• Home
  • About
    • About Last Night
    • Terry Teachout
    • Contact
  • AJBlogCentral
  • ArtsJournal

About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

TT: Praise be

November 26, 2009 by Terry Teachout

Like most mere mortals, I have the unfortunate habit of grousing about things for which I should by all rights be abjectly grateful. This has been a stressful and exhausting year, far too much of which I’ve had to spend in departure lounges and window seats, and there were a few times along the way when I wondered whether I’d bitten off more than I could chew. Yet I knew perfectly well that anyone who gets to publish his latest book, have his first opera premiered, and celebrate his second wedding anniversary–all in the space of twelve fast-moving months–has no business complaining about anything whatsoever. Today I’m as thankful as it’s possible to be, and I hope I have the good sense to remain so for some time to come.

I love the opening lines of My Favorite Year, Richard Benjamin’s movie about a young writer for a weekly TV series not unlike Your Show of Shows: “Nineteen fifty-four. You don’t get years like that anymore. It was my favorite year.”

I hope I will always feel that way about 2009.

* * *

The last scene of My Favorite Year:

Filed Under: main

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, ran earlier this season at New Orleans’ Le Petit Theatre. It previously closed off Broadway at the Westside Theatre on June 29, … [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...]

Follow Us on TwitterFollow Us on RSSFollow Us on E-mail

@Terryteachout1

Tweets by TerryTeachout1

Archives

November 2009
M T W T F S S
« Oct   Dec »
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30  

An ArtsJournal Blog

Recent Posts

  • So you want to see a show?
  • Almanac: Malcolm Muggeridge on man’s dreams
  • The man who wasn’t Gershwin
  • Snapshot: Hugh Hefner is interviewed by William F. Buckley, Jr.
  • Almanac: Malcolm Muggeridge on hypocrisy and the reformer

Copyright © 2019 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in