Word: riff
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Robinson portrays Parker with deft restraint, convincing us that he has resurrected the sad genius on the bare, black stage. This transcendence is successful in part because Robinson intersperses his monologue with lengthy performances of Parker's own saxophone solos: "Koko", "Warming up a Riff", and "Parker's Mood". Robinson plays so well and so compellingly that we can only imagine the sublime experiences of hearing Parker himself play live. The sax provides a respite from the depressing facts of Parker's life; when Robinson stops playing, we miss its mellow loveliness. The instrument itself becomes a symbol...
...calls the three Rs. "I'm for reigning in the Federal Government, reasserting America's place in the world and reconnecting the government to America's values," he drones. There's more, of course, and on this day Dole serves three crowd-pleasing doses of conservative dogma: a riff on making English the nation's official language, a plea to end late-term abortions, and Dole's favorite promise. "If I'm President," he says, "American troops will never serve under the command of [United Nations Secretary-General] Boutros Boutros-Ghali"--stringing out the two Boutroses to ensure the most...
...Riff, Tony's best friend and the leader of the Jets. Dusty Thomson is charming. In "Cool," he handles the tricky melody and the non-sense syllables with real grace redeeming what is perhaps the musical's closest approach to absurdity. Tracy Pizzo swaggers nicely as Anybody's, the tomboy who just wants to be one of the boys...
...everybody. But orthodox feminists will be driven nuts by Drenka the Insatiable, and the Japanese will be offended by Mickey's ravings against a defeated enemy's celebrated prosperity. "In his grave, Franklin Roosevelt is spinning like an atomic dreydl," he cries in a two-page riff about raw fish and "the Land of the Rising Nikkei Average...
Fellow Graduates, today's address is in fact just a riff on an older speech, given 40 years ago by another man who spoke before another convocation at another university...