Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 37

www.freep.com Call Weekend: 1-313-222-6828 Friday, February 12, 1999 Section Detroit iftee iJtc TV v. Spotlight 'My Favorite Martian Page 6D 'Blast From the Past Page 7D The General' Page 6D 'Message in a Bottle' Page 10D Get Aut! It's a gay bar, but Ann Arbor's relaxed, upbeat Aut says it welcomes everyone. Review, Page 13D. 13 Gloria Reuben talks about 'Deep in My the story of a woman's search for her mother. Page 12D.

JAMAICAN CAFE HEATS UP A CORNER OF WINDSOR Windsor's Irie and Mellow Under de Corner is a multicultural neighborhood cafe that specializes in Jamaican food such as ackee, saltfish and roti. But if you're in the mood for hearty Canadian fare, Irie's got that, too. Review, Page 16D. 0 AY WlWt1l4 fc-tf Mniat.jjj- i Cv mJi 4l 1 jjfhrtJI 0 mM. Jft mm ml i SUSAN TUSADetrolt Free Press Composer Lettie Alston, left, and Flavio Varani rehearse "Storm Chaser," which will be premiered Saturday.

Composers infuse music with electronic sounds omething wicked good this way comes. "Stephen King's Storm of the Century," the first original miniseries the best-selling master of mm, residents, is very dead indeed. When town constable Mike Anderson (Tim Daly, is called to the blood-spattered scene, he finds Linoge waiting to be arrested. And so the ferocious mind games begin. "Give me what I want and I'll go away," announces Linoge in demonic deadpan again and again.

What is it he wants? He won't say. At least By Mark Stryker Free Press Music Writer 3 lectronic music has come a long way since the dark I ages of the 1960s and 70s, when composers worked 3 with mainframe computers the size of the Lincoln I Memorial to manipulate awkwardly a limited S3 number of bleeps, blips and blats. The personal computer and digital sampling revolutionized the medium in the '80s, and the latest generation of technology gives composers unprecedented freedom and flexibility. Now if only their imaginations are up 1111 to the task. But there's a method to his lethal madness.

Linoge is a scarifying mystic, a toxic mind reader who confronts various townsfolk and show- them with embarrass- ers 'Stephen King's Storm of the Century' out of 4 stare 9-11 p.m. Sunday, Monday and Thursday WXYZ-TV, Channel 7, ABC ment while revealing their dirty little secrets and sordid lies. And everyone in Little Tall is soon being rattled by high-octane heebie-jeebies. A few more maimed bodies pile up, with Linoge playing a lethal game of hypnotic tfTtZZ :r.TV 'Pathways to Electronics' Featuring Lettie Alston and Friends 8 p.m. Saturday Vamer Recital Hall, Oakland University, Rochester $12; $10, seniors i 1-24370-3013 You can hear how local composers are grappling with the challenge Saturday at Oakland University.

OU associate professor Lettie Alston has organized "Pathway to Electronics," a concert of contemporary music, including three world premieres, by Michigan composers. "When most people think about electronic music, they think about a rock band, or that the balance is going to be all loud and there's no leeway for dynamics or interpretation," says Alston. "But I'm trying to show that there are sophisticated electronic sounds being produced today and composers are combining elements of real live musicianship. I think the conservatives aren't freaky-deaky malevolence has created for television, packs a sinister wallop. It's a ripping good winter's tale.

And unlike some of the overstuffed, hit-and-miss miniseries adapted from King's books in the past, including "The Stand" (1994) and "The Shining" (1997), this one is a lean, mean fright machine. Instead of erratic schlock, it psychologically rocks. "Storm of the Century" unfolds over three nights beginning at 9 p.m. Sunday on ABC and continuing at the same time Monday and Thursday. The smart, creepily absorbing fable of otherworldly evil mixed with meteorological menace is set in King's home turf for terror, Maine, specifically the small, offshore comm'unity of little Tall Island, which King's fans will remember as the setting for "Dolores Claiborne." As the story opens, the people of.

Little Tall are hurrying to buy provisions and hunker down for what promises to be the nasty mother of all nor'easters. A three-day blizzard, packing hurricane-force winds and brutal cold, may dump up to 5 feet of snow on the tiny island two miles from the mainland. But it's the macabre stranger at the dark heart of the storm who really gets everyone'sattention. Say hello to mysterious Andre Lin-oge (Colm Feore, "City of a diabolical dude on a very disturbing mission. He appears in Little Tall just as the first flurries fly, spouting a cryptic introduction: "Born in lust, turn to dust Born in sin, come on in." And quicker than you can say supernatural serial killer, Martha Clarendon (Rita Tuckett), one of the island's oldest aware of that.

Technology is much more advanced than we can ever imagine. There's so much a composer could embark upon." mind control while incarcerat- ed in the small village jaiL And then his unsettling mantra "Give me what I want and I'll go away" starts appearing in smeared blood all over the place. As "Storm of the Century" twists and turns, King's taut, smartly crafted story explores a meltdown in the human condition with evil poisoning the bonds between friends, neighbors and family. And when Linoge reveals what he really wantsruring a tense, paranornjalJoWhall meeting, well, all hell jusl'about breaks loose. Please see MUSIC, Page 3D Besides King's solid teleplay, direc tor Craig Baxley has given "Storm of the Century" a snap, crackle and scary pop that features some nifty special effects, including Linoge's walking stick, which has a silver wolfs head tip Please see 'STORM OF THE Page 1 ID of Mercy theater prepares to pack it up BY MARTIN F.

KOHN Free Press Theater Writer tmmm its 15 years as home to the Theatre Company, the Earl DA Smith Studio Theatre has witnessed an abundance of dramatic moments. Many of them even occurred onstage. Design by ELIO LtritRlADetroit Free Press The all-nude technical run-through, however, took place offstage. Then there was the three-year sandstorm, the result of a scenery effect that outlived its purpose. Occasioning these memories from Theatre Company artistic director David Regal, designer Melinda Pacha, director Yolanda Fleischer and business manager Beth Thi-bault is tonight's opening of the final produc The Wayside I.

Motor Inn' I Through Feb. 28 8 p.m. Thursday- Saturday, 2 I p.m. Sunday The Theatre Company i Earl D. A.

Smith Studio Theatre i University of Detroit Mercy McNichols campus 4001 w. McNichols 1 $10, $8 for students and seniors 1313-993-1130 Cunningham keys into computer dance By David Lyman Free Press staff writer nn erce Cunningham may be a dance world giant, but watching his work is v. i IIIIMIMMil in nil Jr-'4'-' ill a challenge. 'II His dances are spare and spartan II and devoid of any hint of plot. The important? What is it that has made Ann Arbor's University Musical Society spend the past week hosting dozens of seminars and workshops exploring his work? And why should you go see his company perform at the Power Center tonight or Saturday? First, it's important to understand that Merce Cunningham has never been easy to watch.

From the time he started collaborating with equally challenging composer John Cage in the 1940s, his choreography confounded Merce Cunningham Dance Company 8 tonight and Saturday Power Center 121 Fletcher St Ann Arbor tion at the theater on the McNichols campus of the University of Detroit Mercy. After A.R. Gurney's The Wayside Motor Inn" closes Feb. 28, the little theater (150 seats) on the second floor of the Architecture Building will revert to its earlier life as a lecture hall. The architecture school wants it back.

As it has several times since 1996, the Theatre Company will stage future productions at the McAuley Theatre on the Outer Drive Please see THEATER, Page 3D music he uses is difficult to listen to, his costumes are either plain or eye-poppingly overdesigned. The whole experience is more fascinating on an intellectual level than on an emotional one. Then what is it about him that is so campus. It Merce Cunningham 1-734-764-2538 Please see CUNNINGHAM, Page 3D 1 a WW.