Word: softer
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...everyone agrees that old instruments are the wave of the future. Indeed, orchestras are unlikely any time soon to trade in their modern instruments for softer-toned period pieces, which cannot project well in large concert halls. "Every great artist in the world plays on modern instruments. Name one who uses authentic instruments," challenges Gerard Schwarz, music adviser to New York's Mostly Mozart Festival, which uses conventional instruments. Neville Marriner, for years conductor of London's Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, also criticizes the authenticity movement. "Music played on the instruments composers would have known...
...signs of Laos' new, softer version of socialism are everywhere. In the capital city of Vientiane (pop. 115,000), the organs of state power are evident enough, but their presence seems muted by crenellated temple roofs and reinvigorated marketplaces. In contrast to the oppressive presence of Communism in Hanoi, few propaganda banners festoon the streets, and soldiers in battle dress are rarely encountered. Buddhism flourishes: Marxist reservations notwithstanding, men still don the saffron robes of priesthood for a time and rise before dawn to walk through the morning mist in search of alms. Well-off Laotians may apply...
Ronald Reagan has an enviable skill at winning on the "atmospherics" even when he loses in the fine print. At press conferences, reporters hesitate to appear too fractious at pinning him down, which has hitherto made for softer questioning. No one wants to return to the abrasiveness of the recent past. But the press defaults on its job when casual, inexact presidential explanations and televised staged events are not balanced by tougher-minded reporting...
Murphy's palette holds softer shades too. One character, known as Solomon, is every happy-sad old man you ever edged away from on the bus; he spars gingerly with an old pal, croaks a song or two and returns without warning to the attic of reverie. Look behind the electrified hair and the cunningly garbled consonants of Murphy's Buckwheat, a resurrection of the character from the Our Gang comedies, and you will find a showbiz paradigm: the exploitation of a smile and a conspicuous lack of talent into big bucks. Whites are not immune either...
With Shultz now in charge of the Administration's hottest foreign problem, speculation arose over what he would do with that power and whether he could hold it. Did it mean a defter and softer touch in Central America? If so, would the White House and Pentagon hard-liners keep hands off for long? Shultz has never publicly differed from the Reagan attitude toward the region, so all of the fuss last week may signal no substantial policy change. "The policy is taking a hell of a beating in terms of credibility," observes a senior State Department official...