The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 29

IE Inquirer BADLY MAGAZINE PEOPLE HOME MOVIES THE ARTS TV STYLE SATURDAY October 19, 1991 SECTION Review Film Mayberry as i I is wtySMr 'WY vj. hm -mrm mm fii microcosm So you think "The Andy Griffith Show" was only a TV program? Hold on just a cotton-pickiri minute. Listen as a panel of scholars and fans analyzes Andy, Opie, Aunt Bee and even good of Goober. 'Cool as Ice' a poor pick By Carrie Rickey Inquirer Movie Critic Cool as Ice stars rapper Vanilla Ice in his movie debut as a bikermusician smitten by a fresh-scrubbed honors student. Inevitably, the bad boy proves himself worthy of the good girl a plot that follows the well-worn path of many Elvis movies.

Alas, Vanilla Ice is no Elvis. How do they differ? Let us count the ways. Elvis was misunderstood. Ice, who speaks as though his mouth is full of cubes, is unintelligible. Elvis exuded sex.

Ice exudes attitude. Elvis had a blue suede voice. Ice's voice is chipped. When Ice takes the mike, what comes out of his mouth can only be described as amplified attitude. If Matt Dillon took steroids and sported a cut-rate bleach job frightened into a pompadour, he would look very much like the photogenic Vanilla Ice.

But Dillon can act, whereas Ice achieves one of two expressions: snarl with shades, or snarl without. In Cool as Ice, the rapper plays Johnny Van Owen, a rebel without applause. With his posse, Johnny performs at nameless roadhouses, and when the show is over, collects women's phone numbers along with his pay. But women don't interest Johnny as much as his banana-yellow motorcycle. All that changes when, zooming down the two-lane blacktop astride his fuel-injected banana, Johnny sees a pretty brunette astride her chestnut pony.

Her horse rears. He pulls a wheelie. Call it love at first near-collision. Johnny meets the brunette again when he goes in for motorcycle repairs at a zany garage across the street from where she lives. Her name is Kathy (Kristin Minter), she has a 4.0 grade-point average and a perfect 1600 score on her SAT exam.

Johnny isn't as impressed with these numbers as he is with Kathy's measurements. When Kathy asks Johnny where he's from, he snarls, "It don't matter where you're from, it only matters where you're at." Where's Cool as Ice at? Oh, about zero. That's its temperature plus IQ. Oldies tour that hit town last weekend he's merely a cardboard cutout. Audience members can move in for snaphots with him after the chitchat ends.

You think that's sad? Go ahead. See what you come up with for atmosphere at a panel titled, "Popular Culture and Southern Stereotypes: The Andy Griffith Show." As the participants get ready, you swear you hear a faint, other-worldy cry coming from Barney: "Nip it in the bud, Andyl Nip it in the bud!" Well, maybe the mind just plays tricks on you down here. Long before Matlock, The Andy Griffith Show was one of TV's most popular series. It made the list of top-10-rated shows in all eight of its prime-time seasons (1960 to 1968), and ranked first in the country in its final year. By some measures, it's still the most successful net-(See MAYBERRY on 8-C) By Carlin Romano Inquirer Book Crilic NASHVILLE They use government hearing rooms a little differently down here in Tennessee.

In front of a spanking-new chamber in the state legislature's underground office building, a silly-looking man is standing with his hand on a mop. He's wearing an old lady's print dress, a proper little hat and an apron. He's resting the mop in a pail, gazing far into the distant past. The man is Deputy Barney Fife, a.k.a. Don Knotts, a.k.a.

Andy Griffith's high-strung sidekick and five-time Emmy winner on The Andy Griffith Show, one of America's classic TV shows. He's here to attend a panel discussion. This being Nashville's classy third annual Southern Festival of Books not some Golden Andy Griffith, Frances Bavier in "The Andy Griffith Show." Scholars say the show's homespun values were a respite from the turmoil of the '60s. The kindly Andy Taylor who doesn't carry a gun is the antithesis of the stereotypical brutal Southern sheriff, notes one professor. COOL AS ICE Produced by Carolyn Pfeiffer and Lionel Wigram; directed by David Kellogg; written by David Stenn; photography by Jan-usz Kaminski; music by Stanley Clarke; distributed by Universal Pictures.

Running time: 1 hour, 33 mins. Johnny Vanilla Ice Kathy Kristin Minter Gordon Wmslow Michael Gross Grace Winslow Candy Clark Singer Naomi Campbell Parent's guide: PG (suggestive dancing) Showing at: area theaters Mife inmfv'frmrTTUr r- Ron Howard, Don Knotts (center) and Andy Griffith. The show ran from I960 to 1968. A jazz elder who straddles music worlds Hal Russell, whose bug career has bounced from swing to bop to fee-brings his band to town tonight. Don't be surprised if he croons a style jazz and beyond, Fred Astaire tune.

instrumentalism must be By Francis Davis Special lo The Inquirer lbert Ayler, Sunny Murray and Gary Peacock." is three decades older than any of his sidemen. Steve Hunt, the NRG (say the letters aloud) Ensemble's drummer and vibes player, has been with the band since 1979, as has Brian Sandstrom, who, during the course of a set, might play guitar, trumpet and electric and upright bass. (Multi- "I refuse to take myself as seriously as a lot of musicians do. I think music needs humor as a way of pulling people in especially this kind of music." At 65, Russell who started as a drummer and vibist, but who now spends more time playing tenor and soprano sax and trumpet Asked to name his AIDS virus from donating blood or getting a blood transfusion. A Gallup survey for the American Association of Blood Banks found that one in four people believes it is likely someone could get AIDS while donating blood and that about 52 percent say it is likely someone could get AIDS from a transfusion.

Officials stress that you can't get AIDS from donating blood and that "the risk of getting AIDS from a blood transfusion is extremely low." FIT OR FAT? Lean and mean, that's what the fitness movement has made us, right? Fat chance. Despite all those joggers and go-for-the-burners, the number of Americans who are overweight increased from 58 percent in 1983 to 64 percent in 1990, according to a Prevention magazine survey reported in American Demographics magazine. By Marc Schogol Compiled from reports from Inquirer wire services. ON THE HOMEFRONT Be it ever so humble, many of you still won't be able to afford a home. The decline in prices of single-family homes brought on by the recession will not be enough to lower rents or turn large numbers of renters into homeowners, according to a Harvard University study.

Nationally, the 64 percent of households that own their homes is down from a peak of 65.6 percent in 1980, researchers say. THE FLU BUG COMETH Flu alert: The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta says a "Type virus that can cause serious complications and even death for older Americans could dominate this winter's flu season. While stressing that this is not yet absolutely certain, authorities urge the elderly and anyone at particular risk to get flu shots soon. MICROWAVE MEAL RECALL Parents, Beech-Nut is recalling some of its Table Time Chicken Stars microwave meals because the chicken chunks may be too large for young children. The meal is recommended for children at least a year old.

The code printed on the bottom of the recalled tubs reads: 18G0885, followed by a single letter or H. The expiration date printed on the bottom of the tub is February 1993. TAKING THE PULSE Many of you are still confused about the risk of contracting the epidemic in Chicago). The other members of NRG are bassist Kent Kessler, who signed up last year, and tenor and soprano saxophonist Mars Williams, who would actually outrank Hunt and Sandstrom in seniority if not for a few years' hiatus in New York in the early '80s, where he was a member of the pop group The Waitresses. (Remember "I Know What Boys "I no longer play drums all that much with the Ensemble, but I still do jobs around Chicago as a drummer.

Mostly with the guys my own age who haven't kept up with what I've been doing," Russell says with a pronounced Midwestern accent and a stutter so severe it contributed to his being classified 4-F during World War II. "I started on drums when I was 4 years old. But I think 1 was always more interested in horns anyway. As a very young kid, I used to parade around the house banging on tin pans, but trying to simulate the sound of the sousaphone with a rubber hose I attached to a pie tin. "Then, in college at the University of Illinois, where he earned his master's degree in 19481, 1 was forced to play trumpet because they didn't offer a percussion major." Russell reached a decision that he liked saxophone better than drums "mostly by accident, around 1977," when he was already (See HAL RUSSELL on 8-C) favorite musicians, Hal Russell whose NRG Ensemble performs tonight at 8 and 10 at the Painted Bride Art Center replies without hesitation during an interview from his home in Lion, 111., a Chicago suburb.

When it's pointed out that he has just recited the entire personnel of Ayler's 1964 album Spiritual Unity, Russell quickly appends the name of Don Cherry, the added starter on Ayler's Ghosts, another over-the-edge classic from the same period. Given the liberal amount of splatter in Russell's music, his invocation of Ayler one of the holy names of '60s free jazz is not surprising. It's just that one might have expected Russell's honor roll to be longer and more eclectic. What we have here, after all, is an avant-gardist known to croon Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour favorites through a megaphone during his concerts, and who has recorded both a medley from The Sound of Music and a tribute to Fred Astaire that incorporates many of the tunes associated with the singer-dancer. "My own interpretations, though.

I'm not even sure the average person would even be able to recognize those songs," Russell points out. fib. 1 i I illli if 4p III 4 INDEX Lee Winfrey 8-C Radio and television 6-C Dance review: William Pico 7-C Music reviews: Larry Carlton, Leo Kottke, Steve Wariner, Chet Atkins 8-C Philadelphia Singers 8-C Theater reviews: The Baby Dance 3-C Execution of Justice 3-C Hal Russell (second from left) and his NRG Ensemble will do two performances at the Painted Bride tonight..