Dan Webster

Nadia and Nikita Mikhalkov star in "Burnt by the Sun."

Pat Conroy is most famous as the author of "The Great Santini" and "The Prince of Tides."

If there's one way that men and women are truly similar, it's in their desire for pain-free living. Only our methods of soothing that pain seem different. As the millennium draws to a close, technology offers us more and varied means of fleeing from pain in all its forms - physical, emotional, imaginary, etc. Many are effective, but only for a while. Some don't work at all. But here's what looks like a first: A husband-wife team who will be visiting Spokane this week claims to be able to help you solve your problems "instantaneously." Say again, "instantaneously."

Sharon McKay remembers playing it mostly in the spring. Sometimes in the fall. Certainly all through summer vacation. And most definitely she and her childhood friends played it at a certain time of day. "Always after dinner, right?" she says. "It was always so dark you could hardly SEE each other. It always had to be after dinner. I could never remember playing that game in the daytime, and I don't know anybody else who did."

Daniel Jack Chasan, Matthew Chasan and John Doerper are all Washington residents whose book "Washington" (Compass American Guides, 331 pages, $17.95) is part of the Fodor's Travel Publications series. And if you didn't know the three authors lived on the West Side, a quick look at the book would tell you so.

If you walk down the aisles of the Lincoln Heights Hastings store, you're bound to notice a couple of things. One, the three copies of "Oleanna" seem always to be rented. This is strange, considering the littleknown film, which is based on an obscure David Mamet play, never had a wide theatrical release. Two, "Sid and Nancy" is on the wall with the other "best-renters."

Above, civil defense leaders and newspaper men are lighted by the flash glare of a desert atom bomb test explosion in 1953. At right, another atomic test explosion. This one at the Bikini Atoll site in the South Pacific in 1956. Photos by Associated Press

What with all the changes to the Skywalk section of River Park Square, you might not have heard that The Children's Corner Bookshop is moving. Now situated at 814 W. Main, the city's only just-for-kids bookstore is in the process of relocating one block east to 714 W. Main, which will place it between The Bon and Nordstrom in the spot formerly held by Women's World. The move is scheduled for July 15, but co-owner Susan Durrie describes that date as tentative. "Certainly by the end of July," she says.

Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon and Tom Hanks star in 'Apollo 13.'

For the past couple of years, the internecine warfare in and around the former Yugoslavia has been a prominent part of our daily news reports. But how many of us know what's really going on there? Furthermore, how can we even begin to understand the passions and long-held hatreds that would cause one nationalistic group to so willfully murder another? "Before the Rain" provides some answers.

If life were just, then all athletes would be defined only by their numbers.

One of the ways that we traditionally celebrate humanity is to honor those who, for whatever reason, seek something new. Until recently, the subject of the search wasn't considered important. Neither were the negative effects of the process. Whoever looked over the next rise, metaphorically or literally, was thought to be worthy of respect.

Sean Connery and Richard Gere are pals, for a while, in "First Knight."

Everybody likes to pick on lawyers, even other lawyers. (Ever read a John Grisham book?) And why not? Since the time of Solomon, those who profit from the misfortune of others haven't exactly been welcome at the dinner table.

Michael Meade is a former New York boy who, through a lifetime of self-examination, has become a man to whom other men tend to listen. He brings a traditional sense of masculinity to a movement that has taken pains to redefine the very notion of manliness. Meade is a role model for men who might otherwise equate vulnerability with wimpishness. A storyteller, drummer and author ("Men and the Water of Life"), Meade will co-lead a summer retreat for men called "Bound for the Sacred" on Aug 5-7 on the Kitsap Peninsula. Meade's co-leader will be Malidoma Some, a West African native, scholar and author ("Ritual: Power, Healing and Community").

You may remember her as the older lover of high-school wrestler Loudon Swain (Matthew Modine) in the film version of "Vision Quest." How about the older lover of the college student played by Anthony Edwards ("E.R.") in "Gotcha"? Or you may remember her from any number of other small roles she's played over the past decade, from "The Moderns" to "After Hours." But however you've seen her, chances are you've noticed Linda Fiorentino.

The author of "Fire Line" will read with a slide-show presentation at 7 p.m., Friday at BookPeople in Moscow.

Jervey Tervalon and Susan Straight will speak and read from their books at 7 p.m. Thursday at Auntie's.

It's a wonderful city, Seattle. Sitting there on the Sound, Mount Rainier in one direction, the Olympic Peninsula in another, Seattle is a veritable urban jewel. Sometimes on a clear day, especially at twilight, the city's beauty very nearly matches San Francisco's. Or, at the very least, Ritzville's. Just kidding. I love Ritzville.

Audiences are going bats for "Batman Forever."

Tom Wilkinson and Linus Roache star.

When it comes to great art, suffering tops the list of requisites. Or so some art lovers want us to believe. Yet nothing is more tiresome than watching an angst-filled artist alternately preen and hyperventilate between aweinspiring performances. It's the performance, after all, that we pay to see, not neurotic posturing.

Hollywood's tendency is to take a director who shows some flair and place him or, in the case of Gillian Armstrong, her in an untenable situation.

FOR THE RECORD CORRECTION: Ursula Hegi will read from her book "Stones From the River" at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Auntie's Bookstore. The wrong date was reported in Sunday's IN Life section. Correction published on June 20, 1995. COLUMN