Word: bastardize
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ASSIGNMENT AMERICA often veers between journalism and the short story. And it is interesting to realize from this juxtaposition of the two genres, a bastard belonging to neither, how much literature since Hemingway and Edmund Wilson has picked up the mannerisms and styles of newspaper writing. Here, as we read the smooth flow of narratives, the captured regional accents and hestitations of the dialogues, we are almost fooled into thinking that the often abrupt, slightly non-sequitur one-liner endings to the stories may conceal some literary profundity befitting a contemporary short story. Most probably, it was merely the unmerciful...
...future is uncertain because the depth of his talent is deliberately unspecified. He is also, in the best traditions of working-class heroes, a bit of a bastard. That'll Be the Day (the title comes from a great old Buddy Holly tune) has also learned from its predecessors in the school of angry British realism how to present industrial England with fierce but never condescending accuracy...
...Frank Yablans ($250,000 a year), finally got an offer he could not refuse. The remaining 6½ years of his ten-year contract were bought up by Paramount. Yablans rejected the idea that he had created a personality less lovable than Genghis Khan. "I am not a cocky bastard," he said. "I have my style, and in this business, you must do things bigger than life." As he prepared to leave Paramount, Yablans took his downfall philosophically. "I don't like being called a first-rate son of a bitch," he confided, "but at least I was called...
...hour of free-flowing improvisation and older tunes like "Idiot Bastard Son" and the classic "Oh No" made it clear that Zappa has not lost the skill of synthesizing a variety of musical thoughts into pure Zappa-esque composition. At the concert he also showed his remarkable skill in keeping the players in firm control while allowing them golden moments of freedom to explore their own musical ideas. His second set, unlike the first, undisputably displayed the real Zappa--a Zappa that was not present in Overnite Sensation or Apostrophe...
...explain the lapse: "St. Clair is a gentleman, and he expects that when someone gives you his word, that person's telling the truth. Now how the hell can you sit the President of the U.S. down, grill him and tell him, 'You're lying, you bastard, come clean...