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NEWS + POLITICS + ENTERTAINMENT + FOOD / JUNE 12, 2014 / ARKTIMES.COM

POWER FAILURE FBI calls Jason Woodring a ‘terrorist’ for damaging Arkansas’s energy grid

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3

COMMENT

Arkansas Constitution supports equality Three things struck me about your latest issue: All of the letters were signed by real people who do not claim to be “from the internet,” the article about Rita Sklar was fun, and (last, but most important) the words of both Ernie Dumas and Judge Griffen still missed an important point in regard to the appeal of the ruling made by Judge Piazza. Those who challenge the ruling are citing the primacy of the voters to control the content of the Constitution of the State of Arkansas; those who support the decision make a valid, albeit federally oriented, argument.

I firmly believe that the Arkansas Supreme Court has a duty to rule on a state basis, which they will do despite the fact that one side has failed to raise an Arkansas defense of the ruling. Our ancient Constitution contains a marvelous answer in Article 2. This statement of rights was over a century ahead of the issues of today, and it is a well-crafted promise of total equality. Although many of its sections are applicable to the instant case, No. 2 as well as the concluding section are of the greatest importance. It should be noted that nothing in the recent amendment outlawing same-sex marriage clearly repeals any part of Article 2, nor does it purport to grant an exception. Judge Piazza has ruled correctly, but the best defense of the ruling is still in waiting.

I urge every Arkansan, regardless of their position on this one issue, to read, understand and appreciate the protections they all share under the terms of Article 2. I hope that the Arkansas Constitution will be considered in addition to the federal arguments.

Peter Dahlstrom Little Rock

Sick, tired Is it too early to be burned out by the election year? I am not impressed by the current lot of politicians, for the most part. Is there any Republican in our state who is not running against Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama? And exactly how can the attorney general or the state treasurer repeal the Affordable Care Act or defend the Second Amendment? I am really insulted by these people who must believe I can be so easily duped and influenced by such obvious hot-button items. And the Democrats should be ashamed as well! Tell me what you stand for other than the hollow statements no one could find fault with!

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ARKANSAS TIMES

No one seems to have the guts (and brains) to say, “I have a plan and ideas, some of which you may not agree with, but overall it will be good for our country and our state!” And the gumption to convince me that I should sacrifice my immediate self-interest for the good of the nation! I would do that for the right person. My friends, these are shoes that are apparently too big to fill by any of our politicians nowadays, no matter their affiliation.

It seems that no one can be elected nowadays without selling their soul to a sufficient number of special interests

in order to finance their campaign. Does not matter the party, it just changes the faces with the money. And sometimes the faces are the same.

Call me cynical. Probably guilty.

Prove me wrong. I will shake your hand and call you a statesman.

Wendell Fowler Little Rock

Swinging pendulum I am writing this letter in response to David Steadman’s letter, “War Fetish” (May 29) in which he refers to Gene

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Lyon’s article, “Trigger Warnings,” in the Arkansas Times (May 17). I am personally acquainted with both of these gentlemen, so seeing both of their works in the same edition was a pleasure. To me, the Times offers a needed liberal counterpoint to the conservative media, which is often presented as the news. I have two thoughts to share. The first is about politics being contrary to natural law. The second is the need for a newspaper that presents ideas needed in Arkansas.

There are rules that govern how all things relate in our universe. This is true of everything from atoms to apes, and maybe even to us humans. When these rules are violated, the force that governs the universe puts things right. One of the phenomena that is observed has to do with swinging pendulums. I call it the Law of Swinging Pendulums. It goes something like this: When released, a pendulum never swings farther in its second arc than it did in its first. It never swings more to the right than it did to the left. This is true unless outside force is applied. This outside force is often applied by humans.

We call this phenomena politics.

I believe that since Caveman Ogg first decided to fight Caveman Sogg, the issue of peace versus war has been the basis of the most important political decisions made. This is true today of the Christians versus the Muslims, as they try to decide whether or not to have the next crusade or jihad. It is true as my neighbor and I decide which election signs we put up in our yards. This upcoming political season will apply steadily increasing amounts of energy to our already wildly swinging pendulum. I hope this energy will be directed toward detente rather than war. If we could all step back, take a deep breath, have some deep thoughts, and put down our mental rocks and clubs, then the swinging pendulum might adjust itself.

I am grateful to David, Gene and the Times for provoking these thoughts. I appreciate the role that the Times plays in Arkansas, even if it does at times border on rabid, yellow journalism. I am glad that the news media has the right to publish our opinions. I will defend this right to the death if necessary. I recently sold all of my guns, so if it does come to the Rights against the Lefts in our next civil war, I may have to use a stone or a club to defend our First Amendment right to free speech.

Ralph Hammond Pulaski County

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5

THE WEEK THAT WAS

EYE ON ARKANSAS

Helping monopolies, not school children Many Arkansas schools don’t have sufficiently high-speed Internet. A task force of lawmakers, education officials and business leaders recently recommended that K-12 schools use the existing fiber optic network connecting Arkansas’s public universities, the Arkansas Research and Education Optical Network (ARE-ON). One problem: By law, they’re not allowed to access the network.

In 2011, the Arkansas General Assembly quietly passed a telecom-industry-sponsored piece of legislation that keeps just about everyone aside from hospitals and universities off the network. Of the 42 states with regional fiber optic networks, only Arkansas doesn’t extend service to K-12 schools. The law should be repealed.

Federal Judge Susan Webber Wright ordered the state of Arkansas to pay more than $69,000 in the lawsuit striking down the state’s ban on most abortions at 12 weeks of pregnancy. Thank Sen. Jason Rapert, the sponsor of this bill, and the Republicans in the legislature for overriding Gov. Mike Beebe’s veto. Beebe said the bill was unconstitutional, as did anyone else with any familiarity with federal court precedent, which prohibits abortion bans before a fetus is viable, a point 10 weeks or more later than this bill sets.

Bad ROI USA Today recently released its annual survey of sports revenues and spending by the nation’s colleges. The University of Arkansas ranked 14th among 230 Division I schools in 2013 with $99.7 million in revenues.

You’d think a school controlled in large measure by Walton money would be bottom-line oriented. Team rankings (i.e. don’t come near to corresponding to revenue.

Meanwhile, Evin Demirel at the Sports Seer blog notes that the gap between revenues at the UA and the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff ($7.1 million) is the largest intra-system disparity in the country.

New tech leader The Little Rock Technology Park Authority voted to hire Brent Birch, director of the web design firm FLEX360 at Arkansas Business Publishing Group and ABPG’s chief information officer, to direct the tech park. Birch built an internal startup from scratch, so he should at least be able to speak the language of business incubation. Here’s hoping he has political skills to match. He’ll need them if the path forward for the tech park resembles the train wreck that’s preceded.

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JUNE 12, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

BRIAN CHILSON

Can we bill Rapert?

STORM DAMAGE: Trees fell at the Historic Arkansas Museum last Friday after storms blew through downtown Little Rock. Damage could be seen all over downtown.

Drastic measures for LR schools

A

Democrat-Gazette article this week about progress in the Pulaski County Special School District prompts me to write further about something I’ve mentioned in passing on the Arkansas Blog.

It’s time to think about radical steps for the Little Rock School District, including the possibility of state takeover. Current governance isn’t working well and seems unlikely to get better.

A recent report from the federal court desegregation monitor said the Pulaski District, the only one of three in the county still under court supervision, is improving.

The district has managed to complete important school repairs. The test score gap between black and white students is shrinking, if still significant. The disciplinary rate for black students is improving, if still disproportionate. The district has bonded with desegregation lawyer John Walker on a proposal to pour $10 million into an academy at UALR aimed at at-risk kids.

All this from a district in fiscal distress.

How did it happen? The state took over. A dysfunctional school board was dissolved. Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell brought in Jerry Guess from Camden to be superintendent and he knows every bureaucratic and political in and out. He came from a district with desegregation experience. His heart is where the kids are. He’d have even struck a deal with the local teachers’ union, but it overplayed its hand and got left out in the cold. That’s given him even freer rein.

This brings us to Little Rock. It has a new superintendent, Dexter Suggs, who has been saying the right sorts of things. But he’s been unable to form a consensus on the school board.

The sad paradox is as obvious as skin color. Suggs, a black man, overcame a difficult youth to become a top school administrator. Where we fail in schools today, we fail black males first. But Suggs can rarely muster support from the entirety of the four-person black majority on the seven-member board.

He must cut administrative and other expenditures

to prepare for loss of deseg money.

The black majority hasn’t liked his ideas. He’s been resisted on restructuring some remedial services. He wants to serve growing west Little Rock by building a MAX middle school to pair with RobBRANTLEY maxbrantley@arktimes.com erts Elementary, but suspicion abounds in the black community.

The same for his makeover plans for some failing schools, including one in Southwest Little Rock.

The teachers union also has struggled with Suggs, though its veterans’ pay and health insurance benefits are the envy of many.

Settlement of the desegregation case has produced no public relations dividend for the district, abandoned long ago by many for private schools and now abandoned when possible by those offered the right kind of charter school option.

This is bad news. No schools can be repaired to the extent necessary, much less new ones built, without a tax increase. In a district that already has a healthy millage rate, this requires a dedicated community effort. I don’t see it today.

If Little Rock can’t work some failing schools off the state list, the district could be taken over and the school board dissolved.

Another Jerry Guess — even Dexter Suggs unbound — might produce the turnaround Pulaski has seen.

The Pulaski District soon will be shorn of Jacksonville and perhaps face future departures of Maumelle and Sherwood.

Might it be time again to talk of new district lines, with Little Rock becoming that part of Pulaski County south of the river, with the northern portion divided among Maumelle, Sherwood, North Little Rock and Jacksonville?

This is just thinking out loud. But it can’t be less productive than the current stalemate on important issues in the Little Rock School District.

OPINION

Leave a soldier behind?

Reagan didn’t do it

S

omething about the tumult over Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl ought to worry everyone who ever put on the uniform of his or her country or contemplates ever doing it. It is the notion that only exemplary soldiers deserve the thanks of their countrymen or at least sufficient gratitude that the nation should take extraordinary steps to repatriate them when they fall into the clutches of the enemy.

None of the critics of the prisoner exchange with the Haqqani network in Afghanistan — Sgt. Bergdahl for five former officials of the Taliban government who were held for a dozen years at Guantanamo Bay — will couch it in those words, but the substance of the argument is that Bergdahl did not deserve the risks the government took in bringing him home after five years in captivity.

After the first round of reaction, many of the politicians changed their rhetoric a little. Sure, they said, bring our boys home, but members of Congress should have been tipped before the American people were told about Bergdahl’s release and, besides, the

price of one subpar soldier’s freedom is a heightened threat to American security. Both notions are baloney.

ERNEST People do not DUMAS give a fig whether the sensibilities of members of Congress, Democrat or Republican, were injured by not being told in advance that it was going to happen, nor should they. The soldier’s life may or may not have been in danger if congressmen had leaked the information, as would surely have happened if more than three had been told, but it was a risk that responsible officials were right not to have taken.

We have no way to judge Bergdahl’s mettle as a soldier, how smartly he performed under the pressure of combat, his discipline, or his mental state. He walked away from his post before his capture and there were unconfirmed stories that he had done so before, that he was a weird sort of guy and that he might have become disil-

Far-right hysteria

S

o the Bonnie and Clyde of the great Bundy ranch standoff thought they could start a national uprising by murdering two cops in a Las Vegas pizza joint. After executing Officers Alyn Beck and Igor Soldo in the most cowardly way possible, would-be freedom fighters Jerad and Amanda Miller draped the officers’ bodies with a Nazi flag and the “Don’t Tread on Me” banner flown at Tea Party rallies, and left a note proclaiming a new American Revolution.

The duo then proceeded to a Walmart where they also died in the most cowardly way possible, a murder-suicide, saving the slain officers’ colleagues the unpleasant necessity of shooting them dead.

Along the way the pair encountered the proverbial “good guy with a gun,” Joseph Robert Wilcox. They killed him, too. Wilcox’s mistake was to pull his own concealed handgun without firing. It’s something combat instructors say one should never do, although it’s a decent human being’s first instinct — one good reason ordinary citizens shouldn’t carry.

You can’t learn combat shooting skills in a few hours with a retired deputy. It’s a potentially fatal mistake to try.

But I digress. Can anybody say they

didn’t see this coming? The day before the Las Vegas tragedy I’d told a friend that between now and Labor Day, I GENE expected to see a LYONS large-scale firefight between crackpot right-wing militia types and police and/or federal authorities somewhere in America — Ruby Ridge, Waco, possibly even Oklahoma City all over again.

We’d been talking about those “opencarry” geeks parading around in Fort Worth restaurants; also the self-appointed Texas posse that vowed to forcibly prevent Bowe Borgdhal’s Idaho hometown from throwing a welcome home celebration for the recently released POW. Whatever the truth behind the murky circumstances of Borgdhal’s capture by the Taliban, nobody really knows. However, Fox News and CNN succeeded in raising an electronic lynch mob. In essence, these jokers pronounced themselves willing to kill or die to prevent President Obama from getting a bump in opinion polls — the proximate cause of the sickening right-wing media freakout over Bergdhal’s release.

But back to Bonnie and Clyde. Suppos-

lusioned with the war. Imagine that. Other shoot at U.S. soldiers. comrades described him as a good soldier Reagan would have done it. who demonstrated compassion for the poor Yes, Ronald Reagan. After Iran released Afghan people he was there to protect and 66 Americans hostages it had held for 444 for the Afghan soldiers his unit was there days, Reagan secretly sold the enemy to assist. One soldier said Bergdahl chafed 2,530 missiles along with weapon parts in about restrictions on engaging the enemy. exchange for Iran’s efforts to arrange the But none of that matters, except for the release of seven Americans held by Iranian Army, which raised his rank while he was terrorists operating in Lebanon. It was a in captivity but may find reasons now to violation of the U.S. embargo. It was OK, discipline him, or decorate him.

Reagan figured, since he was smuggling Everyone who volunteers to defend his them to the enemy through Israel. Then country and fights in a strange and terrify- the administration sent the profits from ing land enters that war as one person and the missile sales to revolutionaries seeking comes out as quite a different human being, to overthrow the government of Nicaragua, even if they return whole in mind and limb. also a violation of U.S. law.

Part of the other raging controversy of the Reagan believed he was obliging an day, the scandal over veterans’ medicine, is American value, which is that you make that the VA system collapsed under the mas- deals to bring American citizens home, no sive demand for mental health treatment for matter how heedless they have been.

Which brings us to that security threat GIs back from Iraq and Afghanistan.

However brave or disciplined he was — that the five Taliban officials will leave or was not, the act of sacrifice he made to Qatar and start killing American soldiers fight for his country put Sgt. Bergdahl in his in Afghanistan. As with those Bush repatricountry’s debt. Swapping his freedom in the ated, it could happen. But while Sen. John final days of that long, long war for that of McCain said the five were the “worst of the five men who served in the Afghan govern- worst” at Guantanamo, four were ranked as ment that our fighters helped overthrow in low-risk detainees. The government had 2002 is not an unpatriotic act. Washington no evidence they had ever engaged in terwould have done it. Lincoln would have rorism. They had fought in the Mujahidone it. George W. Bush freed jihadists from deen, supported by the Reagan and Bush CONTINUED ON PAGE 12 Guantanamo and some of them returned to

edly, the Millers were asked to leave the Bundy ranch because of his criminal record.

But definitely not because the duo was any crazier than the “Mountain Men” and other armed zealots eager to fight it out with the Bureau of Land Management over Cliven Bundy’s God-given constitutional right to graze free government grass.

“I was out there but they told me and my wife to leave because I am a felon,” Miller wrote on his Facebook page. “They don’t seem to understand that they are all felons now for intimidating law enforcement with deadly weapons. We sold everything we had to buy supplies and quit our jobs to be there 24/7. How dare you ask for help and shun us dedicated patriots!”

Posing as a rancher, Miller did a TV interview sounding no crazier than Bundy.

“I feel sorry for any federal agents that want to come in here and try to push us around or anything like that,” he said. “I really don’t want violence toward them, but if they’re gonna come bring violence to us, if that’s the language they want to speak, we’ll learn it.”

Sounds like something Kevin Costner might say in a movie, right?

Miller was right about the law, though.

Pointing a gun at a federal agent is a serious felony, and you wouldn’t want to live in a country where it’s not. No doubt the BLM was right not to risk a firefight over

a couple of hundred scrawny cows. But it definitely emboldened the mob.

Of course there are also deeper longterm issues at play.

“In our recent history,” writes Paul Waldman in the Washington Post, “every election of a Democratic president is followed by a rise in conspiracy-obsessed right-wing populism. In the 1960s it was the John Birch Society; in the 1990s it was the militia movement shouting about black U.N. helicopters, and during the Obama presidency it was the Tea Party.”

It’s also clear that President Obama’s race has a lot to do with far-right hysteria. Indeed, the most striking thing about Miller’s Facebook page is its sheer banality: Benghazi, Hillary, Nancy Pelosi, the global warming conspiracy, the tyranny of Obamacare, Agenda 21, fluoridated water, gun confiscation, etc.

I get chain emails about this nonsense every day. Along with veiled, and sometimes not so veiled, threats.

To the nutball right, ordinary Democratic voters have become the main enemy.

Their apocalyptic theology requires a Satanic enemy, and it’s the majority. Some won’t rest until they get the violent confrontation they think they want. Then look for the professionals to take down the amateurs, with prejudice.

It’s the American way. www.arktimes.com

JUNE 12, 2014

7

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ARKANSAS TIMES

The line between frustration and salvation

I

t probably edged on the bounds of realism to expect much more from an essentially made-over Arkansas baseball team in 2014 than what the Razorbacks ended up giving us.

They got to the NCAA tourney after a relatively strong finish washed away some midseason doubts about postseason viability. Of course, the Hogs were one of a record-setting 10 entrants in the overall field from the SEC, and their exit from the Charlottesville Regional after four games there made them one of eight of those teams to not survive the first weekend. At least in the Razorbacks’ case, being situated as second chair behind the third overall national seed, Virginia, meant they weren’t expected to go far. The same couldn’t be said for Florida, which thoroughly embarrassed itself with a quick elimination at home, or LSU, which also saw its friendly confines turn treacherous.

Vanderbilt and Ole Miss survived the regionals and then powered through heady competition in rubber matches against Stanford and Louisiana-Lafayette, respectively, to win their Super Regionals and give the league fit representation in Omaha. But after so many traditional SEC powers were bounced early, the questions about the conference’s ego that always come about in the fall necessarily surface again.

In its charmed run of seven straight BCS titles that wound up being mere seconds short of eight in January, the SEC’s football dominance was national fodder and regional braggadocio. Those who read this column with any regularity know that the author finds this to be less superiority and more superfluity, especially if you are a Razorback fan, since two decades of membership in this fraternity has brought plenty of humiliation along with it. It’s still, for football, a league of haves and havenots, or at least one where the havelittles can’t unseat the have-lots.

The disparity isn’t as pernicious in baseball, mind you, but at the end of the season Arkansas still found itself on the outside peering longingly in. When the Hogs made a couple of sweet runs to Omaha in 2009 and 2012, they got

swallowed up by two of their own in-league rivals, with LSU battering them twice en route to a title BEAU the first time and WILCOX two-time defending champion South Carolina sending them packing three years later. The positive news was that those squads got awfully close to the heights that had eluded the bellcow football and basketball programs for so long, but there was the lingering reminder that the Hogs couldn’t reach national prominence without their own rivals getting squarely in the way.

So goes the blessing and the curse of being a bit player in a big-budget production. Courtesy of victories against Liberty and Bucknell in the regional, Dave Van Horn hit the 40-win mark as head Hog for the fifth time in six years and kept alive a perfect 12-for-12 run of reaching the national tournament in his dozen years at the helm. The program is successful and consistent, if always stalling at the cusp of something greater. That stretch has been an island of serenity in tumultuous seas for Hog fans: We find ourselves pining for spring and leery of the other seasons.

Sure, it ain’t ideal, but amid arduous and oft-controversial times for the bigger programs in recent years, it is good to have one of the athletic teams being something close to Gibraltar.

There’s cause for optimism next season, too, since first-year hitting coach Tony Vitello got some late-season results from a much-maligned offense and the Major League Draft didn’t completely fleece the roster. As always, there’s incoming talent that should offset some of the personnel losses that do occur.

The line that separates salvation and frustration is pretty thin. Arkansas baseball at least dances around it from year to year, giving the athletic department some banners to hang while Mike Anderson and Bret Bielema do what they can to restock the bare, busted shelves they inherited.

THE OBSERVER NOTES ON THE PASSING SCENE

X-X-X THE OBSERVER HAS BEEN having a run of powerful bad luck recently. I won’t get into exactly what, lest I call more down on my head along with the locusts, but trust me: It’s been a rough couple weeks. Let’s just say it variously involves a large tree, the recent Learstrength hurricane that struck Little Rock, a guy damn near getting his lip shot off, a busted foot and the heaviest tube-type color TV ever made. Let’s leave it at that.

While Yours Truly has managed to banish most other forms of superstition, hoodoo, deliverance-seeking, karmabelieving and spook-fearin’ from my life in recent years — yes, even the iron cross of organized religion, which I shed on the road awhile ago and never once checked for in the mirror — my belief in bad luck stubbornly persists, the last of my youthful fears and backwater bugaboos.

I blame my childhood. Back when The Observer was a working as a roofer in the family bidness, an age ago, luck was a religion among the hard men, guitar pickers, pool hustlers, chain smokers, ex-cons, wife beaters and low-to-no-counts that Pa used to hire up for his shingle crews. Walking under a ladder was like slapping somebody’s grandma off the porch. Fistfights broke out over the privilege of picking up a found penny and its attendant halo of golden luck. A bird pecking at the window was a reason enough to pull the drapes for days and refuse all entry except by a parole officer or the warranted police. Attempting three on a match was liable to get you shivved.

Once, with The Observer at the tiller of a ladder-hung Ford pickup that should have been put out to pasture, crushed and melted, or sunk to the bottom of the sea as an artificial reef 10 years prior, I was driving through Little Rock with two fellas — Bufkin and Bear — when a black cat darted across the street ahead of us. Quick as a snake striking, Bear licked his pinkie finger and smeared three quick Xs on the cracked windshield, just below where the rearview mirror should have been.

Bufkin, simultaneously, made a gnarled ring with his thumb and forefinger, then forcefully spat through it onto the dashboard. They then proceeded to argue, loudly, for the next hour and a half over whose bullshit was more bullshit — whose bad ju-ju repellent was sure to rain damnation down upon if allowed to stand, and whose had pinged the ominous black cat path-cross away into the summer air like a speeding bullet off Superman’s chest. I meanwhile, wondered why luck restoration apparently had so much to do with spit.

Bear is 15 years worth of dead now, by the way, killed back when The Observer was in grad school, the life smushed out of him on a twisty road in Saline County by an overturned car and a belief in his inalienable constitutional right to never wear a seatbelt. Meanwhile, Bufkin is a fireand-brimstone preacher in the ugliest corner of North Louisiana, last I heard.

I’ll leave it up to you, Dear Reader and Friend, to decide who came out on the lucky end of that deal. That said, I will tell you that a black cat ran across The Observer’s path as I drove down Maple Street a few weeks back.

Before I could stop myself, I’d whipped three quick X’s onto the windshield of Spouse’s car. A block later, for good measure, I applied Rev. Dr. Bufkin’s remedy, rolling down the window and spitting through the ring of my finger and thumb. One of them has to work, I figured. Better safe than sorry. No sense tempting ruination in matters so potentially grave. Then I laughed at myself for being such a fate-haunted bumpkin.

Given my recent run of troubles, though, I’m beginning to wonder if I canceled something out, or didn’t spit forcefully enough, or am finally paying for all those mirrors I broke as a kid, the boomerang of fortune spinning back through the cosmos to find me here on the sill of 40. In the end, I guess, I may just have to grit my teeth and make my own luck, as folks have been doing since time immemorial in these parts. Between now and then, though, The Observer calls dibs on any pennies found on the sidewalk.

Breckenridge Village 501-227-5537 Cash and Credit Card Only • all sales Final

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FATHER’S DAY

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JUNE 12, 2014

9

Arkansas Reporter

THE

IN S IDE R

David Couch, attorney for a petition effort to allow alcohol sales in Faulkner, Saline and Craighead counties and a newer campaign to end dry counties statewide, told the Arkansas Times he was certain the drives in the three counties would gather signatures necessary to qualify for the November ballot. He said the state drive was just beginning, but he was optimistic. Paid canvassers are doing the work. They’ll need 78,133 signatures of registered voters by July 7 to qualify the statewide constitutional amendment for the ballot.

The county drives require 38 percent of voters, a good grassroots demonstration of voter strength.

(Note: Though the county and state drives share some participants and are using the same canvassing company, they are separate enterprises and ethics filing to date haven’t yet revealed contribution sources.)

This progress comes despite an effort funded at least in part by alcohol interests in neighboring wet counties to beat the petition drive. The Faulkner County Quorum Court adopted a hurry-up resolution against the effort on June 5. And, though an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article quoted a JP as saying the resolution was not about discouraging petition signing, a backer of the effort who was at the meeting said other JPs said that was precisely the goal. Of course it was, because it dovetails with an expensive mail campaign to discourage people from signing petitions, available at local Walmarts, among other places. Walmart money is a likely supporter of the campaign, as it was in Benton County.

Opposition researchers have dug deeper into the campaign money Sen. Jason Rapert has received from entities related to the opposing wet forces in nearby Conway County. Rapert has been among the noisiest opponents of alcohol sales in Faulkner County, along with some of his putatively religious legislative brethren. His lamest excuse to date is claiming that it diverts attention from tornado cleanup in the northern part of the county.

Lobbyist Bruce Hawkins, who represents Conway County alcohol sellers and who has an employee who is an officer of the committee fighting the Faulkner wet proposal, is responsible for $4,000 in Rapert’s campaign treasury, from his lobbying firm and PAC. The Hawkins PAC received $32,500 in 2012 and 2013 from Conway County beverage dealers and the Distilled Spirits Council. The research CONTINUED ON PAGE 11 10

JUNE 12, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

BRIAN CHILSON

Follow the money

WATERFORD APARTMENTS: Complaint alleges discrimination against Latinos.

‘Discrimination with a smile’ Fair housing group testing rental bias in Little Rock.

BY DAVID KOON

T

ry to imagine going into an apartment complex rental office and getting the nagging suspicion that you’re being discriminated against by the person behind the desk. Short of that person telling you flat out that they don’t like the color of your skin, your disability, your sexual orientation, the fact that you have children, or the cut of your jib, how hard would it be to prove that you’d been subject to willful bias instead of the victim of just another clerk having a bad day?

A private organization is at work in Central Arkansas doing housing discrimination testing to try and prove what would normally seem like the unprovable: patterns of ongoing rental discrimination that can be so subtle that most renters might miss them. They’ve already made complaints against two apartment owners — one on an allegation of discrimination against Latinos, another for allegedly discriminating against the deaf or hard of hearing — and say there are more in the works.

Morgan Williams is with the National Fair Housing Alliance, a private nonprofit that does housing and mortgagelending discrimination testing all over the country. Williams said that the NFHA

decided to do discrimination testing in Little Rock because it’s one of the major metropolitan areas in the U.S. that has no full-service private fair housing organization. The investigation in Little Rock is being funded by a three-year private enforcement initiative grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The grant, funded February 2012 through January 2015, allows the NFHA to do housing and bank-lending bias investigations in Greater Little Rock, Charleston, S.C., and three other cities across the United States.

Williams said that at the start of the process, NFHA reached out to Central Arkansas nonprofits, faith-based groups and educational institutions to confer with them about alleged housing and banking discrimination in the Little Rock area. They also recruited testers from those groups.

The discussions led to the development of a series of ongoing investigations in the Little Rock area, as well as attempts to identify apartment complexes that may violate the disabled-access requirements of the Fair Housing Act. “Generally speaking, our investigations in Little Rock have identified national origin, disability, familial status and sex-

based discrimination that appears to violate the Fair Housing Act,” Williams said. “We are also aware of anecdotal evidence about racial discrimination.”

Other NFHA investigations of alleged discrimination on the basis of national origin, disability, and race are ongoing in the area, Williams said.

To date, NFHA has filed two complaints with HUD and the Arkansas Fair Housing Commission against apartment complex owners in Little Rock and North Little Rock. The first, filed in October 2013, alleges discrimination against Latinos by the Waterford Apartments on Green Mountain Drive in Little Rock. The second, filed in January of this year, alleges discrimination on the basis of testers being deaf or hard-of-hearing at Lakewood Hills Apartment Homes on McCain Boulevard in North Little Rock. Both of those investigations were conducted by phone, with the NFHA having testers call in over the course of several months to try and receive a rental application or to inquire about specials or apartment availability.

“In the case of the Waterford,” Williams said, “it was a pattern in which the Latino tester was not getting a returned phone call or not getting an application. If you’re a renter in Little Rock, and you’re Latino, you don’t know. You don’t know if that’s just bad service, or if it’s an instance of discrimination. What the testing bears out is that time and time again, the Latino didn’t get the application, and the white [tester] got the application immediately after calling.”

In the case at Lakewood Hills, the NFHA complaint alleges, deaf testers who called in with the help of a device that converts typed words into speech were quoted higher rental rates than hearing testers for the same apartments, with rental agents allegedly neglecting to tell deaf testers about specials that had been offered to hearing testers. Williams said that such treatment sets up a situation where a person without a disability is able to get housing at a lower price.

“The differential treatment that we uncover is pretty subtle,” Williams said.

“It’s often described as ‘revolving door’ discrimination, or ‘discrimination with a smile.’ Testers aren’t really aware of how they were treated differently. They don’t know if they experience discrimination, because they may have received some CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

LISTEN UP

BIG PICTURE

INCONSEQUENTIAL NEWS QUIZ: FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO PARTY EDITION PLAY AT HOME.

1. In May, the interim CEO of a hospital in Fort Smith was taken out of consideration to be the hospital’s permanent CEO following a Q&A session with staffers in which he gave a rather troubling answer to the question of why he moved to Fort Smith from the much larger Laredo, Texas. What was his answer?

A) “It didn’t work out between me and Lindsay Lohan.”

B) “Those pinkos in Texas wouldn’t let me concealedcarry my hand grenades.”

C) “Have you ever been to Laredo, Texas? It’s 97 percent Hispanic.”

D) “I got warrants.”

2. Many of those who attended a show by headliner CeeLo Green during Riverfest were disappointed by the performance. What was the problem?

A) Instead of singing his hit song “F**k You,” Green gave a long Powerpoint presentation on strategies for getting over a bad breakup.

B) Green only sang for about 40 minutes of what was supposed to be a 90-minute show, sending out another singer and a DJ to perform as part of “The CeeLo Experience.”

C) He unzipped his CeeLo suit mid-performance and revealed that he’s actually been Kenny Loggins all along.

D) Ignored repeated drunk-guy requests for “Freebird.”

3. Police responding to a burglary call near Pocahontas found a suspect doing something they didn’t expect inside the house. What did the officers say he was he doing?

A) Furiously scrubbing the baseboards, muttering “Unclean! Unclean!”

B) Finishing up cornrow braiding the hair of the family’s large sheepdog.

C) Making a spinach quiche while following along with a show on The Food Network.

D) He was buck naked, with a glass pipe and methamphetamine nearby.

4. A Fort Smith police officer was arrested at his home just over the border in Oklahoma in late May on charges of child endangerment. What do police accuse him of doing?

A) Got drunk, fired off shots inside his house and pointed a handgun at a 5-year-old boy’s head.

B) Repeatedly sang “Surrey With the Fringe on Top” while on a family road trip.

C) Forced his children to live in Oklahoma.

D) Bought a trampoline.

5. Which of the following is apparently a real quote by the wife of the officer in item No. 4, as provided to a local TV station?

A) “We live in Oklahoma, man. Drinking, shooting guns in the house and threatening small children pretty much runs the gamut of our entertainment options.”

B) “Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.”

C) “The only thing that was done wrong was leaning your hands outside of the window to shoot off a gun.

We should have actually stepped outside. That’s it’s.”

D) “That 5-year-old can be a real dick when he’s drunk.”

6. Several police departments all over the state, including the Benton Police Department, the Little Rock Police Department and the Hot Springs Police Department, recently took possession of something they say will assist them in policing. What did they all get?

A) Machine-gun-toting war elephants being given away by the government of Thailand.

B) A six-wheeled, 57,000-plus-pound truck with enough armor plating to drive away from a direct hit by a shoulder-fired missile.

C) In-car corndog fryers.

D) A genetically identical clone of Chuck Norris, created from one of his chest hairs.

7. Republican Asa Hutchinson, who is running for Arkansas Governor, recently made a boo-boo that quickly spread through the online blogosphere.

What did he do?

A) Hutchinson — who supports voter-ID laws that require a driver’s license or other government-issued ID to cast a ballot — forgot his driver’s license when he went to vote, and had to send a staffer across town to retrieve it.

B) Let it slip out that he is actually an animatronic latex dummy controlled by a joystick and microphone in an office shared by the Koch brothers.

C) Shocked the crowd during an appearance at Lepanto’s Second Baptist Church by suggesting dinosaur fossils might actually be something other than a clever ruse by Satan.

D) Was overheard saying the Second Amendment to the Constitution would have been, like, NINTH if he’d wrote the damn thing, right after The Right to Party.

Answers: C, B, D, A, C, B, A

THE

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

Available on iTunes & arktimes.com

INSIDER, CONT. shows Hawkins’ employee benefits service company gave Rapert $4,000 in 2012 and 2013 and the Hawkins Insurance Agency gave another $4,000. It identified another $1,150 in small contributions from alcoholic beverage wholesalers and retailers. In all, they found more than $13,000 in Rapert contributions that smell of alcohol.

The committee fighting the Faulkner wet proposal has not yet disclosed any financial numbers on its sources and spending.

No need to step foot on campus The University of Arkansas has announced it will offer an all-online, startto-finish bachelor’s degree in business administration starting in the fall.

You can do it from Humnoke, Haiti or Hawaii or anywhere else.

UA now has 29 degree, licensure and certificate programs that are delivered completely or primarily online. A university release touts the latest as a way for “working professionals, entrepreneurs and students who have family, work and other responsibilities that prevent them from studying on campus to complete a degree from Walton College — a nationally ranked, internationally accredited college of business.”

Questions: Can you still qualify for student seats at football games? Do they have enough sidewalks on campus if online offerings at UA eventually match those at the University of Phoenix? Could you do the degree online from a dorm room if you wanted the campus experience but no inperson lectures?

The worst Think Progress has an extensive report on some of the worst — though not all — flaws in Arkansas’s new Voter ID law, which it calls the worst in the U.S. The flawed procedure on ID for absentee voters, one of the few in the country and the most stringent, is a chief stumbling block, along with difficulties for older people to obtain alternative ID. It led to a high disqualification rate in the recent primary.

Unmentioned is the haphazard application of the law and the illegal use of the law at the polls to challenge voters based on addresses and birthdates on photo IDs, which isn’t supposed to be allowed.

Even a Republican election commissioner who’s been among the noisiest advocates of Voter ID, Stu Soffer, concedes the law needs corrections. Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, the bullying sponsor of the law, declined requests for interviews. www.arktimes.com

JUNE 12, 2014

11

‘DISCRIMINATION WITH A SMILE’, CONT.

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“Discrimination is very hard to prove,” Johnson said. “Discrimination is not as [rental] information, or enough that they blatant as it used to be. A lot of times, you think they have a fair shot at that housing might have a landlord who’d say: ‘I’m opportunity.” just not going to rent to [people with] The Lakewood Hills case was referred children, or ‘I’m not going to rent to African to HUD as part of an investigation that Americans, or I’m not going to do this or identified alleged discrimination against that. Now, you don’t see that as much. ... So the deaf and hard of hearing renters in when we’re looking at whether someone six states. The allegations of Latino rental meant to discriminate, what we look at discrimination are being investigated by is not whether they’re racist. We look at the Arkansas Fair Housing Commission. whether they meant to do whatever it is Carol Johnson, director of the they did. There’s a fine line there.”

AFHC, said that the investigation into Daniel Oberste is executive vice the complaint against the Waterford president of investments and general Apartments is in its final stages and should counsel with BSR Trust, the owner be completed “within the next week or so.” of Bailey Properties, which owns the While Johnson said she can’t talk about on Waterford Apartments. Oberste referred ongoing investigation, she said that the all specific questions about the complaint complaint alleges “linguistic profiling,” in to the attorney for BSR Trust, who didn’t which testers who speak with an accent return a call at press time. or who have Latino surnames are given Oberste said employees at Waterford different treatment. and other properties owned by Bailey Speaking generally, Johnson said that Properties undergo training on fair housing rental agencies that are found to have issues when they are hired, and then do engaged in discriminatory behavior can be annual training on the issue as well. He subject to a number of penalties, including said it was frustrating to have the complex having to pay compensatory damages, and singled out as discriminatory. punitive damages if the complainant takes “When you read the [NFHA] press the case to court. Fines levied can be up release, it’s more than an indictment,” to $11,000 per instance for a first offense, he said. “It’s kind of like ‘National Fair $27,500 for a second offense, and $55,000 Housing Alliance Catches Bailey Properties for any further offenses. The AFHC refers Being Discriminatory.’ ... They’re doing a complaints to the Arkansas Attorney great job investigating, but they kind of General’s Office if the allegations are found start from a ‘guilty until proven innocent’ mentality.” to be valid.

Asked if the complaint will change the Johnson said that with the influx of Latinos into Arkansas over the past few way Bailey Properties trains its employees, years, they’ve seen an increase in the Obserste said that if the Arkansas Fair number of complaints filed by Latinos Housing Commission investigation into alleging housing discrimination, but not the complaint identifies a problem, the as many as she would expect. She said that firm will work to fix it. “Our company one issue is that the Latino population is has been around for several decades, and historically reluctant to file complaints we’ve tended to pride ourselves on our with state or government agencies. If not continuous training and how we keep up for the NFHA investigation using Latino with best practices in the industry,” he said. testers, she said, the agency would have “I don’t think it’s ‘if we’re in violation.’ I likely never gotten a case like that. think it’s ‘if we aren’t meeting or exceeding Last year, Johnson said, the AFHC expectations, beyond just complying received over 360 housing discrimination with the law.’ If we aren’t beating our complaints, and closed around 200 cases. competitors as far as compliance or doing Most of the complaints, Johnson said, were the right thing all the time, then yeah, we eventually dismissed because the evidence want to train and get our people the best information.” wasn’t strong enough.

DUMAS, CONT. Continued from page 7 administrations, and became officials in the government that came to power after the overthrow of the communists and Russia’s retreat.

Come December, when the United States ends its combat mission in Afghanistan, the United States would be obliged by the Geneva Conventions to free them, 12

JUNE 12, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

unless we decided to ignore international law. It is legal to imprison people who pose a battlefield threat, but when the war ends they cannot be detained legally unless they are charged with a crime. The government hasn’t had evidence to charge them and, except for one, barely more than a suspicion.

But, really, this is not about Sgt. Bergdahl or terrorists. Like Benghazi, it’s about Barack Obama.

2014 Got an opinion? It’s time to choose the Best of Arkansas.

Cast your votes on this ballot or vote online at www.arktimes.com/bestofarkansas2014. We’ll announce the winners in July.

We’ll award a randomly selected winner $250.

To be included in the drawing, you must complete at least half of the poll and provide your email address.

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JUNE 12, 2014

13

WE SHOULD HAVE

EXPECTED HIM

THE STORY OF JASON WOODRING, THE ARKANSAS POWER GRID VANDAL.

BY WILL STEPHENSON

“During daytime a great clap of lightning / Ill omen from the bearer of tidings” — NOSTRADAMUS, “THE PROPHECIES”

T

he lights went out in Cabot one morning last August, and the only person who knew why was a 37-year-old self-employed pool guy named Jason Zebulin Woodring.

Heavyset, bald and bearded, Woodring lived with his mother in nearby Jacksonville, in a house that one person who knew him described as a “maze” and a “hoarder’s junkyard.” He’d long been fascinated by engineering, but had recently taken a special interest in the mechanics of electricity, and for the better part of a month had been making the trek to a particularly impressive high-voltage transmission tower by a wooded stretch of railroad track outside the Cabot city limits. For a number of reasons, most of which he would keep to himself, it had become apparent to him that the tower would have to come down. The only trouble was how he’d do it.

The enormous metal structure was secured to its concrete base by 125 thick steel bolts, which he began removing, a few per visit, until there were only five left. He then strung a steel cable from 25 feet up the tower to the top of a

14

JUNE 12, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

STILL SMILING: Woodring’s 2013 mugshot.

tree on the other side of the tracks, a tree he scaled by nailing slabs of wood into the trunk to make a ladder. With some blue plastic hose, the type he used at his day job, he insulated the cable so that it wouldn’t trigger the track’s defect

detector as he pulled it over the tracks, but this didn’t do the trick. The cable wasn’t strong enough; it was snapped by the first passing train.

This is how Woodring found himself climbing to the peak of the transmission tower, 100 feet in the air, in the early morning hours of Aug. 21.

With a hacksaw, he sawed away at the connectors holding up one of the power lines until he severed them, and the line, still live and carrying 500,000 volts of electricity, fell draped over the track. He dropped the saw, climbed down, got back in his truck and drove home. It was the day before his birthday.

That same morning, a Union Pacific freight train struck the downed power line and burst through it, causing immediate outages in the area and damage that investigators would later estimate at over $100,000. The FBI, speculating that whoever caused the attack must “possess above-average knowledge or skill in electrical matters,” offered a $20,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest. But no information was forthcoming. As far as Woodring was concerned, he’d failed: The tower didn’t fall.



CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

BRIAN CHILSON

A

few years earlier, Gerald Mabrey was driving down Jacksonville’s John Shelton Road, coming home from work, when he came across a pile of garbage in the street blocking his way: a box-spring, a ripped mattress, several other odds and ends. It was directly in front of a house that he recognized immediately as belonging to his neighbors, the Woodrings. He was hesitant to do anything that might provoke them. There were the gunshots and loud music at all hours of the night, the ominous black plastic tarp that circled their property and the huge, inexplicable circus tent in the back yard, visible from the street and somehow unnerving to most who noticed it. Mabrey had heard strange stories.

The junk was too vast to get around, so he got out and started dragging things off the road. Right away he heard cursing coming from the darkened house, and an angry voice rang out: “Quit throwing that stuff in my ditch.” He got back in his car and drove the rest of way home. Frustrated by the unfairness of the situation, though, he decided to go back and confront his neighbor, and so climbed up on their porch and knocked on the door. As soon as it opened, he launched into his prepared speech, saying that he shouldn’t have to deal with this kind of thing in the middle of the road. Jason Woodring stood back, surprised and pale, and withdrew quietly into the clutter of the house.

Other altercations would follow. Mabrey’s girlfriend’s daughter was visiting one afternoon when she ran into the house and announced that there was a man shouting at her from the trees. He went outside and, sure enough, Woodring had climbed a tree on his property and was yelling something incoherent at them through a megaphone.

This time Mabrey decided to call the police.

When they arrived, the officers seemed, if anything, unsurprised. They warned Mabrey against confronting his neighbor, and admitted it wasn’t the first time they’d been called about him. They told him of the steadily escalating rivalry between Woodring and some of the local kids: They’d been painting insulting comments about him on the street in front of his house, and in response, most recently, he’d thrown a glass of urine at them. He’d also set up a new sign in his yard that read, “If I catch you speeding up and down this street I will stab you in the face with a soldering iron.”

Mabrey decided at this point that he’d be better off letting it go, leaving his neighbor be.

TRAIN DREAMS: Woodring first attempted to pull down this tower using a freight train.

www.arktimes.com

JUNE 12, 2014

15

He was unsettled, but he also felt something else, something like sympathy. “I’m sure he drew first blood,” he said, “but people can be driven over the cliff if they’re already close to it. And there is two sides to every story. For all I know he could have been a Vietnam veteran or something of that nature.”

Jason Woodring isn’t a Vietnam veteran. He was born in 1976, a year after the war ended, in Fallbrook, Calif., a city not much bigger than Jacksonville and situated near the lower tip of the state, in that region sometimes called the Inland Empire. His father, Ed, worked construction, and his mother, Jeanne, worked mostly for debt collection agencies. One relative described him as a “happy little clumsy kid.”

able about things. “If he set his mind on something, he would go and try to figure out as much as he could about it.” He played lead guitar and sang in a band, and fell in with a group that bonded over a shared love for heavy metal. Also, crystal meth.

Woodring had been into drugs since high school, and rural Arkansas presented new opportunities in this realm.

“He could be a lot of fun,” his friend remembered. “He just didn’t know when to stop.” One night, when he was living and working as the pool maintenance man at Eastwood Apartments in Jacksonville, he decided to throw a party in the complex’s pool. He invited all of his friends, and bought fireworks for the occasion. They got stoned and the fireworks got progressively more ambi-

Scott, one of those fenced-in compounds that holds transformers, reactors and other devices used to regulate power flow. He’d scouted the substation for several days before he acted, parking his truck nearby, waiting and making sure it was the right spot for his purposes.

When he’d made up his mind, he used bolt cutters to break through the fence and to cut two padlocks at the door to the control house. He’d brought along a gallon jug of E85 ethanol gas and motor oil, and when he was inside he splashed the mixture all over the control panel and the floor. By now, he would have known that the alarms had already been activated and that the power company, Entergy, had received a series of intruder alerts. He would have had to move quickly.

“He’s arrogant. I remember he’d get wasted and tell us he was God. Everybody called him Fat Bastard.”

The trouble started when he left home after graduation and enrolled in a local tech school.

He couldn’t hold down a job and became briefly homeless, living out of his van. His friends mention “drama with his girlfriend,” and the Riverside County, Calif., Sheriff’s Department cites an outstanding warrant for vandalism and criminal trespassing. He dropped out of school before finishing his second year, and when his mother decided to follow his older brother to Arkansas in the mid’90s, it didn’t take much to convince Jason to join them. It would be a fresh start.

One person who knew Woodring in these years remembers him as “talented” and “book smart.”

He liked to read, to research and be knowledge-

tious. He set off the grand finale by the back door of an elderly disabled woman who lived in the building. Frightened, she fell and broke her arm.

“He’s arrogant,” his friend said. “I remember he’d get wasted and tell us he was God. Everybody called him Fat Bastard.”

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he second attack came a little over a month after the incident with the train. Woodring knew the FBI was involved at this point, but this didn’t concern him. At around 4:30 a.m. Sep. 29, he broke into an Extremely High Voltage switching station off U.S. Highway 165 outside

When the local sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene, the station was in flames and Woodring was gone. The control house was, as the FBI would later report, “consumed” by the fire, and damages this time exceeded $2 million.

The deputies also found a message Woodring left behind, scrawled on a metal panel near the entry gate in black marker. He wrote it with his left hand, to disguise his handwriting. It seemed to combine a slogan for Anonymous, the mysterious network of Internet activists, with an oblique reference to the federal government, a kind of paranoid double entendre.

It said: “YOU SHOULD HAVE EXPECTED U.S.”

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oodring’s life in Arkansas hadn’t worked out the way he had hoped. His brother got a divorce, joined the military and was stationed in Germany. His father, who had separated from his mother years before, moved to Missouri, where he lived off disability from a bad back. Pool maintenance was OK in the warmer months, but for much of the year he was forced to find work elsewhere. In the winter, he worked at grocery stores and video rental shops and gas stations earning minimum wage. He moved in with his mother.

One bright spot came in 2007, when his girlfriend had a child, a son they named Jason. His mother often took care of the boy, but noticed right away that something was off. The boy didn’t look like him. In fact, though his name was on the birth certificate and he volunteered to act as the boy’s father, Woodring wasn’t, according to someone close to the family. That September, at barely a month old, the child died in its sleep. The cause of death was Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. “I know he always wanted a kid,” one friend said.

“He wanted to be a dad.”

Woodring’s drug use got worse. He’d spend as much as $500 a week on meth, which he’d started taking intravenously. The friend describes him as becoming “vindictive” and “very unpredictable.”

There are stories, the friend said, about him cutting the brake lines on someone’s truck, chasing after someone else with a cattle prod, throwing rocks and sticks at an acquaintance’s windows in the middle of the night after a bar fight. There were DWIs. By 2009, he was in court for credit card debt, and soon after that he was sued for writing a bad check.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18 UP IN SMOKE: Woodring broke into a substation in Keo and set it on fire.

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17

Meanwhile, Woodring kept up on his reading.

He read the Bible. He was always surrounded by books on engineering, and had become increasingly fixated on various conspiracy theories, on “subliminal messages coming from the TV” and other plots. “He was really stuck on the whole Nostradamus thing,” his friend said, referring to the 16th century French seer who supposedly predicted all manner of contemporary worldhistorical events in his “Prophecies.”

His fits of rage soon started flaring up even with strangers. He was arrested in 2010 for taking a shovel to someone’s truck in the parking lot of a Walmart in North Little Rock. The truck’s owner claimed not to know him, that it was “very bizarre.” Early last year, a woman filed a restraining order against him after he kicked in the fender of her car at a Lowe’s because he didn’t like her parking job. The day before he was supposed to show up in court for the arraignment, she woke up to find someone had poured green paint all over the car. According to the prosecuting attorney in the case, Hugh Finkelstein, they found no direct evidence linking Woodring to the paint.

“Just coincidence,” Finkelstein said, laughing.

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week after the fire at the substation, Woodring struck again. The FBI reward had been raised to $25,000, and Woodring’s court dates for the criminal mischief cases were stacking up and fast approaching. There was a certain route he took sometimes while walking his dog in the miles of fields around Billy Lane and Phillips Road behind his house. He must have looked up one day, out on one of these walks, and noticed the power lines.

He borrowed a chain saw and tried cutting through one of power polls, right there in his own neighborhood. He cut the guy wires and splintered the pole, but it didn’t fall. He went home and got an axe. He would have been sweating, his pupils likely dilated from the meth and the effort. He walked to a second pole nearby and swung the axe as hard as he could against it over and over, to force it down. He tried a splitting wedge, too, bashing it into the pole to break it apart, but it still wouldn’t fall.

Across the street from his house, the power company had left a tree-trimming vehicle called a Kershaw SkyTrim, a kind of tractor with large treaded wheels and a long boom with a rotating saw at the end that could be extended high into the air. It was perfect, so Woodring stole it. He drove it off-road, back into the fields, and used it to finish the job, dragging down one of the poles

and immediately thrusting 10,000 local customers of First Electric Cooperative into the dark.

A few days later, at around noon on Oct. 11, someone reported an explosion in the neighborhood. Sheriff’s deputies responded to the call and found blue hose lying by the road, the type used by a pool maintenance man.

That afternoon, Gerald Mabrey was coming home from work again on John Shelton and noticed a line of cars along the street stretching for about a hundred yards. There were police cars and South Bend Fire Department trucks and a black, unmarked van with a crime lab in the back. The block was swarmed by men in bulletproof FBI vests. “They told me he’d done it,” Mabrey said, “and I said, ‘OK, it don’t surprise me none.’ ” Inside the house, Lt. James Kulesa of the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office made his way through the mess and found Woodring’s room.

There was a sawed-off shotgun under the bed and a plastic wrapper filled with white powder on a shelf nearby. He kept looking and found a glass jar filled with “reddish powder,” one with “dark liquid” and a tube attached to the lid, countless boxes of matches, a plastic funnel and a bottle of iodine. Outside, they found acid, a grinder, a jar filled with more white powder and various bottles of chemicals. There were two rifles and two more

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JUNE 12, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

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‘SITTING THERE DAY AFTER DAY’: Woodring’s red truck, right where he left it.

shotguns. There was a boat behind the house that had been reported stolen months before.

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oodring was charged with five felonies in Lonoke County and indicted on eight counts by a federal grand jury. Appearing in federal court in November, he wore a dark blue shirt and shackles. According to the Arkansas DemocratGazette, U.S. Magistrate Judge Joe Volpe asked him a number of questions, beginning with his name, but Woodring stayed silent.

“I’m not really sure what to do here,” Volpe said. He moved on to another defendant, and then came back to Woodring, who once again refused to answer any questions. “Is this an issue of defiance, or has Mr. Woodring got a mental problem?” he asked, and then, “Is there some reason you’re not speaking?” Woodring shook his head and said, “I have the right to remain silent, do I not?”

Among the federal charges Woodring faces, domestic terrorism is the most serious. He appears in this context, as a terrorist, in the FBI’s new budget request for 2015. “Woodring claimed he committed the acts alone,” the document reports, “and stated his motivation was anger with the direction of the country and a belief his actions

would garner attention and get people talking.”

(The FBI declined to comment for this story.)

He is set to stand trial Oct. 14, and if convicted on the terrorism charge, he’ll face life in prison.

For now, Woodring is in Little Rock, in the custody of federal marshals at the Pulaski County Jail.

Mental evaluations were ordered at both the state and federal level, though the state psychologist began his report by noting that Woodring refused to speak during his interview. A federal psychologist was more successful. The evaluation, which was held in Los Angeles earlier this year, concluded that he doesn’t suffer from a mental disorder, that he’s fit to understand his charges, stand trial and defend himself, but it’s a strange, bleak document.

Woodring and the examiner talked about his childhood, about the time he cut a boy’s hair off with scissors and threatened to throw him out of a window. The report claims that as a child, Woodring “kind of” tortured animals. That with his friends, he would throw mud balls at passing cars, urinate in Laundromat dryers and put “ ‘nasty things’ such as pee, dog feces, vomit, in people’s cars who had their windows open.” They would “bow hunt and corner animals to do ‘bad things’ to them.”

They discussed his relationship history. “In his longest relationship of 4 years,” the examiner

writes, “his girlfriend had four abortions against his will.” They discussed his son. “He reported that he had a relationship with a ‘drug addict’ who killed his 5-week-old son in September 2007 because she was taking medications while breastfeeding the child.”

The evaluator also interviewed Woodring’s mother, who “spoke at length on [Jason’s] beliefs about the government and the current state of the world, including his lack of interpersonal interactions and intense focus on technology.” Jeanne Woodring told them that the first time she visited him in jail, his eyes were clear. “He smiled,” she said, and “looked alive for the first time.” She said it was “like having my son back.”

Gerald Mabrey still drives by the Woodrings’ house every day. “I see his red truck sitting in his driveway right where he left it,” he said, “and I can’t help but feel compassion for the man knowing he’s in an 8-by-10 cell somewhere. It’s sad to see his truck still sitting there day after day after day, and knowing he probably won’t ever get out of prison. In spite of it all, he’s one of God’s children.”

Woodring’s friends just wonder what else he could have done with his life, had he devoted his energy elsewhere. “He could have been in a popular band,” one said. “He could have been an engineer.”

www.arktimes.com

JUNE 12, 2014

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Arts Entertainment AND

DAVE JAUSS’ LAST LESSON A creative writing icon steps down.

BY CAITLIN LOVE

BRIAN CHILSON

A

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JUNE 12, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

fter 34 years of teaching at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the English department’s creative writing professor Dr. Dave Jauss is retiring. He’s devotedly guided generations of students (myself included) through fiction and poetry workshops, teaching them the tools that make a good story.

It’s a perfect space, Jauss believes, to teach writing. Stories incubate on two fronts: first, at a classroom level, where students share ideas and experiences, and classmates’ feelings boil together.

But stories also cook with years, so that the longer one’s lived, the more advantages she has when writing fiction, which, Jauss says, is ultimately about the effects of time on people. UALR, then, is a great place for fiction writing students, whose classmates range across all demographics, including age. In the single fiction class I took with Jauss were several mothers in their mid-30s, coming back to school so they could one day teach classes of their own; students in their mid-to late-20s there to finish the degrees they began as teenagers, and a retired copywriter from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette named Bill.

Most books on the craft of fiction say, “write what you know,” but in his introductory speech to the class, Jauss — who always sat behind a particle-board table, wearing either a short- or longsleeved buttoned-up shirt and blinking at his students behind silver-rimmed glasses and a short white beard — argued for another guiding principle: Once you’ve discovered the things you know, you have the power to write into the things you don’t. People who have a little more life experience understand this better than students who are young and steady on the traditional four-year route, Jauss thinks. Writing beyond ourselves is how writers discover things about themselves they didn’t already know; this, he says, is how they discover their secret selves.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

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

A&E NEWS AFTER NINE YEARS IN BUSINESS, Argenta’s Starving Artist Cafe has closed. It had struggled through months of poor business. Co-owner Paula Morrell said she was unable to find a “buyer or investor” and decided it was “time to move on.” The restaurant sold off its iconic yellow chairs last week for $25 each. More from their Facebook page: “Since we’ve had so many people ask, we closed because we simply didn’t have enough business. This is a very fickle business with a very slim profit margin, and just a few slow months can be irreversible.

We tried to stick it out, but with business steadily declining over the past year, it all came to a head last week and we had to make the very difficult decision to close (the state had served us notice that they would be closing us this week). It is a very emotional time, as closing affects not only our family but also all of our employees and artists.”

With the restaurant’s closing, “Tales from the South,” the weekly internationally syndicated and NPR-affiliated storytelling series, has gone mobile, issuing a call for any venues interested in hosting the event. On Tuesday, June 17, the show will be at Mugs Cafe in Argenta, and on the following Tuesday, June 24, it will be at Stickyz in the River Market district. Doors will open and dinner will be served at 5 p.m., there will be live music at 6 p.m. and the show will start at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10. Any other venues interested in hosting the event should contact Paula Martin Morell at talesfromthesouth@ gmail.com.

THE HARVEST MUSIC FESTIVAL, hosted by bluegrass icons Yonder Mountain String Band, has announced its lineup for its 2014 event, to be held at Mulberry Mountain near Ozark Oct. 16-18. In addition to performances by the hosts (with a special guest, the Grammy-winning producer and lap steel player Jerry Douglas), the festival will feature Trampled By Turtles, Railroad Earth, The Jayhawks, Carolina Chocolate Drops and a lot of others (check the complete list at their site), including local favorites like Swampbird and Shawn James and The Shapeshifters. Three-day passes are $121, and are available online.

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THE TO-DO

LIST

BY DAVID KOON, LINDSEY MILLAR, DAVID RAMSEY AND WILL STEPHENSON

THURSDAY 6/12

ARKANSAS SHAKESPEARE THEATRE Various Venues.

This month sees the return of the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre’s summer festival, which will run through June 29 at venues in Conway and Little Rock.

Catch outdoor performances of Shakespeare’s supposed first play “The Two Gentleman of Verona” at The Village at Hendrix on June 13 and 15 (donations and lawn chairs encouraged), or at the Argenta branch of the Laman Library June 19, 21 and 22. “Hamlet” will come to UCA’s Reynolds Performance hall on

June 20 (tickets $28) and “The Comedy of Errors,” a production aimed at younger audiences, will be at Reynolds beginning June 24 ($10). This year, the company will also be presenting “Pippin,” which has nothing to do with Shakespeare but which was just recently revived on Broadway and won four Tony Awards

in the process. The musical, with lyrics by Stephen Schwartz (and originally directed by Broadway-auteur Bob Fosse, who left his stamp on the production), will be staged at Reynolds Performance Hall at 7:30 p.m. June 11, 12, 14, 25 and 26, and at 2 p.m. June 13, 15, 22, 25 and 27 (tickets $28). WS

THURSDAY 6/12SUNDAY 6/15

EUREKA SPRINGS BLUES WEEKEND

Various Venues. $75.

AGE OLD HUNGER: Chris Denny will be at Juanita’s 9 p.m. Thursday, $5.

THURSDAY 6/12

CHRIS DENNY

$5. Juanita’s. 9 p.m.

More than 10 years ago, I was at a house party in town. Someone was playing an old record I wasn’t familiar with. For just a moment I thought it was Bessie Smith, but no, the sound was too crisp. I just couldn’t place it one way or the other — man or woman, black or white. I wandered outside toward what I thought were the speakers and it wasn’t a record at all: There was Chris Denny, probably no more than 20 years old at the time, sitting in a lawn chair, playing guitar and wailing out songs. Who 22

JUNE 12, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

was this? It’s too obvious to say the kid sounded like he was from another time.

Hell, he sounded like he was from another planet. Denny, a North Little Rock native, gets compared to all sorts of things: Roy Orbison most commonly; Bob Dylan is also sort of a fit; plus gospel, blues, old-time country, soul. But the thing about Chris Denny is that he sounds like nothing so much as Chris Denny, a one-of-a-kind. His voice is a singular instrument — a cinematic warble that veers between sorrow and joy, between Sunday morning and Saturday night. All that preternatural talent had

plenty of folks in Arkansas convinced he was bound for big things, but in 2007, after “Age Old Hunger,” Denny’s career — and life — went off course, overwhelmed by his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction.

So it was welcome news indeed to hear that Denny is back: Clean and sober now, he’ll make his comeback performance in Arkansas this Thursday at Juanita’s and his new album “If the Roses Don’t Kill Us” will be out from Partisan Records in August.

I’ve been listening to a review copy and am happy to report that I recognized that unmistakable voice right away. DR

Eureka Springs, the perennial outpost for Ozark bohemia (along with ghost hunters, New Age crystal connoisseurs, wealthy folk artists, metal sculptors, UFO spotters, et al.), has assembled a suitably impressive lineup for its Blues Weekend, with icons and road legends from Kansas City, New Orleans and Memphis playing with hometown favorites. You can spend the day in Basin Park watching harmonica-playing Brandon Santini, the Doghouse Daddies, Brick Fields and Danny Cox, or catch blues guitarist Fast Johnny Ricker at the Barefoot Ballroom.

You can purchase individual tickets for the headlining shows at The Auditorium for $25. Friday night’s set features Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band, and Saturday night will be Little Rock favorite Lucious Spiller, Brick Fields and The Chosen Ones, Moreland and Arbuckle, and Carolyn Wonderland. There will also be a Father’s Day Blues Picnic at Turpentine Creek, 1 p.m., featuring food and drinks, arts and crafts, kite flying and music by The Stacy Mitchhart Band. Pets are welcome, too, as long they are “wellbehaved.” WS

IN BRIEF

THURSDAY 6/12

FRIDAY 6/13

SATURDAY 6/14

DAVID SEDARIS

GINSU WIVES, VISION CONTROL

7 p.m. Barnes and Noble.

David Sedaris’ books “Me Talk Pretty Once Day,” “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim” and “When You Are Engulfed in Flames” have solidified his reputation as one of the latest in a long line of American essayists, stretching back to Twain and beyond, who sift the pain and absurdity of daily life for comedy gold. On Friday, June 13 Sedaris will bring his smart and quirky brand of humor to the west Little Rock outlet of Barnes and Noble Booksellers, which serves as a stop on the nationwide tour supporting his book of essays “Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls.” The event kicks off at 7 p.m. and will likely run long, as a note on the B&N website says that the doors will be locked after 11 p.m., exit only after that. Seating will be available first-come first-served with no reservations, and no photos or audio recording will be allowed. If you want to get a book signed by

9:30 p.m. White Water Tavern.

AUTOFICTION: David Sedaris will be reading at Barnes and Noble 7 p.m. Friday.

Sedaris at the event, the website says, you’ll have to buy it at a Barnes and Noble store or at their online website, barnesandnoble.com, and you’ll have to produce an original sales receipt on command to prove you bought it there. A little heavy-handed 9what about my prized, heavily annotated copy of “Barrel Fever” that kept me laughing through the hard times?), but if you want Sedaris’ John Hancock that bad, you’ll likely fork out for a new book if need be. DK

FRIDAY 6/13

THE LIBRAS PLAY THE BEATLES 9:30 p.m. White Water Tavern. $5.

The Libras, a rotating cast of long-tenured local musicians that usually includes Isaac Alexander, Greg Spradlin and Jason Weinheimer, is our favorite cover band in town.

They have good taste. They’re always loose like a wedding band at the end of the night.

And even when they’re screwing around and

deep into their cups, they still sound good. On Friday, they’re taking on The Beatles, with a little help from their friends: Amy Garland Angel, Indy Grotto, Kevin Kerby, Danny Johnson, John McAteer and John Willis will all take turns singing with the band. The night’s a benefit for the Pulaski Heights Elementary Garden, a noble effort to teach kids how to grow their own. LM

SATURDAY 6/14

WALTER ‘WOLFMAN’ WASHINGTON 8:30 p.m. Stickyz. $10

New Orleans native Walter “Wolfman” Washington dropped out of high school to play in the house band at the Dew Drop Inn, a club near his small apartment. “It wasn’t but a room,” he said once in an interview with Gambit, “but I had my own room.” He sang in a church choir with Ernie K-Doe, toured with Lee Dorsey and Irma Thomas, and soon started bands of

his own, like Solar System and The Roadmasters. There have been solo albums, too, many of them with titles playing off his nickname: “Wolf Tracks” (1986), “Wolf at the Door” (1991), “On the Prowl” (2000). A good place to start is “It’s Rainin’ In My Life,” a song you can find on YouTube. He celebrated his 70th birthday late last year, but is still a Frenchmen Street club fixture, a workhorse guitarist and an icon in the blues community. WS

Ginsu Wives will give you nightmares; their synth-punk, techno-clash sound is over-stimulated and over-stimulating. They sound a like a freak-folk band playing Suicide covers, and the effect goes beyond frightening into refreshing, and then back to frightening.

Former !!! drummer and “Towncraft”-era Little Rock punk veteran John Pugh is the man behind Vision Control, a project he’s been pursuing under enigmatic circumstances since the demise of his band Free Blood last year. I say “enigmatic” because their website doesn’t feature any of their music, just YouTube videos, like clips from “All That Jazz,” a lecture by Werner Erhard and a tutorial on how to escape from handcuffs (it also links to an empty SoundCloud page). Pugh, a guy who deserves the city’s trust at this point, describes the sound as “minimalist R&B protopunk … where Terry Riley meets Bo Diddley,” which demands respect. WS

MONDAY 6/16

ARKANSAS JAZZ HALL OF FAME CEREMONY

$20. Afterthought. 8 p.m.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame (maintained by the nonprofit Arkansas Jazz Heritage Foundation), which has inducted 42 musicians since its found-

ing. Whether or not you’ve heard of the organization or know about any of these people, its importance is more or less undeniable: If these guys weren’t preserving the state’s jazz history, who would? This year’s honorees include Martha Burks, Carwin Pleasant, Tom Richeson, Dave Rogers, Joe Vick and,

posthumously, Richard Boone, Fred Marshall and Robert Trezvant. The venue is especially appropriate since, as the Foundation notes, the Afterthought is “the only Little Rock venue which has presented live jazz continuously — at least once a week — since the 1970s.” WS

Stickyz will host Nightrain, a tribute to Guns N’ Roses, at 8:30 p.m., $10. Nashville’s Whoa Dakota will be at White Water Tavern with Little Rock garage punk group Bombay Harambee (who will be at Maxine’s in Hot Springs the following night), 9 p.m. Little Rock favorite John Willis (along with his newly renamed backing band The Misses) will play at The Joint with Kevin Kerby, 9:30 p.m., $5. Pine Bluff R&B and gospel artist Rod Clemmons will be at the Robinson Center Music Hall at 8 p.m., $43.

FRIDAY 6/13 Austin alt-country stalwart Alejandro Escovedo will be at Stickyz with BettySoo at 9 p.m., $17 adv., $20 day of. Marilyn Burns, the local metal group named for the lead actress in “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” will be at Vino’s at 8:30 p.m. with Crankbait and Descended From Wolves, $6. Spinrad will be at the Afterthought at 9 p.m., $5, and Christian pop group For King and Country will play at Magic Springs’ Timberwood Amphitheater at 8 p.m., $49.99-$54.99 or free with a season pass.

SATURDAY 6/14 The First Security Amphitheater will host Yoga on the River at 8 a.m., free. The Main Library will host a Science Fiction Writing Workshop at 10 a.m. Author (and radio host) Stephen Koch will read from his new biography, “Louis Jordan: Son of Arkansas, Father of R&B,” at Nightbird Books in Fayetteville at 6:30 p.m. Contemporary Christian rock band Casting Crowns will play at Magic Springs’ Timberwood Amphitheater at 8 p.m., $49.99-$54.99, and local sludge metal group Sea Hag will be at Vino’s with Snakedriver, Criminal Slang and Terminal Nation, 8:30 p.m., $7. B Flats will be at the Afterthought at 9 p.m., $7, and Opportunist, Becoming Elephants and Mulehead will play a tornado relief benefit show at Maxine’s in Hot Springs (donations are encouraged).

WEDNESDAY 6/18 Guitarists Mike Carenbauer and Bill Huntington will play at South on Main at 7:30 p.m. as part of the restaurant’s Local Live series, free.

The Robinson Center Music Hall will host the first night of Sesame Street Live, “Can’t Stop Singing,” with two performances, at 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., $24-$38.30. Comedian Tony Tone will kick off a weekend stand at the Loony Bin (through Saturday night) with a performance at 7:30 p.m., $7. Catch a free screening of “Office Space” at Riverfront Park as part of Movies in the Park, 8:30 p.m. www.arktimes.com

JUNE 12, 2014

23

AFTER DARK Marilyn Burns, Crankbait, Descended From Wolves. Vino’s, 8:30 p.m., $6. 923 W. 7th St. 501375-8466. www.vinosbrewpub.com.

Mulehead, King Eddie, Rough Stax. The Lightbulb Club, 9 p.m., $5. 21 N. Block Ave., Fayetteville. 479-444-6100.

Spinrad. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 9 p.m., $5.

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

Splendid Chaos. West End Smokehouse and Tavern, June 13-14, $5. 215 N. Shackleford. 501224-7665. www.westendsmokehouse.net.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 9 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-374-7474. www.capitalhotel.com/CBG. Zodiac: Gemini Edition. Revolution, 8 p.m., $5-$10. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-8230090. revroom.com.

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

THURSDAY, JUNE 12

MUSIC

Chris Denny. Juanita’s, 9 p.m., $5. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.juanitas.com.

Delta Brass Express. Laman Library, 7 p.m. 2801 Orange St., NLR. 501-758-1720. www.lamanlibrary.org.

Eureka Springs Blues Weekend. Featuring Chubby Carrier, Carolyn Wonderland, Walter “Wolfman” Washington, Danny Cox and others. Downtown Eureka Springs, $75. Downtown Eureka Springs, Eureka Springs.

Foxtrot Uniform. Maxine’s, Free. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. www.maxinespub.com.

Hot Springs Music Festival Season XIX. Downtown Hot Springs, through June 14, $150.

“Inferno.” DJs play pop, electro, house and more, plus drink specials and $1 cover before 11 p.m.

Sway, 9 p.m. 412 Louisiana. 501-907-2582.

Irish Traditional Music Sessions. Dugan’s Pub, 7-9 p.m. 401 E. 3rd St. 501-244-0542. www. duganspublr.com.

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

John Willis and The Misses, Kevin Kerby. The Joint, 9:30 p.m. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

Krush Thursdays with DJ Kavaleer. Club Climax, free before 11 p.m. 824 W. Capitol. 501-554-3437.

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 Clinton Ave. 501-372-4782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

Michael Eubanks. Newk’s Express Cafe, 6:30 p.m. 4317 Warden Road, NLR. 501-753-8559. newks.com.

Nightrain, The Guns N’ Roses Tribute. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 8:30 p.m., $8 adv., $10 day of. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www.stickyz.com.

Open jam with The Port Arthur Band. Parrot Beach Cafe, 9 p.m. 9611 MacArthur Drive, NLR. 771-2994.

Aleksandr Snytkin and Tatiana Roitman.

Argenta Community Theater, 7 p.m., $15. 405 Main St., NLR. 501-353-1443. argentacommunitytheater.org.

RockUsaurus. Senor Tequila, 7-9 p.m. 10300 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-224-5505. www. senor-tequila.com.

Rod Clemmons. Robinson Center Music Hall, 8 p.m. Markham and Broadway. www.littlerockmeetings.com/conv-centers/robinson.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 7:30 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-374-7474. www.capitalhotel.com/CBG. Tragikly White (headliner), Mayday by Midnight (happy hour). Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 and 9 p.m.

2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf.com.

Whoa Dakota, Bombay Harambee. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www. whitewatertavern.com.

COMEDY

John Roy. The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m., 10 p.m., $7-$10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 50124

JUNE 12, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

YOU KNOW BETTER: Bombay Harambee will be at White Water Tavern with Whoa Dakota 9 p.m. Thursday.

228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

DANCE

Art of Motion: Tango. Arkansas Arts Center, 7-9 p.m., $10 for nonmembers. 501 E. 9th St. 501372-4000. www.arkarts.com.

EVENTS

Cotton Loops and Looms. Plantation Agriculture Museum, 10 a.m., $2. 4815 Hwy. 161 S., Scott.

961-1409. www.arkansasstateparks.com/plantationagriculturemuseum.

Geocaching. Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center, 8:30 a.m. 602 President Clinton Ave. 501-907-0636. www.centralarkansasnaturecenter.com.

CLASSES

Savvy Dining and Social Business Skills. Taught

by Brenda Winston. Pulaski Technical College, 1 p.m., $69. 3000 W. Scenic Drive, NLR. https://lifelong.pulaskitech.edu/modules/shop/index.html.

KIDS

Wiggle Worms: Elephant Toothpaste. Museum of Discovery, 3:30 p.m. 500 Clinton Ave. 396-7050, 1-800-880-6475. www.amod.org.

FRIDAY, JUNE 13

MUSIC

Alejandro Escovedo, BettySoo. Stickyz Rock

‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9 p.m., $17 adv., $20 day of. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www. stickyz.com.

Bombay Harambee. Maxine’s. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. www.maxinespub.com.

Chichi Valdez and the Mister Sisters. Triniti Nightclub, 11 p.m. 1021 Jessie Road. www.trinitilr.com.

Club Nights at 1620 Savoy. Dance night, with DJs, drink specials and bar menu. 1620 Savoy, 10 p.m. 1620 Market St. 501-221-1620. www.1620savoy.com.

Eureka Springs Blues Weekend. See June 12.

For King and Country. Magic Springs’ Timberwood Amphitheater, 8 p.m., $49.99$54.99, free with season pass. 1701 E. Grand Ave., Hot Springs.

Hot Springs Music Festival Season XIX. Downtown Hot Springs, through June 14, $150.

Katmandu (headliner), Big Stack Acoustic (happy hour). Cajun’s Wharf, 5 and 9 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf.com.

The Libras play The Beatles. The Libras, featuring special guests Amy Garland Angel, Indy Grotto, John McAteer, Danny Johnson, Kevin Kerby and John Willis, play Beatles songs to raise money for the Pulaski Heights Elementary School Garden.

White Water Tavern, 9:30 p.m., $5. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com.

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 Clinton Ave. 501-372-4782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

COMEDY

John Roy. The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m., 10 p.m., $7-$10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

“Just Shut Up and Drive.” Original comedy by The Main Thing. The Joint, through June 28: 8 p.m., $20. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-3720205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

DANCE

Ballroom Dancing. Free lessons begin at 7 p.m.

Bess Chisum Stephens Community Center, 8-11 p.m., $7-$13. 12th & Cleveland streets. 501-2217568. www.blsdance.org.

“Salsa Night.” Begins with a one-hour salsa lesson. Juanita’s, 9 p.m., $8. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.littlerocksalsa.com.

EVENTS

Geocaching. Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center, 8:30 a.m. 602 President Clinton Ave. 501-907-0636. www.centralarkansasnaturecenter.com.

LGBTQ/SGL weekly meeting. Diverse Youth for Social Change is a group for LGBTQ/SGL and straight ally youth and young adults age 14 to 23. For more information, call 244-9690 or search “DYSC” on Facebook. LGBTQ/SGL Youth and Young Adult Group, 6:30 p.m. 800 Scott St. Main Street Food Truck Fridays. Capitol and Main, 11 a.m.

A Sharecropper’s Heritage Garden. Plantation Agriculture Museum, 10 a.m. 4815 Hwy. 161 S., Scott. 961-1409. www.arkansasstateparks.com/ plantationagriculturemuseum.

BOOKS

David Sedaris. Barnes & Noble, 7 p.m. 11500 Financial Center Parkway. 501-954-7646. www. barnesandnoble.com.

SATURDAY, JUNE 14

MUSIC

B Flats. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 9 p.m., $7.

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

Casting Crowns. Magic Springs’ Timberwood Amphitheater, 8 p.m., $49.99-$54.99, free with season pass. 1701 E. Grand Ave., Hot Springs.

Club Nights at 1620 Savoy. See June 13.

Doctor Nod, Pagiins, Resin Hands. The Lightbulb Club, 9 p.m., $5. 21 N. Block Ave., Fayetteville. 479-444-6100.

Eureka Springs Blues Weekend. See June 12.

Ginsu Wives, Vision Control, Jumbo Jet. White

PARTY AT OUR PLACE!

DANCE

Little Rock West Coast Dance Club. Dance lessons. Singles welcome. Ernie Biggs, 7 p.m., $2. 307 Clinton Ave. 501-247-5240. www. arstreetswing.com.

EVENTS

40th Annual Little Rock Farmers’ Market. River Market Pavilions, 7 a.m. 400 President Clinton Ave. 375-2552. www.rivermarket.info.

Argenta Farmers Market. Argenta Farmers Market, 7 a.m. 6th and Main St., NLR. 501-8317881. www.argentaartsdistrict.org/argenta-farmers-market.

Arkansas Statehood Celebration. MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, 10 a.m. 503 E. 9th St. 376-4602. www.arkmilitaryheritage.com.

Dutch Oven Demonstration. Plantation Agriculture Museum, 10 a.m., $5. 4815 Hwy. 161 S., Scott. 961-1409. www.arkansasstateparks.

KIDS

Wiggle Worms: Elephant Toothpaste. Museum of Discovery, 10 a.m. 500 Clinton Ave. 396-7050, 1-800-880-6475. www.amod.org.

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CLASSES

Lego Class! Elementary and Film Production.

Pulaski Technical College, 1 p.m., $65. 3000 W. Scenic Drive, NLR. 501-907-6670. lifelong. pulaskitech.edu/modules/shop/index.html?a ction=courseBrowse&CatalogID=1.

Yoga on the River. First Security Amphitheater, 8 a.m., Free. 400 President Clinton Ave.

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MUSIC

Eureka Springs Blues Weekend. See June 12.

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

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

501-982-1939 .

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 Clinton Ave. 501-372-4782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

Successful Sunday. The Italian Kitchen at Lulav, 8 p.m., $5-$10. 220 A W. 6th St. 501-374-5100. www.lulaveatery.com.

W.C. Jameson. Faulkner County Library, 2 p.m.

1900 Tyler St., Conway. 501-327-7482. www.fcl. org.

The Whigs, Buxton. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 8 p.m., $8. 107 Commerce St. 501-3727707. www.stickyz.com.

EVENTS

Bernice Garden Farmer’s Market. Bernice Garden, 10 a.m. 1401 S. Main St. www.thebernicegarden.org.

Father’s Day Fishing. Wildwood Park for the CONTINUED ON PAGE 28

Publication: Arkansas Times

John Roy. The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m., $7-$10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www. loonybincomedy.com.

“Just Shut Up and Drive.” Original comedy by The Main Thing. The Joint, through June 28: 8 p.m., $20. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-3720205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

BOOKS

Science Fiction Writing Workshop. Main Library, 10 a.m. 100 S. Rock St. www.cals.lib.ar.us.

Stephen Koch. The author will read from his new biography, “Louis Jordan: Son of Arkansas, Father of R&B.” Nightbird Books, 6:30 p.m. 205 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-443-2080. www. nightbirdbooks.com.

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COMEDY

com/plantationagriculturemuseum.

Falun Gong meditation. Allsopp Park, 9 a.m., free. Cantrell and Cedar Hill roads.

Fayetteville Pride. Wilson Park, 11 a.m. 675 N. Park Ave., Fayetteville. 479-444-3471.

Geocaching. Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center, 8:30 a.m. 602 President Clinton Ave. 501-907-0636. www.centralarkansasnaturecenter.com.

Hillcrest Farmers Market. Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, 7 a.m.-2 p.m. 2200 Kavanaugh Blvd.

Historic Neighborhoods Tour. Bike tour of historic neighborhoods includes bike, guide, helmets and maps. Bobby’s Bike Hike, 9 a.m., $8-$28. 400 President Clinton Ave. 501-613-7001.

Miss Gay Newcomer 2014. Triniti Nightclub, 9 p.m. 1021 Jessie Road. www.trinitilr.com.

Pork & Bourbon Tour. Bike tour includes bicycle, guide, helmets and maps. Bobby’s Bike Hike, 11:30 a.m., $35-$45. 400 President Clinton Ave. 501-613-7001.

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Water Tavern, 9:30 p.m. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-3758400. www.whitewatertavern.com.

Hot Springs Music Festival Season XIX. Downtown Hot Springs, $150.

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

Karaoke. Casa Mexicana, 7 p.m. 6929 JFK Blvd., NLR. 501-835-7876.

Karaoke with Kevin & Cara. All ages, on the restaurant side. Revolution, 9 p.m.-12:45 a.m., free. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. revroom.com.

K.I.S.S. Saturdays. Featuring DJ Silky Slim. Dress code enforced. Sway, 10 p.m. 412 Louisiana.

501-492-9802.

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 Clinton Ave. 501-372-4782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

Moonshine Mafia (headliner), Bert and Heather (happy hour). Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 and 9 p.m.

2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf.com.

Opportunist, Becoming Elephants, Mulehead.

Tornado Relief Show. Maxine’s, donations. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. www.maxinespub. com.

Pickin’ Porch. Bring your instrument. All ages welcome. Faulkner County Library, 9:30 a.m. 1900 Tyler St., Conway. 501-327-7482. www.fcl.org.

Sea Hag, Snakedriver, Criminal Slang, Terminal Nation. Vino’s, 8:30 p.m., $7. 923 W. 7th St. 501375-8466. www.vinosbrewpub.com.

Singer/Songwriters Showcase. Parrot Beach Cafe, 2-7 p.m., free. 9611 MacArthur Drive, NLR. 771-2994.

Splendid Chaos. West End Smokehouse and Tavern, $5. 215 N. Shackleford. 501-224-7665. www.westendsmokehouse.net.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 9 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-374-7474. www.capitalhotel.com/CBG. Walter “Wolfman” Washington. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 8:30 p.m., $10. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www.stickyz.com.

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JUNE 12, 2014

25

DAVID JAUSS’ LAST LESSON, CONT. Continued from page 20

 Jauss’ ideas about writing come with well-earned authority. He has won two Pushcart Prizes and an O. Henry Prize, and has been anthologized in “Best American Short Stories.” He’s been granted a fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts, three fellowships from the Arkansas Arts Council and is a recipient of the Porter Fund Award for Literary Excellence. He taught the poets Lynda Hull and David Wojahn, and studied under Stephen Dunn, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2000. Dunn would ask him to read and comment on his work when they were at Southwest Minnesota State together, and they still often exchange their writing. Jauss’ collection of criticism, “On Writing Fiction,” is taught in more than a dozen creative writing programs all over the country.

When he first started working at UALR in 1980 after graduating from the University of Iowa (then and now the most prestigious creative writing program in the country), Jauss became the editor of the influential American literary magazine Crazyhorse. His professors at Southwest Minnesota State, Dunn and Philip Dacey, had been editing the magazine when he was an undergraduate, but it had jumped around since then and, though well respected, had become bankrupt and homeless by 1981. The editors reached out to Jauss, who raised enough funds with the help of Little Rock lawyer and writer Sandy McMath to pay off the magazine’s latest debts and relocate the journal to Little Rock. Crazyhorse couldn’t afford to pay its editors, and so on top of the four classes he taught every semester, Jauss read over 1,000 short story submissions every year for the next two decades without extra pay. The magazine published Bobbie Ann Mason, Andre Dubus and Dan Chaon within the 20 years he worked on it.

In 2005, Jauss also began mentoring Damien Echols. Early that year, he received an email from a friend telling him that there was “a pretty good writer on death row there in Arkansas.” He’d believed the West Memphis Three — Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, convicted in the killings of three boys in West Memphis — were innocent since the first nodes of doubt began to surface in the ’90s, but never thought he could do anything to help. When he found out Echols was a 26

JUNE 12, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

writer, though, he immediately made plans to see him. As time passed, Echols requested to see Jauss more often, and for the next seven years he served as Echols’ writing advisor. He transcribed his writing and made only slight corrections to the growing book manuscript that eventually became “Life After Death.” He’s been like family to Echols and his wife, Lorri Davis, ever since they met that first year through the plexiglass at the Varner Supermax Unit.

 Traditionally, faculty members in creative writing workshops are called only by their first names. There is a certain degree of emotional risk in turning in a piece of creative work, and I think the purpose of this convention is to establish familiarity and trust between the student and the teacher. Jauss tried for years, when he first started teaching in the South, to get his students to call him by his preferred name, Dave.

or a fantasy element, in which a “figure in a hooded cloak” would randomly appear, revealing only his trim white beard and silver spectacles before dissolving away into the night. The figure was obviously Jauss, but no one ever mentioned this aloud.

I think the intensity of his following has at least a little bit to do with Jauss’ personality in the classroom: He lies back in his chair, surveying the class with a coolness that borders on the sarcastic (but not judgmental — he is everything but that). Fiction workshops are brutal, and criticism from your peers isn’t easy to take. Jauss’ jokes puncture the harshness like a balloon, and he always gives the author something positive to take back. He’s kind, and quick, and his comments ring out sharper than those from the harshest critics. In my fiction class last semester, one student showed his appreciation for this wit by throwing his whole body back in his chair every time Jauss cracked a joke.

“This dude,” he’d say, while jabbing at

“My house is kind of like a library. I look at rows and rows of books as just being extra insulation. They’re like friends: I don’t want to lose them. And I’ve found over the years — I’ve given lots of books away — and I find that almost inevitably after I give a book away I find a need for it.”

Mr. Jauss is his father; “David” is the compromise between “Dave” and “Mr. Jauss.” The way he talks about it, all of these different names seem to represent different personalities. He no longer invites his classes to call him “Dave,” and it feels weird for me to even imagine calling him anything but “Dr. Jauss,” though this may not be the person he’d intended to be.

In the years since he started teaching, Jauss has unintentionally developed a kind of cult personality that’s won him a band of devoted followers of varying writing talents and sanities. In his early years at UALR, a senior citizen named India Swepston started taking his classes every semester and didn’t stop for the next 28 years. She published quite a bit of her work before she passed away a few years ago. A friend of mine, who graduated two years before I did, remembers a young man from her fiction classes whose mystery-adventure stories always involved magic-realism

Jauss with his finger, “gets me every time.” He did this a few times every class.

Jauss has also helped a number of his acolytes move on to some of the most prestigious creative writing programs in the country. At least two students a year have left Arkansas to pursue their dreams as writers, including the poet Hull (who currently has him beat in Pushcart Prizes — she stacked up four of them before she died in 1994.) Some years, as many as six graduates from the department at UALR have been accepted to creative writing programs around the country. This is a high volume for such a small department, particularly one with no more than two or three creative writing faculty members typically on staff at any given time, and much of this is due to the care that Jauss takes with his students’ work. He has a way of narrowing in on the psychology of a story that’s uncanny, even haunting, as his former student and current UALR creative writing Professor Nick-

ole Brown told me. She pointed out what I couldn’t articulate when looking at the careful comments he’d left on the stories I gave him over the course of the semester: He assesses a story’s form and structure and seems to be able to track an author’s inner program of creativity.

He gets inside the story but also inside the mind of the writer. It’s addictive to be his student — having someone trace your process for you, read into the heart of your work. It’s like having an analyst.

 Until just a few weeks ago, the walls of Jauss’ office in the UALR English Department were ribbed floor-to-ceiling with a portion of his book collection. It wasn’t like the offices of other English professors, whose shelves tend to be weighted mostly by specialized books on literary theory. Jauss’ shelves were home to story collections, books of poetry, novels. The top row was exclusively books on jazz, one of his lasting passions. It’s gotten to the point, he said, where every wall in his house is lined with books, except for the bathrooms.

“My house is kind of like a library. I look at rows and rows of books as just being extra insulation. They’re like friends: I don’t want to lose them. And I’ve found over the years — I’ve given lots of books away — and I find that almost inevitably after I give a book away I find a need for it.”

But when we met a few weeks ago, his office was a skeleton of its former self — bare shelves against sad walls. His desk had been cleared of all the stacks of students’ stories and departmental memos. He’s thoroughly planned for his retirement, which became official in late May — he wants to spend it fly fishing (which he loves because it “gives you a socially acceptable reason for standing in the middle of a river”) and spending more time with his grandkids, who are 8 and 3.

Jauss has tried to pass on as much institutional memory as possible to the remaining creative writing faculty — currently just the poet Brown and the Times’ own David Koon, who was also his student. He respects them both, as writers and as people. Of Koon he says, “He was an extraordinary student, an excellent writer,” and of Brown, who will pick up most of the courses he’s leaving behind, simply, “She’s perfect.”

As we talked about his life and career and the quiet years of retirement to come, his voice echoed a little against the blank space that another professor’s books will soon fill.

JOHN DAVID PITTMAN

THEATER REVIEW

‘THE COMPLEAT WRKS OF WLLM SHKSPR (ABRIDGED)’: Avery Clark, Patrick Halley and Ethan Paulini in The Rep’s production.

Madcap ‘Shkspr’ as live-action cartoon.

BY BENJAMIN HARDY

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of audience participation, especially in the second act. The theater on opening night was kept laughing throughout practically the entire performance.

The humor ranges from the unapologetically slapstick to the slyly literary.

At the risk of seeming like a killjoy, it’s my opinion that the corniness was a little too thick at times — a few too many knees-to-the-groin and tired Arkansas gags. Still, in the tradition of the best of cartoons, there was plenty of material for the adults to enjoy that coexisted right alongside the kid-accessible jokes.

On the other side of the coin, “Wllm Shkspr” also succeeds in smuggling some educational spinach inside that rollicking brownie. It’s possible you’ll come away with a new appreciation of the possibilities of Shakespearean theater, especially if — like me — you’re less than well versed to begin with. For example, take an extended scene in which the actors enlisted the crowd’s help in articulating “the id, the ego, and the superego” of Ophelia of “Hamlet” as captured in a single moment of nondialogue. Beneath all the shouting and laughter that ensued, there was a playful lesson in character development. It was simultaneously a skewering of the pretensions of theater and a reminder of the complexity that goes into professional performance (and the literature that underlies it).

“The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr” continues at The Rep through June 29.

r

“T

he Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr” is a ridiculous mess of a play, in the best of ways.

In the Rep’s latest offering, a threeperson cast races their way through Shakespeare’s catalog in just shy of 100 minutes worth of madcap comedy. It’s parody and homage all at once, as well as an unorthodox attempt to pique interest in the Bard’s work.

The action takes place in and around the three actors’ broken-down van, which occupies the middle of the stage on a revolving pedestal; a classic blue Port-A-Potty stands stage right. With the breeziness of professionals having a very good time at doing something very silly, actors Avery Clark, Patrick Halley and Ethan Paulini skip merrily from a Paula Deen wig to a Hamlet doublet, from a simpering Romeo to a Duck Dynasty-fied Polonius, from Juliet to Cleopatra to Ophelia. The only constant is their brightly colored Converse AllStars. Between the set, the costumes, and the relentless manic energy of the performers, “Wllm Shkspr” is about as close as you can get to watching a liveaction cartoon.

It’s the sheer talent of the actors that carries the play. There’s always a slight vicarious anxiety that comes with watching live comedy, but it’s clear from the first line that these guys know exactly what they’re doing. Though most of “Wllm Shkspr” is rehearsed, it succeeds in obtaining the loose yet frantic energy of improv comedy. There’s a good dose

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JUNE 12, 2014

27

AFTER DARK, CONT.

C o n gr a tu l a ti o n s EVENTS

BIG ORANGE!

Performing Arts, noon, Free. 20919 Denny Road.

Geocaching. Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center, 8:30 a.m. 602 President Clinton Ave. 501-907-0636. www.centralarkansasnaturecenter.com.

“Live from the Back Room.” Spoken word event.

Vino’s, 7 p.m. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www. vinosbrewpub.com.

LECTURES

Michelle Erickson. Arkansas Arts Center, 3 p.m., $5-$10. 501 E. 9th St. 501-372-4000. www.arkarts. com.

$7 under 21. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501823-0090. www.littlerocksalsa.com.

40th Annual Little Rock Farmers’ Market. River Market Pavilions, through Aug. 26: 7 a.m. 400 President Clinton Ave. 375-2552. www.rivermarket.info.

Geocaching. Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center, 8:30 a.m. 602 President Clinton Ave. 501-907-0636. www.centralarkansasnaturecenter.com.

Tales from the South. Authors tell true stories; schedule available on website. Dinner served 5-6:30 p.m., show at 7 p.m. Mugs Cafe in Argenta. 515 Main St., NLR Trivia Bowl. Flying Saucer, 8:30 p.m. 323 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-8032. www.beerknurd. com/stores/littlerock.

R

W i n n e r o f th e CLASSES The Stitching Circle. Plantation Agriculture Museum, 1 p.m. 4815 Hwy. 161 S., Scott. 9611409. www.arkansasstateparks.com/plantationagriculturemuseum.

N KA SA

A

S’

MONDAY, JUNE 16

MUSIC

N O

CO

M

Bryan Hayes and The Retrievers. Town Pump, 9 p.m. 1321 Rebsamen Park Road. 501-663-9802.

Glenn Miller Orchestra. Robinson Center Music Hall, 8 p.m., $50.50-$66.50. Markham and Broadway. www.littlerockmeetings.com/ conv-centers/robinson.

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 Clinton Ave. 501-372-4782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

Monday Night Jazz. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 8 p.m., $5. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbar.com.

Richie Johnson. Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf. com.

P E T I T

I

Pl u s CROWD FAVORITE!

EVENTS

Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame Induction Celebration. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 8 p.m., $20. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www. afterthoughtbar.com.

THE UNIQUE NEIGHBORHOODS OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS

TUESDAY, JUNE 17

MUSIC

Full of interesting voices and colorful portraits of 17 Little Rock and North Little Rock neighborhoods, this book gives an intimate, block-by-block, native’s view of the place more than 250,000 Arkansans call home. Created from interviews with residents and largely written by writers who actually live in the neighborhoods they’re writing about, the book features over 90 full color photos by Little Rock photographer Brian Chilson.

Payment: CHECK OR CREDIT CARD Order by Mail: ARKANSAS TIMES BOOKS, P.O. BOX 34010, LITTLE ROCK, AR 72203 Phone: 501-375-2985 Fax: 501-375-3623 Email: JACK@ARKTIMES.COM Send _______ book(s) of The Unique Neighborhoods of Central Arkansas @ $19.95 Send _______ book(s) of A History Of Arkansas @ $10.95

ALSO AVAILABLE

Send _______ book(s) of Almanac Of Arkansas History @ $18.95 Shipping and handling $3 per book

✁

Name ____________________________________________________________ Address __________________________________________________________

✁

City, State, Zip ______________________________________________________

Phone ___________________________________________________________ Visa, MC, AMEX, Disc # _________________________________ Exp. Date __________

Brian and Nick. Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf. com.

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

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

Karaoke Tuesday. Prost, 8 p.m., free. 322 President Clinton Blvd. 501-244-9550.

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 Clinton Ave. 501-372-4782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

Lucious Spiller Band. Copeland’s Restaurant of Little Rock, 6-9 p.m. 2602 S. Shackleford Road.

501-312-1616. www.copelandsrestaurantlittlerock.com.

Music Jam. Hosted by Elliott Griffen and Joseph Fuller. The Joint, 8-11 p.m., free. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

Tuesday Jam Session with Carl Mouton.

Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 8 p.m., free. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbar.com.

COMEDY

Stand-Up Tuesday. Hosted by Adam Hogg. The Joint, 8 p.m., $5. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

DANCE

“Latin Night.” Revolution, 7:30 p.m., $5 regular, 28

JUNE 12, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

FILM

“Saturday Night Fever.” Vino’s, 8 p.m. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www.vinosbrewpub.com.

BOOKS

Denise Parkinson. The author will discuss her new book “Daughter of the White River: DepressionEra Treachery and Vengeance in the Arkansas Delta.” Laman Library, 7 p.m. 2801 Orange St., NLR. 501-758-1720. www.lamanlibrary.org.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18

MUSIC

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

Canvas. Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf.com.

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

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

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 Clinton Ave. 501-372-4782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

Mike Carenbauer and Bill Huntington. South on Main, 7:30 p.m., Free. 1304 Main St. 501-2449660. facebook.com/SouthonMainLR. Open Mic Nite with Deuce. Thirst n’ Howl, 7:30 p.m., free. 14710 Cantrell Road. 501-379-8189. www.thirst-n-howl.com.

Sesame Street Live, “Can’t Stop Singing.”

Robinson Center Music Hall, 3 and 6:30 p.m., $24-$38.30. Markham and Broadway. www.littlerockmeetings.com/conv-centers/robinson.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 7:30 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-374-7474. www.capitalhotel.com/CBG.

COMEDY

The Joint Venture. Improv comedy group. The Joint, 8 p.m., $7. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

Tony Tone. The Loony Bin, June 18-21, 7:30 p.m.; June 20-21, 10 p.m., $7-$10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

DANCE

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

EVENTS

Geocaching. Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas

AFTER DARK, CONT. Nature Center, 8:30 a.m. 602 President Clinton Ave. 501-907-0636. www.centralarkansasnaturecenter.com.

FILM

“Office Space.” Movies in the Park. Riverfront Park, 8:30 p.m., Free. 400 President Clinton Avenue.

POETRY

Wednesday Night Poetry. 21-and-older show.

Maxine’s, 7 p.m., free. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-321-0909. maxineslive.com/shows. html.

KIDS

Little Beginnings Toddler Program. MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, 10:30 a.m. 503 E. 9th St. 376-4602. www.arkmilitaryheritage.com.

THIS WEEK IN THEATER

THEATER

“Caroline, or Change.” The Weekend Theater, through June 22: Fri., Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Sun., 2:30 p.m., $20. 1001 W. 7th St. 501-374-3761. www. weekendtheater.org.

The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged).

Arkansas Repertory Theatre, through June 29: Sun., 2 p.m.; Wed., Sun., 7 p.m.; Fri., Sat., 8 p.m., $30-$35. 601 Main St. 501-378-0405. www. therep.org.

“The Definitive Loser’s Guide to Winning.” A one-man show by Dui Jarrod. Ron Robinson Theater, Sat., June 14, 7 p.m. 1 Pulaski Way. 501-320-5703. www.cals.lib.ar.us/ron-robinsontheater.aspx.

“Pippin.” Reynolds Performance Hall, University of Central Arkansas, through June 15, 7:30 p.m.; Fri., June 13, 2 p.m.; Sun., June 15, 2 p.m.; Sun., June 22, 2 p.m.; Wed., June 25, 2 and 7:30 p.m.; Fri., June 27, 2 and 7:30 p.m., $28. 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway. uca.edu.ticketforce.com/eventperformances.asp?evt=175.

“A Second Helping: The Church Basement Ladies Sequel.” Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, through June 15: Tue.-Sat., 7:35 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., $25-$35. 6323 Col. Glenn Road. 501-562-3131. murrysdinnerplayhouse. com.

SPANK! Harder. Sequel to “Fifty Shades of Grey” parody comes to Walton Arts Center. Walton Arts Center, Tue., June 17, 7:30 p.m., $20-$45.

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

“You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.” Studio Theatre, through June 28: Thu.-Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Sun., June 22, 5 p.m., $18. Studio Theatre, through June 28: Thu.-Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Sun., June 22, 5 p.m., $18. 320 W. 7th St.

GALLERIES, MUSEUMS

NEW EXHIBITS, EVENTS

ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER, MacArthur Park: “Woodworking Instructors Exhibition,” Museum School Gallery, through July 6; “Young Arkansas Artists,” artwork by Arkansas students K-12, through July 27; “InCiteful Clay,” 35 ceramic sculptures that offer social commentary, through June 29, Winthrop Rockefeller Gallery, “The Ceramic Art of Michelle Erickson,” Museum School workshop 10 a.m.-4 p.m. June 14, $68 members, $85 nonmembers, Friends of Contemporary Craft Annual Meeting and Conversation with Erickson 3 p.m. June 15, Lecture Hall, annual meeting will precede the lecture. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Sat., 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sun. 372-4000.

ARKANSAS CAPITAL CORP. GROUP, 200 River Market Ave.: “Presentation and Conversation

with Sculptor Sandra Sell,” 5-8 p.m. June 13, 2nd Friday Art Night. 374-2947.

A THOUSAND WORDS GALLERY, 120 River Market Ave.: Work by Main Library staff, reception 5-8 p.m. June 13, 2nd Friday Art Night.

BUTLER CENTER GALLERIES, Arkansas Studies Institute, 401 President Clinton Ave.: “State Youth Art Show 2014: An Exhibition by the Arkansas Art Educators,” June 13-Aug. 30; “Drawn In: New Art from WWII Camps at Rohwer and Jerome,” through Aug. 23; “Detachment: Work by Robert Reep,” through July 24; “2nd annual Arkansas Printmakers Membership Exhibition,” through June 28. Open 5-8 p.m.

June 13, 2nd Friday Art Night, with retail gallery featured artist John Kushmaul and music

by Charlotte Taylor. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 320-5790.

GALLERY 221 & ART STUDIOS 221, Pyramid Place: New work by Jennifer “Emile” Freeman, reception 5-8 p.m. June 13, 2nd Friday Art Night. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

Sat. 801-0211.

HISTORIC ARKANSAS MUSEUM, 200 E. 3rd St.: “So What! It’s the Least I Can Do …,” paintings by Ray Wittenberg, June 13-Sept.

7, reception 5-8 p.m. June 13, 2nd Friday Art Night, with music by Heather Smith; celebration of Arkansas’s 178th birthday with the Old State House Museum 10 a.m.-4 p.m. June 14; “Co-Opt,” work by UALR student artists Taimur Cleary, Jennifer Perren and Mesilla Smith, through July 6; “A Sure Defense: The Bowie Knife in America,” through June 22; “Arkansas Made,” ongoing. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 324-9351.

LAMAN LIBRARY, 2801 Orange St.: “Alert Today, Alive Tomorrow: Living with the Atomic Bomb,” objects, film, graphics about American culture of 1940s, ’50s and ’60s and the bomb, June 16-Aug. 11. 758-1720.

OLD STATE HOUSE MUSEUM, 300 W. Markham: “Party Like It’s 1836,” celebration of statehood with live music by the Mockingbirds, 5-8 p.m.

June 13, 2nd Friday Art Night; “The Quest for Statehood,” state’s 178th birthday celebration with the Historic Arkansas Museum, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. June 14; “Lights! Camera! Arkansas!”, the state’s ties to Hollywood, including costumes, scripts, film footage, photographs and more, through March 1, 2015. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 324-9685.

STUDIOMAIN, 1423 S. Main St.: “Community Center Design Competition,” reception 5-8 p.m. June 13, 2nd Friday Art Night.

3 extraordinary seekers

BOOK BY ROGER O. HIRSON MUSIC AND LYRICS BY STEPHEN SCHWARTZ

JUNE 11-27

Reynolds Performance Hall FEATURING KELLY KARCHER AS CATHERINE, GARRETT WHITEHEAD AS PIPPIN, AND EVAN TYRONE MARTIN AS THE LEADING PLAYER

THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA JUNE 5-15 The Village at Hendrix, Conway

PINE BLUFF THE ARTS AND SCIENCE CENTER, 701 Main St.: “I Come From Women Who Could Fly: New Work by Delita Martin,” through August, printmaking workshop with the artist 1-3 p.m. June 14; “Shaping Our World,” science exhibit on acts of nature, through August. 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Tue.-Fri., 1-4 p.m. Sat. 870-536-3375

CALL FOR ARTISTS

The Palette Art League is accepting entries for its 6th annual Art Expo to be held July 7-11. All work must by two-dimensional and not entered in a previous Expo show. For more information, go to paletteartleague.org or call 870-656-2057.

CONTINUING EXHIBITS

BOSWELL-MOUROT FINE ART, 5815 Kavanaugh Blvd.: “Everyday Details,” new work by Dennis McCann and Jason McCann, through June 21. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sat. 664-0030.

BOULEVARD BREAD, River Market: Paintings by CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

JUNE 19-22 Laman Library, Argenta

HAMLET JUNE 20-29

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2014

season!

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JUNE 24-28 Reynolds Performance Hall, UCA, Conway

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AFTER DARK, CONT. members of Co-Op Art, through June.

CANTRELL GALLERY, 8206 Cantrell Road: “Painting Arkansas — Finale,” new work by John Wooldridge, through June 21. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 224-1335.

CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 509 Scott St.: Paintings by Dee Schulten, Dr. Lacy Frasier and Sue Henley. 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. 664-0880.

THE EDGE, 301B President Clinton Ave.: Paintings by Avila (Fernando Gomez), Eric Freeman, James Hayes, Jerry Colburn, St. Joseph Thomason and Stephen Drive. 992-1099.

ELLEN GOLDEN ANTIQUES, 5701 Kavanaugh

Blvd.: Paintings by Barry Thomas and Arden Boyce. 664-7746.

GALLERY 26, 2601 Kavanaugh Blvd.: “Recent Works by Arkansas Society of Printmakers,” including Robert Bean, Warren Criswell, Debi Fendley, Melissa Gill, Jorey May Greene, Diane Harper, Neal Harrington, Tammy Harrington, Samantha Kosakowski, David O’Brien, Sherry O’Rorke, Jessi Perren, Shannon Rogers, Dominique Simmons, Tom Sullivan and David Warren, through July 12. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.Sat. 664-8996.

GINO HOLLANDER GALLERY, 2nd and Center: Paintings and works on paper by Gino Hollander.

801-0211.

GREG THOMPSON FINE ART, 429 Main St., NLR: “Southern Women Artists Exhibition,”

work by Sheila Cotton, Louise Halsey, Robyn Horn, Dolores Justus, Linda Palmer, Rebecca Thompson and others, through June 14. 6642787.

L&L BECK ART GALLERY, 5705 Kavanaugh Blvd.: “Go West, Young Man!” June exhibit, giclee giveaway 7 p.m. June 19. 660-4006.

MUGS CAFE, 515 Main St., NLR: “Strangers Now and Then,” paintings and drawings by Robert Bean, through June 17. 379-9101.

RIVER CITY COFFEE, 2913 Kavanaugh Blvd.: Byron Taylor, watercolors, through June 15. 6 a.m.-9 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 7 a.m.-9 p.m. Sat.-Sun. 661-1496.

ST. MARK’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 1000 N. Mississippi St.: “Icons in Transformation,” 100 expressionist works by Ludmila Pawlowska,

through Aug. 17, percentage of sales proceeds to Artist-in-Residence program at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. 225-4203.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT LITTLE ROCK, 2801 S. University Ave.: “Recent Work by Laura Raborn and Sandra Sell,” paintings and woodwork, M.A. thesis exhibition, through June 26.

9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri. 569-8977.

BENTONVILLE CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, One Museum Way: “Global Citizen: The Architecture of Moshe Safdie,” drawings, sketches, videos, photographs and scale models, through Sept. 1; “Anglo-American Portraiture in an Age of Revolution,” five paintings, including works from the Musee de Louvre, the High Museum of Art and the Terra Foundation, through Sept. 15; “The William S. Paley Collection: A Taste for Modernism,” works

by Paul Gaugin, Andre Derain, Henri Matisse, Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Pablo Picasso and others, through July 7; permanent collection of American masterworks spanning four centuries. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon., Thu.; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Wed., Fri.; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat.-Sun., closed Tue. 479-418-5700.

HOT SPRINGS ALISON PARSONS GALLERY, 802 Central Ave.: “In Perfect Balance — Metals in Motion,” kinetic sculptures by Gerald Lee Delvan. 501655-0604.

ARTISTS WORKSHOP GALLERY, 610 A Central Ave.: Jan Briggs, Pat Langewis, watercolors, through June. 623-6401.

FINE ARTS CENTER, 626 Central Ave.: “Art & Music Exhibition,” work inspired by the Hot Springs Music Festival repertoire, through June 17. 501-624-0489.

ONGOING MUSEUM EXHIBITS

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

CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL CENTER, 1200 President Clinton Ave.: “Chihuly,” studio glass, through Jan. 5, 2015; permanent exhibits on 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.

ESSE, 1510 S. Main St.: “What’s Inside: A Century of Women and Handbags (19001999),” purses from the collection of Anita Davis, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tue.-Sun., $10-$8. 9169022.

MacARTHUR MUSEUM OF ARKANSAS M I L I TA R Y H I S T O R Y , M a c A r t h u r Park: “American Posters of World War I”; permanent exhibits. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-4 p.m. Sun. 376-4602.

MOSAIC TEMPLARS CULTURAL CENTER, 501 W. 9th St.: “Repurposed Wonders: The Sculpture of Danny Campbell,” permanent and changing exhibits on black entrepreneurship in Arkansas. 683-3593.

MUSEUM OF DISCOVERY, 500 President Clinton Ave.: “Wiggle Worms,” science program for pre-K children 10 a.m.-10:30 a.m. every Tue., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 1-5 p.m.

Sun., $10 ages 13 and older, $8 ages 1-12, free to members and children under 1. 396-7050.

WITT STEPHENS JR. CENTRAL ARKANSAS NATURE CENTER, Riverfront Park: Exhibits on wildlife and the state Game and Fish Commission. 907-0636.

30

JUNE 12, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

MOVIE REVIEW

‘EDGE OF TOMORROW’: Tom Cruise stars.

Die and start again Tom Cruise plays a perpetual Lazarus in ‘Edge of Tomorrow.’

BY SAM EIFLING

T

he life of a soldier named Cage in “Edge of Tomorrow” plays like a smudged CD, blatting the same note on repeat ad infinitum. The officer, an ad guy turned media spinmeister after an overwhelming alien invasion, finds himself labeled a deserter and thrown into the infantry of a futuristic D-Day, clad in a tanklike exosuit. He, like the other humans in his unit, dies a horrible death fighting the thrashing mechanistic squid monsters that have taken over Europe. Then, in an instant, he awakes, as if to the strains of Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe,” to replay the day.

Tom Cruise plays this perpetual Lazarus with his typical cockiness, fading into bewilderment, despair and determination.

The mystery as to why he keeps Konami coding back into existence isn’t as interesting as you’d hope, but when he does figure it out he goes from being cannon fodder to the last hope for human civilization. And he dies over and over and over and over and over with nothing but new memories to show for it.

This is, as sci-fi action premises go, pretty decent. What pushes “Edge of Tomorrow” past the boundaries of genre and toward the more august realm of real cinema is its dedication to tone — uncommonly cohesive, consistent and compelling. The action sequences rip across the screen and the plot moves spryly, even as it has to fold back upon itself like an origami accordion. The film builds by accretion, adding a smidge more in each successive day, twisting along the way. In a good way, it is extraordinarily stressful. Perhaps never before has one person died so many times in a single movie. A few dozen fatalities here, a handful there, and after a while you start to feel for the guy.

Director Doug Liman squeezes a couple of laughs out of the Sisyphean absurdity

of this errand, and even a bit of romantic pathos. Cage’s unlikely guide on this mission of mayhem is an alpha soldier named Rita, played by a ferocious Emily Blunt, as if there were any other sort. She reveals to him that she once had the same looping power, and guides him anew each day, even though he has to reintroduce himself each time. This is the great burden of his recursive immortality: Watching her and everyone around him die over and over and over, even as he moves closer to solving his awful day.

Children of the video game era will recognize this story structure: We’ve played it on a million late nights and rainy afternoons, on Nintendo and PC to PlayStation.

Incremental progress followed by horrible death and revival is a staple of adventure shoot-’em-ups, where the only risk in wandering is the cost of your time. When life no longer is the currency of success — indeed, because his revival depends on a decisive death, Cage must avoid mere injury each day — then risk and creativity reign. Have we probed all possibilities? No sense in holding back if we have a guess to make, an avenue to explore.

Here, in action, “Edge of Tomorrow” illustrates a certain version of the entrepreneurship that supposedly drives the Millennial generation. No problem looms too big just so long as failure is always, always an option. Rather, after a spell, when failure becomes entwined with strategy, as Cage finds, a version of freedom results.

The adage that whatever doesn’t kill us makes us stronger turns out to be deficient.

Instead, whatever doesn’t kill us merely delays our return as a craftier, smarter version of ourselves. Hang that notion on a crackling spectacle like “Edge of Tomorrow” and call it a killer summer blockbuster.

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31

Dining WHAT’S COOKIN’ CHEF DONNIE FERNEAU has leased the former Argenta Market space at 521 Main in North Little Rock for his Good Food by Ferneau, a takeout and catering operation.

No word yet on when he’ll start operating from there. For now, orders can be made at goodfoodbyferneau.com and picked up at Pulaski Presbyterian Church in Hillcrest from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. weekdays.

ARKANSAS ALEHOUSE, Diamond Bear Brewing Co.’s new brewpub, is set to open as soon as next week in the brewery’s new North Little Rock headquarters.

The restaurant will serve up European pub fare with a Southern twist, said general manager Matt Beachboard, who previously managed Big Orange — savory snacks, sandwiches, soups and indulgent desserts. “It’s all brewpub, beer-centric and beer-inspired food,” Beachboard said. That includes a planned collaboration with Arkansas Fresh Bakery to offer freshly baked German-style soft pretzels, as well as Beachboard’s take on Borrelnootjes, a Dutch version of beer nuts that Beachboard fell in love with in Amsterdam on a recent trip to Europe. The same trip inspired takes on Parisian sandwiches and pub grub in Scotland.

“It will be a little bit of everything, a shot across Europe, plus my own upbringing in the South,” Beachboard said.

Some highlights to look forward to: a veggie sandwich featuring an olive tapenade with fig jam; a Cuban sandwich with smoked pulled pork from Hoggs Meat Market and sourdough bread from Arkansas Fresh; wings — Southern-style mustard-and-vinegar barbecue or Thai-style garlic chili; and for a sweet treat, a doublechocolate deep-fried moon pie with salted caramel ice cream from Loblolly inside.

Beachboard will also be employing Diamond Bear in his cooking — the red beans and rice get a chocolate-malty kick from Diamond Bear Two Term Double IPA and the root beer float features Diamond Bear Big Rock Root Beer.

Also available at the Alehouse, of course, will be all of Diamond Bear’s beers on tap. A pint (or three) of craft beer, with some addictive snacks to match? We can’t wait. In addition to the bar and restaurant, the Alehouse will do retail sales: six packs, cases, kegs and growlers to go (including on Sundays!). Hours are still being firmed up, but the plan for now: the Alehouse bar and retail will be open 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.

Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

Sunday. The restaurant will be open for lunch (11 a.m.-2:30 p.m.) and dinner (5-9 p.m.) Tuesday through Sunday.

32

JUNE 12, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

Baja Grill

5923 Kavanaugh 722-8920 eatbajagrill.com HOURS 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Mon.-Thu., 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Fri.-Sat. QUICK BITE Baja Grill opened in May as a BYOB restaurant, but should start serving a full line of beer, wine and mixed drink in June.

OTHER INFO Full bar (pending), BYOB (current).

Credit cards accepted.

BRING YOUR APPETITE: Baja Grill serves up large burritos smothered in queso.

Big on Baja Food truck turned brick-and-mortar restaurant delights in the Heights.

I

n just a few short years, the Baja Grill food truck went from Saline County’s best-kept secret to the winner of multiple awards — the readers of the Arkansas Times declared it not only one of Arkansas’s best food trucks, but one of the best places to eat overall in Central Arkansas.

Those awards are all hanging on the walls of the Mexi-Cali taco joint’s new brickand-mortar digs, with owners Craig and Melissa Roe hoping that their success in the food truck business can translate into taco dominance in one of Little Rock’s best neighborhoods. But while the surroundings may have changed, after several visits to the new location we can say with certainty that one thing hasn’t: the excellent food.

So what’s good at the Grill? We recommend starting off with the Triple Dipper ($10 small, $15 large), a selection of queso blanca, guacamole and salsa served with an endless supply of light, crispy tortilla chips.

In a town known for cheese dip, Baja Grill’s white queso is destined to be a star with its smooth, thick texture broken only by the

occasional small bite of spicy jalapeno. The guacamole is fresh-made and just the way we like it: simple, with creamy avocado joined by just a dash of lime and seasoning to make for a rich portion of green goodness. As for the salsa, it’s brightly flavored and hot, but doesn’t let its heat overwhelm the flavor of the fresh vegetables. Each of these is available by itself, but don’t be scared to treat yourself to the sampler.

For the main event, Baja Grill has several varieties of protein that they offer up in taco, burrito or quesadilla form. Being taco lovers, we think the Cuban Taco ($4), a giant pile of smoked pork, red cabbagejicama slaw, avocado and chipotle aioli is the best of the bunch — to the point where we feel like this taco place could teach some of our local barbecue joints a thing or two about what smoked pork is all about. For folks not in the mood for pork, the Baja Beef ($3.75) is also quite tasty, and much simpler: Savory shredded beef is topped with pico de gallo, fresco cheese and a small amount of the secret-recipe Baja sauce. It’s not complicated, but it doesn’t have to be

— it’s delicious nonetheless.

When craving something large and filling, we move to the burrito section of the menu, where the Baja Chicken Burrito ($7.50), with its juicy, spicy shredded chicken, is a personal favorite. The Honey Chipotle ($8.50) is another great take on pork, with a sweet spiciness that’s just enough of both without being too much of either. Add a heaping helping of rice and beans to your choice of meat, wrap it in a tortilla and smother it in queso — and be prepared to bring your appetite for one of these.

The quesadilla section of the menu follows the same format, but adds a toasted tortilla and cheese to the mix. The Grilled Shrimp ($9.50) is particularly good done this way, and we’re torn between the Baja Pork ($8) and smoked pork with barbecue sauce Pig Sooie ($9). Each of these meats is lovingly prepared, and each is different enough from the other that the work that went into developing the recipes at Baja Grill is apparent. It’s a rare restaurant where we say that there’s no wrong choice on the menu, but for anyone who loves this sort of food, there really isn’t a bad option.

Being a new restaurant, there are always going to be kinks in the first few weeks of service, but while we’ve had a meal or two that took a little longer than might be expected, none of those hiccups have been of the sort where we felt neglected by the staff. Servers have been very professional and polite, and are more than willing to tell all about the various ways each food item is produced. Having eaten at the place when it was a food truck, we can say that much of the vibe from the “old” Baja Grill has survived, and the future is looking bright for taco lovers with the Roe family in town.

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

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ACADIA A jewel of a restaurant in Hillcrest.

Unbelievable fixed-price, three-course dinners on Mondays and Tuesday, but food is certainly worth full price. 3000 Kavanaugh Blvd. Full bar, CC. $$-$$$. 501-603-9630. D Mon.-Sat. BLACK ANGUS CAFE Charcoal-grilled burgers, hamburger steaks and steaks proper are the big draws at this local institution. 10907 N. Rodney Parham. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-228-7800.

LD Mon.-Sat. BOBBY’S CAFE Delicious, humungo burgers and tasty homemade desserts at this Levy diner.

12230 MacArthur Drive. NLR. No alcohol, No CC. $. 501-851-7888. BL Tue.-Fri., D Fri. BOSCOS RESTAURANT & BREWERY CO. This River Market brewery does food well, too. Along with the tried and true, 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, All CC. $$.

501-907-1881. LD daily.

BOULEVARD BREAD CO. Fresh bread, fresh pastries, wide selection of cheeses, meats, side dishes; all superb. Good coffee, too. 1920 N. Grant St. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$. 501-6635951. BLD Mon.-Sat. 400 President Clinton Ave. Beer, Wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-374-1232. BL Mon.-Sat. 4301 W. Markham St. No alcohol, All CC. $$. 501-526-6661. BL Mon.-Fri. 1417 Main St. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-375-5100. BL Mon.-Sat.; 4301 W. Markham St. No alcohol, All CC. $$. 501-526-6661. BL Mon.-Fri. BUTCHER SHOP The cook-your-own-steak option has been downplayed, and several menu additions complement the calling card: large, fabulous cuts of prime beef, cooked to perfection. 10825 Hermitage Road. Full bar, All CC. $$$. 501-312-2748. D daily.

CAJUN’S WHARF The venerable seafood restaurant serves up great gumbo and oysters Bienville, and options such as fine steaks for the non-seafood eater. In the citified bar, you’ll find nightly entertainment, too. 2400 Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-375-5351. D 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, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-868-7600. LD Mon.-Sat. COPPER GRILL Comfort food, burgers and more sophisticated fare at this River Market-area hotspot. 300 E. Third St. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$.

501-375-3333. LD Mon.-Sat. DIZZY’S GYPSY BISTRO Interesting bistro fare, served in massive portions at this River Market favorite. 200 River Market Ave. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-375-3500. LD Tue.-Sat. IZZY’S It’s bright, clean and casual, with snappy team service of all his standbys — sandwiches and fries, lots of fresh salads, pasta about a dozen ways, hand-rolled tamales and brick oven pizzas. 5601 Ranch Drive. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$.

501-868-4311. LD Mon.-Sat. MARKHAM STREET GRILL AND PUB The

menu has something for everyone, including mahi-mahi and wings. Try the burgers, which are juicy, big and fine. 11321 W. Markham St. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-224-2010. LD daily.

RED DOOR Fresh seafood, steaks, chops and sandwiches from restaurateur Mark Abernathy.

Smart wine list. 3701 Old Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-666-8482. BL Tue.-Fri. D daily. BR Sat. RENO’S ARGENTA CAFE Sandwiches, gyros and gourmet pizzas by day and music and drinks by night in downtown Argenta. 312 N. Main St. NLR. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-376-2900. LD Mon.-Sat. RIVERFRONT STEAKHOUSE Steaks are the draw here — nice cuts heavily salted and peppered, cooked quickly and accurately to your specifications, finished with butter and served sizzling hot. 2 Riverfront Place. NLR. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-375-7825. D Mon.-Sat. ROCKET TWENTY ONE The former Hillcrest fine-dining restaurant, now in a new location by the Riverfront Wyndham hotel. 2 Riverfront Drive.

NLR. Full bar, All CC. $$$-$$$$. 501-603-9208. L Mon.-Fri., D Tue.-Sat. RUDY’S OYSTER BAR Good boiled shrimp and oysters on the half shell. Quesadillas and chili cheese dip are tasty and ultra-hearty. 2695 Pike Ave. NLR. Full bar, All CC. 501-771-0808.

LD Mon.-Sat. SHARKS FISH & CHICKEN This Southwest Little Rock restaurant specializes in seafood, frog legs and catfish, all served with the traditional fixings.

8824 Geyer Springs Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-565-0300. LD daily.

SO RESTAURANT BAR Call it a French brasserie with a sleek but not fussy American finish. The wine selection is broad and choice. Free valet parking. Use it and save yourself a headache.

3610 Kavanaugh Blvd. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$.

501-663-1464. LD Mon.-Sat., D Sun. YOUR MAMA’S GOOD FOOD Offering simple and satisfying cafeteria food, with burgers and more hot off the grill, plate lunches and pies.

215 Center St. No alcohol, All CC. $. 501-3721811. L Mon.-Fri.

ASIAN

CHI’S CHINESE CUISINE No longer owned by Chi’s founder Lulu Chi, this Chinese mainstay still offers a broad menu that spans the Chinese provinces and offers a few twists on the usual local offerings. 5110 W. Markham St. Beer, All CC. $-$$. 501-604-7777. LD Mon.-Sat. FANTASTIC CHINA The food is delicious, the presentation beautiful, the menu distinctive, the service perfect, the decor bright. 1900 N. Grant St. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-663-8999. LD daily.

LILLY’S DIMSUM THEN SOME Innovative dishes inspired by Asian cuisine, utilizing local and fresh ingredients. 11121 N. Rodney Parham Road. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-716-2700.

LD Tue.-Sun. MT. FUJI JAPANESE RESTAURANT The dean of Little Rock sushi bars offers a fabulous lunch special and great Monday night deals. 10301 Rodney Parham Road. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$.

501-227-6498. LD daily. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-227-6498.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 38

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33

DINING FEATURE

The state of Central Arkansas dining As told by its chefs and bartenders.

BY DANIEL WALKER

M

ost food enthusiasts in Arkansas can feel it — there’s a lot of good going on in the Central Arkansas dining scene. There’s a lot to be celebrated, many improvements being made. People are genuinely excited about what they are eating. Several Arkansas establishments are gaining national attention. Some might consider this a “turning point” for Arkansas food, a renaissance, of sorts. Are we eating at the edge of greatness? In 10 years, is Little Rock positioned to become the food world’s next Austin, Portland or Nashville?

No one is more fit to answer these questions than the men and women making it all happen — the chefs, bartenders and restaurateurs pushing Central Arkansas food forward. I questioned some of Central Arkansas’s brightest and most forward-thinking restaurant folks to get their take on where we are today and where we might be headed. Here’s what they had to say: How has the Central Arkansas dining scene evolved over the last several years?

Scott McGehee (Yellow Rocket Concepts, Big Orange/Local Lime/ZaZa/ Heights Taco & Tamale Co.): I was the chef at the Blue Mesa Grill in 1991, so I’ve seen an amazing transformation over the last 23 years. In 1999 when I returned from California and opened Boulevard Bread Co. the Farmers Market Hall was just being built, and the four to five farmers that started the original market in 1974 were under a random parking deck in deserted downtown. That was a magical time as “Food Network” awareness started to sweep the country. Chefs started responding to and, in some cases, led the demand for local organic produce. That fueled an explosion of small organic farmers, and the two have been racing forward dramatically ever since. Tons of credit to my chef, Alice Waters.

Lee Edwards (beverage director, Yellow Rocket Concepts): The dining scene has gained a lot of energy in last few years. The Capital Hotel has, in essence, been an incubator for culinary talent. Even though Little Rock lost the overwhelming talents of Cassidee Dabney to Blackberry Farm and David Thomas to SLS-Bazaar South Beach, and (still in Arkansas, but not 34

JUNE 12, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

an easy drive for dinner) Matt McClure to the Hive at 21C, there have still been several key spinoffs from the hotel.

Natchez’s Alexis Jones and South on Main’s Matt Bell are bringing the Southern culinary flair that Ashley’s at the Capital Hotel seems to have eschewed of late. It’s not diet food, it’s real food. Jeffrey Owen is putting out the best food that perhaps has ever been made at Ciao Baci.

But, most importantly, the city dining scene has a lot of energy right now, real verve. That energy will keep these new spots jumping, but hopefully continue this local renaissance.

Ben Brainard (Local Lime): I love where the Arkansas food scene is heading.

Local, responsible, delicious restaurants are opening every day. Restaurants like South on Main, Natchez, and Gus’s [Fried Chicken] are starting to turn heads away from the mega-chain restaurants. This trend will continue and make Little Rock a culinary stopping point in the near future.

Justin Patterson (The Southern Gourmasian): When we moved here four years ago from Nashville, we tried every restaurant that people told us to and were continually disappointed. We felt a little buyer’s remorse and missed the dining scene in Nashville. But now it seems we can barely keep up with the great things going on and new places opening.

Travis McConnell (Butcher & Public): The focus on local is coming up more often with restaurant openings. It’s still got quite a ways to go but it’s getting more attention. Little Rock has such a great energy right now, and I feel it is really about to reach a turning point. There are more restaurants opening all the time. It really is evolving into something special. I like to see the growing underbelly of farmers and farm-focused events around town.

Josiah Moody (Vino’s Brewpub): I think it’s safe to say Yellow Rocket has made the largest impact on Little Rock’s dining scene as a whole and fills a needed void for well-executed, approachable dishes that stay within the working class budget. Our town likes approachable food.

I think the success of the food truck scene is testament to that.

As for the beer scene, which is probably more in my purview, I think we are seeing the local beer scene burst from its infancy.

We will see many more breweries likely

JUSTIN PATTERSON OF SOUTHERN GOURMASIAN

attempt to open in the next five years, and I think there is room for as many more ... so long as they produce good beer.

Zara Abbasi Wilkerson (pastry chef, Natchez): I believe Little Rock is on the cusp of greatness, but this cusp suits it really well. The culinary scene hasn’t exploded quite like Austin yet, but it’s certainly not where it used to be. This cusp is important because there are a lot of great ideas brewing. The community is still relatively small, so a person can feel comfortable enough to really be engaged in the food scene. There’s been a great increase in food truck to brick-and-mortar businesses, as well as great ingenuity in other culinary realms, such as Chef Shuttle bringing almost any meal to your door and Good Food by Ferneau creating a new and

accessible food experience here.

Stephanos and Monica Mylonas (Mylo Coffee Co.): It’s been really encouraging to see pop-up and farm-totable style events occurring more frequently. It speaks to people’s genuine excitement about connecting with their food and, more importantly, connecting with others over food and regaining a sense of community. That said, it’s equally exciting to see new and different concepts come in and stir the pot!

Jeff Owen (Ciao Baci): I think our “scene,” if you will, has boomed the past 10 years. I grew up in Little Rock and can count on two hands the number of options you had beyond catfish, barbecue, Tex-Mex and Red Lobster in those days. I think that the Food Network, Top

Chef, Yelp and other similar formats have created a market that to some extent is more demanding, or at least educated in their expectations. This sets a bar to reach.

Here, we have a unique blend of reality and expectation. We have such amazing producers and providers and we can relate to our food and surroundings. Customers get excited knowing what they are eating, not looking for the fireworks and gimmicks ... not that we don’t like to throw them in there.

Matt Bell (South on Main): I love that local farms are being utilized. The access to local is growing rapidly. I think if we, as chefs, strive to bring local food to plates, more diners will work to gain access to that same food. This cycle will just help support and grow our local food/farms.

Ken Dempsey (E’s Bistro): For years the big chain restaurants ruled the scene in Little Rock, and while the older chain restaurants will always be here, it’s awesome to see a better balance of power that’s emerged over the past couple of years here. People are getting out of their food box more and trying dishes that are local, inventive, fresh and not prepackaged or developed in a kitchen at a corporate headquarters. This says much about our evolution as a state. We’re catching up to cities that have been on this path for far longer than we have.

Matt Clark (Waffle Wagon): I think our scene has really come into its own over the last five or six years ... in part to having such a glut of great cooks and also access to damn near anything. Also I think the eating community at large has changed quite a bit.

Alexis Jones (Natchez): The dining scene in Central Arkansas has grown. A lot of new businesses have opened around the state with a focus on seasonal and local

AMY KELLEY BELL

DINING FEATURE, CONT.

DAVID BURNETTE OF SOUTH ON MAIN

ingredients ... an important and exciting change.

David Burnette (bartender, South on Main): When I moved here in 2008, craft cocktails were virtually nonexistent.

Ferneau had some good drinks, but people were still afraid to order outside of their comfort zone. I feel like the Capital Bar & Grill led the way in really pushing the envelope — bringing in new ingredients, and being selective in what spirits were poured in their cocktails. People here responded positively over time, and that attitude has been contagious.

Much like the Little Rock food scene has evolved as talent from the Capital Hotel spread around town, the beverage options around town have improved as well. That’s not to say, however, that other individuals aren’t making great food and serving great drinks, it’s just an interesting phenomenon.

What does Central Arkansas need to make it a more interesting place to eat or drink? What are some things you’d like to see change?

Ben Brainard: I believe Arkansas needs to continue to challenge restaurant owners and operators to use proper ingredients. Hold your favorite restaurants accountable for what they are putting in their recipes. Ask questions. I love it when a table asks me to come out and discuss a recipe. I love it when people want to know what exactly they are eating.

Matt Bell: The obvious answer would be more exotic food choices. I really love Ethiopian cuisine. The honest answer is to be more adventurous as diners. There is always opportunity to step out of your comfort zone and try what the metro has to offer.

David Burnette: The biggest issue I foresee with Little Rock growing as a town

known for great cocktails is our horrendously large liquor tax. It is hard for small, craft-oriented cocktail bars to function while paying over 33 percent tax on spirits while keeping cocktail prices in a range that people are willing to pay.

The other thing Little Rock needs is more unity amongst the bartenders that make this town fun at night. We are currently working hard to earn a charter from the United States Bartenders Guild. This will offer a lot of opportunities for bartenders that are not currently available.

Travis McConnell: I feel really strongly about supporting Arkansas products. This mentality really helps bring the communities together. If you combine this philosophy of local and seasonal with a cool and fun atmosphere, you’ve got a winner. Upscale casual, on design, is the way to go. Great quality food, beers, wine and overall experience and you can’t go wrong. I would love to see more smaller/ focused menus. Some of the menus we end up with are novels. I can’t imagine having to keep up with quality control on all of those items and stay inspired to maintain that level.

That being said, I really feel that Little Rock is on a great path to having, and expanding on, a great culinary culture. I would love to see more collaboration and less competition. It’s already a struggle enough to be in the food world as a business but to compete in this reality-showobsessed mindset won’t help, and it gives no real sustainable substance. Working with other dedicated chefs and farmers means us staying true to our heritage and gives us a slow food culture that will be here to stay.

Matt Clark: As far as change goes, I think more of what’s been happening, CONTINUED ON PAGE 36

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DINING FEATURE, CONT. also love to see more collaborations. This town is filled with creative geniuses. Can you imagine what would happen if they got to work with others like them?

Stephanos and Monica Mylonas: More regional cuisines. Whether it comes in the form of a Korean family-owned BBQ joint, a snazzy fusion concept, or even the occasional appearance of a paella special the chef learned to cook while studying abroad 15 years ago. Speaking of which, specials boards! We love a rotating menu.

Jeff Owen: I think something interesting is happening now as we speak. Lots of creative and passionate people flooding the market, new restaurants all the time are popping up. As we all grow as professionals, the next level is refinement, service standards. Being able to say “no” to fulfill your vision. Saying “I can’t give you a side of ranch” could mean a shitty Yelp review waiting for you the next day. At the same time, a bucket of beer and couple dozen oysters at Flying Fish is all I need to stay happy ... so maybe my expectations aren’t set too high. I also like ranch.

Ben Brainard: I’m a proud Arkansas boy. Cooking food that I’m proud of, using Arkansas ingredients, and serving Arkansans is what keeps a smile on my face every day at work. I love the newfound interest in really good food that many people have found. It challenges me and my partners to continue to get better.

Matt Bell: The thing that gets me most excited about cooking in Arkansas is peas.

I know that sounds weird, but damn I love field peas. Purple Hull, Crowder, Lady, Black Eye, Butterbean, Cow ... they all have such amazing distinct character, I really can’t use enough of them.

David Burnette: Arkansans don’t yet take the cocktail craft for granted. I like that people here still get excited about trying new things and enjoy exploring old recipes as well. Our customer base has been very supportive of our efforts, and for that I am extremely grateful.

Jeff Owen: Honestly, I’m blown away every summer and fall by the amount of amazing produce. It makes my job light years easier when you have perfect tomatoes show up on your doorstep. Everyone that has a garden at home is dying to give you something they have an abundance of ... peppers, basil, cucumbers, or something

they made ... chutneys, salsa, chowchow, pickles.

Zara Abbasi Wilkerson: It’s home.

It’s comfortable but emerging. It’s relaxed but intriguing. And, it’s going to love you if you love it. It’s really that simple to me.

I love cooking for friends and family, and the entire demographic here seems to be either an old or new friend or family.

Matt Clark: For me, the answer is the people. It’s selfish, but the response of someone getting a dish, even if it is a waffle, that you took time to think out, then seeing someone get it. Really get it.

It rules.

Yellow Fever, Malaria, Tuberculosis, Cholera, Flu and Hookworm

What about Arkansas gets you excited about working here?

Travis McConnell: Moving back to Arkansas in 2012 was an eye-opener. With my focus being in meat, I am blown away by what is being done here. Working with Falling Sky, Farm Girl and Freckle Face gave me great hope. They are making my job easier because of their own passions for bringing great quality meats to the Arkansas community. Arkansas really is a gem waiting to be discovered. And I know that it will be acknowledged one day as the rich state that it is. From the chefs, butchers, restaurateurs, farmers in both produce and livestock, there is this exciting energy about the direction we are all going.

Lee Edwards: Arkansas has great produce. Our farmers do a wonderful job, and I see their roles expanding. This is great for bartending. Fresh produce makes the best possible garnishes, syrups, infused spirits, etc. Some of my favorite drinks I have made were the result of great local produce, like the Pueblo Honey or the Sundance Kid from Local Lime. The cocktail world is entering (in my estimation at least) a golden era. I am proud to be one of the flag-bearers that introduce Arkansans into this glorious new era. It’s been a wonderful ride as a barman so far, and it’s only getting better.

Scott McGehee: Arkansas is my home.

I’ve lived all over the world and had amazing experiences, but I still relish an opportunity to talk about the Razorbacks’ upcoming season or to reminisce about camping in the Ozarks. I love the people, the ingredients and the culture, and I love being a small part of it.

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DINING CAPSULES, CONT.

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JUNE 12, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

SKY MODERN JAPANESE Excellent, ambitious menu filled with sushi and other Japanese fare and Continental-style dishes. 11525 Cantrell Road, Suite 917. Full bar, All CC. $$$-$$$$. 501-224-4300. LD daily.

BARBECUE

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

LD daily. 2947 Lakewood Village Drive. NLR. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-753-3737. LD daily, B Sat.-Sun. WHITE PIG INN Go for the sliced rather than chopped meats at this working-class barbecue cafe. Side orders — from fries to potato salad to beans and slaw — are superb, as are the fried pies. 5231 E. Broadway. NLR. Beer, All CC. $-$$.

501-945-5551. LD Mon.-Fri., L Sat. WHOLE HOG CAFE The pulled pork shoulder is a classic, the back ribs are worthy of their many blue ribbons, and there’s a six pack of sauces for all tastes. A real find is the beef brisket, cooked the way Texans like it. 516 Cantrell Road. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$. 501-664-5025. LD Mon.-Sat. 12111 W. Markham. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$. 501-907-6124. LD daily. 150 E. Oak St. Conway. No alcohol, All CC. $$. 501-513-0600.

LD Mon.-Sat., L Sun. 5107 Warden Road. NLR. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$. 501-753-9227.

EUROPEAN / ETHNIC

ALADDIN KABAB Persian and Mexican cuisines sound like an odd pairing, but they work fairly well together here. Particularly if you’re ordering something that features charred meat, like a

kabab or gyros. 9112 N Rodney Parham Road.

No alcohol, All CC. 501-219-8787. LD daily.

CAFE BOSSA NOVA A South American approach to sandwiches, salads and desserts, all quite good, as well as an array of refreshing South American teas and coffees. 2701 Kavanaugh Blvd. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$.

501-614-6682. LD Tue.-Sat., BR Sun. HIBERNIA IRISH TAVERN This traditional Irish pub has its own traditional Irish cook from, where else, Ireland. Broad beverage menu, Irish and Southern food favorites and a crowd that likes to sing. 9700 N. Rodney Parham Road.

Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-246-4340. D Mon.-Sat., L Sun. LAYLA’S GYROS AND PIZZERIA Delicious Mediterranean fare — gyros, falafel, shawarma, kabobs, hummus and babaganush — that has a devoted following. All meat is slaughtered according to Islamic dietary law. 9501 N Rodney Parham Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$.

501-227-7272. LD daily (close 5 p.m. on Sun.).

ITALIAN

BRAVO! CUCINA ITALIANA This upscale Italian chain offers delicious and sometimes inventive dishes. 17815 Chenal Pkwy. Full bar, All CC. $$$. 501-821-2485. LD daily. BR Sun. BRUNO’S LITTLE ITALY Traditional Italian antipastos, appetizers, entrees and desserts.

Extensive, delicious menu from Little Rock standby. 310 Main St. Full bar, CC. $$-$$$.

501-372-7866. D Tue.-Sat. GRAFFITI’S The casually chic and ever-popular Italian-flavored bistro avoids the rut with daily specials and careful menu tinkering. 7811 Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-2249079. D Mon.-Sat.

InstructIonal coordInator-scIence (sherwood, ar): Dev. instr. material & coord. educ. content for Science teachers.

Master’s in Science or Educ. + 2 yrs exp. OR Bachelor’s in Science Educ. or related field + 5 yrs exp.

Mail res. to: Lisa Academy 21 Corporate Hill Dr. Little Rock, AR 72205, Attn: HR, Refer to Ad#MG.

Caroline, or Change An award winning musical set in Louisiana during the American civil rights movement, which tells the story of Caroline, a black maid working for a white Jewish family and a fragile, yet beautiful friendship that develops.

June 13 - 22

RewaRding PaRt time woRk with inteRnational teens CIEE is seeking motivated individuals to work with international high school students in the Central Arkansas area. Local Coordinators make a difference in communities by working with students, families, and schools. Potential to earn placement and supervision fees, bonuses, and may also qualify for all-inclusive domestic/ International travel.

To learn more, contact Melissa Gulledge at mgulledge@ciee.org.

To apply, visit: www.ciee.org/highschool Candidates must be 25 years of age.

Fridays & Saturdays 7:30pm Sundays 2:30pm $20 Adults $16 Students & Seniors Corner of 7th & Chester 1001 W 7th St · Little Rock For More Information & Tickets

501.374.3761 weekendtheater.org

RISTORANTE CAPEO Authentic cooking from the boot of Italy is the draw at this cozy, brick-walled restaurant on a reviving North Little Rock’s Main Street. Familiar pasta dishes will comfort most diners, but let the chef, who works in an open kitchen, entertain you with some more exotic stuff, too, like crispy veal sweetbreads. They make their own mozzarella fresh daily. 425 Main St. NLR. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-376-3463. D Mon.-Sat.

LATINO

JUANITA’S Menu includes a variety of combination entree choices — enchiladas, tacos, flautas, shrimp burritos and such — plus creative salads and other dishes. And of course the “Blue Mesa” cheese dip. 614 President Clinton Ave. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-372-1228. LD Tue.-Sat. LA SALSA MEXICAN & PERUVIAN CUISINE Mexican and Peruvian dishes, beer and margaritas. 3824 John F. Kennedy Blvd. NLR. Full bar, All CC. 501-753-1101. LD daily.

LOCAL LIME Tasty gourmet Mex from the folks who brought you Big Orange and ZaZa. 17815 Chenal Parkway. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$.

501-448-2226. LD daily.

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

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

TACO MEXICO Tacos have to be ordered at least two at a time, but that’s not an impediment. These are some of the best and some of the cheapest tacos in Little Rock. 7101 Colonel Glenn Road. No alcohol, No CC. $. 501-4167002. LD Wed.-Sun.

Libertycom LLC has openings for the position Sr.Software Engineer/SAP with bachelor’s degree in Comp Sc., Bus Admin, Engg, Tech or related & 5 yrs of rel exp to analyze, map business process in SAP environment. Develop, review project plans, identify, resolve issues and communicate status of assigned projects to users and manager. Review; edit requirements, specifications, business processes and recommendations to proposed solution. Resolve daily support issues related to system functionality, performance and efficiency.

Work location is Little Rock, AR with required travel to client locations throughout USA. Please mail resumes to 303 West Capitol, Suite # 270 & 325, Little Rock, AR 72201, USA or email to info@libertycom.com

ARKANSAS TIMES MARKETPLACE TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SECTION, CALL LUIS AT 501.375.2985

Issue Dates: Thursdays Material Deadline: Mondays, same week of publication.

Local Little Rock, AR company looking for a class A CDL driver.

Flatbed experience helpful.

Must have a clean background, driving record and pass drug screening.

Call 816-380-0741

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C U S T O M F U R N I T U R E tommy@tommyfarrell.com ■ 501.375.7225

Contact luis@arktimes.com 501-492-3974

NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC is hereby given, pursuant to Article 5, Section 1 of the Arkansas Constitution, that an Initiative Petition is being circulated and signatures are being gathered to place a proposed Constitutional Amendment on the November 4, 2014 General Election ballot.

On June 4, 2014, the Attorney General for the State of Arkansas issued Opinion No. 2014-056 whereby he approved and certified a Popular Name and Ballot Title for the proposed Constitutional Amendment. Petitions containing a sufficient number of signatures must be submitted to the Arkansas Secretary of State no later than July 7, 2014.

PUBLIC NOTICE DISADVANTAGED ENTERPRISE GOAL FOR FY2015 – FY2017 JUNE 10, 2014

The Central Arkansas Transit Authority (CATA) announces the proposed establishment of a 4.01% Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) utilization goal on Federal Transit Administration funded projects for FY2015 – FY2017.

A complete description of this proposed goal is available for public inspection for thirty (30) days from the date of this notice online at http://www.cat.org/doing-business-withcata/dbe-assistance.

In accordance with 49 CFR Part 26.45(g), CATA invites maximum public participation and solicits comments regarding the proposed goal. CATA will accept comments for forty-five (45) days from the date of this notice. Send all inquiries to Joe Procop at the below address or by email to jprocop@cat.org.

Central Arkansas Transit Authority 901 Maple Street North Little Rock, AR 72114 Attn: Joe Procop Eligible firms are encouraged to apply for DBE certification in Arkansas by contacting the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department EEO/DBE office.

The proposed Popular Name and Ballot Title as certified by the Attorney General are as follows: Popular Name: The Arkansas Hemp and Cannabis Amendment Ballot Title: An amendment proposed by the people to the Arkansas Constitution to provide, effective April 20, 2015, that the cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, sale, possession and use of the cannabis plant (genus cannabis) and all products derived from the cannabis plant (genus cannabis) are lawful in every geographic area of each and every county of this state; that, for purposes of this amendment, “hemp” is defined as any part of the cannabis plant (genus cannabis), living or not, containing one percent or less, by dry weight, Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (Delta-9-THC); that, for purposes of this amendment, “cannabis” is defined as any part of the cannabis plant (genus cannabis), living or not, containing greater than one percent, by dry weight, Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (Delta-9-THC); that the listed activities relating to “cannabis” devoted to personal, industrial or commercial use may be regulated but not prohibited by the General Assembly; and that the listed activities relating to “hemp” devoted to personal, industrial or commercial use may be regulated but not prohibited, subject to the condition that the number of plants cultivated or the products derived from manufacturing shall not be limited or prohibited by the General Assembly. Preemptive federal law will remain in effect unless altered by Congress.

The full text of the proposed initiated measure which would amend the Arkansas Constitution is as follows: Section 1. This is an Amendment to the Arkansas Constitution that shall be called “The Arkansas Hemp and Cannabis Amendment.”

Section 2. Effective April 20, 2015, the cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, selling, possessing and use of the cannabis plant (genus cannabis)and all products derived from the cannabis plant (genus cannabis) is lawful within the entire geographic area of each and every county of this State.

Section 3. “Hemp”is defined for purposes of this amendment as any part of the cannabis plant (genus cannabis), living or not, containing one percent or less, by dry weight, Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol(Delta-9-THC).

Section 4. “Cannabis” is defined for purposes of this amendment as any part of the cannabis plant (genus cannabis), living or not, containing greater than one percent, by dry weight, Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol(Delta-9-THC).

Section 5. The the cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, sale, possession and use of “Hemp” for personal, industrial, or commercial use may be regulated, but the number of plants cultivated or the products derived from manufacturing, shall not limited or prohibited, by the General Assembly.

Section 6. The the cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, sale, possession and use of “Cannabis” for personal, industrial, or commercial use may be regulated, but not prohibited, by the General Assembly.

Section 7. All laws which conflict with this amendment are hereby repealed to the extent that they conflict with this amendment.

Printed this 12th day of June, 2014.

Submitted by: Robert L. Reed

www.arktimes.com

JUNE 12, 2014

39

Central Arkansas Sprinkler Smart

Inspect.

Connect.

Direct.

Select.

Inspect your system for clogged, broken, or missing sprinkler heads.

Connect a rain sensor to your irrigation system to avoid watering when raining.

Direct sprinklers to apply water only to the landscape and avoid watering the driveway, house, or sidewalk.

Select a sprinkler time that avoids afternoon watering, as well as watering during the peak water usage time of day from 5:30 – 7:30 am.

Scan this QR code or call 501.340.6650 to learn more about this important program.

carkw.com 40

JUNE 12, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

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