Arkansas Times - Sept. 5, 2013

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SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

3

COMMENT

Beware of tar sands oil exposure Thank you so much for your work to publicize the horrific situation in Mayflower. Your articles are the only coverage being given to this terrible tragedy.

I live in Alberta, Canada, six hours south of the tar sands. In 1980, I got my first teaching contract in Fort McMurray, the center for the tar sands. Back then no one knew anything about the dangers. At the end of the first month after breathing the heavy pollution and seeing my daughter’s health affected, I left. I would love it if you could write about the effects of these toxic bitumen-diluting chemicals such as benzene and PAHs [polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons] so that the residents can be aware of the dangers to themselves and to their future children. This stuff alters DNA and the effects are passed down through generations. I’ve done my utmost to warn the residents through the Mayflower Facebook pages, but articles by you would help convince people they simply cannot stay in the area. I know their reluctance, I endured several years of poverty due to having left that teaching job but nothing is worth more than the health of the residents.

Julia Lewis Alberta, Canada

Access to UA board I continue to read about the internal chaos in the University of Arkansas System. Recently the university fired John Diamond, who was in charge of university relations and apparently was very concerned about the University’s lack of openness, accountability and freedom of information. All this follows on the heels of some stunning mismanagement in the financial fundraising office of advancement.

A small, but possibly relevant, hint as to the apparent insensitivity of many university administrators and trustee board members to public accountability and accessibility is on the web pages of these universities. For example, on the website of the University of Arkansas System Office there are wonderful photos of the board members and a paragraph about the background of each, but there is no prominent phone number or even a direct email address by which the public or employees may contact them directly without the filter of the university officials they are charged to oversee. This is also 4

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ARKANSAS TIMES

the case with a number of other universities in the state.

One would think that public institutions of higher learning would provide clear, multiple, and protected access for the public to the key decision and policy makers. Board of trustee members are at the top of that food chain.

William L. Russell Maumelle

Offended by Rapert characterization I read and appreciate your perspective and journalism for the Arkansas Times.

Reading Max Brantley’s online posting about Sen. Jason Rapert (Arkansas Blog, “Jason Rapert: Serves God before his constituents,” Aug. 29) prompts this direct response to you.

First, in my opinion, Sen. Rapert has his priorities right, in line with his faith. His faith is not only a private matter, but since he is an elected official, it is public as well.

Agree or disagree, he has the right to proclaim and live by his faith. As do you and I. Secondly, I appreciate the post on the Arkansas Times online page. I would not have known otherwise, and informing the public is a core tenet of journalism in America.

However, I am offended and disappointed in the tone and inference of the “editorial remarks” in the post. Specifically, “Sen. Jason Rapert of Conway/Bigelow presumably won’t anger the good Christians of his Senate district with a declaration that he serves God before them. Because, hey, he has a direct pipeline right? From God’s lips to Jason’s ears. Do what Jason says and you are marching for the Lord.”

You have crossed the line from good and accurate journalism into sarcasm and lampooning someone with whom you disagree politically. And perhaps theologically.

Frankly, that is offensive to Sen. Rapert, his constituents, me as an American who believes in the freedom of religion, and the Arkansas Times.

I urge you to get back on a higher road.

Please.

Bruce C. Alt Little Rock

Repub Ricks Where did all the Ricks come from?

Govs. Rick Snyder of Michigan, Rick Scott of Florida and Rick Perry of Texas are mentioned in the newspapers, along with the financial and political difficulties they and their states face.

I’ve only known one Rick, I think, a guy in California who was arrested for attack-

ing a deputy sheriff who had asked him to stop harassing beachgoers.

So, my personal experience with Ricks is limited. Did they all suddenly appear when another nickname for Richard achieved opprobrium? There was a baseball player named Richie who, as I remember, sparked some controversy.

Were all the Ricks something else before they became Ricks? A lot of people didn’t become Ricks. Dick Clark the music MC, Dick Donner the movie director, Dick Francis the writer.

Since Mr. Nixon and Mr. Cheney, the obvious answer is that the GOP doesn’t want any more Republican Dicks in the White House.

Jon Zimmer Fayetteville

Changing political tide in Arkansas Well, the political season has already begun, and the year is still 2013. Basically, candidates have around eight months until early voting begins for the primary elections next spring. The Republicans that win those primaries will likely go on to form our state government. In our federal delegation, there is only one Democrat left to weed out, Sen. Mark Pryor. The 2014 November general election will probably be Pryor’s last.

The year 2014 will be bad for Arkansas Democrats. There will be no presidential election, so the youths that admire President Obama will be too busy at work or school to show up at the polls. Also, the Democratic base in Arkansas is shrinking, while the Republican base grows with Arkansas’s general population. More Arkansans today are placing corporate values above democratic values, and are ready to sacrifice their own democratic powers.

Arkansans do not realize corporations do not govern. Corporations manipulate. Corporations are not in business to provide responsible government.

For many decades Arkansas had a distinct political personality. Arkansas was like a sweet Southern belle that could be wooed by the fanciest man. Unfortunately, Arkansas’s personality has changed.

Twelve years of war mentality have made Arkansas meaner and less reasonable.

2014 will see the end of what Arkansas was, and a different Arkansas will emerge.

The good old days are over.

Gene Mason Jacksonville

Fox up to old tricks I just watched reactions to President Obama’s news conference in which he

announced that he will ask Congress to vote on America’s response to Syria’s use of chemical weapons on its own people.

The hypocrisy of Fox News knows no bounds. These people have no moral compass to guide them. Had our president gone ahead and bombed Syria, they would have been the loudest voices condemning his actions for not going to Congress. Now that he has decided to ask Congress to debate this issue, he is condemned by Fox for not just jumping into the situation.

Charles Krauthammer, and the other puppets of the founders of the Fox network, Rupert Murdock and Roger Ailes, are moral cowards. Robots who just say what their masters tell them to say.

But what can you expect from anything created by Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdock?

Murdock and his son, along with other key executives at Fox have been exposed in Great Britain, as corrupt, heartless trash.

Roger Ailes was the key advisor to Richard Nixon, the most corrupt president this country ever elected, and a master of political dirty tricks. He is a lying criminal, with no heart or soul, who should have been imprisoned long ago.

Fox News, fair and balanced, the nospin zone. What a load of bovine excrement.

Butch Stone Maumelle

From the web In response to the cover story “The path of the Pegasus pipeline in Arkansas” (Aug. 29): Thank you for this story. It puts names and “faces” to the places of the pipeline.

Protecting the people of Arkansas, water and other natural resources is our responsibility.

Exxon is not a person, it is a company that looks at the bottom line. Exxon has many people that live here and care but in the end it is a numbers game. Using a 70-year-old pipeline as long as they have, even with occasional repairs and cleanup, is cheaper than building a safer newer line.

Eliminating the need for the pipeline all together would be the best option.

Keep up the good work and keep us informed on any changes or developments.

Miss Ellie

Submit letters to the Editor, Arkansas Times, P.O. Box 34010, Little Rock, AR 72203. We also accept letters via e-mail.

The address is arktimes@arktimes.com.

We also accept faxes at 375-3623. Please include name and hometown.

ORVAL

Please make plans to attend the lecture of

Mayor Julián Castro presented by the

Winthrop Rockefeller Distinguished Lectures “The Political Implications of Shifting Demographics In the 21st Century”

4:30 p.m., Tuesday, September 17 Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall Fine Arts Building University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Frank Deford

Comes to Little Rock Thursday, September 19 7 p.m.

Embassy Suites Acclaimed sportswriter and commentator to be featured at fundraiser benefiting public radio.

Admission is $100, and $50 is a tax-deductible donation.

Rex Nelson, Master of Ceremonies.

Mayor Julián Castro is the youngest mayor of a top 50 American city, San Antonio, Texas. He gained national attention when he delivered the keynote address at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Named to the World Economic Forum’s list of Young Global Leaders, Mayor Castro also landed on Time magazine’s “40 Under 40” list of rising political stars.

This event is free and open to the public, but reservations are required.

Call 501.569.3296 Co-sponsors UALR Chancellor’s Office UALR College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences

Reservations are available at kuar.org or 569-8485. www.arktimes.com

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

5

EDITORIAL

EYE ON ARKANSAS

Good move

I

That jacket

t was nearly 100 degrees in Fayetteville Saturday and most people were removing as much clothing as they could without getting arrested. When the Razorbacks’ new coach, Bret Bielema, came running onto the field in a zipped-up windbreaker, astonishment was general, from fans to TV announcers. After the initial shock, we were reminded of another Razorback coach who made his debut unconventionally attired.

Maybe it was his first game at Little Rock rather than his first game ever — memory grows furtive — but Lou Holtz once startled the multitude by leading his team onto the field while wearing a green sweater. The players, like the fans, were all in red. After the game, Holtz minimized the significance of the green sweater — just an old thing hanging in his closet — but Hog fans sent him hundreds of red sweaters and there was no more wearing of the green. We’re told that Bielema is superstitious and wears a windbreaker for luck at every game. It seems a strange practice at an institution of higher learning, and the dean of the College of Home Economics has issued a statement saying the coach’s clothing has no influence on the outcome of a football game. But most people will stick with the coach, as long as he’s winning. Beat Alabama and we’ll all wear windbreakers.

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BRIAN CHILSON

R

ight-wing critics of President Obama say he wants to increase the size and authority of the federal government, at the expense of the states and the people. If they’re honest about their own alleged desire to shrink the government to bathtub size, they now have the opportunity — some would call it an obligation — to say something nice about the president for a change.

The Obama administration announced last week that it would not interfere with state laws legalizing marijuana, even though marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes; Colorado and Washington recently authorized its use for recreation too.

In the past, national administrations, including Obama’s, have made state laws legalizing marijuana largely pointless, by prosecuting any activity in violation of federal restrictions. Some federal prosecutors were particularly aggressive. When Asa Hutchinson, now a gubernatorial candidate, was a belligerent federal drug czar under President George W. Bush, nervous types feared he’d use weapons of mass destruction against cancer victims who smoked marijuana to relieve their suffering. It turned out that Hutch, like Saddam Hussein, had no WMDs, or none that could be found.

Now the Obama administration demonstrates a willingness to respect voters who have decided a regulated marijuana market is preferable to a criminal market in their states. (Arkansas voters may join this happy band by approving a medical-marijuana initiative in 2014.)

The feds butting out of state business — why, that makes Obama a truer conservative than many of those who claim conservative credentials. We envision a plaque from the Tea Party.

WHERE IN ARKANSAS?: Know where this slice of life in Arkansas is? Send along the answer to Times photographer Brian Chilson and win a prize. Once a month in this space, we’ll post a shot from a relatively obscure spot in Arkansas for Times readers to identify.

We also invite photographers to contribute submissions to our eyeonarkansas Flickr group. Write to brianchilson@arktimes.com to guess this week’s photo or for more information.

UA’s corporate culture

Y

ou’d think that the University of Arkansas was a privately held family corporation. The Fayetteville campus is secretive, defensive and unfriendly to those who think the UA has broader responsibilities.

See: John Diamond. He was the associate vice chancellor of university relations. He was fired by the new vice chancellor for advancement, Chris Wyrick.

Diamond said he fell out of favor because he supported transparency, particularly in answering questions about the multi-million-dollar budget shortfall in the advancement division under the former leadership of Brad Choate.

Wyrick said Diamond had become insubordinate, not a team player. Team playing apparently means shutting up about the busted budget. Chancellor David Gearhart had grown weary of inquiries about the matter from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He wanted Diamond to put a sock in it. Diamond thought it was bad public relations policy to go mute on press inquiries (particularly when the questions came from the state’s largest news medium). Gearhart should have followed that advice in his ill-considered op-ed personal blast at the newspaper.

Wyrick came from the UA Athletic Department.

Secrets are a matter of official policy there. The department is heavily funded by contributions to the tax-exempt Razorback Foundation in the form of mandatory charges on game tickets. The coordination between public and private agencies should mean Foundation matters are open to the public. They are not.

The university has a similar relationship with the separate foundation that raises money for general university purposes. And, it figures in the Diamond affair. Gearhart once was the university’s chief fund-raiser. Tradition was that the advancement division spent what was necessary to raise money and any additional expenses were covered by the private foundation. Sometime last year, the foundation stopped providing blanket overdraft protection for Brad Choate’s division.

A legislative audit to be released next week might provide some insight on the policy change. One account

is that the foundation’s own auditors said the foundation could no longer just write blank checks in support of operations. The audit may also get into the details of the onset of problems. Coincidentally, MAX trouble began when a fund to pay BRANTLEY maxbrantley@arktimes.com deferred compensation to Chancellor Gearhart came up short. As money was transferred among accounts to keep bill collectors happy, was the payment to the chancellor near the top of the list of IOUs cleared?

Chris Wyrick is entitled to his own team, as Gearhart has said. He and Diamond might have proved an odd couple. But the UA hierarchy’s effort to demonize the mild-mannered Diamond as an irrational madman isn’t well-supported by evidence. Wyrick, a big and boisterous ex-jock, is more intimidating. He’s so sure of himself that he made silly racial and religious references about staff members, including Diamond, a Catholic, without a thought about how they might be received.

Wyrick showed himself, too, when the Bobby Petrino scandal broke and he was a top hand in the Athletic Department. After Petrino was forced to admit he’d lied about his initial account of a motorcycle wreck, Wyrick texted the coach with promises of support and a helpful PR strategy. Wyrick insists those texts came before all was known about Petrino’s influence on hiring a girlfriend. He said he supported Athletic Director Jeff Long in Petrino’s firing and insists he praised Diamond for crisis PR management, including crafting the widely praised speech by Long defending the firing.

Some think Diamond’s role in the Petrino matter was the beginning of his problem. There, too, he favored transparency. Particularly in athletics, it is not a trait for which UA has been known. The university resists FOI requests, it keeps secret about finances and, now, it has fired a high official who found secrecy a poor policy. And they want the public to think Diamond is the bad guy.

OPINION

Setting the Dem-Gaz straight

F

or every complex human problem rest, but the fable that low or nonexistent there is an answer that is simple, taxes are the secret to prosperity and hapattractive — and wrong. When H. L. piness endures. The 2014 governor’s race Mencken made that observation he might got underway with the three Republican have had Arkansas in mind because he candidates promisoften did when he was most cynical. ing to slash income Back when Mencken was celebrating taxes and maybe Arkansas as the land of ignorance, Arkan- even do away with sas had the nation’s lowest taxes. Actually, them. When the its leaders could boast of its spectacularly Democratic canERNEST low taxes and the country’s best business didate, Mike Ross, DUMAS climate from statehood in 1836 until a said he was not quarter-century after World War II. You going to cut taxes if it impaired services know where it got us. Last place in nearly like schools, colleges, prisons and medical everything. services, the four programs that consume Our taxes were so much lower than three-fourths of the state’s general taxes, those of all the other states that the fed- he was hammered not only by the Repuberal government in 1934 ended federal aid licans but by the statewide newspaper. for food relief and education in this one One more time: The history of tax cuts state until it levied taxes to help the feds and increases do not support their theory feed half the population that was starving. — not in the United States, not in Arkansas.

The federal government had been paying One example should suffice. Republican Arkansas teachers their pittance because presidents and congresses slashed taxes the state could not. Fearing riots, the leg- four times in the 1920s. What came next?

That fine Republican Winthrop Rockislature and Gov. Futrell put a penny sales tax on some foodstuffs and taxed liquor efeller saw the flaw in the theory. Arkansas and beer. would forever trail the rest of the country, You might think that our own example he said, as long as it did not invest in good across 140 years would put the idea to schools and colleges, public health insti-

Race-baiting

W

hen people call for a national “conversation” about race, what they really have in mind is a lecture. Sometimes President Obama is among them. So at the expense of alienating critical race theorists, some heresy: If the president wants to understand why he heard car door locks clicking as he walked down the street, he should study those two appalling homicides in Duncan, Okla., and Spokane, Wash., that Fox News is beating the drums about.

Yeah, yeah. I know. Fox, Rush Limbaugh and the rest are race-baiting. It’s what they do. “Fox News Desperately Searches For The White Trayvon Martin” is how Media Matters put it. The ever-reliable Salon informed readers about “The Right’s Black Crime Obsession.”

Both publications laid down the liberal party line: that what Salon condescendingly called the “conservative cri de Coeur” about the trio of Oklahoma teenagers who gunned down an Australian baseball player jogging through their neighborhood was essentially phony. Local police saw no racial motive.

(Never mind that one of the two AfricanAmerican perps posted this on twitter: “90% of white ppl are nasty. #HATE THEM.”) Of course local cops saw no racial motive in the Trayvon Martin killing either, but hold that thought.

There’s also the case of Delbert “Shorty”

Belton, an 88-yearold World War II veteran mugged in Spokane by two black teenagers who stole his wallet.

GENE The victim’s family LYONS has understandably resisted attempts to turn Belton’s death into racial symbolism. No less an authority than the New York Times’ Timothy Egan — for whom I have great respect — lamented how quickly the crime “went from an all-toocommon tale of urban violence to a politicized narrative and magnet for racists.”

“It is much easier to incite racial fear than to try to examine the mechanics of evil,” Egan explained. “Yes, blacks commit a disproportionate amount of the homicides in this country, and are disproportionate among the victims. Is that because of their race?”

In a word, no.

Me, I’m with Mark Twain: “I have no color prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. All I care to know is that a man is a human being, and that is enough for me; he can’t be any worse.”

That said, special pleading by adepts of the Trayvon Martin cult strikes me as willful blindness. For more than a year, nearly every “mainstream” news organization in

tutions and services, highways and other programs that improved people’s lives and opportunities and made the state appealing to investors. He tried in 1969 and 1970 to raise tax revenues by 50 percent, including a top income tax rate of 12 percent on himself and a half-dozen other very rich men, but the Democratic legislature slapped him down. Over the next dozen years, governors took his message to heart and raised a few taxes, including the income tax. Sure enough, Arkansas improved its ranking among the states on nearly every measure of well-being.

But that’s not the story the DemocratGazette editorial told to bolster the new Republican economic strategy. It is well established, the paper said, that cutting taxes increases government revenues.

Common sense tells you no, but the paper said that was the history, at least “since John F. Kennedy lowered the capital gains tax and reaped higher revenues.” Then it said Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush all did the same thing with the same result — a surge in revenues.

Kennedy didn’t cut any taxes. He proposed a reform of the tax code in January 1963 but he couldn’t pass it. Part of it was enacted three months after his death. It didn’t change the tax treatment of capi-

tal gains.

Reagan cut income taxes in 1981, including a new low rate of 20 percent on capital gains. The country fell into the deepest recession since the 1930s, unemployment hit double digits for 10 straight months, revenues flattened for four years and deficits soared to the highest in history. In 1986, his overhaul of the tax code lowered the top rate on salaried income, raised —yes, raised — the rate on capital gains and generally raised taxes. Revenues improved, deficits fell.

Clinton lowered the capital gains rate in the midst of a roaring economy. George W. Bush cut the tax rate on regular income and capital gains. What followed were massive deficits and the worst jobs-andgrowth decade since World War II. And Arkansas? In 1999, when Mike Huckabee exempted 30 percent of capital gains from taxes, did it cause a rush in state revenues? Income tax receipts had grown at a rate of 8.1 percent a year the three years before the tax cut but grew at only 2.4 percent the next three years. Then Huckabee pleaded with the legislature to raise income taxes for two years so that he could pay the bills. It did and he did.

That’s the history. Everyone is entitled to his theory, but not to his own facts.

the United States portrayed young Martin’s death as the racial atrocity of the century — based largely on tendentious and erroneous reporting greatly influenced by the Martin family lawyers.

Looking back, some of it continues to amaze. Bob Somerby recently analyzed an appearance by former prosecutor and CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin in March 2012, as the publicity campaign to make Florida prosecutors charge George Zimmerman with murder neared its crescendo.

Suffice it to say that virtually everything Hostin told CNN viewers about the evidence was shown to be upside-down and backwards at trial. She’d gotten nearly every dispositive fact about the fatal confrontation between Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin wrong. Not that it altered her opinion or anybody else’s as the trial went on to its inevitable conclusion.

After the verdict, along came the professors and critical race theorists to further confuse matters. On PBS News Hour Professor Jelani Cobb (University of Connecticut) alleged that “the fact of the matter is, Mr. Zimmerman had called the police 46 times in the previous six years — only for AfricanAmericans, only for African-American men.”

Sorry, professor, but The Daily Beast catalogued them. The actual number of calls involving black men was seven, two of them Trayvon Martin.

Then came Professor Patricia Williams (Columbia University Law). Writ-

ing in The Nation, Williams objected to the racial “monsterization” of Trayvon Martin — describing how defense lawyer Mark O’Mara “dropped a huge chunk of concrete, bigger and more jagged than a cinder block, in front of the jury box — as though onto Zimmerman — from a great and death-dealing height.”

Would it shock you to learn that this lurid episode never happened? Watch O’Mara’s closing argument on YouTube if you doubt me.

Anyway, here’s my point: If we’re going to have a healing conversation about race and crime, it’d help if people would quit making wild exaggerations and accusations of bad faith. The differences between Fox News and MSNBC-style racial demagoguery are largely a matter of style.

Ultimately too, the exact motives of the Oklahoma and Spokane murderers strike me as far less significant than their extreme brutality and near-suicidal indifference to human life. It comes in all colors, God knows.

However, the statistics Timothy Egan (and President Obama) alluded to are stark: According to the Center for Disease Control, the youth homicide rate (per 100,000) is 28.8 for blacks, 7.9 for Hispanics, 2.1 for whites.

Overall, the African-American homicide rate is eight times greater than the national average — an ongoing tragedy this bickering does nothing to heal. www.arktimes.com

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

7

W O RDS

Not there In our Aug. 8 discussion of the phrase “out of pocket,” we quoted various sources as saying that it properly means “out of funds,” but that “Somehow over the past year or so, ‘out of pocket’ has become a new business catchphrase meaning ‘unreachable, out of communication,’ which is incorrect.” Unable to find a source to the contrary, I wishy-washily agreed, even though it seemed to me that I’d heard “out of pocket” used to mean “unreachable,” not by business phrasecatchers and longer than a year or so ago.

I’ve since ventured out into the August heat to walk a couple of blocks to the public library — a words columnist’s gotta do what a words columnist’s gotta do — where I consulted the Dictionary of American Regional English. And there I found that “out of pocket” is indeed used, especially in the South and Southwest, to mean “absent or otherwise unavailable.” The first printed use that DARE cited was from 1967, but the expression probably was heard in conversation well before then.

The Telegraph, a newspaper in Alton, Ill., referred to “Pickett, Ark.” William Montgomery writes, “I’m betting this is

another town that only sounds like ‘Pickett’ but actually has g’s and an o in it.” And is about as close to Illinois as one can get without leaving Arkansas.

DOUG SMITH dougsmith@arktimes.com

“Nichols said Slade, an information technology professional from Darwin, either died of chest injuries or drowned as the 1,430-pound reptile dragged him under in a disorientating crocodile maneuver known as a death roll.”

Disorientating crocodile maneuvers are not to my liking, and neither is the use of orientate and disorientate in place of orient and disorient. The shorter, less pretentious orient says clearly enough “to get one’s bearings or sense of direction.”

Orientate is what Garner’s Modern American Usage calls a “needless variant.” It is more common in British than American usage, according to Success With Words.

The crocodile attack occurred in Australia, where the British style takes precedence, I suppose.

WEEK THAT WAS

It was a good week for ...

F O CAL on the

r o a d

ARKANSAS COLLEGE FOOTBALL. The University of Arkansas, Arkansas State University and the University of Central Arkansas all handled their opponents with ease.

Optimism abounds. But it’s early.

MAYFLOWER RESIDENTS. The state of Arkansas announced that, five months after an Exxon pipeline burst in Mayflower, it would begin offering free health screenings to people who live in the area who say exposure to fumes from the oil leak has made them sick.

It was a bad week for ...

LT. GOV. MARK DARR. After only a couple of weeks in the race, he dropped his congressional bid for the Fourth District. Darr said he was exiting to focus on his family, but campaign-spending violations pointed out by Matt Campbell of Blue Hog Report no doubt were a factor (more on page 20).

REP. ANDY DAVIS. The Little Rock Republican’s legislation to make it easier to 8

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ARKANSAS TIMES

get water permits discharging minerals into streams seems to have backfired. In reaction to the law, which may run afoul of the federal Clean Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency will now be reviewing those water permits, which will slow down the permitting process and could eventually lead to stricter federal oversight on all water permits.

T-SHIRT CANNONS. A pneumatic launcher discharged while it was on the artificial turf of Razorback Stadium, not in use, on Saturday, striking a UA marketing intern, who was carried away on a stretcher. The intern, whose name hasn’t been released, was treated and released from the hospital. The university said it wouldn’t use a T-shirt launcher at this weekend’s game at War Memorial Stadium.

SALINE COUNTY SHERIFF BRUCE PENNINGTON. Following his guilty plea on public intoxication and resisting arrest charges, he rightly announced his plan to retire. Several days later, he had second thoughts, announcing that he wouldn’t retire and planned to seek election to another term in 2014.

The Saline County Quorum Court was expected to urge the sheriff to resign on Tuesday (after our deadline).

ALSO: Tommy Morrison, the Gravette, Ark.,-born boxer who once held a heavyweight title and appeared in “Rocky V,” died in Omaha. He was 44.

THE OBSERVER NOTES ON THE PASSING SCENE

Fiat Flux THE OBSERVER HAS BEEN READING around a bit this morning in a new book just out from the University of Arkansas Press called “Fiat Flux,” edited by historian William B. Lindsey, which collects the diary and other writings of philosopher and country doctor W.R. Bachelor, who moved from Tennessee to Arkansas’s Franklin County in 1870 and died there in 1903.

The title — Bachelor’s way of saying life is fleeting — comes from his constant awareness of the passage of time in his life and writings; years, seasons, months, hours, sometimes even minutes. Most folks, even the smart ones, don’t realize until the very last that our lives are always spinning away.

Ol’ Dr. Bachelor knew it, though. His life as an agnostic and freethinker (content to believe in, as he put it, “one world at a time”) coupled with his sense of life constantly flowing past him like a river stone caused him to see every moment and experience as something unique and beautiful. That’s a good way to live, in The Observer’s estimation.

The more we read of this book, the more The Observer realizes that Bachelor was a kinsman to us. Such beautiful writing, too: so true and brave and honest about where he fit in.

Here, for example, is Dr. Bachelor writing just after the hour chimed midnight on New Year’s Eve 1892. Imagine him there at his desk, Future Dweller. See him there, hunched over a pen in the lamplight, scribbling out his overflowing heart as the clock ticked solemnly into a new year: “1892 is gone!

“Gone, with its clamor of multitudes, and the unrest of millions. Gone with its statesmen, poets, millionaires and paupers.

“Gone. High, throbbing hopes and abject despair. All gone into the great maelstrom of nature’s laboratory. The sinking ship, the devastating cyclone, the cholera pestilence.

“Time. What can I say of time? Turning toward the vision of the past, what do I see?

Millions of solar systems. Before the nebular cohered to an orb, time was.

“The primeval beds of oceans — the sunken Atlantis, are the trophies of time.

The extinct mastodon, the cave bear and the maker of flint arrows. The Incas of Peru, and the Negritos of India, swallowed up in time.

“Time is change. It is as limitless as space.

Cycles of time have wrought nature as we see it. Cycles will still make future changes.

“Time is as deathless as eternity. It is eternity. It never had a beginning. It will never have an ending. Its silence is eloquent with colliding suns, grating worlds and hissing orbs. Its pathway is strewn with wrecks. The Sphinx still gazes, while Balbec, Memphis and Thebes lie in ruins.

The pyramids of the Toltecs are sinking into the sand, and Cholua is crumbling to dust. Where the priest offered sacrifice and chanted the weird rites of the Aztecs, the scorpion now rears her behind. Cortez has passed away, and the halls of the Montezumas are silent.

“Human life is an electric sunbeam. Let us improve every moment. Good acts and kind words will never die. Let us not think of self, but for future humanity. And welcome 1893.”

And then there are these heartbreaking words from Bachelor’s eulogy at the funeral of his son, who died of consumption in August 1895, the doctor brave enough to avoid clutching at humbug even in the face of his grief: “Friends, I undertake the painful task of speaking a few words at the final resting place of my son. What shall I say of death?

It is birth. It is life. Every moment a man is born, every moment, one dies. A few years ago, we were not. A few years hence and all now living will be gone. Death is the inexorable law of nature. Do you ask me what becomes of the intelligence, love, hopes, fears of the dead? My answer is: where is motion when the wheel stops, or light gone when the candle goes out? All is nature — all in the Universe... He was a filial son, a loving brother, a true friend. He stood for truth and right. We leave him in the arms of mother earth, among the birds and flowers, green fields, babbling brooks and the golden sunshine. Farewell — a long farewell.”

As The Observer likes to tell our writing classes: we don’t know a damn thing about God, or heaven, or the afterlife. But we do know how you get immortality. It’s in your desk drawer. Has a ball point. Less than a buck at any grocery store. Available in several stylish colors, and fits right in your pocket. No hocus-pocus required, just a willingness to tell the truth of who you were. Then you can live forever, just like the Good Doctor.

Then there are some of us who say good riddance to the past. Especially Monday, when we pulled ourselves up off the floor using the bathroom sink and pulled the damn thing out of the wall. Electric sunbeam, ha!

BOSWELL MOUROT FINE ART Opening Reception:

Windows SatuRday, Sep. 7 6-9pm New works

By peggy port through September 28 At right: Verona VII, 60”x 36”

5815 KAVANAUGH BLVD LITTLE ROCK, AR 72207 (501) 664-0030 • boswellmourot.com A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Ovarian Cancer Research.

It’s a suds sippin’ safari at the Little Rock Zoo! Sample beer and party with the animals!

Thursday, Sept. 19th, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. $25 per person

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Call (501) 661-7208 for information or to purchase tickets.

Or go to: www.littlerockzoo.com/brew Please bring ID. Must be at least 21 year old to attend.

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Calm victory

W

ell, this is awkward. Pearls is gonna be pretty complaint-free this week.

The most hellish opening-game conditions imaginable for Bret Bielema’s debut — a friend fired off a text around halftime saying he had left Reynolds Razorback Stadium due to fears of skin cancer — could not disrupt the most businesslike and steady Hog opener in decades.

Beating Louisiana-Lafayette 34-14 looks “about right� when sizing up a mid-level SEC team against the presumptive class of the Sun Belt, but as is commonly the case, the stat sheet reveals only half-truths about the proceedings. Arkansas so thoroughly exacted control that once the fourth quarter began, it felt like those early-season games in the Nutt or Petrino years where the postgame wrap-up could be written long before the final horn.

Except, oddly, this was much smoother.

You might recall that even as Bielema’s predecessors piled up gaudy stats in cupcake games, there was generally cause for concern. Last year, the ignominy of the John L. Smith era commenced in earnest from the very first game — yes, it was a thorough rout of Jacksonville State, but it also teased issues that became prevalent immediately thereafter. Tyler Wilson made bad decisions, Knile Davis lacked explosiveness, the defense gave up some extended drives and whiffed on tackles, and the special teams didn’t distinguish themselves.

So what can you say about the way Bielema’s unheralded bunch performed in the afternoon deep fryer? Notably, you can call attention to how a young team soldiered on like NFL-level veterans. On-field discipline and adherence to fundamentals was in full bloom from commencement to conclusion. The Hogs battered the Cajuns at the start with seven straight runs, then Brandon Allen calmly tossed three completions, including a well-designed scoring throw to an uncovered Javontee Herndon. The offensive line’s transition to roadgrading looked stunningly complete as the relatively untested Grady Ollison and Brey Cook just ably knocked the ULL line onto its heels play after play.

And it all held up well from there. By the time the Hogs finished, Allen had demonstrated plenty of wherewithal in the passing game, efficiently connecting on 15 of 22 throws for 230 yards and three scores. He got sacked but once, and none of his throws were in danger of being corralled by anyone but his own target.

Not enough laudatory verbiage can be directed toward the tailback duo of Jonathan Williams and Alex Collins, either.

On a day that was endurance killing by default, two guys with fresh legs alternated bellcow duties impeccably.

BEAU Collins turned out WILCOX to be the grinder, logging 21 carries in his collegiate debut and popping off 8 to 12 yards with fiendish regularity. And Williams, who got off to a fine start and then was waylaid in the second quarter, essentially cemented the win with a 75-yard score in the third quarter.

That jaunt looked much like the one Knile Davis employed against Ole Miss in 2010 as his breakout moment.

But the game turned, early in fact, on Arkansas making quick and emphatic defensive adjustments. What dogged Willy Robinson in 2010-11 is that his units seemingly had to spend an entire half or more in a complete fog before they’d offer modest resistance. Granted, ULL is allegedly of a lesser caliber on the whole, but at the start Saturday, its offense was predictably efficient behind Terrance Broadway and muscular receiver Jamal Robinson.

How did the Hogs respond? ULL logged 136 yards on its first two drives, ending in a shanked short field goal and Alonzo Harris TD run, respectively. The Cajuns’ remaining nine possessions yielded only 138 yards in the aggregate. Arkansas’s offense was buoyed by the defense applying terrific pressure on Broadway (Trey Flowers turned in a conference Defensive Player of the Week effort, and Chris Smith and Deatrich Wise were in the running as well), and ULL’s cagey quarterback lost any semblance of rhythm and accuracy as a result.

Were it not for Hunter Henry getting his pocket picked for an arguable fumble call in the third period, and then backup John Henson whiffing a 34-yard field goal attempt late, I’d have to pin this one with as close to a perfect grade as possible. The penalties (4 for 30 yards) were neither numerous nor crippling, and the offense’s maniacal execution of Jim Chaney’s game plan meant that Arkansas won the time of possession battle by an unqualified landslide.

For all the unknowns that accompanied this opener, the entire Razorback fan base was tweaking its expectations about this team in short order. Bielema won’t concern himself with that, as he’s got to prep the squad for Samford in Little Rock as if the Bulldogs are upstarts (three FCS schools did beat FBS teams in the opening weekend), but he may have to work overtime to remind his players that their successes are measured over months, not hours.

What if cigarrette ads told you the way things really were? Like the fact that tobacco smoke contains ammonia, the same ingredient used to clean toilets. Gross. Don’t fall for Big Tobacco’s pack of lies. If you’re ready to quit, we can help. Just call 1-800-QUIT-NOW.

Arkansas Department of Health

www.arktimes.com

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Arkansas Reporter

THE

IN S IDE R

Dexter Suggs, new superintendent of the Little Rock School District, has a military background, so teachers and staff weren’t wholly surprised when he instituted a staff dress code for this school year.

Dress has not been a part of employee contracts, except for an employee handbook requirement that employees dress “appropriately” and in “good taste.”

Suggs’ rules were far more specific.

No T-shirts. No jeans. No open-toed shoes. No tennis shoes. They were put into effect with some differences in enforcement from building to building.

Teachers complained.

Enter Cathy Koehler, who heads the Little Rock Education Association, the union for district employees. She took concerns to the superintendent, fearful in part of a fight over clothes that could overshadow a more important new contract on pay and health insurance benefits.

The result was a compromise. Employees were advised that as part of the new culture Suggs wants to institute a greater attention to appearance. And he distributed a new dress code, but said it wouldn’t take effect until the 2014-15 school year. You get the idea he’d like to see it honored in spirit before then.

Some changes were made. There’ll be some days when jeans are acceptable. Tennis shoes will be allowed in some places, sandals, too. But there are many admonitions about “message” clothing, revealing clothing and other requirements.

One teacher objected to the need to explicitly say “foundation garments” were required. Really, she asked. The superintendent needs to tell female employees to wear a bra?

Some teachers complained that the details should have been negotiated. In a letter explaining what had happened, Koehler responded: “Working with administration, I was able to include in the Dress Code that it not become Policy for a year so that employees have an opportunity to adjust. In my mind, the worst thing that could have happened was to receive a directive saying as of a certain date all employees had to comply or face immediate disciplinary action. I thought it best to be ‘at the table, not on the menu.’ ” CONTINUED ON PAGE 13 12

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State offers health screenings for Mayflower residents Five months after an ExxonMobil spill, those who say it made them sick will get free medical attention.

BY ELIZABETH MCGOWAN

I

s it too little, too late?

That’s the question Mayflower residents are asking now that the state is finally offering them access to free health assessments five months after a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline emptied 210,000 gallons of heavy crude into their city.

Since the SPECIAL March 29 spill, REPORT many people have continued to suffer from dizziness, headaches, nausea and vomiting — classic symptoms of short-term exposure to the chemicals found in crude oil.

While 22 homes in the Northwoods subdivision were evacuated on that Good Friday afternoon, people who lived nearby were allowed to remain in their homes.

If the smells or symptoms were overwhelming, they could leave their homes voluntarily, they were told.

“Five months out is a little late, but people are still sick,” said Ann Jarrell, who wasn’t evacuated and is still suffering from respiratory problems. “I’ll continue to scream from the tallest tree that we need help.”

Until Gov. Mike Beebe announced the assessments last Thursday, officials with the state Department of Health had said repeatedly that Mayflower residents shouldn’t worry about lingering fumes. Those with symptoms were directed to call the Arkansas Poison Control Center and to attend public meetings the department organized.

The assessments were to begin Tuesday. After an initial screening by a public health nurse at the Faulkner

BRIAN CHILSON

Dress for success

JARRELL

County Health Unit in Conway, residents may be eligible for further evaluation or treatment from specialists with the Health Department and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

“We’ve been listening to people and trying to figure out what our role can be,” Health Department spokesman Ed Barham said about the decision to offer the assessments. “It seems that we needed to do more. This is what we’ve come up with.”

Arkansas isn’t the first state trying to

protect residential neighborhoods from health problems connected with an oil spill. Since 2010, health experts in Utah and Michigan have also been forced to cobble together their own guidelines, based on a patchwork of scientific and regulatory recommendations. Federal guidelines on oil spills don’t clearly state when or if the public should be evacuated, or what should be done to assess public health in the weeks and months after a spill.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

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INSIDER, CONT.

Active shooter makes news

RAPERT ROULETTE

BIG PICTURE

1. “I have the same vision, I think, that the Founding Fathers of this country had.”

A. Sen. Jason Rapert B. Former KKK grand wizard David Duke

2. Responding to a critic: “If you’re a Christian, and you believe God’s Word, then our beliefs would be the same.”

A. Sen. Jason Rapert B. Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps.

3. “We have no option. We can’t say ‘maybe’ ‘it’s possible,’ ‘it looks very probable.’ No way! We have to say this is what the Bible teaches! This is fact!”

A. Sen. Jason Rapert B. Failed 2011 doomsday prophet Harold Camping

4. “If there’s ever more of an evil organization, it’s one that makes hundreds of millions of dollars killing innocent children in our nation.”

A. Sen. Jason Rapert B. Abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph

5. “[The Holy book contains] a complete methodology for the lives of all people, and our holding firm to this magnificent book is the secret of our strength.”

A. Sen. Jason Rapert B. Osama Bin Laden

6. “We’re not going to allow minorities to run roughshod over what you people believe in.”

A) Sen. Jason Rapert B) Alabama Gov. George Wallace

7. Speaking about the president of the United States: “You don’t represent the country I grew up with, and your values is not going to save us. We’re going to take this country back for the Lord!”

A) Sen. Jason Rapert B) Cult leader Tony Alamo

Answers: B, A, B, A, B, A, A

THE

This week, another video of state Sen. Jason Rapert of Bigelow/Conway went viral, this one featuring selections from his speech to an evangelical Christian rally in Ohio, with Rapert telling the assembled faithful that, among other things, those who supported Texas Sen. Wendy Davis in her pro-choice filibuster were akin to demons from hell, that Christians are engaged in “spiritual warfare,” and that the opinions of the people in his district aren’t anywhere near as important to him as the opinion of his Bro Upstairs. “There’s only one vote that matters in my life,” Rapert said. “Unfortunately, it’s not the 83 — 85,000 people in my district. There’s only one vote that matters. That’s when I stand before the Lord at that judgment seat.”

Below are a series of quotes. See if you can tell which ones came from Rapert, and which were said by another historical figure.

Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, who faces a tough re-election fight, decided to make a little favorable news for himself last week by presiding over a legislative committee hearing on the use of armed staff in schools for heightened security.

Guns are prohibited on school campuses except in the hands of certified law officers and privately hired security guards.

A few schools had engineered a workaround — getting security guard licensing for staff members. But an opinion of Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said that wasn’t possible under the law. This had the immediate effect of derailing a plan by the Clarksville School District to send 20 staff members, including a kindergarten teacher, into buildings with concealed weapons.

In the course of preparing for the hearing, Hutchinson was interviewed by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. It reported, deep in the article: “After the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, Hutchinson became interested in arming school personnel, he said. He was invited to attend an ‘active shooter’ training and — using a rubber-bullet-loaded pistol — he mistakenly shot a teacher who was confronting a ‘bad guy.’ ” He said he still supported allowing schools to deploy more guns.

The quote was too good for our Arkansas Blog to pass up. We highlighted it in a blog post and soon it was rippling around the Internet, landing on such widely read sites as Gawker. Talking Points Memo interviewed Hutchinson at length. He explained he and Rep. Kim Hammer were in on an exercise in Benton. He added that he didn’t shoot a teacher — rather a police officer playing the role of a teacher.

That led to more Hutchinson quotes.

“It was intense, enlightening and when we weren’t being shot, it was fun,” said Sen. Hutchinson. “I learned how little I knew about school safety.”

Hutchinson, unwittingly, made a case against arming even trained people with guns for situations with active shooters, uncertain identities, children in the line of fire and high adrenaline.

He told Talking Points Memo about the Benton exercise: “The first two simulations they were just all bad guys, and so we got used to running in, you’d go to the sound of the gunfire,” Hutchinson said. “And then they threw a twist in on the third one, where there was what appeared to be a bad guy in the hallway, shooting into the classroom.

And so, just instinctively, I shot. And then I turned the corner and see that the bad guy that I had just shot was actually shooting with another bad guy, which kind of blew my mind for a second.” www.arktimes.com

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

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INTEGRATION WAS THE

ANSWER Activists wanted their rights.

Businessmen wanted

COURTESY OF UALR CENTER FOR ARKANSAS HISTORY AND CULTURE

LR economy to grow.

WAITING: Outside of Walgreens in downtown Little Rock in 1960.

F

BY JOHN A. KIRK

ifty years ago, Little Rock brought to an end its long-standing policy of racial segregation in most downtown public and some private facilities. It eventually did so without the upheaval and conflict experienced in many other Southern cities. In the April 1963 edition of Jet magazine, black reporter John Britton wrote a feature-length story about the city’s progress. He quoted James Forman, executive secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), as saying that Little Rock was “just about the most integrated [city] in the south.”

The picture was a far cry from September 1957, when the Little Rock school crisis made the city a symbol of racial hatred around the world. Although white businessmen seized control of the Little Rock School Board from segregationists and reopened schools on a token

desegregated basis in August 1959, the city had remained in an economic quagmire. Many businesses refused to locate to the city, fearing bad publicity and difficulty in recruiting employees.

Yet white businessmen were slow to grasp the lessons of 1957. While many other chambers of commerce in the South vowed not to become “another Little Rock” and to instead address their racial issues head on, Little Rock leaders initially buried their heads in the sand.

As director of industrial development for the city’s chamber of commerce Everett Tucker put it, “The best thing for Little Rock to do now is nothing.”

Paralyzed by fear of negative publicity should it try to instigate any form of racial change, Little Rock began to fall behind other Southern cities. When the 1960 sit-in movement led by black college students erupted across the South, CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 www.arktimes.com

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

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COURTESY RAYMOND MERRITT

DOWNTOWN LITTLE ROCK: Circa 1963.

many upper-South cities took the opportunity to desegregate facilities. Business leaders there argued that segregation was no longer worth the economic disruption caused by black protests. The situation in Little Rock was very different. When black students from Philander Smith College tried to launch a sit-in movement in the city, they met with harsh fines and stiff prison sentences that quickly ground the movement to a halt.

In 1961, the Freedom Rides arrived in Little Rock. The rides had gained national attention earlier that year when, sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), groups of interracial riders on interstate buses had met with violent resistance in their attempts to use bus terminals that were under federal court order to desegregate.

Little Rock’s Freedom Riders were part of a follow-up campaign of demonstrations across the South. City police arrested the Freedom Riders on arrival. However, they were offered a deal by local Judge Quinn Glover: agree to leave the state and go home and they would be released. When they refused this request, Glover was ready to throw the book at them.

Only at that point did city leaders intervene.

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Again, the fear of negative racial headlines drove their response. Glover recanted and allowed the Freedom Riders to continue their journey out of the state.

Though the Freedom Ride failed to make the desired impact on whites in Little Rock, it did act as a catalyst for action in the black community. Dismayed by the city’s response to the sit-ins and embarrassed by the treatment of the Freedom Riders, a young cadre of black medical professionals, Dr. William H. Townsend, Dr. Morris A. Jackson, Dr. Garman P. Freeman and his wife Dr. Evangeline Upshur, decided to act.

In the 1960s, their offices on Wright Avenue became the headquarters of a new local civil rights organization, the Council on Community Affairs (COCA).

COCA dedicated itself to providing the type of coordinated black community leadership needed to address the city’s continuing segregation. On March 8, 1962, 22 of its members filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the city Board of Directors for the desegregation of “public parks, recreational facilities, Joseph T. Robinson Auditorium and all other public facilities.” Members of the City Board were willing to admit that the desegregation of public facilities

was “a foregone conclusion” if the case went to court, but they remained committed to fighting the lawsuit if only to buy time to devise other methods to avoid desegregation.

In an attempt to inject some urgency into desegregation efforts, the Arkansas Council on Human Relations, an interracial civil rights organization and affiliate of the Atlanta-based Southern Regional Council, invited SNCC into the state to reinvigorate direct action protests.

SNCC sent 23-year-old seasoned activist Bill Hansen to the city to work with Philander Smith students. In late 1962, a new wave of sit-ins began to target segregated lunch counters.

The outbreak of new demonstrations prompted executive director of Downtown Little Rock Limited, Willard A. (“Lefty”) Hawkins, to contact Philander Smith student Worth Long.

Hawkins informed Long that a group of businessmen had formed a Downtown Negotiating Committee (DNC) headed by James Penick, president of Worthen Bank, and were willing to meet with students. Alongside Penick on the DNC was Little Rock Chamber of Commerce president Will Mitchell, who had been instrumental in organizing the Stop this Outrageous Purge (STOP) campaign to oust segregationists

COURTESY OF UALR CENTER FOR ARKANSAS HISTORY AND CULTURE, NATIONAL DUNBAR HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS

SUTTON: Part of COCA.

lunch counters. The only dissent came from Amis Guthridge, head of the Capital Citizens’ Council, an affiliate of the Association of White Citizens’ Councils of Arkansas, who led a handful of die-hard segregationists in a picket of stores. Mixing anti-Semitism with anti-black feeling, they targeted Blass (which, like many other downtown stores, was owned by a Jewish family) with signs that read, “These Jews serve niggers” and “Gus Blass Company serves niggers out of the same plates as whites.” When the picketing had no effect at all, the pro-segregation demonstrations ceased.

UPSHUR: Helped start COCA.

COURTESY OF UALR CENTER FOR ARKANSAS HISTORY AND CULTURE

from the Little Rock School Board during the school crisis; Arthur Phillips, president of M.M. Cohn department store, and B. Finley Vinson, president of First National Bank.

Before meeting with students, Penick, a wellrespected and powerful figure in the Little Rock business community, met with downtown merchants and professional leaders to pave the way for negotiations. Penick informed them that they now had two choices: risk further demonstrations and continued disruption of downtown businesses or end segregation. During the first two weeks of November 1962, a delegation from the black community composed of two Philander Smith students, Worth Long and Bert Strauss, and two COCA representatives, Rev. Negail Riley and Ozell Sutton, met with the DNC to discuss desegregation. Although both sides agreed that segregation should end, talks stalled over the timing. The black delegation pressed for change within a matter of weeks, while whites talked about gradual desegregation over a number of years.

Disillusioned with the results of the negotiations, students expanded sit-in demonstrations to Walgreens, McLellan’s and Blass stores. At Walgreens, when Hansen and Long requested service at the lunch counter the manager shut it down. When they refused to leave, he called the police and had them arrested. More than 100 Philander Smith students marched downtown the following day. COCA provided the $1,000 bond money for the release of Hansen and Long.

The new demonstrations brought the city’s businessmen back to the negotiating table. Fearing the negative publicity of escalating protests and a prolonged battle over desegregation, they made a decision to broker a compromise. Eventually, after further haggling, they reached an agreement with black representatives to desegregate downtown lunch counters in early 1963.

James Penick took charge of the operation.

He first approached the store manager at Woolworths and explained that the DNC had reached an agreement with students to desegregate lunch counters in return for an end to demonstrations. The manager at Woolworths agreed to go along with the plan if other stores were also willing to participate. Penick used this tentative agreement to persuade other stores to follow suit.

When all the major downtown stores agreed to cooperate, store managers, businessmen, and representatives from the black community met to discuss arrangements for desegregation.

They agreed that initially a small delegation from the black community would ask for service at specific stores at a set date and time. At first the black groups would stay only for a short while and, by pre-arrangement over the course of the next few weeks, they would increase their numbers and length of stay. Both sides agreed to notify the local police and the staff at lunch counters in advance to avoid any incidents.

On Jan. 2, 1963, Woolworth’s, McLellan’s, Walgreens and Blass all desegregated their

Desegregation occurred under a blanket of media silence to avoid adverse publicity that might stir up widespread opposition. The lack of local newspaper, television or radio coverage came at the request of the city’s businessmen and, in the perceived interests of the community, the owners of those companies agreed to comply. Not until Jan. 20 did the first reports of desegregation emerge in the Pine Bluff Commercial that revealed the “secret.”

The successful desegregation of the major lunch counters prompted many smaller businesses to follow suit shortly afterwards. By the end of January several major hotels, including the Marion, Grady Manning, Albert Pike, Lafayette and Sam Peck, as well as several motels, including Downtowner, Holiday Inn and Howard Johnson, and the Midway Bowling Alley, had desegregated.

On Feb. 15, federal Judge J. Smith Henley ruled in favor of the COCA desegregation lawsuit. The ruling ordered an end to segregation in all public facilities, except for public swimming pools, which COCA had not specifically mentioned in the lawsuit. COCA left out the potentially controversial request to desegregate the swimming pools as it touched upon the issue of mixed interracial bathing and deepseated white fears of miscegenation. The battle over the city’s swimming pools was delayed for another day.

In June, the city’s movie theaters and driveins, along with Robinson Auditorium, admitted blacks on an equal basis for the first time. In September, most of the city’s main restaurants served black customers. By the end of the year, all city parks, playgrounds, golf courses, the Little Rock Zoo and the Arkansas Arts Center had desegregated.

Events in Little Rock underscored the importance of the white business community in paving the way for racial change to the city.

Spurred on by the refusal of black activists to settle for second-class citizenship, the business community provided leadership when the general public was reluctant to accept necessary changes and when politicians were in thrall to the electoral benefits of supporting segregation.

Pragmatic self-interest drove their actions, as they realized that a more progressive social and racial climate were absolutely essential preconditions for economic advancement.

On Sept. 21, 2013, the 50th anniversary of downtown desegregation will be commemorated with the unveiling of the latest set of markers on the Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail. The ceremony will take place outside the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce at 200 E. Markham St. at 10:30 a.m. The event is free and open to the public.

John A. Kirk is George W. Donaghey Professor and Chair of the History Department at UALR. He is author of “Redefining the Color Line: Black Activism in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1940-1970.” www.arktimes.com

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

17

As a result, residents in different communities have received varying levels of protection. No houses were evacuated in Salt Lake City when a ruptured pipeline leaked 33,000 gallons of medium grade crude oil before it was discovered on the morning of June 12, 2010. And in Marshall, Mich., officials agonized four days before calling for a voluntary evacuation after more than a million gallons of heavy Canadian crude spilled into the Kalamazoo River on July 25, 2010.

Much of the attention at an oil spill is focused on airborne levels of benzene, a known carcinogen that is toxic at very low doses. But crude oil also contains hundreds of other chemicals, and little is known about how some of them affect human health.

Given the gaps in scientific research, public health experts say it’s difficult to determine what levels of exposure are safe.

Residents, public health advocates and environmental consultants tracking the Mayflower spill wonder if Arkansas’s belated effort to conduct health assessments is enough.

“It is just that, a first step,” said April Lane, a public health advocate in Arkansas who has pushed politicians to act on behalf of residents near the spill site.

“Their answer is we need to pacify these people and give them what they are asking for in a way that won’t overburden the state.”

Wilma Subra is a Louisiana-based environmental consultant who has spent decades working with communities upended by chemical accidents, and she has been following news of the Arkansas spill. She is the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” and continues to work with people affected by the 2010 BP oil spill off the Gulf Coast.

Subra says that for the health assessments to be meaningful, special attention needs to be paid to what participants say about when their symptoms developed, how they have changed over time and how they are affected by rain, prevailing winds and the digging up of soil by excavators — all activities that stir up the oil and its stew of chemicals, Subra said.

Not only must the treatments fit the symptoms, she said, but timeliness is also vital.

“You don’t want to get two or three years down the line and you find out this whole process didn’t work,” Subra said. “Then, what do you have for people who have been sick all of this time?

You’ve done something but it doesn’t help the people and you won’t know it for a couple of years.”

18

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

BRIAN CHILSON

HEALTH SCREENINGS FOR MAYFLOWER RESITDENTS, CONT.

MASON: Helped compile screening questionnaire.

Subra thinks the Health Department shouldn’t merely invite residents to schedule an appointment for a health assessment. She thinks authorities should also conduct a community survey and interview as many people as possible, with the dual mission of collecting data and treating people’s health problems.

She also worries about how quickly the assessments can be turned around, whether the nurse and medical specialists have the expertise to ask the right questions and identify symptoms affiliated with oil spills, who will pay if people have to travel out-of-state to see a specialist, and if the information collected will be presented to the public in a transparent manner.

“A large number of people are very ill,” she said. “The downside is that [the state] waited so long to start this. It’s important to turn it around quickly so people in the community understand they are not alone and that they can see others are also suffering.”

Nurse not a chemical spill specialist Liz Bush is the public health nurse who will be handling the initial screenings. As part of the assessment she’ll use a questionnaire based on information gathered after oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico and the Kalamazoo River in Michigan and chemical spills in Arkansas. Dr. William Mason, a pulmonologist who is the Health Department’s chief of emergency response, helped compile the questionnaire. When Mason was in private practice, he treated many people who were exposed to chemicals in the workplace.

Bush is a registered nurse but doesn’t have a background with oil refineries or chemical spills, said Cathy Flannigan, a Health Department spokeswoman.

“We don’t have nurses in Arkansas who specialize in oil spills,” Flannigan said. “And we don’t think that background is critical to get the basic information we will be getting. What’s vital is that she be able to connect residents to specialized doctors.”

Depending on the results of that initial screening, participants would be able to connect with specialists at Little Rock’s University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences via “telemedicine” provided through a high-quality video connection, Barham said. Initial assessments and follow-up sessions via telemedicine will be free. Private insurance, Medicaid or Exxon would cover more advanced treatments, Barham said.

Health department officials are counting on daily newspapers, television broadcasts, the Mayflower mayor and local doctors to publicize the health assessments.

“We want to make sure everybody knows about it,” Barham said, adding that posting notices on homes in Mayflower is “as of today not something we have planned but it’s definitely possible.”

Barham said he has no idea how many Mayflower residents might sign up for the assessments. His records show that the Poison Control Center received 37 calls from 19 individuals between March 29 and Aug. 1.

Some residents find homes unlivable Ann Jarrell will likely be among the first Mayflower resident to make an appointment with Bush. She has been badgering local politicians and officials for months to respond to her concerns.

Jarrell, 54, has suffered from breathing issues, migraine-like headaches, severe stomach problems, blurry vision and fatigue since the Pegasus ruptured

just 1/5th of a mile from her home off Suggs Circle, which is not part of the subdivision where homeowners were evacuated.

Jarrell said she opted to stay put on March 29 after she called the Mayflower Police Department and was told she didn’t need to leave unless she spotted oil in her yard. Her 23-year-old daughter and infant grandson stayed put, too.

Jarrell said she didn’t learn how toxic the oil fumes were until she attended an April 22 public meeting. Afterward, she told her daughter that she and the baby needed to move out. The baby still hasn’t fully recovered from breathing troubles he experienced after the spill, she said.

“My headaches were so bad that I was crying,” she said, adding that her doctor put her on an inhaler to ease her respiratory distress.

Jarrell noticed that her symptoms improved whenever she left town on trips for her job as a computer software trainer.

On Aug. 20, Jarrell said her doctor told her that she needed to get out of Mayflower, so she moved in with friends in North Little Rock. Her doctor even advised her to send somebody else to pick up her belongings, she said.

Jarrell doubts that a majority of her neighbors will to travel to Conway for the free health screenings because they will find it too intimidating. Many don’t have health insurance, she said, and haven’t seen a doctor since their initial emergency room visits, which were paid for

by Exxon.

“That means we won’t get a true sampling of how many people are sick,” she said. “For the longest time, nobody was even acknowledging that there were sick people. We couldn’t get calls back from the Health Department.”

Jarrell still feels sick, but said her symptoms have lessened since she left Mayflower. She is beginning to doubt that her house will ever be her home again.

“I don’t know when I’ll be able to go home because they are still digging,” Jarrell said, adding that several of her neighbors have left permanently and others are trying to exit. “I see it as getting worse and worse, not better.”

This story is part of a joint investigative project by Arkansas Times and Pulitzer Prize- winning InsideClimate News.

Funding for the project comes from readers who donated to an ioby.org crowdfunding campaign that raised nearly $27,000 and from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

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ARKANSAS'S SOURCE FOR NEWS, POLITICS & ENTERTAINMENT

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CAMPBELL: Citizen blogger.

Blog wild

Matt Campbell’s Blue Hog Report shines light on public malfeasance.

BY DAVID RAMSEY

S

eventeen days. That’s how long Lt. Gov. Mark Darr’s campaign for U.S. Congress lasted, thanks to the muckraking efforts of local blogger Matt Campbell.

On Aug. 20, Campbell published a post on Blue Hog Report — the independent, Democratic-leaning blog the 35-year-old local attorney writes in his spare time — outlining problems in Darr’s campaign finance reporting. For one thing, the Republican Darr had a number of expenses listed as fundraisers in 2011 after having just won a four-year term in 2010. It’s unlawful for a candidate to seek campaign contributions more than two years before an election. Even more problematic, many of the expenses listed as fundraisers appeared to be personal expenses.

Campbell highlighted meals at local eateries like Cotham’s, Sushi Cafe and Cajun’s Wharf. The size of the bills and the lack of money raised gave the impression that Darr was simply dipping into his campaign funds to eat out. “There is nothing about those … dinners that would even remotely suggest that they were debt-retirement fundraisers rather than Mark Darr simply dining out and paying for the whole tab,” Campbell blogged. “While that might make him a nice fellow, that’s not a fundraiser.”

Even harder to explain for Darr: listing fundraisers at gas stations, which looked an awful lot like Darr was simply filling up his tank. And then there were expenditures at 20

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

both men’s and women’s clothing stores listed as “supplies.”

If all of this sounds familiar, it should: Former Sen. Paul Bookout (D-Jonesboro), following $8,000 in fines from the Ethics Commission and with a possible criminal prosecution looming, resigned the same day that Campbell put up the initial Darr post. While Darr hadn’t spent the same sums as Bookout, the picture was more or less the same: a man using his campaign funds as a personal bank account.

Campbell, a Missouri native who has lived in Little Rock for seven years, is no stranger to ruffling the feathers of lawmakers. Blue Hog Report, which began in 2010, first gained attention using Freedom of Information Act requests to highlight the questionable uses of state gas cards and credit cards in 2011. It is widely assumed that Campbell’s FOIA requests to Secretary of State Mark Martin led Chase Dugger, then executive director of the state Republican Party, to send massive FOIA requests of his own to the state Supreme Court, where Campbell then worked. The fishing expedition — aimed to show that Campbell was blogging on state time — came up empty, but the notoriety led Campbell to shut down the blog.

Campbell left his job at the court this spring to start his own firm, Pinnacle Law Firm. The very next day, Blue Hog Report was back online. “I got so frustrated through this past legislative session not

having an outlet to just talk about some of the stuff that was going on,” he said. “I decided to put the whole thing back up exactly as if I never left.” The amount of time Campbell spends on the blog varies but a story like the Darr scandal demands a couple of hours a day, he said. It’s a labor of love — he doesn’t make any money off of the blog.

After its return, Blue Hog Report continued its use of the FOIA and careful perusal of publicly available documents to do investigative reporting. It was a niche with plenty of room for an aggressive blog to shine. “Between budget cuts and the lack of attention spans, the way most media — especially TV — is packaged, there aren’t many people that are willing to put in that time because there’s not that many eyeballs that are going to look at it,” Campbell said. “I stumbled into that role. I started this blog as a way just to keep tabs on the 2010 elections. After that was over I started looking for something else to write about.

I guess I’m just obsessive enough. I’ll follow a paper trail and see where it goes.”

Upon return of the blog, Martin was again among the officials that Campbell investigated. In July, Campbell sued the secretary of state’s office for failing to comply with his FOIA requests. Ironically, the documents Campbell had requested related to Martin’s heavy use of outside legal counsel; Martin’s use of outside counsel in the FOIA case itself then led to a minor scandal. A Pulaski County circuit judge ruled in August that Martin had not followed the law in doing so (a ruling that Martin is now appealing) and Gov. Mike Beebe condemned Martin’s actions.

The Darr revelations, meanwhile, came about when Campbell was doing followup work on his 2011 posts on state gas and credit cards. “I was looking at the constitutional officers two years after the fact and started with lieutenant governor,” he

said. “When the Bookout stuff happened, Mark Darr was kind of already on my brain because I had been looking at the credit card receipts, so I thought I’d look and see what’s in [his campaign finance reports] out of curiosity. Immediately the gas station fundraisers started jumping out and the more I dug, the worse the big picture looked.”

In a follow-up the day after his initial post, Campbell dropped another bombshell. An FOIA request to the University of Arkansas revealed that a $1,500 expenditure listed as a fundraiser was in fact four season tickets to Razorback football games.

The drip-drip-drip scandal continued with a Blue Hog post on Aug. 22, cross-referencing credit card and gas card receipts with Darr’s campaign finance disclosure forms.

Among other things, Campbell made a circumstantial case that Darr had used his state credit card for personal expenses.

The Darr story was immediately picked up by the Times’ Arkansas Blog and was reported on in the Democrat-Gazette Aug. 23. By the end of that Friday, both Campbell and Darr (against himself) filed complaints with the Ethics Commission.

By Tuesday, the writing was on the wall for the Darr congressional campaign. Dugger, now working for the political consulting group Impact Management, announced that the group had resigned from the campaign, concluding that they could not represent Darr after looking over his campaign finance reports. Darr dropped out of the race Thursday.

Campbell said it was all a bit surreal for him as the news broke that Darr was leaving the race. “I got emails and texts from people all day long,” he said. “This is much cooler and more of a statement about modern media than any of the stuff that I’ve done in the past.”

Campbell is planning a series of posts this week investigating probelms with Darr’s gas mileage reimbursements.

Campbell said that he was offended

by Darr’s comments that scrutiny over his ethics was the sort of thing that would “drive normal people away from politics” and make Little Rock more like Washington, D.C. “I don’t think that’s true at all,” he said.

“If people realize this information is out there and you can actually see where the money comes from and goes to, if anything that should encourage more people to act and look.”

“From the beginning, even going back to the stuff in 2011, my goal has always been shining a spotlight when something like this comes up,” Campbell said. “Ask a question, do some digging, and if the answer is as shady as you expect, tell people about it and hope that eventually it leads to some kind of change.”

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AUGUST 29, 2013

27

Arts Entertainment AND

A NEW ‘PAL JOEY’

Broadway vet helps Rep launch new season.

BY LINDSEY MILLAR

22

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

of the main characters, Linda, African American, and placed her along with Joey into a love “square” with white characters Vera and Ted, themes of racial tension are dealt with subtly.

The new version of the musical is more about love and connection, Schneider said. “It’s fundamentally about a charismatic man who may or may not know how to love correctly.”

Clifton Oliver, who portrays Joey, said he relates to his character. “When we started rehearsal, I realized, ‘This is me. I’m hungry. I’m ambitious, and I’m from nothing.’ ” Self-confidence mixed with a fib may’ve helped him earn the role. In auditions, he said, Schneider asked him if he could tap dance. “I was like, ‘Surrre.’ I’d never tapped in my life.

It’s what you do to get the job. I started going to Broadway Dance Center with little girls and their tights.” (Schneider, laughing, claims he knew Oliver was lying.)

The character of Ted, who serves as the musical’s narrator, is another invention. He’s at least partially based on the composer Lorenz Hart, who actor Jonas Cohen describes as “a brilliant artist who lived very tragically. Throughout most of his life he was often asking a question that comes up for my character a lot, which is, ‘Am I enough?’ ” The original “Pal Joey” gave the world songs that have since become standards, like “I Could Write a Book” and “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.” Those are still in, but Pachecho and Schneider dumped all the songs that they say were merely keeping time in the original. In their place, they added six songs from the Rodgers and Hart catalogue that they say are more thematically relevant.

Still, Schneider doesn’t want anyone to show up to a performance expecting a think piece.

“We talk about the racial themes. The emotional content. But at the end of the day, it’s a fun musical,” he said.

The cast includes Stephanie Umoh as Linda and Erica Hanrahan-Ball as Vera.

“Pal Joey” runs through Sept. 24. Performances are 7 p.m.

Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday evenings, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $25 to $55.

JOHN DAVID PITTMAN

P

eter Schneider, the director of the reimagined Rodgers and Hart musical “Pal Joey,” which kicks off the Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s 38th season on Friday, spent 17 years at Disney as president of the animation department and chairman of the studio.

He oversaw the creation and distribution of such famed films as “The Lion King,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Little Mermaid” and “Toy Story.” He produced “The Lion King” on Broadway and won a Tony for it. He directed the musical version of “Sister Act” on the West End. So, with all due respect to The Rep — without a doubt Arkansas’s strongest theater company — what’s he doing in Little Rock?

Because he wanted to do test his new version of “Pal Joey.” “The short answer is Bob [Hupp] said yes,” Schneider said, referring to The Rep’s producing artistic director.

One might think that with his CV Schneider would have no trouble finding game theater companies. But new productions, or largely reimagined ones like “Pal Joey,” require many years of development, he said. Together with Patrick Pacheco, who wrote the new book and also is in town for the produc‘PAL JOEY’: Stephanie tion, he’s been working on “Pal Joey” for Umoh, five and a half years.

Clifton Oliver “You do readings, you do workshops, and Erica Hanrahan-Ball you do small productions, you do develstar. opmental productions. You’re looking for a safe environment, so you can fail in some way. Not fail with the piece, but find ways to improve it,” Schneider said.

What Schneider calls the “most significant moment” in “The Lion King” only made it in the musical because the production realized it wasn’t effectively making a set change and needed to add a scene during a developmental run in Minneapolis.

“We think,” said Schneider, pausing to knock on a wooden conference table at The Rep, “that the script, the book and the music are now in the right order. But I’m sure we’ll discover something here that’s significant.”

Theatergoers familiar with the original Rodgers and Hart musical, or the movie adaptation starring Frank Sinatra, Rita Hayworth and Kim Novak, about a manipulative,

second-rate singer who uses his appeal with women to get what he wants, will recognize some significant changes.

Pacheco, an accomplished journalist who co-wrote the play “My Life with Men … and Other Animals,” said Schneider came to him years ago and asked, “How would you fix ‘Pal Joey?’ ” “I said, ‘Is it broken?’ I wasn’t sure.”

Pacheco said he and Schneider eventually came to the consensus that the stakes aren’t very high in the original.

Their solution? Move the setting out of the ’30s and into 1948, an optimistic time just after the second World War, and make Joey, Pacheco said, “very talented and an African American who wants a piece of the American dream.”

Though Pacheco and Schneider also made another

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

A&E NEWS “LAND OF OPPORTUNITY,” a locally produced documentary on fracking for natural gas in the Fayetteville shale, will be shown at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the University of Central Arkansas’s Reynolds Performance Hall.

The film is the work of ArkansasFracking.org and Emily Lane and will focus on earthquake swarms that have been linked to gas exploration through high-pressure injection of liquid. The film also will discuss water contamination, property rights and conflicts of interest.

Said Lane in a news release: “Arkansas has historically promoted short-term economic gain over economic and environmental sustainability.

We live under the boom and bust mentality, and consequently we have seen some profit while others suffer.

Residents across the state are increasingly battling against the negative impacts of misguided ‘opportunity.’

We can do better.”

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A richly romantic story about life, love and jazz. music by RICHARD RODGERS lyrics by LORENZ HART new book by PATRICK PACHECO based on the original book by JOHN O’HARA

From the Tony award-winning producer of The Lion King comes a modern take on a Rodgers & Hart classic

“DEVIL’S KNOT,” the fictionalized narrative film based on Mara Leveritt’s exhaustively researched 2002 book of the same name about the injustices of the West Memphis Three case, will see its theatrical debut on Sept.

8 at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film, by director Atom Egoyan, features a busload of great talent in starring roles, including Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon as Pam Hobbs, the mother of victim Stevie Branch, and Oscar winner Colin Firth as private detective Ron Lax. The roles of the West Memphis Three themselves will all be played by relative acting newcomers, including Seth Meriwether as Jason Baldwin, Kristopher Higgins as Jessie Misskelley Jr., and James Hamrick as Damien Echols.

The film was shot mostly in Georgia, with a reported budget of $15 million, from a screenplay penned by writers Scott Derrickson and Paul Harris Boardman. Derrickson and Boardman’s biggest previous films have all been in the horror and sci-fi genres, including pairing up to write “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” (2005) and “Hellraiser: Inferno” (2000).

One mystery yet to be solved, given the star power and riveting true-crime plot of “Devil’s Knot”: Why hasn’t the film secured a U.S. distribution deal, and why hasn’t a trailer been released? A note posted to the “Devil’s Knot” film’s Facebook page on Sept. 1 says that the producers “don’t want to release a trailer until closer to the U.S. release date.” Keep an eye on the Rock Candy blog. We’ll post the first reviews as they come.

LATE CONCERT NEWS we got just before deadline: Rapper Gucci Mane will headline what’s being billed as the “Official Razorback Game After Party” at the Clear Channel Metroplex on Saturday, Sept. 7. Tickets, which range from $35 to $75, are available at dcgetmoneyent.com.

I

t’s 1948, and post-war America is booming. Joey, an ambitious young entertainer, enters Mike’s Chicago nightclub looking for a job. Everyone loves Joey...but Joey’s heart belongs to nobody. When Joey realizes his dream, it comes at a steep price, and everyone he touches is changed forever.

A new score has been enhanced with other memorable songs from the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart catalog, such as “The Lady Is a Tramp,” “Sing for Your Supper,” and “Glad To Be Unhappy” intermingled with gems from the original 1940 show like “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” and “I Could Write a Book.”

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SEPTEMBER 6 – 29, 2013 T I C K E T S AT T H E R E P. O R G OR CALL 501.378.0405 www.arktimes.com

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

23

THE TO-DO

LIST

BY ROBERT BELL & DAVID RAMSEY

THURSDAY 9/5

THE BIG SHOOTOUT: THE LIFE & TIMES OF 1969

7:30 p.m. Clinton Presidential Center Great Hall. $25.

Let’s be honest, it hasn’t exactly been Hog heaven lately. Razorback diehards are still a bit bummed over the indignity of getting dumped from the Thanksgiv-

THURSDAY 9/5SATURDAY 9/7

HOT SPRINGS MOTORCYCLE RALLY

Various times and venues. $5-$50.

So there will be a big motorcycle rally in Hot Springs this weekend. It kicks off Thursday. There will be a parade through downtown, as well as vendors, an indoor bike show and more. No doubt that there also will be much racking of pipes and wearing of classy T-shirts with witty messages printed on them. This whole Baby Boomer outlaw biker dress-up thing is ultra-weird and continues to confound me. It seems to have really gotten rolling about 10 years ago, and while I thought it would’ve gone out of fashion by now, it persists like a gnarly case of leather rash. I mean, dude, just because you paid $28,000 for a brand-new Harley and you grew out a goatee and bought a doo-rag and a leather vest, you’re still a paunchy, middle-aged orthodontist from Bryant. But hey, you know, whatever.

This is the U.S.A. and freedom and etc. You’re all “Born to be Wild,” and whatnot. I don’t know, just try to be safe and courteous. Anyways, for entertainment, country singer Lee Brice performs Friday night. The main attraction on Saturday night — Grand Funk Railroad. Of course, Grand Funk coming to town begs the question: Will you-know-who be there? A certain legendary Little Rock groupie of story and song? The one who was immortalized in Grand Funk’s most enduring hit, “We’re an American Band”? Will she get a shout-out from the band? There’s only one way to know for sure. RB 24

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

ing showdown with LSU. Can Coach Bret Bielema restore Arkansas football to its once-great heights this season? We’ll see. In the meantime, here’s a chance to remember the glory days when the Razorbacks — and their rivalry with Texas — dominated the football world. The Hot Springs Documentary

Film Festival will host a kickoff in Little Rock, and in addition to various festival announcements, there will be a special advance screening of “The Big Shootout: The Life & Times of 1969,” a look back at college football’s “Game of the Century” between Texas and Arkansas and the tumultuous times in which it

was played. Director Mike Looney will be in attendance, as well as players and coaches that participated in the game, including former Arkansas coach Frank Broyles and former Longhorn QB James Street. Might want to show up early for some mingling. Call 661-1037 for ticket information. DR

on these in a major and inexcusable way.

These pieces range from, I don’t know, 4-10 minutes? And in those fleeting spans, each one tells a Southern story that is funny or fascinating or illuminating or bizarre or sweetly sad or some mixture thereof. This event is billed as a celebration of SoLost filmmaker and notable photographer Dave Anderson, who will unveil his newest OA

series, SoLit, which I am assuming will be related to literature and not to being super drunk. Guests include SoLost Editor Jonathan Childs and several folks profiled in the series, including Augusta’s Jimmy Rhodes, the mortician, magician and politician who was the subject of the most recent installment, which is, of course, excellent. This will be some good times right here. RB

THURSDAY 9/5

SOLOST VIDEO SERIES CELEBRATION

7:30 p.m. South on Main. Free.

Have you been watching the Oxford American’s monthly SoLost video series?

An admission: I had not until recently.

But after having watched several of the National Magazine Award-winning short videos, I can say that I have been sleeping

THEY CAME FROM ALABAMA: The Alabama Shakes perform at the Arkansas Music Pavilion Friday night.

FRIDAY 9/6

ALABAMA SHAKES

7:30 p.m. Arkansas Music Pavilion, Fayetteville. $39 adv., $42 day of.

If there’s a relevant rock band out there right now that shot to the top of the game with a speedier quickness than the Alabama Shakes, I haven’t heard of them. This young outfit had been together for about 15 hot seconds when

they were all of a sudden being hailed as the next big thing in retro-inspired rock ’n’ roll, heirs to the likes of The Black Keys and The White Stripes. They very quickly went from playing dingy, beloved dive-bars to headlining big festivals and hitting up the late-night stages, including Conan and The Late Show with David Letterman. The band’s

2012 debut album “Boys & Girls” earned mostly positive reviews, with the only consistent criticism being that it didn’t quite capture the power of the band’s live show. Arkansas fans will now get a chance to see for themselves if that’s a legit concern. Opening the show will be Nashville up-and-comers Fly Golden Eagle. RB

IN BRIEF

THURSDAY 9/5

SATURDAY 9/7

ARKANSAS VS. SAMFORD

6 p.m. War Memorial Stadium. $55.

Sure, the last couple of Razorback football games at War Memorial Stadium should best be forgotten with extreme prejudice, relegated to the furthest, absolute dustiest back corners of the dustbin of history. But I think the Hogs looked pretty good last weekend against the Ragin’ Cajuns of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. You can get all the pertinent stats and cogent observations from our

resident sports writer Beau Wilcox over at Pearls About Swine, but some of the things I noticed: Jonathan Williams is a hoss; Alex Collins is a hoss; Brandon Allen looks like an entirely different quarterback from the shaky dude who sorta helmed our at-home humiliation against Alabama last year. Javontee Herndon turned in a fantastic showing. And a bunch of other players looked very promising (Kiero Small, Trey Flowers, Tevin Mitchel). So how will the Hogs handle that brutal four-game stretch

in October (A&M, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama)? WE’RE GONNA WIN EVERY SINGLE ONE OF ’EM! Uh, just kidding. I’d be super pleased if we eked out one win in that stretch, but I ain’t holding my breath. But back to this weekend, the Samford Bulldogs are just coming off of a 31-21 win against Georgia State. Should be a W, but even after this week’s solid showing, I’m still so shaken by the disaster that was 2012 that I’m not taking anything for a given. RB

Clinton School of Public Service hosts a panel discussion about the Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s season opener “Pal Joey” with Producing Artistic Director Robert Hupp and members of the cast, noon, free. Author and University of Arkansas professor Hoyt Purvis will speak and sign copies of his new book, “Voices of the Razorbacks,” at CALS Main Library, 5:30 p.m. The END MASS Incarceration Movement Arkansas Chapter and the Social Justice Initiative at Philander Smith College will screen “The House I Live In,” followed by a panel discussion, Philander Smith, 6-9 p.m. Cindy Woolf plays an album release show at Stickyz, with Amy Garland, 9 p.m., $5.

FRIDAY 9/6 SUNDAY 9/8

BETHEL AME CHURCH 150TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

2-8 p.m. Bethel AME Church. Free, $20 for VIP seating.

This weekend, Little Rock’s Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church will celebrate its sesquicentennial. Think about that: 150 years. That’s older than most institutions in this state and it was begun under the type of duress and struggle that is hard to imagine. There are some interesting historical notes on the church’s website. Bethel AME was first founded as Campbell Chapel by a freeman named Nathan Warren in 1863, the year of the Emancipation Proclamation. Bethel has served as one of the cornerstones of Little Rock’s African-Amer-

ican community, and counts a number of notable congregants and attendees, including Daisy Bates, musicians Art Porter Sr. and Art Porter Jr., former Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater, and Little Rock Nine members Melba Patillo Beals, Ernest Green, Gloria Ray Karlmark and Carlotta Walls Lanier.

The congregation will kick off the celebration of this important milestone with its Gospel Jazz Concert, featuring Memphis native and Grammy-winning saxophonist Kirk Whalum, who has performed with a laundry list of notable performers (including Whitney Houston and Babyface, among others) and who released several albums of his own material. There will be a children’s area at the event, as well as food vendors. RB

GOSPEL JAZZ: Kirk Whalum performs at the kickoff to Bethel AME Church’s 150th Anniversary Celebration Sunday afternoon.

SATURDAY 9/7

WEDNESDAY 9/11

THE BLACK CROWES

7:30 p.m. Arkansas Music Pavilion. $32-$77.

Is there a shaggier, stoned-er, more hippie-fied, genre-defying, consistently great, loveable, frayed-but-not-torn bunch of rock ’n’ roll survivors than The Black Crowes? I think not. Seriously, what other band can come close to The Crowes’ streak of fantastic albums over the course of the last nearly 25 years? They started out as a bell-bottomed, Stones-’n’-Facesloving blues-rock swagger machine and evolved over the years into an all-encompassing amalgam of rock, soul, blues, folk, country and R&B, all wrapped up comfortably in a wooly jam-band vibe that fits

Little Rock food eaters take note: Food Truck Fridays returns to downtown at the corner of Capitol and Main. This week, the lineup is Clyde-n-Kiddos, Kona Ice, Philly’s Steak and Cheese and kBird, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. The Weekend Theater begins its production of “100 Saints You Should Know,” about a priest who must reconcile his desires with his role in the church, a teenage boy confused about his sexuality and a young woman desperate for spiritual validation, 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through Sept. 21, $12-$16.

Mississippi bluesman Lightnin’ Malcolm brings his swirling, hypnotic guitar playing to White Water Tavern, 10 p.m., $7. Fayetteville party instigators Boom Kinetic bring the ruckus to Revolution, 9:30 p.m., $10. Fayetteville-based Southern rockers Backroad Anthem play at Stickyz, 9:30 p.m., $8.

CROWES FLY: The Black Crowes play at the Arkansas Music Pavilion Wednesday.

like a perfectly broken-in denim jacket.

Sure, they took a couple of hiatuses here and there, being that brothers will sometimes get to feuding with one another.

But they always seem to work it out and answer the call of the road, and of their devoted fanbase. You know this is gonna be a great show. RB

“The Affordable Care Act Made Simple” is an information session about obtaining health insurance through the ACA, Faulkner County Library, 2 p.m., free. The Urban Raw Festival includes food, music, theater and a variety of arts-related workshops and presentations, Wildwood Park for the Performing Arts, 9 a.m.-10 p.m., $5 adv., $7 day of. Rodney Block and the Real Music Lovers bring their mix of hip-hop, R&B and neo-soul to the cozy environs of the White Water Tavern, 9 p.m., $10.

Faith-driven emo-rockers Red Jumpsuit Apparatus play at Juanita’s, 9 p.m., $10 adv., $12 day of. Turnpike Troubadours offer up an evening of Americana and Red Dirt rocking at Revolution, 9 p.m., $12 adv., $15 day of. www.arktimes.com

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

25

AFTER DARK 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, SEPT. 5

MUSIC

The Blackfoot Gypsies. Maxine’s. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. www.maxinespub.com.

Cindy Woolf (album release), Amy Garland.

Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9 p.m., $5.

107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www.stickyz. com.

Courtney Shepperd; Ache Water; Ray Wittenberg with Wythe Walker and Bill McCumber; John Burnette Band; Smittle Band with Stephanie Smittle. Original music, The Joint, 7:30 p.m., $10. 301 Main St., NLR. Dee Dee Jones. Ladies night, $5 after 9 p.m., free before. Montego Cafe, 8 p.m. 315 Main St. 501-372-1555. www.montegocafe.com.

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

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

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

Karaoke and line dancing lessons. W.T. Bubba’s Country Tavern, first Thursday of every month, 9 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-244-2528.

Karaoke with Kevin & Cara. MacDaddy’s Bar and Grill, 9 p.m., free. 314 N. Maple St., NLR. Krush Thursdays with DJ Kavaleer. Club Climax, free before 11 p.m. 824 W. Capitol. 501-554-3437.

Kyle Park Band. Revolution, 9 p.m., $10. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. revroom. com.

Michael Eubanks. Newk’s Express Cafe, 6:30 p.m. 4317 Warden Road, NLR. 501-753-8826. newks.com.

Michael Shipp Band. White Water Tavern, 8 p.m., $7. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www. whitewatertavern.com.

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

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

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 5 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-374-7474. www.capitalhotel.com/CBG. Trey Johnson (happy hour), Alize (headliner).

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

Under the Sun, The Eric Wilson Band. Juanita’s, 9 p.m., $5. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-3721228. www.juanitas.com.

COMEDY

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

EVENTS

8th Annual Hot Springs Motorcycle Rally.

Grand Funk Railroad and Lee Brice to perform.

Various events and venues, www.hotspringsrally.com for more information. Hot Springs Convention Center, $5-$50. 134 Convention 26

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

THE HANDS WILL SWAY: As Jars of Clay performs at Revolution, with opening acts Brooke Waggoner and Kye Kye, 8 p.m. Sept. 10, $17 adv., $20 day of.

Blvd., Hot Springs. 501-321-2027. www. hotsprings.org.

“Go Orange.” Arkansas Food Bank Hunger Action month event with food, games, music and orange lights on the Big Dam Bridge.

Murray Park, 6 p.m.-9 p.m. Rebsamen Park Road.

Hillcrest Shop & Sip. Shops and restaurants offer discounts, later hours, and live music.

Hillcrest, first Thursday of every month, 5 p.m.

P.O.Box 251522. 501-666-3600. www.hillcrestmerchants.com.

Woodlawn Farmer’s Market. Shoppes on Woodlawn, 4:30 p.m. 4523 Woodlawn. 501666-3600. woodlawnshoppes.blogspot.com.

FILM

“The House I Live In” film and panel discussion.

Presented by The END MASS Incarceration Movement Arkansas Chapter and the Social Justice Initiative at Philander Smith College.

Philander Smith College, 6 p.m.-9 p.m. 900 W. Daisy L. Gatson Bates Drive.

“SoLost” Video Series Celebration. In partnership with Arkansas Motion Picture Institute, the Oxford American’s “SoLost” video series will be shown, and special guests and subjects from the series will speak. South on Main, 7:30 p.m.

1304 Main Street. 501-244-9660.

LECTURES

“Pal Joey”: A panel discussion. Arkansas Repertory Theatre artistic director Robert Hupp and cast will discuss the production. Clinton School of Public Service, noon. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-683-5239. www.clintonschool. uasys.edu.

BOOKS

“Voices of the Razorbacks” book signing.

Author Hoyt Purvis will speak and sign books.

Main Library, 5:30 p.m. 100 S. Rock St. www. cals.lib.ar.us.

FRIDAY, SEPT. 6

MUSIC

30-Something Party Fridays. Twelve Modern Lounge, first Friday of every month, free before 10 p.m., $5 after 10 p.m. 1900 W. Third St. 501301-1200.

Alabama Shakes, Fly Golden Eagle. Arkansas Music Pavilion, 7:30 p.m., $39 adv., $42 day of.

2536 N. McConnell Ave., Fayetteville. 479-4435600. www.arkansasmusicpavilion.com.

Backroad Anthem. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9:30 p.m., $8. 107 Commerce St. 501-3727707. www.stickyz.com.

Bellamy Brothers. Woodlands Auditorium, 7:30 p.m., $25. 1101 De Soto Blvd., Hot Springs Village. 501-922-4231. www.hsvwoodlands.com.

Big Man and the Wheels. Thirst n’ Howl, 8:30 p.m. 14710 Cantrell Road. 501-379-8189. www. thirst-n-howl.com.

Boom Kinetic. Revolution, 9:30 p.m., $10. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. revroom. com.

Club Nights at 1620 Savoy. Dance night, with DJs, drink specials and bar menu, until 2 a.m.

1620 Savoy, 10 p.m. 1620 Market St. 501-2211620. www.1620savoy.com.

Dead Mockingbirds, Those Howlings. Vino’s.

923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www.vinosbrewpub.com.

Fire and Flood, John Gold. Maxine’s, $5. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. www.maxinespub. com.

Friday night at Sway. Sway, 9 p.m. 412 Louisiana.

501-907-2582.

Lightnin’ Malcolm. White Water Tavern, 10 p.m., $7. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com.

Richie Johnson (happy hour), Wes Hart Band (headliner). Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 and 9 p.m., $5 after 8:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf.com.

RJ Mischo. George’s Majestic Lounge, 6 p.m.

519 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-442-4226.

Synergy, DJ Sleepy Genius. Montego Cafe, 8:30 p.m. 315 Main St. 501-372-1555. www.montegocafe.com.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 9 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-374-7474. www.capitalhotel.com/CBG. “YOLO.” Featuring four DJs and beach volleyball, 18-and-older. Flying DD, $5. 4601 S. University.

501-773-9990. flyingdd.com.

COMEDY

The Main Thing presents “Arkansanity.”

Original two-act comedy play lampooning life in Arkansas. The Joint, 8 p.m., $20. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

Scott White, Alycia Cooper. The Loony Bin, 7:30 and 10 p.m., $7-$10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.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

43rd Annual Eureka Springs Antique Automobile Festival. Includes parade, bank robbery reenactment and more. Pine Mountain Village, Sept. 6-8. 2075 E. Van Buren, Eureka Springs.

8th Annual Hot Springs Motorcycle Rally. See Sept. 5.

Fantastic Friday. Literary and music event, refreshments included. For reservations, call 479-968-2452 or email artscenter@centurytel. net. River Valley Arts Center, Every third Friday, 7 p.m., $10 suggested donation. 1001 E. B St., Russellville. 479-968-2452. www.arvartscenter. org.

LGBTQ/SGL Youth and Young Adult Group.

PARTY AT OUR PLACE!

Diverse Youth for Social Change is a group for LGBTQ/SGL and straight ally youth and young adults age 14 to 23. For more information, call 244-9690 or search “DYSC� on Facebook. 800 Scott St., 6:30 p.m. 800 Scott St. Main Street Food Truck Fridays. Capitol and Main, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Main Street.

Reenactment of Reed’s Bridge Battle. 150th Civil War Reenactment. Education day on Friday, re-enactment on Saturday and old-fashioned church service Sunday at 10 a.m. Reed’s Bridge Battlefield, Sept. 6-8. Hwy. 161, Jacksonville.

MUSIC

COMEDY

The Main Thing presents “Arkansanity.�

Original two-act comedy play lampooning life in Arkansas. The Joint, 8 p.m., $20. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

Scott White, Alycia Cooper. The Loony Bin, 7:30 and 10 p.m., $7-$10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

All American Food & Great Place to Watch Your Favorite Event

Closing Date: 8/2/13 QC: CS

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.

ROck TOwn whiskey Now oN Tap!

Trim: 2.125x5.875 Bleed: none Live: 1.875x5.625

EVENTS

43rd Annual Eureka Springs Antique Automobile Festival. Includes parade, bank robbery reenactment and more. Pine Mountain Village, through Sept. 8. 2075 E. Van Buren, Eureka Springs. “Affordable Care Act Made Simple.�

Information session about obtaining health insurance through the ACA. Faulkner County Library, 2 p.m., free. 1900 Tyler St., Conway. 501327-7482. www.fcl.org.

Argenta Farmers Market. Argenta, 7 a.m.-noon.

Main Street, NLR. 8th Annual Hot Springs Motorcycle Rally. See Sept. 5.

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

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

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

Reenactment of Reed’s Bridge Battle. See Sept. 6.

Urban Raw Festival. Food, music, theater and presentations. Wildwood Park for the Performing Arts, 9 a.m.-10 p.m., $5 adv., $7 day of. 20919 Denny Road.

OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK | 11AM - LATE 225 E MARKHAM • LITTLE ROCK, AR

(501) 324-2449

bigwhiskeyslittlerock.com

If you’re not HERE, we’re having more fun than you are!

BENEFITS

Bike MS: Rock’n Hot Ride. Two-day bike ride through Central Arkansas to benefit multiple sclerosis research. 501-663-8104 for more information. Garver LLC, 8 a.m. 4701 Northshore Drive, NLR. Paws on the Pavement: 1K Fun Walk. Benefits CARE for Animals. Murray Park, 8:30 a.m.-9:30 a.m., $5 minimum donation. Rebsamen Park Road.

BOOKS

D.K. Caldwell book signing. Author will sign copies of his new book Days of the Dragon.

Hastings of Searcy, 2 p.m.-5 p.m. 105 N. Poplar St., Searcy. 501-268-4800.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

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SPORTS

University of Arkansas vs. Samford. War Memorial Stadium, 6 p.m., $55. 1 Stadium Drive.

501-663-0775.

IT’S ONLY WEIRD IF IT DOESN’T WORK

Publication: Arkansas Times

American Revival. Maxine’s, $5. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. www.maxinespub.com.

Beckham Brothers. Thirst n’ Howl, 8:30 p.m.

14710 Cantrell Road. 501-379-8189. www.thirstn-howl.com.

Club Nights at 1620 Savoy. See Sept. 6.

Dangerous Idiots. Bear’s Den Pizza, 9 p.m. 235 Farris Road, Conway. 501-328-5556. www.bearsdenpizza.com.

Eight Feet Thick, Raw Head, Between You and I. Vino’s. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www. vinosbrewpub.com.

Grand Funk Railroad. Performing at the Hot Springs Motorcycle Rally. Hot Springs Convention Center, 8:15 p.m., $25-$50. 134 Convention Blvd., Hot Springs. 501-321-2027. www.hotsprings.org.

Jam Rock Saturday. Twelve Modern Lounge, first Saturday of every month, 9 p.m. 1900 W. Third St. 501-301-1200.

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.

New Era Saturdays. 21-and-older. Twelve Modern Lounge, first Saturday of every month, 9 p.m., $5 cover until 11 p.m. 1900 W. Third St. 501-301-1200.

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.

Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. Juanita’s, 9 p.m., $10 adv., $12 day of. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501372-1228. www.juanitas.com.

Rodney Block and the Real Music Lovers. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m., $10. 2500 W. 7th St. 501375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com.

R&R (happy hour), Jack Fancy (headliner).

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

Saturday night at Discovery. Featuring DJs, dancers and more. Discovery Nightclub, 9 p.m., $10. 1021 Jessie Road. 501-664-4784. www.latenightdisco.com.

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

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 9 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-374-7474. www.capitalhotel.com/CBG.

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SATURDAY, SEPT. 7

Tragikly White. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9:30 p.m., $10. 107 Commerce St. 501372-7707. www.stickyz.com.

Turnpike Troubadours. Revolution, 9 p.m., $12 adv., $15 day of. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501823-0090. revroom.com.

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A Chicago style Speakeasy & Dueling Piano Bar. This is THE premier place to party in Little Rock. “Dueling Pianosâ€? runs Monday through Saturday. Dance & Club music upstairs on Wed, Fri & Sat. Drink specials and more! Do it BIGG! Open 7 Days A Week • 8pm-2am Shows Start at 8:30pm

Located in the Heart of the River Market District 307 President Clinton Avenue 501.372.4782 www.erniebiggs.com

Lunch SpeciaL

Monday - Friday Gyro Sandwich, FrieS & drink $6.90 oFFer expireS 10/3/13

gyros • hummus • tabbouleh • baba ghannouj pizza • calzone • mediterranean salad

fresh, delicious Mediterranean cuisine

LR • Rodney Parham • 227-7272 LR • Ranch Blvd. • 868-8226 Conway • Oak Street • 205-8224 www.arktimes.com

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

27

AFTER DARK, CONT.

Family Owned & Operated Since 1997

15% OFF ANY FOOD PURCHASE. VALID AT ALL 4 LOCATIONS Not valid with any other offer.

Happy Hour Everyday 3-7pm 4154 E. McCain • NLR • 501-945-8010 laspalmasarkansas.com www.facebook.com/laspalmasmexican

Find Us On Facebook www.facebook.com/arkansastimes

CLASSES

Lunchbox Rocks! Tutorials on healthy lunches for children and adults. Pulaski Technical College South Campus, 9 a.m.-12:00 p.m., $50. Exit 128, I-30.

SUNDAY, SEPT. 8

MUSIC

Bethel AME Church 150-year Anniversary Gospel Jazz Concert. Grammy-winning saxophonist Kirk Whalum will perform on the church grounds. Bethel AME Church. 600 N. Cedar St., NLR. 501-374-2891.

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

501-982-1939.

Michael Eubanks. Lone Star Steakhouse and Saloon, 7 p.m. 10901 N. Rodney Parham Road.

501-227-8898. www.lonestarsteakhouse.com.

Reggae Sundays with First Impressions. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 7:30 p.m., $5. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www.stickyz.com.

Successful Sunday. Featuring live music and DJs. Montego Cafe, 7 p.m. 315 Main St. 501372-1555. www.montegocafe.com.

EVENTS

43rd Annual Eureka Springs Antique Automobile Festival. Includes parade, bank robbery reenactment and more. Pine Mountain Village. 2075 E. Van Buren, Eureka Springs.

Bernice Garden Farmers Market. The Bernice Garden, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. 1401 S. Main St. www. thebernicegarden.org.

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

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

Reenactment of Reed’s Bridge Battle. See Sept. 6.

MONDAY, SEPT. 9

MUSIC

Irish Traditional Music Session. “SloPlay” begins at 6 p.m. Public session begins at 7 p.m. Hibernia Irish Tavern, second and Fourth Monday of every month. 9700 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-2464340. www.hiberniairishtavern.com.

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

EVENTS

Community Literacy Fair. Reception to honor literacy advocates on International Literacy Day. Faulkner County Library, 7 p.m. 1900 Tyler St., Conway. 501-327-7482. www.fcl.org.

LECTURES

“International Human Rights: A Latin America Perspective.” With Eduardo Freiler, judge and president of the Court of Appeals in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Clinton School of Public Service, 6 p.m. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-683-5239. www.clintonschool.uasys.edu.

SPORTS

Little Rock Touchdown Club: Tom Osborne.

Embassy Suites, 11 a.m., $20 members, $30 nonmembers. 11301 Financial Centre. 501-312-9000.

CLASSES

Finding Family Facts. Rhonda Stewart’s genealogy research class for beginners. Arkansas Studies Institute, second Monday of every month, 3:30 p.m. 401 President Clinton Ave. 501-320-5700 . www.butlercenter.org.

John Masching Cooking Class at Eggshells.

28

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

Chef from 1620 Savoy teaches. 501-664-6900 for reservations. Eggshells Kitchen Co., 6 p.m.-8 p.m., $50. 5501 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-664-6900. eggshellskitchencompany.com.

TUESDAY, SEPT. 10

MUSIC

21st Annual Hot Springs Jazz Festival. Various venues and times, 501-627-2425 or www.hsjazzsociety.org for more information. Downtown Hot Springs, Sept. 10-15, $35-$75. Central Avenue, Hot Springs.

Jars of Clay. With Brooke Waggoner and Kye Kye. Revolution, 8 p.m., $17 adv., $20 day of.

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

Jonathan Trawick and Aarun Carter. Musical performances, demonstrations and discussions of Arkansas roots music. Faulkner County Library, Sept. 10, 7 p.m.; Sept. 12, 7 p.m.; Sept.

14, 9 a.m. 1900 Tyler St., Conway. 501-327-7482. www.fcl.org.

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

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

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

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. The Joint, 8-11 p.m., free. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

Ricky David Tripp. Rocket Twenty One, 5:30 p.m.

2601 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-603-9208. www.ferneaurestaurant.com.

Shawn James and the Shapeshifters. Bear’s Den Pizza, 9 p.m. 235 Farris Road, Conway. 501-3285556. www.bearsdenpizza.com.

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

DANCE

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

EVENTS

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

Little Rock Green Drinks. Informal networking session for people who work in the environmental field. Ciao Baci, 5:30-7 p.m. 605 N. Beechwood St. 501-603-0238. www.greendrinks. org.

Tales from the South. Authors tell true stories; schedule available on website. Dinner served 5-6:30 p.m., show at 7 p.m. Call for reservations.

Starving Artist Cafe, 5 p.m. 411 N. Main St., NLR. 501-372-7976. www.starvingartistcafe.net.

Trivia Bowl. Flying Saucer, 8:30 p.m. 323 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-8032. www.beerknurd. com/stores/littlerock.

FILM

“Land of Opportunity.” A Q&A will follow the screening. Reynolds Performance Hall, UCA, 7 p.m. 350 S. Donaghey, Conway.

LECTURES

“Reducing Gun Violence in America: Informing Policy with Evidence and Analysis.” With Daniel Webster, professor of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Clinton School of Public CONTINUED ON PAGE 28

MOVIE REVIEW

NE NEW W M O e w n nu er ! s!

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‘THE GRANDMASTER’: Ziyi Zhang and Tony Leung star.

‘Grandmaster’ mixes kung fu, romance Mood master Wong returns to unrequited love theme.

BY MIKE POWELL

T

he Chinese director Wong Kar-wai is known for sad, lyrical movies in which people always seem to be missing each other. In 1994’s “Chungking Express,” a snack-bar attendant breaks into the apartment of a heartbroken cop — one of her customers — to try and cheer him up by redecorating, only to leave town when he finally asks her for a date. In 2000, he made “In the Mood For Love,” a story set in 1960s Hong Kong about the almostrelationship between a man and a woman whose spouses are carrying on an affair.

They’re confined by the manners of the society they live in, but they also hide behind them — it’s good manners that spare them the difficult task of telling each other how they really feel. Instead they yearn silently, accompanied by mournful violins or the aria from an old Chinese opera, waiting with downcast eyes as the potential of the present moment passes them by. “To say there are no regrets in life is to fool yourself,” a woman named Gong Er says near the end of “The Grandmaster” to a man she has harbored feelings toward for over a decade. “Imagine how boring life would be without regret.” Soon they are walking side-by-side down an empty street at a comfortable distance from each other, where they part into the dark.

“The Grandmaster” is at its core an unmistakably Wong-ian film: Languid, sensual, rife with solemn proclamations

that begin with words like “it is said” or “my father once said.” But it’s also a kungfu movie, and Wong’s first foray into action since 1994’s “Ashes of Time.” Based on the life of Ip Man (Wong mainstay Tony Leung), a kung-fu master famous in part for teaching Bruce Lee, the plot weaves the personal stories of both Ip and his almostlove Gong Er (Ziyi Zhang) into the larger narrative of China’s occupation by Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War and subsequent closing of Hong Kong. Wong’s storytelling is loose and elliptical: At first we follow Ip’s ascendance to grandmaster; later there’s a long digression about Gong Er that throws us back into the past. Often, transitions are signaled with the handholding device of title cards, which is a little clumsy, but also a reminder that this is a movie less concerned with the sequential, and-then and-then and-then quality of storytelling than with creating a rich and melancholy atmosphere in which the events of the plot don’t connect, but float.

Choreographed by Yuen Woo-ping, best known for both “The Matrix” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” even the movie’s fight sequences feel romantic, lingering not only on the blows but the foreplay that precedes them. This is especially important when Ip faces off against Gong Er: The fight exists as a proxy for a physical intimacy they never share. Wong leans hard on choppy slow-motion shots

that have an almost soap operatic quality — somehow both chintzy and moving at the same time. And as with “In the Mood For Love,” long portions of the movie take place in or around the rain, which almost glitters in the cool blue streetlight.

This is a movie that tries to do a lot.

Sometimes too much. At a little over an hour and a half, it feels short, and somehow I wasn’t surprised to learn that the edit I was watching, released by The Weinstein Co., was 22 minutes shorter than the domestic Chinese cut. Its most beautiful scenes feel like tiny islands isolated by what came before or after them.

This doesn’t make them more or less beautiful, only a little lost on a movie that isn’t sure what to do with them. And as the movie goes on, it seems less and less concerned with the kung-fu conceit of Ip Man’s life than with the scenes between him and Gong Er. These are, as you’d expect, subtle: Tony Leung rarely rises above a slight curl of his mouth; Ziyi — known on both sides of the world for “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and her lead in “Memoirs of a Geisha” — delivers entire soliloquies just by contracting her pupils. Despite the movie’s elaborate kung fu, in the end, Wong can’t stop himself from telling the story he’s always wanted to tell: about two people longingly wandering past each other, into the rest of their lives.

FREE DESSERT with your entreé purchase in the restaurant Good through 9.30.2013

Enjoy DINNER in either the restaurant or bar Sat & Sun BRUNCH, 10-2 LUNCH Mon-Fri, 11-2

Live Music in the Bar Mon-Sat Nights Thursday, September 5 First Thursday in Hillcrest That Arkansas Weather 8 pm, $5 cover Friday, September 6 Crash Meadows with opening act Mail The Horse

8:30 pm, $7 cover

Saturday, September 7 Big Dam Horns 9 pm, $7 cover

2721 Kavanaugh Blvd.

Little Rock

501.663.1196 afterthoughtbistroandbar.com www.arktimes.com

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

29

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Service, noon. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501683-5239. www.clintonschool.uasys.edu.

BENEFITS

Lunch at the Arkansas Food Bank. Local food trucks and tours of the warehouse as a part of Hunger Action Month. Arkansas Foodbank, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. 4301 W. 65th St. 501-5658121. www.arkansasfoodbank.org.

BOOKS

“Glossolalia: New and Selected Stories.” Launch party for latest book by Little Rock author David Jauss. South on Main, 6 p.m. 1304 Main Street.

501-244-9660.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 11

MUSIC

Join Us For Our Event At The Historic YMCA Building 6th & Broadway • Downtown Little Rock Saturday, September 21 7 – 11pm Admission Is $35 In Advance Or $45 At The Door And Includes: A Night Of Dancing, Food, Drinks, Silent Auction & Live Music By Katmandu

All Proceeds Benefit Out Of The Woods Animal Rescue For More Info Or to Purchase Tickets, Visit www.ootwrescue.org

arkansas times

21st Annual Hot Springs Jazz Festival. Various venues and times, 501-627-2425 or www.hsjazzsociety.org for more information. Downtown Hot Springs, through Sept. 15, $35-$75. Central Avenue, Hot Springs.

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

The Black Crowes. Arkansas Music Pavilion, 7:30 p.m., $32-$47. 2536 N. McConnell Ave., Fayetteville. 479-443-5600. www.arkansasmusicpavilion.com.

Cody Belew, John Willis. An interfaith gathering called “Compassion in Action” sponsored

by The Interfaith Center and Arkansas House of Prayer. St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, 6-7 p.m.

20900 Chenal Parkway.

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

Live Karaoke and Dueling Pianos. Featuring Dell Smith and William Staggers. Montego Cafe, 9 p.m. 315 Main St. 501-372-1555. www.montegocafe.com.

Ricky David Tripp. Rocket Twenty One, 5:30 p.m.

2601 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-603-9208. www.ferneaurestaurant.com.

Shawn James and the Shapeshifters. Vino’s, 8 p.m., $5. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www.vinosbrewpub.com.

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

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 5 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-374-7474. www.capitalhotel.com/CBG.

COMEDY

www.pawsonthepavement.org September 7, 2013 • 8:00 am • Murray Park

Fun... Games...

Cold Noses...

Pet Training Demonstrations Razorback Ticket Raffles For September 7th Game 57 Foot Inflatable Obstacle Course Food and Beverage Vendors And Much, Much More!

The Joint Venture. Improv comedy group. The Joint, 8 p.m., $5. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

Kristen Key. The Loony Bin, Sept. 11-12, 7:30 p.m.; Sept. 13-14, 7:30 and 10 p.m., $7-$10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

Standup Open Mic Night. Hosted by local come­ di­ans of the com­edy col­lec­tive Come­di­ans of NWA. UARK Bowl, 9 p.m., free. 644 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-301-2030. uarkbowl.com.

DANCE

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

POETRY

Rocktown Slam. Sign up at the door to perform in the competition. Arkansas Arts Center, 7 p.m.-9 p.m., $5-$10. 501 E. 9th St. 501-372-4000. www.

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SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

arkarts.com.

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.

BENEFITS

17th Annual Golf for Food. Registration at 7:30 am. Benefits the Arkansas Food Bank. Country Club of Arkansas, 7 a.m.-12:30 p.m. 3 Country Club Circle, Maumelle.

United Way Kick-Off Event. Door prizes and free food. Dickey-Stephens Park, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

400 W. Broadway St., NLR. 501-664-1555. www. travs.com.

THIS WEEK IN THEATER

“100 Saints You Should Know.” A priest must reconcile his desires with his role in the church, a teenage boy confused about his sexuality and a young woman desperate for spiritual validation. The Weekend Theater, Sept. 6-7, 7:30 p.m.; Sept. 13-14, 7:30 p.m.; Sept. 20-21, 7:30 p.m., $12-$16. 1001 W. 7th St. 501-374-3761. www. weekendtheater.org.

“Jersey Boys.” Hit Broadway musical about the Four Seasons. Walton Arts Center, through Sept.

5, 7 p.m.; through Sept. 7, 8 p.m.; through Sept.

8, 2 p.m.; Sun., Sept. 8, 7:30 p.m., $44-$84. 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-443-5600.

“Pal Joey.” A reconceived version of the 1940 Rodgers & Hart musical, from director Peter Schneider. Arkansas Repertory Theatre, through Sept. 29: Wed., Thu., Sun., 7 p.m.; Fri., Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; Tue., Sept. 17, 7 p.m.; Tue., Sept. 24, 7 p.m., $47-$57. 601 Main St. 501-3780405. www.therep.org.

“The Spiritualist.” An English widow channels the spirits of dead classical composers in this comedic drama by Robert Ford, artistic director for TheatreSquared. Walton Arts Center’s Nadine Baum Studios, through Sept. 15: Thu.Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Sun., 2 and 7:30 p.m., $22-$36.

505 W. Spring St., Fayetteville. 479-443-5600. theatre2.org.

“Tuna Does Vegas.” A conservative radio host and his wife renew their vows in Vegas, a small Texas town comes along for the ride, hilarity ensues. Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, through Sept.

29: Tue.-Sat., 6 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., $15-$35. 6323 Col. Glenn Road. 501-562-3131. murrysdinnerplayhouse.com.

GALLERIES, MUSEUMS

NEW EXHIBITIONS, EVENTS

BOSWELL-MOUROT, 5816 Kavanaugh Blvd.: “Windows,” new work by Peggy Port, opens with reception 6-9 p.m. Sept. 7, show through Sept. 28. 664-0030.

CO-OP ART, Tanglewood Shopping Center, lower level, Cantrell and Mississippi: Gallery open house, 5-8 p.m. Sept. 12, with work by co-op members Suzanne Brugner, Dr. L. P. Fraiser, Susie Henley, Glenda Josephson, Patty and Herb Monoson, Maka Parnell, Joyce Redetsky, Dee Schulten and Scotty Shively.

GALLERY 360, 900 S. Rodney Parham Road: “Edgy & Goofy,” collage and mixed media work by Amy Edgington and Byron Werner, opens with reception 6-9 p.m. Sept. 7, music by the Rural War Room, show through Oct. 19. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sat. 663-2222. 360gallery.blogspot.com LAMAN LIBRARY, 2801 Orange St.: “Recovery: The World Trade Center Recovery Operation,” 65 photographs and 56 recovered artifacts from the 911 attack, from the New York State Museum, Sept. 6-Dec. 1. 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Mon.-Thu., 9 a.m.-5 CONTINUED ON PAGE 31

BRIAN CHILSON

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Make plans to attend the Arkansas Times Latino Food and Music Festival.

BY DAVID KOON

A

s this writer has been heard to say through a mouth stuffed with tacos al pastor, we’re a big supporter of the Latino influx into Central Arkansas over the past few decades. Not only do we get the pleasure of seeing the world through the eyes of friends from different lands, we get the added benefit of having near-instant access to some of the cheapest, freshest, best, most no-nonsense food in the world, cooked by people who know what they’re doing — stellar tacos, tortas, tamales, burritos and more, stuffed with fresh ingredients and every meat imaginable.

If you still haven’t worked up the courage to go seek out the little Formicatopped dives off of Baseline where the TVs are always tuned to Mexican soap operas and all the Coca-cola bottle labels are in Spanish, the North Point Ford Latino Food and Music Festival on Saturday, Sept. 14 is your chance to sample what’s muy bueno in local Latino cuisine, served up on a night filled with music, dance, cervezas and general merry-making.

The festival will be held at the Argenta Farmer’s Market Plaza in North Little Rock from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. A $15 general admission ticket ($20 day of event, with kids 12 and under free) will cover music and entertainment from the best Latino musicians around, with performances by Mariachi Americas, Cuban band CruzWay, and Papa Rap. 31

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

North Point Ford Latino Food and Music Festival 6-10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14 Argenta Farmers Market Plaza, North Little Rock $15, $20 day of event. 12 and under free.

Food vendors on hand selling items for purchase include many of our faves, including Lonchera El Jarocho, Argentinean ice cream by Luis Bea, Brazilian cuisine by Cafe Bossa Nova, Colombian grub by Luis Gaudet, and Mexican delights from Casa Manana, Las Palmas, the Jalisco Food Truck and Cotijas. The local grocery chain Food Giant will also have a booth set up at the event. Just do yourself a favor and don’t eat any pepper offered to you by a person with a Hispanic accent, no matter how tiny and delicious it looks.

While the Latino definition of what’s edible appears to differ somewhat from the gringo, a flaming tongue needs no translation. We had to learn that lesson the hard way.

The North Point Ford Latino Food and Music Festival is sponsored by North Point Ford, El Latino, Arkansas Times, Budweiser, Pulaski Technical College, and the Argenta Arts Foundation. For more information or to order tickets, hit the festival website at arktimes.com/ latinofood.

W E I N V I T E Y O U T O J O I N T H E F U N AT W E I N V I T E Y O U T O J O I N T H E F U N AT

9.19.13 9.19.13

ReStore and After features furniture and h i tAefmt es r f rf eoand Roe m S tefeatures od r eé caonrdfurniture amt uHhome r ea sb iftuadécor rtn’ si t R uitems re eS taonrfrom de ReStore and After Habitat’s r eh soaml ee sdhéocposr, ittreamn ss ffor romme dH ai nb ti toa w t ’ os rRk es Sotfo ra er t ReStore resale and brye slashops, olcea ls haotransformed r pt iss, t st r a n ds f osinto or m l de works i lweart no rt kby asu oclocal . di n i na t soof ft i aorntartists P rboyc el auction. lalue cdfun-filled oe cd as l f ra or tmiProceeds s t hs ias nrde lfrom saoxl eddthis i na nadrelaxed sfiul enn- ft iand t ieovne.n t sold in a silent event b i tt ahti sf or re lH P r bo ec ne e df ist fH oam xuemda anni tdy fiunn t- h f iel li er df i eg vhet n t benefit Habitat for rHumanity in atheir fight against poverty housing. t ya nh iotuy s i n gt. h e i r f i g h t b e n e f i t H a gb ai ti ants tf opro vHeur m against poverty housing.

Next Level Events at Union Station N e x t L e 1v 4e 0l 0E W. v e nM t sa rakt hUa nmi oSnt .S t a t i o n 1L4i 0 k h6a m S t. . t t0l eW.R oMc akr • p.m Little Rock • 6 p.m.

Flowers by Greg Daniels Flowers by Greg Daniels

Tickets may be purchased online in advance for $35 or at the door for $40.

Tickets may be purchased online in advance for $35 or at the door for $40.

Visit habitatpulaski.org to purchase.

Visit habitatpulaski.org purchase.

Tickets may be purchased online in advancetofor $35 or at the door for $40.

Visit habitatpulaski.org to purchase. www.arktimes.com

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

31

SEPTEMBER 13

The 2nd Friday Of Each Month 5-8 pm

Join us for painting class at 6:30 in the Courtyard lobby area.

Hosted by Spirited Art Little Rock

Register online at myspiritedart.com 521 President Clinton Ave. River Market District (501) 975-9800

Galleries

GYPSY BISTRO 200 S. RIVER MARKET AVE, STE. 150 • 501.375.3500 DIZZYSGYPSYBISTRO.NET

The Old State House Museum Presents

300 Third Tower • 501-375-3333 coppergrillandgrocery.com

FREE TROLLEY RIDES!

➧

Opening reception for

Reflections from the Monday Studio Artists A museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage

200 E. Third St. Downtown Little Rock 501-324-9351 HistoricArkansas.org

Come by during 2nd Friday Art Night to see Tyler Arnold’s Exhibit:

“ROCKSTARS & RAZORBACKS: A TRIBUTE TO LIFE & LIBERTY”

Proud to be a new stop at the

New works by Gallery 221 artist EMILE, new jewlery

by Rae Ann Bayless, and introducing artwork by newly represented artist Kathi Couch.

“Hendrix”

Arkansas Times 2nd Friday Art Night Downtown Little Rock 300 River Market Ave, Ste 105

ARKANSAS NSAS TIMES

Friday, Sept 13, 1885 House Chamber Performance Begins at 5:30 Free Admission • Museum open until 8 p.m.

Sunlight & Dewdrops, Sue Shields

GALLERY 221 & ART STUDIOS 221

Find Us On Facebook & Instagram 32 SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

Big Silver

“Liberty “

“Man Childs”

JOIN US 5-8PM

Pyramid Place • 2nd & Center St • (501) 801-0211

♦ Fine Art ♦ Cocktails & Wine ♦ Hors d’oeuvres ♦

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

These venues will be open late. There’s plenty of parking and a FREE TROLLEY to each of the locations.

Don’t miss it – lots of fun!

Free parking at 3rd & Cumberland Free street parking all over downtown and behind the River Market (Paid parking available for modest fee.)

AFTER DARK, CONT. p.m. Sat. 758-1720.

MacARTHUR MUSEUM OF ARKANSAS MILITARY HISTORY, MacArthur Park: “The Colors That Bind: Regimental Flags of the 3rd Iowa Cavalry and the 37th Arkansas Infantry,” Sept. 11-Oct. 19; symbolic lowering of the Confederate national flag and raising of the Union guidon at 5 p.m. Sept. 10, 150th anniversary of the Confederate evacuation of Little Rock and the assumption of federal control in 1863, followed by preview reception 5-7 p.m. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-4 p.m. Sun. 376-4602.

CONWAY HENDRIX COLLEGE: “The Plan Keeps Coming Up Again,” painting and printmaking by Dustyn Bork, Art Building A Gallery, through Sept. 27; public demonstration on alternative material printing 10:10 a.m.-noon Sept. 25, Art Building B, Room B107; lecture 5 p.m. Sept. 26 with reception to follow. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri. 501-5051562.

UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS, Baum Gallery: “Nature/Nurture,” photographs by Jennifer Shaw; “Angle of Repose,” photographs

by Maysey Craddock; “Artistic Eye: Works from the Personal Collections of the Art Faculty,” opens with reception 5-7 p.m. Sept. 5, talk by Craddock 1:40 p.m. Sept. 5, McCastlain Hall 143.

10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 10-7 p.m. Thu., 1-5 p.m.

Sun. 501-450-5793.

HOT SPRINGS ARTISTS’ WORKSHOP GALLERY, 810 Central Ave.: Janet Kuehn, oils; Nina Louton, watercolors, Gallery Walk reception 5-9 p.m. Sept. 6.

501-623-6401.

BLUE MOON FINE ART, 718 Central Ave.: Wire sculpture by Bart Soutendijk, Gallery Walk reception 5-9 p.m. Sept. 6. 501-318-2787.

FINE ARTS CENTER, 626 Central Ave.: “Hot Springs National Photography Competition,” through Sept. 14, Gallery Walk reception 5-9 p.m.

Sept. 6, 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat. 501-624-0489.

JUSTUS FINE ART, 827 Central Ave.: Work

by Steve Griffith, Robyn Horn, Dolores Justus, Rebecca Thompson, Dan Thornhill, Emily Wood, Kari Albright, Michael Ashley and others. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed.-Sat. 501-321-2335.

CALL FOR ENTRIES

The Arkansas Pastel Society is accepting entries to its national exhibition, “Reflections in Pastel,” set for Nov. 8-Feb 23 at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies. Deadline is Sept. 5. More than $5,000 in cash and prizes will be awarded, including a $1500 grand prize. The show will be juried by pastel artist Richard McKinley. For more information email apsreflections@gmail.com.

The city of North Little Rock and the Park Hill Neighborhood Association invite sculptors and artists to submit qualifications for the commissioning of an outdoor sculpture to be located along the John F. Kennedy corridor bordered by “A” and “H” Streets. The sculpture should represent the natural beauty and historic significance of the neighborhood and its brand, “Perfectly Park Hill.” Deadline for applications is Sept. 15; the project must be complete by Dec. 31. For more information e-mail carytyson@gmail.com.

The Fort Smith Regional Art Museum is accepting entries for its “Portraits of Hope” exhibition Oct. 24-Nov. 30. All proceeds from sales will benefit the Ozark Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Entries will be accepted through Oct. 13. Call 479-784-2787 for more information.

CONTINUING EXHIBITS

ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER, MacArthur Park: “Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough:

The Treasures of Kenwood House, London,” through Sept. 8, $12 adults, $10 seniors, $8 military, $6 students, free to members; “Bauhaus Twenty-21: An Ongoing Legacy,” photographs

by Gordon Watkinson, through Sept. 22; “50 Works / 50 Weeks / 50 Years,” Alice Pratt Brown Atrium, through 2013; “Ryan Sniegocki: Museum School Ceramic Artist in Residence,” pottery; “Interwoven: Craft Exhibition,” from the permanent collection, through Nov. 17. 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat., 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sun. 372-4000.

BUTLER CENTER GALLERIES, Arkansas Studies Institute, 401 President Clinton Ave.: “MidSouthern Watercolorists 43rd Annual Juried Exhibition,” through Oct. 27; “Get a Simple Landscape,” drawings by Jerry Phillips, through Sept. 29. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 320-5700.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT LITTLE ROCK, 2801 S. University: “Transformation 8: Contemporary Works in Small Metals,” wearable objects and sculptural objects, Gallery I, through Oct. 2; “Figurative Forms: Work from the UALR Permanent Collection,” Gallery II, through Sept.

25; “David O’Brien, Senior Exhibition,” sculpture and puppet animation video, through Sept. 5. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., also, after Labor Day, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Sat., 2-5 p.m. Sun. 569-3182.

ONGOING MUSEUM EXHIBITS

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

CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL CENTER, 1200 President Clinton Ave.: “And Freedom for All: the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom,” photographs by Stanley Tretick of the 1963 march, through Nov. 17; “Oscar de la Renta: American Icon,” designs worn by Laura Bush, Jessica Chastain, Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and others, and other couture pieces, through Dec. 1. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. $7 adults; $5 college students, seniors, retired military; $3 ages 6-17. 370-8000.

ESSE, 1510 S. Main St.: “What’s Inside: A Century of Women and Handbags (1900-1999),” purses from the collection of Anita Davis, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

Tue.-Sun., $10-$8. 916-9022.

HISTORIC ARKANSAS MUSEUM, 200 E. Third St.: “Heeding the Call: The Firefighter Collection of Johnny Reep,” through Jan. 5; “The Sense of Nature: David Mudrinich, John Van Horn and Judy Wright Walter,” through Oct. 6; “Jason A. Smith: Stills”; “Arkansas Made,” ongoing; “The Curious World of Patent Models,” through Sept. 29. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 324-9351.

MOSAIC TEMPLARS CULTURAL CENTER, 9th and Broadway: “Shades of Greatness,” collaborative art exhibition inspired by the history of the Negro Leagues; permanent exhibits on African-American entrepreneurship in Arkansas.

9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat. 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.

OLD STATE HOUSE MUSEUM, 300 W. Markham: “Lights! Camera! Arkansas!”, the state’s ties to Hollywood, including costumes, scripts, film footage, photographs and more, through March 1, 2015; “Things You Need to Hear: Memories of Growing up in Arkansas from 1890 to 1980,” oral histories about community, family, work, school and leisure, through March 2014. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m.

Sun. 324-9685.

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www.arktimes.com

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

33

Dining WHAT’S COOKIN’ GIO BRUNO gave us an update this week on when Bruno’s Little Italy should open in the Mann Lofts building at 310 Main St. He’d hoped he’d be open by late August, but ...

Construction should be finished this week, Bruno said, and once the new stove arrives, a plumbing inspection can be conducted and once the plumbing inspection is conducted then the liquor license can be obtained and once the liquor license is in hand, he can get a business license and then it’s time to hire and train. So the week of Sept. 23 is the new target date, which means if all goes as planned, the first dinner could be served Sept. 24. (Dinner will be served 5-10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.) There will be a number of soft openings, for loft developers Moses Tucker and the Downtown Partnership and builders and finally, the public will be able to check out the cooking of head chef Dominic Bruno (Gio’s son) and sous chef Josh Kerns (who Dominic is bringing to Arkansas from Colorado).

Vince Bruno, Gio’s brother, is executive chef and co-owner.

Two weeks after the restaurant opens and kinks are worked out, lunch will be served 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday.

DINING CAPSULES

LITTLE ROCK/ N. LITTLE ROCK

AMERICAN

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. THE AFTERTHOUGHT CAFE A pleasant spot in Hillcrest with specialty salads, steak and seafood. The soup of the day is a good bet.

At lunch, the menu includes an all-vegetable sandwich and a half-pound cheeseburger.

2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$.

501-663-1196. LD Mon.-Fri., D Sat., BR Sun. BIG ORANGE: BURGERS SALADS SHAKES Gourmet burgers manufactured according to exacting specs (humanely raised beef!) and properly fried Kennebec potatoes are the big draws, but you can get a veggie burger as well as fried chicken, curried falafel and blacked tilapia sandwiches. 17809 Chenal Parkway. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-821-1515. LD daily.

207 N. University Ave. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$.

501-379-915.

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. 34

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

Chinese Kitchen

11401 N. Rodney Parham Road 224-2100 QUICK BITE At Chinese Kitchen everything is made fresh to order. It’s not a good idea to simply show up there and order at the counter. There is not much indoor dining available (one or two small tables) so take-out is generally the preferred option. You’ll likely want to call in your order ahead of time to prevent having to wait inside the relatively lifeless restaurant front while they prepare your food in the kitchen.

HOURS 11 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, noon until 9 p.m.

Sunday.

OTHER INFO Credit cards accepted, no alcohol.

STRONG STARTER: Chinese Kitchen’s hot and sour soup.

Asian standby Chinese Kitchen does the classics well.

W

e all need a place we can rely on for a quick, relatively cheap, decent meal. A place you can call on when you’ve got no desire to prepare a proper meal at home or to sit down for an extended period at a restaurant. Aside from the often woefully inadequate offerings of most fast food joints, it’s nice to have a place you can drop by, quickly and easily, and snag a complete meal . We don’t always eat Chinese take-out, but when we do, it’s typically under these circumstances. The so-called “Americanized Chinese” scene gets a pretty bad wrap, most naysayers citing its lack of authenticity with flavors tailored to the sodium and sugar-loving palates of the American people. But don’t let this prevent you from enjoying a deepfried egg roll now and again. Americanized Chinese is a part of our culture, one that should be embraced without shame, and in Little Rock, there’s no better way to do so than at Chinese Kitchen.

We can’t resist starting a meal with hot and sour soup ($1.85). Chinese Kitchen’s

version tends to be a little more on the sweet side than other places in town, but it retains all the necessary sour, spicy, and salty elements that make this dish so popular. It is often served so piping hot it may take half an hour to cool to a point you would even dare approach it with your tongue. The strips of tofu, dried Chinese mushrooms, and thin, firm strands of bamboo give the soup the contrasting soft and chewy textural elements that make this soup shine. Chinese Kitchen provides you with a generous pile of slightly oily fried wontons to top your soup with, a simple but flavorful addition that gives the soup another gentle nudge towards greatness.

While most of Chinese Kitchen’s menu reads like the stereotypical AmericanizedChinese restaurant playbook, with standards such as sweet and sour pork, spicy kung pao chicken, garlic pork, and broccoli beef, a few less commonly seen items deserve special attention. The Cantonese press duck ($7.55) is prepared according to an old Chinese recipe. A whole

duck is seasoned and steamed, deboned when tender, then flattened and steamed again. Once the double steaming process is complete, the duck is fried until the skin becomes crisp and a deep golden brown.

Lastly, the aromatic, slightly sweet duck meat is gently tossed in a rich brown gravy.

This is one dish not to be missed from Chinese Kitchen’s menu.

“Leung’s Special” ($9.55) is a hodgepodge of flavors rolled into one unique dish. Succulent lobster meat is blended with oven-roasted pork and shrimp, then tossed with assorted Chinese vegetables: snow peas, water chestnuts, and bell pepper. It’s not the protein choices one would immediately imagine working well together, but they do — each bringing a distinct flavor profile but blending harmoniously to a single cohesive dish. You might also go with the “Lobster Cantonese Style,” ($16.99),which is plump lobster tail sauteed with fried garlic and a thickened paste of black beans. Normally, we prefer nothing to distract us from the unparalleled flavor of lobster (other than melted butter, perhaps) but in this case, with some fluffy white rice and a drizzle of soy sauce, we happily make an exception.

We typically always order one of their fried rice dishes ($4.65), which are available in chicken, beef, pork or shrimp.

The rice comes out a dark brown color, not exactly beautiful, but it tastes great regardless. Flecked with fried egg, onion, chopped carrot, and tender peas, the rice has the familiar flavor of oil and soy sauce and pairs well with nearly any dish on

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.

the menu. The lo mein dishes ($6.45) are equally appetizing. They always manage to balance the savory, salty sauce with the perfectly cooked noodles in such a way that the dish doesn’t feel sloppy, saturated, or overly heavy. Instead, with the mix of fresh vegetables and meat, it’s another side item that is delicious and filling enough to eat like a meal. Their egg rolls ($2.10) are also always fried fresh for every order. Even after toting them home, with some down time in their to-go bag, they always retain their warmth and crispnesss when they hit your plate. Dip them in a small pool of soy sauce with some spicy Chinese mustard and you have a dish no one will refuse. They may be the essence of Americanized Asian cuisine but we won’t turn them down.

We’re not claiming that Chinese Kitchen will be awarded any Michelin stars in the near future, but it puts out a decent, reliable product. That’s enough to earn our continued patronage. We’ve spoken with several other customers while waiting to pick up our order who have been regulars at Chinese Kitchen for 15 to 20 years. With loyalty like that, you know the restaurant is doing something right.

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

BREWSTERS 2 CAFE & LOUNGE Down-home done right. Check out the yams, mac-andcheese, greens, purple-hull peas, cornbread, wings, catfish and all the rest. 2725 S. Arch St. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-301-7728. LD Mon.-Sat. BUTCHER SHOP The cook-your-own-steak option has been downplayed, and several menu additions complement the calling card: large, fabulous cuts of prime beef, cooked to perfection. 10825 Hermitage Road. Full bar, All CC. $$$. 501-312-2748. D daily.

CAJUN’S WHARF The venerable seafood restaurant serves up great gumbo and oysters Bienville, and options such as fine steaks for the 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. COMMUNITY BAKERY This sunny downtown bakery is the place to linger over a latte, bagels and the New York Times. But a lunchtime dash for sandwiches is OK, too, though it’s often packed. 1200 S. Main St. No alcohol, CC. $-$$.

501-375-7105. BLD daily. 270 S. Shackleford.

No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-224-1656. BLD Mon.-Sat. BL Sun.

CHeCK ouT THIS WeeK’S DeALS AT CoLonIAL WIneS & SPIrITS!*

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North Coast Scrimshaw 6pk Bottles

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Boulevard KC Pils 6pk Bottles

$8.29 BOBBY’S CAFE Delicious, humungo burgers and tasty homemade deserts at this Levy diner.

12230 MacArthur Drive. NLR. No alcohol, No CC. $. 501-851-7888. BL Tue.-Fri., D Thu.-Fri. BOSCOS 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.

BOSTON’S Ribs, gourmet pizza star at this restaurant/sports bar located at the Holiday Inn by the airport. TVs in separate sports bar area. 3201 Bankhead Dr. Full bar, All CC. $$.

501-235-2000. LD daily.

BOUDREAUX’S GRILL & BAR A homey, seatyourself Cajun joint in Maumelle that serves up all sorts of variations of shrimp and catfish. With particularly tasty red beans and rice, jambalaya and bread pudding. 9811 Maumelle Blvd.

NLR. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-753-6860. L Sat., D Mon.-Sat. BOULEVARD BREAD CO. Fresh bread, fresh pastries, wide selection of cheeses, meats, side dishes; all superb. Good coffee, too. 1920 N. Grant St. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$. 501-6635951. 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.

BELLY UP

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

$7.29

WIne BuyS

750ML

Wild Horse 2010 Central Coast Cabernet Sauvignon

$22.99

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Simi 2010 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

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Ferrari Carano 2012 Sonoma County Fumé Blanc

$21.99

$15.99

Ferrari Carano 2012 Sonoma County Pinot Grigio

$21.99

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SPIrITS

1.75L

Famous Grouse Scotch

$39.99

$35.99

Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey

$46.39

$39.99

Grey Goose Vodka

$64.99

$54.99

Bombay Sapphire Gin

$47.99

$39.99

ConnoISSeur SeLeCTIon 750ML Collier & McKeel Tennessee Whiskey

$39.99

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Glenlivet 12yo Single Malt Scotch

$43.99

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High West Barreled Manhatten & Boulevardier

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Belle Meade Bourbon

$41.99

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COPPER GRILL Comfort food, burgers and more sophisticated fare at this River Marketarea hotspot. 300 E. Third St. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-375-3333. LD Mon.-Sat. DAVE’S PLACE A popular downtown soupand-sandwich stop at lunch draws a large and diverse crowd for the Friday night dinner, which varies in theme, home cooking being the most popular. Owner Dave Williams does all the cooking and his son, Dave also, plays saxophone and fronts the band that plays most Friday nights. 201 Center St. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-372-3283. L Mon.-Fri., D Fri. DAVID FAMILY KITCHEN Call it soul food or call it down-home country cooking. Just be sure to call us for breakfast or lunch when you go. Neckbones, ribs, sturdy cornbread, salmon croquettes, mustard greens and the like. Desserts are exceptionally good. 2301 Broadway. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-3710141. BL Mon.-Fri., L Sun. DELICIOUS TEMPTATIONS Decadent breakfast and light lunch items that can be ordered in full or half orders to please any appetite or palate, with a great variety of salads and soups as well. Don’t miss the bourbon pecan pie — it’s a winner. 11220 N. Rodney Parham Road.

No alcohol, All CC. $$. 501-225-6893. BL daily.

DIZZY’S GYPSY BISTRO Interesting bistro fare, served in massive portions at this River Market favorite. 200 River Market Ave. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-375-3500. LD Tue.-Sat. THE FADED ROSE The Cajun-inspired menu seldom disappoints. Steaks and soaked salads are legendary. 1619 Rebsamen Park Road. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-663-9734. LD daily.

FLYING SAUCER A popular River Market hangout thanks to its almost 200 beers (including 75 on tap) and more than decent bar food. It’s now non-smoking, so families are welcome. 323 President Clinton Ave. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-372-8032. LD daily.

FRANKE’S CAFETERIA Plate lunch spot strong on salads and vegetables, and perfect fried chicken on Sundays. Arkansas’ oldest continually operating restaurant. 11121 N. Rodney Parham Road. No alcohol, All CC. $$.

501-225-4487. LD Mon.-Fri. 400 W. Capitol Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $$. 501-372-1919. L Mon.-Fri. FRONTIER DINER The traditional all-American roadside diner, complete with a nice selection of man-friendly breakfasts and lunch specials.

The half pound burger is a two-hander for the average working Joe. 10424 Interstate 30. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-565-6414. BL Mon.-Sat. FROSTOP A ‘50s-style drive-in has been resurrected, with big and juicy burgers and great irregularly cut fries. Superb service, too.

4131 JFK Blvd. NLR. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$.

501-758-4535. BLD daily.

GADWALL’S GRILL & PIZZA Once two separate restaurants, a fire forced the grill into the pizza joint. Now, under one roof, there’s mouthwatering burgers and specialty sandwiches, plus zesty pizzas with cracker-thin crust and plenty of toppings. 12 North Hills Shopping Center. NLR. Beer, Wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-8341840. LD daily.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 36 www.arktimes.com

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

35

DINING CAPSULES, CONT. ADVERTISEMENT

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7 at Wildwood Park for the Performing Arts. The event will benefit the Academy of Creative Arts at Shorter College. The family festival kicks off with a yoga class, followed by a children’s theater performance and screenings of short films from the Arkansas Black Independent Film Festival, among other activities. Admission is $5 in advance, $8 at the gate from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and $10 after 4 p.m. To purchase tickets, visit urbanrawfestival.org. ➥ In need of some Little Rockbranded merchandise? Check out the LITTLE ROCK CON-

VENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU’S SHOP THE ROCK website, located at stores.shoptherock.biz. The site offers clothing, books, mugs and glassware that reflects the city’s unique attitude and culture.

36

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

ARKANSAS TIMES

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 (night only) brick oven pizzas. Wholesome, all-American food prepared with care, if rarely far from the middle of the culinary road. With full vegan and gluten-free menus. 5601 Ranch Drive. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$. 501-868-4311. LD Mon.-Sat. J & S CAFETERIA Home-cooking, with daily specials. Also offers burgers from the grill or a salad bar. 601 S Gaines St. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-378-2206. L Mon.-Fri. 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. $-$$. 501-224-2010. LD daily, BR Sun. MOOYAH BURGERS Kid-friendly, fast-casual restaurant with beef, veggie and turkey burgers, a burger bar and shakes. 14810 Cantrell Road, Suite 190. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-8681091.

OLD MILL BREAD AND FLOUR CO. CAFE The popular take-out bakery has an eat-in restaurant and friendly operators. It’s self-service, simple and good with sandwiches built with a changing lineup of the bakery’s 40 different breads, along with soups, salads and cookies.

12111 W. Markham St. #366. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-228-4677. BL Mon.-Sat. BR Sun. 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. $-$$. 501-3762900.

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. ROBERT’S SPORTS BAR & GRILL If you’re looking for a burger, you won’t find it here.

This establishment specializes in fried chicken dinners, served with their own special trimmings. 7212 Geyer Springs Road. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-568-2566. D Mon.-Sat. ROCKET TWENTY ONE Great seafood, among other things, is served at the Ice House Revival in Hillcrest. With a late night menu. 2601 Kavanaugh Blvd. Full bar, All CC. $$$-$$$$.

501-603-9208. L Mon.-Fri., D Tue.-Sat. ROUTE 66 DINER Kid-friendly ‘50s diner with a menu of classics, including chicken and waffles.

7710 Cantrell Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$.

501-223-3366. BLD Mon.-Sat. RUDY’S OYSTER BAR Good boiled shrimp and oysters on the half shell. Quesadillas and chili cheese dip are tasty and ultra-hearty. 2695 Pike Ave. NLR. Full bar, All CC. 501-771-0808.

LD Mon.-Sat. 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. STICKYZ ROCK ‘N’ ROLL CHICKEN SHACK

Fingers any way you can imagine, plus sandwiches and burgers, and a fun setting for music and happy hour gatherings. 107 Commerce St. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-372-7707. LD Mon-Sun. TOWN PUMP A dependable burger, good wings, great fries, other bar food, plate lunches, full bar. 1321 Rebsamen Park Road. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-663-9802. L Mon.-Sat. D daily.

TRIO’S Fresh, creative and satisfying lunches; even better at night, when the chefs take flight. Best array of fresh desserts in town. 8201 Cantrell Road Suite 100. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$.

501-221-3330. LD Mon.-Sat., BR Sun. YANCEY’S CAFETERIA Soul food served with a Southern attitude. 1523 Martin Luther King Ave. No alcohol, No CC. $. 501-372-9292. LD Tue.-Sat. 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. BL Mon.-Fri.

ASIAN

A. W. LIN’S ASIAN CUISINE Traditional Chinese dishes, several Thai dishes and a variety of sushi rolls. 17000 Chenal Pkwy. 501-821-5398. LD daily.

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. $-$$. 501-604-7777. LD Mon.-Sat. CRAZY HIBACHI GRILL The folks that own Chi’s and Sekisui offer their best in a three-inone: tapanaki cooking, sushi bar and sit-down dining with a Mongolian grill. 2907 Lakewood Village. NLR. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-8129888. LD daily.

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.

OSAKA JAPANESE RESTAURANT Veteran operator of several local Asian buffets has brought fine-dining Japanese dishes and a well-stocked sushi bar to way-out-west Little Rock, near Chenal off Highway 10. 5501 Ranch Dr. $$-$$$. 501-868-3688. LD Sun.-Thu., D Fri.-Sat. RJ TAO RESTAURANT & ULTRA LOUNGE Upscale Asian and exotic fare - like Kangaroo burgers and African prawns - from the Chi family. 5501 Kavanaugh Blvd. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-603-0080. D Mon.-Sat. SAIGON CUISINE Traditional Vietnamese with Thai and Chinese selections. Be sure to try the authentic pho soups and spring rolls. 14524 Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-8687770. LD daily.

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.

SUSHI CAFE Impressive, upscale sushi menu with other delectable house specialties like

tuna tataki, fried soft shell crab, Kobe beef and, believe it or not, the Tokyo cowboy burger.

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

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

BARBECUE

CHATZ CAFE ‘Cue and catfish joint that does heavy catering business. Try the slow-smoked, meaty ribs. 8801 Colonel Glenn Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-562-4949. LD Mon.-Sat. CORKY’S RIBS & BBQ The pulled pork is extremely tender and juicy, and the sauce is sweet and tangy without a hint of heat. Maybe the best dry ribs in the area. 12005 Westhaven Drive. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-954-7427.

LD daily. 2947 Lakewood Village Drive. NLR. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-753-3737. LD daily, B Sat.-Sun. PIT STOP BAR AND GRILL A working-man’s bar and grill, with barbecue, burgers, breakfast and bologna sandwiches, plus live music on Friday and Saturday nights. 5506 Baseline Road.

Full bar, No CC. $$. 501-562-9635. BLD daily.

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. DUGAN’S PUB Serves up Irish fare like fish and chips and corned beef and cabbage alongside classic bar food. The chicken fingers and burgers stand out. Irish breakfast all day. 401 E. 3rd St. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-244-0542.

LD daily.

GEORGIA’S GYROS Good gyros, Greek salads and fragrant grilled pita bread highlight a large Mediterranean food selection, plus burgers and the like. 2933 Lakewood Village Drive. NLR. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-753-5090. LD Mon.-Sat. HIBERNIA IRISH TAVERN This traditional Irish pub has its own traditional Irish cook from, 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. $$. 501-246-4340. D Mon.-Fri., BR, L, D Sat.-Sun. LAYLA’S GYROS AND PIZZERIA Delicious Mediterranean fare — gyros, falafel, shawarma, kabobs, hummus and babaganush — that has a devoted following. 9501 N Rodney Parham Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-227-7272.

LD daily (close 5 p.m. on Sun.).

CONTINUED ON PAGE 38

SAVE THE DATE

SEPT. 21

See demonstrations and hear lectures from Arkansas Visionaries, whose ideas, in fields ranging from art to education to public policy, are transforming the state for the better.

The event will take place from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21, at a number of downtown venues, including the Clinton School for Public Service, Heifer International, the Historic Arkansas Museum and the Old State House. It’s free and open to the public.

Look for the full line-up of our Visionairies in the Sept. 12 issue of the Arkansas Times.

DINING CAPSULES, CONT. TAJ MAHAL The third Indian restaurant in a onemile span of West Little Rock, Taj Mahal offers upscale versions of traditional dishes and an extensive menu. Dishes range on the spicy side.

1520 Market Street. Beer, All CC. $$$. 501-8814796. LD daily.

TAZIKI’S GREEK FARE Fast casual chain that offers gyros, grilled meats and veggies, hummus and pimento cheese. 8200 Cantrell Road. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$. 501-227-8291.

LD daily.

THE TERRACE MEDITERRANEAN KITCHEN A broad selection of Mediterranean delights that include a very affordable collection of starters, salads, sandwiches, burgers, chicken and fish at lunch and a more upscale dining experience with top-notch table service at dinner. 2200 Rodney Parham Road. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-217-9393. LD Mon.-Fri., D Sat. YA YA’S EURO BISTRO The first eatery to open in the Promenade at Chenal is a date-night affair, translating comfort food into beautiful cuisine.

Best bet is lunch, where you can explore the menu through soup, salad or half a sandwich.

17711 Chenal Parkway. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$.

501-821-1144. LD daily, BR 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 ITALIAN BISTRO Traditional Italian antipastos, appetizers, entrees and desserts.

Extensive menu. 315 N. Bowman Road. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-225-5000. L,D Mon.-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. JIM’S RAZORBACK PIZZA Great pizza served up in a family-friendly, sports-themed environment. Special Saturday and Sunday brunch served from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Flat-screen TVs throughout and even a cage for shooting basketballs and playing ping-pong. 16101 Cantrell Road. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$. 501-8683250. LD daily.

PIZZA CAFE Thin, crunchy pizza with just a dab of tomato sauce but plenty of chunks of stuff, topped with gooey cheese. Draft beer is appealing on the open-air deck — frosty and generous. 1517 Rebsamen Park Road. Beer, Wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-664-6133. LD daily 14710 Cantrell Road. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$-$$$.

501-868-2600. LD daily.

PIZZA D’ACTION Some of the best pizza in town, a marriage of thin, crispy crust with a hefty ingredient load. Also, good appetizers and salads, pasta, sandwiches and killer plate lunches. 2919 W. Markham St. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-666-5403. LD daily.

THE PIZZA JOINT Cracker-thin crusts with a tempting variety of traditional or nontraditional toppings. Just off Cantrell Road. 6100 Stones Road. Beer, Wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-868-9108.

D daily.

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. ROCKY’S PUB Rocking sandwiches an Arkie used to have to head way northeast to find and a fine selection of homemade Italian entrees, including as fine a lasagna as there is. 6909 JFK Blvd. NLR. Beer, Wine. $$. 501-833-1077. LD Mon.-Sat. SHOTGUN DAN’S PIZZA Hearty pizza and sandwiches with a decent salad bar. Multiple locations, at 4020 E. Broadway, NLR, 945-0606; 4203 E. Kiehl Ave., Sherwood, 835-0606, and 10923 W. Markham St. Beer, CC. $-$$. 501-2249519. LD Mon.-Sat., D Sun. VINO’S Great rock ‘n’ roll club also is a fantastic pizzeria with huge calzones and always improving home-brewed beers. 923 W. 7th St. Beer, Wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-375-8466. LD daily.

ZAZA Here’s where you get wood-fired pizza with gorgeous blistered crusts and a light topping of choice and tempting ingredients, great gelato in a multitude of flavors, call-yourown ingredient salads and other treats. 5600 Kavanaugh Blvd. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$-$$$.

501-661-9292. LD daily. 1050 Ellis Ave. Conway.

Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-336-9292. LD daily.

LATINO

BLUE COAST BURRITO You will become a lover of fish tacos here, but there are plenty of other fresh coastal Mex choices served up fast-food cafeteria style in cool surroundings. Don’t miss the Baja fruit tea. 14810 Cantrell Road. Beer, All CC. $-$$. 501-868-3770. LD Mon.-Sat, L Sun. 4613 E. McCain Blvd. NLR. Beer, All CC. $-$$.

501-945-8033. LD Mon.-Sat., L Sun. CANTINA LAREDO This is gourmet Mexican food, a step up from what you’d expect from a real cantina, from the modern minimal decor to the well-prepared entrees. We can vouch for

the enchilada Veracruz and the carne asada y huevos, both with tasty sauces and high quality ingredients perfectly cooked. 207 N. University.

Full bar, All CC. $$$. 501-280-0407. LD daily, BR Sun. CHUY’S Good Tex-Mex. We’re especially fond of the enchiladas, and always appreciate restaurants that make their own tortillas. 16001 Chenal Parkway. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-821-2489.

LD daily.

JUANITA’S Menu includes a variety of combination entree choices — enchiladas, tacos, flautas, shrimp burritos and such — plus creative salads and other dishes. And of course the “Blue Mesa” cheese dip. 614 President Clinton Ave. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-372-1228. LD Mon.-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. LD daily.

SENOR TEQUILA Typical cheap Mexcian dishes with great service. Good margaritas. 10300 N. Rodney Parham Road. Full bar, All CC. $$.

501-224-5505. LD daily. 9847 Maumelle Blvd.

NLR. 501-758-4432.

TAQUERIA EL PALENQUE Solid authentic Mexican food. Try the al pastor burrito. 9501 N. Rodney Parham Road. Beer, CC. $-$$. 501-3120045. Serving LD Tue.-Sun.

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5, 20135, 2013 ARKANSAS TIMES 38 38 September SEPTEMBER ARKANSAS TIMES

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DINING CAPSULES, CONT.

AROUND ARKANSAS

CONWAY

DOMOYAKI Hibachi grill and sushi bar near the interstate. Now serving bubble tea. 505 E. Dave Ward Drive. Conway. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$. 501-764-0074. L Mon.-Fri., D Mon.-Sat. GUSANO’S They make the tomatoey Chicago-style deep-dish pizza the way it’s done in the Windy City. It takes a little longer to come out of the oven, but it’s worth the wait. 2915 Dave Ward Drive. Conway. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-329-1100. LD daily.

JADE CHINA Traditional Chinese fare, some with a surprising application of ham. 559 Harkrider. Conway. No alcohol, No CC. $-$$.

501-329-5121. LD Mon.-Sat. LAS PALMAS IV “Authentic” Mexican chain with a massive menu of choices. 786 Elsinger Boulevard. Conway. Full bar, All CC. $$.

501-329-5010. LD Mon-Sat. SHORTY’S` Burgers, dogs and shake joint.

1101 Harkrider. Conway. No alcohol, No CC. $-$$. 501-329-9213. LD Mon.-Sat. STOBY’S Great homemade cheese dip and big, sloppy Stoby sandwiches with umpteen choices of meats, cheeses and breads. 805

Donaghey. Conway. No alcohol, All CC. $$. 501-327-5447. BLD Mon.-Sat. 405 W. Parkway. Russellville. No alcohol, All CC. $$.

501-968-3816. BLD Mon.-Sat. U.S. PIZZA CO. Part of the U.S. Pizza Co. chain. 710 Front Street. Conway. Beer, Wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-450-9700. LD Mon.-Sun.

FAYETTEVILLE

AQ CHICKEN HOUSE Great chicken — fried, grilled and rotisserie — at great prices. 1925 North College Ave. Fayetteville. Beer, Wine, All CC. $-$$. 479-443-7555. LD daily. 1206 N. Thompson St. Springdale. Beer, Wine, All CC. $-$$. 479-443-7555. LD. BORDINOS Exquisite Italian food, great wines and great service in a boisterous setting. Now serving Nova Scotia mussels. 310 W. Dickson St. Fayetteville. Full bar, All CC. 479-527-6795.

D. ELENITA’S MEXICAN CAFE Some of the most flavorful and reasonably priced authentic Mexican food in town. 1120 N. Lindell Ave. Fayetteville. No alcohol, All CC. 479-442-9978. LD.

HOT SPRINGS

BELLE ARTI RISTORANTE Ambitious menu

of lavish delights in a film-noir setting; excellent desserts. 719 Central Ave. Hot Springs.

Full bar, All CC. 501-624-7474. LD. DON JUAN’S Mex-style enchiladas, runny white cheese dip, great guacamole and great service in strip-mall locale. 1311 Albert Pike Road No. A. Hot Springs. No alcohol, All CC. 501-321-0766. LD. FACCI’S This longtime favorite of the Oaklawn crowd offers an all-you-can-eat spaghetti lunch, lots of sandwiches and pasta and extraordinary Italian dishes for dinner. 2900 Central Ave. Hot Springs. Beer, Wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-623-9049. LD Wed. only.

FISHERMAN’S WHARF Reminiscent of a coastal seafood joint, complete with large menu and fish nets adorning the wall.

Boisterous, family style place. 5101 Central Ave. Hot Springs. Full bar, All CC. 501-5257437. LD. HAWGS PIZZA PUB Good pizza and other Italian food, a wide selection of appetizers, salads, burgers and sandwiches in an allRazorback motif. 1442 Airport Road. Hot Springs. Full bar, All CC. 501-767-4240. LD. MCCLARD’S Considered by many to be the best barbecue in Arkansas — ribs, pork, beef

and great tamales, too. 505 Albert Pike. Hot Springs. Beer, No CC. 501-624-9586. LD. NOM NOMS MEXICAN GRILL-N-CHILL More than 50 flavors of delicious ice cream, with many exotic options (Avocado Cream, Tamarind Sorbet). Plus, excellent fresh and authentic Mexican fare. 3371 Central Ave. Hot Springs. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$.

501-623-8588.

RED OAK FILLIN STATION This unusual blend of convenience store and country restaurant serves up country favorites including a full breakfast, pigs-in-a-blanket, catfish and more. 2169 Carpenter Dam Road.

Hot Springs. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. (501) 262-0400. BLD daily.

ROCKY’S CORNER Knock-out pizza at ahopping eatery across the street from Oaklawn Park. 2600 Central Ave. Hot Springs. Beer, All CC. 501-624-0199. LD. SAM’S PIZZA PUB & RESTAURANT A cozy, inviting spot decked out in Christmas lights and offering several tasty styles of pizza (try the Sam’s special) and other dinner specials.

Accessible by boat or car. Often rocks at night with lake locals. 401 Burchwood Bay Road. Hot Springs. Full bar, All CC. $-$$.

501-525-0780. LD daily. www.arktimes.com September 5, 2013 39 39 www.arktimes.com SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

LAKE MAUMELLE The best-tasting water in America

avoid the Peak! doesn’t happen by accident.

During the Lawn and Garden Season!

C

Although we are fortunate to have an abundant water supply in the metropolitan area, customers are encouraged to be good stewards of our water sources by practicing efficient outdoor water use.

Customers are asked to alter timing of outdoor watering patterns to avoid the peak time of day demand during the hot summer months and to avoid operating systems ENTRAL ARKANSAS o sailing,sprinkler or do a little fishing.

WATER AND THE WATERSHED MANAGEMENT STAFF WANT YOU TO GET OUT AND ENJOY ONE OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS’S MOST TREASURED RESOURCES…THE LAKE MAUMELLE WATERSHED!

The Lake Maumelle Watershed includes all the land and streams that drain into Lake Maumelle, which provides cities and communities in Central Arkansas with some of the purest drinking water in America.

G

Bring a backpack and take a

between 5:30 a.m.

7:30 a.m. day hikeand along the Ouachita National

Recreation Trail or stretch your legs for a short jaunt on the Farkleberry Trail.

Pack a picnic, take in the view and enjoy the wildlife, but remember to enjoy the outdoors responsibly.

Current water quality conditions in Lake Maumelle are very good, but we need your help to protect and maintain these conditions. You can help us keep Lake Maumelle clean for generations to come by boating responsibly, picking up trash, and following our lake rules and regulations. Be sure to be kind to the environment when hiking and picnicking in the watershed.

Learn more about the Sprinkler Smart Program at carkw.com, uaex.edu, or by calling

501.340.6650 carkw.com

4

For more information on Lake Maumelle and the Watershed Management program, check us out online at www.carkw. com under the Watershed Management tag.

THIS IS YOUR DRINKING WATER. GET OUT AND ENJOY IT.

CAW Ark Times Avoid The Peak Ad.indd 1 ARKANSAS TIMES

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

CLEAN WATER ADDS TO QUALITY OF LIFE.

7/24/12 10:25:38 AM