Word: odes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...stirring aria than a medley of his greatest hits. It includes a ringing anthem to the Reagan revolution: the tax cuts -- including a call for new reduction in the rate on capital gains -- the five-year economic boom, the resurgence of patriotism. Then the President also planned an ode to the Nicaraguan "freedom fighters." And of course there was a section of budget-deficit blues, a put- the-blame-on-Congress thumper ending with that ancient standard: the call for a line-item veto...
...some of the musical selections -- Mark Hardwick and Debra Monk (who collaborated previously on the 1981 off-Broadway hit Pump Boys and Dinettes), Mary Murfitt and Mike Craver -- are all Middle Americans by upbringing, not New York City wise guys. They've been there. When Debbie sings an ode to shopping malls and interstates called Ohio Afternoon ("Ohio fun . . . diesels dragging out on Highway 1"), she gets all misty. When Mark and Mike have at a couple of Zez Confrey ivory ticklers like Dizzy Fingers and Coaxing the Piano, their doofus grins proclaim the triumph of diligent drudgery over inspiration...
...expect their probe to tie up some of the loose connections of the Iran-contra affair. Hull greatly admired former National Security Council Aide Oliver North, the contras' aggressive champion. When North's associate Robert Owen appeared before Congress's Iran-contra committees last spring, he read a treacly ode to the Marine colonel penned by none other than John Hull. The contras gain sustenance, the poem read, from the "knowledge that on this troubled earth there still walk men like Ollie North . . . In our lifetime, you have given us the legend...
Chronicling the life of 1950s teen-idol Ritchie Valens (Lou Diamond Phillips), La Bamba is an ode to the American middle-class dream. The film opens with the Valenzuela family, a group of Mexican immigrants, working as California migrant workers...
Only on "Ahead" and "Over Theirs" does the band achieve any sort of success. The former is a shuffling, sequencer-laden dance tune, built around a piercing guitar riff. Though highly unoriginal, it's the record's only memorable tune. "Over Theirs" is a dirge-like ode to obscurity, in which singer Newman chortles about boundaries just out of sight, backed by a melodic guitar line and atmospheric keyboards. Although the band's art-school derision makes you cringe, the song achieves a sort of synthetic beauty despite itself...