Others - notably Mr. Lanza and the British band Stereolab - prefer to explore the unexpected affinities between mood music and underground rock.

His music makes its way through the post-modern information barrage by discovering unexpected affinities and, at times, making shotgun weddings of sounds that would hardly meet otherwise.

Fearful even before the latest reports on Managua's military plans that Mr. Wright was being duped by Nicaragua's Communist leaders, they also worry that the Speaker has shown an unexpected affinity for the domestic spending priorites favored by party liberals.

Bill Irwin, the great physical comedian who showed an unexpected affinity for Albee angst when he appeared in "The Goat," is George, Martha's husband, accomplice and sparring partner.

There were other unexpected affinities: The Times, in a long piece today, described how the young Egyptians who set up a key opposition Facebook page were influenced by a Serbian youth group.

That leaves the show's heavyweights, Miriam Beerman and James Andrew Brown, whose Expressionism, painted and drawn on large sheets of paper, reveals unexpected affinities.

In "Rearview Mirror," Ellen Feldman's latest novel of psychological suspense, Hallie moves closer to romantic commitment while Emma's domestic life deteriorates - and in the process each woman discovers unexpected affinities in unexpected places.

At their first informal meeting at King's House in Kuala Lumpur, Tunku found in the new Secretary of States an unexpected affinity.

Mr. Parker and Mr. Stone, lest we forget, have shown an unexpected affinity for old-style Broadway razzmatazz, not only in the song-studded "South Park" series, but also in three feature-length films: the early, cheerfully gory "Cannibal!

The culture which developed between telegraph operators also had some rather unexpected affinities with the modern Internet.