Arkansas Times - October 31, 2013 by Arkansas Times

NEWS + POLITICS + ENTERTAINMENT + FOOD / OCTOBER 31, 2013 / ARKTIMES.COM

TECH DREAMS

FOR MAIN STREET LR Technology Park board narrowly settles on urban site. BY LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK

WINNER OF SIX TONY AWARDS, INCLUDING BEST PLAY

“The Rep’s production of “Red” is one of those Rep offerings that are so well-conceived and performed that you just want to throw buckets of money at the theater.” – Arkansas Times “A pivotal question, asked at three points in the play, is ‘What do you see?’ All viewers are likely to see Graves in a masterful performance...” – Arkansas Democrat-Gazette “Joe Graves, as the conceited, brilliant, troubled artist, and Chris Wendelken, as Rothko’s maturing studio assistant Ken, do fantastic work in this emotional freight train of a play. From the first minute...‘Red’ is off and rolling, with profound and often funny dialog... and perfect timing.” – Arkansas Times

$5 TICKETS TO EXHIBIT WITH RED TICKET $5 OFF RED WITH EXHIBIT TICKET Call The Rep Box Office at (501) 378-0405 or visit tickets.therep.org for tickets to Red, on stage Oct. 25 – Nov. 10. “Mark Rothko in the 1940s: The Decisive Decade” on display Oct. 25 – Feb. 9, 2014.

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THREE WEEKS ONLY OCT 25 – NOV 10, 2013 T I C K E T S AT T H E R E P. O R G OR CALL 501.378.0405 Joseph Graves as Mark Rothko. Photo by John David Pittman.

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VOLUME 40, NUMBER 9 ARKANSAS TIMES (ISSN 0164-6273) is published each week by Arkansas Times Limited Partnership, 201 East Markham Street, Suite 200, Little Rock, Arkansas, 72201, phone (501) 375-2985. Periodical postage paid at Little Rock, Arkansas, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ARKANSAS TIMES, EAST MARKHAM STREET, SUITE 200, Little Rock, AR, 72201. Subscription prices are $42 for one year, $78 for two years. Subscriptions outside Arkansas are $49 for one year, $88 for two years. Foreign (including Canadian) subscriptions are $168 a year. For subscriber service call (501) 375-2985. Current single-copy price is 75¢, free in Pulaski County. Single issues are available by mail at $2.50 each, postage paid. Payment must accompany all single-copy orders. Reproduction or use in whole or in part of the contents without the written consent of the publishers is prohibited. Manuscripts and artwork will not be returned or acknowledged unless sufficient return postage and a self-addressed stamped envelope are included. All materials are handled with due care; however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for care and safe return of unsolicited materials. All letters sent to ARKANSAS TIMES will be treated as intended for publication and are subject to ARKANSAS TIMES’ unrestricted right to edit or to comment editorially.

RE: Act 1099 of 2013, an Act to Prohibit the Use of E-Cigarettes on Public School Property; and for Other Purposes (Arkansas Code 6-21-609)

Attention Public School District Administrators: The Coalition for a Tobacco Free Arkansas is sending this letter to inform you of a very important law impacting all public school districts across Arkansas. Act 1099 was passed during the 2013 Arkansas General Assembly. The law prohibits the use of e-cigarettes on property owned or leased by a public school or public charter school. It goes further to prohibit the use of e-cigarettes in or on any personal property, including school buses owned or leased by the district, whether it be a traditional public school or a public charter. This includes school or district vehicles, annexes, portable classrooms, etc. In other words any personal property owned by the district, that is not considered real property but may house or be utilized to educate or to transport students for the school. What Are E-Cigarettes? E-Cigarettes are defined in the statute as any “electronic oral device” that provides a vapor of nicotine or another substance, used to simulate smoking, and any device having a heating element, battery or electronic circuit which works in combination with liquid nicotine delivery. Posting Requirements 6-21-609 (c) All public and charter school districts are required to post a copy of the statute, conspicuously, at every entrance to each building owned or leased by the school, including any school bus utilized to transport students. PUNISHMENT 6-21-609 (d) While there is no criminal penalty for violation of this act; persons who commit a violation shall have a fine of not less than $10.00 not more than $100.00 assessed. Effective Date Act 1099 went into effect August 16, 2013. We hope this information is helpful to you as you strive to keep your district in compliance with all state mandates relative to public and charter schools. If further information is needed, please contact Katherine Donald (501) 687-0345.

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OCTOBER 31, 2013

COMMENT

Healthcare expansion isn’t working Just like Leonid Brezhnev’s Five Year Plans in the good ol’ days of the Soviet Union, all of you in Central Planning can’t understand why your grand scheme of nationalized medicine isn’t working out as you command. More people are losing medical insurance than are getting it. The numbers of uninsured are increasing, not decreasing. Insurance premiums are increasing, not decreasing. Medical costs are increasing, not decreasing, and medical care is going to become less available, not more accessible. Go figure. Michael Emerson Little Rock

Mutilates, cages and butchers billions of cows, pigs and other sentient animals. Feeds carcasses of cats and dogs killed in pounds to chickens. Exposes undocumented workers to chronic workplace injuries at slave wages. Exploits farmers and ranchers by dictating wholesale market prices. Punishes documentation of its abuses through unconstitutional “ag-gag” laws. Promotes world hunger by feeding nutritious corn and soybeans to animals. Generates more greenhouse gases than any other human activity. Generates more water pollution than any other

Healthcare expansion is working I wish everyone’s experience with the Arkansas Health Connector has been as positive as mine. I know some folks are frustrated, but the problems with the Arkansas system are not nearly as bad as the snags people are experiencing on HealthCare. gov. Any criticisms of the problems with the federal system should include criticisms of states that have demonstrated that they don’t care whether citizens have affordable health care. I am also proud of our state for expanding Medicaid, and serving as a model to other states. Governor Beebe’s fellow governor in Ohio, a Republican, just bucked the Republican majority legislature there and expanded Medicaid. His actions should be commended. Wm. Jay Sims Little Rock

Thanks In response to this week’s Arkansas Reporter article on Mount St. Mary’s firing of Tippi McCullough: We would like to thank the members of the local faith community, particularly those in leadership positions, for their rejection of the theological position that a marriage between two loving, committed adults of the same gender is inherently immoral. Your voices give hope and comfort to all who strive for a more just world. Emily Adams Carmen Arick Little Rock

Scared of meat business I am not scared of all the witches, zombies, and assorted goblins wandering about on Halloween. What really scares me is the meat industry. This is the industry that: 4

OCTOBER 31, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

From the web

human activity. Creates a permanent “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico that dwarfs the BP oil spill. In response to the Arkansas Blog post Creates deadly antibiotic-resistant “Pork producers suggest more danger to pathogens by feeding antibiotics to ani- Buffalo River from people than pigs” that included a letter from Jerry Masters, mals. Creates epidemics of salmonella, lis- executive vice president of the Arkansas teria, and other infectious diseases. Pro- Pork Producers Association, defending the motes mortality from diabetes, heart fail- embattled C&H Hog Farms: While I applaud all of the efforts by our ure, stroke, cancer, and other diseases. Now, that’s really scary. And this is finest scientists to cure cancer and heart diswhy I am dropping animal products from ease, there is another pervasive malady that my menu. appears to be striking significant portions Luke Molina of our society. Yes, I’m talking about selecLittle Rock tive amnesia. The first signs began to appear when folks started saying “there was a recession during the Bush administration?” More recently we’ve heard “what Mayflower oil spill?” and “government shutdown, huh?” So it must come as no great shock when our friends in the agribusiness industry say “National River, our people told us the Buffalo was a sewer, are you sure?” Hombre

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Let’s see, we know that this commercial hog operation has 6,500 pigs pooping every single day. And we know that 100 percent of that poop is near Big Creek that flows into the Buffalo River. Experts can calculate how much per day will be produced and has to go somewhere. And we know that waste will NOT be treated, unlike the human waste from visitors to the Buffalo National River. We know from numerous catastrophes in other states what happens when these pig waste lagoons burst or leak, resulting in massive contamination that is impossible to completely clean up. Or would the letter writer have us believe the result of a burst lagoon would somehow be different than it has been in North Carolina, Iowa and other states? We also know that people living within a several mile radius of such commercial hog factories suffer respiratory problems as a result. And we know there is a school in Mount Judea within that radius. And we know that a lagoon with hundreds of thousands of gallons of pig s**t smells like a rose, don’t we Mr. Masters? We do not know how many human visitors poop in the Buffalo River watershed each day. We do not know how much each person poops per day. Finally, we know that Arkansans impacted by this commercial hog factory make up the core opposition, not out-ofstaters. But if out-of-staters being involved is so important, how about an out-of-state secretive corporation like Cargill that answers to no one swooping in to threaten the nation’s first national river. Still so concerned with out-of-staters, Mr. Masters? Sound Policy

WORD S

Accolades are for knights “As a former film student, I hold an extremely high level of respect and admiration for Ebert’s accolades and I can only dream of replicating the amount of success he achieved.” A reader says: “An accolade is praise. So the writer is saying he has respect and admiration for the praise Ebert received.” Or perhaps the praise Ebert gave. It’s a close call whether accolades fits in this quotation, but I suspect the former film student had some other word, like accomplishments, in mind. Random House says an accolade is “any award, honor or laudatory notice”: The play received accolades from the press.” I didn’t know that an accolade could also be “a light touch on the shoulder with the flat side of the sword or formerly by an embrace, done in the ceremony of conferring knighthood.” Coincidentally, I was just thinking that it’s about time knighthood was conferred on a language columnist from the southwestern United States. I’m prepared to accept an honest draft. I’ve heard there’s a regulation that one must be British to be knighted, but surely Elizabeth could get around that. She’s the queen, isn’t she?

Don’t let yourself be pushed around by pettifogging dukes and earls, your majesty. Your great-great-greatDOUG great-great-great SMITH dougsmith@arktimes.com grandfather knew how to deal with that sort. Some might argue that Bryan A. Garner, of Garner’s Modern American Usage, is more deserving than I. Most everybody would argue that, in fact, and they have a point; he’s widely regarded as the foremost authority in the field. But he’s also a Texan, and that’s the one kind of American that is totally unacceptable to the queen, who has described Texans as “tacky.” She also remembers Churchill’s words about resisting Texans in the U.K.: “We shall fight in the streets, etc.” Inspiring, still. It’s true that Sir Douglas of the Sir Douglas Quintet (“She’s About a Mover”) was Texan. The queen has explained this was a mistake. A big fan of “The Land That Time Forgot,” she thought she was knighting Doug McClure.

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WEEK THAT WAS

It was a good week for…

CANDIDATE ANNOUNCEMENTS. Little Rock banker French Hill, who’d previously announced for an open state House seat, launched his campaign for 2nd District Congress. Hill worked in President George H.W. Bush’s administration. U.S. Army Col. Conrad Reynolds, a tea party Republican from Conway, also announced. State Rep. Ann Clemmer, Republican of Benton, was expected to join the pack on Wednesday after our deadline. So far former North Little Rock Mayor Patrick Henry Hays is the only announced Democrat for the seat. A TECH PARK DECISION. The Little Rock Technology Park Authority finally picked a site for the Little Rock Technology Park — downtown Main Street. But much discussion and disagreement is likely to follow. Leslie Peacock has the full scoop on page 14. PEYTON HILLIS. After a month out of the NFL, the former Hog landed on the severely running back-deficient New York Giants. In a matter of days, Hillis went from tending his Tennessee soybean farm to supplying the bulk of carries for the Giants. He’s yet to put up spectacular stats — 106 yards and one touchdown after two games — but since he arrived, the Giants are 2-0. SEN. MARK PRYOR. After a long holdout, Pryor said he would support the Employ-

ment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Moveon.org had organized a petition encouraging Pryor to support the legislation, which Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid has said he’ll bring up before Thanksgiving. A recent poll by the University of Arkansas asked if gays and lesbians should “have equal rights in terms of job opportunities.” Eighty-one percent of very likely voters responding said yes.

It was a bad week for…

CLINTON NATIONAL AIRPORT. Travel and Leisure magazine rated the airport the worst in the country. Airport spokesman Shane Carter blamed construction for long waits in security lines, cited by Travel and Leisure as part of the low ranking. ALSO: Novelist and short story writer William Harrison died at age 79. The author of the short story “Roller Ball Murder” that was later made into the film “Rollerball,” Harrison co-founded the Creative Writing Program at the University of Arkansas. Pioneering, Arkansas-born stuntman Hal Needham also died. He won an honorary Academy Award for his work in movie stunts in 2012. He was 82. More on Needham on page 21.

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OCTOBER 31, 2013

EDITORIAL

EYE ON ARKANSAS

Buncombe forever

OCTOBER 31, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

JON NICHOLS

n North Carolina, a Republican told the truth and was fired for it. This is disappointing to those of us who’d hoped that other Republicans, including Arkansas’s, would begin to lie less. Don Yelton, a Republican official in Buncombe County, N.C., spoke with a television reporter about the state’s new voter ID law, which is similar to the one in Arkansas that was approved earlier this year by a predominantly Republican legislature. Both states’ laws are intended to make voting more difficult for groups that are likely to vote Democratic — minorities, the elderly, the young — although the laws’ sponsors generally say they’re meant to fight voter fraud (of a kind that’s already non-existent). But Yelton suffered an attack of honesty during his interview. Asked if he was a racist, he said “I’ve been called a bigot before.” He repeatedly used a racial slur, and he said he favored the new law because “if it hurts the whites, so be it. If it hurts lazy black people that wants the government to give them everything, so be it.” He also admitted the law was politically motivated: “The law is going to kick the Democrats in the butt.” For a Republican official to tell people the truth is news, and the Yelton interview went viral. He subsequently refused to apologize for his candor, standing behind his remarks. Buncombe County and state Republican officials demanded he resign, and so he did. It now seems even less likely that Arkansas state Sen. Bryan King of Green Forest, chief sponsor of the Arkansas ID law, will admit that its main purpose is to hurt the Democrats. (Not that it was ever very likely King would be overcome by a fit of truthfulness. He resists it strongly.) King and his fellow Republicans had to override a veto by Gov. Mike Beebe to get their law on the books. Beebe correctly called the proposal “an expensive solution in search of a problem.” Interestingly, Buncombe County is the source of the word “bunk,” meaning “pretentious nonsense.” In the early 19th century, a North Carolina congressman apologized to his colleagues for making a long, dull, irrelevant speech on the matter before them. His remarks were meant to placate his constituents, he said: “I’m speaking for Buncombe.” Over time, Buncombe became bunkum, then bunk. Appropriately so, it would seem. In Buncombe County, they still don’t stand for straight talk.

DUCKS IN A ROW: Jon Nichols contributed this photo of ducks in Heber Springs to our Eye On Arkansas Flickr group.

Gay equality now

hanks to court rulings and changing public sentiment, gradualism has disappeared from the vocabulary of advocates for gay equality. That has certain adverse consequences in the darker corners of the world. Places like Arkansas. This week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he’d schedule a vote before Thanksgiving on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. It passed the House once in 2007, but hung up in the Senate. Now advocates think they can produce the 60 votes to break a filibuster. Until right at deadline for this column, all but two Democratic senators were sponsors of the proposal to outlaw workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Just as I went to press came word that one of the two, U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas also would vote for ENDA. Pryor faces a Republican challenge from the far right, Rep. Tom Cotton, in 2014. It’s an article of Republican faith that Arkansans are deeply antagonistic to gay rights, what with our constitutional and statutory bans on gay marriage. In fact, though, the latest Arkansas poll shows slightly less than a majority opposes legal recognition — marriage or civil union — for gay people. The Arkansas legislature, prodded by a lesbian lawmaker, also passed an anti-bullying bill over Religious Right opposition. Two recent polls are even more hopeful. National polling by a Republican pollster showed that the majority of people in every state, including 61 percent in Arkansas, support workplace equality. The recent Arkansas Poll at the University of Arkansas found that more than 80 percent of the “very likely voters” polled said gays and lesbians should “have equal rights in terms of job opportunities?” You wonder, of course, if they meant it. Consider the recent firing of a teacher at Mount St. Mary Academy because she married her lesbian partner. The school’s religious underpinning gave it some legal basis for punishing a woman for availing

herself of the law of New Mexico to qualify for federal legal benefits. Many rose in sympathy with the women. But many did not and they made it clear that religious prerogatives had little to do with it. MAX Several spoke angrily and loudly BRANTLEY maxbrantley@arktimes.com that homosexuality was a disorder that should be banned from a school workplace. Even if those voices are in the minority, they are nonetheless shrill. Determined, angry voices have a disproportionate impact on nervous politicians. See the Tea Party. The tide is changing. Marriage is legal for gays in many states. Many states and cities have non-discrimination laws. Walmart, the country’s biggest employer, has had a non-discrimination policy on sexual orientation for a decade and extended it two years ago to gender identity. The Republican Party punch list in Arkansas remains black-and-white on gay equality, no matter what Dick Cheney and his lesbian daughter might say. The haters finesse the workplace issue so as not to appear meanspirited. Sen. John Boozman, for example, claims he’s afraid ENDA might spur lawsuits against businesses. Indeed it might, just as other laws have allowed lawsuits against businesses that discriminate on the grounds of race, gender, age, religion or disability. Pryor’s change of heart might become an issue. Cotton might presume the continuing benefits of enmity toward gay people in Arkansas. If Pryor’s vote hurts him, it won’t be the first time Arkansas has been the last to be seated at the table of equality. Happily, it won’t delay the arrival of a better world elsewhere. The growing number of out gay people and their friends, co-workers and family know what they want. They want equality. And they want it now.

OPINION

Billionaires’ dirty laundering

he state of California, often the pacesetter for governmental reform, struck a small blow for democracy and openness last week when it forced two dark-money groups to admit they had illegally laundered $15 million from businessmen to influence voters on two ballot issues, one that would raise their taxes and the other that would trim the political clout of California unions. Caught red-handed, the nonprofits capitulated and signed a settlement that fines them $1 million and requires the recipients of the laundered $15 million to turn it over to California. The groups said they realized too late that they were violating California law. The two groups, the Center to Protect Patient Rights and Americans for Responsible Leadership (we saw their work in Arkansas elections in 2012 and 2014), are part of a shadowy network of political nonprofits and political action committees that have assumed a huge role in national and state politics, especially after the U.S. Supreme Court gave them the green light in the Citizens United decision three years ago. Rich people, corporations, unions or other groups move massive sums into

political campaigns, mainly for attack ads, but keep their identities secret. But don’t believe that CaliERNEST fornia is really setDUMAS ting the nation on course to transparency and diluting the power of great money in government. In a matter of perhaps days, the Supreme Court will strike another blow for plutocracy in the latest of a line of cases reaching back to 1976, when it ruled that money was a form of expression protected by the First Amendment and that the more you had of it the greater should be your voice in the councils of government. The court will hold, in the same fashion as in Citizens United, that a corporation, a union or a person of vast wealth may spend any aggregate sum it or he chooses to shape the outcome of races in each election. What California did was shine a light on a system that washes huge sums through interlocking groups for political attack ads and other media efforts without the donors ever being known, at least by the voters. About 150 wealthy

Government spending truths

iven the great hullabaloo in Washington over government spending, here are a couple of noteworthy facts. Under President Obama, the federal budget deficit has been more than cut in half, from a FY2009 high of $1.55 trillion (largely inherited from George W. Bush) to an estimated $642 billion this year, according to the Congressional Budget Office. However, a recent Bloomberg News poll shows that 10 percent of American voters are acquainted with this indisputable fact. Fifty-nine percent mistakenly believe that the deficit has risen under Obama. Another 26 percent think it’s remained approximately the same. It’s hard to run a democracy given such widespread public ignorance. Militant ignorance, much of it. Fully 93 percent of Tea Party members subscribe to the false belief that government spending is skyrocketing out of control. No wonder they’re running around with their hair on fire. But hold that thought, because there’s more: measured as a percentage of the overall US economy, the federal budget deficit has shrunk from 10.1 percent in 2009 to 4 percent today. Given increased revenue and decreased spending, the CBO projects the figure will decrease to 2.1 percent by 2015. “By comparison,” the May 2013 report

notes “the deficit averaged 3.1 percent of GDP over the past 40 years.” And for this we needed a government shutdown? GENE LYONS And yes, I said decreased government spending. Contrary to the myth of federal profligacy under President Obama, total expenditures for FY2013 and 2014 (which began last Oct. 1) have actually gone down for two years running, together with government employment. Overall, since 2009 government spending has risen at an annualized rate of only 1.4 percent, as compared to 8.1 percent during George W. Bush’s second term, 4.9 percent during Ronald Reagan’s, and 5.4 percent under George Bush the Elder. Bill Clinton averaged 3.9 percent during his second term. (Incidentally, the CBO projects that the Affordable Care Act — assuming the healthcare.gov website eventually gets put in working order — will also contribute to shrinking the deficit, albeit a modest $143 billion over ten years.) “In other words,” writes economist Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research “the story of out-of-control debts and deficits is just plain wrong. Less

Californians, including billionaire investor Charles Schwab, put up $29 million to defeat the California tax on the rich and to pass the antilabor act, but they didn’t want it known they were behind it. So the money went to Americans for Job Security, a Virginia-based conservative nonprofit that is not required to disclose its donors. Near the election, Americans for Job Security figured out that California law required disclosure of some of its contributors, so it transferred $24.6 million to the Center to Protect Patient Rights, a rightwing group set up in 2009 and headed by an associate of the billionaire Koch brothers to attack Obamacare, which was working its way through Congress. The Center to Protect Patient Rights then rolled the money into two other conservative groups, Americans for Responsible Leadership and the American Future Fund, which were then to funnel the money into the California campaigns. (Arkansas and other states with critical votes in Congress saw the fruits of the two groups’ work in the massive ad campaign against the health insurance law making its way through Congress in the winter and spring of 2010. The ads dramatically changed public attitudes about universal health coverage. After the bill became

law, the Center to Protect Patient Rights became one of the big conduits for dark money against Obamacare. A secretive group called Freedom Partners channeled $115 million through the Center to Protect Patient Rights to attack Obamacare as a government takeover of healthcare.) So the California ethics commission caught up with the money-laundering scheme before the election and the state Supreme Court ordered Americans for Responsible Leadership to disclose the names of people who put up all the money. The group set out to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to get protection from disclosure under the Citizens United decision, but that alarmed national groups that were counting on the Supreme Court to expand protections for big political donors in the case that was argued this month. The facts of the California case might disturb the justices’ deliberations. So the groups settled instead. The state’s unmasking of the national money-laundering scheme proves the fallacy of the Supreme Court’s fateful decision in Buckley v. Valeo that the unfettered use of personal and corporate wealth to shape the affairs of government is good for democracy because the titans of commerce and finance can be trusted to be open about their labors.

polite people would call it a lie, but it stands at the center of the public debate because the media consider it rude to point out a truth that would embarrass so many important politicians. ... “During the Reagan presidency spending averaged more than 22 percent of GDP, peaking at 23.5 percent in 1985. This year it is projected to be 21.6 percent of GDP. The latest CBO projections show spending rising back to Reagan era levels towards the end of the 10-year budget window.” Which isn’t to say the United States has no long-term fiscal problems. But ultimately, this is also how the scary-sounding $17 trillion national debt will be dealt with over time. (By the way, can you remember when President George W. Bush argued for his infamous tax cuts by explaining that paying off the debt too fast would be a bad thing? If you’re a Republican, I’m guessing no.) With the yearly deficit under control, the size of the national debt as a fraction of a growing GDP becomes steadily less alarming. It’s never actually decreased from one presidency to the next, you know. Reagan tripled the debt in eight years; Bush doubled it again. Despite the shrinking deficit, Obama’s currently on track to double it again. It’s also true, however, that President Obama helped create his own problems by talking about budgetary issues in personal,

moral terms. “Families across the country are tightening their belts and making tough decisions,” he announced during his 2010 State of the Union. “The federal government should do the same.” It’s a simple, homely analogy that everybody understands. Alas, it’s also extremely misleading. US government macroeconomics bears almost no relationship to your family budget. Unlike your family, see, the government lives forever. It needn’t ever close the books on a debt it owes largely to itself anyway, as Social Security obligations, interest on government bonds, etc. The federal government also raises taxes as necessary, manages the level of inflation, regulates banks and, yes, prints money. So no, your grandchildren aren’t going to get stuck with the bill. They’re going to pass it on to their grandchildren, and so on. It’s not an existential threat, it’s a bookkeeping convention. But as I say it’s almost impossible to seriously discuss such issues in a country where 90 percent of the citizenry either don’t know or aggressively refuse to understand simple budgetary arithmetic. If it were possible, though, here’s one basic question Americans should ponder. If it’s not Obama’s profligate spending keeping the US economy in low gear, could it be government layoffs and lack of public investment? Just asking. www.arktimes.com

OCTOBER 31, 2013

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It’s Petrino’s fault

he final bye week of a spiraling season doesn’t have to be a respite, a moment for healing a splintering, creaking Arkansas Razorback community. Here, allow me to hammer in the wedge a little harder! The 3-5, 0-4 Hogs are feeding at the back end of the trough of the SEC along with Kentucky, looking nothing like the program that logged 29 wins, a BCS appearance and a fleeting appearance in the Top 5 in late 2011. And yes, the author of that hallmark was a man whose offensive acumen is unparalleled, and whose approval rating by January 2012 made him ALMOST unimpeachable. (Insert ironic “LOL” here.) But Petrino is the culprit and inadvertent mastermind of two very different disasters, and the workings of that amount to a four-year deconstruction of a program that really, tangibly, was never truly constructed. Premise #1: The transfer of Ryan Mallett to Arkansas in early 2008 was essentially the peak of Petrino’s recruiting, a bad sign for a coach who had not even overseen a single game yet. His system drew attention but much like the rapid-fire scoring drives that were so roundly celebrated during his tenure, it didn’t engender the long-term interest needed to sustain success. Granted, Petrino’s own failings meant that he wasn’t granted the opportunity to see through any sort of plan, but let’s move quickly to... Premise #2: Petrino was, quite likely, an inferior recruiter than his much-maligned predecessor in the head coaching position. Houston Nutt muddled through a decade of rollercoaster player recruitment and development. But even his limited successes were notable enough to keep him dangling in coaching purgatory. Again, Petrino diminished his own sample size, but look, the signs aren’t encouraging. His classes were ranked lowly or only modestly at best, and you were left with the impression that part of his modus operandi was making average Joes excel to the point of besting world-class Jimmies. The results were mixed, to be fair, and that dovetails to... Premise #3: The 2010-11 recruiting classes, which should have been flush with high-impact players, weren’t. At all. Instead of being aggressively deri-

sive here and maliciously citing failed prospects out of both class, I’ll just invite you to pull BEAU these up online WILCOX and do your own assessment. The bottom line is that neither class was ranked highly, and while that’s always a dubious manner of evaluation, the reason this team scuffles now is easily traceable to a slapdash way of filling the roster two and three years before. Where Petrino failed the program wasn’t on a motorcycle seat or standing at the dais for a press conference after his accident. Instead, he didn’t do himself or his unplanned successor any favors by trying to plug leaks with chewing gum. These guys on the field right now have worked hard and earned their chances, but they also weren’t going to maintain the team’s meteoric resurgence, irrespective of coaching. It was arguable last year that the 4-8 Hogs were “better than that,” but even the transition to a different coaching style and demeanor with Bret Bielema here means that this 3-5 team would probably also be Bobby Petrino’s 3-5 team. How can you honestly argue otherwise? Arkansas has gotten waxed so badly the past few weeks that projecting anything other than this crappy record and performance is impossible. The three premises hereinabove, then, are the basis for Bielema actually earning the two-year pass that Nutt hornswoggled but didn’t merit. A decade after the prior athletic director invested that kind of confidence in a middling coach, the current AD owes the new coach an ironically similar, if not more liberal, leash. Bielema can’t work miracles, and he can’t jettison functional players just to make a point. Petrino had no choice but to play Casey Dick in 2008 and have him chucking it to a crew of freshmen. Nutt had no choice but to try to coax better performance from Danny Ford’s bunch in 1998. The cycle repeats itself on occasion with varying outcomes but what you cannot do, under any circumstance, is draw too much from what the first-year coach is doing, or infer that future results will be too fruitful or too bare.

THE 2013 ARKANSAS

THE OBSERVER NOTES ON THE PASSING SCENE

Ghosts we have known THIS EDITION OF THE ARKANSAS TIMES will hit the streets on Halloween, just as young ghosts and ghouls emerge from their houses in search of candy, and naughty nurses and passable Heisenbergs from “Breaking Bad” hit the bars. So then, children, a ghost story: The Observer grew up in Little Rock, but at 12, dear old Ma and Pa — God rest Pa’s soul — moved our family to deepest, darkest Saline County. They bought 20 acres there, which included a ramshackle old crackerbox of a house that probably should have been burned as practice for the volunteer fire department years before — two stories, no porches, nary a window upstairs, a ladder for a staircase, and closets that smelled so strong of cat piss that you couldn’t hang clothes in them. The house had good bones, however — rough-sawn pine from the forests of 1930 — and over the next five years, The Observer’s parents and their supply of child labor proceeded to turn it into a perfect white farmhouse on a hill: red-roofed, ringed with porches and a board fence, chimney of old brick, and a big back deck overlooking the broad, foggy pasture below. Lovely as it became, there was always something odd about that house. The Observer, who knows all too well the 10,000 ways your brain can fool your eyes and ears, would be prone to think all ghost stories hogwash if we hadn’t lived there, where the feeling that you were never really alone cooked out of the walls like dark heat. At least once a month in that house, you’d hear glass breaking downstairs long after midnight: the flat, undramatic shatter of one of the old sash windows and then the pitter of shards on the floor. Investigation with every light on never found a thing. After awhile, we learned to ignore it, as we all learned to ignore the corner-of-theeye shadows, the lights that insisted on staying lit, the furtive whispering that could sometimes be heard in upstairs closets in wintertime. One night, The Observer, the girl who would become Spouse, and our best friend Sy Hoahwah — Comanche, and acquainted with ghosts — stood in the dark yard of that house and watched a bright wad of light the size of a basketball range up and down the high, steep hill at the back of the property, the hill an unwalkable angle for anyone with earthly feet, the light casting

into the trees there until it finally crested the ridge and winked out. Once, at 19, The Observer came in from work to the empty house and headed to the shower, dropping our sweaty jeans outside the bathroom door. Midway through that shower, the locked doorknob began to jiggle, someone trying to get in, our brother, maybe, and we yelled for him to hit the john upstairs. When the jiggling knob didn’t stop, we got out, wrapped a towel around and flung open the door. There was no one there, no sign, unless you count the handful of change from The Observer’s pants pocket, which was all lined up in an arrow-straight line on the tiles before the door. Much calling and a jittery barefoot sweep of the house with a baseball bat in hand found it very empty except for Yours Truly. The thing that finally drove us away from our boyhood home for good, however, was the first trip back with Junior, then a little over a week old, born in Lafayette, La., while The Observer was in grad school there. Pa was gone by then, and Ma gave us their old bedroom at the top of the stairs, big enough for Junior’s bassinet. Spouse, alone upstairs with the baby, needed to use the restroom after changing Junior’s diaper. The bassinet still packed and overly-protective mother she, Spouse put Junior in the middle of the big bed on his back, surrounded by pillows in case our swaddled lump of baby somehow gained the superhuman ability to roll off the bed at one week old, then sprinted 10 feet away to take the world’s fastest pee, door open to listen in case of trouble. When she came back in the room less than two minutes later, one of the bed pillows had been placed squarely over Junior’s face. She told her co-parent all this, white as bond paper and shaking so hard she couldn’t even hold a canned Coke, some hours later at a hotel in Benton, where we’d quickly evacuated without explanation or apology. We never spent another night in that house, and Ma sold the place some years later. Passing strange, we think now. Wondrous. Terrifying. A dream? A delusion? One of those philosophy-denying things in heaven and earth that Hamlet pondered with dear Horatio? We don’t know, and might not want to. But we can’t help but consider those days in late October.

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OCTOBER 31, 2013

Arkansas Reporter

THE

IN S IDE R

It was a short-lived boomlet, but former state Rep. Kathy Webb’s significant fan club was briefly energized by a report last week on the Arkansas Blog. Attendees at a Women’s Foundation luncheon last week quoted Webb as saying she was planning a race for county judge. Buddy Villines is retiring at the end of this term. Webb, who’s undergoing breast cancer treatment, responded to the Times’ inquiry in the affirmative. She said in an email: “I am going to explore the possibility. I would not commit till a bit later till I finish chemo. Am at UAMS now for 4th treatment.” The news came as a shock to former state Rep. Barry Hyde of North Little Rock, at that moment the only declared candidate in the race. Hyde, a Democrat like Webb, said he’d talked to Webb about his race and she’d encouraged him to run. She called him shortly after she and I exchanged notes to tell him of her interest. Three days later, came another email from Webb: “In the past several days I have been asked by a number of people in our county to consider a race for Pulaski County Judge. I am honored by the outpouring of support and confidence I have received. However, after careful thought, prayer and consultation with my family, I have decided that now is not the time for me to run. As many of you know, I am going through treatments for breast cancer. I am doing well; however, it will be awhile before I am 100% and my health must come first at this time. “Additionally, my job with the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance and my commitment to help end hunger in our state is a driving challenge in my life. “I remain passionate about our state and community and hope to seek public office again. I believe I still have much to give in public service. Thank you all for your ongoing support.” In the meanwhile, another Democratic candidate popped up. Justice of the Peace Wilma Walker, another former state representative, said she planned to enter the race. No Republicans yet. CONTINUED ON PAGE 13 10

OCTOBER 31, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

Exxon slow to reopen Pegasus The lengthy outage is costing the company as much as $450,000 a day. BY ELIZABETH DOUGLASS

n the six months since an ExxonMobil pipeline unleashed Canadian oil in an Arkansas neighborhood, nearby residents have had much to endure — the muck and stench of heavy crude, lengthy evacuations, sickness and economic loss. They’ve also been in the national SPECIAL REPORT spotlight, as the upheaval in tiny Mayflower has come to symbolize the risks of aging and overlooked oil pipelines, especially when they’re hundreds of mile long and carrying tar sands crude. From Illinois through Texas, many people who live along the pipeline’s route are now worrying about whether or when the ruptured line will resume pumping oil through 858 miles of fields, waterways, cities and suburban backyards. “I have no say, and I have no idea what’s going to happen,” said Mayflower resident Ann Jarrell, whose home is not far from where the Pegasus pipeline split open on March 29. “That’s the worst part — the not knowing.” That nagging uncertainty, however, is likely to persist for many more months. For starters, federal regulators have not finished investigating the spill. And while tests determined that a manufacturing flaw set the stage for the 65-year-old pipeline’s rupture, officials have not said what caused the defect to progress to failure and what other factors played a role in the spill. What’s more, the recent government shutdown added further delay to the analysis, which is being conducted by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). Exxon, meanwhile, is not pressing to restart the line. Even though the lengthy outage is costing the company as much as $450,000 a day in lost revenue — totaling as much as $90 million so far — Exxon is

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

In and out candidate

MAYFLOWER

proceeding slowly, conducting additional tests and digging down to the pipeline in places to assess its condition. On Oct. 8, PHMSA granted Exxon a 90-day extension to file its work plan to verify the integrity of the Pegasus. According to Exxon spokesman Aaron Stryk, the extension means the oil company could not conceivably reopen the line before at least January 2014. Exxon’s deliberation could reflect fears that the Pegasus problems might be systemic and costly to solve. But analysts say Exxon also is mindful that additional leaks could sink its chances of salvaging the line for good and also undermine public support for new pipeline projects such as the controversial Keystone XL. Like the Pegasus, the proposed Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL would carry tar sands oil to U.S. refineries. However, the line’s critical northern segment (from Canada to Nebraska) has been stalled for five years as builder TransCanada tries to win U.S. State Department approval amid a heated debate over the pipeline’s merits and environmental and climate impacts. Several major pipeline projects could be affected by the Pegasus case because they would reverse the flow inside older, existing pipelines to accommodate Canada’s surging production of heavy oil — which is what Exxon did with the Pegasus in 2006. Anthony Swift, an attorney at the advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council, is one of several Keystone XL opponents who have cited the Mayflower spill as being an example of industry-wide hazards.

“The problems on the Pegasus pipeline have served as a canary in the coal mine for many members of the public looking at similar proposals in their own backyard,” Swift said. “It really does show the risks of spills on these major pipelines, and that includes major pipelines like the Keystone XL.”

Unusually long outage The Pegasus burst on Good Friday and sent an estimated 210,000 gallons of chemically diluted bitumen, or dilbit, into the Northwoods subdivision, nearby wetlands and a cove of Lake Conway. The sticky flood of Wabasca Heavy crude sickened residents and forced 22 families to evacuate. Jarrell and others in an adjacent neighborhood that was not evacuated left their homes after falling ill. The cleanup is ongoing, and 19 of the 22 homes subject to mandatory evacuation have been cleared for occupancy. Exxon offered to buy all homes in the neighborhood at pre-spill prices and has purchased 17 of them to date, according to the Faulkner County Assesor’s Office. Two of those were recently demolished. So far, the Pegasus has been shut down for more than 200 days — far longer than what is typical for such incidents. In 2010, a pipeline owned by Enbridge Inc. was back in service almost two months after it spilled more than a million gallons of dilbit into a Michigan river — making it the largest inland oil spill in North America. Another Enbridge pipeline was restarted less than two weeks after spewing 50,000 gallons of dilbit into a Wisconsin pasture. CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

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Griffin gets earful

1. Recently, police said, a Centerton man was arrested after he got rid of three Jehovah’s Witnesses who knocked on his door in a peculiar way. What did he do? A) Greeted them with a machete and a cheerful: “Hail Satan! What can I do for you?” B) Opened the door wearing only a leather codpiece. C) Pushed a button that activated a trapdoor under the welcome mat. D) Pulled out a handgun and fired at least 19 rounds at them. 2. A former valet at Little Rock’s Capital Hotel filed a civil suit in October against a Canadian businessman who, the lawsuit says, went on a 2010 “drunken escapade” at the hotel in which the valet was injured. Which of the following are allegations about the businessman’s behavior, as spelled out in an exhibit included in the lawsuit? A) Licked the shoe and bare foot of a female guest. B) Invited three men he’d met at a liquor store into a hotel bathroom. C) Depantsed himself in the hotel’s swanky lobby and bar. D) All of the above. 3. Two men waiting in a truck in the parking lot of the Faulkner County Jail before heading inside to begin weekend sentences were recently arrested. What were they arrested for? A) Honking the entire bass line of Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water.” B) General nekkidness. C) Getting so drunk that one of them pissed his pants. D) Having “Pussy Wagon” spray-painted on the tailgate. 4. Just before Halloween, a Mayflower paintball playground hosted a horror-themed “zombie hunt,” promoting the event on its website by referencing a recent news event. What was the news event? A) The ExxonMobil pipeline breach at Mayflower, which the website said had created “neurological dysfunctions, genetic mutations, and changes in physical appearance.” B) The recent announcement by U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin that he’s retiring from politics in order to devote more energy to his pursuit of creating hellish human/jackass hybrids. C) Faulkner County Gurple, a new purple/green supermeth made from corpses. D) Bust of a Greenbrier ring that made moonshine from stolen jack-olanterns. 5. Less than 45 minutes after popular Mount St. Mary English teacher Tippi McCullough got married to her partner, Barbara Mariani, in New Mexico on Oct. 16, MSM Principal Diane Wolfe called to say she’d gotten McCullough something for her wedding. What was it? A) Bread maker B) Year’s supply of fudge C) Subscription to the Beer of the Month Club D) A pink slip, with Wolfe later suggesting it took “moral courage” to fire McCullough for getting married to her partner of 14 years.

On Tuesday, Republicans on the House Committee on Ways and Means, including U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, held a public hearing on the “problems Americans are experiencing with the Obama Administration’s launch of the Affordable Care Act.” One Democratic congressman wouldn’t sit quietly through the farce. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) rose in outrage to slam Republicans for failing to support the Affordable Care Act once it became law, challenging them to go back to their districts and tell their constituents that they’ll be taking away their coverage “What are you going to do about the approximately 17 million children with preexisting conditions who can no longer be denied health insurance coverage?” Pascrell asked the GOP during the hearing. Standing up and pointing his finger at the other side of the aisle, he continued, “We want to go back and want to say you are no longer covered any longer? Are you going to tell the parents of those kids?” When Griffin tried to claim he’d proposed alternatives, Pascrell would have none of it. He told Griffin: “Are you serious what you just said? Are you really serious? After what we’ve gone through and what we’ve gone through in the last three and a half years? Have you — you can sit there and say, that you had a legitimate alternative after these years? We’ve gone through 44 votes, 48 votes now, of you trying to dismantle the legislation. You call that cooperation? I don’t!”

People in need, big ideas

6. Arkansas-born stuntman Hal Needham died on Oct. 25 in California at age 82. Which of the following were actual, real-life events in Needham’s badass life? A) Once jumped from an airplane onto the back of a galloping horse, designed and built a downward-firing, car-flipping cannon (which almost killed him), and stuntdoubled for Captain Kirk in some episodes of the original “Star Trek.” B) Directed “Smokey and the Bandit,” personally gave Jerry Reed the thumbs up to record “East Bound and Down” and once owned the Budweiser rocket car. C) Drove a big-block-powered ambulance coast-to-coast in the famous (and famously illegal) “Cannonball Run” race, was one of only two stuntmen to ever receive an Academy Award, and lived for most of the 1970s in Burt Reynolds’ pool house. D) Amazingly, all of the above.

The Times needs your help with two upcoming issues. For our annual philanthropy issue, we’re planning on profiling a series of people who’re especially in need around the holidays in hopes of our readers providing them some relief. If you know of anyone who deserves mention, please write to lindseymillar@arktimes.com with the headline “People in need.” We’re also working on our annual Big Ideas issue. As usual, we’re looking for ideas to make Arkansas a better place. They don’t have to be practical. But be as specific and detailed in your proposal as possible. Send your ideas to lindseymillar@arktimes.com with the header “Big Ideas.” www.arktimes.com

OCTOBER 31, 2013

Answers: D, D, C, A, D, D.

EXXON SLOW, CONT. Exxon’s last notable pipeline spill before the Pegasus occurred in July 2011, when the company’s Silvertip line broke during flood conditions and spilled 63,000 gallons of oil into the Yellowstone River near Laurel, Mont. The Silvertip was fully operational again after a few months. Based on the Pegasus shipping rates on file with regulators, the lengthy shutdown could be costing Exxon as much as $450,000 in revenue per day, not counting a variety of per-barrel fees. The actual amount depends on how much oil would have been flowing through the more than 90,000 barrel-per-day pipe, how much of the capacity would have gone to unaffiliated companies, and whether those customers had discounted long-term contracts. Exxon spokesman Aaron Stryk said the company has spent more than $57 million on cleanup, remediation and compensation in Mayflower so far. Those costs are small for a giant company like Exxon, and that gives it the freedom to weigh the pipeline options with less urgency. Those options include: abandoning the line, repairing and restarting it, or building a new pipeline alongside the old one. If Exxon chooses to repair or rebuild the Pegasus, it will face pressure to reroute at least 13.5 miles of the pipeline out of the Lake Maumelle watershed, the drinking water source for more than 400,000 people. If restarting the Pegasus becomes a lengthy project, Exxon also could seek permission to reopen just the southern leg of the pipeline, which would allow the company to collect fees while work continues on the northern part. Until recently, the Pegasus could only load oil in Patoka, Ill., and carry it the full distance to Nederland, Texas. But in 2012, Exxon installed an “injection point” in Corsicana, Texas, and added capacity to the 211-mile Pegasus segment that runs from Corsicana to Nederland. Exxon had earmarked the extra capacity for carrying New Mexico and West Texas crude as part of a multi-company,

multi-pipeline project led by Sunoco Inc. Observers have said it could be par- ment that ruptured. The first shipment was to begin in April, ticularly difficult for Exxon to verify the A new, more robust hydrotest could but the Pegasus closed at the end of March. integrity of the Pegasus. eliminate the pipeline’s biggest cracks, but The nearly 650-mile Pegasus pipe that without a reliable way to find and track the In April, Exxon asked PHMSA to remove the southern part of the Pegasus runs between Patoka and Corsicana (and growth of any surviving smaller cracks, it’s from its shut-down order. In seeking to through Mayflower) was built with pipe unclear how Exxon can assure regulators reopen that part of the pipeline, Exxon manufactured in 1947 and 1948 using low- and the public that it can prevent future argued that the agency’s corrective action frequency electric resistance welds, a pro- spills. Operating at lower pressures does order should not apply to the Corsicana- cess that can create cracks and other flaws. not solve the problem, either, since the to-Nederland segment because that pipe is It’s widely known in the industry that pipe- Pegasus broke while running well below newer (1954), and was made using a differ- lines of that vintage and makeup are more its maximum pressure. ent manufacturing process than the older prone to splitting along their lengthwise Still, Exxon has spent millions of doland more problematic northern section. seams. lars on the Pegasus since 2006, and throwPHMSA rejected Exxon’s request, notA metallurgical report following the ing in the towel is not an attractive option. ing that the pipe in the southern leg is also pipeline failure concluded that flaws and The Pegasus, despite its relatively small prone to defect-related seam failures and brittleness dating back to the pipe’s man- carrying capacity, is strategically importhat agency safety experts had questioned ufacture ultimately caused the Pegasus tant to Exxon. The oil company is deeply “the adequacy of [Exxon’s] procedures for to burst. But it did not say what caused invested in the massive Kearl oil sands assessing seam integrity across the Pegasus anomalies that were harmless for decades project in western Canada, and it wants Pipeline, including the Southern Section.” to awaken and grow until the pipeline split to be sure it can send the heavy oil it produces to the Gulf Coast, where it can proPHMSA said, however, that it would apart. Several pipeline failure experts noted cess the oil in its largest refineries or sell revisit the issue if evidence and the investigation’s conclusions about the cause of that the changes Exxon made to the Peg- it for a higher price than it would fetch in the failure “rule out the possibility that asus would have significantly altered the Canada or the Midwest. the southern section is similarly affected.” dynamics inside the pipeline. Despite the With so much to be gained with the pipeline’s known vulnerabilities, in 2006 pipeline, “I’m sure they’re considering how Exxon restarted the pipeline, reversed to restart and continue to operate the line its flow and switched to transporting dil- safely, and whether they’re confident they In a July 26 letter to Arkansas officials, bit. And three years later, the company can do so,” said Martin Tallett, president Gary Pruessing, president of the Exxon increased the line’s capacity by 50 percent. of EnSys Energy, a consulting firm. If Exxon decides the Pegasus can’t be unit that owns the Pegasus, acknowledged Those experts also said the Pegasus that people were anxious to know Exxon’s cracks probably grew in response to large salvaged, it might weigh the cost and pracplans for the pipeline. “We recognize the pressure swings inside the Pegasus, an ticalities of building a new pipeline in the process is not as expedient as some would operational phenomenon that can weaken same right of way and compare it to the like,” he said, “but taking the time to get to the pipe through “pressure-cycle-induced cost of buying space on another company’s the full root cause [of the break] is essential fatigue.” Another theory holds that the pipeline, said Tallett. The relative merits of for determining the correct path forward.” dilbit inside the pipe could have played those options would be greatly influenced A month later, Karen Tyrone, vice presi- a role in the rupture by exacerbating the by the fate of other pipeline projects as well dent for operations of ExxonMobil’s pipe- pressure cycles, by chemically accelerat- as oil prices and other market projections. line operation, told the Arkansas Demo- ing crack growth, or both. Exxon spokesman Stryk declined to crat-Gazette that retiring the Pegasus was Such problems can be managed as long answer questions about the future of the “within the realm of possibilities.” as they can be detected, tracked over time Pegasus, saying that the company is still Under orders from PHMSA, before the and repaired before catastrophe strikes. conducting supplemental testing on the Pegasus can resume oil shipments, how- Exxon knew that the Pegasus had many pipe. ever, Exxon must have an approved restart manufacturing defects because a 2006 plan, complete remedial work that will hydraulic pressure test forced 11 seams verify the pipeline’s integrity, and address to fail, and a 2010 inspection found 12 seam all the factors known or suspected to have cracks. But just weeks before the pipeline One reason that Exxon can afford to played a role in the failure. None of those failed, a special crack-finding inspection take more time with its Pegasus decision conditions have been met. tool found no defects in the pipeline segCONTINUED ON PAGE 19

What will Exxon do, and when?

No hurry: muted market impact

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OCTOBER 31, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

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OCTOBER 24, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

FINALLY A DECISION:

DOWNTOWN OR NOT. TECH BOARD WILL SEEK MORE ADVICE. BY LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK

hen is a decision not a decision? When it’s made by the Little Rock Technology Park Authority board. On Oct. 23, the board voted 4 to 3 in favor of using its pot of city tax dollars — the only capital it has so far — to create a “technology corridor” in downtown Little Rock. The park, backers said, could either buy property along Main Street or renovate existing buildings, and board member Kevin Zaffaroni said the process “could be a hell of a lot of fun.” The naysayers to downtown, who voted for a University Avenue lot now occupied by Sears, promptly went on the defensive, explaining to the downtown backers why they were wrong and moving to bring in more consultants on the project. “You are destroying the reason why we are doing this,” board member Dickson Flake said. The new language the downtown supporters use — “corridor” rather than park — embodies the difference in vision board members were expressing. Those who might be termed the old guard, who’ve been working for years toward building a park, see it as a campus-like center of university research-driven biotech and nanotech commercialization. In that corner: board Chair Dr. Mary Good, the founding dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a UALR appointee to the board; board member Dickson Flake, a realtor and former Chamber of Commerce chair who has been the driving force behind the creation of the park since 2005 and a city appointee to

OCTOBER 31, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

the board, and former state Sen. Bob Johnson, also a UALR appointee to the board. Then there is the new guard, who cite St. Louis’ Cortex park model of a core building in an urban neighborhood, with start-up incubators and new companies filling in vacant warehouses and the like — the urban live/ work model. In this corner: Chamber head Jay Chesshir; University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences vice chancellor Tom Butler; Acxiom senior vice president for IT Kevin Zaffaroni, and human resources consultant C.J. Duvall, who was formerly with Allied Wireless. Standing with the downtown backers are Mayor Mark Stodola and, more importantly, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, which like UALR is a sponsoring institution but which has never bought into the notion that the park can’t be more than five minutes from the sponsors, the major sticking point with the dissenters. UALR Chancellor Joel Anderson, who proposed to the board that it locate the park adjacent to UALR, has said he’ll back the park no matter where it

locates, though perhaps with less in-kind support. Watching from the sidelines are the city taxpayers who, having committed to ponying up $22 million for the park, are wondering why the board, which has been meeting more or less monthly since November 2011, has yet to agree on exactly who the park should serve. Where, too, they’re wondering is the private investment? In 2010, park planners estimated it would take $50 million to open the first building, coming from tax dollars, $15 million in private investment, $10 million from the state and the rest in grants. Good says there will be no private investors until they know where the park is going. A technology company CEO who is locating his business in the River Market says investors are also waiting to see what kind of park the city is building. He says there’s been no consensus because Good, Flake and Johnson are talking oranges, and the downtown supporters are talking apples. “A bioventure is different from a tech park and different from an incubator. ... They attract different kinds of capital,” Rod Ford, the chief executive officer of nGage said in an interview last week. “We’re really confused right here in Little Rock. We seemingly don’t know the difference in these three forms.” The board has spent a lot of time debating the best location, “but I haven’t seen any discussion about what is the best charter,” he said. The board has been “a lot more interested in finding a way to divide up the pie than build a bakery.”

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DON’T SEE EYE TO EYE: Jay Chesshir votes for downtown; Dr. Mary Good prefers the Sears site.

Start-up incubators — where concepts are first proven — draw angel investment from risktakers who invest in exchange for ownership equity. Companies that specialize in biotechnology commercialization often invest as partners of universities, and wealth flows back to the universities; Ford gave the University of Florida, which gets a 20 percent return from

Gatorade sales every year, as an example. Venture capitalists who support information tech companies like nGage aren’t interested in sharing wealth. “I’m never going to commercialize somebody else,” Ford said. “I build my own intellectual property.” Ford, who will start with 35 employees but plans to eventually employ 100 in his digital

marketing firm, says urban areas make sense for business incubation and development. “I would love there to be a corridor,” he said, one that would “stimulate all type of neighborhood development and create an audience for people who have services. ... Why not take Main Street and one of these depressed areas and transform it?” CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 www.arktimes.com

OCTOBER 31, 2013

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here is a model that combines the university-driven research that Good, Flake and Johnson favor: Arizona State University’s tech incubator. ASU’s technology department shares a campus with a business incubator and students study a curriculum that addresses “real world problems” that the business side wants to solve, Ford said. The campus is halfway between ASU’s main campus in Phoenix and Scottsdale: the university has come to the park, rather than putting the park by the university. “The north portion of the campus is the Arizona State Tech Department and the south side is 35 companies like mine,” Ford said, adding that the private companies in the incubator hire the majority of the graduate students turned out by the technology department. “It’s a true collaboration between a university and private enterprise.” In an ideal world, Ford said, UALR’s engineering and information technology college “would be in a tech park and half would be for private equity for start-ups — a natural collaboration or intersection of their curriculum and innovation companies are trying to create.” But, “None of this is going to happen unless you have an investor. That’s why it’s important to understand where the intersections are. Otherwise it’s difficult to recruit private capital.” Recruiting intellectual capital is also crucial, and that means providing

a place to work that is exciting. In his own hiring, Ford said, “I’m competing against Denver, Boston. ... When they fly in am I going to drag them down and show them the Sears parking lot and say this is where you are going to be working?” The River Market, where nGage will locate, “is a competitive advantage.” That was UAMS Chancellor Dan Rahn’s reasoning as well. In an email to Chesshir on Oct. 15, Rahn wrote, “I can’t visualize recruiting to the Sears site.” The interest that UAMS’ campus incubator, BioVentures, has shown in locating downtown was a crucial factor in the board’s vote. Rahn wrote in a separate email to Chesshir and UAMS board reps Zaffaroni and Butler, “I just want you to know that UAMS and BioVentures will be a substantial partner in this venture if it is located downtown. We think that the success for BioVentures and technology companies fits best with a downtown location.” Dr. Marie Chow, director of BioVentures, has provided the board an estimate of space needs over five to 10 years: She envisions 20 to 25 companies in 42,000 to 45,000 total square feet. Sweetening the pot were offers by Acxiom and Merkle Inc. to create internships for students working with the incubators; by Moses Tucker to provide six months free rent in a downtown building; staff support from the Clinton School of Public Service and the UALR William Bowen Law School, and fundraising “if necessary” by the Downtown Little Rock Partnership.

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So UAMS likes downtown. Business interests like downtown. But under one roof? “Bioventures should be an anchor tenant, there’s nothing wrong with that,” nGage’s Ford said. But, “if you are going to call it a bioventure park, you automatically shut out some kinds of private capital.” Hence the corridor idea — with BioVentures as an anchor tenant in the inaugural building and job-producing tech incubators and businesses as satellites. Chesshir, as the chamber’s representative and the swing vote, made concessions to UALR, saying he could see that its research advantages — such as its multimillion dollar microscopes — weren’t moveable in the way that BioVentures’ were. “In the end,” he said, perhaps two campuses would be best, the idea that set Flake off. In a larger concession, Chesshir suggested that the board bring longtime consultant Charles Dilks back to work with whichever outside party is hired to do due diligence and negotiate with property owners. Dilks, while he has equivocated on size needs for the park — he recommended 30 acres in the 2009 Angle tech park feasibility study commissioned by the chamber but, in suggesting the Sears site, said 12 acres would do — has never backed

off his opinion that a site downtown, distant from sponsoring institutions, is a bad idea. Dilks can be expected to opine, once again, why the park should be built at the Sears property. That the site was still under debate after the vote had been taken left one board member “numb,” he said. Not only were old battles being fought, but the post-vote conversation veered into the weird. Good insisted proximity was crucial to getting the cheap work force — students — that the park would need, prompting Zaffaroni to ask what difference it made once they got into a car whether they were driving to a site downtown or to the Sears site at I-630 and University. “They’ll ride their bikes,” Good proclaimed, provoking visions of students, laptops and research on backs, peddling 12 blocks on University, one of Little Rock’s most heavily trafficked streets, to get to the park. Good also suggested that the board bring the “downtown group” — the Downtown Partnership — back before the board to talk about the location and lamented that the Sears site “will not be there forever.” Johnson wondered how the park could be built downtown — “Are we talking about tearing down and building new or what?” — and maintain synergy. In response, Mayor Mark Stodola CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

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OCTOBER 31, 2013

rose at the close of the meeting and provided Johnson with a map that indicates 900,000 available square feet at six potential sites clustered between Third and Sixth streets. The map, prepared by Texas development firm Wallace Bajjali, which has indicated interest in developing the park, includes a parking lot between Fourth and Capitol owned by Warren Stephens. Frank Thomas, a spokesman for Stephens, said it’s possible a deal could be made on the property, though he could not provide an estimate of cost. ◆◆◆

“I

think what we need is a center of gravity to concentrate our efforts in developing businesses and attracting business related to research and the intellectual capital in Little Rock, and some of that is dependent on a good central location,” UAMS Chancellor Rahn said in an interview Monday. “I think downtown is the right location. There is private investment going in downtown and I think that’s the right location to anchor things,” Rahn said. “But I believe that we may need to do some additional things next to UALR and UAMS.” He envisions “multiple locations under the umbrella of the Authority.”

OCTOBER 31, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

In that Rahn echoed Chesshir. What about the shared services that Flake fears will be lost if everything is not developed on a single campus? “You can’t share conference rooms, you can’t share reception functions, but you can share other kinds of infrastructure,” Rahn said. “We’re doing that with our Northwest Arkansas campus and our campus in Little Rock. ... It’s one of the tenets of telemedicine.” Rahn said Ford’s right in the difference in investors. “Those who are investing in [IT development] and those investing in a future drug, that’s different, a different time line.” But he believes you can “colocate” the two. “We should be focused on how we develop new business, new capital.” Including non-university research? “Absolutely.” ◆◆◆

todola has evolved in his thinking about the park, he told the Times. He thought using the Methodist Children’s Home property adjacent to UALR — one of three sites first looked at — made a lot of sense, since it was considering a move at the time anyway. (Its leadership changed its mind on relocating, however.)

Little Rock is the third sponsor, committing both tax dollars and a $125,000 start-up contribution, and “deserves a voice” in the process, but Stodola said he tried “to hold back my thoughts” as the board did its work. But once nGage’s Ford called for a downtown park publicly at the announcement of his company’s move to Little Rock, and Gov. Mike Beebe chimed in in agreement, Stodola said he decided to speak up. Downtown, he says, “is the best site for success and the creation of jobs. ... The suburban greenfield is no longer the approach for a successful park.” Stodola noted that both tech parks he and the board visited several months ago — Cortex in St. Louis and the Wake Forest Innovation Center in Winston-Salem, N.C. — used shuttles as transportation and Little Rock could as well, satisfying UALR’s concerns about movement between university and park. The mayor also noted that UALR has two floors in its EIT (engineering and information technology) building that are not yet built out, so there’s room for expansion there. Ultimately, Little Rock has the hammer. When the Park Authority board wants to pledge its tax dollars toward bonds, the city board of directors will have to pass an ordinance.

◆◆◆

he city board, on a motion by Chesshir, voted to prepare a proposal to lease space for two years, with a two-year option, to house a business accelerator by March of next year. Time is of the essence, Chesshir said, to capture growing interest in incubator space. (Adding some urgency to settling on a downtown location, no doubt, is the fact that North Little Rock is already raising money to create a co-working start-up space, The Silver Mine, in Argenta.) Board members will discuss that at their next meeting Nov. 6, where they’ll also have to “figure out how to pay for it,” Flake said. Little Rock has an “opportunity here to really build an image ... not just an image, an ecosystem and a commerce system that’s around technology and it can’t do that unless it’s in the best location the city has to offer,” nGage’s Ford said. “What I hope we don’t do is slow down or back up. ... There’s awareness, there’s momentum with a real discussion of what we are building. Now that we kind of know how the pieces of the pie are going to be divided, let’s build a bakery.”

EXXON SLOW, CONT. is that its absence has not had a big impact on the U.S. oil market or on refineries that were receiving oil from the pipeline. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not a big deal in the context of the entire North American market,â&#x20AC;? said Andrew Lipow, a Houston-based oil industry consultant and former trader. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The market has figured out how to place the oil [from the Pegasus] throughout the existing infrastructure.â&#x20AC;? The small size of the Pegasus is one of the reasons that shippers such as Cenovus Energy could find other routes and that Gulf Coast refiners could continue production without interruption. The 20-inch line delivered less than 100,000 barrels of oil per day to Gulf Coast refineries, representing a trickle in a region where refiners can ingest a combined 8 million barrels of crude each day. Oil shippers also have more transportation options now. For a long time, Pegasus was the only pipeline that could carry Canadian and other crude from the Midwest to the Texas coast. But in January, the reversed Seaway line began delivering up to 400,000 barrels of oil a day to Texas from the Cushing, Okla., trading and storage hub, where oil had been piling up amid surging U.S. production. Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more, shipping oil via barge and through an increasingly robust railway system have become options for oil producers wanting to sell to Gulf Coast refiners. With construction of the Keystone XLâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s southern leg â&#x20AC;&#x201D; now called the Gulf Coast Pipeline â&#x20AC;&#x201D; almost complete, and a second â&#x20AC;&#x153;twinâ&#x20AC;? Seaway pipeline on the horizon, there will soon be an additional one million barrels per day of pipeline capacity into the same region served by the Pegasus. For those and other reasons, the extended closure of the Pegasus â&#x20AC;&#x153;is not that material for Canadian crude going to the Gulf,â&#x20AC;? said John Stephenson, senior vice president at First Asset, a Toronto-based asset management company. â&#x20AC;&#x153;From a pipeline perspective, or an oil perspective, it pretty much is a yawn.â&#x20AC;? Still, given the difficulty of building new pipelines and how much money Exxonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s already invested in the Pegasus line, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I would be amazed if they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t restart it, unless it really is a basket case of a line,â&#x20AC;? Stephenson added. David Hackett, president of the industry consulting firm Stillwater Associates, expects the fate of the Pegasus to be in limbo for awhile yet. Exxon â&#x20AC;&#x153;has a very deliberative decision-making style, so we would expect them to take their time figuring this one out,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It sounds like they have a lot of big problems they have to solve.â&#x20AC;?

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OCTOBER 31, 2013

Arts Entertainment AND

THE BODY: Chip King and Lee Buford.

BODY TALK Little Rock native Lee Buford talks about his metal group. BY ROBERT BELL

ittle Rock natives Lee Buford and Chip King have earned a heap of critical praise for their work as The Body, a two-piece avantgarde metal act that has pushed the genre in strange new directions and forged its own distinctive, suffocatingly intense sonic headspace. The band’s newest record, “Christs, Redeemers,” was released earlier this month on the longtime Chicago tastemaker label Thrill Jockey. They play at White Water Tavern on Tuesday with Wizard Rifle. We caught up with Buford recently to talk about positive attention from the mainstream press, their recent move to the West Coast and what it would take to impress mom. You guys have been getting quite a bit of good press for the last few years now, but you started the band 14 years ago. So is it weird to be in the New York Times and stuff? Oh yeah, definitely. I mean, it’s real weird. But I don’t know, it was kind of like a fluke that that stuff happened. Is it a fluke, or is metal a little more mainstream now than it was 10 or 15 years ago? Yeah definitely, but I think there’s even weirder metal stuff nowadays. 20

OCTOBER 31, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

Has the attention and the new record deal made your families any more accepting of the path you two have taken? I don’t know. I mean, if we were in a magazine and my mom could buy it at Barnes and Noble out on Chenal or whatever, that’s pretty good. But have they always felt the same way about you guys playing music? Or has that degree of attention changed it? Not really. I think my mom is somewhat impressed when she can buy a magazine with us in it. But as far as monetarily, we’re not, you know, living off of it or anything. If we were living off of it maybe she’d be impressed. What prompted the move from Providence, where you were for a long time, out to Portland? You know, growing up in the South and then going to New England is like, real rough. So the West Coast is the closest to the South without being in the South that we could find. So far it’s been good, I like it out there. It’s got a more relaxed, friendly vibe? Yeah definitely. I don’t know how

much of the friendliness is genuine and how much of it’s just weird, put-on hippie friendliness, but New England is just real rough for people from the South as far as cultural change. But for two dudes who don’t really like people, it seems like there are a lot of people out there. Are you guys planning to move to remote northern New Mexico or something? Nah, I doubt it. I like my friends a lot, I just don’t like other people. You two have been involved in the DIY punk scene for like 20-25 years now. Do you run into many other folks nowadays who’ve been in it as long as you have? Oh yeah, definitely. We just played the More Than Music anniversary thing last summer in Oakland that Grace Bartlett did, who used to do — remember her? She used to do a zine distro? Yeah, I do. So she put on a More Than Music reunion show? Yeah, it was out at Gilman Street. Los Crudos played, it was good times. So we see people like that. Chip is still close to Scott Moore, who was doing stuff forever, he was in Limp Wrist. There are definitely people out there who are still doing

stuff. That’s probably the main reason to go on tour is to hang out with old friends. What’s next in terms of records? We’ve got a collaboration we did with my friend Neil [Jameson] who lives in Jersey and does this black metal project called Krieg. And then we also recorded another record that actually [Little Rock native] Matt Werth is putting out on his label. What label is that? RVNG. He did that Sun Araw/Congos record. Oh yeah, that’s part of that series where they pair up new experimental musicians with old-timers? Yeah, that’s Matt Werth. OK, I didn’t realize that. Yeah, I didn’t either until he was like, “Hey, you guys wanna do a record?” and I said, “Sure,” and he said, “We’ll do it on my label,” and I was like, “That’s your label?” So you guys are coming through Little Rock on Nov. 5. Are you gonna hang out for a couple days? Yeah, we usually stay there for two or three days, whatever we can.

ROCK CANDY Check out the Times’ A&E blog arktimes.com

A&E NEWS PIONEERING ARKANSAS-BORN STUNTMAN HAL NEEDHAM — current record holder for the world’s most awesome life — died on Friday. He was 82. David Koon interviewed Hal in 2011 for the Arkansas Times, prior to his appearance at the Little Rock Film Festival and a screening of his film “Smokey and the Bandit.” Born dirt poor in Arkansas, Needham parlayed a career as a tree-trimmer into a life as one of the world’s greatest stuntmen, doing work on a host of TV and film projects, including “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” “Little Big Man,” the original “Star Trek,” “Have Gun, Will Travel,” and dozens of others. A gig jumping a car onto a floating barge in 1973’s “White Lightning,” led to a lifelong friendship with Burt Reynolds. Needham went on to direct Reynolds in several fast-car comedies, including “Smokey and the Bandit,” “Cannonball Run” (which was based on Needham’s real-life experience in a cross-country, no-speed-limit race, driving a souped-up ambulance) and “Hooper.” He also served as a stunt coordinator on several other Reynolds efforts, including “The Longest Yard” and “The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing.” FUN FACT: Needham lived in Burt Reynolds’ pool house through a good bit of the 1970s, which was probably a pretty gatdamn fun decade to live in Burt Reynolds’ pool house. In addition to his stunt and directing work, Needham was also an innovator, developing the high-fall airbag that allowed stuntmen to make higher and more spectacular leaps, and inventing a downward-firing cannon that could flip a moving car. Both are still used extensively in stunt work today. Needham was presented an Honorary Oscar in 2012 for his achievements in making stunts safer and more thrilling, with the award being introduced in a touching tribute by superfan Quentin Tarantino. He is one of only two stuntmen to ever receive an Oscar. Though Needham was one of the world’s best in his field, he was surprisingly humble. That carried over into his professional life as well. When Koon asked him in 2011 if he believed there should be an Academy Award category for stuntwork or stunt coordinating, he gave it a vehement thumbs down, saying, “I’ve never been for it. ... My belief is, when a person goes in and pays his money to see a movie, and he sees his hero up there doing something spectacular, you don’t want him to stop and think: ‘I wonder if that’s the star, or if it’s a stuntman?’ You want them to enjoy the movie. I think stuntmen should take their check and go on their way.”

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OCTOBER 31, 2013

THE TO-DO

LIST

BY ROBERT BELL

THURSDAY 10/31

THE WILD FEATHERS

8:30 p.m. Revolution. $10.

WILD BUNCH: Nashville’s The Wild Feathers play at Revolution Thursday night.

Nashville newcomers The Wild Feathers got the kind of start that scruffy rock-band dudes the world over would kill for: Signed to a major label (Interscope) before they’d played so much as a single show. That arrangement didn’t last, but Warner Bros. scooped the band up and shortly after their self-titled debut was released, they were on the road supporting Willie Nelson. Singer/guitarist Ricky Young told Paste recently that Nelson and his crew’s “whole attitude and outlook and the way they treat other people, other young bands like ourselves, it was a great learning experience.” The Feathers play a propulsive brand of Americana fueled by three primary songwriters and singers who take turns at the mic but can also harmonize

beautifully. In its brief existence, the band has been saddled with the traditionalist label, along with a fairly consistent list of influences (Petty, Dylan, Allman Brothers, The Band). While those are fair comparisons, it’s also a bit of shorthand that’s not entirely accurate, as there’s a pronounced pop sensibility going on with the band, along with an undeniable knack for melody shared by each of the three songwriters and deftly showcased by producer Jay Joyce. So are The Wild Feathers headed for Kings of Leon/Black Keys/ Alabama Shakes-level renown? Who knows? But you probably don’t want to be hearing about this show in a year or two when they’re playing much bigger venues and kicking yourself for not going to see ’em at the Rev Room when you had the chance. Opening up are John and Jacob and Stephen Neeper & The Wild Hearts.

FRIDAY 11/1

ARKANSAS TIMES CRAFT BEER FESTIVAL

6-9 p.m. Argenta Farmer’s Market. $35 adv., $40 door.

Now, obviously, I’m going to be biased in favor of any event organized by the Times. But this right here is one of the most sure-fire good times of the entire year for the suds-lover with discriminating tastes. Have you ever wanted to wander a giant candy store, sampling as many different candies as your taste buds desire? Well that’s what’s you’ll get at the 2nd Annual Arkansas Times Craft Beer Festival, only instead of candy, it’s craft beer. There will be about 50 different brewers from across the state, region and country, all

ready to dole out samples of their beers for your delectation. Of course, moderation in all things and all that, and for sure get yourself a cab or DD if you’re planning on imbibing. But last year I found that if you eat a bunch and drink plenty of water, you can taste lots of beers and it won’t really get on top of you. Another thing that’s great is that there’s not too much in the way of commitment. Don’t dig something? No problemo, just discreetly pour it out into one of the trashcans and move on to the next one. It’s not like you’re into it for a $7 pint, so don’t be afraid to branch out. Be sure to check out our guide to the festival from last week’s issue, which provides a rundown of each brewery and what they’ll be pouring.

Juanita’s. 8 p.m. $18 adv., $20 day of.

all of the offerings makes the case: trickor-treating in a safe, family-friendly atmosphere (natch), live music, carnival rides, a haunted house, carousel rides, a haunted hayride or veldt walkway, a Day of the Dead celebration, bounce house inflatables, s’mores, food trucks, animal presentations and much more.

By this point, pop-punkers Motion City Soundtrack are veterans of the scene, having long since made the transition from basement shows and indie labels to signing to Epitaph and opening for the likes of Blink-182. The four fulllengths the band has released over the last decade have all been critically well received, earning nods for a catchy punk buzz infused with wry lyrical observations and a grasp of pop songcraft. Critic

THURSDAY 10/31-FRIDAY 11/1

BOO AT THE ZOO

6-9 p.m. Little Rock Zoo. $5-$20.

There’s probably no place else in the metro area with more Halloween fun per square foot than the Little Rock Zoo. Boo at the Zoo has been an institution for more than two decades, and a cursory glance at 22

OCTOBER 31, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

MOTION IN THE OCEAN: Motion City Soundtrack plays at Juanita’s Saturday night.

SATURDAY 11/2

MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK

Corey Apar wrote for Allmusic that the band’s “My Dinosaur Life” “may already be the most perfect pop-punk record of 2010 — emphasis on the pop. This is the album that Weezer could have created if they hadn’t decided uninteresting frat boy pop/rock was the best way to play out the 2000s.” The band’s latest, last year’s “Go,” was largely seen as a turn toward more contemplative and somber subject matter. Opening the show are Christian pop-punk mainstays Relient K and Austin indie-pop outfit Driver Friendly.

IN BRIEF

THURSDAY 10/31

For some rockin’ Halloween cover-up action, check out Iron Tongue performing AC/DC’s “Back in Black,” White Water Tavern, 10 p.m. It’s time for Octubafest, with performances by tubas and euphoniums, plus skits, UCA’s Snow Fine Arts Center Recital Hall, 7:30 p.m. The late-night crowd can check out Midtown’s Halloween Bash, featuring Cadillac Jackson and a costume contest at 2 a.m., Midtown Billiards, 12:30 a.m., $5. Fayetteville’s Randall Shreve and The Sideshow bring the rock ’n’ roll theatrics to Stickyz, 9 p.m. Steve Hester & DeJa VooDoo’s Rockin’ Halloween Costume Ball is at The Joint, 8 p.m., $7. Maxine’s hosts White Glove Test, The Mumfords and space-rockers Mothwind, 8 p.m. “Fright at the Museum!” will provide some 21-and-older good times at the Old State House Museum, 7-10 p.m., $40. The Old Haunted Warehouse will make you soil yourself with terror (not really, probably), through Saturday at 7 p.m., $12, 3400 Brown St. Art- and theater-lovers, don’t skip the Arkansas Repertory Theater’s production of the Tony Award-winning, Mark Rothkoinspired “Red,” 7 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday through Nov. 10.

SATURDAY 11/2

AUDRA MCDONALD

7:30 p.m. Reynolds Performance Hall. $30-$40.

This will be a real treat for fans of Broadway as well as good ol’ fashioned incredible singing: Celebrated soprano Audra McDonald will be performing two concerts in Arkansas this weekend, at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Fort Smith Convention Center and 7:30 p.m. Saturday at UCA’s Reynolds Performance Hall. McDonald has played numerous roles on stage and screen, winning a record-tying five Tony Awards, most recently for her role in “Porgy and Bess” (Angela Lansbury and Julie Harris are the other five-Tony winners), and two Grammys. She’s released several albums on the high-brow Nonesuch label, taking on everything from standards and Broadway faves to songs from contemporary songwriters. It’s not every weekend that an artist of McDonald’s caliber comes to town, so if you’ve been looking for a fun yet sophisticated night out, here’s a can’tlose option.

FRIDAY 11/1

STAR SOPRANO: Audra McDonald performs in Fort Smith and Conway this weekend.

TUESDAY 11/5

THE MOWGLI’S, KOPECKY FAMILY BAND, THE ROCKETBOYS

7:30 p.m. Juanita’s. $12 adv., $15 day of.

If you’ve got a yen for youthful, unrelentingly earnest Cali-fied indie rock with like seven people all singing at once, then you might should check out

The Mowgli’s. I wasn’t kidding about all those people singing at once — there are eight people in this band and very often they’re all singing at the same time. Their bandcamp bio describes The Mowgli’s thusly: “8 friends from Los Angeles who are making music with love, and making love with music.” The Kopecky Family Band and The Rocketboys will be familiar

names to observers of the local live music scene, having notched several shows in the area over the last couple-three years. The Kopecky crew is on tour for their brand-spankin’ new ATO Records debut “Kids Raising Kids.” The Rocketboys are coming off of a tumultuous 2012, which saw half the band quit, resulting in last year’s “Build Anyway.”

1070, a.k.a. the “You look Mexican, show me your papers” law. That’s what this documentary, “The State of Arizona,” is all about. Actually, it concerns not only this terrible law (which was more or less tailor-made for the benefit of the private prison industry, which seeks to suck up taxpayer dollars by throwing little kids and families behind bars), but also documents the terrible toll it has

taken and will continue to take on not only people working in the U.S. without documentation, but also folks who just happen to look like someone who might be working in the U.S. without documentation. The film will make its television premiere on Jan. 27 as part of the renowned PBS series Independent Lens, but you can catch it Tuesday at Laman Library for free.

TUESDAY 11/5

‘THE STATE OF ARIZONA’

6:30 p.m. Laman Library. Free.

At this point, who knows when Congress will address immigration reform? Which is a tragedy, considering the number of egregious, anti-illega-immigrant (translation: anti-human) laws passed or introduced by many states in recent years, most notably Arizona, home of SB

Classic rock mainstays The Doobie Brothers are at the Walton Arts Center, 8 p.m., $49-$79. There’s a Dia de los Muertos Dance Party, with DJ Baldego, a costume contest, drink specials and more at The Fold Botanas Bar, 11 p.m.2 a.m. The Arkansas AIDS Walk Kick Off Party will be taking place at The Rogers House, 7:30 p.m., $20. Wanna see some mind-exploding magic tricks and brain-melting illusions? Check out Paul Prater’s “The Odditorium” at The Public Theatre, Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m., $13. Don’t Stop Please plays a record release show with Adam Faucett and Open Fields, Stickyz, 9 p.m., $7.

SATURDAY 11/2

One of Arkansas’s greatest singer/ songwriters ever, Jim Mize, performs at White Water Tavern with Shreveport legend Buddy Flett, 10 p.m. The 11th Annual Arkansas AIDS Walk is at Murray Park, 10 a.m., $15-$25. The Little Rock Film Festival is throwing a Day of the Dead party and fundraiser that is sure to be a rager, 17th floor of Bank of America Plaza, 8 p.m., $10 donation, $100 prize to best costume.

SUNDAY 11/3

Hard-rockers Smile Empty Soul perform at Revolution with openers Acidic, 8:30 p.m., $10 adv., $12 day of.

TUESDAY 11/5

Nashville folk-rockers The Apache Relay play at Stickyz, with singer/songwriter Johnathan Rice, 9 p.m., $10. www.arktimes.com

OCTOBER 31, 2013

AFTER DARK All events are in the Greater Little Rock area unless otherwise noted. To place an event in the Arkansas Times calendar, please e-mail the listing and all pertinent information, including date, time, location, price and contact information, to calendar@arktimes.com.

THURSDAY, OCT. 31

MUSIC

Halloween Cover Up Show. Iron Tongue performs AC/DC’s Back in Black. White Water Tavern, 10 p.m. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com. “Inferno.” DJs play pop, electro, house and more, plus drink specials and $1 cover before 11 p.m. Sway, 9 p.m. 412 Louisiana. 501-907-2582. Jim Dickerson. 7 p.m. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com. Krush Thursdays with DJ Kavaleer. Club Climax, free before 11 p.m. 824 W. Capitol. 501-554-3437. Lucious Spiller. Plus, Halloween Costume Party The Tavern Sports Grill, 7:30 p.m. 17815 Chenal Parkway. 501-830-2100. www.thetavernsportsgrill.com. Michael Eubanks. Newk’s Express Cafe, 6:30 p.m. 4317 Warden Road, NLR. 501-753-8826. newks.com. Midtown’s Halloween Bash featuring Cadillac Jackson. Costume contest at 2 a.m. Midtown Billiards, 12:30 a.m., $5. 1316 Main St. 501-3729990. midtownar.com. Moonshine Mafia Costume Party. The Afterthought, 9 p.m., $7. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbar.com. “Octubafest.” Performances by tuba and euphoniums, plus skits. University of Central Arkansas, Snow Fine Arts Center Recital Hall, 7:30 p.m. 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway. Open jam with The Port Arthur Band. Parrot Beach Cafe, 9 p.m. 9611 MacArthur Drive, NLR. 771-2994. Pantyraid. George’s Majestic Lounge, 9 p.m., $20. 519 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-442-4226. Randall Shreve and The Sideshow. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9 p.m. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www.stickyz.com. Rob Moore and Steve Bates. Cregeen’s Irish Pub, 8 p.m. 301 Main St., NLR. 501-376-7468. www.cregeens.com. RockUsaurus. Senor Tequila, 7-9 p.m. 10300 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-224-5505. www. senor-tequila.com. Steve Hester & DeJa VooDoo’s Rockin’ Halloween Costume Ball. The Joint, 8 p.m., $7. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com. Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 7:30 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-374-7474. www.capitalhotel.com/CBG. White Glove Test, The Mumfords, Mothwind. Maxine’s, 8 p.m. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. www.maxinespub.com. The Wild Feathers, John and Jacob. Revolution, 8:30 p.m., $10. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501823-0090. revroom.com.

COMEDY

Dave Landau. The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m., $7. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www. loonybincomedy.com.

EVENTS

Cajun’s Wharf Halloween Costume Contest. 24

OCTOBER 31, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

FEEL THE HEAT: The Reverend Horton Heat performs at Revolution Saturday, with Mountain Sprout and Dirtfoot, 8:30 p.m., $15 adv., $20 day of. Cajun’s Wharf. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-3755351. www.cajunswharf.com. “Cruisin’ Ghouls.” Cruise on the Mark Twain Riverboat, 21 and older. North Little Rock Riverfront, boarding at 7 p.m., $20. 100 Riverfront Drive, NLR. Fright at the Museum!. 21 and older. Old State House Museum, 7-10 p.m., $40. 500 Clinton Ave. 501-324-9685. www.oldstatehouse.com. “Haunted Hall.” Halloween fun house at UALR East Hall & Commons Building. University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 6-10 p.m., free. 2801 S. University. 501-681-8210. ualr.edu. Old Haunted Warehouse. The Old Haunted Warehouse, 7 p.m., $12. 3400 Brown St.

FILM

“The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Participation strongly encouraged. Includes costume contest with prizes. Market Street Cinema, 7:30, 9:30 and 11:30 p.m., $10 (includes participation kit). 1521 Merrill Drive. 501-312-8900. www.marketstreetcinema.net.

LECTURES

Dr. Terry Peterson. Peterson will discuss the importance of afterschool and summer learning programs. Clinton Presidential Center, 6 p.m., free. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 370-8000. www.

clintonpresidentialcenter.org.

BENEFITS

Fright at the Museum! Costumes are optional but encouraged. Dinner, drinks and live music will be provided. Old State House Museum, 7-10 p.m., $40. 500 Clinton Ave. 501-324-9685. www.oldstatehouse.com.

FRIDAY, NOV. 1

MUSIC

30-Something Party Fridays. Twelve Modern Lounge, first Friday of every month, free before 10 p.m., $5 after 10 p.m. 1900 W. Third St. 501301-1200. Band of Heathens, Joe Fletcher & The Wrong Reasons. Revolution, 9 p.m., $10 adv., $12 day of. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. revroom.com. Brian Nahlen. Cregeen’s Irish Pub, 8 p.m. 301 Main St., NLR. 501-376-7468. www.cregeens.com. Club Nights at 1620 Savoy. Dance night, with DJs, drink specials and bar menu, until 2 a.m. 1620 Savoy, 10 p.m. 1620 Market St. 501-2211620. www.1620savoy.com. Dia de los Muertos Dance Party. With DJ Baldego, costume contest, drink specials and more. The Fold Botanas Bar, 11 p.m.-2 a.m.

3501 Old Cantrell Road. 501-916-9706. www. thefoldlr.com. The Doobie Brothers. Walton Arts Center, 8 p.m., $49-$79. 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-443-5600. Dumptruck Butterlips. Midtown Billiards, 12:30 a.m., $5. 1316 Main St. 501-372-9990. midtownar.com. Eli Young Band, Eric Paslay. George’s Majestic Lounge, Nov. 1-2, 9 p.m., $25. 519 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-442-4226. Fatal 13, 870 Underground, Switchbach, 540, E Dirty. Downtown Music Hall, 7 p.m., $5 adv., $8 day of. 211 W. Capitol. 501-376-1819. downtownmusichall.com. Friday night at Sway. Sway, 9 p.m. 412 Louisiana. 501-907-2582. Funkanites. The Afterthought, 9 p.m., $7. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbar.com. Japanese Game Show, Twinsmith, The Travel Guide. Maxine’s. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. www.maxinespub.com. Krista Meadows. Maxine’s, 10 p.m., $5. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. www.maxinespub. com. Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 9 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-374-7474. www.capitalhotel.com/CBG. “YOLO.” Featuring four DJs and beach volleyball, 18-and-older. Flying DD, $5. 4601 S. University. 501-773-9990. flyingdd.com.

DANCE

Ballroom Dancing. Free lessons begin at 7 p.m. Bess Chisum Stephens Community Center, 8-11 p.m., $7-$13. 12th & Cleveland streets. 501-2217568. www.blsdance.org. Salsa Night. Begins with a one-hour salsa lesson. Juanita’s, 9 p.m., $8. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.littlerocksalsa.com.

EVENTS

Arkansas AIDS Walk Kick Off Party. The Rogers House, 7:30 p.m., $20. 400 W. 18th St. 501-6908125. www.historicrogershouse.com. Arkansas Times Craft Beer Festival. Argenta, 6-9 p.m., $35 adv., $40 day of. Main Street, NLR. ArkTimes.com/CraftBeerFest. Eureka Springs Diversity Weekend. With live music, Halloween costume contest and more at venues across Eureka Springs. Check website for schedule. Downtown Eureka Springs, all day. Downtown Eureka Springs, Eureka Springs. OutInEureka.com. “How Far Have We Come” Community Forum. With representatives from the five churches on Ninth Street. Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, 6:30 p.m., free. 501 W. 9th St. 501-376-4602. www. mosaictemplarscenter.com. LGBTQ/SGL Youth and Young Adult Group. Diverse Youth for Social Change is a group for LGBTQ/SGL and straight ally youth and young adults age 14 to 23. For more information, call 244-9690 or search “DYSC” on Facebook. 800 Scott St., 6:30 p.m. 800 Scott St. Main Street Food Truck Fridays. Capitol and Main, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Old Haunted Warehouse. The Old Haunted Warehouse, through Nov. 2, 7-11 p.m., $12. 3400 Brown St. Paul Prater: “The Odditorium.” The Public Theatre, Nov. 1-2, 8 p.m., $13. 616 Center St. 501-374-7529. www.thepublictheatre.com. Table for Two: Seared Ribeye. Cooking class includes meal for two, overnight stay and

PARTY AT OUR PLACE!

continental breakfast. Winthrop Rockefeller Institute, 5 p.m., $200 (couple). 1 Rockefeller Drive, Morrilton. 501-727-5435. www.uawri.org.

FILM

First Friday Dinner and Film: “Schindler’s List.” Part of the Crain-Maling Center of Jewish Culture Fall Semester programs. Discussion to follow screening. Hendrix College, 6 p.m. 1600 Washington Ave., Conway. www.hendrix.edu.

CLASSES

Table for Two: Seared Ribeye. Includes demonstration by Executive Chef Robert Hall, candlelit dinner and dessert, overnight lodging and continental breakfast. Winthrop Rockefeller Institute, 5 p.m., $200 per couple. 1 Rockefeller Drive, Morrilton. 501-727-5435. www.uawri.org.

SATURDAY, NOV. 2

MUSIC

Audra McDonald. Reynolds Performance Hall, UCA, 7:30 p.m. 350 S. Donaghey, Conway. $30$40. Brutally Frank. Maxine’s. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. www.maxinespub.com. Club Nights at 1620 Savoy. See Nov. 1. Eli Young Band, Eric Paslay. George’s Majestic Lounge, 9 p.m., $25. 519 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-442-4226. Jam Rock Saturday. Twelve Modern Lounge, 9 p.m. 1900 W. Third St. 501-301-1200. Jim Mize, Buddy Flett. White Water Tavern, 10 p.m. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www. whitewatertavern.com. K.I.S.S. Saturdays. Featuring DJ Silky Slim. Dress code enforced. Sway, 10 p.m. 412 Louisiana. 501-492-9802. Motion City Soundtrack, Relient K, Driver Friendly. Juanita’s, 8 p.m., $18 adv., $20 day of. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.juanitas.com. Mountain Sprout. Midtown Billiards, 12:30 a.m., $5. 1316 Main St. 501-372-9990. midtownar.com. New Era Saturdays. 21-and-older. Twelve Modern Lounge, first Saturday of every month, 9 p.m., $5 cover until 11 p.m. 1900 W. Third St. 501-301-1200. The Ones You Loved. Bear’s Den Pizza, 9 p.m. 235 Farris Road, Conway. 501-328-5556. www. bearsdenpizza.com. Pickin’ Porch. Bring your instrument. All ages welcome. Faulkner County Library, 9:30 a.m. 1900 Tyler St., Conway. 501-327-7482. www. fcl.org. Reverend Horton Heat. With Mountain Sprout and Dirtfoot. Revolution, 8:30 p.m., $15 adv., $20 day of. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501823-0090. revroom.com. Rodney Block & The Real Music Lovers. The Afterthought, 9 p.m., $10. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbar.com. Singer/Songwriters Showcase. Parrot Beach Cafe, 2-7 p.m., free. 9611 MacArthur Drive, NLR. 771-2994. Sugar Skull “Glow” Party. Discovery Nightclub, 9 p.m.-5 a.m. 1021 Jessie Road. 501-664-4784. www.latenightdisco.com. Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 9 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-374-7474. www. capitalhotel.com/CBG.

DANCE

Little Rock West Coast Dance Club. Dance

lessons. Singles welcome. Ernie Biggs, 7 p.m., $2. 307 Clinton Ave. 501-247-5240. www. arstreetswing.com.

Book Our Party Room Today!

EVENTS

11th Annual Arkansas AIDS Walk. Murray Park, 10 a.m., $15-$25. Rebsamen Park Road. 501376-6299. 3rd Annual Arkansas Cornbread Festival. The Bernice Garden, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., $10. 1401 S. Main St. www.thebernicegarden.org. Argenta Farmers Market. Argenta, 7 a.m.-noon. Main Street, NLR. Eureka Springs Diversity Weekend. See Nov. 1. Fall Craft Show and Used Book Sale. Grace Lutheran Church, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. 5124 Hillcrest Ave. 501-663-3631. Falun Gong meditation. Allsopp Park, 9 a.m., free. Cantrell & Cedar Hill Roads. Hillcrest Farmers Market. Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, 7 a.m.-2 p.m. 2200 Kavanaugh Blvd. “Howl-o-ween.” Costume parade and contests for kids and dogs, at MacArthur Unleashed Dog Park. MacArthur Park, 2 p.m., free. 503 E. Ninth St. Little Rock Film Festival’s Day of the Dead Party. Bank of America Plaza, 8 p.m., $10. 200 W. Capitol. 501378-1267. Old Haunted Warehouse. The Old Haunted Warehouse, 7 p.m., $12. 3400 Brown St. Out of the Darkness Walk. Clinton Presidential Center, 9 a.m. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 3708000. www.clintonpresidentialcenter.org. Paul Prater: “The Odditorium.” The Public Theatre, 8 p.m., $13. 616 Center St. 501-3747529. www.thepublictheatre.com. Urban Farm Fest. Faulkner County Library, 3 p.m. 1900 Tyler St., Conway. 501-327-7482. www. fcl.org. “Zombie 4-Mile Run.” Run on the Hernando Trail. Hot Springs Village, 2:30 p.m. Hot Springs Village, Hot Springs Village. HSVZombieTrailRun. com.

SPORTS

University of Arkansas vs. Auburn University. University of Arkansas, $55. University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

SUNDAY, NOV. 3

MUSIC

Irish Traditional Music Session. Hibernia Irish Tavern, 2:30 p.m. 9700 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-246-4340. www.hiberniairishtavern.com. North Little Rock Community Band. Patrick Henry Hays Center, 3 p.m., free. 401 W. Pershing, NLR. www.northlr.org/departments/senior-citizens.asp. The Order of Elijah, A Deadly Wish, Every Knee Shall Bow, Between You and I. Downtown Music Hall, 6:30 p.m., $7. 211 W. Capitol. 501376-1819. downtownmusichall.com. Reggae Sundays with First Impressions. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 7:30 p.m., $5. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www.stickyz.com. “Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash.” Phillips Community College Stuttgart, 3 p.m., $20-$30. 2807 Hwy. 165 S., Stuttgart. Senses Fail, For the Fallen Dreams, Expire, Being as an Ocean. Juanita’s, 7 p.m., $15. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.juanitas.com. Smile Empty Soul, Acidic. Revolution, 8:30 p.m., $10 adv., $12 day of. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. revroom.com. CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

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PROCEEDS BENEFIT THE HUMANE SOCIETY OF PULASKI COUNTY

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COSTUME PARTY

Thursday October 31st @ 8 PM

DJ G-FORCE DUELING UPSTAIRS

PIANOS

DOWNSTAIRS

incredible drink specials all night

Costume Contest on both levels! cash prize! Special appearance by: The Captain Morgan Morganettes! 307 President Clinton Avenue Little Rock, Arkansas 72201 (501) 372-4782

Silent & Live

Auctions

RAFFLE Wine Pull

You’re invited

November 9 Next Level Events Historic Union Train Station

BEER • WINE • GREAT FOOD • LIVE MUSIC BY BASS & BROWN SPONSORS • Lyn And Dr. • Natalie Bill Owens

• Arkansas

Surgical Education Inc. • Delta Dental Of Arkansas • BKD Foundation • Connie and Danny Smith • ACAS, LLC www.arktimes.com

and Win Rockefeller JR. • Sandra and Dr. Doug Ashcraft • Shanna Palmer and Tommy Hammond • Glazers • Budweiser/ Golden Eagle of Arkansas OCTOBER 31, 2013

AFTER DARK, CONT. non-members. 11301 Financial Centre. 501312-9000.

EVENTS

Bernice Garden Farmers Market. The Bernice Garden, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. 1401 S. Main St. www. thebernicegarden.org. Eureka Springs Diversity Weekend. See Nov. 1. JCA Unity Walk. River Market Pavilions, 3 p.m. 400 President Clinton Ave. 375-2552. www.rivermarket.info. “Live from the Back Room.” Spoken word event. Vino’s, 7 p.m. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www. vinosbrewpub.com.

MONDAY, NOV. 4

MUSIC

ASO Children’s Concerts. Summit Arena, 10 a.m. 134 Convention Blvd., Hot Springs. 501620-5001. www.summitarena.org. Monday Night Jazz: Rudy Walker. The Afterthought, 8 p.m., $5. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbar.com.

EVENTS

Sonali Deraniyagala. The author of “Wave” will discuss the story of her experience in the 2004 tsunami that killed more than 200,000, including her own family. Clinton School of Public Service, 6 p.m., free. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-6835239. www.clintonschool.uasys.edu.

FILM

“JFK.” Market Street Cinema, 7 p.m., $10. 1521 Merrill Drive. 501-312-8900. www.marketstreetcinema.net.

SPORTS

Little Rock Touchdown Club: Steve Sullivan. Embassy Suites, 11 a.m., $20 members, $30

OCTOBER 31, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

TUESDAY, NOV. 5

MUSIC

American Lions. Bear’s Den Pizza, 9 p.m. 235 Farris Road, Conway. 501-328-5556. www.bearsdenpizza.com. The Body, Wizard Rifle. White Water Tavern, 10 p.m., $5. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www. whitewatertavern.com. Byrd & Street. Faulkner County Library, 7 p.m., free. 1900 Tyler St., Conway. 501-327-7482. www. fcl.org. Gil Franklin & Friends. Holiday Inn, North Little Rock, first Tuesday, Wednesday of every month. 120 W. Pershing Blvd., NLR. Lucious Spiller Band. Copeland’s Restaurant of Little Rock, 6-9 p.m. 2602 S. Shackleford Road. 501312-1616. www.copelandsrestaurantlittlerock.com. The Mowgli’s, Kopecky Family Band, The Rocketboys. Juanita’s, 7:30 p.m., $12 adv., $15 day of. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.juanitas.com. Open Mic Night. The Joint, 8-11 p.m., free. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com. Ricky David Tripp. Rocket Twenty One, 5:30 p.m. 2601 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-603-9208. www.ferneaurestaurant.com. Straight No Chaser. Reynolds Performance Hall, UCA, 7:30 p.m. 350 S. Donaghey, Conway. The Apache Relay and Johnathan Rice. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, $10. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www.stickyz.com. Tuesday Jam Session with Carl Mouton. The Afterthought, 8 p.m., free. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbar.com.

DANCE

“Latin Night.” Revolution, 7:30 p.m., $5 regular, $7 under 21. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501823-0090. www.littlerocksalsa.com.

EVENTS

Tales from the South. Authors tell true stories; schedule available on website. Dinner served 5-6:30 p.m., show at 7 p.m. Call for reservations. Starving Artist Cafe, 5 p.m. 411 N. Main St., NLR. 501-372-7976. www.starvingartistcafe.net. Trivia Bowl. Flying Saucer, 8:30 p.m. 323 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-8032. www. beerknurd.com/stores/littlerock. “Who’s Taking Care of Mom While I’m Gone?” Program offering tips for family caregivers. Roosevelt Thompson Library, 6:30 p.m., free. 38 Rahling Circle. 501-821-3060.

FILM

“The State of Arizona.” Laman Library, 6:30 p.m., free. 2801 Orange St., NLR. 501-758-1720. www. lamanlibrary.org.

LECTURES

Alex Prud’homme. The author presents “Hydrofracking: What Everyone Needs to Know.” Clinton Presidential Center, 6 p.m. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 370-8000. www.clintonpresidentialcenter.org.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 6

MUSIC

Acoustic Open Mic. The Afterthought, 8 p.m., free. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www. afterthoughtbar.com.

Gil Franklin & Friends. Holiday Inn, North Little Rock, first Tuesday, Wednesday of every month. 120 W. Pershing Blvd., NLR. Jesse Aycock. South on Main, 7:30 p.m. 1304 Main St. 501-244-9660. https://www.facebook. com/SouthonMainLR. Ricky David Tripp. Rocket Twenty One, 5:30 p.m. 2601 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-603-9208. www.ferneaurestaurant.com. Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 7:30 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-374-7474. www.capitalhotel.com/CBG.

COMEDY

The Joint Venture. Improv comedy group. The Joint, 8 p.m., $5. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com. Standup Open Mic Night. Hosted by local come dians of the comedy collective Comedians of NWA. UARK Bowl, 9 p.m., free. 644 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-301-2030. uarkbowl.com.

DANCE

Little Rock Bop Club. Beginning dance lessons for ages 10 and older. Singles welcome. Bess Chisum Stephens Community Center, 7 p.m., $4 for members, $7 for guests. 12th & Cleveland streets. 501-350-4712. www.littlerockbopclub.

EVENTS

Festival of Fashion. Honoring Lila Ashmore as the 2013 CARTI Auxiliary Fashion Icon. Statehouse Convention Center, 6:30 p.m., $50. 7 Statehouse Plaza. Kay C. Goss. Goss presents “Wilbur D. Mills: A Complex Congressman.” Main Library, 12 p.m., free. 100 S. Rock St. www.cals.lib.ar.us. Political Animals Club: “The Chairmen Square Off.” With Vince Insalaco, chairman of the

AFTER DARK, CONT. Democratic Party of Arkansas, and Doyle Webb, chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas. Governor’s Mansion, 11:30 a.m., $20 (includes lunch). 1800 Center St. 501-377-1121.

FILM

First Friday Dinner and Film: “Fiddler on the Roof.” Part of the Crain-Maling Center of Jewish Culture Fall Semester programs. Discussion to follow screening. Hendrix College, 6 p.m. 1600 Washington Ave., Conway. www.hendrix.edu.

LECTURES

James Riordan. The development economist presents “A Buyer-Led Approach to Creating Jobs for the Poor.” Clinton School of Public Service, 6 p.m., free. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-6835239. www.clintonschool.uasys.edu.

THIS WEEK IN THEATER

Arkansas Young Playwrights Competition. Henderson State University, Sat., Nov. 2, 10 a.m. 1100 Henderson St., Arkadelphia. www.hsu.edu. “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo.” The lives of two American Marines and an Iraqi translator are forever changed by an encounter with a quickwitted tiger who haunts the streets of war-torn Baghdad. For mature audiences only. Presented by Pulaski Tech. Argenta Community Theater, Wed., Nov. 6, 2 and 7 p.m., $5. 405 Main St., NLR. 501353-1443. argentacommunitytheater.org. “A Clockwork Orange.” Based on the Anthony Burgess novel and the 1971 Kubrick film version. The Weekend Theater, through Nov. 16: Fri., Sat., 7:30 p.m., $12-$16. 1001 W. 7th St. 501-374-3761. www.weekendtheater.org. “Dial M For Murder.” A whodunit inspired by the Hitchcock thriller starring Grace Kelly. Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, through Nov. 9: Tue.-Sat., 6

p.m., $15-$35. 6323 Col. Glenn Road. 501-5623131. murrysdinnerplayhouse.com. “Frankenstein 1930.” New version of Shelley’s classic, updated for the stage. Royal Theatre, Thu., Oct. 31, 7 p.m., $5-$10. 111 S. Market St., Benton. “Red.” Biographical drama of painter Mark Rothko, directed by The Rep’s artistic director Robert Hupp. Arkansas Repertory Theatre, through Nov. 10: Wed., Thu., Sun., 7 p.m.; Fri., Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m., $32-$57. 601 Main St. 501-378-0405. www. therep.org. Singalong “Grease.” Walton Arts Center, Thu., Oct. 31, 7:30 p.m., $17. 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-443-5600. “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” Arkansas Arts Center, through Nov. 10: Fri., 7 p.m.; Sat., Sun., 2 p.m., $12.50. 501 E. 9th St. 501-372-4000. www.arkarts. com.

GALLERIES, MUSEUMS

NEW EXHIBITIONS, EVENTS

New exhibits in bold-faced type. ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER: “Me, Myself and I,” lecture by Brad Cushman on “Face to Face: Artists’ Self-Portraits from the Collection of Jackye and Curtis Finch Jr.,” 6 p.m. Nov. 7, lecture hall, reception 5:30 p.m., free to members, $10 to non-members, reserve at 372-4000, also galleries and restaurant and open until 9 p.m., reserve restaurant seats at 907-5946; “Crazy Quilt Glass Workshop,” 10 a.m. Nov. 9, $80 members, $100 non-members, register by Nov. 2. 372-4000. ART GROUP GALLERY, Pleasant Ridge Town Center: “Holiday Art Sale,” work by Ron Almond, Matt Coburn, Louise Harris, Ned Perme, Ann Presley, Vickie HendrixSiebenmorgen and Holly Tilley. 10 a.m.-9 p.m.

Mon.-Sat., 1-6 p.m. Sun. Partners Card 20 percent discount through Nov. 3. 690-2193. GREG THOMPSON FINE ART, 429 Main St., NLR: “Monkey Business and Other Strange Sights — An Exhibition of Works by Donald Roller Wilson,” Oct. 31-Nov. 30, reception 6-8 p.m. Nov. 1. 664-2787. L&L BECK ART GALLERY, 5705 Kavanaugh Blvd.: “Still Life,” paintings by Louis Beck, through November; giclee giveaway 7 p.m. Nov. 21. 660-4006. MacARTHUR MUSEUM OF ARKANSAS MILITARY HISTORY, MacArthur Park: “American Posters of World War I,” opens Nov. 7, permanent exhibits. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-4 p.m. Sun. 376-4602. MOSAIC TEMPLARS CULTURAL CENTER, 501 W. Ninth St.: “From 1957 to Now: The Role of the 9th Street Area Church’s in Little Rock’s African American Community,” panel discussion with Judge Marion Humphrey, moderator, 6-8 p.m. Nov. 1; “It’s in the Bag: Lunch and Learn,” 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Nov. 5; “Shades of Greatness,” exhibit on the Negro Baseball Leagues, closing reception 5:30-7 p.m. Nov. 21; permanent exhibits on African American business district and entrepreneurs. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat. 683-3593. ARKADELPHIA HENDERSON STATE UNIVERSITY: “2013 Small Works on Paper,” Russell Fine Arts Center, Nov. 5-29. FAYETTEVILLE THE DEPOT, 548 W. Dickson St.: “Beneath the Surface,” photographs by John Rankine, Nov. 6-30, reception 7-9 p.m. Nov. 7, First Thursday. 501-951-4151.

HOT SPRINGS ARTISTS’ WORKSHOP GALLERY, 810 Central Ave.: New work by Joanne Kunath and June Lamoureux, through November, Gallery Walk reception 5-9 p.m. Nov. 1. 501-623-6401. BLUE MOON GALLERY, 718 Central Ave.: “A la France et de retour,” photographs by David Rackley, talk by the artist 7 p.m. Nov. 1 during Gallery Walk (5-9 p.m.). 501-318-2787. FINE ARTS CENTER OF HOT SPRINGS, 626 Central Ave.: Artwork inspired by Kenji Muyazama’s poem “Be Not Defeated by the Rain” by artists from Hanamaki, Japan, Nov. 1-Dec. 14. Gallery Walk reception 5-8 p.m. Nov. 1. 501-624-0489. JUSTUS FINE ART, 827 Central Ave.: Work by Rene Hein, Dolores Justus, Emily Wood and others, Gallery Walk reception 5-8 p.m. Nov. 1. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed.-Sat. 501-321-2335. RUSSELLVILLE RIVER VALLEY ARTS CENTER, 1001 E. B St.: “Local Artist Showcase,” opens Nov. 3 with reception 1-3 p.m. 479-968-2452. YELLVILLE PALETTE ART GALLERY, 300 Hwy. 62W: “Quilt and Artisan Bazaar,” 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Nov. 4 and subsequent Saturdays in November, open house 4-5 p.m. Nov. 7. 870-656-2057.

CALL FOR ENTRIES

The Thea Foundation has opened registration for Thea scholarships for high school students in visual arts, creative writing, film, poetry, performing arts and (a new category) dress design at www.theafoundation.org/scholarships. A total of $80,000 in scholarships will be awarded to 30 students. For more information, call 375-9512. CONTINUED ON PAGE 28

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OCTOBER 31, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

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CONTINUING EXHIBITS

ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER, MacArthur Park: “Mark Rothko in the 1940s: The Decisive Decade,” Winthrop Rockefeller Gallery, through Feb. 9; “Face to Face: Artists’ Self-Portraits from the Collection of Jackye and Curtis Finch Jr.,” Townsend Wolfe Gallery, through Feb. 9; “Portraiture Now: Drawing on the Edge,” Jeannette Rockefeller Gallery, through Feb. 9; “50 Works / 50 Weeks / 50 Years,” Alice Pratt Brown Atrium, through December; “Ryan Sniegocki: Museum School Ceramic Artist in Residence,” pottery; “Interwoven,” works on paper and crafts from the permanent collection, through Nov. 17. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat., 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sun. 372-4000. BOSWELL MOUROT FINE ART, 5815 Kavanaugh Blvd.: “Familiar Places, Unknown Destinations,” paintings in acrylics and pastels by Elizabeth Weber and Virmarie DePoyster, through Nov. 2. 664-0030. BUTLER CENTER GALLERIES, Arkansas Studies Institute, 401 President Clinton Ave.: “Native Arkansas,” early Arkansas through the writings of early explorers and Native American artifacts, including Mississippian period, Caddoan and Carden Bottoms objects, through Feb. 22; “Abstract AR(t),” work by Dustyn Bork, Megan Chapman, Donnie Copeland, Don Lee, Jill Storthz and Steven Wise, through Nov. 23. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 320-5700. CANTRELL GALLERY, 8206 Cantrell Road: “Bill Lewis Retrospective, 1932-2012,” watercolors and oil paintings, through Dec. 31. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 224-1335. CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 509 Scott St.: Paintings from the Arkansas League of Artists and Local Colour. CHROMA GALLERY, 5707 Kavanaugh Blvd.: Work by Robert Reep and other Arkansas artists. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sat. 664-0880. COX CREATIVE CENTER, 120 River Market Ave.: “Equinox,” works by artists published in UALR’s journal of literature and art. 918-3093. THE EDGE, 301B President Clinton Ave.: Paintings by Avila (Fernando Gomez), Eric Freeman, James Hayes, Jerry Colburn, St. Joseph Thomason and Stephen Drive. 992-1099. GALLERY 221 & ART STUDIOS 221, Pyramid Place: Paintings by EMILE, Kathi Crouch and others. 801-0211. GINO HOLLANDER GALLERY, 2nd and Center: Paintings and works on paper by Gino Hollander. 801-0211. GOOD WEATHER GALLERY, 4400 Edgemere, NLR: “Plaza,” installation by Lauren Cherry and Max Springer. www.goodweathergallery.com HEARNE FINE ART, 1001 Wright Ave.: “Visions of 7 Self-Taught Artists,” works by Melverue Abraham, Clementine Hunter, Sylvester McKissick, W. Earl Robinson Clemente Flores, Alonzo Ford, and Kennith Humphrey, through Nov. 19. 372-6822. LAMAN LIBRARY, 2801 Orange St.: “Recovery: The World Trade Center Recovery Operation,” 65 photographs and 56 recovered artifacts from the 911 attack, from the New York State Museum, through Dec. 1. 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Mon.-Thu., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat. 758-1720. M2GALLERY, Pleasant Ridge Town Center: “Metamorphosis,” photography and artwork by Kathy Lindsey, with Matthew Gore, Taylor Shepherd, Dan Holland, Ryder Richards, Chris King and others, show through Nov. 12. 225-6257. PAINT BOX GALLERY, 705 Main St., NLR: New paintings by Philip Kirkpatrick, Angela Green and Anne Lyon, pottery by Maura Miller, woodwork by Dan Bowe, prints from Rogers Photo Archives,

jewelry by Damon Chatterton. 374-2848. THEA FOUNDATION, 401 Main St., NLR: “The Picture Never Changes,” works by Dustyn Bork and Carly Dahl, first of Thea’s “The Art Department” series of young professional exhibitions, through Nov. 22, reception for 6:30-9 p.m. Nov. 7 for young professionals with artists and music by the Funk-A-Nites, $10 ($7 with password to be published on Thea Facebook page and Twitter Nov. 7), Argenta ArtWalk reception 5-8 p.m. Nov. 15. 379-9512. UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT LITTLE ROCK, 2801 S. University: “Nocturne,” silverpoint drawings by Marjorie Williams-Smith, Gallery II, through Nov. 24, reception with musical performance by Dr. Robert Boury, 5-7 p.m. Nov. 16; “FuN HoUSe,” work by Zina Al-Shukri, Chuck and George, Dustin Farnsworth, Heidi Schwegler, Gallery I, through Dec. 10. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.Fri., 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Sat., 2-5 p.m. Sun. 569-3182. BENTONVILLE CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, One Museum Way: “This Land: Picturing a Changing America in the 1930s and 1940s,” 44 paintings, prints and photographs with digital audio tour featuring musical selections by Fayetteville Roots Festival director Bryan Hembree, through Jan. 6; permanent collection of American masterworks spanning four centuries. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon., Thu., Sat.-Sun.; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Wed.-Fri. 479-418-5700.

ONGOING MUSEUM EXHIBITS

CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL MUSEUM VISITOR CENTER, Bates and Park: Exhibits on the 1957 desegregation of Central and the civil rights movement. 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. daily. 374-1957. CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL CENTER, 1200 President Clinton Ave.: “And Freedom for All: the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom,” photographs by Stanley Tretick of the 1963 march, through Nov. 17; “Oscar de la Renta: American Icon,” designs worn by Laura Bush, Jessica Chastain, Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and others, and other couture pieces, through Dec. 1. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. $7 adults; $5 college students, seniors, retired military; $3 ages 6-17. 370-8000. ESSE, 1510 S. Main St.: “What’s Inside: A Century of Women and Handbags (1900-1999),” purses from the collection of Anita Davis, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tue.-Sun., $10-$8. 916-9022. HISTORIC ARKANSAS MUSEUM, 200 E. Third St.: “Figurations: works by Stephen Cefalo and Sandra Sell,” through Dec. 8; “Reflections from the Monday Studio Artists,” work by Hot Springs Village artists Shirley R. Anderson, Barbara Seibel, Sue Shields and Caryl Joy Young, through Nov. 3; “Heeding the Call: The Firefighter Collection of Johnny Reep,” through Jan. 5; “Jason A. Smith: Stills”; “Arkansas Made,” ongoing. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 324-9351. MUSEUM OF DISCOVERY, 500 President Clinton Ave.: “Robots and Us,” interactive exhibit on robotics, through Jan. 26; “Wiggle Worms,” science program for pre-K children 10 a.m.-10:30 a.m. every Tue., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun., $10 ages 13 and older, $8 ages 1-12, free to members and children under 1. 396-7050. OLD STATE HOUSE MUSEUM, 300 W. Markham: “Lights! Camera! Arkansas!”, the state’s ties to Hollywood, including costumes, scripts, film footage, photographs and more, through March 1, 2015; “Things You Need to Hear: Memories of Growing up in Arkansas from 1890 to 1980,” oral histories about community, family, work, school and leisure, through March 2014. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 324-9685.

THEATER REVIEW

Bring Your Appetite.

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‘RED’: Joseph Graves stars as Mark Rothko in The Rep’s prodcution.

‘Red’: Masterpiece at The Rep

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Rothko play a complement to Arts Center exhibit. BY LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK

he Rep’s production of “Red,” John Logan’s play about the artist Mark Rothko, is one of those Rep offerings that are so well-conceived and performed that you just want to throw buckets of money at the theater. Joe Graves, as the conceited, brilliant, troubled artist, and Chris Wendelken, as Rothko’s maturing studio assistant Ken, do fantastic work in this 90-minute emotional freight train of a play. From the first minute of the play, “Red” is off and rolling, with profound and often funny dialog — even the foreshadowing of Rothko’s real-life demise gets a laugh — and perfect timing. The Rep and the Arkansas Arts Center’s decision to collaborate — the play’s run coincides with the first few weeks of the Arts Center’s exhibition “Mark Rothko in the 1940s: The Decisive Decade” — was a terrific move, providing those intrigued by the play a chance to see the man’s work and those who love the work to know more about the man. “Red” is a truly biographical play, about an artist who knows “black will swallow the red” — death will win over life — but Rothko stands for every generation that will eventually make way for the new. The play takes place in Rothko’s studio in the Bowery, where he’s working on a commission by architect Philip Johnson for the restaurant that will go in the Seagram’s Building. It’s the mid-1950s, and Jackson Pollock is generally recognized as modernism’s greatest painter and Rothko has gained great fame for his color-field paintings (left to the audience’s imagination in the play). Rothko rages to his new studio assistant that Pollock, by driving a convertible drunk, committed suicide — and that even buying the convertible was an act of sui-

cide. “Why the fuck did Jackson Pollock have an Oldsmobile convertible?” he bellows, a line that’s funny but which could be answered with, why the fuck did Mark Rothko agree to decorate the Four Seasons restaurant with his paintings? For $35,000, a record sum in those days, that’s why. Rothko imagines the restaurant as a temple. Ken’s evolution from unsure underling to confident man drives the dramatic action to the play’s denouement. When Rothko screams that pop art by Jasper Johns and Frank Stella and Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol is desecrating the gallery by hanging in the “same sacred space of de Kooning and Motherwell and Smith and Newman and Pollock,” Ken reminds him of the artist’s earlier expressed glee that his generation of artists killed cubism, and that Rothko once said “Tragic, really, to grow superfluous in your own lifetime.” So the play is about Rothko and the New York art school, but the names Motherwell and Smith don’t have to mean something to the audience (though it’s a richer experience, I’d say, if they do). The play is also about losing stature and acclaim to those who come after you, no matter what your field is, about feeling outdated. It’s about subverting ideals to make money. And, in this case, about a relationship that evolves from employer-employee to mentor-mentored and father-son, the son eventually kicked out of the nest to make his own mark on the world. “Red” runs Wednesday through Sunday through Nov. 10; curtain is 7 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Call 3780405 for tickets. Those who’ve purchased tickets to the Arts Center exhibition will get a $5 discount on theater tickets.

Lot #80 “Two Generations” 3/100, 1979 Elizabeth Catlett Stone Lithograph

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Christ Christ Church Gallery Church Ga Christ Church Gallery 509 Scott Street | 375.2342 509 Scott Street | 375.23

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We will be closed for the November Art Night, to prepare for our Candlelight Gala.

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 Fine Art  Cocktails & Wine  Hor d’oeuvres

30 OCTOber 31, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

Work by clients of the Creative Expressions Program the Arkansas StateofHospital State Hospital State Hospital Melvarue Abraham, Victoria Harvey, Brenda Hogan, State Hospital

artist reception 5-8 pm

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Free parking at 3rd PS Little Rock encourages & Cumberland you to support small 200 E. Third St. Free street parking business by shopping local Downtown Little Rock this holiday season. all over downtown 501-324-9351 A museum of the HistoricArkansas.org and behind the Downtown Little Rock Department of Arkansas Heritage River Market 300 River Market Ave, LOWFIDELITY FIDELITYLOGO LOGO[RED] [RED] LOWFIDELITY FIDELITYLOGO LOGO[BLUE] [BLUE] Ste 105 LOW (PaidLOW parking Find Us On Facebook available for The Low Fidelity logos meant provide a more efficient and cost effective variation. **** The Low Fidelity logos areare meant to to provide a more efficient and cost effective variation. & Instagram ALLERY RT TUDIOS recommend that these variations used printing and stamp applications. modest fee.) **** WeWe recommend that these variations bebe used forfor printing and allall stamp applications.

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MUSINGS Works Kathy Thomp Do notART missby this colorful ART MUSINGS ART MUSINGS Work by clients of theof the Work by clients and bycollectible show! ART MUSINGS Work clients of the needlepoint, oils, watercolor, and mixed Creative Expressions Creative Expressions Creative Expressions Now through Program ofDecember theof Arkansas Program the Arkansas Program of the Arkansas

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ChristChrist Church Gallery Christ Church Gallery Church Gallery Christ Scott Street |Church 375.2342 Christ Church Gallery 509509 Scott Street | 509 Scott375.2342 Street | 375.2342 christchurchlr.org christchurchlr.org 509 Scott Street | 375-2342 509 ScottLittle Street | 375.2342 christchurchlr.org Rock's Downtown Episcopal Church Little Rock's Downtown EpiscopalEpiscopal Church Church christchurchlr.org Little Rock's Downtown www.christchurchlr.org Little Rock's Downtown Episcopal Church Little Rock’s Downtown Episcopa Arts @ Christ Church

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The Old State House Museum is a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

MOVIE REVIEW

Best film of the year

TRAVEL WITH THE ARKANSAS TIMES TO

Horrors of slavery shown anew in ‘12 Years a Slave.’ BY SAM EIFLING

‘12 YEARS A SLAVE’: Chiwetel Ejiofor stars.

fit to educate in the first place. But as we are seeing this benighted world through an educated man’s eyes, we find atrocity explained in a familiar way. And in “12 Years,” it’s everywhere. Captivity, physical abuse and deprivation only begin to describe it. The first slaver who buys Solomon — a reasonably fair man, played by Benedict Cumberbatch — also tries to buy a similarly kidnapped mother and children, to hold the little family intact. The slave trader (Paul Giamatti’s ruthless cameo) explains the fairskinned little girl is too valuable to package with the mother, because would-be child rapists have deep pockets. Fassbender’s philandering, scripture-spewing plantation owner underscores this philosophy when he declares, in a fit of violent pique, that he may do whatever he likes with his property. Nowhere does “12 Years” waste a shot or a breath, and rarely does it grant its audience a breath of reprieve. There is no silver lining to Solomon’s despair. Any redemption for Southern slaveowners arrives as vapor and evaporates on sight. Those who love or live in the South will be unnerved throughout, as “12 Years” is, at heart, a wrongful imprisonment story in which the South — its vastness, its wilderness, its cruelty — stars as the prison. We’re still reckoning with this dark South that lied to itself for centuries, insisting, in Fassbender’s voice, that one person can own another and kill him at his discretion, or rape her at whim, not only legally, but with the complicit approval of a benevolent God. The hundreds of years and millions of crimes built a terrible inertia that has yet to taper out, for the 1840s, ’50s and ’60s were not so long ago after all. When the Confederates seceded then, this vision was the banner they chose. When you see their emblem now — on trucks, on hats, on shirts, tattooed on skin, brandished at political rallies — you will flash back to “12 Years,” and the past will feel present, as it ever has been.

SATURDAY, NOV. 16, 2013

TIM HURSLEY

he harrowing, haunting “12 Years a Slave” follows the memoir of Solomon Northup, a free black man who was living in upstate New York in 1841 when kidnappers drugged him and sold him into slavery. Shanghaied and unable to prove his identity, Northup was shipped to Louisiana, held in bondage and forced into labor. He wanted only to get home. This is all you need to get started on “12 Years,” almost certainly the best film of 2013. The adaptation, by English director Steve McQueen (“Shame,” “Hunger”), draws its immense strength from many sources. Foremost are the profound performances by Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon, Michael Fassbender as an imperious plantation owner, and Lupita Nyong’o as a young slave. There’s the cinematography by repeat McQueen collaborator Sean Bobbitt, who paints the South as a land of raw beauty and never misses a chance to stun the audience with his framing. Hans Zimmer’s score bleeds into the action seductively, mixing breathy reeds and simple percussion into grandiose swells, with a splash of steampunk thrown in. John Ridley’s script is the best work of his career, tapping a Victorian high elocution to convey the enormity of the crimes taking place. The diction, notably, plants us in the antebellum South while connecting the audience with Solomon and other educated men and women threatened with slavery. The sum is a film that upsets the expectations we have for movies about slavery, abolition, racism and America’s original sin, the Civil War era. Solomon was reasonably prosperous up North. He was married, had kids, played violin for a living, dressed well. Ripping him from the middle class and stripping him of his humanity in a Deep South sugar cane field gives “12 Years” the feel of a traditional Holocaust story. The arc of the moral universe bends toward justice, as Martin Luther King Jr. would say a century later, and the narrative of America, if not of Western civilization altogether, allows us to atone for the sins of our forebears by making the future a more humane place. The horror of “12 Years” is watching progress unravel and run in reverse. The film doesn’t ask us to contemplate the greater crime — stripping an educated man of his literacy or never seeing him as

TOUR OF “THE ARTISTS’ EYE: GEORGIA O’KEEFFE AND THE ALFRED STIEGLITZ COLLECTION” These 101 artworks donated to Fisk University by Georgia O’Keeffe in honor of Alfred Stieglitz are on exhibit for the first time at Crystal Bridges, which acquired them in an art-sharing arrangement with the Tennessee university. The exhibit includes O’Keeffe’s acclaimed “Radiator Building — Night, New York,” along with 19 Stieglitz photographs, work by American modernists Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, work by European masters Cezanne, Picasso, Renoir, Signac and Toulouse-Lautrec and other noted artists of the 20th century.

PER PERSON

PRICE INCLUDES: • ROUND TRIP TOUR BUS TRANSPORTATION • LUNCH & DINNER • COST OF ENTRY TO “THE ARTISTS’ EYE”

Admission to the permanent collection and the museum’s walking trails is free. The museum includes a restaurant, wine and beer bar and gift shop. WHERE AND WHEN: The Arrow Coach bus will leave at 8:30 a.m. Nov. 16 from the front of the Main Street Parking Deck at 2nd and Main streets. CHARGE BY PHONE: (ALL MAJOR CREDIT CARDS)

501-375-2985

OR MAIL CHECK OR MONEY-ORDER TO ARKANSAS TIMES CRYSTAL BRIDGES BUS 201 E. MARKHAM, SUITE 200 LITTLE ROCK, AR 72201 MORE INFORMATION: Call 501-375-2985 or email lesliepeacock@arktimes.com.

ARKANSAS TIMES WWW.ARKTIMES.COM

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OCTOBER 31, 2013

Dining WHAT’S COOKIN’ IT’S TIME TO ONCE AGAIN celebrate the Southern specialty in its many varieties: The third annual Arkansas Cornbread Festival is set for Sunday, Nov. 2, at the Bernice Garden, Daisy Bates and Main streets. The event starts at 11 a.m. with cornbread cooking, cornbread tasting and the best-in-show cornbread contest, along with craft vendors, a food-truck court and a full day of music, courtesy of The Oxford American magazine. Scheduled to appear are Monkhouse, Rosen Music Little Big Band, Greg Spradlin and the Libras, Gerald Johnson Quartet and Bluesboy Jag and the Juke Joint Zombies. You can purchase tickets, $7 for adults and $3 for kids 6-12, at the Green Corner Store at 1423 Main St. or at the festival website, arkansascornbreadfestival.com. According to the website, the 2012 festival had 3,300 paid attendees.

DINING CAPSULES

LITTLE ROCK/ N. LITTLE ROCK

AMERICAN

4 SQUARE CAFE AND GIFTS Vegetarian salads, soups, wraps and paninis and a broad selection of smoothies. 405 President Clinton Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-244-2622. BLD daily. ALL AMERICAN WINGS Features 13 flavors of wings, from hot to not. 801 W. Markham. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-375-0000. LD Mon.-Fri., D Sat. 7706 Cantrell Road. No alcohol, All CC. $. 501-223-3355. Serving LD Mon.-Fri., D Sat. ARGENTA MARKET The Argenta District’s neighborhood grocery store offers a deli featuring a daily selection of big sandwiches along with fresh fish and meats and salads. 521 N. Main St. NLR. Beer, Wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-379-9980. L daily, D Mon.-Sat., B Sat., BR Sun. ARKANSAS BURGER CO. Good burgers, fries and shakes, plus salads and other entrees. Try the cheese dip. 7410 Cantrell Road. Beer, Wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-663-0600. LD Tue.-Sat. ASHLEY’S The premier fine dining restaurant in Little Rock marries Southern traditionalism and haute cuisine. The menu is often daring and always delicious. 111 W. Markham St. Full bar, All CC. $$$. 501-374-7474. BLD Mon.-Sat. BR Sun. BELWOOD DINER Traditional breakfasts and plate lunch specials are the norm at this lostin-time hole in the wall. 3815 MacArthur Drive. NLR. No alcohol, No CC. $. 501-753-1012. BL Mon.-Fri. BEV & GUY’S FISH & CHICKEN This restaurant specializes in fried catfish fillets and chicken and all the trimmings. 3319 John Barrow Road. No alcohol, No CC. $. 501-224-2981. L Fri.-Sat. D Thu., Sat., Sun. 32

OCTOBER 31, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

WEAR YOUR BIG BOY PANTS: Starlite Diner’s Big Boy breakfast special.

Starlite shines again Does diner food right.

ew establishments have been more influential in the sculpting of the American culinary culture than the great American diner. But today these humble restaurants are a dying breed. What with the uprising of farm-to-table, locavorism, fusion cuisine and an emphasis on artisanal products, the lowly diner has become lost in the shuffle. We love farm-to-table, etc. But sometimes there’s nothing more comforting and satisfying than traditional diner fare. Sitting down at a “greasy spoon,” being served a messy patty melt and fries or big, plate-sized pancakes with slabs of real butter — there’s something emotionally rewarding about such an experience. It’s the definition of comfort food. Starlite Diner in North Little Rock is no stranger to change. The shimmering metal building has seen several openings and closings, new owners, and name changes in the past years. But now it returns with a determination to make this go-round the greatest ever in Starlite history. They’ve cleaned up and revamped the place, revitalizing the small but comfortable interior. The results are encouraging, and hopefully this time Starlite Diner will stick around for a long, long time. We first visited the reopened restaurant

Starlite Diner

250 E. Military Drive North Little Rock 771-2036 QUICK BITE Starlite Diner is not a large place by any means, so get there early if you want to guarantee yourself a seat on a busy morning. Service is cheery, pleasant, and attentive, but don’t be surprised to find one waitress handling the entire restaurant. Still, it’s easy to feel at home among the many happy patrons. And ending a meal with one of Starlite’s fried pies is never a bad idea, either. HOURS 6 a.m. until 2 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday; 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. Sunday. OTHER INFO Credit cards accepted, no alcohol.

for breakfast, a meal where a great diner separates itself from the rest. When a place offers breakfast all day, you know this meal isn’t some meaningless afterthought, some hapless attempt to wrangle in a few extra customers in the morning hours. They’re not reserving the “show-stopping” dishes for dinner. No, breakfast is really the time

to shine for any respectable diner. We started with the “Big Boy” breakfast special ($7.99). No surprises on this plate; all the expected breakfast staples make their appearance here. But it’s a substantial amount of food, sure to fill that empty space inside of you, that growling morning hunger aching for relief — three eggs, three strips of bacon or sausage patties, hash browns, biscuits and gravy or two pancakes. We ordered our eggs over easy and we were presented with three perfectly done specimens. Runny yolk, soft, but firmer whites, prepared by a cook who clearly knows his way around the flattop, who’s certainly made hundreds, probably thousands of such breakfasts in his day. The sausage was of the prefabricated variety — the frozen, packaged discs that cook quickly and easily. They were just a tad rubbery, and we would have preferred freshly prepared, but they were not unpalatable — we still managed to eat every bit. The hash browns were adequate — soft potato, not overly greasy, with a nice, golden crunch from a quick trip on the hot plate. They required a bit of salt, but again, we happily gulped them down. Lastly, our biscuits and gravy proved to be surprisingly good. We’ve had issues with bland, lazily-done sausage gravy, often sloshed together from a prepared “just add milk” mixture. This gravy, however, had a good bit more flavor than most other gravies we’ve sampled, owing to the hearty portion of crumpled sausage incorporated within.

Information in our restaurant capsules reflects the opinions of the newspaper staff and its reviewers. The newspaper accepts no advertising or other considerations in exchange for reviews, which are conducted anonymously. We invite the opinions of readers who think we are in error.

BELLY UP

B Breakfast L Lunch D Dinner $ Inexpensive (under $8/person) $$ Moderate ($8-$20/person) $$$ Expensive (over $20/person) CC Accepts credit cards

Check out the Times’ food blog, Eat Arkansas arktimes.com

DINING CAPSULES, CONT.

DINER CLASSIC: A short stack of pancakes from Starlite Diner.

The biscuits were plump, fluffy, and dense. When generously slathered with gravy, they made for an excellent dish overall, one that we plowed through with gusto. We could not pass up the opportunity for some classic diner pancakes. Starlite Diner doesn’t offer any fancy adornments to their pancakes — no nuts, fruit, or chocolate. Simple buttermilk pancakes with real maple syrup, slathered in butter. We chose a short stack ($3.49), two 10-inch pancakes. They were heavenly. Airy, hot, and buttery. It’s everything you’d ever hope for in a traditional, no-frills pancake. Our next visit to Starlite had us sampling some of its lunch menu options. We opted for the BLT sandwich ($5.49), which the menu describes as being prepared “the way they’re made at home.” It’s probably an accurate statement. It’s a simply constructed sandwich, one that is readily prepared in most home kitchens. Six strips of nicely cooked bacon with crispy, slightly blackened edges start things off. Then iceberg lettuce, sliced tomato, and a spread of mayo on plain white toast. It could have used a touch more mayo, but it was adequate and sufficiently met our needs. We were a bit disappointed, however, by the uninspired addition of plain potato chips plucked straight from the bag. Our cheeseburger ($5.99) was a 1/3 lb. patty of freshly ground beef, slapped and squashed on a hot flat top. It’s of the “thin burger” variety, cooked throughout, but it was flavorful nonetheless. It came with a smattering of traditional condiments — cheddar cheese, yellow mustard, lettuce, tomato, pickle, sliced raw onion. It’s a burger that won’t likely be drawing crowds from around the state, but it does the job and was satisfying overall. This time we opted for fries over chips — an excellent decision as we were served a plateful of hand-cut, perfectly fried, golden brown potatoes. A fine way to end our lunchtime excursion, though ultimately, it’s breakfast, not lunch, that’s likely to inspire us to make a return trip.

BRAVE NEW RESTAURANT The food’s great, portions huge, prices reasonable. It’s great fun, and the fish is special. 2300 Cottondale Lane. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-663-2677. LD Mon.-Fri. D Sat. BRAY GOURMET DELI AND CATERING Turkey spreads in four flavors — original, jalapeno, cajun and dill — and the homemade pimiento cheese are the signature items at Chris Bray’s delicatessen, which serves sandwiches, wraps, soups, stuffed potatoes and salads and sells the turkey spreads to go. 323 Center St. Suite 150. No alcohol, All CC. 501-353-1045. BL Mon.-Fri. CAPITAL BAR AND GRILL Big hearty sandwiches, daily lunch specials and fine evening dining all rolled up into one at this landing

DED R FA OS R E S TA U R A N T E

1619 Rebsamen Rd. 501-663-9734

spot downtown. Surprisingly inexpensive with a great bar staff and a good selection of unique desserts. 111 Markham St. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-374-7474. LD daily. CAPITOL BISTRO Serving breakfast and lunch items, including quiche, sandwiches, coffees and the like. 1401 W. Capitol Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-371-9575. BL Mon.-Fri. CATERING TO YOU Painstakingly prepared entrees and great appetizers in this gourmetto-go location, attached to a gift shop. Caters everything from family dinners to weddings and large corporate events. 8121 Cantrell Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-614-9030. Serving meals to go: LD Mon.-Sat. CATFISH HOLE Downhome place for wellcooked catfish and tasty hushpuppies. 603 E.

GREAT STEAK

LITTLE ROCK’S MOST AWARD WINNING RESTAURANT

Spriggs. NLR. Beer, All CC. $-$$. 501-758-3516. D Tue.-Sat. CIAO BACI The focus is on fine dining in this casually elegant Hillcrest bungalow, though excellent tapas are out of this world. The treeshaded, light-strung deck is a popular destination. 605 N. Beechwood St. Full bar, All CC. $$$. 501-603-0238. D Mon.-Sat. CRAZEE’S COOL CAFE Good burgers, daily plate specials and bar food amid pool tables and TVs. 7626 Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-221-9696. LD Mon.-Sat. DIXON ROAD BLUES CAFE Sandwiches, burgers and salads. 1505 W. Dixon Road. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-888-2233. BLD Mon.-Sat. DOE’S EAT PLACE A skid-row dive turned power brokers’ watering hole with huge steaks, great tamales and broiled shrimp. 1023 W. Markham St. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-3761195. LD Mon.-Fri., D Sat. EJ’S EATS AND DRINKS The friendly neighborhood hoagie shop downtown serves at a handful of tables and by delivery. The sandwiches are generous, the soup homemade and the salads cold. Vegetarians can craft any number of acceptable meals from the flexible menu. The housemade potato chips are da bomb. 523 Center St. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-666-3700. LD Mon.-Fri. FILIBUSTER’S BISTRO & LOUNGE Sandwiches, salads in the Legacy Hotel. 625 W. Capitol Ave. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-374-0100. D Mon.-Fri. FIVE GUYS BURGERS & FRIES Nationwide burger chain with emphasis on freshly made fries and patties. 2923 Lakewood Village Dr. NLR. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-246-5295. LD daily. FLYING FISH The fried seafood is fresh and crunchy and there are plenty of raw, boiled and grilled offerings, too. The hamburgers are a hit, too. It’s self-service; wander on through the screen door and you’ll find a slick team of cooks and servers doing a creditable job of serving big crowds. 511 President Clinton Ave. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$. 501-375-3474. LD daily. HOMER’S Great vegetables, huge yeast rolls and killer cobblers. Follow the mobs. 2001 E. Roosevelt Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-374-1400. BL Mon.-Fri. 9700 N Rodney Parham. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-224-6637. LD Mon.-Sat. J. GUMBO’S Fast-casual Cajun far served, primarily, in a bowl. Better than expected. 12911 Cantrell Road. Beer, All CC. $-$$. 501-916-9635. LD daily. JIMMY’S SERIOUS SANDWICHES Consistently fine sandwiches, side orders and desserts for 30 years. Chicken salad’s among the best in town, and there are fun specialty sandwiches such as Thai One On and The Garden. Get there early for lunch. 5116 W. Markham St. No alcohol, CC. $-$$. 501-6663354. L Mon.-Sat., D Mon.-Sat. (drive-through only). K. HALL AND SONS Neighborhood grocery store with excellent lunch counter. The cheeseburger is hard to beat. 1900 Wright Avenue. No alcohol, CC. $. 501-372-1513. BLD Mon.-Sat. (closes at 6 p.m.), BL Sun. KRAZY MIKE’S Po’Boys, catfish and shrimp and other fishes, fried chicken wings and all CONTINUED ON PAGE 34 www.arktimes.com

OCTOBER 31, 2013

DINING CAPSULES, CONT.

Alchemy

the

Songwriting Competition

Enter now through October 31, 2013 www.thealchemycompetition.org the

Adult and Youth Categories

judges

Genres: Rock/Alternative, Country/Bluegrass, Gospel/Christian, Pop, R&B, Folk, and Other.

Kris

m rick

n th a S m

Hamb

Jona

G R AN

n Alle Ad a

PRIZE

Win a trip for 2 to L.A. and a recording session with award winning producer Warren Huart!

ith

Competition sponsored in part by:

OCTOBER 31, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

All proceeds benefit quality arts education in Central Arkansas:

the expected sides served up fresh and hot to order on demand. 200 N. Bowman Road. Beer, All CC. $$. 501-907-6453. LD daily. LOCA LUNA Grilled meats, seafood and pasta dishes that never stray far from country roots, whether Italian, Spanish or Arkie. “Gourmet plate lunches” are good, as is Sunday brunch. 3519 Old Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-663-4666. BR Sun., LD Mon.-Fri., D Sat. MILFORD TRACK Healthy and tasty are the key words at this deli/grill that serves breakfast and lunch. Hot entrees change daily and there are soups, sandwiches, salads and killer desserts. Bread is baked in-house, and there are several veggie options. 10809 Executive Center Dr., Searcy Building. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-223-2257. BL Mon.-Sat. OYSTER BAR Gumbo, red beans and rice (all you can eat on Mondays), peel-and-eat shrimp, oysters on the half shell, addictive po’ boys. Killer jukebox. 3003 W. Markham St. Beer, Wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-666-7100. LD Mon.-Sat. OZARK COUNTRY RESTAURANT A longstanding favorite with many Little Rock residents, the eatery specializes in big country breakfasts and pancakes. 202 Keightley Drive. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-663-7319. B daily, L Mon.-Fri., D Thu.-Sat. PURPLE COW DINER 1950s fare — cheeseburgers, chili dogs, thick milk shakes — in a ‘50s setting at today’s prices. 8026 Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-221-3555. LD daily, BR Sat.-Sun. 11602 Chenal Pkwy. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-224-4433. LD daily, BR Sat.-Sun. 1419 Higden Ferry Road. Hot Springs. Beer, All CC. $$. 501-625-7999. LD daily, B Sun. THE ROOT CAFE Homey, local foods-focused cafe. With tasty burgers, homemade bratwurst, banh mi and a number of vegan and veggie options. Breakfast and Sunday brunch, too. 1500 S. Main St. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. BL Tue.-Sat., BR Sun. SALUT BISTRO This bistro/late-night hangout does upscale Italian for dinner. 1501 N. University. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-660-4200. L Mon.-Fri., D Tue.-Sat. SANDY’S HOMEPLACE CAFE Specializing in home style buffet, with two meats and seven vegetables to choose from. It’s all-you-can-eat. 1710 E 15th St. No alcohol, No CC. $. 501-3753216. L Mon.-Fri. SCALLIONS Reliably good food, great desserts, pleasant atmosphere, able servers — a solid lunch spot. 5110 Kavanaugh Blvd. Beer, Wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-666-6468. L Mon.-Sat. SHORTY SMALL’S Land of big, juicy burgers, massive cheese logs, smoky barbecue platters and the signature onion loaf. 1100 N. Rodney Parham Road. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-224-3344. LD daily. SONNY WILLIAMS’ STEAK ROOM Steaks, chicken and seafood in a wonderful setting in the River Market. Steak gets pricey, though. Menu is seasonal, changes every few months. 500 President Clinton Ave. Full bar, All CC. $$$. 501-324-2999. D Mon.-Sat. SOUTH ON MAIN Fine, innovative takes on Southern fare in a casual, but well-appointed setting. 1304 Main St. Full bar, CC. $-$$. 501-244-9660. L Mon.-Fri., D Tue.-Sat. STAGECOACH GROCERY AND DELI Fine po’ boys and muffalettas — and cheap. 6024 Stagecoach Road. Beer, Wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-455-4157. BLD Mon.-Fri., BL Sat.-Sun. TABLE 28 Excellent fine dining with lots of creative flourishes. Branch out and try the Crispy Squid Filet and Quail Bird Lollipops. 1501 Merrill Drive. Full bar, CC. $$$-$$$$. 224-2828. D Mon.-Sat. TERRI-LYNN’S BAR-B-Q AND DELI High-

quality meats served on large sandwiches and good tamales served with chili or without (the better bargain). 10102 N. Rodney Parham Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-227-6371. BL Tue.-Fri., BLD Sat. (close at 5pm). WEST END SMOKEHOUSE AND TAVERN Its primary focus is a sports bar with 50-plus TVs, but the dinner entrees (grilled chicken, steaks and such) are plentiful and the bar food is upper quality. 215 N. Shackleford. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-224-7665. L Fri.-Sun., D daily. WINGSTOP It’s all about wings. The joint features ten flavors of chicken flappers for almost any palate, including mild, hot, Cajun and atomic, as well as specialty flavors like lemon pepper, teriyaki, Garlic parmesan and Hawaiian. 11321 West Markham St. Beer, All CC. $-$$. 501-224-9464. LD daily.

ASIAN

A.W. LIN’S ASIAN CUISINE Excellent panAsian with wonderful service. 17717 Chenal Parkway. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-821-5398. LD daily. CHINESE KITCHEN Good Chinese takeout. Try the Cantonese press duck. 11401 N. Rodney Parham Road. No alcohol, CC. $-$$. 501-2242100. LD Tue.-Sun. CURRY IN A HURRY Home-style Indian food with a focus on fresh ingredients and spices. 11121 North Rodney Parham. Beer, Wine, No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-224-4567. LD Mon., Wed.-Sun. HANAROO SUSHI BAR One of the few spots in downtown Little Rock to serve sushi. With an expansive menu, featuring largely Japanese fare. Try the popular Tuna Tatari bento box. 205 W. Capitol Ave. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$. 501-3017900. L Mon.-Fri., D Mon.-Sat. LEMONGRASS ASIA BISTRO Fairly solid Thai bistro. Try the Tom Kha Kai and white wine alligator. They don’t have a full bar, but you can order beer, wine and sake. 4629 E. McCain Blvd. NLR. Beer, Wine, All CC. 501-945-4638. LD Mon.-Sun. MIKE’S CAFE VIETNAMESE Cheap Vietnamese that could use some more spice, typically. The pho is good. 5501 Asher Ave. Beer, CC. $-$$. 501-562-1515. LD daily. MR. CHEN’S ASIAN SUPERMARKET AND RESTAURANT A combination Asian restaurant and grocery with cheap, tasty and exotic offerings. 3901 S. University Ave. $. 501-562-7900. LD daily. PHO THANH MY The pho comes in outrageously large portions with bean sprouts and fresh herbs. Traditional pork dishes, spring rolls and bubble tea also available. 302 N. Shackleford Road. No alcohol, All CC. $$. 501-312-7498. LD Mon, Wed.-Sun. SEKISUI Fresh-tasting sushi chain with fun hibachi grill and an overwhelming assortment of traditional entrees. 219 N. Shackleford Road. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-221-7070. LD daily. SHOGUN JAPANESE STEAKHOUSE The chefs will dazzle you, as will the variety of tasty stir-fry combinations and the sushi bar. 2815 Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-6667070. D daily. WASABI Downtown sushi and Japanese cuisine. 101 Main St. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-374-0777. L Mon.-Fri., D Mon.-Sat.

BARBECUE

CHIP’S BARBECUE Tasty, if a little pricey, barbecue piled high on sandwiches generously doused with the original tangy sauce or one of five other sauces. 9801 W. Markham St. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-225-4346. LD CONTINUED ON PAGE 34

Hey, do this!

novemBER FUN!

OCT 25-FEB 9 The Arkansas Arts Center presents

“Mark Rothko in the 1940s: The Decisive Decade.” The

exhibition includes 27 works by one of the masters in modern American Art. For more info, visit www.arkarts. com/rothko.

Food, Music, Entertainment and everything else that’s

NOV 2

The Arkansas Cornbread Festival takes place on South Main from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Cornbread and side dishes will be judged by everyone in attendance as well as a panel of celebrity judges. Vendors will display and sell Arkansas art, handmade crafts, clothes and other local products. For more info, visit www.arkansascornbreadfestival.com. n UCA hosts singer-actress Audra McDonald live at the Reynolds Performance Hall at 7 p.m. For tickets and a complete schedule of upcoming events, visit www.uca.edu/publicappearances. n Hot Springs Village is hosting a special weekend for the outdoor enthusiast, headlined by the first annual Dusk Scare – a 4-mile competitive run through the Ouachita Mountains. It’s a challenging course full of natural beauty, and a few not so natural surprises (beware of Zombie attacks)! Residents & Visitors are invited to join in the fun! The 4-Mile Run, Fun Cycle, Geocaching and Bird Watching events are open to the public. More details at www.hsvzombietrailrun.com

NOV 6-9

The 37th annual Festival of Trees benefitting CARTI includes

NOV 7

special events November 6-9 at the Statehouse Convention Center. The Festival After Dark is on Friday, November 8 at 7 p.m. A casual holiday mixer, the event includes food, drinks and live music. Tickets are $50. For more info, visit www.carti.com/ events/carti-auxiliary-festival-of-trees.

Don’t miss Hillcrest’s Shop and Sip. Local shops and galleries stay open late and offer a variety of snacks and drinks for a festive night of shopping.

culinary excellence of Eureka Springs. Many local restaurants will be featuring their chef’s signature courses expertly paired with perfect wines. Other wine and food events all around town. Visit eurekaspringsfoodandwine.com for more information.

Historic Arkansas Museum Candlelight Gala begins at 6:30 p.m. The biennial dinner and auction benefits the Historic Arkansas Museum. It’s a fun, art-inspired black-tie affair. Tickets are $150 and available at www.historicarkansasmuseum. org. n Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s Masterworks concert Beethoven and Bluejeans presents a thoroughly Viennese affair with sounds of court, nature, and even the city’s downtown clubs. Held at Robinson Center Music Hall November 9, 2013 Saturday at 8:00 PM and November 10, 2013, Sunday at 3:00 PM. Price Range: $14 - $53. Tickets and more information available online at arkansassymphony.org

NOV 21

Tribute to the Beatles at 7:30 p.m. at

is held every third Thursday sponsored by all of the Heights merchants. Enjoy live music, food and drinks.

Celebrity Attractions presents Rain: A

Robinson Center Music Hall. Tickets are $26.50$59.00 and available online at www.celebrityattractions.com.

Happy Hour in the Heights

Clint Black

THROUGH NOV 10

In partnership with the Arkansas Arts Center’s exhibit “Mark Rothko in the 1940s: The Decisive Decade,” the Arkansas Repertory Theatre is thrilled to stage the revealing Rothko drama Red. Rep Producing Artistic Director Robert Hupp directs Red, which stars Rep favorite Joe Graves (Othello, The Tempest, Of Mice and Men, Moonlight and Magnolias) as the abstract artist Mark Rothko. For tickets and show times, visit www.therep.org.

NOV 25

NOV 12-DEC 31

Take in dinner and a show at Murry’s Dinner Playhouse. The Christmas show, Run for Your Wife, opens November 12 and is the perfect holiday treat. For tickets and show times, visit www. murrysdinnerplayhouse.com.

Lisa Ling

UCA hosts Lisa Ling, journalist, author, executive producer and host of Our America. The lecture begins at 7:30 p.m. at Reynolds Performance Hall. For tickets and a complete list of upcoming events, visit www.uca.edu/publicappearances. n From Capone to Costello, the book written by director of The Gangster Museum of America, Robert Raines will be releasing at Barnes and Noble, Books-a- Million and Wal Mart on November 25th. A book signing tour will kick off at the Museum the day after Thanksgiving and will be followed by events in New Orleans, L.A., NYC, and Chicago as well as other dates in Arkansas.