Kelly Jane Torrance

There’s nothing the media love more than a story about themselves. And if it isn’t about them, they’ll make it so.

Being a writer-editor-pundit in Donald Trump’s Washington is a 24/7 job. In the last year, I’ve had countless nights of missed dinners and lost sleep, along with a few canceled concerts and ruined respites. But there was one mission from which not even a Trump tweet starting a nuclear war could…

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear agreement the West made with Iran in 2015 looked like a godsend for the mullahs’ regime. In exchange for suspending its nuclear weapons program for a decade, the ostracized Islamic Republic received $1.7 billion in cash and the promise of billions more…

Iraqi prime minister Haider Al-Abadi took to Twitter on October 13 to dispute rumors that his forces were mobilizing to take over areas under the control of Iraqi Kurds, particularly the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. “The fake news being spread has a deplorable agenda behind it,” he wrote. As with most…

Seven months after taking office, President Donald Trump finally announced how his administration plans to fight the longest-running war in American history. “My original instinct was to pull out—and, historically, I like following my instincts,” Trump told the nation in a prime-time address…

Seven months after taking office, President Donald Trump finally announced how his administration plans to fight the longest-running war in American history. “My original instinct was to pull out—and, historically, I like following my instincts,” Trump told the nation in a prime-time address…

Hassan Rouhani was sworn in for his second term as president of Iran on August 5, surrounded by fresh flowers, fervent followers, and around 500 foreign officials. Representatives of the United Kingdom, France, the United Nations, and the Vatican rubbed shoulders with the Syrian prime minister,…

Hassan Rouhani was sworn in for his second term as president of Iran on August 5, surrounded by fresh flowers, fervent followers, and around 500 foreign officials. Representatives of the United Kingdom, France, the United Nations, and the Vatican rubbed shoulders with the Syrian prime minister,…

Complaints of media bias seem to be reaching a fever pitch—from conservatives and liberals alike. Right-wingers accuse a broad swath of the press of trying to undermine the presidency of Donald Trump. Left-wingers lament the airtime and credence outlets give to Trump supporters. Both groups object…

Ever since the Washington Post reported last week that President Donald Trump disclosed classified information in his meeting with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador, commentators have been debating how the revelation might affect intelligence gathering and sharing among America and its…

Ottawa

Ottawa

Some heretofore-skeptical commentators are declaring that February 28 is the date Donald Trump truly became president of the United States. That might signal some good news, but it was closely followed by bad: March 1 could go down as the date of death of the Tea Party movement in America.

With the United Kingdom thrown into chaos after last month's Brexit vote—the pound plunged, Scotland suggested secession, the elites lost it—it's reassuring to learn there's one thing you can count on: Eddy and Patsy are still showing us that "politically correct" can be not just a way of speaking…

As Donald Trump racked up victory after victory on (the first) Super Tuesday, it wasn’t just within the campaigns of his Republican opponents that you could find desolation and despair. In the four hours after results started coming in at 8 p.m., web searches across the country on variations of…

Richard Nixon visited Canada just once during his presidency. He’s also been dead 20 years. But he was about the only person to correctly call last week’s Canadian election.

President Obama claims, as Bill Kristol noted in his editorial in the latest issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD, that no country in the world has expressed opposition to his deal with Iran, with the exception of Israel. But that's not accurate. Canada, the United States' biggest trading partner—and,…

Charles Murray was invited to speak in April at Azusa Pacific University about this, his latest book. The event had been scheduled for months, but two days before Murray’s appearance the president of Azusa Pacific canceled it, writing to the American Enterprise Institute (where Murray is the W. H.…

At a Harris Teeter in suburban Washington, what used to be Harry’s Balloon Corral is, to young eyes, disappointingly empty. The grocery store has posted a notice explaining why. Children accustomed to alleviating the boredom of the weekly trip to the supermarket with the serious task of keeping a…

The last time I heard from Alex, he emailed from Kabul. “Our lengthy discussions about your trip to St. Petersburg were apt, because you are like Russia: a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” As was not uncommon with an email from Alex, I didn’t quite know what to say, so I didn’t…

It's not often officials from the nation’s largest business lobby and an AFL-CIO-affiliated union speak to one another, let alone work together. But last week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and North America’s Building Trades Unions held a joint press conference on Capitol Hill in support of the…

New York

Halfway through what feels like the usual interview with a Hollywood entertainer in town to promote a new work, I’m stopped short. 

A cerebral law professor takes his progressive ideas into politics and inspires a personality cult that catapults him to the highest office in the land. Encouraged by the heady mixture of popularity and power, he makes an unprecedented move to abuse his authority. It guts the federalism on which…

A sea of signs proclaiming “We Built It” revealed the battle cry of last week’s Republican National Convention. We don’t need to wait for Los Angeles mayor and convention chair Antonio Villaraigosa to bring his gavel down in Charlotte on Tuesday to know the Democratic theme. It’s been clear for…

Our friends at the Washington Examiner reported briefly yesterday from the Huffington Post Oasis in Tampa:

Jon Lord began life—his public life, that is—as a rock god. He ended it as a composer of classical concertos. The time I met him, both strands of his work entwined with memories of mine.

New York City

New York City

Some people take to Twitter and Facebook to voice complaints. Others use social media for the greater good, offering advice to the complainers. But that sort of counsel is illegal—at least according to one state agency.

Who could resist reading a blog post titled, “How Thomas Edison, Mark Zuckerberg and Iron Man are holding back American innovation”? Writing for the Washington Post’s Wonkblog, Suzy Khimm reports on a conference held by the New America Foundation on the grand topic of “How to Save America’s…

What do Maurice Sendak, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Commentary magazine have in common?

As Ronald Reagan famously quipped, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I'm here to help.’” Portland, Oregon, though, really is here to help. The problem is that the city hasn’t created laws to benefit Portlanders—it’s created them to benefit one…

If I ever doubted that reporters crave a good story more than almost anything else, my own reaction to the Alberta election last night would have reminded me of its veracity. Before the polls in the province were even closed, I had begun thinking about how I’d pitch a short piece about it to the…

How do you indicate a character in a film is a villain? In these politically correct times, you can't just note he comes from a country whose leaders have declared "Death to America." It wouldn't work simply to make him a capitalist: Steve Jobs, who made pretty things, is different from Jeff Bezos,…

Tomorrow, the Institute for Justice (IJ) will file a lawsuit against perhaps the most hated of all federal agencies—the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

It might be hubris for a writer to point out a typo made elsewhere. But when it's the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities making the mistake, it's irresistible. Perhaps the folks over there need some remedial English? This photo was taken on the metro this morning:

A new Australian reality series is "sending six native-born Australians with differing views on immigration on punishing journeys that retrace the voyages of asylum seekers seeking safe haven in their country."

Finally some good news: Ai Weiwei has been released by Chinese authorities. The dissident artist had been detained for three months on charges the international community unanimously recognized were bogus. Weiwei told the New York Times, “In legal terms, I’m — how do you say? — on bail. So I cannot…

We all hate the sound of cell phones ringing during classical concerts. Master of the Queen's Music and composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies has proposed a solution to what he calls "artistic terrorists": Fine them.

Another call for the art community to stand up for Ai Weiwei: Philip Bishop says a little known online petition is not enough. Museums should be publicizing the detention of the artist by Chinese authorities front and center.

Katie Couric wants to be the new Oprah. She says her upcoming show will model itself after the queen of daytime. Though Couric wasn't big on specifics: "It’s gonna be topical, it’s gonna be live, you know, hopefully it will deal with various issues."

"In 1992 Colm Tóibín encountered the power of the critic for the first time. He awoke one morning to find The Heather Blazing, his second novel, favourably reviewed in the books section of the Sunday Times by a just-published author named Nick Hornby." The notice helped the Irish novelist sell…

Some brave Chinese artists offered an artistic protest of the arrest of Ai Weiwei. The exhibition has been dismantled, and three artists and organizers have since disappeared.

“Stars are stars,” Metropolitan Opera general manager Peter Gelb says. “They’re different than company members." In this case, it means musicians on union contracts must go on tour in Japan, while some of the Met's brightest lights have cancelled their planned appearances due to worries about…

"Are America's museums as willing to stand up for an artist whose life may be on the line?" That's the cutting question asked by Terry Teachout, who points out the cowardice of some cultural leaders unwilling to protest the Chinese government's imprisonment of artist Ai Weiwei. In fact, some…

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, exhibitions around the country are threatened after a court ruling has Russia afraid to loan out its art.

Supreme Court justices talk about who has influenced their writing and how they approach penning an opinion, with mentions of Vladimir Nabokov and the television show 24.

Shakespeare might be the greatest writer ever to live, but he ranks only 40 out of 100 on this list -- a charity contest whose winner is chosen American Idol-style. Voting ends tomorrow for the Chase Community Giving project on Facebook. While arts organizations struggling to survive turn to social…

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg plans to challenge the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act so that youngsters under 13 can join his social networking site.

Philip Roth wins the 2011 Man Booker International Prize. And one of the judges promptly resigns, with this provocative comment (among others):  "Emperor's clothes: in 20 years' time will anyone read him?" A worthy question.

"Harlequin is revolutionizing the e-book market," John Barber writes in the Globe and Mail. (I wrote about this two years ago -- and offered a number of other reasons for romance's popularity in electronic form.)

Against Reform by John Pepall Toronto, 176 pp., $19.95

It's official: Ashton Kutcher is replacing Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men. Though really, no one could actually replace the singular Sheen...

The Library of Congress has opened a "National Jukebox" on the Internet. It has more than 10,000 recordings and more are on the way, in genres from classical to Tin Pan Alley. But heed the LoC's disclaimer: "WARNING: Historical recordings may contain offensive language."

The J. Paul Getty Trust, the world's richest art organization, has a new president: James Cuno, director of the Art Institute of Chicago. And New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art has a new chairman: real estate developer Daniel Brodsky, who tells the New York Times that he doesn't know much about…

Television ownership in America is down for the first time in two decades. Your first thought will be that the Internet is killing the boxes, but as the piece pointed out, the digital conversation had the effect of making many go without.

Director Kenneth Branagh explains why his comic book adaptation Thor, which opens this Friday, is not so different from his Shakespeare films. And he compares it to the royal wedding.

JerrySeinfeld.com debuts Friday. The comedian has assembled over a thousand clips from his standup career. But they'll be made available just three videos at a time. His rationale? “Burger King now has a burger where you decide how many patties. How disgusting is that? That’s the problem right…

"NEA Research Director Sunil Iyengar said the fact that performing arts ticket revenue is bigger than movie ticket sales will surprise many people." Not those who know that movie tickets are around $10, and a night at the opera can start at $100. Another story on the study conducted by the National…

Movie critic Dan Kois admits that he hates watching films "that are good for you." Which raises the question: Should someone who admits their tastes are anything but sophisticated be given the job of film critic? Another question: Should someone who hates mainstream films be given the job of film…

"High-culture unions that fight to hang on to an untenable status quo are shooting themselves in the head." Culture critic Terry Teachout writes a piece on the future of high art in America.

Read the books that have shaped the books of Ian McEwan, one of our best contemporary novelists.

Globe and Mail television critic John Doyle notes that Laurence C. Smith's book, The World in 2050: Four Forces Shaping Civilization’s Northern Future, posits that northern countries will soon rule the world as a result of global warming, water shortages, and the need for oil. This spells great…

The Spectator across the pond has taken inspiration from Washington. It offered a competition based on the Post's for the most "toe-curlingly bad analogies." The winners are here -- though I actually think this one is quite good: "The accountant had the world-weary air of a ferret that had been up…

The love affair of Martin Amis and Christopher Hitchens continues. Amis has a long piece in the Guardian, discussing life and death, everything from the Hitch's way with women to his (unfortunate) love of puns. "The rebel is in fact a very rare type. In my whole life I have known only two others,…

The Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art opens the first major American exhibit on graffiti -- and promptly the neighborhood becomes victim to more graffiti.

The May issue of the Atlantic features a new story by Stephen King. As part of its package on "How Genius Works," the magazine spoke to the master of horror about his creative process.

Did NPR and PBS win the budget battle?

More on Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, jailed by the regime a week ago: Communist officials first accused him of "economic crimes." Now they're charging obscenity and plagiarism. In his last interview before his arrest, he described the surveillance state under which he and other dissidents live.

Kelly Jane Torrance reviews Joe Wright's new movie, Hanna:

Putting the greats on American Idol: Mischievious tricksters post David Foster Wallace's and Henri Cartier-Bresson's work as their own and watch the comments flow in.

Even rock stars have to trim their budgets these days. After last summer's disappointing concert season, bands are lowering ticket prices and finding ways to tour on the cheap. A look ahead.

Tax tips from David Foster Wallace. GalleyCat reads The Pale King, the unfinished novel about IRS agents now postumously published, and shares the findings. Some seem obvious, but others aren't. Who knew auditors look for divorces?

Is Paul Gauguin, proto-primitivist, evil? One crazy woman, who allegedly tried to rip one of his paintings from the wall where it is now on display at the National Gallery of Art, thinks so.

China's best known artist, Ai Weiwei, is still missing after being taken by Chinese police.

Ballet is dying, says the head of Britain's top dance venue. (To learn about the art form's past -- and another possible future -- read George B. Stauffer's review of Apollo's Angels in the latest issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD.)

Baseball guru Bill James asks: "Why are we so good at developing athletes and so lousy at developing writers?"

THE WEEKLY STANDARD's own Kelly Jane Torrance reviews three new films for The Washington Examiner.

Some Indian states have banned a new biography of Mahatma Gandhi after U.S. and U.K. reviews carried the implication that the revered leader had a sexual relationship with German-Jewish bodybuilder Hermann Kallenbach. Homosexuality was only decriminalized in India in 2009.

Hollywood loves writer's block more than it likes writers who write. Laura Miller thinks the recent flick Limitless is implausible. But does she have a solution? "Yes. It's called a mortgage."

Hollywood loves a controversy: Ballerina Sarah Lane says that Natalie Portman only danced about five percent of the full-body shots in Black Swan, for which the actress was given an Oscar. Director Darren Aronofsky responded that Portman danced in about 90 percent of the shots. In any case, Lane…

Washington institution Politics and Prose has settled on a buyer. The owners of the bookstore insisted they would only sell to someone with whom they felt comfortable. That's turned out to be a Bethesda couple, both of whom worked for the Washington Post and various Democrats.

Organized religion will all but disappear from nine countries, mathematicians predict -- even in traditionally Catholic Ireland.

"When Right Is Wrong" -- a piece about Broadway actors who feel their politics hurts their careers. "Being a conservative in this industry is equal to being a leper to some people," one says.

Michael Warren has a piece in the Life section of today's Washington Times. He details how the 1980s hit film Red Dawn is being remade -- and how the remake is being remade. The movie as filmed has China as our enemy. But producers are now scrubbing all references to the Communist state and are…

Elizabeth Taylor, 1932-2011. Let's remember Taylor in her glorious youth, with her one Time cover, from August 22, 1949. The accompanying story discusses the business of art and the aging of the sex symbol -- prescient in this case.

Historian and poet Robert Conquest discusses five books on communism.

"Escapism is overrated," Lisa Kennedy declares. Instead, we should seek out films that engage us in the real world around us -- such as the powerful French film Of Gods and Men, which just opened in DC.

Big retailers are out to make you pay more taxes. Walmart, Target, and others are working to force Amazon.com to collect sales taxes.

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra musicians and management take their labor dispute to Facebook.

A new study by the National Endowment for the Arts finds that the omnivore is an endangered species. These people -- who attend a wide variety of cultural events and attend them often -- are becoming an ever-smaller proportion of the population. Report author Mark J. Stern is optimistic about what…

"The Intellectual as Courtier": Paul Rahe looks at the history of thinkers seduced by tyrants -- including those who have defended the autocratic Qaddafi.

Al Qaeda launches its own Cosmo for the jihadist set, which offers advice on "marrying a mujahideen" and keeping your face looking young (by wearing a niqab, of course).

The Weekly Standard's own Kelly Jane Torrance reviews two new films for The Washington Examiner. First, up is the Sci-Fi war flick, Battle: Los Angeles:

Jennifer Egan beats Jonathan Franzen to win the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. The Los Angeles Times still leads its story with a picture of the over-hyped Franzen.

Steinway enters the Smithsonian--not the piano, but the family behind it, with a diary that’s a New York treasure trove. “He wanted to get away from the unions and the anarchists.”

Paris's twice-annual Fashion Week began yesterday, but no one in the City of Light is talking about the clothes. Dior designer John Galliano was first suspended, then sacked, from the couture house as allegations he has, more than once, engaged in anti-Semitic rants in a Paris bar have come to…

The Bradley Manning Support Network announced today that PayPal has closed the account of a group, Courage to Resist, that the network is working with to raise funds for the U.S. Army soldier alleged to have delivered classified cables and other secret government documents to WikiLeaks. The website…

Jerry Brito, director of the technology policy program at the Mercatus Center, notes that the unrest in Libya could have an effect on the rest of the world, too -- at least that part of it that participates in social networking. Writing at time.com, Brito notes that Twitter's default URL shortening…

I watched Wednesday night's episode of Jeopardy! with someone who's a three-day winner and Tournament of Champions player -- not to mention a staffer here at THE WEEKLY STANDARD. A few of us switched it on in the office not to watch Jeopardy! legend Ken Jennings, though he was a player that night,…

The tween fans of Justin Bieber might want most to know if the 16-year-old Canadian singing sensation is really -- and disappointingly -- dating an older woman, 18-year-old Disney star Selena Gomez. But Rolling Stone digs deep, as writer Vanessa Grigoriadis tries to discover what political…

In its coverage of Hu Jintao's visit to Washington, the New York Times managed to find room for five sentences about the music played at the state dinner held at the White House in the Chinese president's honor. Lang Lang, one of the best known classical musicians in this country or, as the Times…

Some people only dream of a white Christmas. I’m guaranteed one. It’s right there in the name of the place where I’m headed—the Great White North.

Rob Fleming, the hero of Nick Hornby's pleasurable novel High Fidelity, approaches life as something to be ranked. He doesn't just have to hand the usual lists men of a certain obsessive temperament make--top five films, top five songs. When his live-in girlfriend Laura leaves him, practically his…

Anthony Minghella died of a hemorrhage last month at London's Charing Cross Hospital, and the news took the creative world by surprise. The filmmaker was just 54 years old and few knew that he had been operated on the week before for cancer. With the astonishing critical and commercial success of…

"I've discovered that I don't have that much talent, really," the composer Elliot Goldenthal confessed a decade ago. "If I work on something for 10 years or three weeks it's not going to make a difference. It's not going to get any better. No matter how many years I work on something I'm never…

MURIEL SPARK died April 13 in Tuscany, her home for the last 30 years. The Scottish novelist lived to the ripe old age of 88. But she had been thinking about death for years. It was the subject of one of her most accomplished novels, Memento Mori (1959). In this wildly funny black comedy, a group…

JOHN ADAMS HAS MADE A career of creating art from recent events. One of the country's most important composers, he specializes in turning the messiness of American politics into grand myth.

Classical Music in America

A Terry Teachout Reader