Word: spirits
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...Olympics brings up a scene of athletes straining the limits of human endurance, not an image of scandalous bribery. To be sure, the Olympics have endured tragic and disastrous events in the past, such as the bombing in Atlanta and the massacre in Munich. However, if the spirit of the games--the spirit of sportsmanship, courage and respect--cannot be destroyed by bombs or terror it would be a shame if it were corrupted by the very committee that purports to represent the Olympics...
...clouds drained on New England this weekend, but the white stuff did not dampen the spirit at this weekend's Williams Carnival...
...just a recognition that fractured forms are the ones best suited to the times. This explanation appeals to a lot of architects, who are prone anyway to a kind of Hegelian metaphysics, a sense that they are not just designing department stores and offices but rendering the spirit of the age in steel and stone. In recent years, some of the more theoretically inclined among them, such as Peter Eisenman and Steven Holl, have been connecting their designs to things like French literary analysis, the kind that presumes to dismantle the falsehoods of language, or the "chaos theory" of physics...
Unfortunately, even these inchoate stirrings of competitive spirit will fade with maturity. As William Wordsworth (whose brooding peregrinations of the Lake District constitute perhaps the original Ironman sport) wrote, "Whither is fled the visionary gleam?/ Where is it now, the glory and the dream?" Someday even my daughter, or her daughter's daughter, will mist over at the memory of the androgen-swollen, coach-garroting, endorsement-besotted free agent ridiculing his teammates after a tough loss. Like today's purists who long for the bunt, the pick-and-roll and touch tennis, they too will pine for the good...
...Beethoven String Quartet in B-Flat Major, Op. 18 No. 6, showcased the quartet's bright sound and vivacious spirit in several allegro movements, while the Prokofiev String Quartet No. 2 in F Major, Op. 92, provided a dynamic and powerful contrast. The Prokofiev was quite accessible to the casual listener, incorporating folk melodies and stirring emotional themes. The peaceful, melancholic Brahms String Quartet in C Minor, Op. 51, No. 1, beautifully demonstrated the quartet's skill at intricate interplay and musical lyricism. The concert concluded with a crowd-pleasing arrangement of Aaron Copland's "Rodeo" for String Quartet...