& QUT ^HE QTHER'
Tom petty's latest album is still in
the audio, with an interim bass
player, Howie Epstein (who usually
hacks Del Shannon, whom Petty re
cently produced, hence the logical
connection) Ron Blair. Petty's former
bassist, left around Christmas last year
and is. as they say, 'pursuing different
musical directions.”'
Joni MiTCHELi has reportedly scrap
ped all the songs for her next album
and is in New York writing new ones
Robin lane, formerly leading Robin
Lane & the Chartbusters for
Warner Bros. Records, is now record
ing in MCA Music Studios. LA. with
Stan Lynch (Tom Petty drummer) El
hot Easton (Cars guitarist) and Leroy
Radcliffe (ex-Chartbuster).
Playing Games
Tap devised by h r tom- sawyer a
California philologist, is a
thesaurus/dictionary disguised as a
word game TAP consists of two decks
of tap cards, a spin dial and a score
pad. and the words are not simple.
Sawyer told one writer. “I'm not going
to lower the difficulty of the words just
to hit the masses. If they don't buy it. !
don’t give a damn It's going to stay
highbrow " Sesquipedalians among us
may order TAP by sending $16 to
Logophilia Unlimited. Inc.. 2253 Park
Bivd , Palo Alto, CA 94306
Pente. pronounced PEN tay recently
sponsored a $10,000 World Open
Pente Championship in Dallas, with
first prize of $5000 cash, a week for
two in England and a Grecian urn (say
what?) Based on the Japanese game
Go. Pente is four years old and deter
mined to be five
Like the Song Says,
“Don’t Go ...”
Rumored that "Wolverton Moun
tain." lovably ridiculous 1962
C&W/crossover hii for Claude King, is
being developed into a film
You Should Be Dancing,
Yarrgh!
According to a recent report in Va
riety the State of California is
13000
Wt> WOW 3 HOURS
OF PLAYING WLClCAR.
WAR ' FORSeT IT,
OUDf ' iOU'rt LOST ■
-This ROMAA/CF'
pioneering a new treatment for con
victed sex offenders, sort of a litmus
test for their progress in therapy Pris
oners go to discos for an evening erf
discreetly observed mingling If they
can shake a tailfeather without resort
ing to strangulation holds, improve
ment is assumed How/ever, in the
milieu of a disco, it isn't easy to tell a
maniac from a victim of Saiurdav Night
Fever at least two inmates have es
caped in the stroboscopic confusion
Moreover, suggested the Vanen re
porter, perhaps a disco evening should
be considered cruel and unusual
punishment" His alternative sugges
non take offenders to a punk club If
thev mingle successfully, lock cm up
again If thev shy from slam dancing,
pronounce them cured
Just What Are Your
Fai'orite Stars Up To?
Sylvesterstslutnl will write and star
in Pah a contemporary comedv
later this year we 11 see him one more
time as Rocky in the third installment
of that saga, and he lust finished f trs
Hluod, after mans delays and several
injuries
Scott gunn the coach in Personal
Hest (and die sexiest man in 1 rban
Cowboy) will play astronaut Alan
Shepard in The Rig/tu Stuff based on
"Rim Wolfes hook Dennis Quaid and
Sam Shepard also star
A ns m vino left the Broadwav cast of
Amadeus to travel to Europe,
where she'll star in lentl, directed by
Barbra Streisand
Mom is wm-Liasino A Clockwork
(trance because it ls deemed a
precursor of punk and as such mai
intrigue a whole new generation of
freaks
P)N gCREEN
One from the Heart
starrtny Frederic Fcjrrest, Ten (iarr,
Raul Julia and Sastassia Kmski
screenplay by Francis Coppola and
Arman Hemstem, directed by Francis
' C-oppola
WJrancis Ctippola has taken a simple
M* love story and produced one of the
most wonderful movies in years. One
I from the Heart is about losers, living
' out their second-rate lives in Las Vegas,
a town that only cares about its big
winners Frannie and Hank (Garr and
Forrest) are celebrating their fifth an
niversary of meeting and subsequently
living together, but on this July 4th
they argue and go out on the town
separately
When Coppola announced that he
was building a complete replica of the
Vegas strip on a Zoetrope Studio
soundstage, it seemed as if he was get
ting a bit carried away Here be was,
making a simple musical romance, and
the budget was quickly approaching
the grandiose scale erf Coppola s re
cent epic classic Apocalypse Sou At
One from the Heart's Final Preview
Showing at New York's Radio City
Music Hall it appeared as if every dol
lar were well spent No detail seems to
have been omitted the colors are
gorgeous, including the only opening
credits that could ever be described as
breathtaking At times it appears as if
the characters are secondary to the
visual wonders. We are being shown a
story about marginally ordinary people
who aren t half as interesting as the
town they live in (although, oddly, we
never see gambling, we just hear it).
One from the Heart works under the
premise that its insignificant characters
are only a minute part of Las Vegas, the
glossy, overbearing town that engulfs
individuals into a blurring swirl erf
anonymity
Blues artist Tom Waits has provided
a superb soundtrack, with vocal ac
companiment from Crystal Gayle.
Their music is the perfect backdrop to
Frannie and Hanks dreary lives, where
' people change their hairstyles in the
hope of changing themselves. Raul
Julia as Ray, Frannie s singer/piano
player/waiter fling, turns in an out
standing performance. His Latin seduc
tion scene, with its hysterically corny
mambo "mood music, is one of the
film’s highlights Lainie Kazan and
Harry Dean Stanton are funny and
touching as Frannie and Hank s friends
who find one another through their
friends’ misfortune Unfortunately,
though, Nastassia Kinski’s role (no
fault of her own) is easily the shal
lowest and least effective of all. Even
Kinski's greatest asset, her beauty, is
never fully exploited. Like Julia, Kins
ki's Leila, a circus performer/striptease
artist, is merely an exotic oddity, both
interesting targets for our heroes'
straying.
Photographer Vittorio Storaro (also
with Coppola for Apocalypse) has used
every trick to delight the eyes with
gorgeous colors and dazzling cinema
Every scene has a surrealistic touch to
it, from cartoon moon and stars to a
Las Vegas strip that's just too bright
and too real. It’s a story about real
people in a real town, yet somehow it
comes out feeling like a wonderful
fantasy, a romance that captures the
lives of eminently forgettable people
and makes us want to remember them.
Eric Flaunt
■
Personal Best
starring Mariel Hemingway, Patrice
Donnelly, Scott Glenn and Kenny
Moore; written, produced and directed
by Robert Towne
Two track athletes meet at the 1976
Olympic trials and literally run off
together Over the next four years they
are variously lovers and rivals, finally
reconciling as friends during the 1980
Olympic trials. Standard sports melo
drama, except for a modern twist: the
athletes are women.
For his directorial debut, Academy
Award-winning screenwriter Robert
Towne (Chinatown, Shampoo, The Last
Detail) has coincidentally touched on
two themes-of-the-year: track (cf.
Chariots of Fire) and homosexuality
(Making Love and the upcoming
Partners). Nonetheless, the film breaks
new ground for American movies,
both in its celebration of strong, mus
cular women athletes, and in its un
flinching portrayal of a lesbian rela
tionship.
Towne handles that relationship —
between pentathletes Chris Cahill
(Hemingway) and Tory Skinner (Don
nelly)—with a sensitivity and psycho
logical precision that avoid
stereotypes. He’s also on target with
the athletes’ complexly motivated and
motivating coach (Glenn, remem
bered as the sexy and dangerous Wes
Hightower in Urban Cowboy), and
with Hemingway’s heterosexual love
interest, played by Sports Illustrated
writer Kenny Moore. Hemingway is
convincing and ingratiating, if a bit
whiny, but Donnelly (a former hurdler
who had never acted) and Glenn set
off the most sparks with their intense,
edgy performances.
But despite the stirring sports action
and Towne’s telling dialogue and
characterizations, something’s missing
in Personal Best Most of the problems
probably involve first-outing jitters —
flatfooted cutting, lines topheavy with
Meaning, and especially a lack of
background on the main characters.
Unlike Chariots of Fire, which was
consumed with motivation, Personal
Best leaves us wondering why these
(Continued on page 15)
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we test our speakers to withstand conditions
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We freeze them to arctic temperatures of -22°E
We fry them to above-Death Valley temperatures of
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them continuously for 4 solid days.
The above tortures are inflicted on not one, but
A
HELL.
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you,n«Mdeafer Bll-te.call:(8001447-4700. InKliooi.: (800(322+100.
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