The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 88

SL THE PALM BEACH POST WEDNESDAY, JULY 3, 1996 3D AN ENTERTAINING LOOK AHEAD COMING THURSDAY 6th Annual Firecracker One Mile Fun Run, I- hosted by Martin Memorial Health Systems. Regis- tration starts at 6:30 a.m. at the Raub Wellness Center, 501 E. Osceola Stuart. Entry fee is $10 7 per person, $8 for 13 years and younger.

T-shirts for first 100 registered participants. Open to all ages. Here are some things to do with the kids: Folk songs Hagi will be bringing his repertoire of children's music to Liberties Fine Books and Music 10:30 a.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.

Hagi, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, was born on the borders of the Gaza Strip in Israel and started his musical career singing in international folk festivals. Free. $ET UP AND GO! Be a sport Celebrate the Olympic spirit Friday when the i i r3n ill! 1 Freedomfest, Fourth of July celebration, begins at noon after parade, Lyngate Park, corner of Midport Road and Lyngate Drive, Port St. Lucie. Parade, live music, vendors and children's activities.

Call 878-2277. Ik I 1 A iff LOOKING AHEAD Olympic Torch Relay loops through i i 16 a i fi- 'lillltifMI MU330 invades the Respectable Street Cafe Friday night Happy Hour Jazz, 5:30 to 8 p.m. Fridays, the Lyric Theatre, 59 S.W. Flagler Stuart. Join the Friends of The Lyric for jazz by the Doug Large Ensemble and cocktails.

Donation of $2 to the musicians. Free snacks. Each One, Teach One, tutor training work- 1 shop, hosted by the Martin County Literacy Council, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, at the council's offices, 2300 E. Ocean Stuart.

To register, call 288-0077. Olympic Torch Relay Celebration, 3-6 p.m. Saturday, Vero Mall, 1255 U.S. 1, Vera Beach. Games, food, drink, moon walk and music by the Barracudas.

Call (407) 567-3860. Patriotic Concert with guest soloist Ernie Baptists, 6 p.m. Sunday, community Bible Chapel, 1550 S.E. Salerno Road, Stuart. Admission: $4.

Call 287-6388. Lyric Original Songwriters, open-mike con-" cert, 8 p.m. Monday, Lyric Theatre, 59 S.W. Flagler Stuart. $2.

Call 286-STAR. Social dance program, p.m. Monday, Stuart Recreation Center, 201 S.W. Flagler Stuart. Singles and couples are welcome to share in music, dance and refreshments.

$4 per person. Call 288-5335. Maintaining Your Florida Landscape, 9 a.m. Tuesday, County Extension Office, Martin County Fairgrounds, 2614 S.E. Dixie Highway, Stuart.

Free. Contact Edie Gastright at 288-5654. Ocean Drifters, an Associates Program summer film, 3:45 and 7 p.m. Tuesday, J. Seward Johnson Conference Center auditorium, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, 5600 U.S.

1 Fort Pierce. Admittance is limited to Harbor Branch associates, employees, volunteers and HBOI students. A trial membership is available at the door. Call (561) 465-2400, Ext. 328.

Public hearing of the Conservation and Recreation Land Acquisition Advisory Council, hosted by St. Lucie County, 7 p.m. July 10, county commission chambers, 2300 Virginia Fort Pierce. For information, call Diana Waite at 462-1576. Junior Golf Clinics, sponsored by the Port St.

Lucie Police Athletic League and PGA St. Lucie West County Club, for boys and girls ages 8-15, in three consecutive sessions, beginning July 10 and August 7. Levels of play are beginners through advanced. Registration is $15 and equipment will be provided if necessary. For more information, call Arlen Bento Jr.

at 340-1911. West Palm Beach around 11 p.m. To welcome the torch relay to town, United Way of Palm Beach County has planned an evening of entertainment and games for the whole family. Local news anchors Jim Sackett and Laurel Sauer will start the event at 7 p.m. in the Meyer Amphitheater, downtown West Palm Beach, with a special called "Road to Atlanta." Music by Eraserhead, The Beat and The Fabulons will follow.

The Olympic Flame Ceremony is scheduled for 1 1 p.m. In the Youth Park behind the amphitheater, kids entertainment will include Grupo Folklore Latino; an Olympic-themed show; and dance, gymnastics and tae kwon do demonstrations. Strolling fun will feature clowns, sports mascots and a traveling zoo. For a small charge, there will be rides and carnival games. Admission is free.

It's a snap Kids with an interest in photography may be interested in a new-this-year camp at the Palm Beach Photographic Centre, 55 N.E. Second Delray Beach. Led by photographer Anna Tomczak, the three-week course is 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday (starting Monday and ending July 25 with a campers' exhibit and reception). As part of the program, campers will have "assignments" at various local attractions such as shooting macrophotos at Butterfly World.

Campers will be supplied with cameras and all materials needed to get a photo from negative to print to frame. Transportation and admission 2 to field trip locations will also be provided. Cost: $700. Scholarships are available for those in need. Call 276-9797.

ANGEL BEDINGHAUS ZENT 1 MU330 highlights Respectable stage Ritz: An Irving Berlin American Songbook, is several cuts above the standard composer revues. Of course, having the prolific trunk of Berlin's for a resource gave the show a head start toward success. Directors J. Barry Lewis and Lynnette Barkley added a welcome touch of playfulness and irreverence to the evening. Also valuable is the six-member ensemble, which sings and dances with exuberance and style.

And a nice extra is the stage-wide collage by artist Bruce Helander, who mixes humor and nostalgia in equal parts. Continuing in Manalapan through Aug. 4. Tickets are Call 585-3433. St.

Louis' MU330 brings its high-energy brew of ska and punk to the Respectable Street Cafe on Clematis Street in West Palm Beach on Friday. The show begins at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $7. Also appearing are Slapstick and Janitors Against Apartheid. Call 832-9999.

fl A musical expedition Consider a trip to the Dreher Park Zoo in West Palm Beach on Saturday for a Summer Safari Concert from 5 to 8 p.m. The event features line dancing and music by The Persuaders. Regular admission is in effect: $6 for adults, $5 for senior citizens, $4 for children 3-12 years old. Call 547-WILD. It's all the rage If high-impact rage rock is more your style, see White Zombie and Pantera at the Miami Arena Saturday.

Tickets are $23.75. Call (305) 530-4444. A tribute to Irving Berlin The Pope Theatre Company's summer production, Puttin on the A delight for the eyes The state's oldest juried art competition the All-Florida is on view through July 28 at the Boca Raton Museum of Art. Some 1,100 works by 375 artists were submitted. Art critic and historian Donald Kuspit chose works in all media by 80 artists.

Admission is $3 for adults, $2 for senior citizens 65 and older and $1 for students. Call 392-2500. Hey, now, what's that sound? Why it's the Buzz turning 1 ''1' music, perhaps introducing a show devoted strictly to the new and esoteric. "I think it's very important in this format that you continue to be cutting edge," says Doyle. But she adds that even if the music grows old, the attitude won't.

"We can't put all our eggs in the musical basket. We also have to be a lifestyle-driven radio station." And what exactly is a "lifestyle-driven" radio station? Te morning-man Meathead (real name: Jason Anfisen), a 19-year- old vegetarian who sports an earring for each ear and a stud for his' tongue, it's a station that's a haven for all sorts of counter-cultural people and points of view. The irony, he says, is that folks don't feel free to express that by them? selves. "It's kind of sad that it took a radio station to bring that out of them," he says. "They should find' that on their own." that it engages a lot of different age groups," Strasser says, noting that he hears regularly from the parents of Buzz listeners who have become fans themselves.

"Part of that reason is that it's one of the few formats that's breaking new music." But for all The Buzz's flying of the alternative flag, the station's idea of new is essentially mainstream. Look at this week's Billboard and you'll find that seven of the top 20-seIling albums are on the station's playlist. Metallica's Load is, in fact, in the No. 1 position. It's a fact not lost upon Matt Reynolds, who runs the Sound Splash record store in West Palm Beach.

He accuses The Buzz of "watering down" alternative music for the sake of staying commercially viable, and using attitude as a marketing ploy. "Maybe they could be so open minded as to play reggae or some Davis, the guy with the out-of-control hair and Bert and Ernie T-shirt. "It's not the easy listening group." Topping off all the hoopla was the station's "Expose The Buzz" contest that concluded last month. For a chance to win $10,000, listeners were invited to attempt the most outrageous stunts to, well, expose The Buzz. And they did: One painted The Buzz insignia on the roof of a building at Palm Beach International Airport; another made her own Buzz toilet paper and planted the rolls on unsuspecting tourists; and still a third shaved the station's call letters right into her horse's behind.

Says Summers, still looking eager to stay on the air after four hours of juggling dogs and discs, "I feel sorry for guys who work at classic rock stations. The audience just sits there like couch potatoes." It's a point that's made with more than a snippet of snideness, since The Buzz shares office space with classic rock stalwart WKGR-FM (98.7), The Gater. But if you think The Buzz is simply the product of a renegade band of college radio-types, think again. Like the Gater, it's controlled by industry heavyweight American Radio Systems, which also owns local country station WIRK-FM (107.9) and recently purchased several others in the market. no different than their listeners.

Most come with a background in college radio and a limited bit of professional experience in markets ranging from Lancaster, to Atlanta. When they go on air, they speak about what matters the most: a new band they heard for the first time, a movie they hope to catch this weekend, a party they attended last night that went on a little too long. "When Amy sat us down, she said she wanted people to walk the walk, talk the talk," says Music Director and late-morning jockey Robert English, who like most of the station's on-air personnel arrives to work in shorts and a T-shirt and sports at least one bit of pierced flesh (in his case, the nose). But the attitude goes beyond the jockeys' banter. It emanates on the station's IDs, which typically feature a jumble of strange sounds and nonsensical dialogue before a deep voice intones "The Buzz." And it spills over into the many events the station hosts and promotes: "Melrose Mondays" parties at a local sports bar, concerts at the Carefree Theatre in West Palm Beach and The Edge in Fort Lauderdale, even a Buzz night at the ballpark with the West Palm Beach Expos.

"The crowd that listens to this type of music is very active," explains afternoon jockey Jason THE BUZZ 'Prom ID air July 3, 1995, with a six-minute MTV-esque montage of music and news sound bites, from AIDS activist Pedro Zamora talking about facing his early demise to Presi-; dent Clinton extolling, "You are no generation of slackers, but instead a generation of doers." Since then, the attitude has not been adjusted. "We wanted to make sure when we signed on that we like no other radio station," ijsays Program Director Amy who previously headed an contemporary station in Bos-- I ton. "We really wanted to be a '90s radio station that would really the times and not fall rback into the radio of the old days, 1 vivhich is jocks screaming at you in face and blue humor." 'Hr It's a formula that the station's garget audience of 18-to-34-year-! -olds seems to be embracing. on the latest Arbitron fig-; The Buzz has gone from a 6 share of that all-important Ldemographic to a 10-plus share in jts first year. Put another way, only one station in the market that now beats it: longtime Ratings war horse WRMF-FM U97.9).

What seU The Buzz apart from Ithe competition? The first thing likely to notice is that the Swentysomething jockeys sound E.A. KENNEDY IllStaff Photographer A Buzz fan shows off his "Buzz cut" at the rock station's "Expose The Buzz" promotion. According to American Radio Vice President Lee Strasser, the decision to reformat WPBZ as The Buzz was done after "a lot of research" about the "needs in the marketplace." At a time in which alternative rock stations were sprouting up around the country according to various industry estimates, there are at least 100 West Palm Beach simply became the next market in line. "It's kind of like country in If III f0 thing else that was from another culture, but that would be asking too much," he says sarcastically, adding that he's also displeased with how little support the station has shown for local bands. Buzz officials counter that as the station becomes more established there are plans to move into a new studio and increase the signal from 50,000 to 100,000 watts they hope to offer a wider, more challenging mix of Ben's Prime Rib dinner is just $13.95.

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Great Steaks Seafood since I975. gg jBernhard sparkles as films bomb stamp acts Collectible and comniemorative stamps Sunday in ACCENT The Palm Beach Post 3 3400 S. Congress, Palm Springs 967-3400 SllitnU Present By FRAZIER MOORE Jhe Associated Press NEW YORK Sandra Bernhard loves that pepper mill! LOVES it! She was lunching with a reporter and a publicist, all there to talk about her USA Network cable series ((eel Wild Cinema. But when the waiter proposed fresh-ground pepper, the conversation ground to a halt. It isn't glorious enough that the pepper mill is battery-powered, whirring to life at the press of the Jvaiter's finger.

No, even better, the peppering process is illuminated by a lamp in the base of the gadget! Df no timid wattage, it bathes Bernhard's antipasto like a floodlight from a hovercraft. I "One of the most fabulous things I have ever yeenl" she declares. I But back to the business at hand: Bernhard's Ijuirky little TV show. What is she doing on Reel Wild Cinema? "I'm crazy! Madcap!" she camps. "I'll do anything to make a buck!" Each one-hour edition capsulizes into manageable doses some of the worst low-budget movies ever made, stuff that by any artistic standards is less cinema than sin-ema.

THURSDAY SI DEAL Bernhard, meanwhile, serves as a South Beach version of Alistair Cooke reminding viewers "we've shortened our little films so you can still watch our show and go out later and get into a bar fight." Typical of Bernhard's commentary is last week's subversive salute to the director of Teenage Gang Debs, hailed as "a true artist who never cares whether the camera quite catches the action, and who fully appreciates the wild energy of the first take, no matter how inadequate." Here, as with all the Reel Wild films she surveys, Bernhard paid sneering tribute, though tribute nonetheless. Somehow her gibes are delivered with respect. "I love these films!" she insists. "It's so great to sit and watch them and go 'What the (heck) is As opposed to watching a Hollywood film, where you go 'What the (heck) is but you're supposed to be thinking it's important." But what of the nagging urge to ponder "What the (heck) is with these for whom the best that can be said is, they couldn't be worse. Doesn't Bernard, as a multi-faceted star, look down on them? "Oh, not at all.

Not at all! Absolutely not! I like anybody who's true to thoir muse." $1 ADMISSION TO VVPB EXPOS GAME THURSDAY Exchange this coupon at the West Palm Beach Expos Box Office at Historic Municipal Stadium for $1 Admission to the Thursday West Palm Beach Expos Game. Game starts at One Discount Coupon per person Call (407) 684-6801 for information Discount Coupoa 4.