Word: churlish
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...vocals. True, the band could have done with more stage presence. The usual stage trick of the guitarist and bassist facing off didn't work when the guitarist's back was to the audience and the band's mishmash of outfits suggested a lack of polish. It would be churlish, though, to harp on minor flaws in what was otherwise a very enjoyable set. One of their songs may have been titled "Queen of Melodrama," but the band managed to play a tight, moving set without ever straying into the realm of the melodramatic...
...Death turns "potential" into realization; what one could have done becomes in effect what one did. If the outpouring of sorrow at Kennedy's death were driven by his family name, by his boyish, bouncy manner with the public, or by his good looks alone, one might be reasonably churlish in putting it down to counterfeit emotion. But the more one learns of his works, the things he accomplished with his time and money--the practical good sense of them; the gracious, modest style that attended them--the more one appreciates that this was a life worth mourning. Those...
John Kennedy's death unleashed a wave of public emotion and a predictable flood of media coverage. Indeed, it would not be too churlish to ask why--other than being a nice guy and a good-looking celebrity with a historically resonant heritage--Kennedy deserved such an outpouring. So in putting together this issue, we looked for a worthwhile lesson we could draw both from the way he lived and the emotions wrought by his death...
...face of such success, it's almost churlish to bring up the question of longevity, but some have already raised the name of Tiffany, the 1980s one-hit wonder whose career rose to great heights and then abruptly plummeted. "We're two totally different people, and our sound is totally different," Spears told a Toronto newspaper. True, Spears has the tools for a long career, just as long as top-notch songs keep coming her way. But teen pop is about the here and now, so why worry about tomorrow...
...seems churlish to take anything away from a film with such a unanimously powerful opening and an attention to history that is emotionally edifying and alive. Still, the connecting material by which Robert Rodat's script moves from the opening battle sequence to the last is less than wholly compelling, and the framing device of the ex-soldier in the cemetery is maudlin and cumbersome. But Spielberg hasn't gotten an ending right in at least ten years. Disputation seems insolent in the case of this film. --Nicholas K. Davis...