Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 73

1F A man of unsent letters13F WW A significant change for Twyla Tharp6F Are there skeletons in Cuomo's closet? 12F Telling the truth about being a teen-ager 13F Entertainment Book 1 2-1 3F Calndars10F ..1 15 Penderecki doesn't let Marxism limit style By Jack ton Diehl Washington Post Liislawice, Poland It was a vision of prewar, presocia- DWO(o0n)G DLrQ list Poland: in mid-June, in the ricn-ly appointed drawing room of a rural, 200-year-old manor, a mix of Polish and foreign guests stood hushed in a decorous semicircle around a piano. in the garden, through the leaded, latticed windows, tuxedoed waiters set out the silver service of the coming luncheon on a long, linen-draped banquet table. At the piano, accompanying a singer in a brief recital of songs, sat a balding, gen Public TV program finds niche, is likely to grow even stronger tle-faced man whose very name in the engraved program card, Maciej Paderewskl, was a cultural statement Ignace Paderewskl, his grandfather and Poland's great musician-statesman, would surely have felt at home here. But the focus was on the host, elegant in his dark tailored suit, commanding in his girth, severe glasses and thick salt-and-pepper beard. A slight rustle arose during one song from a corner of the room, and the head of Krzysztof Penderecki instantly, irritably swlv-eled.

For this was his house, the guests were his audience, and the By Mike SteeleStaff Writer "Alive From Off Center," KTCA-TV'a swaggering stride into alternative television, is not only bounding Into its fourth season (broadcast locally Mondays at 9:30 p.m. on Ch. 2 and at 1 1 p.m. on KTCI-Ch. 17, and repeating at 1 1 p.m.

Fridays on Ch. 2) but it's pretty confident of having a fifth. This information from executive producer John Schott is not insignificant In Televisionland. Like most TV-watchers, Schott expresses amazement that such a program "has not only found a niche but shows the promise of getting To public television, "Alive" is nothing but good news demographically. It's one of PBS' few ties to the hip, upscale, under-40 market that has found nature shows, Britcoms and Masterpiece Theatre resistible and that can't be expected to watch "Monty Python" reruns forever.

The success of "Alive" also may have -an effect beyond the borders of main-stream TV programming, its influence on the rapidly developing video field continues to grow. Its impact has been felt abroad where "Alive" clones are proliferating. And Its increasing interest In co-sponsoring shows and in producing and commissioning new works for TV could dramatically increase the quantity and I music of the recital was unmistak- ably his own. At 54, Penderecki, one of the world most celebrated living com posers, has managed to make his home and his life in struggling, Communist-ruled Poland into an nil emblem of his music's defiant fealty to Western values and central European tradition. quality of alternative television.

To hear Schott, however, one would sense that "Alive" was more a pioneer than a full-blown productAs "Alive" faces the rapidly developing electronic future, Schott sees it as the catalyst for increasingly widespread forays into alternative programming locally, nationally and Internationally. These forays range from shows commissioned by the series, to independent productions shown under the "Alive From Off Center" imprimatur (early next year, an hour-long production of Mer-edith Monk's $1 million "Book of Days" will be the first). They include co-sponsorships with other active public stations OFF CENTER Continued on page 8F -J 'mi jn an intellectual age of Marxism and modernism, he has shaped a body of work that offers a coun- tervision of spiritualism and roman ticism; ana in a country pledged to socialism and plagued by material PENDERECKI Continued on 2F Tom Cayler monologue "Men Die Sooner" (top) rune July 25. Dancer-choreographer Blondell Cummlngs' "Chicken Soup" (left) is featured Aug. 1.

A collection of lumpy Httlo characters (below) from the animators of "Pee-wee'e Playhouse" wiU be perform Monday night in "Bite and Smile." Aykroyd, Chase lose it in Hollywood By Eleanor Rlngel Cox News Service Yesterday, when we were young, they were the "Not Ready For Prime Time Players." John Belushi, 'Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, Gilda Radnor, Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase. The Magnificent Seven. The cast of the first season of "Saturday Night Live" One of them lived fast and died Toung. One of them became a weekly TV star on a routine sitcom. One of them sank into comparative oblivion.

Two of them tried to make It in movies and failed. Two of them tried to make it in movies and did. That is, if you can call a combined filmography that includes comic classics such as "Deal of the Cen tury," "Caddyshack," "Dr. Detroit," Competition heats up among local art papers Journals take varying looks at Twin Cities scene "The Couch Trip" and Spies Like Us" making it in the movies. Unfortunately, the people who make movies call it exactly that.

Thanks to the knee-jerk support of America's moviegoers, Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase are bona fide, bankable movie stars. A recent Playboy interview with Chase stated that he earns $5 million per picture. Aykroyd's fee is presumably somewhere in the $1 million-plus range. Chase stayed with "SNL" for one season. He fell down a lot, did some memorable clowning as the "Weekend Update" anchor.

Physi ft By Mary Abbe MartinStaff Writer ompetition and maturity are changing the faces of the Twin Cities' three alternative art and culture publications Artpaper, Vinyl Arts and Clinton St. Quarterly. 4 cally the closest thing in the cast to remarkably similar tabloid-sized, black-and-white journals filled with articles about art, reviews of film and theater, cultural and literary essays, a dab of reporting, a spattering of fiction, lots of listings, unconventional art and ads for arts events and trendy restaurants. A closer read defines their differences. Artpaper reviews mostly visual art and devotes an entire section to listings of art-related jobs, grants, competitions and shows around the country.

Vinyl has no listings, reviews Twin Cities film, video and performing events as well as art shows and also publishes poetry and short stories. In its debut Issue here, the Clinton St. Quarterly (which also is circulated In the Pacific Northwest) had no reviews or listings but published an eight-page "gallery" of art by Minneso-tans plus social criticism, essays and fiction, some ARTS Continued on page 8F traditional comic leading man, ne quickly established himself as the Player Most Likely to Succeed. He did. Before you could say "Live from New York," Chase had gone to Hollywood to costar with Goldie Hawn in "Foul Play," a so- After seven years of publication, Artpaper will get an editorial and visual face lift in September.

The four-year-old Vinyl Arts will drop its funky, iconoclastic name that same month in favor of a more somber, generic identity as Minnesota Arts. Clinton St. Quarterly, the local newcomer whose spring arrival heightened competition for advertisers and readers, expects to have consolidated much of its market by fall. To a casual reader, the three publications look so romantic comedy that grossed a respectaDie minion. PLAYERS Continued on page 3F.