Fringe

It could have been a scene from a period movie: people arriving at Baltimore's historic Senator Theatre, dressed in fringe, feathers and raccoon coats. However, this was a birthday party, celebrating Homeland's 75th anniversary in roaring '20s fashion."Isn't this fun?" exclaimed "Homeland 75" co-chair Barbara Stevens. She was in full flapper fringe and feather boa, while her husband and co-chair, Jim, 23-skidooed in red suspenders and a bowler.Many of the 250 guests were Homeland residents, including Nancy O'Donnell, who's lived there 60 years, and Barbara Steinmann, who wore her mother's 1929 wedding dress.

As a warm and lazy July afternoon yesterday beckoned waves of visitors to Artscape, a group of enterprising street vendors established their own thriving bazaar on the fringes of the city's annual festival staged in the Mount Royal neighborhood.Not officially sanctioned by Artscape's organizers, this impromptu fair -- where everything from Honduran cigars to scented oils was peddled -- seemed to draw its own constituency."I wouldn't miss this," said Colleen Hurley, a visitor from Fairfax, Va.She spent part of yesterday afternoon hunched over a sales table on Dolphin Street west of Howard Street, outside the Artscape boundaries.

The Columbia Association (CA) plans to hold public meetings this fall on a controversial health club opposed by as much as half its governing board.The $6 million health club would be built on Columbia's western fringe in River Hill, the newest and most affluent village, so as to serve residents of the new town and its outlying neighborhoods in fast-developing Clarksville.Critics contend that CA -- a large homeowners association that manages Columbia's parkland and recreation facilities -- could better serve the bulk of Columbia's 83,500 residents in the older, more centrally located communities.

"Ruby Ridge: An American Tragedy" -- a two-night CBS docudrama about the government shootout with white separatist Randy Weaver -- is so badly matched that each night almost seems like a different film.But running through both is an astounding performance by Academy-Award winner Laura Dern as Weaver's wife, Vicky. It is the made-for-television-movie performance of the year -- good enough to put an otherwise seriously flawed "Ruby Ridge" on the map of must-see weekend viewing.The most egregious flaws in the four-hour film, starring Randy Quaid as Weaver, are found in its handling of the social and political questions raised by and at Ruby Ridge -- the 1992 shootout that occurred when U.S. marshalls attempted to arrest Weaver at his remote mountaintop property on charges of selling guns to an undercover federal officer.

It's too early to adopt a line or a take on the Oklahoma City bombing -- except that it's driving a stake into the heart of the O. J. Simpson trial -- and it's certainly too soon for the line that it's the end of innocence for America.The story is breaking too fast to even ask, let alone try to answer, who's innocent, who's guilty or who's guilty with an explanation.Still, the newsweeklies have to commit and they do.The best single piece of writing/reporting is this week's Newsweek's misleadingly mildly headlined "The View from the Far Right" by Tom Morganthau and collaborators.

Suddenly, they're everywhere -- on rock stars on MTV, on baseball stars on ESPN, on film stars on talk shows, and even on real men in real life. This has become, believe it or not, the Summer of the Goatee, perhaps the high-water mark of goatee popularity in all of goatee history.That outlaw form of facial hair is growing out on male faces all over America.For centuries, these weird beardlets have been favored by those on the societal fringe -- poets, revolutionaries, jazzmen, beatniks, fencers and folksingers (Peter, Paul minus Mary)

Havre de Grace.--The media feel it in their guts. Those Sauerbrey voters must be nuts.Their crazy causes, doomed to fail, are really quite beyond the pale. They don't respect the state's largess. It should, they say, do more with less. Less government, for heaven's sake! It makes a pundit's temples ache.Who are these people, anyway, whose attitudes are so outre? They're in a nasty, bitter mood. To politicians, often rude. Incendiary though their rage is, they ignore the op-ed pages. The fax machine's their tool of choice.

Q: In the design magazines I look at, there seems to be a lot of emphasis on decorative trimmings such as gimp, fringe and tassels. Can you provide some guidelines on how to use these additions on upholstered furniture?A: Decorative trims are best used carefully and sparingly. It's a narrow borderline indeed that separates the tasteful display of such doodads from just plain kitsch. This caution pertains, by the way, to all types of decorative additions, including moldings on a wall, finials on a lamp, and cording on a lampshade.

IS THERE SOME kind of continental drift or something going on? I ask that because four years ago when Maryland voted on Super Tuesday, it was proclaimed far and wide that this was because Maryland was a Southern state.In fact, that was the excuse for moving the primary from its traditional May date to early March.This year the state moved the primary up even earlier in March in order not to be part of the South's Super Tuesday, and everyone said that Maryland is so un-Southern that it was the place Arkansas' Bill Clinton had to do well in to prove he is not just a regional candidate.

It isn't necessary to trick yourself out like Dale Evans to go western. The right pieces have as much punch as a ten-gallon hat. Here's what to look for:* Leather patterns seen on saddlebags and holsters in the old West are working their way in to new belts and bags as design elements. Look for tooled leather, fancy lacing and silver studs.* Invest in some classic lean jeans and work at breaking them in. Some designers will soften them up for you, but they won't have the fit and feel of old friends.

Fringe returns to Fox TV tonight with a big, shiny lead-in from American Idol, which will presumably deliver more than a few new viewers to the show, which has been hovering around the 9 million viewer mark with most of its new episodes. People who are already fans, though, won't have to sit through a reintroduction of the series. The series boasts one of Hollywood's most creative producers in J.J. Abrams and a strong leading lady in Anna Torv as Olivia Dunham, an FBI agent tracking paranormal cases.

Catonsville resident Rosanna Tufts had the most proper, most elite of musical educations, but deep in her soul, she yearned for more earthy entertainments. So Tufts threw off the bonds of her conservatory upbringing and ran off to join the musical theater. "Stage musicals and light opera are my real passion," she says. "They allow me to sing, but also to act and occasionally dance." And, occasionally, they allow Tufts to compose. Excerpts from her rock opera, The Passion of Persephone, are being performed this month at the Capital Fringe Festival in Washington.

Go to the Fringe The new and improved, second annual Capital Fringe Festival in Washington should be about 25 percent bigger and more filling than the inaugural debut. During this year's 11-day festival, 120 groups will put on about 500 performances of theater, dance, music and puppetry. Last year, about 90 groups took the stages 400 times. THE NEON MAN AND ME / / Slash Coleman will perform the play at midnight July 20; 12:30 p.m. July 22; 9:15 p.m. July 23; 9 p.m. July 27 and 2 p.m. July 29. Performances will be held at Warehouse Arts - Beyond, 1017 7th St. N.W., Washington.

The weird, the wacky and the wonderful - the inaugural Capital Fringe Festival will have 'em all. Below is performance information for some shows in the 11-day extravaganza. Dis/Appearing isn't your children's puppet theater. Betsy Rosen of Lost and Found Puppeteers uses gauze and fabric creations to explore such themes as the ennui of daily life, and fantasy vs. reality. July 21-25. Frida Vice-Versa. Actress Marian Licha performs a one-woman show about the fiery Mexican painter, who survived a bout with polio, a crippling accident and the infidelities of husband Diego Rivera to create some of the most memorable art of the 20th century.

All the trimmings complete an entree and make a meal more festive. But when it comes to decorating, there are widely varying appetites for trims. One camp sees garnishes on upholstery, curtains, bedding and lamps as a visual feast to be devoured. Another view is that furnishings dripping in ornamentation are like too much salt, which can ruin a good recipe. In moderation, trims can add to an interior. The French have a word for it: passementerie, which describes a sumptuous style of silk trimmings that graced the palaces of Louis XIV, XV and XVI. Passementerie was a symbol of wealth.

PHILADELPHIA - The path taken by Orioles pitcher Travis Driskill to the visitor's dugout at Veterans Stadium is blocked by a swarm of flying insects, so tiny they can't be seen unless packed together to create a fog. "Ah, they're not so bad," he said, declining to use the standard hand wave that reduces the chance of inhaling them. What about the ballpark itself, a round, dank building with soggy carpeting, rusted pipes and all the personality of a cadaver? "Actually, I don't mind it at all," he said.

It could have been a scene from a period movie: people arriving at Baltimore's historic Senator Theatre, dressed in fringe, feathers and raccoon coats. However, this was a birthday party, celebrating Homeland's 75th anniversary in roaring '20s fashion."Isn't this fun?" exclaimed "Homeland 75" co-chair Barbara Stevens. She was in full flapper fringe and feather boa, while her husband and co-chair, Jim, 23-skidooed in red suspenders and a bowler.Many of the 250 guests were Homeland residents, including Nancy O'Donnell, who's lived there 60 years, and Barbara Steinmann, who wore her mother's 1929 wedding dress.

As a warm and lazy July afternoon yesterday beckoned waves of visitors to Artscape, a group of enterprising street vendors established their own thriving bazaar on the fringes of the city's annual festival staged in the Mount Royal neighborhood.Not officially sanctioned by Artscape's organizers, this impromptu fair -- where everything from Honduran cigars to scented oils was peddled -- seemed to draw its own constituency."I wouldn't miss this," said Colleen Hurley, a visitor from Fairfax, Va.She spent part of yesterday afternoon hunched over a sales table on Dolphin Street west of Howard Street, outside the Artscape boundaries.

The Columbia Association (CA) plans to hold public meetings this fall on a controversial health club opposed by as much as half its governing board.The $6 million health club would be built on Columbia's western fringe in River Hill, the newest and most affluent village, so as to serve residents of the new town and its outlying neighborhoods in fast-developing Clarksville.Critics contend that CA -- a large homeowners association that manages Columbia's parkland and recreation facilities -- could better serve the bulk of Columbia's 83,500 residents in the older, more centrally located communities.

"Ruby Ridge: An American Tragedy" -- a two-night CBS docudrama about the government shootout with white separatist Randy Weaver -- is so badly matched that each night almost seems like a different film.But running through both is an astounding performance by Academy-Award winner Laura Dern as Weaver's wife, Vicky. It is the made-for-television-movie performance of the year -- good enough to put an otherwise seriously flawed "Ruby Ridge" on the map of must-see weekend viewing.The most egregious flaws in the four-hour film, starring Randy Quaid as Weaver, are found in its handling of the social and political questions raised by and at Ruby Ridge -- the 1992 shootout that occurred when U.S. marshalls attempted to arrest Weaver at his remote mountaintop property on charges of selling guns to an undercover federal officer.