Word: gloss
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Galbraith, known for his caustic wit, usually wins believers for his theories even when he seems to lack empirical evidence. In Mass Poverty he tones down the wit (but not his elegant literary style). Unfortunately, his basic thesis, no matter how well phrased, seems to gloss over a complicated issue because he "proves" it with hastily explained historical examples. Although Galbraith's own experiences in government as an ambassador to India add richness to the book, many of his examples suggest counter examples, or at least cry out for more development. The solutions he suggests for mass poverty are unconvincing...
...reason that so many are willing is that for many mainlanders the gloss has gone off some once fashionable Caribbean and Mexican resorts. The dollar is worth a dollar, almost. The natives speak English, sort of. It is a fairly easy hop for U.S. Westerners, who account for 80% of Maui's visitors (though 600 people a day flew from New York City en route to Maui on United alone last year). Though here and there a McDonald's, a Pizza Hut, a Baskin-Robbins has sprouted, it is still possible on Maui to rediscover the idyllic Hawaii...
Three tracks might fairly be called "experimental": "Theme," "Fodderstomf," and "Religion I and II." "Theme" grates along for over nine minutes, with Lydon repeatedly wailing in a disembodied voice "I wish I could die" over a ponderous bass line. At the coda, Lydon intones "terminal boredom," an apparent gloss to the song. "Fodderstomf" features a disco bass line and the refrain "We only wanted to be loved" chanted in a sort of Monty Python falsetto. In the background we hear Lydon variously maundering belching, and playing with a fire extinguisher, for almost eight minutes. One manifest fault of these tracks...
...American Ophelia can make herself a different face for each passing mood, each fantasized role, even each time of day. At the office, she can sport the fresh, "natural" look of the career woman, by using a dozen shades and tints, from eye liner to translucent lip gloss, all supposed to make her appear as if she were wearing no makeup at all. Then, in the evening, she can switch to smoky mauve eye shadow and dark red lipstick touched with midnight blue, calculated to give her a mysterious aura that will stand out under disco lights and smite...
...might be a wonderful Harvard acquisition, but his company promises to be a serious problem for undergraduate theater. While the vision of Brustein as a white knight who will save Harvard theater from the "blahs" is naively optimistic, that optimism is harmless enough. It is more dangerous to gloss over the very significant problems that will result from the imposition of a professional company in an undergraduate facility...