Word: kitsched
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...makes more sense to relate his work, in all its extreme, inward-directed fantasies of evil and innocence, to Darger's main lifeline, the Catholic faith. Catholic iconography, as anyone knows who is even briefly exposed to it (and Darger was marinated in its kitsch forms for 70 years), is suffused with Massacres of the Innocents, scenes of the roasting, flaying and disemboweling of idealized martyrs, sinners in hellfire and visions of a countervailing Paradise. Rummaging back through his fantasies for redemption of his own wretchedly maimed childhood, Darger was able to bind up his wounds with his religious fixations...
...minutes of noodling by Lucas and his effects mavens but the way we look at the film. Nothing ages so quickly as yesterday's vision of the future, or of the technologically advanced past that Lucas imagined. Today we can wallow in the film's sleek retro-kitsch; even the opening logo has acquired the classic blockiness of a '56 DeSoto. One can find endearment in the lame badinage of C-3PO, in Carrie Fisher's bagel-like hairdo, in the whining and bickering of the lead characters, in the varying pronunciations of Obi-Wan Kenobi and the planet Alderaan...
...longer an automatic astonishment; form has congealed into formula. Putting one of its extravaganzas, Mystere, in a Las Vegas casino and planning new shows in Vegas and Walt Disney World are moves that rob Cirque of its old street-theater purity. Then there are all the mimes: twee kitsch for which no enterprise can be forgiven. So with its fifth international touring show, Quidam, now in its U.S. premiere in Santa Monica, California, we should probably say so long to Soleil...
When Barnett was 13, she cut some unreleased sides for veteran producer Jimmy Bowen, yet another relic of the rockabilly years. Five years later, she was starring in Always, and transcending the kitsch format (a fan recalling her brushes with Patsy's greatness) by interpreting 18 Cline songs faithfully and imaginatively; she'd slow down the tempo, tease out the vowel sounds even further, add an Ozark twang that you won't hear on Patsy's records. Now an ancient 20, Barnett has her own, self-titled CD (Asylum). It stands as both a votive offering to her idol...
...nearly lost to this world when the original negatives were damaged and the prints all faded to unintelligablity--his widow and the score's composer Legrand remastered "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" from surviving remnants. How grateful we should all be for the chance to freebase on this pure, unadulterated kitsch, this seven-gun salute to the blonde virgin in a pink frock and matching bow which lives, at some level...