Word: downbeatness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
From his podium at New York City's Lincoln Center last week, Raymond Leppard gave a brisk downbeat and drew forth the majestic D that opens the "Haffner" Symphony. In doing so, he began the gala observance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 235th birthday. He also began an unprecedented Lincoln Center extravaganza: to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Mozart's death by performing during the next 19 months every note he ever wrote...
Webster's description of an Iraq under severe economic pressure is a depiction much bleaker than that put forward by the White House. In recent weeks the Bush Administration has been closing ranks to offer a suddenly more downbeat assessment of whether sanctions can work. In late October, George Bush was still expressing the hope that the embargo could force Saddam to retreat. But last week, a few days after the United Nations Security Council approved the use of military force in the gulf, he declared, "I've not been one who has been convinced that sanctions alone would bring...
Another bold (or maybe suicidal) offering is NBC's Lifestories, a downbeat, documentary-style series about people going through medical crises. The show wedges bits of medical advice in between the personal stories and pulls few punches. In the opening program, a man survives a battle with colon cancer -- or so we think, until the offscreen narrator informs us at the end that his cancer reappeared one year later and he died. For this, viewers are supposed to switch away from America's Funniest Home Videos...
LIFESTORIES (NBC, Sept. 12, 10 p.m. EDT). Of the networks' new fall entries, this slice-of-life-and-death series about people going through medical crises is one of the oddest. A downbeat mix of soap opera, psychological drama and medical-advice column, it will try to woo viewers away from America's Funniest Home Videos. Sort of NBC's death wish...
Boeing has made a detailed analysis of the record of worldwide airplane accidents and has come to a downbeat conclusion: the annual number of fatal, "hull loss" crashes may reach 20 to 25 by 2005. (The 1980-89 average: roughly 13 a year.) In other words, the world could face a massive air catastrophe every two to three weeks. Why? Boeing concludes that while traffic in the sky is increasing, the installation of cockpit warning systems and landing-guidance devices is not. The survey found that flight-crew error was ruled responsible for 73% of fatal accidents. Of these...