Archives for September 1, 2005

In response to this posting, another reader writes:

The story is getting major
coverage in Prague: large page 1 articles in the major dailies, and
it’s the lead story on the television news. When I met my Czech teacher
this morning for my language lesson, she (a wonderful 77 year-old
granny) expressed her heartfelt condolences to me and America generally
(of course, she has also got a granddaughter living in Panama City, FL,
so she may be paying slightly more attention to it than most people
here.) She also expressed her withering contempt for the Czech
President, who apparently has yet to express his condolences to his
American counterpart.

As part of “New Europe,” the Czechs are generally pro-American but are
certainly more ambivalent in their relationship with the US than the
Poles. Still, the fact that the Katrina stories have displaced the
usual summer political scandals from the media shows the Czechs’ innate
sensitivity and interest in the wider world around them. It could also
have to do with the fact that, three years ago at this time, Prague
endured its worst flooding in 500 years, so that very fresh and painful
memory has generated considerable sympathy for what the beleaguered Gulf
Coast residents are now going through.

Many thanks and all the best to you and OGIC as you keep up this
important work!

And thanks to you for writing….

In response to this posting, another reader writes:

The story is getting major
coverage in Prague: large page 1 articles in the major dailies, and
it’s the lead story on the television news. When I met my Czech teacher
this morning for my language lesson, she (a wonderful 77 year-old
granny) expressed her heartfelt condolences to me and America generally
(of course, she has also got a granddaughter living in Panama City, FL,
so she may be paying slightly more attention to it than most people
here.) She also expressed her withering contempt for the Czech
President, who apparently has yet to express his condolences to his
American counterpart.

As part of “New Europe,” the Czechs are generally pro-American but are
certainly more ambivalent in their relationship with the US than the
Poles. Still, the fact that the Katrina stories have displaced the
usual summer political scandals from the media shows the Czechs’ innate
sensitivity and interest in the wider world around them. It could also
have to do with the fact that, three years ago at this time, Prague
endured its worst flooding in 500 years, so that very fresh and painful
memory has generated considerable sympathy for what the beleaguered Gulf
Coast residents are now going through.

Many thanks and all the best to you and OGIC as you keep up this
important work!

And thanks to you for writing….

If you came here in search of information about Hurricane Katrina and are curious to know what else this blog has to offer under normal circumstances…

Welcome to “About Last Night,” a 24/5 blog hosted by Terry Teachout, who writes about the arts in New York City and elsewhere, and Laura Demanski, who writes from Chicago under the no-longer-a-pseudonym “Our Girl in Chicago.”

In case you’re wondering, this blog has two URLs, the one you’re seeing at the top of your screen right now and the easier-to-remember www.terryteachout.com. Either one will bring you here.

All our postings from the past week are visible in reverse chronological order on this page. Terry’s start with “TT,” Laura’s with “OGIC.” In addition, the entire contents of this site are archived chronologically and can be accessed by clicking “ALN Archives” at the top of the right-hand column.

You can read more about us, and about “About Last Night,” by going to the right-hand column and clicking in the appropriate places. You’ll also find various other toothsome features there, including our regularly updated Top Five list of things to see, hear, read, and otherwise do, links to Terry’s most recent newspaper and magazine articles, and “Sites to See,” a list of links to other blogs and Web sites with art-related content. If you’re curious about the arty part of the blogosphere, you’ve come to the right site: “Sites to See” will point you in all sorts of interesting directions, and all roads lead back to “About Last Night.”

As if all that weren’t enough, you can write to us by clicking either one of the “Write Us” buttons. We read our mail, and answer it, too, so long as you’re minimally polite. (Be patient, though. We get a lot of it.)

The only other thing you need to know is that “About Last Night” is about all the arts, high, medium, and low: film, drama, painting, dance, fiction, TV, music of all kinds, whatever. Our interests are wide-ranging, and we think there are plenty of other people like us out there in cyberspace, plus still more who long to wander off their beaten paths but aren’t sure which way to turn.

If you’re one of the above, we’re glad you came. Enjoy. Peruse. Tell all your friends about www.terryteachout.com. And come back tomorrow.

If you came here in search of information about Hurricane Katrina and are curious to know what else this blog has to offer under normal circumstances…

Welcome to “About Last Night,” a 24/5 blog hosted by Terry Teachout, who writes about the arts in New York City and elsewhere, and Laura Demanski, who writes from Chicago under the no-longer-a-pseudonym “Our Girl in Chicago.”

In case you’re wondering, this blog has two URLs, the one you’re seeing at the top of your screen right now and the easier-to-remember www.terryteachout.com. Either one will bring you here.

All our postings from the past week are visible in reverse chronological order on this page. Terry’s start with “TT,” Laura’s with “OGIC.” In addition, the entire contents of this site are archived chronologically and can be accessed by clicking “ALN Archives” at the top of the right-hand column.

You can read more about us, and about “About Last Night,” by going to the right-hand column and clicking in the appropriate places. You’ll also find various other toothsome features there, including our regularly updated Top Five list of things to see, hear, read, and otherwise do, links to Terry’s most recent newspaper and magazine articles, and “Sites to See,” a list of links to other blogs and Web sites with art-related content. If you’re curious about the arty part of the blogosphere, you’ve come to the right site: “Sites to See” will point you in all sorts of interesting directions, and all roads lead back to “About Last Night.”

As if all that weren’t enough, you can write to us by clicking either one of the “Write Us” buttons. We read our mail, and answer it, too, so long as you’re minimally polite. (Be patient, though. We get a lot of it.)

The only other thing you need to know is that “About Last Night” is about all the arts, high, medium, and low: film, drama, painting, dance, fiction, TV, music of all kinds, whatever. Our interests are wide-ranging, and we think there are plenty of other people like us out there in cyberspace, plus still more who long to wander off their beaten paths but aren’t sure which way to turn.

If you’re one of the above, we’re glad you came. Enjoy. Peruse. Tell all your friends about www.terryteachout.com. And come back tomorrow.

I’ve never been to New Orleans, though I always meant to go, and was planning to pay a visit this fall. I started writing a biography of Louis Armstrong back in January, and the time had come for me to pay a visit to Tulane University’s Hogan Jazz Archive
and start trawling through its massive collection of documents and other source material. More than that, I wanted to see Armstrong’s home town for myself at long last. It was mostly a matter of curiosity: I’d been reading about New Orleans all my life, and I longed to put the flesh of first-hand observation on all that I’d learned from books.

Needless to say, book learning is not to be despised. For one thing, it made it possible for me to write the first paragraph of the first chapter of Hotter Than That: A Life of Louis Armstrong:

To the northerner New Orleans is another country, seductive and disorienting, a steamy, shabby paradise of spicy cooking, wrought-iron balconies, and streets called Elysian Fields and Desire, a place where the signs advertise such mysterious commodities as po-boys and muffuletta and no one is buried under ground. We’ll take the boat to the land of dreams, the pilgrim hears in his mind’s ear as he prowls the Vieux Carr

I’ve never been to New Orleans, though I always meant to go, and was planning to pay a visit this fall. I started writing a biography of Louis Armstrong back in January, and the time had come for me to pay a visit to Tulane University’s Hogan Jazz Archive
and start trawling through its massive collection of documents and other source material. More than that, I wanted to see Armstrong’s home town for myself at long last. It was mostly a matter of curiosity: I’d been reading about New Orleans all my life, and I longed to put the flesh of first-hand observation on all that I’d learned from books.

Needless to say, book learning is not to be despised. For one thing, it made it possible for me to write the first paragraph of the first chapter of Hotter Than That: A Life of Louis Armstrong:

To the northerner New Orleans is another country, seductive and disorienting, a steamy, shabby paradise of spicy cooking, wrought-iron balconies, and streets called Elysian Fields and Desire, a place where the signs advertise such mysterious commodities as po-boys and muffuletta and no one is buried under ground. We’ll take the boat to the land of dreams, the pilgrim hears in his mind’s ear as he prowls the Vieux Carr

Here’s my list of recommended Broadway and off-Broadway shows, updated each Thursday. In all cases, I either gave these shows strongly favorable reviews in The Wall Street Journal when they opened or saw and liked them some time in the past year (or both). For more information, click on the title.

Warning: Broadway shows marked with an asterisk were sold out, or nearly so, last week.

BROADWAY:

– Avenue Q* (musical, R, adult subject matter, strong language, one show-stopping scene of puppet-on-puppet sex)

– Chicago (musical, R, adult subject matter, sexual content, fairly strong language)

– Doubt (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, implicit sexual content)

– Fiddler on the Roof (musical, G, one scene of mild violence but otherwise family-friendly)

– The Light in the Piazza (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter and a brief bedroom scene)

– Sweet Charity (musical, PG-13, lots of cutesy-pie sexual content)

– The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee* (musical, PG-13, mostly family-friendly but contains a smattering of strong language and a production number about an unwanted erection)

OFF BROADWAY:

– Orson’s Shadow (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, very strong language)

– Philadelphia, Here I Come! (drama, PG, closes Sept. 25)

– Sides: The Fear Is Real… (sketch comedy, PG, some strong language)

– Slava’s Snowshow (performance art, G, child-friendly)

Here’s my list of recommended Broadway and off-Broadway shows, updated each Thursday. In all cases, I either gave these shows strongly favorable reviews in The Wall Street Journal when they opened or saw and liked them some time in the past year (or both). For more information, click on the title.

Warning: Broadway shows marked with an asterisk were sold out, or nearly so, last week.

BROADWAY:

– Avenue Q* (musical, R, adult subject matter, strong language, one show-stopping scene of puppet-on-puppet sex)

– Chicago (musical, R, adult subject matter, sexual content, fairly strong language)

– Doubt (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, implicit sexual content)

– Fiddler on the Roof (musical, G, one scene of mild violence but otherwise family-friendly)

– The Light in the Piazza (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter and a brief bedroom scene)

– Sweet Charity (musical, PG-13, lots of cutesy-pie sexual content)

– The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee* (musical, PG-13, mostly family-friendly but contains a smattering of strong language and a production number about an unwanted erection)

OFF BROADWAY:

– Orson’s Shadow (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, very strong language)

– Philadelphia, Here I Come! (drama, PG, closes Sept. 25)

– Sides: The Fear Is Real… (sketch comedy, PG, some strong language)

– Slava’s Snowshow (performance art, G, child-friendly)