Word: prankishness
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...locals, but his goofy optimism is mostly gone. Part of it is perspective, of course; he and the other Haight-Ashbury kids were looked on by their elders as nihilistic and futureless a quarter-century ago. Now he's an elder, not quite a senior, but no longer a prankish sophomore...
...revolving around Letterman. His new TV incarnation represents more than just a change of networks and an earlier bedtime; it marks the ascendance of a new generation. When Late Night with David Letterman made its debut on NBC in 1982, it was the prankish outsider, a subversive send-up of talk shows, television, the entertainment world in general. Letterman refused to fawn over guests; with the help of Vegas-obsessed bandleader Paul Shaffer, he took deadpan aim at show-biz phoniness. He griped about his NBC bosses, turned stagehands into stars, conducted elevator races in the hallway. His medium-twisting...
...audience knows it is in for an offbeat experience as soon as the first character appears, sporting an elephant's head. This is Ganesha, the Hindu god who embodies childish playfulness, zest for life and prankish humor. During the course of almost three hours, he appears in countless guises across a tourist's landscape of India, as a Japanese husband and later his wife, as a street peddler, a beggar and a leper, not to mention moments of high-spirited invisibility when he is simply a god. He attaches himself to two suburban American matrons, old enough to be grandmothers...
That escapist streak is evident in rave clothing, which tends toward loud primary colors, patterned wool caps and untucked shirts emblazoned with peace signs, happy faces and corporate logos. A key part of the look is "trip toys," or out-of-kilter trinkets and prankish paraphernalia like op-art jewelry, prism eyeglasses and fluorescent body paint. "A trip toy is something that will catch people's attention and make them smile," says Niles Peacock, who attends raves with a ball-point pen that transforms into a tiny soap-bubble blower. "The whole purpose is amusement...
...other public works. No longer did Spaniards have to emigrate north for jobs: their income rose to 79% of the E.C. median. Culturally, Spain became fashionable: the campy fantasies of filmmaker Pedro Almodovar; the sunswept abstractions of painter Miguel Barcelo; the postmodern extravaganzas of architect Ricardo Bofill; the prankish sexiness of fashion designer Sybilla. Madrid promoted itself as the eye of a creative tornado known as la movida, whirling all night long. Novelist Camilo Jose Cela won the 1989 Nobel Prize for Literature. "In the 1960s, we felt like second-class Europeans," says Juan Sanchez-Cuenca, director...