Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 38

MR. MUSIC: What band was the first to score platinum? 2D SECTION TO CONTACT US ABOUT FLORIDIAN: By phone: (727) 893-8221 or (800) 333-7505, ext 8221 By fax: (727) 892-2327 By e-mail: floridiansptimes.com THE TIMES FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2002 2, mm m.l. 1 (t AP Go to the Special Olympics Web site, www.specialolympics.org, and youH find a long list of ways in which athletes benefit from participating: "improved physical fitness and motor skills, greater self-confidence, a more positive self-image," etc. Great But ask the athletes what if like to compete, and they give a much less technical answer. "Amazing.

Exciting. The most wonderful feeling ever," says Dina Lista, 23, a bocce champ. About 2,200 Special Olympians will seek that feeling today and Saturday at the University of South Florida in Tampa. They will compete in team and individual sports including bocce, cycling, soccer, tennis and volleyball. Those with profound disabilities will take part in the Motor Activities Training Program, which emphasizes participation rather than competition.

Here and on Page 6D, youH meet a few Special Olympians and hear their stories. Adam West, 73, signs autographs for fans at Autorama, a hot rod show in Detroit in February. He says he still fits into the gray tights he wore when he played Batman on the campy TV series in the '60s. Holy reruns, Batman! TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY TONI L. SANDYS OF THE TIMES STAFF Adam West, on a promotional tour for cable station TV Land, reveals some but not all of the secrets of his days as the Caped Crusader.

By ERIC OEGGANS Times Television Critic onscreen when somebody got hit), bright costumes and simple conflicts for the kids, and a relentless earnestness and occasional double-entendres for the adults. It was a surprise hit in 1966, running twice a week with cliffhanger episodes that started Wednesdays and ended Thursdays. But by 1968 in the Vietnam War's early days and just past the assassinations of John Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. the joke fell flat, despite guest stars such as Cesar Romero (the Joker), Frank Gor-shin and John Astin (both played the Riddler) and Lee Ann Meriwether, Julie Newmar and Earfha Ktt (all played Cat-woman). Now 73 and at peace with the way Batman has dominated his professional and personal life, West is barnstorming the country to promote TV Land's acquisition of his old series.

Hell be visiting various local media outlets today, promoting TV Land's May 1 debut on Time Warner Cable. We sneaked in a few questions while he was still in Detroit, preparing for the trip south. Times: I'm sure you're used to it now, but is there any point when it blows your mind that people are still interested in this show? West Sometimes, late at night or early in the morning I wake up thinking, Please see BATMAN 4D His fflmography includes more than 50 movies from Drop Dead Gorgeous and The Specialist to Omega Cop and The Happy Hooker Goes to Hollywood. A list of his guest appearances on TV series includes Perry Mason, Bonanza, Laverne and Shirley, Murphy Brown, The Ben Stiller Show and The Drew Carey Show. But when Adam West rolls into town, there's only one subject people want to talk about Batman.

West played the Caped Crusader in a campy TV series and even campier feature film in the '60s, presenting Batman (and his alter ego, millionaire Bruce Wayne) as a hopelessly earnest do-gooder oblivious to the oddball dysfunction involved in slapping on a pair of gray tights and fighting cackling supervillains. 1 The show featured lots of action (including comic book-style animated "pow," "zap" and "thud" flashing -v i 'U -v'-U 1 Artist's Video poems' not for the squeamish 1 1 i i STEVE PERSALL TIMES FILM CRITIC (. ri -a 1 Artists, like old dogs, aren't inclined to pick up new tricks. Derek Washington is an exception. Then again, he always tried to be.

Washington, 40, made waves in the past with his paintings and photographs addressing issues of sexuality and racial division. Often his exhibits became lightning rods for stormy debate about artistic expression, academic standards and censorship. While working as a University of South Florida graduate assistant in 1999, Washington, an African-American, showed a photo titled Lover portraying himself in a simulated sexual act with a white woman. That image disturbed at least one student, who filed a sexual harassment lawsuit and received a $25,000 settlement from the university. Another time, his use of a repetitive loop of pornographic footage in an exhibit created an uproar on campus.

Now Washington has a new canvas, becoming part of the digital video boom that's making anyone with the proper camera and software a potential motion picture artist the "democratization" of filmmaking, as he calls it Three years ago, Washington didn't know how to use e-mail. Library assistants would prepare computers for him to type class reports. Today he can point and click a mouse with confidence. Next week, hell use this newfound technology to reach and possibly offend another audience, one that may eventually expand beyond small galleries into die omnipresence offered JJ by the Internet Washington will present a his master's degree thesis at USF, a 40-minute collection of "video poems" titled Quilt, a cut-and-paste blending of sonic flourishes, diverse and disturbing images and political statements. Quilt will be shown twice daily next week at 12:15 and 1:15 p.m.

in the FAS Projects building on the USF Tampa campus. After the final screening May 3, Washington will orally defend his 15-page written thesis before a committee of academics. The public is invited to the free exhibit and can pose questions to the artist during his thesis interview next Friday. "I need to say this, too: graphic material," Washington said. "Don't come if you need to sue me, don't come if you're under 18." The process used to make Quilt will be more important than its content in the long run.

The development of relatively inexpensive digital video cameras and sound equipment plus computer software such as iMovie and Washington's preferred Final Cut Pro, enable artists to do practically anything Hollywood offers. Washington is a latecomer to this particular revolution. "It took me literally two years to learn the mechanical: how to negotiate the JOHN MICHAEL McSWAIN 13 50-YARD DASH AND SOFTBALL THROW He calls himself "Rising Sun." "Every time the sun comes up, it is my land," announces John Michael McSwain Jr. of St. Petersburg.

Mike, as he is known to family and friends, is an all-academic honors student in the eighth grade at Osceola Middle School. He also happens to be autistic. He will be competing in the 50-yard dash and the softball throw. Mike says his four years in Special Olympics have helped his grades, his athleticism, and most important, his sportsmanship. "You have to be good on and off the field," he's quick to remind others.

"I'm planning to win, but prepared to fail." Once voted Most Spirited on his middle school track team, Mike hopes his hard work as an athlete will pay off with a trip to the 2003 Special Olympic World Games in Dublin, Ireland. He's confident things will work out. "Like my dad always says, 'It's the beginning of the McSwain MORE SPECIAL OLYMPIANS ON PAGE 6D Please see VIDEO 4D.