Word: totems
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Kevin became Baby Insane, and a Crip. As such, his totem color was blue, and his mortal enemies, who wore red, were Bloods, and in particular a nearby Bloods subset called the Skyline Pirus. (Black Crips and Bloods gangs, now nationwide, got their start in Los Angeles in the early '70s.) The bonding ritual was a subadolescent mumbo jumbo of slogans and hand signs, like those used by adult fraternal groups. Car theft, drug selling and smash-and-grab robbery (smash a storefront with a car, wait for the glass to settle, and grab the goods) were agreeable moneymakers...
...mark is seated across the living room, or has just picked up a phone, he has declared himself a co-conspirator in the scam. Ace huckster Ricky Roma (Al Pacino) knows this better than anyone else. Lately, Ricky has been the "closer," the high man on the company's totem pole. And Shelley Levene (Jack Lemmon) is the Loman. Vending his unplowed dreams, Shelley woos like a Don Juan of property values. But when the courtship is over or aborted, he looks old, depleted, desperate. He sweats out loud...
Frida, currently in performance at the American Repertory Theatre, brings new meaning to the terms multimedia production. Frida is part film, part puppet show, part opera, part play; in totem it is consummately absorbing, wholly engaging...
Much closer to the Square and a decisive stepdown the ice cream totem pole is Baskin Robbins, anational chain. The narrow Mass Ave. store andsparse selection of tables doesn't lend itself tositting down, but its prices--$1.43 for a singlescoop, $2.38 for a double--are among the lowest inthe Square proper...
They are joined by a motley crew of transvestites, transsexuals, presidential candidates (George Bush and "Some Tired Old Liberal"), heartless right to lifers, leather clad feminists and a bevy of other ingratiating characters (35 in totem), all played by a very versatile 12 member ensemble...