Daily Press from Newport News, Virginia • Page 34

HcketWeekend D4 Friday, January 5, 2001 DoUjJto Green Course Grill is up to par By Kathy Van Mullekom Daily Press WILLIAMSBURO The Green Course Grill In Williamsburg scores a hole-inone for outstanding food. Open for dinner for three months now, the grill overlooks the Green Course's 18th hole at the Golden Horseshoe Golf Club. Getting to the grill, however, is more challenging than sand traps on a tournament-tough golf course. For a mile, a dark and winding South England Street leads us there, only the stars above and the high beams on our car lighting the way. The golf course is located in the midst of a wildlife habitat, so golfers and diners are likely to see all sorts of woodland creatures playing and dining there, too.

The grill accommodates 40 diners at a time. The central part of the clubhouse is outfitted with tables for four, everything done in natural wicker. The atmosphere is casual and intimate, all warmed by a gas-burning fireplace. It's a quiet, relaxed place. My husband Ken and I spend a nice evening there with our son Brian and his friend Ann, both frequent visitors to good restaurants in San Francisco, where they live and work.

We all are cold and hungry from an afternoon of walking Duke of Gloucester Street looking at holiday decorations and buying candy and gifts in nearby shops. Grill manager Michael Lopes greets us after we are seated. He's happy telling us the restaurant is booked full with reservations. Our server brings us a one-page menu listing appetizers, salads, sandwiches and entrees. Throughout the evening, he's polite and attentive, but rough around the edges.

We have to suggest that we want drinks, we never receive any bread plates, we are never asked if we want to order salads, and we tell him more than once how many coffees we want with desserts. He brings a nice basket of breads along with three toppings butter shaped into small balls, oil infused with balsamic vinegar and a paste made from sundried tomatoes. He never explains what each is. Lopes, who keeps checking to see if everything is OK, tells us about the toppings. The four of us share a great of Tidewater Restaurant Review Address: 1000 S.

England Williamsburg (VA mile past Golden Horseshoe Clubhouse) Specialty: Sandwiches and salads for lunch; ribs, chicken, pasta, seafood and steaks for dinner. Hours: 11 a.m.-4p.m. lunch, 4-6 p.m. hors d'oeuvres, 6-9 p.m. dinner Prices: Salads, sandwiches, 0.95; dinner, Payment: Credit card, personal checks 'N Sync makes it to Producer started small before 111 1 i making big time of England Street S.

Grove r-i i StaffDaily Press Alcoholic beverages: Full bar Nonsmoking section: Entire restaurant, except for bar and outside decks Dress: Casual Wheelchair accessible: Yes Noise rating: Quiet among seating for 40 diners Star rating: Food Atmosphere Service (Key: excellent; very good; good; fair; poor) stairs, I had no contract with them, and I gave them some free time," Mudrock says. "A year later, when they got signed to Universal Records, they gave me points and paid me to do remixing. They also gave me a signed producer's contract and brought me back for the second record. They've been great" Mudrock produced Gods-mack's latest album, "Awake," at River's Edge Studio in Haverhill in another warehouselike building. He brought in extra equipment notably a $50,000 Pro Tools computer setup.

The band recorded onto the computer (rather than on tape), and the more elaborate process took six weeks instead of the 14 days for the first CD. Mudrock then mixed it at NRG Studio in North Hollywood, where other top-of-the-line producers work. Mudrock's reputation skyrocketed after Godsmack's initial success so much so that he moved to Los Angeles when the debut album took off. "I had spent years recording different types of music, but the projects that have been commercially successful have been hard rock, so I'm embracing that," he says during a recent return to Boston, where he's producing a CD at New Alliance for kick-butt rockers, Quintaine Americana. 78 if rrYrvr i i Shi' ..1, appetizer of potato skins filled with bacon, Cheddar cheese, sour cream and chives ($5.25 for five skins).

Other appetizers include crisp calamari or vegetable chips with artichoke, spinach and Reg-giano Parmigiano cheese dip For dinner, Ken orders the night's special of turkey, dressing and whipped sweet potatoes I select the molasses-barbecued St. Louis-style pork ribs with coleslaw and fries Ann asks for the 6-ounce beef tenderloin marinated in molasses and black pepper with apple-wood-smoked bacon, forest mushrooms and peanut chutney Brian chooses the certified Angus beef New York steak with five-onion stuffed potato, asparagus, caramelized garlic and red-wine reduction We enjoy a few minutes of pleasant conversation over our wine, a Burlwood white zinfan-del, and appetizer before our entrees arrive. The steaks are presented with great artistry, each perfectly cooked to medium. Brian and Ann give their meals high marks. My ribs are meaty and tender, In the "2001: A Space Odyssey," the HAL-9000 computer claims to have become operational on Jan.

12,1992. In what U.S. city was HAL Readers can enter online at dailypress.com or via the 1-Line by dialing 928-1 1 1 1 and entering category code 3549 (FLIX). Remember to give your name and phone num zona" and "Blood Simple." FORUM REMINDER. The Naro is taking registrations for the winter session of the Sunday Film Forum, which drew almost 200 participants in the inaugural fall season.

Participants in the forum share Sunday brunch, a sneak preview of an upcoming film generally top-of-the-line art-house fare and a moderated discussion of the movie's themes afterward. Featured films during the fall Interactive Exhibit Opening January at the Virginia Air Space Center An Evening i- I magine them standmg before you, each one five stories tail Joey Chris, Lance, J.C. and of course Justin. For the culturally uninitiated, they are the boys of 'N Sync. (Cue the sound of impassioned teen-age fans shrieking in delight.) And next month, they will be arriving on the gigantic IMAX screen at the Virginia Air Space Center.

(Cue the sound of impassioned teen-age fans swooning and dropping to the floor in a breathless faint.) The large-format film Sync: Bigger Than Live" will debut at the museum Feb. 9 and is scheduled to run at least through the spring. A smaller opening on the Air Space Center's screen is "Alien Adventure," which opens next week. It's similar to the earlier IMAX film "Thrill Ride," but this one uses the narrative device of having a group of aliens landing at an amusement park and sampling the rides. Perhaps more important man the arrival of 'Alien Adventure" is the departure of "Michael Jordan to the Max." The paean to the basketball legend has been extremely popular on the museum's big screen; it will end its run there on Jan.

12, along with "Cirque duSoleil." The museum's new prices are $6 for IMAX tickets and $9.50 for the movie and admission to the the molasses giving them a succulent sweet taste. I never have to pick up a bone, because a fork quickly catches the meat for easy eating. Brian and Ken help me finish off the full rack. The coleslaw bites my tongue; it needs a little less black pepper The thin fries are crisp and not too greasy Ken is more than happy with his traditional holiday dinner. Other entrees include barbecued chicken with slaw and fries chicken breast with Smithfield ham, beans and corn succotash vegetable lasagna and fettuccini with sauteed jumbo shrimp, lump crabmeat and leeks Our desserts ($2.95) chocolate cake and pecan pie are not too heavy, not too sugary but just right Between courses, I visit the ladies room, which is part of the locker room for women golfers.

It's large and clean and has pretty wallpaper. I guess the pair of soiled white socks left on top of the toilet-tissue dispenser is just par for the surroundings. Kathy Van Mullekom can be reached at 247-4781 or by e-mail at kvanmullekom dailypress.com MAX ber. One winner will be selected at random from among the correct responses to receive two free movie passes. THE LATEST WINNER: Erin Carter of Newport News was chosen from among 313 readers who knew that in "Dirty Dancing," the real first name of "Baby" Houseman (Jennifer Grey) was Frances.

included "Girlfight," "Billy Elliott" and "Dancer in the Dark." The cost is $60 for a six-week session. The winter schedule begins on Jan. 21. For the winter session, the forum will work on an earlier time schedule, with brunch beginning at 10:15 a.m. and the film starting at 11.

For more information, call 625-6275. Mike Holtzclaw can be reached at 928-6479 or by e-mail at mholtzclawdailypress.com 27, 2001 with Uhura VIRGINIA AIR SPACE 1 CENTER ff 1 -LI A screen time Hike Holtalaw success of "Fantasia 2000," Richmond's Science Museum of Virginia is headed on an MAX safari. "Africa's Elephant Kingdom" arrives at the museum next weekend. The highlight of the film? Easy When a elephant charges at the camera crew's truck and surprising the crew with her speed catches up and rams the camera head-on. For showtimes and information, call (800) 659-1727.

LATE ARRIVALS. All those hot Christmas releases you were awaiting will start hitting town next week. Many of them had small openings in major cities in late 2000 in order to qualify for the Academy Awards deadline. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" Ang Lee's subtitled martial-arts film, which has drawn rave reviews and is expected to take U.S. audiences by storm will arrive Jan.

12. Other films that could hit local theaters as soon as next week include the Cuban Missile Crisis A New exhibits. Discounts are available drama "Thirteen Days" and the for senior citizens, children, the Coen brothers' Brother, military and NASA employees. Where Art Thou," from the creative geniuses who made such MORE IMAX. Fresh off the films as "Fargo," "Raising Ari- Guest Artists Exhibit January 3 -31 Betty Kight, Sculpture Nancy Richards West, Drawing Reception Saturday, Jan.

13, 2001 l-3pm By Steve Morse The Boston Globe As a boy growing up in Providence, R.I., Andrew Murdock remembers peering into the back of his mother's stereo, checking out the glowing tubes and wondering how the music was transmitted. "I've always been interested in the technical aspect of music," he says. These days, Murdock is better known as "Mudrock" (a play on his last name), and he's one of the hottest, hard-rock-record producers in the country He produced the last two Godsmack albums (the first, titled "Gods-mack," sold 3 million copies) and worked on Powerman 5000's national debut, "Mega! Kung Fu Radio." Not bad for a high school dropout who came to Boston 20 years ago and fell into a job as house sound engineer at the now-defunct Harvard Square club, Jonathan Swift's. "My sister lived in Boston, and one of my sister's housemates was in a band called Midnight Traveler. So I became the sound man for them, and they often played Jonathan Swift's," says Mudrock, now 38.

"Chris Lannon of Midnight Traveler taught me a few things, but I'm basically self-taught. I've never gone to music school or engineering school. My training has been in clubs and in the basement of this building." The basement refers to New Alliance Studio soldered every wire in here," he says) at 1312 Boylston St in a former tire warehouse that now boasts numerous rehearsal rooms and other studios such as Woolly Mammoth, Black Egg, Small Church, and the Unknown Studio. Mudrock owns New Alliance with Alvan Long (who also runs Curve of the Earth Records), and that's where he recorded Gods-mack's debut album for a mere $3,000. "Everybody in Boston loves to trash Godsmack, but when I recorded their first record down I Music Centra? Bond Instrument Repaid Soles Reman lessons Sheet Music Accessories I We Buy Used Instruments ftOft LLCil lumoerry crossing snop.crr yOT-OOUj (behind Hooters) murder DINNER THEATRE Solve hilarious) comedy murdtr mystery while enjoylnj ideMckxit JjTJ Sour couth dinner! rnr-r-nrr Public Snows Every Fri.

I Sit Corporis I PrtvtM Shows Sun. Ttturs. Mystery Dinner Playhouse Williamsburg 01-888-471-4802 www.MytteryOlnmr.coni huMt tttv RifMdt Inn Cental M81 Richmond Wtrwbq 1 -jdivesKies TAR TREK: Federation Science EG cx 26 S. King Street Hampton, VA 23669 Open Dairy until 6 757-727-0028 btueskiesart.com 1-64 Exit 267 across from VA Air Space Center Opening Gala January 26, 2001 7 p.m.-10 p.m. Meet Marina Sirtis, "Counseor Troi" from STARTREKTheNextGenerationl Musical performances by Strolling SUw Strings.

Special IMAX Presentation of Mm Advtntun. Inter-galactic menu Includes: Karpathian Spore, Celestial Chicken, Klingon Roast Beast Borg Bruschetta and some of Counselor Troi's favorite chocolate creationsi Cash Bar Cl rf at 'TMitqwUia, i i. hi 11 -i February 23, 2001 7 p.m.-10 p.m. Meet Nlchelle Nichols, "it Uhura' from the original STAR television series. Musical performances by All City Jan Enstmbl Special IMAX presentation ofDtstlnyhtSpact narrated by Leonard Nimoy mter-planetarymenulncludesiCardasslanMeatballv Risan Pasta, Interplanetary Cheeses, and Galactic Gourmet Desserts and Coffees provided by Starbuda Coffee.

Cash Bar Including Martian Martinis 9:00 fim STAR TREK EVENT Gift Certificates are available. Thanks to our community partners: Call 727-0900, ext 782 to reserve tickets. Attend both events and receive a special discount! AumcA Gua $9. 95 76ei 722-61 St 723-6S21 SciHeUuf rixm lux SU 10-5, tt-5 7e St It -2 verhvn mini rim urn ((eaTtass The Center It located at 800 Settlers Landing Road In downtown Hampton. Jlsit us online www.vasc.org nEtlll 1 ADelta.