Words, ideas, the most basic feelings are all subjected to testy, circular scrutiny in "Problem," transforming the simplest exchanges into a philosophical "Who's on first?" routine.
While the clothes may well have changed, we may be traveling in cars and planes at ungodly speeds, and be obsessed with electronic gadgets, the truth is, little has changed as far as our most basic feelings and needs are concerned.
So, deciding at the end, persuasively, that Calder's art is rooted in play, he says, "Calder's classicism grew out of his most basic feelings as a person who both early and late, as a child and as a man, knew how to play".
To be authentic is to be clear about one's own most basic feelings, desires and convictions, and to openly express one's stance in the public arena.
The most basic political feeling among Scots, pro- or anti-union, is the memory of statehood.
I am deeply sensitive to people's joy and pain, and I think that truth can be compelling to a listener because they know I want to relate to them at the most basic level of feeling, barring ethnicity, language, and anything else.
The most basic such notion is "signification".
One needs to look no further than the arrest of two black men waiting in Starbucks to see that the most basic threat to the white feelings of safety or comfort quickly turns waiting into trespassing.
They talked about everything but the most basic fact about the wine: the feeling it gave you.
And, in truth, there is no easy answer at any time to that most basic of questions, "How are you feeling?" Onstage, of course, few things are harder than conveying such confusion with clarity.
