Word: 80s
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...TITLE of the second U.S. release by Trio, a new German rock group, sums up the entire album. Trio and Error is a sampling of musical styles ranging from European tavern songs through fifties rock 'n' roll up to '80s power riffing and synthopop. On the surface (which counts for a lot with most Europop bands like Trio,) Trio and Error is an enjoyable album with a lot of catchy melodies, some witty choruses, and a spare, deadpan sound. However, this album works only on that surface level, because Trio never tries to capture the depth of feeling or soul...
ELLEN SCHWAMM's How He Saved Her, the fictional autobiography of a New York socialite, may well interest fans of the 19th-century Gothic romance. Her Nora Ingarten is, enviably enough, the Gothic heroine of the '80s. Admittedly not young and violable. Nora is already married, the mother of two chic and witty Amherst-bound offspring. But her marriage to a conservative tax lawyer has stunted rather than matured her, and she has persisted as confused, dogged and sensitive as a teenage heroine. How He Saved Her tells the story of Nora's enlightenment through her elusive and brutal seducer...
...contrast to the flatness of Schwamm's description, her dialogue is extraordinarily real. The novel does offer an unparalleled portrayal of the life of New York's leisurely class in the '80s; Schwamm's setting includes Max Ernst dresses, original Bauhaus furniture and Balducci's. The snubs and gossip at the parties and charity auctions which so bore Nora furnish some of the most absorbing information we receive, and here the narrative commentary finally achieves the appropriate level of irony...
...children's romp, before the scares of chocolate-covered razor blades. Long, long before that, it was a religious occasion for their pagan elders, and now it has been taken back by the grownups-masks, costumes, witches, jack-o'-lanterns and all. Increasingly in the '80s, Halloween has become an escapist extravaganza for adults, a trickless treat that more closely resembles Mardi Gras than the candy-and-apple surfeits of yesteryear. This year's celebration will be the most raucous ever, lasting four or five days in some places, a virtual Halloweek...
...should recognize their responsibility to pay back the Black community for their privileged position. Some Blacks at Harvard do agree with this, yet Silva confronts others with the attitude that they are at Harvard because they are the best and the brightest. The '60s activity is history now--the '80s are a period of individual achievement they may claim. Unhappily, this is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy...