If there is a consistent theme running through "Jo Jo" if indeed it is his life, it's a sad one. (The film opens at the new Goldwyn Pavilion today) The principals of this San Francisco-based chamber film are the cheerfully assimilated Geraldine Tam (Laureen Chew) and her resolutely un -assimilated mother, Mrs. Doug Simay and Stanley Fried, the two partners behind Java, had invited a couple hundred of their friends to preview what Fried says will be a combination art and performance cabaret and coffeehouse. The encounter can be as brief as that little dance we all do in doorways to get safely past one another without-saints forbid-touching.

I thought: Great, that means we'll have police all over the set tomorrow. The play will transfer to the Kennedy Center from the playhouse in exchange for a modern adaptation of Sophocles' tragedy, "Ajax" The photos of Des McAnuff and Peter Sellars were transposed in Thursday's Calendar. Among the subsidiary cards, Lauren Rouse expertly weathered the mock clumsiness of the Rose Adago spoof in the opening section (or "first deal) and, a shuffle later, Patrick Corbin danced his solo nimbly enough to suggest the notion of a second Joker disguised as the Two of Hearts. Had fate allowed Van Beinum to pursue his Los Angeles career, the Philharmonic might have ventured the "Spring Symphony" decades ago. He has a way of getting you to sing out if you are a little, you know, afraid" At the rehearsal last Saturday, Sims, soft-spoken in conversation, turned into something of a stern taskmaster. He admitted that, despite his love for his dancers, he's not the easiest person in a work situation.

Infrequent use of the poll will preserve the poll's novelty and prevent "frivolity" in survey results, he said. . "I like to think that bitterness is behind me" said King one recent afternoon, forcing a laugh. Before she had discovered her own talent as a songwriter, Blossom Dearie was content to record the works of others, with a first-rate jazz backing Her wafer-thin voice still suggests a 33 r. p. m. They're not quite like that' " said Jason Everly, whose father and uncle are the Everly Brothers. But maybe it'll show up on cable TV" Beaird, like many film makers of this genre, feels that most of the raunch is quite innocent and that the "spirit of fun is what dominates in the genre.

Vincent Ferrelli's direction keeps the mood bright, yet he is considerate of the play's more mellow tones. "Can you imagine a guy breaking into your car" Chadbourne said of the incident, "and he steals your guitar case 'cause he thinks it's a guitar, and he gets it home and opens it up and there's a rake inside it, an electric toilet plunger and a dog skull? That actually happened" Chadbourne's bird-cage solo was a big highlight of Shockabilly's Music Machine set here last summer. Before seeing the band, you knew from the group's two albums that its themes are more suggested than defined. At the Crossroads Theatre, CYT's "Joseph" is alive with vigor and freshness. There's nothing wrong with people being happy, but that is only one side of life. This is a self-consciously "liberated" disc, with an ensemble of women giving exemplary performances of four short quartets composed by women composers between 1929 and 1978.

Despite problems which normally occur when musicians play for four uninterrupted hours, the performance was stunning. She said that Pittas will be engaged in full-time research under provisions of a year's fellowship. The present performance, conducted with stunning power and intensity by Georges Pretre, and handsomely played by the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic, is an altogether brilliant accomplishment. There's a rich devil's food cake, but the most chocolaty item is the deceptively named chocolate cheese cake, which tastes like the inside of a soft chocolate with chocolate filling. Or do you think it's an accident that Mick's name is mentioned four times in the opening paragraph? And it's not even that long a paragraph. But at the very core of things is the question of why Beresford made "King David" If it was to tell an amazing series of stories, he has more than succeeded. It is a blend that makes the work come across with the ideological rigor of the old Russian avant-garde.

Creative viewers can interpret such moments (and, in fact, most of this work) as a clash between celestial liberation and earthbound restraint. Ferri bursts forth in a revealing fit of exquisite, uncontrollable passion. "We are a congenial group here" he said of the Northridge composition faculty, of which he is a 26-year veteran. But in general we don't sense an ease in this kind of dining room. Some of the unusual sounds she makes might strike the listener as funny "I don't mind an audience laughing" La Barbara said.

Nevertheless, this TV version does convey at least some of the fragrance and wit that "Sunday" had on the stage. But while some of the costuming and makeup is inventive, the production is without style or verve. The calendar page is turned daily and De Mille's tobacco humidor is kept freshly stocked. Monique Van de Ven, the beautiful and talented blond actress of Paul Verhoeven's "Turkish Delight" and "Keetje Tippel" stars in "Dreamland" as a young working-class wife whose postpartum depression leads her to an addiction to tranquilizers. Every bit as effective as he is in the current "Birdy" and "Mrs. Dunne is sour on everything; what is it about him that keeps his wife, for all her digs at him, from throwing him over? What is it about him that Young finds so attractive, even allowing for her anger at Watt? Another woman (Dana Delany, after describing him accurately as "insensitive to everybody" tells him that his appeal lies in his constant misery ! But then everybody seems to be miserable, and determined to take it out on everyone else.

What I liked from the start was that Welland and Yorkin sidestepped the affluent middle class where the movies customarily espy their marital dramas. And when Farago wrote his final book, "The Last Days of Patton" Scott immediately optioned it. In the process, Longo often dramatizes poses and always standardizes attire into quite formal, black-and-white clothing. His craftsmanship is fine, but his sense of color and design is better. Taking time away from her ambassadorial efforts (she's long been spreading American good will throughout the world, her studies (she recently received a theology degree from Georgetown University) and her writing (she's authored five books, Bailey opened her first Los Angeles show in too many years by announcing that she's "on the road again" Her opening number, a medley of city tunes, showed her low-range alto in fine shape on an uptempo tune. He said he put the disco backing on the narration because that is the style in which he works. Rosalind, the central figure, has a lot to teach Orlando about love-his idea is simple and true blue.

It feels like an act of treason, high foolishness and ecstatic liberation, all tumbled into one. The only notable one is "Berry Gordy's the Last Dragon" (CBS-Fox, $79. 95, which co-stars sultry pop/rock singer Vanity in this strange mix of martial arts and R&B music There are no significant new releases next week In January: The week of Jan. "I've had people from Maine and California stop in here looking for Hoss Cartwright" Orval Miller, owner of Miller's Grocery, said of the influx of fans of the long-running series in which Dan Blocker played the hulking cowboy. Thirty years later, that school has blossomed into Tulsa Ballet Theatre, a 29-dancer company that will appear Thursday at Mandeville Center Auditorium, UC San Diego, Saturday at El Camino College in Torrance and next Sunday afternoon at the Wadsworth Theater in Westwood.