After Years Of Upheaval, The American Jazz Museum Hires A Director

MUSIC Posted: December 16, 2019 6:45 am

The Jazz Museum in Kansas City has had financial and leadership struggles during the past couple of years, but it’s clearly hoping that Rashida Phillips (a performer herself) will right the ship. – Kansas City Business Journal

A Role Fit for Me: Who Will Play Alice Walton in Upcoming Netflix Series? (& other dubious plans)

An expression that I’ve always liked has particular resonance in these times when nothing seems certain about whether or when we can resume life as we once knew it. Derived from a Yiddish proverb, this saying was popularized by Woody Allen: If you want to make God laugh, tell him... Read more

Source: CultureGrrl Published on: 2020-12-04
Fallout of an affair

In today’s Wall Street Journal, I review a webcast by Arkansas’s TheatreSquared of Lauren Gunderson’s The Half-Life of Marie Curie. Here’s an excerpt. * * * I’ve been hearing good things about Arkansas’s TheatreSquared for some time now, and it was long my plan to see a play there after paying a... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-12-04
Replay: Tyrone Power appears on Person to Person

Tyrone Power appears as a guest on Person to Person, hosted by Edward R. Murrow. This episode was originally telecast live on December 20, 1957, by CBS: (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... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-12-04
Almanac: Rex Stout on murder

“If anyone not a moron has determined to kill your husband, he will be killed. Nothing is simpler than to kill a man; the difficulties arise in attempting to avoid the consequences.” Rex Stout, Too Many Cooks Continue reading Almanac: Rex Stout on murder at About Last Night.... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-12-04
From my files: Evelyn Waugh as a cinematic novelist

A Terry Teachout Reader, my self-anthology, came out sixteen years ago. I’ve published hundreds of pieces on various subjects since then, and I have no plans to put together a sequel to the Teachout Reader, so I’ve launched a series of occasional posts drawn from my fugitive essays, articles, and reviews.... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-12-03
Almanac: Rex Stout on the fine art of cooking

“They are the greatest living masters of the subtlest and kindliest of the arts.” Rex Stout, Too Many Cooks Continue reading Almanac: Rex Stout on the fine art of cooking at About Last Night.... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-12-03
Camilla Wicks: Towering talent found, lost and found again

Violinist Camilla Wicks was not being modest, but realistic. The clear, slipped voice at the other end of the phone was neither astonished nor impressed to learn that her 1952 recording of the Sibelius Violin Concerto was a collector’s item that, in its original LP incarnation, sold for as much... Read more

Source: Condemned to Music Published on: 2020-12-02
Snapshot: Lenny Bruce appears on The Tonight Show

Lenny Bruce appears on The Tonight Show. This episode, which was portrayed on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, was originally telecast by NBC on April 5, 1959: (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: Lenny... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-12-02
Almanac: Kierkegaard on comedy

“The more one suffers, the more, I believe, has one a sense for the comic. It is only by the deepest suffering that one acquires true authority in the use of the comic, an authority which by one word transforms as by magic the reasonable creature one calls man into a caricature.” Søren Kierkegaard, Stages on Life’s Way... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-12-02
Lookback: my baby book

From 2006: One of my mother’s most treasured heirlooms is a copy of the second edition of Our Baby’s First Seven Years, the “baby book” in which she set down the particulars of my early childhood. I flipped through its yellowed pages yesterday, and as I set out on the longish... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-12-01
Almanac: Cesare Pavese on childhood

“There is nothing fine about being a child: it is fine, when we are old, to look back to when we were children.” Cesare Pavese, This Business of Living Continue reading Almanac: Cesare Pavese on childhood at About Last Night.... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-12-01
Pandemic Poems From Cold Turkey Press: Mistress Death

This handmade, 16-page chapbook is not about Covid-19, but the virus is present in every line.... Read more

Source: Straight|Up Published on: 2020-11-30
All grown up

I long ago lost count of the number of times that Satchmo at the Waldorf, my one-man-three-character play about Louis Armstrong, has been produced. I do, however, take note whenever I hear of an upcoming staging, and it so happens that there are two in the works, both of which... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-11-30
How About This: The Cry Baby Clown King’s Latest Con

An email just in tiime for Thanksgiving, asking fopr mloney to help overturn election even after he was officially declared—signed, sealed, and certified—the absolute loser. Meanwhile construction has begun on renovations to his post-presidential living quarters in Florida. Does he believe his supporters are brain-dead suckers? Of course.... Read more

Source: Straight|Up Published on: 2020-11-26