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Cameron Crowe, the phenomenally successful author of Fast Times at Ridgemont High and writer-director of Say Anything and Jerry Maguire, has been doing double duty this month -- promoting both Vanilla Sky, his big-star remake of the Spanish movie Open Your Eyes, and the director's-edition DVD of his most personal film to date, Almost Famous. And though Crowe is the only major movie writer-director who started out as a teen reporter for Rolling Stone, he's not an MTV addict but a loopy traditionalist.

Mellencamp to rock for free at Final Four Hoosier rocker John Mellencamp will take the stage in Indianapolis' Monument Circle on April 2 to perform a free concert during the NCAA's Final Four. The concert will take place in between the NCAA men's basketball semifinals on April 1 and the championship game on April 3, Mellencamp's publicist, Bob Merlis, told the Indianapolis Star. Mellencamp, 54, is a native of Seymour, Ind., who now lives near Bloomington. He's also an Indiana University basketball fan. "He's out of his mind for basketball and CBS is using `R.O.

Say contemporary German art to most people and they think neo-expressionism. They aren't wrong, but the show of contemporary German prints now at Grimaldis demonstrates clearly that the spectrum is wider than that.There's ample expressionism, of course, by the likes of Georg Baselitz, Markus Lupertz and others.But while expressionism often reflects the darker side of human experience, there is some levity here.There's an element of humor in the shapes of Baselitz's "Nurse"; and while "Brett" reveals Baselitz's well-known upside-down figure, there's a hint of the witty caricature about this work.

"Touch: Beyond the Visual" at School 33 is one of those shows that works differently in theory and practice.It's an excellent idea for a show: to bring together works that can be handled in order to teach people that merely looking at a work of art isn't enough. And though the show is primarily about touch, it turns out that four senses can be employed in experiencing this show -- everything but taste.In practice, the show also succeeds as a whole in making its point, and because its point is unusual it amounts to one of the year's more interesting exhibits.

In terms of art, this 13th edition of Artscape is the best I've ever seen. And I've seen most of them. Its four principal shows have been well- conceived, curated and executed. And, almost all the art in them is good work.Most past Artscapes, even when good, have contained some work that's frivolous, pretentious, slap-- or something worse. While this year's version is not completely devoid of such work, examples are a real rarity.If anything, this year's version may be a little too serious.

This year's Artscape, beginning today, can be viewed as a sort of microcosm of the art world at large.Trends observed in New York and Venice trickle down to the local scene, where artists confidently pursue visions unconstrained by enforced conformity to any critical "mainstream."Diversity is in, and even a little chaos is not particularly to be frowned upon. No one presumes to know precisely where art is going, but surely the only way to get there is to try.Many of the impulses that drive contemporary art are abundantly in evidence among the 77 artists participating in this year's juried exhibitions, which are scattered among six locations around the city.

From a distance, the painting looks like somebody's version of hell. Brushstrokes of deep red and yellow cover the canvas and seem to flicker like flames. But looking more closely, I realize that the dabs and dashes of paint actually are small figures. There may be thousands of them: tiny men, women and children, their bodies painted with frenetic intensity in red, yellow, purple, blue and black oils until they fill 128 square feet of canvas. Some of the figures are nude; some are wearing clothing so carefully rendered that wrinkles in the fabric can be seen.

In an age in which the information revolution bombards us with more than we can take in, and traditional values are increasingly challenged, it's harder to know who we are and where we stand in relation to the rest of the world.William Larson, head of the graduate department of photography at the Maryland Institute, College of Art, is a conceptual artist who in his latest series of works, called "Theatre du Monde" (at Maryland Art Place), explores the increasing complexity of perception using the media of photography and words.

I'm going to wander away, awayWhere there are islandsI'm going to sail on down the BayWithout a thought for the night.