Word: extravaganza
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...popular culture: a calculated peek at American innocence. The proscenium stage is fronted with red drapery suitable for a Louisiana bordello; the title promises and delivers burlesque. But burlesque in the older sense of parody, travesty, impudent fun. There is humid sexuality at the start of the two-hour extravaganza (topless acrobat on a phallic pole, Madonna easing a whip past her crotch, dancers gyrating in auto-massage), but it soon gives way to simpler, sunnier images. For Rain, Madonna dons demure black; the look says, ''Listen to the sad ballad, the sweet harmonies.'' For Express Yourself, she's dolled...
Producer David Wolper does not believe in small gestures, especially when large expensive ones will do. For next month's four-day extravaganza celebrating the refurbished Statue of Liberty, Wolper has lined up 850 drill- team members, 300 tap dancers, 200 Elvis Presley impersonators, 150 banjo players, two aircraft carriers and one President of the United States. To help pay the spectacle's $30 million bill, Wolper offered the TV rights to the networks. ABC bid $10 million, beating out NBC, the only other network that took part in the auction. ABC's competitors did not mind losing the mock...
...recently, shock-art has had a little extra spice added. In their thirst for authenticity, artists are increasingly trying to bring real acts of cruelty and horror into the art gallery—Shvarts’ miscarriage extravaganza is just one example. In Nicaragua, Costa Rican artist Guillermo Habacuc Vargas found himself a stray dog, tied it up in the corner without food or water, and let visitors watch it die (though there remains speculation over whether the dog was removed before it actually expired...
...Lebua certainly knows all about hosting lavish feasts. Last year, the hotel organized an event it modestly titled "The Epicurean Masters of the World," a Michelin-starred extravaganza at a cost per head of 1 million baht (around $28,000). Despite the hefty check, the dinner event was fully booked - and it received its share of official criticism, coming at a moment when Thailand's then-ruling military junta was unveiling an economic policy based, in part, on scaling back ostentatious shows of wealth. The dinner also mystified many ordinary Thais, who are used to dining on some...
American households average 26 pieces of electronics, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, and spend $1,500 a year on tech toys. To look for more stuff, 150,000 visitors flocked to this year's Consumer Electronics Show, the wired world's annual gadget extravaganza, in Las Vegas. So did we. Here are some cool new devices...