Ice Cube

"Trespass" has one virtue: It is at least routinely competent, high praise in light of the recent Hollywood product encompassing such bone-headed odysseys through time as "Hoffa" and "Toys."But that's about as far as it goes.Sort of an MTV version of "The Treasure of Sierra Madre" with Ice Cube in the Bogart part, it watches as a group of men become brutally unhinged by the prospect of lots of free gold. Greed is bad, it says, although it offers nothing to replace it with and presumably everybody involved in the film did so for large amounts of money.

FOR MOST imbibers, bourbon is a cool-weather beverage. In the fall, the mixed drinks, like the landscape, turn brown. But in the summer, cocktails are made with gin or vodka. Which was why one sweltering summer day I asked Frederick Booker Noe Jr., the big bubba of the bourbon world, if he ever sipped a little gin. "Gin?" He shuddered. It was no small shudder. Booker is massive in appearance and manner. His frame overflowed the sumptuous chairs in the lobby of Baltimore's Omni Hotel."Gin?"

DEATH CERTIFICATEIce Cube (Priority 57155)On a conceptual level, Ice Cube's "Death Certificate" shows considerable promise, with half of the album (the "Death Side") devoted to showing how gang violence and promiscuity are destroying the black community, and the other half (the "Life Side") focusing on changes that could turn the situation around. Trouble is, Ice Cube's notion of a new direction too often boils down to urging that blacks stop destroying themselves and instead turn their rage toward gays, Jews, Koreans, Japanese, "white devils" and those who have sold out the black community by joining gangs or moving to the suburbs.

Q: Nutmeg and mace seem similar to me. Are they related, and can they be substituted for each other?A: Nutmeg and mace are similar and are even from the same fruit of the nutmeg tree. Nutmeg is the fruit's oval-shaped pit and mace is the bright red webbing that surrounds the shell of the pit. The pit, nutmeg, can be left whole and freshly grated or packaged already ground. Mace is removed, dried and ground. At that point, it turns a rust color. The two spices can be interchanged but nutmeg does have a sweeter and more delicate aroma and taste than mace.

Barbershop, which premieres tonight at 10, is Showtime's sitcomization of the film franchise of the same name. It's an obvious move - the films on which it's based are half-sitcom already, taking place mostly on a single set full of colorful characters who talk a lot. But though the TV version catches some of the tone, replicates the topicality and shares executive producers of the big-screen originals, it lacks their grounded reality, as well as their...

Black people are now making money by putting on minstrel shows, movie thrillers and rap celebrating misogyny and violence -- largely for the benefit of whites.Are we are so dazzled by the flash and the cash that we don't see how we are contributing to our own destruction?Looked at superficially, blacks are making "progress" in television and in films. Recent studies indicate that young non-black audiences are "crossing over," buying our music, watching our images, attending our films.But is this an advance?

If you think West Coast hip-hop is all gangsta rap aggression and homicidal fury, you should have been at the Baltimore Arena Friday night, so you could have learned how wrong you are. The occasion was the Baltimore stop of the Up In Smoke Tour, featuring some of the most notorious stars in hip-hop: Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube and Eminem. Because three out of the four have rap sheets, and one is currently under indictment, you might have thought they came to cause trouble. In truth, though, they came to party, and it was that make-some-noise-and-have-some-fun attitude that carried the evening.

THE BODYGUARDOriginal Soundtrack Album (Arista 18699)Whether or not she makes a credible actress, Whitney Houston remains a bankable singer, so it's no surprise that the soundtrack to "The Bodyguard" comes packed with pop potential. What does seem a shock is how few of the album's high points come from Houston. "I Will Always Love You" is a perfect (if predictable) bit of romantic treacle, and the slick, new jack sound of "Run to You" makes it her most believable R&B effort yet. But her "Jesus Loves Me" seems calculated when compared to Aaron Neville's angelic "Even If My Heart Would Break," and Houston's version of "I'm Every Woman," though a heartfelt Chaka Khan tribute, hardly compares to the funk revisionism of "It's Gonna Be a Lovely Day" by the S.O.U.

Three decades after the original "three days of love, peace and music," a third Woodstock Festival will take place in upstate New York, it was announced yesterday. But this event, which runs July 23-25, will take place at the former Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, N.Y. -- not Woodstock or even Saugerties, where the 25th anniversary Woodstock was held in 1994.Moreover, with headliners including Alanis Morissette, Metallica, Ice Cube and the Dave Matthews Band, the festival is intended for an audience that wasn't born when the first festival took place and may not have been old enough to attend the second.

Beat the heat every Friday with "Hot Enough for You?" -- a weekly assortment of summertime stories and tips on surviving the swelter.Double dippingBryan Soronson has a consuming passion for ice cream. Off-hours from his day job as administrator of University Hospital's neurology department, Mr. Soronson organizes ice cream tastings, consults for manufacturers and writes and speaks at every opportunity about the chills and thrills of this hot weather treat.So in honor of National Ice Cream Month -- we'll double-dip to that!