The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • Page 11

THE fflb SUN MONDAY, JUNE 28, 1982 SECTION raw Downtown diversions for a lunch hour By John F. Kelly A friend of mine was complaining the other day about being bored at lunchtime. "There's never anything to do downtown except eat," he groused. "How about walking around the stores' in Harborplace?" I suggested. "I've done that," he said.

"Well, then, why don't you go and sit on a park bench and survey the passing scene?" I said. "I have," he said. "But that gets to be a drag. to do something." OK. For my friend and for ail the other people who work downtown and who are bored with empty lunch hours, I have sacrificed a couple of mine to roam the city in search of interesting things to do.

I've tried to avoid things that are too touristy or things that can be done on weekends. Exceptions are a few museums and the exhibit at the U.S. Customs House, Gay and Lombard streets. The exhibit "The Lost Treasure of the Golden Galleons" is open Tuesday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

through July 11. It costs $4 for adults, $1.50 for children.) I've also tried to keep it simple. Most things are free and can be done in a half-hour, and most are within easy walking distance of the downtown area (5 to 10 minutes, usually). A few events are only open at certain times of the year. Center Forum at Old St.

Paul's Church, for example, presents free weekly jazz and folk music groups and occasional short documentary-type films. But it's closed for the summer; it won't open again until after Labor Day. One of the simplest and most fun things to do (if you don't count staying at your desk and working through your lunch hour!) is strolling the pedestrian overpasses from Charles Cen- ter to the Inner Harbor and back again. You can walk the entire way without encountering cars or red lights. You might also like to tour a couple of the city's more venerable commercial institutions.

There's Ernest Ritterhof Sons, a quaint, old-time hardware store at 1159 East Baltimore street. It dates to the mid-1800s and is one of the few places left in town that still sells cane for chairs. George J. Thaler's, at the corner of Madison street and Central avenue, sells wood and coal stoves in the same building it has occupied for more than 100 years. Both Ritterhof's and Thaler's are still run by heirs of the original owners.

For sheer browsing (assuming a love for kitchen gadgetry) few things can compare to Ekloff's, a restaurant supply house at 612 Washington boulevard, which sells everything from new and used pots and pans to candlesticks and linen. The Chocolate Factory, at 608 Water street, features recycled treasures buttons and buckles, fabric and shoelaces, even small scraps of wood. Buy a bag and fill it with whatever you like. That's for a sunny day. If it's raining, consider finding a snug corner in the Enoch Pratt Library for a bit of reading.

Or spend a half-hour browsing in the Goodwill book store in the 300 block of North Charles street. Or visit the Maryland Historical Society, on West Monument street, or the Peale Museum, on Holliday street (both are closed See LUNCH, B4.C61.1 Sun photo William Hotz Bennie Thorpe and James Hurtt play chess in War Memorial Plaza. The proprietor, of Ritterhof Hardware. Sun photo Irving H. Phillips.

Jr. A stove for sale at Thaler's. The Showboat cruises at 1 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Sun photo-wiiiiam a Mortimer Pay TV comes to Baltimore A doomed but dazzling thriller HadeRmmer 0ti.

Bill Y'f) Carter ON TELEVISION By Stephen Hunter Sun Film Critic got a story that twists tortuously, demanding that you master a specialized vocabulary in order to follow.it. If you go for popcorn, you may as well head for the car. No American film has yet looked (or I'd guess will look) this good this year. Scott, whose first film, "The Duellists," was also a feast 'for the eyes, packs his frame with details: In fact, the movie is so visually rich it really requires a minimum of two viewings before the fretwork ceases to dazzle enough so that you can really concentrate on the story, which may be its fatal flaw in the marketplace. Art director David Snyder and production desinger Lawrence G.

Paul, guided by consultant (billed in the credits as "Visual Syd Mead, have collaborated on a vision of the future that is at once instantly weird and instantly familiar. Their key concept is "retro-fitting," which means, basically, See BLADE, "Chinatown in or "Sam Spade Visits Alphaville," tracing its lineage back through Polanski and Goddard to hardboiled, shadowy classics like "The Big Sleep" and "The Maltese Falcon." But it's also only itself, as it defines and explores what must be a new genre altogether: high-tech sci-fi film noir. Based on a novel by Philip K. Dick, "Blade Runner" seems to be set in a future that's projected from Forties culture and is filled with Forties memorabilia: trenchcoats, big automatics, shadows on the laconic, hooded dialogue, diamond-hard existentialism, a cast that's at its most eloquent with its eyes, some of the best movie smok- ing in years. Like a Forties thriller, it's Ridley Scott's brave new film, "Blade Runner," shows the future and on the whole, I'd rather be in Philadelphia.

Scott's ambitious, dense and stylized detective thriller, set in an incredibly detailed Los Angeles of 2014, may be this year's doomed dazzler, a film that's brilliant and magical, but utterly incapable of generating the kind of mass audience response it needs to justify its $30 million price tag. If you go expecting to see "Star Wars III" or "Raiders of the Lost Ark 2," you'll be bitterly disappointed; worse, you'll be bored. It's more like Harrison Ford in "Blade Runner" Pay television comes to Baltimore this week. Thursday night to be exact. If you pay the freight, the first thing you'll see is a real live Oriole game, played right here in Memorial Stadium.

Later you can catch an uncut, uncommercialed version of "Raging Bull." And if you really want something you've never seen on your TV set before, you can also catch "H.O.T.S.," a movie about some sexy sorority sisters, who'll probably show a lot more of themselves than Charlie's Angels ever did. All of this will be possible if you have shelled out about $95 to equip your home and TV set to receive the signals of WNUV, the newest and most original TV station in town. This may sound like cable TV to a lot of people, but it isn't. This is subscription television, an idea specifically planned for cities like Baltimore which were taking a snooze when the cable revolution hit television. Cable is still years away in the city and that makes Baltimore an ideal market for the services of a subscription television system.

The system in this case is Super TV, an outfit that has been operating for eight months in Washington. Super TV has made an arrangement with WNUV, Channel 54, to provide a pay-TV service for the prime-time hours. That's after 7 p.m. on weeknights and after 3 p.m. on weekends.

The rest of the time Channel 54 will be a commercial station in though it will look a little different. Most of its programming during the day will be from the Financial News Network everything you want to know about stocks, bonds, money and the like. But Channel 54 is going to be best known for its subscription service, because what that really means is that Baltimoreans will finally start getting some of those movies and special events that they've been hearing about from their suburban friends who have cable TV. Whatikind of movies? Well, the July schedule is head-" See CARTER, B6, Col. 4 Baltimore Baroque Towson State University's Summer Festival Theatre continues at 8:30 tonight with a concert of Renaissance and Baroque music by the Baltimore Baroque Quartet, with soprano Ruth Drucker (left) and Michael Decker on mandolin.

Members of the quartet are Zoltan Szabo, Phyllis Olson, Harold Griswold and Lawrence Crawford. The concert will be held at Towson State's Fine Arts Summer days The city-run recreation centers will open for the summer beginning today. For a directory of activities and facilities including swimming pools run by the city's Department of Parks and Recreation, see page Bjj Neighborhoods Street Academy maintains high standards in Park Heights, (Page B3) Comics B8 Liz Smith B2 Movies B5 Television A B6.