American - Critic | December 10, 1952 -
After a decade this glum, we deserved a shot of 'Glee,' a show that restored our faith in the power of song, the beauty of dance, and the magic of 'spirit fingers' to chase our cares and woes into somebody else's backyard.
James Wolcott
BeautyFaithPowerDanceSongMagic
What a turnaround in sentiment 'Glee' exemplifies. It was only a few years ago that pursuing the dream of a Broadway career or cabaret stardom relegated some poor yearning dope to a lavender ghetto of losers, self-deluders, and social rejects.
CareerDreamGhettoDopePoorYears
The unhappy irony is that, while 'Glee' is hitting the heights, school arts funding is being slashed across the country due to the steep recession and declining tax revenues.
SchoolUnhappyCountryTaxHeights
People want to be special. I think ambition can take in a whole package of things, power or sexual excitement.
PowerPeopleAmbitionThinkWant
The whole ecosystem of celebrity has broken down for writers. If you go back to the '50s, '60s, and '70s, writers were on TV a lot, and they were allowed to misbehave a lot.
BrokenYouBackDownGoCelebrity
Truman Capote was a pop figure, but it wasn't until he went on David Susskind's show and had that extraordinary voice and manner that everyone could imitate, that he really took off as a figure.
VoiceExtraordinaryEveryoneOffPop
At 'The Village Voice,' there were all these fevers inside the offices, that would break out into full-scale rumbles between writers.
VoiceVillageInsideOutBreakWere
With 'Black Swan,' the ballerina saga flips its tiara and goes on a hallucinatory bender, a scary acid trip where transfiguration and disfiguration meet.
BlackMeetScarySwanWhereTrip
What stars do in their off-hours is a never-ending source of diddling curiosity to the tabloid sensibility.
StarsCuriositySourceNever-Ending
Today a celebrity sex video isn't a stigma that requires penance and smarm removal; it's a branding device, a platform enhancer, a show reel.
TodaySexCelebrityShowDevice
Telling writers to shut up is a sure way to keep them talking.
TalkingWayShut UpUpKeepSure
What's happening to movie critics is no different from what has been meted out to book, dance, theater, and fine-arts reviewers and reporters in the cultural deforestation that has driven refugees into the diffuse clatter of the Internet and Twitter, where some adapt and thrive - such as Roger Ebert - while others disappear without a twinkle.
DanceBookInternetThriveAdapt
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict James Wolcott quotes