The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 20

B8 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 1994 WASHINGTON EDITION LOS ANGELES TIMES r) ZD III I I Comment ON EOTERTAINMENT It's No Joke- Michael's Pact With Sony Is Upheld Pop music: British high court rules against superstar's lawsuit, which charged record company with restraint-of-trade. KIM DELANEY Rip Torn, from left, Garry Shandling, Jeffrey Tambor: The hilarity continues on "Sanders" with the neurotic talk host suffering a self-imposed work exile. The King of Late Night Is Still'Larry' That Is and 'Dream On' Isn't Far Behind HOWARDROSENBERG TELEVISION Looking for a television break tonight in which 0. J. Simpson is not the topic? If you're an HBO subscriber, be advised that the funniest talk show host on television is not weepy Sally Jessy Raphael, feisty Jay Leno or even the celebrated David Letterman.

It's Larry Sanders, who, in reality, isn't a talk show host at all. He's fictional. For several seasons, HBO's Wednesday-night grouping of "The Larry Sanders Show" and "Dream On" has given prime time its most scintillating comedy twosome, a joined-at-the-hip couple of urbanely witty and satirical half hours for viewers who do know who's buried in Grant's tomb. -v Counter-programming local news and network news magazines, "Dream On" and "The Larry Sanders Show" begin new seasons tonight, the former airing at 10, the latter at 10:30. "Dream On" stars Brian Benben as a divorced parent buffeted by a life so turbulent and chaotic that his survival from week to week seems in doubt.

"The Larry Sanders Show" stars Garry Shandling as the insecure, neurotic, self -obsessed, much -in -need -of -therapy host of a traditional late-night talk show. But when the camera's red light comes on, he's transformed. It's always been a tossup as to which series was funnier. based on new-show samplings, the highest performing partner this season will be "The Larry Sanders Show." As always, the acting is so artfully straight-faced and the scripts so full of in-the-know nuance that "The Larry Sanders Show" seems to reek of behind-the-scenes television reality. And, if it is all make believe, at least it amusingly feeds our misconceptions.

Written by executive producers Shandling, Peter Tolan and Paul Simms and directed by Todd Holland, tonight's episode ranges from merely funny to rip-roaring A. We open with Larry three months into his self-imposed exile from the business, disheveled and miserable in a Montana cabin, again pining for the spotlight while watching tapes of his old shows a la Norma Desmond reliving her silent film career in "Sunset Boulevard." Obviously, he wasn't meant to be Father Nature. When a bird chirps outside, he snaps: "Get off the porch, (expletive!" Also wretchedly unhappy is Larry's posturing talk show sidekick, Hank (Jeffrey Tambor), who is still reeling from the big comedown. It's a tough job market. Having resorted to announcing lottery winners on TV, Hank is now a teary, chain-smoking mess.

It's Larry's producer, the resourceful Arthur Please see ROSENBERG, B9 She Loves the Viola By Pamela Goldsmtth I wish to respond to the article "Musicians Take Jabs With Nary a Sour Note" Laugh Lines, Life Style, May 18). I am a violist, and I am very, very tired of viola jokes. Writer Tom Hensley chooses to report these as his first examples of "musician jokes," and later he asks why musician jokes are acceptable when ethnic jokes are not, adding: "Are violists less a community than Polish Americans?" As vice president ofvthe American Viola Society (720 members), I can tell you that we are a community, we have international congresses each year, and we publish a journal. Why play the viola? Why not the violin, where the student can become a star with an enormous solo repertoire? Why not play a wind or brass instrument? What about the percussion instruments? We who chose the viola know that it was for the sound, the distinctive, beautiful, mellow quality that only a viola can produce. Most of us started on the violin, and soon learned that its often piercing, sometimes strident quality left us edgy and unsatisfied.

Some of us tried other instruments as well the piano, for example, and found its mechanistic response not human enough. In fact, the viola is our voice. The only voice we will ever need to express ourselves. The sound of the viola has' been variously described as dark, woody, autumnal. Yes, it is all of these, and sometimes sorrowful, melancholy.

But it can also be joyful, playful and lighthearted. A violist can express a multitude of emotions through the instrument: calm and repose as well as anxiety and excitement. Our range is wide, we can enjoy the higher tessitu- ras; but there is nothing as satisfying in this world as a resounding open The vibrations of the string go right up through the jaw into the head, and the entire skull resonates with this note. It is at this moment that the violist experiences the most instantaneous knowledge of selfhood, of personal validation. A few years ago, I played an outdoor chamber music concert, and just before the beginning of the concert, a bee flew into my viola.

It was buzzing around inside. What to do? I grabbed the bow and played the loudest open I could muster. In a few seconds, the buzzing stopped, and I shook the insect out of the body of the viola. The vibrations had stunned it into submission. Need I say more? A violist knows the physical effort necessary" to produce music.

The instrument is bigger and heavier than the violin, and requires considerably more effort to play. Violists know about fatigue, about sore fingers and tired muscles. A sports medicine con-. sultant will tell you that repetitive motions are the most difficult for the human body to sustain, and the most injurious. Look at the viola part in any ensemble composition, what do you see? Repetitive motions.

What about the role of the violist in the musical kingdom? It is true that we seldom have a chance to star, but for most of us the supporting role feels right. We understand the responsibility of making the violinist and cellist look good in the chamber music ensemble by giving them the most support possible. Perhaps the violist's greatest attribute is commitment. We are committed to music and to the viola in particular. Over the years we constantly seek new repertoire, and ask composers to write something special for us.

We discuss repertoire among ourselves all the time, and trade music. A new recording by a violist is an event. But it is not always easy to be a violist sometimes we take harassment from others, and much of the time we are ignored and our importance goes unrecognized. But we love the viola fervently and cannot imagine playing' any other musical instrument. Pamela Goldsmith, a free-lance violist, holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Stanford University and is on the faculties of USC and Col State Northridge.

She has been heard on numerous motion picture and recording scores, and has been honored by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, Hollywood Chapter. By CHUCK PHILIPS SPECIAL TO THE TIMES In a decision that should make the record industry sleep the British High Court of Justice ruled Tuesday that superstar George Michael cannot walk away from his contract with Sony Music Entertainment Ltd. U.K. High Court Judge Jonathan Parker dismissed the 30-year-old singer's restraint-of-trade lawsuit in a 280-page opinion that characterized Michael's $12-million recording contract with Sony -owned Columbia Records as "reasonable and fair." After the verdict, a Sony Music spokeswoman said the firm looks forward to continuing its relationship with Michael, who once vowed never to record for Sony again and said Tuesday that he will file an appeal as soon as possible. Michael, whose albums have sold more than 16 million copies in the United States alone, has not recorded for Sony since 1990's "Listen Without Prejudice." "I am shocked and extremely disappointed," said Michael during a press conference at London's Hotel Howard moments after leaving the courtroom.

"I am convinced that the English legal system will not support Mr. Justice Parker's decision or uphold what is effectively professional slavery." The bitter 20-month legal dispute was closely monitored by the record industry because a victory for Michael could have set a precedent overseas, requiring companies to sign artists for periods far shorter than the now -customary seven years. Although a favorable ruling for Michael in the British Court system would have had no legal bearing in the United States, insiders predicted that a pro -Michael verdict could have been used as grounds to raise the same issues for artists in U.S. courts. Most record companies have gone to great lengths to prevent artists of Michael's stature from Please see RULING, B9 Umbi Pilnu "female fun" in "Bhaji on the Beach." parallel protagonists.

Ginder (Kim Vithana) has precipitated a crisis in the close-knit community by leaving her husband, Ranjit (Jimmi Harkishin), and moving into a women's shel- ter with her young son. And Hashida (Sarita Khajuria), a college graduate about to enter medical school, knows she will Please see B9 Brian Benben, center, is a divorced 'Bhaji on the Beach': More Than Sand, Surf KIM DELANEY parent coping with chaos in "Dream On." of Indian women set out for a day of ing into cinema's most celebrated invalid. Though economic difficulties have seriously curtailed output, those British films that do get made are invariably models of strength and compassion. The seriocomic story of a day trip to the seaside resort of Blackpool by several generations of women, "Bhaji" has points in common with other socially conscious British directors, particularly the pioneering Ken Loach, who Chadha views as a mentor, and Mike Leigh, whose ideas of extensive rehearsals to define character she has made her own use of. Yet as indicated by the bhaji of the title, an only-in-England snack derived from a traditional Indian dish, this is very much its own film, flavored by the distinctive sensibility of the Indian community that it depicts.

For while "Bhaji's" key protagonists may sound just like the English they live among, they are separated from them not only by skin color but also by the difficulties of being a transitional generation, with one foot in the clan-; nish, fearful society of their immigrant parents and the other in the modern Western world their futures will take place in. Gurinder Chadha's film is an insightful look at the difficulties of bridging cultures and generations, but it never forgets to have fun. HE KNEW By KENNETH TURAN TIMES FILM CRITIC If) nai on tne Beach" is one iof those small but re-Bmarkable pictures that smiles at the supposed difficulties of movie-making. Warm and charming while sacrificing neither its integrity nor its point of view, it covers considerable personal and political territory without overreaching or condescending. And it never forgets to have fun.

The debut film of director and co-story writer Gurinder Chadha, apparently the first Indian woman living in Britain to direct a film in that country, "Bhaji" is further evidence that Britain's supposedly moribund film industry is turn Three generations known collectively (as they were in the similarly themed "The Joy Luck as aunties. But by the time a bus holding a cross-section of women sets out for a day of "female fun" at Blackpool under the tutelage of feminist Simi (Shaheen Khan), two of the passengers, each with her own romantic crisis, have come into focus as the film's "Bhaji" begins in Birmingham, an industrial city in the Midlands, and its almost too-rapid introduction of characters gives audiences a sense of the crowded, hectic conditions of the Indian community there, with married children still living with their parents, and the whole business overseen by a network of vaguely related, invariably censorious older women.