AJBlog Central

Vladimir Horowitz plays Schubert’s Impromptu, Op. 90, No. 2, at a recital in Vienna in 1987: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) Continue reading Snapshot: Vladimir Horowitz plays Schubert at About Last Night…. Read more

“It is drawing-room furniture, a sign of bourgeois prosperity, the most massive of the devices by which the young are tortured in the name of education and the grown-up in the name of entertainment.” Jacques Barzun, Critical Questions Continue reading Almanac: Jacques Barzun on the piano at About Last Night…. Read more

To be sustainable we must do things that matter to the communities in which we exist…. Read more

From 2005: I went to my framer yesterday afternoon and picked up the presidential commission for my appointment to the National Council on the Arts. It’s a splendidly old-fashioned document, about twice the size of a college diploma, printed in copperplate script on thick cream paper by the Bureau of Engraving… Read more

“Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous; it is nothing if it is not ridiculous.” Thornton Wilder, The Eighth Day Continue reading Almanac: Thornton Wilder on hope at About Last Night…. Read more

“To want power is corruption already.” Gore Vidal, The Best Man Continue reading Almanac: Gore Vidal on the will to power at About Last Night…. Read more

In an undated TV interview, Gore Vidal talks about Franklin J. Schaffner’s 1964 screen version of The Best Man, his 1960 play, and the ideas about politics on which it was based: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each… Read more

Check out this week’s episode of my show Arts Engines with Joseph Conyers, The Philadelphia Orchestra bassist and entrepreneur, as he shares the passions that have fueled his success!… Read more

Laura Baptiste, the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s (SAAM’s) always helpful chief of communications and public affairs, found herself fielding misinformation disseminated in a number of news reports after Wednesday’s Presidential Inauguration festivities. She scrambled to set the record straight about Robert Duncanson‘s suddenly famous “Landscape with Rainbow,” after several published… Read more

In today’s Wall Street Journal drama column, I review Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s Shaw! Shaw! Shaw!. Here’s an excerpt. *  *  * Webcasts of the plays of George Bernard Shaw have been scarce during the pandemic. It’s a shame, for Shaw’s plays are for the most part comedies of ideas, political and… Read more

In today’s Wall Street Journal “Sightings” column, I talk about how to jump-start a post-pandemic revival of the arts in America. Here’s an excerpt. *  *  * As everybody with even the slightest interest in the arts knows, the coming of Covid-19 has had a catastrophic effect on creative institutions in every… Read more

Alfred Hitchcock is interviewed by Dick Cavett on TV in 1972: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) Continue reading Replay: Alfred Hitchcock talks to Dick Cavett at About Last Night…. Read more

“Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly.” Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace (trans. Louise and Aylmer Maude) Continue reading Almanac: Tolstoy on happiness at About Last Night…. Read more