It bore a red theater-curtain background, a vintage microphone and gold-and-white lettering that read: "Sean David Morton, Radio Host, Public Speaker, Author, Director, Screen Writer, Actor". The polymathic Mr. Morton, Jeff Lavender told his wife, was U.F.O.
In some cases flat expanses of cloth are layered; in some, lengths of fabric are intertwined; sometimes a piece buckles out in high relief against the flatly curtained background.
By contrast, Task Rabbit, in an effort to reassure users that not just anybody is unclogging their drain or hanging their curtains, performs background checks on applicants and requires them to undergo video interviews in which they must enumerate their skills — all this merely to secure a place on the five-thousand-person waiting list.
Kevin and Joe Jonas then remove a curtain covering the background of stage to reveal a sky-painted backdrop in which Selena Gomez and Kevin Jonas proceed to sing the third verse.
At the far end, a broad flight of lighted-up steps, several translucent Greek columns and a silvery polyester curtain form the background essentials of Clifton Chadick's set, which also provides a platform for five musicians.
He put the letter down and took from the envelope a photograph of a man and a woman and a child on a sofa with a curtain in the background.
The red curtain in the background, the presidential table attached in the Soviet-style, and the leader in the center barely letting those seated in the other armchairs speak.
"Baz was sort of throwing up curtains in the background and making it look like so much more," Ms. Kidman said.
"Exposition de Sèvres" (1855), Louis Robert's image of an elaborately carved stone urn, is especially marvelous: oxidation in the folds of the background curtains makes the image almost three-dimensional.
