in its headline (below) for the press release announcing the display (to Jan. 18) of Gerhard Richter‘s four paintings from his “landmark ‘Birkenau’ series” of 2014, in which black-and-white photographic images... Read more

Source: CultureGrrl Published on: 2020-09-17
Almanac: Charles Wilson on courage

“Courage is a moral quality; it is not a chance gift of nature like an aptitude for games. It is a cold choice between two alternatives, the fixed resolve not to quit; an act of renunciation which must be made not once but many times by the power of the... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-09-17
We’re Back: Pianist Denny Zeitlin’s New Trio Album for Sunnyside

As Rifftides readers have undoubtedly noticed, it has been a long time since we posted. We are creating a new post in hopes that it will open the way to resumption of frequent reports as part of the artsjournal.com mission to keep you up to date on jazz and other matters. Pianist Denny... Read more

Source: RiffTides Published on: 2020-09-16
Snapshot: Leonard Bernstein conducts Beethoven

Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic perform the first movement of Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony in concert in 1978: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) Continue reading Snapshot: Leonard Bernstein conducts Beethoven at About Last... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-09-16
Almanac: Martin Luther King, Jr. on aspiration

“If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-09-16
Syracuse Refuse: Everson Museum Discards its Pollock to “Address Inequality” & Pursue the New

I’ve been planning to call out the lamentable decision of the Everson Museum, announced on Sept. 3, to jettison its only Jackson Pollock painting “in order to refine, diversify, and build the museum’s collection for the future” (in the words of the Syracuse, NY, museum’s self-justification). Christopher Knight‘s scathing critique... Read more

Source: CultureGrrl Published on: 2020-09-15
Lookback: on Napoleon Dynamite

From 2010: I watched Napoleon Dynamite last night for the first time since its original release, and was pleased to see that it holds up exceptionally well…. Read the whole thing here. Continue reading Lookback: on Napoleon Dynamite at About Last Night.... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-09-15
Almanac: George Eliot on despair

“There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow, when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be healed, to have despaired and have recovered hope.” George Eliot, Adam Bede Continue reading Almanac: George Eliot on despair at About Last Night.... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-09-15
Dvorak and the American Experience of Race — An Antidote to “Checkbox Diversity”

“I know there has been a lot of discussion about how we can make a difference by programing one African-American composition per concert,” says Lorenzo Candelaria, the incoming dean of Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. “I call that ‘checkbox diversity.’ What I’ve found to be far more impactful is... Read more

Source: Unanswered Question Published on: 2020-09-14
Just because: Fred Allen and Oscar Levant in “The Ransom of Red Chief”

Fred Allen and Oscar Levant star in “The Ransom of Red Chief,” a 1952 dramatization of O. Henry’s short story that was released as part of an anthology film called O. Henry’s Full House.The segment was directed by Howard Hawks and is introduced by John Steinbeck: (This is the latest in... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-09-14
Almanac: Simon Callow on actors and memory lapses

“Very often when an actor forgets his lines, it is because a voice inside his brain has whispered to him, ‘Wouldn’t it be dreadful if you forgot the lines?’ And that voice has generally entered the brain at the moment the actor loses contact, however momentarily, with the character in... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-09-14
Obscene Advertising

Here's a first-class illustraton of blasé consumerism. It appeared as I read through a NYT story online about the genocidal campaign against the Rohingya minority in Myanmar. The last time I noted this kind of blatant obscenity was an ad for high-end designer clothing placed next to a print story... Read more

Source: Straight|Up Published on: 2020-09-12
GC CUNY at the Center of the Conversation ‘Coalitional Democracy’ One-Day Conference Goes Online to Explore Activism & Social Justice

'In these tumultuous times, new forms of activism and political engagement are needed more than ever.Movements to expand the social safety net in response to the devastation of the coronavirus, along with the Black Lives Matter protests, are working both inside and outside of electoral politics, with on-the-ground activists often... Read more

Source: Straight|Up Published on: 2020-09-11