Word: englishness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Jones-Palin anthem from The Meaning of Life ("Every sperm is sacred / Every sperm is great / If a sperm is wasted / God gets quite irate") could be choraled today by half the U.S. Senate. These musical interludes set the Monty-men firmly in the tradition of the English variety show, as well as making Spamalot less a break with the Python spirit than a natural continuation...
...dexterity could match the gyrations of Cleese's barbed satire, such as a skit "about a dog that has got trapped somewhere and people were being killed in the hundreds trying to rescue it." His 6ft.4in. frame nurtured a majestic scorn, whose clipped syllables instantly evoked centuries of institutionalized English sarcasm and sadism in the form of teachers and civil servants. He could apply this furious condescension to petty bureaucrats, a cheese or parrot shop customer, a professional arguer - almost anybody...
...contrast between the movie and the show is also the contrast between English diffidence and the American craving for acceptance. Idle, who had lived in Los Angeles for a decade when he did the show, has a bit in which the Lady of the Lake (fabulous Sara Ramirez in the original cast) leads her Laker Girls in a sideline chant: "Who's the king? U.R.! / A.R.T.H.U.R.!" That's symptomatic of the whole show, which struts, leaps, implores and seduces its audience, cheerleader-style...
...discover that the flat was above a noisy carpet shop, the patio looked out on a large parking lot, and the master-bedroom window had a too-close-for-comfort view of the bathroom in a neighboring bicycle-repair shop. "And this apartment was rated four stars by the English tourist board," says Kenny. "The location was good, but the setting was horrible...
...booming sounds, they shut it off and boiled water on the stove for sponge baths for three days until French repairmen appeared. "The French have a different sense of urgency," Conlon says dryly. That hasn't deterred the couple from planning a regular sabbatical, however. Who can resist playing English cottager, Parisian apartment dweller or Tuscan farmhouse owner--if only for a short while...