Tina Turner

What's showmanship got to do with it?In the case of Tina Turner, everything. Because it wasn't her nonstop string of hits that had the fans screaming for more last night at the Merriweather Post Pavilion -- it was the fact that Turner performed each and every one of them with so much energy and intensity that merely watching her was enough to leave you sweat-soaked and panting.Not that anyone in the house just sat and watched. Part of Turner's concert strategy was to get the audience involved, whether in a battle-of-the-sexes chant in "What's Love Got to Do With It?"

Good morning -- Ravens -- You're like Tina Turner: You don't never, ever do nothing nice and easy.

Kenneth L. Moore, who as a child performed gospel music in Baltimore churches with his sisters as part of the Moore Singers and later played with the Tina Turner band, died March 25 of undetermined causes while on tour in Australia. He was 45.Mr. Moore, who lived in Los Angeles in recent years, had been the musical director, a background vocalist and keyboard player for Ms. Turner's band since 1977."He was always the boss as far as the musical arrangements went," said Janet Arlington, a longtime friend who is associated with the group.

Critic's Pick--Ike and Tina Turner are the subjects of What's Love Got to Do With It (9:30 p.m.-11:30 p.m., TMC), with Laurence Fishburne, above.

A local building makes good on A&E."The Firm" (8 p.m.-11 p.m., WMAR, Channel 2) -- Tom Cruise is a hot-shot young lawyer who's recruited by a prestigious Southern law firm. Problem is, the law firm is more than a little crooked, and it's up to young Tom to do what's right. Nicely done, with a good supporting turn from Holly Hunter as Cruise's mole. ABC."Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" (8 p.m.-9 p.m., WJZ, Channel 13) -- It's a sort of "Dr. Quinn's Greatest Hits," as Dr. Mike recounts some of her more memorable experiences for Colleen, who's writing a term paper.

William Boskent, a record company and nightclub owner who wrote, produced and arranged songs for the likes of rhythm-and-blues legends Antoine "Fats" Domino and Lloyd Price, died Aug. 4 of a heart attack after a brief illness at the University of Maryland Medical System's University Specialty Hospital in Baltimore. The Hyattsville resident was 77. With a music industry career spanning more than five decades, Mr. Boskent is perhaps best known for co-writing such successful songs as "Georgianna," for his part in Mr. Price's hit "Just Because" and for writing and arranging the popular tunes "There You Go," "Shame" and "Three Fools."

The best test of a good singer is bad material. Given the right melody and arrangement, almost anybody can have a hit. In fact, many of the voices on the hit parade these days aren't that much better than those belonging to the folks singing along with the radio. But a bad song? It takes a pretty good singer to make a mediocrity seem memorable -- someone who can inject personality in the lyrics, add muscle to the melody, and make you hear some sizzle when the tune it- Tina Turner self has no heat at all. Tina Turner has that talent.

Good morning -- Ravens -- You're like Tina Turner: You don't never, ever do nothing nice and easy.

Critic's Pick--Ike and Tina Turner are the subjects of What's Love Got to Do With It (9:30 p.m.-11:30 p.m., TMC), with Laurence Fishburne, above.

If the bombing of Serb guns brings peace, it would hav worked three years ago saving a lot of grief.House freshmen Republicans who crusaded against the old politics of special interest have raised more money than anyone else. The more things change . . .Time Warner will merge with Turner Broadcasting into Time Turner, which is not the same as Tina Turner.

Winters Lane Productions' lively production of Beehive The 60s Musical celebrates a decade of early rock 'n' roll through the divas who defined it. Writer/director Larry Gallagher's creation debuted in 1985, and at Chesapeake Art Center's intimate Studio Theatre, six women have taken on the challenge of transforming into pop princesses and rock queens to sing and dance through 40 songs. The revue recalls the profound changes of the tumultuous decade defined by the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War and drugs.

Oprah Winfrey salutes Tina Turner. Quincy Jones and k.d. lang honor Tony Bennett. Paul Newman, Willie Nelson and Glenn Close pay tribute to Robert Redford. There's no lack of star power in the 28th edition of The Kennedy Center Honors, television's classiest awards show. CBS tonight will presents the program, which was taped Dec. 4. A network release explaining the event suggests CBS has another winner. For the third year in a row, Caroline Kennedy hosts this celebration of career achievement in the arts.

"Grab your Walkman, and make sure you bring extra duct tape. You'll need it to make sure that gigantic weight hanging off your side doesn't fall and crash to the ground, and blast the Huey Lewis." "Go for some Fruit Roll-Ups. Make sure to separate the cellophane from the equally toxic candied sheet. The cellophane's probably healthier to eat." "Cool off. Take a dip with some Snorks at your local pool. Snork it up, seriously." "Guys, put on your rainbow-striped Mork suspenders, and make sure the lady in your life wears shoulder pads.

Sometime in the early '70s, members of the funk band WAR were jamming in a warehouse at Hill and Lemon streets in Long Beach, Calif. Their audience was a ragtag pack of little kids, some of whom would later lay down beats of their own. Dr. Dre and Eazy-E -- both boys back then -- were there, band leader Lonnie Jordan recalls. As WAR kept touring -- they headline the International Festival this weekend -- these rappers grew up and shared what they learned in Long Beach with the world. Eazy-E's sample of WAR's "Slipping Into Darkness" in "Sippin' on a 40" was one way a new generation felt the funk.

IT WAS THE summer of '84, Malvern, Ark. And the sun cooked the pavement beneath my Dollar Store sandals. I remember the air conditioning rushing over my face as Daddy and I walked into Wal-Mart. My parents had ended their marriage two years before. So to make up for not being around much, my pops would drive a little over half an hour to Hot Springs about once a month or so and pick up my sister and me. He'd buy us bags of candy and various other trinkets Mama either refused or couldn't afford to get us. Daddy and I headed to the music section, and I saw the legs first.

In a tiny pool in a downtown Baltimore senior center, 80-year-old Verna Day-Jones closes her eyes, punches her fists through the water and tries to keep her balance as her water aerobics instructor barks orders. When a classmate speaks up in Day-Jones' defense, reminding the teacher that this woman is the reigning Ms. Senior Maryland and is headed to Las Vegas for the national pageant this week, instructor Martin Cruise will hear none of it. "If she don't do what she's supposed to do in this class, she ain't gonna be Miss Nobody," he says.

Think you're way cool?Take a number. According to Entertainment Weekly's current "What is Cool" issue, you're behind David Letterman (there's news); a dead man (cult film director Ed Wood); the assembly-required furniture at Ikea and "Today" anchor Katie Couric (doesn't she belong in the "So uncool, they're cool" column?).The June 25 issue of the weekly magazine identifies cool people, places and things that have "the power to swing the thermostat of popular culture."Yes, but what is cool?

"Grab your Walkman, and make sure you bring extra duct tape. You'll need it to make sure that gigantic weight hanging off your side doesn't fall and crash to the ground, and blast the Huey Lewis." "Go for some Fruit Roll-Ups. Make sure to separate the cellophane from the equally toxic candied sheet. The cellophane's probably healthier to eat." "Cool off. Take a dip with some Snorks at your local pool. Snork it up, seriously." "Guys, put on your rainbow-striped Mork suspenders, and make sure the lady in your life wears shoulder pads.

William Boskent, a record company and nightclub owner who wrote, produced and arranged songs for the likes of rhythm-and-blues legends Antoine "Fats" Domino and Lloyd Price, died Aug. 4 of a heart attack after a brief illness at the University of Maryland Medical System's University Specialty Hospital in Baltimore. The Hyattsville resident was 77. With a music industry career spanning more than five decades, Mr. Boskent is perhaps best known for co-writing such successful songs as "Georgianna," for his part in Mr. Price's hit "Just Because" and for writing and arranging the popular tunes "There You Go," "Shame" and "Three Fools."

The best test of a good singer is bad material. Given the right melody and arrangement, almost anybody can have a hit. In fact, many of the voices on the hit parade these days aren't that much better than those belonging to the folks singing along with the radio. But a bad song? It takes a pretty good singer to make a mediocrity seem memorable -- someone who can inject personality in the lyrics, add muscle to the melody, and make you hear some sizzle when the tune it- Tina Turner self has no heat at all. Tina Turner has that talent.