Clarion-Ledger from Jackson, Mississippi • Page 37

ADVICEPUZZLES 3 COMICS 4 TV TONIGHT 6 VILll THE CLARION-LEDGER I JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1995 LESLIE R. MYERS VCl TV Columnist The Clarion-Ledger Ml 1 inl 1Kb i fiJtf PA Fair schedule 4 LAy 1 3 4 i ff 7 -i 3 IF A' 1 v. A' 1a 1 i-'i'iUii't is Wildflowers tour puts Tom Petty back in action and brings him to Jackson tonight. By Tabitha Soren N.V. Time Newt Special Feature Singer Tom Petty is hanging out backstage with his 20-year-old daughter, Adria, about two hours before his concert at Madison Square Garden, one of many stops on the Tom Petty and The Heart-breakers Tour 1995.

Adria wants a T-shirt, so her dad gives her the money to buy some merchandise. 3he doors haven't opened to the public yet, and the two of them walk to the front of the hall, where a vendor refuses to sell them anything because he isn't officially open yet. Since the vendor is sitting there doing nothing, he eventually acquiesces and sells the Pettys some goods. Tom is amused by not getting recognized, but Adria gets a bigger kick out of it and videotapes the whole encounter. When they come back, Tom hands me a program on which he has written, "I bought this for you with my own money." A scene like this sums up the nature of this unassuming rock-god billionaire.

Petty is in the midst of his tour to support his latest solo album, Wildflowers, which months after its release, has had sales of more than 3 million records. Petty's career has that kind of stamina, too. This is a 40-something guy who has persevered: gathering fans in the '70s, pumping out hit after hit in the '80s and, thanks to a whole new younger audience, meeting the '90s with renewed vigor. He admits he's neither the most gifted guitarist nor the best singer. Some might even argue that he's not the cleverest songwriter.

But the sum of his parts is astounding. And the hard work. In the early days, when concert venues were only half full, The Heartbreakers played ac if it was a packed house. Although bands always say this, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers really have always given their all. That is, when they weren't falling off the stage into the audience drunk or passing out face down in the aisle of the bus.

At some points in their career, this wasn't infrequent Fortunately for his fans, Petty has been sober since 1987, and the rest of The Heartbreakers have since followed his lead. Petty may have spent his life on a tour bus, but it hasn't been a blur. This is a musician with a real family life. And it seems his groundedness has also helped his career. He and his wife, Jane, raised two daughters, Adria and 12-year-old Kim, who might as well be best friends despite their age difference.

Their dad knows what kind of music they like, where they shop and what final exams they are worried about, which is For a complete schedule, highlights and a map, see the Mississippi Weekend section of Thursday's Clarion-Ledger. Today 5 p.m. Fair opens, Jefferson Street gate. 5 p.m.-until Petting zoo, Midway, free. 5 p.m.-until FFA Children's Barnyard, free.

6-10 p.m. Mississippi Farm Bureau Pig Racing, Midway, free. 6 p.m. Medals Me Too and face painting, Building 18, free. 6 p.m.

The Clarion-Ledger! alent Center '95, Trade Mart, free. 6 p.m. Gospel singing, Building 19, free. 6 and 8 p.m. Adventure in Motion, Trade Mart, free.

6:30 p.m., 8 p.m. Circus, Midway, free. 7 p.m.-until Mississippi Square Dance Association and Cloggers, Midway, free. 7:15 p.m., 8:45 p.m. Great Lakes Lumber Jack Show, Trade Mart, free.

7 and 9 p.m. John Bauman as "Bowzer" and Sting Ray, Budweiser Pavilion, free. Thursday 10 a.m.-until Petting zoo, Midway, free. 10 a.m.-until FFA Children's Barnyard, free. 6-10 p.m.

Mississippi Farm Bureau Pig Racing, Midway, free. 6 p.m. Medals Me Too and face painting, Building 18, free. 6 p.m.-until The Clarion-Ledger Talent Center "95, Trade Mart, free. 6 p.m.

Gospel singing, Building 19, free. 6:30 p.m., 8:30 p.m. Circus, Midway, free. 6:30 p.m., 8 p.m. in Motion.

Trade Mart, froa. 7 p.m., 9 p.m. 4-Runner, Budweiser Pavilion, free. 7 p.m.-until Mississippi Square Dance Association and Cloggers, Midway, free. 7:15 p.m., 8:45 p.m.

Great Lakes Lumber Jack Show, Trade Mart, free. Ongoing State Fair Post Office. Jitney Jungle Biscuit-Making Cane Mill daily distributes free biscuits and molasses from a mule-drawn cane mill. Tickets Opening day discounts: Sneak-A-Peek, enjoy unlimited rides 5-11 p.m. today, $12; gate admission, children under 6, free; parking, $2.

Regular fair admission: adults, children 6-11, under 6, free; parking, $2 per car. Special to The Clarion-Ledger Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, rock stalwarts since the 70s, are touring again. New WAPT anchor to start Monday in shake-up wake Whitney Vann, the new anchor for WAPT-Channel 16, will take the hot seat Monday. Vann is moving from WBRZ-TV in Baton Rouge to replace Stephanie Bell Flynt, who was fired from WAPT for fuzzy reasons Sept. 18.

i Van, as did Flynt, will anchor WAPT's major newscasts at 6 and 10 weeknights. i "I've been aware of it," Vann said of the controversy. "That's going to be a real challenge for me. But I think, when people tune in on Oct 4, they'll like what they see. "I'm just looking forward to the newphal-lenges and opportunity.

I hope that viewers, despite all the changes, will give Channel 16 a chance." Vann will anchor with Gene Edwards. Edwards replaced Mike Wool folk in that spot Monday. Woolfolk now anchors mornings. True, Flynt's firing along with that of seasoned WAPT commentator Cal Adams was handled with all the grace of a public beheading. But viewers' seemingly widespread ire shouldn't be transferred to Vann, as one viewer who called here proposed.

Flynt is a fine news anchor and reporter who would be an asset to any station. She deserved a fair shot, as viewers keep saying. Under the same reasoning, Vann deserves a fair shot at the No. 3 Nielsen-rated Jackson ABC affiliate. As this was brewing, Flynt showed up Saturday night on the No.

1-rated WLBT-Channel 3. She was reporting the lead story for the Jackson NBC affiliate. Flynt, who hasn't been hired by WLBT, is working as a free-lance reporter. "This is home," Flynt often says. Familiar territory This is a new home, and a bit of a homecoming for Whitney Vann.

A Kentucky native, Vann, 28, lived in Mississippi off and on for 6V4 years before taking her job as morning news anchorreporter in Baton Rouge in April 1994. She earned a bachelor's degree in TV broadcasting from the University of Mississippi in 1989. Three semesters later, in 1990, she earned a master's in broadcast journalism from Boston University. i "I think her journalism skills are first rate," said WAPT news director Bob Noonan, who chose to hire her and replace Flynt "Her on-air skills, in my opinion, will be second to none in the Jackson area." After a short stint in Boston TV, Vann worked at the Hattiesburg bureau of the shortlived Mississippi News Tonight (MNT) statewide news service from fall 1991 to spring 1992. Edwards and Noonan then worked in MNT's Jackson office.

When MNT folded, all three worked briefly at WLOV-TV in West PointTupelo, where Vann and Edwards first co-anchored together. "We anchored the 5 o'clock news for all of three weeks," Vann said. Then, that news operation also was folded by MNT owners, Love Communications. Next, Vann switched Tupelo stations, to WTVA-TV, where she was a morning anchor reporter for six months. Noonan had become news director at WDAM-TV in Hattiesburg, so he hired Vann as its 6 and 10 p.m.

anchor in January 1993. She moved on to Baton Rouge the following year. A new weather face WJTV-Channel 12 also will have a new weathercaster Monday. Tony Mastro, who has been working for a Cincinnati, Ohio, TV station, will join the Jackson CBS affiliate as its chief meteorologist. Formerly of Hattiesburg, Mastro will be WJTV's weather anchor at 5, 6 and 10 weeknights.

"He's got a good personality and he has an American Meteorological Society seal, as well," said WJTV news director Michael Sipes. "He does his own forecasts. He doesn't rely on the National Weather Service." Mastro replaces Dave Roberts, who left in June to, coincidentally, join a different Cincinnati station. During the search for a replacement, WJTV weathercaster Chip Washington has been filling in as evening weather anchor. Leslie Myers' TV column appears on Wednesday.

To contact her, call 961-7280. Who: Tom Petty and the Heart Breakers. What: In concert in connection with the Mississippi State Fair. When: 7:30 tonight. Where: Mississippi Coliseum.

How much: Tickets are advance tickets include admission to fair. But the couple who fondly refer to each other respectively as "King" and "Queen" both think they're married to the most interesting person who ever walked the earth. When asked if life on the road is tough on his marriage, Petty smiles and replies in typical candid fashion, "It is if you go around having sex with strangers every night. But no, for us, it was not a problem, although we sometimes walk with a limp." 'Nuffsaid. Here's some quotes from the man himself: Qi How are the songs from Wild-Bowers going over live? Al Great, maybe even better than the old ones.

The audience really accepts them so we get to play a lot of them, which is a lot more fun for the band. See PETTY, 2D quite a contrast to the many musicians who can't remember how old their kids are or who never claim their offspring in the first place. Petty's family life comes complete with loud spats with Jane, his high school sweetheart who, interestingly enough, could pass as his sister. Parents' Choice picks best products aimed at children Books, videos and toys are among products chosen for wholesomeness. Gannett News Service Price $19.99.

Ages 6-24 months. Groovie Blocks. Uncle Goose Toys. Suggested Retail Price $31.95. Ages 4-8.

TELEVISION Lamb Chop in the Haunted Studio, PBS. Ages 5-9. Jirimpibura, ABC. Ages 5-9. The Magic School Bus, PBS.

Ages 7-up. For a complete list of winning products for children of all interests and skills from birth to age 14-up, send $4 to Parents' Choice Awards Issue, Part Box 185; Waban, MA 02168. Fleischman. Greenwillow, $14. Ages 8-up.

VIDEOS Which Way Weather? Bo Peep Productions, approx. 30 $19.95. Ages 15 months-3 years. 1-800-532-0420. Crunch! Smash! Trash! Monster Machines That Recycle, In-Site Productions, approx.

30 min. Ages 2-10. 1-800-322-2107. Lassie, Paramount Pictures, approx. 95 $14.95.

Ages 6-up. TOYS Duplo Baby X-Large Stack 'n' Learn Set. Lego Systems. Suggested Retail programs," says Diana Huss Green, editor of Parents' Choice, the foundation's quarterly publication. "There are high-quality products out there we've spent the last eight months looking for them.

The criteria for our choice are basic: having fun and building character." Among the 200 winners for this year: STORYBOOKS Yang the Third and Her Impossible Family, Lensy Namioka. Little, Brown, $15.95. Ages 7-10. Poppa's New Pants, Angela Shelf Medearis. Holiday House, $15.95.

Ages 4-8. The 13th Floor A Ghost Story, Sid The Parents' Choice Foundation has announced its 1995 awards of "wholesome" toys, TV programs, books and other products aimed at children choices made annually since 1978 by a panel of critics, psychologists, pediatricians, parents and journalists. "Mothers and fathers are hungry for trustworthy information on wholesome videos, toys, books, movies and computer EARTH SAVERS OUT AND ABOUT THEY SAID IT. FREE STUFF Eternal youth BAG THAT IDEA Yep, that'll do it have a conversation with the Simpson defense lawyer Pianist Faina Lushtak performs at 12:05 p.m. at St.

Andrew's Cathedral in downtown Jackson. The 1995 Porter L. Fortune Jr. History Symposium "Childhood in Southern History" runs throught Friday in the E.F. Yerby Center, Universi Paper grocery bags are made from kraft paper, the same material used to make corrugated cardboard.

When you recycle cardboard "If you really want to hurt your parents and you don't have enough nerve to be homosexual, the least you can do is go into the arts." author Kurt Vonne- 66 I 7 jf 7 if rent presidential fjf fj: candidates. (7 If "I had more fun Calvin Klein, whose recent advertising escapades have sent him scurrying away from billboards and magazines, is headed for a new venue. Ads for cK one, a fragrance for young people, will appear on the back covers of D.C. comics in November and December, says Inside Media. D.C.

says the comics, including Batman and Star Trek, are aimed at an adult audience, sort of. According to D.C. executive James D'A-damo, the new client is "looking for the cutting edge, Generation audience, which is really hard to reach." with Cochran, 5sl boxes, be sure ty of Mississippi, Oxford. Robert Moses, noted civil rights figure and founder of the Algebra Project, will give the opening address. For times and details: 232-7148.

A Cerebral Palsy Parent Support Group meeting is p.m. in classroom 3 of the Education Services Building at Methodist Medical Center, 1850 Chadwick Drive, Jackson. Details: Ruthie Courtney at 853-196 1. gut, quoted in Entertainment Weekly. Pursuant to his interview with Johnnie Cochran this past July, Ted Koppel of Nightline tells 7V Guide in the latest issue that he would much rather Koppel said.

"It's rare that you get someone where you just say, 'It's gloves off, this guy is perfectly capable of taking care of himself, he'll give as good as he to include kraft paper bags. Many grocery stores will accept flattened cardboard boxes to be recycled with their own cardboard. Source: 1992 Earth Journal, Buzzworm Magazine..