Word: hammerism
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Yerma is an admirable and intriguing example of Garcia Lorca's attempts to revitalize the tradition of Spanish drama. Its themes are simultaneously fundamental and extremely complex and manifold--the ancient theme of the cyclicality of nature and of female fertility is beaten into the viewer like a hammer. But at the same time the play presents us with a vision of one in whom that cycle is broken--"blocked up," as many of the play's characters repeat of Yerma--and asked to try to understand, with Yerma, the meaning of this arresting of the natural cycle in terms...
Since Kirby Dick's Sick: The Life & Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist displays all of its subject's creative carpentry skills, it is not for the faint of stomach. (When the song The Hammer of Love starts playing, go out for popcorn.) But like the 1994 Crumb, this deadpan documentary transcends its sensational topic. Flanagan's artful self-mutilation, and especially his corrosively comic descriptions of it, amounted to a heroic decision to take the punishment that God or nature meted out to him into his own hands...
...record business that could apply to the career span of many a young rapper: "Here today, gone later today." It's easy to understand why. Rap fans are among the most demanding and ruthlessly trendy. After three or four albums, even the music's hottest stars--remember Hammer and Tone Loc?--fade away as fans move on to tomorrow's new hip flavor...
Most people approach exercise with the idea that it has to hurt to be effective. Inspiring Nike ads of Emmitt Smith sweating through his rigorous preseason training program or Brett Favre taking a massive hit from a defenseman instead of sliding safely to the ground, hammer into our minds that "no pain, no gain" is the only way physical exertion pays...
Groundlings' onlymajor weakness is its tendency to hammer its point too insistently into the audience's minds. After the first few scenes, Roulleau's and Clamence's back-and-forth arguments grow repetitive, leaving the audience with the feeling that not much new ground is being covered. Similarly, the condensed performance of Hamlet that the players provide seems at times unnecessary: though elegantly presented (with notable performances by Ahana Kalappa '01 as Gertrude and Jay Chaffin '00 as Laertes), it perhaps presumes too much ignorance of the plot on the audience's part. But whether seen by a Shakespearean novice...