Terry Teachout's Blog, page 123

TT: We're just fine

Mrs. T and I successfully weathered Hurricane Sandy at our place in rural Connecticut. The power went out at 5:45 on Monday afternoon, and we spent the evening reading by the light of a fluorescent lantern purchased over the weekend. Come Tuesday we relocated to an airport hotel--our neck of the woods is likely to be without electricity for several days--and we hope, transportation permitting, to make it back to Manhattan some time on Friday. We'll see you around!

TT: Lookback

From 2006:

Nobody walks anywhere in a small town, except maybe next door or across the street. When I told my mother I was going to walk downtown to buy a belt, she boggled. It took me a good ten minutes to persuade her that I wasn't kidding, and another five to talk her out of driving downtown to pick me up after I'd made my purchase....

Read the whole thing here .

TT: Almanac

"Write as the wind blows and command all words like an army!"

Hilaire Belloc, The Road to Rome

TT: A toss of the coin

I took a train to New York on Friday to see a show on Broadway, then returned to Connecticut and Mrs. T the next day. It was a tough call. Our New York apartment is a few blocks away from the highest point in Manhattan, while our place in Connecticut is tucked away in a wooded valley that is subject to power failures whenever the wind starts blowing branches off the trees. Still, it was my guess that Hurricane Irene might end up hitting New York harder, and come Sunday I was feeling increasingly sure that I'd done the right thing.

We got up first thing in the morning, drove to the nearest grocery store, and bought a trunkful of bottled water, staple foodstuffs, and spare batteries. The ants were already out in force, and we didn't leave much on the shelves for the slugabed grasshoppers. That done, we spent the rest of the day watching The Weather Channel with mounting dismay. Late in the afternoon, my editors at The Wall Street Journal sent me an e-mail asking if I could file Friday's drama column as quickly as possible, so I sat down, knocked out a review of the play I'd seen on Friday, and shipped it off via e-mail. Afterward Mrs. T and I watched an old movie, Tales of Manhattan , wondering as we did so what Monday would bring.

Now Monday has arrived, and we're still wondering what to expect. I have two more shows to see in New York this weekend, and I hope I get to see them, but what matters now is that I'm with my beloved wife, waiting for the weather to catch up with us. Insofar as possible, we've made ourselves ready for life without electricity. No matter what horrors the next few days may hold in store, we'll be together.

TT: Just because

Jon Vickers and Norman Bailey perform the storm scene from Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes at Covent Garden. The conductor is Sir Colin Davis:



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

TT: Almanac

"Fear is sharp-sighted, and can see things underground, and much more in the skies."

Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote

FILM

Canyon Passage . Jacques Tourneur's 1946 Technicolor Western about life in frontier Oregon is now mainly known (if at all) as the film for which Hoagy Carmichael wrote "Ole Buttermilk Sky." In fact it is, along with Robert Wise's Blood on the Moon , one of the two most consistently underrated golden-age Hollywood Westerns, a shrewd character study of loyalty and weakness in which Dana Andrews, Susan Hayward, and the unfailingly interesting Brian Donlevy are all at their best and most characteristic. Gorgeous cinematography by Edward Cronjager. Very highly recommended, even if you think you're allergic to Westerns (TT).

CD

Louis Armstrong and the All Stars, Satchmo at Symphony Hall 65th Anniversary: The Complete Performances (Verve, two CDs). Recorded in Boston in 1947 and originally released four years later, this album documents Armstrong's postwar combo mere months after its founding. The lineup is nonpareil (Barney Bigard, Dick Cary, Sid Catlett, Velma Middleton, Arvell Shaw, Jack Teagarden) and the performances are electrifying. Co-produced by Armstrong authority Ricky Riccardi , it contains a half hour's worth of previously unissued material, plus indispensable liner notes by Riccardi. Put it on your short list of must-have Armstrong albums--and order it now, because this is a 3,000-copy limited edition (TT).

PLAY

The Freedom of the City (Irish Repertory Theatre, closes Nov. 25). A flawless revival of Brian Friel's 1973 masterpiece about a Northern Ireland protest march that ended in bloodshed. Not so much a history play as a tragic meditation on politics run amok, The Freedom of the City has been staged by Ciarán O'Reilly with a galvanizing blend of force and subtlety, and the cast is as good as it can possibly be (TT).

BOOK

Ron McCrea, Building Taliesin: Frank Lloyd Wright's Home of Love and Loss (Wisconsin Historical Society Press, $35). A well-written, profusely illustrated monographic study of the building of Wright's Wisconsin country estate . Many of the photos are previously unpublished. Essential reading for anyone with a serious interest in Wright, or in domestic architecture (TT).