The Art World (The Art Galleries) Elitism vs. Mobocracy by Calvin Tomkins.

The Talk of the Town Synopsis by Ian Frazier. Talk story about a martial-arts demonstration by movie actor and 6-time world middleweight karate champion Chuck Norris and a showing of his new movie, "The Octagon," for 1200 kids from the Police Athletic League summer program at the R.K.O. Cinerama I Theatre, Broadway and 47th St. Writer asks...

Musical Events Supple Song by Nicholas Kenyon.

The Talk of the Town Three Incidents by Berton Roueche. Talk story about three aberrations of nature writer witnessed at his home in the country. First a bird--a little red-breasted finch--tried to build a nest on the slick surface of a galvanized-iron box on writer's verandah. The slightest breeze blew the nest away, but the bird...

Reflections THE HORIZONTAL CITY by Brendan Gill. REFLECTIONS about the physical history of Los Angeles, California. From the beginning Los Angeles was settled by people whose dream was to acquire land of their own, houses of their own. Sharing that dream, succeeding waves of new-comers created a horizontal city - one that to this day is said...

A Reporter at Large ON THE TERRACE by Berton Roueche. REPORTER AT LARGE about a cross-country train trip from New York to Seattle last March. Amtrak has made a considerable effort to restore to its trains the traditional pleasure of train travel. The Lake Shore Limited, between New York and Chicago, is composed of newly refurbished cars and manned...

Books Goya by V. S. Pritchett.

The Current Cinema Australians by Pauline Kael. Review of the great Australian film "The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith", which was made in 1978 and has finally opened here. It was adapted from Thomas Keneally's novel. (Keneally has a role in the film.) Published in 1972 the novel is no longer in print. Writer says the library copy...

Comment by Jonathan Schell. It has become hardened dogma in both the Republican and Democratic Parties in recent years that the Soviet Union is enlarging its influence at an alarming rate. If the Soviets have a plan for world conquest it has not been going well. In Poland, the largest of the Soviet Union's...

Concert Records / Popular Music Superb Sixth by Winthrop Sargeant.

Letter from Rome by William Murray. Next to government, tourism is Rome's leading industry 4 million visitors are expected to have shown up between Apr. and Oct. They are being asked to give written replies to questions about their visits. Many of the city's most famous sights are inaccessible because of urban pollution. They are behind...

Fiction Ice by Elizabeth Tallent. The narrator skates in an ice show. Her mother's Abyssinian cat will not bear kittens. Her mother is adamant about the value of certain things: old Persian rugs, McGredy's ivory roses, Abyssinian cats. Her grandmother hated cats. She died as a result of a fall down a flight of icy...

The Talk of the Town Mischief by Mark Singer. Talk story about W. Bernard Richland and attending a session of a course he gives at New York Law School, on Worth Street, about 5 blocks from City Hall. He was the city's corporation counsel--its chief civil advocate--from 1975 through 1977. Recently he published a book called "You...

Fiction From Gamut to Yalta by Mavis Gallant. A privileged young man reminisces about his marriage and his writing career. He had never intended to marry but, at 17, he found himself engaged to Lady Sedilia Gamut and the head of an establishment on Curzon St. which included 12 servants and 2 nanies. During the Spanish Civil War...

The Talk of the Town Rafting-Up by Mark Singer. Talk story about Captain Jack Eichholz, a Chevrolet salesman from Yonkers, who spends his weekends on the water with his friends in Bronx Power Squadron No. 101. Captain Jack is commander of the Squadron, which is a unit of United States Power Squadrons, a private boating fraternity. You don't have...

Poetry Winter on the River by William Meredith. A long orange knife slits the darkness...

Poetry An Ox Looks at Man by Carlos Drummond De Andrade. They are more delicate even than shrubs and they run and run...