STAYING IN

THE SOLITUDE DIET

It’s January, the universal month for dieting, when everychild repents for those gastro-nomically excessive momenta known affectionately as the holidays. So allow us to suggest a revolutionary new method for weight reduction: dining alone. According to a recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, people actually eat less by themselves. Antisocial behavior-a new trend?

HER BREAD ALWAYS RIS

PROFILE Ever since she was a Girl Scout, Catherine Pressler has loved baking things. She’d spend her adolescent afternoons dreaming up dessert dishes for the family dinner. But what intrigued her most was not the “prettiness of the pastry” but the molecules behind her mission. After getting a degree in architecture and interior design, Pressler, still fascinated by molecular structure, moved east to pursue a master’s in textile chemistry. After studying for a year under the Reagans’ White House pastry chef, she returned to Texas, built a house with a huge commercial-style kitchen, and has been baking furiously ever since. -Lude Nelka



KERA and the Art of the Segue

LISTENING 9:45 a.m., Wednesday: “Everything Reminds Me of My Dog,” by Jane Siberry. Followed by two seconds of “dead air,” Then, “Stuck on You,” by Elvis. Now, a promo for “your one-of-a-kind radio station.” Then Alpha Blondy, Stevie Wonder, Bryan Ferry, Tangerine Dream, and David Byrne’s “Independence Day” from the Rei Momo album. Followed by more “dead air” and another David Byrne cut. Welcome to the eclectic world of KERA/90.1.

Last fall, KERA programming director Mike Nitka coined the phrase “art of the segue” in the midst of some otherwise typical extemporaneous bantering during an on-air pledge drive. We knew exactly what he meant. KERA’s programming revolves around the segue, moving from one interesting piece of music to the next, setting each up with a pregnant pause, leaving the listener wondering what could possibly be next.

And while sometimes it may sound as though KERA is non-formatted, it is. About six to ten cuts per hour are allotted from Nitka’s rotation list, although “the announcer does have some leeway,” he says, to accommodate “the tastes and the ideas of the individual hosts.”

One final note. When we asked Nitka to define “art of the segue,” he said he didn’t recall using the term. “I like it, though,” he conceded. We think it fits, even if he doesn’t remember saying it.

-Michael Pellechia

I Can’t Believe It’s Yoga-Again

OM WORK If yoga reminds you of the Sixties, of swamis, sitars, and sensible shoes of the earth variety, then it’s time to redirect your thoughts to a new decade. Yoga will be to the Nineties what aerobics was to the Eighties.

Why a resurgence of this peaceful, low-pressure exercise? Because not only does it get you into great physical shape, the side effects are astonishing. According to a recent issue of The University of Texas Lifetime Health Letter, the practice of yoga actually lowers blood pressure and reduces anxiety and stress.

The best thing about yoga, though, is that you don’t have to take classes. Grab a book (we like The Sivananda Companion to Yoga, $11.95) and get started. It will take awhile to get your breathing and flexibility up to speed, but you’ll notice a change in your attitude immediately. Even 15 to 20 minutes each day will leave you calmer and more relaxed than high-intensity exercise. For yoga classes call: The Wholistic Fitness Center, Metro (817) 469-7826, the 3 HO Foundation, 827-2947, or check with any of the Dallas County Community College District’s Continuing Education Departments. -Anne Warren

PHONE TUNING

From the just-when-you-thought-you’d-heard-it-all department comes Dial-A-Piano-Lesso-a three-minute piano lesson via Ma Bell. The only charge is the cost of the phone call (they’ll even throw in a printed transcript). (503) 664-6751.



VIDEOS



MY, HOW YOU’VE CHANGED…

To ring in the New Year and the new decade, here are four films in which the Stars, like it or not, find themselves living bizarre new lives.



William Hurt made his screen debut in Altered States (1980) as a researcher using a float tank and some powerful psychedelics to rediscover primal states of being. Whether the psy-Chobabbling Hurt was acting or not is an open question, but the film’s special effects are still mind-blowing today.

Heaven Can Wait (1978) stars Warren Beatty as an NFL quarterback who’s mistakenly snatched away from earth just before the Big Game, only to return in the body of a cuckolded millionaire. Beatty and Julie Christie are thoroughly upstaged by Charles Grodin, Buck Henry (as a celestial bureaucrat), and Jack Warden.

Another afterlife switcheroo comes in Chances Are (1988), featuring Robert Downey Jr. and Cybill Shepherd as newlyweds. After an untimely demise, Downey is returned to earth as a baby who grows up to date his own daughter. Several hilarious attacks of deja vu later, Downey remembers just why mom seems so special.

The darkest New Life movie may be The Fly (1986), with Jeff Goldblum going to pieces as an obsessed scientist whose botched experiment lands him in a hairy predicament. Definitely not for the squeamish, this one may have you climb ing the walls.

-Chris Tucker



BOOKS



BOOK RESOLUTIONS

A good friend says she resolves to read books that somehow escaped her during her formative years. I know what she means. Our school days were filled with so much required reading that we didn’t have a lot of time left over for the unrequired stuff. And now that we do have the time, unfortunately we don’t always have the inclination. What we need is a personal literary coach to nudge us occasionally and make us read the right thing. So here are 12 totally subjective nudges- one for each month of 1990. You don’t even have to read them in order.



JANUARY- Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert

FEBRUARY- Ulysses, JamesJoyce

MARCH-Howl and Other Poems, Allen Ginsberg

APRIL- To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf

MAY- Existentialism and Human Emotions, Jean-Paul Sartre

JUNE-One Hun-drod Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Márquez

JULY- Nicomach-ean Ethics, Aristotle

AUGUST- Under the Volcano, Malcolm Lowry

SEPTEMBER-The White Hotel, D.M. Thomas

OCTOBER-Women in Love, D.H. Lawrence

NOVEMBER-The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, Gertrude Stein

DECEMBER-War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy

-Anne Warren



Napping Through the Nineties

AT Rest Settling down for a long winter’s nap is an age-old desire for man and beast alike. But in the past, we’ve always felt guilty for stealing some Zs in broad daylight. (Something to do with that old Puritan work ethic, we think.) But these days napping is in, and go-go guys like Ivan Boesky who claim to sleep only two to three hours a day are out. And, if you don’t believe us, take it from beloved Dallas columnist John Anders, who has been napping for years. He even keeps a blanket and pillow in his office. Anders isn’t ashamed of his habit; he’s even written about it a time or two. {We think it may be that extra shut-eye that accounts for the twinkle in his clear baby blues.) Besides, napping is good for you. At least that’s what Dr. James Loftin, an accredited sleep expert, says. “You don’t even have to sleep,” he says. “Even laying down for twenty minutes will decrease stress.” -Sally Giddens



From LP to CD: And the Beat Goes On

SOUND Your classical LPs-Angels, Red Seals, Columbia Masterworks, Decca Gold Labels-take up 53 inches of shelf space and weigh 170 pounds. Those 213 Toscaninis, Horowitzes, Callases, Stoltzmans, Galways, and Pavarottis would probably reduce down to 100 CDs and a trim 40 pounds-if you decided you could afford it. But replacement costs could easily top $34)00 with the current CD exchange rate.

While some classical audiophiles prefer cassettes to CDs, the groove is drawn markedly between vinylphiles and the CD bunch, whose ears are allergic to surface noise. Record freaks like liner notes, analog sound, and tradition. They don’t like CD prices, CD sound, and their just plain newness. But, if you are feeling the pressure from modern technology to convert to CDs, you might just find a few interested collectors, particularly if your collection is classical in nature. Some so-called RCA “shaded dogs,” with black dots shading the little “Nipper” on the record label, supposedly sound as good as CDs. Ditto for records on Mercury’s “Living Presence” label.

But shop around before you decide to dump your LPs, and don’t sell them short. There’s always a collector bidding up certain prices, according to a spokesperson at Collector Records on Garland Road, which buys both used classical LPs and CDs. And, once you have unloaded them and are ready to restock with CDs, do your homework. Rodney Bailey of Sound Future (stores in Irving, Dallas, and Mid-Cities) says that currently there’s not an adequate cross-referencing system available for converting LP to CD, so unfortunately CD buyers are on their own. Periodicals such as Fanfare, Gramophone, and CD Review may be the place to start.

Average CD lengths are inching upward toward the technical envelope of 80 minutes per disc, in part to justify the high prices, so you get more music for your money. But, regardless, there are still CD skeptics out there. Just ask Dorothy at Collector Records, who says “a lot of people don’t think that CDs are going to be here too very long.” When the fat lady finally sings, vinylphiles may have the last laugh. -Michael Pellechia