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Language: Irritating Cliché Department

July 28, 2010 By Doug Ramsey

This rhetorical padding is used by countless politicians and, it seems, nearly everyone interviewed or quoted in the news, from President Obama on down:

“…going forward…”

and its variant,

“…moving forward…”

Take it out of virtually any sentence and you will lose no meaning. Example:
“The administration will keep a close watch on this, moving forward.”
Getting rid of “moving forward;” now, that would be moving forward.
Of course, properly used, the phrase can be a source of inspiration…or amusement.

If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself—
Henry Ford

Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game—
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

We will move forward, we will move upward, and yes, we will move onward—
Dan Quayle

07/28/10 1:05 AM | filed under: main |

Comments

Michael Harris says:

July 28, 2010 at 12:58 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKftRlzh2RM&feature=related
Thought you might enjoy these Carlinisms!
Seldom ConsultEd says:

July 28, 2010 at 11:35 pm

So, moving one-word and up-word, maybe we could substitute the ever-more-highly-falutin’ term “excelsior,” but warped into a verb—to wit: “The administration will keep a close watch on this, excelsioring” and “We will excelsior, we will excelsior, and yes, we will excelsior.” That oughta level the playing field for any quayle caught between barak and a hard word… nest, Pa?
Steve Provizer says:

July 29, 2010 at 9:54 am

A man who made a lifetime study of the genre was Brian O’Nolan/Flann O’Brien/Myles NaGopalleen, creator of the Catechism of Cliché.
(For an introduction to The Catechism of Cliché, go here:
http://grammar.about.com/b/2008/10/01/the-myles-na-gopaleen-catechism-of-cliche.htm
—DR)
John Fielding says:

July 30, 2010 at 11:04 pm

Spare a thought for we poor folk down under. Our shiny-new lady Prime Minister who is racing to an election has adopted ‘Moving Forward” as her election slogan.
So we can expect to hear it endlessly.
Presumably, it is seen as preferable to moving to the left or right or even standing in one place jumping up and down.
Charlton Price says:

July 31, 2010 at 5:52 pm

How about “call out” = as in “criticize, trash, rebuke, animadvert…” ?
I think your “going forward” etc. was first a particular favorite of the Sub-Prime Financier Goon Squad and then the politicians with whom they “pay to play” (another boring bromide).

Doug’s Picks

CD: Felsted Mainstream

The Complete Stanley Dance Felsted “Mainstream Jazz” Recordings 1958-1959 (Fresh Sound)

This nine-CD treasure chest contains dozens of the finest mainstream artists from a golden era. Stanley Dance, who applied the term mainstream to jazz, supervised the sessions for the British Felsted label. Johnny Hodges, Earl Hines, Coleman Hawkins, Rex Stewart, Buster Bailey, Jo Jones, Budd Johnson, Dicky Wells, Billy Strayhorn; they’re all here, along with superb half-forgotten musicians like saxophonist George Kelly, guitarist Dickie Thompson and drummer Earl Watkins. Among the supporting players are young lions of the fifties Ray Bryant, Kenny Burrell and Ray Brown. The package includes Hodges in Strayhorn’s brilliant album Cue For Saxophone. The booklet has all of Dance’s notes, updated.

CD: Brad Mehldau Trio

Brad Mehldau Trio, Ode (Nonesuch)

Mehldau has recorded lately as solo pianist, in duets with classical mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie Van Otter and with a large orchestra. Bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard join him in a stimulating return to trio playing. They are attuned to the pianist as if by ESP. He describes the title tune as “an ode to odes” and dedicates other pieces to figures in his personal and musical lives. Among those who inspired them are Michael Brecker, Kurt Rosenwinkel, the Jack Nicholson character George Hanson and Aquaman, but you needn’t know that to be moved by the virtuosity and joy of this music.

CD: Mike Longo

Mike Longo, To My Surprise: Trio + 2 (CAP

The trio is pianist Longo, bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Lewis Nash— a formidable New York rhythm section. With the addition on half the tracks of trumpeter Jimmy Owens and tenor saxophonist Lance Bryant, Longo takes the quintet through classic bop territory and beyond into modal country. If there were Oscars for Wilde titles, “A Picture of Dorian Mode,” would win. The adventurous playing on the track awards the listener. With trio or quartet, in standards or new Longo compositions, hard-charging or pensive, this is an album full of satisfactions, not least the lovely take on “In the Wee Small Hours” that ends it.

DVD: Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Monk Live in France 1969 (Jazz Icons)

The video of Monk alone at the piano in a Paris studio is the jewel of the fifth Jazz Icons box set that many feared would not come. Taped with visual simplicity and excellent sound, he plays 12 pieces, all of them his compositions but “Don’t Blame Me” and a rollicking “Nice Work if You Can Get It.” Except for that exultant conclusion, the concert has an air of reflective, almost Brahmsian, gravity. His harmonies can be breathtaking. The bonuses—unedited documentary footage and an attempt to interview Monk—are curiosities. The music is essential.

Book: Timme Rosenkrantz

Timme Rosenkrantz, Fradley Hamilton Garner, Harlem Jazz Adventures: A European Baron’s Memoir, 1934-1969

Timme Rosenkrantz (1911–1969) had royal Danish blood, but no royal pretensions, and when he came to the US in 1934, his garrulous charm made him fit right in. What attracted him here was jazz. He became a chronicler and friend of musicians from Louis Armstrong to Art Tatum to Lennie Tristano and dozens of others. He was a rounder and a storyteller, and he could write. His memoir, artfully edited by Fradley Gardner, is a chronicle of three decades when New York was the center of the jazz universe and Rosenkrantz was swinging through it.

CD: Toots Thielemans

Toots Thielemans, Yesterday & Today (Out Of The Blue)

Two CDs with thirty-eight tracks, most previously unreleased, follow Thielemans from 1946, when he was a 23-year-old guitarist with a Belgian swing band, to a 2001 harmonica performance of “What A Wonderful World” with pianist Kenny Werner. In the late 1940s and early ‘50s, when many European musicians were struggling with the style, Thielemans had a firm grasp of bebop. Playing through the decades with George Shearing, Hank Jones, J.J. Johnson, Elis Regina, Mulgrew Miller, Shirley Horn and a few dozen others, Thielemans is astonishing on both instruments, but it’s his harmonica that brings grins of joy.

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Language: Irritating Cliché Department

07/28/10 1:05 AM | filed under: main |

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