Word: humdrum
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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When Goodman talks about one of his drawings or paintings, he resembles a man trying to reconstruct a half-forgotten dream. Just as a dream is triggered by some incident of the day, a Goodman painting may stem from the most humdrum of sights, which he transforms into an image that seems to have endless ramifications and is always in part a mystery. Once Goodman noticed two people sunning themselves on the deck of a ship; these became two eerie figures in ghostly robes lying in a landscape that appears to have no beginning and no end, and what...
...this "peaceful, humdrum, hell-free, deChristianized life," as Culture Pundit Sir Kenneth Clark describes it, many Britons feel merely fretful and frustrated. In the euphoric '50s, a new crop of playwrights and novelists, mostly from the grubby lower reaches of provincial life, hammered furiously at the deadening smugness of their society. It was a time when many of their countrymen were groping for a new sense of purpose and national identity. "Nobody thinks, nobody cares," cried Jimmy Porter, the non-hero of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger. "There aren't any good, brave causes left...
...dressmaker's establishment, is a swirl of rhythm. Eagles, monkeys, cats, lions, woodchucks, hogs, pouter pigeons, turtles and horses make up a delightful menagerie that reported on the wind, beckoned to the thirsty, announced the presence of circuses, and symbolized the glory of the nation. To the most humdrum of days, they added a touch of color; to the drabbest of buildings, they gave a bit of dignity; and for the vitality and imagination of a whole people, they provided the perfect outlet...
Thank God, a winner at last. No clap-trap in this one, no humbug and no humdrum inanities. The lean years are over (briefly, at any rate); and good theatre, entertaining entertainment, intelligent humor and everything that's good have returned to the Boston stage. After which quotable phrases it is my duty to tell you that Beyond the Fringe, which opened at the Colonial Theatre night before last, is beyond doubt the cleverest and best piece of theatre that will come anywhere near Boston this year. I laughed my fool head...
These performances are certainly worth seeing. But it is the few scenes (like the two I've mentioned) that make El Cid some thing special. All in all, there are worse places to spend three hours these humid, humdrum days than the H.S.T. One word of warning, however: Cambridge kids evidently agree with me, and they're going in droves; so every show is a little like a Saturday afternoon Kartoon Karnival. But you can just throw a pop-corn box back at the little bastards, and bury yourself again in the Infinemascope screen and Delightful Air-Conditioning...