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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Archives for November 21, 2011

TT: Evasive tactic

November 21, 2011 by Terry Teachout

Pierre-Auguste-Renoir-Conversation-Oil-Painting.jpgOscar Wilde claimed to have put all his genius into his life, leaving only his talent for his work. Many a great conversationalist has done much the same thing. Most people (though not all!) find it easier to talk than to write, and some, like the now-forgotten Desmond MacCarthy, talk so well that they never manage to write anything memorable.
For the professional writer, blogging is an intermediate state. It’s writing, but writing of a peculiarly ephemeral kind, the postmodern equivalent of penning a thrice-weekly newspaper column, and those who do it too assiduously run the risk of dribbling away the stuff books are made of. Hilaire Belloc once managed to finesse a similar problem by publishing a collection of more than usually ephemeral essays called On Nothing and Kindred Subjects, but the fact that On Nothing is now as forgotten as Desmond MacCarthy suggests that he was kidding himself.
I’ve been blogging more or less regularly since 2003, during which time I’ve also published more than six hundred columns in The Wall Street Journal and written three books, two opera libretti, and a play. I’m not sure what this means, if anything, but at the very least it suggests that I find blogging stimulating. Usually it is, but there are times when all my talent (I have no genius) goes into my work, leaving nothing left over for the blog.
Having suspected from the outset that this might happen, I resolved to keep the ball rolling by posting a pointed quotation each day. Two thousand almanac entries later, I find that the choosing of this daily quotation is one of the self-imposed duties that I enjoy most. Between the almanac, the Thursday theater guide, the teasers for my Wall Street Journal columns, and the art-related videos that I now post twice weekly, I like to think that “About Last Night” is worth visiting even when I have nothing else to say other than that I have nothing else to say.
dd_mencken.jpgI’m not telling you anything that you don’t already know when I confess that I haven’t had all that much to say in recent months, a fact that is amply explained by what’s been happening to me during that time. Between the premieres of my second opera and first play, the continuing illness of my mother, and my endless theater-related travels, I’ve been finding it increasingly difficult to blog.
This, too, shall pass, and until it does, I mean to continue posting the usual quotations and videos, keeping you abreast of my various print-media appearances and professional activities, and updating the right-hand column at reasonably frequent intervals. I’ll also continue to tweet my random thoughts on the passing scene, and I’ll write should the spirit move me, as it doubtless will from time to time.
What I won’t do is bore you by making constant excuses for not blogging more often. You can henceforth take it for granted that I wish I were doing so–and that I’ll be back on the case as soon as possible.

TT: Just because

November 21, 2011 by Terry Teachout

Chuck Jones’ “Double or Mutton,” written by Michael Maltese:

TT: Almanac

November 21, 2011 by Terry Teachout

“The moment ‘talk’ is put into print you recognize that it is not what it was when you heard it; you perceive that an immense something has disappeared from it. That is its soul. You have nothing but a dead carcass left on your hands. Color, play of feature, the varying modulations of voice, the laugh, the smile, the informing inflections, everything that gave that body warmth, grace, friendliness, and charm, and commended it to your affection, or at least to your tolerance, is gone, and nothing is left, but a pallid, stiff and repulsive cadaver.”
Mark Twain (quoted in Edward Bok, The Americanization of Edward Bok)

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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