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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Archives for February 6, 2013

TT: Finishing another hat

February 6, 2013 by Terry Teachout

Mrs. T and I arrived at Siesta Key, Florida, on Monday afternoon. I resumed work on Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington as soon as I brought the bags up from the car, and didn’t knock off until two a.m. I finished editing the manuscript at three p.m. the next day, then e-mailed it to Gotham Books in New York, after which we went out to dinner to celebrate.
Siesta_Key_Beach_at_Sunset.jpgNot that I felt especially celebratory. I’ve been working so unremittingly hard on the book for the past few months that I mostly feel relieved. Duke, on which I started working three years ago, is my longest book to date–183,700 words, counting the back matter. Considering all the other things that I’ve done since 2010, I’d say that relief is an entirely appropriate thing for me to be feeling right now.
Today, as it happens, is my fifty-seventh birthday. I’m not inclined to celebrate that august occasion, either, though I know that I should, if only to pay tribute to my continuing good fortune. Much has changed since I wrote these words seven years ago, but for the most part I still stand by them, especially the last sentence. (What about that mysterious woman whom I mentioned in the first paragraph? Reader, she married me.)
To those who’ve been sending me best wishes, my most humble thanks. I am so very, very lucky in my friends. And yes, I’m taking the day off.

TT: Snapshot

February 6, 2013 by Terry Teachout

Philip Larkin talks about and reads his poem “For Sidney Bechet.” The video is a clip of Bechet performing “Petite Fleur”:

(This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday and Wednesday.)

TT: Almanac

February 6, 2013 by Terry Teachout

“All idealization makes life poorer. To beautify it is to take away its character of complexity–it is to destroy it.”
Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent

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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