Word: genericizing
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...years Americans have enjoyed the privilege of waking up to a fresh-brewed caffeine fix or of heating up last night's lasagna in 90 seconds. Once worshiped, the automatic drip coffeemaker and the microwave oven have become generic symbols of modern domestic life. The toaster, the blender, the food processor--they're all taken for granted. Things have been simple for a while...
...afternoon last fall, I happened upon Erykah Badu's debut video "On and On." Coming on late in Black Entertainment Television's "Planet Groove"--after an hour and half of rejects from the Mary J. Blige school of intonation and generic girl groups whose lyrics made the Spice Girls seem like Joni Mitchell--"On & On" was unlike anything I had seen or heard in awhile. A pastel-infused riff inspired by The Color Purple, I fell in love with the song's sweet sass, thoughtful hip-hop jazz-poetry. In the year of 'Lil Kim, Erykah was a refreshing surprise...
...have great chemistry, taking an argument about a dress and twisting it beautifully into a full-out tete-a-tete. Snipes' nuanced performance--for which he received the Best Actor Award at this year's Venice Film Festival--makes you wish that he would give up playing generic action heroes and return to more serious acting like that of his earlier work with Spike Lee. Charismatic and sincere, he is particularly effective in scenes with Downey (who gives real depth and personality to a character who could have easily come across as a mere caricature...
...hope for any big surprises. The plot is strikingly generic, the "twist" is anticlimactic and predictable and the secret weapon is nothing more than a great...
...Waves lend a familiar sound to a bunch of otherwide deservedly unknown songs. Don't think that unpopularity leaves other tracks necessarily disappointing. "I Love L.A." by the revivors of this past summer's Latin element, O.M.C., has a catchy groove, Boyzone's "Picture of You" frolicks in generic R&B melodies, "He's A Rebel" by Alisha's Attic combines Motown and 50s rock into a contemporary oldies derivative and 10cc's "Art for Art's Sake" lounges in a lazy, drugged-up guitar wasteland. There is even a hilarious cover of "Yesterday...