Word: sparest
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Writer-star Nia Vardalos’ follow-up to indie smash My Big Fat Greek Wedding treats gay transvestites with the same loving care she previously slathered over the Greeks: she reduces them to the sparest possible stereotypes in order to make as many “ain’t this wacky” jokes as is possible in this wildly mediocre rehash of Some Like It Hot. Like in that classic comedy, two performers witness mob violence and go on the run. This time the heroes find refuge on the gay circuit, where they pretend...
Writer-star Nia Vardalos’ follow-up to indie smash My Big Fat Greek Wedding treats gay transvestites with the same loving care she previously slathered over the Greeks: she reduces them to the sparest possible stereotypes in order to make as many “ain’t this wacky” jokes as is possible in this wildly mediocre rehash of Some Like It Hot. Like in that classic comedy, two performers witness mob violence and go on the run. This time the heroes find refuge on the gay circuit, where they pretend...
...Cash found a sympathetic producer in Rick Rubin, co-founder of the rock-and-rap label Def Jam. It was Rubin's inspiration to return Cash to his roots: the voice, a guitar and the sparest backing. The result was the four American albums. These CDs didn't go platinum--they barely went rhinestone. But they validated Cash's status and towering stature. The latest one, The Man Comes Around, proves to be the perfect send-off for an artist who was failing in everything but artistry. It's Cash's own elegy, eulogy and last words...
Signs closes with Badmarsh & Shri's sparest song to date: Appa, which features Sriram's father, T.S. Sriram, playing a delicate sitar raga, backed by the Strings of Bombay. Sriram included the song on the album not only as a homage to his father but also as a retort to those pretenders--the guys who couldn't hold their sitars properly--who once populated the so-called Asian underground. "I thought I'd show people what real sitar can sound like," he says. "Even my father says he never knew he could sound that good...
Second City rests on the sparest of theatrical trappings: a few bentwood chairs, a bit of lighting, a piano and six performers. At the start of one recent show, four of them are onstage as Soviet agents trained to imitate the people of Chicago. ("I am a full professor, so I only talk to graduate students." "I don't do anything; I work for the city.") The props are simple and the costuming sparse. Ski hats and overcoats are enough to dress all six as victims of Reagan-era policies. "We wear our characters lightly and dress them lightly," says...