Word: proto
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...pretty easy ride. A surprising number of people actually want to hear this record, and for that, you can credit curiosity - What does $14 million sound like? - and the power of rock stardom. In his prime, Rose may have been an angry, misogynistic homophobe - the proto-Eminem - but he was also a riveting physical and vocal presence. And real rock stars remain scarce enough that they tend to get the benefit of even extreme doubt. (See the 100 best albums of all time...
...Hayes' theme - for the proto-blaxploitation policier than helped yank Hollywood's depiction of African-American males from the sanctity of Sidney Poitier into the grittier image of the stud male who rules the streets with a sizzling machismo - was a cunning mix of wocka-wocka percussion, soaring violins, a sassy girl group whispering the hero's name as if it were a phallic deity and, anchoring it all, the basso talk-singing of the studly composer. "Who's the black private dick / That's a sex machine to all the chicks?" Girls: "SHAFT!" Hayes: "Ya damn right!" Hayes: "They...
...unleashing of bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam beyond the Pacific Northwest transformed Seattle into an adjective inextricably linked to the word sound, a marketable life-style packaged in flannel and devoid of shampoo. What turns a city into a seminal music scene? Minneapolis, Minnesota, the home of proto-alternative rockers like the Replacements and Husker Du, had its moment a few years ago. So did Austin, Texas, ground zero for the Butthole Surfers; and Athens, Georgia, the birthplace of R.E.M. and the B-52s. One necessary ingredient they all share is a healthy slacker class. Like Seattle, they...
...Leatherheads, Rutherford is lightly brushed by scandal. And by Lexie Littleton (Renee Zellweger), a proto-feminist newspaper reporter intent on exposing (perhaps inventing would be a better word) a less-than-sterling Rutherford myth. She is, of course, smitten with him. And, she banters fiercely with Connolly - and anyone the least bit familiar with the basic tropes of romantic comedy has to know where that is heading. The course of true love is always charted by the exchange of zingers, which in this case are pretty well written by Duncan Brantley and Rick Reilly...
Parfitt thinks that whatever the supernatural character of Ark, it was, like the ngoma, a combination of reliquary, drum and primitive weapon, fueled with a somewhat unpredictable proto-gunpowder. That would explain the unintentional conflagrations. The drum element is the biggest stretch, since scripture never straightforwardly describes the Ark that way. He bases his supposition on the Ark's frequent association with trumpets, and on aspects of a Bible passage where King David dances in its presence. Parfitt admits that such a multipurpose object would be "very bizarre" in either culture, but insists, "that's an argument for a connection...