Fairy Tales

Once upon a time there lived two German brothers named Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm who gained fame with their books of fairy tales. Much later there lived an American travel writer by the same family name who hoped to claim them as kin. This is a tale of Tom Grimm. Was it possible that some of the creative genes of the literary Grimm Brothers had passed through the generations to me? My initial search in the summer of 1962 wasn't encouraging.

Eileen Cowin is a noted L.A. photo and video artist in midcareer. She's spent some years thinking about fairy tales and how they relate to everyday existence. The latest manifestations of these musings are on view at Cal State Long Beach's art museum under the general title "Eileen Cowin: Returning to Ordinary Life." A 4 1/2-minute video projection is the central theme piece.

Once upon a time, there was a magnificent golden castle on a silver cloud high up in the sky, which has nothing to do with anything because our story is about an old woodchopper who lived in a shack, but that's a good way to start a fairy tale . . . . Sound familiar? If you're of a certain age and of a certain twisted frame of mind (or were of such mind a few short decades ago), then you will recognize at once the inimitable opening of yet another "Fractured Fairy Tale."

Brian Henson, son of the late Jim Henson, was looking for new territory for the Muppets to conquer. They'd done TV and movies but never a production geared strictly to video. * So "Muppet Classic Theater" was born, the direct-to-video debut of Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and the gang.

Science a la Mode: Physical Fashions and Fictions by Tony Rothman (Princeton University Press: $19.95; 207 pages) Science is based on the assumption that there is an objective truth in the world out there that scientists can get closer and closer to through experiment, observation and thought. Scientific truths are therefore not like hemlines, which go up and down with the season and whose truth is socially constructed, a matter of consensus. The "objective truth" model is an ideal, and we feel it in our bones, but no one can prove whether it is accurate or not. There is also an irreducible element of referendum to truth.

He was perched on a downtown wall, trying to catch the eye of tourists and shoppers as they strolled by, bags clutched firmly in hand, all business. He wore a red woolen shirt with a hole in the back, stone-washed jeans and tennis shoes. His pale blue eyes were pretty clear. He needed a shave, though, and his breath smelled like too many New Year's mornings. "Got a quarter, man?" he asked, shaking a McDonald's coffee cup.

The week draws to a close with premieres of three series, two of them labeled comedies and the third a drama that returns Ed Asner to weekly TV as a tough--what else?--high school principal. Tonight brings "Roomies" (at 8:30 p.m.) and "The Bronx Zoo" (at 10 p.m) on NBC (Channels 4, 36, 39), both debuting out of their regular time slots in a move to give them maximum early exposure. In the case of "Roomies," that means initially following "The Cosby Show," America's most popular series.

The way Jeanette Reynolds tells it, hers was a chance fairy-tale second meeting with the shy, intelligent boy she had this crazy crush on, way back in 10th-grade biology class. It was at a 20th high school reunion party in Whittier that a friend set her up with still-shy Paul Reynolds. Jeanette didn't waste any time. "I had this really big crush on you in high school," she told him right off the bat. They were married two years later.

Whoever said fairy tales were merely kid's stuff ("Scary Ever After," July 17)? Many fairy tales were cleverly disguised satires of the political and social life of their times, and were intended for adults, not children. Even the master of the macabre, Alfred Hitchcock himself, was fascinated with the Grimm Brothers and their grotesque creatures, and was heavily influenced by them. However, I don't object to little tykes reading these violent and gruesome fairy tales; threatening to send a bratty, obnoxious, out-of-control child off to the wicked witch or fire-shooting dragon works wonders on family discipline.

Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine fractured fairy tales with the popular musical "Into the Woods." Following their footsteps, the new dance-theater company Beggarman, Thief emphasizes the grim in the brothers Grimm at Highways. The company's dark "Fairy Tales" offers no songs and minimal dance, but it's definitely aimed at the gay of heart, in every sense of the word. This marks the company's debut using original work.