Daily News from New York, New York • 147

11 NEIGHBORHOOD: a cC Fl SL Vw I8 RflmroiRnM a mm II 'yinmmiju, Jill nniJliim, miiMip au.fi, mini mn' "fW "iwp'i' I 1985 liwlll iss York Harbor on demonstration trip yesterday. Art politics mix A round-table discussion on "Interplay of Art and Politics" win be held tonight at 6:30 at the Uris Auditorium of the Metropolitan Museum, 82nd St. and Fifth Ave. During the discussion, four distinguished art historians wilt examine a number of works of art produced between 1963 and 1973, as well as the artists who produced them. The subject for the discussion was drawn from a retrospective now on view at the Studio Museum in Harlem, which wiH remain on view through July 7.

Admission is free. Students' debut The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Board of Educatiqn will sponsor the debut today at 1 1 a.m. of seven chamber-music ensembles, composed entirely of city high-school students, at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. The 32 hand-picked musicians have been studying for weeks with the master musicians of the society, who volun teered their time to prepare for the concert. The students will play from the works of Bach, Mozart, Debussy, and others.

Each performer will reciavs a Certificate of Merit from the society. Occult art shov Kamikaze, billed as an "artdance" club, at 531 W. 19th will open a show entitled, "American Occult," today at 10 p.m. The show is made up of works of 30 East Village artists whose paintings and sculptures focus on the occult. The show will run through June 2.

Admission on Wednesdays and Thursdays is $10; and on Fridays and Saturdays, $15. Call 807-0838. Aikido workshop The Bond Street Dojo. dedicated to teaching enthusiasts of the martial arts just how it's done, will hold a free workshop on the Japanese philosophy and martial art of aikido tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. at 49 Bond St.

The workshop will be conducted by aikido master Mitsugi Saotome. The Japanese master will also conduct two more free workshops on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. The following Saturday, June 1, there will be an introductory aikido seminar at 1 1 a.m. The fee is $20.

84th St. fair "Festival '85," the sixth annual street fair organized by a coalition of community groups on the West Side, will be held Saturday at noon along 84th St. between Columbus and Amsterdam Aves. Musical groups will provide continuous music and there will be games, crafts, food, clothing, antiques, and I Daily News, Thursday, May 23, js By MARY ENGELS and JOHN MELIA While it wouldn't be called "bounding on the open main," various city officials dodged salt sprays yesterday as they zipped around New York Harbor on a test ride of an ultra-fast "water taxi" that someday could carry commuters into lower Manhattan from New Jersey, Westchester and all the boroughs. The Hitech Express barrelled out of Slip 3 at Whitehall St.

at 11 a.m. and zoomed past 69th St. in Brooklyn one of its proposed stops on its way Staten Island's St. George Ferry Terminal and then returned to Manhattan all in 25 minutes. By comparison, the regular Staten Island ferry makes a one-way trip in 25 minutes.

AFTER A LUNCH break, the 71-foot long Express traveled, at speeds of up to 30 mph, up the East River corridor for stops in the Bronx, Long Island City in Queens and E. 34th St. in Manhattan. Each are proposed sites for ferry service. Among those aboard were members of the City Council Committee on Transportation and Leonard Piekarsky, assistant commissioner of the city Bureau of Ferry and General Aviation Operations, all of whom greeted the test with varying degrees of optimism.

Piekarsky, who called the ten pftsiiic Hitech Express zips across New rS J'x I 4 fx? what it would be like." Eisland said she was impressed by the performance and pointed out that in recent months her committee had been meeting with Port Authority officials to coordinate some kind of trans-Hudson ferry service. COUNCILMAN Sal Aibanese (D-Brooklyn), who has been fighting tor ferry service between Brooklyn and Manhattan since October, said, "With the subways jammed and the roads clogged, a ferry is an efficient and viable option." The "water taxi" could also prove a boom to Long Island commuters who could TJrk Hhr in 1yn IclonI Tin IH'IWTi 'in, mi nMwri fNwj- yry City or Brooklyn and save themselves the wear and tear of Manhattan landed traffic. Councilman Frank Fossel-la (D -Staten Island) liked the idea for his constituents. He pointed out that a commute from Great Kills on the South Shore of Staten Island can now take up to hours on good days and more than 2 hours when traffic is snarled. He said with a rapid ferry the commute could be cut to 40 minutes.

THE HITECH Express is an enclosed prototype commuter boat built by Luther Blount, head of the Blount Marine Corp. in Warren, R.I. Blount said another Express is already operating in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands and that he would like to see a private developer here.

He said he could see expanding the service as far up as Yonkers. Each boat would cost anywhere between $600,000 and $650,000, he said. In fact, New Jersey developer Arthur Imperatore has taken an option on one of the boats. He wants to operate a ferry service from Weehawken, where he is building a housing development, to W. 38th St.

in the city. The plan has not yet met with city approval. ANOTHER company vying to establish a rapid ferry service in the city is American Hydro Lines which has also met with the transportation committee. From the look of things, commuting at high speed around the city's harbor may just be the wave of the future Officials who made test trip yesterday included Councilwoman June Eisland, Councilman Sam Horowitz, Councilman Peter VaHone and Councilman Sal Aibanese. 22-ton, 149 passenger vessel a "water taxi," termed it the "wave of the future" no pun intended as the boat churned a wake five-feet high.

"The real appeal is for those who would use cars to get into the city," he said. "They would save on tolls." If a Hitech Express-type service is instituted, Piekarsky said, it would have to be managed by a private company at a cost of between S2 to $3 a ride. June Eisland (D-Bronx), head of the City Council's Committee on Transportation said, "This was our first actual hands on experience so that we'd bp ahlf to.