Names and faces

LITTLE ROCK — Donovan, famous for '60s pop hits such as "Hurdy Gurdy Man" and "Mellow Yellow," has announced plans to open the Invincible Donovan University, where students will adhere to the principles of transcendental meditation. "I know it sounds like an airy-fairy, hippie dream to go on about '60s peace and love," said the 61-year-old singer, who was born Donovan Leitch in the Maryhill area of Glasgow, Scotland. "But the world is ready for this now; it is clear this is the time." He said the university will be in Scotland - either Glasgow or Edinburgh. Donovan discovered transcendental meditation while visiting India and guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1968. "The Maharishi told me during that 1968 visit that I should build a university in Edinburgh. I went to my room and drew a beautiful dome-shaped place of learning," he said recently. "I didn't know what to do because I couldn't do this on my own. But then I met David Lynch, who told me about the positive effects of TM in education. Although it's taken me 35 years, I will do what the Maharishi told me to do." Donovan and Lynch, Oscar-nominated director of Blue Velvet, Mullholland Dr. and The Elephant Man, are part of a tour to promote transcendental meditation as a means of reducing violence, crime and stress in schools and colleges. The David Lynch Foundation has introduced transcendental meditation to schools in the United States, where the 61-yearold filmmaker says it has transformed results and behavior. The duo said they will now contact Scottish authorities to have the institution accredited. "For a country the size of Scotland it would take only 250 students meditating to protect Scotland from its enemies and to bring peace, to stop violence and drug abuse," Lynch said. "That is just a byproduct of the students meditating together."

An exhibition of a unique collection of artworks by Bob Dylan, including variations of previously published drawings and sketches, has opened at a museum in Chemnitz, Germany. Visitors flocked to the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz museum Sunday to see the 170 colored versions of pictorial motifs by Dylan called, The Drawn Blank Series. The exhibit consists of drawings that Dylan produced between 1989 and 1992 and published in a book. Curator Ingrid Moessinger had 332 of the works speciallyreprinted and painted, and Dylan then selected 170 works for display. "Bob Dylan selected the works for the exhibit himself," Moessinger said. The pictures show scenes from daily life: portraits of women and men, still lifes, cityscapes and other places that Dylan, 66, observed during his travels. The exhibit runs through Feb. 3.