The weather was again on the side of the Musical Festival of the Hamptons Friday night for another outdoor concert in the festival's third season. Two days of rain and chill subsided about an hour before "The American Connection" featuring the festival's artistic director, Lukas Foss, and the world-renowned clarinetist Richard Stoltzman.

Once again, the beautiful festival tent at the Hampton Classic grounds in Bridgehampton swelled with eager concert-goers.

I have been a Stoltzman fan for many years, having first heard him in a New York premiere of a work by Takemitsu composed for the ensemble TASHI. I recall that I was impressed with both his personal and his musical style. I had never heard the clarinet played with such remarkable tone, control, and warmth.

Consummate Performer

Friday evening found Mr. Stoltzman still the consummate performer. "Three Preludes" of George Gershwin, arranged for clarinet and piano, opened the evening, and Messrs. Stoltzman and Foss were perfectly at ease with the jazz influences of the pieces.

When one of the evening trains rumbled by the tent, dragging its whistle through the Doppler effect, Mr. Stoltzman lifted his clarinet into the air in Benny Goodman style and blew his heart out. The audience was charmed, as they were by a delightful exchange between the two artists after the piece that was reminiscent of a Rowan and Martin routine.

Next Mr. Foss gave us "Piano Blues" by Aaron Copland, whom he called "the dean of American music." Geese chose to fly by during the movement titled "Freely Poetic," causing us listeners to sigh and smile warmly, remembering Copland's musical tributes to America and thinking how apropos to have wild birds fly over our field to salute the composer.

Two By Ives

The piano continued through "Soft and Languid," "Muted and Sensuous," and "With Bounce," each piece living up to its descriptive name under Mr. Foss's authority. At the end, Mr. Stoltzman suggested that Copland must have written the "Piano Blues" in the hopes that it would someday be played by Lukas Foss. I think perhaps he was right.

Two selections by Charles Ives, "In the Morning" and "Serenity," reminded me why I have bought all of Stoltzman's recordings. He can hold a long note like a violinist with great bow control. The air quality seems to change when he plays, as if one can actually feel the clarinet.

In "New York Counterpoint" by Steve Reich, we hear Mr. Stoltzman multiplied by 11. The piece was written for 11 clarinets, and for this performance Mr. Stoltzman recorded 10 of the parts and then played the 11th along with the tape.

Tricky And Humorous

It's a wonderfully tricky and humorous work, and while composed in the minimalist style, it never demands that the listener wait for ages for something to happen, but rather begins to build from the first notes. I have heard it many times on recordings, and it was a treat to see Mr. Stoltzman perform it in person with 10 of his own echoes.

In "Kleines Rondo" by Paul Hindemith (incidentally, the teacher of Lukas Foss), the two performers bounced off one another with the same jocularity that characterized their colorful verbal exchanges between musical selections.

Mr. Foss shared with us that Hindemith had influenced his own compositional style, from its early classical leanings to a more "modern American" form.

Uniquely Bernstein

In "Composer's Holiday," which Mr. Foss originally wrote for violin and piano, we hear direct snatches from "Dixie" and developmental material that carries both the theme and rhythm throughout.

"I think," said Mr. Stoltzman at the end of the piece, "that this piece is better on clarinet." Responded Mr. Foss, "I don't think Itzhak Perlman would agree with that."

The evening closed with Leonard Bernstein's "Sonata for Clarinet and Piano."

"In this piece," remarked Mr. Stoltzman, "you will hear things that sound like 'West Side Story,' but he hadn't written it yet." With that in mind, one can certainly hear snippets that might have foreshadowed "Maria" and "Tonight," along with other uniquely Bernstein refrains throughout the course of the piece.

Brahms Celebration

Mr. Foss and Mr. Stoltzman delivered an interpretation full of great sensitivity to one another's playing, swelling and skimming through passages like two oarsmen in complete synchronicity. They encored with a poignant improvisation on "Amazing Grace." It was quite one of the most enjoyable musical evenings I have ever spent.

Parrish Hall at Southampton Hospital provided a more intimate setting for Saturday's concert, "A Brahms Celebration on the 100th Anniversary of His Death." It has always mystified me why we celebrate the death of composers, but any occasions will do to commemorate Brahms by performing his music.

To begin the performance on Saturday, Judith Kellock, a soprano, was joined at the piano by Andrew Willis for 12 songs of Brahms. The text used by the composer is typically of the Romantic period: searching for truth and beauty, reveling in love, crying for love.

Exceptional Poise

Ms. Kellock is a singer of exceptional poise, as lovely to watch as she is to hear. She appears never to take a breath, yet each note enjoys complete support and full development.

Mr. Willis's sensitive accompaniment added balance and rhythmic richness to complete the musical tableau. The two artists broke during the scheduled songs to present five "Ophelia Lieder," songs set by Brahms from Ophelia's mad scene in "Hamlet."

Ms. Kellock gave a dramatic interpretation in character before singing each song, surely a mark of her artistic versatility. She drew Mr. Willis into this rendition of the Shakespeare text, an enchanting departure from conventional recital setting.

The remainder of the cycle was beautifully executed with both performers displaying a lightness of tone that softened the sometimes gloomy tendency of the text while still lending it dignity and depth.

Better Every Year

The Resident Chamber Ensemble with Brian Krinke and Jackie Carrasco, violins, Ralph Farris, viola, and Zuill Bailey, cello, were joined by a clarinetist, David Oppenheim, for the Clarinet Quintet (Op. 115).

The music of Brahms always de mands complete precision, but especially in small groups each player is exposed and must be on top of his game. The young resident strings play like seasoned professionals, at ease with the challenges of Brahms and skilled at ensemble playing. Mr. Op pen heim's strong rendition of the clarinet part ranged from deep to dulcet, adding a profound richness to the performance.

The Music Festival of the Hamptons has succeeded again in serving a banquet of music to the East End, which seems to get better every year. Judging by the turnout at each venue, there is great support and enthusiasm for the series. The organizers of the event should rest assured that they will be warmly welcomed back for many summers to come.

It took 65 days for Suffolk County District Attorney James M. Catterson Jr. to decide that no charges should be filed against Martha Stewart for reportedly pinning Harry Macklowe's landscaper against a gate with her Chevy Suburban. While the D.A.'s opinion that the root cause of the incident - the longstanding hostility between Ms. Stewart and her neighbor Mr. Macklowe - was best settled in civil court, his involvement in the case at all is suspect.

That Matthew J. Munnich, the landscaper, should have been caught, literally, between two combative neighbors was unfortunate and unfair. Ms. Stewart's vehicular maneuver seemed by most accounts to be as East Hampton Village Police Chief Glen Stonemetz characterized it at the start: unintentional, but nonetheless reckless. In the chief's opinion, a misdemeanor charge, no more (but no less), was warranted.

What, then, prompted Mr. Catterson to go to the extreme of having his senior staff, himself included, review Mr. Munnich's complaint? A statement from his office announces the decision that "the confrontation between Ms. Stewart and Mr. Munnich . . . does not warrant arrest and criminal prosecution." It also states that "celebrity status alone cannot be considered a relevant factor in deciding whether or not to prosecute in a particular case."

Exactly. The statement begs the issue, which is that a misdemeanor charge stemming from an incident such as this never would have reached the District's Attorney's desk if it weren't for the fact that Ms. Stewart is a celebrity.

The yearlong ugliness between the Georgica Close Road neighbors has been the subject of debate as much on the checkout line at local delis as in the national tabloid news. Undoubtedly, the talk is fueled by the love-to-hate-them notoriety of the combatants - Ms. Stewart, the doyenne of domesticity whose image is often spoofed, and Mr. Macklowe, the Manhattan real estate developer, known for tearing down buildings (and building a fence) in the middle of the night.

Mr. Catterson was quoted in The Star late last month saying it was precisely the "notoriety" of Ms. Stewart and Mr. Macklowe that prompted him not to "rush to judgment and cause a spectacle."

His office gave a similar response to questions about the extraordinary investigation into a far more serious matter, the 1995 rape of a Southampton College student by Kerry Kotler, a Montauk fisherman convicted just this month. Mr. Kotler made national news after D.N.A. evidence helped clear him of an earlier rape, for which he had spent 11 years in prison. That notoriety triggered an eight-month, around-the-clock effort by up to 75 detectives, a helicopter, and K-9 units.

The D.A.'s office declined to put a price on that effort, though millions would be a safe estimate. The costs of the two-month investigation into the Martha Stewart incident can be tallied by a different measure - public confidence.

Mr. Catterson's critics charge that the D.A. - who is, not so incidentally, running for re-election this year, as he was when Mr. Kotler was under investigation - weighed public reaction in both high-profile matters and did what he thought would be politically advantageous. The voters, undoubtedly, will tell us in November if he was right.

A double dead end, seclusion at the bottom of a steep driveway, and graceful stands of tall trees are what sold Peter Whelan and his then wife-to-be, Linley Pennebaker, back in 1980 on the site.

"We came down and thought we were in the Appalachian mountains. The elevation is about 80 feet above sea level."

Tucked into the hills of Noyac near Jessup's Neck and the Morton Wildlife Sanctuary, the acre and a half is part of a kettlehole left by the last glacier. Mr. and Mrs. Whelan and his three brothers cleared the land and built the house, which was completed in 1983. The couple and their four young children live in it today.

"The idea of the house is living in the woods," Mr. Whelan said. Every room has a balcony and one or two doors going outside, 11 in all. The house has six skylights and 40 windows. "They don't all match, but it's fine," Mrs. Whelan added.

First Things First

Deciding to build from the bottom up, they dug 10 feet below grade and nestled the first floor into the base of the slope. Over the course of the next two years, two more floors were built.

The house is something of a paradox: elegant on the outside, simple within. The first things you notice as you descend the driveway are the gently curved lines of its different roofs.

"The house is sort of shingle style with 'hip' dormers and roofs," said Mr. Whelan, who spent two years in China and Japan, where he became enamored of pagodas. "We wanted the house to have a soft look against the hill," he said.

Can Watch The Stars

On the first floor are an office, an open kitchen, and two living rooms. "The kids are sort of noisy and wild and needed their own space," Mrs. Whelan said. The children's living room also has a dining area.

The second living room, for adults, has four large couches and easily seats 30, which helps the Whelans entertain at family gatherings. Mr. Whelan's siblings outnumber his wife's; she is one among eight while he is one of 12.

A corner of the living room has a three-story-high atrium topped by a wraparound skylight that lets light pour in. The master bedroom is directly over the living room on the second floor and shares the same light. "We watch shooting stars at night," Mrs. Whelan said.

Also upstairs are their daughter's bedroom, and a second room where the three boys sleep "barracks style." There are four walkout porches on the second floor, and a fifth porch on the not yet finished third floor.

Camping Out

Much of the wood in the Whelans' house came from northern Vermont, where the Whelan and Koncelik families built rustic cabins 25 years ago. The kitchen counter, for instance, is a long, free-form length of wood from a Vermont tree. Many of the pine floor boards, some 20 inches wide, came from Vermont too.

"It was hard building," Mrs. Whelan recalls. "We were working all day at our jobs, so we'd build in the evenings and camp out." The largest problem came in trying to stabilize the back side of the hill, much of it sand.

"We terraced the hill with railroad ties and plantings of forsythia, weigela, and mock orange - whatever grew fast," Mrs. Whelan explained. Nonetheless, they endured several years of flooding until the land was safely reshaped. "Terracing is mud and water control," she said with authority.

Pure Water

They also ran into a lot of clay when they dug their well. "We ended up having to go down 160 feet," Mr. Whelan said. But in an area where many of the neighbors have contaminated well water from the chemicals used on the nearby Noyac Golf Course, their water is pure.

The house is 2,500 square feet, but looks bigger, undoubtedly because of the large number of windows and doors. "They cut down the boundaries between inside and out," Mr. Whelan said.

Building a homestead is nothing new to a member of the Whelan family. Peter Whelan's parents, Duane and Mary Whelan, moved to East Hampton in 1949. Together with Duane Whelan's sister and brother-in-law, Doris and Lawrence Koncelik, they bought 40 acres of woodland in Northwest Woods, East Hampton, and built simple cabins, with privies, in a sheltered hollow.

A Privy?

Several years later both families, working together, built larger houses using kits from the Warehouser Lumber Company and lived largely off the land. The two families had 22 children between them, and quite a few have built their own houses.

"I finished my father's house off when I was in eighth grade," said Mr. Whelan, a builder who was the contractor for the Bay Street Theatre renovation of its Long Wharf space in Sag Harbor. His father, the East Hampton Town attorney for many years, died two years ago.

Mr. and Mrs. Whelan share a bathroom with their sons, and therein lies a tale. "When Peter was building the house he'd say, 'Now this is where the privy is going to be?' I said, 'A privy? I want a toilet.' Peter said, 'You are really spoiled.' So my mother sent us this beautiful green toilet," Mrs. Whelan said.

Casual Life

Compared to his childhood in Northwest, Mr. Whelan said, "This is luxurious here. . . . We didn't get electricity in the big house until 1964."

Linley Whelan is the daughter of the well-known documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker of Sag Harbor. Until two years ago, she owned and operated Provisions, a Sag Harbor health food store. "Peter and I met at Provisions," she said.

The furnishings of their house are casual, if not even haphazard. For that matter, so are the grounds. A wreck of a sailboat given to Mr. Whelan by a friend sits in one corner of the front yard, as does an old merry-go-round from St. Andrew's Catholic Church in Sag Harbor. Wildflowers abound and pet rabbits scamper loose. To encourage reading and outdoor projects among the children, the cable TV connection has been turned off.

"Peter and I are not sticklers for perfection," Mrs. Whelan said, pointing to a wall on which the children had left some drawings and to a deep gouge left by a baseball bat. "Some people would be quite neurotic about it, but this is our life and it's always going to be this way."

"The house has turned into a real paradise for us and the children," Mrs. Whelan said.

AMAGANSETT

Turner to Adolfo and Eva Bertolotti, Shepard's Lane, $298,000.

Musnicki to Arlene Reckson, Handy Lane, $160,000.

Boyle to Timothy Dykman, Meet ing House Lane, $887,500.

BRIDGEHAMPTON

R.J. Mayer Pension Fund to Paul and Margareta Slayton, Scuttlehole Road, $275,000.

Wiskey Hill to William and Pamela Torres, Bridge Hill Lane, $154,000.

Konnon to Steven Saide, Hedges Lane, $775,000.

S.S.T. Foundation to Hendrick Kranenburg and Linda Frank enbach, Bridgefield Lane, $1,245,000.

Green River L.P. to Scuttlebut Assoc. Inc., agricultural re serve area off Scuttlehole Road, $200,000.

Wilcox to John Edward and Joan Morina, Brick Kiln Road, $215,000.

EAST HAMPTON

Steele to John Shanholt and Gail Kern, LaForest Lane, $800,000.

Munash to Gregg Grossman, Route 114, $399,000.

Zucan Prop. L.P., Georgica Pond House Inc., Lily Pond Lane, $1,283,000.

MONTAUK

Grego to Arcata Investments Inc., Montauk Manor Condo, $165,000.

NORTH HAVEN

Joly to Eric Fischl, Fresh Pond Road, $300,000.

Leader Federal Bank to Vasiliki Apostolopoulos, Barclay Drive, $738,000.

NORTHWEST

Munash to Adam and Jerry Horowitz, Hand's Creek Road, $435,000.

Janal Prop. Corp. to Charles and Marion Margolis, Gunpowder Lane, $292,500.

Gross to Charles and Irene Zegar, Clamshell Avenue, $998,000.

Monaco to Nikki Eckert, Two Holes of Water Road, $220,000.

NOYAC

Sireci Jr. to Frank Mecklenburg and Atina Grossmann, Whitney Road, $165,000.

SAG HARBOR

Jaffee to Alice and Leonard Mayhew, John Street, $520,000.

Cuomo to Lois Ficorelli, Joseph Francis Boulevard, $150,000.

Silvey Jr. to David and Sarah Loewenberg, Main Street, $151,000.

SAGAPONACK

Brancato to Jacqueline Marks, Greenleaf Lane, $195,000.

SPRINGS

Kornfield to Enver and Jennifer Islami, Runnymeade Drive, $195,000.

Wolters to John Newell, Wildflower Road, $245,000.

Gustavson to Barnaby Friedman and Kristin Guarino, Windward Way, $159,000.

Alberts to Stuart and Elizabeth Silver, Underwood Drive, $175,000.

WATER MILL

Ameron Land Corp. to Lauren Matt and Michael Jones, Little Noyack Path, $670,000.

MAB Const. USA Corp. to Clark McPherson, Deer Ridge Trail, $550,000.

Woltz to Jeffrey Pfeifle, West Mecox Road, $1,250,000.

Avalon Farm Inc. to Chris Mead, agricultural reserve area off Mecox Road, $190,000.

After deliberating for three days, a jury of six men and six women on Friday rejected Kerry Kotler's argument that he had been framed by police and found him guilty of the rape of a Southampton College student. A fisherman who lived in Montauk, Mr. Kotler is in the county jail awaiting sentencing.

The victim, who had declined comment until this week, has now confirmed she will go after Mr. Kotler a second time, in civil court.

She was 20 years old on Aug. 12, 1995, the day of the rape. Her parents and some female friends sat in the courtroom when she testified, with almost no show of emotion, for a day and a half. When the verdict was read, though, they all broke down and cried.

"I was definitely rejoicing. It has been a long two years," said the young woman in a telephone interview on Tuesday.

Cause For Stoicism

Her parents and friends were stoical for a reason, she said. "I didn't want to be emotional, to give him the satisfaction of knowing how he affected me. I think it was pretty clear that he thrives on making women afraid of him, on the power. My parents didn't want to show any emotion because they didn't want to make me cry."

Mr. Kotler's family and friends were also in court Friday when the verdict was read. "Not again. I can't believe they did it to me again," he blurted. He then winked at his girlfriend, Kelley Norman, and his mother.

"I learned from the first case that even if you're innocent, you still have everything to worry about, but I was shocked at the verdict anyway," he said in a phone call from jail Tuesday.

With the help of D.N.A. evidence, Mr. Kotler was cleared of rape in 1992 after spending more than 11 years in prison. He sued for wrongful imprisonment and learned in the middle of his second trial that he had been awarded $1.51 million. The story attracted national attention.

Segregated

Judge Morton Weissman, who presided over the nearly monthlong trial in County Criminal Court, Riverhead, declined to set bail, on Friday, saying it was not his practice to release defendants convicted of violent crimes. He set sentencing for Sept. 11. First-degree rape carries a penalty of 81/3 to 25 years in prison.

The victim said her parents had not heard her story in detail until they heard her testify in court. "I was afraid for my life through the entire thing," she said Tuesday.

Mr. Kotler had been free on $25,000 bail since being indicted in April of 1996. He said jail officials now have him in "voluntary segregation for my own protection," but maintained it was really to keep him from using the jail's law library to start work on his appeal.

The lead prosecutor, Randall Hinrichs, said he would ask the judge to impose the maximum sentence. "This was a premeditated crime. The badge, the knife, the use of the fluid, all that clearly suggests a well-orchestrated, premeditated rape," said Mr. Hinrichs.

Mr. Kotler posed as a police officer during the rape, and washed his victim's body, telling her he was getting rid of evidence.

Co-Worker Was Followed

The testimony of Jennifer Vail, who worked with the victim at the Beach Bar in Hampton Bays, supported the theory that Mr. Kotler was on the hunt. Ms. Vail told the jury she was followed home from the Beach Bar an hour or so before the victim was abducted, by a man driving the same type of car.

The victim said "the majority" of her friends and relatives had offered support after the rape, "though there's always a few who don't know how to handle this kind of thing." She did not seek counseling but said she found comfort in talking to other women she knew who had been raped.

Her studies were set back but she now has just a class or two to complete her degree.

"For the past year, my life has been pretty normal. I just decided I didn't want this to change me," she said. The decision whether to take the stand was easy: "I knew it had to be done, and it would be for the best."

D.N.A. Proof

Three scientists who testified for the prosecution said D.N.A. tests showed semen taken from her had genetic markers identical to Mr. Kotler's and the odds the markers matched some other man were in the millions. The jury said it was that evidence, bolstered by her description of the car and a partial license plate number, that convinced them of Mr. Kotler's guilt.

Reaching the verdict was a struggle, however. The jury reported last Thursday, the second day of deliberations, that it was deadlocked. Judge Weissman told them to keep trying.

"When they said they were deadlocked, I was so afraid there would have to be a second trial," said the victim. "But I wasn't going to back down. I would rather go through this all over again than see him go free."

Change In Strategy

She said she never once doubted Mr. Kotler was the man. "His personality, that he tried to act so innocent, the perfect person, making himself look like such a hard worker. But he was cocky in court and he was cocky that morning [of the rape,] too. He thrives on power."

Mr. Kotler sounded dejected when he called The Star from jail. He said there would be little left of his $1.51 million court award after his lawyers were paid and the victim filed her lawsuit. His girlfriend is raising their six-month-old daughter alone, he said, and he was worried about them.

"Kelley and the baby won't be able to count on that money for quite some time, if they can ever count on it," he said.

He also said he regretted a last-minute change in the defense strategy, a decision not to call friends of his from Montauk as alibi witnesses. "Now I think I should have called them, but you know what they say about hindsight."

Surveillance

Mr. Kotler claimed his friends were "harassed" by county police over the past two years. Various prosecution witnesses testified that 75 officers and, at times, helicopters and K-9 units were assigned to keep him under constant surveillance.

Drew Biondo, the spokesman for District Attorney James M. Catterson Jr., said that "the police and the D.A. utilized the resources necessary to gather sufficient evidence."

Mr. Hinrichs recalled that the victim in the 1981 case said she had been raped three years prior by a man who said he would return - and did. "There certainly was the fear that the defendant might come back to harm this victim again. We wanted to be on the safe side," said Mr. Hinrichs.

The young woman was given police protection after the rape, getting an escort home from work every night. She carried a portable phone that would ring only the police. But she said her attacker did not threaten to return, and she never feared he would.

Two Weeks In Hiding

Nonetheless, she agreed to go into hiding for the two weeks just before the trial began.

"They never would have been able to find me, though. I was moving around all the time as it was," she said.

Overall, she said, the experience had made her "a much stronger person. I've learned who to trust and to trust my own instincts and I've learned about the law. Now I'm more keen to what's going on around me physically, and I don't put myself in any vulnerable positions."

Nonetheless, she concluded, she is relieved Mr. Kotler is in jail. She expects him to stay there for many years.

"He is a person that society doesn't need any longer. I'm very happy he's there and won't be able to do this to anyone else."

At 11:30 last night as The Star went to press, Andrew Cunanan was rumored dead by his own hand in Miami.

Andrew Phillip Cunanan, the 27-year-old man charged with three murders across the country and suspected in at least two more, including last week's shooting of the Italian designer Gianni Versace, spent a weekend at an East Hampton Village house in July 1996.

His host agreed to speak with The Star this week on condition of anon y mity. Mr. Cunanan was calling himself Andrew Phillip DeSilva at the time, one of two aliases he has been known to use.

The brief brush with a suspected serial murderer has left the East Hampton man "apprehensive . . . somewhat," he said.

"How many murderers have you known?"

"A Good Guest"

The fugitive came here in the company of an old friend of his host, said the latter. The pair had met in California, where both live, and were on their way back from a month's travel in France when they broke the cross-country trip with a brief East End interlude.

The host recalled that they had taken long walks on the beach, played tennis, and attended private parties in the evenings. "Nothing unusual," he said. Mr. Cunanan, he said, was "a good guest - good manners, articulate, literate."

With other houseguests keeping him busy that weekend and nothing that could have hinted of the events to come, the man said this week that "there wasn't anything remarkable about him." Mr. Cunanan is "remarkable now," though, he added.

Ten Most Wanted

The suspected killer, a white man with brown eyes and dark brown hair, about 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing 160 to 180 pounds, is considered armed and extremely dangerous by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He was put on the F.B.I.'s Ten Most Wanted list in June, though it was the July 15 murder of Mr. Versace in Miami Beach that captured the attention of the media and the public.

Mr. Cunanan has been described as a gay gigolo and prostitute, a man from a middle-class background who uses cunning and intelligence to weave intriguing tales about himself, and flamboyant charms to make his way into monied circles.

He is known to frequent gay nightclubs, speaks several languages, has also used "Drew Cunningham" as an alias, and can apparently change his appearance almost at will.

Man Of Many Faces

A series of photos published around the country show him as a man of many different faces. In some he is wearing eyeglasses; in others, none. His East Hampton host recalled him wearing glasses during last summer's visit, and said he resembled some of the photographs that have been circulated, though not all.

The East Hampton man said Mr. Cunanan claimed he was originally from Israel and had attended a prep school in Connecticut; he could not recall which one. In fact, Mr. Cunanan is a Filipino-American who grew up in San Diego and attended schools in California.

"It was clear," the host said, "that he didn't do anything," meaning gainful employment.

In early May, the host got a call from his friend in California, the one who had brought Mr. Cunanan here. The man had been contacted by law enforcement officials, the host said, alerting him to the murders of Jeffrey Trail, David Madson, and Lee Miglin, alleged to be Mr. Cunanan's first three victims, and seeking information about the suspect.

The Californian immediately telephoned his friend in East Hampton. And the East Hampton man called everyone he could remember whose house Mr. Cunanan had visited while here.

He thought it was his duty to call them all, he said this week.

Called Police

He said he felt "not threatened, but a little uneasy, just having known someone like that." He said he was not overly concerned that Mr. Cunanan might return to the East End.

Joe Valiquette, a spokesman for the F.B.I's Manhattan office, said there was "no indication" that the fugitive might head this way.

Upon learning Mr. Cunanan's true identity, his East Hampton host also contacted East Hampton Village police, telling them the murder suspect had been at his house.

He has had no contact with Mr. Cunanan since that weekend. the source said. The F.B.I., however, recently contacted him to ask him what he knew of the alleged killer.

"Sightings"

As is standard procedure, the F.B.I. has distributed wanted posters to local police departments, and both East Hampton Town and Village departments have them in every patrol car. The F.B.I. has contacted the town force, said Capt. Todd Sarris, asking to be notified of any "sightings" or information reported to them.

Though several "sightings" have been called in to local police, none were substantiated.

The town received one from sunbathers at Atlantic Avenue Beach in Amagansett, and village police received four over the weekend, including one that placed Mr. Cunanan at the Georgica Getty gas station and another that placed him getting off a train.

Extra Patrols

Village police said they called the F.B.I. to report those sightings, which Chief Glen Stonemetz described as "unconfirmed" and "very unsubstantiated."

Officials with both police departments ventured that because of the intense publicity and the suspect's rather nondescript appearance, the "sightings" will probably continue.

Chief Stonemetz said he did not think there was a likelihood that Mr. Cunanan would surface here, though his patrols are on extra alert. "I think if that were the case the F.B.I. would be concentrating" its investigation here, he said.

LIAAC On Guard

The gay community here, as elsewhere, is on guard, however. The F.B.I.'s Cunanan photographs were reviewed with security personnel hired for Saturday night's Take Off '97, an annual East Hampton fund-raiser for the Long Island Association for AIDS Care. The organization always hires private security for the event, said Jeffrey Reynolds, its spokesman.

"This is something we're very conscious of," said Mr. Reynolds, though Mr. Cunanan had "not been a major topic" in the event's planning.

"Not to discuss it would be a mistake," however, said Mr. Reynolds. The murders, he said, "will be on some of the minds of party-goers," but LIAAC is "trying not to let rumors overshadow an important event."

The F.B.I. has asked anyone with any information about Mr. Cunanan to call either local police or the agency's toll-free hotline: 1-888-FBI-9800.

Loud music, boisterous nightclub-hoppers, and rowdy neighbors can turn summer in East Hampton into a big headache if it's peace and quiet you want.

Last week, bothered residents logged 24 noise complaints with the East Hampton Town Police Department, most of them over the weekend. The week before, there were 33 noise complaints, again during the busiest hours of the department's busiest days.

Residents and business owners near loud establishments claim the complaints are getting them nowhere and that little is done to enforce the noise ordinance.

Hard To Enforce

On summer weekends, when there are so many emergency calls to be dealt with, Town Police Chief Thomas Scott admits noise complaints get a lower priority. Also, the chief said, the current noise ordinance, which in part bases violations on decibel level, is difficult to enforce because so much of it can be subjective.

What may be music to one person's ears can be anything but, to someone else's.

However, proposed changes in the law intended to create stricter noise regulations for business establishments may actually put more of a burden on residents seeking quiet, many said at a public hearing last Thursday.

Most who spoke during the nearly four-hour hearing supported further regulations to keep noise-makers in check, but disagreed with what was being proposed.

Close The Bedroom Door

The changes, among other things, call for two separate officers to determine on two separate occasions whether noise from nearby houses or commercial establishments is audible from inside a complainant's bedroom with its windows and doors closed, before issuing a warning to the violator.

What may be music to one person's ears can be anything but, to someone else's.

This, said Chief Scott, will only add to enforcement problems. Whether they're East Hampton's finest or not, few people are eager to invite police or code enforcement officers into their houses, much less their sleeping quarters, between midnight and 7 a.m. to listen for noise from a nearby house or business.

That provision of the suggested regulations was the one that concerned Chief Scott the most and rankled residents and business owners at the hearing.

Can You Hear It?

John Thompson, a Montauk resident, called it "an invasion of privacy."

"Why do we have to go inside and close our windows when [keeping noise down] should be the responsibility of the business?" Jean Fischer, also of Montauk, asked the board.

The extra provisions seem more designed to limit interpretation of the law and make it easier to follow through and prosecute chronic violators.

The deputy town attorney, Richard Whalen, explained that the new regulations would be in addition to the existing ones.

Mr. Whalen pointed out that the extra provisions say "audible, that's all. Can you hear it? Not, was it disturbing to you, or how loud was it."

Windows and doors are required to be closed, he said, "so something trivial isn't the basis of a violation." Verification of the noise by two separate officers would provide further protections to insure the citations would hold up in court.

Bedroom Noise

"What we were trying to do is create a small envelope in the darkest, wee hours of the night in your home and say, thou shalt not violate," explained Russell Stein, a former town attorney who helped draft the additions to the law.

The bedroom noise provision would apply not only to private houses but to apartments and motels as well.

In fact, many of those who complained of excessive noise at the hearing were Montauk hotel and motel owners and many of their complaints had to do with restaurants that offer music and dancing after hours without the proper permits.

After 11, Thump, Thump

"I've had too many people tell me that they can't come back to the Lido Motel," said William Lydon, its owner and operator. "There are wonderful restaurants near the Lido until 11 p.m.," he said, but after that, "they play music that seems to be nothing but a thump, thump, thump, thump until 2 in the morning."

The fines those places are required to pay - up to $250 for the first offense currently, but up to $350 for the first offense if the law were changed - are hardly a real deterrent, Mr. Lydon said. "They pay more money to remove bottles in the morning."

Prospective guests tell Lisa Issing, the owner of the Malibu Motel, that if she doesn't have rooms "on the quiet side" they won't be coming at all.

Motel Owners Protest

Noise from nearby nightclubs and restaurants with late-night music has cost her several customers over the past few years, said Ms. Issing. When her customers are awakened late at night by loud music or other noise, she only hears about it the next morning when they check out early to find a quieter place.

"The noise ordinance doesn't work," she said, and the changes, she added, aren't clear enough.

"We have a serious enforcement problem in Montauk," said James Daunt, the manager of the Albatross Motel. He said there are nightclubs on both sides of his motel and that late-night raucousness has almost put him out of business.

"Nothing says the restaurant or nightclub needs to keep their windows closed."

Soundproofing?

Ms. Issing agreed. Her biggest criticism of the noise law was that "there's no standard of self-policing."

What about soundproofing? What about doormen to keep patrons in check, or keeping windows closed to keep the noise in? Mr. Daunt and other motel owners and residents asked.

Robert Scheiner, the general manager of the Montauk Yacht Club said there were already too many ordinances restricting business activity. "Let's all remember this is a resort community," Mr. Scheiner said.

"This town is not necessarily run for the benefit of tourists," Marshall Helfand, the owner of the Deep Sea Marina, responded. "If I want my register to ring, residents nearby should not have to hear that ring . . . You can't say, well, the tourists are here so let's just crawl into our holes for the next three months."

To Reconvene

Many residents said a cap should be put on noise at all hours and that in purely residential areas violators should be treated more strictly.

Edward Kenny, the owner of Kenny's Tipperary Inn in Montauk, offers live music there seven nights a week, but said he hasn't had a complaint in 30 years. His place is soundproofed and the doors are kept closed.

"I don't want this to be jeopardized because a few people are running their business irresponsibly," said Mr. Kenny.

With so many concerns about the new law, the Town Board decided to ask the committee that helped draft the changes to reconvene. Councilman Thomas Knobel suggested the changes could be rewritten to focus more on the source of the noise.

Accessory Uses

The town tried to address the noise issue earlier this year, proposing a midnight curfew on musical entertainment and dancing. Nightclub owners, resort managers, and restaurateurs spoke unanimously against the "Cinderella" law.

Town officials noted then that those restaurants offering music and dancing after hours were, in fact, doing so in violation of the Town Code.

A proposal to change the code to allow music, dancing, and catered events as an accessory use at restaurants was also discussed last Thursday night. The amendment would make it legal for restaurants to offer these amenities, but not for a cover charge and not as a primary use.

The cover charge is one of the few concrete yardsticks the town can apply to distinguish a restaurant from a nightclub. "Otherwise, you would have no distinction," Mr. Whalen said.

"Bad Apples"

"The reason this all came up was, because the way the code is, restaurants can't have any music at all," Councilman Peter Hammerle said. "The chronic violators are spoiling it for everyone else."

"This paints a wide brush over everyone that owns a restaurant," said Tom Miln of the Surfside Inn on Old Montauk Highway. He claims he runs his business with consideration for his neighbors and would be out of business if he didn't.

To prohibit music and dancing in restaurants would punish those operating responsibly for the deeds of the irresponsible, he said. "We're all going to be painted with the same stripe."

"It is the few bad apples," agreed Bill Akin, president of the Concerned Citizens of Montauk. "I find it unbelievable we cannot find a way to shut these places up."

Chambers In Favor

Richard Kahn said the perception in Montauk was that the Town Board is not serious about code enforcement. This only encourages more people not to follow the code, he said.

Several residents feared that if restrictions on music and dancing in restaurants were eased noise problems would increase. Representatives from the Montauk and East Hampton Chambers of Commerce both spoke in favor of the code change and of the noise law.

Because many restaurateurs were unable to attend the meeting, the Town Board will continue the restaurant hearing on Friday, Aug. 1, at 10:30 a.m.

"We're surrounded by whales," observed one youngster aboard the Viking Starship as the party boat inched along a flat sea about three miles east of Block Island.

It was true. The official count taken by the on-board educators from the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation was 41 fin whales for the day. Kids got giddy as sightings were announced from the bridge: "We have a blow at 12 o'clock! Another at 9 o'clock! There's one at 2 o'clock!"

For several hours the heads of whale watchers, many with cameras or binoculars attached, turned in unison around the stations of the clock.

"A blow at 12 again," came the call, sounding as though, on one level, time itself were being attacked. And, in a sense, it was. Such is the result of being surrounded on a near-perfect day by the largest, most graceful creatures on the planet, the sounds of their mighty exhalations driving home the point: Small are human clocks and schedules. Large is the world.

Spider Crabs

The point was made in other ways by Robert DiGiovanni and his Riverhead Foundation helpers during nonwhale-related activities, which started shortly after the Starship left Montauk Harbor at 11 a.m. and ended not long before her return to port six hours later.

The Starship first stopped long enough for a scallop dredge to be cast over the side. A short tow revealed smaller denizens of the deep. Spider crabs, moon snails, and a few varieties of seaweed were raised and explained. The spiders were placed in a small aquarium on the fore deck.

"Spider crabs are also called decorator crabs because they decorate themselves with stuff they find on the bottom," Mr. DiGiovanni told the watchers gathered around the aquarium. The spiders are a favorite food of migrating sea turtles, including the endangered Kemp's ridley turtle, he said.

The Rare Kemp's Ridley

As the Starship headed east past the Montauk Lighthouse, he gave some reasons why the number of Kemp's ridleys has dropped from an estimated 40,000 nesting females in 1947 to 400 counted last year.

Unlike most other sea turtles, the eggs of Kemp's ridleys hatch in broad daylight - advantage predators. "They are prey to almost everything," Mr. DiGiovanni said, including humans, who prize the eggs both as food and as aphrodisiacs. The eggs are laid, two to three clutches each, 150 per clutch, along a relatively short stretch of beach in Mexico.

If the turtles fail to leave our area early enough on their return migration, they may become "cold-stunned." The foundation handled eight cold-stunned Kemp's ridleys last year. The result was a less than 1 percent survival rate over all.

Baleen: A Strainer

At a table on the back deck, samples of baleen were laid out: the bony strainers that fin whales and other nontoothed whales use for separating krill - and, in the case of the whales seen off Block Island that day - sand eels.

A fin whale has approximately 475 baleen structures on either side of its mouth, each one with a fringe of pliable fibers on one side. When the whale feeds, its giant mouth opens wide to take in a tremendous gulp of water and food. The mouth expands like a water balloon.

The baleen then acts like a coffee strainer. The whale's tongue pushes seawater and fish against the inside of it. Food stays behind as the water is pushed through.

In the old days the "bone" (baleen) was used to make corsets and buggy whips. So much of the material could be harvested from one species, Eubalaena glacialis, along with the oil rendered from its blubber, that it became known as the "right" whale to catch.

The fin whale's longest baleen measures about 38 inches, as compared to the 11-foot-long baleen of the right whale.

Great White Jaws

"Fin whales are asymmetrically pigmented. The right lower jaw is white on the outside to scare food in," Mr. DiGiovanni instructed. He used his hands to show how the whales circled with their white jaw facing the schools of prey, the white apparently frightening them into a condensed, easier-to-consume mass.

By this time the Starship found itself in the middle of a large pod of whales. They rose for a breath as close as 50 yards from the boat, sometimes in pairs. Their wispy blows were seen on the horizon as well. The Starship moved slowly toward whales yet unmet.

With each sighting, the educators became scientists, starting a stopwatch to measure length of time on the surface. Photographs were taken to document distinguishing marks. General information was marked too: water temperature, bait seen on the electronic fish finder, location.

Display Of Power

After about 30 seconds cruising and blowing on the surface, each whale, with a powerful thrust of its tail, would make a deep dive, leaving behind a telltale "footprint" - a round, smooth patch of water. Given the depth, whales can dive up to 700 feet, Mr. DiGiovanni said. On this trip, they were diving in 80 to 120 feet of water.

They dove and surfaced, dove and surfaced, in a peaceful display of power for over two hours, and were continuing to do so when the Starship had to turn for home. The Lady Frances, a nonviolent whaler out of Point Judith, R.I., took up the watch.

The day was not done on the Starship, however. Her crew of educators next tossed a windsock-shaped plankton net over the side. A short tow produced examples of zooplankton and phytoplankon, small marine animals and plants, that were whisked to a microscope set up on the back deck.

Banquet By Night

Mr. DiGiovanni explained how the zooplankton repair to the lower part of the water column during the day, giving it over to the phytoplankton for their photosynthesis. At night, the animals rise in the column to "graze" on the phytoplankton.

Fish come to graze on the grazers. Smaller fish are eaten by bigger fish, and marine mammals join in the banquet.

Humans can fish, of course. Or they can watch, by joining the Starship and its complement of scientists and educators, Wednesdays through Sundays. The 141-foot boat, which has a full galley, leaves the Viking Dock at 11 a.m. and returns at about 5.

Nicholas Geraci, 11, who nearly suffocated when a sand pit he was digging with his younger brother at Wiborg's Beach in East Hampton caved in on him last Thursday, was listed in stable condition yesterday at Stony Brook University Medical Center.

The boy was taken by ambulance to Southampton Hospital after rescuers worked frantically to revive him at the scene, and airlifted from there to Stony Brook. A first attempt to airlift Nicholas from the Maidstone Club golf course was called off when workers were unable to stabilize the boy.

Village Police Chief Glen Stone metz said on Tuesday that the boy had been removed from a respirator earlier this week. "He's breathing well on his own, but he has not regained consciousness," he said. It is too early to assess if the boy suffered brain damage from the accident, but "it may not be too long before they move him to rehab," the chief added.

Condition Upgraded

Ellen Barohn, a hospital spokeswoman, declined further comment except to say the boy had been upgraded from "critical but stable" earlier this week.

The accident occurred at about 11:30 a.m. last Thursday. Nicholas and his brother Anthony, 8, were digging a sand pit in a rise on the beach near the shoreline. Their mother, whose first name could not be learned by press time, was nearby with two other children.

"What's a more innocent thing you can do, but dig holes in the sand?" asked Chief Stonemetz. "Every kid does it."

The Geraci family had been visiting their grandparents, Daniel and Joan Gorman of Huntting Lane, and were due to return home to Virginia that afternoon.

Sand Was Heavy

"At some point, Anthony said, 'I want to get out of here,'" according to Chief Stonemetz. Nicholas fashioned steps in the sand, allowing his brother to climb out. As the older boy followed, he apparently lost his grip and tumbled backward headfirst. "The sand caved in and he was face down, buried up to his knees," Chief Stonemetz said.

Although police said the pit was three and a half to four feet deep, other onlookers said it may have been over five feet deep, and with steep sides.

A number of people at the beach immediately joined in the rescue effort, digging futilely by hand. "There was an arm and a leg sticking out," said Bob Fazakerly, who was one of them. "But it was just too heavy to pull him out."

Rescue Effort

Chief Stonemetz said he did not know how long the boy was buried. "I wish we could nail that down a little better," he said, "but I just don't know."

"His fingers were moving at first, but then they started to turn blue," said Mr. Fazakerly.

Mr. Fazakerly had just arrived at the beach with his wife, Nancy, their two children, and his in-laws, Robert and Ethel MacGarva. The two men joined Karie Gardiner, Nadine Miller, and others in the digging effort while Nancy Fazakerly went by car to find a telephone and Mrs. MacGarva stayed with her grandchildren.

At some point, one of the onlookers ran to the Maidstone Club, where two lifeguards, Cameron Gurney and Dion Cherot, were on duty. Mr. Gurney called police at 11:34 a.m. while his partner grabbed a shovel and ran the approximately 300 yards to the scene.

"It was a tough sprint," said Mr. Gurney. "We shoveled like madmen. People were shouting, 'Be careful! Be careful!' I guess they were afraid we'd hit him in the head."

No Pulse

Sgt. Matthew Bennett and patrolman Kevin Duchemin of the East Hampton Village police reached the scene shortly after Mr. Gurney's call. "At some point, they just grabbed him by the legs and pulled him out," said Chief Stonemetz.

Officer Duchemin radioed for an ambulance at 11:37 a.m., reporting that the boy had been freed.

"It was chaos," said Ethel MacGarva. "It just seemed like it took forever. And then we saw a woman wave her arms to say he was out."

"There was no pulse, and he wasn't breathing," said Mr. Fazakerly.

"A couple of kids were huddled on the side holding hands," said Mr. Gurney. "They looked so scared."

Ten Minutes

Robert Schider, an East Hampton emergency medical technician, was working at an oceanfront house nearby when the call went out. "As soon as we got him out, the E.M.T. was there," said Mr. Gurney.

Mr. Schider joined the two police officers in cardiopulmonary resuscitation efforts. Witnesses said the work continued for about 10 minutes until David Griffiths, an off-duty village policeman and East Hampton Fire Department member, drove his pickup truck onto the beach to shuttle the boy over to the Maidstone Club golf course, where an ambulance and rescue team were stationed.

Not Stabilized

"By the time they took him away, he appeared to be breathing on his own," said Mr. Fazakerly.

Although police had summoned a Suffolk County Police Medi-Vac helicopter, which arrived by 12:16 p.m., rescue workers were "having problems maintaining his breathing," said Chief Stonemetz. Authorities later decided the air evacuation would be too risky because there was only room for one E.M.T. on board, and the child had not been stabilized.

The ambulance carrying Nicholas left East Hampton shortly after 12:30 p.m. and reached the hospital at 12:50 p.m. He was airlifted from Southampton at 1:08 p.m.

"It was gut wrenching," said Chief Stonemetz, who tried to comfort the boy's mother at the scene. "My heart really went out to her."

Hope

The rescue was draining for officers at the scene as well, he said. "Matt Bennett stayed with him the whole time. He was locked on him," said Chief Stonemetz. "When that ambulance pulled away, he turned to mush."

The chief added that some of the officers involved in the rescue effort were planning to visit the boy in the hospital and lend emotional support to the mother, who he said was distraught.

Mr. Gurney said he was hoping for a happy ending. "I can't wait until he comes up to the stand someday and says, 'I was the kid you pulled out,' " he said.

Two eminent American poets, John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch, will read from their work on Sunday at 5 p.m. as part of the Writers At Guild Hall series.

Mr. Ashbery, who will celebrate his 70th birthday this weekend, is the only American poet to win all three annual literary prizes - the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the National Book Award - for one book, "Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror."

His other honors include Mac Arthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, and the Feltrinelli Prize. His 17th and most recent collection is "Can You Hear, Bird?"

Mr. Koch, who teaches at Columbia University and is the author of many collections of poetry, short plays, and fiction, received the Bollingen Prize for his books "One Train" and "On the Great Atlantic Rainway: Selected Poems 1950-1988." His most recent book is "The Gold Standard," a collection of plays.

Tickets are available at the Guild Hall box office.

At Book Hampton

Book Hampton in East Hampton has a lively lineup for the weekend, with readings from the diaries of James Schuyler and the latest edition of Hampton Shorts, the East End's literary magazine, and, for those looking for something a little different, from books on alternative medicine and living in a menage a trois.

Dr. Leo Galland will discuss his book, "The Four Pillars of Healing," tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. A New York City internist and pioneer in "integrated medicine," Dr. Galland argues that conventional medicine must learn to recognize patients as individuals, not as the sum of their symptoms.

His four-tier plan combines both conventional and alternative medicine to restore the body's balance.

James Schuyler's Diary

On Saturday at 5:30 p.m., friends and colleagues of the late poet James Schuyler will read from and discuss "The Diary of James Schuyler," recently published by Black Sparrow Press.

Mr. Schuyler was a focal point of the New York and East End arts communities, and his diary is filled with revelations about Truman Capote, Mr. Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, Fairfield Porter, and others. Joining the diary's editor, Nathan Kernan, for this event will be Susan Baran, Marc Cohen, and Anne Porter.

Immediately following that reading, on Saturday at 7 p.m., Barbara Foster, Michael Foster, and Letha Hadady will discuss "Three in Love: Menages a Trois From Ancient to Modern Times."

The three authors themselves live together. Their book traces the menage a trois over the centuries - both in real life and as portrayed in art - and offers a portrait of threefold love.

The book makes a case for the menage a trois as an alternative to the standard two-person partnership and casts light on some famous historical trios, from the Biblical patriarch Abraham, his wife, Sarah, and the handmaiden Hagar, to Henry and June Miller and Anais Nin, and the Beat writer Jack Kerouac and Neal and Carolyn Cassady.

Book Hampton's weekend closes with another group reading on Sunday at 5:30 p.m., of authors featured in the latest issue of Hamptons Shorts.

The writers who will be on hand are Anne Aldrich, Marjorie Appleman, Diana Chang, August Franza, Kenny Mann, Joe Pintauro, Daniel Stern, and Hampton Shorts' Junior Writer Award winner, Ellen Bates.