Word: offhand
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...each human, unfortunately, has only a short-term invitation. "Church Going" deals with a man-made structure. A wayward cyclist stops out of curiosity and enters an empty house of worship: "Once I am sure there's nothing going on/ I step inside, letting the door thud shut." That offhand "nothing going on" builds slowly to signify a loss of faith, of ritual and communal practices. There are no tears, but neither is there comfort; we are, for better and worse...
...result, the essays lose the playfulness and verge on self-importance, not self-consciousness. In all the essays, Updike makes offhand remarks that show a strong sense of his own significance, and the essays pick up this tone...
...Beene has resisted and neatly refuted the caricature of Americans as the slightly slaphappy innovators of sportswear and merchandising trends. A long black wool coat from 1983, with flowing gold satin insets along its back and sleeves, constructed of curved seams, is a masterly combination of grand luxe and offhand invention, a subtle experiment in enlarging the possibilities of wearable form. Beene calls it "probably the single most significant piece of clothing I ever designed...
...English, and, with collaboration from the likes of Elvis Costello, Sting and, most formidably, Lou Reed, he has fashioned eleven songs that range wide and pierce deep, all sharing a similar theme. "Violence is love gone crazy" is the way he puts it, with the same snazzy elan and offhand humor that make him such an affable and adept screen actor. He seems easy with it all: sweeping rock, laid-back jazz, Latin-inflected pop. Recently he reflected on the album on a film set in Hamilton, Mont., where he is starring in a caper comedy called Waiting for Salazar...
...straight-ahead endeavor. It has its own magazines (Thrasher and Transworld Skateboarding are the most successful), its own lingo, its own half-mystical lore and its own concepts of < cool. No thrasher excessively applauds another for an especially rad move. Miss a trick, and another skater will say, with offhand censure, "That was totally lame." But get it right, and the same comment or a close variation ("You're such a dweeb for making that") will be offered, but delivered this time with an admiring irony. "Basically, it's a fun thing," smiles Competition Skater Don Hillsman of Atlanta...