Joan's bleak perceptions are occasioned, not surprisingly, by "newspapers, slick city magazines, and Sunday supplements carrying the same tired layouts on an eroto-Escherian loop".
Minimalist art works succeed by occasioning, rather than communicating, bleak epiphanies.
Jon Cruddas selected Fish Tank (2009), set on an east London council estate and so powerfully bleak that Ed Miliband had been unable on a previous occasion to watch the whole thing.
United can be encouraged by parts of what happened but the overall picture is bleak and, even in defeat, they will miss these occasions.
Even on the rare occasions when they turn a pretty phrase or conjure a bleak insight into the loneliness or hardship of life, their feet are always on the ground.
From early childhood, my memory was so acute and my wit so bleak that I was described as a genius by my parents, by our neighbors, and even, on occasion, by the same teachers who gave me failing marks.
From early childhood, my memory was so acute and my wit so bleak that I was described as a genius — by my parents, by our neighbors, and even, on occasion, by the same teachers who gave me failing marks.
It is a bleak outcome, driven by the fact that the developer returned to the council on no fewer than six occasions to renegotiate the deal, which jars with the RIBA judges' own perceptions.
But that simply goes to show that we must bring prejudice to the proper enjoyment of the game – from its greatest occasions to its bleakest.
