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EMAIL: Douglas McLennan, Editor artsbeat@artsjournal.com

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The New One By John Scofield And Friends

Several Rifftides readers have expressed concern that this blog has appeared infrequently of late and asked if the staff are all right. We are fine. Thank you for asking. Back to business: John Scofield brings together a pair longtime colleagues for a new collection reminding us that his range and... Read more

Source: RiffTides Published on: 2020-07-11
Replay: Oscar Levant appears on The Jack Benny Program

Oscar Levant is the guest on an episode of The Jack Benny Program. The co-stars are Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, Mary Livingstone, Frank Nelson, and Don Wilson. This episode was originally telecast by CBS on November 30, 1958: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-07-10
Rattigan’s return

In Friday’s Wall Street Journal I review two important theater webcasts, the National Theatre’s 2016 revival of Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea and the Mint Theater’s 2014 revival of George Kelly’s The Fatal Weakness. Here’s an excerpt. * * * If you’re looking for theater webcasts to keep you entertained during... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-07-10
Almanac: Walker Percy on identity

“I had discovered that a person does not have to be this or be that or be anything, not even oneself. One is free.” Walker Percy, The Moviegoer Continue reading Almanac: Walker Percy on identity at About Last Night.... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-07-10
Trump’s New Sculpture Park for “American Heroes”? Fuhgedaboudit! The Bronx Already Has that Covered

I did a double take at the end of Donald Trump‘s long-winded July 3 paean to the four Mount Rushmore-enshrined Presidents, which devolved into a diatribe against “the violent mayhem we have seen in the streets of cities that are run by liberal Democrats in every case…the predictable result of... Read more

Source: CultureGrrl Published on: 2020-07-09
Almanac: Walker Percy on loneliness

“I have discovered that most people have no one to talk to, no one, that is, who really wants to listen. When it does at last dawn on a man that you really want to hear about his business, the look that comes over his face is something to see.”... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-07-09
Snapshot: William Holden appears on What’s My Line?

William Holden appears as the mystery guest on What’s My Line? The host is John Daly and the panelists are Bennett Cerf, Arlene Francis, Dorothy Kilgallen, and Robert Q. Lewis. This episode was originally telecast by CBS on September 23, 1956: (This is the latest in a series of arts-... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-07-08
Almanac: Walker Percy on William Holden and the aura of a star

“Holden has turned down Toulouse shedding light as he goes. An aura of heightened reality moves with him and all who fall within it feel it. Now everyone is aware of him. He creates a regular eddy among the tourists and the barkeeps and B-girls who come running to the... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-07-08
Are You Paying Attention?

The Mellon announcement is not a wakeup call. The alarm has been sounding for years. Business as usual is not tenable. The future many have been trying to avoid seeing is now.... Read more

Source: Engaging Matters Published on: 2020-07-07
Hamilton | Lockdown Theatre Club 17

Watch Hamilton with Lockdown Theatre Club on Tuesday 30 June. Hamilton is available on Disney+. At 8pm everyone presses play and watches together. You can tweet along (#LockdownTheatreClub) or just enjoy the film knowing we’re all part of an audience together. What is Hamilton? You’re kidding, aren’t you? It’s Hamilton.... Read more

Source: Performance Monkey Published on: 2020-07-07
Two invisible masters

In my Wall Street Journal “Sightings” column, I pay tribute to Ennio Morricone and Johnny Mandel. Here’s an excerpt. * * * “Writing a good movie brings a writer about as much fame as steering a bicycle.” So said Ben Hecht, one of Hollywood’s highest-paid screenwriters and the studio system’s cynic-in-residence. Much the... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-07-07
Lookback: Richard Harriman, R.I.P.

From 2010: Mr. Harriman—I never got used to calling him Dick, not even after I grew up, moved to New York, and became a full-time critic of the arts—was the most genial of impresarios, a famously soft-spoken man who never had a bad word to say about anyone, at least... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-07-07
Almanac: Walker Percy on hobbies

“As for hobbies, people with stimulating hobbies suffer from the most noxious of despairs since they are tranquilized in their despair.” Walker Percy, The Moviegoer Continue reading Almanac: Walker Percy on hobbies at About Last Night.... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-07-07
Rooftop Rooms

People dancing in their rooms, their legs grazing furniture, their possessions on view for all to see. People dancing in meadows, in parks, on rooftops, through empty city streets, by the ocean. They... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more!... Read more

Source: Dancebeat Published on: 2020-07-06
Booted!

This is what the people did back then: Infamous William M. Tweed, the corrupt 19th-century NYC power broker whose ring of cronies controlled the government purse, manipulated the legislature, and embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars, was booted from office in the election of Nov. 7, 1871. Thomas Nast depicted... Read more

Source: Straight|Up Published on: 2020-07-06
Everest

Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climb Mount Everest, 1953 excerpts from my remarks as part of the webinar “ResiliArt: Classical Music’s New World” presented by the Global Foundation for the Performing Arts and UNESCO, June 22, 2020 “…Now, we need to be living music so that it matters, so that... Read more

Source: PianoMorphosis Published on: 2020-07-06
Just because: Frederick Fennell conducts John Philip Sousa

Frederick Fennell leads the Tokyo-Kosei Wind Orchestra in an undated TV performance of John Philip Sousa’s “U.S. Field Artillery March”: (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 Just because: Frederick Fennell conducts John Philip... Read more

Source: About Last Night Published on: 2020-07-06
The New Deal, the Arts, and Race — and Today

FDR’s New Deal included the Works Progress Administration, which generously supported the arts in unprecedented ways. Employing writers, composers, visual artists, and performers via Art, Music, and Theater projects, the WPA was a massive employment agency — and the closest Washington had come to emulating European arts subsidies. The Music... Read more

Source: Unanswered Question Published on: 2020-07-05
Outside the Walls: ‘Being Free’

For more than 50 years Ben Vautier has worked "outside the walls,” embracing daily life in its multitude of contradictions. Now, in "Being Free," an exhibition opening July 11 and running through October 11 in Chamarande, France (about 50 minutes south of Paris), he brings together more than 400 works... Read more

Source: Straight|Up Published on: 2020-07-04
Is It a Moon Shot? Nope, It’s a Book Chat.

Follow the countdown—the days, hours, minutes, and yes, even the seconds—to Blake Gopnik's chat with Annalyn Swan about his biography of Andy Warhol. Well, it IS a big book. Big in page count (976). Big in subject (Warhol's influence rivals Picasso's.) Stellar in praise. (I've read only one review that... Read more

Source: Straight|Up Published on: 2020-07-03