Category: AJBlogs

It wasn’t until I sat down with this album from my father’s collection that I started to grasp that its star was far more than just a charming but old-fashioned minstrel-show entertainer with a wall-to-wall smile. And I had no idea in 1969 that I was destined to spend much of my middle age thinking and writing about him. – Terry Teachout

Unlike the previous one, which was across the 405 freeway from the Getty, this one is “100% on our side of the 405, immediately north and west of us, and on our property,” according to Lisa Lapin, the Getty Trust’s vice president for communications. – Lee Rosenbaum

This just in from Lisa Lapin, the Getty Trust’s vice president for communications: “Situation improved, but still active. Fire Department estimates 48-72 hours to control and extinguish. We are going to stay closed tomorrow at both Getty Center and Getty Villa. While we are safe, we want to allow emergency responders space to operate.” – Lee Rosenbaum

How often do we go to cabaret or a jazz club in London? In truth, not often. But I’ve been twice in the last year, to catch an autobiographical musical gig by the veteran movie, tv and stage star, Anita Gillette. – Paul Levy

Visitors’ general state of confusion is unlikely to be dispelled unless MoMA rethinks its new installation strategy, which may satisfy curators’ desire to shake up static displays, but will vex those visitors who would prefer a better balance between aimless wandering and purposeful navigation among familiar touchstones. – Lee Rosenbaum

I started exploring the long-inaccessible contents of my father’s record cabinets when I was in junior high school. There I found $64,000 Jazz, a sampler released in 1955 as a promotional tie-in to the quiz show The $64,000 Question. – Terry Teachout

Edith Halpert’s career as a pioneering gallery owner who specialized in modern American art is memorialized in a new exhibition at New York’s Jewish Museum. – Terry Teachout

I can’t imagine how a record of concerted works by Berg and Bartók made its way into the classical bin at the musical instrument store in Smalltown, U.S.A. Granted, Isaac Stern and Leonard Bernstein, the album’s conductor, were as famous in 1969 as it was then possible for American classical musicians to be. But Berg and Bartók wrote modern music. – Terry Teachout.

It scarcely seems possible, but I’ve been listening to this album, which introduced me to the music of Mozart, for fifty years. – Terry Teachout

How do I not love the Museum of Modern Art’s reinstallation of its permanent collection in it expanded, renovated galleries? Let me count the ways. – Lee Rosenbaum