Word: puckishly
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...Lewis, who was reared in England yet carries an Irish passport, there is a strong streak of Eire: the tale-spinning, the mordant thoughtfulness, the smile in his soft voice that lightens his remarks with a puckish irony. His father Cecil was the Irish-born poet laureate of England. His mother is actress Jill Balcon, whose Baltic Jewish father, Sir Michael Balcon, ran Ealing Studios, Britain's renowned comedy factory. Daniel's sister Tamasin, four years older, is a documentary filmmaker and writer on food...
...Ronde. In that piece, set in fin-de-siecle Vienna, sex crosses social lines, allowing commentary, and serves as a metaphor for syphilis, permitting preachment. LaChiusa resists the obvious AIDS allusion. His love connections are timeless, and hopeless. Yet consistently thwarting his characters does not impede the ribald, puckish entertainment...
...with the Mothers and his numerous other rock recordings, Zappa collaborated with the likes of composer Pierre Boulez and conductor Zubin Mehta on such pieces as The Perfect Stranger, a collection of chamber music, and 200 Motels, an "opera for television." The self-taught Zappa was as prickly and puckish about his "serious" music as he was about rock. "I write," he declared, "because I am personally amused by what I do, and if other people are amused by it, then it's fine. If they're not, then that's also fine...
There was always the whiff of the charlatan about John Cage. The puckish composer, audacious theoretician, stylish writer, subtle graphic artist, macrobiotic guru and fearless mushroom hunter was the impish personification of the 20th century avant-garde. Arch, soft-spoken and witty, Cage was passionately adored by his acolytes right up to his death at age 79 in 1992, and continues to be regarded by some as a kind of contemporary Beethoven, his influence ranging as far afield as Germany and Japan (where he is a demigod). And yet: Was there ever a composer of whom it can be said...
...this birthday evening the puckish John Paul, waiting to gobble down take- out Chuckee Cheese pizza, is deliriously happy to be the center of attention. But his sister Mercedes, 18, has become worried. She has noticed an insect bite on the boy's lower arm, accompanied by a red streak running upward and inward toward his heart. The pediatrician is called, and the verdict is wrenching: the bite appears to be infected; John Paul must go straight to the emergency room...