Archives for January 9, 2012

This is the view from our porch. You could write a book here. Or a play. Or both. Or neither. Or you could just get over a cold:

I don’t want to talk about the past four days of my life. I don’t even want to think about them. Suffice it to say that I flew from New York to West Palm Beach on Thursday, saw a show there on Friday, flew back up to New York on Saturday to see Porgy and Bess on Broadway that same evening, then flew back down to the west coast of Florida the next morning. That is way too much time in the air, even for an old hand like me.
No, it wasn’t a total loss. Nothing like it. In addition to seeing the new home of Palm Beach Dramaworks, one of my favorite regional theater companies, and dining at Havana before the show, I also got to say hello to my good friend Steven Caras, the great dance photographer. He even brought me a present, a signed archival copy of Last Bow, the best known of his countless photos, in which George Balanchine is seen taking the final curtain call of his long life.
It happens that I took part in the making of Steven Caras: See Them Dance, Deborah Novak’s 2011 film documentary about Steve’s life and work, and flew down to West Palm Beach last February to lend a hand with the first public screening, in return for which Steve promised to strike and sign a print of “Last Bow” for me. He delivered it on Friday, and I brought it back to New York with the utmost care the next day. Now it will occupy a place of honor in the Teachout Museum.
So yes, things could have been a lot worse. That said, I was still greatly relieved when Mrs. T and I met at the Fort Myers airport on Sunday morning and headed straight for Sanibel Island, one of the prettiest and most tranquil places I know. Needless to say, I’m here for professional reasons–I’ve come to see Florida Rep‘s production of God of Carnage–but I also hope to write a chapter or two of Mood Indigo on the island and, if at all possible, get some much-needed rest.
For the record, we’re staying at the same unpretentiously comfortable place where we holed up last January, a stone’s throw away from the Gulf of Mexico, and we plan to spend as much time as we can walking on the beach and watching the sun set.
See you later.
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The trailer for Steven Caras: See Them Dance:

Tuesday in November, a documentary short subject released by the Office of War Information in 1945 for distribution in foreign countries, directed by John Berry and Nicholas Ray, written by Philip Dunne and Howard Koch, scored by Virgil Thomson, and produced by John Houseman:

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

“Ideology is a specious way of relating to the world. It offers human beings the illusion of an identity, of dignity, and of morality while making it easier for them to part with them.”
Václav Havel, “The Power of the Powerless”