JANUARY EVENTS OPENERS

FILM

Shuttle Off To The Omni

Imagine standing at a bubble-windowed porthole in the space shuttle Challenger. The bay doors are open, the long manipulating arm holds the disabled “Solar Max” satellite in place while Pinky Nelson and Ox van Hoften repair it. and the coast of Africa drifts past overhead. Then the cameraman pulls back from the window and, still looking through the bubble, floats through the cabin where Commander Robert Crippen and Pilot Dick Scobee are at work at the controls with clipboards and plastic containers floating around their heads.

This is Omni Theater. A three-inch-wide film exposed through fisheye lenses is projected onto a huge half-dome screen tilted thirty degrees from horizontal. You have to turn your head to see from one side to the other. The smell of smoke seems to be all that is lacking to make it real.

The Dream is Alive was filmed principally by astronauts in space. They caught each other sleeping, eating (including trying to catch shrimp floating in the air), and playing chase. Camera crews on the ground captured blast-off scenes that are dizzying on the big Omni screen and chest-shaking with the Omni sound system.

The squeamish should bring Dramamine.

A short film on Halley’s comet, shot from Ayers Rock in Australia, precedes the feature attraction. Sacred Site uses time-lapse cinematography that makes the stars race around the sky, and the earth seem to be spinning out of control. It is a seven-minute masterpiece. The theater is in the Fort Worth Museum of Science andHistory, 1501 MontgomerySt., Fort Worth. Tickets are$4.75 for adults and $3 forsenior citizens. Showtimesthrough May 25 are: Tue-Thur1 pm. 2 pm, 7 pm, & 8 pm;Fri 1 pm, 2 pm. 7 pm, 8 pm,& 9 pm; Sat 11 am, noon, 2pm. 3 pm, 4 pm, 7 pm, 8 pm,& 9 pm; and Sun I pm, 2 pm,3 pm, 4 pm. 7 pm, & 8 pm.(817) 732-1631 or metro654-1356. -JeffPosey



PBS Marks King’s Birthday With Dallas Production Idanha films of Dallas has produced a remarkable one-hour video documentary to be shown nationally this month on PBS. “In Remembrance of Martin,” airing January 15, documents the events in Atlanta last January surrounding the celebration of the first federal holiday marking the birth of Martin Luther King Jr. The program also weaves in highly emotional, historical footage of King and his campaigns like the Montgomery bus boycott of 1956 when, in the words of King, “Fifty thousand black men and women refused absolutely to ride the city buses and we walked together for 381 days.” Other highly charged footage from the Birmingham campaign of 1963 and “Bloody Sunday” (March 7, 1965 in Selma, Alabama) serves to remind us of our not-so-distant past. There are also touching personal accounts of King’s life from those who knew him best, such as his wife. Coretta Scott King, and Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson, Ralph Abernathy, Dick Gregory, Edward Kennedy, and Jimmy Carter. Bill Cosby gives a stirring speech on the progress of civil rights to a packed auditorium at Morehouse College, King’s alma mater. Kell and Lori Kearns of Idanha Films served as director and producer. Award-winning cameraman Jay Rydman of Dallas was director of photography, and his company, Rydman Productions provided production services.

“In Remembrance of Martin” is a must-see program. January 15 at 9 pm on KERA-TV, Channel 13.



BOOKS



Me and the Boy: Journey of Discovery

“Forty-eight-year-old father and nineteen-year-old son. estranged by divorce for ten years, try to get to know each other by attempting six months’ expedition of 2,142 rugged mountain miles over the spine of the world’s largest continuous backpacking trail. Everybody thought it was a hell of an idea.”

That’s Paul Hemphill’s capsule description of Me and the Boy (Macmillan. $15.95), and though he and David Hemphill never succeeded in hiking the entire Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine, everybody was right, and this is a hell of a book to prove it.

Hemphill goes to the woods, he says, for the same reasons Thoreau went. In Hemp-hill’s case “fronting the essential facts” involves facing his alcoholism-a legacy, he hints, from his father, the subject of Me and My Old Man, The New York Times Magazine piece that had launched Hemphill’s career fifteen years earlier. So Hemphill is in need of soul-searching and somewhere to do it, and the Trail seems the place. Besides, there is the matter of the $5,000 advance from Macmillan, all spent before the walking starts. Hemphill’s work is unvarnished realism at its best, combining the heartfelt desire to rekindle his relationship with his son with the need to further his career and pay some bills.

In a foreword, Hemphill says he hopes to combine “some adventure, some backpacking, some turmoil, some philosophy, some mid-life crisis, and some teenagery.”

Me and the Boy packs healthy portions of each. The book has its moments of suspense and danger, starting early in the walk when a muddy-white Fairlane comes off a country road and two “quintessential Good Ol’ Boys” (shades of Deliverance) pile out of the car, drunk enough to make the Hemphills’ business their own.

Along the trail, Hemphill keeps a journal of their progress, filling it with stream-of-consciousness reflections on his former life in what he calls the land of White Picket Fences; on baseball, his passion along with booze; on the vicissitudes of life as a less-than-major writer. These scenes blaze with honesty and poignant self-revelation. Hemphill also has gifts as a reporter, and he is a willing sounding board for the gallery of characters they encounter in the woods: yuppies outfitted in the best of Abercrombie & Fitch; grim-faced Bible students; spelunk-ers; and a group of white-haired grandmothers from Connecticut who called themselves “the Shelter-Belters” in honor of the 151-proof rum drink they guzzle in camp each night. (Hemphill declines their hospitality, but has his own dark night with the bottle on the trip.)

Me and the Boy is fine reading on many levels-as apologia, as travelogue, as an account of sickness and the struggle toward recovery. And it is the story of a very human father and son trying to reach across the gulf of the generations and find, in David’s words, “something. . .on the trail that’s transferable to the real world.” Grateful readers will find that Me and the Boy transfers very nicely indeed.

-Chris Tucker



Rauschenberg Returns To Texas At The DMA

Fittingly, “Robert Rauschenberg, Work from Four Series,” now on display at the Dallas Museum of Art, is the last official exhibit of the Texas Sesquicentennial celebration. The Port Arthur-born Rauschen-berg is easily the most famous artist produced by the state, a near-legendary figure who. in the early Sixties, turned the New York art world upside down with a stunning series of works that made use of such recycled objects as a mattress, a tire, and a stuffed goat. Rauschenberg is still recycling objects after all these years. Furniture, a mailbox, a screen door, images found in newspapers and magazines-whatever catches the artist’s eye finds its way into his work, where it is transformed, yet remains somehow the same. His playful wit and expansiveness may have something to do with where he was born. “Texas is a big, flat country where you can go in every direction without going anywhere,” he said in a recent interview. The thirty-nine works in the exhibit survey the artist’s career from 1971 to the present and represent four major series of works: the “Cardboards,” “Hoarfrost,” “Bifocal,” and “Kabal American Zephyr.” Through Feb 9 at the Dallas Museum of Art. 1717 N Harwood. Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat 10-5; Thur 10-9; Sun noon-5. 922-0220.

-Ken Barrow

ART

W. Eugene Smith. Smith may have been the most ferociously uncompromising photojournalist to ever focus a camera His photographs- of a country doctor, a midwife. Albert Schweitzer’s leper colony at Lam-barene, West Africa -are unforgettable In series like these. Smith practically invented the photo essay. “W. Eugene Smith. Let Truth Be the Judge” presents the lull range of Smith’s fifty-year achievement for the first time since the photographers death Jan 10-March 1 at the Amon Carler Museum, 3501 Camp Bowie, Fort Worth, Tue-Sat 10-5. Sun 1-5 30 (B17) 738-1933.

Treasures from the National Museum. This is the cream of the collection of Washington’s National Museum of American Art, some seventy-eight works ranging from 18 th-century landscapes to Sixties abstractions Through Jan 4 at the Amon Carter Museum. 3501 Camp Bowie, Fort Wortn.Tue-Sat 10-5. Sun 1-5 30 (817)738-1933.

Shakespeare’s Visions. In lithographs, woodcuts, and other graphics, a pre-war generation of German expressionist artists encounters the works of England’s greatest playwright. Through Jan 22 at Three Archi-leclure Inc. 3624 Oak Lawn. Suite III. Mon-Fri 9-5. 559-4080.

Contemporary Paper. A survey of nine artists who not only draw and paint on paper, but also cut and form it into extravagant shapes. Through Jan 31 at Omni Art, 13616 Gamma, Suite 101. Mon-Fri 8:30-4:30. 458-9591.

Judy Miller. Ransacking her files for intriguing photographs. Miller assembles bits and pieces of this found imagery into elaborate collages, which she then re-photographs and hand-colors. Jan 10-Feb 28 at the Afterimage in the Quadrangle, 2800 Routh 871-9140.

Melissa Miller. Lions and tigers and bears- oh my -become actors in the sometimes amusing, sometimes amazing moral fables gorgeously painted by this Austin artist who has lately won national and international recognition Through Jan 4 at the Fort Worth Art Museum. 1309 Montgomery. Tue 10-9. Wed-Sat 10-5. Sun 1-5. (817)738-9215.

Breughel Series. Pat Steir’s monumental sixty-four-panel “Breughel Series” is nothing less than a history of painting styles, a 17th-century Dutch still lite painted again as Chardin. Matisse, Rembrandt, and even the cubists and futurists might have done it. Through Jan 4 in the Dallas Museum of Art, 1717 N Harwood. Tue, Wed. Fri, Sat 10-5; Thur 10-9; Sun noon-5. 922-0220.

Bybee Collection, The museum shows oft its latest, and niftiest, coup the priceless collection of early American furniture assembled by Houston’s Faith P. and Charles L. Bybee. Permanent display in the Dallas Museum of Art, 1717 N Harwood Tue, Wed. Fri, Sat 10-5. Thur 10-9; Sun noon-5 922-0220.

Joe Guy. A wide variety of this Fort Worth artist’s “painting-structures” will be on display in this exhibit. From small, minimalist pieces entitled Concealing to the monumental Waiting and Listening series that fills entire gallery walls, each of Guy’s structures becomes the embodiment of an image. Jan 22 Feb 28 at Adams Middleton Gallery, 3000 Maple Ave Tue Fri 10 am-6 pm.Sat 11 am-5pm 871-7080.

Arie Van Selm. Van Selm lays on the paint in big, extravagant gestures and carnival colors in these oils; paired with paintings by another unrestrained colorist, the Italian artist Simbari. Through Jan 31 at the Florence Art Gallery. 2500 Cedar Springs Mon-Fri 10-4. 748-6463.

Texas Art on the Road. These seventy-one posters are among the best created during the past year by visual and performing arts groups throughout Texas to advertise local exhibits and performances. Through Jan 5 in the Sheraton Gallery, Sheraton Hotel, 400 N Olive. Daily 10 am-10:30 pm 922-800.

Edo Period Painting. These scrolls and screens, unmatched for variety and vitality, are the pride of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. where they were deposited by their collector, Bartlesville oilman Joe D Price. Through April 5 at the Kimbell Art Museum, 3333 Camp Bowie, Fort Worth Tue-Sat 10-5, Sun 11-5. (817) 332-8451.

Spanish Masterpieces. From Houston’s extraordinary museum without walls, the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, come these two works on long-term loan: “St Michael the Archangel” by the 17th-century master Claudio Coello and “Portrait of Four Children” by the early 19th-century artist Augustin Esteve. Through summer 1987. at the Meadows Museum, Owen Arts Center. SMU Mon-Sat 10-5, Sun 1-5. 692-2740.



VIDEO RELEASES



Sound Warehouse Movies scheduled for release this month in all Sound Warehouse video stores: Back to School, Club Paradise, Fool tor Love, Howard the Duck, Karate Kid II, Labyrinth. Manhunter.

Video Works. Movies scheduled lor release this month at all Video Works locations. Club Paradise. Flight of the Navigator, Karate Kid II. Howard the Duck, Labyrinth, Ran.



DANCE



Dallas Ballet. The Dallas Ballet opens the new year with a wide-ranging repertory program exploring the 19th century, the 20th-century mainstream, and jazz choreography. Danish choreographer Auguste Bour-nonville’s Konservatoriet provides a rare documentation of dance exercises from the 19th century, followed by a new production of Jose Limon’s Biblically inspired work of 1947 set to the music of Norman Dello Joio. There is a Time. Rounding out the program is a revival of the Dallas Ballets popular production of The River, with choreography by Alvin Ailey and music by Duke Ellington Jan 21. 22, 23, & 24 at 8 pm and Jan 25 at 2 pm at the Majestic Theatre, 1925 Elm. Tickets $60-$5. 744-4430.



MUSIC



Cliburn Concerts. Pianist Peter Orth joins the Muir String Quartet in a concert including Dvorak’s “Cypresses.” Beethoven’s String Quartet in E flat, Opus 127 and Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor, Opus 57. January 20 at 8 pm at the Kimbell Museum, 3333 Camp Bowie Blvd. Fort Worth Tickets $15. (817) 738-6533.

Dallas Bach Society. The annual New Year’s Eve concert of baroque and classical music will take place Dec 31 at 10 pm at St Thomas Aquinas Church, 6306 Kenwood Ave at Abrams Rd. Tickets $10 827-8886.

Dallas Chamber Music Society The Borodin Trio per-forms. Jan 12 at 8 15 pm. at Caruth Auditorium. Owen Arts Center. SMU Tickets $8. 526-0700.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Jan 8 & 10: Eduardo Mala conducts a concert including American composer Dan Welcher’s Visions of Merlin. Richard Strauss’s Festive Prelude and Don Juan, and Rachmaninoff’s Fourth Piano Concerto, with soloist Joaqum Achucarro Jan 15&17 Flutist Jean-Pierre Rampat performs the flute transcription of Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto with Mala conducting an all-Russian concert also including excerpts from Mussorgsky’s opera Khovsntchina and the complete score of Stravinsky’s Petrouchka. Jan 23. 24. & 25: Mozart’s Symphony No 35 in D (“Haffner”), Three Postludes of Lutoslawski. and Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote (wilh cello soloist Lynn Harwell) are performed with Mata conducting. Jan 29 & 31: Pianist Nelson Freire performs Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini in a concert also including Elgar’s Serenade for strings and Brahms’s Symphony No 4 in & minor Thur, Fri, & Sat at 8:15 pm and Sun at 2:30 pm All concerts at Fair Park Music Hall. Tickets $20-$7.50 Thur-Sat, $14-$6.50 Sun, 692-0203.

Dallas Symphony Superpops. Jan 2: Skitch Henderson conducts light classics and pops Jan 16: James Rives-Jones conducts and Steve Allen clowns and plays piano Jan 30 Trumpeter Doc Sevennsenand clarinetist Pete Fountain join the orchestra under Rives-Jones tor jazz and Dixieland. All concerts at 8 pm at Fair Park Music Hall. Tickets $23$10. 692-0203.

Fort Worth Opera. John Balme conducts and James Poulliott directs Ponchiellfs La Gioconda (sung in Italian with English captions), with soprano Elaine Bunse in the title role, mezzo-soprano Marsha Henderson as La Cieca, bass-baritone Malcolm Smith as Alvise. tenor Denes Striny as Enzo Grimaldo. and mezzo-soprano Margaret Yauger as Laura Jan 9 at 8 pm and Jan 11 at 2:30 pm at Tarrani County Convention Center Theatre, 1101 Houston, Fort Worth. Tickets $35-$5. (817)335-9000.

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. Soprano Kiri Te Kanawa performs Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs in a concert also including Strauss’s Don Juan and Glaznov’s Frith Symphony, with John Giordano conducting Jan 31 at 8 pm and Feb 1 at 3 pm at Tarrant County Convention Center Theatre Tickets $25-$10 (817) 335-9000. Metro 429-1181.



THEATER



The Real Thing. Tom Stoppards sparkling and cerebral comedy about the difficulties of relationships and fidelity opens Jan 29 at the Dallas Theater Center’s Kalita Humphrey’s Theater and will run through Feb 22. 526-8857.

A Trifie Dead. This comedy murder-mystery is presented entirely in black and white – even the actors. Dec 31-Jan 17 at the Pegasus Theatre, 3916 Main. 821-6005.

XSR: Die! This sequel to A Trifle Dead.is set backstage in a Broadway theater. The murder is right on cue and Harry Hunsaker, the actor-turned-detective, is on the trail of as many dead-end clues as he can stumble over. Jan 23-Feb 7 at the Pegasus Theatre 3916 Main. 821-6005.

Doubles. Starring Gabe Kaplan and Robert Reed, Doubles takes place in the locker room of a tennis club, where four men gather each week for a game of doubles. Over the course of several months, the tennis players share the problems of coping with divorce, loneliness, infidelity, and heart attack, Jan 6-17 at the Majestic Thealre. 1925 Elm. 890-0477.

I’m Not Rappaport. Recent winner of three Tony Awards, this louring production will feature the original Broadway stars, Cleavon Little and Judd Hirsch The play is set on a bench in a secluded corner of Central Park, as two old men- one black, the other white – visit and swap stones. Jan 27-Feb 8 at the Majestic Theatre, 1925 Elm. 890-0477.



RECREATION



Mimewock. This is the first presentation of the Children’s Fine Arts Series sponsored by the Hillcrest Academy. Mimewock is a group of variety artists with diverse backgrounds that performs juggling, mime, and silent storytelling They will present their improvi-satorial show on Sun, Jan 25 at 3 30 pm in McFarlin Auditorium, SMU Tckets $10 & S7 490-1161.



ENLIGHTENMENT



MADO National Poster/Essay Contest. Mothers Against Drunk Driving and National Car Rental System, Inc. are sponsoring a National Poster/Essay Contest lor elementary, middle school, and high school students. The contest focuses on the issue of drinking and driving, and students have been invited to compete in several categories. Students in grades 1-12 are eligible to enter the poster contest; the essay contest is open to students in grades 7-12 MADD’s national theme is “Drunk Drivers Destroy Dreams.” Students will be encouraged to incorporate this theme into their ooster or essay, Participating schools should contact Dallas County Chapler of MADD at 243-6633 National judging will lake place a! MADD National Headquarters in Hurst on March 30 & 31.

Women and Crime: Be Warned, Be Prepared. The ATAC Forum, a women’s information network and support group for ATAC (Associated Texans Against Crime), will host educational seminars for women to be called Women and Crime Be Warned. Be Prepared ” These programs will go beyond usual sell-defense seminars. Topics to be discussed are The Criminal Mind: What is if? What affects it? The Psychological Fall-Out of Victimization. A Walk Through the Criminal Justice System Crime Statistics in Dallas, ana Self-Detense/Survival Techniques. Meetings will be on Feb 5 in the auditorium of the main Dallas Public Library downtown There will be two identical seminars, one from 9:30 am-noon, and the second from 6:30 pm-9 pm. Admission is $5 per person. 748-9300



DALLAS LANDMARKS



Dallas Arboretum. Located on the grounds of the DeGolyer and Camp estates on the southeast shore of White Rock Lake, the sixty-six-acre Dallas Botanical Garden is an excellent spot to view perennials and annuals in gardens indigenous to Texas Tours are available of the DeGolyer House, designated as a Texas Historical Landmark. It’s a great place to picnic. Tue-Sun 10 am-5 pm $2 adults. $1 children Free on Tue 8525 Garland Road. Call 327-8263 for directions.

Dallas Zoo. Don’t forget to take the kids to the zoo to see all kinds of exotic animals as well as an excellent reptile collection There are train rides and a picnic area. Open daily 9 am-5 pm Take 1-35 south past downtown (follow signs to Waco), take the Ewing exit. Adults $2, children $1 25 parking $2 946-5154.

Southfork. You’ve lived in Dallas all your life but you’ve never been there. It’s easy to find Take Central Expressway north to the Parker Road exit in Piano Head six miles east to FM 2551 and veer right, and you’re there Sell-guided tours daily 9 am-5:30 pm. Adults $6, children $4.

Thanksgiving Square. Located at Pacific and Ervay in the middle of downtown. Thanksgiving Square is the perfect place far a quiet moment in the middle of the hustle and bustle of downtown Enjoy a picnic lunch in the watergardens or a quiet moment in the chapel Mon-Fri 10 am-5 pm. Sat & Sun 1 pm-5 pm 969-1977.West End Marketplace. You waited long enough and Texas’s first festival marketplace is finally open Five floors of shops with every type of lood drink, and fun gift imaginable. There are also five nightclubs in the Dallas Alley entertainment complex. In downtown’s West End. Munger at Lamar.



SPORTS



Dallas Mavericks. Reunion Arena. Dallas Home game tickets available at Rainbow-Ticketmaster or at Reunion Arena box office. 658-7068.

Jan 2 Seattle SuperSonics

5 Indiana Pacers

7 San Antonio Spurs

9 Denver Nuggets

21 New York Kmcks

24 LA. Lakers

27 Washington Bullets

30 Milwaukee Bucks

SMU Basketball. All home games played in Moody Coliseum on the SMU campus For ticket information, contact the SMU Athletic Ticket Office. Moody Coliseum, SMU. 692-2902.

Jan 3 Baylor 7 30 pm

14 TCU 7:30pm

21 Houston 8 pm

24 Rice 7:30 pm

Dallas Sidekicks. Indaor soccer at Reunion Arena Tickets available through Rainbow-Ticketmaster 787-2000; group tickets 361 -KICK.

Jan 3 Chicago

10 New York

17 Wichita

23 Los Angeles