TV more than held its own in 2001; We turned to it for news and then for some escape

We may remember 2001 as the year when we learned to appreciate the little things. Like being alive. Spending time with loved ones. Taking vacation at home. And watching TV. Yes, it was a year when Americans stopped taking television for granted. When tragedy struck, we were riveted to our sets. No one had to tell us to be on high alert. Wherever we went, we gravitated to the nearest TV screen for the latest developments. When we needed a respite, TV delivered again, with the most extraordinary menu of entertaining diversions this critic has seen in years. I would gladly stay home for any of the following programs, even in repeats, than be stuck in a movie theater with another over-hyped movie like "Lord of the Rings." (I swear that during those three hours, I aged faster than Bilbo Baggins.) My top 10 of 2001, in no particular order: Coverage of the terrorist attacks. For 72 straight hours, America's broadcast and cable networks set aside their commercials - but rarely their objectivity - to inform and move us in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. From the scrappy ground zero reports of Fox News Channel and MSNBC to the local coverage of New York 1 to the marathon shifts put in by Peter, Tom and Dan, TV responded to the tragedy with professionalism and poise. Kudos to broadcasters who, after taking a billion-dollar bath in lost commercials, didn't ask for a federal bailout. "Six Feet Under." Though an HBO series about the funeral business could have gone any number of deviant directions (undertakers by day, strippers by night!), "American Beauty" creator Alan Ball chose a surprisingly serious approach, using death as a stage for discussing fundamental issues - the essence of relationships, the yearning of the human spirit - that even the best TV dramas try to avoid. Backed by a cast that delivered routinely stunning performances and scripts that were (you might say) dead on, "Six Feet Under" left us feeling gloriously alive. "The Sopranos." This was the ugliest season yet for HBO's heavyweight champ. One woman was raped, another bludgeoned to death against a guardrail. Even poor Meadow, off at college, wound up sleeping with a creep. Some critics have accused "Sopranos" creator David Chase of glorifying mob life, but his cold-blooded assessments of the misogyny that runs rampant through that culture proved otherwise. Season 3 didn't end with a cliffhanger, but that did nothing to stem our impatience for more (there won't be new episodes until September). "24." No new fall series had more riding on it than this techno-thriller. It has lived up to its hype and then some. Though not a perfect show, "24" moves so quickly you'll learn to forgive (and likely forget) its errors. We're only six hours into the most fateful day in the life of federal counter-terrorism agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), so there's plenty of time to catch up. Once you're on board this runaway train, you won't want off. This is a show you'll find yourself discussing with other fans, if only to piece together the dozens of things that happened in the last episode. "Late Show With David Letterman." Last year, after his hour of need, Dave Letterman shared his still-beating heart and won over ours. This year he opened his heart as never before, spilling out his anger and grief over the attacks on his adopted hometown. Audiences embraced Letterman as the cranky but resilient New Yorker we suddenly found endearing. On the eve of his 20th anniversary in late-night television, he's having his best ratings in half a decade. No one tells a better bin Laden joke. "100 Centre St." Before he agreed to this A&E drama about New York's night court system, director Sidney Lumet hadn't worked in television for 40 years. It was like he never left. Thanks to state-of-the-art digital cameras, each scene of "100 Centre St." is charged with the kind of intensity not seen since the old live dramas Lumet used to make. With quiet power, this show depicts how idealism and pragmatism can co-exist in a place where petty crimes are tried at night and high-level corruption walks freely by day. Alan Arkin alone is reason to discover this show. (It airs at 9 Tuesdays on A&E.) "Scrubs." The most ambitious comedy on TV today is this densely packed sitcom about life as a first-year medical intern. "Scrubs" isn't afraid to take on life-and-death issues, albeit briefly, in between frenetic, cartoonlike scenes of slapstick and fantasy sequences. Some of the fantasies work, others don't, but you have to admire a show that tries to do so much in so little time. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." The ingenious three-part resurrection of Buffy Summers would have been ambitious enough for this cult favorite. But then it mounted the musical episode to end all musical episodes - an astonishing revue of lyrical delight and visual enchantment. The best show you're still not watching keeps getting better. "The Bernie Mac Show." Here's one way to create a celebrity sitcom: Find someone who's already a bona-fide star, not just another standup comic with an HBO special. Base the show on one of his most popular routines. And take some chances. The folks behind "The Bernie Mac Show" did all this in creating this offbeat family sitcom, giving their star an unconventional stage to show off his uncommon charms. "Reba." Another way to create a celebrity sitcom: Come up with a sparkling variation on a tried-and-true theme. Make it funny. Then find your celebrity star. That was the approach taken here, as creator Allison Gibson plotted a point in the dysfunction junction somewhere between "Roseanne" and "Married ... With Children." Later, country legend Reba McEntire was recruited to play the embattled mom, which she does with grit and crackle. If I had more space I would also tell you why I watch "Everybody Loves Raymond," "ER," Showtime's "Resurrection Blvd.," HBO's "Project Greenlight," "Boston Public," "The Guardian," "The Tick" and the amazing new National Geographic Channel. But if I did that, I would miss my deadline - and that's one of the little things in life one never takes for granted. To reach Aaron Barnhart, call (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. @ART CAPTION:Dan Rather @ART:Photo (color)

What went on; A hundred highlights from the year that's running out

There were skeptics among us when the smart aleck Preview editor suggested we try to come up with a list of the top 100 moments in local arts and entertainment that occurred in 2001 . "A hundred?" one skeptical critic said. "Did 100 things happen this year?" More than, it turns out. For a city often referred to as a cowtown, there sure was a lot going on, as you'll see here. And this list is by no means comprehensive. As far as the rankings go, we can assure you it's purely scientific. In fact, our formula is twice as complicated as college football's Bowl Championship Series rankings and guaranteed to create only half the controversy. (Or was that half as complicated and guaranteed to create twice the controversy? Math is not the strong suit of very many serious journalists.) We can say, however, that it involved the aforementioned Preview editor locked in a very small room with only three Dixon-Ticonderoga No. 2 lead pencils to be used either for work or for sustenance. His choice. Here we go: 100. THE TRUTH ABOUT ELVIS ARON PRESLEY The flip side of the revelation that Elvis is still alive and being treated for pain by local doctor Donald Hinton: That there are those who far prefer that the King of rock 'n' roll does not come out of hiding and reveal himself to his fans next year, as Hinton predicts. "It's all about money and power and people that are afraid of losing it," Hinton explained about his book, The Truth About Elvis Aron Presley. "There are people out there - very powerful people - who are so angry that the truth is coming out. There are people who have threatened me. Now that this book has come out there have been threats, death threats. Shut this thing down. It's been proven to me that I'm being protected. But it has been very stressful. I would not relive the last five years of my life for any amount of money in the world." H.C. 99. STARLIGHT THEATRE'S SEASON Starlight Theatre didn't quite match the attendance it scored in 2000 with the unveiling of its $10 million stage house and a season kicked off by the national tour of "Miss Saigon." But it began the 2001 season with a bang, by bringing the visually elaborate "Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida" to Kansas City for the first time. R.T. 98. ANN-MARGRET BOMBS AT STARLIGHT THEATRE Lousy reviews preceded Ann-Margret in her touring production of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" at Starlight Theatre. When the show finally arrived, it was clear why: The only thing weaker than her singing voice was her stage presence. The once glamorous movie star spent a lot of time sitting down, while appearing to pose for a closeup that never came. B.M. 97. MARIETTA SIMPSON WITH THE SYMPHONY If there's a single mournful moment that stands out in the entire classical year, it was Marietta Simpson's "Quid sum miser" solo in Verdi's Requiem, performed in May by the Kansas City Symphony and conducted by the Lyric Opera's Ward Holmquist. The American mezzo-soprano touched a nerve so joltingly that she reminded us what a "requiem" is for: It's a chance to mourn lost loved ones. Little did the Symphony know that less than four months later, requiems would become the order of the day. P.J.H. 96. KCTV'S ANSCHUTZ AND CRAMER EXIT Given an offer they couldn't refuse, Wendall Anschutz and Stan Cramer took early retirements from KCTV, Channel 5. So did the station's general manager and sportscaster Jack Harry, but it was Anschutz's departure that marked the end of an era. He was not only Channel 5's anchor for a quarter century but its rock as well. While Cramer was a former PR guy repackaged as Action Stan, Anschutz was a straight-shooting journalist who worked his way to the anchor's desk. He didn't need to be marketed to viewers; they innately trusted him and for years watched him more than anyone else. In the end, Anschutz was able to leave on his own terms - a rare privilege for a rare broadcaster. A.B. 95. REN FEST GOES SMACKDOWN In an anachronistic first at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival, WWF-style wrestling was introduced to the era of King Henry VIII in "The Ultimate Gladiator Show." Why? To stay current, organizers said. Sandal-wearing grapplers went at one another in a sand pit as visiting throngs cheered and booed. The only thing missing: ye old metal folding chairs. B.M. 94. LUCINDA WILLIAMS AT THE UPTOWN Sometime during Lucinda Williams' third-encore performance of a Howlin' Wolf cover you got the sense she just didn't want to quit. Her show at the Uptown Theater in August ended her five-week tour, and Lucinda was in such a mood to celebrate that it seemed her interest in four encores outlasted that of her bandmates - and much of the audience. Or maybe everyone was just tired of the goofy space-cowboy dancing of opener and special guest Jim Lauderdale. Nonetheless, a performance that seemed like it might never end was a refreshing change from shows where bands seem like they can't wait to get the heck out of town. D.F. 93. 'FIDDLER' WILLIAMS AT THE COLEMAN HAWKINS NEIGHBORHOOD JAZZ FESTIVAL Claude "Fiddler" Williams turned 93 in 2001, but he was more often than not the youngest, freshest soloist on the bandstand wherever he was heard. At the Coleman Hawkins Neighborhood Jazz Festival in Topeka in June, he effortlessly cut everybody on the stage without rising from his chair. J.K. 92. KURT ELLING AT THE BLUE ROOM Singer Kurt Elling came to the Blue Room in November and proved you can be charming and innovative at the same time. His recordings have sometimes been wayward, but live he came across with laser focus. You have to love a guy who counts off a dangerously fast tempo to sing David Amram's "Pull My Daisy," with its mouthful of lyrics by Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac. And in the middle of that, he sang a poem by Rilke. J.K. 91. BORDERS ACROSS THE BORDERLINE Borders finally discovered the Missouri side of the Kansas City area, opening a store in Lee's Summit, relieving Jackson County bookhounds of the need to drive to Overland Park or Olathe. J.M.E. 90. 90.9 FM THE BRIDGE The former KCMW-FM in Warrensburg dropped its jazz format for a progressive pop/rock format under the call letters KTBG-FM 90.9 The Bridge that reminds many listeners of KLZR-FM in its heyday. Jon Hart, formerly of KYYS-FM and KCFX-FM, classic rock stations in Kansas City, is KTBG's program director. T.F. 89. BOBBY WATSON AT THE BLUE ROOM Playing on an autumn Saturday night at the Blue Room, saxophonist Bobby Watson told the pianist and bassist to lay out during his "On Green Dolphin Street" solo. With only drummer Tommy Ruskin behind him, Watson's solo reached for the stars and touched them. A perfect moment. J.K. 88. HELICON NINE Kansas City publisher Helicon Nine Editions scored a literary trifecta with its three fall book titles: Daniel Coshnear's short-story collection, Jobs & Other Preoccupations; Patricia Cleary Miller's long poem, Dresden; and Suzanne Rhodenbaugh's poetry collection, Lick of Sense. All three works were superb, even by Helicon's usual exacting standards. J.M.E. 87. SUPERMAN CAN't save Kansas DC Comics blew up Kansas - or at least Topeka - in comic-book stories featuring Superman and Supergirl. The wipeout was part of a nasty-space-aliens-invade-Earth story line, but it wasn't just geographical caprice that put the Sunflower State at doom's door. The aliens were attacking the central points of each continent, explained DC editor Eddie Berganza, "and Topeka is the center of the United States." B.M. 86. ROXY PAINE AT GRAND ARTS The installation, at Grand Arts, of New York artist Roxy Paine's robotic "Painting Manufacture Unit" was a high point of the summer's exhibition offerings. A moving arm, issuing from an elaborate, industrial-looking contraption, offered a dramatic spectacle as it poured copious amounts of white paint onto a static canvas. The luminous white abstractions that resulted from this process - which was carried on over a period of weeks for each piece - possessed such visual allure as to give pause to even the most intransigent advocate of hands-on expression. A.T. 85. KANSAS WINES COMPETE WITH THE BIG GUNS Holy-Field Vineyard and Winery, Basehor, Kan., was invited to the prestigious Jefferson Cup wine competition, held at the Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Va. Its 2000 Vignoles placed in the finalist category. L.C. 84. 'PHANTOM' MENACED BY MUNICIPAL When "Phantom of the Opera" made its third appearance at the Music Hall, patrons were again reminded that the venerable theater in Municipal Auditorium has seen better days. An architectural study commissioned by the city of Kansas City detailed how the Music Hall could be transformed into a state-of-the-art performance facility with all the desired audience amenities for more than $43 million. Whether such an upgrade would compete with or complement the proposed Metropolitan Kansas City Performing Arts Center remains to be seen. R.T. 83. G.I. JOE JUMPS FROM THE HYATT Nearly 200 G.I. Joe action figures with parachutes attached were flung 41 stories from the main-tower rooftop of the Hyatt Regency Crown Center. No casualties were reported. The spectacle kicked off this summer's International G.I. Joe Collectors' Convention in Kansas City. B.M. 82. KEN BURNS' ABBREVIATED 'JAZZ' What's the most enduring memory left by the much-hyped Ken Burns "Jazz" series shown in January on PBS? The memory of all the errors, misleading statements and painful omissions that had Kansas City jazz fans shouting at their televisions. Oh, and there's also the memory of waiting around for the visible upsurge in popularity that the series was supposed to bring the music - we're still waiting. We'll leave the light on for you. J.K. 81. JERRY SEINFELD AT THE MIDLAND Comedian Jerry Seinfeld went back on the road as a standup comedian and stopped at the Midland Theatre in October - his first show in Kansas City in nearly eight years. His all-new routine included several pointed potshots at Osama bin Laden and the crumbling Taliban government. T.F. 80. AMERICAN STRING QUARTET'S 'APPARITIONS' By any standard, a world premiere of a new piece by 45-year-old Iranian-American composer Richard Danielpour is a big deal, and in April the American String Quartet presented "Apparitions," commissioned by the Friends of Chamber Music for its 25th anniversary. Especially moving was "Swan Song," a folk-song-laden homage to his late grandmother, who at the end of her life began singing Persian songs from her childhood. P.H. 79. KC FILMMAKERS ON LOCATION Writer/director Tom Whitus and producer Dennis Fallon shot their thriller "Silence" in Kansas City last summer with a cast that included Kristy Swanson, Bruce Boxleitner, Tony Todd and Vincent Spano. Then, in October, their previous film, "Control," starring Sean Young, got a commercial run at the WestGlen Theatre. Whitus and Fallon say they hope to produce at least one feature film a year right here in River City. More power to them. R.W.B. 78. THE WORLD NOTICES HADACOL In December, Kansas City roots-rocker band Hadacol released "All in Your Head," which drew praise from USA Today and from cryptic rock historian/critic Greil Marcus in his regular salon.com column. T.F. 77. BRUCE ROBISON AT DAVEY'S Folks who don't recognize Bruce Robison aren't alone. In fact, when the songwriter walked in to Davey's, the guy at the door told him, "Five-dollar cover tonight, man." After some explanations ("I'm playing," he said), Robison and two bandmates played their way through the singer's catalog for 30 to 40 folks. The show came at an interesting time for Robison: Just that week Tim McGraw and Faith Hill had taken his song "Angry All the Time" to No. 1, and the Dixie Chicks earlier that week performed his "Travelin' Soldier" on the CMA awards. Robison's low-key approach mixed poignancy and humor, expecially when he sang "My Brother and Me," a stunning tribute to the bonds of brotherly love. After the song he told the crowd, "That's actually the second song I wrote about my brother. The first was called, 'I Didn't Take Your (Frigging) Baseball Glove.' " D.F. 76. 'MACHINAL' at Mo rep Missouri Repertory Theatre patrons got a taste of something completely different with "Machinal," an expressionist play written in the 1920s about a working-class woman driven to murder. Director Risa Brainin gave theatergoers a taste of the avant-garde with her complex, imaginative staging - the clearest evidence to date that the Rep has entered a new era. R.T. 75. SUDDEN CHANGES Robert Barrientos took over control of KKFI-FM, Kansas City's community radio station, which will never be the same. By mid-year some longtime shows were eliminated; others came to a halt when their hosts quit. As the year ended, the internal tumult still was percolating. T.F. 74. O BEAUTIFUL Flutist Herbie Mann came to the Gem Theater on Dec. 8 for a midday benefit to raise awareness of prostate cancer. He played several funky numbers and talked almost as much as he played, including a little patriotic speech. But then came the highlight: He played "America the Beautiful" unaccompanied, with embellishments from the soul. It's easy to talk patriotism, madly difficult to put it across in your art. But this time it worked. - J.K. 73. SO LONG, CHOPPER The Wizards' Chopper the Dragon got the ax last spring after a certain local grocery chain ended its five-year sponsorship of the soccer team's popular-with-wee-ones mascot. Adding to the confusion was the fact that no announcements were made and a virtually identical Green Monster showed up at the team's home opener at Arrowhead sporting the name Dynamo. The Wizards' explanation for the explanationless switcheroo: "Hey, it's not like you guys have articles in The Star telling people how to tell their kids there's no Santa Claus," snapped PR dude Rob Thomson. "What happened when you found out there was no Tooth Fairy? Did you care at all? No." H.C. 72. THEATERS IN THE PARK Two large outdoor community theaters had at least one show that did great. While totals are hard to figure at the free Gladstone Theatre in the Park, most shows average about 2,000 folks. "The Wizard of Oz" July 6-8 did about twice that each night. Meanwhile, attendance overall was down at Theatre in the Park in Johnson County, which executive producer Mike Musick blames mainly on the heat wave that struck in midseason. But "Annie" had a huge first week, accounting for almost 8,000 ticket sales by itself. The season was capped in August by "Evita." W.T. 71. 'A T.REX NAMED SUE' at Union Station "A T. Rex Named Sue" opened to "oohs" and "aahs" at Union Station. The touring replica of the famous dinosaur skeleton from Chicago's Field Museum included teeth 4 to 5 inches long and eye sockets as big as cantaloupes. The exhibit - and the goose bumps - can be experienced through Tuesday. B.M. 70. GOODNIGHT, MAMA Best known for her straitlaced turn as Mama Walton on TV's "The Waltons," actress Michael Learned stripped down to her underwear to get a laugh in the New Theatre Restaurant production of "Social Security." What would John Boy say? B.M. 69. KARIM RASHID,GALLERY OF ART, JOHNSON COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE Because trends tend to originate on the coasts, those of us living in the middle of the country must depend on our curators to give us firsthand contact with what is new, when it's new. Gallery of Art director Bruce Hartman's fall exhibition of works by leading contemporary designer Karim Rashid did just that, introducing the Kansas City audience to the inventor of "blobism's" imaginative, tech-friendly furniture installations and interior schemes and his inventive chairs, tables, stools and housewares. An afternoon talk by Rashid himself put the icing on the cake. A.T. 68. WORLDLY RESTAURANTS, LOCAL INGREDIENTS New for the year: Argentine Piropos in Parkville, The Cuban Corner Cafe in Kansas City, Kan., and quirky Succotash in the River Market, proof that Kansas Citians have adventurous palates. Meanwhile, everything from organic milk to goat cheese and all manner of meat and produce is showing up on restaurant menus, evidence that chefs, diners and local farmers are increasing their collaboration. Some of the farms and products that grace your table: Goatsbeard Farm goat cheese, Campo Lindo chickens, Alma meats, Stover Valley farms produce, Green Hills Harvest milk and Organic Way produce. L.C. 67. LYRIC SCORES The key to making "Tosca" work is to sing it and play it as simply as possible. If the production is fussy, that's OK. The Lyric Opera of Kansas City's version of Puccini's classic, with stage direction by hot American director Thor Steingraber, was lavishly outfitted and lusciously sung. The glue that held it together was Ward Holmquist's capital conducting in the pit. The Lyric had better hold onto this guy. P.H. 66. THE CALL OF BROADWAY Plenty of theatergoers from the Kansas City area made the trek to New York to see the hottest Broadway musical in decades - "The Producers," Mel Brooks' adaptation of his own movie. One group was led by J. Kent Barnhart, director of the Quality Hill Playhouse, and another by Cynthia Levin, artistic director of the Unicorn Theatre. R.T. 65. matchbox twenty/train Professional football canceled all its games; so did Major League baseball. But on Sunday, Sept. 16 - five days after the terrorist attacks - the matchbox twenty/Train concert went on as scheduled at Sandstone Amphitheatre. More than 10,000 people showed up, sang, danced and drank beer as if it were just another day and another show. T.F. 64. FRENCH WITH A FLOURISH The best choral performance this year was that by Les Arts Florissants, who sang liturgical Christmas music by the "French Bach," Marc-Antoine Charpentier. The warm acoustics of Redemptorist Church were a perfect setting for this sensuous music, which affected mind and body so potently that those who weren't Catholic already might have been ready to sign up. P.H. 63. FIRST ANNIVERSARY, THE GALLERY AT VILLAGE SHALOM This project of the Kansas City Jewish Museum celebrated its first anniversary this summer, and with its balancing of fresh, adventurous exhibitions of Kansas City talent like "A House Is Not a Home" and national trends like "Tokyo Pop," of contemporary art from Japan, it's become a significant player in the Kansas City art scene. Santa Fe-based Peter Sarkisian, who presented a video installation at the gallery this past fall, is off to the Whitney Biennial in 2002. Thanks to Village Shalom, Kansas City can say we knew him when. ... A.T. 62. THE PUTDOWN At July's Kansas City Blues and Jazz Festival, trumpeter Arturo Sandoval publicly dissed a representative of a "smooth jazz" radio station. He reportedly said, "I can't stand stations like yours. You shouldn't use 'jazz' in your name, because you're not really a jazz station." And audience members applauded him. Yes, we can handle the truth. J.K. 61. VINTAGE VA-VA-VOOM After years in storage at the University of Kansas, original renderings of WWII-era "Varga Girls" were finally exposed to the public in "Alberto Vargas: The Esquire Pinups" at KU's Spencer Museum of Art. Were the images important pop-culture artifacts? Or just girly pictures? While academics dickered, most visitors just ogled. Proof that sex sells, whether in a men's magazine or in a museum frame. B.M. 60. OUR BOY ELLROY James Ellroy released The Cold Six Thousand, the second novel in his planned trilogy of books delving into the years of assassination in America. The second installment was much more complex than its predecessor, American Tabloid - so much so that some readers felt lost in the labyrinth. For the extremely patient reader, though - not to mention the conspiracy enthusiast - Ellroy fashioned a monumental and disturbing novel. J.M.E. 59. Kansas City Gay & Lesbian Film Festival In only its second year, something curious has happened to the Kansas City Gay & Lesbian Film Festival: It arrived. Not only was attendance strong for the two-week summer fest at the Tivoli Manor Square Theatre, but movie distributors practically begged bookings for their upcoming films. As a result Kansas Citians got early looks at such important titles as "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," "All Over the Guy," "Scouts Honor" and "The Monkey's Mask." R.W.B. 58. THA TRIBE GETS GRAMMY ATTENTION In February the Grammy Awards handed out its first-ever award for Best Native American Music Album. The honor went to "Gathering of Nations Pow Wow," a collection of drum groups from the annual event in Albuquerque, N.M. Among the drum groups on the album was the Lawrence group Tha Tribe. Composed of members from Haskell Indian Nations University and led by Wayne Silas Jr., the group enjoyed its share of the Grammy spotlight. R.F. 57. FILM FORUM SERIES Classic American films have long had a showcase at the Englewood Theatre. But this year the Tivoli Manor Square Theater launched its Film Forum Series in an effort to bring in classic and recent foreign films that otherwise might not get a commercial booking. Initial offerings of the monthly program ranged from Kurosawa's "Ran" to "The Young Girls of Rochefort" and Renoir's "The Golden Coach." R.W.B. 56. ENDURANCE: THE INFORMATION, LEEDY-VOULKOS ART CENTER Kate Hackman, editor of Review and a contributing reviewer to The Star, served as the Kansas City liaison for this exhibit about the history of performance art, curated by Exit Art in New York, where she once worked. Consisting largely of photographic and textual documentation and including a well-chosen video program, the exhibit chronicled nearly a century's worth of artists who used their bodies as "art media," subjecting themselves to all manner of physical stresses and dangers as a way of expressing their responses to war, sexism, racism and other charged issues. A.T. 55. IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KINGS The audience numbered only a few hundred, but the faithful who came to the Madrid Theatre on Nov. 27 were treated to one of the great rock concerts of the year. The band was King Crimson, and the standard-bearers of crunch-rock virtuosity had a great night, exceeding even their own exacting musical benchmarks. Some folks consider "art-rock" to be a contradiction in terms. Most of them, though, haven't spent an evening being ground into powder by Robert Fripp's relentless guitar. These guys ain't no Yes men; they tear it up. Crimson crush! J.M.E. 54. SHIRTLESS AT SANDSTONE The days of streaking may be long gone. Not that it hasn't been replaced by other warm weather pastimes. Take the epidemic of women flashing their breasts on the giant TV screens at Sandstone. Bonner Springs police say it's difficult to come up with a deterrent, outside of the $300 in possible fines. "You can't really pick 'em out before they do it, you know what I mean?" explained police Lt. George Collins. "I mean, you have your suspicions." In fact, it nearly happened during a Chiefs preseason game at Arrowhead last summer. Some fans say it did. "I saw a woman pull down her top" while her image was being projected on the scoreboard screens," said Chiefs fan Cheryl Collins. "But she had a red bra on." H.C. 53. HIGH VOLTAGE On a summer Saturday night the Greg Osby Quartet lit up the Blue Room with the most urgent set of jazz in recent memory. The saxophonist's band played nonstop for an hour, improvising links between the songs. Osby was on, a fount of ideas and inventions. In the middle of that hour, pianist Jason Moran provided an astonishing, multidimensional solo on Thelonious Monk's "Nutty." J.K. 52. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WALT More than 35,000 persons from around the world came to Marceline, Mo., this fall to participate in Walt Disney's Hometown 100th Birthday Celebration. The event emphasized Disney's boyhood in Marceline and the small-town ideals that informed much of the great showman's outlook. R.W.B. 51. THE GAME OF LIFE Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin got her love for writing, baseball and storytelling at an early age. While her father was at work, her mission was to listen to the Dodgers' game on the radio, write down everything that happened and recount the action to her father after he got home. That lovely anecdote capped a moving lecture on history and American presidents that Goodwin delivered March 16 to a spellbound breakfast audience at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. S.P. 50. 'THE DISH' RULES Take that, big markets! In a four-month run earlier this year at the Tivoli Manor Square, the Australian comedy "The Dish" sold more than $71,000 in tickets - making Kansas City the most profitable booking the film enjoyed anywhere in the United States. R.W.B. 49. MISSION DRUMS SHOW Drum corps enthusiasts packed Haskell Indian Nations Stadium on July 17 to see the defending co-national champions the Cavaliers outpoint the Phantom Regiment and five other corps in the Mission Drums 2001 show. The Cavaliers' ranks included local musicians Greg Hahn of Blue Springs and Miles Barr of Independence. The corps eventually won the PBS-televised national title competition in Buffalo, N.Y. W.T. 48. EVAPORATED MILK SOCIETY Kansas City saw the emergence of an avant-garde theater troupe, the Evaporated Milk Society, whose members made an immediate impact in June with "Sabbattai: A Dance Pseudepigrapha" at its intimate performance space on 18th Street. In May the group presented a series of performances in public spaces involving stilt-walking and clowning. Currently it's working on what will certainly be an unconventional approach to "Hamlet." R.T. 47. THE NEW GLENWOOD Kansas City proves once again that it's a hotbed of foreign and independent film with the announcement that the old Metcalf Theatre on 95th Street will reopen as the three-screen new Glenwood. The name was appropriated from the Overland Park movie palace torn down last year; a controversy immediately erupted over who has the right to the Glenwood name. Nevertheless, we're getting three more art screens. R.W.B. 46. TECH N9NE GOT HIS RECORD OUT After years of delays, disruptions and heartbreak, Kansas City rapper Tech N9ne released "AngHellic," his first full-length major-label album. Heavy promotion, including provocative billboards in his hometown, helped the record sell more than 25,000 copies nationally its first week - good enough to land at No. 54 on the Billboard charts. T.F. 45. GENERATIONS One of the most innovative things that the newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble has ever pulled off was "Regenerations" in March, a program of composers of four pedagogical generations. The centerpiece was a chamber version of "Sparkle" by Chen Yi, UMKC Conservatory's award-winning composer, who also this year won the composing world's most prestigious prize, the Charles Ives Living Award. But then we got "Spirit of Chimes" by Chen Yi's husband, Zhou Long, as well as "Windswept Peaks" by Chou Wen-chung (who taught both of them at Columbia University) and a fine performance of "Octandre" by his teacher, the great Edgard Varese. All this was topped off by a world premiere by Kohei Mukai, one of Chen Yi's students. The surprise? That not one piece sounded anything like any of the others. P.H. 44. QUOTHE THE MAYOR: 'NEVERMORE' Mayor Kay Barnes took to the podium for a reason other than politics at the "24-Hour Poe-a-thon" at the Just Off Broadway Theater in Penn Valley Park. The Halloween-related event featured around-the-clock readers of Edgar Allan Poe's horror-laden prose and poetry, including Barnes reading "The Raven" while a sinister Poe impersonator looked on. B.M. 43. VOCALLY ENDOWED Mirror, mirror in the concert hall, who's the fairest baritone of them all? In January a handful of Kansas Citians had the rare fortune of hearing Matthias Goerne at Yardley Hall, and at least they went out converted. While Dmitri Hvorostovsky's voice might seduce you with a double-milk-chocolate-with-heavy-cream, Goerne's supervoice wins you over not just with sumptuous tone but also with the kind of fiber and intelligence that attracted us to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau a generation ago. Goerne's program of fairly obscure Schumann songs was Kansas City's best vocal moment of the year. P.J.H. 42. Laugh-O-gram restoration After eight years of planning and fund-raising, restoration began this year on the "Laugh-O-gram" building at 31st and Forrest. That's where young Walt Disney operated his first animation studio. When completed (probably in 2003) the building will have a working animation studio, museum and small movie theater - and could become one of our biggest tourist attractions. R.W.B. 41. RETURN OF THE 'BLUE DEVILS' "The Last of the Blue Devils," the seminal 1980 documentary about Kansas City jazz, was released this year on DVD with the inclusion of several never-before-seen numbers by Big Joe Turner and Jay McShann. Even though Kansas Citians are largely indifferent to their jazz heritage, the "Blue Devils" DVD promised to carry the message around the world. R.W.B. 40. THE STROKES AT THE GRANADA Ultimately, the Strokes may be more New York derivative than post-modern cool, but at least they're quick about it. The band's November show at Lawrence's Granada clocked in at just over 45 minutes. And while skeptics looking for a duplication of Nirvana's near-mythic 1989 show at Lawrence's Outhouse may have shrugged their shoulders, naysayers joined the true believers in wanting more. D.F. 39. 'LATE NIGHT' NOMADS Many thought that the old Chelsea Theatre - an X-rated movie house for decades - was the ideal home for Late Night Theatre, the troupe founded by Ron Megee to stage original send-ups of such films as "The Valley of the Dolls" and "The Stepford Wives." But the Late Night gang gave their final performance at the Old Chelsea, which was slated for the wrecking ball, on Sept. 10. Megee plans to stay in the River Market area. R.T. 38. Filmmakers' JUBILEE Recognition continued to build in the independent film industry for the Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee, a weeklong festival of independent cinema from Kansas City, the United States and the world. One way to gauge its growing importance is to look at the films that were shown well in advance of their national release: Richard Linklater's animated "Waking Life," Alex Nohe's documentary "The Burning Sensation" and Jim McKay's teen drama "Our Song," for starters. R.W.B. 37. "FULL FRONTAL," JAN WEINER GALLERY Looking at issues of what is normal, what is beautiful and who is a worthy subject for portraiture, the contemporary photography exhibit, "Full Frontal," was an extraordinarily cohesive and conceptually challenging group show for a commercial gallery. Kansas City artist Art Miller assisted Jan Weiner in assembling a provocative array of works by Miller, Zoe Leonard, Andres Serrano, Catherine Opie, Whitney Biennial-bound Julie Moos and others. A.T. 36. HALLMARK CHANNEL DEBUTS It underwent more name changes than Shaquille O'Neal, but in August the cable TV subsidiary of Kansas City-based Hallmark Cards finally settled on the obvious choice, as the Odyssey Network became Hallmark Channel. That was just part of a multimillion-dollar plan to transform the channel's mishmash lineup into a showcase of first-rate, first-run family entertainment. Surveys show Hallmark Channel has great respect among viewers but so far ratings haven't put it in the Hall of Fame. A.B. 35. MUSICIANS LET FREEDOM RING After Sept. 11, local performers came together to record "Let Freedom Sing: A Kansas City Tribute to the Heroes of September 11, 2001," with proceeds from the album going to Heart to Heart International of Olathe. Heart to Heart then distributed the proceeds to various funds. The album's lineup included Connie Dover, Ida McBeth, Brody Buster, Angela Hagenbach, Buck O'Neil and the children of the New Chelsea Elementary School led by Danny Cox. Producers, performers and organizers donated their time to the worthy project. R.F. 34. TITANIC DOCKS AT UNION STATION On their face, the artifacts didn't appear to be special: spectacles, ceramic dishes, a leather wallet, a Gillette razor wrapper. But the crowds that streamed into "Titanic: The Exhibition" at Union Station wanted to see these and other everyday items because of their unique provenance - they sank along with the "unsinkable" Titanic on April 14, 1912. In all, more than 200 artifacts were displayed, including a 2-ton roller fairlead, used to prevent the ship's mooring lines from becoming tangled during docking. B.M. 33. NEW CHEF AT THE AMERICAN RESTAURANT After seven years, executive chefs Michael Smith and Debbie Gold bid adieu to Kansas City's premiere restaurant. During their tenure, Smith and Gold won a James Beard award for Best Chef Midwest. It was the first time a Kansas City restaurant won the equivalent of the culinary Oscar. In August, executive chef Celina Tio moved from Orlando and Disney World to Kansas City and the American's state-of-the-art kitchen. L.C. 32. "AGAINST DESIGN," KEMPER MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART The furniture artworks in "Against Design" may not have been the popular hit that Liza Lou's "Beaded Kitchen" was several years back, but it was an important exhibition for the Kemper Museum to bring to Kansas City. Highlighting the ongoing crossbreeding occurring in the fields of art, architecture and design, "Against Design" explored a trend that is still evolving. There's a lesson here, as in all the top shows of the year: Curators, don't always show us what you like, what your major benefactors like, what you think we, your audience, will like. Show us what we need to know - the art that is defining our times. The new can be tough, but kudos to the Kemper for putting being informed ahead of being entertained. A.T. 31. ARTISTS DESIGNATE 'COW FREE ZONES' Shortly after the painted cows began cropping up in parks, plazas and shopping districts, some galleries and art-based businesses began posting fluorescent orange posters proclaiming "This is a Cow Free Zone." Designed by Kansas City artist Larry Buechel, the posters gave vent to the feelings of many serious artists who boycotted the project, that painting cows was not a worthy or productive way of spending their time. The "Cow Free Zone" gesture was misconstrued by many as an assault on those who did participate in and enjoy the cows. In fact, it was aimed at the CowParade organizers and their assumption that serious artists would jump at the chance to execute an unoriginal idea that artists had no voice in formulating. A.T. 30. HOLD THAT APPLAUSE The Moscow State Symphony's impassioned performance of the first movement of Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony at Carlsen Center was followed by ... silence. Ahhh. Instead of applauding between movements, as Yardley Hall audiences are prone to do, they held out through all four movements - abstaining even after the raucous third movement that usually draws a smattering of applause. The same was true for Shostakovich's noisy Sixth Symphony. What made the difference? It's simple: a note in the program requested that everyone hold their applause. Hey, presenters, if it's that easy, why not include that in every program? P.H. 29. THE KANSAS CITY FILM OFFICE Despite having attracted more than $80 million in feature film, TV and commercial production to this area in the last seven years, the Kansas City Film Office faced extinction last January when its city funding dried up. Only public outcry and a scramble to collect unspent city money gave the unit a reprieve - but not before longtime director Patti Watkins, above, left in protest. Today the Film Office is still running, but in a hand-to-mouth manner that might tell Hollywood we're really not all that interested in their business. R.W.B. 28. HOLLAND'S HIGH NOTES On March 24 the Dave Holland Quintet played two brilliant sets at the Folly Theater. The bassist-bandleader wore a broad smile through most of the evening, because vibraphonist Steve Nelson, sax man Chris Potter, trombonist Robin Eubanks and drummer Billy Kilson were all in top form. Their solos glowed, and their interaction was exactly what it's all about. Too bad the theater was only half full. J.K. 27. SEPT. 11 FUND-RAISING Although 1,500 miles from New York City, local restaurateurs felt compelled to participate in charity fund-raising. The Avelluto family cooked family-style dinners at Cafe Italia for families of friends and relatives who perished in the World Trade Center collapse. The American Restaurant's Windows of Hope dinner on Oct. 11 netted $18,000. The KCIRA gave $4,000 to the local chapter of the Red Cross after their Madrid Theatre event. A multi-restaurant cocktail party at Lidia's raised $5,000. Individual restaurants, including Cafe Allegro, Hannah Bistro Cafe and Jasper's, donated proceeds from their Oct. 11 dinner receipts to the Windows of Hope fund. L.C. 26. OFF THE AIR Jazz has slowly been squeezed off the radio in the Kansas City area these last few years, and the squeeze got a lot tighter in August when KCMW-FM eliminated jazz from its programming. The listener-supported station said the jazz audience simply wasn't providing enough financial support. So now we get our jazz radio from KANU-FM (91.5) in Lawrence at night, and a midday dollop from KKFI-FM (90.1) - all very nice, if you can listen at those hours. But for the possibility of hearing jazz on the radio any time of day again, we're waiting for affordable satellite radio. J.K 25. KANSAS CITY FLATFILE Twice in the last year H&R Block Artspace director Raechell Smith invited Kansas City artists to contribute works to a "Kansas City Flatfile" exhibit. Well more than 100 artists put work in the two shows, each housed in a big metal flatfile with drawers of art viewers were invited to peruse. Although the exhibits did not pretend to be comprehensive, each offered a great one-stop for seeing a broad cross section of Kansas City talent. The concept has been a popular one, but Smith wants to keep it fresh. She plans to do a Kansas City Flatfile exhibit at the Block Artspace every other year. A.T. 24. 'DAVID FORD MEMORIES OF AN ALTERNATIVE PAST,' DIRT GALLERY David Ford's 10-year retrospective at the Dirt Gallery, curated by artists Davin Watne and Leo Esquivel, offered an eye-opening overview of this popular Kansas City artist, winner of a 2001 Charlotte Street Fund Award. Its collection of passionate, philosophical, provocative works, fired with Ford's particular brand of caustic generosity, established once and for all that Ford, though self-taught, is no naive "outsider artist" as some have been prone to cast him. He is a deliberate and intelligent commentator on the human condition. A.T. 23. ANGELA HAGENBACH HITS THE NATIONAL CHARTS In March hometown jazz vocalist Angela Hagenbach met with national success with her album "Weaver of Dreams," which covered styles from straight-ahead to Latin. The album reached into the top 10 on the Gavin Report jazz chart. R.F. 22. 'CARRIE MAE WEEMS: THE HAMPTON PROJECT,' NELSON-ATKINS MUSEUM OF ART Credit Jan Schall, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art's new curator of modern and contemporary art, for dragging the Nelson kicking and screaming into conceptual territory pioneered in the 1980s and '90s. Introducing the Nelson's audience to past and present perspectives on racial issues and the tactics and techniques of postmodernism in art, the exhibit, "Carrie Mae Weems: The Hampton Project," presented by Schall's department, offers a frank assessment of education as inculcation. Organized by the Williams College Museum of Art in Williamstown, Mass., Weems' "The Hampton Project" was the most powerful museum exhibition to be presented in Kansas City all year. A.T. 21. BACK UNDER A ROOF U2's first indoor show in Kansas City since 1987 was one of the biggest concert events of 2001. T.F. 20. KARRIN ALLYSON RETURNS One of the joys of following a musician over the long haul is watching them grow and change and explore before your very eyes and ears. Singer Karrin Allyson, fresh off the success of her album devoted to ballads embraced by saxophonist John Coltrane, made a return visit to the Blue Room in December. She took the occasion to try out great swaths of new material. Bobby Timmons' "Moanin' " and numbers by Charles Mingus and even Joni Mitchell ("Blue Motel Room") had the joint - and her longtime side band of Kansas City players - jumping. S.P. 19. PAT MARTINO AT THE 12TH STREET RAG ROOM When Pat Martino came to town in November, area working guitarists canceled gigs or drove from out-of-town bookings on a night off to catch Martino with pianist James Ridl in performance at the 12th Street Rag Room at the Downtown Marriott. It didn't matter if it meant losing a night's pay or having to make a long drive back that same night, guitarists of every stripe were drawn like bears to honey to catch Martino's two-night engagement Nov. 4 and 5. R.F. 18. THE KANSAS CITY INDEPENDENT RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION After years of watching big, out-of-town chains move into our town, Kansas City's independent restaurants took action. They formed a 19-member association, the Kansas City Independent Restaurant Association (KCIRA) designed to increase their profile in the community. They pool advertising dollars, do community fund-raising and share marketing ideas. Among the members: Cafe Sebastienne, Le Fou Frog, the Stolen Grill, Honeymom's, the Grille on Broadway and Zin. In October the local chapter joined the national association and changed its names to the Kansas City Originals. L.C. 17. ALL THE PRETTY BEETHOVENS AND BARTOKS The Friends of Chamber Music is a national treasure that happens to live in Kansas City. During 2001 they brought us the Orion String Quartet playing all 16 Beethoven quartets and the Takacs Quartet doing all six Bartoks. Both experiences were bracing, exhausting, exhilarating. All seven challenging programs helped affirm the continuous energy that "old masterpieces" have to refresh and renew us, century after century. P.J.H. 16. 'BLACK TUESDAY' Members of the New York-based American Ballet Theatre watched the events of Sept. 11 unfold on TV, in a Kansas City hotel room. Having already arrived in town for a Harriman Arts Program performance that evening, they agonized all day about whether to go forward with the show. In the midst of discussions everyone suddenly realized - with a distinct chill - that the centerpiece of the program they'd brought was "Black Tuesday," Paul Taylor's new piece about Depression-era New York. More than coincidence? The audience, still in a state of shock, listened in awe as the background music to the Taylor's powerful choreography chimed along: "Once I built a tower, now it's done ... / Brother, can you spare a dime?" P.J.H. 15. APES ON THE LOOSE The wild ones known as Gorilla Theatre took their annual springtime sunrise Greek show to new heights this year. The troupe staged Euripedes' "Trojan Woman" in the Brush Creek amphitheater at Theis Mall. It was an ambitious production that played to bigger-than-ever audiences, carrying the flag for literature of the ages and stagecraft by and for the people. S.P. 14. HOUSE OF BLUES PROMOTIONS OPENS Local promoter Jeff Fortier shut down Avalanche Promotions in Lawrence and hooked up with House of Blues Inc., a national concern that provides more than just cursory competition to Clear Channel Entertainment. T.F. 13. STADIUM INVASION In July, 'N Sync put on the music extravaganza of the year: a two-hour concert at Arrowhead that was loaded with lights, props, gags, gimmicks and special effects (and some music). Attendance: around 45,000. T.F. 12. TERRY'S LITTLE TEMPEST It was attended by only a few dozen people, but author Terry Tempest Williams' appearance this fall was the most important and rewarding author appearance of the year. Why? Williams chose not to hype her new environmental book, Red, but rather use her event as a forum for healing in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. Emotionally evocative, cathartic and very intelligent, Williams' self-styled town meeting addressed a crucial point: The responsibility of the arts to grapple with the difficult events of a changing world. J.M.E. 11. 2001 AVENUE OF THE ARTS This summer marked the second installment of the "Avenue of the Arts," an outdoor exhibition of temporary art installations by Kansas City artists along Central Street downtown. Lightworks by Jim Woodfill, sculptural cutouts by Andrew Wells, a veritable city of little colored concrete houses by Martin Cail, street sign "portraits" by Davin Watne, a totemic orange paint mixer turned growing machine by Json Myers and May Tveit's addition of pastel curtains to the exterior windows of the Centennial Building made for a lively, thought-provoking public art display, sponsored by the Avenue of the Arts Foundation and Kansas City's one percent for art program. A.T. 10. AVIATION EXPO 2001 Absolutely nothing in the city this summer drew as many people to one place as the Aviation Expo 2001 at the Downtown Airport Aug. 18 and19. The Blue Angels teased the show that week with practice runs over downtown Kansas City. That weekend had perfect weather, and the crush of 200,000 folks the first day was too much for shuttle buses to keep up with. The next day it was hard to find a block downtown with any kind of a view that did not have pockets of people looking to the skies. W.T. 9. PUDDLE OF MUDD HITS MTV Kansas City native Wes Scantlin appeared on "Total Request Live," MTV's after-school 1,000-pound gorilla, to push the first video for "Come Clean," Puddle of Mudd's debut record. Appearing with Scantlin: Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst, who signed Puddle to his record label, Flawless. By year's end, "Come Clean" was headed toward platinum status (1 million sold) and was still in Billboard magazine's Top 50. T.F. 8. HALFWAY TO HOLLYWOOD Few infant film festivals are as ambitious as last summer's first edition of the Halfway to Hollywood Film Festival. The event offered nearly two weeks of ambitious programming, including retrospectives of the work of Stanley Kubrick and Stan Brakhage, and the KC premieres of "Songcatcher," "Startup.com," "The Anniversary Party" and the original mockumentary, "C.S.A." Organizers also showed a series of classic '50s sci-fi films and brought Gort, the robot from the sci-fi classic "The Day the Earth Stood Still," to the Englewood Theatre. R.W.B. 7. MADRID THEATRE OPENS Midtown got a handsome, mid-size music and entertainment venue - a tastefully renovated movie theater - much to the chagrin of residents, who don't appreciate the extra crowds or traffic. T.F. 6. IOUDENITCH WINS VAN CLIBURN It's not whether you win or lose - as long as you win. One of two gold medalists at the world's most prestigious piano competition in June, the Van Cliburn Competition, was Johnson County resident Stanislav Ioudenitch, who grew up in Uzbekistan but now belongs to us. His subsequent local performances - a recital at White Hall, the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the Kansas City Symphony - have encapsulated his artistry: dense, subtle, difficult to second-guess. Go, Stan the man! P.J.H. 5. WHITNEY TERRELL'S THE HUNTSMAN 5. Whitney Terrell's first novel, The Huntsman, fearlessly took on the subject no one likes to discuss: the racial divide in Kansas City. Terrell, a Kansas City native who still lives here, managed to write a topical book that still succeeded as fiction, and also evoked, with canny accuracy, the city of his birth and its ongoing tensions. For his efforts, Terrell was rewarded with national recognition: The Huntsman was reviewed not only in The Kansas City Star but also in major media outlets such as The New York Times Book Review. Both The Star and The New York Times named the book one of the year's most distinguished titles. J.M.E. 4. 'THE LARAMIE PROJECT The Unicorn Theatre underscored its importance to the cultural community with its season-opener, "The Laramie Project." The hard-hitting docu-drama examined the aftermath of the beating death of Matthew Shepard, a gay university student, in Laramie, Wyo. The Unicorn also experienced a first for the midtown venue - picketers. The Rev. Fred Phelps, a Topeka minister and anti-gay yahoo, brought a handful of protesters to show their disapproval of the show and its portrayal of Phelps. D.F., R.T. and B.M. 3. STRAVINSKY FESTIVAL 2001 Rarely have local arts organizations worked in such harmony as during the 10-week orgy of music, dance and gab about Igor Stravinsky. Highlighting the festival was the Lyric Opera of Kansas City's first-class production of the composer's "The Rake's Progress," the Kansas City Symphony's powerful performances of "Song of the Nightingale," "Oedipus Rex" and "The Rite of Spring," the Kansas City Ballet's re-creation of the original Balanchine/Stravinsky "Renard" and pianist Stanislav Ioudenitch's stellar rendering of the Three Scenes from Petrushka. By the end of it all, we really did believe that Stravinsky was the most important composer of the 20th century. P.H. 2. COWPARADE This frivolous but fun event was wildly popular with tourists and Kansas City residents, who spent much of the summer trekking all over the city to take photographs of themselves and family members posing with decoratively painted fiberglass cows. Though its value as "art" was somewhere between arts and crafts, it nonetheless piqued interest in public art, inspired people to actually walk around the city and sparked debates in this town about art and public spaces. D.F. 1. We readily admit it seems more than a little ridiculous to co-opt a national tragedy for a list of the year's moments in entertainment, but then again, that might be the point. A year ago, we could have put something as silly as CowParade atop this list and thought nothing of it. Now, without becoming too maudlin, it just doesn't seem right. Sept. 11 altered not only our political world but also our very ideas of what constituted good or bad taste, what made for suitable entertainment and what did not, what was funny and what was simply too horrible to be fodder for our amusement. And while the arts and entertainment industry was not rocked as hard as the airline and travel industries, it was affected. The magnitude of the attacks swept late-night talk shows off the air for a week. When David Letterman did come back, viewers were shocked: The man who always had a joke for everything was angry, somber and holding back tears. Letterman turned his show into a vigil for the victims - and for us all. In Kansas City, the Lyric Opera preceded its performance of "The Magic Flute" with "The Star-Spangled Banner." The New York-based American Ballet Theatre, already in town Sept. 11, went ahead and performed Paul Taylor's "Black Tuesday," a piece about Depression-era NYC. Some film prints did not arrive on time. Several author appearances fell by the wayside, with writers unable to get here because of the airlines shutdown. Fiesta Hispana was postponed. But the arts always persevere - even when the show doesn't go on right away. The latest edition of New Letters, the literary journal published at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, features three "essays on hope, in the aftermath of 9/11." The arts - and the art of hope - endure. -John Mark Eberhart/The Star THE CONTRIBUTORS The list was put together with the help of the following Star staff members: Aaron Barnhart, television critic Robert W. Butler, movie editor Lauren Chapin, restaurant critic Sharon Chapman, staff writer Hearne Christopher, FYI columnist John Mark Eberhart, books editor Timothy Finn, pop music writer Robert Folsom, staff writer David Frese, Preview editor Paul Horsley, classical music critic Joe Klopus, jazz columnist Brian McTavish, staff writer Steve Paul, senior writer Alice Thorson, art critic Ward Triplett, Showtime page editor Robert Trussell, theater critic @ART CAPTION:U2's Bono and The Edge perform during the group's show at Kemper earlier this year. @ART CREDIT:WHITNEY CURTIS/The Kansas City Star @ART CAPTION:Starlight opened its season with "Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida." @ART CAPTION:Artist Roxy Paine and his 'Painting Manufacture Unit' @ART CAPTION:Kate Goehring starred in the Missouri Rep's production of "Machinal." @ART CAPTION:Tom Long (from left), Patrick Warburton, Sam Neill and Kevin Harrington star in "The Dish." @ART CAPTION:The Strokes @ART CAPTION:Karrin Allyson @ART CAPTION:Michael Smith was one of eight actors who played multiple characters in the Unicorn's "The Laramie Project." @ART CAPTION:Json Myers' "Faith" was part of the 2001 Avenue of the Arts outdoor installations along Central Street downtown. @ART CAPTION:Thousands of visitors came to town to see "Dorothy" and the other CowParade cows this summer. @ART CAPTION:The World Trade Center towers @ART CREDIT:File photos @ART CAPTION:Derek Stone (left) and James Grizzle wrestled at this year's Renaissance Festival. @ART CREDIT:RICH SUGG/The Kansas City Star @ART CAPTION:Ann-Margret; Williams; Seinfeld; Learned in 'Social Security'; Ellroy; King Crimson; Terrell @ART:Photos (23, color and b/w, 4 uncaptioned) @ART CAPTION:On the cover @ART:Graphic (color) @ART CREDIT:Cover design by HECTOR CASANOVA/The Kansas City Star

'Twas the Night'is a season treat from HBO

Twas the week before Christmas When we prematurely Unwrapped our new TiVos For Christmas comes early To the land of TV shows As you'll see in what follows! If you loved HBO's adaptation of the children's book Goodnight Moon, you'll probably get a kick out of "Twas the Night," a new special celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. The special, airing at 6:30 tonight on HBO, repackages tidings from entertainers past (Louis Armstrong, for instance, reading "A Visit From St. Nicholas," and Nat King Cole singing "The Christmas Song") and present (Los Lobos, whose members once complained that covering "La Bamba" nearly ruined them, are heard covering "Feliz Navidad"). The soundtrack is artfully matched with drawings from Grandma Moses that seem to move, thanks to the miracle of animation. In between songs, incredibly cute kids talk about what this time of year means to them. CBS seems determined to tug at our heartstrings this week with two programs on foster children. "A Home for the Holidays" (7 p.m. Friday, Channel 5), the network's annual adoption appeal, features Mariah Carey and other musical performers, while "The Sons of Mistletoe" (8 p.m. Wednesday, Channel 5), stars TV angel Roma Downey as a woman who inherits a foster home after her father dies. "Everybody Loves Raymond" mom Doris Roberts plays, no fooling, the local sheriff. There's nothing heartwarming about "12 Tiny Christmas Tales," a devilishly funny program from the mind of cartoonist Bill Plympton. It had its premiere earlier this month on Cartoon Network and is re-airing at 7:30 p.m. Friday. From the seemingly innocent premise of Grandma reading holiday stories to the kiddies, Plympton spins a web of wonderfully weird visions: Blitzen going off to Las Vegas, a snowflake that terrorizes a village, an ugly tie that yearns to become someone's gift. They aren't "tales" so much as 60-second impressions, and much of their humor comes from the minimalist, whimsical drawings by Plympton set into motion. Cartoon Network also is airing one more repeat of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" at 6 tonight. Among public TV's numerous specials are the annual "St. Olaf Christmas Festival" (9 p.m. Tuesday, KCPT, Channel 19) and "Nutcracker Swing" (8 p.m. Wednesday, KCPT), a "Live From Lincoln Center" encounter between the New York Philharmonic and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra in a performance of a classic arrangement by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. Finally, one last cartoon: "Santa, Baby!" (7 tonight, Fox, Channel 4) features the voices of Gregory Hines, Patti LaBelle and Vanessa Williams in a special based on the 1953 Eartha Kitt single. Listen for a new version of the song sung by Kitt, LaBelle and Williams. Heard enough inspiring stories about those who showed courage during the World Trade Center attacks? Me neither. Combine that with our innate love for animal stories and you get "Tales From Ground Zero," an Animal Planet special airing at 9 tonight. Though I didn't see a preview tape, I recognized some of the stories as having been covered previously by TV news, such as the "therapy dogs" who help survivors deal with grief and the rescue dogs who spend hours each day sniffing through the rubble. Still, the critter channel always has a unique way of telling its tales. Time Warner Cable is changing channels again. On Tuesday the area's dominant cable provider will add seven, including the National Geographic Channel, which features a nightly science-news program in addition to years of programming from the famed National Geographic library. Also being added: HGTV spinoff DIY (as in "do it yourself"), VH1 Classic, Nick Gas and the West Coast feeds of three additional Showtime channels (Next, Women and Family Zone). To accommodate the additions, some premium channels will be moved to new locations on Time Warner's digital lineup. To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com.

Early early show adds to KCTV makeover

"Good morning, it is - yes, it is - 4:30 a.m.," a chuckling Bob Thill says to the camera. It's Day 3 at Kansas City's new early riser, KCTV, Channel 5, which launched a 4:30 a.m. newscast Monday, beating the sunrise by three hours and its competitors by 30 minutes in the red-hot morning TV derby.

Brian Curtis and Carolyn Long are the official anchors, but Curtis shrewdly arranged to take the rest of the week off after just two shifts of 4:30 duty. So on this day it's weekend anchor Thill who had to roll out of bed at 2 a.m. to join Long, weatherman Bruce Thomas and reporter Heather Staggers for their lonely 2 1/2-hour news vigil.

Brisk and professional, they smile and banter and repeat the same headlines over and over, in between last night's sports report and other taped features. Every 10 minutes or so, cameraman Mike Fox maneuvers his dolly a few feet over to the "WeatherCenter," which is actually a tiny green-walled alcove where Thomas delivers 19 weather reports each morning.

It was only six weeks ago that KCTV's new general manager Kirk Black revived the station's 5 a.m. newscast - and almost immediately the station's ratings rose, with ripple effects being felt all the way to 7 a.m.

Looking closer at the ratings report, Black saw something that fascinated him: Nearly as many Kansas Citians were up at 4:30 a.m. watching TV as there were at 5 a.m. It was then that Black remembered which bird got the worm and decided to go after what he calls "the next great frontier in morning news."

The first hour of this day's show hums along without incident - no one so much as yawns off-camera - though there are a couple moments of late-night comedy. After Thomas opens a segment by declaring, "It's cloudy out there!" viewers are treated to a live shot of a nearly pitch-black KCI Airport. It's a visual worthy of an old George Carlin routine ("the forecast for tonight: dark"). Later, the other cameraman, Jeff Bailey, changes the backdrop to a sun-streaked skyline. This gets a laugh backstage because sunrise is at 7:29. The show's over at 7.

Thomas claims to be wearing extra makeup over his tired eyelids. Yet there's a spring in his step as he waltzes over to his weather pod. As well there should be: The former Waco, Texas, weathercaster, hired in 1998 for his expertise in Doppler radar, was just promoted from weekends to chief morning meteorologist.

Also from weekends is Long, who replaces Valissa Smith (she and meteorologist Gary Amble have been reassigned). Long says the sleep adjustment has been harder than she thought it would be. The problem is that she lies awake at night, mentally preparing for next day's show. "There's so much adrenaline," she says.

Now there's a word some people never thought they'd hear a Channel 5 employee utter. The CBS affiliate has been long known as a "country club" for its cushy, high-paying positions and solid, steady, perhaps complacent leadership. Then came the shake-up - early retirement offers this summer, followed by the surprise ouster of program director Peter Barrett in October.

Now KCTV has new management, new top talent and, it seems, new attitude. Observers both inside and outside the station agree: It's about time. Though it's been a solid No. 2 overall, Channel 5's appeal has been in steady decline with younger viewers, the kind advertisers often pay through the nose to reach. KCTV ranks third in these viewer groups behind market leader KMBC, Channel 9, and WDAF, Channel 4.

Already there had been bold moves, such as replacing retired anchor Wendall Anschutz with political reporter Dave Helling and appointing Krista Klaus to fill consumer reporter Stan Cramer's sizable shoes. But the 4:30 a.m. decision was the first one that general manager Black had not had to make out of necessity. To make it happen, he and news director Don North overhauled KCTV's early news format. Now the emphasis is on local coverage, with traffic and weather "on the 5's," similar to the competition. Channel 5 can't afford to buy a helicopter, so executive producer Alvie Cater will compensate by expanding the network of live City Cams.

He'll also hire a traffic personality, whom he describes as a sort of Johnny Rowlands without wings. Channels 4 and 9 have no plans to move back their 5 a.m. start time for news. So for now, it's Channel 5 when you need to know what it's like outside at 4:45 a.m. Besides, of course, dark.

**In other local news...**

In the November sweeps period, KMBC's Larry Moore and Lara Moritz outrated KCTV's Helling and Dee Griffin at 10 p.m. though the margin has narrowed since last year. Both stations lost viewers, but Channel 9 lost more of them. In late night, "Seinfeld" repeats on KMBC were the most popular late-night choice. "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" on fourth-place KSHB, Channel 41, scored a rare win over "Late Show With David Letterman" on KCTV. WDAF's newscast dominated KCTV's at noon. At 5 and 6 p.m., it was channels 9, 5, 4 and 41, respectively, as usual, in total viewers. The most watched program between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays was "Jeopardy!"

Channels 4 and 9 have their news choppers back in the air after post-Sept. 11 government restrictions were eased. Helicopters are still prohibited from flying over stadiums or hovering generally. "We wish the limitations were all lifted," said WDAF general manager Stan Knott, "but it's a public safety issue and we understand." To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com.

'Confidential' does justice to Harvey

This week jazz musician Stephen L. Harvey will achieve in death something he came tantalizingly close to doing in his lifetime - being seen by a national audience. Twenty-one years after the 27-year-old saxophonist was found murdered near the Liberty Memorial, Harvey's story is told in a moving and engrossing edition of the A&E series "City Confidential." The one-hour program airs at 9 p.m. Wednesday on A&E. David Wallach, a former WDAF-TV reporter who produced the show for A&E, interviewed many of those who were close to Harvey, including his wife, Rhea, and daughter Hope; fellow musicians Mark Pender, David Basse and Ida McBeth; and Alvin Sykes, who, along with Harvey's family, undertook a lonely fight to have the killer brought to justice. "City Confidential" is an unusual hybrid of travelogue and true crime. Thus the opening act isn't about Harvey at all; it's about Kansas City then and now; about the jazz scene that stubbornly hung on and gave sustenance to generations of artists and audiences; and about our town's violent streak and racial troubles, which intersected in the early hours of Nov. 5, 1980, not far from the torch that then burned atop Liberty Memorial. Wallach (who makes a cameo appearance early on, pushing a baby stroller) also shows never-before-seen photographs of Harvey performing with Count Basie at a concert at 12th and Vine. He also does a laudable job of explaining the seldom-used federal statute that was used to convict Harvey's killer for hate crimes after an all-white jury had acquitted him of murder. The program sends out mixed messages, one moment touting the American Jazz Museum (although wrongly asserting that Harvey played there), the next moment ridiculing our Cowtown heritage. But Steve Harvey sent out mixed messages, too: In the months leading up to his death, he was splitting his time between Kansas City and New York, a place that seemed better suited to his ambition. I've already raved about HBO's "Project Greenlight," the all-true story of an aspiring screenwriter who wins a contest to make his own million-dollar movie, courtesy of Miramax Films and producers Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. But let me rave a little more - it's that good. In this week's episode, airing at 9 p.m. Sunday on HBO, first-time director and Mizzou grad Pete Jones realizes that the $1 million budget promised to him by Miramax is woefully inadequate for his script. Affleck agrees - and decides to go straight to studio chief Harvey Weinstein to ask for a raise. The consequences play out swiftly and most entertainingly. If you missed last week's "Project Greenlight," it repeats at 10 p.m. Tuesday. Movies: "The Pretender: The Island of the Haunted," the second teleflick to be based on the former NBC series, airs at 7 tonight on TNT, in the show's regular nightly time slot. It's preceded by a 21-hour "Pretender" marathon. My favorite "ER" doc, Laura Innes (the one with the cane), co-stars with the ageless Ruby Dee in "Taking Back Our Town" (8 tonight, Lifetime), based on a true story about two women who fight a corporation they believe is poisoning their air and water supply. And VH1 has assembled another cast of unknowns to make another fictional movie based on the rise and fall of a real-life pop idol. Romany Malco stars, if that is the right word, in "Too Legit: The MC Hammer Story," at 8 p.m. Wednesday. Holiday specials this week: "Everybody Loves Raymond's" Patricia Heaton plays a reporter and Peter Falk plays an angel - this must be CBS - in "A Town Without Christmas," 8 p.m. Sunday on Channel 5. Nickelodeon airs a marathon of its holiday shows beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday. And Tony Bennett and Reba McEntire headline "Christmas in Washington" at 7 p.m. Sunday on TNT. To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. @ART CAPTION:Steve Harvey at the Count Basie 'Homecoming' in 1979 @ART:Photo @ART CREDIT:HARTZELL GRAY

Remembering Steve Harvey

He was a rising young KC jazz performer when he was savagely murdered in 1980. Friends and musicians remember him as though it were yesterday.

On Wednesday, the A&E program "City Confidential" will devote one hour to the story of Steven L. Harvey, a rising performer in the Kansas City music scene who at age 27 was brutally murdered in 1980 near the Liberty Memorial. The program is a personal project of David Wallach, a veteran producer for A&E who learned about Harvey after moving here to work at WDAF, Channel 4.

What struck Wallach about the Harvey case was the tenacious effort by his parents and friends to bring the killer to justice. It took two trials, including a federal prosecution for hate crimes that is believed to be the first of its kind.

Because "City Confidential" is a crime-based show, most of the hour is devoted to the legal aspects of Harvey's murder. And the program tacks on a mini-travelogue of Kansas City. Wallach does a fine job with this, spotlighting the local jazz scene and noting that few cities can boast so many performers who play jazz for a living.

But these other agendas - imposed on Wallach by A&E - serve to diminish Harvey the man. Because his artistry never attained national recognition, viewers may come away from "City Confidential" more impressed by the legal pursuit of Harvey's killers than the smattering of details about his life. Even a slightly fuller portrait of the man makes clear why more than 100 of his fellow musicians performed at a benefit concert held shortly after his death.

***

Steve Harvey grew up at 55th and Bellefontaine, one of three children in the home of Kathryn and Sherman Harvey, loving parents who would support Steve's career with room, board and transportation all his life. During his senior year at Southeast High School, Steve took part in a jazz lab where he met the other members of what would become Mass Transit, the group he kept throughout the 1970s.

Even though Harvey didn't sing, he was the group's undisputed leader. Musically his tastes were eclectic, his skills were dazzling and his showmanship was second to none. He had a whistle he liked to pull out and blow while exhorting crowds away from their cocktail tables and onto the dance floor. He practiced compulsively, not just on the alto sax, but on a variety of woodwinds. In jam sessions he was fearless. "(Steve) would sit in with every band," says Greg Richter, who played piano in a quintet with Harvey. "He always played whatever they were playing: Earth, Wind & Fire; bebop; Sinatra. He knew all the notes."

"He was an extremely fine player who was very entertaining when he let music overtake him," says Ida McBeth, who would see Steve at the Phillips Hotel and the old Drum Room.

By 1979 he was playing six, seven, eight places in one night. From the mid-1970s onward, Harvey's constant companion was Mark Pender, a raw but enthusiastic trumpeter from Grandview, who arrived on the Harveys' doorstep one cold January night after hearing that a group was looking for a horn player. Steve's dad opened the door, surveyed Pender's long curly hair and called out, "There's a white boy here!"

Pender found Mass Transit rehearsing in a spare bedroom. What happened next changed his life. "Steve shows up, pulls his saxophone out, and my jaw drops open," recalls Pender. "I'd never seen a young guy play that well. He was so nice and encouraging to me. He accepted me as a band member from that night. I joined and we kept growing closer and closer." They were kindred spirits, bound by mutual dedication to their craft. On stage, they traded joyous, energetic solos back and forth. Kansas City became their oyster.

But by 1979 Steve and Mark were thinking bigger. They accepted an offer to join the traveling band of jazz organist Charles Earland, which played for three months in the Midwest before finishing with some dates in northern New Jersey. The two men hoped their momentum would carry them across the Hudson River and into the New York music scene. It didn't work out that way. After the band reached Newark, N.J., Earland told Mark and Steve that with no other prospects in sight, they could go home.

Steve went home. He had two young children in Kansas City and he missed them terribly. Mark took an apartment in a rough neighborhood in New Jersey. One night muggers attacked him and stole his trumpet. As it turns out, he was the lucky one.

"A few days before he died, he called me," Pender said. "He was going to join me out here."

In the early hours of Wednesday, Nov. 5, 1980, Steve Harvey left a late-night jam at the Inferno Show Lounge and drove to Liberty Memorial with his saxophone. He often went out there alone, or took a friend along, and played until 4 or 5 in the morning. Harvey went to use the restroom near the memorial. A few moments later, 19-year-old Raymond L. Bledsoe walked in with a baseball bat, accompanied by two other men. They had come looking for gay men cruising Penn Valley Park, but Bledsoe settled on Harvey instead.

Wounded, he tried to flee. Bledsoe caught up with him in the park and hit him repeatedly with the bat, caving in his head. The murder weapon was never found.

A tip finally led police to Bledsoe's accomplices, who flipped, but with only their word against his, an all-white jury decided there wasn't enough to convict. Bledsoe walked - and then he talked, boasting to at least 30 people that he had gotten away with murder, as the program reports.

In response, Steve's parents (who have since passed away) pushed for justice. Kathryn Harvey and activist Alvin Sykes were relentless in their campaign to have Bledsoe retried on a federal civil rights charge. In 1983 the U.S. government took the case and, armed with the additional testimony, got Bledsoe sentenced to a life term at the penitentiary in Leavenworth.

***

When a talented artist dies young, it is easy to invent a bright future for him. Harvey's friends have remastered the few extant recordings of his work; on them you can hear his crowd-pleasing skills, his commitment and his ambition.

"I think he'd probably have realized his dream and had a wonderful career," says Mark Pender. "He was just too talented not to." Indeed, that's what happened to Pender. He eventually toured with Steven Van Zandt and Robert Cray, played on the landmark Bruce Springsteen live album, and now has one of the most secure and enviable jobs in the music business, playing in the house band of NBC's "Late Night With Conan O'Brien."

On Wednesday, several of Kansas City's leading lights of jazz, including Ida McBeth, David Basse, Angela Hagenbach and Dave Stephens, will stage a benefit at the Uptown Theater. Wallach will show the "City Confidential" episode, and at his request, proceeds from the concert will go to Kansas City Hospice, which recently cared for his dying mother.

Of course, everyone will also be there to honor Steve Harvey, whose name still brings back memories and feelings. Perhaps no one has more of those than Gary Hider, who became best friends with him at the age of 11. He can recall Steve strolling down 63rd Street, serenading the traffic with his flute, or coming over to Gary's new house to confer a blessing with his saxophone.

Fond memories - until, as Hider says, "I get that real melancholy feeling," and he has to stop thinking about Steve. Not that he's ever really stopped thinking about Steve. "He died November the fifth, 1980," he says, "and I've missed him. Every day."

**RELATED:** Alvin Sykes and the hunt for civil rights cold case killers

'Reagan' saves its stones for Haig

Though he is listed as the executive producer of "The Day Reagan Was Shot," director Oliver Stone claims he had little involvement with the new Showtime movie that dramatizes the 1981 attempt on President Reagan's life. That's his story, at least. But is Stone trying to hide his true involvement in this movie? Consider, if you will, the eerie similarities between the opening minutes of "Reagan" (8 p.m. Sunday on Showtime) and the opening minutes of "JFK," Stone's 1991 conspiracy flick. In "JFK," the voice of Martin Sheen barks over a frenzy of disturbing images culled from news footage of the time. Then the film slows down, and there is an agonizingly drawn-out sequence that leads up to Kennedy's shooting, set to the chilling accompaniment of military drums. "The Day Reagan Was Shot" opens in almost exactly the same manner. Notice carefully as I replay the film: Back ... and to the right. Back ... and to the right. Alas, this movie does not keep mimicking "JFK" - a fine film for all its crazy idea-mongering. This one quickly turns into a smear job on then-Secretary of State Alexander ("I'm in control here") Haig, who is depicted as being mad as a hatter and the perpetrator of a plot to stage a legal coup d'etat in the hours after Reagan and three other men were hit by gunfire. If you thought Richard Dreyfuss was insufferable as CBS professor Max Bickford, wait till you see him as Haig, stomping around the war room ranting at four-star generals, bringing our country to the brink of nuclear war - or so the movie alleges. Haig isn't the only one who's going to be steamed when he sees this. Others with unflattering portrayals include Nancy Reagan, Michael Deaver and George Bush senior. The only ones who emerge unscathed are the Gipper and the doctors who save his life. To their credit, the film's producers did not cast a bunch of look-alikes for the parts: Richard Crenna looks more like Haig than Dreyfuss does, but he's perfect as Reagan, gamely tossing off those now-famous bon mots as he is wheeled in for surgery ("I hope you doctors are Republicans"). And for all its problems, what works against "The Day Reagan Was Shot" more than anything is circumstance. At a time like this, who wants to watch a movie about the White House being held hostage by an egomaniac? "The Seventh Stream," a "Hallmark Hall of Fame" special airing at 8 p.m. Sunday on CBS (Channel 5), is a tale about a seal (the amphibious critter, that is) who sheds her skin one day and voila! becomes human. As if that weren't odd enough, recall that there was a show earlier this year, also on CBS, called "Wolf Lake," in which wolves morphed into humans. This special is a lot better than "Wolf Lake." After a slow start, even by "Hall of Fame" standards, it turns into an intriguing romance involving a lonely Irish fisherman (Scott Glenn), the alluring mystery seal-woman (Saffron Burrows) and a jealous bachelor who knows her secret (John Lynch). Christmastime is here. Those three words, indelibly linked to the holiday classic "A Charlie Brown Christmas," have now become linked with a new network. After 35 years at CBS, the animated holiday special that started them all moves to ABC, airing 7 p.m. Thursday on Channel 9. Stay tuned afterward for a new special, on the making of "A Charlie Brown Christmas," featuring Whoopi Goldberg and the now grown-ups who provided the voices of Charlie and the gang. Steven Spielberg can only dream of cranking out the sequels as fast as the Discovery channel. A mere 18 months ago, "Walking With Dinosaurs" wowed TV audiences with its computer-simulated dinos. That was followed this summer by "When Dinosaurs Roamed America." And now comes "Walking With Prehistoric Beasts" at 6 p.m. Sunday on Discovery. The three-hour special magically brings still more long-extinct species back to life, such as the piglike Entelodont, the voracious Andrewsarchus and the humongous Indricothere, one of the largest land mammals ever to walk the earth. Look for a more familiar creature to make an appearance as well - Cro-Magnon. One week you see him on "Ally McBeal"; the next week, A&E. What's next, the halftime show on "Monday Night Football"? Elton John will take your phone calls on "Live By Request" beginning at 8 tonight on A&E. To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com.