Word: rasp
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
GIMMICKRY and sentimentality are not enough. A good book of poetry should be both well-written and philosophical, expressing a cohesion of experience. Flying Inland, by Kathleen Spivack, is neither. Spivack's poetry lacks a unifying voice. Each poem remains a solitary, cricket-like rasp, grating in the reader's ear. Nothing justifies printing poor writing in any case, and nothing justifies placing these poems in a collection...
...familiar mix-the gaunt but unmarked face and the insinuating nasal rasp. He slouches buzzing over his guitar, his voice dry as locusts. Then, without warning, Bruce Springsteen rears back and uncorks a geyser of white hot sound. Cataracts of electrically charged fragments of sound lacerate the air, scattering intimations of Dylan and colliding with the fierce rhythms of Springsteen's own wild fusion of rock, jazz and folk rock...
Owlish glasses magnify the seemingly perpetual expression of pained skepticism. The mouth is ever pursed in disapproval. The voice ranges in timbre from the crackle of dried twigs under a hostile foot to the rasp of fingernails across a blackboard. Along with these qualities Lawrence E. Spivak conveys the agility of a mongoose awaiting the right moment to strike a superior adversary and the assurance of a man who knows everything worth knowing about the topic at hand. This Sunday, when he clears his throat, adjusts the pillow seat that makes him look taller on camera, and thumbs the stack...
Foxx's delivery of such gag lines is like a rasp drawn gently across the funnybone. With timing that would take an atomic clock to measure, he teases a laugh like a yo-yo on the end of a string. A figure of grizzled aplomb, he can get up from a spread of ham hocks and pinto beans, then strut through a junky living room as if he were Louis XIV in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles...
Dutcher feels that the most important factor in motorcycle racing is tire preparation. "Racers use softening compounds on the tires and then file and rasp the edges to get maximum contact with the racing surface," he explained. "The track gets much faster during the race as a layer of rubber melts onto the surface...