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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Archives for August 6, 2007

CAAF: Experiments in Scrivener

August 6, 2007 by cfrye

After reading about it at Shaken & Stirred (see discussion in the comments), I’ve downloaded a free trial version of Scrivener, hailed (by someone somewhere) as ” the biggest software advance for writers since the word processor.” So far I’ve only managed a single index card on the corkboard, but it’ll be fun to play more. I especially like how the software allows you a place to keep all the detritus — the stray thoughts and oblique parentheticals (“fear of abandonment, God”) — that gets sloughed off the main manuscript during editing. Up till now I’ve been sticking those in catch-all Word documents where they are never seen again. And who knows what gold is in those hills!
Meanwhile, over at Pinky’s Paperhaus, Carolyn asks a pertinent question: “Are [programs like Scrivener] truly organizational tools, or are they just software-based stalling tactics?”

CAAF: Our lady of furtive frisson

August 6, 2007 by cfrye

This weekend’s New York Times Book Review featured Liesl Schillinger’s review of two new books by Tessa Hadley: a novel called The Master Bedroom and a collection of short stories entitled Sunstroke.
Schillinger writes, “Hadley is so good at miniature — at close focus on a small scene that could be missed if you didn’t look twice — that it’s almost frustrating to read her longer works.” I feel the same, except with the “almost.” Both Accidents at Home and Everything Will Be All Right branched off into multi-generational storylines, and as I read I kept wanting to lop off entire branches of story. As a rule, I’m a great fan of Middlemarchian sprawl, but here the “epic-ness” felt like dead weight: Like seeing a beautifully tailored dress with two sheets tacked onto its hem, trailing out behind. So while I look forward to reading The Master Bedroom, I’ll be reading Sunstroke first.
A few of Hadley’s stories that can be read online:
• “The Surrogate”
• “Sunstroke
• “The Swan”
• “A Mouthful of Cut Glass

CAAF: In memoriam – Aura Estrada

August 6, 2007 by cfrye

I was saddened to learn of the death of Aura Estrada. A gifted writer, she was killed in a swimming accident on July 25 while on vacation in Mexico. A memorial website has been created, and it includes a collection of her writings as well as a remembrance, “Mi Aura,” written by her husband Francisco Goldman, which I urge you to read. Words Without Borders has also created a page in her memory that contains links to other tributes as well a couple of her essays available online.
I met Aura at a wedding last fall. She was the dear friend of dear friends and so I had heard a great deal about her before the meeting. She was exactly as she’d been described: Radiant and lovely, quickly intelligent and humorous. What I mostly remember about the wedding, though, is watching her and Frank dance; they themselves had been married only the year before, and their joy in each other was obvious. That weekend wasn’t enough time to get to know Aura well, only long enough to understand why her death is such a terrible loss to the many friends and family she leaves behind.

TT: Almanac

August 6, 2007 by Terry Teachout

“‘Nothing makes sense.’
“‘Do you expect things to make sense?’ asked Oliver, in a spirit of sincere enquiry.
“‘Yes.’
“‘I’m not aware of any cure for that condition, Vice-Chancellor.'”
Alan Plater, Oliver’s Travels

Terry Teachout

Terry Teachout, who writes this blog, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the critic-at-large of Commentary. In addition to his Wall Street Journal drama column and his monthly essays … [Read More...]

About

About “About Last Night”

This is a blog about the arts in New York City and the rest of America, written by Terry Teachout. Terry is a critic, biographer, playwright, director, librettist, recovering musician, and inveterate blogger. In addition to theater, he writes here and elsewhere about all of the other arts--books, … [Read More...]

About My Plays and Opera Libretti

Billy and Me, my second play, received its world premiere on December 8, 2017, at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach, Fla. Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, closed off Broadway at the Westside Theatre on June 29, 2014, after 18 previews and 136 performances. That production was directed … [Read More...]

About My Podcast

Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I are the panelists on “Three on the Aisle,” a bimonthly podcast from New York about theater in America. … [Read More...]

About My Books

My latest book is Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, published in 2013 by Gotham Books in the U.S. and the Robson Press in England and now available in paperback. I have also written biographies of Louis Armstrong, George Balanchine, and H.L. Mencken, as well as a volume of my collected essays called A … [Read More...]

The Long Goodbye

To read all three installments of "The Long Goodbye," a multi-part posting about the experience of watching a parent die, go here. … [Read More...]

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