Word: opt
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...writing for the piano is flamboyant, excitingly splashy but tamed by good taste. The expertise of his orchestral writing is remarkable-bold blocks of brass sound, piquant wisps of woodwind, supple simplicity in the strings. Perhaps the most important thing about his composition is that he has dared to opt for tradition over "now" chic: the idiom is tonal and reflects the post-romantic passions of the early 20th century...
...fight the traditional characterization by being anti-traditional: they put Jesus (rather uncertainly) into the role of a mass-culture hero, make Judas a sort of cautious road-manager, cast Mary Magdalene as a groupie in love with Christ, and Simon Zelotes as a politico who wants to co-opt Christ into a revolution against the Roman occupation. The point of all this is to make it clear by analogy that Jesus was a man, a man who had worries and faults, who had to deal with the same problems all men have to deal with, and who offered...
...decides to opt for survival. Marshall Bloom commits suicide, Bala-Bala leaves the country, Little Stevie dies. Mungo and his friends find themselves in the country, growing their own food, getting along with their neighbors, and watching the seasons come and go. The social analysis never comes; neither do the plans for ending the war or saving the country (which, he notes, doesn't seem very possible). It's all a bit romantic, a bit too familiar an impulse, and perhaps as impossible as all the other schemes. But that's not his concern, and he deserves the last word...
...Only his young son seems to have been spared such compulsive poor-mouthing-so far. Gould's irresponsible childishness on and off the screen may give a vicarious thrill to many who share his petulant self-pity, but until he grows up, this moviegoer will continue to opt for the likes of Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson and Alan Arkin...
...rarely the first choice. "The rural, rustic life is not attractive to young people," says David Pynchon, headmaster of Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. "Today's youth is not accepting the kind of authority that the school represents." Adds Pomfret Headmaster Joseph K. Milnor Jr.: "They opt for Mom, Pop, a girl and television." Indeed, places in city and suburban private day schools are much in demand. The power of sex appeal is perhaps best demonstrated by Rosemary Hall, which is one of the few girls' boarding schools that has not felt the decline in applications this year...