MIXED MEDIA : ‘Cold’ Videos Reveal a Warmer Joni Mitchell : *** “COME IN FROM THE COLD”, Joni Mitchell, <i> Geffen Home Video videocassette ($15.95)</i>

Most of the videos in this 45-minute collection (chiefly involving songs from this year’s “Night Ride Home” album) are fairly conventional. But “Dancin’ Clown” is a delight because it breaks from the acclaimed singer-songwriter’s usual introspection and finds her in a playful and disarming mood. In the video, Mitchell dances around the kitchen, sometimes with a favorite kitten, other times strumming a broom as if it were a guitar. She is also winning while offering background on the videos and sharing samples of her photographic art.

Items in this periodic survey of pop-related books, videocassettes and laser discs are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four (excellent).