TAKE 5: MUSIC : DINING.

`Riders' remain smooth: After 20 years, Riders in the Sky are still bringing three-part cowboy harmony to the people.

Little has changed since Ranger Doug, Too Slim and Woody Paul joined forces in 1977. By then, all three were regular performers on the Nashville club circuit.

Woody Paul first encountered Ranger Doug when he opened as a solo guitarist for the latter's bluegrass band at Vanderbilt University. Too Slim met Doug because they were neighbors in West Nashville.

Riders in the Sky began as a living-room sing-along. The trail has taken the trio through almost 200 network TV appearances, 200 public radio shows and two TV series, as well as 3,500-plus concerts.

Riders in the Sky appear Sunday as part of the Valley Cultural Center's free Concerts in the Park series at Warner Park's Lou Bredlow Pavilion in Woodland Hills. The Valleyaires kick off the show with barbershop songs.

Although the singing cowboy was a 1930s Hollywood creation, the Riders maintain a healthy respect for the real-life culture and ethics of the American West. Riders in the Sky call it the Cowboy Way.

Warner Park is at 5800 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Woodland Hills. Show time is 4 p.m. and there is no charge. Information: [phone].

?13- Fred Shuster

Hedonistic happening: Its sponsors are describing it as ``a multicourse essay in sensory pleasures.''

Titled ``Cinema on the Half Shell,'' the event takes place 8 p.m. Saturday at the Southern California School of Culinary Arts, 1420 El Centro St., South Pasadena.

Included in the $75 price of admission is a multicourse dinner by the school's faculty beginning with Absolut cocktail appetizers of oysters with sake, jerk chicken, profiteroles of goat cheese, and sun-dried tomato and tuna carpaccio.

These will be served during a concert by the Repercussion Unit and the viewing of a sculpture in progress by Karen Bonfigli and Andreas Hessing.

The four-course dinner will share attention with 10 animated short films running from three to 16 minutes.

Attendees start with a corn and hominy fire-roasted chile soup with cilantro, then enjoy sauteed skate wing with a currant-tomato compote. Roast duck breast with wilted greens follow and a white chocolate banana tart with a peanut creme Anglaise is the dessert.

A vegetarian alternative meal is also available.

The event is produced by the NewTown Pasadena Foundation.

Reservations mandatory: [phone].

?13- Larry Lipson

film

Making good `Contact': ``Contact'' is packed with the kinds of lively ideas that most science-fiction movies treat like the Dark Side of the Force. Based on the late Carl Sagan's novel, the film speculates, relatively realistically, about the impact first contact from an extra-stellar transmission might have on politics, economics and religion.

Jodie Foster, in her finest performance, stars as a driven radio-astronomer who first hears the message, then struggles to become the individual chosen to actually meet the aliens. She's a confirmed rationalist, of course, but her effort eventually forces her to confront her own highly personal feelings about faith.

Director Robert Zemeckis pulls some of his usual tricks - kind of reversing the ``Forrest Gump'' gag, he morphs President Clinton into the action - but this is really the gimmick-happy filmmaker's most character-based big movie. And while the philosophical questions raised here may not be worked out with intellectual rigor, ``Contact'' nonetheless has more smart notions than any sci-fi film you've seen in years.

?13- Bob Strauss

family

Colorado Bridge party: Pasadena Heritage presents Celebration on the Colorado Bridge beginning 6 p.m. Saturday on the bridge, south of the Ventura Freeway (134) between Orange Grove Boulevard and Linda Vista Avenue, Pasadena.

Children's entertainment includes face painting, balloons, tile painting, a petting zoo and the Westridge School Circus Arts performers.

The event includes live music performances by Lisa Haley & the Zydekats, John ``Juke'' Logan and the Chill Aces, Frank Jordan's Compact Big Band and more.

Food and beverage can be purchased from Baldwin's Baked Potato, the Cobbler Factory, Crown City Brewery, Los Tacos, Manny's Pizza and more.

Tickets are $10 for members, $12.50 for nonmembers in advance and $15 the night of the event. Tickets for children ages 7-11 can be purchased for half price; call [phone].

?13- Jay Fremed

art

Sumo's really something: OK, think fast: The national sport of Japan is 1) rush-hour commuting, 2) pearl diving, or 3) sumo wrestling. Give yourself high marks if you answered No. 3.

Then make a date to visit the Japanese American National Museum exhibition ``Sumo U.S.A.: Wrestling the Grand Tradition.'' Running through Nov. 30, this multimedia display focuses on how a 1,500-year-old Japanese athletic rite moved east to Hawaii and the mainland United States. Using photos, artifacts and assorted memorabilia, ``Sumo U.S.A.'' documents not only how sumo influenced Japanese-American culture, but how the sport was changed by the participation of American-born sumotori. Measure your manliness against life-size cutouts of actual sumotori! Learn to tell the difference between a chonmage (wrestler's topknot) and a kubinage (headlock throw technique).

The museum, at 369 E. First St. in downtown L.A.'s Little Tokyo section, is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday through Sunday; and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday. For information, call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

4 Photos

Photo: (1) Astronomer Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster) listens for signals from outer space in ``Contact.''

(2) This picture of a 1930s sumo wrestling tournament is part of the exhibition ``Sumo U.S.A.: Wrestling the Grand Tradition'' at the Japanese American National Museum.

(3) Riders in the Sky appear Sunday as part of the Valley Cultural Center's free Concerts in the Park series in Woodland Hills.

(4) Pasadena Heritage presents Celebration on the Colorado Bridge, south of the Ventura Freeway (134) between Orange Grove Boulevard and Linda Vista Avenue in Pasadena, beginning at 6 p.m. Saturday.