Arkansas Times

NEWS + POLITICS + ENTERTAINMENT / MARCH 14, 2012 / ARKTIMES.COM

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MARCH 14, 2012

3

COMMENT

Ends, means and contraception Your paper discusses many aspects of the contraception issue, but not the one I find most troubling. Where does the president get the constitutional authority to mandate that a private insurance company (albeit publicly regulated and traded) issue a private policy to a private employer that must provide coverage for contraception, etc.? Persons of high intelligence and good will can disagree about the merits of the policy. I have written before about state mandates. They represent bad policy and increase premiums, but no one questions states’ authority to legislate in that area. Some policies have such coverage, some do not.

Reasonable adults in a free society should be free to make informed decisions about the scope of coverage they want and are willing to pay for.

Personally, I think it is terrible policy, but that misses the larger point. The political leadership in this country is not supposed to rule by edict. Maybe in Putin’s Russia or Chavez’s Venezuela, but not in America. That is the most disturbing thing about this whole controversy. The ends do not justify the means, despite the best of intentions.

Michael Emerson Little Rock

Kicked out of church My friend, Mike Nunn, had not been in church for forty years. He regularly rails against “religion” and is an atheist or agnostic pantheist like Einstein.

Mike had no desire to go to church when I invited him, but Mike is a gentle and tender bear of a man, almost Christlike. He agreed to go, despite his prior bad church experiences, because I asked him to do so. And Mike likes my Christian views.

A Jewish friend, a GOP Tea Party member, also likes my Christian views, so he readily agreed to attend when I asked. He even brought his wife along.

A third friend, a confirmed atheist, declined. He was afraid of being “called out” and “shamed and embarrassed” as he had been the last time he attended church. And, yes, that, too, was decades ago. I laughed and pooh-poohed his fears, telling him, “Christians don’t act like that.”

As for moi, the third sinner in this sad tale, I had not been in a church for over half a decade before a recent Sunday night when we three sinners stepped out to a Hot Springs church.

I will not name the church or pastor. I will say only this: It plays a central role in the local GOP (God’s Own Party) efforts to take over all elective offices 4

MARCH 14, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

in Garland County. Nor will I name the visiting televangelist; I will only say that he is an Oklahoma televangelist whose shtick is that he is a Christian rabbi (despite no rabbinical training) with a messianic twist favoring Israel (Christian Zionist).

Prior to attending, I emailed the local pastor and told him of the group attending. I assured him that we would not disturb, intrude, nor even talk to this rabbi after the service. We would sit quietly and peacefully. The local pastor agreed, so we went with his knowledge and permission. The church members

met us, all friendly and welcoming.

We dutifully stood up during the protracted praise and worship and the televangelist’s initial prayers and “prophecies” over the crowd. My bad lower back disc hurting after about thirty minutes, I sat down. So did Mike Nunn, age 73, who also has some pain standing for long periods.

Mouths agape, we watched the visiting rabbi lay hands on a young girl and “release the greatness of Einstein” inside her. We marveled when he prophesied that “another Facebook and another Google” would arise from this

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congregation in God’s 2012 “transfer of wealth from the ungodly heathen to Christians.”

We were astounded when he “prophesied” that God is going to deliver “missiles into the hands of True Believers,” which we knew were not the Palestinian Christians in Gaza (who constitute about 20 percent of Palestinians) because this televangelist is a Christian Zionist.

At that point he asked the congregation to rise. Mike and I did not rise. Some others did not rise. The rabbi insisted. Most of the others rose.

Mike and I did not.

At this point the rabbi put his arm out full length, his finger pointing right at me, and ordered in a thunderous voice, “Rise.” I remained silent. He pointed again and angrily ordered, “I mean you! Rise to your feet!” I said and did nothing. He then thundered, “Are you a Christian?” I replied, “Yes, sir, I am.” He then demanded, “Then why will you not rise?” I remained silent and sat peaceably. He then ordered the elders/ushers, “Go escort those folks out!” The bouncers arrived, but we still sat peacefully and silently. The televangelist then threatens, “Unless you leave right now, I’ll call the police and have you arrested for criminal trespass.”

Mike and I, two sinners, one an atheist and the other a Christian, left.

My Jewish sinner friend and his wife chose to stay. The bouncers followed us out to the parking lot, and when Mike and I paused to chat a bit, they told us we must leave immediately or face criminal trespass charges. We left.

During all this, the local pastor, who had known and agreed to our coming, remained silent. As did the congregation. Not a Christian soul spoke up for us.

I apologize to my friend, Mike Nunn, for how he was treated. And to my Jewish friend and his wife. I now confer near-prophetic status on my atheist friend who declined to go for fear of what later that evening happened to us.

Without painting too broad a brush, such are the folks who are taking over the Tea Party, the local GOP, and many of the local churches here in Garland County.

Cliff Jackson Hot Springs

Submit letters to the Editor, Arkansas Times, P.O. Box 34010, Little Rock, AR 72203. We also accept letters via e-mail. The address is arktimes@ arktimes.com. We also accept faxes at 375-3623. Please include name and hometown.

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EDITORIAL

EYE ON ARKANSAS

New dean

More help

O

ne of the reasons for the widening gulf between the income of a corporate executive and the income of the average American is the union-busting that corporations and state governments are allied in. Labor unions raised the standard of living for millions of Americans, though not those of workers in the anti-union states, like Arkansas, that adopted “right to work” laws and other sinister strategies to keep unions out. At one time, big corporations, in the Northern states at least, were somewhat tolerant of the unions that allowed their employees to aspire to home ownership, and college educations for their kids. That tolerance ended in recent years — the Sam M. Walton era, come to think of it — and antiunion activities that used be confined mainly to the South have spread. Indiana recently became the 23rd state to adopt a “right to work” law. Republican legislatures and Republican governors have brought anti-union laws even to such a historically progressive state as Wisconsin. The corporations have convinced some voters that bringing union wages down is better than bringing non-union wages up. How they did it is another subject worthy of study. We commend it to Dean Jones.

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MARCH 14, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

BRIAN CHILSON

T

he University of Arkansas administration and Eli Jones are in full agreement that Eli Jones is truly special, well deserving of the fabulous sum the University will pay him as the new dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business at Fayetteville. It is only us taxpayers who remain to be convinced, and maybe a malcontent or two on the faculty.

After the announcement of Jones’s hiring and the $375,000 salary he’ll receive, Jones gave assurance that “I’m one who earns whatever I’m paid.”

Is that a hint it’s not too early to be thinking about a raise? Mr. Jones clearly aced those self-esteem courses the public schools teach these days. UA Chancellor G. David Gearhart chimed in, “This person is going to be dynamite. … This is a person who is highly touted, has a corporate background.”

Ah, but there are creatures running at Oaklawn that are highly touted, and many patrons have learned bitterly that the race is not always to the highly touted. As for the corporate background, people who just about ruined the American economy — and accepted huge salaries while doing so — had corporate backgrounds. In fact, among the new programs we’d like to see the new dean start — surely there’ll be some — is a study of the vast disparity between what corporate executives make and what average Americans make, and how this affects the nation. The difference is greater than ever, and growing. We expect the disparity between business deans and the common man is tracking closely.

DOWN BY THE RIVER: Fog rises from the Arkansas River on Tuesday morning.

The war for the womb

G

arry Trudeau, the “Doonesbury” cartoonist, produced a series of cartoons so biting on anti-abortion legislation that a number of newspapers were too timid to run them this week.

He depicted a woman seeking an abortion branded with the scarlet letter “A” and forced through a series of shameful requirements — notably an ultrasound test — by middle-aged male state legislators.

Trudeau told a newspaper he was surprised to learn reproductive rights had not been decided 40 years ago

by Roe v. Wade. Enemies of women’s freedom never quit fighting. Abortions are increasingly hard to obtain and government support is prohibited. Republicans have expanded their agenda to discourage birth control, only guaranteeing more people in need of abortions.

Arkansas is no laggard in oppression, particularly with the rise in Republican legislators. “Republican” is now synonymous, at least in the South, with antiabortion, anti-sex education, anti-birth control and anti-gay. Republicans pushed hard for a number of even stricter abortion rules in 2011, but mostly met defeat in the House Public Health Committee chaired

by Democratic Rep. Linda Tyler.

Republicans have been lusting to make Tyler’s run for a Senate seat against Sen. Jason Rapert a womb war. An emerging gender gap, inspired in part by Virginia ultrasound legislation similar to what Trudeau depicted, might make that iffier for Republicans. We’ll see soon.

Rapert, a part-time Baptist evangelist, sponsored a bill that died in Tyler’s committee that was identical in key respects to Virginia legislation that stoked a recent firestorm of pro-choice protest.

Rapert’s bill, like the original legislation in Virginia, required women seeking abortion to first have a test to determine whether the fetus a woman is carrying has a detectible heartbeat. The test was to be performed, both bills said without specificity, using “standard medical practice.”

In Virginia, opponents noted in debate, a special test

is sometimes required in early pregnancy when the heartbeat is harder to detect. It requires insertion of a 10- to 14-inch probe into a woman’s vagina.

The legislation doesn’t allow a MAX woman to refuse the probe.

BRANTLEY Rapert, in a one-word answer maxbrantley@arktimes.com — “No” — to my question, said his bill wouldn’t require this functional equivalent of rape by instrument. But an Arkansas abortion provider tells me he’s wrong. His bill was no different than the Virginia bill, amended under intense national attention to exclude mandatory vaginal probes of unwilling women.

External ultrasounds are routinely used by abortion providers. The transvaginal probes are used occasionally; particularly to be sure a woman doesn’t have a tubal pregnancy. Arkansas law already requires that women be offered the opportunity to see the results of any ultrasound tests and are given, in advance, a brochure on fetal development.

With genital probing or without, Rapert’s bill was offensive. Rapert, a leading critic of health insurance mandates, would mandate a medical procedure that is sometimes not needed. He would require the procedure 24 hours before an abortion (Virginia only requires a two-hour advance procedure) to make it a two-day trip for women coming long distances to get an abortion. The bill required a woman to sign a notice about what the test found, as if she were a school child. It provided no exception for rape and incest victims.

Linda Tyler is no liberal. I’m not sure she appreciates my publicizing that her committee stood up for women’s medical autonomy against patriarchal preachers. I’m not sure she appreciates my pointing out that Jason Rapert championed denial of women’s reproductive rights and mandated an invasive medical procedure a woman might not want or need. But I can do no other.

OPINION

Myth Romney: Tax cuts spur growth

T

he economics of taxing and spending does not have to be complicated. Whether you are in Washington or Little Rock, if you cut taxes or appropriations you will have less money to spend, and unless you were running a surplus that means you will have to cut back on jobs or the level and quality of services you plan to provide to people, or both.

Other conditions in the economy can affect the equation a little at the margins, but that is how it has always worked.

But the contemporary Republican Party, except for a few remnants of the past, dissociates the elements of taxing, spending, services and public works so that there is no longer the cause and effect that people came to expect. If you cut taxes or cap or cut appropriations, they say, there is no reason to expect the services you get from government will suffer. If they do, blame someone else.

Thus Mitt Romney accuses the president and his party of cutting Medicare by $600 billion in future years through the new health insurance law (true, but the cuts will be in subsidies to insurance companies and providers, not beneficiaries). Romney has endorsed a plan to

“save Medicare” that will force future Medicare recipients to buy expensive policies to cover their ERNEST care or else lose DUMAS their benefits.

When the spending reductions forced by House Republicans last year take effect, it’s Republican members of Congress who beat their breasts as farm service offices in their districts start to close, or military spending slackens and it affects forces in their districts.

Romney and his competitors all promise drastic tax cuts for corporations and upper incomes, particularly investors. But it won’t affect anything you consider valuable, like your health insurance, Social Security, roads or the health and safety protections people take for granted. That is because, they say, the tax cuts will set off a binge of economic growth that will fill the national treasury and keep all those services funded.

Not once has that ever happened, but the theory never loses its shine. Ronald Reagan cut lots of taxes in 1981, and it

Overcoming race and place

F

riday’s election of state Rep. Darrin Williams as speakerdesignate of the Arkansas House overcame two historical barriers. One, Williams’ race, has been widely noted.

The other, his deep ties to Little Rock (the traditional whipping boy of rural Arkansans), has not. That neither his race nor his place is an absolute bar to political success in the state shows that the political norms accepted across most of Arkansas’s history are no longer absolutes in the modern era.

Make no mistake, race still matters enormously in shaping the social lives of Arkansans and the politics of this state, as it will for generations. White and black Arkansans live primarily in different worlds and have ongoing difficulty building bridges of trust across that chasm. Electorally, racially polarized voting shows itself in races ranging from school board to president.

However, last week’s election for speaker-designate, the biggest elec-

tion ever won by an African American in Arkansas, suggests that those patterns of racial division JAY can be broken BARTH down. Williams’ election required the votes of more than 40 white members of the Democratic caucus, many representing districts where President Barack Obama was shellacked in his 2008 race for president. Taking place in the same chamber where barely 50 years ago the House voted to fire any teacher or state employee who was an NAACP member, the outcome is a meaningful sign of social progress for the state.

Nearly as remarkable as the race of the new speaker-designate is the area he represents. Just after my birth in 1966, Pulaski County’s Sterling Cockrill Jr. became the Arkansas Speaker of the House. He is the sole speaker from

was followed by the deepest recession since the ’30s — 10 straight months of double-digit unemployment and soaring deficits. When the economy began to recover, he raised taxes over and over until the big 1986 tax increase (revenue enhancement, they called it) was followed by the growth spurt that got him the reputation as the wizard of economic growth. George W. Bush passed successive tax cuts, which produced ballooning deficits, virtually no job growth and, finally, the longest doldrums since the Great Depression.

Back in Little Rock, the resurgent Republicans in the legislature push for more and more tax cuts but also more services — protect Medicaid and forests, more road money for their districts and towns, tough sentencing. When timber tax receipts fell and forest-protection workers were being laid off, they demanded that the governor do something to save the jobs. They succeeded in last week’s legislative session in giving the trucking industry a tax cut on their big rig purchases even though the truckers said they didn’t want it and it means more than $4 million less money for roads and streets in their districts.

Then the Republican candidate for speaker of the House, Rep. Terry Rice, made this pitch last week for his election — next year if his party wins enough House races: He and his party will see to it that the state income tax is cut so that

the “depopulation of Arkansas” will end and the state can start to grow.

Depopulation? The state has been gaining population for 50 years and grew by 9.1 percent over the past decade.

He said people were fleeing across the border to Texas and Tennessee to live to escape Arkansas’s income tax (and to live in communities with higher property and excise taxes). Texas does not have a personal income tax and Tennessee’s only applies to investment income.

Arkansas lost population back in the days when its state and local taxes were the lowest in the United States.

That tax-and-growth record under Reagan and Bush? It was like that in Arkansas, too. When the current income tax rates were set, in 1971, and other taxes raised as well, the state set records for job growth the next three years.

When Bill Clinton raised taxes in 1983 and 1987, we led the nation in manufacturing job growth. When Mike Huckabee cut capital gains taxes, the economy and the treasury fell into a slump and he had to raise income taxes for two years to keep from cutting health benefits and other services. When he set records for tax increases in 2003-05, the state grew modestly.

Mike Huckabee might have been the last Republican to understand and demonstrate how fiscal policy actually works, though he might be the last to acknowledge it today.

the urban center of the state during my lifetime. The absence of Pulaski County power in the legislature, despite the county’s statewide voting power, is not accidental. Antipathy towards Little Rock has helped to organize Arkansas politics since the state’s beginnings.

How did Williams defy the patterns of the past?

First, the speaker-designate benefited from the shrinking of the Democratic caucus brought about by the 2010 GOP tidal wave. The 54 Democrats left behind create a more progressive caucus than the bigger tents of the past. Moreover, the 11 members of the Black Caucus combined with the legislators from loyally Democratic Pulaski County to create a significant base for Williams in lining up early commitments in becoming his party’s candidate for speaker.

Second, we know that when individuals work closely with an individual from another social group, attitudes often are transformed. Such positive personal relationships allow individuals to look past blunt social categories as they evaluate the person from another social group. The legislative process is one that requires

the sort of close personal interaction that reshapes attitudes — about race or geography.

Finally, Williams’ personal style is one that purposefully transcends racial and cultural categories. A securities attorney with deep ties to AfricanAmerican churches, living in a raciallymixed neighborhood in downtown Little Rock, Williams walks that tightrope expertly. Comfortable wearing cowboy boots, driving a pickup, and attending the regular “Country Caucus” outings at a farm east of Little Rock during legislative sessions, Williams transcends his place to interact easily with rural legislators.

Williams is expected to run for statewide office, probably attorney general, in 2014. No African-American has won a statewide office or a congressional seat. Moreover, Jim Guy Tucker and Bill Halter are the only contemporary Pulaski County success stories in statewide races. Because voters who don’t know candidates well often resort to stereotypes and old habits, the odds may be against him. But Speakerdesignate Williams’ most recent win shows that Arkansas’s history may not predestine its future. www.arktimes.com

MARCH 14, 2012

7

PEARLS ABOUT SWINE

The missing pieces

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MARCH 14, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

3/6/12

3:07:10 PM

W

hen “Selection Sunday” became “Rejection Sunday” for the Arkansas Razorbacks’ basketball squad, Mike Anderson offered a smattering of comments in an interview with Chris Bahn of ArkansasSports360. com that probably did not resonate much with anyone, given how disillusioned Hog fans came to be over the final few weeks of the season.

It was standard coachspeak, to be sure, but Anderson did summon three “P” words in his brief discourse that have great relevance now and in the immediate future for this program.

The first was “painful,” which was as succinct a description as anyone could use in characterizing a goodly portion the 201112 season. In fact, going back almost a full year to the moment of Anderson’s coronation, it began as inauspiciously as possible when Rotnei Clarke and Glenn Bryant quit on spurious grounds and signee Aaron Ross found himself ineligible. That robbed the Hogs of a bona fide scorer and shooter, a marvelous athlete with the kind of athleticism that Anderson’s system usually exploits well, and of a physically mature young player who had designs on being a Hog since his junior high days.

The other bookend to the season was the on-court collapse that began in February but had been in gestation from the moment the Hogs took their first uneasy steps outside of Bud Walton Arena, which was such a Fortress of Solitude for the Hogs that it became a bad running joke early. After LSU fastened the last tenpenny nail in the Hogs’ coffin at the SEC tournament, the Hogs were left with a garish 2-8 record after they blazed their way to a moderately surprising 16-6 start.

Those only two wins came at the expense of a hideous South Carolina team and a marginally improved Auburn squad that sat down two players for what was later revealed to be point-shaving suspicions.

The losses were, by and large, as aesthetically satisfying as Sandra Bernhard’s early ’90s Playboy pictorial (or at least how I imagine it — God knows I wouldn’t voluntarily look at it).

Anderson asserted that the basketball team’s upswing will depend on “pieces.” I suppose “personnel” could be used interchangeably here as well. But beneath the obvious conclusion that the Razorbacks must shore up quality depth, particularly in the paint, is the latent observation about what it will take for this program to experience the same renaissance that the football team has experienced.

Hawgball, 40 Minutes of Hell, all those other flimsy designations of years past, they speak to a greater deficiency in the basketball program, which is a lack not

just of personnel but of personality. I did not routinely expect a shorthanded roster like this one to BEAU evoke memories WILCOX of the school’s finest moments, but we were certainly led to believe that Anderson’s stamp would be visible on this team even if the results did not reach certain basic benchmarks.

At times, the fiendish trapping and ballhawking led to transition scores, but the last few weeks showed a listless bunch that often milked the shot clock and still wound up heaving some sort of ill-advised shot. More aggravating was the defensive malaise, which was all too evident in road trips to Athens and Knoxville, where the Hogs got repeatedly torched early by teams that generally weren’t adept from the perimeter.

Then again, a team’s personality cannot develop instantaneously, which is why the third “P” Anderson invoked — “patience” — is of utmost consideration. There is no question that Hog fans are a ruthless and serially unrepentant lot. Message boards are already laden with second-guessing and vitriol for a coach who was beloved not more than six weeks ago, and for whom the red carpet was unfurled last spring.

Compounding the problem is that Missouri is enjoying rich success this year under the direction of new coach Frank Haith, a guy who never made many ripples at Miami. If the perspective of Mizzou backers is to be believed, Haith has done what Anderson could not by taking a shallow roster of experienced, but by no means NBA-ready players to the Big 12 title.

Recall that Mizzou fans were rightly embittered about Anderson’s departure, and more infuriated when the keys to the program were handed to Haith last April.

For a recent example of what sometimes happens when coaches of suspect acumen are permitted to reign over their predecessors’ gifted recruits, look no further than Oxford, Mississippi, and the developments on that football field the past four years, as well as the resulting decline in the fans’ morale.

Anderson will get time, and will make good use of it. The canvas he was left to work upon wasn’t much, contrasted with the one he left for Haith. And though Anderson did not say as much, a fourth “P” — a healthy and motivated Marshawn Powell — will do wonders for a team that needs wonders to be done.

Pearls About Swine will return in April, when it will be published every other week until football season resumes in late August.

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On Feb. 29, a reader asked about the origin and meaning of what was said to be an old Mississippi expression: “Nothing goes across the devil’s back that hasn’t gone under his belly first.”

We now have a response. Tom Little writes, “Here is a quotation from the book ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’ by Zora Neale Hurston”: “Too late for everything except her little home. She had built it for her old days, and planted one by one the trees and flowers there. It was lovely to her, lovely. Somehow, before sleep came, she found herself saying aloud: ‘Oh well, whatever goes over the Devil’s back, is got to come under his belly. Sometime or ruther, Sykes, like everybody else, is gointer reap his sowing.’ After that she was able to build a spiritual earthworks against her husband. His shells could no longer reach her.”

The book was written in 1937. The expression could be much older, of course.

Apparently, it’s another way of saying “What goes around, comes around.”

“Lorenzo Fertitta, a casino owner and owner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the mixed marital arts league,

won the gloves, which organizers had said earlier they hoped would fetch $500,000.”

Lang ZimmerDOUG man of MounSMITH dougsmith@arktimes.com tain Home writes: “I didn’t know leagues were forming.” Nor I. They’ll have big crowds for the matches, I expect.

Watch your step, Officer Krupke: “After falling on some Girl Scout cookies Tuesday, police said a Little Rock woman stabbed her boyfriend with a pair of scissors.” But the police had difficulty speaking plainly with their mouths full of Samoas and Do-si-dos.

And look out for that pail too: “Hoyer said the attack was ‘vicious,’ ‘reckless,’ ‘inaccurate’ — and perfectly consistent with Limbaugh’s modus operandi. ‘Rush Limbaugh’s attack on Sandra Fluke was beyond the pail, indefensible, vicious, intimidating to others who might want to testify before the Congress of the United States,’ Hoyer said in a press briefing at the Capitol.”

WEEK THAT WAS

alway use on white background (no exceptions).

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It was a good week for…

start – 0% yellow midpoint – 25% end – 100% yellow

DARRIN WILLIAMS. The Arkansas House elected the Democratic state representative from Little Rock the speaker-designate for the 2013-2014 legislative session. The secret ballot vote was 54-46 for Williams over Republican Rep. Terry Rice of Waldron. The House is currently split 54-46 between Democrats and Republicans. If the Democratic majority holds during the next election, Williams will be the first black House speaker.

COLORS - PMS Blue – Pantone 541 100% Yellow – Pantone 122 start – 0% yellow midpoint – 25% end – 100% yellow

MIKE HUCKABEE. His coming syndicated radio show, scheduled to debut April 2, seems well-positioned to overtake Rush Limbaugh as the Voice of the Right on the radio as Limbaugh’s advertisers flee in droves following his tirade against law student Sandra Fluke.

ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE. The state daily elected to run Garry Trudeau’s “Doonesbury” comic strip this week despite the controversial topic of abortion.

A number of more timorous newspapers across the country refused to run the strip because of the theme, which is critical of increasingly punitive anti-abortion bills in state legislatures.

TRIXIE. The Cairn terrier mix won the Humane Society of the United States’ annual Dog of Valor award. Trixie kept owner Ida 10

MARCH 14, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

Moose of Little Rock warm for nearly 20 hours after the 78-year-old fell outside on a cold and rainy day. Doctors said Moose likely wouldn’t have survived the night without Trixie.

It was a bad week for…

LEGISLATIVE PAYOLA. A settlement agreement between the Arkansas Public Law Center and the state of Arkansas has been filed in a lawsuit the APLC filed over legislative expenses (Times senior editor Max Brantley is on the APLC board).

The agreement, which will be presented for court approval at a hearing before Judge Chris Piazza April 3, says that legislators in the future will be reimbursed only for actual expenses and they will be subject to audit. The suit argued that most legislators had been drawing flat monthly sums and a payment in lieu of per diem, without itemization, that amounted to unconstitutional supplements to salaries, generally set around $15,000. The non-itemized flat payments could exceed $36,000 per year.

PAT CROWDER. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission revealed that Crowder, of Forrest City, purchased a fishing license three hours after he claimed to have caught a fish near Wynne that would have set the Arkansas largemouth bass record.

THE OBSERVER NOTES ON THE PASSING SCENE

The zombies of Chenal WE WERE OUT IN THE WILDS of Chenal

the other day, squiring our lovely bride in her ongoing, near-Arthurian quest for the perfect shoe, when a traveler approached us among the long rows of boots and sandals. He was thin, sunburnt and wiry, with thick glasses, a long goatee, and a wallet secured to his pants by a chain. The Observer — who used to work for a living before we got this cushy, air-conditioned gig shoveling words — made our friend immediately as no stranger to toil and strain, God bless him.

“Do ya’ll know where the Ideal Feet store is from here?” our friend inquired. After a bit of palaver and head scratching, Spouse and I agreed that, sadly, we did not.

“I need to find it,” he said. “I work out in the heat, and my feet sure get to stinkin’ sometimes.” With that, he turned and wandered away into the stacks.

Godspeed, fellow Searcher. May gasmask-wearing eagles wing you away to where your stinky feet may be bathed in mint and cool waters.

While we don’t think curing pungent tootsies is necessarily their forte at the Ideal Feet Store (that would be the Less Than Ideal Feet Store, which is two doors down), we do love a Working Man, especially one who is honest about his afflictions. In the meantime: try some of that Gold Bond Powder. A puff of that miracle stuff down our boots back in the day kept them smelling right as rain.

JUNIOR AND I have been watching AMC’s “The Walking Dead” for a couple of seasons now. Based on the comic book of the same name, it’s the story of a bunch of survivors making their way in the world after an apocalypse involving the living dead mysteriously rising from the grave, shambling around, and trying to kill and eat everything that doesn’t kill them first. It’s a gory, emotional, hairraisingly scary series, which makes it pretty much the “All in the Family” of the modern ‘tween-to-teen set like Junior. He read the comic books long

before the TV series was ever dreamed of, so having a show to watch about all the characters he’s come to know and fear for is like getting a birthday cake every Sunday night at 8 p.m. sharp.

Before we get letters demanding to know who we think we are, letting a child of only 12 watch such filth and deprivation, let us point out that The Observer was a horror movie addict at that age, gobbling up anything involving screams, monsters and copious stage blood, and WE turned out just fine, didn’t we? Wait. Don’t answer that.

To still our doubts, we chalk up his interest to this: There’s something about being on the cusp of adulthood — inevitable demise so far off in the distance that it’s not even a lingering shadow yet — that makes kids seek out the idea of the Worst Possible Death. Call it mental practice for the hardships to come; reassurance that, even if adulthood is bad, it can’t possibly be as bad as all that. As for Yours Truly, we can’t watch that kind of thing much anymore. The world is too full of plain ol’ troubles to fill our entertainment hours with worse and more. Give us “Singing in the Rain” over “Sorority House Weed-Whacker Slaughter 7” any day, pal.

The other night, Junior and his Old Man were at The Observatory, watching “The Walking Dead,” when things came to the screeching halt of a commercial break. Maybe we’re weird, but watching people chased and eaten by reanimated corpses makes us not even wanna THINK about buying spaghetti sauce and chuck roasts, so we took the boobtube break to have a little father/son chat. It progressed thusly: Dad: “You know what town I’d like to see overrun by zombies? Branson, Missouri.”

Junior: “I think it already has been.”

Zing!

Ward and The Beaver we ain’t.

That said: in the event of zombie apocalypse, our best advice is to hide behind The Kid. He can just quip ’em to death.

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MARCH 14, 2012

11

Arkansas Reporter

THE

IN S IDE R

More forestry fallout Another shoe dropped last week by way of fallout in the controversy over the Arkansas Forestry Commission, which used improper transfers of federal grants to make ends meet when other revenue sources fell short.

It got a fiscal bailout in the recent legislative session. Also, John Shannon was forced to resign as director of the agency after a tough legislative audit.

Last Friday, another key player in the story left state government. Robert Araiza retired as chief financial manager of the Arkansas Career Education Department’s Rehabilitation Services Division. It ended a 27-year state career.

Araiza had been the top financial officer at the Forestry Commission. He left in October after the pot began stirring on the agency’s troubles. Shannon said he’d relied on Araiza’s advice in borrowing federal money. Araiza said he’d long tried to alert officials to problems and told the legislature Gov. Mike Beebe’s office had directed that the situation be kept quiet until after the 2010 election. “The more I brought it to their attention, the more it fell on deaf ears,” Araiza said.

If you think the governor’s office might have been a factor in Araiza’s departure, you think right. Said Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample: “After the Legislative Audit report was released, Governor Beebe met with [Career Education] Director [Bill] Walker and shared the audit results with him.

Beebe advised Walker that based on the audit, it would probably be best to not have Mr. Araiza handling fiscal matters at the agency, and to move him to another position if he was going to remain at Career Education.”

Instead, Araiza retired. We couldn’t reach him for comment.

Contingency plans?

Arkansas Blog reader Radical Centrist, who marks the sparrow’s fall on Internet matters, points us to a cluster of registered Internet domain names related to U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin (squatters, of course, may have nailed these down in hopes of exacting a price from him, too. They are under a proxy registration): timgriffin4congress.com timgriffin4congress.net CONTINUED ON PAGE 13 12

MARCH 14, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

The return of Herb Rule A civil sort of warhorse.

BY DOUG SMITH

A

bunch of people are grateful to Herb Rule for giving them someone to vote for in the Second Congressional District race, and not just any someone, but a lion of the Little Rock liberal community, an older Vic Snyder, someone whose contrast with the incumbent, U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, couldn’t be sharper. Until Rule’s lastminute filing, it appeared Griffin would be unopposed. Now Rule is the de facto Democratic nominee, and will face Griffin in the November general election.

There’s also a bunch of people, some of them members of the first group too, who believe that Rule doesn’t have a chance of winning. He emphatically denies that his candidacy is only a gesture. He’s no stalking horse, he says.

“I’m a warhorse, and I’ve got the scars and bruises to prove it.” Does he think he can win? “Absolutely.”

He’s won elections before. But it was a long time ago.

In 1966, Rule was one of several liberal-to-moderate newcomers elected to a conservative state legislature. It was the first election after the U.S. Supreme Court’s “one man, one vote” ruling, which required that legislative districts be nearly equal in population. Before then, county lines were as important as people, or more so. Each of the 75 counties, no matter how small, was guaranteed at least one seat in the Arkansas House of Representatives.

Perry was the smallest county at the time, and Perry’s representative, Paul Van Dalsem, was among the acknowledged bosses of the legislature, a pillar of what came to be called the Old Guard, known among other things for its support of a segregationist governor, Orval Faubus.

Van Dalsem made a lot of people mad, and he particularly enraged female political activists when he said that in Perry County, such would-be troublemakers were kept barefoot and pregnant. The women couldn’t get at

RULE: Remove club over people's heads.

him in Perry County, but the Supreme Court decision forced him to run in Pulaski too. Rule, then a young lawyer who’d never held public office, ran against him.

It was a different kind of politics for Van Dalsem. A reporter remembers attending a political rally at which labor-union members heckled Van Dalsem loudly. He didn’t handle it well.

(Rule says he was heckled at the same rally, called a “nigger-lover” among other things. His reputation had preceded him.)

In the 1967 legislative session, nearly half the House members were freshmen. The legislature was still overwhelmingly Democratic, but in many cases, it was a different kind of Democrat. The Old Guard was badly shaken.

Besides redistricting, it had suffered a serious blow in the election of Winthrop Rockefeller as governor. Rockefeller was a liberal Republican. There were such things in 1967.

Rule’s two terms in the legislature coincided with Rockefeller’s two terms as governor. Rockefeller was defeated

by Dale Bumpers when he tried for a

third term. Rule didn’t run for a third term, deciding instead “to try to feed my family and learn how to practice law.”

Those two legislative sessions were lively, and Rule remembers bruising encounters with Old Guardsmen like Bill Thompson, John Bethell and John Miller. But these were generally like grammar-school fights, he says. The next day, you were over it. “Most politicans are amiable, outgoing people.”

(Rockefeller was an exception to that rule. Politics was hard for him.)

Rule was back in the public arena as a member of the Little Rock School Board in 1976-82. The school board had contentious negotiations with the Little Rock Classroom Teachers Association, he says, but the board, the teachers and the staff treated each other respectfully.

Why is he running for Congress at the age of 74, after 30 years away from elective office? He thought he could improve the dialogue, reduce the fear, and promote a more civil discourse, he says.

“One of the great problems we have is how to finance Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. So many people in the Second District rely on them. But they’re under constant attack, particularly from the Republican side of Congress. We’ve got to make them fiscally sound, and stop using them as a club over people’s heads.”

The controversy over a new veterans center on Main Street was also a “precipitating factor” in Rule’s decision to run. Griffin at one time opposed the center, as does Mayor Mark Stodola.

More recently, Griffin’s tried to duck and draw away from the controversy.

“We need to honor those who served,” Rule says. “This could be resolved to everyone’s benefit. There’s a lot of room to talk civilly. But the city hasn’t facilitated that at all.” He says city government is now considering an ordinance that would not only endanger the veterans center, but possibly Stewpot as well.

Stewpot is a downtown soup kitchen that has been in operation, for years.

Rule, one of the founders, does volunteer work there.

The state Democratic Party encouraged him to run for Congress, and has offered help, Rule says. No doubt. It would have been embarrassing if the party didn’t even field a candidate for a congressional seat it held for 14 years before Griffin was elected in 2010.

LOWEST

HIGHEST

PUBLIC COLLEGES University of Arkansas at Fayetteville University of Central Arkansas Arkansas Tech University

57.9% 34.5% $70,171 $6,450 21.6% 42.1% 21.1% $48,108 $7,305 34% 36.4% 15.5% $35,640 $5,865 41.4%

Estimated spending per Arkansas student completion* All public 4-year colleges

All private 4-year colleges

Henderson State University

32.7% 15.8% $38,813 $11,512 48.3%

Southern Arkansas University University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff

32.3% 18.6% $49,652 $6,992 52.6% $52,109 $68,617 24.2% 6.8% $98,205 $7,198 70.6%

University of Arkansas at Monticello

24.2% 10.7% $32,270 $5,947 57.7%

University of Arkansas at Fort Smith

21.1% 10% $52,539 $4,812 44.9%

University of Arkansas at Little Rock

20.8% 7.1% $57,415 $4,990 36%

Arkansas

33.4% 16.4% $39,927 $6,159 46.7%

Arkansas

Arkansas State University

$75,645 $95,725

* The amount of educational spending — on student services, academic support, operations, etc. — for every certificate and degree awarded in 2010.

At four-year public colleges

38.7% 19.7% graduate in six years

graduate in four years

PRIVATE COLLEGES Arkansas Baptist College Central Baptist College Crowley's Ridge College Ecclesia College Harding University Hendrix College John Brown University Lyon College Ouachita Baptist University Philander Smith College University of the Ozarks Williams Baptist College

LISTEN UP

Tune in to the Times’ “Week In Review” podcast each Friday.

Available on iTunes & arktimes.com

INSIDER, CONT.

National average

PICTURE

National average

BIG

ation rates, collegecompletion.chronicle.com, that allows users to sort by state and institution, public and private. The data comes from the National Center for Education Statistics' Integrated Postsecondary Education System, which is limited to tracking only first-time, full-time undergraduate students.

GR RATADUAT IO N (6-Y E EAR ) GR RATADUAT IO N (4-Y E EAR ) SPE PER NDING CO M PLE TIO N STU D PER ENT AID REC IPIE NT STU WIT DENT GRAH PELLS NTS

THE

GRADUATION RATES The Chronicle of Higher Education has created an interactive website on college gradu-

2.1% 35.5% N/A 40% 66.8% 60.3% 61.5% 51.1% 57.4% 16.5% 53% 43.9%

0 16.1% N/A 20% 40.3% 53.9% 52.4% 44% 44.7% 2.4% 32.8% 35.3%

$128,215 $30,719 $90,827 $71,184 $62,863 $113,244 $49,500 $136,832 $88,419 $123,148 $144,723 $69,524

$11,665 $5,652 $5,973 $4,286 $8,101 $18,659 $9,018 $17,790 $11,857 $8,910 $4,758 $8,648

81.7% 44.8% 54.7% 26.7% 26.8% 19.2% 29.8% 43.5% 24.5% 81.0% 32.6% 45.7%

ALASKA

IDAHO

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

The only places with poorer graduation rates than Arkansas.

At four-year private colleges

56.5% 39.9% graduate in six years

+4.6% +4.7%

graduate in four years

Change in four-year graduation rate of public colleges from 2002 to 2010.

Change in four-year graduation rate of private colleges from 2002 to 2010.

THE DATA SET INCLUDES 71% OF UNDERGRADUATES ENTERING A FOUR-YEAR PRIVATE SCHOOL IN ARKANSAS IN 2004 AND 56% OF UNDERGRADUATES ENTERING A FOUR-YEAR PUBLIC SCHOOL IN ARKANSAS IN 2004.

timgriffin4congress.org timgriffinassociates.com timgriffinforarkansas.com timgriffinforarkansas.net timgriffinforcongress.com timgriffinforcongress.net timgriffinforcongress.org timgriffinforgovernor.com timgriffinforgovernor.net timgriffinforsenate.com timgriffinforsenate.net K. Ryan James, who’s worked for Griffin in a variety of capacities, said via Twitter, “Griffin campaign did not purchase noncongressional domains. Focused on re-elect & serving people in AR2.” Asked if that could serve as a categorical denial that no one connected with Griffin, campaign or otherwise, controlled those domains, James said he and the congressman have “no knowledge” of who purchased the domains. That is short of a categorical dismissal of a friendly connection to those registrations, but it will have to do for now. In two years, things will become clearer.

Classic in Marianna The James Beard Foundation, which promotes good restaurant eating in America and annually honors top restaurants, chefs and others, announced that a Marianna barbecue restaurant had been designated one of this year’s American Classics.

Jones Bar-B-Q Diner, owned

by James and Betty Jones, will be one of five restaurants honored for their “timeless appeal” and the quality of food “that reflects the character of their community.”

According to the James Beard Foundation, some incarnation of the diner has been open since at least the 1910s, which makes it one of the oldest African-American-owned restaurants in the country.

More from the Beard Foundation: “Hubert Jones, the son of Walter Jones, and father of present-day-proprietor James Jones, recalled the family’s initial barbecue set-up as ‘a hole in the ground, some iron pipes and a piece of fence wire, and two pieces of tin.’…

“James Jones, the grandson of Walter Jones, tends the pits.

His cooking apparatus is still elemental. And the pork shoulder, hacked into savory bits and served on white bread with a spritz of vinegary sauce, is as smoky as ever.” www.arktimes.com

MARCH 14, 2012

13

E H T S E O G E R E TH

D O O H R O B H G I NE 14

MARCH 14, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

D

BRIAN CHILSON

E

T

here are many questions about the technology park that Little Rock tax dollars are helping build somewhere between the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Where exactly will it be? Who will locate there?

Who besides the taxpayers will pay for it? Will it succeed in generating jobs and inventions and royalties for its sponsoring institutions?

If so, when?

FOREST HILLS' WARNING: Rohn Muse holds one of the Not For Sale signs going up in the neighborhood.

Technology park will level homes, maybe Methodist Children’s campus too.

BY LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK

But one thing’s for sure: Because the Technology Park Authority has limited potential locations to residential areas minutes away from UAMS and UALR, people are going to lose their homes.

Some of those people have lived in the three areas under consideration, all south of Interstate 630, for 25 years.

The Authority has the right to exercise eminent domain, and those who don’t negotiate a sale price with the Authority will be taken to court.

It’s not just homes standing in the way of what the Authority board of directors promises will be progress.

The Methodist Children’s Home campus occupies the greater part of one of the three areas under consideration for the park. Another area wraps around an elementary school and a church and includes homes newly remodeled with federal grants meant to revitalize neighborhoods. The third — now mapped at 65 acres — could require removal of 272 occupied houses should the Authority decide to clear the entire area.

Each of the areas has its strengths and disadvantages, relating to access to highways, number of houses that will have to go and effect on traffic patterns.

The civil engineering firm Crafton Tull has been hired by the Authority board to assess the three; its work is expected to be done in six months.

In the meantime, residents and organizations concerned about losing land are girding for battle. “Not For Sale” signs are going up in the Forest Hills neighborhood south of Interstate 630. The University District Partnership, a department of technology park sponsor UALR, has asked the Authority to exempt the parcel that would surround Good Counsel Catholic Church on 12th Street on three sides from consideration. The Methodist Children’s Home, contiguous to land owned by UALR, is keeping mum, but its leadership notes recent investment in campus refurbishment.

Adding insult to injury is that the Authority’s seven-member board — a public body created by state law and which will receive $22 million in taxpayer dollars — has no staff and is operated out of the Greater Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, where two on staff have been handling park-related

questions from the public. There was initial reluctance on the part of the chamber staff, apparently unclear on the state Freedom of Information law, to provide to the public the documents submitted by engineering firms in response to a request for proposals. A public meeting to select the firm from among five bidders was loosey-goosey, with only three members of the board — one of them on a phone — attending. They ranked the bidders, added their rankings to those provided by the absent members, announced the winner and tossed the ballots, so it is impossible to know how each board member ranked the bidders.

Asked when the board would hire a staff, Dickson Flake, a prominent commercial realtor who has emerged as the board’s spokesman, said it would be some time in the future, when the park is built; the Authority hasn’t got the budget to afford staff. The Authority's website, lrtechpark.com, went live this week; it includes links to the ANGLE feasibility study commissioned by the chamber, legislation and meeting information.

The only cash the Authority has in hand is $150,000 in seed funding, coming in equal contributions of $25,000 from UAMS, UALR, Arkansas Children’s Hospital and the city and $50,000 from the Central Arkansas Planning and Development District.

UAMS, UALR, ACH and the city have pledged to provide another $100,000 each, for a total seed fund of $550,000.

The penny sales tax approved by voters last year will provide $22 million over 10 years for the park. The Authority estimated in 2010 that it would cost $50 million to acquire land, install infrastructure and build the first building. Because the tax money won’t come in a lump sum, the Authority will have to take out loans to begin work on the property. Before the park can complete its first building, which will be 100,000 square feet, according to the 2010 estimate, the Authority will need another $27.4 million, which it expects will come in the form of $10 million from the state, perhaps $2.45 million in grants and $15 million in private investment. It wants to start up without debt.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 www.arktimes.com

MARCH 14, 2012

15

The Authority The seven members of the Little Rock Technology Park Authority were nominated by sponsor institutions the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the city of Little Rock.

JAY CHESSIR Secretary President and CEO of the Greater Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, nominated jointly by the sponsors.

MICHAEL DOUGLAS Director of UAMS’ BioVentures, nominated by UAMS.

EDDIE DRILLING Vice Chairman President of AT&T Arkansas, nominated by UAMS Chancellor Dan Rahn.

C.J. DUVALL Vice president, Allied Wireless Communications Corp., nominated

by Mayor Mark Stodola.

DICKSON FLAKE Treasurer Commercial realtor with Colliers International, nominated by Mayor Mark Stodola.

MARY GOOD Chairman The retired founding dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology at UALR, nominated

by UALR Chancellor Joel Anderson.

The technology park raises many issues of public policy (and the Clinton School of Public Service is considering making its creation a potential study project for one of its students next year). Do the potential economic benefits down the road outweigh the dislocation of people and the cost to the taxpayers? Did the Authority choose its potential building sites wisely? Is it communicating with the affected communities?

As an example of what a technology park can do for a smaller city, the Authority board likes to point to the Virginia Bio-Technology Research Park in Richmond, a joint project of Virginia Commonwealth University, the City of Richmond and the Commonwealth of Virginia incorporated in 1992. Its first building opened in 1995 with two VCU research institutes and three private businesses. The park has more than 2,000 employees, 70 percent of which have tech school GEDs. Yet, the Bio-Technology park is struggling to get support, and is seeking financial help from the state. Once a major financial supporter, VCU has tightened its belt and no longer funds the park. ❖❖❖

As director of UAMS BioVentures, Authority board member Michael Douglas is, in a small way, already in the technology park business, and he believes that the park is a good idea that will one day generate millions of dollars and high-paying jobs for 16

MARCH 14, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

BRIAN CHILSON

❖❖❖

MICHAEL DOUGLAS: In the laboratory of Myeloma Health, a company he said would be a good fit at the tech park.

Arkansas. He paints such an optimistic picture that one can see the gleaming building rising over the interstate.

BioVentures, located in a 17,000-square-foot building on the UAMS campus that can house up to 12 companies, was created in 1998 to capitalize on research coming from UAMS scientists. It does that by, among other things, analyzing the technology being developed for novelty, purchasing patents, handling licensing, and matching startups with private equity groups.

As an example of a BioVentures start-up that could have a huge impact on Arkansas, Douglas talked about client company Myeloma Health, which has developed a genetics-based diagnostic test that allows doctors to personalize chemotherapy in the treatment of multiple-myeloma patients.

Cancer centers from all over the world are using Myeloma Health’s diagnos-

tics, Douglas said.

Multiple myeloma is a rare cancer, however, and Myeloma Health is not making a profit, Douglas said. A subsidiary of Signal Genetics, the company had huge start-up costs — including $4 million in equipment — and has a payroll Douglas estimated at $1 million a year. But the company expects to grow by developing diagnostics to personalize therapies for other cancers. It is a prime candidate for the first building in the technology park, Douglas said, and would make Arkansas the home of a potentially international business generating high-tech jobs and that could attract other biotech businesses to the state.

Another candidate for the tech park is BioVentures’ generic-drug developer EZRA Innovations, which also raised $4 million in private capital.

BioVentures has launched nine

BOB JOHNSON Former state senator, nominated

by UAMS Chancellor Dan Rahn.

companies, among them the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health, which responds to emergencies like chemical spills and is based in North Little Rock; Contour Med, maker of breast protheses; Safe Foods Corp., which Douglas said has finally overcome regulatory hurdles and streamlined its business model, and Balm Innovations, makers of Omnibalm skin care products. It currently has nine client companies, including Myeloma Health and EZRA Innovations. It’s been involved in a total of 44 startups.

A 2009 study by the Institute for Economic Advancement credited BioVentures with the creation of 422 jobs with annual wages of $21 million.

Funding still outweighs revenues significantly — $76.3 million to $29.4 million in 2008. But Douglas said those numbers will eventually flip, as the technology park fills.

“Little Rock is the perfect size,” Douglas said, for an entrepreneurial research park, and its central location an asset.

“This whole process is about wealth creation,” Douglas said. “The noble part is delivering better health care to the masses.”

But there are challenges, deficiencies in the labor market being the biggest that Douglas sees. He has talked to Pulaski Tech about tech job training, and said it might be a good idea for the second building to go up at the park to focus on education. The park, he said, could be a driver to “make demands on the community to improve the workforce.”

Another challenge is capital. It won’t be coming from UAMS, Douglas said; he does not believe UAMS will invest any more than the $125,000 it has committed to. UAMS capital is its brainpower it brings to high-tech research, not dollars.

However, a study by Angle Technologies commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce in 2009, anticipates that the public occupants of the first building — such as UAMS and UALR — will pay rent ranging from $495,000 to $990,000 a year.

Dickson Flake’s involvement with the chamber’s push to build a research park in Little Rock started in 2006, when he was asked to be a member of a task force. “That brief committee assignment became a career,” he joked. (Flake keeps careful track of his time and so knows how many hours he’s spent on the technology park: 1,800.) Legislation to create a technology park authority was passed in 2007 and amended in 2009 to allow sponsors.

The Authority envisions a park that in phase one will have one 100,000-square-foot building with room for 13 more. Flake thinks the second building could follow quickly if the Authority doesn’t have to take on debt to build the park and complete the first building.

The state “doesn’t have enough angel or venture capital, but we do have some,” Flake said, specifically the Fund for Arkansas’ Future, composed of angel investors (who provide capital in return for stock and a seat on the board of the company) and headed

by Jeff Stinson. Angel investors get a break on state income taxes based on the amount of their investment.

Flake thinks it will take 10 years for the technology park to become truly established. Joe Busby, an active member of the Fair Park Neighborhood Association and member of the board of the University District Development Corp., fears that’s too long. “There’s a real possibility that there will be a chain link fence around a grass lot for 20 years,” he said. ❖❖❖

The 65-acre tract in Forest Hills that the Authority is considering as a possible location for the park is bounded by Interstate 630 on the north, Monroe Street on the west, Elm Street on the east and 12th street on the south.

The Forest Hills Neighborhood Association is working hard to make sure the area isn’t turned to a grassy field.

At the association’s monthly meet-

BRIAN CHILSON

❖❖❖

DICKSON FLAKE: Has worked to get a tech park for six years.

ing in February, longtime resident Rohn Muse showed an Institute for Justice film, “Not For Sale,” about ways to fight the taking of property by eminent domain. He held up an example of a red “Not For Sale” sign that residents can put in their yards.

“I’m not telling anyone not to sell,” Muse told the gathering of about 20 residents. What he was saying was, if you have to, make sure you get a fair price.

William Riles, 66, who’s lived for 23 years at 901 Lewis, wants to fight.

“Those guys with eminent domain, they’ll go through low-income neighborhoods and just gobble them up.”

A week later, Muse and Busby addressed a class at UAMS’ College of Public Health class that’s studying the potential health impact on dislocated residents. “There will be people who will become homeless,” Muse told the class. The amount they get for their homes — they’re promised “fair market value” — isn’t likely to be enough to buy a house of similar quality in another neighborhood, once mortgages are paid off — especially for retired people living on a fixed income, as many people in Forest Hills are.

The homes in Forest Hills are in various states of repair and maybe a quarter of them are rental properties.

It makes the area an easy target, the neighborhood association believes.

“We are not important to them,” Muse, who’s lived at 822 Lewis St. for 25 years, said about the Authority. But they’re not going down without a fight. Muse

and another quarter-century resident, Daniel Hopwood, have distributed flyers to the neighbors alerting them that they’ll be taking photos of their houses for a historic district application.

At the inaugural meeting of the city’s CENT (Citizens Evaluation of New Tax) committee, Dr. Anika Whitfield, a podiatrist representing Ward 2, raised concerns about the location of the park. “If UAMS owns Ray Winder, why are we talking about relocation?” she asked. Mayor Mark Stodola replied that while the city does not control the Authority, “we are sensitive to that issue,” and that the city would urge the Authority board to act fairly.

City Director Ken Richardson, who represents Ward 2, in which all three proposed areas are located, is supportive of the tech park “conceptually,” he said. But, he added, if people must be dislocated, he wants them to get a fair deal. He said the park Authority should work with the 12th Street Corridor initiative, which is building new homes with National Stabilization Program funds. Twelfth Street is getting a new police substation and the Central Arkansas Library System’s new children’s library will be just north of the corridor. Richardson’s hoping that it might be possible for dislocated residents to move into homes being rehabbed by NSP funds. “I want something done for the community rather than to the community,” he said. ❖❖❖

Ron Copeland, the director of the

University District Partnership, has written Authority board member Dr. Mary Good about the district’s concerns over the site that includes Good Counsel Church. The 38.7-acre site is bounded by Madison Heights on the east, an alley between Fair Park and South Tyler on the west and 18th on the south, but the boundaries for the area have been drawn to exclude Good Counsel and Franklin Elementary School. The only 12th street frontage is at Jackson Street, between Good Counsel and Madison Heights. The rest of the northern boundary is an alley between 12th and 13th.

This area seems least likely for development because of its odd boundaries and poor access to a major road.

“From the University District standpoint, the Good Counsel site contains the best housing stock in the neighborhood,” Copeland wrote Good. The University District Development Corp. has been purchasing and rehabbing houses in the 1500 block of Harrison for its First Time Homebuyer Program. “I hope the site evaluation process quickly eliminates the Good Counsel site so that we can attract homebuyer prospects for our projects when they are completed in the spring,” Copeland wrote.

The site would require the removal of 123 homes, according to Crafton Tull.

Copeland favors the site encompassing the Methodist Children’s Home, since it’s largely under one owner, would affect fewer houses and connects with the UALR campus.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18 www.arktimes.com

MARCH 14, 2012

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MARCH 14, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

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METHODIST CHILDREN'S HOME: Would the authority buy this and tear it down?

❖❖❖

The area that includes the Methodist Children’s Home is 59.6 acres bounded by 19th Street on the north, the alley between Taylor and Fair Park streets on the east, University Avenue on the west and between 23rd and 24th streets on the south. The site includes the largest undeveloped area — the Methodist Children’s Home campus — and would require the removal of 113 dwellings, the fewest number of all three sites.

Andy Altom, chief executive officer of Methodist Family Health, which operates the Methodist Children’s Home, said the campus serves 140 residents and has 187 employees. Methodist Family Health considered selling the property at one time but decided it would be cheaper to improve the facility instead.

It has built a wrought iron security fence to match that of UALR, replaced all the windows in the buildings and added new heating and air conditioning, replaced the gym floor and put new roofs on all the facilities. It hopes to build a psychiatric residence facility on the southern part of the campus, now undeveloped.

“We’re not going to stop what we’re doing,” Altom said; capital improvements will continue while the Authority evaluates the three areas. ❖❖❖

Both the Good Counsel and Methodist Children’s Home sites, as they’ve come to be known as, fall within the boundaries of the vigorous and vocal Fair Park Neighborhood Association.

More than 50 people attended the January meeting at which the park was discussed and the neighborhood’s online group has 400 or so members.

Though no one likes the notion of displacing people, “change is inevitable,” said association president Brian Kennerly, whose reasonableness may stem in part from the fact that he is an employee of UALR. But Kennerly thinks the technology park, if designed in con-

cert with the neighborhood, could help make it a safer place to live. “We would like something green,” he said, a parklike park that is “ecologically friendly.”

He hopes the park could “create some synergy” with other organizations that could revitalize the neighborhood.

Still, he said, “We’d prefer to keep our neighborhood intact.” ❖❖❖

The Central Arkansas Library System is building a children’s library south of Interstate 630, just west of the Forest Hills neighborhood. The library, a teaching garden and greenhouse, walking trails and, in the future, an arboretum that would focus on Arkansas’s various ecosystems, will be on 30 acres between Madison Street and Jonesboro Drive, extending south to 10th Street.

So CALS has been already been down the displacement road. To clear the land for the library, CALS had to buy between 20 and 25 pieces of property, director Bobby Roberts said. Most of the lots with homes sold in the $25,000 range; the most expensive was around $57,000. Empty lots were $5,000 to $6,000. CALS had to exercise its right of eminent domain with only one property owner. He said CALS paid a premium price, above the appraised value of the property.

Moving people out of their homes “is not something I am looking forward to,” Authority member Flake said. The Authority wants to pay “as fair a price as possible.”

But at the same time, Flake said, “It’s not our money. It’s taxpayer money. We have to be good stewards of that money.”

“We’ll try to be understanding,” he added.

Flake and other members of the Authority board plan to meet with the Forest Hills Neighborhood Association at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 15, at the Willie L. Hinton Neighborhood Resource Center at 12th and Pine Streets, and the Fair Park Neighborhood Association at 9:30 a.m.

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THE VAPORS VOV FESTIVAL BRINGS THE MUSIC TO HOT SPRINGS.

BY ROBERT BELL

O

ver the last several years, Hot Springs’ Valley of the Vapors Independent Music Festival has grown from an upstart event with a handful of bands to a weeklong smorgasbord showcasing more than three dozen groups of every flavor and variety, usually with several international acts thrown into the mix.

Bill Solleder and Shea Childs started the nonprofit, volunteer-run VOV (which kicks off Sunday, March 18) back in 2005 as a way to catch bands traveling to and from Austin for SXSW. While the words “music festival” might bring to mind giant outdoor extravaganzas like Coachella or Lollapalooza, with massive stages, sunburned throngs and miles of port-a-potties, VOV is a “small-venue” festival, Solleder said. That said, many of the bands that come to VOV have also played the big stage of outdoor festivals like Bonnaroo.

Last year, Solleder and Childs moved the dates to the week after SXSW and saw enormous growth in attendance, Solleder said. “We moved the dates from piggybacking on top of SXSW to the next week, which is Arkansas spring break, when all of these high school and college kids are off.”

That’s likely the reason that VOV more than doubled its attendance, drawing between 400 and 600 people throughout the course of the all-day shows. Fortunately, interest from volunteers has also amped up. “We had a volunteer meeting last week, and we put a little Facebook thing out. I had set up I think 30 or 40 chairs thinking, ‘Well that’d be great.’ But we had 60 people show up,” Solleder said.

Along with the growth, though, have come concerns about making sure VOV retains its intimate vibe. “There’s been talk about how far do we let it go?” he said.

“We want to maintain this very community, underground idea and not go big. But 20

MARCH 14, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

we’ll see how this year goes and whether we have to worry about growth.”

Part of VOV’s appeal as far as bands are concerned is that it’s a much more relaxed environment (the main venue is, appropriately, Low Key Arts) than the media pressure-cooker and resulting parade of posturing that is SXSW. “And we pride ourselves on hospitality,” Solleder said. “I spend a good chunk of volunteer meetings telling them, ‘The most important thing for you to do as volunteer is, when a van rolls up, I need you to go up to them, put out your hand and say ‘Welcome to Hot Springs.’ ” This year, the welcome mat includes a gift-wrapped package.

“Each one of our volunteers gets a band and they’re responsible to buy that band a present, so when they roll up it’s like ‘hey how’s it going?’ And then they get this wrapped present,” he said. “Those are the small things that make it memorable for bands down the line.”

Another new concept at this year’s VOV is a series of secret band, secret venue shows. Even after being booked up solid, Solleder kept getting calls from bands that wanted to play Hot Springs. Thus the forthcoming Pass-the-Hat shows: Each band will play a nontraditional venue such as an old mansion downtown, an art gallery or a barbershop. The artist and venue will only be announced the day before, and will depend on word of mouth and social media for promotion. Solleder offered a few hints about the acts: among others, there’ll be an old-school Brooklyn rapper, a German rock band and a group that is in the “lineage” of At the Drive-In. While VOV has long hosted workshops, 2012 marks the first year that there will be daily classes, including a knitting workshop led by The Breeders’ Kelley Deal, a comic illustration lesson from antifolk notable Jeffrey Lewis, a class by custom guitar maker

BRONCHO

POND

PRINCE RAMA

Yuri Landman and more.

The doors open at noon on Sunday with a huge lineup of a dozen bands. The music starts at 1 p.m. with R. Ring, which is Deal’s band with Mike Montgomery

of the band Ampline. Chicago’s Love of Everything (affiliations with members of Joan of Arc, Cap’n Jazz, Make Believe, etc.) plays next, followed by The Water Liars and Southeast Engine, both of which are, along with R. Ring, members of the Misra Records roster. Kelley Deal’s knitting workshop starts at 4 p.m. at Studio 10.

Brooklyn duo The Big Sleep plays big-sounding rock at 5 p.m. followed by Detroit spazz-rockers Child Bite. Canadian rockabilly sleaze-merchant Big John Bates takes to the stage next, followed by Tulsa power-pop-punks Broncho. At 9 p.m., the one-man wrecking crew known as El Paso Hot Button is up.

If you dig Tame Impala (the Australian band whose 2010 LP “Innerspeaker” was a modern masterpiece of introverted psychrock) then you won’t want to miss Pond, which features three of the minds behind Tame Impala. Round about 11 p.m., check out the Brooklyn-based bedroom psychedelia of Oberhofer. Ohio country-punks Two Cow Garage close out the evening.

Monday’s show starts at 7 p.m. with a lineup that falls all over the sonic spectrum. You’ve got the ramshackle folk rock of The Underhill Family Orchestra; the otherworldy, Animal Collective-approved weirdness of Prince Rama; the ragged, catchy pop-punk of Nashville upstart Pujol; the harmonically rich, sophisticate-pop of Grandchildren; the Spacemen 3-soundtracking-a-spaghetti-western kinda thing that New York’s Psychic Ills are doing a kinda these days; the frantic yet catchy post-punk of Cloud Nothings; and finally, the kaleidoscopic progpop of Maps & Atlases. Jeffrey Lewis leads a comics illustration workshop at 4 p.m. at Studio 10. There’s also going to be one of the aforementioned Pass-the-Hat shows at 6 p.m.

On Tuesday, there’s a workshop on laughter yoga at 4 p.m. with Susan Gonzalez and a Pass-the-Hat show at 6 p.m.

The main lineup starts at 7:30 p.m. at Low Key Arts with Japanese pop weirdoes The Depaysement, the high-octane modern rock of L.A. quartet The Royal Heist; the booze-soaked rock ’n’ brawl of Kentucky Knife Fight; snotty, throwback pop punk from New Jersey’s Lost in Society, and some bouncy indie rock shuffle from American Pinup.

Check out the rest of the schedule at www.valleyofthevapors.com. The Times will have more VOV coverage next week.

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

A&E NEWS THE CLARION-LEDGER OF JACKSON LAST WEEK REPORTED that

the Highway 61 Blues Festival in Leland, Miss., usually held in early June, will be moved this year to Sept. 29, the weekend before the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena, Oct. 4-6. The annual Holly Ridge Jam, also held in June, will move as well this year, to Sept. 30.

Billy Johnson, founder of the Highway 61 festival, told the Ledger “we’ll work with the B.B. King Museum, the Delta Blues Museum and the Delta Cultural Center in Helena to create activities between the festivals. There’ll also be blues in the clubs, and hopefully they’ll come and see all the Blues Trail markers and really dig into the history of the blues.”

Munnie Jordan, executive director of King Biscuit, confirmed the collaboration. “We see this as a win-win for everybody,” she said.

“International visitors come over for King Biscuit and they want to stay longer. They want things to do.”

While the schedules are coordinated, the two festivals probably won’t partner in terms of the artists that are performing at them. “But we’re talking,” Jordan said. “We’re not overlapping and we’re not in competition. Everybody seems to be behind it.”

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of bands like The Oak Ridge Boys, Diamond Rio, Paul Revere and The Raiders, Larry Gatlin and The Gatlin Brothers and Lonestar, because all of those artists will be performing at Oaklawn this year.

The series kicks off June 7 with The Oak Ridge Boys. Tickets for the concerts will range from $20-$30.

“When we built the Finish Line Theater four years ago, we never could have imagined that we’d be hosting acts like the Oak Ridge Boys and Lonestar,” Matt Clement, Oaklawn’s director of entertainment, said in a press release. “This is really exciting for us and all of our fans. These concerts are just another great reason why Oaklawn is Arkansas’ favorite place to play.”

LUCERO, the Memphis-based band

led by Little Rock’s Ben Nichols, released a new album, “Women & Work” (ATO Records), on Tuesday.

The band returns to Arkansas on May 19 for its annual Lucero Family Picnic in Batesville. Shooter Jennings is the only other act that’s been announced for the event.

Tickets aren’t yet available.

Left to right, top row: Jim Kizziar, M.D.; Steve W. Hutchins, M.D., FACC; Dwight Chrisman, M.D., FACC; Steve Greer, M.D., FACC; Carla Fort, RT; John Ransom, M.D. Derlis Martino, M.D.; Alexander N. Orsini, M.D. Left to right, middle row: Thomas D. Conley, M.D., FACC; Jay D. Geoghagan, M.D., FACC; Jeffrey H. Neuhauser, D.O.; David G. Jones, M.D., FACC; Doug Holloway, M.D., FACC; Robert A. Lambert, M.D., FACC; Perry Ballard, RN; Blake Norris, M.D., FACC Left to right, bottom row: Scott A. Davis, M.D., FACC; Brooke Schneider, RN; B.K. Singh, M.D.; Randy B. Minton, M.D., FACC; Thomas Rayburn, M.D.; Gary Collins, M.D., FACC

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21

THE TO-DO

LIST

BY ROBERT BELL

THURSDAY 3/15

FRIDAY 3/16

JACK OBLIVIAN

JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE

8 p.m. Maxine’s. $5 adv., $7 door.

9 p.m. Revolution. $12 adv., $15 d.o.s.

Let’s just put aside the famous father and legendary namesake that get mentioned in nearly single everything I’ve ever read about Justin Townes Earle, because here’s why: A) his music doesn’t really sound much like either of those guys; and B) it stands on its own two spindly legs pretty well. Since 2008, Earle’s tunes have evolved from what he’s described as “a cracker form of Southern music” to something a bit more soulful and sonically lush. That said, more than a few of his songs retain some rockabilly grit and hillbilly gristle, with just a tiny bit more polish on them.

The title cut from Earle’s forthcoming album “Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now” seems to maintain that momentum toward a bigger sound that hangs on to its rough edges. Opener Tristen hails from Earle’s hometown of Nashville and trucks in oft somber, pop- and folkinformed singer/songwriter goods. It’s an 18-and-older show.

THE EARLE OF NASHVILLE: Justin Townes Earle plays at Revolution Thursday, with opening act Tristen.

FRIDAY 3/16

AMASA HINES

10 p.m. White Water Tavern. $7.

EUROPEAN SENSIBILITY: Travel writer and TV host Rick Steves comes to UCA in Conway for lectures on Thursday and Friday.

THURSDAY 3/15

RICK STEVES

7:30 p.m. University of Central Arkansas.

Free.

Rick Steves — author and host of the public television show “Rick Steves’ Europe” and the public radio show “Travel with Rick Steves” — has such a calming, softspoken style that it will really make you want to take an innocent, wholesome trip to Europe, one with way more museum visits and castle tours and charming, out-of-the way bistros and way not as much strip clubs and excessive consumption of intoxicants and stumbling headlong into fountains as horrified families look on in disgust. Steves implores us to travel, but to be respectful and generally avoid the sort of boorish behavior 22

MARCH 14, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

often associated with Americans abroad. As anyone who has traveled internationally can testify, it’s an admonition that really can’t be overstated. Plus, Steves supports a number of righteous causes, including NARAL Pro-Choice and legalization of marijuana, and he established a shelter for homeless women and their children a few years back. He’s on a tour of flyover country right now called “Road Trip USA,” which brings him to Conway for a couple of days.

He’ll be discussing his new book, “Travel as a Political Act,” and on Friday, he’ll be the featured speaker at the annual Bravo! fundraiser for UCA’s College of Fine Arts and Communication, which is $75 and starts at 6:30 p.m.

We’ve written a little bit about Amasa Hines, a relatively new outfit with folks from Velvet Kente and Romany Rye. But after hearing “Earth and Sky,” which the band released online a few weeks ago, we’ve gotta put this out there: Amasa Hines just might be the best band in Little Rock right now. At a minimum, they’re the best band that isn’t even a year old. For serious, “Earth and Sky” is hot. Hot! It’s soulful, sweaty rock ’n’ roll, with gritty guitars, a deep-in-thepocket rhythm section, the best use of falsetto I’ve heard since forever and a rippin’ saxophone solo. The band’s Facebook bio comes across all demure: “It’s just music.

It’s trying to play clean and looking for the pretty notes.”

Well guys, I think you found all of ’em.

Remember that whole Garage Rock Revival thing that happened back in ’01-’03 and again from ’09-’12 or so? Probably none of that would’ve happened without The Oblivians, of Memphis, whose ’90s output set the bar for all the bash-happy, out-oftune guitar abusers to come. There were other great garage rockers that had preceded them, of course, but The Oblivians were a cut way above the rest. They were like that rusty .32 revolver you bought at a yard sale for $25: cheap; dirty; of singular purpose and questionable origin; might just explode in your face. After a couplefive albums and a slew of singles and EPs, The Oblivians did blow up (though they played a couple reunion shows, and word has it they’re reconvening to record soon). Jack Oblivian has shacked up with a good number of bands and has released a handful of solo albums, the most recent of which was last year’s excellent “Rat City,” which manages to fuse a sleazier “Some Girls” kinda vibe (“Mass Confusion,” “Crime of Love,” “Caboose Jump”) with sweetly forlorn rock ’n’ roll love songs (“Dark Eyes,” “Jealous Heart”) and twitchy, brokedown blues (“Old Folks Boogie”).

You should probably just go listen to “Rat City” right now and then go see this show. The Many Persian Z’s and Jonathan Wilkins are playing too.

BROTHER JACK: Jack Oblivian plays Maxine’s in Hot Springs Friday night, with opening acts The Many Persian Z’s and Jonathan Wilkins.

IN BRIEF

THURSDAY 3/15

SATURDAY 3/17

FIRST EVER NINTH ANNUAL WORLD’S SHORTEST ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE

11 a.m. Bridge Street. Free.

If you only go to one First Ever Ninth Annual World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade this St. Patrick’s Day season, make it this one. Sure, you can find green

beer floats and marching bands and leprechauns at most of your ordinary St. Paddy’s celebrations. But where else are you going to find concert performances

by Pickled Beats and 38 Special, Irish Elvis impersonators, The Famous San Diego Chicken, a Blarney Stone kissing contest, Celebrity Grand Marshal Tim Matheson (who played Otter in “Animal

House” and Dr. Brick Breeland on TV’s “Hart of Dixie,” among other roles) and lots more family fun, all on the shortest parade route known to man? Nowhere else, that’s where. The parade route will be measured for authenticity at 6:25 p.m. and the parade itself starts at 6:30 p.m., with 38 Special taking to the stage at 8 p.m.

For some electro/dubstep jams, Conway’s Ford Theater has you covered, with Los Angeles-based DJ HeavyGrinder. It’s 18-andolder, 9 p.m., $10 adv., $12 d.o.s.

The SF JAZZ Collective plays music by Stevie Wonder at Walton Arts Center, 7 p.m., $10-$25. Don’t miss “The Wiz” at The Rep, 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., $30$60. Quirky Brooklyn trio Pearl and The Beard brings unconventional instrumentation and twee boygirl indie pop to Stickyz. Opening the show is Little Rock’s Freedom Bureau, made up of a mix of newcomers and old-timers. It’s 18-andolder, 9 p.m., $6.

FRIDAY 3/16 SUNDAY 3/18

SNOWMINE

8 p.m. Stickyz. $6.

Being that SXSW is going on and therefore lots of Brooklyn groups are going to be coming through town on their way to or from Austin over the next week or so, I’m going to briefly suspend my Personal Rule No. 14: “If Your Band is From Brooklyn, Then I Don’t Care About Your Band.”

Snowmine is a Brooklyn band that creates lush, chiming orchestral pop with Shins-y (Fleet Fox-worthy,

even) vocals, the occasional wiggy keyboard squiggle and a tiny smidgen of psychedelia blurring the edges of the whole thing, but not so much that you get freaked out. Think Grizzly Bear, Local Natives, perhaps the less lysergic-world-music side of Yeasayer. There are also moments that recall pre-Gen Y sounds, such as the Talking Heads vibe on “The Hill,” from the band’s 2011 long player “Laminate Pet Animal.” It’s pleasant sounding, innocuous stuff that your

parent or parents probably won’t balk at too hard during those long car rides in between campus visits to tony private colleges this spring. Also performing at this 18-and-older show is Brooklyn’s Spanish Prisoners, who swim in the same waters. They play self-described “tremolo-haze headphone symphonies.” Knox Hamilton opens the show. Snowmine and Spanish Prisoners also play Monday at Conway’s Ford Theater at 9 p.m.

the winners will be announced and performed directly. Right now, the leading contenders are: Best Classical Composer: Beethoven (Symphony No. 5, First Movement), Best Classic Film Score: “Lawrence of Arabia,” Best Contemporary Film Score: “Titanic,” Best Sci/Fi Soundtrack: “Star Wars,” Best Animated Television Show: “Looney Tunes,” Best Television show: “Mission Impossible,” Best Kids’ Pick: “Mary Poppins,” Best

Video Game Soundtrack: “The Legend of Zelda,” and Best Broadway Score: “The Phantom of the Opera.” I’m not saying that any of these frontrunners necessarily have a lock on it, but some of them are pretty far ahead of the pack. So if you want to hear “West Side Story,” the theme to “Bonanza” or Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons,” you’d best get to voting at ASO’s website. The show will be performed again Sunday at 3 p.m.

like some unholy spawn of Discharge, Slayer, Black Flag and Mayhem. Plus it has the most awesomely blasphemous cover art I’ve ever seen. Baker told Revolver last year that he and the other members wanted to create something “nasty.” Did they ever. APMD sounds so vicious and deadly and righteously pissed off that they could wipe away everything that’s twee and precious and lame from the last decade of music with a single bludgeoning riff.

I’ve probably listened to “God is War” and the band’s 2010 self-titled EP

more than anything else in the last six months. It’s the most hair-raising, jawclenching, blistering metal I’ve heard in forever and is exciting in a way that hearing “Reign in Blood” for the first time was. It’s that good. Narrows has a less metal, more noisy, post-hardcore sound, but it rocks way, way more than anything else I’ve heard in that genre in a long time. I wish so hard that this show was stopping in Little Rock as well, but it’d probably be worth it to head up to Fayetteville and not miss the best hardcore show of the year.

SATURDAY 3/17

ASO: ‘PEOPLE’S CHOICE’

8 p.m. Robinson Center Music Hall. $20-$65.

In a bit of direct musical democracy, the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra is turning over the setlist for its next performance, to you, the public. You can vote in nine categories for which pieces of music the symphony will play, either online leading up to the shows or on old-fashioned paper ballots on the day of. Once the votes are in,

MONDAY 3/19

ALL PIGS MUST DIE, NARROWS

9 p.m. Dickson Theater. $5.

Both Narrows and All Pigs Must Die include personnel from several other notable hardcore bands. But that’s not really all that important, because both bands deserve to be judged on their own brutal merits. All Pigs Must Die’s album “God is War” is eight songs of pure, scorched-earth annihilation, all blackened, pummeling riffs welded to galloping D-beat thrash and unhinged screaming from frontman Kevin Baker,

Vino’s hosts a bevy of bands returning from SXSW, including Wussy, The Sundresses, The Whiskey Daredevils and Oh My Me, 9 p.m. The Peabody Hotel has a roast and toast of former NFL wide receiver Reggie Swinton to benefit the youth programs at Ministry of Intercession, 6 p.m., $30. Down the street, you can catch an evening of heavy modern rock, with Too Close to Call, Mourning View, Queen Anne’s Revenge, Juanita’s, 9 p.m., $8 adv., $10 d.o.s. For some sinister Southern metal, venture to Downtown Music Hall, for VBT, Black Pussy, Holy Angell and Wraith, 8 p.m., $6. “The Miracle Worker” returns to The Weekend Theater with the story of Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller, 7:30 p.m.

Friday and Saturday, $12-$16.

SATURDAY 3/17 Singer/songwriter Eric Somers returns to Midtown for another night of blues-based tunes and top-flight guitar playing, 12:30 a.m., $5. Texas singer/songwriter Hayes Carll returns to Revolution, with Honeyhoney and John Paul Keith & The One Four Fives opening the 18-and-older show, 9 p.m., $15. Old-school soul superstars Maze with Frankie Beverly bring the house down at Verizon Arena, 7:30 p.m., $37-$67. Dugan’s Pub hosts a giant St. Patrick’s block party starting at 4 p.m. with live music from Peg Loyd Roach, Scott Moye, James Peeples, The Dead Celts Society and Penguin Dilemma and dance performances from the McCafferty School of Irish Dance and the O’Donovan School of Irish Dance.

The St. Patrick’s Day parade begins at Dugan’s at 1 p.m. For raucous, debauched rock ’n’ roll hijinks, you won’t do better than Memphis’ River City Tanlines, with Little Rock bruiser Jonathan Wilkins, 10 p.m., White Water Tavern. The lovely ladies of the Diamond Dames Burly-Q Revue host guest stars Frankie LaFemme, Erin Go Braughless, Jac Start and aerialist Gina Gargano, with comedian Amy Pannell and pre-show entertainment by Rural War Room, Juanita’s, 8 p.m., $10.

www.arktimes.com

MARCH 14, 2012

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AFTER DARK

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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.

sign copies of her new book “Grandma Is An Author.” That Bookstore in Blytheville, 3:30 p.m.

316 W. Main St.

THURSDAY, MARCH 15

MUSIC

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14

MUSIC

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

Alternative Wednesdays. Features alternative bands from Central Arkansas and the surrounding areas. Mediums Art Lounge, 6:30 p.m., $5.

521 Center St. 501-374-4495.

Bolly Open Mic Hype Night with Osyrus Bolly and DJ Messiah. All American Wings, 9 p.m.

215 W. Capitol Ave. 501-376-4000. allamericanwings.com.

Brian & Nick. Cajun’s Wharf, 5 and 9 p.m., $5 after 8:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-3755351. www.cajunswharf.com.

The Dreaming, The Revolutioners. Juanita’s, 9 p.m., $8 adv., $10 d.o.s. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.juanitas.com.

Elizabeth and the Catapult. Hendrix College, 8 p.m., free. 1600 Washington Ave., Conway. www.hendrix.edu.

Grim Muzik presents Way Back Wednesdays.

Cornerstone Pub & Grill, 8:30 p.m. 314 Main St., NLR. 501-374-1782. cstonepub.com.

Jim Dickerson. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com.

Karaoke at Khalil’s. Khalil’s Pub, 7 p.m. 110 S. Shackleford Road. 501-224-0224. www.khalilspub.com.

Karaoke. Maxine’s, 8 p.m., free. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. maxinespub.com.

Karaoke with Big John Miller. Denton’s Trotline, 8 p.m. 2150 Congo Road, Benton. 501-3151717.

New Music Test: Janet Air, The Tildon Gillum Band, Little Zero, Molasses Tonight.

Revolution, 8:30 p.m., $5 21 and older, $10 ages 20 and younger. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501823-0090. revroom.com.

Open mic jam with Kat and Chuck. Thirst n’ Howl, 8 p.m.; March 28, 8 p.m., free. 14710 Cantrell Road. 501-379-8189. www.thirst-nhowl.com.

Ricky David Tripp. Ferneau, 5:30 p.m. 2601 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-603-9208. www.ferneaurestaurant.com.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 5 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-374-7474. www.capitalhotel.com/CBG. Transmography, Y/Y, The Evelyns. White Water Tavern, 10 p.m., $5. 2500 W. 7th. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com.

Tyrannosaurus Chicken, Swampbird. 18-andolder show. The Ford Theater, 9 p.m., $5-$8.

1020 Front St., Conway. 501-358-1755. thefordtheater.com.

Vitamin Overdose, Dude City. 18-and-older show. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9 p.m., $5. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www. stickyfingerz.com.

COMEDY

Steve Hirst, Ricky Reyes. The Loony Bin, 8 p.m.; March 16, 10:30 p.m.; March 17, 7, 9 and 11 p.m., $7-$10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-

24

MARCH 14, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

DAY AT THE RACES: Saturday, Oaklawn Park hosts the $500,000 Rebel Stakes, which means some lucky soul is going to win a truck and a boat. Two names will be drawn after each race leading up to the Rebel Stakes, which will be followed by the grand prize drawing.

228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

DANCE

The Peking Acrobats. Walton Arts Center, 7 p.m., $18-$30. 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville.

479-443-5600.

EVENTS

Argenta Arts Foundation Awards Reception.

Honoring Linda and Paul Leopoulos. Argenta Community Theater, 6 p.m., $150. 405 Main St., NLR. 501-353-1443. argentacommunitytheater.org.

Argenta Tulip Festival 2012. Includes flower and garden mart every Saturday from 8 a.m.noon from March 10-31. Argenta, through April 1. Main Street, NLR. Downtown Little Rock Partnership annual meeting. Guest speaker is former Austin, Texas, Mayor Will Wynn. Statehouse Convention Center, 11:30 a.m., $75. 7 Statehouse Plaza.

501-375-0121. www.downtownlr.com.

LECTURES

Oaklawn Brown Bag Lunches: New Faces

of Oaklawn. Featuring track superintendent Jamie Richardson and track announcer Frank Mirahmadi. Garland County Library, 12 p.m., free. 1427 Malvern Ave., Hot Springs.

Tom Phillips. The retired Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas and first Republican elected as chief justice in Texas history will discuss judicial election reform. Clinton School of Public Service, 12 p.m., free. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-683-5239. www.clintonschool. uasys.edu.

POETRY

Rock Town Slam. Arkansas Arts Center, 7:30 p.m., $5. 501 E. 9th St. 501-372-4000. www. arkarts.com.

SPORTS

Horse racing. Saturday post time is 1 p.m. except for April 14, which is noon. Oaklawn, through April 13: 1:30 p.m. 2705 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-623-4411. www.oaklawn.com.

BOOKS

Melissa Conroy. Author of “Poppy’s Pants” will

Goatwhore, Fallen Empire, Severe Head Wound. Downtown Music Hall, 8 p.m., $10 adv., $12 d.o.s. 211 W. Capitol. 501-376-1819. downtownmusichall.com.

Heavy Grinder. 18-and-older show. The Ford Theater, 9 p.m., $10 adv., $12 d.o.s. 1020 Front St., Conway. 501-358-1755. thefordtheater.com.

Hometown Bluegrass. Faulkner County Library, 7 p.m., free. 1900 Tyler St., Conway. 501-3277482. www.fcl.org.

“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. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com.

Josh Green. Thirst n’ Howl, 8 p.m., free. 14710 Cantrell Road. 501-379-8189. www.thirst-n-howl. com.

Justin Townes Earle, Tristen. 18-and-older show. Revolution, 9 p.m., $12 adv., $15 d.o.s.

300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. revroom.com.

Karaoke. Zack’s Place, 8 p.m. 1400 S. University Ave. 501-664-6444. www.zacks-place.com.

Michael Eubanks. Benihana Japanese Steakhouse, March 15-17, 6 p.m. 2 Riverfront Place, NLR. 501-374-8081. www.benihana.com.

Pearl and the Beard, Freedom Bureau. 18-andolder show. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9 p.m., $6. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www.stickyfingerz.com.

PG-13 (headliner), Grayson Shelton (happy hour). Cajun’s Wharf, 5 and 9 p.m., $5 after 8:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www. cajunswharf.com.

Port Arthur Band. Parrot Beach Cafe, 9 p.m.

9611 MacArthur Drive, NLR. 771-2994.

RockUsaurus. Senor Tequila, 6 p.m.; March 21, 6 p.m., free. 10300 N. Rodney Parham Road.

501-224-5505.

SFJAZZ Collective Plays The Music of Stevie Wonder. Walton Arts Center, 7 p.m., $10-$25.

495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-443-5600.

Subdue. Denton’s Trotline, 9 p.m. 2150 Congo Road, Benton. 501-315-1717.

Sunday Valley, The Good Kids. Maxine’s, 8 p.m., free. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. maxinespub.com.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 5 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-374-7474. www.capitalhotel.com/CBG. “VIP Thursday.” Juanita’s, through March 22: 9 p.m. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.juanitas.com.

The Woodies. The Afterthought, 8 p.m., free.

2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www. afterthoughtbar.com.

COMEDY

Steve Hirst, Ricky Reyes. The Loony Bin, through March 16, 8 p.m.; March 16, 10:30 p.m.; March 17, 7, 9 and 11 p.m., $7-$10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www. loonybincomedy.com.

EVENTS

5th Annual Night on the Street. Hosted by Union Rescue Mission to raise awareness of

homelessness. River Market Pavilions, 6 p.m.

400 President Clinton Ave. 375-2552. www. urmission.org.

Antique/Boutique Walk. Shopping and live entertainment. Downtown Hot Springs, third Thursday of every month, 4-8 p.m., free. 100 Central Ave., Hot Springs.

Argenta Tulip Festival 2012. See March 14.

Brown Bag Lunch Lecture: “Archaeologies of the Civil War in Arkansas.” Dr. Jamie C. Brandon will talk about work at battlefields and military sites such as Wilson’s Creek, Prairie Grove, Pea Ridge, Cross Hollows, Dooley’s Ferry and Helena. Bring a lunch. Old State House Museum, 12 p.m., free. 500 Clinton Ave. 501324-9685. www.oldstatehouse.com.

“Business of Art.” Reception, silent auction and art exhibition with sculptor Robyn Horn and honoring Russ Harrington, CEO of Baptist Health. Pulaski Technical College, 6:30 p.m.

3000 W. Scenic Drive, NLR. “Racial Attitudes in Pulaski County.” Includes lunch and roundtable discussion. There is no cost, but you must register online. UALR, Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall, 9 a.m., free. 2801 S. University Ave. 501-569-8977. www.ualr.edu/ race-ethnicity.

LECTURES

Sally Wolff-King. The Emory University professor presents “Ledgers of History: William Faulkner, an Almost Forgetten Friendship, and Antebellum Plantation Diary.” Clinton School of Public Service, 12 p.m., free. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-683-5239. www.clintonschool. uasys.edu.

SPORTS

Horse racing. See March 14.

BOOKS

Rick Steves. The travel writer will lecture and sign copies of his latest book, “Travel as a Political Act.” Hosted at the College of Business.

University of Central Arkansas, 7:30 p.m., free.

201 Donaghey Ave., Conway. 501-450-3653. www.uca.edu.

FRIDAY, MARCH 16

MUSIC

Amasa Hines. White Water Tavern, 10 p.m., $7. 2500 W. 7th. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com.

Bluesboy Jag and His Cigar Box Guitars.

Dogtown Coffee and Cookery, 6 p.m., free.

6725 John F. Kennedy Blvd., NLR. 501-833-3850. www.facebook.com/pages/Dogtown-Coffeeand-Cookery/221280641229600.

Chris Henry. Flying Saucer, 9 p.m., $3. 323 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-7468. www. beerknurd.com/stores/littlerock.

DJ Silky Slim. Top 40 and dance music. Sway, 9 p.m., $5. 412 Louisiana. 501-907-2582.

Ed Bowman & The Rock City Players (headliner), Richie Johnson (happy hour). Cajun’s Wharf, 5 and 9 p.m., $5 after 8:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf. com.

Ed Burks. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, March 16-17, 7 p.m.; March 30-31, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com.

Exit One Eleven, Cody Ives Band, DJ Taylor.

Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9 p.m., $5. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www.

stickyfingerz.com.

“The Flow Fridays.” Twelve Modern Lounge, 8 p.m. 1900 W. Third St. The Flying Balloon O Brothers. Thirst n’ Howl, 9 p.m., free. 14710 Cantrell Road. 501-379-8189. www.thirst-n-howl.com.

FreeWorld. Midtown Billiards, 12:30 a.m., $5.

1316 Main St. 501-372-9990. midtownar.com.

Jack Oblivian, The Many Persian Z’s, Jonathan Wilkins. Maxine’s, 8 p.m., $5 adv., $7 door. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. maxinespub.com.

Jeff Ivy. Denton’s Trotline, 9 p.m. 2150 Congo Road, Benton. 501-315-1717.

Mayday By Midnight. West End Smokehouse and Tavern, 10 p.m., $5. 215 N. Shackleford.

501-224-7665. www.westendsmokehouse.net.

Michael Eubanks. Benihana Japanese Steakhouse, through March 17, 6 p.m. 2 Riverfront Place, NLR. 501-374-8081. www. benihana.com.

The Smittle Band. The Afterthought, 9 p.m., $7. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www. afterthoughtbar.com.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 9 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-374-7474. www. capitalhotel.com/CBG. Too Close to Call, Mourning View, Queen Anne’s Revenge. Juanita’s, 9 p.m., $8 adv., $10 d.o.s. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.juanitas.com.

VBT, Black Pussy, Holy Angell, Wraith.

Downtown Music Hall, 8 p.m., $6. 211 W. Capitol. 501-376-1819. downtownmusichall. com.

Wussy, The Sundresses, The Whiskey Daredevils, Oh My Me. Vino’s, 9 p.m. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www.vinosbrewpub.com.

COMEDY

Steve Hirst, Ricky Reyes. The Loony Bin, through March 16, 8 p.m.; March 16, 10:30 p.m.; March 17, 7, 9 and 11 p.m., $7-$10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www. loonybincomedy.com.

EVENTS

Argenta Tulip Festival 2012. See March 14.

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. Roast and Toast of Reggie Swinton. This roast and toast of the former NFL wide receiver benefits the youth programs at Ministry of Intercession. The Peabody Little Rock, 6 p.m., $30. 3 Statehouse Plaza. 501-442-3306. www. theunikagency.com.

LECTURES

Anam Thubten. Unitarian Universalist Church of Little Rock, 7 p.m., $10-$15 suggested donation. 1818 Reservoir Road.

SPORTS

2012 Toughman Contest. Statehouse Convention Center, March 16-17. 7 Statehouse Plaza.

Horse racing. See March 14.

BENEFITS

Bravo! gala fundraiser. Fundraiser for UCA’s College of Fine Arts and Communication includes dinner and guest speaker Rick Steves, travel writer and host of Rick Steves Europe.

Reynolds Performance Hall, UCA, 6:30 p.m., $75. 350 S. Donaghey, Conway. 501-450-3293.

SATURDAY, MARCH 17

MUSIC

Arkansas River Blues Society Blues Jam fundraiser. Cornerstone Pub & Grill, 8 p.m., $5. 314 Main St., NLR. 501-374-1782. cstonepub.com.

Arkansas Symphony Orchestra: “People’s Choice.” Robinson Center Music Hall, March 17, 8 p.m.; March 18, 3 p.m., $20-$65. Markham and Broadway. www.littlerockmeetings.com/ conv-centers/robinson.

Diamond Dames Burly-Q Revue. Includes guest stars Frankie LaFemme, Erin Go Braughless, Jac Start and aerialist Gina Gargano, with comedian Amy Pannell and pre-show entertainment

by Rural War Room. Juanita’s, 8 p.m., $10. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www. juanitas.com.

DJ showcase. Flying DD, 9 p.m. 4601 S. University. 501-773-9990. flyingdd.com.

DJs Hollywood and Kramer. Performers include Dominique and Whitney Paige. Discovery Nightclub, 9 p.m. 1021 Jessie Road. 501-6644784. www.latenightdisco.com.

Ed Burks. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, through March 17, 7 p.m.; through March 31, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com.

Eric Somers. Midtown Billiards, 12:30 a.m., $5.

1316 Main St. 501-372-9990. midtownar.com.

The Gettys. Cajun’s Wharf, 5 and 9 p.m., $5 after 8:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf.com.

Good Vibe Hip Hop with Flint Eastwood, Bobby, Asylum, Doe Boi, Fiyah Burns. Vino’s, 8 p.m., $7. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www. vinosbrewpub.com.

Hayes Carll, Honeyhoney, John Paul Keith & The One Four Fives. 18-and-older show.

Revolution, 9 p.m., $15. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. revroom.com.

Karaoke at Khalil’s. Khalil’s Pub, 7 p.m. 110 S. Shackleford Road. 501-224-0224. www.khalilspub.com.

“KISS Saturdays” with DJs Deja Blu, Greyhound and Silky Slim. Sway, 10 p.m.

412 Louisiana. 501-907-2582.

The Many Persian Z’s, Glittercore, The Januariez. All-ages show. Downtown Music Hall, 9 p.m., $5. 211 W. Capitol. 501-376-1819. downtownmusichall.com.

Mayday By Midnight. 18-and-older show.

Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9 p.m., $6-$10. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www. stickyfingerz.com.

Maze featuring Frankie Beverly. Verizon Arena, 7:30 p.m., $37-$67. 1 Alltel Arena Way, NLR. 501-975-9001. verizonarena.com.

Michael Eubanks. Benihana Japanese Steakhouse, 6 p.m. 2 Riverfront Place, NLR. 501-374-8081. www.benihana.com.

Mr. Happy. West End Smokehouse and Tavern, 10 p.m., $5. 215 N. Shackleford. 501-224-7665. www.westendsmokehouse.net.

Phlash the Band. Hastings, Benton, 1 p.m. 1421 Military Road, Benton. 501-778-5116.

Poor Paddy. Maxine’s, 8 p.m., $5. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. maxinespub.com.

River City Tanlines, Jonathan Wilkins. White Water Tavern, 10 p.m. 2500 W. 7th. 501-3758400. www.whitewatertavern.com.

Smooth Down Under. The Drop Zone, 7:30 CONTINUED ON PAGE 27

www.arktimes.com

MARCH 14, 2012

25

CINDY MOMCHILOV

THEATER REVIEW

UPDATED STORY: Carla Stewart stars as Dorothy and Sinclair Mitchell is The Wiz in The Rep’s production of “The Wiz.”

Somewhere, over The Rep

BY BLAIR TIDWELL

T

heatergoers won’t have trouble easing on down the road of The Rep’s newest production, “The Wiz.” The musical’s yellow brick road may have a few potholes, but viewers will be so enchanted by the song and dance, they’ll barely notice.

“The Wiz” is a musical to its core, a truth that director Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj honors with impressive dance numbers, ballad belting and a parade of flashy costumes. The story favors the 1975 Tony Award-winning Broadway hit to the 1978 film flop starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson (though M.J.’s Scarecrow is honored with a few subtle references). Revo-

lutionary in its day, the stage show was one of the first big-budget successes to star an all-black cast, paving the way for later hits like “Dreamgirls.” But it also took a traditionally white-as-rice tale and refashioned it to resemble modern black culture.

The Rep’s production follows in this tradition, updating the story, which now takes place in present-day New Orleans (though, inexplicably, Dorothy still lives on a farm with a chicken coop). The action begins with uniformed school girl Dorothy (Carla Stewart) goofing with her friends.

They reference Nicki Minaj, jabber in their cell phones, drop it like it’s hot and practice their girl group-style shrill raps. They’re

stereotypical teen-agers — perhaps too stereotypical. The vignette elicits strained laughter from the audience, failing in its attempt to modernize Dorothy’s character.

An ensuing squabble and song with Aunt Em (Zoie Morris) are even more forced.

Luckily, the play escapes the restricting realm of reality and shows promise when a swarm of dancers take the stage. Using lengths of fabric, they bind, twist and toss Dorothy about the stage. It’s a beautiful chaos, much like a real tornado, and lands our main gal into Oz. From there until the end, you’ll barely want to blink lest you miss something.

Munchkins appear, a gaggle of synchronized speaking and moving tribesmen with topiary afros and sparkly spears.

They also serve as a doo-wop chorus for Addaperle, the Good Witch of the North.

Addaperle (Jennifer Leigh Warren) is a magician who teeters onto the stage in glittery pink heels and an outrageous outfit — pink and purple striped stockings, undersized top hat, and voluminous pink ruffle skirt. She’s all giggles and sass, deadpanning that she’d “know those tacky panty hose anywhere” when she discovers her evil sister’s lifeless legs protruding from under the tornado’s debris.

The rest of first act is a blur of introductions and big, boisterous musical numbers.

Dorothy follows the yellow brick road, personified by dancers in yellow patchwork costumes who kindly direct her towards the Emerald City. Along the way she meets three familiar friends.

Scarecrow (Nik Alexzander) is a slapstick comedy delight, falling from his perch in the garden and tumbling about the stage like a ragdoll, standing on two feet for just long enough to reference Michael Jackson (who played Scarecrow in the film) and his signature dance moves.

Tin Man (Tony Melson) sings the ragtime tune “Slide Some Oil to Me.” It’s a

gem for those who love a good double entendre, with lyrics like “All those who don’t have to lubricate, you sure have got it made.” The heartless metal man builds up the “player” stereotype in a silly way, while Lion (Darryl Jovan Williams) is a more difficult beast to pin down. Rocking MC Hammer-style velour pants and a wild curly mane, the cowardly king of the jungle sounds a bit like another king — Elvis. He snarls as he sings, uses his tail as a microphone and delivers a hilarious Southern-accented monologue about the trauma of being an only cub.

These introductions are, without a doubt, the strongest section of the show.

The Emerald City, however is a visual feast of costuming. Rafael Colon Castanera, The Rep’s resident costume designer, outdoes himself.

Act two begins in Evilene’s lair, where the Winkies — the people of the west whom she has enslaved — stoop and cower around her feet. Jennifer Leigh Warren appears once again, this time as the wateraverse Evilene. Her wicked cackle is spoton, and her drawn-out, scream-filled death is a riot. But the numbers have less consistency than those in the first half of the production. The winged monkeys’ choreography starts to drag, and there is little tension when Dorothy and her friends are caught. They’re barely acknowledged

by Evilene, and trudge around, laboring alongside the Winkies until an anticlimactic struggle leads to Evilene’s soggy demise.

Dorothy finally gets her chance to shine with “Home,” a ballad worthy of Carla Stewart’s powerhouse vocals (which could rival Jennifer Hudson’s award-winning “Dreamgirls” performance, no doubt). In a soulful rendition that makes you wonder why “Home” isn’t as ubiquitous as that other Dorothy-sung tune, “Over the Rainbow,” Stewart delivers to the very last click of her heels.

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MARCH 14, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

AFTER DARK, CONT. p.m., $8 adv., $10 d.o.s. 221 Oak St., Leslie.

St. Paddy’s Music Extravaganza. Featuring Joey Farr & The Fuggins Wheat Band, Ol’ Puddin’haid and It’s About Time. The Ford Theater, 6 p.m. 1020 Front St., Conway. 501358-1755. thefordtheater.com.

St. Patrick’s Day party. With music from William Staggers Trio. The Afterthought, 9 p.m., $7.

2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www. afterthoughtbar.com.

St. Patrick’s Day party with Tragikly White.

Denton’s Trotline, 9:30 p.m. 2150 Congo Road, Benton. 501-315-1717.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 9 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-374-7474. www. capitalhotel.com/CBG. Thread. Thirst n’ Howl, March 17, 9 p.m.; March 30, 9 p.m., free. 14710 Cantrell Road. 501-3798189. www.thirst-n-howl.com.

The Woodies. Flying Saucer, 9 p.m., $3. 323 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-7468. www. beerknurd.com/stores/littlerock.

COMEDY

Steve Hirst, Ricky Reyes. The Loony Bin, 7, 9 and 11 p.m., $7-$10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www.loonybincomedy. com.

EVENTS

16th Annual Spring Antique Show and Sale.

Includes wine and cheese preview show and sale March 16, $10. Best Western Inn of the Ozarks, 10 a.m., $5 (good for both days). 207 W. Van Buren, Eureka Springs. 479-253-9768. www.eurekaspringsantiqueshows.com.

Argenta Tulip Festival 2012. See March 14.

Brain Awareness Day. Includes demonstrations presented by the Arkansas Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience. Free for members and the first 200 visitors. Museum of Discovery, 9 a.m. p.m., $8-$10. 500 Clinton Ave. 396-7050. www.amod.org.

Buddhist retreat. Featuring Anam Thubten.

No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Ecumenical Buddhist Society, March 17-18, 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m., $70 day, $130 weekend. 1015 W. 2nd St. 501-376-7056. www.ebslr.org/.

Falun Gong meditation. Allsopp Park, 9 a.m., free. Cantrell & Cedar Hill Roads.

Family Saturday at Heifer Village. Includes educational programs, animal guests from Heifer Ranch, a scavenger hunt and more.

Heifer Village, 10 a.m. p.m., free. 1 World Ave. 501-907-8800. heifer.org/heifervillage.

First Ever Ninth Annual World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Includes grand marshal Tim Matheson (Otter from “Animal House”), as well as The Famous San Diego Chicken and live music from .38 Special. Downtown Hot Springs, 6:30 p.m., free. 100 Central Ave., Hot Springs.

“Recycle. Educate. Donate..” Donate old clothing and learn about recycling and waste reduction. The Promenade at Chenal, 10 a.m. p.m., free. 17711 Chenal Parkway. 501-821-5552. chenalshopping.com.

Saturday Programs at the Old State House Museum. Includes games, presentations and more family friendly events. Old State House Museum, through March 31: 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m., free. 500 Clinton Ave. 501-324-9685. www.oldstatehouse.com.

St. Patrick’s Day block party. St. Patrick’s Day parade begins at 1 p.m., with a block party starting at 4 p.m., with live music from Peg Loyd Roach, Scott Moye, James Peeples, The Dead Celts Society and Penguin Dilemma and dance performances form the McCafferty School of Irish Dance and the O’Donnovan School of Irish Dance. Dugan’s Pub, 4 p.m. 403 E. 3rd St. 501-244-0542. www.duganspublr.com.

POETRY

Poetry Slam Scholarship Competition. For Arkansas high school seniors, with prizes of $3,000 and $2,000 for first and second place, respectively. To register, go to www.theafoundation.org. THEA Foundation, 9 a.m. 401 Main Street, NLR. 379-9512. www.theafoundation. org.

SPORTS

2012 Toughman Contest. Statehouse Convention Center, through. 7 Statehouse Plaza.

Horse racing. See March 14.

Rebel Stakes Day. The $500,000 Rebel Stakes includes boat and truck giveaway. Oaklawn, 1 p.m. 2705 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-6234411. www.oaklawn.com.

SUNDAY, MARCH 18

MUSIC

Arkansas Symphony Orchestra: “People’s Choice.” Robinson Center Music Hall, 3 p.m., $20-$65. Markham and Broadway. www.littlerockmeetings.com/conv-centers/robinson.

Ewan Dobson. Juanita’s, 7 p.m., $15. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www. juanitas.com.

Irish Traditional Music Session. Hibernia Irish Tavern, first and third Sunday of every month, 2:30 p.m. 9700 N Rodney Parham Road. 501246-4340. www.hiberniairishtavern.com.

Jeffrey Lewis, Wooden Wand, (Clap!) Kidz Pop. Dedicated, 9 p.m., $10. 320 W. 7th St. Karaoke. Shorty Small’s, 6-9 p.m. 1475 Hogan Lane, Conway. 501-764-0604. www.shortysmalls.com.

Karaoke with DJ Sara. Hardrider Bar & Grill, 7 p.m., free. 6613 John Harden Drive, Cabot.

501-982-1939 ‎.

The Psychic Ills. Vino’s, 7 p.m., $5. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www.vinosbrewpub.com.

Snowmine, Spanish Prisoners, Knox Hamilton.

18-and-older show. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 8 p.m., $6. 107 Commerce St. 501-3727707. www.stickyfingerz.com.

Sunday Jazz Brunch with Ted Ludwig and Joe Cripps. Vieux Carre, 11 a.m. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.vieuxcarrecafe.com.

Traditional Irish Music Session. Hibernia Irish Tavern, through : third Sunday of every month, 2:30 p.m. 9700 N Rodney Parham Road. 501246-4340. www.hiberniairishtavern.com.

Valley of the Vapors Independent Music Festival. Featuring Two Cow Garage, Oberhofer, Pond (Australia), El Paso Hot Button, BRONCHO, Big John Bates (Canada), Child Bite, The Big Sleep, Love of Everything, Water Liars, Southeast Engine, R. Ring Low Key Arts, 12 p.m. 118 Arbor St., Hot Springs.

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EVENTS

Argenta Tulip Festival 2012. See March 14.

Buddhist retreat. See March 17.

SPORTS

2012 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship. Jack Stephens Center, UALR, March 18, 4 and 6:30 p.m.; March 20, 8:30 p.m., $50. 2801 S. University Ave. 501-565-8257.

Horse racing. See March 14.

Nothin’ but Net Senior 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament. Senior teams aged 50 and up play at various times and venues at this qualiCONTINUED ON PAGE 29

2011 2012

March 27 7:30 p.m. ™

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MARCH 14, 2012

27

MOVIE LISTINGS

MARCH 16-17

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Market Street Cinema times at or after 9 p.m. are for Friday and Saturday only. Breckenridge, Movies 10 and Rave showings were not available as of press deadline. Find up-to-date listings at arktimes.com.

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MARCH 14, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

NEW MOVIES 21 Jump Street (R) – Buddy cop comedy starring Jonah Hill and former male stripper Channing Tatum. Chenal 9: 10:15 a.m., 1:15, 4:15, 7:15, 10:15. Lakewood 8: 11:00 a.m., 1:40, 4:05, 7:05, 9:40. Riverdale: 11:20 a.m., 2:00, 4:25, 7:00, 9:35.

Bullhead (R) – A Belgian farmer with an insecurity complex gets mixed up with steroids and organized crime. Market Street: 1:45, 4:00, 7:00, 9:15.

RETURNING THIS WEEK Act of Valor (R) – This action thriller stars real-life U.S. Navy SEALs. Chenal 9: 10:10 a.m., 1:10, 4:10, 7:10, 10:10. Lakewood 8: 11:05 a.m., 1:35, 4:10, 7:00, 9:30. Riverdale: 11:40 a.m., 2:05, 4:35, 7:10, 9:45.

Albert Nobbs (R) – Some capital-“A” Acting from Glenn Close, who portrays a woman who must live as a man in stifling 19th century Ireland.

Market Street: 4:15, 9:15.

The Artist (PG-13) – This meta-homage to the black-and-white silent films of yore concerns a silent film star whose career is jeopardized by the advent of talkies. With Jean Dujardin.

Market Street: 2:00, 4:20, 7:00, 9:15.

Gone (PG-13) – Scary psychological suspensethriller starring the always freaked-out looking Amanda Seyfried as she tracks a kidnapper.

Riverdale: 7:35, 9:55.

The Iron Lady (PG-13) – Has Meryl Streep ever been bad in a movie? This movie about

Margaret Thatcher hasn’t gotten very good reviews, but apparently Streep’s performance redeems it. Market Street: 2:00, 4:15, 7:15, 9:15.

Riverdale: 11:10 a.m., 1:55, 4:30, 7:05, 9:40.

John Carter (PG-13) – “Braveheart” goes to Avatarnia, based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel. Chenal 9:10:30 a.m. (2D), 1:30, 4:30, 7:30, 10:30 (3D), 10:00 a.m., 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 10:00 (IMAX 3D). Lakewood 8: 11:00 a.m. (2D), 1:45, 4:30, 7:15, 10:00 (3D). Riverdale: 11:05 a.m., 1:50, 4:35, 7:20, 10:05.

The Lorax (PG) – A 3D CGI adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ classic tale. Chenal 9: 10:00 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 1:30, 4:00, 4:30, 7:00, 7:30 (2D), 1:00, 9:45 (3D). Lakewood 8: 11:25 a.m., 4:00 (2D), 1:30, 7:10, 9:20 (3D). Riverdale: 11:25 a.m., 1:30, 3:35, 5:40, 7:45, 9:50.

Project X (R) – Millennial brats throw a rager that gets out of hand, from producer Todd Phillips of “The Hangover” and “Hated: G.G. Allin and The Murder Junkies” renown. Chenal 9: 10:20 a.m., 1:20, 4:20, 7:20, 10:20. Lakewood 8: 11:35 a.m., 2:05, 4:40, 7:30, 10:00. Riverdale: 11:30 a.m., 1:30, 3:25, 5:30, 7:30, 9:30.

The Secret World of Arrietty (G) – Animated tale about a family of tiny fairies who must survive the challenges and dangers of the suburban garden in which they dwell. Riverdale: 11:15 a.m., 1:40, 4:05.

A Separation (PG-13) – Oscar-winning Iranian drama about the dissolution of a marriage of an upper middle class couple. Market Street: 1:45, 6:45.

Silent House (R) – Elizabeth Olson gets locked in her family’s lake house then some terror happens. Chenal 9: 10:05 a.m., 1:05, 4:05, 7:05, 10:05. Lakewood 8: 11:10 a.m., 1:40, 4:35, 7:35,

9:55. Riverdale: 11:00 a.m., 1:00, 3:05, 5:10, 7:15, 9:25.

Thin Ice (R) – Snowbound murder comedy starring Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin, Billy Crudup and Lea Thompson. Market Street: 2:15, 4:25, 6:45, 9:00.

A Thousand Words (PG-13) – Eddie Murphy becomes magically connected to a tree that loses one leaf for every word he says, and they’ll both die if all the leaves fall off, so he has to not talk. Chenal 9: 10:25 a.m., 1:25, 4:25, 7:25, 10:25.

Lakewood 8: 11:30 a.m., 2:00, 4:25, 7:25, 9:45.

Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds (PG-13) – Worlds collide for a successful businessman who meets a down-on-her-luck single mom who cleans the office building where he works. Chenal 9: 10:15 p.m. Lakewood 8: 11:15 a.m., 1:55, 4:20, 7:20, 9:50. Riverdale: 11:00 a.m., 1:40, 4:15, 6:40, 9:05.

Wanderlust (R) – Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston play a stressed-out yuppie couple who stumble upon a nudist colony. Riverdale: 11:35 a.m., 1:45, 4:10, 6:25, 8:40.

Chenal 9 IMAX Theatre: 17825 Chenal Parkway, 821-2616, www.dtmovies.com.

Cinemark Movies 10: 4188 E. McCain Blvd., 945-7400, www.cinemark.com.

Cinematown Riverdale 10: Riverdale Shopping Center, 296-9955, www.riverdale10.com.

Lakewood 8: 2939 Lakewood Village Drive, 7585354, www.fandango.com.

Market Street Cinema: 1521 Merrill Drive, 312-8900, www.marketstreetcinema.net.

Rave Colonel Glenn 18: 18 Colonel Glenn Plaza, 687-0499, www.ravemotionpictures.com.

Regal Breckenridge Village 12: 1-430 and Rodney Parham, 224-0990, www.fandango.com.

MOVIE REVIEW

‘JOHN CARTER’: Lynn Collins and Taylor Kitsch star.

Adrift in retro fantasy-land ‘John Carter’ lacks direction.

BY SAM EIFLING

T

o dismiss “John Carter” as merely a story about a man who mysteriously is transported to Mars would be to pigeonhole it. Rather, it goes so much further. It’s also about a man who must win over a race of bug-like barbarians, arena-battle giant rampaging monsters, woo a brainiac princess with boffo thighs and tap magic talismans to scoot his way back to Earth. Also there’s a dog-monster that’s pretty cute. And maybe some emotions or something, too.

OK, so it’s just a mixtape of the spacebarbarian tropes that have trickled into the culture since Edgar Rice Burroughs began publishing the original John Carter stories in 1912. At the time, Burroughs assumed a pen name for this pulp, underestimating his audience’s thirst for tales of love and war on the red planet. By now you’ve seen vestiges of “John Carter”

permeating the culture for decades. If you’re going to enjoy this popcorn flick, then, you’ve got to appreciate it as a retro sci-fi fantasy, because the source material has been too thoroughly scavenged for it to feel original or even, alas, all that creative.

The action opens in the 1880s, long before the advent of Mars rovers, as the balance between two warring factions on Mars is shifting. The rapacious city of Zodanga, led by Sab Than (Dominic West) allies with a group of ethereal floating monks to rout the peace-loving denizens of Helium. The only way out appears to be for Helium’s rulers to accept an arranged marriage between Than and the Helium princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). Perhaps there are better times to be accidentally transported to Mars, but it’s into this messy season that a

AFTER DARK, CONT. Confederate veteran named John Carter (Taylor Kitsch, of “Friday Night Lights” notoriety) is plunged when he stumbles into the wrong Arizona cave while prospecting/fleeing Union authorities.

On Mars, Carter realizes, the skimpy gravity works greatly in his favor. Even compared with the race of green, four-armed, tusked Tharks who find and apprehend him, he’s ridiculously strong; he also jumps like a flea. With those particular talents Carter soon finds himself embroiled in Martian geopolitics. Mostly that involves Helium and Zodanga battling in dragonflyesque air ships, with Carter hopping from ship to ship. But even this setup gets murky.

The gravest problem facing “John Carter” is the utter lack of explanation around the gravest threat facing John Carter. The celestial bad guys who equip Than with an all-destroying blue ray are the Holy Therns, who speak obliquely of what “the goddess” wants. Who are they? Where are they from? Whence do they derive their kooky, glowing magic? Dunno.

They’re just bad guys who help other bad guys fight the good guys. Boo, Therns.

Stylistically, there’s a right way and a wrong way to carry off a poncy space world in which the prevailing accents tilt “Downton Abbey.” The right way is with crackling dialogue, a fillip of cheerful near-irony in every scene and characters with crisp, distinct personalities. “John Carter,” alas, opts for something else. Too many lines sound like they were inserted as placeholders and never changed; that novelist Michael Chabon, of all hacks, shares a writing credit with director Andrew Stanton and Mark Andrews only adds insult to the inanity. Key characters, Carter included, come off as driven by their circumstances, instead of the other way ’round. Between the supersaturation of special effects, the paint-by-numbers dialogue and the ambiguity around key characters, “John Carter” feels like a George Lucas movie in which Lucas had too much control. Hankering for sequels, Disney may decide that one “John Carter” movie every hundred years is plenty.

fier for 2013 National Senior Games. Call for more info. Downtown Hot Springs. Central Avenue, Hot Springs. 501-321-1441.

MONDAY, MARCH 19

MUSIC

Delta Spirit, Waters. All-ages show. Revolution, 8 p.m., $12. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501823-0090. revroom.com.

Karaoke. Thirst n’ Howl, 8:30 p.m. 14710 Cantrell Road. 501-379-8189. www.thirst-n-howl.com.

Michael Underwood. The Afterthought, 8 p.m., free. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbar.com.

Motion City Soundtrack, A Great Big Pile of Leaves, Lighthouse and The Whaler.

Juanita’s, 8 p.m., $17 adv., $19 d.o.s. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www. juanitas.com.

Narrows, All Pigs Must Die. Dickson Theater, 9 p.m., $5. 227 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville.

479-575-0500.

Ringworm, Cancer Bats, Primitive Weapons, Motives. Downtown Music Hall, 7 p.m., $10.

211 W. Capitol. 501-376-1819. downtownmusichall.com.

Spanish Prisoners, Snowmine. The Ford Theater, 9 p.m. 1020 Front St., Conway. 501358-1755. thefordtheater.com.

Touch, Grateful Dead Tribute. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 8 p.m., $5. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www.stickyfingerz.com.

Valley of the Vapors Independent Music Festival. Featuring Maps & Atlases, Cloud Nothings, Grandchildren, Pujol, Psychic Ills, Prince Rama, Jeffrey Lewis, Woodenwand, The Underhill Family Orchestra. Low Key Arts.

118 Arbor St., Hot Springs.

EVENTS

Argenta Tulip Festival 2012. See March 14.

SPORTS

Horse racing. See March 14.

CLASSES

Beekeeping classes. Email dwayne_mcfarlan@ yahoo.com to register. Levy Church of Christ, March 19, 6-9 p.m.; March 20, 6-9 p.m.; March 22, 6-9 p.m., $30. 5124 Camp Robinson Road, NLR. 501-753-4860. levychurchofchrist.org.

Comic Book Illustration Workshop. Workshop led by Jeffrey Lewis. Low Key Arts, 4 p.m. 118 Arbor St., Hot Springs.

TUESDAY, MARCH 20

MUSIC

Delta Rae, Audrey Dean Kelly. Juanita’s, 8 p.m., $8 adv., $10 d.o.s. 614 President Clinton Ave. CONTINUED ON PAGE 31

13th AnnuAL

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Rock to North Little Rock St. Patrick’s Day Parade

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Bring canned food to benefit Arkansas Rice Depot www.IrishArkansas.org • 501.868.6416 • info@ IrishArkansas.org www.arktimes.com

MARCH 14, 2012

29

ART NOTES

Two days of art From NLR to Petit Jean.

BY LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK

A

rgenta ArtWalk. A special exhibit of work by veterans. A five-year anniversary celebration. The opening of a new permanent exhibit at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute. An exhibit featuring 170 photographs by 19 photographers. All this weekend. Maybe this will help you plan: Argenta ArtWalk, March 16: The third Friday monthly art stroll through downtown North Little Rock has a number of shows to see, starting at 5, 5:30 and 6 p.m. Start at 5 p.m. at three new AA venues: Blake’s Furniture (Peggy Roberson), Chop Salon (Steve Spencer) and Argenta Healing Arts (Erin Lorenzen).

Also starting at 5 p.m.: Karen Garner’s exhibition of watercolors, many of African animals, at Ketz Gallery. At 5:30 p.m., the Thea Foundation is hosting Arkansas League of Artists members Melanie Johnston (Japanese woodblock), John Woodridge (oil paintings), Mary Ann Stafford (pastel) and Kateri Joe (mixed media), who’ll show their work and demonstrate technique, and the Thea Visual Arts Scholarship Winners are exhibiting as well. The Pickoids will provide music.

At 6 p.m., Greg Thompson Fine Art opens an exhibition of 40 vintage photographs by the celebrated misanthrope Mike Disfarmer, in a show and sale curated by Jennifer Carman.

M2 Gallery’s “Five-Year Anniversary Show,” March 16: Across town, at 11525 Cantrell in the Pleasant Ridge Shopping Center, M2 celebrates from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday with an exhibit featuring etchings by noted Arkansas printmaker Evan Lindquist of Jonesboro back to 1964, new figure studies by Kentucky artist Jeaneen Barnhart and California artist Dan Holland and encaustic by Little Rock artist Cathy Burns.

“Blue-Eyed Knocker Photo Club Presents,” March 17: An exhibition of photographs, most created in the darkroom, by 19 current and former students of Little Rock photographer Rita Henry opens with a reception from 7 to 10 p.m.

Saturday at Gallery 26, 2601 Kavanaugh Blvd.

“From Cardboard to Canvas,” March 17: The Little Rock VA Medical Center Health Care for Homeless Veterans (HCHV) day center’s Creative Expressions program, directed by Stephanie Goins, gives a creative outlet to veterans struggling with grief and other postservice stresses. Starving Artist Cafe, 411 Main St., North Little Rock, is featuring

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MARCH 14, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

MIKE DISFARMER: Photos at Greg Thompson Fine Art.

artwork by the veterans and portraits of them through March; reception is 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday night.

WINTHROP ROCKEFELLER INSTITUTE, March 17: It’s not in Little Rock, but lots of folks from LR will head to Petit Jean Mountain Saturday afternoon for the unveiling of a new permanent exhibit at the institute, “270: Lt. Gov. Winthrop P. Rockefeller, A Lifetime of Service.” (The 270 refers to the lieutenant governor’s office number at the State Capitol.) Remarks by several dignitaries, including Lisenne Rockefeller, widow of the late lieutenant governor, will open the exhibit at 2 p.m.; a reception will follow.

Heights neighborhood merchants are helping raise funds for the Little Rock Zoo on Thursday night, posting docents and animals at “Zoo Depots” along Kavanaugh Boulevard from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Stephano’s celebrates “Zoo Break” with the “March of the Penguins” art and animals from Out of the Woods Rescue.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art curator Kevin Murphy has a busy week: He’ll give a lecture on American Art at 5:45 p.m. Thursday, March 15, at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville’s Fine Arts Center, room 213. Then on March 16, he’ll join Crystal Bridges Museum’s Eleven restaurant director Case Dighero in a museum event for members and guests ($30) that will pair paintings with beverages. You must be 21 or older to attend; individual memberships at the museum are $55 a year ($75 for a family of two).

AFTER DARK, CONT. 501-372-1228. www.juanitas.com.

Hull, Mutilation Rites, Mainland Divide.

Downtown Music Hall, 8 p.m., $8. 211 W. Capitol. 501-376-1819. downtownmusichall. com.

J Roddy Walston & The Business, Shovels & Rope, Jonny Corndawg. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m., $10. 2500 W. 7th. 501-375-8400. www. whitewatertavern.com.

Jeff Long. Khalil’s Pub, 6 p.m. 110 S. Shackleford Road. 501-224-0224. www.khalilspub.com.

Jim Dickerson. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com.

JP & The Gilberts, Brian Martin. Maxine’s, 8 p.m., free. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. maxinespub.com.

Karaoke Night. Cornerstone Pub & Grill, 8 p.m.

314 Main St., NLR. 501-374-1782. cstonepub. com.

Karaoke Tuesday. Prost, 8 p.m., free. 120 Ottenheimer. 501-244-9550.

Karaoke with Big John Miller. Denton’s Trotline, 8 p.m. 2150 Congo Road, Benton. 501-3151717.

Karoke with Debbit T. Thirst n’ Howl, March 20, 8 p.m.; March 27, 8 p.m., free. 14710 Cantrell Road. 501-379-8189. www.thirst-n-howl.com.

Lucious Spiller Band. Copeland’s, 6-9 p.m. 2602 S. Shackleford Road. 501-312-1616. www.copelandsofneworleans.com.

Ricky David Tripp. Ferneau, 5:30 p.m. 2601 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-603-9208. www.ferneaurestaurant.com.

Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds. 18-and-older show. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9 p.m., $6. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www. stickyfingerz.com.

Tuesday Jam Session with Carl Mouton. The Afterthought, 8 p.m., free. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbar.com.

Valley of the Vapors Independent Music Festival. Featuring American Pin-Up, Lost In Society, Kentucky Knife Fight, The Royal Heist, Depaysment. Low Key Arts. 118 Arbor St., Hot Springs.

DANCE

“Latin Night.” Revolution, 7 p.m., $5 regular, $7 under 21. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-8230090. www.revroom.com.

EVENTS

3 Lives Blood Drive. Remington College-Little Rock, 8 a.m. 19 Remington Drive. 800-448-6405. www.3Lives.com.

Argenta Tulip Festival 2012. See March 14.

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. 501-372-7468. www. beerknurd.com/stores/littlerock.

SPORTS

2012 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship. Jack Stephens Center, UALR, 8:30 p.m., $50. 2801 S. University Ave. 501-5658257.

Horse racing. See March 14.

CLASSES

Beekeeping classes. See March 19.

KIDS

Buddy the T. Rex from AETN’s “Dinosaur Train” series. Museum of Discovery, $8-$10, free for members. 500 Clinton Ave. 396-7050. www.amod.org.

Wiggle Worms: “Starting Seeds.” Weekly pro-

gram designed specifically for pre-K children.

Museum of Discovery, $8-$10, free for members.

500 Clinton Ave. 396-7050. www.amod.org.

THIS WEEK IN THEATER

“The All-New Original Tribute to The Blues Brothers.” Walton Arts Center, Fri., March 16, 8 p.m., $24-$56. 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville.

479-443-5600.

Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre: “If You Take a Mouse to School”. Arkansas Arts Center, through March 25: Fri., 7 p.m.; Sat., 3 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m., $11-$14. 501 E. 9th St. 501372-4000. www.arkarts.com.

Auditions for “Moonlight and Magnolias.”

Four roles are available, three men and one woman. Auditions will be cold readings from the script. The Public Theatre, March 17-18, 2 p.m. 616 Center St. 501-410-2283. www.thepublictheatre.com.

“Branson on the Road.” Includes country, bluegrass, rockabilly, gospel and comedy. Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, Wed., March 14, 11 a.m. and 6 p.m., $15-$33. 6323 Col. Glenn Road. 501-5623131. murrysdinnerplayhouse.com.

“The Miracle Worker.” The story of Annie Sullivan and her student, Helen Keller. The Weekend Theater, through March 24: Fri., Sat., 7:30 p.m., $12-$16. 1001 W. 7th St. 501-374-3761. www.weekendtheater.org.

Red Skelton — “A Tribute by Tom Mullica.”

Entertainer Tom Mullica magically transforms himself into the comedy genius Red Skelton. entertainer Tom Mullica magically transforms himself into the comedy genius Red Skelton.

Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, Fri., March 16, 6 p.m.; Sat., March 17, 6 p.m.; Sun., March 18, 11 a.m. and 6 p.m., $15-$33. 6323 Col. Glenn Road.

501-562-3131. murrysdinnerplayhouse.com.

“The Red Velvet Cake Wars.” This comedy from the trio of Jones, Hope and Wooten concerns the three Verdeen cousins, Gaynelle, Peaches, and Jimmie Wyvette, and the mishaps that occur when they plan a family reunion. Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, through April 22: Tue.-Sat., 6 p.m.; Wed., 11 a.m.; Sun., 11 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., $15-$33. 6323 Col. Glenn Road. 501-5623131. murrysdinnerplayhouse.com.

“The Wiz.” The 1970s Broadway hit re-imagines “The Wizard of Oz” as a Motown musical. Arkansas Repertory Theatre, through April 1: Wed., Thu., 7 p.m.; Fri., Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 and 7 p.m., $30-$60. 601 Main St. 501-378-0405. www.therep.org.

four non-profits: Heifer International, UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital and The Rep, March 21-April 9; free coloring contest for kids in conjunction with the exhibition, deadline March 16, heifer.org for more information. 907-2953.

LOCAL COLOUR GALLERY, 5811 Kavanaugh Blvd.: “Cheers to You,” patrons’ party, 5:30-8 p.m. March 15. 265-0422.

KETZ GALLERY, 705 Main St., NLR: “All Things Wild,” paintings by Karen Garner, opens with reception 5-8 p.m. March 16, Argenta Artwalk. 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.Fri., 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Sat. 529-6330.

M2GALLERY, 11525 Cantrell: “Five-Year Anniversary Show,” etchings by Evan Lindquist, new works by Jeaneen Barnhart, Cathy Burns and Dan Holland, reception 6-9 p.m. March 16. 225-6257.

OLD STATE HOUSE MUSEUM, 300 W. Markham: “Archeologies of the Civil War in Arkansas,” Brown Bag Lunch Lecture by Jamie Brandon, noon March 15; “Things You Need to Hear: Memories of Growing up in Arkansas from 1890 to 1980,” oral histories about community, family, work, school and leisure. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 324-9685.

STARVING ARTIST CAFE, 411 Main St., NLR: “From Cardboard to Canvas,” artwork by homeless veterans and those who’ve experienced homelessness, sponsored by the VA Medical Center Health Care for Homeless Veterans (HCHV) day center’s Creative Expressions program, through March, reception 6-8 p.m. March 17. 2574392.

STEPHANO’S FINE ART, 5501 Kavanaugh Blvd.: “Zoo Break,” fund-raiser for the Little Rock Zoo, 5:30-7 p.m. March 15, “Green

Beer and Eggs,” 11 a.m.-5 p.m. March 17, preview of “Eggshibition” eggs. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 563-4218.

THEA FOUNDATION, 401 Main St., NLR: Melanie Johnston, John Woodridge, Mary Ann Stafford and Kateri Joe, demonstrations and exhibit of their work; “Thea Visual Arts Competition Winners Show”; live music by the Pickoids, 5:30-8 p.m.

March 15, Argenta ArtWalk. 379-9512.

FAYETTEVILLE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS: Lecture by Kevin Murphy, curator of American Art at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, 5:45 p.m. March 15, room 213, Fine Arts Center.

BENTONVILLE CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART: “WOW,” curator Kevin Murphy and culinary director Case Dighero pair works from the collection with beverages from Eleven restaurant, 6-7 p.m. March 16, $30. Register at membership@crystalbridges.org SUGAR GALLERY, 114 W. Central Ave.: “Robert Lemming: Dysfunctional Morphology,” sculpture, March 15-25, reception 6-8 p.m. March 17. 2-6 p.m. Thu., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 479273-5305.

MORRILTON WINTHROP ROCKEFELLER INSTITUTE, Petit Jean Mountain: “270: Lt. Gov. Winthrop P. Rockefeller, a Lifetime of Service,” replication of Win Rockefeller’s state Capitol office (1996-2006), other artifacts, opening ceremony with remarks by Lisenne Rockefeller and others, 2 p.m. March 17, reception to follow. 501-727-6226.

GALLERIES, MUSEUMS

NEW EXHIBITIONS, EVENTS

ARGENTA HEALING ARTS, 419 Main St.: Work by Erin Lorenzen, 5-8 p.m. March 16, Argenta ArtWalk. 244-0447.

BLAKE’S FURNITURE, 3rd and Main, NLR: Work by Peggy Roberson, 5-8 p.m. March 16, Argenta ArtWalk. 529-6330.

CHOP SALON, 322 Main St.: Work by Steve Spencer, 5-8 p.m. March 16, Argenta ArtWalk. 375-5555.

GALLERY 26, 2601 Kavanaugh Blvd.: “BlueEyed Knocker Photo Club Presents,” 170 photographs by 19 photographers working in film and digital media, March 17-May 12, reception 7-10 p.m. March 17. 664-8996.

GREG THOMPSON FINE ART, 429 Main St., NLR: “Disfarmer: Portraits from a Lifetime,” 40 vintage prints by Mike Disfarmer, opening reception 6-8 p.m. March 16, Argenta ArtWalk, documentary film screening 2 p.m. April 14, followed by Q & A with curator Jennifer Carman. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sat. 920-2778.

HEIFER VILLAGE, 1 World Ave.: “Design for a Cause,” art and graphic design work of

www.arktimes.com

MARCH 14, 2012

31

Dining

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

WHAT’S COOKIN’

ness, is now open in the River Market’s Ottenheimer Hall. They’re selling what everyone knows as Popsicles, but as “Popsicle” is a registered trademark, they’re careful to call them simply “pops” or “ice lollies.”

On sale on Monday: Orange Creme, Not So Thin Mint, Grapefruit Mint, Cucumber Jalapeno, Tutti Frutti Smoothie, Lemon Drop, Chocolate Marvel (made with a Belgian dark chocolate), Strawberry, Strawberry Basil, Salted Caramel, Vietnamese Coffee and Ninja Turtle (grape and lime). All go for $2.50.

All of the Le Pops are made inhouse using fresh ingredients. As often as she can, Le Pops chef and co-owner Laurie Harrison uses local ingredients, according to co-owner Beth Williams. The Vietnamese Coffee, for instance, is made from a RoZark Hills blend. The strawberries are from Arkansas. Williams said Le Pops will be buying vegetables from the Arkansas Sustainability Network this spring.

Le Pops is open from around 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday with extended hours on days when Harrison is cooking and on Saturdays when the Farmers Market is on.

Le Pops are also available at the Athletic Club and Pizza Cafe. Find them at Travs’ games when the season gets underway in April, too.

DINING CAPSULES

AMERICAN

65TH STREET DINER Blue collar, meatand-two-veg lunch spot with cheap desserts and a breakfast buffet. 3201 West 65th St. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-5627800. BL Mon.-Fri. ACADIA A jewel of a restaurant in Hillcrest.

Unbelievable fixed-price, three-course dinners on Mondays and Tuesday, but food is certainly worth full price. 3000 Kavanaugh Blvd. Full bar, CC. $$-$$$.

501-603-9630. D Mon.-Sat. BIG ORANGE: BURGERS SALADS SHAKES Gourmet burgers manufactured according to exacting specs (humanely raised beef!) and properly fried Kennebec potatoes are the big draws, but you can get a veggie burger as well as fried chicken, curried falafel and blacked tilapia sandwiches, plus creative mealsized salads. 17809 Chenal Parkway. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-821-1515. LD daily.

BLACK ANGUS Charcoal-grilled burgers, hamburger steaks and steaks proper are the big draws at this local institution.

10907 N. Rodney Parham. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-228-7800. BLD Mon.-Sat. CONTINUED ON PAGE 33 32

MARCH 14, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

Hits and misses at Izzy’s The good, the bad and the congealed.

I

t’s been years since we were last at Izzy’s, so our memories of the place way out west had grown fuzzy. On a recent return trip, we were immediately put off by Izzy’s size and chain-y vibe. Our sensibilities lean towards quirky and intimate, and Izzy’s seemed a bit generic and overwhelming. But for the record, Izzy’s is family-owned, founded in 1985. So yeah, it’s not a chain, and we did appreciate the attempt to showcase local art. Our service was fast and friendly, both when the place was packed (lunch) and when it was empty (7:30 p.m., an hour before close).

Online, Izzy’s touts its offerings as “healthy food for healthy people.” The restaurant even offers full vegan and gluten-free menus separate from the regular menu. So on our first visit, we went sans meat. We had a veggie burger and vegetarian tamale. The menu describes the burger as “loaded with veggies, along with ginger and bamboo shoots.” The sesame bun was soft, fresh and toasted, and the lettuce, onion and pickle were a crisp combo. But the burger itself was bland. The patty had whole corn and peas (a plus), but only the slightest spicy kick. We think with a much stronger dose of ginger, this burger could have been a showstopper.

Izzy’s is noted for its veggie tamales, and we encountered a hearty specimen. The thick, steaming corn shell had an unbelievably moist, dissolve-on-ourtongues texture. We were slightly disappointed with the black bean filling (a little more heat, please) and wary of the accompanying cheese dip. But our misgivings were displaced, because the dip, with a dash of cilantro on top, proved creamy, sweet and clean.

We topped the meal with a pot of organic Chinese Pu’erh loose tea, another Izzy’s specialty. One pot serves two cups, and the tea comes with a take-away container so you can re-use the leaves at home.

The pu’erh is supposed to help digest fatty foods, like the bowlful of cheese dip we’d just consumed.

This rich, amber liquid was the climax of our first Izzy’s experience. It tasted like our grandfather’s workroom smells — worn leather, old wood soaked with engine grease, dark soil, mushrooms and damp. And we know how ridiculous

CHEREE FRANCO

LE POPS, the local ice-treats busi-

HEARTY: Izzy’s veggie tamales with cheese dip.

Izzy’s

5601 Ranch Drive Little Rock 868-4311

QUICK BITE Izzy’s teas are purchased fair-trade, directly from international farmers.

Tea offerings include five varieties of green, two oolongs, two jasmines, a pu’erh, two blacks (including a chai), a white, a rooibos and a chamomile.

Izzy’s imports its teas from organic farms in China, Japan, South Africa, Egypt and India and sells them by the pot and in bulk.

HOURS 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday through Saturday.

OTHER INFO Credit cards accepted, beer and wine available.

this sounds, but that is actually a delicious, comforting combination. Each sip brought a fuller realization of the bold flavor, which when we sipped, we realized, held all sorts of subtle secrets. According to the description, the tea had been aged for a full decade.

Maybe that’s why it tasted all martial-artsmovie mystical.

The tea was served with honey, which diluted the heaviness and made our second cup a proper dessert. (We had the first cup honey-free.) Izzy’s collects the honey from

its own backyard bees and sells it by the bottle. It had an excellent flavor — mild, floral, not too sharp.

A few days later, we went back to Izzy’s for dinner. This time we tried the beef tamale platter, smothered with a blanket of meaty, whole bean, tomato-chunk chili, and served with homemade salsa and that delectable cheese sauce. The chili was moist, but way too meaty. It was essentially a plateful of wet ground round — the flavor and texture of all else eclipsed by the incredible meatiness of the thing.

The tamales were stuffed with compacted shredded beef, so the texture seemed artificial rather than loose and tender. From now on, we’ll stick with the veggie tamales.

We wanted to counter our garden burger with the real thing, so we ordered a beef hamburger. We weren’t asked how we wanted our meat cooked, and it came to us well done and, frankly, dry. The highlight was a handful of jalapenos tucked under the bun, offering a welcome zing.

We also tried a salmon Nicoise salad.

The salad was simply boring. The greens were mixed with iceberg lettuce; the red onions were the most flavorful thing in the salad. According to the menu, the salmon was poached in herb garlic butter. It definitely could have used more garlic, more herbs or more butter — maybe all three.

Even the homemade vinaigrette seemed bland.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 33

CHEREE FRANCO

CROSSWORD Information in our restaurant capsules re

flects 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.

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

BOBBY’S CAFE Delicious, humungo burgers and tasty homemade deserts at this Levy diner. 12230 MacArthur Drive. NLR. No alcohol, No CC. $. 501-851-7888. BL Tue.-Fri., D Thu.-Fri. BOSCOS This River Market brewery does food well, too. Along with tried and true things like sandwiches, burgers, steaks and big salads, they have entrees like black bean and goat cheese tamales, open hearth pizza ovens and muffalettas. 500 President Clinton Ave. Full bar, Beer, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-907-1881. LD daily.

BOUDREAUX’S GRILL & BAR A homey, seat-yourself Cajun joint in Maumelle that serves up all sorts of variations of shrimp and catfish. With particularly tasty red beans and rice, jambalaya and bread pudding. 9811 Maumelle Blvd. NLR. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-753-6860. L Sat., D Mon.-Sat. BOULEVARD BREAD CO. Fresh bread, fresh pastries, wide selection of cheeses, meats, side dishes; all superb. Good coffee, too. 1920 N. Grant St. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$. 501-663-5951. BLD Mon.-Sat. 400 President Clinton Ave. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$. 501-374-1232. BL Mon.-Sat. 401 W. Markham St. No alcohol, All CC. $$. 501-526-6661. BL Mon.-Fri. 1417 Main St. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-375-5100. BL Mon.-Fri., BL Sat. BROWN SUGAR BAKESHOP Fabulous cupcakes, brownies and cakes offered five days a week until they’re sold out. 419 E. 3rd St. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-372-4009. LD Tue.-Sat. BUTCHER SHOP The cook-your-own-steak option has been downplayed, and several menu additions complement the calling card: large, fabulous cuts of prime beef, cooked to perfection. 10825 Hermitage Road. Full bar, All CC. $$$. 501-312-2748. D daily.

CAJUN’S WHARF The venerable seafood restaurant serves up great gumbo and oysters Bienville, and options such as fine steaks for the nonseafood eater. In the citified bar, you’ll find nightly entertainment, too.

2400 Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-375-5351. D Mon.-Sat. CAMP DAVID Inside the Holiday Inn Presidential Conference Center, Camp David particularly pleases with its breakfast and themed buffets each day of the week. Wonderful Sunday brunch. 600 Interstate 30. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-975-2267. BLD daily.

CAPERS It’s never been better, with as good a wine list as any in the area, and a menu that covers a lot of ground — seafood, steaks, pasta — and does it all well. 4502 Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-868-7600.

LD Mon.-Sat. CHEDDAR’S Large selection of somewhat standard American casual cafe choices, many of which are made from scratch. Portions are large and prices are very reasonable. 400 South University. Full bar, All CC. $-$$.

501-614-7578. LD daily.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 34

EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ Across 1 Flimflam 6 Char, as a steak 10 Handy roll-outs at sleepovers 14 ___ on (sentence shortener) 15 SeaWorld performer 16 Some 17 Throat lozenge for low-voiced opera stars?

19 See 43-Across 20 Museum piece 21 Certain weasel 22 Course with many unknowns: Abbr.

25 Cause of a sexual harassment complaint?

28 Dorm-mates, e.g.

30 Social finale?

31 Way to go: Abbr.

32 Its logo includes its name in blue letters in a yellow oval 33 Is miserly 35 Talk about pitchers and quarterbacks?

41 Pullman features 42 Class with a skeleton in the closet?: Abbr.

43 The Cavaliers of the 19-Across 45 Mate’s approval 46 “Far out!”

49 Pub with no karaoke?

52 Kitchen meas.

53 Grad students’ grillings 54 Dodges, perhaps 56 Woodsy scent 57 Admission provider for a kissing booth?

62 Flair

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE H A W K A G E E G R E A S P O P C A R E P R O V W A N R P M C H A R C O V E O N E A L E N T A S S A

O H T A E R M E

C A P I T A A B L R A N A T I S N L I E N A L T O L Y Y

T R E O

O U K M S A U S R U B L E N E E T H D P E A T E A R O T P C S M E O N H E D O O V E S E R

M U S H Y

A L T A R S

S C O R E D

S H R E D S

A C E D R O P C O R E S E Z E N A L D I D I D D O V E

63 1968 winner of the 43-Down 64 Give birth, as a whale 65 Eliot who pursued Capone 66 Top dog 67 Home of Middle East University Down 1 Terrif 2 Coded material 3 Some Super Bowl highlights 4 Red state, once 5 “The Sound of Music” tune 6 Some foods for growing babies 7 Co-anchor Hill of “The Early Show” 8 Crackerjack pilot 9 U.K. military arm 10 Main section of a long poem 11 “No way!”

12 Precursor to a memorable Boston party 13 Wrap in bandages 18 Nobelist Wiesel 21 Exec’s note taker 22 Lifeless 23 Crafty Norse god 24 Loses it 26 Foes of the Jedi 27 Commotion 29 Ceremonial rod 33 Urban grid: Abbr.

34 Start of a Clement Moore classic 36 Range extending from the Arctic to Kazakhstan

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Puzzle by Lynn Lempel

37 Eye annoyance 38 “___ the Boss” (Mick Jagger album) 39 Crashes into 40 Fred Astaire move

43 Annual tournament played in N.Y.C.

44 Manly 46 Mistreated 47 James with an electrical unit named after him 48 Beethoven’s Third, popularly 50 Valleys 51 One of the Obamas 55 Con game

57 Cantankerous cry 58 “What’s the ___?”

59 Alphabetic trio for fliers 60 Powerful Perón 61 Sum of the first three prime numbers

For answers, call 1-900-285-5656, $1.49 a minute; or, with a credit card, 1-800-814-5554.

Annual subscriptions are available for the best of Sunday crosswords from the last 50 years: 1-888-7-ACROSS. AT&T users: Text NYTX to 386 to download puzzles, or visit nytimes.com/mobilexword for more information.

Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 2,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year).

Share tips: nytimes.com/wordplay.

Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/learning/xwords.

THIS MODERN WORLD

DINING REVIEW, CONT.

At dinner “we” were four, but only three of us tasted everything, since one of us is vegetarian. And it was the very end of the evening for Izzy’s, which may explain a lot, including what happened next.

Our roasted veggie lasagna had obviously been sitting for awhile. The sauce had dried and caked, and on top of that, it was pasty and too sweet. The cheese was congealing rather than cascading. Overall, there was an alarming just-zapped sensation.

Now, we know that lasagna is usually baked as a whole casserole, not in individual portions, and Izzy’s was due to close in 40 minutes. We wanted to try a pasta dish. Perhaps it would have been fairer to go with another selection? Or maybe Izzy’s should just be “out” of lasagna after it’s been sitting for an hour?

One of us swore that the lasagna must have come from an aluminum tray, but the others had more faith in Izzy’s, although we were, we don’t know, confused. We dissected the stale square, discovering squash and zucchini in circles and chunks, indicating that somehow this should have worked. Our conclusion: even mom’s lasagna is only good straight from the oven.

But the meal did end on a high note, and a creamy, tangy high note at that. The lemon ice box pie with a crunchy walnut graham crust almost made us forget everything that came before. www.arktimes.com

MARCH 14, 2012

33

DINING CAPSULES, CONT. COAST CAFE A variety of salads, smoothies, sandwiches and pizzas, and there’s breakfast and coffee, too. 400 President Clinton Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-371-0164. BL Mon.-Sat. COMMUNITY BAKERY This sunny downtown bakery is the place to linger over a latte, bagels and the New York Times. 1200 S. Main St. No alcohol, CC. $-$$. 501-375-7105. BLD daily.

270 S. Shackleford. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$.

501-224-1656. BLD Mon.-Sat. BL Sun. COPPER GRILL Comfort food, burgers and more sophisticated fare at this River Marketarea hotspot. 300 E. Third St. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-375-3333. LD Mon.-Sat. CRUSH WINE BAR An unpretentious downtown bar/lounge with an appealing and erudite wine list. With tasty tapas, but no menu

for full meals. 318 Main St. NLR. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$. 501-374-9463. D Tue.-Sat. DAVE’S PLACE A popular downtown soupand-sandwich stop at lunch draws a large and diverse crowd for the Friday night dinner, which varies in theme. 201 Center St. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-372-3283. L Mon.-Fri., D Fri. DAVID FAMILY KITCHEN Neckbones, ribs, sturdy cornbread, salmon croquettes, mustard greens and the like. Desserts are exceptionally good. 2301 Broadway. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-371-0141. BL Sun.-Fri. DELICIOUS TEMPTATIONS Decadent breakfast and light lunch items that can be ordered in full or half orders to please any appetite or palate, with a great variety of salads and soups as well. Don’t miss the bourbon pecan pie — it’s a winner. 11220 Rodney Parham Road. No

alcohol, All CC. $$. 501-225-6893. BL daily.

DIZZY’S GYPSY BISTRO Interesting bistro fare, served in massive portions at this River Market favorite. 200 River Market Ave. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-375-3500. LD Tue.-Sat. THE FADED ROSE The Cajun-inspired menu seldom disappoints. Steaks and soaked salads are legendary. 1615 Rebsamen Park Road. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-663-9734. LD daily.

FERNEAU Great seafood, among other things, is served at the Ice House Revival in Hillcrest. 2601 Kavanaugh Blvd. Full bar, All CC. $$$-$$$$. 501-603-9208. D Tue.-Sat. FLYING SAUCER A popular River Market hangout thanks to its almost 200 beers (including 75 on tap) and more than decent bar food. 323 President Clinton Ave. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-372-7468. LD daily.

3rd AnnuAl Silent live Auction Thursday, March 15 • 5:30-9pM next level eventS • little rock Auctioneer/Paramedic

Chris Workman

$15 per person, Proceeds Benefit arkanSaS Donor Family council Great Silent auction itemS:

Derby Weekend in Hot Springs Weekend stay at the Memphis Peabody Diamond Jewelry from Jones and Son Family Pass Package to the LR Zoo JB’s Guided Fishing Tour for two on Lake Maumelle Many Restaurant and Retail Gift Certificates plus Much, Much MORE!

Door Prizes • Drinks • Hors D’oeuvres Call for more information: 501.749.5738 • www.arora.org support organ donation

buy a donation plate

34

MARCH 14, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

Hosted by

FRANKE’S CAFETERIA Plate lunch spot strong on salads and vegetables, and perfect fried chicken on Sundays. 11121 N. Rodney Parham Road. No alcohol, All CC. $$. 501-2254487. LD daily. 400 W. Capitol Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $$. 501-372-1919. L Mon.-Fri. GADWALL’S GRILL & PIZZA Mouth-watering burgers and specialty sandwiches, plus zesty pizzas with cracker-thin crust and plenty of toppings. 12 North Hills Shopping Center.

NLR. Beer, Wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-834-1840.

LD daily.

KIERRE’S KOUNTRY KITCHEN Excellent home-cooking joint for huge helpings of meat loaf and chicken-fried steak, cooked-down vegetables and wonderful homemade pies and cakes. 6 Collins Place. NLR. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-758-0903. BLD Tue.-Fri., BL Sat. MARKHAM STREET GRILL AND PUB Try the burgers, which are juicy, big and fine. 11321 W. Markham St. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-2242010. LD daily.

OLD MILL BREAD AND FLOUR CO. CAFE The popular take-out bakery has an eat-in restaurant and friendly operators. It’s selfservice, simple and good with sandwiches built with a changing lineup of the bakery’s 40 different breads, along with soups, salads and cookies. 12111 W. Markham St. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-228-4677. BL Mon.-Sat. BR Sun. RED DOOR Fresh seafood, steaks, chops and sandwiches. 3701 Old Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-666-8482. BL Mon.-Fri. D daily.

REDBONE’S Piquant Creole and Cajun food that’s among Little Rock’s best. The shrimp po-boy and duck and andouille gumbo are standouts. 300 President Clinton Ave. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-372-2211. LD daily.

RENO’S ARGENTA CAFE Sandwiches, gyros and gourmet pizzas by day and music and drinks by night. 312 N. Main St. NLR. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-376-2900.

RIVERFRONT STEAKHOUSE Steaks are the draw here — nice cuts heavily salted and peppered, cooked quickly and accurately to your specifications, finished with butter and served sizzling hot. 2 Riverfront Place.

NLR. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-375-7825.

D Mon.-Sat. RUDY’S OYSTER BAR Good boiled shrimp and oysters on the half shell. Quesadillas and chili cheese dip are tasty and ultra-hearty. 2695 Pike Ave. NLR. Full bar, All CC. 501-771-0808.

LD Mon.-Sat. STICKYZ ROCK ‘N’ ROLL CHICKEN SHACK Fingers any way you can imagine, plus sandwiches and burgers. 107 Commerce St. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-372-7707. LD Mon-Sat. TOWN PUMP A dependable burger, plus basic beer food. 1321 Rebsamen Park Road. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-663-9802. L Mon.-Sat. D daily.

TRIO’S Fresh, creative and satisfying lunches; even better at night, when the chefs take flight. Best array of fresh desserts in town.

8201 Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$.

501-221-3330. LD Mon.-Sat., BR Sun. TROPICAL SMOOTHIE CAFE Besides the 30 different fruit smoothies on the menu, the cafe also serves wraps and sandwiches (many of them spicy) and salads. 12911 Cantrell Road.

No alcohol, All CC. $$. 501-376-2233. BLD daily.

VIEUX CARRE A pleasant spot in Hillcrest with specialty salads, steak and seafood. The soup of the day is a good bet. At lunch, the menu includes an all-vegetable sandwich and a half-pound cheeseburger. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-663-1196.

LD Mon.-Fri., D Sat., BR Sun.

DINING CAPSULES, CONT. YOUR MAMA’S GOOD FOOD Offering simple and satisfying cafeteria food, with burgers and more hot off the grill, plate lunches and pies. 220 W. 4th St. No alcohol, All CC. $.

501-372-1811. Serving:BL Mon.-Fri. ZACK’S PLACE Expertly prepared home cooking and huge, smoky burgers. 1400 S. University Ave. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-6646444. LD Mon.-Sat. ZIN URBAN WINE & BEER BAR A snazzy, cosmopolitan yet comfortable, relaxed place to enjoy fine wines and beers while noshing on superb meats, cheeses and amazing goat cheese-stuffed figs. 300 River Market Ave. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-246-4876. D daily.

ASIAN

CHI’S CHINESE CUISINE Broad menu that spans the Chinese provinces and offers a few twists on the usual local offerings. 5110 W. Markham St. Beer, All CC. $-$$. 501-604-7777.

FANTASTIC CHINA The food is delicious, the presentation beautiful, the menu distinctive, the service perfect, the decor bright. 1900 N. Grant St. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-663-8999. LD daily.

LILLY’S DIMSUM THEN SOME Innovative dishes inspired by Asian cuisine, utilizing local and fresh ingredients. 11121 N. Rodney Parham Road. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$-$$$.

501-716-2700. LD daily.

MT. FUJI JAPANESE RESTAURANT The dean of Little Rock sushi bars offers a fabulous lunch special and great Monday night deals.

10301 Rodney Parham Road. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-227-6498. LD daily. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-227-6498.

OSAKA JAPANESE RESTAURANT Veteran operator of several local Asian buffets has brought fine-dining Japanese dishes and a well-stocked sushi bar to way-out-west Little Rock, near Chenal off Highway 10. 5501 Ranch Drive, Suite 1. $$-$$$. 501-868-3688. LD. PAPA SUSHI Hibachi grill with large sushi menu and Korean specialties. 17200 Chenal Parkway.

Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-821-7272.

SAIGON CUISINE Traditional Vietnamese with Thai and Chinese selections. Be sure to try the authentic pho soups and spring rolls.

6805 Cantrell Road. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$-$$$.

501-663-4000. L Tue.-Fri., D Tue.-Sun. SEOUL A full line of sushi and soft tofu stews plus a variety of Korean dishes, mainly marinated and grilled meats teamed with vegetables served with rice in bibimbap style in a sizzling-hot bowl. 5923 Kavanaugh Blvd. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-227-7222. LD Mon.-Sat. SUSHI CAFE Impressive, upscale sushi menu with other delectable house specialties like tuna tataki, fried soft shell crab, Kobe beef and, believe it or not, the Tokyo cowboy burger.

5823 Kavanaugh Blvd. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$.

501-663-9888. L Mon.-Sat. D daily.

BARBECUE

CHATZ CAFE ‘Cue and catfish joint that does heavy catering business. Try the slowsmoked, meaty ribs. 8801 Colonel Glenn Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-562-4949.

LD Mon.-Sat. CORKY’S RIBS & BBQ The pulled pork is extremely tender and juicy, and the sauce is sweet and tangy without a hint of heat. Maybe the best dry ribs in the area. 12005 Westhaven Drive. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-954-7427.

LD daily. 2947 Lakewood Village Drive. NLR. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-753-3737. LD daily, B Sat.-Sun. WHITE PIG INN Go for the sliced rather than chopped meats at this working-class barbecue cafe. Side orders — from fries to potato salad to beans and slaw — are superb, as are the

fried pies. 5231 E. Broadway. NLR. Beer, All CC. $-$$. 501-945-5551. LD Mon.-Fri., L Sat. WHOLE HOG CAFE The pulled pork shoulder is a classic, the back ribs are worthy of their many blue ribbons, and there’s a six-pack of sauces for all tastes. 516 Cantrell Road. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$. 501-664-5025. LD Mon.-Sat. 12111 W. Markham. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$.

501-907-6124. LD daily 150 E. Oak St. Conway.

No alcohol, All CC. $$. 501-513-0600. LD Mon.-Sat., L Sun. 5107 Warden Road. NLR. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$. 501-753-9227.

EUROPEAN / ETHNIC

CAFE BOSSA NOVA A South American approach to sandwiches, salads and desserts, all quite good. 701 Kavanaugh Blvd. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-614-6682. LD Tue.-Sat., BR Sun. DUGAN’S PUB The atmosphere is great, complete with plenty of bar seating and tables.

The fried stuff is good. Try the mozzarella sticks.

403 E. 3rd St. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-2440542.

GEORGIA’S GYROS Good gyros, Greek salads and fragrant grilled pita bread highlight a large Mediterranean food selection. 2933 Lakewood Village Drive. NLR. Full bar, All CC. $-$$.

501-753-5090. LD Mon.-Sat. HIBERNIA IRISH TAVERN This traditional Irish pub has its own traditional Irish cook from Ireland. Broad beverage menu, Irish and Southern food favorites and a crowd that likes to sing. 9700 N Rodney Parham Road. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-246-4340.

LAYLA’S Delicious Mediterranean fare that has a devoted following. 9501 N. Rodney Parham Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-227-7272.

LD daily (close 5 p.m. on Sun.). 612 Office Park Drive. Bryant. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-8475455. LD Mon.-Sat. TAJ MAHAL Offers upscale versions of traditional dishes and an extensive menu. Dishes range on the spicy side. 1520 Market Street.

Beer, All CC. $$$. (501) 881-4796. LD daily.

THE TERRACE MEDITERRANEAN KITCHEN A broad selection of Mediterranean delights that include a very affordable collection of starters, salads, sandwiches, burgers, chicken and fish at lunch and a more upscale dining experience with top-notch table service at dinner. 2200 Rodney Parham Road. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-217-9393. L Mon.-Fri., D Mon.-Sat. YA YA’S EURO BISTRO Best bet is lunch, where you can explore the menu through soup, salad or half a sandwich. 17711 Chenal Parkway. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-821-1144. LD daily, BR Sun.

ITALIAN

GRAFFITI’S The casually chic and ever-popular Italian-flavored bistro avoids the rut with daily specials and careful menu tinkering. 7811 Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-2249079. D Mon.-Sat. PIZZA D’ACTION Some of the best pizza in town, a marriage of thin, crispy crust with a hefty ingredient load. Also, good appetizers and salads, pasta, sandwiches and killer plate lunches. 2919 W. Markham St. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-666-5403. LD daily.

RISTORANTE CAPEO Familiar pasta dishes will comfort most diners, but let the chef entertain you with some more exotic stuff, too, like crispy veal sweetbreads. 425 Main St. NLR. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-376-3463. D Mon.-Sat. ROCKY’S PUB Rocking sandwiches and a fine selection of homemade Italian entrees, including as fine a lasagna as there is. 6909 JFK Blvd. NLR. Beer, Wine. $$. 501-833-1077. LD Mon.-Sat.

VINO’S Great rock ‘n’ roll club also is a fantastic pizzeria with huge calzones and always improving home-brewed beers. 923 W. 7th St. Beer, Wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-375-8466. LD daily.

LATINO

CANTINA LAREDO This is gourmet Mexican food, a step up from what you’d expect from a real cantina. 207 N. University. Full bar, All CC. $$$. 501-280-0407. LD daily.

JUANITA’S Menu includes a variety of combination entree choices — enchiladas, tacos, flautas, shrimp burritos and such — plus creative salads and other dishes. And of course the “Blue Mesa” cheese dip. 614 President Clinton Ave. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-3721228. L Mon.-Fri., D Thu.-Sat.

ROSALINDA RESTAURANT HONDURENO A Honduran cafe that specializes in pollo con frito tajada (fried chicken and fried plaintains).

With breakfast, too. 3700 JFK Blvd. NLR. No alcohol, No CC. $-$$. 501-771-5559. LD daily.

RUMBA Mexi-Cuban spot in the River Market area, this restaurant and bar has a broad menu that includes tacos and enchiladas, tapas, Cuban-style sandwiches. Specialty drinks are available also. 300 President Clinton Ave. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-823-0090. D Mon., LD Tue.-Sun. TACO MEXICO Tacos have to be ordered at least two at a time, but that’s not an impediment. These are some of the best and some of the cheapest tacos in Little Rock. 7101 Colonel Glenn Road. No alcohol, No CC. $. 501-4167002. LD Wed.-Sun.

MARCH 16 IN THE ARGENTA DISTRICT 5-8pM THE THIRD fRIDAy of EACH MoNTH

CHECk ouT THE NEIGHboRHooD! SPONSORED BY

Join Us During Artwalk! stop by to meet Artist LisA KrAnnichfeLd

pottery gallery/studio 417 main

Argenta Branch 506 Main Street North Little Rock (501) 687-1061

argenta 501-374-3515

www.lamanlibrary.org

www.arktimes.com

MARCH 14, 2012

35

TIME FOR

TIMELINE

MARCH 14, 2012

THINK YOU KNOW FACEBOOK? THINK AGAIN.

BY KELLY FERGUSON

F

acebook is the new business afterhours hot spot.

It’s where people go to discuss and refer products, styles and information. Social media continues to connect people in a fun, entertaining way; however, marketing does play a role, just like it does in face-to-face interactions and conversations between people. For retailers and small business owners in Little Rock and Central Arkansas, the trend to have an online presence is growing. And it’s not only reaping rewards for customers and clients, but the businesses themselves too.

On March 30, Facebook will change the look for all business fan pages to Timeline. This change will essentially create a more interactive social Web site to include direct private messaging to page administrators and the ability for those pages to chronicle milestones in each of their histories.

The New York Times adopted the Timeline and has already entered a history dating back to its founding in 1851. The Today Show, Coca-Cola and Walmart have done the same.

What’s really exciting are the local tech-savvy businesses on the central

Jones Brothers Pool Tables in North Little Rock has the new facebook timeline, dating back to 1924.

Arkansas scene that have adopted the new Timeline.

Have you ever tried the legendary cheese dip at Mexico Chiquito?

Most of us in Central Arkansas have.

“Liking” the company Facebook page (facebook.com/MexicoChiquito) now walks a fan through its store openings by years. And did you know Little Rock’s Jones Brothers Pool Tables

(facebook.com/JonesBrosPoolTables ) was the first supplier of pool tables for the popular gaming venue Dave & Busters? It’s all there, in the Timeline.

The key is content. Long-running

hearsay ➥ If you can’t wait to use your new city-provided recycling bin, get pumped for the big day at a green-themed event hosted by THE PROMENADE AT CHENAL. Little Rock, North Little Rock and Sherwood officially kick off the new recycling initiative on April 1, and The Promenade at Chenal, along with Waste Management, will celebrate the program on Saturday, March 17 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Visitors can also meet the Cycler Robot who will teach about recycling, enter to win fun giveaways, and bring gently-used clothing and shoes to donate to Goodwill. ➥ You’re not the only one who’s been redecorating. Jay Howard’s west Little Rock home store, I.O. METRO, has been renovated and restocked and the hip retailer is throwing a big bash to reopen. At the party on Thursday, March 22 from 6-8 p.m., shoppers can be the first to snatch up an entirely new line of furniture and accessories. Party on! ➥ Flash forward to fall: you’re luxuriating in pieces made with Mongolian cash36

MARCH 14, 2012

ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO ARKANSAS TIMES

mere, fox fur and the softest cotton. Get your hands on these and other goods from Brunello Cucinelli Fall 2012 trunk show hosted by B. BARNETT this Wednesday, March 14 and Thursday, March 15. ➥ Tie on an apron and get ready. KITCHEN CO. is determined to teach you how to whip up delicious, gourmet meals. This month, Ashley Gore leads a variety of classes, teaching the art of savory dishes like coq au vin, Italian sauces and wild mushroom risotto. Or, step in for a more fanciful tutorial on cooking like a Parisian and crafting a molten chocolate cake. Visit kitchenco.net for the full March schedule. ➥ M2 GALLERY in PLEASANT RIDGE TOWN CENTER toasts to their five year anniversary this week with a show that highlights works from Arkansas artist Evan Lindquist. The printmaker’s work, with some pieces dating to 1964, will be on view alongside new artworks from Jeaneen Barnhart, Dan Holland and Little Rock-resident Cathy Burns. Stop in to browse from 6-9 p.m. on Friday, March 16.

shops like Pinky Punky and Barbara Graves (facebook.com/BarbaraGravesIntimateFashions), Barbara Jean (facebook.com/BarbaraJeanLR) and others push new looks, inventory and suggestions for style. But they’re doing more than that. They are adapting their decades-old success stories into something new customers can easily access and help support for more years to come.

Pinky Punky facebook.com/PinkyPunkyLR Prom and formalwear shop Pinky Punky is calling out to customers to help put together 38 years of history in its Timeline. In a recent post, the popular boutique asked all the gals who have worn Pinky Punky gowns to send in their formal photos from years past.

“I feel like getting that Time¬line together will take forever,” says Pinky Punky Vice President Caroline Cossey. “But we have it all. We have so much to tell!”

Right now, the store uses Facebook as a way to show off updated inventory as it arrives, often before it is uploaded on the Web site. Many times, too, models are easy to find, coming in to try on great looks for prom.

“Girls love to come in and play dress up,” Caroline laughs. “It’s always been that way. We love to help them find the perfect look for a perfect night.”

Box Turtle facebook.com/ShopBoxTurtle With more than 4,000 fans, this little shop in Hillcrest has done amazing things with Facebook, simply by keeping pace with customers and the unique collections they love.

“Each day we have more people who are checking our page to see what’s new,” says owner Emese Boone. “The best aspects are the immediate attention it gets. We can post a picture of what we get in and everyone can know within seconds!”

Boone, like many retailers, large and small, agree the photo capabilities on the site make the most sense to customers and for a business that does well to show off inventory, styles and ideas in color with the click of a button.

Cynthia East Fabrics facebook.com/CynthiaEastFabrics The specialty fabrics store has a 35-year customer base in Central Arkansas coupled with a successful email campaign that showcases special sales and promotions. Continuing to utilize that digital success, Cynthia East has added Facebook, Twitter,

Online obsession: Pinterest

T

alk to anyone who’s joined the social media newbie Pinterest and they’ll all say the same thing: “I’m obsessed.” The site bills itself as a virtual pinboard, a digital age version of that corkboard that hangs in your craft room or the scrapbook of recipes you keep in the kitchen.

Here’s how it works: Users create personal boards on different topics, like Dream Home or Travel, and then “pin” pictures of clothing, recipes, do-ityourself home remedies and more. Users can visit one another’s boards for inspiration, and re-pin items or ideas they like to their own boards. Users will revisit their own pages later when they’re ready to try out one of the craft projects they pinned or finally put inspirational images to use as they redecorate their home.

Retailers are jumping into the latest craze, too, pinning shoes, clothes and fabrics from their stores. Customers aren’t just shopping on Google, or interacting on Facebook, and Pinterest provides a rapidly growing network that allows businesses to engage with customers in a new way.

Here are some local business boards to follow: pinterest.com/CynthiaEast pinterest.com/BaileyApts pinterest.com/SpectrumLRMetro

a blog and now Pinterest in order to engage customers and designers sharing ideas and showing off inventory.

“We made the decision to really jump into this social media thing,” says Cynthia East co-owner Terry Dilday, “because we knew more of our customers were wanting to interact with us, show off projects and give us some feedback.”

Dilday also agrees more availability on behalf of the store gives customers more opportunities to feel good about shopping locally, or showing off the changes they make in their homes and the gifts they choose to give.

Mary’s Boutique/Conway facebook.com/MarysBoutiqueConway Mary’s, now owned by former Miss Arkansas Lacy Glover, has been in business since the 1980s, but has a brand new push forward with social media. Keeping tradition, Lacy has chosen to keep lines in the store regular customers have loved for years, but she’s bringing in new things, too.

“We pride ourselves in being a mother-daughter store,” she says.

“We want a younger crowd, as much as we want to see the ladies we’ve seen for years.”

Due to a fire, Mary’s moved to a new location just down the block.

The interior renovation is brighter and modern, too. Utilizing a Facebook following of more than 600, a recent two-day, $20 for everything sidewalk sale did extraordinarily well.

“We only advertised on Facebook,” Glover says. “We actually were already making sales before the items hit the sidewalk that morning.”

A blog for Mary’s is in the works,

pinterest.com/PartyCity pinterest.com/ChenalShopping

as is a YouTube channel, which will focus on Glover’s tips for styling yourself and organizing a fashionable lifestyle, all of which are lessons she can share from her experiences as Miss Arkansas and now a successful business owner, wife and mother.

Large retailers, for the most part, are finding that social media is paying off financially. But they’ve had to work at figuring out exactly how.

After the 2011 holiday season, some giants like Macy’s reported a hike in sales they could directly relate to social media strategy. Others, though, found more success in product education and brand management through giveaways and promotions.

For instance, mega companies like Amazon, Victoria’s Secret and JCPenney all ran promotions on social media sites, primarily Facebook and Twitter. By offering gift card and product giveaways centered around a top-selling item, the “buzz” from hundreds of thousands of fans

resulted in 1) feedback from REAL consumers; 2) actual sales of those products online and in stores.

And all these giants, well, they’re still figuring it out. It’s not enough to have social media when you have millions of followers. You need impeccable Web sites, email campaigns and traditional marketing that work together and independently.

Minyanville.com business writer Stephanie Taylor Christensen sums up Best Buy’s 2011 holiday experience.

“With more than 5.5 million Facebook fans, Best Buy represents the conundrum of social media: Cus¬tomer engagement doesn’t equate to happy customers. Though its online sales were a bright spot this holiday sales season, it committed a major ecommerce ‘oops’ by failing to fulfill some orders before Christmas.

Whether the retailer can regain trust of its customers remains to be seen.”

If you’re in the retail business, check out how the national brands are doing business on social channels and look for ways to amend the best ideas for your buying community. If you decide to brand your busi¬ness in any social media platform, be prepared to have the time and the inclination to follow through.

If you’re a big shopper in the Little Rock area, we encourage you to check out these retailers’ Facebook sites. Explore your favorite stores and see for yourself how they’re marketing via social media. “Liking” your favorite local retailers on Facebook and engaging them on other social media channels will keep you clued in to new inventory, trends, sales, and may, from time to time, give you that one idea you’ve been looking for.

Kelly Ferguson is the Social and Digital Media Director for the Arkansas Times.

For more information on the department and how we might be able to help your business, email socialmedia@arktimes.com.

2616 Kavanaugh Blvd.

Little Rock 501.661.1167 www.shopboxturtle.com

ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO ARKANSAS TIMES

MARCH 14, 2012

37

Mostly fails

I

wanted to use up arrows and down arrows, but the computer balks and sends me No comprendo messages.

This is an old game it plays with me. The name of the game is Let’s Drive Assmunch Crazy. Or, Let’s Get His Goat.

So forget the arrows. I’ll try some other shorthand, Twitteristic device. Instead of an up arrow, we’ll use WTG, meaning way to go. For a down arrow, we’ll just say fail. Fail is another way of saying this sucks. It’s what the young people of today, and the computer literate oldtimers, say where the GI of yesterday said snafu. Boner, trainwreck, pulling a Nixon, stinking up the joint, and evacuating into your mess kit are other old variants of fail.

Saying fail is a way of saying “Bad job!” as opposed to the “Good Job!” that today’s young parents bestow on everything their perfect children do short of outright, inescapable, undeniable failure.

They say “Good job!” when it’s only an average job, or even a pisspoor or halfass effort — or when it’s a catastrophic job, like they would’ve told Bernie Madoff or the Casey Anthony jury “Good job!”

Or they’ll tell the child “we’ll get ’em next time” or some other such lame encouragement — anything to spare the little sucker shame or embarrassment for

his or her latest fail.

You probably don’t remember the late Cub McCool, the bowlegged BOB martinet manager LANCASTER of one of the Little League baseball teams in my hometown, but he wasn’t one to indulge these pretty euphemisms for on-the-field failures. His son Kabo, at age 10 or 11, was a pitcher on his father’s team, and when Kabo would have an off night, as all pitchers do — walk in a run, make an inopportune wild pitch — his old pap would take off his belt, saunter out to the mound, and whup the daylights out of the boy out there in front of teammates, the other team, umpires, spectators, God, and everybody. Whup him all the way back to the dugout. As sorry a thing as I ever saw.

The “Good Job!” method is certainly preferable to that, but I wonder if the complete evasion of accountability for job performance really fools anybody, or spares anybody, or does anybody any good. A fail doesn’t become a WTG even if you do contortions trying to make it one.

An epic fail, as I understand it, is when you screw up big time, like old Cub whaling his boy or Rush on sluts or vacationing Mitt tying the dog on top of the car.

Somebody with a sense of personal integrity going to work for Rupert Murdoch would be an epic fail.

But I’ll not get into degrees of fail today.

Just fails and WTGs in lieu of the arrows, and if I don’t get on with it, I’ll soon be running out of room here before I even get started. That would be a fail on my part — not epic maybe, but without excuse, likely sufficient to get Big Boss Man over yonder muttering and warming up a scrub.

OK, then, WTG = up arrow; fail = down arrow. Here are a few from the quiver: WTG, HSU at Arkadelphia. Maybe a black prez can finally clear up for us exactly what a Reddie is.

Fail, Willard R. for his lame idea that saying y’all and professing to like grits can make you a Suth’ner. An idea that won’t git-r-done. Love Jesus and guns and hate anybody of a different complexion and we’ll talk about it. And ain’t no Mormon Southerners. You have to choose.

WTG, Trixie Terrier. A dog as exemplar to all us apes.

Fail, Franklin Graham. Bro. Billy must be proud.

WTG, Robert the tire in the movie “Rubber.” Yeah, he’s eccentric, and a serial killer, but hey, vulcanization will do that to you.

Fail, exotic wagering on horses, dogs. A guaranteed long-term loser.

WTG, Odd Blake. A relative of mine, long dead. Thought I’d give him a shoutout on account of I’m guessing he never

got one above-ground.

Fail, Mark Martin. Being called mister, as in Mr. President, was plenty enough respect for George Washington; not for this bird.

Fail, Paul Crowder, for thinking it would be all right to buy the fishing license after you’d caught the fish and laid claim to the state record.

Fail, all of you birth-canal control freaks, as long as it’s others’ canals and you controlling.

WTG, P.D.Q. Bach, for the overture subtitle he gave to one of the Gothic masterpieces he recently saved from obscurity: Es war ein dark und shtormy nacht.

Fail, Haley Barbour for the notion that you should turn murderers a-loose if they kept your silver polished (“Good job!”) and your shoes shined. Variation on an old Huckabee fail theme.

Best symbols of fail, still them $300-million of unusable FEMA trailers intended for Katrina vics, abandoned at Hope.

Fail, bounty football.

WTG, Karl Pilkington.

Fail, Dallas Cowboys. I think we all know why.

Fail, snake charmers. Here’s a recent ADG headline: “Snake charmers see time passing them by.” Welcome to the club, snake charmers. We all see time passing us by. Don’t none of us like it. But what’s to be done about it? Sky-dive? Sleep with a black panther on your bedroom chestof-drawers, licking its chops?

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ARKANSAS TIMES

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It’s happening right now on Arkansas Blog www.arktimes.com www.arktimes.com March 14, 2012 39

Eat, Drink and Be Literary! ¶

ome one, come all to the Arkansas Times’ 9th and poetry smack down, featuring live readings by the best writers from Central Arkansas and the Arkansas Literary Festival schedule. Food, drinks, and poetry: who could ask for anything more?

Pub or Perish, annual fiction

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Upstairs 220 West 6th St. Little Rock Free admission!

Saturday, April 14 7 to 9 p.m.

Nickole Brown, Loria Taylor and other great local and Arkansas Literary Festival authors.

Plus: Open Mic!

For more information about Pub or Perish or open mic, e-mail: david@arktimes.com. Open mic slots are very limited, and available on a first-come-firstserved basis the night of the show.

Sponsored by: The Arkansas Times, The Arkansas Literary Festival, and Lulav a Modern Eatery. www.arkansasliteraryfestival.org 2 july 1, 2004 • ARKANSAS TIMES