The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • 51

ARTS ENTERTAINMENT C-22-23 COMICS C-24 Lit J.X LJ via TELEVISION C-25-27 THE RECORD TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1987 SECTION Tribute to a benevolent voice By Barbara Jaeger Record Muttc Critic In "Circle," Harry Chapin sang "I have a funny feeling well all get together again." Last night at Carnegie Hall, Chapin's fellow performers, friends, and family which in Chapin's time included his immediate family and those whose lives he touched with his music and good works got together on what would have been the singer-songwriter-activist's 45th birthday. The occasion also was one of honor, as Chapin known for such songs as 'Taxi," "Cat's in the Cradle," and was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest civilian award. The award was for his work in fighting hunger. Chapin was the primary mover behind the establishment of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger, and, with Bill Ayres, he founded World Hunger Year (WHY), which is a source of domestic and international hunger information. Vermont Sen.

Patrick Leahy, who presented the medal to Chapin's widow, Sandy, toward the end of the evening, said that Chapin "formed our conscience" by his tireless efforts and his generosity. Accepting the medal, Mrs. Chapin said: 'Tonight's ceremony is one more light along the way for those who have joined the fight" She then handed the award to one of her sons, who placed it next to a guitar that had been spotlighted throughout the celebration in mem- ys ory of Chapin, who died in an automobile accident on the Long Island Expressway in 1981. "The Gold Medal Celebration: A Tribute to the Life and Music of Harry Chapin" was a benefit for WHY and Long Island Cares, a food bank serving Suffolk and Nassau counties. The lengthy ceremony featured speeches by Ken Kragen, Chapin's manager and one of the organizers of USA for Africa and Hands Across America; consumer advocate Ralph Nader; and author and music critic Dave Marsh; among others.

The more than three-hour show also featured performances by such socially committed artists as Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul, and Mary; Bruce Springsteen; Paul Simon; Richie Havens; and Chapin's brothers, Tom and Stephen. The evening was filled with the kind, "of warmth and caring that exemplified Chapin's life. And the audience felt right at home, singing along with several of the performers and even prompting Tom Chapin when he forgot a line from "Taxi." "There are countless people who never saw Harry Chapin or heard his music, but who live because Harry filled their stomachs," said Harry Belafonte, who served as host of the event Performers and friends shared memories and anecdotes about Chapin, who used many of his performances to help others. During his career of playing clubs and campuses, Chapin raised, more than $5 million for various charities. Springsteen recalled meeting Chapin in a re- cording studio in 1978 and how Chapin talked nonstop about the need to get involved.

Although a laughing Springsteen said he took to hiding from Chapin, one of the things Chapin said stuck in his mind. "I remember him saying, 'I play one night for me and one night for the other said who has become known for his charitable contributions to workers' organizations and food banks. Judy Collins said Chapin's sensitivity was revealed in "Cat's in the Cradle," a song about the difficulties of being a family man on the road; Mrs. Chapin helped write the song. Chapin's attachment to his family shined through with the Hooters' performance of "One Light in a Dark Valley," a song written by Chapin's maternal grandfather.

While the evening focused on Chapin's hunger work, his other concerns were not forgotten. Christopher Keene, musical director of the Long Island Philharmonic, recalled Chapin's perse- verance in establishing the orchestra. "Sesame Street's" Bob McGrath, singing with the Children to Children Choir, spotlighted Chapin's' commitment to education. While Chapin's programs have maintained their spirit and energy, WHY's Ayres said a need still exists. Ayres announced a campaign to end hunger and homelessness in America that will seek to make presidential candidates aware.

Springsteen, who closed the show with the Chapin ballad "Remember When the Music," left the audience with words that Chapin lived by: "Do something." 7 1 STEVE HOCKSTEINTHE RECORD Paul Simon playing last night at Carnegie Hall to salute the late Harry Chapin and Chapin's work to fight hunger. i 4 Harry Chapin, who used to "play one night for me and one night for the other guy." STEVE HOCKSTEINTHE RECORD Folk singers Peter, Paul, and Mary on stage. Other performers included Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen. By Laurence Chollet Record Staff Writer mm Red carpet for six Soviet writers Here we have the secret stars of Soviet poetry today." Yesterday, at PEN headquarters, the Soviet writers faced a battery of cameras and questions from about two dozen reporters. (One of the writers, Fazil Iskander, was not present, as his plane was delayed in Rome.) The Soviet writers seemed to follow two fashion trends some wore pean-style suits, after the fashion set by Gorbachev; others favored a more aca-1 demic bent, sporting tweed coats.

Mor- its followed a style more fitting to a -SoHo artist She dressed in black. The writers spoke through an inter- -preter, although Dmitri Urnov, 51, a lit- See SOVIET Page C-8 The novelist Daniil Graninwas given specific instructions upon leaving the Soviet Union, but he was having a very difficult time doing what he was told once he arrived in Manhattan. "When we left, people said to keep a sharp eye on how things are going in the United States," Granin said with a 1 laugh yesterday, speaking through an interpreter. "But weVe been here for 24 hours, and we haven't seen a thing yet" Such is the price of celebrityhood for Granin and five other writers from the Soviet Union who arrived Sunday night vV for a 10-day visit and have been the center of attention since. They plan to meet with American writers, read their works, visit with Russian emigres, and, if time allows, see this country or at least New York City, Boston, and Wash ington, D.C, where they'll visit.

The writers are guests of PEN, the international organization dedicated to protecting writer's rights, and yesterday, PEN held a press conference at its offices in lower Manhattan to introduce the guests to the American press. As part of their visit, the writers will participate at 7:30 tonight and tomorrow night in readings rganized by PEN at the City University of New York Graduate Center Auditorium. This visit marks the first exchange between PEN and the Writers Union of the Soviet Union. It coincides with the visit of Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who arrived last night in Washington, D.C, for arms talks with President Reagan, but the Soviet writers set up their visit last summer, well before the Gorbachev-Reagan summit was organized.

Nonetheless, the visit had an air of glasnost about it, as the writers themselves readily said. PEN had selected five visiting writers, and all five received permission to travel a fact, that made PEN very happy, Karen Kennedy, PEN's executive said yesterday. Allen Ginsberg, the poet and PEN vice-president who helped select the visitors, noted that two of them -Aleksandr Kushner, 51, and Yunna Merits, 50, were excellent poets who had never visited before. "It's a rare occasion, because they are literary-literary writers, not very much involved with politics in the sense of government politics, but very, very much of an individualistic type," Ginsberg said. 'They are extremely avant-garde it's kind of a breakthrough.

Awards nominees show that the quality of cable is strained EYE ON TV Joe Bob Briggs, scam- pish host of The Movie Channel, tells viewers 1 what topics they can expect on talk shows the following week: transves-tites, strippers, and transvestite strippers. "If not for these programs," I Joe Bob says, "the Movie Channel wouldn't exist" There may be some truth to that Viewerehip of the networks during prime time is down an astonishing 10 percent ward the comatose, so let's vote for (b). Even so, it would be a mistake for the cable industry to take this recent viewer shift as an invitation for laurel-sitting. Those laurels are still mostly home-grown they're called the ACE's and one knows how easily house plants can wither. The ACE's the annual Awards for Cable Excellence, next to be presented Jan.

24 were invented nine years ago by cable people as a pat on the back for themselves. But a simple flip turns a pat on the back into a karate chop. Flip the hand, and the recently announced ACE nominations for 1987 emphasize cable mediocrity as much as cable excellence. They serve as reminder that one does not judge strength by what's on top, but by what's beneath. Performance in a Comedy Special: Robin Williams is a shoo-in to win this ACE for his dazzling "An Evening at the Met" on HBO.

But among the four others nominees is Bob Goldthwait, demented screamer of three "Police Academy" movies, for his HBO special "Bob Goldthwait Share the Warmth." During it Goldthwait swears up and down the stage, calling the president four-letter words and generally soiling the art of stand-up comedy. For that show to be remembered, much less nominated for an award, cable programming must still have one foot in the Paleozoic Era. Writing a Music Special or Series: Bruce Willis and four cohorts are nominated for HBO's "Bruce Willis: The Return of Bruno." a program about half 1 channel, and one video jock from MTV Julie Brown, whose accent and occasional difficulty reading a prompter make her a fine model for aspiring TV personalities. Plus, there's Garrison Keillor, creator and host of the defunct "A Prairie Home Companion," which The Disney Channel briefly carried. Keillor getting a Music Host award would be like Thomas Edison getting a Grammy.

To be sure, other cable offerings are as good as TV can get from the four-times-nominated Williams special to a completely unnominated fishing show on The Nashville Network in which Jimmy Carter, in a rowboat on a quiet Georgia lake, reels in fish after fish while reminiscing about life in the White House. But the cable industry cannot be too pleased when Gary Shandling, whose funny Showtime series "It's Gary Shandling's Show" is up for five ACE's, says he wont do any programs next year unless he is allowed to also syndicate the series to free (broadcast) TV. He's tired of winning all those plaudits while working to an audience of only 10 million or 12 million that "churns" over (some dropping the pay-TV service while others sign on) every few months. Cable already has had an impact on the look and content of broadcast TV. For one thing, there would never be a Mad Jocko Energizer battery commercial See STAINED Page C-8 Joel Pisetzner ROBIN WILLIAMS GARY HANDLING from last year, and a re- cent report by the CBS Broadcast Group anticipates that defections will hit other network "dayparts" (morning, afternoon, and late night) by 1990.

A de-' finitive study of this viewer shift has yet to be pub-. fished, but common sense says it is either because (a) network shows are worse than ever, (b) TV offers more viewing alternatives among them cable, or (c) a combination of both. It is hard to believe network shows have suddenly taken a further dive to- as riveting as Willis's wine-cooler commercials. Bruce'sgood times are our bad ones. He's one network-TV star who has got to stop moonlighting.

Music Host It's hard to imagine this as a category at alL Up for the ACE is someone from The Nashville Network, someone else from the tittle-seen VH- -j- x. 4 II.