Word: piquant
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...used to be that while Las Vegas was unfailingly piquant and over the top, it was sui generis, its own highly peculiar self. Vegas in none of its various phases (ersatz Old West outpost in the 1930s and '40s, gangsters-meet- Hollywood high-life oasis in the '50s and '60s, uncool polyester dump in the '70s and early '80s) was really an accurate prism through which to regard the nation as a whole...
Imagine my surprise when I innocently picked up Wednesday's Crimson--only to find that queer folk such as moi-mem (and how better to show off my own queerly piquant style than to do it in French?) "undermine civilization." Qui, moi? Responsible for the decline and fall of civilizations from east to west and back again? My, my, but I have been a busy, busy girl. All that time I was supposed to be off writing my too-too fabulous dissertation, I was actually fiddling while Rome burned. I obviously do not have my priorities, er, straight. Calgon, take...
Buried in this vat of feel-good glop are two piquant themes. One is a child's need to believe that invisible friends are real. Early on, when the four ghosts desert child Thomas and tell him, "Just be with your mommy and daddy," you can read the panic in his eyes; he is as bereft as Baby Jessica. The other theme is an adult's need to believe that our final worldly departure might come only after we have made peace with others and, thus, ourselves. That's worth a tear. Even a critic will cry for what might...
...Preludia Suite for piano is another strong work, dedicated to the pianist Rudolf Firkusny, who knew her in Paris before the war. In four short movements this collection of miniatures displays the Slavic influence of her teacher, Bohuslav Martinu, in its deft command of keyboard technique, sharp ear for piquant sonority and angular, accented melodies...
...steely gaze softened more often by a gap-toothed smile. Still, there is the cool, peremptory air of a man who has experienced power, and likes it. He talks in precise, carefully judged sentences and demands the same in return. Interviews are interrupted by phone calls that give piquant glimpses of the fabled "killer Diller." (After hearing about some new, unwanted contract language: "Tell him if he does not remove it, he can take the agreement and flush it in the river. If this is a manipulation, nobody's playing...