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- CRITICS' VOICES, Page 12
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- ART
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- THE DRAWINGS OF HENRY FUSELI, National Academy of Design,
- New York City. These fantastic images, based mostly on myth and
- literature, show why the Zurich-born, London-based Fuseli
- (1741-1825) was a major influence on William Blake and a
- forerunner of surrealism. Through March 27.
-
- FROM EXPRESSIONISM TO RESISTANCE, ART IN GERMANY 1909-1936:
- THE MARVIN AND JANET FISHMAN COLLECTION, Milwaukee Art Museum. A
- society in political, cultural and economic upheaval is vividly
- portrayed in works by Max Beckmann, George Grosz, Otto Dix and
- many others. Through Feb. 3.
-
- TELEVISION
-
- ROSEANNE BARR LIVE FROM TRUMP CASTLE (HBO, Jan. 5, 10 p.m.
- EST). TV's queen of bad taste is back on the stand-up stage. No
- Star-Spangled Banner this time, but her screechy rendition of
- The Ballad of Billy Jack is enough to wake Francis Scott Key.
-
- REAL LIFE WITH JANE PAULEY; EXPOSE (NBC, debuting Jan. 6, 8
- p.m. EST). Two half-hour news programs get regular Sunday-night
- slots: Jane's yuppie newsmagazine, followed by a new series
- featuring the work of investigative-reporting team Brian Ross
- and Ira Silverman.
-
- SOVIETS (PBS, Jan. 6-10, 10 p.m. on most stations). Five
- hour-long reports on upheaval in the Soviet Union, created by
- Latvian director Juris Podnieks, with Hedrick Smith as host.
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- MUSIC
-
- WHITNEY HOUSTON: I'M YOUR BABY TONIGHT (Arista). Now wait a
- minute. Before you go dismissing her as a beautiful but soulless
- dance-floor diva, check out her way with a ballad like All the
- Man That I Need. She comes within striking distance of classic
- saloon soul here and proves she's stepping up to fast company.
-
- BLUESIANA TRIANGLE (Windham Hill Jazz). A wonderment of a
- record, a reverie from the place where jazz and blues meet and
- get along fine. Dr. John provides keyboards and vocals; David
- ("Fathead") Newman works the sax; Art Blakey goes easy on the
- drums and contributes a deft, funky vocal on For All We Know
- that stands as his own exquisite epitaph.
-
- BEETHOVEN: THE STRING QUARTETS (Philips Classics). Here at
- last is a three-volume reissue of the Quartetto Italiano's
- numinous interpretation of these musical monuments: mournful and
- indomitable, tender and gritty, patrician and earthy, fiery and
- serene.
-
- BOOKS
-
- THE PRIZE: THE EPIC QUEST FOR OIL, MONEY AND POWER by
- Daniel Yergin (Simon & Schuster; $24.95). If you don't mind
- being oblivious while the oil burner rumbles hungrily in the
- basement, so be it. But if you want to know what really makes
- the world go round, Yergin's colorful history of the petroleum
- industry is indispensable.
-
- INDIA: A MILLION MUTINIES NOW by V.S. Naipaul (Viking;
- $24.95). The great chronicler of the breakup of colonialism in
- the Third World returns to India to observe how disruptive
- traditions have re-emerged to trouble the present and threaten
- the future.
-
- A NEUTRAL CORNER by A.J. Liebling (North Point Press;
- $19.95). The late Joe Liebling wrote superlatively about war,
- food, the press, horse racing and boxing ("the sweet science").
- Fans who thought there was no more vintage Liebling to savor on
- a winter's eve can now rejoice. These 15 previously uncollected
- prizefighting pieces, written for the New Yorker between 1952
- and 1963, add to the wordsmith's impressive knockout record.
-
- MOVIES
-
- THE GODFATHER PART III. As a Mafia heiress, Sofia Coppola
- wins early admission to the Bad Acting Hall of Fame. (Who would
- have been better? Julia Roberts, Sandra Bernhard, Roseanne Barr,
- Divine . . .) The rest of the film is a slow fuse with a big
- bang -- a little tragic grandeur to end the Corleone saga.
-
- THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES. Tom Wolfe's book was already a
- great movie, so pungent was its dialogue, so rich its
- description of habitats and haberdashery. Brian De Palma's film
- is at best a redundancy, at worst a slick dead thing, like a
- sable coat left in a Park Avenue puddle.
-
- KINDERGARTEN COP. Sounds cute, doesn't it? But don't take
- the kids to this pertly titled melodrama unless you want them to
- see a child abducted at gunpoint by his drug-dealer dad. And if
- you don't have kids, stay home. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger's
- exertions can't pump any life into this comatose jape.
-
- ETCETERA
-
- WALT DISNEY'S WORLD ON ICE. Mickey Mouse, Roger Rabbit and
- the Little Mermaid all flash their blades in this rollicking
- family treat. Children will be spellbound by the icy antics of
- their favorite cartoon characters; their parents will enjoy some
- superb skating. Next performances in Philadelphia, Buffalo and
- Cincinnati.
-
- SELLING THE GOODS: ORIGINS OF AMERICAN ADVERTISING,
- 1840-1940, Strong Museum, Rochester. From billboards to
- handbills, symbols of advertising pass before our eyes at the
- rate of 1,600 a day. This entertaining exhibition traces the
- proliferation of ads over an eventful century.
-
- BOUNTIFUL BOXES
-
- Suddenly the market is flooded with enough boxed-set CD
- musical anthologies to start a mid-size radio station. For
- ornery blues listening: Bo Diddley (45 songs, 2 CDs, Chess). For
- prime roots rock: The Legendary Roy Orbison (75 songs, 4 CDs,
- CBS Special Products). For seminal '60s rock at its most
- inventive: The Byrds (90 songs, 4 CDs, Columbia/Legacy). For
- brain-crunching supergroup delirium: Led Zeppelin (54 songs, 4
- CDs, Atlantic). For born-too-late Liberace fans: Elton John's To
- Be Continued (70 songs, 4 CDs, MCA). Oh, for God's sake: Derek
- and the Dominos' The Layla Sessions: 20th Anniversary Edition
- (24 songs, plus a third 76-minute CD of jams, Polydor). For soul
- sublime: The Marvin Gaye Collection (81 songs, 4 CDs, Motown).
- For pipes unparalleled and singing supreme: Frank Sinatra: The
- Capitol Years (75 songs, 3 CDs) and Frank Sinatra: The Reprise
- Collection (81 songs, 4 CDs). There must be a 24-hour Sinatra
- station somewhere. The Voice of America?
-
-
- By TIME's Reviewers. Compiled by Andrea Sachs.
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