Word: ambient
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...Ambient...
...this year’s Leonid meteor shower, many said, did not disappoint—despite Tuesday morning’s full moon and the vast ambient light over much of Cambridge?...
...genre of performance-art, destination dining, where substance is subordinated to style. For an uproarious night out, it has irresistible charm; it’s a magnet for the dalliances of Bright Young Things and aged courtships alike. (How the latter is possible is beyond me, though, as the ambient volume is quite vexing to proper conversation.) But is this now really such an aberrant phenomenon? Voguish restaurants need to be this protean: People want old-fashioned quality and intimacy but also flash and flutter, a measured balance of familiarity and novelty, romantic hideaways secreted amidst convivial bustle. Sonsie...
...this Saturday night, the restaurant was deftly crammed to capacity, with an additional 20 or so people spilling out onto the sidewalk, mostly cliquish undergraduates. Spirited conversation thrummed. And yet, despite the thick sheet of ambient noise and constricted seating, it slenderly avoided becoming just another frantic Oriental eatery with flagrant fluorescence and brusque service. Dark wood panelling. Sparing, warm lighting. And a host of perfectly poised waiters dexterously weaving in and out of the non-spaces between tables, taking orders and refilling glasses with a bit too much of a graceful flourish...
...Instead of Woodstock innocence, cynical commercialism?by now a defining Chinese characteristic?rears its head at the end of Day One. Dou Wei, best known as the ex-husband of Canto-pop diva Faye Wong, bores half the audience into an early departure with an hour of pretentious ambient electronica. At the end of his set?during which a steady barrage of bottles and cans is hurled onto the stage?Dou cackles wickedly and says, "You've been tricked!" Tricked indeed: "We know the music is entirely inappropriate for this kind of venue," says one of his synth-geeks later...