Archives for March 23, 2015

This is a paragraph from a piece about On the Town that I wrote for a now-defunct magazine called Civilization. I ran across it the other day in my files:

I sometimes wonder what inspired Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Leonard Bernstein to write a song like “Some Other Time.” They were so young in 1944: how could they possibly have known of the quickness with which time robs us of the things we love? I once stood in the hallway of an intensive-care ward, waiting for a friend to die, and the words and music of “Some Other Time” kept running through my head: Where has the time all gone to?/Haven’t done half the things we want to/Oh, well, we’ll catch up/Some other time.

The friend, by the way, was Nancy LaMott. And yes, I still wonder.

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Monica Zetterlund and the Bill Evans Trio perform “Some Other Time” on Norwegian TV in 1965. Chuck Israels is the bassist, Larry Bunker the drummer:

Every fourth week my schedule requires me to hit three separate deadlines: a Wall Street Journal drama column, a “Sightings” column for the Journal, and my monthly essay for Commentary. This is one of those weeks. Sometimes I manage to write and file a piece early, thus relieving the monthly pressure to produce, but I’ve been squeezed of late by various personal responsibilities and so haven’t been able to get ahead of the game.

On the other hand, I could have written my “Sightings” column last Friday, a day on which I had no places to go or shows to see, and I guess I really should have done so. Instead I chose to lounge around, listen to music, read about Arturo Toscanini and John Dortmunder, and watch a couple of movies on TV with Mrs. T. I am, I suppose, a workaholic, but not a degenerate one. I’m perfectly capable of taking and enjoying time off so long as I make myself do so, and I decided that I’d better do so in preference to burning out. So I did. In fact, I took the whole day off, and was (and am) the better for it.

For that reason, though, I won’t be blogging this week, save for the usual videos, almanac entries, and other regular postings. The fruits of my invisible labor will be made manifest starting Friday. Until then, be patient.

See you later.

John Hammond talks about “discovering” Billie Holiday in a 1978 CBC interview:

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

“Archer was burning with unavailing wrath: he was exactly in the state when a man is sure to do something stupid, knowing all the while that he is doing it.”

Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence