Daily Press from Newport News, Virginia • Page 21

"C'iM--fiiJv'iiV In i mim i in 1 1 it it (T a 1 a -1 i i urns cy les Broadcast News Folksinger with an attitude Turbulence fuels career of songstress Nanci Griffith By David Tarrant Dallas Morning News AUSTIN, Texas Nanci Griffith. 8 tonight. Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts, 600 East Grace Richmond. 782-3930. Tickets, $20 and $25, are available from Tick-etmaster locations.

Charge by phone at 872-8100 or 671-8100. anci Griffith is doing a sound check on the stage TT f' ,7 I i i 1 of the Paramount Theater, singing a line about good conservative 1950s with beatnik parents who marched to a different bongo drum. Maybe it was coming of age during Austin's psychedelic rock scene and the protest movement of the 1960s. Or maybe it was all those years that she labored in musical hinterland as a country-folk-pop alloy who wouldn't conform to the rigid formats of commercial radio. Whatever it was, she brandished that steely attitude 20 years ago when she carried her guitar into a raucous Austin honkey-tonk called the Hole in the Wall, a wide-eyed flower child with a sweet, girlish voice, who demanded and got absolute silence from its beer-swigging patrons.

A schoolteacher, who worked the bars at night, she saved up enough gas money from those gigs to take her act on the road. Slowly, but surely, with a grueling road schedule, she built a devoted grassroots following. Critics marveled at the literary sophistication of her songwriting, intricate dioramas of fiction with singer-songwriters. And it does not hurt that Willie Nelson and Emmylou Harris Coast Kathy Mattea at the Five and and Suzy Boggus have all recorded her songs. People recently pronounced her "James Taylor's spiritual heir." Time calls her a modern-day Emily Dickinson with a guitar.

Marcia Clark with a guitar might be more like it. It would not come as a shock if Nanci were to change the name of her band to FWA (Folksingers with Attitude). There's a hard edge to this winsome folksinger, when during the concert she says, "Folksingers have always been treated like the 'F Not that Griffith's ever let a little attitude get in the way. Maybe it was growing up in the times, when she suddenly forgets the words. "I don't know what good times are, I guess," she cracks, turning around to the six members of her backup band, the Blue Moon Orchestra.

Wearing a big, plaid flannel shirt and dingy white chinos, she could be just another roadie who stayed out too late partying. But Griffith is kidding, of course. These are quite good times, indeed. Career-wise at least. In the last two years, the Austin native has won a Grammy for one album and earned a Grammy nomination for another.

She is widely regarded as one of the most influential stylists among a bumper crop of contemporary carefully-etched characters. Grammy-winner Nanci Griffith performs at the Paramount Theater in Austin, Texas. Griffith has been touting her folk music for 20 years, ap Please see GrlfflthD2 Tl ji (Di 'buz tv' ditched from lineup on WTKR-TV WTKR-TV, Channel 3, has taken the buzz saw to "buz tv," its locally produced entertainment program. The show began airing in December 1993 with host Robert James and ran for 84 episodes through mid-July. Its fast-paced editing and zany style included entertainment and sports segments and visits to area restaurants and retail shops.

Two years in a row, the "buz tv" team brought home regional Emmys for producing and directing. James is proud of his efforts. "It was an experience in local television production second to none," he says. "And we made some great friends along the way." The English-born host had finished assembling his 85th show when he was told by Elden Hale, WTKR's new president and general manager, that the show would no longer run in its 11:30 p.m. Friday spot.

According to Hale, the show was canceled due to low ratings. James will continue producing freelance entertainment segments for WTKR while he looks for other work. CHANGES AT WJCB. Beginning Monday, WJCB-TV, Channel 49, will be sporting a new look. The Hampton-based independent station has dumped its association with the shopping network and added a mix of infomercials, old movies and local and children's programming.

WJCB has signed on with America One Television, a general entertainment network that provides programming to independent stations. America One will provide the station with two half -hour children's programs weekday mornings as well as old movies in the early morning hours. "Kids Classics," a collection of vintage animated cartoons, will air at 8 a.m., followed by "Children's Room," which will feature children's stories at 8:30 a.m. Another deal has been struck with the Infomall TV Network, produced by Pax-son Communications of Florida, to provide the station with about 90 hours each week of infomercials pitching a variety of products. The balance will be music videos and religious programming.

WJCB is carried on most area cable systems. PASS THE HAT. The August on-air fund-raiser at WHRO-TV, Channel 15, is rolling along this week. The threat of Hurricane Felix delayed this year's drive. It began last Saturday three days late and will finish up Sunday.

By Wednesday, the public broadcasting station had heard from 1,059 people pledging $112,065. That's way ahead of the same five-day period two years ago, says promotions director Rosalyn Teichroew, when the station heard from 924 viewers who pledged $76,286. Though this year's five-day total lagged behind the same period in 1994 when 1,490 viewers pledged $129,567 the average pledge per viewer has climbed steadily from $82.56 in 1993 to $105.82 this year. The threatened cancellation of federal funding for the Public Broadcasting Service may'have spurred supporters to increase their giving, she believes. An item in Thursday's Daily Press indicated that pledge money for PBS around the country could be as much as 32 percent higher than last year.

"The community is rallying more so than before," says Teichroew, "And they need to keep doing it." UPN PREVIEW. For a quick look at United Paramount Network's fall pro I p. r. If In yY -i-'fy J- jilS mj If A i -'A stranded in the country and finds herself on the run from the government, in Photos courtesy of Castle Rock Entertainment' Patricia Arquette portrays Laura Bowman, an American doctor on vacation in Burma who "Beyond Rangoon." Lr iiV, 7-sr-- Film focuses on worthy cause, based on reality Patricia Arquette endures rigorous filming conditions in 'Beyond Rangoon' By James Ryan Entertainment News Wire By Philip Shenon Y. Times News Service grams, catch "UPN Sneak Peak." The LOS ANGELES half-hour preview will air at w.su p.m.

omen aren't often Monday on WGNT-TV, Channel 27. given the opportunity to get dirty," says Patricia Arquette of If you have a tip for Broadcast News, contact Nicholson at 247-4794. 'i! l'. John Boorman, left, directs Arquette on location in Malaysia. Political unrest in Burma revolves around Aung San Suu Kyi, whose face is on the poster, but she appears only briefly in the film, portrayed by Adele Lutz.

YANGON, Myanmar It always had the makings of a gripping movie. In a storybook Asian land, the beautiful Oxford-educated daughter of the man considered the father of the nation returns home after decades abroad to confront the steely eyed generals who run the country. They gun down thousands of her supporters and place her under house arrest, where she remains for years with only the barest contact with the outside world. While detained, she wins the Nobel Peace Prize and retains the affection of millions inside and outside her country. In a paragraph, that is the modern history of Myanmar, the nation better known by its colonial name, Burma.

The recent political turmoil in this isolated, tormented nation is now the backdrop for a film, "Beyond Rangoon," directed by John Boorman, starring Patricia Arquette. The Nobel Prize-winning opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, appears in the film only briefly a "Beyond Rangoon" is rated for violence. Carmike Cinema 4, Patrick Henry 7. COLLEGIATE CRITERIA. The '90s college student is choosing comfortable clothes made with easy-care fabric.

her mud-soaked role in John Boorman's political thriller "Beyond Rangoon." "You're usually supposed to be this sexy object of desire. It was very freeing in that way." Arquette, who arrives for breakfast at one of her favorite Hollywood haunts, the Snow White Cafe, wearing torn jeans, a T-shirt, a '70s retro jacket and black leather shoes with the laces untied, portrays a young doctor who travels to Burma and gets caught up in a military crack-down on the dissident democracy movement. Director Boorman says he hired the actress after watching her performances as a novice hooker in "True Romance" and as a mute child in the TV movie "Wildflower." "The contrast betwen these two roles immensely impressed me," says the director. "There's something very courageous about her." That courage was severely tested during the film's shoot in Malaysia. In addition to humidity, leeches, insects Boorman locked horns over was an escape sequence in which her character is trapped underwater in her car.

Boorman says they had to shoot it over again because "she was so happy to get out" you could see it on her face. She also had a few qualms about shooting a subsequent riverbank scene in which she is knee-deep in mud. "She was afraid about leeches," says Boorman. "I said, there's nothing there. She knew it was the truth." Arquette can laugh about it today, but at the time the slimy creatures were terrifying.

Please see ArquetteD2 and foul-smelling water, there were poisonous snakes and crocodiles to contend with. During the filming of one scene, a 10-foot cobra suddenly dropped into the lap of Arquette's stunt double. The actress says she wasn't so much afraid for herself as concerned that an accident would prevent her from taking care of her 6-year-old son Enzo, whom she brought with her. Among the scenes Arquette and O.jliM 928-1111 Please see CauseD2 From Smithfield, call 357-6594. From the Middle Peninsula, call (800) 981-6600.

Entertainment news4111..