Before he jetted to the All-Star Game in Toronto, President Bush took time Tuesday to honor American artists, musicians and patrons. A life without art is ”flat, dull and gray,” Bush said at a ceremony in the East Room of the White House. Bush presented the National Medal of Art to a dozen recipients, including violinist Isaac Stern, country singer Roy Acuff and Texaco Inc., longtime sponsor of the Saturday afternoon Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts.
DANGEROUS DANCING Art of a slighty different nature was on display Sunday in Bristol, Conn., when 40 heavy metal rock fans suffered minor injuries during a frenzy of violent dancing at a concert billed as ”Clash of the Titans.” The youths were displaying a form of dancing known as ”moshing,” an outgrowth of the
”slam-dance” craze of the 1980s. The four-hour concert showcased Alice in Chains, Megadeath, Slayer and Anthrax. The bands` reputation for inspiring rowdy behavior brought extra security officers to Lake Compounce Festival Park, but most people in the area had better things to do. Fewer than 6,000 fans were on hand in an outdoor venue that has room for 20,000.
TAX TIPS AT HER FINGERS New Woman magazine columnist Kathleen Fury offered this advice to a reader who complained that her long nails made it difficult to press the buttons of a calculator that she had bought to help her with tax returns:
”You should move to another state, change your name and Social Security number and file off your fingerprints, so that when the IRS auditors come looking, they won`t find you. You could also go back to school and learn long division, subtraction, multiplication and addition and buy some legal pads and new pencils with good erasers.”
FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE Rep. Stephen Solarz (D-N.Y.) wrote his Brooklyn constituents last year to express support for laws to protect the American flag and for the U.S. troop buildup for the Persian Gulf war. One of his letters, New York Newsday reported, went to a constituent dead for 11 years. The dead man`s son, journalist Mitchel Cohen, wrote back in behalf of his father: ”Thank you for your correspondence on the importance of preserving the American flag. Although I`ve been dead for 11 years, it was good of you to write me and explain how you`re spending the taxpayers` money sending your staff members to spy on the neighborhood, keeping track of who flies the flag and who doesn`t.” The letter was signed, ”Abraham Cohen, Constituent (retired).”
BLINDING LIGHT Actor Harrison Ford told a ”Good Morning America” interviewer why he likes to avoid the spotlight: ”I don`t want to overpower people with my presence.”
RAISA`S STORY Raisa Gorbachev, who isn`t shy around the spotlight, has signed a contract to publish her autobiography with HarperCollins, a publishing house owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch flew to Moscow in May to clinch the deal with the Soviet first lady and personally pick up the manuscript of
”I Hope: Reminiscences and Reflections.” Terms of the deal were not announced. In addition to politics, Mrs. G`s 224-page book will discuss a Soviet religious rival and the role of women and home life in the USSR. The book is due out in September.
