Subways
Take a ride with us on the A train for OffLine's season opener. All aboard for Muriel Magenta and Michael Udow's "Token City," a brilliant computer animation in which a subway becomes the location for transforming an everyday commute into an extraordinary sensory experience. Joseph Spaid's "Watch the Closing Doors" is an angst-ridden exploration of a deteriorating psyche in New York's gritty subterranean environment - the subway. Locomotion blends with footsteps in "Keep Moving" by Rohesia Hamilton Metcalfe. Next stop: OffLine's feature interview with the Vashon Island-based performance art group Umo, an intensely creative troupe well-known in the Pacific Northwest for its surreal costumes and situationist pranks. While laying over in the Northwest, OffLine's subway brings you "Fish Out of Water," the lastest music video from Seattle's avante-pop group Tall. Also on the rail: "What You Thoughtlessly Discount", by Peter Freund, and Su Rynard's "Cyber Hippies", a brief foray into the international rave scene that explores Zippy (techno-hippy) culture and its interface with politics, fashion, and new technology.

Ambience
Relax and enjoy as OffLine serenely drifts its way through an hour of ambient art. Caressing the senses first is veteran video artist Sam Rosenthal's "Bombardment," from his Black Tape for a Blue Girl video compilation. Jason Suedath's "Empty," explores the ambience of emptiness by following the daily activity of Sue Hughes, a movie company account executive whose empty life is changed as she establishes friendships. Brian Moonan's "Caserole" soothes the eyes with a reflective contemplation of the passage of time and the changes which come through the experience of death and the loss of innocence. OffLine's special feature begins Part I of a series of presentations of "Altered Spaces," a four-person installation at the Dowd Fine Arts Gallery in Cortland, NY. In this episode OffLine presents the work of Denise Pelletier. Concluding the program is the ambient creation by Moira Lauten, "Form and Movement."

Parents
OffLine celebrates mothers and fathers with this episode's pieces. Rossana Jeran's "M(other)" portrays a dark side of the feminine archetype - a visual path exploring the rites of initiation into motherhood and the inevitable examination of personal realtionships. Maria Vitiello and David Thomas' "An Idea of Mother," centers on the tensions that derive from the internal and external dialogues surrounding a woman's ability to bear children. This is a unique look at the complex social, economic, and political aspects of pregnancy. Sue Wrbican examines her difficult relationship with her father by adopting the physical condition of the family's home as a visual metaphor in "Back Roof". The family reunion continues with James Shepard's "Baby Killer," a comic short about a newborn who avenges her parents when they take away her TV remote control. At home in OffLine's "Parents" episode is David Hodes' "The Settlement," a dark tale of a driver and mechanic's pact concerning who will bear responsibility for a young girl's death on the highway.

Mutations
The growing field of genetics takes center stage in the Mutations episode with "Blue Gene Baby," an provocative music video by England's Christine Robertson, with music by J.J. Johnson. Also in OffLine's test tube is "8 Men Called Eugene," by Su Rynard, a seductive and witty faux documentary that unravels the work of eight genetic scientists, and spawns an uncomfortable parallel between the eugenic past and the genetic future. Robert Wyrod's "In Vivo," probes the recent advances in molecular biology by examining the boundaries between biotechnology and the human body. Mutations also features Part II of the "Altered Spaces" exhibit by detailing Edward Mayer's installation of DNA-like structures made of wood dowels and fencing. Brian Moonan's "October" and Kirk-o-Matic's "Escarpment" also mutate our senses.

Extremes
"Queen of the Mist" tells the story of Annie Edson Taylor - the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrell. This sad story of an old woman's failed reach for fame and glory is the collaborative effort of video artrist Rohesia Hamilton Metcalfe and poet Joan Murray. Jeremy Newman's "Synagogues on Fire," uses the past as a warning for the future, by combining stark images of the Holocaust and the Nazi propaganda film "Triumph of the Will" with images that portray the current cultural trend toward desensitization. "Is Essential" by Peter Freund recontextualizes a white male supremist's speech into a haunting vision of the dangers of ethnic hatred. On the other extreme is "Art for Our Sake" by Moira Lauten, a celebration of the nature of art as a non-commercial and spiritual activity. Also pushing the envelope on the "Extremes" episode is Rick Iacolvelli's "Artist Books" a creative display of handcrafted books created by Iacovelli.

Smoke
This week's episode lights up with Chris Wasmer's "Lucy," the story of two pot dealing housemates who come to terms with the serious danger of dealing drugs. "Reefer Madness Œ93" plays upon the camp created by the original cult classic "Reefer Madness" to tell the tale of an innocent college student's iniation into the seedy world of dope. The Seattle underground film collective Reagan Revolution brings us "Marihuana Pagoda," a film that adopts unconventional film production techniques to create a vibrant cinema with little regard for film making protocol. Joel Baird and Rick Phillips continue the "Smoke" episode by bringing us their latest video "Something to do with the Weather," a collection of shorts including "Damn That Rhonda" and "The Cuckolded Farmer." OffLine's feature guest interview is Artis the Spoonman, the internationally-known street perfomer recently spotlighted in the 1994 Soundgarden song "Spoonman."

Caverns
This week OffLine explores the recesses of art by presenting Part III of the "Altered Spaces" exhibit. This segment highlights "Hoodoo," an installation of stalagmite-like structures incorporating soundscapes and video by Megan Roberts and Ray Ghirardo. Canadian filmmaker Shwan Goldberg brings us his wit in the film "Someone to Love," which centers on an individual who tries to succeed in business and love in the hollows of Hollywood. Russ and Taly Johnson's "I Remember," is a humorous look at how television creates and influences personal memory. Also from the Johnsons is "Freds, Fish, Fresh Air," a collection of humrous shorts. In a similar humrous vein is Stephanie Vittas "Awake Marilyn," in which a pizza delivery person is caught up in the criminal limelight of security surveillance cameras as she delivers pizzas to apartment buildings, warehouses, and department stores. David Gebroe's "38 Geary" finishes OffLine's Caverns episode with a spontaneous performance created on the 38 Geary bus in San Francisco. The film traces the daily travails of an office worker and his unusual transit experience.