Word: working-class
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Composed in 1932, Dmitri Shostakovich's second and last opera is one of the finest scores of the 20th century, a passionate and bawdy setting of Nikolai Leskov's 1865 short story. This tale of a frustrated, lascivious and ultimately homicidal rural housewife and her working-class lover boosted Shostakovich's art to a new level of technical assurance and emotional maturity, and at age 25 he appeared well on his way to becoming the most important operatic composer of the century. Then, in 1936, the Soviet authorities denounced the popular Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk as "muddle instead of music...
...main reason for the backlash is obvious: by taking after Hillary the way they did, the Republicans unnecessarily angered moderates, who saw the attack as one on women in general. By going after women who work, they got at the elite Murphy Browns -- a small contingent -- but also snagged the middle- and working-class Roseannes, creating solidarity among both groups, who aren't confident enough in their new roles to take a presidential strike force with equanimity. Scratch the surface of any mother and she wonders if she is doing it right, whether she works full time, part time...
Barcelona is and always has been a place of industry. In fact, for most of the 19th century it was the only industrial city in Spain, a sort of Mediterranean Manchester raised to wealth on cotton, silk and metal, presided over by a triumphant bourgeoisie and racked by working-class (especially anarchist) rebellion. Catalans are archetypally producers rather than dreamers, and they tend to pride themselves on what they call seny, common sense raised almost to the level of a theological virtue. They like you to know they have molta feina, a work overload. They do not see themselves...
...guess from his last big paintings like Chahut, 1889-90, and Cirque, 1890-91 -- something quite different from the calm, composed "Egyptian" classicism of his best-known work, the sublime Un Dimanche a la Grande Jatte of 1884-86. For the last paintings are more frenetic, more consciously urban and, above all, more influenced by mass culture (the posters of Jules Cheret, for instance) and working-class entertainment (fairgrounds, circuses, cafes concerts) than anything he had made before...
...Andrew and Tayenaka work for Paramedic Squadron 39 of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, a unit that serves a working-class white and Hispanic area within comfortable reach of five hospital emergency rooms. But as time passes each day, one E.R. after another claims saturation and closes down. Paramedics with life-and-death cases must sometimes beg or bluff their way in. Equally frustrating, trauma-care capability gets entangled with the community's demand for street medicine. High-speed runs for "unknown rescue" all too often involve nothing more than cut fingers, headaches and family hysteria...