Word: earnestly
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After topics including landscape and the relationship between painting and photography, this year's studio theme, "The Body," emphasizes the contemporary art world's renewed interest in figuration since the late 1970s. This subject has clearly provided fodder for many of the works in the show, which range from earnest and literal to playful and abstract. Small paper mach'e sculptures by Jennifer E. Mergel '98 sprout lively appendages from their baseball or bagel-shaped body blobs. In one, two straining neuron-like beings wrestle or dance with the energetic whipping of their interconnected arms. Nearby, another languishes...
...other big productions of the year, it is neither a sequel nor the launching point of a series of sequels. It is not based on a comic book. It was not designed to spawn a vast array of toys, merchandising, video games and theme-park attractions. It is an earnest and heartfelt work. But the same voices that decry the formulaic commercialism of mainstream Hollywood product do not seem to applaud the studio heads who had the courage to back this unusual film...
...together for 10 wispy, Connick-penned ballads, To See You leaves Connick's modest voice drowning in a sea of strings and lugubrious arrangements. On past records, Connick's vocal limitations usually hid behind strong melodies or brisk rhythms. Here, though, his own billowy backgrounds draw attention to his earnest but colorless singing. Connick probably sees himself as a film star, jazz interpreter and vocalist. He's right--on two of those counts...
...committee ought to consider whether the speaker is challenging. If a sense of challenge were considered to be as good a criteria as the others, we could get earnest political activists instead of politicians. What about wisdom? Why not try to hear from someone who is wiser than us--and not wise in the sense of erudite, but someone who is knowing in the ways of the world, like a distinguished author? Or someone who is able to speak to transcendent values? A religious figure who might be able to give us some perspective on our temporal successes...
...Gerald Ford is remembered warmly, certainly by Chevy Chase, for tripping over his feet and for announcements like "I always watch the Detroit Tigers on radio when I can." (One especially likes the "when I can.") And even earnest Jimmy Carter evokes memories--of the "attack rabbit" episode on his rafting vacation out West and of his Freud-grounded introduction of Hubert Humphrey at the 1980 Democratic National Convention as "Hubert Horatio Hornblower." Woodrow Wilson, too, could be impressive. "When enough people are out of work," he observed, "unemployment results...