Word: soapbox
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Oscar platform Schulberg had mounted for Waterfront proved a soapbox in A Face in the Crowd (1957), another Kazan film with Andy Griffith as Lonesome Rhodes, a singing hobo who becomes a multimedia demagogue. (The character was said to be fashioned on folksy radio and TV host Arthur Godfrey.) Lonesome's derisive description of his audience is pure Schulberg: "Rednecks, crackers, hillbillies, hausfraus, shut-ins, pea-pickers - everybody that's got to jump when somebody else blows the whistle. ... They're mine! I own 'em! They think like I do. Only they're even more stupid than...
...mostly political. Like his 2006 record “Living With War,” the lyrics read as impassioned, sincere, but largely unpolished and impromptu ravings. Songs like “Johnny Magic” may have momentary relevance, but they sometimes seem like little more than soapbox speeches: “In the form of a heavy metal Continental / She was born to run a proud highway,” sings Young. The songs lack the timeless wisdom and emotional vulnerability that we know Young is capable of, and attempting to excuse superficiality by defending the album...
...step off my familiar soapbox for a second, I do think the picture is worth catching for the delicate and toxic nuances of Rudd's performance. And one of its funniest corollaries is that it shows how hilarious and instructive a star this perennial supporting player can be. See, Judd, he can carry a movie. And he might carry the rest of us not-as-funny-as-we-think-we-are guys along with him. Why, if I Love You, Man is a hit, Paul Rudd could make gauche the new cool...
...Surgeon General, Gupta would oversee the 6,000-member commissioned corps of the U.S. Public Health Service. Traditionally, the office, which was established in 1871, has served as a soapbox for promoting healthy living goals: C. Everett Koop launched an antismoking campaign in the 1980s; Joycelyn Elders, under President Clinton, pushed for stronger sex education in schools (she was later forced to resign, following the program's controversy); and Richard Carmona focused on controlling drug abuse under President George W. Bush. With Gupta, that soapbox has the potential to become a podium for convincing the American public as well...
...Outsiders might view the cacophony of complaints at Jantar Mantar as a metaphor for India's vital civil society, where even the loneliest petitioners are entitled to a soapbox. But many in the Jantar Mantar crowd are not so sanguine. Dhingra, the Bhopal protester, says that having this space is better than nothing, but sees Jantar Mantar as a symptom of flawed democracy. "You must scream within these 500 meters," she says. "And even then, you can't be sure you'll be heard...