Word: though
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1990
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...didn't, though. Michael Herr, whose 1977 Dispatches was one of the seminal books about Vietnam, first wrote this semifictional portrait of the man who turned gossip into a heavy industry as a film script. Herr recalls in a preface that he thought of the piece as "something 'more' than a screenplay," while the prospective producers regarded it as "something less." Salvaging his unproduced work, he has kept much of the shape, hard rhythm and clipped language of the film format, as well as the occasional camera direction...
Winchell would have cooked up his own word -- cinetome? flickfic? -- something that catches the brash fluency and gritty romanticism of his own life. He would never have dared, though, to convert himself, as Herr so elegantly does, into a pint-size paradigm of scrambled patriotism and American success gone crazy. Herr's Winchell is an ex-vaudevillian who dances as he writes and lives: with little grace but an overabundance of berserk energy. He starts by posting sheets of trade tattle and pillow talk backstage at the crummy vaudeville theaters he plays. Within a decade he moves center stage, prowling...
...just d'estime. The show has proved that original, challenging and idiosyncratic fare can be done for TV, even within rigid network confines, and that people will tune in. Twin Peaks is, in fact, the culmination of a surprisingly fruitful season for offbeat, formula-breaking shows. ABC's Elvis, though a failure in the ratings, deconstructed the rock king's life into fresh, evocative snippets of biodrama. Fox's The Simpsons put an off-kilter, animated spin on TV's portrayal of the family, while Fox's The Outsiders, at least in its early episodes, brought filmic texture and subtlety...
...prepared for democratic government for other reasons as well. These countries lack the critical mass of educated voters that is essential. They have few democratic roots. "There is no concept of a loyal opposition," notes Smith Hempstone, the U.S. ambassador to Kenya. "Dissent is equated with sedition." Most debilitating, though, is their sheer poverty, which makes it extremely difficult for a pluralist political system to thrive. Says Hempstone: "Africa missed the industrial revolution, which formed the basis of modern democracy in the West...
...guarantees. Even the United Nations is looking anew at Albania: Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar made his first visit to Tirana last week. In Washington a State Department spokeswoman has declared optimistically that "the door is open to the resumption of diplomatic relations" between the U.S. and Albania. Though the process has only begun, it seems clear that last year's political tremors accomplished what decades of isolation failed to do: convince Tirana that it is time to come in from the cold...