Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 61

6F DETROIT FREE PRESSFRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1998 Your Free Press entertainment guide for today Missing music and loved ones' voices the list! in the Weekend section, Pages 9-12D. Zelda is legend in its own time Greene It's not very often a game as hyped as Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time lives up to its advance billing. Believe the hype, my friends, because this is one masterpiece of a game. Zelda's amazing 3-D fantasy world will quickly suck you in, and its stellar adventure will keep you lashed to your Nintendo 64 for days. Mike Floyd Game Guy One of the most successful Nintendo creations ever, the latest and greatest Zelda is the fifth game of the series and first for Nintendo 64.

Combining elements of traditional role playing with real- initial reaction to becoming hearing-impaired was frustration and anger. I couldn't hear my coworkers, couldn't enjoy plays, eating out was no pleasure. I try to remember Mildred Du-Brow's classic comment, 'It helps td have a sense of From a woman named Eleanore "At first I seemed to have lost everything I valued most. Quick quips, jokes, children's faces and the precision word-by-word of a tightly reasoned discussion or lecture. Lost was Leonard Bernstein's the tenderness of Christmas carols.

Lost were the theater's resonant voices and the whispers of love. I'm angry when I can't break through to someone I especially need to hear. But I know and enjoy art more deeply. I cherish the beauties of water, sunsets and mountains. I watch as I listen.

I sense the meaning of half-heard words that are never spoken." 1 time action-adventure, this I loner-awaited N64 title is a From a man named Herman: "My hearing impairment has made me a more quiet person I have learned to sit close to the speaker if necessary and ask for a repeat of what is I wear two hearing aids I have not allowed my hearing impairment to make any changes in my activities or my life." From a woman named Elsie: "A friend with hearing loss said what he missed most was music. We do miss the clear beautiful sounds of a band or orchestra, the singing of choirs or individuals but I still find pleasure in the memory of music and lyrics of popular songs I used to sing." From a woman named Mae: "Several years ago I spent the winter in Florida. I was unable to get a direct flight back to Chicago. (At our stopover in) Orlando an announcement was made; everyone, including me, left the plane. I didn't know the reason.

I asked directions at the boarding desk. (Because of) my severe hearing loss and loud noise in the airport, I was not able to understand. I hurried along not sure where to go. I noticed a young man carrying a small boy on his shoulders. Both were wearing Mickey Mouse caps with perky ears.

'Is this plane going to 'It sure is, I learned it is important to tell people when one is hearing-impaired." And it is important that people understand just what that means. One of these days, some of them some of us will be the ones needing the understanding. Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Greene appears occasionally in the Free Press. Bob Talbert is on vacation. His column will return Monday.

St. Petersburg, Fia. It wasn't an especially drama-laden moment. It probably happens, in some form, hundreds of thousands of times each day all across the United States. A woman she appeared to be in her 60s or 70s was having trouble hearing the announcement in the airport.

You could see it in her eyes she was straining to hear the words that everyone else was picking up with no effort. The announcement would soon be over, and she wasn't understanding it, and there was worry in her eyes. Hearing loss, as men and women get older, is inevitable for a certain portion of the population. This is different from what is faced by children who are born without hearing, or who lose their hearing at an early age; because hearing loss among older people takes place relatively late in life, it is considered commonplace not a tragedy by much of the population. But its effect is large.

I've been reading a little booklet, put together by men and women who attend weekly meetings of a hearing loss group at the North Shore Senior Center in North-brook, 111. It's not a textbook or a medical book it is composed of brief essays written by the members of the group, telling about the way their daily lives have been changed since their hearing grew weak. A member of the group, Birdie Stall-man Gurvitz, made the essays visually pleasing by breaking the liries up into poetic cadence. I can't do that in a newspaper column but here, in short excerpts, are some of what the men and women had to say. It made me understand better; maybe it will do the same for you.

From a woman named Arlene: "My unique experience. Add excellent graphics quality, sound effects and player control to thp miv nnrt vrt tiavp nramp 4 "'e with few peers. Ac until nrairinito Villio 4 10 nun pi tnuua Ltiuaa, you play the role of Link, an Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of lime out of 4 stars Formats: Nintendo 64 Estimated price: $69.95 Category: 3-D role-playing adventure Players: One Check out Nintendo at WWW.nintendo.com elfin boy from the Kokiri Forest. Link has been chosen to save the world of Hyrule from the evil plans of Ganondorf, king of thieves. Link's quest will put him in contact with several characters from previous games as well as some new ones.

Link is also aided by his fairy, Navi, who assists link in numerous ways. Control of Link through the more than 100 hours of game play is easy to master. In addition, the Nintendo control buttons make it simple to select and use the game's numerous weapons and other pickups. Link will age, travel through time, rely on his horse Epona, solve numerous puzzles and master Hearing loss, as men and women get older, is inevitable for a certain portion of the population. several weapons as the game progresses.

There's simply not enough space in this column to explain in detail the finer points of this superb game. Fans of previous Zelda games are sure to love it, and anyone with an N64 should give it a try. Just be sure to clear a large chunk of time to play it. E-mail Game Guy Mike Floyd at: mfloydfreepress. com Guindon By Dick Guindon Dick Guindon's cartoon panel runs in this space Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

B.C. and Shoe run Tuesday and Thursday. Child's play reveals magical scene They're just kids, but I am grateful for Trevor and Tyler. Thanksgiving is over. Once again I expressed thanks for my enfolding family, my warm home, our good health.

But I didn't think to say thanks for Trevor, in her black velvet jumper, red tights and black patent shoes. Or for Tyler, in cowboy denim from collar to cuff. The children looked to be about 3. They were so in sync that day I first saw them at the mall that their parents had to explain to other shoppers who kept asking, "Do they know each other?" that the black girl and white boy clasping hands in the department store had just met. 'They're instant friends," Trevor's mother shrugged.

Donna Brut 1 LiiL I considered talking to the children's parents, asking what did it mean for this rosy boy and almond-skinned girl to whirl and hug for a smiling world. But I wanted to feel the moment's buoyancy, to resist weighting it with too much meaning or too many spirit-killing quotes. Besides, I was too distracted by the clamor in my head. It would be nice if I were capable of merely enjoying this cute tableaux. Of not wondering briefly if any of Tyler's and Trevor's mesmerized onlookers were even fleetingly discomfitted.

It would be nice to believe that the pleasure we took in that moment does mean something. Moments like this remind me of something miraculous: At some point, I stumbled into optimism. However I try to shake it, to scrape its outmoded sense of things off my consciousness, it sticks. So I carry it like contraband nurturing it, hiding it, until circumstances coax it free. Circumstances like Tyler and Trevor.

The cynic in me, not quite dead, still grouses. The scene meant nothing, it insists. You haven't a clue as to how the parents or even the most smiley-faced onlooker felt. Of course people seemed charmed, it shrugs. They're toddlers.

But, my optimism counters, what about the white couple my husband and I met on our Greek honeymoon, whose daughter was born within days of our son? Remember how they wrote us, saying that maybe, one day, our son and their daughter could marry and travel to Greece as well? Or the 70ish, African-American retiree who recently described how his tire blew out on the highway and how a white father and son stopped to change it, refusing even to let him assist? Such acts don't make the news, any more than the once-unlikely alliances between Latinos and blacks, and Asians and whites, and Jews and Arabs that flower every day. All you hear about is what's strained. What doesn't work. But that shouldn't be all we know. That shouldn't be all we allow ourselves to see.

A few weeks ago, I saw Trevor and Tyler. I saw busy, skeptical grown-ups drawn into a mundane yet magical moment where two children saw only each other's brilliance. I saw a dozen strangers twirl with them, forgetting themselves. And I'm grateful. Donna Britt appears Fridays in the Free Press.

It has been weeks since I sat, weary and impatient, in Nordstrom waiting for my kids at our arranged meeting point. Of course they were late. So I watched the tykes who'd taken over the aisle between makeup and shoes. Tyler and Trevor circled each other, chatting. Then Tyler dashed, a ponytailed, red-black blur, up the aisle with Trevor behind.

Reaching the carpet border of the men's department, the kids turned. Now Tyler was in pursuit. They stopped, hugged. The longer it continued, the more the scene resembled a Benetton ad: glamorous, multiracial, too cool to be true. Suddenly Tyler inspired, perhaps, by a tinkling nearby piano grabbed Trevor's hand.

Stretching out his arm, he tried twirling her, just as men have for centuries spun velvet-clad women. But Trevor's head bumped Tyler's elbow. Stepping into their circle, Tyler's father raised his son's arm. Gently, he guided Trevor beneath its arc. She twirled.

Everyone beamed, some sighed aloud. Of course this sweet scene was made sweeter by Tyler's being white and Trevor's being black. Of course sharing it made us all feel a bit better. We need evidence that something is working. That something is happening that might not have happened even a few years ago.

Even if it's just kids. AMES FACES Sarandon is quite a stuntwoman guest editor of Marie Claire III magazine January issue, uscar-II winning actress Susan Saran-I .1 10 uoii aiefu to a uay oi io the-top, on-the-street stunts. The magazine snapped pictures of her taking a bite of a stranger's lunch, shampooing a man's hair and ordering the Monica Lewinsky dress at SKY WATCH Mi; 'Last Emperor' Want to see a special screening of the director's cut of "The Last Emperor" at 7 p.m. Dec. 14 at Royal Oak's Landmark Main Theatre? Just use a Touch-Tone phone to call 1-313-962-7587 after 3 p.m.

today and punch in code 5500. (Call earlier and you'll be disqualified.) You'll be asked to leave your name, address and daytime phone. We'll select 25 winners of passes for two each at random from the first 500 calls received. Winners will be notified in time for the show. And For Detroit's best entertainment info, point your Internet-linked computer browser at www.justgo.comdetroit Sarandon: Busy bee north of east Procyon in the east, and Sirius in the east-southeast lie in a nearly straight line.

Monday The moon rises within five hours after sunset. About six hours after sunset, look for the star Regulus 13 degrees to the moon's lower left. Tuesday The northern (left) edge of the moon narrowly misses the star Regulus around 11 p.m. Wednesday An hour before sunrise on Thursday, the moon is high in the south, beneath the hindquarters of Leo. locked bedroom closet in the home of pop star Gloria Estefan and her husband, Emilio, while they were on vacation.

There was no apparent sign of forced entry to the couple's palatial estate on Miami's Star Island, police said Thursday. "It's a private matter," Estefan said through a spokesman. IN BOEBLINGEN, Germany, a court handed U.S. rap star Coolio a suspended prison sentence and an $18,000 fine for robbery and assault. Judge Werner Payer said Coolio, (Artis Ivey) helped members of his band steal clothes fror.i a store there last year and shoved the shop owner.

Replied the Coolster best known for his hit "Gangsta's "I have the feeling I've been exploited here. At no time did I try to injure or harm anyone." Briefly Divorcing: WJR-AM (760) morning personality Paul W. Smith and wife Holly Kohlbrenner Smith, after five years of marriage. Feb. 8 is the court dale in Oakland County.

Judge Edward Sosnick has the case. Signing: Oxford author Jane Briggs Bunting, copies of her books "Whoop for Joy" and "Laddie of the Light," 1-3 p.m. Saturday at Waldenbooks in South-gate. Illustrator Jon Buechel will sign the books at 6 p.m. Saturday at Center line's tree-lighting ceremony.

Appearing: On MTV's "Fashionably Loud," Detroit musician Kid Rock. He'll perform twice and interview scantily clad models on the style-and-sound show, which airs at 4 p.m. Saturday. Compiled by John Smytytek Tonight The moon rises farthest north of east tonight and Saturday, about Vk hours after sunset tonight (from latitude of lower Michigan) and an hour later on Saturday. Three hours after sunset tonight, look for Orion the Hunter rising in the east, to the moon's right.

Orion's brightest stars are Betel-geuse in the east and Rigel in the east-southeast. Midway between them is Orion's belt, a vertical line of three stars. Saturday Three hours after 'sunset, the moon has just risen in the east-northeast. Pollux and Castor, heads of the the bap. the actress even squeezed herself into a newly married couple's wedding photo and swallowed her pride by asking a Barnes Noble clerk to look up all the books she's in.

"You are not a key word," he tells her. Sarandon, whose lazy drawl and good-natured personality got usually grumpy New Yorkers to play along, even got a lap dance by a bodacious blond at the (now-shuttered) strip club Scores. She did it for a donation by the magazine to her favorite charity mm a is. Tonight's eastern sky about three hours after sunset. Cronkite: Trusty guy of Honor has given Walter Cronkite its highest award, the Medal for Distinguished Achievement.

The 82-year-old former CBS anchor is a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. Napoleon created the Legion in 1802. The American Society was formed in 1924 by Legion of Honor members living in the United States like Monsieur Jerry. THESE TEMPI really fugited. In Miami Beach, antique watches worth about $250,000 were stolen fnjm a Thursday An hour before sunrise on Friday, the fat crescent moon is high, east of due south, with Mars in the south-southeast, 10 degrees to the moon's lower left.

Spica is 16' degrees lower left of Mais. By Robert Victor. Abrams Planetarium, Michigan State University www.pa.msu.adiiabramt Skywatchers Hot Line has messages about astronomical events. Call 1132071857 anytime. Gemini twins, are 12 to 14 degrees to the moon's left.

In another hour, watch for the rising of Procyon in the east, within 15 degrees to the moon's lower right. Sunday Some 414 hours after sunset, watch for the rising of Sirius, the "Dog Star." Orion's belt points downward inward this staThis evening, the moon, the Heifer Project, which provides livestock to needy families around the world. First, It Was Jerry Lewis. Now, the American Society of the French.