The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 7

fchelBurlmgtonjfreeftress Page 7A Saturday, July 30, 1988 Features editor, Stephen Mease Phone: 863-3471, ext. 2024 v1 V. 21 Daybreak Crystal Gayle heads home for a visit The Associated Press WABASH, Ind. All eyes in town are turned on country singer Crystal Gayle, who returned home this week for the first time in nearly a decade. Gayle, 37, known for the hit "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue," will be grand marshal of the annual Canal Days Parade today before playing two benefit concerts.

I Gayle, who lives in Nashville, arrived midweek to visit family and friends. "I'm planning on visiting some of the old hangouts and maybe reliving my childhood a little," she said. Gayle, youngest of eight children including singer Loretta Lynn, released the first of several hit albums in 1974, including "Talking in Your Sleep." Jazz man says just look, don't ask me questions The Associated Press nTOKYO "Don't ask me questions, just look," jazz trumpeter Miles Davis said at an exhibition of his drawings in a Tokyo department pT T- store Friday. rT Xne 3i drawings are PAULA ROUTIY, Free Prei FINDING THE FORTUITOUS MOMENT: Astrology workshop leader Barbara Schermer gives individual astrological advice to participants using natal charts. What's your sign Conference provides an astrological opening In religion A weekend gift to yourself By David Andrews One of Judaism's most precious gifts to humankind is the idea of the sabbath.

The notion that on one day out of seven, no work should be performed, arose soon after Israel's settlement in Canaan. The Bible associates this alternating pattern of work and rest with God's own schedule in creating the world (Genesis 2:3) and also with Israel's liberation from slave labor in Eygpt (Deuteronomy In its original and most rudimentary form, the sabbath was simply a day for "not working," a planned interruption in the normal routine of life. Only later did it become a day for specifically religious activities. Why do we need times on nonwork in our lives? Part of the answer is obvious. Our minds and bodies need rest.

Regardless of what we are doing, if we do it for too long without stopping, both the quantity and the quality of our work will be diminished. Even the least humane taskmaster knows this to be true. But there are other, less obvious reasons to include times of nonwork in our lives. When we work, we can suffer under the delusion that we are the masters of the universe, and that nothing can happen without our efforts. It is important that we break through this illusion of tence and indispensability.

When we dedicate some of our time simply to "being" rather than "doing," we discover that we are not at the center of reality, and that life exists quite apart from our efforts to create it. When we find these sabbath-times in our lives, we experience life as a gift received, in all its wonderful diversity, from a loving and creative God. Sabbath-times are opportunities to use time differently: to. enjoy nonutilitarian, nonproductive play, to participate in celebrations and festivities; and to focus on our inner life. Sabbath-time can also be a time for religious activity, including religious worship.

The Hebrew model of six days of work, one day of rest is certainly not the only pattern for building sabbatical time into our lives. Jesus of Nazareth seems to have taken a more flexible approach, saying that the sabbath is created for people, and not people for the sabbath. In other words, legalism is less important than a commitment to provide times, of disengagement, rest, reflection and renewal in our lives. For many of us, summer is a "sabbati-. cal" season in our lives, when routines are interrupted and time is used differently.

In the humid heat of summer, any illusions of omnipotence which we might secretly harbor are quickly dissipated! As we enjoy relaxed and playful times with our families and friends, relationships are strengthened and deepened. And as we experience the grandeur of a thunderstorm, or the bounty of a late-summer garden, the idea of life as God's gift takes on form and becomes a reality. Datnd Andrews is pastor of The Congregational, United Church of Christ in Middlebury. "In Religion" is a weekly forum featuring a variety of religious viewpoints, written by members of the Vermont clergy. I priced at $1,000 to $10,000.

Like his music, many of the sketches and acrylic paintings are evocative often moody, sometimes somber. Many showed intertwined women, while others were of trology column for three years, was not one to mince his words about earthly matters. He had theories about 'Carl Sagan' disdain for astrology and suggested the Reagans were "guided not "ruled" by the stars. Lutin, like most people at the conference, had mixed feelings about the White House incident. "They could have shoved bamboo shoots under my fingernails and I wouldn't have said I was DAVIS ii 't.

Nancy Reagan's astrologer," he said emphatically. "That's not the kind of publicity we need." Even for its quotidian presence in newspapers and periodicals, the second oldest profession iq the world is still vastly misunderstood. Few people realize that- it's the natal chart the arrangement of heavenly bodies at the exact time of birth that provides an individual's astrological blueprint. Or that knowing ones' chart and how it interacts with current planetary progressions is what lets the individual, understand the present and plan for the future. Snow Wakeman is looking forward to.

March 1989 when Mars and Jupiter will be transitting at zero degrees Gemini. "That's the location of my natal moon," she whispered during a workhop on "Creating Personal Magic Through Ritual with Your "The moon is in my ninth house, which is the house of exploration," she went on, "which makes it a good time for ritual focusing on the instinctual side." The language, affectionately known as "astrobabble," is a bit offputting at first. And not knowing your. moon or ascendent in this group it's on all the nametags is like not knowing your own phone number. But once you've been through the cosmic window, entered and exited sacred space and had your kundalini referenced a few times, it all begins to translate.

This planetary consciousness combines psychological analysis and global ecology with a dash of ritual, spiritualism and the occult thrown in. "Astrology is like mythology," said Hunter. "It's a way of giving meaning to what we see around us in our daily lives. I mean so what if there are a whole bunch of quasars out there, what does that mean to me? But when the moon is' in the seventh By Paula Routly Free Press Staff Writer PLAINFIELD Forget the daily horoscope. Ignore those little books that tell you who to marry at the grocery check-out.

There's a lot more to planetary palm reading than whether you were born under the sign of Aries or Scorpio. Just ask the 30 or so professional and amateur astrologists who participated in "Roots of Astrology," a weeklong symposium that ends today at Goddard College. Organized around a theme of "experiential" astrology, Vermont's first gathering of the cosmically conscious attracted as many longlimbed mystics as sedentary suburbanites. And an offbeat curriculum of astronomy, astro-drama, gemology and maskmaking kept participants "doing astrology, not just talking about it," said the conference's local organizer Kelley Hunter. "Traditional astrologers would roll over and die if they were here," said Janice Kelley, a member of the National Council for Geocosmic Research and an amateur astrologer for 20 years in the Boston area.

"They want things to be scientific and measurable. This is more esoteric." Judging from Thursday's events, which included an outdoor play complete with fortuitous planetary transits, compatible conjunctions and moons in the right house, it was also a lot more fun. Michael Lutin, author of "Pluto in Scorpio: The Musical," couldn't have summed up the conference better when he said, 'I'm interested in presenting astrological material in interesting ways." If his "Pluto Monologues" were anything like his own, he must indeed have had people laughing, painting their fingernails green and digging up buried stuff Friday night. Lutin, who wrote Vanity Fair's as squared off, robot-like masks. t''It's like looking at a diary," Davis said as he studied one painting.

1- Davis is in Japan to perform in one of the country's three major international jazz festivals. Bette Midler signs on for four more films Gannett News Service v- Bette Midler and Touchstone Pictures are such a hot combo that they announced Thursday they will do four more pictures together. Before her new commitment kicks in, Midler will finish "Beaches" and then do an updated version of the classic "Stella Dallas" called "Stella." Apple founder sells his Cloud 9 business The Associated Press LOS GATOS, Calif. Steve Wozniak, who earned fame and fortune as co-founder of Apple Computer is selling Cloud 9. 1 The company he founded after leaving Apple CL9, which stands for Cloud 9 will be sold so Wozniak can try his hand endeavors.

jve never really been in the business world," he told the San Francisco Examiner in an interview published Friday. "I was an engineer." Wozniak, 37, started CL9 in 1985 when he left Apple and sold $100 million of the computer company's stock. PAULA ROUTLY, Free Preu PLANETARY PLAY Participants in "The of Astrology" conference prepare for an outdoor play. rEEM EOT Not all wall murals are created equa wiped out. "Jane (Sanders) says she thinks the painting would scare people.

If that's the sort of thing that scares people off I have a feeling they wouldn't like it here anyway," she said. "If they can put something like that on TV why can't we put it on a wall?" added Young. Another teen painter agreed. "I think they are making a big deal out of nothing. Art work isn't meant to be censored," said Larisa Parsley, 17, of South Burlington.

"If they are afraid of that (The Equalizer) they'll be afraid of us," chimed in Reba Porter, 16, who sports a mohawk hair-do, an earring in her nose and five earrings in one ear. The Fletcher native who summers in Burlington said the painting may have unnerved people who are already uneasy with the 242 Main's reputation as a hangout for teens who like speed metal music and hairdos like hers. "A lot of people are afraid of us," she said. The public may perceive 242 Main as a punk or heavy metal hangout, but it serves a much larger group, Sanders said. Both cosmetic changes, such as the paint job, and broader programming are part of Sander's ongoing efforts to attract an even more diverse teen population.

But not because the punkish-looking teens are a problem. "One of the things we convey to people is that these kids in mohawks are not people to be afraid of. They aren't kids on drugs, they arer': in trouble. In fact most of them are very concerned and involved in what's going on. They are really great kids." Sander's decision to cancel The Equalizer may have ruffled some teen feathers, but more importantly the dialogue brought art off the walls and into real life.

Schumann agrees: "For me that was really proof that my art had an impact." of Bread and Puppet Theater founderdirector Peter Schumann. The younger Schumann's "Cheap Art" is currently on display at the State Street Market, in Montpelier. Schumann said he did not intend to endorse The Equalizer or violence, but to trigger thought about popular culture. Both he and Sanders agree that this goal can be reached with the image of Asner. "I think it might be even more interesting and weird," said Schumann, who is also the guitarist for The Hollywood Indians.

His work is part of a larger painting project to make the center, which is located in the bowels of Memorial. Auditorium, more inviting. About five teens, led by Burlington artist Jane Horner, started painting new murals on the walls a few weeks ago. The public is invited to the project's Aug. 19 opening from 6 to 9 p.m.

The emerging theme: The world, is in our hands. On one wall, Horner has painted the Earth as an orb, cradled in luminous hands with long, tapering fingers. "I felt like it was a dark place," said Horner about the teen centerV'I really wanted to come in here and paint something that was uplifting. It is, literally." Rick Thessin, 15, of Sooth Burlington is painting a city street scene that splices structures from Burlington against buildings in sister cities Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua and Yaroslavl, U.S.S.R. "The sister cities are all they are different but the people seem to be the same," said Thessin, who painted from books and photographs of the other cities.

Around the corner, Susan Young, 17, of South Burlington dabbed at what Horner described as "a genesis fantasy." "When it is finished it is supposed to be something that sort of symbolizes birth," said Young. She does not think Schumann's Equalizer should get By Molly Walsh Free Press Staff Writer An ominous painting of the television character. "The Equalizer" on the door of 242 Main will be replaced Monday with the more benign image of Ed Asner, in character as the high school principal on "The Bronx Zoo." The life-sized painting of "The Equalizer" by Burlington artist Max Schumann shows a black-clad man standing with his arm outstretched and palm raised in a halting gesture. "Law of The Equalizer" is written in the smoky backround that shrouds the figure. Jane Sanders, director of The Mayor's Youth Office which runs the teen center, said several parents and young teens were put off by the painting, which has been on the door for almost a month.

In her view it clashes with the teen center's values. "The Equalizer represents some of the worst parts of our vigilante justice and violence. It can be argued that he is helping the right people, but he is basically taking the law into his own hands. I felt that was certainly not an image that we wanted to portray," said Sanders. Schumann, 24, said he does not feel censored by Sanders.

"I understand the thinking behind why it should be changed. Jane thinks some kids would imitate an image and not understand the context." Schumann's Equalizer is juxtaposed thematically with more of his paintings on the walls of the entryway. As a whole, the work speaks to the way culture is influenced by advertising, art and television. "I hoped to provide a space for reflecting on images as not neutral but always politically active in describing ourselves to ourselves," said Schumann, who is the son ttAW i DAYS ARE NUMBERED: A life-sized painting cf 'The Equalizer' has caused a stir at Burlington's 242 Main teen center..