Word: offhand
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...Rowlandson had none of Hogarth's ambition for major categories of art, not just history painting, but oil painting itself. He was perfectly content with pen and watercolor. But his mastery of them was complete, and it shows everywhere: in the supple energy of his line, in the feathery offhand signs for foliage and clouds, in the unerring grasp of tone that enabled him to particularize those dense, rowdy friezes of people so coherently against the pale buildings and landscapes...
...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...