Arkansas Times

ARKANSAS’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF POLITICS AND CULTURE ■ march 4, 2010

www.arktimes.com

July 12, 2007

On Dec. 12, 2009, Hannah Grace Dowdie and her father Michael Palmer were found in a burning truck near Sweet Home.

The result is a mystery scattered with broken hearts.

By David Koon

page 11

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The INsIder

Call to Hurst draws police

A man who left a message on City Director Stacy Hurst’s phone last Friday in which he admits to calling her a despicable person for her support for changes to the War Memorial Golf Course got a follow-up call from police Monday.

Police spokesman Lt. Terry Hastings said Steve Gibson told Hurst “he didn’t want to fight an unarmed woman,” language police viewed as possibly threatening. Hastings said that when a “government official receives what they perceive as a threat … there is heightened concern” on the part of police.

Police Det. Stuart Sullivan called Gibson on Monday to discuss the call.

Hastings believed Hurst had called police and had played the tape for them.

Hurst said, however, that she merely mentioned the message to Mayor Mark Stodola and the mayor passed the information to police.

Gibson said the “unarmed” reference was actually made Saturday, when he and Hurst talked on the phone, and that what he had said was that he “didn’t want to get into a battle of wits with an unarmed person.”

Gibson said he was surprised to get the call from the police, both because he and Hurst parted on better terms after their conversation Saturday and because he thought use of the police was “a little bit of too much government control.” He said also that Hurst apologized herself in a message she left for Gibson on Sunday for being disrespectful in her remarks to him the previous day.

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Vicki Saviers, Gov. Mike Beebe’s most recent appointee to the state Board of Education, sent an e-mail recently asking people to an “important luncheon” March 8 at the Little Rock Club. Joining her in the invite, she said, were Wal-Mart heir and banker Jim Walton, DemocratGazette publisher Walter Hussman, former Murphy Oil CEO Claiborne Deming and Stephens financial fortune heir Jackson T. “Steve” Stephens.

They share a long history of working for conservative theories in education — an opposition to unions; support for vouchers/charter schools; performance-based pay for teachers.

Saviers explained to me that she was not a driving force behind the luncheon (though she shares many of the same outlooks and was a founder of the e-Stem charter school in Little Rock, strongly backed by Hussman and Walton). She said she had merely joined Luke Gordy, the former banker and state Board member who heads a private group, Arkansans for Education Reform, financed by Continued on page 11

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Smart talk

Contents Does not compute n A habitue of a smoky local watering hole reports it now boasts a recruiting poster from UAMS seeking meth users for a study.

Our correspondent wrote: “You would think, yeah, logical, it’s fertile recruiting ground. But the poster says participants ‘must be in good health.’ ”

10 Look who’s visiting

Little Rock District Judge Mark Leverett, who’s barred from representing criminal defendants, made nine visits to county jail inmates last year. He won’t say why. —

By David Koon

11 What’s a

Google worth?

Little Rock thinks it might have a shot at landing an experiment Google plans to put super high-speed Internet networks in select U.S. cities. — By Gerard Matthews THE WINNERS: Fans said the UA Zetas ‘brought it.’

12 Deadly mystery

UA sorority breaks color line n “Stepping,” a dance competition long the province of black fraternities and sororities, was integrated in a big way recently by an all-white sorority from the University of Arkansas, Zeta Tau Alpha. A team of Zeta dancers won the Sprite Step-off, a national competition, worth a $100,000 prize. They were the first white group to win the step-off. Commented the website News One for Black America, “This can be considered another example of how black culture becomes mainstream and becomes appropriated by Caucasian people and becomes a greater part of American culture as a whole.” Many readers of the website weren’t happy about the win by a white team, though several said the Zetas outperformed black finalists. Such a controversy arose, in fact, that Coca-Cola rescored the competition and announced five days after the competition that the secondplace team, a black group, would share first prize and also get $100,000 in scholarships. The Zetas took it in stride. Team member Alexandra Kosmitis told the Atlanta newspaper, “We are just keeping a positive attitude about it. We are excited to still have $100,000 for our scholarships and we are excited that someone else can have some money to help them out as well.”

The winning routine can be found on YouTube. The finals were held Feb. 20 in Atlanta.

PAYDAY: Kris Allen is cashing in.

‘Idol’ a financial hit for Kris Allen n The New York Times reports that Conway’s Kris Allen, winner of last year’s “American Idol,” has been cashing in on his celebrity. According to the newspaper, Allen has received at least $650,000 under contracts he signed to appear on the show.

The amount is a minimum. Performance fees and merchandising royalties should make a winner more than $1 million. The winner gets an estimated $100,000 from the show itself and multiples of that amount for recording contracts. Allen, the Times said, got an advance of $350,000 for his first album, exclusive of recording costs. He was also paid $200,000 to promote and participate in an Idol feature at Walt Disney World.

He also got an advance on merchandising royalties. There are expenses, of course, including management.

The short life of Hannah Grace Dowdie ended in a fiery death, though the child came close to finding a stable home.

What’s left, mostly, are questions. — By David Koon

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• The Insider • Smart Talk • The Observer • Letters • Orval • News • Opinion • Arts & Entertainment • Dining • Crossword/ Tom Tomorrow 38 • Lancaster

Words n Isn’t there a constitutional right to bear breasts?

“PHILADELPHIA — After six years of legal wrangling over Janet Jackson’s infamous breast-bearing ‘wardrobe malfunction’ at the Super Bowl, CBS argued anew Tuesday that it should not be held responsible for the half-second of nudity.” n “The field is expected to enlarge again Wednesday when former state legislator Gunner DeLay of Fort Smith plans to announce his candidacy. DeLay is a partner in the Fort Smith law firm of Rush, Rush and DeLay.” I’ve heard he may have an opponent from the firm of Hurrey, Upp and Waite. n There seems some disagreement over whether the man who flew an airplane into a government building in Austin, kill4 march 4, 2010 • Arkansas Times

Doug s mith doug@arktimes.com

ing himself and at least one government employee, and injuring others, should be described as a terrorist. Some commentators, and some politicians, have been slow to use this terminology, possibly because the guy’s name was Joe Stack. If it had been Muhammad something-or-other, the terrorist label would have been applied quickly, I suspect.

An on-line dispatch from Austin quotes a “University of Texas suicide terrorism expert” as saying that Stack’s act incorporated violence, reflected a political motive, singled out a symbolic target,

and used a copy-cat method, “all characteristic of terrorism.” But, the expert said, because Stack appeared to have been motivated by anger and revenge, rather than a desire to spread panic and fear, his act fell short of terrorism.

Too nit-picky for me. Stack’s was a horrible, murderous act, whatever we call it, but I think it counts as terrorism the way that term is generally used by the media. Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, was a terrorist, and so was Joe Stack. n “At 6-foot-4 and 275 pounds, he looked odd for a ski doctor. … Nicknamed ‘Baby Huey’ despite his massive size, Lavin blew his fake doctor disguise that day … ” Baby Huey was a gigantic and naive cartoon duckling of the ’50s. The fake doctor got his nickname because of his massive size.

VOLUME 36, NUMBER 26 ARKANSAS TIMES (ISSN 0164-6273) is published each week by Arkansas Times Limited Partnership, 201 East Markham Street, 200 Heritage Center West, P.O. Box 34010, Little Rock, Arkansas, 72203, phone (501) 375-2985. Periodical postage paid at Little Rock, Arkansas, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ARKANSAS TIMES, P.O. Box 34010, Little Rock, AR, 72203. Subscription prices are $42 for one year, $78 for two years. Subscriptions outside Arkansas are $49 for one year, $88 for two years. Foreign (including Canadian) subscriptions are $168 a year. For subscriber service call (501) 375-2985.

Current single-copy price is 75¢, free in Pulaski County. Single issues are available by mail at $2.50 each, postage paid. Payment must accompany all single-copy orders. Reproduction or use in whole or in part of the contents without the written consent of the publishers is prohibited. Manuscripts and artwork will not be returned or acknowledged unless sufficient return postage and a self-addressed stamped envelope are included. All materials are handled with due care; however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for care and safe return of unsolicited materials. All letters sent to ARKANSAS TIMES will be treated as intended for publication and are subject to ARKANSAS TIMES’ unrestricted right to edit or to comment editorially.

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RETIREMENT LOOKS GOOD

The Observer’s woman in the

field was in Hot Springs over the weekend, enjoying an early dinner at Angel’s Italian Restaurant on Central Avenue.

She heard a bark at the door, where a dog on a leash was waiting with an expectant air. She asked the waitress if the dog was a regular and got to come in the restaurant — as our dog-loving woman in the field would surely allow if she owned a restaurant — and was told no. But he is a regular, and, if no one notices his arrival at the door, will announce himself with a few barks of notification. The waitresses then go to the door and give him pepperoni.

He gets three slices, a waitress told us later, unless the owner’s around, when he might get spaghetti and meatballs.

Ranger, as the mid-sized mutt is called, “comes full trot” usually around 4 or 5 p.m. every Saturday, she said. You might go to Hot Springs to see the ponies, but it would be more fun, to our way of thinking, to watch Ranger’s pepperoni run.

Our own Saturday started at

the Arkansas Arts Center, where we went to see the “Pharaohs” exhibit of Egyptian art and artifacts. We arrived shortly after the doors opened at 10 a.m., which was a good idea since the crowd was already large and growing and many of the items were very small, requiring some close inspection.

We went with someone who actually knows something about art and galleries and the process of putting on exhibits and so we paid attention to things like soft mats in the corners (for the guards to stand on?), the way the accession dates were recorded on the little informative cards attending the artifacts and how those cards listed the materials used in making the artifacts.

A surprising amount of stone. Faience, Egyptian alabaster, some carnelian. A little gold.

Then we came to a small mummy of a kitten, which of course we couldn’t take our eyes off. Then our friend directed our attention to the materials listed on its card: Kitten and linen.

Fortunately, everyone around us was wearing those headphone kits supplied at the entrance and weren’t distracted from the exhibit by the snorting laughter we couldn’t hold back. We’re used to seeing “acrylic” and “oil” and now,

“faience.” Never “kitten.”

FROM HERE

The Observer is a music fan,

but has always been behind the curve when it comes to technology. We clung to our suitcase full of cassette tapes long after the rest of the Western World had moved on to compact disc. We did eventually make the switchover to CD around 1998. Now we’ve got teetering stacks of plastic jewel cases all over The Observatory.

Just because it’s kind of Our Thing to be a technological curmudgeon, we’ve resisted buying an MP3 player in recent years, even as the rest of the population sprouted perpetual ear buds.

Back on Valentine’s Day, however, The Observer was looking for a present for Spouse — also a lover of music from way back — when we seized upon the idea of helping her make the not-sogiant leap forward into the digital age.

As we heard on The Simpsons once: We were like Christopher Columbus, boldly discovering something that millions of others knew about for years. A trip to Wally World found us returning with said gift, a shiny red Sony product that looks like something Terminators might use to download their kill instructions.

We had planned on desperately clinging to CDs, but after watching the joy Spouse has gotten out of her player over the past few weeks, we knew it was time to consign our shiny discs to the elephant graveyard. So simple, so easy! Digital music, but never having to worry about scratches and fingerprints and juggling those oh-so-finicky compact discs into their oh-so-finicky cases? We’re sold. Recently, keeping it quiet so we weren’t mocked by the other Amish folk, we slipped out to The House of Walton and bought another MP3 player for ourselves. Since then, we have joyfully made our leaning stacks of Van Morrison, U2, Johnny Cash, Otis Redding and Bobbie Gentry a thing of the past, with all that love and soul and passion boiled down to one slim little rectangle that fits right in the ol’ pocket.

Next stop, 2039, when Old Man Observer will still be carrying a battered MP3 player when everybody else is jacking their fiber optic laser-cable straight into the base of their skull. See you then, whippersnappers.

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Letters arktimes@arktimes.com

Remembering Gene Gene Prescott’s photos brought to life thousands of news articles in the Arkansas Gazette for almost 40 years. When Gazette readers picked up their paper every morning, Gene’s photos were there to give them a good visual sense of what happened in the accompanying news articles. That was not an easy task but Gene did it superbly. Gene helped make the Gazette the dependable, honest newspaper that it was.

I hated to hear that Gene died. He was a really good man and lived a full, honest life. Is there any higher honor than that?

Gene and I worked dozens and dozens of news stories for almost 25 years. He the photog and me the reporter. We had the same routine when we would meet up to tackle the story: Gene would ask me what the general nature of the story was going to be, who were the principal players and were there any special shots that he needed to get. Sounds simple? Not always.

Once in Forrest City, during a highly charged racial confrontation in the late 1960s, blacks and whites were at each others’ throats. A hundred state troopers had locked down the city. Tension and guns were everywhere. Three hundred angry white people met at the courthouse to organize resistance to the black uprising.

Gene had quietly slipped around the city taking photos; he was almost like a phantom, getting photos without bringing attention to himself. He was simply a great news photographer.

Meanwhile, I was back at the courthouse listening to the prosecuting attorney rail about the “black rebellion.” The prosecutor noticed me — a reporter — and everyone wanted to throw me out of the meeting. I told them, they didn’t have to do that; I’d go peacefully. When I walked through the courtroom doors, with the sheriff right behind me, Gene was there with his camera poised.

Gene yelled at me, “Why’d you do that?” I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “Why didn’t you let them throw you out...that would’ve been a great photo!”

That was Gene. Always looking for the photo that defined the moment. We’ll miss you, Gene.

Wayne Jordan Little Rock

Saucy In reference to your description of me in your review of The House in the Feb. 18 edition as “The Democrat-Gazette’s Eric Harrison (of Sims sauce-hating infamy),” I really don’t mind your taking a swipe at me, even an anonymous and underhanded one. And if you feel that attempted put-downs improves the quality of your restaurant writing, by all means, 6 march 4, 2010 • Arkansas Times

go for it.

But at least have the decency not to misquote, or at least to misinterpret, my opinion.

Semantics aside, there is a world of difference between “Sims’ sauce is not our favorite,” which is what my review of Sims actually said, and “I hate Sims’ sauce.” Or perhaps your writer only sees things in absolutes and is incapable of distinguishing shades of gray.

And by the way, at least my readers know that it’s my opinion they’re looking at because I put my name on my reviews.

For more than 30 years I have put my byline on every review I’ve written, and I intend to always do so. I believe a reviewer, any reviewer, establishes a relationship over time with his readers based on the percentage of time the reader agrees or disagrees with him. Why the Times expects its readers to trust the opinion of a writer who doesn’t identify himself, I’m sure I don’t know.

Eric E. Harrison Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (What Harrison actually wrote about the sauce was this: “Sims’ sauce is not our favorite: what we got on our sliced beef and rib plates was thin, mustardy and vinegary.” As it has been — wonderfully so — since Sims was founded 73 years ago. Signed: Max.)

Consider veganism The season of Lent is the perfect time to consider a plant-based diet. This 40-day period preceding Easter is when Christians have traditionally abstained from meat and dairy in memory of Jesus’ 40 days of fasting and prayer before dying on the cross.

Such a gesture would be a tangible expression of Jesus’ message of compassion and love for all living beings.

Animals are being raised for food under abject conditions of caging, crowding, deprivation, drugging, mutilation, and manhandling. When trucked to slaughterhouses, they travel for days without food or water only to be bled, skinned, and dismembered while still conscious. Wastes from factory farms foul the water we drink and the air we breathe, and meat production accounts for 18 percent of greenhouse gases responsible for global warming.

Most chronic killer diseases are linked to consumption of animal products.

We have choices, and there are consequences: blessings and curses. We can continue to subsidize these sins against nature with every food purchase, or we can show our respect for Jesus’ message by accepting a wholesome, nonviolent diet of vegetables, fruits, and grains first mandated in Genesis 1:29.

Luke Molina Little Rock

End the death penalty Okay, let’s be clear on this. A person commits murder and perhaps associated unspeakably horrible crimes. So we as a

state decide to pre-meditatively murder this person to show how wrong it is to kill.

Most of the countries in the world and many states in this country have abolished the death penalty because it is unevenly applied (to the poor, people of color), much more expensive than life without parole, and morally wrong (and more than occasionally those who languish on death row for years are proven to be innocent, and it doesn’t always happen before execution).

Arkansas has not had an execution since 2005, due to heroic legal efforts to show the cruel nature of death by lethal injection, where there continues to be concern that people injected suffer a slow, conscious suffocation (the chemicals we use to kill are no longer used by veterinarians for euthanasia due to suffering unintentionally inflicted). We now have executions scheduled in Arkansas for March, April, and May. No matter how angry we are at the person we are executing, this is a barbaric act of retribution that does nothing to undo the crime originally committed and only feeds a cycle of violence.

As Gandhi famously said, “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”

We should not look away and we should not be silent. We need to tell our governor that we want him to stop these executions, and we need to tell our legislators that we want to end the death penalty in our great state.

Lucy Sauer Little Rock

Individual responsibility People let us take command of our families, neighborhoods, country and those inalienable rights with which we are all endowed. After hundreds of years, more than one amendment and too many lives we entered the socio-political arena, and then we stopped. The marches, boycotts, sit-ins, carpools, lending a hand, sharing of concerns somehow has come to an end as if the struggle for justice is over, as if the battle for equality has been won. We have not reached the top of Jacob’s ladder nor have we broken the shackles that will bind our descendants to economic servitude.

Not spending when we can’t afford it or where we are not respected works, spending when it is both efficient and convenient is prudent. Looking after our own is powerful and holy. We must be examples for our children and maintain our criticism of them to their faces while sharing our stores of free or underpaid laborers.

We must hold these truths self evident for ourselves, as our ancestors did through meaningful celebrations and purposeful spending, re-thinking the monthly and end of year holiday dogma designed to satisfy the earnings figures of the global power elite as their pawns scrambling to

satisfy our tax obligations to a government and justice system that considers companies men. We fought for our freedom and our rights, and continue to seek justice while multination conglomerates continue to be given restitution, purchasing their citizenship through lobbying in this new world order.

Gloria Springer Little Rock

On the court Has there been any notice by your sports commentator that the Razorback basketball team’s won-loss problems appeared only after a) Marcus Monk had to leave the team and continued because this year b) with the experienced Michael Sanchez unavailable; c) Marshawn Powell, a freshman, though coming on, is still in his first varsity year, and d) Michael Washington, an outstanding senior, suffering a back condition and a referee problem he did not have last year, we no longer have the planned “team” that was recruited? Do the people who wish John Pelphrey out as coach ever watch a game and notice that the rebounding, inside defense, etc., difficulties are related directly to the play, or non-play, of these named players? Don’t feel bad. Wally Hall hasn’t noticed either.

W.B. Brady Little Rock

Creation Recently I was a participant in a debate with a Christian fundamentalist on intelligent design. It was obvious they do not find it essential to understand things in order to argue about them.

For example: Can any rational person truly believe that the creator of the universe could be found physically ripping the wheels from pharaohs’ chariots at the Red Sea or that the inventor of the law of physics came to the Plains of Shinar to instruct Noah on how to build a wooden boat? To say this craft was well designed is to strain the meaning of the word. This vessel was a floating outhouse with inadequate ventilation and this would have allowed copious amounts of deadly methane gas to permeate this death trap. Plus, one tiny spark and man and beast would have disappeared in a cosmic flash. Seriously, to believe this absurdity one must have a deficiency in reason and an excess of faith.

The argument for design cannot prove the existence of God because we must first know that a God exists, which we cannot, before we can know anything is designed by him or her. One cannot prove the actual existence of a thing simply by entertaining the idea of it. The fundamentalists are like the preacher who saw God’s design in the fact that everyone short or tall had legs just long enough to reach the ground.

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www.arktimes.com • March 4, 2010 9

The WEEK THAT was Feb. 24-March 2, 2010

The Arkansas Reporter

Phone: 501-375-2985­ Fax: 501-375-3623 Arkansas Times Online home page: http://www.arktimes.com E-mail: arktimes@arktimes.com ■

It was a GOOD week for …

POLITICS. Has there been a year with so many candidates vying for federal office in Arkansas? Or so much chance at changing the usual order of things?

Even popular Gov. Mike Beebe drew a Republican challenger — restaurant owner Jim Keet.

■

By the book LR judge visited inmates on 9 occasions in 2009.

By David Koon

The SOUTHWEST POWER POOL. The big controller of the electricity grid said it would build a new building and perhaps hire up to 200 more workers for its Little Rock headquarters.

ARKANSAS. The legislature ended its first fiscal session with a relative minimum of self-interest politicking and did the work expeditiously. Many members were anxious to hit the campaign trail.

JEROME KEARNEY. The first assistant federal public defender was named a federal magistrate to succeed retiring Judge Henry Jones.

It was a bad week for …

U.S. SEN. BLANCHE LINCOLN. Lt. Gov. Bill Halter jumped in the Senate primary. Polls show her with an edge, but she’ll have to spend money to win and deplete potential resources for the general election. Lincoln also insulted progressives everywhere by labeling them “extremists.”

LITTLE ROCK CITY GOVERNMENT. On reading on our blog that War Memorial Golf Course fans were going to protest a little-advertised change in course design, city officials speeded up the tree cutting so work would start before critics could address the City Board.

The PULASKI COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT. One of two finalists for the superintendent’s job suddenly dropped out, leaving only one candidate, acting Superintendent Rob McGill, in the running. A racially divided School Board then decided to reopen the search process.

It’s a mess.

HERDING CATTLE. A Murfreesboro woman saw her house trashed by three cows who managed to wander inside. Her insurance adjuster said her policy didn’t cover unexpected cattle drives.

10 march 4, 2010 • ARKANSAS TIMES

JAIL VISITOR: Judge Mark Leverett won’t talk about inmate visits.

Committee had issued an opinion to n Little Rock District Judge Mark Leverett, who had requested information Leverett visited inmates at the Pulaski on whether he could represent clients while County Detention Facility at least nine serving as judge. While noting that part-time times last year, signing in as “attorney” in district judges are allowed to participate in a book reserved for lawyers visiting their private practice, the committee noted that clients, even though a three-judge panel this doesn’t extend to representing criminal had earlier said he could not represent defendants. “The code of judicial conduct criminal defendants in Pulaski County. prohibits a part-time judge from serving as a Leverett’s visits to the jail occurred deputy prosecuting attorney or representing between Jan. 15, 2009, and June 9, 2009. criminal defendants in the same county,” The instances in which Leverett visited the committee wrote. the jail were found in a green book When he was asked about the jail visits, which lawyers are required to sign before Judge Leverett would visiting a client at the jail. only: “I’ve already The general public signs “I’ve already say addressed that issue with a second, larger book. addressed the Judicial Discipline Pulaski County sheriff’s office spokesman John that issue with Committee. I don’t have a comment on that.” Then he Rehrauer said that if a the Judicial hung up the phone. lawyer comes to the jail Discipline David Sachar is the to visit a friend or relative deputy executive director who he or she is not Committee. of the Arkansas Judicial representing, the attorney I don’t have Discipline and Disability is required to sign the book a comment Commission. He said that used by the general public, Leverett hasn’t spoken not the book signed by on that.” with the JDDC about attorneys. Leverett visited his visits to the jail. As for whether a total of seven prisoners at the jail. He they might constitute a violation of the visited one inmate, Tyeiska Roberson, earlier opinion by the Judicial Ethics four times. He visited another prisoner, Advisory Committee, Sachar said that the David Dill, twice.

JDDC tries to avoid giving preliminary Leverett was sworn in as the judge thoughts on whether something might for Little Rock’s Third Division District be a violation until a complaint comes Court on Jan. 1, 2009. On Dec. 17, 2008, into the office. So far, there hasn’t been the Judicial Discipline and Disability a complaint filed over Leverett’s visits to Commission’s Judicial Ethics Advisory

■­

the jail. Given that, Sachar said, “There’s nothing for him to address… Obviously, he asked for an opinion on [whether he could represent criminal defendants] and he’s told us that he’s not doing that. He asked for an opinion and he said he will abide by the opinion.”

Attempts to reach any of the people Leverett listed himself as visiting at the jail to ask them what business they had with the judge have so far been unsuccessful.

It is possible, for example, that he was an attorney for the inmates on civil, rather than criminal matters.

According to the city of Little Rock human resources department, Leverett is paid $138,321 for serving as Third Division District Judge, and city records list the job as a full-time position. Little Rock City Attorney Tom Carpenter said that it should be. “In terms of full-time/ part-time, this is one of those things that has gone back and forth,” Carpenter said.

“I don’t think there’s anything in the statute that says it’s part-time anymore, but I also don’t know of any jobs in the state that pay over $100,000 that are parttime.”

Leverett’s jail visits • Jan. 15, 2009: Tyler Tillman, being held at the time on three counts of theft of property; six counts of burglary; two counts of theft by receiving, and other charges • Feb. 25, 2009: Priscilla Ruffin, being held at the time on two counts of writing hot checks, and two counts of second degree domestic battery.

• Feb 25, 2009: Tyeiska Roberson, being held at the time on 15 charges, including two counts of capital murder, and five counts of aggravated robbery.

Leverett also visited Roberson again on Feb. 27, April 27 and May 2.

• April 16, 2009: Carlos Houston, being held while awaiting transfer to the Arkansas Department of Correction.

• April 16, 2009: Dewayne Oliver, being held at the time on four counts of failure to appear.

• June 3, 2009: David A. Dill, being held at the time on four counts of theft of property.

• June 9, 2009: An inmate whose name is only listed in the sign-in book as “Wade.”

Several inmates had that last name.

Internet at warp speed The INsIder Continued from page 3

It could happen here.

Walton and others to work on achieving their education agenda. Saviers is a member of the board of the group.

by Gerard Matthews

n Imagine if you could download an entire movie in less than five minutes.

What would it be like if doctors and surgeons at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences could video-conference with the best medical professionals in the world, sharing everything from expertise to MRI images? How much easier would your life be if your Internet connection moved at a speed 100 times what it is now? Well, Little Rock may find out if city officials, broadband advocates and business leaders have their way.

Google, the Internet giant, is looking to build and test super high-speed broadband networks in select cities and communities across the country. The search engine and cloud-computing company is asking for applications from municipalities, community organizations and average citizens to find the perfect communities to test out their one gigabit per second, fiber optic network, and Little Rock might be a fit.

“Right now, looking at the application, we haven’t seen one of those ‘gotcha items,’ that might hold us back,” says Randy Foshee, the information technology director for the city of Little Rock.

“Sometimes when you look at grants or other applications, you’ll see certain hurdles, whether it’s matching funds or something like that. We haven’t seen any hurdles like that so far. So, we’re really optimistic that we’re going to be able to submit a good application.”

Foshee says landing the network is an exciting possibility but the competition will be stiff.

“I don’t know who we’re competing with,” he says. “There are probably a large number of cities out there competing for this, so it may be like winning the lottery if you get it. If we were awarded and able to deploy this type of a network, though, it would be hugely beneficial to our economy. Because then you have somebody that can compete and give good prices to our businesses that use those higher bandwidth applications out there.”

Those in the business community agree. Gary Newton, executive vice president of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, says it’s hard to explain, or even fathom, the possibilities of such a high-speed network.

“It’s like if you tried to explain the Internet to someone 20 years ago,” Newton says. “They could never have fathomed what you were talking about.

I think this is really the same way. It’s hard to fathom what may be possible, but it will create a climate of innovation, I think. If you’re creating a capacity for [internet-based] applications that have yet to be created, that could make this area a

hotbed for those creators.”

Little Rock isn’t the only place in Arkansas that would qualify. Google says it’s looking for “interested communities” with a population between 50,000 and 500,000.

They’ll also be looking at other factors including community support, local resources, weather conditions, approved construction methods and local regulatory issues.

Current broadband availability will also be taken into account, and that’s an area where a lot of Arkansas communities are lacking. According to Sam Walls, president of Connect Arkansas, a group working to support the development of broadband access throughout the state, Arkansas ranks 48th in the U.S. when it comes to broadband connectivity. The natural state ranks 47th in the percentage of population that is online.

“Our initial research showed us some pretty disturbing numbers,” Walls says.

“Twenty nine percent of Arkansans have never used the internet. Even if broadband internet was affordable and made available to every home, 30 percent of respondents said they still would not subscribe to it. So there’s a large percentage of our population that is unable or unwilling to utilize this technology. And that is reflected in our educational achievement and economic development.”

That’s why, he says, Connect Arkansas is willing to assist anyone who wants to “try to take advantage of this particular opportunity with Google.”

Foshee says there are still some unknowns, like whether Google will use their own fiber optic cables to build the network or use those already in place.

Companies like AT&T and Windstream already have fiberoptic cables inside the city. But he remains optimistic.

“I think Little Rock is a perfect fit for it and if I could talk to Google I would tell them that we are the city that needs this,” he says.

“Google has really presented this in a very democratic way,” Newton says. “So I think it’s up to all Arkansans, no matter their level of technological expertise, to jump in on this and say what it would mean to them personally, their business, their children and grandchildren. And hopefully, collectively, we’ll have a pretty big impact.”

The deadline for applications is March 26. More information about the rules can be found at http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/

Correction n Last week’s cover story mistakenly said the state Senate District 34 seat was held by Joyce Elliott. It is held by Tracy Steele.

What’s up?

Luke Gordy said the meeting doesn’t signal any new immediate initiative — a strong involvement in 2010 elections, for example. “What we’re trying to do is share with more of the business and community leadership where we are on education. The ulterior motive is to broaden the sphere of influence and support for the reform agenda.”

Gordy declined to disclose a guest list.

He said it was intended to be geographically diverse. He regretted that, despite efforts, minorities and women would be in a distinct minority among the 30 or so heavy hitters expected. The Arkansas Education Association isn’t a part of the event either.

The press was NOT invited, Gordy said, because of a concern about “fairness and open-mindedness” on the part of some who might attend. (We think he meant us.)

Gordy said the group will hear about the history of school reform in Arkansas, achievements and “continuing challenges.” Then the panel of businessmen will

discuss what needs to be done to move forward. “We went to improve education outcomes for all school children through advocacy of our state corporate community in support of strengthening accountability, transparency, choice and incentives in the Arkansas pre-K-12 delivery system,” Gordy said.

Gordy said he didn’t want to steal anyone’s thunder by revealing too much in advance. But he did say the executives were committed to fight any efforts in the legislature to water down standards, such as coming requirements for passage of algebra and English tests to receive a high school diploma. He said a full news release will follow the meeting.

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Gone A double murder spurs some deep questions about nature vs. nurture.

By David Koon

F

or a person given over to metaphor, Wilbern Road near Sweet Home makes a good stand-in for the life of Hannah Grace Dowdie: a short, dead-end roller coaster of pavement, pressed on both sides by dark and murky woods. The road is behind a locked gate now. A sign on the chain link advises people to call for more information.

It was here, 13 days before Christmas, that workers at nearby Granite Mountain Quarries saw smoke and then later found the bodies of Hannah and her father Michael Palmer in Palmer’s burning GMC truck, which was buried to the hubs in a muddy ditch. Michael was in the truck’s bed. Hannah, less than a month shy of her second birthday and only awarded to her father by the courts the day before after spending most of her life in foster care, was in the cab. Both were burned to the point they were unrecognizable. Beyond that, officials have not specified how they died.

Though two men have been arrested and the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office says everyone directly responsible for the murders has been charged, no one in law enforcement the Times spoke to would talk abut the details of the crime for the record.

For now, all that’s guaranteed is that there are questions. Many of those are being asked by Hannah’s former foster parents, Holly and Kevin Carr. The Carrs were well on their way to adopting the little girl they still call their daughter before, they say, a caseworker with the Arkansas Department of Human Services stepped in and helped 12 march 4, 2010 • ARKANSAS TIMES

make sure she was awarded to Palmer — a man they claim was unable to care for the girl and who put her in a situation that got her killed.

The benefit of terrible hindsight aside, DHS counters: Would anyone want to live in a world where children can be taken away solely because their parents are unprepared to care for them? And if you answer yes to that, another question: Who gets to decide the definition of unprepared?

Questions. Questions on top of questions. None of them easy.

The photos of Hannah Grace Dowdie on file at the Saline County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office are striking: a moon-faced 3-month-old, staring serenely into the camera and wearing only a diaper, with the red bulls-eye of a cigarette burn on her arm.

By then, Hannah’s name had already been on television more than once. Born to Kayla Dowdie at UAMS soon after midnight on Jan. 1, 2008, Hannah was touted in news reports as the first child born in Arkansas that year. The state got involved in her life soon after that.

Records on file with the Saline County Prosecutor’s Office show that on April 3, 2008, social workers with the Division of Child and Family Services of

DHS wrote that Kayla had schizo-affective disorder — a mental problem that can lead to everything from mood swings to visual and auditory hallucinations — but refused to take medicine to control it because she thought cigarettes would help her. How wrong she was became clear near dusk on April 25, 2008, when Kayla called the Saline County Sheriff’s Office to report that an unknown person had come into her home on Honeysuckle Lane in the East End community and assaulted her daughter.

When deputies arrived, Kayla proceeded to tell them that an angry, unknown woman with brown hair had barged into the house and said “You stole my dog and I want it back!” before hitting Hannah in the back and shoulder. The woman, Kayla told them, then left in a red car.

When police ran the plate number Kayla provided, the license returned as belonging to a green Chevy Cavalier. Kayla soon changed her story, telling another deputy that she and her neighbor got in a fight and that the neighbor had burned her daughter with a cigarette. Kayla’s story quickly fell apart. The incident report says she “made a spontaneous statement: ‘Officer Green, I did it. I burned her! I need help!’ ” Later, Kayla Dowdie told deputies that she had gotten into an argument with her neighbor and wanted to get her in trouble with the police. She had planned to blame Hannah’s burn on her rival.

After Hannah was released from the hospital, she was taken into custody by the state, and entered the foster care system soon after that. By August 2008, Kayla Dowdie had pled guilty to filing a false police report and second-degree battery, and was sentenced to six years probation.

Part of what she agreed to in the plea was that she would have no contact with her daughter. Nearly a year later, on June 1, 2009, her parental rights to Hannah were stripped by the courts.

Attempts to contact Kayla Dowdie by phone and e-mail for this story were unsuccessful. Since Hannah was taken away from her in April 2008, she has had another daughter who has also been removed from her care. At the time of Hannah’s death, she told reporters that she was pregnant again.

Because of the confidentiality

afforded children in the custody of the state — and because of a request by the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office that DHS withhold information about Hannah’s death — Hannah Dowdie slips down an informational rabbit hole for several months after she entered foster care. She reappears in the summer of 2008, when her name was mentioned to Holly and Kevin Carr of Malvern.

The Carrs — who called the girl HannahGrace, spelling it all one word — could be just about any middle class family cursed with the bad luck of a medical problem that keeps them from being able to have another son or daughter of

their own. Worried that their one biological child would grow up alone, they decided to look into adoption through the state.

Originally, they were only willing to consider adopting a child whose parents were completely out of the picture. With Hannah, however, they were offered an option they hadn’t heard before; the legal-risk adoption.

The legal-risk adoption is a gamble, but a good one.

The Carrs say they were told that while Kayla Dowdie and Hannah’s father, Michael Palmer, still had rights to the girl, there was a good chance that those rights would be terminated or relinquished. For the time being, the Carrs would be foster parents, but when all was decided in court, they would more than likely be able to adopt the girl outright.

They thought it over and decided to try it.

They completed their training to be foster parents on July 22, 2008, and took Hannah into their home in August.

Kevin Carr said that bringing her home for the first time was a familiar feeling. “For us, it was like having a new baby,” Kevin Carr said, “like any parents that have a new baby. You’re excited and scared. You don’t know all the things that are going to be required. Just like any new parent, you just do it.”

From the start, it was clear that taking care of the girl would be demanding. She was frequently ill, sometimes requiring doctor visits two or three times a month.

Though they were assured it was a problem she would eventually grow out of,

gone, baby, gone: (Above) Hannah with foster parents Kevin and Holly Carr; (Below) Hannah a few hours after her birth, from Kayla Dowdie's MySpace page.

Hannah had a “swallow problem” which meant that if her liquids weren’t mixed with a thickening agent to the consistency of heavy syrup, she could choke and suck fluid into her lungs, risking pneumonia or even death. Though Hannah wasn’t old enough to be formally tested for asthma, she had all the warning signs. She had to sleep with a humidifier going and the head of her bed had to be elevated. She eventually had to be put on an updraft machine that would mist medicine into her lungs up to six times a day.

Even with all those difficulties, the Carrs say that they were overjoyed to have Hannah in their lives, and thought of her as their own daughter. Their contact with DHS went fairly smoothly as well, and they fell into the routine of shuttling Hannah back and forth to her weekly, onehour supervised visits with her biological parents. The Carrs say they had a good relationship with their original DHS case-

worker. If they had questions or concerns, they would e-mail him and he would e-mail back promptly. Things seemed to be moving along toward the day when they could eventually adopt Hannah and truly make her their own.

They say that all changed, however on Jan. 30, 2009. That was the day their old caseworker resigned to take another job, and they were assigned a new caseworker.

Though the charges against Kayla Dowdie made it look like the removal of her parental rights was a done deal, in their very first meeting with the new caseworker, the Carrs say they were told that things were going to go in a “different direction” with regard to Hannah’s father, Michael Palmer. Specifically: seeking more visitation time for Palmer with his daughter. That day, says Holly Carr, when she extended her hand, the caseworker refused to shake it. That became a fitting symbol of how the Carrs say they were treated over the next few months.

“She had absolutely no contact with us,” Kevin Carr said. “If we did contact her, it was slow to get a response. I almost felt like she saw us as an adversary in this process, where we were really not trying to be an adversary.”

Continued on page 14 www.arktimes.com • march 4, 2010 13

Continued from page 13 As the Carrs’ caseworker became receptive to giving Palmer more time with his daughter, so did the court. From January to July, Hannah went from one-hour, once-a-week supervised visits at the DHS office, to two-hour supervised visits in Palmer’s home, then to unsupervised overnight and weekend visits. During this time, the Carrs say, they were voicing concerns to DHS about Palmer’s ability to take care of Hannah — that when they packed a bag for her to send to his house, it often came back looking like it hadn’t been opened; that medicines they sent sometimes looked as if they hadn’t been used; that Hannah was often returned to them dirty, as if she hadn’t been bathed.

They say that Palmer was frequently unable to make it to Hannah’s doctor’s appointments, even after he was ordered by the court to attend. When he did come, they say, he was often accompanied by his mother. Their caseworker, the Carrs said, dismissed their misgivings.

“We had questions and [our caseworker] didn’t seem concerned with them,” said Kevin Carr. “I felt it was important that he had a stable job and a stable home — the ability to take care of needs.”

The Carrs say their day-and-night experience with DHS made them understand just how much dominion a caseworker holds over the fate of a child in the foster care system. “They have supervisors,” said Kevin Carr, “but whether they’ve been there a couple of months or 10 years, the caseworker is the one who testifies and the one that makes recommendations. ... The judge makes the decision. But in our case, whatever DHS told him, that’s what he went with.”

14 march 4, 2010 • ARKANSAS TIMES

At the same time they were voicing concerns about Palmer’s ability to take care of a child, they say Palmer was having some himself. Once, when Hannah returned from a visit to Palmer’s home, Holly Carr said Palmer spoke to her about his reservations. “He told me that his friends had even told him that they didn’t know why he kept trying to get this kid,” Holly said. “He said he’d given some thought to that — about just giving her up.”

For whatever reason, Michael Palmer did keep seeking the return of his daughter and the courts obliged. In slow motion, the Carrs saw their dreams of adopting Hannah slip away from them. On Nov. 12, 2009, the day Palmer was to begin a onemonth trial period with his daughter, they said goodbye to her for what they knew would likely be the last time. When they went to drop Hannah off at the DHS office that morning, several of their friends and family came with them.

“That was the day that we felt like she was probably not coming back to our care,” Kevin Carr said. “Up until that day, we just felt like there was a chance.”

DHS has been asked by the sheriff’s office not to discuss the details of Hannah’s case and are bound by confidentiality laws, so the caseworkers and child advocates involved can’t tell their side of the story. Julie Munsell is the spokesperson for DHS. She said that while she can’t speak about Hannah Dowdie and Michael Palmer in particular, she could comment in general about the process that children, foster parents, and biological parents go through when dealing with the system.

Munsell said that in most cases, DHS’ goal is to return a child to its birth parent, even if there are allegations of past abuse or neglect. “The law requires, if possible, to work towards a reunification with a

david koon

gone

brian chilson

the accused: Daniel Gatrell (left) and his cousin Robert Gatrell.

dead end: Wilbern Road near Sweet Home. parent or parents,” Munsell said. “That’s federal law and it’s also state law. The caveat to that is: If it is in the best interest of the child. ... We’ve seen cases where that was not possible, not in the best interest, and moved or recommended to the court that the child remain in foster care or go to a relative placement.”

Munsell said that the law recognizes the potential for families to overcome their problems, and requires the state and the courts to give opportunity and support to that goal. She said it’s not uncommon for DHS to be required to pay for counseling or anger management courses, or to

help parents find jobs. When the safety of the child is a concern, Munsell said, the state can step in and remove a parent’s rights, but must give the process of reunification a chance if the other parent ever comes forward and asserts their rights to the child. That can be an excruciating process for families like the Carrs.

“Sometimes if a child stays in care longer than everyone would like,” Munsell said, “that’s part of the reason: because a father has come forward in the middle of the process ... You can start to see how that can be a very frustrating process for an adoptive family, who did not

know perhaps that one parent even existed. From there, they have to work through the process of watching reunification and watching, perhaps, their dreams of adopting that child go away.”

People are obviously polarized by when and if a child should be taken from his or her parents, Munsell said. While the urge to take a child from a parent at the slightest hint of neglect or abuse is common, the law sees it differently. “For those of us who are parents, the thought that anyone could take away our right to make decisions about our children is implausible, unimaginable,” she said. “There are people who believe that if you choose not to take care of your child then you give up that right. But that’s not what the law says. It is what a lot of people feel, but it’s not what the law says.”

and Kevin Carr were walking out the door to go to a funeral when they got the phone call from the person who would eventually come to their home to tell them Hannah Dowdie was dead. DHS, they later learned, had contacted an acquaintance of theirs and asked the person to come tell the Carrs so they wouldn’t have to hear it on the news.

In the month since Hannah had been removed from their home, Holly Carr had called Michael Palmer once to ask how Hannah was doing — a call for which she said she was chastised by their DHS caseworker. “She told me that it was inappropriate,” Holly said, “and that I could not contact Michael any further — that when [Hannah] was removed from our home, it was over with, plain and simple.”

While Palmer told the Carrs that Hannah was doing well, he didn’t share details of problems in his personal life. An incident report on file with the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office says that on Nov. 22, 2009, Palmer was involved in what the police officer on the scene termed a domestic assault on his girlfriend at the Arch Street Pike Little Caesars Pizza, where she worked. Palmer’s girlfriend told police that they had fought over a phone, and he had slapped her on the right cheek.

Deputies didn’t see any marks or bruises, and Palmer’s girlfriend downplayed the incident, so the case wasn’t pursued further. However, as the officer was about to leave, the manager of the pizza parlor told him that she’d just received a phone call from an unknown man whose voice she didn’t recognize. The caller warned that if the woman involved in the altercation didn’t stop seeing Palmer, he would do a “drive-by” on her at work. The woman told police that the caller might be one of three men, but refused to name them.

In a second incident report on file with the sheriff’s office, deputies said that on Nov. 28, 2009, Palmer called to report that when he came outside his house to get in his truck, he found all four of his 20-inch tires slashed. He told deputies that for the

brian chilson

In the cruelest of twists, Holly

hopes and dreams: Holly and Kevin Carr look at the bed where Hannah slept. past month, his ex-girlfriend — the same woman involved in the incident at the pizza parlor — had been threatening to “knife” his GMC pickup.

Soon after they learned of Hannah’s death, the Carrs put up a picture of Hannah Grace Dowdie on their Facebook page, and began referring to her by name in their posts. Prior to that, in deference to privacy laws concerning foster children, they had only referred to her as “HG” while online.

“That was when I said: this little girl, her name is HannahGrace,” Holly Carr said.

Within 24 hours, a woman with DHS had called and asked them to take the picture down. When they wouldn’t, they were served with a court order forcing them to take it down. Beyond that, and a Christmas card mistakenly sent to Hannah at their home by DHS, they say they’ve had no further contact with the agency.

Meanwhile, the investigation into the deaths of Hannah Dowdie and Michael Palmer is ongoing. On Jan. 21, the deputies arrested Robert Todd Gatrell and charged him with two counts of capital murder and one count of arson. Gatrell, a friend of Palmer’s, lived on Shamburger Lane, close to where Palmer’s truck was found burning. Four days later, police also arrested Robert Gatrell’s 16-year-old cousin, Daniel Chase Gatrell, as an adult on the same charges. During the investigation, a well behind the home of Robert Gatrell’s grandfather, Charles Gatrell (who was subsequently arrested for threatening an officer during the execution of the search warrant),. was dug into and a piece of evidence was recovered. The sheriff’s office won’t say exactly what it was.

Sheriff’s office spokesman John Rehrauer has said that all those directly responsible for the murders have been arrested, but

the case has not yet been formally handed over to the prosecutor. The affidavits filed to seek the arrests of Daniel and Robert Gatrell remain sealed, with prosecutors saying the disclosure of the information contained in them could harm their case.

Since Hannah’s death, the Carrs say they have gotten most of their information about the murders from news reports. They note one news broadcast that showed an eviction notice taped to the door of Michael Palmer’s home, and another in which Kayla Dowdie claimed to have seen her daughter the day before she died, providing the news station KLRT Fox 16 with a photograph of Hannah that she said was taken during that meeting. (Saline County Prosecutor Ken Casady said that if Dowdie did have contact with her daughter, that would constitute a violation of her parole. He said his office would look into it).

The Carrs say that their faith in God, their friends and their community have helped them get through the dark days.

Michael Palmer’s relatives asked that they not attend Hannah’s funeral, so the Carrs had their own memorial service for her in Malvern on Dec. 17. The sanctuary of their church was so full that extra chairs had to be brought in for the service, and so many came to express their condolences that the Carrs stood in a receiving line for an hour.

“I’ve never seen that many people attend a memorial service,” Kevin Carr said.

“For a community this size, close to 10,000 people, that’s a lot of people that came and took time out of their day and night.”

In talking to Kevin and Holly Carr, one of the most amazing things you’ll hear them say is that they’d still be willing to give adoption another try. They understand it’s a long shot now that they’re

making their voices heard about their displeasure with DHS. But they also know that Hannah’s sister is still in the system.

When they had Hannah, they dreamed that the two girls might be reunited in their home someday — had gone so far as to buy Hannah a bed so the crib would be free on the off-chance it might happen.

They won’t, however, consider another legal-risk adoption.

Their hearts are clearly broken, but, they say, they aren’t out for revenge. So much could have been different, they said, if only their caseworker had listened to their concerns. “If any good comes out of this,” Kevin Carr said, “it’s that they do re-examine their goals and make sure that they are in line with what’s best for the kids. ... Their mission is to reunite the child with the biological parent. That’s a fine and dandy goal, but I think you really have to open that up. Let’s find what’s really the best placement for that child.”

Kevin and Holly Carr don’t go into Hannah’s bedroom much anymore. She has left that place — most of her clothes and toys sent with her when she went away — but she is still there for them.

Kevin Carr looks simultaneously very big and very small when he stands in the middle of Hannah’s room and stares at the bed where his daughter slept. He and his wife now know, he said, what it is to lose a child twice.

“My best dreams would have been at some point knowing that she had a good life and she was able to prosper and do well,” Kevin said. “Then I would have known that in the short time she was with us, we probably provided her with some love and stability that helped her along the way. ... All the dreams and hopes we had for her — they’re gone.” www.arktimes.com • march 4, 2010 15

e y e on arkansas

Editorial n Baptists are nothing if not fratricidal. They despised Brother Jimmy Carter, a pious Baptist president, and their aversion to Carter was mild compared to their hatred of the next Baptist president, Bill Clinton. That hatred continues undiminished, obviously, though Clinton is long out of office. Kenneth Starr has just been hired as president of the world’s biggest Baptist university, and Starr’s not even a Baptist (nor much of an educator, for that matter). What the Baptists like about Starr is that he fought long and hard and ruthlessly to overturn the election of a president whose politics didn’t suit them, and to the people who are running the Baptist church these days, politics are far more important than religion. For a group that employs imprecatory prayer against critics, Starr is the perfect choice. Mean as hell.

(Starr has a background in the Church of Christ and he’s lately been dean of the law school at Pepperdine, a Church of Christ university. He attends a nondenominational evangelical church, but he’s reportedly said he’ll join a Baptist church when he moves to Waco, much as Knute Rockne embraced Catholicism when he took the coaching job at Notre Dame.)

A member of the Baylor board of regents said that Starr was chosen because of “his dedication to the highest ideals of the Christian faith, and his profound commitment to public service.” His public service was to try to overthrow a democratically elected government, and he’s dedicated to the highest ideals of the Christian faith only if Christ is a rightwing Republican. The last thing Starr can be accused of is sincerity. What he is, is a fanatical partisan and ideologue, not an idealist shocked into action by Bill Clinton’s sexual slips, as he pretends and his admirers profess to believe. He was caught on record frothing against Bill Clinton long before anyone had heard of Monica Lewinsky. The notion of Starr as an upright Christian soldier was spread by journalists as cynical as he, to whom he leaked information.

Starr spent $50 million of the taxpayers’ money trying to get rid of a president the taxpayers had elected. At least at Baylor, he won’t have his hands on public money. nSo far as we know, Jim Bunning is the only former Arkansas Traveler pitcher to hold high elective office, and that looks to be a very good thing. What mischief might he have caused if he’d had Bo Belinsky in the Senate rotation with him? Singlehandedly, Bunning is denying a million jobless Americans unemployment and health insurance benefits. When he pitched here, he was often wild; we didn’t know he was crazy.

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kevin clark

Not a nice guy

STORMY NIGHT: Kevin Clark’s photo of the First Security Bank in Conway on a night crackling with electricity comes from the Arkansas Times’ new Eye on Arkansas photo pool on Flickr.com. Check it out and contribute your shots of people, places, things and news in Arkansas.

Halter v. Lincoln n Lt. Gov. Bill Halter’s decision to challenge U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln in the Democratic primary wasn’t a big surprise. In recent days, his camp had worked its way into a number of national stories critical of the incumbent senator. Also, liberal voices had predicted his entry for a week or so. They included Daily Kos and Moveon.Org, which speak for the netroots money machine.

One liberal interest group in Washington went so far Monday as to describe Halter as its first “recruit.” Halter had met with key figures of this blog in Washington. Its potential to raise union campaign money was a factor in his considerations. But, really. Do you want to be seen as a liberal blog’s tool? It’s one of many indications of outsiders’ tone-deafness to Arkansas politics. Such boasts don’t help Halter.

Halter vowed to represent Main Street, not Wall Street. There’s a hint of irony in his adoption of this cliche. The Rhodes scholar and Stanford grad made millions in high-tech investments. He made enough that he doesn’t have to hold down a full-time job like the rest of us.

It was ironic, too, to hear Halter inveigh against Washington. He worked in the Clinton White House. He held the No. 2 spot at the Social Security Administration.

His professed little-guy populism is stained, too, by his greatest achievement. Bill Halter created the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery almost single-handedly.

It was a smash hit at the ballot box. News reports of big winners and the avid play of thousands of Arkansans contribute to the notion that this is a political winner.

His first TV ads, again featuring his old high school football coach, indicate as much.

But the lottery also happens to be the single biggest reason to doubt Bill Halter’s good judgment.

Would a good progressive – as the eastern bloggers see Halter – really use the fool’s gold of a lottery to

Max brantley max@arktimes.com

win higher political office? Lotteries transfer money (even if voluntarily) from poor people into the pockets of mostly middle-class beneficiaries, particularly when applied to college scholarships. Over time, the lottery proceeds will be more than offset by college fee increases, if experience elsewhere is a guide. In the long run, the lottery won’t make college more affordable, in part because legislators will resist extraordinary efforts for colleges. They’ll believe “the lottery took care of that.” The lottery creates no additional money for colleges; it merely replaces existing resources, often for those who already had means to get there. (Recipients aren’t complaining, of course.)

Halter’s greatest strength is his opponent. Lincoln even singled out Arkansas industry as a particular concern in her pre-announcement statements. No kidding. Her record of obedience to the special interests is excellent. By proclaiming centrism as her greatest strength, she only emphasized her lack of great public passions, save taxpayer subsidies for Big Agri and estate tax relief for billionaires. In the process, she insulted all of us who don’t believe universal health care, human rights and a clean environment amount to “extremism.”

Will Halter run to the left of Lincoln? In the beginning, he issued carefully calibrated, if modestly hopeful, statements on health care, card check and cap-and-trade. Perhaps he’ll surprise me, beat Lincoln and stand tall on these and other key issues to beat whatever male Republican version of Blanche Lincoln wins the GOP’s crowded primary.

This seems a lot to expect of him — and Arkansas voters.

Are liberals smarter? n A widely debated study published in the current issue of the scientific journal Social Psychology Quarterly tries to explain why most of us attach ourselves to broad political concepts like liberalism and conservatism and embrace different social and religious values.

The study concluded that people are apt to form “evolutionary novel” social and religious ideas — ideas that run counter to the evolutionary influences upon the human species —or not, based upon their intelligence. The findings by an evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics and Political Science tend to displease conservatives because you could construe them, wrongly I think, to mean that conservatives are naturally not as smart as liberals and highly doctrinaire religionists are not as bright as free thinkers.

Science Daily, which reported on the study, tossed some fuel on the fire by recounting a national longitudinal study of adolescent health in the United States that it said bolstered the London findings.

That study found that young adults who identified themselves as “very liberal” had an average IQ during adolescence of 106 compared with 95 for those who regarded themselves as “very conservative.”

But the London study was not trying to rank people on political and religious curves based upon their intelligence but upon their adjustment to evolutionary pressures. It argued that people are designed by evolu-

Ernest Dumas tion to be conservative, caring prescriptively about themselves, their family, their friends and people most like themselves because for their ancestors it was a matter of protection from the lurking perils of the environment. People of liberal inclinations, on the other hand, tend to expand their concern to an indefinite number of genetically unrelated strangers — people outside their families, their social order and even their country — and thus break away from the environmental pressures that held their ancestors in thrall. So they are “evolutionary novel.”

It is a good way of describing the essential divide between conservatives and liberals: an exclusive concern for the safety and prosperity of your own brood and kind vs. an expansive concern for the wellbeing of people outside family and social order and perhaps far away in place and time.

It also is a scientific and thus less judgmental way of defining the gulf between the attitudes of Americans toward the two burning issues of the times, health care and climate change, which have almost literally torn the country asunder. So ferocious are the outpourings, especially on the conservative (or evolutionary) side,

A political page-turner n “Game Change,” the book on the presidential race of 2008 that is all the current rage, manages at once to disconcert, entertain and comfort.

I got it after the authors, Mark Halperin and John Heinemann, made an underwhelming appearance Wednesday at the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock.

I read in an afternoon and evening, because it kept me turning the page. The book is a darned sight more engaging than was the lecture.

The book disconcerts because, like those best-sellers of Bob Woodward, it presumes to recreate lengthy quotes from private conversations from months before, based on “background” interviews in which the authors get to use the information without attributing it.

For example: You have paragraph after paragraph of extended detailed quotes from Hillary Clinton and pollster Mark Penn from a conversation they are said to have had to conduct a post-mortem of Hillary’s failed bid.

John brummett jbrummett@arkansasnews.com

If it was just the two of them, then the one who didn’t relate the conversation knows that it was the other who did. So why not go ahead and identify the source?

Even so, how could either of them recall the conversation with so much certain detail that the authors could be confident of the accuracy of the extended phrases they put inside quotation marks?

Another time, the authors have cranky John McCain dropping the “F bomb” to his wife Cindy 11 times, one after the other, because she had just interrupted him. How do we know he said that fourletter word precisely 11 times consecutively? Might it have been nine, or 13?

Who was counting?

The book entertains because of the insider hilarity that probably is mostly true.

that it has made action on either problem virtually impossible. Opposition to major health-care reform runs in sync with resistance to taking hard steps to reverse global warming because people think it can’t really be happening or else a remedy would make life less fulsome for us right now.

All of us involved in the debates view the other side in more judgmental terms, the proponents of reforms as reckless and conspiratorial agents out to destroy our way of life, the opponents as selfish and heartless protectors of the status quo.

If you don’t care for these evolutionary theories about contemporary behavior, there is a slightly different way of characterizing the differences, which is that the society has become more and more selfcentered — narcissistic in the words of Roger Cohen, the thoughtful columnist for the New York Times. We have never had the sense of social solidarity — all for one and one for all — that Europeans and some other societies had but we are losing what we had in an orgy of self-contemplation. If there’s nothing in it for me, forget it.

It was on display last week at the White House health-care summit where the two sides, represented by Republicans and Democrats, demonstrated only one huge difference. One side thought nearly every person should be assured access to medical care and had a plan to require everyone to share the risks and thereby extend insurance coverage to 30 million people (while reducing the federal budget deficits). The other side said reforms should be limited to protecting people who are well enough off to have insurance already and maybe

to expanding that group over the next 10 years to some 3 million people who are on the cusp of affording it and might buy a policy if they could get a cheap one in another state that did not much regulate the insurance industry.

As for the ferocious opposition to climate legislation, take your pick: evolutionary self-centeredness or narcissism.

If there were even a 20 percent chance that our industrial society was heating the earth through the production of carbon and other greenhouse gases, which would raise unknown perils for our own descendants, would you not want to take the strongest possible steps to prevent it? Not if you have to balance their fates with your own ambitions for the good life.

The opinion pages of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette are a daily laboratory for the theory. Rare has been the day that columnists and letter writers do not rage against the global-warming theorists, which happen to be nearly every climate scientist in the world. The paper’s editorial staff goes back and forth between ridiculing the idea and then acknowledging it and attacking Democrats for not taking courageous steps to combat it, like a stiff tax on fossil fuels. The fact that it snowed on the letter writers and even some Republican senators proves to them that global warming is nuts. (The international climate panel predicted winter blizzards as warming oceans put more water vapor in the atmosphere. January 2010 was the warmest January on record globally.)

Maybe there is something to the notion that intelligence explains political differences.

McCain seems to be a piece of work.

He sits around in boxers and a dress shirt.

He doesn’t want to practice for the debates because he says he knows everythimg he needs to know. When his aides finally force him into rehearsal and ask him if he knows the difference between gay marriage and a civil union, McCain replies, “I don’t give a (bleep).”

Finally, the book comforts because it shows the discerning reader that the American voter made the right decision.

Barack Obama is the only character in these 440 pages who is consistently sane and calm.

On the afternoon of his first debate with McCain in Oxford, Miss., Obama’s close friend Valerie Jarrett is visibly nervous.

Obama puts his hand on her shoulder and says, “I got this.” And he does mostly because he has been studying and McCain has been saying he doesn’t give a bleep.

Hillary Clinton is described as contemptuous of Iowans, nearly as profane as McCain and wholly unable to control her husband.

Bill goes rogue. He gets so mad that he is being accused of playing a race card against Obama that he defies the specific instructions of Hillary’s campaign not to

go to South Carolina.

Once there, he gets asked by a television reporter about Obama and, after escaping with an appropriately banal response, turns back to the camera, red-faced, and goes off on Obama in altogether too revealing and discomfiting fit of rage.

Sarah Palin is said to suffer what sounds like a nervous breakdown as she prepares for her debate with Biden and can’t remember the answers to such basic questions as how Korea came to be divided into north and south. She quits eating and sleeping, goes catatonic and buries her head amid hundreds of five-byseven index cards.

The book is PG-13, at least, for language and for the part about how Hillary’s campaign people were convinced Bill was still tomcatting.

To sum up, the book offers this quote from Obama, reportedly speaking to an aide: “This (bleep) would be interesting if we weren’t in the middle of it.”

John Brummett is a columnist and reporter for Stephens Media’s Arkansas News Bureau. You can read additional Brummett columns in The Times of North Little Rock. www.arktimes.com • march 4, 2010 17

finals: friday, march 5 • 8PM

FEATURING: BOBBY • ELISE DAVIS BROTHER ANDY & HIS BIG DAMN MOUTH UNDERCLAIRE • flash larue CONGRATULATIONS finalists!

ROUND ONE: BOBBY

ROUND TWO: ELISE DAVIS

ROUND THREE: BROTHER ANDY & HIS BIG DAMN ROUND MOUTH four: UNDERCLAIRE

wildcard: flash larue

ADMISSION: $5 • 18+ • THE REV ROOM • LITTLE ROCK www.arktimes.com/blogs/rockcandy

arts entertainment

This week in

Strait to Verizon

T-Model to Tavern

Page 25

Page 32

and

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20

calendar

22

Movies

28

Dining

31

FINALISTS: Brother Andy, Bobby, Jeff Dunman of Flash LaRue, Elise Davis and Mike Mullins of Underclaire.

Last call n We started with somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 local acts, pared those down to 16 semi-finalists and now, after five weeks of competition, here we are. The final showdown. Friday, at Revolution, five acts, none of which sound anything alike, square off to join the likes of 607 and Velvet Kente as a winner of the Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase.

But before I preview the finalists, a quick word about last week’s wildcard round, which had enough talent to stand in for a final round. Flash LaRue claimed the win despite a wave of equipment problems, but everyone showed out. Amazingly, of the four acts, only Bonnie Montgomery has recorded material and hers is several years old and essentially out of print. Get to the studio, people. Montgomery, especially, seems to have the tools — the voice, the songs, the charisma — to be the next must-see local act, something like Chris Denny when he first hopped onto the scene. Stella Fancy’s already enjoyed some of that sort of buzz. Hopefully, it’ll only expand; their bossa nova-flecked lounge rock is endlessly infectious. And like I said last week, if you care even the least about throwback metal and hard rock, go see Iron Tongue. It’s heavy. More on Flash LaRue below.

Unlike weeks past, we shift nights, start times and

The final round of the Musicians Showcase comes to Revolution on Friday.

By Lindsey millar

venues for the finals. So clear your calendar: Friday at 8 p.m. we’re at Revolution. It’s open to those 18 and older and there’s no smoking.

Below is a quick recap of the acts with a case for each to win the Showcase: Bobby. From round one, the rapper comes with impressive pedigree. His brother, 607, won the Showcase two years ago. Through that victory, Bobby served as Six’s hype man. Now Six is returning the favor for his younger brother. In his semi-final win, the MC had the crowd, our emcee and the judges whooping with delight.

Why he’ll win: Because he’s practiced. He’s done hundreds of shows with Six and he knows how to work a stage. Look for narrative, theatrics — something extra. Which, sometimes, is what it takes.

Brother Andy & His Big Damn Mouth. They roared to a third round victory with deranged, religionobsessed pop songs folk-punked up.

Why they’ll win: Because they don’t sound like anyone anywhere.

Elise Davis. In the second round, she led her fourpiece band with a breezy confidence and a knack for relationship-focused pop songs. Performing since she

was a teen, the college senior sings with a voice that often recalls Liz Phair’s. And in the semifinal win, with the withering looks and comments she directed at exhusband and guitarist Trevor Ware, she had a sensibility to match, even if it was just play-acting.

Why she’ll win: She’s the only finalist who works within conventional pop structures. She’s also probably the only contestant with a pretty voice, and her backing band is tight.

Underclaire. The round-four winner specializes in a dynamic brand of alt-rock that harkens back to the early, respectable days of emo. The four-piece has played together almost a decade longer than its competition.

Why they’ll win: Because they’ll probably be the most adept band in the finals. And the most anthemic.

Flash LaRue. The wildcard round winner includes members of Notion and The Poeboy Society and specializes in a winning brand of big-tent rock ‘n’ roll. A lot of their shifting arrangements sound like contemporary indie rock, but at other times, they’re full-tilt Southern rock.

Why they’ll win: Because, like I said last go ’round, they’re infectious. And even with all the stylistic shifts, they’re still the most straightforward rock ‘n’ roll act in the wildcard round. Everyone loves the rawk. www.arktimes.com • march 4, 2010 19

■ to-dolist

Pack, bassist Joe Vick and percussionist Dave Rogers. And for those who really adore her, she’ll be in Russellville Saturday night, performing with the Arkansas Tech University jazz band. JT.

TH U RS D AY 3 / 4

ARKANSAS CHAMBER SINGERS

By Lindsey Millar and John Tarpley

CADILLAC SKY

7:30 p.m., St. James United Methodist Church. $10-$18.

9 p.m., Juanita’s. $10 adv., $12 d.o.s.

n Sensitive woolyboogers, this group.

Cadillac Sky is all beards, Rascal Flatts harmonies and bluegrass soundscapes, with a healthy dollop of mom-approved ganache. With its third album, the new “Letters in the Deep” (produced by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach), the band’s elbowing for space in an already crowded room that’s hogged up by the massively gifted Nickel Creek. Like its competition, Cadillac Sky enjoys taking a stab or two at covering other bands. Take their cover of Death Cab For Cutie’s “I Will Follow You Into the Dark.” If Gibbard and Co.’s original wasn’t treacly enough for you, Cadillac Sky made sure to slap an extra layer of jaw-jutting, brow-folding earnestness on top. Now, this isn’t to say they’re without serious chops. It’s just that they bring serious seriousness, too. JT.

FRID AY 3 / 5

MIX MASTER MIKE

8:30 p.m., The Village. $20 adv., $25 door.

MIX MASTER, CUT FASTER: Beastie’s DJ comes to Village. les. More broadly, he’s the Jimi Hendrix of turntablism. A godfather of the “turntable as instrument” movement, not only is he the inventor of a handful of scratches that are now commonplace, he’s still, at 40 years old, not only a man to be respected, but a force to be reckoned with.

Of the times I’ve seen the Beasties, the MCs wowed, but M.M. Mike straight up put people in awe. If he can set Madison Square Garden alight on a regular basis, imagine what he’s going to do to the old Cinema 150. JT.

GEORGE MCCONNELL n Before serving time as lead guitarist of Beanland, Kudzu Kings and jam band grand poobahs, Widespread Panic, Mississippi musician George McConnell underwent an intensive, complete immersion course in the ways of the world starting as a

RURAL JAZZ: With Inga Swearingen at Capitol Keyboard.

20 march 4, 2010 • ARKANSAS TIMES

INGA SWEARINGEN

8 p.m., Capitol Keyboard. $15-$25.

9 p.m., Sticky Fingerz. $7.

n As much as Rick Rubin (or maybe even MCA, Ad Rock, or Mike D individually), Mix Master Mike is the man responsible for a bulk of the defining aesthetics of the Beastie Boys. As their resident DJ since “Hello Nasty” in 1998, he’s effectively acted as the Billy Preston to their Beat-

10-year-old, working on the back of a Falstaff truck whose route pinballed back and forth from juke joints to pool halls across the Mississippi Delta. Now, McConnell is delving into the world of solo performance and bringing his brand of airy blues-folk to Sticky’s for an evening of bouncy noodling that’ll surely be greeted with much spinning and wobbling of shoulders. Fayetteville’s Charliehorse opens. JT

Self-described as “Swedish farm jazz,” Carnegie Hall performer and “A Prairie Home Companion” regular Inga Swearingen makes a rare stop in Little Rock courtesy of the Arkansas Jazz Heritage Foundation. Having recently released her third album, “First Rain,” the jazz vocalist has found a niche in rebranding old standards (and a Beatles song or two) with rural jazz and bossa nova sounds. Swearingen will be accompanied by an all-local backing band consisting of guitarist Les

n If you prefer your classical pieces dense and grave, you’re probably familiar with Cherubini’s “Requiem in C minor.” Written for the anniversary of Louis XVI’s execution, the seven-movement requiem mass contains some of the most majestic, imposing and recognizable moments in the history of choral pieces. Joined by members of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, the Arkansas Chamber singers (under the direction of John Erwin) perform the piece alongside Mendelssohn’s famous setting of “Psalm 42” for their spring concert. JT.

‘CABARET’

7:30 p.m., Reynolds Center Performance Hall, UCA. $30-$32.

n UCA sets the stage for a one-night-only engagement of the celebrated, oft-revived musical “Cabaret.” Set on a backdrop of the Weimar Republic in the early ’30s, the racy play revolves around performers at a Berlin nightspot, the Kit Kat Klub, an American writer and the growing political unrest around them. The play won a “Best Musical” Tony (one of 12 total) during the play’s initial run in 1966, was adapted

by Bob Fosse into a now-classic film, and enjoyed a long, illustrious run during its Sam Mendes/Rob Marshall co-directed 1998 revival. UCA will host Windwood Productions, a NYC-based touring company, for the performance. Curtain is at 7:30 p.m. JT.

AT THE ‘CABARET’: UCA stages the decorated musical.

a letter to the editor explaining how this is desirable), Trainwreck postures itself as the Ennio Morricone of CB radio movies.

One part Steel Panther, one part C.W. McCall, the band is most recognizable as the side project of Tenacious D’s Kyle Gass.

You probably have the gist by now, so I’ll use up the rest of this space to print the band members’ names: Klip Calhoun, Daryl Lee Donald, John Bartholomew Shredman, Boy Johnny and Dallas St. Bernard. If that passed your giggle test, we suggest you check it out. JT.

T UE SDAY 3 /9

XIU XIU

9 p.m., Sticky Fingerz. $10.

AVANT-POP: From San Jose’s Xiu Xiu at Sticky Fingerz. screens should keep everyone front-side focused throughout. Multiple Grammy and Academy of Country Music Award 7 p.m., Children’s Theatre, Arkansas Arts winner Lee Ann Womack opens, likely Center. $11-$14. with a preview of her forthcoming seventh album. LM. You know Ferdinand. He’s the anthropomorphic bon vivant and antisocial layabout who found himself in a gnarly case of mistaken identity. On Friday, the Children’s Theatre begins a three-weekend run of 8:30 p.m., The Village. $10 adv., $12 d.o.s. the play based on the classic Munro Leaf children’s book that introduced the lovn Named after a particular strain of pot able bull to the world at large. Parents, this that “makes your face feel like it got in a could be a nice treat for your kid; teachers, wreck with a train” (stoners, please write this could be a nice way to get out of your classroom for a spell; regular readers, did you know the original story was banned in Spain and burned as propaganda in Nazi Germany for the pacifist overtones? The play continues through March 21, with performances at 7 p.m. Friday, 3 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. JT.

‘FERDINAND THE BULL’

TRAINWRECK

n While they’re a three-piece from San Jose, there’s no use in pretending that the critically-fawned over Xiu Xiu is anything other than the brainchild of Jamie Stewart, the brilliant avant-pop experimentalist who orchestrates the band’s challenging sound: confrontational and oft-disturbing but inexplicably revisitable. And they’re prolific, to boot. In eight years, they’ve released nine albums of David Lynchian arrangements draped upon intense, jostling and auteurian vocals. Ever confrontational, their album titles include “Knife Play,” “Fag Patrol” (Stewart is a bit of a gay icon) and their newest, “Dear God, I Hate Myself.” It’s been a while since Little Rock has seen an outfit this severe and uncommercial playing outside of house shows, so if you’re not attending as a fan, attend for the spectacle. Girl in a Coma and Noveller provide support. JT.

S ATU RD AY 3 / 6

GEORGE STRAIT/ REBA MCENTIRE

7 p.m., Verizon Arena. $81.25-$91.25

n Just to put this pair in a non-country context: With 68.5 million records certified sold by the RIAA, George Strait’s just a million records shy of selling more than Michael Jackson. And even though she’s almost 20 million behind Strait, McEntire can boast more sales than Prince, Simon & Garfunkel and Dylan. So, until Garth Brooks returns to the circuit, it’s safe to say that Strait and McEntire are by far the most decorated country stars touring.

Their concert, unlike most shows at Verizon Arena, will be staged “in the round,” with a diamond stage in the middle, facing an audience on every side. Giant video

JUGGERNAUT: Country megastar George Strait joins Reba McEntire at Verizon.

■ inbrief THURSDAY 2/4

n Cody Belew, man of multiple musical hats, marks the release of his solo album, “Paradise,” at White Water Tavern, 9 p.m., $5. Dallas teeny bop power-punkers Forever the Sickest Kids and electro rap-rock outfit EKG join School Boy Humor for a Spring Break homecoming show, 8 p.m., $15 adv., $18 d.o.s. Hot Club Arkansas, purveyors of gypsy jazz/jazz manouche a la Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli, bring their new act to the Faulkner County Library, 7 p.m., free. Popular metal-core bands Harp and Lyre, All’s Quiet, Fit For a King, and Legend Has It take to Vino’s, 8 p.m., $7.

FRIDAY 2/5

n Billboard-charting Three Days Grace brings a night of rock to Verizon Arena alongside angsty ilk Breaking Benjamin and Flyleaf, 7 p.m., $48.50. Floridian bluegrass-soul outfit Bowlegged Rooster takes to the White Water Tavern stage as part of its ongoing tour, 10 p.m. Downtown Music hosts a night of psych-folk with Damon Moon and the Whispering Drifters and Boston’s Stranger Than Fiction, 8 p.m., $6. In Benton, Little Rock radio rockers 3rd Degree play Denton’s Trotline, 8 p.m. For those wanting to jazz up their Friday, Afterthought offers a free show with Ramona Smith and Carl Mouton, 8 p.m., while The Ted Ludwig Trio continues its standing engagement at the Capital Bar and Grill, 8 p.m., free.

SATURDAY 2/6

n At North Little Rock’s Parrot Beach Cafe, 26 acts play an all-day festival to raise money to help pay local musician Charlotte Taylor’s stacking chemotherapy bills. The benefit goes from 1 p.m. to midnight; there’s a suggested $5 donation at the door. After releasing its new album, “Roots, Shoots and Wings,” country-folksters Big Smith bring their dusty, authentic sound to Revolution, 8:30 p.m., $6. New Little Rock shredders Forty-Two return to Lucky’s Bar and Grill, in Maumelle, 8 p.m. Stark Naked and the Car Thieves play Stevie Wonder-infused bar music at Fox and Hound, 9 p.m., $5. Conway’s Bear’s Den Pizza brings Little Rock’s Falcon Scott alongside Climax, 8 p.m., $5. Whurm takes its heavier, more experimental take on the jam band sound to Juanita’s; Luke Pruitt and Brandon White support, 9 p.m. Meanwhile, Electric Cowboy takes a stab at comedy by presenting the 2nd Annual Arkansas’ Funniest Person competition, 6 p.m., $10. www.arktimes.com • march 4, 2010 21

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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.

THURSDAY, MARCH 4 MUSIC

Ben & Doug (happy hour), Typhoid Mary (headliner). 5:30 p.m. and 9 p.m, $5 after 8:30.

Cajun’s Wharf, 2400 Cantrell Road. 375-5351, www.cajunswharf.com.

Cadillac Sky, The Apache Relay, This Holy House. 9 p.m. Juanita’s, 1300 S. Main St. 3743271, www.juanitas.com.

Cody Belew Record Release Show. 9 p.m., $5. White Water Tavern, 2500 W. 7th. 375-8400, myspace.com/whitewatertavern.

Flying Balloon-o Brothers. 8 p.m., $5. Afterthought, 2721 Kavanaugh. 663-4176, www.afterthoughtbar.com.

Forever the Sickest Kids, School Boy Humor, EKG. 8 p.m., $15 adv., $18 d.o.s. The Village, 3715 S, University. 570-0300, www.thevillagelive.com.

Harp and Lyre, Alls Quite, Fit For a King, Legend Has It. 8 p.m., $7. Vino’s, 923 W. 7th St. 375-8466, www.vinosbrewpub.com.

Hot Club Arkansas. Acoustic swing band. 7 p.m., free. Faulkner County Library, 1900 Tyler St., Conway. 501-327-7482, www.hotclubarkansas. com.

Hung Jury. 9 p.m., $5. Electric Cowboy, 9513 I-30. 560-6000, www.electriccowboy.com.

Jerry Garcia Band featuring Melvin Seals.

9 p.m., George’s Majestic Lounge, 519 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-527-6618, www.georgesmajesticlounge.com.

Jonathan Wilkins and the Reparations, Knox Hamilton. 9 p.m. Sticky Fingerz, 107 Commerce St. 372-7707, www.stickyfingerz.com.

Karaoke with Big John Miller. Denton’s Trotline, 2150 Congo Road, Benton. 501-315-1717.

Puddin’ Head. 10 p.m., $3. Town Pump, 1321 Rebsamen Road. 663-9802.

The Ted Ludwig Trio. 5 p.m., free. Capital Bar & Grill, 111 W. Markham. 370-7013, www.capitalhotel. com/CBG. ZUM. 8 p.m., $16-$26. Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson, Fayetteville. 479-443-5600, waltonartscenter.org.

COMEDY

The Midnight Swinger. 8 p.m., $6. The Loony Bin, I-430 and Rodney Parham. 228-5555, www. loonybincomedy.com.

EVENTS

An Evening with Diane Rehm. NPR personality visits Little Rock for a KUAR fund-raiser. 7 p.m., $150. Embassy Suites, 11301 Financial Centre Parkway. 800-952-2528, tickets@kuar.org.

Hillcrest Shop & Sip. 5 p.m. Hillcrest. www.hillcrestmerchants.com.

MARATHON TIME: There’ll be thousands out early morning Sunday, March 7, as the annual Little Rock Marathon winds its way from the River Market to the Quapaw Quarter and Hillcrest neighborhoods, out near the Big Dam Bridge, and back downtown. Early racing starts at 6 a.m.

Race and Gender in a Twentieth-Century Icon.”

7:30 p.m., free. Mills Building, Lecture Hall “A,” Hendrix College, Conway. 501-450-1240, www. hendrix.edu.

SPORTS

Oaklawn Racing. 1 p.m. Sat.; 1:30 p.m. weekdays, Sun. Oaklawn Jockey Club, 2705 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-623-4411, www.oaklawn. com.

FRIDAY, MARCH 5 MUSIC

Afterglow. 9 p.m. Flying Saucer, 323 Clinton Ave. 372-7468, www.beerknurd.com.

Arkansas Chamber Singers Spring Concert. 7:30 p.m., $10-$18. St. James United Methodist Church, 321 Pleasant Valley Drive. 225-7372, www.ar-chambersingers.org.

ThE van-dElls March 9 - 10

The #1 Rock and Roll Review Band

22 march 4, 2010 • arKaNSaS TImES

COMEDY

Billy D and the First Time Offenders. 9 p.m.

Cornerstone Pub, 314 Main, NLR. 374-1782, cstonepub.com.

Chucky D, Tommy Kelley, Michael “Doc” Davis 9 p.m., $8. Front Street Grill, 115 S. Front St., Dardanelle. 479-229-4458.

The Midnight Swinger. 8 p.m., $6. The Loony Bin, I-430 and Rodney Parham. 228-5555, www. loonybincomedy.com.

EVENTS

Travis LEDOYT March 12-14

“The World’s Best Young Elvis”

Carnaval: The Museum Comes to Life. 7:30 p.m. $125-$250. Arkansas Arts Center, 501 E. 9th St. 501-372-4000, www.arkarts.com

FILM

“Silent Storytellers.” Premiere of a new documentary that focuses on the art and history of Arkansas’ historic cemetaries. 6 p.m., free. Sturgis Hall, Clinton School of Public Service. 683-5239, publicprograms@clitonschool.uasys.edu.

SPORTS

LECTURES

Alex Vernon. Professor and Tarzan scholar delivers lecture “Imagining Tarzan: Constructions of

Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase Finals with Bobby, Brother Andy & His Big Damn Mouth, Elise Davis, Flash LaRue and Underclaire. 8 p.m., $5. Revolution, 300 President Clinton Ave. 823-0090, www.rumbarevolution.com.

Billie Jones Band. 9 p.m., $5. Fox and Hound, 2800 Lakewood Village Drive, NLR. 753-8300.

Bowlegged Rooster.10 p.m. White Water Tavern, 2500 W. 7th. 375-8400, myspace.com/whitewatertavern.

Dirt Daubers, Brian Martin. 9 p.m. Maxine’s, 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-321-0909, maxinespub.com.

Cedar Bottom Boys. 10 p.m., $3. Town Pump, 1321 Rebsamen Park Road. 663-9802.

Chris DeClerk (happy hour), Unpainted Arizona (headliner). 5:30 p.m. and 9 p.m, $5 after 8:30. Cajun’s Wharf, 2400 Cantrell Road. 3755351, www.cajunswharf.com.

Courtney Shepherd, Mare Cormody. 8:30 p.m., free. Capi’s, 11525 Cantrell Road. 225-9600, www.capisrestaurant.com.

Crisis. 9 p.m., $5. Underground Pub, 500 President Clinton Ave. 707-2537, www.theundergroundpub.com.

Damon Moon and the Whispering Drifters, Stranger than Fiction. 8 p.m., $6. Downtown Music Hall, 211 W. Capitol. 376-1819, www.downtownshows.homestead.com.

George McConnell, Charliehorse. 9 p.m., $7. Sticky Fingerz, 107 Commerce St. 372-7707, www.stickyfingerz.com.

Inga Swearingen with Les Pack, Joe Vick and Dave Rogers. 8 p.m, $20 adv., $25 d.o.s. Capitol Keyboard Recital Hall, 13401 Chenal. 228-9999, www.arjazz.org Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights, Hwy 5, Ben Miller Band. 10 p.m. George’s Majestic Lounge, 519 W. Dickson, Fayetteville. 479-4424226, www.georgesmajesticlounge.com.

Meanies. 9 p.m., $5. West End, 215 N. Shackelford. 224-7665, www.westendsmokehouse.com.

Mixmaster Mike. 8:30 p.m., $20 adv., $25 d.o.s.

The Village, 3715 S. University. 570-0300, www. thevillagelive.com.

Ramona Smith and Carl Mouton. 8 p.m., free.

Afterthought, 2721 Kavanaugh. 663-4176, www. afterthoughtbar.com.

The Jess Hoggard Band featuring Charles Woods. 9:30 p.m., $5. Brickhouse Grill, 801 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-321-2926, www. thebrickhousegrill.net.

The Ted Ludwig Trio. 9 p.m., free. Capital Bar & Grill, 111 W. Markham. 370-7013, www.capitalhotel.com/CBG. Theatre Breaks Loose, Parashos Parachutes, Danger Ready, Old Fashioned Gunfight. 8 p.m., $7. Vino’s, 923 W. 7th St. 375-8466, www.vinosbrewpub.com.

Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, Flyleaf. 7 p.m., $48.65. Verizon Arena. 800-7453000, www.ticketmaster.com.

Whitney Paige, Lawanda Jackson. 8 p.m.

Pulse at OffCenter, 307 W. 7th. www.pulseatoffcenter.com.

ZUM. 8 p.m., 10 p.m., $16-$26. Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson, Fayetteville. 479-443-5600, waltonartscenter.org.

Colonel Glenn & University • murrysdinnerplayhouse.com • 562-3131

Oaklawn Racing. 1 p.m. Sat.; 1:30 p.m. weekdays, Sun. Oaklawn Jockey Club, 2705 Central

Ave., Hot Springs. 501-623-4411, www.oaklawn. com.

SATURDAY, MARCH 6 MUSIC

Benefit for Charlotte Taylor with Jawbone and Jolene. 3 p.m. Parrot Beach Cafe, 6911 MacArthur Drive. 771-2994.

Big Boots, Whale Fire. 9 p.m. Maxine’s, 700 Central Ave, Hot Springs. 501-321-0909, maxinespub.com.

Big Smith, Mockingbird. 8:30 p.m., $6. Revolution, 300 President Clinton Ave. 823-0090, www. rumbarevolution.com.

Crunch. 9 p.m., $5. West End, 215 N. Shackelford. 224-7665, www.westendsmokehouse.com.

Die on 3, Attack the Mind, Metalvocalistwanted. 8 p.m., $7. Downtown Music Hall, 211 W. Capitol. 376-1819, www.downtownshows. homestead.com.

Electric Garage Band. 9 p.m., $5. Cornerstone Pub, 314 Main St., NLR. 374-1782, www.cstonepub.com.

Falcon Scott, Climax. 8 p.m., $5. Bear’s Den Pizza, 235 Farris Road, Conway. 501-328-5556.

Forty-Two. 8 p.m. Lucky’s Bar and Grill, 1101 Murphey Drive, Maumelle. 416-3577.

George Strait, Reba McEntire, Lee Ann Womack. 7 p.m., $93.45-$104.75. Verizon Arena.

800-745-3000, www.ticketmaster.com.

Jeff Coleman & Co. 9 p.m., $7. Afterthought, 2721 Kavanaugh. 663-4176, www.afterthoughtbar.com.

Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights, The Effects, Luster. 9 p.m., $8. Sticky Fingerz, 107 Commerce St. 372-7707, www.stickyfingerz.com.

Little Creek. 8 p.m., Denton’s Trotline, 2150 Congo Road. 501-315-1717.

Music Fest Fund-raiser. With T.J. Ashley, Crys Bruce, Matthew Huff, Natural State Band, Bill Wharton, Eden Crow Band, Bongo Willie. 10 a.m.

Simon Park, Conway. 501-513-3300.

Pop Fest, Thrill of a Dog FIght, For the Day, Bring Victory, Embrace the Crash, Box Wine. 7 p.m., $10. Vino’s, 923 W. 7th. 375-8466, www.vinosbrewpub.com.

Some Guy Named Robb (happy hour), Taylor Made (headliner). 5:30 p.m., 9 p.m. $5 after 8:30. Cajun’s Wharf, 2400 Cantrell Road. 3755351, www.cajunswharf.com.

Stark Naked and the Car Thieves. 9 p.m., $5. Fox and Hound, 2800 Lakewood Village Drive, NLR. 753-8300.

The Ted Ludwig Trio. 9 p.m., free. Capital Bar & Grill, 111 W. Markham. 370-7013, www.capitalhotel.com/CBG. T-Model Ford, Jim Mize. 9 p.m., $12. White Water Tavern, 2500 W. 7th. 375-8400, myspace. com/whitewatertavern.

Trainwreck. 7:30 p.m., $10 adv., $13 d.o.s. The Village, 3715 S. University. 570-0300, www.thevillagelive.com.

Whitney Paige, Blair Bonafonte Paige, Leah Alize. 8 p.m. Pulse at OffCenter, 307 W. 7th. www. pulseatoffcenter.com.

Whurm, Brandon White, Luke Pruitt. 9 p.m.

Juanita’s, 1300 S. Main St. 374-2371, www.juanitas.com. 18 plus.

COMEDY

The Midnight Swinger. 7 p.m., 9 p.m., 11 p.m., $9. The Loony Bin, I-430 & Rodney Parham. 2285555, www.loonybincomedy.com.

Arkansas’s Funniest Person. Second annual competition. 6 p.m., $10. Electric Cowboy, 9513 I-30. 560-6000, www.electriccowboy.com.

EVENTS

Come Dancin’. Fund-raiser with dance lessons taught by Ballet Arkansas and Arthur Murray Dance Studio. 7 p.m., $50, $35 for groups of 10 or more. Annunciation Greek Orthodox Grand Ballroom, 1100 Napa Valley Drive. 223-5150, balletarkansas.org.

Little Rock Marathon 5K Fun Run/Walk. 8 p.m. River Market District. 371-4770, www.littlerockmarathon.com.

Spring Craft Show. 8 a.m. Grace Lutheran Church, Hillcrest and Kavanaugh. 985-9281, ram0220@aol.com.

Totally Trout. Trout-fishing expo and fair. 9 a.m., free. Arkansas State Fairgrounds Hall of Industry, 2600 Howard St. www.agfc.com.

SPORTS

www.stickyfingerz.com.

Elise Blackwell. The novelist and UCA artist in residence will give a public reading and sign copies of her books. 7:30 p.m., free. Lewis Science Center, UCA, Conway. 501-450-3293, www.uca.edu.

SUNDAY, MARCH 7

“Cautiva.” 7 p.m. Murphy Seminar Room, Hendrix College, Conway. 501-450-4597, hendrix.edu.

MUSIC

Elvis by Matt Joyce. 7 p.m., $10, $15 couples.

Sticky Fingerz, 107 Commerce St. 372-7707, www.stickyfingerz.com.

Izzy Cox. 9 p.m., free. Maxine’s, 700 Central Ave, Hot Springs. 501-321-0909, maxinespub.com.

Karaoke with DJ Mikey Mike. 8 p.m. Counterpoint, 3605 MacArthur Drive, NLR. 771-5515, myspace.com/bogiescounterpoint.

Lionheart, This City Screams, Judging the Silence. 7 p.m., $10. Vino’s, 923 W. 7th. 3758466, www.vinosbrewpub.com.

Supa, Jai Smooth, Reverse Thought, PhatPockets ENT, First Flight Entertainment, 6 Feet Deep, Jake Skinner, New Breed, LilMac Da Pikeboy. 5 p.m., $12 d.o.s. Juanita’s, 1300 S. Main St. 374-2371, www.juanitas.com. All ages.

EVENTS

Little Rock Marathon. Downtown and midtown Little Rock. Details at www.littlerockmarathon.com.

Oscar Night America Gala. 5:30 p.m., $150 per person/$1500 for a table of ten. Peabody Hotel, 3 Statehouse Plaza. 231-3557, www.wolfestreet.org.

SPORTS

Oaklawn Racing. 1 p.m. Sat.; 1:30 p.m. weekdays, Sun. Oaklawn Jockey Club, 2705 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-623-4411, www.oaklawn. com.

Sun Belt Conference Basketball Tournament. Summit Arena, 134 Convention Blvd., Hot Springs. 501-620-5001, www.ticketmaster.com

MONDAY, MARCH 8 MUSIC

Bobaflex. 9 p.m., $8. George’s Majestic Lounge, 519 W. Dickson, Fayetteville. 479-442-4226, www. georgesmajesticlounge.com.

LECTURES

Congressional Staff Panel Discussion. Alexis Covey-Brandt, floor director for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and Caitlin O’Neill, deputy director of floor operations for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, discuss the legislative process. Sturgis Hall, Clinton School of Public Service. 683-5239, publicprograms@clintonschooluasys.edu.

SPORTS

Oaklawn Racing. 1 p.m. Sat.; 1:30 p.m. weekdays, Sun. Oaklawn Jockey Club, 2705 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-623-4411, www.oaklawn. com.

Sun Belt Conference Basketball Tournament. Cont. from March 7.

TUESDAY, MARCH 9 MUSIC

Greymarket, Bamboo Shoots, Vinyl Thief. 9 p.m., free. Maxine’s, 700 Central Ave, Hot Springs.

501-321-0909, maxinespub.com.

Joe FIrstman, The White Buffalo. 9 p.m., $5 d.o.s. Juanita’s, 1300 S. Main St. 374-2371, www. juanitas.com. 18 plus.

Latin Nights. 7 p.m., $5. Revolution, 300 President Clinton Avenue, 823-0090, www.revroom. com.

Shannon McClung. 7 p.m. Ya Ya’s, 17711 Chenal. 821-1114, www.yiayias.com.

Tea Leaf Green. 9 p.m., $15. George’s Majestic Lounge, 519 W. Dickson, Fayetteville. (479) 4424226, www.georgesmajesticlounge.com.

The Van-Dells. 6 p.m., $30-$32. Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, 6323 Colonel Glenn. 562-3131, www. murrysdinnerplayhouse.com.

Tuesday Jam Session. 8 p.m., free. Afterthought 2721 Kavanaugh. 663-4176, www.afterthoughtbar.com.

Xiu Xiu, Girl in a Coma, Noveller. 9 p.m., $10. Sticky Fingerz, 107 Commerce St. 372-7707,

Live Music

LECTURE

Oaklawn Racing. 1 p.m. Sat.; 1:30 p.m. weekdays, Sun. Oaklawn Jockey Club, 2705 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-623-4411, www.oaklawn.com.

Sun Belt Conference Basketball Tournament. Summit Arena, 134 Convention Blvd., Hot Springs. 501-620-5001, www.ticketmaster.com.

FILM

Thursday, Mar 4 CoDy BeLew ReCoRD ReLease sHow Friday, Mar 5 BowLeggeD RoosteR

SPORTS

Oaklawn Racing. 1 p.m. Sat.; 1:30 p.m. weekdays, Sun. Oaklawn Jockey Club, 2705 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-623-4411, www.oaklawn.com.

Sun Belt Conference Basketball Tournament. Cont. from March 7.

saTurday, Mar 6 t-MoDeL FoRD! & JiM Mize Tuesday, Mar 9 tHe MuDDLestuDs

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10 MUSIC

Cody Belew. 9 p.m. George’s Majestic Lounge, 519 W. Dickson, Fayetteville. 479-442-4226, www. georgesmajesticlounge.com.

Fjord Mustang. 8 p.m., $5. Afterthought, 2721 Kavanaugh. 663-4176, www.afterthoughtbar.com.

George Thorogood and the Destroyers, Moreland, Arbuckle. 7 p.m., $25.50-$100.50. Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson, Fayetteville. 479443-5600, www.waltonartscenter.org.

Lucious Spiller Band. 9:30 p.m., $5. Sticky Fingerz, 107 Commerce St. 372-7707, www.stickyfingerz.com.

Paul Sammons. 9 p.m., free. Maxine’s, 700 Central Ave, Hot Springs. 501-321-0909, maxinespub. com.

Randy Rogers Band, Josh Abbott. 9 p.m., $15. George’s Majestic Lounge, 519 W. Dickson, Fayetteville. 479-442-4226, www.georgesmajesticlounge.com.

Richie Johnson. 5:30 p.m. Cajun’s Wharf, 2400 Cantrell Road. 375-5351, www.cajunswharf.com.

The Sleeping, The Gun Show, Die To Yourself, Little Monsters. 8 p.m., $7. Vino’s, 923 W. 7th. 375-8466, www.vinosbrewpub.com.

The Ted Ludwig Trio. 5 p.m., free. Capital Bar & Grill, 111 W. Markham. 370-7013, www.capitalhotel.com/CBG. The Van-Dells. 6 p.m., $30-$32. Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, 6323 Colonel Glenn. 562-3131, www. murrysdinnerplayhouse.com.

Whitney Paige, M’Shay Victoria Foster, Roxie Starlite Wolfchase. 8 p.m. Pulse at OffCenter, 307 W. 7th. www.pulseatoffcenter.com.

COMEDY

Steve Hirst. 8 p.m., $6. Loony Bin, I-430 and Rodney Parham. 228-5555, loonybincomedy.com.

EVENTS

Brew Two! Beer and appetizers at The Rep before “Glorious!” 6 p.m., $25. Arkansas Repertory Theatre, 601 Main St. 378-0405. www.therep.org.

Elise Blackwell. Craft lecture and Q&A with artist in residence. Noon, free. Winifred Thompson Hall, UCA, Conway. 501-450-3293, www.uca.edu.

FILM

“Driving Miss Daisy.” 7 p.m. Mills Center, Hendrix College, Conway. 501-450-4598, hendrix.edu.

SPORTS

Oaklawn Racing. 1 p.m. Sat.; 1:30 p.m. weekdays, Sun. Oaklawn Jockey Club, 2705 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-623-4411, www.oaklawn.com.

THURSDAY, MARCH 11

myspace.com/whitewatertavern Little Rock’s Down-Home Neighborhood Bar

7th & Thayer • Little Rock • (501) 375-8400

ONLINE ON TIME

www.arktimes.com ARKANSAS’ BEST LIVE MUSIC LUCIOUS@ SF SPILLER 50 CENT BEER 9PM WEDNESDAY NIGHTS

JONATHAN WILKINS & THE REPARATIONS THU @ SF KNOX HAMILTON 3/4 9PM

THU 3/4

LUCIOUS SPILLER $2 YOU CALL IT’s

GEORGE McCONNELL@ SF

FRI 3/5

with CHARLIEHORSE

ARK TIMES SHOWCASE FINALS

Continued on page 24

9PM

FRI BROTHER ANDY / UNDERCLAIRE @ REV 3/5 ELISE DAVIS / FLASH LARUE / BOBBY 8PM JONATHAN TYLER

SAT & NORTHERN LIGHTS @ SF 3/6 THE EFFECTS / LUSTER 9PM

TUESDAYS AT LATIN REV ROOM NIGHT 730PM

CD RELEASE PARTY

MUSIC

Attack Attack!, Breathe Carolina, I See Stars, Asking Alexandria, Bury Tomorrow.

7 p.m., $13 adv., $15 d.o.s. The Village, 3915 S. University. 570-0300, www.thevillagelive.com.

Brian & NIck (happy hour), Trademark (headliner). 6 p.m., 9:30 p.m. $5 after 8:30. Cajun’s Wharf, 2400 Cantrell Road. 375-5351, www. cajunswharf.com.

Dr. Rex Bell Jazz Trio. 8 p.m., $5. Afterthought, 2721 Kavanaugh. 663-4176, www.afterthoughtbar.com.

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. 7 p.m., $56-$79. Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson, Fayetteville. 479-443-5600, www.waltonartscenter.org.

Raising Grey. 9 p.m., $5. Electric Cowboy, 9513

@ REV 830

MARCH 6

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MAR 9

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501-372-7707 / STICKY FINGERZ.COM 501-823-0090 / RUMBAREVOLUTION.COM

www.arktimes.com • march 4, 2010 23

Savvy KidS /Special publicationS

is now accepting applications! if you have sales experience and enjoy the exciting and crazy world of advertising, then we wouid like to talk to you. this position has a high income potential for a hard working advertising executive. We have fun, but we work hard. if you have a dynamic energetic personality we’d like to talk to you.

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calendar

Continued from page 23 I-30. 560-6000, www.electriccowboy.com.

The Juke Joint Duo: Cedric Burnside, Lightnin’ Malcolm. 9 p.m. White Water Tavern, 2500 W. 7th. 375-8400, myspace.com/whitewatertavern.

The Ted Ludwig Trio. 5 p.m., free. Capital Bar & Grill, 111 W. Markham. 370-7013, www.capitalhotel.com/CBG.

COMEDY

Steve Hirst. 8 p.m., $6. Loony Bin, I-430 and Rodney Parham. 228-5555, loonybincomedy.com.

EVENTS

Duck Duck Goose. Annual consignment sale of children’s clothes. Through March 13. 7 a.m. Arkansas State Fair Grounds Hall of Industry. www. duckduckgoosesale.com/LR.

LECTURES

Fred Zeidman. Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council discusses the tragedy. Noon, free. Sturgis Hall, Clinton School of Public Service. 683-5239, publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu.

THIS WEEK IN THEATER “Cabaret.” UCA hosts a one-night engagement of the classic musical. 7:30 p.m. Fri., $30-$35 general, $10 students. Reynolds Performance Hall, UCA, Conway. 866-810-0012, www.uca.edu/tickets.

“Ferdinand the Bull.” Friendly bull enjoys his life of leisure and Spanish culture away from Pamplona. 7 p.m. Fri., 3 p.m. Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. through March 21; 2 p.m. March 25-26. $11-$14. 9th and Commerce. 372-4000, www.arkarts.com.

“Glorious!” Based on the true story of New York heiress Florence Foster Jenkins, who worked to become an opera diva despite a terrible singing voice. 6 p.m. March 10 for “Brew Ha Ha”; 8 p.m.

March 11 public preview night. Otherwise, 7 p.m.

Wed., 8 p.m. Thu.-Sat., and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Sun., through March 28. Arkansas Repertory Theatre, 601 Main St. 378-0405. www.therep.org.

“Hairspray.” 7 p.m. Wed., $55.50-$75.50. Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson, Fayetteville. 479-4435600, waltonartscenter.org.

“Nobody’s Perfect.” A failed novelist finds success when he adopts a female pseudonym. 7:30 p.m. March 11-13, 18-20; 2:30 p.m. March 21, $10 adults, $5 students. Donaghey Hall, UCA, Conway.

501-733-6220, conwayarts.org.

“Plaza Suite.” Neil Simon’s comedy about three different couples on three different occasions in the same room in New York City’s Plaza Hotel. 7:30 p.m. March 5-7, $14 regular, $12 students and seniors. The Public Theater, 616 Center St. 6639494, www.communitytheatreoflittlerock.org.

“Second Time Around.” When two senior citizens decide not to marry in order to keep their Social Security benefits, their children hit the ceiling.

6 p.m. dinner, 7:45 curtain Thu.-Sat.; 11 a.m. lunch, 5 p.m., dinner, 12:45 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. curtain Sun., $22-$30. Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, 6323 Col. Glenn Road. 562-3131, www.murrysdinnerplayhouse.com.

CALLS FOR ENTRIES 2010 Exploratorium Summer Teacher Institute. The Arkansas Discovery Network is accepting applications from state teachers to attend a four-week professional development clinic in San Francisco from June 21 to July 16. Six winners will be chosen and given a $1,100 stipend. Applications are due by March 17. For more information, visit www.arkansasdiscoverynetwork.org.

Auditions for Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre’s production of “Alice in Wonderland” will be held from 5:30-7:30 p.m. March 6 and from 3-6 p.m. March 11 for youths between 6 and 18 years old. Prior acting experience preferred but not required. Those with dancing, juggling, tumbling or skating skills are highly desired. 350-6340, www.arkshakes.com.

gALLERIES New exhibits in bold-faced type ARKANSAS COMMUNITY ARTISTS COOPERATIVE, 900 S. Rodney Parham Road: “Habitat: A Photographic Experience by Kat 24 march 4, 2010 • arKaNSaS TImES

Wilson,” through March, reception and film by the artist with musical accompaniment 7-9 p.m.

March 5. 2-6 p.m. Tue.-Fri., noon-4 p.m. Sat. 244-2979.

ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER, MacArthur Park: “Carnaval: The Museum Comes to Life” fund-raising auction and festivities, 7 p.m. sponsor cocktail reception and 7:30 p.m. dinner March 5, $125; “Gustave Courbet and the Modern Landscape,” lecture by Mary Morton, 6 p.m. reception, 6:30 p.m. talk March 11, lecture hall; 52nd annual “Delta Exhibition,” juried show of work by Arkansans and residents of contiguous states, through March 14; “World of the Pharaohs: Treasures of Egypt Revealed,” artifacts from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, through July 7, $22 adults, $14 students; “Currents in Contemporary Art,” “Masterworks,” “Paul Signac Watercolors and Drawings,” ongoing. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sun. 372-4000.

ARKANSAS STUDIES INSTITUTE, 401 President Clinton Ave.: “Traveling the World With Mifflin Gibbs,” art and poetry by Gibbs students, mezzanine gallery, through March; “The Big Bear’s Arkansas ABCs: Original Artwork and Storyboard,” original illustrations by Leslie A. Przybylek for Butler Center children’s book, atrium gallery, through April 30. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. 320-5792.

BOSWELL-MOUROT FINE ART, 5815 Kavanaugh Blvd.: Work by V.L. Cox, Steve Armstrong, Kyle Boswell, Frank Colcord, Carla Davis, Eleanor Dickinson, Hamid Ebrahimifar, Hans Feyerabend and others. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Sat. 664-0030.

CANTRELL GALLERY, 8206 Cantrell Road: “Faces of the Frontier,” history paintings by John Deering, reception 6-8 p.m. March 5, show through April 24.10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 224-1335.

CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 509 Scott St.: “Light Coming into the World,” work by Garrett Alderfer, David Bell, Lois Davis, Cornelia DeLee, Austin Grimes, Steve Grisham, LaToya Hobbs, Sr. Maria Liebeck, Mark Meador, Brittany Platt, Lenny Sheehan, A.J. Smith, Marjorie Williams-Smith, Brandye Snead and Dan Thornhill, through March.

9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Thu. 375-2342.

CHROMA GALLERY, 5707 Kavanaugh Blvd.: Work by Robert Reep and other Arkansas artists.

10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sat. 6640880.

GALLERY 26, 2601 Kavanaugh Blvd.: Marcus McAllister and Janet Wilcox, paintings and drawings, through March 13. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Sat. 664-8996.

GREG THOMPSON FINE ART, 429 Main St., NLR: “Short Stories of the Sublime,” paintings by Mark Blaney, through March 13. 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sat. 664-2787.

HEIGHTS GALLERY, 5801 Kavanaugh Blvd.: Arkansas artists. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat. 664-2772.

KETZ GALLERY, 705 Main St., NLR: Michael Landis, recent paintings, and work by Robin Hazard-Bishop, John Kushmaul, Marty Smith, Dan Thornhill and others. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sat. 529-6330.

LAMAN LIBRARY EXHIBIT HALL, 2801 Orange St.: “Lasting Light: 125 Years of Grand Canyon Photography,” Smithsonian Institution show, March 5-May 29. 758-1720.

LOCAL COLOUR GALLERY, 5811 Kavanaugh Blvd.: Oils by Bob Snider, March featured artist.

11 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 265-0422.

MARKET HALL WALL, River Market: Work by Diane Ziemski, through March, Boulevard Bread Co. 375-2552.

RED DOOR GALLERY, 3715 JFK, NLR: Work by Twin, Robin Steves, Brady Taylor, Georges Artaud, Lola, Jim Johnson, Amy Hill-Imler, James Hayes and Theresa Cates. 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. 753-5227.

SHOWROOM, 2313 Cantrell Road. Work by area artists, including Sandy Hubler. 7:30 a.m.-4 p.m.

Mon.-Fri. 372-7373.

STEPHANO’S FINE ART GALLERY, 5501 Kavanaugh Blvd.: Work by Jessica Smith, Robert Nowlin, Robert Sherman, Alexis Silk and others.

11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Thu.; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Fri.-Sat. 563-4218.

TOBY FAIRLEY FINE ART, 5507 Ranch Drive, Suite 103: Contemporary Arkansas artists. 10 a.m.-

Continued on page 26

Ladies man T-Model Ford’s back to wreck White Water Tavern.

By John Tarpley

■ books

What’s happening in March.

■ Unless indicated, event is a reading and/or book signing. Call the location for details. To list your event in the calendar, contact Lindsey Millar at “Books,” Arkansas Times, P.O. Box 34010, Little Rock, AR 72203, or by phone, 375-2985; fax, 375-3623, or e-mail, lindsey@ arktimes.com.

6 6 12

13

15 18

and the UK, he plays for hours at a time n His story is ubiquitous. And for good in front of a Nick Cave-styled backing reason. It encapsulates all the animal spirit band in Seattle’s Gravelroad. Their of the blues. In a nutshell: abusive father, drummer, Marty Reinsel, happily adloving mother; unschooled and (still) unmits they have trouabashedly illiterate. ble, even as a young As an 18-year old, band, keeping up he kills a man in T-Model Ford with Jim Mize with T. self-defense; spends White Water Tavern, $12 Youth is one two years on a chain 9:30 p.m., Saturday, March 6 thing, but spryness gang. Five wives, 26 always wins out. In fact, the shortest set children. He doesn’t pick up a guitar until they’ve played together was a huge hour 58, after his wife gives it to him as a “diand 45 minutes. The longest? Well, they vorce present” before leaving him. stopped keeping track and quit when T The man’s a quintessential cult blues said it was time. All that wattage night afartist, closer to Captain Beefheart than, ter night is good for the soul, bad for the say, Jonny Lang, but right now T-Model hearing.

Ford is a guy who’s not too hot with But T-Model Ford isn’t in the busiphones. Talking on a cell phone from ness of chatting with frazzled music a porch in Charleston, S.C., T mutters writers and entertaining strangers over and is too affable to ask the person on a phone. Like his catchphrase says, he’s the other line to repeat himself when he around to “remember you sorry fuckers doesn’t understand, so he’ll respond to a how it’s done.” Last March, he visited question like “where are you today, T?” White Water Tavern, putting on a howwith “like an apple in a tree.” to-do-this demo not only for the lucky Is it a sign of old age? Well, he’s cerwho made it inside, but the couple doztainly not getting any younger. The old en or so huddled outside of the sold-out Taildragger suspects he’s about to turn 90 door shaking ass in the drizzle. and even the best kept of 90-year-old ears With other aging bluesmen taking are still prone to faultiness. sober, somber forays into the form, THe drinks a little, too. His passion for Model hollers with conviction lyrics just Jack Daniels is hardly clandestine and unas dirty as most rappers’ and plucks his like, say, Frank Sinatra, who would have Peavey Razer (an angular contraption fabeen around T’s age and famously said vored by metal guitarists) with hypnotic “if I drank as much on stage as you think intensity.

I do, I’d have been dead years ago,” T The man may be vulgar, but he comes punishes the Lynchburg tea unabashedly across sweet, too. And he may just leave during his shows and praises it between a piece of him behind in Little Rock this frequent gulps. time around. To quote one of my lucky The fact that he’s still touring — lady friends who made it inside last year, without any plans for stopping until “he smiled, winked, howled and nearly “the Lord’s ready for [him]” — can’t charmed me out of my pants.” “The Lahelp his cochleae, either. In fact, not dies Man” indeed. only is he still on the road in America

18

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Welles (“Hollyhocks on the Fence: Hope Blooms Among the Weeds”), 1 p.m., WW. Dr. David Lipschitz (“Dr. David’s First Health Book of More”), 3 p.m., WW. FOCAL book sale. Deeply discounted books for sale in the Main Library basement and River Market Books & Gifts, 9 a.m.

L. Lee Cowan (“Except for All the Snakes, I Just Love It Out Here: The News from Stone County, Arkansas, Where One Life Is Put Down Straight Up”), 3 p.m., WW. David Margolick (“Elizabeth and Hazel”), 12 p.m., CS. Jesse Ventura (“American Conspiracies: Lies, Lies, and More Dirty Lies That the Government Tells Us”), 6 p.m., CS. L. Lee Cowan (“Except for All the Snakes, I Just Love It Out Here: The News from Stone County, Arkansas, Where One Life Is Put Down Straight Up”), 6:30 p.m., ML. John Giessmann (“An Angel of Obedience”), 1 p.m., WW.

Area bookstores and libraries: BAM: Books-A-Million, 2747 Lakewood Village Drive, NLR, 771-7581 BN-LR: Barnes & Noble-Chenal, 11500 Financial Centre Parkway, 954-7648 BN-NLR: Barnes & Noble-North Little Rock, 4000 E. McCain Blvd., 771-1124 CS: Clinton School of Public Service, Sturgis Hall, 1200 President Clinton Ave., 683-5200.

ML: Main Library, 100 Rock St., 918-3000 PA: Pyramid Art, Books and Custom Framing, Museum Center, 500 President Clinton Ave., Suite 110, 372-5824 RMBG: River Market Books and Gifts, Cox Creative Center, 120 Commerce St., 918-3093 TBMP: That Bookstore at Mountebanq Place, 1107 Oak St., Conway, 888-287-7791 TBIB: That Bookstore in Blytheville, 316 W. Main St., Blytheville, 870-763-3333 WW: WordsWorth Books & Co., 5920 R St., 6639198

Order A SIgned COpy TOdAy! KAThryn STOCKeTT The Help elIzABeTh gIlBerT Committed MelISSA COnrOy Poppy’s Pants Have it your way at www.tbib.com

That Bookstore In Blytheville 1-800-844-8306 • fax 870-763-1125 tbib@sbcglobal.net We welcome orders by phone, fax, e-mail or online.

www.arktimes.com • march 4, 2010 25

■ artnotes New work for CB At OBU, a giant stir-stick sculpture. by leslie newell peacock

to wait and see on that one. n Crystal Bridges Museum of American “Our Town” will be exhibited in a retArt (aka Alice Walton) made public a courospective of Marshall’s work May 8 to ple of acquisitions for the future Bentonville showplace last week: Kerry James Marshall’s “Our Town” and Mary McCleary’s “The Falcon Cannot Hear the Falconer.”

Most of the acquisitions Crystal Bridges has announced in the past year have been contemporary works. Crystal Bridges Curator Chris Crosman said in an interview Monday with the Times that the acquisitions reflect a decision to engage younger audiences with the “artists NEW AT CRYSTAL BRIDGES: Mary McCleary’s collage. and artworks of their own Jan. 10, 2011, in Vancouver, Canada. times” and a “coming to the realization New museum director Don Bacigalupi that to tell the story of American art you saw McCleary’s work in an exhibit and couldn’t leave out the last chapter.” brought it to Walton’s attention. The work In 2004, when Walton announced she on paper (39 and a half inches by 50 and would build the museum, the collection three-fourth inches) is a collage; a man with was described as being limited to works a painted face stands in front of a burning made before 1950. John Wilmerding, who house rendered in what Crosman said was has advised Walton on the collection for unparalleled detail in wire, twigs and glitseveral years, has himself gotten more inter. You will, of course, recognize the title volved with contemporary art, Crosman as being from William Butler Yeats’ “The noted. Wilmerding, an authority on AmeriSecond Coming” (“Turning and turning in can art and who has his own important colthe widening gyre/The falcon cannot hear lection, has recently published writings on the falconer”). The artist is, like Walton, a pop artists Robert Indiana and Tom WesselTexan, and a Regent’s Professor Emeritus man and photorealist Richard Estes. at Stephen F. Austin State University.

“Our Town,” which at 8 feet 4 inches by 11 feet 10 inches is certainly on a late n Ouachita Baptist University is a stop 20th century scale, depicts two Africanon South Carolina artist Jonathan BrilAmerican children painted Dick-and-Jane liant’s “Have Sticks Will Travel Tour,” reader style, cruising their well-to-do which means folks will be able to watch neighborhood, he on a bike, she running the South Carolina artist assemble a gialongside. Blue birds carry streamers ant sculpture out of coffee stir-sticks in above the children’s heads a la Cinderella the school’s Hammons Gallery this week and “Our Town” is painted across the top and next. The work will be complete by of the picture. It’s purely cynical of course; March 11, when a reception will be held the little girl has all-white thought bubbles from 5:30 p.m. in the gallery, in the Macoming from her head and the lower left bee Fine Arts building. side of the picture has been painted with white graffiti. The expressions on the n Vietnam war photos by former Gov. children’s faces — one dull and one susJim Guy Tucker and Bruce Wesson go picious — are anything but happy, as if on exhibit March 5 at the MacArthur they’re clued in to the unreality.

Museum of Arkansas Military History.

The painting was bought at auction for “Warrior: Vietnam Portraits by Two Guys $782,000 (including the buyer’s premifrom Hall” includes work Tucker did as um) at Christie’s “Post War and Contema civilian war correspondent in 1965 and porary Evening Sale” last May in New 1967 and Wesson did as leader of the ArYork. It was the same auction at which my’s Military Assistance Command Vieta Richard Diebenkorn (“Ocean Park No. nam combat photography and film team.

117) was purchased by an anonymous Tucker and Wesson will be at the museum bidder on the phone for $6.5 million. At for a preview at 2 p.m. March 4. A second only 45 inches by 45 inches, it would fit Vietnam exhibit will open Nov. 11. nicely on the walls of CBMA. Just have 26 march 4, 2010 • ARKANSAS TIMES

calendar

Continued from page 24 4 p.m. Tue.-Fri. or by appointment. 868-9882.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT LITTLE ROCK: “Exquisite Corpse,” collaborative sculpture by nine artists, to be revealed one day at a time, Gallery II, through March 18,; “Kom Fljugandi/Flown In,” artists working in Iceland, through March 14, Gallery I. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Sat., 2-5 p.m. Sun. 569-8977.

UALR BOWEN SCHOOL OF LAW: “Law in a Land Without Justice: Nazi Germany 1933-1945,” World War II artifacts, through July. 7 a.m.-11 p.m.

Mon.-Thu., 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Fri., 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat., 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Sun. n Arkadelphia OUACHITA BAPTIST UNIVERSITY: “Have Sticks Will Travel,” installation of stir stick sculpture by Jonathan Brilliant through March 10, exhibit March 11-April 1, Hammons Gallery, Mabee Fine Arts Building. Gallery reception 5:30 p.m. March 11. 870-245-5565. n Conway UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS: Annual “Student Competitive Art Exhibition,” opens with reception 4-6 p.m. March 11, second reception 2-4 p.m. March 14, Baum Gallery, through April 1. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Wed., Fri.; 10 a.m.-7 .m. Thu. 501-450-5793. n Fayetteville UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS: “Un-Natural Histories — Paintings of Invasive Species,” work by Kristin Musgnug, UA associate professor of art, through March 11. 479-575-7987. n Hot Springs Galleries on Central Avenue will be open 5-9 p.m. March 5 for the monthly Gallery Walk.

ALISON PARSONS GALLERY, 802 Central Ave.: Paintings by Parsons. 501-625-3001.

AMERICAN ART GALLERY, 724 Central Ave.: Work by Jimmy Leach, Jamie Carter, Govinder, Marlene Gremillion, Margaret Kipp and others.

501-624-0550.

ARTISTS WORKSHOP GALLERY, 810 Central Ave.: Larry Cloyes, pastels; Nina Louton, watercolors, through March. 501-623-6401.

ATTRACTION CENTRAL GALLERY, 264 Central Ave.: Work in all media by Hot Springs artists.

501-463-4932.

BLUE MOON GALLERY, 718 Central Ave.: Sculpture by Wayne Summerhill, through March.

501-318-2787.

CAROLE KATCHEN ART GALLERY, 618 W. Grand Ave.: Paintings, pastels, sculpture by Katchen. 501-617-4494.

FINE ARTS CENTER, 610 Central Ave.: Brenda Morgan, wildlife oils, month of March; also work by 30 area artists. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Wed.-Sat. 501624-0489.

GALLERY 726, 726 Central Ave.: Virmarie DePoyster, pastels, through March, Gallery Walk reception 5-9 p.m. March 5. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.Sat. 501-624-7726.

GALLERY CENTRAL, 800 Central Ave.: Equine art by Bob Snider, Renee Torbit, Jan Gartrell, Elaine Irwin, Sandy Hubler and others.

501-318-4278.

JUSTUS FINE ART, 827 A Central Ave.: New paintings by Robin Hazard-Bishop, Dolores Justus and JoAnne Oliver, clay sculpture by Cynthia Bowers, and other work. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed.-Sat. 501-321-2335.

LINDA PALMER GALLERY, 800 B Central Ave.: Work by Linda Palmer, Doyle Young, Ellen Alderson, Peter Lippincott, Sara Tole and Jan Leek. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 501-620-3063.

RICIANO ART GALLERY, 833 Central Ave.: Featuring work by Riciano, Lacey Alysse, Char DeMoro and other artists. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. daily. 501339-3751.

TAYLOR’S CONTEMPORANEA, 204 Exchange St.: Work by area and regional artists. 624-0516. n Jonesboro ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY: Senior art major shows by Megan Collins, Jake Gambill, Lamar Jackson and Shannon Smithee, Bradbury Gallery, through April 2. 870-972-2567. n Pine Bluff ARTS AND SCIENCE CENTER, 701 Main St.: “Expressions of African Culture,” masks, figures, thrones, clothing, musical instruments and more,

through April. 870-536-3375.

MUSEUMS CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL MUSEUM VISITOR CENTER, Bates and Park: Exhibits on the 1957 desegregation of Central and the civil rights movement. 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. daily. 374-1957.

CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL CENTER, 1200 President Clinton Ave.: “Leadership in a Time of Crisis: President Clinton and the Oklahoma Bombing,” through June 1; “Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection,” more than 200 pins the former secretary of state wore during her diplomatic tenure, through June 1 (video at www. arktimes.com); exhibits about policies and White House life during the Clinton administration. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. $7 adults; $5 college students, seniors, retired military; $3 ages 6-17. 370-8000.

HISTORIC ARKANSAS MUSEUM, 200 E. Third St.: “Stretched Foundations: Works by Lee Anthony, Jon Hayden and Mary Shelton,” through May 10; “Viewfinding: Photography by Brian Cormack,” through April 4. 324-9351.

MacARTHUR MUSEUM OF ARKANSAS MILITARY HISTORY, MacArthur Park: “Warrior: Vietnam Portraits by Two Guys from Hall,” photos by Jim Guy Tucker and Bruce Wesson, March 5-Aug. 8; exhibits on Arkansas’s military history. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat., 1-4 p.m. Sun. 376-4602.

MOSAIC TEMPLARS CULTURAL CENTER, Ninth and Broadway: Exhibits on African-Americans in Arkansas, including one on the Ninth Street business district, Dunbar High School, entrepreneurs, the Mosaic Templars business and more. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat. 683–3593.

MUSEUM OF DISCOVERY, 500 President Clinton Ave.: Hands-on science and technology exhibits. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. Admission: $8 adults, $7 children ages 1-12 and seniors 65 and up, children under 1 free, free second Sunday of every month. 396-7050. www.museumofdiscovery.org.

OLD STATE HOUSE, 300 W. Markham St.: “Badges, Bandits and Bars: Arkansas Law and Justice,” the state’s history of crime and punishment from pre-territorial days to the mid-1980s, through March 6, 2011. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 324-9685. n Jacksonville JACKSONVILLE MUSEUM OF MILITARY HISTORY, 100 Veterans Circle: “Night at the USO,” auction and dinner, 5:30 p.m. March 6, $30 a person; exhibits on D-Day; F-105, Vietnam era plane (“The Thud”); the Civil War Battle of Reed’s Bridge, Arkansas Ordnance Plant (AOP) and other military history. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. MonSat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. $3 adults; $2 seniors, military; $1 students. 501-241-1943. n Jonesboro ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY: Artifact identification with Dr. Julie Morrow, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

March 6, ASU Museum. 870-972-2074.

Announcements Proposals for sculpture for the Bernice Garden at the southeast corner of Daisy Gatson Bates and South Main Street are being taken through March 31. Individuals or teams may apply. Five sculptures will be selected; stipends of $200 for finalists’ models and $2,800 for construction will be awarded. Application packets are available at www.thebernicegarden.org; mail applications to 1716 N. Spruce St., Little Rock 72207.

The Center for Artistic Revolution is again providing wooden hearts for use in its annual Corazon Mexican Dinner and Silent Art Auction, set for March 27. Hearts can be painted, collaged or otherwise decorated for the auction, which benefits the work of CAR to promote justice and equal rights. To get a heart, call CAR at 2449690 or e-mail artchangesu@yahoo.com. Deadline is March 22.

Arkansas women who are visual or performing artists are invited to showcase their work at the Arkansas Community Artists Cooperative’s Women’s History Month exhibit, “A Woman’s Worth 3,” to be held March 27. Send an email to info@acacarkansas.org for more information by March 12.

■ media You don’t need a …

Weatherman, if you’re looking for climate change info.

By gerard matthews

than 50 comments, most of which were n When it comes to the science behind the lengthy and passionate. climate-change debate, most climatologists “I’m fascinated with the respons(and by most, I mean somewhere around es,” says FOX 16’s news director Ed 98 percent of them) are in agreement. It’s Trauschke. “People are very passionate real. But if you ask the general public, for about this particular issue, although I’m some reason, the issue isn’t settled.

Climate change has become so politicized in this country that sound scientific evidence doesn’t seem to have any impact on those who don’t buy into it. That makes the issue doubly problematic for environmentalists because there won’t be any agreement on what to do about the situation until people can agree there’s actually a situation.

The idea that there are questions surrounding climate science can, to some degree, be blamed on the media, which for COOL, HUH?: A 2004 heat wave smothers Spain. years has offered up he-said-shenot sure any of us have all the facts.” said coverage giving equal weight to both This month, the Columbia Journalsides of the issue. But that tendency has ism Review’s cover story was about the declined in recent years and most news meteorologists’ disbelief. “Hot Air: Why reports now acknowledge that evidence don’t TV weathermen believe in climate for climate change is substantial. change?” is an interesting read, breaking What people think about climate change down the differences between meteoroldepends on where they get their informaogy, which deals with short-term weather tion. Studies have described what’s known patterns, and climatology, the study of the as the messenger effect: that people tend to larger system in which weather happens. believe information that comes from sourcMore and more, meteorologists are es that reflect their own opinions. weighing in on climate change. But in In a recent survey, 66 percent of resuch a highly-politicized environment, spondents said they trusted television that kind of chatter is likely to be discourweather reporters for information about aged. The next day, I checked Baskin’s climate change. Astoundingly, most TV Twitter feed to see if he had posted any weathermen don’t agree with climatolofollow-up information or related items. gists. In a 2009 survey, three-fourths of The original tweet had been deleted. the 121 responding TV meteorologists “We don’t want any of our folks weighsaid they don’t believe the science. Twening in on political issues,” Trauschke says. ty-nine percent didn’t just disagree; they “I think it’s no different than in a political said they think it’s a “scam.” campaign. We wouldn’t want someone So I guess it wasn’t much of a surprise tweeting ‘I hope so-and-so wins.’ It’s part when Fox 16 chief meteorologist Jeff of the world we live in as journalists. We Baskin used his Twitter account last week didn’t ask him to delete it. I just said to to put his own personal spin on the issue. him, ‘Hey, I want to make sure you’re not Linking to a NASA website showing imweighing in on any issues that might be ages of heat waves, melting permafrost, considered political or controversial.’ ” dried-up lakes and retreating glaciers, Trauschke says Fox’s parent company, Baskin tweeted: “So called ‘evidence’ of Newport Television, does have a social made made [sic] global warming. Cool immedia policy, albeit a loose one. ages though.”

“Our company does not discourage He uses quotes around the word “eviblogging or social networking, but they’ve dence,” as if the images amounted to nothreminded employees to be mindful of posting more than pretty pictures to look at ing anything that would cast the station in a (not think about). But I think Baskin was negative or unfavorable light,” he says. confusing “evidence” for “proof.” The As for why weathermen tend to be images might not prove climate change skeptical of climate science, Trauschke but they are evidence of it. says he doesn’t really know exactly why.

A brief item I posted on the ArkanThat makes two of us. sas Blog about the tweet generated more www.arktimes.com • march 4, 2010 27

Friday, March 5-Thursday, March 11

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News & Opinion Arkansas Reporter Observer Cartoons Entertainment Calendar Movie & Dining Reviews Movie Listings Dining List Classifieds CHECK THE ARKANSAS DAILY BLOG: NEWS, COMMENTS, BUZZ UPDATED CONTINUALLY

www.arktimes.com 28 march 4, 2010 • arKaNSaS TImES

Riverdale listings were not available at press time. Movies 10 and Rave listings are valid Friday through Sunday only. Please visit www. arktimes.com for updates.

NEW MOVIES Alice in Wonderland (PG) — A rebellious Alice returns to Wonderland years after her first visit down the rabbit hole, only to find she must overthrow the evil Red Queen. Breckenridge: 11:00, 11:25, 1:40, 2:05, 4:20, 4:20, 4:45, 7:00, 7:25, 9:40, 10:05. Chenal 9: 11:00, 1:35, 4:15, 7:00, 9:40, 12:01. Lakewood: 11:00, 1:30, 4:15, 7:00, 9:40, 12:01. Rave: 10:50, 11:15, 11:45, 12:15, 1:30, 2:00, 2:30, 3:00, 4:15, 4:45, 5:15, 5:45, 7:00, 7:30, 8:00, 8:30, 9:45, 10:15.

Brooklyn’s Finest (R) — Three flawed Brooklyn policemen with different personal crises happen upon each other during a drug bust. Chenal 9: 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 10:00.

Lakewood: 1:05, 4:05, 7:05, 10:00. Rave: 11:10, 12:30, 2:10, 4:10, 5:10, 7:15, 8:15, 10:20.

Hero of the Rails (G) — Thomas the Tank Engine and friends help save an abandoned fellow engine soon to be scrapped. Rave: 11:55 Sat.-Sun. RETURNING THIS WEEK Animalopolis (NR) — A half-hour film of goofy animals being goofy in enormous 3-D. Aerospace IMAX: 11:00 Tue.-Thu.; 11:00, 7:00 Fri.; 1:00, 3:00, 7:00 Sat. Avatar (PG-13) — A paraplegic ex-Marine war veteran is sent to establish a human settlement on the distant planet of Pandora, only to find himself battling humankind alongside the planet’s indigenous race.

Chenal 9: 12:00, 3:30, 7:00, 10:30. Lakewood: 12:00, 3:30, 7:05, 10:15. Rave: 11:05, 2:45, 6:45.

Book of Eli (R) — Across the wasteland of what once was America, a lone warrior (Denzel Washington) must fight to bring civilization the knowledge that could be the key to its redemption. Rave: 7:40, 10:25.

Brothers (R) — A married soldier presumed dead finds his drifter brother has assumed his role in the family. Movies 10: 1:45, 4:30, 7:25, 10:15.

Cop Out (R) — Two New York City police officers (Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan) try to track down the gangster who stole an exceptionally rare baseball card in this send up of 1980s buddy movies. Breckenridge: 11:15, 2:00, 4:50, 7:30, 10:10. Chenal 9: 11:10, 1:55, 4:35, 7:20, 10:05. Lakewood: 11:00, 1:25, 4:25, 7:25, 10:00. Rave: 12:05, 1:15, 4:05, 5:05, 7:20, 8:20, 9:50.

The Crazies (R) — A rural town’s water supply is mysteriously contaminated, turning the

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residents into psychopaths. Breckenridge: 2:10, 4:55, 7:15, 9:35. Chenal 9: 10:50, 1:20, 4:00, 7:05, 9:50. Lakewood: 10:50, 1:15, 4:20, 7:15, 9:50. Rave: 11:00, 1:25, 2:20, 4:25, 5:25, 7:10, 8:10, 9:55.

Crazy Heart (R) — Seeking redemption, fallen country star Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) finds a friend and confidante in a struggling music journalist. Market Street: 2:00, 4:30, 7:00, 9:15. Rave: 12:45, 3:50, 6:55, 9:35.

Daybreakers (R) — Ten years after a plague turned most of the world’s population into vampires, a critical blood shortage is causing panic and gruesome mutations within the undead community. Movies 10: 1:30, 4:25, 7:20, 9:40.

Dear John (R) — An active soldier falls in love with a conservative college student while on leave from Iraq in this adaptation of a novel by Nicholas Sparks. Chenal 9: 4:15, 9:45.

Rave: 10:45, 1:50, 4:50.

Edge of Darkness (R) — A detective inadvertently uncovers a complex yarn of conspiracies while solving his daughter’s murder.

Breckenridge: 1:20, 4:05, 6:45, 9:25.

An Education (PG-13) — A teen with a bright future meets a charming but older suitor and gets an unforgettable taste of adult life.

Market Street: 2:15, 7:15.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (PG-13) — The leader of a traveling show who traded the soul of his future daughter to the devil thousands of years ago wagers the collection of five souls to prevent the devil from collecting on the deal. Market Street: 4:20, 9:20.

Invictus (PG-13) — After the fall of apartheid in South Africa, Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) tries to unite his countrymen and bring peace by bringing the rugby World Cup to his country. Movies 10: 1:20, 7:15 It’s Complicated (R) — When Jane (Meryl Streep) and ex-husband Jake (Alec Baldwin) find themselves out of town for their son’s college graduation, an innocent meal together turns into an affair. Breckenridge: 1:30, 4:15, 6:50, 9:30.

The Last Station (R) — Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer play Sofya and Leo Tolstoy in this historical drama about the Russian writer’s final year. Market Street: 1:45, 4:15, 6:45, 9:15.

Leap Year (PG) — When another anniversary passes without a proposal, Anna (Amy Adams) takes action through an Irish tradition that allows women to pop the question on Feb. 29. Movies 10: 4:20, 10:20.

Legion (R) — An out-of-the-way diner becomes the unlikely battleground for the survival of the human race. Movies 10: 1:40, 4:05, 7:10, 9:55.

The Lovely Bones (PG-13) — A murdered young girl watches over her family and her killer from heaven and must weigh desires for vengeance against desires for her family to heal. Movies 10: 1:15, 4:10, 7:05, 10:00.

Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs (NR) — Researchers and explorers piece together the past with the archeological and genetic clues from Egyptian mummies. Aerospace IMAX: 1:00 Tue.-Thu.; 1:00, 9:00 Fri.; 5:00 Sat. New Moon (PG-13) — Romance between mortal and vampire soars to a new level as Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) delves deeper into the supernatural mysteries. Movies 10: 1:05, 4:00, 5:10, 7:00, 9:50.

Old Dogs (PG) — A love-failed divorcee (Robin Williams) and fun-loving bachelor (John Travolta) have their lives turned upside down when they’re unexpectedly charged with the care of 6-year-old twins. Movies 10: 1:25, 3:30, 5:35, 7:40, 9:45.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The

Lightning Thief (PG) — A dyslexic, ADHD high school student discovers he’s a descendant of Poseidon and finds himself entangled in a war of mythical proportions. Breckenridge: 11:05, 1:45, 4:25, 7:10, 9:45. Chenal 9: 10:35, 1:25, 4:10, 7:15, 9:55. Lakewood: 10:50, 1:35, 4:15, 7:10, 9:45. Rave: 1:00, 3:55, 6:50, 9:30.

Planet 51 (PG) — Animated alien adventure comedy revolving around American astronaut Chuck Baker. Movies 10: 1:10, 3:20, 5:40, 7:50, 10:10.

The Princess and the Frog (G) — A trumpet-playing alligator, a love-sick Cajun firefly and others spin a love tale on a mystical Louisiana bayou. Movies 10: 1:00, 3:15, 5:30, 7:45, 10:05.

Shutter Island (R) — Two U.S. marshals travel to a secluded mental asylum to find an escaped patient and end up discovering a vast conspiracy. Breckenridge: 1:00, 4:00, 6:55, 9:50. Chenal 9: 10:30, 1:30, 4:30, 7:35, 10:35. Lakewood: 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 9:55. Rave: 12:40, 1:40, 4:00, 5:00, 7:25, 8:25.

A Single Man (PG-13) — Colin Firth plays an early ’60s college professor attempting to readjust to regular life after the death of his partner. Market Street: 1:45, 4:15, 7:00, 9:20.

The Tooth Fairy (PG) — A star hockey player (Dwayne Johnson) is temporarily transformed into a full-fledged tooth fairy as penalty for discouraging a young fan. Breckenridge: 11:30, 1:55, 4:30, 6:50, 9:20.

2012 (PG-13) — Epic adventure about a global cataclysm that brings an end to the world. Movies 10: 1:50, 8:00.

Valentine’s Day (PG-13) — A gaggle of Los Angelenos make, break, and take hearts on Valentine’s Day in this ensemble movie.

Breckenridge: 11:10, 1:50, 4:35, 7:20, 10:00.

Chenal 9: 10:40, 1:45, 4:30, 7:25, 10:10. Lakewood: 10:55, 1:40, 4:10, 7:20, 9:50. Rave: 10:55, 1:55, 4:40, 7:45.

When in Rome (PG-13) — A lovelorn New Yorker (Kristen Bell) absconds to Rome, grabs a handful of coins from a “fountain of love” and finds herself the object of affection from the coins’ original throwers. Chenal 9: 10:45, 1:40, 7:05.

Wildfire: Feel the Heat (NR) — Discover how firefighters all over the planet fight the biggest, hottest fires on the planet. Aerospace IMAX: 10:00, 12:00, 2:00 Tue.-Thu.; 10:00, 12:00, 2:00, 8:00 Fri.; 12:00, 2:00, 4:00, 8:00 Sat. The Wolfman (R) — In this reboot of the classic horror film, Benicio del Toro stars as the cursed werewolf, wreaking horror on late 19th century villagers. Breckenridge: 11:35, 2:15, 4:40, 7:35, 10:15. Rave: 2:50, 5:35, 8:05.

The Young Victoria (PG) — As the only legitimate heir of England’s King William, teenage Victoria (Emily Blunt) becomes caught up in the political machinations of her own family.

Market Street: 1:45, 4:15, 6:45, 9:15.

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.

IMAX Theater: Aerospace Education Center, 376-4629, www.aerospaced.org.

Market Street Cinema: 1521 Merrill Drive, 3128900, 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.

Dickinson Theaters Lakewood 8: Lakewood Village, 758-5354, www.fandango.com.

■moviereview Return of the fanboy Kevin Smith takes on the buddy-cop movie.

‘COP OUT’: Tracy Morgan and Bruce Willis star. n While the films of Kevin Smith are admittedly not everyone’s bag, I tend to like his stuff. Smith, like his 1990s indie-flick classmate Quentin Tarantino, tends to go for the geekgasm in his movies, seeding in both broad and incredibly narrow references to the things he loves — comic books, Star Wars, weed, sex and movies, just to name a few. While that can lead to the feeling that he’s having a better time with his films than you are — witness “Mallrats” and “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” — he is also a filmmaker who understands what it is to be a brainy, aging Gen-X’er dog paddling through a sea of popular culture. For that, I salute him.

All that said, when you’re as narrowly focused as Smith can be sometimes, it can lead to problems finding an audience.

The failure of his vastly under-appreciated flick “Jersey Girl” (a victim of the poo-splash from the might-be-the-worstfilm-of-the-decade “Gigli,” which also starred Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez) and his most recent vehicle, “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” are great examples of how Smith’s reputation for fanboy navel-gazing has started keeping audiences away in droves, even when he’s doing something right.

Smith is trying to break that losing streak by going legit-director with his new film “Cop Out.” Unlike everything

else he’s ever done, Smith didn’t write “Cop Out” (the honors were handled by newbie screenwriters Robb and Mark Cullen this time) but it often feels like he did. With culty references to baseball card collecting, Batman, Star Wars and obscure movie quotes, as well as some uncomfortable references to chimp-onchimp oral sex, it’s got Smith’s fingerprints all over it. If he didn’t do an uncredited pitch-in on the writing, it was surely re-written with him squarely in mind as the director.

In the film, Bruce Willis plays Jimmy Moore, a long-in-the-tooth NYPD detective. In true buddy-cop form, he’s saddled with a lovable lout of a partner, Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan). When the film opens, Jimmy is in a bind. He needs to pay for his daughter’s megalowedding, to the tune of $40,000. Otherwise, his daughter’s seedy, well-off stepfather — who is angling to supplant work-aday Jimmy as Numero Uno in the girl’s life — will spring for the tab. That’s a lot of change on a police salary, so Jimmy decides to sell a prized baseball card that he has had since he was a kid; a card that could be worth up to $80,000. When the card is stolen, however, Jimmy and Paul wind up making a deal with a local drug dealer who fenced it: find his stolen Mercedes and return it, and Jimmy can have his card back. The deal leads to its own set of problems, however, when Jimmy and Paul find out why the drug kingpin wants the car back so badly: the drug dealer’s mistress in the trunk, who knows the whereabouts of a USB drive with the account numbers and passwords to a Mexican mafia bank account worth $750 million. Meanwhile, Paul is fighting his own problems — namely, jealousy and a pretty young wife he can’t spend enough time with thanks to his job.

Smith tries hard here to channel

1980’s cop flicks like “Lethal Weapon” and the “Beverly Hills Cop” franchise, even calling tunesmith Harold Feltermeyer — the guy who scored the Beverly Hills Cop flicks, and wrote the iconic “Axel F” tune from the first movie — out of retirement for an old-school, synthesizer-heavy score. Mostly Smith succeeds in evoking the genre, with a lot of funny lines and some great action.

As with the films Smith wrote himself, however, there are times when it’s clear he’s having more fun than we are, with the film sometimes veering away from comedy to the land of absurdity, where most films not written by Mel Brooks go to die. Willis is good here playing the same guy he’s played in everything from the four “Die Hard” movies to “The Whole Nine Yards.” He’s most assuredly the straight man. Problem is, Tracy Morgan — try as the studios might to make him the next Chris Rock — just ain’t able to cut the mustard in the acting department. He absolutely chews the scenery, delivering every line in the same ain’t-I-cute tone that made him a supporting player during his time on Saturday Night Live. If that weren’t enough, he has a bad habit of drooling when he gets animated, and Smith — who also edited the flick — lets him go right ahead and drool, with long ropes of saliva spraying from his mouth at least three times over the course of the film.

It’s enough to make your stomach want to cop out in your popcorn bucket.

That said, “Cop Out” has its moments at times. Though the plot seems to go in circles, it has enough laughs and fastpaced gunplay to keep most viewers interested, especially those who have fond memories of a cat named Axel Foley. If buddy/cop movies weren’t your thing the first time they were in vogue, though, you might want to pass this one by.

— David Koon

www.arktimes.com • march 4, 2010 29

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n Sanjeev and Rashmi Jain, owners of River Market Grocery in the River Market’s Ottenheimer Hall, have opened a new gift shop and lunch counter in the ground floor of the Arkansas Studies Institute on President Clinton Avenue.

4 Square Gifts offers Arkansas T-shirts and gifts as well as salads, sandwiches, soups, smoothies and wraps. The Jains also bake cookies and pies daily and sell Yarnell’s Ice Cream and coffee.

The gift shop is open 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. The phone number is 291-1746 and the website, though not yet filled with much information, is http://4squaregifts.com. The gift shop operates a Facebook account as well. n Correction: In “Don’t forget the bar,” an article on Theo’s in Fayetteville in our Feb. 11 “Best Restaurants” issue, we mistakenly identified the restaurant’s chef as Brian Aaron. Dan Chrzanowski is the current chef.

Restaurant capsules Every effort is made to keep this listing of some of the state’s more notable restaurants current, but we urge readers to call ahead to check on changes on days of operation, hours and special offerings. What follows, because of space limitations, is a partial listing of restaurants reviewed by our staff. Information herein reflects the opinions of the newspaper staff and its reviewers.

The newspaper accepts no advertising or other considerations in exchange for reviews, which are conducted anonymously. We invite the opinions of readers who think we are in error.

Restaurants are listed in alphabetical order by city; Little Rock-area restaurants are divided by food category. Other review symbols are:

B Breakfast

L Lunch

D Dinner

$ Inexpensive (under $8/person)

$$ Moderate ($8-$20/person)

$$$ Expensive (over $20/person) CC Accepts credit cards

LITTLE ROCK/ N. LITTLE ROCK AMERICAN

ARKANSAS BURGER CO. Really good burgers, fries and shakes, plus salads and other entrees. 7410 Cantrell Road.

Beer and wine. CC $$ 663-0600 LD Tue.-Sat. BEEF O’BRADY’S FAMILY SPORTS PUB The signature item is the wings, with a variety of sauces, plus burgers, specialty sandwiches, wraps, salads and fish dishes. 115 Audubon Drive, Maumelle. Full bar. CC $$ 803-3500 LD daily.

BIG WHISKEY’S AMERICAN BAR & GRILL A modern grill pub in the River Market with all the bells and whistles — 30 flat screen TVs, boneless wings, whiskey on tap.

Plus, the usual burgers, steaks, soups and salads. 225 E. Markham St. $$ CC Full bar 324-2449 LD daily.

BOBBY’S COUNTRY COOKIN’ One of the better plate lunch spots in the area, with maybe the best fried chicken and pot roast around, a changing daily casserole and wonderful homemade pies. 301 N. Shackleford Road, Suite E1. No alcohol. CC $-$$ 224-9500 L Mon.-Fri. BOSCOS This River Market microbrewery does food well, too. Along with tried and true things like sandwiches, burgers, steaks and big salads, they have entrees like black bean and goat cheese tamales, open hearth pizza ovens and muffalettas. 500 President Clinton Ave. Full bar. CC $$ 907-1881 LD daily.

BUFFALO GRILL A great crispy-off-the-griddle cheeseburger and hand-cut fries star at this family-friendly stop.

Spacious deck and lots of parking in the back. 1611

Continued on page 32

■ dining Busted Oaklawn’s new buffet craps out. n This reviewer doesn’t tend to be the bloodthirsty sort of dining reviewer celebrated in film, the kind who relishes hurling harpoons at every dining establishment in town, but you do have to play it as it lays. I’ve written some nuke-em-fromorbit reviews over the years.

The funny thing is: after you’ve reviewed a couple dozen restaurants, only the truly crummy and the truly great stand out.

On the crummy side of my memory, there was my first review, of the toughas-nails grub at a chain rib joint. Then, a few years back, there was a certain floating restaurant on the North Little Rock waterfront, whose food was actually improved when the place sank and sat in the mud at the bottom of the river for awhile.

Then there is the new Lagniappe Buffet, inside Oaklawn’s newly-expanded racino complex. It’s memorable, sure, but not in a good way.

While this reviewer has never been to Vegas, I’ve heard about casino buffets. A friend of mine who went to college in Sin City said that a poor undergrad could eat like a king on the cheap, thanks to the fact that casinos often use buffets as a loss leader, knowing that people who come in to eat will often stop to lose Junior’s college fund on their way out. I was hoping for something similar with the Lagniappe Buffet.

The pictures on the Internet looked fairly appetizing, and they’ve got a chocolate fountain — a Willy Wonka-esque column of choco-love, surrounded by yummy fruits to dip in cocoa ambrosia. As often happens with food advertising porn, however, the truth is a lot different from the reality.

For one thing, while I was possibly expecting something like an upscale Ryan’s buffet, the Lagniappe Buffet is very small – maybe 30 items, the whole shebang pushed into one little room just off the casino floor (a fact that’s kinda odd, given that they’ve got an airplane hanger of a dining room, which would have been perfect for a long, well-stocked buffet).

For another, it’s expensive: $12.50 at dinner if you sign up for a free “Player’s Circle” card (which allows you to ring up comp points depending on how much you gamble); $15.50 if you don’t. Once you start getting into stuff like their Friday night surf/turf special — $18.50 with card, $21.50 without — you really start racking up the dough. For another, because you can smoke in the casino, and because the buffet is placed right off the casino floor (albeit with a small non-smoking zone around the entrance), the place where the food is dished up is constantly awash in cigarette smoke. Nothing is more appetizing than

brian chilson

what’scookin’

the fountain: Not all that. standing there, trying to decide between chicken and fish, while 25 feet away a little old lady at a lock-n-roll machine is chain-smoking, puffing up a cloud so thick it looks like you’re peering at her through frosted glass.

Still, given that our rich Uncle Times was paying the tab, we went with it.

To say the choices were underwhelming is an understatement. Yeah, they have uniformed servers, and standard stuff like carved prime rib which was fairly appetizing, but the rest was strictly Luby’s Cafeteria-grade or below: dry mashed potatoes, soggy Salisbury steak, stuffed chicken breasts that obviously started the day in a plastic bag inside a freezer, some fairly decent baked fish and not a whole lot else.

On the salad bar, the lettuce was strictly iceberg, with not a shred of Romaine to be found, and there was no cheese to put on it. I just paid well above the average hourly wage in Arkansas for this, folks. Could you send a lackey down to Kroger to buy some freakin’ Romaine and shredded cheese?

Just to see what would happen, I decided to try a return trip to the buffet for another plate. I walked up to the sneeze guard and stood there. And stood there. And stood there. The servers busied themselves elsewhere, looking everywhere but where I was.

Finally, a new diner walked up behind me with a fresh plate, and the server finally had to come over and deal with me. The message was clear: One plate to a customer, pal.

Finally, we come to dessert, and that chocolate fountain. To be fair, Lagniappe Buffet does have a good selection of pie and cake offerings. But it’s clearly the towering chocolate geyser that’s supposed to be the

“wow” factor. The problem is: they’ve placed it and its attending bowls of cut fruit directly on the edge of the casino floor, where, around the clock, the accumulated horde smokes, coughs, scratches, sneezes, sheds and probably farts like a boatload of immigrants at Ellis Island, yearning to breath free and poke their paycheck into a video poker machine. Standing there, looking at the choco-fountain running in all its sticky glory, all I could think about was what I once heard about the astronomical number of skin cells humans flake off every hour. Yummy.

In short: If I’d had to pay for a meal at Lagniappe I would have been peeved. If you must eat while at the casino, do yourself a favor and go to one of the grub stands on the racetrack side. Better, get out in the sunshine, and head to Rod’s Pizza Cellar for a pie. You can thank me later.

The Lagniappe Buffet Oaklawn Park 2705 Central Ave. Hot Springs 501-623-4411 Quick bite

They serve a breakfast buffet from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. for night owls. We didn’t try it, but we note that it’s fairly affordable at $4.99 per person with a Player’s Circle card, and it’s hard to fathom how you might be able to screw up bacon and eggs.

There’s also a champagne brunch on Sundays.

Hours

Lunch 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.; dinner: 3:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.; breakfast: 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. daily.

Other info

All CC accepted; sign up for free Player’s Circle card for a discount. www.arktimes.com • march 4, 2010 31

Restaurant capsules Continued from page 31

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Shackleford & Hermitage Road Little Rock • 501-312-2748 www.thebutchershop.com 32 march 4, 2010 • arkansas Times

Rebsamen Park Road. 1611 Rebsamen Park Road. Full bar. CC $-$$ 296-9535 LD daily. 400 N. Bowman Road.

Beer and wine. CC $-$$ 224-0012 LD daily.

BURGE’S TURKEYS AND HAMS Famous for its smoked turkey and hams, but also a source for good fried catfish and homemade fried pies. 5620 R St. No alcohol. CC $$ 666-1660 LD Mon.-Sat. CAPERS It’s never been better, with as good a wine list as any in the area, and a menu that covers a lot of ground — seafood, steaks, pasta — and does it all well. 14502 Cantrell Road. Full bar. CC $$-$$$ 868-7600 LD Mon.-Sat. CATERING TO YOU Painstakingly prepared entrees and great appetizers in this gourmet-to-go location.

8121 Cantrell Road. No alcohol. CC $-$$ 664-0627 L Mon.-Sat. CHEERS Both locations offer good burgers and sandwiches, vegetarian offerings and salads at lunch, and fish specials and good steaks in the evening. The Heights location is intimate and the wine list is emphasized. The Maumelle location is spacious inside and on the porch.

2010 N. Van Buren, 663-5937; 1901 Club Manor, Maumelle, 851-6200. Full bar. CC $$-$$$ LD Mon.-Sat. COAST CAFE A variety of salads, smoothies, sandwiches and pizzas, and there’s breakfast and coffee, too. 400 President Clinton Ave. (in the River Market). No alcohol.

CC $-$$ 371-0164 BL Mon.-Sat. COTHAM’S IN THE CITY A Capitol neighborhood version of the famous Scott country store, with the same specialties — giant hubcap hamburgers, well-fried plate lunches and monumental desserts. 1401 W. 3rd St. No alcohol. CC $-$$ 370-9177 L Mon.-Fri. CRAZEE’S COOL CAFE Good burgers, daily plate specials and bar food amid pool tables and TVs. 7626 Cantrell Road. Full bar. CC $-$$ 221-9696 LD Mon.-Sat. DAVE’S PLACE Downtown’s premier soup-and-sandwich stop at lunch, and a set dinner spot on Friday night to give a little creative outlet to chef supreme David Williams.

Beef, chicken and fish are served with Continental flair.

210 Center St. CC $$ 372-3283 L Mon.-Fri., D Fri. DIXIE CAFE Abundant vegetable choices that are inexpensive, wholesome, satisfying and dependable, with meats and fresh rolls to match. Multiple locations, including 1301 Rebsamen Park Road. Beer and wine. CC $-$$ 663-9336 LD daily.

DOWNTOWN DELI A locally owned eatery, with bigger sandwiches and lower prices than most downtown chain competitors. Also huge, loaded baked potatoes, soups and salads. 323 Center St. No alcohol. CC $ 372-3696 BL Mon.-Fri. FERNEAU Great seafood, among other things, is served at the Ice House Revival in Hillcrest. 2601 Kavanaugh. Full bar. CC $$$ 603-9208 D Tue.-Sat. FLYING SAUCER Beer, with dozens on tap, is the big draw at this popular River Market venue, but the food’s good, too.

Sandwiches, including a great Reuben, salads, quesadillas and the bratwurst are dependable. 323 President Clinton Ave. Beer and wine. CC $-$$ 372-7468 LD Mon.-Sat. FORTY TWO The Clinton Presidential Center’s restaurant has Sunday brunch, and it’s a solid choice for weekday lunch as well with innovative sandwiches, soups and salads.

1200 President Clinton Ave. 537-0042. L. $$ CC Full bar.

FOX AND HOUND Sports bar with bar munchies to watch games by. 2800 Lakewood Village, NLR. Full bar. CC $-$$ 753-8300 LD daily.

FRONTIER GRILL The well-attended all-you-can-eat buffet includes American, Mexican and Chinese food. 2924 University Ave. No alcohol. CC $ 568-7776 LD daily.

GRAMPA’S CATFISH HOUSE Delicious fried fish, hush puppies and sides. 100 Shadow Oaks, NLR, 834-5400; 9219 Stagecoach Road, 407-0000. Beer. CC $-$$ LD daily.

HEAVENLY HAM Fine hams, turkeys and other specialty meats served whole, by the pound or in sandwiches. 11121 N. Rodney Parham Road. No alcohol. CC $-$$ 225-2136 LD Mon.-Sat (until 6 p.m.).

HONEYBAKED HAM CO. The trademark ham is available by the sandwich, as is great smoked turkey. There are also lots of inexpensive side items and desserts. 9112 N. Rodney Parham Road. No alcohol. CC $-$$ 227-5555 LD Mon.-Sat. THE HOUSE Delicious, gourmet burgers and sandwiches at the former location of Sufficient Grounds in Hillcrest.

Cheap beer and good coffee, too, in a quiet, relaxed setting.

722 N. Palm. Beer and wine. CC $-$$ 663-4500 LD daily.

JUST LIKE MOM’S Daily specials include mom’s goulash, lemon pepper chicken over rice and garlic roast beef, with generous sides of pinto beans, cornbread, potatoes. 3140 E. Kiehl Ave., NLR. No alcohol. CC $-$$ 833-0402 BLD Mon.-Fri. B Sat. 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 Industrial Place, NLR. No alcohol. CC $ 758-0903 BLD Tue.-Fri. BL Sat. KRAZY MIKE’S SHRIMP AND WINGS Home-style cookin’ and fried fare in Bowman Curve shopping center.

907-6453, 200 N. Bowman, Suite 9. Beer and wine CC $$ LD daily.

LUBY’S CAFETERIA Generous portions of home-style food and a wider variety of meats and vegetables than most cafeterias. 12501 W. Markham St., 219-1567. No alcohol.

CC $-$$ LD daily.

MARKHAM STREET GRILL AND PUB The menu has something for everyone. Try the burgers, which are juicy, big and fine. 11321 W. Markham St. Full bar. CC $$ 224-2010 LD Mon.-Sat. OLD MILL BREAD AND FLOUR CO. CAFE The popular take-out bakery has an eat-in restaurant and friendly operators. It’s self-service, simple and good — 11 types of sandwiches built with a changing lineup of the bakery’s 40 different breads, along with soups, salads and cookies. Rock Creek Square, Markham and Bowman. CC $ 228-4677 BL Mon.-Sat. OYSTER BAR Gumbo, red beans and rice (all you can eat on Mondays), peel-and-eat shrimp, oysters on the half shell.

Decent po’ boys. 3003 W. Markham St. Beer and wine. CC $-$$ 666-7100 LD Mon.-Sat. RESTAURANT 1620 Steaks, chops, a broad choice of fresh seafood and meal-sized salads are just a few of the choices on a broad menu at this popular and upscale West Little Rock bistro. It’s a romantic, candlelit room, elegant without being fussy or overly formal. 1620 Market St. Full bar. CC $$-$$$ 221-1620 D daily.

SCALLION’S Reliably good food, great desserts, pleasant atmosphere, able servers — a solid lunch and dinner spot.

5110 Kavanaugh. Full bar. CC $-$$ 666-6468 L Mon.-Sat. D Wed.-Sat. SO RESTAURANT BAR Call it a French brasserie with a sleek, but not fussy American finish — stone walls, handsome furniture and apron-clad waiters anxious to please.

Good ingredients are prepared simply — everything from salads and sandwiches to steaks. The wine selection is broad and choice. It just simply feels good to eat here.

And tastes good, too. 3610 Kavanaugh Blvd. Full bar. CC $$-$$$ 663-1464 LD Mon.-Fri., BLD Sat.-Sun. THE SPEAKEASY The supper club serves a multinational menu of pot roast, scampi, Greek salads, cheese sandwiches and more and diners are entertained by jazz on Thursday nights and floor shows on the weekends. LD Mon.-Fri., D Sat., B Sun. 374-2008.

SPORTS PAGE Perhaps the largest, juiciest, most flavorful burger in town. Grilled turkey and hot cheese on sourdough gets praise, too. Now with lunch specials. 414 Louisiana St. Beer and wine. CC $ 372-9316. BL Mon.-Fri., open Fri. nights for music and night food service.

STICKY FINGERZ ROCK ’N’ ROLL CHICKEN SHACK Fingers any way you can imagine, plus sandwiches and burgers, and a fun setting for music and happy hour gatherings. 107 Commerce St. Full bar. CC $-$$ 372-7707 LD Mon.-Sat. STOUT’S DINER Don’t let the gas station façade fool you.

The dinners are ample, the hand-patted burgers could be the best in Pulaski County, and the pies are made-to-order from scratch when you tell them what you want. They do a mean breakfast, too. 26606 Highway 107 Jacksonville 983-0163 CC. No alcohol. $-$$ BL daily, D Mon-Sat. THE HOP DINER The downtown incarnation of the old dairy bar, with excellent burgers, onion rings, shakes and breakfast. Plus, daily specials, homemade pie and quiche.

201 E. Markham No alcohol. $-$$ 244-0975 BLD Mon.-Fri., LD Sat. (close at 6 p.m.).

TOWN PUMP Great burgers, good chili dogs, a monstersized platter of chili cheese fries. And cold beer, of course.

1321 Rebsamen Park Road Beer and wine (liquor license pending) CC $ 663-9802 LD daily.

VICTORIAN GARDEN We’ve found the fare quite tasty and somewhat daring and different with its healthy, balanced entrees and crepes. 4801 North Hills Blvd., NLR. Wine and beer. CC $$-$$$ 758-4299 L Tue.-Sat. WEST END SMOKEHOUSE AND TAVERN Its primary focus is a sports bar with 50-plus TVs, but the dinner entrees (grilled chicken, steaks and such) are plentiful and the bar food is upper quality. 215 N. Shackleford. Full bar.

CC $ 224-7665 LD Mon.-Sat. YOUR MAMA’S GOOD FOOD Now in more spacious quarters, but still offering simple and satisfying cafeteria food, with burgers and more hot off the grill. Tower Building, Fourth and Center. No alcohol. CC $ 372-1811 BL Mon.-Fri. ZACK’S PLACE Expertly prepared home cooking and huge, smoky burgers. 1400 S. University Ave. Full bar. CC $$ 664-6444 LD Mon.-Sat.

ASIAN CHINA KING BUFFET An enormous array of all kinds of Asian fare that’s all worth a try, beginning with the four dazzling large buffet tables, plus a small sushi station, a seafood bar with shrimp, and Mongolian grill. 9210 N. Rodney Parham Road. Beer. CC $$ 223-0888 LD daily.

CHINESE PAVILION HUNAN RESTAURANT A longtime favorite in Chinese restaurant polls, it’s one of the earliest Asian eateries on the north shore. 8000 Hwy. 107, Sherwood. Beer and wine. CC $$ 835-8723 LD Tue.-Sun. FU LIN Quality in the made-to-order entrees is high, as is the quantity. 200 N. Bowman Road. Full bar. CC $$ 225-8989 LD daily.

GINA’S CHINESE KITCHEN AND SUSHI BAR A broad and strong sushi menu with a manageable and delectable selection of Chinese standards. 14524 Cantrell Road. Wine and beer. $-$$ CC 868-7775 LD daily.

HANAROO SUSHI BAR Under its second owner, it’s one of the few spots in downtown Little Rock to serve sushi.

With an expansive menu, featuring largely Japanese fare with a bit of Korean mixed in. 205 W. Capitol Ave. Beer and wine. CC $$ 301-7900. L Mon.-Fri., D Mon.-Sat. LILLY’S DIM SUM THEN SOME Delectable Asian

comfort food — fried or steamed dumplings and more in a variety of presentations. Thai ginger noodles, Thai panang and pad Thai are just a few of the highlights. 11121 Rodney Parham Road. Beer and wine. CC $$ 716-2700 LD daily.

MT. FUJI JAPANESE RESTAURANT The dean of Little Rock sushi bars with a fabulous lunch special. 10301 Rodney Parham Road. Full bar. CC $$-$$$ 227-6498 LD daily.

■update PEI WEI Fast-food Chinese doesn’t appeal to everyone, or at least not all the time, but there are times when a quick plate of Thai coconut curry hits the spot. Pei Wei’s food is decent to very good and the management makes sure you’re happy; when a dish of ginger broccoli and chicken was served instead of the dish we ordered, the manager said, keep it! And here’s what you ordered! And you know what — the ginger broccoli was the best dish on the table.

The Thai Dynamite (with crispy shrimp) wasn’t the bang-up dish we expected: too much crisp and not enough shrimp. Dishes are ample: Three of us ate dinner, with soft drinks, for $30, and took home a great wall of rice and other leftovers.

Noodles next time. 205 N. University (Midtowne Mall), 280-9423. LD daily. $$ Beer and wine.

ROYAL BUFFET A big buffet of Chinese fare, with other Asian tastes as well. 109 E. Pershing Blvd., NLR. Beer and wine. CC $ 753-8885 LD daily.

SAIGON CUISINE Traditional Vietnamese with Thai and Chinese selections. Be sure to try the authentic pho soups and spring rolls. 6805 Cantrell Road. Beer and wine. CC $$ 663-4000 L Tue.-Fri, D Tue.-Sun. VAN LANG CUISINE Terrific Vietnamese cuisine, the best in town, particularly in its presentation of the pork dishes and the assortment of rolls. Great prices, too. Massive menu, but it’s user-friendly for locals, with full English descriptions and numbers for easy ordering. 3600 S. University Ave. Beer and wine. CC $-$$ 570-7700 LD daily.

BARBECUE BARE BONES PIT BAR-B-Q A carefully controlled gas oven, with wood chips added for flavor, guarantees moist and sweet pork — both pulled from the shoulder and back ribs. The side orders, particularly the baked potato salad, are excellent. 5501 Ranch Drive, Suite 4. Beer and wine.

CC $-$$ 868-7427 LD daily.

BIRD DOG BARBECUE Situated way out Batesville Pike in Sherwood, Bird Dog Barbecue offers a homey atmosphere, diner-style grub and some of the best sauce around — not to mention a menu stocked with homemade burgers, appetizers, sandwiches and ‘cue. Go for the barbecue, stay for the small-community people watching. 17416 Batesville Pike, Sherwood. Full bar. CC $$ 833-3133 LD Tue.-Sat. FAMOUS DAVE’S A chain that runs gamut of ’cue and its relatives: chopped pork, beef brisket, barbeque chicken, rib tips, chicken tenders, hot link sausage, catfish fillets and hot wings. With an array of sauces purported to represent barbecue regions around the country. 225 N. Shackleford Road. Full bar. CC $$ 221-3283 LD daily.

FATBOY’S KILLER BAR-B-Q This Landmark community strip-center restaurant in the far southern reaches of Pulaski County features tender ribs and pork by a contest pitmaster.

Skip the regular sauce and risk the hot variety; it’s far better.

3405 Atwood Road. No alcohol. CC $ 888-4998; 10208 I-30 568-3252 LD Tue.-Sun. H.B.’S BAR B.Q. A very good barbecue place tucked away in a residential neighborhood in Southwest Little Rock. Ribs are available only one day a week (Tuesday) but you’ll like the sandwiches better anyway. Don’t forget the flaky-crusted fried pies. But it’s OK to forget your credit cards – cash is all they take. 6010 Lancaster 565-1930 No CC $-$$. No alcohol LD (until 6 p.m.) Mon.-Fri. PIG AND CHIK Well-smoked meat with a thick, sweet sauce, plus nachos, huge burgers, country vegetables and lots of other stuff. 7824 Highway 107, NLR. Beer and wine.

CC $$ 834-5456 LD Mon.-Sat. SIMS BAR-B-QUE Great spare ribs, sandwiches, beef, half and whole chicken and an addictive vinegar-mustardbrown sugar sauce unique for this part of the country.

Multiple locations: 2415 Broadway, 372-6868; 1307 John Barrow Road, 224-2057; 7601 Geyer Springs, 562-8844.

Beer. CC $-$$ LD Mon.-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. A real find is the beef brisket, cooked the way Texans like it. 2516 Cantrell Road, 664-5025. 5107 Warden Road, NLR, 753-9227. Beer and wine. CC LD Mon.-Sat.

EUROPEAN / ETHNIC ALIBABA’S MEDITERRANEAN CUISINE This eatery and grocery store offers kebabs and salads along with just about any sort of Middle Eastern fare you might want, along with what might be the best kefte kebab in Central Arkansas. Halal butcher on duty. 3400 South University.

No alcohol. CC $-$$ 379-8011 LD daily.

CIAO BACI The focus is on fine dining in this casually elegant Hillcrest bungalow, though tapas also are available.

Many come for the comfortable lounge that serves specialty drinks until 2 a.m. nightly. 605 N. Beechwood St. Full bar.

CC $$$ 603-0238 D Mon.-Sat. MIDDLE EASTERN CUISINE Gyros, falafel and souvlaki plates, as well as hummus, tabbouleh, eggplant dip and other dishes — wonderful food at wonderful prices. Halal dishes available, too. The River Market’s Ottenheimer Hall, 400 President Clinton Ave. No alcohol. CC $-$$ 372-1662 L Mon.-Sat. UNDERGROUND PUB Hearty, tasty British pub-style fare, including exceptional custom-made sausages, crunchy fish and chips, and a decent Reuben. Inviting bar with an impressive draft beer and single-malt whiskey selection.

500 President Clinton Ave. Full bar. CC $-$$ 707-2537 LD Mon.-Sat. YA YA’S EUROBISTRO The first eatery to open in the new Promenade at Chenal is a date-night affair, retranslating comfort food into beautiful cuisine. Best bet is lunch, where you can explore the menu through soup, salad or half a sandwich. 17711 Chenal Parkway. Full bar, CC, $$-$$$ 821-1144 LD daily.

ITALIAN BRUNO’S LITTLE ITALY This more-than-half-centuryold establishment balances continuity and innovation with delicious traditional and original fare. The pizza remains outstanding. Service is impeccable. 315 N. Bowman Road.

Full bar. CC $$-$$$ 224-4700 D Mon.-Sat. CARINO’S COUNTRY ITALIAN A homey chain joint offering irresistible Italian bread and affordable, tasty, substantial lunches and dinners. 11600 Pleasant Ridge Road, 225-3434; 4221 Warden Road, NLR, 758-8226. Full bar. CC $$ LD daily.

D’CARLO PIZZERIA RISTORANTE Solid Italian standards and a few daring originals are served in a pleasant atmosphere by even more pleasant people. 12325 Stagecoach Road. Beer and wine. CC $$ 407-0400 LD Mon.-Sat. IRIANA’S Unbelievably generous thick-crust pizza with unmatched zest. Good salads, too; grinders are great, particularly the Italian sausage. 201 E. Markham St., first level. Beer and wine. CC $-$$ 374-3656 LD Mon.-Sat. PIERRE’S GOURMET PIZZA Holds its own with the good independent pizza joints in the area, and most feature meat, meat and more meat. Salads, calzones and subs, too. 4905 JFK Blvd., NLR. No alcohol. CC $-$$ 907-1929 LD Mon.-Sat. PIZZA CAFE Thin, crunchy pizza with just a dab of tomato sauce but plenty of chunks of stuff, topped with gooey cheese. Draft beer is appealing on the open-air deck — frosty and generous. 1517 Rebsamen Park Road. Beer and wine. CC $$ 664-6133 LD daily.

PLAYTIME PIZZA Tons of fun isn’t rained out by lackluster eats at the new $11 million, 65,000 square foot kidtopia that recently opened near the Rave movie complex. While the buffet is only so-so, features like indoor mini-golf, laser tag, go karts, arcade games and bumper cars make it a winner for both kids and adults. 600 Colonel Glenn Plaza Loop. No alcohol. CC $$ 227-7529 D Mon.-Tue. LD Wed.-Sun. U.S. PIZZA Crispy thin-crust pizzas, frosty beers and heaping salads drowned in creamy dressing. Multiple locations: 4001 McCain Park, NLR, 753-2900; 3324 Pike Ave., NLR, 758-5997; 650 Edgewood Drive, Maumelle, 851-0880; 8403 Highway 107, Sherwood, 835-5673; 9300 N. Rodney Parham, 224-6300; 2710 Kavanaugh, 663-2198, and 5524 Kavanaugh. Beer and wine. CC $-$$ 664-7071 LD daily.

VINO’S Great rock ’n’ roll club also is a fantastic pizzeria with huge calzones and always improving home-brewed beers. 923 W. Seventh St. Beer and wine. CC $-$$ 375-8466 LD daily.

MEXICAN BROWNING’S They’re still serving up old-style Tex-Mex and nostalgia at one of Little Rock’s oldest restaurants.

Consistency counts for something. If the Mexican isn’t to your taste, they have American dishes too, including steaks. Catering specialties from the old Cordell’s deli can be ordered here. 5805 Kavanaugh Blvd. Full bar CC $-$$ 663-9956 BLD Mon.-Sat. CACTUS JACK’S This inoffensive Mexican-esque effort on McCain has everything you’ve come to expect from the average Mexican restaurant. Ample portions, if not ample seasoning. However, it’s easy on the pocketbook. 4120 E. McCain Blvd. No. 116, NLR $-$$ 945-5888 Full bar CC LD daily.

COZYMEL’S A trendy Dallas-chain cantina with flaming cheese dip, cilantro pesto, mole, lamb and more. 10 Shackleford Drive. Full bar. CC $$-$$$ 954-7100 LD daily.

EL CHICO Hearty, standard Mex served in huge portions.

8409 Interstate 30, 562-3762, and 1315 Breckenridge Drive, 224-2550. Full bar. CC $$ 224-2550 LD daily.

LA HACIENDA Creative, fresh-tasting entrees and traditional favorites, all served in a festive atmosphere. Our picks: The taco salad, nachos and maybe the best fajitas around. $2.50 Margaritas on Wednesday and Thursday. Multiple locations throughout Central Arkansas. 3024 Cantrell Road, 661-0600. Full bar. CC $-$$ LD daily.

LA PALAPA Seafood is the focus at this Mexican restaurant, but the overly huge menu contains includes land-based items such as a great chile verde. Pan-fried fish topped with cheese and tomato-based sauce is a nightly special. 18321 Hwy. 10. Full bar. CC $$ 868-8822 BLD daily.

LAS PALMAS “Authentic” Mexican chain with a massive menu of choices. Otter Creek Shopping Center, 455-8500, and 4154 McCain Blvd., NLR, 945-8010. Full bar. CC $-$$ LD daily.

MI RANCHITO This growing Arkansas-owned chain offers great variety and super-sized meals of solid Tex-Mex, with the typical white cheese dip, only spicier, and more flavor to the regular entree fare. 1520 Market St., 223-5414, full bar; 2110 N. Reynolds Road, 653-0032, no alcohol. CC $-$$ Both LD daily.

ON THE BORDER Great Tex-Mex food, with guacamole made to order and a menu that offers some specialty chicken, shrimp and fish dishes. The salsa is so good they sell it separately. The Mercedes margarita is the best we ever had; most expensive, too. 11721 Chenal Parkway. Full bar. CC $$ 217-9275 LD daily.

RIVIERA MAYA For a restaurant that touts the slogan, “Discover Real Mexican Food,” it delivers much of the same as other similarly priced restaurants. Portions on the large side, though. 801 Fair Park. Full bar CC $-$$ 663-4800 LD daily.

SUPER 7 This Mexican grocery/video store/taqueria has great a daily buffet featuring a changing assortment of real Mexican cooking: Fresh tortillas pressed by hand and grilled, homemade salsas, beans as good as beans get. Plus soup every day. 1415 Barrow Road. CC $-$$ 219-2373 LD daily.

TAQUERIA KARINA CAFE A real Mexican neighborhood cantina with everything from freshly baked pan dulce, to Mexican-bottled Cokes, to first-rate guacamole, to inexpensive tacos, burritos, quesadillas and a broad selection of Mexican-style seafood. 5309 W. 65th St. Beer. $ CC 562-3951 LD Thu.-Tue. TAQUERIA SAMANTHA Arguably the best among the area’s burgeoning taco truck crowd. Tacos, burritos and other authentic fare. Unbelievably cheap. Usually parked just north of the Geyer Springs and I-30 intersection Cash only $ LD daily.

around arkansas BALD KNOB

KELLEY’S RESTAURANT This is a sweet tea and huge buffet kind of place, but the owners, of Asian descent, add a special flair: shrimp fried rice next to the pepper steak, egg rolls and bread pudding, and so on. The bread pudding was a rich and delectable homemade delight. 3501 Highway 367 North. No alcohol. CC $$ 501-724-3298 LD daily.

BERRYVILLE LA CABANA An extensive Mexican menu (though various combination plates account for a lot of it) and a couple of steaks for less adventurous diners. 102 West Church St. No alcohol. No cc $-$$ 870-423-4848 LD Mon. - Fri.

NOTICE OF NONDISCRIMINATORY POLICY AS TO STUDENTS Pinnacle Classical Academy admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.

Attn: Members & Guests

Catfish & seafood Buffet — 26 Years In Business —

Live Music Every Friday & Saturday

March 5 Third Degree 6 Little Creek 12 Steel House 13 Dry County 19 Michael Burks 20 Little Creek 26 Joe Pitts Band 27 Sweet Water Karaoke every Wed. and Thurs. w/ Big John Miller www.myspace.com/dentons Find us on Facebook/DentonsTrotline We Cater Carry-Outs Available Hours: Tues-Thurs 4:00-9:00pm Fri-sat 4:00-11:00pm

315-1717

2150 Congo Rd. • Benton From Little rock to Exit 118 to Congo rd. overpass Across I-30

CADDO VALLEY FAT BOY’S Possessing the right layer of soot and grease for a venerable local joint, with simple chopped meat sandwiches piled on a warm bun in good measure, moistened with a thin, sweet-sour sauce and topped with finely chopped fresh slaw. There’s an assortment of fresh, crisp fried pies. Highway 7. $ 870-246-6552 LD Mon.-Sat.

CONWAY HOLLY’S COUNTRY KITCHEN Readers have highly recommended Holly’s in the home-cooking category, and $5.25 gets you a plate full of home-style food akin to Little Rock’s famed Homer’s and Kitchen Express. 120 Harkrider St., 328-9738. No alcohol. CC $-$$ L Mon.-Fri. MIKE’S PLACE Delicious New Orleans-inspired steaks and seafood, plus wood-fired pizzas, served in a soaring, beautifully restored building in downtown Conway.

Membership required. 808 Front St. Full bar. CC $$-$$$ 501-269-6453 LD daily.

PIA’S ITALIAN RESTAURANT Casual Italian done well at moderate prices. Good selection of pastas and sauces, along with sandwiches and salads. Desserts vary daily. 915 Front Street, Conway. Beer and wine. CC. $$ 501-5139944 LD Mon-Sat. STROMBOLI’S Italian classics at this mom and pop, where as the name suggests, strombolis are a specialty.

Save room for a cannoli or a cup of gelato, too. 2665 N. Donaghey Ave. No. 101. No alcohol. CC $$ 501-327-3701 LD daily.

TOKYO JAPANESE RESTAURANT Besides the hibachi offerings, Tokyo also has tempura, teriyaki and a great seaweed salad. Their combination platters are a great value; besides an entree, also comes with soup, salad, harumaki (spring rolls) and vegetable tempura. No sushi, though. 716 Oak St. No alcohol. CC $-$$ 501-327-6868 LD daily.

EUREKA SPRINGS BUBBA’S Ribs are the perfect blend of crunchy, meaty and moist inside, but the pork shoulder even outshines them.

Menu now includes vegetarian items. 60 Kingshighway.

Beer. No CC $-$$ 253-7706 LD Mon.-Sat. DE VITO’S Crisp salads, excellent entrees, good bread and casual, friendly service. Order the magnificent smoked trout.

5 Center St. Full bar. CC $$ 479-253-6807 D Mon.-Tue., Thu.-Sun. Closed Wed. HORIZON A former New York-style deli, it now offers Italian continental cuisine, with fresh fish on weekends. The sunset view is fabulous. Mundell Road on Beaver Lake. Beer and wine. CC $$-$$$ 479-253-5525 D Mon.-Sat. SPARKY’S ROADHOUSE CAFE Burgers are the specialty, but there are plenty of creative dishes, deli sandwiches and beer choices. 41 Van Buren (Highway 62). Full bar. CC $$ 479-253-6001 LD Mon.-Sat.

LI FE AT

HPRAICLE. F WWW.HALFOFFDEPOT.COM www.arktimes.com • march 4, 2010 33

Food for Thought

a paid advertisement

To place your restaurant in Food For Thought, call the advertising department at 501-375-2985

AMERICAN

SEAFOOD Cajun’s Wharf

Food and fun for everyone when you pair Cajun’s Wharf’s succulent seafood and steak with the ever-evolving live entertainment. Enjoy the fabulous fresh seafood or aged Angus beef while listening to the rolling Arkansas River on the famously fantastic deck! They also boast an award-winning wine list.

grampa’s catfish house

Central Arkansas’ oldest catfish restaurant. Serving all-ucan-eat catfish since 1970. A Family friendly restaurant… the place where you can walk in with a large group of folks without a reservation. Open 7 days for lunch and dinner.

Catering available.

2400 Cantrell Road 501-375-5351

rm

AT(spec ad)

02/01/08100

DENTON’S CaTfiSh & SEafOOD BuffET — 24 Years In Business —

We Cater • Carry-Outs available hours: Tues-Thurs 4:00-8:30pm • fri-Sat 4:00-9:00pm

315-1717

Shadow Oaks (501) 834-5400 • Sherwood 7 days: L 11-2 • D 4:30-9:30 9219 Stagecoach Rd (501) 407-0000 • Little Rock 7 days: L 11-2 • D 4:30-9:30

Denton’s Trotline

2150 Congo Rd. Benton, 501-416-2349 Open Tues, Wed & Thurs 4-9 Fri & Sat 4-11

Attention: Members and Guests. Denton’s Trotline is known for their award winning catfish and seafood buffet.

Outstanding appetizer menu. Family owned, featuring a newly remodeled building with live music. Full service catering available.

BISTRO Lulav

220 West 6th St. 501-374-5100 Lunch Mon-Fri 11am-2pm Dinner Tues-Sat 5-10pm V Lounge til 1am, Thurs-Sat

2150 Congo Rd. • Benton from Little Rock to Exit 118 to Congo Rd. Overpass across i-30

YaYas

17711 Chenal Parkway, Suite I-101 501-821-1144

Dizzy’s Gypsy Bistro 200 S. Commerce, Suite 150 (501) 375-3500 Tues-Thurs 11am-9pm Fri & Sat 11am-10pm

Fresh seafood specials every week. Prime aged beef and scrumptious dishes. Wine Spectator Award of Excellence, over 30 wines by the glass and largest vodka selection downtown. Regular and late night happy hour, Wednesday wine flights and Thursday is Ladies Night. Be sure to check out the Bistro Burger during lunch.

Ya Ya’s is both sophisticated and whimsical. Mosaic tile floors, stone columns and fabric covered wall panels while heavy beamed ceilings, hand blown chandeliers and curvy wroughtiron railings add a whimsical flair. The menu is inspired by a combination of Italian, French, Spanish and Greek cuisines.

Mediterranean Euro Delights share the menu with pizzas from our wood-burning oven, rich creative pastas and an array of the freshest of seafood dishes and innovative meat entrees.

Live music resumes on the patio this spring. Join us for live, local music through the week. Don’t forget our Sunday Brunch ($16.95 & only $13.95 for the early bird special, 10 am to 11 am). Reservations are preferred.

For the salad lover, Dizzy’s is an absolute paradise. Its list of eleven “Ridiculously Large Entrée Salads” runs the gamut of what you can do with greens and dressing. For example Zilpphia’s Persian Lime Salad, featuring grilled turkey breast, tomato, cucumber, onion, lime and buffalo mozzarella over romaine. For another: Mary Ann’s Dream, with grilled chicken breast, baby spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, cranberries, mandarin oranges, bourbon pecans and bleu cheese. Don’t that sound good?

chinese Fantastic China 1900 N Grant St Heights 501-663-8999

Sharing good things with good friends is the motto at Fantastic China. A Central Arkansas favorite offering the Freshest Chinese Food in town. It’s made to order with 100% Vegetable Oil. The presentation is beautiful, the menu distinctive, and the service perfect. Fantastic China is one of the heights most reliable and satisfying restaurants and a local favorite. Full bar.

mexican Casa Manana Taqueria

400 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-6637 6820 Cantrell Road • 501-280-9888 18321 Cantrell Road • 501-868-8822

Voted Best Mexican 2007. Featuring authentic fare from the Puebla region of Mexico, the selections seem endless at your choice of 3 locations in the Little Rock area. You will find an array of dishes ranging from the salient Shrimp Veracruzana at La Palapa out west to great Guacamole in the River Market Taqueria. Or try tasty Tostadas that share the name of the original Cantrell location, Casa Manana.

asian Lilly’s Dimsum Then Some

Look no further…voted Best Asian again by the Arkansas Times readers. Lilly’s serves up extraordinary dishes made from the freshest, premium local and organic ingredients.

Also enjoy warm and inviting ambiance as you dine on any one of the tasty house specialties. Sundays are wine day: all wine by the bottle, half off.

Super King Buffet

One of central Arkansas’s largest Chinese buffets, we offer all your favorites with our sushi bar and Mongolian Grill included for one low price. Our dinner and all-day Sunday buffet include your lunch favorites as well as all-you-can eat crab legs, whole steamed fish, barbecue spare ribs, crispy jumbo shrimp and grilled steaks. Take-out buffet and menu available.

11121 Rodney Parham 501-716-2700

Super King Buffet

4000 Springhill Plaza Ct. North Little Rock (Just past Wal-Mart on McCain) 501-945-4802 Sun-Thurs 11am to 9:30pm Fri & Sat 11am to 10:30pm

Wine Bar

Crush Wine Bar 115 E. Markham In the River Market 501-374-9463 Tue-Sat P.M.

Homemade Comfort Food Daily Specials • Monday: Spicy Shrimp Stir-fry. Tuesday: Pot Roast.

Wednesday: Meatloaf. Thursday: BBQ Plate or Shepherd’s Pie. Friday & Saturday: Fried Catfish.

Satellite Cafe

Satellite Cafe - Heights techno-pop coffee shop that serves up the best coffee and breakfast in town, along with great lunch options (dine in or to go). And dinner is served every night except Sunday. Half-off happy hour spot - 4 until 6:30. Remember the drive thru window, just call in and pick up!! BLD - Mon-Sat. B Sunday

Ump’s Pub & Grill

Whether the Travs are at home or on the road, come enjoy the unique Dickey-Stephens Park Atmosphere at Ump’s, an upscale sports pub and restaurant, featuring sandwiches, salads, steaks, seafood, good times and more! Now open 7 days a week for lunch, and open all day sat. and sun during Football season. Closed on Tues & Wed nights since baseball season has ended.

Capers Restaurant

Indulge in the culinary creations and intimate environment that define Capers Restaurant. Food and wine enthusiasts agree Capers’ sophisticated approach to dining is key to it’s many accolades including receiving the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence for six years running.

Copper Grill & Grocery

An endless array of delicious dishes available in the Grill or grab your Gourmet-to-Go from the Grocery. Offering products by French Farm, Bella Cucina & Bittersweet Herb that promise to turn any recipe into a memorable masterpiece Copper Grill & Grocery is a wonderland for the gourmand.

West End Smokehouse and Tavern

Happy Hour Mon-Fri 3pm-6pm. $1 off All Drinks and 1/2 Off Appetizers. Monday is Steak Night USDA Choice Aged 14oz Ribeye with 2 sides $13.99. Tuesday is Burger Night – Ultimate Burger with Fries just $4.99. Live Music Fri & Saturday!

SO

This is a first class establishment. SO has some of the best steaks and seafood in the city, including oysters from the east and west coasts. Their menu has been updated and features a fantastic selection of cheeses like port salut, stilton, murcia and pecorino. Don’t forget to check out the extensive wine list.

Butcher Shop

Tremendous steaks, excellent service, fair prices and a comfortable atmosphere make The Butcher Shop the prime choice for your evening out. In addition to tender and juicy steaks, The Butcher Shop offers fresh fish, pork chop, 24 hour slow roasted Prime Rib, char grilled marinated chicken and fresh pasta. Ideal for private parties, business meetings, and rehearsal dinners. Rooms accommodate up to 50-60 person.

10907 N. Rodney Parham Mon-Sat 10:30am-9pm 501-228-7800

Kavanaugh and University, 501-663-6336

Dickey-Stephens Park Broadway at the bridge North Little Rock (501) 324-BALL (2255) www.travs.com

14502 Cantrell Road 501-868-7600

300 West 3rd Street 501-375-3333

215 N. Shackleford 501-224-7665 www.westendsmokehouse.net

Open daily. 11 am - close Sunday Brunch. 11 am to 2 pm 3610 Kavanaugh Blvd.

501-663-1464

Shackleford & Hermitage Rd. (501) 312-2748

steak Sonny Williams

If you have not been to Sonny Williams lately, get there immediately and check out the martini/wine bar. Now you can enjoy 35 wines by the glass, 335 selections of wine, 6 single barrel bourbons and all different kinds of Scotch from the many regions of Scotland. Of course, don’t miss out on the nightly entertainment by Jeff at the piano. Sonny’s is a River Market mainstay and perfect for intimate private parties; free valet parking! As always, Sonny Williams has the best steaks in town along with fresh seafood and game. No Skinny Steaks… Call ahead for reservations (501) 324-2999

Faded Rose

Featuring the Best Steaks in town with a New Orleans flair from a New Orleans native. Also featuring Seafood and Creole Specialties. As Rachel Ray says “This place is one of my best finds ever.” Back by popular demand…Soft Shell Crab and New Orleans Roast Beef Po-Boys.

500 President Clinton Avenue Suite 100 (In the River Market District) 501-324-2999 DINNER MON - SAT 5:00 - 11:00 pm PIANO BAR TUES - THU 7:00 - 11:00 pm FRI & SAT 7:00 - Late

400 N. Bowman 501-224-3377 1619 Rebsamen 501-663-9734 Open Sunday

Mediterranean star of india

North Shackleford Road 501-227-9900

Authentic North Indian Cuisine at its very best! Vegetable and Non-vegetable Buffet daily with Special. Saturday and Sunday Brunch. Mention this ad for a complimentary Indian Mango Drink.

brew pub

WINE BAR

Crush

Black Angus

Crush Wine Bar celebrated its one-year anniversary!

Voted Best Wine List by the Arkansas Times readers twice in their first year!! This elegant, cozy wine bar offers 130 wines by the bottle and 70 by the glass along with imported beers. Wine list changes monthly, and wine tasting events every other Monday. Jazz Saturdays. Website www. crushwinelr.com

Vino’s Pizza•Pub•Brewery 923 West 7th Street 501/375-VINO (8466)

Beer, pizza and more! Drop in to Vino’s, Little Rock’s Original Brewpub! and enjoy great New York-style pizza (whole or by-the-slice) washed down with your choice of award-winning ales or lagers brewed right on site. Or try a huge calzone, our new Muffaletta sandwich or just a salad and a slice with our homemade root beer. The deck’s always open, you don’t have to dress up and the kids are always welcome (or not).

Vino’s is open 7 days, lunch and dinner. You can call ahead for carry-out and even take a gal. growler of beer to-go. And guess what?? The bathrooms have just been re-done!

REAL ESTATE b

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i

g

h

b

o

r

h

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d

M arch 4 , 2 0 1 0

Peace, quiet abound in this beautiful rural property

Enjoy the peace and quiet of sitting on your own back porch overlooking your piece of the American dream. This beautiful ranch style home sits on 3.8 acres and has three bedrooms and two-and-one-half bathrooms. It is located at 3503 Sparks Road in Alexander and is just minutes away from Little Rock and Bryant.

Exterior amenities are spectacular. A front porch adds to the curb appeal of this wonderful home. Watch the children and young-at-heart catch fish from your own stocked pond. Or, simply sit and enjoy the acreage in such a beautiful setting.

Extra landscaping adds to the overall property and a sprinkler system helps keep the grass green.

The home is all one level and is spacious with approximately 2,121 square feet.

The open floor plan has a natural flow through all areas. The kitchen is good-sized, has a breakfast bar and opens up to the den where the wood-burning fireplace makes a great focal point to this area. A pantry, breakfast nook and separate dining

The home has an open floor plan.

The dining room is separate.

room are all off the kitchen.

All the bedrooms are large with the master suite apart from the others. The master bathroom features his-and-hers closets plus a walk-in shower and a deep bathtub.

The other two bedrooms are on the other size of the home away from the master bedroom and feature nice closet space. A laundry room is near the master suite and has access to the garage.

This home has much to offer. Lots of windows mean enjoying the nature that surrounds you. The house also has a fenced area in the backyard to keep little ones in. The property not only has an attached two-car garage, it also features an extra-large detached garage/shop.

This home is simply beautiful. It is priced at $229,900 and is listed with Joel Tvedten of River Rock Realty Company. See additional pictures by visiting www.

LiveInLittleRock.com or call Joel at 612-8083 for a private tour.

Relax on the long porch.

Fish from the stocked pond. www.arktimes.com • march 4, 2010 35

REAL ESTATE by neighborhood TO ADVERTISE, CALL TIFFANY HOLLAND AT 375-2985 Downtown

HEY, LITTLE ROCK...

300 THIRD CONDO - Competitively priced 2BR/2BA condo with French balcony, black-out shades, limestone counters and stainless appliances.

Enjoy spectacular views of the sunset. Call Eric or Cara Wilkerson for a private tour at 501-804-2633.

My goall iis to sellll 2 h M homes per week. Shouldn’t your home be one of those?

For a FREE listing appointment, call me today!

Joel Tvedten 501.612.8083

4403 STONE CREEK COVE - $285,000

Search all Listings at LiveInLittleRock.com

Publisher’s Notice All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act which

makes it illegal to advertise any preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin, or an intention, to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination. Familial status includes children under the age of 18 living with parents or legal custodians, pregnant women and people securing custody of children under 18. This newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of the law. Our readers are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised in this newspaper are available on an equal opportunity basis. To complain of discrimination call HUD toll-free 1-800-669-9077. The toll-free number for the hearing impaired is 1-800-927-9275.

LAFAYETTE SQUARE - One & two BR condos which feature open floor plans of 1,026 to 1,667 SF and are competively priced for lease and for sale. Urban upscale living has never been so accessible and affordable.

Each unit has large kitchens complete with marble counters, classic hardwood cabinetry & stainless steel appliances. Washers & dryers are included in every condo.

Building amenities include reserved gated parking, an exercise room & sauna, storage units and meeting/event space. Pricing starts at $145,900. Call Melissa Bond of the Charlotte John Company for sales inquires at 960-0665.

Buying Lake Hamilton Condos!

Built for builder’s personal home in 2007 on 3.52 acres. Great family home with extra-large den (24x28) den, separated master suite with Jacuzzi and separate glass brick shower.

Beautiful setting plus too many amenities to this one level home. Bill of Assurance allows for horses. Visit www.cbrpm. com to view additional pictures.

D. Hastings 680-5340 Directions: West on Colonel Glenn to left on Lawson, 6.2 miles to Stone Creek, turn left, first house on right.

501.664.6629

Hers, inc. presents PULASKI COUNTY Real Estate sales over $100,000 Charles Arrington, Suzanne Arrington to Willis L. Stowers, Jr., Carolyn L. Stowers, 74 Carmel Dr., $844,000.

Willis Lloyd Stowers, Jr., Bill Stowers, Carolyn Lee Stowers, Carolyn Lee Miller, Bill And Carolyn Stowers Revocable Living Trust to Charles M. Arrington, Suzanne B. Arrington, 81 El Dorado Dr., $494,000.

Sharon Miller, Ray Miller to Charles S. Gambino, Carol A. Gambino, 3 Briar Patch Ct., $435,000.

Glenn R. Holloway, Barbara K. Holloway to Jana G. Strickland, 213 Commentry Ln., $429,000.

Francis Clark Trim, Henrik Thostrup to Gary B. Kerr, Bonita Kerr, 14 Osage Cove, Maumelle, $395,000.

Charles M. Quick, Jr., Jeanne R. Quick, Charles & Jeanne Quick Revocable Trust to Jeremy M. Perrone, Elizabeth B. Perrone, Jerry M. Perrone, L2 B42, Chenal Valley, $389,000.

Charles Jordan, Gloria Jordan to Brinda Jackson, L7 B10, Woodlands Edge, $381,000.

Ar vest Bank to Richard D’Anna, Christine D’Anna, Riachrd D’Anna And Christine D’Anna Joint Revocable Trust

Declaration, L7 B1, Chardeux Court, $380,000.

Emil W. Turner, Mary A. Turner to David Wood, Gail Wood, L2 B30, Chenal Valley, $365,000.

Charles B. Dill, Laura L. Dill to Jan D. Obert, Kerri Obert, 3017 Overbrook Ct., NLR, $365,000.

Louis D. Wolters, Jr., Danna Wolters to BNT Properties Corp, DOB Enterprises Inc., L3, Independence Farms, $313,000.

Dan R. Scott, Frances A. Scott to Tammy Williams, 8 Brodie Cir., $297,000.

Kathy A. Moore to Buneva Wood, Jeff Fehlman, 13700 P l e a s a n t F o r e s t D r. , $280,000.

Beverly J. McCabe to Charles R. Porter, Elizabeth M. Porter, 2609 N. Pierce St., $256,000.

Jeremy Perrone, Jeremy Perron, Elizabeth Bosworth, Elizabeth Perrone to Kenneth Joseph Hoekman, 1717 Kasey Ct., Sherwood, $240,000.

Megan Nicole Herr to Stan C. King, 40 Kanis Creek Pl., $235,000.

Amanda B. Calhoun, Earl P. Calhoun to Angela D. Harris, Billy J. Daniel, Jr., L30 B21, Maumelle Valley Estates,

HERS, INC.

$226,000.

Thomas J. Burney to Lay Z. Dog Ranch LLC, NE SW 17-1N14W, $205,000.

Reginald L. Robinson, Lisa Patel-Robinson to Arthur W. Bunger, Jr., Somer L. Bunger, 110 Orleans Dr., Maumelle, $198,000.

Jerry E. Spratt, Kay Ericson to Brenna A. Tarver, Chad M. Tarver, L23 B8, Maumelle Club Manor, $190,000.

Keith Hurst, Dana Hurst to Adam H. Benton, Heather L. Benton, 1609 Northline Dr., NLR, $185,000.

Hometime Builders, Inc. to Kourtney C. Miller, 18 Crystalwood Dr., $182,000.

James G. Roberts to Catherine Richart, L1C, Monroe Manor PRD, $180,000.

Harry F. Rohrbacher, Mary C. Wright, Judith C. Barseth, Harry F. Rohrbacher Living Trust to Ronald Rizzardi, Marcia Rizzardi, 6608 Pontiac Dr., NLR, $180,000.

Alexandra Keith Fairbanks to Eric A. Bryant, Amanda K. Bryant, 1000 Biscayne Dr., $179,000.

Greg Heslep to Herman Washington, L148, Base Meadows Phase 2, $175,000.

Anita L. Belcher, Christopher

A. Belcher to Ashley D. Waller, Jimmy E. Waller, S/2 SE 5-4N10W, $175,000.

Rebecca S. Bailey, Mickey R. Bailey to Donald R. Kuonen, L23 B4, Overbrook, $162,000.

Betty R. Phillips to Roberta Laramee, Michael A. Laramee, 63 Zircon Dr., Maumelle, $160,000.

Lend L. McGhee, Lend McGhee to US Bank, NA, 4 Meredith Ct., $159,367.

Brooke A. Hoover, Russell E. Hoover to BAC Home Loans Servicing LP, L54 B200, Park Hill NLR, $159,120.

Elder-Montagne, LLC to Darrell G. Anthony, Debbie L. Anthony, 1205 Tuscany Cir., Maumelle, $148,000.

Teresa Lynne Compton to Matthew A. Turney, 416 Keightley Dr., $145,000.

Debra K. Brooks to Patrick Todd Devitt, Kymberly Vyctorya Devitt, L29, Austin Lakes, $145,000.

Christopher C. Bowie, Courtney C. Bowie, Bethany Pickering, Bethany R. Bowie, Timothy Pickering to Nicole S. Jastrzebski, Maciej Jastrzebski, L192, Pleasant View Phase 5, $143,000.

Christopher M. Lammers,

Request an Energy Efficient Mortgage (EEM) Add up to $7,618 in Energy Improvements Home Energy Rating Systems Pay off with Utility Savings Certified Home Energy Rating Professionals

501-353-0605 36 March 4, 2010 • ARKANSAS TIMES

Whitney Lammers, Whitney Rich to Cobie Bernard, 1419 Mesquite Dr., $141,000.

Rausch Coleman Mid Ark, LLC to Evelyn Jean Taylor, 1107 Aster Dr., NLR, $139,000.

Rosenda D. Carter to Roger Knobeloch, L33, Growing Pines, $135,000.

Charles W. Turner, Leah Turner to Michael Preston, 603 Hemphill Rd, Sherwood, $135,000.

Eutaw W. Horton, Eutaw W. Horton Revocable Trust to Leonard T. Smith, 5 Houston Dr., Sherwood, $135,000.

Ronald A. Rizzardi, Marica M. Rizzardi, Marcia M. Rizzardi to Landon Drew Dixon, Melissa Kate Dixon, Pt S/2 SE NW 23-2N-12W, $134,000.

Julie B. Hamilton, Robert F. Hamilton to Clifton W. Crabb, L63, Brookshire, $129,000.

Danny R. Cook, Sandra M. Cook, Dan And Sandra Cook Living Trust to Julie A. Fisher, Steven E. Fisher, Gayle Fisher, 3818 Lakeview Rd, NLR, $127,000.

Virgil D. Crook to Klaus Neu, L63 B724, The Cliffs HPR, $120,000.

Kerri Ferguson, Matthew K. Ferguson to Thomas Harness,

Rachel Harness, L15 B9, Bradford Place Phase 14, $120,000.

Derrick Holmes, Freddie Holmes to Connie Schenk, 9402 Maryland Cove, Sherwood, $115,000.

SBS Construction, Inc. to J. T. Mitchell, Brenda J. Mitchell, 48 Villa Vista Loop, $110,848.

Billy W. Rogers to Michael L. Clark, L26 B8, Bradford Place, $105,000.

Brave Investments, LLC to Brisas Del Norte, LLC, 820 W. 41st St., NLR, $105,000.

Sharon Denise Crawford to Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, 3820 Foster St., $103,500.

Jeanne R. Kelley, Jeanne R. Kelley Revocable Trust to Kimberley P. Lambert, 1824 N. Hughes St., Apt. 8, $103,000.

Donald H. Granade, Sr., Sandra A. Granade to Gaynell McMillon, 6006 Leabrook Ln., Sherwood, $103,000.

Greg J. Shultz, Shelley R. Shultz to BAC Home Loans Servicing LP, Ls2-7 B2, Town Of Natural Steps, L1 B3, Town Of Natural Steps, $100,244.

Deltic Timber Corp. to Mary A. Turner, Emil Turner, L25 B126, Chenal Valley, $100,000.

First Time Buyer $8,000 Energy Improvements $7,600

NO ADDITIONAL DOWN PAYMENT! TOTAL Incentives

$15,600!

Hillcrest

16 RESERVOIR HEIGHTS CONDO $129,900. 2BR/2BA, 1384 SF. Great open floorplan and stress free living. Condo fees includes pool access.

Qualifies for $8K tax credit. Seller to pay $2500 towards closing costs and 6 months condo dues w/acceptable offer. Call John, Pulaski Heights Realty, for showing at 993-5442.

DUPLEX - $175,000. Over 2700 total SF. Buy now & get $8K tax credit and have renter offset your mortgage payment. Main level is 2BR/2BA, 1500 SF. Upstairs studio rental is approx 550 SF ($515/ mo.) Also, has 700+SF walkout basement. New 30 yr roof in 2003.

Owner is licensed agent. Call John, Pulaski Heights Realty, at 9935442 for more info.

4307 N. LOOKOUT - $429,000.

Fabulous 4 or 5 BR home with 2.5 BA is like a private Hillcrest hideaway. Beautifully updated with stained and leaded glass features.

Upgraded kitchen with contemporary solid surface counters & topof-the-line stainless steel appliances. The huge multi-level deck is ideal for outside grilling, dining & entertaining. For more details, call Susan Desselle with the Charlotte John Company at 772-7100 or visit www.SusanSellingLittleRock.com

6220 SOUTHWIND - $273,900.

Spacious 3-4BR/3.5BA home with all the amenities you would expect in a newer home. Just across I-430 from Maumelle, this home sits atop the ridge overlooking the ARkansas River Valley & the downtown Skyline. This immaculate home is located in an ideal location, hidden away but only minutes from Little Rock. Easy access to the Big Dam Bridge and the River Trail. Call Susan Desselle of the Charlotte John Company for a private tour. 501-772-7100.

Conway 180 MERLOT - $203,500. 4BR/2BA new construction in west Conway with fabulous split floorplan, tall ceilings, great room with FP and beautiful kitchen cabinets. Built

by Boone Custom Homes. MLS #10239659 Linda Roster White Real Estate Company, 501-7301100 or 501-679-1103 5120 PRESTONWOOD - $225,000.

3BR/2BA amazing home with tall ceilings, sunroom, quartz countertop, large pantry & oversized master with sitting area. Fenced with double iron gate. Spotless!

Linda Roster White Real Estate, 501-730-1100 or 501-679-1103.

hip A P A R T M E N T

edited by Will shortz

211 ASH - $130,000. Investors Must SEE! HILLCREST OPPORTUNITY! Large 2BR that could have a 3rd BR or nice size office. Homes is priced low to allow the new owner to make updates. Close to UAMS Excellent purchase for a UAMS student or someone looking to rent to students. Floored attic offers LOTS of storage. Call Stacy Johnson, Pulaski Heights Realty, for a personal showing. 501-786-0024

North Little Rock

■ CROSSWORD

Hillcrest

No. 0204

Midtown

LIVING

Sound traditional? It is.

If that’s your cup of tea, then perhaps you should check into our prestige Hillcrest complex that offers one and two bedroom units from $475 to $575 per month.

References and security deposit required. No Pets.

Call 378-7660 Professionally managed by LEL Enterprises.

FURNISHED AND UNFURNISHED UNITS

WARREN HOUSE $100 Deposits*

No Deposits for Active & Retired Miltary with valid ID. Lease or Month-to-Month Option We are pet friendly!** Two On-Site Laundry Facilities • Pool • BBQ's

2000 Reservoir Road • 501-227-7316 Credit Cards Welcome Equal Housing Opportunity Check out all of our properties at www.warrenproperties.com *On Approved Credit

**Call For Details www.arktimes.com • march 4, 2010 37 ArkAnsAs Times • sepTember 4, 2008 37

Flashback n Do any of you remember the 20th Century?

I remember it a little, but the memory is fading fast. It already seems like a dream, and maybe a dream that somebody else dreamt.

Century 20 had a different texture, and different weather, and it went at a different ever-quickening pace, and it had phonies proud of their phoniness where Century 21 has imbeciles ebullient in their imbecility. It had ideologues to our soreheads. It had possum grapes and we don’t. I was an idiot, with little evidence of the sage who pontificates so self-assuredly today. You were different too. For me, anyway, Century 20 was typified by people like Ed Bethune and his father-in-law George Douthit. I don’t know why.

Just randomly — Psychoanalysis, you might recall, was big in the 20th Century, even late in the century. There’s hardly a trace of it now.

It’s regarded now with some embarrassment. Its few patients are mostly fictional Mafia dons, and its few practitioners include “expert” courtroom witnesses for criminals who otherwise have no excuse. Even its annoying nomenclature is gone. Nobody’s neurotic now. Or has

Bob L ancaster a complex. You treat psychic damage and psychic ailments with drugs now almost exclusively. If the drugs don’t work, you try some different ones, and then some more different ones, and so forth. If you don’t ever find any that work, you sweep the whole business under the rug as best you can. Or if you’ve got the money you can go on to gene therapy or gender swap. Or you can buy happiness in the form of a bunch of toadies.

The 21st century approach has its plusses and minuses. Maybe more plusses than minuses because Century 20 had lots of bad shrinks.

I remember something from the 20th century that we called forests. You can still drive along the highway and see something lurking and looming out there that’s called a forest, but it’s just an illusion. It’s just a big mural, a continuous screen probably not two inches deep, or some kind of giant YouTube trick. Those aren’t real trees and those aren’t real

C

people out there fishing in the barpit. It’s the power of suggestion courtesy of the big corps and cartels that let you see what you want to see and what they want you to see. You could shoot holes in the mural if you still had the spunk to stop the car and get out and do it, and if you went up then and peered through the hole, there’d be desolation as far as you could see. Just a great desolation, otherwise indescribable. Otherwise incomprehensible. We still see the remnants, the tatters of forest, because we can’t bear to see the other.

We ate squirrels in the 20th century.

They were made out of meat. Fried up right in an iron skillet, they did taste a lot like chicken. Century 20 squirrels were elusive critters. Got to be mighty scarce from time to time. You might squirrel-hunt all day long and never bag one, never even see one. When that happened, the upshot was often that your family went meatless the following day.

It could get fairly grim after, say, a week.

Their relative abundance — at least a dozen of them here in my yard on any given morning — is the main way you can tell that Century 21 squirrels are not the same animal. They too are some kind of mechanical trick being played on us for some hidden and probably nefarious purpose. Like these fake bones that you can get for your dog to chew on. Or plastic pink flamingoes to decorate your yard.

With the “squirrels,” if you bean one with

S

LASSIFIED LASSIFIED Employment

Good pay

866-861-2010

Field Workers - 5 temporary positions; approx 8 months; Duties: to assist with the propagation of plant material; assisting with the maintenance and upkeep of the crop. $9.09 per hour; Job to begin on 4/5/10 through 12/1/10. 3 months experience required in job offered. All work tools provided. Housing and transportation provided to workers who can not reasonably return to their permanent residence at the end of the work day; _ guaranteed of contract. Employment offered by All Season Landscaping & Nursery located in Pineville, LA. Qualified applicants may send resume to Bobby Moffett at (225) 766-0994.

Field Workers - 6 temp positions; 9 months; job to begin 4/2/10 through 1/31/11; Duties: to operate tractors in the fields during the preparations, planting and maintenance of the crop before, during and after the harvesting season. $7.25 per hour; All work tools provided. Housing and transportation provided to workers who can not reasonably return to their permanent residence at the end of the work day; _ hours guaranteed in a work day during contract. Employment offered by Boudreaux Enterprise RJB, Inc. located in Labadieville, LA. Qualified applicant may fax resumes to Jim Boudreau at 225-766-0994 and reference to job order # 347990.

JOB POSITION INTERPRETER/ASSISTANT INVESTIGATOR LITTLE ROCK

The Arkansas Federal Public Defender is accepting applications for the position of Interpreter/Assistant Investigator at the Little Rock Office. Applicants must be fluent in both English and Spanish and must be able to perform simultaneous interpreting –as well as to translate various legal and other documents from English to Spanish and vice versa. For the investigative aspect of the position, there will be intensive and extended on-the-job training. Extensive travel is required. The start date for this job is May, and salary will be based on qualifications and experience. Full federal benefits apply. Applicants must possess excellent writing skills, and the top candidate will undergo an FBI fingerprint background check. To be considered for this position, candidates must complete the job application form available at www.arfpd.com and submit it—with supporting documentation—to jenniffer.horan@fd.org or mail the requisite materials to: 1401 W. Capitol, Suite 490, Little Rock, AR 72201.

Equal Opportunity Employer.

Position Open Until Filled.

No Phone Calls Please august 13, •2009 • aRKaNsas tIMEs 38 March 4, 2010 ARKANSAS TIMES

Cosmetologist Part-time for retail/ cosmetology activities. Must love kids & good communication skills. Must be available for afternoons and weekends. Call 501-833-1000 for appt.

Adoption *Adopt* At-home mom & Loving attorney dad wil LOVE & CHERISH 1st baby forever! Expenses paid, Anthony & Lisa 1-800-816-8424

a rock as Jethro used to do in Century 20, metal springs and wheels and sprockets and Styrofoam stuffing will erupt into a pile of very Century 21 gore there where it was burying its mechanical nut. If your cat catches and eats one of these rascals, woe to your cat. Unless of course your cat is a Century 21 cat.

We had Mom and Pop stores in the 20th century. Mom was sometimes called Five and Pop was called Dime.

Most Mom and Pop or Five and Dime stores sold what Century 20 people called “sundries.” You never ordered a sundry by that name but they were called that in the collective. And often, earlier in the century, they really did cost five cents or a dime. For example the comic books at the ABC Bookstore here in Little Bit, where Mom and Pop were Mary Lee and Joe T. Gartman, who were some very likeable Century 20 people. I remember Bob McCord telling me one time in the 20th century about a state legislator having told him this, in all seriousness: “If this bill passes, it’ll mean the end of the Mom and Pop oil-well business in Arkansas.”

And I guess the bill did pass because there are no Mom and Pop oil well businesses in Century 21 Arkansas. There are no Mom and Pop businesses at all.

There’s only one store, sprawling from town to town, run by that same squirrelly, neurotic, paper-thin X bunch that hung the forest mural.

Legal Notices IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF PULASKI COUNTY, ARKANSAS CIVIL DIVISION PHILLIP HERNDON, PLAINTIFF VS. CV-2009-6902-3 SAMANTHA ANDERSON and THE TIRE SHOPPE, INC., DEFENDANTS WARNING ORDER The Defendant, Samantha Anderson, is warned to appear in this Court within 30 days from the date of the first publication of this warning order and answer the Complaint of the Plaintiff for damages caused by a motor vehicle collision that occurred on December 2, 2007, or face entry of judgment by default or be otherwise barred from asserting Defendant’ s interest. Witness my hand and seal of this Court on this 12th day of February, 2010. Pulaski County Circuit Court Clerk By: Nancy L. Sadler, Deputy Clerk Notice of Filing Application for new or restaurant wine & beer permits and to transfer the location of Private Club Permit. Notice is hereby given that the undersigned has filed with the Alcoholic Beverage Control Division of the State of Arkansas applications for new on premises wine and beer permits, and transfer of location of a private club permit from:1217 Ferguson, Benton, Saline county. to: 14710 Cantrell, Suite A, Little Rock, Pulaski county. Said application was filed on March 1, 2010. The undersigned states that she is a resident of Arkansas, of good moral character; that she has never been convicted of a felony or other crime involving moral turpitude; that no license to sell alcoholic beverages by the undersigned has ever been revoked within five (5)years last past; and, that the undersigned has never been convicted of violating the laws of this State, or any other State, relative to the sale of controlled beverages. Sherry Anthony for Thirst N’ Howl

Real Estate 2 BR home on .44 acres. 5908 Lancaster Road, 1,380 sq. ft. Great for first time home buyer. Buyer will get a 1000 dollar customized allowance towards the remodel of the home. Lets make this house a place you would love to call home! $64,900

Little Rock-2 Bd/2 Ba Home for $19,440.

Payment as low as $125/mo. Call Now 800338-0020

CALL CHALLIS AT 375-2985 TO PLACE YOUR LINE AD HERE

JOB POSITION ASSISTANT FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER LITTLE ROCK

The Arkansas Federal Public Defender is accepting applications for the position of AFPD at the Little Rock Office. Applicants must be licensed lawyers with sufficient knowledge and training to handle federal criminal cases. The start date for this position is mid-April, and the salary will be based upon qualifications and experience. Full federal benefits apply. Applicants must possess excellent writing skills, and the top candidate will undergo an FBI fingerprint background check. To be considered, candidates must complete the AFPD job application form available at www.arfpd.com and submit it – with supporting documentation – to jenniffer.horan@fd.org or mail the requisite materials to: 1401 W. Capitol, Suite 490, Little Rock, AR 72201 Equal Opportunity Employer Position Open Until Filled No Phone Calls Please

501-375-1900

In the River Market Introducing This Spring Kent’s Brand BBQ Sauce, Meat Marinades, and Special Spice Blends.

“We’re Loco For LocaL”

Be PrePared BEFORE disaster strikes!

Fire/storm damage/Burglary Home Inventory Solutions, LLC. provides a professional, reliable, third-party home and business inventory designed to maximize your claim as well as making the claim process smoother. A standard home inventory will take approximately 2-3 hours, depending on the amount of property to be documented.

Call gary griffin for your free consultation.

Office: 501-224-0556 • Cel: 501-766-1128 garybakergriffin@sbcglobal.net Home inventory solutions, llC is bonded and insured

FLIPSIDE STUDIO1 P

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www.studio-1-photo.com The Trump NeTwork offers you the opportunity to take charge of your financial independence and to promote health and wellness products that can help change your life.

The Trump Network offers unique products; multivitamins that are all natural and customized for each and every one of your clients.

Call Kay Butler, your local representative, to find out how to start your own business and start working for yourself.

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Learn to use a Mac in your home or office.

Free Border Collies These are sweet dogs, brother and sister, about 2 years old.

Kaytee Wright, 501-607-3100 or kaytee.wright@gmail.com.

• Organize your photos, music, movies and email.

• Wireless internet and backup implementation.

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• I can help you choose which Mac is exactly right for your needs and budget.

Satisfaction guaranteed. cindy@movingtomac.com www.movingtomac.com (501) 681-5855

Advertise here for $50!

CAll ChAllis to find out how. 375-2985

thanks 2010 judges Peter Siaggas, Spots Films, Atlanta Kelly Munson, Mono, Minneapolis Devon Harris, Wunderman, Seattle

2010 sponsors Big Impressions Twin City Printing Camerawork The Allison Agency Soundscapes Diamond Bear Brewery LSC Marketing

Arkansas Times Arkansas Business Conference Technologies

2010 Addy® committee Melissa Wilcoxson, Arkansas Children’s Hospital Katie Rice, EXIT Marketing Ashley Wimberley, Arkansas Press Association Grace Pepin, EXIT Marketing Matt Hewes, Arkansas Children’s Hospital Heather Collins, Arkansas Children’s Hospital Bill Brookshire, The Allison Agency Kandace Gerber, The Allison Agency

arkansasadfed.org

2010 Addy Awards ®

LITTLE ROCK

february 20th ArkAnsAs Times • mArch 4, 2010 39

My Metropolitan is rewarding!

Ope any Metropolitan checking account and receive a “My Metropolitan” Open roa roadside safety kit as our gift to you. The carrying case, marked with a reflective road-safety triangle, includes jumper cables, a tire gauge, s screwdrivers and sturdy work gloves.

And when you sign up for direct deposit with your new checking account, we’ll put $25 into your account*! Visit any nearby and n neighborly Metropolitan location today to open you checking account and receive your gift. your

* Limited-time offer. Certain restrictions apply. See bank for details. After verification of direct deposit, allow a minimum of 60 days for $25 to be deposited.

866-79METRO • metbank.com

Member FDIC

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